It's time to wake up, rub the crust out of your eyes, and get this Saturday started! Here are today's headlines:
📣 Our readers love to celebrate good news! You can now shout out your big announcement at the top of the Queens Daily newsletter. Whether it's a grand opening, new product for sale, birthday, anniversary, engagement, wedding or new baby, let everyone celebrate alongside you! Submit your announcement here.
🌞 Sun and areas of high clouds 🌁 High: 76 Low: 67.
Here are the top stories in Queens today:
1. Mayor Adams announced yesterday that phase 1 of the QueensWay Metropolitan Hub project, a Queens version of Manhattan’s High Line Park, would cost $35 million and transform five acres of city-owned land in Forest Hills into a greenway. The “Met Hub” phase of the project transforms a section of an abandoned Long Island Rail Road line in Forest Hills into much-needed open space that also serves as a safe path to walk or bike. Once complete, QueensWay will include a 47-acre park and seven miles of greenway from a converted unused railroad line. The project will cover the Queens neighborhoods of Rego Park, Forest Hills, Glendale, Forest Park, Woodhaven, and Ozone Park. Some residents, however, were hoping instead to get more transit options, as the the abandoned line — called the Rockaway branch — runs 3.5 miles between Howard Beach and Rego Park through one of the city’s largest transit deserts.
New York Daily News ; Office of the Mayor
2. City and state officials helped cut the ribbon on Thursday at The Mieles, a new eight-story supportive housing building in the heart of Jamaica. The Transitional Services New York, Inc. (TSINY) will operate the new facility, which features 70 “deeply affordable” apartment units — 42 will go to New Yorkers struggling with homelessness, while the other 27 units will go to seniors who need a place to live. The building was named in honor of the generosity of the Miele family of Queens, who will provide tenants with a range of programs and services designed to support recovery and develop daily living skills. “When I first started working in mental health there was nothing like this, there were no homes like this,” NYS Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Marie Sullivan said. “The mentally ill who were discharged from the state hospitals were living in substandard housing and shelters all across the state. We’ve made tremendous steps to change that and this is one of the beautiful ones.”
3. A former Woodside Catholic church deacon pleaded guilty on Friday to three counts of enticing a child to engage in sexual conduct. From 2015 to 2021, Rogelio Vega, 52, used Kik, a messaging app marketed to teens, and Grindr, a dating app marketed to the LGBTQ people, to try to coerce and entice three male victims, ages 14 to 16, into meeting him for sex acts. Vega, of Maspeth, was arrested in Jan. 2021 in a sting operation in which he arranged a meeting with someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy but was actually an undercover detective. Vega will be sentenced in January, and faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison.
4. A Whitestone man was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on Thursday for his role in scheme to defraud members of Queens’ Korean American community. Between October 2010 and December 2013, John Won, 53, and his co-defendant Tae Hung Kang, 57, induced victims into investing in foreign exchange trading accounts and in their company, called ForexNPower. According to prosecutors, ForexNPower had no successful trading method and their customer accounts suffered substantial losses. In addition to jail time, in 2021, Won was also ordered to pay $842,000 in restitution on counts including securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and substantive securities fraud. Kang, of Bayside, pleaded guilty to securities fraud conspiracy and was sentenced to two years in prison in 2021.
5. The family of a comatose Queens man is desperately trying to get him home from the Dominican Republic after he suffered a medical emergency while on vacation. Melson Garcia, 29, has been in the hospital since Tuesday after being found gasping for air in his hotel room. He is now in a coma. Armando Ortiz, Garcia’s brother, said the hospitals in the Dominican Republic do not accept Garcia’s American health insurance, and that for a one-night hospital stay it is $7,000 out of pocket. The family has set up a GoFund Me to help pay his medical bills, and to raise money to fly Garcia back to the states, which may cost anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000, depending on his condition.
🗞 Hankering for more headlines? 👀 Look no further:
🗓 To Do Today in Queens:
More from our sponsors — thanks for supporting local news!
You're officially in the loop for today. See you all tomorrow for another update!
Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Queens Daily? Contact me at queens@patch.com
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.