DSA protests Rajkumar's non-existent plan to destroy Forest Park

Queens friends, this is TOMORROW! Join AD38 comrades outside her office at noon tomorrow to protest Rajkumar’s plan to use “vacant park space” (????) for a parking lot in Forest Park. pic.twitter.com/Z3ccCM8SV2

— katelin says homes aren't commodities (she/they) (@loud_socialist) September 4, 2021

Oh my! What's this about? The assembly member wants to bulldoze part of Forest Park for a parking lot?! Really?

Hmmm. Sounds a bit suspect. I mean it would require a ULURP, change to the City Map, environmental review, etc, etc, none of which an assembly member would have any control over. And that photo is of a gate that is not inside Forest Park. This is a bit of a mess. So where did the SJWs get the idea that trees would be chopped in Forest Park?

I will be meeting Monday morning with Queens DOT Commissioner Nicole Garcia on the lack of parking in Woodhaven. I have developed a plan to open more parking spaces. I look forward to a productive meeting with the Commissioner.👇 pic.twitter.com/CJuII1wsNB

— Jenifer Rajkumar (@JeniferRajkumar) August 28, 2021

In Jen's original press release, she says she wants to "convert to parking the vacant park space at 98th Street and Park Lane South." So rather than asking for clarification on what space she was referring to, the woke went straight to cancel mode, started a nasty Twitter campaign and organized a protest. The assembly woman's office responded thusly:

Now there's nothing more delicious than a politician being caught in their own lies, but it doesn't appear that is the case here, just a matter of miscommunication/misinterpretation, something that could have been cleared up with a quick phone call. Because, indeed, there is a gravel lot or "unused park space" in this location:

If the Co-Op wants to convert its unused "park" space to parking, who the hell cares? DSA does because 1) Cars are "evil." 2) This isn't about protecting Forest Park. They stupidly ran a poet against Mike Miller and Jen won instead. Now they want her out and by any means necessary. Hence the fake "save the park" protest on Labor Day weekend. They're mostly white people from outside the district and they are organizing a hate campaign against a woman of color who beat out a white man. Not a good look!

These urbanish "comrades" should be glad that those trees might end up as wood for all those curb shanties that make it harder to park those evil cars they hate so much-JQ LLC

We rallied to protect the park from being converted into a parking lot. 📷: @aaronnarraph pic.twitter.com/E99d0S1ICC

— Maud Newton (@maudnewton) September 5, 2021

Headline: "White people with nothing better to do on Labor Day weekend protest make believe paving of Forest Park at a location that isn't Forest Park" (It's the Rockaway rail line.)

Foreclosure looms for Acropolis Gardens

From The Real Deal:

A Wells Fargo-managed trust is looking to foreclose on a 618-unit co-op development in Astoria after its owners failed to make a loan payment.

French bank Natixis issued a $45 million mortgage in April 2017 on Acropolis Gardens, the 16-building complex bordered by Ditmars Boulevard, and 33rd and 34th streets. The debt was pooled into a securitized trust managed by Wells Fargo, according to court documents, with monthly repayments of $13,596.

But the Wells Fargo-managed trust filed a foreclosure action on Monday, after the property’s condominium board, Acropolis Gardens Realty Corp., missed a July payment.

The failed payment followed the trust’s discovery of multiple legal actions against the condo board.

Vallone vs. Graziano on 2% property tax cap

City Council District 19 candidates Paul Vallone and Paul Graziano debated whether or not there should be a 2% tax cap on 1-2 family homes, condos and co-ops.

Everyone in this district should watch this video very carefully and listen intently. You can draw your own conclusions.

Residents protest taxes on co-ops and condos

From the Queens Tribune:

Residents of Bellerose’s Parkwood Estates condominium complex and members of the organization Politics Reborn turned out on Friday to protest city property taxes on condos and co-ops in front of Assemblyman David Weprin’s (D-Fresh Meadows) office.

The protesters accused the assemblyman and city of lagging on a bill aimed at capping co-op and condo assessments.

“He’s the one dragging his feet,” Alice Christy, a Parkwood Estates resident and member of Politics Reborn, said of Weprin.

Christy noted that Weprin is one of the sponsors of bill A00354A, which would cap co-op and condo assessments at 8 percent in any one year and 30 percent in any five years. The bill’s author is Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside). It is identical to a bill in the state Senate sponsored by state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing).

“[The bill] just languishes there,” said Christy.

She added that 30 percent is still a big increase, “but it’s better than what we would have. Our community is middle-middle class. We can’t afford homes in the area, yet we have too much money for affordable housing. We need this to pass. The city commissioner of finance is just kicking this down the road. I’m not giving up. I’m a tiger.”

The condominium has a large senior population. Christy, who is a senior, said that with property taxes rising, her fees have risen as well. She added that the funds seniors receive from the city’s STAR program have not increased.

Christy and fellow organizers at Friday’s protest went door to door, persuading residents of the condominium to sign more than 250 letters urging Weprin to push the legislation.

Co-op wants to mow down trees for clubhouse

From the Times Ledger:

Windsor Oaks Tenant’s Corporation is seeking approval by the Board of Standards and Appeals to amend a variance between the co-op and the neighboring housing development so they may clear a wooded area for a new clubhouse and 98 new parking spaces, according to Steve Behar, legislative council to Councilman Barry Grodenchik (D-Oakland Gardens).

The variance to maintain the 100-foot wide section of trees goes back to 1951, when the co-op was built, and serves as a buffer between the two communities.

The land where the variance is in place is between Bell Boulevard and Springfield Boulevard and as many as 15 homes border the variance.

A Community Board 11 meeting in 2015 heard strong resident opposition to the plan to clear the woodland and the co-op’s application through CB 11 to amend the variance was shot down. In 2011, the Tenant’s Corporation had secured a loan to build the 5,000-square-foot clubhouse which was refinanced four years in a row without construction moving forward.

“In our last meeting before coming in front of the community board, it was suggested that we sit down with the residents of 77th Avenue and see where we could come together,” Windsor Oaks President Ronald Kaye said in 2015. “Sadly, they wanted no part of that. They just don’t want the project at all.”

But Behar said the co-op is not backing down from its resolve to level the trees standing between them and their future amenities.

“Over the years, they’ve cut down the trees, which they weren’t supposed to be doing under the variance, and now they’re asking the BSA to eliminate the variance,” Behar said. “This is a buffer between the cooperative and the homes. These people are up in arms because they bought their homes knowing that there was a variance, that they would be protected from this big co-op. We’ve also received a lot of complaints from people who live in the co-op, but don’t want this either.”

What exactly is a clubhouse needed for anyway? What hardship is associated with this?

Up-lifting cars too close to co-op

"Good Afternoon,

I am on The Coop Board for the 129 unit building directly behind The Queens Savoy Hotel at 123-32 82nd Ave. The residents of my Coop are very concerned that they are erecting a 4 story car lift holding 44 cars (see picture attached) which is around a foot from our building with 11 motors on top which will be operating 24/7.

We searched DOB website and the board by the hotel where they are supposed to post approved permits and did not find the approved permit for this structure although we were told it was approved by DOB. We have been told and or saw:
· There was no Impact Study where my Coop Board was asked how this car lift would affect our residents.

· There is less than 10 feet between the end of our Coop and the start of any hotel structure

· Parking- Board members remember being told that the parking would be under the building where there is 10 parking spaces. However, the hotel developers are building this car lift structure which is at the height of the 2nd floor of my building and that of the residential building next door. It definitely is not under the hotel or underground.

How did DOB (if they did) approve this structure? Given the noise the residents of my Coop will be subject to by the running 24/7 of the 11 motors on top of this structure, the carbon monoxide from the cars and no impact study being perform with Board input it does not make sense that this structure was approved.

We asked DOB to review this situation and send a copy of the approved permit(s). If in fact this structure was approved, we asked that DOB put a stop to the construction and use of this structure and review this structure again with the insight of how it will affect the residents in the 129 units in our Coop. DOB needs to conduct an impact study which should include input from my Coop Board.

I appreciate any help you can give us with the car lift that will definitely have a detrimental effect on the 129 unit Coop it abuts." - anonymous

Group seeks landmarking for historic co-ops

From DNA Info:

A historical society working to landmark the homes of Dizzy Gillespie and scientist Marie Maynard Daly say they plan also to push to landmark the city’s first integrated cooperative apartments.

The Corona-East Elmhurst Historical Preservation Society say they’re compiling information to request an evaluation to the Landmarks Preservation Society for the Dorie Miller co-ops, on 114th Street between Northern Boulevard and 34th Avenue.

The buildings opened in 1953 and were named for Navy hero Dorie Miller, the first African-American awarded the Navy Cross, by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

The $2.7 million private development was the city’s first integrated co-ops, according to reports at the time.

Nobody's home

From Curbed:

Last week, the New York Times asked "Why the Doorman is Lonely," in an article referencing new figures about New York City's oft-referenced excess of un-lived-in apartments. The upshot is that nearly one quarter of New York City apartments aren't used as primary residences, but are pieds-à-terre, or investment properties rented out to tenants.

So, nothing too surprising, but something else in the piece kind of throws off the narrative that these co-ops and condos are primarily left empty by jet-setting millionaires. According to Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, "the vast majority of pieds-à-terre are middle class... owned by people who have a studio in the city and a home in the suburbs, or maybe it was their first apartment that they chose to keep and rent it out."

I suggest reading that Times article because it has some pretty interesting info about how people evade property tax.

Elevators out of service for months at Howard Beach complex

From WPIX:

What goes up must come down. Unless it’s an elevator at the Dorchester complex in Howard Beach. In that case, the elevator may be going nowhere.

I had to go back out there earlier this month. And I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.

There are two buildings. Over the winter they had problems in the Dorchester Two. The elevator was out. Senior citizens, including a World War II vet, were forced to use the stairs if they could.

And I ran into two very unpleasant people. A VP of the co-op board and a foul-mouthed secretary in the management office who actually called the NYPD on me. Even though we were invited in by owners, she claimed we had no righto be there.

Imagine that.

Anyway, we helped expedite the long-delayed elevator repairs.

But now the same situation arose in the other building, the Dorchester One. I’m told that secretary no longer works at the complex. But the problem was still severe. Five months without a functioning elevator!

Property owners about to get hosed again

From the NY Post:

New York City property taxes are poised to continue rising.

New tentative assessments released Wednesday show that the market value of the city’s ­1,053,949 properties jumped 6.6 percent to $914.8 billion.

For property owners, that translates — once again — into larger bills.

The average owner of a single-family home is expected to shell out $168 more, or $4,598, once the Finance Department finalizes the assessments and the bills for fiscal 2015 go out in July.

That 3.8 percent hike will make co-op and condo owners envious.

The average tax bill for co-ops is going up $329, or 5.5 percent, to $6,247.

Condo owners are getting whacked even harder, a 7.4 percent hike averaging $552 to $7,987.

Owners of one- and two-family homes have until March 17 to challenge their assessments. Others have until March 3.

There's actually a shortage of luxury condos

From CNBC:

The records keep piling up for Manhattan real estate.

The fourth quarter saw a string of records broken—from number of deals and average sale prices to dwindling inventory—as the rich from around the world scoop up luxury apartments as a store of wealth.

The average sales price in Manhattan rose 5.3 percent to $1,538,203 in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago. That marked the highest-ever price for a fourth quarter. The median sales price for condos is the highest-ever tracked, hitting $1.3 million.

And the inventory of apartments for sale has shrunk to its lowest level in recent memory, with a little over 4,000 apartments for sale.

The total number of sales surged 27 percent—a surprisingly strong increase given the rush in the fourth quarter of 2012 to do deals before the "fiscal cliff" tax changes.

While the overall market is on fire, New York is quickly becoming a tale of two markets—the soaring condo market and the lackluster co-op market.

The average sales price for condos surged 13 percent over the prior year to $2,115,228. The number of sales jumped 23 percent.

Yet co-ops—those storied preserves of Manhattan wealth and exclusivity—are being left behind. The average price for co-ops fell 1.6 percent in the quarter to $1,171,552, Elliman said.

Brokers say the main reason for the difference is foreign buyers, who are virtually banned from the co-op market, since co-op boards often won't approve them and the overseas rich don't want to reveal their financials.

Plus, foreign buyers prefer the newly built, gleaming glass condo towers to the prewar co-op apartments of the past.

If luxury condos are what everyone presumably wants, then why do we need to subsidize their construction? Especially since it's not even people in need of housing that are buying them?

Council calls for reimbursement for co-ops damaged by storm

From the Queens Courier:

The City Council has unanimously passed a resolution calling for Congress to make co-op and condos eligible for federal storm recovery grants.

“Condo and co-op owners are homeowners too,” said Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. who brought forth the measure. “Yet, right now, the federal government is denying them Sandy relief. That needs to change.”

The resolution, introduced September 12, comes after many citywide co-op and condo owners found they could not receive FEMA grants for Sandy-inflicted damages.

The measure sailed through the City Council less than two weeks later on September 24. The Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings moved the resolution forward earlier that morning.

It would push the passage of an already proposed federal law that aims to fix a glitch keeping co-op and condo owners from disaster aid.

The Stafford Act, which governs how FEMA responds to major disasters, does not include the word “co-op” in the law, officials said.

However, there is no statute that bans co-op owners from being eligible for grants, a privilege given to homeowners.

Co-op and condos are also categorized as “business associations,” which makes them eligible for federal loans but not grants. It also means they cannot get funds to fix shared spaces like lobbies and roofs.

Congressmember Steve Israel introduced a law in August that would better define co-ops in the Stafford Act, allow co-op and condo owners to apply for FEMA grants, and call for a new cap on FEMA’s Individual and Households Program.

The proposed legislation currently sits in a subcommittee on the House’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Were co-ops left out in the cold by FEMA?

From the Times Ledger:

Co-op owners in northeast Queens said they felt discriminated against when it came to seeking federal aid in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

In Glen Oaks Village, more than half of the 134 buildings suffered roof damage to rack up a bill of about $25,000, according to co-op President Bob Friedrich. But after approaching the Federal Emergency Management Agency for grant money, Friedrich said a misinterpretation of fine print left his neighborhood ineligible for aid.

He said FEMA classified Glen Oaks Village as a business association, which qualifies for loans but not federal grant money, and in turn discriminates against the 3,000 families who inhabit the neighborhood.

“This is really an issue of fairness and equity,” Friedrich said. “Our residents are paying for FEMA like everybody else. Yet we are not eligible for the aid.”

Elected officials who represent the region stood beside northeast Queens co-op and condo owners at a Tuesday press conference at Glen Oaks Village to demand revisions on how FEMA classifies homeowners.

According to FEMA spokesman Ed Conley, the agency doles out grant money to individual residents living in co-ops depending mostly on agreements between homeowners and the community associations that oversee them.

“In any county with a major disaster declaration, individual homeowners or renters with damages to their individual units from Superstorm Sandy are eligible to apply for FEMA assistance, and we urge them to do so,” he said. “This includes residents living in co-ops. However, FEMA’s Individual Assistance program is authorized to grant assistance funds only to individuals or households, not business associations such as co-op boards.”

In addition, Conley said grant money only goes toward emergency repairs to make homes livable, which does not include roof shingle damage similar to that reported in Glen Oaks.

“We are looking at what we need to do to get you in a livable housing situation,” Conley said. “Getting people into a livable space would mean repairs to the kitchen, a bathroom or a bedroom — not to replace everything that was lost or destroyed.”

Meanwhile, any property owned by the co-op association, such as a roof classified as common property, must go through to the United States Small Business Association to receive repair loans, according to SBA Public Affairs Specialist Michael Peacock.

Pig controversy at Whitestone co-op

From the NY Post:

Residents of a Queens co-op say the pet pig rooting around their courtyard isn’t kosher — and are determined to get the city to evict the unwelcome ungulate from the complex.

“What is this, Tobacco Road? I feel like I’m in another hemisphere!” one resident fumed. “Parents don’t want to let their kids play in the courtyard with pig pee and poop.”

“It’s just ludicrous that there’s a barnyard right under my nose!”

The co-op board at Clearview Gardens in Whitestone recently told Lou and Danielle Forgione, parents of Petey the Pig, that it had received numerous complaints about the 8-month-old porker since the summer but took no action while it consulted its bylaws, which forbid only dogs.

In the interim, the city took the bull by the horns.

“Harboring a pig is illegal in NYC! Must be removed from NYC premises as soon as possible,” reads a Nov. 20 Health Department notice slipped under their door.

The Forgiones remain defiant.

“He’s not a farm animal. He’s part of the family. We’re going to fight. We’re never giving him up,” Danielle, 33, told The Post.

I say we let them keep the pig and ban Toby Stavisky instead.

This school's trash just stinks

From the Queens Courier:

Residents in Bell Park Gardens are raising a stink about a school sidewalk across the street that they say has grown to be a rancid repository for piles of garbage.

“It stinks like a garbage room and it’s an eyesore,” said a neighboring resident who wished to remain anonymous. “We didn’t buy a very expensive co-op to look at this and be part of this.”

Some of the Bayside co-op owners who live across the street from P.S. 46 said they’ve been dealing with the repulsive refuse problem for four years. Dozens of garbage bags — full of milk cartons, leftover lunch and paper artwork — sit for hours on the sidewalk, posing as an attraction for local wildlife and an invitation for litter, they said.

“Sometimes it’s out for days,” said resident Trish M., who did not want to give her last name. “It’s not that much of a bother to me, but there is a lot of garbage.”

Kathy Dawkins, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Sanitation, said the Alley Pond School is on the agency’s summer school route and receives seven garbage, four paper, and three metal, glass and plastic collections a week.

The school custodians are under the same sanitation requirements as local homeowners, Dawkins said, which means they must place receptacles out on the sidewalk by the curb no earlier than 5 p.m. the day before their scheduled collection and no earlier than 4 p.m. from October 1 to April 1.

But co-op shareholders said the remaining debris and slimy residue are left sitting on the sidewalk overnight until at least 7 a.m. when they said school custodians come out to sweep. By then, they said another load of trash is put out for the next pickup cycle and remnants of the rubbish find its way to neighboring properties.

Fear not, co-op and condo owners

From the Queens Courier:

Co-op and condo owners left in the lurch after state lawmakers originally closed the year’s session without passing key pieces of legislation will not be forsaken for long, officials pledged.

The Assembly, Senate and Governor Andrew Cuomo have reached an agreement on “landmark” tax relief legislation that will be signed into law later this year when legislators return to Albany, according to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

“In the short term, the city has issued tax bills for the current fiscal year based on the current tax abatement rates,” Silver said. “When the legislation is signed into law as promised by the governor, we anticipate that the new lower rates will be effective retroactive to July 1.”

Co-op and condo community leaders said the state Legislature left them “high and dry” last week after lawmakers adjourned the session without extending the city’s J-51 program and its tax abatement program. A bill that would put a halt to skyrocketing property tax valuations was also not addressed by the end of the session, they said.

More people ask for review of property tax bills

From the NY Post:

New Yorkers are hitting the roof because of ballooning property-tax bills.

A near-record 52,123 city taxpayers are appealing their home assessments this year — close to a 4 percent jump from the 50,249 who questioned their bills last year, The Post has learned. Of that total, 8,249 received reductions.

The highest number of appeals the city Tax Commission has ever seen was 52,130 in 1998.

Tax officials attribute the jump to the frustrating combination of growing bills and plummeting profits in home sales.

Another reason is the difficulty in selling homes.

Because the city values condos and co-ops as rentals, not single-family homes, annual assessments are often higher than what homeowners think they should be. Assessments directly determine how much homeowners pay in taxes.

Another complication is that the city staggers tax-bill increases over a period of years, so a levy can go up while a home value decreases.

The commission is currently reviewing the appeals.

Silverstein to run against Halloran

From the Daily News:

Matthew Silverstein, a two-year Democratic State Committeeman for the 26th AD, is holding a kickoff party tonight as he considers running for City Council in the 19th District. That seat is currently held by Republican Dan Halloran, who's running for Congress in the new NY-6.

"While walking about the district, talking to constituents, I have heard the many concerns about our great city. They range from the future of our school system, tax equity for our Co-Op and Condo owners, protecting senior citizens, finding jobs for New Yorkers, or helping our returning Veterans re-integrate into society, [and] people seem to feel that New York City is on the wrong track," he writes in an email. "The people of the 19th Council District deserve better, and together we can make a difference."

Civic meeting turns into pol hissy fit

From Times Ledger:

Nearly 1,000 people crammed into North Shore Towers in Little Neck Thursday night to listen to a panel discuss about the skyrocketing property assessment values the city assigned to condos this year and last as tensions flared between Queens elected officials.

Bob Friedrich, co-president of the organization that sponsored the discussion, started off the evening by saying he did not want “lip service” from politicians and running through the reasons why he believed the city Department of Finance unfairly assessed property values that rose by as much as 150 percent in one year. But things got heated when state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) took to the podium.

“As far as what Bob said earlier about lip service, well I think there has been a little bit too much of that tonight,” Avella said, referring to some of the lawmakers who spoke before him.

State Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) and City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) had already left by the time Avella spoke, but state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone), state Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) and City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) were on hand to hear his comments.

Avella derided colleagues in state government for proposing mulitiple bills designed to correct rapidly rising assessment values using various approaches. He also bashed leaders for proposing bills he suggested were just ploys to help them get re-elected, yet touted his bill as the best of the three currently in Albany.

Stavisky and Braunstein have co-sponsoered a bill in Albany, as has state Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck).

The senator’s comments visibly upset Mark Weprin, who immediately stood up and took the microphone.

Uh oh, you upset a couple of do-nothing Weprins, a Toby and a Braunstein! Watch out, Tony!

Condo & co-op taxes calculated incorrectly

From the Daily News:

Co-op and condo owners in northeastern Queens have long claimed the methods the city uses to determine home values — which can lead to higher property taxes — are flawed.

Now, a pair of city Controller audits released Thursday back up their suspicions, suggesting the city didn’t always compare similar properties in the same communities when calculating the values. This could lead to artificially high assessments.

The audit also says about 10% of Queens co-ops were valued higher than expected when using the Department of Finance’s calculation formula.