Happy Valentine's Day from Tommy Huang

From today's BSA calendar:

252-12-BZ
Akerman Senterfitt, LLP
39-39 223rd Street & 223-01/15/19 Mia Drive, Queens
Variance (§72-21) to legalize four single family homes which do not comply with the rear yard requirements, ZR §23-47. R1-2 zoning district. Community Board #11Q

You can read the entire backstory on these houses here.

Behold the most beautiful yard you've ever seen!

You may remember this post from 2014 regarding the property located on 60th Drive in Maspeth. I was told at the time to wait until the owner was done because it would be the nicest yard we've ever seen. Well, here you go. That's a humdinger of a horizontal enlargement.

It's a good thing I'm getting my allergy shots what with all that green on the property!

How many garages does one family need?

What's with the new people moving into LIC?

From LIC Post:

Several Long Island City residents squared off at Community Board 2′s monthly meeting Thursday as they debated whether Vernon Blvd. bars/restaurants should be permitted to use their rear yards.

Two, well-organized camps put forward their differing views—and the controversial issue was far from settled.

Several speakers, many of whom live adjacent to Vernon Blvd establishments, spoke out against rear yards and supported the current policy that has led to most of them being closed. They claimed that neighboring residents could hear every little restaurant noise – such as a fork being dropped – since the rear yards were like echo chambers.

Furthermore, those opposed to rear yards said that they were entitled to raise their families in relative peace and quiet — and that the bars/restaurants were not suffering as a result of the board’s long-time policy of requiring businesses to shut their yards.

However, a number of speakers, a little younger in age, asked for these residents to be more tolerant of noise, arguing that it was hurting small businesses as wells as the vitality of the neighborhood. They claimed that Long Island City is no longer the sleepy neighborhood of yesteryear but one that is evolving into a hotspot such as Williamsburg.

Furthermore, supporters of the use of backyard space complained that the public hearings/meetings were poorly advertised, which put the general public at a disadvantage when it came to putting forward their input.

“We have heard a lot about quietness and family but Long Island City is changing whether we like it or not,” said Mark Barry, a Long Island City resident. “It happened to Williamsburg, Greenpoint and now it is happening to LIC and Astoria. We either adapt with the changes or we fall behind.”

Fall behind what? Is this a race between neighborhoods to attract the biggest losers?

And what is this about public hearings not being well advertised? Nothing about CB2 meetings changes. They're regularly held at the same location on a monthly basis. Out of all the issues that have come up at CB2, this was the first one that got these folks to attend?

I've been up Vernon Blvd at night and see plenty of restaurants with tables outside, so I'm not really sure what the problem is.

Sounds like a bunch of spoiled brats moved in and want the neighborhood to conform to their wishes. Imagine if these people put the same amount of effort into making real improvements to our country as they do whining about the right to eat in a backyard? Talk about first world problems!

Restaurant patrons want to sit outside

From LIC Post:

A Long Island City resident has started an online petition calling on Community Board 2 to allow restaurants and bars along Vernon Blvd to use their backyard space.

The petition is in response to the Community Board 2’s almost uniform denial of Vernon Blvd restaurants from using their backyard space. The board, which tries to represent the wishes of the community, is able to keep the backyards closed by making it a requirement in order for them to get their liquor license.

Restaurants such as Alobar, Blend, Lounge 47, Corner Bistro and L’inizio are just a few that have been told that in order to get their liquor license they must keep their yards closed.

Renee Katsaitis, who put the petition together, said she is fed up hearing from business owners that they are not permitted to open their backyard space. She and her friends like going to the bars and restaurants and want to sit outside and enjoy a drink and some food.

“It angers me that the neighborhood is being held hostage by one person or one group,” Katsaitis said. “I am organizing this so people are heard,” she said. “I also want to make sure that people show up at the meetings and fight back.”

And the reason why they won't let these establishments open up their yards is because they abut residential yards and houses. No one wants to hear laughing, yelling, music, etc. and no one wants to smell smoke all day and night.

I hate what you've done with the place!

Scouting NY brings us the sad story of the crappification of the former home of late preservationist, Nancy Cataldi. As you look at these photos, remember that this comes courtesy of Mary Beth Betts, director of research at the LPC, who never met an unattached house in Queens that she gave a shit about. Specificly, she told Nancy and others in Richmond Hill to go jump in a lake when they requested historic district designation for Victorian homes there.


Nancy's family likely sold the home to a buyer that planned to live in it to ensure that it would not become a teardown. But is this really any better?


Nancy, wherever you are, I hope you can't see this.

Backyard becomes a dumping ground

Crap in the yard requires variance

From Bayside Patch:

A plan to build a two-bedroom house on a “side yard” in Bayside Hills could be shaping up as a battle royal between Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council – and there hasn’t been an official meeting about it yet.

The budding brouhaha centers around 50-20 216th Street, at the corner of 51st Ave. A house sits on the wide end of what is basically a triangular lot and the owner has split the property into two tax lots, with the idea of building another house on the land.

But there’s a catch. The planned construction falls short of zoning requirements, so a “variance” is needed from the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA), with an advisory vote from CB11.

Bonfilio [the owner] said that he feels that BSA will issue the variance anyway, based on “case law.”

So does City Councilmember Dan Halloran, and he has a problem with it. After meeting with residents who were at the meeting, he explained.

The problem as Halloran sees it is that the Mayor appoints the BSA and because of a loophole created by an earlier Charter revision, its decisions can only be challenged in court.

To close the loophole would require either another Charter Revision, or a state law, Halloran said. “The Mayor can knock out the former and exercise considerable influence on the latter,” he conceded.

Why green yards are important

From the Wall Street Journal:

New York City, in the public imagination, is a land without yards. The relative scarcity of private residential green spaces is one of the many ways home life in the densely-packed city is thought to differ from the spacious suburbs.

So it’s something of a shock to learn that residential yards make up 27% percent of the city’s total area — and that’s not counting parks or the greenery found adjacent to sidewalks or on street medians. That finding comes from the work of a group called Sustainable Yards, whose founder, Evan Mason, used satellite images to tally the yard space in all five boroughs.

Mason describes her research, conducted with help from the City University of New York, in an interview with science blogger Emily Anthes. The discussion hits on the importance of these yard spaces, including ways they can help the city save money. Green yards, which absorb rain and moisture, are better than concrete from an economic view, Mason explains:

Very simply said: Soil is good. It costs $127 a gallon to treat water in our water treatment system. So what we’ve done is actually gone into as many backyards as we can in one particular block. With CUNY, we’re actually measuring the square footage, how much is permeable, how much is impermeable. So if a whole set of backyards, is, say, 90 percent permeable, then you can start making a calculation of how many gallons are diverted from the water treatment system and how much money that saves the city.

This is technically not true. Homeowners must, by law, maintain storm water runoff on their own property. By obeying the law, they aren't "saving" the City a dime. People who pave over their yards are in effect breaking the law, are the ones who are overburdening the sewer system, costing the City money and should be fined accordingly.

Not exactly a rose garden in Rosedale

"243-14 132 road,
Rosedale.

What was once a lawn is now a jungle dwelling for illegal tenants.
you have to see this one....

12 shopping carts once lined the driveway, we thought Walmart was opening a new store!

This is an owner-occupied property.

PS: look this property up through building department. No regard for NYC laws!

Thanks for a great site!" - anonymous