Friday, December 20, 2024
Thursday, December 19, 2024
The City of Yes will fix this
Day after the City Of Yes got ratified by a criminally indicted mayor, the City Of Crap is still thriving. Here's one of the jewels of South Ozone Park on the corner of 130th ave and the Van Wyck.
There's sure a lot of hoarding going on here, makes you wonder if there's more trash under the fallen leaves, but the potential for a little more housing is pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good thanks to our brilliant leaders in the city planning department and all their real estate lobbyist friends who actually wrote the blueprint for the most invasive and counterproductive housing program in the nation.
It's unbelievable that this house once looked like this. Even though the owner was operating a chop shop in his backyard and garage according to neighbor's complaints that spanned three decades.
And so it goes...
Caption Indicted Mayor Adams and the People Of Yes
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We're fucked.
A little more housing, a lot more higher rents
The average rental price in Queens for studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units maintained an upward trend from the previous year in November 2024, according to a report by the real estate firm M.N.S. Real Estate.
Year-over-year, Queens experienced a 4.44% increase in its average rental price, from $2,763 in November 2023 to $2,885 in November 2024. Studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units each experienced jumps in their respective rental prices over this period of time.
Studios in Queens had a 3.74% boost in the average cost of rent, from $2,239 in November 2023 to $2,322 in November 2024. Despite the year-over-year increase, this cost actually presents a slight drop from the $2,337 rent in October 2024. Among the 11 Queens neighborhoods included in the study, studios in Woodside/Maspeth had the most annual growth, from $2,369 last year to $2,691 this year.
One-bedroom units experienced a 3.92% rise in the average rental price, from $2,673 in November 2023 to $2,778 in November 2024. As was the case with studios, the one-bedroom units actually had a slight dip in rental price from the previous month’s $2,782 average cost. The Rego Park neighborhood had the biggest spike in average rental price, from $2,602 last year to $2,965 this year.
Two-bedroom units had the most significant boost in the average cost of rent among the unit types, rising 5.3%, from $3,375 in November 2023 to $3,554 in November 2024. However, this new cost is the lowest seen for a month since $3,551 in July 2024. Sunnyside had by far the highest jump among the Queens neighborhoods from last year, going up from $2,754 in 2023 to $3,454 in 2024.
The median rent in Northwest Queens rose year-over-year in November 2024, marking the second consecutive month to experience such an increase, while the number of lease signings and available inventory continued to climb, according to a report by the real estate firm Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
Northwest Queens encompasses the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside.
Over this period, the median rental price increased 8.9%, from $3,175 in November 2023 to $3,458 in November 2024. Units ranging from studios to three-bedrooms each experienced jumps in the respective median rent. One-bedroom units had the most significant increase, going up 14.1% from $2,998 last year to $3,422 this year.
One big contributing factor to the maintained rise in the median rent is bidding wars becoming more common for the many new listings in this area, allowing for many rentals to end up with higher prices than what was originally listed.
For the 14th consecutive month, new leases signed were up year-over-year in northwest Queens. There was a 64.9% increase in new leases being signed, from 416 in November 2023 to 686 in November 2024. Similar to the median rent, new leases went up across the board among each type of housing unit, with one-bedroom units spiking the most. New leases among one-bedroom units rose 87.4%, from 183 last year to 343 this year.
Oh, the story about the picture.That is actually the root cause for the rent being too damn high and getting higher and higher and will continue to do so for the City Of Mess. The word affordable has become doublespeak by the NYC Housing Department.
New York City has launched a housing lottery for 72 units at AURA, a 37-story mixed-use building in Long Island City.
Located at 23-10 42nd Rd., AURA features 240 residential units, with 168 offered at market rate. The 72 remaining units have all been designated for individuals who earn 130% of the area median income, with an asset cap of $201,890.
Studios account for 25 of the units set aside, 17 of which have a monthly rent of $3,423 and are meant for residents earning an annual income ranging from $117,360-$161,590. The other eight units cost $3,434 a month in rent and are meant for those earning $117,738-$161,590 annually. No more than two people can reside in each of these units.
Another 34 units are one-bedroom and are intended for up to three residents. Five of these units have a monthly rent of $3,674 and are intended for households earning $125,966-$181,740 in annual income. The other 29 one-bedroom units have a monthly rent of $3,661 and each household must combine to earn $125,520-$181,740 annually.
The last 13 units are two-bedroom. These units have a monthly rent of $4,376. Households of up to five people can reside there, as long as they have a combined annual income ranging from $150,035-$218,010.
Commuter pricing will fix this
The MTA Board approved on Wednesday a budget plan for 2025 that includes public transportation fare hikes and toll increases slated to take effect next summer.
The board unanimously voted to pass the plan during its monthly meeting on Dec. 18. The exact amount of the increases has yet to be announced but could go into effect in August 2025.
In recent years, the MTA approved 4% increases in fares and tolls. Should that trend continue, a base fare for a subway or bus trip would cost $3, up a dime from $2.90, come next summer, according to an article from ABC 7.
Meanwhile, during Wednesday’s meeting, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber boasted of “excellent service” and surging subway ridership.
“Last week, we set a new single-day record for subway ridership, 4.5 million customers,” he said. “Compare that to 2021, when this group began when the average weekday was less than half of that level.”
The most recent fare hike occurred in 2023, when the base NYC Transit fare was bumped up 15 cents, from $2.75 to $2.90. That marked the first such increase in eight years.
Despite the fare rise, Lieber remained optimistic and said the agency is coming out “on a high note” for 2024.
“I always look back at the goals we set at the beginning of the year, and when I took the chair a couple of years ago, priority one was recovering ridership to support the region’s comeback and also to help us achieve financial stability,” he said.
Lieber added that the MTA vowed to deliver “excellent” service to New Yorkers.
“And we also needed to keep the capital program on track to earn the public’s trust on how the MTA was going to spend money,” he said.
But New Yorkers whom amNewYork Metro talked to Wednesday after the budget vote did not hold back their opinions on the increase, some even calling it “straight-up greed.”
Others said they pay too much for too little service.
“This is absolutely outrageous. That last increase led to subpar service as it is,” said Roger Smith, an Upper West Side resident.
Carlos Rivera of Harlem questioned what the increases will actually support, as he is often stuck waiting for late trains and buses.
“I wish us New Yorkers could audit the MTA because this is absolutely ridiculous at this point,” he said. “Track maintenance and the trains and buses are never on time. Where is our money going?”
Friday, December 6, 2024
The City of Yes, Mess and Less Affordable Housing is complete
A compromise version of Mayor Eric Adams’ zoning overhaul aimed at easing the city’s dire housing crisis squeaked through the City Council on Thursday, clearing its final hurdle to become law.
The mayor’s “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan, a suite of proposals that promises to allow for “a little more housing in every neighborhood,” passed the 51-member chamber by a slim 31-20 votes on Dec. 5. The city estimates the plan will spur the construction of 82,000 new housing units over the next 15 years, down from the 109,000 homes it was projected to produce before the council’s modifications were made.
All that remains is for Adams to sign what will likely be his greatest signature accomplishment as mayor thus far into law.
Adams, during a City Hall rally on the heels of the vote, compared his administration to the 1986 Mets team that won the World Series.
“We’re gonna argue in the locker room, we’re gonna get in debates, we’re going to do all sorts of things, but you know what? We’re gonna bring home the championship ring,” Adams said. “That’s what we did…You’re seeing the most comprehensive housing reform in the history of the city.”
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, following several council members’ impassioned speeches for and against the plan, said the body “cannot do nothing” about the city’s dire housing crisis. She also emphasized that the modified version of the zoning text amendment hashed out by the council is far better than what the mayor initially proposed.
“This council cannot be the body that says ‘no’ to people that need a place to live,” Speaker Adams said in an emotional speech. “This cannot be the council that turns their back on homeless; this cannot be the council that continues to say ‘scrap it, let’s move ahead and do something else,’ because I tell you that will never happen.”
The plan consists of a series of updates to city zoning rules that have not been changed in over half a century. It’s designed to expand the amount of housing that can be built in parts of the Big Apple that typically do not see much development.
The zoning changes only narrowly passed the city legislature even after they were altered last month to assuage many council members’ concerns about them potentially altering the character of the neighborhoods they represent. The final deal between City Hall and the council also includes a $5 billion commitment from Adams’ office and Gov. Kathy Hochul to fund affordable housing construction, housing affordability programs, infrastructure improvements, and more staff for city housing agencies.
Several council members acknowledged that the modifications addressed their concerns and got them to a “yes.”
The lawmakers who voted against the City of Yes included every member of the chamber’s conservative Common Sense Caucus, some Democratic members representing low-rise outer-borough neighborhoods, and one progressive who saw the plan as a giveaway to developers.
City Council Member Joann Ariola (R-Queens) said her “no” vote was driven by her constituents’ concerns that City of Yes would change the character of their neighborhoods. She also expressed concerns that the infrastructure in her district, which covers coastal areas in the Rockaways, will not be able to support the added housing that would come with the plan.
“The city of yes will only add to the heavy burden that residents face every day,” Ariola said. “We don’t have the infrastructure and I know the mayor has promised money for infrastructure. But why are we putting the cart before the horse? Why are we putting the housing up and then worrying about the infrastructure?”
David Carr, a Republican council member representing Staten Island, who also voted “no,” said he believes the plan is “incredibly vulnerable to legal action” and “will not survive” such action, which could be forthcoming.
Progressive Council Member Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) said he voted against the plan because it is a “yes to only the real estate developers.”
Update:
The lawsuit against the City Of Yes is about to begin. Donate to their gofundme to put a stop to this real estate land and air grab.
Thursday, December 5, 2024
Caption Linky Restler
Queens Crapper made a delish tweet about this and yours truly posted a crank 311 complaint about Linky and they actually responded. Sounds like lower level city workers are sick of this urbanist gargoyle. Have fun.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Judgement day coming for the City Of Yes
Queens residents and presidents of local civic associations gathered with activist Paul Graziano outside the office of Councilwoman Nantasha Williams (D-St. Albans) on Monday to protest next Thursday’s City of Yes vote and announce their intentions to sue the city should it go through.
The City Council is expected to vote on Dec. 5 to approve the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity text amendment, the last third of the City of Yes agenda. The amendment would ease regulations to allow accessory dwelling units, more high-density housing, greater building heights and much more, detailed in the 1,400 pages of text.
Warren Schreiber, the president of the Queens Civic Congress, told the Queens Chronicle that the civic associations would file an Article 78 class action lawsuit against the city to stop it from implementing the rezoning program on the basis that the action would be “arbitrary and capricious.”
“An Article 78 [is] what you bring against a government entity when you think that they’ve made a wrong decision,” Schreiber said.
Schreiber added that the opponents have yet to decide who would be the plaintiffs, although the Queens Civic Congress would certainly be one, and they have yet to contact a lawyer. When asked how it would be funded, he said they were looking at a GoFundMe. Schreiber said they would at least be looking for the judge to issue an injunction while the suit plays out.
“Everybody seems to understand the importance and they understand that it’s urgent that we move forward as soon as possible,” Schreiber said.
During Monday’s rally, Schreiber and others took shots at city officials for making supposed backroom deals to get the City of Yes through the Council.
“When the City Council plays ‘Let’s Make a Deal,’ they do it behind closed doors, in secret,” Schreiber joked.
“Speaker [Adrienne] Adams and [Chair of the City Planning Commission] Dan Garodnick, both attended the Somos lobbyist convention in Puerto Rico and they met behind closed doors,” Schreiber added, referring to the tropical getaway attended by many in the New York political scene every year. “Nobody knows what they said to each other.”
Claudia Valentino, a magazine editor and Forest Hills resident of 40 years, told the Queens Chronicle that overdevelopment that could happen under City of Yes would do “nothing but cause damage and take community review away.”
“The moment you start digging up driveways to try to put ADUs in backyards, garages and so on, you will endanger the foundations of the houses,” Valentino said. “It will cause a whole world of problems with our ancient sewer and electrical grid.”
For Aracelia Cook, the president of the 149th South Ozone Park Civic Association, infrastructure was also a top concern, citing the catastrophic 2019 Southeast Queens sewer pipe collapse.
“Now all of a sudden they throw in, ‘Oh, we’re going to give X amount of billions of dollars for infrastructure,’” Cook said. “Where did that come from? You should give that to people anyway, regardless of whether they are going to vote for the City of Yes or not.”
Graziano, an urban planning consultant who has been making his rounds across the city rallying against the City of Yes, compared the newest amendments to the housing opportunity section of the program to treating a gunshot patient.
“When you have a patient that’s been shot by six bullets — it doesn’t matter if they got shot by five, the patient is still gonna die,” Graziano said, referring to the Council’s modifications to the bill.
Graziano was particularly peeved by the $5 billion City for All budget, which has been set aside “to address the city’s housing crisis,” according to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica).
“This is not $5 billion in a bank account that they’re waiting to tap to give to all of these things,” Graziano said. “This is our tax dollars.”
As the City Council’s voting deadline on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity steadily approaches, residents, civic groups, and local elected officials throughout Queens have voiced their stance on the monumental rezoning proposal.
The City Council is expected to hold a final vote on Dec. 5 regarding the City of Yes, which was approved with modifications by two influential council committees on Nov. 21 following a hearing.
The changes included modifying the proposed elimination of parking mandates for new residential developments and adding restrictions on where accessory dwelling units can be built. Additionally, Mayor Adams’ administration announced a $5 billion commitment to fund the City Council’s housing plan, City for All, earlier this month.
The City for All Housing Plan’s points include mandating affordable housing in large transit-oriented and town-centered developments, allocating increased funding to the city’s housing programs, and increasing support for tenants’ rights.
In Southeast Queens, a steady coalition of residents and civic leaders have protested for months against the rezoning initiative, which aims to bring a little more housing in every neighborhood.
The organizing against the plan started earlier this year. In May, Alicia Spears, a Cambria Heights homeowner, held a packed town hall meeting at Cambria Heights Library. More than 500 Southeast Queens residents came together, voicing concerns that their single-family and two-family zoned neighborhoods would become unrecognizable in the near future if higher-density housing developments—as well as accessory dwelling units—are permitted.
Other vocal nay-sayers include Paul Graziano, a Flushing resident and urban planner who has long opposed the City of Yes for Housing initiative, and Reverend Carlene Thorbs, Chair of Community Board 12 and organizer of recent ‘Say No to City of Yes’ rallies held in South Jamaica. Two weeks ago, Graziano, Thorbs, and Spears hosted another rally in St. Albans, urging their elected officials to vote no this December.
The organizers led their most recent rally on Monday, Nov. 25, in front of Council Member Nantasha William’s office, located at 172-12 Linden Blvd. Much of Monday’s rally centered around homeowners reiterating concerns about the City of Yes.
Graziano and Warren Schreiber, president of the Queens Civic Congress, said that if the plan passes on Dec. 5, they would pursue legal action. ” We will be filing a lawsuit… it’s happening,” Graziano said.
Schreiber expanded more, sharing that they would file the lawsuit under Article 78, which allows citizens to appeal decisions made by government agencies or officials to the New York State Supreme Court. “The first step would be an injunction until the Article 78, the lawsuit, could be heard,” Schreiber said. Schreiber said that he wants to ask the court for an injunction as soon as possible. “We’re still working on its logistics and how it’s going to be funded,” Schreiber said.
Sunday, November 24, 2024
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Debutante Bureaucrat becomes NYPD Commissioner
Moving to stabilize an administration roiled by investigations, resignations and his own indictment, New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday appointed sanitation chief Jessica Tisch as police commissioner. A city government stalwart and ex-NYPD official, she'll be just the second woman in the high-profile, high-pressure post.
The move comes at a critical time for the nation’s largest police department, shoring up its leadership after a tumultuous stretch punctuated by former commissioner Edward Caban's exit in September amid a federal investigation. Days later, his interim replacement, Thomas Donlon, disclosed that he, too, had been searched by the FBI.
Tisch,
43, the Harvard-educated scion of a wealthy New York family, has worked
for the city for 16 years, holding leadership roles in several
agencies. As sanitation commissioner, she beca
me TikTok famous when she declared in 2022, “The rats don’t run the city, we do.”
“I need someone that’s going to take the police department into the next century,” Adams said, praising Tisch as a “visionary” and lauding her track record of improving city operations.
Tisch said she believes “very deeply in the nobility of the police and the profession of policing” and is “looking forward to coming home.”
The City of Mess for predatory land and air grabbing opportunity gets approved by City Council fauxgressives
Sorry, NIMBYs: Your opposition to New York housing creation has just been drowned out by a resounding $5 billion of “Yes.”
A City Council subcommittee on Thursday approved Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to build 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years, lowering the cost of rent for New Yorkers amid one of the worst housing crises in city history. Dubbed “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” the rezoning proposal aims to spur the creation of affordable housing in all five boroughs, along with upgrades to critical infrastructure. The approval by the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises and Committee on Land Use was secured following a $5 billion pledge from the city and state.
According to the city, the proposal exceeds the housing creation total of all rezonings pushed out by the administrations of Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio.
“Thanks to our shared commitment in building critically needed housing, we have reached an agreement on a historic plan that could open the doors to a little more housing in every neighborhood in our city,” Adams said in a statement on Thursday. “If passed, New York City will once again serve as a model to the nation on government’s infinite ability to take challenges head on, set forth a bold agenda, and get the job done.”
The plan, first announced in April, originally sought to facilitate more than 100,000 new housing units. It also included provisions for lifting the parking space requirement for new residential construction, which developers claim adds an undue cost burden, and for unrestricting property owners’ ability to create accessory dwelling units in spaces like basements, attics, and garages.
Thursday’s amended proposal involved concessions on all three points. Rather than dropping the parking requirement wholesale, it will instead divide it into three zones, preserving the mandate in boroughs like Staten Island and Queens where local lawmakers deemed it necessary. Further, accessory dwelling creation will remain restricted in many areas, particularly in historic districts and flood zones, but will be permitted in transit-proximate areas.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
The War on Frolf
Queens Community Board 5, which serves the neighborhoods of Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, Fresh Pond and Liberty Park, held its monthly meeting and public hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
The meeting addressed several pressing issues raised by residents, including ongoing concerns about Highland Park and Evergreen Park.
Both parks have become focal points of controversy, with residents voicing frustrations about specific activities impacting their quality of life.
During the public forum, Highland Park’s disc golf course took center stage, as multiple speakers criticized the activity for disrupting the park’s serene atmosphere. The course, introduced earlier this year, has reportedly caused tensions between disc golfers and other parkgoers.
Steven Laxton, another local resident, echoed her concerns, highlighting conflicts arising from the proximity of the disc golf course to other park users. “Disc golfers treat the area like a dedicated golf course, and anyone in their way becomes an inconvenience. Park-goers just trying to enjoy nature are being harassed and told to move,” Laxton said.
Jasmine Chino, a mother and teacher from the neighborhood, lamented the loss of a peaceful retreat. “Once the disc golf course came, it became uncomfortable to sit there. There’s these flying projectiles around you. Where do you sit? It’s very interfering. People have been asked to move, people have been hit. The community and Highland Park needs this green space,” she said.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Queens Man is President Again
Remember, remember the fifth of November
They tried assassination. And tried and tried again.
They tried lawfare for over a year.
They tried virtue signaling, platitudes, and propping up a diversity, equity and inclusion candidate.
And Donald J. Trump still won.
This is the end of a decade and a half of fauxgressive rule and values and hopefully an end to horrendous domestic and immigration policies (U.S. foreign policy is still going to be an issue beyond Trump) fomented by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the worst administration in American History. It’s still amazing that Comma-la Harris had the audacity to think she would be running the country after nearly four years of cackling and vomiting word salads.
After all the fear mongering about Trump the first time around, and it was understandable given his inexperience in elected office, he never turned out to be a dictator and he only grew more popular with Black, Latinos and now Asians and Muslims and even White liberals that helped put him over the top and it’s a certainty that America will still be a free country in his next four years.
Donald Trump was projected to become the 47th president early Wednesday, completing the most incredible political comeback in American history.
Trump, 78, was on course for an Electoral College landslide over Vice President Kamala Harris after he reversed his 2020 losses in the crucial states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — running up big margins among his white rural and working class base while making significant inroads among ethnic minorities.
“There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond,” the Republican nominee told a rapturous victory celebration at the Palm Beach County Convention Center not far from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
“We’re going to help our country heal,” Trump added, “and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders … fix everything about our country.”
Sunday, November 3, 2024
NYC Department Of TransAlt greenway follies
The city’s Department of Transportation is temporarily postponing a virtual Zoom workshop scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 29, on the proposed 16-mile Queens Waterfront Greenway after a meeting in Douglaston last Thursday, Oct. 24, turned into a huge shouting match between supporters of the trail and homeowners concerned about its potential impact.
The DOT posted the announcement on X Monday evening at around 6 p.m.
“Tomorrow’s Queens Waterfront Greenway virtual workshop has been postponed,” the post said. “A code of conduct will be developed to ensure decorum and respect for all participants.”
Last Thursday’s meeting took place at the Alley Pond Environmental Center. After a slide presentation by the DOT, the crowd of well over 100 people was split up into breakout groups. Just about an hour after the meeting started, what had been strained conversations erupted into a large verbal free-for-all that raged for several minutes.
In a small handful of instances, city employees and other meeting attendees had to physically separate some people.
The city’s plan is to run a trail of bike lanes and other amenities between Fort Totten and Gantry Plaza State Park on the East River waterfront in Long Island City.
Last Thursday’s meeting was the third of three workshops designed to solicit public opinion on a segment of the trail, with the session devoted to the easternmost stretch between Fort Totten and Willets Point.
Many homeowners are concerned about the impact such a trail might have on residential streets in areas where the shoreline is not readily accessible or even visible because of privately owned residential or industrial properties.
The DOT’s roughly 20-minute slide presentation delved into the history of the area in question, its present conditions and what the city sees as potential opportunities presented by the project.
The crowd then was asked to break up into groups at many tables where DOT staff took suggestions based on massive maps of Northeast Queens.
The format is common for community workshops on major projects in the city, particularly ones that could mean massive change to many streets. But it was not long before several of the group conversations devolved into heated exchanges between homeowners and plan supporters. One hour into the meeting, at just about 7 p.m., no conversations could be heard above the angry exchanges for a period of several minutes.
Here's what the Queens Chronicle forgot to write about, CM Paladino found out that the ones really calling the shots and that will authorize this "decorum" is some think tank that is tied to Transportation Alternatives. The DOT may be the most corrupted agency in New York City now that all of Mayor Adams crony hires have stepped down.
Turns out Public Works Partners LLC is a for-profit progressive/urbanist think tank specialising in crafting these fake 'public events' in order to manufacture consent. They list the DOT as one of their clients, but they also speak in depth about all the work they do aiding… pic.twitter.com/0UH7jKC1rt
— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) October 29, 2024
MTA to Far Rockaway: Drop Dead
The MTA will shut down A train service in the Rockaways for five months starting in January, disrupting the commutes of more than 9,000 daily riders.
Beginning on Jan. 17, the A train won’t run between Howard Beach-JFK Airport and the last stops of the line, either Rockaway Park-Beach 116 St. or Far Rockaway-Mott Ave. The Rockaway Park Shuttle trains will also stop running to and from Broad Channel.
The MTA says the lengthy suspension of service is necessary to fortify infrastructure against extreme weather. The viaducts and bridge that carry trains across Broad Channel need “major upgrades to help protect the line from future storms,” the MTA wrote in an announcement.
The agency noted that much of the work is in response to extensive damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. It took seven months to restore service to Rockaway after the storm in Oct. 2012.
Free bus shuttle service will be available along the affected stops. The announcement gave no indication that NYC Ferry service from Rockaway would be expanded while the upgrades are underway.
Far Rockaway resident Quazel Trower said the shutdown will upend his life.
“There’s only one train that goes to Far Rockaway. It’s not like two trains, three trains. It’s literally one,” Trower, 27, said. “Taking the shuttle bus always makes your commute longer than it needs to be.”
Trower said his typical commute into Manhattan already takes more than an hour.
In a statement, MTA Deputy Chief Development Officer, Mark Roche, said that the plan was consistent with what has been done in the past for the L train Canarsie Tunnel project and G line modernization work.
"This next phase of the A train resiliency work has undergone internal and external expert review to weigh alternate delivery and construction methods,"he said. "It was determined that the plan presented is the best option for getting this work done as quickly as possible, with the least impact to commuters.”
So if congestion pricing started, this would have happened anyway. Nice of the MTA to drop this right when the weather got chilly, it's really no different how they obfuscate reasons during train delay announcements.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Graveyard Bay
Jamaica Bay is quietly earning a reputation as the Big Apple’s version of the Bermuda Triangle — with at least eight dead bodies discovered in and around the area over the past year, some under mysterious circumstances.
Investigations into five of the eight “floaters” who washed ashore or turned up in either Jamaica Bay or the nearby Atlantic Ocean side of The Rockaways have been closed, authorities said.
However, many questions still remain.
The “manner of death” on four of the bodies was deemed “undetermined” by the city Medical Examiner’s office, including Emmy-award winning cinematographer and photographer Ross McDonnell, who authorities have said loved to “wild swim” in the ocean and other waterways.
The 44-year-old Irishman’s headless, armless torso washed up on a Breezy Point beach Nov. 17, two weeks after leaving his Brooklyn home.
Police initially said they believed McDonnell likely drowned taking a late-night dip, but the ME said it declared the cause of death “undetermined” based on the lack of evidence off the predominantly sparse skeletal remains found.
Three other deaths remain under investigation by authorities, including Marco Ramirez, 48, of Brooklyn, who was found dead Oct. 15 along the Cross Bay Boulevard shoreline of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel, and an unidentified female who washed ashore in Breezy Point on Oct. 5.
City coroners have so far only been able to determine both the cause and manner of death for one of the eight deceased — a headless man whose unidentified remains were found in April by a fisherman near 165th Avenue and Cross Bay Boulevard in Queens.
About a 1,000 feet away, authorities found a rope hanging from the Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge.
That case was declared a hanging suicide, according to the Medical Examiner’s office.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who represents much of The Rockaways, said she expressed concerns to authorities over the summer after the body count reached five — only to be told by law enforcement they didn’t believe the deaths were connected.
Thursday, October 24, 2024
Driving malfeasance
Welcome to New York City’s most impressive disappearing act yet. Following our previous exposés of fiscal acrobatics and car service extravaganzas, we present something remarkable: $4.2 billion of taxpayer money that’s simply vanished from public view.
In what could be called innovative municipal recordkeeping, New York City has classified an astounding $4,201,873,479.51 under the vendor code “N/A (Privacy/Security)” in 2023. Of this impressive sum, $4,131,414,624.59 lists its purpose as “blank” – presumably because even “N/A” felt too specific. The remaining $70,458,854.92 gets the slightly more descriptive purpose of “N/A,” for those times when someone felt compelled to write something.
A sum of $4.2 billion is almost too massive to comprehend, let alone cover in a single post. So, let’s start small – with our borough presidents, whose modest contributions to this trend are particularly telling. After all, if routine expenses like office supplies and travel can be deemed too sensitive for public disclosure, what hope do we have of understanding the billions classified elsewhere? These smaller examples reveal a culture of opacity that has trickled down from the highest levels of city government to the most mundane of expenses.
Borough President Antonio Reynoso leads with $135,827.35 in classified spending. His office’s signature move? Converting $124,515 into “Professional Services Other” – a category that explains nothing while saying something. They’ve also managed to make $5,388 worth of books disappear from public scrutiny.
Vanessa Gibson’s office presents $30,680.41 in mysterious expenditures, including $13,618 in travel expenses to undisclosed locations. The destinations remain as mysterious as the purposes.
Under Donovan Richards Jr.’s watch, Queens contributes $13,345.20 in classified spending, featuring $9,100 in “Temporary Services.” The nature of these temporary services remains, appropriately, temporary.
Mark Levine keeps it modest with $6,358.10 in classified expenses, including an intriguing -$3.50 credit. Even refunds, it seems, can be confidential.
These are the hypocrites who want to abolish parking mandates.
But these borough-level activities are merely a prelude to the city’s larger production. Consider $4.2 billion – enough to fund significant public works – simply marked as confidential. More impressively, they’ve managed to make the purposes disappear as well.
When the purpose of $4.1 billion of spending is classified as “blank,” it raises questions about the very nature of public disclosure. The remaining $70 million marked “N/A” almost seems quaint in comparison.
Driving mandate
The number of people traveling in and out of New York City by car is higher than ever before, even as mass transit ridership continues to lag behind levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report on MTA finances from State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli revealed.
Crossings on the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels across New York City climbed to 335 million in 2023, already a record, and are expected to hit 339 million in 2024, according to DiNapoli’s report. That comes even as paid weekday ridership on the subway still hovers at around 70% of pre-COVID averages, with higher numbers registered on weekends, suggesting a permanent shift to working from home even as New Yorkers take transit for personal activities.
Even worse, MTA ridership over the next several years is expected to recover still more slowly than officials once projected: in November 2020, consulting giant McKinsey & Company predicted ridership would rise to 86% of pre-COVID levels by 2026, but MTA brass now concede it will likely average only 80% by that time.
Suck it, Open Plans.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
The people, the lies and the conspiracy of the City of Yes
With the City of Yes of Housing Opportunity about to get heard by City Council and New Yorkers the next two days, Intrepid City Planner Paul Graziano dropped a report on the sneaky tactics at the previous zoom hearing and sneaky people trying to get the worst housing plan in New York City history approved in spite of majority rejection by community boards and residents.
Here are the best parts on Paul's X account.
The video above happens to be from this farcical rally with everyone from Paul's COY list. They can't even answer housing related questions and defend their agendas without their YIMBY scripts and talking points. And they refuse to answer the most important question no one is asking these dopes, who is going to build this City of Yes?
Luxury public housing tower development in Ridgewood is still in a coma
Construction has been put on hold for a 17-story mixed-use building at 3-50 St. Nicholas Ave. in Ridgewood.
Known as The Ridgewood, this tower will be the tallest structure in Ridgewood. It will cover 284,000 square feet. In addition to 97,000 of that square footage being dedicated to retail space, including two large stores and other amenities, The Ridgewood will have 133 rental apartments, with plans to set 30% of them aside for affordable housing. A community facility was also planned to be included as part of this structure.
Delays have previously plagued the construction process of The Ridgewood. A fatal accident on the construction site in April 2022 led to multiple stop work orders as a result of unsafe working conditions. While the developers of the building had initially hoped to complete the project in the winter of 2023, the stop work orders delayed construction for multiple months. It was not until December 2022 that the building was finally topped out. The latest construction delay likely means that the project will not be done before the end of 2024.
Prior to the most recent pause, the facade was partially enclosed. Progress had been further along in the exterior, at the podium. Current features of the podium include a red metal envelope and broad stretches of glass with black mullions. The main southern elevation is close to being completed, but the northern face is still mostly exposed, with metal frames currently in place to support the installation of paneling. A tall sidewalk shed is blocking the view of the tall sidewalk shed.
The plutocrats of poverty
The weather is getting colder in #NYC. Today, over 350,000 NYC residents experience homelessness, while only 130,000 find space in insecure and overcrowded city shelters. 1 in 9 NYC students are homeless, and yet our city ONLY prioritizes migrant shelters.
— Curtis Sliwa (@CurtisSliwa) October 18, 2024
That’s why we need… pic.twitter.com/5lhCXZa72J
Nepotism. Self-dealing. Executive salaries in the high six figures.
These are some of the allegations leveled in a new report on New York City’s multibillion-dollar shelter system released by city investigators on Thursday.
The review, which began in 2021, found a range of potential improprieties at 51 nonprofits that receive taxpayer funds to provide shelter and services for clients of the city Department of Homeless Services, which manages the biggest municipal shelter system in the United States. On an average night, over 87,000 people stay at the more than 500 New York City shelters funded by the department.
The city’s Department of Investigation found multiple instances of apparent conflicts of interest, potential nepotism and failure to comply with competitive bidding requirements on the part of shelter providers, according to the nearly 100-page report.
“City-funded nonprofit service providers pose unique compliance and governance risks, and comprehensive city oversight is the best way to stop corruption, fraud, and waste before it starts,” Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said in a statement. “Today’s report provides ample evidence of the risks specific to nonprofits and shortcomings in city oversight and makes 32 recommendations to strengthen controls around this essential network.”
In some cases, insiders were paid outside of their normal compensation through personal business interests involving the shelter where they worked, such as security companies that staffed those shelters — and were owned by the nonprofits they served. In other cases, shelter providers told investigators they did not employ any immediate relatives of senior employees or board members, which would violate their city contracts — but the investigators later found that adult children of shelter executives had been employed by the nonprofits for years.
Multiple nonprofit executives received more than $500,000 annually, and in some cases more than $700,000 annually, in compensation from the shelter providers and related organizations. Investigators emphasized these salaries were funded largely or in part by taxpayer dollars and said the city lacks sufficient rules to guard against excessive compensation.
Many of the groups have annual revenues in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. More than 90 nonprofit contractors now provide shelter services for the city, up from at least 70 just a few years ago, according to the report. New York City has a decades-old legal right to shelter that generally requires that a bed be provided to anyone who needs one — though this right was curtailed for migrants earlier this year.
The report comes as the city faces a stubborn housing and homelessness crisis exacerbated by the migrant influx since the spring of 2022. The homeless services department’s budget for shelters rose to $4 billion in fiscal year 2024, up from $2.7 billion two years earlier, according to the report. Migrant shelters run by NYC Health and Hospitals — called humanitarian relief centers — were not covered by the review and are being separately monitored by city investigators and a major accounting firm.
A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Social Services, which oversees the shelters, said it has “completely stopped doing business with a number of providers highlighted in the report,” and taken other steps to strengthen accountability for the nonprofit contractors.
“To be clear, this report does not reflect our current contracting and oversight processes given that the review began years ago prior to the current administration, but we look forward to continuing on these improvements to better serve New Yorkers,” the agency said in a statement.
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Monday, October 14, 2024
Twin Towers of Yes
A major developer has plans to build two nearly 50-story towers in the middle of a residential neighborhood in Central Queens – but locals want no part of it.
Marx Development Group aims to construct a two-tower complex, which will be as high as 47-stories – or 572-feet tall – between Parsons Boulevard and Park Avenue in the generally low-density, suburban-eque community of Kew Gardens Hills.
While the project is still missing some needed permits, according to Department of Buildings documents, the dual-tower skyscraper is an as-of-right project and can be constructed without a potentially lengthy rezoning process.
However, locals and elected officials in the neighborhood nonetheless want the project halted.
The lot for the building is nestled amongst several low-density blocks, characterized by two- to three-story apartment buildings. It is directly between an assisted living facility, which the developer also owns; an office building, which houses the office of Assemblymember Sam Berger; and the NYPD’s 107th Precinct.
The majority of the area is listed as an R6 zone, according to the Department of City planning.
DCP said that the plans, as they were outlined as of Thursday, would not require the developer to undergo any kind of rezoning process, a potentially lengthy procedure that would require approval from the local community board, borough president and City Council.
The lot has long been owned by MDG subsidiary Atria Builders LLC, which is headed by CEO David Marx, and the company has been working to file permits for the building since 2019.
Currently, according to the Department of Buildings, the tower’s construction is not fully approved, and is missing a few documents. Mainly, the application is missing what is called a zoning diagram, a document that proves the builders plan to use the building solely for its allowed zoning use – in this case, residential use.
However, the developer has approved permits to do preliminary ground work at the site, which is currently ongoing.
But as work began on the lot, so too did local opposition.
Negative community response to the building began to pick up when housing outlet New York YIMBY published an article on Oct. 2, reporting that the owners are beginning the development process.
New York YIMBY also reported that the structure would bring 800 units over the property’s 1.1 million square feet, and around 27,000 square feet for community facility space.
It is currently unclear if – or how much – affordable housing the building would include.
It is scheduled to be completed by 2028.
“It will be a disaster,” said Sorolle Idels, a local Jewish leader and community board member. “It's a congested area, making it unbelievably more congested…This is a big fat mess.”
Idels said that even though the developers were not required to come before the community board to pitch the project, she believes they should have at least given them a heads up giving the project’s size and scale.
“This absolutely went under the radar with no input from the community board or the community,” she said. “No one discussed it with anybody, and that's not right. How do you build a skyscraper and not get the community input?”
City Councilmember Jim Gennaro said that while the project is still in its preliminary stages, he wants to work with the developer to make sure community concerns are addressed.
“My job is to bring the community and the developer together to work out common sense accommodations, common sense mitigations, work on people's concerns and expect some consideration and some acquiescence to the community's concern,” Gennaro told the Eagle.
“I think it's in the developer's best interest to be neighborly and be attentive to community concerns,” he added. “Nothing has been approved by the DOB as of this date, but we're not going to wait. We're going to get out there and we're going to mix it up.”
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Uncle Steve is Watching...
Here’s one New Yorker who is not jumping on the Mets’ bandwagon.
The team uses facial recognition technology to collect information on unsuspecting Citi Field patrons, claims Chris Dowling in a new class-action lawsuit.
Citi Field cameras “at the main fan entrance” collect “facial identifiers” from patrons as they enter the stadium, and the Mets have third parties processing the data to find people on the team’s “black list,” Dowling alleged in a Brooklyn Federal Court filing.
While the Mets have publicly acknowledged they use facial recognition for security purposes, Dowling claims they use the information gleaned “for value or profit,” which violates the New York City Biometrics Law, the suit says.
Mets fans on Reddit “have detailed the use of facial recognition by Citi Field which has been weaponized against them,” according to the lawsuit.
“I realized it when they made me take off my hat to walk through the metal detector,” said the poster. “I was confused [because] the detector would pick up anything I am trying to hide in my hat! After the third time, I realized it was because my hat was hiding my face and blocking their scan. I do not like it one bit.”
The facial recognition tech is a breach of privacy, critics charge, and similar to Madison Square Garden’s controversial facial recognition tech.
The Mets “increase their profit margin when they choose to use facial recognition as opposed to using manual labor to adequately protect its 400,000 square foot premises,” the suit argues.
The Mets allow fans who opt-in to use facial recognition technology to enter the ballpark without paper or digital tickets, a feature the team introduced in 2002 and calls Mets Entry Express.
“It’s a slippery slope,” Nate Wessler, a facial recognition litigation expert with the American Civil Liberties Union told The Post. “When people buy a ticket to a ball game, they expect to turn over money in exchange for a seat. They don’t expect that they’re also giving the company permission to track them based on the unique features of our faces.”Friday, October 11, 2024
Criminals and Guns found at Creedmoor asylum seeker tents
A press conference was held in Queens Village last Friday in the wake of two Cuban migrant brothers wanted for attempted murder in Orlando, Fla., allegedly being discovered with a gun inside the tent city on the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center complex.
Councilwoman Linda Lee (D-Oakland Gardens), who held the event, in conjunction with other area officials, was stunned to learn about the fugitives from the New York Post, which first reported the incident.
“It happened three days ago,” Lee told the Chronicle on Oct. 4. “The most alarming part of this is that I found out today ... We didn’t get any phone calls from anyone at [City Hall].”
Lee said she was at the complex just a few weeks ago discussing how to improve conditions at the tent city.
“Quality of life issues need to be addressed,” Lee said. “Whether it is the garbage, the lack of buses or the parks not being open.”
The councilwoman said residents have been patient and understanding when it comes to what is happening with the migrant crisis, but to have a tent city with more than 1,200 asylum seekers smacked down in the middle of a residential neighborhood, unlike the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers on Randall’s Island in Manhattan and Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, is problematic.
“Those two other tent city HERRC sites are in isolated areas,” said Lee. “This one is ... across the street from a school, the park and everything.”
Lee said when she did a site tour of the facility when it first opened up, she was told there was an intake process and background checks being conducted.
“My question is, where did the system fall apart?” she said. “Maybe we need to do a better intake and reevaluate the system to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
Lee said the situation is very dangerous not only to the residents, but the migrants too.
“If a fight broke out, if there is an incident that happens, that puts the other migrants at risk as well,” she said. “We want this site to be closed, but in the meantime, what we are demanding are metal detectors installed ... We are going to push the city for this.”
Mayor Adams’ office said it does not do criminal background checks on everyone who comes through the system, but all its migrant facilities have 24/7 security to keep every individual under its care — and New Yorkers at large — safe. Adams’ office also said that anyone who violates the code of conduct or threatens the safety of other shelter residents and staff may be subject to loss of shelter.
The Mayor’s Office did not say whether it will consider having metal detectors in HERRC facilities in the future after the alleged incident, but did say that it inspects all bags and packages, including food delivery bags.
When asked what the vetting and flagging process entailed, the Mayor’s Office did not further elaborate before press time. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that it will look into the Chronicle’s inquiry and will respond at a later time.
Daniel Sparrow, a spokesman for Lee, told the Chronicle that she was under the impression the vetting or flagging process included criminal background checks.
Sparrow said, during initial the tour her office was assured that between the CBP and Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, where migrants share their information again for intake in the city, asylum seekers would be vetted, screened (for communicable diseases such as Covid-19), and flagged if anything alarming came up.
“Since these individuals were previously in Florida, there was evidently a lapse in the intake process that allowed individuals with outstanding warrants to be placed there,” he said.
Jaroscar Chavez Silva, 36, was charged with one felony count of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, according to the city Department of Correction.
According to a criminal complaint from the Queens District Attorney’s Office, a black G2S Taurus pistol loaded with one 9mm bullet and one magazine containing six 9mm rounds of ammunition was found in a duffle bag underneath the bed of the defendant. The complaint said a warrant was issued for Chavez Silva’s arrest on Sept. 16.
Rosheil Chavez Silva, 30, his brother, was extradited back to Florida after police at the 105th Precinct questioned both, reported the Post.
Bob Friedrich, president of Glen Oaks Village, a co-op with 10,000 residents adjacent to the migrant facility, said he does not believe the people at the site are being vetted.
“We have minimum-wage guards entrusted with securing our security inside the shelter,” Friedrich said. “Twenty-four-seven NYPD presence has been eliminated. The sidewalks outside have been strewn with litter and scores of migrants hang out and block the sidewalks. Our beloved elderly residents and young moms with children no longer can congregate at the park across from the migrant shelter because they have been pushed out and feel unsafe.”
Rich Hellenbrecht, the secretary and treasurer of the Bellerose Commonwealth Civic Association, told the Chronicle he was outraged, but the Borough President’s Office told him it would look into the matter.
“These are the guys that got caught,” Hellenbrecht said. “How many people are walking around with knives in their pocket or guns?”
Queens demands an end to the DOT e-scooter share cesspool PILOT
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is urging City Hall to put an “operational pause” on the ongoing electric scooter share pilot program in Queens, citing an epidemic of discourteous parking practices.
In a letter to Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Adams—who leads the city’s legislative body while also representing neighborhoods like Jamaica and Springfield Gardens—said she has “profound concerns” with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) e-scooter pilot, which launched in eastern Queens this summer following a yearslong program in the eastern Bronx.
Specifically, the speaker contends that scooter parking has been haphazard throughout the pilot area, with riders leaving their scooters on sidewalks or roadways and blocking pedestrian traffic flow.
“The lack of orderly operation and enforcement when e-scooters are left on public streets and sidewalks with reckless abandon must be urgently addressed,” Speaker Adams wrote in her Oct. 7 letter to Rodriguez, which was shared with amNewYork Metro. “I am requesting a reset of the department’s E-Scooter Share program in Southeast Queens to ensure the necessary protocols and protections are enacted to prioritize the safety of all residents while supporting local transportation needs.”
The speaker suggests that the “operational pause” should be used to “properly address these many outstanding issues.”
The pilot launched on June 27 in an approximately 20-square-mile area of eastern Queens between Flushing in the north and JFK Airport in the south, following what DOT deemed a successful pilot in the eastern Bronx. Both the eastern Bronx and eastern Queens are areas unserved by Citi Bike and relatively lightly served by mass transit, making them prime spots to test out new forms of micro-mobility.
The same three major scooter companies participating in the Bronx pilot — Lime, Bird, and Veo — also joined the Queens pilot. DOT says that since launch day, 37,000 riders have taken nearly half a million trips in Queens, while 5.7 million trips have been logged in total since the pilot began in the Bronx in 2021. Most rides begin and end in the same neighborhood, the agency says.
Unlike Citi Bikes, the scooters can be parked anywhere when a rider is done with them, except on busy corridors where they must be parked in designated “corrals.” Per program rules, scooters are allowed to be parked in the “street furniture” section of the sidewalk, where decorative aspects like street trees or bus stops are sited, but cannot obstruct the right-of-way for pedestrians on the sidewalk.
But since launch day, some Queens residents and pols have complained about riders disregarding those rules and parking scooters haphazardly, sometimes blocking sidewalks or entrances to people’s homes. Adams said that scooters “are too often chaotically left scattered on public and private spaces throughout Southeast Queens.” “For months, my constituents have witnessed and shared many accounts of e-scooters being left on sidewalks and streets, as well as in front of homes, driveways, businesses, places of worship, and beyond,” Adams wrote in her letter. “These conditions present potential hazards, especially to older adults and people with disabilities in neighborhoods.”Update
Speaker Adrienne Adams is going to have a town hall about the DOT's e-scooter share pilot tomorrow at 1 pm with State Senator Leroy Comrie. I'm sure the corporations and the DOT that approved to put their product on the street against the objections of the communities affected will be there to defend their failure and beg for more chances to continue this PILOT. While waiting for that, here's the sequel to my documentary of this disaster scooter cesspool polluting the streets of South and North Queens.
Correction: Looks like I didn't notice the date on that town hall that took place Mid-August, but I'm not going to take it down because those clips from the second video were made around that time and it really emphasizes the City Council's speaker's negligence and obtuseness by making a photo op grand gesture for a pause of the DOT's e-scooter cesspool PILOT.Thursday, October 10, 2024
City of Yes there's corruption in this housing plan
Shortly after Mayor Adams was indicted last week on federal corruption charges, Councilman Bob Holden (D-Maspeth) made a request via letter to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to look into potential wrongdoing surrounding the Housing Opportunity initiative from the City of Yes proposals.
Holden also asked the city’s Department of Investigation to probe the matter last Friday, because he believes there may possibly be special interests at play.
The unsealed federal charges against Adams allege that he accepted bribes from Turkish officials and pressured FDNY members to ignore safety violations to push through the opening of a 36-story tower called the Turkish House in Manhattan in exchange for luxury first-class travel and other accommodations to Turkey.
Since taking office, Adams has touted his efforts to take steps to cut the red tape and streamline the environmental review process in order to create new housing throughout the Big Apple to combat the city’s growing homelessness problem. His Housing Opportunity proposal would change zoning regulations to further accomplish that goal, but many Queens community board members have noted that there is no language in the text amendment guaranteeing affordable housing, which they say could result in developers having carte blanche.
Last Wednesday, the City Planning Commission voted 10-3 to approve the proposal, according to City Hall. The Department of City Planning is formally transmitting the proposal to the Council, which will have 50 days to hold a hearing and vote. If the Council modifies the proposal in committee, it will have another 15 days for the full body to vote.
In Queens, 12 of 14 community boards voted against it.
“The overwhelming opposition to the City of Yes, evidenced by the majority of community boards rejecting it and numerous civic associations voicing their concerns, raises significant questions about the motivations behind the Mayor’s decision to proceed with a plan that grants developers broad authority to overdevelop our city,” said Holden in his letter.
“I urge you to consider these factors and investigate whether any improprieties or conflicts of interest exist regarding the City of Yes proposals, or worse, any potential pay-to-play or quid pro quo may be involved. The integrity of our city governance must be upheld, and it is essential to ensure that the interests of our communities are prioritized over those of potential special interests.”
CB 13 is among the strongest opponents of the housing initiative.
“Community Board 13 objects to City of Yes imposing as-of-right zoning to insert new housing whether or not local neighborhoods have the infrastructure in place first to support it,” CB 13 Land Use Subcommittee City of Yes Chair Corey Bearak, Land Use Chair Michael Mallia and Board Chair Bryan Block said via email. “That said the current situation at City Hall introduces uncertainty about who will be driving this attempt to eviscerate the City Charter’s community review provisions known as [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] as the City Council begins its consideration of these misguided zoning changes to permit greater scales of development — increased density — on blocks and in neighborhoods without community input and without any guarantee of affordability especially for working families and the middle class.”
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
WDEI
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Throwing the book on Eric Adams
In mid-September, shortly after the New York City police chief resigned amid a federal criminal investigation and Mayor Eric Adams’s chief counsel quit, apparently because her client wasn’t heeding legal advice, and a couple of retired Fire Department officials were arrested on bribery charges, Ingrid Lewis-Martin disappeared from City Hall. Lewis-Martin had long been the most loyal and indispensable of Adams’s advisers — he brings the swagger; she swings the stick — so her sudden absence was noted in the building. “She’s not in this country,” one Adams critic told me. “I hear she is on a beach.” Questions kept bubbling up. Was she fighting with Adams? Was she cutting a deal with the Feds? Was she gone from City Hall for good?
In fact, Lewis-Martin was in Japan on what her attorney later described as a personally financed “friend trip,” sightseeing with a group that included the city official and former state senator from Brooklyn Jesse Hamilton, real-estate executive Diana Boutross, and former state assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV. “It was pure vacation,” says Powell, who chronicled his highlights — resort hotels, bullet trains, a night out in Roppongi, a geisha show — on Instagram. The whole time, though, Lewis-Martin’s phone was buzzing. One day, the FBI was searching the interim police commissioner’s house, reportedly looking for classified documents. The health commissioner announced he was on the way out the door and was soon followed by the schools chancellor, whose phone had been seized. City Hall reporters were pestering Lewis-Martin for comment. Rumors were rampant that the mayor was about to go down. On September 26, at around 10 a.m. Tokyo time, the news leaked that Adams had been indicted on corruption charges — a long-anticipated but nonetheless shocking moment in the city’s history.
The next day, Lewis-Martin flew home to a city on the brink of a municipal civil war. Some prominent officeholders, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, had already called for Adams to resign. Others wanted Governor Kathy Hochul to exercise a seldom-used power to remove him from office, which would trigger a snap special election. A half-dozen potential replacements were jostling for position — including Hochul’s predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, who was looking for a comeback express lane. It appeared certain that more arrests, more scandal, and more pressure would be coming. “We continue to dig,” Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a press conference unveiling the Adams indictment. Investigators had conducted yet another search, this time at Gracie Mansion, earlier that morning. When Lewis-Martin and her travel companions arrived at JFK the next day, Powell heard a loud voice call out at Customs and saw Lewis-Martin pulled to the right. Two separate groups of investigators were waiting. The Feds served her a subpoena for documents, and the Manhattan district attorney’s office had a warrant for her phone. (The Daily News would subsequently report that Hamilton’s was taken too.)
Outraged and device free, Lewis-Martin went to see her criminal-defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, at his office on 45th Street. The investigators, meanwhile, had hit her Brooklyn rowhouse. “They’re using very heavy-handed tactics all around,” Aidala told me. The federal subpoena involved fundraising, he said, and the DA’s warrant was related to an investigation of potential bribery. Lewis-Martin assured her lawyer she had done nothing wrong. He moonlights as an AM-radio host, and she appeared on that evening’s edition of his show, “The Arthur Aidala Power Hour.”
“We are imperfect, but we are not thieves,” she said on the air. “And I do believe that in the end, that the New York City public will see that we have not done anything illegal to the magnitude or the scale that requires the federal government and the DA’s office to investigate us.”
The defense was set: Maybe we’re just a little criminal. The indictment alleged that, for years, starting during his tenure as Brooklyn borough president, Adams had cultivated a relationship with a representative of the Turkish government who arranged for him to receive some $123,000 worth of illegal gifts, such as discounted business-class tickets on Turkish Airlines and a stay in the Bentley Suite at the St. Regis in Istanbul. When Adams ran for mayor, his Turkish supporters allegedly channeled illegal donations to his campaign through straw donors with the connivance of Adams himself. In return, prosecutors say, Adams performed a number of favors as a public official, most notably pressuring FDNY inspectors to certify that the new Turkish Consulate near the U.N. was safe without conducting the necessary inspections.
The mayor’s defenders described all this as a whole lot of nothing. His defense attorney, Alex Spiro, ridiculed the indictment, calling it the “airline-upgrade corruption case,” and filed an immediate motion to dismiss the bribery charge, citing a recent Supreme Court decision that enlarged the bounds of acceptable gift taking. (He had less to say about the foreign donations.) Over the following week, Adams went on the offensive, speaking to Black audiences and looking to clothe his plight in the language of redemption.
“I’m not going to resign,” Adams said at Emmanuel Presbyterian Reformed Church in the Bronx the Sunday after his indictment. “I’m going to reign.”
The city’s political class seemed to take a deep, steadying breath. Influential voices in the Black community called for due process. Hochul went quiet. Everyone would wait to see how deep the rot went. Spiro has said he wants a quick trial, which could occur before next year’s Democratic primary. But investigators appear to be taking their time. They are reportedly looking into the mayor’s dealings with other foreign governments in addition to Turkey and scrutinizing contracts for the school system and migrant shelters. More revelations and indictments are sure to be coming.
Not since the dying days of the Koch administration had the city appeared to be so much for sale, and never in the 126 years since the five boroughs consolidated had any mayor been personally charged with crimes of corruption. Adams and his supporters, determined to brazen it out, were convinced that the old rules of political accountability no longer applied. “We look at what happened with President Trump,” said Bishop Gerald Seabrooks, a minister who prayed with Adams at Gracie Mansion the morning the indictment was unsealed. “Thirty-four counts, and nobody is asking him not to run.” (During a press conference, Trump wished Adams luck in his legal fight.) Adams loyalists signaled that if Cuomo, or anyone else, wanted the mayoralty, they would have to take it. “We don’t worry about what’s in the shadows,” said attorney Frank Carone, the mayor’s still-influential former chief of staff. “The mayor is not resigning — full stop.”
With Ingrid Lewis-Martin at a rally of clergy and community leaders outside City Hall on October 1. Photo: Mark Peterson/Redux
Eric Adams had the talent to be a great mayor. He is as lively as his city and loves its nightlife, even if it brings him into contact with some unsavory characters. He is funny, and there’s a lightness to his egotistical flourishes, like his prodigious use of the possessive case (“my city,” “my cops”) and his practice of walking out to “Empire State of Mind” when performing even the smallest mayoral function, like wheeling the Sanitation Department’s new trash can up to a press conference.
Until recently, Adams’s habits of evasion, of creating a fog of mystery around even the most basic questions — where does he live? What does he eat? — had mostly made him seem like a scamp, not a criminal. Even after his indictment, some of those who had worked for him found it hard to believe he is personally crooked. “I’m certain that Eric is not corrupt,” says a former Adams aide. “On the other hand, Eric can have terrible judgment in people and is incredibly stubborn.” Adams has often called himself “perfectly imperfect,” a phrase that now seems likely to serve as his epitaph, however the end comes. The positive side of his record includes his hiring of a number of highly competent — and mostly female — deputies and empowering them to run much of the city with minimal interference. The imperfections start with some of the other individuals on his payroll, who represent the very worst that city politics has to offer.
“How did we get here? He brought with him a set of people whose track record of corrupt activity was already well known,” says Brad Lander, the city comptroller and a declared candidate for mayor in the next election. “I think that sent a broad signal to people that this was an administration with a very high tolerance for corruption. And unfortunately, a lot of people seem to have gotten that message and then people who did really genuinely try to do things with integrity paid for it.”
Reports of corruption have dogged Adams’s administration since its earliest days; now, they’re just more detailed. Straw donations. A nightclub-shakedown racket. Nepotism hires. A buildings commissioner who took alleged bribes from alleged mobsters. A mayoral crony who supposedly cried out, “Where are my crumbs?” And it was all so crummy, so careless, so old-school, so Tammany Hall.
“It’s a surprise to me how stupid they seem to be,” says one veteran of Brooklyn politics who has seen a few bosses come and go. “In the sense that if you’re going to milk your positions for private gain, that they weren’t more thoughtful about how they went about doing it.”
