Thursday, May 31, 2018
Slán do anois, Shannon Pot!
From LIC Post:
The Shannon Pot, a longstanding Irish dive bar in Long Island City, will be closing down for a second time, but with plans already in the horizon to remain in the neighborhood.
The bar and restaurant, currently located at 21-59 44th Dr., will close on Friday as developers plan on bulldozing the one-story building to make way for a seven-story residential and commercial project.
The business, in the neighborhood since 1999, was already forced to relocate to its current 44th Drive site in 2014 from its prior spot at the corner of Jackson Avenue and Davis Street, which was also demolished as part of the two-story project under construction at the former 5Pointz site.
But a spokesperson for The Shannon Pot told the LIC Post that the developer, Kyriacos Stavrinou, has promised them a place at their upcoming development.
The spokesperson said The Shannon Pot will be back in business when the new building is completed. The bar currently has no plans to reopen elsewhere in the meantime, but could potentially do so if a short-term lease were obtained.
How de Blasio marketed affordable housing is a joke
Consider the calculations behind the June 12, 2017 official opening for the 535 Carlton tower in Prospect Heights, the first “100 percent affordable” building in the Pacific Park (formerly Atlantic Yards) project.
The emails show developer Greenland Forest City Partners scripting quotes from a grateful new 535 Carlton resident; a mayoral aide transforming a corporate press release into a governmental statement; and seeming distance from affordable housing advocates who once strongly backed Atlantic Yards, slated to include 2,250 below-market apartments.
Unmentioned: the grateful tenant was hardly representative of a building with 148 of 297 units aimed at middle-income households paying, for example, $2,680 for a one-bedroom apartment or $3,223 for a two-bedroom unit.
As this reporter wrote for City Limits in April 2017, the “real math” behind that building’s housing lottery showed some 67,000 households aiming for the 90 low-income apartments, while only 2,203 made the first cut for the 148 middle-income units. Ismene Speliotis, former ACORN housing head and now Executive Director of MHANY Management, which manages the housing lottery and tenant intake for the project expressed concern, telling City Limits that the limited response for the middle-income units indicated “a disconnect between the population’s need and the apartment distribution.”
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Water towers are kind of gross
Despite years of reforms, new data reveal widespread neglect in the thousands of weathered wooden water tanks that supply drinking water to millions of New York City residents. A review of city records indicates that most building owners still do not inspect and clean their tanks as the law has required for years, even after revisions to the health and administrative codes that now mandate annual filings.
There are still many thousands of water tanks across the city for which there is no information at all. The city can’t even say with certainty how many there are or where they are located, much less their condition – even well-maintained water tanks accumulate layers of muck and bacterial slime.
Building owners who do self-report the condition of their water tanks provide suspiciously spotless descriptions on annual inspection reports. These reports include bacteriological test results, but in almost every case the tests are conducted only after the tanks have been disinfected, making it a meaningless metric for determining the typical quality of a building’s drinking water. And regulators have issued dramatically fewer violations in recent years.
The data show that the city reported drinking water tanks on municipal buildings, including the city sanitation offices and several court buildings, tested positive for E. coli, a marker used by public health experts to predict the presence of potentially dangerous viruses and bacteria. Oversight remains lax: It took health officials more than a year to investigate several isolated reports of E. coli in drinking water tanks. After inquiries from City & State, however, officials now say that their own reports were erroneous.
But scientists at the federal Environmental Protection Agency and public health experts consulted by City & State warned that animals can easily get into New York City’s water tanks, that mucky sediments inside the tanks may contain pathogens and that poorly maintained water tanks could be the source of disease outbreaks.
Toby pushing for kitchens at shelters
State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing) was joined by members of the advocacy group Elmhurst United last week outside the former Pan American hotel, where she announced legislation she recently introduced that would mandate homeless family shelter units to have working kitchens.
The measure, S7181 A, would require family homeless shelters for 10 or more families to have working kitchens within 60 days of the registration of the contract between the operator of the shelter and the city of New York.
Stavisky’s bill is in direct response to the recent and controversial uptick of repurposed hotels being used as homeless shelters. In Stavisky’s district, the city came under fire for turning the former Pan American hotel on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst into a family shelter without supplying functioning kitchens in each unit.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Glass panel falls, kills worker on job site
From CBS 2:
A security guard was killed and a worker was hurt when a large panel of glass fell at a construction site near Central Park Saturday morning.
The FDNY said it responded to calls for a construction related accident at 217 West 57th St. just after 10:30 a.m.
When medics arrived they observed that a large glass panel had fallen onto 67-year-old Harry Ramnauth.
He was rushed to Mt. Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
A 27-year-old construction worker was hurt, as well. His injuries are believed to be non-life threatening.
Police said the glass panel was in the process of being moved when it fell and crushed the 67-year-old, who was working as as security guard at the location.
The incident remains under investigation.
The property already had a stop work order in effect when this happened.
"Simple" rezoning sounds a bit strange
Community Board 5 voted 32-8 last Wednesday in favor of a rezoning plan that would allow the famed restaurant to construct a second story. The additional space would contain a banquet hall that fits up to 140 people.
Under the proposed plan, the height of O’Neill’s would increase from 14 feet to 25 feet with the addition of the second floor. In order to build higher, restaurant ownership is seeking to rezone the plot of land from an R4 to an R5D district with a C2-2 commercial overlay.
The rezoning pitch also includes a handful of other area lots to bring them into compliance with city code.
CB 5’s Zoning and Land Use Committee recommended the full board vote in favor of the project, a vote of support the committee’s chairman, Walter Sanchez, said came with the “full understanding” that parking is a challenge in the area.
In an effort to alleviate some of those concerns, O’Neill’s submitted letters from various businesses and organizations in the area, including Babco Inc. and Action Tire Services, which they said will allow cars from O’Neill’s to park on their premises.
The restaurant’s management has also committed not to build apartments above the restaurant, even if a future zoning change may allow it, according to Sanchez, who said O’Neill’s has a good track record in the community.
How would that work? The city is enforcing deed restrictions now? Why would you ask for a change in residential zoning only to restrict what you can build? This is a bit strange.
Above is a map of where the proposed valet parking lots are. (O'Neill's is marked in red.) I've seen restaurants use a lot around the corner, across the street or down the block, but I ain't never seen anything proposed quite like this. How would this even work? Are these places authorized to park non-customers' cars in their lots? How does insurance work?
This sounds an awful lot like the White House Restaurant story. After convincing CB7 that he needed a zoning change in order to build a catering hall, the owner instead tore it down and replaced it with a large piece of Queens Crap. (Coincidentally, O'Neill's hired the same lawyers.)
Monday, May 28, 2018
Honoring an outstanding veteran
The Vietnam Veterans of America Queens Chapter 32 will march in Monday’s Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade with their former leader, Michael O’Kane — still slowed by knee surgery — riding along in a camouflage Camaro. This year the organization will pay a special tribute to former service members from Queens who died alone and sometimes homeless.
“We are sponsoring the Francis Lewis High School Junior ROTC, who will be carrying 125 folded casket flags belonging to indigent veterans that our chapter has had the honor of escorting to their final resting place,” O’Kane said.
For nearly a decade Chapter 32 has partnered with the Hess Miller Funeral Home in Middle Village to provide dignified burials for veterans who can’t afford one. Each flag-draped casket is transported to Calverton National Cemetery in Suffolk County, where the veteran receives full military honors and since there are no family members to receive the flag, the Chapter 32 members take it back to their Whitestone headquarters where the flags are put on display.
“In an effort to reconnect a family member with their relative, a listing of the veterans’ names, date of birth and date of death will be distributed along the parade route,” O’Kane said. “Contact information will also be provided if a relative is found and the casket flag will be returned to them. This is a very proud moment for the chapter.”
He recently stepped down after serving two years as president of the chapter, but he remains on the board of directors. Last week, the Glendale resident was inducted into the New York State Senate Veterans’ Hall of Fame after he was selected by state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach).
O’Kane served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, where he earned the Vietnam Service Medal, National Defense Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal and the U.S. Navy Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, and Meritorious Unit Citation for engaging the enemy several times in fire fights along the various rivers and canals in the Republic of Vietnam.
Thank you for your service
From CBS 2:
More than 2,300 sailors, Marines and members of the Coast Guard will be gracing the streets of New York City this weekend. What will the experience will be like? We wanted to find out firsthand and share it with you. CBS2's Vanessa Murdock followed a Marine from shore to shore as he set foot in the city for the first time.
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Owning a home in Queens is not cheap
Owning a home can be quite expensive in New York City.
A new analysis revealed that Queens ranked as the fourth highest county in New York where residents spent half of their income on housing costs.
Gavop, a real estate, housing, and local data analytics service, used data from the U.S. Census Bureau to produce a study on homeowners’ costs as a percentage of income, according to Kevin Pryor, Gavop analyst. It analyzed real estate trends at the county level across the United States and found that Queens County had a median income of $62,207 and a median housing cost of $29,136 per year for homeowners with a mortgage.
In the study, housing costs include homeowner expenses such as the sum of mortgage payments, real estate taxes, insurance, and utilities.
“We looked at annual housing costs as a percentage to gauge how much debt people owe to their living situation based on location,” said Pryor. “Here, the numbers show that Queens residents paid a high median percentage of income on housing costs, resulting in a large debt to homeownership in the area.”
Pryor said for Queens “it was abnormally high for New York.” The percentage was 46.8 percent, where residents spent half of their income on mortgage payments, including utilities and maintenance.
Queens County’s median housing cost in relation to income is much larger than New York state’s rate of 39.5 percent and the national level of 31 percent.
Just going to leave this right here...
From The Intercept:
Sweeney’s office, according to the Daily News, made $30 million as counsel to the public administrator of the court from 2006 to 2017, administering the estates of people who died without wills. He did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment, and he declined to comment to the Daily News last year about his work. Scott Kaufman, who served as Crowley’s campaign treasurer for 17 years, made almost half a million dollars from assignments by the court from 2006 to 2017, the New York Post reported last June. Kaufman’s haul prompted a state probe into possible pay violations. He did not return The Intercept’s request for comment, but he told the Post last year that he was in compliance with state rules on court appointments. “Any review will conclude that the rules have been complied with,” Kaufman said. A spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration declined to comment on the investigation, but noted that “Scott Kaufman is currently eligible for appointments,” meaning he is still able to accept court appointments as a public administrator.
Crowley’s allies in the machine, Ocasio-Cortez charged, “defend him in court and they bump his opponents off the ballot,” referring to ballot challenges filed with the Board of Elections against candidates Crowley did not support or who oppose the machine. Last year, as DNAInfo reported, a candidate in a City Council primary was booted from the ballot for not having enough valid signatures; she said she was bullied for not “kissing the ring” of the party boss, Crowley. In that race, Crowley supported Assemblyman Francisco Moya, who went on to defeat Hiram Monserrate, a former council member and state senator who was expelled from the legislature after a 2009 conviction for assaulting his girlfriend.
The machine has a tight relationship with developers. Ocasio-Cortez noted in a follow-up email that Crowley’s organization reaped large sums of real estate money before the Queens machine installed the new City Council speaker, Corey Johnson, who has since “led the council in rezoning neighborhoods for luxury developments — pricing out local families and constructing high rises when the city already has 275k vacant units.”
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Push to use video as evidence for littering summonses
A Sanitation Department official told the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association last Thursday that the agency would “love” to use camera footage in its enforcement of littering laws, but can’t because of the law.
“It does help our enforcement because usually its ritualized,” said Nicholas Circharo, community affairs liaison for the DSNY. “They do it every morning. We would love to use the footage.”
Right now, Sanitation enforcement agents must catch a litterer in the act to write him or her a summons and are not allowed to use video evidence against an illegal dumper.
Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village) said earlier in the meeting that he’d be interested in writing a bill that would allow the agency to use surveillance equipment to keep streets clean.
Litter laws are a top issue for the WRBA, and it’s discussed at almost every one of the civic’s meetings. Circharo was asked to appear at the May one to answer a few questions from WRBA President Steve Forte and other residents.
Many complained that summonses are often written to homeowners and merchants for trash left behind by other people in front of their property — some businesses have been issued thousands of dollars in violations.
Sidewalk repair reprieve
The City Council approved a measure Wednesday that will give landlords an extra 30 days to repair damaged sidewalks abutting their properties, stretching the deadline to 75 days from 45 days. Minority Leader Steven Matteo, R-Staten Island, who sponsored the bill, said the idea grew out of constituent complaints from his district—where single-family homes predominate.
He noted that the city hands out many repair orders during winter, when cold and damp conditions can make work impossible.
Friday, May 25, 2018
BDB used Mets games to look like an everyman
From CBS 2:
In an August 27 email, de Blasio said, “Chirlane, Chiara will go to the Mets/Red Sox game Friday night – in very cheap seats… I will go the Sat game with queens bp (Borough President) Melinda Katz. I will go to the Sunday game with Queens councilmembers.”
Outside consultant Jonathan Rosen, of BerlinRosen, sometimes referred to as “Jro” in the emails, weighed in on August 28 with a political “tweak.”
“Can we also frame this as how BdB (Bill de Blasio) does his politics. Some pols do dinners and drinks… but he’s working the Queens delegation and the BP over Mets games. It’s work – him doing politics well,” he wrote.
MTA to provide more Queens bus service later this year
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced this week that it will soon offer additional rush hour train service and weekend bus service due to high demand.
Last week the Queens Tribune published a feature titled “Surviving The Summer Of Hell In Western Queens” that informed borough commuters regarding delays and closures that are expected in the upcoming months.
The president of New York City Transit has since announced that additional A, D, E and F subway trains will operate during weekday rush hours beginning in November. There will also be additional Q6, Q8, Q29, Q47, Q49, Q101 and Q65 buses on the weekends beginning in July.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Homeless not-for-profit's math doesn't add up
A nonprofit that has become a major homeless shelter provider in a short time frame is being audited by the city — less than a year after it scored $407 million in contracts.
Childrens Community Services lassoed two mega-contracts with the Department of Homeless Services last June to operate hotel shelters in four boroughs and charge as much as $270 a night to house a family in a room.
The city inked the deals even though the nonprofit only started four years ago and its most recent tax filing showed it was $6 million in the red.
One contract was for three years and $360 million to house homeless families. The other was for $47.7 million to house single adults.
When the Daily News inquired about the nonprofit's debts and murky financials, Homeless Services said it planned to procure an independent accounting firm to review Childrens Community Services and pare down the number of shelters the nonprofit operates.
Brooklyn neighborhoods try to hold ECB accountable
The city’s failure to collect fines on thousands of properties with unpaid building violations in Marine Park, Madison, Sheepshead Bay, and surrounding neighborhoods makes a mockery of zoning laws, leading some locals to call for some Wild West justice at a civic meeting on May 17.
“Why can’t they get a posse together and collect?” said Fran Minichiello of Sheepshead Bay.
The lax enforcement of so-called environmental control board violations — which the Department of Buildings slaps on developers when they fail to comply with construction or zoning rules — was the subject of a special meeting of the Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association in Marine Park last week, where residents grilled officials from the buildings department and the Department of Finance, which is responsible for collecting the fines.
There are 2,366 properties with open violations in the territory of Community Board 18, which includes parts of Marine Park, Mill Basin, Canarsie, and other neighborhoods. There are 5,518 total open violations in that area, meaning some properties have more than one, according to the Department of Buildings.
Within Community Board 15, which encompasses Madison, Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, and other areas, there are 1,941 properties with open violations, and 4,505 total such violations among 31,884 properties, according to the department. The Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association includes parts of both CB15 and CB18.
The Department of Finance did not respond to a request for information on how much money’s worth of violations currently remains unpaid in Brooklyn, but a response to a freedom of information law request from the association said there were more than $247 million in outstanding violations in the borough in August 2017.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
City closing stretch of Rockaway beaches for safety's sake
From CBS 2:
Longtime resident John Cori spoke to CBS2 in April about the ongoing erosion that he says should have been addressed and resolved years ago.
“It’s not unexpected,” he said. “We’ve been talking about this and warning the city.”
Cori adds that the Army Corps of Engineers has been slow to act.
“We know the issue, they’re closing the beaches,” he said. “We need to get the federal government in.”
City beaches are slated to open this Memorial Day Weekend, but the area between Beach 91st street and Beach 102nd Street will officially be off-limits. A section of beach in front of the 97th Street concessions area and bathrooms will be open, but there will be no access to the water.
Coming soon to a streetscape near you?
Another building is set to sprout up on 4th Avenue in Park Slope.
Renderings spotted outside 269 4th Avenue display a 12-story u-shaped building, with what might be an open courtyard on the ground level.
The most striking feature are two twin cantilevered sections on the top five floors, which loom over the three-story building next door at 265 4th Avenue. The top four floors appear to have balconies, and there will be additional rooftop recreation space open to all residential tenants, according to a permit application filed with the Department of Buildings.
Is this really the direction we want architecture to go in?
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Sunnyside teardown almost $10M
A Queens Boulevard property marketed for its development potential is changing hands for $9.9 million, according to a press release issued by the real estate brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield.
The brokerage firm said Friday that it had arranged the sale of 43-10/24 Queens Blvd—a property that incorporates about half the block on the south side of the boulevard between 43rd and 44th Streets. Eight stores occupy the space—including Amazon Pharmacy, Dave’s Bagels, Riko and Taiyo Food.
The property has been owned by Geoffrey Henderson, the president of Manhattan-based Henderson Holding Corp., since January 2015. That company purchased the one-story building for $7.28 million. The new buyer has not been named and the transaction has yet to close.
The stores currently occupy 8,500 square feet. However, an owner can develop a 43,700 square foot mixed-use building, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Parking meters hiked and BDB is fine with it
From CBS 2:
Mayor Bill de Blasio is looking to raise parking meter rates — a move that could burden outer borough businesses and working people.
His plan includes raising the rates at the nearly 70 percent of the spots in the outer boroughs that now charge $1 an hour.
CBS2’s Political Reporter Marcia Kramer asked the mayor on Friday whether he feels “that working people who may use those spots… could be unfairly disadvantaged and it could be a regressive tax?”
“You know I care a lot about making sure there’s fairness for working people,” he replied.
De Blasio said that while he cares about the working man, he’s more concerned about congestion. To ease congestion, he wants to see more turnover of parking spots in outer borough business districts, like Astoria, Queens.
Does this make any sense whatsoever?
Monday, May 21, 2018
City (still) trying to crack down on parking placard abuse
The city has handed out a whopping 160,000 parking placards, to teachers, cops, Department of Transportation workers and others.
Many drivers still use dubious or outright fake placards — and manage to avoid tickets.
Meanwhile, drivers with legit placards park where they're not supposed to — on the sidewalk or blocking crosswalks. City placard holders are also only supposed to use the placards while on official business.
Under the proposed legislation, which will be introduced next week, the minimum fine for using a bogus or unauthorized placard would double from $250 to $500.
Another bill would require the city to yank a real placard if it is used inappropriately three times in a year.
The legislation would also create an electronic tracking system for city-issued placards, so officials will know who has one and whether they've been caught misusing it, and cops can confirm in real time whether a permit displayed on a car is valid.
And the NYPD would have to issue reports on how many complaints they get about placards abuse, and how many tickets they give out.
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Upstate senators support a denser New York City
Support for a state Senate bill allowing the city to zone for denser apartment buildings is breaking down along geographic lines.
Representatives from within the five boroughs—aside from the Bronx's state Sen. Jeff Klein—voted against the proposal earlier this month, while lawmakers from outside the city were in favor.
The bill would roll back a state law capping residential development at 12 times a city property's lot area. The legislation's stated aim is to give the city greater leeway to address the housing crisis by zoning for denser development wherever the City Planning Commission deems appropriate. Doing so would bring residential planning in line with commercial properties, which are not subject to a state-imposed cap. That idea is supported by the de Blasio administration, the Regional Plan Association and the Real Estate Board of New York. But new housing is often opposed by preservation and community groups, a dynamic that makes the geographic split in the Senate Committee on Rules, which voted May 7, unsurprising.
Huge Queens Blvd development is widely criticized
According to plans presented by developer Madison Realty Capital, the taller of the two structures — to be located at the southeast corner of 69th Street and Queens Boulevard — will feature 17 stories and rise 181 feet into the air.
The shorter building — across the plot from its counterpart — will feature 14 stories, stand 151 feet tall and sit at the northwest corner of 70th Street and 47th Avenue.
Within the two structures, Madison Realty Capital plans to create 561 residential rental units, including 112 dwellings of affordable housing for residents making 80 percent of the area median income — about $62,000 for a family of three.
Connecting the buildings -— which will contain about 5,600 square feet of ground-floor retail space — will be a courtyard to be built atop a parking garage that will contain 242 spots.
Of the approximately 100 people in attendance at the meeting, no one spoke in favor of the plan. Most of those who took the microphone to shred it were members of the NYC District Council of Carpenters, all of whom donned green or black union shirts.
Many of them asked if a commitment to use organized labor could be made, but Ross Moskowitz, an attorney representing Madison Realty, and other present officials affiliated with the developer responded by saying that it was too early in the process to decide.
That sparked jeers from some in the crowd, with one man even asking how many people the developer expect to die on the job if it decides to hire nonunion workers.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Non-profit is building up Astoria property
From the Queens Gazette:
Plans have been revealed for the development of a 14-story, mixed-use building at 21-12 30th Road in Astoria, on property owned by the Variety Boy’s & Girl’s Club.
The 145-foot-tall building will feature 133,090-square-feet of residential space, 7,780-square-feet of commercial/retail use and 114,430-square-feet of space for a community facility for the Boy’s & Girl’s Club, according to a post on the YIMBY (Yes, In My Back Yard) website.
The development will feature 112 condominium units averaging 1,228-square-feet each.
The development will be split between two towers with the community space occupying floors one through six and residential units occupying floors seven through 14.
Locust Manor getting a Caliendo special
A south Queens neighborhood will soon see a building with more 80 new units of affordable housing rise in the area.
The Meridian housing development will bring 82 mixed-income units to Locust Manor, a small neighborhood situated between Rochdale Village and Laurelton.
The governor’s office announced the $9.7 million project as part of a $200 million long-term plan to build or preserve more than 2,800 affordable apartments across New York state.
Located at 127-10 Locust Manor Lane, The Meridian will be constructed on formerly vacant land in a largely residential neighborhood by D & F Development Group LLC. The site is located near the Locust Manor station on the Long Island Rail Road, located at Farmers Boulevard and Bedell Street, and commercial and retail establishments.
The gross rents (rent plus utilities) for each unit will range from $835 a month and higher based on income eligibility and household size, according to a NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) agency spokesperson. The building will stand 14 stories tall and is designed by Briarwood-based Gerald J. Caliendo Architect, P.C.
Friday, May 18, 2018
Lots of dough thrown down the homeless hole
It costs a lot of money to keep the homeless shelter system's population flat.
Both the City Council and Controller Scott Stringer questioned the precipitously rising budget for the Department of Homeless Services Tuesday, even as the homeless population of about 61,000 New Yorkers has yet to drop.
Councilman Steve Levin said that actual spending for the Department of Homeless Services was $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2016 — and had grown to $2.14 billion in the current fiscal year, after the city twice modified the budget mid-year, twice, to add cash. That's a $700 million jump.
"But we have not seen a significant decrease in the shelter census despite that increase in spending — 50% over what it was in fiscal year 2016," Levin said during a City Council budget hearing on the budgets of the city's welfare agencies.
Levin said the spending was worthy — and that the city had underfunded the system in the past. But he questioned what results the money was getting if the city had the same shelter population — and if those in shelter were still unhappy with conditions.
Simple: hotel rates went up.
City Council about to lower the boom on AirBnB
The New York City Council is at work on a new bill that would be the biggest crackdown yet on Airbnb.
Councilmembers are writing a bill that would require Airbnb to provide addresses of their listings to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, according to Politico. The push comes amid a strong anti-Airbnb lobbying campaign from New York’s hotel industry accusing the company of lowering the stock of affordable housing in New York.
The bill would also require hosts to give their full names and addresses to the mayor’s office, report whether the home is their primary residence and say whether they are just renting a room or their entire home. Penalties would be applied to listings that do not comply with the reporting requirements, although lawyers for the City Council are still figuring out what these would be.
The City Council and Airbnb did not have statistics for how many rent-regulated apartments make up Airbnb listings, but politicians believe it takes low- and moderate-income housing off of the rental market based on anecdotal accounts.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Feds looking at Cuomo donors
A health care company that got big state grants after its execs and doctors gave to Gov. Cuomo's campaign is being probed by a Manhattan federal grand jury, according to a report Monday.
Crystal Run Healthcare — one of the Hudson Valley's biggest employers — got $25.4 million in taxpayer money after some of its executives, doctors and their spouses gave $400,000 to Cuomo's campaign, the Albany Times Union reported. The paper also reported that grand jury subpoenas seek testimony from "multiple" company employees.
The state gave the money to Crystal Run in 2016 to fund two facilities, the Times Union said.
Crystal Run's founder and CEO, Hal Teitelbaum, gave $50,000 to Cuomo's campaign in 2015 and $20,000 in 2017, records show. His wife, Jennifer, gave $25,000 in 2013.
Woodside visa fraudster cuffed
A Woodside woman has been charged with visa fraud for filing false documents to get Filipino nationals work visas, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Rena Beduya Avendula, 50, who owned Woodside-based Professional Place & Recruitment Inc. (PPRI), would submit fraudulent documents claiming that her clients would be employed in “specialty occupations,” therefore qualifying for H-1B work visas, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Avendula is charged with five counts of visa fraud and with conspiring to defraud the U.S. by bringing in undocumented immigrants. The scheme allegedly took place from October 2009 through February 2015.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
129-ft tall hotel proposed for LIC
From The Real Deal:
Sam Chang is proposing a 324-key hotel at 38-39 9th Street, just a block away from another Long Island City property the hotelier acquired last year.
Chang’s McSam Hotel Group filed permits for a 13-story hotel spanning 111,627 square feet at the site, according to documents filed with the city’s Department of Buildings on Monday.
If approved, the structure would be 129 feet tall.
Drunk driver crashes into house, reveals illegal conversion
From NBC:
Witnesses said the driver, a 29-year-old woman identified by police as Shanna Shaw, got out of the vehicle wearing only her underwear. She seemed disoriented and under the influence.
"She was just screaming, just screaming," said A.J. "No words at all."
Police said the woman tried to leave the scene but was arrested. All of the injured are expected to survive.
But there are even more victims: A.J. and his family may have lost their home, since it's been deemed no longer safe to live in.
"We have to move or vacate the apartment until further notice," he said. "It takes a toll on everybody, but you gotta live through it, I guess."
A.J. and his family are staying with friends for now. The driver, Shaw, has been charged with driving while imparied and with two counts of fleeing the scene of an accident.
Attorney information for Shaw was not immediately clear.
Messages left for the building landlord were not immediately returned. The Department of Buildings said during investigation at the crash scene, they learned the home had been illegally converted and didn't have adequate egress. As a result, a partial vacate order was issued for the first floor and garage.
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
South Ozone Park: all shelters, all the time
From the Queens Chronicle:
All but two hotels within the boundaries of Community Board 10 are being used to house homeless people, with the latest being the Sheraton JFK on South Conduit Avenue.
The announcement that the Sheraton is being used to house the undomiciled — made at CB 10’s meeting last Thursday — comes more than a year after Mayor de Blasio announced the city would stop using such sites to alleviate the growing homelessness crisis by 2023, and open 90 new shelters in the five boroughs. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeless Services says the city is already in the process of not ending the use of some hotels as temporary shelters.
It now joins five other commercial hotels in Ozone Park and South Ozone Park being used by the DHS. Three are family shelters — The Days Inn and Comfort Inn, both on Redding Street, house 30 and 54 families with children, respectively, and the Hilton Garden Inn on 134th Street in South Ozone Park has 60. The EconoLodge on Rockaway Boulevard is a “single adult site” with 48 people. The View Inn and Suites JFK, on the Van Wyck Expressway service road, has 62 rooms being rented out by the city. The Skyway Men’s Shelter, formerly a motel, is also housing 124 homeless men.
Only two hotels within CB 10’s area are not being utilized by the city — the Surfside Motel in Howard Beach and the Crossbay Motor Inn in Ozone Park. Many of the hotels lack kitchens in the rooms, a violation of the law that states there must be one where homeless people are being housed. The city has exempted itself from its own regulation, citing an emergency.
Blissville rallies outside Gracie Mansion
Calling the city’s plan to open a third shelter in a seven-block area of their isolated neighborhood “a threat to the very fabric of our community,” Blissville residents rallied outside the Mayor’s residence at Gracie Mansion Monday morning.
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria) joined the dozen protesters from the newly formed Blissville Civic Association as they voiced their opposition to the population imbalance that will occur this spring when the city Department of Homeless Services moves 154 adult homeless families into the Fairfield Inn by Marriott on Van Dam Street in the next few weeks, bringing the number of homeless to more than 550 in a neighborhood with less than 475 permanent residents.
“Homelessness is a huge problem in New York and every neighborhood is being asked to do their fair share,” Maloney said. “But Blissville is being asked to do more.”
Maria Davis, the vice president of the Blissville Civic Association, said the population imbalance would be more like a saturation.
“This is not fair share equity, it’s a reckless and dangerous plan,” she said.
Monday, May 14, 2018
Stop work order violations will carry heavier penalties
The city will soon bump up fines for violating stop-work orders on construction sites, adding another $1,000 to penalties imposed for first-time offenses.
Starting June 18, the Department of Buildings will impose penalties of $6,000 for initial offenses and then $12,000 for every subsequent violation. Currently, the agency charges $5,000 for the former and $10,000 for the latter.
The City Council approved the change in August, along with a slew of other building-related bills. At the time, the council also voted to double penalties for work done without a permit, which varies based on the kind of work.
DOB verifies that Elmhurst death house was illegally subdivided
The Queens building where a man was found dead in the attic — a day after the fire was put out — was illegally subdivided, according to the Buildings Department.
There was an apartment illegally created in the basement, and multiple Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units illegally added on the first floor of 40-46 Case St. in Elmhurst, inspectors said.
The Buildings Department has ordered the property owner to board up the vacated fire-damaged building. The owner has also been hit with multiple violations for the illegal conversions.
On Sunday, a city lawmaker who represents the area demanded a full investigation and for stricter penalties for similar illegally converted houses.
"Similar illegal conversions are common practice in Corona and Elmhurst," said Councilman Francisco Moya.
The home in Jackson Heights that caught fire also has a history of being an SRO.
Sunday, May 13, 2018
Does anyone at DHS have a clue?
From Sunnyside Post:
The City View Inn in Blissville will once again house homeless families with children, the city announced today.
The Department of Homeless Services said the hotel at 33-17 Greenpoint Ave., which is currently housing single adult men, will transition back to temporarily providing shelter for families with children before the school year in September. The specific date and time for the move is yet to be determined.
The DHS says the decision comes with trends the agency sees in the summer months, when more families with children seek shelter due to the school year wrapping up.
The single adult men currently at the shelter, the DHS says, will be transferred to other shelter locations. The agency is expecting several high-quality, permanent shelters to open around the city in the coming months, which will provide capacity to shelter the men at the City View Inn and others.
The City View Inn began sheltering 54 families with children in July 2017, but abruptly switched to housing over 100 single adult men in January. The DHS was met with much criticism at the time due to its handling of the move, where families at the shelter were seemingly notified hours before of the news. The agency has since publicly apologized for the miscommunication.
Bill aims to stop car dealership sidewalk parking
From CBS 2:
Dealerships have been parking their cars where people walk, specifically in Brooklyn and Queens.
“I’m basically stepping over the bumper of a car to try and get into the street,” Calvin McGoldrick, of Bay Ridge, said.
In Bay Ridge, CBS2 busted a Hyundai dealer on Fourth Avenue. When it saw our cameras, it moved one of its cars that was illegally parked.
CBS2 also spotted four cars on the sidewalk at the Park Slope Auto Center. Even the image Google Maps snapped of it shows two cars illegally parked.
“It’s more than just an inconvenience, though. I think it’s a safety issue,” said Emily Porro, of Park Slope.
That’s why the City Council is pushing for a bill to revoke car dealers’ licenses if they become repeat offenders.
“Anytime when you have cars infringing on public space and pedestrians space, it’s a problem,” City Councilman Justin Brannan, of Brooklyn, said.
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, of Queens, is sponsoring the bill.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Is the Shel game over?
The ex-speaker of the New York state Assembly Sheldon Silver was found guilty on Friday of selling his office for $4 million in kickbacks — affirming a 2015 conviction on the same charges that had been overturned on appeal.
A jury of seven women and five men found Silver, 74, guilty of all seven counts against him, including two counts of honest services mail fraud and money laundering.
He faces as much as 130 years in prison when sentenced on July 13.
Elmhurst fire is an old familiar story
From the Daily News:
A roaring fire erupted in a Queens home early Friday injuring seven firefighters and five civilians, including one who suffered life-threatening injuries, FDNY officials said.
The blaze broke out on the second floor of a two-story house on Case St. near Whitney Ave. in Corona around 5:10 a.m., according to authorities.
Four civilians were taken to local hospitals in serious condition. A fifth civilian was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital in critical condition.
The seven injured firefighters were taken to New York-Presbyterian Queens. Their conditions were being evaluated, an FDNY spokesman said.
Friday, May 11, 2018
Bayside pimp pinched
From the Times Ledger:
Three people are facing prostitution charges following an April 21 arrest in Bayside in which the alleged ringleader offered two of his “employees” to two undercover cops from Queens Vice Enforcement Division for sex acts in exchange for money, the Queens district attorney said.
Cheolryong Shin, 31, was identified in the criminal complaint filed by the DA’s office as the man who allegedly attempted to sell two officers on a full body massage complete with sexual gratification before being arrested alongside Ting Ting Wen, 27, and Yan Yan Hong, 40.
After Shin allegedly offered the services of the two women for a fee of $160, the undercover cops were led into the basement of a business at 211-54 45th Drive, where the fee was discussed again with the female defendants, the complaint said.
The location is an inconspicuous office space with no exterior signage indicating there was a massage parlor of any kind occupying the building, which also houses a dental business. It is on a quiet residential street west of Bell Boulevard.
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Who will be appointed to AG role?
Why it's important to research history
since 2015, most of the Red Hook fields have been closed because of lead contamination in the soil. A $107 million cleanup by the New York City parks department has been delayed, leaving residents, coaches and parents anxious and confused.
“We need our fields back,” Mr. Bazemore said. “But safe.”
Problems started in 2012 when the parks department and the city’s health department learned of a dissertation by an environmental scientist who identified close to 500 lead-smelting sites around the country. One of the smelters once stood in Red Hook, right across the street from the housing projects and right on top of some of the playing fields.
In the late 1920s and ’30s, Columbia Smelting and Refining Works operated on the corner of Hicks and Lorraine Streets, leaving lead in the soil that would eventually become Fields 5, 6, 7 and 8 — the same fields that Mr. Bazemore and generations of children once played on. The parks department and the health department tested the soil in 2012, finding lead levels four times the safe limit on the surface and nearly 10 times the limit further underground. They quickly closed them. A concrete pad to guard against the lead was laid down. The fields and grass were hydroseeded.
In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency did further testing in the surrounding fields and found more elevated lead levels, causing Parks to close the fields for a four-phase cleanup that has yet to begin.
Work was set to start this spring on Fields 5 through 8 — the worst of the bunch and closest to the housing projects — but has now been pushed back a year because of delays in the construction bidding process. A contractor is now being approved and work should be completed by fall 2020, when a 12-inch buffer of clean fill will be topped by a drainage layer and then synthetic turf.
Just think what we could avoid if the city consulted historians once in a while. Or at least looked at old maps...
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Building boom brings shoddy construction
Construction defects, alleged or otherwise, are a hallmark of any building boom, and the last five years have been no exception. While there are no publicly available numbers on the frequency of such complaints, attorneys say latent defects usually spring up a year or so after buildings open. Many say they are already seeing an uptick, given that construction has been unrelenting since 2012. And they say it’s safe to assume that another wave of lawsuits is about to hit.
Developers causing low-rise grief
On May 3, local civic leaders and state Senator Avella held a press conference to call attention to the trend — observed in areas including Bayside, College Point and Bellerose — where semi-attached houses are being re-built by developers to tower over the adjacent home.
The group called on the city to establish new building and zoning codes that protect semi-attached and row houses from this “inappropriate construction.”
“There’s nothing to stop this,” Avella said, referencing a photo of new home built up against a smaller residence in Queens. A firewall was built to separate the two structures.
This construction causes the property value of the attached home to plummet, Avella claimed, and opens adjacent homeowners up to ventilation and quality-of-life concerns.
“The only thing [the homeowner] can do is then sell to somebody else who’s going to do something like this on the other end,” Avella said. “We have to come up with some sort of proposal where at least the adjacent homeowner has some rights.”
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
World's quickest takedown?
Breaking News: 4 women are said to have accused New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, of assault. He had long cast himself as a champion of women. https://t.co/AvFzL5EVfH
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 7, 2018
Is the Clear Curbs initiative helping or hurting?
From NBC:
A program designed to curb congestion by banning delivery trucks and cars from parking on certain streets during rush hour is making the problem worse, some say. Lori Bordonaro reports.
Monday, May 7, 2018
LIC will get more hotels, like it or not
A large stretch of Long Island City will be exempt from the city’s new plan to curb hotel development throughout the five boroughs.
The city’s proposal would require hotel developers to obtain a special permit–requiring a lengthy public approval process–to build in certain manufacturing and industrial districts around the city. The Department of City Planning, the agency behind the effort, began the public review process to amend the zoning text that would require these permits just days ago.
The city, which has been working on the proposal since 2015, says the special mixed use district was excluded because it has the infrastructure in place to support hotel development without it detrimentally affecting communities in it.
“The M1 Hotel Text Amendment provides much needed control in the Industrial Business Zone but it does not provide protection in the low rise residential areas,” said the LIC Coalition, a local community group.
“There is no reason to believe that once squeezed out of the M1 zone, hotel developers would not seek opportunities where they can,” the group added.
Other areas exempt from the special permit requirement include sections of East Elmhurst, Ozone Park, and Springfield Gardens, given their proximity to the airports. The city will also be exempt from the special permit requirement if it operates hotels to provide temporary shelter to the homeless and other public purposes.
Translation: The City wants more homeless hotels in LIC.
Sandy's lesson not learned?
The community of Rockaway Park, Queens, has mixed opinions on a plan to replace a historic firehouse badly damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
New York Fire Department officials say they want to build a new firehouse on the site of a former bank, shuttered after the 2012 storm. WCBS-TV reports the local community board voted against the location but was overruled by the city Planning Commission.
The property sits across the street from the sea wall of Jamaica Bay and is considered a flood zone. Resident Bianca Sepulveda said Monday that she feels it is a risk to have a firehouse right on top of the water.
The FDNY said in a statement that the planned building will meet all flood resiliency standards.
Sunday, May 6, 2018
Future of KGH site is up in the air
From the Queens Chronicle:
More than a year has passed since a fire destroyed a strip mall in Kew Gardens Hills. And the site’s future is a big question mark.
On the night of Dec. 30, 2016, a blaze destroying the 14 businesses from 77-39 to 77-63 Vleigh Place, including a kosher pizzeria, bakery, law office and barber shop.
The Department of Buildings condemned the building the next day and slated it for demolition on Jan. 11, 2017; the project began last September and was signed off as completed by the city on March 28.
The block is now a large concrete pit, partially filled with dirt and enclosed by windowed green barriers. A Caterpillar demolition excavator, as well as scattered construction waste and materials, can also be seen on-site.
Woodside to get 75-unit building
From the Queens Gazette:
The owner of a parcel at 43-44 51st Street in Woodside have filed plans with the city Department of Buildings for development of a nine-story, mixed-use building at the site.
The building would soar 99-feet, with a combination of 75 affordable and market rate units on floors two through nine, 8,624-square-feet of retail space on the ground floor, a fitness room, indoor/outdoor recreation room for tenants and enclosed parking for 31 vehicles.