Private Sunnyside park to become public

From Sunnyside Post:

The city is at last starting up the acquisition process for the former Phipps playground, part of the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District.

The Department of Parks and Recreation is putting forth an application with the city to ultimately turn 50-02 39th Ave., the corner lot at 39th Avenue and 50th Street, into a community park. The site, measuring 10,000 square feet, is currently owned by DBH Associates, a private developer.

The application to the Department of City Planning will be jointly filed with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services for the site selection and acquisition of the parcel of land, a NYC Parks representative said at last night’s CB2 Land Use meeting.

The project must go through public review by way of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, where it will be reviewed by the community board, the Queens Borough president, and make its way to the city council, which could take until next year.

BDB accused of engaging in retaliation

From the NY Times:

In 2016, as federal investigators dug into allegations that Mayor Bill de Blasio traded favors for political donations, a senior official at a city agency at the center of the probe was demoted and given a sharp pay cut.

That official, Geneith Turnbull, has filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that her demotion was motivated by discrimination, and was meant to punish her for standing up to her supervisors.

Ms. Turnbull was a deputy commissioner at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services until she was demoted in February 2017, in what City Hall said was a reorganization of the agency. The lawsuit, filed this month in Federal District Court in Manhattan, accused the city of demoting Ms. Turnbull in retaliation for repeatedly voicing concerns about a pay raise given to one of her subordinates, who she believed had in some way helped to protect Mr. de Blasio during the federal investigation.

The lawsuit also alleges that her demotion was part of a pattern of discrimination against older, minority employees at the agency. Ms. Turnbull is black.

Ms. Turnbull was demoted on the same day that Ricardo Morales, another senior employee at the administrative services agency, was fired. Mr. Morales has filed a notice of claim with the city in preparation for a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit; Mr. Morales had resisted pressure from City Hall over negotiations between his agency and Harendra Singh, a mayoral donor who did business with the city.

DCAS director fired for complaining about conflict of interest

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio avoided questions Sunday about his alleged intervention on behalf of a big campaign donor who threw two free fund-raisers for him.

The Daily News broke the story on its website Saturday, revealing that a former city deputy claims he was fired after protesting City Hall's interference for Harendra Singh, whose Queens restaurant owed the city nearly $750,000 in back rent.

The News revealed that de Blasio's campaign didn't bother paying the bill for fund-raisers in 2011 and 2013 at Singh's Water's Edge restaurant until the city Campaign Finance Board demanded documentation during an audit in 2015.

The News also revealed that de Blasio's top aide, director of governmental relations Emma Wolfe, personally intervened in the Water's Edge rent dispute with the city Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

Ricardo Morales, DCAS' deputy commissioner for asset management, was handling the Water's Edge negotiations and says he was fired in February because he complained that City Hall's "inappropriate involvement" violated city conflict-of-interest rules.

Interesting timing - Rivington house figure fired right after Preet meet

From the Daily News:

The city official who approved lifting deed restrictions that allowed a Lower East Side nursing home to be flipped for luxury condos has been fired.

Ricardo Morales, a deputy commissioner at the Citywide Department of Administrative Services, was let go on Friday — hours after Mayor de Blasio’s highly anticipated sit-down with federal prosecutors, his attorney confirmed Saturday.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the firing.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating the Rivington deal as part of a broader investigation into whether de Blasio’s administration gave special favors to donors.

Guy Oksenhendler, an attorney for Morales, said he found the dismissal — in the context of the day’s events — to be highly problematic. “I find the timing of my client’s firing extremely suspicious,” he said. “Around the time that meeting would have concluded, my client was terminated.”

Oksenhendler added that he believes Morales was targeted by the mayor himself.

City deed restriction lifted by donation

From DNA Info:

The city has struck a deal to build 38 affordable housing units on a formerly deed-restricted plot of land.

The area, formerly owned by the Dance Theatre of Harlem at 152nd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, will be developed by BRP Companies.

Earlier this year, The Department of Citywide Administrative Services accepted $875,000 from the developer in exchange for lifting the deed restriction, which had been in place since 1976 and ruled it could only be used for cultural groups.

​The developer bought the lot for $3.1 million. They also made a financial contribution to one of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political causes, the New York Times reported. BRP Companies did not respond to a request for comment.

Oh, well that's never happened before! And is 38 units really a lot?

Proposal for community garden next to Cedar Grove

From the Queens Chronicle:

A Queensboro Hill family is pushing to make an unused city-owned lot at the intersection of 136th Street and 63rd Road a community garden.

And according to Alishia West, who is working with her husband, Zack Turck, and her daughter, Alyssa, to make the project a reality for the unused lot, the idea is popular.

“The people we talk to and the people we interact with, it’s easy to get them on board,” West told the Chronicle.

The lot belongs to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

Thankful for new boardwalk

From the Forum:

The final steps of the new Hamilton Beach boardwalk are being constructed and it could be opening up soon.

The “boardwalk,” which will now be a cement path connecting Hamilton Beach to Old Howard Beach, has been fully paved and railings have been installed, according to Councilman Eric Ulrich’s office, which is overseeing the plans.

The main portion of the project has been done by the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS). The last remaining portion of it, which is to add the ramp connecting the train station to the boardwalk, has to be done in partnership with the MTA since they own that portion of the land.

Work started on the path in May and was scheduled to finish by the end of September, but building the ramp has prolonged this process.

Planned "Civic Virtue" replacement a total embarrassment

From Triumph of Civic Virtue:

Ever since plans to exile the Triumph of Civic Virtue statue to Brooklyn came to light, enquiring minds have wanted to know: What will replace the statue at its former location on Queens Boulevard?

On July 29, 2013, DNAInfo reported that Queens Borough President Helen Marshall was “in negotiations with the departments of Design and Construction and Citywide Administrative Services” concerning the future use of the Queens Boulevard site, but that “renderings that were presented to Marshall ‘were not acceptable to the borough president.’”

Thanks to a new Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Request made by Robert LoScalzo (who has previously successfully sued the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services (“DCAS”) to obtain Civic Virtue records), now we know how DCAS intends to utilize the former site of the statue: As a “planted ruin”.

Records obtained by LoScalzo discuss the fountain that served as the base for the Civic Virtue statue. The statue has been exiled to Brooklyn, but what is left of the fountain base is still at the Queens Boulevard site. According to the records:

DCAS wishes to keep the original fountain as a planted ruin, a scenic backdrop to a busy and important intersection in the borough. … [T]he fountain, although left as a ‘ruin’, will be planted with grades and groundcovers and act as a landscape folly to enhance this prominent corner.

An artist’s rendering of the proposed “planted ruin” shows the fountain area closed off behind a cyclone fence, with wildflowers sprouting from the fountain and surrounding property.

Is DCAS serious? They’ve removed the colossal statue and artwork from Queens, and intend to leave behind a “planted ruin” to “act as a landscape folly”?

A “landscape folly”?

Who writes this stuff, and how dumb do they think we are?

Read the full prospective from the NYC Department of Design and Construction.

Civic laziness

Dear QC,

Some time back shortly after the Triumph of Civic Virtue had been removed, the tarp left over the site was tagged with graffiti, as you posted on your site prior. Those who have walked by the site lately may mistakenly believe it was cleaned up, but a closer look proves that to the contrary, all DCAS has done is flip the tarp around.

Queries made to DCAS have been met with silence.

This site continues to offer emblematic examples of failure, neglect, and obfuscation from city government on issues in Queens.

Sincerely,

Jon Torodash

Civic Virtue's spot still noisy

From the Daily News:

The controversial statue, “Triumph of Civic Virtue,” is long gone from its perch on Queens Blvd. — but its noisy legacy remains.

Every eight minutes, the loud wail of bird screeches blares from an electronic device mounted at the statue’s former site — a poop-reduction system that has long outlived the structure it was designed to save.

“It's terrible this noise,” said Debra Mays, 50. “I walk here everyday after work and I am telling you, this is annoying.”

The News contacted the city to ask why the box is still operating nearly nine months after the statue was moved to Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery — prompting the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to say it would remove the device in the coming weeks.

Until then, the box will continue to emit two sounds — one inaudible to the human ear and another which is a random mix of birds of prey.

City paid to repair and remove Civic Virtue

From the Times Ledger:

Taxpayers shelled out $100,000 to clean the exiled Triumph of Civic Virtue statue and help move it from its perch outside Borough Hall to a private cemetery in Brooklyn late last year, city contracts show.

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services banished the neglected statue to Green-Wood Cemetery in Kings County in December, justifying the move by saying private dollars would be used for upkeep.

But before the relocation, the city inked a $50,000 contract with Pennslyvania-based Kreilick Conservation to provide conservation and preservation treatment to the controversial sculpture, which included cleaning the entire piece and patching cracks with faux stone material.

The department paid another roughly $50,000 to Washington, D.C.-based Surroundart to build a custom steel cage that lifted the 17-ton artwork off its base in December, according to documents provided to TimesLedger Newspapers.

The contracts were given to TimesLedger by Queens activist and filmmaker Robert LoScalzo, who is currently suing to try and obtain communications between the city and the cemetery.

“This asset — that is no longer an asset to Queens — has been essentially privatized in Brooklyn with little to no explanation to the public and against the wishes and protests of everyone,” he said.

An indefinite loan agreement between the city and Green-Wood estimated the cemetery would pay $165,000 for transportation and $27,500 to put a protective coat on the statue. The cemetery will also build a new base for Civic Virtue, since its Borough Hall perch, including the fountain and underground plumbing, was also in need of repair, the city said. Green-Wood could not provide TimesLedger with the actual cost nor how much it would spend on long-term preservation.

LoScalzo has a hunch the taxpayers’ money could have been better spent refurbishing the statue at its former Borough Hall home, and hopes a judge will force the city’s hand to release communications between the department and Green-Wood Cemetery to find out more.

“It’s not lost on me the symbolic significance that a statue representing the triumph of civic virtue over vice and corruption is not welcome in our borough,” he said.

Civic Virtue cover up!

Dear Queenscrapper,

In our continual pursuit of the truth behind the circumstances of the removal of Triumph of Civic Virtue, we have received some tangential documentation from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) in response to our FOIL request, but not the information that we actually asked for. Among these documents are the Request for Proposals (RFPs) for services related to preservation of the statue and construction of the armature used for its transport to Green-Wood, in which we have found something quite unusual.

As a former intern with NYC Small Business Services, I had the opportunity to post several dozen RFPs. All of them were posted 3-4 weeks before the submission deadline for interested contractors, and often longer when addenda were involved. On DCAS' own open list of RFPs, this 3-4 week period is also followed. The RFPs related to Triumph of Civic Virtue however, were posted only 7 and 8 days prior to the submission deadline. This quick window is bewildering, especially given the intricate nature of the construction work involved. Furthermore, the required time period for public notice of RFPs appears to be set at 20 days by the Procurement Policy Board. DCAS has also not provided any communications pertaining to the removal of the statue that might have occurred with contractors prior to this time, and refuses to provide any of the communications that took place between itself or any other city agencies and Green-Wood cemetery related to the removal, citing attorney-client privilege.

We spoke to attorneys at the Committee on Open Government in Albany regarding this situation, and their assessment is that DCAS does not have the right to deny these records. We are considering what legal course of action to take at this point in order to receive what we have still not received months ago, namely, all records of communication. Some generalist attorneys have already expressed interest in representing us, but we are still looking for counsel with experience in matters of preservation, records access, procurement, or other NYC municipal procedure to examine documents, research the city and state statutes, and determine other help precedent that might better advise city or state legal authorities reviewing our case.

Please read more here:

http://triumphofcivicvirtue.org/2013/03/18/major-updates/

-Jon Torodash

Fat Boy getting a makeover?

From the Daily News:

A crumbling, controversial monument on the grounds of Queens Borough Hall may finally get a long-delayed facelift.

The Triumph of Civic Virtue, which has courted legions of supporters and detractors for almost 100 years, has been fenced off.

The Queens Borough President’s office has been told the statue will be removed from its fountain base and restored at another location.

“The temporary fencing was installed to prevent people from taking shelter in the statue base,” said Lauren Passalacqua, a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg. “(The Department of Citywide Administrative Services) is continuing its assessment of the statue.”

It’s unclear what the restoration will entail and whether it will include the fountain and the badly deteriorated steps leading to it.

Reclaiming public green space

From New York World:

An abandoned parking lot in Harlem and a former airport in Flushing may not appear to have much in common besides weeds, but for the volunteers of 596 Acres, these are the next frontiers of a civic movement to reclaim public space in the city.

The group’s name was inspired by the total area of vacant, city-owned land in Brooklyn, where the project’s founding members live. Over the past year, they have worked with local residents in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Greenpoint and Gowanus to reclaim four vacant lots owned by the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) as community gardens and gathering spaces. Now the group is expanding its horizons into Queens and Manhattan, starting with a “visioning session” this Saturday afternoon in the East Village.

Co-founder Paula Z. Segal, who works as a law clerk by day, calculates that 75 city-owned lots in Manhattan and more 100 in Queens are ripe to put back into public use. She started out two years ago simply trying to find out what she could do to revive a single vacant lot. Her persistence took her to the city’s department of Citywide Administrative Services, where she found she could get information on the ownership not only about her lot but also hundreds of others around the city.

“I couldn’t keep that information to myself once I had it,” said Segal.

Working with computer programmer Eric Brelsford and other volunteers, she compiled detailed information on the location and government agency ownership of every vacant city-owned in her borough — and then turned it into an interactive map.

That map has been a powerful organizing tool for the group, which also holds neighborhood planning sessions advising residents how to approach city agencies to seek permission for temporary use of the property. To spark the interest of passersby, the group tags empty lots with signs encouraging neighbors to seek to reclaim them.

Smoking gun found in Borough Hall tree removal

From A Walk in the Park:

Scrambling to contain the fallout from the Queens Borough Hall cherry tree scandal City Hall released a damaging e-mail to the media ostensibly to provide proof that the trees were diseased. According to the document obtained by A Walk In the Park however the email shows that all but three of the trees were in "good condition." To make matters worse DCAS is unable to provide any proof that even the three trees were not healthy.

On June 23, 2009, Terri -Lee Burger, a principle in the landscape architectural firm Abel Bainston and Butz (ABB) wrote to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), the city agency that hired them for the $ 17 million atrium project at the time it was being planned.

"Also, in way of an update, one of our Landscape Architects who is also an arborist visited the site last week to confirm the trees on the survey, identify species and review condition and quality of the existing trees," Ms. Burger wrote to DCAS employee Kathernie Lawrence.

Her findings included that "three cherries in the northern lawn area should be removed because of disease, decline, etc., and the remainder of the cherries, while in desperate need of pruning, are in good condition."

COUNCIL MEMBER ELIZABETH CROWLEY DASHES HOPES FOR ST. SAVIOUR’S PARK SPACE

Impetuous decision has dire consequences

Last week, park and community advocates including the Juniper Park Civic Association, Newtown Historical Society and NYC Park Advocates were shocked to learn that the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation and Council Member Elizabeth Crowley have dropped their bid to acquire the 1.5-acre former site of St. Saviour’s Church in Maspeth, Queens. The groups had been working for 5 years to have this site converted into parkland before the decision to quit was made by city officials without any community notification or input.

“I was dumbfounded when I received a call from a Daily News reporter on Thursday, November 10th, asking me for my reaction to the Parks Dept’s decision to nix the acquisition of the St. Saviour’s site,” said Christina Wilkinson, President of Newtown Historical Society. “It was news to me and every other volunteer involved in this project. As late as November 1st, Parks had indicated that they were ready to proceed with ULURP if and when the elected officials were to raise the money required for the process and we had been working up until this point to find this money.”

Crowley had called Wilkinson personally on Tuesday, November 8th and told her of the opportunity to acquire a 14,875 sq ft property at the corner of 61st Street and Maspeth Avenue from Martin Luther School, which currently uses the site as an accessory parking lot. Crowley said she needed to use the money she had already raised for St. Saviour’s or she might lose it during the City’s upcoming budget modification process. It should be noted that the loss of elected officials’ allocated capital funding happens frequently. It may delay projects, but it rarely kills them. It is incumbent upon elected officials to replace lost monies during subsequent budgets and to seek out and lobby for Mayoral, Speaker and Queens Delegation funding. (During her time in the City Council, Elizabeth Crowley has not secured a dime of funding from any of these sources and this year did not put any money toward the St. Saviour’s acquisition.)

Crowley said that Parks was on board with acquiring the Martin Luther site and had asked DCAS to appraise the property so that negotiations with the school could commence.

“Crowley assured me that it was her intention to use some of her funding toward the Martin Luther site, and then continue to seek other green space in Maspeth, including the St. Saviour’s site,” Wilkinson said. “I took her at her word. She asked me to gather community feedback on her proposal. I was in the process of doing so when I found out that she had gone to the Daily News with her idea and was pitching the Martin Luther site as a “replacement” for the St. Saviour’s site. I can’t believe they torpedoed this project which has borough-wide and city hall support, in return for a much smaller site that is nothing but a maybe at this point and is not in jeopardy of being sold or developed as the St. Saviour’s site is.”

The irresponsible decision by Council Member Crowley and the Parks Dept to prematurely announce the non-guaranteed acquisition of the 14,785 sq ft Martin Luther site as a “replacement” for the 62,500 sq ft. St. Saviour's project means that the original project is most likely ineligible for $1.2M from the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Mitigation Funding that it was being considered for. St. Saviour's had been listed as a priority 2 finalist, which meant it could have been eligible for funding had any of the four priority 1 projects been found to be unfeasible. As was mentioned in the DEC letter to the City Parks Foundation dated 10/25/11, the determination of the feasibility is to be made within 60 days, or by December 25th.

In addition, as of November 11th, State Senator Joseph Addabbo was waiting for a return call from DEC regarding $300,000 of unallocated priority 1 settlement money and if some of it could be used to cover the St. Saviour’s ULURP fees now. Addabbo also was in the process of finding out whether part of a grant from his predecessor, former State Senator Serf Maltese, could have covered the ULURP costs. Assembly Member Cathy Nolan was quoted in a story by the Times Ledger dated 11/12, “I will be working with other elected officials to advocate again for St. Saviour’s. The destruction of the church and yard has been a tragedy that needs to be addressed.” Apparently, Crowley never informed the other elected officials representing the area about her plan to pull the rug out from under St. Saviour’s in order to claim a win at the Martin Luther site.

This unforeseen development also means that the tentative offer secured by Maspeth activist Tony Nunziato from NYSDOT to fund the construction of the park at St. Saviour’s as part of the Kosciuszko bridge replacement project is also in jeopardy. Elizabeth Crowley could not wait to run to the media and announce her "Maspeth park victory" – in effect, disqualifying the community from receiving funding for the only project it had on the DEC and NYSDOT lists and slapping her own colleagues in the face in the process.

Juniper Park Civic Association President Robert Holden said, “Unfortunately it appears that Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has given up the fight to save one of the most historic sites in the City of New York and Maspeth’s most important landmark. I’m not surprised. After failing to convince city officials of its importance, Crowley has also given up the fight to reassemble St. Saviour’s church, one of the last remaining Carpenter Gothic-style buildings designed by world famous architect, Richard Upjohn in 1847. Saving the church and land were two of Crowley’s campaign promises. While the church still sits in trailers in West Maspeth, the St. Saviour’s historic land now contains warehouses as symbolic and grotesque monuments to the failure of the City of New York and our elected officials to recognize the importance of saving the last remaining landmarks of Maspeth’s history for future generations to enjoy.”

In spite of this avoidable setback, Juniper Park Civic Association, Newtown Historical Society and NYC Park Advocates will not be giving up on their proposal to convert the St. Saviour’s site into a park and we call on the Bloomberg administration and local elected officials to work together toward this goal and make it happen. Maspeth is sorely underserved by parkland and needs and deserves to have the historic St. Saviour’s site, the last sizable piece of open space left in the area, preserved as a park.

(Above text from press release)

From A Walk in the Park:

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Joshua Laird last week reiterated to a Walk In The Park that the Parks Department had not ruled out using eminent domain to acquire the St. Saviour's site.

People are also wondering that since the acquisition of the St. Saviour's site is much further along, why going after the Martin Luther site is not being done in tandem with the St. Saviour's site.

Multiple people who have been involved with the process for many years from the community say this decision was made without any community consultation or participation.

The community has also asked that since allocation funds have been earmarked for St. Saviour's, what guarantee is there that these funds will be available for the Martin Luther site?

Civic Virtue still crumbling

From the Daily News:

The decaying marble statue that sits at Union Turnpike and Queens Blvd. in Kew Gardens was crafted almost 100 years ago with the loftiest of intentions.

A strapping young man, molded in the classical form, is the personification of Civic Virtue, triumphant over the twin sirens of Vice and Corruption.

These days, however the monument is looking less than virtuous.

"It's deteriorating," said Mary Ann Carey, district manager of Community Board 9, which includes Kew Gardens. "We were told if it's left to its own devices, it will eventually crumble into dust."

The statue is owned by the city, so it falls under the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which manages city-owned buildings and property. But Parks Department officials said they have been charged with caring for it over the years.

Parks officials said a proper cleaning and repair would cost "tens of thousand of dollars."

Wreath a victim of budget cuts

From the NY Post:

Bah! Humbug!

For as long as anyone can recall, a gigantic wreath adorned the Municipal Building across from City Hall each Christmas season.

Not this year.

Chalk up another victim of the city's severe financial crunch.

"Given the budget cuts announced in the fall, we could not justify the $3,500 expense," said Mark Daly, a spokesman for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

Officials said that the city used to order live greenery every year and that city workers would spend days assembling into a festive wreath that was 10 feet in diameter and weighed 2,000 pounds.

The cost of the raw materials consumed most of the expense, they said.

City officials might want to check the Web site of Christmas Tree for Me, which was offering 10-foot-diameter wreaths for $1,097, shipping included.

Photo from jenblossom on Flickr

Park at St. Saviour's looking more likely

From the Daily News:

Talks to save a portion of the historic St. Saviour's property for parkland are heating up as the owner prepares to construct warehouses on the Maspeth site.

City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told civic leaders last week his agency has been working with elected officials and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to hash out a deal with Maspeth Development LLC, which owns the 1.5-acre property.

Supporters have been scrambling to pool together funds to buy the site. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) have set aside more than $2 million.

"I am hopeful," said civic activist Christina Wilkinson, who has spearheaded efforts to preserve and save the site. "While there are talks, there is hope."

The flurry of calls and activity comes just days after owner Scott Kushnik got approvals from the Buildings Department to construct warehouses on a portion of the land, located at 57th Road and 58th St. "Even if we develop the site, the door is open," said Kushnik, who paid about $6 million for the site several years ago. "This isn't a lost cause."

Kushnik hit resistance when he tried to build housing on the property. He said he has been speaking with city officials but said their offers have been low. "I've been bleeding $30,000 a month here for four years," he said. "If I break even, I will be lucky."