Swaggering Mayor Adams orders big banks to come back to the office

  

NY Daily News 

Mayor Adams wants the Big Apple’s financial powerhouses to get back to business — period.

The newly minted mayor took aim at major investment firms in the city on Monday for ordering their employees to work from home for the time being as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations continue to swell in New York.

Adams, who was sworn in Saturday, said the resumption of remote work policies at big banks like JPMorgan Chase ripples through the economy and hurts low-wage workers.

“We must get open, and let me tell you why: That accountant from a bank that sits in an office — it’s not only him, it feeds our financial ecosystem. He goes to the cleaners and get his suits clean, he goes out to the restaurants, he brings in a business traveler, which is 70% of our hotel occupancy,” he said in an appearance on Bloomberg TV.

“You can’t run New York City from home. We must have everyone participate in our financial ecosystem to allow the low-skill, unskilled and people who are doing hourly employees to actually be part of our eco-system. They can’t remotely do their job.”

Adams’ adamant push for office work came on the heels of Goldman Sachs becoming the latest major financial firm to tell its city-based employees to work from home for the first couple of weeks of January to try to blunt the recent surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the extremely contagious omicron variant.

JPMorgan Chase, CitiBank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley have already instituted similar policies.

The remote work precautions come as New York continues to see its COVID-19 curve trend in the wrong direction.

According to data from the state Health Department, 23.17% of all tests conducted across New York in the 24-hour period ending Monday morning came back positive, with 29,246 infections recorded in the city alone. Hospitalizations are ticking up at an alarming rate as well, and 103 New Yorkers died from COVID-19 statewide in the same reporting window, the highest daily death toll in months, the data showed.

Despite the pandemic resurgence, Adams said the city can’t return to business shutdowns, arguing that widespread availability of coronavirus vaccines should allow New Yorkers to “live with COVID.”

“I need my companies back open and operating,” he said. “You can’t run a city like New York on 30% occupancy in buildings. We need to get back to business and open our city.”

On the topic of vaccines, Adams said he’s considering mandating booster shots — which have proven highly effective in protecting people against severe COVID-19 symptoms — for the municipal workforce. He said he’ll have an announcement on the matter “around April.”

Hedge fund landlords are tripping balls capitalizing on home foreclosures

CBC


A new documentary argues that housing has become a commodity much like gold, to be bought and sold on the stock market in bulk — and that the practice is driving up rents globally.
Fredrik Gertten, director of Push, says that hedge funds can snap up real estate quickly and forcefully.

 

"They have more money than a normal landlord, so it's kind of almost like a landlord on speed," he told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.

The result is often an owner who lives very far away from the property, he said.
"
You can't knock on his door and talk to him about your problems because your landlord is now a hedge fund ... somewhere [in a] totally different part of the world, maybe."


Leilani Farha, the United Nations' special rapporteur on adequate housing, explained that private equity firms and asset management firms "survey landscapes all around the world looking for what they call undervalued properties."

"When they find them, they buy them up with their liquid capital — backed by banks — and their model is to then refurbish the units and increase the rents, forcing people out," Farha, who is featured in Push, told Tremonti.


She said the business model isn't just gentrification, but a financialization of housing, driven by an "unprecedented amount of wealth."

"This is on a totally different scale. They're buying thousands of units at a time," she said.

Latest shelter news from Glendale, Ozone Park, Maspeth & Ridgewood

From the Queens Chronicle:

No one is saying for certain, but it appears that the on-again, off-again proposal to build a men’s homeless shelter at a vacant factory building on Cooper Avenue in Glendale is on hold, according to Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village), who addressed a packed house at the Juniper Park Civic Association’s meeting on Sept. 20.

Holden said he received confirmation in July that negotiations were underway for a plan to erect a shelter at 78-16 Cooper Ave. The facility could house up to 200 beds, he said, the maximum number permitted by the city’s Department of Homeless Services.

At the time, according to Holden, DHS Commissioner Steven Banks told him that no contracts had been signed.

As things stand, Holden said Banks is open to discussing other possible locations for the shelter, leaving the Cooper Avenue site available for other purposes.

“I’m confident,” he told the estimated 150 concerned area residents in attendance. But, he added, “It’s not a definite. We have people who are ready to protest.”

He promised to “work out the political end on my part.”

“We’re getting close” to making a school happen, Holden said. “They just have to go through the [Department of Education]; they have to talk to other people.”

A school, he said, “seems more likely now, it’s safe to say, than a homeless shelter.” The comment elicited widespread applause from the crowd.

From QNS:

Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan said that rumors about a new homeless shelter in Maspeth has been confirmed to her office from an unknown source.

Nolan told QNS on Friday afternoon that the shelter could be placed at P.S. 9 on 57th Street — but other activists and politicians are holding their tongues. The assemblywoman also declined to disclose the identity of the source.

Although city officials have yet to confirm this, Nolan worries the de Blasio administration could act fast to divert students – many of whom are bused in – and place “hundreds” of homeless people in the building.

“I don’t want to see a homeless shelter on 57th Street, it’s an absolutely terrible location,” Nolan said. “The city hasn’t [followed through] on anything they said and we have homeless people in all the hotels in Long Island City on a small rotating basis. How many more area we going to take? I want to work with Councilman Holden, Assemblymen Barnwell and Miller… and I’m hoping we can all work together.”

In Maspeth, 57th Street only runs for about a block and a half between Flushing and Grand Avenues and is mostly lined with warehouses, about five row-houses as well as P.S. 9.

“When the city moves, it moves very quickly, and I don’t want to wake up next week and find beds in P. 9,” Nolan continued.

Nolan also spoke of concern about a potential shelter at Summerfield Street and Wyckoff Avenue in Ridgewood.

From the Queens Chronicle:

Ozone Park activist Sam Esposito made a Facebook post on Sunday evening in which he claimed a tentative victory in the Ozone Park Block Association’s crusade against the homeless shelter being constructed at the former Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church on 101st Avenue and 86th street. The shelter is being constructed to house 113 men with mental illness.

Esposito claimed that major work had stopped and that a change in plans by the city will be made public soon.

“In closing, nothing official has been announced yet, but all indications point to the fact that we are NOT getting the 113 men, and the whole idea of a shelter, in that location, right now, is up in the air,” the post says in part. “I sent out 2 letters, again, to the owners’ wives this week and I hope they will find it in their hearts to convince their husbands, to do something else with this site.”

Isaac McGinn of the Department of Homeless Services, however, said the city is going ahead with its plans to turn the church into a homeless shelter.

Foreclosure looms for Acropolis Gardens

From The Real Deal:

A Wells Fargo-managed trust is looking to foreclose on a 618-unit co-op development in Astoria after its owners failed to make a loan payment.

French bank Natixis issued a $45 million mortgage in April 2017 on Acropolis Gardens, the 16-building complex bordered by Ditmars Boulevard, and 33rd and 34th streets. The debt was pooled into a securitized trust managed by Wells Fargo, according to court documents, with monthly repayments of $13,596.

But the Wells Fargo-managed trust filed a foreclosure action on Monday, after the property’s condominium board, Acropolis Gardens Realty Corp., missed a July payment.

The failed payment followed the trust’s discovery of multiple legal actions against the condo board.

Bank lobby is home to homeless

"The homeless are now banking at Carver Saving Bank to shelter them from the coldness. This is yet another health hazard in the black neighbourhood. Blacks face all sorts of suffering at the hands of black political bandits, aka political leaders.

They ignore every form of suffering perpetrated against black people. Now homeless occupants are using the ATM area as their quarters at nights; when the bank is closed. After, hearing much complaints, I tried using the ATM myself last week. The bank is located at 159-02 Archer Avenue, Jamaica Queens, near the e-train station.

The experience was stink and scary; two homeless persons were present. One was wrapped in a blanket; with his or her back turned away from the ATM. The other was sitting up straight with his head covered. His eyes were darting, then staring directly at me. The atmosphere was shitty."

"The quality-of-life abuse seems to be non-stop. Hopefully, these political bandits would come to a tragic end; by means of prison or what ever else; they are useless. Yes, Blacks live in hell. Keep wondering why Trump is our president?

Depression and unemployment in the black neighbourhood are at an all time high. Yet, Borough President, Katz claims that she is building on her success. Sadly, blacks cannot count on black leaders; who have recluse them self from the plight. Worst yet, the Blacks keep voting for the public bandits.

I called Carver today at (718)230-2900. After a few transfers; I spoke to Mr. Williams/ manager. He said that he will contact the appropriate person to resolve the problem. I asked him to please remove the homeless encampment. It is unsafe and unhealthy."

P. Hazel: Social Media Journalist for Justice.

P. S : Let's see if I have to resort to twitter.

Mayor's office can't keep its lies straight

.@rosannascotto Not exactly accurate, city never backed down. Provider pulled out of proposal. https://t.co/YoiWc7IVzz

— (((Aja))) (@AjaWorthyDavis) October 13, 2016

Now the provider pulled out of the proposal? And here we thought it was Harshad Patel, the hotel owner, who did. At least that's what Steven Banks said to the press a day after his spokesperson said the city backed out after local opposition.

Lies, lies
I can't believe a word you say
Lies, lies, are gonna make you sad someday

De Blasio tells Maspeth where it may protest

From DNA Info:

Mayor Bill de Blasio called out angry Queens residents who protested against a proposed neighborhood shelter in front of Commissioner Steven Banks' Brooklyn home — accusing them of being NIMBYs and telling them to unleash their fury at Gracie Mansion instead.

The mayor, speaking with Brian Lehrer on his weekly call-in to WNYC, said it wasn't right for more than 200 protestors to disrupt Banks and his neighbors Thursday night.

"If you have a problem, come to my home," de Blasio said. "Come to Gracie Mansion, you can protest all you want. Come to City Hall. But leave alone decent public servants who are just trying to give people a place to live."

DeBlasio's Evil Empire has its sights on Maspeth

From DHS (Current Requests for Proposals):

In order to meet its legal obligations DHS maintains an open-ended Request for Proposal process through which non-profit social service providers submit proposals to augment capacity. Although DHS does not target specific areas to open shelters, the agency strives to keep families near their communities as much as possible. This is an open-ended request for proposals, therefore, there is no prescribed due date for submissions. All suitable proposals will be reviewed by the agency on an ongoing basis as received. Non-profit social service providers may submit a proposal to develop and operate the following:

Stand-Alone Transitional Residences for Homeless Single Adults
Stand-Alone Transitional Residences for Homeless Families
Stand-Alone Drop-In Centers for Homeless Adults

Ok, so the social services provider makes a deal with a building owner and then applies to the DHS for a contract.

When the city was asked how it can go into business with Harshad S. Patel, who had bragged about bribing a state senator in the past, they told the following to channel 11:

This jibes with what it says on their website.

So then how can this be?

From NY1:

The Department of Homeless Services says negotiations to convert a Queens hotel into a homeless shelter are ongoing. This comes after the Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth tweeted last night saying it’s confirming “the hotel will not be converting to a shelter as suggested.”

From the Queens Chronicle:

A Department of Homeless Services spokesperson told the Chronicle in a brief phone call on Friday that "negotiations are ongoing" between the city, hotel owner Harshad Patel and service provider Acacia Network. Just one day earlier, Patel told the Chronicle in an interview that the proposal is 100 percent dead.

Why is the city pressuring the hotel owner into a contract with Acacia Network, when that's not how the process is supposed to work?

Bill de Blasio desperately wants a shelter in Maspeth and his Evil Empire will do whatever it takes to make sure that happens, even if it means breaking the rules and making sure the city contracts with a crook. The question is, which stable, working class neighborhood will be next? (Looks like it may be Corona.)

Serial bank robbers caught

From the Daily News:

Three men — including the son of a slain Gambino foot soldier — were arrested Tuesday morning for brazenly raiding $5 million in cash and valuables from several New York City bank vaults, officials said.

The crew — composed of Michael Mazzara, 44, Charles Kerrigan, 40, and Anthony Mascuzzio, 36 — used a gas welding torch to cut through the banks’ roofs and vaults.

The burglars pocketed money and items such as jewelry and baseball cards, many of which were heirlooms Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office said in a criminal complaint.

Banks won't accept NYC ID

From DNA Info:

There are no banks that accept the ID as primary identification in Flushing, a heavily Asian-immigrant neighborhood. In Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst, one of the most diverse sections of Queens, there are only three banks that take the card as a primary identification document. Banks categorize some identification documents as "primary"—usually driver's licenses, state IDs, passports, and foreign-issued IDs—and others, such as credit cards and leases, as "secondary."

And you can't buy a beer with one, either.

Big sports gambling bust

From the NY Times:

An illegal gambling ring with more than 2,000 bettors in the United States moved millions of dollars through banks and credit card companies and used an overseas website to place the wagers and keep the accounts, the office of the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said on Wednesday.

A Queens County grand jury indicted 17 people in the case, and all but three are in custody. The arrests were made by law enforcement officials in New York, Nevada and California, where most of the bookmakers and accountants for the ring were based, the office said. The head of the operation was identified as Cyrus Irani, 37, of Santa Clarita, Calif.

Mr. Brown said the ring had collected $32 million in illegal bets on football, basketball, baseball, hockey and other sports. He said Internet gambling was “a multibillion-dollar, worldwide industry.”

“Internet gambling has been compared by some to the crack cocaine epidemic of the late ’80s and early ’90s,” Mr. Brown said in a statement. “It is highly addictive.”

Moldy Sandy foreclosure still not cleaned up

From CBS2:

A Queens family is still trying to recover from Superstorm Sandy.

As CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez reported, cancer survivor Joyce Zoller said she’s devastated after being ordered by her doctors and attorneys to move from her Queens home to Florida.

Not because her house is unsafe, but because she said the abandoned home next door is hazardous to her health.

“The mold, the smell, the vermin inside, birds flying all over, it’s a disaster,” said Zoller. “I don’t know how much more I can take. It’s my home and I can’t even live in my own home.”

CBS2 met with the Zollers in June of 2014 and learned their neighbor at 145-08 Neponsit Ave. had abandoned the property after Superstorm Sandy.

Black mold had been growing inside the home.

City records show HSBC Mortgage took ownership after it went into foreclosure, but as owners did nothing to clean up the mold.

A Department of Buildings inspector stopped by the house Thursday morning, slapping HSBC with another violation for failing to maintain the building, Sanchez reported.

HSBC has been issued multiple building code violations since Superstorm Sandy and faces more than $20,000 in fines.

Authorities seek Queens bank robber

From WPIX:

NYPD detectives and FBI agents are hunting a prolific, armed robber who they say has ripped off at least 12 banks in Queens.

According to the FBI-NYPD Joint Violent Crime Task Force, he often wears a collared shirt and baseball cap, and passes the teller a note demanding cash. During at least five of the robberies he has pulled up his shirt to show a handgun tucked into his waistband.

The last time he struck was in December 2014, when cops say he stole cash from the Chase bank at 74-04 Elliot Avenue. Officials say he has been mainly hitting banks in and around the Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and Astoria.

• Chase Bank, located at 60-67 Myrtle Avenue, Ridgewood, NY, on December 6, 2014;

• Chase Bank, located at 69-55 Grand Avenue, Queens, NY, on October 4, 2014;

• Dime Savings Bank of Willamsburgh, 75-23 37th Avenue, Jackson Heights, NY, on August 30, 2014;

• Chase Bank, located at 47-11 Queens Boulevard, Sunnyside, NY on July 25, 2014;

• Santander (attempt), located at 89-01 Northern Boulevard, Jackson Heights, NY, on July 22, 2014;

• Chase Bank, located at 77-01 31st Avenue, East Elmhurst, NY, on June 7, 2014.

Banks everywhere but no small businesses

From City Journal:

Banks, drugstores, and other large chains are replacing small shops and restaurants, even financially successful ones. Small businesses can’t afford the rents that tenants like TD Bank and CVS can pay. With industry data showing that the average asking retail rent in Manhattan jumped 22 percent in the past decade (after inflation), landlords in prime spots are happy to kick healthy businesses out months or even years before finding a new tenant. It’s worth the wait, they figure. The same logic applies to new spaces, which often stand empty.

Banks have proliferated the fastest. FDIC data show that between 2000 and 2013, the number of bank branches in New York State grew from 3,416 to 4,415—and New York City, with nearly two-thirds of the state’s banks, was responsible for that 29 percent growth. Eighth Avenue between 50th and 59th Streets boasts branches of Bank of America, TD Bank, Chase, and Citibank, three of which opened in the last decade. The banks overwhelm their blocks and leave them with not much going on at night.

Every community needs banks, of course, but market demand isn’t driving this expansion. (When was the last time you stepped inside a bank?) Rather, seven years’ worth of zero-percent interest rates from Washington have kept banks doing well—as did the previous two decades of low interest rates, encouraging American consumers to keep borrowing. Other global chains have taken advantage of these friendly interest rates to rent up Manhattan space as well. There are also other factors at work in the retail rent spike, including the surge in global tourism. But for small businesses, the reality is plain: Manhattan is becoming unaffordable.

I don't know why banks are opening more brick and mortar branches when the trend these days is increasingly toward online banking. And in Queens, it seems that banks are closing more than opening lately.

Banks vs. blight

From the Epoch Times:

New York regulators said Monday that 11 lenders have agreed to monitor and maintain vacant properties in an effort to protect them and combat neighborhood blight.

The banks, mortgage companies and credit unions represent nearly 70 percent of the New York market and will adopt practices to limit the damage from so-called “zombie properties,” according to the Department of Financial Services. They agreed to best practices that include checking within 60 days any residential properties that are delinquent on loans to begin determining if they are abandoned, the department said.

The 11 lenders are Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citi Mortgage, Ocwen, Nationstar, PHH, Green Tree Servicing, Astoria Bank, Bethpage Federal Credit Union, M&T Bank and Ridgewood Savings Bank.

“The wave of zombie properties that arose in the wake of the financial crisis harms local communities and threatens the long-term health of the mortgage market,” department Superintendent Ben Lawsky said. Many homeowners defaulted on mortgages in the aftermath of the 2008 national financial crisis when the housing bubble burst. “These commonsense actions are an immediate and vital part of repairing that damage as we continue to pursue additional legislative reforms,” he said.

Queens Museum wants to host bank robber's art

From the NY Post:

He robbed banks, saying it was for “art” — and now the curator of the taxpayer-funded Queens Museum wants to honor him.

Nutty Professor Joe Gibbons — who videotaped himself ripping off banks as part of a bizarre “art project” — has snagged the prestigious invitation from the Queens Museum to show off his felonious film project.

The curator of the institution — which used $57.5 million in public money to expand — can’t wait to give a forum to this alleged public enemy, who is facing serious robbery charges.

“Once he is released, I hope to help him by extending an invitation to screen his work at the Queens Museum,” curator Larissa Harris gushed in a letter to a Manhattan judge. “This would be an enormous honor for us.”

Dirty developer's deals detailed

From the Daily News:

A developer connected to a 1,700-unit luxury complex on the Queens waterfront in the final stages of city approval allegedly bribed representatives of a Greek bank to get his way in the past, court documents show.

Efstathios (Steve) Valiotis, a principal of Alma Realty, the developer behind the Astoria Cove project, was spotlighted in a 1995 federal court decision for bribing a Greek intermediary in order to secure a multimillion-dollar loan for his separate cargo vessel business.

According to evidence introduced to the court, Valiotis and another director of shipping company Levant Lines paid a bribe to a third party after a meeting with an official of the Greece-based Banque Franco-Hellenic de Commerce in order to secure a $5.7 million loan from the bank in 1990.

Levant, which operated a cargo vessel service between the United States and the Mediterranean, had failed in loan requests to more than 10 banks, to acquire two aging ships, the Spirit and the Pride, court documents note.

The shipper eventually acquired the loan it sought, and a judge noted there was “convincing evidence” that a bribe by Valiotis helped make it possible, though Valiotis was not a party to the lawsuit and the court did not explicitly adjudicate his role in the matter.

The lawsuit was between the bank and another investor who claimed he did not have to repay a related loan because it was secured through illicit means.

The council approved Astoria Cove yesterday, and the city is kicking in $5M to build the developer a ferry dock...

Cuomo deciding how to spend unexpected budget surplus

From CBS Local:

New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week was studying options for how to spend a $4.2 billion state budget surplus.

The windfall came as a result of recent financial settlements with banks and insurance companies, state officials said.

BNP Paribas, for example, agreed to pay a $2.2 billion penalty to the state after pleading guilty to charges that it violated economic sanctions by processing transactions for clients in blacklisted countries including Sudan, Cuba and Iran.

The administration said the windfall from the Paribas penalty will be used to help limit annual spending growth to less than 2 percent, not on special one-time programs or projects. And $298 million from that settlement will go into a special fund for addiction treatment at the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, officials said — a 51 percent boost above the agency’s budget for the year.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration said Monday that it was reviewing options for the remaining unanticipated revenue. Possibilities include paying down state debt, building up the state’s financial reserves, or spending the money on one-time capital expenses.

DeBlasio announces joke affordable housing initiative

From Capital NY:

Since taking office Jan. 1, the de Blasio administration has begun construction or is close to breaking ground on 8,700 units of affordable housing, officials announced at a press conference in the Bronx Wednesday morning.

The update came during an announcement that the administration, city Comptroller Scott Stringer, the non-profit Community Preservation Corporation and Citibank have created a $350 million fund to pay for 7,500 new units of affordable housing, on top of the 8,700 already underway.

The administration plans to preserve or build 200,000 new units over the next decade.

Aw, how nice! And here's an example of what "affordable housing" is considered to this administration:

Why do people in upper income brackets need affordable units set aside for them? A $2,000 1-bedroom? Take a good look at the numbers here and realize that when they say X number of units will be affordable, it really means that a fraction of X will actually be considered affordable to most people living in the area.

Affordable housing is a joke. Period. If you want to empty out homeless shelters, you'll have to build more projects or provide vouchers again. But we know that the goal is not actually to empty out the shelters or else those making tweeding money off them will be out of business.

Putting an end to the blight?

From Crains:

The New York State Conference of Mayors on Monday joined the growing call to rid the state of so-called "zombie properties," or homes that typically have been abandoned in the middle of a foreclosure process and left to decay.

And New York City is crawling with them.

According to an estimate from housing data firm RealtyTrac, four New York City counties—the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island—are among the top ten in the state for zombie properties, with a total of roughly 2,500 between them.

"Abandoned homes become magnets for crime, drag down property values and drain municipal coffers," state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who conceived of the bill that has been introduced in both the state Senate and Assembly, said in a statement. "Our bill will keep communities safer and lessen the burden of municipalities still struggling to recover from the housing crisis."

The conference, which is made up of mayors from across the Empire State, is adding its support to a bill that would create a registry for zombie properties and require lenders to alert homeowners that they can stay in their homes until the foreclosure process is complete. But if those homeowners abandon the property, the proposed legislation would make the lenders pay for upkeep.