Four stabbed near Astoria club

An altercation that ended with the stabbing of four men comes as little surprise to Astoria residents, who say the club near which the incident took place is a hotbed of late-night trouble.
Nonetheless, safety is not a major concern in Astoria, local residents maintain.
At approximately 3 a.m. Sunday, June 10, police responded to a reported stabbing outside Club Fashion at 3216 Steinway Street, where a dispute had arisen.
The victims, all Hispanic males, left the scene prior to the arrival of police and sought treatment at Elmhurst General Hospital. One of the men, 31, was released with minor lacerations, while three others, 31, 32 and 37, were admitted and listed in stable condition.
Ramon Badillo, an Astoria resident and manager of Basurero, a club located directly across the street from Club Fashion, said bar fights are common there.
“They’ve had problems before,” said Badillo. “Drunken people coming out, making noise,” he explained.
“At night I see a lot of fighting,” said Gazy Salam, who owns a magazine stand next to Basurero.
“There’s always trouble,” added one business owner, who remained anonymous. “People are always fighting, every night.”
However, if such incidents are commonplace, City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. never got the message.
“Recently it had never been a trouble spot,” said Vallone, who chairs the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. “It was not a location that anyone had complained about to me. But we may have to rethink things now.”
Security at clubs like Club Fashion can be increased if safety becomes a concern, assured Vallone.
“If there are problems at a club, a police monitor is assigned which can institute any type of safety measure necessary,” Vallone said. “It can be an I.D. scanner, stronger security, just about anything. These are all potential improvements. There’s always a necessity for security …You don’t want to have a club that has one bouncer for 200 people.”
Nevertheless, for all the fighting area residents reported seeing outside Club Fashion, confidence in the neighborhood’s general safety remains strong, and the potential for crime to have a negative impact on local businesses is not a major concern.
“We have a lot of security around here,” said Badillo. “I don’t think the people who did this lived around here. This is one of the main business streets in Queens, and I don’t think it will affect our business … they stay on their side of the street, we stay on ours.”
“Most of the time, this neighborhood is fine,” said Salam. “Maybe some kids come and steal my candy every once in awhile, but I feel safe. I’ve lived here four or five years.”
“As soon as they open at night, we close,” said one local businessperson. “We never see them.”
Though three of the injuries were not serious, one of the men, 37, who received stab wounds to the neck and chest, had been listed in critical condition before being declared stable on Monday, June 11.
No arrests have been made in the ongoing investigation, and information regarding possible suspects has been slow to develop, police said.