Queens Gazette cries a river for troubled medical building

From the Queens Gazette:

Recently a police report was filed with the 114th Police Precinct by Pali Realty for extensive graffiti damage done to the multimillion dollar medical facility under construction at 23-25 31st St. in Astoria. Graffiti vandals damaged the façade and exterior glass windows. Damage to the building is estimated to cost more than $150,000, causing an unnecessary expense and delays.

“It is a real travesty that damage by graffiti vandals continues to plague our neighborhood. We deserve a neighborhood free from graffiti and vandalism,” said Yianni Konstantinides of Pali Realty, the developer of the property. “Every bit of damage done places burdensome costs for this project and negatively impacts this building and other hard-working small business owners in New York City.”

Pali Realty has invested millions of dollars into the Astoria Medical Facility on 31st Street. Upon completion, it will serve as a full-time medical facility featuring 134 underground parking spaces and offices for 26 physicians with a support staff of approximately 80 people, bringing jobs and medical care to a largely underserved community. The medical office building will be occupied by various medical groups and hospitals. These local medical services and new jobs will be a major benefit to the Astoria Community.

Read More

Parolee responsible for car break-in spree

From LIC Post:

The police believe that they have nabbed a man responsible for a large number of neighborhood auto break-ins.

Long Island City—from Court Square through Hunters Point—has been subject to about 60 auto break-ins in recent months, according to Captain Brian Hennessy, the commanding officer of the 108 police precinct. However, an August 24 bust has brought that spike to a halt, he said.

Hennessy said the police caught the perpetrator breaking into the cars by wrapping his fist up in clothing and punching the windows.

They arrested Rafael Medina, a 45-year-old from the Bronx, who was out on parole when he was busted. He is back in prison.

Read More

Seeking uses for vacant Far Rockaway land

From Brownstoner Queens:

Permanent development is in the works for a vacant, 80-acre site on the Rockaway Peninsula, an area badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy, but in the meantime the organization 596 Acres is looking toward interim uses for the land. A few weeks ago, the group led a discussion on potential interim uses for these empty lots in the Arverne East/Edgemere neighborhood — all those green dots in the map above are public vacant space. Proposals for the lots include a food fest, a view tower for star gazing, a farmers market, and a ski trail. See the details of each proposal here.

Read More

Shafran not conceding to Vallone

From the Daily News:

City Council hopefuls Paul Vallone and Austin Shafran are separated by just 144 votes in a Democratic Primary race that is still too close to call.

The two are leading a five-candidate battle for a shot at the northeastern Queens seat currently held by disgraced Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran.

Vallone, the son of former speaker Peter Vallone and the brother of City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., claimed victory Tuesday night when unofficial tallies showed he had 2,723 votes. But Shafran, with 2,579 votes, refused to concede until the voting machines are checked and paper ballots counted, a process that begins on Monday.

“Protecting voting rights is the foundation of our democracy so we will use every legal option possible to ensure every vote is fully and fairly counted,” he said Wednesday.

Read More

Underground dining becoming more popular

From CBS New York:

As you sit down to dinner, this story illustrates eating out like you have never experienced before. We are talking about super-secret, illegal dining experiences hosted in homes.

CBS 2 investigative reporter Tamara Leitner went undercover to see firsthand how this underground world works.

It may look like a dinner party, but it’s really an underground supper club.

The diners are a mix of New Yorkers and tourists. CBS 2’s undercover cameras captured one experience — eight people who didn’t know each other eating a meal in a stranger’s home.

That hostess, Naama Shafi, writes about food but is not a chef. Leitner found her through a website, which connects amateur foodies and professional chefs in 20 different countries with people who want unique dining experiences.

Clandestine dinner parties like the one Leitner attended have become more common in New York City. And insiders told Leitner they are completely unregulated.

When asked at the dinner, “do you ever worry about getting caught?” Michael Patlazhan responded, “I definitely do.”

Read More

Remembering the fallen of 9/11

Read More

Inside the 9/11 Museum

Read More

2013 Primary election results

Good morning! I hope you all are happy waking up in a City that soundly rejected Christine Quinn last night. She came in with 15% of the vote. Bye-bye, Bloomberg lite!

The likely winner without a runoff is Bill DeBlasio. As of last night, he had 40.2% of the vote, with Bill Thompson coming in at 26%. Whether or not there is a runoff, however, let me point out once again that the political careers of Christine Quinn, John Liu and Anthony Weiner are DONE.

Scott Stringer bested Eliot Spitzer in the Comptroller's race and Letitia James and Daniel Squadron will go head to head in a runoff for Public Advocate.

Locally, Melinda Katz soundly defeated Peter Vallone, Jr. and even with the 9% or so of the vote that Tony Avella allegedly took away from Vallone, he still would not have beaten her. So much for Italian power.

In district 19, The latest numbers are Paul Vallone 2,723 votes to Austin Shafran's 2,579 votes with 98% of precincts reporting. Neither Huffington Post nor NY1 has called it for Vallone, although he claimed victory. So, in November, it MAY be Vallone and Republican Dennis Saffran. Will Saffran win because most Dems picked anybody but Vallone? Time will tell. (Apologies for previous mistake. Shafran got WFP endorsement, but NOT their line. He is challenging the election results.)

In the 22nd CD, Costa Constantinides handily beat John Ciafone.

In the 24th CD, Rory Lancman creamed Andrea Veras.

In the 27th CD, it's still a race between Daneek Miller (3,756) and Clyde Vanel (3,360) with 98% reporting.

In the 28th CD, Ruben Wills beat Hettie Powell.

In the 31st CD, Donovan Richards beat Michael Duncan.

And in the 32nd CD, Lew Simon beat William Ruiz.

Also, thankfully, in the 34th CD, which covers mostly Bushwick but half of Ridgewood, Antonio Reynoso sent Vito Lopez packing once and for all.

Sadly, because we are a one-party town run by a political machine, there were no primaries in the 20th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 26th, 29th or 30th districts and all incumbents ran unopposed.

In kind of a surprise, in Brooklyn, 23-year incumbent DA Charles Hynes was defeated by challenger Kenneth Thompson.

UPDATE:

Tony Nunziato and Phil Ragusa were also reelected as GOP state committeemen.

Read More

Lever machines busted across borough

I'm getting reports from Ridgewood to Bayside that the old lever machines that were brought back for this year's elections are not working properly - levers are broken or not registering votes correctly. Let me know if you experience this. Please leave poll site location and description of problem.

Read More

GOP war gets down and dirty

2 GOP candidates for State Committee decided to challenge Phil Ragusa and the status quo, and this was the result:



Mr. Bacarella was on the board of Unisphere, Inc when Estelle Cooper was stealing from it?

Well, wasn't Phil Ragusa the treasurer of said organization?



There actually is no proof that any of the allegations of identity theft or forgery are true.

Those attacked struck back...





Well, you can't argue with that...

Read More

Avella & civic leaders rally against BSA application

(Bellerose, QUEENS) On Saturday, September 7, Senator Tony Avella, Bellerose civic leaders and residents rallied against the Indian Cultural and Community Center (ICCC) for moving ahead with their Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) application despite the recent release of a report by the New York State Office of the Inspector General that criticized the ICCC’s involvement in a state land sale.

Two years ago, Avella reached out to the Inspector General and the Attorney General and asked for an extensive review of the New York State Dormitory Authority’s sale of 4.5 acres of land on the Creedmore psychiatric-hospital campus in a no-bid deal to the politically connected nonprofit group for a fraction of its value.

This past week the Inspector General released their report which showed clear and convincing evidence that the ICCC not only “exploited loopholes in the statute and lapses in oversight by the Dormitory Authority” but purposely sought to deceive that agency as well as members of the community and elected officials regarding their intention to build residential housing on property which is the subject of the applications currently before the BSA. The findings in the report have been referred to the Attorney General’s office.

Despite this information, the ICCC is moving ahead with their BSA application, which is scheduled to be heard at a public hearing on September 10th.

Avella stated, “From the very beginning, I have had my suspicions regarding the ICCC’s involvement in this shady land deal. The Inspector General’s report confirms my suspicions, that at the very least the ICCC intentionally engaged in deceptive practices with the intent to mislead the public about its intentions with this property and at the very worst engaged in possible illegal activity. Obviously, this is completely unacceptable and the public deserves better. That is why I am pleased that this matter has been referred to the Attorney General for further review. We must get to the bottom of any misconduct committed by anyone involved with this land deal.”

“I am calling on the Attorney General to fully investigate the potential illegal conduct of the ICCC and for BSA to postpone any hearing until such a review is conducted,” concluded Avella.

Read More

Thinking of voting for Quinn & Stringer? Think again...

Dear friend,

I wanted to provide you with an update on our investigations into the legality of the Trump SoHo "Condo-Hotel" at 246 Spring Street, a development which GVSHP from the very beginning opposed, claiming it would violate zoning regulations.

After months of inquiries and investigations by GVSHP, we have discovered that the city officials have repeatedly violated their commitments regarding the Trump SoHo, allowing the controversial development to avoid legal requirements that were the condition for its construction.

As you may recall, GVSHP and other community groups opposed permits for the towering Trump SoHo because the "condo-hotel" violated local zoning prohibitions barring residential and residential-hotel development. Had city officials enforced the existing zoning as we argued, the project could not have been built as planned.

Instead, the City, City Council Speaker Quinn, and Borough President Stringer insisted over our objections that the planned development did not violate the zoning, and its construction must be allowed. They offered instead a "legally binding restrictive declaration" as a condition of the development proceeding, which they claimed would ensure in perpetuity that it obeyed zoning restrictions. The deal required that the Trump SoHo undergo annual independent audits of its records to prove that the development was not being used for illegal residential or residential-hotel purposes. Trump SoHo was legally required to submit the independent audits to the City each year for their inspection and review to ensure the law was being followed in every case.

In the intervening time, GVSHP had found numerous indications that city officials knew that the Trump SoHo was being used for purposes that violated the zoning. We brought this to the attention of the City, Council Speaker Quinn, and Borough President Stringer, and repeatedly asked for the inspections required by the "legally binding restrictive declaration" to substantiate whether or not the law was being broken. We received no response from the City, the Speaker, or the Borough President.

In response to this stonewalling, GVSHP filed a Freedom of Information request, which city officials were legally obligated to follow, demanding that the City, the Speaker, and the Borough President release any materials pertaining to the legally-required audits.

As a result, we discovered some very disturbing information. We found that in the six years since the Trump SoHo's construction, none of the legally-required audits which were supposedly a condition of the project being built had ever been submitted. Incredibly, we additionally found that neither the City, the Speaker, nor the Borough President had ever asked for any of the legally-required audits, even though their review by city officials was supposed to be the means by which the project's conformance with the law would be ensured. Finally, and perhaps not surprisingly, we found that no penalties had ever been issued for the Trump SoHo's failure to submit the audits, as provided for under the terms of the agreement under which the development was allowed to be built -- see letters here.

In response to our Freedom of Information request, city officials have now been forced to ask for the past six years of the Trump SoHo's legally-required audits. However, so long after the fact, it is inconceivable that such a request will result in any sort of meaningful investigation into whether or not the development has been violating the law. This failure to in any way enforce the terms under which these city officials allowed the highly-controversial and legally questionable Trump SoHo to be built -- in spite of well-grounded contentions before, during, and after the building's construction that it violated the zoning -- is deeply disturbing. GVSHP is now investigating all options for next steps in light of this egregious breach of commitments to the public.

Sincerely,

Andrew Berman
Executive Director
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

(If they'll screw over the Village, just think of what they'll do to Queens!)

Read More

All thanks to Everly Brown

"Residents reached out to our local leaders: Borough president/ Helen Marshall, Councilman/ Leroy Comrie and many others. Our request was to clean the abandoned property at 107-58 164 Street.

Local leaders ignored residents/voters. Thereafter,residents were forced to proceed with a protest. Residents invited: Everly Brown, Melinda Katz, and Peter Vallone, because the three are asking for our votes to be the next borough president.

Only one person marched with residents on 6/29/13 against landlords who abandoned their property. That ONE PERSON IS EVERLY BROWN. He MARCHED with us while Katz and Vallone looked the other way.

Thanks Everly Brown. As a result of Everly Brown's intervention, the site was cleaned. Queens residents, please show thanks to Everly Brown at the POLLS.

Vote for Everly Brown for borough president. Brown will continue to serve Queens residents. Send this message to your friends, family etc.

1 & 2 photos are before the protest. The last photo is after the protest." - Pamela Hazel, Jamaica

Read More

19th CD parishioner lists given to pro-Vallone PAC

The mailers get even more interesting. The Catholic Citizens Committee PAC somehow got hold of parishioner lists from the churches within the 19th CD and sent out 2 mailers to those folks: one for Peter Vallone and one for Paul Vallone.

The Catholic church is prohibited from making endorsements, so I suppose they formed a PAC to get around that.

And they wonder why people don't go to church the way they used to. The unholy alliances must stop.

Read More

Have fun in the voting booth tomorrow!

This was the Vetter house in Richmond Hill. It's last use was as the Simonson Funeral Home.
The Richmond Hill Historical Society stored its collections there prior to 2007.
Despite preservationist efforts, the house was torn down in 2007.
In its place, a Gerald Caliendo special. Mr. Caliendo sits on Community Board 1 thanks to Peter Vallone, who received $12,275 in campaign contributions from him. And this building, as well as the rest of Victorian Richmond Hill, was denied landmark status during the tenure of Melinda Katz as Chair of Land Use of the City Council.

Remember, the 2 main functions of the borough president are community board appointments and land use.

Read More

Homeless cause havoc in Briarwood

From the Queens Chronicle:

A Briarwood church has grown frustrated with an ongoing problem facing the property.

For seven years, the Victoria Congregational Church at 144-64 87 Ave. has been having issues with inebriated individuals at all times of day and night sleeping and consuming alcohol on a ramp that acts as one of the main entrances to the church and in front of the parsonage’s primary entrance door located next to the church.

The Rev. Mark Marsh, pastor of the Victoria Congregational Church, has reached out to Capt. Frederick Grover, the commanding officer of the 107th Precinct in Flushing, in an effort to solve the issue, but little to no action has been taken.

“We need patrols but not only that, we need the officers to get out of the car and walk onto the property,” Marsh said. “Normally they just drive through.”

The times when Marsh had called 911, police officers did not show up at all or almost 45 minutes after the initial call was made.

One time, Marsh had to wait over an hour to go home because the exit was blocked. He called 911 but the police did not respond even though the operator knew an inebriated individual had a brick in his hand and threatened to throw it at Marsh.

Though the individuals have become a nuisance, Marsh said he is not looking to harm anyone.

“What we noticed is that the same people that were here in 2006 are still using the ramp today,” he said. “We’ve talked to the precinct about maybe having some program that the police could put them through to help them.”

According to Marsh, the church is not allowed to contact a social agency to remove the drunken individuals.

“The police are the only ones allowed to contact them and request their help,” he said. “The only way we would be able to get a social agency involved is if we go up to the individuals and ask if they would like us to take them to a facility but if they say no, there is nothing we can do to force them.”

Marsh said that the church has had to call three ambulances in the past month and has found old carpets, trash and even feces at the top of the ramp.

I wonder what Samaritan Village is planning to do about this since it is most likely their drunken residents who are peeing and shitting all over the place when they miss curfew and get locked out. If they want approval to open a homeless shelter in Glendale, they probably should clean up their act in Briarwood first.

Read More

CUNY mural saved by...Joe Lhota?

FYI... The mosaic mural at City Tech has been saved! The college hired a firm to take the mural down in sections and crate it. Actually Joe Lhota, who is a CUNY trustee, and others, spoke on behalf of saving it at one of the board meetings.

Since 1% of the new building cost must be set aside for art, they're hoping it will be re-installed somewhere in the new building. They're still working on the details. But even if that doesn't work out, at least it wasn't destroyed.

Read More

Who's protecting Tommy Huang?

From the Epoch Times:

Epoch Times spoke with two real estate owners whose properties were allegedly damaged by Huang’s practices.

Neither would speak on record, yet both were concerned about what will happen to the Huang buildings still standing. What will happen, they each asked, when families move into homes built with potentially dangerous foundations?

Considering the hundreds of developments Huang has done in Queens since 1979, it’s a frightening prospect.

Tony Sclafani, spokesman for the DOB, said the department issued more than two dozen violations at the Queens Boulevard site, and issued several thousand dollars in fines. They have also had inspectors at the site and others owned by Huang.

Yet, the fundamental problem, according to Sclafani, is “the department does not have the authority to refuse the issuance of a permit based solely on past work history.”

Sen. Avella pointed out that Huang must be getting protection somehow. “Obviously, somebody has been protecting him. I don’t know who. Because I have been after the Department of Buildings for a decade to shut him down,” Avella said.

Read More

Is this the skinniest house in Queens?

Wow, that's one narrow house, especially for an unattached one. Is it a one family? There are 2 doors...
The DOB website says it is a one-family, but it was converted illegally into 2 offices and one residential unit. There are some cramped quarters in the shadow of Queens Supreme Court in Jamaica.

Read More

City can't find anyone to build LIC library

From LIC Post:

Construction of the Hunters Point Library is likely to be delayed yet again following the city’s inability to find a developer willing to build it for the $28 million that was budgeted.

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, speaking at the Hunters Point Civic Association meeting last night, said the city has had to modify the design plans to keep the construction cost below $28 million. He didn’t say what those design changes would be, other than saying they would merely be “cosmetic.”

Well, it does seem that a facelift is exactly what this building needs.

Read More

Will someone please turn on the lights?

Read More

Trash piled high and deep outside Queens schools

From WPIX:

Some Queens neighbors are speaking up about trash piles near several schools.

They contacted NYC Council Member Daniel Dromm after trying to get things cleaned up.

Read More

Greenpoint residents suing city and developer

From The Brooklyn Paper:

Angry Greenpointers are planning to sue the city and developers over two planned waterfront luxury apartment complexes that they say are steam-rolling over environmental protections.

The ad hoc group announced the suit at a rally against the Greenpoint Landing and 77 Commercial Street developments on Wednesday night. Council candidate Stephen Pierson was on hand to tell the crowd of 75 protesters that he will spearhead the lawsuit with the goal of stopping the 12 towers from rising.

“This is not right, and [the developer] should not go unchallenged,” said Pierson.

The legal action would be based on the city’s decision that the developments — a 10 tower compound with as many as 5,500 apartments and a two tower neighbor with a total of 720 at the Newtown Creek end of Greenpoint — would have no negative environmental impact. The anti-high-rise group says the findings are based on a study that is eight years old, running afoul of a requirement that the city make decisions based on accurate information.

“[The developers] might claim that they have updated a few things,” said Pierson. “But if they had done anything significant, they would have published it.”

The energetic crowd toted signs bearing messages such as “The roof is too damn high” and “Greenpoint does not equal Midtown.” Protesters said they fear a repeat of the massive condo skyscrapers lining Williamsburg’s waterfront, which activists decried for increasing rents and failing on promises to expand parks, but failed to prevent from rising.

Pierson said that even if the Article 78 lawsuit does not hit its mark, it will buy neighbors time until a new mayor takes office, which could be a crucial factor in the battle against the project.

“Even if we lose, we can tie it up until we get a new mayoral administration that might be more sympathetic,” said Pierson “Bloomberg was setting the bar [for developers] very low.”

Read More

DeBlasio would be Bloomberg 2.0

From the Wall Street Journal:

Bill de Blasio has risen to the top of the polls assailing the Bloomberg administration, but if elected he could pursue even more aggressive policies than his predecessor on a crucial issue: creating densely packed new residential towers through land-use decisions.

Mr. de Blasio, the city's public advocate, would push for mandatory affordable housing and fewer tax breaks for developers. But he wouldn't differ from Mr. Bloomberg on a fundamental premise that building significant amounts of new housing is a top way to spur economic growth and control housing costs.

Mr. de Blasio's pro-development policies have helped allay fears in the real-estate industry that perhaps the most liberal Democrat in the race would, as mayor, be a fearsome opponent on big developments.

For some, however, Mr. de Blasio's support for new high-rise towers—even with more affordable housing—is dissonant with his campaign's theme of easing income inequality. As a City Council member in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, Mr. de Blasio was a strong supporter of the three major Bloomberg-backed development projects, including the project known as Atlantic Yards, which critics say has hastened gentrification and helped deepen the economic divide in that area.

Some liberal community groups said they feel betrayed. "The whole thing is a joke to us that people are looking at this guy as if he cares about the community," said Marlene Donnelly, a member of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, a group that pushed to get the Gowanus Canal designated a Superfund site—a goal Mr. de Blasio unsuccessfully opposed. "I don't find any step of the way that he's actually been on our side here."

Mr. de Blasio has met with developers, and his campaign has received some $460,000 in contributions from real-estate interests, including developers, brokers, architects and construction firms, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

From New York Magazine:

Democratic mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio has styled himself as a scourge of slumlords and a critic of the Bloomberg administration’s policies to shelter the homeless, assailing the “failure of the strategy” in his first policy statement as public advocate. But at a time when he was considered a long-shot candidate, De Blasio found financial support from an unlikely source: one of his most frequent targets, a former Bloomberg administration official who now runs a network of homeless shelters leased from some of the city’s most notorious landlords.

During 2011 and 2012, a small group of property owners and contractors who do business with the city’s Department of Homeless Services donated more than $35,000 to De Blasio’s campaign, according to records on file with the city and state campaign-finance boards. (See the full list at the bottom.) Most of the money came from landlords of single-room-occupancy hotels and slum apartment buildings that operate as shelters under the aegis of Housing Solutions USA, run by Robert Hess, formerly Mayor Bloomberg’s commissioner of homeless services. Though Hess’s organization is a nonprofit, the landlords he works with have reaped millions in public funds by turning their rundown properties into shelters, collecting sky-high rents from the city.

Hess has contributed just $400 to De Blasio, the maximum that campaign-finance law allows for contractors doing business with the city, but in May 2012 he held an intimate fund-raiser for the candidate at his Long Island City apartment. Among the handful of attendees were two hotel landlords who gave generously to De Blasio's campaign, including Alan Lapes, one of the largest and most controversial players in the for-profit shelter industry.

Hess declined to comment on the event when reached by phone yesterday. “That’s a personal matter,” he said. But other attendees described an informal living-room dialogue about De Blasio’s campaign and his plans to care for the city’s homeless population, which has risen to record levels under Bloomberg. Providing shelter beds can be lucrative for landlords — the city typically pays rents of more than $3,000 a month — and one attendee recalls that, prior to the event, Lapes was frank about his reasons for giving. “This is the guy who is going to win,” he recalls Lapes saying. “This is the guy to bet on.”

In February, after the Times reported that Lapes had exploited an obscure loophole in the city’s campaign-finance rules to give De Blasio twice the legal limit, the candidate returned nearly $15,000 in donations from the landlord and his wife. “I’ve just made the decision to return the money, and that’s all I have to say,” he told the Post. But the broader pattern of giving — which ramped up as Housing Solutions USA, formed only in 2011, was pressing forward with controversial multi-million-dollar city shelter contracts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx — has not previously been reported.

Read More

Here's the latest article about how LIC is "up and coming"

From the Daily News:

A Queens neighborhood that went from sprawling warehouses and manufacturing plants to luxury towers is now undergoing its latest transformation: as a haven for tourists.

Hotel developers are capitalizing on the area’s proximity to Manhattan — and lower nightly rates — to lure visitors to chic lodges that fight to outdo each others.

And many residents, who are moving in as high-rises continue to sprout up on the waterfront, are embracing the boom.

And then the article goes on to quote "residents" such as a spokesman for the city’s tourism agency, NYC & Co., the director of the Queens Tourism Council, and James the director of the tourism and hospitality program at LaGuardia Community College.

My favorite comment came from RexLIC, "I'm surprised it took until Thursday for the weekly "LIC is booming" article."

Are the tourists really spending money outside of their hotels in LIC? Especially the ones along Vernon Blvd across the street from a power plant?

My favorite "civic leader" George Stamatiades had this to say: “It’s a positive influx of development,” he said of the burgeoning local industry, though he complained that some developers are “nothing but bums.”

Read More

The burden is on Amanda to push through last-minute projects

From Crains:

A derelict sugar refinery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the world's largest indoor ice-skating complex in the Bronx and a 63-story Ferris wheel on Staten Island are among a crush of projects that developers are trying to get through the Department of City Planning before the pro-development Bloomberg administration comes to a close on Dec. 31, and its powerful chairwoman, Amanda Burden, steps down.

Adding to the pressure on the department, the mayor himself is looking to win approval on a number of his own legacy projects, including a massive rezoning of midtown east.

The reason for the frenzy is simple: The planning commission, along with the City Council, has the final say on the shape of all land-use projects. Without City Planning's approval now, dozens of projects will need to start from square one with a commission headed by the new mayor's appointees—seven of the 13 members—a prospect that will add great uncertainty, and potentially months or even years of work.

The projects now heaped at the department's downtown door at 22 Reade St. roughly fall into three categories: city-led developments, private projects and those being pursued by private developers on public property. For many, it almost feels like now or never.

In an effort to meet its titanic obligations, the department recently added four temporary planners at its Manhattan headquarters.

"Mayor Bloomberg has asked all city agencies to get as much done as they possibly can in the next 134 days, and the Department of City Planning is working hard to do just that," said a spokesman for the department.

Some developers are going so far as to throw together provisional plans for upcoming projects and then try to get preliminary approvals for these project outlines.

Read More

A guide to pandering

The NY Times has a "tour" of voting blocs throughout the City.

The problems (and the fun) start when those blocs don't vote the way they're "supposed to."

Read More

Developers pushing for faster ride to LGA

From the Daily News:

Viable mass transit to the closest “business airport” is a vital part of many cities in America. For example, airports like Reagan National and Midway have easy rail access from throughout Washington and Chicago.

At only 8 miles from midtown Manhattan, LaGuardia serves more than 25.7 million passengers, making it one of the 20 busiest airports in the country.

Yet LaGuardia has no viable mass transit options, putting New York City at a severe competitive disadvantage. Instead, passengers are forced to choose between expensive taxis, inconvenient private bus service from a few locations in Manhattan or long public bus rides.

That’s why we have urged New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn and MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast not to allow the concerns of a few politicians in one neighborhood to kill the new SBS rapid bus service route from 125th St. to LaGuardia Airport, and to go further by publicly committing to finding more viable mass transportation options to the airport.

The SBS line would include only six stops between its origin on the West Side and LaGuardia, providing a real option to thousands of riders in Upper Manhattan and along Astoria Blvd. in Queens, both burgeoning areas.

Who wrote this? Hmmm...

Joe Sitt is CEO of Thor Equities (developer destroying Coney Island)
Stuart Appelbaum is president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
Stephen Sigmund is executive director of the Global Gateway Alliance
Lee Sander is president and CEO of HAKS Engineering and Architects
Bob Yaro is president of the Regional Plan Association
Tom Wright is executive director of the RPA

I see. It seems to me that everyone who wants to get to the airport manages to do so already. Sure, it could be improved, but it's not the most pressing transportation issue in the city. Unless, of course, you're looking at "burgeoning areas" as targets for development.

Read More

LPC to hold hearing on aluminum house

From Brownstoner Queens:

The proposal to construct a residential development around a historic aluminum house at 39th Avenue and 50th Street, in the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District, is heading to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The LPC schedule for September 24th features this item: “39th Avenue and 50th Street-Sunnyside Gardens Historic District… A playground with a one story building and pavilion. Application is to relocate an existing building to the site and construct new buildings.”

Sunnyside Gardens residents think the museum business is just a smokescreen for the residential development. Residents want a community garden at the site instead. The final word on the matter is up to the LPC — we’re curious to see how they’ll vote when it comes to an existing historic building, not necessarily contextual, moving to an underutilized lot.

Read More

Just when you thought they couldn't stoop any lower...

Jobs for NY is now using dead children to scare families into voting for Paul Vallone.

Jobs? New York? Won't find them here.

There's no shame at all in NYC politics these days.

Read More

Comrie concerned about Cosmos

From the Queens Courier:

Some politicians feel the New York Cosmos need to do everything they can to win the community.

The soccer club, which restarted recently after not playing a game in nearly three decades, is planning to construct a 25,000 seat stadium in Elmont’s Belmont Park near the Queens and Nassau border. The team currently plays at Hofstra University’s Shuart Stadium in Long Island.

The project has come under direct fire by Carrié Solages, a legislator in Nassau County, while on the Queens side Councilmember Leroy Comrie has brought up potential community concerns, such as increased traffic, noise and lights.

“It’s a residential community and you can understand that people want to keep it that way,” Comrie said.

Comrie is not against the stadium as he was with Major League Soccer (MLS) trying to put a similar-sized venue in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park for the New York City Football Club because that project called for taking land from the park. But he thinks Belmont could be a “suitable” location for a soccer stadium.

The councilmember will gauge concerns from the community through future meetings.

Read More

Candidates want to be anybody but Bloomberg

From the NY Times:

Michael R. Bloomberg is a data-loving, health-enforcing nonpartisan who defined what it meant to be a mayor over the past 12 years, mentoring big-city chief executives from New Orleans to Philadelphia.

But closer to home, the major candidates vying to succeed him at City Hall in New York are not pleading for his pointers, or pressing for a place in his photo ops: none of them, Democrat or Republican, have even asked for his political blessing in the primaries next week.

They instead describe polls showing that Mr. Bloomberg’s endorsement, once deemed a coveted prize, would now dampen their appeal to the party faithful, not burnish it, and they fret over lashing themselves to his divisive policies on policing, not to mention his soured relationship with municipal unions.

It is a humbling and alien experience for the relatively popular mogul turned mayor, who is unpracticed in humility: in the race to lead a post-Bloomberg New York City, there is profound wariness of being viewed as, well, too much like Mr. Bloomberg.

Read More

Potential safety problem identified in Rockaway

"On B90 street and Rockaway Beach Blvd., new A.R.G.U.S. cameras from the NYPD were installed, but the view is obstructed by these shipping containers in the CVS parking lot. This has created the perfect location for someone to hide and commit crime. Mugging, rape, etc. There also are no street lights, which defeats the purpose of the camera." - anonymous

Read More

Kiss the South Street Seaport goodbye

From Curbed:

The shopping mall on Pier 17 has been one of Manhattan's quintessential tourist traps for over 25 years. On a hot summer day, the tourists are like bugs circling flypaper, swarming around establishments that include Shoelaces You Never Tie, The Wonders Of Rice, and Christmas In New York. Inside this massive shed, souvenir license plates and steaming trays of cheap food are served up alongside stunning views of the lower Manhattan waterfront. When this troubled old mall is closed down at the end of this week, to be replaced with a shiny new mall designed by SHoP Architects, few New Yorkers will miss it.

Many of the neighborhood businesses near Pier 17 were severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy and have not yet reopened. On the side streets of the Seaport, restaurants, theaters, and the Seaport Museum galleries have all been boarded up, abandoned, or vacated, while the Fulton Market Building, another mall owned by the Howard Hughes Corporation, has remained closed since the storm.

After Hurricane Sandy, a number of businesses in the mall closed down, including restaurants like Harbour Lights and Finn's Fish Market Pub.

The entire mall will be closed on September 9th and emptied for a "complete renovation," according to the Howard Hughes Corporation. Their new mall is scheduled to open in 2015.

The subject of many of Rauam's paintings is the Fulton Fish Market, which was closed down in 2005.

The fish market was relocated to the Bronx, leaving behind its old buildings. This newer section of the market was built in 1939 and is located next to the Pier 17 mall.

The building was denied Landmark status in August, according to the Epoch Times, leaving preservationists concerned that its owner, The Howard Hughes Corporation, "will tear the building down and replace it with a high-rise structure."

Though renovations continue on the historic older structures of the neighborhood, the future of the Seaport is far from certain.

Don't understand tearing down a mall to build another one, when the problem is the location, but whatever.

Read More

Everything old is new again

From the Queens Courier:

One thousand new trees would grow in Queens and government rooftops would be painted an energy-saving white should Melinda Katz win her bid to lead the borough.

The former legislator outlined her “Plan for a Green Queens” on Tuesday, September 3 with her newest supporter, the New York League of Conservation Voters.

“With a total absence of federal legislation on environmental issues, there is a real need for local leaders to step in and fill the vacuum,” Katz said.

The candidate said she would use her borough presidency to allocate more park space, make Queens government buildings more energy efficient and lead regular electronic waste drives.

Why does this sound like Bloomberg 2.0?

Read More

Corona Plaza to actually become a plaza

From the Queens Courier:

Before 2012, Corona Plaza, located on Roosevelt Avenue between National and 104th Street, was a busy area filled with trucks, traffic and no open space. After the Queens Economic Development Corporation (EDC) partnered with the Queens Museum, Councilmember Julissa Ferreras and other local groups, the plaza became an open public space allowing residents and visitors to sit down and relax.

Although the public space was expected to be temporary, in March the Department of Transportation (DOT) met with the community to introduce first plans and designs for keeping and improving Corona Plaza as a public space.

During this meeting the public gave its input as to what they wanted to add to the plaza and picked the best initial design from three options.

Some of the ideas that were included in the renderings were plaza seating, bicycle racks and corrals, a stage for cultural performances, green area, benches, additional trash cans, signage, improved lighting for security, utilizing the space under the No. 7 train for storage, an information/storage kiosk and a drinking fountain.

Well, if it's going to actually look like a park as depicted in this rendering, I'm all for it. But why do other neighborhoods get nothing more than concrete blocks and folding chairs?

Read More

Some want Forest Park to have its own precinct

From DNA Info:

In the wake of two sexual attacks on joggers within the past five months in Forest Park, local advocates and elected officials want the city to create a new precinct devoted solely to the park, similar to the one in Central Park.

Proponents said the spate of attacks merits a precinct that will exclusively monitor the 550-acre greenspace. A 23-year-old jogger was Tasered and sexually assaulted in the park in March, and a 69-year-old woman was raped in the park last Monday near Forest Park Drive and Myrtle Avenue.

“It doesn’t have to be a big precinct,” said Ed Wendell, president of the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association. “But that would guarantee police presence there and it would make the park a lot safer.”

Although the description of the attackers in both incidents is similar — both are men described as being about 5-foot-9 and approximately 35-years-old — the sketches appeared to be of two different men, cops said.

Following the first incident, police created a special two-officer police unit to patrol the park on a daily basis from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, who represents Ridgewood, Middle Village, Glendale and Woodhaven, and who jogs in the park, said “a dedicated precinct for the park is an idea that is worth exploring.”

Critics said that the park struggles with a number of safety issues, such as lack of lighting in the early hours of the day along its main roads, including Myrtle Avenue.

“There is a good number of people who are out jogging, walking their dogs around that time and all the lights are out,” said Wendell, who said early-morning joggers have to run with flashlights at Victory Field, near Myrtle Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard.

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said in an email that the outage at Myrtle Ave. and Woodhaven Blvd. near Victory Field "appears to have been caused by vandalism" and that "the agency is currently working with the Parks Department here and will also discuss potential enforcement with the NYPD."

If Flushing Meadows doesn't have a dedicated precinct, then Forest Park isn't getting one.

Read More

LIC loses more character

From Lost City:

A reader wrote in to tell us that The Shannon Pot, the reliable old tavern and grill in Long Island City, not far from the Court Street subway stop, will be razed, along with the building it's in, in the next months. Taking its place will be, yes, another condo tower.

I can find no history of the building prior to its incarnation as The Shannon Pot. But the whole look of the building tells me its probably been a tavern for many years, and probably functioned under many names. The disused side door tells of an old-fashioned "Ladie's Entrance" that once existed. And there are tin ceilings and a room in back that looks like it may have been a kitchen or part of someone's former apartment.

Read More

No one has the guts to clean up the entrails

"This has to be the last straw if residents have a chance to good health and dignity.

Notice, that no one is standing at the bus stop at 108 & Merrick Boulevard. Starting around 11:00 0' clock yesterday morning (9/3/13). An awful smell was so strong that the police had to use a bin to make the bus stop impassable.

The scent was too intense for human or animals. Needless to say, it traveled through several blocks.

Near-by employees and the general public were busy on their cell calling 311, local leaders or anyone for help.

This played out throughout the day. About 6:47 p. m, a young white sanitation inspector was driving by.

A few of us tried to stop him, he continued driving, but was stopped by the red light at 108 & Merrick. We asked about the scent. He replied that it is animal guts and other remains. The light turned green, he sped off while saying the authorities are aware of the situation.

However, employees near- by said that the guts and remains were left by a truck.

Councilman Comrie, when will you and others leaders put a stop to this inhumanity? Also, an investigation is necessary.

We are awaiting a response." - Pamela Hazel via Joe Moretti

Read More