Flushing home loaded with homeless people and building violations

 

QNS

The fate of Nanoom House, a nonprofit homeless shelter that serves predominantly Korean-American residents of Murray Hill, rests on the outcome of a court hearing to be held later this month. 

The independently funded shelter — one of only a few in the city that houses mostly Asian American immigrants — is located in a small, three-bedroom house at 34-30 150th Place. 

One look at the shelter’s green colonial exterior and its surroundings — houses, lawns and driveways — and you might think that a small family lives there. But until recently, it typically housed around 30 residents on a short-term basis, many of them non-English speakers who found a sanctuary that catered to their language and cultural needs close to the heart of Flushing.

At the beginning of November, the Department of Buildings (DOB) responded to several 311 complaints from its neighbors. Upon inspection, the agency charged the owners of the building, listed as Sunree Solid Art LLC, with fines stemming from converting the building from its use as a single-family home to a boarding house. 

The inspection found that the shelter contained three rooms on the second floor that did not have the permits to be used for single room occupancy (SRO). In other words, the DOB found that the way that the residents were split up into separate rooms with locks on the doors functioned too closely to discrete apartments, in violation of the building’s status as a single family home.

The building was also charged with violations related to the installation of a second bathroom in the basement without a permit. 

The resulting fines on the shelter, which does not receive city subsidy and relies on volunteer staff, could range from $47,500 to $95,000 based on what happens in its hearing with Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), scheduled for Jan. 21.

On Nov. 25, the shelter followed up with the DOB to certify that the illegal SRO units had been removed from the property.

James Quinn running for Queens Borough President too

QNS

A day after Mayor Bill de Blasio declared the official date for the Borough President’s special election to be March 24, a new, law-and-order challenger announced a last minute bid for the office: former Assistant District Attorney James Quinn.
Though Quinn, a lifelong Queens resident, is reportedly a registered Democrat like the other five declared candidates, both his background and political platform described in the political flyer that was distributed to QNS on Friday makes him stand out among the rest of the field.

“Elect a crime fighter,” reads the first page of his campaign pamphlet.
Quinn served as ADA in the Queens County DA’s Office for 42 years. His platform promises to fight against many of the recent criminal justice reforms that city and state legislators have championed over the past year.
In the campaign materials, he vows to stop the closing of Rikers Island, to stop Mayor de Blasio from building jails in Kew Gardens or anywhere in Queens, and to push back on the bail reform by allowing judges to consider a defendant’s “danger to society” when setting bail.
The platform contains one economic policy idea about working “with businesses like Amazon to bring high paying jobs and careers to Queens.”

March 24th is election day for Queens Borough President

 Queens Chronicle

 

Mayor de Blasio has set Tuesday, March 24 as the date of a special election for the post of Queens borough president.

Melinda Katz, who would have been term-limited out of the post in 2021, vacated the office on Wednesday when she was sworn in as Queens District Attorney. Katz’s deputy, Sharon Lee, is serving as acting borough president.

De Blasio made the announcement in a statement issued by his office just after 6 p.m. on Thursday.

“I encourage all eligible Queens residents to vote in the upcoming special election, and I thank outgoing Borough President Melinda Katz for her leadership and increasing the World’s Borough’s diversity and dynamism, and wish her all the best in her new role,” the mayor said.

The Queens County Democratic Committee this past Monday endorsed City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton) for the post. The timing and manner in which the meeting was conducted — it was scheduled at the party’s Forest Hills headquarters at 8:30 a.m. on less than two days’ notice — drew criticism from Councilmen Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) and Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria), who also are candidates along with former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and former police officer Anthony Miranda.

The candidates now have 12 days to gather the 2,000 signatures the need to get on the ballot.

Donnie's got this locked. de Blasio's decision shows that he's just as obeisant to the Queens Machine as he is to his real estate developer overlords

Cuomo passes $51,500,000,000 MTA capital plan despite de Blasio no-show

 

NY Post

The MTA’s $51.5 billion capital plan was approved without oversight from the city Wednesday — after Gov. Andrew Cuomo refused to convene a review panel amid a spat with Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The deadline for the Capital Program Review Board to review the hefty five-year construction budget ended at the stroke of midnight, meaning the MTA can officially begin allocating funding for the plan with no questions asked.

Cuomo refused to convene the four-person panel — consisting of one appointee apiece from Cuomo’s office, de Blasio’s and both chambers of the state Legislature — unless the mayor appeared in person, insisting the decision was too monumental to be given to a proxy.

But de Blasio, who wanted budget aide Sherif Soliman to represent City Hall’s interests, declined, ceding the city’s veto power over the massive infrastructure plan.

The MTA’s board — which is dominated by Cuomo appointees — green-lit the plan in September.

The Queen of Queens?

 

  

  NY Daily News

 Former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley is stepping up efforts in her Queens borough president run with a poll finding one in five voters would pick her over her leading rivals.

While Crowley has been quiet since losing a tough re-election fight in 2017, she touted the poll as proof she’s still a contender.

 "During my years in City Council, I fought for Queens values and against the status quo — I fought to protect public safety, to expand transportation, and to bring reform to the city's budgeting process,” she said in a Sunday statement. “Based on our polling, voters are aware of what I’ve accomplished and that my record is resonating with voters.”

A survey of 1,282 likely voters put Crowley against leading candidates Jimmy Van Bramer, Costa 
 

 Constantinides and Donovan Richards, all Queens Council members. A plurality of respondents — 44% — said they didn’t know who’d they vote for if the election were held now, but 21% supported Crowley; 16%, Van Bramer; 10%, Richards; and 8%, Constantinides.

Honan Strategy Group conducted the survey in October, but its CEO Bradley Honan said the results are still valid because not much has changed in the race since then; debates and TV ad campaigns won’t start until the coming weeks.

Crowley lost her Council seat to Bob Holden, who ran campaign on opposition to homeless shelters in the district, which includes Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Woodhaven and Woodside.