Shut Down Troubled Kew Gardens Hotel, Local Pols Say

KEW GARDENS, QUEENS — Elected officials in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens are pressing the city to shut down a troubled local hotel.

Two months of loud parties, shootings and assaults at the Umbrella Hotel on Queens Boulevard have yet to prompt action by City Hall, state Assembly Member Dan Rosenthal and City Council Member Karen Koslowitz said in a news release Thursday calling for the shutdown.

Meanwhile, they said, they have received hundreds of messages about the hotel from people living in the neighborhood.

"As elected officials, keeping our residents safe is our paramount responsibility," Rosenthal and Koslowitz said in a joint statement Thursday. "The unfolding situation at the Umbrella Hotel threatens not only public safety, but has grave public health repercussions.

"The lack of response from City Hall points to the sad reality that Mayor de Blasio is not taking these concerns seriously."

Though the NYPD has kept officers stationed outside the hotel, a staffer in Rosenthal's office told Patch the police presence has done little in the way of deterrence: His office received complaints of large, loud gatherings at the hotel as recently as Wednesday night.

At an all-hands-on-deck meeting last month about the situation, police officers told attendees that there is only so much they can do without enforcement assistance from other city agencies, whose officials have so far refused requests to step in out of concerns for their safety, Patch previously reported.

Yet the city agencies that could crack down on the hotel and its guests were no-shows at the meeting.

Rosenthal and Koslowitz said that, since then, City Hall officials have yet to provide a "meaningful response."

"Despite near daily conversations with the Mayor’s staff, City Hall has yet to formulate a plan of action," they said.

Asked for comment, the Mayor's Office told Patch to reach out to the NYPD.