Elmhurst tire slasher arrested

From the Queens Chronicle:

After allegedly slashing the tires of more than eight cars parked in front of his home, Yonathan Lim was escorted out in handcuffs Friday, after angry neighbors urged the police to investigate slashings which they said were too routine to be random.

According to Lim’s neighbor, Bill Weydig, when police finally looked through their records, they discovered slashings had taken place for almost a year on the quiet residential block of Van Loon Street in Elmhurst.

However, it was only after Weydig’s tenant, Margarita Guilarte, who had her tires slashed twice, took Weydig’s security camera footage to police that Lim was apprehended. “She just sat there and refused to leave until they did something,” Weydig said.

Dai-Rong Zheng of Middle Village said his wife, Maiko Morito-Zheng fell victim to the slasher’s rage several weeks ago, but he thought police would not follow up on the incident.

Morito-Zheng waited for several hours for police to arrive to take her report and when they came, Zheng said they didn’t seem to take the incident seriously. “I was doubting anything would happen, because normally they just put these things aside, and I was trying to tell my wife to forget about it, that this is how things are in New York. When I got the call saying they caught him, I apologized to her,” he said.

Storage facility will replace stalled condo project

CM Ulrich and DEP Announce Plan to Develop Abandoned Rockaway Construction Site
Storage Facility Will Replace Stalled Condo Project

Council Member Eric A. Ulrich (R-Queens) joined city Department of Environmental Protection officials and Community Board 14 District Manager Jonathan Gaska on Friday to announce plans to build a storage facility on property at Beach 106th Street and Beach Channel Drive that is currently the site of an abandoned construction project.

Under the $2 million plan, the city will demolish the partially-built structures before leveling the land for construction of two storage buildings. The new facility will used by the DEP to store spare parts and equipment for the adjacent Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant and will have minimal impact on the surrounding community. Demolition work is expected to be finished by the end of the summer, and the new storage buildings should be ready by the end of the year.

Ulrich said, “I’m pleased to stand here in Rockaway alongside the DEP and CB 14 to announce this project. This property has long been a source of complaints and frustration for my constituents. It is unsafe, unsightly and a community eyesore that is an impediment to the overall revitalization of the Rockaway Peninsula.”

DEP Commissioner Cas Holloway said, “Today’s announcement is another example of DEP’s efforts to be a good neighbor to the Rockaway community. This half-finished condominium complex has become a blemish on the community and its removal is finally at hand. After the project was halted a few years back, the city stepped in to ensure that the eyesore sitting right next to the Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant would not remain forever.”

Gaska said, “We’re very pleased this project is coming to its conclusion. It had become an attractive nuisance and we were afraid someone was going to get hurt, or worse. This new site will be 180 degree turnaround from its current condition. It shows that government can get together and do good things for the community.”

Vincent Sapienza, Deputy Commissioner for Bureau of Wastewater Treatment, said, “We’re excited to finally have this project move forward, as the property has been an eyesore for the community for years now. Since it is adjacent to the treatment plant, the DEP saw it as a good opportunity to use it for a beneficial purpose. It took a little while to get going, but it is now moving forward thanks to the leadership of the Community Board and Council Member Ulrich. Without their prodding, we wouldn’t have gotten funding for this project. As soon as Commissioner Holloway visited the site, this project became a priority for the department.”

The city took ownership of the property through condemnation proceedings in 2008 and immediately began to improve the perimeter sidewalk and fencing to make it safer. At the request of Council Member Ulrich, the project will include wider sidewalks and plantings. Demolition work was delayed one month in order to not interfere with nearby Scholars’ Academy High School.

Added Ulrich: “I can’t tell you how grateful I am that this project is beginning. This eyesore brings down property values in the community, it’s not safe, and something had to be done about it. In this instance our voices are being heard and we are able to resolve this issue for the Rockaway community.”

Attached Photos: Matthew Mahoney, Associate Commissioner for the Bureau of Communications and Intergovernmental Affairs, Vincent Sapienza, Deputy Commissioner for the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment, Council Member Eric Ulrich and CB 14 District Manger Jonathan Gaska unveil plans for the new storage facility at Friday’s press conference. Also included are photos of the property in its current state and renderings of the planned facility.

DWI holiday weekend

From the Daily News:

Two men were in critical condition after a horrific wrong-way crash early Monday on the Long Island Expressway in Queens, police said.

Both vehicles exploded into flames following the 6 a.m. crash, when a silver Mercedes-Benz driven in the wrong direction by a hammered 30-year-old man slammed into an airport shuttle near the Utopia Parkway exit, police said.

The Bronx man had a sky-high blood-alcohol level of 1.9 - more than twice the legal limit, police sources said.

The driver, whose name has not been made public, was charged with driving while intoxicated, reckless endangerment and driving with a suspended license.

The Super Shuttle van, with a 64-year-old Long Island man at the wheel, carried no passengers.

Both drivers were pulled from the flaming wreckage and taken to New York Hospital Queens in Flushing with life-threatening injuries.

The crash closed eastbound lanes of the LIE in the area for hours.

From the NY Post:

The holiday-weekend horror unfolded on Corona Avenue in Elmhurst just before 7:30 p.m. when the two friends, 47 and 22, were removing items from their minivan.

"All of a sudden, this blue van came out of nowhere and it looked like he tried to swerve and he hit the two ladies," said Danny Rodriguez, 21. "They flew high in the air, at least seven feet."

The van's driver did not stop right away, Rodriguez said.

"It looked like he tried to park the car 100 feet away, but then he kept driving down Corona."

Several bystanders chased after the van to get him to stop, the witness said.

The 49-year-old driver was expected to be charged with driving while intoxicated and vehicular assault, the sources said.

The two women were rushed to Elmhurst Hospital in extremely critical condition.

A guy was shot in the head and killed in Howard Beach, too.

Night delivery works!

From Crains:

It seemed like a no-brainer: Trucks in Manhattan could save money and time if they delivered their goods at night. But it took a one-month pilot program and thousands of dollars in incentives to get companies to change their habits.

Now that the program is over and the results show savings for companies making and receiving deliveries, some of those businesses are continuing their newfound ways. Transportation officials hope their enthusiasm will encourage other businesses to follow suit.

The city’s Department of Transportation said each truck in a pilot program that operated between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. saved about $1,000 in parking fines alone, and saw its average delivery route time drop by 48 minutes. About eight delivery companies participated. Small companies were paid $300 per participating truck and large trucking companies received a single grant of $3,000 to compensate them for having to make changes in their delivery schedule.

The pilot program, billed by transportation officials as the first of its kind to study off-peak deliveries, and funded in part with $1.2 million in federal money, ended in January. Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said the city would not pursue a ban of daytime deliveries into Manhattan but might change its policies to make certain curbside deliveries off-limits until the evening.

“We’re trying to make it more efficient for people to do business in the City of New York,” Ms. Sadik-Khan said.

Twenty-five businesses agreed to receive goods at night, among them Whole Foods, Foot Locker and a handful of restaurants. Those businesses each received $2,000 to help cover overtime and other costs.

There may yet be a 10th Ave 7 train station

From the NY Post:

The once-doomed 7-line subway stop at 42nd St. and 10th Ave. may be back from the dead — as long as the city and MTA can cough up $550 million.

Initially canceled because the city couldn’t afford it, engineers decided that the station could be redesigned in a way that wouldn’t increase the cost of the rest of the project and wouldn’t interrupt the train’s eventual route to the Javits Center at 34th St. and 11th Ave.

But city and MTA officials admit they’re not sure where the funds will come from.

"We need engineers to confirm that it’s viable, but we’re confident we’ve found a way to keep the prospect of a future Tenth Avenue station alive without delaying the current extension," Mayor Bloomberg said.

"The City is in no position to step in and pay for a Tenth Avenue station too, but it will be good news if we can finish the current extension without closing off the possibility of it happening in the future."

Instead of building one massive station where riders could enter the southbound or eastbound directions from any entrance, the new design would have two exclusive entrances for each direction.

Even if it’s built, the station wouldn’t be ready by the original December 2013 roll-out date.

The new design would allow workers to build the two, smaller stations without having to stop the 7 line’s new route to the west side of Manhattan.

The city will try to nab $3 million in federal funds to study the station idea and make sure it’s possible.

Scammers target heating program

From the NY Post:

Thousands of coldhearted New Yorkers used the names of dead people to scam the federal government last year out of millions of dollars in funds earmarked to help poor people with their heat and energy bills, according to a new study.

Using stolen Social Security numbers -- or the names of dearly departed friends and family -- nearly 7,400 New Yorkers wrote the names of dead people on applications requesting help from the US Department of Health and Human Services through its popular Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

The grave oversight helped swindlers across the state steal nearly $2 million from the federal program, far more than crooks in the same category in any other state.

At least 1,300 people in New Jersey pulled the same ghoulish gimmick, stealing nearly $500,000 from the program by claiming benefits in the name of the dead.

The federal Government Accountability Office made the discovery recently after an audit in Pennsylvania revealed a similar scam involving the Social Security numbers of dead people registered for heating grants.

The GAO investigated New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, Virginia, Ohio and Illinois, which represented about one-third of the program's funding in 2009.

Investigators found a system rife with abuse and shabby oversight, with applications that included the names of prison inmates and well-heeled mansion dwellers, who could easily afford to heat their homes.

Budgetary winners and losers

From Gotham Gazette:

When it comes to bringing home the bacon, some City Council members do a lot better than others.

According to an analysis by Gotham Gazette, Councilmember and Finance Committee chair Domenic Recchia sponsored more individual member items than any other council member in this year's budget (more on its approval here). Recchia raked in nearly $1.3 million for nonprofits of his choice.

Recchia was one of four members -- Lewis Fidler, Leroy Comrie and James Oddo are the others -- who topped the million-dollar mark in member items, often referred to as council pork.

At the other end of the spectrum, Elizabeth Crowley garnered the least amount of money with $358,321, falling behind recently indicted Larry Seabrook, who had $362,276. Vincent Gentile, Gale Brewer, Margaret Chin and Helen Foster also got less than $400,000

Crowley's pot supposedly got chopped because she pissed off her royal highness, Christine Quinn.

Hiram wants to see Karla

From the Daily News:

Ousted lawmaker Hiram Monserrate wants a judge to lift an order of protection and let him see the girlfriend he was convicted of roughing up two years ago.

The disgraced senator will be in a Queens courtroom Tuesday to tell Justice William Erlbaum he shouldn't be banned from getting close to Karla Giraldo.

Last year, Erlbaum found Monserrate guilty of misdemeanor assault but spared the former cop a more serious felony conviction in an alleged slashing attack on Giraldo.

Queens prosecutors say Monserrate shouldn't be near Giraldo - who testified in court that Monserrate didn't deliberately hurt her.

Padavan a party pooper

From the Daily News:

ALBANY - It's a buzz kill.

A Queens state senator is moving to stop "modern-day moonshines" by banning booze with an alcohol content over 160 proof.

Republican Frank Padavan's bill is in response to a Daily News story on the State Liquor Authority's recent approval of four brands of 192-proof booze, which are 96% alcohol.

The liquor authority said it approved the products after deeming they were not "false, misleading or deceptive to consumers."

There are no state laws on the books limiting alcohol content in booze.

Mall at Caldor site delayed

From the Queens Chronicle:

Flushing shoppers will have to wait a little longer for the opening of the New World Mall at the old Caldor site in Flushing. Plans now call for it to open in October, a month later than expected.

The 165,000-square-foot building, at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street, has been closed since Caldor went out of business 11 years ago. It previously was the location of Alexander’s and prior to that, S. Klein department store.

One of the developers is Sam Chang of McSam Hotels, LLC. on Long Island. According to a spokeswoman, Helen Suen, the three-level store will be converted into shops for nationally known retailers such as the Gap and Cohen’s Optical on the first level, a supermarket on the second floor and an Asian food court on the third.

The developers are in negotiations with other potential retailers they will not yet name. But Suen said the food court will include several eateries featuring Korean, Chinese and Japanese cuisine. The original plan had called for just one restaurant.

The location includes 350 underground parking spots and there will be valets used when the mall opens. Although Flushing officials are happy the vacant store will be used again, they are concerned about how the new mall will affect traffic in an already congested area.

Gene Kelty, chairman of Community Board 7, noted that corner of Main and Roosevelt is particularly busy and that the Department of Transportation is beginning a six-month traffic redirection pilot program in the area beginning in mid-July.

Parks Dept makes its own parking rules

"Hello, this is a picture taken July 2, approx. 2 pm in front of Rite Aid in Flushing on 193rd St. and Northern Blvd. It is a Parks Department car, blatantly parking in front of the hydrant. This was done for pure convenience, as there is no park for more than 12 blocks. Completely unacceptable." - anonymous

Happy Independence Day from Queens Crap!

The artist's largest flag painting should be finished today. Click here for video.

New York's first Independence Day celebration was actually 5 days late.

Parks are important!

According to an Adrian Benepe interview on NY1, the Parks Dept has not lost funding, and they are not going to stop building new parks just because there is a recession. They've learned the mistakes of the past and will not repeat them. Parks are a necessity, not a luxury, says Mr. Benepe.

But that apparently only applies to certain neighborhoods and not others, as we have witnessed.

Catching them red-handed

From Forbes:

At 3:15 in the morning, Jamie Powers and Kevin Thomas, environmental conservation officers for New York state, ease their 31-foot boat into the inky waters of Jamaica Bay, which bisects the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The city's lights project ethereally across the starry, cloudless sky. There isn't a hint of wind in the air. "Can't ask for a better night," says Powers. "They'll be out there I bet."

"Out there" is Breezy Point, the westernmost part of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens, a fish-rich stretch of water that's the unofficial separation of the Atlantic from the harbor of New York. "They" are the poachers who haunt those waters, men who catch more than the legal limit of fish--striped bass, sea bass, fluke and blackfish (tautog)--then sell them on the black market.

The illegal fish eventually end up in Chinatown, the Fulton Fish Market, various city mom-and-pop seafood stores and even on the plates of high-end Manhattan restaurants. Worse still, some of those fish are full of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which at worst, cause cancer and at best wreck humans' immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.

The lobster rig, owned by Louis Benitto, the man at the helm, docks in a marina in Brooklyn's Gerritsen Creek. As the boats pull up to the dock, an Asian man wearing a yellow-and-white rain coat crouches on a knoll, staring out at the boats. "That's the buyer," says Thomas. The DEC officers know him only as Sammy. He's the conduit to the legitimate and illegitimate markets, Thomas believes. If Sammy is surprised to see the police boat, he hides it well--he doesn't move a muscle. Perhaps he knows that Powers and Thomas have nothing on him this morning. Sammy can just claim he was there to buy the 24 legal fish.

Stars and Stripes forever?

When is a flag mural considered to be graffiti? When it's in California on state land, and after it's been there for 8 1/2 years.

Hey who knew this song had words?

THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER
(MUSIC BY JOHN PHILIP SOUSA, 1896
LYRICS BY JOHN PHILIP SOUSA, 1898)

Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom's shield and hope.

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

Let eagle shriek from lofty peak
The never-ending watchword of our land;
Let summer breeze waft through the trees
The echo of the chorus grand.
Sing out for liberty and light,
Sing out for freedom and the right.
Sing out for Union and its might,
O patriotic sons.

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation,
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free.
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with might endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

Visiting the Candela Structures

From Urban Omnibus:

The structures are minimal surfaces, a topic that Candela researched extensively. But beyond looking like they might have been designed by him (though they weren’t), we never found any solid connection. They were, in fact, designed by Peter Schladermundt, an architect and industrial designer, and were made of prefab panels — a sandwich construction of fiberglass reinforced resin surrounding a 2-inch foam core — that snap together. As far as I was able to determine, they are the oldest standing fiberglass structures in the city.

Despite that, I know these structures aren’t central to the history of architecture or the history of New York (and they don’t even appear to have made the cut for the new AIA Guide—drat), but I love them nonetheless. They’re so unexpected, so unlike anything else in New York City, and so utterly charming. They’re not pretentious, they just stand guard by the bay, watching the sailboats come and go, the planes take off and land at LaGuardia, and the cars drive by. They were there long before I arrived in New York in 1993, waiting to be discovered. How many other pieces of New York history are hiding in plain sight, with stories to tell? Architecture is just another kind of storytelling, and stories are what make a space into a place and connect all the disparate pieces of the metropolis.

Historic seawall uncovered at WTC

From DNA Info:

Workers rebuilding the World Trade Center have just uncovered a historic wall that once separated the streets of lower Manhattan from the Hudson River.

The dusty granite blocks are part of Manhattan’s first seawall, which was built more than 100 years ago to allow ships to pull up to the edge of Manhattan to do business.

“It’s just really cool to uncover history,” said Clarelle DeGraffe, 48, senior program manager with the Port Authority. “It’s so well-preserved — it’s a beautiful sight.”

The wall is part of a much larger bulkhead that runs from the Battery up to 59th Street, a massive engineering project begun shortly after the Civil War that took more than 60 years to complete.

While sections of the historic wall have always been visible above Chambers Street, this piece along West Street between Liberty and Vesey streets has been hidden for decades by the landfill on which Battery Park City was built. So far, the Port Authority has exposed a section of granite blocks 19 feet long and 8 feet tall.

But the bulkhead won’t be visible for long — the Port Authority plans to demolish an 80-foot-long section of it to make way for an underground passage that will take people from the World Trade Center into Battery Park City as soon as December 2012.

Before the wall can come down, archaeologists and the State Historic Preservation Office have to finish photographing and studying it.

As workers keep digging, they expect the granite to go down another 20 feet or so, and then beneath that they should find wooden piles that go all the way down to bedrock.

Nothing says "America" like a good old-fashioned protest

"Photos of June 23rd's Flushing Commons protest on the steps of City Hall. The City Planning Commission voted in favor of the project that day.


Paul Graziano, Jim Gerson, Richard Lipsky and Tony Avella.



The Flushing Coalition for Responsible Development.



TDC's Michael Meyer was spotted hiding behind a column.

So he whipped out his phone and took my photo."

Chemistry Lounge shut down

From the Leader-Observer:

Clientele of Chemistry Lounge in Ozone Park will have to look elsewhere to party and dance. The club has closed its doors.

After a hearing held on June 24 before Supreme Court Justice Orin Kitzes, the owners of the club and the police department reportedly entered into a stipulation whereby Chemistry agreed to close and turn the lease back over to the landlord. As of press time, the exact details of the stipulation have not been made public.

Reportedly, the landlord is now looking to rent the premises at 98-07 Liberty Avenue to a restaurant or restaurant chain such as Applebee’s.

Chemistry Lounge was originally padlocked on June 8 by officers of the 106th Precinct under the direction of Special Operations Lieutenant Joseph Salvato for violent episodes and allegedly violating state liquor laws, according to a police spokesman.

The authorities, who had taken action under the city’s nuisance abatement laws, alleged that employees of the nightclub sold liquor to minors three times during the past year. In addition, police said that last year there were reports of fights, a shooting, stabbing, assault and a robbery at the location.

Do as we say, not as we do

From 1010WINS:

New York City officials have spent tens of thousands of dollars on car services this year, despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg's public embrace of mass transit, according to a new online database that tracks and posts city expenditures hours after they are processed.

The database, called Checkbook NYC, has been under construction for several months and was unveiled Thursday. Officials said it shows 99 percent of all the money the city spends -- more than $35 billion since Jan. 1.

Among the expenditures are more than $10,000 in car service charges among the mayor's own budget staff, more than $66,000 by law department officials and more than $11,000 racked up by City Council staffers.

Bloomberg has ... for years said the city's mass transit is the best in the world, and urges more people to use it.

Why didn't they all just hop on their bicycles to get home?

Tickets for parking in defunct bus stops

MYFOXNY.COM - Getting a parking ticket always stings. But getting one you're convinced is unjust will make you mad.

New Yorker Cliff Schuster is angry because he got a ticket for parking at his old bus stop in Queens. But the thing is that an MTA notice clearly states that the location is no longer a bus stop. The MTA eliminated the Q75 during its recent budget cuts.

Dozens of others in the neighborhood who also got tickets for parking in a bus stop that is clearly not a bus stop anymore.

The MTA said it is an NYPD and Department of Transportation issue. The NYPD said that as long as the original bus stop sign is standing, it is illegal to park there despite the MTA notice. But the police department did add that it "is instructing its traffic enforcement agents not to issue summonses to vehicles parked in bus stops where MTA signs indicate they are no longer being used as such."

Cops watching scammers in Jamaica

MYFOXNY.COM - A Fox 5 Shame, Shame, Shame investigative report in early June brought the heat down on the operators of a brazenly illegal parking space scheme: Metered spots near a Queens courthouse that should cost a few quarters per hour were being sold for as much as $20.

The scam involved workers at a private parking lot across from the Queens County Supreme Court on Sutphin Boulevard, where parking costs up to $27 a day.

Park seawall crumbling

From the Queens Gazette:

Lawmakers in Western Queens have sent out an SOS to Mayor Michael Bloomberg urging immediate action to repair a 200-foot section of the Queens seawall overlooking the East River in Queensbridge Park in Astoria.

The wall has completely failed an expert warned, and is concerned about further deterioration along the waterfront near Queensbridge Houses, the city’s largest public housing development.

For safety reasons, the public officials added, the city Parks Department fenced off the damaged area around the seawall, blocking out local residents’ access to the waterfront.

In addition, cathodic devices under the seawall that are critical to the safe operation of the New York subway is endangered by the seawall’s deterioration.

Making the plea to the mayor were Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, state Senator George Onorato, Assemblymembers Michael Gianaris and Catherine Nolan and Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer. They were joined by Borough President Helen Marshall.

Years ago, Maloney and Nolan secured significant funding to help repair the seawall, but at the time the Parks Department rejected the funding saying the city could more quickly make the repairs if the work was done as mitigation for city projects that have impacted area waterways.

However, the lawmakers’ statement went on, many years have passed since the Parks Department rejected the funds, which were then diverted to other projects, and no work has been done on the seawall.

I have an idea. Let's wait until it collapses and kills a child playing in the park, then we can not only pay for emergency repairs, but also a multi-million dollar lawsuit.

Judge issues injunction; New law passed

From A Walk in the Park:

Brooklyn Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Requiring City to Comply with Law Re: Amplified Sound In Asser Levy Park

(June 30, 2010 - Brooklyn) Today the Honorable Kenneth P. Sherman of Brooklyn Supreme Court issued a preliminary injunction requiring the City and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz to comply with the 500 foot rule regarding amplified sound.

The court order states: "It is hereby ordered that the preliminary injunction is granted to the extent that defendants are required to comply with the provision of Title 10, Chapter 1, Section 108 (g) of the New York City Administrative Code until such provisions are amended and become effective as a matter of law."

Last night the City Council passed a bill which would exclude Asser Levy/Seaside Park from the law. The bill to change the law was hastily introduced by Queens Council Member Peter Vallone last week at the request of Mayor Bloomberg. At today's court hearing a representative from the City stated the Mayor was expected to sign the bill on July 12, 2010. The first Seaside Summer Concert is scheduled for July 15.

The fast-tracked bill comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed on June 17 to enforce a long-time law prohibiting amplified sound within 500 feet of houses of worship, schools, hospitals, and courthouses. The amendment is a clear end-run around the existing law.

Background:

A lawsuit was filed on June 17, in Brooklyn Supreme Court seeking to prevent the City of New York and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz from violating the NYC Law. Mr. Markowitz sponsors an annual concert series in Asser Levy/Seaside Park, in Brighton Beach Brooklyn.

Currently the law forbids amplified concerts within 500 feet of a house of worship, schools, hospitals, and courthouses. But Mayor Bloomberg and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz want to build a $64 million, eight thousand seat amphitheater in Asser Levy/Seaside Park, right across the street from Sea Breeze Jewish Center and Temple Beth Abraham. In violation of the law, these concerts have coincided with the hours of worship of Plaintiff Congregation Sea Breeze Jewish Center and with the hours of worship of Plaintiff Congregation Temple Beth Abraham. The two synagogues are approx. 300 feet away.

The suit is brought against defendants the City of New York and Brooklyn Borough President, Martin Markowitz, with regard to the violation of Title 10, Chapter 1, Section 10-108 (g) of the New York City Administrative Code, and Title 38, Chapter 8, Section 8-06 of the Rules and Regulations of the City of New York (together, the “Code”), which prohibit the use of electronic sound amplification equipment at any location within 500 feet of houses of worship during hours of worship. Plaintiffs are directly and adversely affected by the Defendants’ annual operation of the Parks Department band shell in Asser Levy Park, which comes within 500 feet of Plaintiffs’ houses of worship, as a concert and event venue using electronic sound amplification equipment.

Electronic sound amplification equipment is used during the concerts in addition to sound-checks and rehearsals.

Crap piled high in Brooklyn

Yep, it's a Scarano!

Weiner to wed next weekend

From the Washington Post:

...first up: a celebration of the upcoming marriage of Rep. Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin, Hillary's longtime personal aide.

The Clintons hosted a garden party Wednesday night at their Embassy Row home with more than 300 people, a sumptuous buffet of Mideastern food and a sign with the couple's wedding date, "7-10-10," near the pool.

"I have one daughter," said the former president, pulling Chelsea into a hug. "But if I had a second daughter, it would Huma."

The striking brunette, 34, has been working as Hillary's right hand since 1996, and at her side through the Senate and presidential campaigns and move to the State Department last year. Abedin quietly started dating Weiner, 45, two years ago, and they announced their engagement last summer.

It was "love at first sight" for Weiner, Hillary told the crowd Wednesday. The Clintons encouraged the match between the Muslim beauty who grew up in Saudi Arabia and the Jewish Democrat from New York City. The couple represents, Bill said in his toast, what he wants "the future of the world to be."

Court slaps BloomKlein

From the NY Times:

A state appellate court ruled unanimously Thursday that the city must keep open the 19 schools it moved to close for poor performance, upholding a March ruling from a lower court.

The decision (see below) is a blow to one of the Bloomberg administration’s major efforts to turn around the city school system by shutting down schools it deems failing. Now, the city will be forced to place new students in those schools, although some have fewer than a dozen freshmen expected to enter.

The court, the Appellate Division, First Department, found that the city’s Education Department did not comply with the 2009 state law on mayoral control of the city schools in that it failed to indicate the ramifications of the school closings.

Instead, the court wrote in its opinion, the city’s educational impact statement “merely indicates the number of school seats that will be eliminated as a result of the proposed phaseout and states that the seats will be recovered through the phase-in of other new schools or through available seats in existing schools.”

The city failed to meet its obligation, the court wrote, “by providing nothing more than boilerplate information about seat availability.” The court wrote that education officials abused the discretion allowed by law by “limiting the information they provided to the obvious.” The decision concludes by noting that the court disagrees with the city’s contention that the violations were “so insignificant as to be totally inconsequential.”

The ruling represents a major victory for the city’s teachers union, which, along with the New York chapter of the NAACP, sued the city.

From the Daily News:

"There's a whole bunch of kids that at least for one year will get a terrible education that ... they'll probably never recover from," Mayor Bloomberg told reporters.

To match the terrible mayor and schools chancellor that the city will probably never recover from.

Bloomberg delusional about illegals

From Capital:

"We desperately need more immigrants in this country if we're going to work our way out of this recession," Bloomberg said. "Those that say immigrants hurt the economy just don't understand. I had my physical last week and the doctors—one came from Nigeria, one came from Senegal, one came from Singapore, one came from, I think, Bangladesh." (He did not elaborate on why there were four.)

"We have to do something about immigration. And yes, we should be in control of our own borders, yes, the law should be obeyed," Bloomberg said. "But the bottom line is all of us were part of the 12 million undocumented here, getting them here, we all chose to pass a law and then deliberately not enforce it, because that's the politically correct thing to do."

He countered the points usually used by opponents of immigration.

"In New York City we have some maybe 500,000 undocumented. Most of them pay taxes," he said. "They have a low crime rate because they don't want to go near the I.N.S. They don't use the schools because they tend not to bring their families."

He added, "They don't use our hospitals very much because most people use three-quarters of their medical care in the last three years of their life, and these tend to be young people."

God help us. He really believes this? How about national security?

Court upholds landmark designation of altered buildings

From the NY Times:

The New York Appellate Court on Thursday unanimously upheld the landmark status of the City and Suburban First Avenue Estates on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. In 2006, the two tan-brick apartment houses were designated a landmark, even though the owners had reclad them in reddish-pink stucco, drastically changing their appearance.

“The two buildings clearly have a historical significance that justifies their designation as landmarks,” the court said in its decision.

What happened to the "historic fabric being too altered" to be designated? Oh, wait, this is on the Upper East Side. Different set of rules. My bad.

Bloomberg broke his MTA promises

From the Daily News:

Perhaps you can use the extra time on your commute to think about how Mayor Bloomberg promised you free crosstown buses last summer.

It was the splashiest part of his 34-point transit plan: He said most riders on the M50 and other crosstown routes use free transfers off another bus or subway, so charging them was a waste of time.

"The lost revenue is trivial," he said. "We've done the survey."

The mayor promised more: The F train would start running express on unused tracks again. Three closed LIRR stations in Queens would reopen. Staten Island would get a train line on the North Shore.

A year later, none of that has come true. The MTA doesn't have enough money to keep all its trains and buses running, much less expand them or let people ride them for free.

One insider says Bloomberg's city staff never thought free buses could work, even as the campaign staff ran with it.

"That was the laugher," he said. "He had to know it was a joke. Nice campaign fodder, though."

The big things take money, however - money the city and the MTA don't have.

When a Staten Islander asked Bloomberg a few weeks ago if he could help with the bus cuts, the mayor brushed him off and said his hands were tied.

"You are getting the short end of the stick, and you should be out there screaming," Bloomberg said. "I don't know what else to tell you."

Bill tackles gang problem

From the Queens Courier:

The New York State Legislature hopes to end gang activity with the help of newly passed anti-gang legislation.

“They are a constant and serious threat to the quality of life in our communities and the safety our children and families,” said State Senator Frank Padavan, who serves the neighborhoods in Northeast Queens like Flushing, Whitestone and Bayside. “This legislation addresses the problem of gang activity at the root with prevention and increased criminal penalties for gang-related activity.”

The State Senate and the Assembly passed the bill on Thursday, June 24, designed to curb gang violence across the state by creating a “gang assessment, intervention, prevention and suppression program” in New York.

The measure would give state law enforcement authorities and local prosecutors a statewide tool to investigate, prosecute and prevent gang activity.

The gang program would allow the New York State Police Superintendent to work with local and federal law enforcement to develop a plan to suppress gang activity and create a centralized location where information relating to gangs operating in the state will be kept.

“It is clear that we have a gang problem in New York State,” said Assemblymember Jeffrion L. Aubry, who serves the neighborhoods of Corona, Corona Heights and East Elmhurst, “particularly in Queens, especially along Roosevelt Avenue.”

It would also authorize the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) Commissioner to award grants to district attorneys to help stop gang activity. As well as require the forfeiture of financial gains from criminal gang activities be placed in a fund.

“It’s about time,” said Arnaldo A. Salinas, senior director of the Guardian Angels, a non-profit volunteer organization that provides public safety and education programs. “They are a day late and a dollar short. Gangs have been a problem for a long time.”

Salinas pointed out that in Queens, the members of the gangs that try to rule streets are from Latin American countries like Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. He said his main concern is that gangs like the Latin Kings, Los Trinitarios and MS-13 recruit young kids to do their dirty work. That’s why he thinks that it is important for parents to get involved.

It probably won't be the last...

From the Queens Gazette:

Residents and pianists of Astoria were greeted with a disturbing sight on Saturday, June 26 at Athens Square Park upon the discovery that one of the pianos placed last week by the organization Sing For Hope had been completely destroyed.

“It’s an unfortunate event,” Sing For Hope’s Chris Herbert said. “The piano was removed, however, we hope to be able to bring a replacement to Athens Square Park soon.”

On June 21, the pianos were installed in sixty locations across the five boroughs of New York City. Presented by the nonprofit organization Sing For Hope, the program called, “Play Me, I’m Yours” allows New Yorkers from all walks of life and visitors from around the globe to engage in making music right on the city’s streets. In Western and Central Queens, six pianos were placed in neighborhoods with large and multi-cultural populations. The locations include Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, Athens Square Park in Astoria, Rufus King Park in Jamaica, Hoffman Playground in Elmhurst and on 37th Avenue in front of the Jackson Heights Post Office.

The badly vandalized piano at Athens Square Park, 30th Street and 30th Avenue, had all of its keys and part of its inner gears removed.

Ozone Park slaughterhouse's multimillion dollar expansion

From the Daily News:

A father-and-son business is on track to become Queens' third federally approved slaughterhouse, once the $5 million Ozone Park facility is completed next month.

Madani Halal is waiting for one last piece of custom-built equipment to arrive to cap a five-year expansion project that transformed a neighboring auto-body shop into a state-of-the-art halal slaughterhouse.

The new facility will allow the business to tap into the growing demand for halal products, owners said.

His customers choose from exotic chickens and ducks, along with uncommon birds like guinea hens, partridges and squab raised in Pennsylvania. Imran Uddin said they are free of hormones. The animals are killed humanely on the premises, following Muslim law, and drained of blood.

Halal is "an ancient tradition. However, it's new here - especially in New York City," the younger Uddin said. "Most people associate it with the food carts they see all over the city."

There are about 200 slaughterhouses in New York City, but only seven are federally inspected. Seven more, not including Madani, have applied for USDA approval this year, federal agriculture officials said.

Spies like us!

From Gothamist:

...the Justice Department announced it arrested 10 people for "allegedly carrying out long-term, 'deep-cover' assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russian Federation." And in case you were wondering, "Federal law prohibits individuals from acting as agents of foreign governments within the United States without prior notification to the U.S. Attorney General." However, Russia's Foreign Ministry is blasting the arrests, saying, "We do not understand what prompted the U.S. Justice Department to make a public statement in the spirit of Cold War espionage. Such incidents have occurred in the past, when our relations were on the rise. In any case it is regrettable that all these things are happening on the background of the 'reset' in Russian-U.S. relations announced by the U.S. administration."

According to the NY Times, the suspects were looking for information on nuclear weapons, details on the U.S.'s Iran policy, the CIA...

On the cover of the tabloids is Anna Chapman, whom the Post calls "a 28-year-old divorcee with a masters in economics, an online real-estate business, a fancy Financial District apartment and a Victoria’s Secret body." She allegedly passed information to a Russian official every Wednesday this year. Another of the suspects is Vicky Pelaez, a columnist for El Diario newspaper. The Daily News lists the places were the alleged spies would do their business: The Forest Hills LIRR station, the globe outside the Trump International at Columbus Circle, a Starbucks in Midtown, a restaurant in Sunnyside, Queens, etc.

How not to run a law firm

Accurate directions are important. Deleting the directions given to you by the web designer is even more important.
Interesting spelling of the word "gazette". It's spelled that way on every link listed here as well. Very professional.

Where art thou, Romeo?

From the Times Ledger:

A Bayside Juliet has been left lonely after her Romeo was snatched last week in front of a floral shop on Bell Boulevard.

Greg Amentas, owner of Bayside Florist at 39-19 Bell Blvd., said he was hoping police would find Romeo, a five-year-old Sun Conure parrot, after the bird was stolen from his cage in front of his flower shop June 22.

The thief left Juliet, a cockatiel, by herself in the cage.

“The whole neighborhood is upset,” Amentas said. “Everyone is used to stopping by and talking to the bird. People have been coming by and saying, ‘Oh, my God, what happened to him?’”

Amentas said the bird was taken from the cage around 1 p.m. A man loading a truck across the street from the florist ran into the store and told Amentas the thief had reached into the cage, removed Romeo and fled down Bell Boulevard before turning onto 40th Avenue.

The suspect was described as a Hispanic man of an indeterminate age who was wearing a gray hat and stood about 5 feet 7 inches.

Romeo is orange and yellow with green stripes on his wing. Sun Conures, which can cost up to $800 at a pet store, are native to northeastern South America.

(Note: Photo is of a Sun Conure, but not the actual stolen bird)

Catwoman caught on video

From the Village Voice:

Police have released video of the "Catwoman" in action. As reported yesterday, this woman has robbed an Arche shoe store in the East Village and a Body Shop in Queens, as well as a Nine West in Queens. She wears a black scarf around her face, black clothing, and a cat mask as she enters stores, passes a note that says she has a gun, and then makes off with register money. She's in her 20s, 5'6" and 115 lbs. Video after the jump. (She is rather feline!)

3 Aqueduct bidders left

From the Queens Courier:

Of the six players tendering $1 million for the right to bid on the Aqueduct Racino...only three remain.

“The following companies submitted proposals to develop and operate a video gaming facility at Aqueduct: Genting New York, LLC; Penn National [and] one group comprised of SL Green, Hard Rock [Entertainment and] Clairvest Group,” Lottery spokesperson Jennifer Givner announced on Tuesday, June 29.

Both Buffalo-based Delaware North, which once had the Aqueduct franchise in its grasp, and Yonkers-based Empire City dropped out of the race to operate the 4,500 Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) at the South Ozone Park racetrack for 20 years.

Their announcements came within minutes of the 4 p.m. deadline.

State bill takes aim at illegal hotels

From the NY Times:

The Legislature is debating a bill that would attempt to stop landlords from converting apartments into hotel rooms without city permission, but the wording of the bill leaves open the possibility that tenants who sublet their apartments for short periods could technically be breaking the law as well.

State Senator Liz Krueger, one of the bill’s sponsors, said that legislators had wrestled over the wording for three years and it was therefore written carefully, though broadly. She said the bill could not attempt to individually address the seemingly infinite number of housing permutations that arise in a city in which moderately priced housing and hotels are scarce.

But people who regularly sublet their apartments while on vacation or extended work trips and organizations that help individuals, especially artists, find affordable short-term housing remained concerned that this law would close the door to a practice that is almost as old as apartment living itself.

The bill has received support from the Senate Democratic leader, John L. Sampson; tenants’ rights groups; the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer; and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. It also has the backing of the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, and the Hotel Association, whose members have endured competition from the converted hotels.

In the past few years, a number of building owners, particularly on the Upper West Side, have turned single-room-occupancy apartments into cheap, no-frills hotels catering to a young European clientele looking to stay in Manhattan for less than $100 a night. Long-term residents have complained about being harassed into leaving and about construction going on around them.

Eich responds

From the Daily News:

Author Jeffrey Kroessler posted the critical comments online in response to a recent Daily News article in which Eichenbaum said he'd rather be an educator than fight to landmark buildings.

"Sadly, Mr. Eichenbaum is poised to continue the ineffective pattern set by his predecessors," Kroessler wrote on the blog of the Historic Districts Council.

Eichenbaum responded in a statement that he has a "more inclusive" approach to the job than Kroessler, adding that he wants to emphasize Queens' ethnic diversity and environmental issues.

Some chalked up Kroessler's harsh words to sour grapes over losing out on the post.

But the Internet ire highlights a debate on what role the unpaid borough historian should play in protecting structures in danger of renovations or destruction.

Some preservationists, including Simeon Bankoff of the Historic Districts Council, said Eichenbaum's words do not mesh with the attitude they hoped for from Borough Hall.

On the other hand, Manhattan Borough Historian Michael Miscione noted that Eichenbaum is wise not to be entangled in time-consuming landmarking efforts.

Crime on the rise across the board

From the Daily News:

Halfway through the year, crime has increased in all but one of the most violent felonies, and shootings plague neighborhoods all over the city.

The overall crime rate through June 27 is down 1% percent, thanks to a 7% drop in grand larcenies. The other six categories of major felonies, however, are up.

Murders have jumped 11%, to 221 from 199, and rapes are up 13%, from 555 to 629. More people have been shot this year, 799 compared to 748, a 7% increase.

Park domes removed

From the NY Times:

Three silvery domes that had been installed in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park for children to play on — but which instead scorched their young hands — have been removed.

In their place on Tuesday evening were an empty plot and two mainstream pieces of playground equipment — one for climbing and another for sitting in the shade.

Elizabeth Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the Empire State Development Corporation, which oversees the park, located near Brooklyn Heights, said the domes were removed on Friday.

The $84,000 domes were installed at the toddler playground in March. But within a week of their unveiling, parents reported that their children were burning their hands on them – and screaming out in pain.

That ain't Chanel Number 5!

From the Daily News:

This gives new meaning to eau de toilette.

The city Department of Environmental Protection is using a perfume-like chemical spray to mask a fetid stench likely emanating from a waste treatment plant.

Officials hoped the citrus-scented spray would prevent a fireworks display in Astoria Park from turning into a putrid jubilee.

"I've never smelled it this bad," said city Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), who first noticed the stench two months ago.

Vallone believes the persistent stink is wafting from the Wards Island wastewater treatment plant located just miles away from Astoria Park, where 10,000 people were expected to attend a fireworks display last night.

A DEP spokesman denied that the plant was the source of the funk. Still, the agency started using "odor-counteracting machines" to spray the chemical -- which neutralizes stinky hydrogen sulfide -- across the treatment plant yesterday.

The plant has a malfunctioning blower that normally pumps oxygen into wastewater as it's being treated, said spokesman Farrell Sklerov. The remaining five pumps are still working.