Radical group gets to discriminate at a community garden for a month longer.

 

 

 Queens Chronicle

Shortly after the city Parks Department moved to evict Ridgewood’s Sunset Community Garden, it said it will stick around.

The group behind the garden at Onderdonk and Willoughby avenues said Wednesday that the New York County Supreme Court has granted a temporary restraining order against Parks and GreenThumb, the agency’s program that supports hundreds of gardens in the city. 

Parks had issued a termination notice last month after it found the group out of compliance with community garden rules for requiring new members to affirm its political and ideological views. Those who wish to join the garden are required to uphold a set of “community values” that includes rejections of Zionism, homophobia, transphobia, racism and sexism. 

The agency said it had been working with the group since last September to address violations.

Members say the city also tried to remove a memorial honoring transgender activist Cecilia Gentili, for whom the garden has been renamed Jardin de Santa Cecilia. Parks said the altar did not qualify for permanent installation and that, although it had suggested ways to keep it on display, the group refused.

“As Pride begins, this victory makes clear: Our lives, art, and voices are not violations. They are human rights,” group leaders said in a press release. “Pride is a riot they can’t silence, and this garden is a home they can’t take away from us.”

A Parks spokesperson said the agency was notified Tuesday that a garden member had filed an order to show cause for a TRO to enjoin Parks from ending the garden’s license agreement. The TRO was signed the next day and will remain in effect until July 17, when the court is set to hear arguments from both sides regarding next steps, the agency said. 

According to the group, the court determined there was a “likelihood of success” on the merits of its allegations of violations of the city’s Human Rights Law and the First Amendment. It said in the release that the city falsely labeled its community values discriminatory and demanded that its license be reinstated and the altar recognized as protected speech. 

“This ruling is a lifeline for our community,” garden leaders said.

Funny thing about this is that the Parks Dept tried to negotiate with them for their alter for an activist who never lived in the area and they refused to cooperate and how they are such freedom fighters they think it's right for people to sign a pledge in fealty to their beliefs to help maintain the garden. That's not how community gardens or how this country works.

 

Juniper Park reimagined for gentrifiers

 

Looks like the end of softball, concerts and events on the blacktop at Juniper Valley Park and the introduction of adult fitness equipment and bike paths for kids, along with new basketball and pickleball courts. All for the low price of $6M+!

 

 

The Parks department is also making their own version of crunch fitness.

 

Roy Wilkins Park recreation centers are falling apart from neglect and unaccountability

 

 Queens Chronicle

There was tension in the air at the Robert Ross Johnson Family Life Center in St. Albans on Monday.

It quickly became standing-room-only as nearly 230 people filed in for the Southeast Queens Parks Update meeting, which became contentious as accusations were lobbed from elected officials and some members of the crowd about the existing and planned Roy Wilkins recreation centers, located at 177-01 Baisley Blvd. in St. Albans.

“I love to speak facts because the numbers speak for themselves,” said Borough President Donovan Richards. “We don’t do rhetoric, we do results. There has been a lot of misinformation disseminated around Roy Wilkins, but we are not just going to stay there tonight. We are going to make sure that we speak about the progress being made in Southeast Queens.

“Tonight is not about revisionist history. All of you are ambassadors for your parks. The parks are lungs in our community.”

As Richards told the crowd to join park friends groups and advocate on behalf of their specific green spaces, James Johnson, the advisory chair of the Southern Queens Park Association, the predominantly Black stewardship group responsible for programming at the existing center, accused the elected official of kowtowing to the Parks Department.

Johnson shouted that the sprinklers and fire panel at the existing center were not working, resulting in one member in the crowd asking if the facility is safe for children who attend summer and afterschool programs there.

“We heard that it is a major fire hazard,” the crowd member said on a postcard that was read aloud by a staff member from Richard’s office.

On whether it is safe, “Yes, yes, yes,” said Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue. “The children are safe. The facility is safe and we would not run — we could not run a facility that was not safe. ... We have to get permits by the Department of Buildings. There is no way we could run a center if it was not safe. It is our top priority always in all of our centers that they are safe for children and families.”

Donoghue said there are fire guards in place at the center and there are such personnel at 12 other centers across the city, which meets Fire Department code, and the sites are FDNY-certified because of that.

A source from SQPA, who wished to remain anonymous, said their organization was receiving fines meant for the Parks Department because of issues related to the fire safety and a staff member had to go to court to address the matter.

A source from Parks said the fire alarm is currently functional and is monitored by fire guards. Also, as part of Parks’ upcoming capital needs assessment, the agency will determine the work needed to have the sprinkler system repaired and have the fire alarm system registered with the FDNY.

According to the SQPA, the sprinklers have been out since 1986.

The FDNY was not available for comment as of press time.

The War on Frolf

 

 

QNS

Queens Community Board 5, which serves the neighborhoods of Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, Fresh Pond and Liberty Park, held its monthly meeting and public hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

The meeting addressed several pressing issues raised by residents, including ongoing concerns about Highland Park and Evergreen Park.

Both parks have become focal points of controversy, with residents voicing frustrations about specific activities impacting their quality of life.

During the public forum, Highland Park’s disc golf course took center stage, as multiple speakers criticized the activity for disrupting the park’s serene atmosphere. The course, introduced earlier this year, has reportedly caused tensions between disc golfers and other parkgoers.

 Steven Laxton, another local resident, echoed her concerns, highlighting conflicts arising from the proximity of the disc golf course to other park users. “Disc golfers treat the area like a dedicated golf course, and anyone in their way becomes an inconvenience. Park-goers just trying to enjoy nature are being harassed and told to move,” Laxton said.

 Jasmine Chino, a mother and teacher from the neighborhood, lamented the loss of a peaceful retreat. “Once the disc golf course came, it became uncomfortable to sit there. There’s these flying projectiles around you. Where do you sit? It’s very interfering. People have been asked to move, people have been hit. The community and Highland Park needs this green space,” she said.

Council member sneaks in street renaming for fake park for his favorite lobbyists

 

Streetsblog

It’s all in the name. 

The 26-block car-free open street on 34th Avenue in Queens is officially a park after the City Council voted Wednesday to officially dub the strip Paseo Park.

The name — which means "stroll" in Spanish — is a nod to the diverse community of Jackson Heights, which ranks last in the city in green space. Community members created the new public space in 2020 in the depths of the pandemic.

"Thirty-Fourth Avenue Paseo Park is the incredible story of a community coming together during a crisis to create new open space, filling it with families, music, and joy," said Council Parks Committee Chair Shekar Krishnan (D-Jackson Heights).

“As a child of an immigrant, who grew up in Jackson Heights longing for park space, I am proud of how far we’ve come in organizing for Paseo Park," said Luz Maria Mercado, board chair of Alliance for Paseo Park.

"I love that our Spanglish nickname for this vital community space caught on and will soon be on maps."

Not so fast Open Plans (lobby that runs the fake news site)

Transportation Alternatives favorite regulatory captured council rep Shekar Krishnan took advantage of a few loopholes in the charter to name 34th ave a "Park" to validate its open streets in a bill for dozens of other street renamings. Which includes one for a crossing guard killed by a truck driver and Tony Bennett. Even though the renaming is only good for one block and not for nearly a mile of streets. Especially a bunch of open streets. 

What makes "Paseo Park" also illegitimate is that has no genuine cultural significance either, it's just something an org with ties to bike lobby Transportation Alternative made up. But what makes Shekar's machinations super sleazy is that he's the chair of the parks committee not DOT, so he and his agency captors can make believe it's a park. An 85 million dollar park to be exact.

 

Trees of strife

 

NY Post

A tree grows in Queens — in the middle of the sidewalk.

Astoria residents are baffled over four trees that were planted smack in the center of the sidewalk on 29th Street, off of Broadway, on Dec. 26.

One of them was placed right in front of 31-38 29th St. and Erick Elias, the superintendent of the building, said he first got word of it when a tenant sent him a photo.

“The day after Christmas, he sent us a picture of it that said, ‘Did the landlord order a tree?'” he told The Post.

“So I went outside and was like, ‘Holy crap, it’s real. There’s a tree in the middle of the sidewalk.'”

Elias, 39, said three others were also planted on his block that day, also in the middle of the sidewalk, on the other side of the street.

“And apparently I’m hearing that it’s happening in a couple of other places in Astoria and also in Sunnyside,” he said.

About a week and a half prior, he heard what he thought was construction in front of his home one morning.

“At 7 a.m. on the dot, we started hearing jackhammering. When we leave to go to work, we see this dirt patch right in the middle of the sidewalk and we’re like, ‘What the hell is this?'” he recalled.

“We’re all thinking pipework or something. None of us are thinking ‘tree’ because it’s in the middle of the sidewalk.”

Neighbors have taken to social media to express their concerns with the out-of-place plantings.

“Anyone know why they’re putting trees in the *middle* of the sidewalk on 29th St in Astoria?,” @vidiot_ posted on X on Dec. 29 along with a photo of one, which is across from Elias’ building.

The conversation on X included a link to the Reddit discussion over the tree planted in front of Elias’ building, which started with a photo and the caption, “All about planting trees, but this seems a little odd.”

A Reddit user even found the permit for the tree pit, issued in November.

“Who approved this brilliant idea ?!?!!! Trees in the middle of the sidewalk??? WTF” Debra Roy Vecchio wrote on the Facebook group Astoria Centric, along with a photo of one of the trees.

“Absolutely ridiculous. This requires a lawsuit,” added Maria Dourmas Hriso Mallis.

Baked Astoria

 \

Queens Chronicle

The Astoria Pool is undergoing a major reconstruction project that will keep it closed all this upcoming season, while the Parks Department’s goal is to have the work done in time to reopen it for summer 2024.

The $19 milllion project will see the entire pool shell replaced, along with the gutter and deck; the installation of new systems for filtration and recirculation, backwash and chemical treatment; upgrades to the electrical and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system; and work to address leaks in the filter room and tunnel.

“We never close amenities unless absolutely necessary,” a statement from the Parks Department said, “and unfortunately, Astoria Pool will be closed this summer for needed repairs to the pool tub and mechanical systems — at nearly 100 years old, many of the pool’s features have reached the end of their service life.

“Fortunately, the recently renovated spray showers adjacent to the pool will remain open during construction, so there will still be a great option for families to cool off on those hot summer days.

“We know this historic pool is a beloved neighborhood amenity, and these repairs will help to ensure that this 87 year old icon continues to serve future generations of New Yorkers.”

The Old Astoria Neighborhood Association supports the pool’s reconstruction, which will be topic No. 1 at its next online meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. March 8.

“The upcoming restoration of the Astoria Park Pool is an inconvenient, but necessary project,” OANA President Richard Khuzami said in an email. “Nothing is more essential than a renewed pool tub and mechanical systems to insure the long life of this essential community asset.

“We do call upon the Parks Department to make all efforts to limit the closure to one season. Two seasons would place an unacceptable burden on our community.”

The civic also wants the city to study either providing transportation for area residents to alternative sites, such as other city pools, or reimbursing them for fare payments to get there.

City Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán (D-Astoria) also had a request for the administration while the work goes on.

“The Astoria Pool is a vital community resource that contributes immeasurably to our neighborhood’s health and safety,” Cabán said in an email sent by her office. “Of course, we are delighted that the pool is being upgraded. Unfortunately, District 22 ranks second-to-last in percentage of residents who live within walking distance of a park (just 59.2%), so we’re requesting that the City work with us to expand programming, convert space, etc. while the pool is under construction.

King Manor suffering from slumlord negligence by NYC Parks

Queens Chronicle

King Manor Museum in Jamaica lost its Wi-Fi on Dec. 18, 2020. In the more than two years that have elapsed since, meetings have been forced to employees’ nearby apartments, personal funds have been spent on connectivity and, according to museum Executive Director Kelsey Brow, “hours of work” have been lost.

Last Thursday, Brow got word from the head of Verizon government affairs, with whom she had to coordinate herself, that the problem was to be resolved as soon as this week. Even as that saga comes to a close, the building continues to lay in neglect.

Brow has reported problems related to the Wi-Fi, cracks in the walls, a deteriorating mantlepiece, mold-like black growths and other maintenance needs. She says the response from the Historic House Trust, a partner of the city Parks Department that Brow says serves as something of the liason between the museum and the agency, has been less than expedient.

“Our internet is supposed to be provided to us by the Parks Department through ... the Historic House Trust, and they were just like, ‘Oh, that’s too bad,’” Brow said of the Wi-Fi problem.

Failing plaster in the dining room, which Brow says is the museum’s staple, has led to the area being at least partially closed off to visitors. Brow says she was promised a “speedy, cosmetic fix” a year and a half ago that never came to pass.

Black growths on the side of the mantle led to some concern of the potential presence of mold. Brow says she reached out about the issue three or four years ago, only to get an air-quality monitor just at the end of this past fall. Results came back negative for any toxic growth.

The house is supposed to be painted every five to eight years. It’s been over 20 years since its last touch-up job, with mildew forming on exposed wood on the building’s exterior. The lack of a paint job has led to the failure of many of the windowsills, leading to the seepage of moisture into the structure.

Repair work that was completed on the building’s roof in 2018 did not include re-plastering the ceiling of the second floor, which had been failing due to the condition of the roof. Brow and a pair of colleagues performed those repairs themselves.

When asked why King Manor was having such a hard time hearing from the HHT, a Parks Department spokesperson pointed to investments the agency has made at the site — including the $1.8 million roof renovation and a 2021 $718,000 heating, ventilation and air-conditioning repair — and that the most recent HHT executive director retired late last summer and is expected to be replaced early this year.

“In recent years there has been significant investment in Rufus King Manor’s roof and HVAC system,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We are aware of some of the concerns outlined, and are working to resolve them.”

Brow says the neglect has led to a loss of revenue for the museum. The dining room typically would be rented out for events including weddings, baby showers, book launches and business meetings. Between the deteriorating condition and the extended period of limited Wi-Fi (the museum did have access to an internet connection box through a nonprofit group called Mobile Boost, but its capacity and reliability were limited), the space has not been suitable for prospective inhabitants.

“We have film festivals that sometimes rent out the space, and they had an issue because they had some of their films on the cloud and they couldn’t get them because the internet didn’t reach here,” Brow said. “So, it’s not only lost work hours for us, but loss of income through rental opportunities.”

NYC Parks carpet bombed trees at Nicholas Demutis Park

A year after the de Blasio massacre of East River Park, NYC Parks is still killing trees for no reason. Even this modest little green space in Ozone Park, Queens, which is named after a cop who was killed on the job. Arborcide by "reimagining". 

Usually when the Parks Dept. does renovations they usually have a sign stating what they are doing, along with the names of the district's elected representatives on it. Not with this one though.

 

 

The Comptroller of enabled corruption

 

NY Daily News 

A city contractor that agreed to cough up nearly $13 million to settle a federal false claims lawsuit in January has registered five contracts with the city comptroller’s office, public records show.

The Door, a non-profit that offers reproductive health care and other services to adolescents, had contracts worth more than $3.8 million registered with Comptroller Brad Lander’s office since Jan. 27, when it admitted to submitting inaccurate records to the state Health Department — raising questions about why Lander and Mayor Adams’ administration would approve of deals with an entity implicated in a “civil fraud action.”

“The vetting process is to weed out possible illegality and fraud,” said Michael Lambert, a former deputy comptroller for the city. “This just strikes me as unusual. It seems uncharacteristic of the way the process is supposed to work.”

Lambert said that The Door’s inaccurate reporting amounted to a “serious violation of the public trust,” which at the very least merits additional scrutiny from the comptroller and the Adams administration.

Instead, in its submissions to the state from August 2009 to November 2016, The Door counted the number of services rendered, rather than the number of visits — which is the appropriate measure under state guidelines, according to the settlement. The non-profit did that even after its then-chief financial officer told a Door data analyst in 2014 that the appropriate measure to submit was the number of visits to the facility, not the number of services provided.

In its complaint, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York’s Southern District alleged that The Door “knowingly” violated the federal False Claims Act by submitting false reports to the state.

In the settlement agreement, The Door acknowledged that its actions caused the indigent care pool “to pay funds to The Door to which it was not entitled.”

“The Door’s extraordinary cooperation is expressly acknowledged in the settlement agreements we signed with both the New York Attorney General’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office,” said Door spokeswoman Mika De Roo. “Once the stipulations were issued, we immediately made full restitution in February 2022, without cutting or ending any of the critical services we provide to at-risk youth in New York City, and likewise made prompt, full, and appropriate disclosure of the matters settled to the city agencies that fund these services.”

The Door ultimately agreed to pay the federal government $2.7 million and the state government $10.2 million as part of the settlement.

THE CITY 

A top tree-trimming firm whose owners were charged last year with insurance fraud has been placed under the city Department of Investigation’s monitorship — a legal limbo so it can resume work pruning trees in the city’s two biggest boroughs as the case proceeds, officials said.

Brooklyn-based Dragonetti Brothers Landscaping is one of just a handful of private firms who work on trees maintained by the Parks Department, along with performing other city work. But last September, brothers Nicholas and Vito Dragonetti were indicted on accusations of evading more than $1 million in insurance premiums while repairing city roads and sidewalks, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. 

Since their arrests, however, public tree trimming in Brooklyn and Queens has been nonexistent, Brooklyn Paper reported last week, even as branch work in other boroughs is just being reinstated after COVID cuts.

“Routine block pruning in Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island is ongoing,” Crystal Howard, a spokeswoman for the Parks Department, told THE CITY in a statement this week. “We expect pruning in Queens and Brooklyn to resume this fall and to reach the annual goal of 65,000 street trees pruned in Fiscal 2023.”

The Parks Department only recognizes a few landscaping companies as qualified to do the work, so officials went back to the scandal-tarred Dragonetti Brothers — awarding them an $8.39 million contract in August for “emergency tree services in The Bronx and Manhattan,” according to the city comptroller. 

A more than $7 million contract for Queens tree pruning will kick in soon, while a more than $5 million contract for Brooklyn tree pruning is in the final review stages, the Parks Department told THE CITY.

Rage against the Rockaway Beach restoration

 

Impunity City 

From what it looked like on the first 90 degree day of the spring on the week before the “official start of summer” this Memorial Day weekend, the possible was achieved. For the fences that were supposed to deter people from going on the shore that were there for their safety were torn apart and beach combers made do with what little space on the sand there was.

The beachcomber rebellion was most glaringly apparent by B 91 street where the temporary summer shut down of the beach began. Two large stop signs were pried off and fencing was cut off to prevent access to the citizenry for their safety.

 Heading down the ramp towards the perilously eroded shore was a sight to behold as people made do and set up their places with what little sandy real estate they can find under the omnipresent cranes and some plows left behind for the continuing reconstruction of the shore to save the peninsula from being submerged.

Rockaway Summertime Blues

Flushing Meadows dark shadows

 

 NY Post

One of the Big Apple’s most popular and crime-ridden parks is routinely being left unguarded.

The city has significantly slashed the number of parks enforcement patrol officers assigned to Flushing Meadows Corona Park over the past few months – a move that left Queens’ largest park without on-duty security during large chunks of at least a dozen days the past month – including Wednesday and Thursday, some officers and their union told The Post.

“It’s shocking they won’t prioritize a park this big,” said Joe Puleo, president of Local 983 of District Council 37. “It puts everyone in danger – both the public and our members who lack the resources to enforce the law.”

Flushing Meadows has a longstanding reputation of attracting wild gatherings after 9 pm, when the park closes and the public is supposed to leave. Sometimes thousands gather near Meadow Lake, Fountain of the Planets, the officers and union said.

Some get high off booze and drugs, rev muscle cars, blast music, and urinate on the grass, they added.

In the fiscal year ending June 30, there were 35 reported crimes at Flushing Meadows, the most of any park in the borough and third to only Manhattan’s Central Park and Washington Square Park citywide, records show.

Flushing's drowning pool

THE CITY 

 A heralded Queens public pool central to New York City’s failed 2012 Olympic bid has been shuttered since before the pandemic — while as many as a dozen workers show up daily without swimmers to serve.

It’s one of six public indoor pools closed for maintenance even after the six others run by the city reopened last month following an 18-month COVID-spurred shutdown.

The Flushing Meadows Corona Park Aquatic Center was shuttered Jan. 13, 2020, for what the Department of Parks and Recreation described as “emergency repairs” after the roof started shedding concrete.

At the time, the department said in a press release, “the pool will be closed to the public for at least six weeks,” with “extensive ceiling netting” to be installed over the pool and a neighboring ice rink.

The pool’s public entrance on the eastern edge of the park is now padlocked, with handwritten signs reading “Pool is closed, sorry” pasted on the front doors.

That netting is now permanently in place over the drained 50-meter pool, according to workers at the facility, which first opened its doors in 2008. Chunks of concrete falling from the ceiling are to blame, the Parks Department says.

Conditions are so far-gone that Parks says it is developing plans to reconstruct the roof.

Ozone Park sidewalks still a shambles after a hurricane from two years ago

 

 Queens Chronicle

Shards of cement are scattered in a pile in front of 88-16 102 Road in Ozone Park. The stretch of sidewalk looks like it was attacked by a demolition crew.

Only it’s no temporary construction site. It’s been like that for a year since a downed tree was uprooted and disposed of in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias.

Two years ago the city announced that it would no longer charge homeowners for sidewalk damage caused by city trees and promised to ramp up sidewalk repairs in problem areas.

A year after Tropical Storm Isaias pummeled the borough, collapsing trees and power lines, and hitting especially hard in South Queens, Ozone Park still bears the evidence that the city has not been living up to Mayor de Blasio’s promise about sidewalk maintenance or repair.

In the wake of that storm, the Chronicle documented the widespread instances of poor arboreal health in Ozone Park that led to a large number of downed trees. Now over a year later, the Ozone Park Residents Block Association has begun calling out the city’s failure to replace the sidewalk in the areas where uprooted trees disrupted the neighborhood’s pedestrian fabric.

“In what can only be described as reckless, careless, a dereliction of duty, lack of concern, failing to protect our residents, amongst the many adjectives I can use, the City of NY has dropped the ball on our residents,” wrote Sam Esposito, the civic group’s president, in a press release calling attention to the problem.

The group listed seven sites in the neighborhood where it says trees overturned by Tropical Storm Isaias turned the surrounding sidewalk into a pile of rubble that has yet to be repaired by the city. In five of the sites, Esposito said that he had coordinated with the homeowners, but he ensured that a 311 complaint was filed in each case.

Unfortunately, a long wait time for sidewalk repair is not uncommon, despite recent efforts from the city to correct the issue.

 

Homeless service provider forms LLC to take over Trump golf course

 

 THE CITY 

 While Donald Trump battles Bill de Blasio over the mayor’s decision to dump the former president as operator of a Bronx golf course, the city is playing through — proposing a new firm to run the Ferry Point links.

A notice published Monday shows a company called Ferry Point Links LLC is set to be awarded a 13-year Parks Department deal to take over the Jack Nicklaus-designed 18-hole course at the foot of the Bronx-Whitestone bridge.

A firm incorporated under that name in late August, state corporation records indicate — sharing both an executive’s name and address with one of the city’s biggest homeless shelter operators, CORE Community Services.

An attorney for the former president vowed to fight the city — and the proposed new golf course operators — for control of the links, charging Trump is a victim of “political retaliation.”

A spokesperson for the city Department of Parks and Recreation said that CORE will be teaming up with Bobby Jones Links, an Atlanta company that will be “managing the operation of the concession.” CORE Community Services did not respond to requests for comment Monday, and Bobby Jones Links was not immediately reachable.

According to the notice posted in Monday’s City Record, Ferry Point Links, LLC will pay a minimum of $300,000 a year to the city — or a share starting at 7% of the gross proceeds and gradually escalating to 10% by year 13, whichever is higher.

Those terms are slightly more favorable to the operator than those granted to Trump in 2012, in a 20-year deal struck to salvage a troubled project. Trump also committed $10 million to build a clubhouse.

NYC Parks awards 15-year contract to failed Riis Park Beach Bazaar to run concessions on Rockaway Beach boardwalk

 

Queens Eagle

 A decision to award a 15-year Rockaway Beach Boardwalk concession contract to a new company could result in the eviction of a handful of beloved boardwalk businesses, say worried beachgoers and eatery owners.

The New York City Parks Department has contracted with Rockaway Beach Bazaar LLC, a company formed by the owners of Brooklyn Bazaar and nearby Riis Park Beach Bazaar, to renovate, operate and maintain three beachfront cafes, one shop and 20 additional units for the next decade and a half. The properties include the popular bars and restaurants Rippers, Low Tide and Caracas.

The LLC outbid Rockaway Beach Club, a coalition of local business owners that won the contract to operate concessions at Beach 106th, Beach 97th and Beach 86th Street in 2011. The Rockaway Times first reported on the contract.

The longtime tenants and many of their customers say they worry the new operator will evict the eateries or raise rents.

“The Rockaway Beach club has been the umbrella of love, hard work and fostered the CULTURE of the Rockaway we all know today,” the Rockaway Beach shop Zingara Vintage wrote on Instagram Friday. 

The store is located on Beach 91st Street, about two blocks from the boardwalk, and opens occasional pop-up shops outside Rippers. “It’s because of them that so many of us have had the times of our lives on the Rockaway Boardwalk,” Zingara said.

Zingara’s post also described a concern among many boardwalk businesses: even those offered leases to remain in their beachfront buildings may lose control of bar sales, a crucial moneymaker.

“This would crush their business,” Zingara said. “And what about the dozen or so other small businesses that operate in the concessions ? Where will they go?”

The businesses in place have weathered COVID-19 and helped restore the boardwalk in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, said Rockaway resident Sarina Parachini, whose husband owns Rippers, located near Beach 86th Street. 

“These are all Rockaway businesses owned by people from the Rockaways,” Parachini said. “We just got through COVID. We were on the boardwalk for Sandy, we rebuilt after Sandy in a huge way.”

Impunity City 

 

To quote a scene from the surreal suspense series Twin Peaks; “It’s happening again.”

As I documented here for a few years now this LLC, which has had almost as many name changes as Eric Prince’s war mercenary corporation Blackwater to adapt to the times and also to cover for their past failures from their own bottom line decisions, got tasked by NYC Parks and National Parks Service to “revitalize” Riis Park with their annual summer event of upscale foodie and leisure lifestyle culture consumerism. And as I observed and reported, while it did much to rejunivate the boardwalk with new concessions which included the restoration of the Riis Park Bathhouse, there was absolutely no improvements to infrastructure or even basic environmental maintenance like a sufficient amount of garbage cans or even intermittent collection of trash which piled up like sand dunes at the end of the night.

 

And after all that prospective allure the concept of the Riis Bazaar LLC conveyed, many areas and public amenities remained in ruins during their time here.

 The only revitalization that occurred in Riis Park only happened where the Bazaar’s concessions were set up and it was never more pronounced than this year of the pandemic.

  

City Council pruned budget for tree inspection and maintenance

 THE CITY

The city’s canopy of more than 2.6 million street and park trees will have to wait for scheduled prunings due to new budget cuts — a move slammed by a former Parks Department commissioner as “foolish” and dangerous.

The Fiscal 2021 Executive Plan includes a budget reduction of $7.2 million for tree pruning contracts, leaving about $1.5 million for the job. City trees are generally trimmed every seven to 10 years.

Park advocates and government officials, pointing to past incidents where people were severely injured — or worse — by plummeting branches, sounded the alarm over the cuts.

“The problem with not pruning is if a limb falls from a tall tree, it can cause tremendous damage. It can kill people,” said Adrian Benepe, who served as Parks commissioner from 2002 to 2012.

“It’s a meaningless cut that could cause damage both to the trees and to people.”

After the city slashed tree-pruning funding in 2010, tree-related injury claims soared. By delaying pruning contracts, the city saved $1 million — but settlement costs neared $15 million, records show.

“One bad tree limb fall wipes out all your savings,” said Benepe. “This saving is pennywise and pound foolish.”

During 2010, the city pruned less than 30,000 street trees — 50,000 fewer trees than the year before. Full funding for the Parks pruning program wasn’t restored until FY2013 when the 10-year pruning cycle was reinstated.

Claims for injuries caused by trees increased by 92% — from just under 400 claims to over 700 — during the period of reduced pruning and maintenance. In some community districts outside Manhattan claims increased by 590%, according to a 2015 ClaimStat report by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

In 2015, Stringer told the City Council that there is a direct correlation between million-dollar legal claims and the amount of money the city allocates for tree pruning each year.

 

Reduced tree pruning isn’t synonymous with dangerous conditions, said Dan Kastanis, a Parks Department spokesperson. “Tree pruning is important, but inspections keep people safe, and proactive tree inspections are continuing in every borough, every day,” he said.

Curtis Sliwa goes for a forbidden swim in defiance of de Blasio's pandemic beach protocol