Queens courthouse jail is in atrocious condition

NY Daily News  

Working conditions at the Queens Criminal Court complex’s detention center are so disgusting, correction officers have complained to state and federal workplace oversight agencies.

Rats scurry in the kitchen, roaches crawl in the locker room, and flies hover over hopelessly backed-up toilets, say filings with the state Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“The appalling conditions in the Queens courts are consistent with the decaying infrastructure at our jail facilities,” said Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

Photos obtained by the Daily News show an overflowing toilet, ripped-up flooring stained with water from leaks, peeling paint, black mold creeping up the walls, a trashed locker room, and a disheveled food storage area.

As if working conditions weren’t bad enough, the Correction Department’s staffing crisis has cut the number of officers regularly working at the Queens Detention Center in Kew Gardens.

Roughly 40 officers out of the center’s detachment of 173 were moved to Rikers Island, and an additional 12 officers have retired since May 2021, correction sources said.

On top of that, the Correction Department has been constantly “redeploying” or temporarily moving officers to Rikers from the Queens courts on a spot basis, further reducing available staff.

The complaint alleges a security entry gate in the intake area has been broken for months, forcing officers to leave the gate unsecured.

The complaint to state officials describes food being stored improperly, broken laundry machines and cleaning equipment, and a filthy kitchen and rest rooms. Devices that filter air and drinking water for the detainees have been broken for months, the complaint said.

A factor in keeping the facility clean is that those jobs are usually done by detainees from Rikers — but there hasn’t been such a work detail in months, said Correction Department sources.

The situation has slowed down court operations by delaying the production of detainees at court hearings, said the sources.

 

A year after the sludge deluge, city still leaves South Ozone Park homeowners hanging out to dry

City Council gets to hear it from South Ozone Park residents about city's shitty response to sewage overflow

Jamaica Patch


In the basement of Laron Harmon's South Ozone Park home, no space went to waste. It was fully furnished, and Harmon kept all his clothing down there. It's where his daughter, who was back home from college for Thanksgiving, had put her clothes into the washing machine. His 10-year-old son's toys and bicycle were there too.

About 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 30, that basement started filling with waste. Harmon had gotten used to sewage and flooding issues in the three decades he'd lived there, and he cleaned out the sewer trap in his basement twice a year. But he had never seen anything like this.

"By nine o'clock in the morning, I had close to four feet of sewage in my basement," he said.

Harmon was one of four South Ozone Park residents who recounted tales of raw sewage flooding their homes that morning as part of a City Council oversight hearing Wednesday on how city officials dealt with the crisis, which affected an estimated 74 homes.

"I'm one of those families that had to sleep in their car, in my driveway with my children," Harmon said in his testimony.

 Nearly two weeks later, residents like Harmon continue to grapple with the aftermath of the sewage that devastated their homes. Harmon said he still hasn't gone back home, where there's no heat or hot water. Instead, he's living in a hotel.

"I've never seen nothing like this before," he said. "This was a disaster."

City Council representatives lambasted the Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the city's wastewater plants and sewer system, for being slow to respond to the crisis and promoting a narrative that blamed the backup on residents pouring grease down their drains.

"They certainly didn't deserve to be publicly shamed in the midst of a tragedy," City Council Member Adrienne Adams said.

Adams said her constituents' calls to 311, the city's emergency hotline, went unaddressed for hours and that it took the Department of Environmental Protection hours to arrive at the scene and start fixing the issue.

Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Vincent Sapienza said crews had arrived that morning, hours before Adams claimed, but acknowledged that issues communicating with 311 representatives meant they were slow to realize all the flooding complaints were connected.

Queens Eagle 

 Some lost prized possessions, like clothes, toys and furniture. Others said they waded through knee-deep muck to try to stem the tide of raw sewage. One man questioned how he would ever get the stench of human waste out of his basement, where the wastewater rose more than four feet.

Inside the City Council chambers on Wednesday, South Ozone Park homeowners took turns describing the impact of the sewer backup that flooded dozens of basements during Thanksgiving weekend.

The wastewater affected about 80 houses in the early morning hours of Nov. 30, destroyed belongings and filling home with a lingering odor.

“It was almost like I was in a horror movie,” said Kari White, president of the 149 Street South Ozone Park Civic Association. White described moving from house to house in his neighborhood as wastewater filled neighbors’ basements. He said he refused to even enter one house because it was the stench was so foul.

Comptroller Scott Stringer, who is tasked for making sure these residents get compensated for their destroyed belongings, did not show up at the hearing.

Mayor Big Slow finally shows up to South Ozone Park to assess waste water damage

CBS New York I am here now he says. Idiot.

D.E.P. immediately blames 300 homeowners for the rivers of feces in their basements

NBC New York

New York City residents are dealing with awful and vomit-inducing conditions days after a sewer backup forced them to leave their homes. Officials say the disruption pushed human waste into about 300 homes in Jamaica, Queens.

They think cooking grease poured down the drain might be the culprit. The city’s water agency says drinking water is safe and unaffected.

Cynthia McKenzie said she woke up around 3 a.m. Saturday to an odor she thought was a gas leak, only to realize that sewage water was rushing into her basement.

“When you open it, it just smells,” she said. “It makes you want to vomit. We have to pack up all the clothes.” 

 Raw sewage. There were worms coming out of the toilet. Sludge. Feces. All kinds of stuff," said South Ozone Park resident Gwen McElroy.

Why does the city (mainly the D.E.P.) think the residents are at fault and are sticking with that theory before they actually find the cause? This preemptive determination smells shittier than the stench and the gallons of biological waste they are hosing back out.

Mazeau St. overpass, the next day

 Since filling in for the original Crappy, the Mazeau St. post got the most clicks I have ever seen for a post in one day, so I thought I see the blight for myself.

 So far so good...

 Until I found their spot, this must be the master bedroom

 And finally the basement.

 Looks like the young couple cleaned up the place just a little bit. Didn't see them though, maybe they went for a stroll in Juniper Park.

 

Homeless couple occupying and defecating on LIE overpass in Maspeth.

 Crappy I have a real crap story for you.All summer a homeless man and woman had set up camp on   the LIE  pedestrian overpass at Mazeau St.in Maspeth.They had a pitbull that was scaring people and there were fights with other dogs.The 104 Pct. community affairs officers talked them into surrendering the dog to a rescue group and tried talking them into moving to a shelter.They wanted to remain together so they declined the offer.In July a woman was robbed of her money and phone on Mazeau Street near the overpass at 2:30 in the afternoon  but could not identify  the robbers just that it was a man and woman.We later found out the woman on the overpass has an arrest record in Florida.

In the begining of August the garbage and vodka bottles and other trash was accumulating on the overpass but the best was the crap.They had been crapping on the overpass along the fence and also throwing down to the ground level their plastic bags of crap.The temps had been in the 90's and the crap was cooking in the heat and a home was close by.

   I called 311 on 8/5 and they said that NYCDOT will handle it.A few days later I get an emai saying it's not their job and I should call NYSDOT.Calls were made to local politicians Finally on 8/21 Dept.of Homeless Services long with Sanitation Dept.cleaned the garbage and crap and offered the couple shelter.

  They were gone one week and then came back and set up camp at the same location and yes the crap is flying again.

    

This overpass is used by people of all ages and they don't feel safe crossing with these two living there.What the city will do we don't know.

NYC Parks Department is using Forest Park as a septic waste dump

 CBS New York


There’s a nauseating mess in a popular Queens park. 

 Trucks have been spotted pouring a whole lot of waste but the more shocking discovery is who’s behind it all. 

Chunky, murky sludge gushing at full speed directly into one of the most beloved parks in Queens. 

“Smells like a sewer,” one resident said. It’s creating a soggy, muddy cesspool of bugs, trash, and who knows what else on a strip of land in Forest Park near Union Turnpike and Myrtle Avenue.

 No word from Mitchell Silver about this, not only would he not allow this in Central Park or Prospect Park, but exactly what parks this waste is coming from (maybe this shit is coming from Flushing Meadows with the U.S. Open going on)?  And to our idiot mayor, doesn't Forest Park factor in your version of the Green New Deal?

Update:
QNS

  The location is the same section of Forest Park where the agency plans to create a new entrance where parkgoers from nearby Glendale can enter from Myrtle Avenue to other sections that will also soon be revamped.

“This is not hazardous waste. These trucks were used to clear soil and sediment from our clogged catch basins and spray shower drains to prevent puddling. Fresh water from the holding tanks is used to flush the sediment,” spokeswoman Meghan Lalor said. “Any large debris will be addressed this evening and then we will follow up by raking the sediment with machinery to address anything remaining.”
 
The dumping occurred near the northeast corner of the park where people are able to enter from Myrtle Avenue. The Parks Department has been looking to revamp the area which mostly serves as a route for motorists get on the Jackie Robinson Parkway.
 
But the scene was alarming for multiple people in videos captured as the smell was bad, according to those in the video, and garbage such as water bottles and wrappers could be seen.
 
“The smell of the discharge was abhorrent. There were gallons and gallons of muck, mud, debris and heavens know what else,” said Frank Schorn, who captured the videos. “The liquid flowed into a sewer entrance some dozens of yards away. The sewer grate is nearly completely blocked with debris from prior discharges of waste.”

The truck has Jersey plates. The city hired a private carting company to dump that shit.

School cafeterias are failing health inspections

 

NY1

Hundreds of city schools aren’t making the grade, flunking city health inspections, a NY1 investigation found.

The worst offenders?

I.S. 227 in Queens, one of the borough's most sought-after schools. Health Department Inspectors found 140 mouse droppings there, including in the students' dining area.

There was moldy watermelon at P.S. 277 in the Bronx, and at PS 42 in Queens, moldy green beans.

In all, inspectors last year found roaches crawling on 99 lunchroom floors, fruit flies in 80 cafeteria kitchens, and in 22 drains, flies where serving utensils are washed.

"It's not acceptable," said Richard Carranza, New York City's schools chancellor. Adding, "kids should never be served any kind of food that is not safe."

According to the records, in the first eight months of 2018, 934 schools had critical health code violations—the kind that would get any restaurant shut down.

That compares to 1256 violations in the 12 months of 2017 and 1456 violations in 2016