Farrington Hotel prostitution bust

From the Daily News:

Workers at hotels in Brooklyn and Queens were nabbed on Thursday for funneling johns to prostitutes who stayed there, law enforcement sources said.

Local and federal authorities descended on the 39 Hotel on 39th St. in Sunset Park and arrested two women at 3 p.m., police said. Both workers were charged with promoting prostitution, according to the sources.

Three transgender men — believed to be prostitutes — were also arrested on outstanding warrants, police sources said.

The raid coincided with a bust at the Farrington Hotel in Flushing — which is under the same ownership, sources said. One arrest was made in that case.

Alley Pond dumpster saga continues

Thanks for the post the other day about the overflowing dumpster at Alley Pond Park.

I would like to report to everyone that maybe the Parks Department got the message, sort of. The problem isn't the overflowing dumpster anymore. Now they just leave the garbage for days in front of the park house. WTF is going on with these guys?

JP

Aigner Chocolate to reopen

From DNA Info:

Aigner Chocolates, a much loved Forest Hills store which closed earlier this year, will reopen next week under new ownership.

The shop, at 103-02 Metropolitan Ave., known for its homemade pistachio marzipans, peanut butter cups and almond clusters, closed after the Aigner family, which had run the store for decades, decided to remodel it.

The family was initially planning to reopen the store for its 85th anniversary, but then they decided to retire and sell it instead.

The shop was purchased several weeks ago by Mark Libertini, 42, whose lifelong dream has been to open a chocolate store.

In August, Libertini, a trained pastry chef, who also co-owns a deli in Midtown Manhattan, was in Forest Hills on an unrelated matter and spotted the shop.

He wanted to buy some chocolates for his fiancée, Rachel Kellner. But the store, which Libertini, who lives in Bayside, had never heard about before, was closed.

When he saw the sign that it was for sale, he instantly felt it may be his chance to fulfill his goal.

Two weeks later, he bought the store.

Junk in Flushing Bay

From the Queens Chronicle:

Ever since a January windstorm apparently left two abandoned barges adrift on Flushing Bay, environmental advocates and Flushing residents have been asking why nothing has been done to clean up the mess.

Riverkeeper, a nonprofit New York City clean water advocate, has been on top of the incident since the barges first made their presence in Flushing Bay. Their concerns are twofold — not only is it unappealing for residents but it also is harming the environment. Styrofoam has begun to fall off the barges and spreading around the bay. Private property owners alongside the shore have seen debris land.

In January, Riverkeeper contacted the NYPD, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and city Department of Environmental Conservation, informing all of them of the issues. But while there have been responses, nothing has been done.

The condition of the barges has continued to decline over the last couple of months. Steel plating is breaking off and one of the barges broke in half.
Normally, when vessels break in half, both parts sink. But according to James Lipscomb, captain of the Hudson Riverkeeper, these barges have an unusual design called positive flotation. This, he said, makes the barges unsinkable.

Lipscomb and area residents cannot confirm but believe the barges were secured on the east side of Flushing Bay, attached to commercial property, and broke loose during the January storm and drifted to their current location.

The NYPD can see right through you

From CBS 2:

As CBS2’s Tony Aiello reported, a civil rights group was raising concerns Tuesday night about privacy and health with regard to the vans.

Z Backscatter vehicles look like everyday delivery vans, but they pack equipment similar to that used in airports to peer under clothing and into vehicles. They can spot weapons, explosives and contraband.

“The NYPD, rightly so, is up on all the latest technology,” said Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

But Lieberman is concerned enough to join a lawsuit, seeking to force the NYPD to answer some basic questions about the X-ray vans.

Those questions include what safeguards are in place to protect the public from the radiation they emit.

Bill may force utilities to repair streets they destroy

From the Daily News:

Utility companies that trash streets while doing underground work would face jacked up fines under legislation being introduced in the City Council.

When companies like Con Ed, Time Warner and Verizon tear up streets to do utility work, they’re required to repave the road and leave it in good shape.

But Councilman Dan Garodnick said there are frequent complaints that streets are left unevenly paved, marred with potholes, or strewn with debris.

The bill he is sponsoring would double fines from $5,000 to $10,000 for violations like digging up a street without a permit, repaving a street improperly, or blocking a fire hydrant or bus stop.

Fines would jump from $1,000 to $5,000 for improperly installing curbs, failing to remove debris, and similar violations.

Guy blames dogs for being a squatter

From WPIX:

I’ve never met a squatter like Michael Lindner.

For years, Lindner rented from Lena and Bill Sakirsky in Bayside. They decided to sell their rental property and thought they’d seen the last of their old problem tenant after they paid him to leave by July 1st.

“He got the money, $12,000 for moving out,” Lena told me. “We have a notarized letter.”

Lindner moved out. But when the Sakirsky’s real estate agent went to do a final walk through in the house, she couldn’t open the door. The locks had been changed. And guess who was living there.

Contractor cops to bribery

From the Daily News:

A general contractor who worked on the buildings that exploded in the East Village earlier this year pleaded guilty to bribery in an unrelated case Wednesday.

Dilber Kukic, 40, copped to bribery, a felony, in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday morning.

He admitted to handing off $600 to an undercover officer in the investigator's car in an effort to get violations cleared from a pair of buildings he owns on W. 173rd St. on an expedited basis.

Justice Marcy Kahn offered a sentence of probation and 200 hours of community service in exchange for his admission.

He will also have to cough up a $4,000 fine.

Flushing West bus terminal talk

From the Queens Courier:

The city plans to add mandatory affordable housing to all new developments and to consider adding a new bus terminal in a section of Flushing targeted for a major zoning initiative.

In the latest step to engage residents and local businesses as stakeholders in the rezoning process, the Department of City Planning presented accumulated feedback from previous meetings last week in the Flushing branch of the Queens Library.

The affordable housing provision is part of a mandatory inclusionary housing initiative in the general land use framework. It will seek to reach a broader range of income levels than previous programs and to increase the ratio of affordable units to those available at market rate.

One of the options currently proposed would set aside 25 percent of housing floor area for tenants making 60 percent of the area’s median income, or $46,620 for a family of three.

The new bus terminal was proposed as a way of diverting bus congestion away from the most heavily used streets in downtown Flushing. This could be located near the northern or southern edges of the rezoning area.

Sunnyside parents suggest new school location

From NBC:

For thousands of New York parents, it's a challenge finding a public school that isn't overcrowded. In one Queens neighborhood, they're looking for a unique solution -- but will the city respond? Andrew Siff reports.

Another one bites the dust

The historic Bloom farmhouse at 90-11 56th Avenue in Elmhurst is coming down:

FULL DEMOLITION ENTIRE HOUSE OF A TWO STORY FRAME BUILDING DUE TO FIRE DAMAGE, REQUESTING REVIEW PRIORITY.

Lovely in Laurelton

From the Queens Courier:

It began as a beautification contest four decades ago, but continues today as a matter of neighborhood pride.

Using largely their own resources, the residents of Laurelton have worked hard to maintain center medians on their streets as small parks featuring flowers of all different varieties.

The center malls are public property, but weren’t properly maintained during the early 1970s, as Sandra Chase of the Federated Blocks of Laurelton (FBL) recalled. The strips of grass were prone to litterbugs and dog owners who failed to clean up after their pets.

Property owners then entered a citywide contest to beautify their community and, in the years since, have used their own time and money to continue to keep the malls beautiful, Chase said.

Former Council Member Tom Ognibene has passed away

From the Queens Chronicle:

Thomas Ognibene, one of the borough's most active and recognizable Republican fixtures over the last two decades, died on Monday after a battle with cancer at the age of 72.

Ognibene was first elected to the City Council in 1992, where he served the 30th District, encompassing southwest Queens neighborhoods such as Maspeth, Glendale, Ridgewood, Woodhaven and Middle Village, where he lived with his wife, Margaret, from 1986 until his death.

The politician also served as the legislative body's minority leader from 1994 until 2001, when term limits forced his departure from the City Council.

If it wasn't for Tom Ognibene, working class Queens would not have Elmhurst Park or the Stockholm Street historic district. He wasn't your typical politician.

CB7 wants restriction on Waterpointe site

From the Queens Courier:

Members of the Community Board 7 Zoning Committee on the Whitestone Waterpointe redevelopment project recommended last week renewal of the project’s special permit on one condition: that the deed include a restriction that no more than 52 homes could be built on the 18-acre site.

The Waterpointe development has faced community opposition in the past due to proposed changes that would have seen 107 townhouses built on the space instead of the originally planned 52 single-family homes. As most of the townhouses would have been two-family buildings, this would have resulted in a total of 203 units in the space, or around four times the original amount.

The changes were abandoned after an uproar from community board members and civic groups, and developers have since gone back to the original plan.

The project’s architect, Joe Sultana, was at the meeting representing the site owners, the Edgestone Group. He brought with him a letter of intent from owner Gavin Feng, in which he indicated that Edgestone would not build more than the agreed-upon 52 homes. [Joe] Sweeney, however, said that he would not accept anything less than a legal deed restriction to allow the renewal of the special permit with the City’s Board of Standards and Appeals.

A decision on whether or not to endorse its renewal must be made as soon as possible so that the project can be presented to the public in the next CB 7 meeting scheduled for Monday, Oct. 19.

No place left to shop

"There's No full service grocery store left in Northeast Queens. With Pathmark and Bay Terrace Waldbaum's sold to Stop 'n Shop and the rest of the Waldbaum's closing, they are not getting deliveries of most items.

They've already all run out of my egg whites and some other items..... The Whitestone Key food also is selling out of several items...

A & P pretty much had a monopoly in the North east part of Queens, at least. I don't know about other areas of Queens or the 5 boros.

Where are we supposed to go, to Los Angeles for groceries? Ha Ha Ha." - anonymous

And so the SWO violation continues

@NYC_Buildings @PaulVallone @QueensCrapper @NYCMayorsOffice @TonyAvella Actively ignoring the law.#whereisvallone? pic.twitter.com/Dkl5I5LAor

— Bill Leahy (@BillLeahy1) October 12, 2015

Nolan wary of LIC ferry dock

From DNA Info:

One of the locations being eyed for a new ferry station in Long Island City has spurred complaints from a local lawmaker, who says building a dock on Center Boulevard would bring unwanted crowds to Gantry Plaza State Park.

Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan penned a letter to the Economic Development Corporation last week, saying a ferry station at the park's northern end "is not the best use of" the public green space.

"The increased traffic through the park may detract from the enjoyment of park visitors and cause undue wear and tear on the park facilities," Nolan said in the Oct. 8 letter.

"How will lines of people be handled at this location? The park should not be a queuing location for the ferry," she continued.

Gentrification hurts the poorest residents (duh)

From the Daily News:

The city hired five NYCHA residents to work as urban “interpreters” who gathered information for a $250,000 report that reached a conclusion most New Yorkers already accept as true: gentrification doesn't help the poor.

The study, "The Effects of Neighborhood Change on NYCHA Residents," written by the consulting firm Abt Associates with help from New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate, found that NYCHA tenants often wind up feeling like aliens in their own neighborhoods, surrounded by newcomers who claimed they'd just "discovered" the neighborhood.

“NYCHA residents could be priced out of new private amenities and new, higher-income neighbors may not contribute to accessible community resources,” the report reads.

The document was finished in May — the same month Mayor de Blasio announced his version of a controversial plan to build hundreds of market-rate apartments on "underutilized" NYCHA property.

Another Flushing project mishandled by DOB

"At 149-15 33 Ave we were able to get DOB to issue a Full Stop Work Order on 5/19 because work beyond plan and permit approved, for demolition of 100% of exterior walls with a permit for Alteration only. On 6/23 DOB, for no legitimate reason, rescinded this stop work order. On 9/30 on DOB website; "BORO COMMISSIONER HAS ORDERED WORK STOPPED FOR #421003130. DUE TO SUPERINTENDENT OF CONSTRUCTION NOT AUTHORIZING PERMIT". So far they have not issued another Stop Work Order. But then again, it appears those are meaningless and ineffective as they aren't enforced." - anonymous

Hey guess whose district this is in?

Woman found dead at Kissena Park

From CBS 2:

A woman was found dead with slash wounds to her body in Kissena Park in Queens Sunday afternoon, police said.

The NYPD was called at 2:52 p.m. for a report of an unconscious person at Colden Street and Laburnum Avenue in Queens, police said.

Responding officers wound the woman unresponsive at the scene with slash wounds to the neck and abdomen, police said.