Neighborhoods News
COMPILED BY LIZ GOFF

Add Murder To Club Crackdown List

Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to change the city's nuisance abatement laws to allow cops to shut down clubs based on charges of murder or assault.

The current laws allow police to shutter a club or bar if one or more convictions for prostitution, drugs, selling alcohol to minors or gambling have been incurred. Bloomberg's proposed amendment would allow cops to shut down clubs based on the charges alone, without a conviction.

The proposal was presented to City Councilmembers at a hearing on February 14. Club owners and their representatives testified, calling the move "unconstitutional". Attorneys for the clubs said such a change in the laws would put owners at risk of suffering financial losses for crimes that might not have happened on their premises.

College Point

Port Authority Balks At LaGuardia Waste Transfer Station

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently approved a city proposal to build a 110-foot-tall marine waste transfer station near a runway at LaGuardia Airport, leaving Port Authority officials shaking their heads and asking, "Why?"

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia, has filed an appeal of the FAA ruling, charging the tower could be hazardous to air traffic. The station would be located in College Point, just off the end of LaGuardia's easternmost runway, more than a half-mile from the airport, authorities said.

"We want the FAA to take a closer look at the proposal," said Port Authority spokesperson Pasquale DiFulco.

An FAA review of the proposal determined that the tower would not present a hazard to aircraft, an agency spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Congressmember Gary Ackerman said the Queens lawmaker begs to differ. Ackerman voiced his opposition to the project in a letter to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and has asked Governor Eliot Spitzer to intervene in the decision.

Ackerman said the FAA determined that birds flying near the waste transfer station would pose a real threat to aircraft leaving and arriving at LaGuardia.

"The Congressman believes approval of the proposal is a public safety issue," the spokesperson said.

Approval by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is the next and final step required to allow construction of the tower, which is slated to begin in 2008.