By Dee Richard
This week was rather slow for several reasons — the most obvious one being the end of the election process. Although state Sen. Frank Padavan’s (R−Bellerose) and City Councilman James Gennaro’s (D−Fresh Meadows) teams are still counting the paper ballots, it’s going up and down.
As of this moment, Padavan is still ahead by either 500 or 700 plus votes, depending on what day of the week it is. It appears they still have three state Assembly districts to count, all in the 11th Senate District.
The basic political subdivision in the state is the Assembly district. All of the other elected offices, except for those countywide, citywide or statewide, are made up of groupings of election districts from adjoining Assembly districts.
The 11th Senate District is comprised of the 22nd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 29th and 33rd Assembly districts.
If at this point you are confused, you can appreciate the tremendous amount of time and effort required to resolve this situation.
On Monday night, Macy’s in Flushing and the Flushing Business Improvement District held a joint effort in starting off the holiday season at Macy’s with Santa and his elves.
After the initial ceremonies, which included the lighting of Macy’s Holiday Lights, Santa, his elves and many participants in the celebration adjourned to a ballroom in the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, where everyone had a chance to chat with Santa and enjoy food and drink supplied by the Flushing BID.
As everyone left, they were presented with a Flushing BID tote bag crammed with lots of goodies. All the children received a red, plastic fire helmet from the FDNY and EMS.
This has become an annual event open to and enjoyed by all. Congratulations to Mabel Law on a great party to start off the holiday season.
Nothing much happened Tuesday and Wednesday, as everyone was preparing for Turkey Day, otherwise known as Thanksgiving.
At noon on Thanksgiving, we attended the Greek American Homeowners Association Annual Free Thanksgiving Day Dinner in Astoria. The dinner is for all those who either had no place to go to celebrate Thanksgiving or simply could not afford to pay for a Thanksgiving dinner.
This has become an annual event and is greatly appreciated by locals, particularly seniors, many of whom would be alone, lonely and hungry on this otherwise festive holiday season.
A great big thanks to George Alexiou, George Stavroulakis, Peter Pliaks, Serafim Lazos and George Kitsios, all of whom were responsible for making it happen.
Thank you for your continued sharing and caring efforts.
That’s it for this week.
I always look forward to hearing from you with information on people, parties or politics or gossip.
I also like receiving your voice mail at 718−767−6484, faxes at 718−746−0066 and e−mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Till next week, Dee.
