Sanctuary City For Sale

THE CITY

It was already dark when Mayor Eric Adams and his security detail pulled up to the curb of the Wyndham Garden, a drab hotel next to a strip mall in Fresh Meadows, Queens.

At the time, his administration was paying for the hotel to shelter more than 100 formerly incarcerated New Yorkers integrating back into society after their release.

But the mayor wasn’t here to check in on one of his criminal justice initiatives. On that November evening nearly two years ago, Adams was visiting Winnie Greco, a top mayoral staffer, who had recently moved into one of the rooms at the Wyndham Garden.

Adams got out of the car, walked through a side door and went up to Greco’s specially arranged suite on the 11th floor, according to two sources with knowledge of the visit.

The mayor had been to the hotel before. Its owner, Weihong Hu, had thrown two campaign fundraisers with Adams present when he was running for mayor in 2021. Now Hu, who was reaping millions of dollars in city business through this very facility, was housing Greco in a room paid for by taxpayers, business and government records obtained for this story show. 

Greco ended up staying at Hu’s hotel for more than eight months, initially as she recovered from surgery, according to two sources with knowledge of her stay.

The lodging arranged for the mayor’s advisor is just one facet of a mutually beneficial relationship between Adams, an aggressive campaign fundraiser, and Hu, an ambitious hotel operator who bundled tens of thousands of dollars in campaign checks for his mayoral campaign and subsequently scored behind-the-scenes benefits and millions in contract dollars from his administration, an investigation by THE CITY, The Guardian US and Documented reveals.

The details of how this relationship blossomed in the odd setting of a hotel-turned-shelter offer a rare window into the way transactional dealings have taken shape in the Adams era. 

This report is based on a review of thousands of pages of city and business records and interviews with more than 20 of Hu’s former associates and current and former government officials. Nearly all sources spoke on the condition of anonymity citing fears of retaliation from Hu or the administration. Several provided reporters with photos, text messages, emails and videos to back up their claims.

In Hu’s case, multimillion-dollar city-funded contracts to her companies’ hotels continued to flow as she befriended a tightly knit core of the mayor’s longtime associates, some the subject of law enforcement investigations and ethical controversies who multiple sources say pledged to go to bat for her with city agencies.

It was at a 2021 fundraiser with Adams at her hotel that Hu became acquainted with a longtime pal of the future mayor, John Sampson. Formerly a state senator, Sampson had been released from federal custody only a month earlier, after being sentenced to a five-year prison term for trying to obstruct a probe investigating allegations that he embezzled more than $400,000. 

Hu named Sampson as CEO of one of her hotel companies in early 2023, and, according to a former city official familiar with the situation, he committed to helping her land a lucrative contract for a migrant shelter at a hotel she operates in Long Island City, Queens. A month later, the Department of Homeless Services approved a city-funded migrant contract slated to disburse $7.5 million annually to the hotel.

Hu also enlisted the help of another trusted Adams advisor, Rev. Alfred Cockfield II, whom she introduced to colleagues as a “consultant,” according to one former associate who said he attended business meetings with Hu and Cockfield. The former associate and another source with direct knowledge of the matter said Hu enlisted Cockfield to help her reverse city orders halting construction at two major hotel developments in midtown Manhattan.

Cockfield is a politically wired pastor who, after Adams won the mayoral primary, launched a political action committee, Striving for a Better New York, which he told Politico was intended to uplift “moderate,” “pro-business” candidates in the Adams mold. 

“The work I’m doing is God’s work,” he said. 

Yet campaign finance records show the PAC paid Cockfield $144,000 in wages and consulting fees — many times more than what it ever gave to an individual candidate. It also gave $60,000 to a charter school Cockfield leads. Last year, the school returned the entire sum after the state’s Division of Election Law Enforcement sent inquiries to the PAC about some of its allocations. 

The mayor’s son, Jordan Coleman, dressed in black and pushing a roller suitcase, and an unidentified woman also stayed in a room in November 2022 at the Fresh Meadows hotel where Greco was staying, according to a former worker at the hotel. That room, too, was among the 148 paid for by taxpayers.

Coleman hung up on a reporter and didn’t respond to text messages seeking comment. In a phone call, Hu’s attorney, Kevin Tung, denied that the mayor’s son stayed at the hotel overnight, but said he may have visited to discuss business with Greco, who has at times accompanied him to events.

The administration’s largesse flowed back to Hu in a variety of ways, the investigation’s findings show. After Adams came into office, his administration authorized the renewal of Hu’s six-month shelter contract at the Fresh Meadows hotel four times, reaping her business $6.2 million a year in income. 

It also finalized a second contract sending $6.3 million a year to Hu’s hotel in Long Island City, despite a history of elevator breakdowns and minimal housekeeping detailed to reporters by former workers and claimed in court documents. 

Last year, the Department of Homeless Services twice approved a more lucrative arrangement for the Long Island City hotel, bumping its annual potential revenue to a total of $8.8 million, government records show.

The help a close Adams ally can offer was evident on two occasions in which, according to sources, Hu tapped Cockfield for assistance with city authorities.

After a building inspector halted construction at one of her hotel developments, near Bryant Park on West 39th Street, citing a serious safety issue, the minister made a late-night call to top Department of Buildings officials and urged them to allow construction to proceed, according to a source familiar with buildings department operations. 

Roughly an hour later, the agency reversed the stop work order, which department records show was lifted just after 11 p.m.

At the second hotel development, Hu retained Cockfield to help lift a city Department of Buildings stop-work order issued after Hu’s team had begun an illegal demolition of rent-stabilized apartment buildings on West 35th Street in Manhattan, according to a source who said he attended meetings with Hu and Cockfield about the situation. That source said Cockfield and another individual he couldn’t identify promised to call city agencies on the hotel owner’s behalf. 

In late 2022, the Department of Buildings gave Hu permission to resume construction on that site, approving a plan that ignored a previous commitment to neighborhood leaders and the city’s housing agency to preserve affordable apartments.

Army vet ROTC teacher gets carjacked as auto theft continues to climb

 NY Post

Six armed bandits carjacked a veteran teacher outside a Queens high school, pistol-whipping the educator in front of his family and taking off with his BMW and $7,000, cops said.

Christopher Dash was smacked in the head with a gun during the terrifying 5:30 a.m. heist on Jan. 11 outside Francis Lewis High School in Fresh Meadows – one in a recent series of luxury carjackings in Queens.

Dash, 59, was sitting with his wife and 18-year-old son in their car in a lot behind Horace Harding Expressway next to the school when two Dodge sedans approached and blocked them from leaving, cops said.

Five males and a female got out and brandished weapons while demanding the keys and belongings, the NYPD said.

As Dash, his wife, and son got out of the car, the thieves “forcibly removed” their wallets, taking  $7,000 in cash, a cell phone, ID, debit cards, and laptops. Cops did not know why he was carrying that large a sum of money.

One crook hit Dash in the head with a gun, causing a laceration, police said.

 

Department of Transportation Alternatives plans to induce bike lanes in Fresh Meadows.

Change.org

We, the undersigned residents of the neighborhood surrounding 53rd Ave between Bell Blvd and 188th Street, wish to express our deep concern and opposition to the implementation of the proposed bike lanes in our area. Our concerns stem from the following points:

 1. Removal of Street Parking: The proposed bike lanes threaten to remove much-needed street parking, severely inconveniencing residents and visitors alike.
 2. Safety Concerns: The sudden changes could inadvertently draw the attention of car vandals and thieves, posing a threat to the safety, peace, and tranquility that our beloved neighborhood has enjoyed for years.
 3. Lack of Transparency: The city did not adequately inform or involve the residents before making decisions that have significant implications for our lives. Many of us were left blindsided by the sudden erection of “No Stopping Anytime” signs, causing distress and confusion.
 4. Community Feedback: At the recent Community Board 11 meeting, it was evident that a majority of residents either oppose the new bike lanes or desire a plan that better accommodates the parking needs of the community.

Given the above concerns, we urge the city officials and the Department of Transportation to:

 • Reevaluate the Decision: Consider alternative routes or modifications that would not disrupt the tranquility and parking of our neighborhood.
 • Increase Transparency and Engagement: Proactively communicate with residents, ensuring that we are part of the decision-making process. We deserve a say in decisions that directly impact our lives and community.
 • Hybrid Meeting Options: Implement hybrid meeting options and online registration for future Community Board meetings, ensuring accessibility for all residents.

We believe in the significance of our voices and trust that our collective concerns will be given due consideration. Through this petition, we hope to work collaboratively with the city to find solutions that are beneficial to all parties involved.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

East and South Queens redistricting maps leading to wider schisms

Queens Chronicle 

 Update

The Districting Commission voted to send the revised proposal to the City Council Thursday by a vote of 13-1, with one absence. 

ORIGINAL STORY

As the city’s meticulous reapportionment process draws on, the Districting Commission is set to vote on a revised proposal for City Council district lines today, Oct. 6.

Thursday’s meeting comes just two weeks after the commission voted 8-7 against its own proposal. The body spent three hours last Thursday night and four and a half hours last Friday tweaking the map, taking into account 286 items of public testimony that had come in after the rejection two weeks ago.

Among the most significant changes to the Queens lines to come from last week’s discussions is the return of part of Fresh Meadows to District 24. Councilman Jim Gennaro (D-Hillcrest) had taken issue with the previous draft in large part because, in moving that portion of the neighborhood to District 23, members of the area’s Orthodox Jewish community would be separated from the rest of the enclave. Should the commission approve that draft, District 24’s eastern boundary would be 188th Street, as it is now.

Asked for comment on the proposal, Gennaro said, “This community and I, as its representative, made our objections to the first two proposals loud and clear. Last Friday, the Districting Commission did the right thing by completely reuniting the Orthodox Jewish community within the 24th District.”

Later, he added, “We look forward to this plan being passed by both the commission and the City Council.”

THE CITY 

In the hours following the five-alarm Richmond Hill fire in June that ravaged a row of houses, killed three family members, and left more than 40 people homeless, Annetta Seecharran felt abandoned in her efforts to scramble for resources and support for the victims. 

Not one elected official showed up that day, Seecharran told THE CITY.

“I called and I called and I called,” Seecharran, who heads the Indo-Caribbean and South Asian community development organization Chhaya in Queens, told THE CITY. “And there was no response.”

Mayor Eric Adams visited family members the next day and said “the whole city is mourning.” Apart from that, however, Seecharran recalled this week how disheartening it was for her and other community members to have to fight for attention in the aftermath of that tragedy in City Council District 28, represented by Speaker Adrienne Adams. 

Seecharran, along with other locals and activists from Southeast Queens’ majority Indo-Caribbean and South Asian neighborhoods, gathered outside a Sikh temple in Richmond Hill on Tuesday with the fire in mind. 

Their goal: to call attention to the way electorally divided communities like theirs have been historically “underserved by the government” — and how the NYC Districting Commission’s draft map for new City Council districts, released in mid-July, would perpetuate that problem. As THE CITY previously reported, these redistricting efforts are part of a mandatory process to reflect population changes in light of the 2020 census and ahead of off-cycle elections in what will be newly drawn districts next year. Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the maps must not deny or dilute the voting power of racial and language minorities.

“Ultimately this is about power,” Seecharran told the crowd. “Our power has been limited because we have been divided.”  

But elected officials in other nearby neighborhoods have expressed a similar interest in keeping their predominantly Black communities from being divided between different districts. And they’re not alone: Across the city, various groups are pushing for map changes that would enhance their voting power in what can seem like a zero-sum game. All are racing to have their desires registered before the commission votes on a final map on Sept. 22. 

For example, a related battle is playing out in Brooklyn, as the draft map creates a new majority Asian council district in Brooklyn while splitting up what’s been a majority Latino district covering Sunset Park and Red Hook for the past three decades.

If nine of the 15 districiting commissioners agree on a map, it will then be released to the public and voted on by the City Council. If the draft does not get voted through, the commission would continue revising the map until passing one, though commission spokesperson Eddie Borges told THE CITY “that’s not even a prospect.”  

While eight of the 15 commissioners were appointed by the Council, five were selected by Speaker Adams, leader of the 44-member Democratic caucus. Minority Leader Joe Borelli, one of its seven Republicans, picked the other three, who potentially could join with the mayor’s members to pass a map.

In a letter addressed to the commission’s chairman and obtained by THE CITY, several elected officials in majority Black districts in southeast Queens outlined concerns about numerous ways that the draft map would divide and dilute voting power across their districts. Those officials include Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers of District 31, which currently covers the eastern Rockaways, Laurelton, Rosedale, Brookville and parts of Springfield Gardens, and Councilmember Nantasha Williams of District 27, which currently covers Cambria Heights, Hollis, Jamaica, St. Albans, Queens Village, and Springfield Gardens. 

Among their concerns:

• The removal of downtown Jamaica from District 27, and the inclusion of  parts of Springfield Gardens, which cuts across “the middle of different ethnic communities and neighborhoods,” according to the letter writers;
• The removal of Rochdale Village from District 28, which is home to a minority-owned Mitchell-Lama cooperative: a 20-building complex housing 25,000 working-class residents, most of whom are Black;
• The removal of parts of Springfield Gardens that are mostly Black from District 31, which would “misalign the community’s collective voice,” according to the letter-signers. The district would gain parts of the Rockaway peninsula that have a white plurality and of South Ozone Park that have an Asian plurality, according to an analysis by THE CITY.

Some community members shared similar concerns in a virtual town hall convened by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards on Wednesday night. Community Board 12 Chairperson Rev. Carlene O. Thorbs, for one, was firm that Rochdale should stay whole and intact.

“It doesn’t even make any sense that anybody even entertains that. The historical value in our area needs to stay the same,” Thorbs said. “We are still the largest voting bloc — we can’t even ignore that.”

 

The trial run Queens Borough Tower Jail

 

Impunity City 

 This scene takes place in Fresh Meadows at this hotel steps away from the Horace Harding Expressway and also a strip mall and public school. This hotel, which has clearly failed to generate any business, was subjected to numerous scoops and solidarity condemnation from the community and elected officials representing the district for it’s use as a homeless shelter for men who were recently released from Rikers Island and was used during the pandemic as housing for a hundred inmates during the pandemic to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on the island’s facilities. Which was irresponsibly made possible following former Mayor de Blasio and the City Council cronies collaborative effort to shut down Rikers to build four tower jails in the boroughs except for Staten Island. But from the optics of this building, it seems that  this hotel in Fresh Meadows is being used as a trial run tower jail while the official tower jail in Kew Gardens gets developed and which has already started it’s construction.

 It’s utterly amazing that the city approved this hotel on a quaint residential block like this. Who in their right mind thought that tourists would dwell here while vacationing in the city and it’s much to big and out of the way to be utilized for prostitution and sex trafficking.

 Upon close inspection, the optics in the front entrance belie the element that’s being housed here as cars line up on the sidewalk obstructing most of the entrance of the hotel, despite the ample parking in the lot behind it and the garage inside the building, conveying a palpable sense of security for their neighbors across the street and the passerby young and old.

 

De Facto borough tower jail

THE CITY 

One Saturday last May, an elderly man stood on the sidewalk outside a Maspeth Federal Savings Bank branch on a quiet block in Fresh Meadows, Queens, when a stranger walked up to him and punched him square in the face.

This kind of unfortunate incident happens occasionally on the streets of New York City, but in this case an important detail had broader implications: the man arrested and charged with assault gave the police his address as 61-27 186th St., a hotel around the corner from the bank.

That hotel houses inmates released from Rikers Island and state prisons, as it has since the start of the pandemic as part of the city’s effort to curb the spread of the virus. The arrestee was one of those former inmates.

And he was not the only one. Last year, 42 individuals arrested for a wide variety of crimes gave 61-27 186th St. as their address, according to a search of NYPD records performed by Deputy Inspector Kevin Chan, commanding officer of the 107th Precinct where the hotel is located.

Alleged crimes committed by individuals listed at the 186th St. address included robbery, burglary, grand larceny, petit larceny and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the NYPD.

“Forty-two is a large number of people who used that address,” Chan told THE CITY. “It’s one location. They’re former inmates. They have been arrested before. I don’t want to assume that everyone who’s been arrested before gets arrested again, but it does happen that in some cases they continue committing the same crimes.”

Residents report an uptick in crime in the area, and a CVS behind the hotel has been hit repeatedly by shoplifters in the last year. Prior to that, the store experienced only occasional theft, workers say.

 

de Blasio let security contract balloon at hotel shelter for inmates during the pandemic

THE CITY

In the early months of the COVID pandemic, as the virus spread like wildfire through New York City, the de Blasio administration began placing inmates released from Rikers and state prisons into hotels.

The point was to keep them safe — and to curb the spread of the virus. But did City Hall implement adequate safeguards to protect the released inmates from non-COVID dangers?

One former inmate THE CITY spoke to alleges she was sexually assaulted in August 2020, while staying at a hotel involved in the program, the Wyndham Hotel in Fresh Meadows. She is suing Exodus Transitional Community, the nonprofit group hired by the city to administer hotel placements.

When asked by THE CITY, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), which oversaw the project, could not definitively identify the firm that provided security at the Wyndham as a subcontractor to Exodus. At times, MOCJ and Exodus pointed to two different firms as the security provider in 2020.

But when reached by THE CITY, executives at these two firms denied that their companies were subcontracted to provide security at the Wyndham. Under law, firms that provide security at city shelters, including hotel placements for inmates, must be properly licensed.

When THE CITY requested documentation that the firm providing security at the hotels had a proper state security guard license, MOCJ provided a license that belongs to one of the firms that denies having anything to do with the ex-inmate placement program.

Records show the no-bid contract signed by the mayor’s office with Exodus to place inmates in hotels grew from $835,000 to $55 million in just 16 months. Under the arrangement with MOCJ, Exodus was not required to report to the city crisis incidents that occurred there, including violent ones like sexual assault.

The Adams administration recently awarded Exodus another $40 million contract for “emergency reentry hotel services” that runs through June under a no-bid process. Adams’ team did not respond to THE CITY’s question about the nature of the ongoing emergency.

Upon her release from Rikers Island in June 2020, Latoya Walker, 32, was placed into a Wyndham Hotel in Fresh Meadows, one of six hotels managed by Exodus as part of the inmate release program.

There, Walker alleges, she was sexually assaulted in her room by an Exodus employee who’d been assigned to her as a caseworker. The man was ultimately arrested on sex abuse and other charges. Although the Queens district attorney later dropped the case due to delays in bringing it to trial, Walker has since filed a civil suit against Exodus that is pending.

Walker claims that from the moment she brought in the police, Exodus resisted cooperating, delaying turning over a surveillance camera tape that she says helps corroborate her accusation.

After a detective in the special victims squad was assigned to investigate, Walker said, “Exodus wouldn’t give her the tape. They wouldn’t give her information on (the caseworker)’s employment,” she told THE CITY. “I felt like Exodus was just sticking together. Every time I brought it up as something that was bothering me, they started giving me the brush off.”

The Department of Homeless Services managed a similar effort to place shelter residents in hotels to stifle the spread of COVID-19. But DHS required all providers to report every “critical incident,” such as assaults, at the hotels where the homeless were placed. The inmate hotel program had no such requirement.

Exodus’ founder, Medina, refused to answer any of THE CITY’s questions, including whether he reported Walker’s allegations to MOCJ. The mayor’s office also declined to say whether they were aware of the incident, other than to say the hotel ex-inmate program had no incident reporting requirements.

City still using hotel as halfway house

Queens Chronicle

Signs for the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Fresh Meadows came down sometime in the last few months, but it will continue to serve as a transitional community for the formerly incarcerated through the end of the year.

The 61-27 186 St. hotel has been used as a home for formerly detained individuals since April 2020.

“All hotels are under contract, and will remain open, through the end of 2021,” B. Colby Hamilton, the chief of public affairs at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice said in an email to the Chronicle. “The City is committed to all of our transitional facilities, including those in Queens, that provide those returning from incarceration a much-needed home base of support as they work to reintegrate into our communities. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and our partners inside and outside government are working tirelessly on the next phase of the program in the new year.”

Kandra Clark, the vice president of policy and strategy at Exodus, the group overseeing housing at the hotel, told the Chronicle that the group has not heard from the city about a contract extension date. The staff is working with the 116 residents to help them find permanent housing and employment.

The Fresh Meadows hotel is independently owned and operated as a franchise and hasn’t been affiliated with Wyndhman since September, according to the chain’s global communications director.

Monday is Funday Post

Whilst idling away the time in traffic one day, I noticed this honorific street sign at the corner of 193rd Street and Horace Harding Expressway north of the LIE in Fresh Meadows. Curious about what "Brotherhood Lane" was named for, I tried searching online to no avail. The NYC Council votes on these co-namings, but I could not find a bill that included Brotherhood Lane. I even asked a couple of experts but they were stumped. Does anyone out in crapland have any clue about it? There's a church at the other end of the block called Heavenly Voice and a private elementary school across the street but not sure if there is a connection to either of them.

Tragedy strikes NYPD twice in Fresh Meadows

 

 

Queens Chronicle 

A highway officer was responding to a fiery car crash in the early hours of April 27 when he was struck and killed by an allegedly drunk driver.

Anastasios Tsakos, a 14-year NYPD veteran and father of two young children, was investigating the scene of an earlier, fatal collision at the time of the 2 a.m. incident.

“The absolutely tragic events of this past evening highlight, again, the many, many dangers our brave officers face every day and night — in all aspects of their critical work,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a press conference Tuesday morning, adding that the incident “amounted to a completely avoidable chain of events.”

According to police, Tsakos was one of many officers responding to a vehicle collision on the Long Island Expressway at the Clearview Expressway just 30 minutes past midnight. One of the vehicles was in flames.

Tsakos was diverting traffic from the scene, when 32-year-old Jessica Beauvais — who had a suspended license — came speeding along, police said. She swerved to avoid other cars and collided with Tsakos, who was standing next to his marked vehicle.

District Attorney Melinda Katz said Beauvais fled from the crash and attempted to exit the Horace Harding Expressway, where her car jumped the curb and mounted the sidewalk. Police surrounded her and she tried to flee again by putting the car in reverse but rammed into the police vehicle behind her twice before coming to a final stop and being apprehended.

Shea reported that Tsakos, who had been struck head on, was knocked onto a nearby grassy area. He was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens in critical condition, but was later pronounced deceased.

Beauvais, of Hempstead, LI, is being held pending arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on a 13-count complaint. The charges include two counts of vehicular manslaughter, drunk driving, colliding with an emergency vehicle and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

Two hours after the crash, it was discovered that Beauvais’ blood alcohol content was 1.5 percent, the D.A.’s office said.

NY Post

If there was a silver lining to the tragic death of Denis Mullaney, the commanding officer of the 107th precinct in Queens who killed himself this week, it was the call to action made by the priest who officiated his funeral — where he implored the NYPD to do more to “break the silence” around suicides within their ranks.

Father Joseph Fonti, 54, told the mourners at the packed St. Mel’s Catholic Church in Flushing Friday that he was all too familiar with suicide, both within his own family and among his friends, some of whom are cops.

“People are fragile, they break,” Fonti told the crowd of roughly 250, including row after row of somber police officers. “If you suffer from cancer people run to you and they do anything for you. If you tell them you suffer from mental illness or anxiety they try but they get scared or they get uncomfortable.”

“We need to address it in our own families and in the church and in the Police Department. The police in particular have been so tight-lipped about this issue,” he urged. 

 Mullaney, 44, a 20-year police veteran, shot himself in his parked squad car Monday on Underhill Avenue near the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway. He was the NYPD’s first suicide of 2021.

Typically four to five NYPD officers commit suicide every year. But when 10 officers killed themselves in 2019, the department under then-Commissioner James O’Neill instituted changes, such as allowing officers in crisis to keep their badges even while handing in their firearms to de-stigmatize asking for help. There were four NYPD suicides in 2020.

“The time for silence is over,” Fonti said.

Mullaney, who was made commander of the 107th precinct in Queens last fall, called one of his superiors as well as family members to warn them he was feeling suicidal and reportedly apologized in advance, police sources have told The Post.

‘”He knew he could call in a 10-13 – the code for an officer needing help,” his uncle Eddie Mullaney, 80, a retired NYPD policeman, said at the funeral. His fellow officers as well as members of the large Mullaney family, which includes several generations of police officers, would “have come running.”

“We would have called in our own 10-13,” the elder Mullaney said. “We had Denis’ back. He knew that.”

Instead Mullaney, who was going through a divorce from his wife, Amanda, a fellow police officer, and who had recently moved back into his childhood home with his widowed mother, “made a different choice,” his uncle told the congregation.

The normally upbeat Mullaney, who leaves behind a young son, Denis Patrick III, had reduced crime during his seven months at the precinct, but had been “hurting” for the past five or six weeks — and his despondency seemed to come on “quick,” his uncle said.

He's eighteen and wants to be elected

 

NY Post

He’s barely old enough to vote, but says he’s ready to be elected. 

Seth Breland, an 18-year-old Democrat from Fresh Meadows, hopes to replace City Councilman Barry Grodenchik in Northeastern Queens when he steps down at the end of next year.

If he is able to get on the ballot in November 2021 and win, Breland would be the youngest elected official in the city’s history. Former Bronx Councilman Joel Rivera, elected in 2001 at age 22, currently holds that title. 

Breland, a graduate of World Journalism Preparatory High School in Flushing, who is now studying political science at Long Island University Post campus, says his age is a benefit on the campaign trail — if not for the publicity alone. 

“I realize the age can be a limitation, but at the same time … it can be an advantage if I play it right,” he said. “My age will give me the sort of attention and enthusiasm to really fight for our district.”

Breland, who turned 18 in May and cast his first legal ballot in November for Joe Biden, said he was inspired to run by another young, progressive Queens politician, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was elected to Congress at age 28.

“AOC is definitely an inspiration in terms of her age. I had been following her campaign for a while at that point, and it was really inspiring to see,” he said.

City sneakily sent 100 prisoners from Rikers to Fresh Meadows hotel to shelter in place from COVID-19

Queens Eagle

More than 100 people released from Rikers Island are being housed at a Fresh Meadows hotel as part of a city initiative that local leaders say lacked any community input.

The city is putting up the formerly incarcerated New Yorkers at a Wyndham Garden Hotel on 186th Street to prevent the spread of COVID-19 behind bars and in homeless shelters, officials said. The Office of Emergency Management and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice are overseeing the program.

The city paid for rooms in the hotel because the individuals did not have stable housing and would have otherwise become homeless, said MOCJ spokesperson Colby Hamilton. A handful of other hotels around the city have served the same function.

“This and other hotels have provided an invaluable network of stable, reliable lodging for those in need, keeping people departing the jail system out of congregate housing, while we work with them to find more permanent living solutions going forward,” Hamilton said.

The individuals were released from Rikers Island because they have pre-existing medical conditions that put them at particular risk of COVID-19, he said.

Local Councilmember Barry Grodenchik said he was blindsided by the city’s plan.

“We found out because people started calling the office from the community,” Grodenchik said. “We didn’t get advance notice. At all.”

Grodenchik said he and members of Community Board 8 will tour the facility Wednesday.

The employee who answered the phone at the Wyndham Gardens hotel directed questions to City Hall Tuesday.

“This information is confidential and we cannot give information about who is staying with us and if you want more information you can call the Mayor’s Office,” the official said.

Two newly built hotels in Fresh Meadows are already up for sale

 Crain's New York

Two newly built Marriott-branded hotels in eastern Queens have hit the market for $65 million.

Cushman & Wakefield is marketing the neighboring six-story hotels, located along the Long Island Expressway near the Fresh Meadows neighborhood. One of the hotels, at 183-15 Horace Harding Expressway, is branded as a Courtyard Marriott. The other, at 183-31 Horace Harding Expressway, is a Fairfield Inn & Suites.

The hotels total about 110,000 square feet and 218 total guest rooms. The buildings were constructed and opened late last year by East West Realty Development Group, now the seller.

Located about 20 minutes by car from LaGuardia Airport and a little farther from John F. Kennedy International Airport, the hotels have attracted short-term travelers as well as visitors to Queens, said Cushman & Wakefield's Kevin Louie. He is leading the site's marketing efforts along with Stephen R. Preuss.

Louie said the buildings could be sold as a hotel or delivered empty for other uses, such as a senior-care facility. Preuss said with the new hotels, the area is "ripe to become a hospitality hub."

...or very profitable homeless shelters?

Fresh Meadows landlords slapped with lawsuit by AG

From The Real Deal:

A pair of Queens landlords spent years cheating the state out of almost $500,000 in property taxes by manipulating the 421a program, according to a lawsuit from the New York State Attorney General’s Office.

The lawsuit seeks to ban Queens landlords Ram Cohen, Eldad Cohen and their company ERC Holding, LLC from participating in New York’s real estate industry. It also aims to force them to repay the property taxes they dodged, along with the profits they made from selling their building at 71-44 160th Street in Fresh Meadows.

The brothers finished building the 10-unit building in 2009 and applied for a tax exemption with the city under the 421a law, according to New York State Attorney General Barbara Underwood. The exemption requires the Cohens to abide by rent stabilization laws, but the suit alleges that they stuck tenants with unregulated leases instead. The attorney general’s office previously ordered the Cohens to start treating their tenants as rent-stabilized in 2014, but they did not do so, the lawsuit says.

The Cohens also tried to make their building appear more valuable than it actually was by listing inflated rents on all of their leases and giving tenants separate riders where they would agree to pay lower rents, the suit says. They kept these riders secret from banks, regulatory agencies and a prospective buyer to make the building appear more valuable than it really was and sold it in 2016 for $3.75 million, according to Underwood.

Inspector finds no problem where there clearly is one

From the Queens Chronicle:

When Mary Ann Giammarco sees the empty house at 73-36 179 St. in Fresh Meadows, she isn’t happy.

A graffiti-stained commercial truck sits in the driveway, with lumber languishing behind it. A sign on the door urges passersby to stay out.

“The whole property is just an eyesore,” Giammarco told the Chronicle last week. “And the homes around here are beautiful.”

A resident of the same street, she is a member of the Utopia Estates Civic Association and a block captain.

Giammarco penned a letter to the editor about the site that the Chronicle ran last week. It also doubled as an open letter to Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows), who then reached out to the 107th Precinct, Community Board 8 and the Department of Buildings about the location.

Earlier this month, multiple 311 complaints were issued about the property, leading a DOB inspector to visit it on Aug. 21. But no conditions contrary to the zoning and construction codes were discovered, so no violations were issued.

Plans had been filed last year to gut renovate the single-family house and add a second floor to it. But they were rejected.

The house wasn't looking so bad a few years ago, as you can see in the Google Street View above from 2013. The Chronicle photo shows how fast a property can go downhill without maintenance. How did a DOB inspector not find a problem? The presence of the truck alone is a zoning violation.

Fresh Meadows hotels to debut after the holidays

From the Queens Chronicle:

With the work fence around the Marriott Courtyard and Fairfield Inn hotels in Fresh Meadows gone, they’ll soon be open to guests.

A spokeswoman for the hotel chain told the Chronicle that they are expected to open in January, although she declined to give a specific date.

The two six-story buildings are on the westbound Horace Harding Expressway between 183rd Street and Booth Memorial Avenue. The total number of combined rooms for the hotels is 218.

Fresh Meadows day care center permit may be revoked

From the Queens Tribune:

The Great Sunshine Daycare, slated for 172-03 67th Ave., will create chaotic traffic patterns and safety issues for the residential community as parents of as many as 282 children rush to drop off their children, residents said at a Nov. 3 press conference with state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside).

“Parents come, they park illegally, they drop off their kids—sometimes they park in somebody’s driveway, sometimes they double-park or they pull into the site,” Avella said. “Imagine 282 parents, 282 cars.

Nobody’s against a daycare center in principle, but the city of New York should be making sure that these types of facilities go in appropriate locations.”

Traffic in the area is already hectic during school dismissal times with PS 173 just a few blocks away, and the new daycare could cut into property values of the surrounding homes, Avella argued.

Currently, the daycare’s future is uncertain. The facility can be legally built at the property under the current zoning for the area, according to the city’s Department of Buildings. A permit was issued on Feb. 3, but an audit of the project led to a notice to revoke the permit on Nov. 1. The agency took issue with the daycare’s planned placement of a driveway and rooftop recreation area, a spokesman said.

Fresh Meadows concerned about oversized day care center

From the Queens Chronicle:

About 75 concerned Fresh Meadows residents, many of whom are senior citizens, on Tuesday vehemently opposed the construction of Great Sunshine Daycare on 67th Avenue and 172nd Street saying, despite the center’s name, the site will cast a dark cloud over the suburban neighborhood’s already busy intersection, just one block from PS 173’s playground, and steps from MS 216.

Resident Cliff Hamburger — who presented at a town hall meeting held to discuss concerns about the proposed development — explained potential traffic congestion.

“You can’t unload a school bus in less than a minute,” Hamburger said at the meeting in PS 173’s auditorium.

The drop-off route for the day care will follow the already congested 67th Avenue, and exit from 72nd Street.

“[Or], the mother will have to drop off a toddler, take the child in, get him/her settled, resulting in idling engines,” Hamburger said, adding that staff will need “street parking, weekly deliveries and garbage collection.

“The DOT has agreed to finally conduct a traffic study,” Hamburger added. “So pending that, there is a stop-work order in place for the facility.”

The facility will be equipped with nine classrooms for approximately 290 students, and 30 staff members. It’s also proposed to have 11 parking spaces on the ground floor, one elevator and two staircases.

Rob Agnello, another presenter, discussed sewer capabilities for the facility, which currently only has one at 36 inches in diameter.

Day care site not ideal

From the Queens Chronicle:

To some, the two-story Great Sunshine Day Care building under construction on 67th Avenue and 172nd Street is not a bright idea.

The suburban Flushing intersection is one block from PS 173’s playground and two from the school itself by the western edge of Fresh Meadows. Some in that neighborhood think that the combination of traffic from the school and the day care center, at their worst times, will together be problematic.

Fresh Meadows resident Bill Anello told the Chronicle that traffic from the school causes cars to be “double-parked in the morning and triple-parked all along 67th Avenue.”

Moreover, Anello says that the area already has plenty of day care centers. And he added that there is another one planned at the former Carol School Supply building.

According to Anello, the day care center will serve 290 kids. It is not clear where he heard that — when the Chronicle followed up, he did not immediately respond.

Michael Tang, a lawyer who has discussed the day care plan with community members, did not immediately respond when the Chronicle asked how many people — employees or children — would be at the business.

Inspectors warn workers seconds before Fresh Meadows house collapse

From PIX11:

Half a dozen construction workers were within seconds of disaster when the sharp eyes of two building inspectors noticed the top of the Queens building was about to collapse.

Building inspectors Joseph Martucci and Johnny Mendez were examining gas lines in a house across the street when their eyes shifted to the house being renovated. They quickly spotted movement that could trap a worker.

"Suddenly the building began to shift with one worker narrowly escaping," Martucci said.

He and Mendez dashed to the site and shouted for the other workers to get out of the way.

"When I saw that coming down, my goal was to see everybody was safe," Mendez said.

Work on the 2-story house on 181st street in Fresh Meadows began at the beginning of the month and workers were demolishing a portion of the house so they could add an extension.

Investigators from the Department of Investigation were on the scene to determine if any wrongdoing was involved.

Even before a full investigation is completed, the Buildings Department has filed four violations, including failure to safeguard the site. Each violation carries a potential fine of $25,000.