2,000

LIC Post 

Many Dutch Kills and Queensbridge residents have been calling for assistance in dealing with quality-of-life issues stemming from the local homeless shelters, according to Queens Community Board 1.

Florence Koulouris, the district manager for Community Board 1, told board members at their monthly meeting Feb. 15 that there have been about two thousand 911 calls over the past year from Dutch Kills and Queensbridge residents regarding incidents at the surrounding shelters.

There are several shelters in the Dutch Kills/Queensbridge area–all within close proximity to one another.

“Our local residents have seen remarkable events occurring… and are fearful for their safety, due to the lack of desperately needed services for the [shelter] residents placed in hotels,” Koulouris said.

She said that there have been complaints about public defecation, urination, intimidation, sexual activity, drug use—and that there are video tapes of homeless residents involved in trespassing and theft.

She gave a breakdown of the number of complaints concerning shelter residents in the Dutch Kills/Queensbridge section of Long Island City for the 12-month period through Feb.1, 2022.

Koulouris said that there were 107 911 calls concerning residents of the Quality Inn LIC, located at 30-03 40th Ave.; 219 911 calls pertaining to the residents at the Sleep Inn Hotel at 38-77 13th St.; 1,385 911 calls—leading to 51 arrests—at Pam’s Place, a women’s shelter located at 40-03 29th St., which opened in 2015 and was the former Verve Hotel.

At the Vue Hotel, located at 40-47 22nd St., there were 240 911 calls, leading to two arrests. The data, Koulouris said, was provided by the NYPD 114th Precinct.

Koulouris told board members that the complaints at Pam’s Place have jumped significantly since the DHS removed its “peace officers.” The peace officers, a unit of DHS, provided additional security. The peace officers, however, vacated most shelters more than a year ago due to budget constraints.

George Stamatiades, chair of the Dutch Kills Civic Association, said that residents in the area have been lodging complaints but have gotten nowhere.

“We have been complaining to DHS but it falls on deaf ears,” Stamatiades told the Queens Post.

He said that DHS is just warehousing people at the hotels and not taking care of the medical needs of the residents.

The ultimate John Ciafone property - and it's in QUEENS!

"Another Ciafone Masterpiece on Vernon Boulevard! They even took the time to give the building a great name City Skyline Water & Park Views. Huh? Sounds like a real estate description, not a building name." - anonymous

This really has everything, doesn't it? $120,000 in unpaid illegal sign fines, something resembling tin foil in the windows, and one of his famous canopies with a really ridiculous name on it. Also, the graffitied van in front is a nice touch.

Ravenswood red-tailed hawk rescued

From CBS New York:

A hawk was rescued, rehabbed and released in Queens Tuesday, after getting stuck inside the Ravenswood Generating Station.

The red-tailed hawk was found on Friday inside the power plant along the East River in Long Island City, Queens.

The hawk got stuck in a turbine exhaust room, CBS2 was told.

Rescue crews named the bird Rambo.

Giving thanks for his blessings

From CBS New York:

Despite not having cooking gas for more than a month due to a leak, 46 families of the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City, Queens, will still enjoy a turkey with all the trimmings.

Brian McMichael, who grew up in the housing complex and just moved his restaurant to Long Island City a month ago, came to the rescue, WCBS 880’s Jim Smith reported.

“My heart goes out to these people, and some of them I actually know personally,” McMichael said, owner of Miriam’s Southern Cuisine.

Partnering with Fresh Direct for the turkeys, McMichael said he’s inspired by the values his mother instilled in him, the restaurant’s namesake.

“She would be so proud. She would just pray. Pray and be joyful,” he said.

His shop will also be whipping up an extra 30 meals for the food pantry.

Big Allis a big polluter

From the Queens Tribune:

The Environment New York Research & Policy Center released a report last week indicating that the TC Ravenswood Power Plant in Long Island City is the State’s most significant carbon polluter.

According to the center, Ravenswood produces about 2.3 million metric tons in emissions, which is the equivalent of about 500,000 cars.

These statistics were collected from U.S. Dept. of Energy 2012 emissions data. Ravenswood generating station is a 2,480 megawatt with the capacity to service 21 percent of the City’s peak energy load.

Rose Marie Poveromo sits on the Community Board 1 environmental committee. In response to the ENYRPC report, she said, “I believe it.”

The plant, known colloquially as Big Allis, has sparked moderate concern from residents throughout the years regarding noise, water and air pollution.

“All [power plants] have to become clean and green,” Poveromo said. “We who live in the communities [are] suffering from air pollution and noise pollution.”

Dorothy Morehead, vice chair of the Newtown Creek Alliance and chair of the environmental committee for Community Board 2, which neighbors the plant, said “emissions from power plants has long been a concern.”

A TransCanada representative disputed the findings of the report.

“Their conclusion is based on estimated data, not actual data. Based on real data supplied to the regulator, our CO2 emitting rates at the Ravenswood Generating Station are significantly lower than what the report claims,” the spokesperson said.

Power plant may be killing fish

From the Times Ledger:

The Sierra Club is asking a judge from Queens Supreme Court to require that the state Department of Environmental Conservation review the issuing of the first water withdrawal permit given to the Ravenswood Power Plant because the organization claims withdrawing water from the East River is killing fish.

The challenge by the grassroots environmental group along with the Hudson River Fisherman was filed last Friday. The authorization by the state agency allows the Long Island City-based plant to use up to 1.5 billion gallons of water a day from the East River. The permit is valid until 2017.

According to the Sierra Club, the DEC failed to order the power plant to have a closed-cycle cooling system in place.

“I hope the judge decides to have a hearing on this,” said Jonathan Geballe, attorney for the organization. “We believe we have a strong case.”

Geballe calculates that in about two months the Queens Supreme Court judge will make a decision.

Water & bugs & mold - oh my!

From CBS New York:

Some residents at a Queens apartment building say they’ve been complaining to their landlord for months about water, bugs and mold.

Their landlord? It’s the city.

Erycka de Jesus showed CBS 2′s Dave Carlin her flooded second-floor apartment at the Ravenswood Houses in Astoria. She has moved her four children to her bother’s house an hour away because she fears for their health at her home, which has attracted insects and mold because of standing water.

“My asthmatic son definitely cannot stay in this environment,” de Jesus said.

She said a crew with the New York City Housing Authority, which manages the property, patched the wall in a way that did no good. De Jesus is now taking NYCHA to court.

She also contacted City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens), who had some choice worlds for the Housing Authority.

“When there are situations like this calling for immediate response, there is no excuse,” Van Bramer told Carlin.

CBS 2 repeatedly pressed NYCHA for an explanation, but the agency said only that it was “looking into it.”

2M gallons of East River water per day?

From New York Water Law:

The first noticed application for a water withdrawal permit under New York's new water withdrawal laws and regulations, the application of the Ravenswood Generating Station in Queens, does not establish a comforting precedent for the handling of such applications by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Notice of the Ravenswood application is given in the DEC's August 7, 2013, Environmental Notice Bulletin,

No hearings are scheduled on the application for a permit to withdraw approximately 1.5 billion gallons per day from the East River in New York City, and the DEC determined that the project is not subject to SEQRA because, according to the notice, "it is a Type II action." Comments are due on Aug 22, 2013. The entire comment period on this very first application by one of the state's largest water users is only two weeks long and is located in the middle of August, when summer vacations are often taken.

The categorization of the project as a Type II action is difficult to fathom because projects that "would use ground or surface water in excess of 2,000,000 gallons per day," are explicitly defined as Type I actions in Section 617.4(6)(ii) of the SEQRA regulations.

Although this is the first noticed application under the new water withdrawal regulations and as such can be expected to be the subject of considerable interest across the state, the filed application documents and DEC's draft permit are available for inspection only during normal business hours at the address of the DEC contact person in Albany. Members of the public who wish to comment on the application, but do not live in Albany, are likely to find that it takes most of the two week comment period just to obtain a copy of the application and draft permit.

Smokin' power plant

From NBC:

Firefighters are looking into what caused heavy black smoke to billow from a smokestack at a power plant near the East River in Queens Monday.

Firefighters were called to TransCanada's Ravenswood power plant at Vernon Boulevard and 37th Avenue in Long Island City about 4:30 p.m. Neighbors from both the west side of Queens and the east side of Manhattan reported seeing thick smoke coming from one of the four red and white smokestacks.

According to the energy company, a boiler combustion fan lost power, causing the inside of the smoke stack to overheat and produce black smoke.

Kitties trapped at housing project without food or water

From the NY Post:

A group of cats trapped in the bowels of a Queens housing complex might be down to their last lives.

Contractors hired by the New York City Housing Authority to seal up crawl spaces and keep out hundreds of stray kitties at the 2,100-unit Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City closed the cubicles before all of the cats could get out, residents and animal activists said yesterday.

By one count, as many as 12 cats are stuck in the small, hot crawl spaces of several buildings and worried feline lovers want the city to bust back in and break them out.

Debi Romano, president of SaveKitty Foundation, a local animal-rescue group, said workers hurried through the Ravenswood project before making sure all the cats were safely out.

"They rushed through the job in four days," Romano said. "This job should have taken at least two weeks. Either they're lying or they're not looking hard enough."

A Housing Authority spokeswoman, Sheila Stainback, said that no cats were stuck in the crawl spaces when the areas were sealed. But she said traps with food and water have been left in the basement areas in case any cats get back in.

Romano is urging city officials to take a closer look, insisting the cats are still there, and that most of them are too smart to be lured into the traps.

Housing authority allows kittens to starve

From the Daily News:

Animal advocates say a cat-astrophe is brewing at the Ravenswood Houses.

It's kitten season, and dozens of felines and their litters are hunkered down in crawlspaces beneath buildings that straddle the border of Long Island City and Astoria.

But the latest plan by the New York City Housing Authority, which manages Ravenswood, to trap and remove the cats, hit a snag last week.

Housing Authority workers started installing one-way doors on the crawlspaces. Cats could get out but they couldn't get back in.

Mother cats, who ventured out in search of food, were unable to get back into the space to feed and care for their helpless kittens.

The truth about Hallets Cove

From LIQCity:

If you head out of Hunters Point and up north on Vernon Blvd, you’ll eventually run into Hallets Cove, an area officially in Long Island City though more realistically in Astoria.

No, it's more realistically split between Ravenswood and Astoria, both of which were part of LIC, which technically hasn't existed since 1898 when it became part of NYC and no longer was its own city. I guess Ravenswood is an undesirable real estate term, although the Daily News seemed to think it up and coming 2 years ago.

City chooses short-term cat solution instead of common sense

From the Daily News:

Hundreds of stray cats have settled into similar crawl spaces at Ravenswood, a 31-building complex on the Astoria-Long Island City border. The New York City Housing Authority wants them out, and had started to seal up the crawl spaces a few weeks ago before Romano and others intervened.

The latest plan - to trap the felines and bring them to city shelters - has riled up the long-time animal rescuer.

[Debi] Romano, who runs the SaveKitty Foundation, said her group is close to securing a grant that would help fund a trap, neuter and release plan. Romano and her helpers would trap the cats, adopt out the friendly ones, take the kittens and then release a small number of feral cats after they are spayed or neutered.

But NYCHA officials have rejected that proposal, Romano said.

In a statement to the Daily News, NYCHA said it consulted with the city Health Department to address its stray cat problem.

"NYCHA staff was instructed to post signs in and around the buildings to inform residents not to feed the cats," agency officials said in a statement.

Staffers were also told to purchase cat cages and "remove cats from the crawl spaces with cages and seal open vents."

Romano said NYCHA has purchased small cages that are more appropriate for squirrels than cats. And she worries that some cats, hiding in the crawl spaces, will be sealed in alive.

Romano said she has trapped almost two dozen cats in the area on her own in recent weeks.

She said a trap-and-release plan is the only way to cut down on the population.

Well that's the city for you. Long-term solutions are not something they want to deal with. They'd rather do something short-term that kills animals. Just like they did with the geese.

Hoarder found alive in smelly apartment

From the Daily News:

The awful stench coming from a Queens apartment on Monday was so bad that cops thought they would find a body inside.

But when firefighters busted down the the door, they found tenant Ming Li Sung was very much alive - and living with rotting garbage piled floor to ceiling.

Cops first noticed the horrible smell when they were called to the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City in the early morning for a domestic dispute.

The apartment looked like a landfill, with trash jammed top to bottom and pressing up against the flat's front door and rear window.

A broken fan, an old watering can and scores of sodden plastic grocery bags stuffed with wet garbage could be seen among the detritus.

When an FDNY haz-mat team arrived to start excavating the garbage, an army of cockroaches poured out into the second-floor hallway, West said.

Sung, 69, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center for psychiatric evaluation, police said. He does not face any charges.

Get ready for a long, hot summer!

From Crain's:

Workers at the Ravenswood Power Plant in Long Island City—which can generate about 2,500 megawatts of power a day—say they’ll walk off their jobs if they don’t have a new contract by 12:01 a.m. on Thursday. Union officials say “zero progress” has been made in talks with owner TransCanada and that management has yet to present them with the proposed length of a contract.

A spokesman for TransCanada, which bought Ravenswood from National Grid in October for $3.1 billion, would not comment on specifics of the negotiations, but insisted the plant would continue to operate in the event of a work stoppage. “We do have a contingency plan in place,” he said, though he would not provide specifics of the plan. “As a result there will be no disruption in operation.”

Union officials argued Ravenswood would not be able to run for more than a day or two without their members. “The notion that TransCanada can keep the plant running…is just pure nonsense,” President Harry Farrell said in a statement.

The strike would occur at a time when the city is expected to go through one of its warmest spells of the year, boosting demand for electricity—and, potentially, the union’s bargaining power. Temperatures are forecast to approach 90 degrees on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, according to Jay Searles, a meteorologist at Pennsylvania State University.

A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg did not respond to requests for comment on any action the city may be taking.

Driver Is Hurt After Truck Causes Wall To Collapse

From the Times Newsweekly:

A 50-foot section of a building being constructed in Ravenswood collapsed last Monday, July 28 after a dump truck hit a beam, Fire Department sources said. Reportedly, the accident occurred at around 3:05 p.m. at the site on 37th Avenue near 23rd Street. Though all workers were accounted for and safe, an FDNY spokesperson said, the truck driver was transported to a local hospital for minor injuries. Members of Engine companies 258, 260 and 262; Ladder companies 115, 116 and 146; Squad Company 288; Rescue 4 and Battalion 45—under the direction of Division 14—responded to the scene along with the 114th Precinct, EMS units and the Office of Emergency Management. (photo: Allen Epstein)

Sorry it's a little dated, but they just posted this on their site. - QC

Repulsive Ravenswood rats (& whores)

Hello,

I am a 37-year old woman who lives in Long Island City on 38th Avenue near the Keyspan plant in a two family house my husband bought about 4 years ago.

My street is a very interesting one.

Prostitutes! What's up with the prostitution in Long Island City? When is it going to go away? I have actually seen the cops pull up next to the prostitutes, say a few words and DRIVE OFF. One day recently I was in a nail salon on 41st Avenue and a prostitute was being beaten by one of her johns next door! It was so loud the ladies called the police. They brought them out and began talking to the guy, but let the prostitute slip away! I see her every day! Doesn't anyone think this is a problem???

Rats! When my husband bought our house, I don't think he was aware that our block may not have been the nicest block to buy a home on. All he was thinking was that Long Island City was the new 'hot' place to invest, and our house was the only one with a back yard. He created a beautiful garden complete with hydrangea bushes, butterfly bushes, and bamboo trees. It's really lovely, but I can't even go back there to enjoy it! Why? We suddenly have a serious rat problem in the backyard. Yes, rats! It's really disgusting! And I'm beside myself with anxiety about it.

Our housemates who live downstairs recently attempted to have a barbecue out there and during the party, a rat ran across someone's foot!!!

We called the exterminator who came on Monday and put out several bait boxes filled with poison and poison dust in their burrows.

When I got up yesterday morning I decided to take a peek at the backyard from my bathroom window. I guess I was hoping to see a dead rat or two. Well, I saw two, but they were very much alive, running and jumping and playing like bunnies. One was even munching on grass (I guess we have vegetarian rats)...again this morning when I looked! I even saw one really huge one and I seriously almost barfed! So I called the exterminator again on my way to work and he said that with rats it takes time for them to get curious enough about the bait boxes and that it might take a week or so, but to call him and keep him posted...

Yesterday I was so upset, I decided to have a chat with one of the guys from the auto body shop next door as I was leaving for work. I wanted to know if they were also having a problem. The answer was a big hearty YES! They have been having a serious problem since January (at least). They eventually called the exterminator after the rats had gotten so bold as to get into the cars at night and start chewing through the wires! They had even eaten their way through the concrete in one section of the shop to the point where the floor was begining to cave in. He said it's just a really bad problem on our street and at night it's even worse. He added, much to my dismay, that one of the people down the block says they've found their way into her house. So I told him to please, please call the exterminator again because we just had and MAYBE we could make the problem a little better in our little area if we were both proactive in the rat killing....

But really, this seems to be a problem that will take a lot of effort to get rid of. It's a little bit bigger than us and the autobody shop, so I decided to also call 311 and I placed a report with the department of health/human services. Ultimately they need to do a sweep of the neighborhood or they will just get worse, or at the very least, just keep coming back...

What's most annoying about both of these problems is not only does it diminish my quality of life, is that if feels like nobody cares. We aren't on Vernon or on the waterfront. We are sandwiched between the Keyspan plant and Queensbridge projects and it's like our area doesn't matter and that sucks. Anything goes where we are. I'm a homeowner, an artist, a working professional, so is my husband. When I think about that fact that we are trying to start a family here it makes me a little ill.

I'm hoping you will help get the word out and maybe something will get done! - Anonymous

Developers eye Ravenswood

This is a tremendous investment opportunity and a much closer, safer, slightly less attractive artist enclave than Bushwick. Since there are no yuppies or hipsters, Ravenswood has an urban edge with its old-timers,creative newcomers, lunch counters and factory feel. For renters with a little guts, rock bands who need to jam loud or artists welding late into the night, it's perfect.

A power plant, homes and industry share valuable land in Long Island City

Buyer beware: It is five to 10 years from being a completely different place. The IBZ can't last forever. This area will have to become more residential than it is now. Nothing this close to Manhattan can remain factory land forever. Ask the folks in Jersey City or Greenpoint.

Photo from Daily News

Sounds like a great place for luxury condos

Queens: Prison-Release Party Leads to Killing
By MICHAEL WILSON, NY Times

The police said they found a man dead of a gunshot wound to the forehead shortly before 5 a.m. on Sunday in Hunters Point. The man was identified as Joseph Prince, 30, of 35th Avenue in Ravenswood, the police said. At a news conference on Sunday, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said people had been throwing bottles at each other before the shooting. “The party was a celebration of someone getting out of prison,” he said. Mr. Prince was found in front of 44-3 23rd Street, the police said. There were no arrests on Sunday, the police said.

Astoria's door to the past

From Forgotten NY:

The Brooklyn Museum recently donated a colonial relic to the Greater Astoria Historical Society -- a door that was part of the historic Blackwell Mansion in Ravenswood, Queens, likely built in 1730 by patriarch Jacob Blackwell (1692-1744)

Behind the Gray Door