Queens is Burning: Seven homes destroyed from a massive fire in Queens Village

 

NY Post

A massive fire ripped through Queens Saturday afternoon, injuring 14 people — including 11 firefighters — and damaging multiple buildings, leaving dozens of residents displaced, officials said. 

The blaze began just after 4 p.m., at a two-story residence at 88-21 Francis Lewis Boulevard in Queens Village, before quickly soaring to five alarms and spreading to seven buildings, according to FDNY officials.  

Over 200 firefighters, EMTs and paramedics responded to the fire, which was brought under control in about two hours, officials said. 

 This was a very fierce fire, and it spread to seven buildings and into the rear and garage area,” FDNY First Deputy Commissioner Joseph Pfeifer said. 

The majority suffered heat-related injuries and were taken to local area hospitals to be treated. 

Dozens of people were estimated to have been displaced, said Frederic Klein, a spokesman with the Red Cross, which was on the scene aiding victims.

The organization said it had registered seven households — consisting of 22 adults and 10 children — for emergency assistance, including temporary lodging and financial assistance.

 In an alley behind Francis Lewis Boulevard where residents parked their cars, at least three vehicles had been charred to a crisp.

 

Squatters rejoice!

 

 

QNS 

Queens accounted for the most foreclosures among the New York City boroughs in the first quarter of 2024, with 191, according to a report by the real estate agency PropertyShark.

These 191 foreclosures accounted for 45% of the 424 cases that occurred in New York City this quarter. Its volume was equivalent to the amount of first-time filings in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island combined. This amount of foreclosures also marked the most in Queens since there were 294 in the first quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The 11377 zip code, which covers parts of Woodside, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Sunnyside and South Astoria, earned the designation as the foreclosure epicenter of New York City. There were a total of 31 foreclosures that occurred within that zip code for the first quarter this year.

 

Miracle on Pinegrove St.

 

The old Van Sicklen house that was demolished for new housing went from one house to four houses in three months.

 

This looks like two family homes with potential basement studio apartments. Which will probably be legal with the "City Of Yes" doctrine that's about to be implemented to fast track new development.

 

 

 

What's all this bullshit being said lately that building new housing in New York City is illegal?

 

Goodnight YIMBY.

NYC City Planning Department and their urbanish declaration of independence from communities

 

 Cityland

On October 17, 2022, the Department of City Planning will host an information session regarding the proposed “City of Yes” zoning text amendments. The “City of Yes” amendments, announced in June, aim to resolve obstacles that prevent the creation of more housing, remove certain zoning limitations to encourage economic growth, and support sustainability.

Earlier this summer, CityLand published a series of articles regarding the three proposed text amendments. While the Department of City Planning has yet to release a draft of the text of the amendment, the agency has updated its website recently with some more information.

The Zoning for Zero Carbon amendment would amend zoning regulations that place restrictions on the placement of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and limits on the amount of rooftop that can be used for solar panels, and increases energy efficiency requirements. For more information from the City’s webpage, click here.

The Zoning for Economic Opportunity amendment will remove restrictions and limitations on what types of business are allowed in commercial districts; removing restrictions on dancing in bars and restaurants in line with the City’s 2017 repeal of the Cabaret Law; support for the reuse of existing buildings for other purposes; and provide more flexibility for small-scale production spaces among other things. For more information from the City’s webpage, click here.

The Zoning for Housing Opportunity amendment will address the City’s housing shortage. The proposed amendment will increase opportunities to use different housing models, including two-family houses, accessory dwelling units, small apartment buildings, and shared housing models. The amendment will also expand opportunities to build affordable and supportive housing and reduce certain parking requirements. The amendment will also make it easier to convert obsolete buildings into housing and make it easier for home and property owners to alter and update their buildings. For more information from the City’s webpage, click here.

 

Rockaway hipster hideaway gone away

 

 

This looks like a nice place for a family to rent in Rockaway Beach, but prospective tenants might want to have the entire place and backyard powerwashed before they move in. For this previously was one of the Rockaway Hideaway lodgings that were being rented out for a ludicrous fee of $600 per guest during the pandemic.

 

Wonder if the outhouse shower is still there too? Blech. 

I guess they had trouble getting suckers after all those shootings and killings on the peninsula this year. 

Update:

Looks like the outhouse shower is included. These people must have been raised in a barn.

NYC Comptroller to Hurricane Ida flood victim homeowners: drop dead

PIX 11 News 

 New York City’s comptroller’s office shot down the thousands of people who filed financial claims against the city in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

Historic flooding from the drenching downpours destroyed the homes of many in 2021. In the aftermath, 4,703 people filed complaints with the city because of the flooding, as first reported by THE CITY. Each complaint was denied, a spokesperson for Comptroller Brad Lander’s office said. Letters went out to New Yorkers explaining that New York is not legally responsible.

“For over a century, courts have held that municipalities across the state of New York, including the City of New York, are not liable for damage from ‘extraordinary and excessive rainfalls,'” Lander wrote to New Yorkers in the denial letter. “Where damage is caused by negligent action or omission on the part of the City of New York, the City may be liable; however, that was not the case here.”

Ida dumped as many as 9 inches of rain in parts of New York City on the night of Sept. 1, 2021, according to the Department of Environmental Protection. In just one hour, 3.15 inches of rain fell in Central Park, breaking a record.

“As a result, the City of New York is not responsible for losses arising from Hurricane Ida, and your claim must be denied,” Lander wrote.

New Yorkers whose claims were denied can sue the city at any point within 1 year and 90 days of Ida, according to his office. That gives people until late November of 2022.

THE CITY 

Nearly a year after the remnants of Hurricane Ida flooded the Forest Hills one-bedroom apartment where Heidi Pashkow and her husband live, the couple is finally beginning to settle back into their first-floor home of over four decades. That’s after living with their son’s family for about nine months and spending almost $30,000 on repairs, Pashkow said.

She received a couple thousand dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and filed a negligence claim against the city for damage caused by sewer overflows in the storm, in the hopes of receiving some money.

Pashkow said she was “shocked” when she received a letter on Monday from City Comptroller Brad Lander completely denying her claim.

She wasn’t the only one: 4,703 New Yorkers filed claims against the city after their homes flooded during Ida. All 4,703 were denied, according to the comptroller’s office.

The crux of the claims is that the city’s negligence in sewer maintenance led to flooding damage.  

The storm killed at least 13 people in New York City on Sept. 1, 2021, as it dumped over three inches of rain in a single hour on Central Park, shattering previous rainfall records — and overwhelming the city’s sewer systems, which were built to handle rainfalls of under two inches an hour.

The comptroller’s office says it investigates each claim to determine whether city negligence led to the flooding. But the decisions rely on precedent set by a case from 1907 that ruled municipal governments are not liable for damage from “extraordinary and excessive rainfalls” — even if the city’s sewer system was under capacity.

“As a result, the City of New York is not responsible for losses arising from Hurricane Ida, and your claim must be denied,” read letters sent by the comptroller and obtained by THE CITY.

Pashkow said she thinks the city is “absolutely” at fault because it oversees the infrastructure.

“I could challenge it and say, ‘Well, if you had your sewer fixed, it wouldn’t be a problem,” Pashkow said. ​​

“No one is moving back on the first floor, only me and the super,” she said in a separate text message Tuesday. “All are paranoid and so am I when it rains.”

Cambria Heights houses make history

 

Queens Post

Two residential areas in southeast Queens were designated historic districts yesterday by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The commission created two separate historic districts—the Cambria Heights-222^nd Street district and the Cambria Heights-227^th district. Both areas, which consist of Tudor-style houses, have traditionally been occupied by the African American and Afro-Caribbean communities.

The districts contain row houses built in 1931 that are remarkably intact along two blocks, according to the commission. The Cambria Heights – 222^nd Street Historic District contains 46 row houses between 115th Road and 116th Avenue and the Cambria Heights – 227^th Street Historic District, which is five blocks away, contains 50 houses between 116th Avenue and Linden Boulevard.

“The designation of these two historic districts, the first in Cambria Heights, was a priority for me and fits within LPC’s equity framework, as we seek to increase designations in communities not well represented by landmarks, and to better tell the story of all New Yorkers,” said Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Sarah Carroll.

The 222^nd and 227^th Street Historic Districts, according to the commission, consist of two cohesive and intact groups of Storybook-style row houses incorporating Tudor-style elements.

The Storybook style is primarily associated with California, where it flourished as a small-house style in the 1920s—influenced by fantasy architecture and movie backdrops. Storybook features of the 227th Street houses include half timbering, diamond-pane windows and stucco with brick and stone accents, as well as whimsical red, blue, and green slate shingles.

The 222^nd Street houses feature Tudor-arched window openings, brightly colored terra-cotta roofs and windows, brick facades with random stone accents, and whimsically decorated chimneys with patterned brick and stucco panels. The design of the row houses gives the street a “stage-set” quality consistent with the Storybook style, of a Hollywood backdrop or fairytale illustration come to life.

Initially, residents of both 222^nd and 227^th Streets consisted of mainly white middle-class families. Black families began moving to Cambria Heights by the 1950s and the makeup of the community began to change.

By the 1980s, immigrant families from Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Barbados moved to the area. Today, Cambria Heights remains one of several prosperous predominantly Black residential communities in Southeastern Queens.

“These homes are significant not only because of their appearance but also because of what they represent to the communities…that the American Dream was within reach,” said Mayor Eric Adams.

Ozone Park looks like Bedford Falls

The lots by the Aqueduct train station has finally come to use.

Huron St. rowhouses are actually in context. 

 

Last but not least, another McMansion similar to the monstrosity on the corner of the Hawtree St and the fork at Conduit Blvd and Albert Rd has materialized as well. 


 

CBS catches up with illegal airbnbs in houses at Arvene on the Sea

 CBS New York

 A controversy over property rentals is heating up in a beachfront community in The Rockaways.

Some homeowners are being accused of taking advantage of a city program to cash in on a major tax break, CBS2's Lisa Rozner reported Wednesday.

It's prime waterfront property: several homeowner communities made up of around 1,500 homes known as "Arverne by the Sea" in the Rockaway peninsula were built in the early 2000s as part of an urban renewal project.

The city designated it an "urban development action area project," which means homeowners would get a huge break on their taxes.

"We were also first-time homebuyers, so that was helpful," homeowner Adam Linet said. "Our tax rates are probably around 25 percent of what they would normally be."

It was a great deal, which is why the Department of Housing Preservation and Development required every homeowner make it their primary residence.

"One of the same zip codes that has among the deepest pockets of poverty in the entire city of New York. So, this was a real opportunity for folks who had been stuck in generational poverty," Assemblyman Khaleel Anderson said.

In February, a Department of Investigation report uncovered at least 15 homeowners violating the primary residence requirement, receiving in total more than $1 million in tax exemptions. Seventy properties had tax bills mailed outside of the development and one couple even turned its home into a fully licensed bed and breakfast.

Three months after the findings, Inn Your Element is available on reservation web sites. CBS2 also found on Airbnb entire homes available for $350 a night, another for $288, so residents believe there are many more homeowners violating the policy.

"I don't feel safe when so many people are coming in and out of a house," one woman said. "There are addresses that have been turned into three rental units rather than two."

"We have trash issues. We have quality-of-life issues with noise complaints," Linet added.

Finance records show one man who is a real estate investor according to LinkedIn owns at least three properties and also has an address at a luxury high-rise rental building in Manhattan.

Emails and calls to him and other alleged absentee homeowners were not returned.

CBS New York also caught up with yours truly who did a story and synopsis about this continuing scandal on Impunity City back in March. Looks like Mayor Adams and his HPD Dept are not going to do anything about this. Bunch of lily-livered scalliwags.

Queens is still the city's bastard stepchild

Foreclosing going up in the world's borough

 

 Queens Chronicle

The latest Property Shark report, which was released last week, revealed that since the eviction moratorium came to a close in January, first-time scheduled foreclosures and preforeclosures filings have steadily made a climb in Queens.

While Brooklyn has the most foreclosures and preforeclosures in the city the first quarter of 2022, the World’s Borough is not too far behind on both fronts.

Since the end of the moratorium, there have been 87 first-time foreclosures throughout the city and lis pendens, or preforeclosure filings, have jumped by 13 percent citywide compared to the first quarter in 2020.

In Queens, there were 31 foreclosures, most of which were in the 11434 ZIP Code, which encompasses parts or all of Hollis, Jamaica, St. Albans and South Jamaica. There were also 237 preforeclosure filings — a 54 percent increase from the first quarter 2020, according to the report. Brooklyn had 35 foreclosures and 530 lis pendens filed.

There were 12 foreclosures in Manhattan, nine in the Bronx and none in Staten Island, according to Property Shark. Respectively, they also had 32, 74 and 150 preforeclosures.

The city’s homeowners have increasingly felt the economic pressures caused by the pandemic, said City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica).

“Housing is New Yorkers’ top priority for having safer neighborhoods, and our city must focus on keeping people in their homes,” said Adams via email. “We know that Black and brown homeowners in neighborhoods, like those I represent in Southeast Queens, have historically been at greatest risk of foreclosure and losing the generational wealth built over many years, which we must defend.”

Year after year, the city has funded a multimillion-dollar Foreclosure Prevention Initiative, which remains in the current budget to provide assistance to distressed homeowners, she added.

“In its Preliminary Budget Response, the Council has also proposed a property tax rebate for homeowners, which would provide overdue relief,” said Adams. “These are priorities we support to keep New Yorkers in their homes during this crisis.”

Homeowners who have fallen behind or need help navigating the complicated process or who want to avoid foreclosure can get free legal service by contacting the Center for NYC Neighborhoods network at (646) 786-0888.

Councilwoman Nantasha Williams (D-St. Albans) was disheartened that her district, 27, continues to take the brunt of the foreclosure crisis, which has become a recurring issue.

Down in the hole

 

 THE CITY

Clement Bailey didn’t know what to expect when he moved from Flatbush just as the city shut down in March 2020

He’d bought a two-family house in The Hole, a low-lying neighborhood wedged between South Conduit Avenue and Linden Boulevard that straddles the border lines of East New York, Brooklyn, and Lindenwood, Queens.

Some call it the “Jewel Streets” neighborhood, for thoroughfares with sparkling names like Sapphire, Emerald, Amber and Ruby. But the area sits below the city’s municipal sewer network. With swampy flooding, septic seepage and illegal dumping, the atmosphere is lackluster.

“I can’t stand these conditions, honestly. I’m not used to living like this,” said Bailey, 29. “Everything inside the house is pretty peaceful, but when you step outside the door, you have to deal with all the water issues, the garbage issues. It’s not really appealing.”

A construction worker, he bought the house for his mother and sister to live in. But his mother died last year, and so he’s been living there with his sister.

In The Hole, many homes aren’t serviced by the city’s sewers and instead use septic tanks, which tend to overflow when there’s rain. There are no stormwater drains, so Bailey and his neighbors often navigate lakes of standing water in the streets. Abandoned vehicles sit in empty lots. Paved roads are inconsistent. Strewn trash abounds.

And it’s been this way for decades.

Plans to address the issues have long been stuck in the muck: Twenty years ago, the Giuliani administration proposed elevating the streets and installing sewers in the area. The plan’s been included in the city’s capital budget for at least two decades. Yet nothing was ever done. The most recent “request for proposals” on the project went out in 2019, but remains on hold, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

Ida flood homeowner victims are still getting shafted by Biden

Queens Post 

Nearly four months after the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed 13 New Yorkers, residents in the hardest-hit areas like Woodside are still struggling with government agencies for financial assistance to repair flood damage.

Many of the victims allege that the damage to their homes is the result of the city’s failure to fix the drainage and sewerage system. They cited decades-long calls for updates to the sewer system.

Linda Carlson, who has lived in her Woodside home since 1994, took on four feet of water when Ida struck on Sept. 1, with three inches of rain falling in just an hour. A contractor quoted her $34,000 in damages. “I was one of the lucky ones,” she said.

Carlson was approved for $11,773.68 in assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, more than what many of her neighbors were approved for, she said.

She was granted an additional $1,419.86 when she appealed the offer—and said others affected by Ida should also contest what’s offered. “Everybody should. This was caused by the city,” she said. “We’ve been fighting for decades to have the infrastructure upgraded.”

Danette Rivera nearly drowned in her Woodside home where she’s lived for 14 years. Her son, who is legally blind, had to pull her out of the basement through a small window as it filled with seven and a half feet of water, she said.

“I’m grateful that I’m a survivor. Not everyone has that story to tell,” she said. “But I’m angry, I’m upset and I’m pissed off. This shouldn’t have happened to me, and it shouldn’t have happened to anybody else. People shouldn’t have died.”

Rivera, who estimates that the cost to repair the damage to her home is about $64,000, also applied for assistance from FEMA, but would not say how much she was offered.

The amount she was approved for fell well short of the cost of the damage, she said.

Like Carlson, she appealed her offer, but received a letter asking for documentation she said had already been sent to the agency. “The appeal process seems like it’s a gimmick,” Rivera said. “Basically, it’s like a runaround.”

FEMA spokesman Scott Sanders told the Queens Post late last year that there could be a variety of reasons why someone might receive less funding than they had hoped. “If you gave me a thousand different applicants, there’s a thousand different stories in there,” he said.

Federal disaster funds, he said, are “not a substitute for insurance. It can supplement insurance, but it can’t duplicate assistance people may get from other sources.”

Majority Leader Senator Schumer has a lot of 'splaining to do also.

 

Here's the majority leader emphasizing that homeowners will be grants and all damages will be paid for.

If only these residents can sue the city for infrastructure negligence pic.twitter.com/WdaNLMFo89

— JQ LLC: Impunity Swagger (@ImpunityCity) September 7, 2021

The Corona and Rego Park Horrors

 

 

Impunity City

 Located on Van Doren St. abutting 108 St and Corona Ave., this multi-family house has been abandoned for over a decade. And according to Department of Buildings records, it hasn’t been inspected for a decade as well. Apparently there was interior work being done on this home the last time the DOB was here in 2011 and after a bathroom collapsed through the ceiling and the ticket was resolved, the owner and the DOB just gave up on it.

 

 

But it’s not the only shithole in the Middle East of Queens, about 5 miles away in Rego Park stands another abandoned formerly modest two-family house. on Wetherhole St, just a hundred feet from bustling Woodhaven Blvd and a quick walk from the Queens Center Mall.

 

Ida flood homeowner victims and basement tenants got shafted by Biden

 

 Gothamist

 President Joe Biden and a contingent of federal, state, and local officials toured flood-ravaged sections of Queens earlier this month in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ida, promising speedy relief to homeowners and renters. Impacted residents were told about the $32,000 maximum payout they could expect to receive to help them recover.

But two weeks later, many are realizing it's far less simple than they were promised.

Officials are now telling residents that funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency aren’t intended to cover all of the damage caused by Ida. Instead many residents are being directed to apply for low-interest loans they’ll eventually have to repay through the U.S. Small Business Administration to defray any costs FEMA won’t cover.

“What the f--k?” said Erika Kasouto, 41, when she was told to apply for a federal loan in one of several calls to FEMA agents. The Woodside home she lives in with her parents took in five feet of water on the ground level. “It’s ridiculous. It’s disheartening.”

Despite assurances from elected officials in the immediate aftermath of the flooding, FEMA representatives have since tried to clarify on their hotline, through email, and at the city’s disaster service centers set up after Ida that grant funding is only intended to cover the essential costs of someone staying in their damaged home.

Several residents from hard-hit areas like Woodside, East Elmhurst, and Hollis told WNYC/Gothamist about similar correspondence with FEMA. And federal officials confirmed as much, adding that homeowners would likely qualify for the maximum $32,000 payout if their home was destroyed. People can qualify for a loan and still receive a FEMA grant, officials said.

THE CITY

 Two weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Ida tore through the city, killing 13 people, basements across the city are still drying out as many New Yorkers struggle to recover from the punishing storm.

With millions of dollars in federal assistance now unlocked for the city, some households that saw rivers of rain and sewage pour in will have a lifeline to begin repairing and rebuilding.

But that help isn’t for everyone.

Left out of Federal Emergency Management Agency aid are undocumented immigrants — many of whom live in the Queens neighborhoods that were pummeled hardest.

“I’ve lived in this country for four years and this is the first time I’ve lived in a basement. I was looking for affordable housing,” Marlén Romero, a 32-year-old Corona resident, told THE CITY in Spanish.

Her home and belongings were drenched as Ida dumped more than seven inches of rain in an hour on parts of the city, flooding her apartment with about two feet of water.

“I had no idea that living in a basement would be so dangerous,” she said.

A native of Mexico, Romero and her husband are both undocumented, which would shut them out of federal disaster assistance. But her family may still qualify for assistance because the couple’s 4-year-old daughter is a U.S. citizen.

“It’s not fair for all of us who are undocumented who don’t have someone ‘legal’ in their households. We live in basements so we can save some money because rent in this city is so expensive. Our income doesn’t stretch that far to get a better home,” she said.

She only learned that there was financial aid available for flooding victims through a local community group, Familias Unidas, when a school social worker mentioned it as her daughter began preschool earlier this week.

 

de Blasio NYPD floods the flood zones in pursuit of basement landlords

 

Gothamist

Police officials are investigating the six incidents in which basement apartment dwellers lost their lives during last Wednesday's storm, opening up the potential for criminal charges against homeowners who may have created dangerous conditions for their tenants.

Of the 13 people who were found dead in New York City, 11 were trapped in a flooded basement, and the Department of Buildings has said that five of the six of these were illegally converted basement or cellar units.

Multiple agency investigations into building-related deaths are not unusual. Following its investigation, the NYPD may elect to refer the case to the Queens or Brooklyn District Attorney's office. Five of the homes where people died were located in Queens, while one was in Brooklyn. The one basement apartment which was a legal unit was located on Grand Central Parkway in Queens.

During his morning press briefing on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio was vague about what kinds of punishment homeowners who rented their basements illegally might face.

 "We are going to hold people accountable, but not in a way that punishes the tenants," he said.

The mayor called regulating illegal basement apartments a "Herculean task." Across many neighborhoods, such units offer an affordable housing option to low-income New Yorkers, especially immigrants, while also helping some middle-class landlords pay their mortgage.

In 2019, the city launched a pilot program to legalize such units by providing low or no-interest loans to homeowners seeking to bring the apartments up to code. But the mayor recently called the effort a failure, since it failed to solicit much interest.

"I could tell you that we've got some miraculous plan to solve the illegal basement problem overnight. We don't," de Blasio said. "It is a massive structural problem in the city. It has been for decades. We don't have an immediate solution to this one."

By definition, a basement is a unit that has at least one-half of its height above the curb level, while a cellar has more than one-half of its height below the curb.

The city estimates there are at least 50,000 basement units, housing more than 100,000 residents. But one tenant advocacy group, NYC Base Campaign, has counted more than 312,000 such units across the city.

 

 

$24,000,000,000

 

 The Real Deal

Catastrophic flooding in the wake of Hurricane Ida caused up to tens of billions of dollars in damages to residential and commercial properties throughout the northeast last week, a new report estimates.

Losses throughout the region could range from $16 billion to $24 billion, according to a study released Wednesday by CoreLogic, with roughly 90 percent of the impact concentrated in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

“Given the prevalence of multifamily housing and below-ground structures in these areas, we’ll see more extreme interior content damages than we typically see in southern coastal areas,” said CoreLogic’s Shelly Yerkes. “For example, many of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in New York City buildings are in the basements, so contents damage should be substantial.”

Insured losses on residential and commercial buildings are estimated to be between $5 billion and $8 billion, while uninsured losses could be between $11 billion and $16 billion.

But the damage, particularly in New York City, could have been much worse had it not been for structural improvements made following severe flooding brought by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

It's not far, not far for the D.O.B. and the D.O.H. to reach...

 

Well here we go again, the gentrification of Rockaway Beach continues with the resurgence of illegal hostels for fun and profit.

 For  $600 and $700 a night, you get to slumber in a cozy setup no different than how the homeless sleep in congregate shelters.

 

 

Complete with combination skate park and pool on the roof.

 

 

Here's another re-purposed house turned hostel's idea of a pool, but it really looks more like a sink.

  

 

For the thriftier hipsters out there (if there is such a thing) who don't have that much disposable income to splurge, they can spend a weekend in one of Rockaway Hideaway's "cozy" trailers. Complete with ample patio space and a combination dining room/stand up shower

 

 

 

 

 

 The hosts of these campers take in 4 guests, which must be a thrill for them to decide who gets to sleep on the mattress or the seats in the dining nook.

 

 

  

But at least this one has an open air shower and commode, with natural light and free soap!

 

 

 

 

Funny how they are able to get away with these set ups, not only for all the building and housing codes they are violating but also the health risks they are causing by clustering transients and tourists from other states or nations, since the pandemic isn't over as positive cases rise again from the spread of the vaccine resistant Delta Variant (ask the New York Yankees). But as of this writing, it looks like some concerned neighbors dropped a dime on them and all "hideaways" have cancelled future reservations.

 I wonder why...