Juan Ardila admits sexual assaults; victim/constituent and AOC demand his resignation

 

 Queens Post

Freshman Assemblyman Juan Ardila, who represents western Queens, faced political fallout Tuesday after being accused of sexual assault by two women—allegations that the lawmaker did not refute when asked for comment.

Ardila, who first took office in January after winning a vacant 37^th District assembly seat last year, allegedly targeted two women at a party in October 2015. The party took place inside a Manhattan apartment and was attended by Fordham University students and alumni.

One of the victims, who reached out to Queens Post and requested anonymity, said that Ardila “got physical” with her – and was “touching her” — while she was drunk on a couch at the party. The woman, who was 21 at the time, said Ardila then tried to drag her into the bathroom before a friend intervened.

Meanwhile, another woman that night provided a statement saying that Ardila pulled her into the bathroom a short time later, before exposing himself and then groping her. The woman allegedly then ran out of the bathroom.

The women were both seniors at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus at the time of the party. Ardila had graduated from the university in the spring and had just started working for Brad Lander, who was a councilmember at the time. Neither woman had ever spoken to Ardila prior to the night of the party.

Ardila, who was endorsed by progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and State Sen. Jessica Ramos in his race last year, issued a statement late last night expressing regret for his actions. The statement came shortly after he told the Queens Chronicle that he had no knowledge of the alleged incidents.

“I apologize for my behavior,” Ardila said in his statement. “I have spent time reflecting and I hope to prove that I have matured since college. I’m committed to learning from this and I am able to demonstrate my own personal growth.”

But the victim who contacted Queens Post wasn’t buying Ardila’s statement after it was read to her.

“I find Juan’s statement to be deeply troubling and dismissive of the harm he has caused me and others. His apology—which comes on the heels of his initial denial—rings insincere,” she said. “He blames the assault on youthful indiscretion during college (although he had graduated at the time of the incident) and I find this both dismissive and insulting. Sexual assault is a serious crime, and it is not something that can be excused or explained away by age or circumstances.”

The woman, who moved to Long Island City last month, said that she only decided to go public with her ordeal when she discovered that Ardila was an assemblymember—and the one who represented her area.

“The public deserves to know about his past,” she said, noting that she has reached out to several local news outlets about the incident.

Queens Post

While Queens Assemblyman Juan Ardila acknowledged and apologized for sexually assaulting two women at a party in 2015, one of his alleged victims now demands that he step down.

“I am calling for Juan Ardila to resign as an Assembly member and would like to see the organizations and elected officials who have publicly supported Juan retract their support,” the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Queens Post Tuesday afternoon.  

Some elected officials and community leaders called for an investigation into Ardila, while others demanded his resignation and asked those who previously endorsed him to withdraw their support.

These announcements come one day after news broke that Ardila allegedly sexually assaulted two women at a Manhattan party held by Fordham University students nearly eight years ago. One victim said he inappropriately touched her and tried to lead her into the bathroom before a friend intervened, while another said he groped her. Both requested to be anonymous.

Ardila, who issued an apology following the allegations, was elected last year to represent the 37th assembly district covering western Queens, taking over a seat that was left vacant by Cathy Nolan.

Among those who endorsed Ardila during his campaign last year were Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez; Comptroller Brad Lander; Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; Queens Borough President Donovan Richards; state Senators Michael Gianaris and Jessica Ramos; Council member Tiffany Cabán, the Working Families Party and many others.

Councilman Robert Holden, a former opponent of Ardila’s when campaigning for City Council in 2021, was the first elected leader to come out today to demand his resignation. He also called on those who had endorsed him to retract them.

“Juan Ardila’s record of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, antisemitism, reckless driving, and now sexual assault has disqualified him from office,” Holden said in a statement. “His actions are reprehensible and unacceptable, and they should be disavowed at all costs by elected officials, like [Queens Borough President] Donovan Richards, unions, and other groups. Sexual assault must never be tolerated.”

Richards responded, saying the allegations against Ardila are “deeply troubling and require a full and thorough investigation.”

“If these disturbing accusations against him are found to be true, Assemblymember Ardila should resign,” Richards said in a statement to Queens Post. “Trust in government cannot be possible without accountability from all who have been elected to lead our communities.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Queens Post the congresswoman believes Ardila should step down.

“We will be withdrawing his Courage to Change PAC endorsement, which was issued for his 2022 campaign,” the spokesperson said.

Queens Liar Gets Sworn Into Congress

PIX 11 News 

 

 George Santos was sworn in to the House of Representatives early Saturday to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District, despite the scrutiny he is facing for lying about his experience.

Santos has admitted to lying about his heritage, work experience, education, and a bevy of other falsifications regarding his life during his primary and general election campaigns.

Democrat Zimmerman challenges Santos to resign and face him again in special election

“I apologize if anybody feels hurt or betrayed,” Santos previously said during an interview with City & State.

Several of Santos’ colleagues in Congress have called for a House Ethics Committee investigation into his actions, including Congressman Ritchie Torres.

Santos should consider resigning, veteran GOP lawmaker says

“The process starts with the Office of Congressional Ethics which will conduct a preliminary review and then if the preliminary review finds that the allegations have merit, they will refer the matter to the Ethics Committee,” Torres said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Santos’ spokesperson told PIX11 News the lawmaker is focused on his new job representing New Yorkers.

“George is preparing to take on his responsibilities in Congress and preparing for the next chapter. When he is able to allocate time to press inquiries, he will,” he said.

On Tuesday, Joseph Murray, an attorney for Santos, specifically addressed an unresolved 2008 fraud case against Santos in Brazil, which has reportedly been revived.

“In the abundance of caution, I am in the process of engaging local counsel to address this alleged complaint against my client,” wrote Murray, adding that he has not been contacted by law enforcement from any jurisdiction about criminal allegations against Santos.

 Yahoo news

Embattled congressman-elect George Santos left his Queens apartment with massive damage before moving on with his campaign trail, his former landlord has said.

Mr Santos and his sister Tiffany Lee Devolder Santos lived in the apartment in Whitestone until three months ago, the New York Post reported. The landlord of the two-bedroom 960-sq-ft apartment said that the siblings never paid rent late, but did cause damage.

“They had four dogs and they did a lot of damage to the place, so they left,” Nancy Pothos told the Post.

The outlet also reported that the modest residence, bought in 1999 for $200,000, is estimated to be worth $2,900 a month.

The Post’s report comes just days after a report from New York outlet Gothamist revealed that Mr Santos wrote that he was mugged on his way to deliver a rent cheque to Queens Housing Court on 15 January 2016 in an effort to resolve his case.

It is unclear whether that was the same residence rented by Ms Pothos.

The New York City Police Department has no record of any such attack.

The Republican wrote that he was “unable to provide a police report” and was told to return to police several days later to pick one up, according to an affidavit that was filled out under oath.

At the time, Mr Santos was set to pay $2,250 in back rent for his Queens apartment.

A spokesperson for NYPD told the outlet there was nothing on file related to Mr Santos’s claims.

 

Glendale homeless shelter devolves into crime pit, as expected

 

QNS

The Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center has been a hot spot for crime in the Glendale area since it opened in 2020, with a staggering 808 911 calls and 71 arrests made. QNS received exclusive data regarding the operations at the shelter after Councilman Robert Holden demanded answers from the mayor’s office on its effectiveness.

There are currently 183 homeless men residing at the Cooper Rapid Rehousing Center at 78-16 Cooper Ave., none of which are from Community Board 5, Holden said. Most of the residents came from other boroughs.

Councilman Robert Holden has been a staunch opponent of the shelter since it was just an idea. Earlier this year, Holden called on the city to investigate the shelter, claiming it was not upholding its contractual obligations to provide basic benefits like employment services and life skills programming. 

“[Department of Homeless Services], the city, the Bill de Blasio administration has broken almost every promise,” Holden said. “They said this would be an employment shelter, and it’s not. It puts a lot of stress on the limited resources of the 104th Precinct.”

Holden has been battling to get data revealing the operations of the shelter, and finally after contacting Mayor Eric Adams himself, was able to get a look into the shelter’s efficiency. 

Of the 183 men living at the Cooper shelter, 52% of them are employed, according to data from the mayor’s office.

According to the city, they estimate about 64% of the unemployed men are able to work. The average stay for a resident is 314 days.

Since 2020, 71 arrests were made, mainly for assault. Most of the over 800 911 calls made were for an ambulance or a call for help.

 

Economic Development Corporation lied about the hazards of NYC Ferry landings

 

 

AMNY

 NYC Ferry regularly had to cancel trips because of issues with its piers that closed dozens of times in recent months, an amNewYork Metro analysis has found.

A review of NYC Ferry’s notices of landing closures on Twitter revealed that pier closures occurred on 47 days in the past six months, or more than every four days across its network of 25 stops.

That’s on top of the constant suspension of the Greenpoint landing in Brooklyn, which, unlike the other stops, is private property. This stop has been out of commission since May and won’t be fully repaired until at late June, according to its owner Lendlease.

The most common cause was generically described in the social media posts as a “mechanical issue,” which accounted for 35 closures, or nearly three-quarters of cases.

The NYC Ferry account did not consistently post when service was restored on its Twitter page, but data provided by EDC showed that 85% of mechanical issue closures were resolved in less than three hours.

Ten cases were due to “extremely high winds,” and all boat service stopped during the Jan. 29 winter storm.

“NYC Ferry is a complex network of vessels and landings subject to severe weather conditions, which are monitored at all times and maintained with ongoing inspections and repairs when needed,” said EDC spokesman Brian Zumhagen in a statement.

“Weather-related outages are considered important operational decisions that place safety first. With this said, NYC Ferry regrets disruptions to service, and in each instance, our operations teams have moved as quickly as possible to repair any issues,” the rep added.

The Astoria landing in Queens had the most closures and was shut down 10 times due to electrical outages — all of them in January. The frequent outages there were first reported by Patch.

“I heard it was out but I thought it was because of the weather,” said local Effie Hegazy as she was about to board a boat to Manhattan Tuesday morning.

Another area resident, Mary Olm, said she rides the ferry about three times a week and noticed an issue with one of the pier’s two walkways, where yellow tape cordoned off the front end of that plank.

The heavily-subsidized waterborne transit service is run by private operator Hornblower and overseen by the city’s quasi-public business boosting arm, the Economic Development Corporation.

Among the other piers with frequent outages were some the EDC recently opened or renovated, such as the St. George stop on Staten Island’s North Shore, which debuted in August connecting to Manhattan’s West Side as part of a $44 million expansion, but has since had to close down six times.

The South Williamsburg pier in Brooklyn has closed seven times, despite getting a $6.7 million makeover in July, as well as DUMBO, which shuttered five times after a $4.7 million revamp in June.

Three more months of Dr. Chokshi

 NBC New York

 

Dr. Dave Chokshi, the commissioner of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, will stay on in that role through mid-March, Mayor-elect Eric Adams said Wednesday.

Chokshi will then be replaced by Dr. Ashwin Vasan, a primary care physician and mental health expert.

Chokshi, often referred to as "the city's doctor," became health commissioner in Aug. 2020. He also remains a practicing primary care physician at Bellevue.

NYC Social Services Dept. official doesn't think homeless people can get or spread COVID

Here is DSS Deputy Commissioner Erin Drinkwater downplaying the importance of the homeless wearing masks on the subway, despite the governor's order for masks to be worn on mass transit. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/Qy61QBwtVS

— Robert Holden (@BobHoldenNYC) April 23, 2020

Chokshi screwed up

 

NY Daily News

A city effort to vaccinate newly eligible kids ages 5 to 11 against coronavirus kicked off Monday morning at school clinics — but ran into some early hiccups.

Anxious parents spent hours waiting outside some schools in the hopes of securing a vaccine dose for their elementary-age kids, only to be told the clinic didn’t have enough supply.

Parents at Public School 8 in Brooklyn Heights began lining up at 6 am for the city-run school vaccine distribution, with the line swelling to more than 100 people, one parent said. But city workers running the clinic said they could only give out 50 shots because they needed to conserve doses for other schools they were visiting Monday, according to parents at the school.

“I just don’t understand why they would have taken this approach,” said Michele Walsh, the parent of a first-grader and a fifth-grader, who was turned away after waiting for more than an hour.

Walsh said she refrained from looking for other appointments for her kids because she was counting on getting them vaccinated at the school.

She added that PS 8 administrators even gave city officials a heads-up in advance that there was going to be a huge demand for the shots Monday morning.

Walsh was even more frustrated that her kids had to miss the start of school while waiting outside in vain for a COVID-19 vaccine. “If they had just given us numbers and told us how many they had, the kids could’ve been in school instead of waiting outside,” she said.

A parent at PS 40 in Manhattan reported a similar supply problem, and said the shipment of shots still hadn’t shown up by 10:45 am — nearly four hours after the distribution was supposed to start.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

So this guy Derek Evers is elected to office as a Democratic district leader, and also was appointed to the local community board by Donovan Richards (which may be a no-no as per the city charter), yet he conveniently neglected to mention he's also Juan Ardila's paid campaign manager...

Prior to reading his ridiculous screed against Ardila's opponent, here's a partial fact check:

- The contentious homeless shelter in the 2017 race was located in a Maspeth hotel. It's gone now.

- Holden was never chair of the community board. If he was, that would be displayed prominently on his campaign material, no?

- The HCQ thing links to an article where Cuomo pleads for it, not Trump.

- There's a screenshot of an undated Facebook post with a blurred out name purported to be from Holden's Deputy Chief of Staff that shows a pro-Trump rally but doesn't show the breach of the Capitol or praise of same. Kinda stalkerish to be snooping on a staff member's Facebook page regardless.

- Chokeholds have been banned by the NYPD patrol guide for decades and the legislation in question was not to make them legal.

- Not sure what Holden's age has to do with anything unless the Ardila campaign is ageist along with everything else (likely).

- By his own measure he's failing on graffiti? Or is it more like police aren't making graffiti arrests because the DAs are declining to prosecute and the judges are dismissing the charges now in New Woke City?

- How can 40% of the district be Latino and also be gerrymandered?

- People of all races hate those loud car speaker/biker/ATV assholes and besides that they are dangerous to pedestrians, cyclists and drivers, but it's good to know the Ardila campaign is in favor of them. (This position seems to be against the progressive doctrine to oppose motorized vehicles at all times. I guess there are exceptions.)

Now go ahead and have a good laugh:

Dear Democratic leaders of Queens, I’m tired. I’m tired of living in a District run by an angry man who uses his votes and his rhetoric and his relationship with the press to divide and separate our wonderful community.  Robert Holden does not represent District 30 in a manner befitting of any elected role, regardless of what political party he wants to align with. At his core, he’s a divider who preys on people’s fears to create a “path to victory” in local elections.  Of course, this is nothing new. This is what Robert Holden does. He did it in his 2017 race against Elizabeth Crowley, drumming up hatred for a homeless shelter that was inevitably still built after he was elected. Yet, despite his own failures to stop construction or to address the homeless crisis in his district, he continues to lean into it with hate-filled rhetoric, saying things like the men who live there “will never assimilate into the neighborhood, they'll never blend in."  Even as far back as his days as chair of the Community Board there are stories of people being scared to run against him because they knew the Juniper Berry would smear them if they tried. And now that he’s running for re-election he’s going to try to pull the same Trump-like “divide and conquer” strategy. So I implore you, do not look at the Robert Holden who is running for re-election, look at his voting record to see what kind of man he really is. Robert Holden wasn’t running for re-election when he voted against a bill that would prohibit employment discrimination based on an individual’s sexual and reproductive health decisions.  Or when he voted against a bill that would allow individuals to change their sex designation on their birth certificate to conform with their gender identity.  Or when he voted against a bill that would establish diversity working groups in each community school district.  Or when he appeared on FOX News to say NYC should not be a sanctuary city. Or when he voted against creating an Office of Diversity and Inclusion within the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.  Or when he voted against an order that would replace the word “alien” with “noncitizen” in the City Charter.  Or when he introduced a bill that would re-allow the police to use a chokehold like the one that killed Eric Garner.  Or when he quit the Immigration Committee because he thinks ICE agents should be allowed in New York state courthouses without warrants.  Or when he parroted Trump’s call to use the anti-Malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID patients.  Or when he remained silent as his Deputy Chief Of Staff praised the Jan 6th insurrection on Facebook, calling it “beautiful” and ending it with “Donald Trump I will fly your flag everyday no matter what”. Then of course there’s the veiled racism in a district that is nearly 40% Hispanic but gerrymandered so heavily that the Latino portions of our district are under-represented. It’s no coincidence that he continues to target loud music in the park, young men of color who congregate with their cars in park parking lots, or boys of color who ride their bikes in groups. He’s been on the graffiti task force for 20 years and yet, by his own measure, he’s either failing or repeatedly brings it up as just another dog whistle. And despite the reputation of having one of the best school districts in the city, we have a dismal SHSAT record of racial disparity and zero dual-language programs for public elementary schools that are 70% Latino.  I am a middle-aged man and Robert Holden is older than my father. I would say he should know better, but this is who he is. This is who he has always been. So I implore you, as fellow Democrats, please do not buy into his words and heed the warnings of his actions. If you don’t have the bravery to stand up to his hate-filled record of divisiveness, then do what our parents told us to do when faced with a bully — ignore him and try not to engage.  This is not the leader our community wants or needs. I hope you remember that when you speak to your friends and neighbors, and most importantly, when you head to the polls. Thank you

Sincerely, Derek J. Evers Democratic District Leader, AD37B derekjeversforad37b@gmail.com

Ruben Wills rides again

 

Queens Chronicle

Ruben Wills, the former city councilman in District 28 who was convicted of multiple counts of fraud and grand larceny, filed this past weekend with the city Campaign Finance Board to run against Councilwoman Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica).

Wills, who was elected in 2010, went to prison in 2017 after a jury found that he was guilty of using over tens of thousands of dollars of government funds to buy personal items.

Though the City Council recently passed a law that would disqualify any person who has been convicted of certain felonies involving public corruption from running for City Council, Gothamist first reported that the law is unlikely to apply to Wills’ case after an appeals court reversed his conviction.

The appellate judges found that former Queens Supreme Court Justice Ira Margulis stopped several witnesses from testifying in Wills’ defense.

The court found that Wills was “deprived of his ‘right to present evidence by witnesses of [his] own choosing [which] is a fundamental ingredient of due process.’”

Gothamist reported that Attorney General Letitia James has not decided yet whether to retry the case, but Wills’ lawyer, Kevin O’Donnell, opined to the website that it would not be worth spending public funds on a second trial, when Wills has already served a two-year sentence.

Wills, who did not return multiple attempts by the Chronicle to get in touch for this article, told Gothamist that his experience in prison has got him to think about a set of criminal justice policy reforms.

So far Adams has raised about $40,000 in funds for her re-election campaign.

Two other candidates have recently filed with the CFB to challenge her for the seat.

A look at Wills’ social media pages suggests that his drive to return to public office never left him during his imprisonment. Wills never updated his official Facebook or Twitter pages to reflect the fact that he no longer held his Council seat.

“I am the Councilman representing the New York City Council’s 28th District, covering the Richmond Hill, Rochdale, South Ozone, and Jamaica sections of Queens,” reads the bio on his Twitter page that he regularly posts to.

 To quote George Costanza "It's not a lie if you believe it". Makes a lot of sense why Cuomo is going to ride his term out and run again despite all of his scandals.

W.W.R.D.? (What will Reynoso do?)

Hi folks,

One of the advantages of having a blog with longevity is that you get to follow the tweeding stories as they unfold. Then you get to call out the tweeders on their BS. Let's take a little trip down memory lane...

It was 2014, and a lot in Ridgewood close to the Bushwick border was being rezoned to allow a filthy eyesore truck lot to be transformed into a gleaming new residential project. Hopes were high that the developers would include affordable housing in their plans. The electeds got to work:

From the Times Ledger:

Some argued the rents described by developers — with studios going for about $1,000 and two-bedroom apartments renting for up to $1,800 a month — would not be affordable to most in Ridgewood and invite an influx of young, wealthier inhabitants...

Katz’s nod of approval came with two suggestions. She requested an unspecified number of apartments be reserved for those making 60 percent of the area’s median income and urged a different commercial overlay be used to recruit a wider array of businesses.

An applicant representative said the landlord would be willing to use the zoning suggested by Katz during the June 11 Planning Commission hearing, application documents show.

The spokesman also agreed to permanently offer eight units in the larger development as affordable housing. When prompted by the commission, he committed to increasing this to 20 percent of the building’s apartments provided the city permits a bulkier development than currently authorized by its Inclusionary Housing program.

From DNA Info:

The proposal for the 88-unit building originally had no affordable housing, but developers committed to 50 percent affordable units, along with the affordable community space after discussions with Reynoso's office and community members, the councilman's office said.

"Any project that runs through a ULURP process will need to meet demands of real affordability, and I’m pleased that we were able to achieve that here," Reynoso said.

The affordable units, of which 20 percent will be permanently affordable, will be distributed to people earning between $23,000 to $105,000 per year.

50% of 88 units is 44. 20% of 44 is 8. Eight units will be "permanently" affordable.

Now, let's take a look at what the community actually got, courtesy of Ridgewood Post:

Forty apartments in a newly constructed building in Ridgewood are up for grabs through the city’s affordable housing lottery — but only for those who make at least $61,000 a year.

The building, called the “The Strand,” is located at 18-81 Starr St. It has a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units, which cost upwards of $1,797 a month through the lottery.

Residents must make 130 percent of the area median income to be eligible for the lottery.

Ok, so now we're at 40 affordable units instead of 44? Rent for a studio was supposed to be $1000, now it's starting at $1800? Instead of 60% of the median income, the applicants have to make 130%? Minimum income of $23,000 has now become $61,600?

So, Antonio Reynoso, what are you going to do about this developer pulling a fast one? Or is being complicit with this part of the overall plan?

JQ Update:

Another tidbit from that old DNA article mentions that the developer behind this was the Slate Property Management Group LLC.

You remember those guys right? They were the ones who bought Rivington House for a song from the city and then tried to flip the building to some "mysterious buyer" for luxury condo development for 10 times for what it's worth as de Blasio was busy with his pay to play Campaign for one New York fundraising shenanigans and meetings with his "agents of the city" in city hall.

And speaking of Ridgewood and longevity (you're welcome), the creative geniuses behind Slate joined forces with craft swill makers Rockaway Brewery and attempted to open a pop up beach when this fraudulent affordable housing building was a toxic dirt yard about 4 years ago, which I called out for weeks in my role as a muckraking commenter back in the day.

Mayor de Blasio thinks your city can handle a couple more months of economic limbo

Daily Mail

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been blasted as a 'liar' for claiming that struggling small businesses are 'hanging on' and are prepared to stay closed for 'months' yet as he continues to cling on to the city's lockdown despite mounting calls to reopen. 

New York City saw just 63 hospitalizations for suspected COVID-19 cases on Monday, less than a tenth of the number on March 20 when the city went into lockdown, but still de Blasio and Cuomo refuse to say when the city will reopen again. 

In an interview with WNYC radio on Friday, de Blasio claimed: 'I’ve talked to lots and lots of business leaders, especially the smallest businesses. 

'They’re very worried about their futures understandably, but they also are hanging on and they know it can be a matter of months until they’ll be back in action.'  

The remark has been met with outrage by small business owners who say they are barely still surviving. 

Some called his remark 'outrageous' and particularly offensive from someone who owns two homes in Park Slope, an expensive neighborhood in Brooklyn. 

Hundreds of businesses have joined together to form a coalition to reopen the city. 

Some have taken it into their own hands to reopen because they simply cannot afford to stay closed any longer, and they have received summonses from the NYPD. 

Many are now asking why mega retailers like Costco and Walmart have been allowed to stay open throughout the pandemic while smaller stores that are able to enforce social distancing practices more seamlessly have been forced shut.

Bruce Backman, spokesman for Reopen New York, the coalition, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday: 'I think it's a power grab... you have to wonder, how much lobbying are the big box stores doing to keep themselves the only ones in business? 

'When have we ever forced people to go to three stores to buy everything? It's like the Soviet Union.' 

Spend an hour with the Mayor and his state of the city address variety show

Trust me, this is worth it just to watch Chirlie de Blasio get no response from the audience filled with the city's elected and appointed officials and elites. No one respects this woman and the Brooklyn Machine and her husband are trying to rig the borough president seat for her. This also has a surprise cameo later on that might shock you.

Marine Park development stopped because of multiple violations and residents complaints.

 

Brooklyn Paper

City regulators shut down a Marine Park development site after the builders flagrantly ignored city-approved construction blueprints — and put workers’ lives at risk in the process, according to a Department of Buildings spokeswoman.

“We issued a stop work order for the site…and issued violations to the contractor for disregarding the approved plans and putting workers in jeopardy by skirting safety regulations,” said Abigail Kunitz.

Neighbors filed 11 official complaints to the department since June 2018, claiming that the project at the intersection of Avenue T and Hendrickson Street was not conforming to the permitted plans by exceeding height limits and creating an unapproved elevator shaft, among other violations. 

The department eventually conducted an inspection on the site on Feb. 5 and found the outlaw elevator shaft — including a bulkhead that rises well above the two-story building — as well as missing guardrails and netting meant to protect construction workers, according to Kunitz.

On an otherwise sleepy street stocked with one-family homes, the sizable height of the rising building alarmed neighbors, who claimed the structure did not match the plans posted outside of the site. 

“It is two completely different structures than were presented to people on my block,” said David Fitzgerald. “It now has a massive steel frame with a four-story tall elevator shaft. We don’t even know what this building is.” 

The building also entirely eclipses its next-door neighbor, blocking all the sunlight to the adjoining backyard, according to Fitzgerald

“The whole building blocks out all the light from that man’s backyard,” he said. “It may not bother everybody, but the ones that think like me — that’s just not right.”

Build It Back is broke

NY1

 Last summer, several contractors told NY1 they were owed millions of dollars by the city's Hurricane Recovery Program build it back, and weren't getting paid because the program was out of money.

The city responded saying that was categorically false.

But now the de Blasio administration is doing an about face, seeking $92 million dollars to close out the beleaguered program.

"It's a shame that last year they felt the need to say everything is good when obviously it wasn't,” said Roque Schipilliti, a contractor for Build It Back.

Roque Schipilliti is one of the nearly two dozen contractors believed to be waiting for payment with debts first reported last summer by NY1.

Build It Back had blamed the late payments on the lengthy audits required before cutting final checks to contractors.

But in seeking new funds this week, Build It Back says the additional cash will be used in part, to pay contractors and close out construction permits.

"We were misled. Something wasn't right, and if there's new funding, you connect the dots. You have new funding; now you're paying. So that must have been the issue, right?" said Schipilliti.
Build It Back once hailed the rebuilding work at MaryLou Barcia's home as a success story. Mayor de Blasio visited four years ago to celebrate its completion.

But she says she's had to spend $25,000 of her own money since then to fix faulty work done under the city program,

And the contractor hired by Build It Back placed a lien on her home because he still hasn't been paid by the city.

"Where did that money go? It should have been there! Not now you're begging for money all over. That don't seem right," said Marylou Barcia, a Build It Back participant.

This isn't the first time Build It Back has asked for more money.

In 2016, the city requested and received an additional $500 million in an attempt to complete its recovery work.

That brought the total cost of the troubled program to $2.2 billion.

A little more than half of the additional $92 million needed would come from the U.S. department of housing and urban development; the rest from city taxpayers.

In addition to paying contractors, the money would be used to buy properties damaged by Sandy, and to build 37 flood-resistant homes on acquired lots in Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens.

DeBlasio's kicking the can down the road on homelessness

From City Limits:

The lie began in 2014, when Bill de Blasio campaigned for Mayor on the platform of ending the “tale of two cities.” He said he would end inequality in our City. He said he would help the most vulnerable.

The lie continued in 2017 when he was reelected, and he said he would create the “fairest big city in America.”

Meanwhile, today we still have over 61,000 people living in shelters in New York City. The impacts of this cannot be understated: homeless people’s lives are endangered, their physical and mental health deteriorates, kids miss school, working people lose their jobs, and so much more. No one should ever have to face these spiraling circumstances.

Since he took office, Mayor de Blasio has continued to praise his administration for dealing with a homelessness crisis of record proportions. He’s made half-hearted attempts to deal with the immediate crisis of homelessness by issuing rental assistance vouchers that don’t cover average rents in our city. When people are able to find housing with these below-market rent vouchers, they are relegated to few far-flung neighborhoods where the housing is often in poor conditions. Seeing this lackluster attempt to help homeless people find housing, City Councilmember Steve Levin introduced a bill in January to raise voucher values to meet fair-market rent and to guarantee that voucher recipients continue to receive the assistance as long as they meet eligibility requirements.

But beyond providing New Yorkers with subpar vouchers to find housing, de Blasio has a bigger stain on his record when it comes to housing the homeless: his Housing New York 2.0 plan. Out of the 300,000 units of affordable housing in his plan, the mayor has committed only 15,000 units—five percent—for the homeless.

Does Joe Crowley really believe his own bullshit? (part 2)

Above is a link to the debate between Joe Crowley, 20 year incumbent, and newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

During this debate, a stuttering Crowley was so nervous that he used the term "meat & butter" instead of "meat & potatoes" or "bread & butter", which is what it appeared he was trying to say.

He repeatedly lied about living in Woodside, and said his family lives in Virginia because raising a family was "hard". (Her comeback on this was priceless.)

He's head and shoulders above anyone else because he grew up in Woodside, because it's so diverse! (Yet when he grew up there, it was like 85% Irish.)

He also claims that the controversial Jackson Heights project that he and his puppets Katz & Moya supported against the wishes of the community was approved by the community board, when it actually went down in flames there.

He also has convinced himself that he has a history of electing "progressive" candidates although he supported the likes of Christine Quinn and Paul Vallone and had several non-compete agreements with Republicans.

I'll tell you right now that the lady came out looking like a champ in this one, with well thought out responses and revealing a distinct platform.

The Queens Machine boss then doubled down on his BS by skipping out on a debate in the Bronx. From City & State:

At a congressional primary debate between Rep. Joseph Crowley and his Democratic challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, there was a notable absence: Crowley.

The debate, hosted by The Parkchester Times in the Bronx and moderated by reporter Robert Press, instead featured a surrogate on the part of Crowley. Debating Ocasio-Cortez in his place was former New York City Councilwoman Annabel Palma.

Palma, who was term-limited out of office at the end of 2017, now serves as the deputy commissioner of strategic initiatives at the city Department of Social Services. She was ranked by City & State as one of the five worst city councilmembers in 2016.

According to journalist Robert Press, who moderated the debate, Palma began discussing her record as a New York City councilwoman. Press said he had to remind her that she was there to represent Crowley and discuss congressional issues. Palma told City & State that she focused on her joint work with Crowley while she was in the City Council and what she witnessed him doing for her community.

Was his cousin Elizabeth too busy for this? Or did he just want one of his Hispanic minions to represent him in a debate against another Hispanic person? Whatever the case is, it speaks volumes about the type of elected this guy is if nothing else we have brought you does.

How de Blasio marketed affordable housing is a joke

From City Limits:

Consider the calculations behind the June 12, 2017 official opening for the 535 Carlton tower in Prospect Heights, the first “100 percent affordable” building in the Pacific Park (formerly Atlantic Yards) project.

The emails show developer Greenland Forest City Partners scripting quotes from a grateful new 535 Carlton resident; a mayoral aide transforming a corporate press release into a governmental statement; and seeming distance from affordable housing advocates who once strongly backed Atlantic Yards, slated to include 2,250 below-market apartments.

Unmentioned: the grateful tenant was hardly representative of a building with 148 of 297 units aimed at middle-income households paying, for example, $2,680 for a one-bedroom apartment or $3,223 for a two-bedroom unit.

As this reporter wrote for City Limits in April 2017, the “real math” behind that building’s housing lottery showed some 67,000 households aiming for the 90 low-income apartments, while only 2,203 made the first cut for the 148 middle-income units. Ismene Speliotis, former ACORN housing head and now Executive Director of MHANY Management, which manages the housing lottery and tenant intake for the project expressed concern, telling City Limits that the limited response for the middle-income units indicated “a disconnect between the population’s need and the apartment distribution.”

Behold Banks' B.S.

From AM-NY:

The Department of Homeless Services, which Banks oversees, said the city wasn’t trying to pick on Blissville. In a lengthy statement provided to Newsday, the agency said plans to house about 154 adult families in the Fairfield Inn by Marriott New York/Long Island City at 52-34 Van Dam St. in Blissville was part of the mayor’s “Turning The Tide” proposal. That is an effort to end the city’s 18-year expensive cluster program of using commercial hotel facilities and create transitional housing in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

The placement of homeless housing is done after an analysis at the community board level, covering an area of 100,000 people and not just one finite neighborhood that may be difficult to define with precision, the agency said.

CB2 already houses more homeless than it produces. Hell, all of western Queens does as does the entire borough.

Can we cut the crap now?

City moves families out of shelter and moves in single men

From Eyewitness News:

At a time of record homelessness in New York City, especially among homeless families, there is a controversy about a shelter in Queens.

A hotel in Long Island City is no longer taking in some homeless families.

Families were given new locations in other boroughs where they had to report Wednesday night. But the transportation promised in that letter never showed up until well after Eyewitness News called the city for answers.

Suddenly a bus which had been parked there before we arrived opened its doors and people finally started loading up. No answers, no apology, no way to live.

You can't trust the government.

NYPD caught covering up shelter crime

From the Daily News:

A Queens man suffered a one-two punch when a homeless shelter resident struck him in the face — then cops refused to put key details of the assault in their report and closed the investigation in one day, the Daily News has learned.

Edward Karakash, 29, said the man called him a “cracker” and slugged him outside of the Queens Blvd. car repair shop where he works, on Dec. 18.

The auto shop near 54th St. in Sunnyside is adjacent to a Quality Inn which the city has converted into a homeless shelter.

“A laundry van for the hotel was blocking my driveway and I was honking the horn,” he said. “A guy comes out of the hotel with a friend and starts threatening me. He said, ‘I’m gonna knock you out, cracker!’ Then he punched me in the temple.”

The suspect ran into the hotel. Karakash went to the hospital where he was treated for bruises after telling cops what happened.

His mother, Karine Karakash, 50, an eyewitness to the attack, said doctors initially believed he had broken bones in his face.

Unbeknownst to Karakash, cops closed their investigation the same day even though he gave them a photograph of the perpetrator, video of the assault and told police where his attacker lived.

The complaint report claims wrongly that Karakash refused to give his contact information and says there were no witnesses.

“They did not put on the report that he was from the homeless shelter,” Karakash said. “They just put that it was a random person who ran away.”

It was only when community activist Bill Kregler, a former Republican candidate for Queens Borough President, got involved that the cops changed their tune.

Karakash said the neighborhood has had problems with shelter residents before. Back on Oct. 14, someone else from the shelter hit him with his car and the police refused to take a report.

“I got hit while I was taking a picture of the plate,” he said. “The police said they weren't going to take a report.”

Years ago when similar problems were happening near the Pan Am, this blog reported that crime in the area was increasing and that police were not taking reports. They publicly denied this and several of the reporters covering the situation claimed we were lying. It's clear who was telling the truth and who is full of crap, now, isn't it?