Mayor de Blasio's thirst for power led to kids getting dumber

NY Post

 Mayor Bill de Blasio was personally involved in a deal with Orthodox Jewish leaders to delay a long-awaited report on shoddy yeshivas in exchange for an extension of mayoral control of city schools, emails obtained by The Post show.

Internal emails among de Blasio and his top aides at City Hall and the Department of Education reveal that the mayor made key phone calls to the powerful religious leaders to clinch the support of two state lawmakers voting on his power to run the nation’s largest school system.

“These internal communications reveal what we suspected all along: Mayor de Blasio abused his power by interfering with the yeshiva investigation,” said Nafuli Moster, founder and executive director of Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED). The group filed complaints against 39
 Brooklyn yeshivas in July 2015 for allegedly shortchanging children on secular subjects such as math, English, science and history.

The DOE launched an investigation of the yeshivas, but as it dragged on, critics charged City Hall was delaying the probe to curry favor with the Orthodox Jewish voting bloc.

Even an investigation of the mayor’s suspected interference was stalled, whistle-blowers told The Post. In response to that complaint, the Department of Investigation and the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools finally issued a report last December confirming “political horsetrading” on the mayoral control issue.

For the first time ever, an incriminating email from the de Blasio administration is not redacted

And it exposes Emma Wolfe as de Blasio's political gun moll.

 

Well that sure backfired

From the NY Post:

Eleventh-hour campaign mailings from the New York State Democratic Committee imply Cynthia Nixon is anti-Semitic — prompting an online maelstrom of outrage and denials Saturday night, with Gov. Cuomo and the state party calling the mailer a “mistake.”

“With anti-Semitism and bigotry on the rise, we can’t take a chance with inexperienced Cynthia Nixon,” reads the mailer, which says it was paid for by the New York State Democratic Committee.
It goes on to accuse Nixon of being against the funding of yeshivas — a topic she’s actually dodged — and falsely accuses her of being “silent on the rise of anti-Semitism” and of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Teachers’ union head Randi Weingarten, and her wife, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum — whose LGBT-friendly synagogue, Congregation Beth Simhat Torah, on W. 30th Street, Nixon attends — issued a joint Facebook posting at 9 p.m. calling the mailing “beyond the pale.”

“How dare you, @nydems?!” tweeted NYC Council Member Brad Lander.

“Smearing @CynthiaNixon (whose kids are being raised Jewish, BTW) as soft on anti-Semitism & lying about her position on Israel in order to fearmonger and shill for votes is a shameful dead-end for our party,” he tweeted.

When you're supposedly 30 points up on your opponent, there's really no need to sink to this level. Maybe the polls are off...

Some yeshivas not providing basic education

From CBS 2:

Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted Monday night that some yeshiva students are not being taught the basics.

But how soon Hizzoner will fix the problem remains to be seen. CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer was demanding answers Monday.

“The issue must be resolved,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio was talking about charges of poor education at some yeshivas, and a complaint filed against the city to force the schools to comply with a state law that non-public schools provide education “substantially equivalent” to public schools.

The mayor’s comments were an admission that the problem exists, Kramer reported.

“There’s a full investigation going on,” de Blasio said, “and there’s a series of discussions going on with yeshivas to address that problem. It will be resolved.”

There was no indication when things would change.

Glendale yeshiva tries for BSA variance

From the Queens Tribune:

After clearing their violations with the City Department of Buildings, the Yeshiva Gedolah at 74-10 88th St. in Glendale is once again seeking variance to expand its dormitory quarters to accommodate 1,050 students with an additional 50,000 square feet of space.

At a land use hearing at Borough hall last Thursday, attorney for the yeshiva Jay Goldstein said that the goal is to keep more students on site so they can take advantage of early morning classes and decrease busing to and from the site, which is a major complaint in the neighborhood.

Goldstein noted that the current dorm only allows for 282 students to stay on site. He added that with rising rent costs, parents of the students who have in the past lived in Queens and Brooklyn have now moved upstate. “That number will increase,” said Goldstein.

He said if they do not receive this variance, the school will continue to operate as a Use Group 9 trade school and find facilities for the dorm elsewhere.

The school does not have a C of O for dorms and was vacated last year for that reason. They also still have active building violations. How about building a yeshiva upstate where these kids live instead of in the middle of Glendale where they require busing?

City hosting "safety day" at site it closed for being unsafe

74-10 88th Street. Hmmm...where do I know that address from? Oh yes, now I remember. It's the Glendale Yeshiva that was shut down for housing dozens of students contrary to zoning and building codes. And the NYPD has decided to host a safety day there.

You seriously can't make this shit up.

Dangerous conditions existed inside the Glendale yeshiva

From the Queens Chronicle:

The 392 beds normally occupied by students attending the United Talmudical Seminary at 74-10 88 St. in Glendale should be empty this week after the Department of Buildings took action against the school for illegally providing them in the first place.

After a recent city inspection of the site discovered various safety hazards such as disabled sprinklers and obstructed exits, the DOB originally placed a full vacate order on the property on Friday before reverting it to a partial vacate order, allowing for the school’s classrooms and cafeteria to be used.

“We discovered the presence of 392 beds on site with little or no required life-safety protections, including sprinkler systems that had been disabled or covered over, obstructed building exits and significant alterations to the building that had been performed without permits,” DOB Commissioner Rick Chandler said in a statement issued Monday. “To protect the property’s occupants, the department took immediate action to vacate the premises last week.”

Glendale yeshiva vacated by DOB

The illegally operating yeshiva at 74-10 88th Street has been issued a vacate order by the Department of Buildings.

Wow, who would have thought this would happen? The only explanation, in my opinion, is that there's an active DOI investigation.

DOB says yeshiva dorm is not kosher

From QNS.com:

The dormitories at Glendale’s Yeshiva Godolah Seminary exceed legal limits, according to one city agency.

After Community Board 5 (CB 5) voted to recommend denying the yeshiva’s request for a zoning variance earlier this month, the school was hit with a violation from the Department of Buildings (DOB) for violating current zoning regulations by housing students within the school.

The yeshiva is located within an M1-1 zone, which does not allow for dorm facilities. The violation, issued on Oct. 16, is for the illegal conversion of the school to have dormitories outside of the zoning regulation.

“Based upon a recent audit, there is an intent to revoke issued,” a representative from the DOB told the Ridgewood Times. “The audit determined that the space used was nonconforming for a Use Group 9 facility. The legality of the use of the dormitory space is currently under review.”

CB5 says no to yeshiva dorm

From the Queens Courier:

After months of deliberation, Community Board 5 (CB 5) voted to recommend denying the Glendale yeshiva’s application for a zoning variance to expand the building during the monthly community board meeting on Wednesday night at Christ the King High School in Middle Village.

The board’s Land Use Committee met last month to hear the yeshiva’s proposal on the need for the school’s expansion from 360 dormitory beds, to 710 beds and the addition of a four-story building on the site located at 74-10 88th St.

Questions over the yeshiva’s original Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) raised community concerns with how the dorms were allowed to be placed in the building, which is in an M1-1 zone, where sleeping accommodations are not permitted.

Hasids want variance to expand illegal dorm

From the Queens Courier:

Glendale residents can speak out at next week’s Community Board 5 meeting regarding plans to build additional dormitories and classroom space at the neighborhood’s Yeshiva Godolah Seminary (YGS).

Plans to expand the campus located at 74-10 88th St., the former Monarch knitting mill, will be the focus of a public hearing at the Sept. 9 meeting of CB 5, which will begin at 7 p.m. in the CNL Center at Christ the King Regional High School in Middle Village.

Currently serving 1,050 students within two buildings on the site, the YGS is seeking a Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) variance to erect an extension and unite the buildings into one, four-story campus. The expansion would result in the creation of 28 new classrooms and 177 dormitory rooms, accommodating approximately 710 dormitory beds.

Abraham Markowitz, YGS building manager, told the Ridgewood Times on Monday the extension will allow more students to reside on campus; currently, the facility offers dormitory rooms accommodating 360 individuals. The remaining pupils are shuttled from their homes in Williamsburg to Glendale each day via school buses that the yeshiva charters.

The additional dormitories would reduce the number of daily school bus trips from 15 to between four and six, Markowitz said. The expansion plans also call for the creation of a second curb cut from 88th Street, which would allow school buses to queue up on the yeshiva grounds rather than along the roadway.

I seem to recall that the school got permission to build so long as there were no dorms on campus. But now the Hasids are admitting that they built them anyway. Why should they now be rewarded with a variance if they were operating illegally this whole time? Why should Glendale residents be bombarded with a school for hundreds of kids from Rockland county and Williamsburg? Two interesting facts: this "building manager" Abraham Markowitz, somehow finagled himself the position of President of the 104th Pct Community Council although he doesn't live in Queens, and the DOB inspected the yeshiva after complaints of illegal occupancy, noted the presence of the dorm and did nothing.

1000-person yeshiva dorm planned for Glendale

From the Queens Chronicle:

The United Talmudical Seminary at 74-10 88 St. in Glendale has filed an application with the Department of Buildings to construct a four-story, 142,183-square-foot structure containing office space, classrooms and student dormitories on a plot of land adjacent to the facility.

The Brooklyn-based rabbinical school, which opened its Glendale location in 2006 after years of heated opposition from area residents, buses its students in from Williamsburg every day.

The new structure would allow the students to live next to the school, with the busing of students being all but eliminated.

The application has been sent to a plan examiner for analysis. The site is zoned M1-1, a light manufacturing district.

Plans call for the ground floor to contain offices and three classrooms, with the top three floors being set aside for an unannounced number of student dorms.

The Monarch Knitting Machinery Corp. sold the former textile factory to the United Talmudical Seminary for $3.5 million in January 2004, and the DOB shot down plans to build 100 units of housing at the site later that year over zoning regulations.

Hey folks, this is a continuation of one of the earliest stories that was reported on this blog back in 2006. They tried to slip a dorm past DOB and the community back in 2006, and now they are trying to go the legal route, although I don't know if this will pass muster with the zoning. Certain groups in this city seem to always get their way, though, and the city seems hellbent on blockbusting Glendale lately, so be prepared for 1000 students to inundate the quiet manufacturing area and further overtax city services.

Factory illegally converted into yeshiva

From DNA Info:

A yeshiva is illegally using a factory building as a school and has racked up a litany of complaints about illegal construction, according to Department of Buildings records.

Neighbors have a laundry list of grievances about United Talmudical Academy, located at 25 Waverly Ave., which include the use of the street as a parking lot for school buses and students who harass women in nearby buildings and throw garbage out the window.

Now neighbors say the school is doing construction — including waterproofing the roof and working on the elevator shaft — without a permit at all hours of day and night.

Four complaints were made to the DOB on Nov. 6, prompting the department's emergency response team, which responds to complaints that are deemed hazardous and in need of immediate attention, to inspect the building.

One caller said that they were doing work on the building after 6 p.m. during the week and all day on Sunday, records show.

Inspectors issued a stop work order on the site the next day because of construction work being done in the building's elevator shaft without a permit, according to the DOB.

The agency found that workers were weatherproofing an abandoned shaft, had made illegal partitions and were using the building as a school illegally, the records show.

Two violations were also issued — for work without a permit that includes weatherproofing being done on the roof and occupancy contrary to use for a factory building being used as a school.

Over the next several days 12 more complaints were made to the department about continued construction at the building despite the DOB's order to stop.

A complaint made on Nov. 10 describes construction taking place at 2 a.m. on a Monday.

Private students getting public busing

From the Daily News:

State lawmakers are pushing to enhance bus service for yeshivas in a way city officials fear could wind up costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of extra dollars, sources said.

A measure that is wrapped into state budget talks and is being promoted heavily by Senate Republicans would require the city to offer busing for all private students in classes taught after 4 p.m. Most of those students attend yeshivas.

The plan also includes a provision that would require city buses transporting after-hour students to drop them off within 600 feet of home, a city source said.

Current regulations require city buses to stop within a half-mile for students in second grade or younger, and within a mile for those between third and sixth grades.

A city memo obtained by the Daily News urges lawmakers to reject the proposal.

Being required to stop within 600 feet of a child’s home, the memo says, “would require twice as many stops as current ... practice, at additional cost.”

City officials are worried that providing a superior service for yeshiva students will lead parents of students at public schools, charter schools and other private schools to clamor for equal treatment, sources said.

The state and city split the cost of busing kids to private schools during the regular school day.

But last year, over the objections of Mayor Bloomberg, the Senate GOP successfully pushed to require city bus service for students at private schools that offer classes until at least 5 p.m.

Thirty schools took advantage — 29 Yeshivas and one charter school — for a total cost increase that was capped at $3 million.

Swindler no longer allowed to sell homes

From the NY Times:

A Brooklyn developer who took advantage of a faculty-housing exemption to build oversized condominium buildings, then sold the units on the open market, will be barred from selling apartments in New York State, according to an agreement between the developer and the attorney general’s office.

Along with barring him from selling real estate securities, the settlement requires that the developer, Mendel Brach, pay $10.9 million to the residents of the 72-unit development to repair structural defects.

In 2002, Mr. Brach obtained a zoning variance from the city allowing him to build nine-story condominiums on Spencer Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where the normal limit was five stories. Mr. Brach took advantage of a “faculty housing bonus” allowing the extra stories by claiming that the buildings would house faculty members of a local yeshiva.

But the offering plan Mr. Brach sent to the attorney general’s office, which is responsible for approving all new condominium sales, made no mention of selling the units to teachers. The attorney general’s office, unaware of the variance, approved the offering and soon all 72 units were sold on the open market.

When the city learned of the sales, it declined to issue a permanent certificate of occupancy for the apartments, making it all but impossible for the owners to sell, rent or even refinance them.

Advised by the attorney general’s office that suing Mr. Brach would be fruitless because he did not have the money to make the buildings legal, the residents agreed to a mediated resolution. They say they have spent $1 million on legal fees and architects, but continue to live in the buildings, which are too tall for the neighborhood and racked with building code violations.

A garden grows in Glendale

From the Times Ledger:

Members of the United Talmudic Seminary at 74-10 88th St. joined with members of the Greater Ridgewood Youth Council, the Glendale Kiwanis and Community Board 5 to break ground on a new community garden in an unused corner of the Jewish school’s property.

“We want to be good neighbors,” Rabbi Berl Katz said of the agreement to let the groups use the land. “So far we don’t have any use for it. If the neighbors want to use it, why not?”

The 2,000-square-foot parcel of land where the garden will grow currently contains mounds of loose gravel, weeds and a sign belonging to the old Monarch Knitting Machinery Corp., which closed down before 2004, when the yeshiva took over the property.

The collaboration marked an improvement in relations between the yeshiva and civic groups in the neighborhood. In 2006, after a fight over whether the yeshiva could open a 100-room motel alongside the seminary, the city awarded a certificate of occupancy for just the school. In turn, the Glendale Civic Association filed a lawsuit against the city Department of Buildings alleging the agency was negligent in performing inspections and enforcing building code at the property.