Dogs Find "Underdog" Fakes

The war against movie piracy is now a little bit cuter, as the District Attorney’s office has recruited international DVD sniffing dogs to help them find illegal copies of counterfeit. Lucky and Flo, two black Labrador Retrievers rescued from shelters, were instrumental in three counterfeit DVD busts in Jamaica, Queens, yesterday. The dogs quickly sniffed out boxes containing DVD’s in a jam-packed basement, and their detective work lead to several arrests and the seizure of thousands of bootleg DVD’s. The dogs, each of which currently has a $30,000 bounty on their heads in the Philippines, are on a world tour right now. The next stop on their campaign to fight movie piracy will be Canada.
“My wife and I have a yellow lab at home,” said District Attorney Brown. “We’ve asked if she can help.”

Queens Pol Indicted

The personal and political life of Councilman Dennis Gallagher could get a lot worse before it starts getting better.

A gaggle of television and camera folk mobbed the councilman and his wife as he left Queens County Courthouse on Friday morning, some carelessly rushing into Queens Boulevard to get a shot of the embattled pol, who quickly posted $200,000 bail. (Queens District Attorney Richard Brown told reporters that Gallagher and his lawyers were informed of the bail amount last night, but noted that the practice was not uncommon.)

Gallagher was served with an eight-count indictment, including a first-degree rape charge that carries a maximum 25-year sentence if he is convicted.

On Thursday, he was indicted by a grand jury on charges he raped and physically abused a woman whom he met at a bar on July 9, and later took back to his office in Middle Village. Gallagher surrendered to the 112th Police Precinct in Forest Hills Friday morning.

The councilman, who won his seat in 2001, admitted to having sex with the accuser, but claimed it had been consensual.

The woman accusing Gallagher of rape, who appeared before the grand jury herself last week, called his claims of innocence "all BS" and denied the sex was consensual.

Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn issued a statement stating the matter would be referred to the council's Ethics Committee, which could ultimately choose to boot Gallagher from his seat.

DA Brown held a press conference after the arraignment. He denied reports in The New York Post that other women with similar sexual harassment allegations against Gallagher testified before a grand jury. He did, however, stop short of saying the investigation was closed.

Gallagher is due back in court on September 28.

Counterfeit Colgate for Your Fake Teeth

First there was the Watergate Scandal, now get ready for the Colgate Scandal. Councilman Leroy Comrie has warned that tubes of counterfeit toothpaste may be circulating in Southeast Queens. The toothpaste, which looks like Colgate, is made in Boksburg, South Africa and may contain anti-freeze instead of fluoride. There are reports from all over the nation about counterfeit toothpaste, and Colgate-Palmolive has issued a warning that fake tubes have been found in New York dollar stores.
Councilman Comrie said that counterfeit toothpaste may have even been given out at a supermarket in St. Alban's. If you think you have a tube of Colgate that was manufactured in South Africa, please contact Councilman Comrie's office at (718) 776 3700.

All Is World's Fair At Atlas Park!

For two consecutive weekends, the World’s Fair, that now-famous celebration of culture and technology that last took Queens by storm in 1964, is making a comeback.

Catch all the diverse fun at The Shops At Atlas Park in Glendale. There will be food and entertainment representing different peoples from around the globe provided by Shiro’s of Japan, The Amish Market, Rosetta Wines and others. Atlas Park has also promised a $1,000 giveaway each day to the top performance group as voted by mall visitors.

In keeping with the mind-expanding tradition of the World’s Fair, there will also be numerous booths set up by not-for-profit organizations selling cultural artifacts and handing out information. So far, Atlas Park officials have confirmed 25 groups representing 20 different cultures have been booked.

See you there! But if you can't make it this first weekend, you can still expect a full report in next week’s issue of The Glendale Register, published by Ledger/Star.

(Original image of photo can be found here.)

Whole Lotta Tony

Suggestions to improve the Department of Buildings? Calling out City Planning? Just another week in the life of Councilman Tony Avella.

On Friday afternoon, the plucky Queens pol will be holding a rally in front of a planned three-family house to demand DCP undertake the North Flushing rezoning they promised would be done about a year ago. The site is on a block of one-family homes that is currently zoned R-4, leaving the developer's options fairly wide open. The other side of the street, however, is zoned a more appropriate - given the existing housing stock – R-2. You can still see the modest foundation of the previous home in the photo of the actual site. We’re sure Avella will have a few other areas to offer up where he feels DCP’s been dragging their heels as well.

Meanwhile, this afternoon Avella called on DOB to implement a system similar to one that exists with the Department of Sanitation and reporting illegal dumpers. Citizens would be allowed to sign affidavits stating that they saw illegal work taking place on a site (Avella argues that in many cases, by the time inspectors arrive the work has already been completed), which could then be used in a legal case to retroactively impose fines. The DOB has already done it once, and the Environmental Control Board levied a $2,000 fine. The person who filed the affidavit? You guessed it – Tony Avella.

Amusingly, we also got a chance to see Avella at work, when just as the press conference was ending, he riffed on his own proposal, throwing in the idea that the person who signs the affidavit could receive a portion of the fine, just like with the Sanitation program. (We swear we saw a light bulb over his head.) In this city, we think we could turn that into a full-time job.

You can read an interview with the mayoral hopeful that ran in The Brooklyn Rail here.

Western Jackson Heights Alliance Demonstrates a Successful Demonstration

The Western Jackson Heights Alliance, a group that is actively trying to clean up slow the overdevelopment of their neighborhood, got a chance to present their agenda to Mayor Bloomberg, though in an unorthodox manner. Staging a demonstration in front a town hall meeting with Jackson Heights merchants that they were not allowed to participate in, Will Sweeney of the WJHA had the chance to speak with mayor for a few moments. Luckily, the interaction was caught on tape by Fox 5. For a more in depth look at the problems Jackson Heights is facing, Sweeney’s conversation with the mayor, and the fallout from the protest, check out next week’s papers.

Domino Sugar Plan Sweet For Some, Sour To Others

More than 100 people argued the pros and cons of the proposed Domino Sugar factory project last Tuesday, for which the Community Preservation Corporation, a managing partner in the development, has requested a zoning amendment.

The Department of City Planning had scheduled two public hearings - one at 2 p.m., the other at 6 p.m. - to field comments about CPC's 2.6 million square-foot proposal, which would contain residential, commercial, and community facility space.

Ostensibly, the hearings were intended for feedback regarding the Draft Scope of Work for the project's Environmental Impact Statement, which was released last week. But few attendees mentioned environmental aspects they would like to see added, concentrating instead of arguing the merits of a structure that will radically alter Williamsburg's waterfront.

The earlier session featured approximately 70 attendees, including City Council member Diana Reyna, as well as a representative from State Assemblyman Vito Lopez's office. In her testimony, Reyna expressed a willingness to support CPC's requested height increase if the number of affordable units also goes up to 1,000 units from the 660 planned.

On the other hand, the official for Lopez said the assemblyman was looking for a decrease in height and density while retaining affordability. "Why does affordable housing always have to manifest itself in height and density?" stated his testimony.

During the latter session, half as many attendees showed up, but evenly-matched numbers of people commented for and against the project. Some detractors, like Nancy Buivid, who has lived in the area since 1983, asked that DCP consider alternatives to the proposal in order to preserve the area's quality of life.

She complained the project, with its planned 300-foot and 400-foot towers along the waterfront, would shroud homes like hers in total darkness at sunset. "It's just not right," Buivid said.

Meanwhile, another neighbor, Susan Pellegrino, who lives on Wythe Ave., worried the development would tax the local infrastructure, including the L-train, beyond what it could handle. "I don't believe our tiny little neighborhood can support that many more people, even with ferry service," she said.

But supporters like James O'Shea, executive director of the not-for-profit Churches United Corp., said any negative aspects would be offset by one major positive - affordable housing for families who might otherwise be displaced by rising rents.

"There is not one family I know who needs a home who would bat an eye at taller buildings," he said, noting the market-rate units would finance the affordable ones. "Domino gives us the opportunity to be bold. The needs of our families demand nothing less."

You can read even more about the hearing at Times Ratner Report.

The Very Vest of Ft. Greene/Clinton HIll

When do you consider a building well on its way to being done? Once the walls start to rise? Immediately following the ceremonial topping-off? Its first mention on Curbed? Well, if you have the same criteria as DOB, a building is nearly complete once the foundation is fully poured.

That's why the rezoning that was passed by the City Council last week for 99 blocks in the Clinton Hill/Fort Greene area can be a bit misleading. While the downzoning will go a long way toward protecting the low-rise character of many of the neighborhoods' blocks, some of the out-of-scale development that spurred the rezoning in the first place will still be allowed to go forward despite the fact they are little more than holes in the ground.

In this week's Ledger/Star, we take a look at some of the bigger projects, as well as some another high-profile one that was stopped (see rendering) by DOB almost as soon as the last vote was cast in the Council. Unfortunately, a list of all of the buildings that were vested (DOB's terminology for projects that will be allowed to proceed under the old zoning) came after the paper went to press, so here is a list of all sites currently under construction and their new status:

VESTED
93 HALL STREET
75 GRAND AVENUE
73 GRAND AVENUE
72 STEUBEN STREET
56 CAMBRIDGE PLACE
174 CLERMONT AVENUE
268 CUMBERLAND STREET
122 ADELPHI STREET
97 GRAND AVENUE

NOT VESTED
163 WASHINGTON AVENUE
415 CLERMONT AVENUE
404 VANDERBILT AVENUE
447 CLINTON AVENUE
398 CLASSON AVENUE
420 CLASSON AVENUE
1057 FULTON STREET
478 GRAND AVENUE
457 GRAND AVENUE
4 LEFFERTS PLACE
66 CLERMONT AVENUE
163 WASHINGTON PARK
161 ADELPHI STREET
266 CUMBERLAND STREET
290 CARLTON AVENUE
120 SOUTH ELLIOTT PLACE

According to DOB, all non-vested properties have been issued stop work orders.