Parks Dept working on Doughboy paintjob

George The Atheist passed along these updated photos of Doughboy Park.


A more respectful paint job. It hasn't all been restored, but it's a start. Just in time for Memorial Day.

Photos from GeorgeTheAtheist's blog.

New zoning rules for flood areas

From Crains:

Up and down the coast of New York and New Jersey, property owners are being forced to raise their homes and businesses above a new 100-year floodplain drawn up and mandated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In the five boroughs, elevating multistory buildings present a particular problem.

"FEMA does this all over the country, but by-and-large, New York looks different than a lot of these places," said Howard Slatkin, the Department of City Planning's director of sustainability. "In addition to small homes, we've got rowhouses and apartment buildings and a streetscape we want to maintain."

On Monday, the city put forward its plan to address these problems by certifying a slew of proposed zoning changes that would allow for the elevation of buildings. For the past seven months, Mr. Slatkin and a team at the City Planning Department have been wrestling with the challenge of coming up with a way to fortify the city against future storms without destroying the urban character that makes New York unique.

If buildings must be raised five, eight, even 12 feet up on stilts, planners fear it could deaden New York's vibrant street life along coastal areas. In other words, will Jane Jacobs float?

The proposal "will relieve conflicts between zoning and steps owners of buildings in flood zones can take to make their buildings more flood resilient," said City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden. "It will enable [owners] to rebuild or retrofit [properties] to new flood protection standards and help restore the same amount of living and working space they were previously permitted."

The proposals will now be vetted over the next six months through the city's public review process, with input from the community boards in affected coastal areas across the city from Staten Island to the Bronx. The provisions will only be until a year after FEMA issues its final flood maps, expected in 2015, because the zoning changes are being undertaken through an expedited emergency zoning program. The city will study the provisions it puts in place now to create a more thorough zoning proposal to be implemented in the future.

The city has already waived some zoning rules through an executive order following the storm, but these new zoning changes will be more permanent and nuanced.

Another unholy alliance: Vallone & Liu

From the Politicker:

Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. is a self-proclaimed conservative Democrat, a sharp-tongued proponent of stop-and-frisk and a perpetual thorn in the side of the borough’s Democratic establishment. John Liu is perhaps the most left-wing candidate in the mayoral race, in favor of abolishing the controversial anti-crime tactic and was once a darling of the Queens Democratic Party.

Yet Mr. Liu, the city comptroller running for mayor, and Mr. Vallone, who is running for borough president, may form a seemingly unlikely alliance that could further both of their ambitions.

The two Democrats have been in discussion about a plan to endorse each other, help carry petitions for each other and aid in pulling votes from certain constituencies, according to several Queens Democratic insiders familiar with their plans.

“Nothing’s set yet and I am weighing my options when it comes to mayoral endorsements,” Mr. Vallone told Politicker this afternoon when reached for a response. “But certainly, I would absolutely be considering the only candidate from Queens County.”

Mr. Liu is extremely popular in the Asian community and, with no Asian candidates in the borough president’s race, the large Queens voting bloc is up for grabs. Mr. Vallone, whose dad was a storied institution in Astoria, has his own loyal following, potentially bolstering Mr. Liu’s standing in the neighborhood.

“I think John Liu is going to help Peter Vallone in a big way in Flushing and with the Asian community,” said one insider. “What is John Liu’s option at this point? He needs someone to get petitions, signatures and share the costs–it’s very expensive.”

Though far apart politically on many issues, Mr. Vallone said he and Mr. Liu have long been friends, riding motorcycles and wave runners together.

What happened to Moynihan Station?

From the NY Times:

The owners of Madison Square Garden have been given an ultimatum: Make life more bearable for the hundreds of thousands of commuters who shuffle daily through the corridors of Pennsylvania Station crammed beneath the arena or face eviction.

The New York City Planning Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday to extend the Garden’s operating permit for 15 years, during which time the arena’s owners could either make plans to move or substantially improve the transportation hub.

“The best possible outcomes for the city would be a relocated Madison Square Garden coupled with a rebuilt Penn Station,” said Amanda M. Burden, the city’s planning commissioner.

The vote was the latest chapter in a continuing campaign that has been waged on and off for the last 50 years, ever since the original Penn Station was torn down. The destruction of that elegant station prompted a landmarks preservation movement that has saved numerous historical treasures in the city and across the nation.

CB3 almost unanimously votes down Mets shopping mall

From Willets Point United:

By a wide margin of 30-1 (plus 1 abstention), CB3 voted on Thursday night to disapprove the proposed "Willets West" mall / Willets Point development. The landslide vote endorsed the earlier recommendation, on Tuesday night, of several CB3 committees, and took place after a public hearing on the matter. Reasons for CB3's disapproval include the project's huge and unaddressed traffic congestion and related negative impacts, failure to prioritize housing and a school, overcrowding of subway and bus lines as a consequence of the project, and disregarding the Advisory Committee and Queens officials when selecting the plan and the developers. CB3 concluded: "The proposed project would change the character of the surrounding neighborhoods and impact the livelihoods of 250,000 residents and many small mom-and-pop businesses."

Likely aware of the committees' Tuesday recommendation to disapprove the project, no representative of developers Sterling Equities and Related Companies, or the city, bothered to attend the Thursday night public hearing.

Although CB7 voted last week to approve the same development project by a very slim margin of 22-18 (notoriously, after the CB7 committee had rejected it the week before by a vote of 7-2), the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure ("ULURP") entitles other affected community boards to also evaluate a land use application that "may significantly affect the welfare of the district or borough served by such board". CB3 has exercised that right, and decided to disapprove the application. So at the moment, the Willets West mall / Willets Point development has been approved by CB7 by a very slim margin, and rejected by CB3 almost unanimously. ULURP does not give any greater weight to any particular community board's recommendation – so both boards' recommendations must be equally considered by the next decision-makers.

Kind of funny how one community board bent over backward to ensure a "yes" outcome, while another boldly voted "no".

Remember the Sage!

The Queens Gazette has an announcement about the opening of the Nevada Diner in Elmhurst, which has replaced the Pop Diner/Pop City Grill (which replaced the Sage Diner - site of an infamous 1986 shootout). There apparently is another Nevada Diner in Bloomfield, NJ, with the same theme and decor, so it probably is owned by the same entity. Early reviews aren't good, but then again, the Pop was pretty awful as well.

CB1 doesn't think Astoria is developed enough

From DNA Info:

Queens Community Board 1 voted Tuesday night to unanimously approve a developer's plan to bring thousands of residential apartments, parkland and retail space to a stretch of Astoria waterfront known as Hallets Point.

Lincoln Equities Group is applying for zoning changes in order to go forward with the project, and still needs the approval of several other government bodies in the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

If ultimately approved, the project would bring 11 buildings ranging from 11 to 31 stories high to seven acres of the waterfront.

The development would include more than 2,000 apartments, 20 percent of which would be designated affordable, the rest market-rate. Construction would start in late 2014 or early 2015, the developer said.

Ain't no wave strong enough...

From the NY Post:

The city is moving closer to getting emergency housing with the selection of a three-story, three-unit prototype — complete with balconies — that will soon be erected next to the Office of Emergency Management in Brooklyn.

The prototype includes two, 822 square-foot three-bedroom units on the upper two floors, and one 480 square-foot one-bedroom handicapped accessible apartment on the ground floor — still far larger than the city’s 250-to-370 square-foot permanent Micro Units.

We’ve learned the mini-complex — designed by Garrison Architects of Brooklyn for American Manufactured Systems and Services of Vienna, Va. — was selected this month for the $1,135,147 contract by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Star Nissan fined for hacking young street trees

Dear Crapper,

On Tuesday May 21, 2013 employees of the Star Nissan/Toyota Service Center located at 40-20 172 Street in Auburndale took a small hand saw to twenty two of twenty three city trees that are planted on the sidewalks surrounding the facility on 172nd Street, 42nd Avenue and Auburndale Lane. Branches, as many as ten per tree, were removed. Those branches that were too large for the saw to cut through were ripped from the tree after partial cuts taking the branch and up to three feet of tree bark and interior matter.

The trees were planted between 2003 and 2006 at the direction of the Mayor's Office to provide a barrier between the noxious business and the neighboring residential homes. The trees provided a visual barrier as they grew, a sound barrier from the power tool noise, a pollution absorption mechanism and added greatly to the aesthetics of the area.

From the beginning Star Nissan/Toyota ownership, management and/or employees opposed the planting of the trees, running over the first few the night they were planted. The Parks Department returned a few days later with a police escort to re-plant the trees. A few years later when the planting moved to Auburndale Lane, the first Parks Department crew was harassed so badly by the Star workers that they vacated the site and returned again with a police escort. The trees have prospered in the intervening years providing a full canopy on Auburndale Lane and a beautiful counterpoint to the bland industrial building on 172nd Street. That is until yesterday when, according to a Star Manager, the trees presented such a safety hazard with low hanging branches that they were cut so that any branch that extended from the tree up to six to eight feet above the ground was excised. He admittedly did not contact 311, the Parks Department or Mayor's Office for advice or permission.

A contingent of Parks Department employees were on site first thing this morning to inspect the damage and to ultimately serve the Star manager with $84,000 worth of fines ($4,000 for severe damage to each of 20 tress and $2,000 each for damage to the remaining two trees). The Parks Department will continue to monitor the trees as an initial analysis indicates that some will not survive the attack.

Rhea O'Gorman
Station Road Civic Association

MLS Stadium in FMCP is apparently DOA

From the Times Ledger:

The odds that a soccer team funded by an Abu Dhabi sheik and the New York Yankees will scrap plans for a stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park are more likely than official announcements have indicated, TimesLedger Newspapers has learned.

Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber announced Tuesday Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the owner of a British team called Manchester City Football Club, and the Bronx Bombers, which have signed on as minority partners, will head the league’s newest franchise.

The team, called New York City Football Club, plans to begin its first season in 2015 at a temporary venue the team said has not been decided, but which documents seen by TimesLedger identify as Yankee Stadium.

MLS has spent more than a year and nearly $2 million on lobbyists to lay the groundwork for a 13-acre stadium proposed on top of a non-working fountain in the park, which was touted by the Bloomberg administration but met with vehement opposition by Queens parks groups.

In order to fend off continuing criticism directed at the team’s majority owner from Abu Dhabi’s royal family, the New York City Football Club has already planned to abandon the idea, documents suggest.

The club plans to draw focus away from the turmoil in Queens by backing off the park complex and instead pushing news about players and highlighting the upcoming 2015 season, according to documents, which is a year earlier than MLS had originally anticipated play would begin.

The decision seems to have come as a surprise to both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MLS.

As recently as May 13, Bloomberg defended the Flushing Meadows stadium plan, telling reporters at a news conference replacement parkland would be found for the proposed 25,000-seat stadium.

And in late April, MLS Commissioner Don Garber was still insisting the Queens stadium was the only option.

“If we get this done, it will be in Flushing Meadows Park,” Garber told the Associated Press at the time. “There is no Plan B.”

But the MLS commissioner was informed sometime after making the comment that the new team, which is now taking the lead on the stadium search, would consider other locations.

“MLS is no longer leading the effort with the stadium project,” Garber said this week, adding the league has also dropped its pursuit of a land-use application to site the stadium in the park, he said.

New York City Football Club knew its decision would anger the city administration, since the mayor and a team of high-ranking city officials poured significant resources into the park stadium plan, considered by many to be a Bloomberg legacy project, TimesLedger has learned.

According to the documents, the club plans to thank and reach out to community groups in Queens and may offer to refurbish soccer fields in the Flushing Meadows near the proposed stadium site even thought he stadium may never be built.

From the Queens Chronicle:

As officials from MLS, the Bronx Bombers, Abu Dhabi-owned Man City and Mayor Bloomberg congratulated each other during a Tuesday press conference rolling out the franchise, there was one notable absence: the Unisphere, which had become ubiquitous in the league’s push to build a home in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Sources say the league and club owners plan to slowly suffocate talk of a Flushing Meadows stadium through a series of distractions meant to push the mythical arena to the sports pages. There it will likely die a quiet death, where MLS hopes the Bloomberg administration will be spared the embarrassment of yet another ambitious failure. The process has already begun.

According to sources who requested anonymity to maintain ties to the project, FMCP’s precipitous drop from essential to optional is fueled by a mixture of feasibility issues, unexpectedly strong opposition and face-saving on the part of all involved. The Pool of Industry site, it turns out, is fraught with regulatory and practical headaches, and the public needs its attention drawn away from a billionaire owner from Abu Dhabi.

The stadium, however, reportedly carried the extra weight of being labeled a “legacy project” by the Bloomberg administration. Ditching the location in FMCP would invoke the mayor’s ire, but was a necessary repercussion.

Sources said Bloomberg has expended significant political capital in trying to make MLS’s expansion franchise a reality. The potential scuttling of the FMCP stadium would add to the mayor’s list of failed proposals, alongside the failed West Side Stadium, part of the infamously flawed push to host the Olympics in 2012.

The political capital is paired with nearly $2 million in literal capital MLS spent lobbying for the stadium.

Dan's back

From the Daily News:

Embattled City Councilman Dan Halloran showed his face at the Council for the first time since he was hit with federal corruption charges nearly two months ago.

The Queens Republican showed up at City Hall for Wednesday’s meeting of the full Council, after skipping its last two meetings while battling charges he joined a scheme to buy Sen. Malcolm Smith a spot on the Republican mayoral ballot and offered Council member item cash in exchange for bribes.

“I’m here fulfilling my obligations,” Halloran said. “I’m here doing my job, the job I was elected to do.”

Will there be any punishment?

From the Queens Courier:

Concerned Woodhaven residents want to know what repercussions, if any, a local landowner will face after his building collapsed last month, damaging the adjacent Volunteer Ambulance Corps and forcing residents to leave the Woodhaven Senior Center.

An abandoned furniture store at 78-19 Jamaica Avenue crumbled onto the street on April 12, crushing a minivan parked out front and shutting down a section of the road while debris was removed.

At a May 18 meeting of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association (WRBA), many voiced their desire to see the landlord held responsible for alleged negligence that led to the vacant building’s collapse.

The Woodhaven Senior Center is currently covered by a tarp, which must be proven watertight before seniors will be allowed back into the building.

Turning parks into huge billboards didn't pay off

From the Daily News:

A Bloomberg administration plan to sell naming rights on dog runs, basketball courts and other spots in municipal parks has been a bust, leaving the city with a $13 million hole in its budget, a budget watchdog said Tuesday.

No one applied to the revenue-raising program, which the Parks Department launched last year in partnership with NYC and Company and IMG, a sports marketing company, the Independent Budget Office said.

But while the city made no money, IMG did.

The marketing firm was paid $135,000 to trumpet the city’s parks to potential sponsors, the budget office said.

All of that money came from private donations, provided through NYC & Company, according to a spokeswoman.

The city will continue trying for sponsors in the next budget year, when it is counting on the program raising $7 million, according to the Independent Budget Office.

Walmart possible in Ridgewood

From the Observer:

It’s been mostly quiet on the Walmart front since plans for a Brooklyn behemoth collapsed last fall, but prominent New York brokers insist that the world’s largest retailer is in active negotiations for a spot in the five boroughs.

Walmart announced in September that its quixotic quest for a New York City location had hit a wall. The company’s latest failed bid for a toehold here came at the Related Companies’ Gateway II project in East New York. A coalition of labor unions, community defenders and politicians (including Christine Quinn) had condemned the proposal. Its downfall was attributed mostly to the company’s employment practices and perennial spats with unions. A unionized ShopRite will rise on the Gateway II site.

The Gateway Walmart had been expected since 2010, though it was never confirmed by the retailer or Related. When the East New York prospect dimmed, Walmart seemed to retreat from its designs on New York.

But several brokers told The Commercial Observer that negotiations are currently underway. “I understand they’re looking at something on the Queens-Brooklyn border,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of Douglas Elliman’s retail leasing and sales division. “There’s an old industrial building over there with vacant lots next to it.”

Another real estate industry source familiar with Walmart’s hunger for a New York location, wishing to remain anonymous, said the company was in active negotiations for a “very substantial,” roughly 300,000-square-foot as-of-right site in the outer boroughs.

Ms. Consolo could not confirm the 300,000-square-foot figure, but did not reject the possibility of a Walmart site in or near Ridgewood, the gentrifying neighborhood between Bushwick and Middle Village that has recently welcomed artists and Polish families priced out of Bushwick and Greenpoint.