George Stamatiades (c.), of the Dutch Kills Civic Association, speaks at a press conference held by Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (third from l.) calling for BSA reform. Also attending were Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (second from l.), CB 2 Chairman Joseph Conley (fourth from r.) and other civic leaders. Photo by Rebecca Henely

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) announced last week he was introducing four pieces of legislation dedicated to reforming the city Board of Standards and Appeals.

The councilman said the BSA, which he calls a “bogus agency,” regularly ignores community protests against out-of-character developments and dismisses community board recommendations to satisfy the wants of developers. Van Bramer said that of the 2,855 appeals to the BSA by developers between 2001 and 2005, only 2.7 percent were rejected.

“These folks to go the BSA, claim a hardship and boom, they’re able to be approved,” Van Bramer said.

The BSA said they had no comment on the legislation.

Van Bramer’s first piece of legislation, called Intro 678, would create a standard procedure for the BSA that would incorporate City Planning?, community boards, borough boards, leasees and tenants into the BSA’s decision on whether to grant a variance to a developer. These groups can currently comment on a variance, but their concerns often do not factor into the decision, Van Bramer said.?

Intro 679 to 681 would expand the BSA to include appointees from the city public advocate, each borough president and each community board; create a formal complaint procedure for community members; and require the mayor’s appointees to be approved by the Council.

State Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-Jackson Heights), Community Board 2 Chairman Joseph Conley, CB 1 District Manager Lucille Hartmann and numerous civic leaders joined Van Bramer for his announcement Dec. 14 at a site at 64-01 Woodside Ave. in Woodside.

Van Bramer said the developer of the site has filed to create an eight-story building with 27 apartments, although the new Sunnyside-Woodside rezoning only allows for five stories and 17 apartments. The building will sit on a block with residential houses and some small businesses across the street.

“You have to ensure the quality of life in the neighborhood,” said Rose Daraio, president of the Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together, “and you have to build in the context of the neighborhood.”

A number for the owners of the property, listed on the city Department of Buildings’ website as 64-01 Woodside Realty, was disconnected.

Van Bramer’s proposals are similar to two pieces of legislation Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) introduced in August.

Halloran’s bills would require the community board and the borough president to have advisory input into a BSA decision, have the BSA notify property owners when they need to apply for new variances and make the BSA levy fines if owners operate without a variance for six months.

Halloran said he was worried that Van Bramer’s idea to have the Council appoint BSA members would violate the separation of powers between the city’s executive and legislative branches, but hoped the best part of the six bills could be merged in committee meetings.

“I think Jimmy’s got some great ideas,” he said.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (second from r.) is joined by Jackson Heights-area legislators -- state Assemblyman Michael DenDekker, state Sen. Jose Peralta and City Councilman Daniel Dromm -- as he presents his overview of the neighborhood and surrounding area's economy last week. Photo by Rebecca Henely

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli painted a mostly positive portrait of Jackson Heights and its surrounding neighborhoods’ economy on a visit to the community last week, saying small businesses owned by immigrants bring in much money and the area has enormous potential growth.

“The economic future of northwestern Queens is a bright one,” DiNapoli said.

The comptroller’s “economic snapshot” of Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst and East Elmhurst was prompted by state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst).

Peralta joined DiNapoli, along with state Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-Jackson Heights) and City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), at the unveiling of the findings at the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights, at 37-06 77th St.

The senator said DiNapoli’s analysis could help developers understand the community’s needs?.

“It’s very important for our community to have this kind of document to move forward,” Peralta said.

DiNapoli’s portrait goes back more than 10 years, covering the neighborhoods both before and after the 2009 recession. He said immigrants from 71 countries live in the four neighborhoods, many of whom are small business owners. From 2000-09, the number of businesses grew by 18.1 percent, a percentage three times larger than the rest of the city, and most of these businesses employed less than 10 people.

“People from all over the world continue to come here to live, work and raise their families,” DiNapoli said.

The recession did have an effect on the neighborhoods, however. While private sector wages grew by 6 percent each year from 2004-08, they dropped by 1.5 percent from 2008-10.

The average rent also changed from taking up an average of more than 30 percent of residents’ income? in 2002 to taking up an average of 43 percent to 48 percent of residents’ income in 2008.?

He suggested the long-planned revitalization of Willets Point could bring opportunity much-needed by residents.

“Public and private investment is needed,” DiNapoli said.

DiNapoli said the area had remarkable draws, such as Flushing Meadows Corona Park and the Louis Armstrong Museum, but one problem was school overcrowding — 19 of the area’s 22 elementary schools are above capacity.

DenDekker said he hoped the report would spur development without hurting small businesses. He also suggested that leaders should find ways to help small businesses comply with regulations without just levying fines.

“We don’t want to upset the balance of losing our small businesses,” he said.

Dromm said he believed the economic growth in the area earlier this century is related to the? immigrant population. He said he buys everything he needs from small businesses run by immigrants within a block of where he lives.

“I’m very proud of this neighborhood,” he said.

State Assemblyman David Weprin (c.), joined by Corey Bearak, state Sen. Tony Avella, Assemblyman Michael DenDekker, Walter McCaffrey of Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free and Carlo Scissura of the Brooklyn borough president's Office, spoke against congestion pricing on the steps of City Hall. Photo courtesy Dan Miller/DMD Images

State legislators and other community leaders in Queens and Brooklyn joined together on the steps of City Hall Sunday to protest a years-old potential plan of Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s to hike bridge and tunnel tolls for Manhattan-bound motorists.

“The administration’s latest traffic-pricing plan is nothing less than a disguised tax on all people of New York City,” said state Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-Jackson Heights).

Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck), DenDekker and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), as well as representatives from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s office, the Queens Chamber of Commerce and the organization Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free protested the plan formerly known as congestion pricing and now referred to by the mayor’s office as traffic pricing.

Weprin described the plan as charging motorists $8 and truck drivers $21 to drive into Manhattan on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Lisa DelValle, a spokeswoman for Weprin, said while the plan had been originally proposed in 2007, the legislators raised the issue again because of news articles on the issue and reports private interests groups had been formulating a new proposal for congestion pricing, which DelValle said has not been formalized.

Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for the mayor, said Bloomberg has not made any such proposal.

But the mayor unveiled a congestion pricing plan back in 2008, which was passed by the City Council but killed in the state Legislature when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) refused to bring the legislation to the floor, citing a lack of Assembly support for the proposal.

Weprin said the mayor originally characterized the plan as one that would discourage cars from clogging the streets and thus decrease pollution, but Weprin said the plan had the potential to send those cars to the outer boroughs instead. The savings would have gone to improve subway and bus service.

“It would … negatively impact the environment and consequently pose a public health risk to the residents of many outer-borough neighborhoods that already see high levels of traffic and are major mass transit hubs,” Weprin said.

The legislators also contend the plan would put an undue hardship on commuters and small business owners. In a statement, Avella called the plan an “unfair and unnecessary” tax on those who do not live in Manhattan.

“It is not a viable option or solution for reducing traffic — it is merely a revenue-generating plan,” he said. “The reality is that nobody drives into Manhattan for the fun of it. People drive because they need to drive. We can’t allow this city and the MTA to continually balance their books on the backs of those who can least afford it.”

Most of those who spoke against the plan were from Queens, including Jack Friedman, executive director of the chamber, who called the plan a “business killer.” But the Queensites had an ally in Markowitz, who said in a statement the plan would penalize those who need to drive for their job or enter Manhattan on a regular basis for medical reasons.

“There has to be a more equitable plan that accomplishes our shared goals of cleaner air, reduced congestion and sufficiently funding our mass transit system,” Markowitz said.

Mark Ferran of the United Fire Officers Association and U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley campaigned with state Assemblywoman Marge Markey outside IS 73 in Maspeth. Photo by Rebecca Henely

Despite a reported anti-incumbent, anti-Democrat mood across the nation, all the seated Democrats won another term in the state Assembly races in western Queens this year, according to unofficial election results from NY1.

Assembly members Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills), Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth), Catherine Nolan (D-Ridgewood), Michael Miller (D-Woodhaven) and Audrey Pheffer (D-Rockaway Beach) beat their Republican rivals Tuesday. Community activist Francisco Moya also stepped into the Elmhurst-Corona Assembly district seat and lawyer Aravella Simotas was unopposed on the Democratic ticket to fill the seat vacated by Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria).

Hevesi, who has been in the Assembly’s Forest Hills seat since 2005, squeaked ahead in a tight race with 54 percent of the vote, beating out law school graduate Alex Powietrzynski, who earned 40 percent of the vote and Independent Joseph Tiraco, who earned a little less than 6 percent, with 100 percent of precincts reporting. The young Republican had called for Hevesi to step down in light of the controversy surrounding Hevesi’s father Alan, who had once held Andrew’s Assembly seat and pleaded guilty recently to corruption in his role as state comptroller.

Andrew Hevesi pushed his record on environmental legislation and touted his support for reform in Albany. Powietrzynski focused on job creation, lowering taxes, Metropolitan Transportation Authority reform and crime reduction.

In a contentious race, Markey, an assemblywoman for Maspeth since 1998, won with 60 percent of the vote over Maspeth businessman and Community Board 5 member Tony Nunziato, with 89 percent of precincts reporting.

Nunziato had accused Markey of not being a presence in the community in the run-up to the election, and they had clashed at a news conference over a plan to reroute trucks in the community. In his campaign, Nunziato focused on job creation, capping government spending, cutting taxes, fiscal responsibility and school vouchers. Markey’s campaign had emphasized her record and working to improve quality of life and creating a viable commercial district.

In nearby Ridgewood, 26-year Nolan defeated actor and bartender John Kevin Wilson by a wide margin with 85 percent of the vote, with 92 percent of precincts reporting. Miller, who won his Woodhaven Assembly district seat in a special election in 2009, netted his first full term and defeated Republican Donna Marie Caltabiano, executive director of the Forest Park Senior Center, with 69 percent of the vote when 93 percent of the precincts were counted. In Rockaway Beach, Pheffer, who has been in office since 1987, beat opponent Dr. Harold Paez, an administrator at a Brooklyn hospital, with 68 percent of the vote in a race where 64 percent of precincts had reported.

In addition, Moya took the vacant 39th Assembly District seat, which covers Elmhurst, Corona and part of Jackson Heights. The seat had been left vacant after previous holder Jose Peralta won the East Elmhurst seat in a special election for the state Senate. Moya initially had a Republican opponent in community activist Humberto Suarezmotta, but he was thrown off the ballot for failing to hand in a cover sheet with his signatures.

Simotas, meanwhile, stepped into Gianaris’ 36th Assembly District seat, which includes Astoria, Long Island City, Ravenswood and Queensbridge, as Gianaris left to run for outgoing state Sen. George Onorato’s (D-Astoria) seat.

Assemblymen Jeffrion Aubry (D-Corona) and Michael DenDekker (D-Jackson Heights), who had no opponents, also won another term this year.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (c.), joined by City Councilmen Jimmy Van Bramer and Danny Dromm, state Sen. Jose Peralta and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall's Chief of Staff Alex Rosa, speaks in support of marriages for LGBT New Yorkers. Photo by Rebecca Henely

Legislators in Jackson Heights told their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender constituents as well as their allies Monday to vote for pro-marriage equality candidates in the Nov. 2 election.

“We are inches away of reaching that magical number 29,” said state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst), referring to the number of votes needed in the Senate to pass a bill allowing people of the same sex to marry.

At the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights, legislators and constituents discussed the best strategy to use to pass a pro-LGBT marriage bill in 2011, partly in response to the recent suicides by teenagers who were gay or perceived to be gay and the recent hate crimes against gay people in the city: an assault of a bartender at Julius Bar in Manhattan Oct. 11 and an attack on three gay men in the Bronx by nine attackers Oct. 3.

“If people are thinking of copycatting [these crimes], they know that’s not going to work, because the days of us not going to the police are over,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).

Elected officials at the event included Quinn, Peralta, Councilmen Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside), state Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-Jackson Heights) and Assembly candidate Francisco Moya. Quinn, Dromm and Van Bramer are all openly gay.

“Like many of you, I would like to be married one day,” said Van Bramer, who has been with his partner for 11 1/2 years.

Dromm said a crucial win for allies of gay marriage would be to elect Tony Avella, a former Democratic councilman who is running in Bayside against Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose).

Peralta said electing Avella would mean the Senate would have a better chance of passing a marriage equality bill in 2011, now that George Onorato (D-Astoria) is retiring and former Sen. Hiram Monserrate, whose seat Peralta won, was ousted for a misdemeanor assault charge. Padavan, Onorato and Monserrate had voted against the legislation in 2009.

“Right now this is the moment for the LGBT community,” said Alexandra Rosa, chief of staff for Borough President Helen Marshall. Rosa’s child is gay.

Suzanne Ramos, board chairwoman of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays New York, was one of many community activists at the meeting who encouraged constituents to go to their representatives and tell them their stories of wanting to marry their partners.

“These things really tug? at the heartstrings and we have to keep doing that,” Ramos said.

Many at the meeting agreed it was marriage the LGBT community needed, not domestic partnerships or civil unions. Cathy Moreno Thomas, board president of Marriage Equality New York, said there are 1,300 tangible rights LGBT people are denied that their straight, married neighbors receive.

“It’s not separate but equal,” Dromm said, “It’s about true equality.”

Dromm also said that members of the LGBT community should team up with immigrant communities and support issues pertaining to immigrants such as the Park51 mosque to fight against hate and prejudice.

“We have to work as a united front,” he said.

Assemblyman Jose Peralta waves to the crowd during a rally outside state Sen. Hiram Monserrate’s office. Peralta will challenge Monserrate in the 2010 Democratic primary. Photo by Christina Santucci

The wound is still fresh for gay and lesbian constituents of Queens and state senators like Hiram Monserrate (D-East Elmhurst), who voted against same-sex marriage two weeks ago.

Organized by groups like the LGBT Coalition of Queens and the Western Queens Same Sex Marriage Alliance, protesters marched on Monserrate’s office in East Elmhurst Saturday and Sen. George Onorato’s (D-Astoria) office Sunday.

Although the politicians and their staffers were not in the offices, the group got plenty of looks — both positive and skeptical — from Corona residents as they marched north from Roosevelt Avenue.

“I want everyone to hear that I am not a second-class citizen,” said Sara Pomar, a same-sex marriage activist from Woodside. “It is irrelevant, my sexuality, but we all deserve the same civil rights.”

City Councilman-elect Daniel Dromm, a longtime Queens activist for gay rights who will represent Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst come Jan. 1, said Monserrate indicated he supported same-sex marriage in a survey he filled out for the Empire State Pride Agenda. He and the Queens Democratic Party are endorsing state Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights) to challenge Monserrate in the 2010 Democratic primary.

“He violates the rights of the LGBT community, he violates the rights of the immigrant community, the African-American community, the Latino community because we are all in this struggle together for equal rights,” Dromm said, calling on same-sex marriage supporters to campaign throughout the borough, including Howard Beach, the home turf of state Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach), who also voted against the bill.

State Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-Jackson Heights) accused Monserrate of not representing his constituents.

“If he did he would have looked and saw that the three Assembly members that make up this district all co-sponsored the legislation,” he said.

Elmhurst resident Sebastian Maguire called Monserrate a liar over his recent claim in a NY1 interview that no one had contacted him to encourage him to vote for the bill.

“Raise your hand if you personally called him, approached him, anything,” he told the crowd. At least a dozen hands went up.

Richard Allman, president of the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, said the influential group would be focusing its political efforts on Queens in 2010.

“Yes, Sen. Monserrate, in addition to this being political, it’s personal because you’re standing in the way of me and the man I love and that I intend to spend the rest of my life with,” he said. “And you will be stopped.”

German Morales, an Elmhurst resident who is HIV-positive, warned that gay rights and the rights of HIV and AIDS patients are interconnected.

“I love him. He’s my friend,” he said of Monserrate. “But he’s not my political friend anymore.”

Michael DenDekker

Elected officials and community leaders in Corona, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights reacted with a mixture of skepticism and disappointment to news that state Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-East Elmhurst), their representative in Albany,  had sided with Republicans in the ouster of Democrats from the state Senate leadership.

“I was one of the people who supported Hiram when he ran for Senate, and I’m disappointed,” said state

Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-Jackson Heights). “I thought he would a loyal Democrat to the party. That said, I haven’t spoken to him personally.”

Monserrate’s Senate predecessor, John Sabini, who now chairs the state Racing and Wagering Board, said Monserrate’s district expected him to be a part of the Democratic majority.

“I don’t think that this is what the public willed when they had an election,” he said.

Some leaders were angrier over Monserrate’s move.

“I think Hiram and his cohorts are the biggest traitors on the planet,” said Democratic District Leader George Dixon. “They were put in office to serve the Democratic agenda, not side with Republicans. I’m not surprised by their actions. I’ve always seen this coming. You can talk about being a team player, but actions speak louder than words.”

Most leaders expected Monserrate would find a way to reconcile his shift in allegiance to his constituents and his fellow Queens legislators.

“I would tend to think that it could go either way,” DenDekker said. “You might have a lot of loyal Democrats who would be astonished by this move and not understand why, and then again you might have a lot of local community leaders who cheer him for taking on reform.

“I obviously will always work with my senator as an Assembly member because we both share the same constituency.”

Sabini pointed to the bad blood between Monserrate and Senate Republicans like Frank Padavan of Bellerose, who earlier had called for Monserrate to resign after he was charged with allegedly slashing his girlfriend’s face with a broken glass during a fight.

“These things tend to work themselves out,” Sabini said. “He’s a fellow with some talent and he’ll figure it out.”