🌿 Halletts Point Earns LEED Platinum — First in Astoria, Second-Largest in the World

🚪 A 261-Year-Old Door's Revolutionary War Scar Is Coming Home to Astoria

🏠 NYC's Rent Freeze Battle Just Landed in Queens

🎬 Frank Sinatra School of the Arts Hosts Its 19th Student Film Festival This Friday

Tuesday · May 12 🍽

Queens Taste 2026, 6–9 pm @ Sound River Studios, 4-40 44th Dr., LIC — 50+ restaurants, unlimited sips & bites, waterfront views. Tickets $125/$200 for two.

Friday · May 15 🎬

Frank Sinatra School of the Arts — 19th Annual Student Film Festival — 6 pm underclassmen showcase & 8 pm senior films @ Tony Bennett Concert Hall, 35-12 35th Ave, Astoria. Free to attend.

Saturday · May 16 + Sunday · May 17 🛣

31st Avenue Open Street — Car-free Saturdays & Sundays through Dec 14. Maker markets, live music, local vendors, food trucks.

Sunday · May 17 🎪

48th Annual Astoria Spring Festival, 11 am–6 pm on 31st St between Ditmars Blvd and 21st Ave — local vendors, makers, food, and kids' amusement rides.

Queens Craft Brigade — Season Kickoff, 12–5 pm @ Katch Astoria, 31-19 Newtown Ave — Free. Local Queens makers and artists launching their 8th season.

⭐ Coming Up / Mark Your Calendar

May 23–24 · Bohemian Hall Czech & Slovak Festival, noon–9:30 pm — Authentic food, traditional music & dance, raffles, and cultural programming.

Thu, May 28 · Astoria Film Festival Opening Night @ Heart of Gold, 7–11 pm — Kicks off a 3-day festival at Kaufman Astoria Studios, May 28–31.

Thu, Jun 4 – Mon, Jun 9 · Astoria Park Carnival — Five-day run under the RFK Bridge at Astoria Park. Free entry; ride tickets $1.50 each.

The two newest towers at Halletts Point — 20 and 30 Halletts Point — have officially achieved LEED Platinum certification, making them the first LEED Platinum development in all of Astoria, and the second-largest LEED Platinum residential project anywhere in the world (trailing only Sven, also a Durst building, in Long Island City).

LEED Platinum is the highest rating a building can earn under the U.S. Green Building Council's sustainability framework, and getting there at this scale required every part of the design and construction process to pull in the same direction. The Halletts Point team diverted 84% of construction waste from landfills, used recycled ground glass pozzolan in the foundations and superstructure to cut embodied carbon by 26%, installed an on-site water filtration plant that recycles 30,000 gallons of water a day, reduced potable water use by 56%, and layered in 3,500 square feet of green roofs for stormwater management.

The two towers, designed by Handel Architects and built by Urban Atelier Group for the Durst Organization, add 647 rental units to the Astoria waterfront along with public green space and a new esplanade with views across the East River to Manhattan. At a moment when Astoria's development conversation is often dominated by affordability and density, Halletts Point's LEED Platinum certification is a different kind of milestone — one that puts the neighborhood on the global map for sustainable residential construction.

👉 Full story on QNS

Somewhere in Queens, a 261-year-old Dutch-style door — eight feet tall, five feet wide, and weighing at least 400 pounds — has been sitting under a tarp in storage for nearly a decade. Starting in June, it finally goes back on display. And the story carved into it is exactly the kind of history Astoria rarely gets to tell.

The door was commissioned in 1765 by Colonel Jacob Blackwell, whose family owned a stone house near what is now 37th Avenue and Vernon Boulevard. When the Revolution came, Blackwell was a true believer: he joined the New York Provincial Congress, mustered the Newtown Militia, and put his family at real risk. When the British Army took Queens after the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776, a British officer hacked the King's Broad Arrow into his front door — a mark declaring him a traitor and his property forfeit to the Crown. Blackwell died under house arrest in 1780, his health broken by four years of occupation.

The door survived demolition in 1901, passed through a lumber yard, found its way to the Brooklyn Museum, and was later displayed at the Greater Astoria Historical Society — until the society lost its space in 2018 and the door went back into storage. Queens Ledger's Alan Arichavala brought the full story to light last week, ahead of the door's upcoming display at the Advance Service Mizpah Masonic Lodge for the 250th anniversary of American independence, beginning in June. It's worth the read.

👉 Full story at the Queens Ledger

If you rent in Astoria — and a lot of you do — the Rent Guidelines Board's preliminary vote last Thursday is worth knowing about.

At a packed hearing at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, seven of the nine RGB board members voted in favor of a range of 0 to 2% rent increases on one-year leases and 0 to 4% on two-year leases. That vote doesn't freeze your rent — but it sets up the possibility of a freeze in the final, binding vote on June 25. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who won the mayoral race on a platform that included a rent freeze for the city's roughly one million rent-stabilized apartments, stopped just short of issuing a direct appeal for legal reasons, but his influence on the board's composition was clearly visible in the results.

The hearing drew hundreds of protesters and organizers, chanting and holding signs in what amounted to an early preview of a fight that will run through June. Pro-tenant members tried to guarantee a freeze but were outvoted. Pro-landlord members tried for hikes of 3–8% and also failed. The result, for now: a range wide enough to freeze rents or impose a modest increase, depending on where the board lands in June. Tenant groups said they'd keep showing up to hearings to apply pressure. The final vote is June 25 — if you have a stake in this, now is the time to make your voice heard.

👉 Full coverage at the Queens Ledger

One of Astoria's best free nights out is happening this Friday — and it's made entirely by teenagers.

The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts presents its 19th Annual Student Film Festival this Friday, May 15, starting at 6 pm in the Tony Bennett Concert Hall at 35-12 35th Ave in Astoria. Underclassmen debut their films at 6 pm, with genres ranging from poignant narrative to neo-western. The senior showcase follows at 8 pm — capstone films that students have spent their final year building, exploring personal stories, societal questions, and the kind of ambitious filmmaking that tends to surprise people who haven't been paying attention to what Astoria's youth are making.

Frank Sinatra School of the Arts is a specialized public high school in the heart of Astoria that trains students in film, visual art, drama, vocal music, dance, and instrumental music — and has been sending graduates into the industry for over two decades. The annual festival is free and open to the public. Come see what the next generation of Queens filmmakers has to say.

👉 Event details on QNS

Astoria Insider is inviting local businesses and organizations to be featured in its growing community newsletter.

The platform highlights local news, events and community stories, providing businesses with an opportunity to reach a highly engaged local audience and showcase what they offer.

From restaurants and shops to services and community groups, all are encouraged to participate and share their story with readers across the Astoria and surrounding areas. Don’t own a business? That’s ok… Know of one that should be featured?

Those interested in being featured can reach out to learn more about available opportunities and upcoming editions. Click the button below to feature your business or send an email to [email protected] with your business details and we’ll reach out!