Friday, October 14, 2016

Kids falling into sinkhole in South Ozone Park


From PIX11:

Imran Baksh says he’s been complaining for 5 years to city agencies that the front of his home is sinking.

Baksh, who lives on 122nd Street in South Ozone Park, Queens, says what started as a little hole has been getting progressively worse.

There are now large holes in the ground surrounding the curb and sidewalk, the land under the sidewalk is eroding, the sidewalk itself is cracked and sloping, and the sinking has pulled the front railing away from the house. In the middle of the road, it is cracked and slopes towards his home and sidewalk.

Imran and his neighbor have tried filling in the holes and shoring up the curb and the sidewalk , but those fixes don’t last. It’s not long before the holes are back and deeper than ever.

One of their concerns is there’s a school at the end of the block and when the kids are dismissed, they walk right past the sinking area, where it would be easy for them to slip off the edge of the sidewalk and into the holes. In fact, one of his neighbors has two children who both have fallen into the holes when playing in the area.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have a sink hole beginning since 2014 in the street. Calls to 311 sent out DEP to check it.
Nothing done. Another complaint went in and was told this person/agency responsible and their answer was no the city.
One day in early 2016 a pot joke repair was done and obviously it is no pot hot. Well we all know here what will happen a cave in and only then will the city do something about it.

Anonymous said...

Disgraceful lack of service by the city agencies. I'm not even going to blame the Mayor on this one. We have a lot of city agencies to address this situation. Maybe " Help me Howard " can get them off their chairs and make them do their jobs. Or do we have to wait for a tragedy.

Anonymous said...

As usual the city waits for a tragedy to happen before anything gets done. Complaints pile up awaiting for the unthinkable to occur.
Still waiting for my block to be paved. Last time it was paved was 1991. Imagine 25 years and one slowly growing sink hole. Reported it and still no response. A disaster waiting to happen.

JQ LLC said...

I might be wrong, and correct me if I am, but it looks like there was a tree there once.

Where the fuck does that insignificant corrupt elected hack Wills (this makes me miss clean up jamaica more) get that billions cost estimate from? What a fatalistic, self fulfilling prophecy type response, it just assures that nothing will get done. As if the criminal indifference and willful neglect by the agencies responsible didn't confirm it.

Does it have to be mentioned that this would have been fixed if it was in Park Slope or by any bullshit BID declared area. But since this is on a backstreet way down in the maligned and uncool area of southeast queens, where a majority of middle class homeowners live and pay exorbitant taxes for the right to own a home in this fucked up city of economic inequity, it continues to get blown off.

And just like when some cops go rogue and or abuse their positions, these particular city agencies show the same hubris and are willing to take the risk and costs if someone gets maimed or killed because of these growing hazards because the citizens don't have enough money, resources or even visible representation by the electeds to help them. Especially by these self-proclaimed progressive thinkers.

I thought the role of these particular departments are supposed to care for the collective environment. If anything, this rotted decaying sidewalk is a good example of the extreme effects of climate change. One more isolated storm will probably collapse that sidewalk and house for sure.

Anonymous said...

You don't get press filling sinkholes.

You get press with the participatory budget bullshit and headlines for spending $5 million to 'fix up' a park that 5 years of $1 million in maintenance could have been kept up.

The other day was in Roosevelt Island and heard the people talking about how bullshit participatory budgeting was - vowing never to "participate" again.

A few days later in Queens and watched a group squeal with delight over that idea - with their barely literate councilman vacantly smiling in the background.

Anonymous said...

ALOT OF HOMES IN THIS PART OF QUEENS WERE BUILT ON LOOSE SOIL. GREEDY REAL ESTATE AGENTS HAWK THESE PROPERTIES AROUNG LIKE THEY ARE PARADISE AND SELL THEM TO DESPERATE HARDWORKING PEOPLE WHO DONT WANT TO PAY RENT ANYMORE.

YRENTNY.COM

Anonymous said...

the capital budget is pork for someone's son in law or nephew or union support.

the city refuses to maintain anything for that reason.

Anonymous said...

>The other day was in Roosevelt Island and heard the people talking about how bullshit participatory budgeting was - vowing never to "participate" again.

Out of curiosity, what was bullshit about it?

Anonymous said...

>The other day was in Roosevelt Island and heard the people talking about how bullshit participatory budgeting was - vowing never to "participate" again.

Out of curiosity, what was bullshit about it?
---
Participate in it. If you are not gullible or naive you can see through the bullshit pretty clearly. If you do not see that, by all means participate and be happy.

Unknown said...

Hawtree Creek runs thru the South Ozone Park neighborhood, the creek was placed underground decades ago when the land owner sold out to a home builder. The sinkhole may exist due to water in the creek draining further below the creek bed or the water is pumped out by wells, or the water seeping out into the sewer lines.

100 years ago the city digging under Canal Street in Manhattan for the subway found the old New Amsterdam Canal flowing deep under the street.

JQ LLC said...

Hawtree Creek runs thru the South Ozone Park neighborhood

Exactly. That block, through ps 226, snakes up north via Hawtree Creek Road and ends at 109 ave in South Richmond Hill. Hidden waters, indeed.

So there wasn't a tree, it was just a shit coverup job done decades ago by developers. Climate change is going to collapse that area once the water levels rise from it's origins in Hamilton Beach.

All these article posts here and the curbed articles themselves were very timely...

Anonymous said...

Sink holes are probably due to cracks in sewer lines. DEP comes out and gives you a cease and desist, or they will shut off water. The best part is the homeowner is responsible to pay for this!! Is just happened to me!! Take a look -
http://www.harriswatermainandsewers.com/services/nyc-dep-emergency-service/

Anonymous said...

Too bad it didn't claim any crooked politicians.