"Affordable" nature

QNS 

 City officials, elected leaders, developers and community members gathered at the location of a formerly vacant illegal dumping ground on Beach 44th Street Wednesday to cut the ribbon at the new 35-acre Arverne East Nature Preserve and Welcome Center along the Rockaway waterfront in Edgemere.

 he preserve represents phase one of an ambitious Arverne East development project, which will transform more than 100 acres of underutilized space between Beach 32nd Street and Beach 56th Place into 1,650 units of housing — 80% of which will be affordable, serving low-income and middle-income individuals and families — in addition to retail and community space, a hotel and a tap room and brewery.

“The Rockaway renaissance takes another historic step forward,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said. “What was once a vacant, overgrown illegal dumping ground for decades is now a stunning hub of wildlife and a successful example of what community-centered sustainability looks like. I could not be prouder of this project or of the Arverne East development as a whole, which represents transformational change for a community that had previously been ignored for generations.”

 Richards added that future generations would benefit from resources he never had while growing up at the nearby Ocean Villages apartments staring at the blighted oceanfront parcel of land. Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson, who grew up in Far Rockaway, said he looks forward to the completion of the preserve and called the Arverne East development a once-in-a-generation investment.

 The community can have affordable housing and environmental sustainability while enjoying local flora and fauna,” Anderson said. “The welcome center will be a fitting centerpiece of this relationship our neighbors will share with the environment. I hope this model of the first net-zero community in New York City will be an example emulated by others.”

 

 

Sacrificing life and limb for housing equity

 

 Queens Eagle

Another worker was injured at the construction site of a Rockaway affordable housing development being run by a construction company that lawmakers in January demanded be taken off the project, the Eagle has learned.

Earlier this month, a construction worker contractor Joy Construction was injured while working on building Edgemere Commons, a planned affordable housing development in the Edgemere section of the Rockaway peninsula.

The city’s Department of Building’s later found that the site’s safety coordinator had recently fallen out of compliance with their licensing, which had expired.

In January, several elected officials rallied at the site, calling on Joy Construction to be removed from the project due to a previous history of worksite incidents at other developments and because of a separate worker injury at Edgemere Commons.

On Feb. 8, DOB inspectors were called to the worksite, located at 5119 Beach Channel Drive, to investigate reports of a worker injury, according to the Department of Buildings.

At the site, it was determined a worker fell off a ladder after a harness they were wearing caught on a handrail.

The worker sustained minor injuries and complained of back pain, and was transported by an ambulance to a local hospital. DOB further determined that all required safeguards were in place, and they found no unsafe conditions at the scene at the time of their inspection.

However, while on site for the injury, DOB found that the site safety coordinator’s license had expired about a week prior and that the coordinator had not properly renewed their license.

A Stop Work Order was put in place by the Department of Buildings. The order was eventually lifted four days later when Joy brought in a new site safety coordinator for the job.

“I hate to say I told you so,” said Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson, who rallied against the contractor in January. “Unfortunately, I am disappointed by the news of this injured worker and the discovery of an expired site safety license, which prompted a Stop Work Order, but I am not surprised.

“Joy Construction has a troubled and well-documented history of criminal lawsuits, hazardous workplace conditions, and fatal worker injuries,” he added. “At a recent rally, my elected colleagues and I urged the city to remove Joy Construction from the Edgemere Commons project and out of the Rockaways entirely. I wish the injured worker a full and speedy recovery and will continue to demand accountability and fight for workers’ rights, dignity, and safety.”

Construction on Edgemere Commons began in May 2022. The project is a $100 million affordable and supportive housing development, which will bring 2,000 affordable homes, retail, community space, medical facilities and outdoor public space on the site formerly occupied by Peninsula Hospital.

The first phase of the project, directly adjacent to the construction site in question, was constructed using union workers rather than Joy, a private contractor.

In January, four local elected officials for the Rockaways and Southeast Queens rallied with union members to call for Joy’s removal from the project over the contractor’s recent history of workplace incidents, including an injury at Edgemere Commons in December that resulted in a $10,000 fine after the contractor failed to report the incident.

Lawmakers also raised concerns over an incident at a Joy Construction site that left a worker dead at the site of a Bronx project a year earlier. ]

“We are demanding that Joy come off of this project,” City Coucilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers said in January. “Joy has an unfortunate track record that has seen many deaths on construction projects where they have not taken enough care and concern for the worker. That is unacceptable.” 

Not so fast, let's hear some virtue signalling banalties from the Queens Borough Redundancy that won't lead to any fundamental changes for worker safety at the site...

 Queens Borough President Donovan Richards was not present at the rally, but said at the time that if issues persist, then a new contractor should be considered.

“Queens has been, is and forever will be a union borough — a borough where we uplift, protect and support the working people who make up our organized labor movement,” Richards said. “Safe, plentiful and prosperous union participation in the first phase of Edgemere Commons’ development via Arker Companies reflected that fact, and as we embark on the second phase of the project with Joy Construction, it is my belief that our brothers and sisters in labor should be treated the same way by the contracting company tasked with the job.”

“Should those common sense standards not be met as construction continues, then a new contracting company must be brought in to complete the project,” he added. 

 

Endangered plovers nests has led to beach apartheid

 

The Edgemere Community Civic Association (ECCA) gathered with elected officials on the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk at Beach 38th Street on July 6 to voice their frustrations over the neighborhood’s lack of beach access for the last 26 years.

Since 1996, the one-mile stretch of beach between Beach 38th and 59th Street has been a designated nesting area for endangered shorebirds, including piping plovers, terns and oystercatchers. Because of the nesting area, which is designated and managed by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation under guidelines from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Edgemere residents are unable to access the beach and have to head west of the peninsula in order to do so.

“This is a harsh and cruel injustice to those who live and work in this community,” said ECCA President Sonia Moise, who has lived in the Rockaways for 45 years. “It has been too many years that we have been the forgotten community. Edgemere always gets dumped on. No one thinks about the Edgemere community and what our needs are.”

City Council approves Edgemere overdevelopment

City Limits
 

 The City Council voted Thursday to rezone a 166-acre swath of Edgemere, approving a plan first proposed by the de Blasio administration that could add more than 1,200 new housing units and improve resiliency in a Queens neighborhood at severe risk of flooding.

The land use plan, part of a broader initiative known as Resilient Edgemere, encompasses the area bound by Beach 35th Street and Beach 50th Street and will change zoning rules to increase density in some areas, limit development in others and raise the shoreline along Jamaica Bay. Resilient Edgemere also includes efforts to develop housing on city-owned parcels, elevate homes, improve parks and infrastructure and designate 16 acres as open space to be used for coastal protection.

The Council specifically approved five applications submitted by the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (HPD) to amend the zoning and allow for new development with mandatory inclusionary housing (MIH) affordability rules, which force developers to cap rents on a portion of their units for low- and middle-income New Yorkers. Around 530 new units will be affordable under MIH, according to HPD, and 35 percent of those affordable units will be up for sale, not rent. The plan would further a Community Land Trust on up to eight acres of city-owned land.

Resilient Edgemere establishes two special coastal risk districts, which HPD defines as “currently at exceptional risk from flooding and may face greater risk in the future.”

Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, who represents Edgemere and other neighborhoods in the eastern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula, said the changes will allow for more affordable homes in the waterfront neighborhood, while shoring up the region against rising sea levels and storm-related flooding.

“Edgemere will benefit from vital affordable homeownership opportunities, infrastructure investments and protection from a changing climate,” Brooks-Powers said. “Rockaway has seen a surge of new development in recent years, but that development has not been accompanied by a commensurate investment in local infrastructure.”

Brooks-Powers inherited the project from her predecessor, Donovan Richards, who was elected Queens borough president in 2020 and told City Limits he was pleased that the Council voted to approve the rezoning after seven years of planning and community engagement. Richards recommended the plan in his advisory role in March but urged the city to foster affordable home ownership opportunities in response to community demands.

“There is tremendous promise in the Resilient Edgemere Community Plan,” Richards said, adding that he would focus on ensuring that developers and the city adhere to local hiring and MWBE commitments.

Under the changes, which now await Mayor Eric Adams’ signature, most of the area north of Beach Channel Drive would be zoned for one- and two-family homes, while the stretch between Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Edgemere Avenue would allow for taller, mixed-used buildings. City-owned vacant land next to the Edgemere Houses would be converted to open space, as would much of the land abutting the Jamaica Bay.

In a statement following the vote, Adams hailed the plan as “an important step forward for residents of Edgemere, the Rockaways, and the entire city.”

Sprawling (alleged) affordable housing development approved in Far Rockaway

 

QNS 

The city’s plan to rezone a portion of the Rockaway peninsula in order to transform neglected publicly owned vacant lots into affordable housing, retail, amenities and open spaces, while mitigating flood risk and growing the coastal ecology was unanimously passed by the City Planning Commission on May 11.

The city’s Housing Preservation and Development initiative which would place eight acres into a community land trust, which was set in motion in 2015, will now head to the City Council in the next step of the public review process.

“The City Planning Commission’s unanimous support of the Resilient Edgemere Community Plan conveys its strength and marks an important step forward,” HPD Press Secretary William Fowler said. “We are grateful to the Edgemere community, the local elected officials, and partners across city government for their continued input as we look forward to building a more resilient future for this neighborhood.”

The proposed land-use changes will bring more than 1,200 much-needed affordable homes, including more homeownership opportunities to Edgemere, which was inundated by the flood surge from Superstorm Sandy nearly a decade ago.

“On top of ongoing work from the federal government to help make this neighborhood more resilient, the city is also dedicated to protecting it from flooding and storm events,” City Planning Commission Chairman Dan Garodnick said. “The creation here of a Special Coastal Risk District will limit development along Edgemere’s low-lying Jamaica Bay shoreline, which is a really high-risk area that experienced significant damage from Superstorm Sandy. We are taking lessons learned from that tragic event and putting them into action to create a more resilient and protected neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula.”

Lesbian couple tormented by neighbors renting city financed house

 

THE CITY

A Far Rockaway couple say they’re being harassed by their next-door neighbors who are accused of illegally renting a home purchased through a city program that requires the owners to live there for 25 years.

Dianna and Pam Prashad, who are in the same program, say that means they’re now stuck with “neighbors from hell” — and unable to move elsewhere.

“This home was our happy place,” Dianna Prashad, 45, said of the two-story, blue-and-white semi-attached home in Edgemere that she bought in 2007.

But since March 2020, just as the pandemic lockdown went into effect, the Prashads say they’ve faced harassment — including anti-gay slurs — from tenants next door. The neighbors moved in after the owner relocated to Delaware despite the requirement that she stay in the home for 25 years, the Prashads say.

The couple said they are receiving “constant threats” from the next-door neighbors, who they believe are targeting them because of their sexuality.

The alleged harassment began soon after the new tenants moved in, according to the Prashads. The couple say they called the police on April 22, 2020 after their next-door neighbors allegedly threatened to assault Pam while she was outside her home, they said.

“Come and get this ass-whooping, d---,” one neighbor allegedly yelled at Pam Prashad.

Another time, the same tenant said of Pam, “that b---- needs a good ass-whupping,” the couple said.

In April, the tenants began yelling at the couple for no apparent reason as they planted flowers in front of their home, according to footage captured on the Prashads’ security camera and reviewed by THE CITY.

“We’ve been directly targeted,” Pam Prashad, 50, said.

City gives big real estate developer 90 million to build housing project in Far Rockaway

 QNS

The long-delayed Edgemere Commons mega-project in Far Rockaway is expected to break ground in January after Tishman Speyer’s TS Communities on Nov. 19 announced that it has entered an agreement with Arker Companies to acquire and develop 10 of the 11 building sites at the location of the former Peninsula Hospital.

The 100% affordable housing development will encompass 2,050 apartments, including 237 that will be set aside for seniors, was originally approved by the City council in November 2019 and was expected to begin construction in 2020.

“We are proud to join the Edgemere community and look forward to working with residents and local elected officials to advance the three pillars of Edgemere Commons: affordability, community and resiliency,” TS Communities Managing Director Gary Rodney said. “Real estate is more than buildings. Our team is committed to building community and connection by focusing on what people need to make their lives and their neighborhoods better.”

The Edgemere neighborhood, an area where the median family income is the lowest on the peninsula, will benefit from hundreds of permanent and construction jobs and the project will include a community center, medial space and 72,000 square feet of “neighborhood-oriented retail,” including a supermarket, fitness center, food and beverage and shops, as well as 973 accessory parking spaces.

“Edgemere Commons will increase the availability of affordable housing in Far Rockaway and bring many amenities that will benefit both existing and future residents,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said. “The planned supermarket is especially needed in this community, which is considered a food desert because of its lack of easy access to healthy and nutritious food. I look forward to making sure all of this project’s community benefits will come to fruition and are fully enjoyed by Far Rockaway’s great residents.”

Turf trouble in Far Rockaway

QNS 

 For almost 20 years, the Rockaway Ravens, an all volunteer nonprofit youth sports organization that offers cheerleading, soccer and football programs, have been part of the Far Rockaway community.

Without a single recreational football field on the peninsula, its football team had to shuffle between Far Rockaway High School and Beach Channel High School football fields for practice for years. Then, with the support of then-City Councilman and current state Senator James Sanders, the Ravens petitioned for a field.

And when Rockaway Parks, a $30 million investment in recreation areas in Far Rockaway, opened on Aug. 6, 2012, the team finally had a gridiron they could call home.

Located on Beach 32nd and a mere “Hail Mary” pass away from the Atlantic Ocean — with the boardwalk serving as a divider — the players got to practice and play against other teams on their “field of dreams.”

Only a few months later, on Oct. 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy hit New York City. The Category 1 hurricane battered the Rockaways, and a 10-foot storm surge flooded the peninsula, demolishing homes and leaving many residents without shelter.

Sandy’s wrath also destroyed the football field.

Dexter Archbold, president and founder of the Rockaway Ravens, said the ground was covered in about three to four feet of sand after the surge moved out.

“You couldn’t see the green top, you couldn’t see the benches — nothing. Everything was completely covered,” Archbold said.

Archbold said that the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) did a great job removing the sand from the field.

But the saltwater eroded the shock padding — a layer below the turf that provides safety during athletic activities — and turned the turf, which should feel like a shag carpet, into a matted, sandpaper-like flat rug sitting on concrete.

Archbold said from what he understands, there was a lot of back and forth between DPR and the builder, and that they went to court.

Almost nine years later, the field — the only public recreational football field on the Peninsula — is still in the same condition.

Looking at the field and the players practicing tackles and blocks, he said, “I don’t know what the outcome is. But this is what we have to play with until better can be done.”

NYC Housing planning together again to develop in Far Rockaway

We want to bring a #CommunityLandTrust to the Rockaways!

Right now, we're accepting proposals to turn vacant, City-owned lots in Edgemere into affordable, shared equity housing and sustainable open space: https://t.co/9gGbGKwryp pic.twitter.com/arXqYLGvbH

— NYC Housing (@NYCHousing) July 17, 2021

Shared equity housing, sounds like the same 80/20 bullshit "affordable housing" that's been built since the Blaz stained City Hall with his presence. But you know Donnie Richards is unquestionably down with this

Sea level rise response in Staten Island vs Queens

There's a great photoessay on Curbed about the difference in waterfront development in Staten Island vs. Queens. Staten Island is returning to nature while in Queens the attitude is build, build, build!

We live in a strange moment, when on the one hand, the state government is paying millions of dollars to help hundreds of residents move away from the water in an orderly fashion, but on the other hand, the city and private developers are encouraging thousands of new residents to move into rapidly constructed waterfront towers that cost billions of dollars. These diametrically opposed plans for the waterfront are creating very different versions of the future, even as the city has begun to initiate its own managed retreat programs in Edgemere and beyond.

Edgemere's vision for its future

From Curbed:

As sea levels continue to rise, difficult choices are facing Edgemere and many other communities around New York City, and the outcomes of the strategies used here will only become more relevant in the years to come.

The Resilient Edgemere plan presents a variety of short- and long-term projects for the neighborhood, comprising zoning changes, new residential development, and transportation improvements. Some of the highlights include a $14 million investment into creating an elevated berm along the neighborhood’s unprotected coastline, a $68 million investment into NYCHA’s Beach 41st Street Houses, and the elevation of 41 attached homes above flood risk levels.

The most striking physical changes proposed in the plan are a new rocky shoreline that could replace the existing salt marsh habitat along the coast of Jamaica Bay, and the numerous illustrations showing that the northernmost part of Edgemere’s residential community, on Beach 43rd Street above Norton Avenue, would be replaced by open space and a new park. “As a proposal of de-densifying the area above Norton Avenue, the short-term tool there would be to change the zoning so that new construction of housing would not be possible,” explains Morris. “Over the long term, this area would transition from a housing area to a less-housed area. What that means is maintaining the balance of the population of the community and moving it to a safer space.”

City building in Rockaway flood zone

From the Queens Courier:

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development filed applications with the Buildings Department to construct an eight-story, 101-unit mixed-use residential and commercial building on a vacant lot in Edgemere.

There will be a total of 35 parking spaces at the residence, which will be designed by Curtis + Ginsberg Architects and located at 45-05 Rockaway Beach Blvd.

Only 35 parking spaces because the A train runs so well to Far Rockaway? Ha ha ha. HPD also building smack in the middle of the flood zone. No mention of affordability. Hmmm...

The final round of skeeter spraying?

From the Queens Courier:

Another round of West Nile spraying is set for parts of Queens this week.

The spraying will take place on Thursday, Sept. 18, between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 6 a.m. the next morning. In case of bad weather, the application will be delayed until Monday, Sept. 22 during the same hours.

The following neighborhoods are being treated to help reduce the mosquito population and the risk of the disease, according to the city’s Health Department:

Parts of Arverne, Bays Water, Edgemere, Far Rockaway, Hammels and Somerville (Bordered by Jamaica Bay to the north; Cross Bay Parkway to the west; Atlantic Ocean to the south; and Nassau County Boundary to the east).

Parts of Cambria Heights, Laurelton, Saint Albans and Springfield Gardens (Bordered by 119th Avenue to the north; Farmers Boulevard to the west; Merrick Boulevard to the south; and Belt Parkway and Nassau County Line to the east).

Today's sprayings

Spraying scheduled for this week

From NY1:

The city's Health Department has said it will begin spraying for West Nile virus next week in parts of Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx.

Officials say the disease has NOT been detected in the city yet this year, but they're working to reduce the number of mosquitoes and minimize the risk.

Crews will spray non-chemical larvacide on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. weather permitting.

In bad weather it will be delayed to Thursday, Friday and next Monday.

In Queens, larvacide will be spread in Linden Hill, College Point and Edgemere.

Seeking uses for vacant Far Rockaway land

From Brownstoner Queens:

Permanent development is in the works for a vacant, 80-acre site on the Rockaway Peninsula, an area badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy, but in the meantime the organization 596 Acres is looking toward interim uses for the land. A few weeks ago, the group led a discussion on potential interim uses for these empty lots in the Arverne East/Edgemere neighborhood — all those green dots in the map above are public vacant space. Proposals for the lots include a food fest, a view tower for star gazing, a farmers market, and a ski trail. See the details of each proposal here.

Skeeter spraying to commence Tuesday

From the Daily News:

The city is getting a jump on skeeter season by spraying larvicide in several Queens, Bronx and Staten Island neighborhoods next week to stave off the West Nile virus.

Helicopters will spray larvicide on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to reduce the mosquito population in marshy and non-residential areas between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Specific locations include: Pelham Bay in the Bronx, Alley Creek, the abandoned Flushing Airport, Dubos Point, Edgemere Park in Queens and several areas of Staten Island.

Problems at Far Rockaway nursing home

From the Daily News:

Sandy has piled on to a hospital bankruptcy debacle to write a prescription for disaster.

Conditions have deteriorated at a Rockaway health facility that cares for some of the most at-risk patients, sources told the Daily News.

The Peninsula Center for Extended Care and Rehabilitation is under siege with an overload of patients, frazzled employees and a lack of fresh food, several staffers told The News on Thursday.

The nursing home, affiliated with the shuttered Peninsula Hospital, has been receiving patients from nearby facilities severely compromised by the superstorm.

“It’s exasperating. We’re short-staffed,” said one employee who requested anonymity. “It’s a nightmare. It just seems like there’s no end in sight.”

The 200-bed nursing home is filled to the brim and doesn’t have enough staff to properly care for the frail patients, employees said.

The number of residents assigned to each nursing team has nearly doubled, several staffers said, and there isn’t a working kitchen to provide the residents with food. Meals are being shuttled in from an outside facility.

“The patients are starting to act out,” said the staffer. “They’re used to a certain standard of care and it’s lacking on all sides. I feel very sorry for them.”

“Patient safety is at risk,” said another worker who also requested anonymity.

Who allowed the nursing home to repopulate when these problems were evident?

Not exactly an urban renewal project

From the Daily News:

The city missed out on a chance to purchase a piece of property in Rockaway that will now be developed into a transient hotel, officials said.

The lot, located at Rockaway Beach Blvd. and Beach 44th St., is part of the Edgemere Urban Renewal Area and was listed in city documents as a site that could be acquired as part of that project.

Instead, the property was snatched up by a private owner who is planning to build a six-story hotel on it.

Local residents are fighting the plan, saying a hotel could ruin their efforts to revive the neighborhood.

“We can’t dwell on what they didn’t do,” said Stephen Cooper of the Frank Avenue Civic Association of Edgemere. “We’re looking forward to political actions and community actions that can be taken.”

Cooper said the group is hoping to put pressure on Sandhu — with the help of local officials — and change his mind about the project.

Opponents are mulling a plan to visit his Long Island neighborhood for a protest.

Residents wary of Far Rockaway hotel

From the Daily News:

A planned six-story hotel in Edgemere is raising the hackles of local homeowners who worry it will put the brakes on the neighborhood’s hard-fought revival.

The once-troubled Rockaway urban renewal area has turned a corner in recent years as new homes spring up, young families establish roots and the city invests in roads, sewers and other infrastructure.

Amritpal Sandhu, who owns the property, told the Daily News on Friday that the hotel will be part of the La Quinta Inn chain and cater to airline personnel and travellers from nearby JFK Airport.

He shot down chatter that the hotel could be used as a halfway house or homeless shelter.

“We will have a shuttle to JFK for visitors and crew,” he said. “People who want to go see Manhattan can stay here and instead of paying $300 a room they will pay $150.”

But officials were still wary of the hotel, saying it may not fit into the larger Edgemere Urban Renewal Plan, first created in the late 1990s.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said her office, which has received complaints about the hotel, is examining whether it is appropriate for the area.

And Community Board 14 has asked several city agencies to investigate whether the hotel proposal is allowed under building, zoning and planning regulations.