Letter: Queens Elected Officials Wants City to Fix Co-op Tax Abatements

Sen. Stavisky and Assemblyman Braunstein write a letter property taxes.

To The Editor: Every four years, the City of New York extends a program granting most co-ops and condo owners a 17.5 percent abatement on their property taxes. This program aims to lower the effective tax rates (total property tax per $100 of market value) of co-ops to bring the rates more in line with those of single-family homeowners. For many co-ops, especially in the outer boroughs, this program falls well short of its intended goal. At the same time many co-op owners, especially wealthy owners in Manhattan, who already pay lower effective tax rates than single-family homeowners, are seeing their property taxes reduced even further. In fact, the NYC Independent Budget Office (IBO) reports that for the 2006 fiscal year, $156 million of …

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Parent Talk

This week, our council of moms and dads discusses New Year's resolutions for children.

Each week, our Parents Council of experts takes your questions, gives advice and shares solutions. Moms, dads, grandparents and the diverse families who make up our community will have a new resource for questions about local neighborhood schools, the best pediatricians, 24-hour pharmacies and the thousands of other issues that arise while raising children. This week’s question is: Do you believe the concept of a New Year's resolution could be a helpful tool for a parent who wants their child to make an improvement of some kind - for example, more responsibility in terms of chores or schoolwork? Judy Vincent Children need an incentive to be successful. My daughter earns points towards something she wants to get.  She has to make her bed, …

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The Halloween Horror Movie Canon (Plus 10 You Might Have Missed)

Check out Patch's picks for the scariest films to watch this holiday weekend.

Are you too old to go trick or treating and too impatient to contend with the crowds at this weekend’s Halloween events? Then, turn out the lights, lock the doors and be prepared to cover your eyes. Here’s our Halloween Movie Canon – a rundown of the greatest horror classics to watch this holiday weekend – as well as a list of 10 scary films you might have missed. But, be forewarned – many of the films mentioned below are definitely not for children or the faint of heart: If vampires are your thing, then you won’t want to miss either F.W. Murnau’s silent classic, “Nosferatu,” or Werner Herzog’s atmospheric 1979 remake of the same name. For a more ambiguous vampire tale, check out George Romero’s “Martin” or French filmmaker Claire Denis’s…

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Top Ten Worst Items To Hand Out On Halloween

Sometimes it's better to give nothing at all.

When it comes to trick or treating, everyone had that one neighbor: the dentist who gave out floss, the cat lady who handed out her old junk mail. We learned which houses offered up the big candy bars, and which handed out items far, far worse. We want to know: What is the worst thing you've ever received been given on Halloween? We've got a list of ten to get you started, but we encourage you to add yours in the comments below. 1. Pennies - Seriously, folks. This is only acceptable if accompanied by “Now, don’t spend this all in one place.” 2. Airplane Peanuts or Cookies - We are beginning our descent into Cheapsville. 3. Fortune Cookies - (名) 吝嗇鬼 (That’s Chinese for “skinflint”) 4. Assorted Dust-Covered Candies from Holidays Past - In …

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Happy Cycling

The End of Accidents? CrashStat Says 'Yes'

A new website pinpoints the city's most dangerous intersections for pedestrians and cyclists.

I met someone Tuesday night who told me that, in his time as a pedestrian and cyclist in New York City, he's been hit by cars on seven separate occasions. Seven. Seven. (7!). Incredible.  When one gets hit by seven cars in situations wholly independent from one another, it's hard not to wonder whether this man might be doing something wrong. Perhaps he should stop drunkenly meandering down the middle of highways? Perhaps he should stop doing the Dougie in the presence of ice cream trucks?  Seven may seem like a lot, but according to CrashStat.org, a new website launched Wednesday by the advocacy organization Transportation Alternatives, getting mauled by cars on city streets is alarmingly common.  The goal of CrashStat is to pinpoint New …

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Theater Installation Promises That Visitors Will 'Sleep No More'

Patch editor relays experience of wandering through creepy interactive performance based on "Macbeth."

For nearly three hours last weekend, I wandered around masked and anonymous in a creepy abandoned hotel and stumbled upon scenes of marital strife, murder and madness. Based upon William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and recalling in tone the films of David Lynch (“Twin Peaks”) and Stanley Kubrick (especially, “The Shining” and “Eyes Wide Shut”), British theater company Punchdrunk’s “Sleep No More” is an immersive theatrical installation. For the full experience, attendees should be willing to toss aside all typical expectations of what categorizes a piece of theater as a “performance.” “Sleep No More” contains characters and scenes, but no acts. It is completely nonlinear and it is unlikely that any given audience member will be able to …

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Mail Bag: Good Morning, Irene

A Little Neck resident shares his vacation experience, which was cut short due to the arrival of Irene.

Editor's Note: The below is a submission from Patch reader Mark Lane. It has been gently edited for grammar and punctuation, but otherwise appears in its original form. Our mini family (wife, daughter, and me) vacation to the Amish area of Pennsylvania was cut short a full day this past weekend, as we wanted to get back to our humble Little Neck abode with the ominous Hurricane Irene approaching. Even the Pennsylvania news stations were advising people to get the heck out of nearby areas, very well precautionary, but causing unnecessary panic.       But I'd have to characterize our excursion to these farmlands as a success, at least for me. Five pairs of pants, four shirts, and seven pairs of socks at the Vanity Fair Outlets in Reading …

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Patch Asks: Did You Feel the Earthquake?

The Virginia-based quake shook the earth around New York and beyond. Share your experience with us.

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake based in Virginia rocked much of the East Coast on Tuesday afternoon, cutting cell service and creating a buzz of general confusion in a part of the country more accustomed to snow and hail than feeling the earth move. We want to know: Did you feel the 'quake? Where were you when it happened? Was this a new experience, or are you old-hat when it comes to such natural disasters? Is this a sign of global warming, the impending apocalypse, or neither? Tell us in the comments.

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Adam Lombardi

5:20 pm on Tuesday, August 23, 2011

I was in a car during the earthquake. I didn't feel or notice anything. I'm curious, did anyone in their cars sense what had happened?   more ›

Mailbox: Hey Gov. Cuomo, What About Our Bus?

NHECA President Judy Cohen penned a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo regarding the now defunct Q79 bus.

Editor's Note: The following letter was written by Judy Cohen, the president of the North Hills Estates Civic Association, to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It appears below in its original form: Dear Governor Cuomo, I am writing about the utter disregard  by the MTA of the needs of the residents of Little Neck, Douglaston, Glen Oaks, and other neighborhoods in eastern Queens. Despite the efforts of many civic associations to explain the hardships caused by the termination of the Q79 bus that ran north and south on Little Neck Parkway between the Little Neck LIRR station and Jamaica Avenue, the MTA has left a huge population without any transportation along a 4-5 mile route. The residents along that route, for several blocks east and west of Little …

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The Beauty Insider: Get It Straight!

Local salon offers services to help women alleviate their hair problems.

For those women out there, such as myself, who battle bad hair days more than she would like to admit and struggle daily with a thick and occasionally unruly coiffure, can rest assured there is hope for us after all. The Japanese have gifted us with a luxury known to stylists and beauty junkies as hair straightening. This innovative technique transforms curly, wavy, frizzy and hard to manage hair into a pin straight, smooth, silky, shiny and manageable mane. Many salons across the five boroughs offer this tress transformation, including Douglaston’s very own You and Me Hair Salon and Nail Spa. The salon, formerly Secret Nails, opened in April 2011 and has been making customers like Paula Hogan happy ever since. Hogan, a Douglaston resident…

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