MTA nickels and dimes commuters

 

Eyewitness News 

The MTA proposed an increase to the subway and bus fare to $2.90 by Labor Day.

It is a 15-cent increase from the current $2.75 base fare, and the first fare hike since 2019.

"A lot of the stations are still dirty," rider John Delaruz said. "They are not in commission as often. I don't see the benefit in raising the price right now."

Weekly MetroCards would increase a dollar to $34 and 30-day MetroCards would go up $5 to $132.

Express bus fare would increase a quarter to $7 and seven-day bus passes would increase $2 to $64.

This year's planned fare hike will be closer to the standard 4% increase, which is typically how much the fare goes up every other year, instead of 5.5% originally floated, thanks to Governor Kathy Hochul's budget.

However, a planned 5.5% toll revenue increase remains in place.

Straphangers were less than pleased with the proposed hike.

Even Executive Director of the MTA's Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee Lisa Daglian acknowledged that fare hikes are necessary to keep the transit system rolling.

"Improving the discount options for riders across the system, ensuring there is equity across increases so that those who can least afford them have access to more options is critical," Daglian said. "That includes raising eligibility to fair fares to 200% of the federal poverty level from the current 100% level."

The last fare increase on trains and buses was in 2019. There was not a fare increase in 2021 due to the pandemic.

In addition to buses and subways, fares on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North would also go up by about 4%.

The MTA also anticipates that with congestion pricing, more commuters will want to take the subway and commuter rail.

Officials unveiled two possible scenarios for drivers. One rewards E-Z Pass users with a 6% increase, vs a 10% increase for tolls by mail. The other spreads the pain, with a 7% increase for both E-Z Pass and toll by-mail users.

Transportation Alternatives message to Southeast Queens residents: you'll pay congestion pricing and like it

You're supposed to put your car payments toward a 1-family house in SE Queens that his urbanist supporters think is evil? 😂 Did Danny go off script? https://t.co/gxm50Z7Mrq

— Queens Crapper (@QueensCrapper) May 14, 2023

Southeast Queens population is predominantly people of color and immigrants who rely on cars to get around New York City for work, chores and leisure. Danny Harris says the quiet part out loud about the inherent racism and discriminatory nature of the congestion pricing tax and apparently he does not want them coming to his borough of Manhattan anymore without paying admission.

More Ardila pre-Assembly malfeasance

 

NY Post

Assemblyman Juan Ardila — who faced accusations of sex abuse — hasn’t yet paid $19,200 in arrears for a two-bedroom Maspeth apartment he used to rent, a Queens landlord claims.

In an interview with The Post, his former landlord, Anne O’Reilly, said she’s not afraid to take Ardila to court over the issue.

“I feel like it’s an injustice to me,” she said.

But Ardila scored a temporary legal victory last month when a Queens judge dismissed a case filed by O’Reilly in June when Ardila only owed $11,200.

He moved out in November. (wow, he was still squatting there after he won the election-JQ LLC)

The judge ruled Ardila, who was sued alongside unnamed roommates, was served outside the required 10-17 days before a court date, a technicality that won’t prevent O’Reilly from refiling the suit in the future.

She told The Post she aims to do just that to get Ardila to pay the year of outstanding rent.

“I’m a nurse and try to take care of people and I think people should respect everybody and if I’m working hard I expect everyone else to work hard — if they’re working — to pay their rent,” she said.

Ardila tried to turn the tables on his former landlord in a statement to The Post where he claimed he and his mother had been harassed by her.

“My mother and I moved to this apartment when I was 14. I was staying with my girlfriend but my mother has endured relentless harassment from her landlord, particularly throughout the pandemic & even left her without heat during some of the coldest days,” he said in a statement that included a link to a past 311 heating complaint.

“Experiences like these only reinforce my unwavering commitment to advocating for tenants’ rights and protections in Albany,” he added.

But Ardila, who technically was not on the lease signed by his mother when he was a child, did not say whether he still owed rent to O’Reilly until several hours after The Post reported about the dismissed suit.

“I do not owe rent,” he said.

The legal win for the rent-skipping legislator came one month after two women accused Ardila of forcibly touching them at a 2015 party while they were intoxicated. 

Juan should be really grateful that George Santos exists as the worst elected official from Queens, because he deserves just as much press scrutiny and notoriety.

The U.S. Department Of Transportation Alternatives has approved congestion pricing

 

 

NBC New York

The federal government has given the green light on New York's plan to implement the long-debated, highly-anticipated plan to become the first U.S. city to charge motorists an extra fee for entering its most congested area.

On Friday afternoon, the Federal Highway Administration submitted a "letter of sufficiency" for plan from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city's Department of Transportation, approving of the environmental review.

The MTA’s pricing plan has been discussed for more than a decade now. It’s the plan that could charge drivers, many of whom coming from New Jersey, as much as $23 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. The pricing plan has yet to be implemented.

"We are optimistic the time has arrived for congestion pricing," said MTA Chairman Janno Lieber. "New York is the number one most congested place in the U.S. Ambulances can't get to hospitals, firetrucks to fires. We have to do something."

The practice is commonly referred to as congestion pricing and has been used in cities including London, Singapore and Stockholm. In New York, motorists entering Manhattan below 60th Street would be charged a toll electronically.

The MTA has long argued that congestion pricing is essential to their bottom line and would net them $1 billion annually. Revenue from the plan would be used to back borrowing for capital improvements to the MTA’s subway and bus systems.

Department Of Sanitation Alternatives plans to usurp parking spaces for trash bins

Same thing. Times Square. No longer brand new. Sludge, stench. pic.twitter.com/qQ1IJHAOur

— Andrew Fine (@AFineBlogger) January 12, 2023

 

New York Times 

New York City, where sidewalks have long been overrun by foul-smelling heaps of garbage bags that force passers-by to yield to oncoming rat traffic, is about to try a not-so-novel idea to solve the problem.

The concept, known as trash containerization, seems simple enough: Get trash off the streets and into containers. The strategy has been used successfully in cities across Europe and Asia, like Barcelona and Singapore.

But in New York, nothing is that simple.

In a highly anticipated new report being released on Wednesday, city sanitation officials estimate that it would be possible to move trash to containers on 89 percent of the city’s residential streets. To do so, however, will require removing 150,000 parking spots, and up to 25 percent of parking spots on some blocks.

The report does not address the cost of implementing trash containerization citywide, but it could easily cost hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade. City officials must buy new specialized trash trucks and stationary containers, while also increasing the frequency of trash collection in large swaths of the city.

The new approach could revolutionize trash collection in New York. Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat in his second year in office, has said attacking trash is one of his priorities, framing it as part of broader efforts to improve quality of life in the city after the disruption of the pandemic. He has hired a new rat czar with a “killer instinct” for slaying rats.

But embracing trash containers will require trade-offs, including sacrificing more parking spots than were taken for outdoor dining or the city’s popular bike-share program — both of which stirred pockets of outrage.

The city’s sanitation commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said in a statement that sanitation officials were working hard to remove trash more quickly, including setting new hours for placing trash on the curb, and that trash containerization was the critical next step.

“Mayor Adams wants a permanent solution, something like what other global cities have that takes our sidewalks back from the black bags — and from the rats,” she said. “The detailed street-level analysis in this report shows, for the first time, that containerization — in the form of individual bins and shared containers — actually is viable across the vast majority of the five boroughs.”

The new trash program would look different across the city depending on the block. For a single-family home in eastern Queens, residents could be required to use individual bins for trash, recycling and compost. On a block lined with six-story apartment buildings in northern Manhattan, the street could get a dozen large aboveground containers — artist renderings suggest a cross between a dumpster and a giant laundry bin — placed in parking spaces.

By this fall, the city will start a major new pilot program in West Harlem, in Community Board 9, that will install large trash containers in parking spots on up to 10 residential blocks and at more than a dozen schools. On residential blocks, trash collection will double from three times a week to six.

At a time when Mr. Adams is cutting spending across city agencies, he included more than $5.6 million for the pilot program in his latest executive budget proposal — a sign of his commitment to the idea, city officials said.

Shaun Abreu, a City Council member who represents West Harlem, said in a statement that he was excited for the neighborhood to be a part of the pilot program and that it would “make a real difference and teach the city a lot about the path forward.”

The city’s 95-page new report examined trash containerization in cities across the world that have been experimenting with the idea for 15 years and analyzed the program’s feasibility in each neighborhood. In the United States, San Francisco and Chicago remove garbage bags from the streets, mostly using individual bins and Chicago’s famed alleyways which New York City does not have.

New York City is a bit of a global pariah when it comes to trash. On garbage days in Manhattan, towers of fetid trash bags line the streets, with food and liquids oozing on to sidewalks. Sanitation workers carry out the Sisyphean task of carting away 24 million pounds of trash and recycling every day.

Other cities have successfully reined in their garbage. Amsterdam uses underground storage and electric boats. Singapore and other cities use a pneumatic pressure chute system. Barcelona, Buenos Aires and Paris rely on shared and individual trash containers, providing the most useful examples of what is possible in New York, city officials said.

The report was written by Sanitation Department staffers and informed by a study by McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm, that was initially reported to cost $4 million. The city ultimately paid McKinsey & Company $1.6 million for the study, city officials said.

Ms. Tisch said in an interview that it was too early to provide an estimate for the total cost. But she acknowledged that the cost was “not inexpensive.”

“It is one of the most massive, complicated infrastructure programs this city can undertake over the next decade because it affects every borough, every neighborhood, every block and frankly every resident in the City of New York,” she said.

Parking is one of the third rails of New York City politics, and the plan could face pushback in some communities. The city has roughly 3 million free street parking spots. Trash containerization would remove up to 10 percent of available parking spots on residential streets citywide, compared to less than 1 percent of parking spots removed for outdoor dining. Citi Bike, the city’s bike-share program, has taken about half of a percent of curb space in its service area for bike docks, according to the company.

On 11 percent of the city’s most densely populated residential streets in places like Lower Manhattan, the city found that it was not feasible to install containers because there was not enough street space for the trash produced in those areas.

Firefighters have to push planters to get to an emergency on the open streets

Every second counts.
Footage from 34th Avenue Open Street ("Paseo Park").#SafetyLast on #34AveOpenStreets #OpenStreets@infopobn @ImpunityCity @VoicesofJH @berrystalliance pic.twitter.com/XGuRB79Tni

— serpenttoes 🐍 (@serpenttoes) May 3, 2023

 

 

These open streets are not only putting residents in danger, but firefighters are going to injure themselves moving those fucking things.

 

 This post is dedicated to Voices of Jackson Heights who recently had her twitter account suspended. She has been reporting about these hazardous open streets since it started which is now subjected to a current lawsuit to end them. And also dedicated to the Department Of Transportation Alternatives, Shekar Krishnan and the simping agency captured elected officials who continue to support this 85 million dollar boondoggle.

Breaking News@VoicesofJH, the most consistent voice against the notorious 34th ave open streets is now silenced on @Twitter. This comes after she posted a video of @NYC_DOT contractors working OT and wouldn't say who they were

This is happening while they are being sued pic.twitter.com/ctIq0DuVPU

— JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) May 3, 2023

Big Ugly Hochul budget finally done

 

NY1

Nearly a month after its initial due date, New York state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul have agreed to a $229 billion state spending plan that will make changes to a controversial bail law, boost direct aid to schools by billions of dollars and keep personal income tax rates the same.

"A conceptual agreement has been reached," Hochul said at a press conference Thursday evening.

The state budget will also increase the state's minimum wage in the coming years to $16 an hour in New York City and to $15 an hour north of Westchester County. Phased-in hikes will lead to a $17 minimum wage by 2027. After that it will be indexed to the rate of inflation.

Lawmakers and Hochul have also agreed to an expansion of charter schools in New York City by allowing for 14 so-called "zombie" licenses to be revived.

The child tax credit in New York is set to expand for families with children under the age of 4, addressing the expiration of a similar program on the federal level.

After initially discussing ways in which New York's system of publicly financed campaigns — in which political campaigns match individual donations with public money — on hold, lawmakers have agreed to fund the program without a delay.

Once given final passage in the Legislature, New York's budget this year will be one of the latest spending plans to be adopted since 2010. That year, lawmakers did not approve a final budget until mid-August.

This was Hochul's second budget since taking office in 2021 and her first since she won a full term last year. Hochul struggled to include some of her key items in the budget that she made clear were priorities for her this year. 

Several of Hochul's initial proposals were pared and whittled down during the negotiations if not jettisoned entirely. A proposal to expand housing in New York through a mix of incentives for communities to build out infrastructure while also allowing the state to override local zoning officials for qualified projects was rejected by lawmakers. The proposal would have also set goals for every municipality in New York to expand housing stock in the coming years.

Hochul wants to build 800,000 new units of housing within the next decade. After an effort to reach an agreement ended in a stalemate, Hochul told reporters she would continue to pursue elements of her original plan.

The emergency rental assistance program will be expanded as well $50 million for low-income families to make housing repairs.

But the governor was able to win changes to the state's 2019 law that limited the circumstances in which cash bail is required in criminal cases after a campaign season in which crime and public safety were top concerns for voters.

Hochul also pointed to $40 million for public defenders and a pay raise for assigned attorneys providing indigent defense. She announced money for measures to combat gun violence and the State Police.

The change will give judges greater discretion in criminal cases to set bail for serious charges, loosening what's known as the "least restrictive" requirement when bail is considered.

Hochul had emphasized through the budget process she wants to address New Yorkers' concerns over crime while not undermining the initial intent of the law: addressing inequities in the criminal justice system.

On health care, the state is set to expand Medicaid spending for hospitals and nursing homes by increasing reimbursement rates.

The proposal, a 7.5% and 6.5% rise, is less than what health care networks wanted, but more than what Hochul had initially proposed.

New York will spend $34.5 billion on education, a record setting amount that also boosts direct aid to schools by more than $2 billion. The budget will also provide $134 million for schools to provide free meals regardless of a student's family income.

Hochul's initial plan to expand charter schools was reduced after objections from teachers unions.

A mobility tax to fund mass transit in the New York City area will be increased modestly, Hochul said. A two-year pilot program for free bus service on five lines will be included in the budget.

Hochul's announcement came in the evening after lawmakers left Albany and are not expected to return for several days.

Hochul called the agreement a "conceptual framework" as some legislators continue to review the specifics of the budget.

 

Unwanted Juan

Sunnyside Post 

 Juan Ardila, the Queens assemblymember who has been accused by two women of sexual assault and refused to step down from office, has come under fire for posting photos of himself at a community event without the permission of the attendees and the organizers.

Ardila attended an Earth Day gardening event in Long Island City last week and posted photos of himself with several of the participants at the Smiling Hogshead Ranch on Instagram. According to attendees, he was not invited but showed up.

The assemblymember and his staff circulated among the gardeners and took photos, which were subsequently posted on the lawmaker’s Instagram.

“I had a great time spending #earthday with my team at @smilinghogsheadranch in #LIC,” one post reads, with photos of attendees.

One photo included Frank Wu, a Community Board 2 member and president of the Court Square Civic Association, who was at the event with his young son. Wu requested Ardila to delete the post when he saw it.

“I asked him [to take it down]…because people might assume that I am condoning or approving or supporting him,” Wu said. “There have been some bad things reported, unacceptable things. I didn’t consent to have my photo taken.”

Ardila’s staff did take it down, although it had been up for more than a day.

Ardila, who first took office in January after winning the 37th District assembly seat vacated by the now-retired Catherine Nolan last year, has been accused by two women of sexual assault that allegedly took place at a party in October 2015.

The accusations were made public in March when one of the victims reached out to local media—including the Queens Post—and said that Ardila “got physical” with her – and was “touching her” — while she was drunk on a couch at the party. Another woman at the same party has also accused him of groping her.

Ardila apologized for his behavior in a statement shortly after the accusations were made public.

“I fully take responsibility for my actions…and I am interested in and eager for a restorative justice-centered process, so that we can heal and repair the damage done.”

Restorative justice??? That's what he's banking on?  No wonder all those fauxgressives like that policy.

Why doesn't the Assembly Person try to photobomb the latest Transportation Alternatives and Riders Alliance rallies like he used to? Bet it's because their mega-moneyed donors have ghosted him after they pretty much platformed and elected him.

Department of Transportation Alternatives forces open street in Sunnyside

 

Sunnyside Post

The city’s Dept. of Transportation (DOT) is likely to convert one of the main commercial strips in Sunnyside into an Open Street next month, although some business owners and residents are opposed to the plan and say they have not been properly consulted or informed about the decision.

The DOT plans to close off 46^th Street, between Queens Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue, from vehicular traffic from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Sundays under a program that aims to create more public spaces across the city.

The street is instantly recognizable due to a large arch known as the “Sunnyside Arch” which marks the entrance to the one-way, southbound street.

The Open Street, known as a “limited access” plan, calls for a temporary barrier to be put in place to block non-delivery vehicles from entering the strip during these hours. Delivery trucks will be permitted to enter during these hours and volunteers and workers for Sunnyside Shines, the organization that oversees the business improvement district (BID), will move the barriers to let the trucks in and out in order to make deliveries. The Open Street will run until Oct. 31.

Community Board 2’s Transportation Committee unanimously voted to approve the initiative at a transportation committee meeting on April 4 and the board then wrote a letter to the DOT in support of the plan. The vote came four weeks after Dirk McCall De Palomá, the executive director of Sunnyside Shines, presented plans to the committee at its March 7 meeting.

McCall told the Queens/Sunnyside Post that the BID had consulted with residents and the business owners who operate along the 46th Street section before the plans were submitted to the DOT. He said residents were overwhelmingly in favor of the plan and that the vast majority of business owners along the commercial area supported the initiative.

During Community Board 2’s monthly meeting on April 13, some of the residents who testified voiced support for the plan, saying that it will create much-needed public space for residents in the heavily built-up area and will also help generate more foot traffic to the businesses on 46th St.

Others opposed the plan, arguing it would be detrimental to the businesses, as shoppers who rely on vehicles will not have access to the street. Opponents also said it would cause trucks to get backed up on Queens Boulevard, and 46^th Street would still be unsafe for children given the trucks will still be permitted to enter.

Amin Siad, who owns Fresh n’ Save supermarket, which takes up the entire east side of the 46th St. stretch, said at the April 13 CB2 meeting that all the business owners along the street are opposed to the plan. Siad said he was initially in favor of the plan, but now opposes it.

“We do not want — and the small businesses in the area do not want — a pedestrian promenade there because at first, I believed it would help businesses, but it turns out it won’t,” Siad said.

Siad did not go into detail as to why he feels it would negatively impact businesses. However, he said it made little sense to create an open street where delivery trucks could still access the area.

“I was told that someone would put up a barrier and remove a barrier ongoing for 12 hours… what’s the purpose then?” he asked.

Mayor Adams announces little ugly city budget while the big ugly state budget remains in limbo

City & State

New York City Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a $106.7 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 on Wednesday – the largest in city history – backing off, in small part, from some of the 4% agency cuts he’s stressed as necessary. The proposal reflects few, if any, direct service cuts, while adjusting spending estimates downward to hedge for future “storm clouds ahead” like ongoing costs associated with the influx of asylum-seekers, according to Adams. The proposal also includes a limited slate of new spending proposals to, as Adams put it, improve the city’s sustainability and resilience, strengthen mental health resources, uplift “working people,” and bolster the college to workforce pipeline. 

“We had to make tough choices in this budget. We had to negotiate competing needs. We realize that not everyone will be happy, but that is OK,” Adams said from City Hall Wednesday afternoon. 

Here are some of the top numbers you need to know to understand the city’s finances.

$106.7 billion – The size of the proposed expense budget, which is the largest ever. The total spending increased $4 billion dollars since the preliminary budget, which landed at $102.7 billion in January. The actual adopted budget last June was $101 billion… but the city is now expecting to actually spend $108.9 billion through the end of fiscal year 2023. 

$4.2 billion, $6 billion, $7 billion – The respective budget gaps in fiscal years 2025, 2026 and 2027. While Adams presented a balanced budget for the current fiscal year and the upcoming fiscal year 2024, hefty budget gaps remain in the outyear due in part to increased pay for city workers under new labor contracts. Fiscal watchdogs have warned that these budget gaps necessitate caution in New York City’s current spending plans.

$1.6 billion – The total savings achieved between fiscal years 2023 and 2024 through the latest Program to Eliminate the Gap, according to City Hall. Adams said that these cuts were accomplished without any layoffs or service reductions – but with some savings achieved by taking vacant jobs off the rolls, it’s unclear how the city will maintain previous levels of service. 

$4.3 billion – The amount of money that the city anticipates spending on providing shelter, food, clothing and other services to asylum-seekers through the end of fiscal year 2024. This is a figure that Adams has pointed to repeatedly in recent weeks as one of the big reasons that cuts are necessary. While the city will likely receive $1 billion in aid from the state, and predicts getting $600 million from the federal government, that total would only cover under 40% of the city’s projected costs. 

Over 57,000 people – The latest estimate of how many asylum-seekers have arrived in New York City in the past year. Some 35,000 are currently in city shelters, City Hall says.

70,000 people – How many asylum-seekers City Hall anticipates will be in the city’s care by June 2024.

$16 billion – The total anticipated cost of agreements with the city’s remaining unionized workforces that have yet to strike deals, over the next five years. The city has already reached agreements with District Council 37 and the Police Benevolent Association, which will likely set the economic framework for ongoing negotiations with the United Federation of Teachers and other labor groups. 

26 days – How late the state budget is past the April 1 deadline – and counting. Adams is releasing its executive budget without final numbers from the state, which funds about 17% of the city budget. “We may have to go back,” to create new estimates after it’s finalized, Adams said, “and our budget mod is going to reflect that.”

50% – Of working-age households in New York City don’t make incomes that cover their basic needs like housing, food, transportation and health care, according to a report sponsored by the United Way of New York City and the Fund for the City of New York. While the jarring figure is not included in Adams’ budget proposal, its recent release adds gravity to the negotiations over proposed cuts to programs and services.

$23.2 million – The cost of expanding the Department of Sanitation’s voluntary curbside composting program to all five boroughs by 2024. While Adams mostly focused on savings, this was one of a few new, relatively low-cost initiatives added to the budget. 

$27 million – Baseline funding allocated to continue the expansion of the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, or B-HEARD pilot program into the rest of the Bronx as well as other high-need neighborhoods throughout the city. The program, aimed at changing how the city responds to mental health emergencies by dispatching social workers and paramedics to people in crisis, is currently operating in a handful of neighborhoods. 

 Might as well leave this here since our Mayor is being all frugal...

NY Post 

The NYPD commissioner in charge of employee relations is having a difficult time — with her employee relations. 

More than 10 cops working under Deputy Commissioner Lisa White — who’s in charge of officer morale in the 35,000 uniformed member force — have either transferred or asked to be transferred out of her office because of her off-the-wall shenanigans, including claiming there are ghosts in her office and that workers are bugging her phone, police sources told The Post. 

The final straw for one of them, a detective assigned to drive her in a department-assigned Ford SUV, came when White, 61, ordered the cop to turn on the lights and sirens because she was late for work.

When the detective refused, White ordered her out, hopped into the driver’s seat and took over, barreling from her Crown Heights apartment to One Police Plaza in lower Manhattan like a bat out of hell, the sources said.

“She told the driver to pull over and she went behind the wheel and almost got in like f–king five accidents,” a police source said. “It was so bad that the driver … said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. Now she’s putting my life at risk.’”

The detective-driver was one of “multiple” officers who have requested to transfer out of White’s unit — even some cops White brought to the unit with her — since Mayor Adams appointed her in May 2022, insiders said.  

“There’s been a large turnover in that office and more people are requesting to go,” the source said.

Bizarrely, the deputy commissioner has accused employees of “planting bugs in her office, bugs in her phone” and “all sorts of crazy stuff,” the source said.

She once accused them of releasing “confidential information” when someone gave out her schedule.

She’s also told employees “there’s ghosts in her office,” a second police source said.

Some of her higher ups want White out because of her antics, but she has close personal ties to Adams, the sources said.

Jimmy Oddo will be the next Buildings Commissioner with no experience in architecture and engineering

 

City & State

Jimmy Oddo, former Staten Island borough president, will be appointed commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, according to two sources familiar with the decision. 

It’s an internal move within Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. Oddo currently serves as chief of staff to Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi.

Oddo, a Republican, will be replacing another Republican on the job. Former City Council member Eric Ulrich held the job for six months before resigning last November, after it was reported that he was being questioned in connection to an illegal gambling investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Ulrich hasn’t been charged with any crime. 

Kazimir Vilenchik has been serving as acting commissioner for the past six months. He was previously first deputy commissioner. 

Oddo knows politics, but he isn’t an expert when it comes to construction codes. The City Council removed a requirement that the city’s building commissioner had to be a licensed architect or engineer back in 2008. Ulrich, similarly, was a politician first, but his approach to the job was praised by many in the industry, who felt the agency was too tied up in bureaucracy. 

“I think Jimmy is the right person at the right time for the agency,” said one construction industry insider. “He will be visionary for the agency, and  that’s been lacking.”

It’s a big move for Oddo, who has been clear that his dream job is deputy mayor for operations. Two City Hall insiders suggested that Oddo probably doesn’t even want to lead the agency, but “I can imagine them begging him to do it,” said one. 

The appointment comes at a difficult moment for the agency. 

Last week, a nearly 100-year-old parking garage in Lower Manhattan collapsed, killing one person and injuring seven others. Buildings Department inspectors and Fire Department officials responded to the disaster. Vilenchik noted at the time that the building had four open violations, but it was unclear if they contributed to the collapse.

And the DOB will have a major role in ensuring compliance with Local Law 97, which puts limits on buildings’ carbon emissions starting Jan. 1, 2024, with more drastic limits planned in 2030 and 2050. That law has earned major pushback from building owners and the real estate industry at large.

The Department Of Transportation Alternatives gets sued

Charles v City of New York - Complaint - FILE STAMPED by queenscrapper on Scribd

Caption Chuck Schumer and a dirty bomb lithium ion cartridge

Crack comeback in Astoria playground

Found the used glass pipe at the Astoria Heights Playground  this morning Saturday, April 22 around 9.45am.  The grounds porter immediately assisted with its removal, but here we go again with the public drug use and trash left behind for anyone to find.  We stopped other parents from bare-handling out of concern for their safety.  Tiffany Cabán and DI Gorman of precinct 114 have absolutely no connection to the community they represent and it is exhausting. 

My toddler does not need to worry about his Playground being a drug den, again.

Your thoughts Astoria/Queens?

Kathy Clown's Housing Compact is kaput but Mayor Swagger's City Of Yes housing plan stumbles on

 

THE CITY

With Gov. Kathy Hochul abandoning her proposal to force New York’s suburbs to build more housing, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and its allies are redoubling their efforts to ensure the city gains the power to spur more housing construction by converting office buildings, extending tax credits for developers and allowing greater density.

To help push those through, the governor for the first time has indicated she is willing to accept a statewide rent voucher program, a key objective of tenant advocates. The program would provide money to the city’s public housing authority to cover unpaid rent, say sources who have been briefed by those in the negotiations. As THE CITY has previously reported, more than 70,000 NYCHA tenants owe a total of $466 million in back rent.

The sudden rush of developments from Albany on Tuesday may serve as a break in the impasse that has held up the state budget, now 19 days late — but they also mean a significant defeat for Hochul.

Tuesday’s concession by the governor comes after she made housing the centerpiece of her policy goals once she won the governor’s race in November. Hochul called on the state to build 800,000 new housing units over the next decade, a number that includes the 500,000 new units that Adams promised to create over the next 10 years.

The governor’s original Housing Compact proposal established goals for new housing in every community and set up a statewide board that could greenlight projects that had been rejected in towns and villages that failed to meet their housing goals. Lawmakers in the state’s suburban districts — especially in Long Island and Westchester — had staunchly opposed the plan, saying it ripped control away from locals.

As word circulated in the capital on Tuesday that Hochul was giving up on her previous housing requirements, the governor essentially conceded defeat.

“After weeks of negotiation, the legislature continues to oppose core elements of the Housing Compact, including the requirement that communities across the state meet growth targets,” Hochul said in a statement. “I will continue to discuss other elements of the plan and policy changes that will increase supply and make housing more affordable.”

Instead of specific requirements for new housing creation, the budget is now likely to include some version of a proposal the legislature has made to create a $500 million fund for infrastructure upgrades, such as improving roads and sewers, to communities that meet goals for new housing.

Groups that have spent the last year arguing that the state’s housing shortage is a result of too little housing development, and that local community resistance preserves segregation in the suburbs, wasted little time in blasting state lawmakers.

“We are extremely disappointed that the legislature failed to address segregation and the housing shortage by rejecting the visionary Housing Compact and instead capitulated to powerful NIMBYs who prefer the status quo,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference. “By doing so, New York’s elected officials have once again let their constituents down and signaled that the ongoing housing emergency is acceptable.”

The housing goals would have applied to every community district in the city as well.

Still alive are proposals advanced by the Adams administration. They include legislation to ease the conversion of obsolete office buildings into residential housing — possibly including a tax break to encourage some of the units to be designated as below-market-rate housing; changes to state law to allow thousands of basement apartments to be legalized, and extending a deadline for completion of residential buildings that poured their foundations before the valuable 421-a tax break expired last spring. 

In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Adams promised to keep pushing the administration’s plan.

“Our administration has been on the ground daily in Albany in recent months advancing critical tools like flexible regulations for office conversations, lifting the floor area ratio cap, creating a pathway to make basement and cellar apartments safe and legal, and creating tax incentives to develop new housing while maintaining housing quality,” said Charles Lutvak, a spokesperson for the mayor.

 

U.S. Congress comes to the "Safest Big City" to hear true crime stories

Nowhere Juan

Queens Eagle

Queens Assemblymember Juan Ardila, who was recently accused by two women of sexually assaulting them at a 2015 party, has lost his ability to represent his Western Queens district, his constituents, local elected officials and his colleagues in Albany say.

On Thursday night, a representative for the freshman Democratic lawmaker appeared before Queens Community Board 2, which overlaps with Ardila’s district. The board is chaired by Danielle Brecker, who, as an elected state committee member, became one of the first elected officials to call for Ardila’s resignation last month. During Thursday’s meeting, the first since the allegations were made, Brecker had a message for Ardila.

“I don’t want to make this awkward,” Brecker told Ardila’s representative. “But there is a lot of frustration with the feeling that the assemblymember has not properly or fully addressed the allegations against him – and that he should really consider resigning.”

It’s been a month since the allegations against Ardila were first made public. In that time, nearly all of his Western Queens colleagues, one of the women he allegedly sexually assaulted, a number of his constituents and the governor have called on him to step down. He has, thus far, ignored those calls.

But also in that time, his fellow state legislators have been engaged in what is often the most important time in a lawmaker’s calendar – budget negotiating season. According to his colleagues, Ardila has been absent and has become, to some assemblymembers, a pariah in Albany. Some of his constituents have lost faith in his ability to advocate for them. And a number of his Western Queens colleagues at more local levels of government have sworn off collaborating with him on any policies or projects.

“A lot of people in the community have said to me, ‘this is really not okay’,” Brecker told the Eagle on Friday. “The first step of restorative justice is to listen to your survivor, and if you're an elected official, the second step of restorative justice is to listen to your community and to try to restore that trust, and if the community is saying we need you to step down, he should be listening to that.”

Other members of the board, including First Vice Chair Dr. Rosamond Gianutsos, said they were “concerned” that Ardila was not in Albany this week, and Caroline Spitzer, a constituent of Ardila’s, said she was disappointed that the lawmaker did not attend their meeting himself considering he wasn’t in Albany fighting for their needs in the state’s budget.

“Since he is posting on social media and not in Albany, I assumed he would be at the meeting,” Spitzer told the Eagle on Friday.

Ardila was not assigned to a budget negotiating committee, the only freshman Democrat to be left out. Spitzer said his exclusion from a committee also concerns her.

“We are in critical budget seasons and the fact that he wasn’t represented in any committees has me concerned,” she said. “We, as a district, are suffering for that.”

Although Brecker is not a constituent of Ardila’s, her board’s purview overlaps with his district. The board works closely with elected representatives at all levels of government and Brecker said that as of late, she doesn’t think that Ardila has been an effective representative.

“If he's not effective in Albany, he shouldn't be in Albany,” she said. “He's not doing the job.”

“I thought he was kind of good, but I feel like right now, [his constituents] are not being represented,” she added. “I was in Albany three weeks ago advocating for things in the budget. I didn't see him. I saw both of my electeds, I saw all the area electeds…I didn't see him anywhere.”

An average assemblymember is not negotiating the state’s budget line-by-line. Instead, they advocate for their position during their party’s conference meetings or they advocate for their position in public through rallies, the press or town halls with their constituents.

According to an assemblymember who requested anonymity, Ardila has been iced out of budget talks over the past month.

“I think there are a number of members who do not want to share space with him…I mean that in the very literal sense – if he's on the floor, I know that there are people who don't want to be on the floor,” the assemblymember said. “His presence in a room has an impact on whether or not people want to be in that same room.”

NY Post 

  Assemblyman Juan Ardila ditched a pro-bail reform rally at the Capitol on Monday before refusing to answer questions from The Post about sexual misconduct allegations made against him by two women. The freshman Queens Democrat has avoided the press in recent weeks without explicitly saying whether he forcibly touched two women without their consent while they were intoxicated at a 2015 party.

One of the women says Ardila exposed himself and forcibly kissed her as well.

“I put my statement out and am focusing on doing the work,” the lawmaker said during a four-minute, one-sided interview in which The Post pressed him to clarify his contradictory statements about whether he did what he is accused of.

Fellow Democrats have mostly shunned Ardila, 29, ever since the Queens Chronicle revealed the accusations against him on March 13, weeks after he took office.

Juan Anon investigates and exonerates himself

  

Queens Chronicle

 

Assemblymember Juan Ardila (D-Maspeth) hired legal counsel to conduct an independent review of the accusations of sexual assault made against him, and it has found him not guilty, two sources familiar with the situation told the Chronicle. The same sources said Ardila plans to announce the findings next week.

Ardila had not previously made public the review, which was conducted within a matter of weeks as Albany was and still is in the midst of budget negotiations for the upcoming fiscal year. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When one of the two women accusing the lawmaker learned of the review — for which she told the Chronicle she was not contacted — she on Thursday opted to press charges and cooperate with a criminal investigation into the allegations by the NYPD’s special victims unit and the Office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, as the New York Post reported Thursday night. Bragg’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Office of Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark is also involved with the case, a source familiar with the investigation told the Chronicle. Asked for confirmation on the DA’s role in the case, a spokesperson for the office said, “We are unable to comment on a possible investigation right now, but will provide information at a later time if we can.”

Assemblymember Catalina Cruz (D-Corona), a close ally of Ardila’s, had previously called for an independent review into her colleague’s alleged actions. 

Asked about her role in the review, Cruz wrote in a message to the Chronicle, “I have no comment except to say that I can confirm that I have never and don’t practice that area of the law and I’m not involved with any type of investigation on this matter.”

Less than three weeks ago, Ardila was accused of sexually assaulting the women, two Fordham University students, at an October 2015 party in Manhattan with other Fordham students and alumni, as the Chronicle first reported. He had graduated from the school the previous spring. His first accuser said she came forward after learning he had been elected to the state Assembly in November.

Neither woman had reported her experience to the police in 2015 — which one of them previously told the Chronicle was out of a lack faith in the legal system and initially, a lack of tangible evidence — nor had either taken any legal action up until now. 

Asked about her change of heart, the victim, who is pressing charges, said in a statement to the Chronicle, “Juan Ardila’s disregard for the calls from elected officials and my call for resignation is a clear sign that he is unfit for public office. 

“I hope for a fair and swift investigation and justice will be served. Juan Ardila must be held accountable for the pain inflicted to his victims including those who may have not publicly come forward yet.”

Lizzie The Builder

 

 QNS

After falling short in her last three political campaigns, former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has shifted gears, allowing her to win her first election in over a decade. The Glendale resident will succeed Lou Coletti as president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers Association (BTEA), the largest construction trade association in New York.

Crowley became the first woman to lead the BTEA in its nearly 120-year history.

“I look forward to working with BTEA membership companies to advance the construction industry as it addresses the pressing needs of people in our communities, drives innovation and adds to a more sustainable and resilient skyline that is built by a diverse and inclusive union workforce,” Crowley said.

Under her leadership of the contractor organization that represents 1,200 member companies across New York, Crowley said BTEA will continue to promote safety, bring more women and diversity to the construction industry, increase resilience in the built environment and lead in the fight against climate change. During her two terms on the City Council, Crowley fought for a record amount of funding for school construction in her district and passed resolutions that strengthened construction safety standards, expanded opportunities for Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises and funded programs that provided industry training including Nontraditional Employment for Women.

“This is the first time I won an election unanimously,” Crowley told QNS. “I went into politics in the first place to do good and make a difference and affect positive change and as an advocate for the building construction industry in New York, we do just the same.”

Donovan Richards Great White YIMBY Hope

 

 

This is Brandon Zwagerman, a gay resident of Ridgewood and new member of Community Board 5. He's a bike zealot and a big fan of Citibike and wants the failing bike share to usurp more parking spaces in the district. Donnie Richards appointed, make that anointed this guy to the board over a civic leader who also lives in Ridgewood and who is also gay and has been a resident longer.

But there are obvious reasons Donnie Rich is enamored with this gentrifier, Zwagerman also has done some meddling in Soho and East New York to lobby for more overdevelopment of luxury and incremental affordable housing, so he's all a part of that "city of yes" doctrine to approve rezonings while undermining community voices against them. He also donated money to multiple fauxgressive elected officials who are notoriously agency captured by "advocacy" lobbyists for the anti-car and YIMBY luxury public housing agenda, which includes the most notorious one of all, Juan Ardila, assuring his ascendance to his assembly seat and who is currently under investigation for two sexual assaults on women he took advantage of while they were intoxicated.