Forest Park Seuffert Bandshell Sign Update...

Click on image to enlarge...

Evidently someone at the Parks Department must read the local blogs...The previously reported incorrect sign at the Forest Park Seuffert Bandshell which combined the first name of the present City Council member, Elizabeth Crowley with the last name of disgraced former City Council member Dennis Gallagher for a sign which read "Elizabeth Gallagher" was removed today...The Parks Dept mistake was posted on this blog on Decemeber 26th and cross-posted on Queens Crap (Dec 28th) and the NYTimes City Room blog (Dec 28th) just a few short days ago...I would accredit the quick attention by the Parks Dept to this matter as an acknowledgment that the new media and blogs on the internet are making a difference...The Power of the New Media..!

Photo by Manny...

Times Ledger - Queens' Bloggers Take on Politics, Overdevelopment by Nathan Duke...

Queens residents can turn to community boards, civic groups and elected officials to help solve their neighborhood woes, but their first stop may be the Internet following the recent creation of two competing blog sites that often feature fierce attacks against borough leaders at all levels.

Queens Crap, which went online in early December, and the recently created Juniper Park Patriots blog sites, have become hot Internet spots where Queens residents can anonymously discuss everything from their most hated neighborhood eyesore to vitriolic slams against local elected officials, civic group leaders and even residents.

Queens Crap, which is operated by a blogger known only as The Queens Crapper, boasts more than 122,000 hits since its first threads took shape in late 2006. The site's first posting Dec. 9 was a mission statement of sorts, saying the blog would "examine architecture that is just what the title says - crap in the borough of Queens."

In an e-mail, the Crapper said he was not interested in taking part in a story about Queens blogs, but insisted that the content of the Patriots site had nothing to do with his blog's content.

The Patriots site, which has recorded more than 4,700 hits and is operated by a blogger who calls himself Patrick Henry, boasts a mantra that the blog is "dedicated to providing the truth rather than executing a vindictive, narrow-minded agenda." On the site, Henry writes that Patriots is designed to "provide you with the FACTS to navigate you through the CRAP."

Despite this avowed commitment to the truth, the Juniper Park Patriots took a series of questions submitted by the TimesLedger and posted them on their Web site practically verbatim without attributing the queries to the newspaper. The blog did not indicate to readers that it had asked the TimesLedger to e-mail the questions after a reporter requested an interview about the site.

Henry posted the answers to the questions on the Patriots site after e-mailing them to the TimesLedger.

In the e-mail, he said he wants "to remain anonymous because of obvious reasons." He describes himself as a veteran and dog owner. Henry said he founded the site because he was dismayed about "unchecked rhetoric" on other borough blogs.

"Like any independent source of information, I agree with some of (Queens Crap's) opinions and disagree with others," he said.

Both bloggers contend their sites are dedicated to fighting overdevelopment and addressing concerns in Queens neighborhoods. But both blogs also contain numerous attacks on elected officials, civic leaders and other community figures.

Favorite targets on Queens Crap include Council members Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village), Melinda Katz (D-Forest Hills) and Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside), as well as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city Department of Buildings. Patriots has taken aim at the Juniper Park Civic Association's leadership, Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and Queens Crap.

Juniper Park President Robert Holden said he did not want to comment on the blog sites. Gallagher said he believes both bloggers use their sites for political propaganda.

"I don't spend a lot of time looking at them, but it seems there are a lot of people who comment on politics," he said. "They do it in a very cowardly fashion by posting anonymously."

Readers can view Queens Crap at http://queenscrap.blogspot.com and Juniper Park Patriots at juniperparkpatriots.blogspot.com.

Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.

Leader-Observer: All Hail the Inventor of blogspot.com...

It looks like central Queens is becoming the center of the blogosphere...

A little blog devoted to chronicling the destruction of Queens by a roving band of unscrupulous developers and shifty politicians has been getting quite a lot of attention recently. New York 1 even asked the beep about it during an interview. It’s called Queens Crap, and the prime blogger is a busy bee, posting several entries a day.

It appears, however, that another grassroots blogger feels that the site is aptly named, not because of the demolition they chronicle, but because of the site itself, namely that it is full of crap (i.e., its own). To counter, someone has started the Juniper Park Patriots, a blog dedicated to “providing the truth, rather than executing a vindictive narrow-minded agenda.” The creator promises to provide “you with the FACTS to navigate through the CRAP.”

It seems we have our very own Federalist papers operating in the form of blogs in the heart of Queens, and Pol Position couldn’t be happier. No word, or rather post, yet from Queens Crap, but we hope it is only a matter of time before another shot is fired.

A Road Not Taken, Much...NY Times Takes a Ride Down Jamaica Avenue...

A Road Not Taken Much...By DAVID McANINCH - NY Times -Published: April 15, 2007


...there, within just a few blocks of the cemetery district [in Woodhaven], Jamaica Avenue becomes Main Street, U.S.A., replete with taverns, barbershops, hardware stores, and a small-town feel that’s a world away from Manhattan’s see-and-be-seen restaurants and sleek flagship stores.Exclusive Menswear, near 84th Street, will sell you a respectable-looking tuxedo for $79.99; at the catering hall down the street, the Knights of Columbus meets once a week; and at nearby Schmidt’s candy shop, chocolates are made by hand and displayed on fudge-spattered wax paper in wood cases. The woman [Margie Schmidt] behind the counter at Schmidt’s seems to have an arrangement with the Manor Delicatessen, across the street. “Go over there right now and try their German potato salad,” she instructed a first-time visitor. “It’s the best in the city.”
(Entire article...) and (photos...)

A fascinating history of Jamaica Avenue is found at the Richmond Hill Historical Society with many vintage photographs...

About the History of Jamaica Avenue

An Indian trail led from the Great Plains to the Cove, at the northern end of the Heights on the East River, which became the site of the Brooklyn Ferry. This trail was widened by the Hempstead settlers, and became known as the Ferry Road. Another Indian Trail, intersecting this one at Jamaica, ran along the line of Flushing Main Street, Kissena Boulevard, and Parsons Boulevard. The roads were made in the earliest days from these trails.

On June 19,1803, a law was passed, providing for one public and general highway to extend from the Ferry in Kings County, through that County and the Counties of Queens and Suffolk.

The Ferry Road was improved to comply with that law. Other roads, coming from the various county towns, and connecting with the Ferry Road, were also improved under the act. The main road and these feeder lines, became one system, known under the common name of Kings Highway. (continued...)

Photo of Triangle Hofbrau above from the book, "Old Queens, N.Y. in Early Photographs" by Vincent F. Seyfried) - The Triangle Hofbrau was also a hotel named Doyle's Hotel which still can be seen in the photograph. Photo of the Woodhaven sign from Forgotten NY

Thanks to Queens Crap for pointing out the Times Article...

Queens Crap featured on NY1...

Some Queens Residents Turn To Cyberspace To Gripe About Development


Some Queens residents are taking their complaints about over development to a new level, cyberspace. But as NY1’s Ruschell Boone explained in the following report, some people in the borough are not subscribing to what's being said.

He calls himself "the crapper." He runs "Queens Crap" -- a local web log or blog, where hundreds if not thousands of people are logging on to gripe about over-development in the borough.

“We love Queens and we're doing this because it's a place we care about and we don't want to see this allowed to continue,” said the site’s creator who asked for his identity to be concealed.

“The crapper” says he started the site in December so he and some friends could vent about the oversized buildings and other construction they say does not fit many Queens neighborhoods. The site has attracted more than a100,000 hits so far. ..

But at least one politician, the borough president, says the site is one-sided.

“Even with positive development you're going to have some people who don't agree with it,” said Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.

(video and read more...)

Real Estate Roller Coaster...Are We Headed for a Steep Decline in Queens Home Values Ahead..?

Record Number of Sub-Prime mortgage foreclosures here [in Queens] Pete Davis – Queens Courier, April 5, 2007

Sub-prime mortgages are causing a dramatic spike in foreclosures throughout the city with Queens homeowners facing the most devastating effects.

Between January 1 and March 19 of this year, 1,223 foreclosure notices were filed within Queens, which puts the borough on pace to shatter the record 3,625 foreclosures that were filed last year.

Behind Foreclosures, Ruined Credit and Hopes...KAREEM FAHIM and RON NIXON New York Times, March 28, 2007

Neighborhoods in Queens...also have large concentrations of sub-prime loans which are at high risk of foreclosure...The study by the Center for Responsible Lending predicts that nearly 22 percent of the sub-prime loans in New York area made in 2006 will go into foreclosure in the next few years, one of the highest rates in the nation.

Queens Crap:

The Daily News has an excellent series of maps showing exactly where the sub-prime mortgage victims are likely to be.

Set-up for a Fall...Sub-prime mortgages lead to record foreclosures in the city's poorest nabes...Juan Gonzalez - Daily News, March 28^th, 2007

In some areas of South Jamaica and Bedford-Stuyvesant, as many as 10 homes per block faced foreclosure last year.

The Reason: sub-prime mortgages offered by unscrupulous real estate brokers and predatory lenders, according to a study on the epidemic if citywide foreclosures

Plans to stem foreclosures...Schumer working on laws to protect against predatory lending, Sid Cassese, Newsday, April 3, 2007

Help against predatory mortgage brokers could be just around the corner, according to Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-N.Y.), who says such aid would not only benefit the borrower but also those who own homes near foreclosed houses.

Schumer, who heads the Senate banking subcommittee on housing, told an audience in Massapequa yesterday that he and others in Washington are working on legislation to regulate mortgage brokers for the first time and to end loans offer based on false promises.

The Real Estate Roller Coaster...from 1890 – 2007...

http://www.speculativebubble.com/videos/real-estate-roller-coaster.php