All schools will be closed in Nassau County tommorow

 

  NY Post

 All private and public schools in Nassau County are closing for two weeks because of the coronavirus, officials said Sunday.

The shutdown starts Monday.

Nassau County Executive Lauren Curran made the announcement, saying she had discussed the matter with Gov. Cuomo and that that state was trying to address the issue of health-care employees with school-age children being able to continue to work while schools are shut, Newsday reported.

Your move Mayor de Blasio and Richard Carranza

Cross-sound tunnel plan dropped

From CBS 2:

A proposal to build a tunnel under the Long Island Sound connecting Nassau and Westchester counties has been dropped.

State Department of Transportation Commissioner Paul Karas said Thursday they decided not to move forward with the plan. Karas did not reveal further details as to why they are abandoning the plan.

A study previously estimated the tunnel could cost up to $55 billion.

Defining the border

"The border between Queens, NYC & Nassau County, Long Island isn't so clear in places. There really isn't a defining body of land or water which determines the border, so maps are required to be referenced. Features such as street sign and fire hydrant styles give some clues on which side of the border you're on."

Flushing couple charged with Long Island sex trafficking

From WPIX:

A Queens couple has been charged with sex trafficking after forcing two of their employees into performing sexual acts on customers in massage parlors they owned in Nassau County, a county prosecutor announced Thursday.

Zhaowei Yin, 49, and his wife, Shuwen Ai, 46, of Flushing were arrested by authorities following a months-long investigation by Nassau County police and District Attorney investigators.

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

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.

It's all about the contracts...

From CBS New York:

As CBS 2′s Carolyn Gusoff reported exclusively on Wednesday, the landscape has changed greatly in some communities where more than 200 stumps are all that are left of decades old Bradford pear and cherry trees.

“Every one of them is gone, it’s horrible,” Manhasset business owner Jamie Mazzei told Gusoff.

Residents said they don’t buy the county’s argument that Hurricane Sandy damaged all of the downed trees.

“There was some type of financial motive here because the more they cut, the more they got paid. And I think if there was a tree where there was any question that they could cut, they would cut,” Manhasset resident John Vlahakis said.

He told Gusoff he was aghast watching tree after tree get chopped down and begged crews to spare a few.

“There is nothing wrong with this tree and that’s how the majority of the trees were,” Vlahakis told Gusoff.

Looks Great Services removed the trees on behalf of Nassau County.

Looks Great is currently part of several law enforcement probes into how Sandy clean-up contracts were awarded, Gusoff reported.

The Huntington company was paid $200 to $5,000 per tree as required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA is ultimately responsible for repaying Nassau County for the cost of the tree removal and the replanting, officials said.

Hempstead also has illegal conversion problem

From WPIX:

Santos Herrera shared pictures of his six-year-old boy in front of the bedroom he died in when a bus slammed into the house Tuesday night. What was an apparent accident may now end in criminal charges however, but not against the bus driver.

The tragic Nassau County bus accident is exposing chronic problems in this town: rampant illegal pedestrian crossings and landlords running unregulated homes overstuffed with poor renters.

Landlord Leo DiLiberti, who owns multiple rental houses in Hempstead, was also at the home this morning with a crew demolishing what remained of the enclosed porch filled with mattresses and furniture. The Village has taken him to court previously for running a boardinghouse here and illegally converting the basement into bedrooms for a mother to use for her children. He pleaded guilty and paid a $500 fine. When asked about the six people occupying his first floor and whether the apartment is legal, he insisted it was legit, and defended it, saying, "What are you going to do? Sometimes they can't afford a regular apartment so they all have to chip in." But Village Inspectors were on the scene looking into whether the home was illegally converted.

Because Queens didn't already have enough crap

From the Daily News:

Add 50 million stinking gallons of pollution per day to the lengthy list of problems facing the Rockaways in the wake of Sandy.

That’s how much partially treated sewage has poured into the waters off the struggling Queens neighborhood since the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant in nearby Nassau County was damaged by the storm.

Not only does it reek to high heaven, it’s a problem that’s not likely to get fixed until Thanksgiving, Nassau County officials admitted Wednesday.

And it's coming at us from all directions.

Queens men charged with cigarette trafficking

From Bayside Patch:

A Bayside man was among five Queens residents arrested Friday in an illegal untaxed cigarettes trafficking bust, the Nassau County district attorney said.

Fei Yin, 24, of Bayside, was charged Friday with evasion of cigarette and tobacco product tax, Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice said. If convicted, he could face up to four years in prison.

Three men from Flushing - Maerong Gao, 57, Wai Ming Lui, 46, and Sauha Candy Lam, 35 - and another from Elmhurst - Duan Jun Zhang - were also arrested, the DA said.

The bust took place following a year-long illegal trafficking investigation and resulted in the seizure of more than 100 cases of cigarettes and $958,000.

Mad bomber in Jamaica

From Fox 5:

Police on Monday released surveillance video of a suspect in a string of possible bias-related firebombings in Queens on New Year's Day and announced $12,000 in reward money for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

One clip shows the arsonist tossing a lit Molotov cocktail that spilled its flaming contents onto the lawn in front of a home at 88-20 170th St. that also houses a Hindu temple.

Cops say the firebug is also behind similar attacks that took place at the Al-Khoei Benevolent Foundation Islamic center, the 179th Street Deli and a home at 146-62 107th Ave.

All of the incidents took place between about 8pm and 10:15pm on Sunday.

No one was injured, but the 107th Avenue home caught fire and was badly damaged.

Nassau County police are also investigating a similar incident in which a bottle filled with gasoline was thrown at a house on Glafil Street in Elmont around 9:40pm on Sunday.

The suspect in the Queens cases was described as a black man between 25 and 30 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches and weighing 200 pounds.

When last seen, he was wearing a black jacket and baseball cap, and he fled the scene in a light-colored, four-door sedan.

Police were looking into whether the fires were hate crimes.

Asian groups want senate districts redrawn

From the Times Ledger:

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said there are rumors swirling around that his district may be torn apart when the state Legislature redraws political lines next year.

An Asian coalition wants Avella’s district to encompass only Bayside, Bay Terrace, Oakland Gardens, Auburndale and all of Flushing, the senator told Community Board 13 last week.

If that plan goes through, Avella said his district “could change dramatically,” with 75 percent of the senator’s current district to no longer be represented by him.

Avella’s district covers northeast Queens, Whitestone, College Point, parts of Jamaica and Hollis and communities near the border with Nassau County.

The group said it made proposals to redraw all of the city’s state Senate and Assembly lines.

The Asian American Coalition for Redistricting and Democracy also wants Queens neighborhoods near the Nassau County border — Glen Oaks, Bellerose and Floral Park — to be put in a Long Island state Assembly district.

“At least in Queens, you share a commonality with the rest of the communities,” Avella said of residents who live near the Nassau County border.

Jerry Vattamala, staff attorney for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund — a group that is part of ACCORD — said the lines ACCORD drew up were done so minorities “can elect a representative of their choice.

“We did not draw these lines to get Asian Americans elected,” he said.

Rambling in Rosedale

Click photo for story

Dutch Broadway? Hmmm....

All along the border

Click photo for story.

Garden City: From classy to crappy

From Scouting New York:

Over the past few months, I’ve been getting letters from readers about an abandoned school in Garden City, Long Island, called St. Paul’s, on the verge of being demolished. Last Friday, I hopped the train with my bike and camera to have a look for myself.

A passionate public hearing regarding the matter was held on August 19th, and a final hearing will occur on September 30th. A town vote will then be taken, and St. Paul’s fate will be decided.

Suddenly, as I was taking pictures, it dawned on me: maybe the reason Garden City is willing to demolish St. Paul’s is because they’ve got similarly amazing buildings strewn all over town! Maybe clocktowers and gothic spires and beautiful brick work are commonplace in Garden City, to the point where one building won’t be missed.

I decided to take a little tour on my bike in search of something – anything! – as grand and impressive as St. Paul’s.

(This is where it gets good. Click the link, you won't be disappointed.)

LI tree chop reminds resident of Flushing

From Newsday:

Tree lovers in Port Washington started the workweek upset more than a dozen oaks were chopped down in front of a shopping center.

Frantic residents called town and state officials, the developers and a neighborhood beautification group, Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington, on Monday morning demanding to know why their beloved trees were removed.

"This is a community where when trees are taken down, it strikes a real nerve," the group's executive director Mindy Germain said Tuesday.

Germain's organization was instrumental in enacting a 2008 Town of North Hempstead ordinance that requires an arborist to weigh in before any trees are removed and for residents to receive due warning.

But because the shopping center on Port Washington Boulevard, near Campus Drive, is on a state road, the town's ordinance didn't apply. The state Department of Transportation issued a permit giving permission for the trees to be removed. Spokeswoman Eileen Peters said the project is to "renovate and rehabilitate the area" and that an arborist and landscape architect reviewed the request.

'The 50-year-old oak trees gave the area an "upstate feel," said resident Barbara Morrison, 53. "This is the worst time to cut down trees with birds nesting," she said. "It looks horrible. What does he want this place to look like? Flushing, Queens?" '

No! Anything but that!

Houses are half in, half out

From the Daily News:

The Brown family lives in a house divided: When they walk inside, a left turn puts them in Queens - and a right in Long Island.

The border between city and suburb bisects their 1,500-square-foot Colonial-style home, giving the Browns the best of both worlds along with twin addresses: 247-27 137th Ave. in Rosedale, Queens; and 103 Gold St. in Valley Stream, L.I.

"The kids sleep in Queens," says mom Myrna Brown. "And we sleep in Long Island."

Brown, husband Lawrence and their eight kids are among 84 homeowners living in Splitsville, with one foot in New York City and the other in Nassau County.

The residents in this strange parallel land straddle Rosedale and Valley Stream, Little Neck and Great Neck, and Floral Park and New Hyde Park.

Along with two addresses, the "suburb slickers" often share two school districts - and the chance to shop for cheaper utilities, cable rates and car insurance based on their home field's advantage.

Crap continues its march east

"6 Shoredale Drive, Manhasset
The foundation footprint must be 75X100 and 20 feet deep. Every tree on the property has been cut down. There's a sloppy fence to boot.
Most of it, including the whole house demo, all happened on a Saturday. No public polling, peep of it in the paper or in the mailbox.
Talk about bringing crap to 'new heights'!!" - Joe