Rep. Grimm speaks with members of the media after his 'debate' appearance (photo: Ben Max)

With the conspicuous absence of his opponent, incumbent Republican Congressman Michael Grimm appeared Tuesday evening at the Bay Ridge Community Council's "Great Debate" event.

Grimm seized on the opportunity to defend his record; slam his challenger, former City Council Member Domenic Recchia, a Democrat; and garner favor with some of his Brooklyn constituents. Since 2010 Grimm has represented New York's 11th Congressional District, which encompasses all of Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.

In a theater at the Holy Angels Catholic Academy, more than a hundred people, mostly seniors, heard Grimm respond assertively to questions about foreign policy, immigration, the economy, and healthcare, among other issues. Grimm delivered stern, declarative statements and regularly received applause from about a third of the crowd. Without Recchia there to defend himself, Grimm took advantage of the situation to offer those in attendance with a contrast on his terms.

"If you believe in a very liberal progressive movement," said Grimm, "and that de Blasio and Obama are taking you down the right track, then my opponent is your guy. But if you believe we're headed down the wrong track and want to get back to the traditional values of hard work and sacrifice that built this country, I'm your guy."

There is now less than than six weeks to go before Election Day, and the latest poll by NY1 News/Capital New York/Siena College shows Recchia trailing only 4 points behind Grimm. The poll of likely voters, released last week, shows Grimm with 44 percent, ahead of Recchia's 40. The Green Party's Henry Bardel managed 4 percent while the remaining 12 percent were undecided. A more recently disclosed Recchia campaign internal poll is reported to show the race a dead heat. Grimm, who is under Federal indictment regarding a host of issues related to a restaurant he once owned, is seen as quite vulnerable by Democrats hoping to flip a seat in the House - and the Democratic Congressional Committee is pumping money into the race.

Recchia, who represented part of Brooklyn in the City Council, is depending on his past record as chair of the Council's finance committee to help him win votes. His platform, he told Errol Louis of NY1 in an interview Monday night, is based on his tenure in the Council and his life as a family man who works to strengthen the middle class and help working families.

"I am what people go through day in, day out. I'm a working father, married to a public school teacher," he said. "I have three children, raising a family, taking care of my mother on Staten Island and going shopping and helping her and working with my family. You know, it's all about family and working together."

But Recchia's apparent inexperience with foreign policy issues became a sticking point last week when he failed to provide clear answers to reporters' questions on trade and labor. Recchia soon defended his qualifications, saying he has "great knowledge of foreign affairs," citing international trips he has made and a student exchange program with Japan that he once ran in his district. Senator Chuck Schumer, who was there to endorse the Congressional challenger, came to the rescue when Recchia was silent on which committees he would like to work on in Washington if elected.

Grimm jumped at the chance to critique Recchia's position. "People are now finally finding out that my opponent is not qualified," he told NY1. "He's comparing making a vote to practically go to war to deal with the most dangerous terrorist threat and well-funded terrorist group, ISIS, that we've seen in our lifetime to running an exchange program for Japanese 9-year-olds. I mean, it's insane that that is what his qualifications are."

Although Grimm seems to hold a slight upper hand, especially given his popularity on Staten Island, where the bulk of the district is, he is facing challenges of his own. His approval ratings have taken a hit since his indictment in April on 20 counts of fraud, tax evasion and perjury. He is slated to face trial in December - after the election - and maintains his innocence.

When asked about the indictment by an event moderator, Grimm said that it was "a fair question" and proceeded to tout his record delivering for his community and country. Asked by Gotham Gazette afterward whether voters should take the indictment into account, Grimm said that they should take everything into account and again quickly shifted to his work while in Congress.

Recchia regularly references Grimm's legal troubles and has also questioned Grimm on foreign policy, saying he shifted positions on supporting President Obama's plans to bomb Syria. "First he was supporting when Obama wanted to go into Syria with air strikes and then when he changed his position, he went against the president, and then he sends out a fundraising letter to fundraise off of it," Recchia said of Grimm.

Grimm addressed most of the charges Recchia has lobbed against him, some of which are unsubstantiated, at yesterday's debate. "My opponent has spent a lot of time slinging mud and not actually talking about issues," he concluded.

Grimm publicly accused Recchia of ducking him at the Bay Ridge debate. "He's refusing to debate me because he's afraid that the sooner middle class Staten Islanders and Brooklynites discover his record is in lock-step with the ultra-liberal dream team of Bill de Blasio, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama, the sooner they will send him packing," Grimm said in a statement. He reiterated the sentiment during and after the Tuesday's debate, regularly criticizing both President Obama and Mayor de Blasio, and lumping Recchia in with them, while also noting Recchia's absence.

Recchia denied the debate-ducking charge, citing a scheduling conflict, and said, "I look forward to debating Michael Grimm." His office has not confirmed whether he would be available at the next debate, reported to be scheduled for the morning of October 1 at the Fort Hamilton Senior Center.

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by Samar Khurshid, Gotham Gazette
@SamarKhurshid

Mayor de Blasio during a budget address (photo: Rob Bennett/Mayor's Office)

Transparency is a word that often gets thrown around in politics. On the campaign trail challengers vow, if elected, to have a transparent administration, and incumbents tout how theirs embody openness, often pointing to how much information they've put online.

As we move deeper into the digital age, the meaning of transparency, much like technology itself, continues to evolve—and governments are struggling to keep up.

As tech and data-focused Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer recently said, "The wealth of city data available online needs to be made usable. Simply dumping data on the internet does not qualify as transparency."

In the infancy of the Internet, putting documents online as a way to share with a broader audience was a novel concept. This became a great new tool for advocates focused on transparency and accountability. Documents with information detailing government operations and spending of taxpayer money were put online for all the world to see. For the first time, light was shed onto an often unseen world, accessible anytime and from many miles away.

As we marched through the '90s and the first decade of this century, the Internet evolved into a new marketplace, a place for consumption of all sorts, somewhere to meet and talk with friends, a place to share information of many kinds.

The ever-increasing flurry of online activity has produced massive amounts of data - everything from user activity like browsing habits and shopping preferences to massive file storage of photographs, essays, and news articles. This massive data cache has spawned a new industry of developers creating apps, programs, and networks aimed at making our lives easier, more efficient and enjoyable - and in some cases, aimed at solving big problems. We need not look further than Facebook, Uber, or even the MTA's Bus Time.

Today's apps and programs collect and display data online in user-friendly, interactive formats, not in the outdated forms of PDFs and Word documents. It is preferred to release data in an open format using file types and displays that are computer friendly (also called "machine readable"). This makes data easy to manipulate, analyze, and visualize.

Unfortunately, government data is often released in old school ways. Imagine your running app emailing you a PDF listing the times and lengths of your runs for the week? Sure, your data is collected and displayed, meeting an outdated definition of transparent, but how easy is it to sort or to compare week over week? What if you wanted to compare your training with your running partner? You could manually export what you need into an Excel spreadsheet and do an analysis, but not only is that time consuming, it further opens up the process to human error.

When it comes to government information, New York City's Open Data Portal has helped alleviate some of this problem. However, as it often is with government, the modernization process has been slow. By law, the City has until the end of 2017 to get certain data online in a machine-readable format, but not all data is required to go to the portal. In an ideal world, all new data being published would automatically be posted in machine-readable format, but that does not yet appear to be the case. The City remains somewhere on the path from the older definition of transparency to the newer.

This year the City Council has passed six bills requiring city agencies to issue periodic reports, largely as a mechanism for oversight. The bills aim to increase transparency on hot-button issues like school safety, violence in jails, and traffic fatalities. But none of those bills require the reports to be released in an open format.

Local Law 32 would require the Department of Education (DOE) to issue an annual report on co-located schools including student demographics and academic performance. The law requires the report to be posted on the DOE website, but there is no format requirement, meaning a PDF, which does not allow for easy external data analysis, would be within the limits of the law.

These co-location reports could prove to create a treasure trove of rich data, but in PDFs, that data would have limited use. Developers would not be able to easily add the information to their apps, which may be used by parents to find the most information about a school they may be sending their child to.

"Doing it in this way shows they are only addressing transparency and missing the opportunity to do something that is truly open," Joel Gurin, senior advisor at NYU's GovLab, said recently by phone.

Gurin added that information once considered "look-up information," such as how much money agencies spend in a year, is increasingly moving to be offered by governments in open and analyzable formats.

"There is a growing realization that you have to release this, not only in a way that people can look up, but in a way they can actually work with and manipulate the data," Gurin said.

The Council has roughly 40 more bills currently introduced that would require some form of data reporting, but a quick analysis by Gotham Gazette shows there is no requirement to make the reports machine readable. Arrangements could be made between relevant agencies and the Council, but nothing would be codified into law.

While the transparency measures are no doubt better than keeping that information in the dark, pivoting to an open format would be much more beneficial.

"We live in a world where we all go to Google for the answers, but if the answers can't be found with Google it often can't be found," Council Member Ben Kallos said by phone. "Any government data being released in a PDF is often not going to be machine readable which means it might be 'public' but it sure won't be found by anybody."

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by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

AG Eric Schneiderman at a Syracuse gun show (photo: @AGSchneiderman)

The New York State Attorney General's office has been known in recent years as a place where major political careers are built on national headlines. Cases brought against Wall Street's big banks and student-loan lenders have garnered high-dollar settlements and progressive applause. And yet there is nothing in state law that says the office has to be used this way.

Come November, voters will have to decide between competing visions for the office, staying the course with an incumbent who has racked up some of those headline-grabbing 'wins,' or going with a critical challenger offering a new approach. A key question is whether it is better to have an Attorney General (AG) who is independent of the state's dominant (Democratic) party or someone who belongs to it. As with all elected offices and leadership positions, ideology matters, even when it comes to law enforcement.

At its core the AG's office is tasked with being the people's lawyer, representing the state in legal matters. But over the years the men who have occupied the office (there has never been a female New York Attorney General) have shifted its focus to high-profile issues that play well with the public - and bolster further political ambitions. "The office has been redefined by the people who have done it," said Gerald Benjamin, professor of political science at SUNY New Paltz, who noted that the role of the AG is not spelled out in the State Constitution, but instead in the state codes, rules and regulations.

Former AG Robert Abrams, who held the job from 1979 to 1993, focused on consumer fraud and anti-trust cases. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer became known as the Sheriff of Wall Street for his tenacious pursuit of the financial sector as AG. Current Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the office to pursue student-loan lenders and now-AG Eric Schneiderman ran on addressing the roots of the 2008 financial collapse by dealing with mortgage fraud and a promise to address corruption in Albany.

As Albany corruption has continued to run rampant and more New Yorkers view the AG's as a position used as a stepping stone to the governor's office, some insiders have started to argue that it would behoove New York voters to elect a Republican to the office so as to have a better check on the dealings of the Democrats who control most of the seats in the Legislature and, as of now, all of the statewide elected positions.

It is, of course, an argument embraced by Republican AG candidate John Cahill, who served as former Republican Gov. George Pataki's chief of staff from 2002 to 2006.

"The Attorney General position is one where people look beyond party registration," Cahill told Gotham Gazette. "They look for someone who will exert the independence of the office and they look for it in the Attorney General more than in any other state role."

Cahill has laced into Schneiderman for not speaking up about his role in Cuomo's Moreland Commission on Public Corruption and the governor's alleged interference with it. Schneiderman only recently said that he is working with federal prosecutors on cases generated from Moreland as well as the conduct of the commission.

Members of Schneiderman's administration insist that the commission was Cuomo's and their boss had no role in shuttering it or in interfering in subpoenas that targeted groups close to Cuomo - a charge that U.S. District Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating. Nevertheless, Cahill's attacks have been relentless as he's traveled the state holding press conferences and making a slew of radio appearances knocking Schneiderman. For his part, Schneiderman has hit the campaign trail hard the past week since kicking off his re-election campaign in New York City the Sunday following the primary (for which neither candidate faced a challenger).

While early polls show Schneiderman with a commanding lead, they also show both candidates with fairly low name recognition around the state, though Schneiderman's is higher than Cahill's. A recently-released internal Cahill campaign poll showed Cahill within 7 points of Schneiderman - and showed over 33 percent of voters undecided. However, an August Quinnipiac poll saw Schneiderman with a 51-29 lead over Cahill, with over 70 percent of respondents saying that did not know enough about Cahill to form an opinion.

"I think in the global sense party registration matters very little. I think members of both parties are capable of acting in their party's best interest rather than the peoples," said David Grandeau, the former head of the state ethics commission and a registered Republican. However, Grandeau said he felt that Albany has a culture that protects itself - especially among members of the same political party.

"The way it was described to me by someone in law enforcement is that the Albany political scene is a lot like the mafia," he continued. "They may have their inner squabbles, but as soon as an outsider comes into play they circle the wagons. They protect the guys who feed at the trough."

Schneiderman and Cuomo have a notoriously icy relationship, but is unlikely either will do anything to undermine the other's re-election chances.

Cahill agrees, naturally, with Grandeau's take: "I think we've seen that kind of behavior with Moreland where the commission was disbanded when donors were being scrutinized. I believe the attorney general was complicit in that." Cahill also attacked Schneiderman for not being vocal about or taking action against Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver or former Assembly Member Vito Lopez, both Democrats, for the sexual harassment scandal that rocked Albany in recent years.

Benjamin notes that while AG candidates have run on being great prosecutors of corruption, the office's powers are limited in that role. "The bottom line is the Attorney General's prosecutorial role is very limited," said Benjamin. "They play them up because the people expect the Attorney General is a prosecutor when in fact the state's District Attorneys are the prosecutors. But everyone feels the need to be the man in the white hat."

Schneiderman's office has pressed the governor and the Legislature to increase his power to fight legislative corruption with no success. Cuomo himself promised to issue a blanket referral for matters of Albany corruption to Schneiderman if the problem did not abate, but he later changed his tune with members of his inner circle claiming such a move would be illegal.

Nevertheless, Schneiderman's team says their boss has done his best with the tools he has. "Attorney General Schneiderman believes there needs be one set of rules for everyone, no matter how rich or powerful," said Schneiderman spokesperson Peter Ajemian by email. "That's why he prosecuted more than 50 corrupt officials who violated the public trust, held accountable big banks that engaged in fraudulent financial practices, and recovered $17 million in stolen wages for more than 14,000 workers. He plans to continue taking on these tough fights on behalf of working families across New York."

Schneiderman's allies question whether a Republican candidate would effectively represent the values of a state where 60 percent of registered voters are Democrats. "Would a Republican work to hold accountable big banks, unscrupulous employers like Eric has - recovering $17 million in stolen income for low-wage workers?" asks one Schneiderman ally, who requested not to be identified. "Would a Republican Attorney General do those things? I hope so. Would a Republican Attorney General fight for women's reproductive rights by expanding buffer zones and investigating crisis pregnancy clinics?"

Cahill told Gotham Gazette that pursuing Wall Street would not be as big of a priority for him as it was for previous AGs. He said in the past fighting Wall Street has been used "for headlines" and the time would have been better spent "going after consumer protections for the most vulnerable in society." However, he added, "That doesn't mean I would ignore Wall Street."

Cahill has also expressed his support for hydrofracking, the controversial gas-extraction process that is extremely unpopular in parts of the state and has yet to be approved in New York. As the head of an energy consulting firm, Cahill has represented clients in the energy industry with ties to fracking. Schneiderman appears opposed to fracking. He sued the federal government for not properly studying its effects in the Delaware River Basin, stopped gas companies from extending expiring leases, and has said he is paying close attention to lawsuits brought by gas companies against municipalities that have banned fracking.

Cahill has also said he is opposed to the 10th plank of Cuomo's Women's Equality Act that would codify Roe v. Wade abortion protections into state law. Schneiderman has expressed full-throated support for the entire Women's Equality Act and consistently touts and receives praise for his progressive bona fides.

Schneiderman advocated for gun control legislation throughout his career as a legislator and since becoming the AG he has supported the SAFE Act and had his office conduct spot checks at gun shows to ensure background checks were being carried out on gun sales.

Cahill said he does not support the SAFE Act, but has acknowledged that if elected AG he would uphold the law in court. However, he said Schneiderman should have been more active fighting against it before the law was passed.

"When something's gone awry, when the state is acting in a way that is contrary to the people's interest, the people's lawyer - that should be the Attorney General - should be standing up and fighting for the people," Cahill told conservative talk show host Bob Lonsbery. "A perfect example of that is the passage of the so-called SAFE Act. Here we have legislation that's being passed in the middle of the night that is going to make criminals out of law-abiding citizens, that's going to take guns out of law enforcers' [hands], and where is the attorney general?"

Meanwhile, it is unclear how much stances like these really matter to the role of the AG: when a law exists, the AG must uphold it or defend the state in regard to it. The AG is not a legislator. But, there is always discretion involved in every position - and these types of issue stances certainly matter to voters.

The state has seen splits in ideology between Governors and AGs before. Republican Gov. George Pataki was said to have a cordial relationship with Democratic AG Eliot Spitzer despite their disagreement over same-sex marriage. At one point Pataki demanded that Spitzer intervene to stop New Paltz Mayor Jason West from performing same-sex marriages and Spitzer refused.

Blair Horner, of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), said that in the end, "The argument [that the AG should be a cross-party check on the Governor] is a good one for Cahill to make but I don't think it trumps the 2 to 1 party enrollment."

Grandeau agrees that the enrollment advantage will be tough to overcome, but that of the slate of statewide candidates Republicans have this year Cahill has the best chance. "History tells you that the right candidate at the right time can have success," he said. "I think I've seen the last Republican Governor in my lifetime, but my guess is Cahill gets the closest this time around."

[For more information on all the Attorney General candidates, visit our race page]

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by David King, Albany Editor, Gotham Gazette
@DavidHowardKing

An image of One Riverside Park via Extell Development Company 

With the "poor door" controversy, the de Blasio administration faces one of its biggest housing and equity challenges. And it has only just begun.

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As part of the Riverside South development project, 40 Riverside — a massive mixed-unit condo on Manhattan's rapidly developing West Side — will include 274 units and rise 33 stories. The complex's taller tower has 219 market-rate condo units inside and looks out at Riverside Boulevard and the gleaming Hudson, while the shorter tower has 55 permanently affordable units and faces West 63rd Street. This dichotomy is why a year and a half ago, 40 Riverside made front page news.

The developer, Extell Development Company, was chastised by many for creating a Darwinian-named structure otherwise known as a "poor door," the now common-place term for the separate entrance of the shorter tower and its lower-income tenants. And, for critics' sake, the contrast between the two entranceways, a pedestrian one for affordable housing tenants around the block from the more glamorous main lobby, offers concrete fodder for ongoing appall.

In July of this year, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio begrudgingly signed off on Extell's application for the Inclusionary Housing Program, the initiative through which the "poor door" came about. In effect, a mayor who was elected railing against the "tale of two cities" New York's socioeconomic disparities had wrought, allowed a striking physical symbol of the divide to be erected. With terms like "segregation" and "apartheid" being lobbed, the move had de Blasio supporters up in arms: liberal betrayal by the mayor on wealth and housing.

But that's not to say that the mayor hasn't been working within the legal framework he inherited from his predecessor - he has - and now he has to deal with the blowback as "poor door" fervor grows, even as his administration and elected officials seek alternatives to or ways to mitigate a law that remains in effect.

From the looks of the real estate projects in the city's pipeline, though, the "poor door" controversy won't be exiting the public discourse anytime soon: a source at the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) said there are at least 3 Riverside-like developments that are due up for approval in the coming months. Each of them ask for the same things: a segmented building, separate entrances, and a 421a (affordable housing) tax abatement. And, given the legal framework, it seems the administration will eventually have to approve them, "poor door" and all.

Now, the de Blasio administration and local elected officials in areas where "poor door" complexes may be built are moving to mitigate the social and public relations effects that could come with their arrival.

* * *

The "poor door" story begs the question: how did such a blatant loophole in zoning code become legal at all?

In 2009, a legal text amendment to the Inclusionary Housing Program added what are known as "segmentations" to the initiative's original basis, which was to let developers expand their buildings by upwards of 20 percent (and, therefore, increase their profits) if at least 20 percent of the units were dedicated to affordable housing. Created in 1987, the idea of the program was that rapidly developing and more expensive neighborhoods — in this case the Upper West Side — were inaccessible to lower-income residents, so by incentivizing developers to build these mixed-unit apartment buildings through providing valuable air rights and tax exemptions, the demographics could diversify and, in theory, produce a stronger local community.

In order to qualify for the program, developers had to build the affordable housing either on-site, off-site, or within the Community Board district. But now, under the umbrella of "off-site," they had the option of nearby segmentations, an addition to the law the City hoped would spark more development that included affordable housing by making it easier to build. This allowed developments to be divided into two parts — one for affordable units; the other for market-rate — whether physically connected or not, and legally valid under the program. Each part of a segmented building requires, by law, its own entrance, thus creating the "poor door."

So, to the frustration of many housing advocates and politicians, what Extell proposed for 40 Riverside was entirely codified and legal. And, instead of taking the gift of a floor area expansion the housing program offers, Extell is allowed, by zoning law, to make use of this space by selling it to other developers if they build within the same district or at least a half a mile away. And that's exactly what the development company plans to do. In other words: maximizing profit instead of offering more space.

"That's why I'm calling it a loophole," said City Council Member Helen Rosenthal, who represents the area where 40 Riverside is being built. On this note, Rosenthal argued that Extell "knows how to work the system to their advantage." This is the same Extell, of course, that had received tax breaks from Albany for its Park Avenue condo, ONE57, soon after Extell President Gary Barnett donated $100,000 to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The exchange became a subject of the Moreland Commission subpoena scandal that rocked the governor's office this past summer.

Adding further to the prickly politics of the whole thing is the approval process, which, for the most part, is shielded from the public. In a normal procedure, a development is pitched to the relevant Community Board and its specific land use committee, which then review it and send it up to City Planning for approval, thereby issuing a Land Use Review, to be finally voted on by the City Council. For this, there are numerous outlets by which members of the public can provide feedback should they disagree (or agree) with the idea of looming condos or any other aspect of a proposed development in their neighborhood.

But with the Inclusionary Housing Program, things work a bit differently. Negotiations of interests and demands are made between City Hall's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and the developer itself. In doing so, the developer must send a copy of the application to the Community Board in the relevant district, just to make them aware of the situation. In that step, some details can be conveniently left at the bottom.

In a letter to Mark Diller, then-chair of Community Board 7, a lawyer for Extell summarized 40 Riverside's blueprint and the company's plan to sell the extra floor area. Attached and signed by Extell's Barnett was the application that was sent to HPD, which states that the building is part of the Inclusionary Housing Program. However, there is no mention whatsoever — in the letter or the application — of the segment or its separate entrance until the last page.

"Would you rather not have the affordable housing? Ask any one of the thousands of people who are applying for that, and they don't give a damn," Barnett said on NPR in July. "They want to have a beautiful apartment, in a beautiful neighborhood, and you know, at a super price."

Requests to speak with a representative from Extell for this article have been made, but no one has been made available to Gotham Gazette.

June of 2013 — when the "poor door" first made airwaves — was, of course, a different time, with a different mayor occupying City Hall; widening income inequality was a topic of plenty of campaign conversation, but not quite yet the main target of the city's commander-in-chief. Hence why, even amid critical headlines, the plan passed seamlessly through Mayor Bloomberg's office. By the time Mayor de Blasio took office in January, at least six floors of 40 Riverside had already been built, and other developers were lining up their segmented development plans.

* * *

In May, Mayor de Blasio formally announced his ten-year plan to create or maintain 200,000 units of affordable housing across the big city — a blueprint that, in the vein of former mayor and de Blasio hero Fiorello LaGuardia, he deemed "the largest, most ambitious housing plan ever." For it, he promised to "drive a hard bargain" with developers for housing that was fair and equitable; a clear cut from his predecessor, who was one of the most development-friendly mayors in New York City history. And then, just two months later, 40 Riverside made its way back into headlines.

"The next step now is, 'How do we fix it?'" Council Member Rosenthal said.

At the beginning of each mayor's tenure, the administration conducts assessments of ongoing programming to ensure alignment with the new mayor's vision and ideology. According to a source at HPD, this is currently being done regarding affordable housing with the Inclusionary Housing Program. De Blasio's office is seeking to streamline and improve upon the technicalities and language that exist in order to best serve the priorities of the administration, which include expanded affordable housing provisions and, generally speaking, equity.

In an August letter to City Hall, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer criticized the loophole for "creating second-class citizens" and asked City Hall to perform a renovation of the 2009 zoning amendment that does not include the "two-door option."

In order to do so, a spokesperson for Brewer described the necessary process: "City Planning along with HPD would need to write new text, the BP and Community Boards could then write recommendations and it would go back to City Planning for public hearing/vote, and ultimately it would go to the City Council."

That process itself, Rosenthal told Gotham Gazette, could take 9 months, which wouldn't necessarily be fast enough to prevent the other projects from coming into fruition. However, her office has recently submitted legal research requests to the Council and its respective committees on housing and land development to inquire into whether public subsidies can be prevented from going to "poor door" developers, as well as if it is possible to ban separate doors for segmented buildings.

"My intention is to make sure City Planning shows us new zoning regulation," she said. "I will not vote for it with that loophole."

While looking to ban the practice altogether, in the meantime Rosenthal said, "I'm trying really hard to change the lexicon from 'poor door" to 'separate entrance.'"

But, as of now, Rosenthal and her fellow council members remain at the fate and patience of other players, leaving them virtually powerless legislatively and otherwise on the issue until further notice. A spokesperson for Council Member Jumaane Williams, the chair of the council's housing and buildings committee, said no such legal processes to amend this issue have come up yet in the Council. In a July statement, Williams ordered an oversight hearing on the issue, and, in a clear display of the process and dynamics at play, said, "I call on HPD and the Administration to join me in condemning this, and to help in finding a quick fix before further damage is done."

If the recent Domino Sugar Factory dealings are any indication, the mayor's office, on the other hand, still has some immediate tools and devices available to demand concessions on housing - namely the power of persuasion. That's where a new Silverstein Properties project comes in: if 40 Riverside is a shining example of what can go wrong in allowing a "poor door," 10 Freedom Place is de Blasio's savior — at least for the time being.

"We can't change zoning laws in a day," said an HPD official. "The Extell project itself cannot be overturned, but with the Silverstein project, we've shown a way forward until we can figure an assessment that works for the city."

Also part of the Riverside South development project, 10 Freedom Place is located just down the block from 40 Riverside. The building will include 336 units in total — 250 market-rate condo units, 116 affordable housing rental units. And, again, it is to be segmented into two towers with two separate entrances: one for those paying market rates and one for those paying "affordable" rates.

However - and this where the new philosophy guiding City Hall is evident - through negotiations with Silverstein Properties, the de Blasio administration was able to get separate entrances abutting the same location: a beautiful, brand new park on Freedom Place, in between the two towers. Residents of both the market-rate and affordable apartments face the same view of the Hudson, and have complimentary, shared access to a fitness gym, children's playroom, meeting room, storage areas, and the rooftop garden/deck. The apartments themselves have similar furnishings and fixtures, too — a feature that was in the original blueprint.

According to the City, Silverstein Properties was very willing to negotiate, possibly fearing the bad PR a "poor door" can bring to business. The developer has set aside money for a policy application known as practical permanence, which garners a reserve that is then used to cross-subsidize the affordable housing units. By doing so, there's always capital for maintenance and affordability, an HPD official said.

"For those that are designed like this, we have to work within the parameters before changing it in accordance with administration goals," the HPD official continued. "We want to work with developers to give the best possible project to tenants, and avoid any stigmatization of lower-income residents."

And, for a self-branded progressive mayor who has already heard some criticism from the left, this couldn't come sooner.

* * *

For Mayor de Blasio, the "poor door" controversy is yet another piece of the Bloomberg legacy that now has to be reconciled by his new administration. This one is a serious, two-tiered test of the mayor's affordable housing plan and, more importantly, his liberal vision. It adds tangible, visual markers to his 'one city' map, and, at the same time, crystallizes his ever-important role as negotiator with the real estate industry — developers who seem to grow in klout with each passing day as more and more controversial condominiums go up across the five boroughs.

How de Blasio and his administration come through the "poor door" trials will be a lasting aspect of *his* legacy. If anything, the "poor door" situation will provide clear and further indication of how this mayor is handling the city his predecessor left behind, and what it's going to look like for New Yorkers of all incomes for decades to come.

***
John Surico is a freelance journalist. His reporting can be seen in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The Village Voice, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.

@GothamGazette

Note: this article has been changed to reflect Council Member Rosenthal's correction that she is attempting to change the lexicon from 'poor door' to 'separate entrance' - not 'public entrance' as originally reported

New York City Hall

What to watch for this week in New York politics:

The week starts busy after a packed Sunday of politically-related activity, with a lot happening Monday and Tuesday, including a "Flood Wall Street" action planned on Monday, and a City Council Stated Meeting on Tuesday. Then, as the Rosh Hashanah holiday arrives on Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio heads to England to speak at the Labour Party's annual conference in Manchester and things are set to quiet down here in New York. Read on.

After a Sunday spent marching, New York politicos head into another busy week. The People's Climate March was the headliner, of course, as (according to organizers) over 300,000 people marched on the west side of Manhattan to demand attention and action on the issue of climate change. Most of the city's elected officials took part, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Tish James, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and many others at various levels of government. Leading up to the march both de Blasio and the City Council announced major environment-related commitments and pledged to work together on legislation and more. Read de Blasio's announcement here and the City Council's here. Also on Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo "designated the week of September 22-28 as Climate Week in order to encourage New Yorkers to think forward about the challenges of a changing climate, as well as to highlight the progress being made to prepare New York State for the new reality of extreme weather," according to a release from his office.

Sunday was also the African-American Day parade, in which many city officials also marched. At a pre-parade breakfast event earlier Sunday, Tish James reviewed her push for the NYPD to begin wearing body cameras - a pilot program for which is set to begin in the near future [Gotham Gazette recently tested out one of the models that will be used].

As Tuesday's full-body City Council Stated Meeting looms, watch for what new bills are introduced (as well as which previously-introduced bills are voted through the Council and to the mayor's desk) - much-anticipated bills related to the use of chokeholds are expected at some point soon, but might not be ready for this meeting.

Along with participating in the two parades on Sunday, de blasio also was set to "meet with President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto in Manhattan" and to "speak at a reception in honor of Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation the Honorable Federica Mogherini," according to his public schedule.

Election Watch
Tuesday also marks six weeks until the general election. It seems that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has agreed to debate his Republican opponent Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, but nothing specific has been announced - while we do expect at least one debate to occur sometime before November, we advise you not to hold your breath on this announcement. Either way, the gubernatorial race is certainly heating up.

Meanwhile, watchers are carefully following key races that will determine control of the State Senate. The Senate's make-up is quite complicated and its future unclear, but if the elections result in enough mainline Democrats to form a majority if they coalesce with the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), we're very likely to see Democratic control of both houses of the Legislature. If not, well, things are going to get tricky. No matter, the IDC and Gov. Cuomo are all-but-certain to continue holding the cards throughout the next legislative session.

And, everyone's keeping at least one eye on the only competitive congressional race in a New York City-based district: Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican, is trying to hold onto his seat despite a 20-count indictment, an incident where he threatened a NY1 reporter, a strong challenge from Democrat Domenic Recchia, and a major fundraising disadvantage. Recchia didn't do himself any favors last week by appearing quite weak on foreign policy. The race is the 11th Congressional District is neck-and-neck according to a recent poll. This one should only become more intense as Election Day approaches and the Democratic establishment does everything it can to flip a seat in the House.

As the week begins, New York politicos will keep an eye on the campaigns, and there's a great deal happening at the City Council and all over the city, with many events to be aware of.

The run of the week in more detail:

Monday
Sunday's "People's Climate March" will be followed on Monday by a mass act of civil disobedience being called "Flood Wall Street." Protesters dressed in blue will gather at Battery Park at 9 a.m. and march to the steps of the New York Stock Exchange where they will engage in a collective sit-in at noon "to confront the system that both causes and profits from the crisis that is threatening humanity."

Green Party gubernatorial candidate "Howie Hawkins closes out his four day Climate Change campaign tour in New York City with an appearance at Zuccotti Park...in support of #FloodWallStreet. Hawkins will also discuss his plan for 100% clean energy by 2030 and the stock transfer tax," according to a release from Hawkins' campaign.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's Monday is a busy one: according to his public schedule, de Blasio "will meet with the Mayor of Paris Anna Hidalgo...speak at an NBA announcement on Staten Island [to] announce an unprecedented NBA Cares effort to leave a lasting legacy throughout the five boroughs...speak at the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Mayors' Luncheon at Columbia University...attend the C40 Leadership Awards in Manhattan."

On Monday, Comptroller Stringer attends the Clinton Global Initiative Opening Plenary Session in the morning and then speaks at Queens Community Board 13's Installation of Officers and Monthly Meeting in the evening, according to his public schedule.

City Council Speaker Mark-Viverito's Monday schedule is packed: at 10 a.m. she "testifies at Chief Judge Lippman's Hearing on Civil Legal Services"; at 11:45 a.m. she "speaks at EMILY'S List Eastern Regional Conference"; at 2:30 p.m. she meets with the Mayor of Taipei after holding a 2 p.m. welcome reception; and at 6 p.m. she speakers at the Council's "Russian Speaking New Yorkers Celebration" at City Hall.

Monday also sees the start of a week of "free civil legal services" being offered by Mark-Viverito's office via "The Mobile Legal Help Center" outside her district offices in El Barrio/East Harlem and the Bronx.

The Council itself has several committee meetings happening Monday: the Committee on Governmental Operations meets at 10 a.m. to review the findings of the New York City Campaign Finance Board's 2013 Post-Election Report. [Our recent look at that report and its analysis of outside spending flooding the city's 2013 elections]

Also at 10, the Committee on Transportation will meet to introduce (harsher) sanctions "for leaving the scene of an incident without reporting."

At 11 a.m., the Committee on Health will meet to pass a resolution recognizing September as Ovarian Cancer awareness month in New York City.

Also Monday, the Committee on Housing and Buildings will meet at 1 p.m. to introduce several amendments to the city's administrative code and to make adjustments to already existing construction codes.

Meanwhile, on Monday morning at 10:45 at Brooklyn Borough Hall, "The Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council is announcing a partnership with the Brooklyn Community Foundation to advance workforce and economic development programs across the borough. Brooklyn Community Foundation is the first and only foundation dedicated to New York City's largest borough. Since its founding in 2009, the Foundation and its donors have provided over $20 million in grants to more than 300 nonprofits throughout the borough."

At noon on Monday, Council Member Stephen Levin is announcing "clean-up funding" for his 33rd council district: "Levin will announce new City Council funding for the 33rd District that will go towards cleaning up local neighborhoods, including Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The funds, which are part of the City Council's Cleanup NYC Initiative, will be used for maintenance of streets and parks and to beautify public space, as well as to introduce new high-end litter baskets. Center for Employment Opportunities will partner with Council Member Levin to do the clean-up work in the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods."

Also mid-day Monday, "Her Majesty Queen Letizia of Spain will be joined by New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña at PS 103 – Dos Puentes Elementary to welcome four New York schools as members of the International Spanish Academies (ISA)," according to Fariña's public schedule.

On Monday, Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Kathy Hochul speaks at the New York State Democratic Committee Fall Meeting in Albany; tours downtown Troy with its mayor, Lou Rosamilia; and speaks at the Saratoga Democratic Rally, according to her public schedule.

Monday evening, there will be a fundraising event for Democratic candidate James Kemmerer, running for State Senate District 22 against incumbent Sen. Marty Golden, hosted by fellow Democrats in Brooklyn. Hosted by: Assembly Members Peter Abbate and Alec Brook-Krasny, Council Members Vincent Gentile and Alan Maisel, several District Leaders, the Bay Ridge Democrats and others.

At 6 p.m. on Monday, "Southeast Queens Leaders to Call on the Taxi & Limousine Commission to Reform Commuter Van Standards." The call will be led by Council Members I. Daneek Miller and Donovan Richards, other elected officials, local civic organizations, Disabled in Action, local community leaders and transportation groups and will take place by the intersection of Parsons Blvd and Archer Ave, near the Social Security Administration building. The call is being made "in light of an incident that occurred Sunday, September 14th, where an illegal commuter van engaged NYPD in a high speed chase that left a 22-year old passenger in critical condition...the proliferation of illegal vans in Southeast Queens and throughout the City is well known, and even many vans that have attained the necessary legal paperwork often operate in illegal manners."

Tuesday
Rep. Michael Grimm and his challenger, Democrat Domenic Recchia, were invited to appear at a Tuesday night debate, but word is that Recchia has declined the invitation due to previously scheduled events and only Grimm will be in attendance at the "Bay Ridge Great Debate" set for 7:30 p.m. at the Holy Angels Catholic Academy in Brooklyn.

It is worth noting, of course, that Tuesday will see world leaders, including President Obama, convene in New York City for a discussion on climate change at the United Nations. The summit will focus on the ongoing climate crisis and the steps that world leaders can take to reduce emissions. Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to speak at the summit at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day, a nationwide day of action to register as many new voters as possible. It comes six weeks from Election Day, November 4.

NYC Votes, an arm of the City's Campaign Finance Board, will celebrate National Voter Registration Day with free public events on Tuesday, including "Just Say Yes to Voting" with music by Hot97, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at City Hall Park. Full list of events here.

Tuesday morning, Crain's New York's "The Business Of" series will examine the legalization of medical marijuana: "The Business of Pot: the Stakes are High" at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, "Medical marijuana is now legal in New York state, presenting a unique series of business opportunities for a select group of manufacturers, dispensaries and consultants. However, this financial potential comes with great risk and regulations. Businesses and doctors will face bureaucratic hurdles and possible prosecution. Additionally, the program can be shut down at any time and sunsets after seven years. But for those willing to invest, it could pay off in a big way."

The City Council has a couple of committee meetings before the full-body State in the afternoon: the Committee on Housing and Building will meet again on Tuesday to resume the introduction of technical corrections and revisions to the NYC construction codes. The Committee on Finance will hold a meeting to approve funding of certain organizations and to discuss/review proposed land use applications.

The Council Chambers will open for the Stated meeting at 1:30 pm - to be presaged, as usual, by the Speaker's pre-stated press conference at 12:30.

As council members arrive at City Hall, they will again be greeted by members of NYCLASS, the main group pushing for a ban of horse-drawn carriages in the city: "We're back, as we are at every single City Council Stated Meeting, and will continue to show up at every meeting until the carriage horses are off the streets!"

There will be a public organizational meeting for the newly-formed New York City Voter Assistance Corporation (affiliated with the New York City Campaign Finance Board): 3:30 pm, CFB Board Room, 100 Church Street, 12th Floor: "This not-for-profit will enable the CFB to receive outside donations for the benefit of its voter assistance activities. Please note that this is an organizational meeting held for the purpose of electing directors and officers, adopting internal policies, and other housekeeping matters."

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer will be hosting an event to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month on Tuesday, 6 p.m. at Surrogate's Courthouse on Chambers Street. [Our recent look at the city's rapidly growing Mexican population and the political implications thereof]

There will be a public meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) on Tuesday evening in Brooklyn.

On Tuesday evening, Inside Schools (a program and (InsideSchools.org) publication of The New School Center for NYC Affairs), is hosting "High School Choice: Busting Myths" aimed at helping parents and students.

Also Tuesday evening, City & State NY will celebrate the launch of its Buffalo Bureau.

Wednesday
Mayor de Blasio will be in England on Wednesday. According to a release from the mayor's office: "New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will be the International Speaker at the Labour Party's Annual Conference in Manchester, England on Wednesday, September 24th." More: "The Labour Party invited the Mayor to speak to discuss "the twin challenges of rising inequality and declining standards of living," drawing from his "work in New York and his commitment to tackling the 'affordability crisis' affecting ordinary New Yorkers." In addition to delivering a speech on the urgent need to develop and execute strategies to tackle income inequality on the final day of the conference—the last before Britain's General Election in May 2015 – Mayor de Blasio will also hold a private meeting in Manchester with Ed Miliband, Leader of the Labour Party."

Wednesday will see a National Yoga Month Celebration at Brooklyn Borough Hall hosted by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

Wednesday at sundown marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and things will quiet down in the city through Thursday.

Thursday
Thursday appears quiet in the city as the Rosh Hashanah holiday is celebrated.

Friday and the weekend
Also looking quiet at this point, but things often materialize as the week progresses - but, a couple of interesting items for now:

It was reported that there will be a rally on Staten Island to support police on Saturday the 27th.

On Sunday, the 92nd Street Y will have an event with Senator Gillibrand and Gloria Steinem, looking at Gillibrand's new book "Off the Sidelines."

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? Email Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

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by Rati Mukhuradze, Katrina Shakarian, and Ben Max in New York City, and David King in Albany.
@GothamGazette

CM Menchaca speaks at Mexican Independence Day celebration (William Alatriste)

NEW YORK - For the first time ever, the grito – a traditional cheer that marks Mexican Independence Day – echoed through City Hall on Tuesday night.

"Viva Mexico!" shouted Sandra Fuentes-Berain, the Mexican consul general in New York. About 250 New Yorkers assembled in the lavish City Council Chambers returned her cry: "Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico!"

Local Mexican-American leaders hope it's a call that will soon reverberate throughout New York political circles. Some say Mexicans – the fastest-growing Latino group in New York City – are poised to take a larger role in city and state politics, pointing to recent trends and milestones as evidence.

But challenges like geography, citizenship, and educational achievement remain for the political ambitions of the Mexican community, which is New York's third largest Latino ethnic group after Puerto Ricans and Dominicans.

"We are trying to send a clear message that the Mexican community is here in a big way, and that our contributions are central to the diversity of the city," said City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, who became the first Mexican elected official in New York State when he won his seat last year.

Menchaca, 34, is from El Paso, TX and represents the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Sunset Park and Red Hook, which have large Mexican populations. His election is seen as a marker of things to come.

"Carlos Menchaca is the first Mexican-American in the City Council, but he's not going to be the last," Fuentes-Berain said. "We have to have many more Mexicans in elected office in order to make public policies that will benefit the Mexicans in the city and the state."

While legislation like The DREAM Act has stalled in Albany, New York City recently passed into law a municipal identification card program intended to benefit undocumented immigrants. Additionally, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that "the City is stationing representatives at the federal immigration court to directly address the needs of unaccompanied minor children undergoing deportation proceedings," according to a September 16 press release.

The grito is celebrated across Mexico on the night of September 15 to commemorate the 1810 speech of Father Miguel Hidalgo, who called upon his countrymen to rise up against Spanish rule, leading to the Mexican War of Independence.

Several events around New York marked the holiday in the past week. At City Hall, dancers and a mariachi band performed, proclamations were read, and a parade of politicians and community leaders - including City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Public Advocate Tish James - expressed pride in Menchaca.

"I had goosebumps," Menchaca told Gotham Gazette. "It felt like home."

He said Mexicans in New York need more political representation.

"Today really marks an important moment for our city as we continue to define what it means to be Mexican, what it means to be Mexicano-Americano in the United States, in New York City," Menchaca said. "We are one of the largest growing populations in the city, and we are eager - eager to make an imprint."

Quickly-growing community
There are more than 319,000 Mexicans in New York City, according to data from the 2010 census. According to a 2013 CUNY study, the Mexican population of the New York metropolitan area grew 6.5% annually from 2000 to 2010.

Mexicans are expected to overtake Puerto Ricans and Dominicans as the largest Latino group in the city sometime in the 2020s if similar growth rates continue.

"The Mexican population is one of the fastest growing in the city," said Daniel R. Fernández, the director of CUNY's Institute for Mexican Studies. "It is a very recent group here, but we're building up."

The growth over the past two decades is due to a rising immigration rate and a higher birth rate than other Latinos in New York. Mexican New Yorkers also have a lower median age than many ethnic groups.

So why is Menchaca still the only Mexican-American elected official in the city?

It's not that others aren't running for office. Ceasar Zuniga, a Sunset Park non-profit official and Community Board member, challenged State Assembly member Felix Ortiz in last week's Democratic primary, and lost 70.7% to 29.3%. Menchaca endorsed and campaigned with Zuniga leading up to the primary.

Despite his defeat, Zuniga said he was proud of his campaign, especially because he was going up against a well-funded incumbent.

"We're a community that is awakening to the fact that we need political representation," he told Gotham Gazette. "We motivated the community, and you know, I'm not going anywhere."

The "secret weapon" for future Mexican political success is "all of the kids, born in '95, '96, who are now becoming eligible to vote," said Zuniga (pictured below).

"That's going to be instrumental in the next few years," he said.

Zuniga (photo: Shen Qiu)

Geography, citizenship, education
Part of the reason that more Mexican-Americans haven't been elected in New York is geography, said Juan Carlos Aguirre, executive director of Mano a Mano, a local nonprofit that promotes Mexican culture.

"Mexicans are scattered all over the city," he said, in neighborhoods like Sunset Park, Corona in Queens, and East Harlem in Manhattan.

"They're not concentrated in one area like other immigrant groups," Aguirre said. "For other immigrant groups, it has been easier for them to gain political power. For Mexicans, it's going to be very difficult unless there's a strategy for them to work together."

That's a strategy that hasn't been figured out yet, he said.

Many Mexicans in the city are also not eligible to vote. The number of U.S. citizens age 18 or older of Mexican descent more than doubled from 2000 to 2010. But in 2010, only 51% of Mexican-Americans in the New York metro area were citizens, according to the CUNY report.

"My parents are immigrants. They came from Mexico to give us a better life," said Yhasmine Moran, a Sunset Park resident who volunteered on Menchaca's campaign. "They deserve a voice, a vote."

Another major challenge is educational attainment. Mexicans have the lowest college graduation rate among Latino groups in New York and the lowest high school graduation rate, the CUNY report found. Forty-nine percent of adult New Yorkers of Mexican descent – mostly those born outside the U.S. - had not graduated high school in 2010.

CUNY's Institute for Mexican Studies, which received a major donation last week, awards scholarships to students who can't get other financial aid because they aren't citizens.

"This is one scholarship that doesn't ask for your social security number," Fernández said, adding that many of his students at CUNY's Lehman College have "a very strong political consciousness."

"They care about giving people access to education, and they believe they can go out and change the community," he said.

If more Mexican candidates do start running for office, they could end up facing other Latino politicians. Both Zuniga and Menchaca ran against Puerto Rican incumbents with long political histories.

But they say they don't want to create divisive ethnic politics. "I don't ever want to be perceived as the Mexican candidate who's just a candidate for Mexicans," Zuniga said. While some politicians "want to divide and conquer," he said, "we can't play into that tension if it exists."

"We need to make sure we honor the pathways that were opened by our other Latino brothers and sisters, the Puerto Rican, Dominican, Ecuadorian community," Menchaca said.

Uptown surge
Many of the neighborhoods that have the largest Mexican communities are also home to Latino groups who have been in New York for longer. Take Washington Heights, in Upper Manhattan. Long a Dominican enclave, more Mexicans are moving in, locals say.

At another grito celebration on Friday night, about 250 people, many wearing red, white, and green clothing, gathered at the Church of the Intercession on 155th Street. Locals sipped horchata and tamarindo while mariachi music filled the church and children ran through the aisles. Unlike the City Hall event, in which many of the dignitaries gave speeches in English, almost all of the speakers at the Washington Heights event spoke in Spanish.

Fuentes-Berain (photo: Shen Qiu)

"In West Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood, the Mexican population has skyrocketed," said Juan Rosa, a West Harlem resident who helped organize the celebration. "We wanted to do this so the Mexican community can come and celebrate this important event in their own backyards."

Mano a Mano, which offers language classes and helped put on the grito, moved to Washington Heights in order to serve its growing Mexican population.

"In this area there are many Mexicans who don't speak English or Spanish – they speak indigenous languages," Aguirre said.

As the night went on, Fuentes-Berain led the "Viva Mexico" refrain, hoisted the Mexican flag (pictured above), and directed a rendition of the national anthem. Some attendees sang the song by heart, while others read the lyrics off a program. A few wiped away tears.

Mark Levine, the city council member who represents the area, said he had visited schools in his district where 70% of the students are Mexican-American.

"You are the future of our neighborhood," he told attendees in Spanish, noting that he had spent summers in Mexico as a kid.

Rebeca Madrigal, who lives in Riverdale in the Bronx, brought her whole family to the event in Washington Heights, where she teaches English and Spanish.

"It's important to cultivate the roots here," said Madrigal (pictured below), who came to the U.S. from Mexico City when she was 14. "Now, Mexicans are more represented in schools, in our neighborhoods. I'm proud to be Mexican."

Madrigal and her son (photo: Shen Qiu)

***
by Casey Tolan, Gotham Gazette
@CaseyTolan

CM Torres led a public housing committee hearing in Brooklyn (all photos: Katrina Shakarian)

"Fix the locks! Put up security cameras!" called out Olivia Taylor from a corner of the Breukelen Houses' Community Center in southeast Brooklyn. Taylor interrupted the crowd's silent focus on the City Council's latest public housing hearing, until order was restored with several strikes of the committee chair's gavel.

Taylor was one of several public housing residents, lawmakers, and advocates who gathered at the public housing complex on Tuesday, September 16, for a hearing to discuss the roll out and progress of Mayor Bill de Blasio's $210.5 million plan to reduce violent crime in public housing.

Between 2009 and 2014, overall crime across the New York City Housing Authority's (NYCHA) 334 developments rose 30%, according to NYPD Housing Bureau Chief Carlos Gomez, a key speaker at the hearing. The spike in crime is explained, in part, by rising incidences of domestic violence and gang activity.

The Mayor's plan is coordinated among ten different agencies and targets 15 public housing developments, where 17 percent of NYCHA's violent crime has been concentrated for the past three years. Since the program's launch on July 8th, the NYPD's Housing Bureau has reported an overall drop in crime across NYCHA, though certain developments and categories of crime have seen increases.

Tuesday's hearing was the second ever to take place at a public housing complex, both coming this year under the leadership of new City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and new Public Housing Committee Chair Ritchie Torres. The Breukelen Center was chosen as the site due to its proximity to the Boulevard Houses, the development where 6-year old Prince Joshua (PJ) Avitto and 7-year old Mikayla Capers were brutally stabbed in June. A recently paroled, paranoid-schizophrenic man wandered into their building through doors with broken locks and in the absence of security cameras. He got into an elevator with both children, who were en route to get ice pops, where he stabbed them.

"Kids in NYCHA developments deserve to grow up in a safe environment just like kids in any other part of the city. We are here today to remember PJ and to work together to ensure the safety of all NYCHA residents," said Torres in his opening statement, before convening the meeting with a moment of silence for PJ Avitto, who died from the attack.

Crime data, as outlined in a city council briefing paper, indicates that between January 1 and August 24 2014 overall crime decreased by 4% across all NYCHA developments and by 3% at the 15 targeted ones, compared to the same period in 2013.

At the hearing, Chief Gomez presented attendees with post-launch crime statistics, which he described as "a significant step in the right direction." Between July 1st, when the NYPD received funding to implement their portion of the new initiative, and September 14th of this year, overall crime in public housing decreased 14.4 percent. In the 15 targeted developments overall crime dropped by 7.4 percent, said Gomez.

Yet, despite the overall decrease in crime, a deeper dive into the statistics reveals that the gains are not all-encompassing. According to Gomez, there were 54 shootings across the bureau versus 52 in the same July to September period last year. Even with additional resources, crime spiked in six of the 15 the developments being targeted. The Bushwick Houses, for example, saw ten felony assaults between July 1st and September 14, compared with just two during the same time last year.

Torres was joined at the hearing by Council Members Cumbo, Barron, and Gibson, among others

The mayor's initiative to combat these trends is four fold. It includes security related infrastructural improvements such as the installment of light towers and security cameras; increased police presence; the expansion of resident programming such as the Summer Youth Employment Program, domestic violence support and mentoring services; and community outreach and engagement such as collecting resident feedback through surveys.

"The success of the plan hinges on that last part," asserted City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in her statement at Tuesday's hearing. Mark-Viverito and others are looking at the initiative's success in collaborating with community leaders, organizations, and residents that do the heavy lifting on the ground to make their neighborhoods better places on a daily basis.

"These leaders and residents must be meaningfully engaged and consulted every step of the way," Mark-Viverito said, eliciting applause from the crowd. "They know what the community needs, because they are the community."

Elizabeth Glazer, Director of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, touted some initial results in each of these categories, which taken with Gomez's statistics, suggest that the mayor's initiative has made a dent. She ran down a list of accomplishments:

• 184 light towers, meant to increase visibility and deter illicit activity, installed at different developments since July launch
• the plan to install roughly 2,000 security cameras in 43 developments, has completed installation in 19
• Almost 20,000 feet of shedding or scaffolding not associated with active construction has been removed from developments since May
• 150 police officers deployed on the ground in targeted developments each week
• extended summer hours in NYCHA's 105 community centers for the first time in 30 years
• 1000 additional youth from the 15 targeted developments were employed through the Summer Youth Employment Program in 2014

Nonetheless, Mark-Viverito captured the sentiment of many at the hearing when she asserted, "the success of this plan should not be just measured by crime statistics or numbers of officers and cameras, but also by whether residents actually feel safer in their homes." Her statement underscored the significance of the location and format of Tuesday's hearing.

Marie Boone, resident leader at the Tilden Houses in Brooklyn, testified at Tuesday's hearing. "When I heard about the development list of 15, I could not understand, why was Tilden omitted," she said to the panel of council members. Tilden Houses is adjacent to the Brownsville and Van Dyke Houses, both of which are targeted by the mayor's initiative.

"For the last two years, Tilden has been plagued with street gangs," Boone explained. "Street gangs mean children between the ages of 9 to 21, using bats, sticks, wrapping the hand chain...the kids were constantly fighting each other, without no real reason." At the end of August, the fighting culminated in the death of a young man, an 18 year old from Boone's community, who planned to attend college this fall, she said.

Tilden's testimony was a sobering reminder of what's at stake behind the numbers, and highlights the need for what many have already called for: that the mayor's initiative is scaled beyond the current 15 developments.

***
by Katrina Shakarian, Gotham Gazette
@KatShakarian

CM Levin, left, gives a tour of his district to NY1's Errol Louis (@InsideCityHall)

In a small town known more for drugs and teen pregnancy than high school graduation rates, Stephen Levin grew up seeing the problems that he would later work to address on a much larger scale as an advocate and elected official in New York City. Plainfield, New Jersey is a poverty-stricken town of 50,000 where Levin began on a path to where he is now: two-term city council member and chair of one high-profile council issue committee.

Growing up, Levin saw problems faced by those in Plainfield that he now addresses on a daily basis as a council member and as chair of the general welfare committee of the New York City Council. Levin's aunt, Natalie Buzby, worked for Nurse-Family Partnership, a program that assists young, poor mothers by assigning a trained nurse from pregnancy until the child's second birthday. Her work, Levin said in a recent interview with Gotham Gazette, was really what helped him come to a full understanding of the challenges everyday people are trying to overcome.

"When she was done with work, she'd often come over to my house...so I was often hearing the stories of her day," said Levin. "I always used to remember having these significant conversations with her. They really taught me what families are going through and what models are helpful and hurtful."

Soon, Levin's own work in social services began. He spent a good deal of time as a teenager volunteering, he said, and after graduating from Brown University, Levin decided it was time to cross state lines to New York.

In Brooklyn, Levin dove head first into the issues he would later be legislating and holding city council hearings on. He volunteered in Bushwick by running a Lead Safe House program, which relocated families from lead-contaminated homes. Levin also directed an anti-predatory lending program, which used "grassroots outreach and community workshops" to warn of the risks of subprime mortgages.

It was during his work with the Lead Safe House program that he got a first-hand look at the challenges facing poverty-stricken individuals and families in those Brooklyn neighborhoods and saw his path ahead.

"I committed to myself that I would work in the field," Levin said. "If I had the opportunity to run for office, I would, in order to try to make a difference."

In 2009, that opportunity presented itself and Levin ran a winning campaign to be elected to represent the 33rd District in the New York City Council. He then joined the Committee on General Welfare, on which he served during his first four-year term, becoming chair in early 2014 when his second council term began and both council and committee positions reshuffled.

"I had indicated that I cared very deeply about the issues and had the experience of serving on a committee and had a desire to chair it," said Levin of moving into the new role. While Levin continues to mostly fly under the radar compared to other more attention-grabbing colleagues, he has embraced the hefty responsibilities his committee has.

The committee's big name gives indication of its scope: general welfare encompasses many issues and relevant social services; and the committee often works collaboratively with others like those on juvenile justice; health; and women's issues.

"The General Welfare Committee oversees all sorts of services in New York City...that includes three large agencies," Levin said. One such agency is the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), which seeks to prevent homelessness and provide short-term, emergency shelter for individuals and families who have no other housing options available. The city's homelessness crisis has been a major focus of the committee's and of Levin's.

The committee also oversees the Human Resources Administration (HRA), or the Department of Social Services, which oversees Medicaid, public assistance, SNAP benefits, and a number of other social service programs.

Third, Levin explained, is "the Administration of Children Services, commonly referred to as ACS. The ACS includes child protective services, preventive services, foster care and early childhood education. He continued, "In addition, we also spend a lot of time examining how [the departments] work together for the most vulnerable New Yorkers."

Upon becoming chair of the committee nine months ago, Levin took aim at helping to reverse key pieces of Bloomberg Administration policy related to social services. One goal was reinstating rent subsidies for families leaving homeless shelters.

"What happened was the Bloomberg Administration and the state discontinued the subsidies entirely," Levin said. "So, for the last three years, we didn't have any subsides in place whatsoever."

The first step toward progress was changing the language in the state budget to allow for more finances to address homelessness, especially through subsidy programs. Levin wants to see more families moved from shelters to permanent housing. His district has not been exempt from the growing number of shelters in the city, including the 2012 opening of the controversial Bowery Residents' Committee shelter for men in Greenpoint.

"I [worked] with the [de Blasio] administration to get the State to change the budget language around providing subsidies for homeless families. It took a lot effort," said Levin. "I went up with folks from HRA and DHS to get the state to change budget language which was previously preventing the city from drawing out its own funds [that could] help...families living in shelters." Levin called the successful shift "a really important component to helping get ourselves out of this homelessness crisis that we find ourselves in right now."

In August, after negotiations with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the City announced it would create two rent subsidy programs to ease the plight of chronically homeless families with children.

According to Levin, the general welfare committee will soon be addressing a variety of other issues related to social services, including reevaluating the HRA employment program and adult protective services. The committee will also put the Early Learn program under the microscope, he said.

Critics of the Bloomberg program were livid when the City cut the number of children allowed in City child care services and Head Start programs from 50,000 to 43,000.

"We're looking at how to reform the early childhood education system that's in place right now, called Early Learn, which is facing serious challenges," Levin said.

Since Levin became chair, the committee has held meetings to address the need for better data collection about youth in foster care; including on those aging out of the system, obtaining government-issued identification, and graduating from high school. At the committee's September 8 meeting, bills to these ends were passed and will be sent to the full Council for votes.

Levin has had a busy first nine months as chair, but his work has only just begun. With the homelessness crisis, a huge population of New Yorkers living in poverty, and social services stretched thin, the general welfare committee and its chair will continue to have much to tackle. The committee is next scheduled to meet on September 29.

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by Tess Danielson for Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette

Council Member Lander & Speaker Mark-Viverito will now 'own' the BOE (photo: William Alatriste)

The New York City Council has taken charge of filling vacancies on the City Board of Elections (BOE) through what it is promising will be a transparent process involving public hearings and analysis of reform recommendations.

After County Democratic leaders missed deadlines to nominate appointees to three seats on the ten-seat BOE, the City Council has taken up the task, as it is legally allowed to do. On Wednesday afternoon, the Council Committee on Rules, Privileges and Elections, headed by Council Member Brad Lander, will shed light on what has so far been a closed-door procedure and hold a public hearing where Democratic candidates for the Bronx, New York and Kings County seats will be evaluated.

Last year, Republicans on the Council set the appointment precedent by naming commissioners to Kings (Brooklyn) and Queens seats, but Wednesday's public hearing is the first of its kind. "These reforms show how serious the Council is about fair elections, and will help bring long overdue changes to the BOE," Lander said in a statement.

The Board of Elections is a bi-partisan body comprised of ten commissioners, two from each borough as (traditionally) selected by county leaders of the two major political parties. Each BOE member serves a renewable four-year tenure. The Board undertakes the administration of elections in the city and its duties include voter registration, maintenance of voter records, processing candidate applications and campaign finance disclosures. The board's employees also recruit and train electoral officers, operate polling machinery, and disseminate election data.

A key part of the rules committee's agenda on Wednesday will be asking the three candidates to review the City Department of Investigation (DOI) 2013 report which recommended sweeping reforms at the BOE and charged it with nepotism and inefficiency.

After the DOI report was released in December last year, it caused much friction between the DOI and the BOE. The DOI faulted the election body for being uncooperative with its investigation and unwilling to address systemic problems. The BOE's new executive director, Michael Ryan, responded in a 20-page letter by calling the report vague and unsubstantiated, and even questioning the undercover methods used by the investigators. Most reforms suggested in the report, he stated, were out of DOI purview as they fall under matters of state law.

Since then, the BOE has taken reform steps by enacting administrative changes to improve general functioning and the running of elections. This includes eliminating hard-copy voter registration cards and stopping the unnecessary storage and review of these cards. However, BOE has not reformed employment practices, one of the bigger issues raised by the DOI and civic watchdogs.

Keeping in mind these limited changes, good government advocates are giving mixed reviews on the Council's initial attempt at transparency in the BOE appointment process.

"We're encouraged that there is going to be a public and open hearing," said Neal Rosenstein, government reform coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). "We've never had that happen before. Many civic groups have been happy with the positive measures that the board has taken in the last year but there's room for more."

Kate Doran, elections specialist at the League of Women Voters was more skeptical about the committee's openness. "I don't think the Council have been very transparent about picking these candidates," she said. "They're only putting up one candidate for each seat and we're curious as to how they narrowed it down," Doran added. She also said that though the hearing will have open public testimony, advocacy groups were not invited to testify as has been done in the past.

The three potential appointees, whose resumes were made public by the rules committee, are Bianka Perez, a Bronx-based attorney and administrative law judge; Alan Schulkin, deputy chief clerk at the Manhattan Board of Elections; and John Flateau, a professor at Medgar Evers College, CUNY.

Director of Public Policy at Citizens Union, Rachael Fauss, was optimistic about the Council's efforts. "The Council is doing the right thing," Fauss said. "The old process of parties appointing commissioners is completely closed. The fact that any member of the public can speak at the hearing goes further than other hearings where we were specifically invited to speak."

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by Samar Khurshid, Gotham Gazette
@SamarKhurshid

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Note: Gotham Gazette is published by Citizens Union Foundation, sister organization of Citizens Union

Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio receives the endorsement of Tenants PAC

When Mayor Bill de Blasio declared early in his tenure that he would like to see the City regain control of its rent laws from the State many insiders laughed. "Why would we let that go?" asked one legislator. "Control is worth more than one election cycle."

What exactly is it worth to state legislators? According to a New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) study of campaign donations during the last state-level campaign cycle of 2011-2012, real estate and construction interests gave $7,523,955 to legislators and were the top donors of any business sector to each legislative conference.

Further, tenant advocates say the debate over whether to give control of rent regulation back to the City could serve as a distraction to the policy issues at play. Michael McKee, treasurer of Tenants PAC, said the focus should be on repealing vacancy decontrol - a process by which landlords can take apartments off the rent-regulated rolls by making drastic improvements to the apartments and hiking up rents. "This [giving the city control over rent laws] is just one issue among many," said McKee. "It cannot be the sole issue."

McKee points out that despite years of work raising money and campaigning for Senate Democrats tenant advocates have grown accustomed to Democratic Senators voting against their issues. McKee says that the real estate lobby's strategy is clear: "Approach upstate Democrats who don't care one way or another and get them to vote their way for huge contributions."

Despite de Blasio and his fellow city progressives' rise to prominence, it is unsurprising given historical and monetary trends that The Daily News reported on Monday that Senate Democrats are non-committal on the issue of returning rent control to the City. Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins was non-committal in a statement issued to The Daily News. There is little incentive for senators who do not represent the city to support the measure. However, a number of progressive upstate Democrats including Sens. Neil Breslin and Cecelia Tkaczyk do generally support tenants' issues and might be counted on to vote for city home rule.

The Urstadt Law of 1971 took away the city's ability to set its own rent control guidelines and put it in the hands of the Legislature. The law did not face great opposition at the time as the city was going through a major financial downturn, but it has given Albany monumental say over the city's housing policy and become the ire of many city legislators and advocates. It allows Albany to set policy on which housing stock is kept at affordable rates, what is affordable and when landlords can remove apartments from rent control.

The New York City-based real estate industry does not discriminate by locality or party affiliation when it comes to donations - some of the biggest beneficiaries of its largesse are upstate legislators who have no constituency involved in the fight over the city's rent laws. In the 2011-2012 cycle, Republican Sen. Greg Ball from Westchester and Democratic Sen. Tim Kennedy from Buffalo received more campaign money from the real estate lobby than any other sitting legislators. Each took in nearly $200,000 in real estate cash. Ball is not seeking re-election this year, but Kennedy is. Kennedy was involved in a heated Democratic primary where The Buffalo News identified at least $100,000 worth of donations from NYC-based real estate interests.

Other real estate industry favorites include Republican Sen. Martin Golden of Brooklyn and the head of the Independent Democratic Conference, Sen. Jeff Klein of the Bronx.

McKee recalls raising cash and campaigning for former Democratic Sen. Darrel Aubertine who ran and won in a 2008 special election in a district that covers northern and central parts of the state. Tenants PAC members went door-to-door for days as it snowed, but when it came time to vote on housing, McKee says Aubertine betrayed them.

De Blasio has been intimately involved in helping Democrats reclaim the Senate this year as well as expending major political capital to help Gov. Andrew Cuomo and running mate Kathy Hochul fend off surprisingly effective challenges in the Democratic primary from Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu, respectively. Some wonder if de Blasio expects Urstadt repeal as payback for his work, but others expect the mayor understands what a heavy lift repeal would be. "He is positioning himself to get a better outcome with the rent laws up for renewal," speculated one Democratic legislator who asked not to be identified. "He can't expect full repeal." The state's laws governing city rents are set to expire next year, which is triggering another round of back-and-forths between tenant groups and the real estate industry.

Some insiders say they've seen movement that indicates real estate interests are acting to ensure that the IDC/Republican Senate governing coalition stays intact. They expect the group to work to "peel off" certain conservative Democratic legislators to have them support the IDC, or at least keep them committed to preventing major changes to the rent laws.

"The joke around Tenants PAC used to be that we would support a Democratic fire hydrant," said McKee. "Not anymore. We've been betrayed too many times."

However, Tenants PAC has maxed out its donations to upstate Democratic Sen. Cecelia Tkaczyk and plans to do the same with Democratic Sens. Terry Gipson and Ted O'Brien.

Defeating Klein was a priority for Tenants PAC this year because members believe him to be beholden to the real estate industry. During a NY1 debate with his primary opponent, former City Council Member Oliver Koppell, Klein refused to commit to supporting full Urstadt repeal. "Again, I will weigh every issue as [it comes]," said Klein. "I support rent stabilization, I support everything that protects tenants. I think we need to take a good hard look at the MCI [Major Capital Improvements] law. There's a lot of things that are out there."

In an interview the day after his primary loss, Koppell was skeptical that Klein will enact tenant-friendly legislation. "I don't think he is going to go along with repeal," said Koppell. "I asked him that in the debate and he wouldn't answer. I think that is a pretty good sign of his intentions."

De Blasio appears to be banking that the political capital he spent supporting Klein and Cuomo in the primaries will be paid back on a number of issues next session. De Blasio had help from Klein last session when the pair worked together to secure pre-kindergarten funding for the city and de Blasio and Cuomo have appeared much more aligned of late than they did when at odds over where pre-k funding would come from and what the future of the city's charter school sector would look like.

Some advocates and legislators insist returning control of the rent laws to the City is not that far-fetched. Mayor Michael Bloomberg managed to make home rule of city schools the signature of his administration and some advocates think de Blasio can do that with housing. City Council Member Jumaane Williams, chair of the council's housing committee, issued a Monday statement pressing legislators on Urstadt repeal after the report surfaced that Senate Democrats weren't fully on board with the idea.

"I am disappointed to hear that some of our NYC Democratic leaders in Albany are less than enthusiastic toward Mayor Bill de Blasio's call to repeal Urstadt," Williams writes. "It is my hope that Albany's resistance is just pre-election angst that will subside after November, because New Yorkers need for real affordable housing is great and immediate."

Williams said that the city has seen rents increase for five decades: "It is a shame that our state legislators have not done more to end this crisis. Urstadt has prevented New York City from strengthening rent regulation laws that are meant to protect the nearly 2.5 million tenants who live in rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartments."

In the end controlling rent regulations does not just mean campaign cash for the legislators - it also means having a gigantic bargaining chip to use in negotiations on other issues. Rent laws are likely to be just another piece of negotiations in a year when several large pieces of progressive legislation like The Dream Act and campaign finance reform are supposed to come to a vote in both houses. Legislators expect that Cuomo, who has deep ties to the real estate industry himself, will leverage progress on other issues to keep rent laws under Albany's control.

McKee of Tenants PAC says the issue will be "a test" for Cuomo, Senate Democratic leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Democratic Sen. Mike Gianaris. To those on his side of the push, McKee asks, "What are you going to do to get these legislators on board?"

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by David King, Albany editor, Gotham Gazette
@DavidHowardKing