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Partners & Affiliates: WBID Hosts Jamaica Avenue Cleanup
QUEENS CHAMBER PARTNERS & AFFILIATES
82ND STREET PARTNERSHIP
37-06 82nd Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Executive Director: Leslie Ramos 718.335.9421 82ndstreet.org QUICK GLANCE: Budget of $224,000 with more than 200 businesses under its umbrella. The district is on 82nd Street from 37th Avenue to Baxter Avenue. The board meets quarterly with the annual meeting in June.
There are free immigration services every Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 71-29 Roosevelt Avenue. All services are free, confidential and open to any member of the community. Some of the services include DACA, TPS and document replacement and renewal. Call (212) 652-2071 with any questions.
BAYSIDE VILLAGE BID
213-33 39th Avenue, Bayside, NY 11361 Executive Director: Christine Siletti 718.423.2434 info@baysidevillagebid.com QUICK GLANCE: Budget of $218,000 and over 350 members. Founded in 2007, the BID includes commercial property owners and residents on Bell Boulevard between 35th Avenue and Northern Boulevard, as well as a block east and west on 41st Avenue.
BAYSIDE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION
41-16 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY 11361 President: Ed Probst Vice President: Judith Limpert 718.229.2277 info@baysideba.com baysideba.com
Founded in 2007, the BID includes commercial property owners and residents on Bell Boulevard between 35th Avenue and Northern Boulevard, as well as a block east and west on 41st Avenue.
BUSINESS CENTER FOR NEW AMERICANS (BCNA)
78-27 37 Avenue, Jackson Heights, NY 11372 Business Development: Tshering Gurung 347.730.6468 tgurung@nycbcna.org QUICK GLANCE: Since 1997, BCNA has been serving New York City entrepreneurs. BCNA is an approved Small Business Administration Intermediary Lender and a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). BCNA’s Microloan program is the cornerstone of its services. They provide small business loans and microloans to business owners who are not able to obtain loans from traditional lenders.
FOREST HILLS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
PO Box 751123, Forest Hills, NY 11375 President: Leslie Brown 718.268.6565 FHChamber11375@gmail.com FHChamber@aol.com QUICK GLANCE: Re-formed in 1995, the group has over 225 members. Chamber meetings are held on the last Wednesday of the month at 9 a.m. at the West Side Tennis Club, 1 Tennis Place, in Forest Hills.
GATEWAY JFK
Executive Director: Scott Grimm-Lyon 516.730.3400 info@GatewayJFK.org GatewayJFK.org QUICK GLANCE: Formerly the Greater JFK Industrial BID and founded in 2016, the group seeks to provide support to the off-airport air cargo and services district through supplemental services and improvements, technical and professional services for its members, and advocacy and administration.
GREATER FLUSHING CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
39-01 Main Street, Suite 511, Flushing NY 11354 Executive Director: John Choe john@flushingchamber.nyc 646.783.8985 flushingchamber.nyc QUICK GLANCE: Founded in 2014 and representing over 200 businesses.
GREATER JAMAICA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
90-04 161st Street, Jamaica, NY 11432 President: Hope Knight 718.291.0282 gjdc.org QUICK GLANCE: Founded in 1967, the group has 75 members. GJDC’s work expands economic opportunity and improves quality of life for the ethnically and economically diverse residents of Jamaica and for the region at large, which benefits from rational, well-planned, and sustainable metropolitan growth.
84-01 Jamaica Avenue, Woodhaven NY 11421 718.805.0202 gwdcbid@hotmail.com woodhavenbid.com QUICK GLANCE: Budget of $257,000 with more than 350 businesses under its umbrella on Jamaica Avenue from Dexter Court to 100th Street. They are providing free benches for store owners along Jamaica Avenue. They also provide 2.5 and 5 percent home improvement loans.
JAMAICA CENTER BID
161-10 Jamaica Avenue, Suite 419 Jamaica, NY 11432 Executive Director: Jennifer Furioli 718.526.2422 jamaica.nyc @JamCenterBID (Twitter) @jamcenterbid (Instagram) @Jamaica Center BID (Facebook) QUICK GLANCE:Founded in 1979, the Jamaica Center BID serves over 400 businesses on Jamaica Avenue between Sutphin Boulevard and 169th Street. With a budget of over $1 million, the BID’s goal is to promote and maintain Downtown Jamaica as a thriving business hub and an enjoyable destination to shop, work, live and visit.
JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
P.O. Box 300687, Jamaica, NY 11430 Executive Director: Clorinda Antonucci President: Al DePhillips Vice President: Joseph Morra JFKCoCExec@gmail.com jfkairportchamberofcommerce.org QUICK GLANCE: Founded in 1978, the group has over 200 members. The chamber was chartered in 1978 by a group of business people in and around JFK Airport. It is the only airport in the nation to have its own Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber seeks to create an environment in which members of the business community can work together to enhance the growth, well being and economic development of the airport community and its aviation industry.
LONG ISLAND CITY PARTNERSHIP
President: Elizabeth Lusskin 718.786.5300 longislandcityqueens.com
Founded in 1979, the Long Island City Partnership advocates for economic development that benefits LIC’s industrial, commercial, cultural and residential sectors. The goal is to attract new businesses to the neighborhood, retain those already here, welcome new residents and visitors, and promote a vibrant and authentic mixed-use community.
QUEENS CHAMBER PARTNERS & AFFILIATES
The LIC Partnership operates the LIC Business Improvement District and the LIC Industrial Business Zone.
MASPETH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BY SARA KREVOY
More than 30 volunteers joined ranks with the Woodhaven Business Improvement District (BID) recently for a community cleanup event on Jamaica Avenue.
The team worked its way down Woodhaven’s main commercial corridor, clearing the sidewalk and picking up litter that has been piling up particularly high during the pandemic. In total, they collected 25 bags of trash.
Raquel Olivares, executive director of the Woodhaven BID, says there has been a longtime issue with illegal dumping in the neighborhood causing corner receptacles to fill up quickly with residential garbage, but this year conditions on Jamaica Avenue have taken a turn for the worse.
With the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) budget slashed by $106 million, the city’s garbage collection services have been severely impacted. At the end of July, CBS reported a 60 percent reduction in pickup from public litter
P.O. Box 780265, Maspeth, NY 11378 President: David Daraio 718.335.1300 maspethchamberofcommerce.org QUICK GLANCE: Founded in 1953, they have
MASPETH INDUSTRIAL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION (MIBA)
BOC: 96-11 40th Road, Corona, NY 11368 Coordinator: Quincy Ely-Cate 718.205.3773 qelycate@bocnet.org
BID MOBILIZES VOLS TO CLEAN JAMAICA AVE
120 members and a budget of $115,000. baskets as a result of financial constraints faced by DSNY, which includes halting collection on Sundays.
Olivares explained the BID sends people to clean in front of businesses five days a week. They leave the trash bags on the curb, and with less frequency of collection, the garbage sits on the street for long periods of time, usually adjacent to the spaces restaurants have set up for outdoor dining.
This creates an unpleasant experience for diners, which could cause further harm to alreadystruggling eateries.
“The whole COVID-19 situation pretty much killed our businesses,” she noted. “Now more than ever it is important that we have a clean, inviting and vibrant avenue, so that these businesses can start to recover.”
On Saturday, the BID also tackled another issue that has been plaguing Jamaica Avenue as of late: rapid and excessive graffiti.
The organization hired power washers to erase tags from storefronts and the walls of businesses along the corridor, a practice that has now become an expensive routine since the city also cut its “Graffiti Free NYC” initiative, which provided no-cost removal to property owners.
Local elected officials, including councilmen Robert Holden and Eric Ulrich, as well as Assemblyman Mike Miller, have become involved with sanitation efforts, says Olivares, but cleanup events like the one this weekend are critical to making a lasting impact on the streets of Woodhaven.
“The goal is to bring people from the neighborhood together,” she said, “to send a message to people about how important it is to battle this situation as a community.”
In particular, Olivares was impressed by the large turnout of young people from the neighborhood who volunteered.
“It’s important to show them that we can all play a part in keeping the community clean,” she said.
