LIC you later!

From the NY Post:

Officials and business leaders want to change the name of Queens neighborhood Long Island City to the trendier “LIC” — so as not to be confused with Long Island.

“It’s bad for hotels, it’s bad for real estate, and it’s bad for morale,” explained Rob MacKay, head of the Queens Local Development Corp. Tourism Council and a Long Island City resident.

“It puts us out on Long Island, and that’s inaccurate — we are urban and hip.”

The name is also a problem when MacKay tries to persuade foreign travel agents to book guests in the neigbhorhood’s hotels.

“They are constantly telling me that when they do booking and see Long Island City, they say, ‘Oh, that’s too far’ from Manhattan — they think it’s either in suburban hell or the Hamptons.”

The 21 hotels in Long Island City’s East River waterfront area could be losing 5 percent of their business simply because of the confusion, said Jeffrey Reich-Hale of the Wyndham Garden hotel.

“All people focus on is the name,” Reich-Hale said.

“From a marketing standpoint, it’s difficult selling the area and letting people know we’re not on Long Island, we’re two [subway] stops from Manhattan.”

Like you people haven't done enough damage to Queens already. Pack up and get out if you can't make money here.

They want out

From the Daily News:

On the far end of Staten Island, on a vulnerable patch of marshland, a collection of modest bungalows was hit so hard by Hurricane Sandy that the entire neighborhood is getting ready to pack up and leave.

Eighty percent of the 183 homeowners in a six-block section of Oakwood Beach have banded together to ask Gov. Cuomo to buy them out — all of them at once.

The state will use federal funds and offer 100% of the home’s prestorm value, plus a 5% bonus for acting as a group — a sweetener meant to encourage conversion of larger swaths of land.

It’s modeled on a similar federal program that has slightly stricter requirements. A Cuomo aide said the state and city are asking the feds to approve $200 million for buyouts for all five boroughs.

In fact, the neighborhood has suffered a Job-like history, walloped by a 1992 nor’easter, incinerated by a 2008 fire in the marsh, then drowned by Hurricane Irene in 2011.

He grifted granny

From Eyewitness News:

Some homeowners were looking to renovate their homes and found what they thought was the perfect contractor to get the job done.

Now they claim that contractor swindled them out of tens of thousands of dollars without finishing the work.

And this isn't the first time he's accused of running the scam.

"How much?" Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter Jim Hoffer asked.

"$38,000," said Carmen Grant, a Laurelton, Queens resident.

That's how much money Carmen Grant gave to a contractor to renovate her kitchen.

"Most contractors complete their job," Hoffer said.

"No, he did not complete his job. He left with my money and never came back," Grant said.

Illegals saying "adios?"

From the NY Times:

New York has far fewer illegal immigrants than California, Texas and Florida, and their ranks have been declining, according to a new analysis by the Center for Migration Studies’ International Migration Review.

The analysis by the academic journal estimated that New York was home to 750,000 of the nation’s 11.7 million unauthorized immigrants in 2010, compared with 2.9 million in California, 1.6 million in Texas and 1 million in Florida.

The influx of unauthorized immigrants peaked in 2000, the analysis said, and by 2009 New York was one of 29 states that recorded a net loss – 35,000 – in that population.

Meanwhile, Florida and several other southern states reported gains in their illegal immigrant population that year.

Generally, the decline reflected the impact of the recession on jobs.

Barclays jobs a bust

From DNA Info:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg listed the Barclays Center's economic impact at the top of his administration's achievements in his State of the City speech Thursday, but most jobs at the new arena are part-time and don't come with benefits, arena officials said recently.

Bloomberg highlighted the 2,000 permanent jobs created by the new arena in his final State of the City address, which was delivered at the Barclays Center. The mayor noted that some 30 percent of Barclays Center employees are, like part owner Jay-Z once was, residents of public housing.

All told, 75 percent of the arena's employees are Brooklynites, Bloomberg said.

But of the 2,000 positions, only 100 are full-time jobs. The rest are part-time positions that don't offer health insurance, said Forest City Ratner Companies spokeswoman Ashley Cotton at a recent public meeting about the arena's impact on the surrounding area.

Gib Veconi of the neighborhood advocacy group Brooklyn Speaks said that while the jobs are a welcome change for unemployed Brooklynites, the number and quality of jobs at the Barclays Center don't measure up to what was originally promised, and pale in comparison to the amount of public subsidies the arena received.

The city's Independent Budget Office has calculated that the arena received about $750 million in direct and indirect taxpayer-funded subsidies, Veconi said.

"If you divide that by 2,000 jobs, that's $375,000 a job," Veconi said. "When you look at it in that light, does that seem like it measures up to what the public put into the project? No. You would hope that we created permanent full-time jobs that could support a family for $375,000 of the public's money."

Barclays also laid off a boatload of people recently, with another wave of layoffs coming.

So why should we trust the jobs claims of those pushing stadiums and shopping malls in Flushing Meadows knowing this info about the huge arena that was built in Brooklyn? McJobs are McJobs.

Pimp operated out of foreclosed house

From CBS New York:

A Queens couple accused of brutalizing two runaways have been charged with sex trafficking, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced Friday.

Hikeem Green, 38, and his girlfriend Darcell Marshall, 22, allegedly held a 19-year-old from Rockland County and a 20-year-old from New York City in a foreclosed home they illegally occupied.

Green is accused of a raft of crimes in the case: kidnapping, rape, criminal sexual act, sex trafficking, promoting prostitution and more. He faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. He’s being held on $800,000 bail.

Marshall is being held on $150,000 bail. She faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Woodhaven shithouse

From the Queens Chronicle:

The home at 80-87 88 Ave. in Woodhaven has been leaking raw sewage from a broken pipe on the side of the house for months and the problem appears to have only exacerbated. Now, the sewage has frozen into a dangerous sheet of yellow and brown ice along the sidewalk and in the street.

Ed Wendell, president of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association, said the home has been a problem for a while.

“It’s pretty disgusting,” he said. “It’s a real quality-of-life issue for the neighborhood.”

Outside the home, the sidewalk on 85th Street was covered with a sheet of ice for over a week. The leaking raw sewage freezes at night and, since the location of the leak along the side on the house on 85th Street is such that there’s little direct sunlight, stays frozen for most of the day.

The foot or so of snow that fell on the neighborhood last week didn’t help at all. Piles of shoveled snow in the street created a dam of sorts that backs up the leaking sewage onto the sidewalk.

The house itself doesn’t appear to be in any organized condition. On its front porch, children’s toys sit stacked and lined up. Rugs and clothing are strewn across the back fence.

The home is owned by Noris Requena. A phone number registered to Requena at an address in South Richmond Hill is out of service and no one answered knocks on the door Tuesday morning.

A reader who sent this link to me said the response he got from DEP was:

The Department of Environmental Protection investigated this complaint and determined that no repair is needed.

DOB failed to investigate either of the complaints filed this year.

Be glad it's February and not August...

Yay or nay on styrofoam ban?

From Crains:

Barely 24 hours have passed since Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed an all-out ban on plastic foam food containers in the city and already New Yorkers are asking: So what do we use instead?

Mr. Bloomberg's announcement, made Thursday in his State of the City address, left consumers and food vendors big and small wondering what a city free of plastic foam might look like.

Polystyrene foam containers have long been used by street vendors and take-out restaurants as a cheap way to keep in the heat—and sauces—of meals sold to on-the-go customers.

"If they ban it all, we'll have to use aluminum storage containers," said Paul Gopaul, 29, owner of the popular Midtown food truck Faith's Halal Food. "Definitely we'd have a price change."

Mr. Gopaul estimated he uses 500 plastic foam food containers a week, which he buys in packs of 175 containers that sell for $15 at a Queens supplier. The aluminum containers of equal size run about $5 more per pack, he said.

If the City Council were truly concerned about our environment, they wouldn't allow powerplants to be built on parkland by private corporations and wouldn't approve contaminated schools.  I guess they feel doing this would make up for their other transgressions.

Quinn, the developers' handmaiden

From the NY Times:

A centerpiece of Christine C. Quinn’s plan to keep housing affordable in New York City is a variation on a proposed tax subsidy for landlords that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg forcefully rejected two years ago as an unacceptably generous giveaway to the real estate industry.

Aides to Ms. Quinn, the speaker of the City Council and a leading Democratic candidate for mayor, acknowledged that the idea had come from the city’s real estate industry, one of Ms. Quinn’s closest allies and biggest campaign donors.

But, the aides said, Ms. Quinn had altered the proposal in important ways since it was heavily criticized by the Bloomberg administration, and predicted that it could, over time, preserve the dwindling supply of apartments that are within reach of the city’s middle-class families.

She unveiled the plan in her State of the City speech on Monday.

The measure and its origins highlight a recurring tension in Ms. Quinn’s rise to political power, between her passion as a former housing activist for liberal causes and her growing willingness to work with the corporate interests that control the levers of power in the city.

City developers and landlords, led by their powerful trade group, the Real Estate Board of New York, have long sought a real estate tax cap, which would guarantee them a discounted and predictable long-term tax bill in return for renting out some apartments at below-market rates.

Which still won't make them affordable enough.

2nd Open Letter to the City Council of New York Sent To All Members

February 5, 2013

Dear Council Members:

I had recently written to each and every one of you regarding your inaction with respect to the Mayor’s unilateral ban on sweetened drinks larger than 16 ounces. Council Member Halloran was kind enough to provide me with a well-written letter signed by himself and 13 members of the City Council and sent to Mayor Bloomberg on June 1, 2012 protesting the enactment of the ban. To those of you that signed this letter, I applaud your stand for freedom. To those of you who failed to sign that letter, your silence is resounding. Council Members Peter Vallone and Mark Weprin responded to my letter citing that the soda ban was outside of the auspices of the City Council, which now leads me to address a few pieces of legislation for which your chamber is responsible.

Several years ago, Council Member Vallone, in some misguided effort to address the graffiti epidemic, sponsored legislation which sought to penalize the owners of certain property types for failing to remove graffiti from their property within 30 days. I thought for sure that no majority on the City Council would lack common sense and fairness enough to pass such an idiotic bill. I was wrong. That bill became law and is now on our books as the only law in this state, of which I am aware, that punishes the victim of a crime. What right does the City Council have to add insult to the injury that a property owner suffers after realizing that some lowlife spray painted his property? This law is repugnant to both reason and justice. While the City now provides free graffiti removal, the very fact that a DOB inspector could issue a violation against that owner each and any time the City’s coffers get low is simply unacceptable to the people of the City of New York. There is no way that a majority of the citizens of the city would ever pass such an unjust law and this law should be repealed.

The second piece of ridiculous legislation enacted by your chamber, among many, is the law which subjects a law abiding citizen to a summons for being in a playground without the accompaniment of a child. Some genius in your ranks thought it proper to prohibit 100% of law abiding citizens from sitting in a playground because a fraction of 1% might be pedophiles. Decapitation is a certain cure for a headache but intelligent people would never employ it as such. And, yes, in your defense, there are some citizens that buy into the fear-mongering that our media and politicians have fostered. However, there is simply no way that a majority of citizens in this city would ever pass this law.

The problem is that most of you do not care about the majority of the citizens of New York City. You made that very clear when you committed the greatest betrayal of public trust in my lifetime by overriding not one, but two, citizen referenda limiting the term limits of city officials to two. Those of you that voted to extend those term limits are a disgrace to office and to call yourself a representative is laughable. You don’t represent the citizens of this great city; you represent the tyranny of Bloomberg. You should have been voted out of office as the traitors that you are, shameless cowards who have no respect for the will of the people that you purportedly represent. Who would have thought that the greatest threat to our democracy would come from within? And perhaps your betrayal would not have been so bad if it weren’t in favor of a non-New Yorker who has committed the most prolific assault on individual liberty that this great city has ever known; a man who was willing to forsake the tragedy of people losing their homes to Hurricane Sandy so that he could watch a marathon go forward. We all know it was not political pressure or his sense of right and wrong that prevailed upon Mayor Bloomberg but rather the fast-growing reality that he would face the violent wrath of angry Staten Island residents if he allowed it to proceed. It is to that bully whom a majority of you have shamefully pledged your allegiance. Not even Rudy got a third term after 9/11, the only time in our history it could arguably have been warranted.

To Members Quinn, Vallone and Co. who now seek the higher offices of mayor, borough president or comptroller, who violated the greatest mandate of true democracy, the referendum, and who supported the assault on individual liberty, do the people of this city a favor and get out of government. An elected person who enacts legislation restricting individual rights that would not be passed by a majority of the citizens is no representative at all but rather a rogue politician who has an agenda other than what is best for the citizens they purport to represent. Perhaps your efforts would have been better served making sure that neighborhoods, such as my old Astoria, did not become vertically overgrown such that the character is no longer cognizable as a neighborhood. Instead, you arrogantly helped yourselves and King Bloomberg to a third term. In any event, your kind is not suitable to represent the citizens of New York.

We, the people, need leaders who are willing to stand up for the citizens they represent and lie down in front of an earth-moving machine when the government, local, state, or federal, seeks to take a portion of Flushing-Meadow Park or Willets Point under some misguided notion of “eminent domain.” We do not need leaders who pander to developers to have their picture taken when the ground is broken. That is not leadership; it is sellout. Individual rights must be restored and both the private and public property of the citizens of New York must never be allowed to be taken for any private purpose, period. As I said in my first letter, I will do all to awaken the Patrick Henry in each of my fellow citizens so that they will remember how you violated the will of the people four years ago and send you packing in November. And if you happen to win, you shall remain imposters.

Sincerely,

William J. Cariello III

Looking to reduce airport noise

From the Daily News:

Queens elected officials are urging the FAA to redesign flight patterns to curb aircraft noise around its two airports.

The Federal Aviation Administration changed flight patterns at LaGuardia and JFK Airports about a year ago, prompting a new round of complaints among neighbors.

Reps. Grace Meng (D-Queens) and Steve Israel (D-Queens, Long Island) sent a letter to the FAA this week requesting a meeting with the head of the agency to discuss the concerns.

“The noise is a very serious problem. It is disruptive,” Israel told the Daily News on Wednesday. “The FAA must take into consideration vital community feedback and consider redesigning new flight patterns.”

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said the FAA is in for the fight of its life.

“Giving the FAA almost carte blanche is simply wrong,” said Avella, who would also like to see an environmental impact statement done on the flight pattern changes. “We’re not going to let this go.”
His office is in the process of setting up a community meeting with FAA officials for March 14.

Sunnyside Theater likely to be redeveloped

From Sunnyside Post:

The commercial building that is presently occupied by Center Cinemas, PJ Horgan’s and Dime Savings Bank is likely to face the wrecking ball, following a recent sale of the property.

The property, located on the corner of Queens Blvd and 43rd street was sold by Dime Savings Bank for $6.675 million on Dec. 20 to “42-25 Queens Blvd. Corporation,” a newly established firm run out of Astoria.

Michael Christopher, a representative of 42-25 Queens Blvd Corp., said “We have no plans at this point for the property” and have “not decided what to do with it.”

However, local real estate agents expect the new owner to develop the site and build residential units. The annual operating income from the property is $326,000, barely enough to cover the debt servicing on the property.

Furthermore, given the size of the lot (16,300sqf) and the recent up-zoning, a developer can build a structure with a maximum floor area of 68,424sqf. The current building only has a floor area of 16,080 sqf.

The owner of Center Cinemas, Rudy Prashad, said he put a $5.2 million bid on the property. His goal was to keep the existing building so the future of the cinema would not be in jeopardy.
Prashad said he had recently spent $600,000 putting in new screens, a sound system and digital equipment.

The Crabhouse has re-opened

From DNA Info:

A major fire and a devastating flood weren't enough to keep the Waterfront Crab House down.

The landmark Long Island City eatery reopened this week after it was destroyed by several feet of water during Hurricane Sandy — the second major disaster in the last few years at the restaurant, which was shut down for five months in 2009 after a fire.

The restaurant, known for its seafood dishes and it's memorabilia-decked walls, has been almost entirely overhauled since the storm four months ago, with new floors, walls and a brand new bar.

Some of the restaurant's decor — the antiques and other collectibles that covered nearly every wall — had to be thrown out, but much of it was hung high enough during the storm that it was salvaged.

Rikers inmates scammed unemployment

From the Daily News:

Seven Rikers Island inmates conned the state into paying them $160,000 in unemployment benefits while they were living in the big house — a felony that may get them moved to state prison if convicted, the state Department of Labor said Tuesday.

The inmates each had an accomplice who helped them file their claims and deposit their weekly unemployment checks, the Labor Department said.

All 14 were arrested Tuesday and charged with third-degree grand larceny. They could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty.

Kids are snug as bedbugs in rugs

From DNA Info:

Bed bugs have been found in 15 classrooms at P.S. 69 in Jackson Heights since September, according to the Department of Education.

The school, which is located at 77-02 37th Ave., has a history of bed bugs, according to parents and reports. At the end of the 2012 school year, for example, an outbreak cost parent Shirley Encarnacion more than $2,000 in extermination fees.

"I ended up getting bed bugs in my house," Encarnacion, 32, said. "It was horrendous. I'm scarred by it. I still get up in the middle of the night and check."

District 30 schools, including P.S. 69, have been receiving complaints of bed bugs since as early as 2006, according to a 2007 report in the Queens Gazette.

A woman at P.S. 69 who identified herself as an assistant principal declined to comment on the situation, except to say that she believed instances of bed bugs were common in city schools.
Education Department spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said though the specimens have been found at the school, there has been no infestation.

Huntley in second guilty plea

From NY1:

Already awaiting sentencing on corruption charges, former Queens state senator Shirley Huntley admitted today she falsified documents to get state cash to a local non-profit group she founded.
It’s the former state legislator's second guilty plea in a month.

Huntley officially pleaded guilty to a felony count of tampering with physical evidence.

The charges were brought by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

Huntley said she doctored records to try to ensure a sham nonprofit received state money for so-called educational programs.

That funding allegedly went into the pockets of Huntley’s niece and her aide.

In January, the former senator also pleaded guilty to fraud in federal court.

She will be sentenced there in April.

NYPD plans to use drones

From NBC 4:

Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. are filing FAA applications to use drones for surveillance but civil rights groups are concerned about a lack of regulation.

In January, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said he would be interested in using drones for monitoring crowds and large demonstrations. But Kelly’s idea of a drone is not the Predator that most Americans picture. During a sit-down interview at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y, Kelly reportedly said he would consider using a small drone similar to a remote-controlled airplane equipped with a camera.

Small drones, even tiny ones – the size of hummingbirds – seem to be under consideration by dozens of other police agencies too.

The I-Team reviewed hundreds of pages from FAA drone applications filed by police departments, sheriff’s offices, the FBI, and educational institutions – most of the applicants are researching drones that can be launched right from a person’s hand. This interactive map plots which public and nonprofit entities have so far applied to used drones.

Police and civilian use of drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), was made possible last year when President Barack Obama signed a law opening the skies to UAVs by September 2015.

Several New York lawmakers, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, joined a “drone caucus” supporting the legislation.

The Rockaway recovery is just beginning

From NY1:

The Army Corps of Engineers is telling residents of the Rockaways their beach will be restored over the summer, but officials say it's just a temporary fix for the kind of storm damage that only happens once every 250 years. NY1's Michael Herzenberg filed the following report.

Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the beach in the Rockaways with the biggest waves ever recorded there. One, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, was 32.5 feet.

The water washed away 1.5 million cubic yards of sand, more than enough to fill the Empire State Building. But the feds say they'll replace the sand before next year.

"Our task is to construct a restored beach to the original authorized design which is a beach sand and a beach berm plus 10 feet above sea level and at least 100 feet wide," said Dan Falt of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Army Corps told a Community Board meeting packed with Rockaway storm victims the Rehab work will go from Beach 19th to Beach 149th street. Contractors will close 1,000 feet of beach at a time for three to four day stretches. The whole project will take four to six months but it can't start before June.

"We have to get environmental permits, we have to make sure that the dredge bar sites are clean and proper and appropriate. We have to do a federal contracted process which does take some time," Falt said.

From the Daily News:

But many were disappointed it didn’t include more concrete proposals for long-term solutions, such as additional rock jetties or dunes.

“I was expecting to hear more about protection and protection now, not a temporary fix, a band-aid,” said Danny Ruscillo Jr., a Rockaway Park resident and civic activist.

Falt said the Army Corps will work with the city and the community on more permanent solutions for beach’s chronic erosion issues.

Sandy slammed into Rockaway, destroying whole portions of the boardwalk. It triggered fires and flooding that left the peninsula reeling.

Residents said they feel particularly vulnerable without the boardwalk as a barrier.

Public says no to parkland grab

From DNA Info:

Activists and residents called a proposed $500 million U.S. Tennis Association expansion in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park a “land grab” during a meeting Monday night in an attempt to sway the community board's parks committee, which is considering the issue later this week.

“They already have a huge chunk of land and now they want more,” John Kelly, a retired Flushing resident, said at Monday's meeting. “Do you think they would try to commercially develop Central Park or Prospect Park? I think not."

Another Queens resident, Ben Haber, accused the USTA of not being a good neighbor.

"There is no justification for the USTA's request other than they want to make more money, the bulk of which goes into the pockets of the professional players and its commitments throughout the United States — not Queens," he said. “Your obligation is to protect the park not just for the current residents of Queens, but for generations as yet unborn.”

A statement from state Sen. Tony Avella, who strongly opposes the USTA expansion, was also read at the meeting.

“In my opinion, this is perhaps the biggest land grab of parkland not only in Queens, but also in the entire city,” the statement read. “Parkland is sacred. The three projects will result in elimination of crucial parkland from our borough’s most prominent park, which provides open space and recreational benefits to thousands of borough residents."

Edwin Westley from Community Board 3, which includes Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and North Corona, said he believed more than 400 mature trees would be chopped down - citing an environmental study - and that the project would significantly increase transportation problems in the area.

“I would urge you to vote 'no',” he told CB7 members. “I know my Community Board is going to vote 'no' on this proposition.”

Being caught totally off guard, the USTA and City made sure to pack the CB9 meeting the following night with union members and tennis players. When you were 13 years old, did you even know what a community board was?

Taxpayers may be on the hook for EDC folly

From the Daily News:

Lawyers representing more than a dozen business owners of the gritty Iron Triangle are awaiting a judge’s decision on whether the city will be required to pay their legal expenses, which have surpassed more than $1 million.

Michael Rikon and Michael Gerrard both told the Daily News on Monday that once the city dropped its eminent domain bid last May in favor of a different development, it became obligated to reimburse their fees.

“The statute is very clear,” said Gerrard, who is seeking over $609,000 for work that his firm Arnold & Porter performed. “If the city abandons the condemnation, the parties whose lands were being condemned are entitled to their legal fees.”

The city decided to not proceed with its eminent domain bid. Instead, it announced in June a 23-acre development to be built by the Queens Development Group, a joint venture between Sterling Equities and the Related Cos.

Both sides submitted their arguments in Queens Supreme Court last year. Rikon, who is seeking more than $281,000, said he expects a ruling within the next few weeks.

The statute that Rikon and Gerrard are basing their case on is Section 702 of New York State’s eminent domain law, which states if the “procedure to acquire such property is abandoned by the condemnor ... the condemnor shall be obligated to reimburse the condemnee.”