The Squatter's Borough

 

 

 PIX News 

 Unwanted visitors are residing in the long-closed Triple Crown Diner in Bellerose, according to members of the local business community.

Joe, who runs a restaurant across the street, told PIX11 News the squatters enter at night via a rear staircase that leads to the roof: “You’ll see people just randomly walking out of there. I pay close attention. You’ll see a lot of garbage stacked up right there.”

 Behind the diner, there’s a shed with a mattress on the ground. The identity of the alleged squatters remained unclear as of Friday afternoon. 

 “I know it has been reported to the 105th Precinct and it’s been reported by them that they’ve come and located an opening in the ceiling, the roof, that they’ve covered with plywood,” said Richard Hellenbrecht, the treasurer of the Bellerose Civic Association. “For anyone to get inside and squat in the diner is really terrible.

Another business owner, Jack, told PIX11 the neighborhood has recently seen some changes for the worse.

“Well, they shouldn’t be living there. They’re vagrants. It ruins our business – it runs the businesses in the area. Sure, it bothers you, but what can you do about it?”

 

PIX News

 Construction of a new community center in Queens serving young adults with special needs is well underway – and long delayed, says property owner Young Seh Bae.

It’s all thanks to a squatter identified by the Sheriff’s Office as Sean Johnson.

Investigators said he set up camp in the now demolished home that once stood on a lot in the fall of 2022, and then illegally claimed residence after being there for more than 30 days.

 “They just broke into the house using the back door,” said Bae.

The Sheriff’s Office also confirmed marshals recovered a gun from inside the home where Johnson was squatting, adding he was not present to be taken into custody.

“They caused a nightmare for us. There were people coming and going. They would come on to our side of the sidewalk to intimidate us,” said Angela, who lives across the street.

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday said he supports updating squatters’ rights, which were originally enacted to help protect against bad landlords.

“There was a reason that squatters’ law was put in place. And I think people are starting to exploit what some of those reasons are,” said Adams.

Under current New York State law, squatters are considered tenants if they have had possession for 30 consecutive days or longer.

Bae said it ultimately took more than six months and six-figures in legal fees to finally reclaim the property her family rightfully owns.

“It was very frustrating, not only mentally but financially. I have to say about $100,000,” said Bae.

State Sen. John Liu acknowledged his newly proposed legislation may not be useful to responding police officers, but he added it will help homeowners in a courtroom.

Liu’s bill clearly defines a squatter as someone who enters onto a property or building without title, right, or permission…”

The bill bans them from accessing a tenant’s rights and protections under the law, and states squatters do not get any rights, even after 30 days of possession.

““New York State law, as it pertains to housing and property, it’s not the easiest thing — no question. We need to erase any kind of ambiguity in our state laws, and this bill will do just that,” said Liu.

PIX News

Queens residents spoke out with frustrations Wednesday about a run-down property in their neighborhood that they say is attracting squatters.

“Sometimes the front door is actually creeped open. For years, people have just been coming in, dumping garbage,” said Kamran, describing the neglected house next to the home he’s lived in since childhood.

When Kamran says “years,” he means more than a decade. During that time, he and his neighbors say there have been squatters coming in and out of the run-down home.  

The home, located at 245-04 Union Turnpike in Bellerose, is barely visible behind the tall brush. Lydia lives within eyeshot of what she says is an eyesore.

 “When I see people there that I know are squatters, or they don’t belong there because it’s been empty so long, I just call 911,” said Lydia.

This is the third time in the last week PIX11 News has reported about a suspected squatting situation in Queens, from a now torn-down home in Bayside, to squatters who allegedly entered through the roof of the closed Triple Crown Diner – also in Bellerose.

 PIX11 News took Queens Borough President Donovan Richards on a virtual tour of the property Wednesday.

The tour included a growing collection of New York City Department of Sanitation tickets issued to the registered owner – Jan Robert Fortin – who has no listed number and whose son did not answer PIX11 News’ phone call requesting comment.  

“So how do we resolve this issue? We need a change at the state law. Yes, enforcement is one key piece of it. OK, they are going to end up on Rikers on a trespass charge possibly. I also have to allude to the fact that we are in a housing crisis, and people are squatting largely because we are in this crisis,” said Richards.

The good news? About an hour after PIX11 News started reaching out to multiple agencies, including the health department, Housing Preservation and Development, and the buildings and sanitation departments, a sanitation supervisor arrived at the house to assess the situation.

Forgotten sidewalks

 

 

Queens Chronicle 

 It’s almost been one year since Hurricane Isaias hit New York City, took out power for days and tore trees from their roots, but plenty of sidewalks throughout Queens look as though the storm ravaged them yesterday.

“We know that if this was in Manhattan, the issue would be fixed already. The outer boroughs, the last I checked are the real boroughs, so get this done,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said at a July 13 press conference to demand the city take responsibility for what he called a public safety hazard.

State Sen. John Liu (D-Bayside) called the Tuesday press conference in Bellerose as a “last resort” after he spent months calling on the city to repair broken pavement sprinkled across his district. Shattered sidewalks can be found there, as well as in College Point, Whitestone and Flushing separated from the public only by caution tape.

Kathy Parent’s Bellerose home, where the event was held, lies alongside 87th Road, where a tree was ripped from the city-owned grass space last August during the storm. The roots shredded the concrete, which has been left untouched since the city Parks Department removed the fallen tree months ago.

“I take pride in maintaining my property to the best of my ability, so I am very distressed by the fact that my sidewalk exists in this horrible condition, but more so dangerous condition,” Parent said, adding that children have attempted to ride their bikes over the mess.

Parent said she wouldn’t consider fixing the sidewalk herself and then billing the city for reimbursement because she believes she would end up waiting 20 years for the check. She said she replaced the sidewalk herself several years prior and refuses to put more money into it, especially when it is the city’s responsibility.

“Kathy, we know if the shoe was on the other foot, if this was your responsibility, every single person the city could send to find you would be here by now, so this is really about ensuring that the government practices what it preaches,” Richards continued.

According to Liu, the city promised to address the problem in the spring when the weather was warmer, but summer is halfway finished and he hasn’t seen any changes across Eastern Queens.

That morning, Mayor de Blasio was asked by reporters if he was aware of the situation and what action he would take to ensure the homeowners would finally see relief after a year.

“We’ll get to work on it immediately,” the mayor responded. “It really bothers me to hear that this much time has passed and anyone isn’t getting the help they need. So, we will expedite that.”

 

DeBlasio & Council screw community out of better police protection

From the Queens Chronicle:

Residents of Southeast Queens thought 40 years of advocacy and hard work had come to fruition in July 2017 when Mayor de Blasio joined them along with NYPD brass and elected officials in Rosedale, next to the land that was finally going to become the NYPD’s new 116th Precinct.

But with a stroke of his pen, de Blasio transferred the $92 million in capital funding to other projects, including a community center in Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans.

NYPD critics, including those on the City Council, had advertised that they were looking to cut $1 billion from the NYPD’s operating budget, and much of that was switched to other departments for social service programs.

The NYPD last week told the Chronicle that it was committed to fulfilling its promise to the residents of Southeast Queens.

But the mayor and Council also agreed on more than $530 million in cuts to the NYPD’s capital budget, and the 116th Precinct proved to be too tempting a target.

And one of the most ardent proponents of police reform on the Council — Public Safety Committee Chairman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton) — also was the biggest supporter of the precinct in City Hall.

“I voted against the budget,” Richards told the Chronicle in an interview.

See what they lost out on by caving.

Update:

See where all that money that was snatched from the 116th of which it's still being spent on the NYPD is actually going to. What is the "special expense"?

One thing's for sure, the city and the NYPD (and the protesters of Occupy City Hall) feels the residents of Southeast Queens lives aren't that special and don't matter much.

JQ LLC

 

Aftermath of deadly fire is another tragedy

From CBS 2:

Trash can be seen on the lawn, over the fence and in a tree around the house on 252nd Street in Bellerose.

“We were expecting it to be gone by like soon, and it’s still sitting there,” neighbor Sandra Cyril told Bauman in an exclusive interview.

The home caught fire 10 days ago. Eight firefighters were hospitalized, and the 82-year-old woman living there alone was killed.

“I feel so bad for her. She had no one,” said resident Jacqueline Pilosi. “But it sucks for us, too.”

Pilosi’s house next door is perfectly manicured up to the dividing line on their shared driveway. She spent the last week and a half pleading with the city for help.

“311, when we found out the front room was filled with fecal matter, said we can’t do anything about it, it’s inside private property,” she told Bauman.

The Pilosis said they have been trying to talk to the person who inherited the property from their neighbor, but he lives out of state and hasn’t told them when it will be cleaned up and what’s taking so long.

Residents protest taxes on co-ops and condos

From the Queens Tribune:

Residents of Bellerose’s Parkwood Estates condominium complex and members of the organization Politics Reborn turned out on Friday to protest city property taxes on condos and co-ops in front of Assemblyman David Weprin’s (D-Fresh Meadows) office.

The protesters accused the assemblyman and city of lagging on a bill aimed at capping co-op and condo assessments.

“He’s the one dragging his feet,” Alice Christy, a Parkwood Estates resident and member of Politics Reborn, said of Weprin.

Christy noted that Weprin is one of the sponsors of bill A00354A, which would cap co-op and condo assessments at 8 percent in any one year and 30 percent in any five years. The bill’s author is Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside). It is identical to a bill in the state Senate sponsored by state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing).

“[The bill] just languishes there,” said Christy.

She added that 30 percent is still a big increase, “but it’s better than what we would have. Our community is middle-middle class. We can’t afford homes in the area, yet we have too much money for affordable housing. We need this to pass. The city commissioner of finance is just kicking this down the road. I’m not giving up. I’m a tiger.”

The condominium has a large senior population. Christy, who is a senior, said that with property taxes rising, her fees have risen as well. She added that the funds seniors receive from the city’s STAR program have not increased.

Christy and fellow organizers at Friday’s protest went door to door, persuading residents of the condominium to sign more than 250 letters urging Weprin to push the legislation.

Fake grass is not a solution

"Another one of those paved-over front lawns. But this one's a bit different. Not sure if the fake grass/Astroturf came before or after the complaint, but the DOB apparently wasn't too pleased with this "remedy."

-Rick

Questions about new construction on Jericho Turnpike

From the Queens Chronicle:

Richard Hellenbrecht loves Bellerose. And he warns a four-story building going up at Jericho Turnpike and Little Neck Parkway could be a nightmare for drivers in the neighborhood.

“We were asking for the [Department of Transportation] to do a study or at least a review on it,” Hellenbrecht, the executive vice president of the Queens Civic Congress, told the Chronicle. “Because that particular point on Little Neck Parkway is very busy.”

According to a DOT spokesperson, the agency did not analyze the intersection — which has a traffic light — for the impacts of the development.

The Bellerose resident, who is a member of Community Board 13, is also concerned about what the future of the community facility planned at the site will be.

“The big question is, will they maintain the community facility?” he added. “Even if they start with the community facility, will they maintain it or replace it with regular offices?”

Seventy-eight parking spots are planned, according to the website of AB Capstone, the site’s developer.

Hellenbrecht said the firm developing the property has repeatedly ignored requests from CB 13 to meet with board members. However, he said that the board’s Land Use Committee did speak with the real estate broker for the site.

Homeless removed from hotels featured in DHS' race-baiting videos

"Ok, here is the latest update directly from the operators of the hotels. As of 1/3/17 homeless residents were no longer being housed in the Quality Inn Hotel on Jericho Tpke. As of 1/10/17 homeless residents were no longer being housed at the Bellerose Inn Hotel on Jericho Tpke.

Even though the DHS has agreed to no longer house homeless in these two hotels, the owners are still being pressured and getting occasional calls from DHS contractors requesting to house homeless families. This type of pressure and putting these hotel owners in this position is unfair and contrary to the agreement in which DHS was informed about.

Let me also provide background on this entire episode so that everyone understands how our community succeeded in fighting back deBlasio homeless housing overreach. Back in November, I received a call from one of the owners of these hotels who asked for my help in terminating the use of these hotels for homeless individuals. These hotels had signed NO contract with DHS and never agreed to house homeless for an extended period of time, but had been continually pressured by DHS and its vendors to do so.

The reason the hotel owner called me is that as President of Glen Oaks Village Co-op I have known him from the community and he has a trusting and amicable relationship with me. I urged him to meet with members of the local civics in which I am an active participant to work out a plan with the local community to extricate these hotels from housing homeless individuals and families. These hotels were not in appropriate locations (no subways, limited bus service, no job sites) to house homeless individuals. When I approached the civics I was met with very strong opposition which came from their distrust of the hotel owners. I urged them to meet as we had an opportunity to finally resolve this issue and we shouldn't let this opportunity slip away. I told my fellow civic leaders that even if we did not succeed, we would be in no worse position. They were not convinced.

I did not want to lose this opportunity to finally resolve this homeless hotel problem on Jericho Tpke and contacted Councilmember Grodenchik who I know well and explained to him the situation in detail and asked if he would be willing to host a meeting between the hotel operators and the civics. I felt the civic leaders would be more inclined to participate if the Councilman hosted the meeting. He agreed to do so and he urged the Civic leaders who strongly opposed the meeting to attend. My strategy succeeded and a meeting was held between a number of civics, elected officials and the hotel owners. We all agreed that it was in the best interest of all to terminate the relationship with DHS (Dept of Homeless Services).

The parties agreed that by 12/31/16 all homeless being housed in these hotels would be out. Due to DHS delays, it took about a week after the 12/31/16 timetable for DHS to find alternate living arrangements for the few that were still in the hotels. That is the complete and accurate story to date of this chapter. I am proud that we were all able to finally work together and resolve a perplexing problem that many communities have been unable to resolve."

Thank you.
Bob Friedrich
President, Glen Oaks Village
__________________________________________

Take a lesson from these folks. They did great work by sticking together. The fact that they actually have electeds who support them instead of just paying lip service to them helped as well. These hotels were where the DHS made 2 videos, one of which shows shots of black homeless children dubbed over with someone yelling "white lives matter". They craftily blamed Maspeth for this despite it allegedly happening in Bellerose. Aja Worthy-Davis was moved over to ACS (which must be the de Blasio administration's version of a punishment) and the "f*ck whiteness" guru Lincoln Restler is still in hiding as BdB prepares to meet Preet. - QC

State wants to develop more of Creedmoor property

From the Queens Chronicle:

Members of Community Board 13 have learned to take more than a passing interest when a state agency comes to them talking about development plans for surplus land at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Bellerose.

Richard Hellenbrecht, the board’s land use chairman, said the Empire State Development Corp. has approached them with plans for two parcels on the south campus totaling 53 acres.

The south campus is bordered by Hillside Avenue to the south, Winchester Boulevard to the west, Union Turnpike to the north and mostly residential housing to the east.

The towering main hospital is located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Winchester Boulevard and Union Turnpike.

Speaking at the board’s monthly meeting on Nov. 21, Hellenbrecht said housing is the primary aim, with 1,278 dwelling units included in the proposal.

“There would be apartments and one- and two-family houses,” Hellenbrecht told the group. Twenty percent of the dwellings would be classified as affordable. There would be 370 one- and two-family homes.

But the ESDC also is proposing apartment buildings of four and five stories, which CB 13 has considered out of character with the existing homes in the adjacent neighborhood to the east. It would require zoning changes that would allow builders to exceed the 35-foot height limit.

“We’re not too happy about that,” he said.

And while a new public school building is part of the requested package, so are only 1,294 new parking spaces to accommodate the new 1,278 units.

The ESDC also is proposing to put a youth center in or on the site of the old Creedmoor power generating station.

De Blasio will go to ridiculous lengths to malign his constituents and protect his donors

From the Queens Chronicle:

Comptroller Scott Stringer on Thursday called for empathy toward the homeless population in Queens and elsewhere, but added that the mayor’s policies are not working to solve the crisis facing the five boroughs.

Stringer, who is reportedly considering a primary challenge against Mayor de Blasio next year, spoke in front of hundreds of people concerned about the placement of single men at the Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth, as well as the 60,000-plus people in the shelter system.

Toward the end of the Q&A session, a homeless couple with two small children living in a Brooklyn shelter told Stringer of the deplorable conditions they’ve lived in — including a lack of privacy, curfews that inhibit them from keeping jobs and mouse droppings in their unit.

“The shelter system is not working for us,” Alan Diaz, the husband, said.

Stringer told Diaz his office would work with the couple to remedy their situation. A member of the Juniper Park Civic bought dinner for the family and the 50/50 raffle winner donated their winnings to the Diazs.

Asked about the comptroller's remarks on the mayor's policies, mayoral spokeswoman Aja Worthy-Davis said in an emailed statement “Scott Stringer is courting a group advocating for kicking women and toddlers onto the street, using White Lives Matter as their protest song. He should be ashamed.”

Bob Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, called Worthy-Davis’ statement “slanderous” and that he has consulted his attorney.

Henry Berger, counsel to the mayor, said in an emailed statement, "We are entitled to present facts and to express our opinions. Neither provides a basis for legal action."

The video produced by the Mayor’s Office has audio of a “White Lives Matter” chant as protesters earlier this month demonstrated outside the Bellerose Inn, which is being used as a homeless shelter but is in the process of transitioning people inside there to other locations. A Chronicle reporter at that rally did not hear the chant and some said the city may have added the audio to make the protesters seem racist.

Here are some of the speakers from the event. I can totally see them at a Klan rally, can't you? (end sarcasm)





Who is trying to divide the city?

Mayor de Blasio.

Who is working toward bringing it together?

The people.

Closure of 2 shelters announced hours after 2nd propaganda video released

Released Thursday evening:

From the Times Ledger yesterday afternoon:

On Friday, several elected officials in Eastern Queens announced that DHS will comply with hotel owner Harshad Patel and no longer use the Bellerose Inn and Quality Inn as housing for homeless families within the next 60 days.

“Now that we have confirmed that the city will comply with his wishes, we have to work towards finding a more permanent solution to help these families,” state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said.

DHS would not say how this would affect its proposed shelter at the Maspeth Holiday Inn Express, which Patel also owns.

Well it would seem that if DHS wanted to respect the wishes of the hotel owner, they would stop pressuring him to make a deal in Maspeth, since he said publicly multiple times that he wasn't interested in turning his Holiday Inn Express into a shelter. Also, if Avella, et al can accomplish this for 2 hotels, why can't Yab-Addabbo and company do it for just one?

The day that Maspeth marched through Floral Park

Below are photo albums from the Bellerose/Floral Park march that happened this Saturday.



You will notice that the signs protest the de Blasio administration, local politicians, Steven Banks and the DHS. There are none protesting against homeless children.



Joseph Concannon spoke first. It's obvious from his criticism of de Blasio's homeless policies that he must hate homeless children. (end sarcasm)



Mayor de Blasio must also think that State Senators Martins and Addabbo are child haters since they both attended the rally.





Funny how the Queens Machine stays silent about the mayor not only dumping shelters all over the borough, but unfairly framing one of their members and their constituents as people who want to see kids sleeping on the streets.

The protesters, however, aren't silent:





It also sounds like this movement is growing:

Other neighborhoods are getting pissed off about this as well. Click the photo below to hear from Rosedale and Woodside.

Thank you to Juniper Civic and Queens by the Minute for the additional footage.

De Blasio sends crew to film protesters; makes propaganda video

As previously reported here, there was a joint protest held among Maspeth people and Bellerose/Floral Park people yesterday. We'll get to that soon, but in the meantime, we thought you'd like to know that the mayor spent your tax dollars to send a camera crew to the protest to film his constituents exercising their constitutional rights. They then took this footage and incorporated it into a video that exploits homeless children to make the mayor and DHS Commissioner Steven Banks look like heroes when in reality, they are warehousing women and children in hotel rooms without kitchens or access to public transportation. Unless a subway line in Bellerose opened that we weren't made aware of.

If this isn't the epitome of "fauxgressive" behavior, then we don't know what is.

Patel's thinking twice about homeless hotels

From PIX11:

Avella, along with Grodenchik and Nassau County Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, announced Friday that the owners of the controversial the Quality Inn in Bellerose, targeted for most of the summer to become a shelter, are looking to end their relationship with the homeless agency and scrap plans to house the homeless, effective Jan. 1. This is the second hotel owned by the Patel Group that has promised no longer to serve and house homeless people.

Coincidentally, this is the same hotel that PIX11 News exposed last December. Back then, homeless services was booking rooms for $175 a night — yet PIX11 was able to book them on their corporate site for significantly less.

Homeless services leadership has not responded to numerous requests for comment during the past month.

Patel has 2 hotels on Jericho Turnpike that he converted into shelters. A protest today will visit two of them.

Maspeth hotel owner has really bad history as shelter landlord

Ángel Franco/The New York Times

So we did some research over the weekend. The owner of the Holiday Inn Express site on paper is "New Ram Realty, LLC". A name attached to that corporation is Harshad S. Patel. Patel is president of Gujarati Samaj. But his claim to fame is hotel-to-homeless shelter developer.

Patel is owner of the former Quality Inn in Jamaica, which closed last year and became Retreat Inn. This hotel was noted for having been turned into a shelter without warning.

Patel was also behind the hotel controversy at the former Frozen Cup in Bellerose. Here's a gem: "On Dec. 15, one of the hotel developers, Mitesh Patel, told several dozen residents at a community board meeting at the Bellerose Assembly of God Church that he and his partners aimed to create a reputable hotel, not a “hot sheets” establishment." Perhaps not, but the Patels would be perfectly willing to turn it into a homeless shelter.

Just like they did with the Verve Hotel, which has had a litany of documented problems - so many, in fact, that the local police captain publicly complained about them.

And the Verve Hotel is run by Acacia Network, just as the one at Maspeth will be.

So there is an existing relationship between this owner, the service provider and the City. What happened at Verve should be reason enough to not enter into another contract with those two.

Interestingly, the above news report stated that last year, there were close to 59,000 people in shelters, and the most recent census on DHS' website says 58,665, so if the numbers are stable then why the city needs to open more shelters anywhere is a good question.

This is simply the old game of real estate owners pocketing government cash and corrupt pols helping them do it. The electeds who foist these disgusting situations upon decent working class neighborhoods should be ashamed. But they never are because they never get sent packing on Election Day.

Isn't it great that the City has a bailout system in place for millionaire hotel developers paid for with our tax dollars? This is classic neoliberalism.

I wrote, "just because it's as-of-right don't make it right" on Curbed way back in 2007 when this shit was being built because we all kind of knew what was coming down the pike.

Assembly Member Barbara Clark has died

From the Times Ledger:

State Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village), who represented parts of southeast Queens, died at the age of 76 Monday night, a representative from her district office said. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Clark had been serving the 33rd Assembly District since 1986. The district includes Cambria Heights, St. Albans, Queens Village, Hollis and Bellerose.

She played a key role in converting Andrew Jackson HS into four small magnet high schools and served as a primary sponsor of the 1996 New York City Governance Law, which mandated parental involvement in school policy decision-making.

Clark also supported the plaintiff in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity vs. State of New York lawsuit, which resulted in a $5.5 billion increase in funding for city public schools and authored a bill to establish the age of 6 as the statutory age for full-time attendance in school.

"Temporary" storage container a long time eyesore

"Does anyone know who oversees the placement and use of storage "PODS" on private residential property? Common sense would say that it would be the DOB, but they refused to accept the complaint. I then attempted to place a request through the online 311 system, and when I checked the address on the DOB BIS system, it was showing up as an "illegal construction" complaint. Just wonderful.

Believe it or not, DOB inspected, and while they indicated no illegal construction, they did note the POD and also indicated that it was out of DOB's "jurisdiction and code."

Really? You can't place a storage shed in your backyard over a certain size without a permit, yet you can dump a storage POD on your front lawn for 5-6 months with no repercussions?

(The photo on 88th Ave in Bellerose was taken several months ago. After a complaint to the storage company that it was partially blocking the sidewalk, they moved it a few feet. That was over four months ago.)" - Anonymous

West Nile spraying this week

From NBC:

To reduce mosquito populations and the risk of West Nile virus, the New York City Health Department plans to spray pesticide from trucks on Tuesday and Wednesday in parts of Queens.

The spraying is scheduled between 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday, weather permitting. In case of bad weather, application will begin Wednesday.

No human cases of West Nile virus have been reported this season.

The neighborhoods to be sprayed include parts of Auburndale, Corona, Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Kew Gardens Hills, Murray Hill, Pomonok, Queensboro Hill, Utopia, Bellaire, Bellerose, Douglaston, Floral Park, Floral Park Center, Glen Oaks, Hollis Hill, Little Neck, and Oakland Gardens.

Not all of Alley Pond Park is treated equally

"The part of the park near Union Turnpike and Winchester Blvd is overrun with weeds and hasn't been cared for in months while the tennis courts are fit for kings." - Linda S., Bellerose

Monserrate having trouble paying restitution

From the Daily News:

Disgraced ex-State Sen. Hiram Monserrate is struggling to pay his court-ordered restitution — and he doesn’t visit his elderly parents despite claiming to live with them, new filings and his father revealed.

The crooked Queens pol, who was expelled from the Senate after assaulting his girlfriend, earns $1,244 a month working at a Brooklyn law firm and $2,227 a month from pension and other benefits, new filings show.

Ten percent of those earnings is supposed to go to the government every month to pay $79,434 in restitution, filings show.

But between March and May 30, Monserrate only made one payment, prompting the U.S. Department of Probation to notify Manhattan Federal Court Judge Colleen McMahon on Tuesday of the “noncompliance,” which was subsequently rectified. He says in court papers that he’s now caught up.

Filings noted Monserrate, 47, lives with his 80-year-old mother, Hilda, and 79-year-old father, Manuel, in Bellerose, Queens. But his father said he rarely even visits.