It's not your grandmother's Lefrak City

The NY Post has photos of the "new" Lefrak City:

All these upgrades have made LeFrak City more desirable than ever. Its thousands of apartments are currently 98 percent full. Because of normal turnover, there are always around a dozen units available.

Currently, they range in rent from $1,900 for a one-bedroom apartment to $2,800 for a three-bedroom pad with a terrace. Several residences, in fact, have terraces; the newest units have been renovated with stainless-steel appliances, stone countertops and wood floors.

The sprawling private grounds and their newly snazzy amenities are no longer open to the public. Security cameras are posted everywhere; cheery safety officers greet everyone who passes. The vibe is less “Big Brother” and more “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”'s

Hiram's base has lost its polling site

From the Daily News:

Allies of Hiram Monserrate have lost a last-minute bid to have a polling site reestablished for the Democratic primary in LeFrak City in Queens, where the convicted felon enjoys broad support.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Andrea Masley ruled earlier this week that it was too late for her to move a polling site back to LeFrak, where New Yorkers had cast their votes for 50 years.

But she criticized the Board of Elections for moving the voting site from LeFrak to two other locations outside of the housing complex, writing that "moving poll sites is no joke" and that the timing of the change had not yet been properly explained.

"This court is confounded by the BOE's decision to move 6,071 voters to two new voting sites," Masley wrote.

In May, the Board of Elections announced new sites three-quarters of a mile and one-third of a mile away from the LeFrak complex, saying the original site did not meet Americans With Disabilities Act standards.

Key controversy at LeFrak City

From the Daily News:

Orthodox Jewish tenants at LeFrak City in Queens claim they are being discriminated against because newly installed lobby doors only open with an electronic key — which they cannot use on the Sabbath, a federal lawsuit alleges.

Sulaymon Ibragimov and Murod Takhalov are suing the LeFrak Organization for alleged religious discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.

“Halakha, the Jewish law, prohibits Jews from breaking or creating an electric circuit on the Sabbath, and during certain days of observance such as Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, and Passover,” according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

For a half century, tenants used metal keys to open the lobby doors, but a massive renovation project begun in 2012 has created new religious barriers for hundreds of Jewish families who reside at the 20-building complex in Rego Park, the class-action suit alleges.

The renovations included new lobby doors that open using an electronic key fob, which is also used to activate lights in the stairwell by using motion and sound detectors.

Ibragimov, 26, and Takhalov, 45, say they cannot use the elevator on the Sabbath or holy days as well, and the automatic lights also violate religious law for observant Jews.

How do they know that God doesn't want them to use electricity since the bible makes no mention of it?

Unattended soup may have killed 3 at Lefrak City

From the Epoch Times:

A traditional Haitian holiday soup left unattended on a stove likely sparked a deadly fire that killed a couple and their relative, fire officials said Thursday.

Louise Jean-Charles, 59, her husband, Napoleon Michel, 69, and 37-year-old Nadia Donnay were unconscious inside the apartment when firefighters arrived minutes before midnight.

They were pronounced dead at hospitals.

Jean-Charles’s son, Sergeory Jean-Charles, 36, told the Daily News that the dish was called Soup Joumou, a spicy pumpkin soup they make every year.

It’s served on Jan. 1—the anniversary of Haiti’s liberation from France.

“It’s a New Year’s tradition,” the distraught son told the newspaper.

And then this happened:



"This woman was upset NYPD would not allow her to enter the burning building with her infant and proceeded to assault the officer."

Lefrak city drug dealing day care center busted

From the Daily News:

Authorities took down a Queens drug ring that peddled pot, crack and Ecstasy out of a sprawling housing complex and a state-licensed daycare center for children.

Forty-six people ranging in age from 17 to 63 were pinched during a seven-month probe of drug dealing in LeFrak City, one of the nation's largest private housing complexes, Queens prosecutors said Friday.

The daycare center, which caters to children and infants as young as six weeks-old, is located within LeFrak City, home to some 15,000 residents.

"Dealers in this operation are alleged to have hit a new low: selling drugs out of a daycare center where hard-working parents drop off their children in the expectation that they will be shielded from harm - not caught up in it," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Among those nabbed was an inspector for the city Taxi and Limousine Commission. Prosecutors say he unleashed a pit bull on cops when he was caught smoking a joint outside his apartment on 57th Ave. this week.

Undercover investigators made 14 drug buys in the Burke-Arthur Day Care Center, which is licensed to care for as many as a dozen children, ranging from infants to 12 year-olds.

Brown tide in the kitchen

From NY1:

NY1 last brought you Queens resident Cynthia Carter's story when she had feces spewing out of her bathtub and toilet onto her apartment floor. This time around it was coming out of her bathroom and kitchen sink.

Eight times her bathtub and toilet overflowed, forcing Carter to live out of plastic bags. She ended up going to court with the building's management.

"The court told them that they had to fix it and they told the court that they had a handle on it that they had a plumber fixing the pipes," said Carter.

And just when Carter thought everything was okay, feces began coming up out of her sinks. She turned to "NY1 For You" for help.

The first time the Department of Health inspected the apartment, a mild to moderate sewage odor was detected and now DOH will be sending another inspector out to follow-up with the tenant and the property managers to make sure the problems are addressed.

NY1 also reached out to the building owner LeFrak City, who released the following statement: "We have worked on the situation and reassure that this will never happen again."

It was fun while it lasted

From the NY Times:

The Queens Library announced on Monday that beginning next month, 14 library branches in Queens will no longer serve customers on the weekends.

The Central Library in Jamaica will remain open on Sundays from noon to 5 pm, and the other 48 locations will keep their hours on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The libraries that will be open only Monday through Friday are Arverne, Astoria, Baisley Park, Court Square, East Elmhurst, East Flushing, Kew Garden Hills, Lefrak City, North Forest Park, Ozone Park, Queensboro Hill, Ridgewood, South Hollis and Windsor Park.