Woodhaven residents concerned about overdevelopment in wake of firehouse relocation

From NY1:

Having an old firehouse just a few doors from their homes has been a source of comfort for many who live on or near 87th Street. Some say it has been a lifesaver.

"I get asthma, and there is times I have to call them, and instead of the truck, they run down the block," said one resident.

"I had a fire. I live on 85th Street. And it was just so great having someone that close," said another.

But that's about to change. The firehouse is set to undergo an extensive 18-month renovation, which will force Engine Company 293 to relocate to a firehouse at 101st street and Jamaica Avenue. The new location is about a half mile away, and that has some residents worried.

"These little houses here that used to be two families, you now have four and five families living here, and for that reason alone, you really need something quite close," said one resident.

Responding to the concerns, the Fire Department says that during the renovation, the neighborhood will be covered by other fire companies in addition to Engine Company 293, a redundancy that should reduce the impact of the closure.

Woman using kids to steal packages in Woodhaven

From PIX11:

A woman with her two daughters were caught on home surveillance camera allegedly stealing packages left outside of a Queens home in three separate incidents in October.

Kimberly and Jennifer David, sisters who live in the family home in Woodhaven, Queens, wondered why the numerous clothing items they had ordered online hadn’t arrived.

So they called UPS and the Postal Service and were told all the merchandise had been delivered and left on their porch. Their home has a security camera so they went back and checked the video over a three-week period. They found what happened to their packages.

On Oct. 21, the video shows what appears to be a mother and her two young daughters walking down the sidewalk towards the David’s home. The group stopped in front of the house and looked at the porch. The older woman appeared to be saying something to one of the girls, who then quickly moved toward the porch, crouching as she reached down, picked up the package, turned around and quickly went back down the stairs.

The entire theft took less than 10 seconds.

Graziano to challenge Vallone next year

From the Queens Chronicle:

Land use expert Paul Graziano, who is challenging Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) next year in a Democratic primary race for his seat, wants to save northeast Queens.

“My priorities are really simple — my priorities have always been the same, which is to protect my district,” Graziano said Monday in a sitdown interview with the Chronicle’s editorial board. “And what does protecting the district mean? Protecting the district means to protect it from bad development, overdevelopment. If you can do that, a lot of the other things fall into place.”

A planning consultant, Graziano is a civic activist who has worked on the downzoning of a large portion of northeast Queens with state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) when the latter was on the City Council. A plaintiff in the lawsuit to stop the Willets West mall development project, Graziano is also a former president of the Historic Districts Council.

Queens, the Flushing resident said, has gone through “jarring changes.”

“I’ve seen many, many changes, and part of what we tried to do was both with landmarking, rezoning and other strategies to protect these neighborhoods, is to make it so that change is gradual and people can go through those changes in an easier fashion,” Graziano said. “And also make the neighborhood so that when someone comes 50 years from now, they can come in and still recognize the place that maybe they grew up in.”

He ran against Vallone and three others in a Democratic primary for the seat in 2013, coming in third, but he is confident that the field will be less crowded this time.

“It was a very different crowd,” he said. “This time around, I think it’s just gonna be me and Paul Vallone.”

The councilman, he claimed, gives favors to campaign contributors — a major point in his campaign but not the only one.

Nationwide homeless population is down - but way up in NYC

From the Daily News:

Despite a record rate of homeless in New York City, homelessness across the country has continued to decline over the past seven years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday.

There were 549,928 homeless people on a single night in January 2016, a 14% drop since 2010, the year the Obama administration started Opening Doors, a broad plan to combat homelessness.

The data is based on figures reported by approximately 3,000 cities and counties across the country.

But the success has not spread to New York City, where there are an estimated 73,523 homeless people, according to HUD.

That's a 37.9% increase since 2007, records show.

Also Thursday, a new poll showed nearly all New Yorkers think homelessness is a serious problem in the city, and respondents gave Mayor de Blasio lower grades on handling it than any other issue.

In the Quinnipiac University poll, 96% of voters said homelessness was a serious problem — 70% saying it’s “very serious,” and 26% “somewhat serious.”

Brooklyn doesn't want streetcar

From DNA Info:

Downtown Brooklyn residents “don’t need” the mayor’s proposed streetcar running through their neighborhood, locals told city officials at a Tuesday meeting, citing the high cost to taxpayers and the disruption to traffic.

Officials from the Department of Transportation and the Economic Development Corporation presented proposed routes for the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, dubbed the BQX, through Downtown Brooklyn and the surrounding neighborhoods at a Community Board 2 Transportation Committee Meeting.

Proposed routes such as Flushing Avenue and Cadman Plaza East would take riders past the transit-starved Brooklyn Navy Yard and make connections to transit hubs including Borough Hall.

“You cannot maintain all the lanes of traffic, maintain all the sidewalk width, all the bike lanes and all parking lanes — that’s not possible,” BQX Director Adam Giambrone said. “There will be tradeoffs that need to be made.”

Residents and community board members raised opposition to the streetcar — which will cost $2.5 billion to build and $30 million annually to operate — calling the costs unnecessary and instead suggested the city spend the money on additional buses in the area.

Restler's stupidity gets press attention, de Blasio & Cuomo apparently okay with it

From the Daily News:

One Facebook friend called the sign inappropriate. “There are good White People, and you are not going to make me feel guilty that I am,” the man wrote.

A second person wrote: "And you represent our mayors office?"

Restler, who makes $107,625 at City Hall, took the post down. He could not be reached for comment.

De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips said the mayor was not initially aware of the posted picture and doesn’t believe it’s appropriate.

Phillips said Restler’s sister was apparently protesting white supremacy. “No doubt the message was inartful and not clear enough in its intent and that’s why Lincoln took it off his page,” he said.

Restler was spoken to but not sanctioned. “He understands why people took offense to it and it certainly didn’t represent his views,” Phillips said.

But in his own Facebook post Monday night, former City Councilman James Gennaro, who now works for Gov. Cuomo at the Department of Environmental Conservation, resurrected the item and blasted the fact it came from someone connected to the mayor.

"It seems that to the Mayor's senior advisor, hate is okay as long as the right people (or the right racial “state of mind,” if that's what is meant by “whiteness") is hated," Gennaro wrote.

He also criticized Restler for taking the post down.

After seeing the Daily News story, Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said that "Jim Gennaro's online writings do not reflect the views of the governor's office."

Meanwhile, Maspeth took to Driggs Avenue to protest Restler where he lives:



Lincoln was seen several times peering out at the protest.

Sanitation may actually remove snow this year

From NY1:

Hoping to avoid a repeat of last January's disastrous cleanup in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, Sanitation Officials say they have made significant changes to the snow removal process.

The agency has purchased $21 million of new equipment to handle some of the narrow streets that large trucks cannot navigate and to replace private contractors for routine plowing.

"We have enough equipment that we can handle the tertiary streets more effectively and more efficiently," said Henry Ehrhardt Director of Community Affairs for the Department of Sanitation. "We will still use private contractors on call for plowing and hauling operations, but all of the snow plowing and salting as far as regular operations are concerned will be done by department personnel this year."

And that personnel has received a significant amount of training compared to previous years. Several drills were on the street and not at a training facility.

"In the past, the way we did snow training was at our training center in Brooklyn and sometimes we had the training during the week so as much as we wanted to be focused on the training we really couldn't as much as we did," said one sanitation official.

New equipment to clear bike lanes, crosswalks and bus stops has also been added. And the city has updated its GPS technology to better inform the public about which streets have been plowed.

Queens Library to protest Trump

From LIC Post:

Demonstrations and protests have dominated cities across the country since the election last week, and now a local politician is getting in on the action.

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer will be leading a march across the Queensboro Bridge to Trump Tower on Saturday to protest against the values that President Elect Donald Trump espouses. The march will begin at 1 pm and will leave from Dutch Kills Green in Queens Plaza.

Organizations included in the event tonight are:

-Planned Parenthood of New York City

-Girl Scouts of Greater New York

-Make the Road New York

-Woodside On the Move

-Jacob Riis Center

-Sunnyside Community Services

-Emerald Isle Immigration Center

-Big Reuse

-Catholic Migration Center

-Queens Library

-Fortune Society

-Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City

-Muslim Student Association of Aviation High School

-Theater of the Oppressed New York

-Aids Center of Queens County

-The Arab American Family Support Center

-…And possibly more

These protests get more comical by the day. There were no protests when they were sure he would lose.

BSA approves overdevelopment in Staten Island

From SI Live:

A plan to build four new two-family houses at 122 Bard Ave. in Livingston has been approved and is awaiting building permits from the city before shovels can hit the dirt.

The vacant parcel, which measures 85 feet wide and 200 feet deep, used to be home to a two-story, single-family house. It has now been divided into four lots and will be developed for a total of eight families.

The city Board of Standards and Appeals granted the request by developer Glenn Yost of Staten Island-based Whitwell Properties LLC to build the four buildings.

Residents, the Community Board and other leaders have opposed the project, as it adds density to the site and the original plan didn't offer what they felt was appropriate parking for the four buildings. They feared that residents would park on an access road even though it's prohibited.

The Land Use Committee of Community Board 1 voted against the project, citing concerns with parking and the access road.

The Full Community Board 1 also voted against it.

Borough President James Oddo also opposed it, alleging that it doesn't comply with zoning requirements in the Lower Density Growth Management Area Zoning Amendment, regarding open area for residences in the zoning district and the location of parking.

Legislators refuse to allow SBJSA to be voted on

From the Village Voice:

You'd think a law that would give small businesses a fighting chance against astronomical rents and the soulless chains willing to pay them would be an easy sell for a City Council chock-full of progressives and our supposedly liberal mayor.

Yet Mayor Bill de Blasio, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Public Advocate Letitia James, and Robert Cornegy, the chairperson of the council's Committee on Small Business, won’t even allow the legislation to go before a committee hearing, even though 27 councilmembers support it. Why?

In short, because it would supremely piss off the powerful real estate interests that all major politicians in New York City must answer to, which makes it a total nonstarter. Debating the Small Business Jobs Survival act would start a conversation about the future of the city that no ambitious politician actually wants to have.

At 9 a.m. Friday morning, a group of community advocates will hold a rally outside City Hall to protest the mayor and the council's willful inaction on the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, which would give commercial tenants a ten-year minimum lease, as well as the right to renewal, and a right to go to arbitration to settle on a new rent.

The SBJSA has been kicking around in some form or another since commercial rent control died in New York City in 1963, and with it, the ability for a small business owner to have any sort of economic stability in New York City. Instead, they became subject to the whims of landlords and speculation, larger market forces that are able to take a vibrant, locally owned business district and completely clear it out, in just a few months.

"This isn’t a silver bullet of legislation," said Jenny Dubnau, an artist based in Long Island City, who’s a member of the Artist Studio Affordability Project (ASAP), an organization that aims to unite artists and small business owners who are each being displaced by commercial speculation. "All we’re asking for is some level of negotiating power. We need something to help us stop the bleeding."

Unlike rent-stabilized units, or rent-controlled apartments, under the SBJSA, there wouldn’t be state-dictated increases or freezes. However, the all-powerful Real Estate Board of New York has viewed even a discussion of the law as an affront to good manners, and gotten City Hall to label the proposed legislation as rent control.

Tony Avella likely to primary de Blasio

The rumors are getting stronger out there that State Senator Tony is going to run against Bill de Blasio next year in the mayoral primary. Avella is apparently as sick of de Blasio and his fauxgressive policies as most of the rest of the city is. Who else will joint he fray? Only time will tell.

New Elmhurst Math : 4=40 or the DESTRUCTION of ELMHURST

Submitted from Elmhurst:

"Many of our Queens neighborhoods are being transformed from lovely residential communities to overcrowded and ugly suburbs. Overdevelopment, destruction of historic landmarks, continual building code violations at construction sites, etc. Elmhurst is no exception. THIS HAS TO STOP!

Greedy developers are taking advantage of outdated NYC zoning regulations and transforming Elmhurst into an overcrowded and overdeveloped suburb. Of course they don’t care since they won’t be living here! Just take a look at a sample of these past Elmhurst sales and conversions:

These are just a sampling of what is happening to Elmhurst. So why are we writing this article? As you can see from the above examples, 4 one family homes were destroyed and the new replacement buildings became 40 families → 4 = 40 !!!!


Here are the problems created by uncontrolled overdevelopment:


Shortage of street parking
Overpopulated schools
Overtaxed Public Transportation
Subway & Buses
Strain on Public Services / Infrastucture
Sewer & drainage
Sanitation
Police / Fire / Ambulances
Traffic congestion
Overdevelopment
Overcrowding
Destruction of neighborhood character
Loss of historical homes


So what can we do? For starters, we are forming an organization to inform Elmhurst residents of current events - both good and bad. We will work with the NYC agencies to develop a more current plan for urbanization. We will study the impact of overdevelopment and be a neighborhood watchdog. We will help the residents with complaints (building, sanitation, traffic, etc.) and be their voice to the authorities. We will work with the local civic groups to coordinate activities.


We will be a voice for preservation and protection of Elmhurst!


We will also be publishing a new Elmhurst newsletter to inform the community of ongoing and future developments. They will be distributed through the Newtown Civic Association (next meeting on Monday, Nov. 28 at 8pm). We will have articles on past, current and future events, research on historical sites and most importantly, the preservation of Elmhurst."

De Blasio's top adviser exhibits serious lack of judgment

Lincoln Restler, fauxgressive extraordinaire, and senior adviser to Mayor de Blasio, didn't see any problem posting this photo on Facebook. It's beyond stupid, especially coming from a member of an extremely well to do white family.

Does it scare anyone else out there to have people like Lincoln Restler advising the mayor?

Ugly statue will soon be foisted upon LIC

The controversial pink sculpture planned for the median at the intersection of Jackson Avenue and 43rd Avenue is about to go up, according to Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer in a Facebook post today.

The 8 ½-foot-tall sculpture, called the Sunbather, comes at a cost of $515,000 and is part of the Department of Cultural Affairs ‘Percent for Art’ initiative.

The DCLA selected the sculpture, which will be permanent, based on the opinion of an expert panel. The public art is required since New York law requires that one percent of the budget for City-funded construction projects be spent on public art.

The sculpture sparked a heated discussion when Community Board 2’s land use committee first heard of the plan and saw the design at a November 2014 committee meeting.

The committee members said they felt caught off guard by the proposal and were upset that they did not have more input in the design.

Penny Lee, who works with the Department of City Planning, told the committee at the time that the artwork was “not just a whimsical piece he [the artist] came with up. It may look whimsical but an enormous amount of thought and attention to place was put into the design.”

Make sure to click the link above to see how much taxpayer money got blown on this pile of pink crap.

NYPD won't let public know where mayor goes in their aircraft

From DNA Info:

The NYPD has formally declined to provide any information about Mayor Bill de Blasio's use of helicopters, including the time a department chopper nearly crashed with the mayor aboard when it landed on Rikers Island or when the police flew him and his wife to a presidential debate on Long Island.

Brushing aside a Freedom of Information request by DNAinfo New York, the NYPD’s Legal Bureau claimed its FOIL Unit was “unable to locate responsive records" — although the department keeps meticulous logs on the NYPD Aviation Unit's daily use of its fleet of choppers.

NYPD lawyers went even further, asserting that, even if they could find the applicable records on when the mayor was aboard an NYPD chopper, the department would not turn them over, anyway.

“If such records existed, they would be exempt on the basis of Public Officers Law or Section 87(2)(e)(iv), as such information, if disclosed, would reveal non-routine techniques and procedures,” the NYPD claimed in a brief three-sentence response.

City and state experts on FOIL, however, say the NYPD is completely wrong — and officials “obviously” know where flight records are located, and turning them over would not disclose anything unusual about “techniques and procedures.”

DHS rolls out same line of crap in Richmond Hill

From NY1:

A heated town hall meeting took place Thursday to discuss a proposed homeless facility in Ozone Park.

"We don't know if there's sex offenders in here, these people can't survive on their own," said resident Christopher Chopin.

The city is working with non-profit 'Breaking Ground' on the proposal to serve homeless men and women at a building on Atlantic Avenue.

They said the plan is designed to serve 75 drop-in clients who can stop by for services, and an additional 25-50 transitional housing residents.

Councilmember Ruben Wills and State Assemblyman Michael Miller hosted the meeting. The goal was to give residents a chance to express their concerns to a panel of representatives behind the plan.

"This allows people to ask questions, and hopefully get some answers, whether they believe the answers or not, at least they are getting some answers, said Wills.

Answers that didn't seem to sit well with most of the residents who attended, especially since organizers don't plan to put a curfew in place.

"What happens if one day they're not on their medication or they're not receiving the help they need, or they just don't want the help, and they attack one of our children?" said resident Ivette Hurtado.

Organizers argue they will have 24/7 security inside and outside of the building, and won't let sex offenders in.

Look folks, this will not be a "drop in center". This will be yet another location where DHS warehouses 100+ people who come from nowhere nearby. Those deluded into thinking that this will serve "local street homeless" and that they will screen for sex offender status - when they have already been found inside the Pan Am Hotel - have got to wake up and smell the coffee.

De Blasio thinks Trump voters are after him

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio is fundraising off Donald Trump’s victory, warning the same “small pockets” that supported Trump in New York are trying to defeat him as mayor.

In an email to campaign supporters Sunday, de Blasio reiterated his vow to resist any effort to deport undocumented immigrants who live in New York, or to take away health insurance or reproductive rights.

“Now, that will probably make us a target of Trump supporters in our upcoming re-election,” de Blasio wrote. “While he only received small pockets of support in New York City, much of it came from people who are prepared to spend a lot of money to defeat us next year.”

He asked for a $3 contribution to his 2017 re-election campaign, in line with his strategy of going after small dollar donors.

Yeah, it's a lot more than Trump voters who won't be voting for you next year. You managed to piss off most of your own party as well, so good luck.

Foreclosures spike, especially in Queens

From the NY Post:

October brought an ugly surprise to hundreds of New Yorkers, as new foreclosure cases spiked dramatically.

More than 1,100 NYC households fell into foreclosure in October, a 32 percent increase from September, and a 37 percent increase from last year. Queens, which has been hard-hit since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, had 400 new cases last month, nearly double the number of a year ago.

“People think the foreclosure crisis is toward the end, and it really isn’t,” said Rose Marie Cantanno, supervising attorney of the Foreclosure Prevention Project at the New York Legal Assistance Group. “There are still a lot of people stuck in the middle, trying to do something, but having trouble [negotiating with their lender].”

While last month’s results are well below the city’s October 2007 peak of 3,200 new foreclosures, experts fear the October 2016 uptick will continue.

The market for residential mortgages has shifted from big banks to specialized servicers and private equity owners.

Gentrification often outpaces infrastructure

From Brick Underground:

As the city continues to undergo its seemingly unstoppable transformation, bringing change to farther and farther neighborhoods, one question remains: Why are so many basic services near-non-existent in places where housing prices have already shot through the roof?

For instance, it's no secret that many of New York's so-called "emerging" neighborhoods are food deserts, where residents have limited to no access to quality groceries or fresh produce. And with markets shutting down all over the city, the problem's only getting worse. The same is also often true of other day-to-day necessities, such as drug stores, pharmacies, and banks, as well as city services like street-sweeping or snow-plowing. (As one friend in Bed-Stuy put it, "There are five new coffee shops near my apartment, but nowhere to pick up a prescription or buy fresh fruit.")

In many cases, the reason for the disparity depends on the particulars of a given neighborhood, from the zoning to the physical size of the buildings to outright political and institutional neglect. "There are two types of neighborhoods that gentrify," says Corcoran agent Karen Kemp. "There are areas that already have a residential population, and businesses that cater to that demographic, and neighborhoods like Williamsburg that were primarily industrial, so didn't have any existing services for a residential population."

"Every neighborhood is kind of different," concurs David Maundrell, executive vice president of new development for Brooklyn and Queens at Citi Habitats. "For instance, for a long time 4th Avenue in Brooklyn wasn't zoned for any retail, and neither was Long Island City when new developments first started coming in." All of which meant that neighborhoods seeing floods of new residents didn't have space for businesses that would serve them.

Bill blew a load of taxpayer cash defending himself

From the Wall Street Journal:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has spent at least $5.4 million in taxpayer money on lawyers related to state and federal investigations into his fundraising activities, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Work continues into several of the investigations, and the fees to local law firms are likely to climb further, this person said. The current tally represents fees through early October, the person said.

Investigators are looking at whether Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, exchanged government actions for donations, according to people familiar with the matter. Several of the mayor’s closest allies have received subpoenas as part of the investigation.

Neither the mayor nor his allies have been accused of wrongdoing, and Mr. de Blasio has said he and his staff have followed all laws.

Most of the legal fees were paid to Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, a white-collar law firm representing the mayor’s office and city officials involved in the investigations. The fees covered reviewing and producing documents for prosecutors and preparing city employees for interviews, this person said.

Progress Queens has more.

A new form of tweeeding

From NY1:

The City Council is poised to make changes to the city's campaign finance system, including regulating nonprofit groups started by elected officials. But the Council is also preparing to consider legislation that some advocates say only benefits the lawmakers themselves. NY1's Courtney Gross filed the following report.

The City Council is already looking ahead to next year's municipal election.

Late Thursday, it released details of 14 bills to overhaul the city's campaign finance system.

One prohibits large donations from people who do business with the city to nonprofit groups founded by elected officials.

It is a clear reprimand of the mayor's now-defunct group, The Campaign for One New York, which raised thousands of dollars from people who had city contracts. The group is now the subject of a federal investigation.

"The Campaign For One New York obviously raised concerns for a lot of us, but it was operating within the law. So we want to correct the law," said City Councilman Daniel Garodnick of Manhattan.

The other bills change how the city's Campaign Finance Board oversees elections and how elected officials themselves can spend campaign cash.

"I think what we have is a package of really sensible legislation," said City Councilman Brad Lander of Brooklyn.

For instance, one bill would allow elected officials to spend campaign money on "expenditures to facilitate, support or otherwise assist in the execution or performance of the duties of public office."

"That lets you use those resources for public purposes like food at community planning and public meetings," Lander said.

Advocates have questioned whether this opens the door to more freewheeling spending reminiscent of Albany.

Bye, bye Bayside pedestrian bridge

From the Times Ledger:

Representatives from the Queens DOT commissioner’s office announced at Community Board 11’s meeting Monday night that the 216th Street pedestrian bridge in Bayside will be dismantled with no plans for a replacement. The decision comes after the concrete foundations underneath the two sides supporting the structure was found to be in decline in 2006.

The rickety structure of twisting, rusted steel and cracked concrete connects the north and south ends of Bayside, cut in half by the LIRR’s Port Washington Line.

Transportation Planner from DOT Richard Gippetti said plans for a new, ADA-accessible overpass were shot down by the community board on the basis that the winding ramp for wheelchair-bound users did not fit the aesthetic desired. DOT said the bridge’s deterioration has reached the level where it must be demolished as a public safety measure which cannot be avoided with repairs.

Gipetti told the crowd assembled in the MS 158 auditorium that because the handicap-accessible bridge was not approved by the community, no bridge at all will be permitted to take its place.

The pedestrian bridge is expected to be closed as early as the end of November, Giapetti said.

Can't speak on behalf of Bayside, but there really isn't all that much at the end of either end of that bridge. So what if the bridge is ugly? You need to cross the tracks...

Cuomo brokers 421-a deal

From Crains:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has brokered an agreement between the city's real estate lobby and the building trades union to revive 421-a, a controversial property tax break for developers that the city and many in the industry believe is essential for the construction of rental housing.

"The deal reached today between these parties provides more affordability for tenants and fairer wages for workers than under the original proposal,” said Cuomo. "While I would prefer even more affordability in the 421-a program, this agreement marks a major step forward for New Yorkers."

The deal was reached between the 100,000 member Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and the Real Estate Board of New York. Key to the agreement is a wage floor for certain construction projects. The revamped program would require average wages of $60 an hour including benefits for construction workers on Manhattan projects containing 300 or more rental units. The average wage for similar sized projects along waterfront Brooklyn and Queens communities would be $45 an hour.

"We applaud Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration for bringing all parties together to finalize an agreement on an important public policy that will allow for the development of critical affordable housing, and establishes wage standards for construction workers in New York," said Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council.

Cuomo had previously signed a 2015 law that extended the tax break and increased the amount of affordable housing that would be required in exchange for receiving it. But he held off putting it into place until developers and the construction trades union agreed on how much laborers would be paid at sites getting the tax break. The two sides were originally supposed to reach a pact by January, but negotiations stalled and dragged on until Thursday’s announcement.

Maspeth step street finally cleaned up for Liz Crowley photo op

You may recall our past coverage of the condition of a Maspeth step street which has been covered in graffiti, dumped trash and has been frequented by drug dealers in recent years. There's also been an eyesore of a stalled site there.

Well after more than 10 years of visual nastiness at that location, it got cleaned up for a Liz Crowley photo op. It turns out she is renaming the step street and has invited an alleged terrorist to unveil sign the alongside her.

Only in Queens, folks. Only in Queens.

Thank a veteran today

Former Queens Library president makes a pretty penny

From onrockaway:

Only in New York City would a man who used more than $250,000 in public funds on “inappropriate” expenses be rewarded with a $300,000 windfall and be protected from paying back the money he used.

City officials, have agreed to just that deal with Queens Library president Thomas Galante, who got canned for his actions and then sued the city for violating his contract. The city caved and paid out the money. The library has agreed to settle Galante’s severance suit for $1.5 million, most of which will go to legal fees, except for $300,000 that he will pocket.

An audit by the city Comptroller’s Office found that he racked up roughly $260,000 in “inappropriate” expenses on his library-issued credit cards over two years including for food, booze, casino trips and concert tickets.

Nevertheless, Galante filed suit last year in Brooklyn federal court after he was terminated in December 2014, claiming he was due severance pay under his contract because he was not fired for cause. But even though the library argued that he was indeed fired for cause, it decided not to fight Galante in court.

L train to pick up M train's slack

From Curbed:

They say when one door closes, another one opens—and in this case, those doors are on the L train. As the MTA prepares to replace damaged viaducts along the M line at the Myrtle Avenue stop in Bushwick, the agency will increase service along the L to offset the effects of construction. According to the MTA, the service change will cost about $1.7 million.

In a letter to New York State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (whose district includes neighborhoods that would be affected by these changes, including Williamsburg), the MTA outlined three key changes to the L schedule, due to begin next spring:

There will be an additional 11 weekday round trips on the L line between 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Saturday service will add an additional 12 L line round trips between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Sundays will gain an additional 27 round trips on the L line between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Iron Coffin Lady is laid to rest

From the Times Ledger:

Saturday’s featured speaker was archeologist Scott Warnasch, who was working out of the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office identifying 9/11 remains in October 2011 when he was called to the construction site at 90-11 Corona Ave. to investigate a homicide.

“The operator of a backhoe shattered the coffin and dragged the body out,” Warnasch said. “The construction crew headed for the hills and called us and that’s where I came in. She was so well preserved, we discovered lesions on her skin.”

The archeologist knew the woman had died from smallpox and he was intrigued by her casket, which resembled an Egyptian sarcophagus. Warnasch knew it was the type of coffin that was very expensive and used to bury elites the likes of Dolly Madison, Daniel Webster and President Zachary Taylor, not an African-American woman in her 20s or 30s.

Warnash began years of research and discovered from an 1850 census on Newtown that the woman, who was likely named Martha Peterson, did domestic work in the home of the man who produced the special caskets in a Woodside foundry.

“Clearly the Iron Coffin Lady was loved by her community and was given everything she needed for a proper burial despite the fear of smallpox,” Warnasch said. She was buried in the cemetery at the original location of St. Mark, and Rev. Detherage was determined to pay her back for the indignities of her unearthing.

“She reminds us of where we come from and where we are going as a people and a community of faith,” Detherage said. “When people don’t know their own heritage, they are discounted.”

AMEN.

Our next president comes from Queens

Holy cow. Watch out, world.

Flushing house an abandoned mess

From QNS:

An abandoned property in Flushing has been both an eyesore and a headache for neighbors for over a decade, according to residents.

The dilapidated residence located at 35-20 167th St. has posed quality-of-life concerns for nearby residents — especially next-door neighbors Joe and Joanne Vitulli, who have lived in Flushing for over 40 years and have been dealing with problems stemming from the residence for over a decade.

“[The house] should be either condemned or knocked down,” Joanne Vitulli said. “God forbid it goes on fire.”

Vitulli said the abandoned residence houses a number of animals, including raccoons, opossums and rats, and that she and her husband frequently find the animals on the back and front yards of their property.

Joe Vitulli added that the home’s basement is full of water, which poses structural concerns all well as attracts mosquitoes, and that the widows on the property have been boarded up for about three years now.

Residents also raised concerns about people they’ve seen on the property late at night, including teenagers who go into the backyard to smoke or sleep.

Large development planned for Rockaway

From onrockaway:

Rockaway residents who have been around for a while will probably remember fondly the Beach Club restaurant and catering space where many locals held their important events and where many local meetings were hosted by Ken and Steve Good.

Soon, however, the abandoned Beach Club property and the former Spin City gym next door will become four nine-story mixed use buildings with shops on the first floor and residential units above. At least, that’s the plan.

Brooklyn-based developer Marcal Group has filed applications for a 149-unit development at 137 Beach 116 Street.

As detailed in onrockaway.com a month ago, it will be part of a larger complex called Seaside Landing, which will feature market-rate condos and affordable housing. The building would hold 142,660 square feet of residential space and 17,652 square feet of commercial space. And, if Mayor Bill de Blasio has his way, it will also be mandated to open about 30 percent of those units to the homeless.

Developers want Rikers badly

From Curbed:

The idea of closing Rikers Island Correctional Facility has been around, according to the city’s former probations and corrections commissioner Martin Horn, since at least Mayor Ed Koch’s term in the 1970s. But New York City has come a long way since then, firmly populating itself with some of the world’s most prized, and valuable, real estate. The argument to shutter the facility remains today, but Politico points out that while the charge is lead by a human rights interest, it’s also bolstered by a real estate one.

A number of major New York City real estate players are eyeing the island. John Kriegel, a Related exec, is said to “be fascinated by the idea” while Forest City Ratner CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin is leading a committee that’s reimagining the island’s use. The study from Gilmartin’s committee will be made public some time next year.

When it comes to redeveloping the island, two main trains of thought emerge: connecting the island to LaGuardia Airport, which stands just across the channel, to provide additional runway space, or creating a new mega development.

It's that time of year again!

Well folks here we are on Election Day again. It's time for a handful of NYC voters to shlep to the polls and re-elect the same shit that's been giving us a giant kick in the ass for many terms. And if by chance there is an election where there is no incumbent, please do not take a look at the qualifications of the candidates. Simply darken the circle next to the name of the machine-backed candidate with a big D.

Post tells de Blasio to knock off the racism crap

From the NY Post:

If Mayor de Blasio thinks the Queens folks who’ve derailed his push for a new homeless shelter in Maspeth are just racists, he should say so himself. If he doesn’t, he needs to fire the aides who keep pushing that smear.

It’s been more than a week since mayoral aide Aja Worthy-Davis said city Comptroller Scott Stringer should be “ashamed” after “courting a group advocating for kicking women and toddlers onto the street [and] using ‘White Lives Matter’ as their protest song.”

Stringer had merely visited the Juniper Park Civic Association in Maspeth to hear concerns about the mayor’s ill-advised shelter plan for the area. More, he’d made a point of warning that the city needs more homeless shelters — but that communities deserve to have input on siting issues.

Cue Worthy-Davis’ harsh words — which themselves echo two videos put on the City Hall Web site by the mayor’s aides.

State Sen. Joe Addabbo accuses the mayor — rightly so — of hiding “behind an imaginary racial battle” that has no place in solving homelessness.

Worse, it seems de Blasio is leaving it to his aides to play the race card for him.

Man up, Mr. Mayor.

The W is back (and no one cares)

From AM-NY:

The W train makes its return on Monday morning, marking the first time the line will be running to Astoria since it was terminated in 2010.

It will be replacing Q service in Queens. When the first phase of the Second Avenue subway opens, expected to be at the end of the year, the Q will be re-routed from the 57th Street station to head up Second Avenue. Until then, the Q will terminate at the midtown station.

Many Astoria residents mulling about 31st Street, shaded by the elevated subway tracks, on Sunday were ambivalent to the W redux and had few parting words for the Q train. They may occasionally miss a train, but they won’t necessarily miss this line.

“Miss a train? I don’t think so,” said lifelong Astoria resident John Briscione, 56, a former business owner, on the Q’s final Queens departure. “You might miss an ex-girlfriend, but you don’t miss a train.”

Fancying up the Steinway Mansion grounds

George the Atheist has a photo collection of the latest effort to fancy up the grounds of the Steinway Mansion. Which is great but When are they gonna start on fixing up the building and what will it be?

As predicted... new Rockaway building to house homeless

From On Rockaway:

Published reports say that the new building at 9306 Shorefront Parkway will be housing homeless in 30 percent of its units under a new city ruling. Applications for the new 63-unit affordable apartments will close on December 27.

A new report from Crain’s New York Business puts a question mark on the new residential building opening in the near future at 9306 Shore Front Parkway in Rockaway Beach.

According to the highly-respected business newspaper, which is known for its excellent contacts with both business and city government, Mayor Bill de Blasio is apparently attempting to put homeless at the head of the line for affordable housing units such as those planned for the new Rockaway Beach building.

Hey, remember when this was posted which included a remark about it becoming a shelter? Well, BdB fooled us as it will only be part-shelter. What a way to revitalize Rockaway!

They are framing this as "these are for the homeless who can afford an apartment" which makes us wonder why, if they have a job and can pay a modest rent, they don't just move somewhere more affordable.

Civic group may file slander suit against BdB administration

From the Times Ledger:

The Juniper Park Civic Association is threatening to sue the de Blasio administration for slander by one of its spokeswomen, according to its president, Bob Holden. After city Comptroller Scott Stringer was invited to Middle Village last week speak to a town hall meeting addressing concerns with the city housing single men at the Holiday Inn Express, Aja Worthy-Davis released a statement saying, “Scott Stringer is courting a group advocating for kicking women and toddlers onto the street, using White Lives Matter as their protest song. He should be ashamed.”

The civic group hired attorneys who fired off a letter to City Hall asking for an apology and a retraction before taking the matter to the next level. They have not heard back, Holden said.

“It’s so slanderous and we’re going to take action on it because it’s so irresponsi­ble,” he said. “Nobody connected with the Juniper Park Civic Association used that term during our rallies, only the mayor’s office heard it. It has no remote connection to our group. We invited Scott Stinger to speak to us. It’s the mayor’s office that made this political and racial. I don’t have words, but it reflects the kind of people this mayor has hired. It is false. It is slanderous.”

In late September, the city produced two videos of the Maspeth group protesting outside a Bellerose hotel, and released them to social media. Holden and Addabbo believe the White Lives Matter chants were edited into one of the videos.

BdB forcing affordable housing developers to take in homeless

From Crains:

A top de Blasio official has been calling developers of affordable rental buildings about a new regulation that would require them to house homeless families—the administration's latest attempt to stem the city's record-setting shelter population.

Vicki Been, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, recently made the calls to a handful of developers who received a now-defunct tax exemption called 421-a, according to sources with knowledge of the calls. The tax exemption requires that at least 20% of a building's units be enrolled in the city's affordable housing program.

"This is the latest reform in our effort to address the homeless crisis we face," said an HPD spokeswoman in a statement. "Addressing homelessness is a moral imperative. These new marketing procedures are another new tool we are using to help reduce the burden for families who are being forced out of their homes."

The city has struggled with a surging homeless population that topped a record 60,000 this month, with families with children making up two-thirds of that total. And earlier this year, domestic violence surpassed eviction to become the No. 1 reason for being admitted to a shelter, according to Crain's.

While it is not unprecedented for the city's top affordable housing official to personally call developers to inform them of a new policy, Been's entreaties are a sign that the administration is serious about getting this one off the ground quickly and is willing to exert more pressure on companies to comply.

Questions about Sanitation spending spree

From NBC:

The city's Department of Sanitation has seen a 13 percent payroll increase under Mayor de Blasio, but New Yorkers have lodged 24 percent more 311 complaints about missed trash collection in that time, leading some residents to wonder if taxpayer money is being put to good use. Chris Glorioso reports.

Port Authority will kill LGA coyotes

From NBC:

Officials say a pesky pack of wild coyotes wandering the grounds of LaGuardia Airport will be trapped and euthanized. Stefan Holt reports.

Vision Zero is a flop

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan to cut pedestrian deaths has veered dramatically off course, advocates and families of crash victims charged Thursday at City Hall.

Safe streets supporters rallied after an unlicensed van driver last week fatally struck an 8-month-old baby in his stroller in Queens. And contrary to the goal to cut traffic deaths eventually to zero, deaths so far this year are up 5%, to 195.

De Blasio spokesman Austin Finan defended the city’s efforts.

"No death on our city's streets is acceptable. The DOT is working diligently to complete at least 90 Safety Improvement Projects in 2016 — the most completed in a single calendar year — including expanded pedestrian space, protected bike lanes, corridor improvements and intersection treatments,” he said.

Update on Flushing tree pits

"The downtown Flushing tree pits are untidy no more !
Could the Queens Crap post on 8/27/16 have made this happen ?
I think so ..."

The Queens Sentry

Iron Coffin Lady exhibit & funeral this weekend

From NY1:

The woman being buried is now known as the Iron Coffin Lady. Archaeologists determined she is a 30-something African-American who died in the 1850s.

Her mumified body was discovered five years ago when a construction crew accidentally dug up her steel coffin while building apartments at 90-15 Corona Ave.

The site was the original St. Mark Church and African burial ground. It was founded in 1828 by the United African Society of Long Island.

Many church members were not aware of the Elmhurst location.

"Because of her and because of the finding of her, our church has had a renewed fervor in learning more about who we are and who we were," Detherage said. "We lost some of the history throughout the years."

Researchers believe the woman was born in the 1820s and lived in a part of Newtown, which is now called Elmhurst, Queens.

Forensic archaeologist Scott Warnasch says the woman's body was so well-preserved, investigators initially thought she might have been a recent homicide victim. But he knew right away she was not because of her elaborate coffin.

Warnasch and a research team spent years investigating the woman. While they don't know exactly who she was, they know some details about her and how she died.

"She had apparently died of smallpox," Warnasch said.

Fifteen other remains were also found at the site. Detherage and the developer have been negotiatiating a deal to build a memorial there. The city says all construction has been halted there until both sides come to an agreement.

Meanwhile, after a weekend of exhibits and tributes at the church, a funeral will be held on Sunday at 4 p.m. for the Iron Coffin Lady.

New app lets you report park problems

From the Daily News:

The free ParentPatrol app — launched this week by state Assemblyman Ron Kim — gives parents and caregivers a quick way to report drunks, drug users and unsavory adults hanging around parks and playgrounds to the city Police Department, Parks Department and local elected officials.

Users can take videos or send a message to report potentially dangerous conditions in the city’s busy green spaces.

Kim (D-Queens), a father of two young girls, said he worked with a software developer to create the app after two frightening incidents took place at Bowne Playground in July. A 12-year-old girl was sexually abused and robbed at the Flushing park in the early morning. In an unrelated case at the same spot, a man went up to an 8-year-old boy, picked him up and squeezed his chest.

He emphasized that people should still call 911 in an emergency and that the app helps track quality-of-life problems.

As of Wednesday afternoon, almost 400 people had signed up for the app and reported more than 70 incidents ranging from drunken behavior to drug use.

Are microapartments a solution to the homeless crisis?

From NY1:

When Dario Luciano first opened this door, he said the feeling was amazing.

"It felt phenomenal," Luciano said.

Phenomenal because until earlier this year, Luciano was living in a Bronx shelter for veterans.

Now home is Carmel Place, the city's first micro-apartment house, which officially opened last week.

The apartments range from 260 to 360 square feet. Some come with furniture, like pull-down beds, to conserve space.

These teeny tiny apartments are barely half the size of an average Manhattan studio.

But for Luciano, who is single, it's just the right size.

"It's perfect for one person," he said. "It's completely perfect. I mean, I know where everything is and know that nothing is out of place, and I can walk around freely.

Carrmel Place is on — appropriately— a tiny side street in the East 20s.

There are 55 micro apartments. Thirty-two are market rate renting for the not-so-small price of $2,500 to $3,200 per month.

The rest are set aside for low- and middle-income New Yorkers and for formerly homeless veterans, like Luciano, who pays $537 a month.

Fighting crime on Roosevelt Avenue is a long, hard slog

From DNA Info:

An ongoing effort to tackle crime and quality-of-life issues along Roosevelt Avenue in Corona and Jackson Heights should expand west to target problem bars and clubs in Woodside, lawmakers said Monday — likening the street at night to "old Times Square."

Elected officials called on city and state agencies to pour more resources into monitoring "bad actor" businesses along the corridor: bars that operate without proper licenses and attract drug use, prostitution and other problems, they said.

"Roosevelt Avenue is a vibrant avenue during the day," said state Sen. Jose Peralta, who's been pushing for several years to clean up the street, including a request to have NYPD lines redrawn so the avenue was united under one precinct.

"What happens at night is that it turns into something completely different," he said. "It's turned into the old Times Square, where you have prostitution, where you have $2 dance bars, where you have drugs, where you have fake IDs, and that needs to end."

While the stretch of Roosevelt Avenue located within Peralta's district has garnered much of the negative attention in recent years — including in Jackson Heights, identified as a problem spot for sex trafficking — its issues extend into Woodside too, officials said.

"Unfortunately, it's no different on this part of Roosevelt Avenue, a little bit further west," state Sen. Michael Gianaris said at a press conference on 65th Street Tuesday.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The lawmakers say their focus is on getting the State Liquor Authority and the city's Department of Consumer Affairs to better enforce licensing rules, saying many bars on the avenue operate as dance clubs without the cabaret license that allows them to do so.

Peralta introduced legislation this summer that would increase fines for clubs that violate cabaret rules, and would temporarily suspend the licenses of bars found to be operating illegally.

We simply must overdevelop the hell out of NYC

From the Daily News:

Relentless growth fueled by immigration, people arriving from other parts of the country and more residents simply staying put will push an already swelling population past the 9 million mark in the decade beginning 2030.

The growth rate — similar to the average increase of 75,054 between 2010 and 2015 — is forcing city leaders and policy experts to confront how to house, transport, and school another half million people.

The population, which was at 8.55 million last year, is projected to reach 9.03 million by 2040 at the latest.

For Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, the highest level of growth is projected to be in the 2010-2020 period, with growth slowing thereafter.

Mayor de Blasio, who spoke at a Crain’s New York Business breakfast on preparations for the population surge Tuesday, says the city will need to be taller, denser, and conquer neighborhood fears that development will force locals out.

“It’s true there are types of development that can exacerbate inequality and reduce inclusion. There’s also types of development that can increase inclusion, that can open up opportunity. And we have to have a good and clear conversation about what the difference is,” he said.

Hey remember when Mayor Bloomberg created PlaNYC 2030 because we were supposed to hit the 9M mark by then? Oh well, what's 10 more years?

Allowing bigger density incentivizes developers to buy up currently affordable housing and replace it with new, unaffordable housing. I'm not sure why we are still pretending that we don't get that fact.

De Blasio does't understand why people think he sucks

From the Observer:

Mayor Bill de Blasio proclaimed himself “confused” at his former deputy mayor of Health and Human Services’ attacks on him and his administration’s plans to combat the city’s homelessness crisis—plans he says she helped shape.

In an interview with NY1 Noticias the former deputy mayor, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, said the administration doesn’t have a long-term and permanent vision for addressing the homelessness crisis. She also said she believed leaving the administration was the best decision and reported difficulties in working with de Blasio.

The mayor said he has “a lot of respect” for Barrios-Paoli, noting that they worked together for many years and that “she did a lot of good for this city”—but professed perplexity at her harsh remarks.

“I’m confused by the criticism because she was deeply involved with us in creating the plans to address homelessness,” de Blasio said during his first weekly “Mondays with the Mayor” segment with NY1 host Errol Louis. “We greatly expanded the availability of services to stop evictions. We greatly expanded the housing vouchers to keep people in their homes.”

FDNY inspector charged with bribery

From the Daily News:

An FDNY inspector was busted Monday for trying to bribe a buildings inspector to look the other way about violations at his home, the Department of Investigation announced.

Angelo Young was arrested and charged with two counts of bribery and one count of obstructing governmental administration after he allegedly offered cash in exchange for ignoring work being done without a permit at his Brooklyn home.

Young, 47, was slapped with a stop work order and a notice of violation for construction work without a permit at the home in Marine Park, a criminal complaint charges.

He called an undercover investigator posing as a Department of Buildings inspector and asked for a meeting - where he said that as an FDNY inspector he “squashes summonses” and requested the same “courtesy,” prosecutors charge.

Then the pair met at a Brooklyn coffee shop where Young offered $300 to scrap the violation, according to the complaint. Five days later, Young arrived for another meeting with a passenger in his car who handed the undercover an envelope that said “Happy Birthday,” with a card and three $100 bills inside.