City EDC official says the Amazon deal was flawed since "Day One"

NY Post



The city’s top economic development official admitted Thursday that the Amazon deal was botched from the get-go.

“The rollout didn’t go as smoothly as it could have. I think we all regret that,” James Patchett, president of the Economic Development Corporation, said at a Crain’s Business forum in Midtown.

“There’s no question that the company was not prepared for what happened in New York City,” he said, but blamed the lack of preparedness on Amazon for failing to hire a “single New Yorker to work with them” or to connect with residents.

 During a question-and-answer segment, Patchett revealed that Amazon was most concerned about the high cost of living for its employees, but was also wary about the crumbling subway system.

Sentaor Liu inquires city about ostentatious accounting costs for College Point homeless shelter as residents protest its imminent opening

 


 Queens Chronicle


 
State Sen. John Liu (D-Bayside) isn’t bad with numbers. He majored in mathematical physics, worked for 15 years as an actuary at PricewaterhouseCoopers before entering politics and commanded a small army of accountants as city comptroller.

So when the de Blasio administration testified that its budget for the Department of Homeless Services is $2.1 billion and $1.25 billion of that was spent specifically on housing the undomiciled, Liu did some simple math.

The city’s shelter population fluctuates around 61,000. Which, given the $1.25 billion figure, he calculated is about $20,500 for each of the homeless individuals in the city’s beds.

The senator, joined by City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) and Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal (D-Flushing), spoke to the press last Thursday outside 127-03 20 Ave. in College Point, where the city plans in September to open up a shelter for 200 single men run by Yonkers-based nonprofit Westhab.

A de Blasio administration official had told neighborhood residents at a contentious December town hall meeting that the city’s contract to operate the planned 20th Avenue shelter is roughly $9 million per year to house the 200 men.

“Well, that equates to $45,000 per bed,” said Liu, adding that the cost far exceeds the $20,000 average. “In fact, it’s more than double what the city is paying.”

De Blasio has said his fiscal year 2020 preliminary budget was designed to cut costs, the freshman senator pointed out.

When the 20th Avenue shelter plan was announced last year, hundreds of residents told the city to back off from it at protests. Liu, Rosenthal and Vallone have also been vocal in their opposition, telling the de Blasio administration that the site is extremely inappropriate for a shelter.

And given the city’s estimated cost for the contract, the three lawmakers want answers.







\Queens Chronicle

 
More than 100 people rallied last Saturday in a biting wind on the hilltop at 127-03 20 Ave. in College Point, where the city plans to house 200 homeless men.

The subject of a months-long protest campaign by area residents, the proposal is for a former factory building close to multiple schools. North of 4,200 signatures as of Wednesday had been gathered for a Change.org petition seeking to stop the shelter, which is set to start operating in September.

“Here’s the thing about College Point. It gets dumped on all the time,” said Jennifer Shannon, a neighborhood resident.

Shannon, who was credited by rally attendees for launching community opposition to the shelter, maintains that the shelter is just the latest in a long line of public facilities to be located in what residents see as a family neighborhood. For example, the NYPD Academy, a city Department of Sanitation waste transfer station and a state Department of Motor Vehicles are all sited in College Point.

She is a member of the College Point Civic and Taxpayers Association and A Better College Point, two groups with other members at the rally. Shannon has also raised money for a potential lawsuit that would seek to stop the shelter plan.

Danger and inappropriate siting for the shelter residents are the two themes that were repeatedly reflected in the signs held up at the rally and mentioned by speakers.

“No one asked us,” one placard said. Others read, “Protect Our Families Before They Get Hurt,” “De Blasio doesn’t care about our children’s safety” and “With 3,000 school children in a mile? No way! Not here!”

Principal at Forest Hills High School is terrible at his job

 

Queens Chronicle

 
Teachers at Forest Hills High School have become increasingly disturbed by incidents in the building, including fights, drug usage and even one instance in which a student threw urine into a classroom.

One teacher described the fourth floor of the building as “The Wild West Show.”

In a poll last Thursday, UFT members voted no confidence in Principal Ben Sherman, who has held the spot since early 2017, by a 195-21 vote.

Adam Bergstein, United Federation of Teachers chapter president of Forest Hills High School, said he heard from many different people in the school.

“The concerns were brought to me from every different constituency in the building and I mean, administration ... teachers were fed up and overwhelmed and disgusted, the aides in the building, students,” he said.

Bergstein added, “Ninety percent of the staff feel as though the principal is incapable of managing Forest Hills High School and, or maintaining the building at the level it’s been at for decades.”
A main issue has been theft, which teachers say has increased since Sherman removed aides from the locker rooms.

Sherman could not comment because he was not cleared to do so by the Department of Education

 According to UFT Consultative Council minutes from a Dec. 6 meeting acquired by the Chronicle, a physical education teacher said a locker room attendant is needed, to which Sherman said safety and hallway issues predate him and that the hallways significantly improved. A teacher responded by saying groups of students still congregate all over the building.

“Mr. Sherman answered that some of these problems are not fixable; there are 24 staircases and there will always be students roaming, vaping and smoking,” according to the minutes.

“There’s pot almost every day,” a history teacher said. “And usually it’s the students smoking in the bathrooms or the stairwells. He doesn’t have a policy anymore for getting kids to class and not being late like the previous principal did.”

One teacher said Sherman indicated marijuana is legal in many states and would soon be in New York.

Derelict Mayor Bill de Blasio ditches the city and blows off his civic duties to go to Iowa and other "kinda primary" states

de Blasio and his only endorsement.

NY Daily News

Mayor de Blasio is headed back to Iowa.

Hizzoner — who has not ruled out a run for president in 2020 — will visit the home of the first presidential caucus this weekend, two sources confirmed to the Daily News.

That comes after he had to scuttle a trip to New Hampshire, home to the first presidential primary, that had been scheduled for last weekend. The trip was called off due to the tragic death of a Detective Brian Simonsen in a friendly fire incident.

he mayor will speak to the Asian & Latino Coalition in Des Moines on Sunday, according to the Des Moines Register.

He was last in Iowa in December of 2017 — when he spoke at the holiday dinner of political group Progress Iowa. Prior to that, he visited the state to stump for Hillary Clinton, but was relegated to knocking on doors and never crossed paths with the candidate.

 Asked by The News whether anyone ever does urge him to run for president, de Blasio at first bristled: "I’m not going to try and fall into the trap of the question.”

He said when he had more to say on the topic, he would — but said plenty of New Yorkers have urged him on.

"I get a lot of encouragement from people. I know it may be hard to believe, after we've talked about placard abuse and the anger and frustration that New Yorkers feel on that issue broadly. But every day I have New Yorkers come up and talk about different things the administration is doing that they like, and plenty of people who urge me on for the future,” he said.

 As everyone who reads a newspaper, watches television, and has a frickin' cellphone knows; Bernie Sanders just announced his candidacy a few days ago. He is currently second in the polls behind Biden, jumped ahead of the corporate news media hyped Kamala Harris and has raised millions in just 48 hours. So the progressive candidate is already established and continuing this exploratory run is purely mental.

This is pure speculation, but it looks like Da Mayor is looking to ditch town after the public advocate election.


 

Public Advocate candidate David Eisenbach aims at REBNY, de Blasio and City Council

Jumaane Williams spent a million dollars for public advocate campaign

 NY Daily News

The race for public advocate is already the most expensive special election in New York City’s history — and candidates are just getting started.

More than $4 million has been spent by candidates vying for the open seat, according to the latest data available from the New York City Campaign Finance Board. That figure is expected to skyrocket between now and the Feb. 26 election as the remaining candidates have some $2 million in their combined war chests.

Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) outspent all other candidates through Feb. 11, the latest date covered in the CFB’s most recent reporting period. The campaign has doled out more than $767,000 on the race, including $280,000 in TV ad placements.

 This is a lot of cash for a position that has no real power, except as a stepping stone for higher office for the last two public advocates, being our dumb mayor and new state attorney general.

Williams could do lot more with the position he currently has. Being an official advocate for the public who voted for him

Supertall tower development to be crammed onto street corner by elevated train tracks.

 
LIC Post


Long Island City could soon be home to yet another large tower, with a 45-story development planned in the heart of Court Square.

The proposed tower would rise at the southeast corner of 23rd Street and 45th Avenue, immediately adjacent to the elevated 7 line tracks and on the same block as the Court Square station entrance. The building would also rival the 50-story One Court Square across the street.

The tower, being developed by Tavros Capital Partners, would span around 308,500 square feet, and includes approximately 250 residential units. About one-fifth of the building would be made up of office space, with some space allotted for retail use.

The development, with a height of 524 feet, also has an L-shaped footprint that covers seven low-rise multi-family buildings currently on site. The addresses of the buildings, which will be torn down to make way for the project, extend from 23-10 to 23-16 45th Ave., and 45-03 to 45-09 23rd St.


Long Island City could soon be home to yet another large tower, with a 45-story development planned in the heart of Court Square.

The proposed tower would rise at the southeast corner of 23rd Street and 45th Avenue, immediately adjacent to the elevated 7 line tracks and on the same block as the Court Square station entrance. The building would also rival the 50-story One Court Square across the street.

The tower, being developed by Tavros Capital Partners, would span around 308,500 square feet, and includes approximately 250 residential units. About one-fifth of the building would be made up of office space, with some space allotted for retail use.

The development, with a height of 524 feet, also has an L-shaped footprint that covers seven low-rise multi-family buildings currently on site. The addresses of the buildings, which will be torn down to make way for the project, extend from 23-10 to 23-16 45th Ave., and 45-03 to 45-09 23rd St.

Virginia Joe Crowley vacates Queens Democrat chairman position

NY Daily News

Joe Crowley is leaving another elected office behind.

The former New York congressman — who lost his longtime House seat to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in last year’s midterms — stepped down Tuesday evening as the chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, telling the Daily News, “It’s time to move on.”

“It’s the right choice for my life,” Crowley said in a phone interview. “I’m very proud of the work 
 I’ve done. I got a great career and I enjoyed it very, very much.”

The former Democratic boss — who served as a representative for the Queens-Bronx-spanning 14th District for 20 years and was considered a possible candidate for House speaker before his midterm defeat — said he’s resigning to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to his new job as a lobbyist for Washington, D.C., powerhouse Squire Patton Boggs.

“That’s certainly part of it,” Crowley said, adding he will split his time between the capital and New York.


So that election hearing for the chair at the Georgia Diner was a colossal waste of time. Except to boost up Crowley's ego and fragile sense of self-worth and entitlement

de Blasio's zoning policies will exacerbate unaffordability and gentrification according to housing study

Crain's

A recent study on rezonings could prove problematic for the de Blasio administration the next time it tries to rewrite the rules for development to promote affordable housing.

The January report studied two citywide rezonings in Chicago and found that housing prices there increased shortly after the zoning changes went into effect, while permits for new construction didn't increase. That conclusion could bolster New Yorkers' fears that the city's policy of rezoning neighborhoods for greater density will simply raise housing prices and increase the risk of displacement without delivering enough market-rate and affordable units to ease pressure on the housing market.

The de Blasio administration countered that rezonings in New York typically have spurred serious amounts of construction. And because City Hall has instituted a policy requiring some of that production to be permanently affordable and has created protections for existing tenants, the city argues the 15 neighborhoods targeted by the mayor for greater density will ultimately be a net win for New Yorkers.

Both sides have a point.

"The funny thing about my study is that … everybody is convinced that it proves their side of the equation," said Yonah Freemark, an MIT doctoral student, who authored the report.

Although rezoning for greater density seems like a logical way to alleviate housing crises in big cities, the effects on the neighborhoods themselves are not well understood. Most studies tend to take very broad views of housing policy to draw conclusions, such as cities with stricter zoning tend to have higher land-use costs. Studying the effects on a neighborhood level, however, has been more difficult. In New York, for example, many neighborhoods are rezoned precisely because they are already growing, making it difficult to attribute changes to pre-existing market forces or to the rezoning itself.

In addition, existing homeowners might expect that new development will bring more amenities to the area and so they jacked up their prices in response. Yet the study found that new building permits never materially expanded in any meaningful way after five years.
"If the product of upzoning is no change in construction levels but increases in property transaction values, including for some existing housing units," Freemark wrote, "this policy may have some negative consequences in upzoned neighborhoods that rapidly become more expensive." In other words, a rise in housing costs without more supply could put existing residents at risk for displacement.

Real estate developer and de Blasio donor compares elected officials against Amazon deal to the terrorists who pulled off the attacks on 9/11

The Real Deal


Lightstone Group’s David Lichtenstein said Friday that Amazon’s about-face on its New York megacomplex was the “worst day for NYC since 9-11.”
 
“Except this time, the terrorists were elected,” the developer added in an email to The Real Deal, in a dig to the politicians who fiercely criticized the tech giant’s deal with the city for the nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and government incentives it came with. (Lichtenstein later emphasized that he was referring only to the financial implications the Amazon pullout will cause.)
 
On Thursday, Amazon cited pressure from the local politicians as its reason to abandon the deal for the Long Island City campus, which was to bring 25,000 new jobs to New York and would create, by some expectations, $27 billion in tax revenue over a decade.
 
Since November, Amazon had faced fierce backlash from elected officials, activists and union leaders, who criticized the secretive nature of the negotiations between the company and the city and state, and who argued that the world’s most valuable company did not need to be cajoled with tax breaks to come to New York.

Lightstone is a major developer with a $3 billion portfolio across New York, Miami and Los Angeles. In Long Island City, Lightstone owns a 428-unit rental building less than two miles from where Amazon’s campus was set to rise. 

Never forget:

Lichenstein donated fifty grand to a democrat senator's campaign at the request of de Blasio's trusty and amoral solicitor aide Ross Offinger ,which was laundered through an LLC to circumvent contribution limits. Leading to the mayor rewarding him a seat on the Economic Development Corporation, which gave him the power to demolish an entire row of affordable housing apartment buildings his firm purchased in the East Village to make way for the high end hipster hotel franchise  Moxy, which is owned by Marriot International.

Marriot International is a client/partner of the Lightstone Group.


Admin note:

 Mr. Lichtenstein only directed his ire at the officials and not the citizens who protested against the "HQ2". The headline has been changed to reflect this and I regret and apologize for the error.

Lets see if David apologizes for his reprehensible remark.

Oligarchs are losing millions on their luxury tower condos

NY Post

 Don’t believe the brochures. A Billionaire’s Row apartment can be a terrible investment.
 
“One of the things that I struggle to wrap my head around is why people continue to park money in high-end New York real estate when it’s not a very lucrative asset class,” said Grant Long, senior economist at StreetEasy, a New York listing platform.
“You just have to assume someone like 
Ken Griffin [who recently dropped a record-breaking $250 million on an apartment at 220 Central Park South] isn’t very interested in seeing his money back. An apartment like that isn’t liquid.”
 
Roughly 16,000 apartments were bought and resold in New York from 2014 through 2018. Of those, 1,295 homes — 7.7 percent — sold at an outright loss.

 But a whopping 39 percent of the 66 luxury condos that were bought and resold in Midtown during this time lost money, according to a StreetEasy analysis of city Department of Finance records. In fact, across all neighborhoods, the city’s priciest properties saw losses.
  And the addresses read like a who’s who of prestige properties, including 15 Central Park West, 432 Park (North America’s tallest residential tower), the Time Warner Center and One57 (which boasted New York City’s first $100 million home sale).
 
“In New York, real estate behaves like a luxury good,” Long said. “It’s like fancy cars and expensive handbags. It’s purchased to make a statement. But it’s also highly cyclical and subject to whims.”

Obscene.

This is going to come off nauseating considering the source and apologies to every reader of this blog and the rest of humanity, but talk about money in the wrong hands. 

A bulk of priests accused of sexual abuse served in Queens parishes.

 

QNS


The Diocese of Brooklyn released on Feb. 15 its list of living and deceased clergy who were determined to have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

The list spans over 166 years of the diocese. Diocesan officials believe that the accusations made against those on the list may be true.

Among the living priests that stand accused and have served in Queens include Brian Keller (St. Margaret, Middle Village), Andrezj Lukianiuk (Sacred Heart, Glendale) and Adam Prochaski (St. Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr, Ozone Park; Holy Cross, Maspeth). The full list contains names of clergy who have been convicted, who have admitted to sexual misconduct with a minor or who have had allegations determined credible by the Independent Diocesan Review Board.

Click here to view the full list.

“We know this list will generate many emotions for victims who have suffered terribly. For their suffering, I am truly sorry,” said Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, leader of the Diocese of Brooklyn. “I have met with many victims who have told me that more than anything, they want an acknowledgment of what was done to them. This list gives that recognition and I hope it will add another layer of healing for them on their journey toward wholeness.”
According to the diocese, the number of incidents of clergy sexual abuse peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, however reports weren’t made until after 2002 following the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was enacted. Reports also saw another surge in 2017 when the diocese started the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP).

Ex-con mortgage broker and his sister opens up immigration legal aid firm

 

Queens Eagle

A once-influential TV personality who was jailed for ripping off South Asian immigrants in a mortgage fraud and identity theft scheme has started a new endeavor: immigrant legal service provider.

Jacob Milton, who hosted a TV show geared toward Queens’ Bangladeshi community, and his sister Nira Niru operate International Legal Services LLC, a legal services provider that conducts free consultations and connects clients with attorneys specializing in immigration, civil and criminal law, according to the company website.

Milton pleaded guilty to grand larceny in 2008 after using his influence in the Bangladeshi community and position as a mortgage broker at the Jackson Heights firm Griffin Mortgage to steal clients’ identities, apply for mortgages worth more than $1 million and rack up credit card bills totaling more than $15,700 in the victims’ names.

“In four instances, the victims declined to proceed with their applications, stating they were too expensive,” said Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown after Milton was first arraigned in October 2017. “Little did they suspect how much money their trip to the mortgage company would actually cost them.”

Milton was also charged with additional counts of identity theft and spent more than three years in prison.

Niru, his sister, worked as his secretary at Griffin Mortgage and was also charged in the fraud and identity theft scheme.

Joe Crowley hooks up with Republican to form lobby firm while being courted by video game industry

Axios

Bipartisanship is tough to come by inside Congress, but two formerly powerful House members are finding it on the outside.

Former congressmen Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania and Joe Crowley of New York, who have known each other for about 20 years, plan to work together in lobbying and government-relations.

• Shuster, 58, who was chairman of the House Transportation Committee, retired.
• Crowley, 56, once seen as a possible successor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, lost his primary to now-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The former congressmen are open to joining a firm, or starting their own.

 The Intercept

Joe Crowley, the longtime New York congressperson who was unseated in a primary by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, remains extraordinarily popular among both Democrats and Republicans in the House, making him K Street’s biggest whale for 2019. Among the closest to landing him, according to sources familiar with Crowley’s post-congressional employment journey, is the video game industry’s lobby group, known as the Entertainment Software Association.
 
Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Ubisoft are only some of the members of the ESA. Politico first reported on Monday that Big Console is among the potential landing spots for Crowley. The former New York congressperson has also had early discussions with two other groups, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Hogan Lovells, according to the report.
A spokesperson for the ESA said that Big Console is “not commenting on the search process. 

However, we will make an announcement when the time is appropriate.” The video game industry’s top legislative concerns involve rules around data privacy — they collect an awful lot of data — as well as intellectual property, patent law, and net neutrality regulations.

Howard Beach residents worried about parking traffic with new chain gym opening.

 Queens Chronicle

 
A king-sized, new gym that opened last month in the heart of Howard Beach without building permits or a gym license is swimming in hot water over its parking.

Hat in hand, a lawyer for Planet Fitness last week came before Community Board 10 and acknowledged that the new club “rubbed the community the wrong way” last month when it skipped the customary legal approvals for new businesses to open.

“It’s not the way we wanted to do it,” the attorney, Frank St. Jacques, told the board.

Planet Fitness had to appear at Community Board 10’s monthly meeting last week to obtain a city gym permit, called a physical culture establishment license — an approval it is supposed to obtain before opening.

CB 10 used what is usually a pro forma application as an opportunity to upbraid the gym’s owners about jumping the gun on its opening and extract promises to make new parking arrangements at the club.

Planet Fitness, which has been under construction on Cross Bay Boulevard at 160th Avenue for nearly a year, has worried nearby homeowners who watched nervously as the building went up and wondered if the influx of new customers would overwhelm the 148-space parking lot it shares with a Rite Aid drugstore and several smaller stores nearby.

Amazon paid no taxes and got hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates in the last two years.

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Amazon, the ubiquitous purveyor of two-day delivery of just about everything, nearly doubled its profits to $11.2 billion in 2018 from $5.6 billion the previous year and, once again, didn’t pay a single cent of federal income taxes.
The company’s newest corporate filing reveals that, far from paying the statutory 21 percent income tax rate on its U.S. income in 2018, Amazon reported a federal income tax rebate of $129 million. For those who don’t have a pocket calculator handy, that works out to a tax rate of negative 1 percent. 

The fine print of Amazon’s income tax disclosure shows that this achievement is partly due to various unspecified “tax credits” as well as a tax break for executive stock options.
This isn’t the first year that the cyber-retailing giant has avoided federal taxes. Last year, the company paid no federal corporate income taxes on $5.6 billion in U.S. income.
ITEP has examined the tax-paying habits of corporations for nearly 40 years and has long advocated for closing loopholes and special breaks that allow many profitable corporations to pay zero or single-digit effective tax rates. When Congress in 2017 enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and substantially cut the statutory corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, proponents claimed the rate cut would incentivize better corporate citizenship. However, the tax law failed to broaden the tax base or close a slew of tax loopholes that allow profitable companies to routinely avoid paying federal and state income taxes on almost half of their profits.

 In fact, the Trump Administration and its congressional allies included lavish new giveaways such as immediate expensing of capital investments. Multiple analysts scored the tax law as a huge revenue loser, giving away far more to big corporations in rate cuts than it takes in loophole-closers.

 Amazon is no stranger to tax controversies. Last year the company, in a staggering act of hubris, engaged in a year-long aggressive push for huge new relocation subsidies for its “HQ2” headquarters. A year later, Amazon appears to have won its two-front battle against fair taxes by continuing to altogether avoid federal taxes and obtaining lucrative packages of local tax breaks for not one but two new HQ2 locations, in New York and Virginia as well breaks for an operations center in Nashville, Tenn.

And #PoorBezos has the unmitigated gall to demand subsidies from this state and city and to go after Trump with the national/his personal newspaper that he owns. What a insecure and sad greedy little miser.

Amazon pulls out of Long Island City "HQ2" deal and pathetically blames elected officials and protesters.

NY Daily News

Following months of community and political opposition, Amazon on Thursday announced it was canceling a $3 billion plan to open a headquarters in New York City — a massive blow to Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo, who rolled out the red carpet for the company just months ago.

The project would have brought 25,000 jobs to a campus in Queens, state and city officials had said — but it was met with fierce opposition from some elected officials, on whom Cuomo heaped blame Thursday.

"[A] small group politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community — which poll after poll showed overwhelmingly supported bringing Amazon to Long Island City — the state's economic future and the best interests of the people of this state. The New York State Senate has done tremendous damage. They should be held accountable for this lost economic opportunity,” Cuomo said.

In a statement, the online retail giant blamed the Valentine’s Day breakup on the frosty reception it had received from local pols.

“After much thought and deliberation, we’ve decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens,” the statement said. “While polls show that 70% of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City.”

 Amazon's anti-union stance did not help its case with critics. While it had committed to using union labor to build its offices and for building services — earning the support of the Building and Construction Trades and SEIU Local 32BJ — a top Amazon executive testified before the City Council that it would fight any union bids by New York staff.

But union officials said they’d made progress in the 24 hours before the deal imploded. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, Teamsters and AFL-CIO met with four top Amazon executives and Cuomo Wednesday, according to RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum.

“I think the richest man on Earth feels that nobody is supposed to tell him anything,” Appelbaum said. “I think that on Valentine’s Day, Jeff Bezos showed his contempt for New Yorkers. He says I'm going to tell you what it's going to be, you either accept it or I leave. we were in negotiations — he doesn't feel he has to negotiate with anyone. It's a shameful performance by the richest man in the world. It's a worse scandal than the National Enquirer.”

An anonymous reader made an nice observation on this a few days ago:

 "The deal should've been negotiated transparently, with pros and cons discussed publicly, including what jobs and benefits (GED completion, skill training, childcare, etc.) Amazon would provide."

But #poorBezos and amazon decided, along with the idiots governor and mayor, to do all this in secret. And you know what, this LIC deal was as big a hoax as their nationwide city exploration pageant. Really, why else would they decide on two other cities for what's suppose to be a second headquarters, which is an oxymoron itself. This was to poach more data from the government and also to make pariahs of their opponents, notably on the rising progressive movement and unions.

I know a lot of people hate Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez here, but this isn't her district. She only made a few comments on this rancid deal and amazon and the local news media are trying to tie her for their abrupt departure. That is cheap manipulation of the public.

The caption is already there...

George The Atheist eyewitnesses Flags of China displayed during Lunar Parade in Flushing.

 

George The Atheist

  
EXCLUSIVE. Who's In Charge Here? (February 9, 2019)

During the 2019 Flushing Lunar New Year parade the New York City Police Department's ceremonial color guard carries 2 new additional flags:  that of communist China and free Korea.  Conspicuously absent: that of free Taiwan. Note in the photos below, the prominent position of the communist flag next to that of the American.  Who decided this?





 Flags of Red China spotted at the annual Lunar Parade in Downtown Flushing along Main Street.   Parade officials have no idea who sponsored this outpouring of support for mainland China.

 

de Blasio suspends his foolish and delusional explorative presidential bid after tragic death of NYPD detective

NY Post

 A day after a cop was killed in Queens in a tragic case of friendly fire, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office announced Wednesday he was postponing a planned trip to New Hampshire to test the presidential waters.

City Hall spokesman Eric Phillips attributed the postponement to Tuesday night’s line-of-duty death of NYPD Detective Brian Simonsen. The detective was killed by a stray bullet fired by fellow cops at a robber who was pointing what turned out to be a fake gun.

Phillips, however, said the mayor still plans to speak at Harvard University on Thursday night “in his official capacity.”

When he was running for a second term in 2017, de Blasio pledged to serve a full four years.
But he has since said he is not ruling out a run for the White House in 2020 because “the world has changed.”

DHS gives another $241,000,000 to slumlord non-profit group despite the poor ratings they gave them for their homeless shelter

 NY Post

A Queens homeless-shelter operation was found to have multiple unsafe conditions that could endanger small children — but the nonprofit that runs the dingy facility was still given hundreds of millions of dollars in public money, documents obtained by The Post show.

The city found that three-quarters of the inspected hotel rooms at an emergency shelter run by Childrens Community Services had problems, including broken cribs, tots sleeping in “unsafe” areas and no kid-proof covers for electrical outlets.

The Department of Homeless Services slapped CCS with a “poor” rating for its mismanagement of the operation — the second-lowest available.

The blistering review was the third such one that shelters run by the nonprofit have received, according to records obtained under the Freedom of Information Law. But the failed inspections haven’t stopped DHS from handing CCS more cash.

DHS quietly filed paperwork with the city Comptroller’s Office in January to add another $241 million to CCS’s hotel-shelter contract, which was already worth $359 million — bringing the total amount to $600 million.