Saturday, April 29, 2017

1-family rowhomes endangered

"If you walk along 80th Street from Eliot Avenue towards Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village, you will see a very disturbing development. Almost all of the houses in Middle Village are modest single-family homes. The building at 61-60 80th St. was recently sold and is being converted to a 2 or 3 family residence. As you can see from the picture, the front entrance has already been converted from a single entrance to two separate ones. There have been complaints filed with the NYC Department of Buildings stating that there may even be an illegal basement apartment.

The neighborhood is up in arms about this type of conversion! Converting one family homes into multiple dwellings puts a strain on the neighborhood’s infrastructure (school overcrowding, inadequate water pressure, sewer drainage, sanitation, policing, street parking, public transportation, potential fire hazard due to overcrowding, etc). It is also completely out of character with the neighborhood. Similar developments as well are happening in the nearby neighborhoods (Elmhurst, Maspeth, Woodside, etc).

As a neighborhood, we need to monitor this activity and report it to the NYC Department of Buildings and Queens Community Board 6. It’s one thing to pass along a home to an owner’s children or relatives or sell to another single family, but it’s absolutely terrible to sell to a developer who is only interested in collecting rent and couldn’t care less about preserving the quality of life in the neighborhood!

People in Middle Village need to take a stance on this now! Spread the word and let’s get ahead of the curve. Contact the our local Community Board 6, Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and the NYC Planning Division!"

Signed,

Anonymous
(Long Term Middle Village Resident)

Unfortunately, the NYC Department of City Planning has repeatedly rejected a zoning classification for one-family rowhomes. - QC

21 comments:

James Ng said...

Correction - Middle Village is in Queens Community Board 5.

Anonymous said...

Totally agree that the city should not allow this. Liz Crowley should be on top of this!

Anonymous said...

Don't let your neighborhood be destroyed like Flooshing! Pretty much every house has been illegally onverted to house multiple families! Thanks new neighbors!

JQ LLC said...

Liz Crowley should be on top of this!

I see what you did there...

I know what people are thinking that these apartments are being geared for multiple familes, but I think it's going to be for the hipshits being priced out of Ridgewood.

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for the people that live there Woodside is having the same problem but Crowley will not do anything about this - that is for sure -

(sarc) said...

As I understand this, these changes are within the zoning laws.

Do we not want the rule of law?

Or are we looking at laws to be changed on a whim when it suits you...

Anonymous said...

The prices of the homes are making people convert them into 2 family homes, as younger first time homebuyers the need the extra income to make there mortgage payments if they want to own a home in middle village.

Anonymous said...

Re: Do we not want the rule of law?

Or are we looking at laws to be changed on a whim when it suits you...


Absolutely, it's a waste of time trying to stop people from doing legal things that you don't like. For everyone of these conversions there's like hundreds of illegal conversions happening in Western Queens and West/South Brooklyn. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that near million dollar houses shouldn't exists in areas where poverty income levels are the norm. People should just spend their time calling 311 on a random house in Jackson Heights or Corona. Bet the hit rate would be much higher than going after legal conversions.

Anonymous said...

"The prices of the homes are making people convert them into 2 family homes, as younger first time homebuyers the need the extra income to make there mortgage payments if they want to own a home in middle village."
It won't be "Middle Village" if you convert the homes into illegal third world boarding homes.
There is a big world out there with affordable housing. If you can't afford NYC real estate breaking the zoning laws is not a solution.

Gino said...

I you CANT rent have a legal apartment these days, its suicide especially if a child or pregnant female is in the picture.
With a legal leased apartment when a tenant screws you the courts automatically give them the upper hand. It can take a year to get them out and you will never see that years rent money.
When you rent a cash no lease illegal apartment you may get a fine, perhaps lose a little rent. You see even a stinking liberal judge MUST issue an immediate vacate order if an apartment is illegal.
People are renting because the taxes, healthcare premiums and mortgages are absolutely killing them. Both young new and now old homeowners.

It cracks me up how 3 family's from China can pool money to buy a building, claim they are one large family, receive US residence visa's, put 20 kids in the local school and live packed like bees in a hive with no problems. All courtesy of Obamas -”Buy a house and get a green cards for all” Comprehensive Immigration Reform act of 2013

Also see Obamas JOLT act, a HUGE favorite of DeBlasio and his developer friends
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/immigration-reform-includes-buy-a-hous-65482/



Gee

Anonymous said...

""Liz Crowley should be on top of this""

Never happen, they don't have enough shelters or money to house all the people they would have to evict. A judge will not have a sheriff compel an eviction if the tenant has no place to go and a shelter is not available. The only exception is some basement cases where the apartment is illegal with a gas water heater or furnace for example.
-remember this is shitty New York, not Texas.

Anonymous said...

In Texas when one disobeys a judges order they toss your ass in jail , throw all your belongings to the curb and put your moving bill on your bail bond.
No months of 3rd chances in Texas

Anonymous said...


I swear to god half the people on here have mental problems.

Gino, if you rent illegally you are worse off. 1) You can't just kick them out. 2) You have to go to court to get the tenant out because THEY didn't rent the place illegally the landlord did. 3) When you do go to court you will get busted for renting illegally and 4) The tenant can LEGALLY stop paying rent during the eviction process and the landlord has no claim to it.

Gino, the "invest in real estate and increase your chances of getting a green card" policy has been around long before Obama,

Anonymous Gino said...<< All courtesy of Obamas -”Buy a house and get a green cards for all” Comprehensive Immigration Reform act of 2013 >>


Anonymous said...

Zoning laws allow this type of action - the work is legal there are approved permits.
Lately I look around Middle Village and it's true a lot of Asians are moving in.
They are now the ones with the money to buy into these overpriced neighborhoods thanks to us making China rich. My only problem with this is that they are the ones that seem to make their neighborhoods into these overpopulated cramped communities. As another poster side they live like bees in a beehive 7 generations deep partly because of culture and mostly because they are all collecting from the government. It's not going to stop - being middle class is a thing of the past. To survive in NY you either need to game the system by being poor or pretending to be poor or you need to get rich. To be honest it's like these cultures all come with a play book of how to get things for free from the government while the rest of us work our ass off and get nowhere.

Anonymous said...


This is such crap. Blame the immigrant. Blame the non-white person. They must not have worked hard, they only gamed the system.

65% of the Chinese in the country have a college degree compared to 30% of the non-Chinese population. That is why they do better.

I think is a gross generalization and racist just like saying, "a lot of white people are moving into Brooklyn". There are hundreds of different types of "Asian" in this world.

By the way, learning how to play the game is what everyone does. Blaming a group of for learning it better than you is your fault.

>> these cultures all come with a play book of how to get things for free from the government while the rest of us work our ass off and get nowhere.

Anonymous said...

>There is a big world out there with affordable housing.

"I got mine, I don't have to worry that no one else can get theirs."

>If you can't afford NYC real estate breaking the zoning laws is not a solution.

As has been established, these conversions are within zoning rules.

>When you rent a cash no lease illegal apartment you may get a fine, perhaps lose a little rent. You see even a stinking liberal judge MUST issue an immediate vacate order if an apartment is illegal.

Sad but true. It takes two years for the courts to kick out a non-paying renter, and that's when it's a single male. A woman with children can get away with scamming landlords even longer.

>I think is a gross generalization and racist just like saying, "a lot of white people are moving into Brooklyn".

To be fair, people aren't exactly happy about the hipsters flooding Brooklyn either.

Gino said...

""Gino, if you rent illegally you are worse off""

Wrong, Illegal aliens run to relatives or churches NOT the cops (or courts) when you throw them out or change the locks. They don't even get mail, no mailbox to prove anything.
Let them call the cops !!
However its the illegal workers that work doing sheetrock, painting floors and such that usually pay on time, are the most quiet and don't look for trouble.
I will rent a guy if hes a good worker as long as he doesn't bring his family here.
And don't blame landlords and contractors for this.

The problem is these American born Millennials are all good for nothing brats who refuse to work or learn a useful trade to save their lives!!
Can you believe these good for nothing American brats turn down $600 a week of easy 6 hour days are afraid to get hands dirty.
Somethings gone seriously wrong with our young people most are going to be lifetimes of section 8 democrats. This generation is in Big BIG trouble.

-Gee

Anonymous said...

>> these cultures all come with a play book of how to get things for free<<<

100% True
I have investigated this when a family member lost my health insurance due to Obamcare and she had to learn how to qualify for Medicaid.
It took a long time to "set up the dominos" She had to learn to become poor, lower her W2, drive shitty car.
These cultures have all different classes in Library's & Churches
Its like going to Drivers Ed, they teach you how to tweak your income, expenses, rent and to say the right things so you don't get denied.
Problem is not ONE of these classes is held in English and its near impossible to find out where the next one will be held

Anonymous said...

The post says illegal renters (meaning renting without a lease) not illegal immigrants. jesus...
>> Illegal aliens run to relatives or churches
--Gee

What? Explain this.

>> a family member lost my health insurance due to Obamcare

Well then I guess hardly anyone goes to the meetings!
>>its near impossible to find out where the next one will be held

Anonymous said...

>Can you believe these good for nothing American brats turn down $600 a week of easy 6 hour days are afraid to get hands dirty.

Please post your job listing, I have friends who'd kill for a job like that.

Anonymous said...

>>>>65% of the Chinese in the country have a college degree compared to 30% of the non-Chinese population. That is why they do better.<<<<

Yes they are a culture that cares for education and their kids do better themselves so that the 2nd or 3rd generation brown in the US aren't mooching off the system but believe me the first generation that received their college degree are getting it from the backs of other NY middle class taxpayers that make too much for their own kids to qualify for financial aid but too little to afford to send their own kids to college right after high school while paying all their bills and mortgage so their child has to work to pay for their education or take out loans.

>>>>By the way, learning how to play the game is what everyone does. Blaming a group of for learning it better than you is your fault.<<<
And that is the problem no group should be gaming the system and everyone learning to do it isn't the solution.