(And the private property is even worse.)
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Public property looks like crap
From Cleanup Jamaica Queens:
NYCDOT, city property at 92-33 168th St. This is hardly the first time this city property has looked like a garbage dump. In fact in my over three years here, it has always been a problem.
168th Street LIRR Overpass Tunnel.
(And the private property is even worse.)
(And the private property is even worse.)
Watch Tony Avella & John Liu speak
Candidates Forum held August 19, 2014 for New York State Senate, District 11. Copyright 2014 LoScalzo Media Design LLC. All rights reserved.
Spike in tire & rim thefts in Kew Gardens
Thieves have gone on a spree in Kew Gardens, snapping up rims and tires from 15 cars so far this year and prompting a local precinct to distribute fliers in an effort to put the brakes on the trend.
Most of the cars — largely imports — were left on cinder blocks, but in some instances, sources said, vehicles were placed on tree limbs.
Officers from the 102nd Precinct, which covers Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven and Ozone Park, have been leaving leaflets on car windshields, informing vehicle owners about the rash of thefts.
“Lately there has been an increase in rims and tires being stolen from late model Honda Accords and Nissan Maximas, Infinitis, and Acuras within the 102 Precinct," although other car models have also been targeted, the flier says.
This year, there have been 33 rim and tire thefts in the 102nd Precinct as of Aug. 21, nearly half of them in Kew Gardens, according to the precinct.
In June, five such incidents occurred in Kew Gardens within a period of one week.
Not-for-profit did nothing for dough
The city is trying to get nearly $300,000 back from a Jamaica substance abuse center, which officials say may have misused the funds, according to court documents.
According to the complaint, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Aug. 8, New Spirit II signed a contract with the Department of Health in July 2008 and “received funding to deliver medically supervised outpatient services for the treatment of alcohol and chemical dependency between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009.”
After an audit was conducted in November 2011, the city demanded the nonprofit, on South Road and Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, return the $285,866, which the group failed to do, according to the document.
"This lawsuit is a routine action brought against an agency that failed to live up to its contract with the city," lawyer Alan Kleinman of the city's Law Department said in an email.
Kleinman declined to say where New Spirit II spent the money.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Guess who bought the Sunnyside Theatre?
...Center Cinemas’ lease comes to an end December 31 and Rudy Prichard, the owner of the movie theater, has yet to hear whether his lease will be renewed. He is not hopeful.
As for PJ Horgan’s, its lease ends June 2018. The owner of the bar could not be reached for comment.
The former bank building, on paper, is owned by 42-25 Queens Boulevard Realty Corp.
Argento could not be reached for comment.
____________________________________________
Just click the link above and you'll see it's true.
I suppose we'll see a John Ciafone banner hanging off the side of whatever is built here.
Affordable housing project requires unpopular variance
The city Board of Standards and Appeals is in the final stages of reviewing the application presented by the St. Albans Presbyterian Church and a Westchester-based developer to erect an affordable housing building on Farmers Boulevard.
During a review session Aug. 19, one of the board members questioned the parking demand study forwarded by the developer, an analysis concluding that “31 percent of the residents of the area commute by subway, but there is no subway in the vicinity.”
She added that “I don’t have a good idea what transportation alternatives are in the area.”
Sharon Johnson, of the St. Albans Civic Improvement Association, said the project “is not compatible with the zoning regulations in the area.”
To begin construction, the church is seeking zoning variances involving maximum building height, maximum dwelling unit and minimum parking. The project involves building a 67-unit structure of one- and two-bedroom apartments as well as a community center at ground level.
The plan calls for an affordable housing, five-story building construction on two empty lots on Farmers Boulevard between 118th and 119th avenues.
The area is zoned for low-residential units, and it is characterized by having one- and two-story homes along Farmers Boulevard as well as local stores.
Mike Pope, who lives approximately 400 feet from the site and opposes the project, said that if the developer and the church are serious about affordable housing, “they can build 23 units in two-story buildings within zoning regulations.”
Pope added that the “current zoning regulations should not be altered to allow for this monstrosity in the middle of Farmers Boulevard.”
Deed fraud becoming more common
They wandered into New York City government offices this week, indignant at how the cogs of bureaucracy had slowed their grand plans of thievery.
Lasharan Amos, 42, arrived on Tuesday at the New York City sheriff’s office in Queens, wondering why the city was taking so long to give her ownership of a home that the authorities said in fact belonged to her mother.
Two days later, Jethro Chappelle Jr., a former convict who uses a wheelchair because of a gunshot wound, did the same. He took an elevator to the 13th-floor City Register’s office in Manhattan, demanding to know why the city had not yet recorded two deeds he had filed for abandoned properties in Harlem.
Ms. Amos and Mr. Chappelle were promptly arrested and charged with various counts of grand larceny, perjury and offering false statements to public officials. Their arrests were the first since June, when the Department of Finance, in coordination with the city sheriff’s office, began flagging irregularities in a deed transfer system that has long gone unguarded.
Working with corrupt notaries public, or sometimes simply by searching public records online, those inclined to have long been able to forge property deeds, claiming, for instance, to have taken ownership of a family member’s home or a building that had long been neglected. As long as the documents were properly formatted, officials had little choice but to record the deed transfer.
When there were gaps in required information or other problems with the forms, the documents were just returned to the filing parties with instructions about how to fix the flaws. Tricking the system was so easy that people like Mr. Chappelle, 51, who had been arrested on an attempted murder charge in 2003, and convicted of assault a year later, and Ms. Amos apparently were confident enough to announce themselves to city agencies.
What's the real plan for the Klein Farm?
Area civic leaders remain concerned about the future of the Klein farm property in Fresh Meadows following its recent sale to a convicted felon who illegally tore down trees on the protected site.
Ziming Shen of Manhattan, who runs a preschool on the historic Klein property at 194-15 73 Ave., remains under house arrest for stealing funds designated for poor children’s lunches from his chain of Red Apple preschools.
Although Shen was hauled into court in May for not meeting his obligation of paying the $5.2 million judgment against him, he bought the Klein property a month later for $5.6 million and got a $1.45 million mortgage, according to the city’s Department of Finance records.
Shen had been renting the property under a six-year lease for the preschool from another convicted felon, Thomas Huang, who bought it in 2003 for $4.3 million as part of his now-defunct Audrey Realty.
Huang had wanted to build 22 two-family houses or 18 dwellings, but both plans failed since the site is located in a special planned community preservation district.
Last year, Shen illegally destroyed several mature trees on the property and illegally constructed a driveway. He was fined $1,600. Since then, the trees have not been replaced and the front yard on the 2.5-acre site has been neglected.
Preschool classes are now held in an adjacent house on the property. In the past, the large brick farmhouse was used for the school.
Area civic activists, who for years have wanted the property converted to public use as a farm museum or similar institution, are puzzled by the recent high-priced purchase since Shen will be unable to develop the property.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
5 Pointz being demo'ed
The 5Pointz building in Long Island City, Queens – once a haven for graffiti artists – was under demolition Friday.
Heavy trucks began demolition of the building at 45-46 Davis St. in Queens Friday. The building is being torn down to make way for luxury apartments.
The demolition will take three to four months to complete.
Resorts World fixing up playground
Roger Gendron of the New Hamilton Beach Civic Association could barely contain his excitement when announcing the news at last Thursday’s summer meeting. After years of waiting, his community was finally going to see change at its old, decrepit playground by September and nearby Resorts World agreed to pick up the tab.
"This is really going to go a long way to help this community,” he said. “It’s not just damage from [Hurricane] Sandy. It’s the graffiti that’s out there, too. It’s an eyesore.”
Since Superstorm Sandy swept through the northeast in 2012, the playground at the end of Hamilton Beach has sat in disrepair and disarray. Chipped paint, graffiti, and overturned flooring were only the beginning of the laundry list of things desperately waiting for a fresh start.
And despite the community’s best efforts to get its hands on funding to fix the area, bureaucratic battles between the National Parks Service and city agencies kept the Hamilton Beach playground renovations in flux.
But that all changed when Michelle Stoddart, public relations director for Resorts World Casino, delivered a mockup of the new $40,000 playground to Hamilton Beach residents at last week’s civic meeting showcasing fresh fire engine red slides and a blue and yellow exterior.
“A lot of our staff live in this community and are from this community. We thought it would be a good idea to help,” she said. “This is something we are very excited to get involved with and look forward to seeing it finished.”
Stoddart said Resorts World would be teaming up with Pavers and Road Builders Local 1010 as well as the National Parks Service to reconstruct the playground. The entire deal, she said, was also made possible because of borough elected officials helping grease the wheels.
Pomonok a sad sight lately
Flushing’s Pomonok Housing was once considered the crown jewel of the NYC Housing Authority, but some tarnish has accrued over decades of neglect, mismanagement and budget cuts, according to tenants.
Monica Corbett, president of the Pomonok Residents Association, guided elected officials through the development last Thursday to show them the unkempt grounds, flooded parking lot, broken doors and overall lack of maintenance.
Corbett said the development was once a nice place to come home to, but at this point NYCHA is demanding more money from residents for very few services. She called on the agency to work with the residents to make Pomonok a better place to live.
State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz (D-Flushing) and City Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) observed the conditions and spoke about the root causes and the need for NYCHA to address the issues.
“This is an ongoing problem,” Stavisky said. “The Dumpsters are overflowing; there’s debris on the street; we have a little lake over there in the parking lot. I’m sorry for the person whose car is partially underwater, but this shows the lack of personnel here at Pomonok to take care of these situations.”
The submerged parking space in “Lake Pomonok” costs the tenant approximately $600 for the year.
Stavisky said there are only 12 caretakers for the entire complex, down from 45 about 10 years ago. NYCHA says there are 25. There used to be seasonal summer and winter workers, but they’re gone.
Pomonok consists of 52 acres with 14 buildings and 2,171 apartments.
Seeking road relief in College Point
The streets around the College Point Corporate Park are heavily used and, according to one elected official, have been neglected for years.
State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) is calling for all governmental agencies involved to make repairs before the Police Academy opens next year. Last year, the NYPD put a temporary car tow pound in the corporate park that is expected to be there for years and adds to congestion.
At a press conference last week, Avella said that instead of making repairs to the Ulmer Street and 28th Avenue location, where issues include a partial street collapse, the city has installed a speed bump sign.
“Going over this bump, which is really a street collapse, the majority of motorists bottom out and damage their vehicles,” he said. “And this is the case for most of the roads in the area.”
Avella is asking for a meeting with the Economic Development Corp. and the city and state DOT to try to solve the problem.
Pre-K in jeopardy
A dozen facilities providing services in the city's new universal prekindergarten program won't open on time if they don't fix serious health and safety violations.
City officials say Friday they'll temporarily enroll children in other pre-K schools if the offending centers can't pass inspections by Sept. 4's opening day.
Violations requiring immediate action include expired fire extinguisher inspections, improperly stored food and blocked exits. Individual Pre-K employees won't be allowed to work if their background checks are out of date.
Health Commissioner Mary Bassett says the city is working aggressively to make sure the more than 1,110 pre-K centers are safe before children are allowed in.
She says 21 facilities were able to remedy their serious violations in the last month and are now set to open on time.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
No residency requirement for shelter placement
“Imagine trying to explain what was happening to an 8-year-old child,” resident Shakema Brown said after collecting backpacks for her kids.
The 28-year-old mother of three, including a 3-month-old, moved in with some family after her house in Pennsylvania burned down.
“We moved into the Farragut Houses in Brooklyn, but soon after they [her family] got evicted and we ended up here at the Pan Am,” she said.
Brown added that she and her children were among the first to move into the facility June 6.
Sheila Jones nodded in agreement.
“I’m a grandmother caught in a situation who’s trying to get back on my feet. We all have a story about why we’re displaced,” she said.
Jones moved back to Queens, where she was born and raised, after losing her home in Georgia. She said she was surprised when she heard the tone of the protesters.
Georgia?
Pennsylvania?
Shouldn't there be a residency requirement for getting a $4,000/mo subsidy?
COME TO NY: LAND OF THE TAXPAYING SUCKERS
Bees invade Jackson Heights condo
From NBC:
Residents at one Queens condominium are likely to be abuzz for quite awhile after tens of thousands of bees were discovered in the building's ceiling.
The manager of the Jackson Heights condo said that beekeepers came to remove a massive beehive from the building’s ceiling Thursday after the discovery was made.
It was estimated that about 40,000 bees and 17 honeycombs were removed from the building.
The beekeepers used thermal imaging to find where each of the honeycombs were, then removed each one and vacuumed the insects into containers. The bees were then all taken to a bee farm.
No more anonymous attack ads
During the 2013 City Council elections, there was more money spent on independent mailers than all of the candidates’ expenditures combined. A glaring loophole in the campaign finance law led to negative ads that were at times attacks on candidates' personal lives, backgrounds, or beliefs, councilmembers said Wednesday before a committee hearing on legislation to ban these ads.
“We want candidates to own up to what they’re saying,” said councilmember Dan Garodnick, who is introducing a bill that will require every ad or communication paid for or authorized by a candidate to disclose that information.
Councilmember Brad Lander is introducing another bill that will require all independent ads and communications relating to local elections to make clear it is funded by an outside group, and include the name of the organization’s owner, CEO, and top three donors. While many of the ads were hostile, the only information voters had about where the information was coming from was the vague and positive sounding organization names, Lander said.
We may soon have a gun offender registry
Individuals busted for gun offenses will most likely be listed on a public registry- much like sex offenders.
The city council is introducing a bill tomorrow–co-sponsored by Costa Constantinides–that aims to combat gun violence by mandating that all gun offenders are listed on an online registry, which the public can search. Individuals can sign up for free notifications, so they can be warned whenever a new offender moves into their neighborhood.
The bill, if it were to become law, would operate citywide. However, the city council is looking to pass a resolution that would ask the state to pass a bill that would put this registry into effect statewide.
More litigation possible if people don't get hired
A City Council bill barring employers from asking job candidates if they have ever been convicted of a crime is meant to help felons re-enter society.
But the fine print of the initiative could lead to lawsuits against employers, according to one legal expert.
The bill, which is likely to become law in some form, would prohibit the commonly used "check boxes" on job applications that ask about past convictions. It also would forbid employers from asking questions about an applicant's criminal history until a conditional job offer has been tendered.
A number of states have similar laws. But Mark Goldstein, a labor and employment attorney at Reed Smith LLP, says New York City’s would go further, as it would cover businesses with as few as four employees—placing new burdens on small employers. By contrast, New Jersey's recently passed law applies to businesses with 15 or more workers.
The bigger concern is lawsuits from job seekers. To be able to reject an applicant because of a past conviction, employers would have to go through a rigorous process that, if not followed, would result in the presumption that a business owner engaged in unlawful discrimination, Mr. Goldstein said.
“I think you’d see some increases in litigation, and this is not exactly a well-settled area of law,” he said.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Pickaxe waved at protest
Weeks of dispute over hiring at a new Long Island City hotel have culminated in a tense back and forth between hotel managers and the community.
Queensbridge residents and members of nonprofit Urban Upbound gathered outside the soon to open Mayflower International Hotel last Friday morning to protest alleged unfair hiring practices there. The press conference followed an episode in which Urban Upbound CEO and senior pastor at Center of Hope International Bishop Mitchell Taylor was recorded on hotel cameras shoving an employee who confronted him at the door.
Taylor and a handful of employees then exited the hotel pushing and shoving, with Taylor briefly grabbing a pickaxe and waving it upside down at the workers.
Taylor issued an apology for the violence at Friday’s rally.
“I apologize for that kind of aggression and [that] incident, but I don’t apologize for standing up for my community,” Taylor said.
A number of other speakers issued their support for Taylor regarding the altercation, including Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D-Sunnyside), who said, “I have no issues with what happened yesterday.”
Pan Am shelter a $4,000/mo hellhole
Located at 79-00 Queens Blvd., the building is now home to nearly 200 families, some of whom attended the rally, which drew a much smaller crowd than the prior events. They shared several concerns.
One resident, Christine Napolitano, said, “I’m grateful that I have a roof over my head,” but she complained that the four members of her family, including her three children, aged 16, 11 and 5, have to live in a single room.
“We’re on top of each other on a constant basis,” she said. “My kids want to kill each other. We’re not animals. We’re people who really need help. Things have to change.”
The city pays nearly $4000 a month to house Napolitano’s family, she said. And the space doesn’t even include cooking facilities.
“There is no place to eat here. It’s not allowed,” she said. “The food you wouldn’t give to your dog.”
And, once the new school year begins, she said it will be difficult for her children to continue attending the same specialized schools in the Bronx to which they are accustomed.
“They’re comfortable in those schools,” she said. She would like to be able to return with her family to the Bronx, but said, “Any changes have to be approved by the higher-ups.”
Another resident, Sheila Carroll, who has two preteen children, was similarly grateful but also expressed concerns. “I thank God for the shelter,” she said. “But I’m trying to transition back to life. Every day I’m pounding the pavement looking for affordable housing. We should have affordable housing in every section of the city. I’m tired of getting rejected.”
Carmen Rosario, who also lives in the shelter, said, “I’m here to fight. I’ve been fighting since I got here.” As the mother of a newborn and a toddler, she is disturbed over the sleeping accommodations they were provided.
“The toddler has to sleep in an infant crib,” she said. She also said the elder child got sick from the food and has a hard time keeping food down now. “Everything is liquid, liquid, liquid,” she said. “My kids need nutrition. They’re not getting the nutrition they need.”
Why does Danny Dromm support this? Why does Melissa Mark-Viverito support this? Why does Bill DeBlasio support this?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
