About the landmark backlog

Sorry to be late with this. The LPC decided to designate 3 of the 8 items on the backlog list for Queens:

Bowne Street Community Church
Lydia Ann Bell and William Ahles House
Pepsi Cola Sign

However, the following were removed from their calendar:

Old Calvary Cemetery Gatehouse - Van Bramer
First Reformed Church and Sunday School of College Point - Vallone
Proposed Douglaston Historic District Extension - Vallone
Spanish Towers - Dromm
Fairway Apartments - Dromm

Included are the names of the council members who did not support the designations of the dropped items.

Queens properties to get LPC hearing

From the Times Ledger:

Preservationists were outraged in December when the Pepsi-Cola sign in Long Island City and seven other historic sites across the borough were put in jeopardy after the chairwoman of the Landmarks Preservation Committee proposed to remove them from consideration for protection. The blowback was so fierce that Chairwoman Meenakshi Srinivasan reversed course less than a week later and decided not to “de-calendar” them and to consider a new plan to deal with a backlog of nearly a hundred buildings and sites citywide.

The LPC announced last week that its Backlog Initiative would begin addressing the properties with a public comment period and then a special hearing on the 95 properties that were placed on the commission’s calendar decades ago.

Each property, including the Douglaston Historic District, the Old Calvary Gatehouse in Sunnyside, the Bowne Street Community Church in Flushing, the Spanish Towers and the Fairway Apartments in Jackson Heights, the First Reformed Church and Sunday School of College Point and the Ahles House in Bayside will each get a months-long process of public review and hearings.

Throughout the period the public is welcome to submit written statements to backlog95@lpc.nyc.gov. Those statements will be entered into the record and be distributed to the LPC commissioners.

All Queens properties will be addressed at a public hearing on Oct. 8. Speakers will be allowed to testify for three minutes and can register by e-mail at backlog95@lpc.nyc.gov.

The LPC will vote for or against designation of each property in 2016. The commission can also choose to issue a “no-action letter” for some items, which would remove them from consideration but would not disqualify them from landmark designation in the future.

Dromm, Van Bramer, Vallone and Koo stay silent as LPC moves to decalendar properties

From DNA Info:

The Landmarks Preservation Commission plans to remove almost 100 sites and two historic districts from consideration for landmark status without formal public input, despite most being on the agenda for decades, officials say.

It's a move preservationists fear clears the path for the possible destruction of dozens of architecturally, culturally and historically significant buildings in neighborhoods across the five boroughs because it removes the preliminary protection that they were afforded while under consideration.

Being on the LPC's calendar provides the building with a modicum of protection because the Department of Buildings notifies the commission if building or demolition permits for a site with such a designation are requested. The commission then has 40 days to make a decision on a site's landmark status.

Landmarks Preservation Commission to Remove Almost 100 Sites From Consideration

But often, due to political pressure, the buildings remain in limbo on the calendar with the commission never voting, sometimes for decades.

LPC spokeswoman Damaris Olivo said the removal of the sites and historic districts is an attempt to "streamline" the much criticized process.

So let's run down the list of Queens sites that are on the chopping block:

Location: The Ahles House
Neighborhood: Bayside
Council Member: Vallone

The skinny: Tony Avella advocated for this site to be designated as far back as 2002. It was calendared in 2009, but was not designated due to threats by Dan Halloran to veto it at the Council. Paul Vallone has let it languish and as his campaign was heavily funded by REBNY, he's likely to keep his mouth shut and shrug his shoulders when it gets decalendared.

Location: Douglaston Historic District Extension
Neighborhood: Douglaston
Council Member: Vallone

The Douglaston Historic District Extension was also heavily advocated by Tony Avella and calendared in 2008, but Dan Halloran once again gave the nabe the middle finger. And I'll just ditto mark the Paul Vallone stuff from above... """""""

Location: First Reformed Church of College Point
Neighborhood: College Point
Council Member: Vallone

I couldn't find much about this nominee, but I think it's been on the list for quite a while with no action taken by LPC. There really is no reason why it sat on the docket without a decision.

Location: Calvary Cemetery gate
Neighborhood: Blissville
Council Member: Van Bramer

Location: Pepsi Sign
Neighborhood: Hunters Point
Council Member: Van Bramer

The fact that the above two potential landmarks are on the list really makes you scratch your head. Neither stands in the way of development, and the Pepsi Sign in particular is actually used as a marketing tool by developers and real estate people, so you'd think they'd want it landmarked. I guess these 2 aren't in Sunnyside Gardens, so they're just not a big deal to dear old Jimmy. Luckily, neither appears to be going anywhere.

Location: Bowne Street Community Church
Neighborhood: Flushing
Council Member: Koo

Why this isn't designated is interesting, since plans to do so stretch way back to 2003 when then-Council Member John Liu was allegedly pushing for it to prevent its demolition.

Location: Spanish Towers
Neighborhood: Jackson Heights
Council Member: Dromm

Location: Fairway Apartments
Neighborhood: Jackson Heights
Council Member: Dromm

And these apartment buildings are not under threat of demolition, so their non-designation is also weird, but I guess Danny Dromm has more important things to wring his hands about, like horse carriages and Asians protesting homeless shelters.

Perhaps if Dromm, van Bramer, Koo and Vallone voiced their support for landmarking at this hearing, these properties would be designated instead of removed from the list of potential designees. But don't hold your breath, folks. Here's the only letter I have gotten thus far from any elected officials about this:

Coyote at Calvary!

From the NY Post:

A reddish-colored coyote has moved into Queens, and like most city singletons, it's looking for a mate.

The majestic creature was recently photographed among the gravestones of Calvary Cemetery in Woodside.

It's probably a yearling born last spring who got kicked out of his parents' home in December to make room for a new crop of cubs, said wildlife expert Paul Curtis, of Cornell University.

Now it's on the hunt for a partner to start a family of its own. The mostly carnivorous creatures are no threat to humans unless they're have rabies, but keep an eye on your pet dogs, Curtis warned.

Happy 100th birthday, Ladder 128!

From the Times Ledger:

In the past 100 years, firefighters at Blissville’s Ladder 128 in Long Island City have put their lives on the line for residents in western Queens and have become like brothers in the process, those celebrating the company’s centennial said last week.

Ladder 128 has played an integral role in the community over the past 100 years, and the stories from within the house were feted as that which makes a life complete by the hundreds who attended Friday’s celebration at the Blissville location. The firehouse covers the areas of Blissville, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside and Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Chief of Department Edward Kilduff called the centennial a tremendous milestone for the firehouse, nicknamed “tombstone territory” thanks to its location across from Calvary Cemetery, one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in the country.

“This is one of the most diverse areas in the city,” Kilduff said. “You have everything here from high-rises to tunnels to rail yards. The commercial buildings are extreme challenges for anybody. A place like this really represents the heart and soul in the Fire Department.”

The neighborhood has changed dramatically in the last century, Uniformed Fire Officers Association representative Eddie Boles noted.

“One time it was farms, then it was industrial and now there are high-rises coming in,” Boles said. “But some things never change — the thrill it is to go out every day and help people.”

Face-to-face with an original tweeder

From the Newtown Pentacle:

While wandering through Calvary Cemetery recently, I came upon a curious monument whose sculptural elements included a life sized portrait, and whose dedication was meant to honor a man named Florence Scannell. The stone additionally bore a curious screed- “The Abbot”. “Dedicated to the memory of Florence Scannell by his brother John J.” is displayed prominently on its face. This stirred a sleeping memory, and I tried to remember why the name Scanell is so important. I said it out loud- John J. Scannell?

Wait a minute… John J. Scannell was the first chief of the NYFD, grand sachem of Tammany Hall, and a notorious turn of the century raconteur who became “king of the hill” in the often violent political world of 19th century New York City politics.

Calvary Cemetery's Civil War Monument

From the Newtown Pentacle:

21 Roman Catholic Union soldiers are interred amongst the 365 acres of first Calvary Cemetery in Queens, nearby the cuprous waters of the much maligned Newtown Creek.

The soils of Calvary, a vast cocktail of loathsome and ghoulish ichor, contain many Civil War dead- as well as citizen soldiers from every conflict since. Forgotten and long neglected, the obelisk and its attendant bronzes are in a tremulous condition, etched at by a century of pervasive industrial pollution arising from Newtown Creek, and the greater city beyond.