Memorial Day Parade in Glendale - May 30th

What: Memorial Day Parade in Glendale

When: Monday, May 30th

Time: 11 am

Where: Myrtle Avenue

Senator Addabbo Says "Enough!" To Parking Meter Rate Hike By DOT Effective January 3, 2011...

Showing solidarity with the stance taken by The Woodhaven Residents' Block Association in their December 7 press release, NYS Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., whose district includes Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Forest Hills, Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth and parts of other Queens areas all having commercial strips, now adds his strong objection to the upcoming increase in parking meter rates. Starting January 3, 2011, a quarter will buy 15 minutes at a parking meter, rather than 20 minutes, the second time in less than two years that the Department of Transportation (DOT) has increased meter rates. As recently as spring of 2009, a quarter bought 30 minutes at a parking meter.

"I expect this rate increase will hurt the businesses on Jamaica, Liberty, Myrtle, Metropolitan, Grand and Continental Avenues, Crossbay and Rockaway Boulevards, all lined with parking meters. It will also result in more parking tickets for residents and other consumers who, instead of boosting their local small businesses, will drive out of these areas to malls with parking lots to avoid such parking harassment.

"This is a bad decision by DOT that will hurt working families and the middle class the most, like my district residents, who already are being nickel-and-dimed enough at the gas pump, the grocery store, on mass transit and the post office, and who must park on our streets as they drive around Queens, the largest New York City borough," said Addabbo.

"How do all the parking ticket and meter fees collected by DOT get spent -- do New Yorkers get any benefit out of all the money that's collected from parking offenders? If DOT will not reconsider this rate hike being imposed right after the holiday season, I would urge the agency to at least post signs this time, informing everyone of the change," added the Senator. In 2009, after the last rate increase, many drivers were caught by surprise because the DOT did not post any warnings of the price hike.

"At a time when everyone feels their wallets can't take any more hits, does the city and DOT really want to punish small mom-and-pop shops and hurt local commercial strips already reeling across New York City? I'd like to work with other local electeds, other local BIDs like Woodhaven's, more civic organizations and block associations in Queens -- to take our borough's opposition to such an annoying parking meter increase right to the doorstep of City Hall in Manhattan. That’s a much smaller borough, where vehicles and their drivers have not been welcome for some time," commented Addabbo.

Historic Ridgewood Theatre, Oldest Theatre in Country, Houses Treasures Amid Ruins by Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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Nick DiMola says he snapped pictures of many classic items when doing a cleanup estimate at the shuttered Ridgewood Theatre.

The nation's oldest continuously operated movie theater - now shuttered for two years - may offer more historic treasures than originally thought, the Daily News has learned.

Exclusive photographs obtained by The News show that the historic Ridgewood Theatre, though largely deteriorated, still bears gems from its heyday, from an aging projector to wooden armrests.

Snapped by a local rubbish remover, the images offer a rare glimpse inside the Myrtle Ave. mainstay, whose interior condition has been largely unknown since it closed in 2008.

The News first reported last month that the theater is set to be transformed into an Associated supermarket next year.

The photos show much of the theater is beyond saving, but some carvings, seats and other aspects seem intact. That could lead to new concerns about preserving the Ridgewood or rescuing artifacts.

"There's little, tiny things that are lying around," said rubbish remover Nick DiMola, who snapped the pictures when called to estimate cleanup costs in July.

The city declared the Beaux-Arts structure a landmark in January, crediting The News for alerting city officials to the site.

Landmarking bars major alterations on the facade, but the protective status does not extend to the interior.

It's unclear how Associated will renovate the five-screen theater. Max Figueredo, a lawyer for the new owners, said he did not know their plans.

Preservationists applied for interior landmark status in 2008, but the city is "very selective" with interior landmarks, designating only 110, said Lisi de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Queens boasts only a handful of interior landmarks, which must be regularly open to the public, including the RKO Keith's movie theater in Flushing and the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport.

DiMola said he will post all his photos within the next week on his blog, WeLoveGarbage.wordpress.com.

Ted Renz of the Myrtle Ave. Business Improvement District said he hopes the theater would be adaptively reused, but added that option may not be economically viable.

"There are artifacts particularly in the lobby that are still intact, but I don't know the cost that would be involved," Renz said.

The Sanitation Department Ranks the Worst New York City Neighborhoods for Dog Poo Violations - NYPOST.com

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"Watch your step in Washington Heights.


The upper Manhattan neighborhood ranked first -- or worst -- in the borough for dog droppings, according to a database of pooper-scooper violations provided to The Post by the Sanitation Department.


Riverside Drive, Amsterdam Avenue and 179th and 160th streets were the worst mutt minefields in the area, Sanitation officials said.


'The city just stinks,' said Megan Winner, 30, a Washington Heights resident who tries to walk to her job at New York-Presbyterian Hospital without ruining her shoes.


'I can't enjoy my walk. It's full of landmines of dog s- -t,' she said."

"I love dogs, but when I see crap on the sidewalk, I don't see the dog. I see the owner."

"It's bad. I have to clean my shoes really regularly to scrape the poop off," said neighborhood resident Rob Thomas.

Click here to see how NYC's 5 Boroughs Stack Up In  Terms of Dog-Waste Violations

Part of the problem could be that there's no place to put the poop, said Michael Messina, 34, who walks his 5-year-old black Lab, Lexington, in the neighborhood.

"There are not as many garbage cans around here compared to other neighborhoods," he said.

"You have to go through an extra effort to pick up the mess."

Glendale, Queens, was awarded the dubious distinction of having the most piles of dog doo-doo in the entire city -- the scene of 41 violations in the fiscal year that ended in July.

The small, family-friendly neighborhood had almost as many violations as all of Manhattan and accounted for nearly half of all the tickets issued in Queens.

The highest concentration of complaints were on Cooper, Myrtle and Metropolitan avenues, all within barking distance of each other.

The prize for the crappiest borough went to The Bronx, where 202 violations were issued last year.

But that was down 44 percent from 2008.

Rude dog walkers were slapped with 134 summonses in Brooklyn, and 18 were ticketed in Staten Island.

Overall, the city is less smelly, with 510 poop penalties in the last fiscal year, compared to 580 in 2009 and 909 two years ago.

Officials say pooch owners are more polite because the city increased fines to $250 from $100 in late 2008.

Pooper-scooper scofflaws must be caught in the act by Sanitation enforcement agents, who are often directed to certain areas based on 311-hotline complaints.

Additional reporting by Lucy Kinder