In Rockaways, a Tide Is Coming In

[Kris]

December 7, 2003

In Rockaways, a Tide Is Coming In

By DENNIS HEVESI

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The initial 32 two-family homes have been built at Arverne by the Sea on part of the long-dormant 308-acre Arverne Urban Renewal Area.

YOU can't buy a kewpie doll or a Tuckee Cup on the boardwalk in the Rockaways any more. The arcades are long gone.

But Michael and Donna Mark bought a two-family house behind a white picket fence three blocks from the ocean on Beach 60th Street for $246,000 two years ago. And in September, the house, in the Arverne section, was reappraised at $310,000 — a 26 percent increase in value.

"We thought the price was good because we saw a lot of potential in the area," said Mr. Mark, 38, an investigator for the New York State Insurance Department. "Now, it's exciting to see all the development around us. And the newest homes are going for $400,000."

Things are looking up along the 11-mile sand spit on the south shore of Queens that used to be known as "the poor man's Riviera" — particularly at its midriff, where vast swaths of land once crammed with summer bungalows have lain desolate for decades, orphans of urban nonrenewal.

Howard Schwach has watched the tides turn.

A native son, Mr. Schwach, 64, is managing editor of the peninsula's 110-year-old weekly newspaper, The Wave. He waxes nostalgic about his adolescent adventures along the boardwalk. "We joke that you're an old-time Rockaway resident if you remember the Tuckee Cup," Mr. Schwach said, explaining that it was chow mein in a cup made of pressed noodles that cost $1.25 back in the 50's. "So you would eat the stuff out of it with a wooden fork they gave you, and then when you were finished you would eat the cup."

Back then, Mr. Schwach continued: "The boardwalk was lined with stores and penny arcades, two movie theaters. Sometimes in the summer you slept on the beach; there was no air-conditioning. And it was great to be a teenage boy because thousands of teenage girls would flock to the Rockaways; summer romances were the thing."

Then, in the early 60's — some say particularly because of the coming of the jet age and fast flights to tropical climes — the Rockaway economy took a turn toward the terrible. The city, in what one local official termed one of its "urban renewal binges," tore down thousands of bungalows, leaving wide tracts vacant or dotting them with low-income housing projects.

"For 35 years we've been sitting here waiting for something to happen," Mr. Schwach said, "and now it is."

Using the two-family home as a sort of standard model (with one unit potentially providing rental income), builders have speckled the peninsula with hundreds of new houses over the last five years — three or four scattered among tattered though tenacious bungalows on this street or that; five square blocks lined with three-story town houses; acres blanketed by a hundred semiattached homes here, two dozen detached there, nearer to the surf.

To be sure, there are those concerned that the seaside way of summer life is facing extinction, and that there is insufficient infrastructure — roads, sewers and schools — to support all the new development on the peninsula. Lots of new houses have certainly been built.

And they've sold.

In 1999, the Briarwood Organization took a chance by building 40 two-family homes between Beach 59th and 61st Streets for a project called Waters Edge — a sliver from the long-dormant, rubble-strewn, 308-acre Arverne Urban Renewal Area that dominates the Rockaways' central corridor.

Despite buying the city-owned land through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development at only $1,000 for each promised housing unit, and agreeing to pass along the land-cost savings to new homeowners, said Briarwood's president, Vincent Riso, "It took us awhile to convince people to purchase."

"We were the first new construction in Arverne in 30 years," Mr. Riso said. "But once we started our sales program, we found a number of lovely families who bought and are now our best salespeople. Our sales staff tells buyers, `Don't feel shy, just go down the street and ring doorbells.' "

All of the original 40 homes, except the demonstration model, are now occupied; sold at an average price of $228,000. And in the second phase of the project, 65 more two-family houses are to be built starting in February.

"We found Arverne to have a slow kindling point," Mr. Riso said. "But now that we've been there awhile, we have no concern that we won't sell out these 65 new homes quickly" — at about $400,000, with no subsidy.

The First Spark
Cookie-Cutter Homes at $170,000 Each

If Waters Edge was the kindling point for real renewal in Arverne on the ocean side of the Rockaways, then the spark for the entire peninsula may have been lit a decade ago in Sommerville — a stub of land poking toward the tiny islands and sand hassocks, splayed with straw-gold stretches of marsh grass, that dot Jamaica Bay to the north. That, at least, is the contention of Vincent Castellano, the housing chairman for Community Board 14.

"There are three blocks around 63rd Street that, to me, started the building boom in the Rockaways about 10 years ago," Mr. Castellano said. A fledgling developer, Malcolm Smith, built 60 homes on that long-vacant land.

"Everybody thought he was crazy," Mr. Castellano said. "The price at the time was $170,000 for these cookie-cutter homes. But they sold."

And while there was criticism of the project's look-alike architecture back then, just as the Levittown box soon blossomed with add-ons and build-ups, much of Sommerville has been customized over the years. "That was the beginning, the first time a private developer put his money on the barrel," Mr. Castellano said. "And that gave confidence to other developers." In 2000, Mr. Smith, the developer, was elected to the State Senate.

For nearly a century, Rockaways' Playland — with its water slide, Olympic-sized swimming pool and amusement-studded midway — drew thousands of fun seekers to its site between Beach 97th and 98th Streets, from Rockaway Beach Boulevard to the boardwalk. In 1938, a 300-foot-long, 70-foot-high wooden roller coaster — later dubbed the Atom Smasher — first plunged riders toward that faint line between thrill and terror.

By the late 80's, the Atom Smasher, along with the rest of Playland, squeezed by dwindling attendance and skyrocketing insurance costs, had been reduced to rubble — little but its foundation to lie forlorn for nearly a decade.

Now, beside and to the south of the elevated A-line train stop that still bears a Playland station sign, 110 two-family homes have been built and sold by Rockaway Shore L.L.C. And 30 more are under construction.

"Our first homes were priced around $250,000," said Jonathan Miller, a partner in the company, pointing out that several parcels outside of the Playland site have been incorporated into the development. "Today, three years later, they sell for around $450,000," without any subsidy.

"It's still affordable," Mr. Miller continued, "because these are two-families. So when the buyer takes into consideration today's interest rates and the rental income, the house becomes affordable."

The company is also building 92 two- and three-bedroom apartments in three-story buildings off the southeast corner of Cross Bay Parkway and Rockaway Beach Boulevard. Rents there will range from $1,300 to $1,500 a month, with tenants required to have incomes between $44,600 and $157,000.

Other developers and city officials had high-rise designs for the Playland property and the vast Arverne site during the fallow years. "They made a lot of promises to the residents of the Rockaways," Mr. Miller said, "but none were fulfilled."

These days, to a greater degree, commitments are being kept.

Improvements are tangible at the six public housing projects with 4,000 apartments that dot the eastern stretch of the peninsula. For years, local residents and officials have complained that the Rockaways have borne an unfair share of the city's homeless and low-income burden.

"The housing projects have become less of a sore point," said Jonathan Gaska, the district manager of Community Board 14. "Over the last five years, the housing authority and the police, in partnership with the tenants, have really changed things for the better as far as crime. They are doing more security in the buildings and on the grounds."

At the Arverne and Edgemere Houses, particularly, Mr. Gaska said, "The housing authority has spent a significant amount of money renovating all the apartments, thousands of units."

And in the Edgemere Urban Renewal Area, on the bay side of the A-train line from Beach 32nd to 54th Streets, 400 two-family houses are being built, part of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's commitment to promote homeownership in less affluent neighborhoods. "This is in cooperation with the New York City Housing Partnership program for families with incomes as low as $35,000, and up to $75,000," Mr. Gaska said. "They're done with the first phase, 60 houses, in the $300,000 range."

The Rockaways may even become a bit artsy, one artist hopes.

For two and a half years, Richard Kostelanetz, 63, a media artist and writer who currently lives in Manhattan's SoHo district, has been building what he calls, with mordant humor, his "terminal residence" at Kohlrider Square in the Rockaways, a two-block-long park on the bay side of the elevated line at 67th Street.

"I'm building a 4,000-square-foot home and studio; pretty eccentric looking," he said, "cinder block, a few windows high up, skylights, tall ceilings."

Mr. Kostelanetz is the author of "SoHo: The Rise and Fall of an Artists' Colony" (2003, Routledge), an account of the effects of gentrification in that downtown Manhattan neighborhood. He is currently writing "The Fall and Rise of the Rockaways" (no publisher signed yet).

"I'm a New Yorker, so I can't leave New York," he said. "I'm also a beach boy; I wanted to be near the ocean." A lesser, but added, pleasure is the last long leg of the A line "over Jamaica Bay, the most beautiful subway ride in the city."

In the short time that Mr. Kostelanetz has been working on his Rockaway home, he said: "All the empty lots — and there were many of them in my neighborhood — were snapped up. There's six two-family buildings on my block that have gone up in the last two years."

An Array of Projects
From Mansions to Town Houses

From the east to the west ends of the peninsula, lots of lots have been snapped up. In Far Rockaway, near the Nassau County border, four-story, Spanish revival-style mansions have risen where suburban ranches once stood. "They've started to call it West Lawrence," said Mr. Castellano, the housing chairman for the community board — a covetous reference to one of Nassau's affluent Five Towns, just across the city line.

Nearby, in Bayswater and Edgemere, the Leewood Real Estate Group and the Housing Partnership are building Ocean Pointe, a development of 100 town houses for families with incomes ranging from $52,000 to $79,000. The homes will sell for between $275,000 and $289,000. But 79 are eligible for approximately $55,000 in land-cost and cash subsidies through H.P.D. and the New York State Affordable Housing Corporation, a subsidiary of the state Housing Finance Agency.

In Neponsit, one of the westernmost communities on the peninsula — within a harrier hawk's take-off flight path from the dunes at Gateway National Recreation Area — opulent new homes with bay windows and balconies yawning toward the ocean have nestled among their long-established neighbors.

Few, if any, Rockaway residents have a better feel for the place than Mr. Castellano, who lives in a house he built to replace the bungalow in Breezy Point, at the western end, that his aunt bought for $4,000 in the mid-50's. It is only 10 feet from an unconverted bungalow, in a row of similarly spaced residences on a narrow path to the beach.

"If you have a fight with your wife, the next morning all the neighbors vote," he said.

"When you look at it lengthwise," Mr. Castellano said of the entire peninsula, "there's a different neighborhood every 10 blocks. And it's only a slight exaggeration to say that they each have their own name, their own political club, civic association, agenda, income category and ethnic mix. And they are all very jealous of their little fiefdoms."

"If you want to make enemies quickly," he said, "go into one neighborhood and refer to it by the name of the next neighborhood. You can't go to Neponsit and refer to it as Belle Harbor — and no, there's no `u' in harbor, not yet anyway."

The community board, Mr. Castellano said, has "seen situations where, if one neighborhood is getting some kind of municipal improvement, the adjoining neighborhood will object unless they get something, too."

Yet, if there is anything that, perhaps, most Rockaway residents might agree upon — though there are some involved in long legal struggles to insure that not all the bungalows fall — it is that something hopeful is happening in the 308-acre Arverne wasteland.

For nearly four decades, grand plans were offered for the 52-block stretch from Beach 32nd to 84th Streets, between Rockaway Beach Boulevard and the boardwalk. They fell through.

In the late 80's, Forest City Ratner proposed construction of a phalanx of mid- and high-rise condominium and rental apartment buildings on the site. But, with the collapse of the real estate market in the early 90's, that plan went by the boards.

Then, in the late 90's, a division of the Reichmann family real estate conglomerate in Canada planned to build — for more than $1 billion — an enclosed amusement area on the Arverne site, to be called Destination Technodome, with rides, movie theaters, an indoor ski slope and a hotel.

But as Mr. Gaska, Community Board 14's district manager, pointed out, the developer and the community "needed a commitment from the city and the state for infrastructure work, anywhere from $250 million to almost $1 billion for sewers, roadways, another exit off the Belt Parkway." That commitment never came.

Arverne by the Sea
Two-Family Homes in the Wasteland

Now, far more than a commitment has been made for Arverne by the Sea — a multifaceted development already rising on the western 117 acres of the urban renewal area. Most of the initial 32 two-family homes — models for what is to come — have been built on a three-acre site between Beach 73rd and 74th Streets. Those homes, in clusters of up to six in a row, will range in price from $395,000 to $495,000.

On Nov. 19, the City Council gave final approval to the land-use plan for the rest of Arverne by the Sea. "We'll be building an additional 650 two-family homes and another 1,000 units in midrise buildings, five to 11 stories," said Peter Florey, executive vice president of the Benjamin Development Company, which, in partnership with the Beechwood Organization, is the city-designated developer for the site.

Most of the midrise buildings will be located along a residential/retail corridor running from the Beach 68th Street train station to the boardwalk. "It will be known as Ocean Way, one of the new streets," Mr. Florey said. "The buildings will be a combination of market-rate rentals and condos."

Beechwood-Benjamin bought the land from the city for $8.6 million. "We are paying for all infrastructure costs," Mr. Florey said, "including all roads, storm and sanitary sewers. And we are building a 30,000-square-foot community center and an 800-seat elementary school on about three acres at Beach 67th Street." He estimated the infrastructure costs at $80 million.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development projects that by 2009, there will be 2,300 housing units at Arverne by the Sea, and a total of 4,000 for the entire urban renewal site; an Arverne Central Park (planned as a nature park and dune preserve) and up to 500,000 square feet of commercial and retail space on the eastern portion of the site.

Seeming resolutely proud of it all, Mr. Gaska, of the community board, said: "There are those who doubted this day would ever come. They said nothing would ever get built. We've proved them wrong."

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/12/07/realestate/cov.184.2.enlarge.jpg
Ocean Avenue, a part of Breezy Point where no cars are allowed.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company


www.arvernebythesea.com

[Gulcrapek]

Good news. I hope they're not all vinyl though.

[Kris]

February 13, 2005

On the Beach, a Brand New Life

By JEFF VANDAM

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Angel and Marisol Guivas, with their son, Gabriel, are thrilled to be among the newest residents of Arverne-by-the-Sea.

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/m.gifARISOL GUIVAS met her husband-to-be one day in 1998 through an instant message. She lived in the Bronx, he in Brooklyn, and she asked his name. It was Angel, he said, and like his future wife, he had a keen interest in the heavenly figures that were his namesake. One of their first dates was to see the Internet love story "You've Got Mail." They seemed destined for each other.

Marisol and Angel were married in 2000. They lived in the $32,000 one-bedroom co-op that Angel had bought as a bachelor in Sheepshead Bay. He had grown up there, the only Puerto Rican kid in a neighborhood of Italians, and now he and Marisol were starting their family there. Their son, Gabriel, was born in June 2002, and as he grew out of his crib and into his big-boy bed, the co-op began to feel too small.

They looked north, to new construction under way in Harlem, and east, to homes in Long Island. Then an item in the newspaper caught Marisol's eye. It mentioned a lottery for brand new seaside homes in a complex to be named Arverne-by-the-Sea, in Queens. It was a 20-block stretch in the distant Rockaways, the string-bean-shaped peninsula that juts into the ocean south of Kennedy Airport and Jamaica Bay. It was only 10 minutes from Angel's job at the post office in Howard Beach, and would become a vast development of homes, with stores, restaurants, a Y.M.C.A., a marina and a school. They signed up.

Last February, they got a call that they were in line for the very last house in the very first phase of Arverne-by-the-Sea, 32 homes labeled the Sands at Harbour Pointe. They went to the sales office and poked around the neighborhood, if it could have been called that. There were no food stores, save for a bodega. The subway station was a treacherous 15-minute trek away on the sidewalk-less Rockaway Freeway. Still, when two buyers in front of them bailed out, Marisol and Angel scraped together a 10 percent down payment on the $395,000 price. Their new address was on Arverne Mews, a street that did not yet exist.

The land where the Guivases were about to put down new roots had been nothing but sand, weeds and trash for 40 years. It was as though a real estate curse had befallen it. More wild dogs than people on the streets. More trash than shells on the beach. The end of New York, literally and figuratively. It had been fallow, empty, abandoned, its beachside bungalows razed in the 1960's to make way for decades of schemes that never materialized. It was part of the 308-acre Arverne Urban Renewal Area, left over long after the idea of flattening a dense patch of residential land was rejected as an urban planning concept. The biggest vacant lot in the city.

But Arverne-by-the-Sea was to change all that. The free sand buckets and shovels from the sales office depicted people on the beach waving in front of a brilliant sunset. The ambitious master plan was to build 117 acres of residential subdivisions with names like Ocean Breeze, the Tides and the Dunes. The grand total of market-rate homes to be built by 2007 was 2,300. Marisol and Angel were taking a grand gamble on a place where no previous project had come to fruition in nearly half a century.

Land of 1,000 Schemes

To stroll on the shores of Arverne these days is to experience loneliness. Among the bare parcels that were once filled with houses and people, there is very nearly nothing. The only buildings are a closed bait-and-tackle outlet and a health clinic. A small "Comfort Station" sits on the boardwalk just off Beach 73rd Street; a weathered sign above the boarded-up restrooms says they are "temporarily closed."

The emptiness invites routine illegal dumping, and in 2001, two joggers, including a 74-year-old man, were attacked on the boardwalk by wild dogs. The skyline is composed of the elevated tracks of the A train and the towers of nearby housing projects. Manhattan, occasionally visible in the distance from Beach Channel Drive, seems impossibly far away, sunken into the sea.

Arverne was not always devastated. In the early 20th century, it was a well-to-do resort community containing one of the nation's largest hotels, the Arverne. Aristocrats gamboled in the sea spray.

"It was a vacation area with bungalows and houses and concessions along the boardwalk," said Jonathan Gaska, district manager for Community Board 14. "It really mirrored what the old Coney Island was."

By the 1940's, Arverne had become a bustling neighborhood. Yet the prosperity that bolstered other parts of the country in the 50's did not seep into that part of the Rockaways. Stores, theaters and restaurants fled, and Arverne declined to the point where the city razed its crumbling homes and labeled it an "urban renewal area" in 1964. But nothing was ever renewed.

This is not to say people haven't tried. In the years before Angel and Marisol Guivas set foot in Arverne, developers and community leaders brought forth a cavalcade of ideas, some more preposterous than others. Few of them took into account the wishes of the surrounding community.

In the late 1980's, the developer Bruce Ratner proposed 10,000 units of residential housing in Arverne. Opponents knocked the number of units to 7,500. But then the New York real estate market imploded and Mr. Ratner's company pulled out.

A few years later, the Reichmanns, a Canadian family that built the Canary Wharf development in London, submitted a proposal to build upon the sands of Arverne a futuristic pleasure palace, Destination Technodome. It was to be staggering in scale and include an indoor ski slope. There would also be theaters, an Olympic-size pool, skating rinks, a hotel and new jobs projected in the thousands. But the costs the family asked the city and state to assume, as much as $1 billion, proved too much, and the project collapsed.

Highly frustrated, the community asked a team of consultants to sketch out a plan that would actually work. A proposal was submitted to the Giuliani administration in 2000 that included the community's desires: attractive housing, a school, a recreation center and a large amount of retail, specifically a major supermarket, chain stores and restaurants.

Along with several other builders, two Long Island developers, the Beechwood Organization and the Benjamin Companies, assembled a bid for the project. Shortly after a devastating plane crash in the Belle Harbor section of the Rockaways in November 2001 that killed 265 people, the Giuliani administration designated Benjamin-Beechwood as the winning team.

"Within a week or two of that plane crash, we got the call," said Les Lerner, a principal of the Beechwood Organization. "Perhaps they needed to show something positive happening in the Rockaways."

A Grand Gamble

It was perhaps a cruel twist that Angel and Marisol Guivas had redone their kitchen in Sheepshead Bay before getting the call about the house in Arverne. They had put in new cabinets and appliances and bought a big new refrigerator, but in just a few weeks, they would have to shuffle their belongings across the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and onto the Rockaway peninsula.

It was a pleasant evening in November 2004, and furniture, clothing, empty juice boxes, catalogs and Gabriel's toys were scattered about in a pre-move jumble. An enormous sense of expectation permeated the household. "I'm psyched! You know what I'm saying?" said Angel, 35, his strong voice booming and his cropped black hair not moving an inch. Enthusiastic as ever, he clapped his hands together, loud. "I want to get to work, guys!"

Marisol, a petite, dark-haired 33-year-old with warmth and energy to spare, laughed. "It's very 'beach house,' " she said about their new home, her face glowing. She was pregnant with another baby, due in March. If the Guivases had not won their lottery spot in Phase 1A of Arverne, they probably would have had to begin raising the baby in a place that was not even big enough for the three of them.

To give Gabriel his own space in their Sheepshead Bay home, they had put his bed in a narrow room just off the main entrance that resembled a walk-in closet. Angel painted the ceiling sky blue and added white cloud puffs. But they knew their 2-year-old needed more space to run around.

Angel and Marisol, who can't seem to stop talking effusively about their new home, have never had serious doubts about choosing Arverne. But their final confirmation came from an entrepreneur with slightly more experience. They attended a real estate expo at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center last fall, and one of the events was a question-and-answer session with Donald Trump.

"What happened was a girl told him, 'I'm about to go under contract with Arverne-by-the-Sea,' " Marisol said. "And Trump was like, 'Arverne? Can I have your contract?' "

"We high-fived," Angel said. "It was great! We were so happy. Another person said, 'I have $20,000 in equity, what can I do with that money?' And Trump said, 'Arverne.' That's exactly how we took Arverne, as an opportunity."

Less than a year after Angel and Marisol bought the house on Arverne Mews for $395,000, similar units in the newer phases of the development are selling at prices starting at close to $500,000. In the next section to be completed, 80 percent of the 121 houses have already been sold. In the section after that, the waiting list is 500 families long. People like the Guivases, who bought one of the first houses in the first development, sowed the seed.

"Pioneers is a good word," said Mr. Lerner of the Beechwood Organization. "At the time they committed to buy these houses, all that was going on in Arverne was these 32 houses. Now they really see that the dream they gambled on has come to fruition."

Yet in the surrounding community, there is still very little in terms of amenities. The only store for more than 10 blocks is a bodega on Rockaway Beach Boulevard, which shares space in a tiny strip mall with the Dragon Garden Chinese takeout and an empty storefront that was formerly home to "Forbidden Tattoos."

Transportation is another issue. The nearest subway station is the Beach 67th Street stop on the A train, and getting there requires traipsing through wide puddles along the Rockaway Freeway, an unlighted street with fast-moving traffic. The ride into Manhattan, which takes commuters across Queens and Brooklyn, usually exceeds an hour.

"It's really an hour and ten or an hour and twenty," said Mr. Gaska of Community Board 14. But when more people move to Arverne, he said, the community will lobby the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for express trains to Manhattan. "They don't have to build new tracks; they don't have to do anything," he said.

As for groceries, Mr. Lerner said he and his partners were on the cusp of announcing a deal with a "major brand-name supermarket" to install a store in Arverne-by-the-Sea. But for the time being, residents like the Guivases shuttle over to Brooklyn or out to Long Island for their basic needs.

Bright House, Big Future

Upon his first entry to the house on Arverne Mews, the Guivases' son announced that it was "Gabriel's house."

"Ooooh, beautiful," he told his parents. They were not aware he knew what that word meant, but they accepted his assessment. He now rides his Li'l Rascal tricycle around in the empty living room, his Lion King sneakers lighting up the carpet.

The new house is two stories of gleaming white and gray siding with a white picket fence. There is a backyard with enough room to barbecue and listen to the waves. There is a one-bedroom rental unit on the second floor that already has a tenant.

In the living room of their part of the house, Angel is painting the walls in shades of green like "Celery Ice" that get progressively darker as they approach the back window, which lets in glowing bright ocean light. There is no direct view of the water, but the beach is right around the corner.

"It's like a Florida in New York," Marisol said from the kitchen, where another new fridge waited to be installed.

"No, no," Angel corrected her, "it's California in New York. That's the way I see it. You see guys in wetsuits out there," he said, pointing to the ocean, which attracts its own legion of surfers.

Until all the furniture arrives, Angel, Marisol and Gabriel are staying in the first-floor bedroom, where they have installed an enormous inflatable mattress. The garage is full of boxes and shopping bags from Ikea, and the kitchen counter is scattered with papers and brochures advertising the model for their unit, "The Brittania."

Neighbors have already stopped by. Back in Sheepshead Bay, Angel said, "half the people, they don't really want to talk to you." But in Arverne-by-the-Sea, he said, "People are like, 'Heyyyy! How you doin'?' "

"We all got here almost in the same week," Marisol added of her neighbors. "We're building relationships together."

To Angel and Marisol, there is no end to what Arverne-by-the-Sea will bring. They have talked about investing in other properties in the area, or maybe even opening a franchise like Starbucks. ("Iced coffee at the beach!" Marisol said.) Outside, Angel pointed at the wide expanse of dirt that will become his new community, the expanse where so many others have seen defeat.

"You see that lot right there?" he asked. "That's prime real estate. That's untouched. That's empty. This is what I see that a lot of people don't see. You just have to have the courage to jump in. It's unbelievable. It's gonna be great!"

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Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[alex ballard]

Is most of this lower-income housing? It would be excellent if the Rockaways we're to become a middle-class haven for people. Heck, it could even rival Long Island!

[Derek2k3]

The Reef Condominium II
New 7 story condomium at Arverne.

http://www.pbase.com/archit_kderek2k3/image/43138789/large.jpg

Also check out new pictures of the Arverne development.
http://www.arvernebythesea.com/

[TLOZ Link5]

Is anyone else reminded of Seaside, in Florida? This whole development is very New Urbanism.

[NewYorkYankee]

Why are theey building all this for lower income? It should be mixed.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Didn't you read the articles?

If you consider all of Rockaway, it is very mixed income. Move west toward Neponsit, and the homes become very expensive.

[alex ballard]

Anyone else find it ironic that the closer you get to Brooklyn, the nicer the neighborhoods become, and the closer to Long Island, the crappier? In most urban cities in the US, it's the exact opposite...

[ZippyTheChimp]

Bayside.

Malba.

[NewYorkYankee]

Didn't you read the articles?

If you consider all of Rockaway, it is very mixed income. Move west toward Neponsit, and the homes become very expensive.

Your right, I apologize. Next time I will read the articles in full (Instead of skimming) before posting.

[NewYorkYankee]

Do residents of outter borough neighborhood with generally 1 or 2 subway lines have cars? In Manhattan not owning a car is easy with the multitude of subway acess. But, In say the Rockaways there is just one. This isnt just about the Rockaways, neigborhoods like Canarsie, Flushing, Bay Ridge etc.

[alex ballard]

Bayside.

Malba.

I was referring to the Rockaways.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Rockaway is a penninsula connected to the mainland at the eastern end. Western Rockaway (and Breezy Point) were completely isolated from Brooklyn before the Marine Parkway Bridge was built. The A train serves the eastern part of Rockaway. The western end had an army base and a naval air station that became Riis Park. The land on the western side is also "newer." Until the jetty was built to stop sand migration, Rockaway added real estate every year. 100 years ago, the point was where the bridge is today.

So no, it's not ironic. Development moved westward.

[sfenn1117]

Do residents of outter borough neighborhood with generally 1 or 2 subway lines have cars? In Manhattan not owning a car is easy with the multitude of subway acess. But, In say the Rockaways there is just one. This isnt just about the Rockaways, neigborhoods like Canarsie, Flushing, Bay Ridge etc.

I live in Bay Ridge, there is no car in my household (though we do have a garage), one subway line serves fine. Every subway line goes into Manhattan, subways aren't meant for cross-borough travel. Going from Queens to Brooklyn on the subway must be aggravating. I use the bus more than anything, the express bus to Manhattan, buses to Staten Island, Coney Island, Brighton/Manhattan Beach, Kings Plaza, etc. We're well served by mass transit.

I would estimate 1/2 of the population here has cars. Most of the houses have garages, but there are many apartment buildings that do not have parking spaces. In far-out areas like SI, Throgs Neck/Little Neck/Rosedale where this is no subway and limited bus service, I think mose residents have cars.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Arverne-by-the-Sea

1. Shore Front Parkway and Beach 73rd St
2. Mews
3. More development on Rockaway Beach Blvd
4. 1/2 mile tract to the east ready for development
5. One wrinkle - JFK glide path, but planes are still up high.
6. It's by the sea.
7. Apt buildings to the west.

[czsz]

The design is tacky and uninspired, like a golf course community in North Carolina or Florida. Still, it's a decent, humanist alternative to the grim tower-blocks otherwise marring a decent beachfront.

[sfenn1117]

I agree with the "golf course community" but it's better than a vast empty lot that stood vacant for 40+ years, and it's better than those grim high-rises. So I'll take it, it's good for the neighborhood, I don't think they look bad. Just not urban, thats all.

[billyblancoNYC]

Anyone else find it ironic that the closer you get to Brooklyn, the nicer the neighborhoods become, and the closer to Long Island, the crappier? In most urban cities in the US, it's the exact opposite...

????

Depends what you mean by nice. The areas in NE Queens are quite nice, though more suburban. There are some VERY nice areas and the whole section is quite pricey these days.

You must mean SE Queens, perhaps?

[antinimby]

THIS SAND IS MY SAND


THOUSANDS OF NEW BEACH PADS MAKE A SPLASH IN ROCKAWAY PARK


http://www.nypost.com/photos/re06222006055.jpg
LET IT TIDE: Ocean Grande still has two-bedrooms for sale.


By JASON SHEFTELL

June 22, 2006 (http://www.nypost.com/realestate/this_sand_is_my_sand_realestate_jason_sheftell.htm ) -- SURFERS hanging ten, a banging skateboard park with half pipes, tankers lining the horizon, 6 miles of boardwalk, bikinis and wild-eyed sun-bleached characters. Welcome to Rockaway Park, Queens. This water world is just an hour from Midtown on the A train. And if you want to live here, well, it seems like almost everything's for sale.

Wherever you look in Rockaway Park, you'll see "For Sale" signs. There are quaint beach bungalows for $150,000 and three-bedroom Victorians with wraparound porches for half a million dollars. There are also thousands of new condos attracting buyers looking for affordable property (and great tax breaks) on the beach.

With a slew of luxury beachfront condo projects ready for move-in within three months - including the latest phase of a 2,300-unit development on 117 acres - Rockaway Park is definitely riding the real-estate wave.

"The past three years were undoubtedly the best years I've experienced in this business," says area real-estate broker D. Brian Heffernan.

And, residents say, the beaches are clearly the area's best perk.

"I watch the sun come up over the ocean every morning," says Elizabeth Gardner, a Department of Transportation worker who owns a four-bedroom, two-family duplex with her boyfriend, Connie Cronin, on Beach 97th Street and Shorefront Parkway. "It's so quiet at night, you can hear the water - and the beaches are so big it's like you have them to yourself."

Rich in history, Rockaway Park, with water on all four sides, is located between the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay. A popular beach resort in the late 1800s, the area hit severe lows in the 1960s to 1980s. It was considered a dangerous slum with dingy public housing and even worse public services.

Although nearby mental-health facilities remain, and petty crimes like vandalism are still common police-blotter mentions, things are turning around. Violent crime is down 76 percent in the last 15 years. The beaches are cleaned every morning by city maintenance crews. There's a designated surfing section, the boardwalk, children's playgrounds, basketball courts and the National Gateway Recreation Area, a pristine national park known for bird-watching.

Another selling point of Rockaway Park is the low taxes. Thanks to 421a tax abatements given by the city to new-construction projects, residents often pay just $100 a year in taxes for eight to 15 years.

Michael Kerris, whose Frameworks Group built Belle Shores - a 78-unit, three-story luxury condo with beach views on 101st Street and Shorefront Parkway - sold 20 percent of his new development's 78 units in just two weeks. The two- and three-bedroom condos run from $439,000 to $989,900 for 972 square feet to 1,700 square feet.

Frameworks also has gobbled up more property on Shorefront Parkway along the beach at 94th Street, and plans to build a seven-story "Manhattan-style" condo development named the Landmark.

Three-bedroom penthouses will hit the million-dollar mark.

"These will be the most luxurious homes yet in the Rockaways," Kerris says.

The developers and residents at the new Ocean Grande condominiums at the top of Rockaway Park's main shopping drag on Beach 116th Street and the boardwalk might disagree with that "most luxurious" claim. The eight-story, 92-unit Ocean Grande development comes with an oceanfront club room, business center, gym and roof deck with views up and down the coastline.

"It was very emotional when we walked in here and saw our unit almost finished," says television and film producer Josh Kane, who, with his wife, Jane, bought into Ocean Grande when it was just a construction site. The couple purchased a sixth-floor two-bedroom with a terrace and ocean views.

"I don't want to sound corny, but I can't wait to fall asleep with the windows open and those ocean breezes coming in," Kane says.
Ocean Grande is 80 percent sold. Two-bedrooms with ocean views are available for $535,000.

The biggest development in the area is Arverne by the Sea, a 2,300-unit urban-renewal development being built in phases on what was previously an abandoned 321 acres of beachfront located next to a public housing project. Sales of the three-bedroom, two-family duplexes (owners can rent out one of the units), between $400,000 and $600,000 have not been hurt by the lack of stores and services in the immediate area. All 121 units of Palmer's Landing and the Sands are sold out. Units at the Breakers, a waterfront phase of 131 units, are now being sold.

"A major part of the plan is to bring in new schools, a recreational center," says Arverne by the Sea project executive Gerry Romski. "And we're close to signing a major retailer and beginning to build a major shopping center."

Derek Lindell, his wife, two teenage daughters and 22-year-old son downsized from their Sea Cliff, L.I., home with a pool to live near the beach at Arverne by the Sea.

"The price for a two-family home, the taxes, the fact I don't have to do the lawn all were big factors," Lindell says.

Adds his wife, Janet: "It's a new community where everyone is excited and friendly."

AREA: Rockaway Park, Queens

NEW BUILDINGS: Developments include Belle Shores, Ocean Grande and Arverne by the Sea

Copyright 2006 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[submachine]

By JASON SHEFTELL

Although nearby mental-health facilities remain, and petty crimes like vandalism are still common police-blotter mentions, things are turning around. Violent crime is down 76 percent in the last 15 years.


lol, thats a joke.

Violent crime is down all over the city, and Far Rockaway has one of the highest crime rates of all, its a vile area with broken down public housing projects. And no, there are no good schools. These developments are selling at the slowest pace of any in all of NYC for these reasons. Flip the projects into coops and MAYBE 5 years later down the road you will have the START of a nice area.

[BrooklynRider]

I think you are wrong - completely wrong. The developments look quite nice and the developers seem to have a good masterplan. The phasing is working nicely and the development of these tracts assures further redevelopment of existing areas. This is being rebuilt into a proper urban beachfront community. Pricing is very competitive and I think this is going to appeal to folks who enjoy heading to Long Island or the Jersey Shore on weekends, but who do so because they are beach lovers not wannabe hipsters.

[ASchwarz]

lol, thats a joke.

Violent crime is down all over the city, and Far Rockaway has one of the highest crime rates of all, its a vile area with broken down public housing projects. And no, there are no good schools. These developments are selling at the slowest pace of any in all of NYC for these reasons. Flip the projects into coops and MAYBE 5 years later down the road you will have the START of a nice area.

Rockaway Park and Arverne are compeltely different neighborhoods than Far Rockaway. I think you are confusing neighborhoods.

As for Far Rockaway, I wonder if most bashers have even been to the nabe. Half the neighborhood isn't very nice but the other half is beautiful and very expensive. The fancy half is a leafy Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.

[BrooklynRider]

I may be wrong, but I semse that some of the attitudes toward the Rockaways being posted are akin to those strange perceptions we get from midwest folks who still think it is 1977 in Manhattan.

Rockaway is changing and it is prime beachfront realty with relatively good transportation. The area had a decline, but the decline was complete - down to the ground. So we are talking about the development of vast tracts of land from Rockaway Park to Far Rockaway. There is no downside to this development. It has a wonderful design, ideally suited for beachfrontr living. It has an urban density. It is bright and green and seems to be good construction. I been through the area fairly regularly and it is transformative. Now, they need to address the crumbling subway el.

[Kris]

July 9, 2006
Posting
Luxe Invades Rockaway Park
By JEFF VANDAM

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/09/realestate/09post2.jpg
Oceanfront views and granite countertops can be yours, appropriately priced.

ON the site of what was once a beachfront hotel called Curly's and then, for decades, a vacant lot in the neighborhood of Rockaway Park, there is now the Ocean Grande, an eight-story luxury condominium building set to open to residents in a few weeks.

The building, at the corner of Beach 117th Street and the Rockaway Boardwalk, is an eye-opener, in both pricing and appearance. It has $1 million units, and it dwarfs Rockaway's typical real estate — the relatively small two- and three-family houses that first sprouted here, cheek by jowl, in the early 1900's, so working-class immigrant families could take advantage of the oceanfront.

"Ten years ago, we were very desperate to get development," said Jonathan Gaska, district manager of the Rockaways' Community Board 14. The neighborhood still has a few S.R.O. hotels, according to Mr. Gaska. But the ambience clearly doesn't matter to developers all that much when there is waterfront living space to be created.

"No one was interested here," he said. "Now everyone is."

One of those interested parties is Steven Krieger, a principal at the Engel Burman Group, which is developing Ocean Grande with the Cedar Summit Property Group. "The reason we ended up doing this development is that we found a property on the Atlantic Ocean," Mr. Krieger said. "The ocean is magnificent."

Inside the Ocean Grande's apartments, which range from studios to three-bedroom penthouses, the developers have installed appliances and amenities that might seem at home in a new condo tower in Manhattan or Dumbo, Brooklyn: Bosch washers and dryers, General Electric Profile stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. Many apartments have balcony views of Manhattan, Jamaica Bay, the ocean or in some cases all three.

After a year of sales, more than 80 percent of the units have been sold; the first buyers will move in next month.

"The way they are selling here is that oceanfront new construction at these prices is very hard to find," said Grant Held, director of sales at the building. Prices for remaining units range from $420,000, for a two-bedroom facing Jamaica Bay and Manhattan, to $1.035 million, for a two-bedroom penthouse.

On the main floor, there is a large fitness center with a flat-panel television on each exercise bike and treadmill; across the hall, a bistro and a library with plush couches and a fireplace offer beach and ocean views. A business center is outfitted with computers and printers, and residents will have locker rooms and a private entrance to the boardwalk, which abuts the building's property. Indoor parking spots are available for purchase for $30,000.

Thus far, Mr. Held said, people buying units in the building have ranged from twentysomethings to seventysomethings, coming from both New York City and Long Island.

The area nearby, including Rockaway Park's commercial strip on Beach 116th Street, is still developing, with a subway shuttle to the A train and a long ride to Manhattan a few blocks from the building. Yet sales continue to be brisk, he said, with new buyers entranced most of all by the thought of the ocean directly in their backyards.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[lofter1]

A Man’s Beach Bungalow Is His Castle,
Under Siege by Developers

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2006/08/11/nyregion/600_Bungalow1.jpg
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Richard George of the Beachside Bungalow Preservation Association of Far Rockaway
at his home on Beach 24th Street.


“If money was my motivation, I’d want the project built because it would increase my property value . . . I’m not antidevelopment; only when it discriminates against everyone else living around it.”
NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/nyregion/11bungalow.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
Queens Journal
By COREY KILGANNON
August 11, 2006

Richard George lives in a charming little beach bungalow just off the ocean on the eastern end of the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens.

Like the homes of his neighbors, his small, three-bedroom shack is cooled by the salty breeze and surrounded by wildflowers and the sandy walkways leading to other lovely old wooden homes that form a beach colony, parts of which look more like Fire Island than New York City.

Mr. George’s home on Beach 24th Street has cotton bedspreads, quaint tablecloths and kitschy artwork. But don’t be fooled by the surroundings: it’s really a war bunker from which he defends his ever-shrinking seaside neighborhood.

At the table in his galley-size kitchen, he assembles legal briefs used to sue developers and city agencies to ward off efforts to demolish the bungalows for newer, bigger housing.

Back when the Rockaways was still a popular ocean resort for New Yorkers, these bungalows were abundant, with many built in the 1920’s. Groucho Marx is said to have invested in 24 of them. Now the largest remaining patch of the historic shacks are the roughly 120 that line three city blocks leading to the dunes in Far Rockaway.

With each passing year, more of the bungalows along Beach 24th, 25th and 26th Streets between Seagirt Boulevard and the boardwalk are demolished by developers building new housing. So far, Mr. George has not been able to get the city to declare the bungalows, many of which are abandoned, landmarks.

So he fights local development by filing lawsuits claiming that the projects violate federal coastal regulations by illegally diminishing public access to the waterfront.

He is in court against a 130-unit condominium project being built between Beach 25th and Beach 26th Streets. Mr. George is arguing in State Supreme Court in Queens that the bigger project blocks an easement to the beach written into the bungalows’ deeds and titles.

State conservation officials ordered work stopped at that project, citing a lack of proper permits. Now the site, which has been idle for several months, looks as if the crew just went on a coffee break, with tools and brick piles strewn about and the iron framework gathering rust.

“These developers knew when they bought the property that their project was in violation,” said Mr. George, who bought his bungalow in 1982. He now owns a handful of other bungalows, which he rents out, and heads the Beachside Bungalow Preservation Association of Far Rockaway.

Gary Rosen, a lawyer for the project, Metroplex on the Atlantic, said the legal easements to the ocean expired in 1930. He said that he was certain he would defeat Mr. George in court but that the delays alone might ruin the project.

“My client has a $14 million loan out on this, and it is costing him $3,000 each day the project is delayed,” Mr. Rosen said. “This could bankrupt the project. He’s already cost my client more money than those bungalows are worth.”

Even when ultimately unsuccessful, Mr. George’s lawsuits have often managed to frustrate and delay developers until costly delays and legal fees have forced them to abandon their projects.

The most powerful weapon in his arsenal is an obscure regulation known as the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, enacted by Congress to help local governments preserve access to waterways. Mr. George claims that the city and state mainly ignore the regulations despite receiving federal funds to enforce them.

“The right to have waterway access maintained is protected by the U.S. Constitution and goes back to ancient Rome,” he said recently, sitting in his bungalow and surrounded by piles of documents that he says support his case. “It costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year to enforce this program, which benefits all city residents, and no one enforces it. They’re handing the waterfront over to developers and it’s breaking federal law, basically because nobody knows or seems to care about this law.”

He is suing the city in federal court, claiming it violated federal access laws in approving the huge Arverne by the Sea project, which will create thousands of units over 117 acres. Mr. George says the project will eliminate 46 streets that lead to the ocean.

The suit is one of at least seven Mr. George currently has against the city, said Gabriel Taussig, a city lawyer. Although judges may issue temporary stop-work orders against developers, Mr. Taussig said that in the end, the judges consistently reject Mr. George’s claims.

Federal and state officials say the federal coastal act offers a general guideline for projects, which are evaluated case by case. City Planning Department officials say waterfront development projects are stringently reviewed to ensure that access is preserved.

Mr. George sat in his kitchen showing old wills and deeds from landowners in the 1800’s stipulating that an easement to the ocean must be maintained. He thumbed through a heavily annotated, underlined, highlighted and Post-it adorned copy of the federal act, with his own bookmarks and footnotes. He flipped to Section 306, Part 1455, which encourages “public participation in the permitting process,” in order to “ensure compliance by government.”

Mr. Rosen accused Mr. George of protecting the bungalows simply to preserve his income as a landlord.

“He buys these bungalows for dirt cheap, and he’s lining his pockets by running the biggest scam,” he said. “Here you have developers bringing millions of dollars into the neighborhood, and he’s killing their projects and making them want to walk away.”

He said he was suing Mr. George for “malicious prosecution of my client.”
“I’ll take all the bungalows if I win,” he said. “Most of them are garbage anyway. They’re shacks.”

Mr. George dismissed Mr. Rosen’s claims.

“If money was my motivation, I’d want the project built because it would increase my property value,” he said. “I’m not antidevelopment; only when it discriminates against everyone else living around it.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[lofter1]

Beachside Bungalow Preservation Association of Far Rockaway, Inc. (http://www.preserve.org/bungalow/)

http://www.preserve.org/bungalow/logo.gif

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.preserve.org/bungalow/exterior4.jpg
Stucco Bungalow with plants
Beach 24th Street

http://www.preserve.org/bungalow/exterior1.jpg
Brick facade bungalow built 1921 -
Beach 25th Street

http://www.preserve.org/bungalow/exterior2.jpg
Renovated bungalow with porch lathing
Beach 25th Street

[BrooklynRider]

It really should be deemed an Historic District.

[Kris]

November 10, 2006
Queens: Development in the Rockaways
By DIANE CARDWELL

Moving to revitalize a long-neglected swath of the Rockaways, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg broke ground yesterday on a 30,000-square-foot Y.M.C.A. center at Arverne by the Sea, part of a sprawling mixed-use community under construction in Arverne. The development project, in a 308-acre urban renewal area designated in 1964, is slated for completion over the next decade and is expected to bring thousands of middle-income residents, a Super Stop & Shop, a new elementary school and other amenities to the area. Mr. Bloomberg also designated the Bluestone Organization, L & M Equity and Triangle Equities as the development team for the Arverne East part of the project.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[submachine]

I think you are wrong - completely wrong..

Six months since my last post here, and all evidence (before and) since then proves I am right - completely right.

Dead-slow sales in Arverne + crime rate (esp. murders) skyrocketing in NYPD Precincts 100 and 101.

And unless all the housing projects are flipped into co-ops, nothing will ever change.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Rockaway Park and Arverne are compeltely different neighborhoods than Far Rockaway. I think you are confusing neighborhoods.

Six months since my last post here, and all evidence (before and) since then proves I am right - completely right.

Dead-slow sales in Arverne + crime rate (esp. murders) skyrocketing in NYPD Precincts 100 and 101.

And unless all the housing projects are flipped into co-ops, nothing will ever change.

You are again confusing the neighborhoods.

Arverne is in the 100 precinct, not the 101.

Crime statistics 100 Precinct (http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/chfdept/cs100pct.pdf)

2005 murders - 2
2006 murders - 1

[BrooklynRider]

Six months since my last post here, and all evidence (before and) since then proves I am right - completely right.

Dead-slow sales in Arverne + crime rate (esp. murders) skyrocketing in NYPD Precincts 100 and 101.

And unless all the housing projects are flipped into co-ops, nothing will ever change.

When EXACTLY were you last there to make this assessment? I was through the entire Rockaway Peninsula twice this past weekend and the place is a boomtown. Arverne-By-The-Sea is a phenomenal success and all the people you claim aren't living there had the places decked out in Christmas lights and garland. The newer phases have no residents, but it looked more a matter of construction punchlist and ready for closings. Nautilus has a new tower development going up and the entire island thru-traffic route has been majorly altered due to the immensity of construction.

South of the el is developing as a strong (and very attractive) middle and upper-middle class zone. North of the el has an equal amount of new development and construction - some rather nice - others are horrid cheap crap. But, your assessment of the situation defies the truth that anyone can see simply by driving through.

They have already broken gound on the next phase, which is phase three or four (I'm pretty sure it is four). A site is cleared for the development of the Rockaways first major shopping/retail destination in well over 25 years with anchor tenants already signed.

[caonima]

the biggest problem of rockaway is public transportation unless there is a non-stop express train to manhattan. but this will never exist

[BrooklynRider]

That would definitely help, but the Rockaways has traditionally attracted many civil servants (NYPD, NYFD) who generally drive to work. All Rockaway residents can always head to Far Rockaway for the LIRR, which is at least a more comfortable ride.

[submachine]

When EXACTLY were you last there to make this assessment? I was through the entire Rockaway Peninsula twice this past weekend and the place is a boomtown. Arverne-By-The-Sea is a phenomenal success and all the people you claim aren't living there had the places decked out in Christmas lights and garland.

If you stand in the center of Arverne surrounded by the new condos, it may look "pretty". I was on a penthouse roof looking onto the ocean, it was spectacular.

But drive less than a minute away and you are in the projects, the WORST projects of Queens, maybe of the entire city.

Where are the kids in Arverne going to school? Nowhere. Where are they going to play? Nowhere. Where are the moms going to shop? Nowhere. It's a jewel surrounded by a dump in the middle of nowhere, and it is not changing. I know cops in the 101 precinct, and I know the entire area is a nightmare of drugs, crime, and grime.


September 14, 2006 – A crew tied to the Crips street gang made $1 million a year from trafficking narcotics in a cluster of public housing developments in Far Rockaway, Queens. After an eight-month undercover investigation by the NYPD, 96 people were charged and 81 were arrested. The investigation revealed that the dealers sometimes did transactions on school playgrounds and distributed drugs concealed in the battery compartments of remote-controlled toy cars and trucks; in one instance, a child was used to deliver drugs to an undercover officer.[40] (http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/74669.htm?CFID=1695618&CFTOKEN=33496110#_ftn40)




February 3, 2006 – Police arrested 43 members of a violent Far Rockaway drug gang who instilled fear in over 2,000 residents who lived in the Redfern Houses and Dix McBride Apartments. This gang controlled the narcotics distribution in the area, and is also suspected of being responsible for an epidemic of shootings surrounding the local drug trade.[46] (http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/74669.htm?CFID=1695618&CFTOKEN=33496110#_ftn46)

[BrooklynRider]

Actually, the neext phase of the project includes a new Stop and Shop market along with other supportive retail just south of the el and diagonoal (northeast) from Phase I.

That would be where everyone goes shopping. They can also drive to the huge supermarket on Braod Channel Drive.

I understand your view of the poorer, public housing areas, but had you done a full 360 degree view, you would have seen Belle Harbor a mile to the west, which is an extremely wealthy Queens neighborhood.

Also, almost every home in Arverbe by the Sea is a two family unit, meaning the landlord has additional income. It was a very interesting sales approach (considering what could've been made selling individual condo units) and seems to ensure that the area doesn't slide backward into the mire of the 60's & 70's.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Where are the kids in Arverne going to school? Nowhere. Where are they going to play? Nowhere. Where are the moms going to shop? Nowhere. It's a jewel surrounded by a dump in the middle of nowhere, and it is not changing.

A new school and parks are planned for the development. Ground was broken last month on a 30,000 sq ft YMCA.

270.000 sq ft of commercial development at Beach 73rd and Rockaway Beach Blvd. Along with Arverne East, there will be 500,000 sq ft of commercial space.

This is a huge project.

http://www.arvernebythesea.com/project.htm

http://www.arvernebythesea.com/rendered-site-plan-2006.jpg

[submachine]

A new school and parks are planned for the development.

Great, maybe when todays kids grow up, THEIR kids will be able to enjoy everything "planned for development" today. But if you have kids, and you don't hate them, you won't be moving to Arverne anytime soon.

All those grey rectangles surrounding the "huge project" ? Ugly, six-story, public-assistance buildings. "Dwarfed by massive new buildings—80 percent of all Queens nursing homes reside in Far Rockaway, sprawling housing projects continue to grow, despite public easements." - http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arch_story/121704.htm

[ZippyTheChimp]

But if you have kids, and you don't hate them, you won't be moving to Arverne anytime soon.Or maybe you're tired of throwing rent money down a sinkhole, and see an opportunity to build some equity and better provide for your kids.

All those grey rectangles surrounding the "huge project" ? Ugly, six-story, public-assistance buildings. "Dwarfed by massive new buildings

Please.
http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/12/07/realestate/cov.184.1.enlarge.jpg

—80 percent of all Queens nursing homes reside in Far Rockaway-So what?

http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arch_story/121704.htm
What does this article about preserving Rockaway bungalows have to do with the Arverne-Edgemere UDA?

[BrooklynRider]

All those grey rectangles surrounding the "huge project" ? Ugly, six-story, public-assistance buildings. "Dwarfed by massive new buildings—80 percent of all Queens nursing homes reside in Far Rockaway, sprawling housing projects continue to grow, despite public easements." - http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arch_story/121704.htm


The red area of Arverne by the Sea is the shopping center currently under construction. The gray buildings to the left of the Sands are oceanfront coops. The gray buildings to the right and single & multi family homes. Two things are apparent in your posts: (1) the posts are indicative of a perspective that hasn't been out to the Rockaways in at least a decade (2) there is little basis in truth or acceptance of truth.

This development has struck a nerve. It is selling. It has great aesthetic qualities. It is an all encompassing plan that is unaffected by real estate market fluctuations at this point. Buyers seem to be permanent residents viewing this as an a long-term investment.

Manhattan has projects throughout the borough and look at real estate prices. Look at the public housing between 9th & 10th Ave along 18th, 17th, & 16th Streets. They are not affecting development of luxury condos or the highline at all. They are simply being integrated into a larger neighborhood.

[submachine]

Manhattan has projects throughout the borough and look at real estate prices.

Take away everything great about Manhattan that makes those real estate prices, keep the projects, and you have Far Rock.

This development has struck a nerve. It is selling.

Yes and no. Yes it has struck a nerve of those who own bungalows, they hate it. And no, it is not selling. It is probably the slowest selling development in NYC in the past decade. "The Breakers" have been "Now Selling" for years. In comparison, new developements in other boroughs (City Island is just one example) are sold out before they are even complete.

[submachine]

Or maybe you're tired of throwing rent money down a sinkhole, and see an opportunity to build some equity and better provide for your kids.

Maybe if they're home-schooled. And home-playground, home-sports, home-everything.

September 14, 2006 – A crew tied to the Crips street gang made $1 million a year from trafficking narcotics in a cluster of public housing developments in Far Rockaway, Queens. After an eight-month undercover investigation by the NYPD, 96 people were charged and 81 were arrested. The investigation revealed that the dealers sometimes did transactions on school playgrounds and distributed drugs concealed in the battery compartments of remote-controlled toy cars and trucks; in one instance, a child was used to deliver drugs to an undercover officer.[40] (http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/74669.htm?CFID=1695618&CFTOKEN=33496110#_ftn40)

February 3, 2006 – Police arrested 43 members of a violent Far Rockaway drug gang who instilled fear in over 2,000 residents who lived in the Redfern Houses and Dix McBride Apartments. This gang controlled the narcotics distribution in the area, and is also suspected of being responsible for an epidemic of shootings surrounding the local drug trade.[46] (http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/74669.htm?CFID=1695618&CFTOKEN=33496110#_ftn46)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Yes and no. Yes it has struck a nerve of those who own bungalows, they hate it. And no, it is not selling.
Since your earlier statement about skyrocketing crime is not supported by any statistics, I'll ask you to provide some data on sales expectations and results at Arverne. Your yes and no is not good enough.

I still don't understand the relationship to the bungalows. Your tone seems to suggest that you resent the development for some reason. The bungalows? In that case, anything that is developed on the site would "threaten" them. Or do you want 300 acres to just sit fallow for another 50 years?

Maybe if they're home-schooled. And home-playground, home-sports, home-everything.I already told you that a school is planned, and a YMCA is under construction.

http://www.arvernebythesea.com/ymca-big.jpg

Have you read through any of the information on the website? No offense, but you seem to have no knowledge of the area, such as mistaking the coops for public housing.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Arverne East: From Beach 44th to Beach 32nd. 97 acres, with 35 acres set aside for a nature preserve.

RFP was issued in August, 2005:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/downloads/pdf/rfp-arverne-east-text.pdf

Graphics on pages 28-34:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/downloads/pdf/rfp-arverne-east-exhibits-a-i.pdf


In Nov, 2006, developers were selected for Arverne East:
The Mayor also announced the designation of the Bluestone Organization, L&M Equity Participants and Triangle Equities as the joint-venture development team for Arverne East, a 97-acre site adjacent to Arverne by the Sea that will consist of 47-acres of housing and commercial space, a 35-acre nature preserve and a 15-acre dune preserve. Nearly 1,600 units of middle-income housing will be built at the Arverne East site. Forty-three percent of the units will be reserved for households with incomes no greater than $92,170 for a family of four. The Arverne East development will consist of condominiums, two-family homes and three-family homes totaling nearly 1,600 middle-income units, and it is receiving financing from the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group. The development will also include over 500,000 square feet of commercial space with retail and entertainment opportunities, and will create over 5,000 construction jobs, more than 1,000 permanent jobs and youth employment programs.

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fht ml%2F2006b%2Fpr390-06.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

[BrooklynRider]

"The Bungalows" that have all the resentment and are up in arms are at the far eastern end of the Rockaways (Far Rockaway) and represent two small streets. They are no where near this development. They are over by Seagirt Blvd.

[ramvid01]

That YMCA is really nice looking. Much better than the one in LIC. :(

[submachine]

your earlier statement about skyrocketing crime is not supported by any statistics

You live in NYC and you trust statistics, crime statistics? Come on. You keep ignoring these, this is less than 4 months ago, and 11 months ago. This is the playgrounds, the schools, the area. Here are your numbers.

September 14, 2006 – A crew tied to the Crips street gang made $1 million a year from trafficking narcotics in a cluster of public housing developments in Far Rockaway, Queens. After an eight-month undercover investigation by the NYPD, 96 people were charged and 81 were arrested. The investigation revealed that the dealers sometimes did transactions on school playgrounds and distributed drugs concealed in the battery compartments of remote-controlled toy cars and trucks; in one instance, a child was used to deliver drugs to an undercover officer.[40] (http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/74669.htm?CFID=1695618&CFTOKEN=33496110#_ftn40)

February 3, 2006 – Police arrested 43 members of a violent Far Rockaway drug gang who instilled fear in over 2,000 residents who lived in the Redfern Houses and Dix McBride Apartments. This gang controlled the narcotics distribution in the area, and is also suspected of being responsible for an epidemic of shootings surrounding the local drug trade.[46] (http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/74669.htm?CFID=1695618&CFTOKEN=33496110#_ftn46)

Your tone seems to suggest that you resent the development for some reason.

The only thing I resent is the false information that was presented here, that the area or the development is in any way successful. It is an abject failure; any house or condo, let alone a brand new one, being on the market for 6 months to over a year. Your tone seems to suggest you want to only focus on what is planned instead of what is there now. Too bad kids can't get an education in a YMCA :rolleyes: Or get culture from nursing homes.

[krulltime]

^ Yet again Lokkitto (from Skyscraperpage) attacks Wirednewyork. Please take your crime fantasy world out of this website. Just because a few incidents happened in the Rockways doesn't mean that the area in no man land. This developement will happend and crime probably will go down. :rolleyes:

And stop being so ignorant. The other forumers told you already that a new school and a YMCA is planned in the area.

[ZippyTheChimp]

His mistakes are so numerous, he can't be taken seriously.

He cites the same 2 instances twice, and it's Far Rockaway, not Arverne.

He mistrusts statistics, but has evidence that crime rate (esp murders) are skyrokreting in Precincts 100 and 101.. Arverne is in the 100 Precinct, and there was one murder in 2006, down from two in 2005.

He thinks all the housing projects should be flipped into co-ops, but doesn't seem to know what or where they are. The beachfront buildings are already co-ops; the housing project is the Carlton just north of the red shopping area - one low-rise building.

He worries about where the kids are going to go to school, not only ignoring that a new school is planned, but that there already is one (the grey block just above "The Nautilus" tag on the siteplan.

He notes that 80% of Queens nursing homes are in Rockaway, but doesn't explain what that has to do with anything. Wheelchair Crips terrorizing the neighborhood?

He notes that the development is not selling, that The Breakers has been "Now Selling" for years. What a misleading joke. There is nothing to sell east of B73rd st. The sign is a stupid real estate ad sitting in a 100 acre field. They have just staring land prep. There are no streets or utilities. All the completed homes are sold-out.

And to top it off, he states:
The only thing I resent is the false information that was presented here, that the area or the development is in any way successful. It is an abject failure;Arverne is such a failure that developers just repeated the "mistake" made two years ago by signing on to Arverne East, even further out on Rockaway.



Lokkitto, eh. I'll have to get over there and check out his schtick.

----------------------------------------------

I have several photos that show the reality of the development area. Just need to resize and upload them.

[BrooklynRider]

As I'm sure your photos will show, it is a development that is far more aesthetically pleasing than anyone could've imagined for he Rockaways. It is literally building a new (and rather beautiful) neighborhood from the ground up.

Only thing that will suck is increased traffic. The Rockaways are a easy bypass for heavy Belt Parkway traffic. The traffic patterns have already been altered, in part by construction staging, to disuade thru traffic.

[submachine]

Arverne is in the 100 Precinct, and there was one murder in 2006, down from two in 2005.

The 100 is a "satellite" precinct. Do you understand what that is? Do you know when, why, or how it was formed? Do you understand the political nature of statistics and how satellite precincts may be used to skew them (just like you are unknowingly doing)? Do you understand the geographic shape of Far Rockaway and Arverne?

If you understood any of that, you would see how laughable it is that crime of the area, to you, is better reflected by "one murder in the 100" instead of over 100 drug gang arrests in two days in the 101.

a new school is planned

Your tone seems to suggest you want to only focus on what is planned instead of what is there now. Too bad kids can't get an education in a YMCA :rolleyes:

80% of Queens nursing homes are in Rockaway

What a cultural jewel. :rolleyes:

All the completed homes are sold-out.

Where are your numbers? How many homes were completed and sold-out? And how many years did it take?

Lokkitto, eh. I'll have to get over there and check out his schtick.

Funny that you believe this accusation so readily, but in light of how easily you swallow the Arverne hype-machine without evidence, its not surprising. :)

[ZippyTheChimp]

No reason to respond to SSP troll without a clue.

As I'm sure your photos will show, it is a development that is far more aesthetically pleasing than anyone could've imagined for he Rockaways.

The two completed segments, sold out.
http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/9708/arverne001crx7.th.jpg (http://img79.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne001crx7.jpg) http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/8499/arverne002cps3.th.jpg (http://img79.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne002cps3.jpg) http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/3213/arverne003cjd8.th.jpg (http://img92.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne003cjd8.jpg) http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/731/arverne004cdn4.th.jpg (http://img92.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne004cdn4.jpg) http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3392/arverne005clz3.th.jpg (http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne005clz3.jpg)

There's some kitsch here, like the forced street names (Aquaric Dr), but there are what's advertised as "luxury condos" further west along the beach that don't look as good.

Public school on B78th
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7710/arverne006cgz2.th.jpg (http://img409.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne006cgz2.jpg)

And opportunity for development across the street.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3995/arverne007cxh6.th.jpg (http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne007cxh6.jpg)


Site of the YMCA
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/9053/arverne008cbu8.th.jpg (http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne008cbu8.jpg) http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/3841/arverne009cpy0.th.jpg (http://img520.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne009cpy0.jpg) http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/1677/arverne011cfq1.th.jpg (http://img520.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne011cfq1.jpg)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Area north of Rockaway Freeway and B73rd.
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4743/arverne010cmr6.th.jpg (http://img441.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne010cmr6.jpg) http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/8918/arverne012cbw2.th.jpg (http://img406.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne012cbw2.jpg)

A jumbled mix of single family homes and commercial sites. Not pretty.
Dept of Sanitation garage on the right.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1979/arverne013ces0.th.jpg (http://img406.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne013ces0.jpg)

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4139/arverne014cmz5.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne014cmz5.jpg)

On the other side of the sanitation garage
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/7048/arverne015cne9.th.jpg (http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne015cne9.jpg) http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7827/arverne016cri8.th.jpg (http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne016cri8.jpg) http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/6203/arverne017cay2.th.jpg (http://img409.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne017cay2.jpg) http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/639/arverne018cqa5.th.jpg (http://img409.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne018cqa5.jpg)

The neighborhood housing project, Carlton, from Rockaway Freeway.
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/9436/arverne019cut5.th.jpg (http://img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne019cut5.jpg)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Under the El. Retail site is on the left.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7962/arverne020ccf4.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne020ccf4.jpg)

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9906/arverne022cns2.th.jpg (http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne022cns2.jpg)

View north at B67th
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/3981/arverne021com9.th.jpg (http://img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne021com9.jpg)

Retail site from Rockaway Brach Blvd. Subway station at B66th will connect with the complex.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7448/arverne023cuh6.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne023cuh6.jpg) http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/2706/arverne024crp1.th.jpg (http://img77.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne024crp1.jpg)

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/8148/arverne025ckz3.th.jpg (http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne025ckz3.jpg)

Subway station at B60th
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/6946/arverne026csh9.th.jpg (http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne026csh9.jpg)

Typical street off the east boder of the site. B61st
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/8355/arverne027cke9.th.jpg (http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne027cke9.jpg)

From the boardwalk on B61st. New home construction off-site.
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5993/arverne028clb3.th.jpg (http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne028clb3.jpg)

The entire site from the boardwalk.
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/28/arverne029cnk1.th.jpg (http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne029cnk1.jpg)

I would have preferred if Rockaway Beach Blvd had more retail development along its length and less concentration in one area, but I understand the economic realities.

And hardly noticed in the discussion, the best beach in NYC is next door.

[ramvid01]

Is this part of Queens called Edgemeer, or near it?

[submachine]

Under the El. Retail site is on the left.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7962/arverne020ccf4.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne020ccf4.jpg)

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9906/arverne022cns2.th.jpg (http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne022cns2.jpg)


Thats where Mario Young was murdered a few months ago. I noticed in all that awesome photography, there are no night photos...not surprised.

"Cops yesterday busted a suspect in the fatal shooting of 16 year-old youth in Far Rockaway. Shakil Chandler, 19, was charged with murdering Mario Young after an argument on Sept. 26." http://www.nypost.com/seven/10032006/news/nypdblotter/nypdblotter.htm?page=0

[BrooklynRider]

You'll notice that lots of neighborhoods aren't displayed on WNY photographed at night. It has to do with whether or not there is something that presents an outstanding night-lit photo. The Rockaways are under development and purely residential. Try taking a photo of the ocean at night and post it here. Post a picture of your home at night and post it here. There's not much of interest in a night view of a largely suburban neighborhood.

From my perspective, your point has been made. You despise the Rockaways. You think development is foolish. You think development will fail. You think the area is crime ridden. Thank you for your contributions.

Now, flip your calendar from 1977 to 2007.

Repeating the same thing over and over tends to diminish any appearance of objective, intelligent thinking and one's credibility.

With such disdain for the Rockaways, one would wonder why you have such an obsession with this thread. WNY Forum members are interested in development, architecture and the growth of the city. We're not here finacially speculating with our own money.

The baseless commentary and general negative and underlying nasty tone of the postings under your username certainly indicates an agenda. I think that by posting and reposting here at WiredNewYork you are pursuing that agenda in the wrong place.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Well, that's about enough.

Thats where Mario Young was murdered a few months ago.Since you know the victim's name, which wasn't mentioned in the article, you must be familiar with the story. The murder occurred at 12-13 Beach Channel Drive. That's at Mott Ave, closer to Nassau, and three miles from where that photo was taken.

Knowing this, you are deliberately posting false information. In my opinion, you are not interested in an intelligent discussion, but only to start an argument.

I'm not going to let that happen.

You'll get an infraction for any posts you make on this thread that I determine are intentionally misleading.

[antinimby]

In Faded Beach Community Seeking Rebirth, Projects and Luxury Homes Meet

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/07/nyregion/600_rock.jpg
Gang fights have plagued the Hammel public housing project, which abuts the upscale Arverne by the Sea
development in the Rockaways.


By COREY KILGANNON
Published: January 7, 2007 (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/nyregion/07rockaways.html)

In a gritty section of the Rockaways, there is a cluster of new homes that stand out for their catchy colors and modern style. They are laid out in neat clusters with cheery nautical names like Ocean Breeze, The Sands and The Breakers, and there are newly mapped streets with names like Spinnaker Drive.

This is the early phase of the mammoth Arverne by the Sea development, a heralded project to make over a mostly blighted stretch of the Rockaway peninsula into 2,300 homes and condominiums.

There are snazzy showroom apartments with stunning ocean views, and a warm-and-fuzzy short film featuring families frolicking on the beach. The promotional material makes no mention of the surrounding low-income area of meager houses, shabby bungalows and public housing projects, but rather urges potential buyers to “imagine the serenity of living in an oceanfront community.”

That serenity has been interrupted in recent weeks by gunshots from the nearby projects, a spate of violence that has left three young men from the projects dead.

Some community leaders and elected officials say the violence is sparked by an escalating conflict turf war between gangs at several of the housing projects.

“This is a gang war between housing projects,” said Councilman James Sanders Jr., who has met with the police and community leaders.

The unrest has also worried officials at the Benjamin-Beechwood company, which is building the Arverne development. The 117-acre development stretches into low-income, primarily black neighborhoods that include the Ocean Bay Houses, a public housing complex formerly known as the Edgemere Houses, and the Hammel Houses, which abut the western edge of the development.

Though the Rockaways were once a popular beach resort, the expanse of trash-strewn lots that overlook pristine beaches has remained undeveloped for decades. It is premium oceanfront real estate accessible to Manhattan, but it is also a low-income area with few amenities and high crime rates. These are challenges the developer counts on overcoming in building two-family oceanfront homes costing up to $1 million.

A company official, Gerry Romski, said that police officials from the 100th Precinct assured him that extra police units had been brought in to help patrol the projects and that “the situation was under control.”

“These seem to be isolated incidents limited to the housing projects, the Hammels and Edgemere Houses,” Mr. Romski said. “We have not been impacted in any way. We’ve increased the security guards around our buildings, and there have been no incidents.”

The shootings, which received meager attention in the news media, have not affected the brisk sales of the units, he said. Roughly 500 of the planned 2,300 units are completed, he said, and most of those are occupied.

Eric Rasmussen, 26, a city firefighter, recently moved into the Coral House, an apartment building that is part of the Arverne development. It overlooks Building 10 of the Hammel project, the site of one of the shootings. “You definitely hear gunshots over there pretty regularly,” Mr. Rasmussen said.
“But I don’t consider it dangerous.”

Mr. Sanders calls the violence and the ensuing response by developers — initial panic, then relief that it did not affect their development — a microcosm of “exactly what is wrong here in the Rockaways.”

Mr. Sanders contends that development officials are “trying to build a self-contained city” while ignoring the surrounding community and its ills: unemployment, gangs, guns, drugs and troubled schools.

“We’re going to be stuck with a tale of two cities,” Mr. Sanders said.
“They’re creating the conditions for a perfect storm of racial discontent and possibly more violence.

“This situation cannot be dealt with by simply increasing security and police and arresting and imprisoning more young people.”

Community leaders have long complained that the Rockaways have been a dumping ground for the city’s poor. The residents of the housing projects, an overwhelming majority of them black, have few nearby job opportunities, social and youth and parolee services. They complain of being isolated on the peninsula.

Mr. Sanders said the recent violence stemmed from turf battles between gang members at the Ocean Bay Houses, the Hammel Houses and the Redfern Houses, which are farther east, in Far Rockaway.

On Nov. 27, Christopher Glenn, 16, of the Ocean Bay Houses, was shot and killed. On Dec. 15, another teenager, Cedric Smalls, 18, was fatally shot in front of Building 10 of the Hammel Houses. Four days later, Laton Spurgeon, 25, an Ocean Bay resident, was killed.

Last week, Jamel Bryant, 17, who the police say is a Bloods street gang member with a street name of Psycho, was arrested at the Ocean Bay Houses after firing eight bullets at police officers, the department said.

Mr. Smalls was one of 11 children of Cynthia Young and had moved with six of his siblings from the Hammel Houses into the apartment of his grandmother, Algia Young, 71, a block away. His grandmother said Cedric kept hanging out with his friends in the project, but he denied being in a gang.

“I used to check his backpack and go through his pockets every night to see if he was up to anything,” she said. “He was a good kid.”

She looked out her window toward the Arverne development and said, “How they going to build that thing when they can’t even take care of the community now?”

But Mr. Romski said the development had good relations with its neighbors and would benefit the rest of the Rockaways by bringing jobs, shopping and recreational facilities.

He said the development would bridge communities by serving as a link between poorer black areas of Far Rockaway and wealthier white sections such as Breezy Point, Neponsit and Belle Harbor. Arverne by the Sea is attracting many retailers, he said, and a new Y.M.C.A. center on the property will be open to outside residents.

“This project is going to pull up the rest of the community,” he said.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

[submachine]

From my perspective, your point has been made.

Let's see how good your reading comprehension is.

You despise the Rockaways.

False.


You think development is foolish.

False.


You think the area is crime ridden.

True. If it wasn't the most dangerous area in Queens (and perhaps the entire city), I (and I suspect many, many others) would already own a condo there.

The only "agenda" I have is correcting your mis-statements and false assumptions. I was born in this city (I doubt you and the Chimp were), and I've lived through the progress that has been made. I am not blinded by this progress like you seem to be, and I don't make blanket statements about the entire city (based on "overall stats") the way you seem to make.

Far Rock is a crime-ridden dump, an isolated cultural wasteland surrounded by 6-story housing projects and 6-story nursing homes in every direction. Except of course, for the waterfront. All the proof you need is to look at the price and the sell-rate of brand-new condos on "the best beach in the city". They should be sold out at over a million each. They are barely selling, for less than half that. Money knows, even if you (or your agenda) don't.

[submachine]

In Faded Beach Community Seeking Rebirth, Projects and Luxury Homes Meet

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/07/nyregion/600_rock.jpg
Gang fights have plagued the Hammel public housing project, which abuts the upscale Arverne by the Sea
development in the Rockaways.


By COREY KILGANNON
Published: January 7, 2007 (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/nyregion/07rockaways.html)


That serenity has been interrupted in recent weeks by gunshots from the nearby projects, a spate of violence that has left three young men from the projects dead.

Some community leaders and elected officials say the violence is sparked by an escalating conflict turf war between gangs at several of the housing projects.

“This is a gang war between housing projects,” said Councilman James Sanders Jr., who has met with the police and community leaders.

The unrest has also worried officials at the Benjamin-Beechwood company, which is building the Arverne development. The 117-acre development stretches into low-income, primarily black neighborhoods that include the Ocean Bay Houses, a public housing complex formerly known as the Edgemere Houses, and the Hammel Houses, which abut the western edge of the development.

Getting worse, not getting better.

“You definitely hear gunshots over there pretty regularly,” Mr. Rasmussen said.
“But I don’t consider it dangerous.”

lol

Mr. Sanders calls the violence and the ensuing response by developers — initial panic, then relief that it did not affect their development — a microcosm of “exactly what is wrong here in the Rockaways.” Mr. Sanders contends that development officials are “trying to build a self-contained city” while ignoring the surrounding community and its ills: unemployment, gangs, guns, drugs and troubled schools.

Exactly. And its exactly what ZippyChimp is doing, I post an article about how a young man was murdered, and instead of focusing on that, he only mentions the address of the photo may be wrong "Thats not within Arvene-By-The-Sea boundaries, you disagree with me so im gonna censor you!". Who has the agenda?

“We’re going to be stuck with a tale of two cities,” Mr. Sanders said.
“They’re creating the conditions for a perfect storm of racial discontent and possibly more violence.

“This situation cannot be dealt with by simply increasing security and police and arresting and imprisoning more young people.”

Community leaders have long complained that the Rockaways have been a dumping ground for the city’s poor. The residents of the housing projects, an overwhelming majority of them black, have few nearby job opportunities, social and youth and parolee services. They complain of being isolated on the peninsula.

Mr. Sanders said the recent violence stemmed from turf battles between gang members at the Ocean Bay Houses, the Hammel Houses and the Redfern Houses, which are farther east, in Far Rockaway.

On Nov. 27, Christopher Glenn, 16, of the Ocean Bay Houses, was shot and killed. On Dec. 15, another teenager, Cedric Smalls, 18, was fatally shot in front of Building 10 of the Hammel Houses. Four days later, Laton Spurgeon, 25, an Ocean Bay resident, was killed.

Last week, Jamel Bryant, 17, who the police say is a Bloods street gang member with a street name of Psycho, was arrested at the Ocean Bay Houses after firing eight bullets at police officers, the department said.

AN you rule, see you in the FL thread, this one is done thanks to that article. Like I said, I know the situation because I know cops there. Let BrooklynRider and Chimp get their info from press releases.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Exactly. And its exactly what ZippyChimp is doing, I post an article about how a young man was murdered, and instead of focusing on that, he only mentions the address of the photo may be wrong "Thats not within Arvene-By-The-Sea boundaries, you disagree with me so im gonna censor you!". Who has the agenda?That's two, submachine.

[ASchwarz]

Submachine, you are completely ignorant of the Rockaways. The article deals with Arverne, which is as close to Far Rock as Midtown is to Wall Street.

Also, drug-realted violence in NYCHA housing typically has no bearing on nearby real estate. There is public housing in proximity to most of the richest Manhattan neighborhoods, yet Manhattan real estate is among the most valuable on earth. Some of the priciest Manhattan blocks are almost immediately adjacent to public housing.

[scatman]

I checked out Arverne By The Sea last summer. Houses are georgeous!!!!! And yes, I had to walk through Rock Freeway (coming off the subway) to get threre.

The PJ's aren't the issue. It's the 1.5 hour commute to Lower Manhattan that's a drag. Hence, the look elsewhere for housing. Peace.

[submachine]

Unlike some of the others in this thread, I live in Queens, I was born in Queens, I know Queens and I know people in Queens. And the people I know who moved to Arverne have either already re-sold and moved out, or put their place on the market and are just waiting to get out. Its not getting better, its getting worse, the crime is so bad that it not only makes the news, its the front page:

NYPD wades into gang war

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA
NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER

January 23, 2007It started over stolen sweatshirts.

Now there's an all-out gang war in the Rockaways, police sources say, and the New York Police Department is prepared to set up street "chokepoints" to separate the combatants from two rival housing projects if more violence erupts.

The plan is part of a multipronged approach to the eight-month-long conflict between drug-dealing gang members based at the Hammel Houses and the Ocean Bay Apartments -- better known as the Edgemere Houses, the longtime former name, police sources said.

The police strategy was formulated in late December after Jamel Bryant, 17, who police know as a Bloods member with the street name "Psycho," fired at two cops who had tried to arrest him in connection with an earlier gang shooting, sources said. He was arrested a week later.

That shooting occurred in addition to 12 others in 2006 involving gang members who deal crack and marijuana out of several apartments in and around the two city Housing Authority properties, the sources said. Two of the shootings resulted in deaths.

Tensions appear to be highest at Hammel, where the group "GIB," an acronym for "Get It In Bricks," is at war with another faction whose grip on the drug trade at Hammel and nearby has waned in recent years, according to sources.

The other faction doesn't go by a name, but police sources said its membership includes several members of one family and their associates, about 15 people in all.

One man in the family, Laton Spurgeon, 26, was hit by a car and then fatally shot Dec. 19 near Fernside Place in Far Rockaway. No one has been arrested in the killing, but police believe it was a hit by GIB in retaliation for the Dec. 15 shooting death of Cedric Smalls, 18, a GIB guy.

GIB is named for a rap song the gang recorded and has about 20 members, several of whom appear in a YouTube video, "HardRockTimes ... Hammels," recorded outside the Hammel Houses.

Two miles east, a Bloods crew based at the Ocean Bay Apartments deals drugs and is tight with Spurgeon's faction, sources said.

The violence began May 18 when a 25-year-old man was shot and wounded by a GIB member who saw him handing out stolen GIB sweatshirts, sources said. Since then, it has been one retaliatory shooting after another -- one in June, one in July, three in August, two in September and four in December.

One victim, wounded on Aug. 31, was an innocent bystander. Antonio Pennix, 22, was on Rockaway Beach Boulevard, near the Hammel Houses, when he was shot. Joseph Favor, 22, who police said is a GIB member, was arrested the next day. His case is pending.

The violence comes as Arverne By the Sea, a massive residential development project along the waterfront near the Hammel Houses, begins to take shape. The upscale homes stand in stark contrast to the Rockaways housing projects, filled mostly with poor and working-class families.

Residents say gun play has been a constant in their neighborhood.

One recent day outside the Hammel Houses, a demolition worker who calls himself "Fox" and says he knows all the players involved in the gang war, lamented that neither side is willing to end the bloodshed.

"It's like any typical neighborhood, low-income housing, not too many jobs for the people," said Fox, 26. "We tend to rub each other the wrong way sometimes. We're killing each other, yeah. Everything is about being a man. You say something to me that I don't like, I got to be a man. Stupid stuff."

Last Wednesday night, shots rang out on Beach 54th Street, not far from the Ocean Bay Apartments. The gunfire, which police believe was not connected to gang violence, didn't faze a number of passersby. They simply went about their business, walking around the yellow tape that police set up where shell casings had been recovered.

"It's been like this for years. It's always been like this in the projects," said Herb Shelby, 39, a roofer who lives nearby. "I basically go to work and then I come home."

Bryant, meanwhile, has been charged with attempted murder for shooting at the officers. On the night he allegedly fired at police, he was being sought for questioning in the death of Smalls, sources said.

Should another shooting occur, the beefed-up police response would involve setting up two "chokepoints," one along Rockaway Beach Boulevard and the other along Beach Channel Drive.

Sources said the idea is to have officers watch for suspicious activity or for gang members heading to the other project .

The officers have been given pictures of some gang members and told which cars they drive.

Other officers, meanwhile, will immediately go to both projects, regardless of which one is the scene of a shooting, to prevent retaliatory violence, sources said.

"These guys seem determined to keep shooting each other," said a police source involved in the investigation of some of the shootings. "It's like each one wants to be the last one standing." http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/am-gang0123,0,3683877.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nygang235063646jan23,0,4491047.story

[ablarc]

"We tend to rub each other the wrong way sometimes. We're killing each other, yeah.
Sounds like Iraq.

[antinimby]

All this redevelopment talk makes me want to go there later this year to see for myself.

Although now listening to all this talk of violence makes me a little chicken.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Two middle-aged white guys walked through this neighborhood with a $1000 camera.

Wait until the warm weather and hit the beach.

[antinimby]

^ Thanks for the reassurance.

I'd bet the sand and water here is probably cleaner than Coney Island.

[ZippyTheChimp]

The water is cleaner, but the currents are sometimes dangerous.

The sand is about the same, if you don't count the natural material that's more abundant than at Coney. Lots of horseshoe crabs flipped over by seagulls.

Don't go on a Monday. People are pigs.

The western part of the island near the Marine Parkway Bridge is upscale, one of the most suburban places in the city.

[iiliiiiill]

Far Rock is a crime-ridden dump, an isolated cultural wasteland surrounded by 6-story housing projects and 6-story nursing homes in every direction. Except of course, for the waterfront. All the proof you need is to look at the price and the sell-rate of brand-new condos on "the best beach in the city". They should be sold out at over a million each. They are barely selling, for less than half that. Money knows, even if you (or your agenda) don't.

first of all i read all 5 pages of this thread....you dont know what you're talking about....all you're doing is quoting from newspaper articles...i live in far rockaway, so let me clear things up for everybody....

arverne by the sea is going to be in 2 phases...1st phase is beach 63rd to beach 81st...which encompasses the neighborhoods of arverne and rockaway beach. hammels houses abuts the western edge of phase 1 on beach 81st street, which is the 100 precinct, and its not a "satellite" precinct.

phase 2 is beach 59th to beach 36th, which includes the neighborhoods of arverne and edgemere...this development is going to be between the el and the boardwalk.

the rockaway peninsula consists of the following neighborhoods (in east to west order): far rockaway, edgemere, arverne, rockaway beach, rockaway park, belle harbor, neponsit, breezy point.

the rockaway peninsula has 6 public housing developments: redfern, beach 41, edgemere, arverne (now ocean bay), carleton manor and hammels. they are spread out over the east end peninsula with the exception of arverne and edgemere which are directly across the street from each other (beach 51 to beach 58 streets) and this is where the majority of crime in the rockaways occured at one point. overall the crime in the projects had dropped significantly in the past 10 years. i frequent hammels myself and have never been in a dangerous situation. im not saying its a good neighborhood but the bad things that happen there are more personal, not random attacks of violence.

far rockaway does not have a lot of nursing homes. however it has a lot of state housing set aside for the elderly, which is mostly contained to several high rises on seagirt boulevard.

the reason why condo prices are so low in the rockaway peninsula is not because of crime, but rather the public transportation issue. if you look on foxtons.com there are 1 bedroom condo units in sheepshead bay that actually sell for less that a condo unit across the street from hammels.

far rockaway does have its crime, and it is one of the worst neighborhoods in queens, but thats understandable when you look at queens as a whole. queens is primarily 1 and 2 family residential. the only reason why far rockaway is bad because it has 50% of the public housing in queens, but its only 5% of queens' land area. so that makes the situation worse, but if you put far rockaway in the bronx or brooklyn, it would be an average crime rate neighborhood. furthermore, public housing does not deter neighborhood growth, as several people on here have already addressed. example, brownstones in cobble hill brooklyn right across the street from gowanus houses have increased in value as the neighborhood experienced its rennaisance in the late 1990s. if you want further proof, look at neighborhoods like harlem, where you can find 1800 p/mo rent across the street from public housing (e 108 & 2nd ave).

the rockaway peninsula is rapidly growing and its on the rise, and as a resident for 25 years, i welcome the change. submachine, do not speak on topics you know little of.

[Willg24]

Arverne by the sea is looking very nice...impressive

[ZippyTheChimp]

I was in the Rockaways, and stopped by to check progress at Arverne.

Construction has moved across B73rd, and Rockaway Beach Blvd through the site has been closed.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5438/arverne039cru6.th.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne039cru6.jpg) http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/6657/arverne040cei9.th.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne040cei9.jpg)

Activity throughout the site.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1595/arverne041cjc5.th.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne041cjc5.jpg) http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8823/arverne042caa9.th.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne042caa9.jpg) http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/6435/arverne043cfm2.th.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne043cfm2.jpg)


http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/6296/arverne044cwe6.th.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arverne044cwe6.jpg)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article//20070611/200/2203

Change Reaches the City’s Edge

by D. Wolffe
11 Jun 2007

http://gothamgazette.com/graphics/rockaways/1.jpg
The Rockaway Peninsula: Isolation within
the city limits

For close to a quarter of a century Richard George has sat at the kitchen table of his bungalow in the Rockaways and filed reams of lawsuits to attempt to preserve the Queens beachfront community known as “the poor man’s Riviera.”

For years, George’s efforts were geared largely toward the preservation of the bungalow colonies — the 119 remaining wooden cottages built on landfill in the Atlantic Ocean at the turn of the century and used by New Yorkers seeking a quick and affordable getaway for decades afterward. Lately though, the stakes have been raised. As the city offers incentives to developers to build housing on some of the last remaining plots of vacant land in the city, George fears great – and what he sees as catastrophic – change in the community.

About a half dozen developments have just gone up or are planned for the area. One, The Wavecrest II, a seven-story apartment complex, sits directly adjacent to George’s bungalow on Beach 24th Street. George claims such buildings are swallowing the views of the Atlantic and even making it harder for residents simply to go to the beach. The developers have blocked or built over streets, so getting to the sand or boardwalk can require a long, roundabout walk.

http://gothamgazette.com/graphics/rockaways/2.jpg
On the Atlantic: Escaping
the urban hotbox

In response to these pressures, in late 2003, George, along with John Baxter, the somewhat eccentric owner of the Baxter Hotel in Far Rockaway, filed suit, charging that the city’s actions in the area violated its own Waterfront Revitalization Program. They lost the case but plan to appeal.

“Developers rule the roost….No matter what they do, they win. The city allows developers to build almost anything they want,” Baxter said. “We know we are never going to win, but we are going to keep filing these lawsuits until somebody listens to us.”

A CHANGING COMMUNITY

For his part, George is particularly peeved about one of the largest developments, Arverne by the Sea, located on 117 sandy