Man wearing Black Lives Matter merch robs gas station at gunpoint

 Impunity City

...in Astoria, two men held up and robbed a gas station at gunpoint, grabbing $450 from the register and the cashier's cellphone. One of the thieves was wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt and BLM cap. This not only shows how he denigrated the social justice movement with his criminal act, but also sadly showed how the movement's slogan has been reduced and devolved into a commercial brand.

Jackson Heights taxi graveyard is an eyesore

From CBS 2:

If you’re looking for a taxi ride in New York City, you may have to look elsewhere. There are a whole lot of taxis, but none of them parked at the block-long abandoned gas station have license plates or even medallions.

It’s become a makeshift taxi graveyard, and frustrated people who live and work in the area have been unable to get the city to do anything.

Political Reporter Marcia Kramer demanded answers from a number of city agencies. Officials claim many of the taxis were owned by Gene Friedman, a controversial Russian-American businessman once dubbed the “Taxi King.”

In his heyday, Friedman was a major donor to Mayor de Blasio who raised more than $70,000 for hizzoner. He partnered with President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who city officials believe may now own some of the abandoned vehicles.

Crappy building materials can't withstand wind

From DNA Info:

Strong winds tore pieces of the facade off a luxury building that opened to renters just three years ago on Fourth Avenue and Sixth Street on Monday afternoon, the FDNY said.

Several FDNY companies responded to a 2:56 p.m. report of "Styrofoam-like debris" raining down from 278 Sixth St., which is right next door to FDNY Engine Company 239's firehouse, an FDNY spokesman said.

In addition, a Fresh Meadows gas station collapsed and trees came down:

Just toss the homeless wherever it's convenient

From Newtown Pentacle:

As stated in yesterday’s post, my objections to the placement of this facility revolve around the actual location of it, which I honestly believe to be a violation of the human rights of a vulnerable population.

The Holiday Inn sits across the street from the Long Island Expressway, which produces a standing wall of high decibel sound. While I was shooting the shot above, I actually called a friend, whom I could not hear even though my headphones were in – and she could barely make out what I was saying despite the fact that I was shouting into the microphone.

This gas station with a convenience store is directly across the street from the hotel, and would presumptively fill the role of a supermarket for purchasing food and other existential necessaries. As is the case with such locations, everything you can purchase within is priced as high as the market will bear, and food items available are typically highly processed food stuffs designed for a long shelf life.

I guess the Mayor thinks that microwave burritos are good enough for these so called “Homeless” he’s planning on exiling to industrial Maspeth.

Is it smart to exile a vulnerable population in an industrial zone found along an elevated highway that carries close to a half million vehicle trips a day and which produces an ear shattering din? Is it ok for these people to be exploited by a check cashing location, and to have to make a choice between eating convenience store food, Chinese take out, or at McDonalds? Or, is it just expedient?

Bye bye Bayside service station

Dear Crappie,

I'm sad to report that the Mobil station at the corner of Northern Blvd. & Bell Blvd. closed this week and has been dismantled. According to area residents I've spoken to, this had been a service station for as long as anyone can remember.

The only clue I have as to what happened is a postcard I received in the mail (I had my oil changed there many times) saying that the service station had lost it's lease. If anyone has any information about what's happening to this site, I'd be interested to know.

So much has changed along this stretch of Northern in just the last few years. The BMW detailing facility is now a blue, multi-story building. Pier 25A is closed and Burger King is scheduled to close and be redeveloped. It's hard to think that this site won't be transformed as well. Hoping for the best.

-Mike in (what used to be!) Bayside

So far, there's only a permit to remove the underground storage tanks. But with R6B/R4B/C2-2 zoning, prepare to see a giant pile of crap built in its place.

Oh, the hardship!

From Brooklyn Daily:

Community Board 15’s zoning committee roundly rejected a developer’s appeal to get around regulations for a property on Avenue Z, between E. 21st Street and E. 22nd Street over concerns about parking and building height.

The panel voted unanimously against the request at a June 23 meeting after nearby residents showed up to say the planned building would destroy the neighborhood’s character.

“These kind of developments are killing Sheepshead Bay,” said Daniel Colon, who lives across the street from the lot.

Another neighbor even called the developer, Aleksandr Finkelshteyn, a “bull in a china shop.”

Finkelshteyn has filed a request for a variance with the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals seeking exemptions from several zoning regulations. He wants to build up to four stories rather than the three allowed, and to include commercial and retail space in a residential zone. Most controversially, he doesn’t want to provide any parking — even though regulations would require a development of that size to include 32 parking spaces.

The proposed structure’s floor area would be twice the size permitted by the zoning rules, and would include retail space on the first floor, a commercial office on the second floor, and medical offices on the third and fourth floors.

The developer’s attorney told the committee that it was not feasible to develop the property under the current regulations. The lot hosted a gas station until 1995 and an auto shop since then, precluding residential use, and the lawyer claimed there wasn’t enough room for all the parking required.

Bad zoning - is it a racial thing?

From a letter to the editor of the Times Ledger:

The New York City Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) has a final say on land use issues throughout the five boroughs. They wield a lot of power over our communities. Too much power in my opinion. The BSA needs to be accountable to the taxpayers. The City Council should have the power to review BSA decisions and overturn those that harm our neighborhoods. Conditions adopted into BSA decisions have to be monitored by the Department of Buildings. From what I have seen, the DOB is highly ineffective.

In my neighborhood of Bayside Clear Spring, we have far too many auto related businesses that show no respect for their neighbors. Star Nissan parks more cars than permitted on their back lot. Despite repeated complaints, the Department of Buildings has failed to resolve the problem.

Helms Brothers built an extension of their building into the residential area through various loopholes, in coordination with the BSA and other city agencies. Did anyone in city government think of the residents?

The Getty gas station on Northern Boulevard near 204th Street neglected to renew their variance for years some time back. A letter was written to BSA about this by a civic association. The BSA’s executive director at the time wrote a letter to Getty giving them sixty days to renew or they would have to undergo the variance procedure all over again under the current zoning resolution. The sixty days passed without renewal. When Getty sought to renew, the BSA went back on their word and allowed Getty to get their variance renewal.

Why does my community have such an overabundance of auto related businesses? One does not see this degree of infiltration in adjacent areas. Does the city allow this because of the ethnicity of the people who live in my community? What else can one think but that African American neighborhoods are targeted for the least desirable businesses?

My people will not accept this treatment. We demand fairness and justice.

Mandingo Osceola Tshaka
Bayside

Gas station back in business

Here's another update on a June 19th post:

"Greetings Crapunzel:

The gas station at Eliot & Fresh Pond is again open. New pumps and a cleaner look.

Got gas there two days ago at a very good credit card price.

Sayonara,

philipe the filled up"

It remains a Citgo.

Another gas station bites the dust

This popular Citgo station at the corner of Eliot Avenue and Fresh Pond Road recently closed shop. A sign on the building says they moved to Brooklyn, possibly along with the Nathan's franchise it hosted. We'll watch to see what moves in.

Dormant site on major corner

Last July, there was word that the Gulf gas station at Metropolitan Ave and Woodhaven Blvd was for sale. There was a permit issued to remove the underground tanks. So far, that's all the work that has been done on the property. The construction fence looked like this on Saturday night. One can only imagine what's been going on inside...

According to ACRIS, the lot has not yet been sold. But here are the plans:

90-04 Metropolitan Avenue Queens Exclusive Flyer Web 0

Restaurant expansion to replace current eyesore

From the Queens Courier:

Mizumi restaurant is pumping funds into a planned expansion that will clean up the eyesore next door, a defunct gas station, The Courier has learned.

Owners of the sushi restaurant and buffet bought the former Getty gas station on 231-06 Northern Blvd., which has been tagged with graffiti for more than a year, and plan to replace it with an extension of the eatery.

Besides cleaning off the vandalism, the Chiang family, which owns Mizumi, hired Advanced Cleanup Technologies to remediate any environmental concerns caused by the gas station or expansion as it sits directly in front of Alley Pond Park.

Gulf be gone

The Gulf at the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and Woodhaven Blvd, which had been listed in years past as the cheapest place to find gas in the area is no more.
No plans have been filed thus far with DOB and as far as I can tell, it's not for sale. I'm sure some remediation would have to take place in order to convert it into anything other than a gas station. It's in an M1-1 district, which only allows for light manufacturing or retail.

Queens gas station perps caught

From the Queens Courier:

A wild chase ended in the capture of two men wanted for several gas station robberies in Queens.

Police spotted the suspects driving the wrong way down the Clearview Expressway early Wednesday morning, April 3, said the NYPD. Refusing to pull over, the alleged robbers eventually ditched their vehicle and ran into nearby Kissena Park.

One suspect was quickly arrested and a gun was recovered in the vehicle.

An extensive manhunt, reportedly involving a police helicopter, was launched for the second man. He was found about an hour later hiding in a parked car on Moline Street off of Braddock Avenue.

The two men arrested allegedly robbed four gas stations and one grocery store in March and early April, according to police.

College Point has oldest service station in NYC

From the NY Post:

A historic gas station in Queens has been in business for so long that when it first opened, the only mustangs and broncos it serviced had stirrups, not seatbelts.

Farrington Service Station in College Point opened in 1868 — just three years after the Civil War ended. And while other gas stations have come and gone, remarkably, Farrington’s has been owned by the same family on the same street corner for 145 years.

“My father and my grandfather before him always said, ‘Never sell your luck,’ ” said John Farrington, 56, who co-owns the station at 15th Avenue and 126th Street with his brother, Michael.

“That gas station has been our luck in this family for five generations. We would never get rid of it.”

The station has undergone numerous face-lifts as it’s gone from servicing horses to fueling automobiles — first with Sinclair Oil, then BP and, finally, with Gulf.

Calls for gas stations to have generators

From Bayside Patch:

A second elected official from northeast Queens is now calling for local gas stations to have back-up generators to allow for the operation of fuel pumps during power outages.

Earlier this month, state Assemblyman David Weprin, D-Little Neck, introduced legislation that would force gas station owners to have back-up power sources in the case of a storm.

Under his bill, the generators would need to be available for use no later than 24 hours after a disaster and gas stations would have to get a transfer switch installed by a professional electrical contractor.

Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, has now filed a legislative service request for the law on Nov. 13 in the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s visit to the city. Residents in Halloran’s district have been forced to wait in long lines for gas.

“After seeing the effects of power outages at gas stations throughout the city, it seems a no-brainer,” he said. “The stations that had power in the early aftermath of the storm quickly ran out of gas, while the stations that had gas had no electricity to pump it.”

He said forcing gas station owners to install a generator would help to prevent the type of gas shortages through which city residents have suffered in recent weeks.

AG goes after gasoline price gougers

From The Politicker:

As several gas station owners are about to learn, it’s against New York State law to jack up the price of goods like fuel after a hurricane. To wit, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced he is bringing his “first series of enforcement actions” against price gougers in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

“Today’s action is the first in a series of steps my office will take as we continue to actively investigate the hundreds of complaints we’ve received from consumers of businesses preying on victims of Hurricane Sandy,” the attorney general said in a statement. “We will do everything we can to stop unscrupulous individuals from taking advantage of New Yorkers trying to rebuild their lives.”

Although the law doesn’t specifically cite an illegal price for gasoline, it does prohibit an “unconscionably excessive price” during an “abnormal disruption of the market,” according to Mr. Schneiderman’s office. In addition to “war” and “military action,” the law names “weather events” as a triggering event that would restrict such sharp price increases. A fatal storm that left much of the city without gas would certainly seem to qualify.

Taxi fleet owner's a gas hoarder

From DNA Info:

A Queens gas station owned by a taxi tycoon is refusing to sell gas to anyone but yellow cabs — with preferential treatment for his own drivers — even as desperate motorists line up for blocks to get fuel amid a massive shortage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

On the eve of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's mandatory gas-rationing plan, a Shell station on Northern Boulevard and 71st Street was giving away a seemingly endless supply of gas — mainly to members of taxi mogul Evgeny Freidman's taxi fleet.

Freidman's gas station had three working pumps on Thursday and has been flush with gas in the wake of the hurricane, even as dozens of others around the five boroughs ran dry and closed, sparking massive lines.

The station waved away at least five pleading motorists trying to fill up at the pump within an hour that evening while yellow cabs flew through the line and filled up, as officials from the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission stood by and watched.

"We're just here to provide security," said a TLC official, who turned up at the station at 5 p.m. Thursday, along with several NYPD officers, after getting "hundreds" of 911 calls about fights at that station.

Two pumps were reserved for Taxi Club Management, Freidman's massive fleet of cabs. All other cab drivers, who had been turned away from the station until the TLC intervened Wednesday, had to wait in two-block-long lines to use the third pump, even when the Taxi Club lines were empty.

Gas price gouging in College Point

"130-09 14th ave in College Point.



Cross Island Parkway, Whitestone.



150-65 Cross Island Parkway. They not only kept prices the same but hired extra people to pump gas in order to speed lines up.

Thanks, Exxon of Whitestone." - anonymous

Gas rationing started this morning

From NBC 4:

Significant damage to northern New Jersey petroleum distribution facilities -- including the region’s largest refinery -- could keeps lines long at the gasoline pumps for weeks, NBC 4 New York's I-Team has learned.

When Sandy came ashore last week, the Bayway Refinery in Linden, N.J. took on 12 feet of salt water, according to Rich Johnson, a spokesman for Phillips 66, the refinery’s parent company. Floodwaters damaged critical equipment, hampering the facility’s ability to pump gasoline into pipelines that are typically accessed by tanker trucks.

“We had a lot of electrical equipment that was damaged,” said Johnson.

The Bayway refinery is the most productive refinery in the tri-state region, processing about 238,000 barrels of crude oil per day. On the East Coast, Bayway is second only to a plant operated by Philadelphia Energy Solutions, which has a production capacity of 335,000 barrels a day.

As a result of the problems at Bayway and other storm-damaged petroleum terminals, many delivery trucks must fill up with wholesale gasoline at terminals in the Philadelphia area, severely delaying shipments to New York and New Jersey gas stations.

From The Huffington Post:

Due to the high demand of gas post-Hurricane Sandy, New York City and Long Island will begin gas rationing on Friday morning.

If your license plate ends with an even number, you can only purchase gas on an even-numbered day. If your license plate ends with an odd number, you can only buy gas on odd-numbered days.

New York City Mayor Bloomberg signed an emergency order instituting gas rationing on Thursday.

Richmond Hill's gas ass

From WPIX:

Police received an anonymous complaint about 8:45 p.m. Saturday that someone in a van with New York plates was filling up five-gallon buckets with gas at the Valero station at 347 Boston Post Road, police said.

Officers arrived at the scene and found that Yunus Latif, 47, of Richmond Hill, N.Y., was filling up buckets from The Home Depot with gas. Latif told the officers he was unable to get gas in New York because it was sold out.

He said his neighbors gave him money to buy gas; he had about 30 buckets of gasoline in the van, each of which contained about four gallons of gas.

The officers saw that the buckets had lids that had not been properly fastened, and the lids were beginning to expand, police said. The gas had not been put in proper containers, they said.

Police called the local fire marshal and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Officials decided to return the gasoline to its underground tanks.

Latif was charged with violation concerning flammable or combustible liquids, police said. He was given a court date of Nov. 19, at Superior Court in Derby.