Facts, Factoids (and Flat-Out Myths)

By JEFF VANDAM for the NY Times, Published: April 23, 2006
(part of the NY Times special "Empire State Building" Special section)

Drawing Board Dreams

Many plans for the Empire State remained just that.

The most famous scheme, of course, was the dirigible landing. The building's designers believed that the tip of the spire would make a perfect docking place for dirigibles and other airships...

...The mast was constructed, but it saw little blimp traffic, and the idea was dropped. Not for lack of trying, however: In October 1931, an airship flying in from Holmes Airport in Jackson Heights, Queens, tried futilely for an hour to attach itself to the tower in order to pick up mail...

Wedding becomes a celebration of Peshawari culture

by S. Amjad Hussain for The Toledo Blade, published Monday, April 24, 2006

A wedding invitation brought me to the Jackson Heights neighborhood of New York City, where one is surrounded by faces drawn from the far corners of the world. A walk through the bustling streets of this town in the borough of Queens transports one to the exotic bazaars and markets of faraway lands. Here one could spend a lifetime surrounded by comforting and soothing mementos of one's past and not know about the rest of New York...

The Immigrant: Dreaming of U.S. Citizenship

By COREY KILGANNON for the NY Times, Published: April 16, 2006

In Jackson Heights, Queens, last week, a line of people stretched outside Orlando Travel, a small booth between a lingerie shop and a perfume store in a mini-mall. One of them, Miguel A. Carvajal, clung to a folder of papers and to the hope that what he was doing — filing his taxes — would help him change his status as an illegal immigrant...

Marcher: 'I'm Left With Nothing'

By Sarah Ferguson for Village Voice April 11, 2006

...Worried they would be deported like the other Muslims and South Asians being swept up across the country, the Ali family fled to Montreal. They believed the Canadian government would be more receptive to their bid for political asylum. But after three years, the Canadian government punted them back to the U.S.

So now they're in New York, having moved to Jackson Heights, Queens, with the help of the immigrant rights group DRUM, or Desis Rising Up and Moving. (Desi, according to the website, is a term South Asians commonly use to identify their heritage.)

Sadia and her family say going back to Pakistan now would be a death sentence. So would HR 4437, the Border Protection Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act, passed by the House, which calls for the mandatory detention and deportation of illegal aliens and imposes criminal penalties on those (like DRUM) who knowingly help them...

Save the Date

His Queens wedding plans in doubt, Tauqir Zafar Rizvi waits in immigrant detention
by Anya Kamenetz for Village Voice April 11th, 2006 11:20 AM

The wedding date is set: May 6 at the Kebab King Diner, a halal establishment in Jackson Heights. In accordance with Pakistani custom, the groom's family has put down the deposit for a reception for 250 guests the next day at the Sterling, a large catering hall in Long Island. The bride, a 28-year-old pharmacy tech, is ready. But the groom is in jail...

Immigrant Organizing

by Saurav Sarkar for Gotham Gazette, April, 2006

...When DRUM (which stands for Desis Rising Up & Moving) began in the year 2000, its executive director Monami Maulik says, the idea was not to provide social services nor even to do advocacy, but rather to build up membership as a way of strengthening the community of South Asians in New York City. But that same year DRUM began working on police harassment in and around Jackson Heights...