"I'm writing on behalf of my Mother.
After numerous complaints with NYC since 1959 when my parents bought their house in Queens Village, in 2006 finally the tree in front of their home was removed.
The problem since then has been no curb, a hole & damaged sidewalk which was caused by the removal.
Making a dangerous & unsanitary condition worse, there is a nursing home at the top of the block. Private Sanitation picks up their garbage, after the garbage is removed, they hose down the area to remove any waste that might have leaked, which in theory is great, but the run off produces a pond/pool in the hole in front of the house. This occurs when it rains too.
Aside from the smell, it is extremely unsanitary, unsafe and unsightly.
In April 2016, I contacted Senator Tony Avella's office, who acted quickly on our behalf and sent 3 letters on April 14th to:
1) Hon Polly Trottenberg Commissioner Dept of Transportation.....
2) Hon Mary Travis Bassett,MD Commissioner Dept of Health.....
3) Hon Mitchell Silver Commissioner of Dept of Parks.
I waited for a reply, which never came.
I contacted Senator Avella again, and he sent follow up letters to each them on June 21, 2016.
On July 7, 2016 I received a letter from Senator Avella.
REPLY FROM DOT:
The DOT informed him they will inspect the curb. The location will be added to the curb list for repair on a future curb only contract. At this time they are awaiting a curb contract. However, DOT at that time will also inspect the sidewalk for any defects.
If I understand correctly, nothing will get inspected/done until they get a contract.
To date, there has been no reply from The Dept of Health or The Dept of Parks.
Senator Avella has done all he can do.
Can you help?" - anonymous
15 comments:
Hey you are lucky. Both Van Bramer and Costa only show up for photo ops with targeted constituents. They push off most real work on you to call 311.
Nice work if you can get it.
Work like this use to be performed by city workers (Public servants) but when the war on workers grew politicians took advantage of this anger and made a windfall of money for the well connected. Now mostly high priced private contractors who use their connections get these jobs and do sub-par work and add you complant to a long list that will never get done until the job gets big enough to be bid out. Maintenance work of all kind is neglected in the city.
Gone are the civil service test and civil service systems that were put in place to weed out corruption.
At this posing I would just hire a concrete guy who can probably makes these repairs for less than a grand.
Be wary of the city inspecting you're sidewalk. They find violations and it becomes your responsability to fix them or they do it and bill you. You have tpo prove to them the city tree did the damage.
Civil servants ( government workers) that used to do these repairs, give me a fucking break. Those workers make a career of jerking off on the tax payers time clock. This stuff should done by private contractors. It should also be organized and scheduled by the remaining government workers and if they don't perform their asses should be filed. If there is no accountability nothing will ever get done. On a much simpler idea, how about able bodied citizens maybe just grab a shovel and fill in the dammed hole. Stop looking for government to do everything for you. It will never happen
And there is no corruption, fraud, waste, abuse, and connections in the unionized civil service system???
I'm Sorry,If this was my home I'd have filled it,seriously your waiting for the city? To fix it,make use of it,bury a dead cat or something.
I've been waiting for my damanged curb to be fixed since 2007, when the DOT repaved my entire street in Ozone Park, then repeatedly failed to fix my curb in which they themselves damaged (I still have the large, jagged concrete chunks that I saved as evidence).
Community Board 10 is worthless and so is their board's crusty, useless sycophant, Betty Bratton (spelling check alert)!
Likewise, my new (by way of gerrymandering), assemblyman and city councilman are equally useless, as it will soon be 10 staggering years without a fixed curb since it was initially damaged. It's EXTREME taxation without representation, and a willful dereliction of public duty that leaves all New York City residents to fend for themselves---and, the reason why today's entrenched politicians of complete and systemic corruption are worse than everything was back in the 1970s!
Now, lawlessness, vigilantism, societal collapse---and, now full blown anarchy are in full, daily evidence, as the city itself becomes one of the most dangerous places to live outside of all active, wartorn countries, as We the People are STILL at the mercy of one of the most insidious, intensely incompetent and corrupt mayors in the history of New York---Bill de Blasio!
Right now, all pretense of help is an illusion---and, trust is for suckers! Heaven help us all!
At the end of the day there has to be money assigned in the budget to fix these issues. Like another poster mentioned, the city does not have the personnel assigned to do this on a citywide basis anymore, and relies on contractors bidding on contracts to do this work. The contractors do the work at ridiculously high prices and do a shitty job.
When budget time comes to budget money for fixes like this the politicians dump the money elsewhere instead of into maintenance of our roads and sidewalks (and curbs). Allotting millions to repair curbs or roadways isn't sexy and doesn't get votes or positive press coverage for the pols like dumping money into some stupid program or feel good project, so our infrastructure further rots.
If we want repairs we as a city need to vote people in who will prioritize fixing our infrastructure and stop all the bullshit spending on nonsense and pandering to certain groups for votes. Otherwise nothing will change.
I have to wonder if the authors of some of the comments I am getting bothered to read the post and the caption under the photo.
1) The problem is "no curb, a hole & damaged sidewalk". No curb and a damaged sidewalk is the CITY's responsibility.
2) The photo I chose is simply for illustrative purposes and clearly states that THIS IS NOT A PHOTO OF THE HOLE.
Please stop sending in inane comments like "the homeowner should just buy a bag of dirt and fix it herself" and with cursing attached, no less.
"The contractors do the work at ridiculously high prices and do a shitty job."
Yes you are correct! Look at the repaving work recently done on Francis Lewis Blvd. The city let the roadway crumble for years full of pot holes and cracks. Proper maintenance of roads use to be a common sight with DOT crews filling cracks and holes thru out the year and especially in the spring after the winter freeze damage. Now the roadway has to be stripped and repaved year after year instead of lasting for decades like in the past.
Tammany Hall would have loved this game !
Since I seem to have some mentally challenged readers who want to either blame the homeowner or act like it's her responsibility to fix a city owned curb, who were "confused" about a photo clearly labeled as not being of the actual hole, a method that thousands of newspapers and websites do around the world, I have removed the photo.
Congratulations on unwittingly showing why Queens is the way it is.
Contact Arnold Diaz or Monica Morales at WPIX.
212-210-2411
212-949-1100
I asked the city in 2008 to repair the curb. Of course they issued a sidewalk violation (all city-tree caused).
I repaired the sidewalk in 2010 only to get another violation in 2013, again all city-tree caused. Only three slabs in the violation.
This year city contractor replaced a dozen slabs (not three), some of the curb, and ruined my lawn in the process. Their replacement dirt is clay and rocks.
Looks like he could be the next "Subway Sandwich" spokesperson. He has that creep factor feel.
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