Hipster camping for Rockaway

From the Queens Courier:

Luxury will meet camping on Rockaway Beach if a Kickstarter campaign can help fund the project.

Inspired by the tent colonies of the 1900s, the idea to bring “glamping” to the shores of Queens is the brainchild of New York-based designer and founder of Milktrout LLC, Kent Johnson.

Camp Rockaway, a chic tent-hotel, combines “beach camping heritage with modern amenities,” according to the project’s Kickstarter website.

It will feature safari-style canvas tents on a landscaped campground overlooking Jamaica Bay and just a short walk from the beach. Each tent is fully furnished, with real beds, crisp, linen white sheets and summer-weight blankets. Amenities include private fire pits, outdoor showers and hot tubs overlooking the bay.

Johnson hopes Camp Rockaway will aid in the community’s efforts to restore the beach following Superstorm Sandy.'

You really gotta love begging for money to start your business. And producing a video comprised entirely of white folks but talking about how "diverse" the area is that you plan to gentrify. "Luxury will meet camping..." Camping generally means roughing it, so why the hell does one need luxury to go with it? Throw in a Superstorm Sandy reference...because you're doing it to help Rockaway recover!

The funniest part is that the renderings show some kind of paradise, with clean white sands, no junked boats and no housing anywhere. Okay!

How the Grinch tried to steal Thanksgiving

From the Daily News:

Bobby Eustace, a firefighter out of Ladder 27 in the Bronx, has been serving free hot food to the homeless and displaced and to relief workers and volunteers in Breezy Point, Queens, since two days after the hurricane hit.

On Sunday, Eustace and dozens of fellow firefighter volunteers served 800 free hot meals from a steamy Army tent in this hemorrhaging beach community, where there are no longer stores or restaurants, where most people have no gas to cook with, no heat or hot water and no hot food.

That afternoon, a freon-blooded inspector from the city’s Department of Health issued Eustace a notice of violation for not meeting the same food-handling standards as, say, the Four Seasons.

This is beyond outrageous.

This is Emperor Bloomberg’s bureaucracy gone completely mad in a time of death and destruction in the week of Thanksgiving and when the decent people of this city have united to help the unfortunate.

This is what the city of New York did for the relief effort of Sandy victims.

This notice of violation is a violation of human decency.

Mayor Bloomberg should bury his head in shame in the sands of Breezy Point.

You need a permit for a tent

From the Leader-Observer:

Putting up party tents without obtaining the required permits can get you in trouble with the law. Just ask the owner of a home near 117th Street and Linden Boulevard in South Ozone Park.

Last Friday evening, a multi-city agency task force, led by officers from the 106th Precinct, descended on a South Ozone Park residence that put up party tents without the necessary city permits, according to precinct Community Affairs Officer Ken Zorn. He said the police were responding to community complaints.

Zorn said the homeowner had put up a large tent encompassing the whole property, adding that the way the tents were erected, there was no way to exit the property if there was a fire because port-a-potties blocking the exit.

Zorn said that, under the law, if you are holding any type of event and putting up a tent in a fenced location with more than 75 people you need to obtain a temporary assembly permit. He added that the Department of Buildings (DOB) must inspect the tent to make sure that it is structurally sound, and that the Fire Department is also required to inspect the structure to ensure that it is safe.

Zorn said the owner of the house was issued two Environment Control Board violations by DOB; one for operation of a temporary place of assembly without a permit and the second for erecting tents on a property without the required permit.