Who said McMansions were dead? This behemoth carbon footprint is lighting up 149th ave like a thousand suns.
It really stands out in the neighborhood. Kinda like the house from the Munsters or the Castle/Spaceship from The Rocky horror picture show. With the amount of electricity being wasted showing off it's worth here, it sort of resembles Deep Space Nine.
While crews with Con Edison have made progress restoring power to the
five boroughs following the wind-related outages caused by Tropical
Storm Isaias, more than 33,000 customers remain powerless in the five
boroughs. And they're not expected to get their electricity back until
11 p.m. on Sunday night.
Manhattan stands as the only borough
where full service has been restored to Con Edison's customers,
according to a press release Con Edison sent out early this morning.
Queens holds the largest number of outages with 19,000, with the Bronx
at 9,700, Staten Island with 3,200, and Brooklyn with 1,400 customers
still out. In Westchester County, 53,000 customers remain without
service.
The storm on Tuesday packed a wallop, bringing gusty winds of 70
miles per hour in New York that caused widespread outages. At the height
of the blackout, some 300,000 customers were left without power. That
prompted Con Edison officials to deem the outage is the second worst
next to Superstorm Sandy.
Con Edison has enlisted the help of
outside utility companies to help restore power, with 1,230 contractors
working alongside the 1,700 Con Edison workers. They say crews have been
working "84 straight hours" since the storm hit, clearing out downed
trees that became entangled in wires.
The New York City Office of Emergency Management has been managing tree removals across the city.
"Queens
specifically has been the hardest hit," said OEM commissioner Deanne
Criswell of the downed trees. "Right now, we have over 1500 people
working on clearing trees across the city, and 153 of those are in
Queens. We're continuing to bring in additional resources, and
reassigning some of of other personnel from city agencies to help
support the tree removal efforts."
Flushing, Bayside, Astoria, and
Woodside are being given priority to have downed trees cleared. It will
take next week to have all those trees removed.
The
restoration also came when a pop-up blackout knocked out electricity to
180,000 customers on Friday morning. The incident--which cut off power
to 187,000 customers in the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, and Harlem
in Manhattan, and 77,000 customers in Maspeth, Queens.
Update:
CBS New York's report from Woodhaven, one of the men at the end of the video says it all about the city's and Con Ed's response.
Con Edison, the privately owned utility company that theoretically powers our city, has reportedly resolved to raise rates
beginning January 1: Under the proposal, electric would go up 13
percent over the next three years, while gas would jump an astounding 25
percent. Hm well, at least you know you're getting solid and uniformly reliable service
for all those extra dollars you're paying out; at least you know that
this added, unavoidable expenditure will be Worth It in the long run! Here
is a breakdown of the average rate hikes, which would vary somewhat
depending on customers' electricity and gas consumption. Most of you
would be looking at a roughly 4.2% rise in 2020, followed by a 4.7%
increase in 2021, and a 4% bump in your electric bills for 2022. As for
gas, the average bill would jump 7.5% in 2020, 8.8% in 2021, and 7.2% in
2022. Many people are displeased with this scheme, which stands
to make already burdensome monthly payments significantly more
expensive. AARP has already filed its grievances
with the state Public Service Commission, pointing out that, as it
stands, "tens of thousands" of customers find themselves unable to pay
their utility bills and see their services cut every year. "We think it’s an unfair rate hike,” AARP lobbyist Bill Ferris told the NY Daily News: “We have a problem in New York State with energy affordability.” With everything affordability, some would say!
The restoration effort of the New York State Pavilion at Flushing Meadows Corona Park will receive more than $16 million in federal funding, according to U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
As announced on Nov. 26, the cash infusion will be used to repair and replace several electrical units at the World’s Fair Park and other areas which were severely damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“The World’s Fair Pavilion is an enduring icon and it should be preserved and promoted for current and future generations,” Schumer said. “Now the pavilion is being restored and these federal funds will be used to repair damaged caused by Superstorm Sandy and help yet another community asset recover after the storm.”
The $16,468,030 grant was provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the New York Office of Management and Budget and will be used for repairs at the pavilion as well other storm-damaged areas of the park.
Gremlins with teeny-tiny drills are burrowing their way underneath Winchester Boulevard in Queens Village and creating pinholes in copper pipes leading from water mains to the houses between Braddock and Hillside avenues.
It’s as good an answer as the ones homeowners on Winchester are getting for why connector pipes are failing at an alarming rate; so often — on multiple occasions for individual homes in some cases — the company that used to insure the pipes has stopped doing so along that part of the street.
Tom Garrett, who has owned his home for 40 years, said pipes began failing in about spring 2015.
“My neighbor had to get his pipes replaced,” he said. “Then a woman down the street. We didn’t think anything of it.”
By the time his pipe had to be replaced for the first time, people were becoming suspicious.
He now estimates that more than 20 replacements have had to take place, including one neighbor who has required it six or seven times.
“Plumbers who’ve been doing the replacements say it’s being caused by electrolysis. Electricity leaking from somewhere causing pinhole leaks in the pipes,” he said.
Wais Mohibi doesn’t like to go down without a fight.
With his partner Jamie Sabeti, he owns A&B Repair Shop & Discount Muffler at 38th Avenue and 126th Street, the lone holdout in an otherwise barren section of Willets Point.
The Bloomberg administration made deals with other businesses in the area, so the properties could be cleared to make way for a since-killed plan to build a 1.4 million-square-foot mega-mall. Many of the businesses were given money and moved to the Bronx but ended up evicted from their new home.
Mohibi and his partner didn’t end up taking an offer.
“I fought with the city,” he told the Chronicle. “They wanted me out.”
Because the business stayed, its lease with the previous owner of their lot was still in effect and they had to start paying their rent to the city.
Mohibi said he doesn’t regret the decision to stay, and not take a relocation deal, but noted that it hasn’t been painless.
“We had a loss of business,” he said.
Not helping his company is its lack of accessible water — which is often a necessary part of auto work.
“[The city] cut off the water,” Mohibi explained. The issue is compounded by the fact that there is no meter the business can use to gauge its electricity usage, a problem he said was also created after the city took over the lease.
Because of the lack of services, Mohibi and Sabeti stopped paying rent to the city about a year ago, according to Ira Cooper, their attorney.
...what’s with contractor Dennis Melandro? He STILL hasn’t finished rebuilding Victoria Roehling’s Broad Channel home damaged badly by Hurricane Sandy. She’s paid him $280,000 and he told me back in September that the job could be done within two weeks. Here we are more than two months later and there’s still a lot more to do.
And this week Victoria says she found he’d plugged a long blue extension cord into her home to get electricity for a job he’s doing two houses down. She’s now considering a possible criminal complaint. We’re going to stay on this until Victoria is back home.
Anil Argawal, wiping away tears, explains the frustration of sitting in his dark Kew Gardens, Queens, grocery store, with no electricity, empty coolers and freezers, and no business for months.
“I came 30 years ago in this country hoping to make a bright future for my kids and my wife,” he told CBS2’s Marcia Kramer. “Now I feel like I got nothing to provide them.”
CBS2 first reported about Argarwal’s plight six weeks ago after the electricity was turned off as the result of a complicated series of events involving the MTA, which owns the property because the store is on a bridge over the Long Island Rail Road; the landlord, who has a deal with the MTA to sublease the 13 stores on the bridge; and Con Ed, which was called in to help upgrade the power lines, a move necessary to serve the freezers and coolers installed in the grocery.
Putting aside the blame game, an Aug. 4 letter from Con Ed to landlord Kunal Kapoor said he had to install something called a “sleeve” in the foundation before Con Ed could get started.
The landlord’s lawyer said he thought the sleeve came after Con Ed did the work. Now he knows differently. He said he expects the sleeve will be installed next week.
The real question is whether Argawal will ever be able to restock all the empty shelves
“I don’t even have the money to fill it up,” he said.
A business owner in Queens blames the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a company hired to oversee repairs for a loss in customers.
There are growing fears among store owners and residents that the problems will lead to stores shutting down.
Anil Argawal says for the past week, he’s had no electricity in half of his store, and it’s led to fruits and vegetables going bad.
He says it’s cost him thousands of dollars in lost business.
“I’m totally devastated, I’m totally ruined,” he said.
Argawal and his brother own the market on Lefferts Boulevard right off Austin Street in Kew Gardens. The property, along with others, is on a bridge above the Long Island Rail Road tracks — owned by the MTA.
The agency hired management company Zee N Kay to oversee repair work.
Agarwal says the repairs have taken too long to make. The management company disagrees.
“We have fulfilled each and every one of our obligations,” Kunal Kapoor from Zee N Kay said.
Last Thursday, an electrician the company hired started to fix a panel because the electricity had been tripping. But four days later, an MTA Fire Marshal issued a stop work order — saying the agency needed to approve all electrical plans beforehand.
“Typically, LIRR takes several months to get back to you and we couldn’t wait that long,” Kapoor said.
Merchants say they feel repairs are dragged out because of possible plans in the future by the MTA to shut down stores on the historic bridge.
Locals have come up with a solution to the bridge problem. Will the MTA listen?
An Asian advocacy group that criticized a bill to prevent so-called “illegal home conversions” as racist has reversed its position and is the first Asian group to publicly support the measure. In July, Members of the Asian Community United Society said the proposal to boost fines for dicing one- and two-family homes into multifamily apartments unfairly targeted the Chinese who live in such buildings. But now the group’s director says the bill will actually protect Asian immigrants from predatory landlords.
“Initially I was under the impression that Chinese homeowners were being targeted, and we were worried about their safety,” said Warren Chan, the executive director of the society. “We need to come together because these developers are taking advantage of our community.”
The bill, introduced in June, would impose greater fines on landlords who incorrectly subdivide homes and would also let the city put liens on properties when landlords fail to pay the penalties. In its early stages, the bill created a fund for residents displaced when the city vacates illegal buildings, but lawmakers scrapped the provision, because Council does not have the power to designate such a fund.
Chan and others previously argued that the legislation would put immigrant families on the street as the city empties dangerous homes. The city raided two such illegal conversions in Dyker Heights this month, leaving nearly 40 people without a home.
But Chan now says that property owners are the real bad guys, because unsanctioned construction work exposes residents to carbon monoxide poisoning, electrical fires, and building collapse. The city must adopt a two-pronged approach — pass the bill and increase the stock of affordable housing so new immigrants have options — he said.
Orthodox Jewish tenants at LeFrak City in Queens claim they are being discriminated against because newly installed lobby doors only open with an electronic key — which they cannot use on the Sabbath, a federal lawsuit alleges.
Sulaymon Ibragimov and Murod Takhalov are suing the LeFrak Organization for alleged religious discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.
“Halakha, the Jewish law, prohibits Jews from breaking or creating an electric circuit on the Sabbath, and during certain days of observance such as Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, and Passover,” according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
For a half century, tenants used metal keys to open the lobby doors, but a massive renovation project begun in 2012 has created new religious barriers for hundreds of Jewish families who reside at the 20-building complex in Rego Park, the class-action suit alleges.
The renovations included new lobby doors that open using an electronic key fob, which is also used to activate lights in the stairwell by using motion and sound detectors.
Ibragimov, 26, and Takhalov, 45, say they cannot use the elevator on the Sabbath or holy days as well, and the automatic lights also violate religious law for observant Jews.
How do they know that God doesn't want them to use electricity since the bible makes no mention of it?
A worker who fell to his death at a Midtown construction site was riding an elevator powered by an “unsafe” jerry-rigged electrical system, the Daily News has learned.
Christian Ginesi and a co-worker were on a temporary hoist — common at construction sites — headed to the top of a hotel being built on Eighth Ave. on May 5 when the lift stalled between the 24th and 25th floors.
Ginesi’s colleague successfully jumped from the lift to the lower floor, but Ginesi slipped and plummeted 24 stories to his death.
Since then, city building inspectors looking into the cause of the accident discovered the lift suddenly lost power that day, and the electrical system that powered it was installed without a permit.
The elevator relied on “unapproved, unsafe, unsuitable electrical equipment” that shouldn’t have been in use, documents show.
An author and part-owner of Gowanus' Lucey's Lounge was found dead inside her burned-out basement apartment Wednesday morning three weeks before she was scheduled to move out, relatives and officials said.
Evelyn Dahab, 33, who planned to vacate after "a painful legal dispute" with her landlord, was discovered inside the apartment at 31 E. 1st St., near Second Avenue, about 3:15 a.m., after a fire tore through it, according to the NYPD and her family.
Dahab's body was found after about 60 firefighters brought the blaze under control about 30 minutes after they arrived, officials said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Neighbors in the apartments above raced down the hallways, banging on everyone's doors to rush them out of the building, said first-floor tenant Chase Chemero, 25.
The fire was sparked by an overloaded electrical circuit, according to the FDNY.
Now as you can clearly, see, there is no "basement" in this building, but a cellar. According to the 1954 C of O, this "cellar apartment" is legal under the old law tenement. Now you understand why they changed the law.
An apartment in the Brooklyn building where a blaze killed a tenant and injured 16 others had been illegally divided into cramped, dangerous living spaces, FDNY sources said.
The fire, sparked by a faulty refrigerator wire, broke out at about 12:35 a.m. Wednesday in a three-story building on Flatbush Avenue near Farragut Road that also housed a storefront church, according to the sources.
The tenement was plagued by perilous electrical conditions, including exposed wires, fire marshals said. After the blaze, the Department of Buildings ordered the remaining residents to vacate.
The owner of the building told The Post that without his consent, a second-floor tenant had created 11 illegal small rooms in his apartment.
Neighborhoods will now get 72 hours’ notice when city construction projects close down their streets, cut off electricity and water or remove parking spaces.
Councilman Jimmy Vacca (D-Bronx) introduced a bill last month to force the change — but after meeting with the Department of Design and Construction commissioner Thursday, the agency agreed to make the change immediately.
Notices will go out by email to residents, businesses and local pols, and be followed by an in-person notice.
Con Edison Crew Rescues a Baby, Two Women Trapped at Scene of an Auto Collision
Four Con Edison workers rescued a baby and two women earlier this week when the cars they were driving in collided, bringing down a traffic light and exposing electric wires to spilled gasoline.
“We heard a loud crash and saw gasoline pouring out from under one of the cars right next to the pedestrian crossing sign that was hit,” said James DeVita, Brooklyn/Queens Overhead Supervisor. “And we saw people inside, trying to get out.”
The collision took place about 12:30PM Tuesday at the intersection of Francis Lewis Blvd. and 53rd Ave. in Queens. One car caromed off a pedestrian crossing sign at the northwest corner of the intersection causing the sign to topple and break.
The Con Edison workers immediately lowered themselves from their overhead buckets and ran one-and-a-half blocks to the accident scene.
“It was kind of crazy. We were standing in gasoline and then we saw the baby in the back seat,” said Rich Coyle, Chief Lineman.
DeVita and another Con Edison Lineman, Chris Jensen, quickly worked to free the baby and an unconscious woman in the driver’s seat. “I finally had to cut the little girl out of the seat. The gas fumes were getting pretty strong,” added DeVita.
Another lineman, Mauricio Rincon, also helped with the rescue, including getting another injured woman out of the other car by bringing her over the front seat to the back in order to get her out through the undamaged rear door.
“And all this time, we could see those exposed wires – something we know about,” said DeVita. He also dialed 911.
The crew managed to quickly get all the victims far enough away from the accident scene just as NYPD and FDNY responders arrived and aided the victims. The two women and baby are unidentified and the extent of injuries unknown.
“I have a six-year-old daughter,” said Lineman Rincon, “and that’s all I could think of was to get that baby out of danger.”
The workers were installing an overhead transformer in front of nearby P.S. 62 as part of Con Edison’s summer preparations.
The FDNY has determined the fire started in the wiring of the cellar ceiling of 78-13 68 Ave.
Neighbors complained that the tenants of the home have a habit of collecting items, leaving the house and the front yard cluttered and overgrown with shrubbery.
“They are like hoarders,” Cheryl said. “They keep all of this stuff all over their house.”
Some residents said firefighters were struggling to walk through the cellar when they surveyed the home.
Now here's a real architectural abortion: 32-15 60th Street, Woodside. Permits were filed in 2006 to build a 2-family house, but things went awry and those permits were revoked in 2007. The house has sat basically abandoned with a stop work order since 2010 and had a complaint filed in 2011 that it was open and unguarded with people (squatters?) entering and exiting. Lord knows if they ever resolved the little electrical problem they had. And what's with that open foundation? The house looks like it's on stilts.
This was previously a driveway/side yard.
The same owner apparently owns the house next door which currently has a yet-to-be-answered complaint of illegal conversion. The previous owner was tagged in 2006 for the same violation.
There was a time, not so long ago, when hurricane season had little to do with New York City. Then Hurricane Irene hit in 2011, as did Hurricane Sandy in 2012, with devastating consequences. It's impossible to know if New York will find itself staring down another major storm this summer, but NOAA has already predicted that hurricane season — which officiallly began Saturday — will be unusually strong this year. "The outlook calls for a 70% chance of an above-normal season, a 25% chance of a near-normal season, and only a 5% chance of a below-normal season," a recent NOAA report warned.
So here's the $19 billion question: Are we ready for the next Sandy?
And here's the answer: It depends, obviously, on what aspect of storm preparedness you focus on. But in general? No. Not really.
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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