The Rockaway Renaissance is over

"There is a new owner of both the Rockaway Park Hotel on Beach 116 Street, and, a twenty-two room SRO on Beach 114th Street. Everyone knows about the quality of the inhabitants of the hotel on Beach 116th Street, and apparently, the occupancy is "legal". The same cannot be said about the SRO at 154 Beach 114th Street. The SRO is being used as an illegal "half-way house", presumably, under a private contract with HPD / Human Resources, Social Services and related agencies. Tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars are being paid to Jay Deutchman, and owner of this illegally converted, rent stabilized SRO, into a market rate "half-way house" for recently
released felons and drug abusers. Adding insult to the above injury, Jay Deutchman has labeled his effort as "The Freedom House", and, apparently, managed to convert the use from a rent regulated SRO to a group home without the approval of DHCR or Community Board 14. How could this have happened without Community Board 14's prior approval? Simply stated, it was an illegal conversion without a formal deregulation order of DHCR, and/or authorization by the local Community Board.

The new residents, with stolen shopping carts in tow from the local supermarkets, filled with their worldly belongings, come and go non-stop, leaving a trail of cigarette butts, pint liquor bottles and Cobra beer cans. This entire operation takes place in broad daylight under the watchful eye of the double-parked parole officers who make bi-weekly visits in their bullet proof vests as they "follow up on" their parolees-in- residence. All of this in broad daylight, observed by one and all, except by our local Community Board members who, apparently, are much too busy to notice and/or to inquire as to the propriety of the situation. They have chosen to turn a blind eye to this mess and, almost certainly, the mess is here to stay. It is an absolute disgrace that this debacle has occurred. What will it take for an investigation of this accident waiting to happen, and, before our children and senior citizens experience firsthand the adverse impact of this disastrous sociological folly.

The hapless residents of Beach 114th Street have been the first casualties, and the rest of the peninsula are about to experience, first hand, the disastrous impact of this ill-advised, illegal conversation, of an SRO into a "felony frat house".

This insanity has got to stop."

A LONG TIME BEACH 114th STREET RESIDENT

The writer also sent this to Miss Heather, who has chronicled the owner's other properties on her site.