Man's house torn down while he was in Florida

From NBC:

A law in New York’s biggest town allows the town to demolish homes deemed “dangerous” or “abandoned” — and it is affecting hundreds of people.

“This was the lot,” Phil Williams said as he stood in an empty yard in the West Hempstead neighborhood he once called home. “And as you can see, there is nothing left.”

Williams went to Florida in December 2014 for knee surgery. When he returned months later in August, his house was gone.

“I bought the house from my dad in 1974,” Williams recalled. “My wife and I lived there. We had six children that lived in the house.”

The Town of Hempstead tore down Williams’ house according to Chapter 90 of town law.

It’s a law that allows building inspectors to identify and demolish structures that they deem are dangerous or abandoned. Currently, the town is dealing with 850 open Chapter 90 cases.

The town’s definition of dangerous is defined, in part, as something that is "…unsafe structurally, or a fire hazard or a nuisance to the general public."

"The house was not a danger. It’s just a ridiculous statement," Williams said.

It wasn’t just the house that was a loss for Williams, though. Decades worth of personal belongings and memories — all of them, gone.

Now, he is taking the town to court.

Targeting Long Island's gang problem

From CBS 2:

Retired Suffolk County Police detective John Oliva specialized in gangs.

So why are gang members recruiting children as young as 10 or 11?

“It’s the age where can start getting into these kids’ heads,” Oliva said. “The recruitment sometimes occurs at home also. We’ve had it where three, four brothers in the same family part of the MS-13 street gang.”

Feride Castillo of the Empowerment Collaborative of Long Island works with young children in poverty.

“When we are talking about gangs, the dynamics are so complicated,” Castillo said. “We are talking about children sometimes even being born into families that are already involved in gangs.”

“It’s kind of hard dealing with the struggle and stuff like that, because, you know, you come from a gang-related home,” 13-year-old “Maria” said. “Like, oh I want to be popular, so I am going to be in the gang.”

Some females but mostly males make up Long Island’s estimated 1,000 gang members. Protection from bullying, a desperate need to belong and a yearning for respect are all reasons why Sergio Argueta joined at age 13 and led a gang for five years in Hempstead.

“A mode of survival is fight or flight, right? And oftentimes, kids are getting tired of being bullied, of getting picked on,” Argueta said.

It's not just here

From PIX11:

Nearly three dozen people were found living in a single-family home on Long Island in what police called “dangerous and hazardous conditions.”

Officers with the East Hampton Town Police Department served a search warrant at the house shortly after 6 a.m. on Monday, after the town’s Ordinance Enforcement Department issued an investigation into the property.

In all, 32 people were found to be living in the house.

Police said 18 of the inhabitants were found sleeping on mattresses in the basement near the gasoline generator and gasoline storage tank.

A better way to board up homes?

From CBS 2:

Broken, boarded windows are a telltale sign of a an abandoned zombie home. Throughout the tri-state area, they attract vandals and squatters.

In Massapequa, neighbors count as many as 50 eyesores dragging down property values.

Gaetine Hodnett lives next door to one such home. After complaining to the town of Oyster Bay, her local government responded with a first for Long Island.

The town has passed a law banning the use of plywood to cover windows and doors. Instead, owners and banks will have to use clear boards made of polycarbonate.

The clear boards, mandated elsewhere in the nation, bring light into an abandoned house and keep criminals out.

LI town has illegal conversion problem

From CBS:

Tucked outside of Stony Brook University, they often stick out like sore thumbs — run down, lawns torn up for parking — and neighbors fed up over an explosion of illegal off campus student housing.

“Weeds where flowers used to grow are no like 4 to 5 feet tall, there is garbage all over the street, and cars, we can’t get out of our driveways,” Diane Sander said.

“The deplorable conditions of the homes. If they would upkeep the houses and keep them neat and clean and trimmed, we wouldn’t even notice them,” Bruce Sander said.

Residents count more than 300 houses owned by absentee landlords who subdivide single family homes and pack in the renters.

“We have five in this house,” one student said.

Brookhaven town law prohibits more than four unrelated people under one roof.

And this is why we need border control...

Robert Capers

From the Wall Street Journal:

Sixteen alleged members of a Central American gang were charged Thursday for a range of crimes—including murder, assault and racketeering—in connection with three brutal slayings that rocked Brentwood on Long Island last year.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York accused the alleged members of the MS-13 gang of killing two Brentwood High School students by beating them with a bat and attacking them with a machete in September. Prosecutors also alleged they stabbed and beat to death fellow gang member Jose Pena, also a Brentwood High School student, in June.

“These were terrible, heinous crimes,” U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said.

The 13 adult defendants’ ages range from 18 to 29. Some go by nicknames: “Muerte,” “Big Homie,” and “Smiley.” Three additional defendants are minors.

Prosecutors are considering the death penalty for some of the defendants. Most of the others could be sentenced to life in prison, if convicted.

Ten of the adult defendants are illegal immigrants, Mr. Capers said. He declined to say whether federal immigration agents had inquired about them.

Small Long Island town has a big gang problem

From the NY Times:

Four dead teenagers. Two weeks. One town. And a ruthless gang, the authorities say, was most likely responsible for the toll. Again.

On Sept. 13, Nisa Mickens, 15, and her best friend, Kayla Cuevas, 16, were murdered, their battered bodies found near an elementary school here. A week later and just two miles away, the skeletal remains of two more teenagers — identified as Oscar Acosta, 19, and Miguel Garcia-Moran, 15 — were found in the woods near a psychiatric hospital. Oscar had been missing since May, Miguel since February. Their deaths have been ruled homicides.

Brentwood, a hardscrabble town of nearly 60,000 on Long Island, 40 miles east of Manhattan, has reached another crisis point. For nearly two decades, MS-13, a gang with roots in Los Angeles and El Salvador, has been terrorizing the town, the authorities say, especially its young people. Since 2009, its members have been accused of at least 14 murders, court and police records show.

School officials are scrambling. Police officers are searching. Students are frightened. Parents are anguished.

Tensions simmer here because some residents say they believe an increase in Central American migrants to town has led to the increase in gang violence. According to 2014 census figures compiled by Queens College, Brentwood’s population is 68 percent Latino or Hispanic, with more than 17,000 residents claiming to be from El Salvador.

Timothy Sini, who became the Suffolk County police commissioner 11 months ago, after his predecessor, James Burke, pleaded guilty to civil rights violations and obstruction of justice, has vowed to eradicate the gangs.

“There’s been a huge influx, to be honest with you,” said Ray Mayo, the president of the Brentwood Association of Concerned Citizens, who added that he was upset over undocumented immigrants crowding rental properties. “It seems like a whole new set of gang members who have stirred the pot up.”

We have plenty of MS-13 here in Queens but no one wants to talk about it. I wonder why?

Flushing couple pleads guilty to sex trafficking

From PIX11:

A couple from Queens and massage parlor manager have pleaded guilty in a “cross-county sex trafficking ring” after two women were forced to perform lewd acts on customers for several months, the Nassau County District Attorney said Friday.

Zhaowei Yin 49, and his wife Shuwen Ai, 47, of Flushing, pleaded guilty on Friday to two counts of sex trafficking, a felony, and two counts of promoting prostitution in the second degree.

Parlor manager Li Fei Leng, a 33-year-old also from Flushing, pleaded guilty to the same charges Tuesday.

Long Island fears becoming Queens

From Crains:

“A surprising solution for city’s housing dilemma” (May 4) correctly addresses a growing regional cohesion forming across Nassau and Suffolk counties concerning transit-oriented projects. The issue, however, is that the transit-oriented approach isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Each Long Island Rail Road station and downtown that surrounds it has a variety of factors and infrastructure limitations—beyond a NIMBY mentality that fears "Queensification" — that prevent the allowance of density.

Long Island’s locally sourced zoning is in place thanks to our area’s reliance upon a sole-source aquifer system that provides our drinking water and limited wastewater treatment options. Density is being increased in areas that can handle such growth and kept to a minimum in places where our antiquated roads and cesspools cannot mitigate against the impacts of development.

Long Island historically has fueled city growth by providing suburban living and an educated workforce. By thinking regionally, we can cohesively deal with our affordable-housing shortage, but we must respect the factors that make Nassau and Suffolk both challenging to develop in and appealing to their residents.

Rich Murdocco
Syosset, N.Y.

Isn't it comforting to know that there's a term called "Queensification" that basically means "crap"? And it dates at least as far back to 2005...
We all know exactly what it means, and this person unfortunately nailed it.

Beware of Chikungunya fever!

From WPIX:

The same insect that brought us the West Nile Virus is infecting people with a relatively new and painful illness.

It’s called Chikungunya fever, and it’s carried by recent travelers to the Caribbean where the virus is spreading at an alarming rate.

The mosquito-borne infection has surfaced in states across the country, including New York, which according to Senator Chuck Schumer’s office, has 30 confirmed cases. Three patients in the past six weeks were treated by Dr. David Hirschwerk, an infectious diseases specialist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Long Island.

“We have confirmed one case from the CDC. The other cases are presumed, but not yet proven because testing isn’t back yet,” said Dr. Hirschwerk, who noted the unrelated patients all traveled to the Caribbean.

Senator Schumer is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue an immediate health alert for medical professionals in New York and around the country.

FEMA guidelines making some communities ugly

From 1010WINS:

A house being built on the water in Freeport is being called “the monstrosity” by some neighbors.

The house on West Fourth Street stands 3 1/2-stories high, 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera reported.

Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy said in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy new codes allow for houses to be built high on tall concrete foundations.

“FEMA and New York Rising have authorized the raising of these houses, they want to increase the height, the elevation,” Kennedy told Rivera.

“As a result of Superstorm Sandy the requirements are more stringent as far as raising houses and protect them from flooding. In this application the code permits them to build the house that currently is on the lot.”

Officials believe they will receive more complaints as more houses are constructed.

Judge stymies town's bid to stay crap-free

From CBS New York:

A federal judge has ruled in a housing discrimination lawsuit against the Village of Garden City.

The judge ruled that Garden City violated the Fair Housing Act. WCBS 880′s Sophia Hall said.

The plaintiffs in the case, a group called ‘Communities For Change’ argued that the decision to adopt zoning for single-family and town homes instead of multifamily housing made affordable housing economically unfeasible.

Ninety-three percent of Garden City’s residents are white.

The judge said that Garden City has to set aside 10 percent of future multifamily developments for affordable housing. The village has 30 days to appeal the decision.

A village spokesperson said that zoning changes were not enacted with discriminatory intent.

Long Island town cracks down on illegal conversions

Glendale unites with Lindenhurst against stink trains

From NBC:

There's new outrage over plans to expand a recycling plant in Lindenhurst on Long Island. Some people who live nearby have been against the move, which they say would cause noise, odor and safety issues. And now neighbors in Queens are getting in on the fight. Greg Cergol explains.

Company plans more stink trains from Long Island

From the Queens Courier:

Residents and community leaders are trashing a company’s plan to increase garbage export from Long Island through their neighborhoods.

One World Recycling, which processes garbage in Lindenhurst, Long Island that is hauled by New York and Atlantic Railway through tracks in Middle Village, Ridgewood and Glendale, has applied to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to nearly triple its output from 370 tons of garbage per day to 1,100 tons.

“We’re going to have garbage all day and all night, that’s how we see it,” said Mary Parisen, chair of Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions (CURES). “We’re not happy about it.”

After One World applied, the community of Lindenhurst rejected the idea during a public hearing period that ended on August 16. But following procedure, the DEC has until 90 days after that date to review the application and make a decision.

With just about a month remaining until the deadline, community leaders in Queens are worried the DEC will make the wrong choice and plan to meet with agency officials to work towards a solution.

Arena owners battle on Long Island

From Crains:

Out on Long Island, it is shaping up as the heavyweight bout of the decade—the Knockout in Nassau County. It's a winner-take-all contest in which the prize, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming decades, is the right to rebuild and run the badly faded Nassau Coliseum.

In one corner stands a team captained by Madison Square Garden Co., a squad led by hometown heroes James Dolan and Scott Rechler, aided by MSG Chief Executive Hank Ratner. The Dolans control the island's biggest cable television network and newspaper, while Rechler is the island's largest office landlord. In the other corner is the Barclays Center team. Call them the Brooklyn Globetrotters, coached by developer Bruce Ratner with a bench that includes Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay Z.

Round 1 in the contest kicked off in May, with the announcement of four bidders, which was narrowed to just two the following month. Final proposals for the 63-acre property in Uniondale were submitted on Aug. 9. Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano is expected to announce a victor any day.

Both sides are aggressively swinging for the prize, which includes a share of ticket sales to events, dinner bills, bar tabs and receipts from the shops that both bidders plan to erect around the arena. The winner will control the property for 20 to 30 years.

Local officials say they are delighted at how the bout has shaped up—especially after two previous taxpayer-financed attempts to revamp the Coliseum went nowhere. Those setbacks prompted the Islanders hockey team to skate off to the Barclays Center, which will be its home as early as the 2014-2015 season.

"We're thrilled we have two industry giants prepared to reinvent the Coliseum," said Mr. Mangano.

For MSG, the contest is an opportunity to add another gem to the crown of its ever-expanding entertainment-venue business, which includes managing Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theater and the LA Forum. For Barclays, coming off a blockbuster inaugural year at its downtown Brooklyn arena, winning the Coliseum contract could mark the first step toward the launch of a business that not only competes with the Garden in New York City but around the world.

Goodbye, gold coast

From the NY Times:

Inside the mansion it looked as if all parties — and anything else that had taken place in the mansion since the Jazz Age — were most certainly over. Movers had carted away just about everything from the 87-room, Elizabethan-Tudor-style mansion, which was designed by John Torrey Windrim and completed in 1920 for Nicholas F. Brady, an industrialist who was the head of numerous utility companies.

It was named Inisfada — Gaelic for Long Island — and it was one of the grandest of the Gold Coast mansions on Long Island’s North Shore, with 37 fancifully decorated chimneys, stately slate roofs and a facade decorated with scenes from fairy tales. It served as the summer residence for Mr. Brady and his wife, Genevieve, who never had children. After her husband’s death, she donated the home in 1937 to the New York Province of the Society of Jesus, the local branch of the Jesuits, which turned it into a seminary and later the Saint Ignatius Retreat House.

But now, local civic groups fear that the building faces demolition. Inisfada and its 33 overgrown acres were listed for sale last year for $49 million. The Jesuits are on the verge of closing a deal with a developer from Hong Kong who some preservationists fear will knock down the building as part of a plan to create a gated community of luxury homes, said Richard Bentley, president of the Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations, which is mounting a grass-roots campaign to save the mansion.

It is unclear what the developer intends to do, since neither the Jesuits nor the buyers have addressed the issue publicly, but Mr. Bentley said he was under the impression that the developer’s plans did not include keeping the structure, because “They could avoid all this opposition and bad press by simply saying they’re preserving it.”

It's not just happening in NYC

From CBS New York:

A Long Island town is cracking down on illegal room rentals near the Stony Brook University campus.

The Town of Brookhaven has taken 68 landlords to court this year for allegedly illegally renting rooms to students in their single-family homes, WCBS 880′s Mike Xirinachs reported.

One homeowner reportedly rented rooms in his single-family home to 14 students, Xirinachs reported.

At least 30 other homes are under investigation.

Nearby residents have complained about loud parties and parking problems and said the issue is lowering property values.

“It hurts the resale value,” one resident said. “You see these poor people they had to sell the house, they’re losing money.”

Long Island group tries to save historic house

From CBS New York:

The house was built in 1900 by Civil War veteran George Sumner Kellogg. It is now owned by Nassau County, which plans to build a much-needed larger police precinct at the site.

“When I heard that this house – the Kellogg House – might be (demolished), it was sort of something that I just couldn’t sit quietly by,” said architectural preservationist Arthur Rollin.

History buffs stepped in to save what they called a remarkable time capsule.

“The shingles, the clapboards – a lot of exterior elements – in addition to everything, practically, on the interior, is original to when it was built,” Rollin said. “And it’s 113 years old, so that’s pretty rare to find.

Tubs, sinks and stained glass are also original. The arches are perfect examples of Queen Anne constructionform when Long Island was transitioning from farm land to suburbs.

The house faces what in 1900 was a wood-planked road, which later became known as Merrick Road. At the turn of the 20th century, it was lined with majestic homes of prominent families.

New York State last week deemed the house eligible as a national landmark. Nassau County officials have offered to move the house, but that could compromise its rare brick foundation with tree trunk supports.

HPD boss pleads guilty to bribetaking

From Newsday:

A Long Island man who once served as an official at the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development pleaded guilty yesterday to taking bribes from developers.

"I knew my actions were wrong and I deeply regret them," said a teary Michael Provenzano, former director of construction services at HPD, whose voice cracked as he admitted to Brooklyn U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon that he leaked inspection reports for cash.

Provenzano, 49, of Massapequa, faces up to 30 years in prison and is likely to receive 24 to 30 months under federal sentencing guidelines. He also agreed to forfeit $30,000 under his plea deal, and has resigned from HPD.

From 2004 to 2009, prosecutors alleged, Provenzano received $10,000 annual payoffs and liquor from a developer in return for supplying information on upcoming bids and inspection reports that allowed the developer to skirt prevailing wage laws.

In a related case, former HPD inspections supervisor Luis Adorno, 48, of Scarsdale, pleaded guilty to bribe-taking after Provenzano's plea yesterday. Former HPD Assistant Commissioner Wendell Walters pleaded guilty to a kickback conspiracy in March, and HPD-related corruption charges are pending against several others.