New 421a plan will flood Queens with condos

From The Real Deal:

A budget proposal from the New York State Senate would greatly increase the number of tax exempt condominium projects in the outer boroughs, confirming the fears of Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city officials that such developments could creep back into a renewed 421a developer tax break.

In the Senate Republicans’ latest version of the bill, condo projects outside Manhattan with as many as 80 units could qualify for 421a tax exemptions, up from 35 units in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal released in January. A cap on the average tax assessment value for benefitting condo units is also raised in the new proposal from $65,000 to $85,000, a change that was first reported by Politico.

Since the 421a program’s expiration in January of 2016, developers have filed offering plans for 15 new outerborough projects consisting of between 35 and 80 condo units, a TRD analysis of data from the New York State Attorney General shows. If 421a became available to developers of this section of the market, there could be many more of these condo projects on the horizon.

Two key Senators in the 421a negotiations have previously expressed an interest in increasing outer-borough condo benefits, prior to Cuomo releasing his own plan. Republican-caucusing Democrat Simcha Felder and Republican Marty Golden, both of Brooklyn, told reporters in December they were looking to expand the tax break for more property owners, but haven’t provided further details.

Calls and emails directed to Golden and Felder were not immediately returned on Wednesday.

DeBlasio trying hard to pass real estate friendly legislation in Albany

From New York Magazine:

Not since the skyscraper boom of the Jazz Age has New York's skyline undergone a transformation as it is now. More than two dozen supertall towers — and counting — are in some stage of planning or construction, and not just for Billionaire's Row. These slender 800-plus-foot cloudbusters are springing up in the Flatiron, the Financial District, the Far West Side, and even Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City. How long before they start sprouting in Riverdale or Tottenville?

How about next week?

That is the fear that erupted after a legislative package came to light in Albany this week that would remove restrictions on the size of residential buildings in the five boroughs. The bills, quietly introduced by Brooklyn Senator Simcha Felder and Harlem Assemblyman Keith Wright, would remove a 1961 density cap placed on residential buildings. Under the new rules — which could be passed before the session ends next Friday — residential buildings in most of the city could be far bigger than they are now. And the biggest backer, besides Big Real Estate, is Mayor Bill de Blasio himself.

The rule change is subtle, affecting the formula called floor-area ratio, or F.A.R., that is used to compute the bulk and size of any building. Right now, residential buildings can have an F.A.R. of up to 12: A 5,000-square-foot lot, say, can be occupied by a 60,000-square-foot building, which usually works out (because of space set aside for setbacks, plazas, and so forth) to 20 to 25 stories. Residential buildings’ F.A.R. is capped by state rather than city law, and has been since 1961, when it was not only written into the zoning code but also enacted in Albany to ensure that it would stick.

The bill as introduced in the Assembly and Senate would eliminate that limit, although developers would have to get anything above 12 approved by the Department of City Planning (as well as the City Council, where public outcry might try to limit things again). That could mean a 40- or 50-story building, or even more, on that same 5,000-square-foot lot. (Yes, we already have residential buildings that are far taller, but building those has required special horse-trading moves, like acquiring the rights from several structures and bundling them.) Many neighborhoods have absolute height restrictions set by the city, but some, like Midtown and Downtown Brooklyn, do not. The de Blasio administration argues that by lifting the cap, developers will be willing to introduce public benefits in their projects, like affordable housing, open space, or infrastructure investment.

Some...New Yorkers in Albany do not share that faith. A group of lawmakers, mostly from the city, have risen up in opposition to the legislation in recent days. While the administration remains supportive of the proposal, it now looks like it will have to wait for the F.A.R. caps to be lifted until another legislative session. “Like everything that happens in Albany, this was being done at the last minute, out of nowhere, with no discussion,” State Senator Liz Krueger said. “And big real estate gets exactly what it wants, and the community loses.”

This week's political news roundup

Councilmember Simcha Felder is being appointed Deputy Comptroller by Comptroller John Liu. The Daily News explains that this move by Johnny is to help position him for a mayoral run in 2013. (Of course, Johnny still has 4 years in which to mess up and resign in disgrace.)

Former Comptroller William Thompson has declared his intention to run for mayor again. (Maybe this time he'll expand his campaign to white and Asian neighborhoods as well as black and Hispanic ones.)

Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio is going to push the civic-minded to community organize. (The idea is that you'll do the work so he won't have to.)

Queens Council neophytes have declared their New Year's resolutions and have new ideas. (Danny Dromm really wants to help day laborers. Taxpayers seem to rank a lower priority.)

Following in the footsteps of Hillary Clinton, another southern carpetbagger is considering running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

And last, but certainly not least...

Barry Grodenchick, former Assemblyman and Parkside Group lobbyist, has been appointed Deputy Queens Borough President. (Even though his role in the illegal lobbying that Claire Shulman's group did with regard to the Willets Point land grab is certainly going to be examined by authorities.)

Bloomie gave out slush fund money illegally

From the NY Times:

For years, aides to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg routed hundreds of thousands of dollars in city money to at least two politically connected nonprofit groups in violation of government contracting rules, according to records and interviews.

The mayor’s office, from 2002 to 2006, gave $1.1 million to Agudath Israel of America Community Services and more than $400,000 to Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, using a little-known pot of discretionary money that it controls.

By law, the mayor’s office can give the money only if it has been requested by a City Council member or borough president, but in these two instances, records and interviews show, the money was given by the Bloomberg administration and then later attributed to a council member without his knowledge.

Agudath Israel and Ohel provide services including career counseling and mental health care and are powerful institutions in the city’s Orthodox Jewish communities — political forces long courted by the mayor.

And the organizations have substantial ties to the Bloomberg administration: Mr. Bloomberg, since becoming mayor, has personally donated $200,000 to Agudath Israel, and a former top aide to the mayor is a lobbyist for Ohel.

Photo from the Daily News

Shocking news: Doorman is a hypocrite

From the Daily News:

Public advocate candidate Eric Gioia was the lone city councilman to vote against the budget this year.

Gioia said he feared some of the lawmakers' discretionary spending - known as "pork" - might later be found to have gone to sketchy causes.

Despite his concerns, Gioia, a Queens Democrat, had no problem plying local groups with his own share of pork for the budget year that starts Wednesday.

What's more, he raked in thousands of dollars in donations from employees and board members of these groups.

Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) took Gioia to task during the vote.

"I told him that if he thinks it's that terrible, he shouldn't take the money," Felder said.

Randi not going out quietly

From the NY Post:

The United Federation of Teachers blocked City Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) from receiving an "early endorsement" from the 1.3 million-member Central Labor Council to get even with him for exposing the union's arm-twisting during a City Hall hearing on charter schools, sources said.

Felder disclosed that union reps brazenly distributed cue cards with prepared questions that legislators were supposed to ask at the April hearing. Union witnesses got the softball questions. The tough queries went to administration officials.

So when the labor council last week released a list of 33 council members it was endorsing without screenings, Felder's name wasn't on it.

"It was because of the cheat sheets," said one source.

And from Room Eight:

Under recently announced deal, the United Federation of Teachers and its members will make the selfless sacrifice of reducing the take home pay of future teachers, not themselves, by 5 percent for 27 years, rather than ten. In exchange the existing teachers, who give up nothing, will work two fewer days per year. This is sure to be the first of many similar deals in the inevitable return to a “you will pretend to work and we will pretend to pay you” school system. This time at a vastly greater cost with higher taxes, and all the additional money going to those who retired to Florida at age when most of us will have to work an additional ten to twelve years. "This agreement is a win for everyone," UFT president Randi Weingarten said. She had called the initial deal a “win for children.”

Under the deal teachers, who previously arrived at school a day or two early to set up for the year, will show up for work unprepared on the same day the students do. Including those who were just hired and never set foot in a classroom before. Unless the school year is changed and two days of instruction are cut.

In reality, the days of instruction are going to be cut anyway. How many days will pass before the teachers provide a competent lesson? How many days before they assign, collect, and go over so the children can learn, homework? Or, let’s say a principal were to ignore the rest of the school and sit in one classroom for the first few weeks, collecting the massive documentation required to actually remove a teacher from their job. How many days, weeks or months would have to pass without any teaching, given the excuse by a teacher that they needed time to prepare for the year, before the UFT would say a fired teacher didn’t have a legitimate case for a grievance?

Photo from the Daily News.

Street trees sometimes cause problems

From the NY Times:

Unrepaired sidewalks...expose the city to tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits and liability settlements.

But cash is tight. In the 2010 fiscal year, which starts in July, the amount originally allocated for the program in the city budget was only $1 million. Jesslyn Tiao Moser, a parks department spokeswoman, said on Wednesday that since the program began, $12 million has been spent to repair 4,703 sidewalks.

Meanwhile, Mr. Liu and Councilman Simcha Felder have said that allocating an additional $15 million could pay for the remaining sidewalks that need fixing.

There was, lately, encouraging news for the program: Mayor Bloomberg announced on March 30 that the tree program would get $3.7 million more in federal stimulus money in the coming year. Still, Mr. Liu said, more money will be necessary, because sidewalks will, unavoidably, keep cracking.

From the NY Post:

Neighbors of St. Bonaventure Catholic Church on 170th Street are wondering why workers tore out two sidewalk slabs to plant two new trees that block pedestrians' paths.

"Those two were planted in the wrong place," said Father Gordon Kusi, the church's pastor. But he said the Parks Department told him it had "no control" over the trees' placement.

When neighbor Mark Field asked the workers' supervisor why they were cutting up the sidewalk for the two trees, the supervisor checked a clipboard and answered: "Those are my orders."

"Obviously, the people who did that had just had a liquid lunch. It doesn't make sense," said City Councilman Leroy Comrie, a Democrat.

If the snout fits, wear it

Daily News editorial:

...on Dec. 5, 2007, the Governmental Operations Committee, chaired by Brooklyn's Simcha Felder, held a hearing on reforms. Civic organizations testified, calling for action, and Felder said he would submit legislation on the matter in the coming year.

Having noted that on our calendar, we posed a question to Felder on March 15: What was up with the legislation, we asked.

Ask Quinn, he answered.

We queried Quinn: When would the bill be ready? Later, her aides said.

Well, it's 2009, and Quinn and Felder and most of the rest are getting ready to run for reelection. It was high time to call Quinn again. The answers were very different.

The speaker now believes the Council should defer to the judgment of a still-to-be-appointed Charter Revision Commission.

Then again, Quinn's aides said, if any members of the Council want to push their own reform legislation, they are perfectly free to do so.

Bottom line: Quinn and the Gang took the money and ran.