The Queens housing squeezeBy Amy Goldstein, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
The skinny townhouses stretch like a two-story, multicolored fence along 121st Street in Richmond Hill. All 31 houses, covered by aluminum siding, are attached. They share plumbing and electrical wiring. None has a driveway; some have three or four doorbells.
The street between 107th and 109th avenues squeezes 55 houses into a row as long as a Manhattan avenue block. And that is just one of many densely populated blocks in the community. The housing squeeze is matched by traffic congestion. Parking is almost impossible to find on these narrow, unswept, one-way streets.
This block and others south of Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill are crowded because the zoning rules are vague, said Beatrice Ammann-Priest, a planner for the Queens Department of City Planning. More than 40 years ago, “certain zones were created, but they were very general,” Ammann-Priest said. “It allows single family, multi-family, attached, semi-detached, detached … all building types,” she said.
As a result, Ammann-Priest said, having 31 attached rowhouses along one side of a block is legal because no laws say otherwise.
This type of development in Richmond Hill, as well as in much of Southeast Queens, frustrates some local politicians and community residents. Some say developers continue to tear down single-family homes to replace them with several smaller homes or multistory apartment buildings.
“People need space,” said Chan Jamoona of the United Hindu Cultural Center in Richmond Hill. “Even though we have a shortage of homes, I prefer if we kept it so people have some space.”
The overdevelopment has spiked up housing costs and mortgages in Richmond Hill, where the average cost of a small, multistory townhouse is $500,000, according to Edwin Basdeo, a Realtor at NMCRA Connectors Realty on Liberty Avenue. He said the price of such a home had surged for several years, but has been relatively stable the past few months.
The higher costs have led Richmond Hill residents to rent out rooms or floors to minimize the cost. For example, the two-story residential townhouse at 107-34 121 St. in Richmond Hill has four doorbells; one family lives in the attic, another on the second floor, a third on the first floor and a fourth in the basement.
To make matters worse, some residents convert their homes illegally, without approval from the New York City Department of Buildings. According to numbers found on the Department of Buildings Web site, 151 complaints against illegal conversions in Richmond Hill townhouses were filed in September, and more than half the cases are still open.
The Department of Buildings responds to illegal division reports as soon as they are filed, spokeswoman Tori Edmiston said. “We send an inspector up to see whether it’s illegal, then we issue violations if it is.”
Robert Singh can confirm that. Singh, of 104-34 123rd St., allowed his sister and niece to live in his basement until 2002. That’s when the Department of Buildings entered Singh’s home and slapped him with a $5,300 fine.
“People depend on their basements,” Singh, who immigrated to Richmond Hill in 1994, said. “I’m paying off a 30-year mortgage. If I could convert my basement and rent it out legally, then I’d be able to pay off more of the mortgage each month. But I can’t because I can’t afford another fine.”
Did you watch yesterday's big speech? Not the one in Washington in prime time. I mean the one at York College. Helen wants you to know that big development projects are still a top priority for her, along with relocating the police academy to Flushing Meadow Park:
The darker the brown, the darker the blue. Is this merely a coincidence or is institutionalized racism, classism and regionalism acceptable in our city government?
I shot this picture of a grand old building at Sanford Avenue and 161st, East Flushing (a nexus for Crappenfest activities of late). The first picture I did when they were beginning to strip off the siding in anticipation of the big raze. The previous owners had let the place run down in recent years but in the right hands it had possibilities.
The second picture shows the grand old tree in front of the property that remained there, for a time, after it had been torn down. Not only do we have more and more ugly buildings to look at, but we are quickly losing all of our green spaces, which were preserved by previous generations who were proud to have their property host grass, trees, flowers, birds and other such friendly critters.
Time Out New York, in their infinite stupidity, printed a column in this week's issue entitled, "Fib Notes: A handy guide to getting yourself out of - or into - almost any situation through the power of prevarication." Yes, that's right: a guide on how to lie. This was not in their comedy section, it was their cover story. So here's what they wrote about us out here in the boondocks:
According to a complaint filed yesterday, there was excavation in violation of a stop work order going on at this previously featured property at 69-06 59 Road in Maspeth.
However, the buildings department supposedly responded and found there wasn't a problem as the stop work order had been lifted. Their online system says differently. There also are no permits filed to do work like this on the property.
From today's NY Post:
"I've been reading your articles with great anticipation and hope that you will someday see the blight being forced upon my little area of Flushing. As of now the situation is so out of control that the city ignores our complaints so does our compromised councilman, John Liu. The sidewalks are mucked and uneven, the elderly with push walkers cannot pass, the snow is never shoveled, the muck is never removed and no actions are taken to lessen the impact on the people living among this day in and day out for the last 5 years now. On any given morning these cement trucks are on the sidewalk and prevent mothers with carraiges from passing, they must use the street to navigate this mess.
If you have the time please visit Cherry Avenue between Kissena Blvd and Bowne Street north to south, and Robinson Street, Union Street east to west; a little tight location that is under siege: demolished 75-year old homes, broken power lines, smashed sidewalks, muck and mud all around.
A nasty arson was committed on Cherry Avenue on XMas Eve; the house is gutted but no protective fencing anywhere, children play with the smashed glass and fire debris. I swear to the almighty its like West Germany post WW2. You will not think this is America let alone New York! What you cannot see is all the debris strewn about the driveway. When kids at the local PS 24 school 2 blocks away are discharged every day they pick up and throw the debris around and cause havoc. Why can't these owners be made to upkeep their property?
What is needed here is a city agency to evaluate this street... and not to include John Liu nor inform him of the inspection, so that he does not have time to warn his cohorts here. Also for the life of me I don't understand why Verizon, Time Warner and Con Edison have not sued these creeps for the devastation of the overhead lines and telephone poles?"
A couple of years ago, City Councilman John Liu and the Queens Historical Society unveiled the newly reconstructed Waldheim gateposts at Cherry Avenue and Bowne Street, with great fanfare.
What a shame that Johnny Boy couldn't care less that Cherry Avenue is being reconstructed along the lines of New Flushing between Bowne and Kissena, and that the "upscale' homes are now considered nothing more than impediments to the dreams of developers.
Two from the NY Sun:
The Daily News also reports that kids are being forced to sacrifice their lunch in order to cram in more classes.
The Downtown Express has an update on the Burling Slip playground:
The Queens housing squeeze
For decades, there was a Carvel store in Maspeth on Grand Avenue at 64th Street. Next door was an Italian Restaurant called Pat's. The same family owned both properties. The supposed plan is to put the food establishments back into the ground floor once completed. 
Community Board 5 strangely voted in the owner's favor; they voted 23-16 for the variance for this piece of Queens Crap. Rumor has it that members of the board were pressured by Councilman Dennis Gallagher into voting in favor of it. It was beaten back to as-of-right height at BSA by community leaders. Since then, there have been a litany of complaints about the site, where both workers and the public at large have been endangered.
