SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Nathan’s Famous Is Still Closed, Source: j. reed via wikimedia commons

Six months following Superstorm Sandy, businesses across Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island are still shuttered and the New York Times is reporting that local business owners are growing anxious over what effect the closures will have on the local economy as summer nears.

The Times report pointed to the large number of businesses still closed on tourist-friendly Emmons Avenue.

“Mambo Sushi, gone! Tzar, gone! Fusion, gone!” said Theresa Scavo, the district manager of Community Board 15, as she reeled off the names of destroyed restaurants on a single block of Emmons Avenue, where only a Greek restaurant, Yiasou, managed to reopen.

A block farther along the bay, a few restaurants and cafes where water reached the ceilings were also shuttered. In total, 14 businesses on Emmons Avenue are still closed, Ms. Scavo said, with a dozen more closed elsewhere in the neighborhood. With warm weather approaching, there is concern that tourists will not flock to the bay as they usually do.

“Everybody suffers, because if people are not coming to eat at your restaurant, they won’t shop at my clothing store,” Ms. Scavo said.

(It’s worth noting that the block of Emmons Avenue where they say only one restaurant, Yiasou, is open, there are actually three open restaurants – Yiasou, Baku Palace and Randazzo’s Clam Bar.)

The problems on Emmons Avenue also extend to Coney Island where, among other places, Nathan’s Famous and the New York Aquarium still remain closed.

Along a six-block stretch of Mermaid Avenue, a commercial street in Coney Island that caters to much of the year-round poor and working-class population, many stores are still locked — among them, a Chase bank, a McDonald’s, a bagel store, a Chinese restaurant, a check-cashing place and a Mexican deli. Edward Cosmé, head of the avenue’s trade association, said his 13-year-old beauty parlor, Hair For U, is open only because he spent $40,000 of his own money to replace hair dryers and salon chairs destroyed in the storm, and he received a $25,000 loan at 1 percent interest and $10,000 in cash from the city’s Department of Small Business Services. But the number of customers is down by more than a third, he said, because some residents displaced by the storm have not returned.

Business owners blamed the continued closures on failing to receive timely government assistance that would have made up for money not covered by flood insurance companies. To date, the city has doled out 45 loans to Sheepshead Bay businesses totaling $1 million with 13 grants amounting to $45,000. In Coney Island, 19 loans have been approved totaling $420,700 with eight grants valued at $40,000. According to a NYC Department of Small Business Services rep who spoke to Sheepshead Bites, this represents an 88 to 90 percent approval rate.

Still, the complexity of government forms have tripped up business owners from getting desperately needed assistance from other sources, like the U.S. Small Business Administration, as we’ve previously reported. (UPDATED: See below)

Jim Tampakis, a man who runs a Red Hook-based ship boiler and pump repair shop gave up on trying to seek federal help entirely.

“I became discouraged,” Tampakis told the Times. “There was a feeling that businesses were getting the runaround.”

The problem facing business owners like Tampakis has led Councilman Domenic Recchia, who is currently running for Congress, to urge the city to ease the process.

“It’s imperative that more businesses have access to this type of funding so that they can get back on their feet,” Recchia told the Times.

Whether or not the businesses that are still closed can clear the bureaucratic red-tape and conquer their financial difficulties before the busy summer season starts remains to be seen.

UPDATE (May 2, 2012 at 11:00 a.m.): A previous version of this article noted in the segment providing the loan totals that business owners have had trouble with paperwork for these loans. An SBS representative called us this morning to note that the link we directed viewers to regarded the U.S. Small Business Administration loan rates, which, at the time, was below 30 percent. The SBS rep said the numbers in this article, which are for SBS, actually reflected a much higher approval rate than SBA, at a rate of 88 to 90 percent. We regret any confusion caused by the link, and have separated it out from the paragraph and tweaked the language to more accurately portray the situation.

The Manhattan Beach Community Group wants the Community Board to hold off on approving projects like this, already under construction on Exeter Street, until studies can be done on how it affects the water table and other storm-related issues.

Community Board 15 voted to reject a request from the Manhattan Beach Community Group that a moratorium be put in place that would suspend special permits and zoning variances in Manhattan Beach in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

According to a letter from the group sent to the Board on April 22, the Manhattan Beach Community Group fears that there remain too many environmental and safety issues in the wake of Sandy that must be studied before the Community Board allows homeowners to expand their homes in ways that could make a bad situation worse.

“They seem to approve everything. Including houses that we’ve objected to,” MBCG President Ira Zalcman told Sheepshead Bites after the proposal was defeated. “If [flood-prone areas are required] to do away with basements, for example, why would they be approving requests for basements now? I just thought we should see what’s going to happen before people create more problems in the community.”

Continue reading, and see the full letter MBCG sent to the Board.

Source: Wikimedia Commons via Wikipedia

Let the river of green flow. After reversing their decision to bar Sandy aid reimbursements to those who had spent out of pocket money on home repairs last week, the city sent their revised plans to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for federal approval. SI Live is now reporting that those plans were approved and the first round of Community Development Block Grants, which total $1.77 billion, will be unleashed.

This first round of spending will be focused on housing, businesses and infrastructure, primarily on costs not covered by insurance companies. Approximately $838 million is expected to be spent on a plethora of housing programs and $415 million will be spent on economic revitalization programs.

Shaun Donovan, who is the secretary of HUD and chairs President Barack Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Taskforce announced that the funding will have safeguards to protect against misuse.

“[HUD has] imposed internal controls and accountability measures … to ensure that all funds are used as intended — to help families, small businesses and communities get back on their feet and rebuild.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo signaled optimism at the announcement.

“[It's a] tremendous boost of support for homeowners, businesses and local governments that lost so much in Superstorm Sandy.”

Photo By Erica Sherman

Students at Edward R. Murrow High School (1600 Avenue L) received a scare yesterday when an abandoned backpack forced an evacuation.

According to a News 12 report, trouble started when a female student threw her backpack down near the entrance of the school. The student allegedly yelled out “Boston” and ran away from the scene. The school was then evacuated in a standard fire drill procedure. The backpack turned out to be empty.

When students were later told of the full details of the story, many were left more angry than terrified as a result of the student’s stunt.

“I think if someone is stupid enough to drop a bag and yell ‘Boston,’ they get what’s coming to them because that’s not funny, it’s really awful,” Imogene Link-Harrington told News 12.

As far as the student in question, police will not be taking any action in the matter and are leaving disciplinary actions in the school’s hands.

UPDATE (1:30 p.m.): It appears the New York Post has a different version of events. They say the girl told a security officer that she knew the Boston bombers, then dropped the bag and ran. The Post reports:

“I know the Boston bombers. I want to know if I am in trouble,” she saidn NYPD, who replied, “It depends on what you tell us,” according to a source.

The girl then threw her bag and ran away. The backpack contained only textbooks, money and her ID.

Police later determined that she had no connection to the bombers. She was sent to Kings County Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

Source: The Elp Blog

Alternate Side Parking regulations are suspended for Thursday and Friday, May 2 and 3, for Orthodox Holy Thursday and Orthodox Good Friday.

All other rules, including parking meters, remain in effect.

You can download your own 2013 Alternate Side Parking Suspension calendar — in English, as well as in Chinese, Haitian Creole, Italian, Korean, Russian or Spanish (all PDFs) — from the NYC DOT’s website.

Source: brooklynindustries.com

Hey, beautiful young people, the Rockaways Revisited 2013 collection is here! This is your chance to look Sandy-chic for the upcoming summer season as you delightfully ride your bicycle over the rubble of your devastated community! But, seriously, what the hell is going on here?

According to a report by Gothamist, the hipster fashion source known as Brooklyn Industries has unveiled their 2013 summer collection inspired by the Rockaways, an area hard-hit by Superstorm Sandy. The catalog features Wisconsin-born transplants with ugly sweaters and other tired rehashes of early 90s clothing bicycling, jumping, and generally looking too-cool-to-care all over the the Sandy-battered Rockaways. In the background, sand is piled in streets, iconic landmarks are fenced off, and homes stand dilapidated.

Even the boardwalk’s cement foundation – the only thing that remains after the wooden planks were stripped by the storm – are playground fodder for these kidults.

This might be not be so colossally insensitive if Brooklyn Industries was planning to donate a portion of their profits to Sandy victims, but they aren’t. The company claims that their donation budget is empty.

Company representative Teddy Vuong tried to defend the campaign.

“Our idea to design the line came last summer because we found that the Rockaways had been a consistent source of inspiration in our personal lives,” Vuong said.

Vuong went on to explain the connections that many Brooklyn Industries employees have to the area and how deeply concerned they were after the devastation following Sandy. They also hoped people buying clothing like the “Rockaway Cotton Slub Pullover” would actually travel to the Rockaways and spend some money in the beleaguered region. Somehow, I doubt it.

Très cool, assholes.

Photo by Randy Contello

Lil Phat. Source: Facebook

Russian-born gangster and famous turncoat Mani Chulpayev was arrested yesterday on suspicion of ordering the murder of American rapper Lil Phat, according to a report by Ria Novosti.

Melvin Vernell III, aka Lil Phat, was a 19-year-old southern rapper with a promising career. He was gunned down in a parking lot of a hospital while waiting for his child to be born in what authorities described as a planned attack.

“The alleged motive for the murder was drugs and other ‘business’ dealings in which the suspects were involved,” the office of Atlanta’s district attorney, Paul Howard, said in a statement provided to RIA Novosti.

Chulpayev, who came to Brighton Beach from the Soviet Union in the 1980s, got his start in Russian gangs known as “brigades.” After being arrested in 1998, he cooperated with federal officials and helped bring down a slew of Russian mobsters.

He testified to being “the money handler and the scheme organizer” for a crime group that US authorities called the “Gufield-Kutsenko Brigade,” The New York Times reported in 2002.

“I came up with the scams,” Chulpayev testified, the Times reported.

Chulpayev’s decision to turn state’s evidence, which led to dozens of convictions of members of Eurasian crime groups in the United States, so impressed authorities that he was granted time served for his admitted crimes in 2002.

In handing down the sentence, US federal judge Nina Gershon called Chulpayev’s crimes “chilling and inhuman” but said he proved to be “one of the most valuable witnesses in the history of the government’s battle against Russian organized crime,” the New York Daily News reported at the time.

Just as we came upon the sixth month anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, a unique arts organization has covered Gerritsen Beach with dozens of stars to bring hope and inspiration to the children of the disaster stricken neighborhood.

See a gallery of all the stars, photographed by local photographer Lisanne Anderson.

Photo by Max Bolotov.

On Thursday, in light of National Volunteer Week, State Senator Marty Golden held an appreciation dinner honoring dozens of those neighbors who lent at hand in Gerritsen Beach in the terrifying hours after Superstorm Sandy battered the New York coastline, despite the fact that many of them suffered their own trials due to the storm’s waters.

Golden handed out citations at Buckley’s Restaurant (2926 Avenue S) to “community residents who have proven  to  be  extraordinary  in  their volunteerism, dedicated to helping during Hurricane Sandy, special events and community organizations,” including Father Farrell of Resurrection Church, who opened the institution’s doors to serve as an evacuation center and shelter.

Also honored was Rose Coulson from the Ancient Order of Hibernians, who organized opening the facility despite its disrepair from the storm, and rallied volunteers and services to help the community.

Linda Cupo and Tracy Ambrose from the Gerritsen Beach Property Owners and Volunteer Fire Department were manning the Vollies Hall everyday throughout the aftermath of the storm, serving hot meals and doling out supplies.

John Murphy was a huge help running the shelter at Resurrection Church, acting as the director of the shelter spending countless hours at the church during the first week following the storm.  He continued to volunteer at the Ancient Order of Hibernians, following the closing of the Resurrection Shelter.

View the full list of honorees, and a photo gallery from the event.