Greatest Achievement

Born and raised in the Clearsprings section of Central Bayside, Tshaka’s roots in the area stretch back to the days when most of Northeast Queens was undeveloped farmland. He lives in a house that has been in his family for generations and has personally presided over the massive transformation of his neighborhood — helping to raise the area up from a state of neglect and near poverty in the 1970s to a place where homes can sell for $1 million today.

“The city ignored us for decades,” Tshaka recalls. “The sidewalk and roadbeds here were the same ones my grandparents walked on way back. I helped turn this place around.”

Community Character

Beyond public resources and services for his once-forgotten area, Tshaka has also wrested something even more elusive from the city: recognition. Two decades ago, he stumbled upon documents that showed that a small park just north of the Flushing Cemetery had been a 19th century burial ground for African and Native Americans.

Today, despite years of opposition, Martin’s Field has been officially recognized as a historic gravesite and will soon undergo an expensive renovation to make it a memorial park. “When this project is completed, it will be the first time the city has recognized the burial site of Africans and Native Americans,” he said. “All the rest have been plowed over, but this one we got back.”

Like so many other crusaders, Tshaka was effective based not only on his tireless dedication, but also on the strength of larger-than-life personality that commands attention. And, he says, it helped to have a little help from on high: “I say it was divinely guided. It was meant for me to find it by a higher authority,” he said. “It was meant for me to correct an egregious wrong.”

Most Outrageous Act

At 73, the outspoken Tshaka has mellowed in his golden years—even if other members of Community Board 11, where he is known for loud antics, might disagree. In the rough and tumble 1970s, however, Tshaka was known for taking matters in his own hands to save his neighborhood from a tyranny of drug dealers and criminals.

There was a time when Tshaka would make tours of the Bayside streets with an axe handle in hand, brandishing it to ward off petty felons who enjoyed free run of area parks and school yards.

“What I did here, it took a personality like mine to do it,” he says.
But he also stood up to the cops when he felt that they weren’t giving his troubled neighborhood a fair shake. “I stood up to the police and I made them patrol this area,” he remembers. “They said, ‘Mr. Mandingo is intimidating the police!’”

–Aaron Rutkoff

Rosemarie Veljak

“I am not one that gives up easily.”

Neighborhood: Whitestone Age: 56 Favorite issue: Quality of life

Rosemarie Veljak has lived in her 20th Avenue home for many years, but when she heard that the Department of Transportation planned to widen her street to accommodate more traffic and stores, she embarked on an adventure she never imagined. Suddenly she was much more than a homeowner, a resident of her block. Through her persistence with politicians, the community boards and members of the DOT, she grew a reputation for being effective and she had become (drum roll please) a community activist.

Greatest Achievement

But Veljak is more than just a community activist, she is a leader among her neighbors. Although she has succeeded in drawing the attention of politicians and the DOT to address possible alternatives to widening her beloved street, Veljak’s greatest achievement might well be organizing and inspiring her entire community to take part in its betterment.

“It started with me trying to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, and then it became a sort of rippling effect and other people started to get involved,” Veljak said.
Originally her neighbors would go to her and tell her this or that was wrong, hoping that Veljak and her seemingly unflappable persistence could get the issue to the politician’s table. But Veljak tells her neighbors that they can do it just like she can and that they should be just as persistent.

“I just try to empower people and tell them that there is nothing special about me,” she said. “If you believe in what you are fighting for then you have to give it your best shot.”
Veljak is more of a guide to her community than anything else, steering them through the murky waters of political dealings.
“I was just trying to protect what was mine, but then I realized it wasn’t just about me, it was about everyone in the community,” she said. “It wasn’t just about the widening of my street, it was about traffic lights on other streets or stores moving in. A lot of people don’t stand up for what they believe in because they feel like they have no voice. I started doing it to protect our block, but I realized it was a lot bigger than that. It was the whole community.”

Community Character

Anyone who fights like Veljak fights the widening of 20th Avenue is (rightfully or wrongfully) considered a character. To most people it might seem even crazy the lengths Veljak goes to prevent such development in her community. Before she got so involved, the rest of the community sat quietly, watching the quality of life in the neighborhood decrease. But now they have a voice and a leader and a feisty one at that.

The word most often used to describe Veljak is “persistent.” She really doesn’t give up on what she believes and as she says, “I don’t answer to politicians, I answer to a higher power, that is the only person I need to be square with.”

This allows Veljak some freedom in her dealings with politicians, she isn’t afraid of them and she knows that they are here to work for the people, in fact, they get paid to work for the community.
“The politicians, they have to be very careful,” she said. “They don’t want to open a can of worms. But I am not one that gives up easily. I just keep pursuing it and pursuing it.”

–Peter Gelling