MTA to Far Rockaway: Drop Dead

 

 Gothamist

The MTA will shut down A train service in the Rockaways for five months starting in January, disrupting the commutes of more than 9,000 daily riders.

Beginning on Jan. 17, the A train won’t run between Howard Beach-JFK Airport and the last stops of the line, either Rockaway Park-Beach 116 St. or Far Rockaway-Mott Ave. The Rockaway Park Shuttle trains will also stop running to and from Broad Channel.

The MTA says the lengthy suspension of service is necessary to fortify infrastructure against extreme weather. The viaducts and bridge that carry trains across Broad Channel need “major upgrades to help protect the line from future storms,” the MTA wrote in an announcement.

The agency noted that much of the work is in response to extensive damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. It took seven months to restore service to Rockaway after the storm in Oct. 2012.

Free bus shuttle service will be available along the affected stops. The announcement gave no indication that NYC Ferry service from Rockaway would be expanded while the upgrades are underway.

Far Rockaway resident Quazel Trower said the shutdown will upend his life.

“There’s only one train that goes to Far Rockaway. It’s not like two trains, three trains. It’s literally one,” Trower, 27, said. “Taking the shuttle bus always makes your commute longer than it needs to be.”

Trower said his typical commute into Manhattan already takes more than an hour.

In a statement, MTA Deputy Chief Development Officer, Mark Roche, said that the plan was consistent with what has been done in the past for the L train Canarsie Tunnel project and G line modernization work.

"This next phase of the A train resiliency work has undergone internal and external expert review to weigh alternate delivery and construction methods,"he said. "It was determined that the plan presented is the best option for getting this work done as quickly as possible, with the least impact to commuters.”

So if congestion pricing started, this would have happened anyway. Nice of the MTA to drop this right when the weather got chilly, it's really no different how they obfuscate reasons during train delay announcements. 

 

Recidivist criminal kills cop in Far Rockaway

NY Post 

 An NYPD officer was shot and killed by a career criminal during a traffic stop in Queens on Monday evening, according to law enforcement sources.

The 34-year-old suspect, who has 21 prior arrests, shot through the window of the vehicle while seated in a passenger seat, striking the uniformed officer in the stomach around 5:50 p.m. near 19-19 Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway, the sources said.

The bullet hit the 31-year-old officer under his police vest, sources said.

Other officers returned fire, and the suspect,  a passenger in the vehicle, was struck in the back, according to sources.

The cop was rushed to Jamaica Hospital where he was later pronounced dead, sources said.

The suspect was also taken to Jamaica Hospital where police said his condition was not immediately known.

Other officers returned fire, and the suspect,  a passenger in the vehicle, was struck in the back, according to sources.

The cop was rushed to Jamaica Hospital where he was later pronounced dead, sources said.

The suspect was also taken to Jamaica Hospital where police said his condition was not immediately known.

Le bike lane resistance

Rockawave 

Merchants on Beach 20th Street in Far Rockaway continue to face headaches with the new raised-bike lane on their street, creating a tripping hazard and making their day to day ability to function their business far more difficult.

According to several business owners and observed by Wave reporters, cars park on the bike lane, which the businesses owners say bike riders don’t use anyway. When cars park on either side of the street it creates a bottleneck, creating more traffic. Also, many businesses on the block do not have loading docks, and with people parking on the bike lane, they have nowhere to handle deliveries. 

“This is dangerous,” said Jose Santana, owner of Unisex by Santana Salon on Beach 20th. Santana recently spoke at the September Community Board 14 meeting, and has helped draft a letter to the Department of Transportation, signed by most of the merchants on the strip. 

Businesses say that since the bike lane was constructed in July, they have seen few bike riders actually utilize it.   

“There’s no bicycles,” said Ming Liu, owner of Sunny’s, a mix Hibachi and Mexican restaurant. “This is 20th Street, there’s so many cars…A lot of people park on the bike lane,” he said. 

Like other owners, Liu called the raised-lane “dangerous” and that he’s seen people fall down. 

Odali Rodriguez, owner of Green Village Meat Market, has experienced this first hand. 

“I tripped, I was going across the street and I tripped,” he told The Wave. “It’s very dangerous, I’ve seen incidents, including myself.” 

Rodriguez is one of the few stores on the block with a loading dock in the back, so he is more worried about the danger of tripping. 

“When you walk there you think everything is flat, there’s no indication that it’s not flat,” he said. 

Other merchants agree that the bike lane is dangerous, Seon Maynard who owns a West Indian Market says he has seen at least ten people trip. 

“They should be suing the city,” he said. 

Some owners have received $115 tickets for loitering while loading goods, like Enrique Perez from Valencia Cakes & Flowers. 

“We should be able to load and unload, we shouldn’t be getting a ticket if we take too long,” Perez said. “It’s hard for us because people are parking there,” he said. 

PIX News 

 Speeding, traffic jams and dangerous crossings are all the problems one street in Queens is causing neighbors.

Rego Park’s 62nd Drive is identified as a “high crash corridor“ by the New York Department of Transportation (DOT). More than a dozen people have been seriously hurt on the road over the last five years.

The DOT’s solution was to add a bike lane on the side, with parking in the center. Unfortunately, neighbors say it came with new problems.

“My main concern is people’s health,” neighbor Arsen Gurgov said.

Gurgov has lived on 62nd Drive in Rego Park for the past 25 years. He says the new bike lane and parking configuration have made things worse than ever.

“My son was having an allergic reaction and I called for an ambulance. It took them too long to get here because they were stuck in a jam,“ he said.

Speeding in the Rego Park area is also still a big problem. A very big problem.

Year to date, police have written more than 3.5 times as many speeding tickets as they did in the same time last year; 1,577 speeding tickets compared to just 434 the previous year.

Moving violations are also up 40%.

A DOT spokesman says they presented the idea about the bike lane to the community board a year ago as a way to fix the dangers.

“These bike lanes improve safety for all road users, providing much-needed traffic calming while adding important protected bike lane connections between Queens Boulevard and Flushing Meadows Park,” spokesman Vincent Barone said.

Rego Park neighbors disagree with the DOT. Nearly 100 of them have signed a petition to have the bike lane and center parking adjusted or removed altogether.

“It’s either or,” Gurgov said. “They either get rid of the side parking, or they get rid of the bike lane. You can’t have both. It’s too narrow of a street.”

Vincent Barone is a bike zealot idiot. These two stories confirm that the DOT is forcing bike lanes on communities to drive them crazy and they are being weaponized as tools for gentrification.

Alleged affordable housing building completed in Far Rockaway

 

QNS

The 100 percent affordable housing project — called Beach 21st — transformed the vacant lot on city-owned land near the Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue subway station, delivering on key commitments from the “Downtown Far Rockaway Roadmap for Action,” a comprehensive plan released in 2016 to revitalize the neighborhood and improve the quality of life for local residents.

“Seven years ago, I convened the Downtown Far Rockaway Working Group to develop a $288 million roadmap for this community’s revitalization and reverse decades of deliberate disinvestment,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said. “I could not be more proud of the life-changing progress we are delivering for the families of this neighborhood in the form of housing, open space, education, and beyond — it truly is a new day for Far Rockaway, where its residents are finally being heard loud and clear.”

The multi-agency effort, led by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), delivered street safety upgrades, new pedestrian space, climate resilience, and flood protection measures to an area that was pummeled nearly a decade ago by Superstorm Sandy.

Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers applauded the Department of Transportation for completing a $114 million infrastructure project that was completed three months early and $25 million under budget, the NYCEDC and community partners for their commitment to “synergetic community spaces to strengthen the neighborhood, provide vital housing to residents, and construct a stronger, better downtown Far Rockaway.

“Thriving communities need vital open spaces, community spaces, community engagement, affordable housing, and a formidable connection to critical services,” Brooks-Powers said. “The Beach 21st Street mixed-use development has the necessary synergy to assure that our community stays on the trajectory of vibrancy.”

It's a miracle, Far Rock hospital finally gets fed funding

 

 QNS

St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway announced Tuesday, March 15, that Congressman Gregory Meeks has secured $4 million in federal funding to support crucial services at the only hospital on the Rockaway peninsula.

Meeks advocated for the funds in the omnibus appropriations bill that was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate and is awaiting President Joe Biden to sign it into law.

“I am proud to have secured funding that will make our community healthier, safer, stronger and even more resilient,” Meeks said. “The $4 million in funds for St. John’s Episcopal Hospital that will be used toward the renovation of the behavioral health, women and maternity/NICU and labor and delivery units is extremely critical to support our only health center serving the Rockaways.”

Renee Hastick-Motes, the vice president of external affairs and president of the St. John’s ICARE Foundation, said she is extremely grateful for the funding that will support the behavioral health and women/newborn equity renovation projects.

“The renovations are essential to ensuring adequate care is provided to our patients in an esthetically conducive environment,” she said.

Now celebrating its 110th year of community care, the 257-bed medical facility provides comprehensive preventive, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative services, regardless of the ability to pay.

 

Woman kills another woman inside Far Rockaway luxury tower

  

NY Post

 A woman has been charged with fatally stabbing her female neighbor in a beachfront high-rise in Far Rockaway, cops said Sunday.

Evelyn Cruz, 48, allegedly plunged a knife into the chest of Jessica Britt, 33, “multiple times” at 711B Seagirt Ave. in Queens around 11:40 p.m. Saturday, cops said.

 The victim was taken to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Cruz was charged with murder and possession of a weapon.

Both women lived in the building, but it wasn’t clear what they were fighting about, cops said.

The NYC Luxury Public Housing Connection, Part II

New York YIMBY 

 The affordable housing lottery has launched for Rockaway Village Apartments, three residential buildings at 1701, 1721, and 1725 Village Lane in Far Rockaway, Queens. Designed by Marvel Architects and developed by Phipps Houses, the structures yield a total 1,693 residences. Available on NYC Housing Connect are 550 units for residents at 30 to 100 percent of the area median income (AMI), ranging in eligible income from $15,806 to $148,000.

 At 30 percent of the AMI, there are 21 units with a monthly rent ranging from $388 to $662 for incomes ranging from $15,806 to $44,400. At 40 percent of the AMI, there are 54 units with a monthly rent ranging from $558 to $957 for incomes ranging from $21,635 to $59,200. At 50 percent of the AMI, there are 140 units with a monthly rent ranging from $729 to $1,253 for incomes ranging from $27,498 to $74,000. At 60 percent of the AMI, there are 143 units with a monthly rent ranging from $900 to $1,549 for incomes ranging from $33,360 to $88,800. At 80 percent of the AMI, there are 106 units with a monthly rent ranging from $1,075 to $1,885 for incomes ranging from $39,360 to $118,400. At 100 percent of the AMI, there are 86 units with a monthly rent ranging from $1,040 to $1,824 for incomes ranging from $38,160 to $148,000.

That's about 1,143 units that will be market rate. The lottery results are going to look interesting when they are advertising rooms like this.

 

That bedroom is tight, in the literal sense. And I bet the lucky lottery winner is sure going to love that dickhead bunny picture. Who does Phipps and NYC Housing expect to live here, Donnie Darko?

 

Far Rockaway school is the third "gold standard" school to shut down because of COVID infections

Chalkbeat 

Village Academy in the Far Rockaway section of Queens will close Thursday after health department officials determined COVID-19 is spreading in the school, according to the education department.

It is the second New York City public school closed this week, and the third closure this school year.

As of Wednesday, city data show there had been nine partial classroom closures at the middle school, which shares a building with other schools. The school reported 14 cases among students over the past week and two among staff, according to state data.

Students will transition to remote learning for the next 10 days and can return to in-person learning on Nov. 22. Any student without a device can pick one up tomorrow at the school.

The co-located schools will remain open.

“We do not hesitate to take action to keep school communities safe and our multi-layered approach to safety has kept our positivity rate extremely low,” Department of Education spokesperson Katie O’Hanlon said in an email. “All staff at DOE are vaccinated and all students at Village Academy have access to a device to ensure live, continuous learning.”

The closure was announced on the same day that P.S. 166 was shuttered. The school, which sits on the border of Long Island City and Astoria in Queens, saw 22 students and three staff members test positive since Nov. 3.

The fact that there have been so few closures this year, “speaks volumes to all the precautions that were taken to create a safe environment,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Mysterious fire ignites on top of Far Rockaway hospital

 

PIX News 

In one of Mario's Son's last attempts to abuse his power to benefit his donors before all those woman exposed what a serial sexual deviant he was, Andy tried to downsize this hospital during a pandemic.

And who knows how many thousands would have survived if he didn't kill Peninsula Hospital 9 years earlier.

Governor Cuomo's Health Department plans to downsize the only hospital in Rockaway during a pandemic

  

Queens Eagle

Months after hundreds of sick and dying COVID-19 patients flooded the emergency room and critical care units at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, the state Health Department is backing a plan to slash beds and gut the medical center.

A consulting firm working with the New York State Department of Health has proposed cutting capacity, eliminating hundreds of employees and turning the Peninsula’s only medical center into a 15-bed “micro hospital,” according to information shared with the Eagle.

St. John’s is located in Far Rockaway’s zip code 11691, home to New York City’s second-highest COVID death rate during the peak of the pandemic. At least 418 zip code residents have so far died of COVID-19, still more in the predominantly Black surrounding communities, according to city data. 

St. John’s treated the very first known case of COVID-19 in Queens nearly one year ago.

Last week, however, New York Health Department officials and the consulting firm ToneyKorf Partners LLC presented St. John’s administrators with three drastic cost-cutting proposals, with each plan set to eliminate hospital staff and services, according to the information shared with the Eagle.

One proposal would reduce the number of beds at St. John’s from 257 to 91 while eliminating obstetrics, newborn and pediatric services. Another proposal would turn St. John’s into a 30-bed “health plex” with 337 staff members, down from a current total of 1,126, according to state figures. 

The final option would transform the facility into a 15-bed “micro hospital.” Health Department officials favored that proposal, according to a person familiar with the conversations between the state and the hospital.

St. John’s Board Chair Rev. Lawrence Provenzano said the “micro hospital” proposal would eliminate 1,000 employees and devastate the predominantly low-income and working class communities who depend on the safety net hospital.

“The Department of Health is abandoning any consideration of the documented community health needs of this overwhelming underserved population,” Provenzano said. 

“How can you reduce health services from this community when they clearly need more? How many more people would have died if the Department of Health’s plan for St. John’s to become a 15-bed micro hospital would have happened before the peak of the pandemic?” he added.

Provenzano called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to discard a plan that would cut funding to the hospital and force it to downsize.

Two homeless people murdered, two other people wounded from stabbings on the A train from Queens to Manhattan

 

QNS 

  Detectives are investigating two deadly stabbings on the opposite ends of the A line in Queens and Manhattan within a span of two hours between Friday night and Saturday morning.

Police sources said they are investigating a possible link between the two cases as well as a pair of additional stabbings that occurred on Feb. 12-13 at the 181st Street station on the A line in Washington Heights. The victims in those cases are expected to survive their injuries.

During a Saturday afternoon press conference at One Police Plaza, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced that the NYPD would add 500 officers throughout the subway system immediately to increase safety. Detectives, meanwhile, are working around the clock looking for possible suspects and are seeking tips from the public.

The first victim, an unidentified man, was found stabbed while seated on board A train at the Mott Avenue station in Far Rockaway, Queens at about 11:20 p.m. on Feb. 12.

Officers from the NYPD Transit District 23 and the 101st Precinct discovered the man on a bench inside one of the train cars with stab wounds to his torso and neck.

Responding EMS units pronounced the victim dead at the scene. Police have not yet disclosed his identity, pending family notification.

Two hours later, cops in Manhattan responded to the fatal stabbing of a woman on board an A train that stopped at the West 207th Street in Inwood — the line’s northern terminus — at about 1:21 a.m. on Feb. 13.

The discovery was made during the nightly overnight closure period of the entire subway system, when train cars are disinfected to guard against the spread of COVID-19.

Cops from NYPD Transit District 3 and the 34th Precinct, while responding to a 911 call, found the 44-year-old woman under the seats on board one of the train cars with several stab wounds to her body.

EMS units also pronounced her dead at the scene. The NYPD has withheld her identity, pending family notification.

NY Post 

The “A-train Ripper” is in custody, multiple law enforcement sources told The Post on Saturday night.

The knife-wielding madman was wanted in a gruesome subway spree that left two homeless people dead and two others slashed along the A train line, and was nabbed in Upper Manhattan, the sources said.

His shoes were still splattered with his victims’ blood when he was taken into custody — and he was still in possession of the bloody knife, one source added.

The yet-named suspect was in custody at the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights, the sources said.

The bloodshed sparked an outcry for safer subways, and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea responded, announcing a “surge” of 500 additional cops for the department’s Transit Bureau to be deployed across the city immediately.

The spree began Friday morning, not far from where the alleged stabber was caught, authorities said.

Another homeless shelter in Far Rockaway is met with resistence

 

QNS

Despite pushback from local leaders, the city is moving forward with its plans to build a new shelter for homeless families in Far Rockaway under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Turning the Tide” initiative.

The initiative, aimed to end decades-old stop-gap measures such as using cluster sites and commercial hotel facilities, will see the new shelter will be built in place of the Far Rockaway Cathedral church at 1252 Brunswick Ave.

“As we implement our borough-based approach, we are ending the inefficient stop-gap facilities citywide while opening high-quality facilities New Yorkers in need deserve as they stabilize their lives,” NYC DSS-DHS said in a statement. “This high-quality, borough-based facility will be the first of its kind in this Community District, offering 72 adult families experiencing homelessness the opportunity to get back on their feet safely and closer to their anchors of life. Working together with neighbors and not-for-profit provider Black Vets for Social Justice, we’re confident that these new Yorkers will be warmly welcomed and through collaborative support and compassion, we will make this the best experience it can be for all.”

According to the city, there are 489 households comprised of 984 individuals from Queens Community District 14 in shelters across the city, however, there are only 831 sheltered in CD 14.

The new facility at 12-52 Brunswick Ave. will provide 72 homeless adult families the opportunity to be sheltered in their home borough, closer to their support networks including schools, jobs, healthcare, family, social services and communities they call home.

“The Rockaway Peninsula has many needs, but a seventh homeless shelter is not one of them,” Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato said. “I strongly oppose the proposed shelter at 1252 Brunswick Avenue in Far Rockaway.”

LLC slumlords lets Far Rockaway building rot

CBS NY

Train delays are the longest and happen most frequently on transit lines starting at Eastern And Southern Queens Stations

 Queens Eagle

 If you’ve commuted to or from Queens by subway this year, odds are your train has been delayed, a new report from data-scraping tool ReadyPipe shows. Using data from the MTA’s own website, the web-scraping platform determined that the A, F, N, E trains are among the city’s top-10 most-delayed subway lines.

“A negative surprise was the fact that every morning there are at least five routes that had a delay at some point,” Chad Horner, a data analyst with ReadyPipe, told the Eagle. “The MTA can’t make it through that time without a bunch of things going wrong.”

 

The A train, which takes straphangers from the Rockaways, Howard Beach and Ozone Park into Brooklyn and Manhattan, was delayed more than 11 percent of the time throughout the entire month of January. During the weekday rush hour (between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m), nearly one in every five A trains experienced delays.

The F train, which serves Queens from Jamaica-179 Street to 21 Street-Queensbridge, was delayed more than 10 percent of the time in January. The N and the E trains were delayed over 6.5 percent of the time and three of every 10 trains experienced planned work.

In fact, there wasn't a single weekday morning in January that didn't see at least one delay during the morning rush, according to Horner’s findings — the fewest number of lines delayed in a single morning was five. 

On the bright side, at least we are not getting poisoned during our daily commutes. Yet.

Not a very good neighbor

From PIX11:

In a disturbing video posted on Facebook, a pack of dogs are seen running scared in a yard in Far Rockaway, Queens.

Their owner appears to verbally and physically abuse them on-camera, in broad daylight. It’s a scene too disturbing to show on television, but residents tell PIX11 it’s just another day at the Thursby Avenue home.

“He started beating all the dogs, I saw that the dogs were very skinny and bleeding,” Tamara Demkoff, a local animal advocate, described to PIX11.

Demkoff shot the disturbing video on her cell phone back in February. According to her, she’s one of many from the community who has pleaded with the dogs’ owner, identified as Terrance Alexis, to surrender the animals after receiving numerous complaints from neighbors.

“Everybody knows about this guy, but no one does anything about it because everybody is afraid of him,” she said.

Months after that video was taken, it appears the problems on the property have gotten worse.

Far Rockaway firehouse & police station landmarked

From the Times Ledger:

A fire house and a police station both built in Far Rockaway in the early 20th century have officially been approved for landmark status following a unanimous 47-0 vote last week, according to City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton).

After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, much of Far Rockaway was in need of redevelopment and surveyors from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission researched the history of buildings in the area.

In 2017, Far Rockaway was rezoned and the 101st Precinct — formerly the 53rd Precinct — and the Engine Companies 264 & 328/Ladder 134 were seen as worthy for designation, according to the councilman’s office and the LPC.

“They carry history and have housed some of our most precious civil servants,” Richards said. “These sites will carry on the character that was set when the modern version of our community was first being shaped.”

The precinct — located at 16-12 Mott Ave. — and the fire station — located at 16-15 Central Ave. — publicly came under consideration as landmarks in March and the LPC held a hearing with members of the community in Manhattan one month later.

Boy, the LPC sure loves to designate Queens' unremarkable municipal buildings...and little else.

670 "affordable" apartments to be constructed in Far Rockaway

From Curbed:

Following the rezoning of Downtown Far Rockaway in September last year, the city has now announced the first new affordable housing developments that have come about as a result of that rezoning. Together these two projects will bring 670 affordable apartments to the neighborhood.

The first of the two projects will rise at city-owned lot at Beach 21st Street. The city has picked The Community Builders, Inc, a housing nonprofit, to develop 224 apartments at the site, 130 of which will be offered to those making 60 percent of the area median income. The rest of the apartments will be offered at different levels of affordability. In addition to the apartments, the project will also have 90 parking spots, 8,000 square feet of community facilities including an early childhood education center, and 24,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.

For the second project, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Housing Development Corporation have secured construction financing for affordable housing developer Phipps Houses to build 457 apartments in the Far Rockaway Village. There, Phipps Houses is transforming an abandoned parking lot into housing, public space, and retail.

2 women die in fire at Illegally converted home

From the Daily News:

Two women were killed in a fast-moving blaze that erupted inside a Queens home amid a deluge of rain Monday morning, officials said.

More than a hundred firefighters tackled the inferno as flames tore through the two-story home on the corner of Wheatley St. and Brunswick Ave. in Far Rockaway around 4 a.m., according to a FDNY spokesman.

The two victims — both unidentified — were pulled from the burning home and rushed to St. John's Episcopal Hospital, where police said they died.

Development avalanche hit Queens last month

From the Real Deal:

Queens dominated the list of New York’s biggest projects in March.

The borough took six of the top 10 spots on the list, three of which were part of a large new mixed-use complex replacing a derelict shopping center in Far Rockaway. The others were located in Springfield Gardens, Astoria and Forest Hills.

Peninsula Hospital to become 1,900 "affordable" apartments

From Curbed:

The former Peninsula Hospital site in the Rockaways will be transformed into a massive residential complex, with nearly all of the apartments slated to be affordable units, Politico first reported.

The news follows two years after the development firm Arker Companies teamed up with Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation to purchase the development site for $19 million.

Plans for the project were revealed through an application filed with the city—the development will be required to go through a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). The developers are hoping to build 2,200 new apartments, about 1,900 of which will be affordable; new open space, a gym, a medical facility, and over 151,000 square feet of retail all spread out over 17 buildings. Of the total units 270 would be reserved for seniors.