Queens Chronicle: Property takeover angers residents

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) was joined last Friday afternoon by concerned area residents across the street from the College Point Corporate Park, where he announced that the Department of Sanitation had issued summonses to several businesses that he said have taken over streets and sidewalks. He called on the city to take further action against them unless the situation is rectified.

Avella said he first noticed the unlawful activity during the Memorial Day Parade.

“All these businesses just decided, ‘We’re taking over this property,’” he said. “Clearly illegal.”

He said he “immediately wrote to the city. The only agency that took action was the Department of Sanitation. It’s interesting that they’re here today.”

Surveying the tons of supplies that almost completely concealed the sidewalk on one side of 124th Street, he added, “All of this has got to be cleaned up. If they don’t clean it up, the city should come and just seize it all. You cannot take over a city street. This is absurd.”

Avella also suggested that the situation posed “a health hazard, a traffic hazard, a pedestrian hazard,” and asked, “If something should happen, who’s going to get sued? The city. And the taxpayer is going to have to pay the lawsuit. This is the worst example I’ve ever seen of private businesses taking over city sidewalks.”

Asked his next step, he said, “The fact that they’re storing all this equipment on a city street and sidewalk is grossly inappropriate. I’m going to be asking the city to step up the enforcement.

“Whatever summonses Sanitation issued, it’s not enough for these companies to take action. I want this equipment seized. This is unacceptable.”

As far back as late 2011, Community Board 7 filed complaints with the departments of Transportation, Buildings and Sanitation as well as the 109th Precinct over materials that were being stored on the sidewalk, according to a letter provided by one area resident, Jim Singletary, acting president of the 28th Avenue Block Association.

“These guys block up the street and sidewalk,” Singletary said. “They’re very arrogant about it. They’re not a good neighbor at all.”

He wondered, “How did they actually take over the city property and drop steel beams all over the place?”

The situation has become dangerous, he said, explaining that “we almost had two or three accidents in the last year when people were forced to walk in the street. We have a right to live.”

Singletary, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years, added, “We’re trying to upgrade the neighborhood and these people are tearing us down.”

Another longtime resident, Dimitrios Mandaleos, said, he makes complaints “all the time.”

According to Mandaleos, before the current companies moved in, a night club occupied the site, but it was forced to close because of excessive noise. Now he wishes the change had never taken place.

As many as three or four trucks make deliveries as early as six a.m. He also complained about traffic congestion on 28th Avenue.

Avella painted a potentially disastrous picture when he said, “You can imagine some kids walk by and they start playing on the steel girders. It’s absurd.”

Perhaps most frustrating is that nobody seems to know exactly who is responsible for the situation.

“We’re trying to figure out who owns what here,” Avella said.

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