Cracks and straps on the Kosciuszko

Ozone Park sidewalks still a shambles after a hurricane from two years ago

 

 Queens Chronicle

Shards of cement are scattered in a pile in front of 88-16 102 Road in Ozone Park. The stretch of sidewalk looks like it was attacked by a demolition crew.

Only it’s no temporary construction site. It’s been like that for a year since a downed tree was uprooted and disposed of in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias.

Two years ago the city announced that it would no longer charge homeowners for sidewalk damage caused by city trees and promised to ramp up sidewalk repairs in problem areas.

A year after Tropical Storm Isaias pummeled the borough, collapsing trees and power lines, and hitting especially hard in South Queens, Ozone Park still bears the evidence that the city has not been living up to Mayor de Blasio’s promise about sidewalk maintenance or repair.

In the wake of that storm, the Chronicle documented the widespread instances of poor arboreal health in Ozone Park that led to a large number of downed trees. Now over a year later, the Ozone Park Residents Block Association has begun calling out the city’s failure to replace the sidewalk in the areas where uprooted trees disrupted the neighborhood’s pedestrian fabric.

“In what can only be described as reckless, careless, a dereliction of duty, lack of concern, failing to protect our residents, amongst the many adjectives I can use, the City of NY has dropped the ball on our residents,” wrote Sam Esposito, the civic group’s president, in a press release calling attention to the problem.

The group listed seven sites in the neighborhood where it says trees overturned by Tropical Storm Isaias turned the surrounding sidewalk into a pile of rubble that has yet to be repaired by the city. In five of the sites, Esposito said that he had coordinated with the homeowners, but he ensured that a 311 complaint was filed in each case.

Unfortunately, a long wait time for sidewalk repair is not uncommon, despite recent efforts from the city to correct the issue.

 

Current mayor and Senate Majority Leader attend impromptu West Indian Day parade for NYC's ruling class, then go to Woodside to survey flood damages to homes later on

NY Post
 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave Mayor Bill de Blasio a pass for failing to warn New Yorkers about the fatal storm that lashed the city last week — preferring to pin the blame on climate change — but her Queens constituents slammed Hizzoner and other city officials for their lack of preparedness.

“I don’t blame climate change, I blame the mayor,” Danette Rivera, 47, told The Post outside her Woodside home Monday morning after de Blasio, AOC, Sen. Charles Schumer and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell toured her block.

“There was absolutely no warning. I wasn’t expecting water from my own drain to be the one that’s going to kill me,” Rivera said, her voice shaking with emotion.

Rivera’s arms and stomach were still bruised from when her son had to yank her out through a basement window as it filled with water that bubbled up from her drains Wednesday night.

“This is a nightmare. A disaster,” Rivera said, noting that her home also flooded in 2008. She said city officials told her at the time that they’d make sure it never happened again.

“Fix the sewer system,” fumed Rivera’s neighbor, Julia Nieves, 77.

“The catch basins don’t get cleaned often enough. The last time I saw them cleaned was five years ago,” Nieves, a retired Off Track Betting clerk, told The Post from her Woodside basement where the paneling had been ripped off to reveal spots of black mold. 

 NY Post  

Mayor Bill de Blasio and a slew of local politicians marched in a scaled down, discreetly organized version of the West Indian Day Parade Monday — infuriating locals who thought the annual Labor Day blowout was scrapped entirely following Hizzoner’s announcement last week.

The parade kicked off at 9 a.m. in Crown Heights and lasted about an hour — featuring two floats with DJs pumping out music, dozens of dignitaries and more than 500 flag-toting marchers and colorfully dressed revelers.

Some parade perennials — like Terry Owens — were outraged that a smaller celebration of West Indian culture took place even after de Blasio nixed the parade altogether for the second straight year due to COVID-19 concerns.

“I am disappointed because I brought my family up here that wanted to see it. They came all the way from Alabama,” Owens, 59, griped, adding that he just happened upon the parade while out for a walk.

“It makes me angry, too, because they could have been out here. They are home sleeping,” Owens continued. “I come every year. I was talking about it and I wanted them to come see it. I said, ‘You all need to come,’ so I was looking forward to coming. I kept asking, I kept hearing, ‘No, it’s canceled, it’s canceled,’ so I am doing my morning walk and I saw it and I said, ‘Wow, it’s here.’”

 

Forgotten sidewalks

 

 

Queens Chronicle 

 It’s almost been one year since Hurricane Isaias hit New York City, took out power for days and tore trees from their roots, but plenty of sidewalks throughout Queens look as though the storm ravaged them yesterday.

“We know that if this was in Manhattan, the issue would be fixed already. The outer boroughs, the last I checked are the real boroughs, so get this done,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said at a July 13 press conference to demand the city take responsibility for what he called a public safety hazard.

State Sen. John Liu (D-Bayside) called the Tuesday press conference in Bellerose as a “last resort” after he spent months calling on the city to repair broken pavement sprinkled across his district. Shattered sidewalks can be found there, as well as in College Point, Whitestone and Flushing separated from the public only by caution tape.

Kathy Parent’s Bellerose home, where the event was held, lies alongside 87th Road, where a tree was ripped from the city-owned grass space last August during the storm. The roots shredded the concrete, which has been left untouched since the city Parks Department removed the fallen tree months ago.

“I take pride in maintaining my property to the best of my ability, so I am very distressed by the fact that my sidewalk exists in this horrible condition, but more so dangerous condition,” Parent said, adding that children have attempted to ride their bikes over the mess.

Parent said she wouldn’t consider fixing the sidewalk herself and then billing the city for reimbursement because she believes she would end up waiting 20 years for the check. She said she replaced the sidewalk herself several years prior and refuses to put more money into it, especially when it is the city’s responsibility.

“Kathy, we know if the shoe was on the other foot, if this was your responsibility, every single person the city could send to find you would be here by now, so this is really about ensuring that the government practices what it preaches,” Richards continued.

According to Liu, the city promised to address the problem in the spring when the weather was warmer, but summer is halfway finished and he hasn’t seen any changes across Eastern Queens.

That morning, Mayor de Blasio was asked by reporters if he was aware of the situation and what action he would take to ensure the homeowners would finally see relief after a year.

“We’ll get to work on it immediately,” the mayor responded. “It really bothers me to hear that this much time has passed and anyone isn’t getting the help they need. So, we will expedite that.”

 

Wind dismantles towering wind turbine, causing it to collapse on the street

NY Daily News

A giant wind turbine in the Bronx fell from its mast Monday, taking out a billboard and crushing a parked car.

No one was hurt in the 1:20 p.m. incident at Baychester Ave. and Bartow Ave. in Co-Op City.

“It sounded like a cling and then a thud -- like a bing, and then boom,” said CJ Smith, 23, who heard the turbine come down as he headed to his job at a nearby Starbucks.

A massive metal cylinder from the turbine fell onto a parked sedan, crushing its hood.

 Eric Johnson, 55, of Co-op City, said the turbine went up about two weeks ago, and he hasn’t yet seen it spin.

“If somebody got killed... coming out the store, somebody has to pay for that," Johnson said. “They didn’t take into account the wind being so strong to bring it down.”

The city Buildings Department issued a stop-work order and a full vacate order for a building at the collapse site that houses a Drugbox Pharmacy, a Sherwin Williams Paint store and a 7 Eleven.

“Due to partial collapse of a large monopole sign structure, the entire property (buildings and lot) are unsafe to use or occupy,” the order reads.

And Co-op City's residents are just ecstatic to see it down

NY Daily News

Some Co-Op City residents are looking on the bright side of a frightening turbine collapse – it’ll finally remove an eyesore they’ve complained about for years.

The towering turbine damaged an electronic billboard when it toppled Monday, prompting the city Department of Buildings to order its removal.

Co-Op City residents had complained the sign shined into their apartments at night. They were also steamed about the turbine that sat atop a 195-foot “monopole,” which they’d criticized as unsafe — and ugly. Nevertheless, the building owner obtained proper permits for both structures.

“We couldn’t stop him, so Mother Nature took it down,” Hattie Overman told the Daily News.

The self-proclaimed “proud senior citizen” living in the development since 1998, said the turbine made her uncomfortable before its blades went flying in high winds, destroying a car and taking a chunk out of a billboard. The structure, which stood in the middle of a one-story commercial building with three storefronts, loomed over the nearby New England Thruway and Bay Plaza Shopping Center.

Mayor Big Slow finally shows up to South Ozone Park to assess waste water damage

CBS New York I am here now he says. Idiot.

The Hunters Point Library is a $41,000,000 shithole

NY Post


A long-awaited $41-million Queens library that opened last month is plagued with an encyclopedia’s worth of issues — including leaky ceilings and a not-so-soundproof quiet room, The Post has learned.

Long Island City’s decade-in-the-making Hunters Point Library is already showing signs of wear, with a Post reporter recently eyeing large cracks on multiple floors — including one that stretched about 10 feet — and water damage in some areas.

“When it rains, we have leaks,” a librarian said, blaming the problem on an as-yet-un-opened rooftop “reading garden” with panoramic views of the city.

The new building’s sorry state is the culmination of nearly 10 years of design and construction. Plans for the branch were completed in 2010, but the ground-breaking did not come until 2015. The book-lender finally opened Sept. 24.

The lit house, designed by Steven Holl Architects, came under fire earlier this month because a fiction section could only be reached by a steep staircase — in violation of federal accessibility requirements.

Staffers have since moved the tomes, but that area is now just dead space. A frustrated librarian said she didn’t know if it would be remodeled “but we won’t be putting any books there again.”
“We might turn [it] into sitting areas, but no one knows yet,” she said.

Queens Library spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon said the branch is assessing the situation with the architects and the city’s Department of Design and Construction, which oversaw and managed the project.

But that’s not the only design flaw librarians have had to deal with.

A curved wall in the children’s section resembling a quarter-pipe skateboard ramp had to be blocked off by rolling bookshelves to make sure kids didn’t hurt themselves climbing it.

Hudson Yards is already showing cracks

The Village Spoke

In only a month after opening, New York’s most expensive private development is already falling apart.

If you look up from your phone camera for a second before you take a selfie of the Vessel, you’re bound to see something broken at Hudson Yards.

 Hudson Yards bills itself as New York’s newest neighborhood, however it reflects many of the shortcomings of the city’s prior superblock development projects.

The original World Trade Center’s Austin J. Tobin Plaza was an enclosure of skyscrapers along the Hudson River, inadvertently creating a brutal wind tunnel. Hudson Yards is much the same.

Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center lacked a unified vision with its variety pack of 90s-fad architecture and is today largely unremarkable. Hudson Yards developer Related Companies took a similar approach, commissioning numerous so-called “starchitects” to build what New York Times Architecture critic Micheal Kimmelman describes as an “architectural petting zoo.”

But Hudson Yards also appears to have created their own problems, particularly with the build quality of the development.

One day, this is going to be exposed as the Titanic of hyperdevelopment.

It's ironic that Hudson Yards already looks like a distressed area.

More heavy metal debris is falling from elevated tracks, this time in Sunnyside and Richmond Hill

CBS NY

 In what’s become an alarmingly commonplace occurrence of late, a small piece of rusty metal plunged from the elevated 7 train track and crashed into a car in Queens on Friday.

Officials say the hunk of metal dropped onto the trunk of a car on Queens Boulevard and Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside, causing a dent.
The man whose car it hit was surprised to see how much damage the metal inflicted. The incident comes after two separate incidents in the past month where debris fell from the 7 train tracks in Woodside.
No one was hurt, but cars were damaged every time debris fell.
“This is outrageous! More rusty metal debris falling from the 7 train, this time in LIC. Look at that dent— a person would have died!” Tweeted Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer. “I sent a letter to [the MTA] last week demanding an expeditious inspection of the 7 train structure. What is the hold up?!”

NBC 4 NY

MTA workers were seen inspecting a section of tracks Monday afternoon as they looked into whether metal that apparently crashed into a car's roof in Queens was debris from elevated subway tracks.

The alleged incident occurred Monday when a woman behind the wheel heard a thump, pulled over, got out, looked up and apparently found damage on the roof of her car.

The woman believes it was a piece of metal that fell from the elevated tracks along Liberty Avenue and 115th in Richmond Hill.

She says the debris rained down as a train passed above.

However, the MTA says it looked into Monday’s incident but did not find “anything abnormal at the scene.”

In a statement, the MTA said: “We obviously take any report like this seriously and sent a team to investigate. We didn’t find anything abnormal at the scene – there was no debris on the ground, the track was inspected from both sides and all components were found to be secure. Our systemwide inspection of all elevated track structures continues.”

 

Falling debris from elevated tracks has damaged at least three cars in the last month, including a car impaled by a wooden beam. MTA president Andy Byford said the agency is looking to other cities, including Chicago, for help on maintenance tips for elevated tracks.

"We are reaching out to sister agencies — a classic, obvious example being Chicago because they operate a lot of overhead structures — to see if there is anything that they do additional to what we do," Byford said.

Wait, our transit system needs to be advised from other city's transit authorities to basically clean up after themselves? Too bad Felix Unger is a fictional character and deceased, because he would have been an excellent consultant for the MTA.

The 18th hole needs protection!

From CBS 2:

Cracked windows, shattered windshields and dented cars … again and again.

The culprits? Golf balls.

Dozens were scattered all over Raymond Hublall’s home on Commonwealth Boulevard in Little Neck, because right across the street is Douglaston Golf Course.

“From 2010 to now I’ve spent approximately $5,000,” Hublall said.

His neighbors have seen similar damage. The situation is not just proving to be expensive, it’s also dangerous. Hublall said one errant shot injured his niece.

“She was walking in from roadway walking into my front door and she got hit by the golf ball,” Hublall said.

Just to give you an idea of how many golf balls end up on some of these properties, Hublall produced a box filled with them. He said he collected all of them in just a couple of months.

Back in 2014, neighbors complained to local leaders and got netting installed. The only problem is it doesn’t protect the 18th hole.

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.

Whitestone sidewalk & car damage resolved

From CBS 2:

It was a beyond welcoming sight in front of the Maddalena-Vigliotti home in Whitestone, Queens — city crews finally repairing the damaged sidewalk.

“If it wasn’t for you and your covering this story, nothing would’ve gotten done,” Queens resident Anna Maddalena told CBS2’s Andrea Grymes.

Two weeks ago, CBS2 reported multiple locations across Queens, where city-owned trees uprooted during storms back in March. The city had cleared the trees, but months later still hadn’t fixed the sidewalks.

This week, after CBS2’s reports, repairs are finally being made.

For this family, the sidewalk was not the only thing destroyed when the tree came down. They’re still looking for answers from the city about one of their cars.

The 2008 red Mazda had been parked on the street in front of the house, but when the tree collapsed, the car was totaled under the weight of the limbs.

Maddalena says they had collision insurance but not comprehensive coverage, which would’ve covered the damage.

So she filed a claim with the city comptroller’s office in May. She got a letter back saying if the office is unable to resolve the claim, “any lawsuit against the city must be started within one year and 90 from the date of occurrence.”

Maddalena says she then called numerous times, trying to figure out what she’s supposed to do with the car, as it sits in the driveway.

So on Friday, CBS2 reached out to the comptroller’s office and they quickly responded.

Maddalena says she got a call from the division chief, who apologized several times and promised someone would come out and assess the car by Monday. After that, they can finally get rid of it.

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.

Construction crane mishap in Flushing

From NBC:

A construction truck suddenly fell on its side as crews were using its boom to haul beams at a site in Queens Wednesday, sending the crane-like piece of machinery onto several parked cars and partially into a wall nearby, according to buildings officials and dramatic surveillance video from the scene.

Developer claims woman is anti-Semitic for complaining to DOB

From PIX11:

Julita Gontarczyk is involved in a bitter dispute. She and her husband own a home in Maspeth, Queens. A developer, Orin Effi, is putting up several homes in the space next door. What began amicably enough has deteriorated in a war of words, texts, complaints, and calls to the police.

“Because we have a common wall there is a lot of problems going on,” Julita told us. “Rain would come into his house. Flood his basement and flood my basement.”

Julita says her complaints to Effi fell on deaf ears. She complained to 311, the Health Department and the Department of Buildings. Some stop work orders were issued, infuriating Orin Effi. He says Julita made false accusations and blames the fact that she’s Polish and he’s an Israeli Jew.

The dirt bike dirtbags of Wayanda Park

"These ghetto punks ride their dirt bikes and quads down Hollis Ave doing wheelies on a daily basis. Sometimes, they speed down the sidewalk all the way down to Springfield Blvd, putting pedestrians at risk. The streets of South Queens Village has been taken over by these thugs. Now, they are destroying the beautiful lawn at Wayanda Park on Hollis Ave. As you can see, the douche bag on the quad covered his face while I snapped a picture of him on 217st. I'm going to contact my Community Affairs officer to see if they can step up patrols in the area. The ghetto nonsense never ends in Southeast Qns." - anonymous

Bad contractor in Broad Channel

From PIX11:

...what’s with contractor Dennis Melandro? He STILL hasn’t finished rebuilding Victoria Roehling’s Broad Channel home damaged badly by Hurricane Sandy. She’s paid him $280,000 and he told me back in September that the job could be done within two weeks. Here we are more than two months later and there’s still a lot more to do.

And this week Victoria says she found he’d plugged a long blue extension cord into her home to get electricity for a job he’s doing two houses down. She’s now considering a possible criminal complaint. We’re going to stay on this until Victoria is back home.

Catastrophe on Calamus

From the Queens Chronicle:

Stringer explained during the walk that the contract between the DDC and CAC Industries, the contractor doing the work, indemnifies the city from being directly sued by residents.
Instead, those impacted by the work are advised to go through their insurance company and that of CAC Industries.

Representatives for Stringer told the Chronicle on Monday that it is standard for the city to be indemnified from lawsuits while it works with an outside contractor who has its own insurance.
Juniper Park Civic Association President Bob Holden — who is running against Crowley in September’s Democratic primary — said in a Monday interview the city’s lack of accountability in situations like these “stinks to high heaven.”

“People have gone through years of hell,” Holden said. “They shouldn’t have to go through their insurance companies to get satisfaction here.

“Why does the city continue to hire these guys? Do they not have many good contractors or do good contractors not want to do business with the city?” he continued. “Are they putting less-qualified contractors into neighborhoods that are working class? Would this be allowed in Manhattan?

In a June letter sent to Calamus Avenue residents, Crowley advised filing a claim with DDC and Stringer’s office, as well as referring to one’s own homeowner’s insurance policy to see if there’s a time frame for filing claims.

...A little more than a week later...
From the Queens Chronicle:

Wu and Guillen were two of a number of residents along the block who tried to file claims with their homeowners insurance companies.

They’ve all been unsuccessful, however. Guillen said she was told that losses stemming from “earth movement” are not covered.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Glendale) and a spokesman for city Comptroller Scott Stringer said residents with damage to their property should report it to CAC as soon as possible.

“The company contracted with the city on this project is responsible for fixing any and all damages,” Crowley said in a statement. “All homeowners should document and report their damages to both the company and the city.”

CAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment by press time.

Does anyone here know what the hell they are doing or care that these people's homes were damaged by a city contractor?

City contractors damage property then skedaddle

From NY1:

A busted pool, a broken shed, and a missing fence — that's just some of the damage Frank Harnisher says a city contractor did to his property while working on a project to alleviate chronic flooding on West 11th Road during high tide.

The 78-year-old has fought for months to get the contractor or the city to address the issue. "I can't get them down here, I can't get anybody to talk to me about how they are going to redo my property," he said.

Which was the agreement, according to a 2014 letter from the contracting firm EIC Associates.

Workers used his property at the end of the street to build a cofferdam, a watertight enclosure for construction below the waterline.

The company said it would return the area to its pre-construction condition, but instead Harnisher said it's been one problem after the other.

"When they erected the cofferdam a lot of my property deteriorated, and instead of building it back to its pre-existing condition, they shorted me five feet of property on one side, my existing rock bulkhead on the other side is three feet shorter, and now I'm subject to high tides," Harnisher said.

The contracting firm said it was told to vacate 11th Road to make room for Build it Back construction and couldn't go back.

But when NY1 reached out to the Department of Design and Construction, the agency overseeing the $28 million project, we were told that property that was removed or damaged because of the work will be restored.

Sewer construction causes Whitestone debacle

From CBS:

Homeowners in Whitestone, Queens are dealing with a stinking mess after sewage backed up into their basements.

As CBS2’s Jessica Borg reported, residents on Tenth Avenue between 152 and 154th streets in Whitestone said they were living a nightmare during Friday’s rainstorm – as toilets turned into fountains and raw sewage covered basement floors.

And on Monday people like Jeanmarie Golden were still cleaning up. They were also still dealing with the stench.

Residents blame construction on their block for the sewage overflow. Crews with the city’s Department of Design and Construction are working on the street’s sewer pipes.

The department said the project is to “upgrade aging infrastructure.”

But resident James Martino said it is no upgrade. He believes the re-lining of the pipe caused the problem.

“It made the pipe circumference smaller, so it couldn’t handle the sewage that was being pumped,” Martino said.

Residents said they have had thousands of dollars’ worth property destroyed. The Kelly family had to throw away furniture, tools, and clothing.

The city said the project was completed earlier this month and there was simply too much rain for the sewer system to handle. CBS2’s Borg could not get answers when she asked how the pipes will handle future downpours.