CB2 Monthly Report: graffiti & strip club crackdown; Superfund Creek

New 50-day graffiti law requires city shop owners to come clean, LIC

On the agenda discussed at November’s Community Board 2 meeting:

• The CB2 roster remains intact for a fifth year, as nominations to replace any or all of the officers were sought but none was offered. Currently, CB2 is comprised of Joseph Conley as chairman, Steve Cooper as first vice chairman, Patrick O’Brien as second vice chairman, Diane Ballek as treasurer, and Lisa Ann Deller as secretary.

• The on-and-off matter of the adult entertainment palace coming to LIC is on again. GLC Entertainment has tried to open an adult entertainment facility on 21st Street near an upper level exit of the Queensboro Bridge, but then put off the effort. The opening is now said to be imminent, however CB2′s second vice chairman stated that if the State Liquor Authority holds hearings on the matter this month at a meeting in Harlem, he will attend to register the board’s disapproval.

• There is a new 50-day law on graffiti which allows the city to cite a shop owner for having graffiti scrawled or sprayed on the owner’s property and request it be cleaned off. If the graffiti hasn’t been cleaned in 50 days the city can do the job if the owner has also neglected or declined to file a formal report stating the city isn’t wanted on the property.

• The desire for a new 108th Police Precinct headquarters more centrally located than the 50th Ave location in LIC was voiced, but according to Conley, at all levels of the Police Department it’s about as popular as mosquitoes.

• Conley also reminded the group that CB2 is the only Queens district without a Beacon school, a school-based community center for students and adults.

• In both public comment and committee reports there was more talk about drilling for natural gas in New York and Pennsylvania, which could affect NYC’s drinking water even though drillers have promised otherwise.

• Newtown Creek, the thin body of water separating much of Queens from Brooklyn has become a BOA: a Brownfields Opportunity Area. Environmental consultants will study the possibility of raising the creek’s status from acutely polluted to usable for various industrial and recreational activities. It was also stated that the Environmental Protection Administration is attempting to get federal officials to make Newtown Creek a Superfund site, but even if that were achieved, the cleanup would take 15 to 20 years.

• Several statistics were read regarding the veterans living in or moving out of the veterans’ residence at 21-10 Borden Ave in LIC. Remarks from Veterans Affairs Secretary were reiterated, including the statistic about the 131,000 military service veterans who are currently homeless and on the streets, with Iraq and Afghanistan vets among them.

• Three applications for sidewalk cafés in Sunnyside and Woodside were reviewed.

A CB2 public hearing is also coming up next week on November 19th in LIC. The topics will be: 1) a presentation regarding the open space development for the Hunters Point South development, and 2) the conversion of 49th Ave between 5th St and Vernon Blvd to a one-way Eastbound, as well as the goal to add speed bumps and an all-way stop sign at the corner of 5th St and 49th Ave because of safety concerns. Further details are in the PDF below.

• CB2 Public Hearing Notices [PDF]

• Budgets, Sidewalk Cafés, Elections Head CB2 Agenda [Queens Gazette]