Posting your résumé

Times must be lean if this fellow with an MS in psych is painting people's houses - and posting his résumé on telephone poles.

More of the real Elmhurst

Surely, the owner of this rowhouse property on Grand Avenue didn't want to be the only one to not squeeze every last dime out of it, as his neighbors did. So he's in the process of crappifying it. Also, he got caught with an illegal SRO conversion.

Let's just pretend these problems don't exist, however.

Spitzer eyes cap on property taxes

Governor Spitzer, in his State of the State address on Wednesday, will signal support for imposing a cap on local property taxes in New York, which tower over the national average despite billions of dollars spent by Albany to ease the burden.

Spitzer Is Set To Cap Taxes on Property

As a candidate, Mr. Spitzer vowed to tackle New York's property taxes, which are 56% higher than the national average on a per-capita basis, according to 2005 data. Unlike his Republican challenger, John Faso, Mr. Spitzer rejected the idea of cap on property taxes, but he has softened his position since taking office.

In August, he acknowledged that state efforts to lower property taxes by subsidizing school budgets and mailing rebate checks to homeowners were undermined by the expanding budgets of school districts and local governments.

It is not clear if Mr. Spitzer would favor placing a percentage cap on local or school tax levies, or restricting annual growth in home assessments.

Teachers: We need parking placards

Mr. Bloomberg's plan calls for a 20% reduction in the permits, which grant employees ranging from police officers to court clerks to teachers access to select parking spots. He billed it as a way simultaneously to cut down on abuse of the permits — a coveted perk for many government workers — and to unclog the city's streets and air, by encouraging workers to switch into subways and buses and out of carbon-emitting cars.

Parking Plan Is Rebuffed by Teachers

On Friday, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, objected to Mr. Bloomberg's inclusion of teachers in the cutbacks, sending him a scathing letter calling the idea "deeply disturbing."

She said teachers should not be lumped in among those abusing the permits. In fact, union officials said, teachers — some of whom work in places where no subway lines go — have far too few permits, forcing many to go to extraordinary measures to find a place to put their cars.

Teachers often make informal deals with local residents to rent out driveway space, a UFT vice president, Michael Mulgrew, said. One school where he used to teach, in Brighton Beach, had just three parking spots for a staff of 130, he said.

Schools in the past have also paved over playgrounds to make space for parking lots.

No benefits yet from new Yankee Stadium

Several years ago, as the Yankees negotiated to build a new stadium in the South Bronx, the neighborhood faced the realities of a massive construction project in its midst: parks would be closed and moved, traffic would be horrendous, life would be, for a while, a hassle.

Yankee Stadium Is Going Up, but Bronx Still Seeks Benefits

So, as one way to make up for these inconveniences, the Yankees and elected officials signed a community benefits agreement. It required that the team would give roughly $1.2 million a year, starting when the work began, to various community groups through a special panel. The deal was similar to agreements in other major projects, like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and Columbia University’s expansion into Harlem.

But nearly 17 months after construction began, as workers race to complete the new Yankee Stadium by opening day 2009, none of that money has been distributed, and the group responsible for administering it has never met.

The seven-member panel also has not chosen a permanent chairman, registered as a charity with either the Internal Revenue Service or the state attorney general’s office, or selected recipients for $800,000 in grants or $450,000 in free tickets, merchandise and athletic equipment.

Elected officials have complained that they are in the dark.

People vs. St. John's & Councilman Jim

Dear Governor Spitzer;

We write to you, hoping that your office can assist us, the residents of Jamaica Estates, during this difficult period. Our lovely neighborhood is being threatened by Saint Johns University's construction of a 485 dormitory facility in the midst of our community without going through any of the legal procedures customarily required for a project of this nature.

St. Johns University, with the aid of Kamali Developers and others, surreptitiously planned the construction of a six story dormitory, circumventing the Community Board, the Planning Board, Elected Officials, The Jamaica Estates Association and the community at large. These entities used a loophole commonly referred to as the Community Facility loophole that will permit a private university to build a private dormitory facility, five times the size of its former structures and doing so with impunity. There has been a total disregard for the impact this large number of students would have on the neighborhood, or the city's infrastructure, transportation, parking etc. Ultimately, this says very little about the protections the law provides to the average taxpayer.

As if this panorama were not bleak enough, we recently found out that our Councilman Jim Gennaro, a former Jamaica Estates Association president, who is supposedly fighting on our community's behalf, is accepting generous campaign donations from Kamali Developers, the company commissioned to build this facility the St. John's dorm will occupy.

Mr. Gennaro, who claims to be working to close the Community Facility loophole, we fear will instead benefit from the special interest group's big bucks and do little to address the issue at hand. It is disingenuous at best, for him to claim that he feels our pain while fattening his coffers with money from the individuals he alleges to be fighting against.

The Jamaica Estates community urges you to investigate this matter, or refer the same to the appropriate agency or government sub division that can do so. We must know who stands with us or against us particularly next time we elect those who will represent us.

Sincerely,

Maria & Louis
Jamaica Estates residents

College Point corner crap

At 23rd Ave and College Point Blvd. is this driveway which only the really brave or really stupid would park on. Apparently this meets DOB standards.
Let's pull back a bit and see what the house attached to it looks like. Blech!
Now let's see the rest of the street. Egads!
And the rest of the block. Holy moley, it's a crap invasion!

Church demos rampant

New York's historic houses of worship are under attack, with a dozen slated to be demolished this year.

While neighborhoods battle the trend, which has its roots in soaring maintenance costs and declining church attendance, preservationists say they have no way of knowing that a house of worship is endangered until the scaffolding rises or a public dispute erupts. Most do not have landmark status.

DUE TO EX-SPIRE

More on the door

From the Daily News:

Colonial-era door returns to Queens

Goodbye, Gowanus?

Goodbye, expressway; hello, greenway.

The notoriously congested Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn would be demolished and replaced by 4 miles of greenery under a plan being floated by a leading architectural group, the Daily News has learned.

Designs drafted by the American Institute of Architects call for replacing the deteriorating Third Ave. expressway with a glitzy cable suspension roadway on First Ave. and filling the gap with miles of trees and bike paths.


Make Gowanus go away Architects say ax the highway, build a greenway

Map crap

Attached is a 1901 planning map of southern Queens, which shows an endless grid covering the entire borough.

In my opinion, this is where the crappification of our borough may have begun, when our city began to look at Queens as an endless suburb, rather than a collection of towns with their own unique grids and routes. On this map, wetlands and creeks are erased, there are no large parks, or diagonal roads.

The area is Idlewild, which remained largely undeveloped until 1948, then an airport covered almost everything south of the Belt Parkway between Howard Beach and the County Line. Had the airport not been built, this area would probably have resembled the rest of South Ozone Park, with long rectangular blocks and tract housing.

A second attached map shows a master plan for the future of Flushing in the early 1930s. Kissena Creek is wiped from the map, and the only exceptions to the endless grid are the Parental Home (future Queens College), cemeteries, and a number of golf clubs. I wonder why the mapmakers expected the farmers to sell their lands to the grid, but the golf clubs to remain. Flushing Meadows is labeled as the "World's Fair Site."

The third attachment shows northern Forest Hills, where Cord Meyer created an alphabetic grid from Atom to Zuni. Notice how the proposed grid marches over the meandering Flushing River. Thankfully, Robert Moses was able to save the river as part of the 1939 World's Fair plan.

The lesson here is clear, grids are ugly. Neigborhoods without grids, such as Waldheim, Jamaica Estates, Bayside Gables, Forest Hills Gardens, and Malba have a certain charm and sense of history, while places like Utopia and HIllcrest have the monotony of the numbered grid. I apologize in advance for offending your Hillcrest readers. Grid-defying such as Apex Place, Hawtree Creek Road, and Jackson Mill Road deserve to be preserved. Often, these streets are their neighborhoods' last link to a time before the ugly grid was imposed on our borough.

Also note that while a strict rectangular grid can be ugly, its polar opposite- a Levittown street maze can also be a problem.

-Mazeartist

Pole-ish joke

This new building located on Cherry Ave. between Kissena Blvd and Union St sports a new telephone pole located in the middle of the sidewalk.

- Bryan

If they were nooses, they'd be gone

"Mr. or Ms Queens Crap,

This urban blight is something that should absolutely disgust all folks.

It is becoming popular in many areas. The attached is from 213th and 73rd avenue in Bayside.

I called 311 but they said they can only act if a dangerous situation is present. I e-mailed the Office of City Councilman Weprin and they told me to call someone who told me to call someone who was never available.

Thanks."

- anonymous

Assorted Astoria/LIC crap

Took a number of pics in various stages, from lots to ready ones being marketed. Almost no repeats in 100+ pics. Looks like most are 3-4 story condo bldgs replacing single-family homes, with some larger projects by the river and by Queensboro Plaza. Imho, more housing per se is not bad but some of the buildings do not necessarily fit well with the surroundings.

The most striking example in the set might well be this one. - anonymous

Why I live in America...

This title may sound strange, but it’s actually not just a way to attract readers to the topic because I really do mean what it indicates.

There must be violence against women

I hope my message is clear, since it’s really quite relevant to the future of our societies, which must be protected from any kind of cultural invasion.

Artists $queezed out

It's a common refrain among those who work in the creative industries and follow the cultural scene closely: New York City, which has incubated a century of the world's leading artists, musicians, and performers, will cease to be a place where art is made.

Pricey city drives out artists

Another concern is that the transformation of neighborhoods where artists congregate, like the East Village or Williamsburg, has dispersed a community that relies on proximity and relationships.

And many artists say that economic pressures in the city are so intense that they have to spend all their time trying to make ends meet rather than devote themselves to their passion.

Mobster claims ADA said, "Hire my boyfriend"

A veteran Queens prosecutor is the target of a corruption probe after a mob-tied coke dealer said he was offered a sweetheart plea deal in exchange for hiring the official's purported boyfriend as a lawyer, sources told The Post.

ASSISTANT QNS. DA PROBED IN MOB PLEA

Assistant District Attorney Barbara Wilkanowski allegedly offered reputed Genovese associate Joseph Bonelli a no-jail deal on two cases - including a drug-sale rap for which he faced up to 25 years in prison - if he hired her boyfriend, Manhattan lawyer Robert Kelly, to defend him.

Parking placards to be yanked

In a sweeping crackdown against an infuriating government abuse, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that he's cutting the number of official parking placards by 20 percent and creating a special NYPD unit to ensure compliance.

MIKE IMPOUNDING PARKING PASSES

Officials estimated that the city issues about 70,000 placards - meaning that 14,000 could be yanked.

Bloomberg ordered every city agency to conduct an inventory of its permits and directed that no new ones be issued as of March 1, except by the Police Department and Department of Transportation.

So many different agencies produce and distribute their own placards now that officials said it's hard to know precisely how many are in circulation.

Even parking privileges for cops at local precincts are subject to the reduction.

Synagogue may be next Queens landmark

On Tuesday, January 15, 2008, the LPC is holding public hearings on the proposed desig- nations of the American Bank Note Company Printing Plant in the Bronx, and Congregation Tifereth Israel in Queens. The hearings will take place at the Commission’s offices, located at 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor North (time tbd). Any information you can provide about the buildings’ significance and condition is relevant to our consideration. Attached please find a statement of significance and photograph of each building.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Diane Jackier
Director of External Affairs
Landmarks Preservation Commission


CONGREGATION TIFERETH ISRAEL, 109-18 54th Avenue, Borough of Queens. Built 1911, Crescent L. Varrone, architect.

The oldest active synagogue in Corona, the Congregation Tifereth Israel is a rare survivor of the earliest Jewish synagogues built in Queens. This synagogue, whose full name is translated as the Congregation Independent Community, Glory of Israel, People of Corona, was constructed in 1911 to house a congregation of Jews that had relocated to Queens from other parts of New York City. Corona had a relatively small enclave of Jews at the beginning of the twentieth century; of approximately 1.3 million Jews in New York City in 1913, about 23,000 lived in the Borough of Queens.

The original members of the Congregation Tifereth Israel predominantly came from the tenement district of the Lower East Side, which was home to an enormous Yiddish- speaking immigrant community hailing mostly from Eastern Europe. In 1918, East Queens had 18 synagogues, two of which were located in Corona.

Of these two synagogues, only the Congregation Tifereth Israel survives.

The Congregation Tifereth Israel, although located in Queens, is strikingly reminiscent of synagogues found in the Jewish enclaves of the Lower East Side. These synagogues, which had to be shoehorned into narrow tenement lots, were often similar in size, material and proportion to their neighboring tenements and commercial buildings. Often executed in a neo-Classical or Beaux-Arts style with Moorish details, these synagogues typically featured symmetrical tripartite facades with a central entrance and corner towers. It is notable that the Congregation Tifereth Israel synagogue follows this pattern, considering its location in a small-town environment ungoverned by the restraints of the densely urban Lower East Side.

Designed by local architect C. L. Varrone, the synagogue is two stories high and was originally clad with horizontal clapboard siding. It has pointed arched windows, a tripartite upper-story window with a roundel featuring a Star of David in colored glass, and decorative wood ornament at its gabled parapet. The original wood stoop and railing has been replaced with a brick porch with an iron railing, and the wood clapboard siding has been covered with stucco. Despite these alterations, the Congregation Tifereth Israel remains a rare survivor of the earliest synagogues in Queens and a striking representative of a regional vernacular style.

Peace on Earth?

This holiday ad by the bank that is financing the destruction of St. Saviour's is quite ironic, don't you think? Pictured: a rolling hill and a wooden church surrounded by live trees, with the phrase "May this holiday season bring peace, hope and happiness to us all". To Maspeth, the holiday season brought the demolition of St. Saviour's parsonage and the transformation of the site into a waste transfer station. Also bestowed upon the town was an eyesore of a Christmas tree that the bank boasted of financing, but failed to keep lit.

(Visit the developers' website and you'll see that their slogan is very similar to that of the bank's. Yes, they're all treating us like family...)

Astoria's door to the past

From Forgotten NY:

The Brooklyn Museum recently donated a colonial relic to the Greater Astoria Historical Society -- a door that was part of the historic Blackwell Mansion in Ravenswood, Queens, likely built in 1730 by patriarch Jacob Blackwell (1692-1744)

Behind the Gray Door

Mr. Poppenhusen, meet Mr. Crap

Mission statement of the Poppenhusen Institute in College Point:

It is our goal to provide a warm, welcoming and encouraging environment to all who enter through "The Doorway of Opportunity".

And if you live across the street, you'll probably be seeking a warm, welcoming and encouraging environment...

2007's RIP list

NY Magazine looks back at some of what NYC lost in 2007:

Ghosts of New York: A remembrance of things demolished.

Schools can't accommodate pop. growth

This is not just one district’s problem. In every neighborhood with a beloved school, classrooms are stuffed—the burden and blessing of a city whose residents no longer bolt for the suburbs when the kids are born. The Manhattan New School (P.S. 290) has reached 155 percent of its capacity as one condo after another rises in Yorkville. Park Slope’s William Penn School (P.S. 321) has seen its kindergarten classes grow by 20 percent. East 33rd Street’s Mary Lindley Murray School (P.S. 116) gained 77 students this year, many from the 32 apartment buildings put up in its catchment these past two years. “When I toured the school [last year], the class size was maybe 20 to 23 kids, totally within the city and union limits,” says one new Murray Hill mom. By the time her child started in September, there were 28 per class, eight more than the state recommends. “This is not what I thought I was getting into.” When the Con Ed site, on the East River from 35th Street to 41st, gets seven new high-rises in a few years, the school will be swamped. “If you don’t build schools, you’re pushing families out,” rails Mary Silver, a mother of two at P.S. 116. “These families have helped stabilize the city … the system is imploding.”

Catchment-22

So now what? Elsewhere in the country—in Florida and Georgia, for instance—developers have to pay impact fees when they build houses so new infrastructure can be created to serve the growing public. But no such policy exists here.

District 24 has long been the most overcrowded in the borough, if not the city. No one ever really gave a crap about it, as long as Elmhurst was able to absorb all of the new immigrants. Now that overpopulation is affecting schools in Manhattan, it's suddenly a big deal.

Neighborhoods of Queens faux pas

I got this book called Neighborhoods of Queens for Christmas from a friend. Below are 2 photos from the Maspeth section:

There are no elevated subways in Maspeth.
The scene at left is on Grand Avenue in Elmhurst, not 69th Street in Maspeth. (That's why its owner cleverly named it "The Grandstand".)

The author may have picked up on these mistakes if she hadn't moved to Long Island.

Spitzer's plans for the new year

From NY Observer:

The son of a real estate developer, Eliot Spitzer became governor one year ago this week. Since then, he’s yanked the plug on a large-scale Javits Center expansion; accepted five bids for the West Side rail yards; and negotiated insurance settlements at Ground Zero. What’s next?

Eliot Spitzer, Builder

Mr. Como builds his dream home

"At 64-46 82 Place in Middle Village is a piece of crap for sure. There are 13 complaints and there has been a stop work order since March! This budding McMansion is owned by Anthony Como, the local GOP looking to step into Gallagher's shoes. By the look of this house and the violations, how can he be trusted any more than Gallagher?! The Forum West recently did an article on this piece of crap.

I hope you decide to do one also, to let people know that this guy will be no prize either.

Thank you."

- anonymous

More about the owner: Anthony Como is State Senator Serf Maltese's Counsel and a former Assistant District Attorney for Queens. He's also the Republican Queens Commissioner of the Board of Elections.

Should Como secure the GOP nod, he'll likely face "preservationist" Elizabeth Crowley (of the Elmhurst Crowleys), who now claims to have grown up in Maspeth and wants to see cheap houses built at St. Saviour's. Indicted former Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin reportedly locked Elizabeth and himself inside his office one day and wouldn't open the door.

God help Council District 30.

Queens tourism ideas

From the website, Generally Awesome, comes this interesting idea to promote Queens tourism - humorous postcards of Flushing Meadows. Why not take it a step further and feature individual members of the Queens delegation of the City Council squatting upon each commode? Then we can throw additional money down the crapper by investing $$$ to make these postcards "scratch and sniff". Or should we save that idea for Newtown Creek?

2 Queens girls are first babies of 2008

Two Queens hospitals Tuesday claimed delivering the first babies of the New Year.

Dexter Barrow and Kamille Lord welcomed their daughter Kamiyah Alina Barrow at midnight at New York Hospital in Queens, making her one of two babies considered to be the first New Yorkers born in 2008.

Two Queens Hospitals Deliver First Babies Of The Year

Isabella Sophia Sears was born at Elmurst Hospital in Queens.

Her parents are Yvonne Daza and Stuart Sears. Isabella is the granddaughter of Councilwoman Helen Sears.

"I watched as the ball came down and Isabella came into the world, together, simultaneously there they were," said Councilwoman Sears. "It was just wonderful."

Yankee VIPs to get free parking on our dime

Remember this next time Bloomberg makes the excuse that the city doesn't have enough money to provide basic services to us or has to cut back on them:

The Yankees and hundreds of their VIPs will get free valet parking for the next 40 years, courtesy of New York taxpayers.

Taxpayers will fund Yankees' VIP parking, NYC gets less money

The startling revelation of yet another subsidy for the richest team in baseball is buried deep in the fine print of a $237 million tax-exempt bond offering that city officials quietly issued the week before Christmas.

That new Yankee Stadium parking spot will cost double soon

The documents say a $70 million state subsidy for parking improvements for the new Yankee Stadium (slated to open next year) has been earmarked for a new 660-car valet parking garage where virtually all the spaces will be reserved for the free, year-round use of the Yankees and their VIPs.

Yankee fans can expect to pay a whopping $29 for stadium parking during home games starting in 2010 - more than twice last year's $14 rate.

The projected hikes were revealed in the fine print of a $237 million Wall Street bond offering that the city Industrial Development Agency issued two weeks ago to finance the creation and refurbishing of nearly 9,000 parking spaces for the new stadium.

The basic game-day parking rates will jump to $17 this year, then to $19 next year, when the new $1 billion Yankee Stadium is slated to open.

The rates would then zoom to $29 in 2010 and would increase to $35 by 2014, according to a parking feasibility study that accompanies the bond documents.

Off to a bad start

Several slayings punctured the early hours of the New Year in New York City, just as it ended the calendar year with the lowest number of homicides in four decades.

Man shot in Brooklyn is first slaying of 2008

The first reported homicide of 2008 came at 2:09 a.m. in central Brooklyn, when a 26-year-old man was found fatally shot near Rockaway Avenue and Blake Avenue, police said.

Three other slayings occurred in the Bronx before 6 a.m. Tuesday.

New year in city is off to bloody start

For the second time in less than 12 hours, a young girl in New York City was shot by stray gunfire. And like the girl in the first case, the second victim escaped with a nonfatal wound and was expected to make a full recovery, a hospital administrator said.

At 3:50 a.m Tuesday, the girl, 11, accompanied by family members, was walking home from a friend’s house when shooting broke out near Third Avenue and 166th Street, the police said. A bullet grazed the head of the girl, whose name was not released, and she was taken to Montefiore Medical Center to have pieces of buckshot removed from her scalp, the police said.

A Second Girl Is Hit by Stray Gunfire

Mayor Bloomberg's latest tourism target

Here's Drinking with Bob on another waste of taxpayer money - marketing NYC to gay tourists. This is funny.

Coming soon to Astoria: yet more crap!

It's great that someone else did the work for me today. From the Angry NYer:

"This house is specifically being marketed to become another loaf of ‘Queens Crap’. I can already smell the broken DOB permits, illegal construction and foundation damage to neighboring buildings that will occur when this quaint little house is bulldozed and converted into a steaming pile of Fedders shit."

Crap and Future Crap, Broadway Special.

I guess there's no alternative but that this become a "development site". Not a great starter home, but strictly someplace to destroy and turn into a human warehouse.

(Click the link to see the eyesore across the street.)

Flux Factory being evicted

Sorry, guys. Here's another one I missed somehow:

Flux Factory began in Williamsburg in 1994 and moved to its present location five years ago to flee the rising rents of Brooklyn. It has grown into one of the city's most beloved art groupse city, sponsoring such off-beat projects as building a monument to the city of Paterson, N.J., marathon group novel-writing, and walking tours of fake street art.

MTA takeover puts Factory in Flux

They settled in Long Island City in 2002, and signed a 15-year lease only to find out last year that they would be homeless again.

Lenny Gartner, the owner of Flux Factory's building, said that the MTA made one, "take-it-or-leave-it" offer.

Heeeere's Johnny!

The vote results are in and JOHN LOO (er, Liu) of FLUSHING is the winner of this year's Queens Crap overdevelopment award! Johnny is the Queens council member that QC readers believe will most frequently sell his soul to developers in return for a few bucks for his campaign coffers. What he's running for he hasn't announced yet, but he definitely wants to run. And when you have a case of the runs, you need a bowl, pronto. So Johnny has been given the lovely trophy you see him clutching so dearly. Hopefully he'll wear his crown when he sits on his throne.

First runner up was Councilman Dennis Gallagher, who will remain the court jester, which is perfect, since he'll be in court a lot this year...

Councilwoman Melinda Katz, the reigning Queen of Queens Crap for 2007, came in third place. We'll let her keep her tiara.

The final results:

Times Square Virtual Tours

See 360-degree panoramic shots of Times Square on New Year's from 2003-2007.

And some great old black-and-whites:

Times Square Through The Lens

Danger signs in Forest Hills

Attached are some photos I've taken on 108th Street in Forest Hills.

The apartment building on the corner of 108th and Jewel Avenue has recently gone condo under its old name of Forest Royale. it is yet another example of intentional misspelling by the developer. Remember Soundview Pointe? Developers love the letter E.

But what is really hot about this building is its new sidewalk. Instead of the boring rectangular concrete patterns, this one has semicircular brick designs. Nice. Better watch your step!

A few blocks away, the Beth Gavriel Bukharian synagogue is being expanded. Being a block away from Forest Hills High School, its plywood construction fence has become a canvas for gang tags, including MS-13 or Mara Salvatrucha.

This is a violent Salvadorean gang that is trying to recruit members within the school's Latino population. Hopefully, the synagogue will take note of this, and paint over the tags before some student gets hurt!

-anonymous