Rally against the Jamaica Plan

WEPRIN NEEDS YOUR HELP TO FIGHT THE JAMAICA REZONING

This Sunday, August 26th, at 12 noon, at 87-80 191st Street in Hollis, Councilman David Weprin will be organizing a press conference/rally against the proposed Jamaica Rezoning Plan. Less than 2 days after the City Council's Land Use Committee affirmatively voted for the plan (with minor adjustments to be approved by City Planning before it gets to the full Council for vote on Sept 10th) developers have been knocking on doors trying to get property owners to sign over their residencies. The pitfalls of this flawed plan are already starting to take effect. Join Councilman Weprin in his protest. The location for the rally is significant because it is one of the sites where developers have already tried to buy up the property. All are welcome, the stronger a front we display, the greater the likelihood we can convince City Planning to change their plans.

Austin Shafran
Director of Communications
Council Member David Weprin
212-788-6984 (o)
212-608-6382 (f)

Councilman Weprin's district office can be reached at (718) 465-8202 or e-mail Austin Shafran

Crappy's arrived!

He's off the bowl and ready for action.

More street trees for Queens

...almost 20 percent more trees line the city's sidewalks today than was the case 10 years ago.

In Queens, the number of street trees - enumerated as 217,111 during the 1995-96 tree count - increased by 22,771 to 239,882, or 10 percent more for 2005-06. Queens has the most trees, just over 40 percent of the total population.

Census Shows Street Trees Add Value To City Life

More than 35 percent of the city's street trees are growing under wires, and with the exception of Manhattan, overhead wires are the predominant urban infrastructure that conflicts with trees in all neighborhoods in New York City. The next biggest problem either caused by or affecting trees is damaged sidewalks, and almost 50,000 trees in Queens present this problem.

Queens should be getting 55,000 new trees by the time the next tree census is due to begin in 2015.

And how many of the existing ones will have been chopped down by developers by then?

Bronx Hall of Waste

The courthouse has been lit up like Times Square all night for months now - and the building isn't even being used yet.

A courthouse or a light-house? Building's June electricity bill was $114,762

"While the city is encouraging New Yorkers to save energy and make our city cleaner and greener, an empty government building has all of its lights on," said Betsy Gotbaum, the city's public advocate. "That's absolutely unacceptable. Here's a simple tip to the city: turn off your lights."

For years, construction problems have plagued the new courthouse, built on a three-block site at E. 161st St. near the Grand Concourse.

By one estimate, the building is two years behind schedule and $75 million over budget.

Ladder 39 - the Pride of Woodlawn

Local officials are fuming over the city's decision not to reopen a Bronx firehouse despite a serious increase in response times to the neighborhood.

EMS station is coming in place of firehouse

More than a year after the city closed the decrepit, century-old Woodlawn firehouse and promised to monitor changes in response time before deciding whether to rebuild it, the Fire Department announced last week that Ladder 39 would not return, with a new Emergency Medical Service station built at the location instead.

Although response times to the larger coverage area saw an overall improvement, response times for Ladder 39 to Woodlawn structural fires increased by five seconds, from 4 minutes and 12 seconds to 4 minutes and 17 seconds. Moreover, Woodlawn response times for all FDNY apparatus increased by 45 seconds for all calls, including false alarms, car and trash fires, and so on.

Stop in the name of the law!

In a move that could spell big fines and even criminal prosecution for offenders, the city is cracking down on contractors who continue work on construction sites after the city has ordered them to stop.

A new Buildings Department team called the Stop Work Order Patrol began sweeping construction sites in the Bronx last week, making unannounced visits.

City to builders: Stop means stop!

A new Buildings Department team called the Stop Work Order Patrol began sweeping construction sites in the Bronx last week, making unannounced visits.

When builders are caught working after they have been ordered to stop, they can be fined from $2,000 to $10,000. Builders who continuously disobey orders may be criminally prosecuted.

In Queens, where the Stop Work Order Patrol has been in effect for nine months, the rate of builders found working in violation of a stop-work order has dropped to 5% even while the number of building permits issued for new buildings and major alterations during that same time has stayed relatively constant.

Soaked by tweeders

“We are the city of New York, for us to be shut down because it rained is unaccept- able. There is a clear need for an updated infra- structure in our borough.”

“The big picture is development. If we keep building multi-family homes [then] maybe we need a larger diameter pipe to handle the rain.”

Find out which developer's best friend said what: Need Billions To Fix Queens Flooding

Leaders want sewer upgrades

Avella said part of the problem lies with the city taking away natural drainage areas and replacing them with multimillion-dollar developments without upgrading the surrounding infrastructure, such as the sewer system, to support the new additions. He pointed to the city's plans to eventually develop the site of what was Flushing Airport in College Point, which acts as a natural flood plane to protect residents in the surrounding community.

South Queens Speaks: Flooding, mosquitoes plague Tudor Village

"Is it fair to live with a foot of water and toxic mold?" said resident Frank Siniscalchi. "Is it fair to live with bad smells and sickness? Do we have to live with this indefinitely?"

Photo from Queens Courier

Drinking tap water with Bob

Creme de la Bronx crap

As of late, Queens seems to have more in common with the Bronx than with Brooklyn. Therefore, we will dedicate some of today's posts to our northern neighbors. Let's start off with some drive by crap along the Thruway and the Bruckner:













Apologies for the window reflections.

More firefighters hurt at Deutsche building

Part of the scaffolding that surrounded a condemned ground zero skyscraper fell Thursday, injuring two firefighters, the Fire Department said.

Equipment Falls off WTC Building; 2 Firefighters Injured

Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon said scaffolding fell from the north side of the building facing the World Trade Center site shortly before 2 p.m. He said the firefighters were hospitalized in stable condition, one with a head injury.

City officials said a piece of equipment fell from a high floor on the north side of the building through a sidewalk shed, injuring the firefighters who were standing underneath the shed.

Firefighters Injured By Falling Equipment At Deutsche Bank Building

Just when you think this can't turn into more of a major fiasco... notice how they still can't get the story straight.

New Construction Accident at the Deutsche Bank Building

Photo from 1010WINS

Council vs. containers

New York City restaurants and government agencies could soon face a ban on Styrofoam-type fast food containers if the City Council passes a bill introduced yesterday.

City Council Bill Would Take Out City's Styrofoam

Covered by the ban would be containers created from polystyrene, a petroleum- based material that doesn't decompose or easily compact, causing them to take up significant landfill space. The material can also release toxic chemicals when heated in a microwave, according to a report by an environmental group, Earth Resource Foundation. A component of the material, the chemical styrene, is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Jamaica plan enters the home stretch

A plan to transform downtown Jamaica, Queens, into a vibrant “airport village” while preserving the quiet, low-scale character of neighboring side streets cleared an important City Council committee yesterday, all but ensuring final approval next month for the single largest rezoning of the Bloomberg administration.

Council Committee Backs Rezoning Plan to Turn Jamaica Into an ‘Airport Village’

Covering a 368-block area that sweeps northeast from the AirTrain transit hub, the rezoning would expand the neighborhood’s commercial core by allowing hotels and office towers to rise on underused industrial land surrounding the train station, officials said. At the same time, it would encourage new, denser housing and retail development in some areas and limit residences to one- and two-family homes in others.

To accommodate that growth, officials said, they are working to bring in schools, sewers, parking spaces and other infrastructure improvements, including lighting and trees along Hillside Avenue.

Shouldn't these have been included before the plan was brought to a vote?

Oh, silly me, this is the Bloomberg administration... act first, think later.

Meanwhile, a civic group offered their own rezoning study.

More from the Daily News:

Big vote for Jamaica rezoning plan

Pete vs. pervs

Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. introduced legislation Wednesday that would make peeping a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum of 90 days in jail and $500 fine.

NYC Councilman Wants to Crack Down on Voyeurs

Vallone said the legislation was inspired by an incident at the subway stop near his district office in Queens. Several female constituents had complained to him about a man that routinely stands under the stairwell to the elevated stop, only on warm days in the morning, and appears to be peering up women's skirts.

Not everyone is enthused about the proposed bill:

Peter Vallone Jr. Is Coming for You, and for Jimmy Stewart

United against United Homes

The victims of the alleged scheme say they were sold houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and Brownsville - some at more than $100,000 over their actual value - after responding to ads for United Homes in the Daily News and on subway billboards.

HOME BUYERS: WE WERE DUPED

They say the ads - which always featured minority families and the tagline "We can Make a Dream Come True" - targeted them because they were financially inexperienced.

Now, several of the first-time home buyers are in foreclosure on their mortgages.

Suit: African-Americans targeted in 'lemon' home sales

Taking a look at the offerings on their website, they see, to only specialize in crap.

Crappy on the go

Almost there... tune in tomorrow!

Original Photo from NY Times

Excavation a problem

Letter to the Queens Courier:

Reading your article, “Built on Lies”, was very interesting. To learn that thoughtless developers will be taught that they cannot get away with whatever they want to do is a blessing. The article stresses the unsafe construction in the building of new homes throughout the community.

There is also another side to this issue; building regulations are being violated about adjacent homes. Two years ago, developers destroyed a single family home next to our home to build two two-family homes. To underpin the foundation of our home, the developers used a CAT machine to dig under our foundation. They then proceeded to put 4-inch cement blocks on the dirt for support to our house. These cement blocks started to tilt. After calling the Department of Buildings, and having several inspectors check on this matter, a stop work order was issued for proceeding to build with inferior products.

After the stop work order was placed, the contractor attempted to get us to sign papers that did not pertain to resolving the problem.

For over 18 months, we have had several major floods that destroyed our basement, exterior foundation, interior walls and personal property.

To put a band-aid on the problem, the contractor put a pump in the low-lying area (created by the underpinning) to drain the water to the street. This pump is never checked by the contractor. We have to make sure that it is on using our own electricity. If it rains more then the pump could handle, our basement floods. This has happened quite a number of times.

The price to fix the exterior wall to prevent future floods and to support our home from structural damage in the future, repairing the interior damage and replacing personal property, etc. is well over $50,000. Our headaches are severe, worrying about an unsafe home. We are extremely concerned about the damaged foundation and continued flooding affecting the future stability of our home.

The contractor has not tried to correct the situation. The lot just sits. The building of these new homes also leaves innocent existing homeowners with exorbitant expenses, hours of work and extreme anxiety.

How did this owner/developer get permission to destroy our home? Any similar act of this kind would be criminal in nature.

Ron & Mary Ann Todzi
Maspeth

City says 'scram' to scammers

Working with the city's Consumer Affairs Department, law enforcement agencies from Long Island and Westchester County this month announced the results of a sting last month conducted by undercover inspectors.

City puts screws on scammers

The crackdown promises some relief to Queens families, who represent a disproportionately large share of the city's 1,100 victims who filed complaints last year.

Queens accounts for a third of complaints and seizures.

Big plan for Metro corner

Even after plans to build a small shopping center in Forest Hills were shot down by city officials, the developer still aims to open the complex in six months.

Developer pushes shop plan, despite rejections

David Koptiev of Gabriel Development Corp. vowed to resubmit plans for the two-story center - with six name-brand stores on the ground floor and offices above - on what is now a vacant lot at 71st and Metropolitan Aves.

"It's only going to improve the area," Koptiev said, predicting the Buildings Department would approve his revised plan in coming days.

New portable Queens Crap issue

For the Crapper on the go!

Putting up crap on Putnam

When you think of Ridgewood, something like this probably comes to mind. (Graffiti and ethnic signs included.)
But hey - there's a new game in town.

789 Woodward Avenue/1905 Putnam Avenue was formerly occupied by a 3 family house. But now a fine Queens Crap condo specimen has taken its place. Believe it or not, there are supposedly only 5 units in this thing. The most interesting touch is the windows that are already bricked up before the building is even complete. This brings a touch of even lower class to that nauseating pink stucco. The gritty urban feel will become even grittier once that plywood fence is removed and the neighborhood artists have access to a brand new canvas.