Mayor Adams appoints another person with no firefighting experience to be FDNY commissioner

  

NY Post

Security firm CEO Robert Tucker will be named the next commissioner of the FDNY on Monday, sources told The Post Sunday night.

Tucker, who leads security giant T&M as CEO and chairman, is expected to get the nod from Mayor Eric Adams to replace Laura Kavanagh after she stepped down earlier this month amid multiple controversies and tension with the department over her leadership.

Tucker, who was widely seen as a top contender for the job, also sits on the board of the FDNY Foundation and has long circled the FDNY during his career dating back decades, though he has never served as a firefighter. 

He once described himself as a “fire buff” dating back to his childhood. 

“When I was a young boy growing up in Manhattan, I was a fire buff,” Tucker said, according to a FDNY Foundation spotlight. “I used to chase fire engines on my bicycle. I had the opportunity to meet Commissioner [Joseph] Spinnato and I told him about my interest in the Department.”

Spinnato served as commissioner for the department for some of the 1980s.

As a teenager, he worked in the FDNY’s Manhattan Communications Office, which he called the “best job offer I would ever receive.”

A graduate of George Washington University and Pace University School of Law, Tucker worked as a special assistant to the Queens District Attorney’s Office for years before he joined T&M in 1999, according to the member spotlight.

The security firm has been in business since 1981 and focuses on providing integrated security, cyber, intelligence and investigative solutions, according to its website.

 No one will ever be worse than Lithium-ion Laura but appointing a guy who's basically an FDNY groupie doesn't bode well for this town either. Tucker is the second guy who ran a security corporation Mayor Adams hired to lead a department. The other one being Phil Banks, although Adams made up a deputy mayor position and an office of public safety for him that which makes him a defacto police commissioner of the NYPD

AOC funds the mercenaries

 

NY Post  

 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez paid thousands for personal security to a former Blackwater contractor, a review of Federal Election Commission records shows.

AOC’s campaign dropped at least $4,636 at Tullis Worldwide Protection for “security services” between January and June of this year according to the filings.

The Franconia, Virginia-based company is owned by Devin Tullis, whose other clients include the royal families of both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to his website.

AOC has been among the most vocal proponents of the defund the police movement since coming to Congress, and has insisted the idea would turn blighted communities into suburban paradises.

“[Suburban] communities have lower crime rates not because they have more police but because they have more resources to support healthy society in a way that reduces crime,” she said in a June 2020 Instagram story.

 When New York City moved to defund a billion dollars from the NYPD, Ocasio-Cortez slammed the measure as insufficient. “Defunding police means defunding police,” the congresswoman said in a statement at the time.

In addition to Blackwater, Tullis also worked as a bail enforcement officer, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He refused to get into the specifics of his contract with the congresswoman, but said he frequently hired former military and law enforcement for protection jobs with VIPs — noting the gig wasn’t for the faint of heart.

“We’re not hiring social workers,” he laughed.

Dumb de Blasio statement of the day

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio won’t be using the Second Ave. subway for his daily commute because it’s not as convenient as getting to his Brooklyn gym in his taxpayer funded NYPD SUV, he told reporters Monday.

“Think about the route to Brooklyn [from Gracie Mansion], then to City Hall,” de Blasio said when asked about his subway habits.

He added, “I'm going to be doing exactly what I’m doing — going to my home neighborhood [Park Slope] in the morning, and then going to City Hall from there.”
___________________

Yes, indeed. Think about that route when you could be attending a gym on the upper east side or even install one inside Gracie Mansion.

And this is all you need to know about the logic of the Dope from Park Slope.

US Open closes Queens Museum

From the Daily News:

The Queens Museum is shutting its doors for the rest of the U.S. Open because of increased security for the popular tennis tournament, officials announced Friday.

The museum is located next to the sprawling USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

"Due to the heightened security for the tennis tournament, access to the Museum is affected," the museum wrote in a message on its website. "As such, we will be closed from Saturday, Sept. 3 until the September 11 conclusion of the tournament."

The Museum tweeted the news around 7:30 a.m.

Maspeth shelter provider's history of protecting the homeless and communities is abysmal

The shelter "service provider" for the Maspeth Holiday Inn is Acacia Network.

If you're opposed to the shelter in Maspeth then you need to read the following very carefully, because Mayor de Blasio will be sending this your way in less than 60 days.

From State Senator Ruben Diaz:

You should know that this past Friday, November 13, 2015, a woman who resides at the homeless shelter located at 941 Intervale Avenue, Bronx, New York, was reportedly stabbed by a resident of the same shelter. The shelter, which is run by Acacia Network is across the street, right in front of my District Office.

According to reports and statements people have given me, the perpetrator was caught on tape breaking the security cameras in the homeless shelter during the weekend (November 7 - 8) before Friday’s stabbing.

The assailant’s vandalism did not come to Acacia’s attention until Monday, November 9, because no one on Acacia’s staff took a look at the cameras over the weekend. On Tuesday, November 10th, Acacia’s staff reported the destroyed cameras to the police, providing copies of the video tapes to the 41st Precinct, with footage of the suspect smashing the security cameras.

Even though Acacia gave this information to the police, the perpetrator was not questioned or arrested until after Friday’s stabbing took place.

The family shelter residents at 941 Intervale Avenue went unprotected for a whole week without their building’s security cameras working, and with no one to check for their safety.
__________________________________________________________________________

From Crains:

In March, the Department of Investigation issued a blistering report about odious conditions at cluster sites citywide, including at facilities run by two of the organizations soon to win new contracts, Acacia Network and Bushwick Economic Development Corp., known as BEDCO.

“At the time of the inspection, one elevator was broken and stuck on the sixth floor,” the report said of an Acacia site. “The other had a large puddle of urine on the floor.” It noted a broken window with glass strewn across the hallway of the facility for homeless families.

The poor conditions have been corrected, Acacia said in a statement.

The city paid $95 a night, on average, for the Acacia apartments — two to three times what market-rate tenants pay in those neighborhoods, according to the report from Department of Investigations Commissioner Mark Peters.
__________________________________________________________________________

From QNS:

On Feb. 11, police responded to a call of a dispute among shelter roommates. A woman struck her roommate with a metal object and was placed under arrest, Fortune said.

Officers brought her to Weill Cornell Medical Center, the medical school at Cornell University, to be treated. While police were escorting the woman out of the ambulance, Fortune said, she became “very aggressive” and headbutted an officer, who sustained minor injuries.

Because the woman was arrested, police were responsible for watching her until she was released, he said. The next day, the patient became aggressive again and hit an officer with a metal IV pole and kicked him several times.

Police were called to the shelter again on Feb. 12 when a resident who refused to go through the metal detector broke the device. She then proceeded to throw chairs and soda bottles in the lobby. The woman was arrested and transported to Weill Cornell Medicine for a psychiatric evaluation.

Fortune also added that police have had to respond to calls of residents trying to hurt themselves and a chronic 911 call from someone who has repeatedly reported that a woman was stabbed inside the shelter. The precinct has also received complaints of women harassing store owners in the area.

District Manager Florence Koulouris, who attends monthly community advisory meetings with staff at the shelter, said there have also been issues with “aggressive panhandling.” Some women at the shelter frequently steal from a local pharmacy and businesses in the area, she said. Acacia Network, the service providers for the shelter, said its security staff would do roving car patrols to monitor the women when they are out of the shelter but have not been doing an adequate job, according to Koulouris.

“The problem is we’ve been getting a lot of excuses [from Acacia Network] because [they always say] there are problems with the vehicle, the vehicle is in the shop,” Koulouris said. “Supposedly they’re using private unmarked cars for this which is completely unacceptable because the patients of The Verve … they don’t see the cars. Their awareness is down and they tend to act inappropriate.”

Fortune said he has been in contact with Acacia Network to discuss the two recent violent incidents, which they were unaware of.

“They should know what’s going on over there,” Fortune said. “When I told them some of these incidents, they had no idea that this was even happening. In fact, they asked me for names of who was involved.”
_________________________________________________________________________

From the Queens Chronicle

“The reports from the 114th Precinct are disconcerting,” City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) said in a statement. “I have voiced my concerns about the shelter to the Department of Homeless Services and the Administration.”

Van Bramer added he was particularly troubled by reports that the provider of services at the shelter, Acacia Network, had not been doing adequate neighborhood patrols.

“The Administration has confirmed to my office that they will be adding additional security officers at the Verve shelter,” he said.

Not long after the shelter opened, officials acknowledged some concerns had been raised about overcrowding and residents loitering outside the building. But local business owners have also complained that residents have been harassing them and causing disturbances.

Jeff Franco, who works at the nearby LIC Deli & Grocery, said there have been instances of the women fighting, panhandling and stealing from the store. Those sorts of things can make others in the neighborhood, including tourists staying in hotels, hesitant to shop there, he said.

“Your business goes down because people don’t feel like coming here,” he said.

Ali, who works at the Saz Deli & Grocery on 31st Street but declined to give his last name, said he had called police on more than one occasion after incidents involving women from the shelter.

“They give me too much of a hard time,” he said.

According to Koulouris, Acacia is supposed to conduct neighborhood patrols in a marked car. But the service provider has said recently the car was out of service and it was instead doing patrols in private, unmarked vehicles.

Koulouris called that “unacceptable” and said there should be a visible security presence in the community. On a recent Saturday, a white SUV marked Sera Security could be seen outside the shelter.

Nevertheless, Koulouris said, Acacia made a promise to take care of its clients and be a good neighbor in the community.

“Right now, Acacia is not being a good neighbor,” she said.

__________________________________________________________________________

From the Bronx Chronicle:

Community members are outraged after a former Bronx motel turned homeless shelter has two registered sex offenders living in the facility.

The former hot-sheets motel, Capri-Whitestone, known for it’s blood stained mattresses and bed bugs closed last year with the hope from community members that it would be developed into something that would accompany Donald Trump’s new golf course. Instead, the motel was turned over to Acacia Network, a non-profit organization that opened the building as a homeless shelter for families.

However, there are currently two registered sex offenders, Curtis Bolden and James Bryant who are listed as living at the shelter.

According to the NY State Division of Criminal Justice website (a publicly accessible website), Curtis Bolden was convicted in 1980 for raping two women. James Bryant was convicted in 2004 for aggressive sexual assault of a 7 year old child. Bolden is listed a level 3 offender while Bryant is a level 2 offender.

A level 3 offender is considered at high risk of repeat offenses and a threat to public safety, as stated by the NY State Division of Criminal Justice website.
_________________________________________________________________________

Why does the de Blasio administration insist on entering into contracts with a provider that has a documented terrible history? Who else out there can totally fail at their work and get rewarded with more work?

Supposedly transparent mayor issued secret shelter order

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio personally banned the opening of new shelters in 2014 because of community backlash — and instead told officials to put homeless families in less secure hotels like the one where a mom and two kids were slaughtered Wednesday on Staten Island, The Post has learned.

De Blasio issued the edict during a meeting with Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Lilliam Barrios-Paoli and Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Gilbert Taylor — both of whom later resigned amid the growing homeless crisis, a DHS official said.

“They started pushing us to put clients in commercial hotels because they didn’t want to notify the people in the communities,” the DHS source said.

“When you open up a shelter, you have to notify the community, City Council members, officials, and people get upset. [De Blasio] had opened a lot of shelters that fall and was afraid of opening more. So he started opening up these hotels.”

De Blasio sent senior policy adviser Lincoln Restler to work with DHS on the hotel program, but Restler ignored senior staffers’ fears that the hotels could endanger homeless residents, the DHS source said.

“These commercial hotels don’t have adequate security, and [city officials] know that,” the source explained. “Regular shelters do. [Many] have full-body metal detectors. A boyfriend can’t just walk in and go to his girlfriend’s room if he doesn’t live there.”

Does Fort Totten need better security?

From WPIX:

There is a call for increased security at New York’s military reserve bases.

For example, Fort Totten in Queens can have hundreds of army reservists training there on any given day but there are no armed guards at a checkpoint.

Fort Totten’s director of operations, Mac Harris, is worried. “To me, it’s just a matter of time,” he said.​ “We are just like sitting ducks here. Just waiting for something to happen.”

According to Congressman Steve Israel, armed guards were cut at Fort Totten in 2009. It was a budget cut.

Now it’s FDNY officers on light duty checking motorists’ identification. Pedestrians and bikers can walk right in.

Knockown Center hosts porn event [NSFW]

It was a very interesting Friday night in Maspeth last week...

Here we are at the Knockdown Center. Approaching the venue, it looks innocent enough.

Nice sized crowd. This looks like it may be one of those wholesome educational activities that Maspeth has been promised by the guy that owns this place.

Oh, wait, no... "Hedonists". That word popped up a lot in online references to this event.

And there we are. The original photo was NOT blurred.

It's funny how Dizzy Lizzy Crowley never mentioned "porn" while lobbying for this place to get a liquor license.

As per Crowley and the folks that run the place, we were supposed to be getting an "arts center" along the lines of PS1 and MoMA. When are these types of events scheduled at those institutions? I keep missing them.

Originally, I figured the mention of BJs in the bathroom referred to something depicted in the slideshow.

But then I discovered that this place only has one built bathroom. So who knows what goes on inside it?

Ladies, would you feel comfortable sharing this space with young men drinking alcohol?


Aaaand this photo brings up an interesting question. Since the place is still under construction, it needs a temporary place of assembly permit to host large crowds of people. So which pencil pusher at DOB thought it was okay to allow them to keep gigantic boulders in the aisles, blocking the paths of egress?

And they plan to have the boulders sitting there during next week's rap concerts, which are expected to draw 5x the number of attendees. From Bushwick Daily:

Upcoming art shows include “Sound and Fury,” an exhibition of large scale sculpture works by Joel Shapiro, Richard Nonas and more, curated by Clocktower Gallery...The show will be up and running during the MIA show, allowing for a very unique opportunity for concert and rave goers to interact with fine art sculptures.

Interact? How about break their necks? And management swore up and down to CB5 that they would never have a "rave" event at the Knockdown Center. So much for that.

From the Queens Chronicle:

Meanwhile, the temporary liquor permits the center sought for the two concerts to be played by popular Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A., scheduled for May 8 and 9, were denied by the SLA.

Thank goodness for small favors!

After nearly 30 minutes of testimony and questioning, the State Liquor Authority decided to give the operators of the Knockdown Center, the controversial arts and events venue at 52-19 Flushing Ave. in Maspeth, until the close of business on April 29 to submit additional paperwork concerning security at large events.

The facility is also seeking a permit to host up to 5,000 people at a time.

A vote on the center’s liquor license application will occur at the agency’s next board meeting, on May 6.

Terrence Flynn, the attorney representing the Knockdown Center at the hearing, asked for an adjournment from the board to allow more time for the center’s owners to formulate a comprehensive security report and to allow for a meeting with the 104th Precinct.

“I would ask to leave the record open for two weeks to provide a complete security report and to have a meeting with the precinct,” Flynn said. “If we can control the numbers of people that at these events, then we can satisfy the community’s and precinct’s concerns.”

Area civic activist Christina Wilkinson testified that young children are believed to be living at the center illegally, an allegation which Flynn denied.

“I know of no children occupying this building at all,” he said.

Records reveal that complaints about illegal occupancy have been lodged since 2011, but the owner has not responded to requests for inspection.

And this place has been hosting events since 2012 and just decided to come up with a comprehensive security plan? And everyone is supposed to be okay with that, I suppose.

God help us all.

Security cameras coming...eventually

From the Queens Courier:

Police will install new sets of eyes in parts of Briarwood, Jamaica and Pomonok, according to a Queens lawmaker.

Seventeen NYPD security cameras are coming to the area’s high-traffic locations thanks to $600,000 in funding secured by Councilmember James Gennaro.

They can be found around Rufus King Park in Jamaica, near Archbishop Molloy High School and along Hillside Avenue, Jamaica Avenue and Parsons Boulevard, officials said.

Installation is slated to be completed by the city’s police department within two years.

It takes 2 years to install cameras?

Bakery worker and pal busted making forged IDs

From the Daily News:

A Brooklyn bakery worker who sold cakes and pastries also ran a half-baked side business that offered forged ID cards, prosecutors charged Thursday.

Jose Mateo Castro, 56, who worked at Las Conchitas Bakery in Sunset Park, was recently indicted, along with Leonel Escamiilo, 43, who is accused of producing the phony IDs out of his basement. Authorities said they sold a bogus green card and Social Security card to an informant.

"According to the agents at Homeland Security, these documents looked so authentic that an ordinary lay person could not detect them to be phony," said Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. The feds were tipped off about a forged-ID-selling baker in summer 2011. A subsequent yearlong probe involved surveillance from cars and a helicopter, Hynes said.

The two suspects, who are being held on bail, face seven years in prison if convicted, followed by deportation to their native Mexico.

Rockaway Beach a victim of its own success

From the Daily News:

About 7 million people visited the beaches in Rockaway this year, more than double the number of recent years, according to city figures.

They were lured by the waves, sand and a new batch of groumet foods available at the boardwalk concessions.

But while the crowds are good for businesss, local officials said, they are also stretching the already thin police and parks resources to the breaking point.

“We are finally getting what we want,” said John Lepore, president of the Rockaway Chamber of Commerce. “But the maintenance could not keep up. We need to clean up more often and have more security.”

Community Board 14 fired off a letter to Mayor Bloomberg last week, asking him to increase the number of police and parks workers assigned to monitor Rockaway beaches.

They pointed out the boardwalk is still battered from years of use and storms and there are not enough ramps to make the beach accessible to everyone.

“Our beaches are dirty at times due to the shortage of an adequate amount of garbage baskets,” Community Board 14 District Manager Jonathan Gaska wrote in the letter on behalf of the board. “We are also deeply concerned with the lack of adequate police staffing during the summer season.”

The board does give the Parks Department credit for working “miracles” with limited resources but said the administrative “sleight of hand” no longer works.

“Rockaway is treated like a stepchild,” fumed City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park). “You would never see this in Central Park.”

From the Daily News:

Some Rockaway residents are worried that long-awaited beach replenishment plans are washing away.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already started dredging the East Rockaway Inlet, a move that will provide sand for eroded beaches along the western sections of the peninsula.

But unlike previous years, the sand will not be piped up to the beaches. Instead it will be dumped around Beach 30th St. and then moved separately by Parks Department contractors.

“I’m concerned that if they stockpile it, it will erode away,” said John Cori of Friends of Rockaway Beach, which launched a “Demand the Sand” campaign.

This summer the city announced it dedicated $3 million for a project to move dredged
sand to fill in the battered shoreline between Beach 85th St. and Beach 105th St., centered around Beach 92nd St.

Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder said he was concerned that the dredging project moved so quickly that the Army Corps was unable to work in conjunction with the Parks Department.

In previous years the two agencies worked together on a plan to dredge and then pipe the sand to specific beaches.

Say it ain't so, Mo!

From the Daily News:

Ex-Mets slugger-turned-landlord Mo Vaughn has fouled out with tenants at a Brownsville housing complex.

Residents of the DCA Central Brooklyn complex are mad because Vaughn has had nearly every tree on the property chopped down over the past two weeks.

They charged chopping down the 17 leafy giants at the Mitchell-Lama affordable-rental development was part of over-zealous security measures.

“I feel an injustice has been done to the tenants, to the children, to anyone who walks down the street here,” said Jeannette Cruz, 49, who lives in the nine-building complex on Park Place, Howard Ave. and Sterling Place.

“It makes it seem ‘ghetto’ with no trees,” said another resident, Karen Joyner, 44.

The arborcide is one of several outdoor changes Vaughn’s company Omni New York has made at the complex, which it bought late last year. Highly visible green security bars on windows, omnipresent security cameras and intense floodlights are new, too.

Olympics deja vu

From the Daily News:

With the Olympic Games that New York lost to London just weeks away, a quiet buzz is building around the potential for another Gotham bid.

The U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee resolved a revenue-sharing dispute in May that helped sink New York’s 2012 bid. On Tuesday, the USOC said it is mulling a submission for the 2024 Summer Games and the 2026 winter installment.

The Big Apple, with its bid experience and upgraded infrastructure, is being mentioned as a top contender for 2024, but Dallas and Chicago are providing tough competition, sources familiar with the process say.

The region now boasts new stadiums and arenas in Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn and New Jersey. Madison Square Garden is being renovated, and two subway extensions — most notably the East Side line — should be complete by 2024.

But several obstacles remain, due in part to the 2012 legacy.

It called for an Olympic Village to be built in Long Island City, Queens, and an Olympic Stadium on the West Side. Both sites are being now developed for other uses. As a result, the city has no venue large enough to serve as a main stadium for track and field or an aquatics center, said a source with experience building Olympic venues.

Ludwig argued the tougher sell for 2024 would be public money to guarantee the Games and to provide security. New York boasts the best security force in the world, but the recent terror-scheme busts in Britain highlight the difficulties of hosting an international event.

Armory in rent dispute with senior center

From the Times Ledger:

The elderly attendees of the Whitestone Armory are joining with the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Civic Association and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) to decry a plan by the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs they describe as designed to force them to pay more money.

The division has said it wants to raise annual rent from $25,000 to $31,000 for the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Community Center to use the facility to offer courses and activities for seniors as well as athletic classes and recreation space for children, Avella said.

But state funding has been slashed to the center — a separate entity from the civic — and it is already having trouble making its rent. So last week about 100 seniors, Avella and members of the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers held a rally outside the Armory, at 150-74 6th Ave., aimed at drawing attention to their cause and calling on the division to find a way to allow the center to continue to use the space.

Avella said the state agency said it is raising the rent because it needs to pay for added security, but his deputy chief of staff said Tuesday that the agency’s rental agreement with the community center already dedicates too much money to security — especially since the National Guard has a presence there.

Tall fences make good nature preserves

From the Times Ledger:

Construction on the Ridgewood Reservoir is in full swing, which pleased some park-goers but continued to enrage community activists.

...one contentious change will be the new fence that is set to replace the chain link barrier that currently surrounds the reservoir.

The new fence will be about 4 feet tall instead of the nearly 8-foot version and has generated friction between the city Parks Department and Community Board 5. Representatives from the board believe the fence is too short and would allow curious explorers unencumbered access to the nature preserve.

“I can step over a 4-foot fence,” said Steve Fiedler, chairman of the board’s Parks Committee. “We want a deterrent.”

People already slip into the reservoir through the dilapidated, porous fence to sleep, consume alcohol, do drugs or even stage paintball matches, he said.

“There is no security there, no cops,” Fiedler said. “It’s a free-for-all.”

But Parks said the shorter fence will allow visitors to actually see the foliage.

Open access to LIRR trains

From Fox 5:

A Fox 5 News producer found an empty and unattended Long Island Rail Road with the doors wide open just sitting at the platform on the Long Island City station. He was able to walk right up the door and could have stepped right inside and into the driver's seat.

Trains only come and go at the LIC stop during rush hours. But in the middle of the day, the producer walked around for hours and the station was like a ghost town, not far from Pennsylvania Station, which is loaded with guards.

"It's calling terrorists to do something vulnerability highest degree," said security expert Juval Aviv.

Just down the street, the producer spotted what looked like a work train sitting alone and running. The fence around it was broken down giving anyone total access.

This LIRR stop is directly across the water from Manhattan and right next to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel

The Long Island Rail Road issued a statement in response to Fox 5's inquiry: "Both trains require a specialized key to operate. LIRR keeps idling engines in yards for operational reasons. The yard is staffed when equipment is present, and patrolled by MTA Police, which would prevent unauthorized operation of trains or locomotives. Passenger trains at stations that are not in use should have doors to the cars and cab closed. The LIRR is investigating this."

Security cameras for Manhattan buses

NEW YORK (AP) — Beginning in the spring, nearly 400 New York City buses will be equipped with surveillance cameras.

The New York Post reports that if the program is successful, a total of 1,150 buses will have the security cameras by 2014.

The paper says that at first the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to roll out the system along bus routes in Manhattan.

Currently, only one Brooklyn bus line has cameras.

The equipment will cost about $18,000 per bus.

Vito's honest graft

From the Daily News:

In Brooklyn, it's give to get - and Democratic boss Vito Lopez does them both.

Developers, architects, accountants, security firms and land surveyors have all lined up to write checks for Lopez - and all have won lucrative work from the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Center, the taxpayer-funded nonprofit Lopez controls.

In the last three years, companies doing business with Ridgewood Bushwick have donated $51,000, either directly to Assemblyman Lopez' campaign or the Kings County Democratic Committee, records show.

Often the checks are written just before or after the donor got work with RBSCC.

Lopez has steered more than $430,000 in pork barrel grants to Ridgewood Bushwick, the non-profit empire he founded that's run by his girlfriend.

The charity and its affiliates have $100 million in state and city contracts to build affordable homes, provide meals to seniors and run after-school programs.

Parking lot walk dangerous for bus drivers

From the NY Post:

In the last month, four female bus operators at the MTA's Fresh Pond depot in Queens have been beaten or robbed taking the long, dark walk between the facility's parking lots under the M line's elevated tracks and their garage, The Post has learned.

Two drivers who have been assaulted say that they've been telling bosses for years there should be extra security but that the requests have fallen on deaf ears at the cash-strapped agency.

"As soon as I put my car key into my pocket, three people came from behind me, knocked me to the ground and started punching and kicking me," said Diane Monges, 49, a bus operator for 21 years.

She walks three or four blocks from one of three parking lots to the bus depot in Ridgewood at about 3:50 a.m.

The crooks made off with her purse.

Lax security at CitiField

From Fox 5:

This Fox 5 report is not about security checkpoints where fans enter from all around the stadium, but instead it is about security checkpoints where Citi Field workers enter. One worker told Fox 5 he is concerned for his own safety along with thousands of fans on game day.

Trying to bring anything illegal past a security checkpoint at a Mets home game at Citi Field in Flushing, Queens, could mean jail time and fines. From pat downs and bag searches, security here is extremely tight. But if you walk just a few yards away from the left field entrance, there's an entrance for Citi Field workers only.

It's a spot where hundreds and hundreds of employees from concessions to cleaning crews gain access to the stadium. And according to a number of these employees, security here needs to be stepped up.

A source told Fox 5 News that there are no metal detectors, no pat downs, and barely any bag checks for employees, which raises security concerns for those employees and fans alike.