Councilmember Jimmy Vacca sees something threatening his corner of the Bronx. Houses are torn down and bigger ones go up in their places. Calm neighborhoods turn noisy. Cars clog once quiet streets. The city's zoning laws are supposed to protect Throg's Neck against such overdevelopment, says Vacca, but City Hall has made it quite easy to get around them.
In the name of cutting red tape, city law currently allows architects and engineers to decide whether their own projects are in compliance with zoning regulations in many cases – a practice known as self-certification. This practice is based on the reasoning that professionals can be trusted to comply with the law themselves, and that allowing them to sign off on their own projects increases the efficiency of development – much needed in a city that is building itself up at the pace that New York is today.
But many members of the council complain that this privilege is regularly abused, and that violators are not punished. Vacca – who calls the zoning book his "bible", and who has been referred to as both the "de facto Inspector General of the Buildings Department" and the " sheriff of zoning" – is one of the most aggressive critics of such permissive policies. He refers to the self-certification as "the bane of the existence of those who are concerned about overdevelopment." People who have either misread regulations or intentionally ignore them regularly build projects that are larger than zoning laws allow for, or don't include required parking, he argues.
At its stated meeting on February 1st, the council voted on two bills introduced by Vacca. As the law is written now, even those architects and engineers who have been sanctioned for violations in the past are taken at their word when they say their projects comply with zoning regulations. The first (Intro 308-a) would prohibit those who are on probation by the state for previous violations from self-certifying projects.
The second bill (Intro 309-a) lays out punishments for those who falsely claim their projects are in compliance with zoning regulations, and requires the city to notify the state about violators, so that their past transgressions can be counted against them when they apply for renewals of state licenses.
The bills call for increased enforcement, but Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the cost, if any, would be "extraordinarily minimal," noting that the Department of Buildings' enforcement budget was increased last year. The department, which has a budget of about $90 million, reviews over 65,000 construction plans annually.
Both bills passed by votes of 47 – 0. They must be signed by the mayor to become law.
The legislation is the latest in a series of proposals coming from a council task force examining the Department of Buildings. In November, the council passed several bills addressing illegal demolition. Members of the council also introduced three new bills regarding development and construction at last week's meeting.
One of those bills (Intro 521) called for the complete elimination of the self-certification process. Several council members called for such action on the floor as they voted for the bills at hand.
Self-certification started in the 1990s as a money saving move, essentially outsourcing the job of regulation of architects and engineers from a financially strained Department to the industry itself, said Councilmember James Oddo, who led the council task force. City officials should go back to doing this job themselves, he argued. In order to do so, Oddo believes that the Department of Buildings' budget should be increased. In the meantime, he suggested banning self-certification in places where zoning changes had been made recently.
But the Bloomberg administration and Council Speaker Christine Quinn oppose the complete elimination of self-certification, saying that it will stymie development.
"I think that right now we're putting the right level of structure and punishment into the process to weed out the bad operators but allow the good operators the appropriate amount of flexibility," said Quinn. "We don't want to slow down needed and appropriate development."
The council also voted unanimously to re-landmark several buildings on the Upper East Side in the block-long development City and Suburban Homes. The buildings were built at the turn of the 20th century, as an experiment to create a quality alternative to the squalid tenements of the Lower East Side. The Board of Estimate revoked their landmark status in 1990 as a result of lobbying by current MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow, who owned the buildings at the time. The move was part of a flurry of controversial late night decisions made by the board as it closed down – a time that several council members referred to last week as its "going out of business sale."
"You don't get too many opportunities in government for do-overs, and that's what this is: a rare opportunity to right a wrong," said Jessica Lappin, chair of the subcommittee on landmarks. The buildings are in her district, and she led the council's push to have them landmarked again.
The council also voted to landmark the New York Cab Company Stables on the Upper West Side.
Before the meeting started, the council held the latest in the series of government ceremonies honoring Wesley Autrey, the man who jumped onto the subway tracks in Harlem and to save a stranger from an oncoming train. In the last several weeks, Autrey has been the guest of honor at Mayor Michael Bloomberg's State of the City address and President George Bush's nationally televised State of the Union speech. After the national television exposure, doesn't the presentation of a plague in front of a few dozen people seem anticlimactic? Councilmember Peter Vallone didn't think so.
"He has finally, finally hit the big time," Vallone said.
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The new governor is a mystery when it comes to housing. No one is sure what he will do about the housing issues in New York City.
In his inaugural address, Governor Eliot Spitzer was brief in his remarks on housing.
“In New York, we face the twin challenges of high home prices downstate and deteriorating housing stock upstate,” Spitzer said. He then pledged to do an inventory of public land that could be used for new housing development, look for partnerships to build employer-assisted housing and reward communities that reform their zoning laws to encourage affordable housing construction.
What few decisions Spitzer has made in recent weeks seem to have swung both ways: He upset some housing advocates when he let a big landlord off the hook with a slap on the wrist in one of his last acts as Attorney General. But many advocates were encouraged by one of his first acts as governor: He nixed the implementation of new rules, which many saw as pro-landlord, proposed during the tenure of Spitzer’s predecessor George Pataki by the state’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
“Pataki tried to undermine the rent laws even further than he already has,” explained Brad Lander of the Pratt Institute for Community Development. “Some of us on [Spitzer’s housing] transition committee urged the Spitzer administration to find a way to undo those things….
“You couldn’t have had a better first day. That was of enormous significance to tenants in New York City.”
Among other things, the new rules would have allowed landlords to charge two months rent as security deposit and made the removal of lead paint a cost that landlords could pass along to tenants in rent increases.
Nevertheless, Spitzer’s housing agenda is still murky. And housing advocates are hardly the only people perplexed at his goals.
“He only put out one press release about housing as far as I know” during his campaign, said Frank Ricci of the Rent Stabilization Association, the group that lobbies on behalf of thousands of property owners in New York City. “I think it’s wait and see.”
Spitzer’s agenda will become clearer in coming weeks with some important decisions:
Spitzer did talk about housing during his campaign, even if his ideas on housing were not detailed in press releases. But what did he really say? Housing advocates heard him express lukewarm support for an administrative tribunal, or repair board, to deal with repair issues. They also heard him express some interest in raising the $2,000 rent level at which a landlord can apply to deregulate an apartment upon becoming vacant.
But Ricci said the new governor chose his words carefully. On the repair board, he said, Spitzer said “if local governments pass something like that he would look at it. I think they’re very careful about the words they use and you have to respect that.”
And on rent regulation, Spitzer said he would not change them until they come up for renewal in 2011. “And he has to win an election” before that happens, Ricci pointed out.
In an email, a spokesperson for the governor said the new administration was too immersed in developing a budget to respond to questions about his views on housing issues.
Housing advocates hold a pretty dim view of the state’s housing agency, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal. Perhaps unsurprisingly, landlords are not so displeased with the agency, which, among other things, enforces the rules that govern rent regulated apartments. In New York City , rent regulated apartments make up almost half of all rentals.
“At least it works now – you get a decision,” Ricci said. “And that’s important…. I don’t know what his philosophy is on (DHCR). I would hope that he would recognize that under [former Governor Mario] Cuomo we had an 80,000-case backlog and that didn’t help tenants or landlords.”
Once Spitzer names a commissioner, the agency’s approach will come more clearly into focus: Will it seek to curtail abuses of the rent laws? Or will it seek to enact new rules for rent regulated apartments that, advocates say, will create new opportunities for landlords to get people out of their homes?
The commissioner will have some influence on the whole future of rent regulated apartments, which are disappearing at a fast rate thanks to the vacancy decontrol provisions enacted in 1997. If Spitzer does indeed wait until 2011 to review the laws – the next time the laws come up for renewal – the debate could be moot, advocates have said: There simply will not be many rent regulated apartments left.
Currently, when the rent on a rent stabilized apartment reaches $2,000, the landlord can seek to deregulate the apartment if it becomes vacant or if the household income is higher than $175,000 for two consecutive years.
“My understanding is that he is not eager to broadly open the rent laws before 2011 but this notion of indexing the rents is something he would consider now,” Lander said. The governor’s administration “doesn’t consider that to be a reopening of the rent laws.”
The first budget Spitzer drafts – which he will deliver to legislators on January 31 – will also be revealing. A report by Lander’s office, the Pratt Center for Community Development, urged the new governor to do something about the housing affordability crisis that is affecting communities across the state. In 1998, the report said, the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the state was $818, but by 2006 it had risen to $1,026 a month. Incomes did not keep pace.
Homelessness in New York City is at record levels while upstate landlords are abandoning properties, the report added.
Lander said he would not expect too much from Spitzer’s first budget.
“Everyone knows the first year’s budget has a lot of constraints,” he said. “The mayor’s housing plan did not emerge in his first budget. What I am hoping is we can see something that is a down payment.”
Lander hopes Spitzer will increase the funds available to finance affordable housing and “look hard” at the reserves that the state’s Housing Finance Administration and mortgage agency, Sonny Mae, have on hand. These funds could also be used to finance the construction of affordable housing, he said.
Some are also hoping the new governor helps the city address problems with its two-year-old rent subsidy program, Housing StabilityPlus. The city has been using the subsidy to help families in city shelters who have public assistance cases find permanent housing. Advocates have raised many questions about the program and a recent expose by the Daily News led State Senator Bill Perkins, a former City Councilmember, to propose legislation to cut state funding for the subsidy because of lead paint violations in some of the apartments.
Instead of cutting the subsidy, however, Spitzer could help the city by eliminating “step-downs” – drops in the subsidy payment of 20 percent per year until it expires in the fifth year. City officials have said it has urged state officials to make the change and some advocates are hoping City Hall makes the subsidy open to low-income working families who are not on public assistance.
Spitzer’s first budget could also come to the rescue of the city’s public housing authority, the largest in the nation. Spitzer could restore state funding for the authority, which his predecessor cut in 1998.
The New York City Housing Authority is home to over 400,000 New Yorkers but has seen its budget slashed by the federal government. Last year, the city came to the authority’s rescue, contributing $120 million to cover its deficit. But this year things are even worse: the federal contribution is set to fall by another 30 percent. The authority’s deficit will be close to $150 million again.
In October, the New York City Housing Authority came up with a plan to cover the deficit, but it has outraged advocates: the agency proposed using 8,400 Section 8 vouchers to pay rents in 21 of its developments that were built with city and state money. Using vouchers to do that would effectively reduce the pool of vouchers available to low-income families that have been waiting over a decade for the federal rent subsidy.
City Council Member Rosie Mendez sharply questioned the agency’s general manager about the plan at a recent public hearing, which was overflowing with angry tenants and advocates. But she emphasized that the answer to the housing authority’s problem lie outside of the room.
“We’ve been lobbying as legislators” for the state to restore its operating subsidy, she said during a break. “We’re hopeful that finally the state will step up.”
Joe Lamport is the assistant director of the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, a coalition of community housing organizations. Â
More than four years after Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, there are four voting machines competing for the honor of being New York City's exclusive new voting system.
Over the last few weeks, the manufacturers have been demonstrating these machines to the public throughout the five boroughs; New Yorkers were afforded the opportunity to test the machines and provide feedback at two public hearings conducted by the New York City Board of Elections.
All four machines have voter-verified paper audit trails. They are either optical scan machines, much like the fill-in-the-bubble scantron system used to administer standardized exams, or direct recording electronic machines (DREs), more closely resembling ATM cash machines.
One of the following machines will replace the city's treasured lever machines, called Shoup 3.2, which have been in use since 1962. When this will happen, however, is unclear. While most other states scrambled to meet the 2006 deadline for new machine implementation, New York State did not leave the counties, or the vendors, with enough time to do so. New York City is now in the unenviable position of having to prepare for the nightmare scenario of unveiling new machines in 2008 -- in the midst of an open election for president.
Diebold Optical Scan with Ballot Marking Device
Year Company Founded: 1859
States with counties that use their systems: Georgia , Maryland , Alaska , Arizona , Ohio.
Company Website: www.dieboldes.com
The Diebold Optical Scan machine scans and counts voter-marked paper ballots that are filled out by voters in a private booth at the poll site. Voters are notified when their ballot contains "overvotes" (when more than the allowed selections have been made in an individual race) or "undervotes" (when a voter has not marked a choice of all their selections in an individual race.) Undervotes and overvotes are often collectively referred to as residual votes. The voter can choose to eject their ballot and correct any residual votes found on the ballot or submit it as is.
The system includes a ballot marking device for voters who are not able, or choose not, to fill out their paper ballot by hand. The ballot marker, through one of several technological advances, allow disabled voters to record their vote in private.
ES&S Model 100 Precinct Ballot Counter (Optical Scanner) with Ballot Marking Device
Year Company Founded: 1969
States with counties that use their systems: Illinois , North Dakota , South Dakota , Oklahoma , Rhode Island , Nebraska , Alabama , North Carolina , and New Mexico , California , Florida , Texas , Hawaii
Company Website: www.essvote.com
The ES&S model functions much like other optical scanners allowing voters to fill out a paper ballot and feed through a scanner to be tabulated. The ES&S model features an LCD display that notifies the voter if an overvote or undervote has been made on the ballot. In the case of an overvote the voter is able to submit the ballot as is, thereby voiding their vote for that race, or eject the ballot and receive a second ballot to make their selections again.
The ES&S machine turned out to better communicate residual votes to voters by displaying the number of undervotes that appeared on the ballot. After scanning his or her ballot, if the machine found undervotes, the voter is prompted to either eject the ballot to make corrections or continue on leaving the undervote as is. In addition, the machines can be programmed to go through each of the undervotes on the ballot, allowing the voter to eject it or continue on. This feature allows voters to select to undervote on a specific race without unintentionally undervoting on other races that may follow.
Sequoia's AVC Advantage Plus Full Face DRE
Year Company Founded: More than 100 years ago
States with counties that use their systems: Florida, Washington , California and Colorado
Company Website: http://www.sequoiavote.com/index.php
Sequoia's DRE model for New York City features a four panel touch screen voting machine. Voters make their selections, which are identified by a check mark, and can review their ballot on a paper receipt before it is cast. The voter is notified of any undervotes they may have made as they are taken to a display with all of their selections for review; undervoted races are highlighted in red. At that time the voter can go back to the ballot and make corrections. Like the lever system, voters cannot overvote in a race, as they have to deselect their choice in order to make a new one.
One of Sequoia's strongest features is the way the VVPT is marked to distinguish cast ballots from invalid ballots. The Sequoia DRE marks spoiled ballots by printing VOIDED at the top of the receipt after a voter chooses to make corrections to their selections. To decrease the likelihood of human error in the event of a hand paper recount, differentiating voided and valid votes with a quick and easy identifier not only makes hand counting more accurate but helps voters feel more confident that there vote is represented accurately.
Avante Vote-TrakkerTM EVC308-FF DRE
Year Founded: unknown
States with counties that use their systems: California ,
Company Website: www.avantetech.com
Avante's full face DRE displays the ballot on a single touch screen panel. Voter's choices are highlighted in yellow, and before casting their ballot voters can review their choices on a paper receipt. Undervotes are highlighted in pink before the voter casts their ballot, allowing for corrections to be made. As the voter makes all of their possible choices in undervoted races, the windows are automatically un-highlighted, letting the voter keep track of their undervotes. The system eliminates overvotes by automatically updating voters' choices. If a voter already selected a candidate for governor and makes a correction, the new selection is highlighted yellow and the old selection is un-highlighted.
Unlike the Sequoia model, the Vote-Trakker identifies invalid ballots with ballots cast by using distinctive numerical codes. The Avante system of separates ballots using replacement (1) or replacement (2) with (1) or (2) at the end of the voters numerically coded ballot rather than firmly noting a valid vote. During a hand recount it seems these receipts would be more susceptible to human error, even if using the program within the machine that identifies valid and invalid ballots.
Doug Israel is policy director, and Andrea Senteno program associate, at Citizens Union Foundation, which publishes Gotham Gazette. Â