Bad zoning - is it a racial thing?

From a letter to the editor of the Times Ledger:

The New York City Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) has a final say on land use issues throughout the five boroughs. They wield a lot of power over our communities. Too much power in my opinion. The BSA needs to be accountable to the taxpayers. The City Council should have the power to review BSA decisions and overturn those that harm our neighborhoods. Conditions adopted into BSA decisions have to be monitored by the Department of Buildings. From what I have seen, the DOB is highly ineffective.

In my neighborhood of Bayside Clear Spring, we have far too many auto related businesses that show no respect for their neighbors. Star Nissan parks more cars than permitted on their back lot. Despite repeated complaints, the Department of Buildings has failed to resolve the problem.

Helms Brothers built an extension of their building into the residential area through various loopholes, in coordination with the BSA and other city agencies. Did anyone in city government think of the residents?

The Getty gas station on Northern Boulevard near 204th Street neglected to renew their variance for years some time back. A letter was written to BSA about this by a civic association. The BSA’s executive director at the time wrote a letter to Getty giving them sixty days to renew or they would have to undergo the variance procedure all over again under the current zoning resolution. The sixty days passed without renewal. When Getty sought to renew, the BSA went back on their word and allowed Getty to get their variance renewal.

Why does my community have such an overabundance of auto related businesses? One does not see this degree of infiltration in adjacent areas. Does the city allow this because of the ethnicity of the people who live in my community? What else can one think but that African American neighborhoods are targeted for the least desirable businesses?

My people will not accept this treatment. We demand fairness and justice.

Mandingo Osceola Tshaka
Bayside

Star Nissan fined for hacking young street trees

Dear Crapper,

On Tuesday May 21, 2013 employees of the Star Nissan/Toyota Service Center located at 40-20 172 Street in Auburndale took a small hand saw to twenty two of twenty three city trees that are planted on the sidewalks surrounding the facility on 172nd Street, 42nd Avenue and Auburndale Lane. Branches, as many as ten per tree, were removed. Those branches that were too large for the saw to cut through were ripped from the tree after partial cuts taking the branch and up to three feet of tree bark and interior matter.

The trees were planted between 2003 and 2006 at the direction of the Mayor's Office to provide a barrier between the noxious business and the neighboring residential homes. The trees provided a visual barrier as they grew, a sound barrier from the power tool noise, a pollution absorption mechanism and added greatly to the aesthetics of the area.

From the beginning Star Nissan/Toyota ownership, management and/or employees opposed the planting of the trees, running over the first few the night they were planted. The Parks Department returned a few days later with a police escort to re-plant the trees. A few years later when the planting moved to Auburndale Lane, the first Parks Department crew was harassed so badly by the Star workers that they vacated the site and returned again with a police escort. The trees have prospered in the intervening years providing a full canopy on Auburndale Lane and a beautiful counterpoint to the bland industrial building on 172nd Street. That is until yesterday when, according to a Star Manager, the trees presented such a safety hazard with low hanging branches that they were cut so that any branch that extended from the tree up to six to eight feet above the ground was excised. He admittedly did not contact 311, the Parks Department or Mayor's Office for advice or permission.

A contingent of Parks Department employees were on site first thing this morning to inspect the damage and to ultimately serve the Star manager with $84,000 worth of fines ($4,000 for severe damage to each of 20 tress and $2,000 each for damage to the remaining two trees). The Parks Department will continue to monitor the trees as an initial analysis indicates that some will not survive the attack.

Rhea O'Gorman
Station Road Civic Association