Toby pushing for kitchens at shelters

From the Times Ledger:

State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing) was joined by members of the advocacy group Elmhurst United last week outside the former Pan American hotel, where she announced legislation she recently introduced that would mandate homeless family shelter units to have working kitchens.

The measure, S7181 A, would require family homeless shelters for 10 or more families to have working kitchens within 60 days of the registration of the contract between the operator of the shelter and the city of New York.

Stavisky’s bill is in direct response to the recent and controversial uptick of repurposed hotels being used as homeless shelters. In Stavisky’s district, the city came under fire for turning the former Pan American hotel on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst into a family shelter without supplying functioning kitchens in each unit.

Residents protest taxes on co-ops and condos

From the Queens Tribune:

Residents of Bellerose’s Parkwood Estates condominium complex and members of the organization Politics Reborn turned out on Friday to protest city property taxes on condos and co-ops in front of Assemblyman David Weprin’s (D-Fresh Meadows) office.

The protesters accused the assemblyman and city of lagging on a bill aimed at capping co-op and condo assessments.

“He’s the one dragging his feet,” Alice Christy, a Parkwood Estates resident and member of Politics Reborn, said of Weprin.

Christy noted that Weprin is one of the sponsors of bill A00354A, which would cap co-op and condo assessments at 8 percent in any one year and 30 percent in any five years. The bill’s author is Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside). It is identical to a bill in the state Senate sponsored by state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing).

“[The bill] just languishes there,” said Christy.

She added that 30 percent is still a big increase, “but it’s better than what we would have. Our community is middle-middle class. We can’t afford homes in the area, yet we have too much money for affordable housing. We need this to pass. The city commissioner of finance is just kicking this down the road. I’m not giving up. I’m a tiger.”

The condominium has a large senior population. Christy, who is a senior, said that with property taxes rising, her fees have risen as well. She added that the funds seniors receive from the city’s STAR program have not increased.

Christy and fellow organizers at Friday’s protest went door to door, persuading residents of the condominium to sign more than 250 letters urging Weprin to push the legislation.

It's all legal...technically

From Gotham Gazette:

When Rockland County Democratic Party Chair Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky fills out her annual state disclosure forms, she consults her husband for question six, which requires the listing of contracts held with a state or local agency held by the filer, filer’s spouse, or unemancipated child.

Evan Stavisky, a partner in the prominent Albany lobbying firm The Parkside Group, after checking with the firm’s lawyer, has told his wife that his company does not represent any government entities. So, for the past six years, Kristen has entered “none” for the question, according to the disclosure documents obtained from the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE).

At the same time, between 2010 and 2016, Parkside pulled in more than $1 million from representing quasi-public entities, including four foundations affiliated with city and state universities, three New York City-based public library systems, and a local economic development corporation, according to the lobbying firm’s disclosure filings that can be viewed on the JCOPE website.

One of these contracts, on behalf of the Queens Economic Development Corporation -- which is treated by state law as a public authority -- expired in 2010, so according to filing instructions, Kristen Stavisky was not required to declare it on her JCOPE form for that year. But the other clients -- foundations associated with the CUNY Graduate Center, Queensborough Community College, Queens College, CUNY Creative Arts Team, and SUNY’s University at Buffalo, as well as Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library, and Queens Public Library -- fall into an ambiguous zone, defined as local or state agencies in some statutes of New York State law, but not others.

Parkside’s government-affiliated nonprofit contracts picked up in 2009-2010, the last time Democrats held a ruling majority in the Senate. Toby Ann, a former social studies teacher, chaired the Senate’s Higher Education Committee that year.

At the time, Toby Ann, seeking an advisory opinion, wrote to JCOPE that though she was not required to, she would prohibit her son, but not his partners, from lobbying members of the Senate. Despite calls for a probe from ethics watchdogs, a 2009 advisory opinion from the state's Legislative Ethics Commission deemed the arrangement “appropriate,” the New York Daily News reported.

Meet Toby's Republican opponent

From Carlos Giron:

Carlos G. Giron, the former Director of Hispanic Communications with Major League Soccer, is an experienced, versatile and fully bilingual communications and marketing executive.

Carlos has worked in a variety of roles and in variety of industries. From MLS to Verizon Wireless, he helps some of our country's top companies and nonprofit organizations to effectively disseminate their messaging and meaningfully connect with target audiences.

He currently runs VIDA Communications, his own PR and marketing practice. In this capacity, he serves current and former clients that include Time Warner Cable, Allstate, St. Jude Childrens' Research Hospital, Caesars Entertainment, the UFC, HBO, Showtime and PR Newswire. His work for the NephCure Foundation received nationwide recognition and was featured on PRWeek, the public relations industry’s premier trade publication. His outstanding work helped the NephCure foundation raise awareness about kidney disease and how victims of this illness can secure invaluable treatment and assistance.

On the public affairs front, Carlos worked as a staff member of the successful 2009 reelection campaign of former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the 2013 mayoral run of Adolfo Carrion.

Pols set to give Vornado a big gift

From Crains:

A now-defunct bill sought to give Vornado Realty Trust control of city parkland in Rego Park, Queens, and allow the firm to build an apartment building closer to an adjacent green space than would otherwise be allowed.

The legislation, introduced by Queens Democrats Toby Ann Stavisky in the state Senate and Jeffrion Aubry in the Assembly, indicates that Vornado is testing the waters for an apartment complex more than five years in the making near the Rego Park Mall, which the firm also developed.

However, little information was available in the bill or from its sponsors to indicate how much the park property would be worth and whether the public improvements and the space Vornado would need to dedicate toward a school in its new building would have been a fair trade for taxpayers.

Vornado’s property shares a border with a park containing Lost Battalion Hall—a once puzzle-piece-like boundary that was straightened out by separate parkland-swap legislation in 2011. Since that time, the developer has planned to eventually erect a residential tower on the site.

Should Vornado opt to build apartments facing the park, it would normally have to set them back at least 30 feet from the property line. The legislation, however, would have authorized the city to give Vornado ownership of the air over a portion of the park. While not the same as purchasing unused development rights (also called air rights), through the complexities of the city’s zoning code, it would have eliminated the 30-foot setback rule.

Vornado would thus have been allowed to build closer to the park, if not right up against it. In exchange, Vornado would have given the city a similarly sized light and air easement over its own property, agreed to potentially pay for park improvements and included space for a prekindergarten in whatever structure it ends up erecting.

The offices of neither Stavisky nor Aubry could detail how the bill came to be, though it was likely introduced at the behest of lobbyists Vornado hired to push the issue in the first half of 2016, according to state records. Because it did not pass by the end of the legislative session in June, it would need to be reintroduced next year to ever become law.

Toby has some interesting campaign donors

From the Observer:

Queens State Senator Toby Stavisky—the ranking member of the Committee on Higher Education—has raked in tens of thousands of dollars in donations from for-profit colleges, one of tied to a bribery scandal that took down an assemblyman from her home borough in 2009.

Stavisky has taken more than $23,000 in contributions from Forest Hills’ Plaza College, its owners and its affiliates since 2002—$18,500 of it since federal agents arrested the late Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio on corruption charges related to the school in 2008. One of the affiliates that gave to Stavisky, Collegiate Management Associates—which U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara labeled a “shell company”—served as a conduit for Plaza College provost Charles Callahan III to funnel $170,350 in bribes to Seminerio in exchange for legislation favorable to the for-profit institution.

Bharara’s criminal complaint against Seminerio also alleged the assemblyman unsuccessfully sought to get Callahan III appointed to the state Board of Regents, which controls New York’s public schools, and assisted him in navigating various agencies.

Collegiate Management Associates gave Stavisky $1,000 in August 2014. She took another grand from the college itself that October, $1,000 again in 2015, and reported taking the same amount from the school in her filings last month.

Stavisky ballot signatures deemed valid

Times Ledger

From the Times Ledger:

A hearing at the Manhattan office of the city Board of Elections Tuesday found objections to state Sen. Toby Stavisky’s (D-Flushing) campaign petitions to be insufficient to knock the incumbent off the ballot for the upcoming election.

The challenges raised by her Democratic opponent, S.J. Jung, and other residents within the district, claimed the signatures to qualify her for re-election were illegible or had addresses outside of the district, leaving only 13 out of 3,519 valid. Commissioners from the BOE, however, determined there were 2,243 valid signatures, which met the minimum of 1,000 required for Stavisky to make it on the ballot.

So she submitted 1,276 bogus signatures, and that's okay?

Flushing plagued by excessive aircraft noise

From AM-NY:

Noise levels in the Flushing, Queens, neighborhood near LaGuardia Airport exceeded federal levels on one of every three days earlier this year, elected officials and community activists said Monday.

The maximum permissible Day/Night Noise Level — or DNL — of 65 decibels was exceeded on 32 out of the 92 days from March through May on a monitor on Franklin Avenue, state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing) said at a news conference.

The Federal Aviation Administration measures on a scale that averages all community noise during a 24-hour period, with a tenfold penalty for noise occurring at night and early morning.

“With this data, we now see what we’ve always known: parts of Queens are subjected to higher levels of sound than others,” Stavisky said.

She said the current DNL standards date to the 1970s and are obsolete. She and others at the news conference said the FAA should reduce the maximum allowable DNL to 55, the standard at most airports overseas.

Will Toby finally get sunk?

From the Queens Tribune:

Democrat S.J. Jung, Flushing resident and former President of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, announced this week that he would make another run for State Senate in the 16th Senate District, setting up for another primary challenge against longtime incumbent state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing).

Stavisky has survived competitive primary challenges in her last three races. Besides Jung in 2014, she held back a challenge from John Messer in 2012, who also received 42 percent of the vote, and she fought off two challengers – Messer and Chemist and former City Council candidate Isaac Sasson – in the very competitive 2010 primary.

The district was redrawn in 2010 and has an Asian American plurality, and includes Chinese American enclaves in Downtown Flushing, Fresh Meadows and Elmhurst, as well as heavily Jewish American communities such as Rego Park, Oakland Gardens and Electchester/Pomonok.

No high school for Linden Place

From the Times Ledger:

City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña has decided the city Department of Education will no longer be placing a high school inside its building at 30-48 Linden Place after significant community opposition to the proposal, elected officials and community leaders said Friday.

After receiving confirmation in July from DOE staff that the site would be used for a high school for more than 450 students, City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) met with Farina to express his opposition to the proposal due to student safety and traffic congestion concerns.

Koo made the announcement at a news conference in front of the building Friday afternoon, along with state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing); Arlene Fleishman, president of the Mitchell-Linden Civic Association; and Chuck Apelian, first vice chairman of Community Board 7.

“Maybe the chancellor realized this is not a good place to put a high school,” Koo said.

At the meeting, Fariña told Koo the plans to build a high school would no longer go forward. Koo’s office received written confirmation from DOE staff.

Avella only elected official interested in landmarking Elmhurst church

Letter to Tony Avella re: landmarking Old St. James Parish Hall

I wrote letters to State Senators Toby Stavisky and Council Member Danny Dromm regarding the lack of landmark status for Old St. James Parish Hall on Broadway, as they represent Elmhurst. I also sent the same letter to State Senator Tony Avella. Only Mr. Avella responded. I recently received a response from the LPC indicating that they were taking a look at what was submitted. Unless more elected officials show concern over the status of landmarks in their communities, there really isn't much of a chance or preserving what's left of Queens history.

Christina Wilkinson
President
Newtown Historical Society

Koreatown Plaza becomes controversial

From the Times Ledger:

State. Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and community leaders say they are against a pedestrian plaza proposed for the street across from the McGoldrick Library in Flushing.

In 2014, the Korean American Association of Queens applied to the city Department of Transportation to permanently close the street in front of the library on Roosevelt Avenue between 155th Street and Northern Boulevard and make a pedestrian plaza with tables and chairs.

The plaza would also be on Leonard Square, which honors Corporal William A. Leonard, a Flushing resident and World War I veteran.

Avella attended the trial street closure Friday, which he said he learned of only a day earlier and found that the area had too little pedestrian traffic to warrant a plaza and limited room to reroute traffic to avoid congestion.

“I only found out about this on Thursday and my first reaction was, ‘What idiot came up with this?’” he said during a news conference Monday afternoon.

He places the blame on the DOT and elected officials who support the proposal, saying they should know better than to support a plaza in an area with a lot of traffic and without sufficient community input.

He said state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), one of the supporters of the proposal, should be “ashamed of herself.”

“I fault the city and I fault any elected official who tried to sneak this through,” he said.

Mike Favilla, Stavisky’s chief of staff, said the proposal does not concern Avella.

“Tony Avella has made more crazy allegations than Donald Trump and now he’s at it again,” Favilla said in a statement. “Considering that Tony only received 52 percent of the vote in his last primary, perhaps he should spend more time in his own district rather than looking for fights elsewhere.”

At the trial street closure last week, Stavisky and City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) said they were unaware of opposition to the proposal but that they would meet with community leaders to discuss it.

City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) supports the proposal as well.

It's more than a pedestrian plaza with tables and chairs. They also want vendor stalls. Because there's nowhere else in Flushing to buy cheap junk right now.

Unlicensed drivers may soon face criminal charges

From the Times Ledger:

A rash of pedestrians fatally struck by unlicensed drivers has prompted the Queens leadership to ban together to pass legislation that would make such an act a felony and result in two to four years of jail time.

An Elmhurst woman was the latest victim, run down by a white Mitsubishi box truck allegedly operated by an unlicensed driver, while she was walking in the intersection of Woodside Avenue and 76th Street, police said.

“Unfortunately, the law in New York has not caught up with the facts of these situations,” said state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria), who has written the bill. “Someone who kills someone when driving without a license... the most severe charge they can get is a violation, which is like getting a parking ticket.”

Outraged by the frequency of these types of incidents and the penalties offenders receive, several officials and advocates for safer streets rallied behind Gianaris’ legislative push at a news conference Tuesday in Woodside.

“It’s time that we say give us the keys to your car,” said state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing), “If you smoke a cigarette, the chances of you getting lung cancer are increased. [It’s] the same way if you’re an unlicensed driver. You have a high risk of hitting somebody, [possibly] injuring or killing them.”

Drivers with revoked and or suspended licenses who have caused a loss of life would get more than a slap on the wrist under the proposed legislation.

LIRR pedestrian overpass is a dump

From the Queens Courier:

Local elected officials and community leaders gathered earlier in December to tour the pedestrian bridge that connects two separate sections of 55th Avenue, one of which turns onto 85th Street and the other that becomes a dead end near Haspel Street.

The group toured the overpass with Long Island Rail Road and Sanitation officials to discuss the conditions and demand immediate improvements be made at the site.

According to Christian Cassagnol, district manager of Community Board 4, the problems most residents have voiced concerns about include graffiti, lack of sufficient lighting, safety overnight and dirty conditions.

Residents and members of CB 4’s environmental committee regularly gather to clean up the site, Cassagnol said, but there is only so much that could be done on a local level. He decided to contact Councilman Daniel Dromm’s office in the hopes of finding a better solution.

Rosemarie Daraio, president of the nonprofit Communities of Maspeth & Elmhurst Together Inc. (COMET) Civic Association, added that some other issues include illegal dumping, weeds overtaking the site, and deteriorating and uneven steps.

Days before the Dec. 15 walk-through, the city’s Department of Sanitation showed up and did a cleanup.

“This site must be cleaned and made safe for pedestrians,” said Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, who was part of the group that toured the overpass. “There is no substitute for an on-site visit to see conditions firsthand.”

According to Stavisky, she and Dromm will continue to monitor the issue.

What are they Googling?

It's Friday. Toby and Pete are enthralled by an I-Pad. Perhaps it's time to caption this photo.

149th Street bridge should be repaired some time next year

From the Queens Tribune:

While the long-defunct 149th Street Bridge has caused headaches for Queens residents for years, the saga may be reaching its end.

The Dept. of Transportation said it plans to begin construction next fall for the 149th Street Bridge, which has been in need of major repairs for the last few years. While the bridge originally closed in 2010, it has yet to reopen due to problems with the previous work that was done.

The 149th Street Bridge, which stretches over the railroad, closed in May 2010 for demolition and reconstruction, with a scheduled reopening for November 2011. Numerous delays stalled the project’s completion, with the DOT discovering cracks in the cement of the new bridge in May 2012. The bridge was not safe for vehicular traffic and remained closed as a result, opening to pedestrian traffic only in June 2012.

For the next two years, the DOT remained silent on the bridge, until June 6, 2014, when it confirmed that the bridge has to be torn down and rebuilt again. The agency is pursuing litigation against the firm responsible for the bridge’s initial design.

Flushing’s elected officials recently met with Queens Borough Commissioner Dalila Hall to discuss the reconstruction’s progress. According to the DOT, the new design should be finalized by the end of the year, with a slated completion scheduled for November 2015.

A giant waste of time and money

From the Queens Chronicle:

Residents and business owners who have been waiting since 2010 for the reopening of the 149th Street bridge between Roosevelt and 41st avenues in Murray Hill still have a long wait ahead of them, according to elected officials, who announced last week that shoddy workmanship is forcing the city to demolish the structure and start over.

Among those meeting behind closed doors at Queens Borough Hall last Friday were state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing), Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) and New York City DOT Queens Borough Commissioner Dalila Hall. The elected officials then held a press conference outside.

Stavisky reported that about a dozen representatives from the city, including those involved in the legal and engineering aspects of the project, were also there.

The bridge, which was originally built in 1924, runs over the Long Island Rail Road tracks. It was considered “in fair condition” when it was inspected in 2007 and, three years later, in March 2010, was closed for reconstruction. It was expected to reopen in May 2012.

Pointing to a photograph of the barricades on the bridge, Kim said, “Every time I see this, I get frustrated,” blaming “bureaucratic failure” for the multiple delays.

In May 2012, the bridge, which cost around $7 million, was inspected by the Department of Transportation, that found cracks making it unsafe to carry vehicles. The pedestrian sidewalk was reopened in June of that year.

According to Kim, it was determined that there is a “need to demolish and rebuild” the bridge. The project is in the “re-design” phase, to be followed by the bidding process.

The city is suing the contractor, Gandhi Engineering.

S.J. is gunning for Toby

From the Times Ledger:

Flushing activist and businessman S.J. Jung has launched a bid to unseat State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing).

The former executive director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action announced his candidacy for District 16 Tuesday morning.

“I enter this race as a reformer who refuses to accept politics as usual,” he said. “I am determined to weed out public corruption and restore the public’s faith in our state government, but we must first clean up our house if we are going to make significant progress on the everyday issues facing working and middle-class New Yorkers.”

Happy Mothers Day from Queens Crap!

What they're planning for us this year

The Queens Courier has a lot more of their resolutions...