The man behind deBlasio's Maspeth shelter plan

Fauxgressive Lincoln Restler

This is Lincoln Restler. He basically is a "progressive" Democrat who wanted to be a council member. He decided against running in a primary in north Brooklyn, and instead helped run de Blasio's campaign and then took a "Senior Adviser" job with the administration. (Surprise, surprise.)

Below is a snapshot of campaign contributions to his account when he was running for Democratic District Leader. One fellow sure donated a shitload of money. Interestingly, as an employee of a small not-for-profit, he is not a very highly compensated individual and lives on a block between 2 homeless shelters. Would he really have more than $11,000 to blow on a low level district leader race?

The other highlighted name is Anna Smagacz. She works for Broadway Stages in accounts receivable. She made a rather large donation to de Blasio, $4,995, as well as this large one to Restler. She sure has a lot of money to spend on campaign donations. I truly applaud her interest in Brooklyn politics. Especially since she lives in New Jersey. She is also the managing agent for a number of John Ciafone's dumps.

I think our pal Preet should be taking a look at this stuff.

Anyway, what did Mr. Restler do to one of the neighborhoods that he wished to represent? He dumped a huge "couples shelter" there - that's what's proposed for YOU, Maspeth - which has been run poorly, and which the city has done nothing about. There are a litany of complaints coming from Greenpoint, and having walked around the area of this shelter, I can attest to the fact that it is bringing the neighborhood down tremendously. There are derelicts walking around screaming, cursing, fighting and pissing in the street - and those are just the women!

Get a load of this:

Two brutal attacks have blighted the nearby blocks since the new shelter arrived — someone fatally stabbed a man on Dupont Street near Manhattan Avenue in December, and another brute beat a local artist in front of the Clay facility in July.

Locals say the city and the site’s operators have made no attempts to curb bad behavior, allowing tenants go out for long smoke breaks after their 10 pm curfew without accountability.

But facility director Riquelma Moreno said she can’t lock up her tenants like prisoners, and claimed she can’t gauge how long a smoke break should be because she has never smoked.

The Clay Street shelter is just a block away from another refuge at 400 McGuiness Blvd. and neighbors claim the space between the two facilities has become a seedy hangout for unsavory characters — particularly 96 Clay St., where neighbors said they saw people smoking crack, and the deli next door.

Police have been just as unhelpful, locals said. One woman said that when one man who loiters around the deli threw cookies at her and yelled, “Die, b----, die!” the local precinct acted like she was the wacko.

“I called the 94 Precinct and they treated me like I was a nutcase,” she said, adding that the ruffians had also yelled violent sexual threats at her. “I am not a nutcase.”

In 2014, after deBlasio banned the opening of shelters due to community opposition and instead decided to book hotel rooms for the homeless, Lincoln Restler done fucked up big time:

De Blasio sent senior policy adviser Lincoln Restler to work with DHS on the hotel program, but Restler ignored senior staffers’ fears that the hotels could endanger homeless residents, the DHS source said.

As a result, there was a bloodbath.

You'd think de Blasio would have canned him by now, but since he's a loyal progressive - or rather, FAUXGRESSIVE - and does what he's told, that hasn't happened. If this is what Senior Advisers do, I'd hate to see what the Junior ones are responsible for.

Watch out, Maspeth, this guy will now be bringing his shitty brand of clueless neoliberalism to you in spades.