May 18, 2015 By Jackie Strawbridge
Supporters of Planned Parenthood turned out in Long Island City this morning to cut the ribbon on what will be the organization’s first center in Queens.
A lively crowd of more than 50 people convened at the 21-41 45th Road facility, which is expected to open mid June. There was no sign of protestors.
The opening of the Queens facility represents a milestone for Planned Parenthood since it will now have centers in all five boroughs. The organization estimates that 5,400 of its current patients are Queens residents who are commuting to other boroughs to use its services.
The new facility will offer reproductive health services including abortions, gynecological care, cancer screenings, birth control and health insurance screening and enrollment.
Joan Malin, PPNYC President and CEO, called the new center is “truly transformational for us.”
“We very much see ourselves as [a] partner in meeting the needs of this extraordinarily wonderful place, home to so many languages and new communities,” Malin said. “We want to be part of that experience.”
The facility, which is 14,000 square feet, has been named the Diane L. Max Health Center, after the PPNYC Board Chair, a champion of its construction. Max said she felt it was “essential” to bring services to the diverse and rapidly growing Queens community.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who allocated $750,000 of city funds toward the new center, said, “the borough of Queens is better and safer today because Planned Parenthood is here.”
“This is one of the most beautiful buildings in my district,” he added. “It is so full of light, and air, and color, and it’s really all about hope.”
PPNYC expects that the new center will serve about 17,500 patients per year.
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45 Comments
I thought LIC was in NYC…
I truly feel bad for the people on that block. Especially those who moved in recently and paid a fortune to be there.
It is a little oddly placed on a residential street. But everything in LIC is oddly placed, so what the hell.
But very glad it’s there. “Lifers” opinions often change quickly when it’s their daughter in need of an exam or other assistance.
This has nothing to do with being pro life or pro choice. Stop setting up these nonsense arguments. Frankly, I don’t care what people do with their own lives. Just keep me out of it.
What bothers me is that we have a facility on a residential street that will attract the lowest common denominator to the neighborhood (and that includes the nutty protesters too). All I want is to see my neighborhood get better. Having Planned Parenthood here is a step backward.
If you want to live amongst only people like you, move back to the suburbs, you flaccid penis. In nyc there are all kinds, and there isn’t a “lowest common denominator” particularly when that population includes people of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, likely even your relatives.
Lowest common denomintor? Women who need access to health care? Just because you are poor doesn’t make you anything but poor! Women accessing healthcare are going to do what to you? The people who will cause the problem are the nuts not woman who need healthcare. So you were happy with the construction warehouse? The laundromat? The wood working shop? The chain theater ( all those crazy actor types- you know poor actors who cause trouble because they are poor, don’t deserve to have a theater). Remember this neighborhood is zoned for business also. That street is only half residential. I bet you are a man.
Oar – there are two valid concerns.
The first is that the clinic will attract poor people into the neighborhood. This increases the potential for crime – sorry to burst your bubble, but poverty and crime go hand in hand.
The second, perhaps more important, is this clinic has the potential to attract idiot protesters who will cause even bigger problems.
All in all, what exactly do the residents of this neighborhood gain from the clinic, and is it worth the cost? I would say no.
Everything that JVB doesn’t want in Sunnyside, he puts into Court Square.
Don’t you get it? Putting poor women’s clinics on your quiet street is about hope. Give me a break.
I’d rather not have hope devalue my property.
Welcome to the neighborhood!!!! I will gladly volunteer if necessary. For all you ignorant jerks who don’t like it, tough. It is perfectly located near 4 trains and several buses. The majority of what they do is provide health care for women who don’t have affordable access to it. And if I remember correctly, abortions are still legal in NY state. Just because you may not like it, it does not give you the right to make decisions for other women. It is a decision made between a woman and her doctor.
And herein is the issue. The people most likely to use Planned Parenthood are those who cannot afford other healthcare. Not the demographic I want coming to visit my neighborhood. Perhaps you would like a garbage transfer station near your house too, since it would serve such a valuable social role?
Not sure how abortion falls under the healthcare category when its MURDER.
Less than 2% of what they do is abortions. The rest of the screening and healthcare saves lives. Such short sighted people like you give Christians a bad name. There are many more mothers who are still around to take care of their children because of Planned Parenthood, than those who ended pregnancies.
Right. And I only read Playboy for the interviews.
This is a good thing.
Figures that some of these Midwest transplant douche-bags are pro life
right wing zealots
probably stream fox news all day
get the hell out of nyc
As heterosexual male resident of Court Square, I say welcome to the neighborhood! For the record, Planned Parenthood is a great resource for men’s sexual health (reads: Get your sh!t checked!!), and with construction completed in under a year, well done & bravo!
Welcome! Women need you for cervical and breast cancer screenings as well as birth control and std testing!
All the folks with negative comments please educate yourselves!
Welcome! Folks with such negative comments really must educate themselves on how they actually help women. They offer screenings for cancer, cervical and Breast cancers! Birth control and testing for std’s! They save lives for many who don’t have health ins or the money to afford very expensive tests!
Welcome to the neighborhood, PPNYC! This is a great service to anyone who has ever needed healthcare, including: birth control pills, pregnancy tests, pap smears, abortions, mammograms, emergency contraception, and STI testing. Also, condoms are free!
DISGUSTING. And completely inappropriate for a residential street and neighborhood. This crap should have been on the other side of the bridge- in the projects, where they need it the most. The neighborhood was lied to- abortions were denied at the beginning of the building- and the entire process was conducted very surreptitiously. Not to mention a year+ long annoyance of all residents on the block/street with the constant construction noise, often times on weekends and during the afterhours. I can’t even imagine the hordes of ghetto trash who will descend on this once-quiet and safe street………
Really! Should be on the other side of the bridge in the projects where they need it! Such an awful and disgusting comment You belong to the ignoramuses club of dumb idiots!
I didn’t realize we had red neck racist low lives living in LIC. I can honestly say I hope you get priced out soon and have to move back to Alabama.
You’re an imbecile. It’s ok to haven an open mind, but not if the hole is so big that your brain fell out- as is obviously your case. So good for you not to have to worry about being priced out of this neighborhood so you won’t have to go back where you came from. Some of us have lived MUCH longer in LIC than the hordes of gentrifying a-holes Ike yourself who have descended on this once pleasant and affordable area of the city and destroyed it with your hyper-liberal thinking. You must have married nicely into someone’s money….,,
New York City was founded by the Dutch… the most hyper-liberal people you can get… so guess what, you immoral thick-headed Republicans are the interlopers. Just a little History, though I know you don’t like the truth, or Science… it scares you.
No, I just don’t want a bunch of trashy people causing trouble on the block where I paid a fortune to live. I could give a flying F about the politics of it all.
Sure, like all the Center Boulevard “liberals” would welcome Planned Parenthood and their clients in their neighborhood. Spare me your compassionate, holier-than-thou crap.
[…] Planned Parenthood Cuts Ribbon in Court Square – brand new 14,000 sq ft facility […]
For JS and anyone else who believes that Planned Parenthood is just an abortion clinic, allow me to help you pull your ignorant heads out of your asses. Women, must go to the doctor for annual examinations. Examinations that can run them into the thousands of dollars should they need extra lab work or come back with any abnormal results WITHOUT insurance. Planned Parenthood is a clinic that will charge you a fraction (less than $150) for an annual check up and subsequent follow ups, with top notch doctors and nurses. Planned Parenthood may have saved my life both physically and financially. So, while you are entitled to have your own moral opinion, this organization has saved the lives of thousands of women over the years. You don’t have to like it, but you need to respect it.
Wow.. I was so dump that I had no idea this place does for people. We should have this every block in nyc to replace churches that teach women should close their legs!!!!
Yeah because men have nothing to do with pregnancy.
There’s no escaping the fact that this project is a step backward in improving the neighborhood. I have no strong views on abortion or the work of PP. But the building should have been built someplace else where it would fit in better, not on this residential street.
People on this blog get irate over absolutely everything, so why not this? fact is that 8 out of 10 of PP’s clients are below the poverty level. If someone built another business that attracted this same demographic on Center Boulevard or near Vernon-Jackson, people’s heads would explode.
BRAVO for your response!!! This is exactly it. Completely inappropriate location for this facility- and NO ONE, not a single resident on this street and this area was informed or consulted in advance!!! SHAMEFUL!
More people are up in arms in LIC over people having a drink in a backyard than this place.
This is the only facility in Queens, it makes perfect sense to put it next to the most connected subway station in Queens (Court Square).
Fantastic addition to the neighborhood… unlike JS.
Really? It’s a “fantastic” addition? I really doubt that the thumbs-up numbers are coming from anyone who lives around here.
Really? A Trader Joe’s would be a fantastic addition to the neighborhood. Or many, many other services we need — they would be fantastic. But I’m really struggling to figure out how this place could ever be considered fantastic. Sad, a little depressing? Maybe. Fantastic? Nope.
Oh great an abortion factory is just what we needed in the neighborhood!!!!!!!!!!!!! Baby Killers not welcomed!!!!!!!!!!!
What a ridiculous statement. Abortion accounts for less than 2% of the care Planned Parenthood provides. Idiots not welcomed.
I really doubt that the 37 thumbs-ups (as of 1pm Tuesday) came from anyone in that neighborhood. I wouldn’t want that place on my street either. I guess that makes me an idiot. I’m fine with that.
I live there. Thumbs up.
idiot.