Saturday, May 10, 2014

Squatters invade unfinished Huang houses


From the Queens Chronicle:

Pat Martin’s troubles began 12 years ago and they’ve only gotten worse.

The Bayside homeowner has the bad luck of living next door to a Tommy Huang building project gone wrong, and despite pleas to the city for help, there’s little she can do about it.

Huang is a Flushing developer who with his wife and son was banned last year by the state from real estate construction or sales for five years over various offenses in Queens. They pleaded guilty to felony securities fraud.

In 2012, Huang purchased a single-family ranch house at 39-39 223 St., next door to Martin. He tore it down and replaced it with one house on 223rd Street and three on the side of the property, along with a new access road that was given the name Mia Drive.

According to several neighbors in the pricey neighborhood and area elected officials, they have never seen a building project done in such a shoddy manner. The street overlooks Little Neck Bay.

Workmen excavated too close to Martin’s property, causing a retaining wall to collapse. Her property lost 3 feet of land, fencing, lighting and the irrigation system. A court case was recently settled, which Martin could not discuss, but it was drawn out for years and legal fees mounted.

There has been a stop-work order on the property since 2007 and Huang cannot get certificates of occupancy for the houses.

The first-floor windows are boarded up but that hasn’t stopped vandals from ransacking one of the houses and holding parties in others, Martin said. She believes people are living in the houses from time to time and there is power because she sees lights on at night.

Last Friday, however, was the last straw for the beleaguered Baysider. Police were called to the site by a neighbor who saw activity on the property. Martin said several partygoers ran onto her property to escape. She screamed and they took off.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what are your elected officials doing? We all know how sensitive they are to criticism or being held accountable.

A few well publicized public stunts linking their delicate public personas to this problem should do wonders to solve this rather quickly.

Do NOT bother with 311 except to record this with the city once.

Anonymous said...

Tommy huang ruining things again.... what else is new?

Joe Moretti said...

Well, how the fuck was this done in the first place, without the city stepping in from the get go.

As I said a million times before, the quality of life is poor in NYC, which does not justify the cost of living or property values. This type of poor quality of life is something you would see in Detroit, not something you should see in "the greatest city in the world."

They need to stop with that catch phrase, it is a fucking joke.

Anonymous said...

Bayside is not what it use to be !

Anonymous said...

No one cares. NYC is for the super rich who live in their high rises, and the gentrification interlopers who eventually abandon neighborhoods for the next new thing. Let it burn.

Anonymous said...

Gentrification Interlopers = Hipsters ?

Anonymous said...

If Huang weren't joined at the hip to Manes and Shulman this wouldn't have happened. He continues to buy his protection even though he appears less active than in the 1980s.

Now his good cousin, John Liu, seems to be running for another political office as yet undetermined.

Tommy Huang, the bad seed from a low born criminal family, is still at large thanks to his current political cover!

Maybe Alice LIU Huang and John Liu are planning their next move.

Hey you FBI guys and gals...keep the investigation going.

Liu's top campaign staffers, Jenny and Oliver, might have been convicted but they're only the tip of the iceberg!

Enjoy this read, Johnny boy.

Jerry Rotondi said...

Note:

When past council member Julia Harrison urged then borough president Claire Shulman to pursue further legal action against Tommy Huang for what he did to the historic RKO Keith's Theater--this was Shulman's reply.

"Hasn't he suffered enough. He hasn't been able to build on that site for two years".

I rest my case. Borough hall was in cahoots with this criminal.

an anonymous politician said...

Oh, but we must not offend the Asians.
They have paid for many of my political campaigns.

Anonymous said...

These houses should be torn down. Eyesores.