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COBB: From Warsaw to Greenpoint

BQE Admin on May 27, 2026

A colorized photo from the Warsaw Uprising. (Photo: Intitute of National Remembrance).

GEOFFREY COBB | gcobb91839@Aol.com

Author, “Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Forgotten Past

A mural on the wall of the Polish National Home, better known as Club Warsaw, on Driggs Avenue honors the Warsaw uprising of 1944 during World War II. To help people better understand the significance of the mural, and what it means to the Polish community in Greenpoint, I visited the Warsaw Uprising Museum in the Polish capital. I lived through September 11th in New York City when 2,753 people were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. New York was traumatized, so you can imagine how much more traumatic the failed Warsaw Uprising during World War II was to Poland because between 150,000 and 200,000 people died as a result of it, including some 40,000 civilians who were murdered by the Nazis in the Wola district in just three days from August 5th to 7th 1944.

World War II began on September 1, 1939, when the German Wehrmacht invaded the country. By the summer of 1944, Poland had suffered under brutal Nazi rule for five years, but the occupation had not extinguished the Polish spirit of defiance or the people’s longing for freedom and independence. The Polish underground decided on a desperate gamble, a dangerous uprising against their well-armed German oppressors.

The Museum is located in the Wola district of the Polish capital, the scene of the worst Nazi massacres. Today Wola with its many skyscrapers and modern buildings feels more like Los Angeles than a European capital. The museum housed in one of the few pre-war buildings in the area stands out. We waited in line moving by the black granite slabs inscribed with the names of the approximately 18,000 insurgents who died.

Visiting the museum is a moving experience. It’s hard to fathom the brutality of the Nazi regime in crushing the uprising. Infuriated by the Polish attempt to gain their freedom, following Heinrich Himmler’s orders, Nazi forces systematically destroyed the city and committed massive war crimes against the civilian population. The Germans systematically destroyed 80-90% of the Polish capital, including the Royal Palace and the splendid Baroque Old Town. One of the most moving parts of visiting the museum is a film in three dimensions shot from a plane flying over the destroyed city in 1945, revealing acres and acres of destruction. Before the war, Warsaw was a city of 1.3 million people. After the war its population had been reduced by 400, 000 people. A mere thousand people lived in the ruined city when the Nazis finally retreated.

The Polish resistance decided to rise up against Nazi rule as the Soviet Army approached from the East, but Stalin had no intention of helping the Polish resistance fighters. He wanted a prostrate Poland that the Soviet Union could dominate. Although Soviet forces had reached the other bank of the Vistula River just across from the center of Warsaw where the uprising occurred, Soviet forces stopped and did nothing to help the doomed Polish resistance. The Polish government in exile pleaded with the Soviets, Americans and British to air drop supplies to the encircled Polish fighters, but Stalin refused to let allied planes land on Soviet controlled ground to refuel. Stalin was quite happy to see the Nazis finish off Free Polish forces who would resist Soviet domination of a post-war Poland. The Soviet Union’s halt at the Vistula allowed Germany to heavily concentrate forces, enabling them to destroy the city and crush the uprising over 63 days.

Visiting the museum left me deeply upset. It was even more upsetting for my Polish wife. The Poles had almost no weapons yet confronted the far better armed Nazis with unbelievable valor, ready to die to free their country. Despite being short of food, ammunition and medicine, the Poles fought valiantly. but tragically in vain. One of the most moving aspects of the museum is the youth of the fighters in the rising. Many were still children or adolescents, yet ready to sacrifice their young lives for their beleaguered land.

After 63 days of bloody fighting, the brave Poles had little choice but surrender. After Many fighters were deported to German prisoner-of-war camps (POW camps) or concentration camps. On January 19, 1945, General Leopold Okulicki ordered the dissolution of the AK to prevent direct armed conflict with the incoming Red Army and to save remaining personnel. Many soldiers, however, refused to stop fighting, continuing a losing battle against the new communist authorities as independent underground units, often known as “cursed soldiers.” Although disbanded, AK members were hunted, arrested, and often executed by the Soviet-backed Polish security services, particularly in the 1950s and 60s, which slandered the AK as a reactionary force.

Some Army Krajowa veterans managed to make it to the United States where they settled in Greenpoint. Friends of mine can remember Army Krajowa veterans tattooed with numbers from Nazi concentration camp who often spent Sundays at the Polish National Home on Driggs Avenue, which has been a thriving Polish cultural center for over a century.

Today, Poland is independent and thriving, but Poles will never allow the heroes of the uprising to be forgotten. Go and see the mural and remember the heroic Poles who fought and died in a valiant attempt to free their country.

Reynoso, Valdez, Won and Kumar Face Off at Sunnyside Congressional Candidate Forum

BQE Admin on May 27, 2026

Though all are progressives committed to universal healthcare, a robust social safety net and immigration reform, NY-7 congressional candidates differed widely on their solutions to the affordability crisis.

BY COLE SINANIAN

cole@queensledger.com

SUNNYSIDE — For anyone wondering, State assemblymember Claire Valdez’s deli order is an egg and cheese with pepper on a roll.

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso’s is a bacon egg and cheese on a roll with ketchup, mayo, salt and pepper.

City councilmember Julie Won’s, meanwhile, is a chopped cheese with jalapeños on a roll.

And the apparent black sheep of New York’s 7th Congressional District hopefuls — at least when it comes to sandwich preferences — is public defender Vichal Kumar, whose go-to is pepper turkey, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, salt, pepper, oil and vinegar on a roll.

As a torrential spring rain thrashed the pavement outside, the four candidates discussed their political platforms — as well as sandwiches — at a Sunnyside Community Services (SCS) NY-7 candidate forum on Wednesday, May 24. Moderated by SCS Executive Director Judy Zangwill and journalist S. Mitra Kalita, the forum sought to introduce the candidates — whose congressional district stretches north-south from Astoria to Downtown Brooklyn, and East into Sunnyside, Maspeth, Ridgewood and Woodhaven — to Sunnysiders as they seek to secure local votes ahead of the June 23 primary.

Reynoso, Won, and Kumar addressed the crowd of a few dozen in person, while Valdez — caught in Albany for a budget vote — tuned in via Zoom. Over the course of the hour-long discussion, all three candidates pitched progressive visions for the seat, vowing to protect the district’s large immigrant community from Trumpism, invest in the local nonprofit network recently threatened by federal funding cuts, and to advance the construction of a social safety net that would make life more affordable for working New Yorkers.

Four Candidates, Four Platforms

But although the candidates largely agreed on hot-button issues like dismantling ICE, passing universal healthcare and building fast-tracked affordable housing (all four said they supported the proposed Sunnyside Yards megaproject, though Won and Kumar said their support had conditions), they differed widely on more than just their deli orders.

State Assemblymember Valdez, a democratic socialist backed by the DSA and Mayor Mamdani, doubled down on her commitment to empowering organized labor as a means of boosting affordability and confronting the takeover of the US government by large corporations, while also promising to end US military interventionism abroad and to use her seat as a “bully pulpit” to advance progressive ideas nationally in addition to passing legislation.

Reynoso — who introduced himself Wednesday as “the President of Brooklyn” — positioned himself as a master negotiator and fierce local advocate who cut his teeth as a City councilmember and later Brooklyn Borough President, capable of securing wins for his constituents amid complicated legislative landscapes. The son of Dominican immigrants with deep roots in North Brooklyn, Reyonoso has been cast as the heir to outgoing Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez’s political legacy, securing endorsements from Velazquez herself, as well as the Working Families Party.

Won, who was born in South Korea, flexed her Western Queens bonafides and achievements as a City councilmember for the 26th District, casting herself as the most community-minded of the group and somewhat of a political outsider, having come to politics after a career in the tech sector. Her congressional campaign, titled “A Lifetime of Care,” is focused on ensuring quality, government-funded care from birth to death, including universal childcare, healthcare, prenatal and postpartum care and burial assistance.

But perhaps the true political outsider of the group is public defender Vichal Kumar, who characterized himself Wednesday as the only non-politician on the ballot. Through his legal work representing New Yorkers at their most vulnerable, Kumar has grown intimately familiar with the failure of government to address peoples’ needs, particularly those of immigrants caught amid the compounding forces of exclusion, discrimination and poverty.

Affordability, Affordability, Affordability

When asked about how to ensure that federal income brackets reflect the true cost of living in New York, the candidates used the opportunity to outline their diagnoses of the affordability crisis and their vastly different approaches to solving it. The discussion put the candidates’ differences on clear display, in what was perhaps the evening’s starkest moment of political disagreement.

Reynoso interpreted the question from a housing perspective, spending his allotted 60 seconds on the debate over New York’s Area Media Income (AMI) — which is set federally and is used to determine what kinds of housing should be considered “affordable.” For Reynoso, this stagnant number — currently $108,000 for a single-person household — is not as important as politicians’ ability to negotiate lower percentages.

This AMI conversation, this ‘affordable for whom,’ is something that a lot of people tell you, and it gets a lot of people riled up,” Reynoso said.

“I don’t think AMI is necessarily something that we have to spend too much time discussing,” he continued. “It’s where we land.”

Kumar brought up his experience working with the city’s home health aides, who — as a result of being misclassified as ‘independent contractors’ — have dealt with institutionalized wage theft, and explained that legislators should work to both end policies that allow the misclassification of workers and fight for a higher minimum wage.

”What we need is that our wages reflect our cost of living, and this has been an issue that we have seen in this city for a generation— people being forced into labor where their wages weren’t reflecting high enough,” Kumar said.

Valdez, who began her political career as a labor organizer for the United Auto Workers, made clear her commitment to empowering labor unions as a means to help the working class raise their own wages. Equally important to her platform, she explained, is using the federal government to take on corporate greed.

“I think the best way to take on the affordability crisis and to take on this profound stagnation of wages for most working people is to organize as many people as possible into unions, ” Valdez said.

“We have to, as a federal government, take on these corporate bad actors who have suppressed wages and make billions of dollars doing exactly that,” she continued.

Won, meanwhile, highlighted the need for a functioning social safety net and reliable public services to relieve struggling New Yorkers.

“When we think about how our government should work, it should really come down to how they’re saving us money,” she said, “So, if you’re in a safety net, like our Lifetime of Care platform, that means that universal child care should save you on average $4,000 a month, if you’re a mom of two like me,” Won said.

New Yorkers Weigh In

After the forum, several New Yorkers mulled about, chatting with their neighbors and grabbing voter registration forms from the tables in the back. Gale, a 74-year-old former schoolteacher and 29-year Sunnysider said she arrived at the forum already committed to voting for Valdez. She said her top issues are healthcare for all and public education, and is attracted to Valdez’s involvement in the broader democratic socialist movement, which she said makes her more powerful than any individual candidate.

“Communities need help,” Gale said. “Not top-down, but bottom-up. That’s what Claire is all about. She’s a real fighter for the people.”

Mike Murthi, who lives in Williamsburg, also arrived ready to vote for Valdez, whose union background and pro-labor platform he said is highly attractive to him. Though Murthi also said that Won impressed him with her specificity and broad policy knowledge.

“It was interesting for her to jump into a race like this, where you have Nydia’s protege and you have Mamdani’s candidate,” Murthi said. “I was like, ‘Holy shit,’ Julie Won’s coming out. And then she fundraised a lot, she’s out here campaigning, and she made a lot of good points

“But I’m all-in for Claire,” he continued. “I come from a union household and she’s a big union proponent. And in Claire’s view — and obviously coming from the DSA — it’s a very collective solution at the federal level. It’s people power, it’s getting people together, and I think for her it’s an understanding that the federal government can deliver for all.”

William Boyle’s Latest Novel Channels Brooklyn’s “Mythical” Quality

BQE Admin on May 22, 2026

Boyle’s most recent novel is “Saint of the Narrows Street,” and another — “Heavy Sugar” — is due out next January. (Photo: Katie Farrell Boyle)

By Zachary Weg | news@queensledger.com

With “Saint of the Narrows Street” (Soho Crime, 2025), William Boyle has written one of the most compelling New York novels in recent memory. Full of both grit and heart, and an example of crime fiction at its most compassionate, the book takes place in Brooklyn over 18 years.

Boyle grew up in the Southern Brooklyn neighborhoods of Gravesend and Bensonhurst and has centered much of his writing there. His debut novel is even called “Gravesend” (2013), and he has been called the poet laureate of Southern Brooklyn. As for his continual fascination with the region, he’s drawn to both its locales and its residents.

“There are so many Brooklyn stories, so many corners of Brooklyn that I’ve never known, and will never know, but for my specific experience growing up in Brooklyn, it was definitely just kind of the people I grew up around, the stories they told,” he says. “The mythical quality of the place was always a draw for me.”

Having grown up a couple of blocks from 86th Street, where the car chase in “The French Connection” was filmed and where John Travolta does his slice-toting strut in the opening of “Saturday Night Fever,” Boyle also “grew up, of course, fascinated by mob lore,” as he says, and “always had this feeling” that he was living “in a place that was rich with both kind of history and kind of mythology.”

“Saint of the Narrows Street,” with its epic scope and length at almost 430 pages, is perhaps the culmination of Boyle’s memories of the neighborhood. A family saga centered around the incriminating secret kept between sisters Risa and Giulia Franzone, the novel sustains tension across its 18-year span. The book certainly is “a captivating, page-turning thriller,” as The Washington Post remarked.

Yet it’s more than that. Like the recent novels, particularly “Lush Life and Lazarus Man,” of fellow New Yorker and Boyle’s forbear, Richard Price, “Saint” is a panoply of characters, closing in on their innermost desires and then pulling back to reveal the outside forces that shape their lives. Even like Arthur Miller’s play, “A View from the Bridge,” “Saint” is a tragedy in miniature, its somewhat compressed timeframe building towards it shattering end.

As in “Bridge,” Brooklyn is the backdrop in “Saint.” Asked what keeps artists returning to the borough, whether it be a stalwart such as Spike Lee or the young rockers that make up the band, Geese, Boyle says, “There are just so many Brooklyn’s. That’s part of it. But it also must be something about that kind of mythical quality to it. You go anywhere in the world—not that I’ve been everywhere, certainly, but I’ve been to a few places—and people know Brooklyn.”

“And people have things that they identify with Brooklyn. I think that’s probably a little part of it. There has always been, and probably always will be, something kind of romantic about it as a place. For me, again, there are so many stories to tell and, despite the fact that people are always telling Brooklyn stories, there are still all of these untapped worlds in the borough.”

The Brooklyn of “Saint of the Narrows Street” is one of cramped kitchens, grimy bars, and hurtling trains. Beginning in 1986 and ending in 2004, the story starts almost in medias res as distressed housewife, Risa, is cooking dinner for her wild—and wily—husband, Saverio, or “Sav,” their baby, Fabrizio, or “Fab,” in the background. From this seemingly small, routine scene develops a larger story involving Risa’s younger sister, Giulia, and Sav’s close friend, Christopher “Chooch” Gardini, that explores themes of family, loss, and the choices we make. It’s a Brooklyn story, but one of universal truths.

“Saint” has received stellar reviews, including plaudits by Boyle’s fellow authors, Megan Abbott and S.A. Cosby. Regardless of all the praise, however, Boyle wants his readers to feel something after finishing the book, whatever that may be. As he says, quoting Tennessee Williams, “… I don’t even know what I mean to do, other than tell a story, find some truth, get a little communion going, and, suddenly, there are hidden messages. There are no hidden messages, no agendas, just frightened people heading toward the light.”

Yet Boyle isn’t done showing his Brooklyn. His latest novel, “Heavy Sugar,” is due in January 2027. “That book is set over one day in 1991,” he says. “Aside from one character from Saint of the Narrows Street who makes a little cameo in Heavy Sugar, it’s got nothing to do with it. But it’s set in ’91, a few months after the second part of Saint of the Narrows Street.” If “Saint” is any indication, “Heavy Sugar” is set to be another knockout. In the meantime, Boyle is putting his head down and getting back to work.

SCHWARTZ: Please Don’t Talk Over Bruce Springsteen

BQE Admin on May 22, 2026

Let the man sing! (Photo: Wikipedia)

By Lana Schwartz | lana.schwartz925@gmail.com

We come to this place for magic, Nicole Kidman says in the AMC pre-movie spot that launched a thousand memes.

To me, as it is to Nicole, the movie theater is sacrosanct, governed by a social contract that dictates no talking, no texting, and generally being cool about being in a public space with a lot of people.

Unfortunately, that contract grows weaker by the day. Now it feels like a rare privilege to be amongst an audience that doesn’t spend a film’s two hour run time looking at various acquaintances’ Instagram stories. During a showing of “Sentimental Value,” I heard a woman say to her date, unprompted, “That’s the guy from earlier,” as though to clear up any potential confusion. Though maybe she was proud of her recognition skills and wanted to show off.

Thought dictated by a different set of rules, I consider concert venues, and by extension, concerts to be a sacred space. Sure, concerts call for more audience engagement, and phones are hoisted high in the sky, but there are other, more general precautions to take like, saying excuse me when you move past someone, or doing your best not to spill your drink everywhere.

But the number one rule — and I can’t believe I even have to clarify this — is that you shouldn’t talk over Bruce Springsteen. Even if you’re not at a Bruce Springsteen concert, the maxim still applies.

I will admit to having been in a bad mood recently. For weeks, I had been contemplating snagging tickets to see Bruce Springsteen — and by the time the concert rolled around, I figured attending the concert might cheer me up. I’d engaged in the intricate (and demeaning) dance that was buying concert tickets to see a major artist in 2026: Opening Ticketmaster, filtering by price, refreshing my browser, waiting for the price of tickets for the best possible seats to approach what I was willing to pay for them. $200 for a spot in the 112 section of Barclays Center was the compromise this Ticketmaster bot and I agreed on.

Upon taking the stage, Bruce spoke more cogently and with more gumption about the Trump administration than almost all Democrats. He sang the hits and then some, urging all of us to remember our humanity and connect through art. And the two people sitting in front of me talked through the whole thing. They talked so much, this man and woman, I thought maybe they were having an affair, because if they can talk this much at home, why would they need to talk while Bruce Springsteen was playing? But their matching iPhone backgrounds of them decked out in their wedding outfits proved their matrimony to be holy.

Listen, I understand wanting to make a comment or two about the concert; to say “I love this song!” and “Did you know Patti Smith wrote this one?” This was, instead, an ongoing shouting dialogue completely unrelated to the show at hand. I questioned if their tickets were so cheap, they didn’t feel an obligation to enjoy the show, or if they were so wealthy, a few hundred dollars on a night out is barely a drop in their Rockville Centre-living bucket. (Rockville Centre is my best guess.)

There were two men seated behind me also enjoying a long, loud conversation. And while I also am concerned about the male loneliness crisis, there’s a reason you get a beer before the show to catch up.

I will admit to asking the couple in front of me to “be quiet, for just like, one song?” They sank down to their seats, ashamed, and resorted to showing each other text messages on their phone. Being quiet for only one song was really all they were capable of.

It was only when the show was over that I realized Springsteen played for three full hours. The man is 76 years old. He is trying to entertain, educate, and inspire us. If you were willing to give him your money, why not give him your attention? You have his.

Lana Schwartz is a writer who was born and raised in Queens and today lives in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared on The New Yorker, The Onion, McSweeney’s, and more. She is the author of the books “Build Your Own Romantic Comedy” and “Set Piece.”

COBB: Red Auerbach’s Williamsburg Roots

BQE Admin on May 22, 2026

Red Auerbach (right) seated next to NBA champion Bill Russell in 1956. (Photo via Wikimedia)

Remembering the legendary NBA coach and Williamsburg native who built one of the greatest dynasties in the league’s history.

GEOFFREY COBB | gcobb91839@Aol.com

Author, “Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Forgotten Past

We are entering the NBA playoffs and championship season again. May is also Jewish Heritage month, so it’s appropriate to celebrate a Jewish man from Williamsburg who was arguably the greatest NBA executive of all time and one of the NBA’s greatest coaches. It is hard to think of the great Boston Celtic dynasties without thinking about Red Auerbach, the cigar smoking, red haired, Jewish basketball genius from Williamsburg. The brains behind the Celtics dynasty, Red won 16 NBA championships in 29 years as coach, GM, and president. Voted the greatest coach in NBA history by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America in 1980, he entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968.

Born in 1917, Arnold “Red” Auerbach grew up in Williamsburg. His family lived in a three-story building on Broadway near S. 5th. Auerbach’s father owned and operated a dry-cleaning business at N. 3rd and Bedford, and his older brother also operated one at N. 8th and Bedford. His brother Zang Auerbach, 4 years his junior, was a respected cartoonist and portraitist at the Washington Star who also created the iconic Celtic leprechaun logo.

Today, Red’s boyhood neighborhood is an area of Hasidic Jews, but in Red’s day it was the home to many tough first-generation kids like Auerbach. Asked when he first started playing basketball, Red answered curtly, “when I could walk.” As he got taller, he honed his court skills not only in school but also at the local Young Men’s Hebrew Association off Marcy, and at the Annex, a “tough, Irish working class” recreation center on McKibbin St. Boys clubs, like the Y.M.H.A. it offered neighborhood kids like Red a way to have fun and stay out of trouble.

Red went to High school during the Great Depression at Eastern District High School on Grand Street, which is now defunct, but the building survives as a Hassidic school. Red characterized his basketball teammates at Eastern District as “a real melting pot—we had Italians, Irish, Jewish guys, and one black player.” Auerbach succeeded both on the court and off, making the all-Brooklyn high school basketball team as well as becoming class president. Auerbach left Brooklyn after graduation, first on an academic scholarship to Seth Low Junior College of Columbia University, then being recruited by George Washington University in Washington D.C. where he played three years of varsity basketball.

After graduating in 1940, he briefly taught high school before joining the American Basketball League’s Harrisburg Senators for a year. Then, he got his first pro coaching gig coach of Washington Capitals of the Basketball Association of America in 1946 before that league merged with the NBA. In 1949, Auerbach became coach of the Tri-City Blackhawks in Davenport, Iowa, but his real break came in 1950 when he was named to be the coach of the Boston Celtics, where he would coach until his retirement from coaching.

The Celtics already had a Hall of Fame player, Holy Cross legend Bob Cousy, but it was not until 1956 that their dynasty began when the team drafted Hall of Fame Center from the University of San Francisco Bill Russell, who helped the team win the NBA championship in its first year. The next year the Celtics lost to their archrivals the St. Louis Hawks in the NBA championship. The following year the Celtics won again, and they would reign as champions through eight seasons, still an NBA record.

The Celtics’ reign was during 1960s, the period of the Civil Rights movement and crumbling discrimination. Auerbach had an excellent relationship with African American players like Russell and under his leadership the Celtics became the first N.B.A. team with a mostly black starting lineup. During their seventh championship, the Celtics seemed to have lost their passion.

After the Celtics lost Game One of the 1966 Finals, Auerbach shocked the basketball world by announcing that Russell would become his successor next season, making him the first black coach in any professional sport, and inspiring the Celtics to win their 8th straight title. Asked why he named Russell coach Red responded, “I did it because I knew that at that stage of his career, nobody could motivate Russell other than Russell, and he needed a challenge greater than just playing.” The controversial move, Red claimed “was in the best interests of the Celtics.” With Russell as player-coach, the Celtics lost to Wilt Chamberlain and his great 76er team of ’66-’67, but they rebounded to win two more titles, before Russell retired in 1969.

The Celtics would win two more titles, but by the 1979, the Celtics were in decline. Then, Auerbach made a legendary move as General Manager, using the team’s first round pick to choose a player who was not coming out of school for another year, NBA legend Larry Bird. The Celtics won 60 games in Bird’s rookie year, after which Auerbach created another dynasty by acquiring both center Robert Parrish and forward Kevin McHale in a trade known as “the steal of the century.” In that trio’s first six years together, the Celtics won three titles and lost in the finals (to the Lakers) two other times.

In 1984, Auerbach retired as general manager of the team. Auerbach was elected to the American Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. He passed away in 2006 and to honor him, the Celtics named the basketball court at the Boston Garden “Red Auerbach Parquet Floor.”

Walking the Dutch Kills Loop with Newtown Creek Alliance

BQE Admin on May 21, 2026

Photos by Luan Rogers.

Between the gleaming towers of Long Island City and the sludgy waters of Newtown Creek lies a rare green oasis — and a glimmer of hope for a post-industrial future.

By LUAN ROGERS

news@queensledger.com

DUTCH KILLS — On Friday evening a group of about 30 people gathered on an unassuming street corner under the Long Island Expressway. As the cars roared overhead, they clambered cautiously up a dirt hill. From what afar resembled a group of intrepid ‘trespassers’, was in fact a walking tour, exploring one of the city’s more unloved and unknown waterways.

“It’s a hidden treasure,” said Dessie del Valle as she reached the summit, looking out at the jagged skyline of delivery warehouses and storage depots.

Newtown Creek, a tributary of the East River, runs 3.5 miles along the border of Brooklyn and Queens. Once the site of oil refineries, the area has since emerged as one of New York’s major logistics hubs. Last Friday, the Newtown Creek Alliance organized a walking tour through the surrounding area.

Friday’s walking tour followed the creek via the Montauk Cutoff, an LIRR freight line first built in 1907 but unused since the MTA suspended service in the 1990s. Organized by a local group called the Newtown Creek Alliance, the tour highlighted an area that the organization hopes to one day develop into the Dutch Kills Loop – a publicly accessible greenway that would extend along a disused railway line.

“We want to make use of a space that currently serves no one,” said Hart Mankin, an environmental educator with the Newtown Creek Alliance. “This is an invaluable community resource.”

Photos by Luan Rogers.

Since its abandonment, nature has fully reclaimed the railway. Verdant shrubbery creeps through the train tracks – an oasis of green amid the surrounding dereliction. The land, currently owned by the MTA, lies completely idle.

“We want to have city-owned land for public benefit,” Mankin continued. “It’s really just laziness and a lack of imagination getting in the way.”

The sight of the abandoned railway line had always piqued Katerina Verde’s curiosity. As a visual artist who incorporates nature into her work, she jumped at the prospect of a guided tour. “You really get a sense of the neighborhood’s history,” she says whilst admiring the flora along the trail. “It’s a shame how much of it has been eradicated by these new developments,” she laments, motioning at the new luxury condos that loom overhead. Newtown Creek stands in the shadow of Long Island City’s new high-rise developments, in what has become one of the city’s fastest growing neighborhoods. Mankin outlines how the influx of residents could actually help promote active investment in the creek. “The more people there are, the more they are interested in developing it into a public amenity,” he says.

The walking tour passed by the Smiling Hogshead Ranch – a community garden along the disused railway line. The group moved down 47th Avenue to Dutch Kills, a heavily polluted branch of the creek that can no longer sustain marine traffic since the water level has dropped so low. According to Mankin, nearby sewage plants pump 300 million gallons of sewage into the creek annually. “Newtown Creek has undergone centuries of environmental degradation from the industries around it,” says Mankin.

Photos by Luan Rogers.

Nonetheless, the creek does still support some wildlife with a variety of birds stopping there during the migratory season. The restoration of the creek would help promote biodiversity in a part of New York that otherwise lacks natural vegetation. The surrounding area qualifies as an ‘urban heat island’ because it experiences higher temperatures in comparison to the rest of the city. “It’s not only about protecting plants and animals that use the creek,” said Nebraska Hernandez of the Newtown Creek Alliance. “Their protection benefits us as well.”

In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated Newtown Creek as a superfund site. Just last year they finalized a cleanup plan which aims to dredge the creek of industrial waste. The EPA agreement requires historic polluters such as Exxon Mobil and BP to contribute to the cleanup, with the much-awaited project set to begin in 2032. Mankin cites the Hudson River Greenway as an example of a successful transition from an industrial zone into parkland and public space. “We want to reconnect people to a resource that they’ve been severed from for generations,” he said. “The city needs to understand the value of this.”

After crossing the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, the tour finished at the Kingsland Avenue offices of the Newtown Creek Alliance. On the rooftop garden, Adam Lipowicz – one of the tour participants – gazed out at the three ‘digester eggs’ of the adjacent wastewater treatment plant. To the east, the sun’s fading light descended on the Manhattan skyline.

“New York is just an incredible playground for exploration,” he said. “There’s always so much to discover.”

Photos by Luan Rogers.

Community Opportunity to Purchase Act Re-enters City Council

BQE Admin on May 20, 2026

Supporters say COPA could help preserve deep affordability by putting distressed housing under community ownership.

BY COLE SINANIAN

cole@queensledger.com

CITY HALL — Big, bad landlords beware: large apartment buildings with serious housing code violations could soon come under community control, thanks to a City Council bill that was resurrected Wednesday.

Boosted by a city-wide coalition of legislators, community nonprofits and grassroots tenant activists, the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) would help nonprofits and land trusts acquire apartment buildings that meet certain criteria before for-profit real estate companies can.

The goal, supporters say, is to empower trusted local organizations to take control of distressed buildings in their communities instead of real estate speculators headquartered far away that seek to turn a profit at all costs.

Chief sponsor Sandy Nurse reintroduced the bill at Wednesday’s Stated City Council hearing, marking legislators’ second attempt to make COPA law after it passed the Council last year but was vetoed by former mayor Eric Adams on his last day in office. While Adams and a vocal group of critics have decried the bill as an attack on the free housing market, supporters have hailed it as an essential tool for improving tenants’ living conditions in buildings with severe violations and halting the march of gentrification in the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

“We have buildings that are in bad condition, where there are many hazardous violations,” said Greenpoint City councilmember Lincoln Restler and COPA co-sponsor at a rally outside City Hall Wednesday afternoon.

“We are simply asking the question— can we bring in nonprofit partners? Can we bring in trusted community-based organizations, who will take over these buildings, and deliver the high quality affordable housing we deserve?”

As currently written, the law would give an approved list of nonproft entities the exclusive right to make an offer on qualifying buildings before they’re made available on the open market. The law would only apply to buildings with four or more apartments, that have an annual daily average of three or more Housing Preservation Department (HPD) violations, and which are declared distressed by the city and subject to HPD enforcement programs, among other conditions. COPA would not apply to buildings with five or fewer units in which the property owner lives.

When they intend to sell their building, an owner would notify the City and all qualified nonprofits, who would then get 20 days to submit a statement of interest. Interested nonprofits would then get an additional 70 days to submit an offer at the seller’s asking price. If no viable offer is made during this 70-day period, the property would enter the open market. However, after this initial time frame has elapsed, the first qualified nonprofit that submitted the offer would maintain the “right of first refusal,” meaning that when a seller decides to accept an offer from a for-profit entity, that nonprofit would have a 15-day period to submit an offer that matches that of the for-profit company.

Compared to the original, the new version of COPA shortens the amount of time nonprofits would have to make an offer on qualifying properties, clarifies the kinds of properties that would be subject to the law, and enshrines community land trusts into the legislation as an option for ensuring properties acquired under COPA remain deeply affordable.

Though COPA would lengthen the sale process, it would not require owners to settle for less than their property is worth.

“For 20 days, a seller would have an exclusive buyers group that they could present to, and that group will have to entertain the asking price,” said Nurse, who represents Bushwick in the Council. “We’re not under-footing, we’re not devaluing.”

Backed by 25 City councilmembers, COPA is modeled after a similar bill enacted in San Francisco in 2019 and a Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) — which gives tenant associations the first right to purchase certain properties — enacted in the 1980s in Washington DC. While in DC recent funding cuts and amendments have left the policy’s future uncertain, in the years since the passage of San Francisco’s COPA, over 400 homes have been acquired by the San Francisco Community Land Trust — according to nonprofit news organization Next City — preserving affordability for more than 1,000 residents.

Critics of New York’s COPA, however, have slammed the bill as government overreach, claiming it would further bureaucratize the real estate sale process.

They say it would “present significant operational and administrative challenges for the City agencies involved in administering this law,” as former Mayor Eric Adams wrote in his veto message last December, and lead to “significant costs to the City in assisting nonprofit organizations with renovating and possibly even procuring certain properties.”

Meanwhile, City councilmember Darlene Mealy, who represents parts of Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, Crown Heights and Ocean Hill in Brooklyn, criticized COPA as part of a “radical socialist agenda.”

According to Mealy, the original bill would have “violated private property rights through a likely unconstitutional form of government overreach that would have required property owners to go through HPD in order to sell their homes,” as read a January press statement attributed to the councilmember — who has been noted for having among the worst attendance records in the Council, missing a third of City Council meetings in 2023.

Councilmember Mealy’s office did not respond to the Queens Ledger’s requests for comment.

Still, supporters say the added bureaucracy is necessary to preserve affordability in neighborhoods on the front lines of gentrification, where speculation has caused prices to surge in recent years. In gentrifying parts of Brooklyn like Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and East New York, practices like house-flipping — where buyers often use deceptive tactics to acquire homes and quickly resell them at enormous profit margins — have been tied to what some analysts have described as a “mass exodus” of Black and nonwhite residents.

In the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, meanwhile, a recent rezoning has led some residents to organize against what they fear is a coming wave of gentrification, in the hopes they can take affordable properties off the market before they can be acquired and flipped by for-profit real estate. COPA, they say, will help them do this.

Schoolteacher Boris Santos grew up in Williamsburg but now lives in East New York. He’s lived in East Brooklyn for the last 15 years, and says it’s this part of town — still relatively untouched by gentrification and its homogenizing tendencies — that feels most like the New York he grew up with.

“Williamsburg, for me, is no longer home,” Santos told the Queens Ledger in an interview. “But rather, it’s East Brooklyn, with that feeling of a Black and Brown community of Latinos, of people playing dominoes outside in the streets, of people bathing in an open hydrant during summertime.”

When he’s not teaching, Santos is president of the East New York Community Land Trust. A kind of nonprofit organization governed by a board of local residents, Community Land Trusts (CLT) acquire land to be managed collectively as a means of preserving long term affordability.

Having witnessed first-hand the gentrification of his native Williamsburg, and now rampant house-flipping in his new home of East New York, Santos described the fight for community ownership as personal. On Arlington Avenue, which runs between Jamaica Avenue to Norwood Avenue, a growing number of modern, newly renovated homes have popped amid the street’s older buildings, which Santos sees as a sign of the neighborhood’s coming upscaling.

“You can literally walk a quarter mile of a couple blocks anywhere in East New York and see a flipped home, he said.

To Santos, a bit more government oversight is a small price to pay for organizations like the ENYCLT to begin democratizing the housing market and putting power into the hands of tenants instead of corporate real estate.

“The two keys to me are fighting displacement — keeping people in their homes — and then people owning their homes and having a democratic say in them,” Santos said. “And to do it with love, right?” he continued. “COPA does that.”

Monitor Point Clears CPC, City Council Vote Set for May 27

BQE Admin on May 20, 2026

The City Planning Commission at Wednesday’s vote. Photo via NYC City Planning.

GREENPOINT — The City Planning Commission voted to approve several zoning amendments and one City Map change on the Greenpoint waterfront Wednesday, clearing a path for the approval of the controversial Monitor Point development.

If completed in the 2030s as proposed, the Monitor Point project would see the total transformation of Greenpoint’s last undeveloped waterfront — the small peninsula directly north of Bushwick Inlet Park — with the addition of 862 luxury housing units and 460 affordable housing units across three towers, the tallest of which would rise more than 600ft. Developed by the Gotham Organization and the MTA, the project — located at 40 and 56 Quay Streets — would also include retail spaces, more than 45,400 square feet of public open space, and a museum dedicated to the historic Monitor Battleship.

The CPC voted to approve five land use actions Wednesday to make way for Monitor Point, including an upzoning to allow for increased housing density, and a demapping, removing the 56 Quay Street property’s park land designation on the City Map. While set aside in the 2005 Williamsburg/Greenpoint rezoning to be acquired by NYC Parks for the eventual development of park land, the City never acquired the property, allowing Gotham to pursue the demapping to facilitate the towers’ construction.

The CPC vote marks the third stage of the project’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which began earlier this year and will conclude over the summer. Next is a public hearing before the City Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee, scheduled for May 27 at 11am at 250 Broadway in Downtown Brooklyn. A binding City Council vote will follow the public hearing, after which the project application will head to the mayor’s desk for final approval.

Traditionally, the City Council votes according to the will of the councilmember whose district encompasses the proposed development. In the case of Monitor Point, this is District 33’s Lincoln Restler, who has opposed the project since the beginning on the grounds that it does not provide enough affordable housing, and that the adjacent and incomplete Bushwick Inlet Park — much of which remains run-down, polluted and littered with debris — should be completed before any luxury developments are built on the site.

Opponents of the project — including councilmember Restler and local group Save the Inlet — have characterized the de-mapping as a land-grab on the behalf of developers. In multiple hearings over the winter and spring, Restler reiterated that he would only support Monitor Point if developers committed to a majority of the housing being affordable housing, and the City committed to completing Bushwick Inlet Park.

“For anything to move forward that I can support, we need to see a healthy majority of any housing that’s built to be truly affordable for our community, and we need a fully funded Bushwick in the park with a clear timeline,” Restler said at a public hearing at Greenpoint’s Polish Slavic Center in January.

Both Brooklyn Community Board 1 and Borough President Antonio Reynoso, however, have recommended the project’s approval, albeit on the condition that developers boost the percentage of affordable housing units and the city commits to fully funding and completing Bushwick Inlet Park.

While developer Gotham has stated in its plans that 40% of housing units will be affordable, Mandatory Inclusionary Housing rules approved by the CPC require just 25% affordable housing, leading critics to question whether Gotham will stick to its word. Save the Inlet will be holding a rally against the development outside City Hall at 9:30am before the May 27 hearing.

Brooklyn Pickleball Team Hosts MLP’s Biggest Stars in NYC

BQE Admin on May 20, 2026

The world’s top professional pickleball players are set to take over New York City later this summer as Major League Pickleball (MLP) heads to SPORTIME Randall’s Island from June 25 through June 28 for one of the league’s premier events of the season. The multi-day tournament will feature some of the sport’s biggest names — including world No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters — as teams from across the country battle for playoff positioning in front of what organizers expect to be one of the largest pickleball crowds New York has ever seen.

The event will also spotlight New York’s hometown franchise, the Brooklyn Pickleball Team, as the club continues its push toward a coveted berth in the MLP Playoffs. With pickleball’s popularity exploding across New York City in recent years, organizers say the Randall’s Island stop represents a major milestone for the sport locally.

“This is a huge moment not only for the Brooklyn Pickleball Team, but for pickleball culture throughout New York City,” said Adam Behnke, COO of the Brooklyn Pickleball Team. “You’re talking about the best players in the world competing right here in our backyard while thousands of fans experience the energy of Major League Pickleball firsthand. New York has embraced pickleball in an incredible way, and this event is going to show just how passionate this community has become.”

Beyond the hometown storyline, the event will bring together many of the sport’s most accomplished competitors. Headlining the field is world No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters, widely regarded as the face of professional pickleball and one of the most dominant players in the game. She will be joined by a roster of elite professionals, including fan favorites Riley Newman and Christian Alshon, as Major League Pickleball’s top teams battle for critical points in the race toward the postseason. For fans, the event offers a rare opportunity to watch the sport’s biggest stars compete in person on one of pickleball’s largest stages.

Hosted at SPORTIME Randall’s Island, the event will feature four days of professional competition, fan experiences, and amateur opportunities. Alongside the pro matches, organizers will also host a Dink Minor League Pickleball Tournament from June 26-28, giving amateur players a chance to compete in a team-format tournament with significant stakes attached. Winners of the event will earn an automatic bid to Minor League Nationals.

“We want this event to feel accessible to everyone — whether you’re a diehard fan, someone curious about the sport, or a local player who wants to test themselves competitively,” Behnke added. “Having the amateur tournament alongside the pro event creates an environment where the next generation of players can be inspired directly by the best athletes in the game.”

Fans attending the event can also expect a lively Vendor Village experience featuring activations, samples, and sponsor booths from brands connected to both MLP and the Brooklyn Pickleball Team. Vendors currently scheduled to participate include Once Upon a Coconut, Centerline Athletics, Saint James Iced Tea, Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt, Brooklyn Cider House, Dirty Water Seltzer, KA-EX, Papatui, Luzz, along with local brews, bites, and additional partners expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

The Brooklyn Pickleball Team has also partnered with organizers to offer discounted ticket pricing for fans hoping to attend the event. Through May 31, supporters can use promo code “MLP20BKPT” to receive 20% off single-day tickets. After May 31, fans can still receive 15% off using code “MLP15BKPT.”

The New York stop is expected to draw many of pickleball’s most recognizable stars, continuing the sport’s rapid rise nationwide as professional leagues attract larger audiences, sponsorships, and television coverage. For New Yorkers, however, the event also serves as a celebration of the city’s fast-growing pickleball community — one that continues to expand from neighborhood parks and school gyms to professional arenas.

Fans interested in tickets, amateur tournament registration, or additional event details can visit the official MLP New York event page below:

MLP New York Event Tickets & Information

Runner’s Delight: RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon Draws Record 30,000 Participants

BQE Admin on May 19, 2026

The RBC Brooklyn Half was held on May 16. (Photo: Corey Sipkin for NYRR)

By Nicholas Gordon | news@queensledger.com

On a pristine spring morning, more than 30,000 athletes ran through the sunny streets of Brooklyn for the annual RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon, organized by the nonprofit New York Road Runners (NYRR). The race, held on Saturday, May 16, started in Prospect Park and ended on the festive, packed Coney Island boardwalk.

Billed by NYRR as the borough’s premier half marathon since 1981, this year’s race was the largest half marathon in NYRR history, and the biggest in the country.

The event has become a favorite fixture on the busy race calendar for many passionate NYRR members.

New Yorker Natasha Bucks, an NYRR member since 2022, said she relished running the RBC Brooklyn Half for her third time.

“It was unforgettable from start to finish,” Bucks said. “The energy on the course was electric — joyful, inspiring, and unlike anything else. I had a smile on my face the entire race, and before I even crossed the finish line, I already knew I’d be back again next year.”

New York City resident and NYRR member Natasha Bucks with her RBC Brooklyn Half finisher’s medal. (Photo: Natasha Bucks)

Bucks, who said she values NYRR’s “uniquely inclusive and motivating spirit,” races a variety of distances throughout the year, including the New York City Marathon.

Brooklyn resident Clifford Esao, 65, who has been running the RBC Brooklyn Half since 2009, said he loves the local flavor of the race, which passes right by his home.

“I love this race because it’s in my home borough and it kicks off the beginning of training season,” Esao said. “They close the roads for you to run through and the Coney Island finish is exciting.”

With 30 marathons under his belt, including races in Berlin, Japan, Niagara Falls, and his native China, Esao now shares his love for running as an NYRR volunteer leader for the program’s open runs, which bring together runners in various locations around the city.

“I like helping people discover the joy of running,” said Esao, who also handles bookkeeping, scheduling, and equipment set up for the open runs. “The sport lifts you up.”

For many runners, the joy of the sport is hard-won through constant training and gritty perseverance. Physical setbacks along the way are not uncommon, Esao noted, describing several injuries he’s overcome in his racing career.

Brooklynite Clifford Esao running the Brooklyn Half. (Photo: Clifford Esao)

Dr. Matt Friedman, NYRR’s medical director who oversees 15 races a year, described the incredible dedication and resilience he sees from runners who have overcome major surgeries and more.

“People have a real drive to be out there and we encourage that drive, but it’s important to be smart in your approach,” Friedman said. “You should race as you train, and not exceed your training.”

Friedman also advised staying hydrated to avoid cramping, moderating pace, and checking in with your body every mile or two, especially as the hotter months set in.

Indeed, this year’s record-setting RBC Brooklyn Half came on one of the warmest days of the year. Thousands of runners of all ages and backgrounds pushed through the heat, chasing that fabled runner’s high, and something grounding too.

“Running is one of the most honest things you can do,” Esao said. “You put one foot in front of the other. You do your best to go from one place to another.”

(Photo: NYRR)

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