Stop Work Order High School

This is who is going to build the future of the City Of Yes, block by block like Mayor Mamdani has said.

FDNY Commissioner sells out smokeeaters, gives green light to bike lanes in Astoria

 

StreetsblogNYC 

The heat is on.

The Fire Department actually really does support the city’s expansion of protected bike lanes, the agency’s commissioner said on Monday — a revelation that shouldn’t be newsworthy at all, but for the fact that several FDNY rank-and-file as well as a key chief have recently criticized the life-saving street designs that the city has been implementing for decades.

“We are a life-saving agency, it’s our mission – our core mission, to save lives – and we appreciate the fact that bike lanes put people in a safer place and they save lives,” FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore testified at a Council budget oversight hearing on Monday. “The Fire Department has no problem with bike lanes.”

Bonsignore noted that there are some situations where “maneuvering around them are an issue,” but added that they work with the Department of Transportation to resolve those conflicts.

The FDNY has become a central player in street redesign fights, despite the fact that DOT consults with the agency experts and gives area firehouses a chance to weigh in on projects.

Opponents of bike lanes often claim that the safety infrastructure impedes emergency response — the opposite is true — and often find support from individual firefighters or the FDNY union.

Indeed, some smokeaters and their union bosses showed up en masse and in uniform to protest the 31st Street redesign in Astoria, Queens last month after a Supreme Court judge paused that overhaul because DOT allegedly did not get the proper paperwork to indicate that the agency had consulted with local firefighters.

And at a bizarre Council hearing in February, Chief of Fire Operations Kevin Woods, a 36-year veteran of the department, rattled off bikelash talking points – while senior DOT officials sat right next to him – claiming without evidence that protected bike lanes hobble first responders and adding the agency was against protected cycle paths.

 DOT’s bike lanes are, in fact, wide enough to serve as a clear emergency lane free of cars – vehicles that are the actual impediment to fast response times, as Streetsblog has previously reported:

 

Chief Woods walked back his stance on protected bike lanes after Streetsblog flagged them with the press office. But later, Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn Heights) wrote to Bonsignore to confirm that the agency was not obstructing DOT projects.

Woods also told Streetsblog at the time that he does not tell first responders to use bike lanes for faster access to a fire or other emergency, but the below video indicates otherwise. 

 

The agency did not say whether Woods or other rogue agents in the Department have faced any discipline for using their bonafides to rail against city safety policy. In fact, an agency spokesperson suggested that Bonsignore’s comments and Woods’s previous remarks were aligned.

At the Monday hearing, Restler also asked Bonsignore to commit to giving DOT feedback within 30 days, barring extraordinary circumstances, so as not to add to the already extensive bureaucracy lawmakers have dumped on the agency, which delays any bike or bus project exceeding three blocks.

The Firefighter-in-Chief declined to do so, but said the agency would do its “very very best.”

“Sometimes it’s not only the process, it’s not only the Fire Department I would say that slows things down, it may be something a more complex thing that needs to be reviewed, it takes a little longer,” Bonsignore said. “But we certainly will commit that we’ll do our best to get them a timely response.”

Never mind the fact that Department of Transalt are painting these bike lanes in defiance of a court order. I guess Lily wants more work for the EMT's to do.

Of course you know, this means that this is the third municipality to be regulatory captured by these insidious car xenophobic and e-micromobility violence enabling lobbyists

Apologies for posting a Streetsblog story. Everyone keep your head on a swivel outside and remember to close the door.

Update:

 

 

Update

The new bike lane just got christened with it's first crash. Congrats Lily, now you're another one who doesn't know shit about the streets, just like Transportation Alternatives

31st Street Bike Lane is not even a week old and we have our first accident. Even with a protected lane a cyclist and scooter collide. We need Pricilla’s Law now! @nyc_evsa @Shebbie4nyc @AFineBlogger @EricsRambles @ImpunityCity @queens_parents @JoannAriola32 @SpeakerMenin pic.twitter.com/siZ8ILb73c

— Maria G. (@mariagardenia22) June 4, 2026

Why does this keep happening?

How did Giuliani stop every cugine with a blasting car stereo but this is allowed to go on unchecked?

Mayor Mamdani's housing advocate aide is a self-loathing racist

 

NY Post

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s newly appointed tenant advocate called to “seize private property” and blasted homeownership as a “weapon of white supremacy” in a series of pro-Communist social media posts.

Cea Weaver, Mamdani’s new director of the city Office to Protect Tenants, made the statements and urged her followers to elect more Communists in several lecturing posts on her now-deleted X account that were unearthed by internet sleuths.

“Seize private property!” she said on June 13, 2018.

 She later doubled down on that in a mini-manifesto in August 2019.

“Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy,” she said then.

Weaver also pushed to “Elect more communists” in December 2017 — when a Harlem street corner was being renamed in honor of former Manhattan Rep. Vito Marcantonio, who was a Communist.

She also unloaded on law enforcement in a May 2020 rant that came during the furor over the death of George Floyd.

“Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy,” she said then.

 Without landlords how to do you build and maintain housing? You think the government is going to do it? Look at NYCHA [New York City Housing Authority complexes],” said Humberto Lopes, founder and CEO of the Gotham Housing Alliance.

“You put a system in place to destroy landlords. Why are you s–tting on us?,” he said.

Mamdani wants to freeze the rent on 1 million rent-regulated apartments — a move that would need signoff from the Rent Guidelines Board.

  NY Post

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing the first major crisis of his week-old administration as his newly appointed tenant advocate’s radical views were exposed — including once branding homeownership a “weapon of white supremacy” and calling on the government to “seize private property.”

The series of past inflammatory social media posts by longtime housing activist Cea Weaver — Mamdani’s director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants — unearthed this week sparked outrage and a warning from the Trump administration.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice Harmeet Dhillon said the feds would be on alert for any potential violations tied to the Democratic Socialists of America member’s extreme views.

“We will NOT tolerate discrimination based on skin color,” Dhillon said in a Tuesday post on X. “It is ILLEGAL. [DOJ Civil Rights Division] is paying very close attention.”

Dhillon, in an interview with One America News, added that city government “should be on notice, they’re on high scrutiny.”

“We have several federal statutes that explicitly protect people of all colors and all different kinds of backgrounds and military status and so forth from the exact kind of land grabs and reallocation and redistribution that is being promised in New York,” she told the outlet.

Mamdani indicated Tuesday he was sticking by his DSA ally.

“We made the decision to have Cea Weaver serve as our executive director for the mayor’s office to protect tenants, to build on the work that she has done to protect tenants across the city, and we were already seeing the results of that work,” he told reporters following an unrelated news conference.

 It's very interesting that Mayor Mamdani insists on keeping Weaver with her history of inflammatory and ignorant tweets equating white supremacy and owning a house (maybe she should visit Jamaica, South Jamaica, Canarsie, Brownsville, Springfield Gardens or even South Richmond Hill to name a few) yet he sacked his director of operations for her John Rocker style racist tweets on riding the A train to Far Rockaway where Jewish people live. 

Looks like Mamdani is emulating his hero Bill De Blasio with the same kind of defiant hypocrisy he exhibited for 8 years. The dope from Park Slope has been succeeded by the Asswipe from Astoria.

 

 

 

Caption NYPD Comissioner Tisch

 

Ixnay the IBX

The IBX the MTA, accidental Governor Kathy Hochul and the urbanist cult lobbyists love so much is going to require eminent domain to get it done. 

This means over a decade of construction that's going to cause damages to homes and displacement of residents and also the destruction of the environment by razing trees and green space all long the transit line that will stretch from middle class Middle Queens to low area median income towns in South Brooklyn.

This transit plan must be terminated.

Whole lotta gentrification going on

  

NY Post

 

Ridgewood is losing its edge.

Some residents of the increasingly trendy nabe are furious as “corporate slop” Whole Foods plans to come to town, opening what could be its first outpost in Queens.

The upscale Amazon-owned grocery store chain recently inked a 15-year lease on the former Beaux-Arts historic bank building at 55-60 Myrtle Ave., according to documents filed with the city on Wednesday.

 The grocer takeover could mark the first Queens location for Whole Foods, though another location is slated to open in Long Island City in 2028. There are no operating shops in Staten Island or the Bronx.

The Ridgewood store will take up the entire 28,000-square-foot first floor of the three-story former bank on Myrtle Avenue, which housed a Rite Aid until the chain shuttered for good this year.

But some observers fumed about the announcement, expressing fears the “gentrification indicator” could be the final nail in the coffin for the hipster mecca.

“Oh man. The Brooklynization of Queens has begun,” Asad Dandia, a historian and walking tour leader, wrote on X.

“A Ridgewood Whole Foods… It might be over in ways I’ve never thought possible,” one user wrote on X.

Queens is burning: Car meetup in Malba gets ultraviolent as participants torch a security car and beat down a resident in front of his house

Last night in Malba, a large group of individuals from outside my district conducted an illegal 'takeover' of a quiet residential street at approximately 12:30am. This is not the first time it's happened.

A private security guard attempted to calm the situation -- he was… pic.twitter.com/sSL7aWuufC

— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) November 23, 2025

 

From the way @NYCCouncil member Paladino explains this and what this community experienced, it seems @ZohranKMamdani Department of Community Safety already exists and the NYPD treated this as a "social worker" response situation instead of the crimes being committed at the time… https://t.co/XI5fgnGzik

— JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) November 24, 2025

 NY Post

A rowdy mob beat a Queens couple and set a car ablaze when the residents and other locals tried to stop a wild car meet-up in their neighborhood early Sunday, according to the victims and video.

The disturbing attack occurred when a bunch of out-of-control drivers descended on South Drive and 141st Street in Malba, doing donuts and speeding over lawns around 12:30 a.m. 

“When I came out, I said, ‘Bro, you gotta get the f–k off my property,’ and that’s when it all started,” victim Blake Ferrer told The Post.

 

Video shows a group of about a dozen ruffians kicking, punching and stomping Ferrer, who was left with a broken nose and ribs. His wife was also hit.

Ferrer was “lucky he wasn’t killed,” said disgusted City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, who represents the neighborhood.

Larry Rusch, 59, a local whose car was set on fire, said it “was a complete melee.”

 

Meet Queens' dirty 1/2 dozen

From left to right: Caban, Won, Schulman, Gutierrez, Lee, Williams all seek to royally fuck over 3-family homeowners

From One City Rising:

COPA - Forcing Small Landlords to Sell to the City?

The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) is now making its way through the City Council. The bill gives qualified non-profit organizations a right of first opportunity to purchase certain residential buildings when they are offered for sale. It requires property owners to offer registered non-profits both the first and last opportunity to purchase their property before it can be sold in on the open market. This can and will add months, or even up to a year, to a transaction and introduces significant procedural hurdles throughout the process.

COPA currently has the support of a veto-proof majority in the City Council, a body not known for astute law making. The bill is garnering tremendous support and seems highly likely to pass.

If you wish to stop this, please contact Speaker Adrienne Adams who controls which bills get to the floor to be voted on. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for November 25.

Please write to her today and tell her you are against this bill. Her email address is SpeakerAdams@council.nyc.gov. The text for the email is provided at the bottom.

Details about COPA

Here are the key provisions of the bill:

* The bill aims to preserve and expand permanently affordable, community-controlled, and tenant-controlled housing and to prevent the displacement of low-income residents.

* It applies to residential buildings with three or more dwelling units.

* Owners must notify the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and a list of qualified entities at least 180 days before selling an eligible building.

* Qualified entities have 60 days to express intent to purchase and then a total of 120 days from the initial notice to submit a competitive offer.

* The qualified entities also can match any bona fide third-party offer the owner receives. These are generally non-profit organizations certified by HPD that demonstrate a commitment to creating and preserving permanently affordable housing for extremely low, very low, and low-income residents.

* An owner who violates the provisions of the bill would be liable for a civil penalty of $30,000.

Concerns are being raised about the consequences of COPA. Click here and here for assessments of the bill.

City Council Member Vickie Paladino has again warned about the bill. Paladino notes:

“After they bankrupt these buildings with rent control and green mandates like Local Law 97, politically connected nonprofits will buy them up on behalf of the city for conversion to public housing.”

The role of progressive-approved NGOs as oligarch-controlled partners to the DSA’s goal of a “Red Vienna” moment must not be ignored.

Letter to Speaker Adams

Dear Speaker Adams,

I am opposed to Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (File# 0902-2024). I believe the bill will be detrimental to NYC and will damage the multifamily sales market because it will:

- Add Months of Forced Delay to Every Sale Transaction

- Reduce Property Values by Shrinking the Buyer Pool

- Increase Bureaucratic and Paperwork Burdens

I therefore request that you do not submit the bill to be voted on.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The King and the Pauper of Queens

Remember when Zohran proclaimed he would "Trump-proof" New York City as Mayor, this is the reason why he never will.

Mayor Eric Adams may be on a visit to Israel, but Monday he left Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a headache. He increased the budget for city government spending in the current fiscal year by about $2 billion to $118 billion, bequeathing a projected $4.7 billion deficit to be closed before the 2027 budget is adopted next summer. And he offered no plans to deal with federal aid cuts that could reach billions of dollars. The November report provides an update on where the city stands financially with the current fiscal year and the three future years it is required to project. Mamdani will have to propose his own budget by Feb. 1, a month after taking office.

The mayor’s added spending included new commitments Adams has been touting in recent weeks including money to start adding 5,000 additional police officers — while Mamdani has said he wants to keep the police force at its current level of about 34,000 officers.

Adams’ move came in for criticism from outgoing Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) and finance chair Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), who called it irresponsible to saddle future budgets with money for new police officers without addressing the fact that the city is unable to keep staffing at current levels because it can’t retain officers. The mayor also increased money for rental assistance and expanded a caregiver program for elderly residents by 3,000 spots. The mayor also increased expected revenues in November for the first time in his four years in office, adding a little more than $400 million for 2026. And he says he is leaving the city in good financial shape. “Over the course of four on-time, annual budgets, our administration has delivered for working-class New Yorkers time and again, and this November financial plan update is another example of how our strong fiscal management is making New York City safer, more affordable, and improving New Yorkers’ quality of life,” he said in a statement. NYPD officers arrest an anti-ICE protester outside the Federal Building in Lower Manhattan.

Budget experts don’t agree. The Citizens Budget Commission responds that the administration is underestimating costs by as much as $4 billion, including at least $1 billion for city-funded housing vouchers and $600 million for homeless shelters. And police overtime is almost always higher than projected in the budget. “This plan simply reaffirms that Mayor-elect Mamdani’s first budget proposal will have to close a $5 billion to $8 billion budget gap, prepare for federal hits, and fund progress on his priorities,” CBC President Andrew Rein said.

IBX of No

Wondering if the IBX will improve your commute to the EFMR or 7 trains? Here's a video that illustrates the very impractical transfer. pic.twitter.com/yz0jWwcM3f

— Juniper Park Civic (@junipercivic) November 12, 2025

 

 

AM New York 

 

Pressure was on the MTA Thursday night to end or change plans for the IBX in Queens, as a number of local residents claimed the nearly $6 billion light-rail is “not needed or wanted” in their neighborhoods. 

Over 100 Middle Village and nearby residents filled seats inside Christ the King High School’s auditorium on Nov. 6 to voice their opinions on the project, which centers on the construction of a 14-mile light-rail that would have a direct connection from Queens to Brooklyn without touching Manhattan.

MTA representatives at the meeting said the train, which already entered its environmental review phase last month and is in design contract, will be beneficial for residents because it will provide fast and direct transit service between the two boroughs.

“We’ve noticed there is significant travel demand between and among Brooklyn and Queens,” said Jordan Smith, IBX project director, adding that environmental review is a milestone for the project. “It’s a process that requires the MTA to take a hard look at what potential environmental impacts could result from the IBX project.” 

While the MTA tried to focus the meeting on environmental scoping — the act of analyzing potential environmental impacts — attendees overwhelmingly voiced their opposition to the entire project, or at least the parts of the railway that would run through their neighborhoods.

At the top of the list of concerns was upzoning, which would likely attract more people to the relatively quiet parts of northern Queens.

“There will be upzoning with the City of Yes, and now with the proposals that just passed, high-density housing at market rate can get built, so it’s going to destroy the neighborhood,” said Lee Rottenberg, a Middle Village resident. “When we bought our house here, we knew it was a two-fare zone. We didn’t want to live near a subway station.”

City of Yes is a zoning reform that allows more housing to be built in places where it was historically not permitted. This can include the creation of basement apartments, conversion of commercial space into residential units and new construction. The goal is to address affordable housing concerns in NYC.

The initiative aims to create approximately 82,000 new homes over the next 15 years.

Caption Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani

 

Sure it's a doctored photo made by his fans but I think this will come back to haunt him. 

Another four years of Queens Crap and beyond

PIX News 

 New York City voters approved ballot proposals 2, 3, and 4, which are aimed at fast-tracking affordable housing developments, according to the Associated Press.

Over 50% of New York City renters and around 45% of homeowners pay more than 30% of their yearly salary toward housing, according to the Yes on Affordable Housing Coalition.

Proposition 2 creates two alternatives to the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), the seven-month process for determining how land is used. Not all land in the city goes through ULURP, but zoning changes like affordable housing “must go through public review and approval,” according to the Department of City Planning.

The proposition, which would fast-track affordable housing applications at the City Planning Commission (CPC) or Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA), effectively removes the City Council from the review process.

 Publicly financed affordable housing projects will now be subject to a 90-day review by the BSA, rather than the seven-month process. The CPC will review applications from the 12 communities with the lowest affordable housing rates in New York City within 30 to 45 days.

 Proposition 3 is meant to simplify the approval for smaller infrastructure projects by also keeping the City Council out of the review process. It would create an Expedited Land Use Review Procedure (ELURP), which would involve a 90-day review from the local community board, borough president, and CPC.

 

Proposition 4 establishes the Affordable Housing Appeals Board. Currently, the City Council has the final say in affordable housing projects, with only the mayor able to veto. The new board will have the power to veto the City Council. The borough presidents, City Council speaker, and mayor will all be on the board.

Advocates argue that removing the City Council from the process will help create more affordable, smaller housing quickly, especially in neighborhoods that lack it. Councilmembers, however, say that removing them from the process will give developers too much power and take away theirs.

 

Zopacalypse Now

 

 

In a historic victory, 34-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was projected to become New York City’s 111th mayor on Tuesday night — the first Muslim candidate ever elected to the highest office in America’s largest city.

ABC and NBC called the NYC Mayor’s Race for Mamdani just after 9:35 p.m., with roughly 75% of the vote counted. With almost all precincts now reported, Mamdani had slightly over 50% of the vote (1,012,850) over independent former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who nabbed 41.6% (837,398), according to unofficial results from the city Board of Elections. This election had a historic turnout, with more than 2 million votes cast — the highest number in a mayoral election since 1969. 

Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who remained in the race until the very end despite immense pressure from Cuomo and others to drop out, came in third place with 7.16% (144,123).

Mamdani will take office as mayor on New Year’s Day, succeeding Eric Adams, who dropped out of the general election amid low poll numbers in late September and had recently endorsed Cuomo. The mayor-to-be, currently a Queens Assembly member, will also be the second-youngest mayor in the city’s history; Hugh Grant, who served between 1889 and 1892, was the youngest in history, having entered office at just 31 years of age.

 

 

City of Yes, Drop Dead

 

Queens Chronicle

A family feud over a notable property in Hollis has escalated into a community issue over protecting historical homes in Southeast Queens.

Marie Ashley, who was once the resident at the old Ketcham Farmhouse, a historical home that is at least 180 years old, was evicted from the residence, located at 190-21 Hollis Ave. on Wednesday.

Ashley told the Chronicle that when her parents retired in the 1990s she took responsibility for a home that her mother bought with her eldest sibling and has paid for everything from the mortgage to property taxes to landscaping, maintenance and repairs.

Since living in the home Ashley said she has helped out relatives and friends and friends of friends who faced homelessness and offered them a room at the historical house that her older sister Grace would later also assume responsibility for.

For the past few years she has been trying to landmark the property with its Italianate exterior, which is believed to be one of the two first homes to be built in Hollis. She held a rally to draw awareness about the property on Monday.

The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission said that the David and Mary Oakley Ketcham House may merit consideration as an individual city landmark in a letter dated Oct. 2, 2023 to Ashley.

Despite her and her sister’s efforts, her family wants to demolish the home to build six two-family houses.

“You can’t replace this history,” said Ashley at the rally.

The Ketcham family was a prominent family in Queens that helped to develop much of the borough from the 17th to the 20th centuries, according to Ashley, who is also the head of the Hollis Preservation Association.

May Callahan Flores, the original “Gibson Girl” in artist Dana Gibson’s illustrations of the feminine ideal, and her husband, Frederic Flores, are believed to have also lived in the home as early as 1924, added Ashley, who believes the home may also have been a passage on the Underground Railroad.

Paul Graziano, a land preservation expert, said the house is the progenitor for the entire community.

“Architecturally, it is very important, historically it is very important,” said Graziano at the protest. “That it could be demolished tomorrow is extremely concerning.”

Community Board 12 also supports preserving the house, which Ashley says has brought business to the neighborhood via her efforts in working with location scouts who helped get the home featured in commercials, TV shows and movies.

“Community Board 12 ... absolutely supports the designation of the Ketcham Farmhouse,” Graziano said in a letter sent to LPC. “In the 60-year history of the commission, we have 18 individual landmarks and one historic district — Addisleigh Park.”

Members of the Queens County Farm Museum and the Bayside Historical Society were also at the rally.

Ashley told the Chronicle that a review of her and her sister’s financials shows they invested about $1.8 million in the home.

Ashley said she has been pushed out of the home because a different older brother and her father, who obtained a majority share in the house in the 2010s, took her to landlord tenant court over the property due to their desire to make money off it.

She said a developer, which created an LLC with her family members, would create the six two-family homes in exchange for one of the homes later being given to the developer.

Graziano said that under the City of Yes housing directive, the property could end up being a building for about 20 housing units because of the huge lot size and its falling within a transit-oriented development zone.

Ashley said she was not a tenant in the home, that her mother gave her power of attorney for any transactions regarding the home before passing in 2021 and she didn’t learn about the LLC until some time after the funeral when the family was still grieving.

Graziano said he looked into the property records of the home and it appears that Ashley’s father also refinanced the home about three times. He could not be reached.

Ashley said she and her sister were unaware of the refinancing and received no money from it.

 

Preservation protest for the Ketcham House

 

WHO:            Civic and preservation groups, members of Community Board 12, concerned individuals A press conference to explain efforts to preserve the Ketcham House of Hollis, Queens 

WHERE:      190-21 Hollis Avenue, Hollis, Queens 

WHEN:         Monday, August 4, 11am 190-21 Hollis Avenue AKA the Ketcham Farmhouse is one of the most significant remaining mid-19th century farmhouses still standing in New York City. 

The building, which is at least 180 years old, is in excellent condition, with much of its original vernacular Italianate exterior details intact.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has already determined that “the David & Mary Oakley Ketcham House may merit consideration as an individual New York City Landmark” as per correspondence dated October 2, 2023

This is due to both the extant architectural expression of the exterior of the building and its siting in the landscape; and the direct connection to David Ketcham (also spelled Ketchum) and the Ketcham family, one of the most important in the development and governance of Queens County from the 17th to 20th centuries, who purchased the building and farm in 1849. 

As early as 1924, the original “Gibson Girl” May Callahan Flores and her husband, Frederic Flores, a well-known local builder who constructed several houses with his brother Charles in what is now the Douglaston Historic District, may have lived in the Ketcham Farmhouse; by 1933, they had definitively purchased it and lived their until her death in 1953. The property did not change hands again until 1967.

 Since Marie and Grace Ann Ashley’s tenure at the Ketcham Farmhouse began in 1991, their efforts to save and restore the building and its grounds have been impressive, resulting in the interest shown by the Landmarks Preservation Commission as previously stated. The designation of the Ketcham Farmhouse as a local individual landmark is crucial to the interpretation of Hollis, New York from its inception to the present day. 

It is – literally – one of the most important historic buildings if not the most important historic building still standing and, if demolished, would result in a permanent loss to the citizens of Hollis, Jamaica, Queens County and New York City. More history here:theketchamhouse.

This house just happens to be in right at the end of the zone of the Jamaica Neighborhood Plan rezoning that's currently in the early phase for approval for developing higher residential buildings. Or as I like to call it "The Jamaica Of Yes"-JQ LLC

Rogue parking company reimagines and colonizes the curbs

 

South ozone Park 152nd Ave from 129th street to 124th street all streets affected by this long-term parking lot company parking customers vehicles out side of their lots onto the street. 

 ARB parking lot located 128–20 152nd Avenue. park AC, which has since changed its name to Apex JFK parking. ARB parking lot was exposed by CBS News in June 2023 and February 2024 they are operating these lots without licenses however, even with the news exposing them. it still continues every time there is a holiday and during the summer months.

 And when these lots run out of room inside they flood the streets with customers vehicles they will even park them blocks away. They don’t care. if you look at there reviews on Google, you will see nothing but negativity on these two parking lots who are both affiliated with one another 

 Another problem with these parking lot companies they speed through the streets here recklessly with their company van not even paying attention looking at their phones they blow stop signs and speed through a school zone.

 It seems to be falling on deaf ears, no matter who you complain to. Nothing is being done.

What happened to the DOT's curb enthusiasm and passion against parked vehicles? Or is that only in areas where the urbanism lobbyists and their owners and donors live?

Socialist beats sociopath to win NYC mayoral democrat primary

NY Post 

Dark-horse socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani staged a stunning upset Tuesday night by knocking off former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary.

“Tonight we made history,” Mamdani told supporters at his victory party after midnight. “In the words of Nelson Mandela, ‘It always seems impossible until it is done.’ My friends, we have done it. I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City.”

The 33-year-old Queens assemblyman defied polls and expectations as he notched a likely insurmountable 7-point lead over Cuomo, the three-term governor who hoped to make a political comeback after resigning in disgrace in 2021.

“Tonight is his night. He deserved it, he won,” a seemingly shell-shocked Cuomo, 67, said as he conceded to Mamdani.

The first round of the ranked-choice voting contest had Mamdani ahead with 43.51% of votes, followed by Cuomo’s 36.42% and city Comptroller Brad Lander’s 11.31%, Board of Elections unofficial results show. Mamdani carried roughly 432,000 votes to Cuomo’s 362,000, the results show.

 

The state lawmaker didn’t crack 50% of votes, so the contest will still be decided July 1 once the other rounds of ranked-choice votes are calculated.

But the first-round totals still put the avowed democratic socialist within sight of becoming New York City’s next mayor.

Cuomo conceded he lost the primary as he addressed his campaign’s watch party — and signaled he may not run in the November general election on an independent line, as widely assumed.

“Tonight was not our night,” Cuomo said, as he praised Mamdani’s grassroots campaign, which mobilized young, far-left voters with catchy campaign promises and slogans focusing on affordability.

“It’s affordability, stupid,” quipped longtime New York City political operative Kevin McCabe, in a reference to Bill Clinton, about the issue that decided the race.

A win by Mamdani is bound to have sweeping impacts beyond the Big Apple and signal the rising power of the Democrats’ progressive wing, especially over aging party stalwarts such as Cuomo.

His near-insurmountable lead hints he could be replicating what his backer and fellow progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did in 2018, as she ran as a charismatic outsider to topple entrenched Democrat Joe Crowley — only he did it across the whole city, a political veteran told The Post.

Cuomo could barely be seen actually on the campaign trail as he relied on his name recognition, backing of powerful unions and attacks against Mamdani’s thin legislative record and ample history of criticizing Israel.

The scandal-scarred ex-governor entered the race in March as the clear frontrunner, but saw his polling lead steadily chipped away by Mamdani, who waged a social media-friendly campaign heavy on proposed freebies — which he plans to pay for by hiking taxes on billionaires and businesses.

“He should’ve learned a lesson from the terrible, Rose Garden race that Joe Crowley ran against AOC. Like Crowley, Cuomo was arrogant and grossly underestimated his opponent,” said Democratic operative Ken Frydman.

A year after the slumlord fire, tenants and the building they once called home are still suffering

 

QNS

Eighteen months after a five-alarm fire gutted a Queens apartment building, dozens of displaced tenants remain locked out of their homes — and now, state lawmakers are proposing legislation to hold landlords accountable for prolonged repair delays across New York City.

The fire ignited just before noon on Dec. 20, 2023, at 43-09 47th Ave. in Sunnyside, as residents prepared for the holiday season. Investigators determined the blaze was caused by a contractor hired by building owner A&E Real Estate. The contractor was illegally using a blowtorch during construction work.

What unfolded in Sunnyside has become a symbol of a broader crisis. Across the five boroughs, tenants displaced by fires often wait months — or even years — to return home, as landlords delay essential repairs and face few consequences. The Sunnyside case has galvanized lawmakers to push for stricter enforcement and firm deadlines to accelerate recovery and protect tenants left in housing limbo.

The December 2023 inferno displaced approximately 250 residents, many of whom had lived in rent-stabilized units for years. More than half of the apartments in the six-story, 107-unit building were rent-stabilized or rent-controlled, including the home of Lauren Koenig, who had lived there for 13 years and paid $2,650 in monthly rent for her stabilized unit.

For Koenig, reentering the housing market after more than a decade in a regulated apartment has been financially and emotionally overwhelming.

“It was a perfect storm,” she said. “You’ve got the holidays, housing crisis, inflation.”

In the aftermath of the fire, A&E Real Estate offered displaced tenants six-month temporary relocation license agreements, allowing them to rent units in other A&E-owned buildings at the same rate they had paid in Sunnyside. Under mounting pressure from elected officials and community members, the company later extended the agreements twice — each time for an additional six months.

But tenant Lauren Koenig said most residents turned down the offers, noting that the available apartments were located far from their Sunnyside neighborhood — in the Bronx or deep into Queens — effectively uprooting them from the community they had long called home.

“Only about 25 people took the deal, because it’s a raw deal,” Koenig said. “I didn’t take it.”

Koenig said tenants had repeatedly asked A&E to offer alternate housing in its other Sunnyside properties, but the company was not responsive. As a result, she spent nearly a year without stable housing, relying on the generosity of friends and moving between apartments as she searched for something suitable in the area.

“I don’t have kids — I only have to take care of myself,” she said. “I can’t imagine the pain of trying to do this while caring for an elderly parent, or with a newborn, young children, or pets. I cannot imagine what others went through.”

Koenig eventually secured an apartment nearby, but it came at a steep cost: $3,100 per month — $500 more than her previous rent-stabilized unit — amounting to a $6,000 annual increase.

In response, an A&E spokesperson said the company had only a limited number of vacant units in Sunnyside and insisted it “did its best” to keep displaced residents in the neighborhood. While acknowledging the hardship tenants faced, the spokesperson called the situation “imperfect” and maintained that the company’s options were limited.

Melissa Orlando, a market-rate tenant who was displaced by the fire, said she immediately found another apartment in the area because she had a young son and didn’t want to “bounce around” from place to place. Furthermore, she was going from one market rate unit to another, so the price difference wasn’t vast. However, many tenants with rent stabilized and rent controlled units could not afford comparable apartments at the new price.

“Fortunately, I had the means to go and find a new place to live, but the rent-stabilized and rent-controlled tenants in that building are here, there and everywhere, scattered, all over the city,” Orlando said. “A lot of them have been in that building for very long time… and if you’re in something that was stabilized or rent-controlled and now to have to go out into the market, that’s a serious shock.”

On the day of the fire, Orlando heard sirens but smelled no smoke. She left her apartment only after checking the Citizen app, grabbing whatever essentials she could. At the time, she assumed she would be able to return home later that evening.

In the shock of watching the fire rip through the building, Orlando admitted thinking that she might be able to re-enter her apartment that evening.

In the days immediately following the fire, Orlando said A&E appeared responsive, setting up a temporary office across the street, distributing holiday gifts and meals to impacted families. But that initial cooperation quickly faded. After Christmas, Orlando said, A&E’s tone shifted — and interactions with tenants became increasingly tense.

“Every step of the way it’s been a fight with them,” she said.

Orlando also said the alternative accommodation offered by A&E was in “far-flung places” where she didn’t feel safe walking at night.

Nearly 18 months later, no repair work has begun on the building, despite repeated calls from tenants, elected officials, and city agencies. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development is now suing A&E to compel them to begin restoration.

 

 Sunnyside Post

NYC Council Member Julie Won has penned an open letter criticizing the owners of a Sunnyside apartment complex damaged by a five-alarm fire last December for allowing the area surrounding the site to become a “dumping ground” over the past several months.

Won addressed the letter to A&E Real Estate, the landlord of an apartment building at 43-09 47th Ave., severely damaged by fire on Dec. 20 last year.

She accused A&E of allowing litter, trash and human waste to build up around the perimeter of the building over the last few months, writing that she has personally seen Sunnyside residents wading through bottles filled with urine, bags filled with waste and other forms of trash.

Won described the situation as “an egregious health hazard and profoundly unsanitary” and added that the problem partly stems from security workers at the building having no access to port-a-potties or trash cans.

She cited NYC Admin. Code 16-118, which states that property owners and landlords are required to keep public areas near a building in a clean and sanitary condition, including sidewalks and the first 18 inches of road by the sidewalk.

“A&E has not adhered to this law, instead allowing the sidewalk under the scaffolding to go into disrepair and allow litter to accumulate even on the road outside the building,” Won said in the letter. “This presents unsanitary conditions and a possible fire hazard.”

A spokesperson for Won said the issue dates back to at least the start of the summer, stating that the Council Member has regularly sent Department of Sanitation and ACE cleaning teams to clean up the area.

However, the spokesperson said the current state of the building is encouraging people to dump trash and garbage underneath the scaffolding, meaning that the area quickly becomes litter-strewn after each cleaning.

Won has urged A&E to dedicate time and resources to keeping the public-facing areas of the building clean and free of litter, while she has also asked the real estate company to provide overnight port-a-potty access to security workers on a daily basis.

Won has requested a response from A&E by Oct. 15.

Candidate busted ripping down and discarding opponent's legally posted campaign material

Bro, if your campaign is going to do shit like this, you send a volunteer out to do it. This way if they get caught, you issue a statement apologizing and saying they have been spoken to and it won't happen again.
This dude also has been sucking up to a TransAlt group that wants to take the B13 away from Glendale, so watch out, District 30!

Not a surprise then that Bob Holden endorsed Phil Wong.