Great Britain's great traffic debate

Think London's better off since it implemented congestion pricing?

London's traffic 'fix' nothing to write home about

Think again!

Forest Park tennis courts in crappy shape

Woodhaven residents complain about the condition of tennis courts at Forest Park:

Our tennis courts get no love!

In an interview with the Daily News, Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski said the price tag could reach $1 million. But [Lana] Stein, who plays frequently at the courts, thinks those estimates sound inflated - and that the city is simply making up excuses to justify decades of delayed maintenance. "I'm not going to say it's graft, but certainly something crazy is going on," said Stein, 65.

Photo from Richmond Hill Historical Society

Always Fast is sometimes too fast

1920s houses are a frequent sight along the roads of Maspeth, but something else is becoming more increasingly common.
Just a few steps south of Maspeth Town Hall on 72nd Street, you'll find these cookie-cutter human warehouses at 54-09 to 54-13 72 Street, which replaced the homes pictured above. DOB records indicate that there was some trouble at 54-11 with unsafe demolition. Not surprisingly, the demolition company has a not-too-stellar reputation. Their neighbors aren't too happy. Even tore down the wrong building once...
Ample parking is available across the sidewalks. No need to pull the minivans into the driveways when you can just selfishly block pedestrian traffic. The vehicles won't fit down the alleys anyway.

Screenshot from Windows Live Local.

Fresh Meadows rally makes headlines

The local papers give their take on last weekend's protest against a 6-family house on a block filled with one-family homes:

Knock down 185th St. building: Avella, nabes

R You 4 Real? Nabe Protests 6-Family home

Fresh Meadows Rally Opposes Construction

Jack Friedman, chief of staff for Councilman David Weprin (D-Hollis), who represents the area, said his office had been working on complaints about the site since last fall. Weprin was not invited to Saturday’s rally.

Heh. Maybe the Fresh Meadows Homeowners Civic Association took a look at this and decided that inviting their own councilman to an overdevelopment protest was a waste of time...

Photo from Queens Chronicle

Happy Arbor Day!

This week's Times Ledger contains a column about April 27th, this year known as "Arbor Day."
Some green thoughts for Queens Arbor Day

More information about the holiday and what you can do to green our world available from the National Arbor Day Foundation and the NYC Parks Department

Photo from nycgovparks.org.

Addressing repossession

This may be the second hottest topic in Queens:

Boro focuses on homes lost to sub-prime loans

The Time Is Now To Act On Foreclosure Crisis

Spike In Foreclosures Raises Alarms

Meanwhile, NYC has set up a number for people to call who are afraid of being victimized:

NYC Sets Up Hotline for Some at-risk Homeowners

Photo from Queens Chronicle

New blood center opens in LIC

Here's one development we don't mind the papers promoting:

New York Blood Center Opens Doors In L.I.C.

Photo from Queens Chronicle

Bills for better building inspections

New legislation is being proposed by council members to allow the DOB greater access to buildings in order for them to complete their inspections:

Bill would give teeth to building inspections

City Council bills could curb Department of Buildings' faults

Congestion pricing is Queens' hottest topic

It's the #1 story at the Queens weeklies:

Mayor would boost mass transit with Manhattan toll for drivers

South Qns. clamors for more transit

Worth consideration

Outer Borough Outraged by Bloomberg's PlaNYC

Congestion Pricing Unfair To Queens Drivers

Queens Pans Mayor's 'Congestion' Plan

Drivers, Business Owners Protest Congestion Plan

Queens pans congestion pricing plan

Boro Leaders Rip City’s $8 Car Fee

Photo from Queens Chronicle

A 2nd Walk Through the Meadows, part 3

QC sometimes like to have fun with photoshop - but we didn't need to do that here. Is Parks sure this isn't going to fall on someone?
This doesn't look very comforting. Good luck figuring out when it's open. From the Crapper's experience in the park it should just say: "Never when you need it"
This statue outside the hall of sciences is called Forms in Transit and dates to the 1964 Fair. It suffered so many years of neglect that part of it corroded and had to be removed ......and the rest of it may eventually follow. Upon close inspection, the statue looks like it is either deteriorating, or perhaps has a strange coating of gunk, as if someone had thrown hot tar all over it. Lovely.
The Parks Department went through all the trouble to emblazen this crapper (with a lower case c) with their symbol, and then doesn't bother to clean up the graffiti or repair the smashed windows.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
2nd Walk, part 1
2nd Walk, part 2

Konichiwa, Katz!

In order to not show up the Japanese monarchy, Melinda left her Queens Crap tiara at home...

From Queens Times

Building collapse at Atlantic Yards

Curbed has the scoop:

BREAKING CurbedWire: Atlantic Yards Building Partial Collapse

Seems the parapet which was at the top of the building (duh) fell off following the start of demolition work on the building and heavy rains.

"Can the neighborhood look forward to this quality of work from Forest City Ratner for the next 20 - 40 years?"

An update from 1010WINS.com:

Brooklyn Building's Facade Collapses, 350 Residents Displaced

Photo from Curbed

Forget Florida!

The New York Post writes about 2 Queens NORCs - short for "Naturally Occuring Retirement Communities" - in its real estate section today. Deepdale Gardens and the Big Six are featured:

ON GOLDEN PAD (We linked to page 2 because that's where the Queens communities are mentioned)

“Our goal is to promote successful aging,” says Gale Kolidas, director of Deepdale Gardens’ 6-year-old NORC program. “Some residents look at us as a safety net - some place for them to turn to.”

Photo from NY Post

The great abatement debate

New 421-A rules will be a bunch of hooey, developers tell the NY Post:

THE GREAT ABATE

"According to developer Daren Hornig of SAXA, whose properties include The Prime in Chelsea, the change will hurt buyers and actually reduce the amount of affordable housing."

“If you take two comparable buildings side-by-side, one with and one without a 421a, yes, the prices do tend to be higher in an abated building,” says appraiser Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel.

Photo from NY Post

Seeing the light

Mayor Bloomberg was humble enough to admit that the city needs to do a better job of conserving energy:

Well, watt-a-ya-know

"We can always do better," Bloomberg said. "You can rest assured my staff was on the phone early this morning finding out how we're going to make sure the lights aren't on going into the future."

It will be formally revealed today that we once again have a SURPRISE $4.4B CITY SURPLUS. This is because a Geyser of tax revenues has his the city. How about some more building inspectors? City planners? Ok, let me stop now.

A different angle

Interesting little story in the NY Daily News about houses askew:

Homes on side of angles

For Bob Singleton, a trustee of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, these houses have special meaning.

"Whenever I see a house turned from the street grid and still stubbornly facing forgotten country lane, I feel that time itself is giving me a nod, a wink and a reminder that my generation will, at some point be but a fragment of a future world," Singleton said.

Know of any houses like this?

Photo from Daily News

A 2nd Walk Through the Meadows, part 2

This is how the city treats perhaps the most famous building in Queens. The New York State Pavilion from the 1964 World's Fair has been disused and left to rust for the better part of the last 40 years.
The pavilion isn't the only thing rusting in the park. Crappy realizes that vandalism is hard to prevent, but just how long is it going to sit before someone decides to clean it up?
Open drain, about 6" in diameter - large enough to trip most of us, expecially the youngsters.

Crumbling brickwork by the Hall of Science.

QC's Walk Through the Meadows series:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
2nd Walk, part 1
2nd Walk, part 3

GOP Dance Party

Who's the better dancer - Bush or Bloomberg?

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

Old plan to fill in the East River

The following information is provided at the request of George the Atheist:

Fill the East River: September 2, 1894

The Proposition to Fill in the East River: September 7, 1894

Tides and the East River Isthmus: September 14, 1894

John S. Brooks' Proposition is Not New or Original: September 27, 1894

Satellite image with East River in red taken from Wikipedia's East River page

All links are to the Brooklyn Public Library's Brooklyn Eagle archives

More on congestion suggestion

This is starting to sound similar to a doctor prescribing Viagra for clogged arteries - It will cost the user big bucks and will do nothing to alleviate the problem:

Bloomberg's Congestion Pricing Plan: A Modest Proposal After All

"At just $8 a car (compared to twice that in London), traffic will diminish by a mere 6.3 percent; speeds will accelerate by 7.2 percent. If the average speed is 15 m.p.h., that means an increase to 16.08 m.p.h."

Here's more from WCBS880.com:

NYC Congestion Problem

Gridlock Sam weighs in too:

Is Congestion Pricing a Good Idea?

Map from NY Press.