Slumlords . . . I Hate Those Guys

The only thing worse than a slumlord is . . . nothing because I’ve read enough Post articles by now to know that slumlords are total scum of the earth:

A notorious Queens slumlord was blasted yesterday for racking up a staggering number of violations at his filthy, rundown buildings — while he gets hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax abatements.

Nicholas Haros “very definitely is a slumlord. We don’t want slumlords in our community,” fumed City Councilman Hiram Monserrate, who represents Corona. “He is clearly showing insensitivity to his tenants, insensitivity to the city of New York.”

One of those rental tenants, Elena Nuñez, 74, showed reporters a massive hole in her Corona apartment shower stall that she says Haros has refused to fix for the past two years. She also displayed a hole in the ceiling he has ignored for three years.

“He’s bad,” Nuñez said of Haros, 58, who refused to speak to The Post at his Flushing office. “He’s not a good landlord. He doesn’t do anything.”

Other Haros tenants pointed out collapsed ceilings, peeling paint, rotted walls, vermin-ridden kitchens, wall mold and a leak that has persisted for 16 years.

City officials said Haros-controlled corporations own 81 apartment buildings in the city, mostly in Queens and The Bronx. The buildings contain 3,247 units, largely occupied by immigrants and elderly tenants whose rent totals tens of millions of dollars annually.

City inspectors have found 16,696 violations — more than five per apartment. A total of 13,548 of them are considered “hazardous,” or worse, “immediately hazardous,” officials said.

And it gets worse — Haros is sucking at the City teat:

Haros owes the city more than $411,000 in emergency repairs that it had to make on apartments because he failed to do so, and he has paid more than $303,450 in fines related to his shoddy maintenance.

But Haros continues each year to get massive amounts of city tax abatements related to affordable housing programs, and the city’s Finance Department said that situation is likely to continue without a change in the law governing such tax credits.

If he’s not careful, the phrase “Haros-controlled” might become shorthand for, say, the ninth circle of hell . . .

Don’t Show Them Your iPod — You’ll Freak Them Out . . .

The vestigial Sam Goody in Queens Center Mall is closing:

The news saddened shoppers who have been buying music and videos there for years.

Woodside resident Arturo Quan raved that he could always go to Sam Goody to get the DVD of a concert he saw on PBS.

“This is the only one — the only place I could find it. I guess I got to look for another store, perhaps in Manhattan,” he said.

Other Sam Goody faithful found it painful to let go of the idea of a bricks-and-mortar shopping experience:

Yolanda Wilson works two doors down at the mall’s Time Warner Cable office, and would often go down to Goody’s when she had a break. With the store and its wide selection to become a thing of the past, she said, she dreads having to shop for CDs on the Internet.

“I don’t like to shop online, because you don’t know what you’re getting,” she said. “Let’s say you pick the wrong one and want to return it — you have to go through the whole process of mailing it back.”

Obviously iTunes would blow these people’s minds. Better space out that news a little . . .

Detective, His Story Checks Out

The Daily News further researches animal hides in drumming, making the case that the percussionist who contracted anthrax probably did get it from goat skin, as the experts first were saying:

Local West African drum makers say making drums with animal hides is a tradition that dates back hundreds of years.

People involved in the trade prefer to use goat skin from their home countries, ideally from a female animal. The skin is sun-dried, shaved and sometimes bleached for esthetic purposes.

“You can buy the goat skin in New York, but the goat in New York is too fatty, too thick,” said Ibrahima Diokhane, who owns Keur Djembe, a popular drum store in Gowanus, Brooklyn. “But the goat in Senegal is thinner, and the butcher there cuts it right.”

Diokhane, a native of Dakar, Senegal, either brings his hides in a suitcase or ships them in a container.

The World Health Organization notes that industrial anthrax tends to afflict those employed in the processing of bones, hides, wool and other animal products.

For Goodness’ Sake, Have A Human Child Already (And If That’s Not Possible, Adopt!)

Dog owners are scary. Really, really scary:

A few weeks ago, the owners of the Chocolate Room, home of the $40-a-pound raspberry-peppercorn ganache, paid a visit to the bakery that had just opened across the street from the trattoria that sells pizza flaked with actual gold leaf. They complimented, with a tinge of envy, the Blodgett ovens behind the bakery counter.

Not much to envy, the bakers replied. “They said, ‘Don’t buy these ovens because they’re convection ovens and our cupcakes come out windblown,'” said Naomi Josepher, one of the chocolatiers.

Ms. Josepher was perplexed. “I said, ‘Your cupcakes look a lot better than ours. And anyway you guys are serving dogs and we’re serving people.'”

Well, yeah. And?

It is true. The bakery, Buttercup’s Paw-tisserie, claims to be the first doggie bakery in the whole city that makes its treats on-premises. Take that, SoHo.

And P.S.: The cupcakes, known in this case as pupcakes, are not in the least windblown. They are in fact perfect miniatures, with a perfect white yogurt-icing paw print embossed upon a silken crust of carob.

They are also utterly delicious. To humans. As well they should be, considering the all-natural human-grade ingredients.

“The stuff we use here is healthier than what we eat,” Betty Wong said from behind the counter, as her business partner and brother-in-law, Scott Wong, prepared a tray of wheat-free liver-and-herb biscotti for the oven.

Paw-tisserie also offers coconut-coated carob-crunch truffles ($1.50), liver-cheese brownies (75 cents), salmon crackers with seaweed and anchovy paste ($6.95 for “a barker’s dozen”) and pupcakes ($1.50).

Silvercup Studios Plans $1 Billion Expansion, Q-Plaza Motel Threatened

Silvercup Studios unveiled a plan to build a massive $1 billion studio/housing/office complex on six acres of East River waterfront in Queens:

The six-acre project in Long Island City, which formally began wending its way through the city’s land use review process yesterday, is called Silvercup West, an expansion of Silvercup’s existing operation six blocks to the east, the home studio for television shows like “The Sopranos” and “Hope & Faith” and where many movies have been filmed.

If it is approved, the expansion would include eight soundstages, production and studio support space, offices for media and entertainment companies, stores, 1,000 apartments in high-rise towers, a catering hall and a yet-to-be-named cultural institution. Silvercup would easily be the largest production house on the East Coast, although Steiner Studios in Brooklyn has the largest single soundstage.

“With added studio space, more productions that may have been filmed elsewhere will now take advantage of all the benefits of filming in New York City,” said Stuart Match Suna, who together with his brother Alan formed Silvercup in 1983. “In addition, we are creating a 24/7 live, work and leisure community.”

The Post notes the size of the buildings:

Two residential towers and an office building at Silvercup West will range from 49 to 57 stories.

“These are tall buildings, but they’re located right on the biggest back yard you can have, which is a river,” said Alan Suna, who is building the project with his brother, Stuart Match Suna.

The project will go on six acres just south of the 59th Street Bridge. The site is now home to a 79-megawatt generating station, a city salt pile and the historic Terra Cotta Building, which the developers will restore.

Not sure how many feet that would be, but if it’s taller than the 48-story, 663-some-odd feet Citibank Building, it could become the tallest building on Long Island.

Meanwhile, this is sure to disrupt the activities of that cozy little hidden place to take prostitutes, the whimsically named Q-Plaza Motel which has been under fire for a while now:

State, city and community officials converged on the Q-Plaza Motel in Long Island City on Sunday, January 27 to protest the pimps and prostitutes that frequent the hotel and often do business on surrounding streets. The hotel, located at 42-11 Vernon Blvd., has created an increase in quality of life crimes, according to state Assemblymember Catherine Nolan, who organized the protest/press conference on behalf of her constituents in the Ravenswood and Queensbridge communities. “We are fed up with the growing problem of prostitutes in Long Island City,” Nolan said.

. . .

“When I walk my dogs in the morning I find used condoms,” said Gabriela Granados, who with her husband is opening a dance studio on 9th Street, behind the hotel. “I have the right in the morning to walk my dogs without being stalked by men who are looking for (prostitution) services.”

. . .

Prior to the rally, [Community Board 2 Chairman Joseph] Conley explained that the hotel, which had been closed down in 1998 after repeated efforts by police and the community, was able to reopen under a flaw in zoning. The hotel is situated directly south of the Queensboro Bridge; to the immediate north of the bridge are the Queensbridge and Ravenswood developments and much of the remaining area is industrial.

“It’s an example of poor planning,” Conley said, explaining that the hotel is allowed to exist in that spot because it’s zoned residential when everything around it is industrial. The hotel is an anomaly in the area. “You don’t see a national chain coming here,” Conley said of the site. “You don’t see a brand name here.” The hotel was most recently a cinder block parking garage before being reopened as a hotel.