Bad economy may lead to more illegal conversions

From the Daily News:

When Jesus Castellanos, a construction worker, became jobless in the fall of 2007, he knew he had to cut expenses - big time.

So the 30-year-old moved in with two other men into a small room in a Jackson Heights home for $175 a month.

There was no heat or electricity, and at least 13 other people shared the five-bedroom home, all of them Latino immigrants. But for Castellanos, originally from Mexico, it was the only thing between him and a homeless shelter.

Despite the city's ongoing efforts to shutter unsafe dwellings, illegal conversions remain a chronic problem, illustrated starkly by the recent eviction of tenants from a home in East Elmhurst with no fire escapes or sprinklers.

In the East Elmhurst home on 41st Ave. that was recently shuttered, people were living in a converted garage. There was no second exit, no sprinkler system and insufficient light and ventilation. The owner of the home, Mohammed Ali, did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

You can blame the lack of "market rate" housing or the lack of "affordable" housing, but the sad reality is that illegal apartments happen because people (many times criminals or illegal aliens) want a cheap place to stay, landlords make tax free money off them and the City does very little to stop it.

Big brother is watching at Rockrose

From the NY Times:

Rockrose Development Corporation markets itself as something of a cruise director, fostering a sense of fun and neighborhood spirit in its luxury rental buildings fitted with pools, barbecue grills and party rooms.

But one former tenant, David Griffiths, now thinks of the real estate developer as more akin to Big Brother.

Mr. Griffiths, an information technology consultant, and his wife, Katy — who is pregnant — had to move in November when Rockrose declined to renew their lease at its EastCoast waterfront development in Long Island City, Queens.

A Rockrose employee, he said, told him it was because he had posted critical comments about the building on the Internet.

“It’s very ‘1984,’ ” said Mr. Griffiths, 38, a Briton who seems mystified to find himself part of the turbulent annals of New York landlord-tenant relations.

“I feel like I’m in the early chapters of a George Orwell novel,” said one tenant who also posted complaints on the forum and fears he is “next on the hit list.”

“If this is supposed to be like living on a cruise ship, call me seasick,” said the tenant, who asked that his name not be published, for fear of inflaming relations with Rockrose.

HDC Coffee Talk - Community Blogging!

Community Blogging
Monday Morning Coffee Talk, with the Flatbush Gardener

Monday, February 2nd, 2009
8:30-10:00am

Neighborhood Preservation Center
232 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10003

Community bloggers are increasingly the voice of local neighborhoods. As larger newspapers focus less and less on the day to day, neighborhood-based blogs have assumed the role of providing updated, detailed accounts of the issues that directly affect built environment and quality of life. With little more than an internet connection and a digital camera, these activist reporters monitor communities with a passion and in the process end up mobilizing their fellow neighbors to take action and make change.

More info here.

Sky View Parc gets Mussed up

From Crain's:

A dispute among lenders could soon halt construction of Sky View Parc, one of New York's biggest projects, throwing nearly 400 workers off the job.

The conflict over Muss Development's 3.3 million-square-foot retail and residential complex in Flushing, Queens, surfaced two months ago, when Arbor Realty Trust stopped paying monthly advances on its portion of the loan, according to sources close to the matter. Fearing that other lenders would also stop making payments, Muss ponied up about $4 million to cover Arbor's share.

The situation reaches a key juncture this week as lenders are slated to release their next portions. With Arbor showing no sign of resuming lending and Muss reluctant to dole out more cash, a crisis looms. Negotiations between Muss and its other lenders—led by Wachovia and Eurohypo AG—are at an impasse. That threatens funding for Sky View's first phase, which is supposed to be finished by this summer.

Industry insiders say one of the most troubling aspects is that the deal involves not some highly leveraged upstart but one of the industry's strongest players.

What a difference a month makes! Hey Joshua, you're not alone.

Gillibrand vs. the illegals

From the Daily News:

"In Congress, Congresswoman Gillibrand has been a firm opponent of any proposal that would give amnesty to illegal aliens. The federal government must provide the necessary resources to secure our borders, which is critical for America’s economic and national security.

She strongly supports legislation that would significantly increase the number of border patrol agents and place sophisticated technology along the Southern border to catch human and drug smugglers.

Congresswoman Gillibrand authored and passed an amendment that will prevent employers who have hired illegal aliens from receiving federal contracts.

In addition, Congresswoman Gillibrand believes English should be made the official language of the United States and she opposes providing non-emergency taxpayer benefits to illegal aliens. As a Member of the Agriculture Committee, she has advocated for a review of the current H-2A visa system, so that farmers will have access to legal workers when they cannot find Americans to fill their labor needs."

Governor Paterson, THANK YOU.

1939 World's Fair in Color! (part 1)

Video by robertwmartens on YouTube

Photos of St. John's Queens Hospital rally

Photos by nutrichris on Flickr.

I'll post video tomorrow.

First time in a classroom - at age 16

From the NY Times:

New York City classrooms have long been filled with children from all over the world, and the education challenges they bring with them. But hidden among the nearly 150,000 students across the city still struggling to learn English are an estimated 15,100 who...have had little or no formal schooling and are often illiterate in their native languages.

More than half of these arrive as older teenagers and land in the city’s high schools, where they must learn how to learn even as their peers prepare for state subject exams required for a diploma.

New York is one of the only states to identify these difficult cases, classifying them as Students with Interrupted Formal Education, but state education officials do not offer a suggested curriculum, provide any additional financing or track their progress. Last year, New York City provided a total of $2.5 million to 53 schools with large populations of these students — about $165 extra per person; they are entitled to the same extra services as others who are still learning English, but nothing more.

The number of students classified this way has swelled 50 percent from a decade ago. According to the city’s Department of Education, the graduation rate of these students in 2007 was 29 percent, less than half the city’s overall rate of 62 percent.

This is one of the saddest stories I have ever posted on here. What the hell do we do about this?

Here's what will replace Cangro in LIC

Andrew Fine has a new LIC condo on his blog. The name of it is the very original "10-17 Jackson". The funny part starts where he writes, "The architect says that he is going to pains to blend in with the community." Yes, you can see by the rendering how in scale it is with its next door neighbors. (Although now that the streetscape of Jackson is starting to resemble a canyon, it may actually end up being one of the "low-rise" buildings along the way.) The hilarity continues on Curbed, which says, "We have one word: hot."

Well, we have one word for this, too: crap. (And most of the Curbed readers who bothered to comment feel the same way.) At least they got the color of the people right in the rendering...

"Coordination" not a word in City's vocabulary

From Brownstoner:

"Today, construction crews started digging up the street yet again - I think it's the third time in three years. I asked the crew what was going on and they said that they're first testing the water pipes and then plan on digging up more of the street to replace water pipes. I said "The street was just paved. Does that mean that there's no coordination between street paving and water mains?" The guy replied with a smile, "Yes." I was pretty horrified by this - what a waste of tax dollars...I'd like to try to find the most productive way to suggest to the Bloomberg administration that coordination of road work may save lots of unneeded spending."

GOP says, "Hit the road, Mike!"

From NY Magazine:

“All five county chairmen are extremely upset, and at least four are not willing to endorse the mayor for election,” says one GOP county chairman. Bloomberg “has abandoned Republican Party ideals. Right now, it’s anybody but Mayor Bloomberg. It’s extremely clear to me that my executive committee would rather stay broke than support Mayor Bloomberg.”

NYPD nabs Astoria muggers

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Police have arrested four suspects in a string of violent robberies in Queens.

The most recent robbery happened on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. at the corner of 37 Avenue and 23 Street.

Investigators said a Chinese food deliveryman had been robbed at 25-28 Broadway.

Officers were shown video of the suspects from one of the earlier robberies.

About a half-hour after the robbery, Officers Lisaura Mesa and Jose Velez, Jr. were canvassing the area when they observed two individuals fitting the description of the suspects.

Two other suspects were arrested on Friday.

They have been identified as Luis Navarro, 19, of 2721 Belmont Street, Bronx; Jemal Mays, 19, of 2846 West 19 Street, Brooklyn; Edward Edwards, 18,of 311 Patchen Avenue, Brooklyn; and Corey King, 19, of 91-12 193 Street, Queens.

The four are charged in a series of robberies dating back to January 12.

Video was captured of one robbery on January 16 in which a deliveryman was robbed and assaulted.

(The video is much more detailed than the story.)

Architects want in on community boards

From the NY Times:

Ms. Perlmutter is...the public director of the American Institute of Architects’ New York chapter, which is encouraging its members to apply to join their local community boards before the Manhattan deadline for applications at the end of this month. On Friday the group sponsored a breakfast to answer questions from prospective applicants and help them fill out their applications. About 30 architects attended, and most said they planned to apply.

The goal is to bring more architectural expertise to the boards, which consider matters of development, land use and zoning.

No, the goal is to fill the boards with the developer-friendly so overdevelopment in the city can continue (see Queens Community Board 1). Or we can just eliminate the boards all together and not let the community have a say at all.

P.S. Perlmutter is also an LPC commissioner.

Dirty town names in Great Britain

In the scale of embarrassing place names, Crapstone ranks pretty high. But Britain is full of them. Some are mostly amusing, like Ugley, Essex; East Breast, in western Scotland; North Piddle, in Worcestershire; and Spanker Lane, in Derbyshire.

Others evoke images that may conflict with residents’ efforts to appear dignified when, for example, applying for jobs.

These include Crotch Crescent, Oxford; Titty Ho, Northamptonshire; Wetwang, East Yorkshire; Slutshole Lane, Norfolk; and Thong, Kent. And, in a country that delights in lavatory humor, particularly if the word “bottom” is involved, there is Pratts Bottom, in Kent, doubly cursed because “prat” is slang for buffoon.

I posted this only to point out that this article comes to you courtesy of the NY Times, a paper that refuses to mention Miss Heather's blog because of its name and on the few occasions that they decide to link to this blog, they censor its name by calling it "Queens Cr*p".

A walk through New Briarwood

Thurston Cecil in 2012!

From the Queens Tribune:

Thurston Cecil is not a snake oil salesman but he gets that a lot.

He can’t blame people for thinking that either. With gas prices as volatile as the stock market, his offer of fuel for at least 50 percent less than what it is at the pump seems too good to be true.

“The enemy is perception,” he said.

Cecil, 43, is an Astoria-based mechanic specializing in converting diesel trucks to run on vegetable oil.

For $2,500, Cecil and his crew will convert any local box truck to run on a fuel priced now at $1.50 a gallon – half of what diesel costs these days.

The used oil, which has fried everything from eel to octopus, is picked up from about a dozen Japanese restaurants every Sunday. The oil is then poured into a 275-gallon tank and left to settle for about a week. When the sediments settle at the bottom, it is released by a valve at the bottom of the tank. The oil is then cleaned by two more processes before it can be pumped into the moving trucks.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I should be president.”

Panera giving away free coffee

From the Queens Courier:

Some Queens residents will get a special treat next week as three area Panera bake shops will give away free cups of its light and dark roast coffees as well as samples of its three grilled breakfast sandwiches.

The Panera locations in Glendale, Long Island City and Little Neck will run the promotion from the store’s opening through 8 p.m. so coffee lovers have many opportunities to try these new-flavored coffees and snacks.

Panera’s Long Island City store is located at 3801 35th Avenue and its Glendale store is at 7325 Woodhaven Boulevard.

JFK to get bird detection radar

From Fox 5:

Authorities say they want a sophisticated bird-detection system at a New York airport where a US Airways plane took off before splashing down in the Hudson River.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Aviation Director William De Cota says the system could easily encompass all three major regional airports -- LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark.

He says the system is already slated to be deployed at Kennedy airport. The system beeps when birds fly near a jet, allowing air traffic controllers to warn pilots.

Home sales down 45% in Queens

From Crain's:

The credit crisis continued to wreak havoc on the residential real estate market in Queens during the fourth quarter, driving the median sale price down by 11.4% from the comparable 2007 period, to $400,000, according to a report released Wednesday by Prudential Douglas Elliman.

It was the sixth consecutive quarter that prices have declined in the borough. The number of sales plummeted more than 45%, to 2,737 transactions, the report stated.

Two-Ton Tony keeping busy

From the Times Ledger:

State Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio (D−Richmond Hill) is not letting his indictment on fraud charges get in the way of his day job.

The 73−year−old legislator has been one of the more prolific bill writers in Albany since the legislative session began last week.

Seminerio is the main sponsor of 42 bills so far, ranging from legislation paving the way for Queens to secede from the city to prohibiting professional co−ed boxing matches.