One's out, one's back for another term, both were absent

Rezoning a car wash

From the Queens Chronicle:

The city Planning Commission on May 24 cleared the way for a Jackson Heights car wash to be replaced by an eight-story commercial building by unanimously approving a rezoning measure for the site.

The matter will now go to the City Council for a vote and is expected to pass as area Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (D-East Elmhurst) is in favor of the rezoning and proposed development.
Developer H&M LLC plans to replace Classic Car Wash, located at 74-04 Northern Blvd., with a commercial-use building, with the ground floor holding retail space.

The second and third would hold 219 parking spots, with a community space on the fourth and offices on five to eight.

To do so, the site must be rezoned from a C8-1 District to a C4-3.

H&M LLC states in its application to the Department of City Planning that construction on the site could begin sometime in 2018 and be completed in a little over a year.

And while housing is not proposed for the site at this time, the CPC also unanimously approved a request by the developer to require 25 percent of any residential units that could be built in the future to be affordable — under the controversial Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program approved by the Council last year.

3rd candidate joins Hiram's primary race

From the Times Ledger:

One of the borough’s foremost street safety advocates decided over the weekend to join state Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) and former state Sen. Hiram Monserate for the seat held by City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (D-East Elmhurst), who won’t seek re-election for a third term.

Jackson Heights resident Cristina Furlong, the co-founder of Make Queens Safer, will file the paperwork and start on petitions this week for the Democratic primary,

“After the presidential election in November showed how quickly a change of leadership could change our quality of life in the neighborhoods of the 21st District, suddenly everyone had to identify a certain way and the world suddenly got a lot angrier,” Furlong said. “District 21 is unique, even to New York City. We need smart growth of our small economies and honest and independent oversight of the major projects like Willets Point, Flushing Meadows Corona Park and LaGuardia Airport.”

Ferreras not running for third term

From the Times Ledger:

State Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) announced Thursday that he will run for the City Council in the 21st District after City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (D-East Elmhurst) decided against running for re-election this fall.

Ferreras-Copeland first won her seat on the City Council in 2009, becoming the borough’s first Latina elected official and she went on to make history in 2014 when she became the first woman and first person of color to be named the head of the Council’s powerful Finance Committee.

“After a great deal of thought and prayer, I have decided not to run for re-election,” Ferreras-Copeland said in a statement to Politico. “I have had the privilege of representing the 21st District in Queens for eight years, where I’ve fought for the education of our children, the rights of women and families, and the protection of our immigrants.”

Ferreras-Copeland married Aaron Copeland in a 2015 wedding officiated by Mayor Bill de Blasio, but Copeland works as an aerospace engineer in Maryland.

“As a mother and a wife, it has become increasingly difficult to have my family divided in two locations,” she said. “Although this is not an easy decision, this is what makes sense for my son, for my family, and for me.”

(In other words, Hiram has a lot of dirt on her.)

Hiram demands return to original Willets Point project

From El Diario:

The controversial redevelopment plan of Willets Point, the Queens industrial area located in Corona, where mechanical repair shops and auto parts sales settled for many years, jumps another time into the headlines.

Corona, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst community groups and organizations such as The Black Institute and the East Elmhurst Corona Alliance held a press conference Tuesday stating that "The true Willets Point redevelopment project is being silently stolen from the community."

Following Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposed homeless housing plan and his desire to build affordable housing in New York City, community members in the areas surrounding Willets Points in Queens have teamed up to require that both Mayor and Area Council Member Julissa Ferreras enforce the original agreement detailed in the Willets Point redevelopment plan that included 5500 housing units and at the same time denounce the transfer of 23 acres of public property at Willets Point to a group of Queens planners.

"It is amazing that the mayor of Blasio has offered a plan to develop shelters and homes for homeless people ignoring an already approved plan that would bring 5500 housing units, of which 1,925 units would be permanently affordable," said ex-council member Hiram Monserrate.

...according to the activists, current local elected officials, the mayor and governor are supporting very different re-development plan than those that were approved. These new plans include expanding the project into more than 40 acres of a public park and prioritizing the construction of an unnecessary mega-shopping mall.

[Translated from Spanish so the grammar is not perfect but you get the idea.]

We may have given away tax breaks for nothing

From the Times Ledger:

The city has been giving tax breaks to developers without tracking how effective their projects have been for economic development, according to a new report.

Last Thursday, the City Council’s Committee on Finance released a report on development tax expenditures, with recommendations on how to evaluate their effectiveness. The report, published by the Council’s Task Force on Economic Development Tax Expenditures, calls for the establishment of a standardized and regular evaluative process to improve transparency and the Council’s oversight.

“The city gives billions in economic development tax incentives each year, and we do not know how well they work. We should know their effects to ensure the public is getting the best bang for its buck,” said City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (D-East Elmhurst), who is the chairwoman of the Council’s Committee on Financing. “I am proud of the work the Task Expenditure Task Force has done, which will help make the government more transparent and prudent. I look forward to working with the Speaker and my colleagues to develop a process that will allow us to evaluate these programs, understand their effects, and make better decisions about our scarce resources.”

The city funded $7.7 billion towards tax benefits aimed at spurring economic growth and development in Fiscal Year 2016; however, no public process exists to evaluate whether the benefits achieved their stated goals.

Time to investigate FMCP shenanigans

From the Queens Chronicle:

Re “Pol: FMCP belongs to public, not politics,” July 7, multiple editions:

Parks are the lifeblood of congested urban societies. While Flushing Meadows Corona Park is the second-most used park in New York City, mostly by the underprivileged, it is also the most abused, pockmarked with all sorts of structures alien to legitimate public park use, that would never be permitted in Central Park or indeed in any other municipal park. Terrace on the Park; the Mets’ stadium and its parking lot; the USTA and its newly added, ugly dome; a previous attempt to construct a Grand Prix race track around Meadow Lake; an attempt to construct a soccer stadium; and a current attempt to build a huge mega shopping mall on the Citi Field parking lot, which is parkland.

The culprits responsible for the above are former mayors, possibly current Mayor De Blasio, former borough presidents and most of all the vast majority of City Council members, all of whom have operated as if their constituents are the real estate moguls and not the little people. An example is the attempt for a 1.4 million-square-foot shopping mall on the Citi Field parking lot, which included a raid on the city treasury and for all practical purposes the demise of the 2008 approved Willets Point redevelopment plan. The Council and its prime mover, Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, negotiated and supported a plan that gave the developers property acquired by the city, for tens of millions of dollars, for $1; plus subsidies and tax abatements. To nail the coffin shut, the developers were given the right to walk away from any obligation to construct affordable housing by forfeiting $35 million, an amount that to them is akin to the tip one gives the youngster who delivers groceries. Walk away they will.

At long last there is a breath of fresh air in City Councilman Rory Lancman, who has sued the city and the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which he claims was formed to funnel money from for-profit entities in exchange for the use of park resources.

The time is long overdue for a full investigation into how and why FMCP has become the dumping ground for all sorts of illegitimate public park use. I am sure the public supports and thanks Lancman to let right be done.

Benjamin M. Haber
Flushing

Lancman suing de Blasio

From the Daily News:

A Queens City Councilman is slapping Mayor de Blasio with a lawsuit charging that he was illegally shut out of a conservancy formed for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Councilman Rory Lancman says de Blasio barred him from choosing a board member because he’s not a political pal — and broke city law that requires such conservancies to have a rep for each Council district that covers part of the park.

“I represent almost half of Flushing Meadows Park, and because I’m not a political ally of the mayor...I don’t get an appointment,” Lancman said. “It’s a private, off the books scheme for funding projects in Flushing Meadows Park without the representation that is required.”

The United States Tennis Association, in a deal to win approval for the expansion of its tennis center in the park, is contributing $350,000 a year for the next three years, and then $200,000 annually for 20 years after that for the conservancy.

De Blasio announced the new conservancy for the 900-acre park in November — but only Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, a mayoral ally, got to fill a seat on the board.

2 Queens pols jockeying for speakership

From NY1:

Just two and a half years ago, half a dozen candidates slugged it out to become the next speaker of the city council.

It was a hard-fought race that captivated City Hall in late 2013, but Melissa Mark Viverito emerged as the victor.

Now, a year and a half before the 51 members vote on her successor, the race to replace her is underway behind the scenes.

"Anybody who tells you that they aren't interested in speaker in this very aggressive, passionate council is being disingenuous," Brooklyn City Councilor Robert Cornegy said outside City Hall.

At least eight council members have emerged as possible speaker candidates: Jimmy Van Bramer and Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, both Queens city councilors; Manhattan Councilors Ydanis Rodriguez, Mark Levine, and Corey Johnson; Vanessa Gibson of The Bronx; and Brooklyn Councilors Cornegy and Jumaane Williams.

But none of them has declared that he or she is officially seeking the spot.

Too much activity in the park?

From the Daily News:

One Queens lawmaker said Wednesday the promoters of the recently announced Kanye West headlining concert at Citi Field need to examine the traffic, safety and economic impact of the show if they want support from the surrounding community.

Founders Entertainment, the organizers of the Governor's Ball, on Tuesday said the first-ever Meadows Music and Arts Festival will take place in the Citi Field parking lot on Oct. 1 and 2.

City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, whose district includes Flushing Meadows Corona Park, said Wednesday she is worried about conflicts with the busy Makers Faire taking place the same weekend at the New York Hall of Science across the park.

But Ferreras stopped short of calling for Meadows to be canceled or rescheduled.

“I believe in bringing cultural events that can spur economic growth to benefit our community,” said Ferreras, the chair of the Council’s Finance Committee. “There are serious concerns about the impact of a music festival on our community, including how this would impact Makers Faire, an existing and popular event in the same park on the same day.”

Founders officials, who have met with Ferreras, said they are not making any parking available to attendees of the Meadows in order to accommodate other events.

Katz and Ferreras freeze WPU out of important meeting

Willets Point United (WPU) – the group of property and business owners that for years has advocated for the repair of dilapidated Willets Point streets – is being shut out of a second meeting scheduled for today by Borough President Melinda Katz to discuss that issue, one month after also being excluded from the first meeting. Neither Katz nor City Council member Julissa Ferreras responded at all to multiple letters and email sent by WPU requesting an invitation to the second meeting to discuss the very issue which WPU has championed.

Persons involved in the secret meetings confirmed to WPU that on January 29, 2016, Borough President Katz convened a summit meeting at Borough Hall to discuss the problem of horrendous Willets Point street conditions. That first meeting was also attended by City Council member Julissa Ferreras, Marilyn Bitterman and Eugene Kelty of Queens Community Board 7 (CB7), representatives of the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), and three large Willets Point businesses: Tully Construction, Fodera Foods and House of Spices.

Although WPU was promised that it would receive notice of that meeting so that it could send a representative, no such notice was ever given and WPU was inexplicably excluded from the meeting.

WPU believes that it has certainly earned a seat at the table to discuss Willets Point street conditions, because WPU – not any other entity – has consistently testified at public hearings of CB7 and the Queens Borough Board to request that the city allocate funds to reconstruct Willets Point streets, and has championed that issue for the past several years. As a direct result of WPU’s efforts, CB7 and the Queens Borough Board have included Willets Point street reconstruction in their budget priorities for fiscal years 2015, 2016 and 2017. That no dollars have actually materialized, however, underscores the need for more involvement by responsible officials. CB7 has recently written to the Mayor that the response of NYCDOT is “absolutely ridiculous” – emphasizing the urgent need to set the record straight with NYCDOT concerning circumstances at Willets Point, as WPU is equipped to do.

So, after being frozen out of the January meeting at Borough Hall, when WPU heard of the follow-up meeting scheduled for today, WPU sent letters to Borough President Katz and City Council member Ferreras, requesting that they invite WPU to attend. Those letters were delivered on February 25 and 26 – but WPU received no response whatsoever from Katz or Ferreras.

Yesterday, WPU tried again, by sending a copy of the letter to Katz’s Chief of Staff, Jay Bond, by email. Mr. Bond did not respond at all to WPU.

How do Katz and Ferreras possibly justify totally ignoring important communications from their constituents, concerning meetings everyone knows are important to those constituents? There are WPU property owners who pay $53,000.00 or more in annual property taxes, while receiving virtually NO municipal services in return – and for them, receiving not even the courtesy of a response from their elected representatives is adding insult to injury.

First responders on bikes at FMCP

London EMT bike

From DNA Info:

The EMTs from the Corona Community Ambulance Corps know Flushing Meadows-Corona Park like the back of their hands.

Starting this summer, his group will begin patrolling with the help of "ambulance bikes" — a supercharged vehicle he's dreamed of since taking over the volunteer group in 2014.

Perna said the bikes — which were made possible thanks to $8,000 in funds he received from Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland — will make his staff more mobile and able to reach more people quickly, especially in the busy summer.

Starting this summer his team will have four bikes out in the park. The bikes will be equipped with oxygen, a defibrillator and other medical items to help teams of EMS workers assist patients wherever they are in the park, Perna said.

Two bikes will go out at a time, and will have an ambulance nearby as backup.

Take over our parkland, please!

From the Daily News:

Several Queens lawmakers are throwing their support behind a controversial plan to rent out Flushing Meadows Corona Park for a Coachella-like music festival next summer, the Daily News has learned.

“The Panorama Music Festival will provide a fantastic opportunity for Queens to take its rightful place as a New York City showcase,” U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Queens) said in a statement.

Several promoters, including concert giant AEG, have asked the city for permits to hold music festivals in the sprawling park that hosted both the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs. The Parks Department said it is reviewing all of the applications and has not made a final decision on any of them.

But AEG’s Goldenvoice division won over Crowley, along with City Council members Julissa Ferreras Copeland, Karen Koslowitz and Peter Koo, after promising to donate a portion of ticket sales to the newly formed Flushing Meadows Corona Park Alliance.

Did you notice that 2 of these are the same pols who sponsored the council legislation for the amicus brief in favor of taking away parkland for a mall? Why do Koslowitz and Koo want money toward the Alliance that they have been frozen out of?

Does anything these people do make sense?

New FMCP conservancy a total sham and a total shame

From The Observer:

Mayor Bill de Blasio rebuffed attacks from a Queens city councilman that a new nonprofit set up to raise funds for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park “plays politics” by only granting a councilwoman aligned with his liberal agenda an appointee on the conservancy’s board—and leaves Mr. Lancman and his constituents without a voice.

Shortly before Mr. de Blasio joined Queens Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland—a member of the Council’s Progressive Caucus and chairwoman of its powerful Committee on Finance—to announce the creation of the park’s new funder and caretaker, Councilman Rory Lancman, a fellow Democrat, sent out a press release entitled “Mayor de Blasio Plays Politics With ‘Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Alliance’ and Disenfranchises Hundreds of Thousands of Park Users.” Mr. Lancman, whose district covers the southern end of the park, argued only granting Ms. Ferreras-Copeland a representative on the Alliance board was part of a pattern for the mayor—pointing out that both of the mayor’s only town halls while in office have been in the districts of Progressive Caucus members.

“The mayor can’t just have town hall meetings in disticts with council members that are his core allies. He can’t dole out appointments to oversee spending of money in public parks just to his allies,” Mr. Lancman told the Observer in a phone interview, claiming the administration refused to meet with him for months to discuss the Alliance’s creation. “I think there are a lot of communities in this city who look at mayor and ask themselves: Is he really representing us? People here feel he’s not representing them. This decision just reinforces that.”

When asked about the apparent imbalance today, Mr. de Blasio made the disputable assertion that Ms. Ferreras-Copeland’s district “covers the vast majority of this park,” and said that the Alliance board would engage with all stakeholders. He also said that, since he has held just two town halls, it was too early to claim he was only holding them in the districts of political allies.

From Capital New York:

“This is something to invest in!” said de Blasio, speaking to reporters and park advocates at a press conference sandwiched between the Queens Museum and the Unisphere, a steel relic from the 1964-1965 World’s Fair.

Nearly two and a half years after the United States Tennis Association agreed (under duress) to invest a total of $10.05 million into a conservancy to help maintain the park it occupies, de Blasio announced the conservancy’s formal creation.

Parks may be a public and publicly-owned good, but de Blasio, a self-defined progressive, argued, “[T]here are limits to what public funding can achieve."

Today, the city is investing some $20 million into capital projects in the park, he said.

But, he added, "I think it’s wise to get additional funding in for the parks that have the ability to do that."

From the Forum:

“This deal is a sham,” said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates. “This entire Alliance initiative and model is based on businesses commercially exploiting Flushing Meadows Corona Park, including taking parkland away from the public. Instead of the city properly investing in the park, as they are legally required to do, the administration is championing this plan in exchange for money. They should be ashamed of themselves. This is certainly not ‘progressive.’

She never met a tax she didn't like

From Crains:

Memo to City Council Finance Committee Chairwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland: Guest speakers at Citizens Budget Commission breakfasts should expect a question from Alair Townsend, the former deputy mayor and retired Crain’s New York Business publisher.

And that question will be: What two taxes would you cut to make the city’s businesses more competitive?

The Townsend test is something of a rite of passage for city policymakers. For Ferreras-Copeland, it came Wednesday at an event in midtown.

She did not pass.

The councilwoman, queried at the podium by Townsend, was unable to name even one tax she would cut.

After a brief silence, Ferreras-Copeland recovered a bit. “I’m going to take your question as a challenge,” she said, and promised to have an answer the next time the Citizens Budget Commission invites her to speak.

Asked for her reaction to Ferreras-Copeland’s answer, Townsend said she was “disappointed but not surprised.”

The former Koch administration budget director and deputy mayor explained, “Council members rarely think about cutting taxes. They are all about spending. They mostly respond to tax cuts initiated by the mayor, and these have not been forthcoming.”

Plan to clean up stink of Flushing Bay

From DNA Info:

The Department of Environmental Protection will begin dredging sediment from the bottom of Flushing Bay in 2016, according to a city official, at a cost of $47 million.

Sediment has formed over years due to Combined Sewer Overflow, or CSO, from nearby roads and highways.

It hasn't helped that a runway at nearby LaGuardia Airport partially blocks the water from "flushing," according to DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd, who testified about the funded project at a May city council hearing.

Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, who lead the testimony as the Council's finance chair, told Lloyd the smells are compared to rotten eggs and has plagued her district for years.

The project, scheduled to be completed in 2019, will remove most of the gunk at the bottom and make a "significant" difference, Lloyd said.

Ferreras, Peralta not notified of shelter

From the Queens Chronicle:

When asked Monday when it was decided that the space would become a shelter, the DHS did not immediately answer.

In June, state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) said in an emailed statement to the Queens Chronicle that it would be "inconceivable" to him to learn that there would be another homeless shelter would be opened in the area without community input.

On Monday, Peralta issued a written statement saying that there is an understanding of the city's need to house homeless families, but called it a "Bloomberg or Giuliani tactic of shoving a homeless shelter down a community's throat." He called the DHS's emergency authority a "cover" for putting a shelter into a community without input.

“Here we go again, another permanent homeless shelter coming into my district, which makes it the second one under this administration,” said Peralta.

The DHS will arrange for transportation to and from school and other appointments.
Also Monday, the office of City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst), who also stressed in June the importance of community input, said the addition of the shelter brings a need for more support to the area.

"Of course she would have liked to have been told back in June when we first asked but overall, the council member and the people she's spoken to are sympathetic to the families who are moving into The Landing," a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that poor bus service is a constant issue and must be improved with more traffic generated by the shelter.

That's a real lulu

From the Daily News:

Eleven of the 51 members refuse the [lulu] money on the principle that all lawmakers should be paid the same, as is the case in Congress for everyone from the least to the most senior.

Here are the local heroes: Jimmy Van Bramer of Queens, who turns back $20,000 yearly; Brad Lander from Brooklyn and Dan Garodnick of Manhattan, who say no to $15,000 each; and Rory Lancman of Queens, Alan Maisel, Carlos Menchaca and Mark Treyger of Brooklyn, Andy Cohen of the Bronx, Ben Kallos, Mark Levine and Helen Rosenthal of Manhattan, all of whom relinquish $8,000.

Despite having told this Editorial Board or the good-government group Citizens Union that lulus should be limited only to the top leadership, six members pocket the money: Corey Johnson and Ydanis Rodriguez of Manhattan, Daneek Miller, Danny Dromm and Paul Vallone of Queens and Vinny Gentile of Brooklyn.

Seventeen supposed reformers take the money and claim without proof to donate it to charity: From Brooklyn, Robert Cornegy, David Greenfield, Antonio Reynoso, Darlene Mealy, Mathieu Eugene, Rafael Espinal, Chaim Deutsch and Inez Barron. From Queens, Costa Constantinides, Julissa Ferreras, Peter Koo, Karen Koslowitz and Eric Ulrich. From the Bronx, Fernando Cabrera and Ritchie Torres. From Staten Island, Debi Rose. From Manhattan, Inez Dickens.

The rest of the Council makes no bones about grabbing the cash even as they cheapen their offices.

Council Members in favor of term limits - for community board members

From the Times Ledger:

Queens activists and lawmakers are divided over a bill from City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) that would institute term limits for community boards.

The bill, introduced in December, states that starting April 1, 2016, community board members cannot serve more than six consecutive two-year terms. The bill would not apply to current board members. Members are currently appointed by the borough presidents and City Council members.

There was a joint hearing for the bill by the governmental operations and general welfare committees May 11.

The bill has been heard and is under consideration to be heard by the full Council, according to a spokeswoman for City Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), chairman of the governmental operations committee.

Supporters of the bill say term limits would help make community boards more representative of their communities and prevent a few people from dominating the boards.

“I feel that communities change and I feel that community boards need to reflect the changes in communities,” Dromm said.

City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, agreed.

“I sponsored Council member Dromm’s legislation to limit the term of community board members to protect our democracy,” Ferreras said in a statement. “Many elected officials are term limited for the same reason. As communities evolve, so should their representa­tives.”

Opponents of the bill feel that term limits would take experienced members off the boards. They argue that incompetent members could easily be removed.

If you believe in term limits, then remove the people who have stayed too long. Problem solved. (It's funny, but Danny has no problem removing people who have only served one term who disagree with him.)

Also, in many neighborhoods, no one wants to be on the community boards so there's no point in removing people and having a board with empty seats.

Free tampons are a priority for Ferreras

From PIX11:

City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland wants to remove some of the taboo around tampons for teen girls.

“We’re calling on all junior high schools and high schools, that there are available sanitary napkins in girls bathrooms so that you don’t have ask a teacher and share that very personal situation with a teacher or nurse,” Ferreras-Copeland told PIX11 News.

The idea was inspired by Ferreras-Copeland’s experience coordinating an after-school program in Queens.

She realized tampons and sanitary napkins can cost up to $10 for a box, and some students didn’t have the money and were ashamed to speak up.

I've honestly never heard of people being too poor to buy sanitary products. But anything pols can give away for free, they'll give away for free. Maybe the wrapper will sport the mugs of our council members - collect them all!