Let's get to know Alex Pan

So, Alex Pan is an 18-year old college freshman, lives at college out of state, made it onto the ballot for Comptroller and is simultaneously running for student body president.

Just thought I'd put that out there.

LI town has illegal conversion problem

From CBS:

Tucked outside of Stony Brook University, they often stick out like sore thumbs — run down, lawns torn up for parking — and neighbors fed up over an explosion of illegal off campus student housing.

“Weeds where flowers used to grow are no like 4 to 5 feet tall, there is garbage all over the street, and cars, we can’t get out of our driveways,” Diane Sander said.

“The deplorable conditions of the homes. If they would upkeep the houses and keep them neat and clean and trimmed, we wouldn’t even notice them,” Bruce Sander said.

Residents count more than 300 houses owned by absentee landlords who subdivide single family homes and pack in the renters.

“We have five in this house,” one student said.

Brookhaven town law prohibits more than four unrelated people under one roof.

Toby has some interesting campaign donors

From the Observer:

Queens State Senator Toby Stavisky—the ranking member of the Committee on Higher Education—has raked in tens of thousands of dollars in donations from for-profit colleges, one of tied to a bribery scandal that took down an assemblyman from her home borough in 2009.

Stavisky has taken more than $23,000 in contributions from Forest Hills’ Plaza College, its owners and its affiliates since 2002—$18,500 of it since federal agents arrested the late Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio on corruption charges related to the school in 2008. One of the affiliates that gave to Stavisky, Collegiate Management Associates—which U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara labeled a “shell company”—served as a conduit for Plaza College provost Charles Callahan III to funnel $170,350 in bribes to Seminerio in exchange for legislation favorable to the for-profit institution.

Bharara’s criminal complaint against Seminerio also alleged the assemblyman unsuccessfully sought to get Callahan III appointed to the state Board of Regents, which controls New York’s public schools, and assisted him in navigating various agencies.

Collegiate Management Associates gave Stavisky $1,000 in August 2014. She took another grand from the college itself that October, $1,000 again in 2015, and reported taking the same amount from the school in her filings last month.

Rory & Mark make some sense

Mark Weprin gets points for mentioning parks and schools as main reasons to live in his district instead of food, but he should be made aware that the Queens Farm Museum stopped making wine some time ago.

Meanwhile, Rory pulls off a flawless performance.

NY Senate bill would provide citizenship benefits to illegal aliens

From the NY Post:

Illegal aliens in New York could score billions in Medicaid and college tuition money — along with driver’s licenses, voting rights and even the ability to run for office — if Democrats win control of the state Senate in November, The Post has learned.

A little-known bill, dubbed “New York is Home,” would offer the most sweeping amnesty available anywhere in the country to nearly 3 million noncitizens living in the Empire State.

It would bar police from releasing any information about them to the feds, unless it involves a criminal warrant unrelated to their immigration status.

Under the proposed legislation, undocumented immigrants could also apply for professional licenses and serve on juries.

The plan hinges on Democrats — who now control both the governorship and the state Assembly — wresting control of the Senate from Republicans, who oppose immigration amnesty.

GOP officials maintain that amnesty for illegal aliens would open the door to fraud and abuse and increase the risk of terrorism.

For example, the bill would let illegals vote in local and state elections, but they would be barred by federal law from voting for presidential or congressional candidates.

High schools still graduating unprepared students

From the NY Post:

A stunning 77.6 percent of NYC public-high-school graduates who entered CUNY community colleges as freshmen last fall needed remediation in math, reading or writing, new data show.

Despite their high-school diplomas, the grads failed CUNY admission tests in one or more of the key subjects, officials told The Post.

The only good news: The number of unprepared city grads dipped a modest 1.7 percentage points from 2012, when 79.3 percent of entering students needed to bone up on basics.

In releasing the damning data, CUNY cited success with a pre-community-college program it started four years ago to tackle the flood of unready students.

“CUNY Start” takes mostly high-school grads who fail at least two admission tests. They agree to postpone enrollment for up to six months to focus on raising their skills. Upon completion, about 70 percent pass a test they failed before, and 48 percent become “fully proficient,” or college ready, ­officials said Friday.

The abundance of ill-prepared grads is cited as evidence that city schools have handed out credits like candy to push kids along and out.

Johnny's new teaching gig

From the Daily News:

It's back to school for former city Controller John Liu — but now he’ll be at the head of the class.

Liu, who also ran in the 2013 Democratic race for mayor, on Wednesday began a part-time gig teaching municipal finance and policy at Baruch College.

It's not just happening in NYC

From CBS New York:

A Long Island town is cracking down on illegal room rentals near the Stony Brook University campus.

The Town of Brookhaven has taken 68 landlords to court this year for allegedly illegally renting rooms to students in their single-family homes, WCBS 880′s Mike Xirinachs reported.

One homeowner reportedly rented rooms in his single-family home to 14 students, Xirinachs reported.

At least 30 other homes are under investigation.

Nearby residents have complained about loud parties and parking problems and said the issue is lowering property values.

“It hurts the resale value,” one resident said. “You see these poor people they had to sell the house, they’re losing money.”

Sad school stats

From the NY Post:

Nearly 80 percent of city public high-school graduates who enrolled in a City University of New York community college last year had to relearn the basics of reading, writing or math — the highest percentage in years.

A stunning 79.3 percent of city public-school grads who went to CUNY’s six two-year colleges arrived without having mastered the basics, up from 71.4 percent in 2007.

The ballooning numbers come despite the state having raised the requirements to graduate from high school in each of the past five years.

In 2012, this meant that roughly 10,700 students who earned high- school diplomas and enrolled at two-year CUNY schools weren’t prepared for college-level work — most of them because of math.

Those students were then forced to shell out money for non- credit-bearing courses — for as much as $1,000 a pop, they said — before they could start making their way toward a college degree.

Send your soil for analysis

Those of us living near toxic sites have been unable to get answers regarding the possible impact of flooding on our homes and businesses... Marist College has stepped into the breach:

Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York has begun a study to examine chemical contamination of sediments flooded by or transported by Superstorm Sandy. The project is using a citizen science model, asking citizens who are out in the field doing recovery efforts to send soil and sediment samples from areas of flooding in New York, particularly in or near residences directly to Marist. The collected samples will be analyzed for a variety of organic and inorganic contaminants including heavy metals, organic compounds from gasoline and other fuels, pesticides and other industrial effluents.

Check out the links below for additional information, including contacts.

http://www.marist.edu/science/suds.html
and here:
http://www.facebook.com/SandyScience

Patricia Sheridan
U.S. EPA Region 2 - DESA DO
(Phone): 732-321-6780
(Fax): 732-906-6824
sheridan.patricia@epa.gov

- Victoria

Don't worry, it's supposed to look like that

From NBC:

A new building being constructed in Union Square has triggered concerns among neighbors and passersby who think the structure looks crooked, but officials say it's all part of the design.

The building going up on Fifth Avenue and 14th Street will eventually become the new home of the New School's University Center, housing a dormitory, cafeteria and auditorium.

But as it's being constructed, some of the columns holding up the concrete floors don't appear straight.

But it's no mistake, according to the dean at Parsons' New School for Design, which is part of The New School. Instead, it's an engineering achievement.

Silver wants to aid illegals

From the NY Post:

New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is introducing a bill that would provide government financial aid to tens of thousands of illegal immigrants attending college.

The powerful Democrat's bill follows the Obama administration "Dream Act" initiative this week that defers deportation for young illegal immigrants and makes it easier for them to get better jobs and pay for college.

If made law in New York, Silver's measure could greatly influence the presidential debate. The state is home to a large and growing group of legal and illegal immigrants and has some of the nation's highest concentrations of public and private colleges.

Silver announced the proposal Friday.

Of course, let NYS taxpayers foot the bill for improving the lives of people who aren't supposed to be here in the first place while their own wages and quality of life continue to decline. It's not Silver's money and he could gain some Democratic votes from this, so what does he care what we think?

New life for Apple building

From the Daily News:

Score one more for Long Island City and its transformation from gritty factory town into a live, work and play neighborhood.

A long vacant building at 30-30 Northern Blvd., now just a concrete shell, will become a seven-story commercial complex by this time next year, according to the project’s developer.

And a university campus could also be there in five years.

Alma Realty has begun gutting the building and plans to add two stories and complete a new 270,000-square-foot structure by early 2013. Plans also call for a rooftop terrace and for the building to be Gold LEED-certified, a coveted badge of eco-friendliness.

Alma will soon be looking for tenants — especially tech firms — to occupy the building, which a decade ago housed a topless dance club.

Dream Act would cost taxpayers a pretty penny

From the NY Times:

Much of the public debate surrounding proposals to allow illegal immigrants to receive state financial aid for college has centered on questions of legality: Would such legislation legitimize the status of people in the country without authorization?

But lawmakers have also been puzzling over another critical matter: How much would it cost the state?

Advocates for the bill who met this week with a member of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s staff said costs seemed to weigh heavily on the minds of administration officials.

The State Education Department estimated the cost at $627,428 per year for a measure it sent to the Legislature in December. That proposal is one of at least two circulating in Albany, commonly known as the New York State Dream Act.

The department’s bill, like the other measure, would make state tuition assistance available to illegal immigrants attending college in the state. But the Education Department’s estimate has been criticized by some analysts as unrealistically low.

Cornell wins campus prize

From AM-NY:

Roosevelt Island, known for its iconic tram and sweeping view of Manhattan's East Side, will get a major makeover courtesy of Cornell University.

The Ivy League school is joining forces with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a 2 million-square-foot science and engineering campus for grad students, city officials announced Monday. The initiative is part of the Bloomberg administration's goal to turn New York into a tech hot spot to rival Silicon Valley.

"By adding a new state-of-the-art institution to our landscape, we will educate tomorrow's entrepreneurs and create the jobs of the future," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a news conference at Weill Cornell Medical College on the Upper East Side.

Cornell-Technion was chosen among seven candidates that made proposals. The campus, which will include student housing, will be built in stages and won't be finished for another 30 years.

Free land and money for tech campus

From the NY Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg raised his offer on Tuesday to universities interested in setting up a school of engineering and applied sciences in New York City: along with practically free use of a swath of land, the city will contribute as much as $100 million.

Mr. Bloomberg publicly presented an invitation to universities to bid on the chance to create a campus, either on one of three city-owned properties or elsewhere in the city. Issuing the request for proposals is the latest step officials have taken to try to make New York more competitive with Silicon Valley as a hub for technology-based businesses.

City officials say the school could prompt as much as $6 billion in economic activity by creating 30,000 temporary and permanent jobs and, more important, by fostering innovations that could become big businesses. They argue that the city’s financial contribution, which would come from its capital budget over several years, would pay off in increased tax revenue and economic growth.

Not quite ready for college

From the NY Times:

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

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

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

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

Oh brother, more Iron Triangle confusion

From the Times Ledger:

Jukay Hsu, 26, grew up in Flushing and Bayside and graduated from the elite Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan graduating from Harvard University with a degree in economics then, in a rare move for an Ivy League graduate, joining the U.S. Army.

And now he hopes to help facilitate the inclusion of a campus of a top-tier university such as Stanford or Cornell in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s $3 billion plan for the redevelopment of Willets Point.

And it appears he is convincing others to follow his lead. He has met with and received encouragement from supporters of the Willets Point redevelopment plan including City Councilman Peter Koo (R-Flushing) and former Borough President Claire Shulman.

Shulman and Koo should have explained to the eager young man that a university was not part of the scenario for the Willets Point plan that was approved by the City Council in 2008. So it ain't gonna happen unless there is another vote, which ain't gonna happen.

Also interesting is that no one seems to have any idea exactly what will actually be built there and on how much land. First we were told the entire triangle must be leveled and remediated at once, otherwise there would be underground cross-contamination. Then we were told to forget what we were told, that it can proceed in phases. The first phase would be 20 acres. But then we were told that 8 of those acres would constitute a "buffer zone". Now we are down to 12 acres, which just happen to sit across the street from CitiField. In the meantime, soccer teams are salivating over the thought of a stadium at Willets Point, the Islanders flirted with the idea of coming to no man's land and now this latest bright idea.

Get ready for New London all over again.

So much for the dorm

From the Daily News:

An industrial building in Long Island City that was on track to become a dorm for graduate students could now turn into a satellite campus for a university.

Alma Realty, which recently purchased the five-story vacant building at 30-30 Northern Blvd. for $21.5 million, is in talks to develop the property into a campus, said officials for Greiner-Maltz, which brokered the deal.

A university has expressed interest in developing 400,000 square-feet into classroom and auditorium space, said John Maltz, president of Greiner-Maltz.

North 30 Associates LLC., which sold the property in January, had planned to build a 19-story, 900-room, state-of-the-art dorm. Community Board 1 gave a thumbs-up in May for the project, but the company decided instead to use its money to develop residential buildings in Manhattan, Greiner-Maltz officials said.

Alma Realty officials declined to confirm whether the company was in talks with a university and would only say there are no set plans to build anything yet.

Locals who were anticipating the economic boom the dorm would have brought said they are still hoping that whatever moves in will benefit the neighborhood.

Looks like EDC needs to update their website. Also find it interesting how their touting Jerry Wolkoff's 5 Pointz redevelopment, even though his building has all those violations...

Chuck calls for crackdown on phony colleges

From CBS:

Five U.S. senators are calling for a federal crackdown on what they say are phony colleges handing out student visas to potential criminals and terrorists.

Sens. Diane Feinstein of California, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Bill Nelson of Florida and Charles Schumer of New York say the colleges are fronts for people who pay to illegally enter the United States.

The Democrats are calling on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security to share information that could help identify the fake colleges.

The senators note several of the Sept. 11 terrorists entered the United States on student visas. They also cite recent incidents in California and in Florida where schools have been accused of being involved in the illegal visa scheme.

The senators will ask the federal departments to determine “high-risk factors” within 90 days and conduct site visits at schools that show a high risk factor through data — or the lack of data — that legitimate schools must provide to the federal government. The senators also seek stiffer penalties for “sham universities” that engage in student visa fraud.