Marshall Returns To Familiar Territory At Board 3 Meeting
BY THOMAS COGAN

Marshall attended the meeting to present perfect attendance awards to three board members and make comments about her personal creation, the Queens General Assembly.

Borough President Helen Marshall and Deputy Borough President Karen Koslowitz attended the entire January meeting of Community Board 3 at the Louis Armstrong Middle School in Corona, and stayed for all of it. A former Board 3 member, Marshall was bound to feel a sentimental connection, but issues and events were so interesting- even noisy enough- to stay her from the busy schedule that might normally bring about her departure before adjournment. At one point, she even intervened in a dispute between the board chairman and a member who was about to leave the meeting in a huff.

Matters covered at the meeting included a proposed hotel/condominium on Northern Boulevard in Corona that has nearby residents outraged; a rehabilitation project, also in Corona; a report relating how the Landmarks Preservation Commission actually cracked down on a building remodeler in Jackson Heights; and a liquor license hearing that turned into a festival of approbation for the applicant.

Marshall attended the meeting to present perfect attendance awards to three board members and make comments about her personal creation, the Queens General Assembly. The three members were Jimmy Smith, a former board chairman, Judy Grubin and Ed Westley. She said that the General Assembly, her "Marshall Plan", is something she first thought about a quartercentury ago, in 1982. Her usual representative in the matter, the trilingual Susie Tanenbaum (absent from the meeting because of a death in the family), would describe it as an attempt to bring together civic leaders, long-time borough residents and recent immigrants to learn more about each other's culture, discuss common issues and return to their respective neighborhoods to report what went on. The borough president's observation was, "Put ordinary people in a room and let them talk to each other and good will come of it." She also observed that every culture celebrates with lights, so the first of these assemblies began with the lighting of a menorah and then included a South Asian dance using candles, and lights as they are used in Kwanzaa celebrations. She said that Queens provides an amazing range of international experiences and it would be a great pity to let them go unnoticed. She even cited an example of using the general assembly as therapy. When a Korean-American woman, a member of a community board, got caught in a political dispute in 2004 that resulted in the loss of her board membership, Marshall invited her to the assembly as an attempt to assuage her strong indignation. She said the woman became an active member and appeared in a festive Korean gown at the ceremony closing the assembly's year. The woman regained her community board membership in 2006.

The hotel/condominium project got a reaction from Marshall too, probably because the woman who described it in front of the meeting was angry that politicians had let it get as far as it has. The woman lives in a cooperative housing complex on Northern Boulevard between 112th and 114th Streets. Just across the thoroughfare from the apartments is the considerable property where American Auto Alliance was located and where a builder now wants to construct a 13- story hotel and attached condominium residences, with professional offices on the ground floor. The woman, and several residents and neighbors also in attendance, said the builder wants to take advantage of vast space without consideration of the impact it will make in an area not able to bear it. She said that her co-op is a prime stop for politicians when they campaign, so why did they fail to alert residents about the hotel/condo plan? The woman might have found Marshall's response tardy, but it was generally appreciated when the borough president told the meeting that she is after the builder to explain why the hotel and residences are being built with no thought of the effect beyond financial profit (she said prices at the hotel and in the condos would be "astronomical"). She said the builder is acting as-of-right and thus has not had to appear before Board 3- but she vowed to make him appear.

When Y. Phillip Goldfeder, of the mayor's Community Assistance Unit, addressed the meeting about City Hall's plan for dealing with the city's needs in the next quarter-century, one board member believed he was describing a onesided situation by which Mayor Michael Bloomberg or his successors could minister to the city without bothering to listen much to what its people had to say. The board member, Tom Lowenhaupt, wanted to question Goldfeder about some points in his address, and the mayor's rep was ready to answer. But Board Chairman Vasantrai Gandhi said he wanted to move on, having a large agenda to follow. Lowenhaupt said it was his right to question such a presentation but Gandhi would not allow him to. The board member denounced what he saw as an arbitrary ruling and arose, intent on leaving the meeting. Borough President Marshall herself intervened and begged him to calm down and remain. Judy Grubin, the board's parliamentarian, said Lowenhaupt should ask one question for the record, which would be answered by Goldfeder at the next meeting; Goldfeder said he certainly would be back. Lowenhaupt, returning to the meeting, asked about City Hall's onesided Web site, with answer to come in February.

Ismene Speliotis, director of New York Acorn Housing Company, was at the meeting to announce a rehabilitation project, a small, cityowned apartment house at 37-60 98th St., Corona. The building, whose narrow side faces 38th Avenue, had nine apartments, but five of them are currently vacant, considered unsafe for occupancy. Speliotis said it made her sad to disclose that when renovations are complete, the building will contain just six apartments, which would effectively be a gain of only two. Tenants in the four occupied apartments must move out while work goes on, but their temporary housing will be provided for. Jimmy Smith asked if they could even afford to move back into the renovated building, and Speliotis said they could sign a commitment to return, and when they did would pay no more than 30 percent of income on rent.

When committee reports were made, Martin Maier of the landmarks committee reported that Urban American Properties' renovation of a four-floor 1920s apartment house at 83-09 35th Ave., Jackson Heights had run afoul of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Urban American had not applied for a permit to do the work, LPC charged, and in renovating had improperly removed such original appointments as terra cotta dolphin figures and wrought iron fencing. (Several terra cotta human figures on the outside walls have stayed in place.) Further work must be delayed until they are restored, LPC demanded. Michael Anthony Nardiello, a board member, expressed his resentment of what he believed was Maier's disparagement of Urban American- which, he said, has done sterling work elsewhere in Jackson Heights, restoring places that had become run-down hangouts and drug dens.

Ernesto Medina has been a restaurateur in Corona for a long time, having run Uncle Peter's, at 83-15 Northern Blvd., since 1983. When he appeared before the board seeking approval of a liquor license application for a new restaurant three blocks east, he met a host of members familiar with and strongly respectful of him. The new place, at 86-09 Northern Blvd., is called Jardi. Several testimonials about Medina's value to the community, not to speak of his cuisine, preceded a unanimous vote of approval.

Juan Camilo Osorio, a geographic information system (GIS) analyst from the Municipal Arts Society, attended the meeting to run a computerized display of the evening's business and to advertise that MAS needs an intern in its maps program- perhaps a high school student willing to learn. He spoke with several people about prospective interns.

Ed Westley of the board made the sad announcement that Phil Saccone, founder of the Jackson Heights Neighborhood Association, has died. JHNA was founded in 1978 and met for many years at Atonement Lutheran Church on 31st Avenue and 87th Street. Saccone and co-founder Karl Christensen were there to conduct each meeting. In September 2005, Saccone announced that owing to illnesses suffered by Christensen and himself, and because no one was answering his request for persons to succeed the two of them, he had to disband the association.