City not making as much in fines

From CBS New York:

There are dozens of ways New Yorkers can get fined by the city — failing to clean up after your dog, not bundling up your magazines on recycling day and, of course, parking your car in the wrong spot.

Sometimes, irate residents seem convinced the city is trying to balance its budget by catching them committing minor infractions. But according to a blog post by the city’s Independent Budget Office on Tuesday, the Bloomberg Administration is actually hauling in less money from fines than it did a few years ago.

The city estimates that fine revenue will total $812.5 million this fiscal year, which is up about $13 million from last year. However, the 2013 fiscal year, which ended June 30, was an an anomaly because in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the city suspended some parking rules and rededicated parking enforcement officers to direct traffic instead.

This year’s estimated total of fine revenue is about $42.5 million less than what the city collected in 2010.

Believe it or not, however, not all fines are money-makers for the city. In a 2003 report, the IBO found that only parking tickets generated more money than it cost to enforce regulations and collect fines.

That's because the ECB dismisses a lot of fines, especially for developers. A building inspector could probably make enough money for the city in fines in one day to pay his yearly salary. But when $10,000 fines are regularly dismissed by ECB, that becomes unachievable. But it's funny how residents can seem to never get a parking ticket dismissed.

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Alcohol & food sold openly in parks by illegal vendors

From A Walk in the Park:

The city is losing millions of dollars in revenue annually from illegal vendors while the Bloomberg administration does little to combat the problem.

In Flushing Meadows Park it's a wild wild west, cat and mouse game as dozens of illegal vendors work openly in the 900 acre park. Women pushing "invisible babies" do brisk business selling alcohol from covered baby carriages, beer is hidden in sewers to avoid detection, while others sell food, ice cream, drinks and snacks and toys.

Licensed vendors say they can not compete. In Flushing Meadows Park alone ice cream truck concessionaires pay the Parks Department up to $ 32,000 annually in addition to Heath Department fees, liability Insurance, and in the case of Mr. Softee - a $ 3000 annual franchise fee, on top of the $ 85,000 - $ 120,000 required to purchase the trucks.

Mean while illegal vendors sell from make-shift home made push carts, baby carriages and bicycles that by-pass permits and insurance.

Legal vendors also note that the Parks Department sets the prices they are allowed to charge while unlicensed ones are not under the same constraints. Some legal ones have been forced to lower prices in order to try and compete.

Critics also point out that park patrons being allowed access to unlimited amounts of alcohal is a concern for getting behind wheel to drive home.
Illegal vendors take away revenue not only from owners but also from the workers who's salaries are often based on a percentage of what they sell.

Some vendors say they are under the constant threat of violence from illegal vendors while the city does little to protect them. They say you are lucky if law enforcement occasionally conduct sweeps and confiscate illegal items but nothing is constant and certainly there is not a permanent uniform presence needed to deter this activity.

Legal vendors say they constantly complain to the Parks Department's revenue division - who oversee the agency's vast array of concessionaires but their concerns fall on deaf ears. They complain that the city refuses to protect them while being told there's nothing they can do because they don't have the resources to address the issues.

There is not a single dedicated Park Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officer permanently assigned to patrol 900 acres of FMCP, the largest park in Queens.

__________________________________________________________________

I'm sure Holly Leicht of New Yorkers for Parks and Council Member Julissa Ferreras will suggest another conservancy to take care of this...

But seriously folks, it's become much easier and more profitable to do as you please rather than follow the rules in this town. What is the fine for illegal vending even if you were unfortunate enough to get caught?

I urge you to click the link at the top of this post and read the whole story. Illegal gambling, hiding booze in storm drains, legal vendors being harassed and told to vacate the park during the US Open - when they would likely make the most money. It's simply amazing what goes on in our parks. And no one does a damn thing about it.

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Cheap contractors arrested

From the Daily News:

A city contractor cheated workers out of nearly $600,000 on a taxpayer-funded affordable-housing project for seniors in Brooklyn, authorities said Wednesday.

Masonry Services Inc. and its owners, James Herrera and Jaime Herrera, have agreed to pay $600,000 in back wages and costs after a probe by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Between June 2009 and July 2010, the Brooklyn firm paid masonry workers on the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development project in Brownsville as little as $8 an hour even though it was legally required to pay more than $53 an hour, Schneiderman’s office said.

The case is the latest in a series brought by Schneiderman against HPD contractors for failing to pay prevailing wages, he said.

In March, the owner and two employees of Applied Construction Inc. were arrested on underpayment charges in the Bronx.

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Billboard owners want to be grandfathered

From the Daily News:

Two Astoria landlords are boldly advertising their displeasure with the city.

Paul Halvatzis and Steve Kesoglides are feuding with the city over billboards on their residential buildings, both located on the north side of Astoria Blvd. near the Grand Central Parkway.

In 2011, the city presented each man with a sky-high fine and informed them that the billboards — both of which dated to the World War II era — were out of compliance with the law.

The city won a ruling in 2010 that allowed the Buildings Department to crack down on longstanding signs near highways — if they didn’t have permits.

The owners are now fighting the city in Queens Supreme Court, demanding that the billboards be grandfathered for permanent compliance.

A decision is expected within the next few months, a lawyer for the owners said.

The Buildings Department went after Kesoglides — despite his permit — because billboards cannot be grandfathered into residential zones, said DOB spokesman Tony Sclafani.

The agency was empowered to issue fines after it won the 2010 billboard suit.

“That was created more than 40 years ago,” he said of the zoning. “By law, advertising signs are only allowed 10 years after a residential zone is designated.”

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Developer caught violating stop work order, fined

Before

After

From PaulGraziano.com:

Several weeks ago, a construction fence went up around 156-10 32nd Avenue, a quiet block in Broadway-Flushing across the street from Bowne Park.  The house's new owner, Jian Wen Zhu, had recently applied for an alteration permit known as an "ALT 1" which specifically states that over 50% of the building must be retained, including the basement or cellar. In other words, an alteration permit means just that: an alteration to an existing building, not a new building.

Two days later, the building was more than 50% demolished; within another two days, almost the entire building had been removed, except for two exterior wall stubs.

Paul Graziano, candidate for the 19th Council District, had contacted the local homeowner association as well as State Senator Tony Avella, and wrote a "Zoning Challenge" to the Department of Buildings, as it was clear that the architect on record, Ling Li, had self-certified a project that violated the R1-2A zoning - New York City's most restrictive - which covers much of Broadway-Flushing.

After a series of 311 calls were made and official complaints were lodged by residents of the area, the Buildings Department sent an inspector, who stated that 'No violation warranted for complaint at time of inspection; site is fenced, gated and secure with permits posted and current for ALT 1 - no workers on site.' 

"This was an outrage," Graziano stated, "as the complaint that was filed with 311 called for a Stop Work Order, as the demolition for the house far exceeded what an ALT 1 permit allows and the permit itself should not have been granted as the floor area was over what is allowed under the R1-2A zone. The 311 operator had listed that the complaint was concerned with safety, and the Buildings inspector responded to that instead of what they were supposed to."

One week later, the Department of Buildings finally responded to the correct complaint, after much pressure from Senator Avella, Graziano and local residents. On Thursday, July 18th, a Full Stop Work Order was served to the owner for demolition contrary to approved plans. However, the contractors at the site continued to work on Friday, July 19th and Monday, July 22nd.

On Monday morning, Graziano and a resident involved with the homeowners association confronted the foreman of the construction crew - which numbered at least a dozen - and engaged him in a heated exchange which lasted for more than 10 minutes. The foreman stated that he was allowed to work and "do maintenance" to the property, and that they hadn't done anything wrong. When pressed as to why there was a Stop Work Order and they were still working, he stated that "the house had some extra rot in it so we had to take down more of it than we thought." He followed this statement with a discussion about how this was America and it was the owner's right to build what he wanted.

That afternoon, again pressed by Senator Avella, Graziano and the homeowners association, the property was inspected by the Buildings Department a third time. A violation of the Stop Work Order was issued for "failure to obey stop work order" and a $5,000 civil fine was levied.

Now, the owner must apply for full demolition and new building permits as well as file new plans, which must be approved by the Department of Buildings.

"I'm glad the Department of Buildings finally did what they were supposed to do," said Graziano, "but it shouldn't have taken so long. More importantly, this house, along with all of the other teardowns that have occurred in the last decade, would have never happened if Broadway-Flushing had become a New York City landmark historic district as more than 85% of the residents have supported. The homeowners association and residents of this area have spent significant time, money and effort to protect their century-old neighborhood from speculative developers."

All of Broadway-Flushing was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and was downzoned in 2009 with the most restrictive "anti-McMansion" zoning in New York City (R1-2A and R2A), both of which were authored and designed by Graziano.

"Last week's victory against the developer who tried to break the restrictive covenants and split a corner property is wonderful and the Stop Work Order is welcome," Graziano stated, "but if Broadway-Flushing had been landmarked almost a decade ago as it deserves, neither of these - nor other - bad development situations would have happened. The house at 156-10 32nd Avenue was a beautiful house and there was absolutely no reason to tear it down in the first place. Should I be lucky enough to be elected by the people of the 19th Council District in November, landmarking Broadway-Flushing and our other historic neighborhoods in the 19th Council District will be one of my absolute top priorities to make sure this doesn't ever happen again."

Stop Work Order / Civil Penalty for 156-10 32nd Avenue can be viewed here:

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/OverviewForComplaintServlet?requestid=5&vlcompdetlkey=0001648878

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/OverviewForComplaintServlet?requestid=5&vlcompdetlkey=0001651663

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/ComplaintsByAddressServlet?requestid=7&allbin=4109856&fillerdata=A

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When developers request street tree removal

From Crain's:

Since a 2010 law was passed requiring builders to pay the city for chopping down healthy trees planted on the public sidewalk, Staten Island homebuilders have claimed examples like Mr. Molino's — where the contractor is charged tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars by the city for tree removal — are becoming more frequent and detrimental to their business.

"I'm a second-generation builder, and this has never been an issue until the past four years," said Frank Naso, president of the Naso Organization, which specializes in commercial and residential land development. "What's really happening is the Parks Department is devaluing [the future homes] on vacant land. The builder is eating the cost."

It seems counterintuitive that trees would have a negative effect on property values. But Mr. Naso sees little incentive in planting trees on vacant lots if a developer later must pay big sums to remove them to build on the land.

He is currently building two houses on Staten Island's North Shore that he hopes to sell for about $300,000 each. The city is asking him to pay $15,000 in restitution for trees that he says he needs to cut down to build. "If you pass that onto the homebuyer," Mr. Naso said, "you'd price them out."

But the flip side of debilitating costs carried by builders is that the Parks Department is attempting to put a monetary value on something as invaluable as a big, old tree. Mr. Molino's stately pin oak on Rudyard Street measured in with a diameter of 42 inches at "breast height," according to the city, which suggests an age of between 80 and 100 years. That made it rare: Less than 1% of the city's 592,130 street trees were that size or larger, according to a 2006 municipal tree census.

"Our No. 1 goal is to preserve and protect the urban forest of New York City," said Jeremy Barrick, deputy chief of forestry, horticulture and natural resources for the Parks Department. "Trees provide a benefit to the entire community. The way we protect those trees is by putting a replacement value on them that ultimately deters or makes it difficult to justify the removal of a tree. One three-inch [diameter] tree does not provide the same benefits in the here and now as a 42-inch tree."

Once a healthy tree has been deemed by Parks Department inspectors as an "unavoidable obstruction with construction," the city employs something called the trunk-formula method for calculating the value of the tree that must be removed and how to replace it. Factors scored on a scale include the tree's species and the condition of its trunk and foliage. Location is also a part of the math.

"We come up with a number of three-inch trees that are necessary to make up for that loss," Mr. Barrick said.

The city averages between 30 to 40 healthy-tree removals a year, Mr. Barrick said, and a handful of those cases have been challenged in court.

And this is why the developers just cut the trees down without permission. If Parks doesn't know ahead of time and can't measure the trees, there's no way they can adequately estimate the cost or the number of trees to replace them with. It probably costs less to pay a fine after the fact than to go through the permit process.

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City Council looks to fix restaurant grading system

From CBS New York:

Reform is on the menu for the controversial New York City restaurant inspection system.

As CBS 2’s Tony Aiello reported Monday, owners hope they will not be forking over so much dough in fines. They said the current health inspection system leaves them walking on proverbial eggshells.

“It’s absolute panic,” said Leonard de Knegt of Jerry’s Café. “One dead strawberry in a box coming from a vendor — one dead strawberry — can cost you $300.”

Restaurant owners said the city’s beefed up inspections, as they are currently administered, are arbitrarily tough. They said they are fed up with fines.

In the three years since the city cooked up its letter grade system, the amount of fines paid by restaurants has skyrocketed — from about $30 million a year to $50 million.

“Food safety is no longer the focus,” said City Councilman David G. Greenfield (D-44th.) “The focus, really, is about making a quick buck.”

City Councilmembers said the system is choking small business owners, and ripe for reform.

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Who should be liable for broken sidewalk?

From CBS New York:

A Brooklyn business owner has been forced by the city to cough up $30,000 to have his sidewalk repaired – but he says it is the city’s fault that the sidewalk is broken.

As CBS 2’s Janelle Burrell reported, Louis Gellman is the owner of the Hilna Tire Shop in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. His shop sits alongside the elevated subway tracks of the D Line.

“The vibrations now are so loud, it’s like a jackhammer — and it’s cracking up the sidewalk,” Gellman said.

As any other property owner in the city, Gellman is responsible for maintaining the sidewalk outside. And now, he said he has been asked to pay for damage he did not cause.

“Thirty thousand dollars to replace a sidewalk that I didn’t break,” he said.

Gellman showed CBS 2 pictures, which he said show city contractors parked on his sidewalk. He said their machinery, as well as broken pieces of rail that have fallen to the ground, and the sonic vibrations from the trains through the support poles all contributed to the $200,000 square-foot slab of concrete in front of the tire shop.

“The vibrations for the train is at 100 decibel points,” Gellman said.

$30,000 for a replacement sidewalk? Seems kind of steep.

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Get your junk off our poles

From the Queens Chronicle:

The placing of fliers, signs and posters around the city is an easy — and often free — means of advertising. Taping up signs for a missing pet or stapling a sign on a telephone pole pointing passersby in the direction of a garage sale is seemingly harmless but the line is fine.

“Forest Hills, south of Queens Boulevard has a long tradition of garage sales in the warmer weather,” Jon Torodash, a community activist and candidate for City Council, said. “These are often advertised by what are probably illegally posted but generally well-tolerated signs. Often we’ll also see fliers about missing pets.”

Recently, a series of posters advertising a day camp at Queens Gymnasia in Elmhurst were taped on trees along 69th Road in Forest Hills.

When asked to comment, an unidentified gentleman who answered the phone at the school said he did not know signs had been taped to trees in Forest Hills and that he would look into the issue and call back. He never did.

A few of the signs have since been ripped down. The distinction of what is considered a well-tolerated sign and a quality-of-life issue is, however, debatable.

According to the Department of Sanitation, “It is illegal for any person to affix any handbill, poster, notice, sign, advertisement, sticker or other printed material upon any tree by any means.”

Violators of this law face a $150 to $200 fine for first-time offenses. Second and subsequent offenses bump the fine up to a range of $300 to $550.

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Pedro sent to the clink for 5 years

From CBS New York:

Former state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., who pleaded guilty to tax fraud, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

Espada blew a kiss to supporters before deputy marshals took him out of courtroom. The once-influential politician was convicted previously in a separate case alleging he looted more than $500,000 from taxpayer-subsidized health clinics in the Bronx.

Espada founded and operated the Soundview Health Center for three decades until prosecutors accused him of turning the network into a personal ATM.

Prosecutors have said Espada spent some of the stolen funds on lobster dinners, the remodeling of his Westchester home, flowers for his wife and ponies for a grandchild’s birthday party.

Espada was apparently calm as he strutted into the courtroom on Friday, but that confidence was quickly erased as a judge handed the former Bronx State Senator five-years in jail. The sentence begins immediately, giving Espada no time to get his affairs in order.

Speaking before the sentence was handed down, Espada offered no signs of remorse.

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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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