Ozone Park added to Queens’ COVID yellow zone following positive test spike

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Ozone Park is now included in the state’s yellow zone after a spike in the positive COVID test rate. Photo by Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

By David Brand

New York state has added Ozone Park to Queens’ yellow COVID precautionary zone after a rise in positive COVID-19 test rates over the past two weeks. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the increasing positive test rates in the neighborhood prompted the new designation, even as rates fell elsewhere in Queens. Cuomo on Wednesday removed school and business restrictions inside cluster zones in Central Queens and Far Rockaway. 

“We are also adjusting the Queens map to add in the Ozone Park neighborhood, which has seen an uptick in cases,” he said. “So, Ozone Park becomes a yellow zone and that is what it looks like.”

Cuomo and state COVID-19 Task Force member Gareth Rhodes said the state could not point to a specific reason for the increase in positive cases in the neighborhood, except that it was located near neighborhoods already included in the state’s watch list. The existing yellow zone was redrawn to include Ozone Park, he said. There was no known super-spreader event, Rhodes said.

A large swath of the borough is now classified as a yellow “buffer” zone in the state’s three-tiered restriction system, where different colors apply to different sets of rules.

Inside red “cluster” zones, schools and non-essential businesses were forced to close for two weeks, while gatherings inside houses of worship were capped at 10 people. Inside orange “warning” zones surrounding the clusters, some nonessential businesses were forced to close and capacity in houses of worship was capped at 25 people.

In the Central Queens cluster zone, concentrated in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, the rate is now about 2.5 percent, down from about 4.7 percent Oct. 6, Cuomo said. In the Far Rockaway cluster zone, the rate dropped from 3.7 percent to 1.8 percent. 

Cuomo said COVID test positivity rates had dropped below 3 percent for 10 consecutive days inside both locations, allowing the state to loosen restrictions. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday praised efforts to drive down COVID-19 cases in Central Queens. 

The state’s addition of Ozone Park to the yellow zone means the Department of Health and contract tracing corps will focus more resources in the area, de Blasio said.

“We'll get expanded outreach and testing into that area and we'll keep a close eye,” de Blasio said. “But overall, the situation in Queens we've seen some really good progress.”

The neighborhood lost a popular same-day testing site two weeks ago, the Queens Chronicle reported. Local leaders and Council candidates have called on the city and state to establish additional testing in Ozone Park.

Two weeks ago I fought to keep our #OzonePark testing center open at the library. I told @NYCHealthSystem, @NYCMayor and @NYGovCuomo that COVID would travel here and sadly I was right. We need a testing center back now. People need to have access to rapid testing.

— Felicia Singh for City Council (@FSingh_NYC) October 21, 2020

Veteran strategist Austin Shafran seeks Northeast Queens Council seat after 2013 primary loss

Veteran strategist Austin Shafran is running for the city council in Northeast Queens’ District 19. Photo courtesy of Shafran

By David Brand

Seven years after narrowly losing the Democratic primary for a Northeast Queens council seat, political strategist Austin Shafran says he is applying the lessons he learned from that race to run a more district-focused campaign this time around.

Shafran, a Bayside native and a vice president at the progressive consulting firm Metropolitan Public Strategies, is one of five Democratic candidates vying to replace term-limited Councilmember Paul Vallone in Queens’ District 19. In 2013, Shafran lost to Vallone by 194 votes in the Democratic primary to represent Douglaston, Bayside, College Point, Little Neck and other nearby neighborhoods.

After nearly 20 years in city and state politics, Shafran says he has honed in on the issues that most affect the low-density district he grew up in, particularly when it comes to land use and development. He also backs several policies that would bolster small businesses and support families affected by the COVID crisis.

“It’s a neighborhood driven ideology that is grounded in the life experiences that I’ve gone through with my family and that I’ve seen a lot of families like ours go through in these really scary moments,” Shafran said.

He opposes the proposed elimination of single-family zoning, which would reshape future development in District 19, where more than half of the land is zoned for single homes. In addition, he said he will push for a property tax cap for homeowners that rent their one- and two- family homes so that landlords can set rent at more affordable prices.

Shafran supports a citywide special permit requirement for new hotels that he says will allow communities to have more influence on local development and preserve existing hotels. That proposal may resonate with Queens residents who frequently complain about a perception that developers rush hotel construction not to attract visitors, but to contract with the city at a hefty price to house homeless New Yorkers.

That policy would also ensure that hotel developers hire union labor, said Shafran, who received significant union support during his 2013 Council bid.

Shafran said his policy platform is also shaped by the “unprecedented challenges due to COVID and the collateral damage which has affected our economy, schools, businesses, seniors, and every aspect of our daily lives.”

He backs commercial rent stabilization and said he would propose legislation to establish a six-month sales tax “holiday” on purchases of $500 or less at businesses with fewer than 10 full-time employees.

The sales tax suspension “would encourage people to shop locally and infuse cash into these mom and pop businesses, while reducing a regressive tax on consumers,” he said. “The less you make, the more sales tax affects you when you go to buy sneakers or jeans for your kid.”

He also advocates for a law to install cameras on school bus stop arms  — the bars that extend when a bus stops. Under his plan, anyone filmed passing a stopped school bus would get ticketed automatically, protecting kids while generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the city, he said.

Shafran said his outspokenness on broader citywide issues, like ending stop and frisk, distracted voters from his local proposals and allowed his competitors to frame him as a candidate with his eyes outside the district in 2013. He is putting his hometown goals front and center this election season, he said.

Shafran grew up in Bayside and attended public schools before heading to St. Francis Prep. He stayed close to home to get his undergraduate degree, opting to enroll at Queens College, where he played baseball. 

Though he has lived most of his life in District 19, he split time between Manhattan and Bayside over the past few years while his wife, now the communications director to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, went to Cardozo Law School. He returned full-time to Bayside earlier this year. 

Shafran has worked with the Empire State Development and spent about eight months as legislative director for the Working Families Party before joining Metropolitan Public Strategies in 2014. In that role, he consults progressive candidates and organizations throughout New York.

Shafran entered politics soon after graduating, serving as an aide to Rep. Gary Ackerman and then-Councilmember David Weprin. He moved on to become spokesperson and strategist for the New York State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and the Senate’s Democratic Conference.

He now finds himself in the position of running against a candidate he once campaigned for in 2010 with the DSCC, ex-State Sen. Tony Avella. Four years later, Shafran worked on John Liu’s campaign to oust Avella, who had by then joined the Independent Democratic Conference and begun caucusing with Senate Republicans, tilting the balance of power in the legislature. Liu defeated Avella in the 2018 Democratic primary.

A significant amount of money will likely pour into the crowded race among high-profile candidates, though that is not yet reflected in financial disclosure reports.

Shafran filed his campaign with the Board of Elections after the July 15 financial reporting deadline. 

Two of the four other candidates in the race have reported their fundraising totals. Richard Lee, the budget director in the Queens Borough President’s Office, raised $32,450 as of July 15. Avella raised $14,996.

The two other Democratic candidates include Adriana Aviles, a retired NYPD officer and member of the local Community Education Council, and Nabaraj KC, a real estate agent and local Rotary Club president. 

Vickie Paladino, a local conservative leader and a state senate candidate in 2018, is running on the Republican side.