Illegal apartments "fill a need" (but could kill you)

From the Gotham Gazette:

Illegal units have been around since the 1940s when owners opened their doors to returning World War II veterans. But the homes first got negative public attention in the 1990s after a series of fires occurred in Queens.

Today, most of the illegal residences are one and two family homes whose owners have reconstructed cellars and basements to rent out. Cellars, which have more than half of their height below curb level, cannot be legal apartments under city regulations. Owners also carve out illegal single-room occupancy residences by partitioning bedrooms on upper floors.

This "housing underground," as Chhaya Community Development Corp., a nonprofit housing advocacy and economic development and justice organization, calls it, has mushroomed in predominantly middle-class residential neighborhoods of Queens. These neighborhoods attract immigrants seeking a new start. Many feel fairly comfortable because they already house people from their home countries.

Property owners created more than 114,000 illegal so-called "accessory dwellings" between 1990 and 2000, accounting for about 50 percent of apartments produced in the city during that period. In Queens roughly 48,000 illegal units were built, representing 73 percent of all housing constructed in the borough during that decade, according to the Pratt Center for Community Development, a university based advocacy, planning, the actual number of such residences is almost certainly higher.

While the divided houses often violate fire and other safety ordinances and zoning regulations, they offer many New Yorkers their only source of affordable housing. The city has an apartment vacancy rate of less than 3 percent, according to the latest Housing and Vacancy Survey. Under state law, anything below 5 per cent constitutes a housing emergency.

In addition to recent immigrants, the divided buildings house college students and provide a lifeline for low-income people as well as New Yorkers hard-hit by the recession.

The foreclosure crisis has spurred more of these divided homes. The illegal apartments provide steady rental income to homeowners who cannot otherwise meet their mortgage payments.

Math scores low for city kids

From NY1:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration has pointed to improvements in previous state test results as a sign that its school reforms are working.

However, the most recent national math test for fourth and eighth graders indicate progress for students in city schools appears to have stalled since 2007, after showing gains in previous years.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is known as the nation's report card and the one true check on state test results. Unlike the state test, which every student takes, only a sample of students takes the NAEP, so while raw scores for city students went up slightly this year, the bumps were so small, they are not considered statistically significant.

The national test found that only 35 percent of city fourth graders and 26 percent of eighth graders are considered proficient in math. In comparison, state test results that show 84.9 percent of city fourth graders and 71.3 percent of eighth graders are proficient.

City cracking down on toy guns

From the Daily News:

City officials are launching an ad campaign as part of a crackdown on illegal sales of realistic-looking toy guns.

Public service ads will be posted on buses and subways throughout the city featuring a red gun and a black one and will ask the question: Which is real and which is a toy?

In addition, fines for selling illegal toy guns will be sharply raised from $1,000 maximum per sale to $5,000 maximum for a first offense and up to $8,000 for repeat offenses.

A third conviction in two years could also padlock a store for up to five days.

City laws require toy guns to be painted bright red, yellow, blue or similar luminous colors, but criminals have taken to painting real guns in bright colors to disguise them, which is also a crime.

The red gun in the public service ad is the real one.

Officials said the black toy gun in the ad can be just as deadly if mistaken for a real gun in a confrontation with police, officials stressed.

Murderer of pregnant woman should be charged with 2 killings

From the Daily News:

Queens prosecutors say boyfriend Derrick Redd, angry with Delain for refusing to have an abortion, stabbed her six times in the stomach, killing her and the unborn boy she planned to name Aidan.

"I either avoid the problem or I eliminate it," Redd said, according to investigators who interviewed him after Delain's body was found.

Redd, 36, faces a murder charge for the Oct. 25, 2008, slaying of Delain, 25, but nothing for the death of the unborn fetus.

To Delain's mother, Towanda Wimms, that's an injustice state lawmakers need to correct.

"It's like this baby is not being looked at as a victim and that's ridiculous," said Wimms, 43. "There were two victims here. This baby was intentionally stabbed."

Redd is to appear in Queens Supreme Court on Monday, with a trial slated for early next year.

Meanwhile, Wimms has thrust herself into the middle of a battle in Albany that pits longtime rivals in the abortion debate against one another over a bill that would make it a crime to take the life of an unborn child during the commission of a homicide.

Ozone Park man is holding down the fort

From the NY Post:

This man's home is not just his castle -- it's his impregnable fortress.

Watched over by nine security cameras and guarded by roll-down gates, window bars, four locks on the front door and barbed wire in the side and back yards, octogenarian Harry Luft figures he's safe from Queens' "crazy people."

"Warning: Burglar Alarm," says a sign that almost seems redundant posted on the front of the Ozone Park house.

"I live alone, and I was robbed here three times," said Luft, a retired bookbinder.

"I'm not a nut or anything like that," he said. "I just want to protect myself. Life is too short. I lived to be 86 years old, and I don't have many more years to go."

Luft, who has two children, began installing protection around his house on 105th Street 20 years ago, shortly after his wife died of cancer.

First came the roll-down gates -- but they didn't stop thieves. Six years ago, Luft said, he was robbed of a TV, jewelry and cash.

So he built up his security systems, eventually installing the cameras, which he said cost "a little over $10,000."

Police brutality in Ozone Park?

From NY1:

It was six o'clock Tuesday evening when the Martin family says two plainclothes New York City police officers kicked down their door.

"We all came running downstairs and said 'What are you doing?' They said 'We kicked in the door.' We said 'What was the reason for kicking down the door?' They said 'Because we felt like it,'" Sean Martin said.

The NYPD's version is very different. The police say the officers were chasing a drug suspect who ran into the building where the Martins live. The police say the outside door was already broken, so they knocked it in but were unable to locate the suspect.

A short time later other officers showed up and spent half an hour trying to fix the door. According to the Martins, police officers eventually gave up and tried to leave without giving them any paperwork.

That's when the Martins say they stood in the street to stop the officers from leaving. They claim the police tried to drive through them and that 15-year-old Sean Martin was hit by an NYPD car.

"Deliberately drove into us, he swerved the truck into us," said Anthony Martin.

Sean Martin says the truck hit his knee, and the side view mirror struck his ear. That's when the Martins say things turned even uglier.

According to the Martins, one of the officer's switched off the lights and dozens of others stampeded into their foyer. Marie Martin says she was punched and kicked in the process.

"They beat up my 15-year-old after they hit him with the truck. They beat up on my brother, my daughter, my other two sons. They had no right to hit them, they were in handcuffs," Marie Martin said.

The police deny the claims. Five family members were later charged with disorderly conduct, obstruction and resisting arrest. Four officers were treated for minor injuries.

As for hitting Sean Martin with a police vehicle, investigators say the boy tried to break the mirror -- a claim his brother says is not true.

"I've been an auxiliary [officer] for three years. I will never ever put that uniform on again. Never. It's a disgrace that they would lie," Anthony Martin said.

According to Martin, the family has filed a report with the NYPD's internal affairs bureau.

A U.S. Congressman. A Local Election. Religious Intolerance! (and Whore Ads!)

Original article by Alan Gross:

A U.S. Congressman. A Local Election. Religious Intolerance!

A Queens Crap exclusive!

Ackerman gets called out on the carpet

One of Congressman Gary Ackerman's constituents didn't like the shenanigans that went on during the Kim-Halloran race. So he wrote Ackerman a letter expressing his outrage.

Ackerman replied.

And he was called out for being a bullshit artist.

Coming up tomorrow: an original in-depth article by the letter writer exposing the big steaming pile of crap that's been hanging out on Northern Boulevard for way too long.

Photo from the Times Ledger

Bike loving hipsters arrested for vandalizing street

From the NY Post:

Police yesterday busted two of the hipster Brooklyn cyclists who repainted whole sections of Williamsburg bike lanes the city had just removed at the request of the neighborhood's Hasidic community.

Quinn Hechtropf, 26 and Katherine Piccochi, 24 -- who surrendered hours after posting a video of the guerilla public-works operation on YouTube -- allegedly used paint rollers and stencils to recreate all the markings that had been sandblasted away.

"We're self-hating Jewish hipsters," Hechtropf joked last night as the two walked out of the 90th Precinct with desk-appearance tickets.
ON A ROLL: Bicycle advocates repaint bike lanes and spray on a cyclist icon after the markings were wiped out along a 14-block stretch on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

"They handcuffed us," Piccochi complained.

Both were hit with criminal-mischief charges as well as a violation for defacing the street.

Hiram's replacement is no angel, either...

From the Daily News:

Queens Assemblyman Jose Peralta landed more than $500,000 in taxpayer money for a nonprofit that never filed federal tax records, has no employees and has been inactive for more than two years.

Peralta helped organize the Corona-Elmhurst Center for Economic Development after joining the Legislature, and for years it was located in the same building as his campaign office.

This year, he and his chief political consultants have continued to lobby state and city lawmakers for additional grants for the dormant group, the Daily News has learned.

Until a month ago, the Corona-Elmhurst group maintained an office at 104-01 Roosevelt Ave., in a two-story commercial building, where Peralta rents space for his election committee.

As for the Corona-Elmhurst group, Peralta secured its first $125,000 grant in 2004 from the state's Economic Development Corp., for technical assistance for neighborhood businesses. The money was an earmark from the fund for pet projects of individual legislators.

Click the link to read the entire thing, which involves Peralta's family members.

Thanks to the reader who sent in the photo.

NYPD seeks Rego Park kidnapper

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Police are looking to the public for help as they try to find a man who allegedly attempted to abduct a 14-year-old in Queens.

The suspect grabbed the girl from behind and attempted to push her into the back seat of a dark colored car, according to police. The victim was able to get free and run to a school were she reported the incident.

This all happened around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday near the intersection of 67 Avenue and Yellowstone Blvd. in Rego Park, according to police.

The suspect is described as 5'10", approx 150lbs., and was wearing a brown Gucci baseball hat, a dark jacket with gray hooded sweatshirt, and blue jeans.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.

Shelters overflow as public housing sits empty

From the NY Times:

Someone had pried open the metal door of an 11th-floor apartment at a public housing complex in Brooklyn with what appeared to be a crowbar, leaving a gash near the lock. No one was home. But then, no one is ever home: Apartment 11D was vacant. So was 1E — insulation covered the door’s missing peephole — and at least two dozen other apartments in the 11-story building at the Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene.

In another building at the same complex, near Myrtle Avenue and St. Edwards Street, more than half of the 36 units are empty. “It’s a shame,” said a resident, who, like several other tenants, asked that her name not be used out of fear of retribution from her landlord and the neighborhood’s criminal element. “They have them sitting here, just wasted.”

While more than 130,000 families are on the waiting list for a city public housing apartment, hundreds of units at the Ingersoll Houses and the adjacent Whitman Houses are vacant — 923 out of nearly 3,500 units, according to the landlord, the New York City Housing Authority, the city’s public housing agency. The majority are unoccupied because of a costly, long-delayed modernization project that has forced hundreds of tenants to relocate and has fueled rumors, repeatedly denied by the agency, that low-income residents are being pushed out to convert the buildings into private luxury housing as Fort Greene gentrifies.

Anxiety remains high at Whitman and Ingersoll, tenants, elected officials and community advocates said, because unoccupied units have been used by drug dealers, vandals and squatters, and so many apartments have sat empty for so long. Apartments awaiting renovations at both complexes have been vacant for an average of four years, according to the housing agency.

Blame Bruce Ratner's sweetheart deal

From NY1:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is facing an unexpected budget shortfall, which could have consequences for commuters.

The MTA says tax revenues earmarked for the agency are $220 million less than the state projected. That's on top of a $143 million cut in funding under the state budget deal passed last week.

Earlier this year, the state bailed out the agency and instituted a new payroll tax to fund mass transit.

At that time, the MTA promised no fare hikes until 2011 and also scrapped plans for service cuts.

While the agency says fare hikes are still off the table, it says some difficult choices will have to be made in the agency's budget which comes out next week.

From Develop Don't Destroy:

Some simple math...
In 2005 the MTA appraised the 8-acre Vanderbilt Yards at $214.5 million. They then undertook a sham RFP process. Extell Development Company bid $150 million and Forest City Ratner (which wanted the Yards for its 22-acre Atlantic Yards project) bid $50 million. The MTA told Ratner that bid was too low and after six weeks of "negotiating" Ratner upped it to $100 million.

Ratner was then supposed to pay the MTA $100 million cash at closing. They didn't.

Fast forward to the summer of 2009. The MTA announces that it has "negotiated" a new deal with Ratner. Despite having Ratner over a barrel the MTA strikes a deal where Ratner pays only $20 million at closing. The rest would be paid over a 22 year period. The MTA and Ratner expected to close in 2009. But they haven't

$100 million minus $20 million is $80 million. At minimum the $200 million MTA shortfall, should be only $100 million and $120 million maximum. Of course had the MTA had a competitive bidding process for the Vanderbilt Yards there is a reasonable chance they'd have no shortfall this year.

Aaaaand this is why we need public authorities oversight.

Forgotten NY Queens double feature

Click photos for stories.

Date rape drug sold at Main Street karaoke bar

From the Times Ledger:

More than 30 people were arrested at what authorities said was a karaoke bar in Flushing Saturday as a police sting uncovered what was allegedly a drug and counterfeit cigarette ring.

Flushing resident Min Yun Zhou, 44, the bar manager, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal sale of a controlled substance, the Queens district attorney said. Elmhurst resident Guo Lin, 44, the bar owner, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a forged instrument, the DA said. Flushing resident Kui Yang, 41, a bar employee, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and sale of a controlled substance, the DA said.

If convicted, all three could face up to 25 years in prison, the DA said. Each was held in lieu of $10,000 bail. Their next court date is Dec. 21, the DA said.

Undercover officers with the Vice Squad allegedly bought a vial of ketamine and ecstasy pills from Lin at the bar at 41-46 Main St. Oct. 8, according to a criminal complaint filed by the DA’s office. Yang allegedly sold undercover officers more of the drugs Oct. 17 and Nov. 21, the DA’s office said. Ketamine is commonly used in date rapes to incapacitate the victim.

When officers executed a search warrant at the establishment Saturday, they allegedly recovered 19 packs of cigarettes with counterfeit Virginia tax stamps and 13 jars of ketamine inside a closet, the DA’s office said.

Three officers were also injured during the Saturday night raid, a police source speaking on condition of anonymity said.

Among the roughly 35 people arrested during the sting were three men who allegedly tried to attack an officer after arriving in a livery cab, the DA’s office said.

We're afraid to ask...

"Is the Bowne St Hindu temple getting crappified?

If they leave the new wall like that, it sure is. Will have to see..." --k.

Um...Frank?

Cuomo investigating Shulman and EDC; Bloomberg fighting him

From the NY Times:

It turns out that the Bloomberg-Morgenthau bank-account feud is not the only pointless, losing quarrel that the mayor has picked recently with law enforcement.

Some weeks back, the state attorney general’s office sent the city a request for records of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, one of these invisible public agencies wearing the costume gowns of a nonprofit operation.

The attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, was looking into a report that the city, through the Economic Development Corporation, was the source of funds for lobbyists who helped persuade the City Council to condemn land in Willets Point, Queens. It is illegal for a not-for-profit corporation to use city money for lobbying.

Instead of complying with the records request, the city’s chief lawyer, Michael A. Cardozo, demanded a meeting with the attorney general’s office. Mr. Cuomo said that his investigators wanted to review the records before meeting with city officials. Mr. Cardozo balked. Mr. Cuomo said that if necessary, he would issue a subpoena.

In one of the many exchanges between the city Law Department and the Attorney General’s office, a Bloomberg administration official said that a subpoena from the state would be seen as a hostile act, and would be remembered next year, when Mr. Cuomo is expected to run for governor.

Asked about this on Tuesday, an assistant to Mr. Cardozo said that the city is now cooperating with the investigation, and tacitly acknowledged a skirmish with the attorney general.

From the Village Voice:

It's hard to imagine Nixon's legendary hit men, Ehrlichman and Haldeman, forging a better response. And Nixon didn't have $17 billion in the bank. He had to beg the Teamsters for his slush fund dough.

What's interesting about this show down was that it was the city's own top law man, Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, handling the negotiations.

The issue at hand concerns the EDC's funding of a non-profit group it had helped form to lobby the City Council on its Willett's Point plan. Such lobbying would be illegal for a nonprofit, not to mention being a bizarre and secretive way for a mayor to try and influence the council. It's the kind of stunt- yes! - Richard Nixon might've pulled.

Crappy birthday to me!

Yes, we've been at it for 3 years now. And there's still plenty of crap to cover. So let's not waste any time.

Rockaway beaches being claimed by the sea

From the Daily News:

Beach erosion is a persistent problem in oceanfront communities, but recent storms have taken an unusually large bite out of the South Shore of Long Island, including the Rockaways.

A wave of November storms battered the shoreline, removing tons of sand from Far Rockaway to Breezy Point, with the surfers' beach at Beach 90th St. taking the brunt of them .

The remnants of Tropical Depression Ida and other storms created a week-long frenzy in the Northeast, with high tides coming dangerously close to houses and major roads.

Beach 90th St., immediately west of the last rock jetty for several miles, is a notoriously short beach.

The storms have removed so much sand that the high-tide line is close to the Boardwalk.

Jagged wooden jetties are now even more exposed than before and an entrance ramp on Beach 90th St. to the beach is now more than two feet from the sand due to the recent erosion.

Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand recently asked Gov. Paterson to make a federal disaster declaration for Long Island beaches affected by the storms.

The declaration would clear the way for the state to get federal money to replenish the beaches.

But they can pass standardized tests...

More play catch-up at CUNY
By YOAV GONEN, NY Post

Nearly 74 percent of city public high-school graduates who enroll in CUNY community colleges are required to take remedial classes in math, reading or writing, according to new data.

After an initial drop in public high-school grads needing to brush up on the basics before college -- from 81.9 percent in 2002 to 74.3 percent in 2006 -- the numbers have stagnated in recent years.

This year, 8,758 city public high-school graduates -- of the 11,879 who enrolled at CUNY two-year schools -- needed remedial help.

Since 2006, those needing math remediation at CUNY climbed 5 percentage points, to 58.3 percent of the public high-school graduates who enrolled.

The percentage of high-school grads needing writing refreshers dropped 6 percentage points since 2006, to 47.5 percent.

Johnny Liu to the rescue!

From the NY Post:

Investment firms that have reaped hundreds of millions of dollars managing the city's mammoth pension funds over the last eight years could be in a for a rude shock when John Liu takes over as comptroller.

Liu, a Queens city councilman with a background in finance, thinks investment managers are making too much money off the $85 billion pension funds.

"The funds seem to be thinly diversified and heavily managed at the same time," Liu said. "It suggests investment-management expenses can be trimmed."

That's sure to send shivers through firms collecting big bucks to oversee the city's pension investments, which include everything from staid fixed-income securities to leveraged private-equity placements.

Liu's assessment came after what he called a "very cursory review" of pension portfolios. Final decisions will be deferred, he said, until he has consulted with a new team of professionals he's recruiting.

Bad apple gets big payback

From the NY Post:

One of the city's top overtime earners was bounced from his job 11 months ago -- but continues to collect his $57,000-plus annual salary while on extended sick leave, The Post has learned.

Moustafa Fawzy, the Department of Environmental Protection's director of hazardous materials, called in sick immediately after he was demoted on Jan. 21.

Officials said Fawzy had accumulated 46½ weeks of unused sick, comp and vacation days under the city's generous policies, enough to keep him on the payroll -- without his having to report to work -- until Dec. 16.

As a 21-year employee, Fawzy was entitled to 12 annual sick days that could be carried over year after year.

His medical condition wasn't disclosed.

Parks messes up Christmas tree planting

From Sunnyside Post:

The Woodside tree is located at Sohncke Square–across the street from St. Sebastian’s church. The tree, delivered by the Parks Department last week, has been planted on top of concrete, leaving little room for its root system to spread out. The tree’s growth will be stunted.

The Parks Dept. has assured residents that it will grow. However, people don’t know whether the growth will be in inches or feet.

Store owners hate Quinn (just like the rest of us)

From the Daily News:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is not exactly popular these days among small business owners in New York.

The merchants made this clear on Friday when hundreds of them, mostly Dominican bodega owners, placed "Christine Quinn is not welcome here" posters in their upper Manhattan store windows.

Their purpose was to protest what they consider the Speaker's unwavering defense of the billionaire real estate industry at the expense of the city's small businesses, said Steve Null, director of the Coalition to Save Small Businesses.

"Speaker Quinn is protecting the profits of greedy 'fat cat' speculators over the hard working investments of the immigrant small business owners," the poster reads. "(She) used the power of her office and has blocked all meaningful and common sense reform to save our small businesses. She turned her back on the neighborhoods and allowed greedy landlords to rent gouge thousands of hard working neighborhood small stores out of business."

Happy 70th birthday, LaGuardia Airport

From Gothamist:

LGA was dedicated on October 15th, 1939, as the New York Municipal Airport, and opened for business on December 2nd of that year. Didn't things look so hopeful and exciting back then? See the full slideshow here. Time magazine called it "the most pretentious land and seaplane base in the world."

Historic Houses of Broadway-Flushing

From Queens Rules:

"She [Lisi De Bourbon] added that Queens enjoyed less landmarking status than Manhattan and Brooklyn because the borough developed later and less densely."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A response:

"So, let's see - here's the round-up of historic district advocacy in Queens so far:

Broadway-Flushing, with 1330 buildings on the National and State Register of Historic Places as of 2006, has not gotten designated by the LPC despite massive support from a huge majority of residents, all elected officials (except Mayor Bloomberg), CB7 and historic preservation organizations.

Douglas Manor - developed at EXACTLY the same time at the same density by the same real estate company a century ago - gets designated, but only after a decade of contention, and are told that "nothing like this will ever happen again" by the LPC back in 1997.

Douglaston Hill, a planned suburban community developed right after the Civil War, gets less than a third of their neighborhood designated only after sheer insanity and threats from elected officials as Bloomberg ran for a second term in 2005.

Jackson Heights and Sunnyside Gardens - both planned developments with significant density, constructed mostly in the 1920s and 1930s - get designated; Jackson Heights is landmarked to help stabilize the area in the early 1990s. Sunnyside Gardens gets landmarked a few years ago after much acrimony, with charges of economic racism from a small minority of property owners, delaying designation for several years.

Ridgewood, with almost 3,000 densely packed rowhouses and apartment buildings on the National and State Register of Historic Places as of 1982, has less than 200 of them landmarked by the LPC over a 30 year period.

Fort Totten is landmarked in the early 2000s after former Mayor Giuliani tries to sell it off to St. John's University and Gary Ackerman tries to build million-dollar condos there. It is non-residential and many of the landmarked buildings are deteriorating; some, like the old Willets Farmhouse, are near collapse.

The Steinway Workers Houses, handsome Civil War-era rowhouses in the northern part of Astoria, are designated by the LPC in the mid-1970s only to be overturned by the "Borough Bulldozer" Donald Manes at the old Board of Estimate. This, along with the RKO Keiths Theater in Flushing and a few other examples, was the excuse that the LPC used for decades as a reason not to designate historic buildings in Queens.

Old Astoria - arguably one of the most historic areas in the entire city with freestanding mansions from the 1830s to the 1880s - not only does not get designated after repeated desperate pleas but is savaged by developers during the past decade.

Waldheim, in Flushing, a planned community from the 1870s in perfect condition in the 1980s desperately asks for designation in 1984, 1989, 1995 and 1998 to stop their neighborhood from being decimated. They are ignored, savaged and destroyed by developers.

Parkway Village, a planned community from the 1940s which housed some of the first United Nations workers and diplomats, is denied landmark status by the LPC, despite excellent architecture, planning and "appropriate density."

Richmond Hill, a planned community from 1875 with one of the few spontaneous restoration movements in the entire city to restore their beautiful Victorian-era buildings, receives only insults from the LPC and the neighborhood is told that they are not eligible.

Meanwhile, three neighborhoods in Victorian Flatbush with similar houses and development patterns from the turn of the 20th century are designated this year.

Kew Gardens gets an honorable mention here, as this planned neighborhood of beautiful freestanding substantial suburban-style homes from the 1910s to the 1930s is nixed by the LPC a few years ago due to opposition from their Councilperson (Melinda Katz) and the LPC's seeming hatred of freestanding substantial suburban-style homes.

Just before Election Day, the LPC announces that they are considering designating Addesleigh Park in St. Albans. This pretty suburban-style neighborhood, the home of many of the jazz greats and a crucible of African-American history from the 1930s to the present, is certainly deserving of landmark status, but the LPC did virtually no outreach. While over 300 houses are being considered - mysteriously enlarged from less than a dozen individual buildings owned by jazz greats six months ago before the Mayoral Election came into full focus - several blocks have been removed from consideration because elected officials who live there don't want to be in the proposed district.

Notice a pattern or trend? We, the tweeded, are, to put it mildly, royally fucked. In the 19th CD - Tony Avella's current district - we were told that we would not get our historic district in Broadway-Flushing (among other things) unless we voted for Paul Vallone, because he was supported by Bloomberg. So, while Vallone was defeated, the suckers in the 19th CD largely gave Bloomberg his margin of error over Bill Thompson.

Queens - a borough with neighborhoods in perpetual crisis. Better get your act together, Queens, or it's Queens Crap forevah."

-- A Concerned Resident

10 stores raided in Chinatown

Missing mom found dead in abandoned LI house

From Eyewitness News:

Police on Long Island have identified a body found by a meter reader to be that of a missing Queens mother.

Police say 39-year-old Jamaica Smith was found in a boarded-up home at 621 Kruss Street in Uniondale, and the case has been declared a homicide.

Smith has been missing since the day before Thanksgiving, last seen dropping off her 6-year-old daughter at the Laurelton School.

Bloomberg sticks his nose into Massachusetts senate race

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bloomberg has dispatched the head of his get-out-the-vote operation and a team of top aides to Massachusetts to push for votes for a candidate who hopes to replace the late Ted Kennedy in the Senate, The Post has learned.

About a dozen operatives shipped out in recent days to support Democratic hopeful Alan Khazei, who is running in today's four-way special primary election for the chance to assume the storied seat.

The Bloomberg operatives are covering zones statewide, with door-knocking and phone- banking.

Bloomberg has also hosted two events for Khazei, raising about 15 percent of the campaign's cash overall so far.

The endorsement:

"Massachusetts has big shoes to fill. Our country needs someone with an amazing record and new, bold ideas that can move the country forward. I know Alan is that person."

MOVE BACK TO BOSTON IF YOU CARE THAT MUCH ABOUT MASSACHUSETTS.

Bloomberg's green initiative fails

From the NY Times:

After intense opposition from building owners, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has dropped the most far-reaching initiative of his plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Michael R. Bloomberg, at an environmental-themed event in September, is weakening a package of bills that would cut emissions.

The plan, which the owners said was too costly, called for all buildings of 50,000 square feet or more to undergo audits to determine which renovations would make them more energy efficient, and for owners to then pay for many of those changes.

The mayor wants to go forward with the proposal to require energy audits, but now is leaving it up to the building owners whether to undertake the changes called for by those audits.

It would have put New York far ahead of other cities in the green-buildings movement. Many cities require that newly constructed buildings be energy efficient, but do not impose those standards on existing properties. Some 22,000 buildings, together accounting for nearly half the square footage in the city, would have been affected.

DOB finally moves to close illegal hotel

MYFOXNY.COM - It's one of the busiest times of the year for hotels in the city. But some tourists looking for a place to stay may be left out in the cold, thanks to a hotel that Fox 5 has been investigating for more than a year.

The city has slapped "Vacate: Perilous to Life" signs on the Broadway Hotel in Manhattan. The city says the place is way over capacity by more than 400 people. Fox 5 started asking questions about safety there in 2008.

Paper's calling it Christmas

From the Times Newsweekly:

As soon as Thanksgiving ends, Christmas begins. Right off the bat, this newspaper wishes to advise that any tree lightings, concerts or other festivities taking place from now until Dec. 25 and published here will be referred to as Christmas — not holiday — events.

Some schools display Christmas trees alongside the Hanukkah menorah, the Muslim star and crescent and the Kwanzaa Kinara (candles), but for some reason, the trees are referred to as “holiday trees.” Oddly, the word Christmas is left out even as other faiths and cultures are acknowledged appropriately.

However, Christmas is still Christmas in our book. Though it has been commercialized and watered down into a season of extreme gift-giving, let’s not forget that the holiday is the celebration of the birth of Christ. All the political correctness in the world will not make it anything else.

Cops seek Flushing Library pervert

From NY1:

Police are searching for a man wanted in connection with forcibly touching an eight-year-old girl in Queens.

The incident took place last Saturday in the Flushing Public Library on Main Street.

The man was caught on surveillance tape.

Police released a sketch of the suspect, who is described as 30 to 35 years old, about five-feet-seven-inches tall, with a medium build and blue eyes.

He was last seen wearing a dark jacket, blue jeans, and a dark cap.

Anyone with information on the case should contact the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS, or text CRIMES and then enter TIP577, or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.

"Counterfeit cornucopia"

From the Times Newsweekly:

Just days before the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season, police seized a bounty of counterfeit designer merchandise with a estimated street value running into the millions from a Maspeth warehouse during a raid on Tuesday, Nov. 24, it was reported.

In all, more than 4,000 boxes containing counterfeit sneakers, handbags, wallets and shoes bearing brand name labels such as Nike, Gucci, Coach, Chanel and Louis Vuitton were among the items found by officers inside the facility. Police sources estimated that the inventory had a street value of about $10 million.

Authorities said that two vehicles — including a rental truck — and 9mm handgun were also recovered by police during the raid.

Officers from the precinct reportedly learned of the illicit enterprise while responding to an assault of a 22-year-old businessman at the location last Saturday night, Nov. 21.

During the incident, authorities said, the victim — 22-year-old Victor Hsiao of 207th Street in Bayside — was allegedly beaten with baseball bats by two Corona men — 32-yearold Zhe Song Yu and 25-year-old Feng Chen, both residents of 43rd Avenue — at around 7 p.m. last Saturday over an apparent dispute related to the merchandise inside the Flushing Avenue facility.

The officers reportedly spotted the attack in progress and brought it to an end.

Both Yu and Chen were taken into custody at the scene on assault charges. A third individual at the scene — 17-year-old Fei Peng of Holly Avenue in Flushing — was also cuffed after allegedly presenting police with forged identification.

While investigating the incident at the scene, the 104th Precinct officers reportedly learned that Hsiao was allegedly in possession of 40 cases of counterfeit merchandise.

Though Hsiao was not seriously injured in the attack, law enforcement sources said, he allegedly attempted to flee inside a truck. However, his flight from the law ended abruptly when the truck struck a concrete pillar.

Hsiao was arrested at the scene and charged with trademark counterfeiting.

Tow truck driver helps cops nab thieves

From the Daily News:

A hero tow truck driver helped bust a crew of car thieves this week when he followed a stolen vehicle across two boroughs and pointed the suspects out to police.

Cops said the bandits may be responsible for as many as eight other car heists, cops said.

Vinnie Lanzieri, 44, was driving his Performance Automotive tow truck in Queens about midnight Wednesday when he heard on his police scanner that a 38-year-old man had been held up at gunpoint and pulled out of his 2008 Cadillac Escalade in Rego Park, he said.

Moments later, Lanzieri spotted the stolen SUV at a red light at Woodhaven and Yellowstone Blvds. in Forest Hills.

The stolen vehicle made a dash to the Jackie Robinson Parkway with a Blazer following close behind, Lanzieri said.

"They were flying down it," Lanzieri said, adding that the thugs soon dumped the stolen SUV on a dead-end street off Pennsylvania Ave. in East New York, Brooklyn, and began to flee in the second vehicle. Lanzieri saw a marked squad car from Transit District 33 nearby and flagged down the officers, he said.

"I told them what happened," Lanzieri said. "The two cops took them out at gunpoint and had them on the floor in 30 seconds."

Avella vs. Padavan?

From the Daily News:

Avella, who made an appearance at the Stevenson Democratic Club last night and chatted about his 2010 plans with a reader (thanks reader!), confirmed to me that he is indeed considering a Senate run, but insisted he has made "no firm decision" as yet.

"There's a possibility, yes," Avella said. "There are discussions going on...I think it's appropriate. You know me, I've been a big reformer person, and Albany is certainly a place that's in need of reform."

"The incumbent, Frank Padavan, has been there for 37 years. Whether you like it or not, I think it's time for a change...There's no question he has his supporters. A lot of his supporters are my supporters."

My advice: Go after Ackerman instead.

Queens sculptor recreates a classic scene

From Interactive Journalism:

Queens-based artist Sergio Furnari has stayed afloat during the recession by working on projects abroad.

But Furnari got another chance to create an American icon on American soil when two Indiana restaurateurs commissioned a remake of his life-sized sculpture of 11 ironworkers eating lunch on beam during the construction of Rockefeller Center, which is based on a 1932 photograph.

The sculpture will be installed on top of a 1920s-themed restaurant in Valparaiso, Indiana called Industrial Revolution, which is set to open in February 2010.

Joe Bruno guilty on 2 felony counts

From the NY Times:

ALBANY — Joseph L. Bruno, the former Senate majority leader, was found guilty Monday afternoon of taking payments from a business executive and failing to disclose a secret financial partnership with the businessman.

After seven days of deliberating, the jury in Mr. Bruno’s federal corruption trial handed down a guilty verdict on two felony counts. They found Mr. Bruno not guilty on five counts and could not reach a verdict on another count.

Mr. Bruno faces up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine on each felony count. He is sure to appeal, and the Supreme Court is preparing to review the controversial “theft of honest services” statute underlying his case.

Shit, when did they make honest graft a crime?

Artist arrested on High Line again

Watch as 5 Parks police officers arrest artist Robert Lederman for no reason. Also arrested was Jack Nesbitt, who was taking the video. Both of these arrests were violations of the First Amendment.

A Walk in the Park has more.

Can't have artists on the High Line!

(Also note that 5 Parks officers is probably what Flushing Meadows, many times the size of the High Line, has on a good day.)

City has PLENTY of money - for parks in Brooklyn!

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg is ramping up his bid to wrest control of Brooklyn Bridge Park from the state with a plan to kick in $55 million - and delay controversial plans to build luxury housing.

The city would commit $55 million right away to finish building the troubled waterfront park, which faces a $120 million funding gap and an uncertain future.

City Hall would eventually come up with the rest of the cash to finish the park, sources said. The proposal is set to be unveiled at a community meeting tonight.

Controversial plans to build 1,200 luxury condos in the park would be put on hold for a few years, sources said.

City officials would consider scrapping the condos altogether if they could find a way to replace the fees.

Condo opponents said the plan gave them hope the housing might be called off.

The plan depends on striking a deal with Gov. Paterson.

St. Saviour's, Travers Park expansion, Klein Farm, Cornell Farm - nope! Sorry, there's no money for parks in Queens neighborhoods - go raise it yourselves, kiddies! Fixing up the ballfields at Highland Park? Nope, no money for that, in fact the budget for the Ridgewood Reservoir was slashed by more than half.

But for the Brooklyn waterfront Bloomberg's ass turns into an ATM machine.

This is simply OUTRAGEOUS.

(Notice also how this is in the "real estate" section of the paper.)

Ball's in your court, Bill!

From the Daily News:

"The use of eminent domain is like a gun to the community’s head which basically says, 'If you don’t give it up we’re going to take it,'" [State Senator Bill] Perkins said outside City Hall this afternoon.

"And as a result, those who do not have the wherewithal of a Nick Sprayregen or a lawyer like Norm Siegel begin to negotiate under the threat of begin robbed or mugged through the process of eminent domain."

"So what happens to those people who lost their property to Columbia under those circumstances?"

"Nick Sprayregen at the moment is OK. The Singh family that owned the small garage, gas station, is OK, but those who buckled under because of the threat of eminent domain? How do they get made whole? How do they get justice in the process in which they were essentially threatened with the gun of eminent domain?"

So how about some legislation, then? You'd think this would be one issue where both sides would agree.

Bye, bye, Jamaica High

From the NY Times:

New York City education officials said on Thursday that they planned to close an additional four schools for poor performance, including Jamaica High, a 1,500-student school that has been open since 1927.

The announcement brought to eight the number of schools that education officials said this week that they planned to phase out, beginning in the next school year. More such announcements are expected over the coming weeks.

As part of his effort to reshape the school system, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has announced the closing of 91 additional schools for poor performance since 2002, generally replacing them with clusters of smaller schools, often in the building where the failed school once operated.

Enrollment at Jamaica High School has been falling — it was 2,500 a decade ago — and its graduation rate has remained below 50 percent for years, education officials said. Under the city’s proposal, the school will stop accepting ninth graders in 2010 and slowly shrink.

Green roofs to prevent sewerage overflow

From the Huffington Post:

CSO's are the single biggest source of pathogens for many urban bodies of water. The warning bells about sewers and the insufficient infrastructure have been ringing for decades. Though not the best for holiday table talk, it is critical that there is more discussion about new solutions in order to avoid the continuing circular logic of our current ones. Only by seriously looking at new paradigms (or spending billions and billions more on construction than we need to) can this stinky problem be solved.

Too much weight is currently put on the need for more "infrastructure," meaning more pipes, more engineering, more disruption, more trying to control the flow, especially when it combines with rain. (It is as futile a solution as holding back the waters of Lake Ponchartrain during a major hurricane.) These "end of pipe solutions" represent the traditional approach to solving a problem caused by too many people paving over too many acres.

So what can better solve the problem with our sewers? The most obvious -- and most affordable--solution is bringing vegetation back into the cities that paved over green space to get there. Green roofs can dramatically reduce runoff and sewage overflows. Green roofs--roofs covered with living plants, which are, by the way, beautiful -- as opposed to ones made of tar or other impervious materials, absorb water and are a less expensive way to capture water than trying to control it through end-of-pipe ideas. Nature becomes a bigger player, acting as the engineer. Building owners benefit and so do municipalities who have to spend much less on controlling their storm water.

New York City talked a good game about green roofs but decided to spend its millions of dollars of our federal storm water stimulus money on traditional structures -- building more man-made holding tanks -- instead of looking at what is really the cause: lack of vegetation. Isn't that what got New York, Miami, Los Angeles (and countless other major cities) into trouble in the first place?

Photo by Miss Heather

Jackson Heights group helping Muslim illegals

From NY1:

Whether it's protesting the president's decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan or developing community programs, Muslim women like Monami Maulik have been at the forefront of advocacy work to help and empower their people.

In 2000, Maulik and a handful of others founded Desis Rising Up and Moving in Jackson Heights, Queens to help undocumented South Asian immigrants and workers.

"Unlike the stereotypes of immigrant women or Muslim women or South Asian women, they are very involved because they see hardship and pain firsthand," says Maulik.

South Asia = Afghanistan and Pakistan. Doesn't this sound like a freakin' fantastic program? Open up the doors to people that want to blow us up...Mayor Bloomberg welcomes you with open arms!

War of words between Bloomberg and Manhattan D.A.

From NY Magazine:

The New York Times wouldn't reprint the word that Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau used for accusations from the mayor that the D.A.'s office inappropriately used two sets of books — including one that was not reviewed by the city comptroller's office — to manage their finances. The paper only murkily called it a "barnyard vulgarity." But the Post was all too pleased to tell us what Morgy said: "If you all weren't newspapers of record, I'd say these were chickenshit comments," he told a bunch of reporters.

According to the Times, Bloomberg and Morgenthau have always been polite in public, but have really never liked one another. But their private acrimony was unleashed when City Hall began pushing the D.A.'s office to reveal the accounting related to tens of millions of dollars accumulated through settlements, forfeitures, and grants — which the D.A. has traditionally kept in secret bank accounts where it can be tightly controlled and won't be scrutinized by the comptroller.

Inevitably, this non-story, meant to embarrass the DA, who is retiring at the end of the year, appeared in the Daily News Saturday, no doubt due to the vindictiveness of Mayor Bloomberg.

Artist suing city and Friends of the High Line

From the Villager:

Following his arrest on the High Line for selling art without a permit on Nov. 21, street-artist activist Robert Lederman is now working on his latest creation — a lawsuit for millions in damages that he plans to file against the Friends of the High Line and the city.

Meanwhile, the Friends of the High Line and the Parks Department are both being tighter-lipped than Tiger Woods, refusing to simply say whether it’s legal or illegal to vend art without a permit on the new elevated park.

Lederman said just 30 seconds after he had erected his display around 9 a.m., he was confronted by a High Line staff member. A few minutes later, he was surrounded by eight of them.

“All of them had High Line uniforms with High Line logos on them, baseball caps with High Line logos and walkie-talkies with High Line logos,” he said.

According to Geoffrey Croft, of NYC Park Advocates, an outspoken critic of the new park, these employees are known as High Line Rangers, and are paid for by Friends of the High Line.

Then at 3:30 p.m., a city Park Enforcement Patrol officer, whose nameplate read “B. Joseph” issued Lederman three noncriminal Environmental Control Board summonses: for disorderly conduct; “failure to comply with a direction prohibition on sign”; and “unauthorized/failure to have display comply with required permit.”

He showed the officer the newspaper articles on his lawsuit victories, and said the officer “seemed to believe it himself,” yet still wrote the tickets.

The PEP finally handcuffed him after he wouldn’t go away. Many tourists witnessed the arrest, Lederman added, noting some were standing with their “mouths open” in concern, as the officer and Rangers — wrongly — warned them it was illegal to videotape the arrest.

Suspects sought in Far Rockaway robbery

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Police are looking for four people who are wanted in connection with a jewelry store robbery in Queens.

The four suspects, two of them armed, held-up Gold Fashion Jewelry located at 2125 Mott Ave on November 28, according to police.

One of the victims in the store was thrown to the ground at gunpoint and handcuffed. Two other victims were taken at gunpoint to the rear of the store into the bathroom, police said. The four suspects then removed several trays of jewelry and money totaling an undetermined amount.

The suspects then fled down Mott Avenue. One suspect was described as wearing a navy blue Yankees jacket with a large Yankees emblem on the left chest and a patch on the left shoulder. All four suspects wore baseball hats; two of the suspects wore hoods over the hats.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto Crime Stoppers' website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.

More toxic soil dug up in LIC

From LIQCity:

Ahh yes – winter in LIC. Add ‘the sounds and smells of toxic cleanup’ to ‘chestnuts roasting on an open fire’ and you’ve got the picture, as two active remediation projects are going on in Queenswest along the LIC waterfront.

In this process, the identified toxic soil is dug up under the huge white tents that are now installed at Queenswest (meant to keep the debris/dust contained), loaded onto a truck, and transported out. This isn’t the first time toxic soil has been unearthed in LIC. Just last year there were many complaints of strange and foul smells and super-eerie dust clouds during the remediation. CB2 and Queens West Development Corp also openly asked residents to say something if they smell something, for their own health. That said, keep your nostrils open, LIC.

2 new books about life in Queens

From the Times Ledger:

It was on the tree-lined streets of Kew Gardens that Dick Van Patten got his start as a child star who would go on to appear in hundreds of radio shows, two dozen films and seven television series, including the 1970s sitcom “Eight is Enough.”

Van Patten’s mother and longtime supporter, Josephine, would push him in a carriage through the streets of Kew Gardens and was frequently stopped by passersby who would urge her to bring her child into a modeling agency.

Van Patten describes growing up in Kew Gardens and Richmond Hill in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s in his recently published memoir “Eighty Is Not Enough.” The book’s title is a reference to both the show, in which he became known to much of the world as the sitcom’s father, and his age.

Van Patten was born in Jamaica Hospital in 1928 and grew up in Kew Gardens and Woodhaven, where his mother had lived as a teenager. In the 272-page book, he relays many of his memories from Queens, including living on the first floor of a crowded home in Woodhaven, participating in a talent contest at the Willart Theater in Woodhaven and the death of a 7-year-old friend on the Long Island Rail Road tracks near his Woodhaven home.

From LA Times:

In his latest short-story collection, "A Good Fall," Jin continues his skillful and deeply felt exploration of immigrant conflicts. He focuses on a socioeconomically diverse cast of characters mostly living or working in the Queens, N.Y., neighborhood of Flushing. They include a healthcare aide trying to fend off advances from an old man with dementia without losing her job ("A Pension Plan"), a private SAT tutor embroiled in an inadvertent love triangle with his female student and her mother ("Choice") and a professor worried that a single misspelled word on his application will doom his tenure chances ("An English Professor"). A pervasive anxiety infects these lives. For these newcomers, both relationships and jobs seem precious, precarious things, often tied to one another, sometimes hanging by a thread.

Jin depicts Flushing as an immigrant purgatory, a refuge bounded by danger. Here English is not yet the common language, deportation remains a threat and old-country obligations -- a smuggler's payoff, a sister's e-mailed demand for money to buy a high-priced foreign car -- can impede fragile economic progress.

Family of missing woman seeks help from public

From NY1:

The family of a single mother from Queens who has been missing for more than a week say they are not giving up hope and are reaching out to the public for help.

Park still in disgraceful condition

From Uche Abanobi at Interactive Journalism:

Busted fences, cracked pathways, blown out lights- this is the scene at Frank M. Charles Memorial Park, a national park located by Jamaica Bay in Howard Beach.

Charles Park, which also includes the adjacent West Hamilton Beach Park, is a national preserve. It lies within the Gateway National Recreational Area and is owned by the National Park Service, a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This past month Will Shafroth, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks for the U.S. Department of Interior surveyed the park. He acknowledged that its features were more parallel with a city park, like the clay baseball field, playground, etc., which would make it more difficult for an NPS worker to maintain.

Earlier this year Congressman Gregory Meeks made a 2010 appropriations request for one million dollars towards Gateway National Parks Services regarding renovating Charles Park.

Despite this additional funding, the conditions at Charles Park have not improved. Fences, paths, lights are all still in disarray and no one seems to be able to account for the funds.

However, this is not the first time Charles Park has received large amounts of funding. In 2000, before the current redistricting, Congressman Anthony Weiner worked with Gateway NRA to secure one million dollars in funding to repair the park’s courts, fields, lighting, paths, etc.

“Congressman Anthony Weiner secured a one million dollar earmark. That money provided some repairs, but was not sufficient and was not in the view of some local residents distributed fairly between the two parks,” said Braton.

Sex-slaver faces 25 years

By WILLIAM J. GORTA, NY Post

A Queens man who bought a woman for $2,000 and forced her to work as a prostitute is the first person to be convicted under New York's new sex-trafficking law, authorities said yesterday.

David Brown, 32, of St. Albans, paid an old girlfriend for the troubled 19-year-old woman and forced her into the sex trade in 2008, said Queens DA Richard Brown.

The woman was compelled to have sex with about 30 men over 12 days, charging between $60 and $200, which she gave to David Brown, according to the DA.

He faces up to 25 years in prison after being convicted Tuesday on charges including kidnapping and sex trafficking.