From Urban Review, Fall 2005:Having worked in Bayside for nearly five years [as executive assistant to Congress Member Gary Ackerman] and having grown up near the area, I see both the pros and cons of this new designation. While it's true that Bayside maintains the Small Town, USA atmosphere that is rare in a constantly growing borough like Queens, it is also an area that is demographically homogeneous. The area is majority white and middle to upper middle class. The area also remains quite expensive, with house prices ranging from $450,000 to $750,000 and over.
However, while theoretically the rezoning is meant to protect the character and integrity of the neighborhood as a whole, I believe that it is also meant to prevent the neighborhood from fully representing the diversity of the rest of the borough. The majority of McMansions are being built to house ethnicities besides those who currently reside in the area.
Ultimately, I believe that zoning designation as restrictive as the R2A is meant to prevent people from being able to choose what they want their house to look like. It can only end up creating neighborhoods no different than those created by William Levitt a half century ago.
- Claudia Filomena, then a Hunter College Master's degree student.
Now she's a Community Affairs Unit Borough Director for Queens. (There are 2. And I have no idea who Morgan Jones is.)
Claudia is clueless about zoning and overdevelopment. It's obvious why she was hired for her current job as apologist for the Bloomberg administration.
Has anyone actually ever seen this person or received assistance from her? How about just an e-mail reply? I've heard nothing but complaints.
Why do we have a CAU anyway since they never actually assist anyone?
14 comments:
My favorite part of the CAU is that there is no telephone number for them anywhere online and if you call 311 they don't have a number for them either. CB7 wouldn't give me the number either. It's a joke.
she is naive about the previous R3/2 vs R2A zoning in Bayside.
my block under R3/2 allowed a 60x100 lot to become a attached two over two family (total of four family) and two illegal basement apartments.
this was the result on three lots.now the block is over populated with cars and transient rental tenants.the driveways are too narrow so that the car doors can not be opened.tenants refuse to park 3 cars in a row in a drive way,because they have to be moved constantly. so they park on the front lawn/concrete.because two buildings were squeezed into one lot, the tiny rooms only fit tiny asian people.the trees were destroyed along with the front lawns.
the Ackerman CAU Director, from socialist trained Hunter College will try to high rise the area ,so more democrat voters can vote for her boss and future tweeders.
the new R-2A zoning protected the last 60 x 100 house from demolition, on the tree lined, green lawn, old suburban style Bayside block.
Yep....on her knees before Emperor Bloomberg!
Notice how all of these "vibrant, diverse" proponent politicians live in exclusively not so diverse prime nabes themselves.
Congressman Gary Ackerman hails from Jamaica Estates with strict zoning.
Let's up-zone that nabe to R-4 and watch those bleeding heart pols move out PDQ!
Regarding the CAU:
Haven't they renamed the Community Assistance Unit to the Community Affairs Unit....since they do not assist anyone anymore?
It's just like when they renamed the Community Planning Boards to ,the Community Boards because they don't do any planning....except, maybe, to sell out your nabes to developers.
Get a decent haircut Claudia.
You look like a teacher's aide.
Come on guys you know what this is, a patronage job. The city, state and fed are full of them. Wasted taxpayer money. The worst part is these idiots begin to think they are important and start implementing some whacked out policies that justify there existence, vote for Bob Turner today, vote out all incumbents in the next election, and let’s start a new beginning.
She's a fat idiot.
The paper is from 2005. Really? how does one even find something like this? Is it a slow news day or something? It is something someone in college wrote, maybe for extra credit, and doesn't necessarily reflect their own opinions. I know I have written plenty of things I don't necessarily agree with, but geared what I was writing to my audience. This was 6 years ago and crappy even stated he has never heard of her and doesn't know what she does, but has only heard bad things? which is it? Have you heard bad things of her (not the CAU), or have you never heard of her?
I don't have any experience with either the CAU or this woman, but figured I would play devils advocate here since the comments seemed a little one sided and have little to do with this person and what she wrote before her professional career 6 years ago.
You write for a living, do you? Scary. Well let me walk you through the post. First of all, that paper was written when she was a grad student, not an undergrad. She was a full-fledged adult stating her own opinion - note "I believe" written several times.
Next, I never said I never heard of her. Her name comes up all the time. She attended 9/11 events in Queens representing the mayor. She was appointed to help people with issues, although I haven't found one person yet who has been helped by her. The only feedback I have gotten about Claudia is that she is MIA on everything.
Slow news day? Seriously, you have no idea what this blog is about if you are writing comments like that. It's about holding people accountable. Maybe if your neighborhood is deemed too "homogenous" by Claudia, you're on your own.
She has always been polite and responded to our emails. She promised to look into and follow up on a couple issues, which she kind of sort of did. She got back to me and said that whatever the Community board , Mayors office, Councilman said was the final answer.
I even had a phone number for her once, 212 788 7448, but they changed that to someone elses number now not quite sure who.
She appears to be your typical mouthpiece for the Mayors office. Polite yet still tells you what the Mayor Wants and thats that.
Just my dealings with her.
So we have a file a freedom of information act request to get the CAU phone number?
How the do I get a job like this?
who do I have to blow?
We need a Henry George tax to dismantle the feudalism of these coercive racketeers who supported the enemy in the Civil, Terror and both World Wars. Feudals all work in unproductive, parasitic, casuistrous professions like accounting, real estate, programming (really just clerks) and of course, law.
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