Nazi mudslinging in 24th AD race

From the Daily News:

Several readers have now forwarded this rather stunning piece of mail that slams Bob Friedrich, who will face off Tuesday against David Weprin in a special election to fill the Queens Assembly seat vacated by Weprin's now-councilman brother, Mark.

The mail features a Swastika superimposed over a generic photo of police tape. It arrived in mailboxes in Glen Oaks, a 10,000-person co-op on the Nassau/Queens line that is heavily Jewish.

As you can see from the mailer that appears in full after the jump, Friedrich himself was on the mailing list.

The piece accuses Friedrich, who, like Weprin, is Jewish, of being an "extremist" who is "out of touch with our community's values." According to Friedrich's campaign manager, Jay Golub, this stems from comments Friedrich made that murder should carry a heavier penalty than hate crimes.

Weprin's campaign manager Corey Bearak confirmed the mailer is indeed from his side of the fence. He sent the following statement:

"It's not offensive to make sure people know just home extreme Republican-Conservative Bob Friedrich is; this extremist opposes hate crimes legislation - it's offensive that Republican Bob Friedrich actually opposes hate crimes legislation."

"Crimes driven by anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia and other prejudices deserve special attention and warrant extra-tough penalties. As a Jewish community leader who speaks out against anti-Semitism and other hate and it’s outrageous that an extremist like Friedrich, who is also anti-gun control and against Roe v. Wade, would run for office in our community. He will be rejected on February 9th."

Ok, well then I guess I must be a Nazi, too, because I don't think hate crimes deserve special punishment, either. If you got your head bashed in by a mugger, who took your wallet, he'd get a few months in jail at most. If you got your head bashed in by a mugger who took your wallet and then called you a derogatory name, he'd get years behind bars - for doing the exact same thing to you. What the hell is the difference? A word that was said? You're still injured and lost whatever he stole from you.

Hate crime prosecution is usually politically motivated and used to protect specific populations but not others. Even if we continually expand the designated special classes of people that are to be protected by hate crimes legislation, it will never apply to all people and we are supposed to have equal protection under the law.

For example, rape is a crime motivated by hate, and committed mainly against women. A rapist goes out specifically looking for a woman to rape. However, women are not a protected group under hate crime legislation.

Bob Friedrich is Jewish. It appears that Weprin therefore committed a hate crime by sending out a flier mentioning Bob's name and putting a swastika on it.

See how stupid this legislation is? Just stiffen the penalties for all crimes and cut down on the plea bargains that end up insulting victims.

This flier actually makes me want to vote for Friedrich, and I would if I lived in that district. Big time backfire, here. One thing's certain - Someone with a dynastic name must be quaking in his boots if he felt it necessary to resort to this.

A tale of two boroughs' movie houses

From the NY Times:

The building bears little resemblance to the extravagantly sumptuous “wonder theater” that wowed audiences in 1929.

The rusting, dirt-caked marquee that hangs outside the Loew’s Kings Theater over a bustling commercial stretch of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn last promoted a film in 1977. Years of neglect have left the interior rotted by time, stripped by thieves and desecrated by vandals and pigeons.

New York City, which seized the building decades ago in lieu of back taxes, has long teased the neighborhood with proposals to restore the lost luster of a local movie palace. But this time, the city says, it is for real.

A developer has signed an agreement, made a down payment on a $70 million renovation and plans to turn the building back into a functioning entertainment site, this time presenting live performances, city officials said Tuesday.

“We’re on our way to making that dream come true,” said Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, who is to formally announce the restoration in his State of the Borough address Wednesday.

After a four-year process — and many false starts — the city has selected a company based in Houston, ACE Theatrical Group, to renovate and operate the theater. It would be, once again, the biggest indoor theater in Brooklyn, presenting 250 concerts, theatrical performances and community events annually, officials said.

“We feel like we have a deal we can deliver on,” said Seth W. Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. “We are confident this project is going to move forward.”

ACE, which has worked on similar restoration projects throughout the country, including the Boston Opera House, will soon begin a review and design process that is expected to take a couple of years. Preliminary plans call for the space to open as soon as 2014, Mr. Pinsky said. The city has committed $50 million to the project, with another $15 million coming in the form of tax credits and $5 million from the developer, which would also be responsible for any extra spending, said Mr. Pinsky.

On a stretch of Flatbush Avenue near Beverly Road — which the theater shares with discount furniture and clothing stores, a vacant lot and a boarded-up storefront — news of the renovation was greeted with enthusiasm by residents who had never been inside it.

So the city condemned the Kings and is pouring millions upon millions into its restoration, but the RKO Keiths of Flushing is allowed to remain a festering eyesore in the heart of what we are told is the most vibrant, diverse neighborhood in the city.

Makes sense. Here's another take on it from a reader:

"...so they spend $70 million to restore a trashed movie palace in Brooklyn but we have to put up with Tommy Huang and elected officials cutting deals for an 18-story building just to save a fucking lobby at the RKO Keith's? It's despicable."

Yes, it certainly is. But that's what happens when the electorate repeatedly empowers a bunch of Manes-era tweeders and a developer mayor. The current state of the RKO Keith's is actually the perfect reflection of the borough. So what are you going to do about it?

Read Kevin Walsh's timely Huffington Post article about the effort to save the RKO Keith's.

Weren't rules made to be broken?

From the NY Times:

On Monday afternoon, a City Hall political operative by the name of Maura Keaney was given a $143,000 job at the city’s Department of Education.

The Keaney appointment is a bracing moment, even for people accustomed to taking their politics without cream and sugar, and who have already seen Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg stashing his former campaign workers on the city payroll.

Hours before her job with the school system was announced, the Conflicts of Interest Board revealed that it had fined Ms. Keaney $2,500 for ethical wrongdoing in campaign activities in 2007.

The mayor could not have cared less: in Mr. Bloomberg’s telling, Ms. Keaney made an innocent mistake and brought it to the attention of the regulators. So move along folks, nothing to see here.

“When you screw up, you fess up to it and pay your penalty and get on with it,” Mr. Bloomberg said on Tuesday.

The mayor is taking good care of Ms. Keaney, and she has done quite well by him. But no one is breaking into a cold sweat telling the truth.

Ms. Keaney used to work for the City Council, and helped change the law so the mayor could have a third term. Then Mr. Bloomberg brought her onto his campaign team last year and paid her $4,250 a week, with a bonus of $150,000.

Her problems with the Conflicts of Interest Board arose from her work at the City Council, when she was the deputy chief of staff to the speaker, Christine C. Quinn. While she was in that job — helping to shape legislation important to labor unions — she was also raising campaign money from the unions for Ms. Quinn. It’s a common practice in politics. It happens to be against the law in New York City for people in a position to influence policy.

Touched by an angel...and in the head

From the Queens Gazette:

Police arrested a 23-year-old Queens man on January 24 after he head-butted a statue of an angel outside a Woodhaven home.

Cops said a tenant at the home on 97th Avenue and 97th Street spotted Marvin Jarvis at about 2 p.m. on January 24 as he walked up to the statue and shook its foundation, then head-butted it and walked away raving at the statue.

Jarvis admitted to cops who responded to a 911 call that he was angry at the statue when he attacked it. “Yeah, it’s a stupid thing,” Jarvis told the cops. “I did it.”

Jarvis was charged with criminal mischief and harassment at his arraignment at Queens Criminal Court.

MTA still in the red

From the Daily News:

The already recession-battered MTA is looking at a $400 million budget gap this year - even with the sweeping service cuts it plans to make this summer, the agency said Wednesday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority learned from the state budget office that revenue from a new payroll tax created as part of the agency's bailout has come up short, again, the authority said.

Since the spring, the projected revenue from the new tax has dropped by $700 million -- from $4.17 billion for 2009, 2010 and 2011 to $3.47 billion, officials said.

This shortfall makes it an even tougher battle for advocates who have been urging the MTA to halt this summer's service cuts, as well as plans to start charging students to commute to school.

The latest grim financial news also raises the possibility the authority may seek to raise bus, subway and commuter train fares beyond the planned 7.5% next year.

It would probably help if they didn't hire crappy contractors. They may use stimulus money to bridge the gap. But Bloomturd suggests another fare hike.

Time to pay up!

Deadbeat developers cited
By LOIS WEISS, NY Post

The Toy Building owes a pile of back taxes.

According to the city's Department of Finance, the building that owes the most in water charges and property taxes this year is Yitzchak Tessler's former Toy Building at 1 W. 24th St. -- aka 1107 Broadway.

The stalled condo development has racked up a tab of $3.5 million and holds a Lehman loan for $246 million. The firm's phone number no longer works.

Second is Yair Levy's bankrupt Park Columbus at 101 W. 87th St., which owes $1.8 million.

Number six is Yeshiva Yar Torah in Little Neck, Queens, which owes $889,139 going back to July 2008. The newly built pre-K to eighth grade school, which has its own tax lot inside a two-unit commercial condo, is a nonprofit and could be exempt from property taxes, but its officials didn't return calls prior to deadline. Finance did not have a record of any tax-exempt status.

In total, the top 10 delinquent New York City taxpayers owe $12.9 million in water charges and property taxes.

The city is this week sending 90-day notices of lien sale to 24,963 owners who owe a total of $454.3 million. That's down 23 percent from last year.

Bushwick Scarano building to become halfway house

From the Times Newsweekly:

Apartments in the 8-unit building located at 979 Willoughby Ave., at the corner of Evergreen Avenue, went on the market in 2007 with listed prices as high as $668,000. But the luxury apartments—designed by Scarano Architects and constructed by Vintage Builders—have remained unsold, and rather than seek renters for the apartments, the owners have reportedly contracted to operate a halfway house at the location.

“The wonderful condominium that was built on the corner of our block was turned into a halfway house without our knowledge,” said Evette Villafane, a long time resident of Evergreen Avenue. “We have a day care center next door. We have drug spots in the area. This is the last place we should be putting this kind of facility.”

Villafane believed that the halfway house was being run by an organization called the Gelzer Foundation, which has come under fire in Bedford-Stuyvesant for opening a supportive housing unit at 332 Malcolm X Blvd. without first notifying the community.

It couldn't have happened to a more beautiful building...

Here's what they were saying about it 3 years ago.

Affordable housing in LIC

Hey everyone - Newtown Pentacle found some truly affordable housing in LIC next to the Borden Avenue Bridge! There's actually quite a few shanty towns in the area. But shhhh! don't want to let that cat out of the bag lest it bring down the property values.

Disgruntled in Jackson Heights

"Hello,

I am a life-long resident of Jackson Heights. My parents lived here and raised me here and I can honestly say I love my neighborhood. My old neighborhood, not the cesspool it has turned into. Jackson Heights used to be where a blue-collar family could live comfortably and with peace of mind. Today gangs, prostitution, filth, and garbage are synonymous with Jackson Heights. I am close to giving up and just moving out but cannot do so without a fight.

Here is where I ask your help. I am compiling information on gang activity in Jackson Heights and the NYPD failure to truly respond and take action. I do not need to tell you that where gangs, which engage in prostitution and identity fraud rings, openly operate, there is a police failure. I want to compile this sort of information and make it available to the public and other enraged residents of Jackson Heights that I know. I am not sure yet what I will do with this information (you have inspired me to set up some sort of online publication to disseminate this information) but I do know that it needs to get out there.

I was wondering if you knew a way to get a hold of the transcript and minutes of the Town Hall Meeting that occurred on December 9th 2009 in St. Mark's Church? This Town Hall Meeting was hosted by Assemblyman Jose R. Peralta and included a special guest appearance by Queens DA Richard A. Brown. I learned about this meeting via this link in the Queens Gazette. The meeting focused on gangs, quality of life and "cleaning up Roosevelt Ave."

I am also contacting Peralta's office and Brown's office but have no faith that I will get any results. I wish I had known about this meeting so that I would have attended myself, but this is my own fault. I would appreciate any help.

Keep fighting the good fight,

Disgruntled in Jackson Heights"

I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to that question. But hey - have you noticed the vibrant diversity of food carts under the el? That's reason enough to stay right there for many people...

Photo from gardenfork.tv

Seminerio sentenced to 6 years

Ex-assemblyman Anthony Seminerio sentenced to 6 years in prison
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A veteran New York assemblyman accused of pocketing $1 million from people who did business with the state has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Anthony Seminerio had pleaded guilty last year to defrauding his Queens constituents of honest services.

In court papers, his lawyers had argued for home detention. But a federal judge in Manhattan said on Thursday he deserved prison time for abusing the public trust.

The 74-year-old Seminerio had served in the assembly since 1978 before resigning last year.

Prosecutors accused him of using his consulting firm to solicit about $1 million from a hospital, college and lobbying firm without doing any work for them.

Photo from the NY Sun

Colonial Wyckoff house gets no respect from city

From the NY Times:

The Monts, who bought the place fully equipped for $160,000 in 1983, are only the third family to occupy what is known as the Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead since it was built around 1766.

“It’s a living museum,” said Mrs. Mont, 69, a retired psychotherapist and teacher.

But a plan for the city to acquire the 4,000-square-foot home, which was designated as a landmark by the city in 1968 and put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, has broken down in acrimony.

The Monts say that starting a decade ago, city officials offered to buy the house and its contents for $2 million while letting them stay on rent-free as caretakers, but that the officials reneged on the deal last year. Franklin Vagnone, executive director of the Historic House Trust, which helps the parks department preserve historic houses located in city parks, called the place “a wonderful artifact” but said the city “was unfortunately not able to negotiate terms with the current owners.”

The Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead is one of at least a dozen old Dutch houses, wraiths from a long-bygone age in various states of repair and bastardization, that still grace the County of Kings. There are some others scattered throughout the city, down from more than 70 that were intact as recently as the 1950s.

A handful are privately owned, like an even older house in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn that the Monts rented before buying theirs. Others are maintained as museums, including the oldest dwelling in the city and its first designated landmark, the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House on Clarendon Road in East Flatbush, dating from 1652. On Thursday, city officials opened bids for relocating an old Wyckoff barn from New Jersey onto the Clarendon Road farmhouse property, for the first barn-raising in Brooklyn in 150 years.

WHAT?!?!?!

You mean to tell me that we are importing landmarks across state lines while allowing ones that are already here deteriorate or be demolished?

Feds blowing $10M in stimulus funds on an office plaza

From the Architect's Newspaper:

The federally owned plaza where Richard Serra’s controversial Tilted Arc sculpture once stood—and now sprawls landscape architect Martha Schwartz’s composition of planted mounds and bright-green curling benches—is getting another makeover this spring. The General Services Administration (GSA) has confirmed that Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates will redesign the public space in front of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, working under lead architect Wank Adams Slavin Associates (WASA).

The new design for the plaza, at the intersection of Lafayette and Worth streets in Lower Manhattan, will be the site’s fourth iteration in just over 20 years, taking into account temporary landscaping that occupied the space for eight years between the 1989 removal of Serra’s wall of weathered steel and the construction of Schwartz’s design. The GSA said the work is being principally undertaken to repair the waterproofing of a parking garage beneath the plaza, which makes the project eligible for funds from last year’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The two-year, $5 million to $10 million endeavor entails the demolition of the existing plaza, reinforcement and repair of the parking garage roof, and installation of landscaping, lighting, security features, and other elements.

City announces Queens high school replacements

From the Daily News:

The city has selected the four schools that are to replace the three Queens high schools being phased out - and each has its own outside-the-box curriculum.

The Hillside Arts and Letters Academy and the High School for Community Leadership are to open their doors in the Jamaica High School building in the fall.

Rockaway Park High School for Environmental Sustainability will replace Beach Channel High School and the Cambria Heights Academy will take the place of the Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School.

The Panel for Educational Policy voted last Tuesday to phase out the three schools one year at a time, despite community opposition.

A third school is slated for Jamaica and a second one is planned for Beach Channel the following year.

Hillside plans to focus on visual arts, music and writing. The Community Leadership school will emphasize community service.

Rockaway Park's curriculum will center around environmental and social sustainability. Students can study organic foods and nutrition, green building and development, as well as renewable energy and culinary arts.

Cambria Heights Academy will focus on technology.

What the hell is SCA thinking?

From the Times Ledger:

Corona desperately needs another school, residents and members of Community Board 4 agreed, but they balked Tuesday night at the city’s plan to put it next to a firehouse, on a street with no sidewalks and on a property that would force out a local business that has been there for 28 years.

CB 4 voted almost unanimously against the proposal for the 612-seat K-8 school the School Construction Authority hopes to build at 97-36 43rd Ave. on a 40,000-square-foot, L-shaped lot that abuts both 44th and 43rd avenues.

Police Officer Jeanine Rivera of the 110th Precinct also warned that constructing a school on 43rd Avenue could pose a safety risk for squad cars, which often use the street as a main conduit from the precinct house to the rest of the neighborhood.

Rivera also pointed out the fact that the school would be located closer to a chicken slaughterhouse than the station house, where, “spring summer and fall, the smell out of there is ridiculous.”

Embarrassed to be a member

"As a young Democrat (I'm 25 years old), I am disgusted at this joke called the Queens County Young Democrats (QCYD), which marches in lockstep with Crowley-backed incumbents. Just last week, they pledged to support David Weprin's run for his brother's Assembly seat.

Silverstein had to promise Crowley that such an uprising would not happen again, and that he would shepherd the Young Democrats into the much older Democratic clubs across the county when they outgrew the organization. - City Hall News

Sad, isn't it? Young people who want change, feel there's no alternative, but to join the dark side, and change it from within."

-anonymous Forest Hills Democrat

FHD, you have to admit that the Unisphere and a jackass are the perfect symbols of this group!

Parking woes in LIC, Flushing

From NY1:

Downtown Flushing is expected to undergo some major changes in the coming years, but not everyone is on board with the plan to redevelop the area.

It doesn't matter what YOU want, only what the developer wants. See here from the Daily News:

Developers of the project - which would also include office space and a YMCA - said their plan calls for a 1,600-space parking garage.

That won't cut it, though, said Terence Park, leader of the group Political Coalition of Flushing.

"It's already so congested," Park said, adding that the new development will mean even more people vying for spots on the block bounded by 37th and 38th Aves. and 138th and Union Sts.

"I believe we need at least 2,000 parking spaces to accommodate housing and Flushing Commons," Park said.

Chuck Apelian, vice chairman of Community Board 7, agreed.

The initial plan in 2005 called for the site to include 2,000 parking spaces.

"I think we have to stick to the original agreement and I see no reason to reduce the parking," Apelian said, adding that the new plan for 1,600 spaces was "unilaterally decided by the developers."

Let's all watch Chuck stick to his guns like he did with Willets Point...

From the Daily News:

Long Island City buzzes where Van Dam St. traffic grinds into Thomson Ave. near LaGuardia Community College, the National Hockey League-sized City Ice Pavilion and a Manhattan-convenient subway stop.

But every day, only lucky motorists manage to find parking along those blocks - a situation that torments drivers and bedevils local stores and restaurants.

The problem begins with the prevalence of local education draws like DeVry and LaGuardia Community College, a Days Inn hotel and a center for playing laser tag and paintball.

Also, many commuters from across Queens seek parking spaces before hopping onto nearby subway lines for the ride into Manhattan.

Those factors - plus the closing of a municipal lot at Jackson Ave. and Queens Blvd. a few years ago - compound parking woes.

Motorists battle even to pay steep fees at lots so overwhelmed that they turn away dozens of irritated potential patrons every day.

Students say they arrive in the area a few hours early just to ensure a space. If they show up later, they risk missing classes while repeatedly circling the blocks.

I thought if you included less parking in developments, then there would be more space because everyone would ride their bikes. Whoops...

City withholding disappointing results of Times Square project

From the NY Times:

It has been hailed as New York City’s most radical civic experiment in a generation: cars would be barred from driving along two sections of Broadway in the heart of Midtown. The aim was to reduce congestion in Times and Herald Squares, two of the worst areas for drivers in the city.

Now, a month after the Department of Transportation finished gathering data from the experimental period of the project, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has yet to announce a decision on whether the pilot program will become permanent. Tourists, area workers and businesses have appeared to embrace the new pedestrian plazas, but the effect on traffic flow has remained in the realm of anecdote, and some transportation experts are growing impatient.

The city is keeping its data under tight lock and key. But two officials briefed on the data characterized the results as disappointing, and one said that traffic flow did not meet the department’s goals. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the data had not been made public.

From the NY Times:

“Some of the roads are better; some of the roads are worse. Not everybody likes everything,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a press conference on Tuesday at a city-run career center in downtown Brooklyn. “On balance,” he added, “I hear very few complaints.”

Of course you don't. Because you have to actually listen to people in order to hear them.

Photo from Places & Spaces

More WTC remains may soon be found

From Staten Island Advance:

The city will soon transport six to seven truckloads of possible World Trade Center remains for hand sifting at the shuttered Fresh Kills landfill, Borough President James Molinaro said today.

Molinaro said he was notified by city Sanitation officials last week of the transfer in the coming weeks of some 844 cubic yards of material from a sub-basement of one of the towers. He said he was not told which one.

In a memo obtained by the Advance today, authored by Deputy Mayor of Operations Edward Skyler, Skyler said the material “was excavated over the past two years from the following areas in and around the WTC site: NY State Route 9A (West Street); the Haul Road; Cedar Street; Washington Street; Vesey Street; the rooftop of Fiterman Hall, and various subterranean structures.”

The hand-sifting for human remains will begin in April and be completed in early July, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), which will oversee the operation at a cost of $1.4 million.

The Skyler memo says the OCME will “utilize its forensic mobile sifting platform” at Fresh Kills.

“Anthropologists and other trained professionals will carefully evaluate and search the estimated 844 cy of material gathered since December 2007 for any potential remains,” the memo says. “Any potential remains recovered will proceed to OCME laboratories for further testing.”

An estimated 1,123 victims who were slaughtered by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001 have not had their remains identified.

Now that's just nasty!

Ever get upset over finding bird poop on your car right after you had it cleaned? Well wait until this guy or gal gets back to theirs. They won't even be able to drive it to a car wash without first hand cleaning the windshield...

Miss Heather, you've outdone yourself yet again!

Drunken illegal alien set Brooklyn fire

From Eyewitness News:

A resident of the Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, building that went up in flames, killing five, was taken into custody for allegedly setting the fatal blaze.

Authorities say 29-year-old Daniel Ignacio was taken into custody Tuesday morning and was being questioned in Brooklyn.

No charges were immediately filed.

However, Ignacio reportedly made statements linking himself to the fire. No other suspects are currently being sought.

Authorities say that after setting the fire, Ignacio turned around and rescued some residents from the burning building, including a baby.

The suspect was identified by detectives who saw him on video helping the residents escape the flames. They have reportedly seen him around the building in the days following the blaze.

The current theory is Ignacio got drunk and set fire to a baby carriage in the front stairwell of the building. He then realized what he had done and began rescuing residents from the fast-moving flames.

The motive does not appear to be a vendetta, as detectives initially speculated.

And from the Daily News:

"He's been down on himself," the source said. "He was drinking all day, Friday into Saturday, went into the hallway and set a baby carriage on fire. He confessed, but he said he didn't think (the building) would go up like that."

From the NY Times:

Mr. Ignacio’s time in New York was reflected in different recollections; some remembered him as an occasional churchgoer who seemed a decent sort; others recalled that he had been arrested before, and deported.

The authorities confirmed that Mr. Ignacio was arrested in Brooklyn in January 2002 after a woman saw him leaving her window. He was caught with her wallet, a pink plastic comb and a pen.

Convicted of burglary, he spent 10 months in jail; upon his release, he was deported to Guatemala on Oct. 31, 2003, said Lou Martinez, a spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Investigators said they believed he had come back to the United States through Mexico about a year ago.

“Obviously, he is in the country illegally,” Mr. Martinez said. “Now that we know he is back in the country, he is considered an illegal re-entry after deportation and that’s a federal crime.”

If convicted on the arson and murder charges, he will serve his time and then be turned over to federal immigration officials “for removal proceedings or to be prosecuted federally,” Mr. Martinez said. “But that’s a long way away.”

I love my sanctuary city...

Beware of the gypsies!

From the Daily News:

A band of gypsies that targets the elderly is being sought for a months-long string of burglaries in at least three boroughs - and may also be wanted in other states, police sources said.

The roaming drifters posed as utility workers "checking for leaks." They've looted at least 10 homes in Queens and the Bronx since September, but may be connected to similar burglaries in Brooklyn, the sources said.

Investigators have identified Steve Demetro and 29-year-old John George as suspects in four burglaries in Astoria and six around Throgs Neck in the Bronx, sources said.

The pair are part of a group of gypsies that authorities believe may be traveling from state to state, conning senior citizens to get inside their homes and steal their personal belongings.

In each case, the scammers knock on the door of an elderly resident's home with the ruse that they are responding to a service issue. As one suspect chats up the homeowner, another roams around inside and bags the loot, sources said.

Serial bank robber says flares are bombs

From the Queens Courier:

In only six days, three northeast Queens banks have been robbed by someone claiming to be carrying a bomb.

On Thursday, January 28, employees at the Chase Manhattan Bank at 196-03 Northern Boulevard greeted what they thought was a customer carrying a computer bag, until he held it out and announced – “See this? This is dynamite. You better give me $75,000 or I’ll blow up the bank.”

Cops say that the robber, described as a black male, about 6-feet tall with a thin build, also had a “dark colored firearm” and was dressed in a dark blue business suit.

On Monday, a black male, between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall weighing 180 pounds robbed the Queens County Savings Bank at 224-04 Union Turnpike just before noon. He was dressed in a blue trench coat, blue pants and “black sneakers.”

He had a “bomb” that turned out to be four flares taped together with an electronic attachment, which he left behind. The thief fled south along Springfield Boulevard on foot – with about $8,300 in cash.

On Friday, January 22, the Queens County Savings Bank at 247-53 Jamaica Avenue was robbed just before 9 a.m. by a black male described as “5 foot 11 inches weighing approximately 200 pounds.” He also said he had a bomb in his bag – also flares and an electronic accessory.

Officially, the NYPD has not declared the string of bank robberies to be a pattern – there are subtle differences in description of the man and the firearm, but the police source is becoming convinced.

“It’s crazy,” the source told The Queens Courier, asking incredulously, “Three different guys?”

Your tax dollars at work - rubber room edition

From the NY Post:

A Queens teacher who collects a $100,000 salary for doing nothing spends time in a Department of Education "rubber room" working on his law practice and managing 12 real-estate properties worth an estimated $7.8 million, The Post found.

Alan Rosenfeld hasn't set foot in a classroom for nearly a decade since he was accused in 2001 of making lewd comments to junior-high girls and "staring at their butts," yet the department still pays him handsomely for sitting on his own butt seven hours a day.

In 2001, six eighth-graders at IS 347 in Queens accused Rosenfeld, a typing teacher who filled in for an absent dean, of making comments like "You have a sexy body," asking one whether she had a boyfriend and making others feel uncomfortable with creepy leers.

Because the Department of Education could not produce all the students as witnesses, he was found guilty in only one case. A girl testified that Rosenfeld stopped at her locker, where she was standing with a friend, and "said I love him because I talk to him so much."

A DOE hearing officer gave him a slap on the wrist -- a week off without pay -- for "conduct unbecoming a teacher." He was cleared to return to teaching.

Instead, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has kept the scruffy 64-year-old in a Brooklyn rubber room, deeming him too dangerous to be near kids, officials said.

The DOE can't fire him.

"We have to abide by the union contract," spokeswoman Ann Forte said.

So Rosenfeld simply collects his $100,049 salary -- top scale for teachers -- plus full health benefits and the promise of a fat pension, about $82,000 a year if he were to retire today.

Jimmy's hiring!

Apply today and in 12 years, his position may be yours!

Marty's $64M potato chip gets rotten reviews

From the Courier-Life:

Brighton Beach and Coney Island residents spoke out against the borough president’s plan to spend $64 million in taxpayer money to build an amphitheater in Asser Levy Seaside Park -- a plan many contend is unwise while the city and state prepare to cut services due to the worsening economy.

“One thousand firemen are going to be cut next year but [Borough President] Marty [Markowitz] will build his amphitheater. He can fiddle in his amphitheater while Brooklyn burns,” Paul Sternblitz accused at last week’s meeting of Community Board 13.

“They want to build an amphitheater at the very same time they are slashing funds for services,” said Al Turk, vice president of Temple Beth Abraham.

Public school budgets are being cut “but somehow they have $64 million for an amphitheater that only our grubby politicians want?” Turk challenged.

Sternblitz’s brother, Ralph, believes the amphitheater will cost even more than expected.

“You think it’s going to cost only $64 million? Don’t believe it,” he said. “Maybe double! Maybe triple!”

“This is our money! Not the politicians money to squander away!” Turk asserted.

In spite of community opposition, Markowitz remains committed to the amphitheater plan.

Pensions a ticking timebomb?

From the NY Post:

The price of providing state workers with generous pensions and gold-plated health plans could reach a mind-boggling $7.9 billion by 2012 -- a 42 percent increase over the current tab, state budget documents show.

The Paterson administration expects the cost of providing benefits to the average state employee will equal 62 percent of their salary within three years, according to Budget Division estimates.

That's up from 44 percent now and about double typical rates in the private sector.

Today, the average state worker costs taxpayers about $91,724, including $63,750 for wages, plus $27,974 for pensions, health care and other goodies.

The average cost of pay and benefits could balloon to $114,000 a year if trends continue through 2012, according to a Post analysis of the data. Perks alone would cost $43,000.

Could you imagine?

Chuck fails to bite schmuck

From SI Live:

Lured out of his house, Charles G. Hogg, better known as Staten Island Chuck, did not see his shadow and declared that winter will be over in two weeks.

"No shadow," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "Spring is coming."

Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil, meanwhile -- called for six more weeks of winter.

With all eyes on the pair with a rich history, Chuck did not bite Hizzoner today, instead acting as a sophisticated rodent.

"I think I have to be magnanimous and say that he put up a good fight," Bloomberg quipped after it took a few minutes to coax -- more like drag -- Chuck out of his winter home.

"I think it's clear who the champion really was. Last year, I was willing to put that finger, right here, in the way to protect the people of this great borough. The only thing that stood between Chuck and you getting bitten was my finger and I have a scar to prove exactly how much I love one of the five best boroughs we have."

The mayor donned heavy work animal-handling gloves this year after last year's leather proved no match for the groundhog.

I think it's clear who the coward really was.

Fudged police stats being probed

From the Daily News:

A Brooklyn precinct is under investigation for manipulating statistics to make its cops look like better crimefighters, the Daily News has learned.

Two probes are centered around whether Bedford-Stuyvesant's 81st Precinct recorded felonies as misdemeanors and refused to take complaints from victims - all in an effort to drive down the crime rate, sources said.

And the allegations came from one of the precinct's officers.

Officer Adrian Schoolcraft shared his suspicions with the Internal Affairs Bureau and the Quality Assurance Division, the NYPD unit responsible for maintaining the integrity of crime stats.

Schoolcraft told The News the top brass are so concerned with numbers that one precinct lieutenant is known as "The Shredder" because he's often spotted destroying documents.

In interviews with The News, five crime victims appeared to back up Schoolcraft's allegations.

Something stinks in Brooklyn

From the NY Post:

Pentatomoidae -- insects called stinkbugs because they emit an odor like rotten cheese -- have landed in Brooklyn, and they're spreading.

The fingernail-sized flying beetles are native to China, Korea and Japan, but made landfall in the US in 1998 in Allentown, Pa., according to Rutgers University entomologist George Hamilton.

"They're good hitchhikers," said Hamilton of the insects, which can lay up to 30 eggs at a time. "They get into clothes and suitcases and spread."

Robert Macri, a pest-control specialist, advises: "If you smash them, the odor comes out. The best is to pick them up and flush them. The problem is they're hard to catch because they fly."

Luxury condos offer cancer as an amenity

'Toxic' dust-up at Midtown apartment building
By DAREH GREGORIAN, NY Post

Shoddy construction work at a luxury Midtown building left residents with apartments covered in a dust that had higher levels of a carcinogen than what was found at Ground Zero, a report says.

Crystalline silica, a toxic substance found in mortar, permeated many of the apartments at L'Ecole, at 212 E. 47th St., during the facade work, said Steven Wagner, a lawyer for tenants who are now suing the building.

Microecologies Inc., an environmental-testing firm, reported finding "highly elevated levels" of the toxin in Steven Rosenhaus' 20th-floor apartment last May, seven months after he says he came home to find it blanketed in dust from the work.

"It was like there had been a snowfall," said Rosenhaus, a 53-year-old work-at-home consultant who suffered breathing trouble and eye irritation.

Calls and e-mails to the building's managing agent weren't returned. A rep for Extell, the developer overseeing the construction, did not return calls, nor did the lawyer for the building's ownership group. Building management, in court papers, has denied any wrongdoing.

WTF is with the ASPCA? (part 2)

From the Daily News:

It's a murder mystery with a double twist - the victim is a dog and the prime suspect is a former ASPCA hospital vet.

The owner of a Rottweiler named Bullet is desperately trying to find out how his dog died three years ago and has filed suit in federal court.

Meanwhile, the Daily News has learned that veterinarian John Morehead was accused by three colleagues of kicking the sickly 10-year-old animal.

The revelation came as a shock to Rafael Lopez, who said ASPCA investigators exhumed Bullet's body and performed a necropsy - but never came up with a cause of death.

"He was my baby," Lopez, 58, told The News. "I brought the dog there thinking they would save my dog. I killed him by taking him there."

Lopez had fed Bullet with a spoon since birth. When Bullet fell ill, he took him to the respected ASPCA Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital on Manhattan's upper East Side.

His first hint that the death might not have been natural came days later when ASPCA investigators showed up at his apartment demanding to know where Bullet was buried. They told him someone at the hospital "was killing dogs," according to the suit filed last year in Manhattan Federal Court against the ASPCA and current and former officials.

The body was exhumed and taken to Cornell Veterinary School in upstate Ithaca for a necropsy. Lopez never got the remains back - or an explanation.

A source familiar with the investigation told The News that there were, in fact, allegations Bullet was abused at the hospital.

A colleague, Dr. Sarah Alward, told higherups that Morehead - who has since left the ASPCA - kicked the dog hard in the torso the day before he died, the source said. Two other hospital employees also told the ASPCA's internal investigators they saw Morehead kick the dog, the source said. One said Morehead punched Bullet after the dog made a sudden movement toward him during an exam, the source said.

Alward, who no longer works at the ASPCA, confirmed to The News that she saw Morehead kick the dog but declined further comment.

JetBlue mulling over its options

Sources tell NY1 that the airline JetBlue is still considering keeping its headquarters in sites in Queens, including Long Island City and Jamaica.

Then again, it still may go to Orlando.

So what's this guy running for?

From the NY Post:

A $750,000 personal campaign contribution that Mayor Bloomberg channeled through the state Independence Party during last year's mayoral election landed in the hands of a top aide, The Post has learned.

The aide, John Haggerty Jr., served as a Bloomberg "volunteer involved in some of the activities" of Special Election Operations LLC, a hastily formed company that hired 200 to 300 workers to do poll watching on Election Day, according to Ken Gross, counsel to the campaign.

But the company didn't register with the state Secretary of State's Office until Dec. 3 -- a full month after the election.

Haggerty was also the recipient of a separate, eye-popping $120,000 personal contribution from the mayor on Nov. 20, which went to a political committee he had formed a month earlier and registered at his home in Forest Hills, Queens.

Until yesterday, mayoral aides and party officials had refused for a week to say who was behind Special Election Operations.

Senators' slush fund

From the NY Post:

State Sen. Malcolm Smith and Congressman Gregory Meeks have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars, including taxpayer money, into a charity led by their spouses and cronies -- an organization with almost no accountability on its spending.

Smith and Meeks, both Democrats, have championed New Direction Local Development Corp., a group based in their Queens districts that claims its mission is community development "in Far Rockaway and surrounding areas."

What, if any, community development it fostered is unclear. Only a few programs are detailed on the charity's tax filings, including money given to a senior-appreciation week, for a basketball and jump-rope tournament, a "family day" and a donation to Toys for Tots.

But it did spend $11,783 for meals and entertainment and $9,004 in federal tax penalties in 2007.

From the NY Post:

Some $150,000 in donations, including thousands the community raised to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, remains unaccounted for, according to Ken Boehm, head of the National Legal and Policy Center.

"When you see lots and lots of consulting fees with large amounts flashing around, at some point one wonders if an elected official is trying to sell their office," said Boehm.

"Sen. Smith, with respect to New Direction, violated several provisions of New York state law," he said.

Boehm says his group will lodge a complaint with the state's Public Integrity Commission this week.

My money's on the groundhog

From the NY Times:

Chuck’s trainer, Douglas Schwartz, still maintains that the mayor brought the attack on himself. Chuck was in one of his moods last year, and he did not want to come out of his wooden cage, so the mayor impatiently grabbed him by the belly. Chomp.

This year, Mr. Schwartz said Monday, “the rule is that nobody else will try to pick him up first — usually I try to pick him up.”

But in the heat of the moment, the mayor can no more easily be controlled than can a 15-pound, 4-year-old groundhog. And if Mr. Schwartz has learned anything in his 13-plus years as a city employee, it is that the boss is always right. He is ready for any eventuality.

“When it’s the mayor, he’s the center of attention,” he said. “You can’t be giving the mayor orders.”

Bullshit. He is a public servant and works for us, not the other way around. Unfortunately, the rodent seems to have more of a backbone than the electorate does.

Full-throttle tweeding efforts underway

From City Journal:

Several dependency-promoting bills are gathering steam in Albany. In theory, current state law requires putatively homeless single mothers with an income to contribute a small portion of that income to the costs of their taxpayer-funded apartments. For instance, a single mother with two children and a monthly income of $1,000 could be asked to contribute around $160 a month for her private apartment. But when the city tried to enforce the contribution rule last spring, homeless advocates went ballistic, and the administration backed off. The city wants to start enforcing the rule again, but a bill sponsored by state senator Daniel Squadron of Brooklyn would forbid it.

The requirement is both fair—other low-income New Yorkers put far more of their income toward rent—and good policy. The absence of any rent requirement creates a powerful incentive to enter and stay in the system. It also undermines the reciprocity contract between taxpayers and welfare recipients that lies at the heart of welfare reform. The result: a nearly half-billion-dollar annual bill to house single mothers claiming homelessness.

Other pending legislation would forbid the city from medically evaluating a recipient’s claim that she was incapable of working; it would also allow enrollment in a four-year college to fulfill welfare’s work requirements. The first bill opens up a wide arena for fraud; the second ignores decades of pre- and post-welfare-reform experience showing that the best way for an unskilled worker to enter the workforce is actually to start working, rather than spend years in often fruitless “education and training” programs.

If the Albany dependency brigades weren’t dangerous enough, the Obama administration has been conducting its own campaign for expanded welfare eligibility—not surprisingly, perhaps, given that some of the nation’s most influential welfare advocates now occupy key positions in the federal bureaucracy.

This double-sided attack on New York’s welfare reform lacks all empirical basis. Since 1995, the city’s welfare rolls have dropped nearly 70 percent, from 1.1 million to 350,000. Rather than increasing, as opponents of welfare reform warned, the child poverty rate in New York City dropped 34 percent during the same period, compared with a 5 percent drop nationwide. In 2008, New York City had the lowest child poverty rate—26.5 percent—and the lowest total poverty rate—18.2 percent—of the country’s eight largest cities.

Work, even at minimum wage, remains the best route out of poverty. When tax credits and medical and housing benefits are included, an average single mother of two with an $8.25-an-hour job in New York City receives a $63,000 annual income. On welfare alone, that same mother would pull in $43,000 a year—a whopping amount for non-work, to be sure, but still less than work provides.

Keeping an eye out for birds

From the Queens Chronicle:

Federal Aviation Administration officials announced plans on Monday to implement a bird strike prevention plan for the proposed waste transfer station in College Point.

Under the FAA’s plan, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will monitor all bird activity around the trash site with an on-site biologist, who will visit the facility once a week for the first two years. The scientist would alert FAA officials to unusual bird activity at the site, an observation that would prompt orders close the facility until the problem is addressed.

City rewarding slumlords with homeless contracts

Records, statistics and interviews show:

* The city's Work Advantage program, which pays to house families in apartments for up to two years, has a checkered track record.
* The Department of Homeless Services, which runs Work Advantage, has put families in homes facing foreclosure, illegally converted apartments and units riddled with violations.
* Some landlords are shaking down Advantage tenants for extra under-the-table payments.

The city refused to release a full list of where Advantage's 12,000 households are placed, but The News obtained a random sample of 70 across the city.

Within that sample, the city placed seven families in properties that were in foreclosure - and two more in illegally converted apartments.

The 70 Advantage buildings had a total of 2,376 housing code violations, including 13 with more than three per unit.

The problems are surfacing five years after Mayor Bloomberg promised to trim by two-thirds the 37,000 homeless in shelters. Records show the number remains the same.

The number of families in shelters has risen to 10,000 from 6,900 since Bloomberg took office, and the cost to run the shelters went from $540 million to $865 million.

Perrier Verdiner, 50, and his daughter Sephora, 18, spent a year in a shelter before the city moved them into an illegally converted apartment in February 2008, he says.

Records show the owners of 109 Ralph Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant turned two apartments on the building's first floor into four units.

Though Ralph Avenue Properties has been hit with 12 code violations for illegal conversions, the city continues to pay the company $900 a month in the Advantage program.

The conversion has created ridiculous conditions. Perrier Verdiner sleeps in the kitchen, a few feet from the refrigerator and stove. A thin partition separates him from his daughter's bed.

A faulty boiler has left them with no heat.

A woman living in another of the illegal apartments confirmed that she also received the subsidy.

The owner was fined $14,000 for violations, a city spokesman said. More than $5,000 of that hadn't been paid as of early January.

Show us the money, Mike!

From the Neighborhood Retail Alliance:

The mayor unveiled his $63 billion budget, and the NY Times describes the picture as, "grim." Many sacred cows are on the chopping block: "Declaring grimly that the city’s finances were “between a rock and a hard place,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled a $63 billion budget proposal Thursday that would eliminate 20 fire companies, increase the cost of truck parking on Manhattan streets by 25 percent and close swimming pools and a 24-hour center for the homeless. The budget would also slash funding to libraries, reduce the number of caseworkers who deal with H.I.V. and AIDS, and eliminate nurses in elementary schools with fewer than 300 students."

The mayor, never one for a way with words, nevertheless captured the proper spirit of the moment in his own laconic manner: “The bottom line is we don’t have any money,” he said." Which brings us to the question of the proposed development of Willets Point - and an issue we have raised in the past.

If the city is flat broke, and is willing to jeopardize public safety by closing twenty firehouses, than how can its chief executive contemplate the expense of a speculative condemnation of the businesses at Willets Point? Bloomberg needs to be forced to confront the fiscal realities that the city faces. Every responsible elected official, when confronted with the question of moving forward at Willets Point - and especially those who have signed on as enthusiastic supporters-needs to respond to the Cuba Gooding demand of: "Show me the money."

And Bloomberg needs to tell the public - that will soon be clamoring for the restoration of services that it holds dear - how much this project will cost, and where will the money come from to pay for it. These hard economic times demand that the city scale back some of its grandiose development dreams. A moratorium on the Willets Point project now makes more sense than ever.

There are also female day laborers

From What's News:

For years, every morning, the sight has been the same at Marcy and Division Avenues in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: a crowd of women gathered on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway overpass amid the din of traffic. They are day laborers looking not for construction work, but for work cleaning houses of Hasidic residents.

There were originally maybe 40 or 50. And like many traditions that grow up out of necessity around New York City, this cleaning woman shape-up had certain unwritten codes, accepted patterns that all the women acknowledged, and abided by.

The young Polish students speaking fluent English were usually in front; they tended to be employers’ favorites, and they could translate for the others. Just behind them, spread along the overpass fence, stood Polish women in their 40s and 50s, with some even older. Then, at the end of the line, there would stand a few women from Latin America.

But as the years have gone by, and the economy has been knocked around, change has come to this corner in Brooklyn. Gradually but unmistakably, young immigrants from Peru, Mexico and Ecuador wearing short black jackets and tight jeans have taken the front row. A smaller crowd of older Polish women now stands behind them. And the crowd has more than doubled, with women spilling onto the street on two corners.

Lost jobs in factories, tailor shops, stores and restaurants in other parts of the city have brought the Hispanic women to Williamsburg: a lot of them, like the Polish women, are illegal immigrants and therefore not eligible for unemployment benefits. Being a domestic day laborer is one of their few safe options for making a little money.

Fire alarm boxes on their way out?

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg wants to extinguish fire alarm boxes from city streets.

Bloomberg pitched the fiery move this week as part of his budget for fiscal year 2011, saying it would save FDNY $2.5 million.

Since 85% of calls made through the street boxes are false alarms, Bloomberg said, "In the days where everybody has cell phones ... the city would be just as safe without them."

Only 140 structural fires last year out of 26,666 were first called in through an alarm box - and phone calls on those fires came in after the boxes were pulled, according to the FDNY.

But a change in the law is needed to scrap the 15,000 boxes because in 1997 a federal judge said such a move violates the civil rights of the deaf.

Trying to find solution for Austin Street parking problem

From the Daily News:

Civic leaders long have tried to address the scarcity of spaces near the Austin St. retail stretch - centered at 71st-Continental Ave., a block from the subway.

But the "Queens Parking Crunch" series is renewing calls for solutions so locals can awaken from their spot-search nightmare.

In interviews with Queens News, locals suggested everything from angled parking to making Austin St. one way to erecting a municipal lot close by.

But resolving the vehicular vexation first requires an understanding of why finding a spot in Forest Hills has become so difficult.

Customers frequent the Midway Theatre on Queens Blvd., Barnes & Noble and a diverse mix of eateries and clothing stores that line Austin St. from Ascan Ave. to Yellowstone Blvd.

If motorists venture south into Forest Hills Gardens, it compounds their stress because only residents of the private enclave and visitors with passes can park there.

On the other hand, crossing Queens Blvd. leads to stretches of apartment buildings, houses and offices where the demand for parking outweighs the supply.

"It's a major concern in the district - very frustrating riding around the block looking for a spot," said Frank Gulluscio, manager of Community Board 6.

Sounds like you need a bike lane!

Rush to build crap after rezone

Pictured is 65-19 & 65-21 Perry Avenue in Maspeth early last year. They were perhaps some of the oldest attached homes in the area.
Of course, they were torn down and replaced with lopsided Queens Crap.
Yeah, apparently one is a two-family house and the other is a 3-family house (with a "sitting" room!). Why? Who the hell knows?
Anyway, they of course were slapped with stop work orders as well as complaints about non-conforming with the rezoning, but the project was found to be vested under the old zoning.
You'll note that the original permit was issued during the ULURP process.
There really should be a moratorium on new building permits while an area is undergoing rezoning.