Showing posts with label grants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grants. Show all posts

Saturday, February 24, 2018

6-year old tweeding effort exposed

From the Daily News:

State Sen. Kevin Parker’s mother got a $32,150 taxpayer-funded grant to fix up the Flatbush home he owns with her — money that was funneled to her by a nonprofit group pervy pol Vito Lopez founded and controlled.

Georgie Parker got the money in 2012 to fix the roof and replace the windows and gutters in the four-bedroom home she co-owned with her son, who also lived there.

Records show the grant came from the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which in turn got the money from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal’s Main Street Program.

Ridgewood was founded by Lopez, the longtime state assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic party boss who was accused of sexually harassing legislative employees. Lopez died in 2015. The nonprofit is now called RiseBoro Community Partnership.

Georgie Parker signed the paperwork for the $32,150 grant on Aug. 28, 2012, just a few days after the state Assembly voted to censure Lopez and strip him of his powerful housing committee chairmanship over the harassment allegations.

Lopez ultimately resigned in 2013 after reports surfaced that the state had paid confidential settlements to two of his accusers.

Lopez and Kevin Parker supported one another during their rocky political careers.

Friday, July 7, 2017

Wills finally on trial

From NY1:

Queens City Councilman Ruben Wills is the latest elected official to stand trial on corruption charges. In laying out their case Wednesday, prosecutors said he pocketed thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to use on clothing, meals, and even construction supplies. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.

Even before he was first elected to the City Council, Ruben Wills had already begun a scheme to defraud taxpayers, prosecutors said, stealing $19,000 in state grant money awarded to his Queens non-profit, and $11,500 in public campaign finance funds.

At opening arguments Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Travis Hill said that for Wills, "stealing taxpayer funds was business as usual."

The trial is now finally underway after numerous delays, including Wills missing court appearances with an undisclosed illness.

He faces up to seven years in prison on six charges, including fraud and grand larceny, all of which he is vigorously contesting.

Monday, December 12, 2016

"Made in Queens" is a big flop

From LIC Post:

A Long Island City popup shop dedicated to selling Queens-made merchandise is closing several months ahead of schedule due to weak business.

Made In Queens, located at 27-24 Queens Plaza South, was established by the Queens Economic Development Corporation in June to sell goods from local manufacturers.

The store, which was supposed to remain open until the end of March, is now closing at the end of the year since it has become “unsustainable,” said QEDC Director of Business Services Sante Antonelli.

The store was funded by a $40,000 grant from Capital One, allowing the QEDC to secure the space and cover operating costs. The makers also paid a fee to sell their products in the store, ranging from $150 per month for food products to $350 per month for non-food products.

Despite these sources of funding, the store operated at a loss, Antonelli said, largely due to lack of foot traffic in and out of the store.


Isn't foot traffic the number one thing you look at when you decide on a location to open a retail store?

Friday, October 9, 2015

More money thrown at the Queensway

From DNA Info:

The Queens version of the High Line is one small step closer to becoming a reality.

The Trust for Public Land, which works on the proposed QueensWay, just got a $100,000 grant from The New York Community Trust “to support converting an abandoned rail line in Queens into a 3.5-mile linear park.”

The entire park, which envisions bicycle and pedestrian paths and an adventure park as well as a number of sports facilities, would run from Rego Park to Ozone Park along the rail line abandoned in the 1960s.

It would cost about $120 million to build it, according to a study, which was released last year.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Shulman's pet project up for review

From the Times Ledger:

The Department of City Planning said it will release preliminary recommendations this fall for a project to revitalize the Flushing waterfront and bring affordable housing to the area.

In 2011, the Flushing-Willets Point-Corona Local Development Corporation got a $1.5 million state Brownfield Opportunity Grant to finance its Flushing Riverfront Project, which would clean up and rezone 60 acres on the Flushing waterfront. The project would create a planned community with waterfront access and housing and commercial space.

City Planning decided to integrate the corporation’s project with its study of Flushing West, part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 10-year affordable housing plan.

The agency plans to conduct outreach events in September, make some recommendations in October and start the environmental review process in November.

The review process would entail looking at a variety of environmental issues, including noise, air quality and the potential for any hazardous materials in the areas the agency rezones.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Ridgewood community garden getting kicked out

From DNA Info:

A group of Ridgewood residents was so frustrated with a trash-strewn abandoned lot beneath the elevated M tracks that they decided to clean it up, replacing weeds with tomatoes, sunflowers and watermelons and turning the space into the area's first community garden.

But the MTA's New York City Transit Authority, which oversees the space, is now in the process of kicking the group out because its members were never given permission to use the land in the first place, the agency said.

The group said it decided to take care of the space, located between Woodward Avenue and Woodbine Street, not only because it had become been an eyesore and a vermin-attracting dumping ground, but also because the neighborhood lacks and desperately needs green spaces.

But in late June, after someone illegally dumped debris at the site, the New York City Transit Authority changed the locks on the garden's gate without warning and posted a sign that trespassing is a violation, Fitzgerald said.


Can plants grow under an elevated train? And how filthy is it with a train passing overhead sending debris down below?

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Chocolate maker gets big grant to stay in Rockaway

From the Rockaway Times:

After receiving a $13.2 million grant from the City, Madelaine Chocolate Company is here to stay.

The 66-year-old chocolate company, which has been operating in Rockaway for 48 years and serving as one of the peninsula’s largest employers, will stay in Rockaway due to a tremendous grant provided through the City’s Hurricane Sandy Business Loan and Grant Program. The large award was made possible after the Mayor de Blasio administration made changes to the HSBLGP over the summer.

Hurricane Sandy devastated the company, leaving it with $50 million in losses from damaged equipment, property and a $10 million loss in inventory alone. Madelaine Chocolate officially opened with limited capability in October 2013. In February 2014, it was announced that the building at 9603 Beach Channel Drive was up for sale and the company may be moving, since it didn’t have sufficient funds to recover.

The grant will allow Madelaine Chocolate to remain in Rockaway.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Rockaway gas pipeline almost complete

From Rockaway Times:

The Rockaway Lateral Transco Pipeline Project, running from the Atlantic Ocean, through Riis Park, and up Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, is expected to be complete by March 2015.

“We have been working nearly around the clock and remain on schedule to place the project into service by the end of the first quarter 2015,” Williams spokesperson Chris Stockton said. The Rockaway Lateral Project began construction on June 9, 2014. The project includes one mile of horizontal directional-drilled pipeline and 2.2 miles of conventionally laid 26” pipeline connected to an existing Transco pipeline in the Atlantic Ocean. National Grid’s portion of the project, the Brooklyn Queens Interconnect Project, which is complete, will connect with the Transco project. Together, the pipeline projects will bring additional natural gas into Rockaway, Brooklyn and other parts of Queens.

Williams, the company behind the Transco pipeline, has a Rockaway Community Grants program “to benefit the environment and local communities within the NYC areas affected by Williams’ Rockaway Lateral project.” The company awards grants of up to $15,000 per funding cycle for each program. In October 2014, 13 organizations received grants, totaling $115,000. Some groups included the Rockaway Point Volunteer Emergency Services, the Breezy Point Cooperative, the Broad Channel Historical Society for the Collection Preservation project, Beautify Rockaway Beach, the Roxbury Volunteer Firehouse, the Rockaway Youth Task Force and more.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Elmhurst Elks Lodge may get upgrade

From the Queens Tribune:

An Elmhurst landmark will get some upgrades, but it needs help from the community first.

Constructed in the 1920s, the former Elks Lodge at 82-10 Queens Blvd. was designated a City landmark in 2001. According to Landmarks Preservation Commission documents, some of the features that earned the building its designation include a bronze elk statute at its entrance, ornate carvings around its entryway and its brick, limestone and granite façade.

Today, these designs are somewhat daunted by the current of traffic on Queens Boulevard and the crowd of neighboring buildings. Meanwhile, certain elements of the lodge are falling into disrepair; bricks have slipped out of the exterior walls and some balustrades are chipped or missing.

Nevertheless, it is a building busy with activity, and one of the several groups that use the Elks Lodge have found a way to restore it to its former state.

Last year, the New Life Community Development Corporation applied for a grant to restore the building with the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

“We thought, maybe they would throw us a bag of cement or a couple of shovels or something,” New Life CDC executive director Redd Sevilla said.

Instead, in December, Parks awarded New Life CDC a matching grant of $500,000 for the restoration.

It was “the miracle that happened on Queens Boulevard,” Sevilla said.

According to Parks spokesman Randy Simons, the grant constitutes a 75 percent reimbursement of the total project cost, up to $500,000. This means that a restoration costing $666,667 would achieve the full $500,000 reimbursement, with New Life CDC fronting the initial cost and ultimately paying the difference.

New Life CDC has until the end of 2015 to fundraise for the project.

Monday, December 15, 2014

State throws more money down the toilet

From the Times Ledger:

The state announced Thursday The Trust For Public Land won a $433,750 grant to design a roughly 1.5-mile section of the proposed QueensWay.

The Trust for Public Land, a group pushing for creation and preservation of parks across the country, applied for the grant through the New York City Regional Economic Development Council, one of 10 bodies overseen by the state.

The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation will oversee the $443,750 grant.

The money is slated to fund the complete design of the northern gateway in Rego Park of the proposed QueensWay.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Avella calls Willets Point developer out for double-dipping

From the Times Ledger:

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has called on the state Department of Conservation to reject an application by the developers of Willets Point for millions of dollars in tax credits.

Avella slammed the Queens Development Group, a joint venture by Related Co., and Sterling Equities, for applying for credits from DEC’s Brownfield Cleanup Program in addition to $40 million they received from the city for clean-up costs associated with their $3 billion redevelopment of Willets Point.

“The QDG is attempting to take advantage of the BCP tax credit program by trying to apply for millions in tax credits for costs that will already be paid from the taxpayer’s pocket. It’s absolutely disgraceful,” Avella said. “The DEC’s response is alarming, as it completely disregards the fact that the QDG is already required to clean up the site and will already be receiving taxpayer funds to do so.”

Avella said he contacted the DEC after he learned the developers had been granted the city funds despite having already applied for Brownfield credits.

In a recent letter the DEC said, “The public interest is served by allowing these properties to participate in the BCP.”

The DEC did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman for the developers said that any tax credits they received from the DEC’s Brownfield program would not necessarily overlap as not all eligible clean-up areas were being reimbursed by the city.

Cheating workers is not a problem for city

From the Daily News:

Some members of the team helping Mayor de Blasio reach his dream of increasing the supply of affordable apartments in New York have a dirty little secret — an $11.8 million one.

That’s how much an elite group of 10 contractors and one developer now building affordable units across the city owed this year to workers cheated out of wages they were supposed to get, a Daily News investigation has found.

The group is building or renovating nearly 2,800 affordable apartments in 37 developments across the city, records obtained under the Freedom of Information Law show. These projects are receiving $41 million in city grants or low-interest loans plus $206 million worth of tax credits. When finished, the apartments they’re building will count toward de Blasio’s oft-stated goal of building or preserving 200,000 affordable units in 10 years — a cornerstone of his administration.

The city Housing Preservation & Development Department allows these builders to work on these projects, despite their track record, on the condition that they repay what is owed.

All 11 were placed on a special “enhanced review” list after subcontractors they brought in on earlier jobs got caught paying workers a fraction of what they were owed. The builders are responsible for making sure that doesn’t happen.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Schumer gets grant for Rockaway study

From the Rockaway Times:

Senator Charles Schumer on Tuesday announced that the New York City Department of Transportation will receive $1.4 million in federal funding to support a transportation and housing study in Rockaway. In April, Schumer wrote a letter of to the U.S. Department of Transportation supporting this project through the federal DOT’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Grant program, which provides funding for road, rail, transit and port projects that promise to achieve critical national objectives.

This study was a primary recommendation by New York Rising, New York State’s community planning effort in neighborhoods heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy. The coordination by NYCDOT and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development will address transportation options created by planned new housing development, and will identify ways to improve street safety, pedestrian and transit mobility, and the urban environment – helping Rockaway’s continued revival as a beach destination and bringing much-needed support to local businesses still recovering from Hurricane Sandy.

The TIGER Discretionary Grant program provides an opportunity for DOT to invest in road, rail, transit and port projects that promise to achieve critical national objectives. In each round of TIGER, DOT receives many applications to build and repair critical pieces of freight and passenger transportation networks.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

$100,000 for signs at FMCP

From DNA Info:

It might be much harder to get lost in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, thanks to a grant awarded to a group that hopes to improve navigation in the greenspace.

The Design Trust for Public Space — a nonprofit group that sparked conversations about the High Line — gave the Parks Department and the Queens Museum a portion of a $100,000 grant to find ways to help people get around the massive and at times confusing park.

One proposal was to install extra signage, or "wayfinders," to help visitors better navigate the nearly 900-acre greenspace, which is larger than Central Park and to improve the visibility of entrances.

Signage in the park was identified as one of the biggest priorities for the greenspace by the Parks Department.


So signs are the Parks Department's biggest priority at Flushing Meadows? Really?

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Miss Heather asks a good question

From New York Shitty:


Lest any of you are wondering what this is, it is the “Ed Shed”. The “North Brooklyn Boat Club” (via Open Space Alliance North Brooklyn — remember the latter handles money for the previous) secured a $25,000 grant for this educational facility. Yes, you just read me correctly. This structure will feature a “Sewer In A Suitcase”, material/date about water quality and various art projects for the edification of school groups.

How is it that an “educational facility” located on private property (which is under lock and key) can receive a $25,000 grant (and assistance from our local parks conservancy group) and public park whose fence was seriously damaged ten months ago is seemingly not worthy of attention — much less the funding — required to conduct repairs and routine maintenance?


Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Greenpoint boat club building a "park" in Maspeth

When I first read this, I thought it had come from the Onion, or at least was a piece of satire. The North Brooklyn Boat Club and Newtown Creek Alliance will be "creating a park" at the end of 58th Road in Maspeth, along Newtown Creek in an area that is 100% heavy industry.

Let me take this opportunity to remind you, dear readers, that the boat club has been holding up the distribution of $7M in environmental funding for the past few years, some of which could have been used to get the ball rolling on the St. Saviour's ULURP. Their unwillingness to shit or get off the pot (along with the assistance of City Parks Foundation) led to Maspeth losing the opportunity to have a new park. However, Maspeth residents can take comfort in the fact that this phony environmental group is building itself a "destination public space" (aka kayak landing) on the Queens side of the Creek.

Oh, and one of the boathouse regulars got a $20,000 grant to paint a mural there... Yes, $20,000. For a mural. In industrial Maspeth. On Newtown Creek.

I wonder when the outreach portion of this project is going to happen considering that no one I have spoken with in Maspeth knows anything about this or asked for this project.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Because $7M for a boat club just isn't enough...

UPDATE: I was just reminded that the boathouse was the #3 vote-getter during the process. The Dutch Kills park was actually #1. So how did the boathouse vault to the top of the list? That needs to be investigated as well.


Besides the $7M from the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant settlement, Greenpoint is eligible for $19.5M from the Exxon oil spill settlement:

"The Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund is a $19.5 million grant program launched in 2011 by the NYS Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Environmental Conservation (the State). Funding for the GCEF was obtained by the State in a settlement with ExxonMobil over its Greenpoint oil spill. The overall goal of the GCEF is to secure significant environmental improvements in Greenpoint. More specifically, the GCEF is:
  • Designed to support projects that address the community’s environmental priorities, such as improving water quality, groundwater, open space, toxic pollution and air quality.
  • Committed to a transparent and objective process, and to engaging and partnering with the Greenpoint community. This includes ensuring the community has a direct, continuing role in guiding the GCEF’s development and implementation.
The State established a Greenpoint Community Advisory Panel (CAP) -- a group of Greenpoint residents, representatives of local organizations and elected officials -- to provide direct, ongoing input to the State on the GCEF. The CAP has played a central role in guiding the Fund's development and implementation, including helping to create the process used for selecting a General Administrator for the GCEF, as well as for soliciting, evaluating, and selecting projects to receive grant funding."

Some members of the advisory panel:
  • Christine Holowacz, GWAPP (sponsoring NBBC for Wastewater Treatment Plant money)
  • Dewey Thompson, North Brooklyn Boat Club
  • Gina Argento, builder of hotel where boathouse will be located
  • Kate Zidar, Newtown Creek Alliance (sponsoring NBBC for Wastewater Treatment Plant money)
  • Katie Denny, Open Space Alliance (sponsoring NBBC for Exxon settlement money)
  • Michael Heimbinder, Newtown Creek Alliance
  • Phillip Muesgaas, Riverkeeper (sharing office space with boat club)
  • Ronald Van Cooten, LaGuardia College (sharing programming with boat club)
What's wrong with this picture?  All of these people have a connection to the North Brooklyn Boat Club's boathouse project and they sit on an advisory board which will determine whether or not the project, which appears on the preliminary list 5 times, is worthy of funding. From the list of preliminary projects:
  • Green roof on boathouse
  • Additional funding for North Brooklyn boat club on Newtown Creek
  • Fund purchase of boats for, or building of boats at, boathouse being constructed with Newtown Creek EBP funds at GMDC
  • Expand boathouse to create youth employment via boat-building
  • Kayaking program for Bushwick Inlet
From July 2013 minutes:
A CAP member asked for clarification on whether the construction of new buildings would be considered an eligible project and the conversation turned to whether it would be helpful to produce a list of ineligible projects? The GA explained at this time it is impossible to say whether a specific proposal would be eligible or ineligible because that decision is based upon review process and screening factors described in the RFP. But the RFP will describe ineligible project types to receive funding from the GCEF. The GA agreed to create a checklist for prospective applications with ineligibility criteria. However, the GA pointed out that a proposal for construction of a new building would have to meet a very high bar to be considered eligible for funding. The building would have to provide multiple environmental benefits, funds could be provided for specific environmental enhancements associated with the building such as solar panels etc., the applicant would have to have site control, and provide a high match.
Interesting how they ask if construction of a new building will be covered, and then the following month, Gina Argento suddenly is added to the board.

From August 2013 conference call:
CAP Recruitment. Filip Stabrowski, NBDC, announced the addition of four new CAP members:
Gina Argento of Broadway Stages
Heidi Shea Springer of Greenpoint Gardens
Joanna Micek an Independent Consultant
Ronald VanCooten of LaGuardia College
This brings the total number of voting CAP members to 15.
(No minutes have been posted since October. The panel has monthly meetings.  There was a deadline of December 2013 for submission of grant proposals, but there has been no update as to which were submitted before the deadline.)

These are large grant pre-proposals:

**** Applicant: Open Space Alliance For North Brooklyn, Inc
Title: Greenpoint Marine Environmental Center (GMEC) (#42888)
Description: This project proposes a fully developed marine environmental education center near the mouth of Newtown Creek, to connect residents with the plethora of issues and conditions present in our local waterbodies. The center will be part of the 10,000 square foot Greenpoint Boathouse and Environmental Education Center. Location: 437 McGuinness Blvd. at Ash Street.
Grant Request: $135,000
Matching Funds: $112,500
Contact Information: Kurt Cavanaugh, gcef@osanb.org, (347) 842-7915

**** Applicant: Open Space Alliance For North Brooklyn, Inc
Title: Environmental Education Shed (ED Shed) (#42742)
Description: The ED Shed is a hands-on environmental educational and research outpost dedicated to establishing and elevating the connection between Greenpoint residents and their surrounding marine environs.
Location: The North Brooklyn Boat Club (NBBC) - 437 McGuinness Blvd. at Ash Street, Greenpoint. The Ed Shed is located 100 feet from the Newtown Creek shore and the North Brooklyn Boat Club floating dock.
Grant Request: $24,426 Matching Funds: $3,600
Contact Information: Kurt Cavanaugh, gcef@osanb.org, (347) 842-7915

**** Applicant: Open Space Alliance For North Brooklyn, Inc
Title: Floating Classrooms on Greenpoint's Waterways (#42037)
Description: The North Brooklyn Boat Club will expand environmental education on Greenpoint’s waterways through the purchase and deployment of two large canoes and the development of an educational curriculum.
Location: Greenpoint Grant Request: $24,693
Matching Funds: $25,000 Contact Information: Kurt Cavanaugh, gcef@osanb.org, (347) 842-7915

And all this conflict of interest was found on a website operated by 
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the NYSDEC.
Miss Heather has more on the phoniness of the organizations involved in this whole thing. It's definitely worth a read to those who are opposed to tweeding, which this is in its most blatant form.

It's time to BRING IN THE FEDS.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Fixup planned for B116th Street

From the Daily News:

The city plans to pump $500,000 into a vital shopping strip in Rockaway in an effort to overhaul blighted and storm-torn storefronts.

Merchants along Beach 116th St. — a gateway to the beach — will have access to grants for new awnings, signs and other improvements, officials said.

Deputy Mayor Robert Steel is expected to make the announcement Wednesday during a visit to Rockaway.

City Small Business Services Commissioner Robert Walsh said various city agencies are pitching in with planters, benches and better lighting to freshen up the strip.

Beach 116th St. has long struggled with shuttered shops and panhandlers from nearby halfway houses.

Many of the small business owners were hit doubly hard during Superstorm Sandy, suffering damage to their shops and homes.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Disaster relief reality show proposed to help Sandy victims

The Real Volunteers 04-26-13


"The last thing the world needs is another reality TV show, but this one is actually different. Attached is a 12 page proposal for a new reality show or series of shows related to the inside life of volunteerism and disaster relief:

The Real Volunteers of the Jersey Shore
The Real Volunteers of NY
The Real Volunteers - International Edition
and Volunteer Wars

If this show gets picked up and becomes widely viewed, it will certainly help to generate tens of millions of dollars in additional donations to victims of hurricane Sandy. Therefore anything each of us does to help get this show get to air will be an act of compassion for the suffering that is an everyday reality. This is not just great entertainment!" - Steve Major (the Arverne sinkhole guy)

Not a bad idea, especially since most people have chosen to stay and rebuild. And isn't it nice to know that months after the rescuers left, they're still thinking about us?

Then there's the guy who won't leave for a few months that has already forgotten about. From The Forum:

Reeling in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, people throughout South Queens dug into their pockets – into retirement funds, into savings for children’s college tuition, into all sorts of accounts that were never meant to be used for what they were: to replace roofs and heating systems, to rebuild basements once submerged in water, to begin to piece together unrecognizable houses and make them places that could, once again, be called home.

Then, months later, there came word that, for those who dipped into accounts that now seemed dangerously close to empty, federal funding could be making its way, slowly, to them. That the tens of thousands of dollars – or more – many spent on work not covered by insurance or the Federal Emergency Management Agency may not be lost, that perhaps relief would finally be heading their way.

For many in New York state, as well as New Jersey, this seems to be coming true. But, in Queens, and the other four boroughs, Mayor Bloomberg said earlier this month that he does not plan to use any of the $1.77 billion in federal hurricane aid to reimburse homeowners who already spent money on rebuilding their homes, arguing that it would open too many possibilities for fraud and that the money should go to those who have not been able to afford repairs yet.

While the mayor is insistent that reimbursements not occur, a number of area legislators are pushing the federal government to squelch Bloomberg’s plan – which they are authorized to do – and ensure homeowners see at least some money come their way.

“The mayor should not punish responsible homeowners who utilized their savings to make repairs in an effort to get back into their storm-damaged homes,” Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway) said. “Nearly 85 percent of my district, including my own home, was destroyed during Sandy and if homeowners and small businesses had waited more than six months for the city program to kick in, we would not have made any progress in recovery and there would be massive devastation throughout southern Queens and Rockaway.”

Goldfeder joined Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton) for a press conference on Sunday in Far Rockaway to urge Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan to use some of the $1.77 billion for reimbursement – a decision Goldfeder said the federal government could ostensibly make before it starts issuing payments around the end of May. HUD is administering the funding, though it is being allocated through the mayor’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief program. Additionally, the two legislators have sent a letter to Donovan on the matter, and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has also reached out to the HUD secretary in an effort to secure funding for reimbursements.


In other Sandy news...

From NY1:

New York state's plan clears the way for the allocation of federal housing funds for a total of $1.7 billion, which breaks down to about $838 million in housing money and $415 million in economic development funds.

That will include buyouts for some homeowners and reimbursements for repairs that have not already been paid for by FEMA.

"We're not just going to build back, we're going to build back better than before," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "With the funding we have in the supplemental, with the response that we've had from all levels of government, I think we're poised to do that."

The money is also expected to be used for small business grants to get stores and restaurants open in time for the upcoming summer tourism season.

This initial approval is only a small portion of the $60 billion in supplemental appropriation approved by the federal government earlier this year. New York state's share of that is $35 billion.

Much of that remaining money will go towards long term projects like hardening critical infrastructure and reimbursing local governments for overtime incurred during the storm.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

City helps legalize illegal contractors

From Crains:

For immigrant contractors working in Flushing, Queens, many of whom speak broken English at best, jobs have most often come from within their own Chinese community: remodeling one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments in the neighborhood, improving basements, perhaps adding patios or terraces to stand-alone homes. Many of the Mandarin-speaking craftsmen work without city licenses, risking fines of up to $250,000 if they're caught by city inspectors.

Since last year, the city's grant program has had the effect of helping to rein in the off-the-books workforce and encourage so-called micro-entrepreneurs—who work for themselves or employ up to five people full-time—to play by the rules.

Last year, the Queens Economic Development Corp. won a $100,000 grant from the city's Economic Development Corp. to establish a training program. The result: 130 contractors, many of whom worked illegally in the past, passed the licensing test in Mandarin.

"Some of our contractors have now been successful getting contracts throughout the city now that they have a license and entering the mainstream market," said Franklin Mora, deputy director of the Queens Economic Development Corp.

The grant to the Queens nonprofit that paid for the training program was won in a competition run by the city and funded by Deutsche Bank.