Middle Village construction fence hosts painting & permits

Recently, yours truly came across a painting on a construction fence covered with DOB permits within the friendly confines of Middle Village. Well, this was certainly a new one! So, let's look into it.

The fence stands around what was the former site of a recessed bungalow-style house and a garage which were both torn down.

It's sure looking great now! What a boon to the neighborhood. That fence permit expired about a month ago, but there are no plans filed to do any further work at this site. Surely the local rodent population is grateful for the new habitat provided.

Happy Monday from Forest Hills!

From Forest Hills:

let’s take a look at the Austin St. Underpass Walkway, which after months of complaints had the graffiti finally removed only for it to reappear along with garbage and human excrement (CRAP), plus out of control weeds on a public sidewalk right along with garbage dumping. Photos don’t lie about the FILTH OF FOREST HILLS.

Abandoned Fresh Meadows house a major eyesore

From the Queens Chronicle:

The house seen above, located at 50-19 175 Place in Fresh Meadows, has been abandoned for more than 10 years, according to those who live near it.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) stood outside the house last Friday and said the site is at least “much better” than it was when he first heard about it, adding that it had overgrown weeds in the front and backyards.

“There’s a shack back there,” Avella said. “You couldn’t even see that before.”

He wasn’t sure which city agency cleaned up the house, but said more work needs to be done to remove the blight from the community.

According to Avella, the registered homeowner has been dead for more than 10 years and her son is nowhere to be found.

Bayside LIRR plaza not being maintained

From the Times Ledger:

The small traffic island in front of the Bayside Long Island Rail Road station on 41st Avenue has a history of neglect.

This summer the shrubs planted around the half-circle plaza became overgrown with weeds. What used to be grass alongside the paved pathway is now only a few patches of dirt littered with trash, cigarette butts and empty beer bottles.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that oversees LIRR, said the plaza is under the jurisdiction of the city Department of Transportation.

The half circle is on MTA property, but at least part of the plaza is zoned as city property, lined with streets and sidewalks, according to the city Open Accessible Space Information System.

The DOT said it does not have the equipment to take care of green space and is only responsible for paving in park space and plazas.

This was also discovered by Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), who expressed concerns about safety at the site, calling upon the DOT to repave the cement paths on the traffic island.

In response to the lack of responsibility taken for the small plaza at the Bayside train station, Avella said he is in the process of finalizing a $50,000 grant to be awarded to the Bayside Village BID to take on maintenance at the site.

Weed problem is out of control

Eugénie Bisulco/The Forum

From the Forum:

The sidewalks on the Woodhaven Boulevard service road between 101st and 103rd avenues are being used as open-air dumping grounds for inconsiderate individuals who leave everything from food scraps and broken umbrellas to an old pair of jeans, the reader noted. And weeds in the area have become overgrown, contributing to the eyesore.OzoneTrash2

In an attempt to alleviate the issue, The Forum contacted the city Sanitation Department.

“We reviewed the situation and the litter/weeds are the responsibility of the homeowner/property owner,” said DSNY spokesman Vito Turso. “Our Enforcement Unit will continue to monitor the location and will write Notices of Violation if the litter condition is not remedied.”

Taking matters into their own hands

From Cleanup Jamaica Queens:

Fathers Day weekend and yet another Saturday where Jamaica residents who are fed up with inaction by local elected officials (like Senator Leroy Comrie) and unanswered calls by Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and staff, take matters in their own hands and take over the abandoned park/empty lot at 109th Ave & 171st Street in Jamaica, which has become an eyesore of overgrown weeds, garbage, broken down rusted playground equipment, remnants of what were once benches in the first phase of cleaning up this lot which is owned by a real estate company David Landau-Crown Realty of Brooklyn, who refuses to take care of this property.

So Jamaica resident & community advocate Pamela Hazel along with other activists like Gene Sassine, Larry Love, Lyle Braxton, a man who goes by OK and a couple other residents took matters into their own hands and did the first phase of this cleanup by cutting weeds and branches that are going out into the sidewalk. Other clean-up phases will follow.

LIRR pedestrian overpass is a dump

From the Queens Courier:

Local elected officials and community leaders gathered earlier in December to tour the pedestrian bridge that connects two separate sections of 55th Avenue, one of which turns onto 85th Street and the other that becomes a dead end near Haspel Street.

The group toured the overpass with Long Island Rail Road and Sanitation officials to discuss the conditions and demand immediate improvements be made at the site.

According to Christian Cassagnol, district manager of Community Board 4, the problems most residents have voiced concerns about include graffiti, lack of sufficient lighting, safety overnight and dirty conditions.

Residents and members of CB 4’s environmental committee regularly gather to clean up the site, Cassagnol said, but there is only so much that could be done on a local level. He decided to contact Councilman Daniel Dromm’s office in the hopes of finding a better solution.

Rosemarie Daraio, president of the nonprofit Communities of Maspeth & Elmhurst Together Inc. (COMET) Civic Association, added that some other issues include illegal dumping, weeds overtaking the site, and deteriorating and uneven steps.

Days before the Dec. 15 walk-through, the city’s Department of Sanitation showed up and did a cleanup.

“This site must be cleaned and made safe for pedestrians,” said Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, who was part of the group that toured the overpass. “There is no substitute for an on-site visit to see conditions firsthand.”

According to Stavisky, she and Dromm will continue to monitor the issue.

Miss Heather's advice to elected officials

From New York Shitty:

Thought of the day: if the leaders of our community want to attract tourists, perhaps they should crackdown on speculators/developers who do not maintain their properties, illegally occupy the sidewalk and/or street with their “accoutrements”*, etc.? Is it just me or are our electeds sort of missing the forest for the trees here?Paul Richard has a sense of humor. It kind of stings, though, doesn't it?

Maspeth step street is an eyesore once again

"Nothing has changed, it's worse then ever. This is city property, why can't they do something that lasts?

Garbage, graffiti, tree limbs, weeds, rats, drinking by kids, smoking weed, selling drugs all in the middle of a nice neighborhood. It's a disgrace.

Why doesn't the Parks Dept. take it over and fix it up like they did with the Triangles?




What is going on with this property that is next to the Maspeth Step Street? It has been a terrible eyesore for six years. No work has been done in years. It is a danger as well since the gate is broken and any one can access the property. It is filled with weeds, garbage, mattress someone has thrown there. The city street lamps are on this property and are not lit at night making the Step Street a dangerous place." - anonymous

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

More Jamaica residents are calling for action

It seems that I am not the only one along with community activist Pamela Hazel and a few others who are extremely angry about the garbage problem in Jamaica and seeing very little done to help combat it from our leaders. I have been hearing a lot of grumbling lately about the garbage problem and especially in regards to our ineffectual leadership by the 30-60 year old crowd who seems to be very unhappy about all of our elected leaders, including you Mr. Comrie.

This was sent to me from Alana Ochoa Trafford who lives on 207th St between Hillside Avenue and 89th (not quite sure whose district this falls into). Here is what she has to say.

Dear Sir/Madam,  

I live on 207th Street between Hillside Avenue and 89th Avenue and I want to inform you of a few issues that are increasingly making this block an unpleasant place on which to reside.  Firstly, there is a hydrant completely engulfed by weeds close to Hillside Avenue. This happens every summer and no one seems to be responsible for clearing the weeds.  I called 311 about it and I was told to call the Fire department, which I called and was told that they are not responsible for clearing the weeds.  I then called your office more than a month ago to report the issue.  Nothing has been done about it yet.  Because people don’t care about the area, they are throwing garbage in the weeds.  It has become a disgusting sight that I have to endure every day as I walk down the block to my house.  Attached photo is a good illustration of the weeds engulfing the hydrant, though they have grown since the picture was taken.

Try to find the fire hydrant 

Secondly, there are more weeds coming through a broken-down looking chain link fence at the entrance of a parking lot that is used by some of the businesses on Hillside Avenue.  The fence looks like it is in dire need of repair and the weeds need to be cleared.  As usual, neither has occurred and has never occurred in the three years I’ve lived here.  Attached photo shows the weeds as well as the state of the fence. 

 

Thirdly, as you can see from this photo, there is graffiti on the side of the building close to the aforementioned parking lot close to Hillside Avenue. Before the unsightly graffiti was sprayed on the building, there was a rather artistic looking mural that someone decided to cover in green paint.  The green paint doesn’t completely cover the wall, which is puzzling.  I’m not sure why this occurred, but this paved the way for the serpentine graffiti tagging that now exists.  Attached photo is a better illustration of the graffiti.  

 

More graffiti can be seen on buildings around the parking lot in attached photo. Lastly, attached photo (above) shows a garbage receptacle brimming over with bags. Sometimes the garbage makes its way onto the grounds of the parking lot and ultimately onto the sidewalk.  See attached photo.  Because of this situation, there are often unpleasant smells that emanate from the parking lot.  

I, as well as other residents on this block, would be extremely grateful if something can be done to resolve these issues in a timely fashion.  If necessary, I can be reached at 718-XXX-XXXX. 

Thank you,  Alana Ochoa Trafford

________________________________________________
So, another unhappy constituent and a constituent who followed Councilman Leroy Comrie’s statement about contacting 311 and she even contacted the fire department (in regards to the hidden fire hydrant) and others and still it seems that nothing is being done about her situation on her block. And unlike me who uses nasty language, calls our elected leaders fuck-ups and do nothings, uses terms like low class ghetto and low class third world immigrants, Ms. Ochoa Trafford does none of that. This is a very well written plea, with no harsh language or name calling, she even starts out with Dear Sir/Madam, where I would probably have just said, “Hey Assholes”. So why no response to her pleas in regards to another quality of life issue?

What she is dealing with is the same shit they we are all dealing with all over Jamaica. As far as the over growing weeds ( a well too common site all over Jamaica), I encountered this mess on the totally low low low class ghetto section on the North side of Jamaica Avenue between 169th St & 170th St, right across the street from the nice block that has Bellitte Bicycles.




This block is nothing but super major low class ghetto/third world country shit, including the dirty Envy Nails Salon, a shitty furniture/mattress place (love the mattress out on the sidewalk in front of it, shown in the one photo) and empty store fronts and of course garbage all over.  Sorry, but these types of people are just plain disgusting slobs (and what has ruined Jamaica). Well, I am not sorry, sorry that they live in our community. I would not call them people or human, more like sub-human. It seems we are moving backwards on the evolutionary scale. Just the other day I saw a “third world” woman sitting outside in a chair actually picking out stuff in her daughters hair for about 30 minutes and throwing it down on the ground, very similar to the grooming habits of primates. She had four other little rug rats running around and playing in some dirt and I was waiting for one of them to start throwing feces at the others.

Right around the corner of this shit, is the all too common, abandoned vehicle with no license plates or registration sticker. I told two police officers sitting in a car on 170th Street about two of these vehicles and they told me they would alert the crime unit. When I walked back to that area, the one was towed away, but the other was still there, so it got the clean-up Jamaica treatment, just in case they could not find it.

BEFORE

AFTER

Lastly, Pamela Hazel took a photo yesterday of the abandoned house at 107-58 164th, which I took photos of during our protest march on June 29th and reported the garbage conditions of the house and well, it looks like again nothing has been done for two weeks as the one photo shows.




Now do your damn jobs and help Ms.Alana Ochoa Trafford and clean up this other shit!

BY THE WAY, SENATOR TONY AVELLA FOR QUEENS BOROUGH PRESIDENT, THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR QUEENS.

Joe Moretti
Jamaica, NY 11432
http://cleanupjamaicaqueens.wordpress.com/

Vacated Kew Gardens mansion hides a sinister past

Took a stroll down Park Lane South in Kew Gardens recently and stumbled upon this mansion that looks like it hasn't been kept up in quite some time.

Upon researching the history, it became apparent that the house was being operated as a transient hotel/SRO and was vacated by DOB in 2010. The owner pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges in 2009, and although there was an order for the Feds to seize the property, it's still in Irina Khaimov's name with a lien on it in the ACRIS system. There also is more than $100,000 in outstanding fines owed on the property for various violations.

As the site in question is in ownership limbo, the neighbors get to look at this unkempt lawn, and God knows what the inside of the place looks like since it doesn't appear to have been sealed. Goodbye, property values.

Park Lane South used to be one of those grand palace-lined thoroughfares that you could just picture people of means strolling along on a Sunday morning.

Welcome to the new Kew Gardens.

The First Ever Jamaica Cleanup Protest, part 2

Continuing the tour of the 1st Jamaica Clean-Up Protest on Saturday, June 29th, not only reveals a very dark side, South Jamaica, but how totally ineffective our elected leaders have been in dealing with the horrendous quality of life garbage problem.

As we begin to make our way toward South Jamaica and then eventually to the downtown area, we encounter some sights that look as if we are in some third world shit hole, not one of the richest cities in the world and as Mikey Bloomberg likes to state, “New York City, the greatest city in the world.” Hey Mike, come out to Jamaica, specifically South Jamaica and see what is going on.