Amazon puts a stop to open streets

  

Streetsblog

 Another day, another easily avoidable setback for the city’s open streets program.

In the latest evidence that a tiny minority of increasingly aggressive opponents is seeking to stop the widely popular open space program, North Brooklyn volunteers announced that they are “suspending” their efforts to prop up the city program on Driggs Avenue and Russell Street in Greenpoint after all of the city-owned barricades were stolen by a man with an Amazon-branded van on Monday night.

A video of the apparent Amazon worker stealing the barricades was posted on Nextdoor, a neighborhood-focused website, and downloaded by Streetsblog into a handy video (which we shared with Amazon, which has not responded to our request for comment)

 The open streets suspension — announced in a tweet on Tuesday morning — came on the heels of an earlier two-day suspension after a North Brooklyn volunteer being assaulted, two Department of Transportation workers being berated at a meeting, and equipment was vandalized

 Streetsblog has reached out to the DOT for comment and for an explanation of what comes next for the beleaguered open streets initiative. The program brought miles of recreation space to COVID-stricken neighborhoods during the height of the pandemic, but has lost steam as the mayor has promised that it would be a “permanent” fixture of the cityscape, yet has not announced any plan beyond relying on volunteers.

Transportation Alternatives condemned the theft but said it was easily avoided — if the DOT stepped up its game.

“Open Streets require infrastructure that can’t be stolen, can’t be destroyed, and can’t be tossed aside by entitled motorists,” said Erwin Figueroa, the director of organizing for the safe streets group, which has previously urged the mayor to do better. “Permanent infrastructure is what the Open Streets Coalition has been demanding from City Hall. We need Mayor de Blasio to move with much greater urgency, especially after the violence and vandalism over the past week, to implement the permanent solutions that will secure the success of the program. Any delay will cause these unacceptable incidents to escalate and for an extraordinarily popular program to be jeopardized.”

 If Bikeblog and the bike zealots really want this to stop, they should delete their Amazon accounts. And maybe reach out to the tower people near them and demand they delete theirs too. 

Update: 

Gersh Kuntzmen of Streetsblog deleted all my comments and marked a lot of them as spam for some reason. Even though my comment was visible for about 2 days. Just like with twitter, this sniveling coward and editorialist and even their puny readership will fabricate accusations against anyone having a dissenting opinion to their stories or even to respond to others. Truly sickening times we are living in.

Although Gertz apparently thinks that the comments saying that the guy who removed the barricades was NYPD has unquestionable credibility. My response to this hysterical theory was memory holed because I blamed Amazon.

Pussy.

 

Signs, signs, everywhere are signs

Update from Greenpoint

Violators be also will subject fine 

 

pro•cure prō-kyoo͝r′, prə-

►

• intransitive verb
  To get by special effort; obtain or acquire.
• intransitive verb
  To bring about; effect.
• intransitive verb
  To obtain (a sexual partner) for another.

de Blasio's HPD incompetence gives greedy developer millions of dollars in subsidies he won't give back

 

NY Post

A city bureaucrat made a $6 million mistake in preparing documents for a deal with a developer — and it could jack up the intended rents on more than 100 “affordable” apartments, one of Mayor de Blasio’s signature issues.

The city included the wrong document in an agreement with a developer on a massive, $386 million waterfront development in Brooklyn, according to court records. And now he has a legal loophole he can drive a truck through.

Developer David Bistricer, who is building 770 apartments in three towers on Commercial Street in Greenpoint, has allegedly refused to let the clerical error be corrected, forcing the city to file a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit to fix it.

The project, part of a building boom in Greenpoint, was announced nearly a decade ago but only recently broke ground.

The city claims it negotiated the inclusion of 200 permanent affordable housing units in exchange for $2 million in taxpayer cash and $8 million worth of air rights from a city-owned plot adjacent to Bistricer’s Waterview at Greenpoint LLC site. The developer is slated to build Box Street Park on the plot, which is currently used by the MTA.

The deal was supposed to give the city housing with “deeper affordability,” and allowed Waterview to more than double the square footage. That increased affordability is “valued at more than $6 million,” the city said in its legal filing.

 As the city and Waterview hashed out final details of the agreement in May, a staffer with the Department of Housing and Preservation Development included an incorrect list of affordable rents and qualifying incomes to be offered to tenants.

For example, the city intended for at least 10 of the affordable units to rent for as little as $732 to $1,067 depending on size. But the lowest rent listed in the faulty document is $1,529, court records show.

Eligible incomes also drastically changed. The city wanted incomes ranging from $40,000 and up for a family of three to qualify. The lowest eligible earnings for a family of three listed on the erroneous paperwork is about $81,000.

If the mistake goes uncorrected, “134 of the 200 affordable housing units would be offered at different (and significantly higher) rents with different (and significantly higher) income restrictions,” the city claims.

 Possibly the biggest joke about this scandal is that the greedhead got away with only offering 10 apartments for lower income earners (and not specifically low income earners)

Very Oniony hoax article concerning greenpoint pipeline

Brooklyn moped share is being used by reckless drivers

Greenpoint Post


North Brooklyn residents are speaking out about the dangerous misuse of a recently deployed fleet of rent-by-the-minute mopeds in the area.

The mopeds, put on the streets last month by tech startup company Revel, are reportedly being driven through local parks at high speeds, used without helmets, and taken on the highway.

Revel released its fleet of 1,000 mopeds across more than 20 neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens on May 29 after a successful test run in the Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick neighborhoods. 

Residents in North Brooklyn, however, have taken to social media and spoken to the Greenpoint Post about their apparent misuse since the official launch last month.

One resident, Angie Bee, says she witnessed two boys riding a Revel moped on the shoulder of the southbound BQE near the Metropolitan/Marcy entrance. Neither boy was wearing a helmet, Bee said, and both were laughing.

“My boyfriend pulled up next to them, shouted something about them being stupid for not wearing helmets and we took off,” Bee said. “They didn’t reply, they just stopped smiling.”

Revel mopeds max out at 29 miles per hour and users must agree to not drive them on the highway, bridges, or through tunnels, and to use the helmets provided with each bike, before being allowed to create an account on the company’s mobile app.

When signing up, applicants must provide a picture of their driver’s license, which the company uses to check the applicant’s driving record, as well as a selfie to prove that the license is their’s. Applicants must be 21 years of age and older.

Greenpoint resident Haley Papageorge, who lives across the street from McGolrick Park, says she recently observed a group of young men riding the mopeds through the park around 9 p.m. at night, honking their horns and yelling at pedestrians to “get out of the f***ing way.”

“I went to the window and saw about five scooters flying through the park from the Nassau and Russell entrance,” Papageorge said. “There were definitely people out walking.”

Phantom landlord terrorizes tenants by weaponizing construction

CBS NY

An apartment battle in the Brooklyn between rent-stabilized tenants and their landlord is getting heated.

Residents claim they’re being forced out with a construction nightmare and now they’re fighting back.

CBS2 first told you about the tenants at 97 and 99 Clay Street last week. They claim their landlord is using construction to harass them in an effort to drive them from their rent-stabilized apartments.

They add they’ve enduring leaking ceilings, construction debris, and the threat of rats in their building. Now they’re rallying for their rights.

 The owners are sidestepping accountability,” tenant George Manatos said.

The property is run by a company called “Perfect Management,” under LJC Towers LLC, but the address leads to this shipping store filled with non-descript mailboxes.

“You can’t talk to a mailbox, there’s no one to talk to and they don’t want you talking to them, they don’t even want you know who they are,” Williamsburg resident Phil Smrek explained.

Smrek says he endured the same kind of abuse and knows the game landlords play all too well; especially when it comes to construction violations.

“I’ve seen them pay the fines like parking tickets, $5,000, $10,000… when you’re talking about $20 million  properties, a $5,000 fine is nothing so there has to be actual prosecution and prison time for these landlords.

CBS2 reached out to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development which investigates tenant harassment. The agency said it rejects “mail drop addresses” like this location.

“Many times they have the buildings listed under DOB with one owner and under HPD with a different owner. They drop letters in their last names, they change their spelling, it’s very shrouded, they’re under LLC’s.

CBS2 checked the address for LJC Towers LLC on the HPD website; it’s not at Lee Avenue where they claim, but a building on Manhattan Avenue that says Perfect Management on the door.

CBS2’s Valerie Castro rang their buzzer to ask some questions, but while she was waiting they turned the lights out.

 This is where I got my internet handle from.

A deluge of development is headed our way

From Curbed:

According to a report from Localize.city, a platform that provides neighborhood insights based on available New York City data, the city has already saw more than 12,800 new housing units open in the first half of 2018 and another 31,000 are expected to open by 2020 (h/t Wall Street Journal). In all, it is projected that New York will gain 90,000 new apartments between 2016 and 2020.

Per its findings, Localize.city reports that the bulk of these new housing units are being constructed in the outer boroughs—primarily in Brooklyn and Queens. In fact, nearly 60 percent of the new units are opening in neighborhoods Brooklyn or Queens. The only Manhattan neighborhood where a significant portion of these 31,000 new units are being added is the Lower East Side. For instance, Long Island City was ranked first among the top ten neighborhoods that are booming with new units, and by 2020, it’s expected to welcome nearly 6,400 new apartments, though Greenpoint is expected to see the biggest burst of new units by 2020. Williamsburg trailed behind Long Island City, slated to welcome 3,470 new units and Bushwick came in third place.

So what’s driving the residential boom? According to Localize, much of it has to do with the tremendous amount of permits filed by developers back in 2015, when there was a rush to get them in before the state’s 421-a tax abatement expired in January 2016. Many of the developments that are under construction now are the result of those permits and the number of new units under construction are starting to level off, though there is an uptick in the amount of units now hitting the market.

But what’s more important than merely the number of new housing that a particular neighborhood will receive is the implications it can have on the community. “New construction could mean different things in different neighborhoods,” says the report. While in the short term, residents may have to deal with the nuisances that come with construction projects (noise, dust, congestion), the long term effects could result in a shift in demographics, burdened transit systems, overcrowded schools, tension between newcomers and longtime residents, and a change in architectural style within a neighborhood.

YA THINK?

Developers love flood zones

From the NY Times:

Rather than retreating from flood-prone neighborhoods after Hurricane Sandy, some developers are wading deeper into waterfront markets, especially in Queens and Brooklyn, where they are finding large parcels of land close to mass transit. These are calculated risks, bolstered by years of flood-zone price growth and unwavering demand.

Whether these new apartment buildings can endure another major storm does not seem to be a concern for most residents, who are glad to have new options in inventory-starved markets. Critics, though, ask whether the neighborhoods can withstand the surge of new development and the stress it will add to an already strained infrastructure. These new buildings might remain unscathed in a flood, they say, but what about the damage caused by the torrent around them?

Waterfront building has continued apace since Hurricane Sandy, and it could soon accelerate. As of January, there were roughly 12,350 new apartments under construction or planned in the city’s worst flood zones, according to Localize.city, a real-estate data website. That means 12.4 percent — or roughly one in eight new apartments — will be built in a high-risk flood zone, up from 10.7 percent in 2014, said Tal Rubin, the company’s vice president of research. And last year, 2,362 flood-zone units were completed — nearly double the number delivered in 2014, she said.

The largest share of these buildings is on the southern tip of Brooklyn, in areas like Brighton Beach, Coney Island and Gravesend, where a total of 45 projects — about a third of all flood-zone buildings — are rising. They represent a combined 1,571 units. Pricier precincts near Manhattan, like Long Island City in Queens, and Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, had the most units overall, with a total of 5,561 apartments in 20 buildings, accounting for 45 percent of new flood-zone units.

Kosciuszko Bridge: Out with the old, in with the new

From CBS 2:

The first span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Queens is open to traffic.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo marked the opening of the first span Thursday night with a dazzling LED light show synchronized to music.

The governor gave the audience a quick lesson on the correct pronunciation of the bridge’s name, that has long been a tongue twister and a headache for New Yorkers because of its constant traffic backups.

“I spent my childhood going back and forth across the bridge with my family,” Cuomo said. “The first time I heard my father use expletives was on this bridge.”

The new bridge is the first of two spans replacing the old, 78-year-old bridge connecting Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Maspeth, Queens. Traffic will go in both directions until the construction of the second span is complete, expected to be early 2020.

CBS visits Greenpoint parking trap

From CBS 2:

It is called the parking trap of Brooklyn, on Manhattan Avenue between Huron and India streets. Even a Department of Transportation driver and Greenpoint’s city councilman have fallen for it.

“I’ve definitely gotten one or two tickets there myself,” said Councilman Stephen Levin (D-33rd).

A sign is set up on the sidewalk, and it says two-hour metered parking is permitted from the sign to the end of the block. But on the other side of the sign, parking is not allowed – even though there is a space is all circled off by the same white line.

But the space on the other side of the sign is a no standing zone. There is another sign saying as much on the corner, where there used to be a bus stop.

The bust stop moved last year, but the parking rules stayed.

“The best solution is actually restoring all of the parking on that whole block because there’s no bus stop there now, and so they really should restore all the parking that they can, and not give people a major headache and $115 ticket,” added Councilman Levin.

Fed up drivers said they have tried reaching out to the city to no avail, so CBS2 decided to show the images to the Department of Transportation. A department representative told CBS2, “The DOT will look into adjusting the markings in this area to eliminate confusion indicating where drivers can park.”

In the meantime, there's a new app to help you pay your tickets!

Slumlord brothers sentenced to community service

From NY1:

Two Brooklyn landlords this week answered to charges of harassing and illegally forcing rent-stabilized tenants out of their apartments.

Joel and Aaron Israel own several buildings in Bushwick, Greenpoint and Williamsburg.

The brothers were arrested in April, accused of deliberately destroying the kitchens and bathrooms in several apartments under the guise of renovations.

Prosecutors charged they wanted to remove rent-stabilized tenants, to rent the apartments at market rate.

As part of a deal, the two have pleaded guilty to scheming to defraud and unlawful eviction.

Both will receive five years probation, perform community service, and pay a nearly a quarter-million dollars in restitution.

Homeless number explosion means dumping on a lot of neighborhoods

The ridiculous numbers of hotels being used as homeless shelters and the total mishandling of the homeless situation by both the de Blasio administration and the providers that get paid millions to not provide services has now become a citywide concern. Check these articles out:

Pols discuss homeless, immmigration at Bayside Hills Civic meeting

Electeds debunk rumors that new buildings in Astoria complex would house homeless

Easy Access to Heroin On Manhattan Ave. Tempts Shelter Residents: Director

Luxe hotel near celebrity homes sued for housing homeless

Coney Island A “Dumping Ground For Homeless Shelters” Locals Complain In Protest to Proposed Shelter

And finally, 2 editorials:

Can DHS be trusted?

De Blasio’s homeless ‘strategy’ isn’t a strategy at all

The man behind deBlasio's Maspeth shelter plan

Fauxgressive Lincoln Restler

This is Lincoln Restler. He basically is a "progressive" Democrat who wanted to be a council member. He decided against running in a primary in north Brooklyn, and instead helped run de Blasio's campaign and then took a "Senior Adviser" job with the administration. (Surprise, surprise.)

Below is a snapshot of campaign contributions to his account when he was running for Democratic District Leader. One fellow sure donated a shitload of money. Interestingly, as an employee of a small not-for-profit, he is not a very highly compensated individual and lives on a block between 2 homeless shelters. Would he really have more than $11,000 to blow on a low level district leader race?

The other highlighted name is Anna Smagacz. She works for Broadway Stages in accounts receivable. She made a rather large donation to de Blasio, $4,995, as well as this large one to Restler. She sure has a lot of money to spend on campaign donations. I truly applaud her interest in Brooklyn politics. Especially since she lives in New Jersey. She is also the managing agent for a number of John Ciafone's dumps.

I think our pal Preet should be taking a look at this stuff.

Anyway, what did Mr. Restler do to one of the neighborhoods that he wished to represent? He dumped a huge "couples shelter" there - that's what's proposed for YOU, Maspeth - which has been run poorly, and which the city has done nothing about. There are a litany of complaints coming from Greenpoint, and having walked around the area of this shelter, I can attest to the fact that it is bringing the neighborhood down tremendously. There are derelicts walking around screaming, cursing, fighting and pissing in the street - and those are just the women!

Get a load of this:

Two brutal attacks have blighted the nearby blocks since the new shelter arrived — someone fatally stabbed a man on Dupont Street near Manhattan Avenue in December, and another brute beat a local artist in front of the Clay facility in July.

Locals say the city and the site’s operators have made no attempts to curb bad behavior, allowing tenants go out for long smoke breaks after their 10 pm curfew without accountability.

But facility director Riquelma Moreno said she can’t lock up her tenants like prisoners, and claimed she can’t gauge how long a smoke break should be because she has never smoked.

The Clay Street shelter is just a block away from another refuge at 400 McGuiness Blvd. and neighbors claim the space between the two facilities has become a seedy hangout for unsavory characters — particularly 96 Clay St., where neighbors said they saw people smoking crack, and the deli next door.

Police have been just as unhelpful, locals said. One woman said that when one man who loiters around the deli threw cookies at her and yelled, “Die, b----, die!” the local precinct acted like she was the wacko.

“I called the 94 Precinct and they treated me like I was a nutcase,” she said, adding that the ruffians had also yelled violent sexual threats at her. “I am not a nutcase.”

In 2014, after deBlasio banned the opening of shelters due to community opposition and instead decided to book hotel rooms for the homeless, Lincoln Restler done fucked up big time:

De Blasio sent senior policy adviser Lincoln Restler to work with DHS on the hotel program, but Restler ignored senior staffers’ fears that the hotels could endanger homeless residents, the DHS source said.

As a result, there was a bloodbath.

You'd think de Blasio would have canned him by now, but since he's a loyal progressive - or rather, FAUXGRESSIVE - and does what he's told, that hasn't happened. If this is what Senior Advisers do, I'd hate to see what the Junior ones are responsible for.

Watch out, Maspeth, this guy will now be bringing his shitty brand of clueless neoliberalism to you in spades.

Ciafone canopy encroaches on tree pit

Here we are at "199 Green Court" in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. That familiar sign indicates that this is a John Ciafone building.

And one of his classic canopies is in full bloom here.

And it's anchored in an interesting location.

That's right, the post likely drills right down into a tree root because the genius decided that the presence of a public street tree pit should not be a deterrent to jazzing up his private property.

This just oozes class!

The many canopies of John Ciafone

202 Franklin Street Manor?

199 Green Street Court?

It looks like homeboy decided to class up his properties with outdoor shelter areas. Now how about fixing the insides?

Oxy suppliers shut down

From NBC:

A pharmacist, her husband and another man have been accused of hawking oxycodone out of a pair of New York City storefronts in a multi-million dollar drug scheme, authorities say.

The scheme was run out of two pharmacies, both named "Chopin Chemists" in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Ridgewood, Queens, both owned by the pharmacist, sources said. The pharmacist, Lilian Wieckowski, and her husband, Marcin Jakacki, allegedly conspired to sell the drugs out of the two pharmacies "any way they could," according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

"We've shut down one of the largest pill mills in the city," Bharara said.

Authorities say they began investigating Wieckowski's pharmacies after a civil audit revealed that the Brooklyn pharmacy was requesting more oxycodone from drug makers than anywhere else in the zip code -- which included several large, nationwide pharmacy chains. One year, Bharara said, Chopin Chemists in Greenpoint requested more than 250,000 more pills than the next pharmacy.

A leopard cannot change its spots

Here's an update from one of my favorite John Ciafone properties:

Not only have the signs multiplied, but now there's some new shadiness to report.

First of all, there may be some action soon with regard to the illegal sign complaints.

Then there is an illegal gas hookup that was discovered in 2006, but never followed up on.

But the latest bust comes due to a complaint about illegal excavation of the basement.

So that's why this dumpster full of concrete and dirt was out front!

It's not just about how a building looks

From New York Shitty:

Yesterday morning I had this article (which is screencapped at left) brought to my attention by my comrade over at Queens Crap. I pointed and clicked my way over to Brownstoner. This is what they elected to say about 173 Green Street:

An unusually shaped building designed by architect Natalia Donskoy is going up at 173 Green Street in Greenpoint. The front of the building is not straight across but angles in four directions.

The Alt-1 permit calls for four stories and seven units. Donskoy, a former employee of Robert Scarano, is becoming known for sometimes mold-breaking designs in North Brooklyn. What do you think of the design?

This, their post, left me absolutely flummoxed for a number of reasons. Follows are two:
1. Although it is clearly discernible in the second photo they elected to publish, no mention whatsoever is made of the Stop Work Orders. Yes, this property has not one — but two.
2. As it would happen I reside in the general area. I have seen the shitshow that is 173 Green unfold. A number of my neighbors/buddies have as well. Aesthetic considerations aside, we all agree on one thing: These Stop Work Orders issued were well-deserved.

After I got done taking the photographs which grace this post, I bumped into a friend of mine who happens to live on the same block as 173 Green Street. A neighbor, if you will. A neighbor who informed me that he/she has in fact lodged a number of complaints about 173 Green Street. Among the things this person has observed:

• Construction in violation of a Stop Work Order— at 6:00 on Sunday morning.
• Violation of Stop Work Orders has been the modus operandi at 173 Green Street. One time even the police showed up.
• The adjacent Green Oaks Club property was inadvertently (?) divested of some of its aluminum siding. Those of you who know of this community’s affect for this product understand that this is probably a hanging offense.
• The use of step ladders for workers to get from floor to floor. What would OSHA say about this?

And a litany of other offenses which generally make people upset and call 311.

The leaning camera of Greenpoint

I came across this [fake] red light camera at Meeker Ave and McGuiness Blvd this past weekend.

Google Street View from last September shows the camera in the same position.

While I'm not a booster of red light cameras, I gotta wonder why the City has allowed this camera to stay like this for so long. If they don't want to fool people anymore, they should at least remove the eyesore.

More Ciafone violations at 154 Huron Street

Ah, 154 Huron Street in Greenpoint. Another John Ciafone special. This one is right next door to the HQ of the North Brooklyn Development Group. (This is the group charged with determining who gets the money from the Exxon settlement. John's wife, Gina Argento sits on the board and votes to send money to the boat club residing on her property.)

Anyway, Johnny boy has quite a few outstanding issues and fines to pay on this one.

This one is my favorite violation. Good thing Gina was just appointed to the Mayor's Fund to Advance NYC, otherwise he might end up on the slumlord list again.

Does anyone believe this guy has an office at 1 Rockefeller Plaza?