The owners of St. Saviour's have been reissued a demolition permit. Sano Demolition of College Point will handle the demolition. Here's a snippet of their illustrious history:Unsafe Demolition of 72 Huron Street
Basically Developer Ofir Kahati hired SANO demolition who would show up with a cube truck filled with guys who would get out and work on demolishing the building. There was no scaffolding, no harnesses, no protection for the workers or adjacent properties.
What's that? You thought the church would be moved? Well, Pinky's money turned out to be fake.
29 comments:
I cannot think of a photo the best exemplifies the state of preservation in NYC than the one of St Saviours on this thread.
My friends, there is no excuse for this. It is time to tear things down and and start all over at the beginning. The current system is rotten to the core and can never be saved.
If Jane Jacobs or Jackie Onassis could see us now. They would weep.
As I....
It will be interesting to see Serf Maltese, Marge Markey, Elizabeth Crowley, Dennis Gallagher, Nydia Velazquez and Helen Marshall lay down in front of the bulldozers. Stop laughing - these are very preservation minded people deep down inside. I just know it.
This once again exemplifies the vast difference
between how things are done in the east
and, conversely, how things are done
out in the western portion of Queens.
In the privileged leafy environs of northeast Queens,
the politicians, urban planners, preservation groups
AND EVEN OUR BOROUGH PRESIDENT
throw their full support behind
calendering, landmarking and preserving ON SITE
i.e. the Cornell Farm in Little Neck
(as well as an 11th hour emergency extension
of the Douglaston historic district....
already in progress) !
While on the other hand,
in the under served red lined neighborhoods
along our western shores, Beep Marshall
and the pols can't seem to scrounge up
the measly $6,000,000. purchase price
which would save historic St. Saviour's
from demolition!
They similarly sit idly by while Astoria,
Dutch Kills and Hunters Point
lose their deserving historic sites on a daily basis.
How is it that there's money for buying
the Cornell farmhouse but there's none
left in the cookie jar to buy St. Saviour's?
Both sites deserve preservation!
It seems that we need a tough marshal
(like Wyatt Earp) to EQUALLY enforce the law
in Queens' "wild west"
not a crooked sellout like Helen Marshall!
If Saint Saviour's were a Vodka Martini, or a lapdance whore, Gallagher would be first to fight to get money to purchase it, and he would have persisted in that fight just as he does to fight to save his dwarf ass to preserve his perversions.
Where are all the elected officials? Are they supporting Gallagher?
I don't want 6 million of my tax dollars spent to buy a building that easily could have been saved by allowing some houses to be built around it. I hope the community activists that made a mess of this situation look in the mirror and learn from this and act more professionally and mature in the future. They will get better results that way.
Hey, quit your bellyaching - western Queens gets Queensmarks and people getting serious over really important stuff like landmarking the Moore-Jackson Cemetary, a swimming pool, and a fire house.
Oh yes, Sohmer Piano - but only because they can see it from Manhattan.
Want things to change? Need some outside help?
Go to HDC.
With a chuckle they will tell you your next step is to convince your community board and city councilperson.
With a chuckle...
The Landmarks Law must be overturned.
It discriminates against communities of immigrants and working class people.
Will someone help us put this atrocity out if its misery? It is unfit to govern the good people of New York.
Immigrant advocacy group? Developer? Someone?
Dont knock the press and mainline preservatinists.
They all said they will help - by sending a photographer over and making a big stink -- after it is demolished.
Assholes.
"I don't want 6 million of my tax dollars spent to buy a building that easily could have been saved by allowing some houses to be built around it."
Are we still beating this tired drum? Does anyone really believe that the building was going to be saved if houses were built around it? If that were the case, why was the developer basically allowing it to be demolished by neglect up until the time the zoning change was pulled if they were going to put money back into fixing it up? WAKE UP MORONS!!!
It appears that our "favorite"pink bastard
is busy posting again,
and this time he's writing his own material.
He hasn't been able to afford Parkside's high prices
to put words in his mouth.
Those expensive legal fees come first.
Rape doesn't come for free either Dennis.
Wouldn't it have been a hell of a lot cheaper
to pay some classy call girl
to get your rocks off
(better make that pebbles)!
It appears that our "favorite"pink bastard
is busy posting again,
and this time he's writing his own material.
----------------------------------
I guess a loyal reader has spotted a spike in misspellings and bad grammer.
I don't want 6 million of my tax dollars spent to buy a building that easily could have been saved by allowing some houses to be built around it.
----------
And its ok to do this in eastern Queens at the Cornell Farm? Can someone answer this? Beep Marshall? Douglaston folks? Queens Co Farm Museum? HDC?
Anyone .... ?
Where are all the elected officials? Are they supporting Gallagher?
------------
Yes, they work for the 'firm' not for you and I.
Next question.
It seems to me that the QUEENS FARM MUSEUM
already has ONE LOCATION
and was bidding to add the KLEIN FARM
to their roster of real estate holdings.
NOW it's the CORNELL FARM
they're they're salivating over.
That's what my father would have called
walking around with 3 loaves of bread under your arm while you neighbor HAS NONE !
They once saved a windmill in Douglas Manor
by moving it to APEC.
Most of it burned shortly afterwards
(in other words altered beyond recognition)
and then it was promptly rebuilt.
The moral of the story is:
If St. Saviour's had been located in northeast Queens
it would have already been saved
by the "swells" and their political powerhouses!
I hope the historic districts council and like minded groups will take a lesson from this and put together some sort of forum for next years elections.
With most council members term limited it seems to me a chance to get people in office who work for the community, not parkside types.
There should be debates organized by pro-downzoning advocates. Almost all the people in Queens support across the board downzoning, extensive landmarking, yet the elected officials support the opposite.
When you think of it, these issuses have been barely raised in city elections, so you can hardly even call the pols hypocrites, since they were never even challenged to take a position in the first place.
Look at Bloomberg, he won overwhelmingly in Queens both times, the sort of people who read this blog voted overwhelmingly for him and put him in office. Yet, does anyone recall hearing him give his opinion on down-zoning or landmarking in Queens? I don't, in fact I don't recall him pronouncing that there will be 1 million new people, until after he was safely re-elected the second time.
The time to start planning for this is now.
Let St. Saviors motivate people in Queens like Penn Station motivated Jane Jacobs and Jackie.
Re: Queens farm museum;
Why all the anger over northeast Queens? They are being crapped all over too, just take a drive around. Landmarking and preservation are not a zero-sum game. Not enough is being done there or here.
This is really sad. What's worse, for me personally, is that SANO construction is involved. Ugh, those guys are pieces of shit and have played a huge part in destroying College Point.
Bloomberg has always stated his pro-development positions, including his plans for LIC, Willets Point, Jamaica, Flushing, downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg, etc. As you pointed out, he was re-elected overwhelmingly. The majority of Queens is not anti-development as you say.
Why all the anger over northeast Queens?
---------------
As a mobster client of mine once said, "lets stop dicking around."
Because you are in a different legue than the rest of Queens. Also, for most of the 20th century, you were the cultural center of the boro, and take a look at it today - particularly our sorry record in preservation.
Enough? The behavior of the Farm Museum in not letting St Savious know what is up their sleve is just inexcusable.
But, then agian, my business card is not a bi-fold with names and names and name.
I hope the historic districts council and like minded groups will take a lesson from this and put together some sort of forum for next years elections
------------
Why should they? Secure behind their battlements of landmark designation they can talk about 'managed' growth of a million people - in your and my neighborhood.
Memo: you guys must read Poe's 'Masque of the Red Death.'
"the majority in Queens is not anti-development, as you say"
Let's put this theory to the test by having pro-preservation groups organize debates clearly focusing on the issue.
The difficulty here has been organization, developers think citywide, citizens think locally, which is why I proposed an umbrella group like historic districts council taking the lead.
To say that the people support this development orgy because they voted for Bloomberg is ridiculous.
People voted for Bloomberg because he saturated the airwaves with tens of millions in feel good advertising, none of which I recall mentioning a pro- development agenda and his opponents were swamped.
Would Bloomberg be mayor if not for spending all that money? I doubt it.
Pinky was caught trafficking in porno out of a catholic school yet was subsequently elected twice to the city council.
That does not mean people support trafficking in porn, it means his opponents were not organized and effective in publicizing his agenda and opposing him.
Did anyone think Pinky would be out there consorting with the parkside group the way he has?
Did anyone even hear of the parkside group seven years ago when he was elected?
Groups who want to preserve our heritage and quality of life have got to get organized.
The real estate interest groups certainly are.
The difficulty here has been organization, developers think citywide, citizens think locally, which is why I proposed an umbrella group like historic districts council taking the lead.
-----------
They HAD their chance - and things have just gotten worse.
We need a new group from the grassroots made of all communities, people of all backgronds, not just the limp wristed self appointed privledged.
HDC isn't part of the solution,
THEY'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM!
A bunch of snooty elitists
with their own agenda just like the LPC!
"Why all the anger over northeast Queens?"
Step out of your little enclave and travel to
places like Astoria , Middle Village, Maspeth,
Forest Hills, Dutch Kills, Glendale,
Hunters Point, Hallets Cove, Elmhurst
if you dare.
There you'll see some mortal wounds inflicted
that'll make your tony little nabes
look like they've just sustained minor scratches.
Your hair will stand on end!
Spoiled little northeast Queens brats ....
forever complaining about hang nails
while our arms are being amputated
out here in western Queens!
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE
16 story plus buildings like
Queens West and a dozen high rise hotels
rammed up your backyards ?
Catch our drift now?
one reason why northeast queens is sustaining less damage from developers is that its located too far away from Manhattan for yuppies to want to live there. (Yuppies are lazy bast*rds and 10 miles to us is like 10,000 to them.)
one reason why northeast queens is sustaining less damage from developers is that its located too far away from Manhattan for yuppies to want to live there. (Yuppies are lazy bast*rds and 10 miles to us is like 10,000 to them.)
-------------
Nothing to do with it. They discriminate against western Queens by downzoning forcing development into the west.
Downzoning, and landmarking, discriminates against poor people and people of color.
Spot downzoning should be looked into and if this be the case, it should be overturned.
Post a Comment