NYPD recruits hogging up College Point parking

And whose fault is this? Let's see what the papers have to say:

From the Times Ledger:

Before the police academy in College Point opened up, the city had an agreement that residential parking would not be affected. I live on 128th Street between 23rd and 25th avenues. And there were several occasions when NYPD cadets would park on the very block I live on and would hop into their fellow cadets cars to be driven down to the Police Academy.

When I spoke to the sergeant of operations at the new police academy, he admitted, or let’s say he was very frank, that the city had plans for more parking areas, but they don’t have the funds to build them. I would now say that this agreement that the community had with the city was a lie.

So now, this agreement that the community had with the city was not to affect parking three-quarters to half a mile away, I would like an explanation for why we who live that distance from the police academy have to be affected by their parking problem.

Richard Erdey
College Point

Also from the Times Ledger:

Gene Kelty, chairman of Community Board 7, said the NYPD had promised that parking would not be an issue, saying the board expects the department to tell the recruits to either park onsite or take mass transit.

He said the board has forwarded the parking complaint to its contacts in the Police Department and noted that it is hard to address the parking issue because no one is entitled to a parking spot in a residential area.

“We wanted all parking on site because we didn’t want this to happen,” Kelty said.

He said the Police Academy project got scaled down into phases during former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, noting that the first phase was building part of the parking lot and the classroom area.

“It’s very nice,” he said. “We were happy that they got a state-of-the-art facility, it’s just that they were not supposed to impact the area.”

In a letter dated Nov. 20 to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton on behalf of Erdey, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) asked Bratton to review the parking issue and get back to him with his findings.

Maybe Paul Vallone can work on this one.

College Point police academy officially opened

From PIX11:

For years mayors have proposed a new police academy for the city’s 35,000 uniformed officers.

The current facility in Gramercy, which opened in 1964, is a tattered mess.

So on the eve of his third term in office, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly broke ground on a new academy in College Point, Queens.

Current NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio cut the ribbon on the sprawling state-of-the art 30-acre facility.

"We’ve already outgrown it. We’ve outgrown it because of our commitment to training," Bratton said.

"We have five strategies in the NYPD, that are going to guide going forward – dealing with terrorism, tackling crime, rebuilding trust in our communities, acquiring hundreds of millions of dollars in the latest technology – but is all built on the foundation that this building represents – training."

The 750,000 square foot building has mock scenarios of what goes on — on real city streets.

There are simulated precincts, courtrooms, city streets, and businesses.

DeBlasio a no show for murdered cop's street renaming

From PIX 11:

44-year-old Todd Cardillo flew up from Florida for a second, NYPD ceremony honoring his slain father this year — and, for a second time, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio did not attend an event designed to “right a wrong” from more than 43 years ago when former Mayor John Lindsey failed to attend the 1972 funeral for Patrolman Phillip Cardillo, who was fatally shot in a racially-charged incident at a Harlem mosque.

Mayor de Blasio was traveling in Israel this past weekend, and when PIX11 asked Commissioner Bratton about the current mayor’s absence, Bratton responded, “You’ll have to ask the mayor that, he received an invitation.”

The mayor's office issued the following statement on his absence at the renaming:

“The Mayor is grateful to Patrolman Phillip Cardillo and his family for giving the ultimate sacrifice to New York City in his efforts to protect our city’s residents. The Mayor has also been honored to attend street renamings for officers who have died in the line of duty during his administration."

Commissioner Bratton took pains to apologize for a climate, on April 14, 1972, that led police officials to let 16 suspects leave the mosque, as the crime scene where Cardillo’s blood was spilled was cleaned up by Nation of Islam mosque members.

“It was a shame then, and it’s a shame now,” Bratton said, standing at a podium outside the NYPD’s new Police Academy in College Point, Queens, where a portion of 28th Avenue was about to be renamed Patrolman Phillip Cardillo Way. “It was wrong to give politics jurisdiction over an active crime scene. It was wrong that neither the then-mayor nor police commissioner attended Phil’s funeral. It was wrong to let political pressure interfere with a murder investigation.”

College Point being overdeveloped into oblivion

From Crains:

A sign that reads "Rough Road" at the entrance of a new 36-acre police academy in College Point could serve as a metaphor for the neighborhood, not just as a warning to motorists of the many potholed streets laid across former swampland.

"The more development you add to the community, the harder it is to get in and out," said state Sen. Tony Avella, who represents the area. "It's like putting 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5-pound bag—you can only stretch the bag so much. How much more can the College Point community [accommodate] in terms of traffic and congestion?”

Not much, some residents say. On a peninsula cut off from much of the rest of Queens by the 10-lane Whitestone Expressway and accessible only by car or bus, College Point has long had a reputation as a quiet, almost timeless hamlet across Flushing Bay from LaGuardia Airport.

That began to change four years ago, when the city started construction on the $750 million police training academy in the College Point Corporate Park. (The first class of 800 recruits entered in January.) When completed, the complex will feature indoor shooting ranges, training fields, parking and even a 100,000-square-foot mock-up city for practice simulations.

As many as 5,000 visitors will likely stream in and out each day. Such comings and goings—coupled with a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus depot across 28th Avenue from the academy, an NYPD vehicle impound lot nearby and several industrial plants—could wreak havoc on an already overtaxed infrastructure that has failed to keep up with the accelerating pace of development in recent years.

Adding to the challenge, the area has begun attracting young professionals and growing families eager to be near thriving Flushing—and to pay College Point's cheaper rents. Song Chen, a 35-year-old lawyer who works in Flushing, said he has seen the neighborhood's population skyrocket since he moved in five years ago. He often drives to work because waiting for overcrowded buses takes longer.

Another draw for both tourists and locals in recent years has been Spa Castle, a glitzy complex of pools, hot tubs, fountains and hydrotherapy baths on 11th Avenue in the northern end of the neighborhood.

Chris Androne, who owns a sheet-metal company nearby, said the traffic from the spa can be horrendous. He complains that it often takes him more than 15 minutes to drive three miles to his home in the more posh precincts of Whitestone to the north. His wife, Angie, who runs a lip-gloss manufacturing business above her husband's firm, said traffic has increased appreciably in the past three years alone.

“It's getting worse and worse,” she said, noting that many single-family homes have been converted to house multiple families.

Poop in the water at police academy

From the NY Post:

This academy is not going to win any awards.

The NYPD’s brand-new, $750 million supposedly state-of-the-art Police Academy in Queens now has a water contamination problem —-just months after the building’s high-tech gym floor buckled and needed to be replaced.

Thirsty cops and recruits were handed bottled water on Friday, after officials deemed the building’s water unsafe to sip on, according to documents obtained by The Post.

NYPD Chief Surgeon Dr. Eli Kleinman warned that the water shouldn’t be used for washing dishes or showering either, until a further investigation.

Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins called the situation “troubling” — and said he’d received numerous calls from concerned cops.

“They seemed to think there’s E. coli in the water,” he told The Post.

Police Academy opening delayed due to contractor mistake

From the Daily News:

A state-of-the-art polyurethane floor recently installed in the soon-to-be opened $750 million NYPD training ground in College Point has already began to warp and buckle and will need to be torn out and replaced — possibly delaying the facility’s opening, police officials confirmed Friday.

“There was a defect problem with the new gym floor,” NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis said.

The NYPD alerted the city’s Department of Design and Construction about the defect.

The agency will rectify the problem with the contractor, Davis said, referring all questions about the scope of the damage and repair costs and timelines to the DDC. The DDC did not return a call for comment Friday night.

Seeking road relief in College Point

From the Queens Chronicle:

The streets around the College Point Corporate Park are heavily used and, according to one elected official, have been neglected for years.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) is calling for all governmental agencies involved to make repairs before the Police Academy opens next year. Last year, the NYPD put a temporary car tow pound in the corporate park that is expected to be there for years and adds to congestion.

At a press conference last week, Avella said that instead of making repairs to the Ulmer Street and 28th Avenue location, where issues include a partial street collapse, the city has installed a speed bump sign.

“Going over this bump, which is really a street collapse, the majority of motorists bottom out and damage their vehicles,” he said. “And this is the case for most of the roads in the area.”
Avella is asking for a meeting with the Economic Development Corp. and the city and state DOT to try to solve the problem.

Police academy opening delayed until 2015

From the Times Ledger:

The grand opening of the new police academy in College Point has been moved back to 2015 following more delays, a police source familiar with the project said.

The academy was originally set to open in the spring, but there were delays because of damage caused by Superstorm Sandy and a fire which ripped through the new facility in 2013. It was then scheduled to open its doors in July, but suffered further delays from vestiges of the fire and flood, the source said.

The NYPD is currently working with the city Buildings and Fire departments to get all of the building’s mechanical systems approved and a temporary certificate of occupancy.

Police academy construction is slow-going

From NY1:

At a current cost of around $750 million, the massive new police academy sitting out in the College Point section Queens is behind schedule. The new head of NYPD Training said he's hoping to open the doors in January.

"When we begin to train our officers there, they won't want to go home. That's how nice it is," said Benjamin Tucker, NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Training.

Ground was broken for the academy during the Bloomberg administration and was scheduled to open in December of 2013. Construction delays, problems after Hurricane Sandy and even a fire at the location postponed the opening.

The NYPD says the building has dozens of smart classrooms, mock courtrooms, banks, stores and other facilities for training.

New police academy almost finished

From the Queens Chronicle:

The opening of the new $656 million Police Academy, originally scheduled for this month, has been pushed back until next year. No date has been set.

Final construction activities on and around the site are continuing, according to Craig Chin of the city’s Department of Design and Construction.

The largest building in the Phase 1 work is a seven-story academic facility, which will include classrooms, a fieldhouse, a running track, gyms, a pool, a dining area and tactical areas with an office and a subway car for training.

There is also a two-story physical training building and utility structure.

Huge fire at College Point Police Academy

From DNA Info:

A massive fire broke out Tuesday afternoon at the new NYPD academy that is under construction in Queens, authorities said.

The fire department was called at 1:37 p.m. to the new police compound in College Point in an area bounded by College Point Boulevard, Ulmer Street and 28th and 31st avenues.

The blaze went to a second alarm at the 10-story building just minutes later, but it was under control by 2:41 p.m., officials said.

No one was injured, according to police, who said the floor that caught fire contained only construction debris.

The new facility, which is still under construction, is expected to be completed later this year.

Linden Place construction delayed for 2 more years

From the Times Ledger:

The construction of a crucial road in the fight against College Point traffic has been delayed yet again, even while the development of the College Point Police Academy has proceeded at a clip.

Community Board 7 has wanted a portion of Linden Place repaired since the late 1980s after the road was closed due to flooding about a decade earlier.

Civic leaders said the city Economic Development Corp. first projected the work would be completed about four years ago, but last Thursday found out the road is not slated for completion until 2014.

“It’s a huge problem and it’s unacceptable,” said Chuck Apelian, chairman of the College Point Corporate Park Task Force. “They were able to get the police academy approved, in the ground and built. But we can’t get a road.”

The first phase of the College Point Police Academy is set to be operational in December 2013 and will include about 900 parking spaces to accommodate commuters to the training facility just off the Whitestone Expressway.

Apelian, also vice chairman of CB 7, said the reopening of Linden Place is crucial to accommodate the increased traffic the police academy will bring, especially when other developments in the area are taken into consideration.

An old familiar story

From the Times Ledger:

The construction of a crucial road in the fight against College Point traffic has been delayed yet again, even while the development of the College Point Police Academy has proceeded at a clip.

Community Board 7 has wanted a portion of Linden Place repaired since the late 1980s after the road was closed due to flooding about a decade earlier.

Civic leaders said the city Economic Development Corp. first projected the work would be completed about four years ago, but last Thursday found out the road is not slated for completion until 2014.

The first phase of the College Point Police Academy is set to be operational in December 2013 and will include about 900 parking spaces to accommodate commuters to the training facility just off the Whitestone Expressway.

Apelian, also vice chairman of CB 7, said the reopening of Linden Place is crucial to accommodate the increased traffic the police academy will bring, especially when other developments in the area are taken into consideration.

Several businesses from Willets Point were relocated to the corporate park, which is a special district designed to promote economic growth, and a new waste transfer station is set to open in College Point next year, where garbage trucks will drop off refuse.

“They keep putting projects into the district, but they won’t support the infrastructure,” Apelian said.

Yes, that's been the Bloomberg credo since he was first elected. Is this any surprise? Shiny new projects that include ribbon cuttings and groundbreaking photo ops are cool. Low key infrastructure projects are not.

EDC-Parks-DOT job a nightmare

From the Times Ledger:

The city Economic Development Corp. initially told the Flushing community the reconstruction of Linden Place, between 23rd and 28th avenues, would be completed in the fall of 2009, according to Community Board 7 documents, but the bid has not yet gone out for the job, which is hampering the development of the nearby College Point Fields.

The portion of Linden Place between the two avenues was closed decades ago due to flooding and poor road conditions. Since the late 1980s, the community has been asking the city to not only repair the road, but extend it all they way up to 20th Avenue in order to accommodate traffic coming off the Whitestone Expressway, which acts as a wall isolating the neighborhood and allows only six paths to cross it.

The city Parks Department has the cash on hand to finish constructing baseball diamonds, soccer fields and even a roller skating rink that make up the College Point Fields, but contractors need to wait until reconstruction efforts begin on the road so they can coordinate the installation of essential underground utilities like electricity, according to [CB7's transportation committee chair Joe] Femenia.

EDC has dealt with the community throughout the project, but deferred comment to the city Department of Transportation.

In addition to Linden Place, College Point is home to other roadway woes that could be detrimental to the area, according to Femenia.

The College Point Police academy is well on its way to completion, yet the roads surrounding it are sinking into the ground.

Thousands of recruits will be attending class there, where 900 parking spaces will attempt to accommodate commuters.

Ulmer Street, which borders the facility on its eastern side, has sunk into the swampy ground around a large water pipe that has not moved, creating a large bump in the road.

If the street needs to be repaired before the facility is set to open next year and the city has not completed Linden Place, the result would be a traffic nightmare, according to Femenia.

Police academy construction chugging along

From the Queens Courier:

The first phase of a master $656 million plan to construct a new police academy in College Point is well on track for substantial completion by next December, the NYPD said.

City recruits will not likely step foot into their new training digs until July 2014, but the two steel structures in the Phase 1 portion of the project — meant to house classrooms, administrative offices and gyms — have been erected and are close to being 100 percent constructed, according to Inspector Terrence Riley of the NYPD.

The 700,000-square-feet currently being developed in the project’s first phase, Riley said, will accommodate one tour of 1,640 recruits during their first six months of training. Among classrooms and gyms, the new space for the city’s finest-to-be will also include a quarter-mile outdoor running track and a mock-up small city with banks, stores, apartments and streetscapes for simulated scenario-based training.

Some 3,280 recruits a year will come in and out of the total 30 acre site — bordered by College Point Boulevard, 28th Avenue and Ulmer Street — once it is completed, but the full build has not been entirely designed or funded yet and will not be for a few years, Riley said.

But some College Point residents called that “substantial” multimillion dollar investment into question, saying the new academy will not directly decrease crime in the commercial area.

Traffic issues never resolved

From the Times Ledger:

The same traffic problems have plagued College Point since the 1980s, an old study shows, yet civic leaders said continuing development and a lack of capital improvements are making gridlock even worse.

The new mixed-use Gelmart building, on 20th Avenue, is the latest to stir up concerns over congestion. The 147,000-square-foot building that once housed a rubber and bra factory will now house a variety of businesses, including a 114-room hotel, a Chinese grocery story, a gym and a 300-person seafood and sushi buffet.

But those associated with the project, called Point 128, said the city should do more to alleviate traffic in the area.

“I think it’s more of an issue of the city of New York not handling how traffic should work,” said Peter Reyes, general manager of the hotel. “It’s not just industry anymore, and a lot of people have concerns.”

And those concerns go back a long way.

A 1984 traffic study conducted by Urbitran stated “although minor improvements ... will reduce or eliminate the traffic congestion presently experienced at the site, they will not be capable to support any additional development within the Corporate Park.”

The study stated that an additional exit off the Whitestone Expressway at Ulmer Street, which is right by the College Point Police Academy currently under construction, would be one of the only ways to reduce traffic.

But it was never built.

Is College Point oversaturated?

From the Wall Street Journal:

For decades, residents of College Point in northeastern Queens enjoyed its suburban feel—a quiet, waterfront enclave that sits on Flushing Bay and the East River.

But the addition of several big-box retailers in the 1990s, followed by new condo and co-op construction, brought in more residents and shoppers—creating traffic bottlenecks in an area dotted with several narrow, one-way streets.

And now, two new projects slated to make College Point home are further sparking congestion concerns.

One of the new projects, Point 128, a hotel and retail complex on 20th Avenue and 127 Street, will feature a 114-room "green" hotel, a supermarket, restaurants, a food court, shops and 124 parking spots.

Construction on the complex is nearly complete, and the hotel is expected to open in mid-August, with other portions of the facility opening later this year, according to Raymond Chan, the architect behind the complex.

But the scope of the development has sparked concern among residents as well as local officials because it is situated off already-congested 20th Avenue—home to retail chains such as BJ's Wholesale Club and T.J. Maxx.

"You can go on a weekend and the traffic is unbelievable—backed up to the service road of the Whitestone Expressway," said state Sen. Tony Avella, a Queens native who lives in neighboring Whitestone.

Mr. Avella added that locals have also had to deal with traffic brought on by the College Point Corporate Park, a 550-acre office park that is home to several companies.

But critics say the accommodations are insufficient and that College Point has been smothered with more development than its infrastructure can handle, changing the character of the neighborhood in a fundamental way.

"Historically, College Point was a quiet, residential neighborhood with a small-town atmosphere, where families lived for generations," said Mr. Avella. "I'm not against development, but the city has failed to match developments with infrastructure, and now they [residents] deal with traffic on a daily basis, sometimes like Manhattan."

Parks lied about condition of College Point trees

From the Times Ledger:

Hardly any of the trees chopped down around the College Point Police Academy in late March were dead, contradicting what a city Parks Department representative told the community. They were instead removed at the request of the lead contractor for the $1 billion project, according to city documents.

The Parks Department signed off on 82 tree removals along College Point Boulevard, 28th Avenue and Ulmer Street, which were carried out to the horror of neighborhood residents.

At an April meeting between Community Board 7 and several city agencies, representatives from Parks and the NYPD said the trees had to be removed because they were dead.

“Right before they were removed, I had two of my foresters go out there with a representative and they inspected every tree and removed all of the dead trees,” Shawn Maerz, deputy director of the Queens Forestry Division, told the meeting. He went on to detail the harsh conditions that make life hard for other batches of trees that had been planted in the area.

But documents obtained by TimesLedger Newspapers through a Freedom of Information request show that the trees were inspected Feb. 27, about a month before they were cut down and that only eight were classified as dead. Nearly all were classified as being in poor condition. Two of the trees were even classified as fair and one as good.

A Parks department spokesman said Maerz misspoke at the meeting and had never held the position that the trees were dead.

But the trees were going to be removed no matter what condition they were in, according to documents obtained from Parks, which shows the College Point construction project will involve tearing up the entire sidewalk and replacing it.

In fact, Maerz had signed a letter addressed to a contractor on the academy project two months before the community board meeting that indicated the removals were entirely to accommodate construction.

Police academy to be built on contaminated soil

From the Times Ledger:

Construction crews are currently working on the College Point Police Academy project near the Whitestone Expressway, but civic leaders said the city has not lived up to promises about handling contaminated soil on the site.

The NYPD’s new digs will eventually consolidate many training facilities from around the city into an1.8-million-square-foot academy in the College Point Corporate Park.

A consultant for the city has determined that the soil at the project site is made up of contaminated fill material further tainted by petroleum spills.

The city and its contractors are following state regulations to reuse some of that contaminated soil as fill material on the site, but members of Community Board 7 contend they were told all the contaminated soil would be removed.

The NYPD disputed that claim, saying that no specific measures were discussed prior to CB 7 giving the green light.

In a 2009 environmental impact study on the site, a consulting firm hired by the city confirmed the widespread presence of metals, including arsenic, incinerator waste and semi-volatile compounds. Lead, PCBs and other toxic compounds were found in isolated areas along with contaminates accumulated from nearly 100 years of dumping leftover construction debris on the site, which is roughly between College Point Boulevard, Ulmer Street and 28th Avenue.

CB 7 unanimously approved the project in 2009, but according to board members they were told by the NYPD that all excavated contaminated material would be taken away.

Trees felled for police academy

From the Times Ledger:

Residents were horrified after the city cut down 32 trees along a College Point street last week as part of the work on the new police academy.

The street trees stood in sidewalk beds along 28th Avenue between College Point Boulevard and Ulmer Street, on the north border of the College Point Police Academy development, a $1 billion facility currently under construction.

The city Parks Department said some of the trees were unhealthy and needed to be cut down, although the agency could not be more specific as to the nature of the illness and how it was caused. Others were being removed specifically to make way for the development, but the NYPD will replace all the greenery with new saplings in the future, Parks said.

In total, the NYPD plans to fell 82 trees in the process of constructing the new 3-million-square-foot training facility, according to Parks, which signs off on tree removals but was not involved in planning the trimming nor hiring contractors to do the dirty work.

In this case, the NYPD hired an arborist who inspected each of the trees before they were lopped off at the base. To comply with city laws, another arborist from Parks also signed off on the removals.

All of the trees were between 3- and 6-inch diameters, and the NYPD will replace the loss of foliage with 132 new trees, according to Parks.