South Richmond Hill

YIMBY Density Housing Development Site Switcheroo

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South Richmond Hill, Queens, New York

While Southside Queens in the 1141 zip code areas is notorious for it’s McMansions and other ostentatiously tack developments, I never would have thought that one of these things would be coming to South Richmond Hill, an aesthetically ugly and density based apartment building that’s out of scale with the rest of the area. What was normal to see built in officially gentrified enclaves in Brooklyn under the guise (and the cudgel) of affordable housing has now reached all the way on the east side of town. (Not counting the luxury public housing building in Ozone Park and the three mammoth towers at nearby Sutphin Blvd in Jamaica).

 

Ooh, she’s a beauty ain’t she? And those little bitty windows are as adorable as those pigeon space balconies.

Topping at 4 stories but not designated as affordable, it even towers over the two/three story mixed use apartment buildings along the mostly commercial 101st Ave and one/two family houses on the backstreets. This building is a testimony and a blunt statement that this is the only housing that’s going to be built in perpetuity in New York City, no matter where you are thanks to the City Of Yes doctrine implemented by Mayor Adams this past summer. Even though it broke ground during the last few years of the abominable de Blasio administration.

But this big baby has definitely run into problems in the last few years, because this was supposed to be done and ready to rent in 2020 in the summertime.

Oops. Looks like the new neighbors won’t be here for a while, but at least residents will be spared of parking space feuds that would have ensued once vacancies were filled here.

Sure it’s obviously that the pandemic is partly to blame for the delay of it’s grand opening, but a recent probe into their Department of Buildings records shows quite and expansive shit list of violations and numerous stop work orders in the past couple years.

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What’s funny about this is that on the day I took that photo when that NYC ordinance was plastered on the wall, an apparition appeared on the second floor window, but it turned out to be a contractor. Even though the D.O.B. didn’t approve any work inside the building until the end of September.

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Another odd thing about all the delay finishing this building is that around this time the Department Of Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich was under investigation for gambling in mafia run underground casinos while on the job as a City Council member in 2021 .  Although a bigger factor why this building remained dormant was the fact that the owners fired the safety inspector got for blowing the whistle on the owners here for dangerous conditions and putting their workers at risk of injury or death. It should be duly noted that before Eric Adams anointed Ulrich with the DOB chair, he was the representative of this district where this development lies. (Pun fully intended).

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Now another funny thing happened since the buildings LLC got reapproval to finish their building, it’s not going to be a market rate density residential building anymore. The owners switched it to a commercial building and have one more summer to get it finished.

           

Literally overnight, what the city upzoned this one corner in South Richmond Hill for this #YIMBY density housing apartment building that was supposed to be done in 2020 will now be a commercial building ready for opening next summer. And the finished product is going to be very interesting to see since Mayor Adams has decided to let the currently leaderless Department of Buildings take over most of the structural inspections that were always under the purview of the FDNY. Can’t make a city of yes with some buttinski naysayes hanging around.

  Obviously this is going to be a hotel, despite it’s very unusual and inappropriate location, although the building’s size is already inappropriate for it. But more likely it’s going to be repurposed and re-imagined into a homeless hotel shelter, especially after thousands of migrants got bussed here this summer from southern states and maybe for the thousands of citizens displaced by gentrification or afflicted with mental illness.  For it’s the only affordable housing and sanctuary this metropolis parody City Of Yes can produce for it’s most vulnerable residents in the richest and most inequitable place in the world.

 

       

Breaking New Bad Days: Big Trouble In Little Guyana II

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South Richmond Hill, Queens, New York

Another broad daylight crime happened again in Little Guyana on bustling Liberty Avenue.

Last time it was a brawl on a street corner back on the first day of the Spring that involved a man resorting to taking out a meat cleaver to settle it, which led to cops ultimately ending the tussle by drawing guns on him.

This time it was an attempted robbery of a cell phone store that recently opened. Which led to a massive response by the NYPD and crowds of cellphone correspondents and lookie-loos.

 

Only one local corporate news station showed up at the incident, Disney/ABC7NY their van parked two blocks away from the scene of the crime.

One cop was hurt during this robbery and was wheeled out on a gurney into the ambulance writhing in pain. This cop’s partner was also injured during this robbery attempt according to Eyewitness News very brief report which doesn’t have any information about the extent of their injuries or how the perp injured them while resisting arrest.

It looks like this was a smash and grab attempt that went wrong. The cops also procured an ebike that was probably used as a getaway ride.

       

From this layman’s POV, it’s amazing how these cops were able to swiftly respond and stop a smash and grab robbery while in progress. Lucky for this cellphone store, it looks like they were at the right place at the right time.

You never know what you’ll bump into next in these New Bad Days on these NYC streets. Let’s be careful out there and be aware of your surroundings. Deadass.

 

 

Queens Is Still Burning And More Housing Insecure: Three Houses Destroyed In Wind Whipping Fire, Family Of Three Killed In Basement

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South Richmond Hill, Queens, New York

Queens Chronicle

A 5-alarm fire tore through multiple homes Friday afternoon in South Richmond Hill, taking the lives of three civilians and leaving five firefighters with minor injuries. 

Two of the three deceased were found in 104-18 125th Street on Friday night, the FDNY told the Chronicle. By Saturday afternoon, the third was found in the same building, the FDNY said; the search is still ongoing. The NYPD told the Chronicle that the victims have yet to be identified, as of Saturday afternoon.

The fire began at approximately 1:15 Friday afternoon, neighbors said. By 2:15, it had been declared a 2-alarm fire, and within less than an hour, it had been upped to 5-alarms. As the FDNY worked to calm the blaze on 125th Street between Liberty Avenue and 107th Avenue, neighbors stood on the sidewalk and sat on their stoops, watching in awe at the cloud of smoke. 

Residents told the Chronicle that the block is a tight-knit community; that was clear as some comforted their neighbors; meanwhile, others walked up and down the block, handing out water bottles to firefighters and police officers.

As many as five houses were affected by the fire, with three — 104-20, 104-18 and 104-16 — taking the lion’s share of the damage. Two homes across the street had their windows blown out. 

A fairly narrow street, many of the homes are quite close together, making it plausible for fire to spread across several of them. On top of that, Friday afternoon was particularly windy, which only made the fire bigger.

Though the FDNY press office said that the cause is not yet known, Rafena Santram, who lives in 104-16 and whose daughter was home when the fire began, said that a backyard propane tank was involved. Fortunately, Santram said, she has family in the area who she and her family can stay with in the meantime. Red Cross officers were on the scene by 4:30 p.m., working with residents to determine how best to assist them.

The Red Cross later said that it is assisting nine families — 29 adults and 13 children — affected by the fire. 

Nine families living in two family houses. A few of them living in the basements, which included the family that perished from the explosion and the inferno. While the block is a close knit community, these families could have lived in a safer home if the city didn’t have such an incremental “affordable housing” program for middle class and working poor families and built 75-80% of it for wealthier people. How many more citizens will have to risk their lives and livelihoods to find an affordable place to live? And how many homeowners can hang on to their properties with the massive taxes they pay compared to ones in wealthier enclaves that they have to rent out their basements to settle in their hometowns?

 

 

 

 

 

Red Light Camera Obscura

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South Richmond Hill, Queens, New York.

As we all know from the past decade since it was implemented, the Vision Zero program to bring down traffic accidents and fatalities initiated by the abominable Mayor Bill de Blasio failed in its mission to do just that as more people got maimed and killed since it’s implementation as the years went on and exacerbated to new extreme numbers during the last two years of the pandemic. Well, look no further on why Vision Zero as well as enforcement and punitive charges traffic violations continue to fail New Yorkers with the condition of this red light traffic camera post; which has been violated with those obnoxiously ubiquitous Cash for Cars advertisements that are always illegally posted on traffic and electric utility poles all over the five boroughs.

 

It’s a pretty safe presumption that this thing is not operative and hasn’t been for quite some time since it’s actually facing the wrong way towards a mixed use apartment building and not at the busy free-for-all intersection of Lefferts Blvd. and Liberty Ave. where it should be, where it would easily track every red light running double parking vehicle clogging up this vicinity on a daily basis…

 

Which the NYPD has also engaged and indulged in…

 

The re-affixing of this red light camera is clearly a worse offense than the annoying ads, for not only that it has made a perpetual daily car derby on Liberty more perilous, but it shows how extreme civil disobedience can be when the government and bureaucracy push people too far. It was not long ago when a gunslinger on a bicycle emptied his clip and shot up a red light camera in Woodhaven by Atlantic Ave. not long ago too. So traffic anarchy will continue in Little Guyana until the Department of Transportation stops worrying about a fringe minority of bike actorvists whining about childproofing bike lanes and actually gets serious about Vision Zero and restores vision to this zombie camera.

Update:

I was just informed by my comrade Queens Crapper that this traffic calming infrastructure device is actually a decoy. For there was another one that was plowed in Greenpoint by busy traffic arteries intersecting McGuinness Blvd and Meeker Ave. that was covered on the Crap blog nearly a decade ago.

Commenters on that post mentioned how the Department of Transportation decided to place these in the hopes that the dummy camera would reduce drivers temptation to beat the steady reds but were easy figured out, which is probably why the city didn’t even bother to maintain them. It’s a safe bet that camera is still standing in Greenpoint just as this Lefferts/Liberty decoy is still standing here today. Although it looks like some civil disobedient vanals in Little Guyana was unaware of the DOT’s ruse and had it reformatted like this to be on the “safe” side.

Anyway, it’s clear that with this little scheme the D.O.T has been running to trick reckless drivers that they are the dummies they always have been and still are. And now these useless inanimate sentinels are just more ugly street furniture to remain in perpetuity.

 

Breaking New Bad Days Live!: Big Trouble In Little Guyana

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South Richmond Hill, Queens, New York

So this happened on a Sunday in broad daylight on the first day of Spring in New York Fucking City under Mayor Eric Adams. Two men causing a ruckus on a street corner at Lefferts Blvd. and Liberty Ave yelling at each other about a money dispute that nearly got even more violent and bloody when one man pulled out what looked like a 24 inch bike chain and the other man retaliated by whipping out a very polished and sharpened meat cleaver in an attempt to defeat his foe and stain it and the pavement with his blood.

(Fucking you tube)

 

Since everyone in the vicinity of the ruckus was just standing around gawking, I ceased filming and called 911 and the NYPD responded mighty quick. The two cops then drew their guns and the perp complied fast and dropped his weaponized food preparation utensil. After the man continued to argue with the cops still pointing their barrels on him, he turned around and they slapped the cuffs on him.

As the cops had the situation under control, one of them called for backup. Then more cops came.

And then even more cops came…

The amount of cops that were deployed here for one man was quite stunning. Normally would expect this response would be for a gang fight or even a protest. Especially the way these cops arrived and parked their patrol cars to the crime scene. Makes one worried that one of them might just come rolling in like Frank Drebin.

While the NYPD managed to prevent chaos on the sidewalk stopping someone from committing felony assault or a homicide, they managed to cause chaos on the streets creating congestion with their haphazard parking. With all that deployment, not one cop directed traffic to lessen the gridlock at one of the busiest intersections in Queens.

An ambulance arrived also, although its unsure who was being treated. Maybe the aspiring psychotic butcher might have nicked his foe during their row. The situation was quelled in about a half hour and things reverted to what passes for normal on this corner. An ambulance arrived also, although its unsure who was being treated. Maybe the aspiring psychotic butcher might have nicked his foe during their row. Although I couldn’t help but think about some other crime victim somewhere at that time could have needed the aid of a cop.

 

 

But this is sure a good way to start off the Spring in the Dirty South of Queens. In fact, less than 48 hours before two blocks north from this corner on 101st Avenue, a man shot two off-duty C.O.’s after he got bounced out of a jiggle joint by Lefferts.

 

It looks like it’s gonna get worse out here kids. If one can just bump into one crime scene into a crime scene in progress just going for a stroll on a pleasant sunny day is enough to realize that you might wind up in the “wrong place at the wrong time” in Mayor Adams New York City, which palpably feels like every place is the wrong place and every time is the wrong time.

Be aware of your surroundings kids.

Fin.

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