Friday, September 28, 2018
Business owners harassed over size of signs
From AMNY:
A number of store owners along Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven have received violations for their signs in recent months.
Others, hoping to ward off future fines, are pulling down their storefront signs.
The result is a streetscape pockmarked with blank spaces above shop fronts and merchants who said they were struggling before being hit with an unexpected fee.
“I was told there was a complaint about my sign, and I find that hard to believe,” said Vasiliadis, who heard about the violation in August. “I’ve been here nine years. Where would the complaint come from?”
Buildings Department officials confirmed they examined the sign at Avenue Diner after receiving a call about it through the 311 line.
Similarly, city personnel inspected Caridad Restaurant across the street, after the agency received a 311 call about its awning in June. Officials said owner Bruno Taveras’ 14-foot sign was illegal and anchored to the facade without a permit.
“We are here almost 20 years, and I never heard anything about the sign,” said Tavares. “They also said I need insurance. But I already have insurance for the establishment. Nobody in court wants to hear that.”
Andrew Rudansky, a spokesman for the Buildings Department, said signs under six-square-feet do not need a permit.
I'm glad to see that DOB has taken care of the illegal conversion problems and now has time to go after this menace.
15 comments:
Why don't they go after the shit in flushing and bayside? All of their signs are written in a Chinese language or Korean. I thought it was the law to have English writing on your signs but I guess that law flies out the door depending on your race.
Why dont they go after the signs that have no english at all on them or don't have an address on them?
Some of these signs are oversized for sure. The city has to crack down but there is a better way than to harass these hard working owners.
You folks wanna stop this kind of Crap? Go after your Democrat Councilperson. Do it enmasse by email and texting and phone calls. Circulate a petition among business owners and customers and do it now. And don't forget, when election time comes around vote that bag of manure out office. And keep voting them out until you get really really lucky and find an honest person to represent you. Good luck!
Why is the DeBlasio administration so eager to drive Queens mom and pops out of business? Is it just petty revenge for not voting for him, or is there crooked money to be made, too?
DOB: PLEASE PAY A VISIT TO MAIN STREET, FLUSHING. Or is your boss telling you to skip that section of Queens? Hmmmm
Kudos to the Bldg. Dept. Get the whole borough, it looks like a third world country. Expand the inspectors' quota.
The rats that ratted on these businesses are a miserable old farts,who got left behind during white flight, and can't stand the people speaking asian.
The council member in your community deals with these things. Flushing must have a good one, and so does Astoria. Them Greeks ain't putting up with it.
Could have been a city agency paying back the community cause they ain't getting free shit. Self entitled dweebs that they are.
DOB has multiple units, the sign unit does just that signs... Not illegal conversions.
Signs are more then just an eyesore, they are dangerous when illegally installed, especially when oversized. These illegal signs create excessive stress on building facades, water penitrapes, which will eventually cause the facade to crumble down onto pedestrians below.
Ignorance of the law excuses no one.
It's the DOB itself making anonymous 311 complaints, just so the inspectors can go out and fine the building owners. These signs have been there 9-30 years.
1. Someone did not pay off someone.
2. A community did not vote they way it was supposed to.
"Why is the DeBlasio administration so eager to drive Queens mom and pops out of business"
To drive them out, create hardship on everybody so they sell to a developer who will then put up a "mixed use" box. DeBlasio wants New York to be more like Denmark & Amsterdam, he cant force this change at gunpoint (not yet anyway)so harassment and using homeless and Rikers Island inmates as para military to destroy community's is to be the method.
DeBlasio is also waging war on private automobile ownership
"Why don't they go after the shit in flushing and bayside? All of their signs are written in a Chinese language or Korean. I thought it was the law to have English writing on your signs but I guess that law flies out the door depending on your race.
Because they are not illegal according to a federal case. Shop owners have a right to express their 1st amendment rights. They need addresses for public safety reason, but not store names.
There is an english sign law that was enacted in the early 1900s to address the new whites coming here(german, irish, italians, etc) who were putting up signs in their own languages. That law has never been enforced and would likely be struck down if it was enforced.
Please spare the rhetoric about about how all your ancestors came here legally and learned to speak english in two days because its just not true. The passage of the english only law in the 1900s show the same xenophobia and jingoism towards immigrants as exists now towards latinos and asians. Social scientists have found this generation of immigrants are assimilating faster than ever. Look at all the 1st generation asian americans in specialized high schools and ivy league schools. Also note the backlash to this assimilation with the city and ivys trying to keep these hard working students out.
I saw this on the maps link and I am wondering what the big deal is about these signs.
I smell rats, and they are probably coming from the Jamaica now planning collective.
My olfactory senses were right. A lot of those signs are in Woodhaven and they have been there for decades. Your city is trying to penalize and price out those small businesses to clear a path for the gentrification that is certain to arise by the rezoning of nearby East New York.
No wonder they haven't landmarked Neirs yet. I bet your city and the REBNY overlords see a nice bland potemkin tower village in that area.
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