When it rains, it pours crap

From the NY Times:

One goal of the Clean Water Act of 1972 was to upgrade the nation’s sewer systems, many of them built more than a century ago, to handle growing populations and increasing runoff of rainwater and waste. During the 1970s and 1980s, Congress distributed more than $60 billion to cities to make sure that what goes into toilets, industrial drains and street grates would not endanger human health.

But despite those upgrades, many sewer systems are still frequently overwhelmed, according to a New York Times analysis of environmental data. As a result, sewage is spilling into waterways.

In the last three years alone, more than 9,400 of the nation’s 25,000 sewage systems — including those in major cities — have reported violating the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere, according to data from state environmental agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency.

But fewer than one in five sewage systems that broke the law were ever fined or otherwise sanctioned by state or federal regulators, the Times analysis shows.

It is not clear whether the sewage systems that have not reported such dumping are doing any better, because data on overflows and spillage are often incomplete.

As cities have grown rapidly across the nation, many have neglected infrastructure projects and paved over green spaces that once absorbed rainwater. That has contributed to sewage backups into more than 400,000 basements and spills into thousands of streets, according to data collected by state and federal officials. Sometimes, waste has overflowed just upstream from drinking water intake points or near public beaches.

There is no national record-keeping of how many illnesses are caused by sewage spills. But academic research suggests that as many as 20 million people each year become ill from drinking water containing bacteria and other pathogens that are often spread by untreated waste.

A 2007 study published in the journal Pediatrics, focusing on one Milwaukee hospital, indicated that the number of children suffering from serious diarrhea rose whenever local sewers overflowed. Another study, published in 2008 in the Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health, estimated that as many as four million people become sick each year in California from swimming in waters containing the kind of pollution often linked to untreated sewage.

Around New York City, samples collected at dozens of beaches or piers have detected the types of bacteria and other pollutants tied to sewage overflows. Though the city’s drinking water comes from upstate reservoirs, environmentalists say untreated excrement and other waste in the city’s waterways pose serious health risks.

Shady dealings at Long Island College Hospital

From the Daily News:

Since 1988, the vital, century-old LICH has been driven into the ground by a monolithic health system called Continuum, ruled by a former Ed Koch crony named Stanley Brezenoff, who is the Darth Vader of what Jack Newfield called the Permanent Government of New York.

In 1999, a $140 million bequest to LICH by Donald and Mildred Othmer of Brooklyn Heights apparently vanished into the Continuum ether. You can't find a bedpan in LICH paid for from that dough. Continuum, according to [medical director Dr. John] Romanelli, also sold off $50 million in LICH real estate "for which there is crazy Hollywood accounting."

"Now Continuum is asking state taxpayers to assume all the debts that they amassed," says Jeff Ruggiero, attorney for the LICH medical staff.

"And Continuum continues to act as an active parent, with Brezenoff negotiating the merger with Downstate behind closed doors, like a Tammany Hall deal," says Romanelli.

"We originally filed a complaint with the New York State Department of Health and the state attorney general in January 2008 alleging that Continuum was running an illegal operation by seizing complete control over LICH without the necessary approvals," says Ruggiero. "We had witnesses, a half-dozen doctors, some members of the LICH board, who traveled to Albany, ready to testify that Continuum was behaving as an 'active' parent rather than a 'passive' parent of LICH. Which is illegal. DOH never called a single witness."

Instead DOH gave Continuum a pass.

This is because nobody works the bureaucracy better than Brezenoff, the quintessential political "fixer."

Another member of the Permanent Government, state Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio of Queens recently pleaded guilty in federal court to receiving $500,000 in bribes via the MediSys Health Network - that had a murky relationship with Jamaica Hospital, not unlike Continuum's with LICH - to influence DOH officials to approve Jamaica Hospital's takeover of Mary Immaculate Hospital.

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District's sentencing memo, and the FBI wiretap transcripts of Seminerio, offer a disturbing MRI of how deeply political corruption is encoded in the DNA of the Permanent Government and the health care system of New York. On these tapes, Seminerio talks to or mentions various DOH officials, pols and players like Joe Bruno, Shelly Silver, convicted ex-Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin and, of course, Stanley Brezenoff.

DOB signs off on illegal Huang project

"An expediter comes around the Huang property on Mazeau Street frequently. One day I asked her why there is a curb cut in front of the window, because I thought parking on the front lawn was illegal. She replied, 'Well, the DOB inspector was just here and signed off on it.'" - anonymous

Hmm. Well, I knew that this house is in an R4-1 contextual zone. And I also knew about the ban on lawn paving. But I wanted to ask an urban planner if he thought this was kosher. Here's the response:

"Total BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At LEAST 20% of the property has to be landscaped green space.

No way that's legal.

That's in the R4-1, right? Two 2-families only.

The parking's fucked as well."

And there you have it. They also need to replace the street tree they destroyed.

Court upholds eminent domain abuse by state

From Atlantic Yards Report:

In a decision (PDF) that gives the crucial--but perhaps not final--boost to the Atlantic Yards project, the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, approved the use of eminent domain by a 6-1 margin, saying that it's not the role of the courts to intervene in agency decisions, given the wide latitude in state law.

The case, which involves nine petitioners (homeowners, commercial property owners, and residential and commercial renters) is known as Goldstein, et al. vs. New York State Urban Development Corporation d/b/a/ Empire State Development Corporation (or ESDC).

Project backers had long expressed confidence about the result, given the state court's general deference to agency decisionmaking, but the court's willingness to accept the case in the first place--the Appellate Division had unanimously upheld the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) in the first round--had left some room for ambiguity.

Moreover, two of the seven judges seemed quite skeptical of the ESDC, though the attorney for the nine petitioners faced similar skepticism. One of those judges, Robert Smith, filed a blistering dissent that stated:

[T]he majority is much too deferential to the self-serving determination by Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) that petitioners live in a "blighted" area, and are accordingly subject to having their homes seized and turned over to a private developer.

...It is clear to me from the record that the elimination of blight, in the sense of substandard and unsanitary conditions that present a danger to public safety, was never the bona fide purpose of the development at issue in this case.

New law to collect outstanding fines from builders

Hey folks, sorry I didn't know about this sooner...

Check out what's going on at the Council at 10am:

By Council Members Vacca, Brewer, Fidler, James, Nelson, Stewart and Oddo


A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the issuance of building permits.


Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Section 28-105.1 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by lettering such section as subdivision a and by adding new subdivisions b and c to read as follows:

b. (1) The commissioner shall not issue a written permit to any applicant, pending payment by such applicant or owner of the property for which the permit is sought if the applicant is not the owner, of any outstanding (i) fines, civil penalties or judgments imposed or entered against such applicant or owner or any entity in which such applicant or owner has a financial interest of ten percent or greater, by a court of competent jurisdiction or the environmental control board pursuant to this chapter; (ii) fees or other charges lawfully assessed by the commissioner against such applicant or owner pursuant to this chapter; (iii) fees, fines or a lien related to emergency repairs or repairs to buildings identified pursuant to section 27-2153 of this code performed by or on behalf of the department of housing preservation and development for any property owned by such applicant or owner; and (iv) tax arrears owed to the city; and satisfactory compliance by such applicant or owner with a request for corrective action or an order issued by the commissioner pursuant to this chapter.

(2) Where such applicant or owner has entered into a binding agreement for the payment of any of the amounts set forth in items i through iv of paragraph one of this subdivision, a written permit may be issued upon certification by the appropriate city agency or a determination by the commissioner that the applicant or contractor is in compliance with such agreement. Should there be a failure to comply with such agreement subsequent to the issuance of a written permit, the commissioner shall suspend or revoke such written permit.

(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph one of this subdivision, a written permit may be issued to correct an outstanding violation of the New York city construction codes, housing maintenance code or any other applicable provisions of law or where the commissioner determines that the issuance of a written permit is necessary to perform work to protect public health or safety.
c. The department shall establish by rule a process to allow any applicant to challenge the denial of a written permit pursuant to subdivision b of this section.
§2. This local law shall take effect six months after enactment, except that the commissioner of buildings shall take such actions, including the promulgations of rules, as are necessary for its implementation prior to such effective date.

Struggle over Aqueduct honest graft prize

From the NY Times:

...eight years and one recession later, state officials still cannot agree on an operator for the aging track, despite the obvious financial incentive: a refurbished operation with video gambling machines would generate more than $1 million a day, many experts say.

The latest round of talks has been stalled for months, and despite a series of meetings among Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders to try to resolve the matter, they remain deadlocked. The pressure is on state lawmakers, who have already included a $200 million upfront payment from the winning bidder in their plan to reduce a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

The problem is that the governor and the leaders of the Assembly and the Senate must agree on the winning bid.

The governor’s office appears to favor a group led by SL Green Realty, Manhattan’s largest commercial landlord, and Hard Rock International, or maybe Delaware North.

The Senate, which would have to approve the selection, has expressed enthusiasm for Aqueduct Entertainment Group, even though some advisers say it is one of the weaker of the six bidders. The Assembly, in turn, has not shown a preference, although Speaker Sheldon Silver is thought to favor Delaware North or SL Green.

Given the history of tortuous and interminable negotiations over selecting an operator — symbolizing the worst of Albany’s dysfunction and backroom political horse trading — no one is expecting a quick compromise.

Beware of supermarket ripoffs

From the NY Post:

New Yorkers are getting short-changed by supermarkets, delis, drugstores and gas stations that illegally inflate weights and measures, charge higher-than-marked prices and slap the sales tax on nontaxable items.

City inspectors issued 2,976 violations so far this year to retailers who soak their customers -- a 58 percent increase over last year's 1,882 tickets.

Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 17, virtually every grocery chain in the city was slapped with "weights and measures" violations, which carry fines up to $600 for the first offense and $1,200 for each additional offense.

The list includes Fairway, Gristedes, Associated, D'Agostino's, Pathmark, Key Food, Food Emporium, Met Food, Stop & Shop, Waldbaum's, Foodtown, C-Town, Pioneer and Western Beef.

Royal Ranch mourns loss of sense of community

From the NY Times:

Many New Yorkers have not heard of Royal Ranch — an enclave of just five or six streets on a hill in the farthest reaches of northeastern Queens — and the residents like it that way.

The postage-stamp neighborhood, near the Nassau County line, was built as a single development of one-family ranch houses in 1954. And to this day, that 1950s ambiance is what Rhonda Kontner, the president of the local civic association and the program director of a nearby special-education school, loves most.

It is best embodied by the Royal Ranch Club, a grand name for the simple outdoor pool that homeowners built in 1960. Long the prize of the neighborhood, the pool is falling victim to an unexpected side effect of the recession.

And Ms. Kontner, 55, worries that the downturn is also accelerating another change in the neighborhood that makes her wistful for the old days: the increasingly transient, work-focused vibe of its residents.

Cuomo donations under scrutiny

From Bloomberg News:

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s campaign fund took tens of thousands of dollars from law firms representing clients his office investigated or accused of wrongdoing, state records show.

Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP, a New York law firm led by David Boies, gave Cuomo $35,000 this year, records show. The firm represents former American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Maurice “Hank” Greenberg in a civil fraud case the attorney general is pursuing. Lawyers defending Dell Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and a former state political party chief in Cuomo cases also contributed to him, records show.

Cuomo’s donation forms ask contributors to sign a statement saying they have no “matter” pending with him. That rule “does not extend to attorneys representing persons or entities with matters before the NYS Attorney General’s office,” the form states, mirroring predecessors’ policies. The exception creates the appearance of impropriety, ethics experts said.

Project goes downhill after worker's death

From WNYC:

In November 2008, WNYC aired a two-part report called "The Cost of Doing Business." It was an in-depth look at a construction accident that took the life of Mexican immigrant Jose Palacios. Palacios fell off of a poorly secured scaffold at a new luxury condominium tower in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Now, a year later, reporters Matthew Schuerman and Cindy Rodriguez revisit the story. None of the condos have sold, the building is facing foreclosure, and Palacios’ family continues to grieve his death.

Maloney wants to legalize families of illegals that died on 9/11

From the NY Times:

Fourteen immigrants who were in the country illegally when their relatives were killed in the World Trade Center attacks are still waiting to gain permanent residency, and their lawyer said their tenuous immigration status could be imperiled if Congress does not act.

But Representative Carolyn Maloney, the sponsor of a bill that would grant green cards to the immigrants, said she had been building bipartisan support for the legislation and hoped it would pass Congress’s current session.

The 14 are the spouses or children of workers who were killed when the twin towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001, many of them while on the job at the Windows on the World restaurant. All received payments from the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund ranging from $875,000 to $4.1 million, but because they are in the country illegally, they have lived in fear of being deported. And because they do not have proper identification, it can be difficult to get a driver’s license, a job or a place at school.

Hey, first responders (all Americans) are still dying from exposure to 9/11 toxins and some of them were denied compensation and don't have access to adequate health care, but let's legalize the families of illegal aliens that died and give them millions! What a great use of Congressional time. Did anyone explain to Carolyn that their relatives wouldn't have died if they had abided by American immigration laws in the first place? Welcome to America, the country that cares more about people who don't belong here than their own citizens.

Hey look what else we're paying for...

Pondering the PODS

Anyone know what the regulations are with regards to leaving these storage containers on the sidewalk? Is this a DOB issue or a DOT issue?

Another fire in illegally converted home

4-Alarm Fire Engulfs Four Bronx Homes

NEW YORK (AP/ 1010 WINS) -- Officials say four firefighters sustained minor injuries and another person has been hospitalized for smoke inhalation at the site of a four-alarm fire in the Bronx that engulfed at least four houses.

A fire official said early Monday the blaze [at 1308] Findlay Avenue was declared under control shortly after midnight, three hours after the first call.

More than 200 firefighters responded to the fire. Fire marshals will investigate the cause of the blaze.

The officials says the fire started in one house and spread to adjacent buildings.

Artist arrested without cause on the High Line

Robert Lederman, president of the street artists rights group A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists Response To Illegal State Tactics) was arrested on the 14th Street section of the Highline Park on Saturday, at approximately 3:30 PM. Lederman was issued 5 summonses, handcuffed and taken to the 6th Precinct by PEP (Park Enforcement Patrol) officers, after employees of the Highline Park called police. This is Lederman's 42nd arrest.

Lederman was on the Highline displaying and selling original fine art prints of his NYC scenes. Between 1994 and 2001 Lederman won 5 Federal lawsuits on street artists First Amendment rights. Among them was a 2001 Federal Appeals court ruling (Lederman et al v Giuliani), which established that visual artists can sell in any NYC park without a license or Parks permit, based on First Amendment freedom of speech.

Summonses were issued for the following: Vending without a Park permit; failure to comply; disorderly conduct; failure to comply with directions of officers and unauthorized vending.

Lederman was released from the 6th Precinct around 6:30 PM and made the following statement:

"The Parks Department has done a very poor job of educating their employees about the legal issues involving First Amendment rights, artists and parks. Before any of these summonses were issued or any arrest was made I repeatedly explained to Highline employees and PEP officers that a court order was in effect and that artists freely and legally sold in all NYC Parks without a license or permit. I also showed them articles from the NY Times and NY Post describing this exact court order.

The wealthy people who paid to create the Highline seem to have forgotten that it is still a public park. The US Constitution remains in effect there, as do the street artists rights described in numerous 2nd circuit Federal Court orders. These court orders are constantly being violated by the Parks Department. This is a blatant example of contempt of court, false arrest and chilling of free speech in the name of privatization."

Street artist Federal court rulings

NY Times on Parks Dept artist permit ruling

NY Post on street artist Federal Court ruling

Geoffrey Croft
NYC Park Advocates
(212) 987-0565

Sky is literally falling

From the NY Post:

The city's building boom has come crashing down -- in some cases literally.

Scores of mothballed construction projects are on the verge of collapsing, forcing officials to spend millions to demolish or shore them up, records show.

In the fiscal year that ended in June, at a cost of roughly $10,000 per site, emergency scaffolding sheds were placed around 75 buildings -- nearly triple the 27 in fiscal 2007, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Then there's the ever-present problem of squatters. The city didn't lock up a single vacant building three years ago, but it was forced over the last fiscal year to seal the doors and windows of 47 abandoned ones -- all to keep vagrants out. The cost? An average of $2,000 per building.

The number demolished has also soared, from 53 in fiscal 2008 to 75 this past fiscal year. That averaged out to $49,000 a building.

Debris from city properties, meanwhile, has rained down on at least 15 pedestrians this year, according to Department of Buildings records.

Construction unions are in the money

$10B city boost for unions
By GINGER ADAMS OTIS, NY Post

A new deal hatched between Mayor Bloomberg and the Building and Trades Council will net union hardhats an estimated $10 billion in work in coming years, The Post has learned.

The deal -- hammered out ahead of the Nov. 4 election narrowly won by Hizzoner, with the backing of the council -- will ensure that union labor does the rehabilitation, renovation and new construction on many city projects for the next several years, sources said.

To trim their historically high costs, the unions agreed to work- and wage-rule concessions.

Rebecca Meinking, president of the non-union New York's Associated Builders and Contractors, said, "It's ironic that the unions set up these arcane work restrictions, then ride in on their white horse and say, 'OK, we'll lift them if you give us work.' It's extortion, if you ask me."

Photo from the Daily News

Where did the stimulus dough go?

From the NY Post:

So many billions out the door — and nary a clue about what Americans got in return.

That’s the tragic-but-too-true story of last February’s $787 billion federal stimulus program — the first major legislative package out of Washington after the Democrats took control of the city.

What a monumental waste.

The Obama folks claim that, as of Oct. 30, stimulus funds “created or saved” 640,329 jobs. They might as well claim 640 billion.

The truth? No one really knows if the package “created or saved” any jobs.

And that’s now crystal clear, after reporters checked out the Obama team’s claims.

ABC News, for example, reported last week that many of the supposedly saved or created jobs were located in congressional districts that, well . . . don’t exist.

The administration blames “human error” — local officials who supposedly misreported their district locations.

And no one (yet, anyway) is saying the money went south; surely someone will one day figure out what happened to more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars in taxpayer cash.

Bloomberg bad, but lame press even worse

From the Daily News:

Here's what you missed while Mayor Bloomberg was running for a third term - because he kept it under wraps until after the ballots were counted:

• The city budget deficit isn't as bad as he said.

• The NYPD was quietly exempted from the budget cuts at almost every other agency.

• A $60 million tax loss that gave Bloomberg a soap box to rail against the state Senate has magically vanished.

But that's all just numbers. What really drives the point home is the photo of Bloomberg and Sarah Palin hanging around in City Hall.

The picture - and six others - was shot Oct. 10, 2007, when the then-governor of Alaska was on a visit to New York.

The photos might have been inconvenient for Bloomberg while he was running against Democrat Bill Thompson in a heavily Democratic city, but they belong to the taxpayers.

The Daily News asked for copies of the photographs July 8. Under the state Freedom of Information Law, Bloomberg's lawyer Anthony Crowell had to respond within five days.

He handed them over two weeks after the election.

No, what's most telling is that the Daily News endorsed Bloomberg and conveniently failed to disclose that this was happening - until 3 weeks after the election - 4 months after they asked for the photos.

City cuts encourage layoffs

From the NY Times:

Even as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg says that he is trying to avert laying off city workers, his aides have quietly encouraged such job cuts through an internal budget maneuver, according to city documents and interviews with those who have viewed them.

But the administration, which prides itself on transparency, has not disclosed the maneuver to the public, or to the municipal unions that may be affected as the city scrambles to cut costs.

The administration’s plan to trim spending by $1.7 billion over the next 18 months, detailed in letters sent to commissioners this week, establishes a new way of tabulating the budget for city agencies.

In a marked departure from tradition, the mayor’s office added the cost of fringe benefits, like employee health care and Social Security contributions, to the agencies’ individual budgets. But the agencies are not responsible for those costs, which are paid from a central budget at City Hall.

The seemingly small change in accounting makes job cuts, either through layoffs or attrition, an especially efficient way to reduce spending and meet tough new financial targets, City Hall officials and budget watchdogs said. It also suggests that the city work force, now at 305,000 employees, may face its first significant reduction in recent years.

NJ Building Owner Convicted on Bribery Charge

TRENTON, N.J. (AP/ 1010 WINS) -- A New Jersey man who paid a municipal official $5,000 to get approval for an illegal apartment in a building he owned has been convicted of bribery.

A federal jury deliberated for about two hours Friday before convicting 49-year-old Herman Friedman. The Union City man faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he's sentenced March 3, although the actual sentence is likely to be less under federal sentencing guidelines.

Prosecutors said the apartment in the West New York building was discovered during a routine inspection in March 2007.

Friedman paid the money to the construction code official during a meeting at the official's office that was recorded by the FBI. The official also testified against Friedman.

FBI...PLEASE CROSS THE HUDSON!!!