Southeast Queens residents unite against the City of Mess

Saturday in the Park

Judge orders squatters to GTFO

 

  NY Post

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a pair of alleged squatters who sued the owners of a $930,000 Queens home after cops escorted them off the property last month.

“The case is over,” the couple’s attorney Rizpah Morrow told reporters outside Queens Civil Court Friday, shortly after Judge Vijay Kitson discontinued the case with prejudice, meaning the claim cannot be refiled.

“The landlords, the owners, own the house, they have possession. The people who said they were locked out have walked away from the situation. They are no longer requesting to be restored to possession and we still have their stuff,” she said.

The two men did not show up for their scheduled court appearance.

One of the home’s owners, Juliya Fulman, told reporters that although they prevailed in the case, the systemic issues it highlights remain, making it a hollow victory.

“Right now, there is a very big problem with these criminals and these squatters. Lawmakers need to make laws in order to protect the people, the citizens,” she told The Post outside the courtroom.

“These criminals are trying to drive people out of New York, and that is not going to happen,” she continued.

“I still don’t feel like I have the full justice in this case because there are people who broke into my house. They claimed they had property there. I would like to know how they got property there.”

The couple had spent over half a million dollars renovating the Jamaica residence as an investment property. Fulman told The Post last week that she incurred thousands of dollars in legal fees defending the ownership of her home.

“I want justice. I want these people to come forward. I want them to say how they got into the house, how their belongings got there, and yeah, it would be very good for them to reimburse us for all of our time and legal fees, so coming here today I don’t know if we accomplished much,” she said.

The suit, filed March 14, had claimed the men were unlawfully removed from the residence, which they said they were legally renting from Fulman and her partner Denis Kurlyand since January.

Frank Lloyd Crap 101

  Welcome to our newest neighbors on 101st ave.

 

This attempt at brutalism architecture is in Ozone Park on 92nd St. and it's also on the NYC Housing connect program.

 

              

I really don't know what these amenities are supposed to be. They appear to be patio lounge areas. 

   

 

The developer must have really liked the sliding door theme, the cages in front of them kind of looks like an afterthought. 

The commercial spaces would be hard to see, which makes these perfect for unlicensed and unregistered weed and ebike shops.

50 blocks away in South Jamaica, we have this stylish mixed used behemoth. It even has the checkerboard/Purina cat food design aesthetic.This previously was a building materials shop that got destroyed in a massive fire a few years ago. Still unsolved but I bet it involved a lithium ion battery being charged.

 

 

The building is more garage than residential. 

This mammoth mixed use cube annexed whatever space and natural light the next house once had.

No matter how much they deny it, the city of yes was always with us. 

Miracle on Pinegrove St.

 

The old Van Sicklen house that was demolished for new housing went from one house to four houses in three months.

 

This looks like two family homes with potential basement studio apartments. Which will probably be legal with the "City Of Yes" doctrine that's about to be implemented to fast track new development.

 

 

 

What's all this bullshit being said lately that building new housing in New York City is illegal?

 

Goodnight YIMBY.

Crap phoenix arises from the ashes of the old Van Sicklen house

 

It was only a year ago when a skull was found on the lawn of the Van Sicklen house, but now something new has arisen on the dilapidated blighted property.

It's a lot thinner (and cheaper) than the old house plus it's way behind schedule (or maybe it meant it would be done by Christmas). Hope it holds up against the violent climate or the big bad wolf.

 

Man steals tow truck and kills a woman with it

 

NY Post

Police are hunting “a person of interest” in the horrific Mother’s Day mow-down of a Queens mom, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Monday.

Detectives have a photo of the man they suspect stole a heavy truck and slammed it into 49-year-old Florence Ngwu as he fled, leaving her mortally injured on the pavement outside her home Sunday morning, sources said.

As Ngwu lay dying on the ground, her young daughter screamed, “Mommy! Mommy!” video shows.

Ngwu, a mother of four and a nurse at an area nursing home, clung to life with massive head injuries until she died early Monday at Jamaica Hospital, her shattered family said.

The victim’s older daughter, Princess Ngwu, told The Post on Monday that while the family is glad that cops have identified her mom’s suspected killer, “What’s done is done.

“We can’t bring her back,” Princess said. “It doesn’t really change anything.

“It’s tragic what happened, but it is what it is,” she added. ” We’re OK. She trained us all very well. We were her life — her kids, her husband.”

Princess said she wants her mother to be remembered “as a strong woman.”

“She was a fierce woman, the fiercest woman you’ll ever meet,” she said. “All she ever did was just work, come home, care for us.”

Queens is still burning: water pressure difficulties led to supply store inferno

 

Queens Chronicle

Two fires hit Jamaica last Wednesday just hours apart. The first was at 101 Plumbing & Electrical Supplies and the second at a two-story vacant commercial building that was once used as a Nissan car dealership.

The blazes at both locations were so severe that the city Department of Buildings held an interagency meeting at the site of 101 Plumbing on Tuesday with representatives of other city agencies, the owner, Lakhinder Multani, and his private engineer, and it also issued a full vacate order for the former car dealership directly after the March 30 fire, which remained in effect after a follow-up inspection on Monday.

The DOB on Tuesday approved plans by Multani to demolish the electrical supply store, located at 138-14 101 Ave., and work was expected to begin that day, according to a spokesman from the agency. An update on the status of the demolition will be issued later this week.

The fire at the plumbing store, went to five alarms, according to the FDNY’s acting chief of department, John Hodgens.

“We had heavy smoke coming from a one-story commercial building ... and a collapse of parts of the interior of the building,” Hodgens said at press conference on March 30.

The blaze at the store, which housed a shop and an industrial warehouse, required the deployment of more than 200 firefighters and EMS workers dispatched from 44 units, according to the FDNY.

“We have no injuries reported,” Hodgens said of civilians. “Our chief concern is containing this fire and preventing it from spreading to the building on either sides of it. We are going to be here for a while.”

The city Department of Environmental Protection had to step in to help contain the fire because of water pressure issues, according to Hodgens.

“We didn’t have enough water coming out from the hydrant main system,” said the fire chief. “We needed DEP to step in and help us isolate [the problem] to get better water pressure.”

Cars had to also be moved for firefighters to put out the blaze, added Hodgens.

“Sometimes we have to use tow trucks to move them,” he said. “We need to get the apparatus into the building to be effective.”

Houses also surrounded the electrical supply store, which was also a cause of concern for Hodgens.

“We addressed that immediately,” said Hodgens. “The fire is contained to 101 Electrical Supplies.”

The fire at the supply store was under control at 1:11 a.m., according to the FDNY.

The city Department of Buildings arrived March 30 and conducted structural stability inspections, according to a DOB spokesman. Inspectors documented extensive fire damage to the property, including the collapse of the building’s roof. The adjoining premises, 138-18 101 Ave, suffered damage to its garage and due to the severity of the damage and the interest of public safety, a full vacate order was issued last Friday.

Very very very fine houses...

 

Brick Underground

 Habitat Net Zero, a project that aims to bring affordable, eco-friendly homeownership to Southeast Queens, broke ground last week. The kick off was announced by Mayor Eric Adams, who grew up in the area.

The project is part of the Department of Housing Preservation’s Open Door Program, which funds construction for affordable housing for low-, moderate-, and middle-income families across New York City. HPD partnered with New York City Housing Authority and Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County for the project. 

A total of 16 houses are planned for the South Jamaica area, including 13 new construction and three rehabilitated properties; 13 vacant and dilapidated properties formerly owned by NYCHA will be demolished to make way for the project, or redeveloped.

This project represents the first new construction of affordable homes where the land will be transferred to the Interboro Community Land Trust to ensure long-term affordability.

Initial sale prices and resale prices will be affordable to low- and moderate-income households. HPD will enter a 40-year regulatory agreement with Interboro CLT, and the CLT will enter into 99-year, renewable ground leases with each homeowner.

All of the houses will meet Passive House standards. Each house will have rooftop solar panels and energy-efficient heat-pump technology for heating and cooling. These features will reduce energy costs and keep the houses at or near net zero energy use, according to the press release.

Southside Queens Trailer Hideaway

Crappy word on the street...

 If you drive on 134 street before south conduit by the Nassau express overpass or the Nassau expressway service roads you might notice these RVs tractor trailers. Box trucks and other commercial vehicles using this strip as a rest stop.

 

 

Problem is the trucks and RVs do not ever move they just sit here. Who is enforcing the law in this location?

 It’s absolutely ridiculous how they are getting away with this. But does this fall under the NYPD or port authority jurisdiction? Nobody seems to know. Maybe queens crap can help.

JQ: Maybe Rockaway Hideaway is expanding?

Backed up sewer line inundates South Jamaica homes with crappy water and the city is slow to help

NY Daily News
 

Queens residents driven from their homes by a clogged sewer line demanded answers Sunday from city officials who said they weren’t sure when the problem would be fixed.

A jam in a sewer line serving 300 homes in a swath of South Jamaica just north of Kennedy Airport backed up raw, fetid sewage into about 80 residences on Saturday.

Officials from the Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the city sewer system, said they weren’t sure when flooded-out residents could return.

“We are alive and OK but everything is gone,” said Sani Lakudi, 50, an Uber driver who lives in the neighborhood. “My TV, printer, computer — they are ruined. We stayed up all night pumping water. We had to do what we had to do or the water would have destroyed everything.”

“Nobody from the city has come to me,” Lakudi added. “We are doing all the work ourselves.”

Streets were blocked off, including 133rd Ave. near Inwood St., as crews pumped out of the blocked sewer to keep the smelly, stinking waste from pouring back into homes across the 15-square block area affected by the crisis.

Residents were asked to turn off their heat, hot water and electricity while the problem was addressed.

DEP spokesman Edward Timbers said crews worked overnight to “pump around” a blockage in the neighborhood’s main sewer conduit near 150th St and Rockaway Blvd.

City officials on Saturday said that 300 homes were affected by the sewage backup. On Sunday, Timbers said that figure was the total number of residences served by the affected sewer line, and that only about 80 of them were flooded.

“We don’t know when it will be fixed,” said Timbers. “People should contact their home insurance carrier. The DEP has been helping people fill out claim forms against the city.”

A bypass system to prevent further basement flooding was to be finished by Sunday evening, Timbers said.

City orders South Jamaica hoarder to remove mountains of trash in front of her house after over ten years of neighbors complaints went ignored

PIX News

 The house on 118th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens is well known in the surrounding area.

The front and back yards are filled with trash bags, household items and old stuff.
Neighbors say they have been complaining about it and reporting conditions to the city for more than a decade and a half.

This week, after a recent inspection the Department of Buildings issued a vacate order.

“The home at 154-22 118th Avenue has been a long standing problem,” said NYC Council Member Adrienne Adams. “My team has appealed to various city agencies and have made a recent push to attack this problem collectively. By law we must respect the rights of the homeowner but we are looking into all options to remediate this problem. This home is not just a blight to the community but serves as a potential danger to the residents nearby and must be addressed immediately.”
 
Councilmember Adams office says the resident and the city will clean up the property on Friday.
Records with the Department of Buildings Show violations going back to 2001 and fines of more than $300,000.

Residents come out for South Jamaica hotel protest

At the corner of 115th Avenue and Guy R. Brewer Blvd, a developer is building a hotel which residents fear will become a hot sheets type place or a homeless shelter.

You can see in the video that this property abuts the LIRR trestle. A large MTA bus depot sits across the street.

A group of residents braved the cold weather yesterday to protest this project at this unfortunate location.

There is an advantage to being able to see the writing on the wall.

Shelter residents show up at Steven Banks' house

A shelter resident with a special needs child showed up at Steven Banks' house to tell her heartbreaking story. Another shelter resident spoke as well.


Sunset Park very loudly expressed their unhappiness with de Blasio and their council person, Carlos Menchaca.


South Jamaica residents spoke out about the proliferation of shelters in their community.


To cap off the event, Curtis Sliwa had the crowd in stitches.

Shit hits the floor in South Jamaica

From the Daily News:

A leak spilling sewage across three floors of a Queens housing complex has outraged tenants and their local city councilman.

The sewage leak at the South Jamaica Houses is the latest black eye for the problem-plagued New York City Housing Authority, which took more than 12 hours just to send somebody with a mop, frustrated residents said.

The smelly sewage spill flooded the basement and the first two floors, closing the community center and forcing the cancellation of several activities.

Residents said the flooding began Sunday evening at about 6 p.m., but has been an ongoing issue for about three years.

Fed-up tenants, dissatisfied with the city's response, reached out to Councilman Ruben Wills, who chastised the agency for the mishap.

South Jamaica scam artists prey on Manhattan tourists

From A Walk in the Park:

A team of illegal ticket sellers has been preying on unsuspecting tourists for years, NYC Park Advocates has learned.

The ticket scalpers are working in some of the most heavily visited downtown tourist destinations - Statue of Liberty, Staten Island Ferry, and Pier 15, (South Street Seaport)

The unscrupulous scammers sell Statue of Liberty tickets for between $ 80 - 100 dollars: re-sell used Statue of Liberty tickets: Sell people tickets to the Staten Island Ferry and charge people $ 20 just to enter Battery Park, a public park on the tip of Manhattan.

The group wear dark blue official looking tourist operator vests that say, SJQ Sightseeing Tours.

SJQ stands for South Jamaica Queens.

They have been a fixture in lower Manhattan operating in broad daylight for years.

On Wednesday career criminal Gregory Reddick, 54, of 118 Road in Jamaica Queens, was busted after leading park police on a wild chase in lower Manhattan.

Parks Enforcement Patrol officer Jean-Baptist Joseph, 33, saw Reddick on Pier 15 as he was allegedly in the act of conning tourists out of cash.

The PEP officer approached Reddick and ask him for ID. He refused cursed at him and ran away.

The officer called for back up. PEP officers tracked him down a half mile away in Battery Park.

Another officer approached the con and asked him for ID.

"F*ck off off, I ain't givin you shit," he responded, according to an officer at the scene.

He ran, and the officers caught up to him. He resisted arrest and officers maced him twice in order to get him to comply.

A large group of Reddick's associates formed during the arrest, yelling and screaming.

An NYPD officer in the park said that on Monday - two days before Reddick's arrest - he had received a compliant that Reddick had sold two tickets to the Statue of Liberty to a Virginia couple for $ 409 dollars.

Did a squatter kill the football coach?

From DNA Info:

Police investigating the murder of a Queens father of three earlier this week are checking a vacant house the gunman was seen entering, authorities said.

Jerwaine Gorman, 34, a father of three young children and Rosedale Jets head coach, was shot in the chest while sitting in a Mercedes-Benz in South Jamaica on Wednesday afternoon.

The gunman walked up to the car, which was parked on 167th Street near Linden Boulevard, around 12:30 p.m. and fired one shot at Gorman, police said.

After the shooting, the suspect fled on foot towards 166th Street and was seen entering an abandoned house there, police said.

Four men were found inside the home and taken into custody for questioning, but it was not clear whether any of them was the gunman. No arrests have been made as of Friday morning, police said.

One of the men questioned had on a gray T-shirt which matched the description of the one the gunman wore, sources said.

Sources also said the house was not considered a spot known for drug use and a motive for the shooting remains unclear.

Terrorist worked at preschool

From the Daily News:

One of the two Queens women accused of plotting a homemade bomb strike on American soil worked at a preschool, where officials remained tight-lipped Friday after her arrest on terrorism charges.

Asia Siddiqui, a 31-year-old native of Saudi Arabia, was behind bars Friday, locked up with her best friend and accused sister in jihad Noelle Valentzas, 28.

“We have no comment at this time,” said a worker at 82nd Street Academics in Queens on the day after FBI agents arrested the two Al Qaeda-linked suspects at their homes.

The busts followed a two-year undercover probe, with the terrorist sympathizers accused of amassing bomb-making materials and studying bomb-making manuals while plotting their strike.

The self-identified citizens of the Islamic State — the terrorist organization responsible for beheading Western hostages — have billed themselves as “some bad bitches.”

City cleaning up future South Jamaica hotel site

From the Queens Chronicle:

The city Office of Environmental Remediation is preparing to clean up the site where a four-story hotel will be built.

The office is proposing to take several steps to remediate the site at 132-10 149 Ave. in South Jamaica, including the excavation of soil and the installation of a vapor barrier system.

It also plans to place a 30-inch thick concrete slab underneath the building to “prevent human exposure to residual soil/fill remaining under the site.”

The site requires environmental remediation because the city found “volatile organic compounds, pesticides, PCBs and metals” in the soil where the hotel will be located.

Why are we still building hotels when the ones we already have are being repurposed as homeless shelters? Oh, I think I just answered my own question.

The First Ever Jamaica Cleanup Protest, part 2

Continuing the tour of the 1st Jamaica Clean-Up Protest on Saturday, June 29th, not only reveals a very dark side, South Jamaica, but how totally ineffective our elected leaders have been in dealing with the horrendous quality of life garbage problem.

As we begin to make our way toward South Jamaica and then eventually to the downtown area, we encounter some sights that look as if we are in some third world shit hole, not one of the richest cities in the world and as Mikey Bloomberg likes to state, “New York City, the greatest city in the world.” Hey Mike, come out to Jamaica, specifically South Jamaica and see what is going on.