CPC makes street trees mandatory

...the new Section 26-41 of the Zoning Resolution, which was approved on Monday by the City Planning Commission...requires the planting of street trees for new developments, as well as major enlargements and certain conversions of existing buildings. One tree is required for every 25 feet of street frontage.

Street Trees Are No Longer an Optional Accessory

And now for something really embarrassing

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a mock infomercial for fictional LP "NYC Loves the 80s" shown as part of his March 15, 2008 Inner Circle charity show. Also features cameos of '80s mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins.

Avella's 'Clean Money, Clean Elections' bill

"In the current partial public funding system, private fundraising is mostly from large, outside donors and bundlers, whereas in under ‘Clean Money, Clean Elections’, private fundraising is strictly limited to small donations from constituents. Under the current system, the playing field isn’t leveled, it’s actually tilted. Whereas, in ‘Clean Money, Clean Elections’ all of the amounts are the same. Under the current system, campaign expenditures more than doubled in the past decade, but under this new system the costs would be controlled. Right now, consultants run campaigns, but under ‘Clean Money, Clean Elections’ the candidates will run the campaign. And finally, under the current system, special interest groups still spend millions on campaigns, but under ‘Clean Money, Clean Elections’, these same special interest groups have no special access or influence.” - Councilman Tony Avella

Avella's bill, which was submitted to the legislative drafting staff on March 10 but has not yet been introduced, would not go into effect until 2010 - a clause he inserted to avoid being accused to trying to pass something that would help his own mayoral bid. - Daily News

Blow to community facilities provision

The state’s highest court has nixed developer Gregg Singer’s plan to erect a 19-story dorm on the site of the now landmarked P.S. 64 school building on East 9th Street, just off Tompkins Square.

On Tuesday, the New York Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the city’s refusal to issue Singer a permit for his so-called “dorm for hire” because he has not managed to line up any schools or universities to lease the place.

High Court Deals Death Blow to East Village MegaDorm

Vertical vomit

Miss Heather reveals what a McMansion looks like in Williamsburg!

Just when I thought our friends off the L train could not possibly top the already strange (and in most cases hideous) melange of architecture that has recently become the standard there, a few buddies and I decided to take a walk down Jackson Street. I was, once again, proven very, very wrong.

Borden Avenue Bridge turns 100 today!

As a member of the NYC Bridge Centennial Committee and a resident of Long Island City, I would be remiss in not informing you of the following:

According to the D.O.T. web site, on this date, March 25, 1908, the current version of the Borden Avenue Bridge opened to auto and trolley traffic.

Being a history guy, I had to share this with you.

The site goes on to say, "...the bridge is a rare survivor of its type [retractile] and retains sufficient period integrity to convey its historic design significance."

Sincerely,

Richard Melnick, President
Greater Astoria Historical Society
info@astorialic.org

The latest broken transit promises

The MTA is flashing a red signal at $60 million in transit improvements the agency promised in return for fare hikes - blaming a downturn in the real-estate market.

UNFARE! TRANSIT FIX-UPS DERAILED

The now twice-delayed enhancements include new and extended bus routes, longer hours of operation and increased service on many subway lines.

The MTA said it will hold off on the improvements until June to get a clearer view of the agency's revenue picture to decide if it will be able follow through on the promised benefits later this year.

More from the NY Times.

No wonder people don't believe the congestion pricing promises.

Here's a real way to remove unnecessary cars from the road. The first phase of it will hopefully be underway next year (unless they renege on that, too).

(Little confused about #3 in the Post's graphic since the R already goes to 71st-Continental Ave)

W.E.B. DuBois home not landmarked

The exterior of the Addisleigh Park home where Du Bois, 83, wed Shirley Graham, 54, is remarkably unchanged from what the couple's friends would recall. But it also remains unlandmarked at a time when a building boom is sweeping across the borough.

"It's a site that needs some recognition by the Landmarks Commission," said NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, heaping praise upon Du Bois, the organization's co-founder.

House where civil-rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois lived not landmarked

The home's current owner, Helen Baldwin, said her family moved there in the 1970s and has made only minor changes, like fixing the roof and adding a layer of stucco.

Baldwin said she wants to stay in the house, but developers keep calling unprompted to ask if she's selling it. She also said she wouldn't alter its look, adding, "I like it the way it is."

Even if it's sold, high-rise developers need not apply. Recent zoning changes restrict the area to one-family homes, said Yvonne Reddick, district manager of Community Board 12.

But only landmarking would prevent someone from knocking down the historic house.

Mum's the word from LPC

So the Daily News did a story on the Ridgewood Theatre today. But this was the most revealing excerpt of the whole thing, in Crappy's opinion:

It is unknown whether the Ridgewood was included on the commission's recent survey of 12,495 Queens buildings. Landmarks officials refused to provide the survey to Queens News.

Hey LPC, what's the big secret?

Hiram goes Batty

From the Village Voice:

While the city has had a number of nicknames over the years, no official second appellation exists. Now, one elected official is pushing the City Council to designate
“Gotham City” as New York City’s chief nickname just in time for the summer release of "Batman: The Dark Night."

Councilman Goes to Bat for 'Gotham City'

Queens Councilman Hiram Monserrate, who counts Batman as one of his childhood heroes, views his Gotham City pitch as a tourist lure. “I see that as a marketing tool, ‘Come visit the real Gotham City,’ taking advantage of this movie which will be one of those gate-breaking, record-selling movies like it always is,” he said.

Forgotten NY visits Horse Brook

Looks like Mazeartist has made the big time, having authored his first page on FNY...(and he appears to be a handsome young lad). Hey, since he mentioned the Rego Park Mall expansion, you might want to read this story about how surrounding homes are sinking because of the dewatering going on there.

The smallest house in Queens?

I was planning to take a shot at the smallest house in Queens (which is probably not a house but a toolshed that looks like one), but thankfully, LiQCity beat me to it.

They wuz bribed

Transportation Officials Plead Guilty To Bribery
Special to the Sun
March 25, 2008

Two city transportation officials pleaded guilty yesterday for their involvement in a $450,000 bribery scheme with a construction company that worked on the Third Avenue Bridge, which spans the Harlem River.

The officials, Balram Chandiramani, director of movable bridges for the Department of Transportation, and Uday Shah, 46, an assistant civil engineer for the department, admitted to demanding bribes from Kiska Construction Corp. in exchange for helping it obtain a favorable settlement in a legal dispute with the city.

Chandiramani and Shah each face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine under the terms of their plea agreements.

Photo from Wired New York

New use for street trees

What do we have here? Advertising for a parking lot on a street tree!
Wait, make that both sides of a street tree.
Looks like the poor tree got screwed... Shame on you, Artistic Stitch! If only we had a councilman, I'd get his office right on it.
I suppose since the place is located in a piece of Queens Crap, we shouldn't be surprised.

Fortunately, Crappy didn't get jumped like this NY Times reporter did while photographing illegal signs.

Another quality repair job by DOT

Located on 69th Street at 58th Avenue in Maspeth. Now that's low maintenance!

Deported MS-13er caught crossing border

Deported MS-13 member busted at U.S. border
BY JOSEPH MALLIA joseph.mallia@newsday.com

An MS-13 gang member with a lengthy criminal history, deported six years ago after serving time in the Nassau County jail, was captured Monday morning in California trying to sneak back into the United States, a Border Patrol spokesman said.

The man, whose name has not yet been released by federal authorities, is now in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego, said Border Patrol Agent Mark Endicott, a bureau spokesman based in Chula Vista, Calif.

"He did time in a Long Island, Nassau County jail, and as soon as he was released he was deported to El Salvador" in February 2002, the spokesman said.

The man jumped the fence at the U.S.-Mexico border at around 6:30 a.m. at a border station near a mountainous region about 35 miles east of San Diego, Endicott said. The border crossing is situated north of Tecate in the Baja California region of Mexico.

The man took advantage of darkness just before sunrise Monday and climbed over the border fence to avoid inspection by Customs officials at the crossing, but he was spotted by a Customs officer who alerted the Border Patrol, Endicott said.

He admitted being an MS-13 member, and he has a lengthy criminal history, Endicott said.

The man faces criminal prosecution for trying to sneak back into the U.S. due to his status as a deportee, a more severe U.S. criminal penalty than an undocumented alien who is caught for the first time entering the country, Endicott said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in a news release, said the man "admitted to being a member of the violent street gang" Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.

A report in the San Diego Union-Tribune said the Salvadoran national, 34, "told investigators he had been a member of Mara Salvatrucha since age 18, and had been fully involved with the gang in New York City."
____________________________________________

Hey, next time just take a boat to the good 'ol port of New York. We offer sanctuary to your kind, after all. We understand that illegal aliens are not dangerous criminals. We don't care what the Feds say.

All hands on deck

City officials are trying to cement a unified response plan to confront what some climate scientists say is an increased risk of flooding in parts of Manhattan.

Floods this week in Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky have resulted in at least 11 deaths. A number of local climatologists are predicting that New York City — with its nearly 600 miles of waterfront — faces similar risks, or worse.

A research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Klaus Jacob, predicts that increasing sea levels and unpredictable weather patterns tied to global warming mean that hurricane-type storms in New York could increase to a frequency of one every decade.

Over the next 80 years, sea levels around New York City could rise anywhere from 11.8 to 37.5 inches, according to calculations issued by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, a federal agency. The result could be flooding in low-lying neighborhoods and the repeated shutdowns of the metropolitan transportation system.

Unified Response Is Sought For Flood Plan for the City

The Bloomberg administration has tasked a number of its agencies, including the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Buildings, the Department of Sanitation, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the city's Office of Emergency Management, to work in concert with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross to improve the city's response to flooding.

Well then why worry? We're obviously in capable hands...

Zoning Concerns

Dear Editor:

A community facility such as a church or a school or a medical building or even a college dormitory may be built in most zoning designations as a right without community input. The facility built can exceed the zoning designation regulations.

For example, a building currently under construction in Bayside in an R4 zone should only reach a maximum height of 35 feet. But because this building will have some doctors’ offices in it and is considered a community facility, it gets dispensation from those requirements and will be six stories high, reaching a height of approximately 60 feet. The majority of the units in this so called community facility will be residential in nature. This affects schools, parking, sewers and other infrastructure issues, and impacts negatively on the rest of the community.

The examples of this type of abuse are numerous. The controversy over the building of the dormitory to house St. John’s University students has been in the forefront of the news of late. This six story proposed structure will be built in a residential neighborhood, again, as of right. The university did not even have the courtesy to discuss this matter with the community. It was a surprise. Such highhanded behavior is unacceptable and this type of building is inappropriate for this area.

Consider the day care center that is planned for the corner of Francis Lewis Boulevard and 42nd Avenue in Auburndale. This community facility will accommodate a minimum of 175 children ages 2 to 6. Only two parking spaces will be on-site. The surrounding community is swamped with parked cars since P.S. 130 is directly across the street. This is a heavily trafficked area and the facility will have no drive-in to drop off or pick up the children. In addition, the facility will have a roof top playground and will also have some classrooms in a sub-basement without windows. Is this appropriate or safe for such young children?

The community has major concerns but the facility can go up as of right. The Board of Standards and Appeals will be hearing an application from the developer of this facility to build in a bed of a mapped street on April 8 at 10 a.m. but the agency has no obligation to act on the concerns or needs of the community. This is not right.

It is obvious that significant changes must be made to the community facilities part of the zoning code. Councilman Tony Avella has set forth several proposals that should ameliorate the problems. His proposals would reduce the bulk bonus that community facilities currently enjoy, reduce the number/type of facilities that qualify as community facilities and prohibit community facilities from violating height restrictions in the zoning code. Other proposals are under consideration as well.

The bottom line is that we must work to ensure the stability of our communities and our quality of life. Community facilities are necessary but must not impact negatively on their neighbors.

Henry Euler,
Bayside

Yankee Stadium's public costs skyrocket

The cost of replacing the parkland being destroyed to build the new Yankee Stadium has ballooned to $190 million - 48% more than the city had anticipated, city officials said Wednesday.

Costs for park at old Yankee Stadium jump 48%

How Much Is That Stadium In The Window?

Photo from Village Voice

The unpopular temple proposal

The owners want to build a temple, which they can do since it will be a community facility. However, they seek a variance so they can provide fewer parking spaces than legally required and to build a larger building above ground so the women will have enough space to sit above the main sanctuary. They can legally build on what they have, but they worry that what they can build will be too small for their needs or wants. But if they are permitted to provide fewer parking spaces, it will cause problems for their neighbors.

Plans for new temple rile Jamaica Estates

The lot at the corner of Chevy Chase Street and 80th Road would be the third temple site on the block, with Hillcrest Jewish Center behind it on Union Turnpike and Anshe Shalom under construction at the corner of 80th Road and Kent Street. Another temple is across Union Turnpike at 180th Street.

CB 8 votes down temple over parking

After the meeting, one resident said the temples influence who chooses to move to the area, that when she moved into a neighborhood 34 years ago with people of all faiths and ethnicities, now the majority of newcomers are Jewish.

"I feel like I'm living in a ghetto. And I'm Jewish," she said.