{"id":130397,"date":"2026-02-11T20:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/130397\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:18:08","slug":"unshoveled-snow-has-west-brighton-residents-looking-for-answers-on-derelict-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/130397\/","title":{"rendered":"Unshoveled snow has West Brighton residents looking for answers on derelict building"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A long-closed West Brighton convenience store along a main commercial strip has become a neighborhood blight, residents say.<\/p>\n

Late January\u2019s snowstorm made the derelict building\u2019s unshoveled sidewalk of particular concern for local leaders, including Forest Avenue Business Improvement District Executive Director Nina Flores.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s dangerous for our community, of course for our seniors, our parents walking with strollers, and for the kids going to school,\u201d she said Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s a big mess over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though pedestrians have worn a narrow footpath through the snow and ice at the intersection of Oakland and Forest avenues, it would be hard to imagine someone with a stroller, wheelchair or any other kind of apparatus making their way past the building at 630 Forest Ave.<\/p>\n

\"DuaneFormer Duane Reade at the intersection of Forest and Oakland avenues is shown Feb. 10, 2026.(Advance\/SILive.com|Paul Liotta)<\/p>\n

Spokespersons for the Department of Sanitation say they\u2019ve issued a pair of summonses to the current owners of the property for their failure to remove snow, but it\u2019s not clear it will have much of an impact.<\/p>\n

The LLC owner likely won\u2019t be in control of the property much longer after Supreme Court Judge Paul Marrone ordered a foreclosure sale in November for later this month. An attorney listed for the LLC did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. <\/p>\n

Duane Reade closed its location there in 2020<\/a> after almost a decade. The West Brighton closure came amid a series of Duane Reade shutterings around the city and since then, the property owner has been unable to find another suitable tenant.<\/p>\n

In the nearly six years since the closure the property\u2019s condition has become more and more of a problem for the community. <\/p>\n

Flores shared images of a deteriorating cellar door handle adjacent to the building that can be seen in warmer months, and Neil Anastasio, president of the Forest Regional Residential Civic Association, said the building has been an issue among his civic group for close to six years.<\/p>\n

\"DuaneUndated photo shows a damaged cellar door at the former West Brighton Duane Reade.(Courtesy: Nina Flores)<\/p>\n

\u201cSince it\u2019s been vacant, it\u2019s been a blight on the neighborhood,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing concern. It comes up pretty much at every meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anastasio suggested that a particularly enterprising new owner could take advantage of zoning changes passed in former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 \u201cCity of Yes\u201d initiative. The plan\u2019s \u201cTown Center Zoning\u201d<\/a> allows for easier mixed-use construction above existing businesses. <\/p>\n

One former business owner on the Forest Avenue strip, Kristin Daggan, said the vacant building impacted her pottery business, Clay and Kiln Studio, that has since moved a few blocks away to Castleton Avenue.<\/p>\n

Daggan, a resident of West Brighton, said that ultimately she\u2019d like to see something for young people go into the location. It had been a longtime toy store until the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love, love, love to see something go in there that engages our teenage community, or something that that brings some kind of experience to the neighborhood,\u201d she said. \u201cWhoever comes in, obviously is going to be better. It\u2019s going to be better than what\u2019s there now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A long-closed West Brighton convenience store along a main commercial strip has become a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-130397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}