Saturday, December 24, 2005

Covering the Caribbean beat

by Clem Richardson for the Daily News, Originally published on December 23, 2005

...Felicia Persaud is CEO of Hardbeat News in Jackson Heights, a news service and public relations firm that specializes in serving what it calls 'the Caribbean Diaspora.'...

...Persaud, CEO of Hardbeat News, a Jackson Heights, Queens, wire service/public relations firm specializing in news and information about the Caribbean community, put Barbour's announcement at the top of her "Hardbeat News Daily Edition," a collection of stories and electronic links that she E-mails to clients each weekday.

But not because she backs a boycott...

..."We found that just the Caribbean-American market was not sellable because we don't know the exact number of people in it," she said. "When you're selling a corporation, you can't just say we have a target of approximately 5 million people.

"So we sell the entire Caribbean and the diaspora. When you say you have a market of 40 million, people take notice."

Persaud, who also lives in Jackson Heights, said the service gets its news from other wire services, the Web sites of Caribbean news organizations like the Jamaica Gleaner, and from freelancers throughout the region...
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Council Members Hedging Bets On Bid To Change Term Limits

by Ron Brownlow, Western Queens Editor from queens chronicle December 22, 2005

...Eric Gioia of Sunnyside and Helen Sears of Jackson Heights said in e-mailed statements that there was a case for extending the current limits, but that the voters should decide.
“I have seen firsthand how term limits have reenergized the city council,” Gioia said in an e-mailed statement. “However, I can also appreciate how greater experience makes elected officials more effective representatives for their constituents.”
It was not clear if Gioia or Sears would oppose changing the term limits law by legislation...
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Thursday, December 22, 2005

Under the Elevated Track, a New Sensation: Silence

By COREY KILGANNON from nytimes Published: December 21, 2005

...The image of the rattling, hulking structure of the elevated subway has become an icon of gritty urban living, mythologized in pulp novels and film noir. And the 7 Train has been glorified by outsiders as the "immigrant express," serving Flushing's vibrant Asian community, Shea Stadium, the Irish of Woodside - delivering people to and from one of the most ethnically diverse areas in the world. But to those who live under it, noise is the norm.

Without it, there is only the ambient noise level of neighborhoods along the line - including Sunnyside, Woodside, Jackson Heights and Corona - making the noises of Roosevelt Avenue just another returned to that of your average busy New York City thoroughfare.

While many locals have embraced the relative silence, others seem bewildered by it and after only two days have even begun waxing nostalgic for it...
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The New Trail to Work: Longer and More Inventive, Complicated and Crowded

By PATRICK McGEEHAN from nytimes Published: December 22, 2005

...Having heard the horror stories, Ms. Rivas, 26, gave herself five hours to get from her home in Jackson Heights, Queens, to work at the Millennium Broadway Hotel near Times Square. Instead of hopping on the No. 7 for a quick ride under the East River, she hiked 35 blocks to the Long Island Rail Road station in Woodside to ride a shuttle to Penn Station, then walked 10 blocks to work...
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A day of pain for riders in Qns.

BY JONATHAN SARUK, WARREN WOODBERRY JR. and DAVE GOLDINER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS With Kathleen Lucadamo
Originally published on December 20, 2005

..."This is awful," said Guzman, 23, a waiter. "It's a waste of time, a waste of money."

Anna Kamolova had to bargain with a livery driver over her 15-year-old son's ride to school a few blocks away in Jackson Heights.

"How does he go to school?" said Kamolova, 38, who ended up paying $10. "It's no good."...

...Livery cabs were allowed to charge $10 a person for trips anywhere in Queens or $5 to LaGuardia from a Jackson Heights subway station...
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TWU stands strong on strike deadline

BY RAY SANCHEZ and NYNewsday.com STAFF WRITER December 19, 2005, 1:25 PM EST

...Cabs and commuter vans headed for Queens bus stops early today to pick up stranded travelers, but some residents were reluctant to pay the extra fare.

"They're like sharks who smell blood," Bobby Chen said of the taxi and livery cabs circling a Jackson Heights transit hub shortly after the strike began....

...Melanie Velasquez, 13, an eighth grader at Our Lady of Fatima School in Jackson Heights, had to walk to school from her home in East Elmhurst, a distance of about one mile...

...With his thumb in the air, construction worker George Romero, 23, was trying to catch a cab along Astoria Boulevard in Jackson Heights Monday morning.

"I can't afford it," Romero said. "But I need to work."...
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An Unease For Bus Drivers, Riders Over Strike Talks

from 7online.com

...Take the Q33 into the heart of Jackson Heights and you get a warning: don't count on us tomorrow.

Passenger: "The people who live in this area have no way of getting to their jobs or wherever they need to get to."

This is the proverbial shot across the MTA's bow -- a strike on the two private bus lines would hurt, but would not cripple the entire city...
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Bus lines on the frontline

BY HERBERT LOWE AND ROBERT POLNER, STAFF WRITERS newsday, December 17, 2005

Waiting for a bus in Jackson Heights, Jonathan Lame wasn't buying the threat of a strike Monday morning by the union representing about 700 drivers for the Jamaica and Triboro Coach bus lines in Queens...


...Because workers for the two lines aren't yet under the MTA umbrella - that move is scheduled for early next year - they aren't subject to the same regulations as the rest of the union rank and file, including the Taylor Law, which bars strikes by public employees.

"That's what is called a loophole," said John Fund of Hoboken, a freelance writer waiting in Jackson Heights for a Triboro Coach bus to LaGuardia Airport, where he planned to take a flight to Washington, D.C. "But I'd bet the union wouldn't like it if the MTA exploited a loophole in their contract."...

...Few riders had a strategy for reaching school or work Monday if their bus fails to arrive. It will be a difficult situation, but not nearly as awful as a citywide subway and bus shutdown.

"No idea," shrugged Sacha Pena, 17, a part-time office worker in Jackson Heights and full-time student at Robert Wagner High School in Long Island City, when asked about her Plan B. She lives two miles or so from the nearest subway...
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Friday, December 16, 2005

Transit Strike Could Close Businesses Along Subway And Bus Lines

by Gary Anthony Ramsay for ny1.com December 15, 2005

...Dipak Patel supports his wife and one-year-old son from a newsstand in Jackson Heights. He is praying both sides work it out.

"I don't want a strike, why would I want it," says Patel "I would lose business; I don't think I could hold out for one day," says Patel...
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