How they do things in Brooklyn

From Crains:

In 2008, Daniel Squadron clawed his way into the state Senate with a hard-fought upset in the Democratic primary, earning 12,688 votes to longtime incumbent Martin Connor's 10,757.

This weekend, Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh effectively won Squadron's seat with 32 votes to Paul Newell's 66.

Welcome to democracy—Albany style.

Kavanagh won the Democratic nomination to succeed the resigning Squadron by virtue of an obscure, backroom process. He defeated Newell, a Democratic district leader, despite the latter's capturing a majority of the vote Sunday of the Manhattan county committee—the panel of party insiders charged with handpicking the candidate.

The reason: one of Kavanagh's 32 supporters was Kings County Democratic Committee Chairman Frank Seddio. Party bylaws empowered Seddio to back the candidate of his choosing without a vote of the county committee that represents his borough's portion of the Senate district. Seddio's endorsement carried the weight of the Brooklyn contingent as if it had voted unanimously.

Rivington House bill killed by senate committee

From DNA Info:

A bill introduced in the wake of the Rivington House scandal aimed at preventing future nursing home closures has been rejected by the State Senate's Health Committee.

The "Rivington Act," named for the Lower East Side nursing home for HIV/AIDS patients that in 2015 was shuttered and sold to condo developers, would have created a community-driven vetting process to make it more difficult for an operator to close a nursing home.

The bill would have required the Department of Health commissioner to disseminate a report to city and state officials as well as the local community board assessing the impact the closure would have on the community. Community members and elected officials would have then made recommendations to DOH before the agency made a decision on the plan to close.

It was first introduced by State Sen. Daniel Squadron, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon last year.

But the bill was voted down Tuesday afternoon by the Senate's Health Committee after committee chair State Sen. Kemp Hannon recommended a "No" vote, noting the bill was not "near shape" to become law.

"I don’t think it's in anywhere near shape to possibly become law, so I would recommend a 'No' vote, but if Senator Squadron’s going to pursue — and he’s not a shy one about pursuing — pursue the discussion we may see this bill again," said Hannon at Tuesday's committee hearing.

"It's defeated, but we will see it again," Hannon said after the vote.

Senate Republicans halt anti-tweeding bill

From Gotham Gazette:

On Tuesday the state Assembly passed a bill to close the controversial LLC loophole at the center of the federal corruption cases against former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. Both men - a Democrat and a Republican, respectively - were recently arrested and subsequently stepped down from their powerful leadership posts. Later in the evening Tuesday, the Senate’s version of the bill to close the loophole that allows money to flow unfettered into campaign accounts appeared to be dispatched by Senate Republicans in a bit of behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

The LLC loophole that allows individuals and corporations to donate unlimited amounts of cash to legislators has been treated by many as a political hot potato all year. It gained attention when Glenwood Management and its principle, Leonard Litwin, were connected to the Silver indictment. Litwin is the state’s largest campaign donor thanks to the many LLCs he controls and his tendency to donate large sums to politicians at all levels of state government and in both major parties. The issue flared up again after Litwin and his company appeared in the federal complaint against Skelos.

According to a study by Common Cause NY, Glenwood Management has given $12.8 million in political donations from 2005 to 2014, but only 10 percent of those donations actually came directly from Litwin or his companies. The rest of the donations were made by LLCs registered to Glenwood or listed at its address.

In April, Sen. Daniel Squadron, a New York City Democrat, used a parliamentary maneuver called “Motion for Committee Consideration” to force the Elections Committee to consider the bill. In an apparent move designed to avoid controversy, Republican Senators voted to move the bill out of committee without recommendation. Instead of being sent to the floor for a vote it was sent to the Corporations Committee. Squadron told Gotham Gazette at the time it appeared the Republicans had “used a loophole to kill an attempt to stop a loophole” because the Corporations Committee rarely meets.

No one can explain why expensive bridge went bad

From the NY Times:

It was supposed to be the coolest little bridge in New York City. Designed by the winner of a MacArthur “genius” grant and built at a cost of $4.1 million, it zigzagged just 400 feet down from Brooklyn Heights to the waterfront, bouncing slightly underfoot and adding a touch of rustic adventure to the bustling Brooklyn Bridge Park.

But the pedestrian bridge, which opened in March 2013, soon bounced a little too much. Then it started to move from side to side. Then, last August, it was closed abruptly — and temporarily — park officials said. By October, the target reopening date was amended to spring.

Now, with spring well underway, officials for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, which operates the park, still do not have an exact date for when the Squibb Park Bridge, as it is formally known, will reopen, though they say it will be sometime in late spring.

Nor could they specify what went wrong. Belinda Cape, a spokeswoman for the park corporation, attributed the problem broadly to a “misalignment” issue. “Engineers have been working to correct the issue and repair the bridge,” she said. “They’re pulling it back into alignment and testing it, section by section.”

In the absence of an explanation, park officials and local residents have speculated that construction at two nearby sites may have compromised the bridge, or maybe it was the tendency of teenagers to jump en masse to accentuate the bounce.

“In an environment like this, if people find out something is moving, they are going to move it to the max, especially younger kids,” said Nick Ivanoff, president of Ammann & Whitney, a leading bridge engineering firm that was not involved in the project.

Those answers have not been enough for elected officials like State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, a Democrat whose district includes Brooklyn Bridge Park. He has called on the park corporation to provide a full accounting of the bridge’s defects and to recoup the cost of repairs, estimated at about $700,000.

Park officials say they planned to do both, although they declined to say whether they would also sue the engineer who designed the bridge.

Pols call for a change in plans for condos-in-park scheme

From the NY Times:

Brooklyn Bridge Park, which stretches 1.3 miles along the East River waterfront, was a creation of the administration of Michael R. Bloomberg, with a novel — and contentious — financing mechanism in the form of luxury housing in the park.

But now that City Hall is under new leadership, a group of elected officials is calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to scale back some of that housing, intended to help pay for the costly upkeep of the park, which is buffeted by tides. In particular, they want the mayor to halt plans for two residential towers at Pier 6, one of several recreational piers in the park.

In a letter to Mr. de Blasio, dated April 7, a group of city, state and federal lawmakers expressed their dismay at the “breakneck speed” with which the administration was pursuing the housing at Pier 6 and urged the new administration to “work collaboratively on alternative park financing, rather than moving forward with the Bloomberg plan.”

The letter was signed by State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, State Assemblywoman Joan Millman, United States Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, and City Councilmen Stephen T. Levin and Brad Lander.

Maintenance of the waterfront park, whose piers are adversely affected by marine organisms, as well as winds and tides, is unusually expensive, estimated to cost about $16 million a year. But the housing, some of which is already built, was controversial from the start, with a number of community leaders and lawmakers arguing that it set a dangerous precedent for public parkland.

Squadron dead wrong on park funding

From the Daily News:

State Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn) has introduced controversial legislation — supported by Mayor de Blasio — that would force certain park nonprofits to allocate 20% of their budgets from private donations to other parks — a means, he says, to help address the inequity.

Squadron’s “Neighborhood Parks Alliance,” would form partnerships between a “well-financed” conservancy and less fortunate parks.

Under the plan, a “poor” park would perform tasks like gathering signatures from local residents, establishing its own conservancy group. It also would need a commitment from the city and local lawmakers to maintain the current level of public financing.

This well-intentioned but deeply misguided law shows a clear lack of understanding of the enormous problems facing our vast but resource-poor park system. Relying on what, in reality, are a few conservancies to deliver the tens of billions of dollars in capital needs, and another three quarters of a billion dollars annually for maintenance and operation, is deeply misguided.

Squadron testified Thursday that he thought his proposal could generate approximately $15 million dollars annually; in other words, enough to build a few bathrooms.

Another unfortunate consequence of this conversation is that it is detracting from the real issue — that our elected officials refuse to fund parks as an essential city service.

The administration needs to take responsibility by dramatically increasing the parks budget and ensuring the funds are distributed according to need — not on politics or private interests — while demanding accountability from an agency that is in desperate need of reform.

We need to attack the very system that allows and encourages this enormous disparity and discrimination in the first place, not invite more.

Until these things happen, nothing will change.

The full op-ed can be found here.

2013 Primary election results

Good morning! I hope you all are happy waking up in a City that soundly rejected Christine Quinn last night. She came in with 15% of the vote. Bye-bye, Bloomberg lite!

The likely winner without a runoff is Bill DeBlasio. As of last night, he had 40.2% of the vote, with Bill Thompson coming in at 26%. Whether or not there is a runoff, however, let me point out once again that the political careers of Christine Quinn, John Liu and Anthony Weiner are DONE.

Scott Stringer bested Eliot Spitzer in the Comptroller's race and Letitia James and Daniel Squadron will go head to head in a runoff for Public Advocate.

Locally, Melinda Katz soundly defeated Peter Vallone, Jr. and even with the 9% or so of the vote that Tony Avella allegedly took away from Vallone, he still would not have beaten her. So much for Italian power.

In district 19, The latest numbers are Paul Vallone 2,723 votes to Austin Shafran's 2,579 votes with 98% of precincts reporting. Neither Huffington Post nor NY1 has called it for Vallone, although he claimed victory. So, in November, it MAY be Vallone and Republican Dennis Saffran. Will Saffran win because most Dems picked anybody but Vallone? Time will tell. (Apologies for previous mistake. Shafran got WFP endorsement, but NOT their line. He is challenging the election results.)

In the 22nd CD, Costa Constantinides handily beat John Ciafone.

In the 24th CD, Rory Lancman creamed Andrea Veras.

In the 27th CD, it's still a race between Daneek Miller (3,756) and Clyde Vanel (3,360) with 98% reporting.

In the 28th CD, Ruben Wills beat Hettie Powell.

In the 31st CD, Donovan Richards beat Michael Duncan.

And in the 32nd CD, Lew Simon beat William Ruiz.

Also, thankfully, in the 34th CD, which covers mostly Bushwick but half of Ridgewood, Antonio Reynoso sent Vito Lopez packing once and for all.

Sadly, because we are a one-party town run by a political machine, there were no primaries in the 20th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 26th, 29th or 30th districts and all incumbents ran unopposed.

In kind of a surprise, in Brooklyn, 23-year incumbent DA Charles Hynes was defeated by challenger Kenneth Thompson.

UPDATE:

Tony Nunziato and Phil Ragusa were also reelected as GOP state committeemen.

Silly electeds prefer tweeding to budgeting

Here we have State Senator/Public Advocate candidate Daniel Squadron promoting the idea that not only are public-private partnerships good, but that we should fund our entire park system off the back of the Central Park Conservancy. Peter Vallone has endorsed the idea in the City Council.

And then there's NYC Public Advocate and mayoral candidate Bill DeBlasio shilling for the same thing over the weekend at the Unisphere.

No morons, we shouldn't rely on money from charities. We should stop the corporate welfare and tweeding programs and use that money to fund park maintenance, as required by law. You guys also realize that forcing a charity to fund other charities is most likely unconstitutional, right?

Here's former Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, his biggest defender, Holly Leicht of New Yorkers for Parks - a partner group with the NYC Parks Dept, and a landscape architect who reaped the benefits of working for the Central Park Conservancy, defending having charity pay for necessities, vs. Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates, who wants the city budget to allocate adequate funding.

He was against park housing before he was for it

From the NY Post:

State Sen. Dan Squadron took in more than $65,000 from supporters of a residential development at Brooklyn Bridge Park — after he struck a deal that enabled housing at the site.

Squadron, a Democrat who’s running for public advocate, promised during his 2008 Senate campaign to fight all housing in the park, but his 2011 deal with the Bloomberg administration allows for some residential development there, albeit less than originally planned at the site.

He has received cash from members of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and Brooklyn Bridge Development Corp., which support housing in the park as it undergoes renovation.

“Apparently, if the money comes from the right ZIP code, with the right connections, Squadron is just your average old-school pol,” said a source familiar with the deal.

Are state-owned buildings firetraps?

From Bayside Patch:

New York firefighters may be at risk at hundreds of state-owned buildings throughout the city that don’t follow the city's Fire Department codes, according to a new report.

State Sen. Daniel Squadron, D-Brooklyn, and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, created a joint New York City-New York State Task Force on Building and Fire Safety following the August 2007 Deutsche Bank fire, which claimed the lives of two firefighters.

The task force’s new report shows the danger posed by discrepancies in fire codes that allow state-owned buildings in the five boroughs to remain exempt from critical standards.

The loophole includes several northeast Queens sites, such as the Udall's Cove Tidal Wetland and the Bayside Hostel, but also a number of other buildings across the borough, including Aqueduct Racecourse, Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Veterans' Home at St. Albans and the Jamaica Bay Tidal Wetlands.

Other buildings across the city on the list included Brooklyn College, City College, Hunter College and the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

There are also many state-owned buildings that are leased out to commercial tenants, such as restaurants and salons, that are at risk.

Fireworks may come back to East River

From the Daily News:

Macy's is considering a return of its famed Fourth of July fireworks to the East River — a move that would thrill Brooklyn and Queens residents who lost their view of the display for four straight years, the Daily News has learned.

Bending to outer-borough pressure, Macy’s execs and top people in its fireworks operations have agreed to meet soon with pols to discuss moving the dazzling show off the Hudson River for the first time since 2009.

“Macy’s has expressed willingness to move to the East River,” said a source involved with the talks.

“Macy’s has been receptive to sitting down and discussing solutions,” the source said. “We’re optimistic that soon there will be good news.”

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn Heights) have been in talks by phone for months with Macy’s about a possible venue change for the iconic Independence Day celebration.

The sit-down will be local elected officials’ first face-to-face discussion about the fireworks with Macy’s execs.

“The fireworks,” said de Blasio, “belong” in the East River. “Outer-borough New Yorkers deserve to be part of the city’s Fourth of July celebration too.”

Pols lobby to get fireworks returned to East River

From the Huffington Post:

After three straight years depriving nearly all of the outer-boroughs and Manhattan's East Side of the annual Fourth of July fireworks, Macy's has once again dissed many New Yorkers in 2012 by deciding to host their festivities on the Hudson River.

But instead of simply sulking about missing all the pyrotechnic fun, several New York politicians including State Senator Daniel Squadron and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio are taking action with an online petition in hopes to convince Macy's honchos to do the people justice.

Is it time for residential parking permits?

From CBS 2:

“It’s an idea that’s long overdue. In communities from downtown Brooklyn to western Queens and upper Manhattan, people don’t measure the amount of time they have to drive around in minutes. They’re measuring it in hours,” said State Sen. Daniel Squadron, D-Brooklyn.

“You can do it in a way that protects small businesses and it improves quality of life – you don’t have folks circling for minutes or even hours,” Squadron told 1010 WINS.

And that’s why Sen. Squadron has introduced a bill that is finally getting traction to establish residential parking permits. The cost has yet to be worked out, but it would be a “reasonable” annual fee.

“In other cities it’s everything from as low as $20 to as high as about $100, never prohibitive,” Sen. Squadron said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg supported residential parking permits as part of his failed congestion pricing plan, but now he says he’s not so sure. He’s worried about parking for local businesses.

So then why is his DOT commissioner installing bike lanes all over commercial districts?

Lame Bklyn pols cave into Bloomberg

From the NY Post:

Two state legislators are relinquishing their power to keep more controversial high-rise housing from being built at the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, under a deal with the city to be signed today, The Post has learned.

When the city last year took control of the project from the state, it agreed to give veto power over housing to the two local legislators, state Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assemblywoman Joan Millman, both Democrats.

Both pols have now agreed not to use it to keep hundreds of apartments planned within the park from being built, sources said.

In exchange, 40,000-square-feet will be shaved off one high rise set for John Street in DUMBO, and two other planned buildings within the park at Pier 6 in Brooklyn Heights could be shrunk or eliminated through a formula involving properties owned by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.

The deal helps ensure the stalled 85-acre waterfront project gets fully built, but news of it still left some community activist shocked and furious last night.

Both Squadron and Millman were carried into new terms, in part, after campaigning heavily against the city’s plans to add more housing.

From the NY Post:

The city has begun soliciting proposals from developers interested in building a 180-unit condo tower and a 225-room hotel at Pier 1 on the Brooklyn Heights waterfront.

The development would take place on the former site of the Cold Storage Warehouse buildings, which the city plans to lease to a developer who’d build and operate the new structures.

The move comes two days after the city reached a deal for additional housing to be built within the park at two other sites, helping ensure enough revenues are generated so the entire 85-acre waterfront park project can be completed.

The new Pier 1 projects will include interior parking spaces and ground-floor public restrooms.

Government buildings exempt from city codes?

From DNA Info:

Politicians are renewing their call for stricter building and fire codes in the wake of the recent acquittals in the Deutsche Bank fire cases.

Borough President Scott Stringer and State Sen. Daniel Squadron say more than 800 buildings in New York — including the former Deutsche Bank building, which was razed — are exempt from city safety codes because they are owned by the state or federal government.

Those buildings, which include the United Nations and Lower Manhattan's federal courthouses, do not have to allow building and fire safety inspectors inside, nor are they subject to penalties for safety violations, Stringer said.

"It's time we extend basic code protections for all New Yorkers to all of our buildings — so these tragedies become a thing of the past," Stringer said.

State Sen. Daniel Squadron sponsored legislation last year that created a state-city panel to address the loophole. Squadron expects the panel to begin meeting later this year and issue recommendations that would go to the legislature for approval next spring.

Smell of gas in the air

From 1010WINS:

Red Hook residents complain the ships at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal keep their diesel engines running to generate electricity which in turn pollutes the air for hours at a time making it difficult to breathe for some.

“You can smell the air right now, we have an overlay of diesel in the air,” one man said.

“If you drive over the Brooklyn Bridge on certain days you actually see the plume going into the air,” another man said.

Local lawmakers are calling on the city, state and utilities to find a clean air alternative and make available on-shore power and electricity to ships so that they can plug into an electrical grid at the port rather than sit idling.

“They spew noxious diesel fumes into the air the entire time they’re here,” State Sen. Daniel Squadron said.

Squadron said the money is there to supply the power to the ships but after nearly two years of negotiations it’s the maintenance and operating costs that have choked off a solution.

”It’s time to stop choking Brooklyn,” Squadron said.