33rd Avenue from Utopia Parkway east to Francis Lewis Blvd.
They
removed the center lane, but it's still two-way traffic; and they
narrowed the traffic lane by painting the white lines for the parked
cars, making it more dangerous for the moving vehicles and the bicycles,
who are supposed to share the road.
Unless the ultimate goal is to
make it "bikes only"?
This is the Department of Transportation Alternatives trying to drive residents crazy on purpose and also malign them for owning their own vehicles, because that sign has no merit. This is not a "bike boulevard" it's what called a "shared street" which I and thousands of others have been riding on for decades before the regulatory captured DOTA came up with a brand for them.
Well folks, Gothamist has done it again. The blog that hates anything associated with perceived outer borough "whiteness" recently featured in an article the story of a loving Asian family who bought a home in Broadway-Flushing and wanted to erect a fence "to protect their kids" but was being thwarted by the big bad white homeowners association. Except that is not the case at all. Paul Graziano, urban planner, put together this rebuttal which also serves as a great Queens history lesson and a guide to others with, or seeking to buy, property in a deed restricted neighborhood. I'll also add that the homeowner in the Gothamist article has owned his home for 17 years and therefore must have been well aware of what he could and could not do with it. If not, then shame on him. Happy reading!
The LaGuardia Airport committee meeting at the Adria Hotel in Bayside on Jan. 25 brought one civic leader’s report that the Federal Aviation Administration may have overlooked rules pertaining to historic districts when creating flight patterns over northeast Queens.
Maria Becce, retired vice president of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association and current member, said she had corresponded with officials in Washington about a 1966 law protecting historic places and Native American reservations from environmental impacts of airplane noise.
The Broadway-Flushing Historic District, established in 2006, protects the integrity of about 1,300 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places that have stood for more than a century. The neighborhood now sits below the NextGen flight pattern, enacted in 2012, particularly the TNNIS climb for commercial aircraft departing from LaGuardia.
According to a letter issued in November from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, part of the Office of Federal Agency Programs, to Katherine Andrus, the FAA’s federal preservation officer, stating the agency had issued a categorical exclusion, or CATEX, under the Historic Preservation Act which the FAA seemed to falsely believe gave it immunity from complying with Section 106, which calls for additional studies pertaining to historic districts, the letter stated.
Above is footage of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowner's Night. Paul Vallone, Paul Graziano and Alison Tan speak on these videos.
In related news, I received this...
A personal message from Paul Graziano:
As a candidate for City Council, I take the election process very seriously. This is why I began my court action against my opponent, Paul Vallone, as I discovered during the petitioning process that his campaign had conducted a program of massive fraud and forgery.
While I have found clear and disturbing evidence over the past few weeks that supports my claims, it is with great reluctance that I ended my court challenge today, due to lack of campaign funds; although I have received the maximum amount of public matching funds - $100,000 - this funding cannot be spent on legal action, particularly related to challenging the validity of an opponent's petitions.
Therefore, I have decided to release all of my detailed findings to the public, as I believe the residents and voters of the 19th Council District deserve to know how Paul Vallone and his campaign have obtained access to the Democratic Party ballot.
Please join my attorney, Martin E. Connor and me for a press conference to be held at 146-24 32nd Avenue on Monday, August 14th at 1pm where we will present our findings and discuss our next steps.
Who:
Paul Graziano, Democratic candidate for 19th Council District
Martin Connor, Esq., election law attorney
What:
Presentation of our findings and discussion of our next steps re: allegations against Vallone campaign
Where:
146-24 32nd Avenue, Flushing
When:
Monday, August 14, 1pm
Stay tuned! Sounds like it's just about to get really interesting.
An incoming Broadway-Flushing house is raising alarm for neighbors, who fear that the eight-bedroom, 10-bathroom structure is not in character with the neighborhood. Neighbors became concerned that the building’s occupancy had changed after learning that the original plans, which called for a single-family house, had been amended. State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and urban planner and City Council candidate Paul Graziano gathered dozens of residents last Thursday for a press conference outside the structure, located at 33-05 157th St., as work was proceeding behind a green construction fence. Avella called on the DOB to release the amended plans, which residents say have been kept from public view. Janet McCreesh, president of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association, said that she had hired an expediter to get the plans from Queens Borough Hall but was unsuccessful after three attempts. After that, McCreesh turned to Avella’s office, who received them the Tuesday after the press conference. The DOB told the Queens Tribune that the single-family status of the house did not change in the amended plans. According to the DOB, the amended plans, which were approved by the department as being in compliance with the city’s Zoning Resolution and Construction Codes, show only minor changes, replacing some of the proposed bathtubs with standup showers. The DOB also added that while it wasn’t sure why there could have been delays in the expediter’s attempts to get the plans, all permitted construction plans are publicly available for viewing at its Queens borough office.
(Great photo showing the ridiculous size of the house.)
Just as President Eisenhower worried about the “falling domino” principle that would spread Soviet influence in Indochina, Maria Becce of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association is concerned that a few instances of illegal parking practices in her neighborhood will become widespread.
“One house does it and it’s a domino effect,” she said. “We have three active complaints; one seems to have been resolved. We don’t want it to be 30.”
Broadway-Flushing, with its well-preserved Tudor Revival homes and cavernous lawns, is a rare breed of Queens neighborhood. With a large portion of it protected by the Rickert-Finlay Covenant, a deed restriction that limits homes to single-family usage that is not enforced by the Department of Buildings, the homeowners association must litigate to preserve the rule, and its members are vigilant about notifying city agencies and elected officials when they see misconduct of any kind in the neighborhood.
The DOB issued violations in October for the creation of an unpermitted parking pad at 35-69 168 St., an apartment building, according to a spokesman for the agency. Violations were also given for not complying with area parking regulations and work without a permit.
The agency also gave a violation at 35-66 165 St. for the illegal usage of the side yard as a parking lot in December. The Chronicle saw three cars in the property’s side yard on Wednesday.
And at 35-28 163 St., where a car was parked on pavers in the front yard when the Chronicle went to the site on Wednesday, the DOB issued a violation in October for not complying with a residential district’s parking regulations.
According to Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association President Janet McCreesh, the issue of Airbnb home sharers using houses in the neighborhood — much of which has a restrictive covenant limiting houses to single-family usage — is largely over.
“We have managed to get all of the homes, I think, on the Airbnb website,” she told the Chronicle. “We initiated lawsuits.”
But Broadway-Flushing is not without other home-related problems. McCreesh estimates that 10 percent of the Flushing subneighborhood’s houses are illegally used for single-room occupancies or hotels.
In Broadway-Flushing, two houses with unusual aspects of their interiors are being built — though no one publicly contends any illegality could be afoot. Ten bathrooms and eight bedrooms are planned at 33-05 157 St.; seven bathrooms and seven bedrooms are planned at 33-62 159 St. Both buildings’ plans have been approved by the Department of Buildings.
“That is not the layout of your typical Queens single-family home,” McCreesh said, referring to the properties. “The law needs to change for this type of situation. This is not a 10-acre estate. This is a plot of land in Queens.”
“The DOB does not limit how many bathrooms you can have in a house,” she continued. “There’s nothing in terms of protection for architectural design.”
Construction is happening now at both of the locations. According to McCreesh, both of the properties are under the jurisdiction of the restrictive Rickert-Finlay Covenant of 1906, which requires that homes only be used by single families and covers much of Broadway-Flushing.
And the homeowners association president does not necessarily believe that the locations on 159th Street and 157th Street will be used for any other purpose, although she is very concerned.
State Senator Tony Avella was joined by members of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association on Friday during a press conference on “illegal home rentals” listed on Airbnb.
Members of the group say that local property owners are illegally renting out their homes to tourists.
They say property owners have listed their homes as potential venues for things like large parties and other events, which violates the single-family home zoning restrictions in some neighborhoods.
The group says they want Airbnb to enforce local zoning laws and take the listings down.
Hi Crappie,
Here’s a photo from our rally yesterday. It was well attended with about 200 people, Senator Avella, Assemblyman Ed Braunstein, Paul Graziano and many representatives from our neighboring civic associations.
Broadway Flushing has been seeking help from the Landmark's Preservation Commission for 10 years and have been met with continual and unwarranted disdain. We continue to enforce restrictive covenants in order to protect our community from development that is not covered under New York City zoning or building ordinances we currently have the strictest zoning in NYC and it is not protecting us. We are an excellent example of early to mid Century development of a suburban enclave within an urban setting along with our sister community, Douglas Manor, which was landmarked in 1997. The last few years, we have been under attack from developers who are preying on our large lots, tearing down houses and trees all the greenery that goes with it and building large brick boxes. We must break this pattern of destruction immediately or we will lose the very reason we all live here. We all bought into Broadway Flushing because of its architectural integrity and stately, suburban character.
Paul Halvatzis of Amorelli Realty has sold a historic home in the Broadway-Flushing neighborhood. The Ferrigno family who are the founding members of the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association previously owned the home, originally built in 1923. Located at 33-37 163rd St., the property is overseen by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC.
The goals of the association were to protect the integrity and appearance of the north Flushing area and maintain the Rickert-Finlay Covenant of 1906. The intent of the association also was to try to establish Flushing as a designated historical district. The home still retains much of the original woodwork and architecture from when it was originally built, more than 90 years ago. It is also adorned with a plaque which reads, “Broadway-Flushing has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of Historic Places by the US Department of the Interior and the New York State Register.”
“We are really excited about this and it is a real good outcome for this home,” said Shantia Anderheggen, Director of the Easement Program for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Today's Broadway-Flushing disaster comes courtesy of 35-20 156 Street. This one is an alteration to make a 1-family house into an illegal hotel. It will take you hours to read through all the permit applications and violations.
Here's what the place looked like back in 2007. The complaints go back to 1989.
Any major work, inside or out, must not only receive permits from New York City but also the permission of the seller: the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Despite New York’s rich history, or perhaps because of it and the myriad preservation movements it spawned, the Ferrigno House is the first property in the five boroughs to come under the aegis of the trust.
The Ferrignos moved into the home, at 33-37 163rd Street, on the day they were married in 1955, and less than a decade later founded the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association. It was created to protect the neighborhood’s character on the eve of the World’s Fair, when that familiar New York anxiety set in: a tourist invasion. Even today, homes must follow the Rickert-Finlay covenants, laid down by the original developer, that limits what can be done to a property, including prohibitions on fences and flat roofs.
The Ferrignos doted on the neighbors, and really their homes, as if they were the children they never had. “Nick was the nicest guy, but he had no reservations about approaching someone in their yard and telling them the dos and don’ts of the covenant,” said Robert Hanophy Jr., the current president of the homeowners association who lives two doors down.
Mr. Ferrigno died five years ago, and his wife three years later. Before they died, they got Broadway-Flushing added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, which provides recognition but not protection for the area. With no one to inherit the house, and more crucially to protect it, the couple donated it to the trust in 2007. They were especially worried about it being torn down for a modern McMansion, an increasingly common problem in the neighborhood.
“They wanted to lead by example,” Sandi Viviani, a friend and past president of the homeowners association, said.
The Ferrigno House came on the market in March for $849,000 with Amorelli Realty, based in Astoria. That puts it below the neighborhood average of $1.25 million for a single-family house, according to StreetEasy.com. But it could also be a lot to ask for a property with many restrictions on it that simultaneously needs a thorough renovation.
"Broadway-Flushing...make room for Malba...coming your way within 5 years! This is that other stately center hall colonial that is getting a "horizontal side extension". Keep sitting on your hands, Paul Vallone, and watch your classy nabe become Mc Mansionville. Located...west side 167 St towards Crocheron." - The Flushing Phantom
"According to the Ferrignos....founders of BFHA....this house won design award when it was built.
Fresh holes just dug for construction or demolition perimeter fence.
Another Broadway tear down coming up? Located southwest corner 164 St & 35 Av. Adjacent to an existing empty lot resulting from older tear down. This is within the Rickert Finlay covenant area.
Part of fence already up along 164 St."
- The Flushing Phantom
So what's going on here? Luckily, this is NOT a teardown. Permits reveal that they're building a 2nd floor. But then again, they were just planning to "raise the roof" of another Broadway-Flushing building, but that's not what happened. Let's keep an eye on this one. - QC
Italicized passages and many of the photos come from other websites. The links to these websites are provided within the posts.
Why your neighborhood is full of Queens Crap
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