Gerrymandering Nikki

 

 NY Post

Democrats who control the state Legislature are plotting to knock off Rep. Nicole Malliotakis — the only Republican member of New York City’s congressional delegation — by redrawing a legislative district to add liberal Brooklyn precincts to her Republican stronghold, sources told The Post Wednesday night.

The Democrat’s plan would drastically alter the 11th congressional district, which combines Staten Island, her political base, with some more conservative areas of southern Brooklyn, including Bay Ridge, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights.

Under the redistricting plan that would go into effect for elections later this year, the district would include Bay Ridge but then snake northwest and take in the more heavily liberal Democratic neighborhoods of Sunset Park, Red Hook, Gowanus, Windsor Terrace and Park Slope, legislative sources said.

“Those are big Democratic areas,” one legislative source said.

Legislative insiders said if a Democratic candidate can run up the score with 80 percent of the vote in the Brooklyn side of the district, he or she can win by capturing about 40 percent in more conservative Staten Island.

The 11th CD is considered a purple or bellwether district as currently constituted. 

 Malliotakis defeated one-term Democratic incumbent Max Rose in the 2020 elections, aided by a strong showing by former President Trump in the district. Rose is seeking the Democratic nominations again in a potential rematch.

Brooklyn Democrat Assemblyman Robert Carroll, whose district takes in all of Park Slope and who graduated from Xaverian HS in Bay Ridge and has family roots there, has told politicos he is considering running for the redrawn congressional seat, sources said.

The Democratic primary also includes Democratic socialist Brittany Ramos DeBarros, who, like Rose, is an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan.

Malliotakis told The Post she’s a victim of a partisan hit job. 

“The people of this district and the state of New York voted not once, but twice, for non-partisan redistricting. To gerrymander a blatantly partisan map dilutes the voice of my constituents, defies the will of New York’s voters, and is a direct assault on the state constitution,” Malliotakis said.

Queens borough president hired Brooklyn civic

  

Park Slope Civic Council 

Michael Mallon serves as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. In this role, Michael oversees the Borough President’s Civic Engagement Committee, a consortium of nonprofit and civic leaders who volunteer their time to educate members of the public on ranked choice voting, redistricting and reapportionment, and other matters of concern for New York City voters. The Committee was instrumental in driving up NYC’s Census 2020 response rate. Previously, Michael served as Communications Director for the NYC Council’s Finance Chair. Michael has helped thousands of Queens residents overcome workplace and housing discrimination, immigration issues, domestic violence and other concerns. 

This is an odd hire. Donnie couldn't find anybody in the world's borough at all? I guess Mike doesn't mind long commutes, I bet he drives. Queens gets the money and the cronies.

The other dope from Park Slope wins comptroller seat

 

Brooklyn Paper 

Brooklyn Councilmember Brad Lander officially secured his role as the city’s next comptroller, cruising to a a commanding 70-30 percent margin in the Nov. 2 general election against Republican long-shot candidate Daby Carreras. 

At an Election Night watch party at Threes Brewing in Gowanus, Lander thanked supporters and vowed to carry out his campaign promises of fighting for a more equitable city. 

“New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly for a just and equitable recovery, a thriving city that works for all neighborhoods, and one that’s more prepared for crises to come. As New York City’s next Comptroller — our budget watchdog, pension fiduciary, and chief accountability officer — I’ll fight hard every day to build that city,” Lander said in a statement. 

Lander also used his speech to vow to divest city pension funds from fossil fuels, bring accountability to city agencies, and ensure COVID-19 economic aid was spent equitably in every corner of the city.

“New Yorkers in every single neighborhood can go to sleep at night knowing they’ve got a New York City that looks out for them,” he said.

Lander, 52, has represented Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Cobble Hill, and parts of Kensington and Borough Park in the City Council since 2010, garnering a reputation as one of the most far-left elected officials in New York City. He ran on progressive credentials in the crowded primary race for comptroller with endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the New York Times Editorial Board, trouncing other candidates who emphasized their financial expertise rather than ideological politics. 

Park Slope residents speak out against homeless shelters

News 12 Brooklyn

 
Community members in Park Slope are pushing back against a plan to build two homeless shelters a block away from each other.

The proposed shelters, which will consist mainly of single women with children, will be located at 555 and 535 Fourth Ave. The city wants to spread shelters more evenly across the boroughs.
Neighbors contest that the city hasn't properly planned for integrating the homeless families into the community. Community members have created a petition against the plan and have received nearly 800 signatures.

One resident opposed to the plan says the city needs to address what's going to happen to the families once they move in.

The two shelters will be run by the nonprofit group Win. President and CEO Christine Quinn tells News 12 helping these families get back on their feet is instrumental in solving the city's homeless crisis.

This is too, too funny. The city has been pulling these overnight homeless shelter stunts for 6 years in Queens (and also the Bronx) and now that it's finally come to their area they are aghast. Looks like their neighbor Mayor doesn't need their support any more either,

Defiant hypocrite de Blasio jacks up the rents on his Park Slope homes

Politico



Despite calling for rent freezes for the city's roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, Mayor Bill de Blasio continued to raise rents on several properties he owns in Park Slope, new figures obtained by POLITICO show.
 
The mayor and his wife have increased the monthly rent on one of the units in a two-family house they own to $2,850 last year, from $2,400 in 2009. The increases came in $50 and $75 increments annually, according to a City Hall source who would speak only on background. They raised the other unit's rent by $25 to $1,825 in June of 2015.

They charge $4,500 for their primary residence, which they left in 2014 to move into Gracie Mansion. The two row houses, worth a combined $3.7 million according to city assessments, are on 11th Street in Park Slope.
 
The City Hall source would not explain why the mayor raised his own rents while pushing for a rent freeze from the city's Rent Guidelines Board, which has ruled for two years against increases on one-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments. Several years ago, a previous City Hall spokeswoman said the mayor charged his tenants more when he made home improvements.
 
The mayor's properties are not part of the state's rent-stabilization program, so he is not subject to the board's decisions and is free to charge whatever he wants.
 
That de Blasio as a private landlord has increased his rents by modest percentages is unremarkable, were it not for his influence over the board. He appoints the board's nine members and has publicly urged a rent freeze since taking office. He also has taken credit for the 2015 and 2016 rent freezes — running city-funded ads, holding rallies and reminding voters about them as he runs for re-election this year.

Coming soon to a streetscape near you?

From Brownstoner:

Another building is set to sprout up on 4th Avenue in Park Slope.

Renderings spotted outside 269 4th Avenue display a 12-story u-shaped building, with what might be an open courtyard on the ground level.

The most striking feature are two twin cantilevered sections on the top five floors, which loom over the three-story building next door at 265 4th Avenue. The top four floors appear to have balconies, and there will be additional rooftop recreation space open to all residential tenants, according to a permit application filed with the Department of Buildings.

Is this really the direction we want architecture to go in?

REBNY and City Planning continue damage control effort

Deconstructing REBNY-speak in Crains:

In an effort to tamp down the hysteria, city planning czar Carl Weisbrod extended the comment period in April and this month wrote a letter conveying the goals of the proposal, which he described as "promoting affordable housing and better quality buildings." Last night his agency posted profiles to clarify what the rezoning would mean for each of the city's 59 community districts. And it is chopping 10 feet off height limits proposed for some residential districts so that 95% of medium- and high-density contextually zoned areas would see height limits increase by five feet or less, or by one or two stories if affordable housing is included.

Contextual zoning protections were strengthened during the Bloomberg administration to prevent out-of-scale development, such as a six-story apartment building in the middle of a block of two-story homes. The effect was to limit the potential for more density across much of the city, which was already coping with housing growth insufficient to meet increasing demand to live in the city.

Contextual zoning does not limit the potential for more density across much of the city. First of all, only about 17% of the city was contextually rezoned over the last decade. Second, much of that was balanced through MASSIVE UPZONINGS in the Far West Side, Williamsburg/Greenpoint, Jamaica, LIC and other areas.

While the Bloomberg rezoning pushed up property values in the downzoned areas, tenants of market-rate housing saw rents climb. Housing costs have drastically outstripped wage increases for low-income and working-class New Yorkers in the last decade.

The contextual rezonings DID NOT push up property values in downzoned areas. There was no net change in property values. Rents are climbing due to an unregulated market of housing.

But the contextual zoning does more than just freeze the scale of neighborhoods. In many cases it makes it difficult for architects to fit all the square footage permitted by zoning into building envelopes constricted by height limits. Builders have compensated by making ceilings low or excluding affordable units.

This statement is straight out of REBNY, literally. They have to make ceilings low??? No: they can make ceilings the 8' minimum or they can raise them up if they choose.

On built-out blocks in neighborhoods such as Park Slope, the effect of the de Blasio plan, unveiled in February, would be minimal—first, because there’s no money to be made by tearing down a building to erect one that is five feet taller, and second, because historic districts are under the jurisdiction of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which is not in the habit of approving the demolition of stately row houses.

Most of Park Slope is NOT landmarked. And that extra five feet could be the difference in building an extra floor on existing buildings.

Take a look at the illustration above. This gives you an idea of what the administration is hoping to accomplish with this proposed rezoning. Instead of "existing" being a low-rise senior facility, imagine a row of 4-5 low-rise homes. They will be bought up by developers and replaced with 65' monster buildings under the guise of "affordable senior housing". It's all bunk and I'm glad there are some people in this town that are calling BDB and his crew out on it.

Because Park Slope needed more protection...

From the NY Times:

Park Slope, already home to the biggest historic district in Brooklyn, now contains the largest contiguous swath of protected buildings in the entire city.

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a 600-property extension to the Park Slope Historic District on Tuesday, creating an unbroken stretch of 2,575 buildings — more than the historic districts in Greenwich Village (2,315 buildings) and the Upper West Side (2,020 buildings).

The Park Slope Historic District Extension includes all or part of about 40 blocks in the southeast corner of the neighborhood, most of them along Seventh and Eighth Avenues between Seventh and 15th Streets. Two pieces of the extension border Prospect Park.

The buildings — most of them row houses — in the extension were mostly completed by 1910. The most numerous are in the “neo-Grec” style, though there are many other styles represented.