Saturday, March 6, 2010

Community curses curb cuts

From the Courier-Life:

A plethora of illegal curb cuts and other zoning and building code violations has local activists seeing red.

And they are equally frustrated by what appears to be the city’s inability to correct the illegal conditions, as became clear during a round table discussion hosted recently by [Brooklyn] Community Board 14, during which board members engaged in a give-and-take discussion with representatives of the mayor’s office, the Department of Buildings (DOB), the Department of City Planning (DCP), and the New York Police Department.

“You can go down any street you want,” contended CB 14 Secretary Joe Dweck, “and you know there are illegal curb cuts. This is a pandemic. The whole city is damaged. It’s deleterious to commerce, plus the fact that city streets have been destroyed. Wouldn’t it behoove us to have an enforcement team to go up the blocks and enforce?

“This needs more than a shovel,” Dweck added. “We need a backloader. We need big equipment.”

“I think this is something we understand,” remarked Charles Glover, the Brooklyn coordinator for the mayor’s Community Affairs unit. Noting that he had “pulled the 311 data” for the areas of Brooklyn he covers, Glover said, “you see that of the top three complaints, one is blocked driveways. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. It’s not a nice thing for the neighborhood if you delete green space and take away parking.”

A particular sore spot for board members was paved-over gardens that had been turned into parking pads illegally, sometimes without even cutting the curb.

In addition, members attending the meeting said they had repeatedly notified the city of problems without seeing any change in the conditions they reported.

“It’s a subject I’m involved with intensely,” noted Lawrence Hilonowitz. “I’ve reported many of these violations since 2004,” he went on, brandishing a stack of papers. Yet, he went on, the problems persist.


How about when there's no curb cut but they park there anyway? (see above)

DOB is responsible for sidewalks and should have been present at this meeting. They can correct the problem and send the bill to the owner. As for the above mess, I don't know what to say... Maybe the new Queens CAU director will do something about it. Heh.

9 comments:

faster340 said...

Oh please this subject has been around the block before and nothing gets done. BS the masses and they will go away!

Anonymous said...

The city can only do two things:

Bring in more tweeds.

Build more buildings.

Anonymous said...

A new Queens CAU Director ???? Who ??!

Queens Crapper said...

When the replacement for Jen Manley is announced, I'll let you know.

Anonymous said...

That is an Administrative Code violation.Let the cops know,they can increase the number of "C" summonses.THe bosses are happy,the people are happy.win/win.

Anonymous said...

Maspeth Mom says..

Is this the same type of curb cut that is behind Iavarones?? Why does the city make these extra wide sidewalks especially off the main walking strip. Of course business have to pull up to the doorway. But I always wondered what those NYC signs hat prohibit you from parking behind Iavaones. You need a special parking plaque -
Who gets this is Mapeth and why??

Georges said...

Hey stupid convert you single family into an SRO that houses 25 people. Cement up the green patch in front of your doorway steps so that if you really push it you can part 3 cars and charge a monthly $100 each car - no matter that your blocking the sidewalk - the public can walk around. Perform the curb cut as wide as the frontage of your house to insure you have a guaranteed spot on the street daily - paint it bright official yellow too so everyone knows not to part there! Stop being so stupid just do it everyone else is doing it your stupid for not and will be left behind unrewarded for being law abiding citizen, stupid!

Anonymous said...

Iavarones is brought up time and time again to the community board, but the chairman is afraid to go public with it. Maybe he's getting a free meal?

Anonymous said...

If you see all the DOT traffic agents they send down to the area of maspeth , queens on the brooklyn border to write traffic tickets , You understand Mayor Bloomcash only cares about making the city money, Not enforcing any laws or regulations when it comes to quality of life issues ..Illegal apartments and curbcuts , This city is out of control