| 1979
In January, a Tribune article revealed
that a local “drug paraphernalia”
or “head” shop, that was operating a street-level store in the heart
of the downtown Flushing shopping district on Main Street, was
displaying sex toys and aides in full view of local school children who
pass by the store every day….
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The Tribune’s series on low
flying planes prompted a federal investigation that corrected the
situation.
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Attorney General Robert Abrams moved to close
and investigate the “Future Fraud” pyramid scheme first exposed by
the Tribune in 1978….
The Tribune revealed in February that
the skies above Queens might not be safe because of the dangerously low
approach to LaGuardia Airport
and short runways….
In late February, the owner of the “head
shop,” the Jolly Joint in Flushing, agreed to remove the sexually explicit material from the
window and to drop drug paraphernalia entirely....
Martin Paretzky, a 71-year-old
Kew Gardens Hills rabbi and a Queens diamond dealer, was reported
missing – and police had no clue as to his fate. He disappeared from
Manhattan’s Diamond District after missing a meeting he was scheduled
to have in the city. Harvey Paretzky, a Tribune reporter and the
rabbi’s son, pleaded for anyone with information to contact the
police….
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The success of the Flushing Fantastic
Street Festival led to the founding of the Flushing Council on Culture
and the Arts.
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A Tribune investigation uncovered phony
record shops in Queens that were really stores selling only drugs,
mostly to teens. The “head shop” on Main Street closed in March….
Congressman Benjamin Rosenthal conducted
a public hearing, prompted by the Tribune’s series on low-flying
planes en route to LaGuardia
Airport. He called for the FAA to investigate and correct the situation.
The hearing was attended by over 500 people.….
In May, Civil Court Judge
Robert T. Groh returned to work
one day after being cleared of the extortion rap that he got two and
one-half years before….
In June, 200,000 people attended the second Flushing Fantastic International Street Festival. The driving force behind the festival was local businessman Aaron Weiss,
who also founded the Flushing Tenants Council….
The Tribune revealed that barrels of dangerous, toxic and cancer-causing chemicals were being stored in the New York State Pavilion in Flushing
Meadows-Corona Park. The barrels had been in the park for 15 years.
Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis inspected the site and ordered the
immediate removal of the drums….
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The Tribune reported in January
that there were phony record shops in Queens selling drugs to kids.
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A new spirit came to Flushing’s troubled
137th Street in August, when mobile “handivans”
came to assist residents in improving the ramshackle houses on the
block…. As a result of the success of the Flushing Fantastic
Street Festival and the new
unity in downtown Flushing, Aaron Weiss and JoAnn Jones founded
the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts,
and held the first founding meeting at Flushing Town Hall in August....
Attorney General Robert Abrams ordered the
pyramid scheme operation, first
exposed by the Tribune in 1978, to refund nearly $3 million to
its former subscribers…. President Jimmy Carter held a Town Hall meeting in Queens. Over 2,000 people attended the
hour-long question-and-answer session in Colden Auditorium of Queens
college….
To mark the 15th anniversary of the
1964 New York World’s Fair held
in Flushing Meadows, the Tribune put on a public display in its
offices of Fair photos and memorabilia, including a large-scale model of
the exposition….
A sea of
50,000 people jammed Shea Stadium in October to see Pope John Paul II, who bid
farewell to New York after his two-day visit to the city. The pope’s
visit was the second papal appearance in Queens. Pope Paul VI ended his
one-day visit to the United Nations in 1965 with a stop at the World
Fair’s Vatican Pavilion.
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