The reason that this little travelogue is being presented today involves the plans recently presented by the De Blasio administration to convert a hotel in the area over to a homeless shelter. A subsequent post will detail the hotel and the area directly surrounding it, but this is the northern side of the zone which the “Big Little Mayor” has picked to warehouse those who are considered socially and economically undesirable. The community of Maspeth has responded with their characteristic flair, and pushed back on City Hall with considerable skill and energy. City Hall, as is its habit under the current Mayor reacted to the protests by implying that Maspeth’s indignation is fueled by racism. Several publications picked up this theme, and the Internet commentarium knee jerk followed the rhetoric offered by the administration of the “Dope from Park Slope.”
My personal views on the Maspeth shelter project were the subject of a debate recently with a former colleague whose views and perspectives I greatly respect, but the argument I make about the placement of people – people who exist at the lowest end of the socio-economic spectrum – in this area is that it’s a human rights violation.
Simply put, it ain’t exactly a bed of salubrious roses out around these parts even if you’ve got money in your pocket, let alone when you’re down and out. This wouldn’t be a shelter, this would be a penal colony.
There are virtually no mass transit lines available from this location, police patrols are infrequent at best, and at night this is a virtually abandoned part of the city. Bus service is spotty, and it’s one of the places in Queens where you truly need a personal vehicle to get around.
There are streets with no sidewalks here in the half mile around the proposed shelter.
The shocking ignorance of City Hall regarding the existential realities of Western Queens never fails to amaze me. All they seem to know about our neighborhoods is what they see on maps rolled out on mahogany desktops that have pins stuck into them by paid cronies.
27 comments:
Queens Crap and the Newtown Pentacle: Blogging at its Best.
Democrats love the Deplorable dependable voters
I wonder if when De Faustio, his former banker city planners, the agents of the city and some creeps sent by REBNY gather by these maps on these mahogany desks and label the pushpins and decide what towns get gentrified/improved and which get the shelter/hotels (shotelters?). One labeled H for the latter and V for Vibrancy for the former.
When was the last time DeBozo stepped foot in Queens? He's not our mayor!
Sounds like only an idiot would build a hotel here.
Whatever happened to BJ Clinton's welfare reform bill requiring that recipients work and educate themselves?
Oh yes, President Barack Hussein Obama Eliminated those requirements...
Great article, the writer understands that area of Maspeth, unlike Mayor Big Bird, Commisare Steve Banks and that little hipster twerp, stinkin' Lincoln Restler.
waste transfer stations in the area
http://www.habitatmap.org/habitatmap_docs/BargeNYC'sGarbage.pdf
School overcrowding in the area
https://voicesofny.org/2015/11/nyc-schools-severely-overcrowded/
Rail against DuhBlaz.
This years election day will start the one year count down to next years and no one has stepped forward to challenge him.
As awful as he is someone still has to beat him.
Dope from Park Slope, love it!
Now the dope wants more migrants...
http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/nyc-mayor-refugee-terror-vanishingly-rare/
"Dope from Park Slope" is Brilliant! Cudos!
Sounds more like that location chosen was the same way you choose a penal colony location ....
far far away from everything...uh....like the infamous Devil's Island.
Waddaya want? Duh Baz is on Prozac.....totally out of touch except with his REBNY donors.
Ex lesbian wife brings his food and blow out hairdo son Dante visit him often.
HOW MANY SHELTERS ARE IN PARK SLOPE ???
I have an idea for Mayor Fugazio. A tent city for the homeless on Big Brother Island. Call it Obamaville.
When the trucks are not there we deal with the drag racing. It goes on all the time. Speed bumps do not stop these people. They even race by the hotel.
For the buses they work well in the nice weather but once the snow arrives those buses do not do those hills over there. They are rerouted to the service road or 69 Street. A walk to it and then your last resort is the Avenue. Again a walk to it especially over those unplowed overpasses and the city parks. We must walk out on the street and pray you are not hit by a car.
Oh when the LIE is backed up the service roads are a nightmare. The trucks coming off Maurice and trying to make the left under the over pass blocks up traffic.
We who live here are so immune to this. We try to avoid it. We even questioned why two hotels?? One across the street from the cemetery and one by a very busy industrial area during work days and very desolate during non work hours.
By the Pam American it was the perfect place for the hotel. Subways and buses into Manhattan. The shopping on Queens Blvd. The jobs that still might be there.
One...The Duh Blaz private home for a mentally ill mayor.
Next time you rope a dope, make sure you don't put him in Gracie Mansion.
If I may offer a couple of observations.
It might seem overly harsh and goes against the grain of what you think or believe but bear with me as there is a method to this seeming madness. Sometimes the answer to a problem is to think outside the box.
First, take a side and take a stand.
You can never win a debate by accepting the fundamental premises of your opponent- i.e. saying yeah shelters are necessary but.... followed by excuses which are not a side or a stand.
The opposition to the shelter should be an opposition to the entire concept of city run shelters. This will automatically head off any NIMBY charges and win more allies in other neighborhoods who would realize that Maspeth isn't simply trying to push their shit off on them.
Challenge the system itself. Force the political establishment to justify their shelter system. Otherwise you are in the defensive position of trying to split hairs on the location of the shelter as in let someone else get screwed instead of me. Sounds like whining and that gets you nowhere.
Saying it will bring more crime or depress home values, although a true and valid concern, still sounds like whining. Nobody likes or respects a whiner. Saying it's just a bad location with no public transportation or services is a very weak rhetorical position. Ok, so we'll move the shelter a few blocks away and, oh, you can cry me a river too, bitches says the city.
Make the argument less personal about you and more general while hoisting the establishment on its own petard. Your opponents- electeds and their apparatchiks can be put on the defensive by asking why it is moral or right to force other people to pay for progressive generosity. If they feel this is a moral imperative, then why don't they put their own money into it and ask for voluntary donations. This is a democracy, right? Or why do you hate democracy so much?
Second, always be on offense.
You cannot win by being on the defensive. Your opponents will invariably try to hit you with the usual NIMBY or racist charges. Do not get sidetracked by trying to virtue signal how not racist you are. The best response is to either ignore it or offer only a terse "I don't care".
The "I'm sorry but..." opening, "I'm not like that, really" or any other apologia is not taken as a sign of you're being a good person but rather as a confession of guilt to your establishment interlocutors. You can only lose by explaining by getting sidetracked off the main point while being dragged through the mud.
You could turn the racist charge around on your attacker by asking as Mitch mentioned if they think all homeless people are of one race then ask why they have such a low opinion of whichever race they are referring to and why they hate that race so much. Stops a prog dead in his tracks.
As for NIMBY, if you oppose the whole idea then that charge is absurd as you do not want any of it so you are not trying to push it off on someone else.
This is all theoretical based on the idea that the most persuasive arguments are based on a mixture of rhetoric with an underpinning of reasoned argument. I claim no expertise or insight here so feel free to take it or not as you may. You might find the basic debate concepts useful in other areas.
Don Cavaioli
The Dope from Park Slope is not a permanent fixture, people——he's not a tree, so chop him down and impeach this public fool already! Why wait for him to finish yet another first term in his 'cradle-to-grave' career of purported public service, when he never earned the right (because he's a really bad, self-serving politician, not a public servant!), much less deserved it!
It's finally time to make ALL political corruption, graft, greed, cover-ups, kicbacks and payoffs a capital offense!
I'm reminded of Arkham Asylum about the way the elected and the appointeds have hatched and executed this heinous program
Hey Cav, your advise, though well intended, is akin to bringing a knife to a gun fight. Debate if there was a unbiased judge would be fine, however this is a unfair duel. The court of public opinion will never hear the case as the Fourth Estate has become nothing but yes-men for the political whores and their REBNY masters who firmly control NYC. Investigative journalism is virtually non existent. Most of the Press just want their NIMBY quote and then go home, very few will look further into the story. Trying to explain how many people have caught on to the greed and corruption that is the NYC shelter system will only get you nods of agreement but no on-air time. The Press must be handed a smoking gun before the pay for play that exists in the DHS will become an issue and then judged by the public
To last Anonymous, you sadly nailed the whole sordid operation that no only completely betrays all pretense of public trust, ethics, integrity, accountability and transparency, but these bought and paid for empowered idiots now devalue all honesty itself--and, the public be damned.
We the People are faced with the 'UNITED STATES of ENTERTAINMENT' as a Fourth World, 'KLEPTOCRATIC PLUTOCRACY' (and dictatorship of monarchy, totalitarian rule that is modeled after India's Caste system), and the only way to end such a regime of economic disparity, income inequality and private splendor is through full force brutality, and punching back twice as hard--it's the only way, as history continues to repeat this vicious cycle of epic, humanitarian (and ecological) fail!
This should be a lesson to all you NYC Irish Catholics...the Democratic Party of Kennedy is just a memory. Move On.
Nice Work, Cav.
No doubt the gas station and 24 hour deli/grocery store is owned by a Muslim from Pakistan. Bemgla Desh or Yemen. The American shelter people can get their under the counter cigarettes, crack, K2, porn, beer and pot all at the same location. How very helpful to them. the Pakistani's and Yemeni's will not allow any women to work in their stores, but don't let that worry you. What should worry you is with under reporting their sales to keep their taxes minimal, their entire families will be able to go back and forth to Pakistan, Yemen, Bengla Desh many times a year.
Big, wide open, grinning mouth....
ready to suck some REBNY dick!
Pop a Prozac and take a nap.
Why Gracie Mansion's front lawn is a great place to site a homeless shelter.
2nd choice, Park Slope, Der Mayor Wilhelm's block.
Hide the homeless in the boonies. That's the way NYC sees it. Out of site. Out of mind.
Disgusting!
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