Queens Crap: February 2022

Vaccine passports will no longer be required in New York City starting March 7, Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday — and he plans on lifting school mask mandates then, too, barring “unforeseen spikes” in COVID cases.

Adams said he plans on following Gov. Kathy Hochul’s lead in nixing masks in schools but would make the final determination this Friday.

“At the end of this week, we will evaluate the numbers and make a final announcement on Friday. If we see no unforeseen spikes and our numbers continue to show a low level of risk, New York City will remove the indoor mask mandate for public school children,” Hizzoner said in a statement.

But he said starting March 7, patrons at Big Apple restaurants, gyms and indoor venues will no longer be required to show proof of vaccination.

“Additionally, New York City’s numbers continue to go down day after day, so, as long as COVID indicators show a low level of risk and we see no surprises this week, on Monday, March 7 we will also lift Key2NYC requirements,” the mayor said, referring to rules imposed last year by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio requiring proof of vaccination for indoor dining, indoor fitness, indoor entertainment and certain meeting spaces.

Mask mandates in public schools across New York will be lifted this Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Sunday — and she feels “confident” Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams will follow suit but said it’s ultimately up to him.

Speaking from Albany, Hochul said local governments would now be empowered to set their own school mask requirements in accordance with new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Friday that reclassified much of the state as “low risk” for COVID infection.

“Given the decline in our rates, our hospitalizations, strong vaccination rates and the CDC guidance, we, friends, the day has come,” Hochul said. “Today we are going to be announcing that we’ll be lifting the statewide mask requirement in schools, and that’ll be effective this Wednesday, March 2.”

Hochul said she had spoken to Mayor Eric Adams and “feels confident” he will follow her lead and yank the city’s school mask requirement, but declined to speak on his behalf.

“My position is to empower the local governments to make the decisions for their entire county. But I’ve always said that if there are entities within and we’re going to whether it’s a city, a school district and school if they choose to be more restrictive. We will not prohibit that whatsoever,” she said.

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Bed buggin' out


Photo by JQ LLC

Readers Digest

This is one superlative no one wants their city to win. Pest control company Orkin recently released its Top 50 Bed Bug Cities List, compiled with data from the places where Orkin performed the most treatments for bed bugs from December 1, 2020, to November 30, 2021. So where’s the worst bed bug infestation?

For the second year in a row, Chicago took the top spot on Orkin’s list. Looks like bed bugs love the Windy City. Jumping a whopping 12 spots to the number two slot: Philadelphia. And rounding out the top three is New York City; the Big Apple climbed a notable nine spots from last year. Here are the top ten cities on Orkin’s 2022 list:

Chicago
Philadelphia
New York City
Detroit
Baltimore
Indianapolis
Washington, D.C.
Cleveland, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Cincinnati

Baltimore fell three spots compared to last year, and Washington, D.C., fell four spots. Cities that exited the top ten include Grand Rapids, Michigan (now at number 11 this year) and Los Angeles (now at number 12). If you live in or are visiting any of these cities, it’s wise to be a little more vigilant about your susceptibility to bed bugs—and maybe stock up on some bed bug killer.

D.O.T. makes red light steadier on Cypress Ave

The Department of Transportation (DOT) acted quickly Tuesday afternoon, installing safety measures at a notoriously dangerous intersection in Glendale after a gruesome video of a pedestrian being run over not once, but twice, went viral.

The pedestrian, a 57-year-old man, was struck on the corner of Cypress Avenue and Cooper Avenue Saturday, Feb. 12, when he fell to the ground survived being slowly run over by an SUV. The video was uploaded to Twitter last Monday and has already gotten over 625,000 views.

DOT installed an “all-pedestrian phase”— meaning all cars stop and pedestrians walk at the same time — at the intersection of Cypress Avenue and Cooper Avenue, Tuesday evening just after local elected officials gathered at the intersection calling for action. DOT also installed “delayed green” signage, meaning the light will not immediately switch green after the crosswalk signal turns red.

A video taken by resident Mollie Lauffer shows the progress at the intersection.

“The new crossing has nearly eliminated the constant honking there,” Lauffer said. “You can hear birds chirping. Cities aren’t loud; cars are loud."

Seems Ms. Lauffer doesn't mind ebike and moped riders running the longer red lights, but at least it'll be quieter when pedestrians get hit.

Ridgewood gentrifiers hold weekly potluck powwows

Ridgewood’s appetite for (community) construction 2

Every Sunday night, 30 or 40 friends — mostly young, well-educated and multi-racial — meet for a potluck supper and, until the season ended, football party in a former factory in Ridgewood.

Some work in film production. Others are artists, grad students, and new mothers. Nearly all of them are in their 20s and 30s.

What they have in common is an earnest belief that modern American life can’t go on much longer in the face of a pandemic, calamitous climate change and political polarization.

They especially don’t trust government can be much help.

The cultural and political collective is called Woodbine after Woodbine Street, where its original headquarters were located. Two years ago, the group moved around the corner to a former factory on Woodward Avenue.

True to the dictionary definition of a collective, it has no hierarchy or boss.

The space is run by a steering committee of self-selected members who meet when there is something to meet about, says Matt Peterson, a filmmaker who is one of Woodbine’s original members.

The space is unrenovated but nearly always busy, he says. Yoga classes, a weekly movie night, a profit-making co-working operation, English classes and a community-supported-agriculture group happen there.

Since the pandemic began, a food bank distributes groceries there to about 150 neighborhood families twice a week.

A makeshift gym — pieced together by two Manhattan fitness trainers who just moved to the neighborhood — recently took over the back room.

The noisy Sunday potluck supper, begun in May 2014, may be Woodbine’s oldest activity.

The dinner, open to all, is like a live-action version of an online chatroom.

Over wine, beer and bean dishes, Iike-minded Ridgewood reformists talk politics, city life, entrepreneurship and sports.

On a recent Sunday, while two volunteer cooks prep in an open kitchen on one side of the room, a big-screen TV on the other side shows the Buffalo Bills playoff game. (“They’re the only football team that pays taxes in New York,” says Peterson.)

A $5 donation is suggested to cover food costs. Some regulars bring wine or party dip in Tupperware as well. Woodbine’s reading group meets for two hours just before the dinner.

Wonder if you have to show a vax pass to partake in this "anti-government" collective.

Saturday, February 26, 2022

City Council set to make the shanty emergency program a permanent one even though the emergency is about to end

Queens Eagle

Permanent al fresco dining is now one step closer to becoming a reality in Queens and the rest of the city after the City Council approved a bill amending the city’s zoning laws Thursday.

While the council passed a text amendment that eliminates zoning restrictions for sidewalk cafes throughout the five boroughs, just how the city’s permanent outdoor dining program will ultimately look is still very much up for debate.

City legislators passed the text amendment 43 to 6, with one member abstaining. In Queens, Councilmembers James Gennaro and Robert Holden voted against the amendment, which only sets the table for a permanent outdoor dining program but doesn’t actually create one. All other Queens councilmembers voted in support of the amendment.

“This new local law will be kind of too broad in the sense that it’s one size fits all,” Gennaro told the Eagle. “Will it allow for the kind of granularity that you need to regulate something like this? My hunch is no, it won't.”

“I hope that I’m wrong,” he added. “Everyone has good intentions here but I’m wary.”

The appetite for the text amendment, which first made its way through community boards and borough boards throughout the city, has been mild – its strongest support has been in the City Council. Still, nearly every councilmember who spoke in support of the text amendment Thursday also expressed reservations.

“This program born of pandemic necessity has been a gift to our city in many ways. It was an economic lifeline and still is to many of our small businesses and it has now fundamentally changed how many dining establishments operate, and how New Yorkers utilize their public spaces,” said Brooklyn Councilmember Chi Ossé. “However, this program needs to ensure that our streets are for the people and not the rats. The rodent population growth has been undeniable and is clearly linked to outdoor dining.”

The sentiment was repeated by a number of councilmembers, including Queens Councilmember Linda Lee, who represents portions of Bayside Hills, Bellerose, Douglaston, Floral Park, Fresh Meadows, Glen Oaks, Hollis, Hollis Hills, Holliswood, Little Neck, New Hyde Park, Oakland Gardens and Queens Village.

Friday, February 25, 2022

Manhole exposed in Corona

Facebook

Seen on Alstyne Ave. and 103rd St.. Truly a new low for the "World's Borough", but its just another day of negligence by the Department Of Transportation.

Talk about an open street. Nothing can get more open than this

More overdevelopment on Archer

Crains New York

The Chetrit Group’s latest New York project will be a huge mixed-use development in Jamaica.

The prominent real estate company is planning a roughly 306,000-square-foot, 359-unit project at 147-27 Archer Ave., according to city Department of Buildings records. The estimated cost is $100 million. IMC is the architect of record.

The project will stand 20 stories and 221 feet tall and include retail and community facility space, and 119 of the residential units will have income restrictions, according to the filing. The plans call for a 186-spot garage.

Chetrit representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Dutch Kills bulkhead erosion gets noticed by electeds

Over the past few months, observers have noticed large portions of a structural wall along the shoreline of the Dutch Kills tributary on 29th Street have collapsed into the waterway.

As the shoreline has crumbled, it has dumped debris into the water and threatens to further cave in and affect the stability of the roadway next to it.

Last week, the Newton Creek Alliance and elected officials sent a letter to the city Department of Transportation, state Department of Environmental Conservation and Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the plot of land, urging them to address the unsafe conditions that the deterioration poses to the road and surrounding areas.

“In addition to our now greatly elevated concerns over public safety regarding a potential street-collapse, there is also concern about liability, and the process for rebuilding this shoreline,” reads a section of the letter, signed by U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn), Councilmember Julie Won (D-Sunnyside), state Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Astoria) and Assemblymember Cathy Nolan (D-Long Island City).

In response to the dangers posed by erosion, the alliance is asking the city and state go beyond merely mitigating a public threat to creating an environmental benefit. The letter calls on the agencies to rebuild the shoreline in a way that would restore the ecosystem, add public access to the water and remove the two abandoned barges from the tributary.

Though the agencies could not be reached for a response prior to initial publication, the MTA and the DOT said in subsequent statements that they are on board.

MTA Spokesperson Eugene Resnick:

“The MTA appreciates the concerns of the Newtown Creek Alliance and is collaborating with State and City partners to determine the best course of action for protecting the integrity of the bulkhead,” said MTA Spokesman Eugene Resnick.

A DOT spokesman also said his agency is ready.

"The DOT will work in collaboration with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Department of Environmental Conservation to develop strategies to limit overweight vehicular access to the street, as well as the area immediately adjacent to the bulkhead," he said.

The most recent cave-in, which took place at the end of January, the alliance says, is actually the third on the shoreline in recent years. Each has ended up dumping tires, concrete blocks and fill into the creek.

Hawtree Creek vomits up another boat

The fourth of five derelict boats to be removed from the Jamaica Bay area has been drained and floated up closer to the surface, making it almost ready to be dismantled.

For the first time in years, the Hawtree Basin vessel, which has been a real stick in the mud for residents, is upright and on the move instead of lodged on its side, as seen at right while it was being drained.

“We are happy to report that the contractors are hard at work removing the Hawtree Basin vessel, and hope to have it removed within the next week,” said National Park Service spokesperson Dan Kastanis last week.

As of Wednesday, divers were pulling the boat towards the 99th Street side of the canal for the crew to bring equipment and dismantle it. They should have it there by Thursday but are working according to the tide.

The project to remove the five boats started in December but was delayed due to the pandemic.

According to Google Maps, the Hawtree boat, estimated at over 50 feet, has been abandoned for approximately eight years.

After going in to remove the large Hawtree Basin vessel with a crane, the contractor, Custom Marine, discovered that the boat was impaled by a large steel piling.

That allowed water and debris to fill the vessel, which also had mattresses left behind from when it was a functioning passenger boat.

According to the Custom Marine, which is based out of Westchester, the craft weighs 10,000 pounds per 10 feet, making its mass close to 60,000 pounds.

Divers told Roger Gendron, president of the New Hamilton Beach Civic Association, that the rudder was broken off and the engine had rotted out, allowing even more water and debris to get inside. Gendron has been posting photos and updates on the civic’s Facebook page.

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Bike violence in Woodhaven

Traffic Cameras Generating Three-Quarters Of NYC Ticket Revenue – CBS New York

A brazen bicyclist whipped out a pair of guns and shot up a Queens red-light camera, damaging it in a barrage of 16 bullets, police said Wednesday.

The bizarre incident comes less than two months after an e-bike rider was caught on video shooting up a speed trap camera 2 miles away.

In the new incident, the bicyclist fired 14 times with a 9-mm. gun and let off two rounds from a .380 at Woodhaven Blvd. and Atlantic Ave. in Woodhaven about 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, cops said. The shots knocked the camera out of service.

The shooter rode off south on Woodhaven Blvd.

About 3:15 a.m. Jan. 7, an e-bike rider fired more than a half-dozen bullets during a major snowstorm at a speed camera at 86th St. and 158th Ave. in Howard Beach, cops said.

The camera was hit at least eight times but kept recording.

On Jan. 13, cops released footage from the device showing the shooter rolling up and opening fire and asked the public’s help identifying the shooter and tracking him down. He has still not been caught.

Investigators have not yet determined if the two incidents are connected, a police source said.

Subway sugar walls

Eyewitness News

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Mayor Swagger plans to lift indoor mandate but not workplace mandate

Mayor Adams plans to roll back the city’s coronavirus vaccine and mask mandates for indoor settings as infection rates continue to drop across New York.

The mayor didn’t give an exact timeline for when he envisions ending the longstanding pandemic precautions, but told reporters at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn Wednesday that rescinding the “Key to NYC” vaccination requirement for dining and other indoor activities is a top priority for him.

“I can’t wait to get it done,” Adams said.

Unprompted, Adams then suggested he’s also looking to relax or even outright scrap the city’s rules on mask-wearing.

“I look forward in the next few weeks to going through a real transformation that I don’t have to wonder what you look like. I will know what you look like again,” he said, motioning to masked reporters in the room.

Under current city rules, masks must be worn in schools, health care settings, many entertainment venues and while on public transit. The city also recommends that masks be worn in congested public indoor spaces, like grocery stores.

Coronavirus vaccinations, meantime, are mandated for most public indoor activities, like drinking and eating at restaurants and bars.

Though he’s targeting “Key to NYC” for tweaks, Adams has no plans to revisit the private employer mandate, according to a City Hall official.

A gate grows in Bay Terrace

Patch

Baysiders should sleep better now that a local parking lot is locked up at night, one politician promised.

Over the past several months neighbors have been complaining about noisy car meetups at the Little Bay Park parking lot at the entrance of Fort Totten, said Assembly Member Edward Braunstein, who represents most of Bayside.

Bay Terrace locals have filed seven drag racing reports with 311 in the past six months (more than triple the number of complaints in Bayside during that same time, data shows), and shown up at the local police precinct to complain about the noise, said NYPD Deputy Inspector John O'Connell.

To curb car noise (and complaints) Braunstein, alongside the NYPD and Parks Department, has helped set up a gate and lock at the entrance of the parking lot, which is shut by police officers at park closing, 10 p.m., and reopened by the Parks Department in the morning.

"The new locking system.... will hopefully put a stop to this quality of life concern for the long term," said Braunstein in a news statement.

Inflation is killing the gas stations

Queens residents have been feeling the effects of inflation — rising prices and a loss of purchasing power — all without wages matching the increase in the cost of living.

The price of gas alone has gone up about one dollar this year. Gas station owners are scared, drivers are budgeting and no one knows who to blame.

Tasos Drivas opened a Mobil gas station in Long Island City nearly 30 years ago, and he told QNS he worries every day about losing his business.

“What will I do if I lose this [business]?” Drivas said. “I already lost two-thirds of the business I had, and at my age now, it’s not the time to start again. The businesses have been struggling after the government stopped giving out checks. Now, over 90% of people use credit cards at my station. It’s a problem. It’s very tough for everyone.”

According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of gas is $3.44, over one dollar more than it was a year ago. There are a lot of different factors to blame for this surge in prices. First, AAA says that cold weather increases the demand for heating oil. On top of that, foreign affairs and the concern that Russia will sanction and withhold crude oil in the already tight market puts pressure on prices.

“This shows how events on the other side of the globe can have a noticeable impact right here in the U.S.,” said Andrew Gross, an AAA spokesperson. “And unfortunately for drivers, they are reminded of this by higher prices at the pump.”

D.O.T. commissioner plans to solve accidents on Cooper Ave with bike lanes after double hit and run

After a gruesome video showed a pedestrian being struck and run over by two cars, local elected officials and community activists gathered at that street corner in Glendale to call for better safety measures on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

On the corner of Cypress Avenue and Cooper Avenue Saturday, Feb. 12, at around 6:30 p.m., disturbing footage captured a 57-year-old man being struck by one car and falling to the ground as another car slowly runs him over. Last Monday, the video was uploaded to Twitter and has already gotten over 625,000 views.

The man was found in the street in a pool of blood when he was transported to Jamaica Hospital; he is alive. According to police, a 40-year-old male initially struck the pedestrian while making a left turn from Cooper Avenue. The only action taken thus far has been a failure to yield issued to the driver of the first vehicle.

Council member Robert Holden, who called the press conference Tuesday, said that the most dangerous aspect of his community is crosswalks.

“That’s the most danger to life and limb in this precinct,” Holden said. “This is an area that needs attention. You don’t have to be here that long to realize this is a problem corner. There’s lawlessness that we need to correct, coupled with NYPD enforcement. It’s so important to get the necessary safety improvements right here and the rest of New York.”

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Teenagers crash into car on Cooper Ave.

CBS New York

This is some shitty ass reporting. Not one mention of the moped rider being too young to be riding a motorized vehicle, if that moped was licensed and registered or if he ran the red light. This is the type of less than half-assed journalism and fabricated agenda narrative you get from streetsblog

Monday, February 21, 2022

The ambiguously gay mayor???

Progress New York

Mayor Eric Adams (D-New York City) is refusing to speak out about a report published on Saturday by POLITICO, which disclosed details about a “close” relationship he has with another man. The other man, Zhan “Johnny” Petrosyants, was described as a restaurateur with a “checkered past.”

When pressed by Progress New York, the New York City Hall press office would not answer questions about whether Mayor Adams was gay or living “in the closet.”

Mayor Adams has been prone to keep important details about his private life secret, so much so that, during the lead-up to the 2021 Democratic Party mayoral primary, he was forced to give journalists a tour of his reported Brooklyn residence to dispel gossip and innuendo that he was really living in New Jersey. At the time of the tour, the then mayoral candidate claimed he had a “girlfriend,” but he hadn’t seen her in two months, according to a report published by the Daily Mail.

The man at the center of the POLITICO report, Mr. Petrosyants, was described as “keeping watch” over Mayor Adams. The two men spend “extensive time together,” enjoying an active nightlife and sharing their evenings together at Mr. Petrosyants’ apartment. The two men also own condominium units “nearly across the street from each other” in Fort Lee, N.J., according to the POLITICO report.

Although the POLITICO report stopped shorting of describing the two men as romantically-involved, the openly gay former New York City Council speaker, Corey Johnson, was quoted as describing Mr. Petrosyants as one of the people “that are closest to” Mayor Adams “in his life.”

Sunday, February 20, 2022

FDNY union leader believes forced vaccinations killed three firemen

An FDNY union leader wants the department to investigate whether three recent firefighter deaths resulted from city-mandated COVID-19 jabs.

The request from Uniformed Fire Officers Association President James McCarthy comes after the line-of-duty deaths of Lt. Joseph Maiello, 53, who was found dead in a Staten Island firehouse after a Christmas shift, and Firefighter Jesse Gerhard, 33, who died at his firehouse in Far Rockaway, Queens, after a medical episode Wednesday.

McCarthy wants the FDNY to include in its vaccine probe the death of Probationary Firefighter Vincent Malveaux, 31, who died Dec. 2 at the FDNY Training Academy on Randalls Island after suffering a medical episode believed to be a seizure.

“That’s a significant amount of people in a very short time,” said McCarthy. “The vaccine is a concern with our members because it is something new that is being put into our bodies. It could be a factor.”

McCarthy is asking the FDNY to provide the union with any information related to the fallen members’ COVID vaccine history, sources said.

Mayor Adams tells reporters to manufacture consent for him

Impunity City

Oh, boy, looks like Mayor Eric Adams has let the job get to him or he’s in over his head, even with that massive ego he’s been carrying since primary election day last summer. That same ego is also getting bruised by New York City’s legacy media press, which at one point the nearly two month Hizzoner welcomed with open arms and treated with reverence that was entirely absent for 8 years when Bill de Blasio was stifling them and then suppressing them in the last 2 years of this pandemic. But 45 days later, which has seen a massive rise in all index crimes and his failed attempt to persuade Albany’s obstinate and arrogant legislative leaders to reform the bail reform laws that have exacerbated those crimes, Mayor Adams has decided to scapegoat journalists for his disappointing return to the city for the way they wrote about it and told them he wasn’t going to answer their questions anymore unless it’s about the issue or the theme of whatever he’s publicly speaking about in future "media availabilitys"

Governor Kathy Clown plays herself, abandons ADU plan

10 Facts About '3rd Rock From The Sun' Direct From The Big ...

Newsday

Gov. Kathy Hochul has pulled her budget proposal to require local governments to accept an expansion of apartments and backyard cottages in single-family neighborhoods as a way to combat a statewide crisis in affordable housing, Newsday has learned.

Hochul had proposed the expansion of "accessory dwelling units" in her January budget proposal to the legislature. Since then, however, there has been strong opposition by mostly Republican officials from local governments on Long Island and by some Democrats, including Rep. Tom Suozzi and Long Island state senators. Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) is challenging Hochul for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Opponents argued that Hochul’s proposal would harm suburban neighborhoods by worsening parking problems and straining local services, including sewer and water facilities, while eliminating local control of zoning.

"Since my days in local government, I have believed strongly in the importance of consensus-building and listening to communities and my fellow policymakers," said Hochul, a former Erie County clerk and a suburban councilwoman, in a statement.

I have heard real concerns about the proposed approach on accessory dwelling units," she said. "I understand that my colleagues in the State Senate believe a different set of tools is needed, even if they agree with the goal of supporting the growth of this kind of housing. So I am submitting a 30-day amendment to my budget legislation that removes requirements on localities in order to facilitate a conversation about how we build consensus around solutions."

"I am glad she removed this radical policy from the budget, but she should have never added it in the first place, " Suozzi said.

Saturday, February 19, 2022

Crappy Camper

Been reporting this camper since November when it appeared on 130th place and north conduit ave in south ozone park. And still it sits in the exact same spot it’s been in for 4 months. it does not move nobody lives inside. This has marked for tow written on the window that says 10/26/21 105th pct however it now sits in the confines of the 106th pct and they don’t even bother to write it for being illegally parked on a residential street for the last 4 months. Or what about the parked in the same spot for more then 7 rule. No enforcement in this area by the 106 but yet they have cops sitting on north and south conduits giving tickets for going 40 in the 30.

Here comes Ardila again

Queens Post

Three Democrats — one progressive and two moderates — have launched campaigns for Cathy Nolan’s state assembly seat this week.

Juan Ardila, a progressive, along with James Magee and Vlad Pavlyuk have announced that they are running for the 37th Assembly District covering Long Island City, Maspeth, Ridgewood, and Sunnyside.

The candidates told the Queens Post of their candidacy shortly after it was reported that Nolan is expected to retire, leaving the seat wide open.

Ardila, a staffer at the Legal Aid Society, has previously run for office. He unsuccessfully ran against incumbent Council Member Robert Holden in the Democratic primary for District 30 last year. He generated 45 percent of the vote.

The 28-year-old Maspeth native has prior government experience, working in Brad Lander’s council office and as a consultant for the NYC Department of Education, where he supported the expansion of universal pre-K and 3-K for All program.

Ardila listed a number of issues he hopes to fight for in his candidacy announcement.

“I’m running for State Assembly because Queens residents deserve affordable housing, improved public transit, and a plan to combat climate change,” he said in a statement. “In Albany, I will be a champion for our seniors, our workers, and our tenants. I am excited to fight for a better future for all New Yorkers.”

Ardila is a first-generation New Yorker and the son of Colombian and Honduran-Cuban immigrants.

He comes to the race with a batch of early endorsements from local progressive leaders. State Sen. Jessica Ramos, Assembly Member Catalina Cruz, Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez and the groups Make the Road Action and Churches United for Fair Housing Action have all announced their support for him.

Meanwhile, life-long Sunnyside resident Jim Magee, 41, told the Queens Post Tuesday that he is running for the district 37 seat.

Magee, an attorney, is best described as a moderate who believes — much like Mayor Eric Adams — that the bail reform system needs to be tweaked.

“I think my experience as a prosecutor and as a criminal defense attorney would be helpful when it comes to bail reform,” Magee said. “I am concerned about the rise in crime.”

Magee, who has a wife and two young children, runs a law practice in Sunnyside specializing in criminal defense, personal injury, civil rights and civil litigation.

Prior to opening his own practice, he was an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn from 2007 until 2012. He prosecuted DWI, assaults, theft, drug possession, drug sale, gun possession to trial before being moved to the Sex Crimes Unit where he became an expert on DNA evidence.

Magee, who has not run for office before, said that he is concerned about the wealth disparity in the state. He said that he would advocate for raising taxes on high income earners.

The third candidate, Pavlyuk, is a local business owner and resident of Hunters Point in Long Island City. He operates an electronics business out of East New York.

The 28-year-old describes himself as a moderate Democrat. He said the progressive movement in the past two years has made sense, but it is time for the state to move back toward the center. This will be Pavlyuk’s first run for office.

Friday, February 18, 2022

Lizzie Three Times

Queens Post

After losing a nail-biter of a race against incumbent Borough President Donovan Richards last summer, former Queens Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley appears to be reentering the Queens political world once again — this time for state Senate.

Crowley has officially filed to run for the newly created state Senate District 17, which peels off areas from several existing Queens and Brooklyn senate districts. The new district covers portions of Greenpoint, Long Island City and Sunnyside to the west—and sections of Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale, Woodhaven and Richmond Hill to the east.

Crowley would be a familiar face in much of the Senate district after serving as the city Councilmember for the overlapping 30th council district—representing Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood—from 2009 to 2017.

In her county-wide race for borough president last year, she came within a percentage point of unseating Richards, an incumbent to whom she had lost a special election for the borough presidency a year before.

Election results from the 2021 primary show that she won most election districts that make up the new Senate District by making public safety a top concern, reportedly running ads that knocked Richards for his efforts to reduce the NYPD budget as a member of the city Council in 2020

A better safer plan for Rikers Island

Community Board 9 is calling on newly elected City Council members to revisit plans for the proposed closing of Rikers Island and the switch to borough-based jails.

“We figured that now, with 26 new City Council members, that it would be time to hopefully bring to their attention what our feelings are,” Community Board 9 President Kenichi Wilson told the Chronicle.

The group is supporting a revised plan from Bialosky New York, an architectural firm based out of Manhattan, which calls for a completely new, more “humane” and cost-effective complex to be built on the existing island.

The plan was originally presented at a 2019 press conference in Chinatown held in opposition to the proposed jail there.

Rallies at that same site resumed on Feb. 6 as Lower Manhattan residents gathered to protest the destruction of the current jail there for a new and bigger site.

Around the same time, Community Board 9’s land use chair, Sylvia Hack, was working to track the original proposal down and the board received a “new and improved version,” CB 9 District Manager James McClelland said.

In early February, Wilson sent a letter to elected officials in the area.

“The proposed borough-based jails are towers offering no outdoor recreation spaces for the incarcerated and, should there be a reason to empty a tower building, no viable plan exists to safely evacuate nearly a thousand detainees plus security and support staff,” he wrote.

“If we are concerned about the incarcerated population and the possibility of really helping them with the reasons that landed them in jail, then we should seriously look at this new, alternative option to four huge monoliths constructed in densely populated areas of the city,” the letter continues.

The plan of transitioning from Rikers to borough-based jails, begun under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, calls for the Queens location to be erected in place of the old lockup near Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.

The Adams administration’s plan for Rikers remains unclear.

The plan for a “reconceived Rikers” includes outdoor space, gyms, art, music and science programs and skills-training programs. Another focus is to create low-rise buildings instead of the current towering structures.

According to Wilson’s letter, the plan would almost halve the price of building four new jails and prevent the “environmental and negative impacts” on surrounding communities.”

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Busway blowback

Approximately 90 businesses in Downtown Jamaica are struggling with the recent changes in the area. With new development came trucks and with the implementation of busways in Archer and Jamaica avenues, drivers have fewer parking options and receive more traffic tickets.

Leran Ruben, the owner of Beverly Hills Furniture at 149-01 Jamaica Ave., said that he had no problem with the development or the busways at first because the new transit lanes would have a loading spot for trucks being used in the area to prevent street traffic and could potentially increase the number of new consumers in the community.

However, he says, city workers — particularly members of the NYPD Forensics Laboratory at 150-14 Jamaica Ave. — have been abusing their placards by parking in the truck loading area, causing more traffic in Downtown Jamaica and driving away customers who were already struggling with getting around the shopping district.

“This space was put in place so that trucks could unload over here and not double-park to cause traffic,” said Ruben, a third-generation storeowner. “We even have placard vehicles in the bus lane.”

When the Queens Chronicle came to visit Beverly Hills Furniture on Feb. 4, there was a parked vehicle with a placard in front of the store at the truck-loading spot and a row of vehicles in the busway in front of King Manor Museum at 150-03 Jamaica Ave.

“Nobody is going to get ticketed,” said Ruben as a police car drove by. “Nobody cares.”

Straphangers getting off the bus also have to disembark into the street instead of at the curb, according to Ruben.

“Why should a passenger on a bus have to load and be unloaded into the street? It’s unsafe,” said Ruben while pointing to a sign that directed traffic off Jamaica Avenue unless it was a bus or truck. “Why are [city workers] getting special privileges?”

What infuriated Ruben the most was that there was an underutilized six-floor parking lot for the forensics team next to the lab on 150th Street as another placard vehicle was parked in the Q54/Q56 bus stop.

“The crime lab is where the green scaffolding is and this is their parking lot,” said Ruben as he walked to the parking lot. “From my understanding, they have reserved spots for employees. If you are doing shifts, working four days and working 40 hours, the rest of the time your spot is empty. Instead of rotating spots they just park here.”

At the parking lot, one level was empty at approximately 11 a.m. while other levels had either a few available spots or were more than 50 percent empty.

After leaving the parking lot, Ruben motioned toward the corner street across from it where anyone could park, but more placard vehicles, which were partially on the sidewalk, occupied the space.

“There is one street where you are allowed to park,” said Ruben. “It’s still all police vehicles. Is this fair? Everyone has a placard and they are here for hours. If you are a customer, how do you get here? If you come here, you are going to circle the block and be here for 20 minutes.”

Ruben believes there wouldn’t have been a need for a 24/7 busway to reduce traffic in the area if the initial problem of double-parking, which exists partially because of city workers with placards, was taken care of with ticketing in the first place.

Cathy Nolan calls it a day

She was one of the youngest women ever elected in New York when she was first sent to Albany in 1984 at age 26. Now, 38 years later, Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan has decided that she will not seek re-election to represent western Queens when her current term ends at the end of this year.

Nolan was diagnosed with cancer last February and has been working remotely, or from her district office in Long Island City, since last year.

“I’m doing well, I’m back in the district office quite a bit, but I just can’t do it the way I did with all the events,” Nolan told Newsday. “I can’t run for reelection like I used to and be with the voters. I’m a little sad, but 38 years…I always gave it full-out, and won’t be able to do that. I pretty much loved every minute. I never minded a fight for the right thing.”

Nolan represents the 37th Assembly District which encompasses Sunnyside, Long Island City, parts of Astoria, Maspeth and Ridgewood where she lives. She was appointed Deputy Speaker of the Assembly in the winter of 2018 by Speaker Carl Heastie. Nolan served as chair of the powerful education committee from 2006 to 2018 spearheading efforts to achieve class size reduction, universal pre-K, middle school initiatives, improved high school graduation rates and other measures that meant immediate success for the more than three million school children in New York State.

Van Bramer had been mentioned as a potential successor if Nolan decided to step aside, but he would not comment on whether he was considering a run. Danielle Brecker ran against Nolan in 2020 and thanked the longtime leader for her service.

Mayor Adams virgin budget cuts

Mayor Eric Adams (right) presents New York City’s $98.5 billion Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2023 at City Hall in lower Manhattan, New York on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022.

Mayor Adams rolled out a $98.5 billion municipal government budget blueprint Wednesday that he touted as an antidote to “decades of inefficiency” that would root out wasteful spending and boost public safety without increasing funding for the NYPD.

The 2023 fiscal year preliminary budget, which marks the first salvo in a monthslong negotiation process with the City Council, is about $200 million smaller than former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2022 budget. Adams credits the decrease to the 3% spending cut he ordered at nearly all municipal agencies last month.

“My administration is laser-focused on fiscal discipline,” Adams said at City Hall while unveiling the preliminary budget, his first since taking office. “We are not spending our money. We are spending your money.”

Thanks to the 3% shave, known as a “Program to Eliminate the Gap” or PEG, Adams’ budget expects to reduce municipal government spending by nearly $2 billion and head count by 10,200 over the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years without any layoffs.

Among the agencies ordered to trim the fat is the NYPD, which Adams said he does not envision getting a larger pot of cash for as part of his 2023 budget.

In fact, Adams said the NYPD will see a “slight decrease” in spending as he works to phase out redundant administrative positions in the department and put more cops on patrol.

But the mayor stressed the NYPD budget stabilization will not take away from his mission to crack down on the city’s recent spike in violent crime — and did not rule out hiring more officers.

“No matter what we do, I’m going to make sure we have the right number of officers to keep our city safe,” he told reporters in a news conference following his speech.

He added, “That’s the No. 1 concern right now — public safety.”

The Health Department was exempt from Adams’ 3% reduction directive due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but would nonetheless get a $194 million cut, while Health + Hospitals, the city’s public hospital system, would have its budget sliced by more than $400 million.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development would also get a nearly $1 million reduction in funding, angering affordable housing advocates who accused Adams of breaking a campaign promise.

“We are extremely disappointed that Mayor Eric Adams did not even mention housing in his remarks nor prioritize it in his budget plans, instead choosing to maintain the status quo and abandon his campaign promise to double city capital spending on affordable housing and NYCHA,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference.

“In the process, he sent a loud and clear signal to his struggling constituents: ‘Despite what I said on the campaign trail, don’t expect bold action on housing.’ ”

That's good, siphon money from the health dept. and housing, that won't simultaneously exacerbate the city's perpetual mental health and homeless crises

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Pedestrian critically injured and hosptialized from double hit-and-run in Ridgewood

Streetsblog

A man was run over — twice — by two reckless drivers at a dangerous Queens intersection on Saturday night, first by a car owner who clipped him in a crosswalk and then by a second driver who rolled over the wounded man with his massive SUV with both sets of wheels before apparently leaving him for dead.

According to police and a horrifying video later posted to TikTok, the 57-year-old pedestrian was crossing Cypress Avenue from west to east at about 6:35 p.m. when the 40-year-old driver of a white crossover SUV, making the tight left turn from Cooper Avenue, clipped the pedestrian, knocking him to the pavement.

While the man was stunned and writhing, the 62-year-old driver of a huge assault car drove over the victim, first running over his head with his front left tire and then crushing the man’s entire body with his rear wheels.

The man was still breathing when cops found him minutes later. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital. Several local websites, including Queens Crap, report that the man died of his injuries, but police declined to comment.

The driver of the white car was issued a summons for failure to yield. It is unclear what happened to the driver of the black SUV, which delivered the life-threatening injuries. The NYPD declined to provide further details.

A close review of the video suggests that the driver of the black SUV did not see the pedestrian get knocked down because he was looking forward as he watched oncoming traffic from Cooper Avenue and waited make his left turn onto Cypress. When he made the left turn, he took the turn sharply to avoid a car that had made a right turn from Cooper onto Cypress. A driver of an SUV that large would not likely have seen the man in the roadway unless he was specifically looking for him.

The intersection of Cooper and Cypress avenues, near the border of Glendale, Queens and Ridgewood and Bushwick in Brooklyn, is a known danger zone for pedestrians. In the eight years of the de Blasio administration, there were 153 reported crashes at that one intersection, injuring seven cyclists, 10 pedestrians and 56 motorists, according to city stats. The crashes seem to be frequently caused by car drivers making left turns from Cooper on

Admin note: Streetsblog is a bike fanzine blog run by Open Plans, a think tank organization that lobbies for "open streets" and bike lanes and against "huge assault cars".

Monday, February 14, 2022

Mayor Adams fires 1,430 non-compliant workers, doesn't do shit about bail reform

Mayor Eric Adams fired more than 1,400 government workers who refused to get vaccinated, the city revealed on Monday — including 36 NYPD personnel, 25 Fire Department workers and 914 Department of Education staffers.

The number had dropped considerably by last Friday’s vaccine mandate deadline as more employees submitted proof of getting at least one shot, City Hall officials said.

At one point last week, officials estimated that 4,000 were on the chopping block.

The number then dropped to around 3,400 — and then to 1,430 firings, officials said.

In one category, there were 2,400 veteran employees on leave without pay who had not opted to extend their health insurance and had not provided proof of vaccination. In the end, 1,428 of those city workers failed to get shots and were fired.

Nearly 1,000 — or 40 percent — provided evidence of getting at least one shot at the 11th hour and returned to work, officials said.

Mayor Adams appeared to throw in the towel on trying to convince Assembly Democrats to roll back the state’s bail-reform law following a closed-door meeting in Albany on Monday.

In remarks to reporters, Adams said he “shared” his plan to fight crime in the Big Apple before adding, “If I am not getting the things I laid out … I still have an obligation to keep the city safe.”

“That’s why we’re putting in place our anti-gun unit. That’s why we’re going to go after the causes and feeders of crime,” said Adams (above left with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie).

Before the meeting, Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn) — who last week clashed with Adams over his desire to let judges lock up defendants they deem dangerous — said that “we are gonna hold the line” on criminal justice reforms enacted in 2019.

Municipal workers hold the line and have their livelihoods taken from them, lawmaker holds the line and Adams loses his spine. Looks like the mayor is swagger selective.

Get Trump

Special Counsel John Durham's filing alleges the Clinton campaign targeted servers in Trump Tower and the White House.

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign paid an internet company to “infiltrate” servers at Trump Tower and the White House in order to link Donald Trump to Russia, a bombshell new legal filing alleges.

The Friday filing from a Department of Justice prosecutor tasked with investigating the origins of the FBI’s Russian probe served to throw cold water on Democrats’ longstanding allegations of collusion.

Special Counsel John Durham filed a motion related to potential conflicts of interests in connection with the case of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who is charged with lying to the feds, according to Fox News.

Sussmann allegedly told the FBI he was not working on behalf of Clinton when he presented the agency with documents that supposedly linked the Trump Organization to a Kremlin-tied bank two months before the election.

The lawyer has pleaded not guilty to the charge of making a false statement to a federal agent.

Durham’s motion reportedly alleged Sussmann “had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive (Tech Executive 1) at a U.S.-based internet company (Internet Company 1) and the Clinton campaign.”

Records showed he “repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the Russian Bank-1 allegations,” which involved an investigative firm, a tech executive, cyber researchers and numerous employees at internet companies, the motion reportedly stated.

In 2017, Sussmann provided “an updated set of allegations” about then-President Trump’s Russian connection to another government agency, the motion said, according to the outlet.

Among the accusations leveled at that time was that suspicious DNS lookups by Russian-affiliated IP addresses “demonstrated Trump and/or his associates were using supposedly rare, Russian-made wireless phones in the vicinity of the White House and other locations,” the motion reportedly said.

The allegations “relied, in part, on the purported DNS traffic” that Tech Executive-1 and others “had assembled pertaining to Trump Tower, Donald Trump’s New York City apartment building, the EOP, and the aforementioned healthcare provider,” according to Fox’s report.

Durham said his office found “no support for these allegations,” claiming the supposed evidence Sussmann provided was incomplete and skewed.

Thursday, February 10, 2022

City rules in favor for non-profit's homeless shelter in Ozone Park after long legal battle

City Land

A not-for-profit proposed to convert two buildings in Ozone Park into homeless services facilities. In July 2016, Common Ground Management Corporation, a not-for-profit organization, applied to the City of New York for approval of a homeless shelter and services project. The non-for-profit organization intended to convert two multistory adjacent buildings in Ozone Park into temporary housing for homeless adults that would provide medical and psychiatric services, meals, laundry, and showers for stays of up to nine months.

Neighbors in the area sued the City of New York to stop the development of the Ozone Park project. The neighbors claimed that the City had unlawfully segmented the environmental review. The neighbors reasoned that the Ozone Park project was part of the City’s 2017 City-wide plan to address homelessness and asserted that the City was required to conduct an environmental review of each project that was part of the 2017 plan.

Queens County Supreme Court Justice Howard G. Lane ruled against the neighbors, finding that the City had not segmented its environmental review. The court found that the City’s 2017 report was a “general agency policy” and the City had not yet identified specific locations to create the homeless shelters. Further, the facilities to be built as part of the City-wide plan would be sponsored by various organizations, built at different times and by different contractors, and would not be dependent on one another.

Queens has reached a level of grand larcenies not seen in 30 years

Queens is being hit hard by a dramatic surge in thefts this year — almost topping levels not seen since the NYPD started compiling statistics decades ago — and business owners are calling on cops to step up.

As of last Sunday, the borough had recorded 1,236 grand larcenies in 2022, which is only a few dozen shy of the tally logged during the same period in 1993, the earliest for which records are available, when 1,326 major thefts occurred, a Post analysis of police data shows.

A store manager of JMart on Main Street in Flushing told The Post his store loses up to $2,000 on any given day.

“I’ve never seen it like this before,” the manager, Lee said. “Maybe it’s the pandemic. It’s bad. Before you’d have one or two [ shoplifters] per week but now it’s like almost every day.”

This year’s tally is more than double what it was in the same time period last year and more than 40 percent over what it was two years ago. It’s also 75 percent more than 12 years ago.

While grand larcenies have been up citywide, with police data showing a more than 60 percent uptick from last year and a 6 percent increase from pre-pandemic times, businesses owners in just a few Queens neighborhoods have been disproportionately hit harder.

Nearly half of the major thefts in the borough have been recorded in only three of the county’s 16 patrol areas.

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

OMNY still sucks