Flushing BID plans Remonstrance visit

The Flushing Business Improvement District (BID) is already gearing up for the 350th anniversary of the signing of the Remonstrance - the first official document signed in the United States calling for complete religious freedom.
At the recent meeting, BID Board members hinted at upcoming plans, including a visit by someone who has once lived in the White House.
“It’s a very significant event for us in this nation,” said Michael Meyer, who chairs the BID’s subcommittee for Remonstrance planning. “Around 350 years ago, the people of Flushing said to Peter Stuyvesant that we should treat … the Quakers fairly.”
In commemoration, the Remonstrance document will be on display in the Flushing branch of Queens Library in December, and a candlelit walk past historic Flushing sites will be held on December 27 - the historic date of the signing.
“We are helping to educate people as to what the remonstrance is and what it means to people,” said Mabel Law, Executive Director of the Flushing BID. Law explained that the BID recently hired a new marketing director - Alexandra Loh - who will oversee the promotion of both the historic aspects of Flushing, as well as the commercial district, which has been the BID’s focus since its formation in September 2003.
“There is a lot of exciting things that are happening in terms of the BID and marketing the district,” Law said. “Every year we give an update to the members and the community. We acknowledge all of our partners, who had helped us throughout the year.”
The annual meeting, held this year on Thursday, May 10 at the Sheraton LaGuardia East, also is the time for elections.
Voting members re-elected six property owners - Louis Chang, Frank Fan, Christopher Ficalora, James Gerson, Peter Koo, and Michael Meyer - to serve on their Board of Directors for a two-year term from 2007-2009. In addition, four commercial tenants and business owners - Jimmy Ha, Anita Lai, Yee Leung, and Robert Peck - were elected to a one-year term. Fred Fu was elected to a one-year term as a residential tenant.
The BID Board of Directors is comprised of 25 members in total and includes several elected officials and community leaders, who are non-voting members - Gene Kelty, the Community Board 7 Chair; State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky; Myra Baird Herce, Co-Chair of the Flushing Chamber of Commerce; Peter Koo, President of the Flushing Chinese Business Association; Esther Lee, President of the Korean American Association of Flushing and Assemblymember Ellen Young.
Young served as the meetings keynote speaker and talked about her first few months in the State Legislature. In particular, she said she would plans to help even out the gender-gap in pay, citing a statistic that women in the state make 80 cents on the dollar for their male counterparts.
“As the first Asian elected [to the New York State Assembly], I really am learning everyday,” she said.