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Mayor Eric Adams delivers his first State of the City address at Queens Theater on Thursday, January 26, 2023. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office   By Mayor Eric Adams Community Op Ed January 30, 2023 NEW YORK - Last week, in Queens — the borough I grew up in — I reported to New Yorkers on the state of our city. I outlined what we’ve accomplished in the year since I took office, and my vision for the future. We are going to build a city for working people, one that is more affordable, safer, cleaner, and more livable. We focused on four essential pillars: jobs, safety, housing, and care. Because without a strong working class, this city cannot survive. Working people need good jobs and pathways to get those jobs. And those jobs need to be able to support a home for New Yorkers and their families. That is why we are reimagining our workforce system, connecting 30,000 New Yorkers to apprenticeships through a new Apprenticeship Accelerator. ...

A cannabis shop advertised its goods in the Financial District, Jan. 12, 2023. | Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY By Stephon Johnson, The City This article was  originally published  on  Jan 18 8:37pm EST  by  THE CITY NEW YORK - Smoke shop robberies in New York City went up more than four times between the first and second years of cannabis legalization in New York state, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell testified at a City Council hearing Wednesday on the spread of the stores selling unlicensed cannabis or untaxed tobacco products. Since New York legalized recreational marijuana in March 2021, unlicensed and untaxed operations have openly sold the product while the state lagged in opening licensed storefronts. Chell reported 593 such smoke-shop robberies in 2022, way up from 137 in 2021. That comes to nearly one robbery for every two smoke shops, according to the NYPD’s count. The police department reports finding 428 of them in Brooklyn, 373 in M...

By Dan Gesslein Queens Voice January 18, 2023  QUEENS - Two teens were stabbed by a group of 5 in broad daylight near Flushing High School.  At around 9 am on January 17, two 17-year-old males had gotten into a verbal dispute with a group in Flushing. As they walked to the corner of 34 Avenue and Parsons Boulevard they realized they were being followed by the group they disputed with.  Suddenly the members caught up with them and began kicking and punching the teens. Then they began stabbing them about the body.   The group then scattered in an unknown direction.  Cops say the attackers ranged in age from 14 to 17.  One victim sustained multiple stab wounds about the body. He was taken to Booth Memorial Hospital where he is listed in stable condition. His friend suffered a stab wound to the right hip. He was taken to Cohen's Long Island Hospital and is listed in stable condition. Anyone with information in r...

New York City Mayor Eric Adams presents his Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) preliminary budget. -Photo by: Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office. By Mayor Eric Adams Community Op-Ed January 17, 2023   NEW YORK - Every year, the Mayor presents a budget to the people of New York City. This budget is about much more than what we are spending and what we are spending it on. It is a statement of values and a declaration of purpose: Creating a safer, more prosperous and equitable city for all. This is the city that our responsible and focused Fiscal Year 2024 Preliminary Budget continues to make possible. Since Day One, fiscal discipline has been the hallmark of this administration. We are focused on governing efficiently and getting results. Over the past year, we have made our city safer and continued our economic recovery. We have funded and will continue to support programs that benefit everyday New Yorkers — including public safety, affordable housing, and cle...

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Keechant Sewell make a public safety-related announcement. One Police Plaza, New York, NY. Thursday, January 5, 2022. Photo Credit: Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office By Mayor Eric Adams Community Op-ed NEW YORK - When I came to office, I inherited a city with many crises, including increasing crime. And my top priority has always been public safety. From day one, I got to work with the Police Commissioner, our Deputy Mayor and our team to make our streets and subways safer.      And our public safety strategy is working. New York City is getting safer. 2022 ended with crime trending downward in New York City. In December, we saw major crimes go down by 11.6 % and in the fourth quarter of 2022, overall index crime dropped by 1.5%.    Last month, we saw murder...

Mayor Eric Adams and Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch announce the composting pilot program at the The Unisphere in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, August 8, 2022. | Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office This article was originally published on Jan 6 6:38pm EST by THE CITY By Samantha Maldonado,  The City QUEENS - Gloria Boyce-Charles began separating her food scraps last spring, packing them into brown bags and storing them in a freezer in the basement of her southeastern Queens home. The retired Brookville resident says she always meant to bring the scraps to a compost drop-off site, but never got around to it. So the bags sat in her freezer — until October, when the Department of Sanitation launched its curbside organic-waste pick-up program, which covered all of Queens. “It was seamless: all I had to do was set it out on the curb on the same day with my recycling,” Boyce-Charles said. She and DSNY both consider the pilot program a success: Queens r...

Police have made an arrest in a series of indecent exposure incidents on the subway. By David Greene  Queens Voice  January 5, 2023  QUEENS - Police have arrested a Pennsylvania man for at least five indecent exposure incidents since July- in one instance targeting a 14-year-old child.  Police have arrested 35-year-old Jose Lopez of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, which is just outside Philadelphia. Lopez was charged with five counts of public lewdness.   According to the NYPD, the individual has targeted girls and women between the ages of 14 and 36-years old inside subway cars or on subway platforms within the confines of the NYPD's 61st, 70th Precincts in Brooklyn and the 104th Precinct in Queens.   Police reported similar incidents on July 22, September 9, November 7, December 27 and 30th. In each instance the man exposed himself and began masturbating. Police say that none of the victims were physically harmed.   The in...