The Blaz's tardy reopening of senior centers is a hot mess

 

 

 THE CITY

 The city’s 249 senior centers will completely reopen in two weeks and outdoor activities will resume immediately, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

The announcement — via Twitter — came the morning after a story by THE CITY detailing criticism over de Blasio’s’s failure to unshutter the facilities, which serve as lifelines for thousands of older New Yorkers.

The mayor’s turnaround caught some senior center operators off guard, according to Allison Nickerson, executive director of LiveOnNY, an umbrella group for senior service providers.

“I’m hearing from members that their phones are ringing off the hook wanting to show up for programs,” Nickerson said. “The provider said he has no idea what is happening.”

Later in the day, the Department for the Aging (DFTA) issued providers a reopening checklist and interim guidance. Employees and seniors must wear masks and spaces will have to be reconfigured to limit capacity to 25% of the certificate of occupancy, according to the new rules. Seniors should also keep six feet apart from one another. 

 “NYC’s seniors built our city, they’ve fought for our city, they’re vaccinated, protected and ready to move forward,” de Blasio tweeted after the announcement.

On Monday, Nickerson told THE CITY that DFTA’s lack of “operational detail” was “mayhem” and “making people crazy.”

The reopening plan comes as the mayor and DFTA Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez are trying to establish their vision for how senior centers, to be renamed older adult centers, operate in the future before the mayor leaves office Dec. 31, THE CITY reported Monday.

They also want to revamp so-called naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) so they can collaborate to provide more services for older people.

Senior center providers will now be forced to submit their applications to the so-called request for proposals four days before the centers open.

DFTA has no plans to extend the application deadline past June 10, according to department spokesperson Dina Montes.

De Blasio’s office for weeks maintained that officials were waiting for the city Department of Health to sign off on the reopening of centers to protect a vulnerable population.

But Health Department officials declined to detail what safety metrics they are waiting to hit before letting seniors return to in-person meals and socializing.

Advocates for seniors noted that most restrictions on city gyms, movie theaters, museums, restaurants and more had been lifted since mid-May.

Cortés-Vázquez said seniors — meaning anyone 60 or older — will not be obligated to get vaccinated before entering the centers.

Restricting access to senior centers to just vaccinated older adults is prohibited under the Older Americans Act, which requires providing equal access to any individual eligible to attend.

A dozen senior centers are on de Blasio's budget cutting chopping block.

Queens Chronicle

 
Four senior centers and clubs in Queens are among 12 in New York City Housing Authority complexes that have been targeted for closure in Mayor de Blasio’s 2019-20 executive budget.

The administration says the centers up for closure are underutilized, are in poor condition or both; under the mayor’s plan seniors in the affected centers or clubs would be bused to ones nearby by the city’s Department for the Aging.

In Queens, the sites on the list include the centers or clubs at the Baisley Park Houses and Shelton Houses in Jamaica; the Bland Houses in Flushing; and the Astoria Houses.

In response to an inquiry from the Chronicle, the Mayor’s Office submitted a quote from the mayor in last month’s budget address, and comments made by DFTA Commissioner Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez during her testimony to the Council.

“There will be a cost effective new approach to providing seniors in public housing with access to senior centers rather than the ‘senior clubs’ that had been provided by NYCHA directly,” de Blasio said. “Those clubs, we found were underutilized, could not provide the same quality of service as our DFTA programs could. So, seniors will go to an established senior center that specializes in supporting seniors. There’ll be free transportation provided that will also save us money while providing a better product to our seniors.”

“[M]any of these senior centers were not meeting essential senior center health and safety standards,” Cortes-Vazquez said. “Many are not [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant and have chronic leaks, flooding and sewage back-up. Additionally, several have low participation rates that resulted in higher than usual per-participant costs.”

But the administration is taking fire from all directions from the City Council.

Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) acknowledged that the Shelton Houses building is not a sprawling complex like some other NYCHA developments; and that its senior club is a modest one.

“But it provides vital services,” he said. “And for the sake of saving a few bucks, they’re going to force elderly residents to travel a half mile every day ... It’s just another effort to try and squeeze money out of the NYCHA budget.”

Councilwoman Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) said the proposed $800,000 in savings is relative pocket change in the context of a $92.5 billion budget, and that the Baisley Houses center long has suffered from neglect by the city.

“Of course when you don’t offer programs and you don’t keep them in good condition, people are going to stop coming — and then you say they are underutilized?” Adams said. “We’ve seen that closure method before in communities of color.”

In response to de Blasio’s budget proposal last month, Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) expressed disappointment that the mayor did not consider savings of $1 billion that the Council recommended in order to keep some of its priorities funded.
“We made a good-faith effort,” Lancman said of the Council’s counteroffer. “And we got the back of the hand from the mayor.”

And if the mayor’s intention is frugality, Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) and state Senate Deputy Leader Mike Gianaris (D-Astoria) are questioning why the Astoria Houses center is set to shut down just weeks after a $500,000 refurbishment is going to be completed, with money Constantinides secured from the Council in 2014.

“Astoria Houses seniors’ excitement about moving into an upgraded center quickly turned into despair over these proposed budget cuts,” the councilman said in a statement issued with Gianaris. 

“Instead of paying for buses to another center almost two miles away, I ask the administration keep this center open to not disrupt the daily lives of Astoria Houses seniors.”

“Seniors rely on this center for hot meals and recreation but even more importantly to foster a sense of community we cannot put a price on,” Gianaris said. “I urge the administration to do the right thing by our seniors and revisit this proposal so we can keep the doors open.”

Senior Center in Astoria can't thrive because of city budget cuts

PIX News

 City Councilmember Costa Constantinides says he received a call from the Mayor’s office earlier week that made him angry.

Constantinides says he fought for the Astoria Houses Senior Center to receive half a million dollars in 2014 for renovations. Five years later, construction is still ongoing. But, instead of a grand reopening, Constantinides says the city plans to shut down the senior center over the summer.

“Now, Instead of celebrating what should be a fully renovated space for them, we're being told that it's going to close,” the councilman told PIX11's Monica Morales.

The reason given for the upcoming closure? Constantinides was told attendance is down.

“We have hundreds of seniors here who come by. We have a lunch program, they come and they do arts and crafts. [Sometimes] it's their only lunch,” said Joanne Parks, the director of the center.
Seniors like Brenda Pope were finding out about the plan to close the center for the first time Thursday.

“We look forward to [coming] to this center, because we have different activities. Most are come just to eat lunch, you know, because they are on a fixed income,” said Pope.

Constantinides says he fears more senior centers across the city will close, saying 3.1 million dollars is being cut from NYCHA in the mayor’s executive budget. A total of 12 senior centers could be impacted, according to the councilman.

“We're talking about a little more than three million dollars. The council has come in year after year to save this money. I know that I’m tired of the budget dance on this issue,” said Constantinides.

Brooklyn developer listens to community, is ok with landmarking

From Brooklyn Daily:

The confidentiality agreement that blocked the mystery buyer of the Angel Guardian Home in Dyker Heights from coming forward to reveal his intentions for the block-sized complex has loosened enough for him to speak exclusively to this paper about his plans for the site, and how the community’s voice helped shape them.

Developer Scott Barone credited this paper’s extensive coverage of local needs and concerns since the property’s purchase last year with informing his decision to include a senior center, affordable housing, senior housing and perhaps a school along with the market-rate condos he had originally planned for the entire site — as well as preserving the main building, which locals have been pushing to landmark to protect it from the wrecking ball.

“We really heard three things from the community at large: that they need schools and senior housing, that the Narrows Senior Center is something that’s important to this community as a whole, and that this building is important to this neighborhood, and we’re going to do everything in our power to keep it there,” said Barone, the founder and president of his eponymous management company, which has previously developed hotels, luxury apartments, and office and commercial buildings across the city.

The developer said that he has already had meetings with the Landmarks Preservation Commission about the century-old main building, but his current plans are to preserve it as part of the final design, though he’s not yet sure what would go there.

“It is our intention at this time to keep that main building in place,” he said, “and if it were to be landmarked, we’re okay with that.”

Barone said he expects to close the Angel Guardian deal within the next two to three months — pending approval from the Vatican — and that 60 percent of the block-sized property bound by 63rd and 64th streets and 12th and 13th avenues will be devoted to market-rate condos, with an additional 15 percent earmarked for affordable housing and the last 25 percent split between senior housing and perhaps a school.

New Keith's plan gets CB7 ok

From the Times Ledger:

The long-delayed plans for RKO Keith’s Theater in Flushing have been approved by Community Board 7 after years of the property passing through the hands of multiple developers.

Board members unanimously passed a motion at the monthly board meeting Monday night approving developer JK Equities’ revised plan for the historic theater at 135-35 Northern Blvd. in Flushing. The company’s reworked blueprint increased the building’s height and reduced the number of rental units and parking spaces.

Chuck Apelian, CB 7’s first vice chairman and chairman of the land use committee, said the board has previously asked for a movie theater to be built in downtown Flushing, but to no avail. “We don’t have any development plans in front of us,” Apelian said. “I don’t have anybody standing here with the money to build the theater. The way it’s gone, it went from developer to developer to developer at this point. I can’t change that.”

He was momentarily interrupted by Jerry Rotondi, a member of the Committee to Save the RKO Keith’s Theater in Flushing, who insisted that plans were presented to save the theater.

Historic preservationists were staunchly opposed to the plan. In a statement, the Committee to Save the RKO Keith’s criticized former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman for not supporting the theater.

“We could have had a restored showcase theater,” said Cheshire Frager, a member of the committee.

Michael Donnelly, a New York City District Council of Carpenters representative, said the developer has not made a commitment to quality construction jobs.

“These units will now be marketed to wealthier individuals and contribute to the gentrification of the neighborhood,” Donnelly said. “The absence of a commitment in the development of high-quality construction jobs for the members of the community further enforces this impression.”

Apelian introduced a separate resolution that would consider converting the planned 16,000-square-foot space from a senior center into community facility space.

Collapse causes ambulance corps to close

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Woodhaven-Richmond Hill Volunteer Ambulance Corps is planning to shut down its operations almost two years after its nextdoor neighbor's building collapsed, according to an area civic leader.

Martin Colberg, president of the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association, announced the news on Saturday at the civic's monthly meeting.

"We're going to stay on top of this," Colberg said referring to the collapsed building at 78-19 Jamaica Avenue. "[But] we've run out of time for the ambulance corps, it seems."

The vacant building at 78-19 Jamaica Ave. collapsed after a downpour on April 12, 2013, causing damage to the ambulance corps building next door. The corps, after being allowed back into the building shortly after the collapse, had to leave again last year when a wall between its building and the collapsed one became damaged in a snowstorm last year.

The collapse forced the corps' main tenant, the Woodhaven Senior Center, to relocate. The senior center had been the primary source of income for the volunteer group, causing the corps to have financial difficulty in the months following the collapse.

Surprise, surprise: Council now loves Astoria Cove project

From the NY Observer:

The massive Astoria Cove project is a major stride closer to launching today — as is long-proposed ferry boat service for the Queens waterfront area.

After months of negotiating and hours of backroom deliberation, the City Council’s powerful Land Use Committee today stamped its approval on the controversial 1,700-unit luxury development–permitted that it set aside 468 units for low- and middle-income tenants, hire unionized construction workers and building staff, include a co-operative supermarket, pay for improvements to local parks and a senior center and commit $5 million to the construction of a ferry dock.

“I am happy to say we have an agreement here at Astoria Cove that truly integrates this development into our community,” said Councilman Costa Constantinides, who represents the area where the development will take place, but does not sit on the Land Use Committee. “This deal is historic and we’ve changed the way development happens.”

The controversial luxury Queens waterfront project–which also includes retail and a new school–encountered considerable resistance over developer Alma Realty’s initial reluctance to hire union labor and to set aside more than a quarter of the new residences for low- and middle-income tenants. Mr. Constantinides–joined by Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Queens Borough President Melinda Katz–had led the opposition and the arm-twisting, and the Council almost always defers on land use matters to the wishes of the local representative.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, however, was a supporter of the project–seeing it as a test case for his new mandatory inclusionary zoning policy, which requires developers to insert affordable units into new developments as a precondition for construction. Previously, the city had relied on subsidies and tax abatements to entice companies into adding below-market rate units.

Committee Chairman David Greenfield noted that the 27 percent of units set aside for below-market rents is the largest affordable housing percentage agreement in city history.

However, Alma's history with regard to affordable housing is a joke.

Vallone seeks to ensure delivery of ethnic meals

From the Daily News:

From fresh kimchi to gefilte fish, immigrant seniors across Queens participating in the city’s Meals-on-Wheels program have seen their enthnically diverse menu options replaced with whitewashed entrees like Salisbury steak and spinach.

Now, new Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) wants to adjust the Department for the Aging system in place that has allowed nonprofits like Catholic Charities to serve seniors who aren’t necessarily in the group’s constituency.

“For someone in an ethnic community that asks for a particular kind of meal, the senior center that can provide that meal is not allowed to give it to them,” said Vallone at a Queens Interagency Council on Aging conference.

Since a 2008 shift under Mayor Bloomberg, the nonprofits that make and deliver food for the program have been faced with serving a growing pool of clients — making it less likely that Queens seniors get the ethnic meals they desire.

Vallone, a former elder law attorney and chairman of the Council’s subcommittee on senior centers, plans to hold a hearing to examine improvements to the program, which provides 17,795 New Yorkers with free daily meals.

A survey released in September found that 92% of the meals served alligned with the seniors’ cultural backgrounds.

But advocates say the 2008 reorganization of the program forces seniors into larger districts that don’t always reflect the rapidly shifting ethnic makeup of the borough.

Why not just give them vouchers for McDonald's since that's where they're hanging out anyway?

Senior center location not exactly ideal

From the Daily News:

The route to a Howard Beach senior center can be treacherous for the folks who have to use it.

Seniors often find themselves jaywalking to the new housing and recreation center at the intersection of eight-lane Cross Bay Blvd. and four-lane 156th Ave.

The potential for disaster has community leaders and advocates worried sick.

They want the city to scrutinize the scary traffic conditions near the gleaming new Peter J. Striano Residence and Catholic Charities’ Howard Beach Senior Center and examine the situation in the broader context of pedestrian safety.

The lack of a crosswalk at 156th Ave. combines with a quick signal on Cross Bay Blvd. to make a dangerous situation for seniors who park at the grocery store across the way, said program manager Judy Ascherman.

Tax cut proposed for burger joints that allow seniors to linger (not an early April Fool's joke)

From the Times Ledger:

State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) has proposed a new tax credit for restaurants that allow seniors to hang out in their establishments.

The new tax credit is an attempt to tackle a fight between business owners and seniors who sit socializing in their restaurants for hours on end.

The issue was highlighted when a group of Korean seniors were kicked out of a Flushing McDonald’s by police after spending hours sitting in the franchise after only buying a $1.09 cup of coffee each.

News of the controversy spread quickly all the way to Korea and prompted Kim to broker a compromise between the two groups that would have the McDonald’s extend its maximum sitting times during non-lunch hours, which the seniors agreed to respect. Kim said the spat was indicative of a larger problem that seniors do not have enough public spaces where they want to congregate.

“Older adults don’t want to be confined to one place. Instead of telling them where they have to go, we’ll go to them,” Kim said. “This is one of the possible solutions than can help alleviate the problem.”

A couple weeks after the controversy in Flushing, a group of predominantly Guyanese seniors were kicked out of a Burger King in Richmond Hill for staying too long.

Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Fresh Meadows), whose district includes the Burger King, is setting up a summit so that the Guyanese seniors and the owner of the burger joint can reach a compromise similar to Kim’s.

The lunatics have taken over the asylum, folks.

Ron Kim brokers truce in McDonald's war

From the Queens Chronicle:

Korean-American Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) announced Monday morning that he had brokered a truce between Korean seniors and a Flushing McDonald’s over seating rights.

Kim stepped into the fray and arranged a compromise during a weekend session with the McDonald’s owner, Jack Bert, and 12 of the seniors. From now on, seniors will have extended sitting hours except during high-traffic hours from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; signs will be posted to communicate the change in Chinese and Korean; and Kim will collaborate with area senior centers in offering transportation to and from the restaurant.

Senior centers offer meals, so why do they need to shuttle their clients back and forth to McDonald's?

Let me guess...Kim is going to allocate funding (our tax dollars) for this unnecessary shuttling?

Will there be any punishment?

From the Queens Courier:

Concerned Woodhaven residents want to know what repercussions, if any, a local landowner will face after his building collapsed last month, damaging the adjacent Volunteer Ambulance Corps and forcing residents to leave the Woodhaven Senior Center.

An abandoned furniture store at 78-19 Jamaica Avenue crumbled onto the street on April 12, crushing a minivan parked out front and shutting down a section of the road while debris was removed.

At a May 18 meeting of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association (WRBA), many voiced their desire to see the landlord held responsible for alleged negligence that led to the vacant building’s collapse.

The Woodhaven Senior Center is currently covered by a tarp, which must be proven watertight before seniors will be allowed back into the building.

Vito's non-profit still rolling in state dough

From the Wall Street Journal:

A Brooklyn social-services network that has been the subject of investigations by the city, state and federal governments and has close ties to Assemblyman Vito Lopez is poised to receive nearly $2 million under New York's latest budget deal.

The $1.9 million grant to the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council is part of an Albany tradition known as a "member item," an earmark with an anonymous sponsor slated for a nonprofit group. The grant would pay for the council's "community youth capital construction program," the purpose of which isn't described in the budget.

Lawmakers plan to vote this week on the item, part of a 1,023 page Aid to Localities budget bill. The grant's sponsor wasn't disclosed.

The last member-item funding was approved in 2010 under Gov. David Paterson, but all of the money wasn't spent right away, and there was $136 million still left to be spent for member items when Mr. Cuomo took office in 2011. After he and lawmakers couldn't agree on a plan to shift that money elsewhere, Mr. Cuomo and lawmakers have been drawing down the funding gradually for member items.

Mr. Cuomo proposed spending the last of the $57 million in that pot of money. Matt Wing, a spokesman for the governor, said the budget doesn't include "new funding for Ridgewood Bushwick" and said the money was approved before Mr. Cuomo took office. The $1.9 million earmark for Ridgewood Bushwick wasn't made until this year, according to state budget records.

Representatives of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos and Senate Democratic leader Jeff Klein didn't respond to messages.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's public integrity bureau is investigating Ridgewood Bushwick, a person familiar with the probe said. The inquiry's scope hasn't been disclosed.

Ridgewood Bushwick has received member items in the past, including a $150,000 grant in 2011 and more than $800,000 of economic development funding from the Cuomo administration that same year."

Hmmm. Why wasn't the sponsor disclosed? Why were we told there was no member item funding for the past 3 years when there was?

Tweeding.

Food fraud charges for senior center founder

From CBS New York:

The founder of the United Hindu Cultural Council Senior Center was arrested Monday and charged with stealing more than $50,000, allegedly by filing false invoices for lunches that were never served.

Chan Jamoona, who also serves on the Queens General Assembly and on numerous boards and leadership roles in New York City, was arrested Monday morning at her Ozone Park, Queens, home.

She was charged with grand larceny in excess of $50,000, falsifying business records, and conspiracy, 1010 WINS reported.

An investigation by the city Department of Investigation and the New York State Attorney General’s office found numerous fraudulent transactions involving Jamoona, 66, according to a news release.

Jamoona allegedly was involved in a scheme where fraudulent invoices from the senior center were sent to the city Department for the Aging for lunches that were never actually served to seniors at the center, the Attorney General’s office release said.

Also charged were Jamoona’s daughter – Veda Jamoona; and Steven Rajukumar, owner of Sonny’s Roti Shop, which provided food to the senior center, the release said.

Authorities said from 2004 until 2010, Jamoona ordered a senior center employee to make false entries on the lunch sign-in sheets, and offered to put together false invoices that would result in higher payments to the Sonny’s Roti Shop, the publication reported. Rajukumar agreed to split the payments with Jamoona, the release said.

Veda Jamoona also allegedly created false invoices as part of the scheme, the release said.

One of those arrested works for John Liu.

Nydia calls for investigation of Vito's charity

From the NY Post:

Rivals of embattled Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez — who is enmeshed in a sex-harassment scandal and is on the ropes politically — are now taking aim at the $120 million social-services empire that has served as his power base.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez told The Post that it’s time for a “comprehensive investigation” of operations at the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, founded by Lopez in 1973 and funded by government grants he and his allies have helped secure ever since.

“You know, there are too many arms within the organization,” said Velasquez, a longtime Lopez critic who beat back his vigorous attempt to unseat her last June.

“I do believe that the services they provide are important. But the whole government structure, as well as the different arms — that should be evaluated by the city officials.”

Ridgewood Bushwick is one of the city’s largest social-service agencies, with programs from home care to senior centers to job training.

After the Department of Investigation reported in 2010 that its board was a rubber stamp with little idea what it was doing, city officials forced a reorganization at the top.

Four months ago, before the harassment charges against Lopez were made public, three Brooklyn City Council members close to him allocated $873,589 of their “member item” funds to the group. Leading the pack was Erik Dilan, who challenged Velasquez with Lopez’s backing.

Last year, the state delivered $845,806 in three discretionary grants.

Tweeding pays off for Vito's pal

From the NY Post:

The departing director of the politically connected Ridgewood Bushwick social-services empire founded by Brooklyn Democratic leader Vito Lopez will be collecting up to $135,000 in unused sick time and vacation pay, The Post has learned.

The city ordered Christiana Fisher booted after the Department of Investigation found she had collected questionable “retroactive” pay that boosted her compensation to $782,000 in fiscal year 2009. Her 2008 salary was $336,000.

As part of the deal, Fisher was allowed to serve as an unpaid consultant to new CEO James Cameron and cash in sick and vacation time accumulated over a 38-year career up to a maximum of $135,000.

Cameron had been serving as the chief operating officer of Ridgewood Bushwick for the last 18 months.

Armory in rent dispute with senior center

From the Times Ledger:

The elderly attendees of the Whitestone Armory are joining with the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Civic Association and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) to decry a plan by the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs they describe as designed to force them to pay more money.

The division has said it wants to raise annual rent from $25,000 to $31,000 for the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Community Center to use the facility to offer courses and activities for seniors as well as athletic classes and recreation space for children, Avella said.

But state funding has been slashed to the center — a separate entity from the civic — and it is already having trouble making its rent. So last week about 100 seniors, Avella and members of the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers held a rally outside the Armory, at 150-74 6th Ave., aimed at drawing attention to their cause and calling on the division to find a way to allow the center to continue to use the space.

Avella said the state agency said it is raising the rent because it needs to pay for added security, but his deputy chief of staff said Tuesday that the agency’s rental agreement with the community center already dedicates too much money to security — especially since the National Guard has a presence there.

Vito's group gets more connected

From the NY Post:

The board of directors of the embattled senior-services agency founded by Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez has gone from clueless to connected.

The city ordered a shake-up of the board of the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council last year after investigators were aghast to discover a panel so hapless that some members couldn't identify the center's programs and others signed contracts they didn't understand because they spoke only Spanish.

But the rejiggering has produced a group even more connected to Vito, an assemblyman whose girlfriend and campaign treasurer run the sprawling social-services empire.

The nonprofit is the key to Lopez's power base.

Something smells rotten here

From the NY Post:

It's the grandaddy of all sweetheart deals.

First the city gave away land to a senior-citizens group linked to Assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez. Now the city pays sky-high rent to the Lopez-founded group for the same property.

"It's kooky -- the city is paying for something it doesn't have to," said a city official who looked into the matter.

The official said the rental agreement is part of mounting evidence that the city favors the politically connected Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which is run by Lopez's campaign treasurer and his girlfriend.

For years, the city paid between $112,150 and $157,000 in rent -- on top of operating expenses -- to the Ridgewood group to run the Diana Jones Senior Center on Flushing Avenue.

But last year, Ridgewood reopened the senior center at the group's housing development on the old Rheingold Brewery site -- which the city had turned over to Ridgewood to develop with taxpayer money.

Since the move, the rent has more than doubled: Ridgewood started billing the city $408,000 a year in rent, according to data from the Department for the Aging.

The city negotiated the rent down to $360,000, still more than twice the rent the city paid for the old location, which was in a building the Ridgewood group didn't own and had to pay for.

No shame whatsoever

From the Brooklyn Paper:

The city is moving to reverse an earlier decision to halt more than $100 million worth of health care service contracts to a Bushwick-based nonprofit that is the subject of two federal investigations and the city’s own fraud probe.

The Human Resources Administration indicated that it would continue funding two new contracts to the homecare division of the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council this week, providing $135 million in contracts for home attendant services in Brooklyn and Queens.

Mayor Bloomberg justified the new contracts to Ridgewood Bushwick by saying that the nonprofit is providing essential services.

“There is no other organization at the moment capable of providing the services to the community that really needs it,” said Bloomberg. “Nobody with the scale and the experience, and [Department of Investigation commissioner Rose Gill Hearn] said in terms of that, they’re doing a good job.”

Photo from A Short Story.