Development plan for Sunnyside to be crafted this summer

From Crains:

The de Blasio administration and Amtrak will begin crafting a development plan for Sunnyside Yard in Queens this summer, city and Amtrak officials will announce today.

The master planning team will be led by Vishaan Chakrabarti's architecture firm, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, which was first reported by Crain's in March.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for civic groups, public officials and residents to create a vision for their borough," Alicia Glen, Housing and Urban Development deputy mayor, said in a statement.

The city has carved out a position within the Economic Development Corp. to oversee the process and announced a steering committee composed of roughly two dozen local and citywide stakeholders to provide input. Last year a city study found that about 80% of the 180-acre yard could be decked over and covered with 24,000 apartments, along with schools, parks and other infrastructure, at a cost of $19 billion. The master planning process is expected to take around two years and will come up with a more specific blueprint of what could be constructed.

AirBnB has caused rental prices to skyrocket

From Bloomberg:

The cost of Airbnb to New York renters: $616 million.

That’s the conclusion of a new report by city Comptroller Scott Stringer that details the home-sharing website’s impact on housing affordability from 2009 to 2016. It’s no secret to New Yorkers that leasing costs skyrocketed during the time. But to isolate the Airbnb effect, Stringer’s office compared the growth in what rents would have been without listings on the site to what they actually were. Airbnb Inc. disputed the study’s findings, calling them “wrong on the facts” and containing “substantive issues with the methodology.”

Owners who list their apartments for short-term stays essentially are removing those units from the rental market, reducing the supply of housing and pushing up the cost of what remains, according to the report. For each 1 percent of all residential units in a neighborhood listed on Airbnb, rents in that neighborhood went up 1.58 percent, Stringer said. The estimated $616 million impact is for 2016 alone.

Katz finally working on Jamaica cleanup

Photo from Cleanup Jamaica Queens

From AM-NY:

A new pilot program aimed at cleaning up Jamaica’s streets will also benefit formerly homeless people looking to build job skills.

Borough President Melinda Katz unveiled the “Jamaica Together: A Neighborhood Cleaning Effort” program on Tuesday, announcing a six-month partnership with the Association of Community Employment Programs for the Homeless (ACE) as well as other community stakeholders.

The initiative will lean on ACE-paid workers to clean up and beautify a section of Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, between Tuskegee Airmen Way and 109th Avenue, according to Kat’s office. ACE, a non-profit organization, works with recovering homeless people in the city by providing support services and helping them build key skills that will enable them to obtain and maintain a job.

“Jamaica is one of our borough’s core neighborhoods and it is critically important that we do all we can to make it a fantastic place to live, work and visit,” Katz said. “This program is just one part of our overall effort to revitalize Jamaica and maximize its potential as a residential and commercial hub.”

Each weekday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., a two-person crew will go out along Guy R. Brewer Boulevard to clean the sidewalks and tree pits and remove unauthorized graffiti. The workers will be overseen by a supervisor from ACE, per Katz’s office.

Watch out for cyclists! (They'll run right into you)

From CBS:

Recent complaints suggest that New York City’s bike riders have gone rogue.

With violations on the rise, some bikers have been caught running read lights and in some cases running over people.

Dash cam video from a recent incident shows a mother pushing a baby carriage in a Brooklyn crosswalk when a man on a bike comes out of nowhere and races through a red light, crashing into the woman and her child.

Fortunately they were able to walk away.

“This happens on a daily basis,” Williamsburg resident Gary Schlesinger said. “Obviously bikers don’t feel the law applies to them.”

Groups crawl out of the woodwork to support AirBnB

From the Daily News:

Business groups and faith leaders oppose an Assembly bill to require Airbnb operators to give city enforcement agencies details about the units they rent.

The bill represents "an incomplete, piecemeal approach to the regulation of homesharing" that would "impede the growth of the sharing economy in New York," says the state Business Council, which represents 2,400 businesses.

A prominent religious group also opposes the plan, which is being pushed by Airbnb critics.

"We strongly support a robust and affordable housing market — it's essential to ensuring many New Yorkers can afford to stay in the city they love," Mobilizing Preachers & Communities wrote in a memo opposing the bill.

"But this bill will have the opposite effect, cutting off the very means by which many have been able to keep their homes," the group said.

The anti-Airbnb bill would send "a signal that New York is hostile toward business, and specifically the tech sector," said Tech:NYC, a group of technology companies.

The bill would require anyone advertising apartments on home-sharing sites to disclose to city agencies detailed address information like street name and number, apartment number, borough, town and county of the unit being offered.

Okay, so if the only way you can pay your mortgage is to rent it out to strangers, you probably should sell it and just rent. You're putting apartments that could be used by working people who live in NYC on AirBnB to rent out to tourists to make more money. Price your apartment to cover your costs and you won't need to run an illegal hotel.

Brooklyn CB is fighting back against illegal curb cuts

From Brooklyn Daily:

The mayor must step in to force city agencies to crack down on selfish Bensonhurst homeowners who take away already-scarce street parking spots by illegally cutting their curbs and paving their front lawns into driveways, according to the neighborhood’s district manager.

“The [Buildings] violations are all bark, no bite,” said Marnee Elias-Pavia.

Pavia sent Hizzoner Community Board 11’s recommendations for how agencies should punish offending homeowners in an April 18 letter after board members unanimously adopted the resolution to do so at its April 12 general meeting. In the letter, Pavia outlined the decades-old problem and its environmental impact — made worse by the fact that the Federal Emergency Management Agency classified some affected areas as particularly susceptible to flooding, which the proliferation of concrete and lack of grass promotes, she wrote.

“Our topography creates a bowl effect and prevents tidal and storm water absorption,” she wrote. “We must address the lack of absorption created by the removal of front yards in the northern portion of the district to increase absorption and resiliency.”

CB11 demands that the buildings agency make inspecting and even re-inspecting properties with alleged illegal curb cuts and driveways a higher priority — especially for flood zones — and to notify the community board when properties receive violations for illegal curb cuts or driveways. The letter also wants the city to improve inter-agency communication by having the Department of Buildings coordinate with agencies in charge of roads, parks and environmental concerns.

“There needs to be a sharing of information [among the agencies] — there’s an environmental impact, so the Department of Buildings should be sharing with the Parks Department,

Pavia also wrote that the city should increase and enforce fines for violations, push homeowners to use permeable pavements on legitimate driveways to help drain stormwater, and require homeowners to fix curb-cut violations before selling their properties — among other suggestions.

Illegal truck lot was very bad neighbor

From the Times Ledger:

From December 2017 to March 2018 there were several complaints made to the city Department of Buildings regarding illegal commercial vehicle storage.

Hollingworth said he and neighbors, who are mostly elderly, did not know who to turn to. He said they felt hopeless when 311 was not taking action. Hollingworth contacted Times Ledger on March 14 where he was directed to DOB and City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) for further assistance. Two days later on March 16 DOB inspected the lot and issued violations for illegal commercial use of the property in a residential area. The violations had a cure date of April 25 or a date by which the property owner was compelled to correct the violating conditions. DOB’s padlock unit also sent a warning letter to the property owner April 17 directing him to cease illegal use of the lot.

Neighbors speculate that Frank Camisi loaned the lot to Arnoldo and told him if he cleaned the lot out for him, he would be able to park his trucks there for free or at a low rate.

On April 22 neighbors said the the truckers were gone from the lot, but debris remained that reminded them of their misery.

$20B transit signal upgrade is needed

From Metro:

In the coming days it has been reported that New York City Transit Chief Andy Byford will unveil a new project to revamp the subway’s outdated signal system.

The subway signal system project could cost up to $20 billion to revamp as it is has not seen updates since the 1930s. Byford plans to install the signal system at all 472 stations.

The decision to update the system comes after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency last year after a slew of delays and train derailments that caused injuries to dozens of commuters.

Brooklyn developer listens to community, is ok with landmarking

From Brooklyn Daily:

The confidentiality agreement that blocked the mystery buyer of the Angel Guardian Home in Dyker Heights from coming forward to reveal his intentions for the block-sized complex has loosened enough for him to speak exclusively to this paper about his plans for the site, and how the community’s voice helped shape them.

Developer Scott Barone credited this paper’s extensive coverage of local needs and concerns since the property’s purchase last year with informing his decision to include a senior center, affordable housing, senior housing and perhaps a school along with the market-rate condos he had originally planned for the entire site — as well as preserving the main building, which locals have been pushing to landmark to protect it from the wrecking ball.

“We really heard three things from the community at large: that they need schools and senior housing, that the Narrows Senior Center is something that’s important to this community as a whole, and that this building is important to this neighborhood, and we’re going to do everything in our power to keep it there,” said Barone, the founder and president of his eponymous management company, which has previously developed hotels, luxury apartments, and office and commercial buildings across the city.

The developer said that he has already had meetings with the Landmarks Preservation Commission about the century-old main building, but his current plans are to preserve it as part of the final design, though he’s not yet sure what would go there.

“It is our intention at this time to keep that main building in place,” he said, “and if it were to be landmarked, we’re okay with that.”

Barone said he expects to close the Angel Guardian deal within the next two to three months — pending approval from the Vatican — and that 60 percent of the block-sized property bound by 63rd and 64th streets and 12th and 13th avenues will be devoted to market-rate condos, with an additional 15 percent earmarked for affordable housing and the last 25 percent split between senior housing and perhaps a school.

Crazy big development coming to Astoria

From The Real Deal:

Cape Advisors and Wainbridge Capital secured a $65 million loan to fund their purchase of a waterfront development site in Astoria.

The site at 30-77 Vernon Boulevard spans about 522,000 square feet. Cape Advisors and Wainbridge are planning a luxury five-building residential project with 770 affordable and market-rate apartments. Amenities include lounges, a rooftop deck and a fitness center.

The M train is back, baby!

City Planning's hotel bill will dump most of city's homeless in Queens

From the Commercial Observer:

The City Planning Commission earlier this week kicked off public review for a zoning change that would create a special permit to limit hotel development in industrial zones. While many in the real estate industry loathe the special permits, some hotel owners are surprisingly in favor of them.

The amendment would require hotel builders in M1-zoned areas to undergo a full public review process in order to get the special permit, which means sign-offs from community boards, borough presidents, the City Planning Commission and the City Council. Unless a developer secures the special permit, the New York City Department of Buildings won’t give the go-ahead to a new hotel project.

Well, this sounds good!

Developers will be allowed to build hotels in only three industrial neighborhoods as-of-right in New York City—East Elmhurst by LaGuardia Airport and Ozone Park and Springfield Gardens by John F. Kennedy International Airport (all in Queens). Special mixed-use districts like Long Island City will also be exempt from the special permits.

Ah, no, this is not what we want. As of right in 4 Queens neighborhoods only?

However, the zoning text amendment does include a potentially controversial carve-out for new hotels that will be used as homeless shelters. Hotels “operated for a public purpose” will not need to go through the special permit process, and hotel-to-shelter conversions will also be exempt from the permit requirement, according to zoning documents from the Department of City Planning.

And there we have it.

NY&A deemed dangerous by worker safety group

From Newsday:

A national worker safety watchdog group has named the Long Island Rail Road’s freight provider as one of the most dangerous employers in the United States. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, an advocacy group, included the New York and Atlantic Railroad, or NYAR, in its “Dirty Dozen” list of companies that put workers and communities at risk.

"Safety is our top priority and the LIRR is reviewing its relationship with New York and Atlantic," LIRR spokesman Aaron Donovan said Friday.

The Glendale, Queens-based railroad, which has worked as the LIRR’s official freight service provider since 1997, was among other U.S. employers on the list, including Amazon and Tesla Motors.

The safety council said its criteria for inclusion on the list was 'severity of injuries to workers; exposure to unnecessary and preventable risk; repeat citations by relevant state and federal authorities; and activity by workers to improve their health and safety conditions.'

Fire doors now a top priority

From NBC:

Chris Glorioso has an update on what New York City is doing to crack down on landlords who have faulty fire doors.

So we did all that for nothing?

From the Queens Chronicle:

The launch of Select Bus Service along several corridors in New York City has done little to improve riders’ commutes, a new analysis by the city comptroller claims.

The findings, released last Friday, state the average speed of SBS buses is 8.9 miles per hour, 20 percent better than the average rate for local buses, 7.4 mph.

The fastest Queens SBS route is the Q70, which connects riders from Jackson Heights to LaGuardia Airport, at 11.3 mph.

And the service is not doing much to get people where they need to go in a timely manner either. The average on-time performance for all SBS lines is 62 percent, equal to that of local routes. The Q44 SBS, which runs through Flushing and Jamaica, is on time 54 percent of the time, the Q70 scored a 62 percent and the M60 — which goes from LaGuardia Airport to Morningside Heights in Manhattan — got a 37 percent on-time rate.

The report did not state the speed or on-time performance of the Q52/53 SBS routes on Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards, which launched last November.

TWA is taking off

From PIX11:

An icon of the Jet Age is poised to soar anew: The landmark TWA Flight Center at Kennedy Airport will reopen next year as the gateway to a swank new hotel that will give new wings to the TWA name.

The TWA Hotel, which is now under construction, is rising next to the original Flight Center, which is being restored to its "Mad Men" splendor.

Commissioned by aviation tycoon Howard Hughes and designed by famed architect Eero Saarinen, the Flight Center opened in 1962.

Hopefully, Pepper the missing cat takes up residence there.

Many automatically closing doors fail inspection

From NBC:

Nearly four months after the Bronx inferno, the I-Team has discovered more than 22,000 other apartment doors that failed city inspections because they did not automatically close. The violations were issued by inspectors with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development within the last three years.

About 13,000 of the door violations have been corrected or dismissed, according to city records. But almost 9,000 of the door violations are listed as current hazards that have yet to be fixed.

There are about 300 HPD inspectors citywide, so it is unclear how many malfunctioning fire doors may have evaded detection.

Fudged homeless stats are focus of investigation

From the Daily News:

State officials have launched an investigation into whether Mayor de Blasio’s administration has been properly disclosing criminal activity in homeless shelters as required by law, the Daily News has learned.

The state Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance (OTDA) “has begun a formal investigation into New York City's conduct and demands that they immediately provide all information required under the regulations,” agency spokesman Tim Ruffinen said Wednesday.

The probe comes in response to The News’ revelation Wednesday that the city has been hiding from the public hundreds of arrests at shelters citywide.

The city Department of Homeless Services (DHS) must by law report a long list of incidents at shelters, including most arrests, to OTDA.

DHS claimed that in December 2016, the state had agreed to their decision to reclassify and reduce the number of categories of “critical incidents” they’re required to report.

But the state said Wednesday that is simply not true.

City Council acknowledges that city residents own cars and need parking

From the Observer:

Another bill—sponsored by Upper Manhattan Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, chairman of the Council’s Committee on Transportation, as well as Levine and Queens Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer—calls on DOT to establish and implement RPP citywide.

Rodriguez referred to a study conducted by the City University of New York (CUNY) and New York University (NYU) that found more than 50 percent of New Yorkers surveyed were willing to pay an annual fee for RPP.

“We would like to see a system in place where 80 percent of the area will be reserved to the residents of the local community that we would like to bring the parking system,” Rodriguez said at a rally on Wednesday afternoon. “We also feel that by paying a small fee every year, those local residents, they will not have to compete with anybody else.”

At the Council’s monthly pre-stated meeting on Wednesday afternoon, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said he plans to review the bills with all of the Council members.

“I understand that there are many folks that live in communities across the city who find it very frustrating that they can’t find parking in their neighborhoods,” Johnson said. “We also are trying to disincentivize cars in New York City. We’re trying to get people to use cars less in New York City.”

He said state law empowers the city to enact RPP.

“State law says that municipalities with a population of over one million people are allowed to enact residential parking, and so I believe we do have the authority to do this,” Johnson continued.

New York City is one of the only major cities in the United States that does not have some version of an RPP. Such a system currently exists in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Albany and Buffalo.

Oversized crap coming to Richmond Hill

From Queensbeans:

A new residential building is coming to Richmond Hill, a Queens neighborhood. The tower will be addressed at 93-13 112th Street and will feature six stories. The site is located around the corner from Atlantic Avenue, which serves as a connection between Queens and Brooklyn. Six blocks from the site there is the 111th Street subway station, which is serviced by the J trains.

The developer is Gorden Tan, whereas Peninsula MEP LLC will be handling the design. The area is famous for its Queen Anne and Victorian structures, so the design of this particular building will be something that will get people talking, whatever direction the architects decide to go.