Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Westchester town afraid of becoming Queens

From the NY Times:

“A big part of the reason people come to Larchmont is for the charming homes,” said Sarah Bauer, one of the leaders of Preserve Larchmont. “We know they can be drafty and leaky, but if you wanted something big and new looming over you, you would go to Queens or Long Island.”

After a spate of teardowns the past few years, on Jan. 11 the Board of Trustees took the unusual step of passing a six-month moratorium on residential development in the one-square-mile village.

Why the village is attracting so many wrecking crews is not entirely clear. The most common explanation is that as neighboring communities like Scarsdale and Rye have become saturated with new housing, and cracked down on it, developers are looking farther afield.

What has most alarmed villagers, and intrigued developers, is not simply that old homes are being replaced with newer, bigger ones but rather that two, three or even four homes are being built where once there was just one. There have been 23 new homes built over the past decade, 14 resulting from demolitions and subdivisions, according to city records. With roughly 1,800 homes, that may not seem like much, but village officials said it was undertaking the moratorium to ensure the trend does not grow.

38 comments:

(sarc) said...

It is much more cost effective to build four buildings at a time, than one at a time.

It is just like the assembly line that Henry Ford invented.

Quick, efficient, cost effective, and very profitable.

They are building what people want...

Jerry Rotondi said...

At least Queens is getting some public notice for being the poster child of ruined neighborhoods.
That's something. Isn't it? It's better than being thought of as a ho-hum borough full of Archie Bunkers.
Ah, but take heart.
We have the Queens Civic Congress to "defend" us and the Queens Hysterical Society to archive our plight.

Banister Fletcher said...

Is it too much to ask for Queens to become more like Larchmont?

Anonymous said...

@sarc

They are building what's good for their bottom line :):)

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Ah, yes, Jerry Rotondi---the Queens 'Hysterical' Society---the same 300% false, fake and failed, political hack, 'Breakfast Club' that retreated into silence, complicity and shear madness when they tacitly condoned a full blown madwoman (literally and emotionally!), like former Queens Borough President, Helen Marshall, who unilaterally ordered the removal of 'Triumph of Civic Virtue, a 16-ton, precious Italian marble statuary that was prominently displayed in Kew Gardens Plaza (for nearly 71 years), for urgent removal, on the heels of Hurricane Sandy, no less---the only single representation of softness and beauty in an otherwise generic strip mall of urban 'Blight & Sight' pollution, that now languishes (on indefinite LOAN), in obscurity at Green-Wood Cemetery---a Brooklyn graveyard---among the dead (Civic Virtue is banished to the dead)! And, We The People paid more than $200,000 for its unauthorized removal, because our voices and public acts of protest were ignored and rejected, with a vengeful impunity!

So, what does our new, exalted, monarchy ruler, Melinda Katz do about it? Nothing, except to distract her peasant subjects of Queens with a $40 Million, fresh coat of paint on a crumbling, eroding, New York State Pavilion, that was willfully left to rot over 50 years ago---exactly like Claire Schulman (a walking corpse!), and Helen Marshall allowed Civic Virtue to intentionally decay into a pillar of salt (instead of honoring all budgetary and fiduciary obligations to repair, preserve and conserve the ONLY work of precious public art in Kew Gardens, that has been sacrificed for a publicly unauthorized, 'planted ruin' that likewise was secretly proposed to serve as a tribute to the rigged women of all failed Queens politics)!

And, if THAT debacle (and dereliction of public duty) isn't a testament to how we are a borough of Neo-Feudalism that is governed by systemic, Neo-Fascism and Neo-Bolshevism, then I don't know what better example to illustrate, as searing proof that THIS current administration at Borough Hall is one of epic, humanitarian and constituent fail---as only a Neo-Fascist regime can so order!

Anonymous said...

I literally bought a fixer-up on the edge of Larchmont because my home of Queens was just not attainable for the life I want for my family. Plus damn DeBlasio and his shelter plan pushed me over the edge. My dons elementary school is ranked 18th in the state. I so cant wait to move but will miss my beloved Queens.

Gary W said...

Now we have a new expression.

My neighborhood got Queensed!

Anonymous said...

holy crap Crappy! can we go more than a day without King Richard bitching and moaning about that fucking statue?!

it's gone, queens is and always has been screwed. just bend over and take whats coming.

Anonymous said...

"My neighborhood got Queensed!"

My neighborhood got Falashenged!!!!

Anonymous said...

It's a big problem everywhere now.
Check this out.

http://www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2016/02/proposed_for_bard_avenue_4_hom.html

Anonymous said...

@anonymous

Is pretty sad that part of our precious history is referred to as "that fucking statue"!
Like the jerk who referred to the RKO Keith - "is not the Sistine Chapel."
The reason our city and our nabes are in the shape they are in is because of fucking people like you.
That's why politicians get away with corruption, because most fucking people are desensitized already, between the football games, brain dead TV shows and their iPhones nothing seems to bother them.

Jerry Rotondi said...

Thank you Richard. You got it!
That's why I left QHS , after serving two successive terms as a board member.
No guts.....same old attitudes.....under the thumb of the local politicians.....and borough hall.
At least Kingsland was saved from demolition. That's most important.
I was becoming a fly in their ointment...too outspoken...which could interfere with their funding stream.
So for their good, I resigned from the board.
All hysterical societies must remain well behaved in to receive their $$$$$$$$$ from the borough president's office etc.
Too bad that they cannot be more aggressive in the preservation of the real fabric of Queens' history...its historic buildings.
Yet, I sympathize with their plight. Buck the deveopers' plans, and you are denied your place at the trough.

Anonymous said...

What are the real estate taxes in Larchmont?
Likely tripple those in Queens.
But if I was forced to send my kids to a NYC public school for lack of enough for privates school,
I'd move to Larchmont!
That's the all round best and cheapest move.
Queens is the real estate industry's chamber pot and its politicians are the turds swimming around in it.

Anonymous said...

Solution....LOL!
Vote for Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders...the preferred candidates of the angry mobs of voters....to the right and to the left.
Fascist or socialist...you lose either way!
AMERICA WILL HAVE TO LEARN TO VOTE SMART...NOT ANGRY,
Trump and Sanders have one thing in common...trading off of the hate and anger that voters feel about politicians in general.
Neither offer any real tax cutting viable solutions.
Trump wants us in a new war and expensively built border walls (no doubt, which his companies will build)
Sanders wants us to pay for every social program possible, including golf lessons for the poor.

Anonymous said...

Whether Sistine Chapel or cathedral of the motion picture, RKO Keith's was quality built.
It is not one of the new Chinese crap towers filling up Flooshing.
BTW, what is the RKO's fourth owner doing? It looked like he easily bamboozled CB7 into voting for his project.
Nothing is going on there besides more graffiti appearing on the roof. Maybe he's looking to flip the property to a fifth buyer.

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Holy Crap, Anonymous! Can we go more than one day without a vile, vapid and anonymous, public fool like you devaluing Queens Crap with your tired, useless bullshit? So, exactly what have you done to fight for any pretense of activism, protest, rally and resistance??? Oh, right---N-O-T-H-I-N-G !

And, you bet your fat, lazy ass that I would take the earned-and-deserved title of 'King Richard,' than what the critical people on this thread are now ascribing to your 'Big Zero' record of (no meat, tiny taters) achievement that clearly illustrates that you've done nothing to fight for democracy and public referendum, in which my organization, 'Civic Virtue Task Force' continues to challenge ALL dereliction of public duty at Borough Hall, and beyond (and has NEVER STOPPED!)---so unlike you, and your 'tired tale told by an idiot, that signifies nothing!'

The way it is now, Anonymous, you couldn't find your own balls with a GPS---ironically, the same micro-balls that are always missing in action, every time you unsuccessfully attempt to lampoon my civic work, philanthropy and activism, but who nevertheless always hides under the cover of vacuous anonymity---just like ALL great cowards without a nut sack!

And, next time you weigh in, and foolishly try again to jab me---make yourself known with a REAL identity, so that there is a level playing field for me and everyone else to finish wiping the floor with your dumb ass!

Alas, assholes never seem to learn---and, now it's getting even harder to distinguish one public-fool asshole from another!

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Anonymous, the presidency is not the topic here, but it would behoove you to read about the solid, Democratic Socialist plan that Bernie Sanders is proposing, which has never suggested paying for every social program possible---a clear embellishment that doesn't pay justice to Bernie's stellar and accomplished record of honest, ethical leadership (that leads by example)---and, the ONLY one that does!

Further, the REAL SOCIALISM in this country is CORPORATE WELFARE SOCIALISM---billions of dollars skimmed off the top by all corporate owned-and-bought government henchmen, who brazenly continue to approve corporate welfare for the four remaining billionaires who own Walmart, and many other multi-national companies (as their employees languish in starvation wages, beggary and obscurity), while YOUR tax dollars are involuntarily helping them to food stamps, Section 8 housing, and everything else that Walmart could easily afford, if only they would stop parking their tax exempt billions in offshore accounts (where they still receive hundreds of millions in rebates, complements of YOUR taxpayer-funded dollars), as billions of revenue continue to be intentionally removed from American circulation (that requires the Federal Reserve to print more money), and ironically, these same corrupt, dishonest, voracious thieves expect, insist and demand that everyone else in the monstrously underpaid rank and file, offer up their puny salaries to help carry our 'malaise' economy, by whom they themselves helped to systematically destroy, with each new truckload of offshore deposits that keep inflation high, and all big box, petrified paychecks artificially low.

And, THAT'S who the REAL 'welfare queens' are, Anonymous, and they have so completely betrayed public trust and integrity to flag and country (with a vengeful impunity that is unprecedented)---that they devalue all honesty itself!

Hence, Bernie Sanders is INCLUSIONARY (where OUR tax dollars are re-circulated back into our American economy for the goodness of ALL citizenry), and Donald Trump is merely EXCLUSIONARY---and the differences are as immense as they are dramatically opposite!

In closing, the public good must ALWAYS outweigh the crushing weight of all private (and, now political and public) gain!

Bernie Sanders has a plan to address all public goodness that keeps our money and power back to where it has always belonged---to We The People (as designated by our Constitution)!

Anonymous said...

>holy crap Crappy! can we go more than a day without King Richard bitching and moaning about that fucking statue?!

The removal of that statue seems emblematic of everything wrong with the borough, the city, and the zeitgeist as a whole.

And this is coming from someone who disagrees with almost everything Richard says.

>AMERICA WILL HAVE TO LEARN TO VOTE SMART...NOT ANGRY,

Voting for establishment candidates have gotten us nothing but the same old, same old. I don't like most of Trump or Sanders' proposed policies, but I don't like any of the other people running either, so why not vote for the ones that will give the powers that be the biggest headaches?

Anonymous said...

Voting for establishment candidates have gotten us nothing but the same old, same old.

Apparently voting makes no difference.
Hillary lost New Hampshire by a landslide, but she ended up with 2 more delegates than Bernie, 15 vs 13.
The system is rigged folks!

Anonymous said...

Political polls mean nothing, in New Hampshire, Iowa or Timbuktu! The real victories come at the polling place.
Nether the Dems or GOP want either of these extreme candidates.
Rubio or Cruz will give Clinton a run. Maybe the narcisist of all, Bloomberg, will chime in.
Then there are Dem rumblings of another candidate.
You are EXTREMELY naive, you Trump or Sanders well wishers.
Bottom line, who ever wins, America will be in better financial shape than Europe.
That counts for a lot! China is shaky right now. Thanks be, we don't live in Syria!
Enough already!

Anonymous said...

Richard....a little brevity would be greatly appreciated.
None of us are getting paid by the word here, and I've got important chores to do.

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

That's why nothing gets done correctly, Anonymous---BECAUSE NO ONE EVER READS---NOT EVEN CONGRESS! That's why we are stuck in a vortex of nationwide rage, despair, silence, complicity, beggary, obscurity, quiet desperation, helplessness, hopelessness, and finally, societal collapse that is bordering on all anarchy itself (currently in mid-level progress)!

Now, please get to those important chores that are distracting you from getting things done with your local, regional and national, absentee activism, protest, rally and resistance---because, the truth doesn't care about your chores.

And, for all who doubt the solid, accountable and transparent plan that Bernie Sanders has dutifully proposed, in order to restore, reclaim and revive our Constitutional rights, freedoms---and democracy itself (that is exactly how Democratic Socialism works, and WHY it actually works!), you will not find greater and more transparent leadership in Bernie's INCLUSIONARY policies.

Hence, Bernie Sanders is not a corrupt, cradle-to-grave, career politician---he is a lifetime public servant and statesman---and the ONLY one to date, since FDR! Remember FDR, folks---he was so bad, that he was elected four times (by a voting system that was not rigged to fail yet), BECAUSE of his Democratic Socialist policies that lifted his subjects up from poverty and obscurity---exactly like we have right now, once again, because of an arrogant, Washington power grab (on both sides of the entrenched, establishment, rigged, two-party hustle of total corruption and dishonesty, dishonor and disloyalty), that devalues all honesty itself!

And, anyone who is against a natural born leader like Bernie Sanders, is likewise against honest, ethical leadership (that leads by example),because, no one else BUT BERNIE is telling the truth---where the rest of these faux, presidential, counterfeit intellectuals and voracious thieves continue to lie, cheat and steal (from We The Taxpayer)---easier than they collectively breathe---and, the public be damned (again, still and forevermore)!

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Thank you, Anonymous, for speaking common sense when you correctly lamented, "AMERICA WILL HAVE TO VOTE SMART...NOT ANGRY!"

Likewise, America (and Queens County) will have to abstain from 'looking the other way' when a corrupt, dishonest, and drunk-with-power former Borough President like Helen Marshall could so capriciously wield so much unchallenged power, that she was able to order a 16-ton statue to be whisked away in the middle of the night, from its public plaza home for the past 71 years (and gone with it, our rights, freedoms and Constitution), yet some Anonymous troglodyte could speak about a precious work of public art like the great, monumentally empowering 'Triumph Of Civic Virtue' (so rare in Queens, that it's like seeing a snow leopard in one's local backyard!), with such disdain and staggering ignorance ("...that fucking statue"), that such a hopelessly ignorant and 'do nothing' creature is unable to see what has truly been temporarily lost and abrogated---all civic rights, freedoms and triumph over corruption and vice itself!

Further, the removal of such a relevant work of universal art was Helen Marshall's final act of contempt for a borough that she was so completely instrumental in ravaging and tonsuring---to ruinous effect---throughout her unearned, undeserved terms of epic fail. That is why I am fighting harder than ever right now for the statue's rightful return---and the symbolism of freedom and democracy that it has always represented.

Because, the timeless, historic sculpture of 'Triumph Of Civic Virtue' is not merely ornamental---it's RICH in COSMIC PORTENT!

Anonymous said...

Port Chester (servants quarters for Greenwich, aka Porto Hestri) is already like Queens.

Anonymous said...

Nether the Dems or GOP want either of these extreme candidates.

Actually you need to brush up on things.
The Dems want the criminal. Bernie might be a socialist, but he is honest.

Don't know about Trump, but he is most certainly not extreme.
Most of the media is establishment owned, so if they call someone extreme/extremist/racist means that's the guy they are afraid of the most.

Bottom line, who ever wins, America will be in better financial shape than Europe.

Not a chance. We have soon a 21 TRILLION deficit/debt.
If the lunatics will win, the deficit will be much bigger.

EU doesn't count, artificial union, like the USSR will disintegrate.

Anonymous said...

So leave America for what you think is a better place.
You armchair malcontents bore me anyway. You are all show but no blow!

Deficits are common to most countries. China is so co dependent on America that if we pulled our manufacturing plants....
watch what happens.

P.S.
Donald Trump's clothing line is made in China. So much for his phony anti China rhetoric.

Sanders is too old for office.
He hasn't had a bright idea in 30 years, but he'd be great in a brain storming session.
Then some one with a practical plan might be able to implement one of his igood ideas.

Anonymous said...

RE presidential politics....
I gave my $20.16 contribution to Hillary.
She's a capable crook....not a pie in the sky socialist or a big mouthed narcisist.
And isn't that what it really takes to get along with the other slimy political fish of the world?

Anonymous said...

Bernie honest?
So was Don Quixote.
Which gets us what in a den of the dishonest?
In this case the lions will eat the lamb.
There are an awful lot of cockeyed optimists out there.
College campuses are full of them.

Anonymous said...

Sanders is buying the college youth market.
Wait until those boobs have to pay off their tuition loans...get saddled with mortgages...have to pay for Bernie's socialist programs.
LOL! They will become Republicans!

Anonymous said...

At least Queens isn't paying Westchester real estate and school taxes.
Better to live cheap ugly than than expensive ugly.

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Alas, the only bully tactics that have been in play for the past 50 years are coming from a government system of all Neo-Feudalism, Neo-Fascism and Neo-Bolshevism themselves---exactly what Bernie Sanders intends to bust up, along with all big banks (and their Wall-mart Street banksters, whom Obama never prosecuted), and since when is experience an obstacle to seasoned leadership???

I remember when they said the same thing about Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, who rescued all endangered passengers on his Airbus A320, when US Airways Flight 1549 crashed into the East River---was HE too old, too?

What truly puzzles me is how so many uninformed experts out there in the rank and file, have become so accustomed to being hand fed the lies of all political machinery, that when the truth is finally presented, it actually upsets them into voting against their own self interests---to insidious effect!

What Bernie Sanders is embarking upon is a political revolution that will finally restore, reclaim and revive our Constitutionally guaranteed rights, freedoms, liberty---and democracy itself, back to where it has always belonged---to We The People! Remember THAT doctrine of all inconvenient truth? Of The People, By The People, And For The People!

And, anyone who is against any and all seasoned leadership (with a proven, verifiable track record in evidence), is likewise in total reinforcement of our nation's further demise into a Fourth World country of more of the same, corporate obedient, government bought control that continues to foist all beggary, obscurity, quiet desperation, starvation wages and petrified, middle income paychecks into a deeper holding pattern of all delayed and denied progress and gratification, as we lose our former world class standing of a nation of evolutionary leadership that leads by example---and the public be damned!

Anonymous said...

Yawn! It's lengthy Richard at it again. Zzzzzzzzzzz!
Wake me in five minutes, please.
Be brief, boy! You will get more readers.

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

In case you didn't get the memo, Anonymous, I already have great support and critical readership---of whom you were never eligible in the first place---and never will be!

Go back to sleep, lazy asshole---you will not be missed, much less awakened in five!

And, you could sleep your mentally lazy lifetime away (into a permanent state of suspended animation), and activists like me would barely notice (if at all)---like right now!

Ciao forever!

Anonymous said...

What's is a name?

http://www.silive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/02/whats_in_a_name_at_manresa_a_l.html#incart_river_home

Anonymous said...

Richard....
your posts are too long for a blog.
Points can be made in briefer format and still be important.

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Anonymous, I don't take my marching orders from you, or anyone else who weighs in on a particular subject (in which you are off topic here, in the first place!), least of all from anyone whose cover is protected by all 'Anonymous' sources that don't reveal an actual identity.

Like ALL of the OTHER "lengthy" pieces on this thread and elsewhere (which are not really lengthy at all---a testament to your OWN personal deficiencies, and short attention span), you have the personal freedom of choice to simply refrain (and abstain) from reading altogether! So, don't visit that on me!

But, to make a special point to 'single me out' when there are many replies of similar length, for whom your silence on the matter is evident (as well as a waste of everyone's time for you to stray off topic), it would behoove you to not issue directives towards anyone else that your obviously short attention span is unable to accommodate, and get to the point of your OWN actual feedback, as it relates to any relevant discussion, instead of unsuccessfully laying into my rights to speak freely.

And, if THAT'S too much for your 'Twitter Brain Chemistry' to process, then by all means, stop reading!

Anonymous said...

NYC property taxes aren't comparable because Westchester and Nassau don't pay local income tax

Anonymous said...

Yes, but Westchester and Nassau do not have much of a business contributing tax base. When more tax money is needed they just go into the pockets of homeowners...for real estate and school taxes.The taxes are still much higher than NYC's real estate taxes.
Then you have the commuting expenses if you work in NYC, which a lot do, if not employed by NYS.
No...I'll take NYC, even with its current problems. Why trade mine for the problems of the snooty boondocks?
New York has always had its ups and downs but remains a world class city. The brain fog of Nassau or Westchester does not appeal to me. Pumpkin picking time in Nassau County cannot beat MOMA or MMA. Sorry, folks.

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