The Department Of Transportation Alternatives have stolen parking spaces from people and privatized them

 

DOT twitter 

Today we announced the expansion of our citywide carshare program. This 5-year pilot (really, aren't pilot programs usually a few months?) has proven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions & personal car ownership. Our ambitious goal for 2023 is to add several hundred more spaces by working with Zipcar, Getaround and TruqIt

DOT Figurehead Commissioner and private car owner and public parking space user Ydanis Rodriguez: “Convenient access to carshare frees New Yorkers from the burden of car ownership – while helping to fight climate change. Thanks to Mayor Adam’s support, we will build on the successes of our pilot program while supporting efficient use of space at the curb.” 

 

 Over the next two weeks, we will install signage for 80 new, dedicated curbside parking spaces for carshare service. Spaces will be installed in Brooklyn and the Bronx starting today, with site installations in Queens taking place next week. 

 

 

NYCHA recidivist malfeasance continues with private sector developers

 

THE CITY  

 Last fall, city Housing Authority carpenters performing work at a public housing complex in Washington Heights made a disturbing discovery inside a tenant’s bathroom: black splotches flowering on what appeared to be a newly installed drop ceiling.

When they removed the ceiling, they found a thick coating of toxic black mold festering in the rafters behind it and covering the backside of the sheetrock.

A subsequent investigation revealed that a contractor had put up drywall over mold and water leaks in multiple apartments at the development. The examination found open mold and leak repair requests in 45 apartments — fixes the contractor had failed to address.

Another problem: The contractor who performed the inadequate work was affiliated with the private-sector developer that was about to take over management of the public housing development under a controversial program NYCHA is relying on known as Rental Assistance Demonstration — aka, RAD.

Behind the scenes, the alleged mold cover-up set off alarm bells. An investigation by THE CITY confirmed NYCHA officials quietly altered the authority’s protocols on all RAD transitions going forward, ratcheting up oversight of all properties that convert ,to private management under the program.

From now on, NYCHA said it would ensure that developers preparing a building for RAD conversion use only mold-resistant sheetrock. The developers will be provided with an apartment’s mold history — and NYCHA will follow up to make sure open repair requests are addressed.

“Due to this investigation, NYCHA has instituted better controls to protect against any confusion surrounding (RAD) conversions,” NYCHA management wrote in response to THE CITY’s questions about the mold issue.

NYCHA has made no public announcement about any of this, and it’s easy to see why: RAD has become a hot-button issue confronting the Housing Authority as it attempts to redress a history of negligence and remedy unsafe and unhealthy living conditions that have plagued many of its 400,000 tenants for decades.

MTA resorting to privatization to serve low transit areas

NY Daily News

Night-shift workers living in places with spotty overnight bus and subway service may get a new way home under a MTA proposal.

The agency on Tuesday announced plans to hire an outside company to provide a publicly subsidized on-demand car or van service for riders in places where “bus service is less frequent than subway service or is unavailable.”

Transit honchos intend to use the service in areas outside of Manhattan that are more than a half-mile from the nearest subway or train station, have “limited or no overnight bus service nearby.”

The proposal — which MTA officials note is required by the state law setting up congestion pricing in lower Manhattan — was offered to bidders in January. It appears to be targeted at app-based car service companies like Uber, Lyft and Via, which serve a combined 700,000 daily riders in New York City.

The program’s stated goal is to serve a growing number of people who work non-traditional hours, like medical professionals and service industry employees. It would give riders in the targeted areas subsidized car or van rides — and could be a boon for e-hail companies that have already cut into the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s ridership.

MTA officials also want riders to be able to pay for the late-night rides with OMNY, the agency’s new digital payment system.

“We are seeking to leverage new mobility technologies to enable more New Yorkers to benefit from the public transportation network during the overnight hours, and to enhance the experience of overnight subway customers in low-cost ways," said Mark Dowd, who in November was hired as the MTA’s chief innovation officer, a role created through a state-mandated reorganization of the agency.

The program is scheduled to launch as a temporary pilot in June.

Uber, Lyft and Via have in recent years partnered with other cities to fill their transit deserts.

Via in 2018 launched a program with Berlin’s public transit agency Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe to provide on-demand van rides in an effort to supplement the city’s bus, tram and train routes. Also in 2018, Lyft cut a deal with the Detroit transit officials to offer discounted car rides between midnight and 5 a.m. for riders using one of the city’s bus routes.

Bringing that model to New York may prove tough.

J.P. Patafio, the head of buses at Transport Workers Union Local 100, said transit bosses did not tell him about the idea to outsource transit services. He likened the pitch to unregulated dollar vans.

“They (the MTA) need to invest in more bus service, and if they want a different type of service they should have put it in the (Local 100) contract the board ratified last month,” Patafio said. “We’re certainly not allowing non-union companies to do our work.”

Some transit advocates wondered why the MTA is looking to pay to outsource its services when the agency is in the middle of a “revenue neutral” redesign of each borough’s bus network.

“Isn’t this what a bus is supposed to do?,” Tri-State Transportation Campaign executive director Nick Sifuentes asked. “Buses work well during off-peak hours because traffic is less of an impediment to service.

"That's the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital." - Noam Chomsky

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal energy plan for public housing will leave tenants hanging longer for heat and hot water

Progress New York

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14) has unveiled a green “New Deal” to “invest” up to $180 billion over ten (10) years in America’s public housing stock. The plan, unveiled two weeks ago, would offer public housing residents jobs in addition to funding capital repairs that have long been ignored by the Government. A central focus of the plan aims to reduce the carbon footprint of public housing, according to a report moved by the news Web site CityLab.

But there are concerns over the plan, according to public housing residents, who are advocating for a plan to fully-fund the Local public housing agency in New York City.

Although residents of public housing in New York City face immediate public health crises, like exposure to toxic mold and poisonous lead paint, high levels of lead in drinking water, and lack of adequate heat in the winter, U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s green “New Deal” plan makes residents wait ten (10) years for full-funding, but that’s only after her plan becomes law and takes affect, something that is not assured.

In recent days, surrogates for U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez have bristled whenever critics have noted that the green “New Deal” plan ignores the current the public health crises facing public housing residents. (On a recent Facebook post, U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s supporters attacked a grassroots advocacy group for highlighting shortcomings in the green “New Deal” plan. A member of thegrassroots advocacy group is a staff member of Progress New York.) When coupled with the fact that U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s legislative proposal ignores the stated plan by Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City) to put one-third (1/3) of public housing into the hands of private landlords, there appears to be no urgency to the green “New Deal” plan. The Mayor’s intention is to demolish public housing apartments in order to rezone empty lots for 70-30 luxury rental buildings and to sell air rights owned by the Local public housing agency, the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA. Media reports have raised concerns about increased rent hikes, rescreenings, and higher eviction rates from the centerpiece to the Mayor’s plan, known as the Rental Assistance Demonstration, or RAD.
 
But the conditional nature of, and the years of waiting required by, U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s green “New Deal” plan mean that the dangers public housing residents face as a result of public health crises and Mayor de Blasio’ on plans for NYCHA will not be countered by the ambitious environmental bill.

The privatization of Frank Golden Park?

From the Queens Chronicle:

Frank Golden Park is the main home of the Queens youth athletic club, which has been using it since 2009. The group has around 600 members, with approximately 300 children.

Recently, work on a $1.6 million new field — completely using private funds raised by the athletic association — was finished there. According to Shannon Gaels Chairman Robert McDonagh, the fence that now surrounds the newly finished field is only closed temporarily to protect the new grass. Although the fence will be open during the day, it’s planned to be closed permanently at night when the park is closed.

Now, the Parks Department is seeking Community Board 7’s approval for the design of a second Gaelic football field to be operated by the club right next to the newly completed one in the park. That field, which McDonagh expects to take around 18 months to finish, is paid for by $4.53 million from the City Council and Borough President Melinda Katz.

The agreement allows Shannon Gaels to operate and maintain the section of the green space between March 1 and Oct. 31 of each year. It was written in 2014 and covers a 15-year-period, after which the Parks Department can renew it for five-year terms.

According to the document, the club is required to allow an average of 10 hours on the park’s fields each weekend for it to be used by “other groups,” which are also entitled to one full weekday evening per week. And the deal mandates that school athletic programs be guaranteed a minimum of one late afternoon session per week. Other groups must get a permit to use the space.

Julissa Ferreras & "New Yorkers for Parks" pushing for privatization of FMCP

From the Daily News:

A Queens lawmaker is in talks with the city to create a public-private alliance to fund the upkeep of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) said such an alliance could solicit donations from Queens residents and businesses for the borough’s 1,255-acre, flagship park.

It could also eventually seek a cut of the rent paid to the city by Citi Field and the U.S. Tennis Association, which are located in the park, she said.

“Flushing Meadows-Corona Park has not received the attention and resources it deserves,” Ferreras told the Daily News on Wednesday. “We get such a small percentage of the dollars that are generated by our park reinvested into our park.”

Holly Leicht, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, said she supports the idea of an alliance.

“It is the most heavily used park in Queens,” she said of Flushing Meadows, which is bordered by low-income, immigrant communities. “It really does need that public-private partnership to have that level of care it deserves.”

Well if it is bordered by low-income, immigrant communities, then where does this dingbat think private donations like the ones that fund the Central Park Conservancy and the Prospect Park Alliance will come from?  And if conservancies work so well, then why did the one for Flushing Meadows not raise any money?   Why do we need another one?  The Queens Chronicle asked the same question in an editorial this week.

Why aren't these people demanding adequate funding in the city budget, as the city is supposed to provide?

What kind of park advocates push for the privatization of public parkland?

Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates, said if an alliance profits from the stadiums located within its perimeters, this could create an incentive to rent out more parkland to other private companies.

“It is the elected officials’ job to adequately fund public parks — not private businesses,” he said.

A city Parks Department spokesman said the idea is under serious consideration.

Of course it is! It lets them off the hook for proper funding and that's more money that can be funneled into tweeding programs and developers' pockets.  Why do these pols think they are entitled to treat public parkland like it's personal real estate to make a deal with?  And this comes just in time for the third project to be revealed.

Flushing Meadows development conspiracy continues

Exactly one month ago today, this blog published a post entitled, "How phony park groups, the press and elected officials are conspiring to develop FMCP". It generated a bit of buzz within the activist community, but the media coverage of the Flushing Meadows issues unfortunately has not changed. In fact, it has only gotten worse. We can now add Claire Trapasso, reporter for the Daily News, to the list. Here's what she wrote about FMCP this past week:

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall came out in support on Friday of the $500 million proposed expansion in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park — provided the USTA make some significant concessions. The plan must still be approved by the City Council.

The USTA, which holds the U.S. Open in the park every year, has come under fire from community advocates who have accused it of being a “bad neighbor” and seeking to use 0.68 additional acres of parkland in its expansion — without being required by the city to replace it elsewhere.

Notice how there's absolutely no mention of the fact that the USTA does not need to take additional parkland in order to build what they want to build.  Also, real park activists have called for disapproval of the project, not approval if the USTA replaces parkland.

Let's continue:

Holly Leicht, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, called Marshall’s conditions “a good step forward.”

“It’s an important precedent” that privatized land be replaced, she said. “Otherwise, it becomes too easy to privatize public parkland. We have so little parkland.”

But she said she would like Marshall to take it further and require the USTA to make annual contributions toward the upkeep of the park.

There's Holly Leicht promoting the privatization of parkland again, when she is supposed to be protecting it from development. Another "park defender" who fails to mention that the USTA doesn't need the land, but if they want it, it's ok, so long as they replace it and throw a little money around. This is unacceptable and dangerous.

Not quoted are NYC Park Advocates and the Save Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Coalition. I can only assume that was deliberate.

What's also been left out of all this coverage is that the Parks Department is the one that said the USTA should not be required to replace the parkland. It actually wasn't the USTA!

Dana Rubinstein of Capital New York also did a piss-poor job of covering the USTA issue again this month.

We know that we get the representation we deserve.  Do we also get the press coverage we deserve?  Or is something else going on here?

Kudos to the Times Ledger and the Queens Courier for at least publishing Op-Eds by Bob Harris and Geoffrey Croft that are critical of Flushing Meadows development even though all the local papers save for the Queens Chronicle seem to think that the projects in the park are just peachy.

Privatization of parking meters considered

From the NY Post:

It turns out that New York City's streets actually are paved with gold -- its tens of thousands of parking meters could be worth $5 billion or more if privatized.

City officials are looking at how other cash-strapped municipalities have already auctioned off the long-term rights to their meters for hundreds of millions of dollars -- and say the move could work for the Apple.

Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith -- assigned by Mayor Bloomberg to find innovative ways to cut spending and increase revenues -- liked the idea enough to bring it up at a city Department of Transportation meeting.

Officials confirmed that the proposal had been discussed. Still, they added that it's not likely to be acted on in the immediate future, given that such a one-shot sell-off of such a revenue generator is out of line with Bloomberg's pledge not to saddle future generations with debts.

Still, if the city's fiscal situation gets desperate enough, the plan could shift quickly to cashing in on the meters.