In 13 years in and around New York, Augusto Noguera built an impressive life. From humble beginnings in Paraguay, he became a mainstay of his nation’s expatriate population, running a division of a construction company, working for charitable and political causes, and entertaining visiting dignitaries at his house in Flushing, Queens.
The crowning moment came in September, when President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay appointed him to an administrative post in the government’s New York consulate. It was a job Mr. Noguera had eagerly sought, friends said, as payback for supporting Mr. Lugo and other candidates in last year’s elections.
There was just one problem: Mr. Noguera was an illegal immigrant.
Today, he is locked in an immigration detention center in Arizona, awaiting deportation. His botched appointment has deeply embarrassed the Paraguayan government. And it has stirred a mix of shame, anger and dismay among his countrymen in New York, who have been agitating for a more robust consulate to help them build organizations and raise their community’s profile.
Only Mr. Noguera’s closest friends knew he was in the United States illegally, the men said. Representative Elvis Balbuena, a Paraguayan legislator who was a major supporter of his bid for the job, said Mr. Noguera had sneaked into the United States in the mid-1990s.
Shortly after dawn on Nov. 26, Mr. Noguera was detained by American immigration officials at the border crossing in San Ysidro, Calif., said Rubén Benítez Palma, Paraguay’s consul general in Los Angeles. Mr. Noguera was carrying someone else’s passport, Mr. Benítez said.
Legislative staffer Carl Gucciardi does his best to keep separate his simultaneous roles as an aide to Sen. Diane Savino - and as her campaign treasurer. It's not easy.
Gucciardi, who is Savino's $50,000-a-year research assistant, is one of 49 legislative staffers who also serve as treasurer of their boss' political campaigns.
One in five of New York's 212 state legislators relied on this two-for-one deal in the last two years, a New York Public Interest Research Group review of campaign and payroll records show.
It's not illegal, but it's a loophole that can create conflicts, good government advocates say.
For instance, workers who know who's writing campaign checks may treat a donor's request to meet with the legislator more favorably.
Miguel Martinez, once a rising star in Manhattan politics, was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday on three felony counts involving the misuse of public and private money, some of which was intended for nonprofit organizations.
Mr. Martinez resigned abruptly from the City Council on July 14, as federal prosecutors prepared to file criminal charges against him. Two days later, he pleaded guilty to the three counts.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of 57 to 71 months. Judge Crotty sentenced Mr. Martinez to 60 months on each count, with the three sentences to run concurrently, along with two years of supervised release. Mr. Martinez also must pay $106,000 in restitution.
Mr. Martinez admitted that throughout his time on the Council, beginning in 2002, he stole about $106,000, a large portion of which was intended for nonprofit groups, including $15,000 for the Washington Heights Art Center and $40,000 for the Upper Manhattan Council Assisting Neighbors. Mr. Martinez also admitted that he had approved fraudulent invoices submitted to his office in exchange for $51,000.
A judge has issued an interim court order shutting down the United Homeless Organization and seizing its assets, including bank accounts and vehicles.
The court order follows a request by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has sued the so-called charity, which has been under intense scrutiny by Fox 5's Arnold Diaz.
In November, after a series of reports by the Fox 5 News investigative team, Cuomo's office filed a lawsuit against UHO, its founder and president Stephen Riley, and its director Myra Walker, alleging that they used the group to dupe the public into donating cash to fund services for the homeless, when in reality the money was instead used for personal expenses.
Cuomo and UHO's critics have called the group an organized panhandling network. Arnold Diaz's investigation has showed that people pay the UHO a fee to the rent the table, jug, and UHO sign and then essentially pocket whatever money the public donates.
On the afternoon of November 19, cops say this guy grabbed a woman's property on the G train platform in Williamsburg and split. The video shows him in flight. They describe him as 15 to 18 years old, 5'5", wearing blue jeans, a blue jacket, and white sneakers at the time.
Police in Queens have released a photo of a suspect accused of exposing himself on a subway train.
Investigators say the man exposed himself to an 18-year-old girl early one morning eight days ago when he got on a Queens-bound G train at the Woodhaven Boulevard station.
The victim on the nearly empty train managed to take the photo and then gave it to investigators.
The suspect is described as about 40 years old, 6-feet tall, and wearing a white jacket, blue jeans, and a blue and white hat.
A strong case can be made that when it comes to energy and climate issues, Mr. Bloomberg is the most visionary public official in the country.
And a strong argument can also be made that on a personal level, he ranks among the worst individual polluters ever to hold public office.
Mr. Bloomberg owns a helicopter and two jets, both Falcon 900s. He flies everywhere on private jets, by far the least efficient form of transportation on or above the earth. He takes his jet to Bermuda many weekends. He has flown around the globe on it. He uses it to go to Washington. He is planning to get to Copenhagen for the climate conference by private jet, too.
The carbon math works out like this: by taking his Falcon 900 to Denmark, Mr. Bloomberg will be responsible for the release of 37 times the carbon dioxide than if he and his entourage flew on a scheduled commercial flight. The calculations were done at my request by Dimitri Simos, the developer of software used by the airline industry to assess aircraft emission and performance. Mr. Simos said that a Falcon 900 carrying eight people from Newark to Copenhagen would produce 21.6 tons of carbon dioxide. By adding eight people to the scheduled Scandinavian Airlines flight, the aircraft, usually an Airbus A330-300, would produce an additional 0.58 tons of carbon dioxide.
Mr. Bloomberg’s routine trips to Bermuda are even more carbon costly: the private jet produces 130 times more emissions than going commercial. On those jaunts, Mr. Simos said, the Falcon produces 4.3 tons of carbon dioxide; putting another two people on an American Airlines Boeing 757-200 that flies to Bermuda would produce only 66 more pounds.
In the case of Mr. Bloomberg, his addiction to private jets is striking because in so many other parts of his life, he appears fastidious about shared resources. The lighting and electronic gear in his family foundation building use 20 percent less energy than typical offices; the foundation recycles rainwater to irrigate a green roof; even most of the construction and demolition debris were recycled.
As it happens, Mr. Bloomberg is also a great public evangelist for high nutritional standards, but shakes salt on his pizza and loves a Big Mac.
There is a lesson here for everyone, whether they are in Copenhagen or New York or elsewhere. Human beings will produce as many tons of carbon emissions as they can afford. And we’ll have the fries with that.
The vigilance (or this case, lack thereof) with which our municipal government enforces the laws put in place to preserve our, the citizenry’s, quality of life speaks volumes about their attitude as public servants.
This is unacceptable. No one should have to live with this.
Well the attitude is that we don't have to. Bloomberg wants us all to leave. So he lets our neighborhoods become blighted dumps, hoping that we'll move out and spare the city the cost of forced gentrification. Especially during these tough economic times. Hey, how about calling the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit? I'm sure they are as vigilant in Brooklyn as they are in Queens. Heh.
Yellow caution tape separated a modest-sized home with a finely manicured lawn from the others on a quiet street in Cambria Heights on Monday, while officers from the NYPD’s Crime Scene Unit walked around the property gathering evidence.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Mathilda Theodore, 58, had been brutally beaten and robbed at gunpoint, inside her home at 115-75 231 St., where she has lived for the last 19 years.
At what her daughter speculated was 7:30 p.m. on Sunday evening, Theodore was taking her garbage out to the curb, when two armed men wearing black ski masks approached her and told her to “show them where the cash was,” according to her daughter.
Theodore took them to her bedroom where they searched through her jewelry and snatched up several boxes.
Theodore hoped the commotion would alert her tenant and prompt her to call for help, but she wasn’t home. The assailants broke down the door and as they were trying to disconnect a flat screen television that was affixed to a wall, Theodore tried to get away, but didn’t make it very far.
“She tried to run up the stairs and they grabbed her by the hair and hit her in the head several times with a gun,” Sainah said. “She had blood in her eyes so she couldn’t see too well, but she heard them say, ‘Let’s go, let’s go,’ and they ran out the door.”
Theodore was taken to North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital in Manhasset, where eight staples were required to close the laceration on her forehead. She was released and is recovering at home, but her daughter says she is in a lot of pain.
Even in this recession, the registers are still ringing at a steady pace in many of the businesses along 63rd Road between 97th and 98th Streets. Yet news that Costco Wholesale Corporation may open a store just a block away has made some of the small business owners worry that the big box store could severely slash their bottom line.
"We don't want them in the neighborhood," said Met Foods manager Ray Lopez. "It's going to hurt the business. It's going to hurt. If I drop 25 percent, it's a lot of business to me."
Costco could replace a Home Depot store that pulled out of a deal to take space in the new Rego Center shopping mall which is slated to open early next year.
While there are a number of big box stores in the area, local business owners say they don't want in the area stores where shoppers can buy most of what they need all in one place.
"We didn't want the Wal-Mart, why would we want a Costco?" said Lopez.
Yet it might be too late to fight the plans. Last week, executives from Vornado Realty, the company developing the new shopping hub, told the local community board it is waiting for the final word from Costco.
When a developer built an upscale apartment building in the Westchester Square area of the north Bronx, complete with balconies and plans for a day care center, neighbors took it as a sign that their scruffy community was on the rise.
But now, a year later, the six-story brick building has been converted into a homeless shelter for more than three dozen families. Instead of a cause for hope, local leaders see the building, at 1564 St. Peter’s Avenue, as an emblem of the neighborhood’s problems, and a fresh source of kindling for their anger at City Hall.
City officials, however, say the homeless problem has reached such dire levels that they have no choice but to open shelters, sometimes at short notice. Homelessness has risen 30 percent in this fiscal year compared with last year, according to the Department of Homeless Services. Roughly 38 percent of the city’s homeless families come from the Bronx, more than any other borough.
The city began sending homeless families to St. Peter’s Avenue in August, paying $90 per unit per day, according to a letter Robert V. Hess, the commissioner of homeless services, wrote to the comptroller’s office.
Now this is interesting...Homeless families were moved in starting in August, yet on September 1, the doors were still sealed with plywood.
And the REQUEST FOR JOINT FDNY/DOB INSPECTION filed the following day still has not been answered. Judging from the language, it looks like it probably was requested by the DOB inspector that answered the original complaint. If the DOB can't get inspectors to answer complaints, then it doesn't bode well for the rest of us.
Oh well, they're just poor people, not luxury condo owners. If they burn to death City Hall won't care...
After years of debate and a string of corruption scandals, state officials moved on Friday to impose sweeping new oversight provisions on the state’s hundreds of public authorities, which have long functioned as a virtual shadow government largely immune to public accountability.
The law, passed by the Legislature this month and signed by Gov. David A. Paterson on Friday, was hailed by government watchdog groups as one of the most significant reforms in decades. It was one of the few such efforts led chiefly by the Legislature, long a place where bills intended to promote greater government accountability go to wither and die.
Public authorities have been a powerful yet inscrutable force in New York for decades, charged with running the state’s highways and mass transit systems, spearheading economic development and managing power plants. They range from the sprawling Metropolitan Transportation Authority to the small Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority.
“Today, we return to the control of the people of the state their most powerful institutions,” said Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat, who was a chief sponsor of the new legislation. “If you go to school in New York City, you use the School Construction Authority. If you go to a hospital, you use the Health and Hospitals Corporation. The subways. The buses. The lives of New Yorkers are impacted by the operations of state authorities to an infinitely greater extent than they are by the departments of state government.”
For the first time, board members of those authorities will have a legal obligation, known as a fiduciary duty, to protect the interests and mission of the authorities they supervise, rather than being beholden to the mayors, governors and legislative leaders who appoint them. The new law will require authorities to seek approval from the state comptroller for most contracts of over $1 million that are not competitively bid.
The cash-squeezed MTA is considering eliminating free MetroCards for the hundreds of thousands of students who use the passes to get to school, the Daily News has learned.
Under a possible budget-saving measure, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would charge students half-price fares next year - and full fares starting in 2011, sources told The News.
About 550,000 schoolkids get free or discounted bus and subway passes under a program the state and city once fully funded.
The proposal to end free student MetroCards is bound to draw howls of protest from parents, especially those struggling to make ends meet or with more than one child in school.
Eligibility depends on age and how far students live from school, not income.
Sounds like local school zoning is going to be more important than ever.
Alley Pond Environmental Center is about to get a $7 million makeover.
The popular nature center at 228-06 Northern Blvd. in Douglaston has been bursting at the seams for years, but there is little room to expand because of the adjacent park and marshes. “You can’t double the footprint without encroaching into the park,” said Irene Scheid, APEC executive director. “We can’t go to two floors because we would need an expensive elevator and because of the marshland,” which couldn’t take the extra weight.
Instead the city, which operates the nature center, has decided to install six modular units that will be connected to the existing building via a walkway. The APEC facility — which originated as an outdoor furniture store — will be gutted, redesigned and have a new floor and walls installed.
“We will make it as green as possible,” Scheid said. “We hope the work will start next August.”
More than $5.5 million has been allocated by area elected officials including state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose), Borough President Helen Marshall, Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Little Neck), Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and the entire Queens City Council delegation. The rest has come from a three-year fundraising effort.
The reason why the project is costing so much money is due to the marshlands. The city has to put out a contract for soil tests and borings for the modular units, according to Scheid, and that it’s currently “in a holding pattern.”
The city wants to ensure that the modulars don’t sink and are firmly grounded before their installation. Scheid said the units will add 5,000 square feet of additional space.
We here in Woodside are having a really terrible time trying to oust St. John's Bread & Life program from handing out free food to day workers (non-residents) for hours in front of our kids' playground. Needless to say, they invade the playground & bathrooms; the good-for-nothing attendant does nothing. She's even been seen on the free food line with the derelicts. This is a disgrace for a decently paid city employee! The nun who manages the mobile soup kitchen (Sister Kathy Byrnes) refuses to move her location even a few blocks away from the playground so as to spare the children this creepy intrusion. We might as well take the kids to the Bowery Mission for their play dates. The St. John's program is run by a bunch of sanctimonious, smug assholes. They never consulted with Woodside residents about coming here and they don't give a crap about our children! Their intrusion into our neighborhood is unwanted and unneeded. None of the residents ever take food from them. The 108 precinct will remove these men if we bombard them with calls but will not station an officer at the playground. Not even a rookie or an auxiliary cop. The community board is completely weak and feckless when comes to this matter as they are in all things concerning Woodside. This "charity" has ruined the quality of life here by attracting hundreds of these guys. By their own count, they feed 350 men on a Tuesday morning (9:30 to 11:30). HELP!!! Fellow residents, please call TONY BUTLER at St. John's program at (718)574-0058 ext.118 and tell him this is an unwelcome intrusion into our neighborhood!
The City Council has rejected the Bloomberg administration's proposal to convert a former national guard armory in the Bronx into a shopping mall.
It was the first time, city council members said, that an economic development initiative spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg has failed in a full council vote.
Negotiations had centered on the issue of a living wage: whether retailers at the mall would be forced to pay $11.50 an hour or more. City council members supported the idea; Mayor Bloomberg opposed it.
Last week, Mayor Bloomberg said dictating wages would be meddling in the marketplace.
Members said negotiations broke down in the past few days. The vote was 45-to-1, with one abstention.
The 1 "yes" came from outgoing council member Helen Sears.
Bayside bar and restaurant First Edition closed this week after 61 years on Bell Boulevard due to a loss in business, according to a sign posted in the eatery’s window.
The restaurant, located at 41-08 Bell Blvd. near the Long Island Rail Road station, thanked its loyal customers and posted a sign in the window that read “after serving the Bayside community for the past 61 years, First Edition has been forced to close our doors due to declining business brought on by the economic conditions of the past year.”
First Edition was primarily a sports bar, but it also served food, including wraps, sandwiches, pasta and gourmet pizzas.
An employee of a Westchester Square pharmacy, who was arrested after arguing with a traffic agent over a parking ticket, has won support from area merchants who claim the traffic agent lied about George Collazo physically assaulting her while issuing a summons.
Collazo, 23, was charged with menacing and assault after he allegedly grabbed an electronic parking ticket device out of the traffic agent’s hands. The agent was writing Collazo an expired muni-meter parking summons at 1:15pm on Thursday, December 3.
Video from surveillance cameras outside Metro Optics in Westchester Square, across from where the alleged crime occurred, show Collazo and the agent in a heated exchange, but at no time is any physical force used. A Metro Optics employee also witnessed the exchange.
“I was sitting near the door because I manage Metro Optics,” Aurora Susi said. “I watched the whole thing. He really didn’t touch her.”
I write with a great sense of urgency in respectfully calling upon you to forego an appeal of last week’s decision in Kaur v. New York State Urban Development Corporation, and to order a statewide moratorium on the use of eminent domain within the State of New York pending legislative action.
As you are aware, last week’s court decision struck down as unconstitutional the taking of property by the Urban Development Corporation d/b/a“ESDC” for the benefit of Columbia University. The court found ESDC violated both state and federal due process clauses in an effort to prevent affected property owners from obtaining information, and that ESDC’s finding of blight was “bereft of facts which established the neighborhood in question was blighted.” Furthermore, ESDC’s determination that the project even has a public use, benefit or civic purpose is wholly unsupported by the record. The court also noted the glaring conflict of interest, which reeks of bad faith, that existed as a result of ESDC and Columbia using the exact same consultant to review the project and determine blight.
You may recall that back in 2005 you and I stood on the steps of City Hall together with several members of the City Council to protest the United States Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London which affirmed the use of eminent domain for private development that entails a so-called “public use.” That decision contained language encouraging states to review their own eminent domain statutes. Some states have done just that. It is now New York’s turn.
At the time of the Kelo decision, as a State Senator and Minority Leader you understood that the current process is flawed and called for a blanket moratorium on the use of eminent domain. The same reasons for instituting a moratorium back then still exist. In fact they are even more urgent given the Kaur decision, and the recent decision by the Court of Appeals affirming the taking in the case involving Atlantic Yards. It is my understanding you recently and publicly committed to a full objective review of that project and its financing.
As Chair of the Senate’s Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee, I held hearings involving the topic of eminent domain. I have gone on record on numerous occasions against what I perceive to be the abuse of eminent domain in this state, particularly as it relates to private development projects. I have often described that abuse as a “mugging”, and one equal to “placing a gun to the community’s head”.
The Columbia decision has intolerably heightened the confusion and uncertainty over what, if anything, constrains the ESDC from taking anyone’s property whenever it suits its fancy. For one, no one knows what “blight” is—the crucial and fundamental issue in both the Columbia and Atlantic Yards cases. What is clear, however, are the signals that the ESDC was not acting in good faith. This I would suggest, is evidenced by the court’s statement that “the record before ESDC contains no evidence whatsoever that Manhattanville was blighted prior to Columbia gaining control over the vast majority of property therein.” The opinion also makes a strong case that the blight determination in that case was severely flawed, and in large part the product of the ESDC’s desire to transfer property to a “private elite education institution”. As a result, I am left with my own opinion, and that of others in my community, that these type of actions on the part of the ESDC are part of an insidious form of discrimination and civil rights violations that must not stand. As the Kaur decision reads, “‘few policies have done more to destroy community and opportunity for minorities than eminent domain.’” In fact, the Court found that the ESDC’s actions in the Columbia expansion is, “clear evidence of that reality. The unbridled use of eminent domain not only disproportionately affects minority communities, but threatens basic principles of property contained in the Fifth Amendment.”
For these and other reasons I request that you urge the ESDC not to appeal the Kaur decision. Please impose a statewide moratorium on further eminent domain actions and then let us work together on a legislative solution. I am currently working on a bill to reform how eminent domain is exercised in the State of New York. The purpose is not to hamper development, but to make the process more transparent and provide stakeholders with substantive due process. This will result in development that reflects community input and serves community needs. Your participation will be critical. An enlightened eminent domain procedure will be a significant victory for all involved.
I respectfully request your support on these issues and am ready to stand with you publicly again, this time for the purpose of announcing actions that will lead to genuine reform. Please feel free to contact me for any further discussion at 212-222-7315, or in my Albany office at 518-455-2441. I look forward to hearing from you at the earliest convenience, and I thank you in advance for your attention to this very important matter.
A Woodside convert to Islam who openly sympathizes with al-Qaeda and the Taliban says he has left the country. The move comes in advance of a protest planned outside his home 10 days from now, though he said he plans to return and did not link his departure to the upcoming rally.
Yousef al-Khattab, who operates a website called Revolution Islam and has praised the violent acts of radical Muslims including U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who allegedly killed 13 fellow soldiers and wounded 38 more at Fort Hood in Texas last month, said on Tuesday that he is outside of the United States now, though he did not specify where.
Al-Khattab said he does not plan to be at his home at 54-11 Woodside Ave. on Dec. 20, when a protest organized by the New York City-based Jewish Defense Organization is scheduled to be held at 1 p.m. He spoke about the protesters, his beliefs, the future of the United States and other issues in an audio clip posted online in response to questions emailed to him by the Queens Chronicle. The recording is available at revolutionmuslim.blip.tv.
Asked if he wants the U.S. government to be replaced by Islamic rule, he says that he is not actively seeking that, but believes that it will inevitably happen, even if it takes hundreds of years.
Mr. Quintessenza has owned the site for about 15 years, and though his ambitions were high, the lot still sits empty, covered in weeds and gravel. A pile of rusty paint cans stand next to old metal beams leaning against the fence.
He had planned a grand building with a skylight in the center and a lobby filled with mosaics, a brick-and-mortar memorial to his son Joseph, who died of leukemia last April. The Joseph Nicholas Quintessenza Medical Arts Center would promote leukemia research and help disabled children, especially those with autism, like Joseph.
“I thought it would be a great tribute,” said Mr. Quintessenza, standing atop a pile of dirt. He designed the plans himself, stealing time from his work on the residential properties he owns throughout the Bronx. But he ran into zoning problems and, with the economic crisis battering the city, he was unable to line up prospective tenants or secure financing for construction. Now he said he’s left paying nearly $20,000 a year in property taxes for an empty lot.
The history of the weed-strewn site only makes the situation bleaker. A century-old mansion that was revered among local history lovers used to stand there, at the corner of Williamsbridge Road and Pierce Avenue. Mr. Quintessenza bought the building in 1994 and moved the offices of his company, Jocarl Management, inside while renting out space to two families and a real estate agent.
He said the property taxes became too punishing, and, against strong community opposition, he razed the house in 2006 with a plan to build a row of three-family homes.
Ok, he didn't "run into zoning problems". The zoning was changed because people like him were tearing down old historic homes and replacing them with multi-family crap. He demo'ed the former Arnow Mansion to try to sneak in the multi-family housing before the zoning was passed. When you are renting out two residential units and an office, the property taxes on a house you bought 15 years ago are more than covered. Sorry that your kid died but you're just a bad businessman.
I'm not sure that [Hiram Monserrate] did himself any favors with this sit-down earlier in the week with WNBC's Chuck Scarborough, who opened by asking the Queens Democrat: "I take it you're here today to announce your resignation?"
Monserrate replied:
"No, that's not what I’m here for. I'm actually here because you invited me to come on the show, Chuck."
It went downhill from there, with Scarborough accusing Monserrate of "doing a pretty thorough job at disgracing" the Senate and "betraying the Democrats", starting with the June 8 coup on continuing through the "embarrassment" of his trial.
There’s a substantiated rumor floating around that there was a raid in the 1063 Jackson Ave condos this past weekend, but this ain’t some schoolboy prank. The massive bust supposedly unearthed a very large, but officially unknown amount of marijuana, and half a million bucks in cash.
So the gist is that the condo owners rented their unit out to drug dealers. Ah, the "new" LIC!
Response to Census 2010 recruiting efforts has been overwhelming, but New York Regional Census Center (NYRCC) officials are still testing applicants for possible future employment in hard to count areas in which the questionnaire mailback response rate has traditionally been low and which may face challenges such as language barriers or cultural isolation.
Interested applicants should be advised that recruitment will be targeted, and there is a possibility that recruitment will not be conducted in their area at this time.
If an applicant has already taken and passed the Census test, but was not hired, he or she does not have to retake the test. The applicant’s information remains on file, and he or she will be eligible to be called for Census work for a few positions beginning in March 2010, and considerably more positions in late April 2010.
All Census taker positions are short term, temporary jobs, determined by the volume of work in each neighborhood. Hiring is based on need in a particular geographic area and test score, from the highest score down. All Census takers must be able to speak English, but people with bilingual skills are needed in communities where a large number of residents primarily speak other languages.
If an applicant was hired to work as a Census taker in the spring of 2009, he or she does not have to take another test. Their information remains in Census files and they could be called back for Census taker work in the spring of 2010.
Census taker positions are not guaranteed to anyone. Simply passing the test does not guarantee hiring, nor does previous Census employment.
Census taker jobs are excellent for people who want to work part-time, are between jobs, or who want to earn extra money and help their community. These short-term jobs offer good pay, flexible hours, paid training, and reimbursement for authorized work-related expenses such as mileage incurred while conducting Census work. Best of all, Census takers work right in their own communities.
Interested applicants should monitor the website www.2010censusjobs.gov for more information on Census taker positions.
Apply today by calling 1-866-861-2010. You will be informed as to whether the Census Bureau is currently recruiting in your area and if so, you will be directed to your local Census office to schedule a test. If the Census Bureau is not currently recruiting in your area, your name will be placed on a “will call” list for possible future opportunities.
A push by Carroll Gardens preservationists to landmark more of the neighborhood has unleashed a backlash from some homeowners and merchants who don't want the city to regulate how their buildings must look.
The battle is already pitting oldtimers - many part of the neighborhood's dwindling number of Italian residents - against relative newcomers.
"I bought my house under the pretense that I can do what I want to it - inside and outside," said Butch Mule, 66, who grew up in the neighborhood and now owns a home on Degraw St.
Critics don't want the neighborhood's existing two-block historic district expanded because of the expense of adhering to historic guidelines. Replacing windows, staircases and front gates could cost thousands more, because the Landmarks Preservation Commission would require designs with a late 19th century appearance.
But advocates say landmarking is the best way to protect the oldtime charm of the brownstone neighborhood.
"The neighborhood has become so popular because of what it [looks like]," said architect John Hathaway, 52, who has lived in a house on Second St. for 30 years.
The debate over landmark status is part of the fight about over-development in Carroll Gardens. In October, the city adopted zoning rules limiting the size of new buildings in the neighborhood to five stories on most blocks.
Advocates for the landmark status say the zoning changes don't go far enough. "We don't want buildings to get funky additions on top and inappropriate modifications to the facade," said Hathaway.
Ask Sunnyside Gardens homeowners if they regret being landmarked.
The shuttered Swedish Home for Aged in Sunnyside is nearing the end of its life, with demolition of the former Vanderbilt mansion and residence now in full swing.
Preservationists were disappointed when the Landmarks Preservation Commission failed to consider the mansion for protective landmark status, but members of the Clove Lakes Civic Association decided to support Calcagno's plan and reject the push for landmarking.
Mary Ann McGowan, president of the civic association, said everyone is sorry to see the historic home go. But she said neighbors believe the developer's plan will keep most of the large old trees on the site and is better than the alternative -- building homes there.
"At least this way we maintain the campus and property around it," she said. "We are hoping that the promises made to us are lived up to, and if they are, I think everyone will be happy."
The infamous "rubber rooms" where teachers twiddle their thumbs while under investigation are unconstitutional, inhumane and even toxic, a new federal suit charges.
Six current and former teachers are asking a judge to shut down the detention centers for teachers who have been booted from the classroom.
Their lawyer, Joy Hochstadt, said terrible rubber room conditions are designed to humiliate teachers into quitting before a disciplinary hearing.
Teachers are "herded into over-crowded spaces" and "detention camp environments ... of trailers within chain-link cages, prison-style, supervised by a uniformed employee referred to as a 'warden,'" says the complaint, filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Hochstadt charged that a quarter of teachers assigned to a midtown rubber room fell ill because of poor air circulation. The site has been replaced by trailers in Washington Heights.
Under a bill introduced Wednesday in the City Council by Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx) and Annabel Palma (D-Bronx), developers and others who benefit from city subsidies for their property deals will have to pay a living wage for the ensuing jobs that are created.
The bill would accomplish by law what community activists and members of the Bronx Council delegation have been trying to impose - for the first time ever in the city - on the Related Companies, the city-chosen developer of the long-vacant Bronx armory.
Backers of the new bill say its passage would avoid future fights like the Kingsbridge Armory battle by making a living wage a citywide mandate rather than targeting one developer as a test case.
A living wage is defined as $10 an hour plus benefits or $11.50 without benefits, as compared to the minimum wage of $7.25.
Those pushing for a living wage, as part of a community benefits agreement with the developer, argued Related was getting "a sweetheart deal" from the city - including $14 million in various tax breaks and exemptions, plus a bargain $5 million purchase price for the city-owned armory.
Such taxpayer-funded largesse should be conditioned on creating more than just marginal-income jobs in the state's poorest borough, according to Bronx officials.
But aides to Mayor Bloomberg and representatives of the Related Companies said a mandated living wage would kill the mall project because potential retail tenants would balk at paying salaries higher than regional competitors.
The state-of-the-art French automated self-cleaning pay toilets at Herald and Greeley Squares, unveiled in January 2001 with fanfare befitting a papal visit, worked about 90 percent of the time.
But that was not enough, said Daniel A. Biederman, president of the 34th Street Partnership, the business improvement district that runs the two triangular parklets north and south of West 34th Street and Broadway.
Besides, the toilets were a beast and an expense to maintain. Annoyingly, they needed a two-minute break between each user for the nozzles and sprays to do their thing. Most important, they never quite caught fire: Between the 25-cent entrance fee and what focus groups described as a profound mistrust of automation in the toilet sphere, use steadily dropped from 28,000 visits the first year to fewer than half that in 2007.
“It wasn’t a bad experience,” Mr. Biederman said. “It just wasn’t a great experience, and we wanted it to be great.”
And so, even as the city rolled out the first of its planned 20 automated pay toilets (different manufacturer; possibly fewer problems) with equal fanfare last year, the 34th Street Partnership, leader in the postmodernization of the urban public restroom, was bravely turning back the clock.
In May 2008, the partnership quietly shut down the A.P.T.’s.
This past summer, it replaced them with bathrooms cleaned the old-fashioned way: by hand.
And now, after a soft opening and a few months working out kinks, the 34th Street Partnership is proud to present what Mr. Biederman calls “a quality deluxe manual restroom experience.”
The LIRR has signed off on a plan spearheaded by Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley to beautify the intersection of Fresh Pond Road and Metropolitan Avenue, which is currently dominated by a run-down building that was formerly home to a newsstand.
Crowley (D-Middle Village) was joined at the site in September by fellow elected officials to call on the LIRR, which owns the property, to allow a community greenspace be created until a plan to develop the area moves forward. That plan has been delayed for years, leaving the structure to deteriorate at the intersection where Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood meet.
“I am excited that the LIRR has approved our plan to clean up and green up the property,” said Crowley in a statement. “For the past decade this abandoned old newsstand has invited graffiti, vandalism and traffic. As one of the busiest intersections in Queens, beautifying this corner will help east traffic tension, reduce crime and attract consumers to surrounding businesses.”
The next step, according to Crowley, is securing funding for the project. Her office is estimating that about $100,000 will be needed to demolish the structure and replace it with greenery and benches. She plans on working with city and state officials, including Assemblymembers Mike Miller (D-Glendale) and Cathy Nolan (D-Ridgewood) in hopes of finding money to complete the intersection’s transformation.
Police say officers found a woman who was stabbed to death in a loft in Long Island City, Queens on Saturday.
The 49-year-old woman, who received multiple stab wounds to her torso and back and had packing tape around her neck, was found just after 11 a.m.
She was declared dead on the scene.
Locals said two other women ran out of the building to ask for someone to call for police.
While locals told NY1 that a couple lives in the building, and that some artists live in the area, Department of Buildings records show that the building is intended for industrial use and not residential use.
As of late Saturday, police were still investigating the incident.
A substandard and insanitary apartment in a substandard and insanitary neighborhood.
Perfection.
I signed a contract on the spot. Wouldn't you?
I moved in. It was no surprise that so many others were so happy to live in this substandard and insanitary neighborhood.
The first neighbor I met was Berman V. Parker. He lived a few doors down. He was so envious because his place was substandard, but it was only a bit cluttered, not insanitary. I told him I'd come over some time and we could fix that.
We did. The best part was unleashing the Ebola virus, the plague and some fungus into his kitty litter box. We fixed his place, but good.
I've since had some great times in my apartment and neighborhood since then. The bar around the corner? So substandard and insanitary numerous publications have chosen it as one of the best bars in the country and in New York City.
We had everything we could ever want. Our slice of substandard heaven was the envy of the underutilized borough.
Until one day a very generous guy came around. Called himself a developer. Said he was going to standardize and sanitize. He was going to obliterate it to save it. Raze the neighborhood to fix the cracks, the patch of weeds, the touches of graffiti. In pursuit of that noble goal he would have to take my substandard and insanitary home along with the substandard and insanitary homes of my neighbors. He said he was going to take the whole glorious substandard and insanitary neighborhood.
Hey, I couldn't blame him. That's the type of neighborhood we all covet.
Nearly two years after a scandal brought him down, former Governor Eliot Spitzer is considering another run for public office.
NY1 has learned that in recent days, Spitzer has discussed with at least one Democratic fundraiser about a return to public office, including running for state comptroller or again for state attorney general.
However, a source close to Spitzer denied these allegations.
The New York Post reported today that Spitzer is seriously eyeing a run for state comptroller, a position currently held by Thomas DiNapoli.
Spitzer has previously strongly denied he would run for office again.
Some New Yorkers told NY1 they think it’s a bad idea for Spitzer to return to politics.
[Brooklyn] Community Board 6 this week unanimously approved a policy it hopes will protect the district from the perils of unscrupulous contractors.
Under the policy, all new construction, substantial renovations or additions totalling 10,000 square feet that come before the board for review would be subject to a series of actions called the “large project review process,” which asks applicants for as much information as possible about a project, and requests that a commitment is made to follow responsible development standards.
The standards include a range of items, including a “history and commitment to complying with applicable public laws,” maintaining safe work sites, and having a verifiable and established track record.
“Too often, our community has seen developers, contractors and subcontractors who violate the health, safety, buildings, noise, and workplace laws and standards of New York City, jeopardize the health and lives of their workers, and permit dangerous and severe nuisances for adjacent property owners,” the board states as a rationale for the policy.
The board has tweaked and re-tweaked is responsible development policy for months, and finally approved the measure at its Dec. 9 meeting.
A city project that would halt flooding in Bayside and filter sewer overflow in Douglaston as well as upgrading grasslands along Northern Boulevard will be completed by November 2010, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Environmental Protection said this week.
The first phase of the project, which was completed in 2007, was aimed at preventing flooding in Bayside Hills. Storm drain lines were installed at a number of sites, including Springfield Boulevard and 46th Avenue as well as areas near the Cross Island Parkway and Queensborough Community College.
The project’s second phase, which will be finished in November, is located on a huge lot along Northern Boulevard in Douglaston. The lot, near the Alley Pond Environmental Center, is the site of an old pumping station. Sewer overflow and stormwater are to be held in a large tank at the site before being filtered and directed back to a water treatment plant.
Iannece said the cost of the project is estimated at anywhere between $125 million and $150 million.
City officials and union representatives testifying at a City Council hearing on Thursday presented divergent evaluations of a firefighter dispatching system that was instituted in May.
The new system, referred to as unified call-taking, is meant to streamline the way firefighters are sent out on runs, but it has quickly become the subject of some controversy. Fire union officials say it sometimes provides firefighters with incomplete or inaccurate information, even as the city has credited the new system with helping to cut response times to historic lows.
“It saves valuable time,” Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler told the council members. “That is unassailable, in my opinion.”
But Capt. Alexander Hagan, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association union, called reports of lower response time “statistical trickery,” adding, “The people were not getting a faster response time. They were getting a snow job.”
Mr. Skyler repeatedly told the council members that limiting emergency calls to one call taker was faster and more efficient. But some council members asked whether 911 operators, trained primarily in responding to crimes rather than fires, might take longer to elicit information that could benefit firefighters.
And fire union officials asserted that response times were being calculated in a misleading way. They said such calculations before the new system began included the time that fire dispatchers spent on the phone questioning callers. Now, the times do not include the period that 911 dispatchers are making similar queries, union officials said.
Facing a massive budget crisis, the cash-squeezed MTA is moving to implement sweeping service cuts - again - including shutting down dozens of bus routes.
Two subway lines also would be wiped off the map and four stations would be shuttered overnight under the plan expected to go before a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee on Monday.
If it sounds familiar, it is. The lineup is the same roster of reductions threatened earlier this year when the MTA was lobbying for a state bailout. The cuts never happened.
But in recent weeks the MTA has been rocked by bad news. The state - struggling with its own budget mess - slashed transit funding by $143 million. And cash from state payroll taxes is coming in about $200 million short of what the state had planned for mass transit.
Even with 2010 service cuts, the MTA will have to find other ways to plug the sudden budget gap, sources said.
A local community group has reiterated its opposition to a home enlargement that leaves only half an inch between the structure and its neighbor.
At Community Board 14’s December meeting, held at Public School 249, Caton Avenue and Marlborough Road, board members voted resoundingly to oppose renewing a permit to allow the owners of 1704 Avenue N to complete construction on their house’s extension, as two years ago they had voted against allowing the extension to be continued.
The issue came up initially because of the 2007 Midwood rezoning. The extension was begun under the old zoning, and was halted by the Department of Buildings (DOB) upon the rezoning’s completion, which rendered it illegal.
Despite CB 14’s opposition, which is advisory only, and despite the opposition of the adjacent homeowner and other nearby residents, the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) had decided in favor of the owners of 1704 Avenue N in April, 2008, based on their determination that enough money had been expended, and enough construction had been done, to vest the project in the old zoning.
But, the permission to complete the project was of 18 months duration; the 18 months were up in August, and construction has not been completed because, said attorney Stuart Klein during a public hearing at the board office, 810 East 16th Street, much of the time there has been a stop work order in effect.
DOB, Klein said, had put a stay on construction while they audited the plans. “They were ultimately approved,” he recounted, “and a permit was issued in May, 2009. However, we got stopped on the expiration of the 18-month period in August.”
Ellen Messing, who lives at 1710 Avenue N, went over a laundry list of complaints. While Klein contended he had served notice to nearby residents, she said that she and another neighbor had not received notification of the hearing from Klein, even though CB 14 requires the applicant’s attorney to provide notice to nearby neighbors.
Beyond notification, though, the construction is problematic from Messing’s perspective. “I live there,” she noted, asking, “What are my rights? There is half an inch currently between the back of their house and my side property. Their wall and the eave of my house are less than 18 inches apart. And the final finishes are not yet on that property. With the addition of stucco, it’s going to be closer.”
The impact has extended to her business, Messing added. “I am a sole proprietor,” she stressed, explaining that because she was required to allow her neighbors’ workers onto her property to do some work, “I was told I had to have scaffolding up to my windows, I could not have access to my side yard, and if they are allowed to continue, I will not be allowed to work. I don’t think that’s fair. The house can stay the way it is. It’s perfectly safe. I don’t want my rights infringed upon any more.”
In addition, Messing contended that the owners of 1704, “Have continuously lied” to DOB. “When I called to complain that there was a stop work order and they were installing concrete slabs for air conditioning units, they told the Buildings Department, Oh, no, we’re fixing our lawn.
So, they are going to be rewarded by BSA for their flagrant DOB violations by being issued a variance. Don't you love this city?
Residents of a quiet residential block in Maspeth have been terrorized for several years by an emotionally disturbed man who they say regularly harasses neighbors and has turned his home into a crack house.
While residents of 66th Street will have some temporary relief after the individual, Hani Nasser, was recently jailed on assault charges, they worry about the condition of his house at 52-45 66th Street, which is unsecured and could attract squatters and junkies.
“It’s been a non-stop nightmare,” said one longtime resident of the block who asked to remain anonymous. “He has basically turned this into a crack house” that attracts underage teenagers at all hours of the night, the resident added.
Despite appeals to the 104th Precinct, Community Board 5 and local elected officials and civic groups, the problems have continued. “Half the time they don’t even show,” the resident said of the precinct. “They treat it like it’s a joke… There is not another single problem on this block,” which is home to several dozen children, he said. “The people living on both sides are terrorized. He gets confrontational and targets the neighbors.”
Civic leader Roe Daraio, president of Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together, has been working with 66th Street residents in hopes of forcing the city to take action. “It’s not really progress, but the guy is in jail right now,” she said. Adjacent residents were affected when a pipe in the house burst last year and are concerned that the house will be left to deteriorate, added Daraio.
One thing left out of this article is that the plumbing in the house hasn't worked for quite some time so Mr. Nasser was using his yard as a toilet...
A musician was found shot to death in his Brooklyn apartment early today.
Troy Young, 29, was discovered lying on the floor of his basement apartment at 36 4th Street in Carroll Gardens shortly after midnight with a bullet wound to his head, police said.
Officers went to the apartment after a friend reported he hadn’t been seen in several days.
Young had lived in the building for about 18 months, said neighbor Paul Engelbrecht. "I saw him on Tuesday, and everything was good. He was laughing," he said.
"He’s a very quiet guy. He’d have some people over sometimes on Fridays or Saturdays, one or two, not a lot. He was a no problem guy."
Well he did have a problem when the DOB showed up to inspect the illegal conversion he was living in and documented that a "VERY AGGRESSIVE MALE OCCUPANT" turned them away.
A city agency is running rogue in Queens, a newly elected lawmaker is charging.
The Buildings Department filed paperwork asserting its inspectors tried to get access to more than 500 homes in College Point and Flushing to check for illegal conversions in a two-month span - including Councilman-elect Dan Halloran's residence.
Halloran, who just won a seat in the 19th Council District, said records show an inspector twice tried to access his Flushing home.
But he said he never got an "LS-4 No Access" notice - posted when inspectors fail to gain entry twice - suggesting no one ever came. His own case raises troubling questions, he said, about how many of the other inspections were actually conducted.
But a Buildings Department official denied the allegation.
"Our records indicate that we responded to every one of the 538 illegal-conversion complaints within Community Board 7 in October and November," said spokesman Tony Sclafani, adding that forms were posted and mailed to each address after the failed attempts.
The spike in attempted inspections is part of the agency's effort to rake in more revenue, Halloran charged, noting that some of the structures that allegedly had illegally converted apartments were demolished years ago.
One College Point address that had an attempted inspection almost three months ago had been condemned in 2006, Halloran said, citing agency records.
"They're looking to push their numbers up," he said. "This is disgraceful."
Halloran said he plans to call for a probe of the agency by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown and the city Department of Investigation.
"I would love to have more people in the Buildings Department doing inspections," Halloran said. "Real ones - ones that actually take place."
Not only did Ozell Neely collect $2,200 a month in rent on a house prosecutors contend he didn't own, but they say he also tried to evict a tenant when the woman stopped paying in a dispute over whether promised repairs had been made.
Neely's attorney argues that his client acted like a landlord and sought the eviction because he is the rightful owner, having bought the property in a foreclosure proceeding.
Neely, the 47-year-old operator of Welcome Home Realty in Queens, was arrested Tuesday on burglary, grand larceny and other charges after prosecutors say he rented out the abandoned home in Baldwin, on Long Island, that he didn't own. He faces a maximum of seven years in prison if convicted.
Without placing a single bet, a man in New York City has made a decent living on off-track-betting. Jesus Leonardo collects discarded betting slips (many of them) and finds winners that others have tossed, according to The New York Times.
"It is literally found money," he said to the paper. Leonardo spends more than 10 hours a day feeding the found slips through a ticket scanner. He said he has been doing this for the last 10 years and figures that he has won about half a million dollars on thoroughbred races across the country.
Off-track betting, or OTB, refers to sanctioned gambling on horse racing outside a race track.
Leonardo is a "stooper" -- a person who hangs around racetracks and betting parlors picking up tickets thrown away by others. Stoopers have been part of racing since the 1930s; they are tolerated as long as they do not harass customers.
He collects thousands of tickets each day. He even hired two others to collects tickets at other betting parlors. He takes the trash home and organizes the tickets into stacks of 300, then returns the next day and feeds them through the ticket scanner. The work is intense enough that he takes a lunch break.
According to The Times, Leonardo, who has a wife and two teenage boys, fell into his career in 1999 after tossing a $900 winning ticket and then frantically searching for it. He collected tossed tickets, but never found his winner, instead he found two other winners worth $2000. He has been doing it ever since.
Italicized passages and many of the photos come from other websites. The links to these websites are provided within the posts.
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From the NY Times:
