Kill that noise

 

Queens Post

Queens Council Member Robert Holden introduced a series of bills Thursday aimed at improving the quality of life for New York City residents.

The bills aim to combat everything from noise pollution to sidewalk obstructions—to the unauthorized towing of vehicles. The legislation would also require film crews to provide more notice when they plan to occupy public streets.

Holden introduced 16 bills in total and said that many of the bills address unruly behavior that has contributed to rising crime. Crime is up 40.5 percent citywide for the year through April 10, compared to the same period a year ago, according to NYPD data.

“With the trend of legalizing or ignoring, and thereby normalizing behaviors that diminish our city’s quality of life… it’s time to take measures to bring balance to living in New York City,” Holden said in a statement.

Holden introduced legislation designed to combat disorderly motorists blasting out deafening music from their vehicles.

One of his bills would increase the civil penalties for motorists who blast an unreasonable amount of noise from their vehicle via a personal audio device. The new penalties would range from $200 to $2,100, depending on the number of violations committed within the preceding two years.

Another bill would target raucous motorists who attach speakers to the exterior of a vehicle. Violators would be hit with a civil penalty of between $100 and $225 for a first offense increasing to as much as $575 for a third violation.

Holden has also introduced legislation that targets business owners who pump out loud music from a commercial establishment. He has a bill that would reduce the acceptable level of noise.

Holden, whose district covers Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood and parts of Woodhaven and Woodside, said that noise pollution is a serious concern among his constituents and his bills aim to clamp down on the problem.

“We know that unreasonable noise late at night is not only a nuisance but a threat to New Yorkers’ health,” Holden said. “All New Yorkers are entitled to the quiet enjoyment of their homes.”

Holden’s other bills take aim at film crews operating on public streets. The crews, he said, often disrupt small businesses by taking valuable parking spaces.

How to Talk Out Both Sides of Your Mouth, by Adrienne Adams

If you made it to the end of the video posted yesterday, you witnessed Adrienne Adams do a song and dance over how great Planning Together is and how much more input community boards will supposedly get in the land use process should the bill be passed into law. The video above is bookmarked to where she adamantly asserts this. Then at the end of the hearing, after community board representatives and constituents trashed the bill, her demeanor did a 180.

"Somebody said you didn't hear from your elected officials. We wanted the narrative to go around. So that was very intentional."
That is simply the biggest bunch of malarkey EVER. Elected officials don't withhold information from their constituents in order to further the conversation, they do it to squelch opposition. You were given marching orders to keep mum.

"We wanted to make sure that this legislation was scrutinized from A to Z."
You wanted to slip this bill past the goalie so you didn't bother to notify the public or community boards that it was taking place and they had to find out from a leaked email to council members.

"If we don't have the voice of the people behind this as you all noticed, if you look at who is sponsoring this legislation and I believe it's only one person from Queens on this bill, there's a reason for that as well."
Well, finally a bit of truth!

Adrienne Adams wants to be the next Speaker of the City Council, so she is trying to be a good foot soldier for county and for REBNY. But her constituents are not stupid, so she has to try to play both sides. And guess what? With Ruben Wills back in the picture, she now has to raise money for re-election, nevermind worry about the speaker's race. Calling Marisa Lago "duplicitous" while talking out both sides of your mouth? Hey pot, the kettle's calling.

Watch Planning Together hearing right here

Popcorn, please!

De Blasio opposed to ridiculously expensive Planning Together

From the Daily News: The de Blasio administration is opposing a City Council proposal to simplify the process for future development, saying legislation from Council Speaker Corey Johnson would be way too expensive. The bill...would cost the city about half a billion dollars per decade, the administration estimates — and that at a time of shrinking tax revenues due to the coronavirus outbreak. In the administration’s reading of the bill, every community district in the city would have to undergo assessments of three different development scenarios every 10 years. With an average “environmental impact assessment” costing $2.5 million to carry out, and the city having 59 community districts, that comes to about $450 million per decade, according to the administration. It also estimates the cost of staffing the undertaking would add another $50 million, not counting costs to the Office of Management and Budget. De Blasio officials including Planning Commissioner Marissa Lago are expected to testify against Johnson’s bill on Wednesday.

Developers licking their chops over CoJo's housing plan

From the Real Deal:

Predictably, a coalition of the city’s leading NIMBY groups blasted the City Council speaker’s proposal Thursday as a “top-down approach that would leave communities with even less democratic control over massive city rezonings” than they have now. 

Well, yes. That is exactly the point. 

Not to be anal, but this is not a direct democracy. It’s a republic. We elect leaders, who in turn run the government. We don’t let people with pitchforks decide what can be built where.

Riiiight, we elect representatives who vote on rezonings on our behalf. Unfortunately what Planning Together does is remove them, as well as community boards and the borough president, from the equation. Let's continue:

New York’s lone YIMBY group, Open New York, thinks Johnson’s plan should go further because “it fails to address longstanding practices that allow wealthier neighborhoods to block new housing and shunt demand elsewhere,” said board member Will Thomas. 

He was disgusted but hardly surprised by the letter from the anti-development groups including Village Preservation, Voice of Gowanus, Stop Sunnyside Yards, Soho Alliance and the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side. 

“We encourage legislators interested in more equitable city planning to ignore complaints by wealthy NIMBYs who are primarily interested in protecting the status quo,” Thomas said.

Wealthy NIMBYs? I think you'd better take a closer look at who signed the letter.

I think MTOPP, Fight for NYCHA and the Flushing Workers Center and others on the list would be surprised to find out that they represent wealthy neighborhoods.

When they have to misrepresent who you are, it means they are up to no good.

Community Boards overwhelmingly against "Planning Together"

From the Queens Chronicle:

Land use advocate Paul Graziano continued his Queens lobbying crusade against the City Council speaker’s proposed comprehensive planning bill in Community Board 9 on Tuesday night.

Graziano, a zoning specialist and staunch opponent of the ambitious land use legislation created by Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan), presented at a special meeting of the board’s Executive and Land Use committees.

Graziano has been making the rounds of community boards arguing against the plan. So far boards 8, 11 and 13 have all voted against the proposal. On Tuesday, CB 9 nearly unanimously joined the group of boards opposing the bill.

Hey folks, because Corey Johnson cares so much about the voices of People of Color, he scheduled his hearing on this bill the same day as the Special Election for Council District 31! What a guy! Here's the letter of oppositiont that CB8 sent to the Speaker. It's a doozy!

Planning Together - Letter From CB8Q by queenscrapper on Scribd

Team CoJo scrambling to pass his bad development plan

You may recall the post here where Paul Graziano analyzed NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson's "Planning Together" legislation to change the NYC Charter to favor developers and remove community input. This past Monday, Graziano went head to head with Annie Levers, Assistant Deputy Director, New York City Council Office of Strategic Initiatives, at Community Board 8's Land Use Committee. You can watch the debate yourself. It's worth the time invested so you can clearly see what is going on:

The legislation was then voted on and unanimously rejected. Last night, the full board met and it was again unanimously rejected.

Earlier in the day, a rather long-winded and inappropriate email was sent out to Council Members to refute the information presented, which will no doubt result in a deluge of Community Board rejections. (Click to enlarge each segment)

The final insult came when Council Members - but not Community Boards - received word of an official public hearing on the legislation that was hastily scheduled for February 23rd.

So folks, you better get off your keysters and sign the petition in the sidebar and provide testimony at this "public" hearing (that they don't want you to know about), and make it clear to your City Council representatives that they are to vote no on this bill.

Landlords and tenants in agreement against City Council's mandatory sprinkler regulations

Habitat

The New York City Council will consider a bill on Wednesday that would require all residential buildings over 40 feet tall – single-family homes, rental apartments, and co-ops and condos – to install sprinklers by 2029. The proposal, known as Int. No. 1146-B, has already generated vigorous pushback from co-op and condo advocates, homeowners and landlords.

“The astronomical cost of such an endeavor is equaled only by the stress of chopping into each and every room in the building to install the sprinkler system,” says the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums, which plans to testify today in opposition to the bill. “Mandating the tremendous capital expenditure for sprinklers will surely divert scarce funds and attention from other urgent goals of carbon reduction, energy conservation, etc. with minimal impact on public safety.”

 “This law will have a catastrophic impact on lower-density neighborhoods where owner-occupied multi-family buildings are common,” says a Change.org petition against the proposal started by the 200 Jefferson Avenue Block Association in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood. The petition has garnered more than 400 signatures since it was put up Monday.

Cuomo the fisherman allows dumping in Jamaica Bay

Yes, folks instedda workin, Gov Cuomo decided to veto legislation that would have protected Jamaica Bay from dumping because...drumroll...he wants DEC to be able to dump in it.

Last year, State Senator Joe Addabbo and Assembly Member Stacy Pheffer-Amato passed legislation to extend sunsetting environmental protections in place for the Bay:

In his veto statement, Cuomo said the legislation would change the criteria for fill Jamaica Bay borrow pits to comply with the federal criteria for the unrestricted ocean dumping of dredged material, which is not applicable to Jamaica Bay.

Under this bill, the Department of Conservation would be required to utilize more restrictive, and costly federal ocean dumping criteria to test the materials instead of DEC’s existing standard, and further, the legislation would make this enhanced standard permanent, Cuomo continued.

“The increased costs and time associated with the bill’s required fill standards will impact the availability of applicants with high-quality material for use as fill, which is critical for the restoration of these pits. This bill would make the procurement of this material, and in turn, the achievement of revitalization goals for Jamaica Bay extremely challenging, if not halt restoration altogether.”

Translation: We have to further contaminate the Bay in order to save it.

The bill was reintroduced and passed again, but the outcome was the same.

GOVERNOR CUOMO VETOES JAMAICA BAY PROTECTION BILL ! Looks like Governor Cuomo has vetoed the Jamaica Bay Protection...

Posted by Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers on Friday, November 27, 2020

This session, if the bill is passed again, it will likely survive Andrew "follow the science" Cuomo as there is now a veto-proof majority in the Senate.

City Council criminalizes a word.

 

NY Post

The New York City Council voted overwhelmingly Thursday to replace all mentions of “alien” in city documents, regulations and local laws with “noncitizen,” a move that critics derided as political correctness run amok.
 
“It’s like the speech police is out again,” said Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who was one of four votes against the measure. “Alien is a term used for someone who is from another area, another land. That’s a term used in Congress and in the government.”
 
He added: “We’re overstepping our bounds here prohibiting certain terms.”

Council Speaker Corey Johnson celebrated the 46-4 vote with an afternoon tweet that claimed the Big Apple “just became the first major U.S. city to prohibit the use of the dehumanizing and offensive term ‘alien’ in local laws, rules, and documents. From now on, the term will be ‘noncitizen.’”
 
The measure was introduced by Councilman Francisco Moya (D-Queens) in January, who argued the change would help promote better treatment of immigrants in the Big Apple.

Funny, non-citizen sort of sounds worse.

It sounds close to non-person. Bigots will weaponize this too.

Governor Cuomo exploits coronavirus outbreak to expand his gubernatorial powers and he starts by debuting prisoner Purell

 

NY Post

 Gov. Cuomo scored a dramatic expansion of his emergency powers that left even top Democrats wary thanks to provisions tucked inside of a hastily drafted $40 million spending bill to fight the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The legislation expanded Cuomo’s powers to declare an emergency and even suspend laws state or local laws in their entirety, with little oversight from lawmakers.

“What it does do is give the governor very extensive, and almost unlimited, affirmative legislative power to not only waive existing laws and provisions of existing laws,” said longtime Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), “but it also empowers him to essentially issue new legislation.”

“I’ve never seen any governor or health commissioner ask for this kind of expansion of power,” added the Assembly health committee chairman, who was first elected 1970.
Gottfried’s counterpart in the upper chamber, state Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-The Bronx), also voted no.

“I cannot vote in good conscience to give the governor what are in essence, dictatorial powers when he and the health commissioner already have sufficient power to deal with coronavirus,” said Assemblyman Phil Steck (D-Schenectady), ahead of his nay vote Monday night.
However, those concerns did not stop the Assembly and state Senate from overwhelmingly passing the legislation, which sets an April 2021 expiration date for Cuomo’s new authority.

NY Post

New York’s jailbirds are helping to combat the coronavirus.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday unveiled what he called the state’s weapon against despicable price-gougers taking advantage of coronavirus fears — a new hand sanitizer produced by New York prison inmates.

Cuomo said the “superior product” is not only cheaper than brands made by greedy commercial businesses but will be readily available to New York governments, the MTA, schools and even the prisons where it’s being made.

“It’s much cheaper for us to make it ourselves than to buy it on the open market,” said Cuomo, adding that a gallon jug of the state-produced product costs $6 to make.
It has a “floral bouquet,” the governor added.

Corcraft, the state Corrections Department’s manufacturing service fueled by inmate workers, is manufacturing the sanitizer, Cuomo said.

What a fortunate development. Too bad herr governor pissed away all those subsidies for a shitty movie studio the state wound up selling for a buck when that could have went to a company that manufactures hand sanitizer that would have created jobs that paid $15 an hour. 

Bill would legalize basement units citywide

From PIX11:

City Council Member Brad Lander says he wants to make sure long-time residents like Thorne can stay in the community, while also providing affordable housing. It's why he's proposed a bill to help homeowners bring illegal basement units up to code.

"We just have been playing a sort of don't ask, don't tell game and that's not good for anybody," said Lander.

Under his proposal, homeowners would receive low interest, subsidized, or forgivable loans depending on their income level. That money would be used transform basements into legal apartments with the help of the Department of Buildings.

In exchange, current or future tenants will receive leases with renewal clauses and affordable rent increases.

"If the house is in proper standard with the basement and pass all it's examination it could be done," said Thorne. "If it fails, it should be out."

If the pilot program is approved it will roll out in East New York sometime next year. If it's successful, it will likely roll out to the rest of the city shortly after.

Bill introduced to increase units set aside for homeless

From the NY Times:

Rafael Salamanca Jr., a councilman from the Bronx, will introduce legislation on Wednesday that will mandate that any rental housing project that receives taxpayer subsidies — such as tax abatements, loans, tax credits or reduced-cost land — has to set aside 15 percent of its created or preserved units for people living in the city’s shelter system.

Mr. de Blasio’s current housing policy, Housing New York 2.0, calls for 5 percent of the 300,000 units to be set aside for the homeless, a total of 15,000 apartments. The mayor has said he is strongly against increasing the 5 percent set-aside.

But Mr. Salamanca’s bill has the support of the City Council speaker, Corey Johnson — an important sign that the legislation will be seriously considered by the 51-member body.

“I don’t want to send a message that the only folks who can get affordable housing are folks who end up in shelter. I think that’s wrong for everyone,” Mr. de Blasio said.

Increasing the minimum amount of housing for the homeless would also make it more difficult to finance affordable housing projects. In order to make affordable buildings financially sustainable, there has to be the right mix of people from all incomes, city officials said.

Bill would require market feasibility study before hotel building

From SI Live:

After plans surfaced for two boutique hotels on Port Richmond Avenue, Senator Diane Savino (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn) has introduced legislation to combat the increasing number of hotels across the city in neighborhoods that don't have a market need.

The recent outcry against hotels planned for Port Richmond on Staten Island inspired the bill to ensure there is a need for hotels before they are approved.

"It's clear that the city has failed New Yorkers with its indiscretion when it comes to allowing hotels and motels in areas that simply don't need them," said Savino.

The main concern within the Port Richmond community is that the hotels would not generate legitimate business, instead being turned into de facto homeless shelters.

Her legislation would require business owners perform a market feasibility study to ensure that there is a need for a hotel in a specific neighborhood. If the owner can't show that there is a market for the hotel, they wouldn't receive approval to build.

Is this the way to stop rampant K2 use?

From CBS 2:

Neighborhoods demanding a crackdown on the dangerous synthetic drug K2 rallied today describing the way the narcotic poisons their communities.

The neighborhoods might be different but the effects are the same, reports CBS2’s Marc Liverman.

CBS2 exclusive video taken back in 2016 show people on K2 passed out on chairs in the middle of the sidewalk, seen again in 2018 all around New York City.

Others are seen leaning against buildings and nodding out as mothers pushed their strollers close by. That was in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, and now it’s happening in Williamsbridge.

Just ask pastor Janet Hodge.

“Every morning that we arrive, we find that people have used the bathroom on our property,” she said. “Every day I come outside and I find that there are men and women loitering on our stoops and they are in a stupor.”

“We have people walking around zombie-like, in catatonic states, up and down White Plains Road,” said State Senator Jamaal Bailey.

At a rally Monday, local politicians and residents said enough is enough. King introducing new legislation that would hold landlords and area businesses accountable.

“The store will be shut down and you will not be able to reopen the same business or rent it out to the same business,” he said.

The new legislation would also slap on a $100,000 fine on any business caught selling the synthetic cannabinoid.

Bill would force illegal driveway owners to restore curbs

From Brooklyn Daily:

Local pols are pushing for a bill they say will reclaim on-street parking spaces from greedy property owners who illegally cut curbs in front of their homes to create unauthorized driveways.

The legislation, introduced last month by Councilman Kalman Yeger (D–Bensonhurst) and co-sponsored by Councilman Justin Brannan (D–Bay Ridge), would require property owners to correct curb cuts created without a permit within 30 days. If the curb isn’t fixed, the Department of Transportation must do the work within six months, at the property owner’s expense, similar to a law that requires property owners to maintain sidewalk defects.

“What we’re saying is that if you do not fix the curb, the city will fix it and bill you,” Yeger said. “It requires the government to help the people out a bit.”

The bill is a response to property owners who illegally cut curbs to install driveways in front of their homes, removing on-street parking for fellow drivers. Illegal curb cutting has become rampant throughout Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, and Bay Ridge recently, leading fed-up neighbors to complain that current laws aren’t doing enough to address the problem.

The Department of Buildings can issue violations to property owners who cut curbs without a permit, but there isn’t a law on the books that requires owners to restore the curbs. Yeger’s bill would change that, giving the city the power it needs to fight back where it currently has little, according to Marnee Elias-Pavia, district manager of Community Board 11.

Sidewalk repair reprieve

From Crains:

The City Council approved a measure Wednesday that will give landlords an extra 30 days to repair damaged sidewalks abutting their properties, stretching the deadline to 75 days from 45 days. Minority Leader Steven Matteo, R-Staten Island, who sponsored the bill, said the idea grew out of constituent complaints from his district—where single-family homes predominate.

He noted that the city hands out many repair orders during winter, when cold and damp conditions can make work impossible.

Upstate senators support a denser New York City

From Crains:

Support for a state Senate bill allowing the city to zone for denser apartment buildings is breaking down along geographic lines.

Representatives from within the five boroughs—aside from the Bronx's state Sen. Jeff Klein—voted against the proposal earlier this month, while lawmakers from outside the city were in favor.

The bill would roll back a state law capping residential development at 12 times a city property's lot area. The legislation's stated aim is to give the city greater leeway to address the housing crisis by zoning for denser development wherever the City Planning Commission deems appropriate. Doing so would bring residential planning in line with commercial properties, which are not subject to a state-imposed cap. That idea is supported by the de Blasio administration, the Regional Plan Association and the Real Estate Board of New York. But new housing is often opposed by preservation and community groups, a dynamic that makes the geographic split in the Senate Committee on Rules, which voted May 7, unsurprising.

City Council about to lower the boom on AirBnB

From The Real Deal:

The New York City Council is at work on a new bill that would be the biggest crackdown yet on Airbnb.

Councilmembers are writing a bill that would require Airbnb to provide addresses of their listings to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, according to Politico. The push comes amid a strong anti-Airbnb lobbying campaign from New York’s hotel industry accusing the company of lowering the stock of affordable housing in New York.

The bill would also require hosts to give their full names and addresses to the mayor’s office, report whether the home is their primary residence and say whether they are just renting a room or their entire home. Penalties would be applied to listings that do not comply with the reporting requirements, although lawyers for the City Council are still figuring out what these would be.

The City Council and Airbnb did not have statistics for how many rent-regulated apartments make up Airbnb listings, but politicians believe it takes low- and moderate-income housing off of the rental market based on anecdotal accounts.

Bill aims to stop car dealership sidewalk parking

From CBS 2:

Dealerships have been parking their cars where people walk, specifically in Brooklyn and Queens.

“I’m basically stepping over the bumper of a car to try and get into the street,” Calvin McGoldrick, of Bay Ridge, said.

In Bay Ridge, CBS2 busted a Hyundai dealer on Fourth Avenue. When it saw our cameras, it moved one of its cars that was illegally parked.

CBS2 also spotted four cars on the sidewalk at the Park Slope Auto Center. Even the image Google Maps snapped of it shows two cars illegally parked.

“It’s more than just an inconvenience, though. I think it’s a safety issue,” said Emily Porro, of Park Slope.

That’s why the City Council is pushing for a bill to revoke car dealers’ licenses if they become repeat offenders.

“Anytime when you have cars infringing on public space and pedestrians space, it’s a problem,” City Councilman Justin Brannan, of Brooklyn, said.
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, of Queens, is sponsoring the bill.