And Bill or Warren, how's about those promises to the residents of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper that you made pre-election time and that meeting with Dan and the TA in Dan's apartment in July of last year, over Veniero's cannolis, where a plan was going to be put forth in a hopeful 60 days? We're still waiting. Though we could be understandably waiting to be screwed or sold down the East River, which is my educated guess.
56 comments:
Why the H am I not surprised. What were we expecting from NYC?
In answer to your question, STR: YES! It is time to de Blasio a Fuckin" Idiot. If he is not totally stupid, then he's totally corrupt. His photo-op with Rob Speyer is about as tasteful as his wife smilingly hugging David Duke.
Ugh REBNY Spinola is on de Blasio's DNC list too. de Blasio's disdain for NYC tenants is showing.
I didn't vote fir him.
He's a total sham.
After 20 years of Giuliani and Bloomberg rezoning and tax giveaways to developers, the fact that StuyTown is in the hands of these vultures and is rapidy being devoured is DeBlasio's fault? Unless you are proposing a wholesale change in current laws there is not much he can do, and the current owners are actually not much worse than any others in this city.
Here's the deal: real estate taxes are the biggest source of city revenue, almost 30% of th budget. We can all agree the taxes on the new luxury towers could be higher, but that would just make this lobby more powerful since they are paying such a large percentage already. It also would do nothing for existing housing even if it went towrds building new affordable units.
The problems that StuyTown face now are the same ones that face all New Yorkers. This insane market was been created over decades with rent protections that expire over time due to vacancy decontrol and luxury conversions. All of this was supported by almost every former mayor and by "liberal" politicians including Anthony Weiner, Bill Thompson and Chrstine Quinn. In the last mayoral election only John Liu had a semblnce of a plan that addressed issues faced by Stuy Town, but his ideas for a City, State and Federal financing fund were basically ignored.
Mayor DeBlasio has said the right things, but without a broader coalition in Albany the decades of destruction to affordable housing are now irreparable. You can blame him all you want, but how does that advance the agenda or address the history of voters supporting mayors (and governors) who undermined the affordable housing stock they used to enjoy? When people vote against their own self-interest they get the government they deserve.
BIG BIRD at it again.
>>the fact that StuyTown is in the hands of these vultures and is rapidy being devoured is DeBlasio's fault?<<
Not his fault, but he can do something about it now that he is mayor. At the very least he should not be sucking up to the REBNY and having buddy-buddy photos taken of himself with someone like Rob Speyer who DEVASTATED this community and left tenants here with the burden of an incredible debt.
This guy is starting to look more and more like a well-meaning fool.
I disagree 3:26 AM
Here's the deal:
Advocates, politicians push to end billion-dollar housing developer tax break
The 421-a property tax exemption, which costs the city more than $1 billion a year, was slammed for 'returning nothing to the taxpayers.'
BY Erin Durkin
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Friday, January 30, 2015, 7:54 AM
“The 421-a benefit isn’t leading to any more development, it’s just leading to a greater level of profit for developers while returning nothing to the taxpayers,” said Benjamin Dulchin of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development at a City Hall rally.
“For the landlord lobby to argue that they won’t build another stick of housing unless they get this absolutely historically unjustifiable tax benefit is absurd on its face.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/advocates-politicians-push-housing-tax-break-article-1.2097458
That's 1.1Billion dollars. The Albany 421 a jackpot for RE is now $1.1billion dollars
The feds are now probing how One57, an ultra-luxe Midtown building where the penthouse sold for $100 million, scored a tax break for $35 million.
“It’s helping individuals who can buy $100 million apartments, and I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going for that,” said Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan).
YAY Preet for investigating One57 tax breaks and more because as we all know:
The real reason why the rent is too high
Big developers flood politicians with cash
BY Jaron Benjamin NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, October 27, 2013, 4:15 AM
This year, after receiving tons of money from well-placed donors, the governor and members of the state Legislature quietly gave away millions of your tax dollars to developers of luxury towers. The deal was so bad that it is being looked at by the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption.
But developers of five Manhattan luxury towers wanted the subsidies without including affordable housing, and they got it — courtesy of language quietly inserted into a bill that coasted through the Legislature.
Thanks to Daily News reporting and the Met Council on Housing’s report, “Tax Breaks for Billionaires,” the public is now aware of this multi-million dollar giveaway.
The report found that four of the five developers used high contribution limits and loopholes to give more than $1.5 million to state elected officials, political parties and real estate PACs between 2008 and 2012, including at least $440,962 in 2012 alone. And Cuomo, who had to sign the legislation, was the biggest single recipient, pulling in $150,000 from the four developers in 2012.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/real-reason-rent-high-article-1.1497096
De Blasio can do nothing to affect things here. It's all smoke and mirrors. Granted that any mayor has to work with real estate developers. That's a reality. But among all the developers look who has chosen to get close with. That's the problem.
The little fish fed the big fish. All this came out in 2013. Real Estate Taxes are the Biggest Hole in City revenue.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver behind tax breaks to five luxury developers: sources
Two developers who stood to benefit from the tax breaks gave Cuomo big donations days before his bill-signing. Several sources involved in the process identified Silver as the creator of the lucrative tax relief.
BY Kenneth Lovett
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Sunday, August 18, 2013, 2:00 AM
Updated: Sunday, August 18, 2013, 5:05 AM
Steven Spinola, president of the influential Real Estate Board of New York, said his group had been asking to have properties citywide that once were eligible for a decades-old 421a residential tax abatement to again qualify for the program.
But Mayor Bloomberg’s budget staff warned it was impossible to know how many projects would be covered by such a change. Assembly Democrats also objected to extending the tax breaks citywide.
Spinola said City Hall and Silver’s chief counsel, James Yates, instead each asked for a list of specific properties that the organization wanted covered.
Spinola delivered the list to the mayor’s office, the Assembly Democrats and the state Senate. The city had two conditions, but was otherwise fine with it, Spinola said.
Politicians taking our RS apartments for themselves, taking away our ability to keep our RS apartments with the RE favoritism in their lawmaking, and giving tax breaks in exchange for RS apartments. The City Council is as corrupt as Albany - bloody hypocrites.
The Manhattan district attorney has opened a criminal investigation into newly elected Assemblyman Erik Dilan (D-Brooklyn) over his shady apartment deal.
Tenants for the apartment couldn’t earn more than $114,000, but Dilan and his wife made $174,000. The landlord was a friend of Dilan who received Council approval for tax breaks on developments.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/da-probes-brooklyn-assemblyman-shady-apartment-deal-article-1.2097440
Big Bird probably smoking his dubies at night on his porch hidden by his new 7 foot walls. Nice.
Don't look at me - I didn't vote for him.
That's just for starters.
Cuomo may soon be the only guy left in the room...
"US Attorney probing Dean Skelos’ ties to real estate industry. Investigation of NY's Senate Majority Leader follows arrest of Sheldon Silver on bribery charges"
http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/01/30/dean-skelos-under-investigation-for-ties-to-real-estate-industry/
"Federal authorities have launched an investigation into New York Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos’ links to the real estate industry.
Skelos is U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s latest target, after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested last week for an alleged $4 million bribery scheme tied to a real estate law firm, according to NBC 4 New York. Skelos, who is serving his 16th term, is the highest ranking Republican in the State Senate."
"This guy is starting to look more and more like a well-meaning fool."
Sadly, I agree with you. I think he means well and has a good heart, but he is so in the grips of these treacherous "friends" in the REBNY that they will use and manipulate him for their own avaricious goals and I don't think he will see them for what they are until it's too late.
I hope the Dem debacle doesn't come to Barclay Center. That place is a disaster. A friend of mine had a terrible accident there when a drunk fell on her. The rows of seats are arranged so it is like sitting on narrow stairs. It is a mass tragedy waiting to happen. Very poorly designed - and no doubt with the intention of saving money.
You really can;t make this stuff up.
De Blasio picks Silver pal to help with city’s 2016 DNC bid
"He is known as one of the top political donors in New York state — and has skirted around caps on campaign contributions by funneling millions of dollars in donations through more than 20 limited-liability companies controlled by Glenwood."
http://nypost.com/2015/01/30/de-blasio-picks-silver-pal-to-help-with-citys-2016-dnc-bid/
NY will make the entire DNC the butt of every joke on corruption in politics.
Avatar of Jay McInerney
Jay McInerney @JayMcInerney · Jan 24
Preet rules. Cuomo drools. Deblasio mewls.
https://twitter.com/JayMcInerney
"Not his fault, but he can do something about it now that he is mayor. At the very least he should not be sucking up to the REBNY and having buddy-buddy photos taken of himself with someone like Rob Speyer who DEVASTATED this community and left tenants here with the burden of an incredible debt."
Thank you STR. You saved me the trouble of responding to that nonsense myself.
Oh I see, so the whole problem is Bill DeBlasio taking pictures with the most powerful people in the city. Since when would a Mayor do something like that? Now I get it. But 32 years of real estate loving Koch and Giuliani and Bloomberg were not the problem? That makes total sense. And Guterman's plans to help were just not good enough for anyone in this beer money/champagne taste crowd? And Dan Garodnick isn't doing everything you want so forget him too. Right. And then there's REBNY. And the heat doesn't work. And REBNY. And the washing machines are broken. And did I mention REBNY? And there's nowhere to park all the bikes. It's all becoming perfectly clear now This place isn't a Community or a Commodity. it's Groundhog Day without the punch lines.
Whatever happened to that Brookfield/TA website? It seems to have disappeared, at least I can't seem to access it. Does anyone remember the one I'm talking about? It's the site that had the news clippings and interviews with DG and Meredith. How the TA was going to kick CW Capital out of here by appealing directly to the bondholders. Did the TA mention that they were taking it down and give an explanation as to why?
.1 this will almost certainly guarantee that NYC will not host the convention.
.2 if by chance we get the convention, I pity the poor fools who think they are getting NYC and instead getting hipster Brooklyn.
We cannot have another Silver as speaker -- whether it is Heastie's baby mama antics or that De Blasio and De Blasio's "man of integirty" Sheldon Silver both back Heastie, or most importantly Heastie's ties to the real estate industry as pointed out by our Assemblyman Kavanagh.
Mr Kavanagh Thank you for saying you oppose a real estate guy for Speaker - this and every middle class New York community needs to be protected from the out-of-control real estate industry. Please follow your words with loud, bold actions and get results. Don't let Heastie prevail. BE LOUDER in your protest and actions of a real estate guy for Assembly Speaker.
baby mama drama
http://nypost.com/2015/01/30/carl-heastie-made-campaign-payments-to-ex-for-work-she-didnt-do/
De Blasio and his man of integrity Silver
http://nypost.com/2015/01/31/speaker-hopeful-heastie-has-the-support-of-sheldon-silver/
This photo sends two messages.
For Speyer, it's a trophy - "I own him! He's convinced he can never succeed or win reelection without me. He will betray his constituents for me. He will give me immunity if I need it. Watch him jump when I say 'Jump!'"
For DeBlasio, it's a warning - "Speyer owns me. I will never do anything delivering a benefit to 99% that does not deliver a much greater benefit to Speyer. I will jump when he orders me to jump. I can publicly disagree with him, but don't you ever ask me to disobey him."
Given all the graft and corruption that's been exposed in New York over the past few years, I would think that any proposal to bring the DNC here is DOA. You think think this reflects well on the Democratic party, or politicians in general?
The Republicans would have a field day mocking this state. And they'd be right, unfortunately.
STR - Right! DeBlasio is choosing to get close with the wrong people. And those are his choices. If he's surrounded by bad people, that's his fault, not theirs. That's why I say he's looking more & more like a well-meaning fool.
However, I think you're wrong that there is anything much he can do to help things here. Like what? Like what that hasn't already been done or tried? My point of view is that we're the only ones who can help ourselves. By making our presence and displeasures known in very loud, organized, public and forceful ways. Looking to the mayor or anyone else is just shifting away from or avoiding any call to action here. Forget that our elected officials are 'supposed' to help. In reality in spite of their rhetoric and promises in many instances their authority and options are limited. In a real tough fight, we only have ourselves. If communities get something going, politicians can help by lending their voices, but in the end in many situations it's up to us.
Up to us, but what can we do? Hate to sound pessimistic, but nothing seems to work and the odds are against us--from a political leadership that seems impotent, if not part of the problem, to a tenant base that is being supplanted month by month by transient students who just don't care what happens here in the long term or even short term.
12:09 AM: What's your point?
There is not much we can do for ourselves without a tenants association and, unfortunately, we no longer have a tenants association.
The majority of the tenants here are transients/students/MR tenants (don't insult me with the "new stabilizer" catch-phrase) and they are overwhelmingly NOT members of the TA and probably not even aware of it.
We need a new TA. A real TA.
What can we do:
MCIs: Here's a link.
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/URGENT--Potential-Rent-Increase---New-MCI-Application-in-the-Works.html?soid=1101432121316&aid=MgtIq_cpr8k
Yes, the TA was doing the right thing. Coordinated community effort. Coordinated with help from the councilman. But you were right. They took their eye off the ball to focus on the Brookfield deal.
Student Rentals: This actually is a job for our representatives. We can't stop student rentals. But the RS loophole needs to be closed. RS never anticipated having to deal with the transitory nature of students. Probably never came up; in the minds of lawmakers students live in school dorms. So having the ability to jack up rents by 20% after students leave needs to be taken away RETROACTIVELY. Since this means changing State Law, this is a job for Hoylman and Kavanagh. So an effort needs to organized, these guys have to be poked to meet the challenge and if they don't rise to the occasion, next election throw them out & vote in someone who will.
But all of this needs organization which ordinarily we'd expect the TA should be doing with effective focus.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) says that the actions of city police officers who turned their backs on him after two colleagues were killed were “really inappropriate.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/231374-de-blasio-nypd-turning-backs-was-inappropriate
Really?! And partying, having private birthday cake, throwing buddy photos in our face and calling Rob Speyer best and brightest after what he did to this community of your constituents isn't inappropriate? Mr de Blasio you are not qualified to determine what is and is not appropriate. Get your act together and start being the Mayor you promised in your campaigning.
"Not his fault, but he can do something about it now that he is mayor..."
Mayor DeBlasio could demand answers to questions Garadnick the TA evaded for more than three years.
TA - Why are you offering middle class ST-PCV tenants an expensive Brookfield condo that you know they can never possibly afford, then treating them like fools by pretending you are giving them a choice to buy or rent when they have no choice?
Garodnick - Senator Schumer gave $3 billion Fannie/Freddie funding to ST-PCV Tenants and NYC, then wisely stepped away. Why don't you join him and take your conflicted financial advisor and attorney with you?
Brookfield - What the hell are you doing here? You invested $25 million in Speyer's business plan to destroy ST-PCV. That should automatically disqualify you from participating in any plan to preserve what's left. Are you here to finish Speyer's work?
Brookfield - What is it that you are bringing to help middle class ST-PCV tenants?
---- Brookfield will comply with laws protecting middle class RS tenants unable to afford an expensive Brookfield condo. Cost to Brookfield = ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
---- Brookfield will not separate ST and PCV? Cost to Brookfield = ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
---- Brookfield will not build a skyscraper on the Oval? Cost to Brookfield = ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
Brookfield - What is it that
Garodnick and the TA are giving you in exchange for NOTHING?
---- Multiple Billion Dollar Windfalls.
---- Brookfield wins Speyer's billions without looking like a predator. In fact, Garodnick and the TA pretend Brookfield is the middle class hero that will rescue ST-PCV.
It all started with rent control and rent stabilization laws which are the heart of the problem. These poorly designed regulations result in elderly widows alone in 3 bedroom apartments while young families with 2+ kids squeeze into one bedrooms. No income requirements and lax residency requirements (enforced without penalties) are just a couple of the reasons why these regulations can't be defended. So developers chip away while liberal politicians look away. It's over folks and you can blame it all on the regulations that most here seem to hold so dearly (in many cases because there are no income checks) so you've thrown away decades of $$$ on rent and the result is no control, no say and lost neighborhoods. The nannies in political office would have served the public interest much better by creating more ownership options for the middle class,,
>>So having the ability to jack up rents by 20% after students leave needs to be taken away RETROACTIVELY. Since this means changing State Law, this is a job for Hoylman and Kavanagh. So an effort needs to organized, these guys have to be poked to meet the challenge and if they don't rise to the occasion, next election throw them out & vote in someone who will.<<
This has to be a PRIORITY. Wonder what our man Dan has done to make it so, if anything?
7:35 SO SPOT ON RIGHT
Such a great thread and reflective of this PCVST community that Dan and his TA insult to no end and call us stupid.
We are smart. We can figure out what they are doing even when they go to great lengths to keep the community in the dark. Good leadership does not have to keep people in the dark to look like the smartest person in the room. The smartest people are in the room are the ones who see what is going on, have ideas and solutions to put in action and from this thread that is clearly the community and not the corrupt TA, Dan and their gang.
Just because we were not given the appropriate information does not make us stupid. We see the corrupt plan and we have solutions which even the very very few politicians who would want to do the right things couldn't figure out.
The Brookfield / Tishman
Speyer / Paul Weiss Moelis / Garodnick - Kane plan was designed without Tenant consensus and involvement. It is illegal, unethical, fraudulent, corrupt to the core. If it weren't they could do it without all the Secrecy and Silence by city Agencies.
How many PCVST complaints is the DHCR ignoring and did DOB cover up?
Crimes are being Committed on this Community by a Corrupt alliance of private business and with government Cooperation who are treating PCV ST like a Commodity in a Corporate deal.
4:51 and STR at 9:23 With how fast the pols closed the condo buyer loophole for REBNY the pols could have closed that abuse and fir hazard of RS apartments chopped and filled with student dorms years ago and should have. Those pols Dan Lappin chose to open the loophole. They need to be held accountable for putting our lives at risk and destroying our QOL. And I totally agree this must be done retroactively.
What a bunch of f-heads.
10:52 AM. I totally agree with you. What is happening in PCVST is an absolutely disgraceful abuse of the RS laws. Garodnick is complicit in this, as are the other bozos - Hoylman and Kavanaugh, who do NOTHING to even address this abuse.
I believe that Dan G is only interested in getting his greedy little hands on the property for his pals Brookfield, Paul Weiss and Brookfield's attorneys, who have been drooling over STPCV for a long time now.
I would turn my back on de Basio for the way he has turned his back on us. Same goes for Garodnick and the rest of this grinning assholes who are posing with the REBNY goons.
I think Rob Speyer is a despicable thug.
>>I totally agree with you. What is happening in PCVST is an absolutely disgraceful abuse of the RS laws. Garodnick is complicit in this, as are the other bozos - Hoylman and Kavanaugh, who do NOTHING to even address this abuse.
I believe that Dan G is only interested in getting his greedy little hands on the property for his pals Brookfield, Paul Weiss and Brookfield's attorneys, who have been drooling over STPCV for a long time now.<<
Kavanaugh is a good guy and has done more to help RS tenants than others. The jury is out on Hoylman. I think Dan's problem is that he envisions himself as Mr. Progressive, but his type of progressive is at odds with the earthy, no-BS working class ethos of real New Yorkers.
"Kavanaugh is a good guy and has done more to help RS tenants than others. The jury is out on Hoylman. I think Dan's problem is that he envisions himself as Mr. Progressive, but his type of progressive is at odds with the earthy, no-BS working class ethos of real New Yorkers."
Can't go into details, but DG is DEEP in with the RE crowd, especially Brookfield and its representatives.
I, like many was disappointed when the CEO of Brookfield joined the Mayor during the Veteran's Day Parade with all the bad things that Brookfield is doing to this community. If the Mayor wants to find the right thing to do, he could return PCVST to it's roots, a middle class community and restore the illegally dormified apartments to RS at an incoming RS rate and offer them to returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families. Kick our CWCR/Brookfield/ and take Dan and the Buyer's Association too. What a disgrace.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/11/8535841/veterans-day-de-blasio-reflects-his-fathers-post-war-challenges
Bill de Blasio Marches In Veterans Day Parade With OWS Nemesis ; What Political Mandate ?
Mitch Rudin, president and CEO of U.S. commercial operations at Brookfield Office Properties, evicted Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park.
For several blocks, New York City mayor-elect Bill de Blasio marched in today's Veterans Day Parade alongside Mitch Rudin, the US CEO for Brookfield Properties. Brookfield Properties was the landlord over Zuccotti Park, which had been the site of the Occupy Wall Street encampment, before Brookfield asked Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the NYPD to evict the protesters.
Mr. de Blasio campaigned for mayor on a platform that supported Occupy Wall Street sensibilities, but the de Blasio campaign has not addressed the apparent contradiction of the mayor-elect embracing Mr. Rudin when so many Occupy activists were under the impression that Mr. de Blasio was a sympathizer.
Occupy Wall Street is "speaking to what people feel all over this country" –Bill de Blasio at Zuccotti Park, 10/13/11
http://bill-de-blasio-sold-out.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html
Day after day, alone on the hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
And he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around
Well on the way, head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around
And nobody seems to like him
They can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around
Can't go into details, but DG is DEEP in with the RE crowd, especially Brookfield and its representatives.
Words to heed.
Doesn't matter how deep Dan is in with Real Estate GODS themselves. This place is not going coop. If you want it to, if you don't want to to. It IS NOT.
DG has no say or power in the matter, the market will demand a conversion plan, whether you like it or not.
9 55 ? Mrket demands rentals - rentals at 3500 to 5500 a month.
11,500 of them.
This place has been ruined forever. Sadly, it is only going to get worse. :( They are not going to offer you to buy anything when they can rent out an apartment for over $4,000.00/month. AND, Why would anyone buy their own UN -renovated apt. Pipe dream everyone, pipe dream. I HATE living here and will look for somewhere else to live. I am NOT going down with THIS ship. Good luck everyone!
Word round campfire is that buyers are reluctant to purchase a failed property and if they do would not repeat the failed business model (rental) and would assuredly pursue conversion.
De Blasio is totally owned and controlled by the vile and despicable Spinola and Speyer. The REBNY is like a fascist regime that wields power over politicians and voters. I think they are the absolute epitome of Evil because their one and only god is Money and they have no humanity or decency whatsoever.
Again, bears repeating.
Blogger Stuy Town Reporter said...
>>So having the ability to jack up rents by 20% after students leave needs to be taken away RETROACTIVELY. Since this means changing State Law, this is a job for Hoylman and Kavanagh. So an effort needs to organized, these guys have to be poked to meet the challenge and if they don't rise to the occasion, next election throw them out & vote in someone who will.<<
This has to be a PRIORITY. Wonder what our man Dan has done to make it so, if anything?
February 1, 2015 at 9:23 AM
Our Man Dan is part of the sickness, not part of the cure. He is a pawn of the RE MAFIA, and he's angling to become a Made Man at our expense.
Is it time to call Mayor Bill de Blasio (aka Warren Wilhelm, Jr) a Fuckin' Idiot?
Yes.
Time to start electing people to these positions. Not groomed party politicians that will only sell the people out.
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