From the NY Times:Flushing Commons is to include 235,000 square feet of small-scale retail, 185,000 square feet of office space, about 600 condos, a 62,000-square-foot Y.M.C.A., a one-and-a-half-acre park and, to make up for the lost parking lot, 1,600 underground parking spaces. The project is a joint venture with the Rockefeller Group Development Corporation, which built Rockefeller Center.
Nearby, the F&T Group is also building a $125 million mixed-use development that will combine a 168-room Hyatt Place hotel with three levels of retail, underground parking and a separate tower for office space and serviced apartments. Groundbreaking is this week; construction should take three years.
A few blocks away, where Main Street ends at Northern Boulevard, the RKO Keith’s Theater, designed by Thomas W. Lamb, may finally be given new life. The theater housed vaudeville acts and movies for more than half a century but has been sitting empty since the 1980s, despite the efforts of various developers.
“It’s been a cancer in downtown Flushing for over 20 years,” said Claire Shulman, the former borough president who is now chief executive of the Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation.
Actually, the RKO is an historic building that's seen better days. The real cancer is people like Claire Shulman, who have never met a development project they didn't like and turned Flushing into the mess it is today. And she's been around a lot longer than 20 years.
Other comments I've received on this article:
"Every voice interviewed is pro-development. And the story makes Flushing look like it's all-Asian? As if there are no blacks, whites, and Hispanics living in Flushing. WTF? This is not journalism, this is PR disguised as journalism."
"I can't remember seeing a piece like this in the non-Real Estate section NY Times. Shulman is ALLL over that one. Wonder if she spent money lobbying them as well."
77 comments:
A PR piece from Fultonex/TDC(Wellington Chen). It's all bullshit. But, if it's printed in the paper then it's true. Or as it is commonly known among the Orientals - spreading the appropriate propaganda.
"Queens Crapper"---
you took the words right out of my mouth---and now our gloves are off!
The Shul-Manes administration's plot to overwhelm Flushing's infrastructure and destroy it with ill-planed mega development---which benefits a cadre of politically connected developers---is just about complete.
Donald Manes' extremely apt accomplice Claire Shulman is still hanging on---I suppose in the hopes that she will see her corrupt mentor's design for both banks of the Flushing River finalized before she passes on to her "reward".
Until then, Shulman continues to remain a malignant, malevolent, cur, a courtesan of greedy real estate developers and drawing a fat salary---a nice golden parachute for a decrepit despot!
Back in 1986 she callously refused to support the overwhelming demands of the Flushing community to secure landmark status for the entire interior of the deserving historic RKO Keith's Theater.
She bares full responsibility for the current state of the Keith's in equal shares with the convicted criminal Tommy Huang.
Tommy's wrecking crew may have swung the actual sledgehammers and driven the bulldozers but (first) Manes (then) Shulman were his contractors!
Let it be known that the Keith's triad of destroyers is:
DONALD MANES; CLAIRE SHULMAN; TOMMY HUANG---aided and abetted by various local henchmen!
You, Flushing residents, can choose to believe Shulman & Company's public relations spin or you can elect to believe me.
Our Committee To Save The RKO Keith's Theatre Of Flushing Inc. has worked tirelessly for just about 3 decades WITHOUT MONETARY GAIN to protect and defend this historic site!
Claire Shulman, on the other hand, is paid quite well to speak with a forked tongue!
"You, Flushing residents, can choose to believe Shulman & Company's public relations spin or you can elect to believe me."
It doesn't matter... it's F-Liu-Xhing now!
Shulman will croak before she ever sees the Willets...LOL..."Wellington Pointe" job done.
Has anyone seen her lately?
She don't look very good.
What about CB 7's complicity and duplicity in the "developments?"
Aren't Gene and Chuck as guilty as Donald/Claire/Helen?
Lie #1:
"Rockefeller Group" NEVER built "Rockefeller Center".
That company wasn't even in existence way back then.
TDC is just trading on the Rockefeller name to give credibility to their overstuffed crappy Asian development project.
TDC's headquarters are located in Shanghai, China.
Their other one is located in Queens Crossing which is right across the street from municipal parking lot #1.
Is this some more of Michael Nussbaum's and/or Parkside's combined bull shit?
WELLINGTON CHEN, WELLINGTON CHEN, WELLINGTON CHEN, WELLINGTON CHEN!
Is this the little man behind TDC's curtain?
I did, indeed, mention "aided and abetted by local henchmen".
You can draw your own conclusions.
If the shoe should wind up fitting some members of CB#7---then so be it.
I did not specify them as being guilty.
These "local henchmen (and women)" know very well who they are!
P.S.
Are you or your assignees, following my comments this morning Ms. Shulman?
Patrick Thompson looks like he's just a "white boy" front man for TDC...an Asiatic operation.
Maybe he's gonna flip the Keith's site to them after he gets his variance.
After all isn't TDC going to develop Willets Point?
Wellington Chen might be behind all this.
Or, do you think that one of Tommy Huang's shell companies will wind up with the site again?
I'll bet Ackerman knows!
And why is Donald Manes' bag man Michael Nussbaum representing the Keith's owner?
Hey "Nussie" how about putting one of your "Shanghai Nights Ltd." clubs in the Keith's?
When your spin doctors have to resort to putting out a major puff piece like this one...surely you developers know that your time sensitive plans for developing Flushing are running into major trouble.
Newspaper headlines won't be able correct your mistakes.
It's already too late boys!
You're behind the clock.
Time is money in the real estate business and your time's nearly up!
But you crooked pols have certainly managed to displaced "people of color" from Flushing and replace them with Asiatics.
Wasn't that your main purpose of importing Oriental builders to this town from the get-go?
Well score, at least, partial success for you racists!
Overheard in the Stavisky camp (1986-87) Assemblyman Morton Hillman's community Affairs Committee:
"Thank God for the Asians.
We didn't want Flushing to become a south Jamaica".
Where is Kent Realty on all this?
They've been around forever.
Didn't one of teir past CEOs run ads in Taiwan inviting Asians to come to golden Flushing?
Isn't a Fultoxex subsidiary company in the travel agency business?
Did Wellington Chen arrange (via that Fultonex company) for some CB#7 personages to take trips outside of the USA?
Isn't Fultonex headquartered in the Wall Street area (Fulton St.)?
Isn't Parkside one of their "neighbors"?
How bloody convenient...and so very close to City Hall too!
I hope by now that Queens Crap has encouraged some of you bright young FBI agents to make your bones in the department by investigating some of these shady Flushing folks.
My comment to the NYT:
As a Flushing native and resident of Queens who returns there often, I'm disappointed by the uncreative looming redevelopment of its downtown and waterfront.
The waterfront plans described provide no actual water access. Flushing should have a town dock for small boats, kayaks, and canoes. It must also have areas of soft shoreline. I took Comptroller Liu (then a City Council Member) kayaking on the Flushing River six years ago, along with other elected officials. They must show leadership now by demanding true water access that is free, open, and sustainable.
Longer-term planning must include wetland restoration (I've observed herons, egrets, and other notable species in the marshes) and eventually daylighting the creek all of the way into Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Imagine being able to paddle from Manhattan's Chinatown to Flushing!
The existing retail development lauded in the article is a failure in a waterfront context: big box stores with their backs turned to the waterway, separated by parking and severed by a steep and forbidding bulkhead.
The RKO Keith was never a "cancer." It didn't spread. It was a neglected resource. The metastasizes cancer is mindless development.
I love Flushing's immigrant vitality, embrace (positive) change, and long for Flushing's reconnection to the harbor. This article has a puzzlingly positive tone about a sterile future.
Don't build towers with garages to invite congestion when you have mass transit. Don't pretend a promenade is water access. Don't turn a revered theater into a drug store and call it a victory. We want living streets, living culture, and a living waterfront with access to a living waterway.
Let's hope it's not too late to create a great and truly growing Flushing. Elected leaders must invite the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance and Regional Plan Association to bring far greater wisdom to the process, and then hold developers to the better vision that emerges.
What about Myra Baird Herce (of the Flushing Chamber Pot & Business Association)?
She's been around since Moses.
Didn't she simultaneously serve on both the Downtown Flushing Development Corp. and CB#7 during the reign of "the Donald" Manes?
Didn't Manes get her on the board and set up the DFDC?
Wasn't there $30,000 left unaccounted for when the DFDC folded?
H-m-m-m-m!
Back then it was, "Flushing, a world of choices" on lamp posts.
Now it's, "Flushing, a destination of choice" on street banners.
What a re-hash!
The BID co of BS!
Oops...a posting glitch just occurred:
The BID couldn't even come up with a new line of BS!
Will 'ya look at that "impressive" photo angle of "Sky View Parc"...LOL!
(Notice it's spelled "Parc" instead of "Park" because you can't see the park from most condo units).
Most of its residential units are unoccupied...empty looking and unlit at night.
Only the retail (big box stores) are up to decent capacity.
Muss developers certainly fucked up royally when they thought they could market "luxury" residential condos to unsuspecting Asians in a crappy location...adjacent to the Bland low income project; above the "fragrant" Flushing River; amid the noisy planes of La Guardia; the #7 train clacking by; the drifting sound of the Van Wyck Expressway traffic.
Location, location, location!
And this one stinks...Joshua!
It seems that Flushing isn't turning out to be what it's being sold to be!
"Erik"...
didn't John Liu and Toby Stavisky promise to swim in the Flushing River after the installation of the massive sewage retention tank was supposed to clean it up and remove its stench?
We're still waiting for Johnny boy and Toby Ann to do their back stroke past the effluent!
I hooked 5 condoms there last week trying to fish for carp...or was it crap?
Claire Shulman regarding Tommy Huang (circa 1987) "....hasn't he suffered enough?
Myra Baird Herce regarding Tommy Huang (1980's) "....He's the Donald Trump of Flushing."
Isn't it fortunate that the NY Times did this piece? Now Wellington Chen can use it to get more investors in his TDC/Fultonex/F&T Group projects.
Will ya just look at all of the Mikes involved in Floo-shing.
There's Mike Bloomberg, Mike Nussbaum, Mike Schenkler, Mike Lee, Mike Meyers...whew!
Hubba, hubba!
Did I leave anybody out?
MIKE CHECK!
Archangel St. Michael...protect us!
didn't John Liu and Toby Stavisky promise to swim in the Flushing River after the installation of the massive sewage retention tank was supposed to clean it up and remove its stench?
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Here's an idea: Lets name that sweage retention tanks after Claire Shulman. They're both full of shit!
Wait until Alan Hevesi sings his solo in order to cut his jail time.
He must know an awful lot about all of these shady Flushing dealings.
Perhaps Wellington Chen's house of cards will tumble!
Doesn't his brother spell it Chan?
And who is Eddie Chan?
@Most recent anonymous :
No, I never did promise to swim in the Flushing River (I prefer "Flushing Creek" but choose my battles ) and I don't know Toby Stavisky.
John Liu said that he has dreamed since he was a child of the Flushing River becoming clean enough for swimming. Improved sewage plants are part of that but we must also create greener streets to soak up storm water.
As for me, I've kayaked the FR for years, led tours and events to advocate for its cleanup and public access. I did swim in the Newtown Creek to urge its Superfund designation in front of media and two Congressional representatives.
I don't expect either waterway to be truly ready for swimming for decades
C'mon you FBI guys....you've got a barrel full of good tips here.
Let's see some follow up!
Put all these players in the big house.
Squeeze Tommy Huang's little peas and he'll give everybody up!
Yank a couple of Myra Herce's short hairs and the convictions will go on for years!
LOL!!!
Crapper - Flushing is ONLY for Asians now, has been that way for years, when the old whites die out, Flushing's fate will be sealed...enjoy, we can always move to Bayside Hills Gardens Forest Village
"Erik"...
didn't John Liu and Toby Stavisky promise to swim in the Flushing River after the installation of the massive sewage retention tank was supposed to clean it up and remove its stench?
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Uh oh! I just soiled myself. Evan! Please change my Depends. Then check our offshore North Flushing Senior Center account. You're such a good boy.
Here's an idea: Lets name that sweage retention tanks after Claire Shulman. They're both full of shit!
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The Claire Shulman Poop-a-Doodle Tank.....
Welcome to Flushing!
All this proposed development and no plans to upgrade the infrastucture, other than a new railroad station. Brilliant planning.
Welcome to Wellingtowne Flushing.
All this proposed development and no plans to upgrade the infrastucture, other than a new railroad station. Brilliant planning.
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Schools?
Hospitals?
Fire Houses?
Police?
EMT?
Electric Service?
Water?
Sewers?
Air Quality?
Roads?
Traffic?
Parking?
Who is going to pay for them? The tax paying citizens. Not the developers.
Improve the infrastucture before you begin your speculative real estate projects.
Improve the infrastucture before you begin your speculative real estate projects.
A M E N !
Flush Development!
Improve the infrastucture before you begin your speculative real estate projects.
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Nothing will change until you change city council and demand the media to start reporting reality instead of the politican press releases.
Erik, Flushing creek is horribly polluted from decades of industrial abuse. It would take a massive dredging/toxic cleanup to make it even remotely clean, and even then it connects to some pretty unswimmable water.
When the sewer mains were replaced along the Whitestone Expwy service road near the Wendy's the soil they dug up sat on site in containers for months because it was so contaminated finding somewhere to dump it was a challenge.
Shulman is what...a courtesan?
LOL!
That's some fancy word for just a common low down scum sucking slut!
Uh..."Erik"...please put your reading glasses on.
Nobody asked you if YOU if you would ever swim in the Flushing River (or creek).
Now go and kayak back to Nyack or wherever you live now.
Erik Baard said...
...and I don't know Toby Stavisky.
But I want to "know" you, big boy. Winky Winky
Psssst. Meet me tomorrow at the boat dock. I have something to show you.
If those spin doctors, Nussbaum & Parkside, have to plant such a story in the NY Times in order to convince Asiatic investors to throw their money into Floo-shing...things must be pretty bad.
Was Flushing Commons being pushed forward on spec?
You bet it was!
And now all of Wellington Chen's Shanghai (?) investors are getting cold feet just like they did with F&T's Queens Crossing...right across the street!
Word is getting around in China that there are better places to dump cash instead of faltering Flushing.
And that's the damn truth!
Michel Lee is running scared too!
The Orientals are already investing elsewhere in the USA and Canada.
So maybe all of these high tone plans for Flushing are getting flushed down the toilet!
Shulman will be taking her "dirt nap" before she ever sees Willets Point developed.
Amen!
How's your blood pressure today "granny"?
Hey Claire...did you pay your illegal lobbying fines yet, or does Fred Wilpon have to throw another keep out of jail party for you at Shitty Field?
Shulman's last words:
"????????????"(inaudible).
What's that, we can't hear you "granny"...speak up.
CODE BLUE!
"Bang...zoom...to the moon...(with your astronaut daughter)".
Who's going to tell Richie Grace that his properties will be comdemned? I hope they give that chore to Wellington Z. Chen.
Manes, Shulman, Marshall, and CB7 are not the only accomplices in the rape of Flushing. What about Flushing's other elected officials,
Meng, Liu, Koo, Stavisky?
Although Flushing bashing is the most popular sport here, there is no question that Flushing is booming. The store rent on Main. St is now even more expensive than Midtown Manhattn.
Being Chinese myself, I don't think Flushing is ONLY for Asians. If someone can open a really good Italian bakery, or an Irish bar that serves really juicy burgers, he will strike gold.
I really hate that I have to drive to Lulu's at Fresh Meadows to get Cheesecake...
"the main st. store rent is more expensive than mid-town manhattan"
you are nuts.
fifth avenue and madison avenue is equal or less than flushing ,main street ?
your smoking that thai weed again,bike jockey commander.
Pull your head out of your chow mein...China boy...and stop puffing your opium for a second.
Flushing real estate ain't worth shit compared to Manhattan's gold on 5th avenue.
He must be one of Wellington Z. Chen's shills.
Juicy burgers...LOL...my fuckin' ass burgers!
Eat my hot dog!
Rents are pretty high in some of those shitty booth stores...thanks to some rent gouging landlords.
They divide up a normal size retail space into souvenir stands selling crap and charge the renter $3,000 a month for his space if the renter is stupid enough to pay it.
Flushing was planned as a colony by the likes of Kent Realty, Manes, Shulman, the Stavisky mob, etc. strictly for Asiatics!
Civilized people started taking their trade elsewhere 10 years ago.
Hope you Orientals can support ($$$$$) your new colony.
You won't be getting any Occidental
help ($$$$$).
Macy's will be moving soon...when their customers lose their parking spots at Muni Lot #1 to the Flushing Commons project.
"We don't know if we can stop what's happening to downtown Flushing but we're going to try to make sure that it doesn't spread out".
Source:
A Stavisky camp spokesman...1987
at one of Assemblyman Morton Hillman's Community Affairs Committee meetings.
Sign the deed over to Wellington Z. Chen with CB#7's bobble heads presiding.
THEN CUT OFF NYC, NYS, US TAX MONEY TO THE FLOO-SHING COLONY!
Uh...speaking of tax money...a lot of Oriental customers don't pay sales tax.
An average transaction:
Merchant:
"That'll be $5.00 and 48 cents tax.
Customer:
"Tu muh" (too much) no tah" (I won't pay the tax).
So the merchant doesn't collect the sales tax if he wants to make the sale.
You forgot all those whore houses and gambling dens that certainly don't pay any taxes!
Historically speaking, the Chinese are known for paying high rents to live in shit just to be next to their fellow countrymen in their cramped Oriental ghetto.
Look at Manhattan and Brooklyn's China towns.
High rents...crappy living.
Educated, higher class Asians live in Scarsdale, Forest Hills Gardens, Northeast Queens, etc.
You'll never sell Flushing as a "destination of choice"...you Flushing BID scammers.
It's purely a transportation hub and a destination of little choice.
Viewing Flushing strictly in Oriental terms, it is underutilized and could stand much more development.
An average Asiatic can make a home in a small studio apartment with 15 other family members.
On your next vacation to New York be sure to visit "Sardine City", an Oriental "paradise", located in vibrant, bustling downtown Fluxhiang!
Pass by "Queens Crossing" another Wellington Chen/TDC "success" story at night.
You'll see a lot of unlit empty units.
So why is NYC selling off Muni Lot#1 (right across the street) to TDC when they should, at least, be leasing it?
What is Wellington Chen's take from all this?
Didn't Claire Shulman help him acquire his Little Neck house?
Now, we know that Wellington (or his minions) are reading all this stuff.
He's probably fuming like a smoke stack...all red faced...stomping like a restless bull around his dining room table!
But he can't hide from the truth forever just because he tries to keep his face out of the press and maintain a low profile.
The big carp might swim at the very bottom of the pond to escape detection but sooner or later he'll get hooked.
Arrogant minnows like Chen can always be successfully baited with flattery.
He can't stand any criticism and
goes ballistic if he gets it.
Now who are you going to call up and complain to "Welly"..."Crappie"?
LOL...right in your face...if you haven't already "lost face"...LOL!
Flushing was destroyed long ago...time to get over it old whitey...at least you have Bayside (for now) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Will ya just look at all of the Mikes involved in Floo-shing.
There's Mike Bloomberg, Mike Nussbaum, Mike Schenkler, Mike Lee, Mike Meyers...whew!
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You forgot Mike Hunt.
Say that name quickly and you have a new nickname for Claire, "the big c", Shulman.
Fact: Members of CB#7, including the District Manager, consult with Wellington Z. Chen on a regular basis when it comes to development projects in Flushing.
TEO LAY LO MON CHOW HAI
JERRY, CHECK OUT A NEW CB7 AND THE PETITION LINK ON THE TOP RIGHT OF CRAPPYS PAGE.
Muss developers certainly fucked up royally when they thought they could market "luxury" residential condos to unsuspecting Asians in a crappy location...adjacent to the Bland low income project; above the "fragrant" Flushing River; amid the noisy planes of La Guardia; the #7 train clacking by; the drifting sound of the Van Wyck Expressway traffic.
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MUSS DEVELOPMENT, Who on CB7 works for MUSS??????????????
HMMMMMMMM??????????????????
"You, Flushing residents, can choose to believe Shulman & Company's public relations spin or you can elect to believe me."
- Jerry Rotondi
No thanks Jerry. I seem to recall that Claire was reelected three times and was the most popular elected official Queens had ever seen. You however couldn't be elected by the mangy crew that calls this place home. They would turn on you in two seconds or less.
The shame of it is you appear to be one of the more intelligent denizens of this operation. That is just a comment on the rest of the Crap around here.
lol losers. Flushing is own by us Chinese now. Move your ass out if you aren't happy!
:)
Actually I was asked if I would be interested in running on the Democratic slate for district leader back in 1987.
I declined.
I'm pathologically honest and therefore would make a very poor politician.
But thanks for your compliment regarding my intelligence.
Shulman got re-elect 3 times because Queens voters are practically brain dead and can't see that she's really a wolf hiding in sheep skin.
But I agree that she's the most popular Queens elected official that a developer can buy!
She learned everything she knows at the feet of her boss Donald Manes while, most likely, she was on the down-low!
I wonder if Wellington Zhou Chen has recovered from his attack of apoplexy yet reading all about himself on Queens Crap ???
"Being Chinese myself, I don't think Flushing is ONLY for Asians. If someone can open a really good Italian bakery, or an Irish bar that serves really juicy burgers, he will strike gold."
EAT ME!!!
Let's develop Claire Shulman's nabe!
Let's develop Wellington Zhou Chen's neighborhood!
Wouldn't his quiet Little Neck block look nice surrounded by 20 story buildings?
Wasn't Flushing,
"...ripe for the taking..."?
ZHOU CHEN!
ZHOU CHEN!
ZHOU CHEN!
Isn't he the low key agent in the Taiwanese take-over of Flushing?
Manes, Shulman, the Staviskys only held the the door open for the Asiatic horde in exchange for (illegal?) political campaign contributions.
Tommy Huang served as a diversion introduced to the battlefield.
While all eyes were too busy focused on Huang...was Wellington ZHOU Chen the puppet master quietly working his "magic" behind the curtain ???
Why not ask Myra Baird Herce?
She was around at the time that "Welly" first came here.
FUCK FLUSHING ITS A DUMP HAS BEEN FOR YEARS QUEENS IS LOST!
"If someone can open a really good Italian bakery, or an Irish bar that serves really juicy burgers,..."
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Um, I take it you are either young or new to Flushing or both. We USED to have those things. Heck, just on Main St between Union St and Roosevelt there was a Greek Diner, a Jewish Deli, a bakery, a coffee shop (a real one which is like a scaled down diner), a lovely restaurant in Sterns (now Macys), the lunch counter at Woolworths, the bar & grill on the corner, etc. We would like those things back, but it will never be...
I've lived in Flushing all my life-and am stunned at the changes that are ruining a once-beautiful area.
Karaoke bars (Read: whore houses) are all over. In North Flushing, there are 6 in a four block stretch. What is the 109th precinct doing--Nothing!
Wonderful home being destroyed to put up garish shitholes with no sense of style or architecture-and being built by illegal help.
Numerous mini-malls and the like which have made walking Main Street a nightmare (and Main street is a filthy dump..)
Blame Manes (yep) and Schulman (oh, yeah!) But don't forget cith hall, the Landmarks Preservation (feh!) Commission. ALL of them had a chance to save large parts of Flushing-but money from Asian developers was far more important.
Think that any politician want that in their own areas? No, they keep that from happening. As for the Asians-I'm married to a Shanghainese woman-I have no problem with them (other than architectural style and some groups being pathetically rude and horrid drivers) But I'm disgusted with making this area a slum. Would they want this done in their hometowns?
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