Municipal vehicles causing havoc

Protest against post office closure

From the Queens Chronicle:

About 100 U.S. Postal Service workers delivered a message with picket signs and bullhorns last Friday on the sidewalks outside the Whitestone Processing and Distribution Center.

They were protesting the planned downsizing of the facility’s operations and consolidation by next April with a Brooklyn center. The move would be part of a national facilities consolidation the financially beleaguered Postal Service plans, one that union officials say is being forced by unreasonable health plan pre-funding requirements.

“This is one of the few processing centers that works even above expectations, so it doesn’t make any sense to close this facility,” said City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside). Vallone, who was out supporting the picketers, noting that the facility provides 600 to 1,000 local jobs, depending on the time of year.

Vallone said all the area’s local, state and federal elected representatives are united in wanting the Whitestone facility to stay open.

“They should keep it open,” said Ron Suslak, president of the Queens area local of the American Postal Workers Union. “The only reason they’re closing it is they’re reducing service standards come Jan. 5.”

With the consolidation plan, locally mailed letters would be delivered within two days instead of one.

Glendale may get its own zip code

From the Queens Courier:

Is it Glendale or Ridgewood? You can’t tell from the ZIP code.

But the confusion may be a thing of the past if new legislation, introduced by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, gets passed.

“For years, the residents of Glendale have sought to obtain a ZIP code for their community and now I join them in their fight,” Meng said. “Most areas in the borough are recognized by their neighborhood names, which provide a sense of identity and pride for local residents. That is true for Glendale, and it’s time for the Postal Service to accept and recognize that by creating a ZIP code that the community can finally call its own.”

The pleas for a Glendale ZIP code have been constant for over a decade but have continually fallen on deaf ears, according to published reports. The neighborhood currently shares its 11385 ZIP Code with Ridgewood.

Ozone Park mailboxes need some TLC

From The Forum:

At least two blue US Postal Service mailboxes have become sources of disdain in the communities of Ozone Park and Howard Beach, and the agency pledged to the Forum this week to make them right again.

The mailbox located on the corner of 97th Street and 133rd Avenue in Ozone Park is covered in bird feces, nearly from top to bottom, and a bird carcass was left this week right next to it. The condition of the mailbox and the overpowering area odor have precluded some residents from using it.

“It’s been like this for a long time,” said Joe Fontanes, who has lived a block away from the box for the past 19 years. “Sometimes I’ll walk down 96th [Street] to avoid it.”

Fontanes posited that the culprit is the tree branches above the mailbox.

“It’s not a question of repainting it,” he said. “They’ve got to move it away from this area where the birds nest.”

On Cross Bay Boulevard, between 157th and 158th avenues, sits another blue USPS mailbox covered in graffiti. On one side is a phrase written large in bright-green ink that can’t be repeated in a family newspaper.

A spokeswoman for the USPS said that both boxes will be taken care of as soon as possible.

Don't be a postal jerk

"I'm sending these photos to you hoping I could get some help. This vehicle is here just about every day for hours, it's usually left blocking the crosswalk or into the entire street making passage difficult. I just spent over an hour trying to get someone on the phone from the Ridgewood office, I've got nothing and no one." - anonymous

90-unit building for Ridgewood border

From WyckoffHeights.org:

Essex Capital Partners has engaged KSQ Architects to design a new seven-story residential building at 16-26 Madison Street in Ridgewood, near the border with Bushwick and two blocks from the L and M trains at Myrtle-Wyckoff.

Demolition applications have been filed for the two warehouses currently on the site (one a former post office), and DOB records show the new 63,000 SF building will have 90 dwelling units and 45 parking spaces.

Another brownfield-to-condo project

From WyckoffHeights.org:

A demolition application has been filed for 16-14 Madison Street (between Wyckoff and Myrtle Aves). The one-story warehouse building - a former post office - was purchased in August by Essex Capital (via 1614 Madison Partners LLC) for $4,700,000.

The property is located in a C4-3A zoning district which allows for both commercial and residential use. A recent Brownfield Cleanup Program application for the site (ID #C241150) filed with the NY State DEP notes:

The current use of the site is for Commercial and the intended use of the site is for Residential and Unrestricted use.

(More history at the above link.)

An unacceptable situation

From Clean Up Jamaica Queens:

While riding my bike Sunday morning, I encountered several garbage strewn places (many illegal dumping and most of the spots have been reported numerous times).

Take a good look at our community:

1. Our Post Office (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) at the corner of 164th St & 89th Ave.



2. Post Office Parking Lot at 164th St & 89th Ave. This has been piling up since last week and I wondered how long it would stay like that.



3. Lot next to 170-18 Liberty St, or as I like to call that block, “Ghetto Row”.



4. What appears to be an empty house at 103-24 171st St.



5. The next two photos are a house at 104-11 171st St that I have reported several times.





6. The next three photos are an empty half built building next to Mike’s Towing at 115-45 Merrick Blvd right across the street from the Northeastern Conference of Seventh Day Adventists Administration Building and a few blocks from the beautiful Roy Wilkins Park. It is obvious this has been an illegal dumping ground for a long time and obvious nothing has been done about this.








7. And here again is the notorious empty James Fobb house at 107-58 108th Ave, which has been reported for two years now.






8. The bus stop at Merrick Blvd & 108th Ave, a major spot for dropping off household garbage.



9. Over flowing garbage cans at SE corner of Jamaica Ave & 170th St. A constant problem.



10. The SW corner of Jamaica Ave & 170th St.



Now does anyone reading this think that this is totally acceptable? Would any of this be acceptable in a majority white area? So why is this acceptable in a community of people of color? Is it that people of color do not deserve to live in a nice area, is that it, but white people are.

Again this is a combination of some of the majorly low class ghetto people we have in our community, a major lack of enforcement by DOS, poor leadership from our top officials down to our community boards and upstanding citizens of our community either ignoring this, thinking this is the norm or not doing something as small as reporting these places to 311 and calling your local officials.

Yesterday, I was at a screening of the film: Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes put together by Art, Food & Soul and presented at the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning. Afterwards I talked to several of the people in attendance, many young and open-minded artists in our community who want a better Jamaica and they talked about the conditions of our community and what it looks like and they were not happy about it at all.

And this is why the perception of Jamaica is the way it is. The perception is REALITY!

So why is NOTHING being done about this? Why I am constantly reporting on these conditions, many that are the same areas over and over again?


Joe Moretti
Jamaica, NY 11432