Phony park advocate contradicts her own position on FMCP

Photo from A Short Story

From an Op-Ed in the Daily News written by New Yorkers for Parks Executive Director Holly Leicht:

Supporters of the stadium point to the drab condition of the once-iconic Fountain of the Planets and claim building atop this long-neglected space will improve the park. But the current state of this historically significant park - under-resourced and ill-maintained for decades - is no rationale for further privatization. Five years ago, the Parks Department unveiled an ambitious plan for the park that included a proposal to fill in the Fountain of the Planets to create a great lawn - a vast, central gathering space which the park sorely lacks - and to daylight the Flushing River to help ameliorate the park's endemic flooding and drainage problems. New Yorkers for Parks calls upon the city to make this part of the park the grand public space it has the potential to be rather than giving up on it and turning it over to private hands.

Hey Holly, why is it ok to privatize other parts of the park? Why is it ok to hand over sections of the park to the USTA and the Wilpons in return for contributions to a park maintenance fund, but not cede another section to MLS for the same thing? In fact, you support the Wilpons not providing any replacement parkland under a bogus 1961 agreement and the USTA's proposal to swap land that the City already owns and the public already uses.

To be clear: regardless of the terms of the deal, the design of the stadium, or any offers of replacement parkland, New Yorkers for Parks cannot support a private stadium in the heart of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The location is simply wrong, and no modification or mitigation can make up for the loss of this vital open space.

But you can support an additional tennis stadium and a mall?

How about some consistency?  Where were New Yorkers 4 Parks and the Fairness Coalition last week during the CB7 meeting?

A much better opinion piece appeared in the Queens Tribune:

Stop The Nonsense

Mayor Mike Bloomberg certainly has a way about him. From the very beginning of the discussions to bring a soccer stadium to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the Mayor has alienated a large segment of Queens residents with his plans to alienate a large segment of Queens parkland.

And with each new announcement, the Mayor’s gung ho approach to get this stadium built continues to appall.

The introduction of Shiekh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan as a potential team owner was bad enough for some people. Then, on Monday, Mr. Mayor seemingly arbitrarily decided that any parkland taken from Flushing Meadows Corona Park could and should be replaced at the vacant Flushing Airport.

No discussions have been held, no negotiations have been made public and it seems as if no one in Queens has been contacted to discuss these plans.

Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg should just announce that process be damned, we’re doing things his way. At least then Queens residents would have an honest idea of what is actually going on.

Isn't that what he always does?

Another lovely weekend in Jamaica

Just taking my Saturday morning walk to the gym on Jamaica Avenue and this is what I encounter on a regular basis and what I always have to deal with.

I head out my building walking down 170th Street towards Jamaica Avenue and have to pick up a small bag of garbage filled with all kinds of fast food crap that some low class slob dumped in front of the empty lot next to me owned by some low class third world immigrant slob. Great way to start the morning and of course the huge box of industrial fluorescent lights are still in the empty lot along with the high weeds that are getting higher every day and coming out onto the sidewalk. Even though I reported this over a week ago, THREE TIMES, nothing has changed.

Huge box of over a dozen industrial fluorescent lights that were dumped into this lot at 170th St/ 90th Ave over a week ago and still lying there. It has been reported three times: told a sanitation officer the first day I saw it, called DOS and filed a 311 report and let our elected officials know. NOTHING DONE.

As I turn right onto Jamaica Avenue off 170th Street into a pretty disgusting nasty block, I encounter this mess on the sidewalk.

The definition of “ghetto”, crap all over early in the morning.

Across the street, where a very ugly empty lot is, they have put up a wooden fence and the sign states that a retail project will be taking place here (not the $50 million retail project that will be on 168th St/90th Avenue). I do have to say that the building that has just been fixed up is very nice and hopefully low crap retail, a nail salon, a wig place or a 99 cent store will not go in there and when the retail project is built it also will not contain a bunch of low class shit. I am crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.

Future sight of another retail project on Jamaica Avenue between 169th and 168th Pl

Okay, I have some hope, till I encounter a space that they had been working on and wondered what was going to go in there. After attending the “Jamaica Revealed” event and hearing that they wanted to bring in some high end retail and restaurants, I was very depressed to see this:

Another fucking beauty supply store going to open on Jamaica Avenue right across from a huge beauty supply store already in place. That brings the count up to 10 of these places on Jamaica Ave.

Really, this is “Jamaica Revealed”, another fucking beauty supply store on Jamaica Avenue. There is already a huge one directly across the street that just opened up not too long ago.

This place which opened not too long ago is directly across from the new place which is opening soon.

Is this what is meant by “Diverse and Vibrant” that I keep hearing all of our elected officials and business leaders saying. Ten huge beauty supply stores on Jamaica Avenue and about 10 more on the side streets does not say “Diverse and Vibrant”, it says “laundering dirty money”. Am I the only one that gets that. There are not enough people in Jamaica to sustain that amount of beauty supplies stores. Oh well, depression is really setting in, so I pop into my gym, Blink (actually a great addition to Jamaica Ave) to work out my frustration.

Leaving the gym to pick up my dry cleaning on Hillside Avenue, my depression begins to sink further as I walk this stretch of low class third world immigrant crap and garbage.

The law offices of Z.A. Wani. Now this is class for an attorney.

Well if there is no garbage can, just pretend there is one and dump your shit on the sidewalk

Not much different from this scene from an actual third world country:



Now back to our third world country, along Hillside Avenue.

It does not matter where these people put shit.

Now if this little tour does not spell out low class ghetto behavior/low class third world bullshit, I do not know what does. Oh and I am sorry if I offend anyone…………………well no not really, I do not really give a shit who I offend, because I am offended by this morning walk and what I have to see on a daily basis due to people’s bad behavior, corrupt or do nothing elected officials and community leaders and the apathy that has spread like wild fire in our community. I just keep thinking on this walk if our community was a better class of White, Black , Hispanic and middle class immigrants would it look like this and the answer is a definite NO, NO, NO.

Speaking of apathy, if you did not sign my petition to some of our elected officials including Governor Cuomo (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/clean-up-jamaica-queens.fb28?source=c.fb&r_by=7853233) to clean up Jamaica, then you are no better than the low life people who throw garbage all over the place and have no respect for our community. You also do not get to complain or bitch about the garbage problem because YOU are part of the problem by doing SHIT.

“Jamaica Revealed” my ass, this Saturday morning walk showed  the “Real Jamaica Revealed”, not the “Make Believe Jamaica Revealed”. Wow, some of  you are as bad as the Republicans who live in the bubble.

Supposed clean and repaired Jamaica Subway Station women’s restroom. 5.17.13. Not much different before it was closed for repairs.

Joe Moretti
Jamaica, NY  11432
http://cleanupjamaicaqueens.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CleanUpJamaicaQueens

A blast from Queens past

"There are 3 different Flushing Expresses in this presentation. A train, a bus, and a restaurant!"

Auction scheduled to help non-profits

From Bayside Patch:

State Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, is hosting an auction in Bayside on June 8 to raise money for five local nonprofits that could be forced to close this year due to a lack of city and state funding.

The auction will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Bayside Historical Society, which is located at 208 Totten Ave. in Fort Totten.

Funds raised during the event will be split evenly between the historical society, Poppenhusen Institute, Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Community Center and the North Flushing Senior Center’s sites in Flushing and College Point.

“We’re raising money for groups who have lost their discretionary funding and are in danger of closing,” Avella said. “We want to keep senior centers and historical societies open. There will be a huge outcry if they close and the amount to reinstate them will be expensive.”

The senator is calling on local residents to donate auction items that would be bid on to raise funds for the nonprofits.

Currently, he has amassed paintings, antiques, sports memorabilia, vases, two Mets baseball card collections, furniture and a signed Joe Namath card.

There will be a $2 donation at the door on the day of the event.

Residents can drop off items to be auctioned at Avella’s office, located at 38-50 Bell Blvd., Suite C in Bayside, or at the offices of any of the five nonprofits.

That's all he wrote

From the NY Post:

Pervy pol Vito Lopez has finally resigned his Assembly seat, effective Monday morning at 9 a.m.

Lopez sent a terse one-sentence letter of resignation today to Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver.

Unisphere suffers damage

Hi Crappy,

Thought you'd be interested in this: The other day at Flushing Meadows park, I noticed a couple of the wires that hold the orbital rings on the Unisphere were broken and hanging down. It's on the lower ring opposite the NYC building/Queens Museum of Art. Not good.

I sent an e-mail to Parks Dept. to let them know about this, got an automated response that this will be forwarded to the appropriate agency with a service request # so let's see what they do.

Don Cavaioli

Vito announces resignation from Assembly and City Council bid

From the NY Times:

State Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, the once-powerful Brooklyn Democratic leader who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women, said on Friday that he would resign. But his offer only inflamed an uproar over his behavior because, a few words later, he said the resignation would not take effect for five weeks, and then he would run for a seat on the New York City Council.

The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, whose own handling of the initial allegations against Mr. Lopez has been widely criticized, vowed to press ahead with an effort to expel Mr. Lopez from the Legislature immediately.

And the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, called for an all-out effort to prevent Mr. Lopez from winning election to that body this fall.

“Vito Lopez should not spend another day in office, let alone a whole month,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement. “He should resign effective immediately, and if he does not, he must be expelled.”

The denunciations from the state’s leading Democratic officials demonstrated the remarkably steep fall of Mr. Lopez.

Until he was publicly accused of harassment, he had been a political boss with considerable influence. In Brooklyn, he has controlled a sprawling nonprofit agency, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, that served as a de facto political machine for him and his allies. And in Albany, he had clout as chairman of the Housing Committee.

Mr. Lopez’s determination to run for the Council also served as a reminder of the extraordinary staying power of incumbents in New York. Mr. Lopez was easily re-elected last fall, against only nominal opposition, even after he had been censured by the Assembly, and few are ruling out an election this fall to the Council.

Why were these people silent for so long when they knew for years about Vito's tweeding? Could it be that they were benefiting from it so they kept their mouths shut?

FAA agrees to form committee with residents about flight patterns

From Bayside Patch:

The Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to form a committee with northeast Queens elected officials and residents to review the decision-making process when approving new flight patterns in the area.

The move follows months of complaints from Bayside and Douglaston residents who were being tormented by excessive airplane noise stemming from a new flight pattern out of LaGuardia Airport.

Four elected officials representing the community – U.S. Reps. Grace Meng, D-Flushing, and Steve Israel, D-Great Neck, as well as state Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, and state Assemblyman Edward Braunstein, D-Bayside – recently met with the FAA in Washington D.C. to persuade the agency to form the committee.

“Agreeing to work with the community to review the new flight patterns and taking another look at the environmental assessment process in the step-by-step process we urged is a move in the right direction,” Meng said. “Although more still needs to be done, this is a positive move that can hopefully have an effect on the increased airplane noise that Queens residents have been forced to endure.”

The new flight pattern was implemented in February 2012 on a six-month trial basis. In December, the FAA announced that it would make the new routes permanent.

Paul Vallone likely to get County nod

From Crains:

In an unexpected move, the Queens Democratic Party is likely to endorse attorney Paul Vallone for City Council on Monday, despite his family's fraught history with the party leadership, according to multiple sources in the borough. Mr. Vallone is running for the seat currently held by Queens Republican Councilman Daniel Halloran, who has declined to seek re-election because of a bribery scandal.

On paper, a more likely pick for the Queens Democrats might be former Empire State Development spokesman Austin Shafran, who has lined up widespread labor support in the race. The Vallone family has often displayed an independent streak in its dealings with the famously disciplined Queens Democratic Party, especially since the county organization did not endorse then City Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr. during his 2001 mayoral run, despite his Queens residence.

Whether the endorsement for Mr. Vallone will actually happen Monday remains unclear: Labor unions are strongly behind Mr. Shafran's candidacy and could lobby Queens Democratic leader Rep. Joe Crowley to overturn the wishes of district leaders.

Some Queens sources spun the likely move by district leaders to back Paul Vallone as an effort by the Queens Democratic Party to throw a bone to the Vallone family. Peter Vallone Jr. is running for Queens borough president, but Queens Democrats are expected to go with another candidate, either Councilman Leroy Comrie or former Councilwoman Melinda Katz. Peter Vallone Sr. remains an influential lobbyist in city politics.

Actually, what's going on in northeast Queens is that the Dem leaders are refusing to carry Austin's petitions because he's incredibly unlikable. So they are holding their noses and advocating for Vallone, who they also don't like, but is slightly more palatable than Shafran. Fortunately, northeast Queens residents don't care much if you've been endorsed by County or a bunch of labor unions, which is why District 19 still has livable neighborhoods.

is Van Bramer the most honest man in politics?

From the NY Post:

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer helped bust a businessman on a bribery charge, The Post has learned.

Mike Wolfert, who’s developing a massive indoor rock-climbing center in Queens, allegedly asked Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) to pull strings for him after he was slapped with a stop-work order for doing construction work without a permit.

But rather than accept Wolfert’s e-mail offer of “unconditional support” — including access to his company’s Facebook friends and free use of his facility for political events — Van Bramer blew the whistle, prompting a rapid-fire sting operation by the Department of Investigation that nabbed Wolfert within weeks, sources said.

Van Bramer’s actions stand in stark contrast to the allegations against a host of elected officials — including state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), Assemblyman Eric Stevenson (D-Bronx) and Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens) — charged recently in payoff schemes.

“We’re grateful that, at a time when some people are succumbing to corruption, this was reported to DOI,” DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said.

Have no fear. Although he won't take bribes, he still supports bad building projects because County tells him to.

Briarwood site's been stalled for 3 years

From the Queens Chronicle:

An inactive construction site that has been stalled for years is frustrating the residents of Briarwood.

The lot located at 84-03 Lander St. was supposed to be developed into a six-story apartment house. But years later, the building remains unfinished, with metal columns that have since rusted over and a plywood fence that has become weather-worn and covered in graffiti.

“My suspicions are that they stopped working because they ran out of money,” Seymour Schwartz, president of the Briarwood Community Association, said. “They have a decrepit plywood fence that’s falling over and is very ugly in appearance, and it’s just a real eyesore.”

According to the Department of Buildings, a stop-work order was issued on March 26, 2010 for failing to protect the adjacent property — an active construction site for a similar apartment building next door. The builder was issued a second stop-work order in December 2011 for a collapsed and missing fence.

“Since August 2012, inspectors from the Department of Buildings have visited the site four times and issued four Environmental Control Board violations,” DOB spokeswoman Kelly Magee said. “The most recent round of violations was issued on April 10, for expired permits and failure to maintain a construction fence. DOB inspectors continue to monitor this as a stalled construction site.”

Though more than $24,000 in violation fees have been issued, Schwartz said he is pessimistic that anything would come out of the ticketing.

Leroy is County's BP pick

From The Politicker:

The Queens County Democratic Party is expected to endorse Councilman Leroy Comrie for borough president next week, according to four sources plugged into various sides of the race.

The sources–some of whom were disappointed in the decision–told Politicker that Congressman Joe Crowley, the head of the borough’s Democratic organization, will probably endorse Mr. Comrie to balance his leadership position in one of the most demographically diverse counties in the country.

“Crowley has a lot pressure, he’s got to deal with African-American district leaders who want him,” said one Queens Democrat familiar with the decision-making process. “It is what it is.”

“It’s about 80 percent they’re going with Leroy,” another Democratic source said. “The black district leaders are strongly behind Leroy. And Joe needs to protect his leadership.”

You can read about the candidates' sources of fundraising here.

In the meantime, let's see what a constituent thinks of Mr. Comrie's effectiveness as a leader...

From Clean Up Jamaica:

This is an excerpt from the Queens Chronicle:

“City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) is taking action in response to complaints from Jamaica residents, led by activist Pamela Hazel, that a handful of eyesores is ruining the quality of life in their neighborhood.

Last week, Comrie sent his community liaison, Jamal Wilkerson, to investigate the locations, which include a dilapidated old playground near the corner of 171st Street and 109th Avenue, a parcel full of wrecked cars next to the home at 170-08 108 Ave. and a pile of debris between the C-Town supermarket at 108-30 Merrick Blvd. and JHS 8. There were also concerns about crushed cars left on 108th Avenue, which is a residential street.

The lawmaker plans to reach out to the owner of C-Town to find out why garbage is piling up near the location. He also vows to be vigilant in continuing to monitoring the conditions of all the troublesome areas.”

Sounds great for Jamaica right……………………………………………WRONG, this article was written October 21, 2010, over two and half years ago and it is not only a handful of eyesores (the only handful is clean areas devoid of trash). Today, we are still dealing with the same issues, (and more) including the troubled spots mentioned in the article, especially the abandoned playground at 171st St/109th Ave. Over two and half years and the garbage problem in Jamaica (and many other parts of Queens) still rages on. If “monitoring the conditions of all the troublesome areas” means looking at them and doing NOTHING, then Councilman Comrie is sticking to his vows.

Sounds like the perfect nominee for Borough President. Continue the apathy.

Rockaway A train is back in business May 30th

From the NY Post:

‘A’ train service will roll back to the Rockaways on Thursday, May 30, Gov. Cuomo announced today.

Superstorm Sandy wiped out hundreds of feet of track and miles of signal, communications and power cables serving the Rockaways. The ‘A’ train now runs only as far as Howard Beach, where Rockaways-bound riders have to board buses to finish their trips.

After an “all-out” effort by MTA employees and contractors, 1,500 feet of track has been restored, and two stations that were completely flooded were rehabilitated.

The MTA has also installed two miles of corrugated marine steel along its Jamaica Bay right-of-way it hopes will protect the track against future storms.

Half of Helen's staff in jeopardy

From the Queens Courier:

Half the staff at Borough Hall could get pink slips if cuts proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg go through.

Borough President Helen Marshall’s office is expected to receive about $3.14 million in funding for the 2014 fiscal year—nearly $1.8 million less than last year—officials announced at Marshall’s Borough Board meeting on Monday, May 13.

If the budget is approved, the cuts will result in half the staff’s dismissal, according to Chief of Staff Alexandra Rosa.

There were roughly 88 employees when Marshall was first elected in 2002, according to spokesperson Dan Andrews. If this year’s cuts go through, the current staff of 54 could be reduced to fewer than 30.

The question is, who will notice?

DeBlasio thinks illegal aliens should have driver's licenses

From CBS New York:

New York City Public Advocate and Democratic mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio announced his immigration proposal on the steps of City Hall Thursday morning.

De Blasio’s package of reforms to help undocumented immigrants includes reducing collaboration with federal detention and deportation efforts and issuing a universal city ID card to residents. The agenda also urges the state to allow the undocumented to apply for New York State driver’s licenses.

“We need to make sure that people who need a driver’s license for their work, for their lives are getting it the right way and are part of our system and have the same checks and balances as everyone else,” de Blasio told reporters including WCBS 880′s Rich Lamb.