Open enrollment still a joke

From the Daily News:

Nearly three-quarters of city high school students entering City University community colleges failed placement exams in reading, math and writing this year.

About 74% of first-time freshmen who graduated from city schools and are attending CUNY's community colleges needed remedial classes this year after exams deemed them unprepared for college-level work.

That's up slightly from 2009, when 71% of incoming city students needed the catch-up classes.

Education Department officials could not explain the uptick but noted that there has been improvement since 2002, when 82% of first-time freshmen at the community colleges weren't ready for college-level work.

CityTime consultants busted

From the Daily News:

Four highly paid consultants hired to computerize the municipal payroll to eliminate waste and fraud were charged Wednesday with using the city as a "cash cow" to steal $80 million.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara unsealed charges against the four hired as part of a project called CityTime that Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez first revealed was hobbled by waste and bloat.

The four were arrested Wednesday morning, along with the wife and mother of one of the consultants. All were charged with with using a network of shell companies to siphon off millions of taxpayer dollars.

Bharara said the plotters "used the the city as their own personal cash cow, making misrepresentations that led to the misappropriation of tens of millions of dollars."

Consultant Mark Mazer put front companies in the names of his wife and mother to pocket more than $25 million, according to a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.

Prosecutors said the defendants also took kickbacks and engaged in money laundering.

More from Daily News:

Read on for more fallout from the CityTime mess, including from Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who insists no one could have known the scope of what was happening -- even the Daily News (despite the fact that our Juan Gonzalez has been exposing problems with CityTime for ages)...

"No one, even in the Daily News, would have thought this was happening. ... The Council's had a number of oversight hearings on CityTime. I think we're all anxiously awaiting the results of what the deputy mayor will find. You know, everyone was very unhappy I think across the city to hear this yesterday. But I was grateful to the mayor that he reacted quickly and thoroughly and that he's putting the deputy mayor in charge. ... I don't know that he could have done anything more quickly than as soon as he found out yesterday. You know, you can't, sometimes these investigations start and you can't, you may even know about them, and you can't do anything. They have to play their course out to get to the point where law enforcement can make the arrest. So really, the mayor could not have done anything until after yesterday. He didn't let any grass grow under his feet."

JFK bomb plotter gets life in prison

From the NY Post:

A judge [Wednesday] sentenced a former member of Guyana’s parliament to life in prison for plotting to blow up fuel tanks at Kennedy Airport.

Abdul Kadir received the sentence in federal court in Brooklyn.

Kadir and another former JFK cargo handler Russell Defreitas were convicted earlier this year on multiple conspiracy charges.

FBI agents arrested them in 2007 after an informant infiltrated the terror plot and recorded them discussing it. Prosecutors said the men wanted to outdo the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and sought the help of militant Muslims, including an al-Qaida operative, in Guyana.

Kadir told the judge on Wednesday that he was a peace-loving man who never wanted to harm Americans.

Sentencing for DeFreitas is set for Jan. 21.

With AP

Jamaica's character assassination

"Hey, excuse me. I am in a rush, but I came across your blog while looking for information on the St. Albans VA Hospital, and love that some one is also pissed off about the over development in Queens. I am a South East Queens resident, born and raised in Jamaica, educated in Bayside from Kindergarten to High School, so I know both areas of the borough extremely well. Yes over development in areas like Bayside, with the Mc Mansions have been a problem, but it was addressed quickly, and you do not see it any more. The reason, community involvement, and over all effective community influence with city government officials. At the very least the over developed houses in the more socially affluent neighborhoods in North Eastern Queens were of good quality.

In the poorer neighborhoods, these developers have no mercy, they come in, buy single family homes, on blocks with identical single family homes, knock them down, then put of extremely cheap, four family attached homes with no drive ways. The homes these developers build do not have grass out front, almost always have white gates out front, painted with cheap white paint that is stained with rust before the quasi apartments are even sold, if they are ever sold, and almost always have a weed garden behind them; I mean these guys don't even have the decency to put a little grass down, and take care of the exterior of the spaces which they rent out. This is occurring block after block, and you know why? Well, the neighborhoods are primarily low income and working class, the inhabitants have little sway in city hall, and the City Councilmen, State Assembly and Congress representatives haven't addressed the issue appropriately.

The community too must take blame for not standing up to those outsiders immorally profiting off of them, while simultaneously destroying the character, identity, and monetary value of their neighborhoods. The most disturbing ones are those which have replaced single family early 20th century (19th century modeled) homes in Northern Jamaica, these homes are quintessential Long Island, and quintessential New York City. In addition, it only takes away from the modern urban appeal of Queens. New York transplants priced out of Manhattan dig Brooklyn because it's character hasn't been compromised, even throughout the turmoil of the late 70's to early 90's. Queens has many of the same architectural beauties, but they are being destroyed at the benefit of a few. I am 28 years old, I embrace all things NYC, and all things Queens, but it is as if the Queens that I know, especially the south side, is being sacrificed for all the wrong reasons, and it is almost too late to act, because the damage has already been done." - Jamaal

Wrath of Sadik-Khan gets FOILed!

From the Neighborhood Retail Alliance:

We all know by now how NYC DOT Commissioner is trying to unilaterally alter the city's streets so that we can better resemble bike-friendly Copenhagen. Now the stated rationale for this extreme makeover, is that it is being done in order to reduce traffic and make the city safer. But, there's a fly in this particular medicinal ointment-and that is, of course, the mayor's brazen hypocrisy all over the city, but particularly in the outer boroughs, in promoting car dependent mega-projects that will counteract any possible environmental good that could come from reducing the city's car and truck traffic.

Well, it now looks as if Sadik-Khan is a Bloomberg partner in crime-as we have discovered in one e-mail that was obtained by Willets Point United from NY State DOT. The correspondence is between local DOT administrator Philip Eng and Commissioner Stanley Gee. Here it is:

From: Eng, Phillip
To: Gee, Stanley ... (and many other key names at NYSDOT involved with the proposed Van Wyck ramps)

Subject: Bruckner Sheridan and Willets Pt.
This is to let you know that I had a conversation today with JSK [presumably, Janette Sadik-Kahn of NYCDOT] and Madelyn Wils of EDC regarding the NYSDOT's position on the Bruckner Sheridan EIS and our position on Willets Point.

Background:
Back in May 2010, NYCDOT questioned on our Bruckner project the traffic modeling, growth rates and projected traffic diverted onto local streets. Calling into question the baseline condition that is [sic] utilizes data and assumptions from NYMTC's Best Practices Model [BPM]. Regional review of issues and comments were sent to NYC in July 2010.

More recently I informed NYCEDC that this puts us in a dilemma now that the City wants us to approve their sensitivity analysis on Willets Point Redevelopment. Our concern is that the City is using the same baseline condition, data and assumptions on Willets Point and knowing that the City has raised questions makes it difficult for the Region to sign off. NYCDOT does not believe they have called into question BPM.

JSK noted that she will be sending me a letter holding me personally responsible for holding the Willets Pt project hostage. I'm okay with that as we need to ensure that we have thoroughly reviewed the issues and that they are resolved satisfactorily. I told her that we need to have our staff meet (sometime next week) including NYMTC and go over the concerns raised by the city and bring them to a resolution.

Once and if we are convinced that there is no inconsistency on the City's part, we hope to be able to jointly move forward.

NYMTC and FHWA are in agreement that the City has been inconsistent and we are all concerned what this means for projects that rely on BPM. We will be reaching out to them today to further discussions.

So, the SDOT, in doing its proper due diligence and questioning the data submitted by NYC EDC, is under a threat from Ms. Tricycle-someone who appears to be comfortable with the fraudulent fudged data that the EDC consultants have submitted-and has caused all of the delays in the approval process for the Willets Point/Van Wyck ramps. Unable to argue from the facts on the ground, the commissioner is issuing woof tickets.

What this all means to us, is that there is a compelling need to open up this entire review process to public scrutiny-and take it out of the unclean hands of EDC. When legitimate questions are being raised and responses are given that threaten the honest broker, you just know that the locals are trying to rig the entire game. Its past time for a little sunlight, no? The Bloomberg Bunko Squad needs to be exposed.

So, in a nutshell, Janette Sadik-Khan, whose job it is to be concerned about the flow of traffic in Queens, has been pressuring NYSDOT to rubberstamp the City's Willets Point/Van Wyck ramp plan because the EDC wants the project to move along even though the plan as it stands is going to make things 10x worse.

I think it's time to get the Feds on the case.

Photo by GarySe7ev on Flickr

This is what cops are busy doing

From the Daily News:

Four Queens men claim they were locked up for more than 30 hours by cops seeking revenge on a crowd of men who laughed at an officer who couldn't catch a fleeing drug suspect.

The men insist they didn't even laugh, says their lawyer Gabriel Harvis, who filed suit against the NYPD and 10 unidentified officers in Brooklyn Federal Court. They believe they were arrested because cops wanted to take their frustration out on them, he said.

"The cops knew my clients had done nothing wrong, but they didn't care," said Harvis, who represents Abdul Kabba, Isaiah Barnes, Hasan Allen and Ishmial Deas. Police "were embarrassed, so they abused their power by locking them up anyway."

The four were held for 27 hours in the 103rd Precinct stationhouse before the Queens district attorney's office dropped the charges.

Darryl is Douglaston's Santa Claus

From Douglaston Patch:

Mets legend Darryl Strawberry said he chose Douglaston over Manhattan as the locale for his restaurant to thank Queens residents for supporting him during his years of playing in the borough.

Now, the former slugger is mulling over ways to give back to the community, such as coordinating charity events with Strawberry's Bar and Grill, located at 42-15 235th St., and working with local schools.

"I wanted to be back in the area where I played for four years," Strawberry said of his eatery, which opened in August. "So, this is for Mets fans. Queens is my home more than any other place."

Strawberry said he plans for the restaurant to have a charity component through which he will raise money for children with autism or youngsters who lost their parents during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.

He also hopes to get involved with local schools or Little League teams.

In the meantime, Strawberry makes his way to Queens five times per month from his home in Missouri to visit his business.

Nope, this wasn't a mistake

Yes, a Brooklyn playground has a vacate order on it. Miss Heather has the whole story. And it's a doozy.

He hopes to be NYC's best mayor ever!

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg's ego got the best of him Sunday when he confessed he wants to be remembered as "the greatest mayor ever."

The confession from Hizzoner, who usually says he hopes his eventual successor will do a better job than he has done, came as he once again denied any interest in running for President.

"I've got a great job. I want to go out being, having a reputation as a very good, maybe the greatest mayor ever," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

He again wore a purple tie, which some have seen as his attempt to brand himself as a bridge between the red and blue states in a divided America. But he once again insisted he's not thinking about running for President and said any of his advisers who may be plotting those moves should "cease and desist."

He also thinks the founding fathers weren't interested in party politics, which is news to anyone who paid attention in history class in high school.

EDC allowing historic buildings to fall apart

From the Daily News:

A set of stunning 140-year-old buildings in an up-and-coming corner of Staten Island has been neglected so long that the interiors are rotting and foliage is growing from the inside out.

Big plans for the 3-acre Lighthouse Harbor Site in St. George have gone unrealized for more than a decade, despite millions in city funds spent to keep the buildings intact.

Two of the buildings, including one protected by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, were selected by the federal government in 1997 to house the National Lighthouse Museum, but preservation groups have failed so farto secure enough funding and get the museum up and running.

Triangle Equities, a Queens-based real estate firm, was selected in 2007 to develop the remaining three buildings. The firm announced plans to transform them into a massive mall with shops and restaurants, but the project has gone nowhere.

"The city is invested in this site. We've done a lot to put a plan in place that will make it a great Staten Island destination," said Julie Wood, spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corp., which owns the buildings.

Wood said the EDC has spent $6.5 million to keep the buildings structurally sound.

If the EDC is involved, you know it won't go well.

Park at St. Saviour's looking more likely

From the Daily News:

Talks to save a portion of the historic St. Saviour's property for parkland are heating up as the owner prepares to construct warehouses on the Maspeth site.

City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told civic leaders last week his agency has been working with elected officials and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to hash out a deal with Maspeth Development LLC, which owns the 1.5-acre property.

Supporters have been scrambling to pool together funds to buy the site. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) have set aside more than $2 million.

"I am hopeful," said civic activist Christina Wilkinson, who has spearheaded efforts to preserve and save the site. "While there are talks, there is hope."

The flurry of calls and activity comes just days after owner Scott Kushnik got approvals from the Buildings Department to construct warehouses on a portion of the land, located at 57th Road and 58th St. "Even if we develop the site, the door is open," said Kushnik, who paid about $6 million for the site several years ago. "This isn't a lost cause."

Kushnik hit resistance when he tried to build housing on the property. He said he has been speaking with city officials but said their offers have been low. "I've been bleeding $30,000 a month here for four years," he said. "If I break even, I will be lucky."

Brooklyn pols support money launderer

From the NY Post:

A Brighton Beach-connected international money launderer — who worked under the European equivalent of John Gotti — counts ranking New York politicians among his friends.

A trio of powerhouse politicos is coming to the aid of Nikolai Dozortsev: state Sen. Carl Kruger, Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny, and even Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. The elected officials all sent letters on his behalf to the Brooklyn federal court judge who will sentence Dozortsev later this week.

Dozortsev – a twice-convicted felon with a criminal career spanning two decades – was the money man for a violent organized crime syndicate. The group’s illegal activities in the U.S. and Europe easily exceeded $50 million a year, officials say.

He worked alongside the legendary European mob boss Ricardo Fanchini, and faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.

But Brook-Krasny calls Dozortsev a man "of integrity and strong moral fiber" in a letter written on Assembly letterhead and addressed to the judge presiding over the case.

Kruger, another Brighton pol, who sits on the state Senate’s Crime Victims and Crime and Corrections committees, urged Judge Frederic Block to kindly "take under consideration" the assistance Dozortsev and his family has given to other immigrants from Russia settling in New York.

Markowitz wrote Block a letter praising the character of Dozortsev’s parents and explaining that although he had never met "Nick," he hopes their qualities had been passed on to him.

P.S. Pedro Espada's been indicted.

Christmas concert fundraiser this Friday

From Rego-Forest Preservation Council:

The historic First Presbyterian Church of Newtown NEEDS YOUR HELP! All are invited to a Christmas Concert & Restoration Fundraiser on Friday, December 17th at 7:30 PM at the south side of Queens Blvd & 54th Ave in Elmhurst, near the Grand Ave subway entrance. For more information, contact Church Historian Marjorie Melikian at (718) 897-5668.

This church is endangered not by developers which have recently undermined the integrity of historic religious institutions, but is endangered since it is in need of some major repairs to its 1895 building, including weatherproofing, electrical work, roofing, refinishing, and the cleaning and repair of stained glass. Although there is no admission fee, a free will offering will be collected, to benefit the restoration and upgrades of one of Queens' greatest "Landmarks at heart!" Please help by spreading the word, and bringing your family and friends.

The concert is a joint venture of the First Presbyterian Church of Newtown choir with another choral group, known as the Harmonious Chorus. It will be directed by Victor Lui, and the organist is Kiyomi Kimura. Refreshments will be served afterwards.

The First Presbyterian Church is a greatly intact Gothic brownstone masterpiece with a bell tower, has a 358 year-old congregation, and was an engineering marvel as the 5 million-pound church was moved 125 feet in the 1920s, to spare it from demolition during Queens Boulevard's widening.

The congregation began in 1652, and is one of the oldest in New York City. Originally a community church, it became officially Presbyterian in 1715. It was founded in the wilderness (now Elmhurst) of the Dutch Colony of New Netherlands, and has survived war, invasion, and religious and political persecution. The bell and church are symbols of the lost history of Queens, and have withstood the test of time. Your help is most crucial towards preserving this historic site for future generations to cherish.

You the dope

This is quite stupid. But it comes from the geniuses at DOT, so we wouldn't expect anything different.

- Dumb slogan: "You the Man" (as if 1990s street lingo is appropriate for this campaign and women don't drink and drive).

- Hanukkah gelt, which is given to children, as part of anti-drunk driving campaign.

- Referral to car services disguised as public service announcement.

- This campaign being conducted in English is probably not going to be very effective.

A reader wrote to yours truly:

"Jeez, now the city's babysitting drunks?

Then again, it will help Bloombergers build a database of drunks, which probably has a lot of good blackmail-type uses.

If I had the energy, I would recruit a legion of homeless drunks to sign up for rides to JFK and back."

Ramble along Rockaway

Click photo for story.

Wake me up when he stops hallucinating!!!

From the Queens Tribune:

...allow me the privilege of dreaming and predicting for the New Year and future.

• Queens DA Richard Brown will announce that he will not seek a fifth term and retire after 20-plus years as DA and a 50-plus year career of public service. Brown will be saluted by the entire community, for his exemplary service with recognition from the Mayor, the Governor, Congress and more.

Contrary to speculation, Brown will not step down early to permit the appointment of an insider to replace him. Instead September 2011 will witness an exciting political mad scramble for this coveted position.

The speculation will include: Peter Vallone Jr, Mark Weprin, Mike Gianaris, Melinda Katz, Eric Gioia, and Grace Meng; on the Republican side, Dan Halloran will be the GOP’s clear choice.

The Dem Primary will be between Vallone Jr., Katz, and Gioia.

Vallone, campaigning as “The People’s Lawyer,” will win and go on to beat an energized effort by Dan Halloran to be elected as Queens DA.

Funny he should focus on this. Check out part of a recent chat between an insider and yours truly:

me: I wonder if that tire theft was a "message" to Vallone since it happened on his block. Maybe next time it will be his car.

insider: no way, the one thing about vallone is he's a gym rat...dude is a fucking ninja, and you know he probably has a gun instead of a pillow...fires off a warning shot every night before bed so every criminal within a 4 block radius knows what's up

me: so what happened last night?

insider: was probably at a fundraiser, or too busy begging dick brown to retire when his council term is up

me: HA HA HA

(Rest of conversation is classified for now.)

Now let's get back to Schenkler:

A heroic Andrew Cuomo will be mentioned as a possible 2012 Obama running mate.

Good lord, this is sounding less like a dream and more like a nightmare!

Fire site to be replaced with piece of crap

From the Times Ledger:

Community Board 3 recently approved a six-story, mixed-use apartment complex in Jackson Heights on the site of a building that had been destroyed in a fire, but City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and civic members say the proposed building does not fit the character of the area.

“Jackson Heights was built to be open and airy and this building seems to be using every available space to create an apartment or commercial rental,” Dromm said.

The councilman said the site at 84th Street and 37th Avenue, where developer Thomas Hu plans to build, had once been a one-story building that housed more than a dozen stores, but a fire had destroyed it in February. In its place, Hu plans to build a complex with commercial stores on the ground floor and apartments on the five floors above, similar to the Georgian Hall buildings on 35th Avenue and 83rd and 84th streets.

Hu could not be reached for this article.

Ed Westley, a member of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, said at last month’s CB 3 meeting that they wanted Hu to consider changing some aspects of the building. They asked him to keep a garden in the front of the building similar to the one in front of Georgian Hall instead of building up to the property line, to refrain from constructing up to the limits of the property on the north side and blocking the neighboring building’s windows, to make the building materials consistent with the historical district, to build a community center and to redesign the east end of the building, which has no windows.

Westley said Hu would only consider changing the east end wall.

Despite the objections, CB 3 voted to approve the building. Members of CB 3 did not return phone calls for comment.

The building is to be put up in the Jackson Heights Historic District, which was landmarked by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission and is bordered by 76th Street, 88th Street, Roosevelt Avenue and Northern Boulevard. Dromm said he believed the current design of the building violates the standards of the district.

Westley said last week they hoped to repeat their arguments and get changes made at the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing scheduled this week. The board is expected to make a decision over whether the building can be built as planned afterward.

“The only shot we have here is if the Landmarks Commission takes a position that is favorable to what we’re looking for,” Westley said. “Other than that, he has the right to build this building.”

Parks hopes to replace trees on the cheap

From the Times Ledger:

Nearly three months after a microburst decimated McDonald Park in Forest Hills, the once-shady green space has remained nearly treeless, but the city has a plan.

Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski said the city Parks Department will partner with a nonprofit hopefully to replace the trees by next spring.

“We have been reaching out with different organizations to help with donations for park trees,” she said.

One group that responded was the New York Restoration Project, which will visit the park along with department officials Jan. 7 to assess the damage and devise a plan to replace the trees.

In McDonald Park, 58 trees were destroyed by the storm, and many of them were little-leaf lindens, which gave the park its character, according to Lewandowski.

“They are very nice, ornamental trees that would flower or fruit at different times of the year,” she said, “and would give the park that little extra spark.”

The trees have not been replaced yet because the city focuses on street trees before it deals with foliage in the park. In addition, money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides aid in the aftermath of disasters, does not cover trees. And the large plants are not cheap.

The city shops for the replacements in nurseries throughout the tri-state area, where one tree can end up costing anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on its size, age and how it is planted.

If the city has to hire contractors to install the trees, as it does with street trees, the cost will increase. But if residents volunteer to help plant the trees, the process becomes much cheaper.

Meeks' PAC has phantom office

From the NY Post:

Rep. Gregory Meeks' Build America Political Action Committee pays $325 in monthly rent for a phantom Queens office.

The organization says it is based in "Suite 535" at 153-01 Jamaica Ave., but there is no such office in that building, which houses Meeks' district office and his campaign committee.

And the building's manager said it had no record of the Build America PAC as a tenant.

The questionable spending is one of several inconsistencies in the PAC's records, a Post review found.

The organization's legal fees jumped this year after Meeks became the target of a federal investigation. Lawmakers are not allowed to use PAC money for their legal defense.

The Queens congressman has long faced challenges in reporting both his personal finances and political spending. Just last month, he disclosed four omissions to his mandatory congressional financial disclosures, including "approximately" $3,500 in gambling winnings in 2008.

Powell's Cove crap

So I was in G-mail the other day, minding my own business, when I noticed an ad for Powell Cove Estates in College Point at the top of my screen. Couldn't resist...






Yeah, now that's estate living!

"About College Point" is very entertaining, starting with the first line.

And check this Queens Chronicle article out:

On the other side of Riverview is another condo project under construction called Powells Cove Estates, which was ordered by the state to clean up a spill last year. It consisted of a floating oil mix found underground.

Steve Achille, Powells Cove project manager, said the state is monitoring wells they have installed. “So far, we’re okay,” Achille said. “We’ve done what they asked us to do.”

But he admitted the problems at Riverview do concern him because of possible migration of the contamination.

I noticed this tidbit is missing from the website.

Push to reopen Parkway Hospital

From the Times Ledger:

Robert Aquino, the former chief executive officer of the now-defunct Parkway Hospital, sent a letter last week to the state health commissioner in an effort to pressure the state to reopen the Forest Hills medical center, which he said would strengthen health care in a borough hit hard by the closure of three major hospitals and add more than 1,000 jobs.

“We felt that before Gov. David Paterson leaves, he could do something to help Queens,” Aquino said in an interview. “We’re following the emergency room times in Queens, and they’re getting worse and worse and worse. Maybe Gov. Paterson could in the 11th hour call the commissioner and say there is a disaster in Queens and we need to do something about it.”

Aquino said he sent the Dec. 3 letter to Health Commissioner Richard Daines because he worried that if state officials did not act to reopen Parkway now, it would be months before Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo would have the time to address the issue.

New strategy against gangs

From the NY Times:

When Walter Alberto Torres, a Salvadoran immigrant and a gang member, confessed in October 2009 that he had unsuccessfully plotted the assassination of an immigration agent in New York City, the admission touched off more than just his prosecution.

In the weeks that followed, immigration authorities, working with other law enforcement agencies, conducted raids on suspected hide-outs of Mr. Torres’s gang, La Mara Salvatrucha 13, an international network of violent cliques with a growing presence in New York City and its suburbs.

And that offensive — intended in part, officials said, to signal that the government would not tolerate attacks on its officers — was only the beginning for the New York office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the months since, agents in the office’s investigative division have expanded their dragnet far beyond La Mara Salvatrucha and across the region, from Ulster County in the Hudson Valley to eastern Long Island.

From October 2009 through September, they arrested 285 suspects they said were gang members or close associates — a record for the office and a fivefold increase over the same period the previous year.

The surge, which has unfolded with little public notice, coincided with the arrival of James T. Hayes Jr., who became the special agent in charge of the investigations division several weeks before Mr. Torres confessed to the murder plot.

Mr. Hayes, 37, said that while the threat to an agent had fired up his team, the arrests also reflected a new emphasis for the investigative unit, which enforces more than 400 federal customs and immigration statutes. When he assumed the job, he said, he reviewed the office’s recent moves against gangs — it had made 57 such arrests in the previous year — and concluded that his team could be doing far more.

He added 3 agents to a force that now numbers 11, “and really gave them a mandate, not just to look at individual gang members but to look at these street gangs as criminal organizations and to use all our tools to disrupt and dismantle them,” Mr. Hayes said in an interview.

The office’s stepped-up action against gangs reflects a nationwide shift in priorities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, which says it is now focusing on capturing immigrants who pose a threat to public safety and security, rather than those with civil violations. The New York offensive has come under the banner of Operation Community Shield, a five-year-old national campaign by the immigration agency to dismember violent street gangs by prosecuting and deporting their members and associates.

Several law enforcement officials in the New York area said gang activity appears to have grown in recent years, particularly among immigrants, spurring the formation of new anti-gang units and greater collaboration between local and federal agencies. Yet even as that has produced an increase in prosecutions, officials said, the very nature of gangs — quick to form, grow and change shape — has made them particularly hard to track and tackle, and the immigration agents’ contribution has helped.

Developers fail to keep subway escalators working

From Fox 5:

City Council Member Jessica Lappin has been fighting to get subway escalators and elevators fixed in her Upper East Side district for three years. Fox 5 met her at the 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue subway station, where we found a broken MTA escalator.

The pregnant councilwoman had to walk down 60-plus steps to the E train platform to see the other broken escalator at this station -- the one that has been broken for two years, according to the MTA, and infamous with East Side subway commuters.

The escalator is privately operated by Denver-based owner Miller Global. Building developers got a deal from the city in exchange for running the escalator -- a deal Miller global is not honoring.

Lappin introduced a City Council resolution calling on the MTA to investigate maintenance of subway escalators and elevators. The council does not control MTA funding, so the resolution would simply draw attention to the problem.

Russian call girl ring and murder for hire scheme

From the Daily News:

A Queens man and a Ukrainian teen have been busted in connection with a Russian call-girl ring and a murder-for-hire scheme, the Daily News has learned.

Accused pimp Salah Youssef, 37, and assistant Victoriya Makogonyuk, 18, were arrested this week after a sting, said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko.

Youssef wanted revenge on a man who owed him money and consulted a friend - who turned out to be an FBI informant, court papers say.

He allegedly asked his buddy about planting drugs on the debtor and said he wanted the young daughter of a Russian pal to have sex with the man and claim rape. The discussion eventually turned to murder, with Youssef saying he was willing to pay $10,000 for a hit.

Youssef also told the informant he used to be "in the escort business" and talked to him about setting up a call girl ring.

As part of the operation, the FBI had an agent pose as a "Jersey guy" mobster and another pose as a call girl. Meetings were set up with Youssef and Makogonyuk near Katz's deli in Manhattan.

Authorities say Makogonyuk ran Youssef's call-girl operation, putting ads in Russian newspapers for escorts and answering phones at an Astoria apartment used for the illegal hookups.

Dept of Finance can't count to 10!

"...so I got two parking tickets on the same night a few weeks ago - dumb mistakes on my part, no doubt, but definitely deserved as I wasn't paying attention to the street signs that evening.

When I was ready to mail them out, I noticed that the orange envelopes had been changed; usually, the envelopes are tagged with the same number as the violation that is given. The new envelopes have spaces that you fill in - which, in the grand scheme of things, makes sense because they are more generic, I suppose.

Imagine my surprise when I tried to write in the TEN-DIGIT NUMBER on my violation (as directed even on the envelope itself!) and found that there are only NINE SPACES. Now normally someone might say "big deal" but unfortunately we know how the po-po works when it comes to quota $$$ collections and penalties if it doesn't reach the right place at the right time.

So - whose genius brother-in-law do you think got the contract for this one?"

- A Disgusted Taxpayer from Queens

Setting the record straight

It was brought to my attention that Ruschell Boone from NY1 filed a story on Friday, December 3rd about a tree stump and a broken sidewalk alongside the Van Wyck Expressway service road in Jamaica.

Greg Mocker from WPIX reported on the same stump/sidewalk issue on Monday, December 6th, the same day I posted Ruschell's story here on the blog. Mocker said in his followup report after the stump was removed that the City was watching. Well, they are, but it's not him they're watching. Got this official statement from Parks:

"We saw the story on NY1. We haven't watched WPIX since Kaity and Jim got the boot."

And there you have it. On the trail of a reporter trying to take credit for someone else's work, I'm the Queens Crapper.

City resists cleanup of contaminated schools

From Gotham Gazette:

A little over two years ago, a construction project at P.S. 53 in Staten Island resulted in so much dust that a fresh layer would have to be wiped away each morning. That dust contained toxic PCBs. The chemical was discovered only because the mother of an asthmatic boy attending the school had it privately tested. The city says it also tested there but only found PCBs in the soil outside.

The city has known for over two years that the hazardous chemicals were present in dozens of schools. Hundreds more are thought likely to be contaminated. Now, as the city wraps up preliminary testing and remediation of PCBs in three schools, advocates, parents and elected officials have launched a campaign to put some fire under the heels of an administration that they see as slow to act.

Those concerned want the department to immediately begin studying the problem citywide and speed up the removal of chemicals in schools known to be affected. With the city reportedly estimating cleanup could cost $1 billion, the education department says that it still does not understand the problem fully. It contends that addressing the issue on a citywide level before the pilot program is finished next year would be inefficient and unnecessarily disruptive to students. But some charge that the city really is concerned about the money.

Expired meds sold at Aqueduct

From NBC:

The FDA says it’s illegal, but it’s being sold to anyone right out in the open, and the people doing it don't seem to care that selling illegal and expired medications put lives at risk.

NBCNewYork.com went undercover at the aqueduct flea market in Ozone Park, Queens, where these kind of medications are sold for a steal.

On a bitingly cold Saturday afternoon, the flea market at the Aqueduct Race Track is packed with people buying everything from makeup, old candy, and clothing.

But taking a closer look at the goods being hawked you’ll find a more nefarious lineup of goods -- expired, over-the-counter medications like Robitussin, Claritin, and even children's medications, like Dimetapp.

The expiration dates range anywhere from a few months past the guaranteed safety date to years expired.

Pediatrician Greg Yapalater says the main concern with meds like these is not so much that they are expired, but rather the uncertainty of where they come from – whether they’ve been stored properly or if they’ve been tampered with.

Click here to watch Leroy Comrie and Ruben Wills get upset about this.

Replacing MetroCard to become easier

From NY1:

Straphangers will soon have an online option for replacing faulty Metrocards.

The Daily News is reporting that riders will be able to get replacement Metrocards online starting next year.

Riders currently submit their claims in postage-paid envelopes picked up at token booths.

But a report in the News earlier this week found the envelopes were difficult to come by.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority tells the Daily News that the automated option will shorten wait times for replacement cards.

Nearly 170,000 claims of defective cards are processed each year.

Best bike lane post EVER!!!

From Restless:

Biking in NYC has zero environmental benefit, and adds bikes without subtracting cars because nearly all riders come off mass transit, not out of cars. And "nimble" is right -- bikers typically ignore vehicle traffic rules and behave like high speed pedestrians.

It's tiring to hear bike zealots constantly present themselves as environmental saviors and the allies of pedestrians when they are neither. Their self-serving campaign depends on the idyllic vision of a motor-free world -- reinforced by controlled events like Summer Streets -- and on building props that suggest orderly behavior -- "Bike stop lights! Just like in Europe, where they probably stop at those lights!" All you have to do is walk any distance in NYC to see that those things have nothing to do with the daily reality here.

If they really want to do something that benefits anyone but themselves, why don't they take their campaign to the suburbs, where they might really get drivers out of cars, and where there are no pedestrians in their way.

OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS GUY!!!! The Daily News had an editorial that didn't flat out say Sadik-Khan was nuts, but called her out for not even knowing how many cyclists there were in the City:

This revealing exchange between Bronx Councilman James Vacca and Sadik-Khan summed up what she had produced at the hearing by way of hard information:

Vacca: "You said you've seen a 63% increase in bicycling. How many bicyclists do you estimate use city streets every day?

Sadik-Khan: I can get back to you on that.

Vacca: Are we talking 200,000?

Sadik-Khan: I will get back to you.

Vacca: You don't have any approximation?

Sadik-Khan: I will get back to you on the number.

Vacca: I would think DOT would have an approximate number since you are laying out all these networks.

Sadik-Khan: I don't have the number on me.

Vacca: I'm saying I would think that question is one you could answer now."

Darn right, along with many others.

Now that's living!

Is this the future of living in Queens? Check this crib out:


Dai Haifei, a 24-year-old architect in Beijing, China, found an ingenious solution to live rent-free. He built himself a mobile egg-shaped house that is powered by the sun.

The 6-foot-high structure, which is small enough to fit on a sidewalk, is made of bamboo strips, wood chippings, sack bags, and grass seed that’s expected to grow in the spring.

Bloomberg plans to send accident victims a bill

From NBC:

First there's the shock of crumpled metal and airbags. Now add MasterCard or Visa to injury because Mayor Michael Bloomberg is sending a bill for the ambulance that shows up to help you after a car accident.

The FDNY is considering a plan to charge drivers who require the services of the fire department after a crash.

Car fires with injuries will bill out at nearly $500. A crash with no injuries gets a discount, ringing it at $415. If there's no fire or injuries the cost would come to a "mere" $365.

If you need help, you'll pay regardless of who's to blame for the crash. And insurance companies warn that policies may not cover the new charges.

Crippled by the city's budget constraints, the fire department said in a statement it "can no longer afford to provide" emergency services to drivers at no cost to those who require them."

The Cash for Crash plan is scheduled to start next summer. The city expects it will generate about $1 million a year in revenue.

This plan is not going over very well with the public or elected officials.

Didn't this guy run for a third term based on the premise that at this time of budget crisis, we needed him because no one else could handle it? And this is the shit he comes up with?

Beautiful tree not very lovely anymore

Nice tree! But wait 'til you see what happened to it....

Click if you dare.

Counterfeit goods seller busted

From Douglaston Patch:

A 48-year-old Bellerose woman has been convicted of selling counterfeit handbags and sneakers bearing the logos of a number of popular, and often expensive, brand names in northeast Queens, the Queens district attorney said.

Ai Zhang, of 82-05 County Pointe Circle in Bellerose, was convicted yesterday before Queens Supreme Court Justice James Griffin on five charges of trademark counterfeiting following a two-week jury trial, Queens DA Richard Brown said.

The defendant, who will return to court on Dec. 20 for sentencing, faces up to 15 years in prison, the DA said.

Zhang sold fake Coach, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Nike products from a store located at 161-11 Jamaica Ave., the DA said. The total street value of items recovered by police is estimated at more than $175,000, he said.

Must be nice to live on the Upper West Side

From the NY Post:

A battle of historic dimensions is brewing on the Upper West Side.

The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission is considering a proposal that would extend protection to an additional 790 buildings between 70th and 106th streets west of Broadway.

The area already has 2,577 landmarked buildings in a series of seven existing historic districts.

"By making this aggressive landmarking effort, they will be hurting the economic future of the city," fumed Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.

"Landmarking the entire city does not leave opportunity to grow."

Spinola lashed out at the commission, charging that members are using historic designation as a way to regulate land use -- a power held by the City Council -- rather than out of a desire to protect buildings of architectural significance.

"Using landmark designation to protect views from penthouse apartments, to freeze architectural-style preferences of a few current residents and to promote the self-interests of private parties is a misuse of the landmarks law," Spinola said.

A separate district, the Upper West Side-Central Park Historic District, covers a huge swath east of Broadway and is not proposed for landmarking expansion.

Richard Emery, one of the founders of the West End Preservation Society, accused the Real Estate Board of siding with developers who want to make a fast buck without regard for the surrounding neighborhood.

"They're trying to protect the right of developers to put up junk," said Emery.

"The landmark designation does not prevent development, it only prevents development which is discordant with the architecture of the community," he said.
_________________

I kind of lost interest after "The area already has 2,577 landmarked buildings"...

Visit the SI greenbelt

I thought this would be a good video to watch since it's cold and making me wish for Spring already.

That was fast...

Well, the city cleaned up that tree stump and broken sidewalk that Mocker had pointed out.

(Further proof that if you want results, embarrassing them through the press is more effective than calling 311.)

Damn...

From WPIX:

An accident in Queens involving a city bus, a mini-van and a tractor-trailer left five people in the hospital. None of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening. The collision occured at the intersection of Hillside Avenue and the Clearview Expressway on Friday afternoon.

No more hummus among us

From the Daily News:

Months after moving its factory from Queens to Virginia, hummus giant Sabra is yanking its headquarters in a one-two punch that cost the city almost 200 jobs.

Yet the state is giving the company a $100,000 gift: financial incentives to open the new offices outside the city in White Plains, Westchester County.

Sabra Dipping Company has called Queens home for more than two decades while it grew into the world's largest maker of hummus.

Six months ago, the company - which is owned by PepsiCo, and an Israeli conglomerate - laid off 154 blue-collar workers and moved the plant to Virginia.

Now it's decided Astoria is too small for its headquarters and is pulling 33 office jobs - without even giving the city advance notice.

But it wasn't a secret to the state, which rolled out a package of incentives to keep Sabra somewhere in New York.

"The goal was to secure Sabra's presence in New York State and to avoid the immediate loss of 33 full-time jobs, as well as 32 new full-time jobs to be created over the next four years," said Lisa Willner of the Empire State Development Corp.

Sabra's new home will be a 30,000-square-foot space in a White Plains office park. The move will take about four months.

DOT still clueless on Little Neck Parkway

From Douglaston Patch:

Douglaston and Little Neck residents said that the unintended consequences from recently instituted traffic changes near Little Neck's Long Island Rail Road crossing just got worse.

"It's made a real mess for us up here," said Larry Sheehan, referring to a new safety zone extending approximately 75 feet from an existing traffic median north of the at-grade Long Island Railroad crossing on Little Neck Parkway.

Workers painted the new zone on Monday, weeks after widespread complaints by residents, community leaders and elected officials about unsafe conditions and blocked traffic caused by the median installed in September.

"It doesn't solve anything, but just creates more confusion," said Douglaston Civic Association president Eliott Socci. 

According to Sheehan, who lives in the neighborhood north of the LIRR tracks, the new safety zone forces northbound motorists on Little Neck Parkway at night to effectively break traffic laws.

"Now you have a scenario at 6 p.m. where cars can park there and the traffic is directed right into the rear of the cars with nowhere to go, because you can't go into the safety zone," he said.

A quick survey of the intersection during daylight hours Tuesday had several motorists traveling north on Little Neck Parkway illegally crossing into the new painted safety zone to make a tight U-turn onto Sandhill Road — precisely the kind of maneuver the most recent traffic change aimed to prevent.

Cuomo wants electric car infrastructure

From City Hall:

With Chevrolet’s new hybrid electric Volt car set to begin rolling off the assembly line, Governor-Elect Andrew Cuomo’s plan to install electric car-charging stations across the state is receiving a closer look by transportation and environmental advocates.

The response? Nice idea, now how are you going to pay for it.

The initiative, outlined in Cuomo’s last policy book “Greener Cleaner NY,” calls for erecting an unspecified number of charging stations in urban areas, thruways and along the I-95 corridor by the year 2015. New York City began installing charging stations this past summer, but Cuomo says that electric cars will not catch on with consumers unless these plug-in stations exist throughout the state.

Charging stations in New York are to be installed at no cost to the city, paid for in part with federal stimulus funds, but there is no explanation of what to do after that stream dries up. Automakers like Toyota recently announced plans to develop electric cars; the Cuomo plan, though vague, is intended to get out ahead of what transportation advocates see as an expected shift in the way New Yorkers get around.

The plan, like most of Cuomo’s policy books, is vague on details, lacking specifics on how the stations will get built, or who will pay for them.

Food stamp fraudsters stole $8M

From the Village Voice:

Federal prosecutors just announced they've charged four New Yorkers -- including two current city employees -- with mail fraud for stealing more than $8 million in food stamp benefits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The complaint, unsealed in Manhattan federal court today, accuses four New York women -- including three who either currently or previously worked for the city's Human Resources Administration -- of spending three years accessing computer databases to approve more than 1,500 food stamp cases under bogus names, addresses, and social security numbers.

One of the women, Alice Bradford, allegedly paid friends to use their mailing addresses, which she and Tori Jackson (who worked for the HRA from 2001 to 2010) passed onto Vanee Sykes, an HRA employee who would then assign phony names and income data and approve the fraudulent food stamp applications.

Also charged is a 30-year HRA veteran named Lois Johnson, who supposedly controlled a post office box to which several of the food stamp cards were sent.

Sure sounds like attempted rape to me

From the Uptowner:

On the evening of February 17, Deborah Nathan was dragged into the woods of Inwood Hill Park by an unknown assailant who, she said, sexually assaulted her. When her attacker fled the scene, Nathan immediately called 911. She was stunned and disappointed by the response.

A dispatcher told Nathan that the police were busy elsewhere, she said, and she waited for more than two hours before paramedics arrived. When the police finally took her report, according to Nathan, she provided a description of her attacker, as well as a full account of what he said during the attempted assault.

The police told her that the incident would be classified as “forcible touching,” a misdemeanor. Nathan, a 59-year-old freelance journalist, was surprised, believing she’d been the victim of attempted rape, a felony. She was further disappointed when she received a copy of her police report, and discovered that most of the details she’d provided weren’t included.

The next morning, an indignant Nathan posted an account of her experience on an Inwood blog (and subsequently told it to the Village Voice). Her story soon reached Adriano Espaillat, then the district’s state assemblyman, and the same afternoon, Nathan’s police report was changed, the crime upgraded to attempted rape, a felony.

Similar accounts, in which the police have reportedly downgraded felony crimes to misdemeanors in an apparent attempt to keep crime statistics low, have emerged over the past few years.

Former police officer Colleen Helly, who retired in September from the 32nd precinct, shares those concerns. She has personally experienced pressure from supervisors to downgrade a crime from a felony to a misdemeanor, she said. Listening to her fellow officers, Helly said, she learned that the practice has become widespread.

Robberies and sex crimes like Nathan’s are the easiest to manipulate, especially if the victim isn’t visibly hurt, Helly said. “If there’s no penetration, they won’t make it a sex abuse case,” she said. “If there’s no bruising, no injuries, they’re going to drop it down.”

Downgrading begins when responding officers alter or omit information in police reports, in Helly’s experience. “There are cases that do get downgraded,” she said, “and the majority of them are because of how they’re written up.” She blames poor training for some omissions, but says pressure from above prompts most deliberate downgradings. “It’s to make the city look better,” she said.

Still crapping ...

Telling it like it is for 4 years.

Unsolicited opinion

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg's big jobs speech at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Wednesday was beautifully staged, artfully promoted and unmistakably aimed at presenting him as a man who could run America.

Expect more such speeches in the months to come - plain-spoken advice better suited for a President than a mayor.

Bloomberg's half hour in the spotlight was light on details about how to boost the economy - cut business taxes! Promote trade! - but heavy on the kind of optimistic, jobs-oriented talk that both average Americans and business leaders want to hear.

"As families struggle to get by, they have seen little but partisan gridlock, political pandering and legislative influence-peddling," the mayor said. "When did success become a bad word in America? When did cooperation in government become treason?"

There will be more like this: Aides say to expect a series of similar speeches on the country's big issues, delivered both in New York and in other states, in forums designed to make him an appealing independent alternative as the Democrats and Republicans shape their fields for 2012.

From Restless:

Just what America needs -- a Wall Street billionaire running as a "centrist" to split the difference between "blue dog" corporate shills and the billionaire-bootlickers of the GOP. Maybe he can bundle the federal debt in a financial instrument and swap it for swampland on Uranus.

It's hard to believe that anyone would be sucker enough to buy his hogwash, or see him for anything but the arrogant Wall Street prince he is, but it's become obvious over the years that lies financed by billionaires can turn night into day and voters into self-sabotaging fools.

Bloomberg for President!