Porking the public

From the Daily News:

Two City Council members running for Manhattan borough president have showered taxpayer cash on nonprofit groups whose boards and staffers have contributed to their campaigns.

City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan) raked in nearly $250,000 in hundreds of campaign contributions from board members at 46 nonprofits she's slathered with pork.

And a Daily News review of the 25 groups that got the biggest grants from Councilman Robert Jackson found that at least 20 of them had board members or employees who have given to his campaigns.

All 51 members of Council are given at least $400,000 to hand out to nonprofits that help people in their district plus sometimes millions more to help nonprofits with new construction projects.

The pork has a checkered history with several Councilmembers busted in recent years for illegally using the funds to enrich themselves or their careers.

Developers fail to keep subway escalators working

From Fox 5:

City Council Member Jessica Lappin has been fighting to get subway escalators and elevators fixed in her Upper East Side district for three years. Fox 5 met her at the 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue subway station, where we found a broken MTA escalator.

The pregnant councilwoman had to walk down 60-plus steps to the E train platform to see the other broken escalator at this station -- the one that has been broken for two years, according to the MTA, and infamous with East Side subway commuters.

The escalator is privately operated by Denver-based owner Miller Global. Building developers got a deal from the city in exchange for running the escalator -- a deal Miller global is not honoring.

Lappin introduced a City Council resolution calling on the MTA to investigate maintenance of subway escalators and elevators. The council does not control MTA funding, so the resolution would simply draw attention to the problem.

More of Bloomberg's 'hood to be preserved

From the NY Observer:

Developers and property owners may now have one more reason to curse the year 2009: the Landmarks Preservation Commission is on the verge of calendaring an expansion of the Upper East Side Historic District for several blocks across Lexington Avenue, the most critical step toward landmarking the new area.

The current Upper East Side Historic District extends from 59th to 79th streets, stretching from Fifth Avenue just up to Lexington Avenue. Many buildings in the area were built during Reconstruction after the Civil War and during the post-World War I boom. The expansion would include Lexington, from 72nd Street to 75th streets and again from 63rd Street to 65th street.

Thank God, I was afraid Manhattan might get shortchanged on designations this year...

Typically the local landowners and business owners are the ones to protest landmarks—but they haven’t voiced any noticeable public opposition. Among the 80 or so community members who came to the June 3 public meeting 3, there wasn’t a single dissenting voice.

Wow, this certainly ain't Queens they're talking about!

The City Council could also decide to overturn a designation by the LPC—but chances of that are slim. Mr. Garodnick, who represents part of the Upper East Side and is on the Council’s Land Use Committee, has been a “cheerleader” for the cause according to Ms. Worden; and Upper East Side member Jessica Lappin, who chairs the Council’s Landmarks Subcommittee, has also publicly supported the expansion.

Once again, this certainly ain't Queens! The tweeders would be lining up in opposition if it were.