Brooklyn residents want stable saved

From CBS 2:

Kensington Stables has been around since 1930. It currently has 32 horses, most of which are available to the general public.

But the stables might not make it. The owner declared bankruptcy in February and put it up for auction.

That’s when city leaders stepped in, helping to call off the bankruptcy sale.

“I used this location years ago, and we would like to allocate our capital resources to help,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said. “And we did that. We switched over $500,000 from the previous administration, gave it to the Department of Parks.”

City Councilman Brad Lander also reallocated more than $1 million for toward the city buying the stables. Others have also chipped in, trying to come close to the $2 million price tag.

Adams said he’s aware there are private buyers interested and had a message for them.

“The problem becomes when you want to take away the stable and build expensive condominiums,” he said.

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Obviously, this is not located in Queens or the electeds would not only laugh at the notion of saving it but would work with whoever is eyeing it to make sure it gets destroyed - probably for a fake affordable housing project.

Pols think money grows on trees

From Crains:

It was fitting that the governor came to the council speaker's defense, because Cuomo has become a big advocate of the “propose now, worry later” style of governing. Consider his much-ballyhooed promise in July to overhaul the despised LaGuardia Airport. At the time, his administration said the Central Terminal would be replaced, as would Delta's newly refurbished Terminals C and D, and a new link to the subway would be completed—all for something like $4 billion.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported the cost of the Central Terminal alone had soared past $4 billion.

Mayor Bill de Blasio was the voice of reason this month in casting doubts on the Rikers plan, but he too has been guilty of this approach—if on a smaller scale. The $25 million cost of a new barn for carriage horses in Central Park was apparently pulled from thin air. His $2.5 billion streetcar scheme for the Queens-Brooklyn waterfront has more than a few question marks, too.

Why care about this? Because projects like these put pressure on governors and mayors to deliver something. Because they don't like to raise taxes and because both the city and state have such high debt loads, they will be tempted to make fiscally irresponsible moves to push the costs into future years.

Horses may be moved to Central Park

From the Daily News:

The city is close to a deal with the horse carriage industry that would permanently move their stables inside Central Park — and could have a City Council hearing on the proposal as early as Friday, multiple sources told the Daily News.

Reps for Mayor de Blasio have been in meetings over the past few days with the Teamsters, the union that reps the drivers, according to the sources.

The city has agreed to pay to build new stables in Central Park as part of the plan to move the horses — who currently live in stables in Hell’s Kitchen — off the city streets.

The Teamsters also want the city to give buyouts to the drivers who will lose their job because of the move to Central Park, which won’t be able to accommodate the current number of 220 horses, the sources said.

The city has not agreed to buyouts, according to the sources.

The new bill calls for licensing 68 carriages and 75 horses to operate in Central Park. Those carriages will be in place by October 2018, sources said.

How convenient that this will free up valuable real estate on the west side!

Horse stable fights sale to Korean church

From the Queens Chronicle:

Joy Tirado is no quitter.

She’s the owner of the Western Riding Club, a traditional stable in a residential neighborhood of Fresh Meadows, who is fighting to keep the facility open. And now its future may rest with a judge who will determine the outcome.

Since May, more than 1,000 area residents have signed petitions to keep the stable open. State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) tried unsuccessfully to get it landmarked and the Knights of Columbus held a fundraiser so Tirado could hire an attorney.

That’s because her landlord, John Lightstone, 87, who lives in the adjacent house, wants to sell the property to the Reformed Church of America, a Korean congregation. Church members told her they would tear down the barn and turn it into a parking lot and use the house for the church.

“I was never told the property was listed last year,” said Tirado, who has been there for three years. “I only found out in March. We don’t even know the price, as it’s ranged from $699,000 to $800,000.”

She was supposed to be out by the end of July, but the K of C came through with enough money for her to hire an attorney, who filed a legal complaint, and now “everything is on hold,” according to Tirado.

Her lawyer said that Lightstone’s attorney has not yet responded and has 30 days to answer the charges, which include the right of first refusal to purchase as is spelled out in her lease and a good-faith clause, among other issues. It is likely the owner will ask for a 30-day extension beyond that.

With a little breathing room Tirado is hoping to raise funds to buy the property at 169-38 Pidgeon Meadow Road and turn it into a community center and stable. “It would go from the Western Riding Club to It Takes a Village Ranch,” she said.

Nabe lacks sewers and is buried in horse crap

From the Queens Chronicle:

Caught in limbo on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, members of the Jewel Streets Block Association are frustrated that their community is forgotten by the city and used as a dumping ground by everyone else.

Elizabeth Watt, president of the group, gave a walking tour of her neighborhood to city and state representatives last Thursday, hoping that a message will get out that she wants action.

The Jewel Streets community, which residents have nicknamed “The Hole” because it lies many feet below the grade of Linden Boulevard, includes Sapphire, Amber, Emerald and Ruby Streets between South Conduit Avenue and the Lindenwood development of Howard Beach.

Comprised of fewer than 20 blocks, the Jewel Streets area, zoned R-4 residential, is home to a scattering of residents who are surrounded by vacant lots, abandoned cars, make-shift stables made of truck trailers, and piles of dumped garbage, construction debris and tires.

The community is one of only two small, isolated areas of Queens that are still not hooked up to the city sewer system.

Homeowners and city officials agree that, once sewers are installed, the vacant lots will be snapped up by developers and the neighborhood will get cleaned up.

But Watt hasn’t heard from the Department of Design and Construction or the Department of Environmental Protection since representatives came to her civic group’s meeting in June.

What makes the community unique, aside from the fact that residents are still waiting for sewer construction, is the proliferation of horse stables constructed from old trailers, vans and odd scraps of wood and metal.

The stables, some of which house other animals such as poultry, sit side by side and occupy roughly two or three blocks. Several homes, including Watt’s, are on the lots surrounded by stables.

“If I could afford to move, do you think I’d stay here?” said Watt, who, with several other residents of the area, has had an ongoing conflict with the stable owners.

Stable that helps cancer patients likely to be replaced by crap

From the Queens Tribune:

For more than 100 years, a barn and horse stable have sat at the end of Auburndale Lane in Auburndale. Now known as the Western Riding Club Stables of Queens, the location has become a community facility for the neighborhood. However, the structure is in danger of being sold.

The landlord, John Lightstone, has decided to sell the property, which includes the barn, the stable and unused land. Joy Tirado, who is in charge of the land, has been given the right of first refusal, but she has also only been given 10 business days to come up with a down payment of $60,000. In order to save her stable, Tirado has gotten help from State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), who is trying to get it landmarked, as well as from the community.

According to Tirado, she received a letter from Lightstone on May 3, dated April 30, about the sale of the .27 acres of land at 169-38 Pidgeon Meadow Road. The letter said that she had until May 19 at 3 p.m. to come up with the $60,000 down payment if she wanted to keep the stable and the surrounding property. The rest of the $800,000 total price tag would have to be paid in full by mid-August. Tirado has had no opportunity to work with the landlord.

“He has made it very clear that he wants no communication with me. The first hand-delivered letter of offer was left on my car windshield,” she said. “The original offer from the buyers was not included so I don’t know what the original offer truly is.”

The land has R2A zoning, which is single family detached. According to District 19 candidate and civic leader Paul Graziano, if the property is sold, about four houses could be squeezed into the space. If Tirado is unable to come up with the funds or if the location is not landmarked, she faces eviction.

From the Queens Courier:

“We need to maintain this horse stable here that has been a major factor within this community because its historical value is immeasurable,” said Tirado, who adopts rescue horses.

She also offers free therapeutic services every day to about 20 youths, seniors and cancer patients.

“It’s a wonderful community resource that unfortunately we may lose,” said State Senator Tony Avella. “We don’t do enough to preserve the unique character and history of each neighborhood.”

Avella called for the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to review the barn for landmark designation.

“The stable brings us back to the days when all of Queens was farmland,” he said. “To this day, it remains one of the few stables left within a residential community.”

Nearly 200 people have signed an online petition to save the barn by giving it landmark status.

“This is a real heritage,” said Beverly McDermott, president of the Kissena Park Civic Association. “If the city had half a heart and any brains, they would give [Lightstone] fair purchase price for this property and run it as a facility for children and for adults who need special therapy.”

Unstable stables

From the Daily News:

A popular urban stable in Queens is being temporarily shuttered after city officials said an “alarming” number of horses died at the site, the Daily News has learned.

Six horses died in the last half of 2012 without “adequate explanation” at the Cedar Lane Stables, a city concession run by the Federation of Black Cowboys, Parks Department inspectors said.

Some horses were malnourished and housed without proper food and bedding, according to documents obtained by The News. One horse named Wyatt tried to eat its bedding of wood shavings in a stall with no water or hay.

The existing concession — a “rough board” arrangement — allows the federation to rent out about 50 stalls to individual horse owners for about $165 a month. But the cowboys are under no obligation to care for those animals.

Some owners who board at the stable hire caretakers to make sure their horses are exercised, groomed and fed. But others do not. Members of the Federation are also boarders at the stables.