2021 was set to bring in much-needed change and cautious optimism, but for residents of Kew Gardens, New Years was fraught with more of the same violence that has disturbed the neighborhood’s peace over the last number of months, when a triple shooting took place at the Umbrella Hotel on Queens Boulevard, leaving one dead. The homicide was the City’s first of 2021. In the most ironic of realities, other vile criminal acts, including prostitution and drug dealing, continue directly across the street from the Queens Criminal Courthouse and detention center, as well, and Queens Borough Hall at Queens Boulevard and 82nd Avenue.