A man has settled in as a squatter in a Woodside, Queens apartment, living rent-free since April, and according to the New York Post, he’s not exactly what you’d expect of a squatter — rather he is a smooth-talking waiter and bartender at the Prime House steakhouse at 381 Park Avenue South near 27th Street named Brian Wiley.

Tibor Karakas, the landlord of the three-family home at 33-22 58th Street, sued Wiley alleging the squatter has cost him $1,000 in legal fees during the eviction process and $6,400 in four months of unpaid rent for the two-bedroom apartment.

Wiley began living in the apartment earlier this year when the female tenant occupying the home took him on as a roommate. [more]

Sunnyside, Queens (source: Dept. of City Planning)

The City Council today approved the rezoning of Sunnyside and Woodside, which aims to protect the lower-density character of those neighborhoods while allowing for a moderate increase in residential and commercial density along main corridors, according to the Department of City Planning. Encompassing about 130 city blocks, the zoning area had been unchanged since 1961. With the neighborhood growing and becoming more diverse, the current zoning can result in unpredictable building types leading to out-of-character construction, according to the Department of City Planning. –  Miranda Neubauer [more]

A proposal to rezone a 130-block swath of Queens’ Sunnyside and Woodside neighborhoods — what would be the first rezoning of the area since 1974 — has entered its public review period, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden announced today. The proposed zoning changes would target Queens Boulevard’s main corridor for “moderate new development” by setting height limits on other, mostly-residential blocks and would provide incentives for affordable housing through the city’s Inclusionary Housing Program. In Sunnyside, the rezoning would allow for small sidewalk cafes on Queens Boulevard in order to liven up the neighborhood. TRD [more]

A plot of land unofficially dubbed the “Woodside Triangle Park” in Woodside, Queens may be safe from destruction, after a decade-long fight to save the space, according to the New York Daily News. Community advocates had lobbied to stop the plot’s landowner, Vinny Oppedisano, from developing the vacant site, which sits at the intersection of three streets, 34th Avenue and 59th and 60th streets. But City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer’s plan to buy the land on behalf of the city may solve the residents’ troubles. Van Bramer has secured $350,000, which he plans to offer to Oppedisano for the plot. But some damage has already been done, residents say — Oppedisano built a fence and chopped down several trees in the park, as part of his original plan to construct an 11,000-square foot home in the space. [NYDN]

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126-32 144th Street

From the January issue: Queens has been called the “Ground Zero” of the New York foreclosure crisis, with the most filings citywide for the past three years.
But while areas like Jamaica and Queens Village have garnered the most attention because of the devastation they’ve endured due to the sheer number of foreclosures there, the community districts that have seen the greatest increase in foreclosure filings are some of the borough’s more well-off areas.
The two solidly middle-class community districts that include Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Sunnyside and Woodside saw the greatest spike in the average number of foreclosure filings per quarter, at 64 percent during the first three quarters of last year. In contrast, Jamaica and Queens Village saw increases of 17 percent and 32 percent, respectively. 

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A deadly blaze that killed three people in a two-family Queens house at 42-38 65th Street, and revealed the numerous unregulated apartments divided within, has drawn a keen eye toward the growing problem of illegal apartments in the five boroughs. Following the fire, officials found that the Woodside home had as many as five different living units in its basement alone, and six more crammed into the upstairs space. One family lived in its unit in the house for two years before the blaze revealed the scheme. Housing advocates say that many other illegal apartments exist throughout the city, but that they’re difficult to track down and that they often hide in plain sight. Some experts say that as many as 100,000 illegal apartments currently exist in the city, the New York Times reported.