Jackson Heights Life

 If you want community support here, let us know when and where. How to voice the issues in a way that encourages
resolution and the result you would like.

As some of you know, several months ago a Department of Buildings inspector gave us a Stop Work Order in which he alleged that we were running a renovation without a building permit and in an unsafe manner. Indeed, a few people here were quick, in a earlier thread, to embrace the quite serious allegations that were posted on our front window.

Basically, he entered like John Wayne and slammed us.

In fact, we were making non-structural, cosmetic changes that involved ripping up floor and ceiling tiles as well as removing, with hand tools, vents that had not been used for years. Our main motivation was to determine whether there was an original floor or ceiling worth preserving.

Last Friday morning, an Administrative Judge dismissed the Department of Building's allegations in their entitety.

On late Friday morning, the same enforcement officer showed up and said, flippantly, "so you won in court". When we suggested to him that what he did has resulted, for us, in a costly nightmare, he walked out.

This morning, the Departnent of Buildings lifted the Stop Work Order.

This BS has cost us a great deal of time and a great deal of money.

This guy slammed us without thinking about what was going on and without asking any questions.

This has cost us a lot of time and tens of thousands of dollars. One of the reasons that it has taken so long to resolve this is that the we spent hours earlier this fall at the Administrative Court, for a hearing, only to be told that the inspector had called into work sick. Apparently, we and our lawyer were not entitled to the courtesy of notice of this.

And yes, I am concerned that the Deoartment of Buuldings, and this inspector and his colleagues, will read this and have it in for us.

But somebody has to say something.

Stew

In light of the Administrative Court's decision to dismiss, in their entirety, the Department of Building's allegations against us, our general contractor will start work on Thursday to make Swim Two Birds a reality.

Don't know what to say about the behavior of my Community Board except that the behavior of the Board and its Director, is embarrassing, anti-business and anti-resident.

On Thursday, I'll be starting a new thread about our build-out.

I can tell you that the Artistic Design chairs, which we received a few days ago, are awesome. Beautifully designed and extremely comfortable.

I think that we will also be posting videos on TouTube about our progress and problems, including government problems.

The fact that you Stew are so open and transparent about what's been happening shows great courage on your part. 

Folks can only operate unethically in the shadows.  And you are shining a very bright light on questionable practices by folks in our, we as taxpayers, employ.

You should rest assured that the thousands upon thousands of viewers who are following this post, members of our Jackson Heights Community, have now been alerted to your situation.  And my guess is that those who misuse the power they have been granted by the community will now and in the future, be observed very closely.   

Maybe called the the DA or someone. Sounds like an abuse of power.

Something else to be upset about: these delays forced a restaurant to miss the most profitable season of the year in its industry. No possibility of buyouts, holiday parties, etc.

Here are two problems trying to open a business that is of interest to Jackson Heighrs residents, and creates employment, in Jackson Heights:

The Department of Buildings sends out an inspector to close down completely legal activity in order to increase city revenue (in our case, a $6500 bogus fine, which the city will now be required to repay - yes, we had to pay the "fine" up front in order to appeal -, but not the tens of thousands of dollars that this has cost us).

Ms. Giovanni Reid, on behalf of our Community Board, tells us that it's our problem that her office has failed to keep our counsel of record apprised of meetings of my local community board, which I support with my tax dollars, and which I hope to continue to support when, and if, my community board figures out (having met with me twice already) that a contemporary American restaurant, based on French technique, is not a threat to Jackson Heights.

I don't see how a contemporary American resturant can be considered a threat to Jackson Heights.

Maybe not "threat", but the number of times that the phrase "maybe our restaurant is not for you" in other posts by Stew and redge perhaps gave pause to the members of the community board. Particularly in light of opposition to the BID plan for Roosevelt Avenue, most in opposition seem to feel that it is primarily a tool for developers to push established neighborhood businesses out so that they can be replaced by businesses that will attract a demographic that would support modern high rises thrown up in sixth months.
But who knows....