All-Star Game advertises crumbling World's Fair

"So it's bad enough that the City of New York gave the Mets owners property worth $200 million for the paltry sum of $1. Now the Mets are incorporating World's Fair icons into their merchandising efforts to promote the 2013 MLB All Star Game being played at Citifield in mid-July. What really irks me about this is the New York State Pavilion is in a deteriorated condition that needs immediate remediation. With all the money that they'll be making,...

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The first ever Jamaica Cleanup Protest

The first Jamaica clean-up protest took place on Saturday, June 29th. Although small, it was a very vocal and very angry crowd about the garbage problem, the people who cause it and most importantly our elected leaders who have failed miserably with this issue and let the community really go to hell. Not one elected official turned up to march at the protest or even show their face, which was covered by NY1, the Queens Chronicle and the Queens Press.Three...

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Quinn funds private park with discretionary funds

From Sunnyside Post:Friends of Sunnyside Gardens Park, the fundraising arm of the membership-based park, received $25,000 through Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Those funds were for items such as “installing playground equipment and other recreational equipment.” Since 2010, Friends of Sunnyside Gardens Park has received $142,600 in city funds, most of it through Quinn. Park membership is not always open to all those who can afford the modest...

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Austin Shafran's robocall to potential constituents

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Lesson learned

Turns out that despite the advice received in the comments section of my post about Dunkin Donuts using a street tree and pit for advertising, I didn't have to "take care of the problem myself." There's the easy way to do things and the right way to do things. The Parks Department handled the situation, as they were supposed to. Thank y...

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Union plasters strike warnings all over Grand Avenue

Took another stroll along Grand Avenue this weekend and here's what I found:Signs warning the members of Local 79 that a strike is coming Monday morning.I don't know why they are taped to telephone poles and parking meters along Grand Avenue.We have telephones, faxes and e-mail these days, which certainly are better ways to communicate with membe...

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Losers, all

From the Daily News:Unleashing passions that still burn today, the City Council voted in 2008 to allow New York officials to run for three terms in office, rather than just the two terms that voters have repeatedly commanded.This history has placed 10 incumbents in position to run for third terms this November. They are doing so in clear violation of the public will. Worse, five of the defiant 10 are members who actually voted against allowing officials...

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Term limits and temper come back to bite Quinn in the ass

From the NY Times:In the Bayside section of Queens, a volunteer had barely begun her sales pitch for Christine C. Quinn’s mayoral campaign when the middle-aged man who answered the door cut her off. “She was the one responsible, in the City Council, for giving Bloomberg a third term,” he barked. “I hold that against her.”The volunteer calmly countered that it was New Yorkers, not Ms. Quinn, who “voted the mayor back in.”In Astoria, Queens, a woman...

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Developer malfeasance causes restaurant to close

From WPIX:Nom Wah Tea Parlor — a famous tea parlor in Chinatown — has been closed down for the past two weeks.The owners say it’s because of a disagreement between them and the owner of another building.Guess who’s in the middle of this one?There was a time when a hand shake was all you needed to seal a deal. Yes, but today it’s wise to have a lawyer draw up a legal document so there is no room for misinterpretation.This is what Wilson Tang was thinking. And unfortunately, that is why is restaurant is clos...

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Mr. Noguchi, meet Mr. Crap

From Brownstoner Queens, we find out that the finishing touches are being put on this 3-family baby across the street from the Noguchi Museum.The post says that Gerald Caliendo is the architect, but someone else is taking credit for it.It's Frank Lloyd Crap! Welcome ba...

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Paul Vallone: Animal Advocate and Environmentalist?

From NYCLASS:How we decided which candidates to endorse:NYCLASS staff and volunteers interviewed more than 60 candidates. All candidates were selected based on their support of animal protection issues such as:Banning horse drawn carriages and/or replacing them with vintage electric carsReforming NYC Animal Care & Control (the city's shelter system)Building animal shelters in the Bronx and Queens (which currently have none)Banning puppy millsRequiring...

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Soccer stadium coming to Queens-Nassau border?

From CBS New York:The Islanders are moving to Brooklyn, but will Long Island soon gain a professional soccer team?The New York Cosmos have big plans for a soccer stadium on the Queens/Nassau County border.But as CBS 2’s Carolyn Gusoff reported Wednesday, not everyone’s a fan of the idea.In the shadow of Belmont racetrack, sits a specific parking lot. However, soon, weeds could be replaced with stadium grass, and parking stalls with sidelines.The Cosmos, a world famous franchise that was reborn recently following three decades of dormancy, has proposed...

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At least he didn't take it to a drive-thru

From the NY Post:This guy’s taking the lunch break to new heights.A grinning La Guardia Airport worker took a lunchtime joyride in a terminal stair car — even though such vehicles aren’t allowed on city streets.The driver, a regular at a pizza joint near the airport, was spotted cruising in the Southwest Airlines vehicle on 19th Avenue at Hazen Street in Queens at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.But as much as the joker enjoyed his unusual wheels, he’d better...

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Huge Rego Park apartment building sold again

From Crains:Teaneck, N.J.-based Treetop Development, which three years ago began snapping up residential buildings across the Hudson River in northern Manhattan, has now jumped across a second river, the East.The developer has acquired Saxon Hall, a 16-story rental apartment building located at 62-60 99th Street in Rego Park, Queens, for $85.25 million.The purchase is Treetop's first in the borough. It's all part of a strategy to acquire "rental...

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Someone is suing to get Fat Boy back

From the Daily News:A Queens-based filmmaker has sued the city over its hastily-enacted plan to pluck a deteriorating statue off Queens Blvd. and move it to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.Robert LoScalzo claims the city has refused to turn over emails and other communications involving the removal of the Triumph of Civic Virtue from its longtime perch outside Queens Borough Hall.“There are still too many unanswered questions,” said Jon Torodash,...

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Illegal stickers have ties to mafia and fake charity

From WyckoffHeights.org:Residents of Ridgewood and Bushwick likely have noticed the multitude of new “Cash for Cars" stickers that have appeared on signs and telephone poles throughout the neighborhood in recent weeks. These ads promise “300 & up" but provide no information about the entity behind them, just a phone number - 347-246-1637.Seeking more information I recently called that number. A woman answered - "Cash for cars!" - and offered...

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FMCP mosaics won't be repaired this time

From the Queens Chronicle:The mosaic tile discs encircling Flushing Meadows Corona Park’s Dinkins Circle are falling to bits — and in some cases they may not return.The Parks Department has cordoned off the tile disks, which commemorate the park’s two World’s Fairs, to keep pedestrians from continuing to trample on them.“Some areas that cannot be repaired will be replaced with hex block pavers,” said a Parks Department spokesman. “Cars are not allowed...

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Tenants of foreclosed buildings want fixes

From the Queens Courier:Hany Taha is afraid that his ceiling will collapse on him.He has lived in the same apartment for 26 years, but now the ceiling is sinking. Although he has complained about it for seven months, nothing has happened.Taha is a resident of one of six low-income apartment buildings in Ridgewood owned by Ridgewood Realty of L.I. The structures have accumulated a total of nearly 550 violations, according to the Department of Housing...

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Flushing & Whitestone parking hogs

"As street parking is becoming increasingly difficult in this part of the neighborhood some tenants don't have any regard for their neighbor’s needs, they bring boats, trucks, schools buses and also big RV's to be stored permanently on the streets in front (or not) of their houses taking valuable parking space from their respective neighbors.Others park cars for years and although is not against the law there should be an ordinance that help remove...

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Quinn not being as bitchy as last year

From The Politicker:City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has long been accused of using the Council’s budget as a tool to punish those who cross her and keep members in line. But, as member item allocations have come under increased scrutiny in light of the mayor’s race, Ms. Quinn appears to have changed course.Sources familiar with the camps of three of Ms. Quinn’s most vocal critics in recent months told Politicker Tuesday that their member allocations–which...

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Worker falls into basement of demo project

From NY1:Fire crews on Thursday responded to a construction site in Queens after a worker fell into the basement of a home that's being demolished.It happened around 8:30 a.m. at a property located at 181-14 Kildare Road in Jamaica Estates.Officials say the worker, who is said to be in his 30's, suffered a head injury during the fall.He was transported to Queens Hospital Center.The Department of Buildings ordered the work stopped until the fall can...

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