8
QUEENS WEEKLY, JAN. 27, 2019
New Bayside cafe offers
desserts and mahjong
Mahjong Cafe is located at 38-36 Bell Blvd. in Bayside.
Photo by Jenna Bagcal
BY JENNA BAGCAL
A new dessert spot has
just opened up on Bell Boulevard
in Bayside offering
up a range of sweets,
coffee and tea with a free
game of mahjong.
Justin Cheng, the owner
of Mahjong Cafe located
at 38-36 Bell Blvd., recently
held the shop’s soft
opening on Dec. 18 and its
grand opening on Jan. 1.
Cheng said that he and
his business partner Kai
Lin were attracted to the
relatively lower rent prices
in Bayside as compared
to other areas in Queens.
“A lot of places are too
popular, like Flushing-
Main Street — the rent is
very high,” said Cheng.
He added that “a lot”
of people live and work
on Bell Boulevard, which
was also a contributing
factor for situating the
cafe in a location previously
occupied by Bell
Formal Tuxedos.
The owner and his family
moved to the United
States from China in 2007.
Cheng shared that he has
been baking for about three
years and was also a barista
for “five or six years” before
opening the cafe.
Cheng and Lin make all
of the desserts and drinks
on the menu, which features
more “Asian-style”
products. Items include
the popular mille crepe
cakes flavored with green
tea, mango and rose, milk
puddings and fruit toast.
Drinks include several
milk teas and coffees that
Cheng learned to make
from his days as a barista.
In the front righthand
corner of the shop
is a cozy mahjong corner
where customers can sit
down and play a game.
Cheng also took the time
to write the rules down
for people who may be unfamiliar
with the game.
Cheng shared that
the popular Chinese tile
game is one of his favorite
pastimes and added that
winning and losing is not
important when it comes
to mahjong.
“I would love to share
the Chinese things with
anyone who would love
to learn or would love to
know about it,” he said.
Mahjong Cafe is currently
opened Sunday to
Thursday from 11 a.m.
to 11 p.m. and Friday to
Saturday from 11 a.m. to
midnight.
For more information,
visit Mahjong Cafe’s Facebook
and Instagram
pages or call the store at
(929) 999-6996.
Reach reporter Jenna
Bagcal by e-mail at jbagcal@
qns.com or by phone
at (718) 224-5863 ext. 214.
Reformers: It’s our turn
Grassroots groups launch DA accountability coalition
Dozens of criminal justice reform advocates took to the steps of the Queens Criminal Court Monday to demand change at the
DA’s office. Courtesy of Andrea Bichan/VOCAL-NY
BY BILL PARRY
Dozens of justice reform
advocates spent much of
Martin Luther King Jr.
Day rallying on the steps in
front of the Queens Criminal
Court in Kew Gardens
on Jan. 21.
Braving freezing temperatures,
a new coalition
of grassroots organizations
and advocates from
across the five boroughs
announced the launch the
Queens for DA Accountability
Coalition in order
to fight for de-carceration
and radical reform in
Queens, now that Queens
District Attorney Richard
Brown has announced he
won’t seek re-election to an
eighth term in office.
“A new day is coming
to Queens and so is a new
district attorney. The importance
of a DA cannot
be understated: they have
enormous authority in
every phase of a criminal
case, both here in Queens
and around the country.
They initiate investigations,
determine what
charges to file and decide
whether to offer a plea
bargain,” Color of Change
Criminal Justice Campaign
Director Clarise Mc-
Cants said.
“Brown wants to keep
Rikers Island open, requests
absurdly high bail,
and fails to hold police accountable
for brutality. He
comes from the tough-oncrime
era wherein prosecutors
and police exploit
racism and inequality to
extract guilt from innocent
people,” McCants added.
“As he departs, Color of
Change and our partners
are coming together as
a community to demand
change, hold prosecutors
accountable and root out
the corruption in our criminal
justice system.”
Queens is the fourthlargest
county in the United
States, with the largest
immigrant population, and
activists point to U.S. Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s
shocking win in last June’s
Democratic Primary —
when she defeated incumbent
Joseph Crowley, the
fourth ranking Democrat
in the House of Representatives
— as a historic grassroots
win to build on.
“Queens deserves better.
If we love Queens for
the beauty of our diversity,
food, culture, histories, we
must love and protect survivors
of domestic abuse
and sexual violence too,”
Survived and Punished
NY member Hafizah Omar
said. “We must ask more
of institutions that target
survivors in poor communities
of color and we must
hold them accountable. At
Survived and Punished
NY. We organize to free
criminalized survivors
of gender-based violence,
from prison.”
“This work would not
be necessary if district attorneys
did not prosecute
survivors in the first place.
The new Queens DA has
to be accountable to survivors.
Promises of reform
are not enough. We demand
accountability.” Omar said.
“We demand that our future
Queens DA commit to
declining to prosecute survivors
of domestic, sexual,
or gender-based violence
whose arrests were related
to acts of survival.”
Other demands called
for at the rally include
zero tolerance for police
misconduct, brutality,
corruption, perjury and
other criminal conduct.
The want reform of pretrial
practices that drive
mass incarceration and
implement an approach to
sentencing that recognizes
and seeks to eliminate systematic
oppressions and
prioritizes transformative
justice over penalizing
disciplinary action.
“Dick Brown is not trying
to get re-elected and
we have an opportunity to
elect a DA that will change
the entire office, but that’s
not an easy job,” VOCALNY
Leader and Queens
resident Carl Stubbs said.
“You don’t change 30 years
of corruption, lying and
punishment just like that.
No matter who wins office,
we’ll be out here every day,
protesting, demanding a
better DA who cares about
our community. This work
is not about an election, it’s
about getting all of Queens
to fight for our rights.”
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