Greenpoint
Lorven Pharmacy
Culture on the Cheap
From The New York Shitty Inbox, Part III: What To Do About Illegal Hotels?
Filed under: 10002, 10003, 11206, 11211, 11222, Bushwick, Bushwick Brooklyn, Criminal Activity, East Village, East Village Manhattan, East Williamsburg, East Williamsburg Brooklyn, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, New York City, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
More specifically: What do I do when I learn that a fellow tenant is renting out his/her apartment via Airbnb? E.g.; What recourse do I have when some drunken asshat breaks my front door lock at 2:00 a.m. in the morning or simply walks in and hands my husband his luggage?
A tipster writes:
Heather!
Illegal Hotels, formally known as transient occupancy units (TOU’s) are Class “A” residential units that have been converted for short-term stays of 30 days or less without adhering to the fire codes, tax laws, Certificates of Occupancy and zoning restrictions of hotel use. The illegal conversion of residential buildings into hotels presents serious problems for permanent residents, limits the supply of available housing – in particular, rent-regulated and low-income housing. By lacking the necessary fire-safety measures that legal hotels are required to have by law, which are more stringent than multiple dwelling buildings, TOU’s also present substantial safety hazards to permanent, legal residents as well as short-term guests; many are dangerous firetraps.
The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (“OSE”), headed by Kathleen McGee, pulls together the various enforcement agencies to go after TOUs when they are reported. I know people don’t believe it, but for this people need to file 311 Complaints, being sure to tell the operator that they want it to go to OSE. Kathleen has worked to get complaints that are incorrectly taken for HPD or DOB re-routed to her shop (and has been largely successful).
The District Manager or local elected officials can also forward complaints directly to Kathleen, and can even do so anonymously. It can be hard to get OSE out immediately, unless there is a present and imminent fire hazard, but they are very good at going out to problem locations (ie: repeated complaints or severe activity). They have been stepping up their enforcement recently.*
So far, there isn’t much proactive enforcement based off of sites like AirBnB, although with recent changes in the law, which raised the fines for landlords and allows tenants to be fined as well, some landlords have started to patrol the websites to catch tenants and proactively inform OSE.
*No shit.
The Word On The Street, Part II: Allen Street
Filed under: 10002, Lower East Side, Lower East Side Manhattan, The Word On The Street
Taken June 5, 2013.
From The New York Shitty Inbox, Part II: Grow Your Parks
Filed under: 11206, 11211, 11222, East Williamsburg, East Williamsburg Brooklyn, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
A number of folks have brought this to my attention. But I am rolling with this one as I found the “copy” the most provocative:
Hi, Heather…any chance you can do a quick thing on this on your site? Feel free to editorialize as much as you wish, but it would be nice to let people know about it. That way they can come and personally rip on the new OSA director if they wish.
PDF attached. Here is the copy I sent out along with it:
Friends and Neighbors,
The OSA Community Committee is pleased to announce the next Public Forum will be taking place on Wednesday June 12, 2013 at The Warsaw in Greenpoint at 7pm.
The Public Forum is your chance as community members to bring your ideas for maintaining, improving and celebrating our public parks in North Brooklyn both with your fellow North Brooklynites and with OSA leadership. Join your neighbors in discussing the state of your parks and generating priorities for the Parks Department and OSA staff.
This year you have a unique opportunity to meet and hear from the Executive Director of OSA, Ed Janoff. Ed will present his plan for addressing the ideas the community submitted at the last Public Forum as well as take your questions.
We hope to see you there!
Grow Your Parks: OSA Public Parks Forum
Wednesday, June 12th 2013 starting at 7:00 p.m.
The Warsaw
261 Driggs Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11222
Urban Fur: The Word On The Street
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, The Word On The Street, Urban Fur
Taken June 4, 2013.
The Word On The Street: From NYC With Love
Filed under: 10002, 10003, 11211, 11222, Crosstown Local, East Village, East Village Manhattan, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Lower East Side, Lower East Side Manhattan, The Word On The Street, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
Williamsburg Bridge
Crosby Street
1st Avenue & 6th Street
Crosstown Local, Nassau Avenue
Rivington Street
Taken June 5, 2013.
Credits/Props: Go out to Goggla for the heads-up/locale of the pay phone. Thanks!
Found On The Southside: Wheelchair
I happened upon this missive today at Wythe Avenue and South 4th Street. Truth be told, I am at a loss. In order for a wheelchair to be found one would presume it had to be lost/misplaced. Then again I have lived in north Brooklyn long enough to know better than to dwell too deeply on such matter. If anyone is missing a wheelchair (or needs one, I suppose) this good Samaritan has it and was kind enough to post flyers.
From The New York Shitty Inbox: A Dispatch From Frost Street
Filed under: 11211, Crazy People, Criminal Activity, East Williamsburg, East Williamsburg Brooklyn, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Hooliganism, Wow, WTF
I am certain a number of folks reading this tome are familiar with the item Gothamist posted recently about an attorney having what can be best described as an alcohol-fueled melt-down in Williamsburg. Those of you who are not in the know can become so by clicking here.
In any case, I found the incident downright uncanny as something very similar happened— also in Williamsburg— twenty four hours later. A doppelganger, if you will. I’m guessing the 94th had a very busy weekend— but I digress. My tipster writes on Sunday, June 2nd:
It isn’t Even hot yet and people are nuts. Whackjob… flipped out cross the street last night. 30’s white dude with braided bracelets was kicking and punch the shit out of somebody elses car. Then lays down on the sidewalk crying. Hell-o 94th! Sad, nobody loves him and he is mad about it. Really nice young Polish cop came. I liked seeing a cop in his own hood.
As it was explained to me by another witness this fellow managed to inflict several thousand dollars worth of damage to this defenseless motor vehicle before passing out on the sidewalk. And passed out on the sidewalk he conveniently remained until our Finest arrived. Upon being awakened next to his “handiwork”— I want to make this perfectly clear— this chap apparently had enough wits about him to deny any wrong-doing.
Yup. Methinks we’re in for an interesting summer north Brooklyn. On a related note, this evening the monthly meeting of the 94th Precinct Community Council will come to pass at the Church of Ascension’s Parish Hall. NOTE: this will be the last meeting until September.
94th Precinct Community Council Meeting
June 5, 2013 starting at 7:00 p.m.
Church of the Ascension’s Auditorium
122 Java Street
Brooklyn, New York 11222
Cheers!
From The New York Shitty Inbox: Coming At You From WNYC Transmitter Park
A Greenpoint resident and parks patron we’ll call “N” writes:
Ok. Here’s shocking news for you. Transmitter park has a proper resident.
Au contraire. I’d hazard to guess these are two French cinema enthusiasts staking out their seats for August’s film festival.
In all seriousness folks, am I the only person who finds a community which has a chronic addiction and therefore homeless problem— which is more often than not manifest in our public spaces being host to a French film festival a mite bit absurd? Please tell me I am not.
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