Middle Village event space fight and drive-by shooting revisited

 

 

 Impunity City

A pleasant weekend evening in the borough of Queens devolved into another incident of the gun violence that is still persistently casting it’s shadow on the streets of New York City. This time the violence came to Middle Village, where a shuttered commercial property that once was home to a hardware store that went out of business 2 years ago.

 In recent days, or maybe longer according to area residents complaints, the vacant property has been re-appropriated as a pop-up event space for DJ and bottle parties where high end booze is consumed in mass quantities. Basically these are glorified but unregulated nite clubs, no different than the speakeasies of the last 20’s this nation went through last century. From the looks of this place, the entrance to the event space was in the back.

 The local area newspaper Juniper Park Civic immediately had the scoop, naturally because it’s base is right there where the incidents occurred. The Civic also updated their tweets to include a DOB record of a violation given for a complaint over a month earlier for illegal partying in the former hardware store.

Given that this was another incident adding to the city’s continuing gun crisis and increasing rise in unabated shootings in the face of the equal rise in gun possession arrests, compounded by the fact that a building landlord would flout regulations and violations by continuing to permit illicit parties in his space, it would be wholly inconceivable if this wasn’t picked up by all the major local newspapers and news websites and even the other Queens weekly periodical newspapers.

But it was conceivable. Because despite the severity of the crimes committed and of gun violence being a daily occurrence in the five boroughs, the NY Post didn’t cover it, the NY Daily News didn’t cover it, Gothamist didn’t cover it, QNS, Queens Chronicle, Queens Post and Ridgewood Post didn’t cover it. Hardly any local Queens blog covered it (sans Queens Crap, which my ally and original Queens Crapper dutifully posted Junipers tweet immediately with a deliciously sardonic headline). 

 

New Bad Update:

A few nights after the Queens Chronicle article about the community's complaints about the closed business cum pop up nite club, another illicit party went on with total impunity.

 

 

 

 

 

How to smackdown a politician

Anthony Del Mundo/Daily News

Dear Editor (Queens Chronicle):

Councilman Dromm: I was deeply offended by your accusation that “Some of those who are now arguing the conditions are not up to par in the facility are the people who were involved with the hateful, vitriolic language being aimed at the residents” in the article “‘Three-nied’: Stringer says no to Pan Am deal” (Sept. 3, multiple editions).

I am one of the many who have brought to light the horrendous conditions at the Pan Am shelter. However, I have never made “hateful, vitriolic language” against these homeless families.

In fact, I would like to understand what you have done for your new constituents, outside of handing out knapsacks?

Did you effectively handle the out-of-control garbage problem? The rat infestation? The roach and bedbug problems? Most importantly, have you done anything to support the installation of a kitchen in each unit so that these families are in safe and humane living conditions? The answer to this is no, as I am sure you would have called the press to toot your own horn if you did anything.

Therefore, if you have no intention of advocating for a kitchen in each unit in the Pan Am shelter, I urge you to focus on the horrendous graffiti problem in Elmhurst, the out-of-control trash all over the streets and sidewalks and the loud airplane noise that is plaguing our area so that you have something to show come election time outside of making inaccurate and unjust statements.

J. Ramos
Elmhurst

________________________________________________

Dear Editor (Queens Chronicle):

Regarding the Pan Am shelter, Councilman Dromm was quoted in your recent article “‘Three-nied’: Stringer says no to Pan Am deal,” as saying “Some of those who are now arguing the conditions are not up to par in the facility are the people who were involved with the hateful, vitriolic language being aimed at the residents.”

By making these remarks Dromm is calling the new immigrants of his district hateful and malicious while ignoring the efforts they have made to improve the living conditions of destitute families at Pan Am. It was Elmhurst residents who raised hell and embarrassed the building management to put in a trash compactor, forced state and city agencies to inspect the hotel, got rid of the rats next to the recreation area and forced the landlord to make the hotel habitable. They have accomplished all this with zero help from Dromm.

The Pan Am building currently has an expired certificate of occupancy, making parts of the building illegal to occupy. The building has various uncorrected violations and tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid penalties. The FDNY could shut down the building at its next inspection and yet Dromm is welcoming families and children to stay in this firetrap. There will be casualties at the next fire; just look at the violations for inadequate sprinklers and fire doors.

Warehousing four people into a single room with bunk beds and no desk is not the solution. These residents need a lease, rent subsidies and job referrals to start from scratch. Dromm’s handshakes and schoolbags are not enough to get them out of the system.

Victor Enriquez
Elmhurst

All about Queens neighborhoods

You may want to check out this week's special edition of the Queens Chronicle. There are interesting stories about different Queens neighborhoods: Flushing, Glendale, Howard Beach, Forest Hills, Maspeth, Jamaica, Jackson Heights, Queens Village, Rego Park and Sunnyside.

Queens Chronicle reminds DeBlasio that stadium in FMCP is dead

From the Queens Chronicle:

The plan to steal more Flushing Meadows parkland and give it to the superrich Arabian prince who will be the soccer team’s chief owner is dead. Dead, dead, dead. City Councilman Leroy Comrie, the Queens delegation’s leader and the Council’s deputy majority leader, pronounced it so months ago (not that his colleagues in government did much to stop it; that was left to the people). He was right to do so.

But it seems that our likely next mayor, Bill de Blasio, didn’t get the memo. When asked about the stadium proposal at Tuesday’s mayoral debate, de Blasio made some populist-sounding statement about halting giveaways to big corporations — note that Mayor Bloomberg was ready to hand over 13 acres of our crown jewel park for a dollar! — but then, astonishingly, said that if a stadium would bring in money for upgrades to Flushing Meadows, the idea is worth discussing.

It was astonishing because for one, the plan is dead. Dead, dead, dead. Someone tell Bill.

And it was astonishing because de Blasio himself had gone out of his way to state his opposition to the idea earlier in the campaign. That was point one of a three-point plan he announced to protect the park. “The era of giving away prime land to commercial interests at bargain basement prices must come to an end,” he said at the time.

Of course, that was when he was locked in a race with several fellow Democrats, each trying to be the most progressive, grassroots leader of the people. Now, perhaps, de Blasio wants to move toward the center, not his home territory.

No respect for Flushing Meadows

From the Queens Chronicle:

We’re tired of Flushing Meadows Corona Park being the Rodney Dangerfield of the city’s crown jewel green spaces. Why do we in Queens get no respect?

For weeks we’ve been covering Major League Soccer’s plan to eat up about a dozen acres of the old fairgrounds for a new stadium. Even leaving aside the myriad logistical, environmental and economic problems with the very vague plan, we’ve concluded that simply proposing it is offensive because Flushing Meadows is a public park —one that’s already suffered enough through city neglect.

Note that one selling point for the stadium is that MLS would refurbish the soccer fields in the park if its plan is approved. That should be a city function. But it’s no surprise that the city isn’t doing its municipal duty at FMCP. Though it’s far larger than the city’s true crown jewel, Central Park, the latter gets much more funding and much more staffing.

Underappreciated by the power brokers, the cocktail hour class and even our elected officials, yes. But not by the working-class and poor people, many of them immigrants, who live in the neighborhoods surrounding FMCP. Yes, the fact that they litter and tend to damage trees when they dump hot coals out of their barbecue grills is an affront — but one that better code enforcement could put a damper on. Still, the people who come to the park for a break from the concrete and steel of their neighborhoods love the place. Look at how adamantly many of them oppose the MLS plan —not to mention the much smaller, much more reasonable, much more feasible bid by the United States Tennis Association to take just another two-thirds of an acre.

While Central Park’s amenities are kept pristine, our Queens landmarks in Flushing Meadows, such as the New York State Pavilion, continue to deteriorate as if this was still the crumbling New York City of 1977. Meanwhile, the city plans to spend $4.5 million to turn the old Astoria Pool diving well into an amphitheater, in one of the more overpriced, harebrained schemes we’ve heard of late. How much plain old park maintenance would that money buy at FMCP?

As this page has said before, it’s City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras who holds the key to saving the park from the MLS plan. If she says no, the rest of the Council will fall in line and that will be that. She’s been noncomittal, and never said a word to us about laying the future of the park at her feet. We again urge you to urge Ferreras to reject the soccer stadium. And now we take it a step further: Demand that she and the rest of our City Council delegation start treating our park the way it should be treated. Fix the soccer fields. Restore the historic structures. Maybe even landmark the park, as state Sen. Tony Avella is asking — the first person ever to do so, according to the city (Prospect Park was landmarked in 1973, Central Park in 1974). And above all, pledge that the long period of neglect at FMCP is over.

Local papers opposed to soccer stadium

From the Queens Chronicle:

Simply put, we cannot understand why the league insists on setting up shop on public property, in a park utilized on any given weekend by thousands of borough residents. This atop a whole litany of lingering concerns.

Questions about the feasibility of building a stadium on a swamp will remain until MLS explains in detail how it will manage to build a stadium in an area where the water table is three feet below the surface at most, according to the 2006 U.S. Geological Survey map. Those concerns are only magnified by the proposed parking facility — not for public use — below the stadium, which we presume will be a wonder of water-repellent engineering.

The league is also ignoring the lack of parking for fans, a problem anyone who frequents the park during the U.S. Open can attest to. While we respect MLS’s traffic advisor, our own contributor Sam Schwartz, his projections that 50 percent of fans will take mass transit still leaves thousands of people driving to games. Where will they park?

Most troubling is the still-unspecified replacement parkland, a major sticking point for many. Yes, the league is required to replace every inch of parkland, but there are no rules mandating it be in our borough. MLS is in the throes of a search, though that process has been closed to public input.

We’re assuming the parkland it ultimately chooses will be safe, clean, close to a populace that will utilize it and accessible. So … why not build the darn stadium there?

From the Queens Tribune:

While Major League Soccer’s proposal for a new stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park certainly has its supporters – the throngs of people who came out earlier this week is proof of that – it seems as if those opposed to the plan have had their words fall on deaf ears.

We do not argue the fact that a professional soccer team could draw well in Queens. Soccer is, after all, the most popular sport in the world and Queens carries the banner of being a diverse borough, home to many that follow the sport religiously. But we do question the need to put the stadium in a spot that is meant to be free and open to the public. Are there no other areas in Queens that could benefit from a new stadium?

Flushing Meadows Corona Park is an area that should be cherished and maintained as a place where families can go – for free – and spend the day enjoying the scenery. The parkland, which is at a premium in the City, should not be forsaken for some corporate profit.

How about building it on the contaminated MTA property that MLS is suggesting as replacement parkland? This way it will be next to the Flushing River instead of in it. It would also be closer to the subway and LIRR.

A gem of an editorial, part 2

From the Queens Chronicle:

Last week my son took copies of the Chronicle to his second-grade class for a project he had. If my newspaper ran adult services ads, I would be embarrassed for him to bring it to school. I would be ashamed to show his teachers and classmates what I do for a living. Does the management of the Tribune feel any shame?

Some have said that the Queens Chronicle must be supporting Lancman or Halloran and that our coverage has been “biased.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Grace came into the Chronicle offices last Friday for an interview, as we are planning to have with all of the major candidates in the race. Readers can view the story about her interview in this edition or at qchron.com. She is certainly qualified to represent our great borough. We may or may not endorse in this race. The decision will be made after all the candidates are interviewed.

“Not 4 Publication,” is the title of Schenkler’s column every week. I humbly suggest that it is the “adult services” ads in the classified section that are really “not for publication” in a community newspaper.

In closing, I hope that Schenkler will invoke the last word of his headline — “Leadership” — by taking a stand for women in Queens and ending the running of these despicable ads.

A gem of an editorial, part 1

From the Queens Chronicle:

If preservation through LPC action isn’t feasible, the city should simply buy the site at the fair market rate, whether the owner is willing to sell or not. The last time it was sold, in 2010, the price was $105,000.

Compare that to the $3 million going toward saving a schoolyard in Jackson Heights. Or the $14 million being spent on an unnecessary expansion of Borough Hall. Or the $180,000 per station the MTA shells out for its Arts for Transit and Urban Design Program.

Our office receives announcements of much larger spending initiatives from the proud politicians who secured the funding just about every day. Just this week the mayor announced that the city will be spending $9 million to encourage parents to make sure their kids attend school, largely through advertising and education about the importance of avoiding truancy.

Let’s say for the moment that parents really do need to see ads on buses to know their children should go to class. Could the city maybe get away with spending $8.9 million and put the remaining $100,000 into preserving Brinckerhoff?

Whatever the source of the money, it can and should be found. Let’s see our elected officials who are voicing support for preservation put their money where their mouth is. Yes, you’re right, our money, not theirs — but we all know they often treat it like their own. If the 14-member Queens City Council delegation split the cost evenly, using their so-called member item funding, it would be a little more than $7,000 apiece. There’s no reason whatsoever that could not be done.

Will the City of New York make a one-time payout of a measly hundred grand to let dozens of the people who first settled the place we call home rest in peace? You’d think so. We hope so. We’ll see.

Chronicle keeping tabs on the Trib

From the Queens Chronicle:

...we have to again take the Tribune to task for favoritism in its coverage of a race for public office, favoritism that likely has both politics and money behind it. Coincidentally, it’s again a race that involves Halloran, the winner of that 2009 contest and now a candidate for the Congressional seat that Rep. Gary Ackerman is giving up at the end of the year.

But this time it’s not Halloran the Tribune is showing bias against — at least not yet. Instead it’s Assemblyman Rory Lancman of Fresh Meadows and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley of Middle Village. They’re the two Democrats vying for the congressional nomination against the party’s choice, Assemblywoman Grace Meng of Flushing. Whoever wins the primary will then face GOP designee Halloran.

The Meng campaign just hired Multi-Media, the consulting firm the Tribune claims acts independently of the newspaper, even though it’s headed by the paper’s associate publisher, Michael Nussbaum.

So what does she get for hiring Multi-Media? Political advice, mailers and, just maybe, last week’s Tribune front page, which focused on Meng’s “making history” with her campaign (she’s Asian, you see), and relegated her competitors to inset-style photos.

We hope the Tribune — a storied newspaper that does also produce quality journalism —will play it straight this time around and be fair to all the candidates. We’ll be watching for this, since we read the Trib, and most of our competition, on a regular basis. And if we find the paper is showing favoritism again, we’ll report on it.

DOT doesn't pay to park

From the Queens Chronicle:

Do as I say...but not as I do. That’s the message many residents claim they get from the city when it comes to things like fixing broken sidewalks (your responsibility — expect a ticket) vs. fixing broken curbs (the city’s job, and the wait list is 23 years). And parking.

The message was reinforced in front of the Chronicle’s offices on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park one day last week, when a trio of Transportation Department meter maintenance cars pulled to the curb so a group of city employees could enjoy lunch at our popular next-door neighbor, Barosa restaurant.

No one put money in any of the three meters located where they parked (one was broken, ironically enough, as it often is). The gathering lasted about an hour and a half, so at a quarter for every 15 minutes, two cars should have paid $3 altogether.

Not much money, but the cynical might believe this goes on every day across the city, costing taxpayers and drivers more to ... do things like repair parking meters.

The Transportation Department’s press office declined to respond to requests for information about the legality and propriety of city workers not paying for parking.

Allan Jennings sues the Chronicle

From the Daily News:

Former city Councilman Allan Jennings is suing a weekly newspaper in Queens for defamation, saying it helped turn voters against him during last year’s Council race.

Jennings said the Queens Chronicle erred in stating he had once put an advertisement in a Chinese-language newspaper “declaring his love for all Asian women.”

He said the statement was made in an Oct. 28, 2010, article about his bid for his former 28th District seat. Ruben Wills won that special election.

“The statement was intended to turn voters against Allan Jennings in his district considering that fact that the majority of the voters are African-American,” according to the lawsuit filed in Queens Supreme Court last week.

The reference dates back to a 2003 article in Newsday that disclosed Jennings — then a member of the Council — had placed advertisements in the World Journal and the Sing Tao Daily.

In those ads, according to the report in Newsday, Jennings thanked the Chinese community for accepting him and expressed his love for his girlfriend, a Chinese folkdancer, while criticizing his estranged Taiwanese wife.