FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com juLY 7, 2016 • The Queens Courier 3 THE COURIER/Photo by Brianna Ellis One of the damaged vehicles parked at an abandoned Flushing home. FLUSHING NEIGHBORS CONCERNED OVER ABANDONED HOUSE By Briana Ellis bellis@qns.com/@briinformed Two cars parked next to an abandoned house in Flushing pose a fire threat to the neighborhood, according to a local politician. Community members, elected officials and city employees rallied on July 5 to remove the vehicles. Neighbors say that both derelict vehicles have been parked at the abandoned property, located at 50-19 175th Pl., for more than two decades. Additionally, the cars are cluttered with hoarded newspapers, which can create a serious fire hazard as the summer heats up. Stella Beckman, the original property owner, died more than 10 years ago and legal notices have been piling up in the mailbox. Since it is a private property with no mortgage, the home is filled with debris, infested with raccoons and visited by teenage trespassers who allegedly distributed drugs. Not to mention, the abandoned house erupted in flames a couple of years ago, according to neighbors. “The house went on fire … I heard someone said that he did not pay the electricity bill, so he had no light, no water, so he lit up the candles before he left to go to the supermarket and he forgot about the candles,” an anonymous resident told The Courier about Franklin, also known as “Frankie,” the late Beckman’s son who may have accidentally caused the fire. “The candle fell down and burned those newspapers in the house. He’s crazy with reading I think, all the time he went to the library very often and kept all those magazines and newspapers.” “He was very quiet, he didn’t talk to anybody,” next-door neighbor Maria Tsi told The Courier about Frankie, who slept on the porch of the dilapidated house after his mother’s death. “Before the house set on fire, every day he came home. He wasn’t living inside, he was living outside. He only came here at nighttime around 11 o’clock or 12 o’clock.” She expressed concerns that Frankie may be dead or in the hospital since neighbors have not seen him in a year. The neighbors are also worried that Frankie’s newspapers, stacked high in the abandoned cars, will spark a second fire. One neighbor, who chose to remain anonymous, reached out to state Senator Tony Avella last year and asked him to remove the neglected vehicles. “The problem is that me and neighbor Maria Tsi suffer because we’re between this,” said the anonymous next-door neighbor who contacted Avella. “It’s a jungle house here. Kids come from school, they hide here, they do their drugs … Now in the daytime, the raccoons are living right there in the attic. They have shelter now. There are like more than 50 raccoons … I wish you could come here around 8 o’clock. I’ll show you the raccoons that are here. I can’t do my barbecues sometimes, I have to wrap it up around 8:30, 9 o’clock.” Avella who took action toward the demolition project last summer, arranged an on-site inspection with the Department of Sanitation (DOS), the Department of Buildings (DOB), the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) and the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) on July 5. “This property is a pox on the community, and people are completely justified in feeling frustrated with the city’s inaction. The dilapidated home drops property values, it is unsanitary, and the derelict vehicles are a fire disaster waiting to happen,” Avella said in a July 4 press release. “It’s time for the city to stop going in circles, bypass the normal waiver process, and, at the very least, remove the two abandoned cars filled with newspapers before a fire starts to spread.” Avella contacted the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) in March to demolish the building. HPD responded in May saying that the property owner’s death is not a sufficient reason to warrant a demolition. The outstanding taxes on the property have been purchased by a servicing company, but it will take years before the home enters the foreclosure process. HOTEL AT HEART OF CASINO EXPANSION Resorts World Casino in South Ozone Park is looking to hit the jackpot as it plans to spend $400 million to build a new hotel and convention complex while adding 1,000 new video lottery terminals. According to The Wall Street Journal, the proposal aims to add a 400-room hotel, 20,000-square-foot spa and resort, and a minimum of 140,000 square feet of convention and meeting space. Additional room for food, retail and casino expansion have also been proposed. The plan would expand Resorts World operations at Aqueduct Racetrack by 750,000 square feet. The additional video-lottery terminals would add to the 4,500 electronic gambling machines already in operation on Resorts World grounds. While a percentage of the existing VLTs revenue is allocated to the New York Racing Association — which operates thoroughbred racing at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga — some of the revenue from the new VLTs will be provided to the Nassau Regional Off- Track Betting Corporation. Nassau OTB had proposed building a VLT casino of its own at Belmont Park, but abandoned its plan after the state approved the 1,000 new VLTs at Resorts World through legislation passed this year. Nassau County is expecting to receive a minimum of $9 million in revenue from the added machines in their first year of operation, a spokesman for Norma Gonsalves, presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislator, told the WSJ. Each year after, Nassau County could receive up to $25 million, he told WSJ. Other portions of revenue generated from the electronic gambling terminals would go to the support horse racing and breeding and the state education fund. Charlie Perry CHECK OUT ‘LICHENGE’ AT HUNTERS POINT PARK The spectacular alignment of the sun with the city’s street grid will occur on July 12 and Queens residents will have a front seat view. The Hunters Point Parks Conservancy and Atlas Obscura will host LICHenge, a walking tour from Greenpoint to Long Island City followed by a party to celebrate the event, which occurs twice a year. Live music, drinks and food will be offered while attendees get a look at the astronomical phenomena. Starting at St. Anthony’s Church at 862 Manhattan Ave. at 7 p.m., attendees will walk across the Pulaski Bridge into Long Island City’s Hunters Point Park. Every ticket holder will also become a member of the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy and get access to their calendar of events. Tickets for the event are $45 and can be purchased on the Atlas Obscura website. Those who don’t want to pay can visit the Long Island City waterfront to watch the sunset. Hashtag your own photos #QNS on Instagram to be featured on our website, www.qns.com. Angela Matua
QC07072016
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