Another hotel becoming a homeless shelter

From the Queens Chronicle:

The former employees of the Clarion Hotel, located at 94-00 Ditmars Blvd. in East Elmhurst, which is closed as of Monday, are asserting that the space will be turned into a homeless shelter.

Emma Ballestaros, a longtime employee, Flushing resident and representative for the Local 6 Union, which serves hotel workers, said many believe that the hotel will be converted into a homeless shelter and have been spreading word in the community.

“We knew through our ex-general manager that his intention was to convert to a shelter,” she said of the new owner.

The new owner, Shimmie Horn, a hotel operator who owns shelters in the city, reportedly bought the hotel in February and Ballestaros said that fueled workers’ beliefs that the space would house homeless.

Around then, Ballestaros said employees were informed of the June 1 closing and had plans to tell nearby residents to be ready to protest, if needed.

Christine Lee, another former employee, echoed Ballestaros.

“Everyone seems to know,” she said, adding that at a staff meeting months ago, they were given letters indicating the building would be called “The Landing.”

A Department of Homeless Services spokesperson said Wednesday that they “currently have no plans to use the site.”

Forest Park potholes painted

From WPIX:

Neighbors in Queens are drawing attention to some recent work along Forest Part Drive. Portions were resurfaced and some potholes were filled. Others appear to have been painted over.

Construction worker punches photographer

From the Forum:

In the latest development of the saga of a proposed juvenile justice facility in South Ozone Park, a construction employee who had been working on the newly erected 127th Street building was arrested for allegedly assaulting a resident who was taking pictures of the controversial site, according to an area elected official and court records.

Andrixs Suarez, 24, was cuffed by 106th Precinct cops on April 30 and arraigned on charges of assault with the intent to cause physical injury, and second-degree harassment. He was released on his own recognizance under a temporary order of protection, according to court documents. Suarez’s next court date is scheduled for July 13.

According to the office of City Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica), on April 15, Philip Kinard, described as “a resident living in the immediate vicinity of the proposed Administration for Children’s Services Close to Home Limited Secure Placement facility” at 133-23 127th St., was capturing images of the building’s exterior to document what he, at the time, believed to be active violations of a city Department of Buildings stop-work order when Suarez allegedly threatened to strike him if he did not cease taking pictures. Suarez, who was employed by a construction firm that had been hired by facility operator Sheltering Arms, then allegedly punched Kinard as he was looking at Suarez through the camera lens.

Momentum builds to protect small rowhouses

From the NY Times:

Some blocks are graced by quaint two-bedroom, one-story rowhouses — with small front yards, tiny porches and peaked roofs. These houses have become the latest focus in a clash throughout New York between homeowners who want to develop their properties to the limits allowed by law, and preservationists lobbying for stronger laws to protect those properties from development.

The preservationists argue that single-family rowhouses imbue some neighborhoods — particularly in Queens — with their essential character. But under existing zoning laws, there is no specific designation for single-family rowhouses that provides protection against increasing the number of units, or against out-of-scale and out-of-character expansions.

“It’s an absolute disgrace,” said Richard Hellenbrecht, the vice president of the Queens Civic Congress, an umbrella association of more than 100 community groups. “Lovely, affordable homes being squeezed out by monstrosities.”

The architecture is secondary, said Paul Graziano, an urban planning consultant from Flushing. “What it is is affordable rowhouses of modest means, and for people of modest means.”

“It’s stuff worth protecting,” he said. “We’re talking about the basic character of a neighborhood.”

Ms. Lin — unwittingly, she says — thrust herself into the center of the debate soon after buying her rowhouse at 146-15 56th Road for $558,000 in 2013. She had started to renovate, but quickly determined that it would make more sense financially to tear the house down and build a bigger place.

It also made logistical and emotional sense: She wanted a home big enough to house not only her two young children but also her father and brother.

Melinda Katz, a Democrat and the Queens borough president, has vowed to press for protections for single-family rowhouses.

“The rowhouses and the communities that form around that are so important to our future,” she said in an interview. “We value the low-density portion of our neighborhoods.”

“Where will our parents live when they come over from China?” asked Lin Xin, an employee with a contracting firm that had been involved in several of the projects in Queensboro Hill. “Why do you think we work so hard? Why do we scrimp and save? This is why. We want to be reunited with our families. We want to sit around the same table together.”

Baby falcons hatched on Throgs Neck Bridge

From CBS New York:

A dozen new peregrine falcon chicks have been born atop the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and the Throgs Neck Bridge, the agency said.

The falcons remain on the New York State’s endangered birds list.

The MTA has participated in the state’s nesting program since 1983, providing a nesting box atop the bridges, the agency said.