Big long bus route proposed

From the Daily News:

The city’s most ambitious plan to speed bus travel to date — an approximately $200 million, 14-mile super route through the heart of Queens — was unveiled by the de Blasio administration Tuesday.

The design features bus-only lanes, curbside fare payment and wireless technology that activates green lights for approaching buses between Woodside in the north all the way down to the Rockaways on the southern coast.

A six-mile segment in the center of the route along Woodhaven and Cross Bay Blvds. will be the most dramatically altered, with separate lanes for local and through traffic, turning restrictions and wide, landscaped pedestrian islands for riders getting on and off buses, officials said.

Construction is expected to start in 2017 and take about one year, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said. The entire project is estimated to cost $200 million, officials said.

When finished, the seven Select Bus Routes created by the city since 2008 will pale in comparison, Trottenberg said.

Racist graffiti-bombs Astoria subway station

"Another one for American Eagle Outfitters, had "Slut" written on the model. The Abraham Lincoln exhibition advert had the N-bomb scrawled on it. It was smudged, but there." - Anonymous

Parks destroys 100 year old Astoria tree

From CBS 2:

People in the neighborhood said the Parks Department told them the old tree was rotted and hollow inside. But when they cut it down, it was not hollow at all.

“You didn’t have to be an expert to see, it’s a healthy; a very healthy tree,” said Anna Jutis.
Jutis has admired the tree for the 45 years she has lived in the area. Now, she and others are mourning its loss.

Patterson said she was assured multiple times by city officials that the tree would be safe.
“Their exact words were, ‘It will never be cut down, because it’s a landmark,’” she said.
But now, they are left with a stump, and pieces of the tree as souvenirs.

Big Glendale property sold

From the Observer:

A 94,000-square-foot property in the Glendale section of Queens has sold for $9.18 million to two different buyers, according to Avison Young, the brokerage firm that represented the seller and one of the buyers.

The property at 79-40 Cooper Avenue includes eight lots, a 50,000-square-foot industrial building, two attached residential buildings, two parking lots and vacant land spread over two acres.

The seller of the property was Hansel ‘n Gretel Brand, a deli processor that had been in business for 140 years that has since closed. Hansel ‘n Gretel Brand occupied the industrial building until last year.

Carye & Sons Acquisitions, a family-owned real estate company, bought the majority of the property, including all of the holdings along Cooper Avenue, for around $7 million. This included four lots, a vacant piece of land and the industrial building. Carye & Sons plans to redevelop the industrial property on the site into an 80,000-square-foot self-storage and retail building.

The remaining piece of the property, including a parking lot and two residential dwellings, was sold to an adjacent landowner for $2.2 million. Right Time Realty’s Joe Ibrahim represented the buyer on this transaction. Mr. Ibrahim could not immediately be reached for comment.

Forest Hills mansion tops $3M

From Curbed:

This 5,000-square-foot mansion in Forest Hills, Queens was built in 2006, after the owners' previous home was destroyed in a fire. As traumatic as that experience must have been, it did afford them the opportunity to design their dream home from the ground up, and the property now sports five fireplaces, radiant marble heated floors, built in speakers, occasional soaring vaulted ceilings, and various outdoor spaces including a balcony, terrace, garden, and patio. Relisted a week ago, it's now asking $3.289 million.

Contract awarded for tunnel repairs

From the Queens Courier:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that the MTA is expected to award a four-year, $236.5 million contract to rebuild the Queens Midtown Tunnel, which since the 2012 hurricane has been operating with temporary repairs. Around 40 percent of the length of tunnel was submerged in 12 million gallons of salt water during the storm.

The contract, which will be completed with Judlau Contracting Inc., was approved by the MTA Bridges and Tunnels Committee on Monday and is expected to be approved by the full MTA board on Wednesday.

LIC Clock Tower to be calendared

From Brownstoner:

Awesome news for preservationists in Queens! This Tuesday the Landmarks Preservation Commission will calendar the LIC Clock Tower — officially known as The Bank of the Manhattan Company Long Island City Branch Building — to be considered for landmark status. Located at 29-27 Queens Plaza North, preservationists have rallied around this neo-Gothic structure, built in 1927, which is not protected from demolition. And recently, news came out that the owners of the clock tower, Property Markets Group, planned to develop 830,000 square feet on the surrounding land.

Sounds like someone wants those air rights for the adjacent property.

It's time to clean up the brownfields program

From Capital New York:

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on a statewide brownfield cleanup program that is woefully insufficient, according to a report issued by a leading environmental advocacy group in New York.

"The current program is out of control," Peter Iwanowicz, head of Environmental Advocates of New York, said in statement accompanying the report. "Taxpayers are footing the bill for an extraordinarily costly and broken system that is in desperate need of reform.”

The report, entitled "Ripe for Reform," says that since 2009, close to $800 million in tax breaks have gone to redevelopment at brownfield sites and not for cleanup, leaving thousands of sites in need of remediation. In releasing the report last week, the group joined Citizens Budget Commission in urging Albany to enact reforms proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Brownfields are sites of concentrated contamination that are the environmental legacy of New York's 20th century manufacturing industry. Former gas and oil refineries, chemical plants and foundries are the chief sites in need of remediation.

According to the EANY report, whole regions of the state have been ignored by New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program, while the "cleanup" aspect of the program has given way to lucrative redevelopment tax credits. The group reports that 86 percent of all payouts since 2009 have been redevelopment credits as opposed to remediation costs.

How we'll be screwed, in a nutshell

Draft Scope DCP of Proposed Zoning Changes - Review

QCC Members

Attached, with great thanks and appreciation to Paul Graziano, is Paul's analysis of the subject plan. This five page document boils down the mayor's proposed changes to NYC zoning that will be heard at Wednesday's scoping meeting.

PLEASE DON'T FORGET THERE WILL BE A RALLY. PRESS CONFERENCE AT 3PM WEDNESDAY ON THE STEPS OF CITY HALL.

After you read Paul's synopsis, or the whole 166 pages, we hope you will understand the urgency and come out Wednesday. As civics we have all fought for dozens of years to protect and systain our communities - of whatever nature - from over development. The mayor's (or should we say, developers) plan will dramatically affect the shape and size of our neighborhoods forever.

We hope to see a huge, city-wide turnout on Wednesday. The scoping meeting will follow at 4pm at 22 Reade Street, only a few blocks away.

Once again, our thanks to Paul for this monumental effort.

Richard Hellenbrecht, V.P.

Trains late a lot

From DNA Info:

You're not imagining it — your commute has been off the rails recently.

Delays increased on most subway lines in 2014, with about 20 percent of all trains on the tracks arriving late to their stations and medium and major delays increasing sharply, according to MTA records.

The problem was the worst on the 5 train, which saw 32 percent of its trains delayed.

The news coincides with a fare increase this past weekend, taking the basic fare on the system to $2.75.

Experts are divided on what's been bringing your ride to a screeching halt, with MTA officials pointing to a surge in ridership and commuter advocates blaming a lack of funding for needed infrastructure repairs.

Hmmm...surge in ridership? So we shouldn't have been upzoning all those areas near a subway?

Same old story in Bayside

Another nasty parking situation in Bayside.

This property has had multiple complaints about a variety of issues.

They got banged for the curb cut back in 2009, but nothing was done about it.

Dromm to introduce immigrant voting rights bill

From Newsday:

The City Council is drafting legislation to let noncitizens vote in New York City's municipal elections, a move that could bolster the clout of recent immigrants in races across the five boroughs.

The policy, if enacted, would make the city one of just eight jurisdictions in the nation, and by far the largest, where U.S. citizenship isn't required to cast a ballot, according to iVote NYC, a coalition of immigrant advocates and allied groups that supports the change.

Dromm said a bill is being readied and conversations with the mayor's office would begin soon. The change would cover only New York City residents with legal immigration status.

I gotta get outta here

Here we go with the Archie Bunker and Queen Catherine references again...

The Revolutionary part of the twisted history lesson was pretty much lifted word for word from Forgotten NY.

The rest of the mess is here.

My favorite is the headline that promised "authentic ethnic eats" where she proceeded to chow down on hamburgers.

DOB says problem is resolved...but it's not

"Spotted this piece of Queens Crap today while driving in Bayside. Maybe the DOB will shift some building inspectors back to Queens if more people make 311 complaints about all the illegal parking going on in Northern Queens." - anonymous

The owner got banged for this in 2006. And got it "resolved" in 2011.

So much for that.

de Blasio is no progressive

From the Daily News:

The Campaign for One New York buys television advertisements; coordinates grassroots organizing campaigns; and employs and coordinates with allies of the mayor, including former staffers.

In short, it works as a campaign apparatus in years when there’s no election.

The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling blew the doors off all previous attempts to limit outside money in government — and made hefty political spending by outside groups inevitable.

But it’s no small irony that the man putting the nail in the coffin of the city’s campaign finance caps is Big Bill, progressive friend of the little man.

Hipster feedback sought at Fort Tilden

From DNA Info:

The government has been looking for input on rehabbing popular hipster summer hangout Fort Tilden, but hearing from locals isn't enough, so it wants feedback from summer visitors as well.

The National Parks Service is only in the initial stages of the process of changing access points and replenishing the beach inside the Gateway National Recreation Area, which was badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy, officials said.

The NPS sought public input before construction begins, but have only heard from area residents and local fishermen, according to a Parks spokeswoman, Daphne Yun.

Yun said she hopes to get the input of other groups that use the beach like day visitors from around the city who tend to flock during the summer months.

What happened to the parking lot plan?

From Curbed:

Something big is going up on the site of the shuttered Flushing Mall. Rumors of the mall's demise have been swirling since way back in 2011, but the foodie haven finally closed its doors this year and, it seems, will be razed to make room for a new development. YIMBY spotted plans for a 13-story, 192-apartment building with cellar-floor retail space near the site, and believes they're connected to the Two Fulton Square development. The new plans were filed by One Fulton Square developer F & T Group for the site bounded by College Point Boulevard, 37th Avenue, Prince Street, and 39th Avenue.

I seem to recall that the plan for this site was for it to be replacement parking for Municipal Lot 1 while construction was taking place, which will take years. So why are we seeing building plans for this site now?

An end to hotels in IBZs?

From Crains:

As the city's manufacturing sector awaits Mayor Bill de Blasio's long-promised industrial policy, one private-sector insider predicts with professed certainty that it will call for an end to as-of-right hotel construction in light-manufacturing zones.

In other words, hotel developers would need some sort of political approval, either a special permit or a zoning exception from the Board of Standards and Appeals, or new zoning from the City Council and mayor. "I'm sure that's what it will be," the source said.

Moreover, the insider said there might be an outright ban on new hotels in industrial business zones, or IBZs, which are manufacturing districts singled out by the Bloomberg administration for extra protection from nonindustrial uses.

More than a few manufacturers would welcome such reforms. They say an influx of hotels in their districts has put upward pressure on land prices and rents, threatening the viability of longtime businesses that have expiring leases, and tempting those who own their buildings to sell to developers who want to construct hotels or apartments.

An important message from HDC

Dear Friend in Preservation,

We need your help. The de Blasio administration is made it obvious that the preservation of New York City’s character is not being considering in their plans for the future. As citizens and organizations who are working to preserve and uplift New York, we need to make the Mayor hear our voices and address our concerns. HDC and our colleagues are planning a press conference next Wednesday at 3pm on the steps of City Hall to express our concerns about the Mayor’s citywide rezoning proposal ‘Zoning for Quality and Affordability’ – an anti-neighborhood proposal which would slash neighborhood zoning protections and lift height limits in both contextual and non-contextual zones. The press conference will be at 3pm and the public hearing on the scoping begins at 4pm at a few blocks away at City Planning, 22 Reade Street.

I’m asking for you help with three things.

1. Please lend your name and support to the attached open letter to the Mayor. Let me know if I can add your organization to the list of supporters. I’m also collecting individual supporters (if so, please tell me which neighborhood you should be identified from). This letter will be going out next week to the Mayor and the press.

2. Please come and participate at the rally on Wednesday 3/25 at 3pm on City Hall steps. We need a good showing to voice our concerns.

3. Testify at the City Planning scoping hearing which starts at 4pm. I have cut and pasted below a template for testimony and/or a letter you can send in (they are accepting comments until April 6). Please let me know if you can testify and/or send in a letter.

It’s vital that we get the message out now that neighborhoods across the City are very concerned about the proposal and the impact it would have, esp. in terms of the lifting of height limits and the way in which this proposal is being rushed through. I hope you can join us.

Best,


Simeon Bankoff
Executive Director
Historic Districts Council
sbankoff@hdc.org
____________________________________

rdobrus@planning.nyc.gov

fax 212-720-3495

Robert Dobruskin, AICP, Director
Environmental Assessment and Review Division
New York City Department of City Planning
22 Reade Street
New York, NY 10007

Re: ‘Zoning for Quality and Affordability,’ CEQR No. 15DCP104Y

Dear Director Dobruskin:

I have several very strong concerns regarding the proposed scope of the environmental review for this application, and urge that the scope be expanded.

First, it is imperative that the scope of the review allow for the possibility of the existing height limits for contextual zones and for the Quality Housing program to remain in place. It is one thing to suppose that the City could benefit from having contextual districts with different height limits than those which currently exist, and to examine where such changes might be appropriate; it is another to retroactively change the existing limits everywhere they currently exist, and eliminate the current limits across the board.

It is also imperative that the scope look at the impact which allowing taller development with greater volumes, as proposed, would have on historic resources, neighborhood character, and shadows, especially in and around parks and other light-sensitive resources. While the Landmarks Preservation Commission would continue to regulate the allowable size of new developments and additions in historic districts, important historic resources also exist outside of designated historic districts. Under this plan, the incentive for demolition of such resources would increase, as would the likelihood of vertical extensions being added. Larger and taller construction in neighborhoods, and especially in areas of historic resources, would in many cases have a negative impact which should be measured. Similarly, the larger, taller buildings allowed under this plan would cast larger shadows, impacting parks, playgrounds, and other light-sensitive sites.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

No eminent domain plans for affordable housing (right now)

From CBS New York:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious redevelopment plans won’t involve the use of eminent domain to acquire property, Planning Director Carl Weisbrod said Tuesday.

The mayor’s planning priorities include building more affordable housing and rezoning a five-block stretch of midtown Manhattan adjacent to Grand Central Terminal.

“I don’t see us using eminent domain in a broad way,” Weisbrod told a real estate conference hosted by Crain’s New York Business. “I don’t believe that it’s going to be in our toolbox.”