Sunday, August 28, 2022
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Cops are on the Cuomo beat.
The Albany Police Department has been formally notified about the allegation that Gov. Andrew Cuomo groped a female staffer in an incident that may amount to a crime, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.
Cops haven’t launched an official probe but have “reached out to the victim’s attorney and offered up any other police assistance,” a police spokesman said.
“At this time, there has been no formal criminal complaint and there is no active criminal investigation,” spokesman Steve Smith said.
Cuomo’s acting counsel, Beth Garvey, acknowledged in a statement that state officials had referred the matter for possible criminal investigation.
“As a matter of state policy when allegations of physical contact are made, the agency informs the complainant that they should contact their local police department,” Garvey said.
The independent investigators spearheading the probe into sexual harassment allegations against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have launched a fact-finding website.
High-profile attorneys Joon Kim and Anne Clark are asking anyone with information relating to the investigation to come forward.
Those with relevant information can contact the investigators at 212-225-3100 for voice messages, 518-545-0870 for texts or via email at independent.investigations@ag.ny.gov, the site says.
Mario's son is truly getting thrown under the bus here. Love wins.
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Middle Village tops in dog plops complaints
Ridgewood Post
Middle Village has a shituation on its hands — the neighborhood has the highest number of poop complaints in the city, according to a newly released study.
The number of complaints in Middle Village increased by a shocking 205 percent from 20 complaints in 2017 to 61 complaints in 2018. The neighborhood has had 86 complaints or 57.7 complaints per 10,000 households so far this year, according to a Renthop study which analyzed 311 data.
Its runner-up, Westchester-Union Port in the Bronx, is far behind with just 19 complaints or 21.6 complaints per 10,000 households for the year to date.
Dog-owners in Maspeth also have been failing to pick up after their furry friends–based on the number of complaints.
Maspeth comes in at number three on the list of the most poop-filled neighborhoods across the city. It has had 20 311 complaints or 18.8 complaints per 10,000 households for people not picking up after their dogs this year, according to the study.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Not your routine stop work order
You can learn a new way to get an ECB violation every day around these parts.
And wait, there's more! The plot thickens...
There are a slew of complaints about this building, and they're interesting to read.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Woodhaven businesses being targeted for fines
From CBS 2:
Dozens of store owners in Queens say the city is cutting into their bottom line.
They’re being forced to take down their outdoor signs that they say are vital to their business.
A DOB spokesperson says they’ve received anonymous complaints about area businesses, and have to inspect once that happens. In a statement, the spokesperson said the department isn’t specifically targeting Woodhaven.
Local leaders aren’t satisfied.
“They weren’t aware they had to have a permit when the sign was put up,” Assemblyman Michael Miller (D-38th) said. “Now they’re being penalized for it.”
Miller is trying to find a compromise with the city. He’s hoping they can set up an amnesty period for business owners.
Store owners say the only thing falling will be their bottom line since as things currently stand, they have no way of advertising their business. Many say they bought their shop with the awning or sign already up, thinking everything was already up to code.
Sunday, October 7, 2018
Where the most selfish dog owners live
...a report from RealtyHop, which looked at 311 poop complaint data for New York City and other cities. With over 84,000 registered dogs in the city (which the city's Department of Health estimates is just 20 percent of the total dog population), there were 2,458 poop complaints logged in 2017, a decrease from the prior year.
Worst neighborhoods by borough
Average yearly complaint per 10,000 households in 2017
Soundview-Bruckner (the Bronx) 46
Ozone Park (Queens) 20.3.
Cypress Hills-City Line (Brooklyn) 19.1
Mariner’s Harbor-Arlington-Port Ivory-Graniteville (Staten Island) 18.0
Hamilton Heights (Manhattan) 11.5
Cleanest neighborhoods by borough
Average yearly complaint per 10,000 households in 2017
Stuyvesant Town-Cooper Village (Manhattan) 0.8
Brooklyn Heights-Cobble Hill (Brooklyn) 1.0
Co-op City (the Bronx) 2.1
Springfield Gardens North (Queens) 3.1
Grymes Hill-Clifton-Fox Hills (Staten Island) 6.9
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Flushing has its own "half house"
Similar to the Elmhurst Half-House, one of the earliest posts on QC!
Monday, June 12, 2017
Nightlife noise complaints are way up
City nightlife is bringing the noise — and the headaches, according to a report released last week.
An audit by the state comptroller’s office found the number of 311 noise complaints related to bars, clubs and other nightlife establishments soared from 38,000 in 2010, to more than 93,000 in 2015.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli called on the state Liquor Authority to take action against repeat violators.
“Establishments with hundreds of complaints lodged against them faced little or no repercussions. For the sake of city residents, more action must be taken to address noisy clubs and bars,” he said.
The report showed 277 businesses each received 100 or more complaints.
DiNapoli said the state doesn’t access 311 data readily and can’t adequately assess the complaints. He recommended the state Liquor Authority design and formalize a process to go over the data themselves.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Pols want to monitor restaurant inspectors
Queens lawmakers and small business owners gathered Tuesday at Flushing Town Hall to introduce a new bill aimed at protecting restaurants from unfair inspection practices.
State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing), state Sen. Jose Peralta (D- East Elmhurst), Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Howard Beach) and Assemblyman Clyde Vanel (D- Queens Village) said the bill would help lessen the amount of burdensome fines levied on small businesses that can not handle them.
The bill is intended to reform the New York restaurant health investigation system, according to Kim. As a teenager Kim saw his parent’s grocery store go bankrupt and close after suffering from what he termed overregulation, excessive fining and high rents.
According to Kim, the bill, titled “The Restaurant Owner Whistle Blower Protection Act” will establish an independent oversight body to receive complaints about health inspectors. Complaint intake will create a hotline and website in multiple languages, including Arabic, Bengali, and Chinese. Kim said the if the bill passes, the city must provide an annual summary report on total number of independent complaints, what type of complaints and investigative findings. Finally, restaurants owners will be given three opportunities to deny the inspections on sitet and request a new inspector. Every time the restaurant owner will pay a fee, $75 for the first denial, $150 for the second denial and $250 for the final denial.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Questions about Sanitation spending spree
From NBC:
The city's Department of Sanitation has seen a 13 percent payroll increase under Mayor de Blasio, but New Yorkers have lodged 24 percent more 311 complaints about missed trash collection in that time, leading some residents to wonder if taxpayer money is being put to good use. Chris Glorioso reports.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
MTA snow complaints take 15 days to resolve
Don’t you just love this response from the MTA in regards to a compliant I filed about a snow covered sidewalk at the top of the subway stairs at the F train 179th Street subway stop at Hillside Ave & 178th on the south side this morning, a couple of days AFTER the snow storm.
First the Mayor fucks over Queens, then the mayor keeps schools opened on Monday even though many streets and sidewalks have not been plowed in Queens, then the Mayor blames the residents, then the MTA states in regard to a complaint of a snow covered sidewalk at the entrance to one of the subway stops, then they make a statement of “do not reply to this email, as it will go to an unattended email box.”
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
There's still way more homeless people out there
Complaints about homeless on the street have skyrocketed since Mayor de Blasio came into office — with calls to the 311 hot line jumping 127 percent, the most recent stats reveal.
Overall complaints stood at 29,159 in 2015, compared with 12,848 in 2013, the last year Mayor Mike Bloomberg was in office.
Calls over street encampments — which de Blasio recently boasted had been all but eliminated — have also skyrocketed since 2014, with 311 calls on the subject jumping 93 percent, from 3,045 in 2013 to 5,877 in 2015, city data reveal.
Just last week, de Blasio referred to the encampment problem as resolved.
The number of complaints from homeless people has also steadily increased. In 2013, the number of 311 complaints about shelter conditions stood at 8,629, city records revealed. In 2014, it rose to 9,077. And last year, it shot up to 12,319.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Queens has fewest complaints against NYPD
The borough's precincts tallied the lowest number of complaints against its officers in the city, according to statistics from the comptroller's office.
None of the precincts in Queens made it into the top 15 precincts on Stringer's list.
The 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway came in second in the borough, with 35 claims on 864 crimes, which is 4.05 percent, while the 104th Precinct, which covers Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village and Maspeth, had just four complaints out of 1,510 crimes — the lowest number of complaints in the entire city.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Subway service on the decline
There is a lot of unwanted intimacy underground these days.
Subway riders are being squashed together on increasingly crowded trains, new data revealed Monday — and lack of basic manners getting in and out of cars is contributing to a spike in delays.
Weekday trains experienced overcrowding delays a staggering 14,843 times in December — the most recent month for which data were available.
That is a 113 percent increase from a year earlier.
There's also more trash.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
18 months for Baldeo
Albert Baldeo, a former City Council candidate and Queens district leader, was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison for tampering with witnesses during investigations into his failed 2010 campaign for Council.
Baldeo allegedly provided a number of straw donors with funds to donate to his 2010 campaign. When he discovered the F.B.I. was investigating, he pushed the donors not to cooperate with the investigation and to provide false information.
He went so far as to make complaints to the city’s buildings department about properties owned by the family of one of the donors, according to Bharara's office.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
More graffiti this year
Complaints of graffiti are on the rise in New York City, according to the NYPD.
There have already been over 4,000 complaints this year — which is about five percent more than last year.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Graffiti complaints spike in Woodside
Graffiti complaints in the neighborhood have more than doubled so far this year compared to the year before, according to data, an uptick that some advocates attribute to aggressive reporting.
Since Jan. 1, there were 211 complaints made to the city's 311 system about graffiti in the 11377 ZIP code, which covers Woodside and includes small parts of Maspeth, Sunnyside and Elmhurst, according to stats found on NYC Open Data.
That's up from the 96 graffiti complaints the city received in the ZIP code through Oct. 13, 2013, an increase of nearly 120 percent.
This year's numbers are also 9 percent higher than the same period in 2012 when there were 193 calls about graffiti, city data shows.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
This just in: The rats are out of control
Citizen complaints about pests to the 311 hotline plus online reports went from 22,300 in fiscal year 2012 to 24,586 the next year, city Comptroller Scott Stringer said Sunday.
"Rats are a daily, stomach-turning insult to New Yorkers—whether they're scurrying over people's feet on the sidewalks, invading homes where children sleep or swarming through restaurants," Mr. Stringer said.
Mr. Stringer said an audit conducted by his office found that the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene isn't managing its pest control program effectively. The audit said health inspectors didn't always follow their own protocols, and in 160 cases, no field inspection was conducted.
"Without a vigilant and timely response by the city to citizen complaints, this problem will come back to bite us again and again," he said.
The health department issued a statement saying the agency "strongly disagrees" with the audit and is taking a proactive response to exterminating pests in the city.
Start inside the City Council chambers...
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
#1 complaint for MTA is presence of homeless
The MTA referred to the police more rider complaints about the homeless than any other quality-of-life issue, records show.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority forwarded 122 gripes about the homeless to the police for possible action and intervention this year. That’s 42% of the 288 rider complaints the MTA passed along to cops. The second-highest category was graffiti and other vandalism, and third was subway acrobats.
Most of the complaints about the homeless were from riders who felt threatened or endangered, or believed that homeless people posed a danger to themselves, MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said.
The NYPD has a homeless outreach unit in the subway. The city Department of Homeless Services, the police and the MTA next month are launching an expanded effort to entice the subway’s homeless to get mental health and other assistance, and to move out of stations and trains.