Two young adults drown in Rockaway Beach where resiliency construction is still going on

 

AMNY

The city’s Parks Department is again urging beachgoers not to swim in closed and unguarded areas of Rockaway Beach after two people fatally drowned there on Friday.

The victims died in separate incidents that occurred at about 6 p.m. on June 17, according to police.

Law enforcement sources said the first victim, a 16-year-old girl, was pulled out of the water off the intersection of Beach 108th Street and Shore Front Parkway.

Simultaneously, police reported first responders got the second victim, a man in his late teens or early 20s, who drowned in the waters off Beach 98th Street — ten blocks to the east of the first fatal drowning.

Both victims were rushed to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, where they died, police sources said.

The two victims were among five people pulled out of the waters off Rockaway Beach on Friday, according to WABC-TV. The other three distressed victims survived.

 The fatal drownings occurred at a time when the Parks Department deals with a lifeguard shortage that forced the agency to cut its indoor swim programs this summer.

Juan and done again and for good

 

 

Queens Post

Juan Ardila, a candidate running to represent western Queens in the state Assembly and a crusader against car culture, drives a compact sports utility vehicle that has racked up nearly 30 traffic violations since 2019.

The black Audi Q3 has been hit with multiple speed camera violations in school zones in the vicinity of Queens Boulevard and 55th Street. The vehicle has been ticketed for blocking crosswalks, parking in front of fire hydrants to obstructing driveways. There is also a bus lane violation, and a violation for blocking a pedestrian ramp.

Multiple people have told the Queens Post that he drives the vehicle and have provided photos and videos of him in it. He is often seen driving through western Queens as he campaigns to represent the 37^th Assembly District, which covers Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Ridgewood and Maspeth.

His critics argue that his violations undermine his campaign, since he is a staunch advocate for street safety. His platform calls for conflict-free protected bicycle lanes, pedestrian safety measures and an end to car culture. He was endorsed by StreetsPAC today, which he announced via twitter.

🚨 ENDORSEMENT ALERT! I am thrilled to announce that we’re now backed by @StreetsPAC. Our streets belong to everyone, including #pedestrians & #cyclists. #Transportation is a matter of #justice & #equity. I will fight to make sure all NYers have safe access to our #publicspaces pic.twitter.com/yb3oNOzafi

— Juan Ardila (@JuanArdilaNYC) June 16, 2022

Ardila, when questioned about the violations, told the Queens Post “I don’t have a car.” In a short unannounced phone interview, he refused to say who the vehicle belonged to, nor did he address the violations. He said he had to get off the phone but would call back in 5 minutes.

He didn’t call back, and after the Queens Post reached out again, he sent a text asking for the questions to be e-mailed. The questions were e-mailed but there has been no response.

The DMV did not provide the name of the registered owner of the vehicle. Tim O’Brien, a spokesperson for the state DMV, said the agency typically does not share private registration information citing the Driver Privacy Protection Act (DPPA).

 The Audi has been hit with 41 violations since 2017, although the limited public records available show that the vehicle was sold to an unnamed party in Queens in 2018. Since then, the vehicle appears to have remained in the name of one owner and has generated 29 violations.

Multiple people have said that they have seen Ardila driving the vehicle in recent years. In fact, video was taken of him in the car prior to a candidate forum held at the Ridgewood Presbyterian Church on Thursday June 9.

“I heard that he had a lot of traffic violations, so when I saw him in the car I took photos,” said Stefan Smetko, who was at the forum working on behalf of Brent O’Leary who is also vying for the Assembly seat.

Of course readers of this blog are aware of the evolution of Juan Aridla and his vain attempts to get into elected office. Last year while running for City Council he got involved in silly protests against residents he would have represented if he won and he got into major hot water when he got caught saying homophobic, racist and sexist things on social media platforms yet his base and the NYC's fauxgressive establishment politicians still stood behind him and endorsed him. This year in his mission to get into the State Assembly, Juan embraced the "public streets for people" movement and lobbies like Transportation Alternatives and Streets PAC above to get elected, so it's going to be interesting to see how they will continue to justify backing their chosen one to push and legislate their agenda to usurp streets from driving and make life difficult for residents with a man who is so dependent on car culture he needs multiple vehicles to get around town and is so addicted to car culture that he was willing to risk his political ambitions by driving and parking like an entitled jerk.

Maybe Ardila liked their agenda because he thought the streets would have more room for privileged drivers like him to drive on and also these bike/open street think tank lobbies donors to TransAlt, Streets Pac and Open Plans as well, especially car culture based corporations like Lyft and Uber and all their fellow hypocrite car owners and car dependent people from other corporations like the big banks and elected officials as well. They don't want safe streets "for people", these elitists wants the streets for themselves.

 

So long Juan. Thanks for sparing us one less regulatory captured politician in elected office. Now go get a real job.

 

 

The Feds want nothing to do with Rikers

City And State

A federal judge approved the city’s plan to make long-sought changes on Rikers Island, essentially eliminating the threat of a federal takeover for at least the next several months. The order filed Tuesday marks a win for the city and the Department of Correction and comes days after the federal monitor in the case expressed doubt about the city’s willingness to follow its recommendations for the proposed action plan. 

“This action plan represents a way to move forward with concrete measures now to address the ongoing crisis at Rikers Island,” Southern District Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote in the order, while making clear that the case could turn depending on the city’s progress in implementing the plan. “The Court has approved the proposed measures contained within the action plan, in full recognition that further remedial relief may be necessary should Defendants not fulfill their commitments and demonstrate their ability to make urgently needed changes.”

The city filed the proposed action plan in late May after federal monitors appointed to oversee the department threatened to take control of the system if the city failed to comply with their recommendations. The jail system has been under federal supervision since a class action lawsuit in 2015 alleged rampant abuse and dysfunction.

The plan filed in May outlines timelines for proposed reforms, which include tamping down on abuse of sick leave policies among correction officers, hiring new leadership under a modified chain of command, improving infrastructure at the jail facilities and expediting correction officer disciplinary proceedings.

The department submitted an updated version of the plan on Friday after Swain gave it two weeks to come up with a more detailed proposal. During that time, a dispute over the hiring of wardens outside of the department became a point of contention between the monitors, along with the Legal Aid Society, which represents the jail population in the case, and the department. The monitors wrote in a letter to Swain on Friday that the city refused to agree to their recommendation to hire wardens outside of the department, and was unwilling to seek special permission from the court to circumvent city and state laws prohibiting it from doing so. 

Swain indicated that the department has committed to seeking special permission from the court if it encounters other legal barriers that prohibit it from implementing recommendations. She also denied Legal Aid’s request to set a briefing schedule for a possible contempt motion to trigger the federal takeover.

Try to follow the Riders Alliance money

 

This is Elizabeth Plum, also known as Betsy Plum. She's the executive director of Riders Alliance, the transit concern organization that was featured in those videos of them bullying a fellow transit concern organization member from asking them questions during an event they held where they proposed they were going to save commuting in NYC. 

What's interesting about R.A. is how they became such a big influencer about all things transit (and now plan to expand that influence in housing and policing), especially when looking at their tax forms.

 

 

 Riders Alliance sure pulled in a lot of moolah in such a short time span during a pandemic. But what's going on with Elizabeth Plum here? She's the only full time worker on this list and claims to have made no money as the boss?

Mayor Adams is not going to tell you shit about his housing plan

 

Politics NY 

Mayor Eric Adams unveiled his plan to address the city’s housing and homelessness crises Tuesday but refused to commit to any clear metrics for the number of affordable housing units that should be built or the number of homeless New Yorkers that should be housed under the plan.

While presenting his ‘Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness” plan on the rooftop of 90 Sands St. – a former Jehovah’s Witnesses owned hotel that was acquired by the city and converted into 400 units of supportive housing – Hizzoner said the plan doesn’t have any target number for how many supportive and affordable housing units his administration aims to build and he wouldn’t take any questions on the subject.

“It’s often asked, ‘how many units you gonna build? How many units you gonna build? how many units you gonna build?’” the mayor said. “If that is one of the on topic questions you are going to ask me, don’t, because I’m not answering that. How many people we gonna put in housing? We need to put people in housing. That’s the focus that we are on."

When asked by a reporter about what Adams would consider a successful number of people to be placed in supportive housing under the plan, he again refused to give a specific number and only said “as many as possible to get into housing.”

“If you say 30,000 and you have 50,000 that are homeless, then what kind of success is that?” I got 20,000 people that are not,” Adams said. “So, I’m not at this magic number. I’m going to get as many people in my four years to get into housing as possible. And I’m not playing these numbers of ‘what is this number?’ No. Everyone needs to find housing. Those are my goals.”

Adams was joined by the city’s Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz, city Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr., New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Chair and CEO Gregory Russ and Shams DaBaron – a homeless advocate known as the “Homeless Hero.”

The NYPD honored Pfizer instead of those that protect and serve under the rubric of "public safety"

Riders Alliance hold public assembly for their transit plan and claim it's a private event as they try to kick out a commuter activist

What happened to public space for people???

Freedom News Network has an even better angle of the bullying by Fascist Riders Alliance

Here's Fascist Riders Alliance again trying to oppress this genuine riders advocate from filming a car they were using to get to their public assembly private events. Funny with all their talk about transit equity and demands to people to give up their cars, they cruise around from town to town contributing to car culture and traffic congestion

That woman, who appears to be RA's executive director Betsy Plum's muscle and chaffeur, seems to be confused because license plates and the cars they are affixed to is actually public information.

The New Bad Days are about to get badder

 

 NY Post

More than 1,500 NYPD officers have either resigned or retired so far this year – on pace to be the biggest exodus of officers since the statistics have been available, The Post has learned.

Some 524 cops have resigned and 1,072 have retired as of May 31, NYPD pension stats obtained by The Post show.

The 1,596 total is a 38% spike from the same period in 2021, when 1,159 cops called it a career, and a staggering 46% climb from 2020, when 1,092 left the force by the same date.

Anti-cop hostility, bail reform, and rising crime have fed into frustration among the NYPD rank and file, according to one NYPD officer who recently fled for greener pastures at a Long Island police department after 6 1/2 years with the New York’s Finest. 

 The city is out of control — especially since bail reform,” according to the former Queens cop, who asked to be identified only as “Joe.” The mantra now is “get out while you still can.”

Joe’s patrol gig “got worse and worse” over time, he said.

“The last few years so many people had been leaving and manpower was so low that you’d go to work and you’d answer 25 to 30 jobs a day and you’re burnt out by the end of the day,” he said, adding, “there was no time for law enforcement” because it would be “radio run, radio run, radio run all day long.”

Even when he made an arrest, “they were back in the precinct picking up their property the same day.”

 

Amazon truck culture dominates public streets for people

 

 

 NY Post

It’s the “law” of the concrete jungle.

Amazon delivery drivers who cause traffic chaos when they commandeer huge stretches of Big Apple streets are getting more brazen, with one claiming that cops gave them license to do so.

“The [NYPD] … said it’s OK to double park here,” said driver Shawn Evans from a frenzied “mobile distribution hub” — a euphemism for the mammoth trucks that double and triple park while workers scurry to unload their contents onto cluttered streets and sidewalks.

Evans said he had been unloading at his location along Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side for more than three hours with a truck containing “1,500 … 1,600” items.

“The NYPD does not allow Amazon delivery vehicles to double park or violate any parking regulations,” a department spokesman countered. “If these vehicles are observed in violation, a summons is issued.”

Evan’s truck was not an outlier. The Post found at least four Amazon delivery trucks hogging up sections of Columbus this week. Some Amazon employees confirmed they had been double-parked for hours.

Many of the the trucks are surrounded by what appear to be city traffic cones — but actually belong to Amazon, multiple delivery men said.

The problem is not unique to the Upper West Side. With its ultra high-density high-rises, the Upper East Side is also uniquely susceptible to Amazon delivery jams. Last November the City Council passed a bill aimed at curbing the issue by introducing loading-only parking spots in affected neighborhoods — but so far results have been limited.

“It is like Whac-A-Mole,” said Manhattan Councilwoman Gale Brewer, adding that trucks would move from one location after a complaint to another. The veteran lawmaker says she has gotten at least 20 constituent complaints about the issue this year.

“It’s an endless challenge,” she said.

Two boys drowned in Jamaica Bay

 

 NY Daily News

Two Queens boys celebrating the start of summer died Friday after they fell into Jamaica Bay and never resurfaced, police said.

The two victims, who are both 13, were on an outcropping of rocks near Broad Channel at about 11:40 a.m. when they fell into the water.

Panicked onlookers called 911. NYPD divers recovered one of the two just before 1 p.m. and rushed him to Jamaica Hospital, where he died.

The second teen was found under the waves about 40 minutes later. He was rushed to Jamaica Hospital in extremely critical condition but he could not be saved, officials said.

Their names were not immediately released.

The two boys, accompanied by a group of friends, made their way to the bay in celebration of the first day of summer break, a shaken uncle of one of the teens said outside the hospital Friday evening.

“Yesterday was the last day of school and they were just trying to have a good time, messing around like kids do,” said Michael Rachel. “They were out on the rocks but when the tide comes in you couldn’t see them. They’re gone.”

For a few billion dolllars more...

NY Post

The price of everything is going up — even the city budget!

Mayor Adams and the City Council announced a record-breaking city budget at $101 billion Friday, blowing past the $98.7 billion budget deal his predecessor Bill de Blasio struck with lawmakers last year.

The deal between Hizzoner and Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) adds $1.4 billion in new spending on top of what the mayor proposed in his formal budget layout in April — and is $2.6 billion above City Hall’s preliminary estimate in January.

“This is not a dysfunctional Council and this is darn sure not a dysfunctional mayoral administration,” Adams said, as he and the lawmakers touted the earlier than usual budget deal. “We’re going to function and we’re going to GSD: Get stuff done.”

Still, the deal swells the Big Apple’s potential budget deficits over the coming three years, prompting new warnings from budget watchdogs over spending amid soaring inflation and worries about a potential recession.

The expected shortfall for the 2024 budget now stands at $4.2 billion, up from $3.9 billion projected in April. The expected gaps between expected revenues and spending for the 2025 and 2026 budgets grew too.

 

Toddlers finally freed from city's mask mandate

 

NY Post 

 Mask-wearing will finally be optional for toddlers in city schools soon, Mayor Adams announced Thursday — about two weeks before the end of classes.

The controversial face-covering mandate for youngsters ages 2 to 4 in public schools, daycare centers and other city-run settings will be lifted beginning Monday, according to a press release. The last day of class is set for June 27.

“I have always said that the science will guide us out of the pandemic, and because we have followed the data, which shows that cases are steadily falling, we‘ve beaten back the latest COVID-19 surge,” Adams said in a prepared statement.

The mayor had initially announced the impending end to the policy two months ago, before reneging amid increased spread of the virus.

In the announcement Thursday, Adams said City Hall continues to “strongly” recommend that “New Yorkers of all ages continue to wear masks indoors.”  The city will keep providing masks at DOE schools for those who want to wear them, according to the press release.

Daniela Jampel, an outspoken advocate for lifting the toddler mask mandate, told The Post she was “overjoyed” that little ones would get the same “freedom of choice” as other New Yorkers to not wear masks.

“Toddlers were masked for far too long in this city, and today’s announcement is a step in the direction of restoring normalcy to our youngest residents,” said Jampel, a mother of a 4-year-old and former former city Law Department staffer who in April crashed an Adams press conference in City Hall to demand he lift the rule. 

Asked why Adams had opted to lift the mandate now as the school year comes to a close, a mayoral rep referred The Post to a series of tweets in which the city’s top doctor declared that the Big Apple is “finally past the peak of this wave.”

“Cases have fallen since May 23, giving us confidence that we have passed the peak and we are heading into a safer environment,” wrote Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan.

  They wait til the end of the school year to do this. That's the real safety metric they are basing this on. Vaccine extortion worker mandates remain intact.

 

Congestion tax remains in limbo

 

THE CITY

A day after Gov. Kathy Hochul said “now is not the right time” for congestion pricing, she reaffirmed her support for implementing the long-delayed plan to toll vehicles entering Manhattan — eventually.

Hochul scrambled to emphasize Wednesday that she stands behind a program designed to fund mass transit upgrades and reduce traffic after saying at a Democratic gubernatorial debate the night before that it is “not going to happen over the next year under any circumstances.”

MTA officials, who previously acknowledged a potential two-year delay until 2023 and last month blamed federal nitpicking for a slowdown, said they are “fully committed” to congestion and are “aggressively working” through the process.

“While extensive questions from the federal government are causing delays, the governor directed her team to work closely with the federal government to provide responses as quickly as possible and keep the process moving forward,” Hazel Crampton-Hays, a spokesperson for Hochul, said Wednesday.

The state legislature approved congestion pricing in 2019 — after a 2008 push by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg failed in Albany — but the rollout has been slowed repeatedly, with Hochul and her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, pinning the problems on Washington.

The vehicle-tolling plan is being counted on by the MTA to help fund a significant chunk of the agency’s ambitious 2020-2024 Capital Program to maintain and expand the sprawling transit system.

But the delays are “unacceptable,” said Hayley Richardson of TransitCenter, a research and advocacy organization.

“It’s become increasingly clear to us that the delay has to do with Governor Hochul’s concerns about being elected,” Richardson said. “There’s a lot of sentiments out there that this is policial suicide, and that is incorrect. 

“Congestion pricing is unpopular when you look at it before implementation,” she added. “When it is implemented, things turn dramatically around.”

Porno cockblocks luxury tower development proposal during zoom hearing

 Queens Post

A development company’s plan to build a 23-story residential tower on Vernon Boulevard was rejected by Community Board 2 last week.

Quadrum Global, an international investment firm, is seeking a zoning variance through the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) in order to develop a tower at 45-40 Vernon Blvd., the site that is currently home to the dilapidated Paragon Paint Building.

The plan would involve rehabilitating the Paragon Paint building and developing a 23-story tower behind it.

The board voted to reject the zoning variance saying that the development would be out of character with the area. The variance, however, is not dependent on the approval of the community board, with its vote being advisory.

The community board vote took place over Zoom Thursday during its regular monthly meeting—but the video has yet to be uploaded to YouTube nearly a week later. Sources say that the meeting was Zoom bombed with porn—and attribute the delay to that.

Quadrum’s application for a variance will not have to go through the standard rezoning process known as ULURP since it is seeking the approval of the BSA. Therefore, its application will not be reviewed by the borough president and City Planning Commission—nor will it go before the City Council for a vote.

The application will go straight from the community board to the BSA, where the BSA will render a decision.

The BSA has a long history of approving zoning variances even when they have been rejected by a community board. For instance, the BSA gave the all clear to a developer to construct a 17-story hotel building at 32-45 Queens Blvd. several years ago, defying the wishes of Community Board 2 and then Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer at the time.

Rapper shot to death outside warehouse studios building

PIX News

Here's a map of what this dump looks like inside. And a review of the "maker" warehouse from someone who also tried to record some tracks.

Since this is mostly a venue to create art, it sounds like this owner wanted to make a couple extra bucks from the drill rap scene and wanted to do this the cheapest way possible.

 

Kathy Clown revives homeless and broke hotels for affordable housing conversions

 

PIX News 

 New York has relied on hotels to temporarily house the homeless for years, but now underutilized hotel space will be converted into permanent housing under a new plan announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday.

Over the last several years, the homeless crisis in New York City has grown more visible and harder to manage. The coronavirus pandemic shined a light on an existing problems: a lack of affordable housing and a continued reliance on hotels to temporarily house the homeless. Robin, a homeless New Yorker PIX1 News met on the Bowery, is not a fan.

“The hotels, you had no services really, just basically food,” Robin said. “That’s about it really. And a place to sleep.”

Hochul’s new plan involves a detailed application process for hotel owners and developers to convert their facilities. She said that run-down hotels can present a safety risk in their respective neighborhoods.

“With hotels hit so hard by the pandemic, many of them never reopened, an opportunity has arisen to use vacant hotels in a way that’ll lift people up and give them yes, the dignity of a home,” Hochul said.

PIX11 News began reporting on the de Blasio administration’s reliance on homeless hotels almost six years ago. That plan used taxpayer dollars to house the homeless in hotel rooms, with no social service, alongside regular, paying guests. Mayor Eric Adams says this time around, converted hotels will become supportive housing.

“New York needs affordable housing, we cannot argue with that. And to not focus on converting hotels that are currently there, currently on the market, sitting empty – converting those hotels into now apartments with permanent housing,” Adams said. “Repurposing these housing is going to allow older adults, those with families, to take these older buildings and now utilize them to give someone a newer life, a life where they can feel they are receiving the housing they deserve.”

Water main break floods the streets around the Queensbridge Houses again

Update

There is an ignorant narrative going around from urbanish jerkoffs that poor people and people who live near Manhattan don't drive cars. This should kill that dumbass noise

Fauxgressives are eating their own

Brooklyn Post 

A podcaster and well-known Democratic Socialist from Astoria has thrown the progressive wing of the Democratic party into disarray by announcing she plans to run for the District 59 seat in the state Senate.

Nomiki Konst announced Tuesday on “The Majority Report” talk show—a daily political podcast–that she plans to run for the newly formed District 59 seat that covers Astoria, Long Island City, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and parts of Manhattan.

“I want to announce that I’m running for state senate in District 59—a brand new district that encompasses the community I live in.”

The new district was created mid-May, when a special master drew up the electoral maps for the state senate, after a supreme court judge tossed out the maps drafted by state Democrats on the basis that they were unconstitutional.

Konst joins other candidates such as Elizabeth Crowley and Kristen Gonzalez in the race. However, her announcement has upset many progressives who believe she will cut into the vote for Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, a progressive who lives in Long Island City, has already garnered the support of Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the NYC-DSA, the Working Families Party, Make the Road, New York Communities for Change, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, Councilmember Tiffany Cabán and many other left leaning officials and organizations.

Gonzalez announced she was running months ago, when most thought Long Island City was going to be part of Senate District 17—a district that was eliminated by the special master last month. That district would have included Long Island City, Woodside, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale and Greenpoint—although not Astoria.

Konst said she decided to run after the boundaries of District 59 were drawn– which include Astoria.

 

Ozone Park looks like Bedford Falls

The lots by the Aqueduct train station has finally come to use.

Huron St. rowhouses are actually in context. 

 

Last but not least, another McMansion similar to the monstrosity on the corner of the Hawtree St and the fork at Conduit Blvd and Albert Rd has materialized as well. 


 

I dream of Biggie

A mural for legendary late rapper Notorious B.I.G. just went up in Maspeth. Actually an ad for Amazon commemorating his 50th birthday just went up which depicts Biggie as a spirit emitting from a bunch of flowers. Or maybe that's insecticide. Curious why he would be depicted this way.

  

But I think I know where this gentrifier artist got her inspiration from...

Queens bus redesigns town hall tomorrow night

  

This will be live and on zoom.

MTA plans to kill two bus routes in the name of transit equity

Queens Chronicle

Two bus redesign Zoom meetings held last Thursday and Monday included proposals for changes to several lines throughout East and Southeast Queens. The meetings were among the last in a series held by the MTA and focused on Community Districts 12 and 13.

The Q1 bus had major proposed changes that were relayed by Tori Winters, the principal transportation planner for the MTA. The bus route currently starts in Queens Village on Springfield Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue and ends at the 165th Bus Terminal in Jamaica, though some buses leave the terminal and end at Bellerose at Braddock and Jamaica avenues, instead of returning back to Queens Village.

The proposed new route would start at Bellerose, eliminating the main starting point in Queens Village and all but one Springfield Boulevard stop (Springfield Boulevard and Hillside Avenue) and 12 stops on Hillside Avenue, but it would take over the Q6 route and extend to the JFK Cargo Plaza in South Ozone Park by skipping the terminal and going through Downtown Jamaica and then down Sutphin Boulevard. The route would keep the 179th Street and Hillside Avenue F-train stop and it would also pass by the E, J, Z train stop on Jamaica Avenue and the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road on Archer Avenue. The proposal would more than double the weekday peak service frequency of the bus from 10 minutes to 4 minutes, and nearly double the off-peak frequency from 15 to 8 minutes.

“We will be replacing the two routes with one higher-frequency route,” Winters said about the Q1 in a slideshow presentation. “Local service along Springfield Boulevard will be provided by the proposed Q78. The Rockaway Boulevard segment of the existing Q6 would now be served by the proposed Q7.”

The proposed Q45 would take over the Q36 route and the Hillside Avenue portions of the Q1 that would be axed and start at the Little Neck LIRR. The route would conclude in Jamaica on Archer Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard, expanding its train service connections to the E, J and Z lines, the Long Island Rail Road and AirTrain similar to the Q1.

The Q75 is a newly proposed route that would go from Jamaica to Queensborough Community College via 188th Street and Horace Harding Expressway, replacing the Union Turnpike to Jamaica Avenue stops along the Q17 and taking over the Q30’s primary role as a route to the Bayside school. The Q31 bus would pick up the Q30 line’s Utopia Parkway stops.

The suggested Q82 would replace the Q36 service along Hillside Avenue and combine with sections of the existing Q110 that goes along Hempstead Avenue to get to the UBS Arena in Elmont. Instead of servicing 212th Place in Queens Village, the route will serve Hollis Court Boulevard, and any existing Q36 stops east of 213th Street would be picked up by the Q57.

“The new Q82 route would mostly run nonstop alongside Hillside Ave.,” said Winters. “The service will no longer provide a route to Jamaica Ave., as the existing Q36 does.”

Buses with suggested minor changes include the Q44, which would maintain most of its route in Jamaica on Merrick Boulevard and Archer Avenue, but instead of concluding its route at the Bronx Zoo, it would go to Fordham Avenue Plaza at Fordham University; the Q43 in Jamaica, which would make less frequent stops as it extends farther out to Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Glen Oaks; and the Q2, which would maintain its route though shifts in where it would stop between the 165th Street Bus Terminal and Elmont were proposed.

Back to the drawing board for Innovation QNS luxury public housing complex

Queens Post 

The massive Innovation QNS project was rejected by Community Board 1’s Land Use & Zoning Committee Wednesday night—despite the development team making modifications to the plans prior to the meeting.

The Innovation QNS developers, who seek to rezone a 5-block area in the vicinity of Steinway Street and 35^th Avenue, made the adjustments in the wake of a public hearing held on May 25 where they received a vast amount of feedback.

The developers’ overarching plan involves creating a mixed-use district between 37th Street and Northern Boulevard, bound by 35th and 36th Avenues, which would consist of more than a dozen buildings that would range in height from eight to 27 stories as well as two acres of open space.

Gerald Caliendo, co-chair of CB1’s Land Use & Zoning Committee, told the developers at the May 25 hearing that the committee believed that the size of the buildings along 35^th Avenue—adjacent to the residential area–needed to be reduced, while the larger buildings should be located toward Northern Boulevard.

He also said that the committee held the view that there is a need for active recreation space—such as a small soccer field or basketball courts–noting that much of the open space was designed to be used as a as commercial corridor to the retail area. Furthermore, the committee called for a community center that would be operated by the likes of a YMCA of Variety Boys & Girls club.

The developers—consisting of Silverstein Properties, Kaufman Astoria Studios and BedRock Real Estate Partners—came to the committee meeting with a series of changes to the plans. The essence of the plan, however, remains the same, which involves 2,800 apartments—711 deemed affordable—along with commercial, retail and community space.

Eran Chen, of ODA Architecture, presented the changes on behalf of the development team to the committee, which included the following:

— the elimination of a 16-story building located at the corner of 35^th Avenue and 41^st Street

–the reduction of the height of a building at the corner of 35^th Avenue and Steinway Street from 20 to 15 stories

— a reduction of the height of a building at the corner of 35^th avenue and 42^nd street from nine to eight stories

— reducing another building on 35^th Avenue from 27 to 24 stories

The buildings, however, closer to Northern Boulevard have been enlarged to make up for the lost scale on 35^th Avenue.

The developers also announced that they have added a 30,000 square foot recreation center, which will offer indoor active space. The center is going in where the community board initially thought a school was going to be built—only to learn that the School Construction Authority did not seek the site.

The developers also said that the retail space would be targeted toward locally-owned businesses.

Despite the revised plans, the underlying zoning application would not change. The committee was assured by Jesse Masyr, a land use attorney, that the developers would stick to the revamped plans noting that it came down to their credibility.

Freedom drive isn't free

In light of the news of Mayor Eric Adams and the asshole NYC Health Commissioner Vasan insisting on keeping mask protocols going for toddlers, I passed by the "open street" shortcut Freedom Drive in Forest Park and saw these equally ludicrous signs on the obstruction gate at what used to be a convenient short cut for drivers who need to go to the northern and southern parts of this World's Borough of ours.

 

Distancing??? Washing hands??? Face touching??? Masking??? WE'RE FRICKIN OUTSIDE!!!

Interesting how the City Department of Health doesn't have their logo on this.

Mayor Adams hires tax evader non-profit CEO to stop gun violence

 

THE CITY

With shootings on the rise in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday named as his new “gun czar” the head of a taxpayer-funded “violence interrupter” nonprofit whom investigators had found used the group to line his pockets and employ his relatives.

Andre Mitchell, executive director of the nonprofit Man Up Inc, will serve as volunteer co-chair of a task force addressing gun violence as part of Adams’ campaign to reverse the trend of mayhem that’s plagued city streets since just prior to the pandemic.

Since 2017, Mitchell’s group has won nearly $20 million in city contracts to perform “anti-gun violence” work from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, an arrangement that greatly expanded even after the city Department of Investigation (DOI) in 2019 alleged financial improprieties and nepotism at Man Up. The most recent extension ends July 1.

And during the time City Hall extended the length and amount of the contract, there’s no record that Man UP filed tax documents with the state Attorney General’s Office or the Internal Revenue Service as is required of active nonprofits. The last document on file dates back to tax year 2018.

Man Up is one of several groups that rely on neighborhood leaders — some of whom have been convicted of crimes themselves but have done their time and are turning their lives around — to intervene with potential shooters before they act, by winning their trust and cooperation. 

The Biden administration recently embraced this local tactic, announcing it would target increased funding for “evidence-based community violence intervention programs.”

Adams dismissed questions about the DOI findings, noting that he himself hired his own brother as a security advisor at City Hall. He also stressed the urgency of tackling gun violence: “You’re talking about DOI? I’m talking about DOA. People are dying.”

Added the mayor: “Some people say, ‘But what about his background?’ What about all our backgrounds? We are not looking for a nun. We’re looking for someone to be in the streets and embrace our people. We’re looking for the right person for the job. And AT (Mitchell) is the right person for the job.”

Ever since this violence interruptor "non"-profit got more funding from the city and the federal government, shootings have skyrocketed. 

Just thought I leave that right here.

NYPD catches hangry homicidal maniac

NY Daily News

An unhinged customer who feuded for months with a Queens Chinese restaurant about not getting enough duck sauce with his order has been arrested for the April shooting death of the eatery’s beloved longtime deliveryman, cops said Thursday.

Glenn Hirsch, 51, was arrested at his home Wednesday night and charged with murder and gun possession for the April 30 killing of Zhiwen Yan, 45.

The victim was riding his scooter near 108th St. and 67th Drive in Forest Hills when he was shot in the chest. A witness told cops the driver a of a Lexus SUV sped off from the scene.

Yan worked for more than a decade at Great Wall, a Nothern Boulevard restaurant whose manager, Kai Yang, 53, told police of a problem customer who drove the same type of vehicle.

Police quickly focused on Hirsch and eventually developed enough evidence to charge him.

Hirsch was taken into custody without incident, an NYPD spokesman said.

“Zhiwen Yan was a beloved member of his Queens community whose tragic murder in April was heartbreaking,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell tweeted early Thursday. “@NYPDDetectives never relented in their investigation — and have now arrested 51-year-old Glenn Hirsch. He’s been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.”

 

The trial run Queens Borough Tower Jail

 

Impunity City 

 This scene takes place in Fresh Meadows at this hotel steps away from the Horace Harding Expressway and also a strip mall and public school. This hotel, which has clearly failed to generate any business, was subjected to numerous scoops and solidarity condemnation from the community and elected officials representing the district for it’s use as a homeless shelter for men who were recently released from Rikers Island and was used during the pandemic as housing for a hundred inmates during the pandemic to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on the island’s facilities. Which was irresponsibly made possible following former Mayor de Blasio and the City Council cronies collaborative effort to shut down Rikers to build four tower jails in the boroughs except for Staten Island. But from the optics of this building, it seems that  this hotel in Fresh Meadows is being used as a trial run tower jail while the official tower jail in Kew Gardens gets developed and which has already started it’s construction.

 It’s utterly amazing that the city approved this hotel on a quaint residential block like this. Who in their right mind thought that tourists would dwell here while vacationing in the city and it’s much to big and out of the way to be utilized for prostitution and sex trafficking.

 Upon close inspection, the optics in the front entrance belie the element that’s being housed here as cars line up on the sidewalk obstructing most of the entrance of the hotel, despite the ample parking in the lot behind it and the garage inside the building, conveying a palpable sense of security for their neighbors across the street and the passerby young and old.

 

23 Slowdoo

 

New York Times

 

Just beyond the reach of New York City’s frenetic, round-the-clock subway, people in a slice of western Queens wait — and wait — to board one of the borough’s slowest buses.

Many of the 2.3 million New Yorkers who live and work in Queens aren’t served directly by the vast network of trains that keeps the nation’s biggest metropolis moving. The borough, the city’s second most populous, has less subway service relative to its size and population than the other four.

So hundreds of thousands of people here plan their lives around the only mass transit choice they have: the buses that lumber along traffic-choked streets.

One of those buses, the Q23, is among the slowest in the city. For the past four years, it has consistently traveled more slowly than the citywide average of about 8 miles per hour — about the speed some people can run — bogged down by an awkward path and riders who swarm two stops that connect to the subway.

It was slower than nearly all of the 76 other buses in Queens in April, and it ranked dead last in the borough in January, when it traveled at 6.5 miles per hour.

 

The Q23’s route curls around the Tudor-style houses and lush yards of Forest Hills, then cuts through the bustling heart of multicultural Corona before turning west toward the edge of Queens to head to its last stop, near La Guardia Airport.

“Each section has its own little demon,” John Breeden, who has driven city buses for 11 years and counts the Q23 among his routes, said as he sat behind the wheel on a spring afternoon. “You need patience.”

More New Yorkers ride buses in this borough than in any other. On a given weekday before the pandemic, 680,000 people took a bus in Queens, making up about 32 percent of the city’s overall weekday ridership of 2.2 million.

Many blue-collar workers rely on the Q23 to reach their jobs, and its frequent delays can derail their commutes and make them late to work. Some riders set out hours early to compensate. When buses are slow, people put off basic needs such as medical care, according to a May 2020 study published in the American Journal of Public Health. They spend longer in harsh weather, and their quality of life suffers because of lost time.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city’s public buses, wants to speed them up in Queens, in part by getting rid of stops and adapting to modern traffic patterns, making routes straighter and more direct.

“Most of the subway system was built when Queens still had farmlands,” said Janno Lieber, the M.T.A.’s chairman and chief executive.

“Now we have to make the bus system do a lot of the work in Queens that the subway system does for so many other parts of the city that got more heavy rail, because of when they were developed,” he said.

The authority released a draft plan to redesign the borough’s bus network in March, and it is soliciting community input through June.

Critics of the plan say it would not solve problems like drivers who don’t follow the rules, dining sheds that make narrow streets even tighter, and construction jobs like the one that blocked Ms. Mora’s route.

“Realistically, there’s not much you can do,” Mr. Breeden said. “It’s very populated over there. And then you add in the churches, then you add in the deliveries, and the people’s entrepreneurship out there — it’s always going to be crowded.”

The Department of Transportation Alternatives petition for a bus route to the Ridgewood Reservoir is based on bald faced lies

(From the Department of TransAlt website.)

Ridgewood Reservoir Needs A Bus Stop

The historic Ridgewood Reservoir is a 50-acre natural oasis that serves diverse communities on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. Despite its beauty, ecological importance, and open access, the Ridgewood Reservoir, which is proximate to some of the poorest areas in New York City, is impossible to reach by public transportation.

The Ridgewood Reservoir needs a direct bus stop for New Yorkers to enjoy its benefits. 

The reservoir is ill-served by current public transportation options. The closest subway station is the J train at Norwood Avenue, a mile away. The closest bus stop is the Q56 at Jamaica and Shepherd Avenues, a half-mile from the reservoir. Our greenspace currently serves as a cultural and ecological treasure solely for New Yorkers who can drive to it.

With more transportation options, our reservoir will be accessible to all New Yorkers to enjoy its many health benefits. This includes a multi-use path for walking, biking and running, bird watching and flowers, as a quiet respite from the city, and more!

So the Department of TransAlt wants to screw around with a Queens bus line so it could make a stop by here. I'll let Crappy explain why this is full of gaslighting bullshit and will do more harm than good (the good being that will mostly benefit the bike and public space scientology cult):

"Why lie? The B13 is maybe 300 feet from the north entrance. Maybe work on making that area by the Jackie safer instead of ruining someone’s commute by taking a bus out of the way. I’ve never heard of a bus line being routed to serve a park feature rather than the park itself.

 It’s more that there is a heavily used parking lot where they want a bus stop and all the Caribbean and Dominicans using it destroy the narrative that only white people use cars.

 When Bloomberg announced it was going to be a destination park the gentrifiers started sniffing around. Then he dropped it and so did they. Except for these turds, who are trying to monetize the park for their benefit.

 The community board there was circulating a letter from MTA which showed that it would take the bus well off the route and lengthen commutes considerably, and if they used it as an end of line type of thing it was impossible to turn the bus around.

 On top of that, the two buses that run there are Brooklyn routes and these dopes are sending out instructions to testify about the Queens bus redesign."

 

What's really funny is that there are routes where you can easily get there by bike from the Queens side, isn't that what this damn think tank bike lobby exists for, so why annoy everyone?

Another Sikh person got mugged on the street by a Gurdwara

 

 PIX News

 A mom of three cried Tuesday as she described being attacked when she left her temple in Queens.

A group of three stole her jewelry and threatened her with a gun. She didn’t wan her face shown because she’s scared for her life. The attack on her is the fifth one against Sikh individuals that PIX11 has reported on since April.

The attack comes comes as the Asian American Bar Association released a report revealing overall hate crimes in New York City have spiked. Activists say they want more done to protect Asian American New Yorkers.

The mom who was attacked agreed. For right now, she’s hoping the people who robbed her are caught and see justice.

NYPD investigators said the robbery doesn’t appear to be a hate crime, but that could change as the investigation continues. They’re still looking for surveillance video and witnesses.