James loved hotel after campaign contributions

From DNA Info:

Letitia James received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions last year from two real estate entrepreneurs hoping to build a hotel on city land in Brooklyn — and just three days after pocketing their donations, she penned a glowing letter on their behalf to city officials deciding on the proposal, records show.

Macro Sea and 21c were competing against other developers for the right to build on land in Fort Greene overseen by the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Macro Sea and 21c proposed constructing and operating a boutique hotel with a 24-hour contemporary art museum on the site known as BAM North II.

In Letitia James' missive, written on her City Council letterhead, she addressed Belt but sent it to then-HPD commissioner Mathew Wambua, whose agency would ultimately choose the wining proposal. The letter was included in Macro Sea and 21c's proposal package, which they formally submitted to HPD on Feb. 1, 2013.

James also sent a copy of the letter to Robert Steel, the city's then-deputy mayor for economic development, and to then-Borough President Marty Markowitz.

"A 21c Museum Hotel, with its unique sense of design and community involvement, would be a great addition to New York City and the borough," wrote James, who as a councilwoman represented the area up for development.

James added that the hotel "would bring a new energy to the burgeoning creative character of the surrounding area, and will support neighborhood institutions." She also wrote that the hotel "would bring much needed jobs to the local workforce."

Just days before sending the letter, James received $3,000 from Belt on Jan. 10 and Jan. 11, according to campaign finance records. Greenberg also donated $1,000 to her campaign on Jan. 8, records show. Belt also gave $1,000 to James' campaign on June 23, 2012.

James spokeswoman Aja Davis said in a statement that the public advocate did not make choices based on campaign donations.

James' support for the hotel was surprising because the need for more housing in the city had been a central theme of her campaign.

Bloomberg wants boondoggle projects to be his legacy

From the NY Times:

The Bloomberg administration has been pushing through more than $12 billion worth of real estate projects in its waning days, trying to solidify the mayor’s claim to having transformed the face of New York City and lock in plans before Bill de Blasio takes over Jan. 1.

The gusher of projects recently approved or on track for approval in Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s final days include an outlet mall and a giant observation wheel on Staten Island, totaling $580 million, and a relatively modest $16 million building in Manhattan with 55 experimental micro-apartments, as well as a $2 billion residential complex on the Brooklyn waterfront and the country’s largest indoor skating complex, to be built in the Bronx.

Mr. Bloomberg has sought to remake the city’s landscape for the 21st century, pushing for higher-density development and higher-quality design and opening up the city’s vast waterfront to new residential, recreational and commercial uses. Nearly 40 percent of the city has been rezoned during the mayor’s 12 years in office.

The man spearheading the efforts, the deputy mayor Robert K. Steel, and other officials have made it clear to the City Council, as well as to the real estate and construction industries, that they are determined to finish public reviews for a number of “legacy projects” before Mr. Bloomberg leaves office.

The projects, which will begin construction well after Mayor-elect de Blasio takes office in January, also bind the new mayor to the old mayor’s agenda, at least for a while. By Dec. 31, some projects, like a $1.2 billion Hudson Yards office tower and a $1.7 billion Hunter College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center complex, will have reached the point that they cannot be stopped or modified.

Others, like a soccer stadium in the Bronx, a Coney Island amphitheater and a residential complex at the former Domino sugar factory in Brooklyn, could still be halted or changed. The Domino project has won widespread support, but Mr. de Blasio has expressed “serious concerns” about a proposed $350 million soccer stadium near Yankee Stadium because the Bloomberg administration planned to provide the soccer team’s wealthy owners with public resources, including tax exemptions.

The Bloomberg administration has also granted tax breaks worth tens of millions of dollars for the first phase of the $3 billion Willets Point project in Queens, for a proposed office tower on the West Side of Manhattan and for the outlet mall on Staten Island.

“They made no secret about the fact that they’re working very hard to lock in a number of major projects for the future,” said Brad Lander, a councilman from Brooklyn. “De Blasio said everything will be reviewed. But some things can be reviewed and changed more than others.”

For his part, Mr. de Blasio, who was the city’s public advocate before being elected mayor, opposed few projects during the Bloomberg era and embraced the notion of high-density development near transit centers. But he has made it clear that he will drive a harder bargain with developers to get the best deal for taxpayers.

Sure he will.

CB7's Willets Point cave-in like deja vu all over again

From the Daily News:

A proposed mega-mall next to CitiField might have gone down to defeat Monday night but for a bottom-of-the-ninth set of promises from the developer to skeptical Community Board 7 officials.

The board’s land-use committee had already rejected the city’s plan for a 1.4-million-square-foot shopping mall on what is currently the baseball stadium parking lot, but the committee changed its vote — and the full board followed suit hours later — after Deputy Mayor Robert Steel and the developer, the Queens Development Group, promised in writing that the board would get increased oversight over the project.

“I changed my vote because of the papers in front of me,” CB7 Chairman Eugene Kelty said of the promises. “We have people in place that have signed letters and I’m comfortable with it.”

If Kelty and Land Use Chairman Charles Apelian — who voted down the mall at the committee level last week — held their stance, the board would have been deadlocked.

If this sounds like something you heard back in 2008, it is. Back then, CB7 voted "yes" with almost the same set of conditions. The EDC never gave CB7 additional oversight and never came through on any of the other promises.

From 2008:

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.

More broken promises at city construction site

From the Daily News:

Unions and community groups are calling on the Bloomberg Administration to halt construction work at the City Point mega-project.

The city should stop the massive downtown Brooklyn development at DeKalb and Flatbush Aves. while it does a new study of the impact of low wages developers are paying, the groups said.

“We know that construction workers are being paid poverty wages at City Point and they are not getting any benefits,” said Terry Moore of Metallic Ironworkers Local 46.

Workers are being paid $15 per hour at the 1.6 million-square-foot residential and commercial development, the advocates charged — which adds up to $22,500 per year, below the city’s poverty level for a family of four.

“Brooklyn’s middle class is under attack and this project is a major portion of the assault,” the groups’ lawyer Thomas Kennedy wrote in a March 4 letter to Deputy Mayor Robert Steel.

Bloomberg Adminstration spokeswoman Julie Wood called City Point “a linchpin for revitalization in downtown Brooklyn” but did not address charges of poverty-level wages.

You may recall this was another eminent domain deal that was supposed to provide great jobs, parkland, etc.  It's funny how the outcome is NEVER what's promised?  When will we stop believing the hype?

City designs system to save developers money

From Crains:

In a move designed to streamline the hugely cumbersome process by which developers apply to get their projects approved, the Department of City Planning rolled out a new system that will make things easier, faster and more predictable.

"This is a total transformation of how we review all land-use applications," said City Planning Director Amanda Burden. "We think it will foster growth in the city and get projects in the ground faster."

Dubbed BluePRint, which stands for Business Process Reform, the new system will be used in what is known as projects' pre-certification review period, during which they undergo complex environmental and land-use analyses. That process can drag on for several years — if not longer. Following that, projects enter the formal city public review known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which typically takes another six months or so.

Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, who played a key role in the creation of BluePRint, announced its launch Thursday morning at a forum sponsored by the Association for a Better New York. The system will go live July 2, and by the time it is fully implemented in about two years, it is expected to allow City Planning to review two-thirds of all applications 25% to 50% faster than it does today. What's more, the streamlining is expected to save developers up to $100 million annually in various costs.

"Streamlining the review of development applications is exactly what New York City needs to build upon the economic progress we've made and help us prepare for the future," Mr. Steel said, in a statement. "More development means more jobs for New Yorkers, and BluePRint simplifies the way applications are reviewed so those jobs can be created as soon as possible."

A nice place to represent, but they wouldn't want to live here

From the Daily News:

Deputy Mayor Robert Steel insists he lives in the city - but his wife, his Porsche, his Mercedes-Benz, his Lexus and his four yappy dogs all live in Connecticut.

"Where would you rather live if you were a dog?" Steel asked when the Daily News confronted him in the driveway of his extravagant Greenwich mansion. "I'd rather live here."

City law requires all top city officials to live in the city.

Although most major unions have negotiated the right for members to live in the suburbs, Mayor Bloomberg issued an executive order insisting that top officials - except those granted a waiver - reside in the city.

Just 32 employees have been granted that waiver. Steel never requested one.

That means he had 90 days to move to New York after becoming deputy mayor for economic development in August 2010.

Also from the Daily News:

The city official charged with fixing the problem-plagued $2 billion upgrade of our 911 emergency response system has been doing much of his work from home - in sunny Florida.

Glen (Skip) Funk, the man Mayor Bloomberg appointed in August 2010 to a $200,000-a-year post as director of the Office of Citywide Emergency Communications, still lists an address in St. Augustine, Fla., as his legal residence.

Property records show Funk and his wife are receiving a $50,000 "homesteading" tax exemption Florida grants to residents who claim a property as their primary home.

In addition, Florida voter records show Funk and his wife both cast ballots in that state's election last November - more than two months after he started his new job for New York City.

Bloomberg's take?

"He lives in the city. What is your evidence? What are the allegations? Why do you try to assassinate somebody?" Bloomberg demanded.

Queens residents may be able to shop more easily in the meatpacking district

From the NY Times:

If the third section [of the High Line] is completed, it will end near the terminus of the extended No. 7 subway line, said Robert K. Steel, the deputy mayor for economic development. People could ride the subway from Queens, then walk the High Line through Chelsea to the meatpacking district, said Mr. Steel, who recently became a resident of Chelsea, just a block from the High Line.

So who along the 7 line in Queens is dying to do this? A show of hands, please...