Brian cheated his mama

From the NY Post:

Crooked ex-politician Brian McLaughlin's mom has added her name to the list of victims in his epic, $3.1 million rip-off scheme.

Court papers filed by Ilene McLaughlin, 82, say she lost $145,000 that the former Queens assemblyman borrowed against his swanky second home on Long Island's exclusive North Shore.

The widowed granny, who lives in a modest co-op apartment in Flushing, says in her self-filed court documents that she handed over the dough in March 2006 but never got a nickel back.

Instead, the Democratic former labor leader forfeited all his proceeds when he sold the house for nearly $1.2 million two years later as part of the settlement of the racketeering case against him.

His mother's Manhattan federal court suit seeks to force the Justice Department to repay the entire mortgage, plus unspecified interest, "as stated in my contract."

The aging pensioner, who hung up on a reporter that called for comment, joins the lengthy list of marks that McLaughlin preyed on to bankroll a lavish lifestyle that included luxury cars, a country club and a string of mistresses.

Her son is currently serving 10 years in the slammer for swindling taxpayers, political contributors, union members and even his local Little League, from which he looted $95,000.

Merchant war in Jackson Heights

From the NY Times:

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, was dark this year in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Stores along 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, usually string lights for Diwali, a Hindu festival. But this year, the shop owners were too busy arguing to decorate.

The owners of the jewelry shops, grocery stores and sari boutiques who usually string multicolored bulbs along 74th Street for the fall celebration were too busy fighting one another to bother.

They are battling for control of the local merchants’ association, in a dispute that has cleaved the business community in two with accusations of election fraud, ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation. The cast includes a father feuding with his son-in-law, two rival grocery stores and at least one private detective. Five judges in State Supreme Court in Queens have worked to settle the quarrel, which still rages.

To many people outside the community, and even some inside it, the stakes seem far too meager to justify all the bad blood. The merchants’ group, made up mostly of South Asian business owners, is a nonprofit enterprise devoted largely to mundane matters like street parking, garbage pickup, arrangements for Diwali and for a springtime religious festival, the highlights of the year.

But to those involved, the association is a source of prestige, a vehicle to gain respect in the neighborhood, to host mayors and senators for ghee-soaked lunches, and to play a role, however minor, in the swirling jumble of New York politics.

Some trace the ill will back decades, but the real drama began in the run-up to the Aug. 1, 2009, election for the board of directors. (The date had been set by the State Supreme Court in response to a lawsuit calling for fresh elections.)

The campaign was marred with such heavy-handed manipulation that Justice Charles J. Markey, in his decision that November to invalidate the election, quoted the former Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev: “The trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win.”

YES!!! We have a mini-Queens Machine in Jackson Heights!!!

Community protests NYU expansion

From NY1:

More than a hundred Greenwich Village residents and a half-dozen elected officials huddled around the Fiorello LaGuardia statue Sunday to protest NYU's plans to expand its campus in the Village.

"We believe very strongly that NYU must finally learn to coexist, not overwhelm this community," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer

Two weeks ago, members of Manhattan's Community Board 2 passed a resolution opposing the university development proposal called "NYU 2031." Part of that plan called for the university to put up new buildings in the Village on seven strips of city-owned land totaling more than two acres.

Residents insist that part of the plan be scrapped because they would like to see the Parks Department turn the strips into permanent parkland.

"It's being used as public land now. It has been since the 60s when these spaces were first created," said Community Board 2 Member Jo Hamilton. "There's no reason why it shouldn't officially become parkland. We shouldn't be moving Mr. Fiorello LaGuardia in order to have an NYU building there."

Bloomberg: election reformer

From the NY Post:

A group of elected officials and voting advocates said New York is among the least voter-friendly states in the nation and called for reforms like early voting, same-day registration and allowing New Yorkers to fill out ballots at home.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and several state legislators joined civic groups and activists Monday at City Hall, citing New York’s ranking as 47th among the states in average voter turnout for the last three state and federal election cycles.

To increase voter participation, the group wants New York to join other states that have passed measures to make voting more convenient and easier.

Bloomberg called the ideas “common sense things that other states and municipalities have done.”

“Not doing them is an outrage,” he added.

Some of the proposals on Bloomberg’s wish list have been introduced or debated in recent years and have not gotten far in the state legislature, including the concept of early voting, an option offered in 35 states.

Public interest organizations said pushing election law reforms has historically been difficult in Albany, where some lawmakers worry that increased voter participation could weaken their own power.

Dick Dadey, of the group Citizens Union, said some state legislators “fear people participating, because the more people participate, the less likely they control the outcome.”

Something about the words "Bloomberg" and "election reform" just don't go together. Oh yeah, it's that whole term limits thing from a couple of years ago.

MTA escalator project almost complete

From NY1:

The subway is all about connections. But when maps come out, the magic can disappear.

In two new transfer spots, the answer will be to stay underground rather than hit the street to switch trains. NY1 has learned the Jay Street-Lawrence Street connector in downtown Brooklyn is to open ahead of schedule on December 10, while the Citicorp-funded Court House Square link in Long Island City is set to open a year late in February.

Riders will use a new escalator to transfer from the E, M and G to the elevated 7 train, and will no longer have to cross Jackson Avenue, where some improvise.

After years of dealing with the rain, the snow and the cold, riders say the new transfer can't open soon enough.

Queensboro Bridge to be renamed for Koch!?!

From CBS 2:

The Bloomberg Administration wants to rename the span over the East River after former Mayor Ed Koch.

The name change requires approval by the City Council and Speaker Christine Quinn told the New York Times that she supports it.

The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel will also get a new name. State lawmakers voted Tuesday to rename it after former Governor Hugh Carey.

Charlie in more hot water

From the NY Post:

The Federal Election Commission is investigating a complaint that Rep. Charles Rangel improperly used his National Leadership PAC to fund his legal defense on ethics charges for which he was censured Thursday, The Post has learned.

The FEC is acting on a complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center filed after The Post reported last month that Rangel paid nearly $400,000 from his PAC.

Lawmakers are only allowed to use money in their individual campaign funds for legal fees, or they can set up legal defense funds for such costs.

Rangel appeared before the House Ethics Committee last month saying he could no longer afford legal counsel after already burning through $2 million.

The center expects to file a second complaint this week contending that Rangel's PAC money included at least $195,000 in donations from lobbyists with business before the House Ways & Means Committee, of which he is a member.

Now that's messed up!

From Eyewitness News:

Investigators have arrested three people accused in an elaborate scheme to frame an innocent Far Rockaway woman.

She was accused in May 2010 of impersonating a police officer and robbing victims at gunpoint, but it has turned out to be all a lie.

Within the last week, an informant told the Nassau County DA's office that Seemona Sumasar, 35, had been framed by an ex-boyfriend. Sumasar was being held in the Nassau jail for crimes that never took place, the informant claimed.

After the district attorney's office corroborated the informant's account, Sumasar was released from jail On Thursday.

District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that Jerry Ramrattan, 38, of East Elmhurst, promised to pay off two "witnesses" in Nassau County to lie to authorities that Sumasar, along with a male accomplice, had conducted a number of gunpoint robberies while Sumasar and the accomplice impersonated police officers.

Investigators then questioned each witness, who they say separately confessed that Ramrattan promised to pay them to report false incidents regarding Sumasar. Ramrattan coached the false witnesses to give police partial license plate numbers of cars Sumasar was known to drive and to identify her in a photo array.

The witnesses, Terrell Lovell and Luz Johnson were arrested on Wednesday and charged with perjury.

Mr. Clean?

From the NY Times:

Of the more than 170 people named to one of Mr. Cuomo’s 7 transition committees or his new council of economic advisers, 84 are registered lobbyists or work for businesses, trade associations or labor unions that lobbied state government last year, according to a review of state lobbying records.

Collectively, those groups spent more than $22 million on lobbying last year, on issues like whether grocery stores should be allowed to sell wine and whether individual state universities should be allowed to set their own tuition.

At least 43 committee members personally contributed money to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign for governor during this election cycle, according to campaign finance records. Their contributions in total represent more than $826,000 of Mr. Cuomo’s fund-raising. More than half of those donors have given over $10,000, including the financier Jeffrey Leeds, who gave $55,790; and a lawyer, Abby S. Milstein, who gave $50,000.

Thirty-five others work for companies or unions that have contributed to Mr. Cuomo directly or through political action committees — more than $933,000 in total contributions.

The inclusion of so many donors and lobbyists reflects a familiar paradox for incoming governors and other elected officials: Those people with the most knowledge about government and the biggest Rolodexes of recruitable talent are often the same people with a substantial stake in the outcome of governmental decisions, whether it is the budget, other legislation or regulation.

The contradiction is particularly acute for Mr. Cuomo, an insider’s outsider who has sworn to remake New York’s troubled state government. Many of his transition advisers are members of the Albany establishment, though Mr. Cuomo has pledged to upend that very system.

Council members unhappy with budget cuts

From the Daily News:

The council has already proposed more than $130 million in alternative cuts and identified several areas it would like to see held harmless, including case managers at the Department for the Aging and layoffs at the Administration for Children’s Services. Nonetheless, Council Speaker Christine Quinn said this morning the council recognizes the city has to cut back.

“Most of those we support,” said Quinn of the administration’s plan. “I don’t want that to be lost in the conversation today.”

“That said, there are many troubling cuts,” the speaker added and then rattled off her list, including the nightly closures of certain fire companies.

Council members took aim at the administration over a slew of other slashes — from cuts to outreach for homeless youth (which we cover today) to funding reductions at libraries. Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, the chair of the Cultural Affairs Committee, said some libraries could reduce service to two or three days a week under the current cut.

And, of course, the conversation turned to politics.

Councilmember Jimmy Oddo, the council’s minority leader, questioned the administration’s reasoning for extending term limits — an argument based on its ability to use creative solutions for fiscal problems.

“We needed this administration because it was uniquely qualified. What in this modification would you argue is unique?” Oddo asked the budget director to a round of applause. “Where’s the payoff for the term limits vote? Where is the radical idea?”

Levin loves Lopez

From the NY Post:

Before being elected to the council in 2009, [Steve] Levin, 30, was chief of staff to Assemblyman Lopez, and his critics -- pointing to this and other episodes -- say the freshman lawmaker is still Lopez's lap dog.

Levin, a Brooklyn Democrat, generously allocates taxpayer money to the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a nonprofit organization where Levin once worked which is at the core of Lopez's Bushwick-based political machine.

The group, located outside Levin's waterfront district, gets a larger share of his discretionary funds than any group within his district, which extends from Greenpoint to Brooklyn Heights and includes part of Park Slope.

Ridgewood Bushwick is under investigation for the unusually high salaries it pays to Lopez's girlfriend and campaign treasurer -- the group's two top officials.

Of the $64,000 Levin personally earmarked for the group in the June budget, $12,000 is reserved for its annual picnic in Long Island, which critics say has turned into a partisan event that Lopez controls.

Levin also co-sponsored council measures to send an extra $275,000 to Ridgewood Bushwick, an earmark other council members signed onto.

Levin also singlehandedly allocated $800,000 in capital funds this year toward building a pro posed Ridgewood Bushwick low- income housing development on Willoughby Avenue -- about a dozen blocks outside his district, The Post has learned.

Parker guilty of misdemeanors

From Capitol Tonight:

A jury has found Sen. Kevin Parker guilty of two misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and he faces two years in jail, Josh Robin of NY1 reports.

That means the Brooklyn Democrat will not automatically lose his seat, which would have occurred had he been found guilty of a felony.

However, as you’ll recall, former Sen. Hiram Monserrate’s colleagues set a precedent when they expelled him in the wake of his conviction on a misdemeaor charge of assaulting his girlfriend.

So, it will be interesting to see how senators rationalize not seeking to oust Parker from the chamber (assuming they don’t).

Pelham Parkway trees are goners

From the Bronx Times-Reporter:

The legal battle to save more than 70 mature trees along Pelham Parkway seems to have come to an amicable solution.

The city and the Pelham Parkway Preservation Alliance reached a compromise on Friday, November 12 that guarantees that no more than 50 trees will be removed from Pelham Parkway during the two-year, $36 million reconstruction project. The Pelham Parkway Preservation Alliance, which had filed a suit to have the city agree to specific guarantees on how many trees they will remove during the project, and won a temporary injunction against the start of the project, have agreed to drop their lawsuit if the city sticks to the agreement.

As part of the settlement, no healthy, mature trees will be removed until a technical working group assesses each individual tree; the project’s construction by the Department of Design and Construction will employ measures designed by the Parks Department to protect all trees; all tree work will be performed or supervised by a certified arborist, and should include the installation of tree protection barriers during construction; and the city has reaffirmed its commitment to plant at least 246 new saplings. No more than 50 trees will be removed by DDC, and only diseased trees will be removed by Parks.

Wow, they'll only remove 50 trees instead of 70! And that's supposed to be something to celebrate...

Unhappy at Costco

"COSTCO at Rego Park is situated in a place where house space is scarce. People don't buy items in bulk that don't fit in their apartments. Employee hours are being squeezed. No seasonal workers have been hired.

It is too important for Costco NOT to close, but the Rego Park location is dying. Workers have had hours stolen. Their schedules are changed randomly and they are being written up for little or no reason.

Workers have had positive feedback from major unions.

Crapper, if u are interested, I will keep u up with details.

Thanx."

- Anonymous

"I set up a blog about the store. I am not a big fan of unions but I resent the attempts of Costco to demoralize employees to get them to quit to cut payroll. Just keeping you informed.

Thank you."

- Anonymous

Wait, you mean it sucks to work at Costco and there's no union? Weren't the politicians lining up to cut the ribbon here? The same characters that opposed Walmart at the same location. A bit of a double standard, don't you think?

“This is a great thing for my district,” said Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights). “It brings in much-needed jobs.”

Study suggests shrugging off minor crimes

From Crains:

New York City could save tens of millions of dollars a year if it did not incarcerate thousands of defendants charged with minor crimes -- like hopping a turnstile, smoking marijuana in public or trespassing -- before their trials, according to a new report by advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

In 2008 alone, the city could have kept $42 million in its coffers, had it not locked up 16,649 non-felony defendants who were unable to post bail of $1,000 or less, according to the report. Among defendants arrested that year on misdemeanor charges with bail set at $1,000 or less, 87% were incarcerated because they could not afford the bail, the report said. The average stay in detention was 15.7 days.

City officials disagreed with the report's main findings, arguing most of the misdemeanor defendants held while awaiting trial are locked up because they have prior criminal offenses on their records. The report cites data from the New York City Department of Corrections, which shows that the city could save $161 per inmate per day if the jail population were reduced by 800 or more.

Decent chance your SS# is being used by someone else

From MSNBC:

What are the odds someone else has used your Social Security number? One in 7.

That’s the stunning conclusion of a San Diego company's analysis of 290 million Social Security numbers, which found that 40 million of them have been attached to more than one name. The study, conducted by the fraud-fighting firm ID Analytics, is the first of its kind that’s been made available to the public.

We first wrote about the problem of “SSN-only” identity theft five years ago, and estimated that millions of Americans were on the “secret list of identity theft victims” whose SSNs had been misappropriated by an imposter to obtain work or credit.

The IRS often knows when this happens, when the imposter pays taxes. The Social Security Administration knows, too, for the same reason. And the nation's credit bureaus usually know, because the imposter often ends up applying for some form of credit. Plenty of financial institutions also have access to this information.

But no one is telling you. In short, all these government agencies and financial firms don't think you have a right to know.

We're no closer to finding out who's on that list today, but at least we now know how big the problem is: much bigger than we originally estimated.

Sidewalk police hit the Bronx while DOT neglects Queens

From WPIX:

A sidewalk showdown is forming on a picturesque, dead end street in the Bronx. Neighbors received a notice of violation from the NYC Department of Transportation for defective sidewalks because there are no sidewalks. PIX 11's Greg Mocker took a look around.

The city tells Mocker a DOT Inspector was in the area investigating missing curbs when the inspector noticed the missing sidewalks. The area in question is a small stretch of Arlington Avenue at 227th Street. Neighbors say their houses, built more than 60 years ago, never had sidewalks. Portions of the neighborhood with newer homes do have them.

In New York City, homeowners are responsible for maintaining sidewalks on their property.

The neighbors have 45 days to ask for a re-inspection. The city could complete the work and send neighbors the bill.

 
From WPIX:

Inspectors with the New York City Department of Transportation have been issuing broken sidewalk violations to property owners. Neighbors have been contracting PIX 11's Greg Mocker to with questions about the process and the law.

The city issued a notice of violation in October to Glen Oaks Village in Queens. Neighbors have been ordered to repair more than 4,000 square feet of broken sidewalks, some of which are former bus stops.

Glen Oaks Village President Bob Friedrich says, "We were one of the communities that lost their bus stop in July. We loose our buses and then they come in and give us a violation for the bus stop they never took care of."

Autumn walk in Auburndale

Forgotten-NY hiked around Auburndale recently. Click photo for story.

8,100 violations?

From the Real Deal:

In the wake of scathing video footage of alleged hazardous conditions at the Flatbush Gardens housing complex that has circulated the internet in recent days (see the video below), a housing official has informed The Real Deal that the sprawling, 2,500-unit residential development has garnered 400 new violations in the last month-and-a-half, or roughly 10 violations per day.

The added violations bring the 59-building complex's total to 8,100 current, open violations, according to Eric Bederman, a spokesperson for the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The violations "run the gamut," Bederman said, noting "this is bad -- and we're probably not getting the full extent of it." HPD violations generally are for unsuitable or dangerous building conditions.

Landlord David Bistricer has filed a dismissal request for reinspection at the rental property, located at 1402 New York Avenue, but Bederman said HPD has yet to hear from him regarding a schedule for the reinspection.

Tough luck on tickets

From Bayside Patch:

Baysiders stuck with tickets issued on Bell Blvd. for parking during street cleaning hours will still have to pony up to the Department of Finance — even though the street hasn't been swept in years.

"As long as it was a violation when the ticket was written... then it's still a valid ticket," said Finance spokesman Owen Stone. "The law is written in a way that you have to obey the signs," he added.

Bell Blvd. has not had a street cleaning by the Department of Sanitation in several years. Signs prohibiting parking for sweeping from 8 to 9 a.m. on most weekdays were left up by the Department of Transportation until last month.

Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, had blasted the DOT at a Nov. 16 City Council hearing for its refusal to remove the signs. They were removed by the DOT shortly thereafter.

"Here, drivers were paying $100 tickets for street cleaning that hasn't happened in years," he said adding, "I won't stand for my constituents getting pushed around by city government."

Nonetheless, the collecting agency, Finance, is unmoved. They are not looking into refunding paid fines, or dismissing outstanding tickets.

"I'm 99 percent sure that there's nothing legally even that can be done," said Stone.

Residents stumped in Jamaica

From NY1:

Pedestrians say they have no other option but to walk across the cracked and crumbling sidewalk along the service road of the Van Wyck Expressway. But that doesn’t mean they feel safe while doing so.

Residents say they have complained to the landlord, who told NY1 the sidewalk was damaged when a city tree fell about three years ago. Parulakhter Akhter says the city removed the debris, left the stump, and never came back.

In fact, a great deal of the sidewalk along the expressway between 138th Street and Jamaica Avenue has been uprooted by the city's trees. Some say the sidewalk looks more like a skate ramp than a walkway.

Akhter claims three years ago she and her husband called 311 several times about the sidewalk, but they never got a response. So they gave up on trying to get it fixed.

But when I noticed the damaged sidewalk, which is the responsibility of the Parks Department, I got involved. The Parks Department says it has no record of any 311 complaints about this location, but the homeowner can call 311 to request a free repair under the city's Trees and Sidewalks Program, or repair the sidewalk themselves under the Park Department's guidance.

The homeowner says this is the city's issue. Not hers. So she will call 311 to request the free repair.

NY1 will continue to follow this story.

LIRR waiting room opens later for Hispanic passengers

Hello Crapper,

I took this photo with my cell phone. This is the LIRR's Depot Road station off Northern Blvd. The schedule says in English "waiting room hours are 5 AM to 4 PM. But in Spanish the waiting room hours were 6 AM to 4 PM. What's up with that?

Take Care,
The Pope of College Point

Astoria insurance fraudster pinched

From the Times Ledger:

A Long Island woman who owns two insurance brokerage firms in Astoria was arraigned late November for allegedly scamming four insurance providers of approximately $600,000 in owed premiums from more than 400 policyholders, the Queens district attorney’s office said.

Julie Levin, 44, who owned Oscar Katz Agency Inc. and Levin & Associates Brokerage Inc., both of which are at 29-24 Hoyt Ave. South in Astoria, has been arraigned on four counts of grand larceny, four counts of criminal possession of stolen property, one count of scheming to defraud and 43 counts of issuing a bad check, the DA’s office said. She was released on $50,000 bail and ordered to return to court Jan. 7, the DA’s office said. If convicted, she could potentially face up to 15 years in prison, the DA’s office said.

In an investigation assisted by four insurance companies — Maya Assurance, American Transit Insurance Co., Hereford Insurance and Fiduciary Insurance Co. of America — the DA discovered that Levin allegedly pocketed $606,769.82 in premium payments from 406 individuals throughout the 2009 calendar year. The DA’s office said that to conceal the theft, Levin sent $121,750 in 43 checks to Maya and Hereford, but the checks were returned due to insufficient funds.

Newtown students protest closure

From the Queens Tribune:

With the Dept. of Education eyeing their school for possible closure, dozens of students from Newtown High School in Elmhurst implored Black Friday shoppers at Queens Center Mall, only a few blocks from the school, to help save their 113-year-old home.

"Where will we go?" asked one student, standing in front of the mall entrance, handing out flyers. Another group of students stood along 57th Avenue in front of the Newtown athletic fields, the iconic green cupola of the school in the background.

Another student, who said she immigrated to Elmhurst from Ecuador only a year before attending Newtown, was concerned about others like her. Because of Newtown, she said, she was able to learn English and plans to attend college. "What will others who were in my position do?" she asked.

The flyers asked passers-by to contact the school's DOE representative, demanding the school remain open.

"What a shame," said one woman looking at the flyers. She promised the students her help.

The DOE pondered closing the school earlier this year after it received a "C" on a 2009 progress report, and the school's graduation rate slipped to around 50 percent.

Students, parents and school officials say the problem is not with the school, but rather with statewide standards, which do not work for Newtown High School, where 40 percent of students were recently-arrived immigrants, most of whom do not speak fluent English. Though many high schools will not accept teenage immigrants who are not English-proficient, Newtown does, and though these students do not graduate on time, they do eventually. That, according to the school's administration, is what affects the graduation rate.

Awful Legacy

To The Editor (Queens Tribune):

Notwithstanding Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s promise to relocate many of the Willets Point small businesses, he has now owned up to the fact it was all a charade. As a holiday present, notices have been sent to many of the businesses requiring them to vacate the area by Nov. 30, effectively making them all unemployed. This should come as no surprise since Bloomberg has made it clear he has no mayoral interest in the poor; no interest in the middle class; and no interest in small businesses. His constituency is limited to the rich and fat cat real estate moguls.

In passing, it should be noted Bloomberg has been Mayor for about nine years. Can anyone point to a half a dozen things he has accomplished in that period of time that has significantly improved the lives of the poor, the middle class and the small business person? I doubt it and in my opinion history will not judge him kindly, justifiably so.

Benjamin M. Haber,
Flushing

JFK runway reopens

From the Times Ledger:

Just in time for the holidays, the busiest runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport has fully reopened after months of renovation that helped to ease congestion, airport officials said.

The bay runway, which at 14,511 feet is the longest runway at the airport, returned to full service Nov. 15, the Port Authority said. In March, the strip, used for one-third of JFK’s flights, was shut down for a $350 million reconstruction that expanded the runway and gave it new amenities, according to the PA.

The new runway has been widened from 150 feet to 200 feet and includes state-of-the-art concrete that the PA said is stronger than asphalt. It also includes several high-speed taxiways, new lighting and improved drainage, according to the PA.

The new taxiways will help reduce delays by providing jets with a more efficient way to wait for takeoff, the PA said. The expanded roadway will also enable larger jets to arrive at JFK, and airport officials said that also would cut down on the number of delays.

What stormwater runoff?

I don't think this needs any commentary. The photos speak for themselves. Location is along 80th Street in Middle Village.



Cash cow!

Attempted kidnapping in Flushing

From NY1:

Police in Queens are on the lookout for two men who tried to abduct a 13-year-old girl earlier this week.

Investigators say the teen was walking near the corner of Barclay Avenue and Union Street in Flushing around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday when a black, four-door sedan with tinted windows pulled up next to her.

One of the men tried to pull her inside, but she managed to break free.

Police say both men are in their 40s. One of the suspects was seen wearing a blue and orange Mets jacket.

Film festival founder deported

From the Times Ledger:

Marie Castaldo, the disgraced founder of the Queens International Film Festival who pleaded guilty to fraud in Queens and multiple counts of animal cruelty in Ulster County, N.Y., was recently deported, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said this week.

Castaldo had been charged in August with failing to pay more than $14,000 to multiple vendors for the 2007 and 2008 film festivals. These companies included Ballyhoo Central, Brooklyn’s Rooftop Films, Manhattan video equipment provider Big Apple Rentals and Connecticut projectionist James Hill.

Castaldo, who founded the QIFF festival and ran it from 2003-2009, is a French national. It was not known when she left the country or where she was sent. A spokesman for ICE would only say “she was deported from the United States.”

The Queens DA’s office said Castaldo pleaded guilty to the fraud count in September and was eventually sentenced to a conditional discharge, which meant she was able to avoid jail time but had to abide by certain conditions. These required that she pay back the companies and stay out of trouble for a year, the DA’s office said.

The Ulster County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals also arrested Castaldo in late July for keeping 48 dogs locked in cages at an empty storefront of a former feed store in Phoenicia, N.Y.

De facto salary cut for cops

From the NY Post:

A new NYPD crackdown will ban cops from working during paid vacation time — a policy that could put a crimp in crimefighting during times when it’s needed most, The Post has learned.

The NYPD’s Office of Management Analysis and Planning directive goes into effect Jan. 1, and is estimated to save the city an annual $4.1 million.

But one angry cop official noted the policy will effectively cut cops’ salaries — and union officials predict it will hurt patrol numbers during the crime-busy holidays when most officers usually take their "working" vacations.

The cost-cutting comes as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s order that every agency tighten their belts to trim the deficit; the city is estimating savings of $1.6 billion over the next 18 months with various cost-cutting directives.

The NYPD’s ban is one way it’s offering savings: The cops have been traditionally allowed to work through one week of their paid vacation every year — picking up both their vacation dough and straight-time working money.

"[The ban] effectively is a salary cut for a lot of cops and detectives," said one angry police official.

The "working" vacation was first devised during New York’s fiscal nightmare in the mid-1970s — and widely accepted as a win-win for cops and the department.

Hundreds of officers traditionally picked the last weeks of the year to take their "working" vacations, sources noted.

And while the cops got to make extra dough, the department would have the staffing for a period when crime tends to soar.

Ouch!

From CBS 2:

A Rikers Island correction officer had a portion of his apparently thumb bitten off by a inmate and two other officers suffered injuries after a violent brawl broke out Thursday night in the prison, officials from the New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association said Friday.

According to the COBA, the incident happened about 10:45 p.m. Thursday inside the Anna M. Kross Center. It’s not clear what led to the altercation, but COBA officials said one officer suffered lacerations to his hand and another was treated for palpitations. The third officer’s thumb was bitten off and severed at the knuckle, they reported.

All three were rushed to Bellevue Hospital where they were treated and released. Their identities were not revealed.

Cop busted for illegal busts

From the NY Post:

A veteran NYPD narcotics cop who was a member of two troubled undercover units framed at least seven people for drug buys that never took place in Queens and Brooklyn, sources said.

Detective Adolph Osback, 38, was named in a 48-count indictment for writing up bogus reports for three separate cocaine sales in Queens when he was assigned to the borough's narcotics unit, leading to charges against five victims, according to sources.

The unit has suffered numerous black eyes in recent years, including a probe for drinking on the job as well as one cop jailed for pimping out a teen girl and another who coerced sex from women he arrested.

In addition to the accusations in Queens, Osback was indicted on similar charges in Brooklyn last Friday, the sources added. The details on that case were not known, but two people whom he arrested were cleared.

Sources said that in many instances Osback would trap his "suspects" by dropping "buy money" on the floor. Osback would then finger the person who picked up the marked bills as the buyer, the sources added.

In the Queens case, Osback, who joined the NYPD in September 2000, was charged with unlawful imprisonment for locking up two of the five victims between January 2006 and May 2007. Drug-dealing charges against all of them were dismissed, the sources said.

Osback, now assigned to a housing unit, has been suspended and was freed on $10,000 bail after being arrested on Nov. 16.

Where are the street trees?

When you build a new structure in this town, you are now required to plant street trees along the sidewalks all around your property. This is the in front of the Valley National Bank on 80th Street at the Midville/Glendale border.
Oh well, so much for that. (There are 3 trees on the Cooper Ave side.)

Their only redeeming value is that they're suing the mosque developer...

Internal affairs are sordid ones

From the Village Voice:

Earlier this year, the Voice uncovered a troubling pattern of how the NYPD operates, relying on secretly recorded tapes to show that street cops are under intense pressure to achieve seemingly contradictory goals set down by their superiors. Years of recordings, lawsuits, and testimonies by active and retired police officers reveal that Ray Kelly's police department has been on an intense program that punishes innocent bystanders while intimidating and harassing actual crime victims.

We've heard relatively little, however, about the NYPD wing that is supposed to be watching for these kinds of injustices: the Internal Affairs Bureau. Until now.

More officers have come forward, telling the Voice that the secretive police-department-within-a-department is as troubled as the rest of Kelly's operation. To illustrate this, we will look at three unrelated Internal Affairs cases: One involves a Queens woman who says she was stalked, harassed, and impregnated by an NYPD sergeant; the other, a veteran detective stuck in a dead-end job requiring him to watch surveillance video all day; and the third, a gay cop in the Internal Affairs Bureau itself who faced constant harassment over his sexual identity. (The NYPD did not respond to detailed questions about these cases.)

Taken together, the three cases highlight several themes about the current Internal Affairs Bureau.

For one, all IAB complaints are supposed to be confidential. That rule is necessary because police officers who complain about their colleagues can and do face retaliation. But the reality seems to be that an officer's home command will find out fairly quickly that an Internal Affairs complaint has been made. Several officers have complained to the Voice that shortly after they filed complaints with Internal Affairs, their home commands knew about it and then pursued various types of retaliation against them.

Second, whether big or small, IAB cases seem to plod through the system at the same snail's pace. There doesn't seem to be any mechanism to deal quickly with a minor case—an office dispute, for example. Thus, cases drag on, and aggrieved, frustrated cops turn to the courts to resolve their issues. That, in turn, costs the city more money in legal bills and settlements.

Third, it's impossible—even for the people who file the complaints—to find out what was done and what happened with a complaint. Internal Affairs investigators often don't return complainants' phone calls.

Fourth, it seems that often, very little happens with a complaint—and it takes a long time not to happen.

Finally, the system is fairly capricious, and its decisions are often puzzling. In two cases with similar circumstances, one detective might be allowed to retire without charges, while another might be charged and face termination. And because of the insular nature of today's NYPD, it's not likely you'll find out why. Police officers who fall out of favor are just as likely to receive an unfavorable assignment as face a charge—a point made by a former departmental trial commissioner now in private practice.

Trees still pose danger 2 months after storm

From the Daily News:

It took millions of dollars and thousands of hours to clean up broken trees and other debris left by the September tornado and storm that ravaged parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

But some remnants of that so-called microburst still sit, perched precariously high up in trees along sections of Middle Village and Glendale.

They are hanging branches, and some residents are worried they could come crashing down on cars and pedestrians on Cooper Ave.

"Cooper seems to be the forgotten block," said Robert Holden of the Juniper Park Civic Association.

"There are these huge branches hanging over the sidewalk. I wouldn't park my car on that street. All you need is one strong wind."

After spotting at least eight trees with broken limbs, Holden wrote to Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and asked her to look into the problem.

He even offered to have his civic group compile a list of potentially dangerous trees.

"I'm not an arborist, but some of these trees don't look very stable," he said.

"We want to know if there is an expert who is going around and doing an assessment."

Lewandowski promised to take care of the problem this week.

She said callers should provide specific information about a tree, such as nearby signs and street addresses, to help crews locate it.

"Eleven of 40 trees located along Cooper Ave. near St. John's Cemetery were found damaged after the trees were inspected today by Queens Forestry," she said in a statement.

Domino project faces court challenge

From the Brooklyn Paper:

Critics of the $1.5-billion redevelopment of the former Domino Sugar factory into 2,200 units housing sued last week to reverse the rezoning of the waterfront site.

The suit, filed in State Supreme Court by the Williamsburg Community Preservation Coalition, argues that the City Council, Department of City Planning, and the project’s developer, Community Preservation Resources Corporation, failed to conduct the required thorough environmental review of the project.

The 34-page lawsuit contends that the review “failed to take a hard look at the adverse environmental impacts of the project,” including its deliterious effect on traffic, nearby schools and subway lines, and publicly accessible open space.

Fraud charge added to terror charge

From the Daily News:

The father of subway bomb plotter Najibullah Zazi has been charged with visa fraud for falsely claiming a nephew was his biological son so he could enter the U.S., according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Mohammed Wali Zazi was already charged with conspiring to dispose of his son's bomb-making chemicals and materials in September 2009 after authorities disrupted the Al Qaeda plot to attack the New York City transit system.

The superceding indictment filed Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court accuses Mohammed Zazi of lying about his relationship with the nephew in immigration documents and to federal agents between 1997 and 2009.

The nephew, who is not identified, lived in Afghanistan and was granted asylum in this country in 1998.

Shipping containers - not just for trains anymore!

A property owner has been storing shipping containers behind his building at 61-42 Maspeth Avenue for a couple of years now in violation of the zoning code. Since he's been fined several times without compliance resulting, why isn't he being forced to take action by DOB and the local elected officials? How much longer will residents be forced to put up with this eyesore?

80,000 uncounted ballots found in Queens

From the NY Times:

The city’s Board of Elections routinely reminds New Yorkers that the election night vote count is unofficial and preliminary.

Still, the difference in the results from Nov. 2 and in the returns formally certified by the board on Wednesday seems striking: The board found 195,055 votes, or 17 percent more votes, than were originally reported.

That differential — which nearly equals the total vote for governor in the Bronx and Staten Island combined — does not include an additional 28,442 affidavit ballots that New Yorkers cast at the polls on Election Day because of missing registrations or other reasons and another 30,665 absentee and military ballots and scattered write-in votes.

The preliminary machine tally alone swelled from 1,145,826 on election night to 1,366,881 in the official version.

The largest cache of newly found machine ballots was in Queens — about 80,000, or 31 percent more than were reported on election night.

A Board of Elections spokeswoman had no immediate explanation for the disparity.
While the discrepancy between the number of votes counted on election night and those that were ultimately certified is noteworthy, it was not large enough to reverse the results in any election.

Isn't it ironic?

From City Hall:

Last week, Andrew Cuomo announced that he was prepared to spend the $4 million left in his campaign warchest—and raise more, if necessary—to push back against the unions and other special interests who may oppose his agenda when he takes over as governor.

“I understand the argument that they are going to make,” Cuomo said on Fred Dicker’s radio show last week. “I have a contrary argument. I have an argument that the people of this state just endorsed. I have an agenda that the people of this state just endorsed by a very large margin.”

Cuomo raised about $33 million for his campaign, with the first dollars coming in not long after he was elected attorney general in 2006. Of that, about $1.7 million came directly from unions and union political action committees, in addition to other money that was donated by individual unions or lobbyists associated with unions. Now, with Cuomo’s declaration that he will use what is left in the pot to take them on, some of the people who helped put money in the pot are left shaking their heads.

“Life is full of ironies,” said Stephen Madarasz, communications director for the Civil Service Employees Association, one of the public employee unions that has left little question that it will oppose cuts Cuomo proposes, and which gave Cuomo $20,000 between donations in 2007 and 2009.

Adding to the irony in Madarasz’s view is the thought that Cuomo could end up using donations culled from union dues to fight back against a union made up of government employees.

“If the boss is out there attacking his own employees with advertising that they’ve paid for, it really adds another dimension to it that would be sort of absurd,” Madarasz said.

More stalled sites than ever

From the GlobeSt:

The tally of stalled construction sites citywide keeps going up, says the New York Building Congress. As of October, it had risen to 692 sites, a 52% increase over a year ago, suggesting that the construction sector is lagging behind a recovery in the broader economy.

While Brooklyn maintains the dubious distinction of containing the largest number of stalled building sites — 319, or 46% of the citywide total and a 47% year-over-year rise — other boroughs are seeing their shares increase at a faster pace. Manhattan has seen its total nearly double over the past 12 months, from 66 sites a year ago to 130 last month, while Staten Island has tripled its total from 20 to 60.

By contrast, Queens has the second highest tally among the five boroughs with 153, but that number has increased by only 14%, or 19 sites, within the past 12 months. The Bronx has added eight stalled sites over the past year, bringing its total to 30, a 36% year-over-year increase.

Building Congress analysis of city data finds that the residential sector contributes the lion’s share of stalled sites, 67% of the total, mostly multifamily. Thirty-six percent of the stalled sites are vacant, meaning that the developers have gone through the permitting process but have yet to commence construction, according to inspection records from the city’s Department of Buildings. The number of stalled sites has increased each months thus far in 2010, according to the Building Congress.

Council worried about Walmart

From Crains:

With Walmart officials making it clear they intend to open stores in the five boroughs, the City Council has scheduled a hearing next month to review the impact the mega-retailer would have on small business and communities across the city.

The hearing, set for Dec. 14, has been titled “When Wal-Mart Comes to Town” and will offer a “historical and prospective view” of the Arkansas retail giant's impact, according to a Council notice. It will be a joint hearing of the Small Business, Community Development and the Economic Development committees.

“We're excited to have this hearing and get all the information out in the open so it can be debated,” said Bennett Baruch, deputy chief of staff to Councilwoman Diana Reyna, D-Brooklyn, who chairs the Small Business Committee.

The Council has historically opposed Walmart, largely because many of its members rely heavily on support from organized labor, which is worried that the retail giant would eat into the market share of unionized grocers should it enter the New York City market.

But after earlier defeats in Queens and on Staten Island, the retailer has grown more sophisticated in its approach and is now looking at as-of-right sights that would not require Council approval. One such location, the Gateway II complex in East New York, Brooklyn, already received its land-use approval.

Drag racing deaths rampant

From the NY Post:

One man was killed and another injured this morning after a high-speed crash on a notorious stretch of road in Queens known for drag-racing.

A 2003 black Nissan Maxima was traveling westbound on North Conduit Avenue near 78th Street in Ozone Park about 10 a.m. when the driver lost control of the vehicle near a bend in the road, slammed into a light pole and toppling it, causing the car to overturn and rest on its roof, witnesses said.

The driver, Geraud Gray, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene. His 18-year-old passenger was taken to Brookdale hospital where he was listed in stable condition, police said.

A police source estimated that the car was traveling in excess of 90 mph.

Neighbors said racing on the three-lane strip, on the border between Brooklyn and Queens, is nothing new.

Fatal drag racing incidents this week in Brooklyn and on Long Island as well.

State pols waste lots of trees and $$$

From the Daily News:

The state's budget crisis hasn't stopped lawmakers from spending big bucks to promote themselves.

Members of the Senate and Assembly have spent nearly $9 million in taxpayer money this year on constituent mailings, the Daily News has learned.

The spending comes as the state faces a $9 billion budget deficit and is preparing to lay off hundreds of government workers on Dec. 31.

"It's an extraordinary amount of money when the state is broke," said Dick Dadey, executive director of the good government group Citizens Union.

"And the timing of the newsletters is geared to inform voters just before an election, which is doubly inappropriate."

Senators spent $5.3 million on postage, while Assembly members spent $3.6 million. The Senate and Assembly spent a combined $12 million last year, records show.

119 violations is not that big of a deal...

From SI Live:

Tamika Haney, 35, is no longer sure who owns the two-and-a-half-story house at 151 Hendricks Ave. in New Brighton, where she lives on the second floor with her nine children, ranging in age from 1 to 19 years old.

She moved there in April 2005 from a shelter in Brooklyn. She said, “The city gave me a list of apartments, and this was one of them.”

Over the past five years, conditions in the house have deteriorated significantly.

“The basement is filled with raw sewage,” Ms. Haney said. “The smell is horrible, and my kids and I are breathing in this stuff.

“There are holes in the ceiling and floor, and squirrels come inside. I don’t have an oven — it’s been broken for four years. The kitchen sink doesn’t work — I have to wash my dishes in the bathroom tub.”

The city’s Department of Finance lists the building’s owner as Angelito Chuakay, who has a mailing address in Secaucus, N.J. Ms. Haney confirmed he was her landlord, but said he and his wife, Aurea, have not returned any of her telephone calls recently.

Public records of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) show 119 open violations at 151 Hendricks Ave., 96 of them listed as Class B, meaning hazardous.

An HPD inspection last month documented a collapsing ceiling in Ms. Haney’s living room, a hole in the kitchen ceiling, a broken pipe in the kitchen sink, vermin throughout the apartment and raw sewage in the basement, among other violations.

An earlier inspection in August found exposed electrical wiring, a sagging bathroom floor and doors that created rooms within bedrooms.

When an HPD inspector visited the building in March, flies, roaches and mice were noted throughout the building; electrical wiring was exposed in the basement; there was a leaking pipe in Ms. Haney’s kitchen, and no smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, as required by law.

She is also concerned that the building may have been illegally converted from a one-family to a two-family house. “On the first floor, there’s just a piece of sheetrock that separates the downstairs apartment from the upstairs,” she said.

See also:

Tenants of Port Richmond apartment building suffer in squalid silence

City pushed to action on Staten Island tenants' nightmares

Dispute at Forest Hills club leads to murder

From Eyewitness News:

A mother is questioning the circumstances surrounding her son's death after a fight at a nightclub in Queens.

Beverley Waide clutched a torn blue sweater, dropped her head in her hand and sobbed at the thought that the piece of clothing is what her son wore the night he died.

Her son, 33-year-old Haroon Walfall, went to Bartinis Lounge in Forest Hills Friday night with a cousin and a friend. They told her about a dispute inside that lead to his death.

"He was talking to this girl," Waide said. "Apparently she had her boyfriend there. And maybe he got jealous and he attacked my son. And his friends came at him and they started beating him. They were all stomping at him. Stomping at his face with his boots."

Waide says the bouncer threw her son out. In the car, Walfall complained of the pain, and his cousin took him to Franklin General Hospital, where he died.

Assemblyman says it's time to pay up

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Brooklyn legislator says cash-strapped New York should collect taxes it’s owed before taxing its people any more.

Brooklyn Assemblyman William Colton told 1010 WINS, the state is owed $14.4 billion in delinquent taxes and said the state should do its due diligence to collect the money.

Colton hopes a new website set up by the Department of Taxation and Finance will shame some of those delinquent taxpayers to pay up.

The website names the top 250 violating individual taxpayers and business taxpayers.

“Let’s change Albany by making sure that our middle-income families are not shortchanged by having wealthy companies and individuals get away with billions of dollars of unpaid taxes,” Colton said.

The strip club “Scores” tops the list — owing 14.7 million. Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff is number 147 on the list of individuals — owing $1.6 million.

The list – which has been up since April 2010 – will be updated every month, Colton said.

“They have to get top lawyers to go in and close the tax loopholes and they have to start fighting to get every penny of unpaid taxes that is owned by the wealthy businesses and individuals that are forcing middle income families to suffer,” he said.

Construction unions on the decline

From the Daily News:

Major developers say they won't start building again without significant cuts in their labor costs, with work-rule, benefit and wage savings of 20% or more.

Nonunion contractors are improving their skills and making inroads in the tall Manhattan buildings that have been union-built since the beginning of time.

Meanwhile, union hardhats looking at 20% unemployment or more in their trades have grudgingly accepted work-rule changes and wage freezes on a project-by-project basis - but they're balking at signing onto permanent changes.

Talks have moved along fitfully and recently broke off until after the holidays, but the real battle will come by summer.

Thirty construction unions have contracts that expire by June 30, 2011. When they do, the reverberations could shake New York to its core.

Contractors could reach new deals. Or unions could walk off the job and paralyze construction sites. Or developers could bring nonunion workers onto high-profile midtown jobs and brace themselves for the consequences.

Gangs wearing colors to court

From the Daily News:

Each day, a dozen or more young men stroll into Queens Supreme Court sporting the Cincinnati Reds' signature red-and-black cap.

The fashion trend doesn't mean the borough has stopped rooting for the Mets in favor of this year's National League Central champions.

Veteran prosecutors say members of the Bloods - the largest and most dangerous gang in Queens - have worked the red "C" into their wardrobe in a direct slap at blue-themed rivals the Crips.

Queens' top gang prosecutor complains the brazen thugs wear the cap to intimidate witnesses or show solidarity with brother gangsters.

Cops and prosecutors say the hats are an especially common sight in Queens because of the Bloods' strong presence in Far Rockaway housing projects for more than a decade.