Paladino, Sullivan, Barnwell, Cruz win primaries

These numbers come from NY1:

STATE ASSEMBLY - QUEENS (D) DISTRICT 30
• Precincts Reported: 82/82

Brian 5,214
Barnwell
64.2%

Melissa 2,902
Sklarz
35.8%


STATE ASSEMBLY - QUEENS (D) DISTRICT 39
• Precincts Reported: 56/56

Catalina 3,736
Cruz
53.5%

Ari 3,016
Espinal
43.2%

Yonel 225
Sosa
3.2%


STATE SENATE - QUEENS (R) DISTRICT 11

• Precincts Reported: 224/224
Vickie 1,640
Paladino
57.3%

Simon 1,220
Minching
42.7%

STATE SENATE - QUEENS (R) DISTRICT 15
• Precincts Reported: 223/224

Thomas 3,188
Sullivan
67.9%

Slawomir 1,508
Platta
32.1%

Avella, Peralta defeated in anti-IDC votes

From the Queens Chronicle:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coming soon to Queens?

From PIX11:

It's a crisis that's left thousands of New Yorkers on the brink of death in the past couple of years, and now it's happened again.

Mass overdoses of the synthetic marijuana called K2 continue in New York City, and one intersection, on the border of Bed-Stuy and Bushwick, has been hit particularly hard.

The corner of Broadway and Myrtle Avenue has been the scene of mass overdoses at least twice in the last two years. Over the past weekend, five more people overdosed near the intersection. It is clearly a problem. However, the local council member said, five overdoses is an improvement.

Brooklyn & Staten Island buildings collapse

From NBC 4:

Emergency crews are sifting through rubble in search of any possible victims after a wall collapse in Brooklyn, authorities say.

Fire officials got a call about the collapse at the one-story building on 39th Street in Sunset Park around 1:45 p.m. It's not clear what caused the collapse, nor was it immediately clear if anyone had been inside at the time.

Crews are searching the rubble to be sure no one was caught; the FDNY tweeted photos that showed more than a dozen firefighters at the scene.


From PIX11:

A home partially collapsed in Staten Island early Wednesday, causing neighboring homes to be evacuated, fire officials said.

Authorities received a call at about 5:13 a.m. after a three-story home partially collapsed at 109 Sherman Ave. in St. George.

The three floors collapsed onto the first floor of the vacant home, according to fire chief Phil Solimeo.

Following the incident, two neighboring houses have been evacuated, said authorities.

Oh, poor Jimmy!

From the Commercial Observer:

City councilman Jimmy Van Bramer presides over one of New York City’s hottest real estate markets: western Queens. And one of its submarkets, Long Island City, is on track to get 6,200 new residential units by next year and sits at the heart of crucial zoning, infrastructure, transportation and urban planning issues that affect much of the city.

The 49-year-old councilman, who represents LIC, part of Astoria, Sunnyside and Woodside, was raised in his district by a printer father and painter mother, both union members. Since taking office in 2009, he has found himself facing down developers and community activists alike, while trying to stay true to both his core principles and his working-class neighborhood roots.

Over the past few years, he’s netted some victories for his district, like a new modern library for Hunters Point South in LIC and protected bike and bus lanes along Queens Boulevard. He’s also run into controversy over development and transit issues, like when he refused to greenlight a 2016 rezoning for a 200-unit affordable apartment building developed by Phipps Houses in Sunnyside. And last year he clashed with neighbors and businesses along Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside for proposing protected bike lanes there and along 43rd Avenue after two cyclists were killed by motorists. (After getting pushback from local merchants and the community board over bike lanes replacing parking spots, he abandoned the plan. Congressman Joe Crowley—recently unseated in a surprise victory by democratic socialist candidate Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez—even weighed in on Twitter to oppose the bike lanes.)

If this is high tide, I'd hate to see a storm

From LIC Talk:

IT wasn’t the wind and rain that made Hurricane Sandy so destructive to LIC and NYC, but the unusual surge of the coastal waters, which in our case meant the East River. In a small redux, we got a taste of that yesterday around 11am in Gantry Park per the photo above. Unlike Sandy, this flooding occurred when the moon phase was not full, which traditionally causes higher tides. Not to be alarmist, but you may want to get the rafts ready, or at least the skim boards.

Remembering a most tragic day

Volunteers from the 9/11 Tribute Center reflect on the importance of sharing their stories of 9/11 with future generations.

I think we know the answer

Great piece over at City Limits.

That which benefits the NYC general fund doesn't necessarily benefit Queens neighborhoods.

When you rush to open a bridge before an election

From NBC 4:

Officials plan to open the second span of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge after delays caused by concerns over the stability of the old Tappan Zee Bridge, officials said Sunday.

The Tappan Zee is damaged but stable with "certain key components highly stressed," said Terry Towle, president of Tappan Zee Constructors.

Even if the bridge does fall, it won't affect boat traffic in the water or the new bridge, Towle said.

The span is scheduled to open Tuesday evening, weather permitting, Towle said. That means the bridge will effectively be open for the Wednesday morning commute.

"Even if the bridge does fall"... Alrighty!

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...

Progress at Farley, but what about Penn?

From PIX11:

The 106-year-old Farley Post Office Building is across the avenue from the busy transit center. New entrances have opened in the facility that lead to railroads.

A big project has been underway since 2016 and it is scheduled to open in 2020.

The new train hall will feature new platforms and tracks for LIRR and Amtrak and there will be commercial space.

From The Real Deal:

The City Council and James Dolan’s Madison Square Garden Company appear to be headed toward another clash over plans to relocate the iconic sports stadium.

Madison Square Garden is now at the midway point of the 10-year timetable the city laid out in 2013 for the stadium to relocate and make way for a modern Penn Station.

But with five years left on its special operating permit, MSG appears to have taken no significant steps toward what would be a years-long process of acquiring a new site and constructing a new stadium.

“We have not provided any public information” on the matter, MSG spokesperson Kimberly Kerns told The Real Deal.

Stakeholders such as the Regional Plan Association and the Municipal Arts Society that have called for the Garden to move said they have not been informed of any plans to do so. Madison Square Garden has not filed an application with the City Planning Commission to extend its special permit, and sources said the City Council hasn’t been made aware of the stadium’s future plans.

The City Council made it clear five years ago that it expected MSG to be gone by 2023, but a Council spokesperson would not say whether the legislative body expected the Garden to stick to the deadline.

Why LLCs dominate real estate

From The Real Deal:

Since becoming legal in New York State in 1994, LLCs — hybrid entities that provide a shield against liability and offer several tax advantages — have become one of the most dominant ways to buy property in the city.

A new analysis of recorded sales by The Real Deal shows that 7,319 real estate deals in the five boroughs in 2018’s first half involved an LLC. Among commercial properties, that accounts for 65 percent of all sales across the city and 71 percent in Manhattan, up from 30 percent and 49 percent in 2003. And in Manhattan’s luxury residential market, 72 percent of condominium sales over $10 million involved an LLC in the same time span — up from 20 percent 15 years ago.

The overall share of LLCs in New York property deals, meanwhile, has steadily risen for more than two decades, as they’ve ascended to become the real estate industry’s favorite investment vehicle.

Though the use of these shell companies is mostly driven by legal and tax benefits in the commercial realm, a common motivator in New York’s posh residential sector is invisibility. Anonymous ownership allows wealthy foreign buyers, celebrities and now even embroiled politicos like Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort to fly under the radar when buying luxury homes.

But while LLCs let investors safely accumulate more assets and block creditors and others from going after their holdings, that has come with some notable social costs.

Among other red flags, federal law enforcement is increasingly tying international money laundering to the use of shell companies and real estate. And anonymous spending on elections has increased over the years, particularly in New York, where a campaign finance loophole allows real estate and other business owners to make virtually unlimited political contributions by using LLCs.

A very entertaining debate

From NY1:

Errol Louis moderated a debate between challenger John Liu and incumbent Tony Avella, in a fierce state Senate race for the 11th district in Queens. The candidates debate their fundraising ethics, and discuss if they would support congestion pricing.

A deeply flawed candidate

From The Forum:

Let’s start with that old adage “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.” If you buy that then we can make our case very simply.

Platta’s buddy, and campaign consultant, is none other than former City Councilman Dennis Gallagher. You remember him: In the middle of his second term he was forced out of office because in a drunken rage he sexually assaulted a woman he had coaxed into his district office after which he burned her body with a cigarette.

But okay, let’s say it’s not fair to judge Platta on the basis of who his good buddy is.

In May 2017, Platta was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment after a female doctor threatened to expose his marital infidelity.

“If you tell anyone about my cheating, I will kill you and your family and ruin your life; I will send a patient to your practice to make false reports against you and ruin your career.”

That’s a direct quote from Platta straight from an official court document: The People of the State of New York, Plaintiff, v. Platta, Slawomir, Defendant.

In order to get on the ballot for the upcoming primary, Platta circulated a petition for a third party line called the No Homeless Shelter Party at a homeless shelter rally. The problem is that Platta told unsuspecting rally attendees that they were signing a petition to speak out about stopping Mayor de Blasio from creating any more homeless shelters.

When one such signer, Scott Jordan, realized he had been duped, he decided to become an objector to the petition at the NYC Board of Elections because the signatures were obtained through fraud and misrepresentation. Platta’s answer to that was to put out a media hit piece against an innocent constituent of the district and muddy his good name by circulating it through the district and on social media.

By the way, did we mention that Platta was collecting signatures personally, yet when the volume was submitted to the BOE, none of the sheets he carried were witnessed by him—a fatal flaw in the petition process.

These revelations are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Mr. Platta, who was kicked off his bogus "No Homeless Shelter" party line by the BOE yesterday. Naturally, he was endorsed by the Queens Ledge.

Glendale RV extravaganza, part 2

Back in late June, the above video was produced by Reena Roy of CBS 2 news and featured here a couple of days later.

We have an update:

"While riding to work on Friday morning, I passed by that road where
that trailer and rental truck were parked by that guy who claimed he
was running some film and art school bullshit while riding over the
bridge over the rail line. Well you will never guess what it looks
like there now although you will not at all be surprised because this
city doesn't enforce any laws anymore. There are at least 2 or 3 new
trailers there and another box truck by the parking lot there. And
another trailer is even brazenly parked in front of Bob's Furniture
warehouse. 

I don't have any pics because traffic was flowing at the time, but I
will make a better effort next time. I have to be cautious because one
of those trailers has a security cam and I don't want to be hounded by
these creeps.

I don't know if any of the Queens weeklies did an update report, but
I suggest that you or any of your allies or acquaintances go there and
check it out yourselves. Really, it's become an actual trailer park.
It's obvious people are living full time there." - JQ LLC

Great job, NYPD!

Property taxes go up but salaries don't

From the NY Post:

The city’s property-tax rate has grown at triple the rate of New Yorkers’ incomes over the past decade, making it tough for residents at the lower end of the economic scale to make ends meet, Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office said Wednesday.

Property taxes are eating up ever larger portions of homeowners’ income — particularly for households making less than $50,000 a year, Stringer’s office found.

That group saw its average property-tax burden nearly double between 2005 and 2016, growing from 6.6 percent to 12.7 percent of income.

“Property taxes are rising too fast and incomes are rising too slow — and it’s becoming harder than ever for already struggling New Yorkers to get ahead,” said Stringer.

In 2005, homeowners making less than $50,000 paid an average property tax of $1,940. By 2016, they were shelling out $3,849 — while median salaries for the group stayed relatively flat at just under $33,000 per year.

Higher-earning families also had nothing to cheer about.

Those making between $50,000 and $100,000 annually devoted 3.4 percent of their earnings to property taxes in 2005 and 5.4 percent by 2016.

The tax burden on households in the $100,000- to $250,000-a-year bracket had less to complain about, with the portion of their paychecks that went to property taxes rising from 2.4 percent to 3.7 percent.

New hotel planned for Flushing

From Queens Beans:

A new mixed-use, 19-story tower will be occupying the site addressed at 133-25 37th Avenue in Flushing, Queens, soon. The corresponding permits have already been filed and the responsible for the project is Yihai Property, a company based in China. The design will be handled by Raymond Chan Architects. The site is very close to the Flushing Main Street subway station, where the 7 train line ends. There is also a large commercial center in the area.

Once completed, the building will span over 300k square feet, dedicating a third to the residential area. Another third will be used to install a commercial space. Developers will also include a medical facility, parking for bikes and -maybe- a garage with room for 198 vehicles.

A hotel will function in the building and developers will create two separate lobbies: one for hotel guests and one for residents. The hotel will have 360 keys and there will be 146 apartments.

Heavy fines levied against illegal hotels

From Commercial Observer:

City Hall has continued its crusade against illegal short-term rentals by slapping landlords who illegally convert residential buildings and rent them out on a nightly basis with nearly $300,000 in penalties during the month of July alone.

The New York City Department of Buildings issued 43 violations and $285,375 in penalties against landlords for illegal transient use of 11 different buildings, the agency announced last week. The biggest offender was Hank Freid‘s Branic International Realty Co., which racked up $55,000 in violations for illegally converting a residential building at 2690 Broadway on the Upper West Side into the Marrakech Hotel. The city is already suing Freid, the owner of the Marrakech and two other walkups in the neighborhood, for illegally operating his single-room-occupancy buildings as hotels, as Commercial Observer previously reported. Freid’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Although the city has long prohibited renting out apartments and homes as hotels, the rise of vacation rental sites like Airbnb and Homeaway.com have driven a corresponding increase in enforcement against illegal short-term sublets from city agencies.

Clearing the land for...what?

From George the Atheist:

All traces of the former owner, the late Armin Urban, now removed from the properties immediately south of the Steinway Mansion.

What next?

China in talks to buy Steinway company

From Bloomberg News:

Steinway Musical Instruments Inc., the legendary piano maker controlled by U.S. hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, has attracted takeover interest from China Poly Group Corp., people familiar with the matter said.

The state-owned conglomerate is holding preliminary talks about a purchase of Steinway, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The company, whose iconic pianos have been used by virtuosos such as Lang Lang, could fetch about $1 billion in a sale, the people said.

Poly Group is doing due diligence work on Steinway as well as seeking financing and government approvals for an offer, the people said. The piano maker has also attracted other potential buyers such as private-equity firms and companies, the people said.

Steinway should be able to fetch a high valuation given that the company may reach 30 percent to 40 percent annual sales growth in China, according to Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group. A Chinese company like Poly Group could help improve Steinway’s distribution network in the country, which has been weak so far, he said.