Department of Transportation suggests transportation alternatives to avoid rigged bus cameras to disabled and elderly churchgoers

 

 Queens Chronicle

For months, members of Grace Episcopal Church in Jamaica have complained of being hit with traffic tickets when they drop off elderly people and those with limited mobility in front of the church on Jamaica Avenue, where the city’s Department of Transportation installed a busway in late 2021. Since then, parishioners have been working with area elected officials and the DOT to find a solution.

With tickets starting at $50 for parking in the busway and increasing up to $500 after several offenses, the cost has weighed on churchgoers. But part of the problem, says church vestry member Annette Manigault, was the lack of clarity on how the street and bus cameras ticketing drivers worked.

“We’re trying to make sure we can get the parishioners, especially our elderly or disabled, into the church, because no one was in knowledge of how the cameras are working, as well as the location being not accessible for cars coming down Jamaica Avenue,” she said.

She added that the nearest parking lots are several blocks away, making the need to drop off those with limited mobility all the more vital.

Under busway rules, no through traffic is allowed on Jamaica Avenue from Sutphin Boulevard to 168th Street, seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.; cars on the avenue must make the first available turn off of it.

In a recent walk-through of the site, which was attended by Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia, the DOT clarified to parishioners that the busway does not prevent cars from accessing a given block of Jamaica Avenue — it tickets drivers from continuing down it for more than a block. Therefore, there are several ways churchgoers can drop off their loved ones in front of the church without facing tickets, as detailed in a DOT pamphlet the agency said it handed out at the walk-through.

If traveling south on Parsons Boulevard, drivers can turn right onto Jamaica Avenue, stop in front of the church, then turn right onto 153rd Street. Drivers coming from the east on Archer Avenue can turn right onto Parsons Boulevard before turning left onto Jamaica and making their drop off, then continuing onto 153rd Street. From the west, drivers on Archer Avenue can turn left onto 153rd Street and then right onto Jamaica Avenue. After stopping, they can turn right onto Parsons Boulevard and then right onto Archer again. The latter does, however, require churchgoers to cross the street.

 

Pre-City Of Yes housing development in stillborn state

 

 This is nice set of rowhouses between 75th and 77th St on Jamaica Ave. I caught in January 2020 the day after Neir's was saved from closing permanently and a few months before the pandemic lockdowns that has destroyed this city. 

 

 

3 and a half years later, it's still caged and unoccupied.

 

 

The only thing that's living here are the vegetation and the graffiti (looks like the work of Five Pointz).

 

Mayor Adams and his technocrats at NYC planning want to build a city of yes when they didn't even have the motivation to get people in housing that already exists. I wonder how the City Of Yes doctrine will apply here with these buildings that are already completed. Maybe it needs 5 more stories.

Jamaica gets extra pavement

 

 

Cityland

On August 10, 2023, the New York City Department of Transportation and Department of Design and Construction announced the completion of their pedestrian safety improvements in Jamaica, Queens. The goal of the pedestrian safety improvements is to create a more inviting space for residents to enjoy Downtown Jamaica and reduce the amount of car crashes resulting in serious pedestrian injury in the area.

On Parsons Boulevard between Jamaica Avenue and Archer Avenue in Queens, sidewalk space has more than doubled, the distance to cross Parsons Boulevard has been significantly reduced and there is a new pedestrian island. All improvements come from the Jamaica NOW Action Plan which utilizes community visions to revamp Downtown Jamaica. Public space improvements have been at the top of the community’s wish list, with safety improvements specifically to Parsons Boulevard between Jamaica Avenue and Archer Avenue being at the forefront of discussion.

DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez stated, “New Yorkers deserve streets and public spaces that are safe, vibrant, and welcoming for all. This project will make Parsons Boulevard safer and better for the community and those who visit. I thank our partners at DDC, the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative, elected officials, and community members for their collaboration.”

Council Member Nantasha Williams stated, “This investment into pedestrian safety is much needed and greatly appreciated. Parsons Blvd and the Downtown Jamaica area grow more vibrant every day, and we look forward to making this neighborhood an even more walkable community where constituents can live, work and play in safety.”

Meanwhile, a mere 2 blocks away on Jamaica Ave, Ydanis and the DOT made some public spaces that are pretty vibrant and welcoming too. Safe? Not so sure. Also not sure how much they spent on usurping parking spaces for lounging by busy traffic and a bus lane. 

 

Lunatic kills one man and wounds 3 other people during broad daylight mass shooting spree while riding a ghost e-bike

AMNY 

Detectives in Queens have a suspect in custody in connection with a shooting spree in Queens and Brooklyn on Saturday morning that left one man dead and three others injured.

Law enforcement sources said a scooter-riding suspect shot the three victims in Richmond Hill, Queens, between 11:25 and 11:40 a.m. on July 8. He was also linked to a fourth shooting in nearby Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, that preceded the Queens portion of the rampage.

The motive for the shootings, four of which occurred in the 102nd Precinct‘s confines, remain unknown at this time, police sources said. 

“It seems that these acts were random,” Assistant Chief Joe Kenny of the NYPD Detectives Bureau said. “The video shows he’s not targeting anybody, he’s not following anybody. As he’s driving on the scooter, he’s randomly shooting at people.”

Acting Police Commissioner Edward Caban said the suspect, a 25-year-old man with one prior arrest on his rap sheet, was apprehended at about 1 p.m. in nearby Jamaica, Queens, at the corner of Sutphin Boulevard and 94th Avenue.

The suspect had been picked up by officers assigned to the 103rd Precinct, who recognized the man from security video obtained quickly from the shooting scenes and transmitted to every police officer in the city through a “critical message,” Caban noted.

The commissioner said that the shooter rode an illegal scooter, and the weapon allegedly used in the spree, a 9 mm handgun with an extended magazine, was found stored within the illegal ride.

At each shooting scene, police officials noted, the NYPD recovered 9 mm shell casings, as well as video footage and/or witness descriptions of the same scooter-riding suspect. 

Sure looks like this bastard was looking to kill a lot more people while rolling on pedestrian heavy Jamaica Avenue. Anybody want to say defund the police now?

Queens is still burning: Again on Jamaica Avenue

 QNS

More than 100 FDNY personnel extinguished an early morning blaze that broke out Tuesday, July 13, on Jamaica Avenue in a Richmond Hill storefront.

The fire broke out just after 1 a.m. at Maria’s Nail and Beauty Supply at 102-19 Jamaica Ave. beneath the J/Z subway line, according to the FDNY.

The blaze was classified as a two-alarm fire, bringing 25 units and more than 100 firefighters and EMS personnel. It was a tight squeeze for Richmond Hill’s Ladder 143 and Ladder 127 from Hillside Avenue. The fire was placed under control just after 2 a.m. and four firefighters suffered minor injuries. They were removed to area hospitals for treatment, according to the FDNY.

 Several families from second-floor apartments were displaced by the fire. This stretch of Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill is no stranger to devastating fires. Just five months ago, a five-alarm fire broke out at the Dollar Store at 109-25 Jamaica Ave. and destroyed six buildings.

 

Queens Black Lives Matter mural doesn't matter anymore

 

Impunity City

 

In a few weeks, New York City (and other American cities) will be recognizing the one year anniversary of the extrajudicial murder of George Floyd committed by Officer Derek Chauvin and also the start of the Black Lives Matter mass protest demonstrations that followed it.

Which brings up Mayor de Blasio’s feeble recognition of that momentous tragedy and other preventable deaths at the hands of overzealous police based on the race of the victims. Inspired by Mayor Muriel Browser, who ordered a mural of the movement’s universal political slogan on a street in Washington D.C, the Blaz decided to sextuple down on Browser’s tribute and painted 6 murals on the 5 boroughs. The one placed on the world’s borough of Queens was on Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, right in front of the landmark Rufus King house and park. 

Queens is burning: In Richmond Hill and on Jamaica Ave. again

 

QNS

A five-alarm inferno burned a Richmond Hill dollar store to a crisp on Sunday.

No injuries were immediately reported during the blaze that broke out at about 7:27 a.m. on Feb. 14 inside the Dollar Jackpot store, located within a one-story structure at 107-12 Jamaica Ave. in Richmond Hill.

The flames quickly spread throughout the structure and grew into a five-alarm fire within about an hour. Nearly 200 firefighters from 44 units were called to the scene.

Using three hose lines from tower ladders, among other techniques, the blaze was brought under control at about 9:54 a.m. Sunday.

 It was the second major fire along Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill since December, when dozens of people were displaced by a six-alarm inferno that broke out two blocks away, at 109-25 Jamaica Ave.

Jamaica Avenue's million dollar pit of despair and graffiti

 

 Impunity City 

 On the day after the six-alarm fire that destroyed the homes above storefronts in Richmond Hill and taking pics of the charred windows on the buildings, strolling about 8 blocks east by Lefferts Blvd. there exists this unsightly gated wall protruding on the sidewalk next to a barber shop and a ministry. I call it a gated wall because it’s secured with a lock and chain.

 Unfortunately the wall itself wasn’t as resilient. As evident by this unsightly and hazardous profusion. Which is easily accessible to passerby, especially children.

 

Woodhaven's small businesses frustrated by and are suffering from city's opaque sign regulations

Queens Chronicle

 
“Jamaica Avenue looks like crap,” said Margie Schmidt, the second-generation owner of Schmidt’s Chocolate in Woodhaven.

The candymaker is not alone in her blunt assessment of the neighborhood’s main shopping street.
Stores along Jamaica have been pulling down their awnings and signs — many of them up for decades — to avoid thousands in potential fines from building inspectors who blitzed the neighborhood three years ago.

On the facades of stores, restaurants and laundromats up and down the boulevard, signs no bigger than a car window are all there is to identify businesses.

For owners, the tiny signs were all they could think of to keep from being written up. Signs less than six-feet square do not require a city permit.

Last week, the Woodhaven Business Improvement District, which represents 317 stores and professional offices on Jamaica Avenue, sponsored the first workshop for business owners since the city declared a moratorium on writing tickets for sign violations last February.

But many of the more than 50 Woodhaven business owners who packed the tables at the Avenue Diner, where the workshop was held, said they still could not get straight answers from representatives of the city’s Department of Buildings about how to comply with the law.

“I wanted to know: How much is a permit?” said Schmidt.

‘‘‘Well,’ they said. ‘I don’t want ‘Well.’ I need the city to tell me. You mean there is no set price?’
“I asked three times,” she said

When a reporter asked Pedro Woss, owner of K&P Realty Services, also on Jamaica Avenue, what information he got from the workshop, he held up two fingers in the familiar shape of a zero.

“They don’t know the answers to questions,” said Woss.

 

Woodhaven businesses being targeted for fines

From CBS 2:

Dozens of store owners in Queens say the city is cutting into their bottom line.

They’re being forced to take down their outdoor signs that they say are vital to their business.

A DOB spokesperson says they’ve received anonymous complaints about area businesses, and have to inspect once that happens. In a statement, the spokesperson said the department isn’t specifically targeting Woodhaven.

Local leaders aren’t satisfied.

“They weren’t aware they had to have a permit when the sign was put up,” Assemblyman Michael Miller (D-38th) said. “Now they’re being penalized for it.”

Miller is trying to find a compromise with the city. He’s hoping they can set up an amnesty period for business owners.

Store owners say the only thing falling will be their bottom line since as things currently stand, they have no way of advertising their business. Many say they bought their shop with the awning or sign already up, thinking everything was already up to code.

Business owners harassed over size of signs

From AMNY:

A number of store owners along Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven have received violations for their signs in recent months.

Others, hoping to ward off future fines, are pulling down their storefront signs.

The result is a streetscape pockmarked with blank spaces above shop fronts and merchants who said they were struggling before being hit with an unexpected fee.

“I was told there was a complaint about my sign, and I find that hard to believe,” said Vasiliadis, who heard about the violation in August. “I’ve been here nine years. Where would the complaint come from?”

Buildings Department officials confirmed they examined the sign at Avenue Diner after receiving a call about it through the 311 line.

Similarly, city personnel inspected Caridad Restaurant across the street, after the agency received a 311 call about its awning in June. Officials said owner Bruno Taveras’ 14-foot sign was illegal and anchored to the facade without a permit.

“We are here almost 20 years, and I never heard anything about the sign,” said Tavares. “They also said I need insurance. But I already have insurance for the establishment. Nobody in court wants to hear that.”

Andrew Rudansky, a spokesman for the Buildings Department, said signs under six-square-feet do not need a permit.

I'm glad to see that DOB has taken care of the illegal conversion problems and now has time to go after this menace.

They'd hold a ribbon cutting for a flea market

Only in Queens do politicians hold press conferences - podium and all - to announce that basic road repairs have been completed. A press statement would have sufficed.

From the Times Ledger

The death of Jamaica Avenue

The Death of Jamaica Avenue Queens. (From the Queens archives.)

Posted by Allen Lloyd on Monday, January 11, 2016

Came across this great well put together video by Allen Lloyd titled "The Death of Jamaica Ave", a most appropriate title for the decline of this once great avenue and community which now just represents low-class third world ghetto as is so evident as one looks at the present. His video appears on his Facebook page.

The site of seeing Jamaica Avenue from glamour back in the day to the current state of third world ghetto retail along with constant litter and trash blowing down the Ave is very sad. Even sadder in the video are some of the articles from 1965 and on claiming a "revitalization" and a "sweeping plan" that ended nowhere (Now where have I heard that recently). And seeing the inside of the beautiful Macy's back in the day and knowing that that the god awful Jamaica Colosseum Mall resembles some god awful third world ghetto flea market makes you want to scream.

Man killed in "basement apartment"

From the Times Ledger:

Hours after police officers from the 105th Precinct celebrated National Night Out against Crime in Cabbell Park in Cambria Heights Playground with nearby residents, a Queens Village resident was found shot dead in a basement near 212nd Street, police said.

After 1 a.m. Wednesday, police discovered 25-year-old Jermain Gladimer shot dead in his basement apartment under a beauty salon on Jamaica Avenue in Queens Village, police said.

He was living in a store cellar?

Will major trashcan replacement make things cleaner?

From WPIX:

The snow has melted and it reveals a new problem in New York City.

Neighborhoods are reporting piles of trash.

The NYC Department of Sanitation Commissioner attended an event to unveil new receptacles along Woodhaven Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue.

PIX11 News Reporter Greg Mocker asked NYC Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia about other trouble spots.

NYC Councilmember Eric Ulrich says 50 new containers will appear along the stretch of road where the event was held.

Residents identify Jamaica's problems

From Karen Clements:

Poor transportation, too many fast food options and crime are some of the barriers residents told Downtown Jamaica’s three Business Improvement Districts, which prevent them from visiting the area. This feedback was part of a forum hosted by the BIDs to gather resident input and participation on improving Downtown Jamaica.

Despite persistently low crime rates, Downtown Jamaica continues to suffer from the perception of being a crime ridden district. Part of that perception has to do with the large number of teens that congregate on Jamaica Avenue at the end of the school day. In addition, residents cite recent high profile police events, including the attack on a police officer by a machete wielding assailant.

Transportation was also an area of concern. Although the Jamaica Center Transit hub is located in the Downtown Jamaica District, residents mentioned how poor service curtails opportunities to shop and dine to just passing through

“I still wait thirty minutes for the Q6 bus,” said Vanessa Sparks a resident who participated in the forum.

“It would be great to get off work, pick up a meal, put it in a bag and then take it home,” said Maria Starks, a resident who participated in the forum and summed up the insights of her group.

In addition to an over abundance of similar stores and too many fast food chains, residents felt that Downtown retail is geared towards a younger market. Sneakers and trendy clothing are heavily marketed, however goods that would be of interest to mature adults and seniors are not readily available and that audience is not coveted. The quality of merchandise and poor service were also in question with residents suggesting the addition of higher end retail.

Residents didn’t only look at external forces as the cause for their for their lack of interest in the area, but took ownership for their part as well for their lack of participation.

A look inside a the Woodhaven Volunteer Ambulance Corps building

"Take a look inside the Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corp, at 78-15 Jamaica Avenue, nearly two years after the collapse of the building next door (which had many open violations at the time of collapse).

The conditions of 78-19 have caused damage to the Ambulance Corp every day since it collapsed on Friday, April 12th 2013. The city finally acted after the community rallied and said they were going to tear down the rest of the collapsed building - but the building's owner George Kochabe and lawyer Elio Forcina too the city to court and struck gold when they were assigned Justice Diccia Pineda-Kirwan, who has granted the owner extension after extension.

Most people don't realize the ongoing catastrophic damage that is being done to the Corp's building - maybe this video will open some eyes and help some people realize that after 2 years, the owner of the collapsed building deserves no more extensions or breaks.

The Volunteer Ambulance Corps, a mainstay in our community for 50 years, lost their only sources of income due to this collapse - yet they are still forced to pay insurance for a building in shambles, and pay taxes to a city that failed completely to protect them.

Many thanks for all that you do,

Ed Wendell
Woodhaven"

Collapse causes ambulance corps to close

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps is planning to shut down its operations almost two years after its nextdoor neighbor's building collapsed, according to an area civic leader.

Martin Colberg, president of the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association, announced the news on Saturday at the civic's monthly meeting.

"We're going to stay on top of this," Colberg said referring to the collapsed building at 78-19 Jamaica Avenue. "[But] we've run out of time for the ambulance corps, it seems."

The vacant building at 78-19 Jamaica Ave. collapsed after a downpour on April 12, 2013, causing damage to the ambulance corps building next door. The corps, after being allowed back into the building shortly after the collapse, had to leave again last year when a wall between its building and the collapsed one became damaged in a snowstorm last year.

The collapse forced the corps' main tenant, the Woodhaven Senior Center, to relocate. The senior center had been the primary source of income for the volunteer group, causing the corps to have financial difficulty in the months following the collapse.

Woodhaven businesses pissed off about tickets

From WPIX:

A group of small business owners in Woodhaven, Queens says the New York City Sanitation Department inspectors are playing dirty.

The enforcement agents, they say, are slapping the businesses with $100 tickets in the middle of the night.

Last year, Bill de Blasio, while he was still Public Advocate, called the middle of the night ticketing “unreasonable.” So why is it still going on? Mayor de Blasio refuses to answer. His office referred us to the Sanitation Department , which also declined to address our questions.

Businesses being fined in the middle of the night

From The Forum:

The city Sanitation Department this week promised to investigate an area civic organization’s claim that the agency is engaging in an “unfair practice of issuing tickets to property owners in the middle of the night for garbage dumped outside their properties.”

According to the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association, in a statement issued on Monday, it is a common nighttime occurrence for people to dump trash outside Jamaica Avenue storefronts. Then, DSNY agents write summonses in the middle of the night, fining the victimized property owners for failing to dispose of garbage that they had actually never seen. These owners, the WRBA said, are getting fined for dumping “they could not possibly have prevented or corrected.” Additionally, the civic detailed how the agents many times take the trash with them when they write the ticket, without providing any photographs to the fined party.

“The property owners have no evidence of the infractions for which they are being fined,” the WRBA noted. “This practice not only adds insult to injury; it also costs struggling business owners hundreds of dollars.”

The community organization indicated that it, too, had been ticketed in the overnight manner. In recent weeks, the WRBA has received Sanitation fines at 1:05 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. for trash dumped long after business hours outside its Jamaica Avenue storefront.

In a message addressed to Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, members of the civic called on her to put an end to the practice. However, “previous efforts to communicate with Sanitation Department personnel have not resulted in any discernible changes,” the WRBA wrote.