Showing posts with label donations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label donations. Show all posts

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Developer donates 5 large for improvements and entertainment at Crocheron Park

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Queens Post

A volunteer group that works to maintain the upkeep of Crocheron Park in Bayside has just pulled in its first major sponsor.

Friends of Crocheron & John Golden Park, which works alongside the Parks Dept. to improve the 63-acre space, announced Tuesday that a local real estate development company will be sponsoring many of its events this year.

The sponsor, Cord Meyer Development, will allocate $5,000 to the group that will go toward organizing events and upgrades to the park, which is situated at 214th Street and 35th Avenue. The real estate firm reached out to the non-profit group after learning what it does.

“We were thrilled when Cord Meyer approached us and asked about sponsorship opportunities,” said Jessica Burke, the president of the volunteer group that was established in 2020. “Having Cord Meyer as a partner will benefit our monthly service events, expand the reach of our historic archive, and enable us to show our appreciation to our volunteers with T-shirts and other items.”

Founded in 1904, Cord Meyer is a developer, owner, and operator of retail, commercial, and residential properties in Queens, including its historic Bay Terrace Shopping Center, located less than one mile from Crocheron Park.

The park is named after the Crocheron family who lived on the edge of Little Neck Bay in Bayside for generations—going as far back as 1695.

“Like the Crocheron family for whom the park is named, Cord Meyer’s roots in Queens go back generations,” said Joseph Forgione, Cord Meyer’s vice president and company controller. “We are proud of our deep connection to the community and actively seek partnerships with groups that are committed to improving the area for residents and visitors alike.”

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Sociopath plutocrats join in solidarity funding sociopath governor's re-election


 NY Post

 Deep-pocketed donors with ties to New York’s real-estate industry are still putting their money behind embattled three-term Gov. Andrew Cuomo, campaign records reveal.

Developers, landlords, building lenders and other industry associates pumped nearly $500,000 into Cuomo’s re-election coffers over the past six months.

That’s more than 20 percent of the $2.3 million raised by Cuomo for the first half of 2021.

Many of the contributions poured in right before the campaign fundraising deadline.

Housing activists blasted the donations, noting that an important state law expires next June 15 that gives luxury developers’ projects generous tax abatements for charging non-market or “affordable” rents for up to 30 percent of their new apartments.

 The program is supported by the Real Estate Board of New York, which donated $5,000 to Cuomo from its political action committee.

“It’s classic pay-to-play. There’s no doubt about it,” Michael McKee of the Tenants PAC, which wants the law repealed, charged of the political donations to Cuomo.

“We are going to spearhead a major campaign to terminate this law. It’s totally obscene we are subsidizing millionaires and billionaires with property tax breaks. There’s a glut of luxury housing.”


Friday, July 30, 2021

Daneek Miller and Speaker Cojo wants Southeast Queens to continue breathing garbage air

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THE CITY 

 Three years after the City Council passed a Waste Equity Law sharply reducing trash trucked to waste transfer stations in environmentally hard-hit neighborhoods, one lawmaker is pressing to roll back the change in his own district.

Councilmember I. Daneek Miller (D-Queens) is the sole sponsor of a bill that would lift the restrictions for transfer stations that deliver plans to ship out trash by rail — including in Queens Community District 12. The measure is scheduled for a pair of votes Thursday, while a key committee chair is out of the country.

While the existing law already exempts facilities that rely on rail as an alternative to long-haul trucks, Miller’s bill would fast-track the exception, lifting the restrictions for facilities that intend to begin using garbage trains soon, giving them four years to follow through.

“We want to make sure that there’s provisions in place where companies want to do the right thing,” Miller told THE CITY. 

 Among the trash station operators in the area, along the Long Island Rail Road tracks, are Royal Waste Services, Regal Recycling Company and American Recycling Co.

Not so fast, say Miller constituents who advocated for the Waste Equity Law’s passage.

 They say that living alongside the waste stations in southeast Queens is a daily experience of environmental racism, with garbage trucks constantly rumbling down the streets and exhaust leaving them gasping for air.

Air reeks near the stations, they say, forcing them inside their homes and away from Liberty Park. A group of community leaders has even begun legal proceedings against two waste stations on Liberty Avenue in Jamaica.

“Clean air is something that we have to ask for on top of everything else,” said Oster Bryan, 41, chair of the St. Albans Civic Association, who held a sign with the slogan “We literally can’t breathe” at a Tuesday rally outside Miller’s office.

“We shouldn’t have to ask for that.”

City records show that waste stations based in Southeast Queens have lobbied Miller and other elected officials for years over legislation.

Most recently, Royal Waste Services paid a lobbyist to target Miller and Reynoso to amend the Waste Equity Bill. American Recycling spent more than $19,000 in total this year to lobby Miller and Reynoso, along with Councilmembers James Gennaro in Queens and Justin Brannan in Brooklyn.

Four years for stations to export by rail means four more years of keeping the windows closed and never entering the park, said Caroll Forbes, 74, who lives across the street from the stations on Liberty Avenue. She said she doesn’t recall the last time she set foot in Liberty Park.

“I can’t open my windows,” Forbes said, adding that her nine grandchildren were asthmatic when they lived in the neighborhood.

NY Post 

 City Council Speaker Corey Johnson shelved legislation Thursday that would lift the trash truck caps as questions mounted over the bill, which environmentalists said would benefit a politically connected southeast Queens carting company.

The term-limited Johnson pulled the measure just an hour before sources said a vote was scheduled to take place.

It was a dramatic about-face after he fast-tracked the bill, despite it having just one sponsor, the area’s equally termed-out local Councilman, I. Daneek Miller (D-Queens).

Johnson also made his now-reversed decision to move the bill even though Sanitation Committee chairman, Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn), is out of the country.

This confirms Reynoso will continue Adams record of unaccountability in the borough president's office. Hope you gentrifiers are glad who you voted for.

Anyway...

Council insiders pointed to Miller’s endorsement of Johnson’s failed Comptroller bid as a likely explanation for the decision to move the bill despite significant initial pushback.

Johnson strongly disputed the charges Thursday when he was pressed repeatedly by The Post about the timeline of events.

“What you are saying, there is no truth, there is no merit. Zero,” he said.

His remarks came after a slew of statements by activists and Council insiders to the Post laying out their concerns.

“That’s the obvious connection — that Daneek endorsed Corey,” said Jen Guiterrez, the Democratic nominee to succeed Reynoso on the Council. “There’s just no other logic – there’s so many bills being waited on to be heard, and this is the bill? This is the one you want to prioritize?”

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Mayor candidates will get more matching funds from billionaire donations to their PACs

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THE CITY

 The billionaire who bought the priciest residence in the country on Central Park South is now spending some of his wealth to elect New York City’s next mayor — splitting $1 million between groups supporting Andrew Yang and Eric Adams, state records show.

Kenneth Griffin, a hedge fund manager mostly based in Chicago, stunned the city with his 2019 purchase of a $240 million Manhattan penthouse — still the most expensive home ever bought in the five boroughs.

He’s joined in backing the Adams and Yang independent expenditure groups by investor and charter school backer Daniel Loeb, who gave half a million dollars to each. Loeb has gained local notoriety for racially charged public statements.

As Politico first reported, the duo donated to the pro-Yang Comeback PAC, managed by political operative Lis Smith, who also advised Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign.

They also gave to Strong Leadership NYC, a super PAC that supports Adams and is led by Jenny Sedlis, who took a leave of absence from her role as the executive director of the charter schools advocacy group StudentsFirstNY.

Both Smith and Sedlis declined to comment but have said their goal is to raise $6 million apiece for their respective efforts, which under the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision can spend on candidates’ behalf but may not coordinate with their campaigns.

The spending is not subject to donation or spending limits that apply to contributions to campaigns participating in the city’s public matching-funds program.

Adams announced Tuesday that his campaign had raised nearly $11 million and would qualify for the maximum funds available to candidates through the $8-to-$1 public matching program. Yang’s campaign also said it had raised more than $10 million to qualify for the matching funds.

But such sums are rivaled by the escalating independent-expenditure arms race.

With less than five weeks before early voting begins for the election, groups allowed to raise money without limits are snowballing support from the uber-elite. Donors also include billionaire investor and progressive Democratic backer George Soros, who this week gave $1 million to ColorofChange PAC, which is supporting Maya Wiley.

Out of the eight leading mayoral candidates, only Kathryn Garcia and Dianne Morales lack independent spending groups to bankroll ad campaigns and other promotional efforts — a distinction Morales pointed out in the first official Democratic primary debate last week.

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Jimmy's got a brand new bag while his husband is bringing home the bread

 


He is a reborn union man fighting real estate and for the working man and woman according to his website - Jimmy Van Bramer for Queens Borough President

 BUT he is notoriously close to real estate developers! In 2013 campaign finance records below show he got at least  $6,350.00 from a developer's family, the Wolkoffs, related to the Five Points Development, which not only got a lucrative variance BUT ALSO the developer G&M Realty owner -AKA Jerry Wolkoff - didn't use all union labor as promised. The people of LIC got glass behemoths instead - thanks to Jimmy! He is also an old friend of big-time developer Stuart Suna.


 

 
 

While City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer may have sworn off special interest cash, the same hasn’t been true for his husband — author and documentary filmmaker Dan Hendrick.

His 2017 documentary “Saving Jamaica Bay” is larded to the hilt with money from lobbyists and big real estate interests the councilman swore to avoid, a review by The Post shows.

The influential lobbyists singled out for thanks in the film credits include Uber lobbyist Patrick Jenkins, the founder of Patrick B. Jenkins & Associates; Jon R. Del Giorno, a founding member of Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno and lobbyist for the Yankees; Arthur Goldstein, a partner in Davidoff Hutcher & Citron and lobbyist for the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation; former NYU lobbyist Rose Christ, of Cozen O’Connor; and Joe Reubens, a partner at The Parkside Group who lobbied for AT&T.

Big real estate also chipped in, with The Durst Organization, Tishman Speyer Properties, the Real Estate Board of New York Foundation and others also thanked in the film credits.

Hendricks made no secret of the need for financing while making the film, telling local news he took in “hundreds of thousands” of dollars for the flick, which was narrated by Susan Sarandon. 

 “On the surface, it doesn’t look good,” said Betsy Gotbaum, a former city Public Advocate and current executive director of the good government group Citizens Union.



Saturday, February 20, 2021

Assemblywoman doesn't do her homework

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Queens Ledger

 On December 10th, 2020, a six-alarm fire ripped through six buildings at 109-25 Jamaica Ave. in Richmond Hill, destroying the homes and possessions of 12 families right before Christmas.

To help the 50 victims of the fire who were left homeless, Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, representative of Assembly District 38, coordinated donation efforts along with Community Board 9 leaders, the Richmond Hill - South Ozone Park Lions Club, the Red Cross, and non-profit leaders and small businesses. 

Rajkumar converted her Woodhaven based office into a donation site, and donors quickly filled four rooms with food, clothes, and gift cards for the victims.

Among the donors was the Zara Realty Charitable Foundation and the George Subraj Family Foundation, two philanthropic organizations who continuously support their local community in various ways. Together, the organizations purchased and donated 13 laptops to the children of the affected families. 

With remote learning required during the pandemic, this donation will ensure they do not fall behind in their schoolwork. 

"Our team is proud to partner with Zara Realty Charitable Foundation and provide the students with the necessary technological tools for their education," said Rajkumar. 

“We are working every day to help the community through the pandemic. This work includes ensuring that education is not interrupted,” she said. “These Chromebooks will ensure that these children can continue to learn through remote learning.

“When we saw this fire tear through our community, we knew we needed to step up and help those who were impacted, including children who need to continue to complete their school work remotely,” said Tony Subraj, co-managing partner at Zara. “Residents of these buildings are lucky to have a representative as dedicated and hard-working on their behalf as Assemblywoman Rajkumar. We were happy to work with her to ensure that these families have access to the help they need.”

So Zara Realty is in the "philanthopy" game now after building a legacy of recidivist tenant harassment. It wasn't that long ago when they were charged for swindling tenants at one of their apartment buildings with onerous fees and charges in order to circumvent rent stabilization laws and when they threatened immigrant tenants by placing DHS placards in the hallway of another apartment building at the height of President Trump's ICE crackdowns to scare them into moving out of their rent control apartments.

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Jessica Ramos used community fridge funding for herself

 

 

NY Daily News

A Queens politician who raised more than $35,000 to replace a vandalized community refrigerator accepted the contributions through her campaign account, raising questions about the transparency of her charity effort.

When a fridge providing free food to the hungry outside state Sen. Jessica Ramos’s East Elmhurst office was damaged last month, the outcry was loud and contributions to replace it poured in quickly.

“The community fridge outside our district office was vandalized and destroyed last night. So many of our neighbors depend on the generosity of other neighbors to get through these difficult times. Now this lifeline is gone. I’m heartbroken,” Ramos tweeted Jan. 2., garnering coverage from multiple news outlets.

In a follow-up tweet, the Democrat included a link to accept contributions, explaining, “We’re going to need your help to keep our community fridge project going. Any little bit helps! 100% of your donations will keep our fridge stocked for our neighbors.”

But the link took visitors to an ActBlue page for her campaign account. The page, since taken down, stated, “All proceeds from this link will go directly to keeping the refrigerator stocked for our neighbors in need.” Above boxes used for specifying the amount of one’s contribution, the page said, “Your contribution will benefit Jessica Ramos.”

The more than $35,000 in contributions raised through the effort made up the majority of Ramos’s campaign haul for January, according to state filings.

 She spent $6,000 on consultants and a few hundred on staff meals and transportation — but no money for the fridge or food for the community.

“It’s not right,” Betsy Gotbaum, executive director of government watchdog Citizens Union, told the Daily News. “I would not mix campaign work with charity.

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

200,000 reasons why Cuomo is a now a big Islanders fan


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Field of Schemes

As I’ve often pointed out in this space, political corruption is seldom as simple as a quid pro quo, where a politician backs a favored project solely in exchange for campaign donations. There are other factors at work — wanting to have big shiny projects they can use to show they’re allegedly creating jobs, wanting to please “growth coalitions” of business leaders who band together behind development deals, wanting the damn lobbyists to finally go away — that are equally if not more effective than outright bribes.
 
That said, handing over stacks of twenties is a time-honored way to at least say thank you for services rendered. And according to campaign finance records compiled by Newsday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo collected more than $200,000 worth of small bills in recent weeks in the wake of his support of the New York Islanders‘ new arena at Belmont Park:

Cuomo received $50,000 from Scott Malkin, and another $50,000 from Jon Ledecky, with both contributions listed as occurring on July 10, according to state campaign finance records. Ledecky and Malkin are the co-owners of the New York Islanders, who are in the midst of building themselves a new arena at Belmont. Belmont is state-owned land – and the project’s approval came after strong support from Cuomo.
Adding to the Belmont sundae just a few days later, an entity referred to in campaign finance data as Sterling Mets LP provided another $50,000 to Cuomo’s political coffers. Sterling Project Development, the real estate arm of Sterling Equities, the owner of the New York Mets, is partnering with the Islanders on the Belmont effort.
The cherry on top came from Oak View Group – another partner in the Belmont effort. Oak View itself contributed $5,000 on July 8. But Oak View chief executive Timothy Leiweke gave Cuomo $50,000 on July 8, and another $3,000 on July 14.
Is $203,000 in donations a lot? Cuomo’s relection campaign committee raked in just over $2 mllion in the last six months, so the Islanders developers’ cash amounted to about 10% of his total take, which is significant if not overwhelming. Though Cuomo has long relied heavily on donations from big developers and other donors with business before the state, so you can certainly argue that the promise of campaign cash is what got the Belmont arena team a seat at the table, even if it didn’t buy them the entire table. 



Islanders lost in OT

Monday, July 27, 2020

Making campaign money rain


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Queens County Politics

 The Campaign Finance Board’s (CFB) released the latest campaign finance filings for the upcoming 2021 election races Wednesday. 
Candidates opting into the city’s public financing for elections, a program through which they receive $8-to-$1 taxpayer match on certain campaign contributions, are required to file CFB disclosure reports.

The filings reveal who might take the lead, at least in fundraising, in the city’s upcoming mayoral and comptroller races, as well as in the 13 out of 15 city council seats in Queens up for grabs. 

In the mayoral race, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Comptroller Scott are raking in the dough. Adams reported raising $2,593,345 in private funds, while Stringer reported $2,788,831.

Two other mayoral hopefuls filed. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson reported $859,394 and Shaun Donovan, a former housing secretary and budget director under former President Barack Obama, and housing director under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, reported $662,003.

In what is so far looking like a two-person race for City Comptroller, Park Slope City Councilmember Brad Lander has hauled in $650,142 while Harlem State Sen. Brian Benjamin’s has raised $462,327.

In Queens, the 13 of the 15 city council seats are up for grabs. Of the incumbents eligible to run again, only City Councilmember Adrienne Adams filed with the CFB. She reported that she’s raised $14,950 so far in her bid to protect her seat in District 28.

The other incumbent, City Councilmember Robert Holden, did not do a filing as of post time.

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

New York State and New York City pandemic recovery teams consists of two Big Clubs of Cuomo's and de Blasio's donors

NY Daily News

Gov. Cuomo appointed dozens of generous donors to a board helping advise the state on re-opening and lifting New York coronavirus restrictions, The Daily News found.

Thirty-seven Cuomo donors who’ve collectively given him nearly $1 million were put on the “New York Forward Re-Opening Advisory Board” created last month, according to a News analysis of campaign filings.

Nineteen advisory board members have donated at least $10,000 to Cuomo campaigns and all but two have given $1,000 or more.

The Cuomo donors account for 28% of all advisory board’s 134 members – and 21 have shelled out $427,550 for the governor since January 2017 alone.

Cuomo said in April the board will “help guide” the state’s phased re-opening “and ensure businesses are following the necessary guidelines to preserve public health as we work towards a new normal."


The advisory board includes leaders of unions, trade associations, businesses, education institutions, nonprofits and sports teams, as well as big names in real estate, health care, finance and commerce.

Advisory board members are unpaid but their advice will help Cuomo and the state develop coronavirus policies that could ultimately benefit their industries or the businesses and organizations where they work.

“It is deeply disturbing that Governor Cuomo is exploiting the pandemic to promote his billionaire campaign donors to lead the recovery while ignoring the needs of parents, children and educators," said Jasmine Gripper, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education. "We need a Governor who will demand New York’s billionaires pay their share so our state can recover from COVID-19 — instead of cutting schools and furthering pay-to-play politics.”

NY Daily News

Some things never change — even during a pandemic.

Mayor de Blasio appointed at least 80 donors to advisory groups that were formed to help shape New York City’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Daily News found.

The coronavirus advisers have collectively given Hizzoner at least $176,282 — including $44,320 last year, according to a News analysis of campaign filings. That’s not counting thousands that their relatives gave to de Blasio or any taxpayer funding that the mayor got when certain donations were matched with public financing in city races.

The donors account for nearly a quarter of some 330 people de Blasio appointed to 10 COVID-19 advisory councils and a “fair recovery task force" this month.

While the advisers are unpaid, their guidance will help the city develop coronavirus policies that could benefit the businesses and organizations where they work.

De Blasio has faced multiple investigations into his fund-raising practices, including whether his administration was favorable to donors and others with business before the city. Prosecutors eventually decided against charging de Blasio or his aides — but they still said he intervened on behalf of donors seeking favors from City Hall.

The mayor’s office said advisers have “no decision-making power,” but de Blasio himself has stressed the importance of seeking outside input to bolster the city’s response to coronavirus and other issues.

The councils include industry leaders, head honchos and prominent figures in all aspects of city life: transportation; large business; small business; construction and real estate; education; faith; labor; nonprofit and social services; health, and arts, culture and tourism. While the 10 sector advisory councils will help shepherd the city’s efforts to reopen the economy and lift coronavirus restrictions, the “fair recovery task force” is focused on a broader postpandemic recovery.

“We know that we as a city government, we can take all the best information and come up with the right game plan, but we need to always run it by the people who actually do the work,” de Blasio said last week.



Saturday, February 22, 2020

REBNY bought their man for Queens

https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/donovan-richards-queens-01.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=618&h=410&crop=1NY Post


The powerful Real Estate Board of New York is throwing its muscle behind Councilman Donovan Richards to become Queens’ next borough president — and is helping to fundraise for the Far Rockaway Democrat, The Post has learned.

“We firmly believe Council Member Donovan Richards would best serve in this role,” wrote REBNY president James Whelan in an email that was sent to the organization’s board last week and obtained by The Post.

Whelan pointed to Richards support for rezonings and for controversial public-private partnerships to pay for rehabbing decrepit public housing developments as reasons for backing him.

“We can’t expect to see eye-to-eye with every elected official on every issue,” he added. “We can expect, and should support, those candidates who are willing to have direct, honest conversations about ways we can work together to move the City forward — and we believe Donovan is that candidate.”

Whelan’s Feb. 14 email called for REBNY’s deep-pocketed members to contribute to Richards’ campaign and included an invite to a Feb. 19 fundraiser organized by Queens real estate broker Eric Benaim.

They got theirs...



Thursday, January 9, 2020

BP candidates mandated to return real estate donor lucre


The Real Deal

Real estate donors in the Queens borough president race will see some of their checks returned, but this time it’s not because the candidates don’t want their money.

The limit for donations is $750 for candidates seeking to receive the highest level of public matching funds. For City Council member Donovan Richards, the Queens Democratic organization’s endorsed candidate, that means he will have to return as much as $21,000 to real estate donors by January 15.

Richards, who chairs the City Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, pulled in at least $38,000 from real estate–related groups in his campaign — nearly 30 percent of his donations.
Richards’ largest real estate donor, the Real Estate Board of New York, contributed $4,850 through its expenditure committee, Taxpayers for an Affordable New York. Richards did not declare his run for borough president until much later. The campaign expects to return the surplus.

City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer, who has positioned himself as the progressive in the race, also received donations from the real estate industry. After The Daily News reported that he had yet to return them, he posted the returned checks on Twitter. But he has yet to return all of the donations bundled for him by real estate developer Shibber Kahn, who gathered nearly $5,000 from five donors one day in June 2018.

Astoria Council member Costa Constantinides received at least $25,390 from real estate donors, accounting for about 7 percent of his total donations through his latest public filing.

His largest real estate benefactor is the Astoria-based Scaldafiore Realty, whose personnel gave a combined $6,500 to the campaign.

Other large donors to Constantinides include Sal Lucchese, a manager at the Astoria-based The L Group, who gave $4,350; and his business partner, Astoria-based real estate attorney Philip Loria, who gave $1,500.


Sunday, November 10, 2019

Developers who donated to de Blasio's corrupt CONY and presidential PACs are first to get air rights for building towers by public housing







































NY Daily News

It may not be a bridge, but the city has something to sell you in Brooklyn — and donors to Mayor de Blasio are first in line to benefit.

In what appears to be a textbook “pay-to-play” move, the city is selling NYCHA development rights to builders who gave de Blasio’s campaigns more than $20,000.

Air rights at the Ingersoll Houses near Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn are being sold for $25 million to Maddd Equities, whose chief Jorge Madruga gave $10,000 to Hizzoner’s scandal-plagued Campaign for One New York, plus another $5,350 for his mayoral runs, according to filings. Joy Construction, whose employees gave de Blasio’s mayoral campaigns $5,200, is co-developer on the deal.

The companies plan to build two apartment buildings of about 31 and 33 stories each right next to the New York City Housing Authority buildings in Downtown Brooklyn.

“It absolutely looks terrible,” Susan Lerner, executive director of good government group Common Cause, said. “It definitely violates the spirit if not the letter of our campaign finance law and it removes public assets from public control without public input"

By buying 91,000 square feet of the Ingersoll House’s unused air rights - vertical space available under zoning laws - Maddd Equities and Joy Construction will be able to build about 10 stories higher than their original plans for the lots.

The city and the builders say the deal is a win-win.

The $25 million check will go toward a variety of repairs at the 75-year-old Ingersoll Houses, which will need about $300 million in repairs and maintenance work over the next nine years, according to the city.

The de Blasio administration hopes to raise $1 billion for NYCHA repairs through the sale of unused air rights, that can only be used for properties adjacent to public housing.

“It’s not about taking all of the green space and converting it to buildings at all,” said Jonathan Gouveia, NYCHA’s senior vice president of real estate. “We’re trying to be very strategic in how we insert some buildings so that you’re adding some density and generating some proceeds but at the same time, not dramatically changing the overall feel of the neighborhood.”

The developers plan to set aside 25% of their new towers’ roughly 400 units as “affordable housing.” Households earning 60% of the area’s median income would qualify. The developers say they will work with the local community board to help Ingersoll residents apply for those units.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Elected officials and their donors doing business with the city exploit campaign finance loophole.


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NY Daily News


A glaring loophole in New York’s campaign finance rules allows people doing business with the city to steer thousands to candidates for office despite limits on how much they can personally donate.

The glitch means lobbyists, developers and others who stand to profit from government action can curry favor with current and future decision-makers — and skirt donation limits ― by bundling donations from their wealthy pals and sending them to candidates for city office.

Twelve people who have city business, prohibiting them from giving more than a few hundred bucks themselves, have already bundled $112,405 in donations for 2021 candidates, an analysis by The Daily News found.

Anyone considered to be doing business with the city — like lobbyists and those with municipal contracts — can’t give more than $400 to any one candidate for mayor, public advocate and comptroller. They’re barred from giving over $320 to candidates for borough president and $250 for pols running for City Council.

Yet that doesn’t stop them from bundling hundreds of fat checks.

"Some donors circumvent NYC's doing business contribution limits by bundling contributions from others, which can result in more influence than giving contributions directly,” said Alex Camarda, a senior policy adviser at good-government group Reinvent Albany.

So far, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. leads 2021 candidates in bundled cash from the conflicted donors, collecting $49,700 from two people with city business as of July 11, the end of the most recent filing period.

He’s followed by Councilman Rafael Salamanca, Jr., with $14,525 from bundlers with city business, 
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams with $12,040, and Comptroller Scott Stringer with $10,800.

 The amount of bundled cash from those with municipal business is likely to skyrocket in the next two years before the 2021 election, when term limits open 41 of the city’s 59 elected positions that more than 500 candidates are expected to run for.

During the last wide-open election in 2013, a whopping $1.7 million was bundled and given to candidates for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president and city council from 93 people doing business with the city at the time, according to a Daily News analysis of campaign filings.

Another $875,098 was bundled by 70 people with city business during the 2017 election, The News found.