As Queens Week continues here on NY1, we're focusing some of the people who we are calling the mayors of their communities. Borough Reporter Ruschell Boone sat down with one of the popular mayors of East Elmhurst and the woman she calls her deputy.
It was hard to find just one mayor in East Elmhurst, but Lynda McDougald is one of the more popular ones.
"Because she always gets involved. She's the one that will come over and say, 'Rita, we have a problem,'" said Rita Wareham, who is McDougald's neighbor and deputy mayor.
They often meet to talk about their efforts to tackle quality-of-life issues.
The neighborhood is situated near LaGuardia Airport, and McDougald is known to be a fierce fighter when it comes to parking problems, noise and housing complaints.
Residents often turn to her for help because she's not afraid to speak out. If there's a problem, the local leaders will hear about it.
"Yeah, you can call me, but I'm going to call my Councilwoman, Julissa Ferreras. I'm going to call my district leader, George Dixon or Rita Broome. And I'm going to definitely call my Assemblyman, Jeffrion Aubry," McDougald said.
McDougald lives on the East Elmhurst-Corona border, a once-affluent neighborhood for African-Americans, many of them entertainers like Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. Some were also activists.
McDougald: I saw Malcolm X many a time because we all grew up on 104th Street.
Boone: You would see Malcolm X here?
McDougald: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. His house is right here on 95th Street.
Most of the residents openly fought for a better life, and McDougald was influenced by their sense of civic duty.
"My parents went to the March on Washington. Off we went. When it was time to sit in at the Board of Ed, off we went to the Board of Ed to the sit-ins when we had to protest 145, which we couldn't wait to get a middle school here and then they opened it up and they were selective on who went, and they did not look like me or you."
In 1978, she helped to form the Curtis Street Block Association, and over the years, she has been a member of or the head of more than a dozen groups and organizations.
"There was a time when I just wanted to be on the team, and I think that's how I probably assimilated into this role they are now calling the mayor," she said.