de Blasio has allowed real estate developers to game land use in New York City

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The Affordability Scam : de Blasio calls $1,900 rent on a Crown Heights, Brooklyn studio affordable

A lack of democracy in New York City's land use process

"It's a lie anyway." To some progressive activists, seeing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s land-lease proposal to construct buildings on the property of the New York City Housing Authority following so closely on the sale of several NYCHA Section 8 buildings, with plans for further expansion of land-lease opportunities on NYCHA lands, amounts to a full-throttle assault to privatize large parts of NYCHA, essentially opening the floodgates for private real estate developers to stampede toward a land rush of city real property in exchange for the administration receiving credit for the construction a miniscule number of new affordable housing units. It seems like a huge price to pay for perhaps constructing an initial 500 new affordable housing units within a larger goal of creating 80,000 units over a ten-year span. These and other major city land use decisions are not being made with prior public input, much less without a specific mandate from voters. Although more and more tenants and activists are recognizing Mayor de Blasio’s pro-real estate agenda, what is missing is tenant and activist consensus about what to do about this. Some activists have been fighting the sale of public library branches to real estate developers, thinking that each sale is a singular transaction, independent onto itself, and not part of a larger, pro-real estate agenda by the de Blasio administration. Activists think that if they can just defeat the sale of one library, then the larger cause can be won. Efforts by developers and city planning officials to subject small fights to the arduous ULURP process, while sidestepping larger projects, has the impact of narrowing activists’ focus at the same time that they can be worn down. About the role of Community Boards in allowing the public to participate in New York City's land use process, the Brooklyn tenant activist Alicia Boyd said, “It’s a lie, anyway, but we know politically that the political machine needs that lie .... They need the lie. They need the lie, so that the people will not stand up and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute ! That means that we have no power ? There’s no democracy here ?’ They need the lie.” As activists look to hold the administration accountable to activists’ expectations for a course for a post-Occupy Wall Street city that was not aligned with big business, there are many issues to consider. Firstly, how do activists plan to educate each other on a complete and accurate picture of how much of the political landscape in the de Blasio administration has been influenced by the real estate industry ? Secondly, will activists reject Mayor de Blasio’s incremental and inadequate remedy to the affordable housing crisis, and, if so, what can the community demand in its place ? And thirdly, what should be done about the veal pen nonprofit groups, which willingly deëscalate calls for political, social, and economic reform, based on the messaging emanating from City Hall ? Other issues undoubtedly also exist, but organizing cannot take shape about where we want to go as a city until everybody first agrees on what is actually happening now.

RELATED A Special Investigation : A lack of democracy in New York City's land use process (Progress Queens)

Bill de Blasio and Bill Rudin Community Betrayal ?

Has Mayor de Blasio turned his back on the community demand for a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's ?

Bill Rudin is one of the most corrupt real estate developers in New York City. He is the one, who basically foreclosed on St. Vincent's Hospital. He and his family paid off former Council Speaker Christine Quinn with $30,000 in campaign donations to look the other way. Has Bill Rudin found a way to pay off Mayor Bill de Blasio, too ?

• RELATED : Bill de Blasio may not like the condos Rudin Management is building in place of the old St. Vincent's Hospital, but that hasn't impacted his relationship with the developer's former lobbyist, James Capalino. (A former Rudin lobbyist volunteers for Bill de Blasio * Capital New York)
• RELATED : Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio stopped by an Association for a Better New York power breakfast to pay respect to one his key real estate development supporters, Bill Rudin. (Mayor de Blasio Makes Surprise Stop at Bill Rudin's ABNY Power Breakfast * The New York Observer)

From the Demand A Hospital listserv :

Dear All :

Last year, Bill de Blasio demonstrated outside the construction site for the $1 billion Rudin luxury condo complex in order to burnish his appeal amongst the communities impacted by hospital closings. The theme of that protest was "Hospitals, Not Condos."

• LINK : Bill de Blasio to lead ‘Hospitals Not Condos’ rally at former St. Vincent’s site, with Belafonte, Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, others (East Villager)

Furthermore, one of the NYC Is Not For Sale commercials that helped to elect Mayor de Blasio focused on the corrupt role of Bill Rudin's campaign donations to former Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

• LINK : New Super PAC ad blasts Christine Quinn for role in closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital (The New York Daily New)

But now that he's been elected, Mayor de Blasio is socializing with the very same corrupt real estate developer whose luxury condo conversion deal he once criticized.

• LINK : Bill Bratton, Bill de Blasio and Bill Rudin at an April 3 gala. (Crains).

Does this mean that Mayor de Blasio has turned his back on the community's demand for a full service hospital to replace St. Vincent's ?

Thanks for all that you do.

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Remembering St. Vincent's Hospital and Dr. Brickner ; Mayor de Blasio with Bill Rudin (twice)

From the Demand A Hospital listserv :

Dear All :

A news round-up, plus photographs of Mayor de Blasio kissing up to Bill Rudin and embracing Rudin lobbyist, James Capalino.

1. Remembering Dr. Brickner. Dr. Philip Brickner, who was chairman of St. Vincent's community medicine department, made house calls and set up a “free clinic” for people in need. He passed away on March 24 at his home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He was 85. (Remembering Dr. Philip Brickner, who made house calls to the vulnerable, dies at 85 * The New York Times)

2. Remembering St. Vincent's Hospital. Some say that Rudin Management, the builder of the new billion-dollar luxury condominium complex at St. Vincent’s footprint, was coincidentally former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s largest campaign contributor, and she didn’t do all she could do to save the hospital. Sadly, this article unfairly blames St. Vincent's for the economic consequences of making good on its own charity mission. Healthcare has taken a beating in Greenwich Village and Chelsea, and, citywide, the assault continues. (Remembering St. Vincent's Hospital * The Indypendent)

3. Bill Rudin breakfast. Mayor Bill de Blasio makes a "surprise" appearance last Wednesday morning at Bill Rudin's Association for a Better New York power breakfast. (Mayor de Blasio makes surprise stop at ABNY insider breakfast * The New York Observer)

4. Bill Rudin gala. Mayor de Blasio expresses support Thursday night for police crackdown as a way to jack up real estate values at Bill Rudin's Waldorf-Astoria charity benefit in this desperate Bloomberg public relations puff piece meant to help rehabilitate the Rudin family's tarnished image. See photo. (Mayor de Blasio kisses up to Bill Rudin at Waldorf-Astoria gala * Bloomberg)

5. James Capalino connection. Reminder that last year, then mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio literally and figuratively embraced campaigning with Rudin's corrupt ULURP condo conversion lobbyist, James Capalino. See photo. (James Capalino, a former Rudin lobbyist volunteers for de Blasio * Capital New York)

Thank you for all that you do.

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Corrupt Campaign Finance and Lobbyist Scandals in de Blasio and Cuomo administrations

Bags of Cash : Political Corruption and Lobbyists in NYC, NYS

Real estate developers, gambling interests, and lobbyists corrupt New York City and New York State politics. In this YouTube video, questions are raised about why the super-majority of liberal and progressive politicians in New York are unable to propose and enact real campaign finance and lobbyist reforms. Are Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Prosecutor Kathleen Rice more interested in milking big business interests and lobbyists of campaign donations to dare to reform the broken political system ?

Stay tuned ....

C.W.A., a pro-@deBlasioNYC union contributed $507,000 to the Anybody but Quinn campaign. (via @SallyGold) http://t.co/FxmwqgaAW2

— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) October 30, 2013

.@deBlasioNYC the big winner from IE spending in the general election: his backers spent $1.29M; supporters of @JoeLhota4Mayor spent $387K.

— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) November 4, 2013

De Blasio Accused of Coordinating with Anti-Quinn Super PAC http://t.co/E9l3Qau77L #CSFirstRead (via @ccampy)

— City & State (@CityAndStateNY) November 4, 2013

The Emerging Conservatism of Bill de Blasio

News Roundup : Is Bill de Blasio turning his back on his progressive sensibilities ?

In the last week, lobbyists helped to bundle and raise huge amounts of campaign donations for New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, even though he enjoys an extraordinary lead in opinion polls.

Mr. de Blasio is leading Joe Lhota by 44 points -- 68 to 24 percent -- among likely voters, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll (Poll : Bill de Blasio Still Dominating Mayoral Race * Politicker).

In spite of this dominance, Mr. de Blasio has been noticeably been edging to the political center, according to the view of some, and to the right-of-center, according to the views of others.

During Tuesday's "heated mayoral debate," Republican candidate Joe Lhota attacked the Democratic candidate Bill de Blasio "for not doing enough to get affordable housing built at Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project," The Real Deal reported, which included Mr. Lhota's accusation that Mr. de Blasio betrayed the promises he made to force the developer of the Atlantic Yards project to build affordable housing.

“The reality is, Bill de Blasio makes promises over and over that he can’t keep,” Lhota said during the debate, and referred to Bill de Blasio’s support of Forest City’s massive Atlantic Yards project, according to watchdog blog Atlantic Yards Report. “Well, it’s been two years now since the Barclays Center has opened, and they’re not even in the ground with affordable housing,” Lhota said. He suggested that de Blasio was lenient with developer Bruce Ratner because Ratner is a supporter of the candidate and a frequent contributor to his campaign.

Moreover, the host committee of Mr. de Blasio's million-dollar Monday-night fundraiser with Hillary Clinton, for example, read like a who's who of big-league city lobbyists -- and it's drawing fire from his GOP opponent.

• Lobbyists love Bill de Blasio
• de Blasio supports controversial soccer stadium
• A More Nuanced de Blasio Emerges

"Post-primary shifts may come naturally in any election," reports The New York Times, noting that the "modulations of Mr. de Blasio, a veteran political operator, are more akin to the sanding-down of edges than full-fledged flip-flops." So, The NYTimes is still hesitating from calling Mr. de Blasio out for his sharp turn to the right after barely winning the Democratic primary with slightly over 40% of the vote.

Michael Powell's take-away from the second mayoral debate was that Mr. de Blasio is not a fake. "But as his day approaches, his footsteps toward power are worth measuring," Mr. Powell wrote, speaking in half-truths about Mr. de Blasio's conservatism since the Democratic primary.

Bill de Blasio and the faux new urban populism

"Does de Blasio’s ascent suggest that the country is moving in a decisively liberal direction ?" asked the Columbia University journalism professor and The New York Times op-ed contributing writer, Thomas Edsall. Mr. Edsall cites these alarming statistics :

In New York, according to an April 2013 report by the city’s Center for Economic Opportunity, graphically presented in Figure 1, 45.8 percent of the city’s population lives in poverty (an annual income of $30,994 or less for a four-person family) or at “near poverty” (from $30,995 to $46,416 for a family of four).

How will Mr. de Blasio make a dent in the number of New Yorkers living in poverty, if he already seems to have steered right or right-of-center in his politics since the Democratic primary ? Moreover, there is growing speculation that Mr. de Blasio is supporting the selection of a conservative City Council Speaker, who will act to tame the City Council from taking action on voters' demands for reforms.

James Capalino, Other Lobbyists Lined Up To Help Host Million-Dollar Bill de Blasio/Hillary Clinton Fundraiser

James Capalino, Other Lobbyists Lined Up To Help Host Million-Dollar Bill de Blasio/Hillary Clinton Fundraiser

From Daily News Daily Politics :

The host committee of Bill de Blasio's million-dollar Monday-night fundraiser with Hillary Clinton read like a who's who of big-league city lobbyists -- and it's drawing fire from his GOP foe in the mayor's race.

"The level of Bill de Blasio's hypocrisy is alarming. He takes cash from developers and special interests while telling New Yorkers he supports something different," Jessica Proud, a spokeswoman for Republican nominee Joe Lhota, told the Daily News. "I don't think anyone can trust who the real Bill de Blasio is when he always tries to play both sides."

De Blasio spokesman Dan Levitan declined comment on both Proud's comments or the number of lobbyists involved in the cash bash.

Among those on the host committee for the Roosevelt Hotel soiree : James Capalino, who in the past lobbied for Rudin Management, which is developing high-end condos near the site of the shuttered St. Vincent's Hospital, and A-list lobbyist Suri Kasirer, who has met with de Blasio on Atlantic Yards project.

Kasirer characterized her role in the fundraiser as more about old friendships than pending business.

"It was kind of like Old Home Week," said Kasirer, who said her 25-year friendship with the mayoral frontrunner goes back to the administration of former Mayor David Dinkins and continued through and past Clinton's 2000 run for the Senate.

While Kasirer says she's closely watching issues that may extend into the next administration, such as Midtown East rezoning, she painted the evening as "a way for a lot of New Yorkers to give a boost to Hillary and let her know that we were eagerly waiting for her decision and want her to run [for president]...

"I think for me it was less about lobbying than it was about sort of longtime relationships."

Capalino didn't immediately return a call about the fundraiser.

Fordham University's Costas Panagopoulos said the list wasn't surprising given that given that "money follows power and special interests can read the polls just as well as anyone else can," and that de Blasio and many of his backers are "established politicians with access to lobbyists and other donors" happy to help raise cash for a man who may make decisions critical to their clients.

The political science prof also said there is of course the issue of "whether someone who's been elected partly as a result of having attracted considerable financial support is subsequently beholden to those interests" if he or she wins.

"We'd like to think that kind of quid pro quo -- or some would go so far as to call it corruption -- doesn't exist, but it's a legitimate question," he said. "Answering this question will require vigilance and surveillance if [de Blasio is] elected."

Others on the lengthy host committee list included Stan Natapoff and Alexandra Stanton of Empire Global Ventures; Rachel Amar of Waste Management Of New York; and Michael Woloz of Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz.

How committed is Bill de Blasio to adopting progressive reforms ?

Bill de Blasio and Land Use : Liberal Mayoral Candidate Would Continue Many of Bloomberg's -- and Quinn's -- Policies

In the weeks leading up to Christine Quinn's defeat in the Democratic primary election, it came to be known that one of the slimy Rudin lobbyists responsible for influencing the City Council to approve the controversial St. Vincent's luxury condo conversion plan had already found a way to get access to Bill de Blasio, the presumptive leading mayoral candidate. Hosted on Scribd is an e-mail about the controversial lobbyist, James Capalino, that was exchanged between Donny Moss and I.

After a couple of weeks of careful consideration, I have produced a new YouTube video about this e-mail exchange.

One major reason that activists organised to vote Quinn out of office was because of how she sold out the community in favor of her campaign contributors and powerful big business interests. Real estate developers have enjoyed great influence over city government, so much so that voters have had almost no way of participating in important community decisions. For example, voters desired saving the zoning on the St. Vincent's campus for a replacement hospital, but big business interests were able to ride roughshod over voters because of their use of lobbyists and the outsized influence of campaign donations.

After the primary election, Bill de Blasio announced that he would not appear at fundraisers unless contributors could package together donations of at least $75,000. In addition to embracing lobbyists that helped Rudin privatise the former real estate of St. Vincent's, de Blasio was now embracing the out-sized influence of money in politics.

How could it be that activists, who carried the reform banner to organize and defeat Quinn in the mayoral primary, now turn the other way after de Blasio has now begun to adopt some the same tools of the broken political system as did Quinn ?

The concerns over who gets access to political candidates are serious. As some of you may know, when Andrew Cuomo was running for governor, some St. Vincent's activists approached his campaign people over the need for a hospital to replace St. Vincent's. Cuomo's campaign people told the St. Vincent's activists, "We'll see you after the election." After the election, what did Gov. Cuomo do ? Within days, he formed the Medicaid Redesign Team to continue the work of closing hospitals, and he appointed Stephen Berger to head the Brooklyn Working Group in an attempt to specifically close hospitals in Brooklyn. Similarly, some AIDS activists tried to reach out to the de Blasio campaign this year to determine if his campaign platform would include more ambitious goals to confront HIV/AIDS, but the AIDS activists were told by de Blasio's campaign people, "We'll see you after the election."

After all the community organizing, town halls, and protests in which activists have engaged to fight for a hospital to save St. Vincent's, just hearing the phrase, "We'll see you after the election," should activate a powerful recognition : that de Blasio means to make no public commitment to champion for the reforms that that many communities say they want to see brought about in the next mayoral administration.

Some activists, who participated in the movement to vote Quinn out of office, have been doing this work for over 22 years -- from the time when Quinn first arrived in the political scene in New York. It becomes too late to try to hold a politician accountable once the politician gets elected into office. Using Quinn as an example, she will have spent about 15 years in City Council spread out over 5 terms in office. During this time, in what direction has this city headed ? There was no way to hold her accountable during these 15 years, except to finally vote her out of office. That's the only way.

As challenging as it was to vote Quinn out of office, what lesson should we be drawing from this experience ? What wisdom is there to be had ? The reality is that Quinn was just a symptom of a broken political system. The root causes of the political system being broken still exist. In the last two years, our activism was influenced by important principles from the Occupy movement, and that is that inequality, corruption, and the undue influence of big business interests is what keeps our government broken and non-responsive to voters' needs. Knowing all that we know, do we wait for politicians to max out on term limits before they should be held accountable to voters, or should politicians be held accountable even before they win an election and are sworn into office ?

It all comes down to what you think, because it was you, who was made voiceless under the Bloomberg-Quinn administration. Our immediate contribution to push back against the broken political system was to vote Quinn out of office, but based on the messages that de Blasio is telegraphing to the community, voting Quinn out is not enough to bring about reforms. Now that she will soon be gone, what else do you need to do to reclaim your government ?

Please think about this, because the movement to bring about reforms is not over, yet. The movement needs you to step forward, because not everybody is fighting for reforms, and compromises are being made that may not serve your best interests. The only way for you to make sure that your best interests are being served is for you to step up and speak out. Your voice and opinion counts. Make it be heard.

Bill de Blasio Triangulation To Power Clintonista Way

"The deeper you look, the stronger the evidence that de Blasio’s victory is an omen of what may become the defining story of America’s next political era: the challenge, to both parties, from the left," writes Peter Beinart in an article, "The Rise Of The New New Left" for The Daily Beast, noting that, "It’s a challenge Hillary Clinton should start worrying about now," adding, "If history is any guide, the sentiments behind Occupy will find their way into the political process, just as the anti-Vietnam movement helped create Eugene McCarthy’s presidential bid in 1968, and the civil-rights movement bred politicians like Andrew Young, Tom Bradley, and Jesse Jackson." Although Bill de Blasio is a definite Democratic Party insider and Clintonista -- he served in the Bill Clinton administration and was Hillary Clinton's senatorial campaign manager -- he was shrewd and politically calculating to position himself to the left of the other mayoral candidates, but Beinart seems to take de Blasio's move at face value. "Bill de Blasio’s mayoral campaign offers a glimpse into what an Occupy-inspired challenge to Clintonism might look like," he adds. But what if de Blasio was just triangulating his way into power by telegraphing signals to outside pressure groups, and nothing more than that ? De Blasio can hardly challenge Clintonism if he is using the same unprincipled machinations from the Clinton playbook.

Moreover, the article seems to minimize that voters made a wholesale reject of Christine Quinn's boss-style politics. It cannot be denied that Occupy sensibilities played a role among some of the anti-Quinn activists. But, Occupy sensibilities could not have entirely backed de Blasio's campaign, especially given his apparent use of an independent expenditure group to help his campaign circumvent public campaign finance limits and his close working relationship with real estate lobbyists, who have been responsible for the loss of hospital infrastructure to the Bloomberg-Quinn's administration's emphasis on gentrification.

Will Bill de Blasio Fight For A New Hospital To Replace St. Vincent's ?

Bill de Blasio made campaign stops in front of the luxury condominium and townhouse complex that Rudin Management Company is constructing on the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital. These campaign stops were meant to highlight the healthcare injustice of the spree of hospital closings in New York City. Will Bill de Blasio lead the charge to call for a full-service hospital and Level I Trauma Center to replace St. Vincent's, or were all those campaign stops just exploitation of the issue to drum up votes ?

To get a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's, Bill de Blasio has to feel that he's *not* going to stride to an easy finish.

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 11, 2013

Instead, Bill de Blasio's going to put on a pair of skates and then take to the same thin sheet of ice that Quinn just got yanked off of.

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 11, 2013

Has Bill de Blasio already sold out ?

It's not enough to vote out the most corrupt candidate. It's also necessary to demand a truly progressive, reform agenda from next mayor.

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 4, 2013

Next week, we'll vote @Quinn4NY out of office for her real estate corruption. Week after, do we start @StopdeBlasio ? http://t.co/JgFvrKxC8m

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 6, 2013

One more bad omen : @StopdeBlasio Would Continue Many of Bloomberg's Policies http://t.co/14ga1GdPOq

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 7, 2013