Sunday, February 20, 2011

Truth comes out at Keith's vote


From the Queens Chronicle:

It was deja vu all over again at Community Board 7’s monthly meeting Monday as members OK’d plans for the redevelopment of the derelict RKO Keith’s Theatre exactly five years to the day of the last approval.

In a vote of 24-10, following a hearing at the Union Plaza Care Center, members agreed to a revised plan for the site, which includes a lot more housing units and less parking spaces. The new owner, Patrick Thompson of Manhattan, bought the decaying structure at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and Main Street last May for $20 million and expects the project to cost $160 million.

Jerry Rotondi, acting president of the Committee to Save the RKO Keith’s Theatre of Flushing, noted his group got the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places and supported its full interior designation as a city landmark in 1984. But, Rotondi pointed out, “Claire Shulman, acting for her mentor, corrupt Borough President Donald Manes, lobbied to have the designation abridged to just the ticket lobby and grand foyer,” he said.

The landmarking reduction was later supported by Shulman, when she was borough president. The lobby and foyer are the only significant parts of the theater remaining.

Protecting both is the main focus of Rotondi’s group now. He also recommended that a museum element be incorporated into the final design “that celebrates the important and rich theatrical history that included live performances by some of the greatest show business icons in 20th-century America,” he said.

43 comments:

Flushing vs LIC on the #7 said...

Just what Flushing needs, hundred of more apartments full of Chinese peasants in an 18 story building.

Still not clear to me how the folks in LIC will get to work if the trains LEAVES Main St full - oh thats right, they will walk to the river to take a fairy that will leave them off at East End Avenue ... and 10 minute walk from the Manhattan subways.

F*ken idiots all.

Anonymous said...

Who's this guy Rotondi? It seems as though he's been advocating for preservation of the remaining facility for years...or is it decades? Way to go, Jerry. Keep up the good work. We can only hope that Claire Shulman will get her due and sooner rather than later!

Anonymous said...

Good work? 'Hope' that Clair gets her due?

Folks, with what we have here in Queens I have a feeling there will be no stories with happy endings for a long long time.

Claire said...

Don't worry. I'm safe. The people of Flushing are as dumb as fried wontons. Get it yet?


No copper's gonna touch me!!!

Anonymous said...

I say toss the ex-Pols in jail, change laws that ex-pol cannot work privately on any issue that previously crossed their desk. This site is zero - the Keith is gone - taxpayers should not be in the business of forcing memories down the throats of anyone else. This issue is so misplaced and a history of evil developers, inept or corrupt Pols. Move this property along so this blighted Chinese area gets a leg up for goodness sake. Flushing = Chinese get over it, I have.

Jerry Rotondi, Comm. to Save Keith's said...

Actually charter members of the later formed "Committee to Save the RKO Keith's Theatre of Flushing Inc." have been advocating for the preservation of this theater since 1981.

That's when Donald Manes' ex-deputy borough president Larry Gresser first wanted to tear it down to replace it with a shopping mall.

My involvement has only been since 1986---so you might say that I'm the second wave.

It's very sad to say that if then borough president Shulman had supported the reinstatement of the Keith's original full interior landmark designation in 1986---which our committee submitted to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and not Manes' aborted one---the whole theater would be intact today and restored as a valuable, productive community resource.

But the LPC had informed us, shortly thereafter, that Shulman would not comply and they could wind up wasting their time if she was following her old boss Manes' playbook.

She apparently had and still is.

This, of course, set the stage for convicted criminal Tommy Huang to gut the Keith's auditorium.

Thus, Claire Shulman became Huang's chief accomplice as a result of her indifference to the community's wishes for the adaptive/creative re-use of the RKO Keith's.

Queens Crapper said...

Donald Manes loved and supported the arts. Claire says so in this op-ed.

Anonymous said...

Then she's more guilty than Huang...no?

She could have reversed the process and protected the Keith's from Manes' criminal protege Huang.

Maybe she won't see the day Manes' old Willets Point plan comes to fruition.

Sleep well you old crook!

Anonymous said...

LOL....he loved the arts!

That's why Manes was against landmarking the Loew's Triboro Theater back in 1974.

So today the world renowned architect Thomas Lamb's other theater is completely gone.

Funny...it could have been an adjunct to the Museum of The Moving Image today if it still stood.

Jerry Rotondi, Comm. to Save Keith's said...

FYI:

A few of our committee's charter members first fought to preserve the "Loew's Triboro" on Steinway Street back in the 1970s.

Anonymous said...

The Shul-Manes administration will go down in history as the borough's bulldozer!

Just Sayin'... said...

LOL....he loved the arts!

I think someone left out the "F"!!!

Anonymous said...

Actually...if you take the time to fully examine the record...there were more potential landmark worthy sites destroyed under Shulman than under her boss Manes!

She's been hiding behind her "kindly" grin for years...a puppet of developers and clubhouse politics.

Just like the wolf in the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairy tale,

"Grandma, what big teeth you have"!

Shulman is little more than a voracious cur who will bite anyone as long as she lines her pockets with gold!

Anonymous said...

Shulman is little more than a voracious cur who will bite anyone as long as she lines her pockets with gold!

TRUE DAT!!!

Anonymous said...

Bring on the feds and get that orange jump suit ready for Shulman!

Anonymous said...

LOL....he loved the arts!

I think someone left out the "F"!!!

????????????????????????????????????????????????????

What're arfts?

Don John said...

Could she fit into a 50 gallon drum?

Anonymous said...

Only if her ass sticks out!

Anonymous said...

WHEN ARE YOU ALL GOING TO UNDERSTAND THAT KELTY, APELIAN AND CREW WILL APPROVE EVERY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT THERE IS. THEY JUST APPROVED A VARIANCE FOR A NEW CATERING HALL IN WHITESTONE THAT CALLS FOR A TOTALY OUT OF CHARACTER BUILIDING AND BUSINESS. KELTY IS ON RECORD AS SAYING THAT HIS JOB AS CB 7 CHAIR IS IS SECURE REVENUE FOR THE CITY BY APPROVING DEVELOPMENT.

HOW MUCH ARE THEY GOING TO SEE FROM THIS PROJECT? AND WHERE DOES THE "REVENUE" GO?

Claire Shillman said...

What're arfts?

LMFAO!!! Oops. I just farted. Uh Oh! I'll have to get back to you later.

Chuck and Gene's dog and pony show said...

"Truth comes out at Keith's vote"

YOU CAN"T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

georgetheatheist said...

Look, the retention of the ticket lobby and foyer, along with some kind of museum tribute is all, it seems to me, you're going to get at this stage. This could prove to be a quite handsome development. Check out the trolley barn towers in Woodside's Tower Square Shopping Center - a combined successful commercial enterprise coupled with a paean to the past. Community activists in the late 1980's literally stopped the bulldozing of those towers.

(Unfortunately there's no historical exhibit at this site showing what the Trolley Barn looked like and a descrption of it's significance in the development of Queens.)

Anonymous said...

Come on, Fellas, be nice to Claire!
One of her proteges, Barry Grodenchick, formerly of Parkside and now working for Helen Marshall as her Deputy, may well be our next Queens Boro Pres.

Jerry Rotondi, Comm. to Save the Keith's said...

Please let me further add to a woeful history:

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission was more than happy and willing to consider reinstating the full interior designation of the Keith's in 1986---two years after Manes had it abridged.

The LPC had already put a lion's share of work into their original designation report which contained accolades of its worthiness.

And in 1986 enough time had legally passed for our committee to resubmit the original full interior designation to the commission which we promptly did---expecting a fairer deal from Shulman than we had received from Manes.

Over 3,500 petition signatures---were sent to then Borough President Shulman, Gene Norman (chair of the LPC) and Mayor Koch---certified return receipt mail in regard to this matter.

Shulman flatly stonewalled all efforts regarding this until the LPC finally gave up knowing that Shulman (like Manes) was against it and they'd be just spinning their wheels.

Shulman even had the unmitigated gall to deny receiving the certified mail petitions at a "Queens Unity Day" event in 1987 held at the old "Reception House" in Flushing!

I was present there that day and offered to walk a few blocks home and produce the return receipts for her to examine.

In response she offered a blank expression along with a brief query, "Peter (Deputy Beep Magnani)---did we get any petitions?"

This is but a small portion of her treacherous behavior regarding a site---which IS STILL listed on the National Register of Historic Places---IN ITS ENTIRETY---unto this very day!

Anonymous said...

The car barn pizza hut is a joke - just like their treatment of RKO will be.

Its time a new generation takes over in Queens. The Old Guard have made this place a laughing stock.

Anonymous said...

It is time that we all get up , get out, and take back our Queens. Run for council, run for senate, take over the community board, STAND UP AND ET OUR VOICES BE HEARD.

Alfredo

Anonymous said...

If you're gonna run for the council (whatever) then you'd better have enough $$$$$$$$ to hire Stavisky's "Parkside Group".

It's the only game in town if you intend on winning (or losing).

They get paid either way no matter the outcome.

You just made me soil my pants with laughter.

Take back Queens (LOL) indeed!

Got any real suggestions?
This Ain't Egypt!

Moby said...

You just made me soil my pants with laughter.

Wiseguy! That's my M.O.!!!

Anonymous said...

By the "Old Guard" I hope you're including CB#7.

You should have seen the Chuck & Gene show....nickle and diming about not enough parking for the Keith's project....after they've sold out Muni lot#1 to Wellington Chen's friends at TDC!

C'mon you fakers....CB#7 has handed over Flushing to foreign interests for over 25 years and now you're suddenly caring about what happens to it?

Well, you're too damn late!

As long as Chuck (and his neighbor John Liu) keep their sequestered shred of a neighborhood intact they don't give a flying fuck what happens on Main Street!

AND THAT'S THE GOSPEL TRUTH!

Anonymous said...

The remnant of the old trolley car barn is an exterior issue.

The Keith's ticket lobby and grand foyer have landmark status.

No such luck for the car barn, I believe.

Two different stories...bub...apples & oranges.

Anonymous said...

Would somebody be interested in putting together some info on what it costs NYC to maintain ALL of the community boards throughout the city....salaries, supplies and rent?

I'll bet it's a sizable bundle....for they are generally useless for what they're supposed to be doing and operate in a strictly advisory mode anyway?

I say dump 'em all and
hold town meetings instead.

We don't need any Chucks & Genes to negotiate the sales of real estate within their domains.

I wonder if they get any commissions from developers?

BRING IN THE FEDS!

Anonymous said...

H-m-m-m....this is the second time that Chuck & Gene voted against the Keith's project.

First it was Boymelgreen and now it's Thompson.

It's almost as if they wanted it to rot for 5 more years when it deteriorates further its remaining landmark status can then be revoked.

Where was CB#7 when they should have been in hot pursuit of Huang "the destroyer" all the years past?

I'll tell you....busy following Claire Shulman's orders to lay off borough hall's friend and heavy contributor Tommy "the terrible"!

Shulman shall never rest in peace with all of those vaudeville ghosts on her fat old well-used ass!

Anonymous said...

Everybody "cared" about the Keith's (LOL) for decades....especially when it became a great political football to run with!

Brian Mc Lauglin (convicted crook) even named Tommy Huang, "Public enemy #1"....who in fact he turned out to be himself.

The Stavisky clan busily "issued statements" in lieu of action....
"I'm with you preservationists because you're cause is just..."!

Thank you Senator (LOL)!

CB#7....uh....what did they do in the end?

Don't really know but they didn't help very much!

The sorry state of the Keith's bears witness to all of those "who cared" a lot (LOL)!

FUCK YOU ALL!

Anonymous said...

It looks like Jay Valgora (Patrick Thompson's architect...formerly with Boymelgreen) has a piece of the Willets Point project too...a design for a pedestrian bridge and interface to W.P. over the Flushing River, etc.

Look up his professional profile..."Linkedin" etc.

H-m-m-m and why was Michael Nussbaum (a Manes, Ackerman associate) helping Thompson's presentation at CB#7?

He's obviously got a piece of the show somehow.

BRING IN THE FEDS and continue the Manes/Nussbaum investigation where it left off!

What about Nussbaum's "Shanghai Entertainment" group he tried to set up in Asia...and Congressman Ackerman's position on the Asia committee?

It might wind up being a very cozy arrangement for bringing in "foreign capital".

FINISH CONNECTING THE DOTS PLEASE....YOU HARD-WORKING FBI AGENTS.

It looks like Flushing's pols might be running the best Chinese laundry in the USA!

Anonymous said...

FINISH CONNECTING THE DOTS PLEASE....YOU HARD-WORKING FBI AGENTS.

Lobbyist Evan Stavisky and State Senator Toby Stavisky. Conflict of interest? DO THE MATH!!!

Anonymous said...

KELTY IS ON RECORD AS SAYING THAT HIS JOB AS CB 7 CHAIR IS IS SECURE REVENUE FOR THE CITY BY APPROVING DEVELOPMENT.

Where/When did Kelty say this?

Anonymous said...

Just what Flushing needs, hundred of more apartments full of Chinese peasants in an 18 story building.

Still not clear to me how the folks in LIC will get to work if the trains LEAVES Main St full - oh thats right, they will walk to the river to take a fairy that will leave them off at East End Avenue ... and 10 minute walk from the Manhattan subways.
--------------------------
fairy? LMAO!!!!!! At least with more chinese "peasants" around, the school districts will get a much needed boost in standardized testing scores and educated chinese people who can spell ferry. Yes sweetie, it's ferry not fairy. A fairy is a fictional make-believe creature.

Queens Crapper said...

No, I think it actually is fairy because the ferry won't be sustainable. They've already shut service down for the winter a few years in a row.

georgetheatheist said...

Not to worry. Chinese fairies will piggy-back these new commuters over the Ed Koch Bridge.

Anonymous said...

Chinese fairies will piggy-back these new commuters over the Ed Koch Bridge.

While singing "Feerin' Gloovy"!

Anonymous said...

KELTY IS ON RECORD AS SAYING THAT HIS JOB AS CB 7 CHAIR IS IS SECURE REVENUE FOR THE CITY BY APPROVING DEVELOPMENT.

Where/When did Kelty say this?

-----------------------------------

At one of their meetings.

Anonymous said...

A fairy is a fictional make-believe creature.


Thats the point nitwit. Using boats to get people across the river to shorelines with no mass transit connections makes about as much sense as having fairies transport us on their gossamer wings.

They stopped using boats to commute to Flushing around the time of the Civil War and LIC about the time Teddy Roosevelt was in politics.

Good reasons for this.

Anonymous said...

They stopped using boats to commute to Flushing around the time of the Civil War and LIC about the time Teddy Roosevelt was in politics.

Good reasons for this.
----

LOL

You reading Queens Crap Penny Lee? Ya City Planning geniuses might learn sumptin'.