Meet the Assembly District 38 candidates, part 1

“I am running for the Assembly” announced Farouk Samaroo, “My experience in the Legislature, and on the battlefield make me uniquely qualified to serve the people in our neighborhoods of Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park, Glendale, Maspeth, Ridgewood, and Middle Village. We deserve an Assemblyman who will serve us with honor, experience and skill.”

The 38th Assembly District seat became vacant when the previous incumbent, after 30 years in office, resigned following his guilty plea to charges of influence peddling. By every objective measure, the district has suffered during his tenure. The lack of basic government services, aging or inadequate infrastructure, and absence of advocacy for economic development and revitalization of the district’s small business base have cost us dearly.

Samaroo said: “I am an ordinary Soldier, the son of working class parents, and I grew up in this district. I have had the great privilege and high honor of serving my country in battle. I found it to be the most rewarding experience of my life. Our Assemblyman resigned in disgrace, the State Legislature is failing us, and our country needs the service of committed young men and women to lead at all levels of government. I promise to serve this district well and with honor.”

He returned home after spending the past 12 months serving as a Soldier in the U.S. Army in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. For his service in Afghanistan with the storied 1st Infantry Division (the Big Red One), Farouk was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for “military merit,” as well as six other decorations. Farouk’s unit, the 3rd Infantry Brigade, saw heavy combat in the four provinces of Eastern Afghanistan which border Pakistan’s lawless frontier provinces where Taliban and al-Qaeda forces are concentrated.

Farouk Samaroo has lived in Richmond Hill for the past 19 years. He has been very active in local civic affairs. Before his Army service, Samaroo served as a Community Liaison in the New York State Assembly, and on the boards of local non-profits. He also attends Mass at St. Benedict Joseph Labre Roman Catholic Church in Richmond Hill. Farouk is a Knight of St. Peter Claver, a national Catholic fraternal organization.

Supporters of Samaroo today announced the formation of “Friends of Samaroo” to seek the Democratic Party nomination for the Assembly vacancy.

You mean this isn't normal?

From the Brooklyn Paper:

Prospect Park was a victim of its own popularity during the July 4 weekend, as hundreds of illegal barbecuers set up camp.

We took some pictures, but when we rolled into the office on Monday, sure enough, our Inbox was filled with missives from Park Slopers who shared our concern that the borough was treating its emerald jewel like a toilet.

Are you trying to say that this isn't what goes on every weekend in Prospect Park? Because in Queens parks...

Oh, never mind.

Scaffold collapse in Brooklyn

From CBS 2:

The Fire Department says two people have been taken to a hospital following a scaffold collapse in Brooklyn.

It was not immediately clear whether the patients were construction workers.

The initial report indicated their injuries were not life-threatening.

The accident occurred on 20th Drive in southwest Brooklyn.

The victims were taken to Lutheran Hospital.

Fireworks destroy Brooklyn warehouse

Photo from EveryPlace on Flickr via Brooklyn 11211

From NY Shitty:

Saw the plume erupt just as the regular fire works were lighting up on the Hudson from my friend’s roof and started to count off the blocks north of Metropolitan. Apparently some hipster douchebags were setting off rocket fireworks on Wythe and N.9th and one went into the sawdust hopper of Rosenwach Water Tank. Way to go douchebags!! Another Williamsburg institution ruined!!

Cops and Fire Dept are investigating, with probable arrest and incarceration coming soon since it sounds like alot of people know who did it and knowing the wburg gossip train, the city should know within a few more hours once loose lips sink somebody’s yacht. And probably somebody is gonna get their ass beat too, because those guys are working stiffs, and now probably a good dozen of them are out of a job. Thanks a lot douchebags!!

Let's not forget that the City closed a firehouse in Williamsburg in 2003 and then drastically upzoned the area.

Photo from Brownstoner

Animal sacrifices in Staten Island park

From the Staten Island Advance:

For the past two days, visitors to a park in Staten Island's Fort Wadsworth section have stumbled upon a gory mystery -- a mutilated animal, possibly a dog or a goat, wrapped in a white sheet.

Parkgoers found two such animals in Von Briesen Park yesterday and this morning, city Parks Department officials confirmed.

The discovery has sparked speculation of ritual sacrifice and cult activity, and has led one Port Richmond woman to douse part of the ground where one animal was found with holy water, in an attempt to ward off what she believes is an evil presence.

Several alluded to Santeria, which blends elements of Yoruba, an African religion, with Catholicism and involves animal sacrifice in some of its rituals.

Daya Madison, of St. George, came upon the first carcass at about 10 or 10:30 a.m. yesterday, after her pet terrier, Katie Baby, led her to it.

The carcass was laid out on a clean white sheet, she said, and at first glance, it looked like a dog.

Though she said she got no help from 311, she was able to find a Parks Department employee, who told her the animal looked more like a goat.

The second carcass showed up today, wrapped in a white sheet under a curved tree not far from a path a few hundred feet into the park.

Back in August 2005, a couple walking their dog discovered six decapitated chickens positioned in a semicircle, their heads placed in a wooden bowl at the center.

Joseph Pentangelo, a spokesman for the ASPCA, urged anyone who sees a similar mutilation to call his agency at 877-THEASPCA.

Bike rules initiative started

From NY1:

The city saw a 35 percent jump in the number of commuter cyclists last year alone, and while that contributes to greener city, there is growing concern over cyclists who do not adhere to the rules of the road.

Most pedestrians say the biggest problem they see are cyclists going the wrong way down a road.

Cycling advocate group Transportation Alternatives is trying to reform this behavior.

"If you're coming the wrong way down a one-way street, pedestrians, drivers, other cyclists aren't accustomed to looking for you and that has a negative impact on your safety," said Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives. "And it has a negative impact on the safety of everyone around you."

Safety is one of the core messages the group hopes to communicate to cyclists through its new civic cycling campaign called Biking Rules.

Measles outbreak in Brooklyn; more common in U.S.

From CBS 2:

New York City health officials are urging parents to vaccinate their children against measles after 11 cases of the highly contagious disease were identified in Brooklyn.

City health officials say most of the cases identified over the past two months were among children.

The virus can cause symptoms ranging from fever and rash to diarrhea and ear infections.

Some children may need to be hospitalized because of complications including pneumonia.

The illness typically begins with a rash on the face, which can spread to the rest of the body.

City health officials say children should be vaccinated at one year of age.
__________________________________________

From the accompanying video:

Doctors at LIJ are saying they are seeing more cases of measles in the United States than in the past. Often times, people from other countries are bringing it in.

"We haven't have this many measles cases since about 20 years ago. So I have a feeling a lot has to do with globalization - more people coming in from countries where vaccination is not so widespread as it is here in this country," said Dr. Carl Mealie of LIJ. According to Dr. Mealie, the U.S. has seen 127 cases of measles so far this year. Typically, there are between 20 and 50 cases in an entire year.

Developer leaves a mess behind

From NY1:

Concerned neighbors of three empty, dilapidated buildings sitting on 51st and 52nd Streets off of Ninth Avenue say the structures create an unsanitary and unsafe environment.

Residents say the buildings, formerly owned by St. Vincent's Medical Center, were sold to a developer two years ago and have sat empty for the past several months after demolition crews came in and gutted them.

After numerous failed attempts to get the city to take action, residents called NY1 For You. NY1 then found that the property is owned by Tessler Developments.

NY1 reached out to Tessler but they refused to comment on the condition of their buildings.

The station then called the Department of Health and a spokesperson said they have no complaints on file for the property. However, the spokesperson did say the agency will send an inspector out to check the site.

SI teardown site a health hazard

From the Staten Island Advance:

The vacant lot at 381 Alter Ave. in Dongan Hills is a standout -- a swampy mess of murky, standing water. Homeowners on the otherwise meticulously maintained residential block are furious, and worried as mosquito season sets in.

The 50-by-81-foot lot, between Hylan Boulevard and Mason Avenue, is the former site of a one-family home, which the new owner demolished last year.

Mrs. Batiancela showed a reporter documentation of the three separate complaints that she called in to 311 operators. "They can't even tell me if an inspector has come by to look at the conditions," she noted with frustration.

Under the NYC Administrative Code, owners of vacant lots must keep them "clean, sanitary, and free of debris and litter," according to the Department of Sanitation's "Digest of Sanitation Codes," revised and published in September 2004. City law empowers the Department of Transportation (DOT) to order owners to "erect a fence around the lot and fill any sunken part of the lot and/or cut down any raised part of the lot. If the owner fails to comply the DOT may fence the lot, fill in the lot, or raise the lot at the owner's expense."

Mrs. Batiancela showed a reporter letters that City Council member James S. Oddo sent on June 22 to the Health and Sanitation departments about the problem.

She and her neighbors hope that this will attract attention from city authorities, and help may finally be on the way.

Education spending skyrocketed under Bloomberg

From the NY Times:

A New York Times analysis of seven years of education spending has found a number of changes in how dollars are allocated. There are now 1,075 more principals and assistant principals, even as overall student enrollment has fallen, largely because the city has broken up a number of underperforming schools into smaller schools. There are more administrators, like academic coaches who track test scores, and more support staff, with tasks like patrolling hallways and monitoring attendance.

And more administrators are earning top dollar. The number of employees making more than $150,000 has risen to 240, up from 175 in 2002, when those salaries are adjusted for inflation. The number earning at least $125,000 has more than tripled, to 1,935.

Lawsuit over NYRA auction chicanery

From the Times Ledger:

One of the winning bidders on property auctioned off by the New York Racing Association is suing the corporation, claiming the auctioneer told him NYRA demanded more money from him than he bid and had a third party ready to submit a more generous offer.

In the suit, filed June 23 in Queens Supreme Court, Brooklyn resident John Sita said the New York Racing Association “intends to repudiate the contract and sell the premises to someone other than” him.

NYRA could not be reached for comment.

Welcome to Ass Plaza

From Citynoise:

Flushing, New York

need I say more?

Nope, that pretty much sums it up perfectly. I hear the New York State Senate will be moving their offices here.

Reservoir dog and pony show continues

From the Forum West:

According to the combined results of the two listening sessions, residents favor construction of a boardwalk as their top choice for all three basins. The only options among the top three priorities for any of the basins that involve development was at basin three, where a nature center was the second choice, followed by recreational opportunities.

However, some audience members took exception with the paper surveys, questioning where they were distributed and why they weren’t handed out to all meeting participants or sent to local community boards. Also, some questioned why the results of a 2007 survey on Ridgewood Reservoir were not taken into consideration. Of the 253 paper survey respondents, 11% ranked baseball or softball fields as the highest priority in terms of the new facilities they would like built at the reservoir site.

When asked why the 2007 survey was dismissed, Quinn said there were concerns that it was flawed or not thorough enough. “We spent a lot more time on this survey,” he said. Still, many in the room felt the prior results should also be taken into account. “To me, its mind boggling that you threw it out,” said Lou Widerka.

Ozone Park resident David Quintana also questioned the validity of the paper surveys, and accused Parks of using them to get the results they favored. “These surveys have no transparency at all,” he said.

Vincent Arcuri, chairman of Community Board 5, said that the city needs to “bite the bullet” and look at the conditions at the existing fields. “We have not paid proper attention to Highland Park in recent years,” he said. “You ask anyone what’s needed at Highland Park and they’ll tell you the same thing – those fields are garbage.” Instead of building fields in the reservoir basins, Arcuri said Parks has to “be realistic” and address the existing fields.

Skyview Parc violates FAA height restrictions

From the Times Ledger:

Muss Development also sought a variance from the board on its massive Sky View Parc development in Flushing. Three of the projects’ six residential towers are already built, but the developer now needs a variance from the city Board of Standards and Appeals because the 14-story buildings pierce height restrictions set by the Federal Aviation Administration to protect flight paths of aircraft entering and leaving LaGuardia Airport.

Jerald Johnson, an attorney for Muss, presented a letter in which the FAA approved the buildings’ height, but another letter, from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, said the FAA had rescinded its decision.

“I’m at a loss here,” Apelian said. “A lot of phone calls have been made about this and we still don’t have any resolution.”

“I’m a little bit at a loss as well,” Johnson said. “No one has contacted us to tell us our FAA ruling is in error.”

In the end, the board approved the variance with a request that the confusion be ironed out before the BSA rules on it next month.

“It’s not like this is waiting for an application to be approved,” Apelian said. “The buildings are built. So either it’s good or it isn’t good. There’s not really a lot we as a board can do.”

How did the DOB approve these buildings in the first place if there is a height limit in that area?

Barbie's coming home

From the Queens Campaigner:

The assemblywoman said she and her husband, who have two children, are planning to adopt a third child, but the Bayside home in which they had lived prior to their move to Long Island did not provide enough room for five people. Carrozza had also promised to rent that home to an Oregon couple for part of the year and did not want to renege, so she has remained in the Glen Head house for the past four months.

She said she will move back into the other Bayside home she owns Aug. 1 because it is rented out through July. The Long Island property currently serves as her husband’s primary residence, she said.

“There’s no requirement that a husband and wife have the same primary residence,” she said of her status as an elected official.

According to property records, the couple purchased the Long Island home for $1.8 million in June 2008.

CB7 approves police academy

From the Times Ledger:

Following four hours of haggling, CB 7 unanimously approved the city’s plan to build a $1 billion police academy in College Point. This came after the city promised in writing to fast-track an estimated $70 million in roadway and sewer projects for College Point and Whitestone that the board has been clamoring for over the past decade.

“We committed a lot to you guys,” said Scott Sigal, a senior adviser to Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler. “I think we were willing to commit far more than I ever thought we would be.”

The city’s proposed plan would construct a massive $1 billion, 3-million-square-foot police training academy in College Point with 250 classrooms, a field house and a tactical village.

Sigal said because of the economic crisis, the NYPD currently has only $700 million in funding, and will construct the project in phases until additional funding becomes available.

New York is full of soot

From the NY Times:

It’s another price of living in New York: call it the dirt tax.

The dirt tax appears in cleaning costs, replacement costs and even the inability of New York homeowners to consider certain finishes and fabrics because they’re just not practical.

Not in a city where schmutz — the preferred New York term for the black gritty material — accumulates on every surface.

White rugs and sofas can become filthy anywhere. But experts (who include anyone who has ever dusted, vacuumed or swabbed in the five boroughs) say New York City’s dirt level is highly unusual.

The culprit is soot, said Richard Kassel, an air pollution expert with the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council.

In one study cited by Mr. Kassel, soot in one stretch of Midtown Manhattan was found to contain 52 percent diesel exhaust, mostly from trucks, buses and construction vehicles. The other 48 percent was a mix of everything from ground-up car tires to sea salt, he said.

Bloomberg stacks the deck at hearing

From the NY Observer:

There’s a common tactic that accompanies most development fights: packing a public hearing.

Usually this is carried out by a variety of groups fighting or supporting a given project—advocates, unions, angry neighbors, wary businesses—who enlist (ideally) scores of people to testify at a hearing in favor of their position, filling a room with sign-holding supporters and making it seem like their argument has more support than the opposition's.

But for a City Council hearing on Coney Island on Wednesday, the Bloomberg administration bused in supporters of its own plan, only to provoke sharp criticism from the Council, as members alleged a misuse of taxpayer funds.

Mr. Felder and Councilman Robert Jackson, questioned why city funds should go toward lobbying the Council for the administration’s own proposal, particularly as the members said they are barred from using their own discretionary money to fund similar acts. The CIDC promoted the hearing, urging its supporters to testify in its favor.

“Why should a city agency be spending taxpayers’ money to bus people in, in order to try to get their proposal?” Councilman Jackson, who was in attendance, told me Thursday afternoon. “Basically, you have the dealer stacking the deck.”

You folks just figured this out?

Let's continue:

The CIDC, which is also a local community development organization, has spent considerable time and resources trying to publicize the city’s plans for Coney Island. In addition to organizing the buses, it’s enlisted the lobbying and community outreach firm Yoswein New York, and has rounded up mailing lists and signatures in favor of the plan at Brooklyn events. When another controversial project, the proposed mega-development for Willets Point in Queens, came up for public review last year, the Bloomberg administration committed $250,000 in funds to a group set up to effectively lobby community members, elected officials, business leaders and others in favor of the controversial project.

Paterson Approves Javits Center Expansion

NEW YORK (AP) -- The long-awaited renovation and expansion of New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center has been approved.

Gov. David Paterson said Thursday construction will begin immediately.

He says the $463 million project will create 9,000 construction jobs. It calls for a 100,000-square-foot expansion that will include new exhibition space. An earlier plan called for 500,000 square feet.

The center now has 790,000 square feet.

Activities at the convention center will continue during construction, slated to end in 2013.

The Javits Center opened in 1986. It is New York City's primary venue for major trade shows.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the project ``an important step toward addressing the demand for modern convention space.''

It was approved by the Public Authority Control Board.

The view from the BQE, part 1