Attack of the "Cash 4 Junk Cars" stickers in Queens Village

"I took these photo's on the south corner of Hempstead ave and 221 st. It seems that every lamp post, street sign, telephone pole along Hempstead ave, Springfield Blvd, Jamaica Ave, Francis Lewis Blvd, and Hillside ave has these damn stickers on them! Even on the residential streets, they are stuck to the back of stop signs and glued onto telephone poles! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE IN QUEENS VILLAGE, AND THEY ARE MULTIPLYING FAST!!! HHHHEEEELLLPPP!!!" - anonymous

Sticker crap

"Sticker "Graffiti" in Forest Hills. Would you ever use a business that advertised this way?" - anonymous

Call for boycott of New York Sports Club of Forest Hills

"The entire neighborhood is shocked and furious that the neighborhood NYSC location has stooped so low. They are plastering the Forest Hills neighborhood with their “graffiti”.

Here’s a example - they plastered the LIRR westbound Forest Hills station with their advertising stickers. I have seen a bunch of portable signs sticking out from mounds of snow all along Queens Blvd.

Why do they have to resort to such low level advertising? I encourage the Forest Hills Garden Corporation and other local business and community groups to insist they remove these eyesores!

If they do not, then let’s boycott them! Encourage their membership to drop them!" - Anonymous

Illegal stickers have ties to mafia and fake charity

From WyckoffHeights.org:

Residents of Ridgewood and Bushwick likely have noticed the multitude of new “Cash for Cars" stickers that have appeared on signs and telephone poles throughout the neighborhood in recent weeks. These ads promise “300 & up" but provide no information about the entity behind them, just a phone number - 347-246-1637.

Seeking more information I recently called that number. A woman answered - "Cash for cars!" - and offered $200 and a tax receipt for $500 in exchange for my (fictitious) 20-year-old sedan. Asked if the tax receipt meant they were a non-profit, she replied that they worked with several non-profit organizations and that the money raised went “to the troops and the kids." Pressed for more information she said the tax receipt would be from the “Foundation of Dreams."

An internet search for the Foundation of Dreams turned up no such organization registered in New York State. Some websites suggested that a North Carolina-based Foundation of Dreams was associated with an address in Queens, but I found nothing definitive.

A search for the Cash for Cars telephone number turns up dozens of similar ads online, many in local newspapers’ classifieds. Most are as vague as the recent stickers but a few refer to a “Troops Relief Fund".

State records show that a Troops Relief Fund Inc was registered in 2008 by John Lomonaco of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. The not-for-profit’s 2009 IRS filing (available on Guidestar.org) states “This organions [SIC] mission is to help the US Armed Forces by soliciting donation [SIC] and distributing these assets to organization [SIC] that help the US Armed Forces."

IRS filings from 2009 to 2012 show revenue of almost $150,000, with most of that spent on salaries, rent, utilities, advertising, and other expenses. Just $2,900 (or 2%) was spent on “donations" by the organization (the nature of these donations is not explained).

Further research finds that the organization’s secretary - an Ozone Park resident - is also secretary for Bless the Kids Fund Inc, a Hewlett NY not-for-profit which in 2009 reported revenue of $549,491 from “car sales" with 7% of that going to charity.

According to IRS filings the vice president of Bless the Kids Fund is a Mark Lomonaco, whose Facebook page features a photo of a Troops Relief Fund tow truck and a post from November 2012 promoting Foundation of Dreams, Bless the Kids and Troops Relief Fund, and with the same phone number as the recent sticker ads.

Mark Lomonaco turns out to be a former associate of Carmine Agnello (one-time Gambino Family soldier and John Gotti son-in-law). In 2000 Agnello, Lomonaco and five others were arrested and charged as the result of an investigation into organized crime in the scrap metal industry, during which an undercover police-run scrap yard in Queens was firebombed.

A 2001 press release by the Department of Justice stated that Lomonaco and the other defendants plead guilty to racketeering, extortion, arson, income tax fraud, and obliteration of vehicle identification numbers.

This is the best blog post I have read in a long time. GO GET 'EM!

New parking regulations adopted by Council

From NY1:

The City Council on Wednesday approved three bills aimed at making parking in the city a little easier.

The Fair Parking Legislative package curbs excessive ticketing and regulates parking enforcement.

Under the new legislation, drivers who get tickets while paying at Muni-Meter machines will have their tickets cancelled on the spot.

Traffic enforcement agents will be equipped with electronic devices and be required to wipe the tickets immediately.

There's also a late fee freeze on tickets until at least 30 days after a driver is found guilty of a violation, or after their appeal is decided.

Under the current law, late fees begin to pile up 30 days after the ticket is given.

The package also puts an end to stickers posted on cars allegedly violating alternate side parking rules.

The City Council argued the stickers are excessive when tickets are also issued.

Will City change sticker policy?

Vandals mimic Vallone campaign signs

From Queens Politics:

How would you like to wake up to a brazen hatch-job with your name all over public property? Chair of The NYC Council Public Safety Committee Peter Vallone Jr. knows what it’s like and he’s taken it all in stride, just part of the everyday life for “The Man Who Hates Graffiti,” a nickname given to him by the NY Times.

For the past 10 years Vallone has been a staunch advocate of graffiti free neighborhoods, but sometimes the vandals strike back. Sometimes they organize themselves and mimic campaign signs. A conspiracy perhaps? Not likely. This is New York City and yes, some vandals are capable of a half assed political hatch-job.

“I think this just another attack by graffiti vandals and they wanted two things: to call me a hypocrite for committing acts of graffiti [Vallone referring to the act of campaigning – vandals often try to equate bombing to democracy] and they wanted my campaign to get fined…but they were too stupid to get the sticker right.”