Developers traveled to City Hall to pitch a proposal to City Council members for a $60 million retail center in College Point…And Council Speaker Peter Vallone called for a revision of the City Charter – this one to “correct” flaws in the 1989 revision….  

Plans to build a new, 600-seat elementary or middle school in Jackson Heights stirred anger and controversy – Board of Ed officials planned to build the school on the site of the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights….

Tribune staffers sniffed out the story behind an internal City memo and exposed a major asbestos contamination condition at Terrace on the Park –Flushing Meadows’ premier catering facility (see page 106)….

Cardozo High School senior Roletta Chen scored a place as a finalist in the Westinghouse Talent Search – Chen scored a 99.6 percent average at Cardozo…When questioned about the fate of Queens tenants if rent regulations were abolished, City Councilman Tom Ognibene said, “Let them move to Montana”….

“The Nanny” lit up a Tribune front page, while a feature article portrayed Fran Drescher from her childhood in Flushing to her rise to fame as a comedian….

A federal court judge ruled that Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez’s Queens district was unconstitutional, setting off months of controversy and court hearings…The age-old system of two fares for Queens commuters came to a screeching halt….

Violent winds caused a tree to tumble onto a school bus in Laurelton, killing four little girls inside….

Flushing Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin dubbed businessman Thomas Huang “Flushing’s Public Enemy No. 1” after Huang ran from prosecutors in Queens for four days  to avoid charges of “enviornmental crimes” connected with his renovation of the landmarked RKO Keith’s Theater….

Borough straphangers breathed a sigh of relief as service on the No. 7 express train resumed after a four-year, $59 million makeover…and a 27-year veteran token booth clerk was shot and killed by a 9mm-toting bandit who fled with tokens and cash….  

Cardozo High School grad George Tenet was nominated by President Bill Clinton to head the Central Intelligence Agency…A brazen bandit pushed his way into St. Michael’s Church parish office in Flushing during Easter Sunday Mass. He pushed a priest to the floor and fled with $600 cash….

Babies ruled in Queens in April as the first-ever identical quadruplets were born to an Astoria couple – Bianca, Nicole, Raquel and Victoria Borges made history…but they were outnumbered by the Boniello sextuplets who arrived a few weeks later. Mom Beverly Boniello made some history of her own by becoming only the 11th woman in history to give birth to six babies at one time….

Bill Clinton came to Shea Stadium in April, to pay tribute to baseball legend Jackie Robinson on the 50th anniversary of his breaking the color barrier into major league baseball. Gov. George Pataki officiated at a ceremony renaming the Interboro Parkway in honor of Robinson…The City came down hard on landlords who illegally converted space in homes to develop “rentable” rooms. The crackdown followed the deaths by fire of four people in a house in Maspeth that was illegally converted….

Residents protested plans for a 15-theater movie complex in Forest Hills/Glendale…Swingline announced plans to close up shop in Long Island City, eliminating 450 jobs….

Paul Simon announced plans to come home to Queens during the summer of ’97. Simon planned a concert on the Flushing campus of Queens College…Educator John Lee became the new Superintendent of Queens High Schools….

Community School Board 27 was hit twice in a two-week period by thieves who fled with computers and assorted office equipment…

State Comptroller Carl McCall was tapped to serve as Grand Marshal of the Queens Gay Pride Parade…Queens Beep Claire Shulman crowned former Queens College Professor Stephen Stepanchev Queens’ first Poet Laureate…Cops in Elmhurst who were flagged-down by a gypsy cab driver made a first-class delivery A female passenger in the cab was extremely pregnant – the cops delivered a baby girl in the back seat….

The NYPD and the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association chose opposite sides in studies on asbestos contamination at the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst….

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced his decision to try the borough’s first death penalty case. Allen Gordon, 24, was tried on a 33-count indictment for his execution-style slaying of three women in Jamaica….

Woolworth was closing for good. The closing of the nickel and dime stores touched a soft spot in the hearts of Queensites…Four deaf mute Mexican immigrants walked into the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights on a July morning, exposing a slave ring that stretched from Mexico across the U.S…A deadly wind blew through a Queens construction site, injuring two workers and killing two others who were working on a scaffold….

Court battles failed to restore Rep. Nydia Velazquez’s Queens congressional district….

Plans for a cleanup of Flushing Bay were moved up after studies showed the bay was filthy – and “unsuitable for marine life.”….

Rep. Floyd Flake did a quick about-face, announcing his resignation from Congress. Flake decided to minister full-time after all…A Queens developer met up with stiff opposition to his proposal for development of luxury condos on the site of the Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria….

A Tribune feature chipped away at the shoddy paint job on the outside of the recently renovated Flushing Town Hall…Rudy Giuliani came to Queens to announce a $147 million facelift planned for Jamaica Hospital…

Residents at the Vista Towers Condominium fled the Flushing complex as the structure began to crumble….

Tennis aficionados from all over gathered in September to cut the ribbon on the new USTA Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium in Flushing Meadows….

The founder of the Alley Pond Environmental Center died at St. Vincent’s Hospital after he was struck by a taxicab. John Kominski, 52, lived all his life in Flushing and spent 19 years working on environmental causes…A ragtag team of pintsize softball players in Dutch Kills stunned the sports world by walking away with a league championship after rising from the dust – where they had settled after losing all season long….

A 12-year-old boy saved the life of a drowning lifeguard in a pool at the Windsor Park apartment complex…A seven-alarm blaze ravaged a portion of the Steinway Street shopping district in Astoria….

One man died and four others were injured when a catwalk utilized by construction crews buckled, leaving the workers dangling by a “thread” underneath the Queensborough Bridge…an agreement between City and State officials paved the way for construction to finally begin on the long-awaited rail link from Kennedy Airport to the subway and the Long Island Rail Road….

One of the best and most well-liked people at Queens Borough Hall passed away. James “Buz” O’Rourke was a long-time friend of Borough President Claire Shulman, and a friend and spokesman for the communities and members of the borough’s uniformed services….

Douglas Manor was landmarked in October…The Tribune examined a Flushing school board’s role in a bomb threat that changed the face of a school board election…

Judge Loren Duckman was “relieved” of his judicial powers by a NY State committee that found the judge had abused the bench….

Flushing Community Board district Manager Reggie Colletta was chosen by Claire Shulman to replace James “Buz” O’Rourke as director of Constituent Affairs and Liaison with the City’s uniformed services….

Corona School Board Member Perry Buckley resigned from the panel. Buckley confessed to murdering his mistress and then visiting the body 12 days later, in a storage room where he hid the corpse….

The Tribune scooped the rest of the media again, by announcing the new owners of Terrace on the Park, and the paper promised a follow-up on the cleanup of the asbestos mess at the facility….