House renovation in limbo used as billboard ad for parade and foodie festival

 

 

Since our governor and mayor keep botching the housing crisis, why not use a house to advertise a local event instead of finishing the job and making it livable?

 

Check out the garage...

 

 

 

The owner of this renovation even raised the cellar windows for more housing for people.

 

 

But wait a minute, turns out there is a big reason why this house has been in housing crisis suspended animation, it's got tons of violations and it's been recently occupied by squatters.

And maybe the latter still is judging by this Citibike ebike.

  

Guess the tactic of not building a stoop will deter desperate people from getting shelter.

Jackson Heights apartment building starts renovations after devastating fire and already is cited for violations

 

 Queens Chronicle

 The owners of the Jackson Heights apartment building that was destroyed in a fire on April 6 have obtained permits to begin repairs on the building, but Department of Buildings records show that they already have one pending violation for electrical work done without the proper permits.

The owner of the building, Kedex Properties, LLC, has hired contractors to perform emergency bracing and shoring work, said NYC Department of Buildings press secretary Andrew Rudansky, in an email. Shoring is done when a structure is in danger of collapse or during repairs.

The two buildings at 89-07 and 89-11 34 Ave. remain under a full vacate order.

On June 7, Kedex was served with a violation for doing electrical work without a permit, a class 2 violation that is considered a “major violation,” according to the city’s Building Code. These violations affect “life, health, safety, property, or the public interest but [do] not require immediate corrective action.” The property owners received an $800 penalty fine and will have to file a Certificate of Correction affidavit. There is also a hearing scheduled for Aug. 31.

Inspections found “significant” fire damage to the roof, interior spaces, plumbing, gas piping and electrical wiring, according to Rudansky. There is currently no timeline for when repairs will be completed and when residents can return to the building, he said in an email.

The Department of Buildings “will continue to monitor the progress of the permitted repairs” and “coordinate with the owners on application reviews and inspection requests related to these repairs so that residents can safely return to their homes as soon as possible,” Rudansky added.

City missing over hundred million dollars from unpaid parking violations tickets

 

Gothamist 

The city is potentially missing out on more than $100 million in unpaid parking tickets and fees from 2012 to 2019, according to an audit from the State Comptroller’s office.

The city’s Department of Finance (DOF) is responsible for collecting parking fines and fees for people inside and outside of the state. But the audit determined that the DOF has lagged behind in collections: after reviewing some 262,765 cases over a seven year period between January 2012 and February 2019, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli identified $108,314,492 in outstanding fines.

“We determine that DOF did not maximize collection of fines and fees owed for parking violations. NYC has large outstanding balances due from summonses for parking violations, and DOF has not always taken timely action to collect the fines and fees,” the Comptroller’s report asserts.

The city issued more than 34 million red light, bus lane, school speed zone and parking violations worth $2.8 billion during the time period covered by the audit.

In a random audit of 153 cases worth more than $2 million in unpaid tickets, the comptroller’s office found the finance department only took action to collect money in 35 of the cases.

The comptroller’s office hopes the report will compel the finance department to do more to collect on unpaid tickets.

This report comes after an uptick in speeding tickets. During the pandemic, particularly in the first few months, there was an increase in speeding tickets issued to drivers, even as the number of drivers on the road decreased.

The Department of Finance is responsible for collecting tickets to cars with owners living in New York City. For all other vehicles it relies on the New York City law department, which hires a private law firm to collect money on car owners who live in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington. It’s unclear how the city collects on drivers from other states.

DOB cracking down on repeat offenders

From CBS2:

There’s a new push by New York City to keep landlords accountable for dangerous conditions.

A new Department of Buildings regulation bars owners of residential buildings with a high proportion of hazardous violations from getting new construction permits.

The buildings will be put on a list by the DOB and won’t be able to obtain a permit until violations are resolved.

The permit restriction applies to violations issued on or after Jan. 4, 2020.

A lot of citizens hate the city's open restaurants program

 

 

Patch

 A cornucopia of outdoor dining setups, from igloos to gazebos to cozy shacks, will be permanent fixtures of New York City's dining scene. But restaurants' recent expansion from dining rooms to sidewalks and streets left many New Yorkers stewing.

Outdoor dining setups drew more than 4,400 complaints to 311 since July as the city's Open Restaurants program ramped up, according to data.

They complained about restaurants encroaching into sidewalks and onto streets, the lack of ADA ramps, the setups' conditions and more.

But starting in October the complaints began to trail off — perhaps because of cold weather, or maybe as New Yorkers got more and more used to what Mayor Bill de Blasio called a "new reality" when he first announced the program in June.

"We've had it before, but the way we have to do it now, is very new and different, but we're ready," he said.

Outdoor dining sprang up as a way to safely reopen restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic — and eateries and New Yorkers alike quickly jumped on the bandwagon.

Within days, nearly 6,000 restaurants signed up for the program. Nearly 11,000 outdoor dining locations were listed on the city's Open Restaurants finder as of Friday.

The city allows restaurants to self-certify but sets strict rules. Sidewalk seating, for example, must allow an 8-foot path for pedestrians. Roadway setups must have a fully built interior wall that can hold filler material, as another example.

And to ensure compliance, the city's Department of Transportation has conducted nearly 40,000 inspections across the boroughs, data shows.

Roughly 7,500 of these uncovered a non-compliant condition, according to data.

Inspectors also responded to 311-driven complaints. Of those 4,400 complaints, data shows roughly 2,300 were essentially ruled unfounded — the outdoor dining set up was in compliance.

City finally takes action against sleazy Kew Gardens hotel

 

QNS

The troublesome Umbrella Hotel in Kew Gardens, which was thrusted into the spotlight amid a string of violent incidents, has been hit with more than a dozen violations from the city. 

The mayor’s office approved a Multi-Agency Response to Community Hotspots (MARCH) Operation this past weekend. Participating agencies included the NYPD, FDNY, DEP, DOB and the Sheriff’s Office. The initial operation yielded 13 summonses from the NYPD, FDNY and DOB. 

The hotel, located at 124-18 Queens Blvd., was given court appearances tickets and several fines. A second inspection was conducted this week where FDNY found multiple fire safety violations including defective fire alarm systems and pumps. 

The hotel was also issued two criminal summonses in addition to the earlier violations. 

The operation comes after months of community outrage and public statements from local elected officials, who issued a letter to the mayor’s office in August requesting action and assistance for the 102nd Precinct in shutting down the hotel, according to Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal. 

“The MARCH operation was a good first step in bringing these concerns to the forefront of enforcement, but we need continued cooperation from the city to ensure that violent crimes and public health violations come to an end at this location. We cannot accept anything less,” Rosenthal said. 

In August, the front door of the hotel was sprayed with bullets, as it was the scene of a drive-by shooting, according to officials. A separate shooting incident took place at the hotel on July 3. Residents had complained of illegal activity and loud parties taking place at the hotel, disrupting the quality-of-life in the neighborhood.

421a-holes busted by A.G.

   The Real Deal

 A new investigation into buildings that benefit from the 421a tax abatement by New York Attorney General Letitia James found that four developers in Brooklyn and Queens received the tax break but didn’t live up to the program’s requirements.

The developers’ misdeeds ranged from falsely reporting a full building was vacant to not offering rent-stabilized leases to tenants as the program requires in most cases.

“Rent-stabilization laws exist to protect tenants, and we will not let landlords or developers circumvent them,” James said in a statement. “The agreements announced today affirm my office’s commitment to promoting access to safe, affordable housing for all New Yorkers. This is a notice to all bad actors seeking to take advantage of tenants: Not on my watch.”

None of the developers named in the latest investigation return requests for comment.

The Real Estate Board of New York issued a statement in support of James, adding that such violations are rare, and underscoring the program’s importance for affordable housing.

“We applaud Attorney General James for taking action to ensure that 421a is used only as intended and required under State law,” said James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York. “The 421a program continues to play a crucial role in the production of much-needed below-market rate housing across New York City — and while bad actors are rare, it is always unacceptable for any developer to try to utilize the program without complying with its rent-stabilization requirements.”

One firm, Tuhsur Development, tried to evict tenants from its property at 63-36 99th Street in Rego Park even though a state investigation found it had overcharged those tenants $22,042.

Bad Architect

 

 

According to a Crap reader who sent this incredible PDF

This crook is still on the community board. You got to be kidding me. 

 

 

 

Judge orders circumcision on luxury tower development

New York Times

 In an extraordinary ruling, a State Supreme Court judge has ordered the developers of a nearly completed 668-foot condo tower on the Upper West Side to remove as many as 20 or more floors from the top of the building.

The decision is a major victory for community groups who opposed the project on the grounds that the developers used a zoning loophole to create the tallest building on the West Side north of 61st Street. A lawyer representing the project said the developers would appeal the decision.

Justice W. Franc Perry ordered on Thursday that the Department of Buildings revoke the building permit for the tower at 200 Amsterdam Avenue near West 69th Street and remove all floors that exceed the zoning limit. Exactly how many floors might need to be deconstructed has yet to be determined, but under one interpretation of the law, the building might have to remove 20 floors or more from the 52-story tower to conform to the regulation.

“We’re elated,” said Olive Freud, the president of the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, one of the community groups that brought the suit.

“The developers knew that they were building at their own peril,” said Richard D. Emery, a lawyer representing the community groups that challenged the project before the foundation was even completed. Mr. Emery said this decision sent a warning to other developers who proceed with construction in spite of pending litigation.

The question at the heart of the suit was whether the developers had abused zoning rules to justify the project’s size.

It is common for developers to purchase the unused development rights of adjacent buildings to add height and bulk to their project. But in this case opponents of the project argued that the developers, SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America, created a “gerrymandered,” highly unusual 39-sided zoning lot to take advantage of the development rights from a number of tenuously connected lots. Without this technique, the tower might have been little more than 20 stories tall, instead of the nearly finished 52-story tower that now stands.

The decision also sets an important precedent, said Elizabeth Goldstein, the president of the Municipal Art Society of New York, one of the advocacy groups that brought the suit against the project.

“The way this zoning lot was constructed has been invalidated, and that is extremely important,” Ms. Goldstein said, adding that the decision would deter other developers from attempting similar strategies.

Scott Mollen, a lawyer with the firm Herrick, Feinstein, which is representing the project, said the ruling contradicted earlier decisions from the Department of Buildings and the Board of Standards and Appeals that were based on a long-established zoning interpretation. SJP, one of the developers, said they would “appeal this decision vigorously.”

A landlord and his relatives and friends ran illegal Airbnbs in apartment buildings in Astoria

Gothamist


A ring of illegal hoteliers is facing a lawsuit from the city for allegedly using Airbnb and other "home sharing" websites to turn dozens of NYC apartments into short term rentals for tourists.

On Wednesday, the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement [OSE] filed a lawsuit against 13 people and entities for allegedly participating in a housing scheme that converted 36 buildings into illicit hotels using Airbnb, Booking.com, and Homeaway.com. The complaint named Elvis Tominovic (a licensed realtor with Progressive Realty Group), his father Franko Tominovic, and his mother Loreta Tominovic, of Astoria, Queens, as defendants in the case. Other members of their family and friends, including Susana and Sanya Colic, Dragan Mavra, Neo Panayiotou, and Elvis's sister, Romina, were also allegedly involved in the plot, according to the complaint.

Since at least 2015, the defendants in question "collaborated and conspired with each other, as well as with other unnamed defendants, in a wide-ranging operation to profit from illegal short-term rentals that have converted dozens of permanent residential dwelling units into de facto hotels, and misled thousands of transient guests into booking such unlawful and unsafe accommodations" while netting over $5 million in profits, according to the complaint submitted to the Queens County Supreme Court.

The investigation, which was initiated following a tip from a concerned neighbor, found that the defendants allegedly advertised units in Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx, renting out rooms in dozens of buildings, some of them rent-stabilized, to almost 60,000 guests over five years—while not alerting them that where they were staying was both illegal and unsafe.

Investigators believe the defendants used several shared bank accounts to collect travelers' money, as well as shared phone numbers and IP addresses, to create host accounts on multiple websites. All told, the ring allegedly rented units to almost 60,000 guests over five years.

A three-story building located at 25-58 48th Street, for instance, was advertised as “Big Wonderful NYC Apt in Astoria” for $130 a night. And another, going for $90 a night, boasted: “Big Gorgeous Room for Rent with 2 Closets Astoria," the complaint details. The Queens neighborhood has become a particular epicenter of illegal renting schemes, and, as a 2018 report from the Comptroller's Office posited, home sharing websites have contributed to rising rents in NYC, by taking potential residential apartments out of the rental market. Earlier this year the OSE determined that roughly 

450 permanent housing units in Astoria are turned into short-term Airbnb rentals ever year. In turn, that's exacerbated the neighborhood's rent increases (median rents rose 30% from $1,700 a month in 2010 to $2,200 in 2018, according to the OSE complaint).

In reviews, guests shared much different experiences than the ones they'd been promised at said apartments. They wrote that their units were cramped, had no hot water and heat, and lacked windows. The investigation found that the defendants failed to install the likes of fire alarms and automatic sprinklers when they turned the units into short-term rentals, and purposefully overcrowded spaces: At the likes of 12-10 31st Drive, for instance, a three-family dwelling was turned into 12 different hotel rooms. The New York City Department of Buildings has since issued three partial vacate orders stemming from the overcrowding and fire safety concerns that pose “imminent danger to life or public safety."

Furthermore, the complaint also notes that defendants convinced travelers to lie about their stays, and "misleadingly instructed transient guests to deny access for inspections and to refuse answering the inspectors’ questions, with the goal of: 'Let’s keep Airbnb alive!'"

When is an attic not an attic?

What's this underdeveloped property with an older home and - gasp - a side yard doing taking up space in Queens? We need a hero to come and take care of this problem.

Not to worry, Middle Village has its own local overdevelopment superstars known as the Fabians. Small one family to be replaced with two 3-familys. I'll admit, these don't look quite as hideous as what I am used to from this development firm. However, the permits are for a 4-story building and this rendering doesn't seem to show that.

The 4th floor says "UPPER PORTION OF CLASS "A" DWELLING UNIT 276.5 SQ. FT. OPEN TO BELOW UNFLOORED AREA TO REMAIN PERMANENTLY"

What?

Might want to post the renewed permits, there, Bobby.

This looks legit. Naturally this was all self-certified and there were issues, including a stop work order.

Not your routine stop work order

In the 12 years we've been at this (has it really been that long?) we've come across a number of SWOs posted on buildings. But the story behind this one at 64-00 Metropolitan Ave is like none ever profiled here before.

You can learn a new way to get an ECB violation every day around these parts.

And wait, there's more! The plot thickens...

There are a slew of complaints about this building, and they're interesting to read.

Close call in Bay Ridge

From CBS 2:

It happened without warning on 4th avenue near 95th street in Bay Ridge Monday afternoon. The two women were reportedly standing on the sidewalk waiting for the bus when the giant structure came down, burying one of victims and knocking down the other.

The Department of Buildings issued violations to the owner for failure to maintain the building. During their inspection, they also found an un-permitted demolition project inside and issued a stop work order.

“You can see the wood in the wood looks very old,” Bay Ridge resident Barbara Milo said while looking at the fallen awning left outside the damaged business.

The victim, who was thrown into the wall, is out of the hospital but has a concussion. The woman pinned under the debris is still in the hospital.

Stop work order violations will carry heavier penalties

From The Real Deal:

The city will soon bump up fines for violating stop-work orders on construction sites, adding another $1,000 to penalties imposed for first-time offenses.

Starting June 18, the Department of Buildings will impose penalties of $6,000 for initial offenses and then $12,000 for every subsequent violation. Currently, the agency charges $5,000 for the former and $10,000 for the latter.

The City Council approved the change in August, along with a slew of other building-related bills. At the time, the council also voted to double penalties for work done without a permit, which varies based on the kind of work.

Spa Castle in trouble again

From the Times Ledger:

A controversial spa in College Point is in trouble once again.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) received a letter from the New York State Department of Labor informing him that Spa Castle, located at 31-10 11th Ave., had been fined $1,000 for violating the Child Labor Statute.

Labor Department Commissioner Roberta Reardon wrote to Avella Jan. 30 about an investigation that was completed in December 2017.

According to Reardon, investigators visited Spa Castle on various occasions and times looking for violations of state laws. “After meticulous review of Spa Castle’s wage and hour records, we substantiated a violation of Article 4, the Child Labor Statute,” she told the senator in the letter.

The statute bans minors from working late hours on school nights.

Reardon said the spa was served a notice of violation on Nov. 4 with a penalty of $1,000, which they paid in full. The investigators were not able to substantiate any allegations regarding overtime.

12 die in Bronx building with history of bad smoke detectors

From the Daily News:

A raging fire quickly swept through the five story building on Prospect Ave. at E. 187th St. — taking with it 12 lives — including a one-year-old child.

More than 160 firefighters responded to the five-alarm blaze near the Bronx Zoo. The inferno broke out at 6:51 p.m. on the first floor and quickly spread upward. Firefighters responded in three minutes, after receiving more than a dozen 911 calls.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Sources said the blaze may have been sparked by a space heater, but de Blasio said was too early in the investigation to tell.

A database in the New York City Housing Preservation and Development revealed one of the apartments on the first floor — where the fire started — had open violations for bad carbon monoxide and smoke detectors.

Attempts to reach the building owners were unsuccessful.

Shore Towers condo units illegally converted into storage

From NBC 4:

A group of Astoria condominium owners says a cluster of apartments converted into unlawful storage units has turned their building into a fire trap. Chris Glorioso reports.

3-K operators are not all OK

From the Daily News:

Private preschools hired for Mayor de Blasio’s 3-K for All classes have racked up dozens of health violations for a variety of offenses, city records show.

All but one of the 13 private operators hired by the city to offer preschool lessons under de Blasio’s signature second-term education initiative have been hit with violations over the last three years. They include failing to conduct background checks, putting sick workers on the job with kids and failing to supervise children.

In total, the dozen operators had 72 violations and all have been corrected. But activists and parents said they’re still nervous that kids aren’t safe.

Shady Whitestone spa shut down

From the Queens Tribune:

A Whitestone spa that had sparked concerns among neighbors who suspected it was a front for illicit activity has shut down.

The spa was set up in the basement of a two-story house at 150-53 14th Rd. For months, its only designation that it was a business was a flashing “open” sign. In its final few weeks, there was a sign in the driveway advertising its business as “Kiki Spa.”

Neighbors who spoke to the Queens Tribune feared that the spa was a front for illegal sexual activity, citing a large number of men entering the building at odd hours, the lack of signage, reports of lingerie in the backyard and highly explicit ads that demanded “no law enforcement” posted on Backpage.com.

The Department of Buildings issued two violations for the spa on Oct. 5, claiming that it was operating illegally without permission from the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals. The violations are now listed as “resolved,” and compliance with the law was first noted on Oct. 26. A DOB spokesman said that compliance was noted after the spa was removed.

Hi-tech building enforcement happening

From the Daily News:

The non-union Rhode Island-based Gilbane is currently building all over the city, including Hudson Yards on the far West Side and an expansion of New York-Presbyterian Hospital on the Upper East Side. After the crowbar incident, the Department of Buildings searched its internal system to locate every Gilbane site in the city.

They found 14 sites, and over the span of four weeks, inspectors were able to gain access to 12. There they uncovered 49 hazardous violations and issued 13 partial or full stop-work orders at four locations.

At one, a Gilbane site in Hell’s Kitchen, where luxury condos are under construction, inspectors were forced to issue partial stop-work orders three times within a month. They also learned a worker at the site had been hospitalized in April after injuring his head while delivering sheetrock.

The Gilbane sweep is part of a new tech-savvy approach Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler is taking to find and shut down dangerous job sites citywide. Currently the public can check the safety of a site via the department’s public records system by entering the site address. Looking at a contractor’s safety record at multiple sites is impossible.

Eight months ago, the department's chief of enforcement, Tim Hogan, began mining inspection data to find contractors with patterns of unsafe conditions.

Officials say Gilbane got the message. During the first week of inspections, 12 Gilbane sites produced 19 hazardous violations and six stop-work orders. By week four, the sweeps produced nine violations at six sites and only one stop-work order.