Councilman Tony Avella is officially in the clear now:Judge dismisses '05 ticket for Avella's swimming pool
Case Against Avella's Pool Is Dead In Water
Pool Violation Sunk By Judge
Blow up an extra inner tube, Tony - Crappy will be right over!
Photo from City Hall News
13 comments:
Forget the pool. Did you know that Tony Avella has two families living in his basement and another in his garage?
I'm not so sure I'm happy with this whole outcome. While I applaud the vast majority of Tony's projects and fights, I'm thinking that he really should've just gone ahead, pled guilty, and eventually move the pool. Why? Because there is a law on the books that states you have to keep the pool 5 feet from the property line. Tony tried a couple of defenses:
1. The pool was already there when he bought the house,
2. He claims "no one" knows about this law,
3. He feels the law is unreasonable,
4. DOB inspectors never actually measured the distance from the property line.
The only one that really works is #4. And since DOB inspectors do not go out with surveys in hand, they really don't know exactly where the property lines are. You can't tell by the fences, they could be installed anywhere.
He should've just decided to move the pool instead of fighting this one.
I don't agree with you analysis. Interesting how there were enough inpectors in 2005 to send one out to look at something so trivial. In the meantime, people have been dying on construction sites, developers are getting away with building bigger than what's allowed, and the whole damn city is suffering, because of the lack of building code enforcement and not enough inspectors. I fail to see how an above ground pool is a buildings department issue anyway. It's not a permanent structure or in any way a building!
The fact that the ticket was dismissed proves that Tony was right in fighting it.
Lemme ask youse.
You're a property owner, right? You want some guy's pool SMACK DAB right against your land? Avella's a pretty beefy guy. Can you imagine the wall of water that drowns your petunias when he belly flops into his over-sized tub?
There are ridiculous laws all over the place.
In Florida, women may be fined for falling asleep under a hair dryer, as can the salon owner. In Nebraska, if a child burps during church, his parent may be arrested.
Obviously any enforcement of these laws would amount to nothing but persecution and harrassment. The pool rule isn't as ridiculous, but writing Tony a ticket for it was also just a form of harassment and a gross waste of DOB's time given the real problems they should be cracking down on.
I'm glad the judge realized that.
George: Are you from Brooklyn? Because if you are I have a real problem with that because I only date Queens guys (except those from Little Neck, I have to draw the line somewhere).
Please see my new ad in the Queens Tribune.
Hey 'anonymous'...
Please don't cite those ridiculous laws to compare something like what Mr. Avella was cited for. It weakens your argument an awful lot. As a property owner, I'm glad there are certain laws out there. Not having my neighbor's pool right up against my fence is probably a result of someone either having common courtesy, or someone looked up the law.
I had a pool put in two years ago, and although I don't have a real big backyard, I stayed with the 5' rule.
George & Trixie - you two haven't hooked up yet? Sheez, what's takin so long??
Trixie, I've been looking for your ad in the Tribune for months now. Where the @#*% is this masterpiece? Does it have your photo?
[Hey Crapper, whatever happened to your posting the letter that mentions the Tribune editor, Brian "Riff-Raff" Rafferty?...we are waiting with baited breath!]
Whatever the outcome or varying opinions on this matter...........remember that it's no mere coincidence that DOB's "exquisite" sense of timing is in question in slapping Avella with a violation right on the heels of his strong criticism of DOB's poor performance record!
Yeah....h-m-m-m-m....am I right on this?
Who cares about HIS pool? Avella is connected to the Parkside Group. Case closed!
Connection to "Parkside" may, indeed, turn out to be Tony's dark side !
But don't jump to conclusions.....let's wait and see !
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