Community board kept from community workshops for Creedmoor housing conversion

QNS 

As of the afternoon of July 11, nearly 1,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling for the Creedmoor Property Development project to be halted in its current form.

According to organizer Carin Bail, the purpose of the petition to try and get Queens Borough President Donovan Richards to receive more input from the residents in the area to try and address some of their biggest concerns.

Bail, who is a member of the Hollis Hills Civic Association, brought up multiple concerns she and other community members share about the Creedmoor Property Development potentially being transformed into housing units. While Empire State Construction is still in the process of developing the master plan for the project, many residents in the area are worried that a large influx of people for the developed property will cause overcrowding, creating more traffic in the area and making parking significantly more difficult. Additionally, there is concern over the environmental effect such a project could have, like its impact on the sewage system.

Despite the fact that Richards and Empire State Development announced back in January that a series of community visioning workshops would be held on the matter, Bail questioned the amount of input that truly came from the community during those that have since occurred. She said many living near Creedmoor weren’t aware of these sessions for quite a while, and feels these people should have their voices heard since they will be greatly impacted by it. Still, these offices have been in constant contact with several local civic associations in eastern Queens to keep them updated.

“I’m a civic president in a neighboring community and I wasn’t even aware of this until someone in my community asked if I was going to the Zoom meeting, which was back in April,” Bail said. “I have almost 1,000 people who are not in favor of this because they didn’t even know that this was happening.”

Forget it Jake, this is the "City of Yes"

 

Socialist transgender plans to primary sexual offender

 

Queens Post

A Long Island City resident is aiming to become New York’s first transgender state legislator, having announced a run for Assembly District 37, a seat currently held by embattled Assembly Member Juan Ardila, whose term has been shrouded with sexual abuse allegations.

Émilia Decaudin, 24, a transgender woman, launched the political campaign on July 11 on a Democratic socialist platform and is seeking to make New York more livable and inclusive. District 37 covers Long Island City, Maspeth, Ridgewood and Sunnyside.

Decaudin, who is a Democratic Party district leader, wants hundreds of thousands of more affordable housing units built across the state and is looking to bring down the cost of living. Decaudin would be the first transgender person to serve in the New York state Legislature if elected.

“New York cannot be the sanctuary it claims to be if people can’t afford to live here,” Decaudin said. “The high cost of living and the lack of political courage is failing thousands of New Yorkers every day. We must use every tool at our disposal to ensure that every one of us has access to high quality and deeply affordable housing.”

Decaudin is also calling for more social and publicly-owned housing to tackle the housing crisis, as well as eliminating barriers to constructing dense, mixed-income development.

Decaudin also says tackling climate change is a centerpiece of the recently launched campaign.

“We owe ourselves and future generations a world with clean air, safe temperatures, and dry homes,” Decaudin said. “New York state not only has the ability to become a leader in renewable energy production and environmental resiliency, but the duty to do so in an equitable and efficient manner.”

 

 

AOC feigns ignorance about the vaccine mandate's effect on workers and parents

 

 NYC For Yourself

I had a very brief conversation with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently that drove this point home. It was at the end of one of her town hall meetings, which I often livestream on my reporting channel.

I have also been reporting on how New York’s vaccine mandates have affected people since 2021, and I’ve been trying to ask AOC about her position on this issue since New York City’s mandates were in full effect. Maybe I’ve missed something, but I have never heard her address the question of mandates in any forum.

AOC and her team have always exercised tight control over interactions with media. I know that because I’m one of her constituents and attended many of her public events before I started reporting on them, going back to her primary race in 2018. At public events like town halls, she takes questions from constituents by having people submit them on slips of paper as they enter. The time she gives to press has always been very limited. 

 So when I wanted to ask about her position on the mandates, I knew the drill. Here’s a question I submitted at a Bronx town hall in January of this year:

Ocasio-Cortez didn’t take my question at that town hall or any of the others where I had submitted it. So I decided to give it a try as a member of the press. At the end of the event, I explained to one of her press aides that I’m an independent journalist and wanted to ask a question.

AOC was simply out of time! she told me, but perhaps I could ask her my question and she could pass it along. I declined that offer and stood by as AOC gave a detailed response to a question from another reporter about whether it was tough to balance being a disruptor with getting things done.

Fate and the press aide smiled upon me a couple town halls later at the July 6 Hunts Point event, and I was granted the opportunity to ask “one question!” of the overscheduled congresswoman. Now my question wasn’t about the government mandates, which were no longer in effect. It was about whether she would support reinstating workers who had been fired for not being vaccinated.

I asked AOC this question for all the reasons you can hear me spell out in the video: Labor rights and civil rights are among her signature issues. She speaks frequently about the importance of bodily autonomy.

She touched on all of these topics at the July 6 town hall, as well as the financial hardships people are facing as they recover from the pandemic. My question was relevant to all of those issues. It should have been right in her wheelhouse.

I was honestly surprised by her inadequate response. Not only did she not answer the question about reinstatement that I had asked, but she seemed only vaguely aware of the facts about mandates in New York.

Her response was about whether there should still be “health care requirements” in place, and she seemed to be saying that she thought there probably should be in some sectors, especially health care and education. So I guess I finally got the answer to my question about her position on mandates.

How could someone who presents herself as an advocate for workers be so unaware of the facts about policies that put tens of thousands of people out of work in her state and forced thousands more to take a pharmaceutical product that they considered dangerous to keep their jobs? 

 Estimates are that nearly 2,000 people in the public sector were fired outright under New York City’s sweeping mandates, while many others were forced into resigning or taking early retirement. It’s impossible to know how many lost their livelihoods in the private sector. An estimated 34,000 health care workers lost their jobs under the state mandate.

Lunatic kills one man and wounds 3 other people during broad daylight mass shooting spree while riding a ghost e-bike

AMNY 

Detectives in Queens have a suspect in custody in connection with a shooting spree in Queens and Brooklyn on Saturday morning that left one man dead and three others injured.

Law enforcement sources said a scooter-riding suspect shot the three victims in Richmond Hill, Queens, between 11:25 and 11:40 a.m. on July 8. He was also linked to a fourth shooting in nearby Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, that preceded the Queens portion of the rampage.

The motive for the shootings, four of which occurred in the 102nd Precinct‘s confines, remain unknown at this time, police sources said. 

“It seems that these acts were random,” Assistant Chief Joe Kenny of the NYPD Detectives Bureau said. “The video shows he’s not targeting anybody, he’s not following anybody. As he’s driving on the scooter, he’s randomly shooting at people.”

Acting Police Commissioner Edward Caban said the suspect, a 25-year-old man with one prior arrest on his rap sheet, was apprehended at about 1 p.m. in nearby Jamaica, Queens, at the corner of Sutphin Boulevard and 94th Avenue.

The suspect had been picked up by officers assigned to the 103rd Precinct, who recognized the man from security video obtained quickly from the shooting scenes and transmitted to every police officer in the city through a “critical message,” Caban noted.

The commissioner said that the shooter rode an illegal scooter, and the weapon allegedly used in the spree, a 9 mm handgun with an extended magazine, was found stored within the illegal ride.

At each shooting scene, police officials noted, the NYPD recovered 9 mm shell casings, as well as video footage and/or witness descriptions of the same scooter-riding suspect. 

Sure looks like this bastard was looking to kill a lot more people while rolling on pedestrian heavy Jamaica Avenue. Anybody want to say defund the police now?

Open Streets propagandist gets agency captured Latina elected officials wrong

Christopher Leon Johnson 

Transportation Alternatives and Open Plans brains must be broken after getting trounced lobbying and cosplay protests for their extreme anti-driving causes like the speed limit reducing Sammy's Law and their idiotic idea to cut two lanes from McGuinness Blvd because a man died jaywalking on it that their version of Leni Riefenstah mistook State Sen.Gonzalez with City Council Crony Gutierrez. Maybe it was just a rush to get publicity for their agenda or Street Films is just a little bit racist...

What's it all about algae?

Queens Chronicle 

“I don’t see the turtles,” said one little girl who excitedly approached the Bowne Park pond on her tricycle Monday.

That’s because passersby could not see much of anything beyond the blooms of algae dispersed throughout the pond.

While that has been a common sight at Bowne Park for years, that was before the city spent $3.6 million and eight years’ worth of work on preventing that very problem, a job completed just over two months ago.

Two women walking around the pond’s perimeter Monday afternoon said they had seen some algae forming in the pond about a month ago, but that the problem has gotten astronomically worse since then.

Around that time, Flushing resident Anthony Szymanski, who first notified the Chronicle of the issue last weekend, noticed the algae building up. He sent a 311 request on June 8, which was marked as closed June 26, saying the Department of Parks and Recreation had “completed the requested work order and corrected the problem.”

“They got to get a hold of the contractor, because after two months, it’s like this?” Szymanski said.

As of Monday afternoon, the southern end of the pond was in slightly better shape than the northern end, where the park’s beloved turtles swam through clouds of algae, maneuvering around plastic water bottles and other debris at the surface. Still, the Chronicle observed two turtles that appeared to be dead, floating atop the green sheet of algae.

When the Chronicle attended the pond’s ribbon cutting on May 4, former Councilman Paul Vallone expressed excitement about the three new sprinkler cannons, which are designed to aerate the water and shoot geysers of water in the air in unison.

But the Chronicle found Monday the fountains were not in their usual aesthetically pleasing form. Instead, they went off sporadically, often producing a weak spurt of water, if at all. Other times, the fountain clicked, but failed to produce any kind of release.

Indeed, that is part of the problem: Parks Department spokesperson Dan Kastanis said one water cannon and the pond’s refill system are “offline due to mechanical issues discovered post-construction.” He added they are expected to be back in action “this summer.”

The office of Councilmember Vickie Paladino (R-Whitestone) said a part is needed to mend the fountain, but that it could be fixed as soon as next week. The Parks Department confirmed that, and said a part for the refill system is also en route.

Paladino is not concerned about the quick return of problems at the pond.

“Things break,” she told the Chronicle in a statement. “It’s a park fountain part and it needs replacement; it’s not a big deal.”

 

Caption Chirlane McCray and her husband

 

Yes I know I should have used this today instead of the Post story post but it's worth it because this will probably be the last picture we see of these two in the limelight. (Until de Blasio gets called to testify for his role in the pandemic extortion scam and surveillance censorship he pulled with Dave Chokshi, Mitch Katz and Ted Long).

These two can't even stand to kiss each other.

Tony the Tiger

NY Post 

Former Queens Democratic Councilman Tony Avella and Republican Kristy Marmorato in The Bronx won their primary ranked choice races albeit by very tight margins according to the New York City Board of Elections on Wednesday.

In the Democratic primary in northeast Queens’ 19th Council District, Avella won by just 123 votes — 2,865 votes or  51.1% to 2,742 votes or 49.9% for Christopher Bae.

Avella will have a rematch against Republican Councilwoman Vicki Paladino, who defeated him two years ago. He also served in the state Senate.

Vanishing Queens: Alpha Donuts annihilated by costs of doing business in NYC

 

Sunnyside Post 

And just like that, it was gone.

Having served the Sunnyside community for nearly 50 years, the old-school coffee shop Alpha Donuts closed its doors for good last week leaving patrons shocked and in disbelief.

The no-frills diner, located just a few feet from the Sunnyside Arch on Queens Boulevard and known for its donuts and greasy breakfasts, abruptly shuttered on Wednesday, June 28. Around 48 hours later its interior had been completely stripped and dumped.

The only remnant of the Sunnyside staple is its bright yellow and red exterior sign, while a notice attached to the diner’s front window reads: “Thank you for so many years of beautiful memories.”

The Sunnyside/Queens Post visited the location on Monday, July 3, and passersby could be seen gazing through the shop’s windows with astonishment and asking what had happened.

Cab drivers, who were known for parking in a line along Queens Boulevard and then frequenting the business, speculated that massive rent hikes had forced the business to shutter. The rumor was also rife on social media.

However, Patty Zorbas, 62, who owns Alpha Donuts, told the Sunnyside/Queens Post on July 5, that she was forced to close due to inflation and the potential costs of several upgrades needed to keep the business afloat — which she said she could not afford to carry out.

She said that while her rent had increased, it was not the reason behind her decision to close.

Zorbas said equipment such as the grill as well as other items at the eatery needed to be replaced.

“I sat down and put down the numbers together, and with insurance, taxes and inflation, the amount of money I would have to spend was above my reach,” said Zorbas, who is originally from Greece and lives in Woodside.

“I’ve been crying for two weeks. I’ve been there for 32 years.”

She said she decided to close late Tuesday, June 27, and the following day she shut down Alpha Donuts and started stripping out all of the equipment and fittings.

Gone is the establishment’s unique S-shaped countertop that allowed workers to serve customers up close, and gone is the shop’s vintage, button-styled cash register.

“It was tough. I was exhausted both physically and mentally,” Zorbas said. “It’s life-changing and I’m trying to sort my mind. I’m very sad but that’s life.”

Bill and Chirlie aren't thriving together anymore

AMNY

 

Ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, are separating, the pair announced during a lengthy interview with The New York Times that was published Wednesday.

De Blasio, who occupied Gracie Mansion between 2014 and 2021, and McCray told the Paper of Record that after nearly 30 years of marriage they are splitting up and will start dating other people. The pair, however, said they won’t be getting a divorce and will continue to occupy the same Park Slope row house where they raised their two children, both of whom are now in their twenties.

The couple’s interracial status — de Blasio is white and McCray is Black — played a role in him winning the 2013 mayoral primary that brought him to City Hall, many political observers say.

During their interview with the Gray Lady, de Blasio and McCray said they decided to separate about two months ago after having a heart-to-heart conversation that revealed their marriage no longer resembled what it used to be.

“You can feel when things are off and you don’t want to live that way,” de Blasio told the Times.

McCray said she’s looking to have more “fun” with the new arrangement, seeking a relationship with someone who isn’t a public figure.

“I just want to have fun,” McCray said. “There’s a certain weight that goes with being with Mr. Mayor.”

They made clear that de Blasio’s eight years as mayor put a heavy strain on their marriage, given the intensive 24/7 schedule that comes with occupying the city’s top job.

“Everything was this overwhelming schedule, this sort of series of tasks,” de Blasio said. “And that kind of took away a little bit of our soul.”

De Blasio’s tenure as mayor was also marked by years of blistering press coverage, a failed long-shot presidential bid and a torrent of criticism over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck during his second to last year in office. The couple said that the pandemic, in particular, hindered their ability to plan their lives after the end of de Blasio’s mayoralty.

McCray, who ran a controversial mental health program within her husband’s administration known as Thrive NYC, said that his ill-fated 2020 presidential campaign also damaged their relationship.

“I thought it was a distraction,” McCray said. In response, De Blasio conceded his wife was right: “kind of true, point for Chirlane.”

 

Department of Transportation Alternatives truck has traffic violence explosion

 

LIC Post

 

An explosion stunned lunchtime crowds along Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City Wednesday afternoon.

A truck from the city’s Department of Transportation was parked on Vernon near 47th Avenue when it caught fire and exploded just after 1 p.m. on July 5. The four DOT employees who were working on pothole repairs in the Long Island City area parked their truck and went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. They noticed the vehicle smoking and it eventually caught fire before ultimately exploding, causing the evacuation of several stores and restaurants along the corridor.

None of the four DOT employees were injured in the blast.

“Safety of our employees and others is a top priority and we will investigate today’s truck fire,” a DOT spokesman said.

Happy 247th Birthday USA

Caption Keechant Sewell's replacement

Department of Buildings warns public not to fall from buildings on Independence Day

 

DOB ADVISES NEW YORKERS NOT TO BECOME A “JULY 5TH STORY”

Don’t risk life and limb just to get a better view of the fireworks display! Stay safe this July 4th holiday to avoid becoming a tragic headline the next day

 

New York, NY –The Department of Buildings today is sounding the alarm to all property owners and residents to be especially mindful of existing safety regulations for the proper use of rooftops, terraces, balconies, and fire escapes in New York City this Independence Day. Ignoring these safety regulations to get a better view of holiday fireworks displays can lead to a deadly accidental fall, providing yet another tragic story for the papers and the six o’clock news the next day. Regulations around these elevated structures apply all year long, but are particularly relevant this month as New Yorkers look for vantage points to view the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks display, which is scheduled for this Tuesday evening. Unlawful gatherings on fire escapes and rooftops that are not specifically designed for regular occupancy have tragically led to multiple fatal falls in New York City in recent years.

 

“This Fourth of July holiday we are once again strongly urging patriotism-loving New Yorkers and firework enthusiasts alike to prioritize safety,” said Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo. “It simply isn’t safe to watch fireworks from an unsecured building roof or a fire escape, where one false step can have life-altering consequences. For those planning to enjoy the rockets’ red glare tomorrow, our message is to select an appropriate place to watch the show in order to avoid becoming a July 5th story.”

 

Property owners and tenants should closely follow the following safety rules to avoid becoming a headline in the news on July 5th:

 

·         Do not access building rooftops to watch the fireworks, unless the rooftop has an approved deck or other approved space for gatherings, equipped with code-compliant guardrails, multiple emergency exits, signage indicating the maximum legal occupancy, and other required safety features.

·         Do not gather to watch the fireworks on fire escapes, which are not designed nor meant to be used as a balcony. For the safety of everyone in the building, fire escapes must be kept free of obstructions at all times.

·         Do not overcrowd terraces, balconies, or legal rooftop spaces. Overcrowding these spaces can pose a serious hazard to occupants.

·         Do not prop open emergency doors or disable door alarms leading to rooftop areas of a building that are not meant to be legally occupied. Unsecured rooftop spaces can pose a serious danger to building occupants, especially children.

·         Do not lean out of a window, over an edge, a parapet wall or over a railing for a better view of the fireworks display.

·         Avoid approaching any building edge that is not protected by a wall or railing.

 

Property owners are legally obligated to maintain their properties in a safe condition. New Yorkers are encouraged to call 311 to report unsafe building conditions to the Department, and call 911 to report emergencies.

Caption Mayor Adams

 

Mayor Adams issues emergency order for outdoor dining on the streets

Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency so he could cut a ribbon on Broadway so restaurants can take roads that once had traffic and turn them into open streets for outdoor dining. Based on EO from the pandemic

He did this 3 days after he signed it

Covid Lies are funny https://t.co/smRwBFqZnE pic.twitter.com/nUkQFNXb81

— JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) June 29, 2023

 

 

NBC New York 

On Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to extend New York City's state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The extension comes one day after the previous state of emergency expired on June 19. This is happening in the backdrop of both the federal and state COVID-19 emergency declarations having been ended earlier this year.

In a press release, the mayor's office lists the city's unemployment rate, 5.4% compared to the national average of 3.7%, as one of the leading reasons for this state of emergency.

Additionally, his office notes that the city’s office occupancy rate is approximately 48% of the pre-pandemic rate, and the city’s subway ridership is at 70% of pre-pandemic levels -- revealing that multiple sectors are still reeling from the affects of COVID.

The order also announced an extension to the Open Restaurants and Open Storefronts program, allowing restaurants to use sidewalk space to seat customers. The Open Restaurants program was seen as being successful in saving 1000s of jobs and supporting food establishments during the pandemic.

The city council is currently considering legislation that would establish a permanent Open Restaurants program.

107 billion dollar semi-austerity city budget passes in time for holiday weekend

The rent got too damn higher

Queens Chronicle 

According to multiple reports, hundreds of tenants were outside Hunter College in the Upper East Side jeering at members of the Rent Guidelines Board after the group voted 5-4 last Wednesday night to move forward with a 6 percent rent hike over the next two years.

Mayor Adams thanked members of the RGB after the vote on June 21 for protecting rent-stabilized tenants from unsustainable rent increases, while also ensuring small property owners have the necessary resources to maintain their buildings and preserve high-quality and affordable homes for New Yorkers.

“Finding the right balance is never easy, but I believe the board has done so this year — as evidenced by affirmative votes from both tenant and public representatives,” Adams said in a statement.

Rents on one-year leases will go up by 3 percent, and there will be a bifurcated increase of 2.75 and then 3.2 percent on two-year leases.

Earlier this year, the RGB also released a report that it wanted to increase rent by up to 15.75 percent over two years because of rising of fuel costs and inflation. Last month, it approved hikes up to 7 percent in a preliminary vote before going down to 6 percent as a final increase.

Jeremy Maldonado, a tenant activist from South Ozone Park, who also works as a community organizer in Far Rockaway and Flushing for New York Communities for Change, a progressive nonprofit, was disappointed in the mayor.

“By vetoing critical reforms to the city’s voucher program and raising rents for rent stabilized tenants, Mayor Adams has turned his back on tenants,” Maldonado said via email. “Thousands more New Yorkers will face homelessness and eviction because the Adams administration is failing to take the housing crisis seriously.”

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) said that while the rent increases were on the lower end of what was proposed, the hikes will further exacerbate the homelessness and housing crisis at a time when New Yorkers can least afford it.

“As our city grapples with a record-high shelter population, an affordable housing shortage that remains unabated, and rising costs, New York City tenants increasingly struggle to make ends meet,” Speaker Adams said in a statement.

The speaker also said the rent hikes will deepen the lack of affordability and make it more difficult for New Yorkers to remain in their homes and work in the city they love.

She said there needs to be action on the state level to address the housing crisis.

 

Pizza rat

NY Post

Don’t slice me up!

The lawmaker responsible for passing the 2015 law requiring pollutant-spewing coal-and-wood-fired pizzerias to dramatically curb emissions said Mayor Eric Adams should enforce the controversial edict. 

That would be Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who was then a councilman who authored the bill.

“Tell the pizza lobby please don’t slice me up. I’m not trying to take their dough. I want them to be able to roll longer,” Richards quipped.

More seriously and lost in the furor, he said, is that pizzeria workers and owners — as well as pie-loving customers — are breathing unhealthy particulate matter every day.

“We’re talking about the wildfires and bad air from Canada? Workers with these coal-and wood-oven fired pizzerias are breathing in a wildfire every day,” Richards said.

He said the City Hall and the Department of Small Business Services should help impacted pizzerias comply with the rule, which requires the installation of air filtration devices to slash particulate emissions up to 75%.

“We’re not trying to take away a slice from the business. We’re not trying to put people out of business,” Richards said.

Buffalo gets a big new stadium, Queens gets a little new ER

 

Queens Chronicle

Five hundred guests attended a groundbreaking ceremony Friday to celebrate the $150 million expansion of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center’s Emergency Department, which will double in size to accommodate more than 150,000 patients annually.

The funding is a grant from the Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program.

Despite having to attend a funeral later that day of a former first responder who died because of a 9/11-related illness, Gov. Hochul made a keynote speech at the Level 1 trauma center in Richmond Hill because she wanted to emphasize that the time of disinvestment in Southeast Queens has ended.

“This is a day of a new beginning,” Hochul said at the June 16 event. “For so many years and decades ... people thought that the people of this community didn’t have political clout to make real transformative changes. That time is over, my friends. With this new beginning, we say that this community matters. This hospital matters.”

Hochul thanked the doctors, nurses, staff and other healthcare workers for their efforts in saving the lives of people who suffer from mental health issues, along with those who fall victim to fentanyl and opioids or contract Covid-19.

“We are going to enhance our psychiatric services, because my God, people are going through so much right now,” Hochul said. “All the work to save lives from overdoses ... we are doing that in real time. We have so much more to do.”

The governor said that the new facility was delayed a bit because of the pandemic, but the commitment of the hospital to get the expansion done while taking care of patients during the height of the spread of coronavirus further highlighted the need for safety-net hospitals.

“There were a lot of hopes and dreams and then in the middle of it all there was a pandemic,” she said. “This demonstrated the compassion and incredible resiliency of this organization and so many of your members, from nurses to doctors to the people who worked in the kitchens, the custodial staff, the doulas and everybody else [who] pulled together to save this community.”

Bruce Flanz, JHMC’s president and CEO, said the hospital was at the epicenter of the pandemic, but with the new funding it will be able to serve more people.

“When completed, the Emergency Department will double in size,” Flanz said.

The hospital will go from having one trauma bay to four major trauma bays, from one isolation room to 22, and the number of treatment areas will nearly triple, he said. There will also be two new intensive care units: a 12-bed neuro-ICU and a 10-bed ICU.

“When the project is complete we will have a total of 48 intensive care unit beds,” Flanz said. “The project will also add much needed space to our mental health program and to our CPAC,” or chest pain center.

Flanz said the improvements are not just necessary to the community, but to its uniformed officers, who say JHMC is their preferred choice for treatment.

Officer Brett Boller, who was shot earlier this year in Jamaica, shared the sentiment.

“I had multiple surgeons and multiple teams work on me,” Boller told the Queens Chronicle. “They communicated well to my family about what was going on and the recovery process. They made me and my family comfortable.”

Lindsey Boller, the officer’s sister, told the Chronicle she was grateful for the care her brother received.

“I’m studying to be a nurse one day and it was just really inspiring to see how great all the nurses and all the doctors were to him,” said the aspiring healthcare professional.

NYPD Chief Kevin Williams, commanding officer of Patrol Borough Queens South, shared their sentiments.

“I’m grateful for their care and the services for our members in the service,” Williams told the Chronicle. “When they come to get treated it’s first-class and we appreciate it.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Meeks (D-Jamaica) said it was a 10-year journey to get here.

“I want to say thank you to all the providers,” Meeks said. “What do we have in life if we don’t have health?”

Meeks’ 700,000 constituents look to JHMC for treatment, said the congressman.

“If it wasn’t for the members of the state Legislature doing their part, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman (D-Springfield Gardens) told the Chronicle that Springfield Gardens doesn’t have a hospital so the constituents in her area look to JHMC for help.

“I don’t have any hospitals in my district,” Hyndman said. “While growing up, everyone knew if you had a car accident, if you were hurt on your bicycle, if there was a shooting, this is the place to come. The chances of you surviving was high because this is a Trauma 1 Center.”

Hyndman’s godson, who was wounded after falling through shower glass, was treated at JHMC.

Borough President Donovan Richards, who was born at the hospital in 1983, was also in attendance.

“We’ve been talking for many years now about the need to invest in healthcare especially coming out of this pandemic,” Richards said. “Today we are changing that. Like the congressman said, it’s about ensuring that no matter what your socioeconomic status is, no matter who you love, no matter what your immigration status is, at Jamaica Hospital, you are welcomed.”

 We could have built 4 more hospitals with the money that went to that Bills stadium.

The Department Of Transporation Alternatives will put a two way bike lane on the Addabbo Bridge.

 

Queens Chronicle

The city Department of Transportation has announced it will begin work on safety improvements for the Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge this month, with markings scheduled to begin this week.

The repairs aim to fix unsafe conditions on the bridge, which runs from Howard Beach to Broad Channel. The project limits are Cross Bay Boulevard from 165th Avenue to the Kite Board Launch, the DOT confirmed to the Chronicle.

In the plan, the DOT detailed the southbound bike lane will become a two-way protected bike lane, and the northbound bike lane will become a protected single bike lane. The plan also includes adding painted pedestrian islands and updated corridor markings.

The project maintains the existing number of vehicular travel lanes, though some will be narrowed. The western bike lanes will be protected by new Jersey barriers. The sidewalks will not be affected.

In a statement to the Chronicle, state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Woodhaven) said, “These repairs are necessary to ensure the safety of the many New Yorkers who cross the bridge every day ... We shouldn’t have to wait for an accident or fatality to occur before we take action.”

 Why put a two way bike lane when there's a bike lane on the other side? While these will protect cyclists from cars, they won't protect pedestrians from bikers. Especially ebikes and unlicensed mopeds. The DOTA needs an enema.

Only 1% showed up to vote early

AMNY 

Just 44,611 New Yorkers took advantage of the nine-day early voting period for the June 27 primary elections for City Council, Queens and Bronx district attorney and several judgeships, according to unofficial tallies from the city Board of Elections (BOE).

That means only about 1.3% of the city’s roughly 3.6 million registered Democratic and Republican voters checked-in at over 100 early voting sites spread across the city over the period.

The sad showing among New Yorkers voting early could be due to this being an off-year election, with no higher ticket races for citywide, statewide or national office on the ballot and the City Council having just run for reelection two years ago. The short-turnaround for reelecting all 51 council members, which usually takes place every four years, is a result of last year’s redistricting, where the council map was redrawn in accordance with the biennial U.S Census.

Further adding to the low early voting turnout, this year saw only a handful of competitive races across the four of the five boroughs — with no primaries at all in Staten Island.

Ben Weinberg, director of public policy at the good government group Citizens Union, said about two-thirds of the City Council races this year are uncontested, so the low turnout is “unsurprising.”

“Many New Yorkers don’t even have anything on their ballots, or they might only have stuff like judicial delegates and positions that usually people are not really familiar with,” Weinberg said.

 

 

Katz remains DA

QNS 

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz declared victory in her primary race against two Democratic challengers Tuesday night.

Katz held a convincing lead over retired Judge George Grasso and public defender Devian Daniels, having secured nearly 71% of the vote with 96% precincts reporting as of 11 p.m. on June 27.

Grasso and Daniels each have approximately 14% of the vote,with Grasso ahead by only 187 votes as of 11 p.m.

Katz delivered her victory speech at the Queens Boulevard barbecue joint Queens Bully after she amassed an avalanche of endorsements from law enforcement unions and most major labor organizations in the city, nearly all of the borough’s Democratic elected officials, Mayor Eric Adams and, most recently, Gov. Kathy Hochul, who joined Katz during her victory party at Queens Bully.

Throughout her campaign, Katz hammered home the point that she provided a steady hand running the Queens DA’s office through turbulent times, having been sworn in just months ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

“I’m so proud of the work my office has done through unprecedented challenges,” Katz said. “In the third month of my administration, the entire world shut down and my office didn’t skip a beat. We continued going after every gang member, every gun prosecution and everything that came through our office was taken care of no matter what the obstacles we were facing.”

She said she worked to keep Queens families safe by leading the effort to take illegal weapons and ghost guns off the streets and held human traffickers and domestic abusers accountable. At the same time, she has launched Queens’ first-ever Conviction Integrity Unit to ensure justice for those wrongfully convicted.

Feds approve congestion pricing tax

 

 AMNY

Federal regulators have given final approval to New York City’s congestion pricing program, setting up the long-awaited implementation of tolling on vehicles entering Manhattan’s central business district to reduce congestion and fund the region’s mass transit.

 A spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) confirmed to amNewYork Metro that it had issued a “Finding of No Significant Impact,” or FONSI, for congestion pricing. That means the feds are satisfied that the program will not cause adverse environmental impacts on the region, and the MTA can officially move forward with its plan to toll motor vehicles up to $23 for entering Manhattan below 60th Street.

“Congestion pricing will reduce traffic in our crowded downtown, improve air quality and provide critical resources to the MTA,” Hochul said in a statement. “I am proud of the thorough environmental assessment process we conducted, including responding to thousands of comments from community members from across the region. With the green light from the federal government, we look forward to moving ahead with the implementation of this program.”

The MTA declined to comment. 

I like to make a few:

 Richard Ravitch saved the subway without congestion pricing, and he sure didn't lobby for it like a cuck like our agency captured elected officials have been doing for the last few years. 

Also, the guy in charge of the U.S. Department of Transportation Alternatives is a sociopathic replicant.

Mail bandits pinched in Maspeth

QNS

Locals took to Facebook on Monday, June 26, to celebrate after news broke regarding the arrests of two suspected mail thieves who have been wreaking havoc in Maspeth.

News of the arrests made by USPIS Postal Police Officers, alongside the NYPD’s 104th Precinct, was shared in a now-viral post on the Juniper Valley, Middle Village, Maspeth, Ridgewood area Facebook group, with several commenters applauding the news.

Photos of the alleged thieves and vivi of their arrest were first shared with QNS by a Maspeth resident who wished to be identified as Hubert K.

Law enforcement officials could be seen on video taking the two suspects from a black van and images captured the two thieves in handcuffs near 60th Road and Mt. Olivet Crescent in Maspeth.

Another video shared by Facebook user and Maspeth resident Jon Brewsky also captured officers with both mail thieves in handcuffs.

“They’re lucky the police got them and not the people,” said one Facebook user.

City and subway finances savior Richard Ravitch dies

 

 New York Times

Richard Ravitch, a politically savvy, civic-minded developer and public citizen who helped rescue New York City from the brink of bankruptcy and its decaying subways from fiscal collapse, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 89.

His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his wife, Kathleen M. Doyle.

Mr. Ravitch never won elective office. But he left an outsize mark on government at every level as one of the backstage wise men recruited to stave off the financial collapse of New York’s Urban Development Corporation in 1975 and, a few months later, of New York City’s own overdrawn municipal accounts.

By rallying public support for inventive means of raising revenue, he was also instrumental in rejuvenating the city’s mass transit system in the 1980s as the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

He later served as New York’s lieutenant governor, enlisted by David A. Paterson in 2009 to lend gravitas to his teetering administration. (Mr. Paterson had succeeded Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace after a prostitution scandal.)

Mr. Ravitch, who inherited a construction company, also left his mark on the cityscape with signature apartment projects like Waterside and Manhattan Plaza.

A progressive in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adlai Stevenson, he espoused an Emersonian faith in democracy as a dynamic symbiosis between politics and good government. Invoking a lesson learned from Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whose successful Senate candidacy he helped promote in 1976, Mr. Ravitch recalled in his 2014 memoir, “So Much to Do: A Full Life of Business, Politics, and Confronting Fiscal Crises,” “There is a more powerful connection than people think between the world of ideas and the world of practical politics.”

7,900,000

NY Post 

The Big Apple’s shelter population has now surged to nearly 100,000 – doubling in size since last year — as a never-ending flow of migrants continues to flood into the city amid what has fast become a humanitarian and fiscal crisis.

As of this week, 98,400 people were being housed in city-run shelters — a population roughly equal to the size of Albany, according to City Hall’s latest headcount.

Nearly half of them – 48,700 – are asylum seekers.

In the last month alone, 13,000 migrants have been processed solely at the historic Roosevelt Hotel ever since it was repurposed into an asylum seeker welcome center.

But it’s not just the sheer number of migrants that’s staggering.

It costs roughly $385 a night to put up a migrant family in one of the city’s shelters, officials said – meaning the asylum-seeker crisis is setting taxpayers back about $7.9 million every day.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, warned the growing crisis will only set taxpayers back even more.

“The problem New York City is facing aren’t really Mayor Adams’s fault,” Krikorian told The Post on Friday.

“It’s Joe Biden’s fault. The root cause of these problems is sitting in the Oval Office.”

104th Precenct: Be aware of your surroundings...

 

QNS

Deputy Inspector Kevin Coleman, the commanding officer of the 104th Precinct, encouraged the public to remain vigilant as felony assaults and car thefts are on the rise within the precinct’s coverage area spanning Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth and Middle Village.

During the final 104th Precinct Community Council meeting before the summer break, membership and attendees met inside Martin Luther School, on 60-02 Maspeth Ave. in Maspeth on Tuesday, June 20

As the meeting progressed, the deputy inspector noted an increase in felony assaults (25%) and grand larceny auto incidents (36%) recorded over a 28-day period. The precinct saw five more assaults and seven more grand larceny auto crimes when compared to the same time period as last year. 

NYPD crime stats in June also reveal an increase in both categories between the beginning of the year and June 18, 2023. 

Coleman says the precinct is “headed in the right direction” when it comes to addressing these crime increases, but he also stressed that residents should not engage or interfere with criminal activity. 

“Whenever this happens — and it does happen — that person that goes to engage the perpetrator either gets assaulted, punched or something else happens and obviously it’s not worth risking it,” said Coleman. “If someone’s stealing something and you try and stop them, more than likely they’re not going to listen to you or stop. They’re going to fight back with you and so we want to avoid that.” 

Coleman said there were two incidents where catalytic converter thefts almost turned deadly as one victim was held at gunpoint after confronting the group of thieves. Another resident was punched after approaching the attacker for being illegally parked at a fire hydrant, Coleman said.

Another example of retaliation by perpetrators was regarding a Facebook post showing a group of teenagers who were testing car door handles along 60th Lane and 59th Avenue, in Maspeth. The teens allegedly vandalized cars along the neighborhood after a resident yelled at the trio, all captured on a Ring camera. 

Police also told residents to first file a police report instead of going to social media platforms. Lieutenant George Hellmer, special operations lieutenant for the 104th Precinct, said many incidents go unreported but make their way on social media. 

“We need somebody to come and make that police report. When we do get the police reports, we follow up on every single one of them. So it’s important that 911 is called and a report is generated because we can know all these things, but we can’t charge the person unless we have a complainant saying ‘that’s my property, they’re not allowed to have it,’” said Hellmer, in response to package thefts concerns.

Assemblywoman's bill calls for environmental security blankets on cargo waste trains

  

QNS

Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar alongside state Senator Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. celebrated the passage of a bill that would require freight trains carrying waste to cover their cargo at the New York and Atlantic Railway location on 68-01 Otto Road in Glendale. 

The assemblywoman held the event on Friday, June 23, with other local leaders as well as Mary Parisen Lavelle, chair of Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions (CURES) to urge Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the bill (A4928/S2022) into law. 

Our legislation takes a major step towards overseeing waste by the rail industry, which has expanded for 15 years,” Rajkumar said. “As the waste by rail industry booms, expanding by 35% every year, it is time to take action to protect the health of the people of New York and our precious environment.”

Rajkumar’s office also fought to pass the bill in the legislature for seven years and those who’ve advocated for long-term action say they’ve been waiting for a lot longer. 

“It is with our deepest gratitude that we express our appreciation to both Assemblywoman Rajkumar and Senator Addabbo on their monumental accomplishment in getting state legislation passed to containerize waste on rail cars,” Lavelle said. “The victory we’re celebrating today belongs to them, it belongs to the residents, the civics, and Community Board Five. CURES has been working for the past 14 years to end this needless pollution in our neighborhoods, and in all neighborhoods, where this waste travels.”

Residents who live along the railway described the foul odors and general concern over the substances they were being exposed to by the uncovered waste freight.

Caption Mayor Adams

MTA takes a decade to take another three years to fix the Rockaway rail lines

 

QNS 

MTA representatives appeared before Community Board 14 at the Knights of Columbus in Rockaway Beach last week to preview the Rockaway Rehabilitation and Resiliency Project, a 44-month construction project that will redesign and rebuild much of the peninsula’s existing transportation infrastructure.

The project, scheduled to start later this year and finish in the summer of 2026, will repair the Rockaway Viaduct, Hammels Wye Viaduct and South Channel Bridge, while also adding a signal tower to Beach 105th Street in Rockaway Park. This undertaking by the MTA is inspired by Hurricane Sandy, which resulted in seven months of repair to the train tracks to get them back in service from late 2012 to early 2013.

“It was a tremendous feat in such a short period of time,” said Deirdre Harvey, the project CEO at MTA Construction & Development. “We’re here to try to make the line even more resilient so we don’t have such an interruption in the future.”

During the project’s construction, south Queens residents will face service interruptions for the A-train and the Rockaway Park shuttle, starting later this year as the MTA works on the tracks at Broad Channel and Howard Beach. 

The project will then eventually move toward major structural repairs at the Hammels Wye Viaduct, where the A-train and Rockaway Park shuttle separate, and South Channel Bridge, which connects both of these lines from Broad Channel to the Rockaway peninsula. As a result, there will be a required 16-week shutdown of service from January 2025 to May 2025. 

Alternates modes of commuting during this period include a non-stop bus shuttle from Far Rockaway to the Howard Beach-JFK Airport station, a local bus shuttle from Beach 67th Street and Broad Channel to the Howard Beach-JFK Airport station, and a subway shuttle that goes across the peninsula between Rockaway Park and Far Rockaway. 

The MTA representatives said they would also “enhance” the existing bus service in the area, which includes the Q53 and Q22, as well as cross-honor MetroCards on the Long Island Rail Road at the LIRR-Far Rockaway branch station. There are also ongoing conversations with the New York City Economic Development Corporation to potentially increase ferry service, according to the representatives, but this has yet to come to fruition.

 

Caption Linky Restler

   

Oh, why not...

Miracle on Van Doren St.

    

Remember this abandoned house beauty in Corona?

 

 It had a floor collapse and a massive fire.

 

Well get a load of it now.

        

Who says miracles don't happen in Queens?

 

We have to build more market rate housing to make affordable housing

 

QNS  

According to a new Douglas Elliman report, the median rent in the northwest region of Queens for the month of May was the second-highest on record, just short of the prior month’s record.

The median rental price increased by 15.3% from the previous year. For the month of May, the average rental price was $3,662, which was the same as the prior month. However, May’s average rental price was an 11.1% increase from 2022.

The average rental price for a studio was $3,157 in May, a 4.6% increase from April and a 21.7% increase from 2022.

A one-bedroom unit averaged $3,209 in May, a 6.6% decrease from the prior month and an 8.3% increase from 2022. The average rental price for a two-bedroom unit was $4,691, a 4% increase from April and a 13.4% increase from 2022. The average rental price for a three-bedroom was $4,239, an 8.6% increase from April and an 18.4% increase from 2022.

First female NYPD commissioner can't do this anymore

 

 

City & State

New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell is resigning from her job as top cop, ending her 18-month tenure amid an ongoing power struggle with City Hall.

In a statement on Monday evening, Mayor Eric Adams thanked Sewell for her leadership. “When we came into office, crime was trending upwards, and thanks to the brave men and women of the NYPD, most of the major crime categories are now down,” the emailed statement read. “The commissioner worked nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a year and a half, and we are all grateful for her service. New Yorkers owe her a debt of gratitude.”

But even if Adams has publicly praised his commissioner, there has been tension behind the scenes. Sewell wasn’t able to make even simple moves like promoting a cop to detective without approval from City Hall, the New York Post reported Saturday. Police insiders have long said it seemed like Adams and his Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks – both of whom are retired police officers – were bigfooting Sewell, and the problem reportedly got worse when the commissioner followed through on disciplining Chief of Department Jeff Maddrey for wrongly intervening in an arrest. Maddrey is a favorite of Adams and others in City Hall, and the mayor seemed to undermine Sewell by publicly defending Maddrey. 

One City Council member who asked for anonymity to discuss a developing situation, suggested that Sewell leaving One Police Plaza was more a question of when than if. “If someone is surprised,” they said, “that’s because they haven’t been paying attention.”

 

Cannot blame her at all, live long and prosper Commissioner Sewell.

Mayor Eric Adams wants you to goo goo. pic.twitter.com/Vp9xVA7dIE

— JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) September 1, 2022

MTA nickels and dimes commuters

 

Eyewitness News 

The MTA proposed an increase to the subway and bus fare to $2.90 by Labor Day.

It is a 15-cent increase from the current $2.75 base fare, and the first fare hike since 2019.

"A lot of the stations are still dirty," rider John Delaruz said. "They are not in commission as often. I don't see the benefit in raising the price right now."

Weekly MetroCards would increase a dollar to $34 and 30-day MetroCards would go up $5 to $132.

Express bus fare would increase a quarter to $7 and seven-day bus passes would increase $2 to $64.

This year's planned fare hike will be closer to the standard 4% increase, which is typically how much the fare goes up every other year, instead of 5.5% originally floated, thanks to Governor Kathy Hochul's budget.

However, a planned 5.5% toll revenue increase remains in place.

Straphangers were less than pleased with the proposed hike.

Even Executive Director of the MTA's Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee Lisa Daglian acknowledged that fare hikes are necessary to keep the transit system rolling.

"Improving the discount options for riders across the system, ensuring there is equity across increases so that those who can least afford them have access to more options is critical," Daglian said. "That includes raising eligibility to fair fares to 200% of the federal poverty level from the current 100% level."

The last fare increase on trains and buses was in 2019. There was not a fare increase in 2021 due to the pandemic.

In addition to buses and subways, fares on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North would also go up by about 4%.

The MTA also anticipates that with congestion pricing, more commuters will want to take the subway and commuter rail.

Officials unveiled two possible scenarios for drivers. One rewards E-Z Pass users with a 6% increase, vs a 10% increase for tolls by mail. The other spreads the pain, with a 7% increase for both E-Z Pass and toll by-mail users.

Transportation Alternatives message to Southeast Queens residents: you'll pay congestion pricing and like it

You're supposed to put your car payments toward a 1-family house in SE Queens that his urbanist supporters think is evil? 😂 Did Danny go off script? https://t.co/gxm50Z7Mrq

— Queens Crapper (@QueensCrapper) May 14, 2023

Southeast Queens population is predominantly people of color and immigrants who rely on cars to get around New York City for work, chores and leisure. Danny Harris says the quiet part out loud about the inherent racism and discriminatory nature of the congestion pricing tax and apparently he does not want them coming to his borough of Manhattan anymore without paying admission.

More Ardila pre-Assembly malfeasance

 

NY Post

Assemblyman Juan Ardila — who faced accusations of sex abuse — hasn’t yet paid $19,200 in arrears for a two-bedroom Maspeth apartment he used to rent, a Queens landlord claims.

In an interview with The Post, his former landlord, Anne O’Reilly, said she’s not afraid to take Ardila to court over the issue.

“I feel like it’s an injustice to me,” she said.

But Ardila scored a temporary legal victory last month when a Queens judge dismissed a case filed by O’Reilly in June when Ardila only owed $11,200.

He moved out in November. (wow, he was still squatting there after he won the election-JQ LLC)

The judge ruled Ardila, who was sued alongside unnamed roommates, was served outside the required 10-17 days before a court date, a technicality that won’t prevent O’Reilly from refiling the suit in the future.

She told The Post she aims to do just that to get Ardila to pay the year of outstanding rent.

“I’m a nurse and try to take care of people and I think people should respect everybody and if I’m working hard I expect everyone else to work hard — if they’re working — to pay their rent,” she said.

Ardila tried to turn the tables on his former landlord in a statement to The Post where he claimed he and his mother had been harassed by her.

“My mother and I moved to this apartment when I was 14. I was staying with my girlfriend but my mother has endured relentless harassment from her landlord, particularly throughout the pandemic & even left her without heat during some of the coldest days,” he said in a statement that included a link to a past 311 heating complaint.

“Experiences like these only reinforce my unwavering commitment to advocating for tenants’ rights and protections in Albany,” he added.

But Ardila, who technically was not on the lease signed by his mother when he was a child, did not say whether he still owed rent to O’Reilly until several hours after The Post reported about the dismissed suit.

“I do not owe rent,” he said.

The legal win for the rent-skipping legislator came one month after two women accused Ardila of forcibly touching them at a 2015 party while they were intoxicated. 

Juan should be really grateful that George Santos exists as the worst elected official from Queens, because he deserves just as much press scrutiny and notoriety.

The U.S. Department Of Transportation Alternatives has approved congestion pricing

 

 

NBC New York

The federal government has given the green light on New York's plan to implement the long-debated, highly-anticipated plan to become the first U.S. city to charge motorists an extra fee for entering its most congested area.

On Friday afternoon, the Federal Highway Administration submitted a "letter of sufficiency" for plan from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city's Department of Transportation, approving of the environmental review.

The MTA’s pricing plan has been discussed for more than a decade now. It’s the plan that could charge drivers, many of whom coming from New Jersey, as much as $23 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. The pricing plan has yet to be implemented.

"We are optimistic the time has arrived for congestion pricing," said MTA Chairman Janno Lieber. "New York is the number one most congested place in the U.S. Ambulances can't get to hospitals, firetrucks to fires. We have to do something."

The practice is commonly referred to as congestion pricing and has been used in cities including London, Singapore and Stockholm. In New York, motorists entering Manhattan below 60th Street would be charged a toll electronically.

The MTA has long argued that congestion pricing is essential to their bottom line and would net them $1 billion annually. Revenue from the plan would be used to back borrowing for capital improvements to the MTA’s subway and bus systems.

Department Of Sanitation Alternatives plans to usurp parking spaces for trash bins

Same thing. Times Square. No longer brand new. Sludge, stench. pic.twitter.com/qQ1IJHAOur

— Andrew Fine (@AFineBlogger) January 12, 2023

 

New York Times 

New York City, where sidewalks have long been overrun by foul-smelling heaps of garbage bags that force passers-by to yield to oncoming rat traffic, is about to try a not-so-novel idea to solve the problem.

The concept, known as trash containerization, seems simple enough: Get trash off the streets and into containers. The strategy has been used successfully in cities across Europe and Asia, like Barcelona and Singapore.

But in New York, nothing is that simple.

In a highly anticipated new report being released on Wednesday, city sanitation officials estimate that it would be possible to move trash to containers on 89 percent of the city’s residential streets. To do so, however, will require removing 150,000 parking spots, and up to 25 percent of parking spots on some blocks.

The report does not address the cost of implementing trash containerization citywide, but it could easily cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade. City officials must buy new specialized trash trucks and stationary containers, while also increasing the frequency of trash collection in large swaths of the city.

The new approach could revolutionize trash collection in New York. Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat in his second year in office, has said attacking trash is one of his priorities, framing it as part of broader efforts to improve quality of life in the city after the disruption of the pandemic. He has hired a new rat czar with a “killer instinct” for slaying rats.

But embracing trash containers will require trade-offs, including sacrificing more parking spots than were taken for outdoor dining or the city’s popular bike-share program — both of which stirred pockets of outrage.

The city’s sanitation commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said in a statement that sanitation officials were working hard to remove trash more quickly, including setting new hours for placing trash on the curb, and that trash containerization was the critical next step.

“Mayor Adams wants a permanent solution, something like what other global cities have that takes our sidewalks back from the black bags — and from the rats,” she said. “The detailed street-level analysis in this report shows, for the first time, that containerization — in the form of individual bins and shared containers — actually is viable across the vast majority of the five boroughs.”

The new trash program would look different across the city depending on the block. For a single-family home in eastern Queens, residents could be required to use individual bins for trash, recycling and compost. On a block lined with six-story apartment buildings in northern Manhattan, the street could get a dozen large aboveground containers — artist renderings suggest a cross between a dumpster and a giant laundry bin — placed in parking spaces.

By this fall, the city will start a major new pilot program in West Harlem, in Community Board 9, that will install large trash containers in parking spots on up to 10 residential blocks and at more than a dozen schools. On residential blocks, trash collection will double from three times a week to six.

At a time when Mr. Adams is cutting spending across city agencies, he included more than $5.6 million for the pilot program in his latest executive budget proposal — a sign of his commitment to the idea, city officials said.

Shaun Abreu, a City Council member who represents West Harlem, said in a statement that he was excited for the neighborhood to be a part of the pilot program and that it would “make a real difference and teach the city a lot about the path forward.”

The city’s 95-page new report examined trash containerization in cities across the world that have been experimenting with the idea for 15 years and analyzed the program’s feasibility in each neighborhood. In the United States, San Francisco and Chicago remove garbage bags from the streets, mostly using individual bins and Chicago’s famed alleyways which New York City does not have.

New York City is a bit of a global pariah when it comes to trash. On garbage days in Manhattan, towers of fetid trash bags line the streets, with food and liquids oozing on to sidewalks. Sanitation workers carry out the Sisyphean task of carting away 24 million pounds of trash and recycling every day.

Other cities have successfully reined in their garbage. Amsterdam uses underground storage and electric boats. Singapore and other cities use a pneumatic pressure chute system. Barcelona, Buenos Aires and Paris rely on shared and individual trash containers, providing the most useful examples of what is possible in New York, city officials said.

The report was written by Sanitation Department staffers and informed by a study by McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm, that was initially reported to cost $4 million. The city ultimately paid McKinsey & Company $1.6 million for the study, city officials said.

Ms. Tisch said in an interview that it was too early to provide an estimate for the total cost. But she acknowledged that the cost was “not inexpensive.”

“It is one of the most massive, complicated infrastructure programs this city can undertake over the next decade because it affects every borough, every neighborhood, every block and frankly every resident in the City of New York,” she said.

Parking is one of the third rails of New York City politics, and the plan could face pushback in some communities. The city has roughly 3 million free street parking spots. Trash containerization would remove up to 10 percent of available parking spots on residential streets citywide, compared to less than 1 percent of parking spots removed for outdoor dining. Citi Bike, the city’s bike-share program, has taken about half of a percent of curb space in its service area for bike docks, according to the company.

On 11 percent of the city’s most densely populated residential streets in places like Lower Manhattan, the city found that it was not feasible to install containers because there was not enough street space for the trash produced in those areas.

Firefighters have to push planters to get to an emergency on the open streets

Every second counts.
Footage from 34th Avenue Open Street ("Paseo Park").#SafetyLast on #34AveOpenStreets #OpenStreets@infopobn @ImpunityCity @VoicesofJH @berrystalliance pic.twitter.com/XGuRB79Tni

— serpenttoes 🐍 (@serpenttoes) May 3, 2023

 

 

These open streets are not only putting residents in danger, but firefighters are going to injure themselves moving those fucking things.

 

 This post is dedicated to Voices of Jackson Heights who recently had her twitter account suspended. She has been reporting about these hazardous open streets since it started which is now subjected to a current lawsuit to end them. And also dedicated to the Department Of Transportation Alternatives, Shekar Krishnan and the simping agency captured elected officials who continue to support this 85 million dollar boondoggle.

Breaking News@VoicesofJH, the most consistent voice against the notorious 34th ave open streets is now silenced on @Twitter. This comes after she posted a video of @NYC_DOT contractors working OT and wouldn't say who they were

This is happening while they are being sued pic.twitter.com/ctIq0DuVPU

— JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) May 3, 2023

Big Ugly Hochul budget finally done

 

NY1

Nearly a month after its initial due date, New York state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul have agreed to a $229 billion state spending plan that will make changes to a controversial bail law, boost direct aid to schools by billions of dollars and keep personal income tax rates the same.

"A conceptual agreement has been reached," Hochul said at a press conference Thursday evening.

The state budget will also increase the state's minimum wage in the coming years to $16 an hour in New York City and to $15 an hour north of Westchester County. Phased-in hikes will lead to a $17 minimum wage by 2027. After that it will be indexed to the rate of inflation.

Lawmakers and Hochul have also agreed to an expansion of charter schools in New York City by allowing for 14 so-called "zombie" licenses to be revived.

The child tax credit in New York is set to expand for families with children under the age of 4, addressing the expiration of a similar program on the federal level.

After initially discussing ways in which New York's system of publicly financed campaigns — in which political campaigns match individual donations with public money — on hold, lawmakers have agreed to fund the program without a delay.

Once given final passage in the Legislature, New York's budget this year will be one of the latest spending plans to be adopted since 2010. That year, lawmakers did not approve a final budget until mid-August.

This was Hochul's second budget since taking office in 2021 and her first since she won a full term last year. Hochul struggled to include some of her key items in the budget that she made clear were priorities for her this year. 

Several of Hochul's initial proposals were pared and whittled down during the negotiations if not jettisoned entirely. A proposal to expand housing in New York through a mix of incentives for communities to build out infrastructure while also allowing the state to override local zoning officials for qualified projects was rejected by lawmakers. The proposal would have also set goals for every municipality in New York to expand housing stock in the coming years.

Hochul wants to build 800,000 new units of housing within the next decade. After an effort to reach an agreement ended in a stalemate, Hochul told reporters she would continue to pursue elements of her original plan.

The emergency rental assistance program will be expanded as well $50 million for low-income families to make housing repairs.

But the governor was able to win changes to the state's 2019 law that limited the circumstances in which cash bail is required in criminal cases after a campaign season in which crime and public safety were top concerns for voters.

Hochul also pointed to $40 million for public defenders and a pay raise for assigned attorneys providing indigent defense. She announced money for measures to combat gun violence and the State Police.

The change will give judges greater discretion in criminal cases to set bail for serious charges, loosening what's known as the "least restrictive" requirement when bail is considered.

Hochul had emphasized through the budget process she wants to address New Yorkers' concerns over crime while not undermining the initial intent of the law: addressing inequities in the criminal justice system.

On health care, the state is set to expand Medicaid spending for hospitals and nursing homes by increasing reimbursement rates.

The proposal, a 7.5% and 6.5% rise, is less than what health care networks wanted, but more than what Hochul had initially proposed.

New York will spend $34.5 billion on education, a record setting amount that also boosts direct aid to schools by more than $2 billion. The budget will also provide $134 million for schools to provide free meals regardless of a student's family income.

Hochul's initial plan to expand charter schools was reduced after objections from teachers unions.

A mobility tax to fund mass transit in the New York City area will be increased modestly, Hochul said. A two-year pilot program for free bus service on five lines will be included in the budget.

Hochul's announcement came in the evening after lawmakers left Albany and are not expected to return for several days.

Hochul called the agreement a "conceptual framework" as some legislators continue to review the specifics of the budget.