Dutch Kills Civic Association Board of Directors were sworn in by (second from l.) Assemblymember Marge Markey, Board members (l. to r.) Kim Teixeira, Daniel Jennings, Patricia Wilson, Doris Nowillo-Suda, Steven Morena and Jerry Walsh. Photo Ray Normandeau Assemblymember Margaret Markey told the Dutch Kills Civic Association at the DKCA February meeting that the reshaping of her district by the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) has not caused her any distress. By the plan, she retains about 80 percent of her old district, although she said she had hoped to gain a little more of Astoria. Her redrawn district includes Kaufman Astoria Studios, but the Museum of the Moving Image across the street was just out of reach. The new configuration to allot her the mandated 124,000 in population is quite all right with her. She said she knew it was different in the senate, where the Republicans in control seem to be mistreating Democrats more than the Democrats controlling the Assembly seem to be mistreating its Republicans.

She then turned to proposed legislation nearest her heart, the Child Victims bill, which has been passed in the Assembly every year since 2006 but from then to the present day has failed in the senate. The Child Victims bill is an attempt to identify and prosecute those who molest and rape children or youth by extending the existing statute of limitations in the state. It would also create a “window” for discovery of earlier offenses by suspending the statute of limitations for one year. The overwhelming amount of abuse occurs in homes. When someone questioned the authenticity of some of the complaints, suggesting that putative victims might be trying to win judgments on false cases, Markey said the skeptic, and anyone else, should meet some of the complainants she has met and heard, and then try doubting their sincerity.

State Senator Michael Gianaris arrived after Markey had left. At the LATFOR meeting in Queens Borough Hall two days earlier, he had castigated senate

Republicans for the way they had carved up districts, showing examples from outside New York City. His own district was by his account left 90 percent intact, but that 10 percent included relocation of his home from his district into state Senator Jose Peralta’s adjacent one. He said that the current LATFOR proposals for the maps will certainly be vetoed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and new mapping plans will have to be made.

Gianaris lamented that Long Island City H.S., his alma mater, and Bryant H.S. are two of many high schools in the city facing possible replacement of half their staff personnel. DKCA Board member Doris Nowillo reminded him from the audience that what is being done to the schools may not be a wise attempt to improve them but is done in reaction to manifestly poor performance and graduation levels among the students. Gianaris called the quest for high-quality education “the stickiest problem we have in this country” and said the solution requires proper funding to initiate programs for improvement. He insisted that without money, real school reform is only makebelieve.

The successful campaign to deny a liquor license to Gypsy Rose, a “gentlemen’s club” that recently looked ready to open on 21st Street near an upper roadway exit from the Queensboro Bridge, was hailed at the meeting by Gianaris and the audience. DKCA President Jerry Walsh said that every attempt by one of these strip clubs to open on or around Queens Plaza brings him back to the period 10 and 20 years ago when prostitution was a feverish activity in Dutch Kills. He feared a club the size of Gypsy Rose, at a reported 400 seats, would encourage the return of the sex trade to the neighborhood streets.

George Stamatiades appealed to Markey and Gianaris to fund Neighborhood Preservation again. He said they must drive home to legislators in Albany the idea that either they spend money today to allow the elderly to stay in their homes or they will have to spend it tomorrow providing shelter for a new wave of elderly homeless.

Guest speaker Jennifer Levy, a health educator at the North Shore-LIJ Health System, said it is her aim to encourage a crusade by residents in all apartment buildings in Queens that would ban smoking in all apartments. For more information, contact Nancy Copperman of North Shore-LIJ Health System at 516-465-3100 or ncopper@nshs.com.

Kim Teixera of DKCA was recently named winner of the John D. Solomon Memorial Award for her work with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Astoria.

The Dutch Kills Civic Association board of directors is: Jay Alam; Daniel Jennings; Stephen Morena; Doris Nowillo; Chris Vilardi and Pat Wilson.