Liz Crowley to take Weiner's place?

From Politicker NY:

A new name is making the rounds in political circles as a replacement for the now ex-congressman Anthony Weiner: City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley.

The 33-year-old lawmaker would be an intriguing choice since she is the cousin of the man who will have more say than anyone over who takes the seat: Congressman and Queens County Democratic Party leader Joe Crowley.

She beat Republican Anthony Como in 2008 after losing to him in a special election earlier in the year in a district that skews relatively conservative and in a race that Congressman Crowley made a major priority of the county party.

The county party will decide who runs on the Democratic line for the seat, which should almost certainly decide who ends up winning.

Here's the rest of the pack:

Vallone
Lancman
Katz
Gioia
Gennaro
M. Weprin

And the GOP has Ulrich and Turner

Ethics bill not all it's cracked up to be?

From the NY Times:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office unveiled legislation to improve ethics enforcement on Tuesday, revealing details that raised questions about whether the reforms would be weaker than expected.

On Tuesday, several new wrinkles became apparent with the release of the legislation. The State Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican, and the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, permanently enshrined their caucuses’ powers over ethics enforcement, even if their legislative majorities are ousted.

Commissioners appointed to a 14-member ethics oversight board proposed in the legislation could vote 12 to 2 in favor of an investigation of the executive branch and still lose. An 11-to-3 vote in favor of an investigation of a legislator could also fail.

If you build it, they won't come

From the Daily News:

Dozens of new ballfields in the sprawling park beneath the RFK-Triborough Bridge went unused last summer by the kids who need them most, the city parks boss admits.

And with school almost out for summer, advocates are complaining the $120 million revamp of Randalls Island Park in early 2010 created a playground for the rich and took crucial dollars from neighborhood ballfields.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe cited the low traffic earlier this year to justify plans for a private sports camp.

"Fields on Randalls Island have gone largely unused during weekday daytime hours in July and August, and thus availability should not be an issue," he wrote City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito in January.

The deal called for Florida-based IMG Academies to operate the camp on Randalls Island after donating $200,000 to the Randalls Island Sports Foundation. But plans for the $895-a-week camp fell through in April, with IMG citing low enrollment.

Mark-Viverito (D-East Harlem/Bronx) slammed the pricey park rehab, claiming thousands of trees were cut down to make way for the artificial turf fields.

"Why would you build so many fields and then have a problem in terms of utilization?" she asked. "It was shortsighted and now we're paying the price."

Not quite ready for college

From the NY Times:

Heightening concerns about the value of many of its high school diplomas, the New York State Education Department released new data on Tuesday showing that only 37 percent of students who entered high school in 2006 left four years later adequately prepared for college, with even smaller percentages of minority graduates and those in the largest cities meeting that standard.

In New York City, 21 percent of the students who started high school in 2006 graduated last year with high enough scores on state math and English tests to be deemed ready for higher education or well-paying careers. In Rochester, it was 6 percent; in Yonkers, 14.5 percent.

The new calculations, part of a statewide push to realign standards with college readiness, also underscored a racial achievement gap: 13 percent of black students and 15 percent of Hispanic students statewide were deemed college-ready after four years of high school, compared with 51 percent of white graduates and 56 percent of Asian-Americans.

There were also wide variations among individual schools within districts. In New York, more than half the college-ready graduates came from 20 of the 360 high schools for which information was provided.

Unions accepting pay cuts on megaprojects

From Crains:

New York construction unions have reached an agreement to cut the wages of members working on a massive residential project on the far West Side by 20%, sources said. The project, which will include more than 500 units of affordable housing, is being developed by the Gotham Organization Inc.

Meanwhile, Forest City Ratner Cos. has applied to the unions for similar wage cuts as it prepares to begin construction of its first residential tower at the long-planned Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. There, at least 50% of the approximately 400 residential units will be affordable.

The unions, in conjunction with contractors, began cutting wages and changing work rules for certain projects back in 2009 as part of an effort to lower construction costs and jumpstart projects brought to a standstill by the recession. It was just such an agreement that was a critical element to moving forward with Forest City's Frank Gehry-designed residential tower downtown. At one point, the developer had proposed capping the 76-story tower at roughly half its height, but that never happened. It opened earlier this year.

Typically, the union offers concessions that lower labor costs by 10% to 15%. However, unions make steeper cuts for developers building affordable housing or residential projects in the outer boroughs because they tend to command lower sale prices and rents. Additionally, non-union labor has made greater inroads into those sectors than in major commercial projects in Manhattan.

DOB caught ignoring blatant violation

I was going to write a post letting you know that the St. Saviour's site had been shut down yesterday by DOB for failure to adhere to a stop work order issued in 2009. But just as I was about to hit publish, I received the following e-mail:

"I am at the St. Saviour's site right now and there is a DOB inspector here. The stop work order was not lifted but they are allowing construction to proceed. The inspector is watching the operation. There also was a sanitation inspector here this morning."

So, the DOB inspector stood there and watched construction take place on a site that has a chain link fence rather than the required construction fence, for which the owners were previously cited by DOB [note: CERTIFICATE DISAPPROVED] and there is a current complaint for the same. And on top of that, they have work plans that should never have been approved because they are inaccurate and violate zoning.

I suppose this is par for the course. [begin sarcasm] But I'm sure the elected officials are working hard behind the scenes to get this corrected [end sarcasm].





On top of this, "Notice to Revoke" was posted on the permits yesterday, yet there is an inspector aiding the operation today?

Weiner has left the House

Elmhurst Dairy may lose a lot of jobs

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Union workers came to City Hall Wednesday to plead for their jobs ahead of a potentially devastating move by Starbucks.

Workers from Teamsters Local 584 are afraid of losing their jobs if Starbucks goes ahead with its plan to stop buying milk from Elmhurst Dairy in Queens and switch to a non-union plant outside of the city.

Chanting “keep the jobs here,” workers stressed the importance of keeping the last New York City dairy in business.

“If we lose our jobs, I don’t know what we’re going to do. So I’m just talking to the world, to New York City, to elected officials. Help us keep the business here in New York. Let it remain where it belongs,” one worker told reporters, including 1010 WINS’ Stan Brooks.

Some City Council members are supporting the protesters and stressed that Starbucks’ threatened move could lead to the loss of over 700 jobs.

What a dump!

From the Times Ledger:

Neighbors of the abandoned, dilapidated, two-story brick house at 80-44 Cypress Ave. said a band of squatters in their 30s and their dogs use the residence as a nightly hangout and even a bathroom.

“This place looks like a disaster,” said Sokol Gjonbalaj, whose second-story balcony hovers above the overgrown backyard. “If I left my house like that, I would get violations every day.”

Gjonbalaj actually did receive a $100 violation when a city inspector mistook his house for the abandoned home. And he has incurred other expenses as his homeowner insurance premiums went up and his property values down. He even had to replace a fence that separates his property from the lot of the house after the squatters knocked it down.

“Nobody cares,” Gjonbalaj said. “I’ve called the police, 311, [city] Sanitation.”

The Sanitation Department has come by a few times to clean part of the abandoned lot near the house, but the city Department of Buildings said the owner of the property is ultimately responsible for its upkeep.

$620 million for new jail

From the IBO Blog:

Tough fiscal times have led the Mayor to propose a 20 percent reduction in planned city capital spending. That means less money for affordable housing construction, building new schools, or rehabbing city parks. Because of this, some New Yorkers may be surprised to learn that the Bloomberg Administration is still planning to commit more than $620 million in 2011 through 2015 to the construction of a new jail on Rikers Island, the renovation of jails in Brooklyn and Queens, and the closing of other facilities. What may make this even more surprising is that when the changes are complete, the system will have less capacity than it does now.

While the jail proposal has also been cut back—by nearly $115 million or 16 percent in the May 2011 Capital Commitment Plan compared with the September 2010 plan —some may question the need for it at all. Part of what’s driving the initiative is dilapidated conditions. Some of the structures being used on Rikers were only meant to be temporary. Another reason is to reverse a Giuliani Administration initiative that closed the jails near the borough courthouses and placed all inmates on Rikers Island. That proved to be a costly decision, ratcheting up overtime and other expenses in order to transport inmates to court dates.

As a result, the Department of Correction is going ahead with a jail renovation initiative which includes the construction of a new 1,500 bed jail on Rikers Island and reopening detention facilities in Brooklyn and Queens, in conjunction with reductions in the capacity of a number of other facilities. Because the initiative would remove more beds than are being added from the new construction, the city’s overall jail capacity would be reduced by nearly 3,000 beds.

What about those millstones?

From the Queens Gazette:

The Dutch Kills millstones are to be installed in the traffic islands. [Dan] Colangione said the EDC has retained a historical resources consultant and, in collaboration with the city Parks Department, is producing a plaque that describes the millstones. The stones are currently at the branch of the Queens Borough Public Library on 21st Street and 38th Avenue while their final display is determined. Colangione said the idea of cutting dowels into the stones was abandoned after several protests that the process could immediately damage them or leave them vulnerable to later damage. Instead, they will be fixed to their pedestals by grouting. (That time and weathering might deteriorate the grouting was brought up at the meeting and determined to be an inevitable problem of maintenance.) Only old-fashioned hand tools are used on the stones, the EDC spokesman said, with no power tools being allowed.

Unions set up Bloombergville

Click on headline to see video.

Weiner decides to bow out

From the NY Times:

Representative Anthony D. Weiner has told friends that he plans to resign his seat after coming under growing pressure from his Democratic colleagues to leave the House, said a person told of Mr. Weiner’s plans.

Mr. Weiner, a Democrat, came to the conclusion that he could no longer serve after having long discussions with his wife, Huma Abedin, when she returned home on Tuesday after traveling abroad with her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

More on the doomed Jackson Heights mansion

From the Daily News:

Landmarking advocates said the neo-Tudor home on 74th St. and 34th Ave. in Jackson Heights is a rare large house in a neighborhood that is better known for garden apartments, but even advocates were resigned to losing it.

"It's a foregone conclusion," said Daniel Karatzas of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group. "We would have liked it to be preserved. I'm just being, at this eleventh hour, a little more realistic."

It's a clash between two local concerns - education and historic preservation - that the project's opponents said they regularly lose.

Parents support the decision to demolish the home and combat overcrowding in schools, while preservationists wonder if the lavish home can be saved and reused as school space.

...a Korean church that owned the house sold to a developer who then flipped it to the city...

A spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission said the agency determined the home may be worth inclusion in a historic district, but it doesn't warrant individual landmark status.

Okay, so why wasn't it included in the historic district?

Push to bring back Q79 bus

From the Daily News:

A group of eastern Queens community leaders are hoping a little creative rerouting can restore some bus service along a defunct MTA route.

The Queens Civic Congress is pitching a proposal to alter bus routes adjacent to the former Q79 line to revive at least some public transit options to the area.

Since the Q79 bus line was axed last summer, attempted alternatives in the area have flopped. The Taxi and Limousine Commission launched a pilot program that used commuter vans along Little Neck Parkway but the operator quickly pulled out, citing low ridership.

At a city Department of Transportation meeting last month, City Councilman Jimmy Vacca (D-East Bronx) promised the frustrated civic group that he would review a proposal to alter other routes in the area to fill in service gaps. If the plan is feasible, Vacca said he'd press the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to implement it.

EDC rips out Queens Plaza headstones for bike lane

From CBS 2:

Last month, CBS 2 exposed a pedestrian landscape design, featuring jagged concrete in Queens Plaza, that many considered to be dangerous.

Now, a concrete change is winning applause from pedestrians, but raising questions about how the city is spending money.

Three and a half weeks after the CBS 2 report aired, the concrete has been ripped out along with another patch of jagged concrete that divided the sidewalk. Workers are now replacing it with cobblestone pavers.

A spokeswoman for the city’s Economic Development Corporation, which in charge of the project, said that the concrete was removed to make way for a bike lane.

However, with concrete installed in late 2010 being removed in mid 2011, new questions are being raised about whether the redesign is a cost effective way to do business.

From the Daily News:

The Queens Plaza project, to be finished this fall, is designed to enhance pedestrian and cycling safety in a landscaped corridor from the Queensboro Bridge to Northern Blvd.

But the construction site, which now features patches of recycled concrete pieces in street medians, has some local merchants and drivers complaining that the city is wasting space and further clogging the intersection.

Some complain that congestion has gotten worse coming from the bridge, with gridlocks forming at the intersection of Queens Blvd., Northern Blvd. and Jackson Ave.

Others have complained about an outcropping of rocks made of recycled cement in medians.

"It looks like a graveyard of tombstones," said Cathy Julca, 36, co-owner of an advertising and printing shop on Northern Blvd. "We could've used that space for parking."

Larry Sullivan, 69, owner of Conserve Electric on Crescent St., said congestion has never been worse. "I've never seen it like this," Sullivan said. "It's getting very tough to do business."

Tensions are high at Queens Plaza, Julca said. "It's gotten noisier, more honking, people screaming at each other."

Now does this make sense?

From the Brooklyn Paper:

The city quietly slashed the main source of revenue for Brooklyn Bridge Park, revealing only this week that a luxury condo that funds the park’s maintenance budget is now paying $1 million less — leaving a gaping hole in revenue at a time when planners are struggling to raise even more money for upkeep.

One Brooklyn Bridge Park, a high-rise within the park’s footprint, is supposed to pay $3 million annually, but the Department of Finance recently granted the condo’s developer a reduction in those payments.

The massive loss of revenue comes at a time when city officials are pushing for more housing to fund the park despite public opposition — and it raises the question of whether new high-rises will actually cover future expenses.

One Brooklyn Bridge Park, a former warehouse at 360 Furman St. that was converted into a condo and included inside the park footprint as a financing scheme, had brought in $1.8 million in fees and $1.25 million in ground rent to the park.

But the slashed the tenants’ fees to $800,000 this year after the condo’s developer, Robert A. Levine, requested an exemption, according to a Department of Finance spokesman.

Years ago, Levine got a steep tax break to build the high-rise within the park. At the time, he fought opposition to the sweetheart dealing, saying that the more he earned from his luxury tenants, the more he would put back into the park’s coffers.

Board of Elections saga: Here we go again

From City Hall:

For the past seven months, the 10-member New York City Board of Elections, consisting of five Democrats and five Republicans, has been deadlocked in appointing a $180,000-a-year executive director. No candidate has been able to line up the six votes necessary to win the job, and the board has refused to conduct a public search for the best national talent.

But Queens Republicans have renewed their push for the appointment of former City Councilman Anthony Como, and have struck a tentative deal with Brooklyn Democrats under which party chairman Vito Lopez would back Como, according to two sources with knowledge of the agreement.

Como, a Republican, would be appointed executive director, while a Brooklyn Democrat—most likely current Board of Elections counsel Steve Richman—would be appointed deputy director, the board’s other plum patronage post. Board of Elections rules require that the executive director and deputy director be from different parties.

Como and Richman both declined to comment.

Looking at lawsuits against the city

From WNYC:

Legislation proposed by City Council Public Safety chair Peter Vallone would bring more transparency and accountability to the whole police tort claim process. Vallone's bill would require the City's lawyers disclose to the City Council specifics on all settlements reached on behalf of the NYPD including the officers and precincts involved.

According to statistics from City Comptroller John Liu's office, the cost of settling civil rights claims against the NYPD jumped by 15 percent in the last two years.

The NYPD wants to see more of these claims go to trial. They may get their wish. The City's Corporation Counsel hopes to hire 28 new lawyers to handle the civil rights claims. When there is no NYPD wrong doing the Department believes the out of court settlements undermines the public's trust in the department.

Queens law student an Israeli spy?

From Eyewitness News:

An American law student from Queens is under arrest in Egypt, accused by Egyptian authorities of being a highly trained spy working for Israel.

Ilan Grapel is a law student, former Israeli paratrooper, and volunteer in Egypt, where he is now detained, and reportedly accused of being a spy for the Israeli Moussad.

The U.S. State Department confirms his arrest but will not say more about the accusations against him.