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PLACARDS
Continued from cover
trict manager of Community Board
11.
“They really need to look and make
sure that whoever is calling in these
sign complaints is not benefi tting from
a personal gain,” said Marnee Elias-
Pavia.
This year, the 311 hotline received
some 127 complaints about signs and
awnings belonging to businesses
within the board’s district, which
also includes Bath Beach, Gravesend,
and Mapleton — a whopping 113 more
than it received about storefronts in
the same area last year, according to
a letter Elias-Pavia fi red off on Dec.
19 to the Mayor’s Offi ce of Operations,
which oversees the hotline run by the
Department of Information Technology
and Telecommunications.
The missive came days after the
civic panel voted to pass a resolution
demanding the mayoral offi ce “ensure
that complaints were not generated for
fi nancial gain or theft of government
services” at its Dec. 13 general meeting.
The city in 1968 instituted the law
requiring a permit to install signs
larger than six square feet, to ensure
that placards don’t fall off and injure
passersby, Department of Buildings
spokesman Andrew Rudansky said.
Fines for installing a sign without
a permit can start at $6,000 and can
rise up to $15,000, and city inspectors
issue them to property owners, not
shopkeepers who run businesses targeted
in the complaints, according to
Rudansky.
But many business owners claim
their landlords force them to pay the
fi nes regardless of whom they are issued
to.
For instance, the owner of a Bensonhurst
jewelry store said his landlord
shocked him when he handed the
entrepreneur a $6,000 bill for a fi ne
dealt in response to a May 25 complaint
about his sign — especially because
the placard hung outside his
store for more than a decade without
anyone making a peep, he said.
“After 15 years, you decide to come
now and issue this?” said Freddie
Benz, the owner of Benz Jewelers on
86th Street between Bay 25th and Bay
26th streets, who said he had to shell
out money for a new sign in addition to
footing the bill for the violation.
A spokesman for the city’s Technology
Department did not specifi cally
respond to questions about whether or
not the agency will investigate the 311
complaints in the wake of CB11’s letter,
instead saying hotline operators
forward allegations to the appropriate
city agencies, and that some — including
the Buildings Department — accept
anonymous complaints.
That agency allows tipsters to conceal
their identities so that complainants
can freely report building-related
concerns without fear of reprisal from
their landlords, Rudansky said.
But Buildings Department bigwigs
should remove the cloak of anonymity
in this instance, because callers logging
the sign complaints appear to be
organized, according to Elias-Pavia,
who said city data shows that some
tipsters reported multiple allegations
— often about neighboring businesses
— on the days they called, such as on
April 24, when folks fi led 11 complaints
about businesses on 18th Avenue and
86th Street.
Plus, the callers likely searched
for each business individually on the
Buildings Department’s website to
fi nd out if any had permits for signs
— an effort Elias-Pavia alleged they
probably would not have made unless
there was something to gain from fi ling
the complaints.
And Brooklyn isn’t the only borough
that received an uptick in complaints
about businesses’ signage
— the number of such allegations citywide
spiked by more than 100 percent
this year, according to Rudansky, who
said Kings County received the lion’s
share, netting 1,046 of a total 1,890.
The Buildings Department is required
by law to respond to all 311 complaints,
but it does not employ staffers
dedicated to inspecting storefronts’
placards, and inspectors only investigate
allegations of illegal signage
while conducting unrelated visits in
neighborhoods where complaints were
fi led, Rudansky said.
GUTHRIE
The Oklahoma-born musician produced
several works during his years
living in Sodom by the Sea, such as the
poem “Mermaid’s Avenue,” which celebrates
the street’s diversity, as well as
children’s songs inspired by his close
relationship with his kids, including
“Riding In My Car,” “Why, Oh Why,”
and “Howji Do,” according to Denson.
Guthrie also cultivated his appreciation
for Jewish faith and culture
while living in Coney, writing
tunes including “Hanuka Dance” and
“Happy Joyous Hanuka,” and penning
Yiddish poems with his mother-in-law,
poet Aliza Greenblatt, who lived in
nearby Sea Gate, Denson said.
In November, members of the local
Community Board 13 showed their
support for the honor by issuing their
own unanimous approval of it .
And Guthrie isn’t the only local luminary
set to be honored with his own
street in Brooklyn.
Council approved his tribute as
part of a legislative package proposing
68 similar honors citywide, including
the co-naming of a Clinton Hill street
after hip-hop icon Christopher “Biggie
Smalls” Wallace, and the co-naming
of another Kings County block after
Dyker Heights education activist Mafalda
DiMango, who died earlier this
year .
Continued from cover
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