After the floods

 

QNS 

 The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) and the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) announced Wednesday, July 31, that they have started their planned $51.8 million infrastructure project in Rosedale.

The project, which the DDC is managing, will address reoccurring flooding in the flood-prone neighborhood, among other plans. Project highlights will include improved tap water distribution, reconstructed streets and new transportation improvements in the area. The projected completion date is scheduled for winter 2026.

 

The project will add 92 catch basins and upgrade or install nearly 1.5 miles of local storm sewers and over half a mile of sanitary sewers. The new catch basins will help to drain precipitation from the roadways, while 13 underground storm chambers will further boost water holding capacity. 

About 2 miles of water mains will be upgraded from 6-8-inch cast iron pipes to more durable 8-12-inch ductile iron pipes. Additionally, 14 new fire hydrants will be added and 21 existing fire hydrants will be upgraded to guarantee firefighters’ access to the city’s water supply during emergencies.

Rosedale roadways and sidewalks will also receive a major fix. The project calls for the reconstruction of 36 blocks with new roadways and the replacement of over 4.5 miles of damaged and/or broken curbs. The city also plans to fix 4.5 acres of sidewalks. Additionally, 130 ADA-compliant pedestrian ramps will be constructed in the are

 

LIRR discounts for some Queens residents

From the Times Ledger:

The MTA will temporarily offer discounted rates with a pilot program for commuters traveling between Brooklyn and Queens from Atlantic Terminal on the Long Island Rail Road to experiment how offering lower fares will affect ridership.

The study, called Atlantic Ticket, will offer lower rates to LIRR riders who commute through the Brooklyn hub in an attempt to fill seats on these trains, which have greater capacity than those traveling to and from Penn Station.

The stations in Queens where commuters can take advantage of $5 rates at all hours are in Hollis, Jamaica, Laurelton, Locust Manor, Queens Village, Rosedale and St. Albans.

The $5 fare will represent a 51 percent reduction in price from the peak hour charge of $10.25 and a 33 percent decrease from the off-peak $7.50, the MTA said.

The MTA said this would make up for the $2.75 a customer would have to pay for a transfer to the subway.

Rosedale flooding is out of control

From PIX11:

For almost 20 years, every time it rains really hard, the street in front of Angela Dennis's home turns into a lake of rainwater, eight inches at its deepest, spilling over onto the sidewalks on 148th Avenue, just off of Francis Lewis Boulevard.

The flooding damages cars, sidewalks and on weekdays the X 63 bus can't get through.

Seniors in the neighborhood have a particularly tough time.

Self-described community activist Carl Patterson is so frustrated with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and their community affairs coordinator Karen Ellis.

"They sawed a cut in the middle, but they didn't' come back to finish the job," Patterson said. "It's been three years. This is a quality of life issue."

Neighbors say the city started the make repairs and then abandoned the project and abandoned these folks who say they just don't want a swimming pool in front of their homes.

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.

Housing inspector illegally converted his cellar

From the DNA Info:

A housing inspector endangered the lives of his tenants by violating the same building codes the city employed him to enforce, the Queens District Attorney’s office announced Tuesday.

Derrick Allen, 58, a Brooklyn inspector for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development who owns two buildings in Queens, was charged Tuesday with illegally converting the cellar space in his Rosedale and St. Albans properties into dangerous living quarters, according to the DA’s office.

The units — hooked up to illegal gas and water lines — lacked adequate exits and natural light, which District Attorney Richard Brown noted made the residencies dangerous not only for tenants, but emergency responders as well.

“Such conversions jeopardize the lives of not only the buildings’ residents but firefighters and other personnel who in responding to an emergency are confronted by a maze of rooms with no way out,” said Brown in a statement.

“As a code enforcement inspector himself, the defendant should have known better.”

The Housing Department first became aware of Allen’s practices as a landlord on Aug. 18 when an illegal tenant in his Rosedale building called 311 to complain about building maintenance, according to the DA.

Housing inspectors arrived one week later to find four illegal single-room residencies in the basement with access to only one exit, as well as a shared kitchen with an illegal gas stove and a bathroom with a hole in the ground where a toilet once stood, the DA said.

Tenants were ordered to vacate the premises immediately due to the unsafe circumstances, the DA said.

Monster house blighting neighborhood

MONSTER HOUSE at 233 street and 130th Ave on the border of Laurelton and Rosedale, has haunted this Queens neighborhood since 2008.
Now this MONSTER HOUSE has given birth to a GARBAGE DUMP and a JUNK YARD.

The Queens Borough Commissioner has refused to do anything outside of the stop work order placed on the MONSTER HOUSE in 2009.

This blight has plagued this neighborhood for over EIGHT (8) YEARS.

Scam artists squatting in woman's home

From WPIX:

Corrine Butt decided to rent her downstairs apartment to tenants who would have some of their rent paid by the federally sponsored Section 8 program. She chose Paula Rivers and her family.

For the first year, Corrine says things were great. Then they stopped paying on time according to Corrine. Now she hasn’t gotten a cent from them in six months. And to top it off, Corrine says everyone in Rivers’ family is employed!

“I served notice in December,” Corrine told me. “And she started to bang on the floors at night when she comes home from work.”

And that’s far from the worst of it. Corrine says Paula slammed a door on her finger. They’re intentionally breaking things and then taking her to court to complain. Police have been called, complaints filed. It’s costing Corrine time and money — and maybe her health.

DEP: No money for storm drain

From NBC:

A portion of 148th Avenue in Rosedale lacks a storm drain, leading to flooding even when there isn't a lot of rainfall, according to residents. Checkey Beckford reports.

And the Courier has other crappy DEP news:

Despite recent attempts by the Department of Environmental Protection to fix a sinking section of a Lindenwood street, the pavement at the corner of 79th Street and 157th Avenue has again sunk by as much as a foot.

The corner is totally unusable to cars, and residents worry about pedestrians walking there and vehicles possibly getting stuck in the dip.

“The hole has gotten worse than ever since they came in to fix it,” said Joe Thompson, a Lindenwood resident and president of the Howard Beach Civilian Observation Patrol. “We visited the hole this week and saw a large puddle completely frozen over. What if someone slips into that because the water can’t drain correctly, or what if a car makes too fast of a turn around the corner not realizing the hole [is there]? It’s dangerous.”

The DEP came in October to work on the street after The Courier first reported on the situation. They did extensive work on the infrastructure of the pipes below ground. This included fixing the connection of the catch basin and sewer at the location. They also inspected the adjacent ground water and sewer infrastructure and found everything to be working normally.

Once the repair was completed, the road was resurfaced from 80th Street down to the sinking area. But, almost three months after the work was completed, some of the resurfacing has begun to sink in, creating potholes on the block, and the corner still remains a problem.

Water won't drain in Rosedale

From PIX11:

On Tuesday night, DEP Crews were on 148th Ave. between Francis Lewis Boulevard and 259th Street in Rosedale, Queens to pump out the water.

A spokesperson for DEP told PIX11 News:

“The existing drainage infrastructure in the neighborhood does not have the capacity to handle to amount of rainfall that fell today. DEP crews came out here tonight and pumped out any standing water. In addition, they are coordinating with the Department of Transportation on an upcoming capital project that will add sewers and regrade the roadway to help drain precipitation in the future.”

Fresh Meadows isn't having such a good time of it either. And why is that? Shouldn't the zoning have been designed to meet the existing infrastructure?

A better bus ride for southeastern Queens

From the Daily News:

Relief may be coming to some Rosedale and Far Rockaway straphangers who have spent years suffering through long and crowded commutes.

The MTA wants to create a new, limited-stop bus line — the Q114 — to connect subway riders in Jamaica to those far-flung Queens neighborhoods.

"We have the worst commute," said City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Far Rockaway). "You can almost get to Florida by plane faster than you can get to Manhattan."

Changes could come as early as Aug. 31 if all goes smoothly at a hearing planned for next Monday at the MTA’s headquarters in Manhattan.

Bus riders currently use the Q111 and the Q113, which has a local and a limited-stop line from Guy R. Brewer Blvd. into Far Rockaway.

The new Q114 route would replace the Q113 local with fewer stops between Jamaica and Rosedale to help hasten the trip.

Sandy causes foreclosure spike 6 months later

From the Daily News:

Hurricane Sandy's helping turn Queens into foreclosure city.

The storm-slapped borough saw foreclosure notices spike to 566 in April - a whopping 1,186% increase compared with last April - as hobbled homeowners could not keep up with their mortgage payments, a new report from RealtyTrac shows.

"Sandy is a huge factor," Christie Peale, executive director of the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, which helps at-risk homeowners, told the Daily News.

"People do not have enough money to rebuild their homes, pay for temporary housing and keep up with their mortgage payments."

Peale said she has been seeing an uptick in preforeclosure notices in Howard Beach, Rosedale and Far Rockaway.

"Hundreds of homes are not saleable," said Emmett Laffey, CEO of real estate brokerage Laffey Fine Homes, which has offices in Queens.

Peale urged homeowners hurt by Sandy to seek out programs that might provide some relief.

"Call 311 to get connected to the Center for New York City Neighborhoods," she said. "We have housing counselors and lawyers who can help."

Other factors are adding to Queens' foreclosure woes. The borough was already the epicenter of the city's foreclosure crisis before Sandy hit.

Queens' courts had experienced an especially big backlog in foreclosures following the robo-signing scandal.

Now, in the wake of the national mortgage settlement that laid down guidelines for the foreclosure process, the wheels are turning again.

Neighborhoods hit hard by foreclosure notices in April included Rosedale, Flushing and St. Albans.

Foreclosures double in southeastern Queens

From the NY Post:

A new wave of foreclosures is hammering middle-class homeowners in Queens.

Southeastern Queens neighborhoods such as St. Albans have been reeling since 2008, when the first wave of the foreclosure crisis hit, ensnaring many low-income homeowners with subprime loans.

Filings fell in 2011, but a dramatic spike in the 2012 foreclosure rate is spreading the pain to middle-class residents with higher-quality loans.

These homeowners should be the backbone of a stable middle class in Queens, but they’ve been undone by high unemployment and unyielding bankers.

The new face of foreclosures includes couples of whom one spouse loses a job — and the only replacement is part-time work for lower pay. Many owners of two-family homes are falling behind on mortgage payments after their tenants become unemployed.

Foreclosures jumped 19 percent in New York City and 164 percent in Queens in 2012 versus 2011, as The Post reported last week. Four of the hardest-hit sections of Queens — St. Albans, Rosedale, Cambria Heights and Queens Village — saw foreclosure rates more than double, according to RealtyTrac. More than 2 percent of housing units in those areas are in foreclosure, outstripping the national average of 1.39 percent.

Nightmare neighbors still hoarding

From the Queens Chronicle:

The property at 243-14 132 Road is littered with seemingly worthless items including broken furniture, buckets, pieces of wood, old cosmetics, tools and more.

“They use a U-Haul all the time, and they dump the stuff right on the lawn, and in the middle of the street, and then, I guess, they return the truck,” said neighbor H. Gardner, who asked that her first name not be published because she is embarrassed by the conditions next door. “With the U-Haul and all this garbage, that means they have to drag it up, past my driveway, so I had to get a rake and clean the debris because I need to pull my car out and I’m not sure if there’s nails and stuff.”

The property is an eyesore that neighbors say they are tired of looking at, especially when all the other homes on the street are rubbish-free with finely manicured lawns. They claim the property has always looked that way, ever since homeowner Elaine Ranger moved in about 10 years ago.

When the Chronicle first reported on the house back in April, Ranger and her daughter, who would not give her name, said they were in the process of spring cleaning and maintained that most of the items on the property were useful and the rest was just awaiting pickup by the Department of Sanitation.

Last Thursday, another woman who also claimed to be Ranger’s daughter but would not give her name, said the clutter was scattered about because she had recently emptied a storage unit and needed time to photograph the items as evidence in a pending lawsuit.

“I am not saying it’s excusable, but that’s the reason why it’s here,” she said. But she later noted, “I collect stuff. Things come in and out.”

Ranger faces eight alleged Environmental Control Board violations for construction work without a permit and quality-of-life infractions with fines totaling $6,900, and two Department of Buildings construction violations, just as she had in April, when the Chronicle first reported the story.

The city Department of Health issued a violation to Ranger in 2011 for improper storage of items and harborage conditions conducive to rats, a spokesman for the agency said back in April. The DOH and the Department of Sanitation did not respond to emails requesting information about any new violations.

Click on the DOB link provided. This one is a real doozy...

SWO & TRO on bowling alley conversion

"DOB placed a Full Stop Work Order (Entered on 09/24/2008 at 14:08:59 by Badge # 1962 Gonzalez Robert, Bin: 4284059; Complaint # 4373342. See also Complaint # 4350617) on 245-02 Merrick Blvd., Rosedale, New York, Block: 13209 Lot: 50 and 60, yet DOB allowed construction to proceed.

On September 15, 2012, 245-02 Merrick Blvd. LLC removed the chain link fence on its neighbor boundary and installed a fence on the neighbor’s property. The neighbor sued at the New York State Supreme at Queens County and obtained a TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER entered by Hon. Joseph J. Esposito on September 18, 2012 (a hearing was heard on October 4, 2012 and the TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER was ordered to continue). We are now watching 245-02 Merrick Blvd. LLC and its cohorts at DOB."  - Anonymous

What I have gathered from looking at the info on DOB's site is that a defunct bowling alley was supposed to have been converted into a drug store back in 2008; the DOB approved those plans. Then for some reason, the owner withdrew that and applied for a demo permit and new building. What's been going on since is anyone's guess.  Here's the whole history of permits.

Home or junkyard?

From the Queens Chronicle:

Green couch cushions covering a car in the driveway, large empty flower pots, a pile of unknown items under a blue tarp and a stack of metal along the side entrance — these are just some of the things outside a house in Rosedale. Neighbors say they have been complaining to the city about the unsightly mess, but have made no progress, and have given up hope.

When questioned about her house at 243-14 132 Road, owner Elaine Ranger and her daughter, who would not give her name, said they are in the process of spring cleaning and maintain that most of the items on the property are useful and the rest is just awaiting pickup by the city Department of Sanitation.

“A lot of this stuff is going out. You have things over time, you change out,” Ranger’s daughter said. “If you had come here last week you would have seen a lot of things were taken away as garbage.”

But several neighbors say there have been piles of rubbish outside the house ever since Ranger moved in — and they have pictures to prove it.

“It’s been hell for the last 10 years,” said H. Gardner, who lives next door, adding “It’s changed my whole quality of life. I can’t use my yard. ... Neighbors have come and cussed me out thinking that I live there.”

Several people complained about Ranger’s seven dogs, which they say are often allowed to run loose in the neighborhood — something Ranger denies — knocking over trash cans, defecating on people’s lawns and in one case biting an elderly man who lived in the neighborhood.

Rambling in Rosedale

Click photo for story

On the trail of downed wires in Rosedale

Who's going to clean up this mess?

According to an update on the news last night, the owner cleaned it all up yesterday afternoon. Turning to the media works.

Rug seller in big trouble

From the Times Ledger:

A Rosedale rug dealer who violated the trade embargo with Iran was ordered to be held in prison and pay the federal government hundreds of thousands of dollars for his illegal sales, the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan said.

Reza Safarha, 55, an Iranian immigrant, was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, conspiracy to launder money and stealing government money, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

A federal judge convicted Safarha, who owned the KP House of Carpets, at 134-35 Brookville Blvd., in February for sending nearly $300,000 in cash to Iran in violation of the trade embargo with the nation that has been in effect since 1995.

The immigrant used an informal money-transferring system known as a “hawala,” where funds never physically cross boundaries through a banking system, the U.S. attorney’s office said. The funds are transferred from one country by a hawala operator and distributed to recipients in another nation by the operator’s associates.

Rosedale rezoned

From the Times Ledger:

The Rosedale community has won the fight to keep the neighborhood from losing its small, residential character after the City Council voted to rezone the neighborhood last Thursday afternoon.

In a unanimous vote, the full Council decided to change the designations of 260 blocks in the southeast Queens neighborhood after years of urging from residents. Councilman James Sanders (D-Laurelton) said that for too long developers would take advantage of the zoning, which was more than 40 years old, and build large, multifamily dwellings in the neighborhood that has been predominantly populated with single- and two-family houses.

“Our communities are being threatened with destruction by developers who are only interested in making a quick buck, with absolutely no regard for the well-being of the community,” he said in a statement. “The previous zoning rules were abhorrent and allowed just about anything to built in our neighborhood. Not anymore. Today we took a stand to protect our community.”

The plan covers the area bounded to the west by 235th Street, Brookville Boulevard and the Cross Island Expressway; to the south by 149th Avenue, Huxley Street and Craft Avenue; to the east by Hook Creek Boulevard; and to the north by the Belt Parkway.

Homes south of the parkway were zoned R3-2 and allowed for construction of multiple family homes to be built on properties. Now those zones will be designated R3A, R3-1 and R3X, which only allow for one- and two-family homes.

“We will not allow sleazy developers to ravage our communities by taking down stately mansions and putting up cheese-box houses unfit for the designation of a home. We are seeking rules and regulations that say if you take down a one-family home, you can only put up a one-family home,” the councilman said.

They'll figure a way around that. And sadly, you'll probably help them. Although I do like the term "cheese-box house".