The city paid a big price for a toxic site to place an animal shelter in Ridgewood

Just like de Blasio's deal with the Podolsky's it looks like the city way overspent again. This time for the animal shelter in Ridgewood. The city paid 13.2 million dollars for property worth about $946,000. That's 12.3 million dollars that could have been used in an emergency like, oh, I don't know, in case there was a global pandemic or something less catastrophic but economically devastating.

The real kick about this is that this deal was made when Bill de Blasio was running for president and was barely showing up to City Hall at the time.



 Thank you Lucky for this scoop.

Why Maurice Avenue is just about the worst place for a shelter

From the Newtown Pentacle:

The reason that this little travelogue is being presented today involves the plans recently presented by the De Blasio administration to convert a hotel in the area over to a homeless shelter. A subsequent post will detail the hotel and the area directly surrounding it, but this is the northern side of the zone which the “Big Little Mayor” has picked to warehouse those who are considered socially and economically undesirable. The community of Maspeth has responded with their characteristic flair, and pushed back on City Hall with considerable skill and energy. City Hall, as is its habit under the current Mayor reacted to the protests by implying that Maspeth’s indignation is fueled by racism. Several publications picked up this theme, and the Internet commentarium knee jerk followed the rhetoric offered by the administration of the “Dope from Park Slope.”

My personal views on the Maspeth shelter project were the subject of a debate recently with a former colleague whose views and perspectives I greatly respect, but the argument I make about the placement of people – people who exist at the lowest end of the socio-economic spectrum – in this area is that it’s a human rights violation.

Simply put, it ain’t exactly a bed of salubrious roses out around these parts even if you’ve got money in your pocket, let alone when you’re down and out. This wouldn’t be a shelter, this would be a penal colony.

On the subject of every neighborhood having to do “its fair share” – Maspeth already handles close to 20% of NYC’s garbage, it hosts the LIE and BQE, has several NYS and one Federal Superfund sites in it, and there are intersections where close to 3-400 heavy trucks an hour roll through on their way to Manhattan. The garbage train also transits through Maspeth a few times a day, which represents and comingles Brooklyn’s share of the garbage handling with Maspeth’s.

There are virtually no mass transit lines available from this location, police patrols are infrequent at best, and at night this is a virtually abandoned part of the city. Bus service is spotty, and it’s one of the places in Queens where you truly need a personal vehicle to get around.

There are streets with no sidewalks here in the half mile around the proposed shelter.

The shocking ignorance of City Hall regarding the existential realities of Western Queens never fails to amaze me. All they seem to know about our neighborhoods is what they see on maps rolled out on mahogany desktops that have pins stuck into them by paid cronies.

Sandy pet shelter to close soon

From NBC:

Owners of almost 300 dog and cats have to pick up their pets that have been calling a makeshift shelter home since Sandy struck. News 4's Roseanne Colletti has the story.

City looking at animal facility for Queens

From the Daily News:

A plan to convert a veterinarian’s office into the new Queens drop-off point for stray animals has raised the hackles of some animal lovers.

The city wants to move its animal receiving center, operated by NYC Animal Care and Control, from its current spot in Rego Park to the veterinarian’s office at 185-17 Hillside Ave. in Jamaica.

“This receiving center is nothing more than a holding pen to take already frightened animals to their shelters,” said Susan Cleary, a member of Community Board 8 who voted against the proposal when it went before the board’s zoning committee two weeks ago.

But the Health Department said the move would “significantly upgrade” animal control services in the borough.

Are Bronx and Queens strays out of luck?

From the Daily News:

City health officials are promising to renovate a small Bronx animal receiving center and relocate a Queens facility for stray and homeless animals.

But it's little comfort, advocates say, for the only two boroughs lacking full-service animal shelters.

The City Council is weighing a bill that pumps more money into the budget-ravaged New York City Animal Care & Control in return for repealing part of a law that requires full-service shelters in all five boroughs.

That would boost the AC&C budget to over $12 million by fiscal year 2014, a 77% increase over current funding, said Daniel Kass, deputy commissioner at the Health Department.

But that's not sitting well with some elected officials.

"This seems like a form of extortion," Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) said at a hearing last week on the bill. "I can't allow the animals and the people in the Bronx and Queens to be treated differently."

The new bill is especially painful for Vallone. His father, Peter Vallone Sr., sponsored the law it would partially repeal.

More money for homeless pets

From the Daily News:

Though plans to build new animal shelters for Queens and the Bronx have been scrapped, city officials promised both boroughs will see more money and services to care for its homeless pets.

That includes - for the first time in years - additional mobile animal control officers to pick up stray dogs and cats.

Field services and animal shelter hours were slashed in recent years due to deep city budget cuts. NYC Animal Care and Control was forced to stop picking up stray cats and taking lost-animal reports.

The city announced a plan last week to pump more money into its contract with the nonprofit AC&C - about $10 million over the next three years.

But there's a catch - no new shelters for Queens and the Bronx.

Under a law passed in 2000, the city was obligated to provide full-service animal shelters in all five boroughs. Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island already had facilities, but only part-time receiving centers existed in the Bronx and Queens.