Cuomo unleashes his wrath at Ron Kim

 

 New York Times

For months, Assemblyman Ron Kim has been one of the few Democratic lawmakers willing to criticize Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for his handling of the state’s nursing homes during the pandemic, pressing for investigations into the matter.

So when a top aide to Mr. Cuomo recently admitted that his administration had withheld nursing home data from state lawmakers, Mr. Kim, whose Queens district was hit hard by the coronavirus, said it appeared the governor was “trying to dodge having any incriminating evidence.”

Hours after Mr. Kim made that comment to The New York Post last Thursday, he said he got an irate late-night call from the governor. Mr. Cuomo began with a question — “Are you an honorable man?” — and then proceeded to yell for 10 minutes, Mr. Kim recalled, threatening to publicly tarnish the assemblyman and urging him to issue a new statement clarifying his remarks.

Mr. Cuomo made good on his threat on Wednesday afternoon.

In a remarkable retort, the governor used his press briefing to lob allegations of impropriety at the assemblyman, saying that he and his administration have had a “long and hostile relationship” with Mr. Kim, now in his fifth term.

In particular, Mr. Cuomo was angered and combative about a letter published by The New York Post that was signed by several Assembly members, including Mr. Kim. The letter, citing the governor’s delays in releasing a complete tally of deaths of nursing home residents, including those that happened after a resident was transferred to a hospital, accused Mr. Cuomo of attempting to circumvent a federal probe and “intentional obstruction of justice.”

Cojo's spreading rumors about running for comptroller

 

NY Times

Five months after dropping out of the race for mayor of New York City to focus on his mental health, Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, said on Tuesday that he was considering a late entry into the city comptroller’s race.

Mr. Johnson said that he had been approached by several elected officials and City Council members who said he should consider running to be the city’s fiscal watchdog, and that his desire to contribute to its recovery from the pandemic spurred his interest.

“I wouldn’t be considering this if I didn’t feel good about where I am personally and the work I’ve done over the last six months in focusing on myself and my own well-being,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview.

Mr. Johnson had been one of the leading Democratic candidates in the mayor’s race, but he announced in September that he was dropping out because he said that dealing with his depression, handling his job as the leader of the City Council, and running for office would be too difficult.

Mr. Johnson said he would make a final decision on the comptroller’s race in the next two weeks, before petitioning is set to start. The current comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, is barred from seeking a third consecutive term, and is now a leading candidate in the race for mayor.

 Mr. Johnson’s potential entry would add a level of star power to the contest. As Council speaker, he has developed a reputation as a civic booster, known for doing back flips and dancing at parades and professing his love for the city.

 Now he is currently trying to flip the city he loves so much with his "Planning Together" 

Don't forget to sign the petition and join the show, make that charter committee on February 23, Tuesday at 10 a.m. 

 

Update Cojo is holding a zoom town hall tomorrow night on his horrible plan for the city.

Urgent Town Hall Wed 2/17 7PM!
Sign up to learn more about Corey Johnson's power-grab so-called 'Comprehensive Planning' bill-Intro 2186 -a de facto emasculation of local communities to be shut out of their democratic future weigh-in! Please RT! https://t.co/LusMeCC4No pic.twitter.com/zKysGZL0lp

— Preserve Our Brooklyn Neighborhoods (@infopobn) February 15, 2021

Homeless crisis, subway murders and dancing in the street

The whole world is a stage, so we’re bringing live performances BACK to New York City! Our streets will be filled with music, performances, and dance thanks to our #OpenCulture program. Applications open March 1: https://t.co/lp0DfJiK7X

pic.twitter.com/ioD1kRQnx6

— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) February 15, 2021

A lot of citizens hate the city's open restaurants program

 

 

Patch

 A cornucopia of outdoor dining setups, from igloos to gazebos to cozy shacks, will be permanent fixtures of New York City's dining scene. But restaurants' recent expansion from dining rooms to sidewalks and streets left many New Yorkers stewing.

Outdoor dining setups drew more than 4,400 complaints to 311 since July as the city's Open Restaurants program ramped up, according to data.

They complained about restaurants encroaching into sidewalks and onto streets, the lack of ADA ramps, the setups' conditions and more.

But starting in October the complaints began to trail off — perhaps because of cold weather, or maybe as New Yorkers got more and more used to what Mayor Bill de Blasio called a "new reality" when he first announced the program in June.

"We've had it before, but the way we have to do it now, is very new and different, but we're ready," he said.

Outdoor dining sprang up as a way to safely reopen restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic — and eateries and New Yorkers alike quickly jumped on the bandwagon.

Within days, nearly 6,000 restaurants signed up for the program. Nearly 11,000 outdoor dining locations were listed on the city's Open Restaurants finder as of Friday.

The city allows restaurants to self-certify but sets strict rules. Sidewalk seating, for example, must allow an 8-foot path for pedestrians. Roadway setups must have a fully built interior wall that can hold filler material, as another example.

And to ensure compliance, the city's Department of Transportation has conducted nearly 40,000 inspections across the boroughs, data shows.

Roughly 7,500 of these uncovered a non-compliant condition, according to data.

Inspectors also responded to 311-driven complaints. Of those 4,400 complaints, data shows roughly 2,300 were essentially ruled unfounded — the outdoor dining set up was in compliance.

Hear my train a comin'

PIX News 

 

 The MTA will gradually restore overnight subway service in New York City beginning Feb. 22, officials announced Monday.

MTA chairman and CEO Pat Foye said trains will run daily from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m., then close for two hours for cleaning.

In an unprecedented move last May, subway service was shut down nightly between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. to allow transit workers to clean and disinfect trains as the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed the city and state.

Now, nearly a year later and as the surge in the number of cases and hospitalization has slowed, Cuomo said the state-run agency was prepared to reopen service.

 

 

 

 

Queens is burning: In Richmond Hill and on Jamaica Ave. again

 

QNS

A five-alarm inferno burned a Richmond Hill dollar store to a crisp on Sunday.

No injuries were immediately reported during the blaze that broke out at about 7:27 a.m. on Feb. 14 inside the Dollar Jackpot store, located within a one-story structure at 107-12 Jamaica Ave. in Richmond Hill.

The flames quickly spread throughout the structure and grew into a five-alarm fire within about an hour. Nearly 200 firefighters from 44 units were called to the scene.

Using three hose lines from tower ladders, among other techniques, the blaze was brought under control at about 9:54 a.m. Sunday.

 It was the second major fire along Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill since December, when dozens of people were displaced by a six-alarm inferno that broke out two blocks away, at 109-25 Jamaica Ave.

Flushing fire kills 2 at house with history of problems

From CBS 2:

Two people were killed in an overnight house fire in Queens.

Authorities have confirmed the victims were a father and his young son whose twin brother survived.

As CBS2’s John Dias reports, the Flushing home was destroyed in the fire.

Police confirmed a 6-year-old boy died in the fire, along with a 65-year-old man. Neighbors told Dias it’s a father and his son.

Cellphone video shows flames shooting out of the home at 45-54 157th Street in Flushing, Queens.

It all happened just after 1 a.m

So unbelievably tragic. What could have happened?

Nothing to see here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Update

NY Daily News

The home was in the middle of various repairs, with blue tarps covering part of the building. It’s not clear if the renovations played a role in the blaze, but last February a contractor linked to the home settled a case with the city, apparently paying a fine after being cited for an unstable shed constructed in the driveway.

Department of Buildings records said the shed and backyard were filled with household debris and tools scattered about.

 

College professor debunks Cojo's bad development plan

City Limits

 ‘Upon close examination, the speaker’s proposal falls short and leaves the door wide open for the continuation of City Planning’s top-down, developer-driven rezonings by offering them a new shroud of legitimacy: a comprehensive plan engineered by city officials that fast-tracks rezonings.’

 I was pleasantly surprised by the bold new call for comprehensive planning emanating from the New York City Council. “Planning Together: A New Comprehensive Planning Framework for New York City” was issued by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson in December 2020. It is a long overdue and bold proposal that deserves close attention from community activists and critics of the Department of City Planning’s zoning policies and their role in the displacement of low-income communities of color.

However, upon close examination, the speaker’s proposal falls short and leaves the door wide open for the continuation of City Planning’s top-down, developer-driven rezonings by offering them a new shroud of legitimacy: a comprehensive plan engineered by city officials that fast-tracks rezonings. Both the plan and the planning process would continue to be controlled from the top, where lobbies with outsized influence rule. Community involvement would continue to center around weak, underfunded and often unrepresentative community boards. There are no guard rails to protect against the city’s shallow community participation games, disconnected from decision-making. Community boards remain understaffed, underfunded and underrepresented, and members continue to be appointees of the powerbrokers sitting in the offices of the borough presidents. 

Planning should be an on-going process at the neighborhood, city and regional levels. The goal should be transformative planning—dedicated to socio-economic equality and environmental justice while also being comprehensive. It should guarantee the participation and enfranchisement of historically excluded populations, not merely as endorsers but as central participants. As communities of color and immigrant communities—the majority of our population—continue to face wide environmental, public health and economic disparities, transformative planning must seek to change the balance of political power from real estate to real democracy, from Wall Street to Main Street, and from a City Hall overcharged with lobbyists to people power. For comprehensive planning to be truly democratic and equitable it must be an ongoing process led by a diverse assembly of those who live and work in the city, and not a technocratic elite under mayoral control. 

I have often pointed out how New York City is the only major city in the country that has never had a comprehensive long-range planning strategy. Instead it has relied on zoning, a piecemeal and patchwork system for regulating the use of land that too often serves the interests of developers. As the threats of climate change, sea level rise, and pollution intensify, and the city confronts huge challenges to reduce energy use and waste, it is now more urgent than ever that government at all levels break with business as usual and engage all New Yorkers in the search for deep transformations in the ways we live, work and play. Comprehensive planning could be the means for undoing and replacing antiquated and unsustainable environmental policies.

A decade ago City Limits recognized the significance of comprehensive planning in its special issue, Five Boroughs, One City, No Plan. However, subsequent efforts to put comprehensive planning on the agenda have been blocked by City Hall. In the most recent Charter Revision hearings, the chair of the City Planning Commission openly ridiculed planning. The City Planning Department has long nurtured the myth that its nearly inscrutable and overly complicated Zoning Resolution is a reasonable alternative to planning. In reality, zoning encourages the city’s decision makers to look only at individual proposed projects in limited areas. 

The strongest calls for comprehensive planning come from community activists, not planning professionals. Starting in 1977, following community demands for a greater say in planning decisions, the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) gave 59 community boards an advisory role by allowing them to review zoning changes. Communities developed their own plans and in 1989, civil rights, environmental justice and housing advocates won changes to the city’s Charter allowing for the approval of community plans. Fulfilling its self-fulfilling prophecy that planning is just a fruitless exercise, the city’s political leadership has created one-shot “plans”—really flashy reports—that mostly end up on the proverbial shelf.

While the new City Council proposal calls for an “ongoing participatory planning process” to help plan for our infrastructure, “participation” by itself is no guarantee of democracy. We’ve had enough of DCP’s “participation games” and tightly engineered ULURP public hearings. The council proposal foresees the development of “scenarios” for every neighborhood in the city, but allows community votes to remain only “advisory,” a term meaning they will not count. 

The most unfortunate part of the City Council proposal is its utter failure to break with DCP’s fixation on growth in real estate development as the driver of planning. Even when it calls for “equitable growth,” the implication is that equity will occur only when there is growth. To understand what is wrong with this philosophy we only need to look at the results from two decades of both voluntary and mandatory inclusionary zoning, when the number of people without homes skyrocketed, public housing deteriorated, and “affordable housing” became unaffordable.

 

Two homeless people murdered, two other people wounded from stabbings on the A train from Queens to Manhattan

 

QNS 

  Detectives are investigating two deadly stabbings on the opposite ends of the A line in Queens and Manhattan within a span of two hours between Friday night and Saturday morning.

Police sources said they are investigating a possible link between the two cases as well as a pair of additional stabbings that occurred on Feb. 12-13 at the 181st Street station on the A line in Washington Heights. The victims in those cases are expected to survive their injuries.

During a Saturday afternoon press conference at One Police Plaza, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced that the NYPD would add 500 officers throughout the subway system immediately to increase safety. Detectives, meanwhile, are working around the clock looking for possible suspects and are seeking tips from the public.

The first victim, an unidentified man, was found stabbed while seated on board A train at the Mott Avenue station in Far Rockaway, Queens at about 11:20 p.m. on Feb. 12.

Officers from the NYPD Transit District 23 and the 101st Precinct discovered the man on a bench inside one of the train cars with stab wounds to his torso and neck.

Responding EMS units pronounced the victim dead at the scene. Police have not yet disclosed his identity, pending family notification.

Two hours later, cops in Manhattan responded to the fatal stabbing of a woman on board an A train that stopped at the West 207th Street in Inwood — the line’s northern terminus — at about 1:21 a.m. on Feb. 13.

The discovery was made during the nightly overnight closure period of the entire subway system, when train cars are disinfected to guard against the spread of COVID-19.

Cops from NYPD Transit District 3 and the 34th Precinct, while responding to a 911 call, found the 44-year-old woman under the seats on board one of the train cars with several stab wounds to her body.

EMS units also pronounced her dead at the scene. The NYPD has withheld her identity, pending family notification.

NY Post 

The “A-train Ripper” is in custody, multiple law enforcement sources told The Post on Saturday night.

The knife-wielding madman was wanted in a gruesome subway spree that left two homeless people dead and two others slashed along the A train line, and was nabbed in Upper Manhattan, the sources said.

His shoes were still splattered with his victims’ blood when he was taken into custody — and he was still in possession of the bloody knife, one source added.

The yet-named suspect was in custody at the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights, the sources said.

The bloodshed sparked an outcry for safer subways, and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea responded, announcing a “surge” of 500 additional cops for the department’s Transit Bureau to be deployed across the city immediately.

The spree began Friday morning, not far from where the alleged stabber was caught, authorities said.

Queens Man gets acquitted again

Woke whites behaving badly

From the NY Post:

A Black Lives Matter march through Midtown Manhattan turned violent Friday night, with 11 protesters arrested.

The NYPD reported that two officers suffered minor injuries during the protest, which was attended by about 100 marchers; officials could not immediately say how the cops were hurt.

At least some of those arrested were accused of attacking Daily News photographer Sam Costanza at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 54th Street in the mistaken belief that he was a cop, sources said.

About a dozen people surrounded the photog, shoving him and beating him with their fists and other objects, sources said.

The NYPD confirmed the attack, telling The Post “a member of the media” was assaulted, and police made “a number of arrests.”

The photographer, who suffered a bloody nose, was not seriously injured and declined medical attention, police said.

Comrie accuses Graziano of spreading "falsehood" & "foolishness" at Community Board meeting

State Senator Leroy Comrie attended the Community Board 8 meeting this past Wednesday and after making an announcement that a vaccine clinic was going to open at York College, he proceeded to attack Paul Graziano for spreading "a falsehood" and "foolishness" about Planning Together and alleged that the legislation will actually give community boards more power. Watch here:

The board then proceeded to vote unanimously in opposition to the legislation.

Comrie has no vote on the matter so what exactly is going on here?

Let's go out to eat tonight

  

 

Queens Chronicle

Patricia Robinson’s husband worked in Giordi’s Joint, a bar on Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven, for 30 years before they bought the business in 2018.

“It’s been a rough winter, but we’re thrilled that we’re going to be reopening Friday,” she told the Chronicle.

New York City restaurants will be able to open indoor dining at 25 percent capacity on Friday rather than waiting until Valentine’s Day on Sunday, as Cuomo had initially announced. Cuomo, who last week hinted at the move based on any progress against Covid-19 over the weekend, made it official in his Monday morning press conference.

“We were planning to open the restaurants in New York City to indoor dining on Valentine’s Day, but they’ve made the point that they’d like to open a couple of days earlier so they can prepare for Valentine’s Day,” Cuomo said.

Among the numbers touted by the governor was a new seven-day positive testing rate of 4.38 percent in the state.

Queens, at 5.61 percent, has the second-highest rate in the five boroughs.

“It’s high, but it’s coming down,” he said.

Cuomo said with Valentine’s Day expected to be a busy restaurant day, the two-day head start should help eateries do a little better. But he also said things could change back if the numbers take a turn for the worse.

“The future may change that,” Cuomo said. “If the enemy changes tactics, we have to change tactics.”

Loycent Gordon, owner of the historic Neir’s Tavern in Woodhaven, said the timing highlights what he calls a disconnect between Cuomo and the restaurant industry.

“He really needs to communicate more closely with the restaurant industry on ways to keep businesses viable and, of course, keep people safe,” Gordon said. “We’ve known from the start that indoor dining was not the source of the spreading. This is just one more thing we should have had already, one more frustration after a [Dec. 14] shutdown that never should have happened.”

Holden's opponent campaigns in the wrong district

This article was published in QNS and I couldn't help but chuckle at it. For example, here is a passage about the pictured business owner who was visited:

Lagos made some time, and spoke about the hardships of maintaining his business for what is nearly a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lagos, who noted Tasty’s has been in Ridgewood for 40 years, said not having indoor dining and getting “a bunch” of violations from the Department of Transportation for his outdoor setup are some of his biggest issues.

The response from the candidate during the listening tour?

When asked for his response to [incumbent Robert] Holden’s calls to open indoor dining to 50 percent capacity, Ardila said it’s “irresponsible.” Holden wants the governor to allow for the city’s restaurants to open indoor dining at the same capacity of Long Island, where there is a higher positivity rate of COVID-19 compared to the city, before more go out of business.

Sorry, Mr. Lagos, but Juan thinks you should just suck it up, because COVID spreads more in Queens restaurants than it does in Nassau County ones, or something like that.

Also interesting is the fact that the Tasty Diner is not in Council District 30. In reality, only about 3 blocks of the Ridgewood section of Myrtle Avenue are, and only on one side of the street. This diner is in Antonio Reynoso's district but he's too busy running for Brooklyn Borough President to care.

But do you know whose State Senate district this actually is? Not Jessica Ramos' but Michael Gianaris' who also endorsed this guy. Unfortunately, Mike sadly can't find anyplace outside of Astoria even if he uses Google Maps.

Keep voting for people who don't give a flying fig about you, because that's worked out well so far.

Governor Cuomo's moll, er aide blamed Trump for their repression of nursing home fatalities data

 

NY Post 

Governor Cuomo’s top aide privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state’s nursing-home death toll from COVID-19 — telling them “we froze” out of fear the true numbers would “be used against us” by federal prosecutors, The Post has learned.

The stunning admission of a cover-up was made by Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa during a video conference call with state Democratic leaders in which she said the Cuomo administration had rebuffed a legislative request for the tally in August because “right around the same time, [then-President Donald Trump] turns this into a giant political football,” according to an audio recording of the two-hour-plus meeting.

“He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,” DeRosa said. “He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer.”

In addition to attacking Cuomo’s fellow Democratic governors, DeRosa said, Trump “directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us.”

“And basically, we froze,” she told the lawmakers on the call.

“Because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.”

DeRosa added: “That played a very large role into this.”

After dropping the bombshell, DeRosa asked for “a little bit of appreciation of the context” and offered what appears to be the Cuomo administration’s first apology for its handling of nursing homes amid the pandemic.

But instead of a mea culpa to the grieving family members of more than 13,000 dead seniors or the critics who say the Health Department spread COVID-19 in the care facilities with a March 25 state Health Department directive that nursing homes admit infected patients, DeRosa tried to make amends with the fellow Democrats for the political inconvenience it caused them.

“So we do apologize,” she said. “I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.”

Former Goldman Sachs executive quits post at EDC

 

Commercial Observer

James Patchett, who has led the New York City Economic Development Corporation for the past four years, plans to step down early next month, the mayor’s office announced Wednesday.

Patchett took over as EDC president and chief executive after three years as chief of staff to Alicia Glen, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s former deputy mayor of housing and economic development. He followed her to public life after working under her as a vice president at Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group for seven years.

The press release from the mayor’s office indicated that Patchett is leaving city government to “pursue opportunities in the private sector.” Glen, his former boss, left to launch her own real estate development firm.

Patchett worked on a broad array of real estate projects during his tenure at EDC, including the approval of the controversial redevelopment of the Bedford Union Armory in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; the fraught development of a tech hub and office building on Union Square; and construction of a 700-unit affordable housing project on the site of the former Spofford Juvenile Detention Center in the South Bronx. 

Let's not also forget his roles in the backroom deal for the Amazon HQ2 hoax, the funding of countless studies for the BQX and the aquatic boondoggle NYC Ferry and other crass overdevelopment proposals. Good riddance, Pat.

Team CoJo scrambling to pass his bad development plan

You may recall the post here where Paul Graziano analyzed NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson's "Planning Together" legislation to change the NYC Charter to favor developers and remove community input. This past Monday, Graziano went head to head with Annie Levers, Assistant Deputy Director, New York City Council Office of Strategic Initiatives, at Community Board 8's Land Use Committee. You can watch the debate yourself. It's worth the time invested so you can clearly see what is going on:

The legislation was then voted on and unanimously rejected. Last night, the full board met and it was again unanimously rejected.

Earlier in the day, a rather long-winded and inappropriate email was sent out to Council Members to refute the information presented, which will no doubt result in a deluge of Community Board rejections. (Click to enlarge each segment)

The final insult came when Council Members - but not Community Boards - received word of an official public hearing on the legislation that was hastily scheduled for February 23rd.

So folks, you better get off your keysters and sign the petition in the sidebar and provide testimony at this "public" hearing (that they don't want you to know about), and make it clear to your City Council representatives that they are to vote no on this bill.

de Blasio holds self-promotion opening at Citifield site and runs out of vaccines, leaving elderly people hanging.

 NY Post

 Citi Field finally opened as a COVID-19 vaccination site on Wednesday but demand far outstripped the meager supply — with dozens of desperate elderly locals showing up with no appointment, only to go home disappointed

“I’ve been waiting here for over two hours in the cold. I have been trying to get an appointment for four weeks, but can’t and nobody here is helping us,” said Maria Fernandez, 77, outside of the home turf of the Mets.

“There are so many reporters, photographers here, but there are no vaccines,” she said. “What are we supposed to do?”

The stadium officially opened for coronavirus vaccinations at 10 a.m. Wednesday following weeks of delays due to a shortage of the coveted shots. The site is supposed to serve borough residents as well as taxi drivers and restaurant workers.

But officials this week admitted that it would only have around 800 shots for the rest of the week. During a visit Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised that would be upped to 4,000 doses a week by next week.

 He also vowed that anyone who shows up without an appointment will be given help to make one for a future date.

“There’s no such thing as walk-up and get a vaccination anywhere,” Hizzoner said. “We do not want long lines. We do not want people congregating anywhere.”

However, following the press conference, Annabel Palma, the chief equity officer for the city’s COVID-19 Test and Trace Corps, was seen telling a group of about eight people hoping to get inoculated that future appointments could not be made for them at the moment.

“We can’t register you because there aren’t vaccines,” Palma told the group in Spanish. “We aren’t going to give you an appointment if we don’t know for sure.”

Longtime Queens resident Felix Hojas, 69, then interjected that “the mayor is a liar or you are betraying us again.”

“Nobody is betraying you. Nobody is betraying the community,” Palma said before leaving.

 These poor people should be thrilled to know that Bill's tax boondoggle wife got inoculated the day before.

de Blasio's HPD incompetence gives greedy developer millions of dollars in subsidies he won't give back

 

NY Post

A city bureaucrat made a $6 million mistake in preparing documents for a deal with a developer — and it could jack up the intended rents on more than 100 “affordable” apartments, one of Mayor de Blasio’s signature issues.

The city included the wrong document in an agreement with a developer on a massive, $386 million waterfront development in Brooklyn, according to court records. And now he has a legal loophole he can drive a truck through.

Developer David Bistricer, who is building 770 apartments in three towers on Commercial Street in Greenpoint, has allegedly refused to let the clerical error be corrected, forcing the city to file a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit to fix it.

The project, part of a building boom in Greenpoint, was announced nearly a decade ago but only recently broke ground.

The city claims it negotiated the inclusion of 200 permanent affordable housing units in exchange for $2 million in taxpayer cash and $8 million worth of air rights from a city-owned plot adjacent to Bistricer’s Waterview at Greenpoint LLC site. The developer is slated to build Box Street Park on the plot, which is currently used by the MTA.

The deal was supposed to give the city housing with “deeper affordability,” and allowed Waterview to more than double the square footage. That increased affordability is “valued at more than $6 million,” the city said in its legal filing.

 As the city and Waterview hashed out final details of the agreement in May, a staffer with the Department of Housing and Preservation Development included an incorrect list of affordable rents and qualifying incomes to be offered to tenants.

For example, the city intended for at least 10 of the affordable units to rent for as little as $732 to $1,067 depending on size. But the lowest rent listed in the faulty document is $1,529, court records show.

Eligible incomes also drastically changed. The city wanted incomes ranging from $40,000 and up for a family of three to qualify. The lowest eligible earnings for a family of three listed on the erroneous paperwork is about $81,000.

If the mistake goes uncorrected, “134 of the 200 affordable housing units would be offered at different (and significantly higher) rents with different (and significantly higher) income restrictions,” the city claims.

 Possibly the biggest joke about this scandal is that the greedhead got away with only offering 10 apartments for lower income earners (and not specifically low income earners)

East Queens nabes get vac sites

 

 QNS

Governor Cuomo’s office announced Tuesday that several pop-up vaccination sites will be available to Queens residents this week.

Beginning Thursday, Feb. 11, three locations — Korean Community Services in Bayside, NYCHA Shelton Houses in Jamaica and the Sikh Cultural Society in South Richmond — will provide eligible Queens residents with the COVID-19 vaccines.

These sites are three of 11 citywide popup locations, which provides 3,100 first doses for New Yorkers. Cuomo’s office reported that since Jan. 15, approximately 30,000 residents have been inoculated at similar pop-up sites throughout the state.

 After Queens residents get their first doses, the sites will be reestablished in three weeks to administer second doses.