Bioswales or garbage pails?

From CBS New York:

Some Queens residents say new sidewalk gardens aimed at improving drainage may end up being more of a bother than a help, CBS 2′s Janelle Burrell reported.

The city is spending $2.4 billion to install more than 6,000 of the gardens, known as bioswales, throughout the five boroughs over the next five years. The gardens are engineered to extend five feet into the ground and can hold up to 2,500 gallons of rainwater.

Matt Mahoney, associate commissioner for intergovernmental affairs for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, said that alleviating the demand on the sewage system will save taxpayers $3 billion over the next 20 years.

But Pat Kannengieser, who said two of the gardens are slated to be added in front of her Middle Village home, said she is worried she will inevitably be the one left to maintain them.

“I see them also as catch basins for litter,” she said.

The DEP said it is paying the Parks Department to maintain the plots, but Kannengieser said the city plans to clean the gardens just once a week.

Okay, these will be maintained by Parks? Does anyone believe that? They don't have the money to do routine maintenance in actual parks, never mind along the curb.

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Nabe lacks sewers and is buried in horse crap

From the Queens Chronicle:

Caught in limbo on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, members of the Jewel Streets Block Association are frustrated that their community is forgotten by the city and used as a dumping ground by everyone else.

Elizabeth Watt, president of the group, gave a walking tour of her neighborhood to city and state representatives last Thursday, hoping that a message will get out that she wants action.

The Jewel Streets community, which residents have nicknamed “The Hole” because it lies many feet below the grade of Linden Boulevard, includes Sapphire, Amber, Emerald and Ruby Streets between South Conduit Avenue and the Lindenwood development of Howard Beach.

Comprised of fewer than 20 blocks, the Jewel Streets area, zoned R-4 residential, is home to a scattering of residents who are surrounded by vacant lots, abandoned cars, make-shift stables made of truck trailers, and piles of dumped garbage, construction debris and tires.

The community is one of only two small, isolated areas of Queens that are still not hooked up to the city sewer system.

Homeowners and city officials agree that, once sewers are installed, the vacant lots will be snapped up by developers and the neighborhood will get cleaned up.

But Watt hasn’t heard from the Department of Design and Construction or the Department of Environmental Protection since representatives came to her civic group’s meeting in June.

What makes the community unique, aside from the fact that residents are still waiting for sewer construction, is the proliferation of horse stables constructed from old trailers, vans and odd scraps of wood and metal.

The stables, some of which house other animals such as poultry, sit side by side and occupy roughly two or three blocks. Several homes, including Watt’s, are on the lots surrounded by stables.

“If I could afford to move, do you think I’d stay here?” said Watt, who, with several other residents of the area, has had an ongoing conflict with the stable owners.

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Keeping trash off the beach

From CBS New York:

The city has hired 100 young New Yorkers to help clean up trash on surrounding streets and storm drains that end up in the ocean.

“We remind people to clean up their litter. And one consequence of littering is that it can get to the beaches,” New York City Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Carter Strickland told Miller. ”People don’t think about it and they think that it’s a harmless activity. Of course, it makes the street look bad but also can end up on the beach where they spend their weekends.”

And even though superstorm Sandy hit almost nine months ago there’s still a lot of work to be done.

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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 closed.

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