Auburndale noise terror

 

 QNS 

 Hundreds of Auburndale residents and small business owners rallied on Saturday, Oct. 16, for the shutdown of a rowdy neighborhood lounge that has been disrupting the quality of life in the area for the past eight months. 

Residents were gathered outside of Kloud Tequila Grill (Silk Hookah Lounge LLC), located at 192-08 Northern Blvd., where they voiced their frustrations about inappropriate illegal activity occurring at the lounge. 

Ever since Kloud Tequila Grill opened, Tsourapis says her family’s life has been a “living nightmare.”  

“We can’t sleep because of the loud music and screaming until 5 a.m. every day. The constant noise, drag racing, garbage and sexual activity right outside of our home is affecting our health and neighborhood safety,” Tsourapis said. “Even though they’re operating without a liquor license, none of our many 311 complaints or calls to the police have made a difference. City Hall must shut down Kloud Tequila Grill now."

 According to residents, the incidents at Kloud Tequila take place on a daily basis, seven days a week, much of it occurring from midnight to 3 a.m. over the past eight months.

Despite numerous complaints to government agencies and law enforcement, residents say nothing has changed. 

The Auburndale Northern Association has launched an online petition for an investigation into the bar.

Dosung Andrew Jung, who represents one of the many small businesses on the block, said they’re concerned about the way Kloud Tequila Grill is conducting their business.

“Every day, we find garbage, vomit, empty liquor bottles scattered around the block,” Jung said. “Our safety is put at risk with drag racing by intoxicated patrons. Our quality of life is ruined with unacceptable noise from Kloud and sex acts inside parked cars at night. We demand City Hall shut down Kloud now!”

 Change.Org

We demand an immediate investigation into Kloud Tequila Grill (Silk Hookah Lounge LLC), located at 192-08 Northern Boulevard, Queens, NY 11358.  

We support the local residents and small business owners in the neighborhood surrounding the block between Northern Boulevard and 45th Avenue (north-south), and 192nd and 193rd streets (east-west) in Queens, New York, who have suffered greatly from the actions of Kloud Tequila Grill (Silk Hookah Lounge LLC) on a daily basis, seven days a week, from midnight to 3 o’clock in the morning, over the past eight months.

Reported incidents include illegal sale of alcohol without a license, sale of alcohol to intoxicated patrons, loud music, littering and vermin, public urination, the construction of unsafe building structures without a permit, drag racing and drunk driving, violations of COVID-19 executive orders, public sex acts, etc.  We believe many of these incidents constitute serious violations of New York State and City Law, are potentially life-threatening, and must be immediately addressed.

Despite numerous complaints to government agencies and law enforcement over the past eight months, nothing has changed. 

We have documentation of these incidents, including dozens of 311 service requests, and can provide much more, including photographs, video, and eyewitness testimony.

Residents patience is gone for idiotic bike boulevard

  

Queens Post

A group of residents has launched an online petition in opposition to the DOT’s recent installation of a new bike boulevard on 39th Avenue in Sunnyside.

The online petition, which was launched Saturday, seeks to reverse the DOT’s transformation of many portions of 39th Avenue and Barnett Avenue that have been converted into one-way streets. The DOT began making the changes to the avenues last month in order to create space to put down a protected bicycle lane on 39th Avenue.

The petition has garnered more than 500 signatures since it launched less than 72 hours ago on change.org.

The group that launched the petition, called Queens Streets For All, claims that the new designs are dangerous, confusing and were not thought through. They also say that the community was not properly involved in the process.

Their view is counter to the DOT and bike-safety advocates who say that the new layout makes the streets safer for all road users —whether they be motorists, cyclists or pedestrians. The advocates say the measures reduce the number of motorists using 39th Avenue as a through-street and that the changes help prevent speeding.

However, the petitioners argue that the changes are too complex, unnecessary and have instead made the roads less safe.

They are calling on the DOT to reverse the road changes immediately. The petition is addressed to the Mayor Bill de Blasio, the DOT Commissioner, Queens DOT Commissioner, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, State Sen. Mike Gianaris, Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, Community Board 2 and other officials.

“What we have is chaos,” the petition reads. “These short, previously unproblematic and two-way streets are now a mess. Whoever rushed the installation was not focusing on our safety.”

The group claims that the process to approve the plan was “rushed through” via online meetings with little community notice and insufficient input from residents.

The bike boulevard was approved by Community Board 2 in June by a vote of 21-11 during a Zoom board meeting.

Planner rebuts Corey Johnson's BS zoning report with actual facts

If you're concerned about the hard work your neighborhood has done to achieve the proper zoning, please read the entire report presented below and sign the petition to stop it.

From the Queens Chronicle:

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) wants to eliminate single-family zoning across New York City, but some community representatives are concerned the change will cause more bad than good.

The plan, introduced in December, is intended to “streamline” housing development by establishing a new commission, made up of members appointed by the mayor, City Council and borough presidents, which would set construction targets for each community district.

Johnson claims the Planning Together initiative would close racial and economic disparities, but urban planner Paul Graziano argues it would instead ruin the character of Queens.

“This is what set off the red flags for me: the main pillar of this report is based off a complete lie — I’ll just say it straight out,” Graziano said at a Jan. 20 Community Board 8 meeting. “The complete lie is that the rezonings that occurred under the Bloomberg administration were to help white, wealthy neighborhoods at the expense of all others ... This isn’t true.”

Graziano, who presented before CB 8 on his own accord, said he had designed about half of the Bloomberg-era rezonings and called Johnson’s statements “outrageous” and “dangerous.”

The majority of single-family zones in the borough are in northeastern and southeastern Queens, Graziano said, and most neighborhoods there are not largely white. To illustrate his point, he presented maps of each borough neighborhood that was rezoned between 2005 and 2013 with maps courtesy of the CUNY Graduate Center that show demographics by block.

Planning Together Final Report December 16 2020 by queenscrapper on Scribd

Response Memo RE Planning Together - 1-15-2021 by queenscrapper on Scribd

Response Memo RE Planning Together - Appendix A - Demographics - 1-15-2021 by queenscrapper on Scribd

Response Memo RE Planning Together - Appendix B - Single-Family Zoning - 1-15-2021 by queenscrapper on Scribd

Legislation Details (With Text) by queenscrapper on Scribd

Say “NO” to the Mayor’s neighborhood jail proposal

Voice your positions using the contact information and link listed at the end of this newsletter. Deadline for public comments is October 29th, an email link and pdf form are attached below – please act now. This is urgent. Here’s what you need to know . . . HOW DID WE GET HERE? On August 15, 2018 Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office announced a plan to close the Rikers Island jail, replacing it with four gargantuan "jail" micro-cities in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, each borough except for Staten Island. The proposed Queens jail would be constructed adjacent to Borough Hall, at the junction of Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and Briarwood.

Urgent Call to Action: We must not allow this to happen – join us! Public comments on the Mayor’s Borough Based Based Jail System proposal are due to the City by October 29th, 2018. Only emails or mailed comments will be considered. Send emails expressing your views to: Howard Judd Fiedler, A.I.A.  Director of Design Unit, NYC Department of Corrections Click this email link provided boroughplan@doc.nyc.gov to contact Mr Fiedler. A compose-email window to his office, will automatically open for you to easily compose and send your message. To compound your effort, we suggest cc'ing or forwarding your email after you have sent it, to the below representatives as well: Borough President Melinda Katz: info@queensbp.org Council Member Karen Koslowitz: koslowitz@council.nyc.gov State Senator Joseph Addabbo, Jr.: addabbo@nysenate.gov  State Senator Leroy Comrie: comrie@nysenate.gov Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal: rosenthald@nyassembly.gov Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill - Community Board 9: communitybd9@nyc.rr.com Forest Hills, Rego Park - Community Board 6:  qn06@cb.nyc.gov  Briarwood, Kew Gardens Hills - Community Board 8: qn08@cb.nyc.gov  If you prefer to print the comment form, please click this link for the pdf and post to: Howard Judd Fiedler, A.I.A.  Director of Design Unit, NYC Department of Correction 75-20 Astoria Boulevard, Suite 160 East Elmhurst, NY 11370   Sign our petition, follow us on social media & more: If you haven’t already signed our online petition please click here. To join our email list for updates and future actions, click here.

Group forms to resist Kew Gardens jail

From Forest Hills Post:

A number of Kew Gardens residents have come together to launch a campaign to block the reopening and expansion of the Queens House of Detention.

About 25 residents have formed the Community Preservation Coalition, a group that aims to stop the Mayor’s plan to reopen the shuttered 126-01 82nd Ave. facility.

The group is comprised of many of the same people who led the successful effort to the save the Lefferts Boulevard Bridge, according to coalition member Dominick Pistone, who also heads the Kew Gardens Civic Association.

The coalition argues that the mayor’s proposal for a 1,500 inmate jail at the Kew Gardens site— adjacent to Queens Borough Hall and the District Attorney’s Office— would be out of scale with the surrounding buildings and exacerbate traffic in the neighborhood.

Pistone said the mayor is calling for a “monster facility that’s totally out of scale with the neighborhood.”

The coalition intends to launch a public awareness campaign after the City holds a public hearing on the project next week, Pistone said.

The hearing, which will be held at Queens Borough Hall at 6 p.m. on Sept. 26, is part of the Environmental Review Process that is required for the site to be rezoned. The public will have the opportunity to hear more about the project and to ask questions.

The City needs to rezone the site for the jail expansion to move forward.

The group launched a petition against the jail on Sept. 18, and Pistone said the group and will begin to distribute fliers about the group’s concerns in coming weeks. He said the coalition knew that the City was considering reopening the jail, but was shocked as to the scale of the expansion.

While the existing structure is 497,600 square feet and housed about 500 inmates, the new facility would be 1,910,000 square feet and house 1,510 inmates.

Yet another turd that won't stay flushed

From the NY Post:

Scandal-scarred former New York City Comptroller John Liu is attempting a political comeback — emboldened by the stunning upset pulled off last week by Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sources said.

Liu and his hard-left supporters from TrueBlueNY are racing to gain 3,000 signatures so he can run against incumbent Sen. Tony Avella of Queens in the Democratic primary Sept. 13.

The deadline to submit the petitions is Thursday at midnight, according to the city’s Board of Elections.

Avella is the last member of the Independent Democratic Conference to be challenged by a Democrat, even after the mainstream party called a truce with the rogue group that aligned itself with the GOP in a power-sharing agreement.