Joann Ariola NYC Council District 32

08/31/2026

Last week's nice weather brought a lot of people to the Addabbo Bridge, and a lot of people means a lot of garbage! Fortunately, the Center for Employment Opportunities - CEO crew was on top of things, getting out there and working hard to keep the bridge and the entryway to it on both sides clean and looking their best.

CEO's work on the Addabbo Bridge is something that I am especially proud of, because so many people kicked the can on this issue for so long. There were people who truly seemed to believe that keeping this place clean was an impossible effort, but as my incredible partnership with CEO is proving time and again, anything is possible with hard work and dedication.

Thank you, CEO, for everything you do! It is so incredibly appreciated.

08/30/2026

🇺🇸 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟑𝟒𝟑 - 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭. 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐒.𝐎.𝐂 🇺🇸

You knew that Patrick Waters was on duty if there was a phenomenal amount of coffee brewing in the firehouse kitchen. Captain Waters, who would have been 45 years old today, always seemed to have a cup of the stuff in his hand.

He was what firemen call "a good fireman," graceful under pressure, passionate about the job and everything it entails -- from battling flames to filing reports (his were always spelled correctly). In 1998, he was on duty at Ladder Company 106 in Queens when the India Street pier collapsed, hurling eight people into the turbulent East River. There was no time to don protective gear; Captain Waters, whose father, Patrick, taught him to swim at the Jersey shore, jumped in and kept a woman afloat until she could be hauled in safely. "That was a great day," remembered Lt. Mike Kenney, a friend, who still has a picture of Captain Waters, soaked and freezing. "Eight people went home to their families that day."

Off duty, Captain Waters coached his sons, 10 and 14, in basketball and hockey and ran their school PTA. On Sept. 11, he was at the Fire Department's medical office, having a routine physical with four firefighters from his hazardous-materials unit, when they heard about the attack. They ran out the door and over the Brooklyn Bridge to the trade center.

"I've never met anybody who loved going to work as much as he did," said his wife, Janice. The coffee was only part of it.

- Published in The New York Times, December 16, 2001.

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My office will continue to remind everyone of the sacrifices that were made by so many on September 11th, 2001, and continue our promise to Never Forget. May all who perished rest in eternal peace. We will continue to honor your memory.

08/30/2026

We are so proud of the work of the Beach 116th Street Merchants Association! From fun neighborhood events to the new paved tree pits, they are working hard to improve your experience on the block. Check out their new website!

Celebrating local commerce, culture, and community on Rockaway's proudest street.

08/30/2026

“Former first ladies spent their time visiting schools and doing charitable work,” Queens City Councilwoman Joann Ariola told The Post. “Being Zohran Mamdani’s wife must be very stressful because this first lady is more interested in vacations than she is in matters that affect New Yorkers.”

Mayor Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji will be flying to Portugal in September to co-host the“Journey through Islamic Calligraphy” retreat, which will be split into two five-day sessions.

08/29/2026

🇺🇸 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟑𝟒𝟑 - 𝐋𝐭. 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚, 𝐋𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝟓 🇺🇸

When Lt. Michael Warchola was a child in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, his grandmother brought British tabloid newspapers into the house. Paging through the tales of three-headed babies and ichthyological anthropomorphism, he developed a passion for reading and a flair for the bizarre.

He parlayed his appetite for books into a teaching certificate, and he joined the New York Fire Department in 1977, after five years on the waiting list. "It was dangerous, but it was a good job," said his father, Michael Warchola. It also helped pay for his trips to the strange and historical sites he read about.

As he neared retirement, Lieutenant Warchola, 51, who was divorced, devoted more time to tending his garden at his home in Middle Village, Queens, where he made elaborate drawings of Venus flytraps, but he kept a Godzilla poster on his wall.

The attack of Sept. 11 spread his name around the world, as it did those of many other victims. One who noticed the name was Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda of Slovakia, and when he came here recently to run in the New York Marathon, he sought out Lieutenant Warchola's older brother Denis, who was only vaguely aware of the family's central European ancestry. Mr. Dzurinda took home a picture of Lieutenant Warchola and held it aloft during a television appearance.

"Everybody in the country saw my brother's picture," Denis Warchola said.

The brother, a retired firefighter himself, had a chance for the most intimate of farewells. After his brother was dead, "I got to put my hands on my brother's arm."

- Published in The New York Times, December 20, 2001.

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My office will continue to remind everyone of the sacrifices that were made by so many on September 11th, 2001, and continue our promise to Never Forget. May all who perished rest in eternal peace. We will continue to honor your memory.

08/28/2026

🇺🇸 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟑𝟒𝟑 - 𝐅𝐅 𝐉𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐳, 𝐋𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝟗 🇺🇸

Jeffrey Walz and his wife were told they could not have a child, so when they had Bradley, he was something of a miracle to them. Mr. Walz doted on the boy, and made sure he did something special with his son every Thursday, his day off from Ladder 9, Engine 33 - the zoo, a museum, a baseball game, an afternoon in the park.

Mr. Walz, 37, grew up in Staten Island and lived in Tuckahoe, N.Y. He was the son of a fireman, and it was as a fireman that he met his wife, Rani. She was at a Halloween party in the East Village that was so good that the Fire Department was called, and when Mr. Walz arrived and saw her in costume, they posed for a photo together, naturally. "I was dressed as a Dalmatian," she said. She sent it to him, with her number.

Bradley, now 3 1/2 and the family's "little linebacker," has begun to resemble his father in small ways. He's big, like his father, and to his mother's frustration, he has picked up her husband's habit of separating his peanut butter sandwiches from his jelly sandwiches ‹ never together.

And Bradley has suddenly become interested in his father's profession. "Not until any of this happened," Ms. Walz said, "has my son showed any interest in fire trucks."

- Published in The New York Times, November 4, 2001.

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My office will continue to remind everyone of the sacrifices that were made by so many on September 11th, 2001, and continue our promise to Never Forget. May all who perished rest in eternal peace. We will continue to honor your memory.

08/28/2026

My office was proud to partner with the Woodhaven Business Improvement District for their annual Back to School Giveaway last week!

My Chief of Staff, Phyllis Inserillo , made her way to Jamaica Ave with a trunk full of school supplies generously donated to our office by constituents and local businesses, as well as by Madison Square Garden, Emblem Health, and Con Edison.

Together, we are all working to make sure that the kids of Council District 32 have everything they need to succeed in the coming school year. Thank you for covering this, Queens Chronicle!

The Woodhaven Business Improvement District handed out hundreds of backpacks at its back-to-school event on Aug. 21 at Chase Plaza, near the intersection of Forest Parkway and Jamaica Avenue.“It went

08/28/2026

A big shout out to our amazing Chief of Staff, Phyllis Inserillo, who wrote a poignant guest op/ed in the Rockaway Point News regarding 9/11. “Don’t Just Say the Words. Live Them” 🇺🇸🙏

08/27/2026

🇺🇸 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟑𝟒𝟑 - 𝐋𝐭. 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟓 🇺🇸

Nancy Wallace remembers Robert, her husband of 21 years, for his wacky sense of humor and the way he took every little car breakdown in stride. And there were many. "We put three engines in it, and two trannies," she said of the family's Jeep Wagoneer. "Half the time we didn't make it to where we were going."

She remembers him trudging through the snow to buy baby aspirin when the family was stuck in a snowstorm in the early 1980's. And she remembered how after those babies had turned into teenagers, the whole family — their four children and a nephew — slept in the broken-down Wagoneer on the highway because nearby hotels were full.

Lieutenant Wallace, 43, followed his father into firefighting, and was known for pointing at the sky above Engine 205 in Brooklyn Heights, just to get people to look up, too. "My family used to tease him," Mrs. Wallace recalled, "and he'd say, 'No, I'm going off to fight fires and save the people of New York.' "We'd say, 'Oh, get outta here,' and he'd say, 'I'm going to go fight fires and save the people of New York.' "

- Published in The New York Times, December 30, 2001.

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My office will continue to remind everyone of the sacrifices that were made by so many on September 11th, 2001, and continue our promise to Never Forget. May all who perished rest in eternal peace. We will continue to honor your memory.

08/27/2026

Yesterday's backpack giveaway in Ozone Park was a great success!! Thank you so much to all of those who generously donated to this initiative, and thanks also to the kids from Our Lady of Grace sports for helping us pack these schoolbags full of supplies!

Thanks to all of you, we are getting so many students from our area started off right in the coming school year!