Jan. 27, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
LOCAL
CL ASSIFIEDS
PA GE 15
BY BILL PARRY
City Councilman Daniel
Dromm joined community leaders
in Jackson Heights Tuesday
to demand justice for the survivor
of an anti-gay hate crime that occurred
in early November.
During the Jan. 22 press conference,
held at the intersection
of 78th Street and Roosevelt
Avenue, Dromm called on the
NYPD to charge the owner of
Village Moon with a hate crime
after he allegedly muttered antigay
hate speech to two patrons
in November 2018.
“The NYPD should act in the
best interest of the survivors —
not further victimize them,” said
Dromm, who added that he was
sad that in 2019, people still believe
they can use hateful terms
like “f—t” and get away with it.
“We call upon the police to
right this wrong,” he added.
On Nov. 3, Valarezo and his
husband made a small purchase
using a credit card at
Village Moon, located at 78-
01 Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson
Heights. After the purchase,
store employee Monammed
Hoque insisted on photocopying
Valarezo’s drivers license.
When Valerezo and his husband
objected, Hoque launched
into an anti-gay tirade calling
them “f—ts” among other slurs,
according to Dromm’s office.
After Valarezo and his husband
exited the shop, Dromm
said, Hoque allegedly assaulted
Valarazo. While the police were
shown video evidence indicating
that this assault was a hate
crime, they chose to ignore it,
according to Dromm’s office.
Instead, the NYPD charged one
of the victims with a felony,
which was later reduced to a
NEW TECH AT CARDOZO
State Assemblyman Ed Braunstein and David Weprin, Cardozo High School Principal Megan Colby, Tony
Suraj, City Councilman Barry Grodenchik and state Sen. Toby Stavisky celebrated the opening of a brand
new tech center at Cardozo High School in Bayside. See story on Page 2. Photo by Carlotta Mohamed
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
About 120 ninth grade students
from Metropolitan Expeditionary
Learning School in Forest Hills
rallied at the shuttered Jamaica
Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center
Jan. 17 in an effort to raise
awareness on how the ongoing
federal government shutdown is
impacting their education, school
and communities as a whole.
Students presented their solutions
to environmental issues
and advocated for the opening
of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Visitors Center — located at
175-10 Cross Bay Blvd. — where
they’re unable to complete their
fieldwork investigations, due to
the government shutdown.
The students acknowledged
the hardworking rangers at the
refuge — and other national
parks — who aren’t being paid,
saying “they’ve done so much for
the bay such as cleaning it up,
and making sure people have a
good time.”
Together they chanted, “Don’t
shut down my education…whose
Off-ramp widening at
Clearview Expwy. exit BY EMILY DAVENPORT
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Commuters may finally have some relief when
it comes to traffic congestion on the Clearview
Expressway.
The state Department of Transportation announced
the beginning of a $2.8 million project
Glendale Gymboree set to close
VAo Cl.N 8G.8G NPou.PNuob.b 4li l4ication cation Vol. 7 No. 3 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT TIMESLEDGER.COM
The Glendale Gymboree
clothing store will soon
shut down after the company
announced that it’s
filing for bankruptcy.
Gymboree Group Inc.,
which runs the Gymboree,
Crazy 8 and Janie and Jack
stores, voluntarily filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection and will close
800 Gymboree and Crazy 8
stores in the United States
and Canada.
According to the announcement,
the Gymboree
group will shifting their focus
to the sales of their Janie
and Jack clothing line and
the intellectual property and
online platforms of Gymboree.
Gymboree’s online platforms
and stores will still remain
active as they undergo
the bankruptcy process.
The Gymboree clothing store at The
Shops at Atlas Park in Glendale will soon
close. Photo via Flickr/Phillip Pessar
H.S. students
protest gov.
shutdown
Call for justice in Jackson Hts.
Dromm, community leaders want NYPD to prosecute alleged bias crime
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/TIMESLEDGER.COM