: 2008 Year In Review

The second half of 2008 played much the same as the first, with a worsening economy, political upheaval and land use issues at the forefront of discussion.

JULY

Another Queens soldier joined his fallen comrades in arms when his Humvee was struck by an improvised explosive device, small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. Sgt. First Class Joseph McKay, 51, of Cambria Heights, was a member of the New York Army National Guard B Troop 2nd Squadron 101st Cavalry, based in Jamestown.

The City’s plan to redevelop Willets Point took a step forward when Community Board 7 voted 21-15 in favor of approving the project that would completely raze the current property on the 62 acres and replace them with a brand new mixed use community.

A special education teacher was arrested and charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old student at his home in Queens. Mandi Weeks, 27, a teacher at the Devereux Foundation Red Hook campus, was accused of statutory rape and sexually abusing the mentally disabled student who attended her school.

The remains of missing Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, who was captured more than a year earlier, was identified.

The $5 million Queens Family Justice Center held its official ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday. The site offers comprehensive support and counseling services for domestic violence victims.

AUGUST

With foreclosures squelching the American dream for a host of New Yorkers, Gov. David Paterson signed the Mortgage Lending Reform Bill to slam the door on foreclosures. The law will prevent New Yorkers from losing their homes by assisting those who are already facing foreclosure, and by shoring up flaws in New York’s banking regulations to avert another foreclosure crisis.

The Willets Point redevelopment debate took some rollercoaster turns yet again as support and dissent ebb and flow for the controversial plans. The latest snag came as reports surfaced that the City’s plans to relocate Sambucci Bros. Inc. Salvage, the largest buyout agreement in the City’s plan to develop the industrial area into a residential haven, could fall through.

A Middle Village man was charged in the murder and dismemberment of two men in Long Island, in what prosecutors described as a drug deal gone bad. Darren Lynch, 28, was charged with first-degree murder after police discovered the remains of the two-missing men, Joseph Odierno, 35, and Jairo Santos, 22 buried at his parents home in Coram.

Eight torahs were stolen from the ark at the Jewish Center of Kew Garden Hills.

Many gas stations in the area began charging less than $4 a gallon, the first time the price dropped in months.

SEPTEMBER

The sale of a Ravenswood electricity generating station is complete. National Grid, an energy delivery company announced the completion of the sale of the 2,480 megawatt Ravenswood Generating Station in New York City to TransCanada, another major energy supplier.

Mere weeks after a gaping wound started to heal in the Queens military family with the recovery of Sgt. Alex Jimenez’s body, it was teased and reopened with the deaths of Spec. Jorge Nieves and Army Reserve Spec. Michael Gonzalez. Nieves, a Queens Village resident, died from injuries sustained in a motor vehicle incident. Gonzalez, a member of the United States Army Reserve’s 340th Military Police Company, headquartered at Fort Totten, died when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

State Sen. Shirley Huntley was gearing up to face former councilman Allan Jennings for the 10th Senatorial District seat in the Democratic Primary on Sept. 9. Huntley, who is nearing the completion of her first term in office, welcomed the challenge from the embattled Jennings. “I don’t feel I’m up against a tough candidate,” Huntley said. She won.

Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio (D-Richmond Hill) was arrested on federal fraud charges. An FBI investigation of the 38th District Assemblyman’s consulting business found he took in more than a half million dollars since 2000 and ostensibly provided no consulting services to his clients.

Yovani Rivera of Elmhurst pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder in connection with a series of robberies in Flushing-Meadows Park. He faced 25 years to life in prison. The 2006 attacks resulted in the death of one victim and the near fatal killing of another.

A Jackson Heights resident was convicted of murder in the 2001 slaying of Edgar Garzon after fleeing to London for five years. John Love McGhee, 40, was found guilty of second-degree murder after hitting Garzon in an attempted robbery in August 2001, fracturing his skull and later killing him.

The National Park Service, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and a rag-tag group of volunteer mariners have dedicated themselves to cleaning up Jamaica Bay once and for all – one boat at a time. “It’s been a very good summer for getting boats out of the bay and really getting a handle on the problem,” John Daskalakis, the North Shore District ranger for the Jamaica Bay Unit of the National Parks Service, said.

On the cusp of a playoff berth, a sold-out crowd packed Shea Stadium. That it may be their last gathering in the stadium remained understood, but unspoken. They came to see a win. They came to see their Mets avoid another collapse. “Farewell” was not in the plans. But fairy tales have been the exception, not the norm, at Shea.

OCTOBER

Queens residents were trying to make heads or tails out of the financial crisis and recent collapse of banking giants Washington Mutual and Wachovia. JP Morgan took control of all of WaMu’s deposits and bank branches, raising questions about the fate of customers’ funds and what future services they can expect.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial redevelopment of Willets Point sprinted past another procedural hurdle when it received the approval of the City Planning Commission. It must now finish the Uniform Land Use Review Process, which ends with a vote by the City Council Sept. 24.

Specialist Jason von Zerneck, 33, died Oct. 2 when his vehicle overturned during a logistical convoy in Qara Bagh Karze, Afghanistan, Army officials said. The soldier and Kew Gardens resident is survived by his wife, Stephanie, 30, three children – daughter Raina, 9, and sons Joseph, 6, and Noah, 3 – and his parents, mother Barbara, and father, Richard, both from Manhattan.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced plans to pursue a term limits extension through the City Council, throwing the fate of political hopefuls at every level of City government into question.

Undecided City Council members were put on notice as they prepared to vote on a proposal to overturn the City’s term-limits law. The Working Families Party, the City’s largest third-party with nearly 75,000 votes cast in the 2006 elections, canvassed the districts of undecided council members with a message – “it’s our decision.”

The latest proposal to revitalize the Aqueduct Racetrack was shot down by a Republican led insurrection in the State Senate. The proposal that placed Buffalo-based Delaware North at the helm of the proposed “racino’s” video lottery terminal facilities was put on hold by Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and other Republican leaders, including State Sen. Serphin Maltese (D-Glendale), who had long pushed for a deal at the ailing Queens racetrack.

With a final vote of 28-23, the City Council voted to overturn the will of the people and extend term limits to three consecutive terms. Council members from Queens were split 8-6, with members Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), Melinda Katz (D-Forest Hills), James Sanders (D-Laurelton), Helen Sears (D-Jackson Heights), Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) and Tom White Jr. (D-South Ozone Park) voting in favor of the bill.

NOVEMBER

The strength of voter turnout for President-elect Barack Obama seems to have carried the Democratic Party into a near sweep of Queens, with longtime Republican strongholds crumbling to the overwhelming output of Democratic support, and the lone GOP representative still locked in a down-to-the wire challenge to retain his seat.

Howard Beach’s Democratic City Councilman Joe Addabbo claimed victory over two-decade incumbent State Sen. Serphin Maltese in the 15th State Senate District election by a margin of 57.49 percent to 42.51 percent. The fight between Councilman Jim Gennaro and incumbent Sen. Frank Padavan was still not resolved by year’s end.

The City’s purchase of Willets Point continued with the acquisition of two large tracts of land. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) reached agreements with House of Spices and Prevete Brothers, gaining 173,000 and 12,000 square feet respectively.

Supporters chanted, “What do we win? Affordable housing! When do we win it? Today!” outside of City Hall when the Council voted overwhelmingly to approve the rezoning and redevelopment plan for Willets Point.

Officials met at Queens Borough Hall to see the Strategic Framework Plan for Flushing Meadows Corona Park that strips the park down to its skeleton, studies the layers of development that occurred since the park was created 70 years ago, and makes some suggestions about what a newly formulated park could be – to its users, its neighbors and the City as a whole.

Nearly three weeks after Election Day, members of the Board of Elections, along with lawyers representing both Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) and Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), are still scrambling to determine the winner of the District 11 State Senate seat.

DECEMBER

Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Jamaica, was killed the day after Thanksgiving, giving new meaning to the term Black Friday, when the part-time Wal-Mart greeter was trampled to death by eager shoppers.

The Ravitch Commission proposed putting a toll on the currently free East River Bridges, which includes the Queensboro Bridge, as a counter to the MTA’s planned budget, which calls for a fare increase of at least 23 percent, a $2.50 increase in express bus fares and service cuts across the board.

After a long week of stumbling through reports of suspect leadership appointments, shady backroom deals and embarrassing press blunders, State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) stood his ground. The current Democratic minority leader announced he would retain his title and give up his bid for a Democratic majority rather than submit to arm-twisting from the so called “Gang of Three,” a dissident group of Democratic senators who have threatened to leave the caucus unless their demands were met.

With Comptroller Bill Thompson officially throwing his hat into the ring to run for mayor in 2009, the focus on his seat shifts to Queens, where two candidates have positioned themselves to make the leap from City Hall to 1 Centre Street. Melinda Katz (D-Forest Hills) and David Weprin (D-Little Neck) have both been raising money for the comptroller’s race, but had said as recently as the October day of the Term Limit override that they were hedging their bets to see if they were going to have to take on an incumbent.

Any doubt that the State of New York is facing a major economic crisis was erased when Gov. David Paterson unveiled his $121 billion 2009 budget with 137 new taxes and fees, cuts in every corner of the economy and nearly $9 billion in spending cuts.

The largest scam in the history of Wall Street is rocking investors across the globe – and Queens was not immune. Bernard L. Madoff, whose wife and brother both graduated from Queens College, and who grew up in Far Rockaway, was charged with a single count of securities fraud after allegedly admitting that he operated a $50 billion Ponzi scheme for the last several decades. Besides his Manhattan office, Madoff operated an office in the Bulova Corporate Park in East Elmhurst.