Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Wall of contention in College Point

From the NY Post:

Residents of a small apartment building in College Point, Queens, say that instead of erecting trellises to protect their privacy, their neighbors put up a metal monstrosity.

The wall is at the edge of a private house at 14-17 College Point Blvd. Next-door neighbors, at No. 14-21, can reach out and touch the offending wall, according to a lawsuit filed last month in Queens Supreme Court.

One affected apartment-dweller, who identified himself as William, said homeowners Donald, Charles and Carol Weidel built the wall to keep prying eyes away from their party lifestyle.

Aside from blocking light and curtailing ventilation, the wall is a safety hazard, he said, because it's so close that no one could get out through a window in an emergency.

The owner of the apartment building, C.P.Y. Realty, said in court papers that the wall made the apartments uninhabitable.

William, who lives in the building with his wife, Luz Ayala, agreed, saying the wall blocks two of his three windows, and his utility bill has gone up $200 a month because he has to run extra lights and a fan to compensate.

C.P.Y. is seeking $2 million in damages and an order to tear down the wall.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Take them out and flog them as a warning to the next idiot.

Babs said...

I don't get it -

After a little Target shopping in the Point, I had to go see this for myself so I went by there yesterday after reading about it in the newspaper.

UNLESS they have the wrong address listed, the houses ARE extremely close to each other ANYWAY - you could "reach out and touch someone" before this metal wall - similar to semi-attached homes except there is a very narrow space between them. This is on the Blvd. where the stores begin - in fact it is a store front - the owners or renters must leave above the store. I didn't see a wall - the only thing I could think of is that this is COVERING what was there before.

They're so close together that I can't see how there would be light or ventilation PRIOR. I assume since the Realty is suing that they have a legitimate case . . . . .

I was driving on the Blvd. and paying more attention to what was in front of me so it is possible that I missed something.

Looks to me that there's more to this story than what meets the eye.

Anonymous said...

First it was the "Iron Curtain"...
now the steel wall!

kind of "party" lifestyle are they trying to hide from prying eyes?

(LOL) Is it bullet proof?
Could they be drug dealers?

Babs said...

Anonymous said: "kind of "party" lifestyle are they trying to hide from prying eyes?"

if that is the case - a simple blind would do. . . . . no?

I doubt that is the reason for this "wall" IF it is even a "wall".
Would you spend a few thousand or whatever to erect a "wall" when a $20.00 rollup shade would keep the neighbors from peering in?

Joe said...

$20.00 rollup shade doesn't cut it with modern day electronics, cameras, WiFi. Nir even it it were made of ferrite

There is also a wave of WiFi stealing to commit prostitution on Craigslist,ID sealing, credit card and online banking, paypal fraud.
College Point, FluChing and Jackson Hights are the hotspots for it.

Look around, there is a shady looking characters with an Itouch's selling calling and pin numbers on about every corner.
They aint checking the stock market thats for sure

Babs said...

Joe said - "There is also a wave of WiFi stealing to commit prostitution on Craigslist,ID sealing, credit card and online banking, paypal fraud.
College Point, FluChing and Jackson Hights are the hotspots for it."

Sorry Joe - I personally am trapped in between the last century and the one coming up - "WiFi" is not in my vocabulary.

After googling it - I can understand the concern! Would a metal wall therefore block out these "rays"?

Joe said...

Yes, or at least block the "handshaking" required to keep a solid connection.

However if the houses are that close together all one need to do is drop USB Wifi card on the roof.

Its also pretty amazing what you can do with an empty tunafish let alone an old already mounted Dish TV antenna.
If you dont want your WiFi abused setup its password and encryption.

Most people are clueless and don't even know they have Optonline, ATT, Verizon FIOS and DSL come with wireless routers in their house.

Those are usually installed with high speed internet packages, fully active wide open with no default WEP passwords by some farmed out teck rushing to make the install quota.
These things even broadcast there channels (usually 6) and their MAC address.
Type 192.168.1.1 in your web-brower.

The default username and password isnt what you think it is

Babs said...

"However if the houses are that close together all one need to do is drop USB Wifi card on the roof."

Amazing! And they ARE that close. There are stores on the entire block - Walgreens is on the corner - only two doors down from this address.

Imagine all the credit card transactions these stores make in a day - it could be quite a score then for the neighborhood thieves.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Gorbachev, take down that wall!

Anonymous said...

i must correct you .it was President Ronald Reagan who said"Mr. G." tear down this wall".
for the young among us who know very little history.this was the wall erected by the U.S.S.R COMMUNISTS to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin.

the wall came down,under R.Reagan.

liberty or tyranny ? thank you Bay State.