Judge orders Indian group to turn over Creedmoor docs

From the NY Post:

A Manhattan judge has backed state investigators who are trying to get to the bottom of a controversial deal to sell state land to an Indian community group in Queens.

The organization that got the sweetheart deal, the Indian Cultural and Community Center, has stopped cooperating with detectives dispatched by state Inspector General Ellen Biben, court records show.

But Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez said in a ruling last week that there is “a legitimate and reasonable basis for [the IG’s] inquiry,” and he ordered the Indian Cultural and Community Center to turn over the records requested.

Watch when you put out your garbage

Developers & tweeders gerrymander for visas

From the NY Times:

Affluent foreigners are rushing to take advantage of a federal immigration program that offers them the chance to obtain a green card in return for investing in construction projects in the United States. With credit tight, the program has unexpectedly turned into a mainstay for the financing of these projects in New York, California, Texas and other states.

The number of foreign applicants, each of whom must invest at least $500,000 in a project, has nearly quadrupled in the last two years, to more than 3,800 in the 2011 fiscal year, officials said. Demand has grown so fast that the Obama administration, which is championing the program, is seeking to streamline the application process.

Still, some critics of the program have described it as an improper use of the immigration system to spur economic development — a cash-for-visas scheme. And an examination of the program by The New York Times suggests that in New York, developers and state officials are stretching the rules to qualify projects for this foreign financing.

These developers are often relying on gerrymandering techniques to create development zones that are supposedly in areas of high unemployment — and thus eligible for special concessions — but actually are in prosperous ones, according to federal and state records.

Haggerty gets prison, Bloomberg still "a victim"

From the Daily News:

The Queens political operative who stole $750,000 from Mayor Bloomberg is headed for the slammer.

A judge dismissed pleas for leniency and sentenced John Haggerty to one and a third to four years in state prison.

Probation was not enough, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel said. Also, Haggerty will have to return the money, the judge said.

That means he will likely have to sell the $1.6 million Forest Hills house he grew up in — and which he ripped off the mayor to buy out his brother’s share.

Haggerty's defenders insisted Bloomberg was the real villain and that he lied under oath about never having a substantive conversation with Haggerty.

They said the money Bloomberg funneled to the Independence Party in 2009 was part of a "win-at-all-costs campaign" waged by the mayor.

The NY Times has an interesting analysis.

Cornell wins campus prize

From AM-NY:

Roosevelt Island, known for its iconic tram and sweeping view of Manhattan's East Side, will get a major makeover courtesy of Cornell University.

The Ivy League school is joining forces with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a 2 million-square-foot science and engineering campus for grad students, city officials announced Monday. The initiative is part of the Bloomberg administration's goal to turn New York into a tech hot spot to rival Silicon Valley.

"By adding a new state-of-the-art institution to our landscape, we will educate tomorrow's entrepreneurs and create the jobs of the future," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a news conference at Weill Cornell Medical College on the Upper East Side.

Cornell-Technion was chosen among seven candidates that made proposals. The campus, which will include student housing, will be built in stages and won't be finished for another 30 years.

Guy who shot at cops caught

From NY1:

Police say the man wanted for opening fire at two Queens police officers earlier this month was arrested Monday.

Investigators say Antonio Olmeda, 53, was found on 116th Street and Second Avenue wearing a bullet proof vest and holding two hand guns.

Sources say police had surveillance on a blue Chevy Ventura registered to Olmeda and nabbed him when he went to the car.

They say he also had an uzi and materials to make what police call a "suspicious device."

Sources say household cleaning supplies and a counterfeit police department plaque were also found.

They say police made a positive ID on Olmeda off DNA left on materials he left behind during the December 2 incident when he allegedly fired twice at officers at 37th Road and 76th Street in Jackson Heights.

A passerby told the two officers a man was acting suspiciously, wearing a trenchcoat with a fake beard, a hat and dark glasses.

When the officers approached him, police say he started shooting and ran away.

The two officers were not hurt.

Andy's bill has developers covered

From Forest Hills Patch:

Brownfields, the term used by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), are any real property where redevelopment could be complicated by the presence of potentially hazardous material. In other words, a brownfield property is a blighted abandoned zone in community. These properties, which are prevalent in New York City, constitute wasted space that can and should undergo transformative redevelopment for the benefit of our communities.

Currently, the New York City Brownfield Cleanup Program is able to provide liability protections for developers that comply with the shared city and state cleanup regulations through an existing Memorandum of Agreement with the DEC. However, the city can not provide full state liability release. I have introduced legislation that will allow the New York City Office of Environmental Remediation to provide full liability protections to developers in the program.

Homeowners squeezed by developer & tweeder

From the Daily News:

Bedford Stuyvesant homeowners say a developer and a since-indicted city official tried to hit them up for extra cash for their city-subsidized homes - and then left them dealing with shoddy construction on the buildings.

The six homeowners won an affordable housing lottery for homes along Lexington Ave. and made down payments in 2005 - but charge their home ownership dream turned into a nightmare amid delays, requests for more money, and problems from plumbing backups to faulty heating.

Developer Delight Construction and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development say the problems are minor; that the developer has continued to make fixes even after the homes’ warranties expired, and the request for more money was an appropriate response to cost overruns.

But the homeowners are seething. They said that after they were delayed from moving into their homes for two years due to trouble cleaning up contamination, HPD official Wendell Walters told them to fork over about $10,000 more to Delight for the cleanup, which the homeowners refused.

Scores busted in I-thefts

From Metro:

Scores of newsstand, deli, barbershop and convenience store workers were arrested Friday as part of a five-borough NYPD sting to stop the sale of stolen Apple products.

Police said employees at the targeted locations were allegedly selling stolen iPad2s and iPhone4s for between $50 to $200 a piece.

Those same employees were also eager to buy devices they knew to be stolen, hawked by undercover officers, according to police.

Police worked as both undercover sellers and buyers in the sting.

One-hundred and forty one people were charged in the sting — 42 in Brooklyn, 41 in Manhattan, 31 in the Bronx, 21 in Queens and six on Staten Island.

Conflicting stories of teen's injury

From Eyewitness News:

A 17-year-old boy was playing on construction equipment when he somehow crushed his head.

From the Daily News:

A teenager was critically injured Sunday after he crashed a forklift inside a Williamsburg armory.

The unidentified 17-year-old was part of a crew dismantling a stage inside the state-owned armory on Marcy Ave. near Heyward St. about 6:30 p.m.

He backed into a metal beam and was wedged behind the wheel of the forklift, witnesses said.

So much for ethics

From the NY Post:

Jurors deadlocked recently on charges that City Councilman Larry Seabrook steered taxpayer funds to his mistress and relatives, but Albany last week did them one better — by conspiring actually to reward Brooklyn power-broker Vito Lopez for doing nearly the same thing.

True, Gov. Cuomo and the legislative leaders last Monday proclaimed a new era in clean government — in the form of the state’s (umpteenth) ethics panel.

You can read Cuomo’s lips: “The Joint Commission on Public Ethics...will aggressively investigate corruption and help maintain integrity in state government,” Cuomo vowed, as he announced the new panel members’ names.

“I am confident that . . . the commission will be the toughest ethics enforcer in our state’s history,” he insisted.

Give them credit for the effort, we guess.

But how can anyone take the rhetoric seriously — when the state this month also showered nearly $850,000 in state funds on Lopez’s dubious social-service empire?

Parks seeks vendor for 2 carousels

From the Daily News:

The city is trying once again to lure an operator to take over two historic wood carousels located in Queens parks.

And this time the stakes are higher than ever.

If no concessionaire is found to run both the Forest Park and Flushing Meadows Corona Park carousels, the amusements could be shuttered for the spring and summer season.

But finding someone to run the merry-go-rounds — described as priceless jewels by experts — has not exactly been a walk in the park.

The Forest Park Carousel has sat dormant since the end of 2008. Parks Department officials said they have been unable to find anyone with a viable plan to operate the concession.The Flushing Meadows Corona Park Carousel has remained open, benefiting from its location near the Queens Zoo in the busy park. The city’s contract with its operator, New York One LLC, ends early next year.

Officials are hoping to find a vendor for the Forest Park Carousel by linking it with the more lucrative site in Flushing Meadows.

Liu bundler in plea deal?

From the Daily News:

Manhattan federal prosecutors disclosed Friday that they are in plea discussions with a John Liu fund-raiser under arrest for allegedly funneling illegal contributions to the controller’s campaign.

Prosecutor Brian Jacobs said in court papers that the plea negotiations with an attorney for Xing Wu Pan were ongoing as he asked for a new court date in the case.

Jacobs said in the court filing that the discussions regarding a possible disposition of the case with Pan’s lawyer, Julia Gatto, have not been completed.

Federal Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz set the case down for Jan. 17.

Dumping outside Woodside LIRR station

I was at Woodside Station recently and noticed there was a lot of garbage outside the fence along Trimble Road.


As you'll notice, this did not seem to be a problem several years back when the Google Maps truck toured the area. (below)

I contacted Council Member VanBramer's office and got this response: "I have reported this area to New York City Community Cleanup in order to have the street cleaned. The Department of Sanitation will also be contacted to send enforcement officials to address the illegal dumping."

Hopefully, this gets cleaned up soon. Looking forward to the "after" photos.

- Christina Wilkinson

No more gerrymandering during redistricting

Redistricting 1-12-12 Rally Flyer
From the Queens Chronicle:

Thirteen civic organizations in northeastern Queens believe there’s strength in numbers and have come together to ensure they stay as one during upcoming state legislative and federal congressional redistricting.

Organized by Bob Friedrich, president of the Glen Oaks Village co-op, Eastern Queens United is composed of groups from Glen Oaks, Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Bellerose and Queens Village.

“We need district lines that will unite us, not divide us,” Friedrich said. “We represent communities that have a common interest and we want the lines to be drawn that are in the best interest of the community, not the politicians.”

EQU is planning rallies and discussions to prevent the state Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) from continuing to gerrymander the area. That term refers to dividing an area into voting districts to give unfair advantage to one party or group.

One of the EQU demands is that Assembly Districts 24, 26 and 33 be reconfigured and joined into one AD. Members also want the 5th and 6th Congressional Districts to be merged. In all cases, Friedrich noted, district lines would also have to be changed so that they wouldn’t be too big.

Assembly District 24 is represented by Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside), while District 26 is by David Weprin (D-Little Neck) and District 33 is by Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village). “We are not endorsing anyone,” Friedrich said. “We just don’t want to be divided.”

Johnny going crazy?

From the NY Times:

In recent weeks, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation have delivered subpoenas seeking a broad range of records and other information to a growing circle of Mr. Liu’s more generous donors, said the people knowledgeable about the matter, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. The supporters who have now been subpoenaed include at least one who acknowledged to The New York Times that he had served as bundler, or someone who helped Mr. Liu raise money from others; and another went to a donor who worked at a company headed by a bundler.

Mr. Liu’s campaign has failed to disclose the names of its bundlers, as required by law.

The investigation of Mr. Liu’s campaign finances, which led to the arrest of one of his fund-raisers in November on attempted wire fraud and conspiracy charges, has been an embarrassment for Mr. Liu, the city’s top fiscal watchdog and an auditor by training. The situation has also cast a pall over his mayoral prospects; according to a poll released on Thursday, his approval ratings have plummeted.

Mr. Liu’s criminal defense lawyer, Paul L. Shechtman, and a spokesman for his campaign, George Arzt, declined to comment on Thursday about the new subpoenas.

And from the Daily News:

THE BELEAGUERED city controller has a stern message for his staff
— Liu-oose lips sink ships.

John Liu, beset by bad press over an ongoing federal probe into his mayoral race fund-raising, did some remodelling in his office last week: cubicle walls were torn down in two divisions, creating an open, bullpen-style space.

The motive — making it harder for staffers to dish to reporters.

“They are afraid that people inside are giving information out,” a Liu employee said of the persistent whispers among the staff that one in their number is giving up valuable intel.

A spokesman for the controller fervently denied that Liu is on a paranoia-fueled snitch hunt, as the source described.

Inside the Terra Cotta Building

From Scouting NY:

“It was totally gutted inside. Floors and walls all gone. There was one small alcove of original work left: a 2nd floor fireplace, right under the triple chimneys. Completely covered with about 45 layers of paint. Ugh. We brought cameras in, thinking to get some great shots, but got bupkiss.”

Home care agencies make big bucks off state

From the NY Times:

Every day across New York State, thousands of part-time workers visit the homes of developmentally disabled people to teach them simple tasks, like grooming or how to take a bus.

For their work, which requires no special credentials, the employees typically earn $10 to $15 an hour.

But when the nonprofit organizations that employ those workers bill the state, they collect three and four times that amount — with some having received as much as $67 an hour.

Spending on this little-known home care program, called Community Habilitation, has soared in recent years, creating multimillion-dollar surpluses at some nonprofit agencies and eye-popping salaries and benefits for those who run them.

And it helps explain how New York’s costs of caring for developmentally disabled people have ballooned in recent years, creating the nation’s most generous system of Medicaid-financed programs, with little scrutiny of its efficiency or results.

Here's what lives in Ozone Park these days

"Robbing a pot dealer is something kids do."

Yes, I fondly recall spending the days of my youth going to the movies, hanging out at the mall and robbing pot dealers.

Sad thing is that this is considered normal behavior by this subset of the population.

Court tells landowners it's time to clean up their mess

From the NY Times:

In a decision affecting some of New York’s most toxic sites, the Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that state environmental regulators could seek to require companies responsible for the pollution to restore the areas to the condition they were in before the contamination occurred.

At the heart of the case was the question of how clean is clean enough under the state’s Superfund program, which oversees the cleanup of landfills, rivers and former industrial places where toxic chemicals were disposed of or stored.

A coalition of companies that own some of the properties sued the state in 2007, arguing that the Department of Environmental Conservation had the authority only to require the removal of “significant” environmental threats, not to mandate a cleanup that restored a site to its pre-industrial condition.

But in its 5-to-2 decision, the Court of Appeals said that the conservation department “did not exceed its authority or act contrary to law” in enforcing a regulation meant to remove existing or potential hazards that pose a significant threat or imminent danger of irreversible damage to the environment.

Under the regulation, department officials can call for restoration of contaminated sites to “pre-disposal conditions to the extent feasible.”