Monday, May 14, 2007

Clearview Crap

A 1-family house surrounded by lush greenery on a corner lot next to the Clearview Expressway in Bayside? We can't be having that.
Now that's more like it. Let's take a closer look.

207-01 & 207-03 42nd Avenue

A myriad of complaints; only 1 ECB violation.

Thank goodness they came to their senses, removed the trees and put a concrete pad in its place. Notice that now even the street trees are gone.
Now we have a "clear view" of both the front and side. These are supposedly two 2-family homes. Those must be some pretty large families...

6 comments:

verdi said...

This is plain ugly shit-on-a-stick development!

Don' try to convince us that it's a "Good Humor" bar!

Anonymous said...

A blight on the neighborhood. This is the type of thing that makes long-time residents finally decide to move out.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm let me guess.

Paperboard for walls, furnaces undersized for the space they need to heat, thermal gain in summer from the giant south-facing windows would overwhelm the airconditioning.

The developers sweep in, building the grandest looking house for as little as possible. There's no oversight by an architect or house buyer so the developers are free to cut corners all over the place. What do they care? They all live somewhere else. They, and their firms, won't be around to sue after a few years when the problems start showing.

Another alarming aspect is energy usage. These houses aren't designed with any nod to the local climate. If siting a particular house means that for the front door to face the street the giant wall of glass has to face north, well then that's what they do. Any heating or cooling is accomplished by sheer brute force of furnaces and air conditioners. As I pointed out in another post, old houses built before the days of air conditioning and central heating, were designed to maximize thermal management without these things and they're beautiful houses, all built before we had the space age materials and computer modeling we have now. We're using our technology as an excuse, not a tool, for responsible energy use. So many people buy these houses just being barely able to furnish them. What will happen as energy costs continue to rise?

Aesthetically, these houses say nothing, add nothing, to the culture in which they live. They're melanges of architectural styles, taking cues from styles long abandoned even in their home cultures and countries. They're a false nostalgia, revealing nothing but the social insecurities of the buyers.

McMansions are built to appeal to people who have no sense of taste save that if it looks expensive, it must be high-class.
Friggin Idiots. Take it back 30 years - these would be the same people who went out and bought a Ford Granada.

Anonymous said...

anonymous states....

The pre-construction satelite view of this property reveals numerous public curbside trees now missing. Were the neighbors sleeping when this happened? No one questioned the removal of public trees? If someone was polluting their waters or fowling the air then someone would've complained. Trees function to provide fresh water and clean air, add beauty to the neighborhood and increase property values among a long list of other benefits and services. Do trees really have no vlaue in this culture? In comparison to our European counterparts, we're still in the stoneage when it comes to environmental and quality of life concerns. This developer should be arrested as well as his neighbors.

grvsmth said...

Sounds like that neighborhood needs a good Lorax.

Anonymous said...

i lived on this block for 16 years. it is such a shame what they did to a beautiful peace of land

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