Co-op wants to mow down trees for clubhouse

From the Times Ledger:

Windsor Oaks Tenant’s Corporation is seeking approval by the Board of Standards and Appeals to amend a variance between the co-op and the neighboring housing development so they may clear a wooded area for a new clubhouse and 98 new parking spaces, according to Steve Behar, legislative council to Councilman Barry Grodenchik (D-Oakland Gardens).

The variance to maintain the 100-foot wide section of trees goes back to 1951, when the co-op was built, and serves as a buffer between the two communities.

The land where the variance is in place is between Bell Boulevard and Springfield Boulevard and as many as 15 homes border the variance.

A Community Board 11 meeting in 2015 heard strong resident opposition to the plan to clear the woodland and the co-op’s application through CB 11 to amend the variance was shot down. In 2011, the Tenant’s Corporation had secured a loan to build the 5,000-square-foot clubhouse which was refinanced four years in a row without construction moving forward.

“In our last meeting before coming in front of the community board, it was suggested that we sit down with the residents of 77th Avenue and see where we could come together,” Windsor Oaks President Ronald Kaye said in 2015. “Sadly, they wanted no part of that. They just don’t want the project at all.”

But Behar said the co-op is not backing down from its resolve to level the trees standing between them and their future amenities.

“Over the years, they’ve cut down the trees, which they weren’t supposed to be doing under the variance, and now they’re asking the BSA to eliminate the variance,” Behar said. “This is a buffer between the cooperative and the homes. These people are up in arms because they bought their homes knowing that there was a variance, that they would be protected from this big co-op. We’ve also received a lot of complaints from people who live in the co-op, but don’t want this either.”

What exactly is a clubhouse needed for anyway? What hardship is associated with this?

How leaders feel about new Bayside high school

Tony Avella speaks at CB11 meeting

Paul Vallone says he is opposed to school

Steve Behar explains how Council votes with home rule member

Halloran rants at civic leader on Facebook

From the Times Ledger:

As a Whitestone civic group fights to turn an overgrown, empty lot into a community sports complex, one resident’s innocuous post on Facebook has spawned a well-documented and surprisingly candid discussion into opinions on both sides of the fence.

The Malba Gardens Civic Association has been toying with the idea of building baseball, soccer and running facilities on the vacant, 6-acre lot along 150th Street for years, according to the civic’s president, Alfred Centola.

“My idea is to reacquire the land and give it back to the kids of the community,” he said of the lot, between 3rd and 6th avenues, which was previously owned by the Catholic Youth Organization.

The quest was laid out in an October Daily News opinion piece written by Centola, and it all seemed like a good idea to Steve Behar, who posted “Nice Op-Ed. My brother and I went to that CYO camp” at 5:56 p.m. Oct. 5 on Centola’s Facebook page.

Twelve minutes later, City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) replied: “Steve — and who’s going to come up with the tens of millions to acquire, remediate, develop, build, and staff this facility?”

Halloran often tempered his responses with phrases like “guess you didn’t know that” or “you have no clue how discretionary spending works.”

Centola at one point referred to the councilman as “testy” and said “try and relax yourself, you might give yourself a heart attack.”

Well, at least he didn't drop the F-bomb repeatedly this time.

Developer wants CB11's help

From the Times Ledger:

Community Board 11 voted unanimously to oppose a proposal to clear the way for an empty Bayside lot to be developed after a series of area homeowners testified against the plan at a Monday night meeting.

For Our Children Inc., a holding of Richard Alexander, owner of Lund Fire Products — bordered by 215th Place, 216th Street, 40th Avenue and the Long Island Rail Road — has been trying to develop a vacant lot next to his business for years.

Alexander’s attorney, Simon Rothkrug, presented a proposal to build a 6,790-square-foot, one-story office building on the residential-zoned parcel. In order to move forward with a commercial development on the spot, a variance to allow commercial use would have to be approved.

But CB 11 members and neighbors balked at the idea, saying Lund already contributes to traffic and parking woes in the area and that an office building would be out of character with the existing neighborhood.

The proposed building, which had no committed tenants, would have provided 12 parking spaces, which residents called insufficient.

Alexander was on vacation and unavailable to comment Tuesday.

Rothkrug returned to CB 11 Monday night to present the scaled-back proposal. He said the site could be developed as detached residential but that due to a 2005 downzoning of the area, only four small homes would fit on the property, which would not yield sufficient economic benefit for Alexander.

“The argument that they need a rate of return is simply stating that they made a bad investment and now they want the community board to fix it,” board member Steve Behar said. “The last thing the area needs is more office space .... There’s already too many trucks in this area, and there’s already no parking.”

The next cog in the Queens Machine!

From the Daily News:

The crowded field of candidates running for Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza's soon-to-be-vacant 26th District seat are furious about a flyer being mailed out by Ed Braunstein.

"Albany is an embarrassment. We deserve better," reads the colorful piece of literature, which appeared in mailboxes in northeast Queens last week. "Career politicians are completely out of touch with our values."

Braunstein, a newcomer to the local political scene, has the backing of the powerful Queens Democratic Party. He also works for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, which makes his claims questionable, according to primary opponents.

"All the candidates are running on our records," said Democratic hopeful Steve Behar. "We have a history in the district of activism. It's indefensible to call himself a reformer."

Behar pointed out that Braunstein's uncle is high-caliber lobbyist Brian Meara.

"We're outraged," said Elio Forcina, a Whitestone Democrat vying for the seat. "He is tied in with lobbyists and lobbyists are running his campaign and he works for Sheldon Silver, and he tells the public he is a reform candidate?"

Former Assemblyman John Duane, another Democratic candidate, said there is a "disconnect" between Braunstein's claim to be an agent of change and his deep connections to the Queens Democratic Party and top elected officials.

"He's running a campaign on status-quo party organization," he said, "These people haven't done anything to change Albany."

In another "Odd Couple"-like twist, Braunstein's camp sent out a press release touting endorsements by Democrats Jerry Iannece and Paul Vallone.

Vallone and Iannece faced off in a bitter Council primary battle last year. They both ended up losing to newcomer Kevin Kim, who was then defeated by Republican Dan Halloran in an even uglier general election.

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse...

From the Times Ledger:

Evan Stavisky, a spokesman for Braunstein’s campaign, pointed out that Cuomo, who is running on a campaign of reforming Albany, had thrown his weight behind Braunstein.

Behar rejected lobbying money

From City Hall:

Steve Behar, an attorney mounting a race in Queens for the seat of retiring Assembly Member Ann-Margaret Carrozza, claims that two pro-charter school bundlers have enough faith in his candidacy to have offered to raise him up to $200,000 in exchange for him changing his position on charter schools to support their expansion.

Many in what was a wide field of Democrats cleared out of the race at the end of last month, after Ed Braunstein, a staffer for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, received the support of the Queens County Democratic organization. Among those who did not is Behar, who lost a primary battle for the Council seat eventually won by Dan Halloran, and has remained in the race.

Braunstein is likely to be backed by the generally charter-cool teachers unions, given that he has the support of Silver, an ally of the unions. But in a letter written to the website Queens Teacher, Behar claimed that he was being courted to come out in favor of the charters.

“In the last few weeks two separate ‘political fundraisers’ promised to raise between $100K and $200K for my campaign if I changed my position to favor charter schools,” Behar wrote. “Since I’m running against a well-funded inexperienced and unqualified candidate (Ed Braunstein) who works for the Albany leadership and is in the pocket of the lobbyists and the special interests, that money would have really helped my campaign. However, keeping to my core beliefs, I refused to change my position and thus refused the money.”

In an interview, Behar said he turned the bundlers down on principle. He declined, however, to give the names of the two bundlers, citing concerns about scaring away future potential fundraisers and donors to his campaign.

All Behar would say is that one of the people he claims was involved approached him three weeks ago at the New York State Young Democrats convention, and the other approached him at a political event a week ago. When asked which event, though, Behar said he could not recall.

When told about the letter, Braunstein’s campaign blasted Behar for not disclosing who the bundlers were, and said he should report such incidents to the police, if they in fact occurred.

Carrozza may be faced with challengers

From City Hall:

...rumors are swirling that some within the party would prefer to see Carrozza take a pass on a re-election bid. Already, a number of potential challengers are lining up to take on the scandal-scarred incumbent.

Democrat Steve Behar, who recently finished a distant fourth in a six-person Democratic primary to replace Council Member Tony Avella, said he is strongly considering running for the Assembly seat whether Carrozza stays in the race or not.

Behar, an attorney, is not closely associated with the Queens Democratic Party and would have few qualms about running a primary against an establishment-backed incumbent.

Meanwhile, political insiders on both sides of the aisle believe that if Carrozza does not run, Michael Sais, the chief of staff for Assembly Member Michael Gianaris, is lined up as the county party’s pick to the replace her. Sais has also worked as a lobbyist for the Parkside Group, the consulting firm typically used by Queens Democratic Party candidates.

Also, Matthew Silverstein, president of the New York State Young Democrats, said that if Carrozza chooses not to run for re-election, he will definitely run for the seat.

Queens Republicans, meanwhile, are coalescing behind Vincent Tabone, executive vice-president of the Queens Republican Party.

Tabone, an attorney who has worked in both the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, said he would also decide whether to run sometime early next year.

Photo from the Daily News

YouTube removes Vallone video

Paul Vallone somehow got the video of himself lying about why he had to register as a lobbyist taken off YouTube.

Paul Vallone denies being a lobbyist

At a District 19 candidates night on September 2nd in Bayside hosted by the Historic Districts Council, candidate Paul Vallone was asked by a resident about how he's still a registered lobbyist, how his campaign has taken tens of thousands of dollars from developers and how he can reconcile that with his promises to curb overdevelopment.

Listen to his non-answer, which includes his assertion that his father owns a consulting firm and therefore as his family member, he is required to put his name on the list, too, which is false.

Council District 19 debate video

From BoroPolitics.com:

Democrats Jerry Iannece, Paul Vallone, Steve Behar, Kevin Kim, Tom Cooke and Debra Markell will face off during the Sept. 15 primary election to score the Democratic slot for this fall’s election. The winner of the primary will compete against Republican Dan Halloran, an attorney, in November.

Each candidate answered a bevy of questions on issues pertinent to District 19, which covers Bayside, Little Neck, Douglaston, College Point, East Flushing, Malba and Whitestone, during the debate hosted Friday by TimesLedger at Flushing Library.

For more on the borough's primary races, visit the Queens Campaigner.

The District 19 Democratic candidates speak