He wanted them to chill forever

From QNS:

A Rego Park man who runs his own maintenance company faces criminal charges for allegedly pouring mercury into a Queens family’s air conditioning unit after getting one too many complaints about the malfunctioning system.

Yuriy Kruk, 48, of Alderton Street owns and operates the A+ HVAC and Kitchen Corporation. According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, a Jamaica Estates family contacted Kruk during the summer of 2015 to perform various repairs to their home.

Prosecutors said the victim repeatedly complained to Kruk that the second-floor air conditioning unit wasn’t working properly. Kruk replied that the system needed to be replaced, and in July of 2015, a new unit was installed.

Soon after the unit’s installation, law enforcement sources said, one of the victim’s noticed drops of a silvery liquid on the floor near the air conditioning units, and the same liquid dripping out of the vents in which Kruk had worked.

Members of the Fire Department’s Haz-Mat Unit responded to the home after receiving a 911 call and determined that the substance was mercury — the highly-toxic liquid metal. The family of three, which includes a husband, wife and their son, complained of having symptoms of mercury poisoning — including joint pain, headaches and lethargy.

All three family members were tested and found to have elevated levels of mercury in their bloodstream, Brown said.

Astoria housing development is a-hummin'

"Hi!

I've been enjoying Ye Olde Queens Crap blog for some time now. I've been a Queens homeowner and resident for 17 years on 30th Rd, and that still makes me a "new guy" on this block!

I'm writing you regarding a particularly polished turd that just went up here. While it is well....crappy, that's not really the worst of it. If I just had to look at it, and accept it...well that's not too bad. But sadly that isn't the case. These folks have installed an enormous HVAC system on the roof that is bombarding an entire block with a low frequency droning sound - 24 hours a day!

So, we've reached out to them (this neighborhood is still local enough that through mutual friends I was able to contact them directly) - they were very nice - but ultimately completely dismissive towards us.

I know ZERO about posting something on a blog or anything like that. Might you be interested in helping? I mean this piece of junk deserves a spot on Queens Crap if only for its transparent co-opting of the Welling Court Mural Project - but then to shrug off the complaints of the neighborhood (including my neighbor who has been here since 1952!!) So much more to tell, but I won't waste any more of your time (unless you ask).

How do you spell dreck? This website will tell you."

- Anonymous

"P.S. They are spending far more on the appliances for their outdoor rooftop kitchen than whatever the cost may be of a properly designed noise enclosure.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!"

That A/C was too heavy to lift

From PIX11:

The mammoth 23,000-pound air conditioner that broke free from a crane and smashed into a midtown high-rise did more than just leave a gaping hole in the its facade.
The NYPD special operations team released photos that reveal the massive damage it did inside the building. The cooling unit was too heavy for the building’s floor to support, which caused it to bounce from the 29th to 11th floor.

Ten people were injured in the accident, including two traffic agents and a firefighter.

Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler said the crane was in working condition at the time of the accident.

The crane was being operated by Greenpoint-based Skylift Contractor Corp but is owned by Queens-based Bay Crane, which have previously been rocked by scandal.

The buildings department cited a Skylift crane operator after he failed to secure a crane owned by bay crane, causing it to collapse at a financial district construction site in the middle of the night.

From NBC:

A day after a crane dropped a 23,000-pound air conditioner 30 stories onto a midtown sidewalk, one city official is charging that more could have been done to prevent the accident.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said nearly eight years after the city Department of Buildings spent more than $5 million on a study to make construction sites safer, the department has failed to implement many of the safety reforms recommended in the report.

In an interview with the I-Team, Stringer said the Department of Buildings has had years to implement simple reforms like installing so-called “black boxes” in cranes and hanging better protective netting around construction sites. But those recommendations still have not been implemented.

“Since we've issued our audit, nothing has changed nothing has happened," Stringer said of his 2014 audit. “I'm urging the Department of Buildings to dust off their own report and look at our audit and figure out are we doing enough to ensure safety of our citizens."

Liquor license excuse sounds like a huge crock of crap

From the Queens Courier:

An arts center in Ridgewood is applying for a liquor license. Okay, sounds like Williamsburg so far.

But while it wants to serve alcohol for its weekend music shows, the owners also want to make more money so that they can continue to offer free services on weekdays to the local community — especially the intellectually disabled.

“The basic logic behind this place is we’re here in the community and the community needs space so we give them space,” said Sam Hillmer, one of the owners of the venue Trans Pecos. “We believe that we can be the new model for new art spaces opening up in the community.”

Every Tuesday afternoon, The Downtown Electric band can be found practicing its music set. The group is made up of six intellectually disabled people who have been practicing in the space since Trans Pecos opened in December 2013.

Harris, who is a Certified Safety Professional, explains that some days the venue gets too hot, causing them to have to cut the band’s practice short. But with the liquor license, Hillmer said there will be enough money to install an air conditioner and make the venue more tolerable for AHRC and other community groups.

The venue also houses a record label, Northern Spy, and a coffee shop is in the process of being built in the front of the building.

Hillmer and the other owner, Justin Todd Patrick, applied for a liquor license with the State Liquor Authority last week and they are also seeking the approval of Community Board 5.

Ok, so in a nutshell, they're using the excuse that the kids need air conditioning in order to get their liquor license. Their temp C of O says restaurant and rehearsal studio. Here's what it looked like inside when the Silent Barn was illegally operating out of it.

[See last comment for update.]

Thanks a lot (line)!

From the Times Newsweekly:

The transparent covering was installed above the patio area in the rear of their 65th Place dwelling, but the owner of the home abutting their residence protested, claiming encroachment on their easement. This led to an ongoing feud between the property owners which not only led to a costly lawsuit but also legal action by several city agencies.

James Chu told the Times Newsweekly in a phone interview that he and his wife bought their 65th Place residence in November 2004. In the years since they moved in, their neighbor’s home was constructed; the residence directly abuts the Chu home and extends several feet adjacent to their rear yard.

Lot-line windows were also built in the rear of their neighbor’s home; according to James Chu, the windows violate the rules and regulations of the building code enforced by the city Department of Buildings (DOB).

The Chus recently installed the transparent awning above their patio area, leaving two feet of space from their neighbor’s building. Following the installation, James Chu noted, their neighbor claimed that the awning violated their easement, which was later found to extend over the Chus’ backyard.

James Chu told this paper that neither he nor his wife knew about the extended easement prior to and during the closing on their home back in November 2004.

“Meanwhile, the DOB is auditing our permits for the erection of a clear awning at the rear of our building,” Elizabeth Chu added in an email to the Times Newsweekly, “and the Environmental Control Board imposed a fine against us for having what everyone else on our block and neighborhood seems to have with or without a permit. Apparently, they think that we violated the law when we put up a standard weather protection awning for which they issued a building permit, but that they made no error when they approved my neighbor’s lot line windows without the fire protection mandated by the building code.”

Buildings Department records indicated that multiple complaints were filed on each of their residences back in October. An examination of the records found that the complaints against the Chus’ property were determined to be unfounded, while no action had yet to be taken by DOB inspectors on their neighbor’s property.

How is it that a reporter was able to take a photo of the lot line windows but the DOB couldn't access them? I guess it's more important to give violations to homeowners whose houses were destroyed than to address this.

Open door policy trumps law

From the NY Times:

To those who ask what right the government has to dictate to shop owners on a matter of this sort, the Council’s response was simple. Public policy, it said in 2008, is to “conserve energy, reduce peak power demands during hot weather periods and limit environmental pollution and local contributions to global warming.”

Yet enforcement of the law, signed by the mayor with little enthusiasm, has not been conspicuously vigorous. The Consumer Affairs Department, which has responsibility, says that last summer it conducted more than 500 inspections and issued warnings or violation citations to 199 stores.

A first offense brings a warning. A second offense carries a $200 fine, and subsequent violations within an 18-month period can bring $400 fines. For many stores, the penalties are no doubt shrugged off as the cost of doing business.

Hospital generator generating a lot of noise

From BushwickBK:

Wyckoff Heights Medical Center is causing its neighbors some pain.

The hospital parked a generator and a cooling unit on Stockholm Street last month in order to power its ailing air-conditioning system.

But nearby residents complain that the generator’s constant rattling is keeping them up at night and that its diesel fumes are causing respiratory problems.

"It’s like being in a wind tunnel or a really noisy factory floor where all the machines are roaring all at once," said Deborah Brown, a community board member, whose studio is a block away. "It is constant, ambient noise, not episodic bursts."

St. Nicholas Avenue resident Hilda Shen even filmed the generator in action and called 311 several times — which led the city to issue the hospital two violations for noise and air pollution.

And the city found further problems — the hospital was operating the generator without a permit, which earned them another violation and an Environmental Control Board hearing on June 15.

Shen is demanding that the hospital move the generator or shut it down completely.

"The noise of these machines has been enormous, and affected the sleep and health of the neighborhood," said Shen. "The machines run all the time, and the noise is inescapable."

Noisy AC unit makes for bad neighbors

From the Daily News:

A Rego Park man is dreading the start of allergy season, but it's not the pollen or ragweed that torments Kang Yuen, a 63-year-old real estate agent.

It's the noise from the massive heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system perched above his neighbor's home.

"It's so loud, we can't sleep," said Yuen, who lives with his wife and two children in the rowhouse.

But neighbor Leonard Shirman said his family needs the system to properly ventilate the house and ease his asthma.

"We have five people living in this house and we would like to keep different zones at different temperatures," said Shirman, a businessman, who dismissed Yuen's noise complaints. "It's not a commercial unit. It's a regular unit."

Buildings Department inspections have not given Yuen any relief. After some initial violations, city officials said the unit conforms to building codes.

Yuen's case highlights a citywide issue of the Buildings Department sometimes sanctioning construction plans that it originally deemed problematic.