Less than a week after a Rikers Island prison guard was viciously attacked by six alleged gang members and hospitalized with a fractured spine and bleeding on the brain, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an agreement Wednesday to move forward with the closing of the notorious prison complex by creating a borough-based jail system.
City Council members from Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan, Speaker Corey Johnson and the Mayor agreed to a single public review process for four proposed sites that together will provide space for 5,000 detainees.
“This agreement marks a huge step forward on our path to closing Rikers Island,” de Blasio said. “In partnership with the City Council, we can now move ahead with creating a borough-based jail system that’s smaller, safer and fairer. I want to thank these representatives, who share our vision of a more rehabilitative and humane criminal justice system that brings staff and detainees closer to their communities.”
In Queens, the city identified the old Queens Detention Center in Kew Gardens after nearly a dozen Queens council members suggested the former jail in October. City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills), the chairwoman of the Queens delegation, spearheaded the “unprecedented” move with former councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley.
“The reopening of the Queens Detention Center not only makes sense, but it’s the right thing to do,” Koslowitz said. “This proposal restores the Center back to its original purpose and ensures that Queens’ borough-based jail facility is located in our civic center, close to our courts. This smaller facility will bolster the safety for our Department of Correction staff, will create an environment that is more conducive to rehabilitation and will save taxpayer dollars in transportation costs.”
Isn't it great when our reps work together on plans to screw us over? What happened to Koslowitz' claim that she wouldn't take both a jail and a shelter in Kew Gardens?
23 comments:
I think it's way past time to question her mental capacity. Seriously how old is this hack?
It's up to you KG, will the community organize protests in front of her home?
“The reopening of the Queens Detention Center not only makes sense, but it’s the right thing to do,” Koslowitz said.
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WAIT, just last week, this political hack, Koslowitz, stated "that you can put a homeless shelter (the Comfort Inn on Queens Blvd, right across from the future jail)or a jail in the community, but not both."
What happened Koslowitz, NOW you got BOTH. Shows what a hack you are as a councilmember and yet, this hack ran unopposed in the past election.
AND what is going to be done about parking. Parking for the workers of the jail, parking for family members of the prisoners, etc. WAS THAT EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT in an area where parking is so limited to begin with.
OF course NOT, put up CRAP and worry about the consequences down the road.
NYC and Queens government at its worse and the bar is already SO LOW in NYC and Queens to begin with.
WHAT A FUCKED UP CITY run by greedy assholes.
Hell that area of Queens Blvd already has homeless people drinking out of bags and begging for money in front of the Starbucks and the FED Ex office (due to the Comfort Inn homeless shelter, continuously, not too mention all the garbage/litter along that stretch.
NYC, destroying once good communities block by block in Queens. I guess the goal is to have everything be like it is in ghetto trashy Jamaica.
Spot on about the parking Joe M. They replace a 500 space lot with 300 spots. Genius! I guess the employees can ride their bikes.
Don't worry though the Kew Gardens Civic Association will word a nice angry letter.
Now cue the fountain guy.
SHe wants to be close to home during her sentence
Wow. This should be great campaign material for anyone who wants to run against this dotard. She caved and got absolutely nothing for the community in return. Zero.
In fact, her inability to stand for the community sends a signal to vultures everywhere: come shit on FH/KG - no shall stop you!
Dump that old bitch!
It'll be easier to lower our carbon footprint, especially in areas near these junior Rikers, that when a mentally ill homeless man snaps and assaults someone, the jail is right there instead of trekking all the way to the Island.
Of course if there were hospitals, which the city and state have squandered, defunded and shut down and sold the property to developers, there wouldn't be the need for these things and people would get help.
This is the plan the city has for Queens and even the areas in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan to alleviate the affordability crisis, prisons and shelters.
I said this the other day and it's become a distressing trend among the electeds. Karen, if you can't or are incapable of stopping these shitty policies, then just quit and get out. There is no need for the constituents to pay your six figure salary.
So does this mean they will be putting up a multi level parking garage like the one they just tore down?
Joe, you used you say you were liberal, but I really wonder lately. ;-)
I would like to point out that despite this blog's (often rightful) criticism of BP Katz, she has never come out in support of this plan. Now maybe you'd say that's not enough, she should fight it, but there isn't going to be ULURP on a site by site basis; it's going to be done in one fell swoop at City Hall. So other than make hay with the press about it, what do you think she should do?
Where can I purchase a pistola to combat the escaped prison vermin coming over my fencing?
Anonymous said...
I would like to point out that despite this blog's (often rightful) criticism of BP Katz, she has never come out in support of this plan. Now maybe you'd say that's not enough, she should fight it.
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BUT Katz has not come out against it. This is typical Katz bullshit, say NOTHING. I mean when was the last time you heard her speak out on any issue really.
AND yes, I am still liberal, but there are levels and thinking people are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, liberal on some issues, conservative on others. The extremes on both sides are what is problematic and puts people in camps to combat each other instead of assholes like Katz and Koslowitz.
What makes DeBlasio think that the incarcerated criminals, mostly with lengthy records, would not assault a Correction Officer in the Queens House of Detention, as opposed to Riker's Island? Little by little, DeBlasio is destroying our once great city. There are bums all over the place. And we're made to feel that this is normal. What a place to raise a family! Tell me that a homeless shelter in Kew Gardens, with riffraff hanging out, and begging, at all hours of the day, is right. The nice neighborhoods are gone. DeBlasio and his liberal agenda are, in large measure, the cause of this dumbing down of society. His perceived notions of racism or bias are totally misplaced, to the point that long-time US citizens are constantly being passed over for jobs in favor of certain ethnic minorities. Is this fairness? I doubt it. Joe Moretti for Mayor; just clean up the vocabulary.
>Where can I purchase a pistola to combat the escaped prison vermin coming over my fencing?
Most Southern states.
Where can I purchase a pistola to combat the escaped prison vermin coming over my fencing?
wait until the federal law changes and you can get one from another state
Re: pistola and fencing
I am going to get a red rider with a compass on the stock for this certain fate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LgEvQuyDxE
This whole Rikers thing should be put to a voter referendum. The People should decide. Not one crazy Communist!
"Where can I purchase a pistola", you can either shell out a fraction of your rent money to get the $400 city handgun permit to exercise your right or go buy one under the table.
I forget why the Queens House of Detention was closed. Can someone remind me? As for the Brooklyn House of Detention, if I remember correctly, the home owners in the neighborhood got that one closed down.
I am not thrilled that our tax money is being used for a new jail in the Bronx.
DeBlaz will be remembered for this horrible act of destruction on NYC.
He is responsible for destroying the quality of life in NYC.
Either we wipe out the slum or it wipes us out. Jacob Riis.
It will be interesting to see what really happens once the various labor unions get in the mix.
Hey Gary W.: I'M THAT 'FOUNTAIN GUY,' whom you so cavalierly mocked above, and it's because of complicity from do nothings and know nothings like YOU that the 'fountain' doesn't work, (as well as its publicly unauthorized re-purposing that no one asked for, much less the statue itself having being robbed from its vigilant, working fountain pedestal on Saturday, December 15, 2012 (and languishing in a Brooklyn graveyard for nearly six years, after the purported art restorers slapped a sloppy coat of paint over years of damage inflicted by Claire Schulman, Helen Marshall and Melinda Katz——three arrogant, useless and vacuous borough presidents, all of whom could put what they know about art, freedom, democracy and egalitarianism inside of a thimble——and, SHAKE IT)!
Oh, and by the way, Gary W., 'Triumph of Civic Virtue' was also a symbol of We, the People's freedom and democracy that used to be enforced and recognized at the now totalitarian, monarchy ruled Queens Borough Hall (of epic, humanitarian-and-ecological fail). But, alas, freedom and democracy had already left these ZIONIST STATES of AMNESIA and ENTERTAINMENT long before Kew Gardens' beloved statue was stolen (under the cover of darkness, no less——exactly like ALL acts of extreme cowardice)!
Enjoy your empty, 'art robbed' plaza of rotting plants, ironically inside of a working fountain with its beloved statue lopped off, Gary W.! But, given your snarky and ignorant comment, I would correctly surmise that you know even less about art than the 'Three Drunken Wenches' of Borough Hall themselves, one of whom (the now rotting corpse, Helen Marshall), showed her final contempt for Queens County before leaving her vacuous position, by SO ORDERING the statue's removal, for which she herself finally paid the ultimate price of civic betrayal——may her toxic ashes rot in eternal damnation!
While I agree with the comment that the possible Rikers relocation should be put to a voter referendum, I have very little faith in the voters making the best decision for NYC. In the last election, we had the lowest voter turn out in history.
There is no talk about brownfields studies being done on any of these locations. If they are toxic sites, that will be covered up.
Brownfield locations had public institutions built on them - prisons, jails, hospitals, public schools, police precincts, fire houses, court houses, welfare offices, public housing, armories and public health offices.
There is no need for a Rikers site in my neighborhood. We all know the ex- cons or those released for jail over crowding come right back to the neighborhood to one of the many NYCHA apartment buildings. Sad and infuriating.
What a hack of a hypocrite. The nabe deserves it for letting her run unopposed honestly. She's a grinning vulture. People out there are too soft, anyway. Once they run against up-trending burglaries and muggings, they'll have to toughen the fuck up.
Anonymous said...
Hey Gary W.: I'M THAT 'FOUNTAIN GUY,' whom you so cavalierly mocked . . ."
To Anonymous: HEAR, HEAR. Right on the mark with every statement.
However, I want to know just how long this jail will be "adequate". One month? One Week? One day?
And when overcrowding rears it's ugly head, how do we ameliorate the overcrowding? Let prisoners go due to overcrowding so they can wreak the same kind of criminal activity and havoc in Kew Gardens and Forest Hills?
What say you Koslowitz and Katz?
Let's give them the answer: When the designated jail reaches capacity for prisoners, Karen Koslowitz and her relatives and friends, as well as Melinda Katz and her relatives and friends, find room in their residences, their relatives' residences and their friends' residences to house the overflow.
If they make the decisions about the jail without consulting the citizens of Kew Gardens and Forest Hills, then it's up to them to solve the problem on their own dime and see how they cope with criminals on their private turf.
They certainly can afford it since they do nothing on our taxpayer dollars which, it seems, amounts to millions in wasted salaries to these two do-nothing politicos.
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