Big school opening in Corona

From the Queens Courier:A new school in Corona is set to ease the burden of overcrowded classrooms in the area.According to the Department of Education (DOE), P.S. 330, currently located within a building at 86-37 53rd Avenue in Elmhurst, will move into a brand new location at 111-08 Northern Boulevard just in time for the beginning of the school year next week.“This is a fantastic new building, and we’re confident that P.S. 330 will deliver well...

Read More

Worry over future of St. John's Episcopal

From CBS New York:The Rockaway Peninsula lost Peninsula Hospital to economic pressure in 2012. St. John’s is facing similar pressure.More than half of the patients at St. John’s are on Medicaid, which means that the hospital has been losing money for a long time. The new Federal Affordable Care Act could worsen the money crunch.St. John’s has 257 beds and a busy emergency room that is jammed with patients. It’s the only emergency room in that part of the city.“There’s about 150,000 people here. We are it,” explained CEO Richard Brown.For many...

Read More

The dirty deal that made Christine Quinn speaker

From WNYC:At its core, the details of the deal-making that December day involved key Council jobs and committee assignments. In turn, the Council shaped in these negotiations became a critical conduit for the big redevelopment projects that the bosses and their corporate allies wanted.Back in 2002, Rivera had positioned his 21-year-old son, Joel, to be the majority leader of the Council when Gifford Miller became speaker with the support of the Bronx...

Read More

Baggage handlers in trouble

From CBS New York:The investigation began after El Al Airlines passengers sounded the alarm. Jewelry, computers, iPads, iPhones and more had disappeared from checked luggage.The thefts amounted to tens of thousands of dollars over a five-month period and prompted the airline to root out an apparent ring of thieves that had inside access to luggage, CBS 2′s Dave Carlin reported Friday.A camera placed inside the belly of a 747 led to the arrests of contract baggage workers Tristan Bredwood, Julio Salas, Oshaine Christie, Romaine Smith, Nikosi Cunningham,...

Read More

Graffiti appears at controversial demo site

From the NY Post:Actor David Schwimmer may have a tough time making friends when he moves into his new East Village town house.Instead of rolling out the welcome mat, neighbors have taken to leaving the “Friends” star not-so-subtle notes about his nearly completed, six-story digs on East Sixth Street.“Ross is not cool,” read one message emblazoned across a construction board this week — referring to the name of his quirky sitcom character.The graffiti...

Read More

Flushing Meadows still #2 in violent crime

From the Wall Street Journal:Serious felonies rose in New York City's largest parks during the spring months this year, increasing 44% for April 1 to June 30 compared with the same period in 2012, according to a New York Police Department report.There were 128 felonies in the city's 31 biggest parks from April 1 to June 30, compared with 89 in the same period last year, according to an NYPD Compstat report.The increase comes on the heels of a park-crime...

Read More

Christine Quinn: the education candidate

From the NY Post:Christine Quinn’s mayoral campaign is encouraging her interns to skip the first days of school so they’ll be available for the critical get-out-the-vote drive before the Democratic primary, The Post has learned.In an e-mail blast to all the campaign’s summer volunteers, Quinn staffer Ross Adair said he was “pretty sure” that teachers wouldn’t mind if their students miss class on primary day, Tuesday, Sept. 10, “or even Monday and...

Read More

Tony Avella explains why he dropped out of BP race

Click here for audio.I got the below literature with this note:"Is it just me, or does this latest mailing from Peter Vallone, Jr., all but imply that he has Tony Avella's support?" - anonymousSomeone's got a really big pa...

Read More

New tri-borough rail line proposed

From CBS New York:Transportation advocates hope New York City’s next mayor will take a fresh look at a bold idea — creating an inter-borough train that would link Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.The proposal calls for the train to come out of the Bronx over the Hell’s Gate Bridge, tower over parts of Queens and run below street level through the heart of Brooklyn – a little-used freight line that could have a very busy future, CBS 2’s Tony Aiello reported Thursday.The Regional Plan Association calls it “Tri-Boro RX.”“Makes it easier for people...

Read More

Will the real Bill DeBlasio please stand up?

From The Daily Beast:In 2004 de Blasio was a paid adviser to John Edwards’s presidential campaign. And in this year’s mayoral race, his rhetoric about “a tale of two cities”—a line he has used to critique growing income inequality—has echoed Edwards’s rhetoric from 2004 about the “two Americas.” Yet while serving on the City Council, he frequently found himself on the wrong side of progressives in his district (admittedly not hard in ultraliberal...

Read More

Now there are helicopters also making noise

From WPIX:The FAA changed the flight path around LaGuardia last summer.Neighbors have been trying to get the agency to reconsider the decision.Now, they are noticing increased helicopter traff...

Read More

And this is why illegal conversions are a big deal...

From the Times Ledger:The South Jamaica home where a famed chair designer died during a fire last week had been illegally subdivided into four apartments, a spokeswoman for the city Buildings Department said.The house, which had been OK’d as a two-family residence, was also issued violations for work without permits to create illegal apartments, plumbing and electrical work performed without a permit, defective or exposed electrical wiring and an...

Read More

Queensbridge Park's parkhouse to be renovated

From DNA Info:Queensbridge Park is going green — the waterfront space in Long Island City has been allotted $2.5 million for the complete renovation of its park house, a building that’s been out of use for decades, city officials announced Tuesday.The Parks Department will hold public scoping meetings to see what park users would like to see in the greenspace, which could include amenities like a modern comfort station, storage facilities for athletic...

Read More

Is Aqueduct on the brink of closure?

From Crains:The New York Racing Association is considering shutting down the financially troubled Aqueduct Race Track in southeast Queens, an action that would take down the money-making casino next door unless state law were changed.Establishments with video lottery terminals, including Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct, cannot exist under the law without being tethered to a race track, according to John Sabini, the former chairman of the New York...

Read More

Strange days, indeed!

From NY1:More negative campaign mail, this one’s out of Queens. Here’s a picture of Dan Halloran getting hauled off. He’s part, of course, of a corruption inquiry. He’s been arrested. “Our community has suffered enough.” You flip it on the other side – “Paul Graziano would be another embarrassment to our community.” Now let’s be clear, folks: Paul Graziano has absolutely nothing to do with Dan Halloran, with the corruption inquiry, or anything...

Read More

Sandy homes coming down

From DNA Info:Dozens of homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy in Staten Island and Queens have been slated for demolition by the city, including two abandoned homes on New Dorp Lane neighbors have complained about for months.Homes that Department of Buildings inspectors determined were in danger of collapsing and posed a safety risk will be taken down by the city in the coming weeks, a source said.The city did not confirm the number of homes set to be...

Read More

Parking eased along Northern Blvd

From the Queens Courier:The community has spoken, and they have been answered.There have been increasing complaints from business owners as well as neighborhood residents that the parking restrictions on certain blocks along Northern Boulevard are more of a hindrance than a benefit.Because of this, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) will be removing the 4-7 p.m. parking restrictions along the south curb of Northern Boulevard between...

Read More

Paul Vallone says he would favor legislation that bans election spending by PACs

But has no problem benefiting from such spending now...Why won't he denounce the mailers put out by Jobs For New York/Parkside if he, as the county candidate, had nothing to do with them? (As if County and Parkside aren't thick as thieve...

Read More

Build what you want. City Planning has your back.

From the Daily News:Dozens of homeless families are living in squalid conditions in two illegally operated South Bronx shelters.And the owner of the buildings — on Southern Blvd. and Hall Place — is one step closer to gaining city approval to keep the shelters open, despite the protests of neighbors and officials.The landlord, Julius Ausch, got the thumbs up from the Department of City Planning last week on a zoning exemption that could allow him...

Read More

Fake crowds following Weiner

From the NY Post:Anthony Weiner is having such a hard time generating support for his limp campaign that he has resorted to paying a rent-a-crowd firm to provide “supporters” for his events, The Post has learned.Some of the gung-ho Weiner crowds, including at the Aug. 11 Dominican Day Parade in Manhattan, were really actors who were paid $15 an hour by the California firm Crowds on Demand, according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal.The...

Read More

Has anyone seen this commercial?

I haven't, but I haven't watched much TV lately.Capital New York says, The ad is running on cable channels in Queens from today until primary day, according to the campai...

Read More

Queens Museum wonders if people will show up

From the NY Times:When the Queens Museum of Art announced plans for a renovation in 2006, it joined a building boom in which cultural institutions all over the country were adding wings by name-brand architects, seeking their own Bilbaos. And when the recession of 2008 forced many of those institutions to pull back — worried about whether they needed and could support larger physical plants — the Queens Museum persevered.The road wasn’t easy; the...

Read More

District 19 residents revolt against Vallone tactics, but he won't stop

At noon yesterday, 4 out of the 5 Democratic candidates for City Council gathered near the Bayside LIRR station with State Senator Tony Avella to call Paul Vallone and Jobs for New York on the carpet for the attack mailers against his opponents. This "anybody but Vallone" moment was brought to you by Bayside Patch.UPDATE: Here's video:At least one candidate has struck back with his own mailer explaining who Vallone is loyal to. Shafran's piece is...

Read More

Melinda Katz: Tough. Tested. Turkey-basted.

From the Daily News:For once, Curtis Sliwa wants to keep his frozen sperm under wraps.Sliwa, co-founder of the nonprofit citizen crime patroller Guardian Angels, is trying to get out of answering questions under oath about his supposed sperm donation to Queens borough president candidate Melinda Katz, the Daily News has learned.The talk show host has moved to quash a subpoena by his ex-wife Mary seeking “any and all records concerning the sperm bank(s),...

Read More

CB1 member forms LLCs for 2 Malba properties

I received a request from a reader to look into the property records of the 2 houses pictured here. The addresses are 13-35 143rd Street and 13-39 143rd Street in Whitestone/Malba.The owner of both properties is Pauline Jannelli, who purchased both homes between 2003 & 2004. Ms. Jannelli is a board member of CB1 in Astoria.In 2011, Jannelli formed 2 LLCs - one for each house - and transferred the deed over to them.The current R1-2 zoning allows...

Read More

"Noise torture" in Bayside

From WPIX:All was quiet in Bayside Queens on Monday. This is rare because residents like Cecilia Cody say it is normally filled with, “Noise torture, that’s what it is.”Cody has lived here for the past thirty-five years. However, it was only until recently that her nightly ritual started requiring a soft touch to block out the sounds overhead, “I put in earplugs to go to sleep. This is what we are left to deal with, it’s simply horrendous.”What she is referring to is the sound from airliners utilizing a “TNNIS 4″ climb out of LaGuardia’s Runway...

Read More

Storms will bury NYC under water by the end of the century

From the Daily News:Based on projections from the National Weather Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, if a storm equivalent in strength to Hurricane Sandy were to hit the five boroughs in the year 2100, vastly larger swaths of the city would be submerged.The reason is simple. Sea levels are forecast to rise by as much as six feet before the end of the century, making low lying cities like New York all but defenseless to the wrath of powerful...

Read More

Vallone supporters now using violent imagery against Graziano

Goodness, now we're setting other candidates on fire, Mr. Vallone?How many times can you send out different versions of the same hit piece?I suppose desperate candidates call for desperate measures. This is obviously a stock photo of a "family" nowhere near Queens.So much for the "family man" Mr. Vallone purports himself to be.Tony Avella, Chrissy Voskerichian, Paul Graziano, Austin Shafran and John Duane will be denouncing these mailers today at...

Read More

Astoria landlord in deep doo-doo

From DNA Info:A Queens landlord was indicted Monday for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from prospective tenants for rent on apartments that were deemed uninhabitable after the space was illegally converted into a nine-family building, according to the Queens District Attorney's office.Hinyoung Limtung, 55, is facing charges for allegedly pocketing $44,050 from would-be renters for apartments at 31-70 Crescent St., near Broadway, in Astoria...

Read More

More people dumping house trash in city bins

From the Daily News:Home trash in city litter bins is really piling up — and this year, scofflaws have been largely getting off scot-free.The number of $100 fines issued for illegal dumping of residential garbage in street bins dropped by 78% in fiscal year 2013, which ended June 30, city records show.The number of trash tickets doled out declined to 922 from 4,185 in fiscal 2012.The Sanitation Department said the huge drop happened because the agency’s...

Read More

Queens Plaza millstones vandalized; electeds don't give a damn

From DNA Info:One of the historic millstones on display in Queens Plaza was vandalized recently — renewing a local historian's call to have the pair of artifacts moved from the site.The two stones, which are located in a park in Queens Plaza called Dutch Kills Green, are estimated to be at least 200 hundreds years old and possibly a relic from a mill that once operated nearby, according to Bob Singleton of the Greater Astoria Historical Society.Singleton...

Read More

Update on Wendy's site

From Brownstoner Queens:A 115-unit apartment building is in the works for the corner of Reeder Street and Queens Boulvard in Elmhurst. The site is right across from the new rental building known as The Elm as well as the Grand Avenue/Newtown R stop. DOB documents state that the building will include 27,801 square feet of commercial space, 26,273 square feet of community space, and 93,940 square feet of residential space. It’ll rise seven stories...

Read More

When lobbyists get public pensions

From the AP:As a lobbyist in New York's statehouse, Stephen Acquario is doing pretty well. He pulls down $204,000 a year, more than the governor makes, gets a Ford Explorer as his company car and is afforded another special perk:Even though he's not a government employee, he is entitled to a full state pension.He's among hundreds of lobbyists in at least 20 states who get public pensions because they represent associations of counties, cities and...

Read More

Horse stable fights sale to Korean church

From the Queens Chronicle:Joy Tirado is no quitter.She’s the owner of the Western Riding Club, a traditional stable in a residential neighborhood of Fresh Meadows, who is fighting to keep the facility open. And now its future may rest with a judge who will determine the outcome.Since May, more than 1,000 area residents have signed petitions to keep the stable open. State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) tried unsuccessfully to get it landmarked and the...

Read More

Astoria candidate doesn't play by the rules

Astoria attorney John Ciafone is running for City Council District 22 (Astoria) to replace outgoing Peter Vallone, Jr. He has run previously for the council as well as for the assembly. He dropped out back in 2010, and he may have dropped out this time around as well since there are no CFB filings from his campaign on file.What you may not know is that Ciafone currently appears on Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio's slumlord list. To his credit, he...

Read More