Inside the mind of our Queens CAU Director

From Urban Review, Fall 2005:

Having worked in Bayside for nearly five years [as executive assistant to Congress Member Gary Ackerman] and having grown up near the area, I see both the pros and cons of this new designation. While it's true that Bayside maintains the Small Town, USA atmosphere that is rare in a constantly growing borough like Queens, it is also an area that is demographically homogeneous. The area is majority white and middle to upper middle class. The area also remains quite expensive, with house prices ranging from $450,000 to $750,000 and over.

However, while theoretically the rezoning is meant to protect the character and integrity of the neighborhood as a whole, I believe that it is also meant to prevent the neighborhood from fully representing the diversity of the rest of the borough. The majority of McMansions are being built to house ethnicities besides those who currently reside in the area.

Ultimately, I believe that zoning designation as restrictive as the R2A is meant to prevent people from being able to choose what they want their house to look like. It can only end up creating neighborhoods no different than those created by William Levitt a half century ago.

- Claudia Filomena, then a Hunter College Master's degree student.
Now she's a Community Affairs Unit Borough Director for Queens. (There are 2. And I have no idea who Morgan Jones is.)

Claudia is clueless about zoning and overdevelopment. It's obvious why she was hired for her current job as apologist for the Bloomberg administration.

Has anyone actually ever seen this person or received assistance from her? How about just an e-mail reply? I've heard nothing but complaints.

Why do we have a CAU anyway since they never actually assist anyone?

Council snow hearings are a waste of time

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg is - again - throwing snowballs at the outer boroughs, City Council members say.

He's refusing to send Sanitation Department reps to a series of Council hearings that will be the first chance for many New Yorkers to sound off about the disastrous Dec. 26 blizzard.

He'll instead send community affairs representatives with details about the mayor's 15-point plan to improve the city's snow response.

"Unacceptable!" fumed Council Sanitation Committee Chairwoman Letitia James (D, WFP-Brooklyn). "This is an actof disrespect to the outer boroughs, mostof which were ignored during the blizzard."

James had asked for the sanitation superintendents from each borough to explain at six hearings what went wrong in the hardest-hit parts of the city.

"I don't want Community Affairs to tell me about salt, snowplows, chains, deployments and assignments," James said.

That article led to this:

The Sanitation Department got an earful about its lousy blizzard cleanup at a public hearing on Staten Island last night - but wouldn't answer questions about it.

"I would like to extend the department's apology," Sanitation Department official Iggy Terranova told the 50 or so people gathered at the Michael J. Petrides School. "I will take each concern back to Commissioner [John] Doherty."

That wasn't good enough for City Council members who called the hearing and said it added insult to injury for Staten Islanders who waited days for plows to clean their streets.

"The administration can come here to talk to the people but not with the people," said Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn). "This should be a dialogue."

Last night was the Brooklyn hearing, and DSNY didn't show up at all this time. Oh and then there's this from Forest Hills Patch:

City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz revealed at the Community Board 6 meeting Tuesday night that neither the Mayor's office nor the Department of Sanitation will have an executive presence at the Queens snow removal hearing on Friday.

Mayor's office punishing Maspeth for protests

From the Times Newsweekly:

Christina Wilkinson, the president of the Newtown Historical Society, informed residents that efforts to create a public park at the former site of St. Saviour’s Church in Maspeth continue to hit a brick wall.

According to Wilkinson, the mayor’s office recently informed the organization that it will not agree to a proposed land swap with the current owner that would allow the city to take control of the former church site.

“Apparently, previous protests are the reason they don’t want to work with us there,” she said. If the city does not get involved, the society president said, the community would need to raise the $8 million needed to purchase the site on its own.

“We saved the church. It’s going to a different neighborhood,” she said, referring to the Juniper Park Civic Association’s plan to rebuild St. Saviour’s Church at All Faiths Cemetery. “But we want something for Maspeth.”

There's life under Bloomberg in a nutshell: Choose between your first amendment rights and getting city services. (If you live in Queens it won't matter, anyway, because your money is going to Manhattan, so you might as well protest.)

Also got word that DOB is allowing the owner to dig up the property with a backhoe despite a shabby construction fence and falling-apart retaining wall for which violations were served. Documented contamination and possible graves are also not considered to be problems by NYC (at least not when the property is owned by a developer).

Oh, and the stalled construction site program is a joke.

KEEP THEM OPEN!!

Councilman Tony Avella and staff from St. John's Queens and Mary Immaculate Hospitals will hold a press conference tomorrow at City Hall at 12 noon. The following is footage from Saturday's rally at St. John's:


"KEEP US OPEN!"


Myrna Bailey, Administrative Director of Clinical Services


Councilman Tony Avella


State Senator Shirley Huntley


Assemblyman Michael DenDekker


Comptroller William Thompson


Assemblywoman Marge Markey


State Senator Toby Stavisky


Dr. John Denton, Director of Medical Education

Videos by nutrichris on YouTube.

So I can't help but wonder as I look at these videos and yesterday's photos:

- Where was Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum? Early retirement?

- Where were Public Advocate candidates and current council members Eric Gioia and John Liu? Both represent Queens but apparently only "certain" people.

- Where was Borough President Helen Marshall who made a point about keeping these hospitals open during her State of the Borough speech? When you have no primary or general election opposition to worry about, this is what happens, I guess.

- Where were Community Affairs Unit Commissioner Nazli Parvizi and Queens Community Affairs Unit Director Jennifer Manley? Harassing another community group somewhere?

- Where was City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden? Trying to figure out how many condos can be squeezed into this space after the hospital closes?

- Where was Councilwoman Melinda Katz, whose district utilizes this hospital? Hosting a fundraiser for developers with eyes on this property?

- Two mayoral candidates showed up and a third sent a representative. Where was Mayor Bloomberg? Keeping his ass warm in Bermuda?



Shame on all of you.