Tony the Tiger

NY Post 

Former Queens Democratic Councilman Tony Avella and Republican Kristy Marmorato in The Bronx won their primary ranked choice races albeit by very tight margins according to the New York City Board of Elections on Wednesday.

In the Democratic primary in northeast Queens’ 19th Council District, Avella won by just 123 votes — 2,865 votes or  51.1% to 2,742 votes or 49.9% for Christopher Bae.

Avella will have a rematch against Republican Councilwoman Vicki Paladino, who defeated him two years ago. He also served in the state Senate.

Richard Lee wants to be your Baby Bear

Welp, I never thought I'd see a candidate play off the Goldilocks story, but here we have it.

Avella is all in

From the Wall Street Journal:

State Sen. Tony Avella, a former member of a now-defunct group of breakaway Democrats who lost to John Liu in his district’s Democratic primary in September, announced Monday that he will still run for his seat in the general election.

The Queens senator said in a video that he will run as a candidate for the Independence Party and the Women’s Equality Party.

Mr. Liu, a former New York City comptroller, beat Mr. Avella in the primary after announcing his own last-minute run. However, Mr. Avella said that he will have strong support in the general election from voters who couldn’t vote in the primary.

“Although I was disappointed in the results of the Democratic primary, I have been astounded by the level of support I have received since then from all aspects of our community,” he said.

Like Mr. Liu — who made a last-minute push to get on the Democratic ballot this summer after encouragement from a grass-roots group — Mr. Avella said residents urged him to continue his campaign.

Avella, Peralta defeated in anti-IDC votes

From the Queens Chronicle:

New York State is a different place today. It's littered with the wreckage of what once was the Independent Democratic Conference.

And nowhere was the rubble deeper than in Queens, where a pair of state Senators were ousted in Tuesday's Democratic primaries by challengers who dubbed them traitors to their party.

In District 13, it was four-term state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) who lost his re-election bid to former mayoral aide Jessica Ramos — a fierce critic of her "turncoat" opponent's IDC membership.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Ramos had won 12,181 vote to Peralta's 10,021 — good for a 10-percentage point margin.

In District 11, fellow four-term incumbent state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) was defeated by former city Comptroller John Liu in a rematch of 2014's Democratic primary — a race Avella won by a mere 568 votes.

This time around, it was Liu who came out victorious, defeating the incumbent 12,133 ballots to 10,846 — a 6-point margin.

The funny thing is unless there's a flip in the Senate then there won't be any "progressive legislation" getting passed in Albany because Simcha Felder won re-election easily. Basically all that happened is that the greater Bayside area voted for overdevelopment and corruption. Smart move!

A very entertaining debate

From NY1:

Errol Louis moderated a debate between challenger John Liu and incumbent Tony Avella, in a fierce state Senate race for the 11th district in Queens. The candidates debate their fundraising ethics, and discuss if they would support congestion pricing.

Plane noise is killing us

From PIX11:

For years, the Federal Aviation Administration gave tennis fans first-class treatment.

During the U.S. Open, the FAA diverted planes from nearby LaGuardia Airport, away from Arthur Ashe Stadium during the tournament. But in 2012, the tennis climb, as the flight path is known, stuck.

The decision permanently sent airplanes over the densely populated areas of northern Queens during takeoff.

"It's pretty loud, sometimes you think it's just a few meters above your roof," said Daniel Vasquez, who lives in Bayside.

Vasquez said he's constantly woken up by the rumbling of planes flying overhead. Now, according to a new study out of Columbia University, it turns out that turbulence may be causing more damage than anyone realized.

"I think the most damaging and shocking is the fact that given the noise impact, the air pollution impact, the noise from the planes, you could lose one year off your life," Sen. Tony Avella said.

Avella represents the impacted neighborhoods and said the FAA committed a classic double fault when it made the switch permanent. Not only was there no environmental impact study, but he said, the FAA didn't even bother to let the community know about the switch.

Avella: Unsafe trees need removal, now

From PIX11:

Queens State Senator Tony Avella is calling on the Parks Department to respond to hundreds of constituent complaints about dangerous city trees in front of their homes.

Avella said he conducted a tree survey in February, and received 700 responses from homeowners claiming dead trees or damaged sidewalks. He then submitted 700 complaints to the Parks Department. Of those complaints, Avella said about 600 of them have been logged with the 311 system. He said only about 20 have resulted in tree removals.

"Homeowners said they're scared for the safety of their family and their property," said Avella.

Avella said the complaints remain largely unanswered because he said the Parks Department is understaffed and underfunded. "I know at least one homeowner is waiting over a year for a dead tree to be removed," said Avella.

Johnny vs. Tony

From City Limits:

The two men agree on most policy issues. They both disagree, for instance, with Mayor de Blasio’s bid to change the entrance process for the city’s specialized high schools. Voters will, of course, decide what the race is about, but if the candidates have anything to say about it, the contest will come down to whether the supposed practical benefits of Avella’s having joined the IDC outweigh the allege damage that did to the chances for a Democratic senate.

Both men appeared on Max & Murphy on WBAI this Wednesday. Below are each of their interviews:

Damaged sidewalks remain after 4 months

From CBS 2:

The huge slabs of concrete look like they belong at a construction site. Instead, the slabs are at the corner of 32nd Avenue and 168th Street in North Flushing.

Residents say the sidewalk has been destroyed since March when the city removed the trees damaged by winter storms, but never fixed the sidewalk.

Yet another turd that won't stay flushed

From the NY Post:

Scandal-scarred former New York City Comptroller John Liu is attempting a political comeback — emboldened by the stunning upset pulled off last week by Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sources said.

Liu and his hard-left supporters from TrueBlueNY are racing to gain 3,000 signatures so he can run against incumbent Sen. Tony Avella of Queens in the Democratic primary Sept. 13.

The deadline to submit the petitions is Thursday at midnight, according to the city’s Board of Elections.

Avella is the last member of the Independent Democratic Conference to be challenged by a Democrat, even after the mainstream party called a truce with the rogue group that aligned itself with the GOP in a power-sharing agreement.

Trying to end a pervasive problem

From CBS 2:

The Department of Sanitation said it is illegal to posts signs or ads on poles, boxes, highways, elevated subways or similar public locations. The department said it does give out fines ranging from $75 to $300.

A spokesperson added that research has shown most of the companies use a prepaid phone, which makes it difficult to identify a responsible party. But they do also subpoena phone companies.

Avella said it’s not enough.

“Acknowledging the problem and not fixing it isn’t getting us anywhere. I’m willing to sit down with Sanitation and especially the phone companies,” he said. “We have to end this, because this is out of control.”

Grymes called five of the numbers on various signs, and someone answered at each number.

She got two hang-ups, but three others said they work for legitimate businesses that do offer money for cars and car parts. They would not consent to being recorded and would not give the name of the business or did not know it. Two said the sanitation department does fine them often for the signs, but that doesn’t stop them.

Avella said you shouldn’t take up the offers and the Better Business Bureau also recommends checking with them first to see if the business has any reviews or complains on file. That is, if you know the name.

The sanitation department said a special unit removes illegal signs unless it’s too dangerous or difficult, then the Department of Transportation does it. You can call 311 to report an illegal sign.

Developers causing low-rise grief

From QNS:

On May 3, local civic leaders and state Senator Avella held a press conference to call attention to the trend — observed in areas including Bayside, College Point and Bellerose — where semi-attached houses are being re-built by developers to tower over the adjacent home.

The group called on the city to establish new building and zoning codes that protect semi-attached and row houses from this “inappropriate construction.”

“There’s nothing to stop this,” Avella said, referencing a photo of new home built up against a smaller residence in Queens. A firewall was built to separate the two structures.

This construction causes the property value of the attached home to plummet, Avella claimed, and opens adjacent homeowners up to ventilation and quality-of-life concerns.

“The only thing [the homeowner] can do is then sell to somebody else who’s going to do something like this on the other end,” Avella said. “We have to come up with some sort of proposal where at least the adjacent homeowner has some rights.”

Pipes run dry in Whitestone

From the Times Ledger:

Residents of 2nd Avenue in Whitestone said they have been living each day not knowing if they will have water due to insufficient pipes.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) was joined by eight homeowners from 2nd Avenue to call on the city and the DEP to address serious quality-of-life issues regarding their water. Avella said that for years eight homes on 2nd Avenue between 147th Street and 147th Place have dealt with flooding conditions and poor water pressure, if they have had water at all. Residents said the flooding issue was resolved when the city Department of Transportation resurfaced their road but the city has not addressed the lack of water.

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Avella said he has reached out to DEP since 2013 about the water problem and has gotten zero response.

Residents are blaming the lack of water on an inadequate, two-inch wide water supply pipe that is not able to service all of the homes on the block. While the DEP has acknowledged in the past that the pipes are not wide enough, Avella contends the DEP has refused to take any action.

When it rains, it floods in Bayside

From NBC:

Residents in Bayside, Queens, says paving crews did such a poor job resurfacing roads that it now regularly floods when it rains. Roseanne Colletti reports.

College Point hotel raises concerns

From the Times Ledger:

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) joined concerned College Point residents who are unhappy with a proposed hotel Tuesday afternoon.

Avella and community members denounced the plans to construct a six-story hotel at 14-61 127th St., the former site of a single-story building. The rally comes weeks after Avella wrote three letters to the city Department of Buildings expressing concerns that the hotel, located in an M1-1 zoning district, would be totally inappropriate. In his letters he pointed out that the traffic situation in College Point is already bad due to the narrow streets and there is already over-development in the area.

He said he has yet to receive a sufficient response from DOB, but the agency did agree that turning a one-story building into a six-story hotel should not be considered an “alteration” as the developer originally claimed.

Residents at the rally said the hotel would be totally out of character with the surrounding neighborhood. Avella and community leaders have held multiple meetings with the owner of the property in hopes of coming to an agreement on a better use of the land without success. Avella said at one point the developer agreed to an alternative use for the location but quickly changed his mind and went back to his plans for a hotel at the site.

There are only 2 reasons you would put a hotel in College Point and neither of them are good ones.

Waterpointe worked out?

From the Times Ledger:

After the Whitestone community raised concerns about soil contamination, elected officials and local leaders met with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and developers of the Whitestone Waterpointe project to discuss the future of the venture moving forward.

Last week, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal (D-Flushing) and members of Community Board 7 and the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Civic Association, were able to talk to DEC and developers from the Edgestone Group about key issues facing the 18-acre waterfront property, located at 151st Place and 6th Road.

Avella wrote a letter to DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos requesting a meeting with the commissioner to find out why DEC permitted Edgestone Group to modify the soil cover requirement from Track 2 Residential to Track 4 Restricted-Residential and why DEC allowed the change without first discussing it with elected officials, CB 7 or community members.

Last week’s meeting allowed for a dialogue and Avella said that while there are still a few items that remain to be concluded, he and Rosenthal were able to talk the developer into agreeing to bring in additional “unrestricted” or “virgin” soil so that homeowners will be able to grow vegetables in their garden. Avella said they were also able to have the developers agree that all monies placed in escrow to maintain the environmental monitoring system, which will require a yearly report, will remain with the homeowners association at the end of the original ten-year escrow agreement term.

For now Avella and Rosenthal said they will urge the developer to increase the monies to be held in escrow to ensure that the new homeowners will not be burdened by the expense of the environmental monitoring system. While the senator said he was pleased that the developer agreed to put in unrestricted soil, he is convinced that the current dollar amount planned for the escrow account is inadequate and will prove to be too little over time.

Spa Castle in trouble again

From the Times Ledger:

A controversial spa in College Point is in trouble once again.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) received a letter from the New York State Department of Labor informing him that Spa Castle, located at 31-10 11th Ave., had been fined $1,000 for violating the Child Labor Statute.

Labor Department Commissioner Roberta Reardon wrote to Avella Jan. 30 about an investigation that was completed in December 2017.

According to Reardon, investigators visited Spa Castle on various occasions and times looking for violations of state laws. “After meticulous review of Spa Castle’s wage and hour records, we substantiated a violation of Article 4, the Child Labor Statute,” she told the senator in the letter.

The statute bans minors from working late hours on school nights.

Reardon said the spa was served a notice of violation on Nov. 4 with a penalty of $1,000, which they paid in full. The investigators were not able to substantiate any allegations regarding overtime.

Problem Whitestone lot padlocked

From the Queens Tribune:

The city’s Department of Buildings (DOB) has padlocked a residential lot on 24th Avenue between 149th Street and 150th Street in Whitestone that was being illegally used for commercial storage.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) had been petitioning multiple city agencies for nearly three years to have the lot closed. The site had been an area of concern for neighbors, who complained about a multitude of hazards emanating from the tract of land.

“I was very happy to learn that this nuisance was finally padlocked after years of requests from myself and neighbors who wanted to see something done,” Avella said. “Padlocking certainly does not completely eliminate the problems created by the illegal commercial use of the lot, but this will certainly protect the community from a number of hazardous conditions created by the illegal storage.”

The lot is owned by Whitestone contractor Salvatore Valenza and was being used to store trucks, construction equipment and debris, despite being located in a residential zone and situated directly between two residential properties.

Nearby residents complained about the loud, early-morning growls of truck engines and the unsanitary conditions of the lot’s strewn construction debris.

College Point street is flooded 24/7

From the Times Ledger:

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) joined residents of Powells Cove Boulevard last Friday to call on the city to finally address a major flooding condition that residents say has plagued the community for over 20 years.

Avella and residents stood on the corner of Powells Cove Blvd. and 126th St. around a large pool of water that amassed from rainfall earlier in the week that had frozen over and showed no signs of going away.

According to residents who have dealt with this issue for years, they expect the floodwaters to stay there well into spring. Avella said he has been working with residents for the last two years to bring the issue to the attention to different city agencies.

Avella said the location has been inspected by multiple city agencies, including the Department of Transportation, which blamed the flooding on a lack of storm sewers at the location, and claimed that the Department of Environmental Protection must address that before DOT can address the road issues.

Over the summer, Avella brought the issues up to the DEP, which said it would open a 90-day investigation of the location — but to this date, neither he nor the residents have heard what that investigation concluded.

Residents wary of street trees

From NBC:

A survey in Queens drew 1,250 responses from residents voicing safety concerns about tree conditions. Roseanne Colletti reports.