Limits on self storage

From Crains:

A City Council committee provided a key approval for legislation to restrict the development of self-storage facilities in industrial business zones Thursday, despite biting criticism of the bill by one of its members.

The measure, which is likely to be approved by the full council Dec. 19, would require a special permit to build self-storage projects in most of the 21 IBZs, which account for around half of the city's manufacturing space. Obtaining this permission would require going through a nearly yearlong public review process that culminates in a council vote.

The new requirement would not apply in two zones in the Bronx and another pair in Staten Island, along with part of a zone in Jamaica, Queens. But self-storage companies would still need to set aside space for industrial square-footage in any project they build, according to the bill. Existing facilities would be grandfathered. (In the IBZs that opted out, self-storage facilities up to 50,000 square feet will be allowed as-of-right. Only buildings above that size will be required to set aside 25% of the space for industrial use.)

The council and Mayor Bill de Blasio have long wanted to restrict the proliferation of certain uses—such as hotels, offices or strip clubs—in areas that are supposed to be home to manufacturing and industrial jobs. Nonindustrial uses, the argument goes, can pay more for rent or land and thus tend to squeeze out manufacturing companies that provide higher-paying jobs.

So you think you have talent? - Speaker edition

It's Friday. The City Council Speaker candidates didn't have a care in the world (except jockeying for position to kiss the king's ring) when they boogied down at Joe Crowley's holiday party. You might hit the eggnog extra hard yourself when you realize what we're in store for over the next 4 years. Go ahead and caption this photo.

Please support a developer's victims

"Kelly Doyle Amen is a single mom and grandma who has lived in her small single family home in Bay Ridge for over twenty years. Last year the house next to her was purchased by a local businessman in order to develop and 'flip' the property for a quick profit. When the funding ran out - the developer flew the coop and left the construction in disarray. Now Kelly's home is in grave danger of fire, rodents and collapse. Please join us as we demand action from our elected officials and irresponsible developers."

Facebook event

Man hunting for package thief

From CBS 2:

A fed-up homeowner tracked down a thief who stole a package left at his Queens home.

As CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez reported, the thief looked right into a surveillance camera before snatching a box off the front stoop of Jason Gratz’s house on Beach 139th Street in Belle Harbor on Tuesday morning.

“That’s the worst thing about it – not what’s in the contents of the package. It could have been $1, it could have been $1 million, it didn’t really matter. Just the feeling of being violated like that, it really just burned me,” he told Sanchez.

Surveillance video shows the ponytailed robber pausing to eye his target before turning his black cap, contemplating his getaway, and then grabbing the package.

Gratz walked all over his neighborhood and found a construction crew at a condominium that recognized the suspect as someone who had been working at the site, which is just two blocks from his home.

He said he tracked down where the suspect works and informed police, hoping they make a quick arrest.

Thruway tolling system also screwing drivers

From Eyewitness News:

A local lawmaker is demanding an overhaul of the way tolls are collected along the New York State Thruway.

State Senator David Carlucci hosted a forum Wednesday in Nanuet where drivers told how they unknowingly racked up thousands of dollars in fines.

Most of the complaints stem from the cashless toll system implemented at the Tappan Zee Bridge. Under the system, drivers without EZ Pass are supposed to be billed by mail. But many motorists say they never received the bills but did get letters only after steep fines were imposed for unpaid tolls.

Drivers who do not pay can have their registration suspended.

Parking cleanup in Jamaica

The Untouchables are on the prowl. That is exactly what is needed to deal with the serial lawbreakers. Those who park their vehicles on our streets illegally. Some of the vehicles have no plates, others have plates belonging to another vehicles and others share plates, one per vehicle.

Well, on Saturday Dec. 2. The Untouchables made a clean sweep on 171 st. Street near 108 Avenue. Armed with tow trucks, the Untouchables carted away a few vehicles.

Well one of the owners showed up with a few followers and they were furious: waving their hands, shouting to the air and just swearing. However, it was toooo late, he just had to watch while the vehicles were: chained, mounted and en-routed to legal grounds.

This morning I witnessed another episode further down on 171 st. Street. The tow truck was on hand to remove another vehicle.

So go ahead law breakers; The Untouchables are very accommodating, and the community is very happy.

8:30 a.m. Today (12/5/17).

~
Thanks to the 103 precinct: Deputy Fortune, Sergeant Faison, Officer Jones and all others.

P. Hazel: Social Media Journalist for Justice.

Sliwa has plan to reform City Hall

From the Daily News:

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who also heads the state Reform Party, wants to give voters a chance to abolish the city public advocate office.

Sliwa, who also hosts a daily radio talk show, is set to call Wednesday for a public referendum to eliminate the advocate position and have the City Council speaker elected by voters, not the council members.

With no oversight or subpoena power, “it is clear by now that the public advocate position has just become a taxpayer-funded method to run for mayor of the city of New York,” Sliwa said.

Making the council speaker a publicly elected position would take the power away from the party bosses who currently control the process, he said. Sliwa added that the speaker should also have increased oversight functions.

By law, the council could vote to put the measure on the ballot or the mayor could appoint a charter revision commission to do it.

Doubting that will happen, Sliwa said the state Reform Party and its allies are prepared to try to collect the necessary signatures needed to put it up for a citywide election.

BDB's priority is going after the governor

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio’s attack on Gov. Cuomo last week regarding his handling of the fractured state Senate Democrats is considered a first salvo designed to damage the governor as he heads into his own election year, some close to Hizzoner say.

De Blasio has spoken out against Cuomo over the years, most notably accusing the governor in 2015 of governing by “vendetta.”

But safely reelected to a second and final term, de Blasio is said to be ready to speak out more frequently and forcefully against a governor who has tortured him politically.

“The roles are reversed this time,” said a source close to City Hall. “He gets to enact revenge on Cuomo and is a good progressive. He can damage him as governor and kill his presidential chances.”

But by doing so, de Blasio risks his already tenuous dealings with Albany heading into the new legislative session, something some close to City Hall say he recognizes.

The Senate Republicans already despise him, the governor is not far behind, and legislative Democrats have been critical as well.

Cigarette, non-functional alarm cause of child's death

From PIX 11:

Smoking caused the Queens apartment fire that killed a 12-year-old boy on Sunday, according to the FDNY.

Fire marshals reported that the cause of the fire was accidental and related to smoking. The building's smoke alarm was also not operational.

CB7 takes lengthy holiday vacation

It’s December, and all Queens community boards will hold regular meetings/hearings – all of them, that is, except for Community Board 7. CB7 is skipping the required December meeting & hearing, for at least the third consecutive year.

CB7’s November 2017 meeting agenda states: “The next Community Board Regular Meeting & Public Hearing is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 8, 2018.”

New York City Charter § 2800(h) specifies the regular meetings that all community boards are required to hold:

“Except during the months of July and August, each community board shall meet at least once each month within the community district and conduct at least one public hearing each month. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a community board shall be required to meet for purposes of reviewing the scope or design of a capital project located within such community board's district when such scope or design is presented to the community board. Such review shall be completed within thirty days after receipt of such scope or design. Each board shall give adequate public notice of its meetings and hearings and shall make such meetings and hearings available for broadcasting and cablecasting. At each public meeting, the board shall set aside time to hear from the public. The borough president shall provide each board with a meeting place if requested by the board.”

A monthly meeting/hearing is required each month “except during the months of July and August” – and this requirement holds, even if a particular community board has no rezoning or other application to evaluate during December, because among the purposes of meeting are to “set aside time to hear from the public.”

Online information posted by Queens community boards, and telephone calls to boards that haven’t posted online information, confirm that every Queens community board – other than CB7 – will hold meetings/hearings during December 2017, fulfilling their legal obligations under the City Charter:

CB1: December 20
CB2: December 7
CB3: December 21
CB4: December 19
CB5: December 13
CB6: December 13
CB7: NO DECEMBER MEETING
CB8: December 13
CB9: December 12
CB10: December 7
CB11: December 4
CB12: December 13
CB13: December 11
CB14: December 12

And this has apparently gone on for multiple years, not just this year. Online collections of CB7 meeting agendas and minutes contain none for December 2015 or December 2016, indicating that CB7 held no December meetings/hearings during those years, in addition to 2017. Each community board receives a budget of City taxpayer funds, and in exchange for those funds, each must perform certain services – including meeting during December with time set aside to hear from the public. The City Charter specifies a minimum of 10 regular meetings/hearings annually. By failing to meet each December, CB7 is holding only 9 out of the 10 required meetings/hearings – 90 percent of what the City Charter requires. The City Comptroller should be concerned about a lone community board that accepts its entire share of City taxpayer funds (and even requests more), but purposefully skips December meetings and thus routinely delivers only 90 percent of what the City Charter requires.

How has this been allowed and who authorized it?

Melinda?

City getting away with filing fraudulent deed

From the Daily News:

A man who swiped an elderly woman’s house with phony documents did time for the crime — but an appellate court is letting the city off the hook for processing the paperwork that let the ex-con make himself at home.

A Brooklyn appeals court has ruled that a judge was right to toss a lawsuit brought against the city by Jennifer Merin — whose Queens abode was filched by a criminal who filed a fraudulent deed.

Merin, 74, had sued the city for not catching the forgery when the paperwork was first filed, but lost on appeal when the court backed a judge who said she couldn’t prove the city was negligent.

The feisty homeowner is fuming and has vowed to fight the decision.

“I find it absolutely astonishing and sickening that the city that gave away my property without due process by registering an obviously fraudulent deed, while it was still charging me for taxes on that property and water usage on that property, is now insisting that it has no accountability for those actions,” Merin told the Daily News.

The city said Merin was suing over a missed “needle in a haystack,” according to court papers.

The phony deed that started all the problems was one of almost 1,400 deeds recorded that week, city lawyers noted.

BQX leader replaced by a Schumer

From AM-NY:

The leader of the developer-backed advocacy group for the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, the mayor’s streetcar project, is stepping down.

Ya-Ting Liu, executive director of the Friends of the BQX, plans to leave the group on Friday after 18 months in the position, but before significant planning or outreach for the project has been completed. A spokesperson said that Liu felt this was an appropriate time to step down, and Liu did not immediately return calls for comment.

Deputy director Jessica Schumer, the daughter of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, will serve as interim executive director until the position is filled. Schumer had served as the policy director for Tim Kaine on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and had worked in the White House during the Obama administration.

De Blasio speaking to raise dark money

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio will headline a political fundraiser in Iowa without knowing who’s paying up to $2,000 to see him speak or where the cash will go – despite promising to stay away from “dark money.”

“We know there’s a lot that happens in the public process where there’s no disclosure of who the donors are – I don’t go near anything unless there’s full disclosure,” de Blasio said in February 2016.

Yet the mayor will speak at Progress Iowa’s fifth annual holiday fundraiser on Dec. 19 even though the group doesn’t disclose donors or spending. Tickets range from $30 to $2,000 for VIPs and at least 150 are expected.

Progress Iowa won’t have to reveal who’s paying to party with de Blasio or any of its other donors because it’s registered as a shadowy 501-c(4) non-profit.

Pros busted at LIC strip club

From the Daily News:

A raid by the NYPD Vice Squad netted five prostitution arrests at a notorious Queens strip club early Friday, the Daily News has learned.

The Vice cops swept into Show Palace on 21st St. near 43rd Ave. in Long Island City just before 4 a.m., police said.

The officers arrested the women, ranging in age from 20- to 35-years-old, authorities said.

"Five girls arrested in one night? That’s not a strip club. It's a brothel with music," a police source said.

The strip club is owned by the same group that owns the Sin City jiggle joint in the Bronx.

Great history on this place.

Council Member wants more clubs to open

From City & State:

While aimed at illegal speakeasies, the law was often used in discriminating fashion. From targeting largely African American jazz venues at its inception to requiring mid-century musicians to carry a “cabaret card” to Rudy Giuliani’s use of the law as part of his “broken windows” policing, the selective nature of its use has found plenty of opponents, which is why the law’s repeal was widely championed throughout the city.

But while proponents were celebrating the move, a look at the legal implications suggests there’s much further to go for the city that never sleeps to dance away its insomnia. Specifically, the zoning for any establishment that wants to host dancing and music still needs to be addressed, which is not lost on City Councilman Rafael Espinal, who was the key sponsor of legislation to establish an office of nightlife and repeal the Cabaret Law.

Espinal added that he is looking forward to working with the office of nightlife and advocates “to explore our city's archaic zoning code to see how we can build on this progress."

Those “archaic” zoning laws have less to do with how long they’ve been on the books and more to do with a lack of clarity. While it’s been widely reported that only 97 out of the roughly 25,000 eating and drinking establishments in New York City had a cabaret license in 2017, unless the zoning changes, many of these establishments are still not permitted to allow dancing, even without any requirement to obtain a cabaret license, Derek Wolman, chairman of the restaurant and hospitality practice group at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, wrote in an email to City & State.

New York City neighborhoods are zoned into three categories: residential, commercial and manufacturing. Within those zones are “use groups” that determine specifically where and how different businesses can operate within a zone. Making things difficult for proprietors who wish to hold music events is that they fall under “Use Group 12,” which spans both commercial and manufacturing.

Wolman broke it down in all of its complexity:

“Use Group 12 (eating or drinking establishment with entertainment and a capacity of more than 200 persons or establishments of any capacity with dancing) are permitted in C2 zoning districts (with Special Permit from the Board of Standards and Appeals), C3 zoning districts (with Special Permit from the Board of Standards and Appeals), C4 zoning districts (with Special Permit from the Board of Standards and Appeals) [permitted as of right or by special permit in C4 districts, depending upon location], C6 zoning districts [permitted as of right in C6 districts with conditions], C7 zoning districts, C8 zoning districts, M1 zoning districts [permitted in M1-5A, M1-5B, M1-5M, and M1-6M districts only as provided by special permit under Zoning Resolution Section 73-244], M2 zoning districts and M3 zoning districts.”

Yes, it means you can't keep sleeping children up at night with thumping music and you can't turn manufacturing space into clubs without jumping through hoops. Oh, the horror!

Waterpointe doesn't allow single-family homes

From the Queens Tribune:

Whitestone resident Robert LoScalzo believes that despite the correction made in the September fact sheet, it’s impossible for the DEC to allow single-family homes on a Track 4 site, per the Department of State’s regulations. In a letter to the DEC, he cites one regulation that “the restricted residential use” denoted by Track 4 “shall at a minimum, include restrictions which prohibit…single family housing.”

“It’s right there in black and white,” LoScalzo said. “It just doesn’t seem to wash with what the regulation says.”

The DEC said that the certificate of completion for the remediation should be issued this year. Additionally, the agency is “establishing an escrow agreement with the developer to fund site management activities at this site for a period of 10 years in the amount of $272,000.” In the meantime, Sweeney said that the board has reached out to Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) seeking the only thing that will guarantee single-family homes at Waterpointe: a rezoning.

3-K operators are not all OK

From the Daily News:

Private preschools hired for Mayor de Blasio’s 3-K for All classes have racked up dozens of health violations for a variety of offenses, city records show.

All but one of the 13 private operators hired by the city to offer preschool lessons under de Blasio’s signature second-term education initiative have been hit with violations over the last three years. They include failing to conduct background checks, putting sick workers on the job with kids and failing to supervise children.

In total, the dozen operators had 72 violations and all have been corrected. But activists and parents said they’re still nervous that kids aren’t safe.

Brooklyn community stops tweeding effort

Interesting mini-scandal involving a Brooklyn Community Board, as reported by Brooklyn Daily:

Locals showed up in droves with nostrils flaring two weeks ago protesting the board’s request urging the city to look at changing the age-old zoning of Marine Park and Mill Island to allow developers to put up larger buildings. Marine Parkers were up in arms over the submission, charging the neighborhood can’t handle an influx of people or construction and is already combatting zone-busting developers on several blocks.

This paper first reported the explosive item in the CB18 budget request earlier this month in a story that Turano denounced with the Trumpian epithet of “fake news,” despite being unable to cite any factual errors. Turano insisted there was no reason for people to get so upset since there was no concrete upzoning plan yet— it was merely a request she had actually been floating for years, she said.

“It’s been in the budget for several years,” said Turano.

Indeed, CB18 slipped the item into the budget — “Study land use and zoning to better match current use or future neighborhood needs,” specifically the areas of Mill Island and Marine Park — for the first time in December 2015, and then every year since, according to city records.

The request also lists three local supporters alongside — Councilman Alan Maisel (D–Marine Park), who represents the vast majority of the two neighborhoods, Councilman Jumaane Williams (D–Flatbush), who represents a sliver of the community, and the Marine Park Civic Association.

But both Maisel and the civic group’s president Bob Tracey said they were never consulted about it. In fact, neither of them had any idea the rezoning request even existed, let alone that they were listed as supporters.

Bad contractor in Broad Channel

From PIX11:

...what’s with contractor Dennis Melandro? He STILL hasn’t finished rebuilding Victoria Roehling’s Broad Channel home damaged badly by Hurricane Sandy. She’s paid him $280,000 and he told me back in September that the job could be done within two weeks. Here we are more than two months later and there’s still a lot more to do.

And this week Victoria says she found he’d plugged a long blue extension cord into her home to get electricity for a job he’s doing two houses down. She’s now considering a possible criminal complaint. We’re going to stay on this until Victoria is back home.

Queens unicorns?

Forgotten NY has the story of ramp and step streets in the borough.