Abolish the EDC

 

THE CITY

The mayorally controlled city Economic Development Corporation diverted tens of millions of dollars in rent receipts from publicly owned Times Square real estate holdings to help operate the costly NYC Ferry system, the corporation’s latest financial filings show.

Budget statements prepared for the EDC’s Wednesday morning board meeting show just $28 million in 42nd Street and other proceeds being sent to the city treasury for the fiscal year that ended June 30. That’s down from $125 million in 2014 and $103 million in 2016.

Mayor Bill de Blasio launched NYC Ferry in 2017, heralding its arrival as “a new day for our city.”

 The ferry system racked up $53 million in net costs for EDC in fiscal year 2020, the new numbers indicate, as it did in 2019. The watchdog Citizens Budget Commission a year ago calculated that with passengers paying just $2.75 a ride, each ferry trip costs the government $9.34 a ride.

State Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), who as city comptroller slammed EDC in 2010 in an audit that found it had failed to deliver more than $125 million owed to city taxpayers, said he now believes EDC should be abolished — calling it “a slush fund for whoever runs City Hall.”

 

4,000

 

1010 WINS

 More than 4,000 children in New York state have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19 complications, a new report found. 

United Hospital Fund and Boston Consulting Group on Wednesday released the results of an analysis they conducted between March and July.

The analysis found that 4,200 children in the state lost parents or guardians to COVID-19 during those months, 57 percent of whom live in three New York City boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. 

That figure translates to one in 1,000 children across New York state, according to the report. Black and Hispanic kids were disproportionately affected by the pandemic during that time, the analysis noted. 

One in 600 Black children and one in 700 Hispanic children lost a parent or guardian to COVID-19, compared to one in 1,400 Asian children and one in 1,500 white children, the analysis found. 

The analysis also found that up to 50 percent of the 4,200 children who lost caregivers were in danger of entering poverty. 

“Losing a parent or caregiver during childhood is a particularly acute adversity, one that raises a child’s risk of experiencing a range of poor outcomes over their lifetime, including poorer mental and physical health,” the report said. “These children and their families will require ongoing support and investment to ensure that the next generation won’t remain victims of this current COVID-19 pandemic.”

40%

 

Bloomberg

 

The pandemic has battered New York City businesses, with almost 6,000 closures, a jump of about 40% in bankruptcy filings across the region and shuttered storefronts in the business districts of all five boroughs.

It’s going to get worse.

This fall, the nation’s largest city will see even more padlocked doors as companies burn through federal and private loans they tapped in March, landlords boot businesses that can’t make rent, and plummeting temperatures chill outdoor dining and shopping.

“By late fall, there will be an avalanche of bankruptcies,” said Al Togut, a lawyer who has handled insolvencies for small businesses and huge corporations like Enron. “When the cold weather comes, that’s when we’ll start to see a surge in bankruptcies in New York City.”

New York City and its businesses have reached a pivotal point. After over six months with the specter of Covid-19 hovering in every subway car and corner bodega, the virus is showing signs of resurgence.

The state of New York on Saturday reported more than 1,000 new cases for the first time since early June. Spikes emerged in south Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish communities, just as they observed Yom Kippur. Meanwhile, principals called on the state to take over schools days before they restart in-person classes, saying Mayor Bill de Blasio failed to ensure enough staff to open safely.

The coming wave of business closings will touch every New Yorker as jobs get scarcer, neighborhoods lose beloved shops and families run out of cash.

Already, dwindling tax revenue has led to cutbacks in municipal services. Trash on sidewalks, unkempt parks and an increase in shootings have made it more difficult to persuade workers to return to offices, more than 150 executives told the mayor in a letter this month. A dearth of office workers is a death knell for many merchants.

“It’s a crisis, and we need to act—our economy can’t recover without saving small businesses,” said city Comptroller Scott Stringer, a candidate in next year’s mayoral election. “When they close, we don’t just lose our beloved Main Street businesses. We lose jobs, tax revenue and the economic backbone of our city.”

The pandemic could permanently close as many as a third of New York’s 230,000 businesses, according to the Partnership for New York City, a business group.

Bike commuters demand new path on Queensbridge

QNS

The south outer roadway of the Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridge was packed with anything but cars on Sunday as hundreds of cyclists rode free, demonstrating to the city Department of Transportation the aching need to give cyclists and pedestrians more space.

Of 10 lanes total, the bridge reserves nine of them for cars despite the tight pathway for any other form of transportation being packed with users, something that has been exacerbated by the 57 percent spike cycling and 40 percent — according to Transportation Alternatives — on the bridge alone this year due to the pandemic forcing New Yorkers to pick a different way to get around as subways and buses have given the impression of being unsafe.

Jon Orcutt, of Bike New York, told amNewYork Metro that the city was long overdue in facilitating its own encouragement of cycling and the need for extra space on the Queensborough Bridge needed more not than ever since New Yorkers have been taking the government up on that advice.

“We need the city to catch up with us,” Orcutt said. “The city has said for years, we want more New Yorkers on bikes. There are consequences to that, now we have a bike capacity problem on the bridge. The city should respond, the policy is working, more people are using bikes … What’s pulled everyone out on bikes this year has been more space on streets and so bridge is incredibly timely.”

But the city believes there to be one major obstacle to taking cars off the south outer roadway: fences.

DOT has said the barriers on this section of the bridge do not meet the eight-foot standard for pedestrian and cyclist safety, and the cash strapped agency just can eat the cost at this time.

Another problem? DOT says that as long as construction is forcing some traffic to be diverted from the upper roadway, they will need to prioritize as much space as they can for motorists. This work is scheduled to wrap in the fall of 2022, according to DOT.

 Maybe the bike lobbyists and zealots should have followed my twitter when I wrote about this back in November.

Grade and High School starts soon, and the D.O.E. is still obfuscating faculty COVID-19 infections

 

 

NY Post

 The number of NYC schools where staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 ballooned to 150, including 108 where infected staffers came into contact with colleagues.

DOE officials again refused to disclose the total number of  teachers and administrators who have been quarantined for 14 days since reporting to buildings on Sept. 8

At IS 51 Edwin Markham in Staten Island, about 70 staffers — more than the 50 previously admitted — are now forced to isolate until Oct. 1.,  teachers told The Post.

“It was a s–t show,” said a source familiar with the coronavirus catastrophe. About half the faculty and all administrators have been exiled. “No one is running the school.”

After word first leaked about the massive quarantine, the DOE blamed the IS 51 staff, saying they “disregarded social distancing protocol.”

But Principal Nicholas Mele snapped back in a statement Friday calling the accusation “completely untrue.”

“We followed all appropriate social distancing and meeting guidelines,” Mele wrote.

Two sources familiar with the mess said a teacher who tested positive last weekend had worked in the building the previous week before starting to feel ill — and being sent home.

The city’s COVID-19 contact tracers then learned the infected teacher had joined a group of 43 staffers who met in the cafeteria, as well as smaller meetings in classrooms.

“It wasn’t until I spoke with the DOE and the contact tracers . . . did I learn that any meeting lasting more than 30 minutes would require everyone in the room with the identified person with a positive test to quarantine even if all safety protocols were followed, which they were,” Mele wrote.

In response to Mele’s denial, the DOE stuck to its stance that safety protocols were violated. “Based on the answers we received, it was determined social distancing was not reliably followed at all times,” said spokesman Nathaniel Styer. He did not elaborate.

Regardless of the reason, some quarantined teachers are worried about getting sick or infecting their family members.

This is just like what happened back in March before the contagion started to spread.

 

Do the Nadler Shuffle

The extinguished chairman is more like it. Nancy just keeps going. This is fine.

The Crap Mahal of Kew Gardens is available for lease and rent!

 

Queens Post

Leasing has begun on an 8-story rental building that has just gone up in a leafy section of Kew Gardens.

The building, called The Grove and located at 83-67 116^th St., features 46 units, including 32 market rate apartments, in a modern building with a new-age design. The market rate units range in price from $1,650 for a studio to $3,400 for a 2 bedroom on the top floor with a terrace.

The building is located within 2 blocks from Forest Park and many of the units have sweeping views of the 538-acre park, which is the third largest park in Queens. It is also within 3 blocks of Lefferts Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in Kew Gardens, and is in close proximity to the LIRR and subway.

The first floor consists of three units and the lobby, followed by five to seven units per story through the eighth floor. The building features amenities such as a fitness room, children’s play room, storage units, a laundry room and a dog run in the back yard. There is also roof access and a virtual doorman.

I wrote about this out of scale monster last summer.

Glad to see they completed this. I admit the rents seem "reasonable" considering the aesthetics, plus they are offering the first month rent free (or shall I say they are cancelling the first months rent?), so they are really desperate to get tenants in this economic purgatory climate. But I think it's better to let the developers marketing drones describe it:

“83-67 116^th St. is an impressive building, drenched in natural light, high ceilings and scenic views. We are fortunate to be working with MTZ Group as they are proven to be pioneers in this new development market in Kew Gardens.” 

What's this natural light they speak of? As opposed to the natural light standing outside on the sidewalk? Or the natural light in your apartment during the day with the blinds closed?

 

Neir's Tavern burglarized

A GoFundMe has been set up by a fan of the bar to recover some of what was lost.

NY Post 

The historic Queens bar that was used to films scenes for “Goodfellas” was burglarized just three months after it opened for outdoor dining following a pandemic shutdown.

The Woodhaven watering hole was looted of the cash register, POS system, about $300 in cash and four bottles of booze from behind the bar by a pair of thieves, police sources said.

“I am just tired to be honest with you,” owner Loycent Gordon told The Post. “It’s another straw on top of everything. The weight is getting too heavy to carry.”

According to police sources, two men entered the premise through the basement door at 3 am on Friday morning, removed the cash register valued at $200, the $300 inside and four bottles of Jack Daniels valued at $160. They fled westbound on 88th Avenue. There have been no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.

After the robbery, a group called Neirs200, which is dedicated to ensuring the bar sees its bicentennial, set up a GoFundMe to support the bar.

Speaking to the thieves, an emotional Gordon said:

“I understand maybe you have to eat and feed your family, but we also have a family to feed. It’s a shame you have to burglarize someone to feed yours.”

He added that while he is disheartened and demoralized from the latest setback, he vowed to keep going.

“We are trying to be Rocky and keep fighting.”

New York City's new anthem

Tibetan group smelled a rat when the NYPD couldn't

 

Queens Eagle

Tibetans in Queens were suspicious of a local NYPD officer long before he was charged with spying on them as an agent of the Chinese government, says one leading activist.

Baimadajie Angwang, a 33-year-old former marine, worked as a community affairs officer in the 111th Precinct, a role that masked his other job tracking the activities of the Tibetan community in Queens and elsewhere in New York City, according to federal prosecutors. Angwang was arraigned in Brooklyn federal court Monday afternoon.

But Dorjee Tseten, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, said Tibetans in the area sensed something shady about Angwang’s behavior more than a year ago.

“Some members had raised flags about the way he communicates,” Tseten said. “They found out either him or his family have had a link to the Chinese consulate. The community was aware and suspicious about this person.”

Angwang allegedly conferred with two officials from the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, an agency that seeks to neutralize opposition to Chinese policies, since at least 2014, according to his criminal complaint.

Federal prosecutors say he allegedly snitched to the Chinese consulate about the activities of Tibetan Americans in and around New York City, groomed intelligence sources and provided Chinese officials with access to NYPD brass. The Chinese government has called the allegations “pure fabrication.”

NY Post 

The NYPD cop accused of spying on behalf of the People’s Republic of China apparently exaggerated his military service record to his brothers in blue, The Post has learned.

Baimadajie Angwang, a suspended community affairs officer with the NYPD’s 111th Precinct in Queens, was honored by the Police Benevolent Association at a November event last year to celebrate veterans, according to a since-deleted Facebook post on the union’s page.

“The PBA honored its veterans at today’s delegates meeting with PO Baimadajie Angwang presenting the colors. PO Angwang is a Sgt. in the USMC and served 1 tour in Iraq and 2 tours in Afghanistan,” the post reads alongside photos of Angwang posing with the union brass.

The USMC confirmed in a statement that Angwang, 33, was in fact a sergeant with the Devil Dogs but said he only served one tour in Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom between July 2013 and February 2014.

There were no records of a second Afghanistan tour or a tour in Iraq, according to the USMC.

Activists opposed to shelters protest in support of one

From QNS:

Supporters of Councilman Robert Holden hosted a rally on Tuesday, Sept. 22, to encourage him to run for mayor — but were met with protesters who called on him to resign his current post, instead.

About 50 supporters of Holden, who currently represents Council District 30 (which encompasses the Queens neighborhoods of Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Woodhaven and Woodside), gathered in front of the Maspeth Federal Savings Bank at 56-18 69th St. on Tuesday evening.

Shortly after the rally began, a group of about two dozen protesters set up across the street, many of whom were members of the Ridgewood Tenants Union.

Many of the protesters cited Holden’s support for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and his push to close the homeless shelter in Glendale as a reason to oppose his run.

Meanwhile, the leader of the RTU testified AGAINST the Glendale shelter last year... Also interesting to see Holden's opponent Juan Ardila standing with people - who welcome him with open arms - in support of a shelter in the district he's running in and claims to be opposed to.

So far, 20 arrests have been tied to the shelter.

It's going to be fun the next few months.

Profound, bro. 

JQ LLC: I don't want to spoil this party, or whatever this thing is (have some people singing and it'll be a woke version of Hair), but I think the lede was buried in this story to get obvious clicks.

 

  “I was humbled when I heard about this, and I certainly appreciate the support,” said Holden. “We have great people in District 30 and I’m focused on being the best Council member I can be. I plan to run for re-election to the NYC Council and will announce in the near future.” 

Sorry to all those that participated here, but this was a waste of time by both sides. 

Slash sign racism is quite deep also.

Industry City gives up their land grab

 

THE CITY

 The developers behind Industry City’s massive rezoning proposal threw in the towel Tuesday night on plans to expand the Sunset Park waterfront complex, hours after four Brooklyn members of Congress joined the opposition.

The formal withdrawal, though, was unlikely to be the last word on the issue, just as the successful push to scuttle the proposed Amazon headquarters in Long Island City last year continues to roil discussions over competing visions of New York’s future.

“It is clear that the current political environment and a lack of leadership precludes a path forward for our rezoning proposal,” Industry City CEO Andrew Kimball said in a statement late Tuesday.

 The sudden scrapping of the proposal marked a victory for opponents, who said the plan for a larger mixed-used complex would hasten gentrification in the working-class neighborhood and nix any hopes of a return of large-scale manufacturing.

“The question isn’t about hamstringing development and, in fact, Industry City can create jobs, right now, without any rezoning,” Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who represents Sunset Park, told THE CITY hours before Kimball’s team pulled the plug. The news was first reported by Politico New York.

Supporters pointed to the thousands of jobs and $100 million dollars in tax revenue the project was touted to bring at a time when the city is grappling with the devastating fallout wrought by the pandemic.

China sent a spy to work for the NYPD

 

 

NY Post

An NYPD cop and US Army reservist was charged Monday with secretly serving as a spy for the Chinese government who passed on information to a handler involved in “neutralizing” Tibetan opponents in America.

Baimadajie Angwang, who works a community affairs officer in the 111th Precinct in Queens, allegedly began acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China in May 2018 after being recruited by an unidentified “handler” stationed in the Chinese consulate in Manhattan, according to a complaint unsealed in Brooklyn federal court.

Angwang, 33, allegedly “served as an intelligence asset” whose duties included gathering information on potential opponents of the Chinese government, including members of “religious and ethnic minorities.”

His handler, identified only as “PRC Official-2,” is believed to have been assigned to the “China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture,” a division of the Chinese United Front Work Department that’s responsible for “neutralizing sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of the PRC,” court papers say.

Angwang, an ethnic Tibetan, is accused of reporting on the activities of fellow ethnic Tibetans, including by scoping out “potential ethnic Tibetan intelligence sources in the New York metropolitan area and beyond,” as well as potential troublemakers.

During a wiretapped phone call on Nov. 14, 2019, Angwang informed his handler — whom he routinely greeted as “Boss” — that several ethnic Tibetans were working in the offices of unspecified elected New York officials, according to court papers.

“They are mainly, mainly, mainly, in Queens, at the Queens area state legislator’s office. These offices all have our people working there, because our population is getting larger. They hire them to pull in more votes, to pull in more votes,” he allegedly said.

“But I also feel that some community groups may use their relationships to associate with them, to chant slogans, to utter nonsense. They may, may, may create more work for you.”

Angwang also “asked PRC Official-2 for taskings and volunteered to assist PRC Official-2 by providing information from NYPD systems,” court papers say.

The new Ozone Park

 

A few years ago, I sent the Original Crapper a photo of this modern day McMansion that was developed on the corner of Cohancey St and Albert Rd. in Ozone Park. I was not only surprised that it survived the usual speeding traffic from vehicles coming from the North Conduit and the Belt Parkway exit, but also at how this area metamorphisized into a new suburb.

And judging by the way Hawtree St. has looked for decades with all that unsightly vegetation buttressing the Aqueduct train station, now there is a whole new swatch of potential residential or commercial real estate. Or maybe real affordable housing? (I don't think I'll hold my breath that long)

But so far the most dramatic change to this intersection and new locale is that Hawtree St is now a two-way street. Along with the arrival of a Bolla Market store where the old auto shop used to be.( Even though there is another Bolla Market at the gas station nearby on Cross Bay Blvd. And Pitkin Ave.)

                                                                                                                                                                

  It's almost kinda surreal how all of this over-development manifested from one little ostentatious mansion placed delicately on a busy street corner (along with crossroad fork with one road going back on the Belt and the other a downhill road on Albert) and with still more to come. 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                
To top this off, the city (or someone) decided to put an old-timey sign on the wooden electrical pole and marked it for the original settler's date of 1882. Despite the fact that most of this settlement got completed in the 20th year of the 21st century.

The leadership of Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio gets aptly honored with mural on Brooklyn Street

 

 

twitter

 

New York's bail reform law has led to a rise in Omerta

 

NY Post

With shootings in the city up 87 percent this year and murder mushrooming by 34 percent, the NYPD needs cooperating witnesses more than ever.

But they are coming up against a wall of stony silence. And cops and prosecutors point to myriad reasons.

“The community helps solve lots of different types of crimes,” Giacalone said. “When the public doesn’t trust the police, the information stops flowing. And that information is vital.”

Police worry that COVID-19 changes like ubiquitous face masks will make it even more difficult to identify shooters.

Then there is the rising tidal wave of gang violence, where scores are settled on the streets and not a court of law. Gangbangers rarely talk.

“It’s a challenging time,” said NYPD spokesman Al Baker. “There’s an anti-snitch culture that’s taken root amid a level of violence that makes people reluctant to cooperate with our investigators. But we work every day with our partners in the city’s district attorneys’ offices to combat this culture and to solve crimes and help ensure public safety.”

Experts say recently enacted laws that endanger witnesses aren’t helping matters.

“The New York State Bail Reform Act has royally screwed up policing,” Sgt. Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter NYC, told The Post, saying the new discovery rules and judges letting criminals go have reversed “decades of progress.”

“Witnesses and confidential informants have little to no protection in regards to the new discovery rules,” he explained. (Reliable confidential informants, also known as CIs, are often paid).

“Old-school policing, where good officers would meet with people on the street to gain information, has dwindled,” he added. “Many witnesses know that their personal information will be available and possibly get out to the defense team.”

Under the new rules, prosecutors must give defense counsel the name and contact information of anyone with information relevant to a case within 15 days of arraignment — ­regardless of whether the person will testify at trial.

One seasoned Brooklyn detective said the new discovery rules have a lot to do with cops being stonewalled. “Witnesses ask if the shooter will get their name and they are told, ‘Probably yes,’ ” he said.

He said he used to have cooperating witnesses in about 75 percent of cases, but “now I would say we get witnesses in less than half of the cases.”

  Impunity City

 This bail reform law was designed to bring down inmate population in prisons, most notably Rikers Island, to make way for four tower prisons in four boroughs that no one wants. Sorry, no sane person wants. The list of crimes that are exempt from judge's decision to set bail are mostly based on the most violent and devastating acts you can commit on your fellow citizens and damage them for life mentally and financially. And a majority of them are burglaries and robberies, which are usually committed with the use of a gun. 

 

Welcome Back To Urinetown

Crappy,

Thank you for the professionalism and Queens focused news.

Not sure if this will fit within the website but here goes: Woodside, and far too many other locations, have become the go to location to, well go.

 

 

 

We have caught drivers (TLC, Uber, and Lyft), random neighbors who could not make it home (so they said), and just those walking through and couldn't hold it, but when its the city subcontractors exposing themselves, we want to make some noise.

We confronted the workers directly.  We called the Operations manager at their company. We emailed the graphic photos to their info email address.  We sent the same photos to Costa's office and NYPD 114 Community Officer.  We even complained to DOT commissioner Polly. 

Attached are four photos, two graphic, of our plight and lack of assistance in breaking this cycle.  This was a problem before Covid-19 and as more return to work without access to public restrooms, our neighborhood is suffering and we are not going to remain quiet. 

 

  

Urinetown left Broadway but perhaps its time charge to pee, just think of the taxable income!

Urine Not Needed

No one has responded so let's make some noise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update: 

 

Act Two: We are in the shit.

It was asked for, we only provide

 

 

 

Mayor Big Slow decides to suspend in person learning at schools again a few days from re-opening

 Politico

New York City schools will not fully reopen on Monday as planned, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday — agreeing to another delay in his push to bring back in-person education in the nation’s largest school district.

Teachers and principals had raised a host of objections to the city’s reopening plans, including safety concerns and a shortage of teachers.

“They had real concerns about specific things that had to be done to make sure our schools could effectively start,” de Blasio said.

Only pre-kindergarten, early education classes for 3-year-olds, and special education classes will open in person on Monday.

Elementary schools and K-8 schools will now open on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Middle and high schools will open on Thursday, Oct. 1.

That cheesy photoshop? A children's book I'm working on. 

Cuomo's COVID comedy is not pretty

 

 Impunity City

Governor Andrew Cuomo  has been in quite a blue mood lately. Although it’s not over New York elected officials bipartisan calls and congressional and senate demands from DC calling for an independent investigation into the motives behind his mandate demanding nursing homes accept COVID19 patients and the immunity law he gave the owners and financial holders of them. It’s also not over the MTA’s running out of funding to maintain and operate the transit system to go along with maniacs breaking train windows for the fuck of it. It’s also not over the mass exodus of the state’s richest people from the big hollow apple and especially those he’s groveling to so they stay put…

No it’s all these young and youngish adults who are flouting the pandemic protocols he put in place back in April (which he did very late) that mandated mask wearing and social distancing while shopping indoors and mingling outside at bars and restaurants. Even though this consensus flouting as been going on since the outbreak began and reaching the tipping point in summer’s eve with people partying down on an Astoria street, Cuomo decided that the only way he could get the narrative through to these maskless party obsessive punks would be through, um, comedy.

Now Cuomo is the last person who should delve into this genre, although as his massive ego and megalomania plainly shows, it’s safe to say that he probably thinks he knows funny more than anyone else who happens to be in his surroundings. Even that COVID 19 mountain grave poster he commissioned to make and is selling now has little side jokes (the boyfriend cliff).

What’s truly interesting about Cuomo’s sudden interest in resorting to humor is that because of his emergency executive powers that Albany’s legislators gave him in order to prevent contagion to keep the curve going back up the mountain is that he won’t let people who are actually funny and rely on comedy for their livelihoods do their jobs...

 

Astoria man blows up his apartment

 

 

 PIX News

 

Parts of an Astoria block were evacuated Tuesday and a man taken into custody after police found "precursor materials" for an explosive at the scene of a house fire.

Officials said the resident of the home's bottom floor — where the fire originated — was taken into custody and transported to a local hospital for evaluation. Police described him as "emotionally disturbed."

Flames broke out at a home on 19th Street near Astoria Park on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. The bomb squad was requested for a suspicious package at the scene.

At the scene, officials found chemicals and other hazardous materials, as well as books and manuals regarding military explosives and booby traps.

While officials did not find a "completed improvised explosive device," the fire could have created a much more serious situation due to the hazardous nature of storing the chemicals near each other, officials said.

Video showed police take a shirtless man into custody. He was found hiding behind the home.

Police said once the hazardous materials are removed from the scene and taken to a secure location, neighbors with homes

Riis Park parking fees will double to $20 next summer

 Rockaway Times

For the first time since 2012, Gateway National Recreation Area is hoping to increase parking fees for the Riis Park parking lot. These parking rates would go into effect for the summer of 2021. 

Currently $10 a day, the proposal calls for a doubling of the fee to $20. In 2016, National Park Service tried to propose a fee increase to $15. It never came to fruition. This season, with beaches being closed due to coronavirus, fees were not collected until July as opposed to the regular Memorial Day weekend start.

The proposed fees for 2021 would include: $20 per day; $100 per season; $50 per oversize car per day and $200 per oversize car per season. Visitors with Senior or Access Passes would be charged half price for parking, as they are currently.

“We are committed to keeping the park affordable but also want to provide visitors with the best possible experience,” said Gateway Superintendent Jen Nersesian.  “The money from the parking fees will help improve our visitor facilities and services.” 

Now that's how you gentrify a beach. Make way for privatization.

Emergency response time by the NYPD increases

THE CITY

NYPD response times to incidents remain snagged three months after protests against police spurred long delays — while other emergency responders are getting to the scene faster than before the coronavirus took hold.

That’s the conclusion of THE CITY’s comparison of medical, fire and police response times so far in 2020, a year defined by sudden and intense demands on those rushing to incidents.

Starting in late March and running through mid-May, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a jump in ambulance calls. Then anti-racism protests that peaked in mid June put the Police Department to the test.

Data from the 911 call system shows that the delays have affected every type of NYPD call, including what police call “critical crime in progress” — encompassing armed violent incidents, robberies and burglaries.

Responses to those incidents — measured from the first call to the arrival of the first unit — took an average of 8 minutes and 5 seconds in the last four weeks of August 2020, compared with 6 minutes and 49 seconds during the same period a year earlier.

Calls of minor crimes typically took 21 minutes and 13 seconds in August of this year to get police to the scene, up from 20 minutes and 44 seconds in August 2019.

 

de Blasio lied, public housing's kids got poisoned

NY Post 

  Newly surfaced documents reveal damning details about the scale and scope of what NYCHA knew of its serious lead issues in housing units with kids — all while Mayor Bill de Blasio downplayed the health crisis.

Local Health Department inspectors found lead in 222 NYCHA apartments across 93 developments — more than a quarter of all complexes citywide — between 2010 and 2018, according to records that City Hall only produced after The Post sued it under the state’s Freedom of Information Law.

Experts have said there is a high likelihood of finding lead in other apartments in a building where it has already been discovered.

Yet NYCHA was able to avoid making any repairs to 158 of the 222 lead-tainted apartments thanks to appeals to the city DOH, the documents show.

Board Of Education's Covid-19 protection supplies for schools won't do quat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 NY Post

It’s PPE to die for.

The city Department of Education is supplying schools with defective thermometers, “low quality” masks, and smelly wipes, a disgusted Queens principal told The Post.

“The s—t they gave us won’t protect us — not the students, teachers or parents,” fumed the educator. “Every principal in NYC is banging their head against the wall.”

“The “cheap, black-market crap” includes touchless, electronic thermometers that registered temperatures at 40, 50 and 60 degrees.

“You’d be dead,” she said. “We keep taking each other’s temperatures like we’re clowns.”

The school leader, who asked for anonymity to avoid repercussions, said the two dozen thermometers sent to her school had no batteries, so she ran to the store and spent nearly $300 of her own money to power them up. They were better left uncharged.

“Why are they spending millions on black-market thermometers with no name brand?” the principal asked, adding that the directions are printed in Chinese. “These are supposed to keep us safe?”

“I really believe this is black-market items from China bought in bulk — hundreds of handheld thermometers we’ll be throwing in the garbage,” the heated supervisor said.

After recognizing the handheld thermometers were faulty, she said, the DOE installed electric thermometers on the walls in the lobby to check students upon arrival.

She is also disgusted by the DOE’s disinfectant wipes.

“They don’t have the high level of alcohol that’s supposed to protect our hands from bacteria.

“I wouldn’t wipe my ass with it,” she said.

Garbage in lawless democratic community

 Concerned citizens went to the 15-year old eyesore that has now become a pandemic; affecting residents who have to inhale the stench. On Wednesday Sep. 8th. members of our group "Clean Up Jamaica Too" were forced to make another visit; to the abandoned house at 107-58 164 th. Street Jamaica Queens. This visit was vital because our health is at risk and local leaders have neglected us. The corona virus thrives in this black community because it is filthy.

We have been calling on our democratic leaders for more than 15 years. Leaders have come and gone, but this eyesore remains a fixture. The current councilman who has jurisdiction over this area is Daneek Miller.

The garbage has now taken over the sidewalk: mattresses, bottles, boxes, chairs, about 90 full garbage bags, and scattered papers are just some of the items

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 Councilman Daneek Miller,

A vagrant is rummaging. Residents have been calling: 311, 103 precinct, councilman Miller and others. Thus far, no one has responded. Some years ago sanitation began removing the garbage. But that was in the height of NY1 Ruschell Boone  reporting on the issue. Ruschell now works in another area.

There are four churches near-by. Amity Baptist is the nearest, a few steps away from the mountain of garbage. Residents have been appealing to Pastor Thompson, but he has not done anything to help. He and some of the pastors live in Long Island. However, Pastor Thompson was very successful in getting "no parking signs" in front of the church.


Residents are just asking for a clean community, especially to curtail the spread of the corona virus.

P. Hazel: Social Media Journalist for Justice.