Contractor breaks a gas main in Floral Park

  

Queens Patch

 More than two dozen homes in Northeast Queens lost heat Wednesday after a contractor doing illegal construction work on the block sawed into their gas main, according to Con Edison.

Residents of 260th Street between Hillside Avenue and East Williston Avenue were evacuated about 3 p.m. after authorities were alerted to a gas odor on the block, spokespeople with the FDNY and Con Edison told Patch.

The gas was the result of a contractor working in the basement of a house on 260th Street, who had managed to cut into the high-pressure gas main that serves 28 homes on that block, according to Con Edison officials.

"That could've killed many people," Con Edison spokesperson Alfonso Quiroz told Patch.

ConEd is responding to natural gas outage in Queens, ZIPs: 11004 and 11001. Report service loss: 1-800-75-CONED. Multilingual & ASL Link: https://t.co/NEVjVDwlrv.
— NYCEM - Notify NYC (@NotifyNYC) December 2, 2020

Residents on the block have since returned to their homes but still had no gas service as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, as Con Ed crews continue making repairs to the gas main.

Closure of 2 shelters announced hours after 2nd propaganda video released

Released Thursday evening:

From the Times Ledger yesterday afternoon:

On Friday, several elected officials in Eastern Queens announced that DHS will comply with hotel owner Harshad Patel and no longer use the Bellerose Inn and Quality Inn as housing for homeless families within the next 60 days.

“Now that we have confirmed that the city will comply with his wishes, we have to work towards finding a more permanent solution to help these families,” state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said.

DHS would not say how this would affect its proposed shelter at the Maspeth Holiday Inn Express, which Patel also owns.

Well it would seem that if DHS wanted to respect the wishes of the hotel owner, they would stop pressuring him to make a deal in Maspeth, since he said publicly multiple times that he wasn't interested in turning his Holiday Inn Express into a shelter. Also, if Avella, et al can accomplish this for 2 hotels, why can't Yab-Addabbo and company do it for just one?

Living in a McMansion's shadow

"This is a photo comparing the size of a typical rebuild with the older homes in Floral Park, NY. If you've never been to Floral Park, Queens, get prepared to see a dumpster on every corner. That's the new status symbol.

Buyers buy little houses with nice-sized yards and cut down old growth trees to stuff oversized houses on the old property. The new houses overshadow the neighboring houses and have little, if any, landscaping. A lot of the times, the trees and grass at the curb are eliminated and the front lawns are paved over to make room for the multiple cars owned by the multiple families living in what used to be one family/one owner houses.

The streets are now crowded with cars and the neighborhood is hotter and noisier due to the loss of noise buffering, cooling trees and bushes in vanishing yards. Rebuilds have less frontage and there's more cement all around. What used to be suburban, is slowly becoming more urban." - anonymous

The day that Maspeth marched through Floral Park

Below are photo albums from the Bellerose/Floral Park march that happened this Saturday.



You will notice that the signs protest the de Blasio administration, local politicians, Steven Banks and the DHS. There are none protesting against homeless children.



Joseph Concannon spoke first. It's obvious from his criticism of de Blasio's homeless policies that he must hate homeless children. (end sarcasm)



Mayor de Blasio must also think that State Senators Martins and Addabbo are child haters since they both attended the rally.





Funny how the Queens Machine stays silent about the mayor not only dumping shelters all over the borough, but unfairly framing one of their members and their constituents as people who want to see kids sleeping on the streets.

The protesters, however, aren't silent:





It also sounds like this movement is growing:

Other neighborhoods are getting pissed off about this as well. Click the photo below to hear from Rosedale and Woodside.

Thank you to Juniper Civic and Queens by the Minute for the additional footage.

West Nile spraying this week

From NBC:

To reduce mosquito populations and the risk of West Nile virus, the New York City Health Department plans to spray pesticide from trucks on Tuesday and Wednesday in parts of Queens.

The spraying is scheduled between 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, weather permitting. In case of bad weather, application will begin Wednesday.

No human cases of West Nile virus have been reported this season.

The neighborhoods to be sprayed include parts of Auburndale, Corona, Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Kew Gardens Hills, Murray Hill, Pomonok, Queensboro Hill, Utopia, Bellaire, Bellerose, Douglaston, Floral Park, Floral Park Center, Glen Oaks, Hollis Hill, Little Neck, and Oakland Gardens.

Creepy teacher can keep job

From the NY Post:

A Queens middle-school teacher let a 14-year-old student drive his car, gave him cash and expensive gifts, and exchanged hundreds of texts behind his parents’ back.

But, over the objections of the outraged parents and principal, the teacher can keep his job, an arbitrator has ruled.

James Rampulla Jr., 44, who taught at Irwin Altman MS 172 in Floral Park, sent some of the 513 texts to the boy after 11 p.m. and included the words “I love you,” according to evidence presented at the teacher’s administrative trial.

The boy also told investigators that Rampulla, while they both worked at World of Discovery Summer Day Camp in Bayside, once put a hand on his thigh, and let him watch pornography in his apartment, according to a report by Richard Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for city schools. Rampulla denied those allegations.

After an eight-day trial, hearing officer Mary J. O’Donnell found Rampulla guilty of misconduct, but not sexual misconduct as the city Department of Education contended. She suspended him without pay for the fall of 2014. He can return to the classroom after that, she ruled.

The case shows how an educator can avoid the ax even for blatant misbehavior. A tenured teacher cannot be fired unless a hearing officer agrees misconduct warrants termination.

But O’Donnell found insufficient evidence to decide whether Rampulla’s interest in the student was “paternal, familial or sexual.”

You may recall that World of Discovery had another incident similar to this in the past.

Supermarket becomes "religious facility"

In a little over a year after illegally cutting the tree and their failed attempt opening the balaji supermarket on 256-11 Hillside Ave, the same three owners have opened a religious center in the same retail location. What a great way to hedge your investment, don't you think?

My concerns are if these smart owners are subletting the temple space from their previous failed balaji business? And for how much? The public deserves to know before these owners go around asking for donations and putting people's money in their pocket in the name of god. How did they get permission to open a temple in a retail space so fast? Construction has already started. Concerns should be directed promptly towards our elected officials.

"You cut our trees and tried to rob our people, now you're going to pay"
- Floral Park, Queens resident

Yeah, it seems like they have applied for half the property to be a religious facility and half to be a business. But where is the business located? Here's some info about the new tenant:

Name: SANJEEV MISHRA
Relationship to Owner: TENANT
Business Name: HELP THE HUMANITY, INC
Business Address: 256-09 HILLSIDE AVENUE FLORAL PARK NY 11004

MTA bringing back Q79

From the Daily News:

Days after the MTA announced plans to expand service in Brooklyn and the Bronx, eastern Queens got some good news of its own on Thursday.

Agency officials said it will partially restore service along the former Q79 bus route by re-routing every other Q36 bus to run along the old Q79 route from Little Neck to Floral Park.

City Councilman Mark Weprin said the restoration is a partial but vital victory in a long-fought battle since the Q79 got the axe in 2010.

But western Queens leaders charge the MTA has once again snubbed their neck of the woods.

State Sen. Michael Gianaris sent a letter to MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota this week requesting that two major transit options in his district be reinstated.

Gianaris called for the restoration of the W train and the QM22 bus, also cut in 2010 because of budget shortfalls.

No more gerrymandering during redistricting

Redistricting 1-12-12 Rally Flyer
From the Queens Chronicle:

Thirteen civic organizations in northeastern Queens believe there’s strength in numbers and have come together to ensure they stay as one during upcoming state legislative and federal congressional redistricting.

Organized by Bob Friedrich, president of the Glen Oaks Village co-op, Eastern Queens United is composed of groups from Glen Oaks, Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Bellerose and Queens Village.

“We need district lines that will unite us, not divide us,” Friedrich said. “We represent communities that have a common interest and we want the lines to be drawn that are in the best interest of the community, not the politicians.”

EQU is planning rallies and discussions to prevent the state Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) from continuing to gerrymander the area. That term refers to dividing an area into voting districts to give unfair advantage to one party or group.

One of the EQU demands is that Assembly Districts 24, 26 and 33 be reconfigured and joined into one AD. Members also want the 5th and 6th Congressional Districts to be merged. In all cases, Friedrich noted, district lines would also have to be changed so that they wouldn’t be too big.

Assembly District 24 is represented by Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside), while District 26 is by David Weprin (D-Little Neck) and District 33 is by Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village). “We are not endorsing anyone,” Friedrich said. “We just don’t want to be divided.”

Still no clues about Hillside Avenue arboricide

From the Wall Street Journal:

In Floral Park, the tree-cutting episode has exposed racial tensions in a community that has developed into a "Little India," with an influx of Indian immigrants and businesses shaking up the old order.

The block where the incident took place includes Masala 2 Wok, Mumbai Xpress, an Indian astrologer and the forthcoming Balaji Super Bazar.

On the aptly named "Queens Crap" blog, comments quickly devolved into blaming "animals" who want "nothing to do with America."

The underlying assumption among some was that the owners of the new supermarket must have had something to do with it. The trees blocked the store's façade and a fourth tree on the block was conspicuously left standing.

As the scene this week, I asked Mr. Castellano if anyone had spoken to the grocery store's owner. He had not.

But minutes later, out came Rakesh Kumar, the owner, hand extended and eager to talk. Mr. Kumar called the tree cutting "very bad." He said his landlord had also condemned the act.

"People are pointing fingers at us," said Mr. Kumar. "First day it happened I said, 'It's a small tree first of all and it doesn't bother us.'"

He continued: "We know the rules and regulations of this country," noting that if they wanted to take the tree down they know they would have had to get city approval. He is now offering to plant new trees and to pay all the associated costs.

"According to our custom, we worship the trees," he said.

Mr. Kumar has his own theory about what might have happened. "We have a lot of competitors around here, our supermarket competitors," he said, rattling off the names of nearby Indian supermarkets.

And so the speculation continues.

Like so many arborcides, the Floral Park ones may never be solved.

Chainsaw massacre on Hillside Avenue!

Mr. Lawrence McClean:

On Monday, August 29, 2011, the day after Tropical Storm Irene left many roads in Bellerose and Floral Park completely blocked (and as of this writing, many roads are still impassable), an irate neighbor visited me to complain about the intentional cutting down of three city trees at the curb on the north side of Hillside Ave., between 256 and 257 St. in Floral Park. I visited the site and took the photos which are below.

My observation was of three apparently healthy city trees with no leaves, branches or other debris around the trees except for sawdust at the base of each tree, just feet below where the trees were intentionally cut by a saw. There was no apparent evidence of any loose or damaged branches or uprooting that might have made these trees a danger to pedestrian or vehicular traffic.

Two of the trees are in front of a super market at 256-09 Hillside Ave., obviously partially blocking the name and window signs. Large ads were placed in every window by the former owner of the Fine Fare supermarket. A sign in the store windows now indicates: "BALAJISUER BAZAAR COMING SOON".

The third tree is close by, in front of 256-15 Hillside Ave., Friendly Realty & Mgmt.

I am not currently aware of any eyewitnesses to this destruction of New York City property.

Since the intentional damaging of city trees is a criminal act, the community deserves an immediate investigation by the Parks Dept., even before the trees are removed, in case there is ever a prosecution. And the removal of the stumps and replacement of the trees should be a priority, especially since the Mayor is still looking for spaces for the million trees he is having planted. Ideally it should be at the expense of the perpetrators and not taxpayers.

As District Manager of CB13Q, please communicate with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, and/or the NYPD if deemed appropriate, and request an immediate investigation of this apparent criminal act along with a speedy replacement of these trees.

I expect to hear from you on this matter.

Sincerely,
James Delaney
Member, CB13 Parks Committee










__________________________________________

In light of the recent attack on trees mentioned below - A Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces Press conference is scheduled for Thursday, Sept 1 at 4 PM at 256-09 Hillside Avenue. We need to put pressure on people to give up the people who cut down trees - the three trees are valued at over $11,000.00 and are assets of the community. And its not just about the money - we are all trying to green up Queens and the rest of the city and some idiot decides to cut down trees. Can you imagine losing three healthy street trees in your neighborhood? Come and help us get the message out - Don't Mess with our Street Trees - Killers Beware.
__________________________________________

The Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces is offering a reward of $200 for info leading to the arrest of those responsible for the cutting down of 3 City Street Trees on the 256 block of Hillside Avenue. There is no excuse for the execution of these trees and I hope others will join us in offering a reward and or providing information. Pictures taken clearly show that the trees were cut about 80% and the culprits hoped that is would be blamed on Irene. I am sickened by some self serving person would have the gall to intentionally harm street trees while we are all working to plant and save them. We have also heard of similar problems in Flushing. This has got to and will stop with help from the neighborhood.
PEP is investigating, but this is your neighborhood, so we all need to be pro-active, otherwise others will see that they can get away with it and do the same. Image dozens of our street trees being cut down? I will not and can not allow this and I will not sit back and wait for more arboricide to happen. Will you join me in hunting down the scum that did this?

Respectfully,
Frederick Kress
Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces

PS: IF anyone would like to contribute to the REWARD it would probably increase the odds of us getting the parties responsible for this.

Honest graft attempt at Creedmoor

From the NY Post:

Two legislators who backed the 2009 sale of 4.5 acres of Creedmoor land to [The Indian Community and Cultural Center of Floral Park] - Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens) and former Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens) - got thousands of dollars in campaign cash from its members, records show.

It was a great deal for the Cultural Center: The $1.8 million purchase price was a pittance compared to the property's estimated $7.3 million market value in 2010, city records show.

Now the Floral Park group is twisting state legislators' arms to push a deal for another six acres from the site. They plan to build an access road there to two giant nine-story apartment towers.

The Assembly passed a bill pushing the second sale on Wednesday. When Avella refused to sponsor the bill in the Senate, Clark persuaded Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) to back the idea instead. Smith introduced Senate legislation backing the second sale last week. But after getting furious letters about the land grab, Smith put the bill on hold.

Avella said Clark's insistence that he back the deal was borderline "threatening."
Group leaders and their family members delivered at least $2,351 in campaign cash to Clark last year. They've donated $2,850 to Padavan and $2,510 to Mark Weprin for his City Council and Assembly runs.

Weprin has also backed the development.

School custodian owns 10 homes

From the NY Post:

School investigators are probing a veteran school custodian who owns 10 houses in Queens worth a combined $5.8 million -- and whose former employees contend they were paid with school funds to gut and renovate the homes.

Several workers also accuse Roosevelt HS campus custodian Trifon Radef -- paid more than $170,000 annually after 36 years of service for the Department of Education -- of splitting school funds with pals for whom he created no-show gigs.

They said he overhauled his bevy of Floral Park homes using "free" labor on weekends and with supplies intended for the school -- rather than investing any of his own hefty take-home pay.

"He renovated all these houses -- walls, ceilings, new bathrooms and kitchens -- and all the people who did the work are getting paid by the school," said a former worker. "We got a check every two weeks with the name of the school."

Asked about the probe this week, Radef claimed ignorance.

"Never heard anything about it," said Radef, whose take-home pay in 2009 topped $226,000 because of a contract agreement that granted custodians a bonanza in back pay.

But four current and former cleaners and handymen said the home renovations took place on weekends from as early as 2000 through 2009 and included electrical, plumbing and roof work, cabinet-making, painting and plastering.

They said the pay was at overtime levels -- as much as $30 per hour -- for up to 20 hours of work per weekend.

The men, some of whom have been laid off in recent budget cuts, said Radef also pays a worker at Truman HS in The Bronx to keep the Queens properties neatly landscaped.

A spokeswoman for the special commissioner of investigation confirmed the office is looking into Radef's dealings.

Radef lives in one of his 10 houses; the other nine are rented out as two- or three-family residences, according to city Department of Finance records.

They range in value from $449,000 to $659,000.

Rowdy restaurant gets liquor license

From the Times Ledger:

A controversial catering hall in Floral Park that has drawn the ire of neighbors for its customers’ rowdy antics was granted a liquor license, prompting outrage from elected officials.

Residents said they saw customers bring in alcohol to Shahi Darbar at 83-47 258th St. and witnessed patrons having sex on top and inside their cars at night.

Other complaints included broken bottles of alcohol on the sidewalk, double-parked cars and loud noise.

A resident who asked not to be named said when he went to complain about some of the behavior recently, he was pushed by a Shahi Darbar employee.

Community Board 10 voted against a liquor license for Shahi Darbar last year, but the state Liquor Authority approved the application anyway in June without notifying the board about the hearing.

“We were very disgusted,” said CB 10 member Seymour Finkelstein, who lives near the establishment. “We feel that we had no say in the matter. Why weren’t we notified to the hearing?”

State Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) wrote to state Liquor Authority Chairman Dennis Rosen July 27 asking the body to suspend the liquor license and set up a public hearing in the community.

“This establishment has become a nightmare for local residents,” the senator wrote.

Padavan said he has yet to hear back from the authority.

Houses are half in, half out

From the Daily News:

The Brown family lives in a house divided: When they walk inside, a left turn puts them in Queens - and a right in Long Island.

The border between city and suburb bisects their 1,500-square-foot Colonial-style home, giving the Browns the best of both worlds along with twin addresses: 247-27 137th Ave. in Rosedale, Queens; and 103 Gold St. in Valley Stream, L.I.

"The kids sleep in Queens," says mom Myrna Brown. "And we sleep in Long Island."

Brown, husband Lawrence and their eight kids are among 84 homeowners living in Splitsville, with one foot in New York City and the other in Nassau County.

The residents in this strange parallel land straddle Rosedale and Valley Stream, Little Neck and Great Neck, and Floral Park and New Hyde Park.

Along with two addresses, the "suburb slickers" often share two school districts - and the chance to shop for cheaper utilities, cable rates and car insurance based on their home field's advantage.

Surprising food stamp stats

From the NY Times:

The area with the most food stamp recipients in the city last year, 63,328 people, was Community Board 5 in Brooklyn, which includes the neighborhoods of Cypress Hills, East New York, New Lots and Starrett City. The area with the fewest recipients, 2,312, was Community Board 1 in Manhattan, which covers most of the lower part of the island south of Canal Street. Since 2001, several areas have had a startling increase in food stamp use, mirroring a national trend. Community Board 13 in Queens, which includes Bellerose, Cambria Heights, Floral Park and Queens Village, has had a 205 percent jump in the number of recipients. Nearby, Community Board 12, encompassing Hollis, St. Albans and South Jamaica, has experienced a 184 percent rise. No district in the city has had a drop in the number of people receiving benefits through the program.

Con Ed at fault for explosion death

From the Daily News:

Con Edison workers stumbled and bumbled for more than an hour instead of evacuating a Queens house before it blew up in April, a new state report says.

A dispatcher took 22 minutes to find a mechanic - who then spent 45 minutes testing dangerous gas levels without telling people to leave their homes in Floral Park, the Department of Public Service reported.

The unnamed mechanic was preparing to knock on the door of 80-50 260th St. when it exploded, killing Ghanwatti Boodram, a 40-year-old mother of three.

The report released yesterday faults Con Ed crews for not answering radios and blames a dispatcher for handling routine jobs ahead of the life-or-death leak.

It also says a mechanic didn't open a gas-filled manhole because he didn't have a barricade to put around it.

Family allowed to sift through destroyed house

From the Daily News:

A family that lost its Floral Park home in last month's deadly Con Edison gas explosion was allowed back inside Thursday to salvage their belongings.

Vita and Stanley Barth had been pushing city officials to let them back into their 260th St. home of 51 years following the April 24 blast.

"We're literally sifting through ashes with rakes in our hands to find anything of value to us," said the couple's son, Larry Barth, 47, of New Hyde Park, L.I. "It gives our parents something to hold onto."

The family was especially keen to recover Vita Barth's artwork and a collection of Jewish artifacts - some more than 200 years old.

Gas blast victims want to save their past

From the Daily News:

Stanley and Vita Barth lived in their Floral Park home for 57 years until a gas explosion next door turned their house into a hazard on Friday.

Now, the Barths are in a race against time to get back inside their charred home to salvage what they can - including photo albums and 200-year-old Jewish artifacts - before it's demolished.

The city had previously refused to let them in, saying the house is structurally unsafe and should be razed immediately.

However, the city has consented to meet with the family today and coordinate sending representatives - or the Barths - in to retrieve the family's belongings.

Woman's death is Con Ed's fault

From the NY Post:

Con Edison workers did not evacuate the Queens block where a mother of three was killed by a gas-leak explosion despite reading sky-high levels of gas under the street, officials said yesterday.

Yesterday, utility crews discovered a two-inch hole in the gas main just outside the Floral Park home of Ghanwatti Boodram, who died in the explosion.

...the hole in the pipe was likely the cause of the gas smell that a neighbor called to report at 3:34 p.m.

A Con Ed worker responded about 40 minutes later and found low gas levels. But when they starting testing a manhole nearby, they found that the air was more than 80 percent gas -- an extremely volatile mixture.

The worker called in an emergency at 4:15 p.m. and continued to take readings, but no one was evacuated.

Additional crews pulled up 35 minutes later, just as Boodram's house burst into flames.