2025 - 12:30PM A rendering of the seven-story development in the East Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens NYC Housing Connect Housing lottery applications are open for 73 rent-stabilized apartments for seniors at a new development in East Elmhurst Households that earn up to $69,900 are eligible to apply depending on the number of people you live with Tenants will pay 30 percent of their income towards rent and must qualify for Section 8 to be selected for a unit All of the apartments are reserved for seniors—either individuals who are 62 years old or older or households that include a member who is 62 years old or older The seven-story building at 32-14 111th St It’s located just over half a mile from the 111th Street subway station and replaced a parking lot at the intersection of 112th Street and Astoria Boulevard The apartments are set aside for New Yorkers earning up to 60 percent of the area median income (AMI)—a metric that depends on how many people you live with. Currently the AMI for New York City is $124,300 for a two-person household A small percentage of the apartments will be preferentially given to residents with mobility The apartments available include studios and one-bedroom apartments There are 37 one-bedroom apartments available for households earning up to $62,150  Applications must be submitted online or postmarked no later than May 5th If you’re interested and think you might qualify for one of these apartments, you can create a profile and apply online via NYC Housing Connect. For details on this particular lottery, click here. Don’t apply more than once Winning a rent-stabilized apartment can be life changing: Rent increases are capped and lease renewals are automatic, providing long-term stability for NYC renters. Need more information on how the housing lottery works? Check out “6 steps for applying to NYC's affordable housing lottery.” Note: Brick Underground is in no way affiliated with New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development or the Housing Development Corporation. If you are interested in applying to these or other affordable housing developments, please go to NYC Housing Connect for information and instructions Have you successfully won an apartment through the affordable housing lottery? If you have first-person advice to share about the process, we’d love to hear from you. Please send us an email. We respect all requests for anonymity. *By signing up you agree to receive occasional emails on behalf of our sponsors Copyright 2009-2024 by BND Ventures Inc | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Ad Choices | Login Donald Trump’s failed business ventures indicate lack of economic knowledge NYC should assist those who will lose vouchers ‘The White Lotus’ season 3 returns in Thailand with mixed reactions Legendary R&B singer-songwriter Bobby Caldwell dies at 71 Cuomo may lead mayoral polls but NYC needs a fresh face to lead the city In a decision that could have devastating consequences for New York’s communities the Federal Emergency Management Agency is slashing $325 million in disaster mitigation grants — much of which was earmarked for New York City These funds were not abstract or discretionary; they were the financial backbone of projects meant to safeguard lives in Central Harlem the South Street Seaport and several NYCHA complexes From flood barriers to food security in Hunts Point these were not just proposals — they were lifelines In a city already grappling with a struggling economy According to Gov. Kathy Hochul the funding cuts will directly affect several areas of NYC from crucial flood mitigation work in Central Harlem and East Elmhurst to halting progress on a coastal resilience initiative at the South Street Seaport to disrupting storm protection plans for multiple NYCHA housing complexes and jeopardizing a food security program in Hunts Point along with several other projects across the city and state Buffalo and Albany are also expected to lose funding A fire danger map from New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation has identified 21 counties as being at high risk for wildfires adding to the growing list of vulnerabilities The reduction in funding for disaster preparedness and resilience projects potentially endangers upstate New York’s areas prone to wildfires FEMA announced it would cancel all pending applications submitted between 2020 and 2023 Any awarded grant money that was not yet distributed will be pulled back and immediately returned to the federal government Sen. Jessica Ramos of Queens expressed deep frustration over the news that FEMA would cut climate resiliency projects in her district “My neighbors could die if we have another rainstorm like we had during Hurricane Ida,” Ramos said She emphasized the urgency of the situation and committed to pushing the state to cover the funding gap At the same time, the Trump administration is also pulling more than $40 million from planned coastal protection efforts in Lower Manhattan further jeopardizing the city’s preparedness for future storms “In the last few years, New Yorkers have faced hurricanes wildfires and even an earthquake — and FEMA assistance has been critical to help us rebuild,” Hochul said New Yorkers will struggle to cope with the aftermath of disasters even more than before After Hurricane Sandy, FEMA’s efforts in recovery with a budget of $25.5 billion for New York and New Jersey helped struggling New Yorkers rebound from a situation they could neither control nor prevent The organization’s status itself is in question Trump is considering disbanding it entirely instead allocating money to states directly after disasters Whether FEMA continues to operate or disbands in the next few years funding to states after disasters is crucial and must remain a consistent priority communities need reliable support to recover and rebuild Pulling back funding — especially for preventative efforts like flood control storm protection and food access — doesn’t just delay progress; it leaves neighborhoods less prepared for what’s ahead Investing in resilience now is far more effective and far less costly than scrambling to pick up the pieces later this decision “will literally put lives at risk.” If the state doesn’t step in to fill the gap Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More The Federal Emergency Management Agency is cutting more than $325 million in funding intended for “critical” infrastructure and resilience projects in New York state Much of the funding — which the state would have received through FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program — was allocated for flood mitigation efforts, Hochul said in a release.  FEMA last week said it was ending the program which has been used by communities across the country to pay for projects designed to help them prepare for natural disasters like flooding and fires wildfires and even an earthquake — and FEMA assistance has been critical to help us rebuild,” the governor said in a statement “Without support for resilience projects now our communities will be far more vulnerable when disaster strikes next,” she added “As I’ve said all along: no state in the nation can backfill the massive cuts being proposed in Washington and it’s critical New Yorkers stand united to call out the damage this will cause.”  Hochul said the cuts would impact flood mitigation efforts in Central Harlem and East Elmhurst; a coastal resilience project focused on the South Street Seaport; storm protection efforts at several NYCHA complexes; and a food security-focused initiative in Hunts Point Buffalo and the Albany area are also set to lose funding FEMA’s move to eliminate the program comes as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to slash federal funding.  the agency called the program “yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program,” adding that it “was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.” The program was started under the first Trump administration and then expanded under the Biden administration. Communities across the country have used program funds to help their cities and towns mitigate disasters, such as raising roads to keep them out of floodwaters or building underground storage units to prepare for droughts. FEMA’s announcement last week didn’t detail what exactly the agency found to be “wasteful,” but the Trump administration has targeted programs or funding across the federal government that goes to address climate change or that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion goals. Under the Biden administration, the BRIC program was a key part of the government’s efforts to address climate change, and while grants were awarded to a wide range of communities across the country, there was a special emphasis on helping historically underserved communities. The cuts come as the future of FEMA itself is in question. President Donald Trump has questioned whether to disband it entirely and give money directly to states to handle disasters. Trump has created a council to study what to do with FEMA and whether to get rid of it. In addition to ending the program going forward, FEMA said it was also cancelling all applications to the program from 2020 to 2023 and that money that was awarded as part of grants but not already distributed would be immediately returned to the federal government.  Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights 60 years ago But another key location in his story remains unmarked and largely forgotten: a modest brick house in East Elmhurst where Malcolm X lived with his wife and daughters in the final years of his life and his assassination site at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis became the National Civil Rights Museum official designation or visible acknowledgment of its significance An honorary street sign reading “Malcolm X Place” sits at one end of the block but the house itself blends into the quiet its history known only to those who seek it Around 2:45 a.m., assailants threw Molotov cocktails through the living room windows. Malcolm X hustled his family into the backyard; few of their possessions survived the fire, the New York Times reported at the time “Malcolm assumed it was done by members of the Nation of Islam likely on the orders of [the group’s leader] Elijah Muhammad,” Whitaker said Malcolm X had broken with the Nation of Islam the Black separatist movement he’d helped to build he publicly embraced Sunni Islam and a broader disavowing Black separatism and violent revolution After he confronted Muhammad in 1963 about the Nation of Islam leader impregnating several female assistants citing inflammatory comments he’d made about the JFK assassination It moved to evict him from the East Elmhurst house Malcolm X claimed that Muhammad had given him the house as a gift and a protracted legal fight over the eviction played out in court there’s never been an official determination as to who was responsible for the attack on his home “The house really mattered to Malcolm because he was not a wealthy man He lived on whatever the Nation of Islam gave him in terms of salary the house stood for the one thing he could do for his family to give them a sense of security.” He and his wife Betty Shabazz found a new home they wanted to buy on Long Island but couldn’t afford the down payment and sought an advance on his unpublished autobiography Malcolm X was killed while preparing to speak at the Audubon Ballroom which has been partially preserved and now contains the Malcolm X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center Two men who had been convicted of the crime were exonerated in 2023 after a lengthy investigation The Malcolm X statue at the The Shabazz Center on the 50th anniversary of Malcolm X's death in 2015 various attempts have been made to commemorate the home The honorary street naming happened in 2005 then-City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate secured funding for a bust of Malcolm X outside the house conversations about landmarking the house have gone nowhere in part because the current residents of the house do not want it landmarked according to current Councilmember Francisco Moya’s office The Nation of Islam owned the house until 1987 The family that took ownership of it did not respond to multiple requests for comment Columbia University had planned to tear down the Audubon Ballroom in the 1980s, but after community protests led by Shabazz, a small portion of the original building was preserved. The other part of the block was redeveloped into space for biomedical research laboratories. She said the ballroom's treatment “reflects this larger national trend to forget Malcolm X.” “Malcolm X experienced two deaths,” Zigbi-Johnson said. “This physical death, on Feb. 21, and then somewhat of a metaphysical death in the miscaricaturing of his politics.” While King is celebrated as a nonviolent civil rights leader, Zigbi-Johnson said, Malcolm X is more often portrayed as extremist and divisive. But she argues that ignores his nuanced complexity and tenderness. “Malcolm had a butterfly collection,” Zigbi-Johnson said. “He carried a love sonnet in his pocket and wrote poetry to his wife before going on trips abroad.” “The importance of remembering and honoring the physical spaces that Malcolm lived in helps center his political memory as something we can engage with in a very tangible way,” she said. Correction: This story has been updated to correctly describe a statement by Najha Zigbi-Johnson. The reconstruction of the troubled Midtown train hub will be led by the federal government, not the state-run MTA, the Trump administration announced Thursday. The student leader championed peace in Israel and Gaza and pushed back at antisemitism on campus, according to close associates. Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily. Gothamist is a website about New York City news, arts, events and food, brought to you by New York Public Radio. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. In a slice of Queens south of LaGuardia Airport voters again re-elected a left-leaning congressmember known for touting her working-class bona fides Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez still points to her time waiting tables and preaches economic redistribution and while voters flee from some of her party’s colleagues she has yet to face a serious re-election threat The conventional wisdom states that a figure like Ocasio-Cortez who brings an activist energy and belongs to a left-leaning coalition of congressional Democrats could only win in certain left strongholds But in parts of her district where she handily won re-election this month Republicans gained ground as voters swung to another candidate who commands superstar attention: President-elect Donald Trump Gothamist went to East Elmhurst and North Corona where voters overwhelmingly said they voted for Trump to hear what drove them to the polls this year the recent arrival of migrants and concerns about the rising cost of living noting that they wanted a leader who they believed understood their concerns As she stood in front of her small two-story home in North Corona 65-year-old Ana Marte said she voted for Trump at the urging of her four adult children Marte said one of her daughters pressed her to vote against Kamala Harris viewing her as an extension of the current administration said she voted for Trump because her adult children encouraged her to “They told me to vote for Trump because we need some change,” said Marte Marte has lived in North Corona since about 2005 She’s originally from the Dominican Republic the smallest geographic unit the Board of Elections uses to assign voters more than 60% of the voting age population is Latino according to analysis of the voter rolls by John Mollenkopf director of the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center Overall, Trump performed 8 percentage points better with Latino voters in 2024 compared to 2020 Mollenkopf said the district had slightly higher levels of average home ownership than the city average and slightly lower levels of college education More than 35% of the voting age population was born outside the United States “This is the current generation of Archie Bunker-like people,” said Mollenkopf in a nod to the 1970’s era sitcom "All in the Family," set in a nearby Queens neighborhood and following a working-class family patriarch who struggles with racial and demographic shifts in his neighborhood solid citizens who basically register as Democrats but are alienated from the Democratic nominee,” Mollenkopf said Harris narrowly beat Trump in this election district: She pulled 54% of the vote to his 46%, compared to a 68%-30% split citywide. The election district also saw a striking decline in overall turnout, with more than 20% fewer people voting in 2024 compared to 2020, according to the NYC Election Atlas created by CUNY’s Center for Urban Research. The most significant drop was in support for the Democratic presidential candidate, who received 282 fewer votes this year compared with four years ago. By comparison, 109 more voters turned out for the Republican candidate, suggesting that Trump more successfully energized voters than Harris. Marte said the growing number of migrants arriving in the city made her feel less safe. She said she installed security cameras after people began sleeping in her backyard, and someone pounded on her front door at 2 a.m. “It’s a lot of problems in the streets,” Marte said. Marte said she hoped her vote for Trump would bring a sense of order to her neighborhood. Down ballot, Marte also voted for Ocasio-Cortez. Even though she’s not new to office, Marte saw Ocasio-Cortez as someone who could bring a fresh approach to the work. “We need somebody like, new, maybe they do something,” she said. “We need change.” Benito Cortez, 79, said he also voted for Ocasio-Cortez, but declined to say why. He also would not say if he voted for Trump, but echoed Marte’s concerns about feeling unsafe around his neighborhood. “Everything is bad here,” Cortez said as he leaned against a brick fence by his East Elmhurst driveway. “After 7 o’clock, you cannot go out, you know, they mug you,” he said. Cortez said he had never personally experienced a violent crime, but he knew others who had. He said his hope was that Trump would keep his promises when he took office related to immigration and the economy. “Let’s hope for the best,” he added. As he walked out of a pharmacy on 103rd Street in North Corona, Primitivo Collado wore a baseball cap with a logo for a retired U.S. Navy ship where he said his grandson used to work. Now his grandson is a police officer in Connecticut. Primitivo Collado stressed how hard he and his family worked upon arriving in the U.S., suggesting that more recent immigrants do not. “When we came to this country, we came to work,” said Collado, who said he left his home in the Dominican Republic at the age of 16. When he discussed his reasons for voting for Trump, he talked about his own job working at the Four Seasons and the work his children and grandchildren are now doing, an oblique criticism of people who have recently arrived in this country and are not working. Other voters in the neighborhood who did not want to share their full names shared similar frustrations. Several of them, including a 21-year-old college student who was returning home from a shopping trip with her mother and younger brother, said their votes for Trump were motivated by rising grocery costs. The student lamented that her money doesn't go far enough. This isn’t to say that Trump swept all of Ocasio-Cortez's district, despite gaining ground in Elmhurst and Corona. Harris still won the Bronx and Queens congressional district overall. Karim Abdullah, 47, said he voted for Harris. While parking his car after work as his 5-year-old son slept in the backseat, Abdullah said he had often talked to his friends and neighbors about the election. He said Trump did a better job of stirring up voters’ anxieties, especially as it relation to migrants. “If I say, ‘Oh, this person is bad,'” said Abdullah, “if I keep telling you that 10 times over and over again. Then you're going to believe that.” Abdullah said he struggled to understand how people of color could support Trump. “When you're supporting somebody who say, ‘I don't like your kind of skin’ or his people around him don't like people of color or Hispanic or have a problem with somebody being Muslim,” said Abdullah, who said he was originally from West Africa. He said he even struggled to relate to frustrations he heard over the arrival of migrants, especially coming from other New Yorkers from immigrant families. “I'm like, but you were children of immigrants. Why do you have a problem with migrants?” said Abdullah. “And they just don't have an answer.” Shortly after the election, Ocasio-Cortez asked her 8.5 million Instagram followers why some supporters might vote for a split ticket. She has published dozens of the responses from voters, who voiced concerns about immigration policy, the economy, the war in Gaza and more. Other elected officials have made similar outreach efforts. Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani of Queens – who is also running to unseat Adams as mayor – did his own outreach to voters in two areas that swung for Trump: along Fordham Road in the Bronx and along Hillside Avenue in Queens. He turned that outreach into a video he shared on social media. “The beauty of speaking to voters directly is that you can break through so much of the noise, and you can in fact hear it directly from them as to what motivated them,” Mamdani told Gothamist. He said working-class New Yorkers' perspectives were missing from much of the coverage of Trump’s success in the city. “You cannot go to someone that is struggling to afford the price of eggs and tell them this is an incredible economy and we have record low levels of unemployment,” said Mamdani. “Because those statistics have not translated into all that much for so many of these New Yorkers’ lives.” Speaking to WNYC on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez said politicians should listen to their constituents’ concerns about issues like immigration, but shouldn’t get defensive. “Yeah, having an undocumented population is a problem. But undocumented people are not a problem. It’s the fact that they’re undocumented,” Ocasio-Cortez said. She characterized deploying the U.S. military against immigrant populations, as Trump has vowed to do, as a violent waste of resources. “We can solve this problem by giving people work papers and allow us to uphold the longstanding tradition of the United States, which is people coming here, oftentimes with nothing but the shirt on their backs, being able to work their way to support their families,” she added. “It’s really only recently, in recent decades, that we have made it so hard, and so onerous, for people to make an honest living and for small businesses to hire immigrants who want to support their families.” Update: This story has been updated with comments from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Correction: This story has been updated to clarify the breakdown of votes for presidential candidates in part of the 14th District in 2024 compared to 2020. Waldemar Alverio also faces five years of post-release supervision after injuring two people and firing into nearby buildings. The city alleges in a lawsuit that the Geo Group, a private contractor, has failed to secure required city approvals. Gothamist is a website about New York City news Residents of East Elmhurst in Queens have struggled with flooding due to sewer surges when it rains incurring thousands in damages and infrastructure fixes. Courtesy of Dinu Ahmed A rainy night means a sleepless night for residents of one section of East Elmhurst They’d prefer to catch the disaster as it strikes residents of 77th Street and of nearby blocks in East Elmhurst say they’ve struggled with sewer water flooding their basements and apartments health issues and thousands of dollars in damages Most of the flooding comes after just an average rain As climate change brings heavier and more frequent rainfall which may not be as straightforward – or as immediate – as they might hope sewer backup is what impacts all of us,” said Nabil Jamaleddine an East Elmhurst local and software engineer who has lived in the area since 2017 locals on 77th Street and surrounding blocks in the neighborhood which occur when the sewer system and catch basins can’t keep up with the demand brought on by the falling rain Cleaning the damage caused by the flooding creates more worries due to toxins in the sewer water that find their way into East Elmhurst basements got an infection in his legs several months after cleaning his basement after Hurricane Ida “I was in the hospital three times,” he said The dangers of the water’s contents usually result in almost everything it touches including important belongings and family heirlooms Draining the basement is just half the battle – wallets are also drained “[I’m] just pouring money into this thing just to try to fix it,” said Jamaleddine they just don't have the funds to do this sort of thing.” The problems first began to be noticed by residents after Hurricane Ida in 2021 which destroyed basements and flooded areas across the city The response to tha storm prompted a resurrected conversation on storm readiness congressional hearings and even a visit from President Joe Biden who stopped by a flooded block in East Elmhurst “They’re always the first ones who are hurt and the last ones that are helped – but that’s not going to happen this time,” Biden said at the time President Joe Biden visited East Elmhurst and toured storm damage. AP Photo/Evan Vucci  we've had three major flooding events,” said local resident and public defender Dinu Ahmed who lives a few blocks away from 77th Street “But the frequency that we've been dealing with flooding who has lived in the community for two decades Ida and Tropical Storm Ophelia in September of last year sewage backup,” Ahmed said of the 2023 storm “What this has meant for us is repeated instances of having to gut our basement completely Ahmed says she has had to spend thousands of dollars out-of-pocket to pay for cleanup like installing a check valve in her basement an installation which had to be preceded by asbestos mitigation which along with the check valve cost around $10,000 but created a new financial need for maintenance and checkups “Why are we shelling out so much for a problem that is not of our own making It just seems incredibly unjust,” she said “We don't want to get pushed out of our neighborhood and we want to feel safe.” “It's dangerous both in the immediacy of what's happening but also the long-term effects of what we're being exposed to,” she said Ahmed said the street’s issues cause psychological damage nobody in this neighborhood sleeps,” she said The heart of the issue stems from the outdated sewer system itself exacerbated by the issues wrought by climate change very heavy rain events – it's not a sewer backing up,” said Katherine Brezler the Special Advisor for Strategic Initiatives at Borough President Donovan Richards office who deals with these kinds of community issues Brezler said that the city’s sewer system was built to withstand around one and a half to one and three quarter inches of rainwater per hour – but recent storms have brought far more than that “The borough president’s position and our position is that the standard that sewers are built to is not meeting the moment of the next 100 years and the standard should be changed to five inches,” Brezler said Brezler added that much of the issue is that the sewer systems and catch basins were built and designed to withstand a once-in-a-100-year storm which no longer comes just every 100 years Solutions to the flooding issues and the sewer capacity are far from simple for the East Elmhurst residents “We need increased capacity in the sewer line we need additional rain gardens and other public green infrastructure… just everything they can do to improve,” said Jamaleddine It is no surprise that changing the standards for sewer capacity and potentially doing infrastructure work to meet that standard one the city might not be so eager to shell out “That kind of standard change that would need to happen at the city level “But it is a necessary rationale that we need to undertake.”’ It is unlikely that the city undergoes such a complicated project any time soon community members will need to deal with some of the issues on their own “I think folks have a hard time looking in the mirror and realizing they are a frontline community member,” said Brezler “Those are some of the hard conversations that our office has to engage in and stand with the community as they accept the hard truth of what climate change means for them Sewer flooding in East Elmhurst results in a large cleanup for locals who need to throw out nearly everything that got wet due to toxins in the water. Courtesy of Dinu Ahmed  While major fixes are far from being implemented,efforts to help mitigate the issues have begun including work from the Department of Environmental Protection to clean and inspect sewers to ensure they are working properly DEP Commissioner Rit Aggarwala and Deputy Commissioner Beth DeFalco recently met with Councilmember Shekar Krishnan and Assemblymember Steven Raga to discuss the flooding issues with residents “The conversation outlined the challenges with the city’s current infrastructure issues caused by increased rainfall due to climate change and potential future projects that DEP will detail in its upcoming strategic plan,” the spokesperson said “The talk also touched on what steps residents can take to protect their homes from sewer backups caused by more frequent and severe thunderstorms.” most of which would incur more personal cost to residents like installing “back-flow valves” which flow water out with the DEP looking at spots in the area that could be locations for rain gardens “We can talk about folks having rain barrels in their backyards to capture more of the rain so that that rain doesn't wind up in our sewers during surge time,” said Brezler building more gray and green infrastructure.” the Small Business Administration will be at an upcoming community meeting to offer low interest loans so that locals can make their homes more resilient though building valves and installing rain gardens Locals say that their call for assistance has been gaining more traction lately particularly in the wake of last September’s floods “It does feel like it's an issue of neglect,” said Ahmend “It also feels like we're being forced to scramble and deal with an issue that's not of our own making because we care a lot about maintaining our homes.” members of the community will be meeting with elected officials DEP and other agencies to discuss the issues the meeting is also about getting some help before the next storm hits Major flooding wasn’t seen in East Elmhurst this past week when rain and wind threatened to pummel the city But surviving one rain storm without issue doesn’t do much to quell concern in the neighborhood [but] it could have happened’,” said Ahmed and so we want to find a way to make it better.” Home / Law / Crime / Politics / Communities / Voices / All Stories / Who We Are / Terms and Conditions Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker NYPD Chief of Transportation Philip Rivera briefs the media on the crash that left 8-year-old Bayron Palomino Arroyo dead in East Elmhurst on Wednesday A 52-year-old man from Flushing is facing nearly half a decade in prison after cops say he fatally ran over an 8-year-old boy and injured the boy’s 10-year-old brother in East Elmhurst on Wednesday afternoon Police say that Jose Barcia was driving dangerously and attempting to speed through a left turn when he struck 8-year-old Bayron Palomino Arroyo and his brother narrowly missing their mother on 31st Avenue shortly after 4 p.m a family trying to enjoy a beautiful day will never be the same,” NYPD Chief of Transportation Philip Rivera said Barcia was driving a 2005 Nissan Titan westbound on 31st Avenue when he came up to a red light at 100th Street Barcia allegedly waited at the red light until the light turned green he allegedly jumped out into the intersection to make a left turn cutting off eastbound drivers – who had the right of way – attempting to pass through the intersection Police say that the two brothers and their mother were walking across 100th Street with the light when Barcia drove at a dangerous speed into the crosswalk The 8-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics who were called the scene just after the crash The 10-year-old was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens with an injury to his wrist The mother was not struck or physically injured remained at the scene and was the first person to call 911 after the crash who passed a field sobriety test and isn’t believed to have been intoxicated at the time of the crash the Queens district attorney’s office charged Barcia with criminally negligent homicide failing to yield to oncoming traffic while making a left turn two counts of failing to provide the right of way to pedestrians and two counts of failing to exercise due care “Driving carries with it a huge responsibility,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz “This tragedy is as senseless as it is horrific The rules of the road exist to safeguard everyone.” “A young life has been cut short and a family is in mourning because of the driver’s disregard for those rules,” she added “My deepest condolences are with the loved ones affected by this heartbreaking incident.” Though Barcia had a license at the time of the crash that reportedly hasn’t always been the case Barcia was found to have been driving with a suspended license and arrested on four different occasions from September 2009 through September 2010 StreetsBlog also reported that the car Barcia was driving at the time of the crash had been ticketed eight times by speed cameras dating back to June 2023 The truck has more than $350 in unpaid speeding tickets which would allow the Sheriff’s Department to tow the car Palomino Arroyo is the third child to be killed in Queens while crossing the street since last February 7-year-old Dolma Naadhun was hit by 46-year-old Claudia Mendez-Vasquez who was arrested around three months after the crash was driving without a license when she rolled through a stop sign at the intersection of 45th Street and Newtown Road in Astoria Naadhun was almost instantly killed when Mendez-Vasquez struck her 3-year-old Quintus Chen died in Flushing after being struck by 20-year-old Kevin Gomez on College Point Boulevard was pulling out of an illegal parking spot when he allegedly struck Chen He eventually ditched his car not far from the scene of the crash and was arrested the next day All three deaths sparked outrage among local residents and elected officials State Senator Jessica Ramos said that crowded streets in her district were “I fight so hard for improved public transit because there are too many cars on the road particularly SUVs and pickup trucks that do not allow for full visibility in city streets,” Ramos said “Having too many cars on our streets causes traffic and road rage “Nothing will bring the child back,” she added “We can only fight for traffic calming initiatives and better driver behavior so we can save lives.” Ramos urged the legislature to pass a bill of hers that would require that crosswalks be scrambled – meaning pedestrians from all directions would be allowed to cross the intersection all at once without the movement of drivers – near school buildings during times of student arrival and dismissal She additionally called for the passage of Sammy’s Law – which would allow large cities in New York to set the speed limit below 20 miles per hour Ramos also said the state “need[s] to have a serious conversation about who is awarded the great responsibility of driving in our neighborhoods.” “It is clear that drivers should be retested frequently as too many deaths have been the result of a failure to yield to pedestrians crossing the street,” the lawmaker said Palomino Arroyo was not the only Western Queens pedestrian to die in the neighborhood on Wednesday A 42-year-old woman died after being struck by a driver behind the wheel of a city Department of Environmental Protection truck around 8:30 a.m The driver allegedly was making a right turn into the southbound lane of 80th Street from 57th Avenue when he hit the woman who was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled the name of Quintus Chen