It's time to tell Big Bird to F off

City throwing $$$ at Trump cronies through homeless shelter non-profits

From Patch:

The 75-bed shelter at 243-02 Northern Blvd. will be run by the nonprofit Samaritan Village. It is slated to open in late 2021.

It would be the first homeless shelter in the Northeast Queens district overseen by Community Board 11, according to the NYC Department of Social Services, the umbrella agency for the Department of Homeless Services.

Oh? Well, Samaritan Village has a stellar reputation! (J/K. We know all about them.)

Hey, has anyone looked into who owns this building now? Let's take a look.

Hmmm...that address...that phone number...those initials... Why, this is LLC is part of the Bayrock Group! And we all know who Bayrock was deeply involved with, yes?

But that's not all! They also own a shelter in Hollis AND the controversial Manhattan shelter. We could keep going (and we will later)...but suffice it to say that they have entered the homeless shelter business head on. Years ago they were eyeballs deep in a development nightmare in Whitestone which got foreclosed on during the financial crisis.

So we're taking Trump's name off buildings and canceling his contracts with the city with righteous indignation while simultaneously enriching his checkered-past pals via multi million dollar social service contracts? Sounds very de Blasio-esque!

Does ANYONE in the media or government look into this shit or are they too busy navel gazing on Twitter and reflexively painting the people who question these things as bigots?

De Blasio opposed to ridiculously expensive Planning Together

From the Daily News: The de Blasio administration is opposing a City Council proposal to simplify the process for future development, saying legislation from Council Speaker Corey Johnson would be way too expensive. The bill...would cost the city about half a billion dollars per decade, the administration estimates — and that at a time of shrinking tax revenues due to the coronavirus outbreak. In the administration’s reading of the bill, every community district in the city would have to undergo assessments of three different development scenarios every 10 years. With an average “environmental impact assessment” costing $2.5 million to carry out, and the city having 59 community districts, that comes to about $450 million per decade, according to the administration. It also estimates the cost of staffing the undertaking would add another $50 million, not counting costs to the Office of Management and Budget. De Blasio officials including Planning Commissioner Marissa Lago are expected to testify against Johnson’s bill on Wednesday.

De Blasio kicks meeting attendee out for exercising First Amendment right

For those who don't have facebook and are viewing this on other browsers besides Chrome. Here's the whole hearing. Where our mayor shows contempt and gives condescending responses to every other citizen who had the mike. Start it at the 25 minute mark to save time. JQ LLC

Neir's: It ain't over yet

Well folks, it takes a lot for me to come out of semi-retirement to weigh in on current events, but this whole Neir’s Tavern situation became such an unnecessary debacle that I can’t sit idly by and not call attention to some things.

Yesterday, Mayor de Blasio - himself a millionaire landlord and facilitator of citywide hotel-shelter slumlordship - decided to tell the owner of Neir’s that greedy building owners are awful. Where the hell was he when the LPC denied the landmarking bid for it back in 2016? A lot of the worry over the bar's fate could have been avoided if the LPC stopped doing what it always does to Queens history. And he can request that the “new” LPC (minus Meenakshi Srinivasan) take a second look at it.

Now, Loycent Gordon is not only an immigrant but also the black owner of a small business. This is EXACTLY the type of entrepreneur that fauxgressives want to be seen helping. But perhaps because Loy is also a lover of Queens history, and therefore a threat to development, he was totally disregarded for years. Except, that is, after he became so desperate that he felt forced to plead with the mayor on his radio program. How utterly sickening.

How the hell did we as a society get to this point?

And another question for those of you out there in Crapland… did you hear those January crickets yesterday? That sound was coming from every borough president candidate out there as an establishment dating back to 1829 almost went dark.

And why did the owner really have a change of heart? The NY Times explains:

Mr. Holden, a Democrat who represents the area, said the negotiations were tense until it became clear that a major problem for Mr. Shi was that he could not get a mortgage because the building lacked a proper certificate of occupancy and did not meet current zoning rules.

Mr. Holden said an agreement was reached under which his office would work to ensure that the building met all requirements; the city would make a small business grant available to improve the property; and Mr. Shi would raise the rent much less than he had proposed.

So while we can all celebrate that a piece of Queens history has been temporarily spared, keep in mind that the lease is only for 5 years and in 2026 this might happen all over again. And in the meantime, it's very likely that the next piece of Queens history that gets threatened won't have the stars align for it the way this one did. Because we keep electing the same lame tweeders over and over and over again and the rare ones who actually give a damn like Holden will be gone. (Why the hell did Michael Gianaris show up to the victory party when he did absolutely nothing?)

A big thank you and shout out to the media who realized the significance of this story and what it would have meant to lose Neir's and used the power of the press to call attention to it. All of the stories were pretty good (and I read or watched them all), but 2 really stood out to me: Corey Kilgannon's original NY Times piece and PIX11's story. Check out the reaction of the news anchor at the end. He totally gets it.



It's 2020, people. Wake up already, heh?

- QC

I like to add (again) that de Blasio's Landmark Preservation Committee refused to give Loycent and Neir's landmark status because they felt that a bar that has existed 190 years was not historically significant enough.

Congratulations to Mr. Gordon and the staff at Neir's and a great job done by Councilmember Holden and Assemblyman Miller (leave it to de Blasio to try to bigfoot credit for it). Here's to five more years, hopefully there will be better and moral officials running this city in the future.  

JQ LLC

Happy New Year! WE'RE REALLY F*CKED

From CBS2:

The law would still require cash bail for major drug trafficking offenses, sex offenses, and certain offenses against children however — judges are now prevented from imposing a cash bail and holding repeat offenders for dozens of crimes regardless of the suspect’s criminal history.

Here Are All The Crimes That Now Fall Under The Bail Reform Law:

2nd degree Burglary of a residence
2nd degree Burglary as a Hate Crime
3rd degree Burglary of a commercial building
3rd degree Burglary as a Hate Crime
2nd degree Robbery aided by another person
2nd degree Robbery as a Hate Crime
3rd degree Robbery
Criminal sale of a controlled substance (multiple counts)
Using a child to commit a controlled substance crime
Criminal possession of a controlled substance (multiple counts)
Criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near a school
Criminal injection of a controlled substance into another person
Criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child
Criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance by a pharmacist
Criminal possession or creation of Methamphetamines
3rd degree Assault
3rd degree Assault as a Hate Crime
Reckless Assault of a child by a day care provider
Reckless Assault of a child
Stalking (multiple counts)
Stalking as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Vehicular Assault (multiple counts)
Aggravated Vehicular Assault
Aggravated Assault on a child under 11 years-old
Aggravated Assault on a child under 11 years-old as a Hate Child
Menacing (multiple counts)
Menacing as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Reckless Endangerment (multiple counts)
Promoting a suicide attempt
1st degree Stalking while committing a sex offense
Criminal Obstruction of Breathing
Criminally Negligent Homicide
2nd degree Vehicular Manslaughter
Aggravated Vehicular Manslaughter
2nd degree Manslaughter
Unlawful Imprisonment (multiple counts)
Unlawful Imprisonment as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Aggravated Labor Trafficking
Custodial Interference (multiple counts)
Substitution of children
Coercion (multiple counts)
Coercion as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Criminal Trespass (multiple counts)
Criminal Trespass as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Possession of burglar’s tools
Unlawful possession of a police scanner
Criminal Mischief (multiple counts)
Criminal Mischief as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Criminal Tampering (multiple counts)
Cemetery Desecration (multiple counts)
Aggravated Cemetery Desecration (multiple counts)
Reckless Endangerment of property
Tampering with a consumer product (multiple counts)
Graffiti
Possession of Graffiti tools
3rd degree Arson
4th degree Arson
5th degree Arson
3rd degree Arson as a Hate Crime
4th degree Arson as a Hate Crime
5th degree Arson as a Hate Crime
Grand Larceny (multiple counts)
Grand Larceny at a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Aggravated Grand Larceny of an ATM
Petit Larceny
Petit Larceny as a Hate Crime
Computer Tampering (multiple counts)
Computer Trespass
Unauthorized use of a computer
Unlawful duplication of computer materials (multiple counts)
Welfare Fraud (multiple counts)
Criminal use of a public benefits card (multiple counts)
Criminal possession of a public benefits card (multiple counts)
Unauthorized use of a vehicle (multiple counts)
Auto stripping (multiple counts)
Theft of services
Unauthorized use of a credit card
Jostling
Fraudulent Accosting
Criminal Possession of Stolen Property (multiple counts)
Forgery (multiple counts)
Criminal possession of a forged instrument (multiple counts)
Criminal possession of forgery devices
Criminal possession of a Vehicle ID Number
Forgery of a Vehicle ID Number
Falsifying business records (multiple counts)
Tampering with public records (multiple counts)
Offering a false instrument for filing (multiple counts)
Insurance Fraud (multiple counts)
Health insurance fraud (multiple counts)
Criminal diversion of prescription medications (multiple counts)
Commercial bribery (multiple counts)
Rent Gouging (multiple counts)
Residential mortgage fraud (multiple counts)
Aggravated identity theft (multiple counts)
Bribery (multiple counts)
Perjury (multiple counts)
Bail jumping (multiple counts)
Obstructing governmental administration (multiple counts)
Obstructing governmental administration with a self-defense spray device
Killing a Police Dog or Police Horse
Obstructing emergency medical services
Obstructing governmental services with a bomb
Escape (multiple counts)
Promoting prison contraband (multiple counts)
Resisting arrest
Hindering prosecution (multiple counts)
Making a false sworn statement
Bribing a witness
Receiving a bribe as a witness
Bribing a juror
Receiving a bribe as a juror
Providing a juror with a gratuity
Tampering with a juror (multiple counts)
Tampering with physical evidence
Compounding a crime
1st degree Criminal Contempt – refusing to be sworn in as a witness
2nd degree Criminal Contempt
ALL Gambling offenses
ALL Prostitution offenses
Providing indecent material in minors (multiple counts)
Riot (multiple counts)
Criminal Anarchy
Harassment (multiple counts)
Harassment as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Aggravated Harassment (multiple counts)
Aggravated Harassment as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Aggravated Harassment of an employee by an inmate
Criminal nuisance (multiple counts)
Falsely reporting a crime
Pointing a laser at an aircraft (multiple counts)
Harming a service animal (multiple counts)
Public lewdness
Illegal eavesdropping
Dissemination of unlawful surveillance (multiple counts)
Non-support of a child (multiple counts)
Endangering the welfare of a child
Assisting in female genital mutilation
Endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person
Endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person
Endangering the welfare of a disabled person (multiple counts)
Promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child
Possession of an obscene sexual performance by a child
Promoting a sexual performance by a child
Possessing a sexual performance by a child
4th degree Criminal possession of a weapon
Criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds
Criminal possession of a firearm
3rd degree Criminal possession of a weapon
Criminal purchase or disposal of a weapon
Unlawfully wearing a body vest
Unlawfully fleeing a police officer in a vehicle (multiple counts)
Enterprise corruption
Money Laundering (multiple counts)
Money Laundering in support of terrorism (multiple counts)
Corrupting the government (multiple counts)
Criminal solicitation (multiple counts)
Conspiracy (multiple counts)
Conspiracy as a Hate Crime (multiple counts)
Criminal facilitation (multiple counts)

Cuomo estimates the new law will keep about 90 percent of defendants out of jail at least until their case gets resolved.

These offenders will also have the added bonus of a new incentive program in New York City — which will give released suspects things like New York Mets tickets and gift cards for showing up to court.

Recent de Blasio appointee to monitor city census finds time to go electioneering

NY Post


Mayor de Blasio’s new census czar may be counting votes for her next election campaign, rather than Big Apple residents, stunned Democratic Party officials said.

Newly minted 2020 Census honcho Julie Menin is supposed to be finding ways to improve the city’s abysmal 60 percent participation rate in the every-10-year census by getting undocumented immigrants to participate.

But at the same time, she’s courting tony East Side 
political clubs to help solidify a future run for Manhattan district attorney, according to three borough district leaders.

“She’s doing this to build up her political relationships. Everyone assumes she took the job to brush up her political chops,” said one observer, who requested anonymity and said it’s an open secret that Menin plans to run for Manhattan DA in 2021.

 “The city does have major underrepresentation problems with the census count in lower-income and immigrant neighborhoods. But the East Side of Manhattan doesn’t fall into either category.”

de Blasio announces leniency towards bike lane parking violators

NY Post


Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday the city won’t be going after vehicles clogging bike lanes because it doesn’t have adequate “resources” for such a crackdown.

“We don’t have the resources to do that right now in the way I think … the bicycle community would like to see, but we do believe that anybody who is parked in the bike lane, of course, is going to be summonsed and there will be consequences,” de Blasio said during his weekly appearance on WNYC radio.

“So these are just different priorities that we need to work with every single day.”

Host Brian Lehrer pointed out that callers to the show regularly question why the city is concerned about clogged bus lanes, but not bike lanes, where “someone can get killed or seriously injured by having to swerve into traffic.”

De Blasio responded that bus lanes are a higher priority because “of the sheer number” who use them, meaning the 2.5 million daily passengers.

His comments came a day after de Blasio announced that seven NYPD tow teams would be dedicated exclusively to clearing bus thoroughfares.

Of course this would not be complete without another incriminating display of his brazen sense of entitlement and defiant hypocrisy, for he's also a recidivist scofflaw concerning this pervasive issue.

Mayor de Blasio and his EDC, luxury real estate developers and their "friends" still trying to make idiotic and loathed BQX trolley a reality

 NY Daily News

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan for a shiny new streetcar through Brooklyn and Queens took a step forward Wednesday.

The NYC Economic Development Corporation, which also runs NYC Ferry service, announced it approved a contract with a consultant to oversee the environmental review process for the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, or BQX.

The trolley, which was first announced in 2016, looked to be dead in the water last April when Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen questioned whether it was worth its $2.5 billion price tag.

But the city released a revised plan for the BQX in August, which slashed the length of the streetcar's 
route from 16 miles to 11, and inflated its cost to $2.7 billion.

The updated route terminates in Gowanus in the south and Astoria in the north.

The new transit option has garnered a good deal of controversy since it was announced. Like the NYC Ferry, it has raised concerns about gentrification and housing prices.

Friends of the BQX, a real estate-backed nonprofit that has been advocating for the project, praised the progress Wednesday.

“We are pleased with the city's commitment not just to moving the project forward, but to community engagement, which must play a central role,“ said the group’s executive director Jessica Schumer, daughter of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “As the city grapples with a transit crisis, now is the moment for it to take control of its mass transit destiny and expand access wherever it can.”

The city hopes to have the trolley completed in 2029 — it still hasn’t determined how it will be funded.

Yeah, the headline above is a little bitty bit of editorializing, but I said that this was going to happen regardless. Because what the real estate overlords want, the real estate overlords get. And I don't like it anymore than you do.

Senate Majority Leader gives Gianaris ability to quash Amazon corporate welfare deal as de Blasio starts job training program designed for it

 

QNS


Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins recommended state Senator Michael Gianaris as a member of the state Public Authorities Control Board, which could potentially veto the Amazon project.

 
Gianaris, the deputy majority leader of the Senate, has been a leading opponent of the Amazon deal due to the incentive package worth nearly $3 billion in taxpayer funds.
 
“New York needs responsible fiscal stewardship now more than ever and ensuring our economic development dollars are well spent is a responsibility I take very seriously,” Gianaris said Monday. 

“I appreciate Leader Stewart-Cousin’s faith in me and am honored she submitted my name to serve on the PACB.”

We shall see.

Meanwhile...

QNS

As it gears up for the full arrival of Amazon’s HQ2 campus in Long Island City is the coming years, the de Blasio administration announced Jan. 28 it is offering up to $300,000 in micro-grants to qualified organizations that specialize in workforce development.

The grants will support research and planning into innovative approaches the city could take to promote training and hiring of underrepresented New Yorkers in tech and other in-demand sectors.

“Preparing New Yorkers for the jobs of tomorrow and making sure those jobs are accessible to residents from all backgrounds with different skill sets is critical to leveling the economic playing field,” the New York City Economic Development Corporation President and CEO James Patchett said. “We are excited to partner with the Office of Workforce Development to catalyze innovative workforce training programs that will help ensure New Yorkers are ahead of the game as the city’s tech sector booms.”

 Through a request for expressions of interest, known as an RFEI, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development and the NYCEDC will work with community-based organizations with funds to develop effective, innovative programmatic concepts the city and its partners can use to help ensure local talent is prepared to access new hiring tech opportunities.

Councilman Ulrich, one of 24 candidates running for Public Advocate, targets the Dope From Park Slope on his platform.

 

 Queens Chronicle

The field of candidates running for public advocate next month is starting to resemble the start of the New York City marathon. So Eric Ulrich, the three-term Council member from Ozone Park, has found a simple message to stand out.

“If people love Mayor de Blasio, if they think he’s doing a great job and think the city is headed in the right direction, then they have 20 other candidates to pick from,” he said in an interview this week with the Queens Chronicle.

“If someone is looking for someone to be a public advocate [who] is not afraid to be independent of the mayor, then I’m their candidate. That’s why I’m running.


Ulrich, who turns 34 two weeks before the special election February 26, is a popular figure in his South Queens Council district after his surprise victory in a 2009 special election and then winning re-election three times in an area that is overwhelmingly Democratic.

He is barred by term limits from running for City Council again when his current term expires in 2021.

I personally think this position is redundant, after all the majority of these candidates are already in city council, so they are already advocates for the public.

Special treatment given to big de Blasio donors

From CBS 2:

Shocking video has surfaced, documenting the easy access achieved by a pair of donors to Mayor Bill de Blasio who reportedly used gifts and bribes to weasel their way into the very heart of the New York Police Department.

A photo taken at a dinner showing donors Jeremy Reichberg and Jona Rechnitz bracketing then-NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks takes on a new whole new meaning in light of the astonishing dash cam video played out at Reichberg’s trial on charges of bribing police officers.

The video shows Reichberg and Rechnitz, who has already pleaded guilty and is testifying as a government witness, somehow gain access to the heavily protected underground garage at the department’s headquarters in lower Manhattan.

“I would expect that the chief, the PC, sent us a representative to walk us up to the private elevator,” Rechnitz said. “I expect nothing less.”

Banks, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, did in fact send an escort who can be seen greeting the pair effusively. Jurors were also shown pictures and video of the pair wearing Santa Claus hats and driving a black Aston Martin to deliver Christmas presents to officers, but it was the unfettered access to police headquarters that’s riled police experts.

Read this as you wait for the feast

Below is the letter that former DOI Commissioner Mark Peters sent to the City Council about his dismissal by de Blasio.

STATEMENT FROM DOI COMMISSI... by on Scribd

Happy Thanksgiving from Queens Crap!

It's the day of the year when we give thanks for all we have. And no one has more than this guy. And he's about to get even more at our expense thanks to two other guys who he spun like records. I guess we should be thankful, though!

The shoe is on the other foot

From Crains:

Mayor Bill de Blasio is preparing a revised plan to raise money for the troubled New York City Housing Authority by working with private property managers and developers. And a major change to the blueprint involves trimming the amount of affordable housing that will be created—something that would have been anathema to the mayor just three years ago.

The city's plan, which officials said will be released by the end of the year, will be called Nycha 2.0 and will consist of increasing the number of developments managed by private companies, selling air rights and building new apartment towers on vacant or underused land, according to Politico New York, which first reported the initiative. Officials believe they can raise nearly $22 billion, which would take out a significant chunk of the authority's current $32 billion capital needs.

One key element of the plan is developing new apartments on Nycha-owned land that would generate income for the agency, something that was first proposed under the Bloomberg administration. Under that initiative, the buildings would have been 80% market-rate and 20% affordable.

"The idea was to generate money to repair the existing buildings and create significant new affordable housing, though the buildings would not have been 100% affordable," said Fred Harris, a former Nycha executive who helped draft the plan.

However, de Blasio criticized the Bloomberg plan as "a pure giveaway to wealthy elites" and in his NextGen plan proposed buildings that would be entirely affordable or split evenly between affordable and market rate.

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer

From a Bill de Blasio op ed in the Daily News:

They didn't pick Texas, which trumpets its low taxes.

They didn't pick Maryland with its $8.5 billion in incentives, or even New Jersey with its $7 billion.

In the end, Amazon came to New York.

When I took office, the 20-year knock on New York City's progressives was that our love of big government, the labor movement and high taxes would send businesses running.

We ignored the critics, and went on to pass paid sick leave, a higher living wage, a $15 minimum wage and a fair work week.

And this is where Amazon — the world's biggest online retailer — decided to be: in high tax, pro-union, high-regulation New York City. The 25,000 jobs coming to Long Island City in the coming decade represent the single biggest employment boost in the history of our city or state.

You can continue on and read the rest of this delusional bullshit, but let's point out that the type of workers Amazon is planning to hire will not be subject to anything he mentioned and will not be union. And the only reason you got them to come here was because you gave them tax incentives, a helipad and there is a workforce here that can support what they need. But we enjoy you reveling in the fact that this is a high tax state as if that's a positive.

DeBlasio fires guy that was investigating him

From the NY Post:

The mayor’s official pretext is that Peters had behaved “in a manner indicating a lack of concern for following the law” by improperly trying to replace the special schools investigator and supposedly lying to a de Blasio aide.

The real issue is surely that he’d done his job too well — better than the mayor expected when he installed his former campaign treasurer at the Investigations Department.

Peters exposed rampant mismanagement and systemic dishonesty at the Housing Authority, uncovered significant scandals at the Administration for Children’s Services and blew the whistle on how top mayoral aides lifted deed restrictions so that a Lower East Side nursing home could be sold to a real-estate developer for luxury condo.

And the firing comes as DOI has been investigating political interference in the Department of Education’s “probe” of Jewish religious schools that don’t teach their students non-religious subjects.

In that and other “matters now being pursued by DOI,” Peters told City Hall last month, “the mayor himself and/or his staff, are potentially a subject of investigation.”

Talk about fishy timing.

Bill introduced to increase units set aside for homeless

From the NY Times:

Rafael Salamanca Jr., a councilman from the Bronx, will introduce legislation on Wednesday that will mandate that any rental housing project that receives taxpayer subsidies — such as tax abatements, loans, tax credits or reduced-cost land — has to set aside 15 percent of its created or preserved units for people living in the city’s shelter system.

Mr. de Blasio’s current housing policy, Housing New York 2.0, calls for 5 percent of the 300,000 units to be set aside for the homeless, a total of 15,000 apartments. The mayor has said he is strongly against increasing the 5 percent set-aside.

But Mr. Salamanca’s bill has the support of the City Council speaker, Corey Johnson — an important sign that the legislation will be seriously considered by the 51-member body.

“I don’t want to send a message that the only folks who can get affordable housing are folks who end up in shelter. I think that’s wrong for everyone,” Mr. de Blasio said.

Increasing the minimum amount of housing for the homeless would also make it more difficult to finance affordable housing projects. In order to make affordable buildings financially sustainable, there has to be the right mix of people from all incomes, city officials said.

A disservice to parents, teachers and children

From the NY Times:

Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to “shake the foundations of New York City education” in 2014 with a new program called Renewal, a signature effort to improve the city’s 94 poorest-performing schools by showering them with millions of dollars in social services and teacher training.

A year later, aides raised a confidential alarm: About a third of those schools were likely to fail. The schools were not meeting goals that the city set for higher test scores, increased graduation rates and other academic measures — and probably never would, staff members in the Department of Education warned in an internal memo prepared for the mayor.

“In order for these schools to reach their targets for 2017, the interventions would need to produce truly exceptional improvements,” read the December 2015 memo, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. “Historically, it has been quite rare for schools to improve that much in two years.”

Mr. de Blasio kept most of the schools open. Now, after sending thousands of children into classrooms that staff members suspected were doomed from the start, the administration appears ready to give up on Renewal. Its cost: $773 million by the end of this school year.

The wheel no one wanted

From Curbed:

Developers behind Staten Island’s ambitious New York Wheel have officially pulled the plug on the project, ending months of speculation about its future. Staten Island Advance broke the news of the development, which is a startling turn of events for a project that was once touted to usher a renaissance for the North Shore section of Staten Island.

For over a year now, the observation wheel project has been beset by infighting, construction woes, and more recently, legal troubles. The developer, New York Wheel LLC, was battling its former contractor Mammoet-Starneth on ownership of some of the Wheel’s parts, and last month a court granted the developers an extension to hire a new contractor and show that it had enough funds to procure those parts.

However, two of the lead investors in the development—Lloyd Goldman and Jeffrey Feil—later expressed skepticism about the project moving forward without significant city funding. Both mayor de Blasio and the city’s Economic Development Corporation had previously stated that project didn’t seem like a sound investment for city funds.