Bowling for housing and parking

Queens Chronicle

Community Board 7 on Monday approved plans for a nine-story residential building at 30-05 Farrington St., replacing the legendary Whitestone Lanes.

The push for the proposed nine-story apartment building is being led by Marco Macaluso Jr., the owner of Whitestone Lanes. His attorney, Eric Palatnik, spoke on his behalf at this week’s CB 7 meeting.

“Mr. Macaluso [Sr.] built this building with his blood, sweat and tears, by the skin of his teeth some 40 or 50 years ago — you never thought he’d be here today asking you to rezone the property,” Palatnik said. “It wasn’t his intention. Bowling alleys were the newest, biggest fad at the time — tells you how long ago it was.

“They’re not a fad anymore. It’s over, and they are over, too, and they know it.”

Plans for the new building were first reported in June; publicly available documents filed with the Department of City Planning proposed that the site be rezoned from an M1-1 zone to an R7A zone to construct a nine-story building with 413 units, 113 of which would be affordable, and 200 parking spaces below ground. It also included plans for publicly accessible outdoor space.

But First Vice Chair Chuck Apelian said Monday that through discussions with the board’s Land Use Committee, the Macalusos and the developers, the group had “come to an agreement” on an alternative plan: Instead, the building would have no more than 350 units, 91 of which would be affordable, and at least 300 parking spaces.

Given Whitestone Lanes’ location right off the Whitestone Expressway and that it is lined by two narrow streets — Farrington Street and Linden Place — traffic congestion was a significant concern for board members. With that in mind, Palatnik said while cars will be able to enter the garage both on Farrington Street and Linden Place, they can only exit on Farrington Street, heading northbound. Those entering on Linden Place can only be heading southbound, and from either direction on Farrington Street.

Arguably the largest change from the previous plan, however, was that instead of outdoor space, complete with benches, tables and the like, the board put forth the idea for a “parking garden,” which would add 35 more parking spots and be filled out with plenty of plants, trees and other greenery. It would sit in back of the building along Farrington Street.

Apelian said it was board member Arlene Fleischman who first articulated the committee’s hesitations toward open green space. “Arlene voiced concern that in this climate, in this environment of homelessness, of migrancy and other things that have taken place, that improper use would take [the] place of this altruistic idea of creating a public access area,” he said. A parking garden was proposed as an alternative.

Revelers bring the noise at Willets Point and Forest Park parking lots

 

Queens Chronicle

 
Ed Sniadecki tried earplugs. He even bought a white noise machine.
Nothing has given him and his wife relief from the extremely loud music at night, though.

“It’s a pounding bass,” the Whitestone resident told the Chronicle last Thursday. “It resonates throughout the entire neighborhood.”

He and others say the problem ramps up in spring and summer. And according to Sniadecki, “It’s no longer a weekend thing.”

Affected residents say the main culprit is the music-blasting cars with big sound systems parked late at night in Willets Point and the World’s Fair Marina parking lot. And police responding to noise complaints have proved them right.

“Bump, bump, bump, bump,” said Dan Lamarca of Whitestone, imitating the bass sound from the cars. When he first heard it, back in 2013, he thought kids were banging on the door to his house.
It is relentless. Even at Easter dinner last month, the obnoxious noise blared in the background at Lamarca’s house.

“We’re considering selling our house and moving out,” he said.
Lamarca isn’t the only one, according to We Love Whitestone Civic Association President Alfredo Centola.

“People are literally moving out of their neighborhood because they can’t take the music anymore,” the civic leader said.

In June 2016, a South Richmond Hill man was arrested for blasting music late at night in Willets Point from a van. The vehicle — which had more than 50 speakers — was confiscated.

Queens Chronicle


Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village) said he can hear people blaring music from the Forest Park Bandshell from his house.

To clarify, Holden lives in Middle Village north, two blocks away from the Long Island Expressway. In fact, when he first heard the music on a night about a month ago, he thought it was coming from Juniper Valley Park.

“It’s one thing to play music but it’s another thing to get stadium speakers and blast it where you can hear it for miles,” he told the Chronicle on Monday.

Holden posted on Facebook on April 23 that the 102nd Precinct was in the bandshell parking lot and would remain throughout the night.

One commenter posted, “This is our way of staying out of trouble .. we are in a open park not disturbing anyone in a parking lot .. yes i agree we leave a mess but add trash cans and it will be cleaner!! We aren’t there fighting killing shooting we just there playing music staying out of trouble!!...”

Holden told the Chronicle he didn’t agree with the post.

“Weren’t disturbing anyone? That’s ridiculous,” he said. “You’re disturbing people for miles away. That’s how bad it was. If they weren’t disturbing anyone, this wouldn’t be an issue. And the fact that these are grown men who said we’re staying out of trouble, what does that mean? Let us break the law and let us disturb the peace because we’re staying out of trouble. These guys have to grow up.”
Holden added, “These guys are not angels like they say on their Facebook posts. ‘Oh, we just want to hang out and have fun.’ Yeah, you want to have fun at other people’s expense and make a racket.”
He is working with the 102nd and 104th precincts to solve the problem.

“You can get a parking ticket within two minutes of your meter expiring, but the people who are actually creating a nuisance to the neighborhoods aren’t getting fined,” Holden said in a statement. “The NYPD needs to crack down on these complaints or else the disturbances will never stop.”