Shelter resident attends protest to expose DHS abuse

• The State Senator from the area actually shows up for protests.
• He mentions that this hotel is not near a subway or jobs.
• It is meant to keep people out of view.
• He calls for it to be shut down.

To recap Aaron's remarks:

• The DHS told the residents of at least one shelter on Jericho Turnpike that last week's protest would be violent and that they must leave.
• Those who did not want to leave were threatened with being sent back to the PATH center in the Bronx and having their kids taken away.
• You get preferential treatment in the shelters if you are an "MOS" (member of the service). Otherwise, you get treated like shit.
• Food is provided at the shelter that is spoiled and has made his family and others sick.
• DHS relies on scare tactics.
• You actually have to take them to court to get anywhere.
• DHS bounces people around from shelter to shelter, and keeps people in the system for years.
• The de Blasio administration's video was a lie because the shelter residents are more afraid of DHS than of protesters.
• The caseworker at the shelter got fired. A new one was hired, and there is only one on site for the entire shelter.
• The young man's family just got approved for permanent housing because DHS knew Aaron was talking with the protesters.

• Sam Chang built a 205-room hotel on a marsh in a remote area.
• After Sandy, a service provider named Bedco opened a men's shelter on the first two floors of the hotel.
• The men are forced to leave via side entrances and hotel guests are not told about the presence of the shelter.
• The men eat meals in their rooms instead of in a congregate area.
• Sex offenders are housed there without notification to the community.
• There is no proof that paid for services are actually provided to the men.

Protest at homeless hotel in Meadowmere today

WHO: The Meadowmere Park Civic Association and Maspeth–Middle Village Task Force

WHAT: Joint protest of hotel conversion into homeless shelter

WHERE: Holiday Inn at 154-71 Brookville Blvd, Rosedale, NY 11422

WHEN: Sunday, October 2nd, 11am

The Maspeth-Middle Village Task Force will be joining the Meadowmere Park Civic Association on Sunday October 2 at 11am to protest the conversion of a Holiday Inn located at 154-71 Brookville Blvd in the Meadowmere section of Queens, just west of the Nassau County border.

This new hotel, which opened in 2014, is still booking rooms under the Holiday Inn name, but for the past year, the 1st and 2nd floors have been rented out to a social services provider who has contracted with the Department of Homeless Services to place 150 homeless men there. The men are thrown out of the premises at 9am and are not allowed to come back until after 5pm.

They are being forced to exit the building via a “poor door” on the side of the building so they do not come into contact with the paying guests of the hotel. The City Council and de Blasio administration passed a law in 2015 banning “poor doors” in buildings containing both market rate and affordable housing units. Yet the administration’s Department of Homeless Services condones this practice in the hotel shelters that it funds.

With no job assistance offered or public transportation nearby, these men are left with little choice but to wander through this remote residential area. Those with untreated mental illnesses and addictions have been responsible for many disturbances and have become a burden on police manpower.

Maspeth stands in solidarity with the people of Meadowmere who are calling for Solutions, not Shelters.

I gotta laugh at the response to the review. "We appreciate your feedback". Right, but poverty pimpin' is just too lucrative to give up.

By the way, the owner of the hotel is Sam Chang.

Photos of a seldom-visited corner of Queens

From Curbed:

Idlewild, Snake Road, Meyer Harbor, Meadowmere. Over the past century, Hook Creek has wandered through these obscure landmarks on the far eastern border of New York City, passing ghost towns, dumps, and ruins, while replenishing hundreds of acres of wetlands. In recent decades, however, government agencies have been chipping away at this Queens estuary, while neglecting the communities around it. "It's kind of a push and pull between manmade things and nature," said Barbara Brown, chairperson of the Eastern Queens Alliance, but residents here, many of whom live in close harmony with the water, are hopeful for its future. "People are seeing this is an area that we need to preserve."

Very interesting photo series!

Forgotten Meadowmere also hit hard by Sandy

From the Times Ledger:

The residents of Meadowmere and Meadowmere Park, two tiny waterside communities off Rockaway Boulevard, are used to flooding, but Superstorm Sandy was unlike anything they had ever seen before.

“The first week we were just running for our lives here,” said 44-year-old Meadowmere Park resident Gus Zervas.

A month after the storm, residents of the southeast Queens community Meadowmere and its Long Island neighbor, Meadowmere Park, are still struggling to recover from thousands of dollars’ worth of damages to their homes and businesses after the waters rose by what residents said was 8 feet above the street.

“It’s the highest tide we ever had,” said 69-year-old Larry Seaman, a lifetime resident of Meadowmere.

Zervas said he had expected to be able to ride out the storm, but when the water level began rising in his house, he left his home and got into the street. He said the water line was up to his stomach and within two hours it was up to his neck.

“It was a horror show here,” he said.

Zervas and others in the neighborhood ended up squatting for little over a week in the house of a neighbor who was in China at the time. When relief finally came to the small community, forgotten in the wake of devastation in larger communities like Breezy Point, Zervas was offered an apartment upstate. But due to the gasoline shortage Zervas chose to live in his powerless house for a week to keep going to his job at FedEx in John F. Kennedy International Airport. He is now temporarily living in an apartment in Atlantic Beach, L.I.

On the same street, 23-year-old Jessica Guastella and her 61-year-old father Anthony have been struggling to rebuild their now-hollowed-out shell of a house since her almost 92-year-old grandfather, Lenny Zamiello, refuses to leave.

Paying for the pipes

From the Daily News:

Hook up or pay up.

Today is the official deadline for residents of Meadowmere and Warnerville to connect to the city's sewer system.

And city officials said it won't be extended.

Residents of these little-known neighborhoods on the Queens-Nassau border have waited decades for the city to offer them a sewer system.

But times are tough and only about 25% of the approximately 89 property owners were connected as of Friday.

Plumbers have been charging $5,000 and up for the job.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall gathered residents and officials from the city Department of Environmental Protection last week to see if the deadline - already extended once - could be moved.

"Everybody's scared because of the deadline," said George Moschatos, who owns Argo Boats on Rockaway Blvd. "They made us wait 40 years for the sewers, and then they give us 10 months?"

Homeowners received letters from the city last August saying they could face steep fines of up to $10,000 for failing to connect to the sewers.

DEP officials said homeowners will receive warning letters before being slapped with violations. They also urged homeowners to look into government grants and loans that could help them pay for the work.

Property owners are still waiting to hear how much they will be charged for spurs installed on their property by the city during sewer construction. The spurs provide a connector between homes and the main sewer lines.

Marshall promised help for local residents, who have complained for years they are ignored by city officials and shortchanged on city services.

She asked the city to consider payment plans if they perform any emergency hookups in the future. Her topography unit is also looking into concerns that some streets in the area are not included on city maps.

Photo from Forgotten-NY

Two tiny nabes finally get sewers

From NY1:

The city has completed a new step toward reducing pollution in Jamaica Bay.

According to city officials, 90 homes in Meadowmere and Warnerville will now be able to hook up to city sewage lines. It comes with the completion of a $37 million sewage and wastewater project, linking them with the city sewer system.

Previously, the waste wound up in septic systems that often failed or went directly into Jamaica Bay.

The project is part of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC, which has a goal of making 90 percent of New York's waterways safe for recreation.

"We were putting our pollution, our waste, straight into Jamaica Bay, and we were, of course under court order not to do these things,” said City Councilman James Sanders.

"This has closed off and ended the discharge of some raw sewage into Jamaica Bay, here,” added Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway.

Residents will now have until June 4th to arrange for a licensed plumber to hook up their houses to the new sewer system. The hook up could cost each family an estimated $5,000. Some families may be eligible for financial assistance with that cost.

The NY Times says the cost will be $10,000. The city has demapped the streets so don't be surprised if a developer comes calling looking for cheap land courtesy of the City. This may be why they finally put in sewers (like they are doing at Willets Point).

X-rated billboard still an issue

Via 1010WINS:

Suit: Risque Queens Sign Annoys LI Neighbors

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) -- They may be taking off the gloves, and much more, before this battle is over.

Officials on Long Island have filed a lawsuit claiming risque billboards advertising a strip club in neighboring New York City are a public nuisance and should be removed.

Nassau County Attorney Lorna Goodman says although the Platinum Club is technically in Queens, it can be seen from her side of the border and is offensive to local residents.

One billboard features a scantily clad woman wearing several thin strips of strategically placed black material.

New York City officials don't necessarily disagree. Its Department of Buildings issued a summons in November for erecting signage without a permit.

Hey, while we're at it, can we remove the 2 port-a-potty billboards and the one with the woman talking about "giving head" along the L.I.E. in L.I.C., being that they're all illegal? Thanks.

Meadowmere just now getting sewers

It is the 21st century, and one section of Queens is just getting about the receive a basic city service for the first time:

When Pipe Dreams Come True

Sewers still will not be installed for the Iron Triangle at Willets Point, however, at least not until the city takes it over via eminent domain.