Caption Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani

 

Sure it's a doctored photo made by his fans but I think this will come back to haunt him. 

Another four years of Queens Crap and beyond

PIX News 

 New York City voters approved ballot proposals 2, 3, and 4, which are aimed at fast-tracking affordable housing developments, according to the Associated Press.

Over 50% of New York City renters and around 45% of homeowners pay more than 30% of their yearly salary toward housing, according to the Yes on Affordable Housing Coalition.

Proposition 2 creates two alternatives to the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), the seven-month process for determining how land is used. Not all land in the city goes through ULURP, but zoning changes like affordable housing “must go through public review and approval,” according to the Department of City Planning.

The proposition, which would fast-track affordable housing applications at the City Planning Commission (CPC) or Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA), effectively removes the City Council from the review process.

 Publicly financed affordable housing projects will now be subject to a 90-day review by the BSA, rather than the seven-month process. The CPC will review applications from the 12 communities with the lowest affordable housing rates in New York City within 30 to 45 days.

 Proposition 3 is meant to simplify the approval for smaller infrastructure projects by also keeping the City Council out of the review process. It would create an Expedited Land Use Review Procedure (ELURP), which would involve a 90-day review from the local community board, borough president, and CPC.

 

Proposition 4 establishes the Affordable Housing Appeals Board. Currently, the City Council has the final say in affordable housing projects, with only the mayor able to veto. The new board will have the power to veto the City Council. The borough presidents, City Council speaker, and mayor will all be on the board.

Advocates argue that removing the City Council from the process will help create more affordable, smaller housing quickly, especially in neighborhoods that lack it. Councilmembers, however, say that removing them from the process will give developers too much power and take away theirs.

 

Zopacalypse Now

 

 

In a historic victory, 34-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was projected to become New York City’s 111th mayor on Tuesday night — the first Muslim candidate ever elected to the highest office in America’s largest city.

ABC and NBC called the NYC Mayor’s Race for Mamdani just after 9:35 p.m., with roughly 75% of the vote counted. With almost all precincts now reported, Mamdani had slightly over 50% of the vote (1,012,850) over independent former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who nabbed 41.6% (837,398), according to unofficial results from the city Board of Elections. This election had a historic turnout, with more than 2 million votes cast — the highest number in a mayoral election since 1969. 

Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who remained in the race until the very end despite immense pressure from Cuomo and others to drop out, came in third place with 7.16% (144,123).

Mamdani will take office as mayor on New Year’s Day, succeeding Eric Adams, who dropped out of the general election amid low poll numbers in late September and had recently endorsed Cuomo. The mayor-to-be, currently a Queens Assembly member, will also be the second-youngest mayor in the city’s history; Hugh Grant, who served between 1889 and 1892, was the youngest in history, having entered office at just 31 years of age.

 

 

City of Yes, Drop Dead

 

Queens Chronicle

A family feud over a notable property in Hollis has escalated into a community issue over protecting historical homes in Southeast Queens.

Marie Ashley, who was once the resident at the old Ketcham Farmhouse, a historical home that is at least 180 years old, was evicted from the residence, located at 190-21 Hollis Ave. on Wednesday.

Ashley told the Chronicle that when her parents retired in the 1990s she took responsibility for a home that her mother bought with her eldest sibling and has paid for everything from the mortgage to property taxes to landscaping, maintenance and repairs.

Since living in the home Ashley said she has helped out relatives and friends and friends of friends who faced homelessness and offered them a room at the historical house that her older sister Grace would later also assume responsibility for.

For the past few years she has been trying to landmark the property with its Italianate exterior, which is believed to be one of the two first homes to be built in Hollis. She held a rally to draw awareness about the property on Monday.

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission said that the David and Mary Oakley Ketcham House may merit consideration as an individual city landmark in a letter dated Oct. 2, 2023 to Ashley.

Despite her and her sister’s efforts, her family wants to demolish the home to build six two-family houses.

“You can’t replace this history,” said Ashley at the rally.

The Ketcham family was a prominent family in Queens that helped to develop much of the borough from the 17th to the 20th centuries, according to Ashley, who is also the head of the Hollis Preservation Association.

May Callahan Flores, the original “Gibson Girl” in artist Dana Gibson’s illustrations of the feminine ideal, and her husband, Frederic Flores, are believed to have also lived in the home as early as 1924, added Ashley, who believes the home may also have been a passage on the Underground Railroad.

Paul Graziano, a land preservation expert, said the house is the progenitor for the entire community.

“Architecturally, it is very important, historically it is very important,” said Graziano at the protest. “That it could be demolished tomorrow is extremely concerning.”

Community Board 12 also supports preserving the house, which Ashley says has brought business to the neighborhood via her efforts in working with location scouts who helped get the home featured in commercials, TV shows and movies.

“Community Board 12 ... absolutely supports the designation of the Ketcham Farmhouse,” Graziano said in a letter sent to LPC. “In the 60-year history of the commission, we have 18 individual landmarks and one historic district — Addisleigh Park.”

Members of the Queens County Farm Museum and the Bayside Historical Society were also at the rally.

Ashley told the Chronicle that a review of her and her sister’s financials shows they invested about $1.8 million in the home.

Ashley said she has been pushed out of the home because a different older brother and her father, who obtained a majority share in the house in the 2010s, took her to landlord tenant court over the property due to their desire to make money off it.

She said a developer, which created an LLC with her family members, would create the six two-family homes in exchange for one of the homes later being given to the developer.

Graziano said that under the City of Yes housing directive, the property could end up being a building for about 20 housing units because of the huge lot size and its falling within a transit-oriented development zone.

Ashley said she was not a tenant in the home, that her mother gave her power of attorney for any transactions regarding the home before passing in 2021 and she didn’t learn about the LLC until some time after the funeral when the family was still grieving.

Graziano said he looked into the property records of the home and it appears that Ashley’s father also refinanced the home about three times. He could not be reached.

Ashley said she and her sister were unaware of the refinancing and received no money from it.

 

Preservation protest for the Ketcham House

 

WHO:            Civic and preservation groups, members of Community Board 12, concerned individuals A press conference to explain efforts to preserve the Ketcham House of Hollis, Queens 

WHERE:      190-21 Hollis Avenue, Hollis, Queens 

WHEN:         Monday, August 4, 11am 190-21 Hollis Avenue AKA the Ketcham Farmhouse is one of the most significant remaining mid-19th century farmhouses still standing in New York City. 

The building, which is at least 180 years old, is in excellent condition, with much of its original vernacular Italianate exterior details intact.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has already determined that “the David & Mary Oakley Ketcham House may merit consideration as an individual New York City Landmark” as per correspondence dated October 2, 2023

This is due to both the extant architectural expression of the exterior of the building and its siting in the landscape; and the direct connection to David Ketcham (also spelled Ketchum) and the Ketcham family, one of the most important in the development and governance of Queens County from the 17th to 20th centuries, who purchased the building and farm in 1849. 

As early as 1924, the original “Gibson Girl” May Callahan Flores and her husband, Frederic Flores, a well-known local builder who constructed several houses with his brother Charles in what is now the Douglaston Historic District, may have lived in the Ketcham Farmhouse; by 1933, they had definitively purchased it and lived their until her death in 1953. The property did not change hands again until 1967.

 Since Marie and Grace Ann Ashley’s tenure at the Ketcham Farmhouse began in 1991, their efforts to save and restore the building and its grounds have been impressive, resulting in the interest shown by the Landmarks Preservation Commission as previously stated. The designation of the Ketcham Farmhouse as a local individual landmark is crucial to the interpretation of Hollis, New York from its inception to the present day. 

It is – literally – one of the most important historic buildings if not the most important historic building still standing and, if demolished, would result in a permanent loss to the citizens of Hollis, Jamaica, Queens County and New York City. More history here:theketchamhouse.

This house just happens to be in right at the end of the zone of the Jamaica Neighborhood Plan rezoning that's currently in the early phase for approval for developing higher residential buildings. Or as I like to call it "The Jamaica Of Yes"-JQ LLC

Rogue parking company reimagines and colonizes the curbs

 

South ozone Park 152nd Ave from 129th street to 124th street all streets affected by this long-term parking lot company parking customers vehicles out side of their lots onto the street. 

 ARB parking lot located 128–20 152nd Avenue. park AC, which has since changed its name to Apex JFK parking. ARB parking lot was exposed by CBS News in June 2023 and February 2024 they are operating these lots without licenses however, even with the news exposing them. it still continues every time there is a holiday and during the summer months.

 And when these lots run out of room inside they flood the streets with customers vehicles they will even park them blocks away. They don’t care. if you look at there reviews on Google, you will see nothing but negativity on these two parking lots who are both affiliated with one another 

 Another problem with these parking lot companies they speed through the streets here recklessly with their company van not even paying attention looking at their phones they blow stop signs and speed through a school zone.

 It seems to be falling on deaf ears, no matter who you complain to. Nothing is being done.

What happened to the DOT's curb enthusiasm and passion against parked vehicles? Or is that only in areas where the urbanism lobbyists and their owners and donors live?