Friday, January 1, 2016

The None Battle Against Gentrification and the Harm Done By 421-a and Airbnb to Affordable Housing, Causing More Homeless 4455








REAL ESTATE -- ZONING IN-"After two peaceful years, de Blasio-Council relationship faces big tests,"  - from banning horse carriages to regulating ride-hailing apps - appear to be festering, while the Council seems primed to push its own priorities on police reform, regardless of the mayor's opposition. And on affordable housing, the Council will get the last word on elements of a policy central to the mayor's political identity."


The Fight to Continue 421-a is About Union Wages Not About the Gentrification Damage the Program Does to Affordable Housing and Homeless
Developers and labor to take another crack at 421a deal (NYDN) The two sides are slated to meet again early this week, a source said. One side of the table is the Real Estate Board of New York, including its Chairman Rob Speyer, President John Banks and former President Steven Spinola. On the other is labor, including Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York. Mayor de Blasio had reached a deal with the developers on expanding the 421a program earlier in the year. But Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders insisted that any deal include a prevailing wage component that would pay construction workers union-like wages. Cuomo and the Legislature in June agreed to extend the tax break program for six months, but left it to the developers and unions to come up with a deal by Jan. 15. If they succeed, 421a will be extended four years. If they don't, it will expire.* For the first time in his two-year-old mayoralty, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing broad-based grassroots resistance, which has coalesced against major components of his plans for creating 200,000 affordable housing units in 10 years. * De Blasio’s second year in office was dominated by a series of bruising political fights and a continual struggle to control the perception of crime, homelessness and the city’s quality of life.* With time running short, developers and labor will take another crack this week at trying to cut a deal to extend an expiring affordable housing tax break known as 421-a. If the deal isn’t reached by Jan. 15, the lucrative break expires completely.


NYT Ignored How Glenwood's 421-a Fueled Gentrification Pushing New Yorkers Out of Neighborhoods
Glenwood Own NY's Pol, Not the Voters Who Put Them In Office
The biggest beneficiary of Glenwood’s giving: Mr. Cuomo, who, in the last election cycle, received more than $1 million from limited liability companies, or LLCs, connected to the Glenwood-controlled LLCs also gave Senator Skelos’s campaign committee more than $100,000 over the years, as well as donating $10,000 to the 2012 re-election campaign of his brother, Peter Skelos, a State Supreme Court justice in Nassau County at the time. Another $200,000 went to a legal-defense fund for Joseph L. Bruno, a former State Senate majority leader whose 2009 federal corruption conviction was overturned; he was subsequently acquitted at a second trial. The company’s money also flowed to Republicans through other channels. In 2013 and 2014, more than $500,000 went to Jobs For New York, a group that separately spent about $1.9 million on Republican campaigns last year. Jobs for New York is run by the Real Estate Board of New York; that organization received more than $150,000 from Glenwood-tied LLCs over the 10 years covered in the printout. (Mr. Litwin and Mr. Dorego have sat on the real estate board’s executive board.) 

de Blasio and NYT Working With the Developers to Destroy NY's Neighborhoods 
During that decade, about $700,000 went to the Neighborhood Preservation Political Action Fund, a group linked to the city’s largest landlord group, the Rent Stabilization Association. Glenwood also funneled money to Mr. Cuomo indirectly: On a single day in 2011, 10 of the company’s LLCs combined to give a total of $500,000 to the Committee to Save New York, a group of business interests that spent $16 million to support Mr. Cuomo’s agenda during his first two years in office. Emails entered into evidence at the Skeloses trial provided powerful context for the purpose of Glenwood’s spending. In one email, Glenwood’s chief political strategist, Richard Runes, who testified at Mr. Silver’s trial, wrote to a lobbyist for Glenwood, “Please send me the list of senators Dean asked us yesterday to help before the next filing date.” The lobbyist wrote back with the names of seven candidates and the amounts to be donated, totaling $92,300. The names were forwarded to Mr. Dorego a week later, under the subject line “List from Skelos”; the donations were made. Several weeks earlier, Mr. Runes had written to Mr. Dorego with a similar request, seeking $100,000 for the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, $30,000 for Mr. Skelos’s campaign committee and more than $50,000 divided among five other candidates. A copy of a printout of the email listed the individual LLCs that ultimately made the donations. More Glenwood Contributions Glenwood Management,LLCs and Public Corruption (Common Cause) * Campaign contributions related to Glenwood Management (Newsday) * New York Real Estate Executive With 'Access to Politicians ...(NYT) * REBNY members gave a tenth of all N.Y. campaign money ...


Without Real City Enforcement Both landlord and Tenants Running Airbnb Hotel 
Tenant slapped with $300K suit for renting out pad on Airbnb (NYP) A Manhattan landlord is on the hook for $250,000 in city fines for turning his five-floor walk-up into an illegal hotel — so he’s suing a tenant who he says repeatedly flouted building rules by renting her apartment to Airbnb travelers.  “We were unaware of the rental scheme,” said Lawrence Silberman, attorney for the owner of 357 W. 54th St. “We did not participate or profit from it. But this is now a policy of the city. The tenant does not get named or fined. The landlord’s strictly liable.” City inspectors issued violations to the building owner in May after finding Iacob was charging $200 a night for a stay in her $2,000-a-month, one-bedroom apartment. When a second inspector caught Iacob in July and issued more $1,000-a-day penalties, she told the landlord the guests were “friends and relatives,” according to Silberman. *  New York politicians work to ban Airbnb advertising, stamp out illegal hotels (NYDN) In a bid to crack down on Airbnb, state legislators are preparing a bill that would potentially fine anyone advertising apartments in violation of a 2010 hotel state law that bars the renting out of units for less than 30 days *72% of Airbnb rentals in #NYC are illegal. A newbill will prohibit hosts from advertising them. (NYDN) Lobbyists for Airbnb Former de Blasio campaign manager Bill Hyers joins Airbnbpayroll (NYDN) Other Lobbyists for Airbnb James F. Capalino and Bolton St. Johns 

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