Fabianville

The before shot.





This is sandwiched between the Metro Mall in Middle Village and the LIRR freight tracks.

How many? Dunno. Too many to count.

Great Queens mosaic extends to Little Neck

When the Chinese-owned multi-ethnic grocery store, New York Mart, began attracting droves of customers shortly after opening last month, complaints poured in about the lack of available parking. Its owners thought they had the problem beat with the creation of a new parking lot, but that measure, in turn, has sparked a new round of outrage among nearby residents upset over the removal of trees and what they describe as poor maintenance.

Parking woes dog Little Neck market

"This is terrible. The entire block is up in arms," protested Shelly McKeever, a 30-year-resident of Deepdale Gardens on 56th Avenue, located behind New York Mart and other stores along the Horace Harding Expressway strip.

For her part, McKeever rattled off a host of complaints about problems associated with the tree removal as well as the property manager's overall performance: the smell of fish, dumpster leakage, car fumes, light shining from parking lot lamps, and honking as people fight over space.

Community Board 11 District Manager Susan Seinfeld said her office has fielded a number of complaints from Deepdale residents. Addressing their concerns, she spoke with the property owner, Musso Properties after sending them a letter from the board reflecting worries over fumes, rodents and harsh lighting.

...a company official told her 22 new parking spaces would be created as the current retaining wall comes down. A new wall will be erected when the project is completed in an estimated four or five weeks ---roughly coinciding with the completion of a new multi-ethnic restaurant right next to the grocery store, run by the same owners.

Holding court in Brooklyn

With foreclosures and Housing Court cases up in Brooklyn, court officials have launched the state's first courtroom just for small-building disputes.

Small-building squabbles to get own housing court

The new court, which opened two weeks ago on the fifth floor of Brooklyn Housing Court, seeks to settle disputes in one- and two-family buildings - where homeowners are at high risk of foreclosure if there is any gap in rental income, officials said.

Illegal LI rental has tragic consequences

For just one night, Tanisha Armstrong and her little daughter returned to their West Babylon apartment, despite problems with the landlord and the lack of electricity.

It was a fatal decision.

Family: Carbon monoxide victims avoided apartment

Armstrong and Talani Johnson had been living with family for weeks, her relatives said, but went back Monday because the next day Talani Johnson, 4, a bubbly girl who liked her princess-themed bedroom, was going to have her photo taken for the first time in her Head Start class.

Everything they needed -- the outfit, hair clips, curler and more -- was in the apartment in a two-story Sunrise Highway house that town officials condemned in June but was still occupied.

"She didn't want to be in the house," her mother, Bettina Lewis, said Thursday at her Hempstead apartment. "She wouldn't have went in there if she knew it had been condemned."

The mother, 24, and daughter, died Tuesday after carbon monoxide fumes from a kerosene heater and basement generator filled the house. They were found in their second-floor beds. A downstairs tenant, Ricardo Pearce, 27, also was dead at the scene.

On a day when other families were giving thanks, Armstrong's family, cousins and friends had harsh words for landlord Wilson Milord, whose rental house had been condemned by the town because it did not have multifamily permits.

A day before the tragedy, Milord, 47, appeared in court to answer multiple Babylon Town code violations of illegally renting out the home. A judge adjourned the hearing.

That Space Is Fair Game

From the New York Times:

Q. Many of the large apartment buildings in my neighborhood put signs in the street in front of the building that say, “Please do not block entrance of building.” Presumably this is so that residents have easy access when getting out of taxis. But a sign in the street blocks what could be a parking space. Is this legal?

A. It is legal for some large hotels, but not for apartment buildings.

“If you are talking about an apartment building, it is illegal to reserve parking in front of the building,” said Craig Chin, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Transportation. Traffic rules forbid reserving a space or preventing a vehicle from parking by putting something in the roadway, including an unauthorized sign.

Hotels, provided they have at least 100 rooms, can apply for a loading zone. (They can’t merely create one.) A 100-room hotel will be allowed two parking spaces (40 feet). For 500 rooms, a hotel can get three spaces, and for 1,000 rooms, five spaces.

Elmhurst Dream Home

If you've been searching for a new home or place of business, look no further. This one's in close proximity to subway and bus lines, adjacent to the LIRR main line, and within sight lines of the chic new C Condo on Calamus Avenue (more to come on that one soon)!
Yes, 84-09 Grand Avenue is just perfect.
Ample parking available in paved over front yard when plastic surgeon's office not open. Great police protection as NYPD unmarked cars frequently sit here waiting for speeders and other traffic violators, and extra security bars on second and third floor windows are installed for your protection.

Foul-mouthed pol vs. fowl

From the Staten Island Advance:

If Thanksgiving is a stressful time of year for turkeys to begin with, then here's something that will really make the birds pull their feathers out:

The state today announced a plan to curb the growing number of turkeys in the Ocean Breeze section of Staten Island by coating the bird eggs with vegetable oil during breeding season to prevent them from hatching.

Officials target wild turkeys -- and not for holiday dinner

Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island), whose feathers have been ruffled more than once by the unruly flock and who recently suggested birth control for pigeons nesting at the Staten Island Ferry, welcomed the state's latest plan for curbing turkeys.

Earlier this month, Oddo proposed the city use OvoControl-P, a drug that causes pigeon eggs not to hatch and is being tried in Los Angeles, on the pesky ferry birds.

He told a reporter today that he is not mounting an anti-bird political platform.

"I have nothing against fowl, I have nothing against birds. If they leave me alone, I will leave them alone," he said.

But the turkeys -- a roaming flock now estimated by the state to contain about 72 birds -- won't stop pestering the constituents of Oddo and Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn).

Both men joined representatives from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for a pre-Thanksgiving press conference today near the grounds of South Beach Psychiatric Center, where several of the curious turkeys were loitering and gobbling.

-- Contributed by Karen O'Shea

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy an old Peanuts favorite while you wait for your turkey.

Then watch other Thanksgiving videos.

Forest Hills rowhouses to become Queens Crap

Those townhouses in Forest Hills have been sold. Here comes the wrecking ball (er, demo by hand).

And The Townhouses Go To....

Photo from Forest Hills 72

AIA and DCP are trying to pull a fast one

Some proposed changes to the city zoning text are making their way through the Uniform Land Use Review Process, originating from a somewhat unlikely source. Rather than stemming from community outcries surrounding overdevelopment, or a city-backed plan to spur economic activity, these changes come from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

...some of the changes would result in increased building heights and density, especially in areas where buildings that don't match current zoning code already exist.

For instance, one proposal calls for allowing 100 percent lot coverage in R6 through R10 districts to create a continuous street wall. Meanwhile, another proposed amendment would change the regulations that limits lots less than 18 feet wide to one- and two-family dwellings, allowing instead for multi-family homes.

AIA-Backed Zoning Changes Come as Shock

A fourth proposal, however, deals with side yards and open space. Currently, in R3-1, R3-2, R4, and R5 districts, side yard requirements are waived if a building on the adjacent lot abuts the lot line. Under the AIA's proposal, side yard requirements could also be waived if doing so doesn't adversely affect a neighborhood's essential character or impede future development.

...many community boards just recently learned of the proposals. Under normal ULURP practices, both community boards and borough presidents have their own review period, but since the proposals have citywide ramifications, those review periods are lumped into one.

Willets Point land grab movie

The decision is made

Since you guys were probably losing sleep over this, I thought I would post the big news:

Guggenheim will get to keep new color

"This debate has been watched by the entire world," said commission member Margery Permutter, before the panel approved the museum's petition to paint the exterior of the iconic circular structure a cool, grayish white. "People in Paris were asking me 'What color is the Guggenheim going to be?'"

Upzoning the Rockaways

Say goodbye to Olde Rockaway.

The Department of City Planning is in the draft stages of its first comprehensive rezoning of the Rockaway Peninsula in more than 46 years - and portions of the new map are drawing the community's ire.

Rezoning battle rocks Rockaways

The proposed rezoning calls for parts of Beach 116th St. and adjoining streets to become R7A, a designation that allows for residential buildings that are 80 feet high, like the recently built Ocean Grande on the boardwalk at Beach 117th St.

"This proposed rezoning would allow for the increase of 736 units in the neighborhood," said Community Board 14 member Michael Tubridy. "It's so inappropriate. We've really got to put the stats together to stop this from happening."

Constr. deaths plummet - and so does debris

Construction deaths dropped in '07, Buildings Department reports

Construction deaths dropped dramatically this year following last year's record high, even as high-rise accidents skyrocketed, the city Buildings Department reported Tuesday.

Eight construction workers died as of Oct. 31 this year, compared with 14 in the same period last year - a 43% decline, records show. The death toll is the lowest since 2004, when 11 workers died. By the end of last year, 18 workers had been killed on the job, the highest tally in five years.

LOOK OUT BELOW! DANGER 'BUILDS'

The Department of Buildings yesterday revealed that 40 percent of all major accidents at high-rise construction sites involve materials plunging from above.

They include everything from wrenches to ladders to hydraulic lifts.

Accidents at high-rise sites jumped 83 percent, from 23 to 42, during the first 10 months of this year compared to last year, according to data released at the annual Building Trades Employers' Association Safety Conference.

Read the fine print

This came in an e-mail with a curious footer.

Are Gentiles not welcome here? Do any work at symall.com?

How to mess up a neighborhood profile

Ok, AM-NY, you came to my 'hood and then blew it big time.

City living: Maspeth

"Named for the Mespeatches Indians who once inhabited the area, Maspeth sits in the heart of Queens."

Maspeth sits on the Brooklyn-Queens border.

"Maspeth has no railroad or subway stops of its own, but shares the M station with Middle Village."

The Metropolitan Avenue station is 100% in Middle Village.

"Also nearby is the L train's Morgan Street stop, from which the Q57 bus goes straight to Grand Avenue."

Don't know anyone in Maspeth who takes the bus to the L but if they did, the Q57 goes down Flushing Avenue to the Jefferson Street stop, not the Morgan Avenue stop. How about the E, V, R and 7 trains? That's how most people get to Manhattan. Take the Q58 to Queens Blvd, the Q67 to LIC, or the Q18 to Roosevelt.

"One bedroom, one bath walking distance from 7 train, one block from Q67 bus stop: $1,100
Two bedroom, one bath located off Elliot Avenue next to Woodhaven Boulevard: $1,800
Three-bedroom apartment at 100th Avenue and Springfield Boulevard: $1,500"

The first one stretches the term "walking distance", the second is in Middle Village and the last one is on the other side of Queens...

"Local parks and playgrounds
There are many to choose from, and all promise a nice visit: Frontera Playground, at Brown Place, 69th St, and 58th Ave. Juniper Valley Park: Between Dry Harbor Road, Juniper Boulevard and Lutheran Avenue, in nearby Middle Village."

If there are many to choose from, why would we have to go to nearby Middle Village? Maurice Park and Rieff Park are the only other parks in the nabe that are not small dopey triangles next to the LIE.

"How has the neighborhood changes (sic) for the better?
There are a lot more cultural activities going on. The Maspeth Federal Savings bank does concerts and comedy shoes (sic) during the summer. There's always a Memorial Day parade that ends in the cemetery with a 40-gun salute."

The bank has always done this and we have always had the parade. It ends at the memorial square with a 21-gun salute. Great proofreading, by the way.

"And you can't miss Donovan's on 58th street, it's close to Woodside, but it's known for the best hamburger in NYC."

Donovan's is in Woodside on Roosevelt Avenue.

Then there's one of the dumbest statements I have ever read in print:

"I think we have three Cavalries. (sic) That's why the streets are so narrow. It's because they used to bring in the bodies on ox carts."

Wow.

Queens is sunk

Named originally for the New York City borough, the 473-foot long, 7,000-ton attack transport Queens was launched in 1944. Of 230 such ships built for the war, it is one of only five that remain.

The maiden voyage took officers and enlisted men through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific to Pearl Harbor. In 1945, the ship carried supplies and reinforcements to Iwo Jima and took occupation troops into Sasebo, Japan, 30 miles north of where the atomic bomb had just been exploded at Nagasaki.

But the Queens was commissioned near the war's end, and one of its most memorable wartime duties was bringing thousands of troops home. Its cannons never were used.

Texas Clipper heads to final port of call

[It] was scheduled to sink to its final resting place 17 nautical miles offshore and 134 feet under water today as boatloads of fans and media look on.

At least there are banks nearby

I was just thinking to myself that Ridgewood needs more development. And this site at Starr Street and Metropolitan Avenue has a festive green construction fence in anticipation of work throughout the holidays.
Wow, luxury condos! With a 25-year tax abatement no less. Where do we sign up? Wait, let's not act with haste. Let's get a feel for the neighborhood first.
Oh. Well I bet the public transportation is good...

Wrong Aid?

Drugstore shoppers in Sunnyside are seeing double these days - and it's not because they're feeling woozy or sick.

Two Rite Aid pharmacies have set up shop right next to one another at 46-12 and 46-02 Greenpoint Ave., with a third store just three blocks away.

Two Rite Aid pharmacies set up shop next to one another

At first glance, the two adjacent stores appear to be one large Rite Aid, but they are in fact two independent stores separated by a concrete wall.

While there's nothing new about the phenomenon of rival chains setting up shop close to one another, some customers and local business leaders said this kind of redundancy isn't necessarily a good thing for the neighborhood.

From SRO to no-no

For six suddenly homeless Rockaway Beach families, this may not be the happiest of holiday seasons.

The six households, already crammed into a too-small building, were ousted from it last Wednesday when the Department of Buildings ordered them to vacate immediately.

Building Dept. evicts Rockaway families from illegally converted building

According to DOB records, the building at 109-12 Rockaway Beach Blvd. is a former SRO illegally converted into a six-family dwelling with six kitchens.

The building has numerous complaints and violations, with citations for gas lines, boilers and for hot water heaters installed without proper permits.

A DOB inspector on the scene said the house was one of the worst illegal conversions he has ever seen.