Jackson Heights

There are plenty of mascots representing various schools, universities, sports teams, restaurants, bands, and even roller derby teams across the five boroughs.

Scooter the Holy Cow represents Staten Island’s minor league baseball team the Yankees; the Brooklyn Cyclones have Sandy the Seagull and Pee Wee; Queens University has Boohoo the Bear; NYU’s mascot is a bobcat. Even the real estate Web site Trulia.com rolls out a tall, neon green, Gumby-like, life-size “map marker” at trade shows.  read more »

With retro-sexploitation flick Grindhouse coming to theaters next week, Wednesday's New York Post offers readers a peep inside Queens' longstanding Fair Theatre--"the closest thing around here to those 42nd Street grindhouses of yore. At least until gentrification hits East Elmherst."

Cinema buffs have long marveled that the part-mainstream, part-porno moviehouse, built in 1937, "hasn't been carved up into multiple screens, converted to retail use or torn down like most of its contemporaries."

The Polk, in nearby Jackson Heights, designed by the same architect as the Fair, closed last year as a porn house and will reportedly be torn down.

What's it like inside such a now-rare porno palace? Writer Lou Lumenick pays the $15 admission fee so you don't have to:

The lobby is incredibly dim, but it's hard not to make out the large signs that say "Prostitution and Lewdness are Prohibited"....

To my surprise, the floors aren't sticky--whatever is going on at the Fair, it appears to be notably cleaner than the 42nd Street houses I visited in the early '80's, and odor-free.

In a pair of alcoves that appear to have been carved from a closed adjoining store, no one is watching either of a couple of Star Wars movies.

There appears to be more activity in neighboring rooms; one was showing straight porno, the other gay porno. The latter, I am told, is equipped with private booths for patrons' use.

There are some places, it seems, where even the Post's intrepid grindhouse vet won't boldly go.

- Chris Shott

The Department of Justice will be in town tomorrow watching the polls during voting hours in Brooklyn, Queens and Westchester "to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act," the agency announced today. They'll also be monitoring results in Queens after hours. (They must have read about the bare-knuckled campaigning in Jackson Heights).

The DOJ will also be on the ground in Arizona.

The Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is at 1-800-253-3931. Just in case.

-- Azi Paybarah

When is crime a campaign issue? Maybe when campaign aides have to file police reports.

"We don't have polling numbers, we have Compstat," said State Senator John Sabini of Jackson Heights after a third police report was filed by his campaign.

On August 14, computers from Sabini's campaign office was stolen. On August 17, a 17-year-old girl campaigning for Sabini on 99th Street reported to police that a man approached her, made a lewd/threatening remark, and fled. On August 23, an 18-year-old volunteer was confronted by three men and punched while putting up posters before a debate with his challenger, City Councilman Hiram Monserrate of Corona.

Monserrate, a former police officer, said of the last incident: "As far as I understand, there was provocation on both ends regarding the affixing of posters." Although not accused of any wrongdoing, Monserrate said he would not condone any inappropriate behavior by his campaign workers.

But Moserrate downplayed the significance of reported incidents, saying, "There have been a bunch of incidents. They have vandalized my campaign headquarters. We have pictures of it. We have video of it. I have never engaged in trying to report it." He added, "I think Mr. Sabini's camp has been very sensational in their press releasing." [more comments after the jump]

For some reason, this feels like deja vu all over again.  read more »

In non-criminal news from this race: Sabini is getting endorsed from David Paterson and African-American leaders today, and Monserrate is getting endorsed by Fernando Ferrer, whom many electeds in that district supported for mayor.

-- Azi Paybarah

Jackson Heights has been the front lines in the fight between the Queens Democratic Party and ethnic-driven insurgent candidates. So when it comes time to campaign, there's a mix of styles, which made this latest campaign filing between state Senator John Sabini and his challenger, Councilman Hiram Monserrate, so interesting.

Sabini, along with Councilwoman Helen Sears and Rep. Joseph Crowley represent growing immigrant communities in that part of Queens. For the last few years, several candidates have emerged from those communities to run for office, with a little help from Monserrate. Now, it's his turn.

The campaign filings show an interesting, if not counter-intuitive trend.

Sabini spent $3,300 on a sound truck and banner and Monserrate spent $10,000 printing campaign literature.

Go figure.

-- Azi Paybarah

Senator John Sabini of Jackson Heights, who is in a hard-fought re-election campaign against Hiram Monserrate, has just had two computers stolen from his campaign office, according to a campaign spokesman.

"We're going to have to be a lot more careful with how we store our data," Sabini's spokesman, Shams Tarek, told me.

According to Tarek, campaign workers discovered the theft this morning around 9:30 and called the police. Tarek said the place was not ransacked and nothing else was stolen. Just two computers.

"It's really suspicious, but we can't make assumptions who did this. John's been a campaigner for 14 years, and this never happened. He had a city council office across the street [from the campaign office] for 10 years and this never happened," Tarek said.

Two years ago, when Sabini ran against a candidate who was supported by Hiram Monserrate, one of Sabini's care tires was slashed.

Next Wednesday [time corrected], Sabini and Monserrate are meeting face to face for a debate. -- Azi Paybarah

In the morning, Joe Crowley meets with local immigration advocates and service providers in Jackson Heights, just before New York University's Center on Law & Security hosts a conference on presidential powers at the NYU School of Law, with keynote speaker John Dean.

In the evening, Libertarians meet up in Brooklyn, but Bill Weld will be out in the Rockaways speaking to area Republicans.

—Nicole Brydson

When the going gets tough, the tough get...flaks. In response to the lead story that Ben and I wrote for last week's Observer ("Local Insurgents: 'Islamic Thinkers' Menace Gay N.Y."), the Islamic Thinkers Society, a group of gay-bashing Muslim fundamentalists in Jackson Heights, have decided to project a kindler, gentler self-image with the power of PR. Here's a recent excerpt from the group's password-protected online forum:

"Insh'Allah a new team will be formed within the Islamic Thinkers Society that will refute false allegations, propaganda, false beliefs and ideas that are being spread by the kuffar [Ed.: 'unbelievers'] and the people of misguidance [Ed.: 'reporters']...This is just an idea that a few brothers from ITS and other non-violent organizations came up with..."

Not a bad plan, though it may take a few dozen frenzied flaks to explain the group's avowedly non-violent Bin Laden boosterism, their affection for animated images of stuff blowing up, and slogans like "Your Terrorists Are Our Heroes." But wait! Somebody already has. At the end of his proposal, the group's intrepid PR planner shared a favorite favorite quotation. I doubt that it will make the group's official media kit:

"I would love to be killed in Allah's cause and then be brought back to life, and then be killed and then again be brought back to life, and then be killed."

Kumbaya, baby! Kumbaya. But...

Inspiring words aside, you can't really blame the brothers of ITS for trying to burnish their brand. They've fallen victim to a recent spate of really bad press. On the same day our article ran (oh! the pain of a weekly deadline), The New York Times published a story tying the ITS to Al-Muhajiroun, a notorious group of British extremists. A week later, the Fox News Channel aired another report, which unearthed a bunch of unsubstantiated Internet rumours to connect the group with Al Qaeda.  read more »

And the branding campaign has already started with a scintillating screed: Observing the Observer.