City Council candidate curses out women and calls them nazis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NY Daily News

 A potty-mouthed City Council wannabe in Queens has gone after a number of women on social media — along with joking about rape and apparently challenging a man to a fight after getting into an argument on Facebook.

Steve Behar, a Democrat running to represent eastern Queens, recently came under fire for a sexist tweet targeting opponent Linda Lee. He suggested her message boiled down to saying, “Vote for Me I’m a Mommy!”

Since then, more outrageous social media posts by Behar have surfaced.

“F--k you ... You’re a stupid racist c--t!” he wrote a Long Island woman on Facebook.

“You’re a Nazi c--t!” he raged in a follow-up post.

Outgoing Councilman Barry Grodenchik is backing Behar, his staff attorney, to take over his seat.

Among Behar’s ravings about Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Behar wrote on Facebook over two years ago, “This woman is not credible and I refuse to destroy someone’s career without any due process.”

Around the same time, he made another inflammatory post.

“Come on now! Who didn’t grope and rape girls in high school? Democrats are such snowflakes!” Behar wrote. He told The News he was being sarcastic.

In separate posts, he called former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos a “dumb b---h” and former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen “Nazi Barbie.”

While debating policy with a Long Island man, Behar raged on Facebook, “You prove you’re more stupid and more of a p---y with each post!”

Update: Where Behar gets fed his lunch and resorts to unjustifiable race baiting and shaming

Update: Steve rages full on at a BLM protest last year.

NY Daily News

A Queens City Council wannabe’s profanity and rage aren’t just confined to the online world.

Steve Behar went off on an expletive-filled tirade against Black Lives Matter demonstrators gathered at a Jamaica, Queens, park last summer.

“You have no f--king business being here!” he yelled at activists gathered in Major Mark Park in June 2020, according to video posted to Twitter.

When a demonstrator interjects, “We all have business being here,” Behar snaps back: “F--k you! You’re pathetic!”

Video shows him ranting — with his face mask on his forehead — in spite of protests from a man who noted there were children present.

“You co-opted a Black Lives Matter protest for your own agenda!” Behar fumed while pumping his fist. “You should be ashamed!”

Asked by a demonstrator why Behar was there, he yelled: “I’m here to show my little niece and nephew that Black Lives Matter!”

The demonstration was one of many across the city after Black Minnesota man George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in May 2020.

Out of about 100 demonstrators at the park that day, some were protesting local electeds for taking campaign cash from police unions, according to attendee Ramy Noaman, who shot the video.

 

Pro-overdevelopment CB7 cancels member appointed by Donovan Richards

 

Queens Eagle

A Queens community board moved forward with efforts to remove one of its members from its ranks Monday night. 

Queens Community Board 7 voted 42 to 3, with one abstention, to take the next steps to expel board member John Choe, who’s been accused of various acts of misconduct by the board’s executive committee. He’s denied all allegations against him.

It was the first time in the board’s history that expulsion proceedings were initiated. 

Chuck Apelian, the board’s vice chair, began the process by reading the charges against Choe, which range from unauthorized postings to Facebook to violations of the City Charter. 

“This is something that’s been going on for a while,” Apelian said. “Every time we tried to work things out, it didn’t seem to go away.”

After a brief spat between Choe and Eugene Kelty, the board’s chair, the accused board member was given a few minutes to defend himself. 

“This is an embarrassment to the entire community board system,” Choe said. “I think this whole charade is a huge, huge embarrassment to the community board and I object vehemently to this entire process. It's absurd.”

In order to proceed with Choe’s removal, two-thirds of the board had to vote in favor – over 90 percent supported the motion. 

“I think that’s a very loud comment,” Apelian told the Eagle after the vote. “I knew we had overwhelming support but that’s a pretty resounding number – that’s pretty telling.”

Choe received support from both a handful of community board members and several members of the public, who were given an opportunity to speak after the vote had taken place.

“I just see this as an abuse of authority,” said Cody Herrmann, a board member, who added that she thought the charges against Choe were “misconstrued.”

Herrmann voted against the proceedings, as did members Harpreet Singh Wahan and Choe. 

“I do not believe that any of this is fair or justified,” said Laura Shepard, who spoke in support of Choe during the public comment period. “This whole thing is nonsense and shame on all of you who voted for it.”

The board’s executive committee, made up of members Warren Schreiber, Frank Macchio, Lei Zhao, Kelty and Apelian, voted unanimously to take the action against Choe last month. On May 26, Kelty issued Choe with a letter notifying him of the proceedings against him. 

Choe, who’s running for City Council in District 20, said he hadn’t been contacted by the board after receiving the letter. 

“No one has explained to me the process or what my rights are,” Choe told the Eagle prior to Monday’s meeting. “We've tried to contact the borough president’s office and it seems like they're tacitly allowing this to happen, even though there's really no credence to any of these allegations.”

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards has refrained from commenting on the removal proceedings, despite having appointed Choe to the board against the recommendation of City Council member Peter Koo earlier this year. 

“The Queens Borough President’s office will let this process unfold and not interfere,” a spokesperson for Richards told the Eagle earlier this month. 

While the executive committee and Choe have clashed for years, their disagreements came to a head in the lead up to the vote to approve plans to develop the Flushing waterfront in December 2020. Choe, who stood in stark opposition to the plan, called out Apelian for what he alleged to be a conflict of interest. 

Apelian, who also serves as the board’s Land Use Committee chair, worked as a paid consultant for the development group behind the project. Apelian recused himself from the board’s vote on the matter and accused Choe of slander. 

On Monday, Choe repeated his allegations to Apelian in front of the full board. 

“You are not only embarrassing yourself by doing this, you are actually promoting the corruption that’s going on in this community board by taking money from developers,” Choe said. “I cannot be silent on that.” 

 

Cuomo's hospital lobby donors are trying to kill federal lawsuit against nursing home

 

 

 NY Post

 New York’s powerful hospital groups have taken steps to get a federal COVID-19 lawsuit against a Long Island nursing home tossed — calling it a potentially precedent-setting case that could have damaging, “far-ranging consequences” for the industry.

The Greater New York Hospital Association and NYS Health Care Association filed papers in Brooklyn federal court on Friday challenging the suit brought by Vivian Zayas, whose mom died of coronavirus last year following her stay at Our Lady of Consolation.

Zayas, who sued last August, is seeking to hold the West Islip nursing home liable in her mom’s death, saying it failed to take adequate preventative measures to keep the killer bug from spreading.

“They know my case could open the door for victims seeking accountability. We need to protect the residents, not the bottom line of these facilities,” Zayas said.

de Blasio's Times Square vac site screws up

 NY Post

 This is not the “experience” New Yorkers want.

The operator of the pop-up COVID vaccination site in the former “NFL Experience” building in Times Square sent out an emergency notice informing 899 patients that it erroneously injected them with expired Pfizer doses.

The patients were told by ATC Vaccination Services that they need to get another shot because the firm “cannot guarantee the effectiveness” of the doses they received.

“We are contacting you concerning the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine you received at Times Square – NFL Experience vaccination site on June 5 to June 10, 2021. It was recognized after the vaccine was administered, that it had been in the freezer beyond the approved time frame prior to it being administered,” David Savitsky said in an email to patients.

A dad of two teen daughters who were given the faulty shots last week was left fuming after getting the email and a phone call from ATC Vaccination Services about the mix up.

“The guy who called wasn’t even a doctor,” the dad said.

Maya Wiley left lower income neighborhoods hanging without free internet

Getting free wifi 2 all is best boss @BilldeBlasio & best partners @colin_odonnell @ScottGoldsmith3 #LinkNYC pic.twitter.com/Xmr5BEahJD

— Maya Wiley (@mayawiley) February 18, 2016

 

 

 THE CITY

When Maya Wiley went to work as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s legal counsel shortly after he took office in 2014, he asked her to figure out how to bridge the digital divide by bringing broadband to low-income neighborhoods.

“I thought, ‘Oh, s—t!’ I said we needed it. I didn’t know how to get it,” Wiley recalled on the Technopolis podcast posted in June 2019.

The civil rights attorney had captured de Blasio’s attention after she wrote a piece in The Nation urging him to “build more community broadband” in an effort to forge “stronger, fairer and more resilient communities.”

But nearly eight years later, during a pandemic that has moved much of work and school online, the de Blasio administration is still struggling to make that a reality. City officials say they are now “actively reviewing proposals” from firms that responded to a highly anticipated request for proposals the mayor’s office issued in March. The city has set aside $157 million for the first portion of its ballyhooed Internet Master Plan.

Meanwhile, some 1.5 million New Yorkers, including many living in public housing, lack broadband access or mobile internet connection, according to city estimates.

“We’ve been let down too long,” said Danny Barber, chairperson of Citywide Council of Presidents, NYCHA’s tenant leadership panel.

“There are thousands of homes where kids are failing or have failed thus far with schooling due to lack of accessibility,” added Barber, who has endorsed Ray McGuire

 Now Wiley is running for her old boss’ job, looking to both distance herself from him and tout herself as the candidate primed to deliver on the progressive promises of a mayor who critics say failed on his pledge to rewrite “a tale of two cities.”

Her record as de Blasio’s counsel during his ethics flaps and as his appointee to head the Civilian Complaint Review Board have drawn far more attention than her role as the would-be bridger of the digital divide.

Wiley has long blamed de Blasio and her multiple predecessors for failing to deliver WiFi for the masses. “It’s continuously been delayed due to a lack of urgency, vision and attention,” she told THE CITY in a statement in January.

Julia Savel, a spokesperson for Wiley’s campaign, declined multiple opportunities to offer additional comment.

An examination of Wiley’s role in the LinkNYC kiosk deal that aimed to connect many New Yorkers reveals a more complex accounting of why legions have been left in the digital dust.

The lack of broadband connectivity was highlighted by the pandemic when low-income New Yorkers struggled to get online to do everything from attend school classes to schedule telehealth medical appointments to work remotely.

Some were even seen sitting outside the 207 closed libraries that continued to boost free Wi-Fi outside.

“The political capital behind the idea that we needed to get broadband networks everywhere, and get everyone on them, increased dramatically in March of 2020,” said Blair Levin, who handled broadband expansion at the Federal Communications Commission during the Obama administration.

“COVID demonstrated painfully to people like me how important it was to make sure that there were networks everywhere and everyone was on them,” he added.

Wiley prides herself for launching free internet access to residents at the NYCHA Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing complex in the nation with more than 6,000 people, many of whom are Black and Hispanic.

In her digital role for the de Blasio administration, she also “helped negotiate and supported the launch of the LinkNYC franchise,” according to the bio at The New School, where she teaches.

The plan was to convert landline pay phone locations into sleek kiosks with Wi-Fi hotspots, phone capabilities and a tablet touchscreen that could connect users to city services, such as the information and complaint hotline 311. The kiosks would be paid for by revenue from advertisements while bringing in $500 million for the city over the span of the agreement, which was initially 12 years.

In 2014, a consortium of private companies called CityBridge signed a franchise agreement under which it promised to install 7,500 operational kiosks within a decade. Two years later, Wiley celebrated the arrival of the first kiosks with a tweet declaring de Blasio the “best boss.”

The original deal included an initial 500 kiosks that wouldn’t have offered advertising, but would have provided some internet service for digital deserts. The number of those kiosks would have eventually expanded to 1,500.

“A targeted phase-in schedule provides for an equitable distribution of the new structures across the five boroughs within four years,” de Blasio’s office trumpeted at the time.

But that part of the deal was pulled because, City Hall later said, those kiosks were incompatible with the LinkNYC system.

 

Caption Ciafone on the campaign trail

 

Making all his nowhere plans for nobody...

Affordable housing hotel conversion bill passes

4 Hotels by Suthpin Blvd, Jamaica (JQ LLC)

 

 

QNS

With the legislative session winding down in Albany, state Senator Michael Gianaris passed his Housing our Neighbors with Dignity Act (HONDA) in the upper chamber Wednesday, June 9.

The legislation will allow the state to finance the purchase and conversion of distressed hotels and vacant commercial office space into permanent affordable housing by nonprofit organizations to ensure every New Yorker has access to a safe and affordable place to live.

Gianaris noted that $100 million was included in the state budget in April to fund such conversions under HONDA.

“New York has seen a decades-long affordable housing crunch exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic devastation,” Gianaris said. “This legislation is a good way to tackle the dual problems of distressed properties and lack of affordable housing. I am thrilled that this passed, and that we have a funded program that will provide real relief going forward.”

Under the legislation, new affordable housing must be made available to low-income households, and people who were previously homeless. At least 50 percent of the units will be set aside for individuals who experienced homelessness immediately prior to applying for converted units.

The legislation passed in the Assembly Thursday, June 10. Jackson Heights Jessica González-Rojas Assemblywoman co-sponsored the measure. (Let's see how fast this works-JQ LLC)

How "affordable housing" infects your property taxes

   

Carribean Times

Recently, as I was walking back from petitioning, I approached a homeowner. I introduced myself and made my pitch. She looked at me and said, “Why should I help you? – What are you going to do about THAT?” – pointing to a new 6 story building right next to her house. Her house is a sprawling corner lot, with a handsome wood-frame home. She looked at me sternly as I tried to answer and asked, “How are you going to stop that?” I politely responded, “we cannot”.

Obviously, she was not happy with my response. I don’t blame her to be honest. Nonetheless, it is the truth, as much as it pains me to say so. However, her concerns reveal a much deeper and bigger issue in our community about “housing”. What does that mean? The answer depends on who you ask. For some, housing means being able to afford rent for an apartment in a reasonably safe neighborhood. For others, housing means being able to hold on to the house you purchased. How does one reconcile the two? 

The term “affordable housing” is actually a misnomer, a proverbial urban myth.  It cost the same amount of money to build an “affordable apartment” versus a “market rate” apartment. The difference is how property tax is applied. Ironically, when we ask for “affordable housing” in our community, we are making homeownership less affordable. “Subsidized housing” is a better term because through the 421-A, a state property tax abatement, homeowners are offsetting property tax for developers. New apartment buildings in our community DO NOT PAY property tax. Instead, our appraised property value increases to make up for the “subsidy” used to help finance those new buildings. This is important for homeowners to know, as we explore why our community is changing so rapidly and becoming less affordable.

Homeowners with large wood frame houses are in danger. As property tax becomes higher, it is harder and harder to afford maintaining these large houses. You need to invest at least 5 to 8 thousand dollars per year to maintain your home. If you are not spending on maintenance, you are likely not keeping up the “value” of your home (which is different than the value of your land).

When your home falls into disrepair, over time, the land your house sits on becomes more valuable than the house itself. The reason is simple. If your home is in disrepair, it is less likely to be purchased by another family or “end-user” because the cost of buying and repairing the home in disrepair is usually beyond the means of first-time home buyers, and banks will not offer loans to purchase a home that “won’t appraise”. This simply means, a bank will not provide a borrower a loan to pay more than what a “house in disrepair” is worth. This makes it much more likely those houses will be purchased by DEVELOPERS!

Jackson Heights fire victims about to be kicked to the curb

So where are the elected officials who represent this area? Out on the campaign trail pimping for progressive candidates instead of helping their constituents? I can't help but notice the absence of Danny Dromm in this piece. Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas gets a temporary pass because she's in Albany. Jessica Ramos showed up and said she was heartbroken but that's about it. How about tapping into Mutual Aid and BLM funds? After all, all that money was raised "for the community!" (/end sarcasm)

JQ LLC: Danny Dromm has been more concerned with turning the avenue that charred building is on into a "linear park". Even after the inferno displaced hundreds of tenants.

Also absent in de Blasio's HPD's sadistic treatment of these people is his buddy and upper class Windsor Terrace neighbor Stephen Banks of the Department of Social Services, which is still using hotels to shelter people who are mentally ill or just came out of prison, but for some reason the D.S.S. doesn't seem to think hotels cannot be utilized for people who have been disenfranchised from their homes and community by fire.

 

The SLA is looking out for small businesses! (/end sarcasm)

From the NY Post:

The SLA on Wednesday adopted new rules that will require New York restaurants with a liquor license to add up all the fees a delivery company charges them each year to ensure the they don’t exceed 10 percent of the restaurant’s annual revenue.

If the fees exceed 10 percent of the restaurant’s annual revenues, the delivery company will need to be added to the restaurant’s liquor license.

The issue came to a head in 2019 when the regulatory agency held hearings on food delivery app fees that ranged from 15 percent to 30 percent of each order, raising questions about whether these companies are violating the SLA’s rules.

Many restaurateurs expected the agency to resolve the issue by capping fees at 10 percent of each order, akin to the exception made for landlords. Alternatively, the SLA might have ordered food delivery apps to adapt a flat fee for NY restaurants with a liquor license.

Neither the delivery companies or the restaurants are happy now.

City wants to allow massage parlors in residential areas

From the Department of City Planning:

The Health and Fitness Text Amendment eliminates the special permit that is currently required for gyms, spas, and licensed massage therapy – referred to as Physical Culture or Health Establishments in the Zoning Resolution.

The proposed changes could apply to a range of health and fitness businesses such as gyms, martial arts studios, indoor cycling spaces, yoga studios and licensed massage therapy studios.

Gyms and spas would be allowed to open and operate in commercial and manufacturing districts around the city. (Learn more about Zoning Districts here.) Similar to other neighborhood services such as restaurants, drug stores, and dry cleaners, these businesses would be allowed along all local retail streets. In certain commercial districts generally characterized by smaller establishments, gyms and spas would be limited to 10,000 square feet.

Licensed massage therapy studios would be allowed just as are other health care practices licensed by the State, such as physical therapy or outpatient doctors’ offices. These are permitted in residential, commercial, and manufacturing districts.

Well folks, Big Bird's gone bonkers.

On his way out the door, BDB wants to legalize sex work so badly he is now encouraging massage parlors to open up next to your kid's school, on your quiet residential street and in your apartment building. The City already does practically nothing to close illegal spas and massage parlors located along commercial corridors. Lifting restrictions on gyms and martial arts studios makes sense, but why we're inviting sex trafficking to proliferate in residential areas now is mind boggling. To tie this latest push to "COVID recovery" is a bit of a stretch.

This is making its way through the community boards now so you might want to make your thoughts known to them and your elected representatives.

The Cribs episode Eric Adams didn't plan well for

With Eric Adams' mayoral campaign panicking about revelations that he might live in New Jersey, Adams invited journalists to his NYC home and showed them this perfectly normal bed that wasn't just moved into the perfectly normal middle of this room. pic.twitter.com/yVnb6wb6lr

— raf (@rafaelshimunov) June 10, 2021

Sewer celebration

 

QNS

Southeast Queens leaders are hailing the completion of a $20.5 million sewers and water main project that upgraded infrastructure in Hollis and Queens Village.

The city announced the construction that started in March 2019 has been finished five months ahead of schedule.

“As a homeowner in southeast Queens, I understand the anguish of local residents who experience constant flooding of their basements,” Councilman I. Daneek Miller said. “Back in 2016, I worked with now-Queens Borough President Donovan Richards to secure $1.9 billion if funding for flood remediation infrastructure, which includes an unprecedented online portal that provides oversight of the initiative. Thanks in part to our advocacy and the cooperation of local residents, I am pleased that this project has been completed under budget and ahead of schedule.

“We look forward to the continued work to end the tremendous suffering many homeowners have had to endure over the last several decades,” Miller said.

Work occurred on 20 individual blocks to replace more than one mile of water mains, some of which were installed before World War II.

“These improvements are a significant investment in the future of Hollis and Queens Village, and their early completion greatly benefits the hard-working families of these vibrant neighborhoods,” Richards said. “This work underscores the city’s strong commitment to alleviate chronic flooding and addressing the other chronic infrastructure problems in southeast Queens.”

Stop, Warn and Leave.

 

QNS

Joined by NYPD officers from the 103rd Precinct, elected officials and members of the Jamaica business community, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced the creation of the “Jamaica Merchants Trespass Notice” — a new initiative that would issue a trespass notice to individuals who engage in disorderly or illegal activities in or outside shops and stores in Jamaica.

The program was created in partnership with the DA’s office, the NYPD and the business community because local businesses regularly grapple with individuals who use their stores and restaurants for illegal drug activities and other troublesome conduct, putting business owners, employees and customers in harm’s way, Katz explained.

Katz said that the program’s primary goal was to deter further disruptive behavior and that it provided an alternative to putting more people through the criminal system.

Instead, when encountering individuals engaging in illegal or rowdy acts on their property, merchants can notify the 103rd Precinct. Its responding officers will serve the offenders with a copy of the trespass notice, informing them that a repeat offense can or will result in their arrest.

“What this really does, it’s a clear communication between the store and the person who is disrupting that store’s business,” Katz said. “And just so everybody is very clear about this, this distinguishes between unwanted and disruptive behavior and criminal acts such as stealing or assault. First, there is a warning. The warning is clear — coming back is not an option.”

The program also includes training police officers on what to do when faced with disruptive behavior in a store or restaurant, teaching officers to issue a trespass warning first, putting the violator on notice.

 

 

Droppin' a half a billion on science

 AMNY

 Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city will invest another $500 million into the life sciences industry, doubling down on its initial investment back in 2016.

The combined billion-dollar bet is part of de Blasio’s plan to make New York City the public health capital of the world. The original investment helped create labs at academic institutions, funded paid internships, and created over 2 million square feet of new life science space. The additional investment will help to spur on that growth. 

De Blasio likened the investments into the life sciences industry to how the five boroughs grew its tech industry.

“We need to build up life sciences, this is the future,” said de Blasio. “This is what’s going to make New York city great going forward.”

De Blasio says the investments into life sciences will allow for the space and opportunity to create innovations for the future. He frequently mentioned the city’s effort during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, as evidence that the life sciences industry is crucial to the city’s growth and future. 

“We have the talent base, we have the hospitals, the universities, we have the ability to do the research that could blow away the capacity of any other part of the country,” said de Blasio.

The expanded initiative is expected to create 40,000 jobs. The city will provide up to $112 million in capital to award $20 million to support one or more innovation projects.

Multiple awardees can access up to $20 million each.

I don't know what "life sciences" is supposed to mean but I know the city better not give a contract to Ecohealth.

Queens Council Candidate Austin Shafran has been voting/living in Manhattan

 

Progressive Council Candidate Austin Shafran claims he's been raising his two young sons in Bayside Queens but has actually been living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for the last 6 years in a luxury building where 1 bedroom rentals start at $3400. The attached voter registration card shows that as of 9/20/20 he was still registered to vote in Council District 12 and hasn't voted in NE Queens since 2014. His address is 500 East 77th Street aka The Pavillion which takes up an entire city block. 

 Also here is a link to his Jim Owles Club Questionnaire where he wants to defund the police, fire Commissioner Shea and close Rikers

 

 

 

 

Episcopal Diocese plans to demolish historic Black church in Queens Village

Dear Friends,

Bishop Lawrence Provenzano of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island has a track record of closing Black churches while favoring the restoration of non-Black churches. Parishioners of historic and architecturally significant St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church (built 1894) located at 99-10 217th Lane Queens Village have sounded the alarm on his latest attempt to close their church. Enough is enough!

At a press conference in front of the church on June 7th, I was joined by concerned members of the community and preservationists, including Bishop Melvin Artis, pastor of 4 local churches, urban planner and historian Paul Graziano, Richard Hellenbrecht, Vice President of Queens Civic Congress and First Vice Chair of Community Board 13 and Maureen Grey, church historian and former member of the St. Joseph's congregation.

The Episcopal Diocese is trying to close St. Joseph’s using inconsistent arguments, saying that DOB violations are making it cheaper to demolish and build a new ‘financially viable’ building. However, violations have been cleared up and outstanding penalties amount to $1,000.

The complex, dating back to 1894, is in relatively good repair and has many historic details. The architectural pedigree of the church complex is incomparable, having been designed by some of the premier architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries:

Parfitt Brothers – Considered the top architectural firm in Brooklyn in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hundreds of Parfitt designed buildings in Brooklyn Heights, Crown Heights North and Park Slope have been landmarked. Their firm designed the church. It is the only confirmed commission in Queens County by this firm and must be preserved.
Tuthill and Higgins – A renowned architectural firm from Jamaica. Designers of the St. Joseph’s Parsonage. Also designed the original Jamaica Hospital, Richmond Hill Branch of the Queens Public Library (one of the Carnegie Libraries) and an addition to the Reformed Church of Jamaica.
Hobart Upjohn – The grandson of Richard Upjohn (who designed Trinity Church in Manhattan). He was one of the most well-known architects for religious buildings, particularly for the Episcopal Church. He designed the parish hall.

Bishop Melvin Artis, who oversees 4 local churches, said, “I am appealing to every clergy member in the southeast Queens area: Let’s get behind the people of this church and make sure that this history remains intact.”

Urban planner and historian Paul Graziano pointed out that the Episcopal Diocese does not do this to churches in wealthier, majority white neighborhoods. “Would you see this happen in Garden City at the seat of power of the Episcopal Diocese? No. Do you see this happening in wealthy congregations in white neighborhoods? Definitely not. So, there is definitely something through the prism of ethnicity and race which is very disturbing to me because looking at how the Episcopal Church has described themselves that doesn’t really match.”

As a result of this deeply concerning situation, I have taken the step of submitting a Request for Evaluation (RFE) to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Designation of the complex as an official NYC landmark would permanently protect the house of worship from demolition.

Please see photos of church, video of press conference and RFE application here. I'll keep the community up to date on my progress.

Yours truly,

Rene Hill
Candidate for City Council
District 27

AOC's Terrible Endorsements!

The Small Business Congress  

E-mail  savenycjobs@gmail.com                Website:  Savenycjobs.org

Media Advisory               Contact: Steven Barrison

For Immediate release       Barrisons@aol.com  savenycjobs@gmail.com

June 8, 2021                                         212-750-5560

Immigrant Small Business Advocates Angered by AOC Endorsements. 

AOC Endorsements A Grave Insult to Desperate Immigrant 

Family Owned Businesses and

To All True Progressives.

 Dateline NYC June 8, 2021:  The city’s last true immigrant small business advocate, Sung Soo Kim*, is deeply disheartened by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsement of Maya Wiley for Mayor and Councilman Brad Lander for Comptroller.  He fears both are a potential danger to the future of immigrant families.

Kim fears either’s election would mean the end of any hope to save our city’s immigrant family owned businesses. Contrary to NYC lawmakers using the purposely misleading term of “minority small businesses,” usually followed with “women owned businesses,” to reference small businesses, while, the majority owners of NYC small businesses are in fact multi generational immigrant family owned (64-68%). 

For accuracy, black owned businesses are less than 3% in NYC with the majority being immigrant owners from the Caribbean islands. The majority of women owners are from immigrant families.  Why the deception?

The reason is a massive dishonest campaign to cover-up the injustices, abuses and true dire state of our immigrant owned and run businesses produced by a handful of unethical ambitious lawmakers.  Corrupt lawmakers who have conspired and colluded with the real estate lobby to rig the system for over a decade to deny economic justice to our immigrant owners, which has made their now extreme crisis worse.  These lobby crony lawmakers are our Democratic leadership at City Hall.  Their betrayal of our immigrant families has resulted in the most anti immigrant business environment in the entire Nation, one that has been destroying immigrant’s American Dream in record numbers. 

Why is this relevant to AOC’s endorsements? Because both her endorsements are directly connected to  people who played a major role is denying economic justice, rights and a real lifeline of survival for our immigrant family owners.  AOC with her social progressive platform can profess a profound ignorance of basic economics.  But while she was working in a small business in NYC during this hyper real estate speculation period, she cannot claim willful ignorance of the dire crisis all businesses faced when their leases expire and the owners having no rights.

She must have walked by many empty stores on her main street where once thriving businesses were.  AOC could likely name a dozen businesses she patronized that were forced to close due only to having no rights while landlords demanding insane rent increases or unfair lease terms, and that was BEFORE COVID.  Why didn’t AOC ever wonder who at City Hall was responsible for allowing this unjust and insane economic policy to happen and then deny a real lifeline to the victims?  

Nevertheless, here she is, AOC is endorsing one (Brad Lander) who played a key role in throwing immigrant owners under the bus for his own political ambitions. She is endorsing another (Maya Wiley) whose policy director (Lena Alridi) also played a key role in stopping a vote on the only real lifeline to save immigrant businesses and went further to collaborate with Lander to then substitute a landlord’s bill to kill the Jobs Survival Act and end any hope to save our immigrant businesses and jobs. 

Does AOC want her followers to believe she carefully screened her endorsement’s backgrounds to assure they were true progressives who would fight for progressive legislation needed to change a corrupt government and save the victims of unchecked greed?  The truth is her endorsements of Brad Lander and Maya Wiley, if helped get elected, would continue the policies of the big New York real estate lobby that were destroying the “backbone of our economy, our immigrant family businesses and jobs” for a long time.

Her endorsement of Brad Lander for Comptroller is an insult to every informed immigrant family, good government, and to true progressive values. CM Brad Lander gives new meaning to the word “hypocrite”.  I have direct eye witness and a thorough investigation of Lander’s shameful record of disrespecting, discriminating against and betraying our city’s hard working immigrant families.  The despicable betrayal of democracy and of our immigrant community is far too long to go into detail now, but these links* show the truth of this progressive fraud and the damage to our economy as well as the suffering to many immigrant families he has caused by his abandoning progressive values and his abuse of his office. https://www.savenycjobs.com/part-v

https://www.savenycjobs.com/brad-lander-leads-rigging

 

A disgraceful record of lack of integrity and betrayal.

The key to unlocking this fraud’s true blind ambition lies with an independent study of immigrant owned businesses* and his testimony at a hearing on finding a real solution to our small business crisis.

   *https://www.savenycjobs.com/latin-chamber-study 

In April 2009, the largest study of Hispanic businesses showed conclusively a crisis existed for businesses. A crisis caused by years of unchecked real estate speculation on Main Streets forcing the rents to insane levels. A crisis immigrant owners could never hope to survive without government intervention to give them rights when their leases expired.

Upon the release of the study’s findings, then Chairman of the Small Business Committee David Yassky in public proclaimed, “that is what is at stake if we lose our small businesses we lose the jobs … ….. the one thing we cannot do in the face of this Crisis is nothing”.*

*  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiLyhVe6jDQ

Brad Lander read this study and agreed with all the progressives “you cannot do nothing in the face of a crisis.” Brad Lander would testify at the hearing on what he thought the government should do.  June 29, 2009 a hearing was held to find a solution to our city’s small business crisis. 

I testified at this hearing and listened carefully to all the testimony given. I especially liked what I heard from Brad Lander who also had an opinion on what government should do to stop the closings of businesses.  As well as predicting what would happen to small businesses if they did nothing.  

At the June 29, 2009 hearing he testified supporting the Small  Business Jobs Survival Act.  Lander, “I believe that one (solution Jobs Survival Act) being proposed here today of a fair lease renewal process comes out high up at the top (to preserve small businesses) and I strongly support it. As you know, the challenges facing small business have grown from a problem to a real crisis in the city. But you're still seeing a stunning number of places where when a lease renewal comes up, what people are being forced to do is absurd.  If we don’t do something about it soon we're going to lose them more and more and more. The City's Department of Small Business Services, as we've heard, have many fine programs, but the evidence is before our eyes, they just aren't working to save mom and pop businesses in our neighborhoods. So something new and serious is needed. I just think the evidence is there before us if we let the free market reign, we know without any additional regulation what it's going to continue to give us. In two years, three years, five years, we'll be back here with fewer of the small businesses that make our neighborhood great, with fewer of the jobs that we have here today. So let's put in place this one very reasonable additional regulation.”

I waited and shook Brad Lander’s hand after his testimony. Not only because of his support for our bill but because of what he said about making a priority to stopping the illegal extortion of immigrant owners.  Earlier in the testimony, then CM John Liu called out the SBS for ignoring the study’s findings that 31% of immigrant owners had been demanded to pay cash in order to remain in business, and SBS did not even care.   Brad Lander was aware of this shameful act against helpless immigrant owners and gave his objections.

Brad Lander made the strongest statement on the illegal extortion of immigrant owners by calling for an investigation of the extortion:  

BRAD LANDER: “I might just add one thing that was very clear from the testimony and the conversation earlier is the need for some enhanced investigation.  I don’t know who it is here that needs to step in and investigate, whether it's the IRS, whether it's the state attorney general, whether it's a city investigative agency. There are clearly things going on ….the survey that was done is obviously one great step, but having a government agency in is critical.”

Brad Lander’s reply to my thanking him on behalf of immigrant owners being extorted was, “it is the right thing to do, landlords robbing these owners must be investigated and stopped.”

After the hearing if AOC were to have endorsed Brad Lander then as a true progressive, I would be the first in line to agree with her.  But not today, not after Lander used his office and influence to keep the status quo for landlords and stop any law giving rights to immigrant owners when their leases expired. Rights needed to have a fighting chance to negotiate fair leases and make a reasonable profit for their hard work. Rights needed to stop the illegal extortion and short leases of sometimes month to month or one year. 

 When Lander left that hearing, that was his last words or acts to help small businesses in a true meaningful way. He would never again even mention addressing the illegal extortion of immigrant business owners!! His testimony was disingenuous like every time a media event happens to highlight a closed business and he appears crying crocodile tears and gives a “let’s save our businesses speech.”  While the majority of time as the Council’s deputy in charge of policy, he would collude with the fat cats, who would later donate to his campaign, to keep the status quo and never even attempt to find a true solution to save a single business or job. The SOLUTION he so eloquently testified to in 2009, supporting and ending the crisis, he will never mention!  Despicable! Lander was always pledging to do something, but never meaning it.  Lander a true phony, a pretend progressive in campaigning only. 

How progressive is a lawmaker who knows immigrant owners are targeted for extortion of their life’s savings and that is acceptable. Why is it acceptable to AOC to support a candidate who knowingly does nothing to stop this shameful act against immigrant owners? Worse, who willingly joins in the rigging at City Hall to stop any vote on the only real solution to save the immigrant businesses and stop the extortion and other landlord abuses against immigrant owners? In no major city in the world would the routine extortion of cash from owners in order to remain in business be tolerated. Yet, under Lander’s leadership as Council’s deputy in charge of policy, this deplorable act is allowed to occur unabated.

Once Brad Lander gained a leadership role in the Council he never once called for a vote on the Jobs Survival Act or any law giving actual rights to immigrant family businesses.  Former Chair Yassky’s statement, “the one thing we cannot do in the face of this Crisis is nothing”, is exactly the opposite of what Brad Lander did under his leadership, nothing to save even one business or job. By Lander maintaining the real estate lobbies’ policy of protecting the landlord’s wealth, our small business crisis grew out of control to every main street in NYC.  Under his watch as policy director a severe crisis became worse and yet, not once did he call for an honest hearing to find a solution to stop the closings. Brad Lander played a major role in rigging the system to protect big real estate and thus is responsible for helping to create our city’s empty store blight.

Under Lander’s watch NYC Courts issued warrens to evict on average 470 businesses each month for 10 years.  An estimated 1,300 businesses closed each month in NYC creating the empty store blight. Brad Lander did nothing but collude to cover up this anti small business environment and crisis destroying our small businesses.

*https://www.savenycjobs.com/nyc-court-evictions-

As the council’s policy man, Lander could not feel good about the city’s empty stores on every block during an economic boom. Exactly what he predicted in his very own testimony in 2009 was happening under his watch! Yet, he did nothing! Can you be anymore two faced than that?

Yet, AOC thinks it’s a good idea to put Brad Lander, who is policy chief and oversees the largest small business destruction in America, in charge of the City’s pension funds and has investigative powers.  Really!  Every city in America has small businesses that were prospering under a ten year economic growth. While in NYC only the landlords were prospering while long established small businesses were closing in record numbers.  Brad Lander played a key role to deny them rights and a real lifeline to survive. Why would AOC think this lawmaker with a shameful failed record is worth endorsing? Did AOC or her staff or advisors bother to investigate truth, facts, of the real Bogus Brad?

Lander continues rigging for lobby!

Because of the empty store blight, a hearing was finally given to the Jobs Survival Act in Oct 2018.  Would Lander step up to testify like he did at the last hearing and call for support of the progressive legislation the Jobs Survival Act? No, instead Lander would remain silent to the greatest anti immigrant and sham hearing ever held at City Hall. The entire hearing was turned over to the real estate lobby to orchestrate a total charade to deny economic justice to desperate immigrant owners. This sham hearing had only one purpose, to stop a vote on the only real lifeline to save our small businesses. This disgraceful hearing could never have taken place without the knowledge and full support of the Council’s deputy policy chief, Brad Lander and another impostor Speaker Johnson.

Lander then to continue the scheme like a good charlatan he promotes a substitute bill to kill Jobs Survival Act and all hope for immigrant owners to survive!

The final betrayal of our immigrant family owners by  Brad Lander came in late 2019. At the 2018 hearing, Speaker Johnson pledged to amend the Jobs Survival Act to exclude any protections to Fortune 500 type big businesses, and then move it to a vote.  This should have required changing the language of one paragraph concerning the scope of the bill.  With the Jobs Survival Act having 29 sponsors and a growing crisis citywide this simple task, which was not opposed, should have taken a few hours at most, and a quick easy passage at the next Council session. 

Speaker Johnson had no intentions of keeping his word and amending the Jobs Survival Act.  The real estate lobby’s strategy was to stall a vote on the bill, and let it expire Dec 31, 2021.    

The key player for this despicable anti democracy agenda was CM Brad Lander. If there was any doubts about whom Brad Lander really served, that was put to rest with his appalling rigging in plain sight.

No effort was made to move Speaker Johnson along to amend the Jobs Survival Act. The reason was simple, the real estate lobby had a team working in secret behind closed doors. There was no rational reason to not support the Jobs Survival Act and give small business owners the rights needed to survive. Therefore, the lobby must create a substitute bill and have City Hall leadership lie and  tout it as a viable bill to save small businesses. Brad Lander was not a sponsor of the Jobs Survival Act but would eagerly promote a new bill influenced by the real estate lobby to substitute for the Jobs Survival Act.  His new bill, was a violation of the Councils own rules of never having similar bills with the same intent. 

Councilman Brad Lander became the first NYC lawmaker in 30 years to issue a petition to Save Small Businesses, and not mean it. CM Lander in championing a new bill, Commercial Rent Stabilization, claiming it will save small businesses by putting a cap on commercial rent. It is a knowingly false claim and he knew his bill would not save a single business or even one job. Why would you secretly promote a real estate created bill that you know is grossly inferior to the Jobs Survival Act? What happened to his 2009 testimony on the Jobs Survival Act, “ at the top (to preserve small businesses) and I strongly support it.?”

Kim, “ In the long 30 year battle over our bill, never once has two bills been in play at the same time. Now policy chief Lander thinks it is a good idea to introduce another bill, one that keeps the status quo for landlords.  How does a new bill appear after 14 months from a hearing on the Jobs Survival Act, without collusion with the real estate lobby?  Yet 14 months after the hearing, with the Speaker repeatedly claiming to be “tweaking and fine tuning” the Jobs Survival Act, the bill he pledged to “move to a vote”, no changes were made. 

Instead, those same proposed changes (eliminate big business coverage) now appear in a new bill, which gives the tenants no rights whatsoever!  This is called Rigging the system at City Hall. With a growing small business crisis now out of control citywide, CM Lander should be ashamed of using his office to create a policy that in reality is the real estate lobby’s policy to stop any law from giving any rights to small business owners when their leases expire.  CM Lander’s actions are despicable and do not fool any small business owner with his lobby created bill that was created with only one goal, to stop a vote on the only real solution: Jobs Survival Act.   No honest progressive should trust him. But one does, AOC. 

Two key players, bad actors, who rigged the system against immigrant families. 

I went into great detail exposing this fake progressive Brad Lander because he did not discriminate against and betray our immigrant small business owners by himself. The real estate lobby put together an "A Team" of unethical cronies and opportunist to protect their profits. A major player responsible for colluding with the real estate lobby to deny economic justice to immigrant owners and who joined with Lander in promoting this fake substitute bill was Lena Afridi, policy director for Maya Wiley.  AOC manages to endorse candidates with a proven record of discrimination against immigrant family owners. This true display of ignorance or plain outright hypocrisy is on its own shameful. This is too critical at this point in time for NYC small businesses not to call out.

I will not go into the fine details showing which side Ms. Afridi is on. Read these links to give facts which show why I am alarmed Ms. Afridi could gain a position to influence small business economic policy. It would be the end of any hope for immigrant businesses to save their American Dream.

 

https://www.savenycjobs.com/afridi-betrayal-part-i

 

https://www.savenycjobs.com/lena-afridi-shameful-testimony

 

https://www.savenycjobs.com/commercial-rent-control-bill

 

My warning to all New York voters, do not trust AOC's endorsement of candidates, Brad Lander or Maya Wiley. Shame on CM Lander for losing his moral compass and betraying every desperate small business owner.  Shame on him for discriminating against helpless immigrant families struggling to survive. 

Shame of Maya Wiley for not doing her homework and having an anti immigrant policy director formulate her small business policy.   

 

 

 Sung Soo Kim, recognized as the city’s leading small business authority and advocate for over 3 decades. The “Godfather of immigrant businesses”  is the founder of the oldest small business service center in NYC, the Korean American Small Business Service Center, and was Chairman of the Mayor’s First Small Business Advisory Board, appointed by Mayors Dinkins and Giuliani. He is co-founder of Small Business Congress and sole creator of the Small Business Bill of Rights.  He has spent every working day for 34 years addressing the problems of immigrant small business owners. At its peak, Kim had 17,000 immigrant business owners he served under 8 Asian business associations.  He never took a salary from the government as Chairman of the Small Business Advisory Board nor in consulting on numerous regulations. He turned down offers to run a BID in Queens and turned down government funding for his business service center.  In 34 years he has personally negotiated and re-negotiated an estimated 50,000-55,000 commercial lease for his Asian members. He has gone to court weekly for 34 years to fight for his members in court. He personally consulted in the drafting of the original version of the Small Business Jobs Survival Act and every version introduced by eight prime sponsors. He organized 11 public hearings over 3 decades on the Jobs Survival Act.