We are writing to request your help. Mimi Borda, the owner of Jackson Heights’ only yoga studio, has just announced she needs to close because she cannot get a lease for the space she has rented for three years. 

Mimi has been teaching yoga in Jackson Heights since 2008. Her studio, Mimi For Me Yoga, located at 76-11 37th Ave, in the Queens Pride building, is a vital part of this community. She is so much more than a dedicated community member and small business owner—though that should be enough of a reason to not see her pushed out and unable to find another home because of rising real estate prices. This yoga studio caters to the entire extended Jackson Heights community, drawing students from Woodside, Elmhurst, Corona, Sunnyside, and beyond. It provides a home for a vibrant community that, like yoga itself, knows no boundaries between age, culture, color, gender identity, or language. And yet this community is in immediate threat of being torn out of its home. 

There is no other yoga studio like this in the area. Mimi has given herself and her time to this community, offering free classes in the park during the summer, as well as working with the seniors at the Jewish Center. She was the 2015 recipient of the Best of Queens award for the Best Yoga Studio, and has served as a terrific spokesperson for the Jackson Heights community in numerous publications, as well as a video for the New York Times’ spotlight on our neighborhood. Though technically a for-profit business, Mimi’s efforts to keep prices low and her classes accessible means she runs the studio at a personal loss. It is truly a labor of love from which we all benefit.

We cannot imagine this vibrant community—whose members number in the hundreds, yet still feels intimate—being forced out of its home due to a real estate dispute and the pandemic of rising rents. It would be a tragic loss, and one of the early dominos to fall in what will ultimately result in a dramatically changed neighborhood. 

We are reaching out to you for help!  We sincerely hope you are willing to sign the petition as a way to help Mimi engage in conversation with Jackson Heights Councilman, Daniel Dromm, Heriberto Sanchez Soto, Executive Director for Hispanic Aids Forum (HAF) and Queens Pride House (QPH), from whom she would like to sublease from; and Peter Lam, the landlord of the building, to facilitate some sort of agreement that would allow this big community this tiny bit of 500 square footage in which it can flourish.

Jackson Heights is happier and healthier as a result of this wonderful studio.

Please help Mimi Borda and her beloved community by signing!

Respectfully,

The Mimi for Me Yoga Community