Alma’s Deceit

Dear Editor:

 (Originally sent to Queens Borough President, Councilwoman Ariola, Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato and Senator Sanders)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The pictures Alma chose for the ad in the 4/6/23 edition of The Rockaway Times with the verbiage “Proud of Rockaway’s Past / Excited for Rockaway’s Future” are deceitful.

The top photo shows Beach 108th Street before it was given a complete upgrade. The bottom photo shows a Cinderella rendition of Alma’s plans to beautify the same street with wooden tables and chairs and what appears to be a wooden sidewalk. Presently, many of the old wood benches surrounding the Surfside buildings are too dirty to sit on and are missing wood slats. The trees in this illustration are fully grown and the many plants surrounding them look like the grounds of famous botanical gardens. Trees are a great source for shade – but none have been planted around our three buildings. Many of the plants beautifying our buildings have been purchased by residents who also volunteer for their upkeep. Finally, Alma shows a vehicle parked along the curb. Do they actually expect the newly paved parking area to be redesigned from vertical to horizontal parking to accommodate their plans? The only true item appearing in this ad is the seagulls.

It’s very obvious to the few tenants who viewed the actual proposal plans, Alma purposely did not choose to show the three 20-story buildings they want to erect in front of our existing buildings which, as a matter of fact, would eliminate the views many tenants presently have of the Manhattan skyline, the airport and Jamaica Bay. There is certainly nothing attractive about gargantuan brick structures being crammed into a one block area – and it is my opinion Alma is fully aware of that – which is why they chose to show this very small section of their plans to the readers.

I’m not familiar with anything Alma has done to benefit the Rockaway community.  It is my opinion that the purpose of their future building plans is to put more money into their pockets, which in no way benefits our community.  

Perhaps you as our Representatives can persuade The Rockaway Times to suggest their readers Google the Alma-Realty-Complaint-1-6-23 to get a true understanding of Alma Realty’s shenanigans.

Most importantly, I urge you to deny Alma from going forward with their planned construction.

Respectfully submitted,

Ann Lundon