1997
Terrace on the Park was shut down after the Tribune exposed a serious asbestos problem. |
Developers traveled to City Hall to pitch a proposal to City Council members for a $60 million retail center in College Point… 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…. 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 “environmental 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… 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, 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, but they were outnumbered by the Boniello sextuplets who arrived a few weeks later….
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… Swingline announced plans to close up shop in Long Island City, eliminating 450 jobs….
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 and the cops delivered a baby girl in the back seat….
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….
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… Court battles failed to restore Rep. Nydia Velazquez’s Queens congressional district….
Rep. Floyd Flake did a quick about-face, announcing his resignation from Congress. Flake decided to minister full-time after all… Tennis aficionados from all over gathered in September to cut the ribbon on the new USTA Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium in Flushing Meadows…. Douglas Manor was landmarked in October… 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….
Jeremy Olshan
Jeremy served as a reporter and managing editor at the Trib, and has been published by most of the city’s dailies. He is currently a reporter at the New York Post‘s Queens bureau. |
The week begins on Thursday. Bundles of the new issue sit in the parking lot anxious to be unleashed upon the borough..
A rare calm and momentary satisfaction fill the office until the starting gun is fired in the form of two words blared over the intercom: “Coffee Truck!”
Incomprehensible reprimands explode from the corner office. Somebody in classifieds gets fired. Someone in ad sales gets hired.
We page through the paper trying not to spot the inevitable typos:
“Great story on the borough president,” I say. “But for future reference, it’s Claire, not Tiger Schulman.”
A week of work is then discarded never to be seen again until the issue is bound in the series of black tomes that line the bookcase.
Schenkler beckons. By the time I escape his office, it’s already Friday afternoon and we still don’t have any clue what next week’s front page will be.
I start to stress a little: I’m 24 years old. I’m the editor of a weekly newspaper, and I barely know what I’m doing.
But Queens is the nexus of the universe, and by Monday there are no shortage of tales to tell: Grandma Selma Moses gets searched at the movies for “outside candy.” The Postal Service threatens to pull advertising from the paper if I continue our crusade to restore the names of Queens neighborhoods to our addresses. There’s a pothole on Francis Lewis Boulevard the size of a lunar crater. Somebody stole Helen Mitros’ hairbrush.
The Post and the Daily News will steal these stories, without giving us credit, but there’s no better form of flattery.
Tuesday we start putting down the pages and I try not to be overwhelmed by both the editorial and managerial frustrations: Where’s the Action Desk? That restaurant review is too short. She’s a fine reporter, but you have to talk to her about personal hygiene.
Wednesday is deadline night. We still need another story for page three. That photo is awful. We needed that six hours ago, why are you still on the phone? Redo the front page — Gary’s boutonniere should be six times the size.
We finish by six or seven – occasionally ten or eleven.
Nice work. So what do you have for next week? |
