Sugar Fix: Berlin Rosen an Unregistered Real Estate Lobbyists

True News Reported Over A Year Before NY1 About the Conflict of Interests of Berlin Rosen Working for Both the Mayor and Developers like Two Trees, Domino Sugar

From True News Real Estate developers now understand if you want to get an OK for your housing plan hire Berlin Rosen.  BerlinRosen's current and recent clients include Two Trees Management Negotiations between Mr. de Blasio’s team and Mr. Walentas’s firm took place over the last few days. The two men share a mutual adviser: Jonathan Rosen, one of the mayor’s top political hands and the chief executive of a public affairs firm, Berlin Rosen, that counts Mr. Walentas’s company as a client. Twitter / BerlinRosen: Congratulations to whole team ...  

Mayor and Berling Rosen Transparency Not

Mayor Does Not Seem Eager to Discuss Relationship With BerlinRosen Co-Founder(NY1) In the wake of the NY1 report Wednesday night about the web of influence at City Hall that a top advisor to the mayor has woven, there are calls for reform, while Mayor Bill de Blasio does not seem eager to discuss his relationship with Jonathan Rosen, who co-founded the public relations firm BerlinRosen.   State Senator Tony Avella, who chairs the Senate's Ethics Committee, said it is time for public relations firms with close ties to government to be regulated much in the same way lobbyists are.  As we work to repair public trust in our elected officials," Avella said, "we must no longer tolerate lobbyists in consultants' clothing."

Call For Reform Of Consultant Lobbyists Corruption Coming From IDC Member Avella Not NYC Progressives 

Many of the City's Progressives Including the Mayor Who Your Would Expect to Be Fighting Pay to Play Lobbyists are Hiding From Reform

Corrupting Progressives Era

NY1's Rauh needs to ask the following progressives who have hired Berlin Rosen to run their campaigns if they support Avella's reform to regulate political consultant who work for private clients as public relations consultants as lobbyists. Speaker Mark-Viverito;  Councilmembers: Chin, Johnson, Levine, Rodriguez, Lancman, Crowley, Donovan, Levin, Garodnick, Dromm, Van Bramer, Lander, Williams, Rose,  State Senators: Squadron; Comptroller Stringer; Attorney General Schneiderman

Berlin Rosen Worked With Ratner to Push Affordable Housing Out of Prospect Heights Brooklyn
How Berlin Rosen Led A Conspiracy to Hijack the Progressive Movement to Make Millions

The "most powerful" Jonathan Rosen, Mayor de Blasio, and the Forest City connection (AYR) Rauh got a quote from a BerlinRosen client. “Our company has always felt that having outside PR firms brings a great external presence and a great external set of ideas. A consultant has a way of looking at a project that we are knee-deep in from a little distance,” Forest City Ratner’s Ashley Cotton told NY1. What's unmentioned is the situation involving a project like Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, when various parties are all on the general same team. BerlinRosen represents not only de Blasio and Forest City, but has represented community partners like ACORN. That leads to harmony in the message being put before the public rather and likely leads to less scrutiny. It also makes me wonder how the BerlinRosen connection affects a client like Council Member Brad Lander, a de Blasio ally (and successor in Council seat) who once was much more critical of Atlantic Yards.

BerlinRosen founders say "mission-driven company" turns away clients who don't share ideals (so, what about Ratner? (AYR)

Bloomberg News two days ago published a profile of BerlinRosen, headlined NYC Firm Helps De Blasio Go From Obscurity to Frontrunner:

BerlinRosen Public Affairs, the eight-year-old firm founded by Valerie Berlin and Jonathan Rosen, has built a reputation working behind the scenes for Democratic candidates and causes such as paid SICK leave, limiting police stop-and-frisk tactics and universal preschool -- issues that dominated [Democratic nominee Bill] de Blasio’s message and helped take the 52-year-old from underdog to frontrunner.
With polls showing de Blasio 40 percentage points ahead of Joseph Lhota a week before the election, and with Lhota’s fellow Republicans outnumbered 6-to-1 in the most populous U.S. city, de Blasio is likely to be the first Democrat to run New York since 1993. That leaves BerlinRosen poised to extend its influence and access to power.

The company sounds idealistic

The article states:

They call it a mission-driven company and said they turn away potential clients who don’t share their ideals and values. Some ORGANIZATIONS they represent advocate raising the minimum wage, protecting voting rights and providing more services for poor children and families.
...Interviews with a dozen clients and peers elicited descriptions of BerlinRosen’s staff as smart, hard-working and good listeners... Assembly speaker [Sheldon] Silver said he relies on Rosen as a “trusted adviser.”

Um, should working for speaker-for-life Silver be a red flag?

The corporate biz

The article states:

They’ve also represented Brookfield Office Properties, a subsidiary of the owner of Zuccotti Park, from which Occupy Wall Street was ousted in 2011, and Bruce Ratner, founder and chairman of Forest City Ratner Cos., developer of Brooklyn’s 22-acre Atlantic Yards, which includes Barclays Center with plans for thousands of market-rate and discount apartments.

My comment

I posted a comment responding on this line, "They call it a mission-driven company and said they turn away potential clients who don’t share their ideals and values."

Hmm... If you want to understand developer Forest City Ratner, check out the two posts below: "Atlantic Yards and The Culture of Cheating" and the story behind the developer's Yonkers project.

And, perhaps, count the number of people in FCR's orbit who get indicted.

Sugar Fix: City Hall's Inhouse Lobbyist Political Consultant Lobbies for Developers






Real Estate developers now understand if you want to get an OK for your housing plan hire Berlin Rosen. BerlinRosen's current and recent clients include Two Trees Management Negotiations between Mr. de Blasio’s team and Mr. Walentas’s firm took place over the last few days. The two men share a mutual adviser: Jonathan Rosen, one of the mayor’s top political hands and the chief executive of a public affairs firm, Berlin Rosen, that counts Mr. Walentas’s company as a client.


Twitter / BerlinRosen: Congratulations to whole team ...

Apr 24, 2014 - Congratulations to whole team @TwoTreesNY on the approval of Domino Sugar Refinery. Amazing project for NYC. Proud to be a part of it.   


Lobbyists BerlinRosen Takes Over NYC Government

More on the Secret Shadow Government

Although Berlin Rosen Does Not Register, is A Lobbyist When It Comes to Real Estate According to Its Sugar Addiction





Berlin Rosen who is not for some reason not listed as registered lobbyist work for a lot of real estate developers.   Berlin Rosen’s current and recent clients include Two Trees Management Negotiations between Mr. de Blasio’s team and two trees' Walentas’s firm took place over a few days. The two men share a mutual adviser: Jonathan Rosen, one of the mayor’s top political hands and the chief executive of a public affairs firm, Berlin Rosen that counts Mr. Walentas’s company as a client. Berlin Rosen served as a consultant to de Blasio campaign and runs he slush fund PAC NY1 which pushes the mayor’s agenda. The NYT Michael Powell – “A couple last year; "I called the mayor’s press office and asked about Mr. de Blasio’s perhaps too-optimistic cost projections for prekindergarten.  Twenty minutes later, I heard from Dan Levitan of Berlin Rosen, which is the “it” P.R. firm of the city’s left and a close adviser to the mayor.”  Berlin Rosen worked all the candidates that hired the WFP’s Data and Field in 2009.  One of their clients is still being investigated by a SI special prosecutor.  Both partners in Berlin Rosen, Jonathan Rosen and Valerie Berlin worked for Schneiderman.  Berlin was his chief of staff when he was a NYS Senator.  






Lobbyists BerlinRosen Takes Over NYC Government











Lobbyist Berlin Rosen Works for Domino's Developer and the Mayor





Labor unions are demanding that the redevelopment project at the Domino Sugar factory in Brooklyn be done using union construction workers, with leaders arguing that City Council members should withhold approval of the project unless workers receive union wagesUnions demand all workers at Domino factory be organized(NYDN) * VIDEO: Inside the Williamsburg Domino Sugar project's affordable housing plan *Mayor de Blasio's plans to go big on housing is building worries over quality of life(NYDN) * BerlinRosen founders say "mission-driven company" turns away clients who don't share ideals (so, what about Ratner?)


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