It takes a village to raise zombie trees

Queens Chronicle

For decades there have been dead trees and an overgrowth of grass and weeds that has caused cracks in the medians that stretch from Springfield Boulevard on Hillside Avenue to 231st Street and Hillside Avenue next to Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village, according to Kirby Lindell of Bell Park Manor Terrace, a housing cooperative for veterans within the neighborhood.

“It looks like a jungle now,” said Lindell. “Nothing gets done. The trees have been there for years, and they put up a couple of live ones and left the dead ones there. It looks like ‘The Addams Family.’ It is right in front of the high school and is not a good optic.”

Lindell fears that the dead trees and the cracks in the curb from the weeds are not only a possible safety hazard, but they could affect the property values of the area and might dissuade parents from sending their kids to Martin Van Buren High School, which has started to turn things around after facing possible closure in 2012.

“This is an ongoing thing year after year and they never clean up the weeds,” said Lindell. “If you are ever around that area, some of the weeds are 4 feet or taller — all over the median it looks like a rainforest. It makes the whole neighborhood look rundown and the city just ignores us. Other parts of the city, like Brooklyn, Manhattan and Western Queens, are taken care of, but it feels like we are forgotten over here.”

If nothing gets done now, Lindell fears it will take even more years to get rid of the unsightly weeds and dead trees.

“It took 10 years to get Braddock Avenue repaved,” said Lindell. “This is a very good middle class neighborhood, with a strong school system, but the city has left us ... maybe because it is Southeast Queens, I don’t know why they don’t help us.”

Lindell has reached out to 311 and Councilman Barry Grodenchik’s (D-Oakland Gardens) office, but fears that the elected official, who will not be running for re-election after a sexual harassment scandal in 2019, will spend the remainder of his four months in office as a lame duck.

DEC wants your input on contaminated site

From the Queens Tribune:

The state Department of Environment Conservation is seeking the public’s opinion on how a potentially contaminated plot of property in Hollis should be remedied.

The site, which is located at 202-16 Hillside Ave., was considered eligible for the New York Brownfield Cleanup Program, which was set up to mitigate sites with potentially harmful contaminant levels exceeding the threshold set up by the DEC. The program utilizes community feedback and oversight from the DEC and the state Department of Health to clean up spaces around the city efficiently without harming the quality of life. The Brownfield Cleanup Program services properties that are eyed for redevelopment.

To keep residents in the loop regarding the property, the state is asking that Hollis residents provide feedback on how the final plan of will be executed. Additionally, more in-depth dissection of the work being completed at the site can be collected at the Queens Library Hollis Branch, located at 202-05 Hillside Ave., or at Community Board 12’s office, located at 90-28 161st St. in Jamaica.

Subway grate sidewalk mess on Hillside Ave

From Cleanup Jamaica Queens:

I first came across this awful site (one of many) in Jamaica, although since this is on the north side of Hillside Avenue this is technically Jamaica Estates, way back in 2010, when I first moved to this god forsaken place and who knows how long it was like this before that. Fast forward to 2015 and this mess is even worse. At 175-01 Hillside Avenue right near Bank of America and a MTA bus stop, sits some kind of I do not even know what to call this crap. It sits above the MTA subway grate and I guess our wonderful low-class residents figure it is a big garbage can, since all kinds of garbage gets tossed here. Besides all the garbage the whole thing is falling apart.

A strange way to revitalize Jamaica

From Cleanup Jamaica Queens:

We have “Jamaica Revealed”, the Jamaica BID event to promote the potential of Jamaica. We have the “Jamaica Now Action Plan” by Queens Borough Melinda Katz and Mayor de Blasio for the revitalization of Jamaica. But what we really have in Jamaica is SHIT and more of it being dumped into this community.

Across the street from the New Ideal Basket Grocery Market (very nice), near the Walgreen’s and by several apartment buildings, located at 175-20 Hillside Avenue is a very plain looking 3-story building which over the last couple of years housed the Allen Health Care Service, a dentist office, an STD Testing Express site and some other businesses, but since last year has been empty, that is until now.

Walking by last week, I noticed, shall I say, “questionable types” going in and out of the building, some getting out of vans, others walking and being let in by a security guard. At first I thought, homeless shelter, but they all did not quite fit that bill and the faces were always changing. So today, when I walked by the “folks” hanging out waiting to go in around 8am, I stopped and talked to the security guard to ask him, what is in the building. He hesitated and really did not want to say anything, but eventually told me, that is what a methadone clinic. Maybe that explained the baggie filled with orange pills on the sidewalk at the entrance of the 179th Street station.

So is this what you call the “Revitalization of Jamaica”? Just what we need, a bunch of heroin addicts hanging out.

As usual let’s keep dumping crap into our community while praising the “potential” of Jamaica. So what power to be gave the go ahead on this one and where was Community Board 12 of yet another crap thing dumped into the hood.

Missing C of O on Hillside

Every once in a while, something is brought to my attention that surprises even me. Take for example, this new building at 85-32 130th Street.

This 4-story structure appears to be fully inhabited, but there is no current C of O for it. And there's a nice Class 1 violation that hasn't been paid.

So it's a Class 1 violation, meaning a high hazard, yet the place is not vacated. I wonder what DOB considers to be really dangerous.

Hillside Avenue is one big garbage dump

WHY is nothing being done about the condition of Hillside Avenue, especially the stretch from 165th all the way to 179th, that is taking place on the north side and the south side, although the north side is a little better due to community board 8's involvement, both sides are not great, but the south side is a disaster. How is having a constant overflowing garbage can with garbage all around it near the entrance of the 179th Street subway right near Rocoto Restaurant acceptable. Why should the owners of this establishment have to deal with this and the patrons have to see this while dining.

Many businesses are not cleaning up in front of their places (165th to 174th) and some are actually dumping their business garbage in the public bins. Public bins are continuously overflowing and spilling on the ground due to infrequent pickup but more so because people are putting large amounts of household garbage into these receptacles (due to illegal apartments or landlords not providing garbage cans). I have watched people coming out of apartments and dump their household garbage in these public garbage cans, especially all of the ones on the South Side from 171st all the way to 179th. This morning I could not even put a circular from the newspaper in any of these, they were so filled and overflowing garbage. In fact this morning the public can at 174th in front of that dirty deli across from Major Mark Park was filled and overflowing and even had a huge wooden loading crate. This was like that on Thursday morning and nothing had changed except more garbage. I have seen this deli on a daily basis dump their business garbage in there. Speaking of Major Mark Park, a disaster of garbage and homeless people.

As far as the south side why isn't Councilman Miller on this, this is in his area and why isn't community board 12 doing something about this disaster called Hillside Avenue, it is a disgrace. It clearly looks like the slums of some third world country.

I do not have recent photos from today, but have photos from past visits and nothing has changed. Totally unacceptable and all leaders should be ashamed for allow this to continue.

Yet another reason why many are feed up with the current leadership.

Joe Moretti

$1600 for 1-bedroom in Jamaica?

From the Queens Courier:

Development in Jamaica is about to pick up and bring big changes to the New York City real estate scene, according to a firm building new apartments in the area.

TCX Development, a Great Neck-based firm, is working on a seven-story, 21-unit apartment building on Hillside Avenue near 191st Street. TCX officials believe they are ahead of the wave of development they feel is coming to the neighborhood because of its zoning, extensive public transportation network and massive downtown shopping district.

The building will mostly be comprised of one-bedroom apartments for $1,600 a month, which Asherian said will be attractive compared to Brooklyn and Manhattan prices for comparable rooms. There will also be one three-bedroom penthouse.

$1,600/mo seems a little steep for a one-bedroom in Jamaica. But if it doesn't work out, the Department of Homeless Services will gladly pay $3,500/mo for these apartments.

Water main work to begin in Briarwood

From the Queens Courier:

Officials from the Department of Design Construction recently began construction of a $15 million water main project that will replace nearly century-old pipes in Briarwood, and explained the plan to residents on Thursday in a community meeting.

The project stretches from 84th Road and 164th Street and will end at Hillside Avenue and Queens Blvd. The city’s water pipes, which have been in place since the 1920s according to a DDC representative, will be replaced with larger new ones, accommodating for the population growth in the last century.

The current pipes, some which are six inches in diameter and others that are eight inches, will be expanded to eight and 12-inch pipes respectively. The expanded diameter will also allow the opportunity to increase water pressure, DDC officials said.

Work on the pipes started a few weeks ago and will continue until November 2015. Workers will remove and replace pipes one block at a time during the year.

It doesn't get much worse than this

From the Queens Chronicle:

James J. Shevlin, born in 1863 and a son of Irish immigrants, joined the NYPD on Oct. 16, 1886. A rising star in the department, he advanced himself to captain of the old 279th Precinct in the Rockaways.

Shevlin built this mansion, originally numbered 453 Hillside Ave. With his wife, Mary, he raised eight boys — Thomas, Matthew, Eugene, Joseph, Gerard, John, Harold and Charles — in this home. His last child was a girl they named Mary. He even took in his mother- and father-in-law, Matthew and Nora Kett.

Once Hillside Avenue was zoned commercial east down to Hollis, these grand homes were doomed. Few remained when stores started to dominate the area. The price of commercial real state outweighed the value of these grand homes. But the Shevlin Mansion remained, though hidden.

Security cameras coming...eventually

From the Queens Courier:

Police will install new sets of eyes in parts of Briarwood, Jamaica and Pomonok, according to a Queens lawmaker.

Seventeen NYPD security cameras are coming to the area’s high-traffic locations thanks to $600,000 in funding secured by Councilmember James Gennaro.

They can be found around Rufus King Park in Jamaica, near Archbishop Molloy High School and along Hillside Avenue, Jamaica Avenue and Parsons Boulevard, officials said.

Installation is slated to be completed by the city’s police department within two years.

It takes 2 years to install cameras?

Filthy Major Mark Park - The Sequel

Yesterday you all received an email with photos from me showing all the garbage/trash in certain areas along Hillside Avenue (which I am happy to say that the website Queens Crap posted but not happy to see all this crap all over my community).

Well continuing on the theme of shitty Hillside Avenue and trashy Jamaica and while walking to the local Walgreens, I walked through Major Mark Park, located on Hillside Avenue between 173rd St and 175th Street and to my lack of surprise, garbage, garbage and more garbage.

Here are photos just taken this afternoon of the disgusting and filthy Major Mark Park, which I had brought to all of your attention not that long ago on July 20th. Well, Major John W. Park (who lost his life fighting for the U.S. Army in World War I) is doing double back flips and in constant rolling around mode in his grave knowing that this Jamaica park named after him is in a constant state of garbage/trash and has become a haven for the savage beasts (I refuse to use the word pig, since pigs are actually very clean animals) in Jamaica who sit next to the homeless and drug addicts and as usual bring down the quality of life in Jamaica.

Although I would go out on a limb and state that the homeless do not add as much garbage here as do the residents of Jamaica who think nothing of throwing cans, bottles, papers, fast food container, diapers and anything else in their disgusting dirty hands on the ground even when standing or sitting right next to a garbage can. Ah, the diversity of Queens.

This is just totally appalling and this is not even a huge park, just under an acre, .09 acres. I hate to think if this park was much larger.

As I have stated so many times before, the savages who live in Jamaica are the culprits, but how are you all going to handle this, especially you, Councilman Leroy Comrie and Community Board #12 since this falls under your jurisdiction.

Do Not Litter signs would be welcome as would be a large gate surrounding the park with an entrance fee of $2.50. That is a joke, not many in this park would be able to read the damn sign.


Joe Moretti

Hillside Avenue is one giant dump

Today, August 18th, walking from the very clean Kew Gardens into the very dirty Jamaica going along Hillside Avenue I encountered 3 areas with large amounts of garbage. The areas are:

1). The SW corner of Hillside Avenue & Van Wyck Expressway West - behind the phone booth, which is under the huge billboard are several garbage bags, plus the empty lot behind the phone booth, which might belong to the auto service place next to it, has garbage inside of it as well. You cannot miss this corner since the auto service place (718-739-3009) has many signs right near the phone booth. At one time this small empty lot had cars on it.

2). The abandoned Auto Gallery Motors place on Hillside Avenue & 139th Street (139-04 Hillside Avenue) has a couple of broken garbage bags in front of it right next to the bus stop sign. The bags are broken open and people are obviously throwing garbage on top of them.

3) The abandoned Strauss Auto Discount Service lot at the corner of Hillside Avenue & 143rd St (139-29 Hillside Avenue) has garbage on the sidewalk and inside the lot.

Some of the garbage looks like it has been there for some time. In fact this whole stretch of area on Hillside is pretty disgusting (with the exception of Hillside Honda) since many of those auto places are now abandoned and there seems to be garbage all over that area including some of the businesses, one in particular, Allstate Insurance (139-48 Hillside Avenue), which has many garbage bags just laying on the sidewalk. In fact pretty much all of Hillside Avenue to about 173rd is one of the most disgusting and dirty stretches I have ever encountered and it gets worse every single day. Hillside Avenue makes Jamaica Avenue look like Rodeo Drive and believe me Jamaica Avenue is nothing to get excited about, although the Merci Boutique clothing store rises above the majority of low class crap. It makes me wonder though how long such a classy store can survive among the typical dreck, although I wish it much success as I told the owner and hope it is a glimpse of what Jamaica could be come, but I am not holding my breath.

The people of Jamaica never seem to amaze me what a most disgusting and dirty lot so many of them are, with no pride or respect for their community, especially after coming from close by Kew Gardens, which obviously has a much better class of people. So many here in Jamaica treat it like a third world garbage dump, which it is pretty much resembling these days. How can some of you even hold your head up high with how low and low Jamaica keeps on getting decade after decade, between the garbage, the destruction of so many nice homes, the building of cheap third world ghetto style apartment buildings and the constant violence & shootings. Does anyone really have any idea or plan on improving Jamaica at all or are you all going to wait till it becomes another Brownsville or East New York or most any place in the Bronx. Why is there not some major building here, be it an arena or venue such as in downtown Brooklyn or a Jet Blue building in Long Island City or whatever it is they are planning on doing at Willets Point, anything except another Subway Sandwich place or a wig store or a 99 Cent store or a dirty disgusting fast food Chinese place....................anything that does not reek of "third world ghetto" crap!

As usual a very disgruntled constituent.

Joe Moretti

Chainsaw massacre on Hillside Avenue!

Mr. Lawrence McClean:

On Monday, August 29, 2011, the day after Tropical Storm Irene left many roads in Bellerose and Floral Park completely blocked (and as of this writing, many roads are still impassable), an irate neighbor visited me to complain about the intentional cutting down of three city trees at the curb on the north side of Hillside Ave., between 256 and 257 St. in Floral Park. I visited the site and took the photos which are below.

My observation was of three apparently healthy city trees with no leaves, branches or other debris around the trees except for sawdust at the base of each tree, just feet below where the trees were intentionally cut by a saw. There was no apparent evidence of any loose or damaged branches or uprooting that might have made these trees a danger to pedestrian or vehicular traffic.

Two of the trees are in front of a super market at 256-09 Hillside Ave., obviously partially blocking the name and window signs. Large ads were placed in every window by the former owner of the Fine Fare supermarket. A sign in the store windows now indicates: "BALAJISUER BAZAAR COMING SOON".

The third tree is close by, in front of 256-15 Hillside Ave., Friendly Realty & Mgmt.

I am not currently aware of any eyewitnesses to this destruction of New York City property.

Since the intentional damaging of city trees is a criminal act, the community deserves an immediate investigation by the Parks Dept., even before the trees are removed, in case there is ever a prosecution. And the removal of the stumps and replacement of the trees should be a priority, especially since the Mayor is still looking for spaces for the million trees he is having planted. Ideally it should be at the expense of the perpetrators and not taxpayers.

As District Manager of CB13Q, please communicate with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, and/or the NYPD if deemed appropriate, and request an immediate investigation of this apparent criminal act along with a speedy replacement of these trees.

I expect to hear from you on this matter.

Sincerely,
James Delaney
Member, CB13 Parks Committee










__________________________________________

In light of the recent attack on trees mentioned below - A Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces Press conference is scheduled for Thursday, Sept 1 at 4 PM at 256-09 Hillside Avenue. We need to put pressure on people to give up the people who cut down trees - the three trees are valued at over $11,000.00 and are assets of the community. And its not just about the money - we are all trying to green up Queens and the rest of the city and some idiot decides to cut down trees. Can you imagine losing three healthy street trees in your neighborhood? Come and help us get the message out - Don't Mess with our Street Trees - Killers Beware.
__________________________________________

The Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces is offering a reward of $200 for info leading to the arrest of those responsible for the cutting down of 3 City Street Trees on the 256 block of Hillside Avenue. There is no excuse for the execution of these trees and I hope others will join us in offering a reward and or providing information. Pictures taken clearly show that the trees were cut about 80% and the culprits hoped that is would be blamed on Irene. I am sickened by some self serving person would have the gall to intentionally harm street trees while we are all working to plant and save them. We have also heard of similar problems in Flushing. This has got to and will stop with help from the neighborhood.
PEP is investigating, but this is your neighborhood, so we all need to be pro-active, otherwise others will see that they can get away with it and do the same. Image dozens of our street trees being cut down? I will not and can not allow this and I will not sit back and wait for more arboricide to happen. Will you join me in hunting down the scum that did this?

Respectfully,
Frederick Kress
Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces

PS: IF anyone would like to contribute to the REWARD it would probably increase the odds of us getting the parties responsible for this.

They want new sewers, and they want them now

From the Queens Chronicle:

Residents of Community Boards 8 and 12 gathered in a hot and muggy auditorium at Hillcrest High School on Monday to hear details of an upcoming reconstruction project, but it was more than a lack of air conditioning that had them hot under the collar. Questions about parking and flooding dominated the hour- long meeting, attended by about 20 people.

The $8.4 million project, designed to upgrade Hillside Avenue from the Van Wyck Expressway Service Road to 191st Street, is scheduled to begin on May 17 and be completed by fall of next year. It will include new pavement, sidewalks, pedestrian ramps, curbs, trees, street lights, catch basins and hydrant replacement as necessary.

Maria Centeno, the executive director of the outreach and infrastructure division of the city’s Department of Design and Construction, could barely get through the first five minutes of her presentation on the project before she was hit with a barrage of questions from community members.

“It’s very upsetting to come here tonight and listen to this presentation, which basically addresses cosmetics,” said Eugenia Rudman of Hollis Park Gardens. “It’s cosmetic. You tell me where it’s going to address our serious infrastructure problems.”

“We need sewers and none of this should be being done without the sewers being installed, because it is useless,” [CB8 Chair Mark] Lefkof said. “Catch basins are irrelevant. The piping cannot hold all the infrastructure that has built up over the years. This is a complete waste of money because what is needed is not being incorporated into the project.”

Marie Adam-Ovide, the district manager of CB 8, expressed similar frustration and was not surprised by the community’s reaction. “We have been trying for many years to get sewers on Hillside Avenue, but unfortunately we are getting this beautification project instead,” she said.

The Bloomberg Administration is here to make the city look nice, not deal with underlying infrastructure problems. It's all superficial. Haven't you figured that out yet?