Board 3 Hears From FEMA, Pans Liquor License Renewal
BY THOMAS COGAN

Assemblymember Lafayette's main topic was what he sees as Mayor Bloomberg's failure to address the school issue effectively.

Community Board 3 has a district so laden with bar-restaurant combinations that it has to make State Liquor Authority license applications a major part of nearly every meeting. As the board got back to post-summer business at its September meeting, seven such applications were on the agenda, though only one applicant showed up. One was enough; reference to that applicant's restaurant and to another one nearby, which was also on the agenda but whose owner or representative did not appear, was so critical it became an even more controversial issue than the meeting's first item of business, flood damage. A Department of Transportation proposal to install several parking meters on 73rd Street in Jackson Heights also drew some strong commentary. Assemblymember Ivan Lafayette made an appearance to express scorn for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's grasp of the city's educational situation.

Two women from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and two from the Small Business Administration were at the meeting to convey information to anyone who suffered flood damage as a result of the August 8 rainfall. The FEMA representatives, Kim Anderson and Jane Kennedy, encouraged all those who thought they might qualify for FEMA grants to apply for them. The agency would then evaluate the applications. FEMA's local disaster assistance service center is at 137-77 Northern Blvd., and Spanish and Korean translators are available. Anderson said when an application is submitted, a FEMA inspector visits the applicant's home within a week to 10 days to evaluate conditions there. One flood victim complained that she incurred $85,000 in damage repair expenses for her flooded basement and was told she did not qualify for a FEMA grant. Kennedy said that FEMA does not as a rule deal with flooded basements, a declaration that drew laughter. The disqualified applicant said she had read all the FEMA literature she was given and found no such disclaimer anywhere. Jennifer Manley, a representative from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office to Board 3 and other boards in Queens, said that was the first time she had heard about it, too. Giovanna Reid, the board's district manager, said that nearly all disaster claims she is aware of in the district have involved flooded basements and sewage deposits therein.

The SBA representatives, Bonnie Wright and Betty Fuentes, went over the procedure of applying for low-interest loans, either home disaster loans for homeowners and renters or economic injury disaster loans for working capital to small businesses.

Stephen Kulhanek, head of the Board 3 traffic and transportation committee, reported that the committee favored the Department of Transportation's proposal to install parking meters, perhaps six or seven of them, on 73rd Street, near 37th Avenue, where a bus stop had recently been removed and relocated. Kulhanek admitted that there was much opposition to this proposal. He read a letter from a local resident who was "appalled" DOT should attempt to put in meters, thus favoring the parking concerns of visiting shoppers over those of local residents. An activist from the Western Jackson Heights Alliance called the proposal "arrogant" and environmentally unsound, expressing shock that the board wasn't attacking it. Tom Lowenhaupt, a former board member, said he'd been surprised a day or two earlier to find the bus stop gone and that he disagreed with the plan for meters. But the head of the local merchants' association wanted meters installed, and so did most of the board when the time came for a vote and the motion was carried, 22 to 11, with one abstention.

Arthur Teiler of the business and economic development committee had scheduled for review seven bars and restaurants that were applying for new or renewed licenses from the State Liquor Authority. A representative of only one, Sylvia Russillo of Chocolate Café, 95-20 Astoria Blvd., showed up. Russillo was assuming control of the café, which commands the corner of Astoria Boulevard and 96th Street and is said to have a generally unfavorable reputation among residents in the vicinity. She told the audience at the meeting that she realized this and was attempting to overcome it by running a strict operation and eventually renaming the place as Sylvia's On The Boulevard. Several board members were immediately in opposition. Among them was Judy Grubin, who said that children at the East Elmhurst branch of the Queens Borough Public Library at 95-06 Astoria Blvd. didn't need any further exposure to this drinking establishment and the neighboring Bridge Bar at 95-16. Others said there were too many bar/restaurants on that section of Astoria Boulevard. One of them, Soluna, at 94-10 Astoria Blvd., had been on the list of the night's SLA license applicants but had failed to appear. Soluna has an even worse reputation, according several women who are 95th Street residents, where some houses are near the parking lot and the back door of the bar. Each said that loud music and disruptive behavior go on well into the morning, and one of them said that her complaints to the authorities about Soluna had led ultimately to an anonymous threat that if she kept complaining, her house would be burned down.

Russillo, though admitting that the Chocolate Café under previous ownership had a bad reputation, protested any conflation of it and Soluna, which is nearly two blocks away. But it was that fact of assumed ownership that, in all probability, eventually ruined her chance of success with the board. Teiler favored approval of her application, saying, "She's the type of business we want." But he revealed that the previous holder of the license had abandoned it and the owner of the building at 95-20 Astoria Blvd. had let Russillo take it over as it expired and she applied for a new one. That was challenged as illegal, and a debate was about to proceed when Board Chairman Visantra Gandhi said the time for discussion was over and a vote must be taken. Jimmy Smith and Hamlett Wallace, board members, expressed their sympathy for Russillo's enterprise but had to question her assumption of the old license. Others weren't so sympathetic. There were 24 votes against her application, only six in favor, and four abstentions. One abstainer, Ed Westley, said he was "conflicted" about Russillo's sincerity and her dubious hold on the license; another, Martin Maier, expressed long-standing animosity for the SLA, which he finds a corrupt body that must be made to enforce its own laws.

Assemblymember Lafayette's main topic was what he sees as Mayor Bloomberg's failure to address the school issue effectively. There is $300 million available in Albany for school construction, Lafayette said, but "the city doesn't know how to get hold of it." It is the mayor's duty to specify how class size can be reduced or new schools can be built, yet, Lafayette said, Bloomberg displays only flim-flam, such as cutting a single school into four schools and declaring that he now has four schools where before he had only one. Lafayette said there are several used car lots, active and inactive, on Northern Boulevard that could be taken over for school construction if only eminent domain were asserted, but Bloomberg has told Lafayette that he does not believe in eminent domain.