Lippman Plaza graffiti is out of control

From the Queens Chronicle:

Lippmann Plaza, a pedestrian walkway in downtown Flushing, has been a problem for years with its graffitied walls and litter-strewn paths. Despite efforts by elected officials and volunteer groups, the site looks as bad today as it did more than 10 years ago.

Recently, Liz Vannicola, a longtime Flushing resident, contacted the Queens Chronicle to vent her frustration about the conditions in the plaza. “When young kids see graffiti, it sends the wrong message,” Vannicola said. “It becomes the norm and they think it’s okay.”

She has called the offices of area elected officials “but nothing gets done” and believes there should be ongoing cleanups at the site.

“It’s not artwork; it’s vandalizing and not welcoming,” Vannicola added.

The city upgraded the site in 2006 after talking about it since 2001. The work involved new lighting, plantings and tree pruning. But looking at the location now, the trees are just as big and sit in dingy pits of eroded soil and weeds. Litter abounds and the walls of businesses are covered in graffiti.

The plaza is a major connector for the 50,000 commuters who travel through the area every day using buses and the subway. It links Roosevelt Avenue, site of the No. 7 subway and several buses, with 39th Avenue, where there are more buses and Municipal Parking Lot 1.

Illegal street vendors set up tables at either end of the plaza, hawking their merchandise and adding to the confusion. Community Board 7 District Manager Marilyn Bitterman said police are trying to crack down, as it’s become a problem.

Bitterman noted that the property belongs to the Department of Transportation and that the Sanitation Department empties the trash cans.

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Mattones return to screw Elmhurst again

From the Queens Chronicle:

A former parking lot between the Queens Center mall and the Long Island Expressway has been empty for the past 12 years and now the developers who own it want to build three restaurants there.

The College Point-based Mattone Group presented its plan at an informational Newtown Civic Association meeting in Corona Tuesday night. The company would bring in an Olive Garden, a Longhorn Steakhouse and Joe’s Crab Shack, which will cover approximately 25,000 to 30,000 square feet, surrounded by free parking spaces. If the plan moves forward, they predict that the establishments will open in April or May 2014.

Most of the meeting focused on the civic association members’ parking and traffic congestion-related concerns, but Robert Valdes-Clausell, an officer of the Newtown Civic Association and a member of Community Board 4, brought up the property’s history and the developer’s history of shortchanging the surrounding community.

Valdes-Clausell also noted the meeting’s unusual timing, in the summer, when many community members are away.

“This has all the trappings of something that is not kosher,” he said of the new plan.

The city’s Economic Development Corp. sold the property, which was a city parking lot, to Mattone on Dec. 17, 2001 for $2.2 million. The City Council, including the area’s former Councilman John Sabini (D-Elmhurst), approved the deal, overriding the objections of CB 4 and disregarding the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

Mattone’s contract with EDC contained several restrictions. The developer was supposed to build a movie theater, which Loews would operate, within four and a half years and buy the dilapidated Elmwood Theater, and give the proceeds to Catholic Medical Services, which then operated St. John’s Hospital according to Valdes-Clausell. If those restrictions were not met, the EDC was entitled to buy back the property for $1.

The Mattone Group did not comply with the restrictions, but the EDC did not repossess the property. Loews declared bankruptcy shortly after, and Mattone never found a replacement as the movie-theater business was in decline. Therefore, Mattone never purchased the Elmwood Theater and Loews sold it to the Rock Church instead. St. John’s Hospital filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

On Feb. 6, 2013 Mattone signed a new contract with the EDC, in which the developer paid $3 million to modify the original deed from 2001, allowing it to build the restaurants on the property.

Mattone claims that they did not need to seek community approval because the proposed restaurants are in accordance with area zoning laws and that informing the community before beginning construction was merely a courtesy.

Valdes-Clausell accused Mattone of putting the cart before the horse, by making a new deal with EDC without informing or asking the community about it first.

Moreover, the $3 million in the recent contract went straight to the EDC, not the community.

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977 rental apartments proposed for Rheingold site

From the Daily News:

A Brooklyn-based developer hopes to build high-rise apartments on the Bushwick site that was once home to one of the city’s great blue-collar breweries.

But when Read Property presented its plans for the gleaming complex this week, the local community board questioned whether the proposal set aside sufficient space for working families.

The 10 buildings would rise up to eight stories and include 977 rental apartments and ground floor retail space.

Community Board 4 delayed its decision on whether to give the plans the thumbs-up, putting it off until the developer provides more information about the project’s affordable housing component, its impact on local schools and its inclusion of adequate parking.

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CB2 not too keen on aluminum house

From Sunnyside Post:

The plans to develop a site within the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District were greeted with skepticism by Community Board 2’s Land Use Committee last night.

The architects provided details on the developer’s proposal to construct an aluminaire house – made of metal – and eight accompanying residential units for the first time.

The development would take place on the corner of 39th Avenue and 50th Street, at the site of the historic Phipps playground. The Phipps sold the property in July 2007 to DBH Associates for $1.43 million.

The proposed residential units—which would be contained within one building– would be clad with terracotta-colored panels, with a brick pattern.

About 50 residents turned out for the committee meeting—many holding leaflets that read: “Say ‘No’ to unwanted development in our Community!” Meanwhile, a letter was circulating that had been written by Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer to the Landmarks Preservation Committee voicing his opposition to it.

Many residents questioned whether any type of development could take place on the property. Dorothy Morehead, who is a member of community board 2 and owns a real estate firm in the Gardens, said that the former playground is deemed “open space.” She said that she has never heard of a case where the Landmarks committee has permitted development on “open space”.

The house would essentially be a showpiece or a museum where people could visit. The Aluminaire Foundation, he said, would be leasing space on the site from the developer to keep it there.

The housing units—which would bring income to the developer through rent or condo sales—would act as a buffer between the aluminaire house and the historic brick homes in Sunnyside Gardens.

But Stephen Cooper, Co-Chair of the Land Use Committee, suggested that the aluminaire house – and accompanying units—were not a good fit for the Historic District. “The buildings [in the Gardens] are all essentially the same. They are brick, all two stories tall—essentially all the same look,” he said. “There is not a single aluminum house in the area.”

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They're out to get Mary Ann

Dear Crapper,

Mary Ann Carey has been the target of a secretive attempt to pressure her into retirement from Community Board 9's executive office. Last night, many whom she has helped in the community came forward to speak on her behalf. The board decided not to vote on the dismissal measure, and instead put her on probation. Blenkinsopp emerged as the ringleader. In 2012, he was featured by the Courier.

Quite interesting that he is quoted as saying "It’s a struggle to try to make government bodies responsive and accountable, and to help them do their work better."

Mary Ann Carey has been one of the most responsive public servants I have ever met, going above and beyond the call of duty (such as staying after hours, instructing me about other agencies, and finding contact information) to help me with the Triumph of Civic Virtue issue and other local government matters. I never found her to be lacking in “technology” or “with accountability” as he states here.

Sincerely,
Jon Torodash

Yeah, they're out to get Mary Ann. I suppose someone else wants her job so they can run for office one day.

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Proposal to tackle the weed problem

Letter to the Editor (Queens Courier):

The issue of unkempt properties has plagued our communities since the housing bust.

The Department of Sanitation addresses properties with garbage but does not address those with unkempt grass/weeds. These properties must be addressed as well.

Often half built properties and those in foreclosure do not have garbage, but have grass/weeds that are THREE feet high. This is my proposal:

Department of Sanitation advises property owner/bank that a property is unkempt (failure to cut grass, remove weeds, trim hedges that block sidewalks etc.) and gives the owner 10 or 15 business days to comply.

If they do not comply, the Department of Finance will assess a surcharge on the next quarterly property tax bill (percentage amount to be determined). That surcharge will be used to pay for the expenses of having the property maintained on a monthly basis by private landscaper (contract given by RFP).

This surcharge can be removed once the property owner/bank can show proof that a landscaper has been hired to address future clean-ups or submits a signed affidavit with the name of the person who will maintain the property.

It is in the city’s interest to do this. The banks that have interest in these properties continue paying taxes even when the homeowners fail to pay their mortgages and the escrow for the taxes. The surcharge will be a higher tax and the city would not have to worry about how to collect for the clean-up.


Marie Adam-Ovide
District Manager
Community Board 8

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5 Pointz plan voted down by CB2

From the Daily News:

A plan to turn a famed Long Island City graffiti landmark into a pair of luxury condo towers was voted down Thursday night.

Members of Community Board 2 at the meeting on the future of 5Pointz said they wanted developer G & M Realty to offer some affordable housing and more artist space.

David Wolkoff, one of the owners of the former water meter factory, said he plans to “very seriously” look into the board’s suggestions.

But he pointed out that the board is strictly advisory and the local tourist attraction will be razed once the project receives city approval.

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City not required to build required Willets Point ramps

From the Times Ledger:

Developers of the $3 million Willets Point project are not contractually required to build affordable housing in part because the city wants to shield itself from a potential lawsuit.

The Bloomberg administration did not want to risk paying out legal damages to the developers — Related Cos. and Sterling Equities, the real estate arm of the New York Mets — should the city fail to build additional ramps off the Van Wyck Expressway, an essential precursor to constructing the housing component of the project, officials and the companies said at a recent meeting.

“If for some unforeseen reason [the ramps] didn’t get built, they didn’t want us to have a right to sue the city,” Glen Goldstein, president of Related Retail, said at an April 25 meeting with Community Board 7. “It was done so there would be no liability from the city to the joint venture.”

After passing the City Council with much fanfare over the affordable housing component of the project in 2008, the 62-acre project was subsequently split into two phases by the Bloomberg administration.

The first phase was then split into two more phases by the joint venture, which inked a contract with the city in August 2012 to develop 23 acres.

The first phase entails cleaning the historically contaminated soil. Then the Queens Development Group will build a hotel and small retail stores along 126th Street across from Citi Field, a temporary parking lot behind that and a 1.4 million-square-foot mall west of Citi Field in a parking lot leased to the Mets.

The housing component, including affordable units, is slated to be built on the temporary parking lot in the second phase beginning in 2024, but there is no guarantee that will happen. The ramps are required to start, yet the city is not required to build them.

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Avella's brownfield bill passed by Senate

From Bayside Patch:

The state Senate has passed a bill proposed by Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, that would require the city’s Department of Environmental Conservation to notify any community board of new brownfield site cleanups.

Current DEC regulations require a period of public comment for a brownfield cleanup request. Adjacent property owners, nearby schools and local newspapers must also be notified.

But Avella said community boards should also be notified because they are often instrumental in soliciting public comment from the neighborhoods they represent.

Avella said he was inspired to introduce the bill by the Waterpointe-Whitestone brownfield site. Community Board 7 had been holding committee meetings regarding the site, but were never informed of the initial plan for a cleanup at the site.

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