Purse pilfered after push

From the Village Voice:

Police are asking for your help to close the case on a robbery in Astoria.

They say it happened on the morning of Saturday, September 5th at the corner of 37th Ave. and 34th St. A young woman approached a 57-year-old woman, knocked her to the ground and took her purse -- then hopped into a black SUV driven by another man, and sped off.

Two hours later, the suspects were caught on surveillance cameras using the victim's credit card at a local liquor store. They're described as a dark-skinned Hispanic female, a little over five-feet tall, and a light-skinned Hispanic male, around 5'8".

Take a look at the pictures. If you think you can help, give Crime Stoppers a call at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You can also submit tips by logging onto www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting CRIMES (274637), then entering TIP577.

Bicyclists and pedestrians should not mix

From New York Shitty:

On the LIC side, at least (I’m not sure about the Greenpoint side…I’m a terrible reporter*), there are pictographs indicating that the bridge is to be used by pedestrians… and mushroom headed bicyclists…

Confusingly, they’ve left the signs up telling people to dismount their bikes. I feel my head is about to explode. Who is the genius that came up with this idea? Are things really clearer now?

(I'm sure they will dismount. They always do...)

Buttkiss refuses to kick the bucket

From Gothamist:

Meet Buttkiss, the black pacu who has eaten more than 175,000 fish during his residence in Queens. “We feed him twenty-five goldfish every other day,” says Steve Gruebel, the owner of Cameo Pet Shop in Richmond Hill. You do the math. He’s been in the shop continuously since 1970, becoming a Richmond Hill landmark in that time.

Why hasn’t he been sold already? “We actually sold him in 1968 to a Holocaust survivor named Kurt Emerick. The fish was about two inches long at that time. But he got so big he was knocking things over in Kurt’s fishtank. Kurt didn’t like that. He was a perfectionist. So he brought him back here in a bucket. Later Kurt got hit by a bus on Metropolitan Avenue and died. But the fish is still here. I had just gotten back from Nam and I decided to keep him.”

Group says Willets Point raids were suspicious

From the Times Ledger:

A report issued by the Urban Justice Center Tuesday accuses the city of using strong-arm negotiating tactics with property owners at Willets Point while ignoring more than 200 tenant businesses that operate in the area.

More than two dozen Willets Point workers rallied alongside members of the Urban Justice Center outside Citi Field Tuesday to allege that the city orchestrated multi-agency raids on three properties housing 11 small businesses in April as a means of pushing property owners to strike deals to sell their land.

“The timing of these mass closures with a renewed effort to acquire private land for a public redevelopment is questionable and it may also be illegal,” the report said.

The raids, which occurred March 22 and April 2, came just weeks before the city announced it would renew efforts to acquire property in the southwestern portion of Willets Point to pursue its redevelopment plans for the area.

“When the government enters into private negotiations to acquire private land for an urban renewal plan like the type that has been authorized at Willets Point, there is a danger that any unequal or improper city action will be seen as an attempt to influence or coerce private landowners to sell their land,” the report said. “The actions taken by the city in the past few months are questionable at best, illegal at worst.”

The raids were launched by a collaboration of several city agencies, including the New York Police Department, the Fire Department, the Department of Buildings and the Department of Environmental Protection, and targeted 126-58 and 126-75 Willets Point Blvd. and 37-03 126th St. — all of which are in the area the city hopes to develop first.

“Those of us who have worked in government know that it’s difficult to get agencies to coordinate with one another,” said Wayne Mahlke, chief of staff for state Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-East Elmhurst). “The city launched these raids in the same week they were negotiating with these property owners. There is no way it was a coincidence.”

From the Daily News:

The city is still forming a plan to relocate the businesses, Lombino said.

"We're looking at relocating some of the businesses in clusters," said Lombino. "We've done it before."

But many owners said they are wary.

"They never tell us the truth," said Marco Neira, 51, president of the Willets Point Defense Committee, adding that it's been difficult over the 23 years he's been in business to trust promises from city officials.

"The city comes here to give us fines, never to fix our streets," he said. "We have no sewers."

"The city gave us these problems," Neira said.

You mean the city still hasn't figured out where they are going to put these businesses?

More Brooklyn hipsters kicked to the curb

From Miss Heather:

The Red Cross should NOT be pressed into providing housing to individuals whose only mistake was not being informed consumers. This organization was not founded to assist people who have found themselves homeless as a result of a landlord’s malfeasance and this city’s ineptitude and/or lack of responsiveness when it comes to the protecting and serving its citizens. The blame for should be laid where it is truly due:

1. This city and the agencies charged with enforcing housing/building/fire code. Had the standing Stop Work Order on this property been enforced, this would never had happened.
2. The landlord: for not obeying the the aforementioned Stop Work Order and having a disregard for the safety of his tenants.
3. The real estate agents who leased out these “residential” lofts knowing full well that they are illegal. Anything for a buck.

Our "great green mayor" takes helicopter to NJ concert

From CBS2:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has found himself thrust into a "chopper-gate" controversy Friday after the avowed environmentalist avoided the traffic congestion at last night's U2 concert by taking to the air.

What's more, the mayor's pilot used the gas guzzler to go there twice – once for a test run.

CBS 2 caught Bloomberg's chopper buzzing the Meadowlands as he searched in vain for the right place to land the chopper so the mayor could go to the U2 concert. It was a test run, and the pilot botched it, so when he came back with the mayor, he had to land farther away.

But it left the oh-so-green mayor's face oh-so-red on Friday. CBS 2's Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reminded Bloomberg that it takes a lot more energy to fly a chopper than a car, wasting a lot of energy.

"I suppose you could say that, but there's other ways to get around," he said. "Some are more energy efficient, I could have walked or swam across the river as well, that would have used less."

It was a "gotcha" moment for an avowed environmentalist.

"Helicopter rides to concerts, celebrity endorsements, a $200 million campaign – maybe Mike Bloomberg would be better suited to running for mayor of Hollywood," said Anne Fenton, a spokeswoman for Thompson.

The mayor is so green that five different environmental groups refused to comment about the story.

Yeah, "green" in a different sense...

Bloomberg: Mayor for life?

Paul Vallone gives up

From City Hall:

Ending conversations and speculation about whether Paul Vallone would run as a Republican in the race to replace Council Member Tony Avella, Vallone will endorse Democratic candidate Kevin Kim this afternoon, according to Kim’s campaign.

The endorsement will take place at 4 p.m. at Kim’s campaign headquarters in Bayside.

Anyone else think the story yesterday was planted by Vallone to make him actually look important instead of a third place loser? Here's something from the Village Voice:

That might be enough for your average mini-scandal, but there's more: Halloran is calling foul on the story - not because he's ashamed of his religious affiliation ("I am not comfortable with injecting my religion into my politics," he told the Trib. Hear Hear!), but because a Kim campaign consultant also happens to be the VP of the Queens Tribune, and because Queens congressman Gary Ackerman, who founded the paper and still holds a chunk of it, used to be Kim's boss and who urged his old employee to make the race, says City Hall.

Asked about his rival, [Kim] offered the politically savvy response of any frontrunner. "I don't want to comment on anyone's religion," he said. "It's up to the Republicans who they nominate."

He did acknowledge that Tribune VP Michael Nussbaum (a veteran Queens Democratic party player who was nailed on a bribery rap in the Donald Manes scandal, oh and who also organized Democrats for Bloomberg in 2005) is a paid consultant to his campaign and that he used to work for Ackerman as a constituent advisor. "You'll have to ask the Tribune about their articles," he said. "It has nothing to do with me."

Please sign the petition against MORE Queens traffic

From time to time, City government tries to pull a fast one – Quietly approving a major project while keeping its anticipated harmful side effects under wraps. The public only finds out after it's too late, then regrets not having paid attention sooner.

If City planners get their way, it's about to happen again. The City is quietly attempting to proceed with its ill-conceived plan to construct additional Van Wyck access ramps and a huge $4 billion development project right at the intersection of our most popular roadways. If this plan is implemented, Queens residents and commuters will suffer extraordinary traffic congestion.

Incredibly, all experts – including City planners – agree that the ramps-and-development scheme will cause extraordinary traffic congestion in Queens. Even the City's own traffic study admits and quantifies it.

In addition to creating intolerable traffic, the plan also includes a dangerous, new left-lane exit, which is apparently the only way to shoehorn one of the ramps into the existing Van Wyck Expressway/Whitestone Expressway crossover.

And yet, despite knowing that severe traffic congestion will certainly result, City planners still insist on implementing their grand ramps-and-development scheme in Queens. These same planners are also trying to create the impression that this is all a done deal, and that we can't do anything to stop it.

But fortunately for New Yorkers, this disastrous plan can never proceed without the approvals of both the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). However, despite causing severe local traffic delays, the City still expects NYSDOT and FHWA to approve the additional ramps, because the agencies use a very broad "analysis framework" that actually minimizes consideration of the ramps' devastating effects upon local residents, communities and commuters.

Therefore, we must insist that NYSDOT and FHWA give appropriate weight to the severe unmitigable traffic that is certain to result from the proposed ramps and development, and dis-approve these ramps on that basis. We must take immediate action, both to inform the final decision-making authorities of our objections, and to hold those authorities accountable. Nothing less than our quality of life is at stake.

Please register your objections to more Van Wyck ramps, associated development, and severe traffic impacts on Queens roadways by completing the Petition form at www.trafficnightmare.org

This house will soon be crap

From the Huffington Post:

I lived on the outskirts of the Broadway-Flushing neighborhood in Queens for 13 years between 1993 and 2007. In contrast to the congested, noisy and crowded downtown Flushing corridor, Broadway-Flushing, clustered on the blocks north and south of Northern Boulevard between Murray Street and Utopia Parkway, features quiet, tree-lined streets and single-family homes in classic styles: English Tudors, colonials, ranches, Cape Cods. When real-estate developers Rickert-Finley Realty built Broadway-Flushing in the first decade of the 20th Century, restrictive covenants were placed on the properties that banned front yard fences, front-yard garages, and flat roofs.

Trouble in paradise, though, has come along in the early 21st Century as McMansions have sprung up, and the hedges, lawns and classic architecture that were the hallmarks of the Rickert-Finley Broadway-Flushing have been replaced by ugly fencing and in the worst cases, paved front yards, the better to park station wagons and sport utility vehicles. The situation in the Kissena Park area south of Northern Boulevard east of 162nd Street is even worse, as there have been entire blocks in which single family homes have been razed in favor of ugly brick boxes studded with Fedders air conditioning boxes, fire escapes already rusting soon after completion, and of course the universal concrete front yards.

Do I condemn the increasing number of multifamily units replacing single family houses? If Mayor Bloomberg's prediction about 9 million New Yorkers in 2030 comes true, multi-family units will be an increasing necessity. But do modern developers and architects need to build junk? Walk the streets of Astoria, Ridgewood and Sunnyside, and scan the blocks featuring row upon row of yellow-brick buildings built by Gustave Mathews, with bricks from the old Balthazar Kreischer kilns in Staten Island. Check out the boxy apartment buildings anywhere in the five boroughs that have been kept up by conscientious landlords. That's multi-family housing at its best, and housing from which modern-day developers of middle-class housing should take their cues.

When is a school like a rush hour subway car?

When it's in NYC.

From the Daily News:

"We've been overcrowded for years, but this year is the worst," said Erin Flanagan, a physical education teacher at Flushing High School, which has 295 classes with 35 or more students.

There are 86 dialects spoken at Flushing High School and 49 students in one of the English Learning classes.

Students sit on the floor and window sills. There are at least a dozen classes with more than 40 students.

"It's like on the subway at rush hour," said Flanagan, "and when the doors open, there's no room. That's what the hallways are like."

There has been a 20% jump in the number of overcrowded classrooms compared with this time last year, reports from the United Federation of Teachers show.

"The number of classes exceeding the limit will decline in the coming weeks as enrollment stabilizes and principals add new classes to accommodate their students," said Education Department spokesman William Havemann.

This will happen more and more unless the spigot is turned off. That means downzoning and enforcing immigration laws. Since Bloomberg has no intention of addressing either issue, the problem will continue to get worse. There are even schools that weren't crowded before that have joined the list.

CUNY hid crime stats

From the NY Post:

Five CUNY colleges -- including the famed John Jay College of Criminal Justice -- failed to report 73 percent of the felonies that occurred on their campuses, a bombshell state audit has revealed.

The five campuses -- John Jay, Queens, Baruch, Hunter and Medgar Evers -- didn't report 78 out of the total 107 serious crimes that occurred during 2006 and 2007, said the audit by the State Comptroller's Office. By federal law, the schools are supposed to report the total crime statistics on their Web sites for students.

The unreported crimes included 42 burglaries, six assaults and one hate crime.

One of the most surprising offenders was John Jay, which failed to report 19 of its 20 felonies. It also was criticized for keeping two sets of crime logs, one created two weeks before auditors arrived.

Of the other four colleges, Queens failed to report 28 of 34 incidents, Baruch 18 of 19, Hunter 11 of 25 -- including six aggravated assaults -- and Medgar Evers 2 of 9, including a hate crime.

Republicans feel the time is ripe

From the Daily News:

The primary election may be over, but the battle for several City Council seats in Queens is just getting started.

Republicans are hoping to hang onto their one seat and gain another two. Democrats, still recovering from a bruising primary, want to regroup and keep their overwhelming majority.

Three races in particular will be in the spotlight:

Councilman Eric Ulrich, the only Republican from Queens and one of three in the Council, is running to keep the 32nd District seat he won in a nonpartisan special election earlier this year. He replaced Joseph Addabbo, who’s now in the state Senate.

Ulrich faces Democrat Frank Gulluscio, district manager of Community Board 6 and a former Addabbo aide.

Former Republican Councilman Thomas Ognibene, who served as minority leader, is fighting to regain his old seat. Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, a Democrat, won the spot in November after losing a previous special election.

Newcomer Kevin Kim, an aide to Rep. Gary Ackerman, beat out several well-known Democrats for a chance to succeed Tony Avella in District 19.

But Republicans think candidate Dan Halloran has a chance of winning back the seat the GOP held before Avella was elected in 2001.

More wasteful street light spending

From the Daily News:

A $4.7 million project to replace 500 working street lamps in Flatbush with antique reproductions has flamed out with residents, who charge the new fixtures don't work as well as the old ones and cost nearly three times as much.

The antique lights, which are called bishop's crooks, cost about $10,000 to purchase and install. Standard streetlights cost about $4,000.

About 250 of the 500 antique lights have been installed since this spring on Ditmas Ave., Westminster Road and Beverly Road.

So far, most Flatbush residents haven't seen the light when it comes to the fancy new lamps.

"It's a beautiful thing, but they aren't very bright," said Murray Fink, 84, who added that the new lamps near his apartment on Westminster Road were swapped out this spring. "On the corner, they need [the old lamps]."

Drivers are also irked by new fixtures: Traffic signs on the new lights are hung about 2 feet higher than on standard poles because of their design.

"The parking signs are too high," said Ronald Joseph, a teacher who parks near his Ditmas Park apartment. "They're hard to see."

Residents also said buckling sidewalks and potholes should be tended to before paying for the fancy new lights.

Bloomberg running against his own record

From Rant/Rave:

In a real sense, Bloomberg has united New Yorkers of all races and ethnicities. Skyrocketing water bills, ticket blitzes and steep hikes in the water bills, tax assessments and parking penalties have alienated millions of New Yorkers. When you add in the nanny state taxes on cigarettes and the absurd transfat ban, you have an element of elitism and condescension that rankles many.

Wall Street, the fashion industry and other pillars of Gotham's prosperity are certainly important. But there are thousands of small businesses in the four boroughs beyond Manhattan that pay millions in taxes and get very little recognition. I see way too many vacant storefronts. If Mayor Bloomberg could stay on the subway for longer than his usual ceremonial photo op subway ride, he might learn some things about the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge.

In eight years, Bloomberg has paid very little attention to the concerns of the outer boroughs. His one accomplishment has been to create a sense of unity among new Yorkers who don't concur with Bloomberg's rosy assessment of life in the Big Apple. I know a lot of orthodox jews who are eagerly awaiting the opportunity in November to make Bill Thompson New York city's second African American mayor. It may be an uphill battle. The three newspapers of New York City, the New York Post, the Daily News and the Times seem eager to treat a Bloomberg third term as something inevitable.

Bill Thompson, despite being a Democrat, is nowhere near as well funded as Mike Bloomberg. But New Yorkers can see for themselves the reality behind Mike Bloomberg's glossy mailings. Mike Bloomberg is not just running against Bill Thompson. He is running against Mike Bloomberg. Eight years of aloofness, smugness and condescension has reached critical mass. Whether the papers report on it or not, millions of New Yorkers are waiting to vote in November. Bloomberg has spent $200 million dollars on this election. That is twenty five dollars for each man, woman and child in New York City, trying to convince us that his victory is inevitable. Most of the people I have spoken to are just not impressed. For a guy who's smart enough to be a billionaire, it doesn't seem to be such a great investment.

Civic tells LPC not to landmark Vanderbilt mansion

From the SI Advance:

Preservationists want to save the nearly century-old Swedish Home for Aged in Sunnyside, a former residence for the elderly that closed suddenly last year, leaving the hilltop property and a Vanderbilt mansion at its heart in limbo.

But a developer is seeking permits to demolish a portion of the former Swedish Home, including the original 1859 Vanderbilt building, to make way for what he says will be a new nursing facility, with 81 beds.

And builder Salvatore Calcagno’s proposal is what the local civic association, which first supported landmarking the Swedish Home, now says it backs.

“I don’t care about preservationists,” Calcagno said earlier today in a phone interview from Italy, where he was vacationing with friends. “I’m just looking to help 81 families find the best care in any nursing home.”

At the last minute this week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission put off a scheduled vote to calendar the Bristol Avenue building for review. Landmarks staff said they did so at the request of City Councilman Kenneth McMahon (D-North Shore).

“I will support the landmarking of a historically and architecturally significant building, even over the objections of the owner, if the surrounding community supports landmarking. But we don’t have that here,” Mitchell said.

He pointed to a letter that the Clove Lakes Civic Association sent this week to the Landmarks Commission chair.

In it, civic association president Mary Ann McGowan said the building is in serious disrepair and the community now believes landmarking and preserving the home would hurt the community more than help.

She said that after meeting with the developer and discussing plans for the property, the association believes landmarking would prevent “preservation of the park-like landscaping and development of a modern assisted living establishment.”

Members of the Preservation League of Staten Island say the original mansion, built for the daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, should be preserved and is the only Vanderbilt home still standing in a borough where the famous family got its start building a fortune in railroad and shipping during the 19th century.

“This is a tangible connection,” said John Kilcullen, a member of the Preservation League, who believes the home could be renovated and reused as part of any new development at the site.

The home closed in February 2008 and did not have any violations from the Department of Health, which certainly would not allow a nursing home to operate in a facility that was falling apart. How did it fall into "serious disrepair" in such a short period of time? Or did it?

Woman raped in Forest Park

Brutal park rape shock
By JOHN DOYLE, NY Post

A woman was brutally raped and mugged at knifepoint near a Queens park this morning.

An unidentified thug approached a 29-year-old woman from behind at about 2:55 a.m. as she walked near the intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and Park Lane South, just outside Forest Park.

The fiend put a knife to his victim’s neck, dragged her to some nearby woods and assaulted her, said cops.

After the attack, he grabbed a bag containing the woman’s bank card and ran off.

The victim called 911, and was treated at an area hospital. Except for the trauma of the attack, she was not physically hurt, cops said.

The suspect is identified as a black man, 6-foot-4, with a goatee and braided hair.

D'OH!!!!

From the NY Post:

Monserrate's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, had said during opening arguments in Queens Supreme Court that Giraldo spoke "Spanglish" -- a mix of English and Spanish -- and that she had been misunderstood by the hospital staff.

But [Dr.] Korte said her father was from Panama and mother hailed from Puerto Rico, and as a result grew up speaking Spanish at home with her grandparents. She also said she studied in Spain.

Korte said she understood Giraldo, who is originally from Ecuador, and that the conversation was in both Spanish and English.

Korte said Giraldo reenacted the fight, saying Monserrate was "thrusting the glass forward -- angrily" when he attacked her.

"She was upset ... She was sobbing," said Korte of Giraldo.

Korte said Giraldo told her, "No! No! You can't call the police."

Bloomberg tells pollster to lie

From the NY Post:

POLL FAULT! 'INDY' CALLER PULLS A FAST ONE

WHEN I answered the phone the other day, a man identified himself as Carl or somebody and said he was calling from an "independent research" organization.

If the New York City mayoral race were held today, he asked, would I vote for Michael Bloomberg or Bill Thompson?

I said, truthfully, that I hadn't decided, which prompted the slickest segue from my new friend.

In a nanosecond, he was speed-reading a script that made Bloomberg sound like a candidate for sainthood instead of a third term.

Hey, I interrupted loudly. You said you were from an independent organization. You lied. You're working for Bloomberg.

I promised he could read all about his dirty trick in The Post.

Hold on for my supervisor, he said, and soon I was talking to a man with a flat Midwestern accent who identified himself as Cody Maynard.

I told him that falsely identifying his company as independent was a political no-no and asked the name of the firm and where he's located.

"For security reasons, I can't say," he responded.

When I pressed, he admitted, "That's what I'm told to say. I can't give out any information."

His supervisor, he swore, would call me and explain everything. I'm waiting.

Photo from Daily News

Newtown Creek recommended for Superfund status

From the NY Post:

After two decades of analysis and environmental testing, the Environmental Protection Agency has recommended adding Newtown Creek to the federal Superfund Priority list, an initial step towards federal intervention to cleaning up the long-polluted Brooklyn waterway.

“Newtown Creek is one of the most grossly-contaminated waterways in the country,” said Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou. “By listing the Creek, EPA can focus on doing the extensive sampling needed to figure out the best way to address the contamination and see the work through.”