No good deed goes unpunished
From
PIX11:
Neighbors say the empty lot on the corner of Columbia and Woodhull streets needed the clean up.
"It looked like hell," said Roger who works right next door. "It was rodent infested."
So [Louis] Formisano started cleaning.
Formisano said items in the lot ranged from refrigerators to rodents.
"I caught 13 possums," he said.
Despite the undeniable improvement, a neighbor called the city and reported Formisano for trespassing.
The Department of Housing and Development put a padlock on the gate and told Louis to hit the road and take his things with him.
His things? A riding mower and some Christmas decorations he used to decorate the lot each year.
HPD accused him of cutting a city lock and using the lot as his own backyard, which Formisano denies.
14 comments:
This city has no soul........run by transplanted bureacrats.
The city doesn't take handouts? That's a switch.
That's because a good citizen took away a union job.
He did it for free. A city worker would have charged more.
find out who made the complaint - my money on it's the developer/shell company who is buying the property.
Him and the neighbors want a garden or a park... .good luck with that. Affordable housing? sounds like bums from the shelter will be living next door on government subsidies.
Not his property.
Not the communities property.
If he got hurt while cleaning it up the city would be liable.
Flood 311 with complaints about the trash and vermin.
Flood 311 with complaints, Anonymous? The hack, incompetent, uncaring, couldn't-get-fired-if-they-murdered-someone people of 311 ARE the problem, and always HAVE been! There is ZERO followup and oversight---and the supervisors are even worse! (So much for Affirmative Action hard at work---I have never spoken to a white person whenever I contacted them--not even once in all of the years that they've been in service. And, don't get me started on how arrogant, lazy and completely thoughtless these 'quota' minorities for hire are--they are just there for the paycheck, and nothing else!)
And, every day that this totally vacuous services stays in 'faux' operation is a testament to how Mike Bloomberg himself (the creator of this worthless service that doesn't serve), failed and murdered New York--right before he bolted to ravage London, his current residence of continued treachery!
Not that it will make a difference to the person who is posting about "quota minorities", but as a city worker with personal knowledge of the 311 system, there are a number of white people answering the phones at 311. What's interesting is that most of the supervisors are white. So if the performance is lacking, there is culpability on the front line as well as up the chain, and it has nothing to do with race. The real problem is the instruction (or lack thereof) given by agency commissioners and deputies (who tend to be white, for what that's worth), and ultimately the mayor's refusal to prioritize the quality of life issues that people complain about, which trickles all the way down.
I've worked in four agencies and seen both sides: Complete ineptitude, as well as unrecognized brilliance. Hiring private contractors has been great in some places and a complete waste of taxpayer money in others. Bottom line is if you want a more responsive 311, you need commissioners and a mayor that care.
If this complaint was logged by a 311 call, and by all purposes it could and the theory that the informer was a lowlife scumbag toady for predator developers, then this might be the fastest response and action ever reported.
Reading this, I have come to the conclusion that I don't know what this city has become or recognize it anymore. Also what people in society have now devolved into. Here is someone being proactive, taking responsibility and wanting to improve his surroundings, and he is the one being chastised, threatened and shame. The way justice is meted out in this city is outlandishly warped.
The only way those folks in Red Hook will see a garden or even hear of one is when the inevitable glass or mud grey tower is built and it's on the roof. But in the meantime the weeds will grow 5 feet high and all the derelicts and transients will throw their trash or discarded furniture or printers and tvs there in the hopes of the sociopaths in elected office and REBNY that the original citizenry will move or be priced out once the avaricious slumlords and demented market speculation kicks in.
These are the methods of the Gentrification Industrial Complex. And it's being bolstered with the help of the civil services we fund with 10% of our paychecks. And they have no fucking souls or conscience.
It's not even about race or even age, despite the elderly clearly being targeted here. It's about consumerism. This city needs frivolity to drive the economy. And you can't do that when you're too old or spend 40% of your wages on rent
He committed the unpardonable sin, he embarrassed the system and made public their inability to do the jobs for which they're paid.
Citizens must care, period.
'He committed the unpardonable sin, he embarrassed the system and made public their inability to do the jobs for which they're paid.'
Think Trump and the Wollman Rink.
Ed Koch and Trump hated each other. This guy doesn't even get the courtesy of meeting the useless government official he is showing up.
NY POST has better coverage:
http://nypost.com/2016/08/06/city-bans-volunteer-from-vacant-lot-hes-been-keeping-clean/
Proving no good deed goes unpunished, city bureaucrats have barred a Brooklyn volunteer from a vacant lot he’s been keeping clean for years.
“The more good you do for the city, the more they punish you,” said Louis Formisano, 61, of the demand that he stop “trespassing” on a city-owned lot that has languished for years in Carroll Gardens.
Formisano, a retired security company owner, took it upon himself four years ago to begin cleaning the 40-by-75 foot eyesore on the corner of Columbia and Woodhull Streets in the Columbia Street Waterfront District. He would regularly remove the trash, broken glass, weeds and even hypodermic needles that choked the site of a razed apartment building.
“I just didn’t want to look at all the filth anymore. I wanted to increase the quality of the street for the neighborhood kids and families,” the lifelong resident of Woodhull Street told The Post.
Formisano said he has spent about $20,000 over the last four years to beautify the space, spending his own money on new grass, a weeping cherry tree, fertilizer and a mower.
“Whenever we need something, he always helps us. He keeps the block clean, picks up mail for people, whatever you need. I can’t tell you how much we all appreciate that,” said Richard Liu, 34.
The neighborhood altruist is also known to plow the streets in his Jeep and shovel sidewalks after snow storms, hand out free hot dogs to kids in the summer, and put up Christmas decorations on the fence and inside the lot.
Neighbors call him “the mayor, ” the but the city regards him as a nuisance.
(EXCERPT)
forget about the lock. Clip a few links on the chain fence and get into the lot to continue to water the tree or run a long hose over the fence. do the link cutting on the side near the building to make it look like it's not cut.
The HPD rep sounds like she's making money on the side. How much will she be getting from the developers to throw the property their way? translation: affordable housing means the developers are stealing the land from the city and the HPD employees are getting a kickback.
maybe this woman at HPD in the article should be investigated? I sincerely hope he gets more press and gets on the news.
> Despite the undeniable improvement, a neighbor called the city and reported Formisano for trespassing.
This is why snitches get stitches.
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