ASTORIA — A mysterious mock website that took jabs at the members of Queens Community Board 1 took most of its content offline recently, posting only a brief message stating the site had been threatened with legal action.
"Cb1queens.org is a parody and protected free political speech. Needless to say, it does not have any relation with any actual community board or governmental agency," a message on the site currently reads.
"But based on the threat of legal action from the City of New York, the site is temporarily being taken down," the site states.
It's unclear if legal threats were indeed made against the site. An email sent to the site's designers was not immediately returned, and CB1 district manager Lucille Hartmann was not available for comment Thursday.
The city's Law Department did not immediately respond to questions.
The website, before it was pulled, was similar in design to the actual CB1 site — except that it was loaded with satirical digs at the board, painting members as elitist and out of touch with the rest of the neighborhood.
"Queens Community Board 1 is proud to represent the interests of business and property owners," the "About" page of the phony site read.
Astoria City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. said he isn't aware of any legal threats made against the site, but said he was happy to hear it's been taken down, describing CB1's members as hardworking volunteers.
"People have every right to protest what the board does, but you can't pretend you're something you're not," he said.
