From LIC Millstones Blog:So, after all the noise and argumentative tumult of a public meeting- here’s where the LIC Millstones are being stored. Rephrase that as where they’re being left.
Are due diligence and respect being paid to these historic artifacts? What else, all around our community, is being treated so roughly?
Thank you, Penny Lee!
22 comments:
This is a disgrace! Why won't Dutch Kills Civic Assoc. open their eyes and allow these PRICELESS artifacts to be moved? Are they going to sit on their hands and do nothing like they did when the L.I.S.B. was LOOTED and torn down?
Hey George! Sometimes a millstone isn't just a millstone!
Its thank you to Community Board 1, Community Board 2, Cathy Nolan, Jimmy Van Bramer, Peter Vallone, George Onorato, Carolyn Maloney.
Its thank you to all the Queens weeklies and the city dailies.
How about giving a bunch of whinny clueless Tower People some press because they moved next to a train yard and are surprised, or a subway built for half the population and have a little inconvience. Pleny of ink (and bike lanes) there!
But, considering how the people in this area are treated, should we be be surprised?
Like mushrooms, keep them in the dark, feed them shit, and if they stick their heads up cut them off.
Now if you want to put up a 15 story building with the help of taxpayers' money, well, just step right up buddy.
Or perhaps, run a program for guest workers, or own a barracks for the same, you have world of choices for tweedinig efforts or at least a benign blind eye.
I am having a hard time telling from the pictures exactly what they are doing to the millstones. Are they packed in those wooden crates, or buried underneath that pile?
Regardless, I have been outraged by the lack of respect and care the millstones have gotten even before they started this work at the plaza.
I am having a hard time telling from the pictures exactly what they are doing to the millstones. Are they packed in those wooden crates, or buried underneath that pile?
One is in a crate surrounded by all that garbage and one is under a sheet of plywood near the stop-sign.
This is the borough that has no official history.
We have a crumbling nude statue outside Borough Hall, a rusty NYS Pavilion in Flushing Meadows, so what makes you think the millstones stand a chance?
The destruction of the fabric of Queens is simply inexcusable, made worse by the involvement of our elected officials) from the 1840s St Saviours (Gallagher) in Maspeth to the 1820s Astoria Institute (Vallone funding and Gloria DaMico's son)
The bigger problem is how this gives an excuse to the Manhattan preservation crowd to ignore us (as we subsidize their designated districts with taxes and foolishly pay to keep memberships in their myopic organizations).
After all, they disingenuously tell us as they wink and send us on a fool's errand, "you need to have your representative’s approval" (historic merit? we don’t need no historic merit!)
Petitions signed by 100s of people?
Ignored
Public communtiy meeting?
Ignored
Local historical society offers to help?
Ignored
Letters of support from around the city?
Ignored
Local grassroots civic group wants to help?
Ingored
Dutch Kills Civic reps calls them 'rocks,' gets ticked off that its become public knowledge, and has a relationship with local politicans, and (perhaps) developers and City Planning?
As far as the press is concerned, as far as city government is concerned, as far as Queens Civic Congress is concerned, the only voice in town.
Don't knock all pols.
A local person from Bayside contacted Padavan for help.
Padavan got involved, wrote letters, and gathered very useful information.
He was helpful.
NOT A SINGLE POLITICAN IN WESTERN QUEENS GOT INVOLVED, RESPONDED TO A LETTER, SHOWED THE SLIGHTEST DEGREE OF INTEREST.
The problem, my friend, is quite simple.
Its the polticans from western Queens.
They are a particularly toxic variety serenely confident that they don't need any input from anything below.
And as you keep on reelecting them, or field jokes to run against them, they are right.
Boss Tweed: "What are you going to do about it?"
You are wrong. A representative from an elected official DID show up.
A rep from Baloney Maloney was at the public meeting held by the community, politely said she had 15 minutes, sat thought the community’s presentation, then listened to George Stamatiades from Dutch Kills Civic say everything is okay, raised her hand, asked George is there is anything she could do to help, he said no, and she got up to leave, then talked to George’s wife (who works for Cathy Nolan) for a half hour.
Then walked out the door never to be heard of again.
Maloney gave millions of dollars in our taxpayer’s money for the Queens Plaza project.
I understand Jimmy Van Bramer was to show up that evening, then backed out at the last minute.
No problem.
He found the time to go to a Dutch Kills Civic meeting the week before and have a gallery of images on his website proudly posing with their reps.
In lower Manhattan, by the Goldman Sachs building and Fraunces Tavern, there are colonial artifacts on display below street level under glass. Having the millstones displayed that way might be a safe and enjoyable way to have them continue as part of our streetscape.
Until such time, they should be stored away from the site. Moving should be done by preservation professionals. Indeed, the stones should have been a highlight of the Museum of the City of New York's recent Hudson 400 exhibit.
Some might argue reasonably that the stones can survive the weather quite well, of course. The concern that's ignored, however, is that people make mistakes and heavy machinery augments those mistakes.
In lower Manhattan, by the Goldman Sachs building and Fraunces Tavern, there are colonial artifacts on display below street level under glass. Having the millstones displayed that way might be a safe and enjoyable way to have them continue as part of our streetscape.
Until such time, they should be stored away from the site. Moving should be done by preservation professionals. Indeed, the stones should have been a highlight of the Museum of the City of New York's recent Hudson 400 exhibit.
Some might argue reasonably that the stones can survive the weather quite well, of course. The concern that's ignored, however, is that people make mistakes and heavy machinery augments those mistakes.
Eric Baard says:
Some might argue reasonably that the stones can survive the weather quite well, of course.
*****
If anyone saw a recent picture they would call that statement bunk.
They are STONE. They are WEATHERED. The city put ASPHAlT in them. The are chipped.
Funny, the city claims that they are too fragile to move to a secure location, but want to put them on a pedestal with the edges dangerously sticking out over the base, a few feet from a busy bike path, drive four stakes through their heart to secure them, then add grout.
Yup, this is the diagram that Penny Lee of Shitty Planning is handing out.
I am sorry Penny Lee. I think you are unfit for the job it this is what you are suggesting.
With all do respect, I think your proposal is an outrage.
If this is how you treat our community's heritage, YOU SHOULD STEP DOWN.
YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE CONFIDENCE OF OUR COMMUNITY.
hmmm...
does the envirnmental impact statement have a review of historic sites?
did anyone who floated this proposal discuss this with experts from the community?
ah, federal money involved? any regs violated?
I know the answer. Lets all give the powers that be a chance to respond - especially now this is public.....
Until such time, they should be stored away from the site.
THEY SHOULD STAY IN THE COMMUNITY! DUTCH KILLS CIVIC IS CORRECT!
rep from Baloney Maloney was at the public meeting held by the community, politely said she had 15 minutes, sat thought the community’s presentation, then listened to George Stamatiades from Dutch Kills Civic say everything is okay, raised her hand, asked George is there is anything she could do to help, he said no, and she got up to leave, then talked to George’s wife (who works for Cathy Nolan) for a half hour.
Then walked out the door never to be heard of again.
----
There is another woman who should lose her job if that is what she did. Maloney's office was closed for several years in Queens.
Come to think of it, her boss should go to.
Does the "community" only consist of a traffic median undergoing construction?
George Stamatiades from Dutch Kills Civic IS the problem.
He is to Dutch Kills what George Delis was to Astoria - a useless, meddling, self-serving vampire that has no use for Queens history and has no regard for the people that were born here because THEY WEREN'T BORN HERE.
YOU FIGURE IT OUT!
The woman from maloney's office was there for 15 minutes and heard only one speaker: George Stamatiades. And George called the millstones "rocks" and said "a millstone is a millstone."
That's the voice the powers that be in the city are listening to. The rest of us can go to hell.
If an African burial ground had been found at the site, everybody would be falling all over each other to preserve the heritage lest it be destroyed. Careful archaeological work would be undertaken and construction would be diverted -- and appropriately so. But for the millstones -- nada. They're just treated as so much refuse, without consideration to their care. Shameful!
"If an African burial ground had been found at the site...."
Interesting point. You are right, of course.
The site is actually on or very close to an ancient Native-American foot-path that became
41st Avenue. Too bad there aren't any officially recognized tribes in Queens or we could stir up some trouble. I'm sure ther's an arrow-head or two burried there someplace.
This is a true scandal. Anyone out there ready to take up a pen?
Village Voice?
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