Our landlord, BLACKSTONE, can't handle Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village. There is a lack of enforcement of certain "rules," and no amount of notice to this alleviates the problems. We are continually being told half-truths and fabrications. And we have no viable Tenants organization, despite our TA asking for dues all the time. So far, the politicians have proven to be basically useless. A typical New York story.
Innocent until proven guilty but the pattern for these guys is...after getting into office they start rubbing elbows with the rich...like the REBNY and envy starts creeping in. They start thinking...hey, here I am working sooo hard for an unappreciative public for much less pay than I deserve. I need to get mine while I can.
Feds claim Silver of 'took legal action and other steps' to prevent disclosure of the alleged scheme to the state Moreland Commission.
Michael Gormley @GormleyAlbany
Fed complaint accuses of Assembly Speaker Silver of pocking $6 million in a continuing scheme
Michael Gormley @GormleyAlbany
US Attorney accuses Assembly Speaker Silver of taking millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks, complaint says.
Michael Gormley @GormleyAlbany
Michael Gormley covers Albany for Newsday. He covers Gov. Cuomo, the Legislature and New York politics and issues important to New Yorkers. Albany, N.Y. twitter.com/#!/GormleyAlba…
In order to write laws for politicians to pass for REBNY, Spinola said REBNY must "maintain a personal and supportive relationship was critical in shaping the outcome” of legislation."
And by supportive he means financially (wink wink)
"In a memo to REBNY members seen by the newspaper, Spinola said that based on private meetings with Cuomo, the Senate majority leader [Dean Skelos or Jeffrey Klein] and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, he had come to a clear conclusion: REBNY’s “past efforts to maintain a personal and supportive relationship was critical in shaping the outcome” of legislation.
“Our future ability to adopt favorable legislation, stop terrible legislation or modify legislation to limit the pain to our industry is directly tied to our continued positive relationship,” Spinola continued in the memo.
- See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/07/24/rebnys-influence-over-cuomo-laid-bare/#sthash.M3VlZtRp.dpuf
The law firms should be shut down and the partners disbarred if the New York Bar Association is to retain any shred of integrity. There needs to be a call to disbar the partners of those law firms!
ALBANY— Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver pocketed more than $6 million in bribes and kickbacks by using his power in Albany to pressure real estate developers with business before the state to hire two law firms that paid him regularly to exert influence, according to a five-count federal indictment made public Thursday.
DOB and landlord named as co-defendants in lawsuit by rent stabilized tenant being forced into eviction so landlord can chop apartments into smaller units. Landlord uses construction as weapon to harass tenants.
"Public Advocate Letitia James plans to join the suit and name the city’s Department of Buildings as a co-defendant.
“Far too many tenants are being targeted by landlords who want to flip buildings for maximum profit at the expense of working people,” James said. “We will do everything in our power to protect affordable housing for long term residents in communities like Harlem.”
I hope he is convicted and is the first of many. I'm just sick of these corrupt politicians who enrich themselves at the expense of the people they are supposed to be representing. Any and every politician connected to the REBNY and developers is dirty because the RE industry is the dirtiest and most corrupt industry in existence (except for, possibly, child pornography and human trafficking). We need a thorough examination and purging of all the filth holding political office and dealing with RE. Then, possibly, this city will become livable again.
PW1 Supports New Required Item To better protect New York City residents, the New Codes enhance Tenant Protection Plan requirements. Applicants must indicate on the PW1 which units will be occupied during proposed work in occupied, multiple-dwelling properties, including Single-Room Occupancies. In addition, the Tenant Protection Plan must be included in the notes section of the submitted plans. View Section 28-104.8.4 for more information
PCVST Tenants should be given a copy of the Tenant Protection Plan filed with the DOB for all the construction especially the multiple sites in the Oval and First Avenue Loop where contaminated soil and construction debris was dug up.
In addition to tenants and public advocate James fighting against and suing the DOB / landlords
A Mitchell-Lama co-op board is fighting against the horrible management company they ousted and the DHCR for backing the horrible management company. In December DHCR used weight of a "deal" made with Wells Fargo saying the horrible management company cannot technically legally be ousted AND that the management company does not need to be reinstated!
Take that Wells Fargo you horrible home stealing bank! And DHCR for your deals made with banks and certain lawmakers passing laws that cripple tenants ability to protect ourselves and protect our homes!
ALBANY — Over the past five years, New York State has awarded more than $7.4 billion in contracts to clients of law firms that employ state legislators, according to a review of court filings and other records.
The 954 contracts range from $1.7 billion for Caithness Energy, a client of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, where the State Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, works part time, to $130 million for salt for state highways, awarded to a client of the firm that employs Senator Michael F. Nozzolio of Seneca County.
The contracts are a fraction of the more than $200 billion awarded by the state during the period. But they represent a vast pool of potential conflicts that are at the heart of a debate over ethics in Albany, where the Senate and the Assembly on Monday approved a disclosure and oversight law in response to corruption scandals that have tarnished state government for years.
" The state’s most powerful Republi can is refusing to reveal whether he’s earning legal fees from clients who do business with the state, a practice Gov. Cuomo says could involve conflicts of interest or even bribery.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, over a four-day period, repeatedly ducked and dodged after The Post asked the simple question of whether he’s representing legal clients who have business before state government. "
I love it! First Smelly Shelly and then the rest of the filthy mob! No politician who is involved with the RE mob is clean. It's like being involved with the Gotti mob and claiming you're clean. Not do-able. Spitzer's escapades will be tame compared to when they get to Cuomo!
The last paragraph in this excerpt is mindblowing. The tax breaks these pols give themselves and their buddies while they give working class no breaks and make us pay for other people's debt.
The sizable number of properties on the Lower East Side for which Mr. [Jay Arthur] Goldberg has sought real estate tax reductions include Mr. Silver’s own co-op, the Hillman Housing Corporation, a development of brick apartment buildings on Grand Street, tax records show, as well as the commercial building across the street that is listed in state records as the address for Mr. Silver’s campaign committee, Friends of Silver. Mr. Goldberg and his firm have also represented a related development along Grand Street and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, the East River Housing Corporation, the records show, which like Hillman Housing is managed by a close Silver associate, Harold Jacob.
A recent letter from the East River board president to shareholders heralded what it said were the successes of its tax certiorari firm, without mentioning it by name. “In almost every year they have been successful in reducing the increase in our taxes,” the board president, Gary Altman, wrote in the letter.
Mr. Jacob, in a 2009 letter to East River shareholders, noted that the city had raised the development’s assessment to $28 million, and that its tax certiorari lawyer “was very successful in reducing what could have been a $3,000,000 increase to a $750,000 increase” in taxes.
""In a memo to REBNY members seen by the newspaper, Spinola said that based on private meetings with Cuomo, the Senate majority leader [Dean Skelos or Jeffrey Klein] and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, he had come to a clear conclusion: REBNY’s “past efforts to maintain a personal and supportive relationship was critical in shaping the outcome” of legislation.
“Our future ability to adopt favorable legislation, stop terrible legislation or modify legislation to limit the pain to our industry is directly tied to our continued positive relationship,” Spinola continued in the memo."
That just about says it all, doesn't it? There should be a strict law that forbids politicians from making private agreements with REBNY and allowing REBNY from impacting and influencing legislation.
I hope we see heads roll. So SICK of the filth who run and ruin our city and our lives for their personal gain.
""Public Advocate Letitia James plans to join the suit and name the city’s Department of Buildings as a co-defendant.
“Far too many tenants are being targeted by landlords who want to flip buildings for maximum profit at the expense of working people,” James said. “We will do everything in our power to protect affordable housing for long term residents in communities like Harlem.”"
I WISH SHE WOULD ADD STUYVESANT TOWN/PCV TO THAT. AS BAD AS IT IS IN HARLEM, IT IS JUST AS BAD HERE. THE DOB HAS OKAYED SO MANY SHADY PROJECTS HERE AND OUR SO-CALLED TA AND COUNCILMAN HAVE BEEN COMPLICIT.
PCVST Tenants should be given a copy of the Tenant Protection Plan filed with the DOB for all the construction especially the multiple sites in the Oval and First Avenue Loop where contaminated soil and construction debris was dug up. >>>>>
YES! If we actually had a Tenants Association this would already have been done! We need a TA that is not complicit with our RE butt boy of a councilman.
All Talk Then Deliberate Sabotage Sheldon Silver Screwed Tenants and Helped landlords for 20 years
Sheldon Silver
Every year, the Assembly passes a package of one-house pro-tenant bills, and every year, Shelly Silver puts out a press release touting its commitment to tenants’ rights. But somehow he never seems able to win anything at the negotiating table.
In 1997, he was the public face of opposition to then-Senate majority leader Joe Bruno, who threatened to allow the rent laws to expire. Silver stated that he would not pass the state budget until the rent laws were renewed, a gutsy move that gave him leverage. He amassed real resources for the campaign, enlisting the labor-union movement for the first time to fight for rent regulation. Then, on the last day, the very day the laws were due to expire, he gave away the store in negotiations, agreeing to a devastating array of deregulation amendments in return for a six-year extender.
In 2003, Silver made no effort, relying on a handshake deal with Bruno that the laws would be extended without any changes. When Bruno double-crossed him and passed additional pro-landlord amendments on the session’s last night, Silver was forced to accept it, as otherwise the rent laws would have disappeared.
Will Silver use any real leverage on behalf of tenants in 2015? The only way to strengthen Silver’s resolve is to make our strongest allies in the Assembly demand that he do the right thing. If his members are loud enough and determined enough, it makes it tougher for him to accept anything less than a real victory.
Something is going on at Dhcr. Several of us I now know have filled out overcharges months and months ago, almost up to a year. No replies except for PENDING and no help from the office. They're finding ways to run the wait game, time game and loopholes to void and ignore.
Tax certiorari's are routinely filed on behalf of property owners who seek to have their tax assessment lowered. Happens every day, all over the nation. There are attorney's who specialize in these appeals. I guess the question will be did The Speaker exert undue influence in having decisions overturned. I'll be very surprised if he's convicted.
Silver aside...does anyone know if the info posted in this link about MCIs is correct: http://metcouncilonhousing.org/help_and_answers/major_capital_improvement_rent_increases#answer01 I've never received any notice of MCIs that I can recall. Right now there is demolition going on in our basement which makes me think an MCI is coming.
I want to be sure to challenge every MCI moving forward.
That just about says it all, doesn't it? There should be a strict law that forbids politicians from making private agreements with REBNY and allowing REBNY from impacting and influencing legislation.
I hope we see heads roll. So SICK of the filth who run and ruin our city and our lives for their personal gain.
January 22, 2015 at 2:47 PM
Totally agree. Which is why I cannot understand councilman Garodnick and PCVSTTA hiring an anti-tenant REBNY lawyer to mass evict, overcharge tenants and overdevelop our open spaces and park. What are the details of their deal that we tenants are paying a high price for? Sickening.
Preet has put everyone from the governor to legislators to the lobbyists/consultants (who have replaced the clubhouse bosses) on notice. Absent real political reform and transparency, he’ll continue to prune Albany’s corrupt vineyard.
I’m pleased that higher political powers didn’t trundle Preet off to Washington, DC, and so abort his efforts to completely dissolve “the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics.”
Preet Bharara is like Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in “Tombstone,” calling out to Albany’s wild cowboys, “I’m coming and Hell is coming with me!”
COMPLETELY AGREE How is any of this not abuse of public office?
"I think that Garodnick's ties with Paul Weiss and Brookfield's attorneys should be closely examined.
January 22, 2015 at 2:58 PM"
AGREE. Problem is those who are supposed to look into it are in on it. The deal is put together by the same people who are supposed to investigate the ethics and legality of the deal that is based on business with no consideration for people or we would not have seen the mass evictions in the thousands and the Deteriorating Quality of Life and Infrastructure.
Garodnick's ties with Paul Weiss his former law firm and he and Meredith Kane are both on Mayor de Blasio's Economic Development Committee. In fact 29 REBNY members are on Mayor de Blasio's / Viverito's Economic Development Committee that is chaired by Dan Garodnick.
Senator Charles Schumer's ties with Paul Weiss through his power deal maker brother Robert Schumer
AND
Scott Stringer's ties
AND
AG Schneiderman's ties especially with his Harvard college friend Meredith Kane
"The 15-year renewal lease was the talk of several real estate gatherings last week. On Thursday night, for instance, real estate partner Meredith Kane was lauded at the WX dinner by her Harvard Law School chums, Jennifer Raab, head of Hunter College, and State Senator Eric Schneiderman."
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-nadler/35/9ba/621 Volunteer Experience & Causes Communications Bill de Blasio for Mayor 2013 Politics
Research Eric Schneiderman for Attorney General 2010 Politics
Assistant Policy Director Scott Stringer for Manhattan Borough President 2005Politics
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It seems the entire NYC administration and this well-connected law firm is trying to sink the PCVST working middle class community to replace it with glass towers of luxury condos with tax-break laden 20% poor housing in some hollow victory for affordable housing.
The relationship between REBNY players at the gala party, law Firm Paul Weiss, Meredith Kane, Senator Schumer, AG Schneirderman, Scott Stringer, Dan Garodnick, Mayor de Blasio is unabashedly flaunted in our faces. There is nothing we can do to save our homes unless in the highly unlikely event these players change their minds and choose to consider the people they are hurting instead of only seeing the profits they are generating and reaping. Evicting working middle class tenants was always part of the deal details put together by REBNY's Meredith Kane and "quarterbacked" by Dan Garodnick.
But what gets me most in this article is this millionaire Sheldon Silver knows and lives the benefits of a co-op yet he and his millionaire politician buddies Garodnick, Schneiderman, put together a deal denying our working middle class community the same benefits of a co-op - instead putting together a deal kicking us out to bring in a new neighborhood of a wealthier community.
And for the middle class working people - get out and make way for the luxury condos because you can't afford market rate and make too much for Mayor de Blasio's Affordable Housing plan.
Millionaires get rent stabilized apartments and affordable co-ops and middle class get the boot.
That is the worse of the worse versions of Tale of Two cities.
Sheldon Silver and his cronies knew he was breaking the law, abusing his office to hurt people and enrich himself.
ALBANY — There’s a little known anecdote about Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver that reveals a lot about why the state’s second-most powerful Democrat is facing five federal corruption charges that could put him in prison for the rest of his life.
For the better part of a decade during the 2000s, Silver told an associate, he would routinely send a $100 check each year to the campaign committee of former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
“I knew he didn’t need the money,’’ Silver told the associate with a nervous laugh.
“But I wanted to see if he would cash my check. If he did, then I knew I wasn’t in any trouble because if he was investigating me, he wouldn’t have taken the money.’’
"Rumors have circulated that bags of cash were being delivered to the speaker’s office on behalf of various special-interest pleaders, although that’s never been proven. But the existence of the rumors indicates the climate around Silver."
How to get taxpayers to pay for your double and triple and quadruple air miles
"Silver didn’t knock down the suspicion that he was about making as much money as possible a few years ago when he began defending his bizarre practice of flying on the state’s dime from New York City to Albany via Washington, DC, or some other distant spot so he could pick up a few extra frequent flier miles for his personal use."
Word is Silver has enough air miles to retire and travel around the world.
The Wall Street Journal names the names of the doctors and developers in the Sheldon Silver kickback scheme. This is one of, if not the biggest reason why rent stabilization has been weakened, the top NY political donor Leonard Litwin.
I want to be sure to challenge every MCI moving forward. .......
We all do, but since Garodnick hijacked the TA, and they all embraced REBNY-attorney, Meredith Kane, I don't think we will have much of a chance.
January 22, 2015 at 9:37 PM
Exactly. That is why there is NO transparency on the deal Meredith Kane is putting together. That is why Steinberg and Marsh and the whole "tenant" association board has kept tenants in the dark. That is why every tenant who tried to reach out to our public servants was thrown under the bus by each and every one of them at every twist and turn. That is the deal REBNY has been putting together with all these public servant players, sinking the PCVST community and property.
January 22, 2015 at 6:49 PM gets it. I'm all for clean gov't but the timing sucks for us tenants. Like it or not, warts and all, Silver was the guy repping tenants when it comes down to the June showdown with Cuomo and Skelos over renewing rent regs. This leaves the pro-tenant Assembly (and maybe pro-tenants rights lobbying groups), in disarray. Landlords are probably gloating. Brad Hoylman tweeted that Silver should resign now. That's for sure. We can't expect things to go down well in June if we're talking about 2.25 men in a room.
Tenant rights people are probably scrambling. Teachers too - Silver was also on their side. That's maybe a good thing since teachers seem to have more political juice than tenants. I'm waiting to hear Mike McKee's take on this.
Silver was always a bucket of slime, but I used to think he was our bucket of slime. At yesterday's press conference, Preet Bharara mentioned that when Shelly did a deal with landlords, the landlords were surprised that he didn't ask for more for tenants (I think this is covered in paragraph 35 of the indictment). Now it turns out he wasn't even our bucket of slime, and we're in an even worse position as renters. Wonder what his rabbi's sermon is going to be about tomorrow.
NYS government is ruled by three men in a room striking secret deals. Dramatic political theater was staged every four years during the Pataki/Bruno era with Silver portraying himself as middle class superhero swooping in at the last minute to rescue RS from the same greedy landlords simultaneously bribing him with millions of dollars in kickbacks under the table.
Now Cuomo is one of those three men and although he's funded/owned by Speyer's gang and, at best, governs like a moderate GOP, the REBNY/RSA lobby doesn't like unnecessarily shelling out millions bribing more than one phony superhero. To them, Cuomo isn't just another corrupt politician taking kickbacks. His background, ambition and potential beyond Albany make him an investment for them to groom, nurture and control. They wanted Silver out, so Cuomo accommodated them with Moreland. The effort backfired, with blowback threatening their precious investment. Bummer!
Silver's a fox raiding henhouses in NYC and Albany for over 50 years. He knows where more NYS skeletons are buried than all the other predators combined, including the billionaires. They forgot Silver crushed Mayor Bloombuck's scheme to give a $2 billion, taxpayer funded, football stadium to his Jets-owning, billionaire buddy Woody Johnson? Two billionaires always getting everything they want and certain they owned Silver couldn't figure out what happened.
Anyway, by the time Cuomo realized Silver was dragging him down the toilet and shut down Moreland to save himself, it was too late. A federal prosecutor picked up the ball and ran with it. He's not taking calls from Cuomo and his real estate benefactors. Bummer! Now someone has to reach out to the White House asking for payback. ... To be continued.
RS will be reenacted without major drama while Cuomo is governor and believes he still has a viable political future. His 1st term MCI and luxury decontrol tinkering slowed, but did nothing to stop the inexorable RS death march Pataki/Bruno instigated.
Less than ten years after Cuomo leaves office voluntarily or in handcuffs, RS will be dead.
DAMN STRAIGHT WE SHOULD BE OUTRAGED AND ANGRY AND EVERY REAL ESTATE DEAL SHOULD BE SCRUTINIZED AND INVESTIGATED FOR FRAUDS AGAINST THE GOOD PEOPLE OF NEW YORK BY REBNY STARTING WITH PCVST!
"There are a lot of folks now looking for immunity," the prosecutor said.
But Bharara wasn't laughing when he said the citizens of the state should be outraged by the allegations that Silver used his office to collect a corrupt fortune.
"The people of New York should be disappointed — they should be more than disappointed," he said. "They should get angry."
“These charges go to the very core of what ails Albany — a lack of transparency, lack of accountability and a lack of principle joined with an overabundance of greed, cronyism and self-dealing.”
Sound familiar to PCVST'ers?
“As today’s charges make clear, the show-me-the-money culture of Albany has been perpetuated and promoted at the very top of the political food chain . . . the greedy art of secret self-reward was practiced with particular cleverness and cynicism by the speaker himself.”
Unfortunately Preet worked for Senator Schumer who is the guardian angel for Paul Weiss Rifkind's deals.
"Bharara... went on to earn degrees from Harvard and Columbia Law before going to work as counsel to Sen. Chuck Schumer"
Probably easy to figure out some who negotiated immunity in meetings with Preet. If Preet is serious about this endeavor to clean out the Real Estate corruption in Albany / NYC he will not turn a blind eye to the 11,000 Peter Cooper village Stuyvesant Town residents. REBNY is screwing us, the REBNY attorney is making us pay for Robbie's debt over and over again. Oh yeah, and Robbie runs REBNY, duh.
I don't understand why people feel that they need the TA to help challenging MCIs. This blog is the best meeting place to organize something without the TA. But there has to be an understanding of the process to challenge. That's why I asked if the information at this link can be confirmed. http://metcouncilonhousing.org/help_and_answers/major_capital_improvement_rent_increases#answer01 Has CR been following the correct legal process? If not, that's a basis to challenge right there. So...have people been receiving MCI notifications? I have not.
Bharara Lambasts ‘Three Men In A Room’ Culture In Albany, Says New Yorkers Need To Demand Change
The U.S. attorney said it is up to New York voters to be angry and demand more of their elected officials.
“When it is more likely for a New York State senator to be arrested by the authorities than to be defeated at the polls, maybe they should think about getting angry,” he said.
OK I AM ANGRY. The entire PCVST community is getting gutted, our quality of life is diminished, our rents are overcharged, our purchase price is inflated, our tenant association is betraying us for a dimwitted deal, our local and state electeds are partying with REBNY and the REBNY lawyer hired by the betrayer. Hell yeah I am angry. Garodnick, De Blasio, Schneiderman, Hoylman, Cuomo, Kane, Kasirer, Quinn, Speyer, Silver, need to come clean on the details of the deal they made with REBNY for PCVST that has seen half the population get evicted and half the open space gutted and developed. We just want to come home to a peaceful quiet apartment just like you all do. We don't need it to be like 16 Jay street. We want it to be like it was before you all started tearing up the land and chopping up tha apartments.
"Liberal Democrat that he is, Silver has always self-righteously postured as the champion of the poor and downtrodden.
But if the facts presented by federal prosecutors prove true, he was exploiting little guys with abandon.
Victims suffering deadly asbestos-related illness, low-income families desperate for affordable health coverage, tenants who see rent regulation as the key to keeping their homes — all became profit centers for Silver’s alleged schemes."
That is precisely right. Rent regulation is the key to keeping our homes and it is not hurting or as Spinola likes to say causing "pain" to the RE industry. RE is not only doing just fine, their profits are sky high. REBNY has some nerve, no shame, and cold hearts crying that rent regulation causes their industry pain. Not even causes them, but their industry. Their wallets are fat their industry is bloated. Let us keep our one little simple modest key to keeping our homes and back off of our rent regulations!
Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker arrested Thursday on corruption charges, is hardly the first shady lawyer known to Perry Weitz, of Weitz & Luxenberg, the firm that employed Silver, paying him more than $3 million since 2002.
Until Weitz co-founded the firm in 1989, he worked for his father-in-law, Morris Eisen, who had one of the city’s top personal injury firms with 40 lawyers in the Woolworth Building.
Eisen was convicted with six others in 1991 on racketeering charges they fabricated evidence and bribed witnesses. Prosecutors said they smashed a car with a sledge hammer to increase damages, used a pick ax to deepen a pothole and employed a miniature ruler to make potholes appear bigger in photos.
This is the tip of the iceberg. I look forward to seeing the rest of the crooks on Bharara's list being brought to justice.
Anyone doubting that NYC is the most corrupt city in Western Hemisphere? We have made no progress since the days of Boss Tweed and his gang! If anything, things are worse now because at least the Tweed mob helped the ordinary people to some extent, crooked as they were. This mob of crooks we have now only help themselves and their cronies. Rot in Jail, Silver and I hope you soon have plenty of company of your kind. Cuomo, you got your soap-on-a-rope ready? You won't want to bend down in the slammer. It would warm the cockles of my heart if Speyer and his partners in crime could go down with them, but that probably won't happen.
Silver was never on the side of tenants. He faked it while all along he was passing laws and making deals that benefit landlords. This puts in question the entire Assembly who all voted him Speaker and none whistleblew in all the time of this investigation since 2000 (or before). Good riddance.
Right on to the poster about NYC and NYS corrupt politicians. Reminds me of my local friends here who talk about how corrupt Florida is... Which, tbh, doesn't get even close to NY corruptness. Tsk Tsk.
I keep reading comments in the press that the "electorate" is at fault for voting for these crooks, but what I would like to know is: how can we vote for good people when they are not on the final ballot. Zephyr Teachout got a very good turn-out of voters, but she didn't get on the gubernatorial ballot, unfortunately. Maybe that was because of crookery behind the scenes courtesy of Cuomo, but the point is that all we were left with was Cuomo and some neanderthal republican - just like in the first gubernatorial election when Cuomo won.
If we don't have anyone decent to vote for, then how is it our fault? I wrote in Teachout at the last election because I could not bring myself to vote for either of the trash that was actually on the ballot. If you have to choose between eating shit or eating poison, you have a very limited menu.
"I keep reading comments in the press that the "electorate" is at fault for voting for these crooks"… @ 4:50 PM
So who is it then that keeps voting these crooks back in if not the electorate, in this case, the democrats?
It seems that for a lot of people, the devil they know (or think they know) is always preferable, and party loyalty trumps everything. The alternative to Cuomo was some "neanderthal republican"... really??!
The democrat politicians do a lot of fear mongering making it seem the BIG BAD republicans are scary. The democrats want our votes by default so they can keep pocketing and helping landlords, banks, RE, big business but make it seem like only the republicans are doing that. Silver is the epitome of this.
"The alternative to Cuomo was some "neanderthal republican"... really??!
Besides the social issues they are on the side of (Neanderthal), you do realize if you are a tenant currently living in PCVST which currently is all under NYS RS, that, again, the Republicans believes in ZERO residential rent regulations, I repeat ZERO. This is no defense of the corrupt Democratic party but really, the Republicans as an alternative?
This is not a good sign either. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was instrumental in the fight against Airbnb. If he’s tainted, that is not good news for us.
I always go back to the movie “Chinatown” for Jake's quote that sums up all of these greedy scumbags:
Jake Gittes: How much are you worth? Noah Cross: I have no idea. How much do you want? Jake Gittes: I just wanna know what you're worth. More than 10 million? Noah Cross: Oh my, yes! Jake Gittes: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can't already afford? Noah Cross: The future, Mr. Gittes! The future. Now, where's the girl
The RE ties to politicians at Shelly's PR firm stinks but that's not the only fishy thing.
Shelly and Bill's shared PR firm Berlin Rosen's money trail
Good-government groups criticized the money trail.
“It’s an example of how obscene our current laws are,” Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a public-interest watchdog group, told Crain’s. “The mayor’s camp essentially paid its own operation, indirectly.”
"A de Blasio spokesman declined to comment on the transactions."
The Assembly (and the City Council) needs to be cleaned out of more then just Shelly.
"Far more alarming than the evidence of dedicated, long-term sneak-thievery by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is the haplessness of his liberal Democratic enablers — and their inability over many years to denounce shifty, unprincipled behavior even when a loud chorus of public voices has done just that."
One needs to go immediately - this is their answer to Errol asking what he thought of the 35-page criminal complaint filed against Silver, which is replete with detailed, credible allegations of extortion and bribery gathered and sworn to by the FBI. A. “I'm not a legal expert,” said the pol, who has spent more than a decade writing laws for the rest of us to follow."
WOW!!!!!
David Weprin's answer perfectly reflects the reason the Assembly must be gutted starting with him
"That sad cop-out was scarcely better than the comment from Assemblyman David Weprin of Queens — the son of former Speaker Saul Weprin — who might not have actually read the complaint before offering a novel theory. “In my opinion, it seems to be a financial disclosure mistake,” he told a newspaper"
David Weprin IS the reason the Assembly must be gutted. He is wrong on many issues.
"Mr. Silver has funneled millions of public dollars to the organization that Mr. Rapfogel led, and he employs Mr. Rapfogel’s wife, Judy, as his chief of staff."
"A primary focus of their alliance had been a struggle to preserve the Jewish identity of the neighborhood they delivered for Mr. Koch all those years ago.
Their battleground was some 20 barren acres along the southern side of Delancey Street, where, in 1967, the city leveled blocks of rundown apartment buildings. More than 1,800 low-income families, largely Puerto Rican, were sent packing and promised a chance to return to new apartments someday. Now, nearly 50 years later, the land is still a fallow stretch of weed- and rat-ridden parking lots, though in the waning days of the Bloomberg administration, the city announced that the land would finally be developed into a complex called Essex Crossing, to include retail markets, restaurants, office and cultural space. And new apartments."
Moving to exile one of New York’s most powerful and long-serving leaders, Democrats in the State Assembly agreed late on Monday to ask Sheldon Silver to step down as speaker in the wake of his arrest last week on federal corruption charges.
The Democrats reached the decision in a closed-door meeting that stretched for hours, rebuffing a bid by Mr. Silver to keep his post by relinquishing some of his responsibilities while he defended himself against the charges.
“He should understand that he’s lost the confidence of a majority of our conference,” Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, a Manhattan Democrat, said after the meeting.
Our Assemblyman is part of the crew who want Silver out. Good news.
This once-great City has totally gone to hell thanks to the money-hungry/insatiable developers and politicians who are private club of mutual greed.
Just look at how overcrowded the subways and buses are. Look at how filthy the streets are. They (REBNY and politicians) are building hideous buildings that nobody but the mega-rich can possibly afford to live in. And, ya know what: they don't live in them. They collect them (e.g., Bill Ackman purchasing "the Mona Lisa" of apartments in that thing on 57th Street). They collect them, don't pay taxes on them and don't live in them. Meanwhile, hard-working real New Yorkers are being priced out and bled dry. We need to get rid of the filth who are running and controlling this City and we need to start at the top and work the way down. I hope to God that Preet Bharara is up to the job.
Lost the confidence of his buddies is NOT the reason Silver should be out but I guess having confidence in Silver is the reason his buddies let him stay for so long during his sneak-thievery. The Assembly needs to be gutted of those who stayed silent and those who committed the same crimes. It's Kitty Genovese bystander effect or "Genovese syndrome" diffusion of responsibility.
“He should understand that he’s lost the confidence of a majority of our conference,” Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, a Manhattan Democrat, said after the meeting.
We need our Assembly persons to be crusaders for our communities not jumping on the bandwagon as "part of the crew" after years of the news organizations and the people of NY demand it and then several other politicians too. Mr Kavanagh may be a nice guy, but we need a nice guy who is a crusader for PCV ST while we are under RE assault.
The real kicker, page 14 photo Spinola and Tighe grinning control over Cuomo. Per REBNY, REBNY balanced the state budget, and they extended a gratuitous thank you to Sheldon Silver, Skelos, and Cuomo.
"This once-great City has totally gone to hell thanks to the money-hungry/insatiable developers and politicians who are private club of mutual greed.
Just look at how overcrowded the subways and buses are. Look at how filthy the streets are. They (REBNY and politicians) are building hideous buildings that nobody but the mega-rich can possibly afford to live in. And, ya know what: they don't live in them. They collect them (e.g., Bill Ackman purchasing "the Mona Lisa" of apartments in that thing on 57th Street). They collect them, don't pay taxes on them and don't live in them. Meanwhile, hard-working real New Yorkers are being priced out and bled dry. We need to get rid of the filth who are running and controlling this City and we need to start at the top and work the way down. I hope to God that Preet Bharara is up to the job."
"Our Assemblyman is part of the crew who want Silver out. Good news." January 27, 2015 at 10:35 AM
?????
This isn't "good news" This is what should happen. This is what should have happened long ago. This Assembly deserves a serious reprimanding and a serious overhaul of members.
Each and every assemblyperson should go to their communities they represent and 1. formally apologize for their participation in acts against the community, the constituents, and for letting this go on for so long.
2. step down but since that is not going to happen they should tell their constituents specifically what they are going to do to fix the mess they made and by when that will be achieved.
3. formally and regularly report to constituents their progress and actual results.
When I say "report to" I don't mean passively post on Facebook, Twitter, or websites. We don't follow you. We don't work for you. You work for us.
When we didn't vote in this last election that means we didn't rehire you. We fired you.
By default you are still in your job in office. So do your job for your constituents and report back to us on your progress.
Silver, Skelos and Klein, their colleagues in the assembly and senate all worked together to quash the Moreland subpoenas that were investigating the crimes Silver was arrested for. Skelos and Klein should not be that far behind Silver.
Skelos, Silver, Klein and the law firms they used including Weitz & Luxembourg filed a complaint in court to quash the subpoenas to stop the Moreland investigation. Here is the complaint filed in court.
These lawyers should be disbarred for abusing the law and the intent of the law to do good and not to do harm. Lawyers who use the law to harm people, to cover up crimes, to perpetuate crimes and corruption do not deserve to be a member of the New York Bar Association.
Here is an easy Summary Timeline of the State's Moreland Commission and hand off to the Feds.
Tenants need an official word from either Joe or from their respective assemblyperson on this Speaker's position on rent regulation, the upcoming deadline, and a commitment to protect the constituents who are under assault from REBNY, RE and other politicians who want us gone.
Here are the three Moreland Commission subpoenas Cuomo quashed:
"Cuomo reportedly exercised influence to ensure that three commission subpoenas that were “set to go out” did not. The subpoenas were to go to:
1. Ethics Commission and the Legislative Ethics Commission- (This subpoena employed the smart strategy of looking for prior complaints against legislators as pointers to what needs to be looked into).
2. REBNY- Tax breaks for five developers- Same five developers gave a lot of money to Cuomo when he was signing the bill.
3. State Democratic party controlled by Cuomo.
Mr. Lovett explained that some of the very first subpoenas the commission sent out were to 5 developers who received lucrative tax breaks secretly snuck into the housing bill. The REBNY subpoena would have followed up, but Mr Lovett explained that:
We found out that those same 5 developers gave a lot of money to Gov Cuomo, particularly around the time he was signing the bill. That raised questions. REBNY was all part of that.
REBNY was also very close to the Independence Party which was also getting subpoenaed for its relationship with the state senate Republicans.
Mr. Lovett said that despite official denials and acknowledgment of frequent contact with the Governor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office, “sources close to the situation say . . .they were specifically told [by the Governor’s Office] not to send the subpoena to RBNY, not to send subpoenas to the Legislative Ethics Commission and the State Ethics Commission.”
...the three subpoenas quashed - how REBNY buys politicians to hurt NYC tenants like us.
In an August 5, 2013 press release concerning the work of the commission Common Cause addressed itself to the money flow from the real estate industry that is, but shouldn’t be legal: "Moreland Monday" Analysis of REBNY Contributions Raises Serious Issues for Commission to Consider.
Before it concludes, the press release addresses itself to the technical LLC (Limited Liabiluity Corporation) loophole that allows real estate companies to give virtually unlimited money to political campaigns while concealing the money's source.
And it quotes Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY, pointing out how vast a vast flow of real estate money to upstate legislators then governs what becomes law in NYC:
Our analysis shows a skillful and calculated manipulation of all of the weaknesses in NY State's campaign finance laws by NYC's real estate industry, which uses every trick in the book to insure that the investment they make in plentiful campaign contributions garners an extraordinarily large return at the expense of New York City's tenants and taxpayers. . .
Legislators from outside NYC are thus encouraged to pass laws which burden NYC residents and have no impact on their own constituents but serve to maximize the campaign contributions they receive.
We urge the Moreland Commission to use the full scope of their investigatory powers to fully examine this situation and recommend policies to end this exploitation.
REBNY'S BUSINESS ANTICS HURT EVERYONE REBNY pays upstate politicians to pass laws that hurt NYC and have no effect on their own districts.
Why the Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town Tenant Association hired a power-REBNY member lawyer is a serious question and problem that needs addressing in order to halt the damage the REBNY Tenant Association board attorney is doing to PCVST.
"It’s worth listening to Mr. Lovett’s interview with Lehrer - the audio is on the link below.
The press release starts out:
A new "Moreland Monday" analysis released today by Common Cause/NY is raising serious questions about the potential influence of tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions on public policy relating to real estate and development in NYC.
Since 2005, REBNY and the 37 companies comprising its leadership contributed $43.9 million to state and local candidates, committees, and PACs. REBNY's contributions increased with $17.1 million given since 2011.
Noticing New York has always focused on development in NYC and its none-too-pleasant associated politics. For so long as the world of NY development continues to be a baffling construct of complicated and arcane subsidies conjoined with discretionary public official approvals having significant financial ramifications, that world is going to be awash in the vast expenditures of political money it will attract.
It exacerbates problems tremendously that the flow of such money even when accompanied by fairly explicit quid-pro-quos is almost completely unregulated, uninvestigated and virtually legal.
In the end, it means is that, because organizations like REBNY are not looking out for the greater good, the city is diminished with each tax break, each subsidy, each zoning change, each variance that is improperly sold off to behind-the-scenes manipulators.
Why? Because those are the things our public officials control and therefore have available to sell.
Unfortunately, the impoverishment of the public realm goes beyond even this: Our public officials are also officially entrusted with the assets that the public owns, and so in this world where money spent behind the scenes holds too much sway we see that our public officials are willing to sell off such public assets to the real estate industry as well:
Our parks, our hospitals, our libraries, our NYCHA public housing playgrounds, our schools, our streets, avenues and sidewalks, our highways. Nor does it even stop there: With eminent domain our public officials believe they are entitled to sell off the private property of citizens, and do.
If nobody suspected something amiss, Albany is the dumbest place in America. More likely, lawmakers of both parties were fine with the obvious corruption; as Bharara’s record proves, some elected crooks saw Silver as a role model and got on gravy trains of their own.
And as if that is not bad enough, Silver and all who knew of the rape are the lowest, most despicable.....Silver's solution was to get a new DA he could control not to embarrass him.
"The story begins in 2003, when Silver’s chief counsel was charged with rape and marched out of Assembly offices in handcuffs. Although District Attorney Paul Clyne was a fellow Democrat, Silver was furious at being embarrassed.
“He was fuming,” the Albany vet says, “and swore he would get a DA in there he could control and who would never embarrass him.”
Morelle would be a crappy choice - a centrist ally of Cuomo repping freaking Rochester. Heastie from the Bronx would probably be much better. He'll have the support of labor in NYC. That's good. He also appears to be a good infighter.
Harlem's Keith Wright and Brooklyn Assemblyman Joe Lentol may also be in it. Wright's strong for tenants but who knows how shrewd he is or if he's a good infighter. Don't know much about Lentol but he also appears strong for renters but then he reps Williamsburg so that's not surprising.
"Cuomo — who along with his aides is being investigated by Bharara over the abrupt disbanding of the governor’s Moreland Act commission on public corruption — as “on edge’’ over Bharara’s ominous statement Friday that the public should “stay tuned’’ for more criminal charges to come.
“Andrew’s been working the phones day and night, staying up into the early morning hours, making hundreds of calls in one day trying to find out what the hell is going on,’’ a source close to the governor said.
Cuomo, who has retained a private lawyer, has enlisted several former federal and state-level prosecutors with ties to Bharara’s office including Steve Cohen, his former chief-of-staff, in an effort to find out Bharara’s next move, the sources said."
Cuomo is DIRTY. DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY. Let us not forget that for one second. He is DIRTY and NASTY AND UNSCRUPULOUS. We have to keep that in mind at all times.
12:25 AGREE Sociopathic. Selfish. No Remorse. No morals. No ethics. No conscience. No capacity for anyone beyond themselves.
Last week Assembly mantras went from Silver being a victim to Silver being an "innocent until proven guilty American" to concern for "how "bad is it" with a declaration of Silver getting caught being "really, really bad" to Unity behind Shelly proclaimed by Morelle. No No No No No No No
Most of the Assembly is all wrong. This is not really really bad. This is really really good - good for the many many New York people who have been hurt for decades by the actions of Shelly. It is only "really really bad" if your first care is for the criminal. New Yorkers have been victims of this Assembly for too long. This is very good, the Assembly must use it as a time to reform. In today's Times when the assembly first learned of Shelly's arrest:
"Some there were already invoking divine intervention: Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo of the Bronx asked for a moment of prayer on Mr. Silver’s behalf.
Judy Rapfogel, his longtime chief of staff, fought back emotion. Her face ashen, speaking through tears, people in the room recalled, Ms. Rapfogel alluded to how her own husband — William E. Rapfogel, a longtime associate of Mr. Silver who pleaded guilty last year to stealing more than $1 million from the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty — was in prison. And now this. “It has been a horrible year for me,” she said."
You can't make this stuff up!!! Thank goodness for the Suburban Caucus and Mr Wright (also the Riverton lawsuit leader against MacArthur and CWCR) calling for Shelly to step down “Without a complete separation of Sheldon Silver from the speakership and its powers, and a real reform of our conference,” he wrote, “we will as a body remain mired in the swamp of dysfunction and chaos.”
Curious to know how the MR tenants feel about the fact that they pay more for their apartments then a new tenant that moves in this month! You have.to.laugh.out.loud.
Prosecutors say the lawyers at Weitz & Luxembourg did not know of silver's scheme. One would think lawyers are smart enough to have seen Silver was being paid a lot, was funneling a lot of clients, and not doing any work.
NY went from DIRTY governor to SLEAZY governor to DIRTY governor ....next up SLEAZY governor. any names surfacing and when is the election?
DIRTY Yet all the devastating evidence of the corrupting of the state parole process—detailed in two trials and the guilty pleas of two other high-ranking state officials—has disappeared into the ethical ether of the Pataki era, where quid pro quo is the status quo. A Voice examination of the under-reported record of these cases, following the trail of $708,366 in campaign and public dollars used to pay the Pataki lawyers who fought the prosecutors in this case, has pinpointed the reasons why George Pataki should be personally held accountable in Campaign 2002 for this disgraceful scandal.
SLEAZY
Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring nytimes
DIRTY
Moreland Monday" Analysis of REBNY Contributions Raises Serious Issues for Commission to Consider Common Cause/NY,
Next up for NY is SLEAZY .... can't wait to see who throws their hat in the ring and what empty promises they make. They should be prosecuted and imprisoned. Its not enough this Cuomo 5 point plan changing the rules, with no consequences they will continue to break the rules. Until we can find a better calibur of politician, there have to be consequences for this shit.
93 comments:
Oh. Another corrupt politician. My heart bleeds for him. What goes around comes around. Say Hello to Big Bubba for us!
Innocent until proven guilty but the pattern for these guys is...after getting into office they start rubbing elbows with the rich...like the REBNY and envy starts creeping in. They start thinking...hey, here I am working sooo hard for an unappreciative public for much less pay than I deserve. I need to get mine while I can.
https://twitter.com/GormleyAlbany
Michael Gormley @GormleyAlbany
Feds claim Silver of 'took legal action and other steps' to prevent disclosure of the alleged scheme to the state Moreland Commission.
Michael Gormley @GormleyAlbany
Fed complaint accuses of Assembly Speaker Silver of pocking $6 million in a continuing scheme
Michael Gormley @GormleyAlbany
US Attorney accuses Assembly Speaker Silver of taking millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks, complaint says.
Michael Gormley
@GormleyAlbany
Michael Gormley covers Albany for Newsday. He covers Gov. Cuomo, the Legislature and New York politics and issues important to New Yorkers.
Albany, N.Y.
twitter.com/#!/GormleyAlba…
https://twitter.com/GormleyAlbany
And the quote of 2014 still is:
In order to write laws for politicians to pass for REBNY, Spinola said REBNY must "maintain a personal and supportive relationship was critical in shaping the outcome” of legislation."
And by supportive he means financially (wink wink)
"In a memo to REBNY members seen by the newspaper, Spinola said that based on private meetings with Cuomo, the Senate majority leader [Dean Skelos or Jeffrey Klein] and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, he had come to a clear conclusion: REBNY’s “past efforts to maintain a personal and supportive relationship was critical in shaping the outcome” of legislation.
“Our future ability to adopt favorable legislation, stop terrible legislation or modify legislation to limit the pain to our industry is directly tied to our continued positive relationship,” Spinola continued in the memo.
- See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/07/24/rebnys-influence-over-cuomo-laid-bare/#sthash.M3VlZtRp.dpuf
WOWWW
The law firms should be shut down and the partners disbarred if the New York Bar Association is to retain any shred of integrity. There needs to be a call to disbar the partners of those law firms!
ALBANY— Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver pocketed more than $6 million in bribes and kickbacks by using his power in Albany to pressure real estate developers with business before the state to hire two law firms that paid him regularly to exert influence, according to a five-count federal indictment made public Thursday.
Thank you STR for the Daily News read on Silver.
Also in the Daily News
DOB and landlord named as co-defendants in lawsuit by rent stabilized tenant being forced into eviction so landlord can chop apartments into smaller units. Landlord uses construction as weapon to harass tenants.
"Public Advocate Letitia James plans to join the suit and name the city’s Department of Buildings as a co-defendant.
“Far too many tenants are being targeted by landlords who want to flip buildings for maximum profit at the expense of working people,” James said. “We will do everything in our power to protect affordable housing for long term residents in communities like Harlem.”
I hope he is convicted and is the first of many. I'm just sick of these corrupt politicians who enrich themselves at the expense of the people they are supposed to be representing. Any and every politician connected to the REBNY and developers is dirty because the RE industry is the dirtiest and most corrupt industry in existence (except for, possibly, child pornography and human trafficking). We need a thorough examination and purging of all the filth holding political office and dealing with RE. Then, possibly, this city will become livable again.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/harlem-tenant-landlord-war-sides-head-t-article-1.2087381
"They are disregarding our health and our lives.”
Sound familiar?
Lastly this is very interesting
"and in violation of the tenant protect plan filed with the Department of Buildings.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/harlem-tenant-landlord-war-sides-head-t-article-1.2087381
Tenant Protection Plan
PW1 Supports New Required Item
To better protect New York City residents, the New Codes enhance Tenant Protection Plan
requirements. Applicants must indicate on the PW1 which units will be occupied during
proposed work in occupied, multiple-dwelling properties, including Single-Room Occupancies.
In addition, the Tenant Protection Plan must be included in the notes section of the submitted
plans. View Section
28-104.8.4
for more information
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/news/Newsletter/20080603_nyc_constr_codes.pdf
PCVST Tenants should be given a copy of the Tenant Protection Plan filed with the DOB for all the construction especially the multiple sites in the Oval and First Avenue Loop where contaminated soil and construction debris was dug up.
He'll talk. Many more heads will roll.
Just wait.
Also in the Daily News
In addition to tenants and public advocate James fighting against and suing the DOB / landlords
A Mitchell-Lama co-op board is fighting against the horrible management company they ousted and the DHCR for backing the horrible management company. In December DHCR used weight of a "deal" made with Wells Fargo saying the horrible management company cannot technically legally be ousted AND that the management company does not need to be reinstated!
Take that Wells Fargo you horrible home stealing bank! And DHCR for your deals made with banks and certain lawmakers passing laws that cripple tenants ability to protect ourselves and protect our homes!
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/managing-agent-co-op-city-remains-locked-article-1.2087522
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/co-op-city-suspension-management-company-violates-state-article-1.2057748
Say hello to Bernie for us.
Let us hope this is the first of many NY politicians arrested followed by prison sentences.
Next in line.....?
ALBANY — Over the past five years, New York State has awarded more than $7.4 billion in contracts to clients of law firms that employ state legislators, according to a review of court filings and other records.
The 954 contracts range from $1.7 billion for Caithness Energy, a client of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, where the State Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, works part time, to $130 million for salt for state highways, awarded to a client of the firm that employs Senator Michael F. Nozzolio of Seneca County.
The contracts are a fraction of the more than $200 billion awarded by the state during the period. But they represent a vast pool of potential conflicts that are at the heart of a debate over ethics in Albany, where the Senate and the Assembly on Monday approved a disclosure and oversight law in response to corruption scandals that have tarnished state government for years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/nyregion/albany-money-flows-to-clients-of-firms-that-employ-legislators.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/law-firm-employing-senate-co-leader-dean-skelos-reps-group-suing-state-article-1.1464191
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/skelos-firm-s-clients-also-deal-with-state-1.2699476
" The state’s most powerful Republi can is refusing to reveal whether he’s earning legal fees from clients who do business with the state, a practice Gov. Cuomo says could involve conflicts of interest or even bribery.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, over a four-day period, repeatedly ducked and dodged after The Post asked the simple question of whether he’s representing legal clients who have business before state government. "
http://nypost.com/2011/05/16/skelos-dummies-up-on-law-cash-ethics/
The complaint against Sheldon Silver
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/sites/default/files/US%20v.%20Sheldon%20Silver%20Complaint.pdf
I love it! First Smelly Shelly and then the rest of the filthy mob! No politician who is involved with the RE mob is clean. It's like being involved with the Gotti mob and claiming you're clean. Not do-able. Spitzer's escapades will be tame compared to when they get to Cuomo!
So how's Joe Bruno doing these day ?
The last paragraph in this excerpt is mindblowing. The tax breaks these pols give themselves and their buddies while they give working class no breaks and make us pay for other people's debt.
http://gothamist.com/2015/01/22/sheldon_silver_arrested.php
The sizable number of properties on the Lower East Side for which Mr. [Jay Arthur] Goldberg has sought real estate tax reductions include Mr. Silver’s own co-op, the Hillman Housing Corporation, a development of brick apartment buildings on Grand Street, tax records show, as well as the commercial building across the street that is listed in state records as the address for Mr. Silver’s campaign committee, Friends of Silver. Mr. Goldberg and his firm have also represented a related development along Grand Street and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, the East River Housing Corporation, the records show, which like Hillman Housing is managed by a close Silver associate, Harold Jacob.
A recent letter from the East River board president to shareholders heralded what it said were the successes of its tax certiorari firm, without mentioning it by name. “In almost every year they have been successful in reducing the increase in our taxes,” the board president, Gary Altman, wrote in the letter.
Mr. Jacob, in a 2009 letter to East River shareholders, noted that the city had raised the development’s assessment to $28 million, and that its tax certiorari lawyer “was very successful in reducing what could have been a $3,000,000 increase to a $750,000 increase” in taxes.
""In a memo to REBNY members seen by the newspaper, Spinola said that based on private meetings with Cuomo, the Senate majority leader [Dean Skelos or Jeffrey Klein] and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, he had come to a clear conclusion: REBNY’s “past efforts to maintain a personal and supportive relationship was critical in shaping the outcome” of legislation.
“Our future ability to adopt favorable legislation, stop terrible legislation or modify legislation to limit the pain to our industry is directly tied to our continued positive relationship,” Spinola continued in the memo."
That just about says it all, doesn't it? There should be a strict law that forbids politicians from making private agreements with REBNY and allowing REBNY from impacting and influencing legislation.
I hope we see heads roll. So SICK of the filth who run and ruin our city and our lives for their personal gain.
""Public Advocate Letitia James plans to join the suit and name the city’s Department of Buildings as a co-defendant.
“Far too many tenants are being targeted by landlords who want to flip buildings for maximum profit at the expense of working people,” James said. “We will do everything in our power to protect affordable housing for long term residents in communities like Harlem.”"
I WISH SHE WOULD ADD STUYVESANT TOWN/PCV TO THAT. AS BAD AS IT IS IN HARLEM, IT IS JUST AS BAD HERE. THE DOB HAS OKAYED SO MANY SHADY PROJECTS HERE AND OUR SO-CALLED TA AND COUNCILMAN HAVE BEEN COMPLICIT.
PCVST Tenants should be given a copy of the Tenant Protection Plan filed with the DOB for all the construction especially the multiple sites in the Oval and First Avenue Loop where contaminated soil and construction debris was dug up. >>>>>
YES! If we actually had a Tenants Association this would already have been done! We need a TA that is not complicit with our RE butt boy of a councilman.
I hope Silver doesn't manage to slither out of this and stick the taxpayers with his legal bills a la Joe Bruno.
I think that Garodnick's ties with Paul Weiss and Brookfield's attorneys should be closely examined.
All Talk Then Deliberate Sabotage
Sheldon Silver Screwed Tenants and Helped landlords for 20 years
Sheldon Silver
Every year, the Assembly passes a package of one-house pro-tenant bills, and every year, Shelly Silver puts out a press release touting its commitment to tenants’ rights. But somehow he never seems able to win anything at the negotiating table.
In 1997, he was the public face of opposition to then-Senate majority leader Joe Bruno, who threatened to allow the rent laws to expire. Silver stated that he would not pass the state budget until the rent laws were renewed, a gutsy move that gave him leverage. He amassed real resources for the campaign, enlisting the labor-union movement for the first time to fight for rent regulation. Then, on the last day, the very day the laws were due to expire, he gave away the store in negotiations, agreeing to a devastating array of deregulation amendments in return for a six-year extender.
In 2003, Silver made no effort, relying on a handshake deal with Bruno that the laws would be extended without any changes. When Bruno double-crossed him and passed additional pro-landlord amendments on the session’s last night, Silver was forced to accept it, as otherwise the rent laws would have disappeared.
Will Silver use any real leverage on behalf of tenants in 2015? The only way to strengthen Silver’s resolve is to make our strongest allies in the Assembly demand that he do the right thing. If his members are loud enough and determined enough, it makes it tougher for him to accept anything less than a real victory.
http://metcouncilonhousing.org/news_and_issues/tenant_newspaper/2014/februrary/will_albany_screw_renters_again_how_we_can_prevent_it
Something is going on at Dhcr. Several of us I now know have filled out overcharges months and months ago, almost up to a year. No replies except for PENDING and no help from the office. They're finding ways to run the wait game, time game and loopholes to void and ignore.
What does the Mayor say after he condemned Michael Grimm?
http://observer.com/2015/01/bill-de-blasio-defends-man-of-integrity-sheldon-silver/
Bruno walked, will Silver? Both are scum.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/nyregion/joseph-bruno-former-state-senate-leader-is-acquitted.html
I watched Preet Bharara's press conference, and he laid out the case very clearly. If it's online (maybe on New York 1 site), I suggest you watch it.
Not a good development for rent stabilized tenants.
With a power vacuum amongst the Democrats in the Assembly, could be the only thing standing between us and the abyss in 2015 might be Cuomo's veto.
And you know who'$ $ide he'$ on...
Tax certiorari's are routinely filed on behalf of property owners who seek to have their tax assessment lowered. Happens every day, all over the nation. There are attorney's who specialize in these appeals. I guess the question will be did The Speaker exert undue influence in having decisions overturned. I'll be very surprised if he's convicted.
Silver aside...does anyone know if the info posted in this link about MCIs is correct: http://metcouncilonhousing.org/help_and_answers/major_capital_improvement_rent_increases#answer01
I've never received any notice of MCIs that I can recall. Right now there is demolition going on in our basement which makes me think an MCI is coming.
I want to be sure to challenge every MCI moving forward.
I want to be sure to challenge every MCI moving forward. .......
We all do, but since Garodnick hijacked the TA, and they all embraced REBNY-attorney, Meredith Kane, I don't think we will have much of a chance.
That just about says it all, doesn't it? There should be a strict law that forbids politicians from making private agreements with REBNY and allowing REBNY from impacting and influencing legislation.
I hope we see heads roll. So SICK of the filth who run and ruin our city and our lives for their personal gain.
January 22, 2015 at 2:47 PM
Totally agree. Which is why I cannot understand councilman Garodnick and PCVSTTA hiring an anti-tenant REBNY lawyer to mass evict, overcharge tenants and overdevelop our open spaces and park. What are the details of their deal that we tenants are paying a high price for? Sickening.
Thick as thieves.....
The Speaker Must Go
http://nypost.com/2015/01/22/the-speaker-must-go/
We are counting on you Preet.
Our unfinished fight on public corruption continues. You should stay tuned.”
http://nypost.com/2015/01/22/preet-remains-new-yorks-only-hope/
Preet has put everyone from the governor to legislators to the lobbyists/consultants (who have replaced the clubhouse bosses) on notice. Absent real political reform and transparency, he’ll continue to prune Albany’s corrupt vineyard.
I’m pleased that higher political powers didn’t trundle Preet off to Washington, DC, and so abort his efforts to completely dissolve “the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics.”
Preet Bharara is like Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in “Tombstone,” calling out to Albany’s wild cowboys, “I’m coming and Hell is coming with me!”
Despicable to think about how many people and families Silver hurt for 20 years with his real estate deals.
COMPLETELY AGREE
How is any of this not abuse of public office?
"I think that Garodnick's ties with Paul Weiss and Brookfield's attorneys should be closely examined.
January 22, 2015 at 2:58 PM"
AGREE. Problem is those who are supposed to look into it are in on it. The deal is put together by the same people who are supposed to investigate the ethics and legality of the deal that is based on business with no consideration for people or we would not have seen the mass evictions in the thousands and the Deteriorating Quality of Life and Infrastructure.
Garodnick's ties with Paul Weiss his former law firm and he and Meredith Kane are both on Mayor de Blasio's Economic Development Committee. In fact 29 REBNY members are on Mayor de Blasio's / Viverito's Economic Development Committee that is chaired by Dan Garodnick.
http://www.rebny.com/content/rebny/en/about/committees/committee.html/90.html
AND
Senator Charles Schumer's ties with Paul Weiss through his power deal maker brother Robert Schumer
AND
Scott Stringer's ties
AND
AG Schneiderman's ties especially with his Harvard college friend Meredith Kane
"The 15-year renewal lease was the talk of several real estate gatherings last week. On Thursday night, for instance, real estate partner Meredith Kane was lauded at the WX dinner by her Harvard Law School chums, Jennifer Raab, head of Hunter College, and State Senator Eric Schneiderman."
http://nypost.com/2009/11/25/paul-weiss-passes-up-terminal-lease-for-renewal/
http://www.nyrealestatelawblog.com/Manhattan-Litigation-Blog/2009/December/ERIC-T-SCHNEIDERMAN-FOR-ATTORNEY-GENERAL.aspx
Meredith Kane personally fundraises for NY AG Schneiderman
ERIC T. SCHNEIDERMAN FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL
Posted on Dec 30, 2009 5:00pm PST
Invite You To Join Us At The Home Of Meredith Kane
For A Reception Honoring State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman
With Special Guest NYS Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli
Thursday, January 7, 2010 6:30-8:30 PM
Home Of Meredith Kane
XXXXX Street, Apt #X (Manhattan)
For More Details Please Call David at (212) 213-2660 Tickets: $250 Friend ~ $500 Supporter ~ $1,000 Sponsor ~ $5,000 Vice-Chair ~ $10,000 Chair
http://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2010/11/schneidermans-transition-team/
http://observer.com/2009/12/schneiderman-raises-with-dinapoli/
AND
The revolving door and dual employment between NYC / NYS government administration in the REBNY gala photos and Paul Weiss for example
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesnkatz
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/kim-seunghwan/3/a78/531
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-nadler/35/9ba/621
Volunteer Experience & Causes Communications Bill de Blasio for Mayor 2013 Politics
Research Eric Schneiderman for Attorney General 2010 Politics
Assistant Policy Director Scott Stringer for Manhattan Borough President 2005Politics
------
It seems the entire NYC administration and this well-connected law firm is trying to sink the PCVST working middle class community to replace it with glass towers of luxury condos with tax-break laden 20% poor housing in some hollow victory for affordable housing.
The relationship between REBNY players at the gala party, law Firm Paul Weiss, Meredith Kane, Senator Schumer, AG Schneirderman, Scott Stringer, Dan Garodnick, Mayor de Blasio is unabashedly flaunted in our faces. There is nothing we can do to save our homes unless in the highly unlikely event these players change their minds and choose to consider the people they are hurting instead of only seeing the profits they are generating and reaping. Evicting working middle class tenants was always part of the deal details put together by REBNY's Meredith Kane and "quarterbacked" by Dan Garodnick.
http://observer.com/2010/06/taking-stuy-town/
How is any of this not abuse of public office?
LOL
Silver worked the system in every and any way possible like no other
http://nypost.com/2015/01/23/sheldon-silvers-wealth-a-well-kept-secret/
But what gets me most in this article is this millionaire Sheldon Silver knows and lives the benefits of a co-op yet he and his millionaire politician buddies Garodnick, Schneiderman, put together a deal denying our working middle class community the same benefits of a co-op - instead putting together a deal kicking us out to bring in a new neighborhood of a wealthier community.
As per Michael Bloomberg..........How do you like me now!
NYC Housing
Affordable Co-ops for millionaire politicians
http://nypost.com/2015/01/23/sheldon-silvers-wealth-a-well-kept-secret/
Rent stabilized apartments for millionaire politicians, city officials, and their millionaire kids
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2008/07/21/rentstabilized_lifestyles_of_the_rich_famous.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/nyregion/21building.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
And for the middle class working people - get out and make way for the luxury condos because you can't afford market rate and make too much for Mayor de Blasio's Affordable Housing plan.
Millionaires get rent stabilized apartments and affordable co-ops and middle class get the boot.
That is the worse of the worse versions of Tale of Two cities.
Sheldon Silver and his cronies knew he was breaking the law, abusing his office to hurt people and enrich himself.
ALBANY — There’s a little known anecdote about Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver that reveals a lot about why the state’s second-most powerful Democrat is facing five federal corruption charges that could put him in prison for the rest of his life.
For the better part of a decade during the 2000s, Silver told an associate, he would routinely send a $100 check each year to the campaign committee of former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
“I knew he didn’t need the money,’’ Silver told the associate with a nervous laugh.
“But I wanted to see if he would cash my check. If he did, then I knew I wasn’t in any trouble because if he was investigating me, he wouldn’t have taken the money.’’
http://nypost.com/2015/01/23/sheldon-silver-a-grubber-who-played-games-with-his-money/
And the cartoons come to life
"Rumors have circulated that bags of cash were being delivered to the speaker’s office on behalf of various special-interest pleaders, although that’s never been proven. But the existence of the rumors indicates the climate around Silver."
http://nypost.com/2015/01/23/sheldon-silver-a-grubber-who-played-games-with-his-money/
How to get taxpayers to pay for your double and triple and quadruple air miles
"Silver didn’t knock down the suspicion that he was about making as much money as possible a few years ago when he began defending his bizarre practice of flying on the state’s dime from New York City to Albany via Washington, DC, or some other distant spot so he could pick up a few extra frequent flier miles for his personal use."
Word is Silver has enough air miles to retire and travel around the world.
http://nypost.com/2015/01/23/sheldon-silver-a-grubber-who-played-games-with-his-money/
Of all the things to exploit
Sheldon Silver Cited 9/11 as Official Justification for Spending in Alleged Kickback Scheme
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/01/22/sheldon_silver_corruption_9_11_terror_attack_cited_by_legislator_who_was.html
The Wall Street Journal names the names of the doctors and developers in the Sheldon Silver kickback scheme. This is one of, if not the biggest reason why rent stabilization has been weakened, the top NY political donor Leonard Litwin.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sheldon-silver-corruption-spanned-years-prosecutor-1421980319
An earlier commentator on this blog listed the pols in Leonard Litwin's pocket.
Shelly will get a super immunity deal. He'll name names.
Then Shelly will walk away free as a bird.
That's justice for ya!!!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I want to be sure to challenge every MCI moving forward. .......
We all do, but since Garodnick hijacked the TA, and they all embraced REBNY-attorney, Meredith Kane, I don't think we will have much of a chance.
January 22, 2015 at 9:37 PM
Exactly.
That is why there is NO transparency on the deal Meredith Kane is putting together.
That is why Steinberg and Marsh and the whole "tenant" association board has kept tenants in the dark.
That is why every tenant who tried to reach out to our public servants was thrown under the bus by each and every one of them at every twist and turn.
That is the deal REBNY has been putting together with all these public servant players, sinking the PCVST community and property.
Ugh.
January 22, 2015 at 6:49 PM gets it. I'm all for clean gov't but the timing sucks for us tenants. Like it or not, warts and all, Silver was the guy repping tenants when it comes down to the June showdown with Cuomo and Skelos over renewing rent regs. This leaves the pro-tenant Assembly (and maybe pro-tenants rights lobbying groups), in disarray. Landlords are probably gloating. Brad Hoylman tweeted that Silver should resign now. That's for sure. We can't expect things to go down well in June if we're talking about 2.25 men in a room.
Tenant rights people are probably scrambling. Teachers too - Silver was also on their side. That's maybe a good thing since teachers seem to have more political juice than tenants. I'm waiting to hear Mike McKee's take on this.
Silver was always a bucket of slime, but I used to think he was our bucket of slime. At yesterday's press conference, Preet Bharara mentioned that when Shelly did a deal with landlords, the landlords were surprised that he didn't ask for more for tenants (I think this is covered in paragraph 35 of the indictment). Now it turns out he wasn't even our bucket of slime, and we're in an even worse position as renters. Wonder what his rabbi's sermon is going to be about tomorrow.
NYS government is ruled by three men in a room striking secret deals. Dramatic political theater was staged every four years during the Pataki/Bruno era with Silver portraying himself as middle class superhero swooping in at the last minute to rescue RS from the same greedy landlords simultaneously bribing him with millions of dollars in kickbacks under the table.
Now Cuomo is one of those three men and although he's funded/owned by Speyer's gang and, at best, governs like a moderate GOP, the REBNY/RSA lobby doesn't like unnecessarily shelling out millions bribing more than one phony superhero. To them, Cuomo isn't just another corrupt politician taking kickbacks. His background, ambition and potential beyond Albany make him an investment for them to groom, nurture and control. They wanted Silver out, so Cuomo accommodated them with Moreland. The effort backfired, with blowback threatening their precious investment. Bummer!
Silver's a fox raiding henhouses in NYC and Albany for over 50 years. He knows where more NYS skeletons are buried than all the other predators combined, including the billionaires. They forgot Silver crushed Mayor
Bloombuck's scheme to give a $2 billion, taxpayer funded, football stadium to his Jets-owning, billionaire buddy Woody Johnson? Two billionaires always getting everything they want and certain they owned Silver couldn't figure out what happened.
Anyway, by the time Cuomo realized Silver was dragging him down the toilet and shut down Moreland to save himself, it was too late. A federal prosecutor picked up the ball and ran with it. He's not taking calls from Cuomo and his real estate benefactors. Bummer! Now someone has to reach out to the White House asking for payback. ... To be continued.
RS will be reenacted without major drama while Cuomo is governor and believes he still has a viable political future. His 1st term MCI and luxury decontrol tinkering slowed, but did nothing to stop the inexorable RS death march Pataki/Bruno instigated.
Less than ten years after Cuomo leaves office voluntarily or in handcuffs, RS will be dead.
DAMN STRAIGHT WE SHOULD BE OUTRAGED AND ANGRY AND EVERY REAL ESTATE DEAL SHOULD BE SCRUTINIZED AND INVESTIGATED FOR FRAUDS AGAINST THE GOOD PEOPLE OF NEW YORK BY REBNY STARTING WITH PCVST!
"There are a lot of folks now looking for immunity," the prosecutor said.
But Bharara wasn't laughing when he said the citizens of the state should be outraged by the allegations that Silver used his office to collect a corrupt fortune.
"The people of New York should be disappointed — they should be more than disappointed," he said. "They should get angry."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/sheldon-silver-charges-mark-turning-point-prosecutor-article-1.2089333
GO PREET!
“These charges go to the very core of what ails Albany — a lack of transparency, lack of accountability and a lack of principle joined with an overabundance of greed, cronyism and self-dealing.”
Sound familiar to PCVST'ers?
“As today’s charges make clear, the show-me-the-money culture of Albany has been perpetuated and promoted at the very top of the political food chain . . . the greedy art of secret self-reward was practiced with particular cleverness and cynicism by the speaker himself.”
Unfortunately Preet worked for Senator Schumer who is the guardian angel for Paul Weiss Rifkind's deals.
"Bharara... went on to earn degrees from Harvard and Columbia Law before going to work as counsel to Sen. Chuck Schumer"
Probably easy to figure out some who negotiated immunity in meetings with Preet. If Preet is serious about this endeavor to clean out the Real Estate corruption in Albany / NYC he will not turn a blind eye to the 11,000 Peter Cooper village Stuyvesant Town residents. REBNY is screwing us, the REBNY attorney is making us pay for Robbie's debt over and over again. Oh yeah, and Robbie runs REBNY, duh.
I don't understand why people feel that they need the TA to help challenging MCIs. This blog is the best meeting place to organize something without the TA.
But there has to be an understanding of the process to challenge. That's why I asked if the information at this link can be confirmed. http://metcouncilonhousing.org/help_and_answers/major_capital_improvement_rent_increases#answer01
Has CR been following the correct legal process? If not, that's a basis to challenge right there. So...have people been receiving MCI notifications? I have not.
PREET BHARARA
Bharara Lambasts ‘Three Men In A Room’ Culture In Albany, Says New Yorkers Need To Demand Change
The U.S. attorney said it is up to New York voters to be angry and demand more of their elected officials.
“When it is more likely for a New York State senator to be arrested by the authorities than to be defeated at the polls, maybe they should think about getting angry,” he said.
OK I AM ANGRY. The entire PCVST community is getting gutted, our quality of life is diminished, our rents are overcharged, our purchase price is inflated, our tenant association is betraying us for a dimwitted deal, our local and state electeds are partying with REBNY and the REBNY lawyer hired by the betrayer. Hell yeah I am angry. Garodnick, De Blasio, Schneiderman, Hoylman, Cuomo, Kane, Kasirer, Quinn, Speyer, Silver, need to come clean on the details of the deal they made with REBNY for PCVST that has seen half the population get evicted and half the open space gutted and developed. We just want to come home to a peaceful quiet apartment just like you all do. We don't need it to be like 16 Jay street. We want it to be like it was before you all started tearing up the land and chopping up tha apartments.
Shelly's corrupt law firm gave hundreds of thousands to.....
http://observer.com/2015/01/law-firm-at-center-of-silver-scandal-donated-huge-sums-to-dems/
Was this a preemptive lunch?
http://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2014/07/bharara-and-schneiderman-do-lunch/
Who is on what side and in the right or in the wrong may not be clear yet. What is clear is who is on the side of PCVST tenants. So far, no one.
And here in lies the key
"Liberal Democrat that he is, Silver has always self-righteously postured as the champion of the poor and downtrodden.
But if the facts presented by federal prosecutors prove true, he was exploiting little guys with abandon.
Victims suffering deadly asbestos-related illness, low-income families desperate for affordable health coverage, tenants who see rent regulation as the key to keeping their homes — all became profit centers for Silver’s alleged schemes."
That is precisely right. Rent regulation is the key to keeping our homes and it is not hurting or as Spinola likes to say causing "pain" to the RE industry. RE is not only doing just fine, their profits are sky high. REBNY has some nerve, no shame, and cold hearts crying that rent regulation causes their industry pain. Not even causes them, but their industry. Their wallets are fat their industry is bloated. Let us keep our one little simple modest key to keeping our homes and back off of our rent regulations!
WOW. Just Wow.
http://pagesix.com/2015/01/23/sheldon-silver-employer-knows-shady/?_ga=1.177152416.420097938.1422051041
Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker arrested Thursday on corruption charges, is hardly the first shady lawyer known to Perry Weitz, of Weitz & Luxenberg, the firm that employed Silver, paying him more than $3 million since 2002.
Until Weitz co-founded the firm in 1989, he worked for his father-in-law, Morris Eisen, who had one of the city’s top personal injury firms with 40 lawyers in the Woolworth Building.
Eisen was convicted with six others in 1991 on racketeering charges they fabricated evidence and bribed witnesses. Prosecutors said they smashed a car with a sledge hammer to increase damages, used a pick ax to deepen a pothole and employed a miniature ruler to make potholes appear bigger in photos.
Preet Bharara 2015-01-22 - Secrecy - the hallmark of many a criminal scheme
We could use a does of transparency in PCV ST with the Brookfield deal and all the dealings of the TABoard.
Ugh just signed a one year RS renewal lease. Wish I took a 2-year!
This is the tip of the iceberg. I look forward to seeing the rest of the crooks on Bharara's list being brought to justice.
Anyone doubting that NYC is the most corrupt city in Western Hemisphere? We have made no progress since the days of Boss Tweed and his gang! If anything, things are worse now because at least the Tweed mob helped the ordinary people to some extent, crooked as they were. This mob of crooks we have now only help themselves and their cronies. Rot in Jail, Silver and I hope you soon have plenty of company of your kind. Cuomo, you got your soap-on-a-rope ready? You won't want to bend down in the slammer.
It would warm the cockles of my heart if Speyer and his partners in crime could go down with them, but that probably won't happen.
Silver was never on the side of tenants. He faked it while all along he was passing laws and making deals that benefit landlords. This puts in question the entire Assembly who all voted him Speaker and none whistleblew in all the time of this investigation since 2000 (or before). Good riddance.
He's just a little Silver fish. I'll be impressed when Preet brings in Spinola, Speyer, and the pols in their pocket.
Right on to the poster about NYC and NYS corrupt politicians. Reminds me of my local friends here who talk about how corrupt Florida is... Which, tbh, doesn't get even close to NY corruptness. Tsk Tsk.
Anyone remember this:
http://nypost.com/2013/11/08/chain-smoking-politician-claims-asbestos-caused-her-cancer/
Smoked heavily for 40 years, never worked with asbestos, but Silver's law firm saw an opportunity!
I keep reading comments in the press that the "electorate" is at fault for voting for these crooks, but what I would like to know is: how can we vote for good people when they are not on the final ballot. Zephyr Teachout got a very good turn-out of voters, but she didn't get on the gubernatorial ballot, unfortunately. Maybe that was because of crookery behind the scenes courtesy of Cuomo, but the point is that all we were left with was Cuomo and some neanderthal republican - just like in the first gubernatorial election when Cuomo won.
If we don't have anyone decent to vote for, then how is it our fault? I wrote in Teachout at the last election because I could not bring myself to vote for either of the trash that was actually on the ballot. If you have to choose between eating shit or eating poison, you have a very limited menu.
"I keep reading comments in the press that the "electorate" is at fault for voting for these crooks"…
@ 4:50 PM
So who is it then that keeps voting these crooks back in if not the electorate, in this case, the democrats?
It seems that for a lot of people, the devil they know (or think they know) is always preferable, and party loyalty trumps everything. The alternative to Cuomo was some "neanderthal republican"... really??!
The democrat politicians do a lot of fear mongering making it seem the BIG BAD republicans are scary. The democrats want our votes by default so they can keep pocketing and helping landlords, banks, RE, big business but make it seem like only the republicans are doing that. Silver is the epitome of this.
"The alternative to Cuomo was some "neanderthal republican"... really??!
Besides the social issues they are on the side of (Neanderthal), you do realize if you are a tenant currently living in PCVST which currently is all under NYS RS, that, again, the Republicans believes in ZERO residential rent regulations, I repeat ZERO. This is no defense of the corrupt Democratic party but really, the Republicans as an alternative?
This is not a good sign either.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was instrumental in the fight against Airbnb. If he’s tainted, that is not good news for us.
http://observer.com/2015/01/law-firm-at-center-of-silver-scandal-donated-huge-sums-to-dems/
I always go back to the movie “Chinatown” for Jake's quote that sums up all of these greedy scumbags:
Jake Gittes: How much are you worth?
Noah Cross: I have no idea. How much do you want?
Jake Gittes: I just wanna know what you're worth. More than 10 million?
Noah Cross: Oh my, yes!
Jake Gittes: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can't already afford?
Noah Cross: The future, Mr. Gittes! The future. Now, where's the girl
The RE ties to politicians at Shelly's PR firm stinks but that's not the only fishy thing.
Shelly and Bill's shared PR firm Berlin Rosen's money trail
Good-government groups criticized the money trail.
“It’s an example of how obscene our current laws are,” Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a public-interest watchdog group, told Crain’s. “The mayor’s camp essentially paid its own operation, indirectly.”
"A de Blasio spokesman declined to comment on the transactions."
http://nypost.com/2014/11/10/de-blasio-pals-cash-in-even-after-democrats-lose-the-senate/
He's out.
The Assembly (and the City Council) needs to be cleaned out of more then just Shelly.
"Far more alarming than the evidence of dedicated, long-term sneak-thievery by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is the haplessness of his liberal Democratic enablers — and their inability over many years to denounce shifty, unprincipled behavior even when a loud chorus of public voices has done just that."
One needs to go immediately - this is their answer to Errol asking what he thought of the 35-page criminal complaint filed against Silver, which is replete with detailed, credible allegations of extortion and bribery gathered and sworn to by the FBI.
A.
“I'm not a legal expert,” said the pol, who has spent more than a decade writing laws for the rest of us to follow."
WOW!!!!!
David Weprin's answer perfectly reflects the reason the Assembly must be gutted starting with him
"That sad cop-out was scarcely better than the comment from Assemblyman David Weprin of Queens — the son of former Speaker Saul Weprin — who might not have actually read the complaint before offering a novel theory. “In my opinion, it seems to be a financial disclosure mistake,” he told a newspaper"
David Weprin IS the reason the Assembly must be gutted. He is wrong on many issues.
Shelly's best friend Rapfogel convicted for basically same white collar crimes but Rapfogel wife remained Shelly's chief of staff
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/assembly-speaker-sheldon-silver-saddened-pal-guilty-plea-blog-entry-1.1766162
http://nypost.com/2015/01/25/chief-of-staff-rallies-democrats-behind-sheldon-silver/
It gets worse and racist
"Mr. Silver has funneled millions of public dollars to the organization that Mr. Rapfogel led, and he employs Mr. Rapfogel’s wife, Judy, as his chief of staff."
"A primary focus of their alliance had been a struggle to preserve the Jewish identity of the neighborhood they delivered for Mr. Koch all those years ago.
Their battleground was some 20 barren acres along the southern side of Delancey Street, where, in 1967, the city leveled blocks of rundown apartment buildings. More than 1,800 low-income families, largely Puerto Rican, were sent packing and promised a chance to return to new apartments someday. Now, nearly 50 years later, the land is still a fallow stretch of weed- and rat-ridden parking lots, though in the waning days of the Bloomberg administration, the city announced that the land would finally be developed into a complex called Essex Crossing, to include retail markets, restaurants, office and cultural space. And new apartments."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/nyregion/they-kept-a-lower-east-side-lot-vacant-for-decades.html?_r=0
Moving to exile one of New York’s most powerful and long-serving leaders, Democrats in the State Assembly agreed late on Monday to ask Sheldon Silver to step down as speaker in the wake of his arrest last week on federal corruption charges.
The Democrats reached the decision in a closed-door meeting that stretched for hours, rebuffing a bid by Mr. Silver to keep his post by relinquishing some of his responsibilities while he defended himself against the charges.
“He should understand that he’s lost the confidence of a majority of our conference,” Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, a Manhattan Democrat, said after the meeting.
Our Assemblyman is part of the crew who want Silver out. Good news.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/nyregion/manhattan-democratic-leader-calls-on-silver-to-quit-post.html?_r=0
This once-great City has totally gone to hell thanks to the money-hungry/insatiable developers and politicians who are private club of mutual greed.
Just look at how overcrowded the subways and buses are. Look at how filthy the streets are. They (REBNY and politicians) are building hideous buildings that nobody but the mega-rich can possibly afford to live in. And, ya know what: they don't live in them. They collect them (e.g., Bill Ackman purchasing "the Mona Lisa" of apartments in that thing on 57th Street). They collect them, don't pay taxes on them and don't live in them. Meanwhile, hard-working real New Yorkers are being priced out and bled dry.
We need to get rid of the filth who are running and controlling this City and we need to start at the top and work the way down. I hope to God that Preet Bharara is up to the job.
The Kitty Genovese NY Assembly
Lost the confidence of his buddies is NOT the reason Silver should be out but I guess having confidence in Silver is the reason his buddies let him stay for so long during his sneak-thievery. The Assembly needs to be gutted of those who stayed silent and those who committed the same crimes. It's Kitty Genovese bystander effect or "Genovese syndrome" diffusion of responsibility.
“He should understand that he’s lost the confidence of a majority of our conference,” Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, a Manhattan Democrat, said after the meeting.
We need our Assembly persons to be crusaders for our communities not jumping on the bandwagon as "part of the crew" after years of the news organizations and the people of NY demand it and then several other politicians too. Mr Kavanagh may be a nice guy, but we need a nice guy who is a crusader for PCV ST while we are under RE assault.
The Three Amigos Cuomo, Skelos, Silver; "three men in a room" controlled by REBNY along with the rest of their colleagues.
...bears repeating. 2011 REBNY annual report
http://www.rebny.com/content/dam/rebny/Documents/PDF/News/AnnualReports/2011_annual_report_web.pdf
The real kicker, page 14 photo Spinola and Tighe grinning control over Cuomo. Per REBNY, REBNY balanced the state budget, and they extended a gratuitous thank you to Sheldon Silver, Skelos, and Cuomo.
REBNY controls the NY STATE budget.
January 21, 2015 at 8:00 AM
bears repeating.
Anonymous said...
"This once-great City has totally gone to hell thanks to the money-hungry/insatiable developers and politicians who are private club of mutual greed.
Just look at how overcrowded the subways and buses are. Look at how filthy the streets are. They (REBNY and politicians) are building hideous buildings that nobody but the mega-rich can possibly afford to live in. And, ya know what: they don't live in them. They collect them (e.g., Bill Ackman purchasing "the Mona Lisa" of apartments in that thing on 57th Street). They collect them, don't pay taxes on them and don't live in them. Meanwhile, hard-working real New Yorkers are being priced out and bled dry.
We need to get rid of the filth who are running and controlling this City and we need to start at the top and work the way down. I hope to God that Preet Bharara is up to the job."
January 26, 2015 at 8:57 PM
"Our Assemblyman is part of the crew who want Silver out. Good news." January 27, 2015 at 10:35 AM
?????
This isn't "good news"
This is what should happen. This is what should have happened long ago. This Assembly deserves a serious reprimanding and a serious overhaul of members.
Each and every assemblyperson should go to their communities they represent and
1. formally apologize for their participation in acts against the community, the constituents, and for letting this go on for so long.
2. step down but since that is not going to happen they should tell their constituents specifically what they are going to do to fix the mess they made and by when that will be achieved.
3. formally and regularly report to constituents their progress and actual results.
When I say "report to" I don't mean passively post on Facebook, Twitter, or websites. We don't follow you. We don't work for you. You work for us.
When we didn't vote in this last election that means we didn't rehire you. We fired you.
By default you are still in your job in office. So do your job for your constituents and report back to us on your progress.
Silver, Skelos and Klein, their colleagues in the assembly and senate all worked together to quash the Moreland subpoenas that were investigating the crimes Silver was arrested for. Skelos and Klein should not be that far behind Silver.
Skelos, Silver, Klein and the law firms they used including Weitz & Luxembourg filed a complaint in court to quash the subpoenas to stop the Moreland investigation. Here is the complaint filed in court.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/sites/default/files/131127_Moreland_Intervenor_Motion.pdf
Here is the letter their lawyers wrote to the Moreland Commission to block the Moreland corruption investigation.
http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2013/09/20/read-letter-legislature-fights-moreland-commission-disclosure-request/
These lawyers should be disbarred for abusing the law and the intent of the law to do good and not to do harm. Lawyers who use the law to harm people, to cover up crimes, to perpetuate crimes and corruption do not deserve to be a member of the New York Bar Association.
Here is an easy Summary Timeline of the State's Moreland Commission and hand off to the Feds.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/how_cuomos_moreland_commission_factored_into_sheldon_silvers_arrest.html
Thanks upstate for this information.
Joe Morelle is the temporary speaker replacing Silver on Monday.
Here is a link to Joe's votes on Housing issues
http://votesmart.org/candidate/4362/joe-morelle?categoryId=39&type=V,S,R,E,F,P,E,E#.VMjwzyxKiSo
Tenants need an official word from either Joe or from their respective assemblyperson on this Speaker's position on rent regulation, the upcoming deadline, and a commitment to protect the constituents who are under assault from REBNY, RE and other politicians who want us gone.
2:37 I completely agree.
Here are the three Moreland Commission subpoenas Cuomo quashed:
"Cuomo reportedly exercised influence to ensure that three commission subpoenas that were “set to go out” did not. The subpoenas were to go to:
1. Ethics Commission and the Legislative Ethics Commission- (This subpoena employed the smart strategy of looking for prior complaints against legislators as pointers to what needs to be looked into).
2. REBNY- Tax breaks for five developers- Same five developers gave a lot of money to Cuomo when he was signing the bill.
3. State Democratic party controlled by Cuomo.
Mr. Lovett explained that some of the very first subpoenas the commission sent out were to 5 developers who received lucrative tax breaks secretly snuck into the housing bill. The REBNY subpoena would have followed up, but Mr Lovett explained that:
We found out that those same 5 developers gave a lot of money to Gov Cuomo, particularly around the time he was signing the bill. That raised questions. REBNY was all part of that.
REBNY was also very close to the Independence Party which was also getting subpoenaed for its relationship with the state senate Republicans.
Mr. Lovett said that despite official denials and acknowledgment of frequent contact with the Governor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office, “sources close to the situation say . . .they were specifically told [by the Governor’s Office] not to send the subpoena to RBNY, not to send subpoenas to the Legislative Ethics Commission and the State Ethics Commission.”
...the three subpoenas quashed - how REBNY buys politicians to hurt NYC tenants like us.
In an August 5, 2013 press release concerning the work of the commission Common Cause addressed itself to the money flow from the real estate industry that is, but shouldn’t be legal: "Moreland Monday" Analysis of REBNY Contributions Raises Serious Issues for Commission to Consider.
Before it concludes, the press release addresses itself to the technical LLC (Limited Liabiluity Corporation) loophole that allows real estate companies to give virtually unlimited money to political campaigns while concealing the money's source.
And it quotes Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY, pointing out how vast a vast flow of real estate money to upstate legislators then governs what becomes law in NYC:
Our analysis shows a skillful and calculated manipulation of all of the weaknesses in NY State's campaign finance laws by NYC's real estate industry, which uses every trick in the book to insure that the investment they make in plentiful campaign contributions garners an extraordinarily large return at the expense of New York City's tenants and taxpayers. . .
Legislators from outside NYC are thus encouraged to pass laws which burden NYC residents and have no impact on their own constituents but serve to maximize the campaign contributions they receive.
We urge the Moreland Commission to use the full scope of their investigatory powers to fully examine this situation and recommend policies to end this exploitation.
REBNY'S BUSINESS ANTICS HURT EVERYONE
REBNY pays upstate politicians to pass laws that hurt NYC and have no effect on their own districts.
Why the Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town Tenant Association hired a power-REBNY member lawyer is a serious question and problem that needs addressing in order to halt the damage the REBNY Tenant Association board attorney is doing to PCVST.
"It’s worth listening to Mr. Lovett’s interview with Lehrer - the audio is on the link below.
The press release starts out:
A new "Moreland Monday" analysis released today by Common Cause/NY is raising serious questions about the potential influence of tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions on public policy relating to real estate and development in NYC.
Since 2005, REBNY and the 37 companies comprising its leadership contributed $43.9 million to state and local candidates, committees, and PACs. REBNY's contributions increased with $17.1 million given since 2011.
Noticing New York has always focused on development in NYC and its none-too-pleasant associated politics. For so long as the world of NY development continues to be a baffling construct of complicated and arcane subsidies conjoined with discretionary public official approvals having significant financial ramifications, that world is going to be awash in the vast expenditures of political money it will attract.
It exacerbates problems tremendously that the flow of such money even when accompanied by fairly explicit quid-pro-quos is almost completely unregulated, uninvestigated and virtually legal.
In the end, it means is that, because organizations like REBNY are not looking out for the greater good, the city is diminished with each tax break, each subsidy, each zoning change, each variance that is improperly sold off to behind-the-scenes manipulators.
Why? Because those are the things our public officials control and therefore have available to sell.
Unfortunately, the impoverishment of the public realm goes beyond even this: Our public officials are also officially entrusted with the assets that the public owns, and so in this world where money spent behind the scenes holds too much sway we see that our public officials are willing to sell off such public assets to the real estate industry as well:
Our parks, our hospitals, our libraries, our NYCHA public housing playgrounds, our schools, our streets, avenues and sidewalks, our highways. Nor does it even stop there: With eminent domain our public officials believe they are entitled to sell off the private property of citizens, and do.
http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/10/governor-andrew-cuomo-quashes-moreland.html
If nobody suspected something amiss, Albany is the dumbest place in America. More likely, lawmakers of both parties were fine with the obvious corruption; as Bharara’s record proves, some elected crooks saw Silver as a role model and got on gravy trains of their own.
http://nypost.com/2015/01/27/sheldon-silvers-downfall-exposes-corruption-in-albany/
And as if that is not bad enough, Silver and all who knew of the rape are the lowest, most despicable.....Silver's solution was to get a new DA he could control not to embarrass him.
"The story begins in 2003, when Silver’s chief counsel was charged with rape and marched out of Assembly offices in handcuffs. Although District Attorney Paul Clyne was a fellow Democrat, Silver was furious at being embarrassed.
“He was fuming,” the Albany vet says, “and swore he would get a DA in there he could control and who would never embarrass him.”
And the Cuomo delusional victory dance
What a bunch of corrupted creepy cowards.
January 28, 2015 at 9:27 AM
Morelle would be a crappy choice - a centrist ally of Cuomo repping freaking Rochester. Heastie from the Bronx would probably be much better. He'll have the support of labor in NYC. That's good. He also appears to be a good infighter.
Harlem's Keith Wright and Brooklyn Assemblyman Joe Lentol may also be in it. Wright's strong for tenants but who knows how shrewd he is or if he's a good infighter. Don't know much about Lentol but he also appears strong for renters but then he reps Williamsburg so that's not surprising.
Cuomo behavior indicates he's got something major to hide and is extremely worried Silver will be flipped by U.S. Attorney.
Will the White House accept his phone calls begging for favors? That's what it will take.
http://nypost.com/2015/01/26/cuomo-on-edge-as-federal-corruption-probe-continues/
"Cuomo — who along with his aides is being investigated by Bharara over the abrupt disbanding of the governor’s Moreland Act commission on public corruption — as “on edge’’ over Bharara’s ominous statement Friday that the public should “stay tuned’’ for more criminal charges to come.
“Andrew’s been working the phones day and night, staying up into the early morning hours, making hundreds of calls in one day trying to find out what the hell is going on,’’ a source close to the governor said.
Cuomo, who has retained a private lawyer, has enlisted several former federal and state-level prosecutors with ties to Bharara’s office including Steve Cohen, his former chief-of-staff, in an effort to find out Bharara’s next move, the sources said."
Cuomo is DIRTY. DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY. Let us not forget that for one second. He is DIRTY and NASTY AND UNSCRUPULOUS. We have to keep that in mind at all times.
What was the quid pro quo that Christine Quinn got from Rudin for giving them St. Vincent's Hospital? There must have been something in it for her.
A lot of good people in our community lost their jobs when cold Quinn shut St Vincent's.
12:25 AGREE
Sociopathic. Selfish. No Remorse. No morals. No ethics. No conscience. No capacity for anyone beyond themselves.
Last week Assembly mantras went from Silver being a victim to Silver being an "innocent until proven guilty American" to concern for "how "bad is it" with a declaration of Silver getting caught being "really, really bad" to Unity behind Shelly proclaimed by Morelle.
No No No No No No No
Most of the Assembly is all wrong. This is not really really bad. This is really really good - good for the many many New York people who have been hurt for decades by the actions of Shelly. It is only "really really bad" if your first care is for the criminal. New Yorkers have been victims of this Assembly for too long. This is very good, the Assembly must use it as a time to reform.
In today's Times when the assembly first learned of Shelly's arrest:
"Some there were already invoking divine intervention: Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo of the Bronx asked for a moment of prayer on Mr. Silver’s behalf.
Judy Rapfogel, his longtime chief of staff, fought back emotion. Her face ashen, speaking through tears, people in the room recalled, Ms. Rapfogel alluded to how her own husband — William E. Rapfogel, a longtime associate of Mr. Silver who pleaded guilty last year to stealing more than $1 million from the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty — was in prison. And now this. “It has been a horrible year for me,” she said."
You can't make this stuff up!!! Thank goodness for the Suburban Caucus and Mr Wright (also the Riverton lawsuit leader against MacArthur and CWCR) calling for Shelly to step down
“Without a complete separation of Sheldon Silver from the speakership and its powers, and a real reform of our conference,” he wrote, “we will as a body remain mired in the swamp of dysfunction and chaos.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/nyregion/6-days-that-felled-sheldon-silver-the-speaker-who-ruled-albany-for-decades.html?_r=0
Curious to know how the MR tenants feel about the fact that they pay more for their apartments then a new tenant that moves in this month!
You have.to.laugh.out.loud.
Prosecutors say the lawyers at Weitz & Luxembourg did not know of silver's scheme. One would think lawyers are smart enough to have seen Silver was being paid a lot, was funneling a lot of clients, and not doing any work.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/law-firm-mulls-paying-sheldon-silver-article-1.2099990
NY went from DIRTY governor to SLEAZY governor to DIRTY governor ....next up SLEAZY governor. any names surfacing and when is the election?
DIRTY
Yet all the devastating evidence of the corrupting of the state parole process—detailed in two trials and the guilty pleas of two other high-ranking state officials—has disappeared into the ethical ether of the Pataki era, where quid pro quo is the status quo. A Voice examination of the under-reported record of these cases, following the trail of $708,366 in campaign and public dollars used to pay the Pataki lawyers who fought the prosecutors in this case, has pinpointed the reasons why George Pataki should be personally held accountable in Campaign 2002 for this disgraceful scandal.
SLEAZY
Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring nytimes
DIRTY
Moreland Monday" Analysis of REBNY Contributions Raises Serious Issues for Commission to Consider Common Cause/NY,
Next up for NY is SLEAZY .... can't wait to see who throws their hat in the ring and what empty promises they make. They should be prosecuted and imprisoned. Its not enough this Cuomo 5 point plan changing the rules, with no consequences they will continue to break the rules. Until we can find a better calibur of politician, there have to be consequences for this shit.
"Until we can find a better calibur of politician, there have to be consequences for this shit."
You said it! New York State and New York City politicians would make any Third World Dictatorship blush!
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