Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Life in 21st Century Middle Village

These horror stories were forwarded to yours truly:

"My mother, who is 96 yrs old, has lived in Middle Village for the last 69 yrs. About 8 yrs ago a single man moved next door. She had to endure his used car sideline and the multiple cars parked in the driveway and on the street. I think complaints from neighbors pretty much resolved that problem. Then he moved a man into his basement. When I referred to the man as his tenant he corrected me and said it was a relative. Well after a few years the "relative" moved out. Now it seems he is running his own SRO. He has two men living downstairs and occasional overnight guests. He lets them park in his driveway while he parks in the street across his driveway entrance. Of course the only way for them to get onto or off his driveway when he is home is to use my mother's driveway. They do this without permission. Finally she put up a barrier with planters and flower pots. Guess what? He is angry with her. He doesn't think she is a good neighbor. I would like to resolve the whole thing because it upsets her so much. She is too old to handle the stress."
__________________________________________

"There are two homes on my block in Middle Village that I am aware of that have multiple people living in each apartment.

At one of the addresses, 60-16 83rd Place there are 20 people living in the walk-in and 20 people living in the middle floor with beds all over the apartments and sheets between each bed. This was told to my neighbor who speaks Spanish by one of the men who lives there. The owner lives in the basement. The garage in front of the dwelling is horrendous and there are multiple bikes and strollers on the balcony visible from the street. There is a current epidemic of "bugs" and "rodents" right now. This is the second outbreak, and only weeks ago all the mattresses were put outside the home and all clothes bagged and left outside also. A friend who lives in the attached home next to them said she had roaches and never had them in the 20 plus years she has been there and that every day she finds toys, pencils and junk from these families in front of her basement door. The garbage situation is really bad and everyone who lives near this home is truly disgusted.

The same condition is happening at a house at 60-26 83rd Place down the street. There are so many people living there that I cannot tell you how many actually do live there. The neighbor said that he can see mattresses all over the floor from his apartment. There are many women with babies living in the walk-in and the basement as one big living shared space. I understand the owner, who used to live there, had torn down and rebuilt the home using illegals and was unable to sell it. His rent for the walk-in alone was $2,025 - and that was a few years ago when he was renting to a family with two boys and they informed me.

I am sure that the landlords are really raking in the bucks here at our expense. This block is very overdeveloped and there is hardly any parking. My son has to actually park on Eliot Avenue as there are really only driveways near our house due to the three new groups of attached three-story homes that have been built here over the last few years. This is also a real fire hazard and takes away from the quality of life we had known on this block that used to be just small one family homes."

Thank you, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for allowing a great area of Queens to be turned into a Sanctuary Cesspool. You make a great cover boy for this neighborhood magazine.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, for posting this. I have lived in middle village for 20 years. It use to be two way streets with no lights. No multi family houses. At the JPCA meeting i spoke to a woman named Joy who worked for the mayor and told her she will see our neighborhood endure lack of police, traffic, rodents, fires, and blackout, an over population of our school and of our streets. The city will pay millions having to fix the destruction that is being made right now... someone has to fix this mess before it takes one of the last good neighborhoods of queens. It will not stop at Middle Village, it will end up attacking all four boroughs... someone stop the insanity.

Anonymous said...

Our new councilman, Anthony Como, will certainly take charge and see that these conditions are remedied. I heard he hates overdevelopment and building violations.

Anonymous said...

That cover is great! It's exactly how Bloomberg treats Queens.

Anonymous said...

truly disgusting

bedbug city must be alive and well in this place

and once again i am so glad i rent in middle viilage

we considered buying a house but thank god we did not

9 months on my lease and i am gone

what a shame middle village was once a really nice area and still is on certain blocks but this can only spread like a cancer

the residents must band together and fight this crap before it swallows the whole neighborhood

Anonymous said...

Don't ya just love it....
"cover boy" Bloomberg prepares to blow a "snot rocket" at the neighborhood he needed and courted
to get himself elected!

So much for gratitude when this upper crust creep has no further use for his servants!

So after Mayor Midget had his way with Maspeth/Middle Village he left her pregnant with possibilities of, powerlessness, overbuilding
and in a general state of ruination!

Anonymous said...

Ah...
f--k "hizzoner" with a spiked dildo!
(He'd probably love it knowing his preferences)!

Anonymous said...

Geez....
that last comment ought to tweak the CAU's nose a bit!

RU listenin' up Natzli?

Truman Harris said...

"f--k "hizzoner" with a spiked dildo!"

How about a cartoon?

Joe T said...

middle village is a great neighborhood, and one of the best in queens. These incidents are few and far between. instead of complaing about it on a blog you should take action and report these illegal dwellings to the city asap.

Anonymous said...

Hello Ridgwoodian? Hello Ridgwoodian?

Come out to pla-ay!

Joe T said...

I'm right here (anonymous).

Unknown said...

I don't understand why people don't call (repeatedly) the DOB on these illegal rentals. You don't even have to give your name. Yes, the DOB are not the best and brightest, but if enough people pester them they will get inspectors out there. It is better to do something than just sit and "curse the darkness."

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Trilby. People need to speak up more, and stop quietly grumbling to themselves.

Joe T said...

I agree tribly. just keep the pressure up. Again I still think these incidents are few and far between but we still have to have zero tolerance. I grew up in middle village and there is 80 houses on my block, 40 on each side and in the 80's about 90% of these houses illegally rented their basements, now there is about 3 or 4 so it is working and alot of credit must go to the juniper civic assn.

Anonymous said...

If "illegals" really reside in these residences, it's best to call Dept. of Homeland Security INS. If you do somehow get through, ask for ICE department. ICE investigators pounding on the door will surely rid your problem.

Anonymous said...

They were reported to DOB and will be again.

Truman Harris said...

"I don't understand why people don't call (repeatedly) the DOB on these illegal rentals."

Yes, people do, and they are denied access and that's the end of the investigation. Have any other suggestions?

Anonymous said...

How telling that instead of commenting on the fact that people in Middle Village are apparently sleeping 20 to a room, the brainwashed come to this blog and attack the people drawing attention to it.

Anonymous said...

What a great cover! Where can I get a copy to frame? At last someone shows how Bloomberg really feels about Queens.

Anonymous said...

These incidents are few and far between. instead of complaing about it on a blog you should take action and report these illegal dwellings to the city asap.


hahahahahahahahahahohohohohohohohohehehehehehehehe

Joe T said...

you have to continue to report, the first time they dont let the inspector in they can get away with it, by second or 3rd time they get a warrant.


hahahahhoho -go back to sleep.

Anonymous said...

I guess it was Bloomberg's fault for all the illegal rentals on Joe T's block in the 80s too. Ridiculous.

RC said...

You might have a little more luck reporting suspected SRO's to the FDNY, though they can be denied entry as well.

Call the FDNY Public Communications Unit at 718-999-2541and/or fax in a complaint. The form is at:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/pdf/fire_prevention/instruct_complaint_form.pdf

Also, call it into the local fire house (addresses sound like Engine 287/Ladder 136.) Ask for the officer in charge.

Best case: they drive by, see something in plain view, and issue an order to vacate.

Worst case: your local fire co. has a heads-up in case there is a fire in one of these death traps. SRO's kill tenants and fireman both.

Anonymous said...

Middle Village is still a nice place but if you drive through the part between Metropolitan Ave and Cooper Ave from the cemetary to 80th St saomething very wrong has happened, too many houses, 3 story mini-mansions with no parking, not a parking spot anywhere at night just to back up the "too many people in each home" theory. It must be like living in a can of sardines. The city is at fault, no politician has the nerve to track down and have punished the knucklehead contractors that are running wild in the city unsupervised building anything anywhere with nobody to stop them.