Nurse attacked while walking home

WOODHAVEN (WABC) -- A hospital nurse walking home was sexually assaulted in the Woodhaven section of Queens.

Eyewitness News is told the woman was attacked near the intersection of 96th Street and 85th Avenue just before 11 p.m.

She was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries. Detectives plan to interview the woman at the hospital. Neighbors said she was walking home from the hospital, where she works as a nurse.

No arrests were immediately made.

Police say the attack is not part of either pattern of sexual assaults that have frightened residents of Southeast Queens.

"Mayor of LIC" murdered near Dutch Kills home

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A 67-year-old man was beaten to death by a stranger outside his home in Queens on Wednesday night, police said.

It happened at about 10:45 p.m. outside 39-22 Crescent Street in the Long Island City section.

The victim, Nicholas Nowillow, had lived in the home for 34 years.

Neighbor Michelle Koutsilius, who lives next door to Nowillow, had called him on her cell phone and asked him to escort her from her car to her door since there was a man acting strangely outside the home and she felt intimidated by him.

Nowillow came out to walk her home when he was attacked by the man -- who allegedly beat and kicked Nowillow.

Nowillow was rushed to Astoria General Hospital in Cardiac Arrest, where he later died.

Koutsilius says Nowillow was like a father to her since her own mother died - and now she feels responsible for his death.

Police arrested the 43-year-old man but have not charged him yet.

From Eyewitness News:

The heartless suspect, who witnesses appeared to be impaired or on drugs, was taken into custody. Charges against him are pending. The female neighbor said Nowillo was like a father to her. Some neighbors said they referred to the diminutive man as the "Mayor of Long Island City."

Now that's some serious squash!

A Queens woman has taken homegrown fruits and vegetables to a whole new level by cultivating a 6-foot-long zucchini in her backyard.

Woman in 'shock' over giant zucchini

Green-fingered Apollonia Castitlione grew the giant Long Italian zucchini during the warm summer months using nothing more than fertilizer, water and a little TLC.

"There's no secret, I guess it was just luck," said Castitlione, who lives in Glendale, Queens.

"I went to look at it one day and was like, 'It's a little long,' then a few days later, I said, 'Oh, my God, what's this?'

Let's introduce her to the Staten Island guy with the 2 giant cabbages. Oh boy, can you imagine the naughty vegetable jokes if those 2 got together?

Foreclosures: We're #1 again!

In obvious contrast to the other four boroughs, each experiencing a decrease, Queens stood alone recording a large increase in August 2008 compared to July 2008. The current number (254) is up 113% from August 2007, and up 43% from July 2008, setting a two-year high for Queens. All the other boroughs experienced an improvement in the number of new foreclosures compared to July 2008. Brooklyn was down 29%, Manhattan by 21%, the Bronx by 17%, and Staten Island down 9%.
• 73% of Queen’s foreclosure auctions were unsuccessful: From July 2007 to July 2008, 73% of Queen’s foreclosure auctions were unsuccessful and went back to the lender. Out of the 73%, almost 3/4 have still not been resold and are still in the lender’s possession.
This info comes from a Property Shark report.

Shea stand may not be welcome at Citifield

Frank Kasiaras, the eponymous hot dog purveyor, and his buddy, Phillip Wieczkowski, peddle wieners to hungry Mets fans from a dusty sidewalk at the edge of Willets Point, the industrial enclave near Shea Stadium.

"This is my livelihood," Kasiaras said one day recently as dogs sizzled on the curbside stand at the corner of 126th St. and 34th Ave. "There is money here."

But Frank and Phil, like the owners of some 260 businesses in Willets Point, are worried the good times may not last much longer now that the city is pushing to redevelop the gritty strip into a megadevelopment.

Frankly speaking, hot dog stand is in limbo

"All of my life I've been trying to do something," said Kasiaras, who first lit his grill on 126th St. earlier this year. "And then when I finally get a chance it may not be there anymore."

When the tavern went belly up, Frank and Phil decided to start grilling for a living, and applied to the city for a wiener stand license.

They opened last year on Broadway and 51st. Ave. in Elmhurst - and nearly lost their shirts. But then Kasiaras "stumbled" upon solid-gold frankfurter real estate - a vendor-less sidewalk across from Citi Field, Shea Stadium's heir apparent.

But their successful spot is in jeopardy if the City Council approves Mayor Bloomberg's controversial Willets Point redevelopment plan in November. But Frank's Franks could get booted in other ways.

The Parks Department, which owns the Citi Field land, has yet to talk with Mets honchos about the future of vendors who work the area surrounding the new ballpark, which is set to open next year, said a city source.

Sorry, kids, the Mets are going upscale and what you're selling is not on the menu anymore.

If you don't want to take care of a dog, don't own one

The sad story of the dogs started in June when ASPCA Special Agent Joann Sandano was called to [Kwang] Lee's home after a neighbor found Willie, a 9-year-old Pomeranian, bleeding and barely conscious in the street.

Lee didn't bother to bring the dog to a veterinarian, despite the fact Willie was unable to walk or stand, Pentangelo said.

It's not clear how the dog was injured, but veterinarians said he likely was hit by a car.

It just shouldn't happen to a dog ... Ex-owner facing fine, jail for cruelty

"He was in excruciating, significant pain," Pentangelo said. "He had a dislocated hip. Without medical care, he would have died."

Along with his injuries, there were signs the 19-pound pooch had been neglected. Veterinarians had to remove two of his teeth because of severe dental disease.

When Sandano entered Lee's house, she found other animals, including Albie, a Chihuahua whose leg was bent. ASPCA veterinarians determined it was an old break that had never properly healed.

Lee faces up to $4,000 in fines and two years in jail.

Allan Jennings just won't go away

Allan Jennings is making a political comeback.

The bizarre ex-City Councilman, who was censured for sexually harassing staffers, is challenging incumbent state Sen. Shirley Huntley in the upcoming primary on Sept. 9.

"The campaign is going well as far as we're concerned," said Jennings' spokesman, Priestly Taylor. "He's been endorsed by District Council 37."

Controversial candidate Allan Jennings back for more in senate race

Huntley is also baffled that a major union like DC 37 would endorse Jennings, who cost the city more than $300,000 to settle the harassment claims of staffers.

"How do you endorse someone publicly proven guilty of sexually harassing women?" said Huntley.

A DC 37 spokeperson responded that Huntley never came to them for an interview.

Well then you could have just sat it out.

This guy is like the annoying piece of crap that keeps coming back up no matter how many times you flush. But that's okay, the nutty incumbent intentionally put herself into foreclosure. This may be one of the areas of southeastern Queens that's still forced to drink contaminated well water...

Astoria rock throwers damage cars

On a recent Sunday morning, Loretta Csikortos walked out of her Astoria home on 23rd Street between Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue, and found her son’s red Ford Mustang with a shattered windshield and a dented trunk.

The next morning, two of her neighbors found their cars in a similar condition - one had a busted roof and the other had dents all over it.

All three vehicles had been damaged by baseball-sized rocks hurled during the night from Amtrak’s railbed along the Hell Gate trestle stretching over the houses, according to Csikortos.

It’s raining rocks in Astoria

Toxic Williamsburg

Garden Acosta first noticed Radiac in the late 1980s, when Williamsburg was a forgotten part of Brooklyn, not the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of today. As the director of El Puente, a community organization based in Williamsburg’s predominantly Latino Southside, Garden Acosta asked a group of teenagers who were interested in neighborhood environmental activism to work on Radiac as their first project.

ON THE CHEMICAL WATERFRONT

“At that time the environment was more the province of older white men on horses, the Sierra Club, certainly not of inner-city youth, or people of color,” he explains. “We had other issues that were more important. At least that is what the greater society said to us. I certainly never felt that way.”

The group called themselves the Toxic Avengers and set out researching the site and knocking on doors to speak to neighbors, most of who did not realize they lived next to a facility that stored toxic and radioactive waste. Now, nearly 20 years later and after numerous attempts to close the facility, Radiac may finally be history. Ironically, the very market forces ravaging Wiliamsburg’s long-established communities just may spell Radiac’s demise, but Garden Acosta is focused on the upside.

To Webster, Radiac is essentially an environmental justice case. “The worst facilities are often located in communities that would qualify for considerations of environmental justice if they were new permits,” Webster says. “The only reason this facility has operated for so long—even though it’s so dangerous—is because it is in a mostly minority neighborhood. It is sad that the only way things change is if a bunch of new people move in.”

Wacky LIC hotel now taking reservations

The latest hotel in LIC has a diving board for King Kong at the top and a view of what appears to be a yellow-skied post-apocalyptic Manhattan.
No curtains here, either - perfect for the exhibitionist who wants everyone to see him doing the nasty, perhaps even with a hooker he picked up at the Plaza.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that it is a 137 room Holiday Inn with only 12 parking spaces. And as for location, they stretch the truth just a bit...

Protesting expansion of One Police Plaza

You all know we love a good protest here at QC, but being against giving the police what they need to keep us safe is really just dumb. Especially if you live in lower Manhattan. How quickly we've forgotten how vulnerable we actually are.

The hollowing out of Austin Street

From Forest Hills 72:

Austin Street is not a flea market. It's not Archer Avenue. If these landlords want to rent temporarily to relatives or associates or something, I guess that's legal, but I hope they know it looks like shit and won't do anything to help the other vacant stores get a tenant.

Instead of these street-fair like nameless temporary business, how about lowering the rent slightly and attract a store that's proven to be both good for the community and popular with its residents - like a Ripe, Bonfire Grill, Pampas Argentinas, Martha's, or Yogomonster?

Sample of things to come?

What makes you think Forest Hills is special and should have nice shops? Sorry, dude - it looks like 99 cent stores are in your future. Time to deal with it or else you'll be labeled an Archie Bunker and told to move to Ohio for not accepting this wonderful metamorphosis. I heard that Tommy Huang bought there, so what do you expect? Can't remember reading anything that called Forest Hills "vibrant" before. I bet that will soon change.

Trying too hard to become New Yorkers

Boris Chen, 22, moved to New York from California early in July for a job with a finance company in Midtown. He is still trying to stomach what feels to him like a whole new brand of rude.

Mr. Chen also had to get over his lingering childhood fear of taxi drivers, which he believed came from movies. “I always thought any time I got into taxis they were going to kidnap me, and I was going to die,” he said.

Newcomers Adjust, Eventually, to New York

There also usually comes a time, early on, when newcomers must accept that the city is a power greater than they are.

“My friend said, ‘The city abuses you, and you just have to abuse it back,’ ” said Ms. Sirkin, who grew up in California and moved to New York reluctantly...

Ms. Sirkin’s friend Sarah Kasbeer also recalled being consumed by a common strain of existential New York City angst: the sense that no matter where one is, something better is happening — the real New York is in full swing — somewhere else.

This reminds me of a former co-worker of mine who had come from Phoenix and was always broke. I said to her, "You and I have the same title and make the same money, but you share your apartment with 2 roommates. I live alone and after paying my bills in full, still have money left at the end of the month...so how can you be broke?" She couldn't explain it. The more I spoke with her the clearer the picture became. She simply had to have the latest high-priced accessories and clothes so she could enter trendy clubs and restaurants in order to feel like "a real New Yorker." Once my friend discovered that living the "hip" NYC lifestyle wasn't all it was cracked up to be, she stopped being a wild child, found she wasn't missing out on much and was actually pretty happy.

Now the guy that thinks cab drivers are going to murder him sounds like he has some serious issues. Maybe KingofNYCabbies can analyze this dude.

Doorman a veteran tweeder

You know what, Eric, you were kinda funny before with your plastic smile and fake passion for the issues of the downtrodden, but you're really getting on my nerves now.

Politician: Returning troops deserve first shot at jobs

"By virtue of their service and their sacrifice for their country, these veterans deserve a helping hand," said City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens), calling on city agencies to set aside or create full-time jobs for vets.

Programs that set aside jobs for specific groups of people have been struck down as unconstitutional by federal courts...

So you are already aware that this can't be done legally, but it sounds good for you to say it on TV, right? Hey Doorman: We've been at war in Afghanistan since October 2001, before you even took office. You just identified this as an issue now, and only after you got bored complaining about Darfur and food stamps?

"We literally have soldiers returning who have led people into battle," Gioia said. "They're incredibly heroic, but they've never worn a suit to work. That's the transition they need."

If lack of a suit is the problem, then give 'em yours, since it's empty. Have you solved even one constituent problem in all these years? My friends in Sunnyside say no.

Photo from the Observer.

A tale of two parks

From Miss Heather:

I decided a comparison of Gantry Park (in luxury waterfront condoville, Long Island City) and the Nature Walk (in decidedly NOT luxury waterfront condoville, Greenpoint) would be a more appropriate use of this footage. The lesson here (as best as I can comprehend it) is: if a neighborhood acquiesces to having an ENORMOUS luxury enclave on her waterfront (READ: Long Island City) said residents get a nice park. Otherwise, you can look at shit.

How CD30 candidates spent the summer

Como painted the town.
Looks like Liz did too - in Denver.

God bless 'em. And God help Council District 30!

Squirrel thief in Sunnyside

From Let's Meet Up in Queens:

Just a little warning for fellow Sunnyside Gardens' residents. A hungry, brazen, and resourceful squirrel has broken into at least 2 kitchens by eating/ripping through window screens to get at food sitting on kitchen counters (even sealed food) within the last week.

Sunnyside Gardens' Squirrel - Breaking, Entering, and Eating

My, my. At least it's just squirrels and not skunks, raccoons and feral cats like they're having a problem with in the Bronx.

Giant landlords turn out to be slumlords

On sunny days, Rafael Delgado of East Elmhurst doesn't think about the fire that gutted the apartment above his two-bedroom flat almost five months ago.

But when it rains, he can't think of anything else.

That's because rainwater rushes into the burned-out top-floor unit through large holes in the roof that were repaired only with a makeshift cover of tarps and plywood. Eventually, the water runs into Delgado's bedroom through gaping holes left in the ceiling by the fire - holes his landlord still hasn't fixed.

Fed-up tenants fixed on lawsuit

Delgado and 17 of his neighbors filed a lawsuit Friday in Queens Housing Court that asks a judge to order their landlord, Vantage Properties, to repair a slew of housing violations in the 29-unit building at 43-43 91st Place.

As of last week, the building had 93 open violations for conditions including exposed electrical wires, stagnant water and raw sewage, city records show.

But Vantage officials said the company is working to fix years of neglect by previous landlords.

Hey, Elmhurst, you're not alone. Check out the horrors in the Bronx!

Interesting political matchups in Flushing

You gotta love it...Flushing has two interesting races this year, both involving the "old guard vs. the new guard" but in different ways. Young vs. Meng - Incumbent with an accent who not too long ago represented "change" is now challenged by an opponent who wants to represent the "next generation" which is more Americanized.



Then there's Toby vs. Peter. The wife of a dead senator who basically has never had to run in a competitive campaign - now must try to win the votes of Asians while running against a Korean-American.



Very interesting races. And that's how it should always be.
Click photos for more articles.

Frankenstein's monster on 115th Street

"Frankenstein has apparently taken a position as an architect as this residential monstrosity demonstrates.
It's at 12-07 115th Street in College Point.
Literally half-house, half-apartment building = pure crap.

cheers."
ad

I know this looks like a new house. But this is just an addition as per DOB permits! - QC

Scarano LIC project goes bankrupt

A 20-story condo building planned for Long Island City and designed by architect Robert Scarano is in foreclosure proceedings, a New York-based bank reported in its latest quarterly filings.

Scarano project in LIC facing foreclosure

Brooklyn firm Rosma Development's 120-unit project, known as Tower 56, is located a few blocks south of Court Square at 45-56 Pearson Street.

Intervest said in its June 30 quarterly report that the property, described as vacant land, was in foreclosure proceedings. As of March, the loan was in nonaccrual status (defined as being 90 days late or having stopped all payments).

Despite the financial troubles described by the bank, in June the owners signed an easement agreement with the city to allow the Fire Department to use a small portion of the property.

Calls to Scarano, the developers and the bank were not immediately returned.

So LIC gets something to serve the needs of the fire department instead of more development. Maybe they'll end up putting up a firehouse there since they closed another in the area. That made a lot of sense with the thousands of high-rise housing units slated for completion...

There was also this about a different building from a Curbed tipster:

According to a credible source, 6 apartments have been contracted. Many more offers have been made and taken through the developer, only to fall through a few short weeks later due to inabilities to attain mortgages...Beware that you will see plenty of pretty pictures of amenities like a pool, lounge, kitchen, spa, gym, etc... all of which are actually across the street in the rental building. Oh, and no on site parking, that too is across the street in the rental building. $1,000/SF ???

How low can the LIC condo market go?

Back to school memories

So kids went back to school today and some sites are asking for your memories of the experience. So here's mine:

My mom would always take the week off before school so that she could drag us around to Leberfeld's to get uniforms (now a closeout store - photographed by Miss Heather) and to TSS to buy school supplies (now Kmart). Then the week of school she cleaned the whole house. (Mom was never big on actually taking vacation to go on vacation when we were kids.)

As I recall, picking out the lunchbox was always the highlight. And I have a very vivid memory of joining with some classmates in making fun of a girl who showed up for 1st grade with a lunchbox like the one pictured. Even though we were really young at the time, we knew this was just lame. If you were a girl you had Snoopy, Strawberry Shortcake or Wonder Woman and if you were a boy you had Superman, Spiderman or Star Wars. If you had the Bee Gees, it meant you were a freak. And speaking of freaks, until I found this picture, I had totally forgotten about the disturbing-looking clown that advertised the 'flip-n-sip' feature of the enclosed thermos. He was stickered onto just about every lunchbox and gave the kids nightmares. Ah, memories!

Construction sites used for dog fights

“On any given weekend, New York has more dogfights than any other city,” said John Goodwin of the Humane Society, the animal protection group that has monitored the illegal sport since 1954.

City’s shame as capital of illegal dog fighting

“It’s a felony, so it’s not in your face,” Goodwin said. “But we hear about it happening in body shops, empty warehouses and new developments that are still under construction.

“Guys drink beer, place bets, watch the dogs and leave. Construction workers return on Monday to find the bloody aftermath.”

Parks Department poisoning birds of prey?

From the Brooklyn Paper:

Prospect Park’s Dog Beach, where hundreds of dogs cool off each day, has become a haven for disease-ridden rats whose bacteria-laden feces and urine could kill the canines.

The problem, health experts say, is that rats are known to be carriers for leptospitosis, a potentially fatal disease that damages the liver and kidneys of both humans and animals, and has been labeled the “most widespread [animal-transmitted] disease in the world” by the Center for Disease Control.

Pets become infected when they come in contact with bodily tissues or fluids from a diseased animal — something not that hard to do with sick rodents urinating in Dog Beach on a daily basis.

After complaints by Park Slopers this week, Parks Department workers put poisoned bait in the rats’ nests.

Won't this also kill the creatures that eat the rats, such as the hawks and owls that live in the park? Will the upcoming Prospect Park Hawk Weekend feature a demonstration on how poison can kill multiple links in the food chain? Maybe issuing a warning to owners of dogs that use the beach about the rats carrying disease would be the right thing to do instead. Or have dog beach days be the same as human beach days. (They ended yesterday.)

Blog post of the year

From Pajamas Media:

In his seven years as mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg has been the recipient of an almost uninterrupted spate of good publicity.

It’s about all his legacy will amount to, and it is not an accident. His entire political career has been designed, down to the carefully released rumors about his presidential ambition, as an experiment in governance through public relations. Barack Obama loves him, John McCain loves him, Time magazine loves him, 70% of New Yorkers loves him, and yet if I stopped writing right here to ask what, exactly, Bloomberg has ever accomplished, not many people could come up with an intelligible answer.

They might mutter something vague about “education reform” without being able to explain its manic-depressive vicissitudes, or cite any concrete evidence of its success. Crime? That’s been down since the days of Giuliani, and anyone might have been able to maintain an already successful law enforcement program.

Behind the po-faced façade of a competent but bland CEO of America’s toughest metropolis lurks a breathtakingly calculated mediocrity, a man who silences his critics with cash and is then the first to tell you just how popular he is.

Bloomberg’s reputation among the fast-vanishing middle class of New York — as an economic demographic, it accounts for a mere 20% of the city’s total population — is that of an oblivious fat cat who has turned the island of Manhattan into an overpriced playground for all his rich friends.

More from the NY Times' Clyde Haberman:

Mr. Bloomberg has minions of his own. They have floated more trial balloons than the Macy’s parade in various attempts to stave off lame-duckdom. This third-term business may be just another way to keep his name front and center as his days at City Hall wind down.

But it just could be that Mr. Bloomberg, like Mr. Giuliani, has never fully absorbed Charles de Gaulle’s admonition about indispensable men. The graveyards, de Gaulle said, are full of them.

Many CUNY students not very sharp

About 83% of students entering City University of New York community colleges last year failed placement exams and had to take remedial courses in reading, writing or math - and most graduated from city high schools, records show.

Many entering CUNY students failed placement exams last year

"It costs a lot of money," said Matt Zeidenberg, a researcher at Columbia University's Community College Research Center. "You're basically paying for the same stuff over again."

About two-thirds of students graduating from city high schools will have to take remedial courses. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told the Daily News the number has declined in recent years, but more work was needed.

"We need to raise high school graduation standards," Klein said. "I supported the elimination of the local diploma, which I think will put greater pressure on us."

Local diplomas, which are less demanding than their Regents counterparts, are slated to be phased out.

In 1999, CUNY stopped offering remedial courses at its four-year colleges. The number of first-time freshman taking remedial courses has since grown 20% to about 8,700 last year.

City bought SI site to prevent development

A city carpenter not involved with the project was overheard one recent afternoon marveling at the retaining wall under construction along Hendricks and Sherman avenues, and as he passed the site, he wondered aloud where the funds came from to have bankrolled such a "heck of a job."

The right kind of restoration

The answer to his question: Capital funds set aside following the Henry Hudson wall collapse of 2005 to repair public retaining walls supported the project, and city contractors took pride in restoring the beauty of the 19th-century stonework.

The .78-acre tract at the top of a hilltop straddling St. George and New Brighton, used as an embankment by British soldiers during the Revolutionary War, only became a park in 2003, when Councilman Michael McMahon (D-North Shore) allocated funds for the city to purchase the site from private owners, preventing its development.

Very interesting! We in Queens have been told by our councilpersons since they took office way back in 2001 that the City has no money in the budget for land acquisition to create new parks or prevent development.

The reality is that the City always comes up with money for whatever it wants to spend it on. It's time they spent it on what WE want. It pays to compare notes with other boroughs. If Staten Island could get money to save a piece of its history, then so can Queens. Let's not allow those we elect to get away with lying to us anymore.

There are now officially too many condos in NYC

In the wake of a building boom that has added thousands of condos to the New York market over the past five years, many projects are foundering as the local economy cools. Brokers report that developers in some areas of the city are struggling to sell units as consumers and lenders grow increasingly skittish. Hardest hit are developments now seen as inappropriate for their neighborhoods or those located in peripheral parts of the city that are still gentrifying.

Condo glut builds

"A lot of guys are scrambling out there," says Eric Anton, executive managing director at Eastern Consolidated, a real estate investment services firm. "A lot of them are going to lose their shirts if they don't think of something to do."

The problem is that easy solutions are few. Buyers for entire buildings are scarce—as are banks willing to finance them. Instead, many developers are targeting buyers of individual units by cutting prices or offering to pay closing costs.

A few others are taking more drastic action. Unable to sell their units, they are converting their projects to rentals—typically taking a major financial hit in the process. The owners of 99 Gold St. in Dumbo and 192 Spencer St. in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn have converted their projects, as has the owner of the Bridges NYC North on Third Avenue in Harlem.

If DUMBO and Harlem are considered "peripheral parts of the city" then LIC brokers must be wetting their pants for sure!

Term limits issue may be used to get Willets vote

THE possibility that Mayor Bloomberg will support an extension of term limits is going to provide him with a stronger hand than ever in his future dealings with the City Council.

"They'll give him anything to get term limits changed," one council insider said.

On Mike's Terms

It's a nice position for a lame-duck mayor who has important initiatives coming up for legislative approval.

Topping the list is the rezoning of Willets Point, a $3 billion project to create a gleaming minicity out of acres of dilapidated industrial and commercial space near Shea Stadium.

But 32 of 51 council members, siding with business owners who don't want to move, have warned that they won't go along without significant changes.

The buzz among the New York delegation at the Democratic convention in Denver was that there could be a trade: term limits for Willets Point.

NYC voters' problem

From the NY Times:

Without a convention, New York is likely to remain stuck in its familiar mode of being overlooked by both major parties except when it comes to raising mountains of campaign cash. Neither party sees much to gain by actively campaigning — i.e., meeting real people — in a city and state that are no more likely to go Republican this year than post-Olympics China is to go democratic, lower-case D.

So come fall, don’t expect to hear much from the presidential candidates about what they would do to solve problems specific to this or any other American city.

Typical NYC voter's routine:
Go to the polls after work (but only if your favorite primetime TV show is a rerun)
Enter booth and immediately scan for the column with the "D" at the top.
Pull levers from top to bottom in a straight line.
Exit booth.

Typical routine of NYC voter who is passionate about the issues:
Same as above, plus...
Write angry letters to newspapers about what the guy in the White House is doing while your local pols turn your neighborhood into a slum.

Look how well that attitude has served you over the years. Now no one takes your vote seriously. Especially not the people running for office. The problem is not them, stupid.

Lobbyists in LA may get tagged

WEIRD BUT TRUE from the NY Post
By DAVID K. LI, Wire Services

September 1, 2008

This would be a red badge of dishonor - a "Scarlet L."

The Ethics Commission in Los Angeles is mulling a proposal that would make political lobbyists wear badges identifying themselves each time they enter a municipal building, according to the Los Angeles Times.

LA lobbyists are outraged by the plan and have likened it to the yellow Star of David Jews were made to wear in Nazi Germany.

Garage house crap

Take a garage, convert it into a house without permission. It's really easy! Then park a car with an out-of-state plate on the lawn instead of the driveway.

This has been going on for more than a year at 57-40 Mazeau Street in Maspeth. There are people reportedly coming and going at all hours. DOB Commissioner Robert LiMandri has full knowledge of the situation and apparently doesn't care. And when you send a letter to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, you get a response along the lines of "DOB states that this structure is not in need of a C of O because it was built before a certain year."

Force the house to be vacated and restored to its original condition.

Hospital reports identity theft, gets criticized

Maria Martinez' attempt to land a cafeteria job at a suburban Dallas hospital got her arrested, jailed and deported.

She did use a counterfeit social security on her application to Trinity Medical Center, but her relatives and supporters wonder whether the hospital overreacted by calling the police.

During yet another year marked by several high profile immigration raids targeting both undocumented workers and the companies who hire them, the Martinez case raises questions about what employers can or should do if they discover an applicant is not authorized to work legally in the U.S.

Hospital chided for reporting illegal applicant

Martinez, a single mother of a 3-year-old son and a teenage daughter, acknowledged buying the social security card for $110 at a Wal-Mart., according to police records. She also had a second social security card and two counterfeit cards stating she was a legal permanent resident.

She had planned to fight the state charge, but after being held in jail for nearly three weeks, she agreed to be deported to Mexico. Her son joined her there.

"She told me to please forgive her," said Martinez' 19-year-old daughter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she also is in the U.S. illegally. "She told me she wasn't strong enough to fight."

Assuming the identity of someone else would justify calling the police. But maybe that's just me being a racist, nativist, insensitive person. If you or I did it, we'd be thrown in jail for ruining someone else's life forever. Deportation may actually be too lenient an option.

Rooftop houses cute or crap?

EIGHT stories above Broadway, on the southeast corner of 97th Street, construction is near completion on three little houses that sit atop a turn-of-the-century apartment building.

Tan in color, they have jaunty oval windows and tiny gabled roofs. On a recent morning, workers in hard hats scurried about porches resembling those in a community of hillside tract houses.

Little Boxes, Far From the Hillside

Doron Rice, an architect who was holding a large pair of barbells, peered out the window. “You want my opinion?” he said, “It’s out of context. It’s not the same materials, and it’s not the same scale. It looks like it was dropped here from somewhere in Long Island.”

But Ms. Gavilanes found the penthouses alluring. “I would get a car,” she said, “and put it out in the driveway. And then I’d add a white picket fence, and AstroTurf. Maybe have a golden retriever playing in the yard.”

The importance of yard space

Screened from all but the envious eyes of aerial neighbors, New Yorkers with backyards awaken to birdsong and the occasional rabbit and entertain by the light of tiki torches. They swim in their own pools (even if they have to inflate them first), mow minuscule plots of Kentucky bluegrass, stage rock concerts, worship in revival tents, sun-dry the laundry on clotheslines, and barbecue jerk chicken in rusted oil-barrel smokers, or sirloin steak on Ultra Premium TruSear Viking grills.

The Backyard in New York City: An Urban Oasis

Those who have them prize them, whether they are grand or humble, soft and wild with plant life or hard and flat with concrete. Now, as the evening hours convey those first hints of autumn, the season of New York backyards is coming to a close, and with it a busier summer than most for these hidden urban rectangles, plenty of New Yorkers having forgone distant vacations because of high gas and travel costs, and simply opening the back door instead.

I thought maximizing your FAR and building out to the lot line was more important than having yard space. I guess only if you own it but don't actually live there.

Chapter in history of historic preservation

The idea of giving preservation legal weight was evolving in the late 1950s. In 1956, the State Legislature passed the Bard Law, which allowed municipalities to designate landmarks and historic districts. But it was not until 1965 that Mayor Robert F. Wagner established the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

‘Moonstruck’ House Sells, Recalling Fight for Preservation

“The landscape of the city was quickly changing, and whole swaths of neighborhoods were being destroyed, due largely to plans put forth by public works commissioner Robert Moses,” said Kate Fermoile, the vice president for exhibits and education at the Brooklyn Historical Society. “One of these plans was the Cadman Plaza urban renewal project, a large-scale civic center that meant the destruction of houses in Brooklyn Heights. In response to the mounting threat, this amazing grass-roots effort began.”

The Historic Preservation Committee’s goal was to win legal preservation status for the neighborhood while trying to defend the area from redevelopment.

College Point's past converted to crap

By most estimates, the house was built in the 1850s, and it belonged to a man named Hermann Schleicher.

In the late 19th century, the house became a resort that advertised “light and airy sleeping rooms” and “a good assortment of choice wines and liquors for medicinal purposes.”

It’s not easy to imagine that past today. The three-story house is now a seven-unit apartment building that tenants had to vacate this summer after the city’s Department of Buildings deemed its antiquated electrical system a fire hazard. Several other housing code violations have been filed against the owner, and according to some residents, the interior is in disrepair.

A Manse With a Past

In the 19th century, mansions that were home to wealthy German industrialists lined College Point’s northern tip. But only a handful of these structures remain today, replaced mostly by housing developments.

On one recent afternoon, a College Point preservationist and resident named Susan Brustmann talked about what the neighborhood has lost as she walked through the pale green hallways of the Poppenhusen Institute, a community center that occupies one of the area’s surviving Victorian buildings.

Ms. Brustmann is the institute’s executive director, and as she strolled the hallways, she pointed to photographs of long-gone mansions on the walls.

“That’s gone, that’s gone, that’s gone,” she said. “All replaced by brick boxes.”

Bloomberg desperately wants a legacy. He certainly has one in Queens.

Con Ed's roof goes green

Con Ed’s 10,000-square-foot green roof, which was installed in July and is the first at one of its buildings, is more advanced than most projects. The company spent $200,000 to install 1,350 trays filled with 21,000 plants, including 15 varieties of sedum. The plants, which were cultivated at a nursery in Connecticut, sit in a mixture of volcanic rock, sandstone and other light stone capable of absorbing water.

Green Roofs Offer More Than Color for the Skyline

The bottoms of the trays look like egg cartons; they allow a small amount of water to pool beneath the plants. The trays can easily be moved to provide access to the roof if there are leaks that have to be plugged. Con Ed chose sedum not only because it can absorb rainwater quickly, but also because it is not indigenous to New York, making it unlikely to attract potential pests. The plants also require very little maintenance.

Con Ed has teamed up with Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research to evaluate the benefits, using rooftop sensors to measure the temperature, wind and water runoff. Con Edison said it hoped to use the findings to encourage customers to install green roofs themselves.

David Westman, the resource conservation coordinator at Con Edison, said, “It’s not only the right thing to do, but it can make economic sense.”

Tattooed bikers protecting city's animals

The first stop was Elmhurst, Queens, where a caller had reported that five pit bulls were caged in the back of a used-car lot.

Heaven’s Angels

The used-car lot around the corner at 76th Road and Queens Boulevard was the place they had come to investigate. The men approached from the back, across a sidewalk that was under construction. The workers stopped their jackhammers and stared as a half-dozen tattooed men followed a nervous woman wearing a floral blouse.

Several of the men climbed up a stack of concrete slabs to peer over a wall into the lot. In a large enclosure behind a chain-link fence, four pit bulls stared back at them, tails wagging, coats sleek and mouths wide open, like smiling crocodiles. As it turned out, they were not confined and in fact had ample space.

Lazy squirrel's Labor Day

In search of food on a midsummer's afternoon.

Perhaps there's some up this tree.

He decides to just take the bus to the supermarket instead.