Monday, June 25, 2007

From supermarket to supercrap

Today's featured crap is located on the north side of Northern Boulevard between 150th Street and 150th Place:

Before: a car dealership (& illegal supermarket?)

After: 15 separate addresses each containing at least 1 store and 4 housing units. 60 total dwelling units.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is one of the ugliest buildings I've ever seen!

Anonymous said...

Is "Supercrap" faster than a speeding bullet? Able to leap tall buildings?

Look its a bird, no its a plane, no its just another bland ugly people warehouse.

Anonymous said...

grew up 3 blocks away...
that site was Monahan Ford's
showroom, service and
car lot for decades

Anonymous said...

before it was a car dealership - monahan ford -- you can see it from the satellite -- but yep it is fugly .

lots of guys hang outside in the morning looking for the day labor work. lovely neighborhood addition.

verdi said...

Correction:

This was originally an automobile dealership....."Monahan Ford".

It appears, however, that a getaway car is sorely needed for one to escape from a prolonged stay in this forbidding looking penitentiary !

Anonymous said...

We heard stories (???) that the original builder declared bankruptcy (in the middle of completing the job) after putting up the steel framing of this eyesore....all debts were forgiven (?)......and a new company was formed (out of the old one???) to then complete this architectural atrocity !

In other words ......we citizens (ultimately paid indirectly) for the builders steel work and other materials !

Nice !!!

Eventually the bankruptcy laws were changed and this sort of thing can't happen anymore (???) !!!!

H-m-m-m-m !!!

Anonymous said...

Old man Monahan must be rolling over in his grave!

Anonymous said...

I think the supermarket complaints belong to Han Yang (Former King Kullen) on the next block. I agree with everyone, this is a butt ugly building!

Anonymous said...

Now, here's a site Johnny Liu should suggest to the School Construction Authority and leave the Home Depot alone! Or maybe the "developer" was a contributor to Liu's campaign.

grvsmth said...

I'm sorry, I still don't get it. This is uglier than the car dealership?

I haven't been to this block, but I'd imagine that it's nicer to walk down now that there's several individual stores (that people might want to patronize more than every few years) and residences, right?

Is the problem just that it's not a good enough looking building?

Queens Crapper said...

Yes, it is uglier than the car dealership, and the point is that there are dozens more families where there weren't any before, with no improvements in transportation, infrastructure, services...

Anonymous said...

There don't seem to be many tenants other than 2 stores that have, so far, occupied the building !

Anonymous said...

When this building was first going up the builder or real estate agent put up a sign that read, "only 5 units left" (something like that) !

What a joke ! I don't think that even 3 units have been rented (or bought) all these years later ! There must be something wrong with this project !!!!

Anonymous said...

What a shame. That was such a nice area. I had a buddy in Flushing High who lived on that block, but on the 35th Avenue side. I spent many great times in his family's home during the 70's. I used to wait for the bus in front of Monahan Ford and "window shop" till the bus came along. I past there not too long ago, nothing is left. Almost every house I remember, Monahan Ford and the Amber Lantern Restaurant are all gone. This change is not an improvement.

Anonymous said...

While downtown Flushing has become occupied by Taiwanese and some mainland Chinese .....this eastern portion has been staked out by Koreans !

Note, also, the proliferation of their "churches" !

Anonymous said...

Looks like another fire trap.

Anonymous said...

Just why is it relevant the ethnicity of the people living in Flushing? Ugly buildings are going up all over NYC. And you are all on crack if you would rather have a car dealership next to you rather than a residential/commercial building, even if it is ugly!

Anonymous said...

Because....
the current "ethnicity" of Flushing is partially (or mainly??) responsible for the frenzied pace of speculative real estate over development which in turn has downgraded a once thriving well balanced middle class community !

It has been replaced with overpriced "real estate junk", filth, stench, overcrowding, an increase in illegal activity of various categories (check the police and FBI statistics on this) ad infinitum !

Anonymous said...

Monahan Ford was more than just a car dealership. It was a family owned business. Monahan Ford supported many community groups and church functions. They were an active part of the Flushing "community".

Anonymous said...

The ethnicity of the people in Flushing is irrelevant to the problems you discuss. There is frenzied development all over NYC and people of ALL ethnicities are driving it.

Flushing has become one of the great economic centers of NYC. That is not a downgrade unless you consider a ghost town with boarded up stores, which is what Flushing was becoming in the 70s and 80s, somehow attractive and desirable. Your statement reminds me of the Yogi Berra quote about the restaurant that no one goes to anymore because it's always busy.

Also, before you start blaming the ethnicities in Flushing for increased crime, you should look at the NYPD's Crimestat numbers for the 109th and 111th Pcts, the two police stations covering Flushing. You will see that crime has declined significantly from 1990. In fact, Flushing is one of the safer communities in NYC. You can find these stats at:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/chfdept/cs109pct.pdf
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/chfdept/cs111pct.pdf

Like with most bigots, I don't think the truth will matter to you in your revisionist view of Flushing. But I think the truth will matter to most of the rational people reading this blog.

Some free advice -- try not hating for a while, maybe you will lose some weight, lower your blood pressure and make some friends.

Maybe you will even discover that some of the people in those "ethnicities" in Flushing have hopes and dreams similar to yours -- to do better for themselves and their families and to make positive contributions to the world. You may even discover most people in those "ethnicities" bought their homes to live in, not for speculation.

Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

You are the one who is writing revisionist history and are (most likely) the closet-multiple-culture-racist here . (My weight and blood pressure are just fine and so are my powers of unbiased observation....thanks for your concern) .

Flushing was never "BLIGHTED" or to become your mythically conceived "ghost town" .

This was nothing less than a public relations manufactured condition!

In this case by those heavily vested in Flushing( the Caucasian....if you will permit me to say old time real estate holders and their obliging cohorts).

They plotted to seize upon an opportunity to pump up the value of their failing empires by gouging Asian real estate investors from outside the USA .

The original businesses that were leaving (after the end of the 1970s) were closing because most of the people who started them (after WW II ?) were retiring , and as a result, businesses would be turning over in a normal process .

These businesses would have been replaced with a more varied ethnic composition that maybe would have included some additional African American Russian, Indian, Latino, Armenian etc. businesses !

But the game plan was to eliminate people of color in the re-designing of th future Flushing as a MONO-CULTURAL Asian (excluding for the most part Southeast Asians) NOT the multicultural PR spin that's always being promoted !

So what do we really have existing here...... Asian discrimination and bigotry against the lower classes or people of color ?

Now...."anonymous poster".....you'd better go check your blood pressure and drop about 70 lbs.....maybe even get your eyes checked and your brain's logic board tuned up .
Most readers aren't buying your line of BS because they know better and your "sales talk" just ain't up to snuff !

Anonymous said...

To the poster who stated "Flushing has become one of the great economic centers of NYC. That is not a downgrade unless you consider a ghost town with boarded up stores, which is what Flushing was becoming in the 70s and 80s, somehow attractive and desirable."

YES inded, boarded up stores. Like those at the north-west corner of Main Street and Sanford Avenue OR those at the nothwest corner of 41st Road and Main Street? Both locations were torched, fire bombed, burned to the ground. And who acquired the property? Tommy (the torch) Huang and Lung Fong (one of the Seven Giants) Chen.

"Ghost town" Bullshit! Maybe "ghost shadows town" is more appropriate.

Anonymous said...

Don't just check the general crime stats of the 109th & 111th Precincts.....check the more detailed FBI stats !

While you're at it .....what are the ethnicity of the perps involved ?

Hasn't there been a large increase in Asian on Asian crime since the early 1980s?

For instance the FBI raided a home recently of an Asian perp who was part of a human trafficking ring in east Flushing !

Or, how about the more recent raids conducted by several law enforcement agencies working in tangent of about 10 Korean bars and clubs, resulting in 3 arrests and, I believe, all businesses had serious violations ! It made the papers.....you couldn't have missed it !

But then....things like these doesn't fit your skewed agenda for sanitizing the appearance of conditions in Flushing.....does it?

This type graphic picture isn't exactly what the Flushing Chamber of Commerce had in mind !

Anonymous said...

Yes.....I remember the case of the "Renaissance Cafe" located on 154thStreet n/w Northern Blv'd .

Remember when (I believe it was a Korean) club was shut down because the owner was promoting prostitution by forcing a woman (or women) to become a sex slave in order to pay off the fee for smuggling her into the USA by her "snake-head" ? !!!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Insider,

Anyone can read a newspaper story about a few crimes and then generalize. But the NYPD stats show significant decreases in crime over the last few decades. You haven't provided any evidence (I provided the NYPD stats -- where are your FBI stats?) supporting your argument. I can pull arguments out my butt also, but that's how 2nd graders argue, not adults (we use facts).

I don't have to sanitize the image of Flushing. Flushing is a desirable community because of its good schools, access to transportation and relative safety. If Flushing was such a dump, people wouldn't be paying top dollar to live here. You sound like someone who doesn't even live here.

If you're willing to do some homework and get some offical statistics showing Asians are the root of all evil, I'd be glad to look at it. But you won't because its easier to hide behind your prejudices than to acknowlege the truth.

Anonymous said...

downtown Flushing is filthy. where there is filth, there is crime.

Anonymous said...

NYPD stats are phony. If you people are buying this, then there's a bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell you.

Anonymous said...

The proof of the pudding is in the SMELL, FILTH & CONGESTION !

Anyone who chooses to live in this mono-cultural ghetto has obviously made it their second option because they probably can't afford to live in Manhattan !

Wow... check it out in downtown Flushing on the next hot day in August !

As for Flushing being "a destination of choice" as proclaimed on the BID's puff piece street banners it's really a destination of little choice or a destination of departure !

Flushing is merely an entry portal .....a transportation hub.....for those who first arrive then move on to a better life in greener pastures to northeast environs !!!

Anonymous said...

I DID NOT SAY that Asians are the root of all evil....you need to get an audiometer test as well....you're not hearing me !

They are merely partially responsible in recent years for the increase in larger more underground crimes like (internationally connected) prostitution, immigrant smuggling, gambling rings etc, that DID NOT formerly exist here before !

We're not talking about simple street crimes....these Asian on Asian mega crime operations mainly affect Asians victims !

Let YOU and the readers do your own "homework" I'm not running a school or debating society !

Let all come to their own conclusions after their own careful research "anonymous" and perhaps they'll conclude that I'm speaking with accuracy !

And I'm sorry to have to point out that, maybe, it's you who have your own brand of bigoted agenda to push !

I think that you know what I really mean now.....eh ? !!!

Anonymous said...

Good point "informed insider" !

Didn't law enforcement authorities recently raid an Asian gambling operation(and made arrests) in Flushing (it just made the papers this week) ?

The names of those perps published sounded Asian to me !

Anonymous said...

I am sadden to see queens turning into third world crap.

The place is turning into the movie- Blade runner.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, I am sorry about that ugly building but I am biased about the demise of that disgusting dealership that was Monahan Ford. My wife went in to fix a problem with her new Taurus and they treated her in the most derogatory manner you can imagine. Sexual comments, come-ons, lewd gestures, etc. I went down there and called them all out. Cowards that they were, they said my wife "misunderstood" the f curse and the c word, etc. I am glad that the scum over at Monahan Ford finally were flushed down the toilet where they belonged.