Thursday, February 10, 2011

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.

11 comments:

JOEL(FORMER NY'ER!!) said...

I DONT KNOW HOW LONG YOU HAVE LIVED IN THE ROCKAWAYS,I MOVED THERE IN 1953 WITH MY FOLKS FROM A SLUM IN BROOKLYN,WE PURCHASED A HOUSE ON BEACH 4TH STREET,I ATTENDED PS 39 AND JHS 198 AND FAR ROCKAWAY HIGH SCHOOL...THE CITY STARTED TO DUMP WELFARE INTO THE OLD SUMMER HOTELS IN THE 1950'S AND WHEN THE NYCTA CAME ALONG IN GREATER NUMBERS,ROCKAWAY BECAME THE DUMPING GROUND FOR THE CITY....EASY SUBWAY RIDE AND CHEAP HOTELS INTO SRO!!!!
I LEFT NYC IN 1968 AND NEVER LOOKED BACK,I CHECK AND READ THE LOCAL BLOGS JUST TO SEE HOW BLESSED I WAS IN LEAVING..BUT ROCKAWAY WAS RUINED BY THE CITY AND WILL ALWAYS TREAT IT LIKE SHIT!!!!LOOK AT ALL THE VACANT LAND IN EDGEMERE AND ARVERNE!!!THAT WAS VACANT WHEN I LEFT IN 1968!!!!!!!LAST OF MY FAMILY DIED AND I NO LONGER HAVE ANYT REASON TO RETURN...NONE!!!
FIGHT????WHY?????
PACK A BAG AND LEAVE ASAP,AND DON'T LOOK BACK!!!!
MY 2CENTS

Anonymous said...

I agree-- is there news here? The Rockaways have been a dumping ground in decline since the 60s. There is no "solution" for this real estate. Eventually, with global sea rise, it will be under water 50-60-70% of the time. Do yourself a favor, and get out while you can and stay away. BTW, what exactly are parole officers supposed to do? You site them several times in your article, as if they can solve the shopping cart-cigarette butt problem. Move away, and be happy you can.

Anonymous said...

It's too sad that the City destroyed the Rockaways, I dont understand why? It could have been a beautiful place, just imagine having beachfront property in NYC if only they hadnt made it a dumping ground for trash

Anonymous said...

kaps lock kommenters hurt my eyes

Anonymous said...

LOL...ship Shulman to "Arverne By The Sea"...since she loved it so much when she was pimping for it to be built!

brianmack said...

i grew up next door to that house. my family owned the adjacent building, 150 (now a nursing home)
and 154 beach 114th. street. no one can describe the idyllic existence, as kids, we had on that block. no one locked their doors and kids came and went to the beach as early as age six. everyone looked out for each other and it was non-stop summer fun. i too will never go back to that block. it is a truly sad story but nyc is nyc and as with so many neighborhoods, has lost its charm and beauty. great comment and note pal. bmcmanus

Tommy Coyne said...

I grew up in that house on 114th st .In fact my family lived there every summer for almost 60 years. i think it's disgraceful even CRIMINAL what has happened there. That block holds most of my fondest childhood memories. At this point in my life I cant't even bring myself to go there .To depressing ! Brian Mc is one of my oldest and closet friends. His window and mine were our form of communication ..It was truly an enjoyable safe freestyle enviorment and I feel privledged to have been able to grow up there. What the hell is going on there ? isn't anybody paying attention? Tommy Coyne

Kathryn said...

Well, I still have hope for the Rockaways. I just believe change will come from the inside out and not the other way around. I moved here about 2 years ago so my kids can be near their grandparents and I refuse to succumb to the sea of negativity. Rockaway can be beautiful again, the current residents (homeowners and project dwellers included) need to decide that's what we want.

greg b said...

i spent my summers with my grand parents on beach 5. i walked central and mott and went to hili day camp from rego park. it was a great area and i was riding my bikes up and down the boardwalk, going to post office on mott with my folks, ringing the bell on the fire truck. And over night boom the area went to shit every r/e broker from hillside ave in jamaica was busing in folks to buy the homes. out went grand ma and grandpa off to to a two bed room in rego park. no more bus ride for them to visit us. a walk around the block.
good old far rockaway

R-TRUTH said...

its horrible down here you cant even go to the stores on b116th street without seeing something gross, people lay in front of stores drinking, yelling, and begging all day all year round its a total skid row ive lived here two years now and would like to move soon. no one else in the community cares to do a thing about it and its definetly not the place to raise a family its tragic what the city has turned this area into

Anonymous said...

FRAUD ALERT
Read the article decided to dig a little deeper, the owner j doichman owns tons of buildings in low income areas, and gets paid by government and taxpayer money.millions of dollars. .. all of them to CIS and narco freedom patients....both organizations have staff with the same names crespo working at the same time. And the What is very interesting is jack schnitt ceo of cis worked for doichman and Jason brand who owned east coast cleaning and restoration together, not hard just look the two last names online and east coat cleaning and DASO cleaning comes up , owners of cleaning companies in government funded buildings that own the same buildings.... Stinks like Medicaid fraud