...coming to you live from Kew Gardens Hills, this seemingly steroid-engorged rowhouse at 77th Avenue and 138th Street was originally the same dimensions as the one to its right. Much of Kew Gardens Hills was built with these types of rowhouses in the 1940s and 50s, which feature landscaped green space in the front yard with parking on an alley to the rear. The corner house had a 15' wide garden, which has now been completely built on. Notice the roofline and setbacks and how they don't match up with the rest of the block. This area, zoned R4 (as is much of Queens), is a perfect example of why new zones need to be created to deal with one-family rowhouses. The Kew Gardens Hills Civic Association and the Queens Civic Congress are currently lobbying the Department of City Planning to create a new zone.
6 comments:
We need to downzone the entire borough of Queens as soon as possible.
That being said, before we begin, we must put in our arsenal the weapons to fight the clubhouse and newspapers.
The downzoning effort must be accomplished ASAP, or our Queens neighborhoods (and other parts of the city for that matter) will have no uniformity or character whatsoever. There will only be clues to a once well-maintained community.
CITY PLANNING: PUT YOUR WHEELS IN MOTION!!!!!!!
Extending this rowhouse to the curb was the equivalent of putting your rear end to your neighbor in every sense. This reads greed! Remember the Ten Commandments? "Honor Your Neighbor As Thy Self"
I remember from my childhood what a beautiful neighborhood this was. What a joy it must be now, to have owned and lived in one of those lovely rowhouses for years, only to have one of your neighboring homes all of a sudden turn into this gargantuan cellblock-with-dormers. Don't you also get the sense that whatever buyer moves into this monstrosity will also make a wonderfully considerate and community-minded neighbor?
The reason we see these types of construction, which is incidentally around the corner from my house, is that we're allowing people of other nations into our country. These people think that they can do whatever they want to and that our laws/rules and regulations don't apply to them. And the worst of it all is that we don't say a word because we don't want to offend and/or be politically incorrect. We have become a nation of ostriches always sticking our heads in the sand to avoid issues. We need to speak out more to our elected officials and if they don't listen vote them out during the next election.
I totally agree. I have found that people coming here from other countries are accepted and helped to assimilate only to have them then disregard our way of living.
I have also seen in the neighborhood concrete brick walls being built on the front lawns of row houses, totally ruining the look and feel of the neighborhood.
This now is the first I've seen in KGH. I have noticed that in Forest Hills, some have bought 2 homes and torn them down in order to build one massive house on 2 lots. They have also rebuilt homes so that the home now has no yard at all, front or back..
The feeling of Queens is being changed. Our officials need to get on the ball and get zoning passed to stop this quickly.
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