QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, December 1, 2016 Page 22
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Cleaning the shores of Jamaica Bay Environmentalist seeks to start discussion of religious waste left at beach Flushing resident Maureen Regan didn’t spend the day after Thanksgiving in a food coma — she got up and gave back to the environment by cleaning up religious debris left behind on the shores of Jamaica Bay. And though Regan called the cleanup an important part of ensuring the bay’s long-term survival, she hopes to eliminate the need for any more. “That cannot be the right solution,” she said. “It’s like sticking your finger into a hole where there’s water coming out.” Regan’s group, Green Earth Urban Gardens, is looking to start a conversation between the Hindus who use the shores of Jamaica Bay as a prayer site — often leaving behind large amount of mats, statues, fruit and more that end up in the water — and environmental groups to come up with a solution that pleases all parties. “They should build a place where people can openly practice,” the environmentalist said. “It’s not going to go away.” The issue has been going on for years. Environmental groups and Hindus have discussed it before but have not yet come to an amicable solution. Regan also works near the bay on a pollination garden, where bees and other insects can come to pollinate different plants. Her groups works to Q clean it in the winter and spring. — Anthony O’Reilly
Coconuts are among the most-discarded items on the shores of the bay. A volunteer begins to clean religious debris left behind by Hindu prayer groups by PHOTOS COURTESY GREEN EARTH URBAN GARDENS Jamaica Bay. Jus t one of t he mounds left on the sand by Jamaica Bay in Broad Channel last week, which were cleaned up by environmental group Green Earth Urban Gardens. Mats are left for others to clean up.
Holiday Inn owner is being taken to court Harshad Patel allegedly violated his lease by letting city house homeless by Christopher Barca
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Associate Editor
The future of the Holiday Inn Express at 59-40 55 Road in Maspeth has never been more up in the air than it is now. Hotelier Harshad Patel is being sued by Kimcomatt Realty, the property owner, for allegedly violating the lease by allowing the city to house homeless men at the Holiday Inn Express. According to city records, the 45-year lease between Kimcomatt Realty and Patel’s LLC, New Ram Realty, was signed in March 2004. Part of the lease, according to the lawsuit filed in Queens Supreme Court on Monday, bans Patel from operating anything but a hotel with retail stores on the site. “Tenant shall not use the premises for any use other than to accommodate transient hotel guests and for retail stores located on the ground floor of the hotel,” the lease reads, according to the lawsuit. “Tenant shall not permit the premises be used as a multiple dwelling or for residential uses or apartments.” Kimcomatt Realty, owned by Barry Haskell, alleges in the suit that Patel did not inform the property owner of plans to convert the hotel into a homeless shelter “for an initial term of five years” until Aug. 25, almost a month after city officials told area lawmakers and community members of the proposal. From the week the plan was announced, it was met with massive and fiery community opposition in the form of nightly protests outside the hotel, City Hall and other locations across three counties. While Patel has been one of the protesters’ biggest targets, much of the community’s indignation has been direct-
Hotelier Harshad Patel is being sued by his landlord over the Maspeth Holiday Inn owner renting out rooms to the city to FILE PHOTO house homeless single men in October. ed at the city, Mayor de Blasio and Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steve Banks, with countless Maspeth residents imploring the administration to stop the conversion Patel told the Chronicle on Sept. 8 — one day after meet-
ing with Kimcomatt, which also owns a number of properties around the hotel — that the community unrest had prompted him to kill the plan. But on Columbus Day, the city rented 30 rooms and moved 30 homeless single men into the facility, sparking even more unrest. It was that action, allowing the city to rent rooms for homeless individuals without written consent from Kimcomatt, that represented the violation of Patel’s lease, according to the lawsuit. “The potential profit to New Ram must have been too great to turn down,” the suit says, “because in blatant disregard of the terms of its lease and in contradiction to its representations to the community, New Ram has begun the conversion of the hotel to a homeless shelter, surreptitiously renting over a quarter of the hotel’s rooms to the Department of Homeless Services to house homeless adults.” Juniper Park Civic Association President Bob Holden — one of the leading voices of the anti-shelter protests — said he was “overjoyed” when he learned of the legal action, something his group has been considering doing for months. “Obviously we’re rooting for them. We’re on their side,” Holden said of Kimcomatt on Wednesday. “If this turns out to be successful, our legal action may be unnecessary. It’s almost like we would win without firing a shot. “We’re watching this keenly,” he added, “and hopefully the landlord will win.” State Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) said Tuesday he wasn’t surprised in the least over the lawsuit, adding it “has the potential” to stop the city’s plan to house homeless there in its tracks. “I’m not surprised at all,” Addabbo said. “Patel has Q always been a questionable owner.”