From an HPD press release:
Mayor Bloomberg has fostered a climate that encourages housing construction, including changes to the building and tax codes and an ambitious series of rezonings. Since the Mayor came to office, the City has moved to right the imbalance between population growth and housing construction. Since 2002 permits have been issued for 159,370 housing units, while the population has increased by only around 58,000 households. Continuing these kinds of surpluses is important to our efforts to close the current housing gap and prepare for the city to add another one million people over the next 25 years.
Seventy percent of the permits issued in 2007 were for units in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Thirty percent were for units in Manhattan. Since Mayor Bloomberg came to office seventy-four percent of new housing permits have been in the outer boroughs, compared to only sixty-two percent in the previous three decades. In addition, much of the new construction in the outer boroughs includes market-rate homes affordable to middle-income families.
The 2007 figures show that the number of permits issued for housing units in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens increased from 2006. Manhattan saw 9,520 permits in 2007 versus 8,790 in 2006; Brooklyn saw 10,930 permits in 2007—its highest total ever—compared to 9,191 in 2006; and Queens saw 7,625 permits in 2007—also its highest total ever—up from 7,252 in 2006. While the Bronx and Staten Island saw permit numbers decline, the Bronx still posted the fourth highest total in more than three decades.
89 comments:
Friggan Ringling Bros!!
We have midget mayor, Pinky the clown, Clairol Carol, Katz and all the rest
The only thing different is now the Elephants are minding the peanuts.
Somebody please tell these ass hats to go jump in front of a train. This Boston transplant is just trying to ruin NYC so Boston looks better. F U mayor dip shit.
The Department of Buildings needs a complete overhaul. Hopefully, our next Mayor will see that it gets done. This guy only cares about Manhattan not the boroughs. He has made that perfectly clear.
Quote from DHP "the The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development's (HPD) mission is to promote quality housing and viable neighborhoods for New Yorkers"
...That's BULL MOST THE NEW BUILDINGS DID NOT GO TO NEW YORKERS AND IT's DESTROYED NEIGHBORHOODS OF NEW YORKERS ONE BY ONE !!!!
I walked around 71st and Grand ave (asking where is a gas station) and could not find one person who spoke English for blocks.
Stop building and all these new people wont flee here so easy !!
NYC is going to run out of jobs. There is no more affordable industry space and most these new people are not white collar !
This groth can not be sustained.
The DPH is scam...its really nothing more then mob of appointed devolopment scout's to blockbust select neighborhoods and push real New Yorkers into some museam with all the dead things !!
I love the part in the report about
Mayor Midget's administration undertaking a series of "ambitious re-zonings"....
UP-ZONINGS they mean....of our neighborhoods
to squeeze in more people into these already bloated choked up areas!
Hey, commissar, how about issuing some
building permits for new schools and hospitals to take care of the needs of a growing population
before they arrive?
No, I guess not....
that would be SOUND PLANNING
and nobody can stuff wads of money
under their coat with that kind of sensible system.
Notice how 70+% of the building boom
is occurring in the outer boroughs and only 30+%
is in Manhattan!
I'll bet that Queens winds up being
the prime dumping ground
when those figures are broken down further...
borough by borough.
Yeah!!! Push all you urban rednecks to the midwest where you belong.
Gloomberg's planning for a million new people - the part he left out is that only 10 of those people will be in this country legally.
Thanks, you Boston jackass
Our enemy is overdevelopment, not each other. Bashing new Americans only divides and weakens those fighting overdevelopment. The enemy is developers who don't care about current immigrants or children of immigrants. It's the big developers and their elected cronies who don't care about established communities. Focus your ire on them. I am a committed preservationist, partially because of the human scale of the buildings that have stood the test of time. But I will fight like a demon against anyone who will not recognize my humanity or that of my fellow humans.
"Bashing new Americans only divides and weakens those fighting overdevelopment."
We aren't talking about new Americans. We are talking about those here illegally.
Those who are not here legally are not new americans - they aren't americans at all.
MY COUNTRY MY COUNTRY. WHY DO IMMIGRANTS (LEGAL AND ILLEGAL) NOT ADOPT AMERICA AS THEIR COUNTRY?
THIS IS WHAT PUTS A BEE IN MY BONNETT!
IF AMERICA IS NOT YOUR COUNTRY...GO HOME.
"Those who are not here legally are not new americans - they aren't americans at all."
It sounds like they are more American than you are. If you don't like a country founded and made great by immigrants, then why are you in this country?
More importantly, let's focus on bringing allies into the preservationist community. There are countless neighborhoods being improved by new immigrant communities, and we are stronger if we work with them.
"E Plurbus, Unum" was the original National Motto, agreed upon between Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. It also sounds like a great motto for preservationists. We come from a lot of different backgrounds, and if that phrase was good enough for Ben Franklin, then it should be good enough for us.
We should be working with each other, not against each other.
Are you saying that preservationists should embrace illegal immigration?
This guy sounds like he's been brainwashed by the "diversity" argument. Yes, illegal immigration has done wonders for Queens.
Think about it. This is one of the most pro-immigrant cities in the country. Would you risk your skin by embrassing a group that complains about immigrants? Do you realize how powerful the Caribbean community is? Why risk your real interests by even mentioning immigrants? You will only lose friends among elected officials.
More than that, there is a diverse group opposing over-development. Why risk losing allies by talking about a very unpopular sentiment?
You can feel what you want about the immigrants, but let's focus on the fight at hand.
I absolutely think preservationists should embrace every immigrant.
Do you want to save New York, or do you want to shoot yourself in the foot? Almost every mayoral candidate is getting tons of developer money. How are we going to win that race if alienate much of the voting population?
If you want to complain about immigrants, then start an anti-immigrant blog.
I think you live in La La Land. LEGAL immigrants for the most part, like the majority of citizens, are against illegal aliens jumping the line. They are against overdevelopment and the shoehorning of people who are here illegally into their neighborhoods. Where do you think illegals blend in? Into neighborhoods that contain legal immigrants from the same countries they are from. Which schools do you think are the most overcrowded?
You can't have a real discussion about overdevelopment without touching on illegal aliens, sanctuary cities, etc. If some people get offended, well too bad.
As for preservationists embracing every immigrant, yes, illegal aliens, no.
Here is what this blog is supposed to be about: "A website focused on the overdevelopment and "tweeding" of the borough of Queens in the City of New York." Is there anything about illegal immigrants there?
Luckily, most of the preservationist communities agree with me- even if you con't like immigrants, then it's not the focus of our movement. Call me brainwashed if you like- believe me I have a thick skin- but I hope the readers of this blog realize that anti-immigrant language is not tolerated in most of the New York preservationist communities.
Illegal immigration is the cornerstone of tweeding. I guess you just don't get it.
I think the burden of proof is on you, Queens Crapper. You are the one conflating preservationism and anti-immigrant advocacy.
The burden of proof of what? That illegal aliens are not the same as immigrants? Have you fallen for the tweeding?
Queens preservation policy:
Push the development out of my community and into someone else's.
This is all quite funny. Immigrant, minority and poor communities have always been the first victims of nasty developers. Often one of the main goals of over-development is displacing immigrants, so fighting for preservationism is a natural ally of immigrant communities.
not (publically) taking a stance on either side of the argument, I always wondered why campaigning politicians propose legislation to help illegal immigrants who can't vote, as far as I know. Their fellow compatriots who are here legally also seem to be against their being here, so politicians wouldn't be gaining any votes from them either. Something doesn't add up?
"You can't have a real discussion about overdevelopment without touching on illegal aliens, sanctuary cities, etc. If some people get offended, well too bad."
I have had years of discussions about overdevelopment and illegal aliens never comes up. If somebody brings up anything off topic, I try to bring the discussion back to the task at hand.
Let's ignore whether or not I'm offended. The problem is that you will hurt the cause of preservationism, which is something I care deeply about.
Do you care if your rhetoric works to the advantage of the overdevelopers? Do you care that you are hurting the cause of preservationism?
Do you take offense to the idea that I think you are hurting our cause? Do you really believe in a free exchange of ideas, or do you want to remain unaware of the views of the majority of preservationists who are not anti-immigrant?
Tell Us What Is To Be Proud Of:
the continued blatant abuse of the self-certification process, hand-holding of notorious developers, disregard for enforcement of the building codes and zoning laws, and allowing the destruction of neighborhoods.
Let’s Discuss Some of the Real Issues Here regarding the topic:
“Since 2002 permits have been issued for 159,370 housing units”
A housing unit is a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a group of rooms, or a single room that is occupied (or if vacant, is intended for occupancy) as separate living quarters.
Question: How many of these units remain incomplete and have no certificates of occupancy for unbelievable periods of time? Why do so many of these projects take years to finish subjecting the adjacent property owners to considerable grief and loss of enjoyment of their property? More than a few of these projects are discussed over and over again on this blogspot.
“Since Mayor Bloomberg came to office seventy-four percent of new housing permits have been in the outer boroughs”
Question: How many of these projects were self-certified? What percentages of these projects are associated with Scarano and Huang? Why are they still in business?
“including changes to the building code”
Changes? Avoidable catastrophes and including deaths took place in large part due to self-certification abuses, lack of proper oversight and the blatant disregard for ensuring that safeguards were always in place.
“Continuing these kinds of surpluses (which are probably excess, and may not needed) is important to our efforts (whose efforts please tell us) to close the current housing gap and prepare (or is it practice) for the city to add another one million people over the next 25 years
Perhaps the City’s time would be better spent addressing, re-evaluating and solving the present multitude of problems. The present infrastructure, utilities, sewers, services, schools and teachers are already severly overburdened.
". . . much of the new construction in the outer boroughs includes market-rate homes affordable (reasonably priced, inexpensive - not expensive?) to middle-income families."
Surely, this does not apply in Bayside, parts of Flushing, Douglaston and Little Neck where overdevelopment is rampant. Affordable housing is not a priority of the developers building the million dollar houses and luxury homes in these neighborhoods..
Quote from DHP "the The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development's (HPD) mission is to promote quality (superior, not inferior) housing and viable (practical, doable, not impossible) neighborhoods for New Yorkers"
Much of the housing built by many of the notorious developers are substandard and have been found to be unsafe and not worthy of certificate of occupancy in a number of cases. Unfortunately, unsuspecting and duped buyers become prey for these developer.
But I will fight like a demon against anyone who will not recognize my humanity or that of my fellow humans.
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Oh, then will you come out forcefully on how there are double standards in preservation, something that is all but ignored by the mainstream preservation community?
But I will fight like a demon against anyone who will not recognize my humanity or that of my fellow humans.
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You forget my friend that almost all of us are of immigrant stock, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that you can tell us about the immigrant experience.
When I see my community trashed by people that do not have my standards of cleanliness, my standards of noise, my standards of civic involvment, and the polticains cream in their pants when one of these people enter my community, I will comment freely and frankly.
"I have had years of discussions about overdevelopment and illegal aliens never comes up."
This is why we've gotten nowhere trying to solve the problem. When you have an entire community that lives in shadows, in shadowy housing, then how do you know how many people actually live in your community? How do you plan for services? No one is talking about LEGAL immigrants, we are talking about illegal aliens, who are not "immigrants", they are trespassers. Until you get this straight, admit that this is a major problem that leads to strain on infrastructure, resources and housing, then you will just be banging your head against the wall trying to discuss the subject.
Illegal immigration is the white elephant in the middle of the room that everyone sees, everyone knows is a problem and no one wants to discuss. In a post-9/11 world, this is ridiculous.
How about when 'affordable housing' groups, FROM OUTSIDE MY COMMUNITY, come into my neighborhood pumping for massive development projects, I will protest.
I don't care if the clubhouse wants population groups that can be tweeded shoehorned into my district to maintain control.
I really don't care....
I think the only way to discuss the future of our city, which, by all accounts, we do not want to be a place of Brittneys and Leonas in Manhattan, and Jose and Ngs and Mamamdues in the ourBs, is to frankly bring everything out in the open.
Yes, if someone wants to destroy a community with cheaply made barracks for immigrants, we have to start to ask ourselves why? Is this a good thing? Why should I put up with this if I dont' own a restuarant, building company, or need a nanny?
Does filling up communities with people who are permamently an underclass of dark skins, who sends their money home, who are transient, threaten the future of the tradtional American ideal? What kind of nation are we building?
If you want this a third world county, divided by class and race, or if you think Flushing and Elmhurst are urban ideals, then don't get involved in this discussion. You are probibally a business owner, landlord, or clubhouse hack anyway. Or perhaps someone, such as a social service agency, that profits from the immigrant plight.
But just because the clubhouse and special monied interests says its good, and you put your brain on automatic pilot and buy it, don't think everyone else does.
Remember the motto on this blog - to think, to speak to write.
If you don't like America, then go somewhere else. There are plenty of places where 'certain topics' are forbidden.
Do you really believe in a free exchange of ideas, or do you want to remain unaware of the views of the majority of preservationists who are not anti-immigrant?
Hey nitwit:
How many immigrant barracks are being built in GV, BH, ES, WS?
How many restaurants and nannies are employed in GV, BH, ES, WS?
How many landlords exploiting immigrants live in GV, BH, ES, WS?
Walk along Third Avenue on the East Side in Manhattan. It looks like 1965.
This is the whole problem in preservation - they are no longer in touch with the real NY.
Immigrants ARE discriminated by the mainline preservation community, but in a more subtle fashion:
HOW MANY IMMIGRANTS DO YOU SEE AT A PRESERVATION GATHERING?
HOW MANY COMMUNITIES OF IMMIGRANTS ARE LANDMARKED?
eh?
"When I see my community trashed by people that do not have my standards of cleanliness"
I just want to let you know that this would be considered an offensive statement in many circles in New York. I know that I have different standards than most people on this blog, but I just want to state my observation that most New Yorkers are not angry at immigrants who do not have their papers.
I know many, many, many people who are very concerned at how draconian our immigration laws are. I know many people who suffer under laws that I consider unfair.
I share all of the concerns of overdevelopment of this blog. I am a strident advocate for community control over development issues. So in the name of our shared interest, I implore people on this blog to be more aware of the sensibilities of other New Yorkers.
I'm not saying that you have to agree with me. And I don't really mind inflammatory language, but you should just be aware when something is inflamatory.
"When I see my community trashed by people that do not have my standards of cleanliness"
I just want to let you know that this would be considered an offensive statement in many circles in New York.
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Well, out in the mean streets where I am we have another 'offensive comment'
Tough shit!
I share all of the concerns of overdevelopment of this blog. I am a strident advocate for community control over development issues. So in the name of our shared interest, I implore people on this blog to be more aware of the sensibilities of other New Yorkers.
Is this a certain twit that wants to gain inroads with the mainline preservation community as a sensible young person that can be trusted to negotiate and compromise sensibily.
Hey sonny, the rules have changed in preservation. Your playing with adults here and might get hurt.
If it happens, don't go runnin home to mama. Your've been warned.
There are countless neighborhoods being improved by new immigrant communities, and we are stronger if we work with them.
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I am sorry, but 'improved.' The south Bronx? central Queens? Flatbush?
What was wrong with the people that were there before? Just how are things better?
Why is the lower east side, uppper Manhattan, former immigrant communities, being cleaned out? How about the Queens waterfront - immigrants are being cleaned out there too?
Another urban myth that is not only insulting, but fictitious.
I am always up for a good fight. I have lost many battles, and won a few. I have spent decades fighting certain forms of bigotry, and I will continue to do so.
I used to consider this blog a useful source of information. Now I realize it is full of people who don't even realize how their statements are perceived by most New Yorkers.
I tried to show how the rhetoric on this blog is hurtful to the preservationist movement, but I'm obviously wasting my time.
I will continue to be one of Bloomberg's biggest nightmares. I will continue to fight for community control. I will not waste my time with this blog.
What hurts the preservation movement are traditional preservationists who can't think past writing letters and afraid to address what the real problems are with the movement. The clubhouse wants you to be afraid to mention the word "immigrant" in the same sentence with "problems". That's part of the tweeding process.
When I see my community trashed by people that do not have my standards of cleanliness, my standards of noise, my standards of civic involvment, and the polticains cream in their pants when one of these people enter my community, I will comment freely and frankly.
------
Thanks for your honest and politically incorrect comment. I am sick and tired of listening to that gobbledygook that all cultures are equal and we have to be tolerant of this and that. I'm not saying that American culture with its conspicuous consumption, SUVs and junk food is superior. However, neighborhoods like Ozone Park, Corona, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven are becoming filthier and noisier. What does this suggest about the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS (THEY'RE NOT "NEW AMERICANS" BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT AMERICAN CITIZENS AND MOST OF THEM DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH) inhabiting those places: that their HYGIENE and MANNERS are INFERIOR!
Anyone claiming that the above mentioned neighborhoods are somehow better today than they were 40 years ago has been severely affected by political correctness and diversity brainwashing.
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I walked around 71st and Grand ave (asking where is a gas station) and could not find one person who spoke English for blocks.
----> You should've asked (not axed) in the pizza place on the corner of 69th and Grand, they speak English there. Also I find your experience ironic because there is a sign that says "Maspeth is America" somewhere on Grand ave.
By the way, I am a legal immigrant, from Eastern Europe and I put in a lot of effort to learn English before I immigrated. I think I would've been better off learning Spanish, the new English...
The ignorant anti-immigrant rhetoric found on this blog is a pretense for the bigotry of most of the commenters here, who are embraced by Crapper.
I don't see bigotry or racism in expecting cleanliness, quiet between 8pm and 6am, and neighbors that care about their property. If you do, you probably are a racist and bigot.
You know, when Jacob Riis brought attention to the plights of immigrants living in filth and being exploited, they were heralded around the world. Here we seem to have come full circle and don't want to face the facts about how the "other half" lives today. I think that's more racist than anything that anyone has said here thus far.
The Preservationist seems like a nice guy, political veiwpoints aside.
Nice guys finish last.
I think city planning should upzone Mayor Bloomberg's block over on the upper east side. I want to see a lovely fedders creation get built right next to him which would hopefully be an eyesore and destroy his quality of life.
I hate this whiny loser!!!!!!!!!!!
Judging a group of people as being dirty and uncaring based on their ethnicity is one of the most unintelligent things I have ever heard.
Crapper - pointing out abuses against immigrants is different than blaming them for destroying neighborhoods and advocating keeping them out of the country.
"Judging a group of people as being dirty and uncaring based on their ethnicity is one of the most unintelligent things I have ever heard."
Who's doing that? We are judging people as dirty and uncaring based on their actions or lack thereof. There are clean and dirty people from every country, including this one.
And when did I ever advocate keeping immigrants out of the country? Illegal aliens, yes. Immigrants, no. Still don't understand the difference?
Do you realize how powerful the Caribbean community is? Why risk your real interests by even mentioning immigrants? You will only lose friends among elected officials.
Its called tweeding! Its called tweeding! Its called tweeding! Its called tweeding!
I used to consider this blog a useful source of information. Now I realize it is full of people who don't even realize how their statements are perceived by most New Yorkers.
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Oh Manhattanites?
Well let me tell you about most New Yorkers.
Where we once went shopping and found stores of quality merchandise, we find 99 cent stores and a wide selection of hip hop clothing that make us look like cheap whores, where we once fell asleep next to quiet airshafts, we have kids hanging on the stoop and the smell of curry in our pillows in the morning, where people once scrubbed their stoops, we find Latin king graffiti on our walls.
But you see, we are working class, we are stupid Archie Bunkers, the laughing stock of those who parody us, our opinions only count when we follow a careful script presented to us.
You see stories of how drugs destroyed communities, but never how illegal immigrants destroyed communities.
That is because the people that write stuff hire them to take care of their kids, clean their house, and shoehorn them in basements and kitchens.
We clean our houses, we raise our own kids, we are careful in who we rent to (because we live in the same house), and we do our own cooking. How quaint by your standards.
We are the ones that have to go to emergency rooms bursting at the seams, schools crowded with kids, and jam ourselves in trains built for far smaller populations.
What we say is not nice in polite society. What we see to cause us to say these things is not nice, too.
Come out here, sonny boy, and see the things we see, live the lives we are forced to live, and then, only then, can we talk as equals.
Don't tell me about immigrants, my grandparents came from the old country and they worked like dogs to make it here. They would kiss the ground of this country.
Our communities are getting ruined. They are being destroyed. And I walk around Manahttan, what do I see? The opposite.
We are fed so much crap by our politicians and community boards we know we will never get a fair break until things change.
And buster, the times they are a changing!
I would rather spend time with stinky illegal immigrants than the idiots on this blog. Nobody could even come up with an intelligent response to the dude challenging you. Your communities are getting ruined because you spend all your time bitching about the illegals, while you're not taking care of yourselves.
Why don't you take care of yourselves before blaming all your ills on otheres?
"When I see my community trashed by people that do not have my standards of cleanliness"
I just want to let you know that this would be considered an offensive statement in many circles in New York.
It's always considered offensive by those who can afford to not have to deal with it.
If you want to find some real New Yorkers, go to Rockaway or Breezy Point. There might be a few left in Whitestone, Maspeth and Middle Village too. I doubt the comments on this blog would insult anyone who truly cares about the above neighborhoods.
They might insult those who hire ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS to do their job, such as people in Greenvale and the other snobby places on LI. There's a guy on youtube who has a strong opinion on illegal immigrants on LI, http://www.youtube.com/PinePowerLI.
Why don't you take care of yourselves before blaming all your ills on otheres?
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Oh, sonny boy wants to teach us a lesson.
Ok, what do you suggest? What are we doing wrong?
'Judging a group of people as being dirty and uncaring based on their ethnicity is one of the most unintelligent things I have ever heard.'
I have been to Calcutta. I have been to Amsterdam.
There is a difference. There is a difference. Trust me.
Crapper, if you think this blog, filled with bigoted, unintelligent, baseless comments helps the preservation cause, you are sorely mistaken.
I never said this blog was founded to help the preservation cause. And I would like to know why this blog is held to a different standard than every other blog in this city, most of which allow worse rancor than this one.
I guess I am truly in the middle when it comes to this blog.
I am a lifelong resident of the Ridgewood / Glendale area and I disagree with many posts on this blog, mainly because people seem to be stuck in their ways and are anti-change, plain and simple. They are stubborn and refuse to compromise because they see themselves as residents of their community rather then as residents of a city and that is why they are so unhappy.
But I will never ever listen to some of the shit I hear from people that come from outside of Queens.
"Why dont you take care of yourselves before blaming your ills on others"
How dare you.
The whole point is that these people are saying that things were fine before all the illegals started moving in (and work in the restaurant in YOUR neighborhood, which obviously is not in Queens) and they are taking care of themselves, that is what they ARE doing on this blog by voicing their opinions.
You can call them stubborn, closed minded and arrogant but you can never, ever, ever say that the people of Queens dont take care of themselves.
F - U asshole. Come to Queens and try and say that to someone's face.
Crapper, if you think this blog, filled with bigoted, unintelligent, baseless comments helps the preservation cause, you are sorely mistaken.
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There is an intelligent person ready to venture forth with dialogue and discussion.
And I would like to know why this blog is held to a different standard than every other blog in this city, most of which allow worse rancor than this one.
Because everyone is reading, and talking about this blog. Three decades of machine propoganda is vanishing like snow before a spring sun.
Blog on crappy, blog on! Queens has not had a fresh air like this for generations!
Most immigrants in this city are legal. Of the "illegal" ones, most entered the country legally and broke no laws to get here. Crapper- do you understand that difference yet?
Great, my driver license is up for renewal later this year, but instead of paying the fee, I'll just drive around with the expired license. If I get pulled over, I'll just say, "I got the license legally and broke no laws to get it. So please ignore the fact that I have no business driving and am doing so illegally." Think that will work?
Get yourself legalized or get out.
STOP THE MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!
Dumb analogy Crapper. If they could just show up at the office of a city agency, pay a fee and get citizenship, they would do so.
" I disagree with many posts on this blog, mainly because people seem to be stuck in their ways and are anti-change, plain and simple. "
This is because many homes are built in a certain style, particularly in planned communities. To thow garbage in the midddle of a series of 1930s Tudor homes is bad bad bad.
"They are stubborn and refuse to compromise because they see themselves as residents of their community rather then as residents of a city and that is why they are so unhappy."
No one has ever explained to me how my life is better with more people shoehorned around me.
To add more people without infrastucture addtions is bad bad bad.
As a matter of fact, the most disirable communities are those with lots of restrictions on develpment. You know, the places where the developers themselves raise their families.
Its good for them. Its good for us.
If you want to find some real New Yorkers, go to Rockaway or Breezy Point. There might be a few left in Whitestone, Maspeth and Middle Village too. I doubt the comments on this blog would insult anyone who truly cares about the above neighborhoods.
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So, I've only lived in New York for about 20 years, I've owned my place for about 10, and I'm involved in many civic organizations. Yet you wouldn't consider me a "real New Yorker." Many of my best friends are immigrants, and many of them do not have their immigration papers.
Now, since I have a choice of allying myself with them or the people on this blog, who do you think I will choose?
These so-called "real New Yorkers" are a dying breed. The immigrant communities are full of intelligent, polite people who don't treat me as an alien, even though I've only been here a mere 20 years.
Who would you want to ally yourself with? A growing, diverse, entrepreneurial network of communities? Or a bunch of "real" New Yorkers who would never accept me?
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Ok, what do you suggest? What are we doing wrong?
Try by not insulting those of us who have been here only 5, 10, 20 or 30 years. We're not going anywhere.
They knew damn well when they would no longer be legal in this country, just as I know when my driver license will expire. The rules may not be perfect, but they are there, and they were accepted when they obtained that temporary visa.
Oh, I get it. We should accept illegal aliens because you have friends who are illegal aliens. That makes perfect sense.
Illegal is illegal, and the people who are your friends are the people who I will call INS on. Thank you.
Let me tell you about my grandmother's house. She has lived in the same house for about 84 years now. It's a two-family, semi-detached house with a party yard. I grew up in this house. Grandma has a neighbor on her left that invited some relatives over from Ireland. They decided they didn't want to go home, the owner converted his cellar into an illegal apartment, and soon an illegal day care center was being run out of it that catered to the offspring of other illegal immigrants. The patrons of this establishment had to pass through my grandmother's shared driveway and yard. On the attached side, the neighbors had some relatives visiting from Ecuador that also decided they liked it better here than there. So they are now living in that illegally converted cellar with 3 small kids. These kids will go to schools that we pay for. (Prior to them there was a guy living down there that was wanted by the FBI.) What were two-family houses are now three-family houses. Both houses on each side have flooding problems because of the plumbing in the basement, and the yards, which, when I was a kid were grass, are now concrete. There is added strain on the infrastructure of the area because the rest of the block is now doing the same thing.
Please don't tell me that illegal immigration is not a cause of overdevelopment and many of the problems of Queens. Yes, I am sure individually, all of these folks are nice decent people. But that is not the point. We have no checks on who is coming here and how many are coming here. Illegal immigration is destroying our borough. I consider myself a preservationist and have no problem saying this publicly.
These so-called "real New Yorkers" are a dying breed. The immigrant communities are full of intelligent, polite people who don't treat me as an alien, even though I've only been here a mere 20 years.
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Thats funny. When I walk down Broadway in Elmhurst, Main Street in Flushing, Liberty Ave in Woodhaven, National Avenue in Corona, all I can think of is the lower east side 100 years ago, then I can think of slum clearance.
You are not telling the truth. I know plenty of immigrants, and they are not fools. Almost all have relatives whom live outside of NY in places with schools and backyards and are clean are quiet.
Most of them, just like natives, want out.
Queens has become a cesspool created by the machine. No one, unless they are just off the boat, or have emotional attachment, believes in this place anymore.
Even better, Christina, the District Manager of your community board states this publicly at just about every meeting. Why are there apologists defending the deluge of unchecked people into our borough, especially in the wake of 9/11 where the same people he would defend as "coming here legally and did not commit any crime" flew 2 planes into the world trade center crippling our city for months?
Now now now.
The mainline preservationists hold seminars on NYC2030 and think that playing musical chairs with landmarks commissioners, and adding a few hundred thousand dollars is ALL THAT IS NEEDED.
If this were not true, our preservation representatives from Queens would tell them these things.
Maybe our preservation leadership really doesn't represent us?
They must reprsent us. They would not be getting $5million dollars from the boro president for community preservation.
You silly fool. Its to preserve THEIR community.
Just think what $5million could do to set up neighborhood preservation groups troughout the boro.
Just think....
If you want to find some real New Yorkers, go to Rockaway or Breezy Point. There might be a few left in Whitestone, Maspeth and Middle Village too. I doubt the comments on this blog would insult anyone who truly cares about the above neighborhoods.
Oh, I understand now. Only a few select white people are real New Yorkers. How silly of me to bother voting and such. I should just let them make all the decisions, and then I will be happy. And I guess I can only care about those neighborhoods if I want to get rid of all immigrants.
Maspeth is full of Polish immigrants, Middle Village is full of Italians. You can be an immigrant and be a real New Yorker. These are immigrants and their descendants that didn't run to the suburbs when times were tough. They stayed and worked and made their communities better. Now these are the very neighborhoods that are red-lined for transients who will move on in a couple of years.
I really love that girl, Christina. She comes in and tells a personal story, and the "preservationist's" argument is shot to hell. Hey maybe you should listen to the people who deal with this problem on a day to day basis instead of worrying about whether someone else thinks you are a "real New Yorker" or not. You just may start to understand that you've been fed multicultural diverse mosaic bullshit for so long that you're starting to believe it.
You just may start to understand that you've been fed multicultural diverse mosaic bullshit for so long that you're starting to believe it.
Please explain what you mean by "multicultural diverse mosaic." Why would my life be better if I reject it? And please assume that I am not of Italian, Polish, English, Irish, Welsh or northern European blood.
Oh that's simple, I can answer this one. Those phrases are the central to tweeding. Pander to individual groups so that everyone fights with each other over who is better and who will get the money and attention. Keep them downtrodden and dependent on the handouts provided. This way, you can always be assured of their support during your re-election, and if the current crop can't vote, then you can bet their kids will eat out of the palm of your hand.
We were much better off when we were a true melting pot, where people came not only for a better life for themselves, but also brought something with them to offer their new communities. Now we are more like a chunky beef stew where each group is isolationist and doesn't want to blend into the rest of American society. You hear more and more the phrase, "in my country" from people who have been here for years, and you better believe they aren't talking about the USA. In past times, this became the newbies' country in a very short period of time.
Those phrases are the central to tweeding. Pander to individual groups so that everyone fights with each other over who is better and who will get the money and attention.
Okay, so then this seems to be an example of the divide-and-conquer, one-group-is-better attitude that is bringing us all down:
"Maspeth is full of Polish immigrants, Middle Village is full of Italians. You can be an immigrant and be a real New Yorker. These are immigrants and their descendants that didn't run to the suburbs when times were tough."
I'll be sure not to pander to Italians any more!
But what about the guy on this blog who said "nice guys finish last." Isn't that also an example of someone who tries to get groups to fight against each other?
I would say "nice guys finish last" is a motto or a philosophy. If you are seeing it as something more than that then I suggest you seek psychiatric help. You may want to take a break because you have completely strayed from the subject matter being discussed, which was whether or not illegal aliens are a driving force behind overdevelopment.
I cannot believe anyone would even make the statement "if they could just go into an office, pay a fee and get legal, they would"
Who would think they wouldn't!!
If getting papers were that easy a lot of people would keep a spare Swiss passport, just in case.
The whole point is that it's not, people whose "papers are not in order" are jumping the line that others spend years waiting on.
I'm sure if half a dozen people slipped into a movie line in front of this guy, he would be furious.
Well, this is a much more serious issue than that, yet he's much more casual about it.
OK, probably I missed some neighborhoods when I was talking about "real New Yorkers". It's more a matter of neighborhood spirit and appearance than where the people come from. Fresh Meadows is a mostly Asian and Jewish neighborhood, but it is a nice and quiet area although McMansions are popping up. There are also some nice parts of Jamaica, inhabited exclusively by African Americans.
Compare all these areas to Corona, Elmhurst, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Downtown Flushing and Jamaica in terms of quiet, cleanliness and overal appeal and tell me what you think. I think these places are a disgrace to the entire city.
Christina get real. Plenty of non-immigrants live in houses beyond their Certificate of Occupancy. If you want to argue that people shouldn't allow illegal apartments in their houses, I agree totally. But don't use that as an anti-immigration excuse. It is obvious that your knowledge of immigration issues is limited, please stick to what you know and try to do better than biased anecdotal observations.
There would not be 2 illegal apartments next door to my grandmother if there were not illegal aliens living in them. The apartments were built for them. Furthermore, the strain on city services by people that no one can count is something that you did not address. If we can't take care of the people here legally, we have no business inviting more and declaring this a sanctuary city. By the way, mine was not an "anecdotal observation", it was reality. If you want facts and figures, well I can't provide those, and neither can the government because they don't have no idea how many illegals are here.
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