Electeds fail to show at Maspeth shelter rally

The community was out in full force to protest the proposed Maspeth homeless shelter at the Holiday Inn last night.


Present were civic leaders and political candidates but no actual current sitting elected officials. Hmmm...

QNS writes pro-Crowley advertisement, passes it off as factual article on Maspeth shelter

Elizabeth Crowley quite obviously called in a favor to get the laughable QNS.com, which used to be the Times Newsweekly and Queens Courier, to write a piece attempting to discredit the Queens Crap story written about her making a deal to get the Glendale shelter off the table. They wrote an opinion piece and passed it off as actual news, which I am sure no readers except for Democratic operatives and the hopelessly gullible actually believe. (Note the use of inset campaign photo.)

I'd like to point out that the "paper" interviewed 2 Glendale civic leaders who have every reason to claim that the plan is still valid. It failed, however, to ask any Maspeth civic leaders what they thought about it. And that's because they knew what the response would be - OF COURSE IT WAS A SWAP.

Furthermore, I'd like to let you know of the deception that was employed here. Take a look at this email and pay attention to the highlighted parts:

Now get a load of this:

Because this rumor originated with Queens Crap, we asked how they received their information, with the understanding that they probably wouldn’t give us their exact source.

“NYPD,” the anonymous blogger behind Queens Crap wrote in response to a QNS reporter’s email inquiry. Those four letters were the extent of their message; no other specifics were provided. There are more than 51,000 employees of the NYPD, including more than 34,000 officers.

There was no follow up email from Anthony Giudice asking more questions. I supplied exactly what he asked for on the belief that they were actually investigating this and not in the process of writing a hit piece about my reporting while making Crowley look like a saint. "On background" means that your communication remains private and unsourced. And you'll notice that the reporter credited with the article is not the one that contacted me. This was in every aspect, a setup.

The funny thing is that after attempting to call me out on the carpet, they still didn't prove that there is no deal. The entire article is built on a DHS denial (we know they'd never lie) and speculation about whether or not Crowley would make a political gamble when she hasn't even declared that she will run for another term. It's really just a convoluted mess. In fact THIS part is gold because it goes against what they are alleging:

During an Aug. 3 meeting between representatives of the mayor’s office and local elected officials, Arcuri said, Crowley asked the city if the administration was taking the Glendale shelter plan “off the table.” None of the officials there answered her question, he noted.

Shouldn't the answer have been an emphatic "NO" if the true answer is no? And then this:

It is entirely possible that someone at the NYPD may have provided information about the Maspeth shelter to Queens Crap, but the statements of Crowley, city representatives and local civic leaders fighting the proposal seem to completely refute allegations of a secret deal.

Queens Crap stands by our original story. At an interdepartmental meeting with several government officials including representatives of the NYPD, the DHS said they are no longer interested in the Glendale site - mere blocks from Crowley's house - because they are opening another shelter in the district. The source of this information was present at the meeting and the source is SOLID. You readers can either choose to believe this blog which has been proven right way more often than wrong and is beholden to no one, or a paper with a history of giving meaningless awards to politicians and raking in holiday ad money from them.

Maybe QNS can investigate why, since the city has won every lawsuit regarding the Glendale site and the work permits have been approved, the shelter is not under construction if there hasn't been a deal to swap the sites. And why there was a secret meeting that all the electeds and the community board knew to show up at but failed to alert the local civic groups about.

Dear reporters, I hope it was worth it to lose all integrity for the sake of Liz Crowley.

You know when you are a blog that no politician will admit to reading, yet have been attacked by those very politicians and the lapdog media, that you are hitting a nerve and coming very close to exposing the truth.

Most of Queens has been screwed by the MTA

From the NY Times:

In New York City, about three-quarters of residential units are within a half mile of a subway station, according to a 2015 report by New York University’s Furman Center. The statistics vary widely by borough: In Manhattan, about 94 percent of units are near the subway, compared with about 54 percent of units in Queens.

But we in Queens should not have cars because "you can get everywhere by subway in NYC" (meaning Manhattan).

And let's build a streetcar to connect neighborhoods with subway stops instead of improving bus service.

An attempt to minimize patronage

From the Daily News:

City jobs would have to be publicly posted for two weeks before someone is hired under a bill set to be introduced in the City Council this week, in a move meant to cut down on patronage.

Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Brooklyn) is sponsoring the legislation to require 14 days of online job postings before interviews are done for government jobs.

Kallos said he wants to rein in patronage hiring at the city Board of Elections — where officials have long resisted calls to publicly post all their jobs.

It's nice to publicly post jobs, but they will reserve the positions for their friends and relatives anyway.

The ultimate John Ciafone property - and it's in QUEENS!

"Another Ciafone Masterpiece on Vernon Boulevard! They even took the time to give the building a great name City Skyline Water & Park Views. Huh? Sounds like a real estate description, not a building name." - anonymous

This really has everything, doesn't it? $120,000 in unpaid illegal sign fines, something resembling tin foil in the windows, and one of his famous canopies with a really ridiculous name on it. Also, the graffitied van in front is a nice touch.

Dissecting the numbers: DHS' phony homeless crisis

The story from the DHS has changed from "243 residents of Maspeth" are in shelters, to "243 residents of Community Board 5" are in shelters. Why the city feels the need to require shelter placement based on made-up political boundaries is a good question. Regardless, the DHS' numbers still don't add up. They say that CB5 doesn't have a shelter and needs to do its fair share, however, another 110-room shelter in CB5 is not necessary at all. Why?

Most of the homeless from CB5 are members of families with children. Each family needs one room. CB5 produced 54 homeless families in 2014. Crunching the numbers it appears that 1 existing location could just about house every homeless family produced by not one, but FOUR community boards in western Queens.

CB1:
Astoria: 41 families

CB2:
Long Island City: 29 families
Sunnyside: 1 family
Woodside: 22 families

CB4:
Corona: 38 families
Elmhurst: 15 families

CB5:
Maspeth: 7 families
Middle Village: 3 families
Ridgewood/Glendale: 44 families

Total: 201 families
The Pan Am shelter alone holds 200 families

So if all of the homeless families of western Queens could fit in the Pan Am, why do we also need the Metro Motel, the Westway, the Quality Inn, etc? It seems we have too many beds for the homeless families we are told we need to be responsible for.

Moving on to couples:

Once again, the 1 couple from Maspeth and 3 couples from Ridgewood could fit into a 4-family house. The city owns one on Flushing Avenue that it wishes to keep in dilapidated condition instead of putting to productive use.  Using the criteria above, the homeless couples without children produced by CB1, CB2, CB4 & CB5 amounts to 30.  The city is proposing a 110-room shelter for couples at the Maspeth Holiday Inn which is way more rooms than western Queens needs to house the homeless couples we crank out.

And finally, singles:

34 singles from CB5 doubled up in rooms means that in actuality, only 17 rooms are required in the district. Spread them out across the neighborhoods and that doesn't seem to be a big deal. I suggest using AirBnB to accomplish this (tee hee).

Please do not believe the DHS' dazzling lines of bullshit. They want hardworking taxpayers of Queens to pay for freeloaders from out of town. Let them do what every other municipality seems to be doing - put them on a bus to somewhere else, preferably where they came from in the first place. The burden of sheltering the entire country should not fall on NYC taxpayers because fauxgressives want to perpetuate the dependency culture that keeps them elected for life.

Management company taken to task

From the Queens Tribune:

Residents from across seven Flushing buildings gathered at St. George’s Episcopal Church to voice concerns over recent actions by New Jersey-based development company Treetop Development, which owns the buildings in question. The corporation has been exploiting loopholes to raise rents and drive low-income residents out of their apartments in order to begin gentrifying the area, the residents argued.

The meeting was organized by the Flushing Rezoning Community Alliance. Faith in New York, an interfaith organization, was also in attendance. Andrew Hausermann, the director of Organizing for Faith in New York, explained that the organization had heard many complaints from residents in the seven buildings, which Treetop purchased six months ago.

“This company, Treetop, has a bad history,” Hausermann said to the hundred or so residents in attendance. “They have a history of buying rent-stabilized units in neighborhoods that they say are soon upcoming neighborhoods, might be gentrifying neighborhoods, and they’ll buy these rent-stabilized buildings, run out the low-income tenants and then sell the buildings for a big profit.”

Hausermann also said that the company was accused of similar practices in Williamsburg and Harlem.

Among the chief complaints raised by residents is what they say is a loophole in New York State law that allows for permanent rent increases in rent-stabilized units. Landlords can implement these raises to fund construction projects called major capital improvements. These MCI increases are problematic, Hausermann explained, because even after the project is funded, the rent increase can remain in place, which could drive low-income tenants out. When the rent reaches a certain threshold, it eliminates the rent-stabilization designation, Hausermann said. These concerns have been raised in the wake of a high level of construction going on around the buildings.

One building in question, 132-40 Sanford Ave., received a stop-work order after Councilmember Peter Koo (D-Flushing) voiced concerns raised by constituents. A June stop-work order complaint on the Department of Buildings website said that workers were “removing asbestos without protection” and cited debris in the hallway. Another complaint from July said that work resumed at the site despite the stop-work order.

Maspeth homeless shelter meeting was quite a spectacle

I will try to summarize the most relevant points about the Maspeth homeless shelter meeting below.


This video shows the first 30 minutes or so of the meeting, featuring a screeching Liz Crowley and Yabba Dabba Joe Addabbo. Some of the first public speakers are also included.

(Incidentally, I believe this is the video that Gothamist reporter Emma Whitford used to write her false headline which Brooklyn BP Eric Adams then got his knickers in a twist over. Why actually attend a meeting and gather your own facts when you can just crib off someone else's work and call yourself a reporter on your résumé?)


I don't know if anyone has an estimate of how many people showed up Thursday, but suffice it to say that hundreds were inside the auditorium and hundreds more were turned away.


Perhaps the best comment of the night came from Maspeth activist and Republican Assembly candidate Tony Nunziato, who pointed out that people are upset because the city wants to dump something in Maspeth that will require security and additional police manpower in order to protect the community from it. (Incumbent State Assemblywoman Marge Markey did not attend the meeting.)

Those who couldn't get in marched down to the hotel to protest. When the meeting concluded, many others joined them. One person received a summons for disorderly conduct.

Lincoln Restler attended but did not speak. He spent the whole night with his nose in his cell phone. Acacia Network did not send a representative to answer questions for some reason.

There was no mention of the "alternate" plan proposed earlier.

Today it was revealed that the Acacia Network has been looking to hire social workers for the Holiday Inn shelter since July, well before the secret meeting at the Maspeth Library.

New permit needed for Garaufis house

From the Times Ledger:

Construction on the house formerly owned by federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis at 218-15 40th Ave. in Bayside had a stop work order slapped on it in July due to revocation of the owners’ Alt-1 permit after the once stately home was torn down.

A spokesman for the city Department of Buildings said the owners have filed for a permit for an entire new building, but have not yet been approved.

The owners of the property were ordered to file for a new work permit in June, a DOB spokesman said. They no longer qualified for an alteration permit and were required to apply for a new building permit if they were approved. But according to a July 14 filing on the DOB website, the department revoked the Alt-1 after an inspection and a stop work order was placed on the site.

The Department of Buildings said the owner, who goes by the name Lisa, had originally filed for an Alt-1 permit restricting renovation to less than 50 percent of the original structure. The plans submitted to the DOB depict an update which would extend the front of the house a few feet. However, neighbors began to worry as the roof was torn off, followed by the top floor of the three-level structure. Finally, the home was reduced to ground level.

Garaufis’ house is believed to have been built circa 1890 and was the one of the personal residences of the Lawrence family, influential members of the early Bayside community. A study conducted by Bayside Historical Society Treasurer Paul Graziano found the Lawrence Estate eligible for the National and State Register of Historic Places. This recognition, however, carries no protection from demolition or alteration.

People would rather rent in LIC

From LIC Post:

The Long Island City real estate market is dominated by rentals, with permanent homes hard to come by, according to a recent report released by a New York real estate research firm.

The report, put out by Property Shark, noted that permanent residences make up less than one fifth of the housing stock in Long Island City. Its research found that there are 990 single and two family homes in the area and 4,056 condos/co-ops.

There were 25,950 rental units at the time of this August 2 report, more than five times the amount of family-owned units.

Most unique about these rental properties, however, is how many low-income units are available.

The report incorporates housing complexes owned by the New York Housing Authority in Ravenswood and Queensbridge. Between these two complexes there are 5,123 subsidized housing units, making up about a fifth of all rental units available in Long Island City.

In addition, there is the affordable housing project at Hunters Point South.

Gothamist & BP Eric Adams lie about Maspeth shelter hearing

From Gothamist:

Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Steven Banks was drowned out by hundreds of angry Queens residents on Thursday night, as he attempted to make a case for a new homeless shelter for adult families in place of the Holiday Inn Express at 59-40 55th Road in Maspeth.

"To the people yelling at me in the front row saying, 'They [the proposed shelter residents] should go back to East New York,' I just want to emphasize again that there are 243 of your neighbors in shelter," Banks said, before he was drowned out by boos.
________________________________________

From Brooklyn BP Eric Adams press release:

BP ADAMS STATEMENT ON TROUBLING COMMENTS MADE REGARDING HOMELESS SHELTER SITING AND EAST NEW YORK

“I am troubled by the sentiments shared by a number of individuals at a public meeting that discussed a proposal for an adult family homeless shelter in Queens. Homelessness comes from every corner of our city. We cannot accept any attempt to pit New Yorker against New Yorker, no matter how passionate we may feel about the quality of life issues in our communities. The select few who call out for homeless people to go ‘back to East New York,’ especially in the context of a gathering regarding a newly proposed facility and not a re-siting from that neighborhood, are raising a concerning specter of bias that must be addressed, be it on the basis of race, socioeconomic status, or any other factor.
_________________________________________

The only problem is that this is not what happened. Here is the video:



ONE person sitting near the front shouted "This is not East New York" when the DHS Commissioner asserted that there are 243 people from Maspeth in the homeless system, which has already been proven to be a lie. Obviously, East New York is an economically depressed community which will have more homeless people than Maspeth. (But it's more fun to make facts up in order to produce sensationalistic headlines.)

FYI, Eric Adams is planning to run against de Blasio.

Woodhaven Blvd bridge to close for repairs

From DNA Info:

The hectic area around the Queens Center Mall will become even more congested during an upcoming closure of Queens Boulevard this month.

The busy, six-lane thoroughfare between 57th Avenue in Elmhurst and 62nd Drive in Rego Park will close in both directions from Friday, Aug. 19, at 11 p.m. through Monday, Aug. 22, at 5 a.m. in order to fix the Woodhaven Boulevard Bridge, according to the Department of Transportation.

All traffic on the boulevard will be directed to service roads, which will remain open, according to the agency. Parking will be restricted.

The busy stretch, which runs beneath the Long Island Expressway, features numerous bus stops, including the Q11, Q21, Q29, Q38, Q53, Q60 and Q88, which may also be affected by the flow of traffic.

Flagship Diner may face wrecking ball

From the Queens Chronicle:

For nearly 51 years, the Flagship Diner at 138-30 Queens Blvd. in Briarwood has served hungry Queens residents.

But according to city records, another half-century of juicy burgers and steaks may not be in the cards.

Department of Finance documents show the land the eatery sits on was sold to White Rock Management Group LLC on July 14 for $6.125 million, as first reported by real estate website New York YIMBY.

And according to Department of Buildings records, demolition permits were filed and approved for the site on July 26 and plans to construct a seven-story, 64-unit residential complex there were filed on Monday.

But in a Tuesday interview, diner co-owner Vincent Pupplo told the Chronicle he expects the Flagship to remain open at least through the remainder of its lease, which expires Oct. 31, 2019.

Explosion in number of homeless shelters in Queens

Well folks, you couldn't have come to this site over the last week or so and not have been informed that there is a shelter proposed for the Holiday Inn in Maspeth and a meeting about it was held last night. I am still sorting through all the videos and photos that were sent to me so I can report on this correctly instead of the way the media did. I can say that Maspeth did a GREAT job in standing up for themselves. So please bear with me.

In the meantime it has been brought to my attention that 3 more are opening or have opened around the borough (and that's just the ones I found out about)...


From the Daily News:

Meanwhile, the city has quietly moved 37 homeless families into a nearby Quality Inn in Woodside — despite Mayor de Blasio’s vow to phase out the use of hotel rooms to house homeless families.

The 37 families have been there since June, officials confirmed, and the city is providing full-time security and services for the families.

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens) said local officials were never notified of the move — and he was particularly upset to be left in the dark because he’s worked with the city to welcome other shelters in the neighborhood and avoid protests.

"It’s outrageous that they would move the families in without even notifying anybody," he said.
__________________________________

"Since this opened earlier this year, the unemployed residents are seen wondering aimlessly around the streets and hanging out on the steps of the buildings at all hours. An assortment of shabby looking women are regularly seen hanging around the complex.

We asked for affordable housing and services for our seniors, but, DeBlasio ignored the pleas of the locals who voted for him and saddled us with more homeless housing."

__________________________________

It sounds like "supportive housing" is the new name fauxgressives have chosen for "homeless shelter".

Several shelters were defeated over the last 2 years

From Norwood News:

In a rare reversal, a Bedford Park landlord has halted a process to convert a significant portion of their seven-story building into a shelter, a win for tenants who are celebrating with cautious optimism.

From the Daily News:

A city plan to site temporary housing for the homeless on residential Taylor Ave. in Van Nest has been scuttled, said one official from the local community board. The decision came days after neighbors railed against the shelter at a hearing in Morris Park.

From Politico:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration has dropped a proposal to convert some vacant buildings at the former Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens into shelters for the homeless, a senior administration official told POLITICO New York Monday.

State Sen. Tony Avella, whose Queens district includes Creedmoor, said he was assured late last week by the governor’s office that the plan was going nowhere.

From Politico:

One day after Councilman Donovan Richards asked the de Blasio administration to reconsider opening a men's homeless shelter in his Rockaway district, the Department of Homeless Services said it has scrapped the plan.

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio has put the kibosh on a homeless shelter proposed for the Upper West Side, the man pushing the project claims.

Anti-shelter pressure came from local elected officials, including Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, a former councilwoman.

From the Queens Chronicle:

It’s official: There will be no city homeless shelter in Bayside. City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) reports that he was officially notified by the Department of Homeless Services that the plan to put one there, announced in October, has been taken off the table.

Fauxgressive shelter alternative for Maspeth sounds ridiculous

From the Queens Tribune:

The homeless shelter, which DHS plans to open in 60 days, would lodge 110 families or 220 people. The shelter would be restricted to people over 18, so if there is a parent with a child it would have to be an adult child. In the meeting, the DHS stated that the residents would be homeless people whose last address was within the confines of Community Board 5.

[CB5 Chairman Vincent] Arcuri mentioned that the DHS said there is a model that would incorporate senior housing and a homeless shelter. If the community can find a place where the DHS can put that model, the residency would be dropped down to 35 families or 70 people, if combined.

Ok so we already know that the first part is a lie. Now how about the second part? Is there a need to shelter 110 families or only 35? Why the hell would we want our grandparents housed alongside drug addicts and mentally unstable people?

More fauxgressive B.S. from Lincoln Restler and the de Blasio administration.

Large number of NYC shelter residents are not from NYC

I crunched the numbers from the FOILs that are out there and here is what I found:

As of 2014:

124 couples in the system were from outside NYC = 248 people
This is 9% of the total population of adult couples

2268 singles in the system were from outside NYC
This is 25% of the total population of singles

2107 families with children were from outside NYC = 7375 people (avg of 3.5 people per family)
This is 20% of families in the system

Grand total is 9891 people from outside NYC
Total homeless in NYC as of today: 58917

At least 17% of the total shelter population is from outside NYC.

And NYC taxpaying suckers are paying for their food, clothing and shelter while the places they came from pay for bus tickets.

So when Christine Quinn says shit like we should just get over having homeless shelters in our neighborhoods, she can suck it.

FOIL records reveal that Queens CB5 produces tiny number of homeless couples

Ah, the magic of Facebook. From it I found out that the civic organization COMET had the following exchange with Mayor de Blasio's people:

"I asked where these "homeless" couples are living now and was told they are in shelters around the city. The representative from Intergovernmental Affairs [Lincoln Restler] alleged that many of these couples formerly lived in addresses within Community Board 5 (Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Glendale, Woodside)."

Now if they're already sheltered, why do they need a different shelter?

Facebook also provided the following stats from a FOIL of DHS records done in 2014:

This 4-family house at 60-90 Flushing Avenue in Maspeth has been vacant for years. It's owned by the City of New York. If it were fixed up, all of CB5's homeless could be housed. But the city would rather leave it in this condition and shovel money to millionaire hotel developers while citing the "fairness" doctrine, which to a neoliberal means to take decent neighborhoods and knock them down a peg while gentrifying poor areas to benefit the 1%.

Why Maspeth is getting a shelter, part 2

The leadership of Acacia Network have contributed to both Scott Stringer and Bill deBlasio.

The chairwoman also donated.

Now this may seem like not too much money, but these folks do business with the city and can't contribute as much as the average person.

But who knows how many friends and family members also contributed?

Money talks.

Ridgewood: Where anything goes!

Feast your eyes on this monstrosity. This is 482 Seneca Avenue in Ridgewood. It actually is turning out to be less hideous than originally planned. Those bay windows are special.

This is an "ALT-1" job (note the piece of original wall at ground level). I was amused by the sandwiching of a mezzanine between the 4th floor and the roof (not allowed), but listed on the Schedule A as between the 1st and 2nd floors. It's also clearly a 5 floor building instead of 4 as listed on the permit.