Queens Crap: 6 months of destruction at the Steinway Mansion site

Monday, October 5, 2015

6 months of destruction at the Steinway Mansion site

What the politicians wrought. Almost 6 months since the start of construction. This could have been a park. Now see what you have.

13 comments:

(sarc) said...: Oh yes.

It should have been another unused park.

I am sure it would have cost only a few billion dollars.

And what politician's name should have been memorialized in perpetuity?; Monday, October 05, 2015
JQ said...: eerie, it now looks like the Bates Manor. And another site where people are forced to walk in the street with traffic.

The only park development the city had in the past 5 years is that stupid tourist cesspool highline and those traffic obstructing pedestrian plazas.

And what happened to the million trees program? How many were killed carving around the mansion? And what are those commercial buildings going to be? I seen similar buildings and warehouses in greenpoint by mccarren and they are art galleries.

Travesty. But this surgical destruction is a perfect symbol of the era we all live in now.

This is being vibrant?; Monday, October 05, 2015
Anonymous said...: Astoria should be ashamed of itself - don't know any community with so little pride - or so stupid in throwing away an opportunity by letting its politicians make all its decisions.

Send the kids to enjoy the concrete grand piano spray and the pets to the dog run in those parks. With that money the community could have purchased the mansion.

Now someone's brother in law will get $500,000 for $15,000 in concrete.; Monday, October 05, 2015
Anonymous said...: What hath GAHS wrought? Meetings, lectures, yadda yadda?
Go back to your musty archives. You are no fighters!
Uh....and do not bother to counterposting here. Everybody's got your number!
Score #1 for being a weakling.; Monday, October 05, 2015
georgetheatheist said...: Read it and weep (if there are any tears left):

Officials Announce $1 Million in Funding for Astoria Dog Park.

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz tells us therein:

"The Astoria Dog Park will become the newest public treasure in the neighborhood offering a safe environment for families to enjoy with their four-legged family members. Special thanks to Councilmember Constantinides for his leadership..."

"The newest public treasure"? Ms. Katz, what about the venerable 1858 public treasure known as the Steinway Mansion? Built before Abraham Lincoln was President. That venerable edifice and ALL the surrounding acreage seen in my video above was available for only $2.6 million.

Folks, one million dollars - that's $1,000,000.00 - has been allocated for dogs to run around - let's be completely frank here - smelling their assholes and balls under the Triborough Bridge. And we are told that the Astoria Dog Owners Association and the Old Astoria neighborhood Association heartily approved. Civic catatonia is indeed contagious.

Didn't anyone ever think that those dogs could have run around smelling their assholes and balls at the Steinway Mansion site? Canine Heaven it seems to me. That dog run would have been s-p-a-c-i-o-u-s.

Then Gianaris, the State Senator, chimes in:

"Providing our growing neighborhood with additional park space is one of my top priorities . . .As we continue to invest in our parks for the benefit of all neighborhood residents, today’s efforts will help bring a new safe and enjoyable place for our community."

Does this man take us for fools? [You know the answer.]

Let me ask you all a question. Did the original owner of the Mansion, Benjamin Pike, need a municipally-funded dog run for his pooch? Did the subsequent owners, the Steinways and Halberians, need a dog run for Fido? What is this inane insanity with dog runs? What is this inane insanity with destroying our historical heritage?

Me? I think that one million could have been spent more wisely. Don't you?　; Monday, October 05, 2015
Anonymous said...: The role of the media played a big part in this mess - their handling of this reminds me of watching a kids softball game - a lot of soft lobs and misspent focus.

This was a perfect story for a Greg Mocker or NY1 with so much low hanging fruit. Even the Queens weeklies could have made themselves useful: calling Paulson out on the wonderful words he said about Steinway while the mansion was getting chopped up, the failure to call out anyone of authority in Queens while the archaeological site was being tossed into a gravel sorter, or the failure to include either Steinway or the Friends in any discussion.

Outside of repeating the Friends 'concern' not much was done. Well they did cover in detail Karl McNamara affair.; Monday, October 05, 2015
Anonymous said...: What is this inane insanity with dog runs? What is this inane insanity with destroying our historical heritage?

The pols are not building communities, but dorms that make weak communities of transients and enrich landlords and developers.

Hipster kids don't give two shits about history or even Queens (this could be Jersey as far as they are concerned), but go nuts over pets, sex and food (the same thing to them) and meet-mate-move within five years.; Monday, October 05, 2015
(sarc) said...: The hipsters' public education amounted to putting a condom on a banana or cucumber, depending on the season, and history class was all about the evil, white, slave owning, founding fathers, and how horrible, miserable and detestable this country is.
So their opinion is everything old is evil and must be destroyed!

We can see how just seeing a confederate flag causes people go out and kill a bunch of people in church, so it must be destroyed.
It is so much easier to rewrite history that way...

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. GA6:7; Monday, October 05, 2015
Anonymous said...: ok guys, all this is good, but what do we do for this place?

How do we get the press to notice this and finger those culprits ruining yet another part of Astoria?

How can we save this place? A lot of people care, but we are ignored when we call the community board or Costa and Company. They are just not giving out information and saying everything they can to discourage us!; Monday, October 05, 2015
Gary W said...: Where was Moses when the lights went out?

Smelling assholes and balls!; Monday, October 05, 2015
Anonymous said...: Hey Gary, let us guess - you work for the developer or a politician.; Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Anonymous said...: The elected officials policy of misinformation is designed to discourage the the local community and draw their attention away from the mansion, or worse, simply ignoring their constituents.

Their policy is failing. This is not going away. It grows with each passing day.

The community is starting to come together on a general consensus that the mansion is in danger, that there is plenty of money to restore is and make it a community center, and that the Friends are standing up and fighting for our community to make this happen.

This issue is not going anywhere.

The Friends have recently made overtures to 'The Three' (Costa-Mike-Melinda) who are now involved (according to owner Loria) to sit down with them - and the Astoria community - to find a resolution.

The ball is now in their court. They are fully aware that should harm come to this place it will be charged to their account.

There are now only three people between the community and this mansion. That is big progress.; Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Anonymous said...: More on that Astoria capital budget and how its spent:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/nyregion/astoria-residents-cheer-plans-for-a-dog-run-but-frown-at-the-estimated-cost-1-million.html?ref=nyregion&_r=1

Councilman Costa Constantinides, “We’re hoping it comes under budget.” (Not the sharpest knife in the drawer to hint that it might be well over a million at the same moment that the community in in an uproar.)

I didn’t trust my ears initially,” Erin Kirby, media and marketing secretary for the Astoria Dog Owners Association, said. “We were shocked by that.” We’d prefer not to spend a million dollars,” Ms. Kirby said. “But we trust our officials to come up with accurate estimates.” (This person is in a quick line for the community board no doubt.)

Officials said their rule of thumb was that publicly financed dog runs in the city cost between $600,000 and $800,000 in New York, and based on that, they arrived at the $1 million figure. They said they had no further itemization of the potential costs. (Those are people I trust with my hard earned taxes – how about you?)

Bottom line – not for dogs, but a tweeding exercise with our taxes towards dog owners.; Wednesday, October 07, 2015