Rest in peace, Senator Peralta

From the NY Post:

New York State Senator Jose Peralta died of an apparent heart attack late Wednesday night, friends and fellow lawmakers said. He was 47.

Peralta, a Democrat, represented a Queens district that included diverse neighborhoods such as Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Woodside.

Avella, Peralta defeated in anti-IDC votes

From the Queens Chronicle:

New York State is a different place today. It's littered with the wreckage of what once was the Independent Democratic Conference.

And nowhere was the rubble deeper than in Queens, where a pair of state Senators were ousted in Tuesday's Democratic primaries by challengers who dubbed them traitors to their party.

In District 13, it was four-term state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) who lost his re-election bid to former mayoral aide Jessica Ramos — a fierce critic of her "turncoat" opponent's IDC membership.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Ramos had won 12,181 vote to Peralta's 10,021 — good for a 10-percentage point margin.

In District 11, fellow four-term incumbent state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) was defeated by former city Comptroller John Liu in a rematch of 2014's Democratic primary — a race Avella won by a mere 568 votes.

This time around, it was Liu who came out victorious, defeating the incumbent 12,133 ballots to 10,846 — a 6-point margin.

The funny thing is unless there's a flip in the Senate then there won't be any "progressive legislation" getting passed in Albany because Simcha Felder won re-election easily. Basically all that happened is that the greater Bayside area voted for overdevelopment and corruption. Smart move!

Peralta wants residential parking permits near LGA

From the Queens Chronicle:

State Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) receives extensive numbers of constituent complaints regarding parking problems in residential neighborhoods near LaGuardia Airport.

The trouble, he said, is largely airport-related. And he has introduced a bill in the Senate that would allow the city to set up a one-year trial period during which 80 percent of the parking spaces on residential streets within two miles of LaGuardia would be reserved for residents with a paid parking sticker.

The sticker, specific to one car, would be applied to the inside of the windshield.

“One of the problems is people working on the construction jobs at the airport, which is going to go on for at least four more years,” he said. “Then you have people using the airport who park, leave their car and come back in a week.”

As for where he would like workers at the airport to park, Peralta said that is not under the scope of his bill.

“That should have been worked out beforehand,” he said. “There are places available.”

Many major cities in the United States, he said, have some form of paid permits for residential parking.

Peralta’s measure, S.6931, also would set aside 20 percent of the spaces for nonresidents. Commercial streets would not come under the program.

He said he is working to find a sponsor for a companion bill in the state Assembly.

The senator said any fee would be a “reasonable” one, but that the amount would have to be worked out in Albany and the City Council.

Peralta vs. prostitution

From the Queens Chronicle:

Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights is widely regarded as a hotbed of prostitution and human trafficking. And state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) wants to give law enforcement another tool to crack down on businesses acting as a front for the problem.

The lawmaker has introduced legislation mandating massage parlors to get a license from the New York Department of State that allows them to operate, a practice required for many businesses. According to Peralta, some — but not all, he emphasized — of the parlors are fronts for prostitution. One thing he pointed out about some of the businesses is that people on the street pass out cards for them late at night.

“The legitimate places are open from, like, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.,” the senator told the Chronicle. “These folks are open late at night. In particular over the weekend; one o’clock in the morning, they’re still operating.”

Many constituents weary of the massage parlors have complained about them to his office, Peralta added.

His bill would make massage parlors get four-year licenses from the state, which they would have to display, showing customers that they are complying with the regulation. The businesses would also have to get a bond or liability insurance.

Massage parlors operating without the license will not be taken lightly: The punishment could be paying $2,500 and spending six months behind bars.

The U.S. Attorneys and the Queens Machine

This article is lengthy and covers many topics, so we'll be linking to different segments of it over the next few days...

From Progress Queens:

Compounding the unknowns in the face of rapidly-changing circumstances facing the two, new Acting U.S. Attorneys in New York City are lingering questions about why some political corruption scandals are investigated, but not all. As reported in recent years by Progress Queens, questions have largely remained unanswered about funding received by a nonprofit group affiliated with New York State Senator José Peralta ; about reportedly preferential treatment showed to a campaign consulting company by the New York Democratic Senate Campaign Committee ; and with new allegations that politically-connected lawyers were earning enormous profits from, or wielding considerable influence as a result of, their connections to the Queens Democratic County Committee. The 2017 Municipal election cycle has raised new questions about the role of money in local politics and about public ethics, but there has been no apparent response from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, headed by Acting U.S. Attorney Rohde, who has jurisdiction over Queens.

Pols want to monitor restaurant inspectors

From the Times Ledger:

Queens lawmakers and small business owners gathered Tuesday at Flushing Town Hall to introduce a new bill aimed at protecting restaurants from unfair inspection practices.

State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing), state Sen. Jose Peralta (D- East Elmhurst), Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Howard Beach) and Assemblyman Clyde Vanel (D- Queens Village) said the bill would help lessen the amount of burdensome fines levied on small businesses that can not handle them.

The bill is intended to reform the New York restaurant health investigation system, according to Kim. As a teenager Kim saw his parent’s grocery store go bankrupt and close after suffering from what he termed overregulation, excessive fining and high rents.

According to Kim, the bill, titled “The Restaurant Owner Whistle Blower Protection Act” will establish an independent oversight body to receive complaints about health inspectors. Complaint intake will create a hotline and website in multiple languages, including Arabic, Bengali, and Chinese. Kim said the if the bill passes, the city must provide an annual summary report on total number of independent complaints, what type of complaints and investigative findings. Finally, restaurants owners will be given three opportunities to deny the inspections on sitet and request a new inspector. Every time the restaurant owner will pay a fee, $75 for the first denial, $150 for the second denial and $250 for the final denial.

Peralta joins the IDC

From NY1:

The breakaway Independent Democratic Conference, or IDC, will now have eight members with its newest addition, state Senator Jose Peralta of Queens.

"Look, this is a process. Like I said, I've been doing a lot of soul searching. And I reached that crossroads," Peralta said.

Despite holding a numeric majority, Democrats do not run the state Senate. The Republicans do, with a power-sharing arrangement with the IDC. That means both members of the IDC and Senate Republicans control the legislative agenda in the upper house.

By party registration, Democrats actually outnumber Republicans by 32 to 31 seats. But in practice, it's much different. Mainline Democrats now have 23 seats, Republicans 31 and the IDC 8. And Brooklyn Democrat Simcha Felder caucuses with the Republicans.

Peralta says joining the IDC is the best way to deliver for his Queens constituents.

Fighting crime on Roosevelt Avenue is a long, hard slog

From DNA Info:

An ongoing effort to tackle crime and quality-of-life issues along Roosevelt Avenue in Corona and Jackson Heights should expand west to target problem bars and clubs in Woodside, lawmakers said Monday — likening the street at night to "old Times Square."

Elected officials called on city and state agencies to pour more resources into monitoring "bad actor" businesses along the corridor: bars that operate without proper licenses and attract drug use, prostitution and other problems, they said.

"Roosevelt Avenue is a vibrant avenue during the day," said state Sen. Jose Peralta, who's been pushing for several years to clean up the street, including a request to have NYPD lines redrawn so the avenue was united under one precinct.

"What happens at night is that it turns into something completely different," he said. "It's turned into the old Times Square, where you have prostitution, where you have $2 dance bars, where you have drugs, where you have fake IDs, and that needs to end."

While the stretch of Roosevelt Avenue located within Peralta's district has garnered much of the negative attention in recent years — including in Jackson Heights, identified as a problem spot for sex trafficking — its issues extend into Woodside too, officials said.

"Unfortunately, it's no different on this part of Roosevelt Avenue, a little bit further west," state Sen. Michael Gianaris said at a press conference on 65th Street Tuesday.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The lawmakers say their focus is on getting the State Liquor Authority and the city's Department of Consumer Affairs to better enforce licensing rules, saying many bars on the avenue operate as dance clubs without the cabaret license that allows them to do so.

Peralta introduced legislation this summer that would increase fines for clubs that violate cabaret rules, and would temporarily suspend the licenses of bars found to be operating illegally.

Someone in power finally gets it?

From the Queens Chronicle:

South Corona can’t take it anymore.

That was the message on Monday when Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights), state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst), Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens, Bronx) and Community Board 4 District Manager Christian Cassagnol gathered outside PS 16 to call on the City Planning Commission to look into downzoning the overtaxed neighborhood.

“Corona is growing. Old one- and two- family homes are being replaced by multifamily dwellings and buildings,” Peralta said. “Simply put, development is going too fast right here in South Corona and that is making things very difficult for residents seeking better services and students seeking a quality education.”

According to the lawmakers, the area’s infrastructure network simply cannot keep up with the seemingly never ending construction of multifamily developments.

Fire and police units are already stretched thin and parking is incredibly scarce, they said, but it is the sheer lack of school space that is hurting the community the most.

Peralta wants Roosevelt Ave cleaned up

From the Daily News:

Sen. Jose Peralta (D-Queens) wants to clean up a stretch of 20 blocks along Roosevelt Ave. that bring in a “bad element” at night.

“It’s a vibrant place in the day ... but at night all kinds of illegal activity occurs, prostitution, human trafficking and more,” he said.

Peralta, who represents the area, wants the city to increase its enforcement of existing quality of life laws and up the fines for certain violations from $1,000 to $10,000.

LaGuardia Airport Hotel won't be a homeless shelter (for now)

From the Queens Chronicle:

East Elmhurst’s old LaGuardia Aiport Hotel will be renovated and replaced by two brand-new hotels in the coming months.

The nine-story Ibis and seven-story Aloft hotels will be situated at 100-33 Ditmars Blvd. across from LaGuardia Airport.

According to state Sen. Jose Peralta (D- East Elmhurst) the renovations are being welcomed by the neighborhood.

“It’s a win-win for the community,” Peralta said in a Tuesday interview.

He said that the new renovations will not only give travelers a quality spot to spend a night to a few days, but also will help boost the local economy.

He added that the project could provide new jobs within the community.

And future homeless shelter rooms as well. In fact, that was the rumor not too long ago. I wonder what happened.

Discounts for dashcams

From NY1:

State Senator Jose Peralta and Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman introduced legislation Thursday that would give drivers of non-commercial vehicles insurance discounts if they install and operate a dashboard camera.

They say it is part of an effort to promote greater safety for drivers and pedestrians.

In a statement, Senator Peralta said that devices capturing road footage can provide visual evidence and protection for drivers and pedestrians in case of accidents.

“We must ensure that we use available technologies to promote safety,” Peralta said. “With a dashboard camera installed in your car, you can provide footage in case of hit-and-runs and accidents. You can also fight a ticket, and you can even capture footage of unrelated events as you drive.”

If the proposed bill becomes law, New York would be the first U.S. state to require car insurance premium reduction for vehicles that have an operating dashboard camera.

Speed cameras - not just for school hours anymore

From the Daily News:

A pair of Queens lawmakers are pushing to drastically expand the use of speed enforcement cameras in the city to cut down on traffic fatalities.

State Sen. Jose Peralta and Assemblyman Michael DenDekker, both Democrats, will unveil a package of bills Thursday that will allow speed cameras to be placed in any of the more than 2,000 school zones in the city and keep them in operation 24 hours a day.

A law adopted in 2013 allows for only 140 cameras in the city school zones and limits their operation to school hours, the lawmakers said.

Connecting the congestion pricing dots

From Queens Buzz:

NYC Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer and 14 Democratic Progressives recently embraced the Move NY Congestion Traffic Price Plan, which among other things, calls for $8 tolls [or $5.54 with the use of an EZ Pass] on all East River Bridges, including Queensboro, Brooklyn, Manhattan & Williamsburg Bridges.

NYS Senator Jose Peralta of Jackson Heights / Corona has been an early advocate of the Move NY Congestion Traffic Price Plan.

Most of the rest of the Queens government officials do not support the plan. And hence we decided to take a closer look into the plan, to better understand what the issues are.

And we were more than a little bit surprised at what we found.

How Do The Plan Assumptions Stack With Known Realities?

In this report we’re going to describe the Move NY repackaged Congestion Traffic Price Plan. Specifically we will explore the assumptions upon which the plan is based, and then go behind the curtain to explore some of the relationships between the different groups pushing the plan, in order to better understand the economics of the politics.


Oooh. I sense some tweeding coming!

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.

Still scammin', now more than ever

From the Queens Chronicle:

There is an apparent rash of scams targeted at unsuspecting apartment hunters in parts of Western Queens.

According to the office of state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst), several constituents have filed complaints that victims have given money in advance to agencies that promise to find an apartment to rent, describing themselves as “multi-service agencies,” and acting like a broker.

Many of those targeted are native Spanish speakers.

But, in some cases, said Peralta, the apartment promised as an option to a prospective tenant is not even on the market — with some landlords not even aware that an apartment would be shown as a rental possibility — and would-be tenants are left with their fees lost.

In one case, a constituent said that he gave an agency $3,000, according to Peralta’s office.

When the victim and his family moved into the unit, they discovered a gas leak and bed bugs.

One woman, who remained anonymous, said she was cheated out of $6,000 by someone she thought to be a real estate agent when trying to secure an apartment in Woodside at the beginning of June.

Regulating motorized scooters

From CBS New York:

Two New York lawmakers from Queens have introduced bills to regulate motorized bicycles used commercially with safety and insurance requirements.

Sen. Jose Peralta and Assembly member Aravella Simotas are pushing for the Department of Motor Vehicles to maintain a registry, establish safety regulations, and set minimum liability insurance coverage.

Under the bills, drivers would have to register them with the DMV and traffic infractions would be punishable by fines of $25 to $100.

The scooters, according to the lawmakers, have become part of the fabric of small businessesmaking deliveries throughout New York City. They said attempts to ban them haven’t worked, and accidents can create big liability issues.

Simotas said she’s heard from too many people about near misses and being hit by riders.

Peralta told 1010 WINS the City Council banned delivery scooters in 2004, but since then the number of scooters has actually increased.

State Senate passes fake ID bill

From Animal New York

From the Times Ledger:

The illicit market for fake identification has made Roosevelt Avenue a destination for decades for underage youths looking for “proof” to enter bars and clubs as well as immigrants looking for a fake green card or Social Security card.

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was aware of the problem and was working with law enforcement to prevent false documents from aiding terrorists. State Sen. Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights) has spent nearly a decade trying to remedy the dangerous situation.

His bill to crack down on the fake ID market and other forged official documents was passed unanimously by the state Senate last Friday. The bill toughens the penalties against individuals who manufacture or sell fake IDs, especially government identifications, such as driver’s licenses, passports and Social Security cards.

“This illicit industry does us a lot of harm, and it is still a huge problem in Queens,” Peralta said. “This bill and the new municipal ID program is very bad news for the counterfeit mills operators. We have to crack down on the mills and increase the penalties on these mill operators to eradicate this serious problem.”

The bill prohibits the sale of forged instruments. It also amends the penal code to include the sale and manufacture of government issue documents as a class C felony in the first degree that would carry a penalty of 1 to 15 years behind bars. In addition, it creates the presumption that an individual who possesses two or more forged government documents depicting a person other than him or herself intends to sell those fake documents.

Pols actually work when pressure is on them

From the Times Ledger:

Nearly 50 demonstrators rallied for the removal of the homeless families shelter at the Westway Motel in East Elmhurst Saturday, a day after a convicted child molester was removed from the facility.

Shouting “Westway, No Way” and carrying posters that read “The Westway is not the Best Way” the protesters demanded the closure of the shelter, at 71-11 Astoria Blvd., even after the Department of Homeless Services announced plans for a new policy change.

“We really put the squeeze on DHS,” state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) said. “Costa Constantinides, Aravella Simotas and then Joe Crowley got involved. We jumped on it and in a day and a half he was voluntarily transferred.”

Constantinides is the councilman from Astoria, Simotas is the assemblywoman for the area and Crowley is the congressman for that part of Queens.

State Sen. Michael Gianaris’ Astoria office received so many phone calls from angry constituents that he joined the battle even though the Westway Motel is in Peralta’s district. “The continuing lack of information and transparency surrounding the Westway is extremely troubling and validates the community’s concerns about this location from the start,” Gianaris said.

Jackson Heights knows what it doesn't want at Bruson Building

From the Queens Chronicle:

Residents eager to help decide the fate of the reconstructed Bruson Building crowded into the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights Thursday evening, causing the town hall’s organizers to add extra chairs and bump out the back wall to make room.

The meeting, spearheaded by state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst), was organized to gather community input regarding the fate of the Bruson Building, which burned down in a five-alarm fire last April, displacing tenants such as Plaza College, which has a new campus in Forest Hills, Armondo’s Italian Restaurant, which will reopen in February on Northern Boulevard and Frank’s Pharmacy, which reopened three blocks away in October.

Suggestions from residents, many of which were written on pieces of paper and read by Peralta, included a Jewish deli, a bakery, an American-style restaurant, a medical facility, an interfaith center, a bookstore, a Hallmark store, a pediatric urgent care center, health facility, a Housing Works Thrift Shop and a Wells Fargo bank.

Many were averse to the idea of more 99-cent stores, or more ethnic eateries or shops. Many were also against a fast food chain coming into the building.

A popular idea, which was brought up again and again throughout the meeting, was to have a Trader Joe’s. But, some residents were concerned the grocery store would bring more people into the already-congested neighborhood.

Resident Jimmy Wohl brought up another suggestion that drew oohs and aahs from the crowd: A co-working space to attract area entrepreneurs and thought-leaders, similar to what exist throughout Manhattan and other parts of Western Queens.