Sunday, July 5, 2015

Will John Paulson stop Steinway Mansion destruction?

From George the Atheist

45 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why not reveal your true identity, George? I applaud you making the only real effort to defend Steinway. Yet, how do you expect any businessman to respect anyone who remains in the shadows?

Anonymous said...

I see, The other purpose is to defend GAHS and its "subsidiary" group, Frinds of Steinway.
This move to contact Paulson should have come earlier. But, hey, maybe it will work. We certainly hope so.

Anonymous said...

Will all the king's horses and all the king's men .......who couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again..... be able to salvage this rotten situation?
Maybe Paulson's millions can.

Anonymous said...

As an information archive RE Steinway, I guess you can say that GAHS is extremely capable of furnishing such needed historical info to Mr. Paulson.
Why single out Mr. Singleton, specifically, for being "capable"? Does he need defending? He certainly is a capable executive director of GAHS as far as any capability goes. GAHS has done their job , as far as they can go without making any waves that might jeapordize their funding stream. All such societies must be diplomatic.

Anonymous said...

The only way to save it is for Paulson to offer the new owner a buyout price that would pay for all the rent he will make over the years renting out the warehouses he is building and then tripple the offer. Will he? The owner, knowing full well, that Paulson has millions, and that there is a hunger to save the site will extract his blackmail. Or....LOL....maybe Paulson will whisper a few words into Melinda Katz's ears and magic will happen.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Big Bob must have cried a river and begged the silver tongued George the Atheist to pull his bacon out of the fire.
Honestly, why wasn't this attempt to contact our savior millionaire earlier, and by GAHS directly? It's not so easy to explain all that away.
GAHS has the reputation, whereas George is an anonymous poster on Queens Crap. Who does the multi millionaire give his ear to first?
Hmmmmmm, there is more to this than meets the eyes and ears if QC readers. Yay think?

Anonymous said...

I hope that John Paulson follows Queens Crap. A letter of outreach to him authored by GAHS should have been sent as soon as Paulson bought Steinway. Duh....doesn't that sound reasonable? GAHS's preference fir remaining diplomatically mute has revealed them for what they are. You can decide for yourselves exactly how effective they have been in this fight to save Steinway.

Jerry Rotondi, longtime preservationist said...

Paulson has the financial resources to buy the property for the ice cream money that our crooked Queens pols refused to put up .
Government, especially in Queens, is always crying about being broke. Money can always be found for hipster dog runs in parks or flashy fireworks shows. For the real things,. which are the pride of Queens , they are always crying poverty.
An open message for Melinda Katz and other developer owned politicians ... you cannot fool all of the people, all of the time. Even the sleepy voters are beginning to wake up.

Anonymous said...

Paulson runs a hedge fund. He made his millions when the housing market collapsed.
How much attention will he give to this eleventh hour plea? Better luck with Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm...looks like GAHS has passed their responsibility onto the more capable George.
Shame on you for not taking this lead earlier!

Anonymous said...

This serves as a clever piece of propaganda to draw fire away from GAHS and its director for not having taken this action earlier.
Thanks anyway George. You did what should have been done. I hope you also wrote a letter to Paulson ..... one that revealed your identity so that you would be taken seriously. Not that I do not have all the respect in the world for Queens Crap.....but I hope one of Paulson's staff follows this site.

Anonymous said...

A "Historical Heritage Site"? This is the first time I've had it called that. I know that the United Nations has a list of World Heritage Sites.
The mansion is a NYC exterior Landmark....but that is all. Too bad ....it should be considered a world treasure since Steinway is the piano choice of some of the greatest concert pianists known. Vladimir Horowitz insisted on choosing a personal piano to perform on when he returned to the concert stage of Carnegie Hall after a long absence.
He went to Steinway Hall on 57th Street to personally select a piano. Now Steinway Hall is closed. Why not ask Paulson to save that too?

The Astoria Avenger said...

"Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle". Melinda Katz is playing "Chopsticks" on her parlor piano. One of her parents founded the Queens Symphony Orchestra so she knows the score. Now she's banging out her version of "Heart and Soul". That will be her sole contribution in saving Steinway. Then she washes her hands of the whole matter.

Anonymous said...

If Mike Halberuan didn't want to have his cake and eat it too, he would have inserted a deed restriction which would have forbidden any buyer from subdividing the property. Mike wanted the most he could get for the site back in the 90s but part of him really never wanted to sell his prize. Mike got to die on the dining room table in Steinway. So everybody got nothing. Rest in peace Mike. I understand your love hate relationship with your white elephant, the mansion. Thank G-d, for the moment, the building is there.

Anonymous said...

How pathetic. A last minute plea for a stay of execution online to the guv of millions....a son of Queens.
J.P. gave one hundred million dollars to the Central Park Conservancy. Some son of Queens he is.
Then again, would he waste that kind of dough to have it squandered by the folks at Flushing Meadows Corona Park?
No savvy multi millionaire would.

Anonymous said...

Since when is the Friends of Steinway a subsidiary of the Greater Astoria Historical Society?
Have they become a "holding company"? Step up to the plate and put your name behind your efforts.

Anonymous said...

I know who George the Atheist is.

He is BATMAN!

Anonymous said...

His name is George Delis former leader of community board #1

Anonymous said...

George has some kind of idea that he is as important to Paulson as he is to himself.

Paulson stood by when Steinway Hall in Manhattan closed.
Why should he care about optical instrument manufacturer Benjamin Pike's former residence in Queens?
Pike built the mansion. The Steinways bought it second hand.

This situation bites the big one. But stopping backhoes now will take more than money.
The Maginot Line could not stop the Germans during the Great War. GAHS is an antiquated fixed gun position wall in a mobile war.
Get with the new tunes and stop playing those old wax cylinders.

Anonymous said...

Paulson made his millions watching people losing their homes.
Why should he give a fig for a Pike-Steinway-Halberian home being lost?
Buying the Steinway brand was purely a good business investment for J.P.
Buying a money pit mansion was not.
Blue chip versus junk bonds. That's what it comes down to.
Reality bites. Soon Queens won't have an ass left to take a good dump with.
Our borough presidents are anti historic preservation. Then the trickle down effect is felt in every district office of practically every Queens politician. There goes you history and neighborhood if it benefits a developer pal of a pol.

Anonymous said...

Then, my friend, f%#@k the Queens politicians.

Anonymous said...

When Mr. Paulson donates to Central Park, everyone in the social registry takes note. If Mr. Paulson were to donate to a Queens institution, few people would notice.

Anonymous said...

Blame the Vallones. The people behind this donnybrook are the Vallones - pure n simple. Every time someone would talk to Mike he brought up what they told him to do.

As it was explained to me, half of Queens was invited to a meeting about the mansion a few months before Mike died. It was held at Citibank in Vollonia. To the right of Peter was the Historic House Trust guy, and to his left, someone from St Micheal's Cemetery. Wha?

Well was St Micheals once listed as a client of daddy's consulting firm?

Instead of supporting the community's effort to buy the mansion, was Jr strategy dictated by daddy's consulting firm client? Does this explain his fixation not on looking at everyone option to save the mansion, but on making a park?

Adding to the mystery were bills submitted by Gianaris and Simotas

http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2013/08/does-st-michaels-cemetery-have-land-to.html

St. Michael's Cemetery has agreed to transfer a replacement parcel of land to the City of New York in order to replace the park land acquired and ensure that the western Queens community does not lose valuable green space.

Was the Mansion that space?

Does this explain the refusal of Jr to meet with the Friends, or to discuss anything else but parkland? Or the refusal of the Astoria pols, despite Markey and borough hall, to help the Friends?

We lost 2010, 2011, 2012 to this nutty scheme. By the time the Friends decided to move forward it was too late.

Look at what you see there today.

Don't blame the Friends. Blame the Astoria politicians for this

Anonymous said...

Why couldn't that be parkspace? That would have prevented current events from happening. It's the LAND around the mansion that needed to be saved more so than the mansion, which is protected by landmarking. The problem is thinking the Historic House Trust can afford to add another mansion to its collection. They're basically broke.

Anonymous said...

Forget about that meeting with all the big muck-a-mucks.
Mike Halberian could have inserted a deed restriction forbidding the subdividing of the property.
This way, whatever would be done with the mansion in the future , Steinway would have been protected.
Mike was looking out after his own financial interests. He wanted HIS price for the property.
Now let's get back to the current situation.
Where is GAHS's letter to Paulson? When will GAHS be taking to the steps of Queens borough hall
to hold a rally against this outrage?
Even though it might be a waste right now, shoving it up,the nose of beep Katz would be the right thing to do,
for history's sake...dontcha think?
But they won't . They are same lazy, browbeaten sheep like the rest of Queens residents.

Anonymous said...

Not viable as a park and would have cost a small fortune of public money to restore to say nothing to run.

The Steinway Arts District is far better idea that would bring in private monies.

Of course it would interfere with a tiny group of well connected's ideas on what is best for us, but then, for once, it would be the broader community that would benefit with housing, jobs, education, dining.

How refreshing.

Anonymous said...

mansion, which is protected by landmarking.

yea, sure, that garbage again.

Anonymous said...

Puhleeze!
GAHS is more concerned with protecting and enhancing their own image and keeping their digs.
Do not expect them to stick their neck out for anything.
Paying their rent and protecting their archives trumps all other matters.
Hell, they wouldn't even risk sticking their noses out their fourth floor window to see if it's raining.
Keep on mounting exhibits. Collect your historic material.
Milk Kevin Walsh's ability to show us all Firgotten New York treasures on his walking tours.
After all that, waddaya contribute to protect Astoria's history?

Anonymous said...

Of course the Vallones are guilty.
But organizations like Queens Historical Society, greater Astoria Historical Society
are accomplices at this point for not screaming out their condemnation regarding what is going on.
In the cases of genocide that have occurred throughout history, silence contributed to those crimes.
At least no human soul is being murdered here. Only a historic site is being dismembered.
You all disgust me!

Anonymous said...

Historic House Trust took 20 years to do anything about Bowne House - what a disgrace! and the first thing they wanted to do was chop down the trees at Steinway - so much for park!

Jerry Rotondi said...

FYI:
Fort Totten got to be parkland after the Fort Totten Conservancy Inc. (of which I was a board member) formed and
fought a resourceful and fierce battle to make it happen. This was all put into motion from the very beginning, when the army was making plans to decommission the fort.

It was not easy, but I am proud to say that this was one of Queens' few success stories. The community, of course, was behind us.

Where is Astoria's community?
That was a rhetorical question. The answer is nowhere. The Vallones run Vallonia. All of their serfs pay tribute to them.

I would suggest that the Greater Astoria Historical Society act as host to all of the other preservation groups throughout Queens
in holding a press conference to shine light on what is going on at the Steinway site.

It might be too late but somebody has to scream out some outrage, at the very least, no matter how late.

Anonymous said...

But the "Friends of Steinway" are to blame. They seemed to insist on traveling the same old road , that every naive preservation group travels....get the politicians on your side. You knew, in advance, that Astoria's politicians are in it for themselves. So why beat the same old dead horse? Your time could have been better spent elsewhere and more creatively than trying to find an agreeable solution with the very folks...banks, pol's, etc. that really do not care. You are the enablers....ladies and gents.
Neville Chamerlain tried to work with Hitler. The result...London lived through the blitz and was almost lost.
Shame on your feeble efforts. You should have taken a lesson from Winston Churchill.

Anonymous said...

Why couldn't that be park space? C'mon, a park in the middle of nowhere. Get real!

Anonymous said...

The problem with historical societies is that they attract the scholarly types.
Can you imagine an army of nerds and thinkers going up against powerful Sparta?
Their other problem is they do not know how to court the money crowd.
An added problem is that in Queens the money crowd is likely to be developers.

So what's to do?
Go back and regroup.

Sam Colt went to his drawing board and developed and marketed
the first practical dependable multi shit pistol. It became a rousing success throughout the world.
"God created Man. Sam Colt made them equal". That was the motto of the day.
Find ways to "equalize" yourselves against the more powerful developers, and their lobbyists, that run Queens.
Learn how to outgun them.

Anonymous said...

But the "Friends of Steinway" are to blame.

Horse pattuties. While those pols are on our dime they serve our needs.

They don't they get outed. People read this. People think.

Thanks for the Friends in showing everyone what these people are made of.

Anonymous said...

That was a rhetorical question. The answer is nowhere. The Vallones run Vallonia. All of their serfs pay tribute to them.
--
Well, whatever you can say about Astoria pols, they ain't in jail like your Flushing pols.

Anonymous said...

This is a weird conversation - no one really knows what they are talking about and seem only to make angry comments.

All less than helpful.

Jerry Rotondi said...

True! But In Flushing, we catch our's. Your Astoria pol's will not likely see jail time.
Mc Laughlin...jailed. Halloran ....jailed. I'm waiting to see our list completed by having a Congressmember jailed.
So far it's only city and state officials.

It doesn't really matter. Crooked politicians grow like weeds. Only the voters can prevent any from taking root by voting wisely.
Anyway, bub, what do your comparison of Flushing's VS Astoria's politicians have to do with stopping the destruction now?
You're off the beam and Steinway is in the soup. Get it?

Anonymous said...

Horse patties? You are the one who has been dropping them by the bushel full along the road.
Big Bob is salting this "weird conversation" with what he thinks are insightful witticisms.
The angry comments reveal the truth about GAHS, Friends of Steinway, Queens Historical Society, crooked politicians, etc.
In other words, the truth really hurts. Anger directed toward ineffectual "preservation" groups is well deserved, if it comes to that.

Anonymous said...

Whew!
Now if we could have harnessed all of this venom earlier, the Steinway site might not be suffering damage.
Anger after the fact, is a poor substitute for early planning.
Look....wake up....the site is gone! Paulson, G-d Almighty cannot restore it.
What is the next endangered site? Plan early. Get involved to save it well before the crisis reaches the eleventh hour.

Anonymous said...

Yadda, yadda, yadda!
Still no letter to Paulson written by GAHS I'll bet.
Still no date for a rally at borough hall suggested by them either.
It looks like YOU have been "outed" for not being very resourceful.
We know, GAHS hiding in the closet is easier and safer.

Anonymous said...

John Paulson for Mayor!

Anonymous said...

IMG_4220.JPG

The mystery is solved see pic of "George the Athiest" . I really hope your able to view this pic everyone will get a good laugh, a withered raggedy mess. Let's just say very different from the image he portrays ad his background photo.

Queens Crapper said...

Um, no we can't see it, and I'm not outing anyone that doesn't want to be outed.

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