Van Bramer & Maloney in favor of Amazon before they were against it

Well that's sure interesting. Quite a rogue's gallery here!

Added trivia bonus: How many of the signatories are now in prison?

Amazon will be too much

From NBC:

Amazon could be coming to Long Island City, bringing 25,000 jobs to that part of Queens. But could mass transit handle the influx? Local city officials say the infrastructure needs to be repaired before Amazon potentially moves in. Andrew Siff reports.

Condos raided over AirBnB rentals

From the Wall Street Journal:

A team of New York City law-enforcement officers swarmed a Manhattan condominium last month, issuing 27 notices of violations for illegal hotel use in one of the largest crackdowns on short-term rentals such as those listed on Airbnb.

The raid at the Atelier, a 46-story Midtown luxury tower, may be a sign of what’s to come. New York and other cities are seeking to limit short-term rentals that can run afoul of local laws designed to limit hotel-style stays in residential buildings.

The violations went to 20 different apartment owners who allegedly rented to guests from at least 15 countries including Argentina and Spain. Some guests paid $400 a night, and one group of six from Switzerland paid a total bill of $3,823 for a short-term stay, according to city records.

Two members of the Atelier condo board were among those cited for making illegal short-term rentals. They also were accused of putting up illegal partitions in their units to create extra rooms.

100 years ago today

Elmhurst fights for its historic African burial ground

From the Times Ledger:

The fight for survival continues for one of the city’s oldest African burial grounds now that a Request for Evaluation was submitted to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The Elmhurst Histories and Cemeteries Preservations Society submitted the request Oct. 1 as a step toward keeping the piece of local and national history from being buried underneath a 55-foot-tall residential building. On Sept. 13, the developing company Song Liu filed permits to develop the five story structure at 47-11 90th St., according to reports from the city Department of Buildings. If construction were to take place, a vital part of American history could be wiped off the map.

In 1828, St. Mark’s American Methodist Episcopal Church was founded — on the site of the proposed building — one year after enslaved people were emancipated in New York City 35 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. Newly Freed African-Americans quickly established the congregation which eventually evolved and relocated three times. The church still remains active today as the St. Mark’s A.M.E Church in North Corona, which is still responsible for the 310 bodies still believed to be resting in the lot hugged by highways.

Construction can only take place when there has been an agreement struck between Song Liu and St. Mark’s AME Church of Corona, according to Giampino. In order for Song Liu to touch the earth, the remains must be properly removed and reburied. St. Mark’s AME Church did not respond to request for comment about the matter.

“It’s a very sad story,” said James McMenamin, vice president of the Elmhurst Histories and Cemeteries Preservation Society.

In 1928, after St. Marks AME had to move to new location, the New York City refused to grant the church permission to remove the remains to a new location. The burial ground was then mostly forgotten and even written off of city maps, according to Giampino.

“The Pepsi Cola sign gets landmarked and $1.9 million (is allocated) to save and restore the house next door to Louis Armstrong,” said McMenamin. “In the meantime we have been trying to save this structure in Elmhurst and we have gotten zip.”

Yep, that about sums it up.

Cuomo to do an end run around Van Bramer on Amazon

From Crain's:

The Cuomo administration will likely use a controversial planning process to shepherd Amazon's potential headquarters in Queens around the normal city review, Crain's has learned.

Several sources familiar with the negotiations to bring the tech giant to a sprawling office and mixed-use campus around Anable Basin on the Long Island City waterfront say the state is planning to create a general project plan to rezone the roughly 20-acre site, which today can only accommodate low-rise manufacturing uses.

That would give the state the authority to remake the area without having to secure approval from the City Council, which usually holds power over major development projects in need of a rezoning.

The general project plan still requires an environmental review, allows the community to comment in a public forum and is subject to nonbinding input from the City Planning Commission and the local community board.

The advantage for Gov. Andrew Cuomo is that the Amazon project could not be held hostage by Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, per the council's tradition of deferring to the local member on rezonings.

"I'm not just surprised, I'm angry," said Van Bramer. "I think it would be shocking if this was done in a way that bypassed the city land-use review process. This is the most top-down approach to a project I have seen so far, with no community involvement. This is the governor and the mayor and [Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos sitting in a room together."

Now this is what you call a bad hombre!

From the Queens Chronicle:

A Jackson Heights man convicted of rape and twice deported from the United States was sentenced to 57 months in prison by a federal judge last Wednesday for illegally re-entering the country, prosecutors said.

Judge Sandra Feuerstein ruled that Rogelio Mendez, 38, a Mexican national who also has gone by “Rogelio Mendez-Puebla” will serve the time consecutively with the 30-month sentence he got in Suffolk County court last year after pleading guilty to third-degree rape.

He was working at a restaurant in Southampton, LI, when that crime occurred in September 2016. Mendez raped a woman at a house he shared with co-workers.

He’s incarcerated for the rape now.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Mendez was first deported from America in 2004, after he served a two-year prison term for illegally possessing a loaded gun in Queens.

He came back to the United States in 2005 and was deported again in 2009.

Then, Mendez illegally re-entered the United States a year later.

Amazon & Google may expand here

There are a bunch of articles out there about the possibility of Amazon and Google expanding here, so here are some of them for your perusal.

What Amazon May Mean for Queens: Gentrification and (More) Packed Trains

Local politicians grow concerned as Amazon HQ2 eyes Queens' Waterfront Plaxall property

Any zoning changes for Long Island City would hinge on local lawmaker

Bezos Turns Gritty Queens Area Glutted With Development Into 'Field Of Dreams'

Report: Google planning big New York City expansion

The 18th hole needs protection!

From CBS 2:

Cracked windows, shattered windshields and dented cars … again and again.

The culprits? Golf balls.

Dozens were scattered all over Raymond Hublall’s home on Commonwealth Boulevard in Little Neck, because right across the street is Douglaston Golf Course.

“From 2010 to now I’ve spent approximately $5,000,” Hublall said.

His neighbors have seen similar damage. The situation is not just proving to be expensive, it’s also dangerous. Hublall said one errant shot injured his niece.

“She was walking in from roadway walking into my front door and she got hit by the golf ball,” Hublall said.

Just to give you an idea of how many golf balls end up on some of these properties, Hublall produced a box filled with them. He said he collected all of them in just a couple of months.

Back in 2014, neighbors complained to local leaders and got netting installed. The only problem is it doesn’t protect the 18th hole.

"Vertical enlargement" = 5 more stories

From Forest Hills Post:

Plans have been filed for a “vertical and horizontal extension” of a two-family home located at 99-49 66th Ave. The plans call for the house to be converted into a 7-story, 18-unit building. They also include space for professional offices, which are classified as community facilities.

Woodhaven businesses being targeted for fines

From CBS 2:

Dozens of store owners in Queens say the city is cutting into their bottom line.

They’re being forced to take down their outdoor signs that they say are vital to their business.

A DOB spokesperson says they’ve received anonymous complaints about area businesses, and have to inspect once that happens. In a statement, the spokesperson said the department isn’t specifically targeting Woodhaven.

Local leaders aren’t satisfied.

“They weren’t aware they had to have a permit when the sign was put up,” Assemblyman Michael Miller (D-38th) said. “Now they’re being penalized for it.”

Miller is trying to find a compromise with the city. He’s hoping they can set up an amnesty period for business owners.

Store owners say the only thing falling will be their bottom line since as things currently stand, they have no way of advertising their business. Many say they bought their shop with the awning or sign already up, thinking everything was already up to code.

Big ass development project approved for Queens Blvd

From Sunnyside Post:

The city council gave the developer of a proposed two-tower project in Woodside the go-ahead Wednesday after an agreement was reached requiring the buildings to be smaller and for the project to include an elementary school.

Madison Realty Capital, which required a zoning change in order to move forward with the project, initially planned for 17 and 14 story towers at 69-02 Queens Blvd. Instead, it will be building 15 and 12 story towers at the site, respectively.

The developer also agreed to build a 476-seat K to 5 school spanning more than 66,000 square feet, which will be included in the base of one of the towers.

The changes to the project, among others, were signed off by the council on Oct. 31, thus ending the six-month public review process for the development and clearing the project to be built.

The developer’s revamped project does away with a prior plan that received intense push-back from area residents, Community Board 2, and even Council Member Robert Holden as it underwent its public review process to rezone the site.

The new project, however, goes beyond drops in height and the inclusion of a school. Rather than a total of 561 apartments with 169 affordable units as originally designed, the towers will have a combined 431 units, with 129 designated as affordable.

While the number of units has dropped, the development will still set aside 30 percent of the apartments for affordable housing, as laid out in the initial plan.

DSNY, please clean this up!

"Driving home today in Bayside on 43rd Ave. and 223rd Street a home made sign caught my eye. I had to stop get out and snap a picture that I hope you share on Queens Crap. People are feed up with the inordinate amount of littter and their do nothing local government.
Thanks..."

- anonymous

What's on the back of the ballot

Today's the day

Just 20 Seconds on Voting pic.twitter.com/J4r3QT5Fjr

— John C. Liu (@LiuNewYork) October 31, 2018

Johnny's voting. Right after he stuffs this greasy slice into his mouth.

City: "Now that LIC is overdeveloped, let's worry about infrastructure"

From LIC Post:

The city has committed to investing millions in Long Island City under a new plan released today aimed at supporting sustainable growth in the neighborhood.

The Long Island City Investment Strategy, as the longterm plan is called, outlines the ways the city is and will be addressing practically all infrastructure in the neighborhood, ranging from parks, schools, transportation, and sewage systems.

To fund the improvements, the city is funneling $180 million into the neighborhood on top of $2.2 billion it says it has invested into the area over the years.

The city admits the impetus for its strategy comes from rapid residential development that has strained neighborhood resources and the quality of life of people living in the neighborhood since the 2001 rezoning.

The plan, additionally, stems from coordinating with multiple city agencies and engaging with the community since 2015, where the city heard concerns from distressed locals on infrastructure keeping pace with development.

A friendly voting reminder from Queens Crap

Sample Ballot SD11 by queenscrapper on Scribd

Above is a sample ballot for a district in northeast Queens. Please be advised that all ballots throughout the borough will be similar to this one. There are many races this year plus ballot questions, which means each voter will get TWO pages to fill out, front and back.

Sometimes you just can't win (even when you do)

From Politico:

On hyper-local issues, however, upstairs-downstairs divides can become acute—and the symbolic positions that feel good on a national level can turn into real-world decisions that impact people’s lives. Most voters in liberal cities have seen these fights: Upscale parents in Democratic neighborhoods whose liberalism vanishes when it comes to bringing in students from poorer neighborhoods (as on Manhattan’s Upper West Side) or pooling PTA funds between richer and poorer schools (as in Santa Monica, California). This is even more common in the area of housing, and in particular affordable housing, where well-off liberals tend to lose interest in “affordability” the minute it threatens to change their neighborhoods or dent their real-estate values.

This problem played out in Queens as well, in a way that suggests the gulf between insider get-it-done politics and symbolic wins. On 82nd Street, just down the road from Crowley’s district office, developers proposed converting an abandoned movie theater into a 13-story mixed-use project with three stories of affordable units in it. Crowley was in favor of it—it meant permanent jobs at the Target that was going in on the ground floor, union construction jobs in the building of the thing, and more housing, in particular affordable housing.

Ocasio-Cortez opposed it, saying that it would bring gentrification and that the affordable housing wasn’t affordable enough. Politically, it was a winner for her: It gave her a chance to bash Crowley for being in thrall to the real estate industry. The portion of the district where it is slated to go up isn’t so much gentrifying as changing; Latinos are moving away and Asian immigrants are moving in. It has grown less white over the past decade, if anything, but she got a boost from the surrounding, whiter neighborhoods that have helped spearhead the opposition, fearing that the project was out of scale with the neighborhood and would increase vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

Ocasio-Cortez won the election, and three weeks later, the local councilman who supported the project withdrew his support. Neighborhood activists claimed victory—over the real-estate industry, over gentrification, over the old insider system.

Just one thing: The project is still going forward.

Crowley and other local elected officials had been negotiating with the developers to add more affordable housing, but once he lost, any leverage to add it to the project vanished. Legally, the developers can still build 10 stories without any go-ahead from the government—and without bringing any new affordable housing to Queens at all. Which is what the developers have suggested they intend to do.

TRO issued to prevent alienation of Theodore Roosevelt Park

From Curbed:

The American Museum of Natural History’s expansion plans have been put on hold following the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) by New York State Supreme Court justice Lynn Kotler. The TRO against the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation stems from a lawsuit filed by a group known as Community United to Protect Theodore Roosevelt Park, which has been opposed to the expansion for quite some time now.

The museum filed plans for its five-story, Studio Gang-designed expansion in August 2017, and began pre-construction work on the building last month. This further angered the community group opposed to the development, who were waiting on the October 2 hearing date for the lawsuit they had filed against the museum earlier this year.

For now, construction work, and any planned removal of trees from the park will have to be halted until a court hearing that’s been scheduled for December 11, 2018. Community United has been opposed to the project on the grounds that it will destroy the park, lead to the removal of trees, and that construction work will pose a safety and environmental hazard to the surrounding community.

Court Square condo project is is quite huge

From LIC Post:

The developer of a 67-story building that will contain 802 condo units got the go ahead from the state attorney general’s office to start selling units.

The building will be the tallest in Queens to date, with the total value of all units in the 100 percent condo-building to exceed $1 billion, according to the offering plan. The units are expected to begin closing in July 2020.

The development, called the Skyline Tower and located at 23-15 44th Drive, will consist of about 30 percent of the condo stock in Long Island City when it is complete, according to Patrick W. Smith, an agent with Stribling & Associates who focuses on new development and who is heading up the company’s first office in Queens.