MOVA Commissioner Loree Sutton & Mayor Bill de Blasio (photo: Yeong-Ung Yang)

*Update: this story has been revised to reflect comment from Mayor Bill de Blasio given at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday, October 29, when asked by Gotham Gazette about his approach to the VAB

The nine-member Veterans Advisory Board (VAB) acts as a policy liaison between the New York City veterans community and the Mayor's Office of Veteran's Affairs (MOVA). The mayor is responsible for appointing five members, and the City Council Speaker four.

A review of those currently serving on the VAB shows six of the nine members are serving under expired terms, at least one of which has been expired since 2005 and another since 2012. These gaps open questions as to who is doing the critical job of VAB member, the integrity of the appointment process, and the attention being paid to the VAB by the elected officials in charge of these appointments.

Two speaker-appointed VAB members, Patrick Devine and John Rowan, show their appointments expired on November 19, 2005, according to information recently published on the MOVA website.

The accuracy of the information regarding Rowan, however, is in question. The website shows his appointment date to be November 20, 2012, making his term expiration date November 20, 2015. He appeared and testified at the Council's veterans committee oversight hearing on Monday. Gotham Gazette contacted the mayor's press office to find out if the information on the site was accurate and which members are still active on the board. Multiple emails were not returned.

Gotham Gazette asked Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito's office to find out if Devine, the only VAB member representing the Bronx, is still an active board member, and if so, when and how was he reappointed. The speaker's office would not answer any questions regarding Devine or Rowan, only saying the speaker's office is reviewing the appointments. Requests for more information in follow-up emails were denied.

VAB appointments under the purview of the mayor's office also show a lack of attention. There are four outstanding mayoral-appointed members of the VAB, three of which expired under Mayor Bill de Blasio on August 23, 2014: Lee Covino of Staten Island and Manhattan's Marvin Jeffcoat and Vincent McGowan.

The MOVA website indicates Paul Rieckhoff's term expired on February 17, 2012. Gotham Gazette reached out to Rieckhoff, who is CEO and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), to ask if he was still serving on the VAB and if he had attended any of the quarterly meetings since his term expired. Emails were not returned by press time.

Lee Covino, a VAB members since 2002, said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon that he had not seen Rieckhoff at recent VAB meetings, but had seen Devine. Covino, whose own term expired in August, said he told the board that due to family issues he did not wish to be reappointed.

Gotham Gazette contacted the mayor's press office to see when the mayor would be filling the vacant VAB positions, or reappointing current members. Multiple emails were not returned by press time.

Gotham Gazette looked at the annual reports submitted by the VAB from 2002 to 2013. The reports listed issues brought up at each of the quarterly meetings and while some reports mention a "full board was present," neither an attendance sheet or roll call was listed. The reports never make mention of when board members were appointed or reappointed, however, there is mention when new MOVA commissioners were appointed.

When asked about the reappointment process, Covino, who was reappointed twice, said, "I don't think there was any process."

He said under the Bloomberg administration he told the board he would continue to serve and then got a letter saying he had been reappointed. Covino was quick to note that simply being interested didn't guarantee a reappointment—the Mayor or the Speaker had to approve.

Joseph Bello, a Gulf War veteran and veterans advocate, testified at the City Council on Monday that his name had been submitted, along with at least one other veteran, however, neither veteran was approved to be on the board. He said he was never given a reason why.

Gotham Gazette reached out to both the mayor's office and speaker's office for clarification on how they handle VAB appointments and reappointments. The mayor's office did not return multiple requests for comments. The speaker's office declined to comment.

Update: Reached for comment by Gotham Gazette at an unrelated press conference on Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio said, "You will see in the coming weeks and months, a number of boards and commissions will have new appointees that will reflect our values." He did not specify regarding the VAB or a date.

When asked what criteria he would use to choose appointees to the board, the mayor spoke more broadly saying his administration would focus on mental health issues suffered by veterans and eliminating veteran homelessness.

The opacity regarding who is actually serving on the VAB, how they are appointed or reappointed, what they do, and when they do it plays into the call for reform that city veterans advocates have been making in recent years.

MOVA, the city office tasked with helping veterans connect with services on the city, state, and federal levels has a small budget of $549,112 for five staff members and operating expenses. Mayor de Blasio appointed former Brigadier General Loree Sutton to head MOVA in August and she is conducting a review of her office. Five people tasked with helping a city veteran population of roughly 200,000 is clearly problematic, leaving some to call for a separate Department of Veterans Affairs. As it stands, though, the VAB is a key tool for MOVA to discern what is going on with veterans - especially on the ground, in the boroughs.

Board members appear to be very connected to the veterans community, with many of them holding positions at other veterans organizations. But how they are using their networks to better connect New York City veterans to much needed services is not clear.

As was made clear at Monday's council hearing, VAB information is hard to come by. Meeting dates are not posted online, so if a veteran wants to bring an issue to the board, it is especially difficult to do so. If VAB members host or attend community events, that information is not published on the MOVA website, making direct outreach a matter of chance, not strategic policy. Up until the spring, VAB board member names were not even published online.

"Unfortunately, many veterans in New York City are not aware of the VAB and the role it plays within city government," Jason Hansman, senior program manager for IAVA, testified at the oversight hearing on Monday. "For our members who are aware of the group, many believe that historically it has not been taken seriously and that it has not had the impact on the lives of veterans and their families that it should."

The board has advocated successfully for several initiatives that were implemented including Veterans Treatment Courts, permitting issues with the Department of Consumer Affairs, and support for Junior and Senior ROTC programs in the City.

But as veterans continue to come home from current and recent conflicts, the VAB will need to play an increasingly critical role in helping veterans gain access to services for employment, housing, education, and healthcare.

"My hope is the people who they appoint [next] is not just a guy with a chest full of medals," Covino said. "We need someone who is familiar with direct services to veterans."

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by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Rob Astorino on the campaign trail (photo: @RobAstorino)

In the last few months, Governor Andrew Cuomo has pummeled his Republican challenger Rob Astorino with TV ads describing him as "ultraconservative."

Cuomo and Astorino certainly have very different positions on hot button social issues like gun control, abortion, and immigration reform, with Astorino more conservative on each. But as Westchester County Executive, where he is now serving his second term, Astorino's tenure has been less focused on social issues and more defined by pocketbook concerns like taxes, spending, and budgets.

Astorino touts his tax cuts and reductions in county spending, and the new private sector jobs created under his watch. He argues that his record on these issues will make him a better steward for the state's economy — but his critics say his social positions are out of step with New York and that he's been a shortsighted leader.

What Astorino supporters and opponents agree on is that he's someone who doesn't often change his mind. To admirers, that means he's principled. To his opponents, he's overly ideological.

Astorino's administration has also been sidetracked by a major lawsuit filed before he took office over what the federal government says is discriminatory housing practices in the county. Astorino's vocal opposition to oversight by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which he calls "radical social engineering," is seen by some as emblematic of his uncompromising style.

Recent polls show Astorino down by 20 to 30 points, and Cuomo retains a huge financial advantage with less than a week until Election Day. But Astorino says he's optimistic.

"People are giving Cuomo a good look now and they're not liking what they see," he told Gotham Gazette. "I think most people think we're going in the wrong direction in the state."

Crossover appeal?
Astorino, a former radio announcer who lives in Mount Pleasant, served on the school board, town board, and the county board before being elected county executive in 2009. He started his career as an elected official at age 21, when he won a seat on the Mount Pleasant Board of Education.

He came from behind to win his 2009 county executive election, and won re-election by 13 points in a county that is two-to-one Democratic — about the same proportion as New York state.

Astorino, who speaks fluent Spanish, says he won 60 percent of the Latino vote and 25 percent of the African-American vote in Westchester, although his campaign has declined to release the internal polling behind those numbers.

"I never could have been elected and re-elected with a large margin without a good number of Democrats, African-Americans, and Hispanics supporting me," he said.

He's been in office with a majority Democratic board of legislators, which he said has taught him the importance of working across the aisle.

"We've had to work very collaboratively in a bipartisan way to get things done," Astorino said. "That's the same thing I'd bring to state government."

But Catherine Borgia, the Democratic majority leader on the county board, disagreed, saying Astorino was hard to work with and shortsighted. As chair of the board's oversight committee, she said she had trouble getting information from his administration.

"If he can't find a way to get along with 17 legislators, he's really going to find it impossible to get along with the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate," she said.

John Testa, the board's Republican minority leader, said he thought Astorino's tenure could be characterized by "frankness" and his "matter-of-fact manner of what needs to be done and how to handle it."

"Rob Astorino is quite frankly not a panderer," Testa said. "He cuts out the politics and tries to get results."

Fight with the Feds
In 2009, Astorino's predecessor settled a federal lawsuit accusing the county of lying about its compliance with fair housing mandates after a judge ruled the county had "utterly failed" to comply with those regulations.

Under the settlement, Westchester is required to build 750 units of affordable housing in 31 towns that are mostly white by 2016 and then market the housing to people of color. It must also push municipalities to change zoning laws that restrict affordable housing. Those zoning laws only allow single family housing in some areas, for example.

But since Astorino came into office in 2010, the county and HUD have fallen into a rancorous debate. The agency has withheld more than $20 million in housing grants to the county, citing lack of compliance.

"This is the one perpetuating issue that seems to always have a piece in just about everything we do in the county," Testa said.

Astorino says he supports building affordable housing and he's complying with the settlement, but that he's also stood up against federal overreach. In his view, the county is a test case for HUD.

"The federal government wants to take over zoning in Westchester and every neighborhood around this country and put apartment buildings in every neighborhood," he said at the lone gubernatorial debate, on October 22. "I'm going to fight that tooth and nail."

"They're going into your community next," Astorino added.

Craig Gurian, the attorney who filed the 2006 discrimination lawsuit, said the county was failing to comply with the settlement because it was building the affordable housing on the least desirable land, disconnected from more affluent white communities.

Astorino has worked "for surface or window dressing instead of going for the substantive structural changes that the decree demanded," Gurian said. "The county is not meeting its obligations."

Gurian says the county has abdicated its responsibility to take municipalities to court if they don't alter their zoning.

While Astorino calls the push "radical social engineering," Gurian responds in kind.

"It's social engineering to maintain homogeneity that perpetuates segregation," Gurian said. "Dismantling that kind of social engineering is entirely appropriate and long overdue."

Astorino is "playing to racial fears," he said.

The county executive has stuck to his guns. "It's impractical and extremely expensive to do what they would like to do with their pie-in-the-sky ideas," he told Gotham Gazette.

In a court motion earlier this year, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told the judge that Mr. Astorino had made "numerous false and misleading statements" about the settlement, the AP reported. The county's federal monitor, James E. Johnson, also said Astorino had "spread misinformation" about its requirements.

But Gurian said that HUD and Bharara were also to blame for not actually forcing Westchester to build more housing. And he noted that Cuomo, who lives in Westchester, had never spoken out about the issue until the campaign.

Lawrence Levy, the dean of Hofstra University's Center for Suburban Studies, said the HUD dispute could help both Astorino and Cuomo win votes.

"For Astorino, this is a winner of an issue. It's one of the few that he has a chance to gain traction with suburban swing voters," Levy said, while noting that elections were never won on a single issue. Even some Democrats "don't want the federal government telling them what to do in their own backyards," he said.

Meanwhile, attacking Astorino on segregation plays to Cuomo's liberal base, which he has at times had a rocky relationship with. While he was silent on the issue during most of the campaign, Cuomo, who once ran HUD, has turned it into an attack line in the last few weeks.

"Discrimination is the purview of the federal government. The Civil War was fought. [The federal government] has authority over the states," Cuomo said in the debate.

[Related: Read our series on Gov. Cuomo's record]

'Ultraconservative' or pragmatic?
As county executive, Astorino mostly avoided the hot-button social issues that Cuomo is now attacking him on. But he has clearly taken more conservative positions than Cuomo.

Soon after he was elected, Astorino brought back gun shows to the Westchester County Center, overturning an 11-year ban. He canceled the shows in 2012 after the Newtown, Conn. school shooting, though. That shooting was also the impetus for a defining piece of Cuomo legislation.

While Astorino initially signaled interest in the SAFE Act, Cuomo's signature gun control law, saying that it did some "interesting things and important things," he has since changed his tune, the Journal News reported. He chose Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss, an outspoken SAFE Act opponent, to be his running made.

"The SAFE Act made no one safer in New York," Astorino said in a March speech. "All it did was make criminals out of law-abiding citizens."

On abortion, Astorino vetoed a bill that would have created a buffer around abortion clinics where no protesters would be allowed. The bill would also have "increased penalties for threatening or violent behavior," according to the Journal News. Astorino, who is anti-abortion, said the bill would have infringed on protesters' first amendment rights and led to lawsuits against the county.

Astorino opposes Cuomo's Women's Equality Act, or at least its tenth plank, which would codify Roe v. Wade in state law. Astorino says it could open the door to increasing abortion and allowing later term abortions, which Cuomo denies.

"Abortion is not going anywhere in this state," Astorino said. "It's used as a boogeyman by the governor so he doesn't have to talk about...why this state is in rapid decline."

And on immigration reform, Astorino opposes the DREAM act, which would let some undocumented college students receive state financial aid. Cuomo has expressed support for the bill, which narrowly failed to pass the State Senate in March.

The two candidates also disagree on same-sex marriage. Cuomo played a crucial role in making same-sex marriage legal in 2011. Astorino opposes it, although he says it is settled law.

In a state where voters are becoming more liberal on social issues, Astorino could be seen as out of step. Unlike his opposition to HUD, "his position on guns, on abortion, and other conservative issues doesn't play nearly as well with moderate swing voters, especially women," Levy said.

One possible winning issue for Astorino, Levy said, is Common Core, the new public education standards. While Cuomo supported Common Core in the past, he has distanced himself from the standards after parent outcry surrounding tests associated with them. Astorino, whose wife is a public schoolteacher and whose kids go to public school, says he would drop Common Core. He even created the Stop Common Core ballot line, on which his name will appear in addition to the Republican and Conservative Party lines.

Taxes and spending
Astorino said the issue he was proudest of as county executive is reducing taxes.

"We brought a healthy balance back between what we can afford and what we want," Astorino said. "Taxes were going up exponentially each year. We brought some stability."

As county executive, Astorino cut or froze county taxes each year. But Westchester still has the highest property taxes in the nation, with an average tax burden of $9,647 a year, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Cuomo has attacked Astorino for not meeting his campaign promise of cutting county taxes by 20 percent. But Astorino says he's cut county taxes more than any other county in the state.

"He should be thanking me—I'm his county executive," Astorino said of Cuomo, who lives in Westchester, at the debate. "His county taxes went down. The other taxes went up."

Astorino reduced the county workforce and cut spending in Westchester by 5.2% over his tenure, although that invited controversy when he raised contributions required of low-income parents for subsidized childcare.

Borgia, the Democratic legislator, said Astorino's cuts to county engineers could harm Westchester's infrastructure in the future.

"He's always thinking of cutting, cutting, cutting now, not the long-term impacts of his decisions," Borgia said.

The county's credit rating was also downgraded by Moody's during Astorino's administration, from its highest to its second highest ratings. But Westchester still has the highest rating from Standard & Poor's and Fitch, and retains the highest credit rating of any county in the state.

As governor, Astorino says he wants to reform state regulations, reduce some optional Medicaid services, and cut taxes for all New Yorkers further than Cuomo has. His two-tier tax plan would get rid of some tax credits and result in the largest savings for millionaires. He also hopes to end the estate tax by 2020 and enforce a property tax cap.

A longshot with a political future
Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, said Astorino was a longshot at best.

"The polls suggest he has really not gotten any traction, he doesn't have the resources for the TV ads ... and he's in a state where there's two Democrats for every Republican," Miringoff said. "It may have been just too uphill a fight to expect anything different."

Republican George Pataki was also down in the polls just a few weeks before his upset victory over incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo in the 1994 gubernatorial race, Testa pointed out. Mario's lead was much lower than his son's is now, however, and New York is more Democratic than it was 20 years ago. No Republican has held statewide office since Pataki left in 2006.

Even if he comes up short next week, Astorino will retain his seat as county executive, and could very well have political influence in New York in the future.

"He's a smart guy," Levy said. "If he does well enough, even losing, he can set himself up to be his party's leader in one of the nation's largest states."

[Related: Read our series on Gov. Cuomo's record]

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by Casey Tolan, Gotham Gazette
@caseytolan

Monday's city council veterans committee hearing (photo: @NYMetroVets)

NEW YORK—The Veteran Advisory Board (VAB) has been a staple in the New York City veterans community since 1987. But it has not always been a smooth ride, with legislation needed in both 2002 and 2006 to improve the board.

On Monday, the VAB was back in front of the City Council with council members looking for ways to improve the usefulness of the board and some advocates questioning the board's transparency.

"While we recognize and appreciate the work our board members do - most importantly, on a volunteer basis - some veterans are of the belief the board could do better," Council Member Eric Ulrich, chair of the council veterans committee said on Monday. "A lot of folks in the veterans community, those at home and those returning from abroad in the coming years, all need the support the city can give them."

The VAB, which was expanded from five to nine members in 2002, is charged with advising the Mayor's Office of Veteran's Affairs (MOVA) on all issues related to veterans. In 2006, the Council passed Local Law 10 which required the VAB to meet quarterly and issue a report to the Council annually.

Those reports have been submitted to the Council, but finding them has proven an arduous task—until recently. In the spring, after outcry from veterans advocates, the reports were finally published online on the MOVA website along with the names of the board members, who appointed them (Council Speaker or Mayor) and when, and when their term expires.

But the required quarterly meetings still remain a mystery. According to testimony from Vincent McGowan, chairman of the VAB, a meeting was held on September 16th. There was no announcement the meeting would be taking place on the MOVA website or through its social media accounts, something that drives at the heart of the issue many advocates take with the VAB.

"There has been no real measure of accountability in how and when the board meets with the community in their respective boroughs, who they report to with issues, how those issues make it up the city's chain of command, or even how the public can give input into the board," said Joesph Bello, a Gulf War veteran and advocate who runs NY Metro Vets.

[Related: Public Conversation on New Veterans Department Begins]

VAB Chair McGowan testified that at the September 16th hearing the board unanimously voted to keep the current chair (himself) and vice chair for one term (three years). The fact that a decision of this magnitude was made without public outreach about the meeting was not lost on Bello. He suggested to Council Member Ulrich that the appointment process become more transparent.

Bello, along with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) suggested publishing when the meetings were going to take place online, as well as the minutes from the meetings.

Ulrich noted VAB members don't have access to update the MOVA website and that cooperation from other City-run agencies would likely be needed to accomplish this.

In addition to the transparency issues, some advocates believe the board could be doing more to reach out to the veteran community, particularly the younger veterans of the latest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These veterans are often digital natives and find the antiquated system ineffective in providing them with what they need to access services.

[Related: High Expectations, Limited Resources for Mayor's New Commissioner of Veterans' Affairs]

"Unfortunately, many veterans in New York City are not aware of the VAB and the role it plays within city government," said Jason Hansman, senior program manager for IAVA. "For our members who are aware of the group, many believe that historically it has not been taken seriously and that it has not had the impact on the lives of veterans and their families that it should."

Hansman suggested there be better representation of student veterans on the VAB. The board currently does not have any students. The make-up of the board is hard to discern because according to the MOVA website six of the nine members' terms have expired.

Gotham Gazette reached out to MOVA to clarify. Questions were referred to City Hall, but were not immediately returned by press time.

[Related: Council Looks to Improve Veterans Services with New Department]

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by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Gov. Cuomo at a Start-Up NY event (photo: @SenTedObrien)

The following is part of our series, The Cuomo Record, examining incumbent Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo's first term as he seeks re-election heading to Election Day, November 4

If you've glanced at a television this year you've probably seen a commercial for Start-Up NY, a state program that gives tax-free status to certain businesses that locate in or around a New York college campus. "The new New York is open" touts the announcer over the images of opening factory doors, technicians in clean suits and men in hardhats pointing at computer screens.

This is the image Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants not only New Yorkers but people all over the country to get of New York: a state with a newly revived, thriving business economy. It's a message Cuomo so badly wants to convey that records show the State has spent over $30 million on commercials airing both in and out of the state to promote "the new New York."

In 2011, Cuomo took office promising to get the state's fiscal house in order, reduce taxes, and create a better business climate.

According to some, including the governor himself, Cuomo has successfully done all those things. As he seeks re-election, Cuomo touts having overseen a renaissance of the New York economy by implementing a property tax cap; creating regional councils that have allocated $2 billion in state cash for local economic development; attracting new businesses with Start-Up NY; addressing upstate's flagging economy by allowing for casinos; and infusing $1 billion into development in Buffalo.

On October 21, the Cuomo administration announced 17 more businesses that would be expanding or locating in New York under the Start-Up program. Since it's launch, the administration noted, 41 businesses had joined the program, "supporting 1,750 new jobs and $77 million in investment."

During the lone gubernatorial debate, on October 22, Cuomo cited "500,000" jobs created during his term. A recent statement from the Cuomo administration noted "511,900 private sector jobs added since Governor Cuomo took office."

In that October 16 statement, Cuomo said, "When this administration took office four years ago, taxes were out of control and jobs and businesses were leaving as a result. Today, we're seeing a different New York: one that has put its fiscal house in order and is continuing to create new opportunities every day."

The Cuomo administration touts that the governor has overseen the lowering of the unemployment rate from a 16-year high of 8.2 percent in May 2009 to 6.2 percent this month, guided the state to improved bond ratings, and delivered four on-time budgets, giving the business community much more confidence in the State. New York was famous for going months past the April 1 budget due date for decades.

In fact, Cuomo, a Democrat, won an award from the conservative Tax Foundation this month for his administration's "commitment to expanding the corporate tax base and reducing the income tax rate to its lowest level since 1968. As these reforms phase in, New York's ranking for its corporate tax system as part of the State Business Tax Climate Index will improve from 25th place to 4th best in the nation."

The same foundation named New York the least friendly state for business in 2013 and was slammed previously as a 'right-wing think tank" by Cuomo's close advisor.

Rob Astorino, Cuomo's Republican opponent, has run on a slogan that "New York is losing," citing a high-tax climate that he says has killed small business and driven New Yorkers to leave the state in record numbers. Astorino says that the state is 50 out of 50 in terms of being "business friendly."

Astorino and his supporters have attacked Cuomo's investment of $1 billion of state funds in Buffalo as a political shell game wherein Cuomo is diverting state cash to an area where he was politically vulnerable in his last two statewide elections.

Cuomo supporters paint a picture of a governor who has used fiscal austerity and prudence to turn around a dreary state economy made worse by the national recession.

Cuomo critics insist that no single elected official can take credit for the rise or fall of the state's economy, that the nation's economy has improved as a whole since 2008, and that jobs created in the state mostly originate from New York City, which was not nearly as damaged by the recession as the rest of the state or country and where Cuomo has not necessarily focused policy.

Critics argue Cuomo's fiscal austerity measures have actually restricted job growth upstate, where local governments are hamstrung by the property tax cap, and that Cuomo has used state funds in a political manner to boost his standing in upstate and western NY - where the economies have remained stagnant despite what some say are superficial investments.

"I never give elected officials broad credit or blame for the economy," said James Parrott of the non-partisan Fiscal Policy Institute. Parrott says it's clear to him that "most job growth occurred in New York City and Long Island. There was very little upstate or north of the Bronx. So there is a real unevenness in the recovery."

Kathryn Wylde of The Partnership for New York City, a pro-business group that has supported a number of Cuomo's economic initiatives, said that she thinks one of Cuomo's biggest accomplishments has been improving the state's business climate by simplifying taxes and focusing on collaboration between the State and businesses in economic development.

Wylde says Cuomo's decision to end the previous state economic development strategy called Empire Zones that handed out state cash to businesses was welcomed by the business community.

"He took a non-transparent approach doling out state largesse to developers without evidence of return on investment and put in place a far more transparent method of handing out billions through regional economic development councils around the state where community interests actually get to see the process. These councils have a role in the selection of projects and there is accountability in the process."

Parrott said that he thinks Cuomo's overhaul of how the State doles out economic development cash has been a net positive. "Its certainly sensible to have these local councils advocate for these projects," said Parrott.

Parrott is also encouraged by Cuomo's commitment to drawing high-tech to the state through investments in nanotechnology and the innovation hotspot competition, but he says he isn't sure current efforts are enough to bolster cutting edge industries and that the State should be looking to ensure return for its investments.

Astorino has slammed Start-Up NY as "a joke" because it doesn't address the needs of existing business in the state. Wylde however, insists the program has been a smashing success. "Start-Up NY has come under attack, but it is a brilliant program and it is key in an innovation economy to create partnerships between universities and industry. This is a game-changer because the state's universities have been remote to what's happening on the frontlines of industry."

Parrott said that he appreciates that Cuomo thinks government can have a positive impact on the economy. "Its very positive that the governor has a perspective on the economy that what he does makes a difference compared to [former Gov. George] Pataki, who kept cutting taxes until the economy improved and it never did."

And yet, Parrott is concerned that Cuomo thinks he too can cut taxes to improve the economy. Parrott said he thinks Cuomo's property tax cap and two percent cap on budget growth has actually damaged the economies of a number of upstate communities - as have his tough negotiations with state unions that have seen layoffs and cuts to benefits.

"The cuts to state government employment and the two percent spending cap and property tax cap are bad news for local governments. They are losing middle income government jobs in areas that aren't seeing private sector job growth."

Wylde said that Cuomo was brave to come in and cut tough deals with unions while capping property taxes and budget growth.

"The governor came in with a very honest and open assessment of what was wrong with Albany from a budgetary and fiscal standpoint," said Wylde. "He committed to restrained budget spending when it had been growing by 10 to 11 percent a year and kept it down to two percent a year. Upstate he capped property taxes as a way of disciplining local governments and he was clear about the need for negotiating pension reform and labor contracts to a significant political cost in some sectors. He laid out this agenda going in and he stuck to it."

Cuomo felt significant backlash from unions and the Left during his Democratic primary against Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout. A number of Cuomo confidants blamed his loss in several upstate counties, including Albany and Ulster, on his tough deals with unions. Both those areas are also home to strong progressive blocs whose members feel Cuomo has been on the wrong side of debates over the minimum wage.

Cuomo resisted a major increase to the minimum wage during his first term in office - finally agreeing to raise the wage to $8 an hour and an end-of-2015 increase to $9. He also dismissed Mayor Bill de Blasio's initial push to allow municipalities to increase their minimum wage independently of the State. However, Cuomo reversed himself in an agreement to receive the Working Families Party endorsement this spring. Cuomo now says he supports raising the wage to $10.10 an hour (a number President Obama has suggested nationally), indexing it to inflation, and allowing localities to increase the wage up to 30 percent over the state minimum.

Parrott's group steadfastly supports the increase. "I think he's been too conservative," said Parrott on Cuomo and the wage. Meanwhile, Wylde's group stands against allowing localities to set different minimum wages. Wylde said most employers agree New York's cost of living justifies a higher wage but they want it to be consistent across the state.

The Partnership for New York City does not feel Cuomo took care of all their concerns in his first term. Most importantly, Wylde said the business community would like to see the governor work on cutting regulatory red tape. "There is concern that the regulatory environment in the state is stifling. The State has been slow to update regulations and some of this stuff goes back to the pen and pencil days."

It so happens that Astorino has championed regulatory reforms and has pledged to ban any new regulations.

Wylde and Astorino also see eye-to-eye on simplifying the state's eight tier income tax brackets.

In his recently-released campaign policy book Cuomo outlines a number of business initiatives - some of which are leftovers from his first-term pledges and others that promise to expand on them. Cuomo plans to introduce $500 million in incentives to get local governments to consolidate and reduce property taxes; an infrastructure bank that will create "self sustaining" funding for major infrastructure projects; and plans to expand global exports.

Cuomo also wants to expand Start-Up NY, something that Wylde sees as inevitable. "They've really done a great job, they've gotten thousands of applicants and the program has been very responsive to what the industry is saying is needed."

***
by David King, Albany editor, Gotham Gazette
@DavidHowardKing

New York City Hall

Highlights of what we're watching this week include:

• The latest on Ebola in New York: what will happen with Dr. Craig Spencer, diagnosed this past week with Ebola, those he came into close contact with who have been under quarantine, and those caring for his health? Will there be other diagnosed cases of Ebola in New York?
• How will new quarantine measures announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday - and adjusted on Sunday - play out? When people who have had exposure to Ebola return from West Africa, the eyes of the state, if not the country and world, will be watching.
• Wednesday is the two-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy hitting New York City: assessments of recovery and planning ahead continue, local leaders look to gauge communities - see below for more detail.
• Will there be any news from the Eric Garner special grand jury, which convened several weeks ago on Staten Island?
• The latest action at the City Council as hearings will take place this week on a variety of bills and issues - see below for day-by-day details, there are several interesting hearings this week.
• A whole slate of specific political and civic events around New York City this week - see below for day-by-day details.

Elections Watch:

• Who might former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout endorse in the general? She has said she'd make an announcement on October 28, which is Tuesday and one week til Election Day. Seems like it'll be Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins or no one at this point. Whatever Teachout decides, it'll make at least a little noise this week.
• NY-11 debate on NY1 Tuesday night: watch incumbent Republican Congress Member Michael Grimm and his Democratic opponent Domenic Recchia joust.
• Attorney General debate Thursday night, also on NY1 (and other channels): watch incumbent Democratic AG Eric Schneiderman and his Republican challenger John Cahill spar in their lone debate of the race.
• What will the last polls before Election Day show in the three statewide races, NY-11, and other pivotal contests of New York's 2014 election cycle?
• How much more drama will there be surrounding the Working Families Party and the Women's Equality Party leading up to Election Day?
• Will any candidates do or say anything particularly bold (or desparate)? Will U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara make any more noise?

[Read: Gotham Gazette's series The Cuomo Record looks at the first term of incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo]

The run of the week in more detail:

Monday
Mayor de Blasio starts his week Monday morning speaking "at an ACS Leadership Forum in Manhattan" and then, "later Monday morning, the Mayor will host a press conference in Manhattan and sign Int. 466-A, in relation to reducing the citywide speed limit to 25 miles per hour," according to his public schedule released Sunday evening.

On Monday evening and as the two-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy approaches, Council Members Donovan Richards and Eric Ulrich will host a "Hurricane Sandy Town Hall and Resource Fair" meeting in Rockaway Park, Queens - 7:30 p.m. at Beach Channel High School: "Two Years Later... What has been done... and what still needs to be done?" The two council members will be joined by several other city officials, including Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver; Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Emily Lloyd; Build-it-Back Director Amy Peterson; and Mayor's Senior Advisor for Recovery and Resiliency Bill Goldstein. [Read Gotham Gazette's report on at-risk communities and City resiliency efforts as the two-year anniversary of Sandy approaches]

Earlier in the day...
On Monday morning, Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs Julie Menin will participate in a "Small Business Town Hall" meeting at the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

Monday's City Council Schedule includes: Public Advocate Letitia James and the City Council Committees on Civil Rights, Public Safety, Higher Education, and Women's Issues will hold a joint oversight hearing on "sexual assault on New York City college campuses," which will include looking at two resolutions calling on the federal government to act; the Committee on Veterans will convene for an oversight hearing on the "Veterans Advisory Board"; and the Committee on Technology will meet for an oversight hearing on the "New York City Open Data Portal."

Prior to the council hearing on campus sexual assault, James and others will hold a "Combating College Sexual Assault Press Conference" at City Hall. Later in the day, James will attend "SHINE: Equality Event Celebrating the Leadership of New York Women in the LGBT Immigration Movement" and "South Asian for Right Choice (Diwali Celebration)," according to her public schedule.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, a longtime tech advocate, is set to testify at the technology committee hearing Monday. Then, at 2 p.m., Brewer will host a press conference on the steps of City Hall regarding "improving technology in schools....outlining reforms for improving (or even merely introducing) technology in public schools. It's a topic made more important by the presence of Proposition 3 on the November 4, 2014 General Election ballot." [Read Gotham Gazette's report on Prop 3: How Bright is the Smart Schools Bond Act?]

On Monday evening, the Contracts Committee of the Panel for Educational Policy will convene for a public meeting at 6 p.m. at Tweed Courthouse.

Participatory budgeting neighborhood assemblies on Monday will be held by Council Members Melissa Mark-Viverito, Andrew Cohen, Paul Vallone, Costa Constantinides, Karen Koslowitz, Carlos Menchaca, Daneek Miller, Brad Lander, Jumaane Williams and Mark Treyger.

Associate Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health Sam Miller will speak about Ebola preparedness in Queens and around the city at the Queens Borough Board meeting Monday evening being hosted by Borough President Melinda Katz.

On Monday evening, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito "Hosts Voices of New York: An Evening of Music, Poetry, Dance and Spoken Word" at La Mama on E 4th St, according to her public schedule (it is the only event on that schedule as of Sunday evening).

For his part, Comptroller Scott Stringer's only public event scheduled for Monday (as of Sunday night) is his attending "the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center Fundraiser" in the evening.

Also Monday evening, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will host his borough's Italian-American Heritage celebration.

Tuesday
One week til Election Day!

Tuesday evening will see the aforementioned debate between Rep. Michael Grimm and Domenic Recchia, hosted by NY1/The Staten Island Advance.

Earlier in the day...
JCOPE - the NYS Joint Commission on Public Ethics - will hold an open meeting on Tuesday morning at 10:30 in Albany.

Also on Tuesday morning, DOE Chancellor Carmen Fariña will hold a professional development meeting with her newly assigned superintendents in Brooklyn, according to The Daily News.

PROP (the Police Reform Organizing Project) will release "Everyday: How Often NYC's Cops and Courts Inflict Harm and Hardship," a follow-up to its summer publication, Broken Windows Policing: A True Tale of Two Cities, that presented the initial findings of the organization's court monitoring efforts.

Tuesday's City Council schedule includes: he Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management will meet regarding oversight of "DSNY's 2015-16 Snow Plan," and to consider a bill "Requiring snowplows to be fitted with lights and audible warnings to prevent pedestrian deaths," one mandating the "Removal of snow, ice, dirt and other material from fire hydrants," and one "Requiring the department of sanitation to issue an annual report concerning the condition of roadways and pedestrian islands after snow events"; the Committee on Education will hold a hearing with the Subcommittee on Non-Public Schools regarding oversight of "Special Education Instruction and Student Achievement" and introduction of a bill "in relation to requiring the department of education to report information regarding students receiving special education services"; the Committee on Consumer Affairs oversight of "Used Car Sales in New York City: Ensuring Consumer Protections and Safety in the Sale of Used Vehicles Recalled by the Manufacturer" and introduction of bills in relation to "price displays for used cars" and "prohibiting secondhand automobile dealers from failing to repair automobiles that have been recalled by the automobiles' manufacturers."

Tuesday participatory budgeting meetings will be held by Council Members Ritchie Torres, Mark Weprin, Karen Koslowitz, David Greenfield, Corey Johnson, Helen Rosenthal, and Mark Levine.

The New York City Voter Assistance Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting in the NYC Campaign Finance Board's offices.

The de Blasio family will host a Halloween event at Gracie Mansion on Tuesday, with all New Yorkers aged 12 and under welcome to attend (under adult supervision): "Gracie Mansion Halloween: Spooky Walk and Trick-or-Treating with the Mayor and First Lady of the City of New York," 5:30 PM to 6:30 p.m., "As a special treat for City Harvest, please bring a non-perishable food item for our Halloween Food Drive!...Come join the de Blasios, if you dare, for some trick-or-treating, and perhaps a slight scare. So don your best costume, be creative, go crazy; We're celebrating Halloween at Spooktacular Gracie!"

Wednesday
On Wednesday morning, Commissioner of the Department of Probation Ana Bermudez, joined by other experts on the topic, will address the age of criminal responsibility at the forum "Raise the Age: Changing Youth Justice in NYC" hosted by the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School.

The City Council schedule for Wednesday includes: the Committee on Housing and Buildings will look at bills that detail "Amending the obligations of owners to provide notice to their tenants for non-emergency repairs," a "Provision of housing applications in multiple languages by the department of housing preservation and development," and "Installation of safety covers on electrical outlets in public areas of certain multiple dwellings"; the Committee on Small Business will hold a joint meeting with the Committee on Consumer Affairs for an oversight hearing on "Earned Sick Time Implementation and Business Education"; and the Committee on Transportation will meet to consider two new bills regarding "increasing the number of accessible pedestrian signals" and "'Rounding up' parking time."

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer will headline Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce's upcoming "Annual Membership Meeting and Trade Show" on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, Capital New York will host "TAMI Talks: Tech and the City" forum, that will focus on "the critical issues facing leaders of Technology, Advertising, Media and Information (TAMI) businesses in New York City." Featured speakers will include: Counsel to the Mayor & Director of MWBE Program Maya Wiley; Executive Director of NY Tech Meetup Jessica Lawrence; BuzzFeed CFO Mark Frackt; Personal Democracy Media Founder Andrew Rasiej and President and CEO of Partnership for New York City Kathryn Wylde.

Council Members Corey Johnson, Andrew Cohen and Julissa Ferreras will hold participatory budgeting events in their districts on Wednesday evening.

State Assembly Member Deborah Glick is holding an anti-fracking town-hall meeting on Wednesday evening in Manhattan: "Let's Protect Our Drinking Water: Fighting Hydraulic Fracturing in NYS."

Also Wednesday evening, Council Member Ben Kallos will host a town hall meeting with reps from city agencies.

The Panel for Educational Policy will host a public meeting Wednesday evening to vote on recently proposed changes by Chancellor Farina, among other things.

Also on Wednesday evening, City & State NY is hosting this year's edition of "New York City 40 Under 40 Rising Stars," honoring "40 talented individuals under the age of 40 who work in New York City government, politics, and advocacy. Rising Star members have already distinguished themselves in the eyes of their colleagues and are on their way to amassing many more noteworthy accomplishments."

BetaNYC is hosting "Civic Hacknight and Sandy Anniversary" on Wednesday: "technologists, data scientists, developers, designers, map makers, and activists" meet for the latest installment of this work, billed as "a study hall or office hours to improve the city.

Thursday
Thursday will be highlighted by the debate between Attorney General candidates: Democratic incumbent Eric Schneiderman and his Republican challenger John Cahill. The debate will take place near Buffalo and be broadcast on Time Warner stations include NY1. [Read our latest report on the AG race]

Earlier on Thursday...
Thursday's City Council schedule includes: the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services will meet jointly with the Committee on Recovery and Resiliency to discuss bills related to emergency preparedness issues; and the City Council Committee on Aging will convene for an oversight hearing on "Age-Friendly NYC Aging Improvement Districts." [Read our report on new 'age-friendly' initiatives planned by Speaker Mark-Viverito and the Council]

Success Academy will host a daylong seminar to share some of its best practices with city public elementary school principals: "Driving Excellence: A Daylong Seminar That Shares Success Academy Best Practices with NYC Public Elementary School Principals...Since opening its first school in August of 2006, Success Academy has been the subject of keen interest: How do these schools -now 32 of them- continue to produce strong academic results among all segments of their enrollment: children with special needs, English Language Learners, and low-income children of color. In this overview of key elements of Success Academy design, principals can expect to learn the innovative approaches to teaching and learning as well as actionable take-away lessons that can be applied in any school."

There will be a mid-day webinar on participatory budgeting: "A People's Budget: A Research and Evaluation Report on Cycle 3 Participatory Budgeting in New York City...Join us for a webinar presentation of key research findings and a panel discussion exploring this unique community-driven budgeting process."

Council Members Jimmy Van Bramer, Ben Kallos, Ydanis Rodriguez, Andrew Cohen, Daneek Miller, and Ritchie Torres will discuss participatory budgeting in their districts on Thursday.

On Thursday evening, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will host an Ebola Community Forum at City College: "In its first initiative, my African Immigrant Task Force is joining with community partners and NYC elected officials to present a free public forum to address the Ebola epidemic as it relates to NYC - "Ebola: What You Need to Know but are Afraid to Ask."

The Arab American Association of New York will host its 13th annual Benefit Gala event on Thursday evening in Brooklyn.

Also Thursday evening, the celebration of Brian Lehrer's 25th annviersary on the air at WNYC: "Hosted by Brian himself, the evening will include a news and history quiz with a special guest quiz-master and a panel discussion on the theme of 'progress' in New York and America over the past 25 years." [Watch our video interview of Brian Lehrer during which he discusses his start in journalism favorite on-air moments, and much more]

Friday and the weekend
The last weekend before Election Day will, of course, see lots of campaign canvassing and phone banking. Watch out for those pesky campaign workers!

On Friday morning, Commissioner of the Office of Labor Relations, Robert Linn, will be the featured guest at a CityLaw breakfast event.

On Saturday, Chancellor Carmen Farina will host one in the "Chancellor's Parent Conference Series," this one for elementary school and pre-k, at Tweed: "Topics to include: Pre-K Activities Parents Can Do at Home; The IEP Process Step by Step; Why You Should Read to Your Child."

On Saturday, Council Member Daneek Miller hosts his third participatory budgeting neighborhood assembly of the week.

And on Sunday, the city host it's 2014 marathon, always a major event.

***
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).

***
by Rati Mukhuradze, Katrina Shakarian, and Ben Max
@GothamGazette

Willie Silva, a lifelong resident of Red Hook (photo: Emrys Eller)

Do New Yorkers believe, two years after Superstorm Sandy decimated the area's coastline, that they're safer from future storms and devastating floods?

The answer - according to 70 residents from around the city who spoke with our reporters and filled out our online survey - seems to be a resounding "no."

City officials we interviewed argue that preparations are underway to protect New York from future climate risk. Yet some local City Council members confirm that the public sentiment we gathered is not misguided, acknowledging that more needs to be done to let New Yorkers know about resiliency efforts.

These were the findings of a team of nearly three dozen journalists conducting an investigation that ran several weeks and focused on two of the city's worst storm-battered communities - Brooklyn's Red Hook and Manhattan's Lower East Side. The collaborative reporting project was conducted by Gotham Gazette with partners AdaptNY, a climate news site; the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism; and the independent NY Environment Report.

The "Are You Climate Safe?" project sent our reporters into the field earlier in October. There, we interviewed residents and business owners, and subsequently surveyed online dozens of others from these two high-risk neighborhoods and other parts of the city and metro area (see our neighborhood coverage and a reporting wrapup).

The overwhelming majority of those we contacted told us they thought they were no safer. Just a handful said they believed they were better off.

A significant number also said they were simply unsure what measures, if any, were being taken to protect their communities. That despite the fact the city appears to be working steadily through a massive and costly set of resiliency initiatives, even as it struggles to make progress in responding to disappointment over the slowness of its "Build It Back" housing recovery program.

The degree of public disengagement with city planning work on climate resiliency we uncovered echoes our previous investigative findings of a striking disconnect in communication between City Hall and some of the communities most affected by Sandy.

"I have not seen any evidence of preparation against climate risk in my community, except for the new NYC flood risk zones map," said one retired Red Hook resident. "I don't believe we are truly informed on what has been done," said another.

The collaborative also spoke with city leaders, including City Council Members and high-ranking members of the de Blasio administration. Other key findings from the investigation were:

--Many of the city's large-scale climate resiliency projects, still in the planning phase, are essentially invisible to residents we reached.

--As a result, some prominent local officials argue that there needs to be a "clear, concise, understandable" version of the city's resiliency plan, especially in these most vulnerable areas.

--But planning is clearly underway, such as with large-scale flood protection projects in Red Hook and the Lower East Side, both hard hit by Sandy-related flooding.

--Both communities are also about to see portions of $1.8 billion in FEMA funds for the permanent replacement of temporary boilers, installed after Sandy damage in the public housing complexes that many of their residents call home.

--Yet many residents, uncertain about broader resiliency measures being put into place by city officials, told us they are preparing personally for another catastrophic weather event. Some, especially in Red Hook, see themselves as more reliant on the efforts of fellow citizens in community groups and local community boards for protection from future climate extremes.

Resiliency Gap Between Residents, City
Flooding was the most frequent concern we heard from the residents we reached, with rising seas and storm surges creating a truly existential concern for some. Asked one woman: "Are coastal cities a thing of the past?"

Yet the city is emphatic that it will not abandon its coastline, and says it is preparing New York, especially its waterfront communities.

Daniel Zarrilli, director of the Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency, told us "substantial progress" has been made on the city's massive ten-year resiliency plan, which was launched by former Mayor Bloomberg in June, 2013.

Of the plan's 257 initiatives, Zarrilli said 29 have been completed and more than 200 are "underway" (see the city's latest official update). Included are major coastal protection systems being planned for both Red Hook and the Lower East Side.

Zarrilli said among the "great wins so far" are upgraded bulkheads, flood insurance reforms, and the replenishment of beaches. At a press conference in mid-October, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that 3.27 million cubic yards of sand have been placed on city beaches since Sandy hit, and 10,500 linear feet of bulkheads have been repaired all over the city.

But while some residents did make note of storm-related repairs made at their New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, developments and to neighborhood infrastructure, the overwhelming number of those we spoke with had little to no awareness of the more extensive resiliency projects.

"There have been no large-scale efforts on the part of the city/state/federal government to protect New York Harbor," a Red Hook resident wrote us in response to our online crowdsourcing survey. "Until this is addressed, low-lying areas will not be safer, no matter how many Go Bags are distributed."

"I know work is being done to prevent the complete mess that happened during Sandy," one Lower East Side resident said in a survey response. "And we are all more prepared now. However, I don't believe we are truly informed on what has been done."

Council Member Mark Treyger, who chairs the City Council's Committee on Recovery and Resiliency acknowledged in an interview that "residents are not wrong about feeling unclear" regarding the city's resiliency efforts.

Part of the problem, explained Treyger, is that many of those initiatives have most likely not yet moved beyond the study or design phase. And will the city be able to find funding for all of these initiatives? Said Treyger: "Everything is tied to the level of available resources. Do we have the resources to move beyond the study phase?"

Regardless, Treyger argued, "There needs to be a greater effort to make clear to all stakeholders - local elected officials and residents - what is the [resiliency] plan."

Community-based Sandy task forces nixed
Zarrilli maintained that the City is working with local elected officials and communities throughout the five boroughs to plan for climate change. He said that outreach effort includes the Mayor's Office of Recovery and Resiliency, which he directs, as well as the Department of City Planning, which is examining how nine particularly vulnerable communities - including the Lower East Side - can become more climate resilient.

On the other hand, the City has also reversed itself and will not re-convene two community advisory task forces, established after Sandy, that directly engaged the city's most vulnerable neighborhoods in planning.

One task force, made up of elected officials and community board chairs from the areas of the city most impacted by Sandy, had met monthly in the five months leading up to the release of the mayor's 2013 resiliency plan.

A second task force was "composed of community organizations from the impacted areas, which the community boards were also heavily involved in," Zarrilli said.

Zarrilli had told us last year, in the wake of criticism about community involvement in City Hall's climate change planning process, that the City planned to re-active the task forces as part of "broad-based outreach" to the city's hardest-hit neighborhoods.

But when we spoke with him earlier this month, he said the City had decided against reviving the bodies. The task forces, Zarrilli argued, "may not be the right model for how we engage in hyper-local issues."

Not everyone agrees. City Council Member Donovan Richards, who represents the Rockaways and chairs the Council's Environmental Protection Committee, said he believed there was an ongoing role for the task forces.

"We should make sure that there are community boards, there are local leaders [involved]. Communication is key here. We have to make sure everyone's on the same page," he argued. "It benefits the administration to move in that direction to recreate the task forces. No one can say you're not doing anything if you're updating them."

When asked about the citywide task forces, Treyger said, "I am open to anything. Nothing should be taken off the table."

Richards did stress that the de Blasio administration has been responsive to his requests for information and engagement when it comes to planning for climate change in the Rockaways.

"It's critical to hear all sides," he added. "There's no one who can tell you better what's going on than the people on the ground. If we're going to get this [recovery] right, it has to be a bottom-up approach. It can't just be a top-down approach."

One step the city is taking toward broadening its outreach is by conducting a Department of City Planning study on how communities can become more climate resilient.

The Lower East Side, and nine other neighborhoods, are part of "phase 1" of the department's study. Red Hook is a "phase 2" candidate, per available funding. The DCP study is examining issues such as zoning, the city's building codes and the new national flood insurance maps.

Zarrilli added that through this process, the City is working with community boards and local organizations. The idea is to "advance in a much more granular way," he explained.

Sandy's legacy lives on in Lower East Side, Red Hook
Meanwhile, the memory of Sandy's damage remains strong in Red Hook and the Lower East Side. Both communities have been identified by the City not only as two of the hardest hit by Sandy, but also among the most vulnerable in terms of future climate impacts.

One of the most densely populated areas in southern Manhattan, the Lower East Side and Chinatown have a high concentration of public housing residents, with over 13,000 units of NYCHA housing.

During Sandy, thousands in the area, while protected from high waves by New York Harbor, felt the brunt of flooding from Sandy's storm surge.

Floodwaters overtook bulkheads and the surge traveled 2,000 feet inland, crossing the FDR Drive and producing water as deep as two feet near Avenue C. Con Edison's electric substations on the Lower East Side were crippled by the flooding, cutting off power from the World Trade Center to 34th Street.

Life also changed drastically for Red Hook residents when Sandy hit.

Much of the neighborhood lay in darkness because of power outages. Even without power, and in temperatures that eventually dipped below freezing, businesses and residents immediately began the long process of clearing out muck and debris left behind by the devastating storm surge that struck the area.

According to the City, much of Red Hook experienced three to six feet of flooding during Sandy. The neighborhood, low-lying and bounded by water on three sides, sits below the base flood elevations currently identified by FEMA. There is virtually no "high ground".

Sections of the Red Hook Houses, which is the largest public housing complex in Brooklyn and quarters the majority of the neighborhood's 14,000 residents, were without heat, hot water and electricity for days, and in some cases, weeks. Hundreds of volunteers banded together to assist elderly and other vulnerable residents trapped on upper floors.

Numerous people told stories of combating more than five feet of water on their ground floor and dealing with the loss of most of their possessions.

"We were flooded to 54 inches in a matter of minutes," Eric Immerman of the Red Hook Lobster Pound restaurant recalled.

Eric Sneddon, manager of the Red Hook Fairway Market, described the damage the storm left by raising his hand to show the watermarks that remain and the objects that rose.

"The refrigerators were floating across the store," he said.

Red Hook hopes to end reliance on temporary generators soon
Many in Red Hook have been able to return to the status quo with the help of friends, neighbors and family. Businesses and homes have been rebuilt, and the real estate market in the neighborhood is once again booming.

Residents of the Red Hook Houses, however, continue to rely on temporary generators. The mechanical systems for the buildings were located below ground and were flooded out during Sandy.

Council Member Richards noted that NYCHA's temporary generators did not perform well last winter, leaving residents without heat and hot water numerous times.

"My entire building is still having electricity through the generators," said Mitchel'le Thomas. "It makes a lot of noise and ... sometimes the water gets cold for no reason. So seeing that nothing has been done to improve the way we live after Sandy, I doubt that anything has been done to prevent or to better prepare us in case of another storm."

There may be good news on the way for NYCHA residents.

Council Member Treyger told us that, "according to feedback from the administration," FEMA is about to release $1.8 billion in funds for the permanent replacement of NYCHA boilers across the city, particularly in Red Hook, Coney Island and the Rockaways.

Part of the delay, Treyger said, was because the City needed to provide a plan to FEMA explaining how the boilers would be elevated in order to protect them from future storms.

Zarrilli added that the City is "working closely" with the Housing Authority. "[There is] definitely going to be investment in NYCHA complexes," he said.

Still, two years after Sandy, many residents we spoke with feel vulnerable. "[The] city won't be prepared in time for the next storm," one elderly man told us.

"I don't think NYCHA is ready if another storm was to hit the Red Hook Community," said a woman who had lived in the neighborhood for over ten years. "[There is] very little communication from NYCHA to the residents."

Some residents take preparations into their own hands
A number of residents from both the Lower East Side and Red Hook told us that they are taking steps on their own to prepare for the next catastrophic weather event.

"I believe the city is more prepared," a Lower East Side resident told us by survey, but added: "I personally learned the importance of keeping an old fashioned land line plugged into the wall...Also, keeping well stocked with candles, and matches and up to date batteries for flashlights, all are now very much in place."

Several repeated the sentiment that they felt more personally prepared to handle another storm like Sandy. Yet, at the same time, a significant number seemed unaware of what was being planned for their communities on a larger scale relative to climate change.

"I haven't seen any measures taken to prevent a repeat of the flooding/power outage experienced during Sandy," said one resident. "And I suspect this is the way it will be until the neighborhood is either condemned or is fully gentrified."

"Some steps have been taken to protect large institutional buildings, such as the Con Ed power station, from flooding," said another. "But no real plans are in the works yet to protect the entire area."

In Red Hook, we talked to residents who have been stockpiling food, building water partitions, rigging external generators, and even redesigning their residences in order to raise them off the ground.

Alfredo Otero told reporters that he has "cached food, water, and flashlights."

Adam Turner of Pioneer Works maintained that Sandy was a wake-up call for many Red Hook residents. "Physically I don't feel safer, but I think people are more educated about what to do if another major storm hits," he said.

"This neighborhood is powerful," argued resident Elsie Felder.

But planning for a once-in-a lifetime storm, however, is a different matter from preparing for rising seas and ongoing flooding. City scientists predict area sea levels could increase as much as 11 inches by the 2020's, and 31 inches by the 2050's.

Some residents are keenly aware of that broader risk. Robert O'Neil, of FDNY Engine 202, for instance, recalled how he and other firefighters were forced to relocate to another firehouse during Sandy. "We're [Red Hook] going to get flooded whether there's a storm or not," he observed. 

'Big U' and other flood preparations underway
On the Lower East Side, while residents are still in the process of rebuilding, they're not stopping there.

For instance, some apartment complexes are constructing storm walls to stop future flooding. And the city's resiliency measures include hardening pumping stations, launching neighborhood retail recovery programs and modifying shoreline parks to protect adjacent communities.

But the biggest measure is a massive construction project called the "Big U." It will reinforce low-lying areas on the Lower East Side by constructing park-like, impermeable barriers, called "berms," near the Manhattan Bridge. Deployable walls will also be built under the FDR Drive, ready to flip down in preparation of a storm.

The "Big U" was one of the winning proposals selected by President Obama's Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force Rebuild by Design competition. The project has been awarded $335 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of the competition.

In its entirety, the Big U will eventually stretch from West 57th Street south to the Battery, and up to East 42nd Street. According to HUD, the Big U will protect 29,000 public housing apartments, 150,000 residents and the Con Ed substation from future storms.

Zarrilli said that the City has begun surveying work for the Lower East Side's "Bridging Berms" project, and that the community has been engaged in the design process. He said he met with local Community Board 3 this summer. The City expects the project to be "fully implemented within the next few years," added Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget.

Red Hook is also a focus of government planning efforts. This January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Vice President Joe Biden announced that the City and State would jointly allocate $200 million toward an "integrated flood protection system" for Red Hook.

The project, which the State said will be "the first of its kind in the nation," is supposed to reduce the risk of major flooding for the majority of the community. It is part of New York State's $17 billion climate resilience strategy, "Reimagining New York for a New Reality." It is also one of the 257 initiatives in the city's resilience plan.

Details remain to be determined, but according to the State's plan, the flood protection system will "potentially encompass 370 acres of land and may feature a combination of elements, including a natural greenway, deployable flood walls, elevated streets, and drainage pumps."

The project will most likely connect with the Brooklyn Greenway, a landscaped route along the waterfront, which will eventually stretch 14 miles, from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge.

A design competition for the project was supposed to be held this year, with a project completion date scheduled for 2016, according to the City's resiliency plan. That timetable has been delayed because of funding issues, said Spitalnick.

The city is waiting for final approval from FEMA to complete the initial feasibility study for the project, she explained. "Once that happens, design and construction will follow."

A longer-term project, says Zarrilli, is to build a storm-surge barrier in the nearby Gowanus Canal. That barrier will protect a larger area, including Red Hook and Gowanus.

Depth of community engagement in planning process remains unclear
The flood protection system proposed for Red Hook is part of a larger neighborhood resiliency plan created with state support and prepared by a group of outside consulting firms, with what was said to be the leadership of a "broad swath" of the community.

The resulting plan discusses strategies ranging from support for small businesses to emergency back-up solar power for the Red Hook houses to an examination of the neighborhood's drainage issues.

Yet, the extent of the state and city resiliency plans for the area did not seem to have left much of an impression on the residents we spoke with. Some expressed concern about time passing.

"The State and City need to get going on the Integrated Flood Protection system that was announced in January," one resident told us. "Red Hook has done well preparing for future flooding events, but we need to know that there is a process in place to protect us from that flooding in the first place."

In fact, what seemed to matter more than the official planning were the efforts of fellow citizens, such as community groups and the local community board, a point made repeatedly by residents. For instance, many mentioned the Red Hook Initiative, which played a leading role in coordinating relief efforts after Sandy.

"The only people helping me are the neighbors," said Carmen Sanchez of Pioneer St Supermarket. Added Sabrina Holmes, another resident, "The City mentions preventive measures now and then, but progress is slow. Not much has happened."

"I feel at times I have a way to voice my concerns thru [the] Red Hook Initiative and through my boss, Assemblyman Felix W. Ortiz," said Karen Broughton, a long-term resident.

For Broughton, hundreds of work-related conversations with constituents of Ortiz have made it apparent to her that some "have lost their faith in organizations and governmental agencies; when it comes to getting proper information or getting anything they need done."

Gaps in communication between residents and government planners mean that residents may not know that concrete plans are actually being made. Even worse, people may give up on a neighborhood.

"If there is another storm like Sandy, I'll leave the neighborhood. I don't want to take the risk," added Shaniqua Smith, another Red Hook resident.

"The Public Has a Right to Know"
Council Members Richards and Treyger both said they found the City to be genuinely responsive on resiliency questions. In fact, Zarrilli also told us that he, and other city officials, will be at an October 27 Town Hall meeting in the Rockaways to discuss resiliency planning with New York City residents, organized by Richards.

But both Richards and Treyger stressed that a lot more needs to be done.

In Treyger's district, in Coney Island, for instance, the council member observed that sand replenishment has brought the beaches back to their previous state. But this isn't enough, he says. Treyger recollected that the ocean crossed the beach during Sandy, reaching the Coney Island boardwalk. He said he does not yet "see added protective measures" for the area.

Similarly, Richards talked about the community of Arverne in the Rockaways. "There's no protection for these particular homeowners if another storm comes. The only thing that separates them...from the [Jamaica] Bay is bulkheads, and the bulkheads are totally deteriorated."

Richards is calling on the City to rebuild the bulkheads, and noted that Arverne's homeowners are still rebuilding from Sandy. "We're in hurricane season so god forbid something happens again, they're back in the same place again, if not worse."

Treyger argued that at times the administration does seem to have to be pushed forward by the City Council and residents. A City Council hearing on conditions for NYCHA residents, held in Coney Island earlier this year, helped to spur the City's development of plans needed for the release of FEMA funding for upgrades, he noted.

"[We] had to push the needle," Treyger said.

The key issue, he said, is to maximize community participation in discussions about climate change: "We need an educational effort...starting with local community boards, to educate and inform people where we are at. There needs to be a clear, concise, understandable plan, especially in the vulnerable areas."

Concluded Treyger: "The public has a right to know what the City is doing to protect them."

***
by Sarah Crean
Contributing to this investigative report were Chauncey Alcorn, Gabriela Alonso, Jessica Bal, Andrew Caringi, Rahim Chagani, Erica Davies, Pilar Desha, Jack D'isidoro, Reed Dunlea, Emrys Eller, William Engel, Allison Fox, Sophie Gauthier, David Gershgorn, Lillian Knoepp, Eric Levitz, Kathryn Long, Ayana Mason, Monica Melton, Andrew Menezes, Carlotta Mohamed, Elise Murrell, Cari Party, Catherine Roberts, Cole Rosengren, Maria Sanchez Diez, Derek Scancarelli, Karen Shakerdge, Bianca Silva, John Spina, and Marguerite Ward.
Editors: Adam Glenn and Ben Max

Seagate resident Jack Suben stands in the vacant lot of his former home (photo: Natasha Scully)

CONEY ISLAND — It has been nearly two years since Superstorm Sandy destroyed his family's home, but much of Jack Suben's life is still up in the air.

Suben, 60, an architect and Seagate neighborhood resident, says he has struggled to regain everything he lost, including the Atlantic Avenue beach-front home — value estimated at $600,000 — where he and his family of five lived for the previous 11 years.

But his fate, like that of thousands of New Yorkers, rests in the hands of the city's Build it Back program, established by former-Mayor Michael Bloomberg to help rebuild or restore the lost or damaged homes of local Sandy victims.

The prospects haven't been good. Earlier this month, the city's Department of Investigation released a report on Build it Back, showing 90 percent of the program's 14,000 applicants have received no aid at all since Sandy. Another 6,000 applicants simply gave up or stopped responding.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is pushing hard to get the program back on track. Speaking at a press conference in Broad Channel, Queens on Monday, de Blasio listed Build it Back accomplishments since he appointed current Office of Housing Recovery Director Amy Peterson to take over the program in March.

According to de Blasio, nearly half of active applications, about 6,400, have now been made an offer by the program, the vast majority since the start of the year. In addition, nearly 4,000 have accepted offers, 1,500-plus have started design, 727 have started construction and another 878 have gotten reimbursement checks. All those numbers stood at zero at the beginning of the year.

The city also has committed to new goals by year's end, said the mayor. It plans 1,000 construction starts and 1,500 reimbursement checks by December 31.

"Every check means a family is getting back on their feet," de Blasio said. "Every construction start means a family will get back in their homes."

So far, Suben's family is not one of them. Earlier this year, he signed his mortgage over to Build it Back, attempting to recoup its full value after only receiving a combined $300,000 from his insurers due to federal restrictions on flood insurance payouts.

Suben says that after Sandy he was forced to battle with all the entities that were supposed to be helping him in his time of need. "This whole experience has been the greatest quintessential cluster[expletive] of all time," he told Gotham Gazette. "I've never seen so much incompetence in so many places as a result of this storm."

Suben haggled for months with his flood and homeowners insurance providers. He fought his mortgage provider for trying to force him to make payments he legally deferred thanks to a statewide moratorium for Sandy victims.

Since the moratorium ended in 2013, Suben, who along with his wife, Elaine, earns a household income of roughly $130,000 annually, has paid monthly rent of $2,800 for a two-bedroom apartment, while also paying a $1,800 monthly mortgage on a house that no longer exists.

"That's the killer," Suben adds. "I've had to cash in two-thirds of my retirement account just to survive."

His Build it Back troubles began in May of 2013 when representatives from the agency asked him and his wife to travel to their office and sign up for the program.

"They didn't know what they were doing," Suben says of the agency staffers he encountered. "They hadn't even been trained as to how to use the equipment. I had to show the guy who was there how to use the computer. He could barely type."

Although he is dissatisfied with Build it Back's performance thus far, Suben still believes it will come through for him.

"I can't afford for them to fail," he says emphatically. "I'm too invested in them. I've signed my life away."

Other South Brooklyn residents have similar stories. Rocco Brescia's 36th Street home near Kaiser Park was also severely damaged by Sandy. This past June, Build It Back's Peterson herself visited Brescia's home with a team, promising to add a third floor and turn his first floor into a car port to protect his house from future Sandy-like storms.

Five months later, no construction has taken place and no relief funds have been received, according to Brescia. Build it Back declined to comment on Brescia's claims.

"I have neighbors who are all in the same predicament," Brescia says. "They all signed up for [Build it Back], but we haven't heard anything. They say they've rebuilt 500 homes, but not in [this] area code."

David Wynn, president of the Seagate Homeowners Association, explains his neighborhood had 47 homeowners severely affected by Sandy and 20 of them have not been able to move back.

"We're coming up to our third hurricane season since Sandy and nothing has changed," he says. "We still have the same infrastructure problems and damage we had [two] seasons ago. That's pretty bad."

On Tuesday, Build it Back Director Amy Peterson hosted a meeting with Seagate neighborhood homeowners at a nearby senior citizen rec center, the second such meeting in the last six weeks. Suben's wife, Elaine, and other family members attended along with at least three other families from the neighborhood. Each met individually with construction and design specialists to discuss plans to rebuild their homes.

The Suben family expressed relief at the meeting, after months of inaction. "A meeting like this makes us more hopeful to see a time frame," says Suben's daughter Mackenzie, who recently moved home after graduating from college and is sleeping in a bedroom with her two adult brothers. "It's just like we're trying to climb lists. That's all we're doing. It's definitely frustrating. We try not to think about it too much."

Peterson said the ongoing meetings are a way to keep homeowners engaged and informed throughout the process. She added that the Subens and other Seagate homeowners are in the design phase right now, but that construction on their homes should start some time next year.

"We are out in the community almost every day, every night," Peterson notes. "We have a long way to go, but we're really making progress for homeowners. This is a good example that we're actually moving these homeowners forward."

***
by Chauncey Alcorn for Gotham Gazette

Governor Cuomo (photo: governor's office via flickr) 

 The following is part of our series, The Cuomo Record, examining incumbent Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo's first term as he seeks re-election heading to Election Day, November 4

Governor Cuomo has attracted attention throughout his tenure for delaying action on hot button environmental issues. Nowhere is this more glaring, of course, than the question of whether to permit high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which has been a looming issue his entire term.

Cuomo's inconsistent and unclear response to issues such as fracking, or whether to allow an Albany facility to begin heating crude oil arriving from the Canadian tar sands, is the tip of the very complicated iceberg that is the incumbent Democratic governor's record on the environment.

If re-elected, Cuomo faces profound environmental challenges, such as the mounting impacts of climate change and the state's deteriorating water infrastructure. Cuomo's policy choices will have a tremendous impact on a range of issues, from brownfields clean-up to air quality.

Depending on who you ask, the Governor's first term shows a real path forward as the state seeks to develop a 21st century energy supply and delivery system, and adapt to a changing climate. Alternatively, he is seen as fundamentally unsupportive of environmental protection in the sense of consistent and aggressive enforcement of the state's environmental regulations.

In its endorsement of Governor Cuomo this week, the New York League of Conservation Voters cited "the Governor's record on clean energy and climate resiliency -- two of the most complex yet critical sustainability challenges facing our state." Cuomo has made substantial progress on these issues, they said, "even at a time of fiscal restraint."

The governor does not shy away from strong environmental action. His administration is quietly, but effectively working to close the Indian Point nuclear power facility. The State has also asserted its right to control large water withdrawals - by companies and municipalities - from the Great Lakes and local rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater.

But Cuomo is also open about the fact that his lead environmental agency, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), serves two masters: protecting the ecological and public health of the country's third most populous state; and promoting economic development.

The governor's ongoing strategy to balance the two objectives - environmental protection and economic development - raises important questions. State support for a new solar photovoltaic manufacturing facility in Buffalo, for example, shows the great potential of linking environmental and economic goals.

But what happens when one goal conflicts with the other? Laura Haight, Senior Environmental Associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) responded flatly, "clearly the environment is not a priority for this governor."

A Red Flag
The governor's recent attempt to utilize or "raid" $500 million from the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund for the construction of the Tappan Zee Bridge raised an enormous red flag for many environmental groups. Those funds were earmarked for water quality improvement projects, they point out.

"What is it ideologically that this administration thought it was OK to take a half-billion dollars that was dedicated to reducing water pollution and instead redirect that to a bridge," asked Peter Iwanowicz, the Executive Director of Environmental Advocates, an Albany-based watchdog group.

Iwanowicz served in the Spitzer/Paterson administration as deputy secretary for the environment, and then as acting commissioner of the state DEC.

"[The loan attempt] really strikes me as a clear indication of the ideology of this administration, having other priorities than a strong environment," Iwanowicz argued. He added that he sees a "lack of deep commitment that existed in previous administrations to ensure strong environmental protections."

Iwanowicz said the difference in approach to environmental protection between Andrew Cuomo and the governors that directly preceded him is like "night and day."

In response to such criticisms, Emily DeSantis, the state's chief public information officer for the environment, wrote, "Governor Cuomo has a strong record of advancing policies to protect New York's land, air, and water while increasing the state's reliance on clean energy. Any claims otherwise are simply wrong on the facts."

She added: "Over the past four years, Governor Cuomo has committed more than $17 billion in funding for transformational environmental and clean energy programs, which is more than Governor Pataki did over 12 years."

"At the Forefront"
Cuomo's comments about the long-term implications of Superstorm Sandy, and its connection to climate change, were said to have shifted the national dialogue about global warming. In September, the governor signed the Climate Risk and Resiliency Act, which requires state agencies to "consider future physical climate risks caused by storm surges, sea level rise or flooding in certain permitting, funding and regulatory decisions."

The legislation is the first of its kind in the U.S., said Jessica Otney, Director of Government Relations at the Nature Conservancy. "[Cuomo] has put New York at the forefront of this issue."

Yet while the Cuomo administration advocates for clean energy and a comprehensive approach to climate change; it also altered and then delayed the release of a federal study on environmental and health risks associated with fracking, natural gas pipelines, and storage, according to Capital New York. The study was finally released in December, 2013.

"This is a tale of two administrations," asserts Paul Gallay, president of Hudson Riverkeeper. "There's reason for hope and concern."

Gallay highlighted what Riverkeeper views as some of the most recent environmental success stories of the Cuomo administration: for instance, its "excellent enforcement results" in compelling the City of Albany to make major infrastructure investments that will reduce stormwater pollution, with the objective of making local waterways "swimmable and boatable."

The administration has facilitated the ongoing clean-up of polluted New York State waterways, such as Newtown Creek. And the Environmental Facilities Corporation, which made the incredibly controversial decision to approve the administration's Tappan Zee loan request, secured $340 million in federal Sandy relief money to help make New York City's sewage treatment plants and drinking water systems more resilient to climate change.

The Cuomo administration has also shown a "strong willingness," Gallay said, to engage in "serious dialogue" about spill prevention and emergency response planning related to the "explosive growth" in rail shipments of crude oil along the Hudson River.

But even in its approach to crude oil shipments, the administration has had a contradictory approach.

The administration issued a "Negative Declaration" in the case of Global Partners, a Massachusetts-based company which seeks to expand and upgrade its Albany facility so that tar sands oil can be moved by rail through New York.

That "Negative Declaration" means that no environmental impact review would be required for the expanded facility. After an outcry from environmental and community groups, the Cuomo administration is now saying its decision "is subject to a final future determination."

Delays in decision making on this, and other politically-sensitive environmental issues, have led to ongoing questions about the Governor's actual environmental standards.

The question of whether to allow tar sands crude to move through New York State is a "make or break issue for the environment and for the administration," said Gallay.

Safeguarding the Health of the Environment
Lost in the discussion of hot-button environmental topics is the question of whether the State is meeting fundamental imperatives, such as "protecting public health, improving air quality, or ensuring pure water," says Peter Iwanowicz.

Environmental Advocates, and several other organizations Gotham Gazette spoke with, maintain that the state's lead environmental agency continues to struggle to properly enforce state and federal regulations designed to protect public health.

While staffing at the DEC has essentially remained static since Governor Cuomo took office in 2011, the agency has lost approximately 800 employees since 2008. Many state agencies were downsized in the aftermath of the Great Recession, Laura Haight said, but the cuts at the DEC were "disproportionately" large.

The state's Environmental Protection Fund, which is supported by a real estate transfer fee, has similarly not been brought back to pre-recession levels. The Governor has the ability to increase state support for the DEC and the Fund, many environmental groups argue, especially now that the state's fiscal outlook is improving.

Jessica Otney at the Nature Conservancy maintained, however, that even though the Fund is smaller, it is now managed more efficiently and more of it actually finds its way to environmental capital projects.

The DEC has taken a variety of steps to enforce regulations with less manpower. This includes the establishment of a program allowing environmental offenders to avoid penalties - under specific conditions - if they "self-report" violations.

An analysis of state data released last September by Environmental Advocates found that New York's "formal enforcement" of provisions related to the federal Clean Air, Clean Water and Resource Conservation and Recovery Acts had "decreased by nearly 25 percent between 2009 and 2012." The study also found that inspections of polluting facilities overall dropped by 35 percent during the same period.

For example, DEC-conducted "stack tests", which verify whether data reported by potential air polluters is accurate, declined by almost 50% between 2009 and 2012, Environmental Advocates found. The State is still in compliance with federal Clean Air inspection guidelines, Iwanowicz noted, but enforcement has become far less robust.

The DEC sharply refuted the findings of the Environmental Advocates study after its release.

Over the past three years air emissions have actually declined by 20 percent, the agency pointed out. "Overall, facility compliance rates have continued to increase over the past decade," added the DEC, "which has resulted in fewer violations and, therefore, less need for enforcement actions."

"We have worked to reduce or eliminate many antiquated and cumbersome paper-based requirements, allowing us to redirect staff at vital projects," the DEC stated.

The Role of Inspections
Supporters of the self-audit policy, like the state's Business Council, say that the numbers of inspections and enforcement actions are one metric, of many, that inform New Yorkers about our overall environmental health.

The state tracks air quality through a system of monitors, the Business Council's Government Affairs Director, Darren Suarez, noted. These monitors would indicate if egregious air quality violations were taking place. "Whistleblower" employees and competitors in the marketplace would also put pressure on a polluter to reign in their actions, he said.

The challenge of finding and stopping polluters is evident in a location such as New York City.

According to the DEC website, the state has 14 air monitors within the five boroughs. The City has added at least 70 more, purposely installing them closer to ground level. Even with those added efforts, it is difficult to differentiate between sources of pollution - such as a power plant versus a waste transfer station - in densely populated neighborhoods.

"I was a [DEC] enforcement official in the first Cuomo administration," said Paul Gallay, referring to Andrew's father Mario. "In order to deter pollution you have to not just take the company's words for it, but you have to be out there on the street, you have to inspect, you have to do it un-announced...you've got to be aggressive," he stated.

Gallay observed that today, 24 years after his time at the DEC, the state has "more people, more permits, more sensitive activities, and 35 percent less staff."

A View from Inside the State's Environmental Enforcement Agency
A veteran DEC technical employee, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity, cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions about the agency. "It's a highly complex situation," the employee said, referring to the impact of diminished staff. Every department within the agency has been affected in different ways because of the nature of their work, and various state and federal funding streams, the employee said.

Nonetheless, the employee, who has almost 30 years of experience at the DEC, said that agency staff are very conscious of a need to "do more with less." They are also highly aware of their role, as DEC staff, in supporting business development.

Diminished staffing levels forces everyone to prioritize, said the employee. Issuing permits for new and existing businesses, for example, now takes precedent in this employee's unit over digging into and pursuing possible environmental violations. Why? The employee noted that processing such permits is required by state law, no matter what DEC's staffing levels are.

The employee also said that agency cost-saving measures, such as using subcontractors to carry out environmental inspections, or switching to a more streamlined form of registering potential polluters, has met with mixed success in terms of maintaining agency oversight.

Water Infrastructure Crisis
The state is in agreement with environmental groups that New York is facing a water infrastructure "crisis," both in terms of wastewater and drinking water. This makes the governor's attempt to use Clean Water funds for the Tappan Zee all the more bewildering.

The state's Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) provided $2 billion in financing and grants to municipal drinking water projects and wastewater treatment facilities in 2013-14, a "record-breaking year," said the governor's office.

The state also assisted Nassau County in securing $810 million in federal assistance for repairs to the Bay Park wastewater treatment facility, which was was flooded during Sandy.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, New York has reported $27 billion in drinking water infrastructure needs over the next 20 years; along with $29.7 billion in costs related to upgrading wastewater treatment infrastructure.

"One-quarter of the 610 [sewage and wastewater treatment] facilities in New York are operating beyond their useful life expectancy," notes the DEC, "and many others are using outmoded, inadequate technology, increasing their likelihood of tainting our waters."

Who pays for such pressing - and fundamental - projects? Local, state and federal governments are all supposed to share the burden.

A key problem is the fact that individual municipalities, especially smaller ones, do not necessarily have the resources to borrow large sums from the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund, which is administered by the EFC. This is compounded by the state's two percent cap on local property taxes (instituted by Gov. Cuomo), which essentially ties the hands of local governments.

Current levels of local investment in water infrastructure projects are a fraction of where they need to be, says a report released in September by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. For instance, municipalities are spending one-fifth to one-sixth of what the Department of Health believes is necessary to adequately upgrade drinking water systems across the state.

Gov. Cuomo can help to address this problem, environmental groups say.

"The environmental response to this situation would be...[asking] 'what are the impediments to local governments for accessing this money [the Clean Water Revolving Fund]'?," said Laura Haight. "There's nothing constraining the EFC from using this money for outright grants," she maintained.

Enormous Promise - and some Contradictions - on Climate Change
No other environmental issue poses such a long-term, and not fully-understood, challenge to New York State as does climate change. The governor's approach is enormously promising, say environmental and public policy groups, but major gaps remain.

On the one hand, the Cuomo administration has been much more open to the idea of permanently evacuating neighborhoods threatened by sea level rise, such as those on the east shore of Staten Island, than the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations have been.

At the same time, advocates for New York City's mass transit system, which plays a significant role in reducing the city's carbon emissions, say that the governor is starving its capital budget. This threatens the system's long-term viability, they argue.

The administration has just updated a highly-detailed examination of how climate change will impact every aspect of life in New York State, from local ecosystems to public health. The Cuomo team has also put forward a detailed strategy - with public input - that they say will "transform" infrastructure, transportation networks, energy supply, coastal protection, and other elements in preparation for climate change.

Every group that Gotham Gazette spoke with about the Cuomo administration's approach to climate change brought up the administration's efforts to expand the use and generation of clean energy. All were supportive, yet several argued that the state's path toward a full-scale switch to renewables was still not clearly defined.

"Very Ambitious"
The state's efforts on solar, however, set it apart, says Jackson Morris, the Natural Resources Defense Council's Eastern Energy Director. The Cuomo administration has committed $1 billion - over a ten year period - to expanding the use of solar energy.

Morris said that New York's "NY-Sun" initiative will "scale up" solar installations and drive down their cost. The program "really puts New York on the map nationally as one of the leaders on solar," said Morris. "[It's] a huge victory for clean energy and climate change, and a reduction of emissions."

"New York State has one the most ambitious clean energy agendas in the country," stated Emily DeSantis of the governor's office.

One particularly interesting example of New York's focus on clean energy is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a nine-state carbon trading initiative designed to cap and reduce power sector CO2 emissions.

RGGI, which also includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, has implemented a new cap of 91 million short tons. DeSantis cited Cuomo's "leadership" in lowering the cap, which will then decline 2.5 percent each year from 2015 to 2020.

Cuomo has also established the New York Green Bank, the nation's "largest" of its kind, said DeSantis. The bank will support clean energy projects unable to access sufficient private capital. In one of several announcements about environmental initiatives in the weeks leading up to the election, the governor said the bank's first transactions would result in clean energy investments of more than $800 million.

And the Cuomo administration is moving to fundamentally change how utilities are regulated, which they say will "dramatically accelerate clean energy deployment." The way utilities - and ratepayers - contribute to the State's funding pot for clean energy is being re-thought as well.

While many of the hard details of the State's plans are not yet available, Jackson Morris described them as "very ambitious," arguing that they "will reshape the entire utility business model and how we operate the grid in New York State."

"At the heart of it," Morris said, "we want to have a business model for utilities in New York that drives them to invest in resources like energy efficiency, clean distributed [power] generation, and renewables both large and small." The goal, he said, is to make the grid "more responsive and nimble, and resilient...and, ultimately, cleaner."

All of these initiatives will help to achieve an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050, said DeSantis.

"We're going to hold him to that," said Laura Haight, referring to Cuomo's 80 by 2050 goal. "We want to see [ongoing emissions] targets, we want to see commitments, we want to see safeguards...to insure that we get there."

NRDC believes achieving 50 percent dependence on renewable energy by 2025 is a feasible goal for New York. Renewable sources like hydro, solar, and wind are currently about 23 to 24 percent of the state's total energy supply, Morris said.

"We do need more clarity on targets over the long-term for renewables and energy efficiency," agreed Morris. "What we don't have [in the initial proposals] on the utility side, is an overarching, driving target. What is our objective?...It's kind of this tension between moving towards a more market-based system, but we also need guardrails to ensure the state's energy mix continues moving in a cleaner direction."

It is not totally clear, Laura Haight added, whether the Cuomo administration is equating "clean" energy with "renewable" energy. The governor's draft energy plan (a separate document) envisions an ongoing role for natural gas, a fossil fuel. New gas pipelines, and related infrastructure, continue to be planned and built throughout the state, including New York City.

"One thing that's become clear is that if we want to make it to this 80 by [20]50 goal, we have to move away from natural gas," argued Haight. "We can't be investing more...that's a 30-year commitment...once we go down that road we're stuck on it."

What Do Voters Think?
In all likelihood, New York State will continue down the path on which voters find it now: a path which offers very significant promise in terms of moving the state toward clean energy and energy efficiency; a path in which New York's response to climate change is pro-active but not always consistent; and a path in which the regulatory structure that protects New York air, water, and general environmental health continues to be re-configured with economic goals in mind.

"The number one thing New Yorkers care about is jobs," observed Darren Suarez, from the New York State Business Council. Suarez was not arguing that New Yorkers are disinterested in environmental protection or preparing for climate change, but that so-called 'pocketbook issues' almost always trump others.

Suarez' point – and an operating principle of the Cuomo administration - is that environmental protection objectives have to be balanced with promoting business development and job creation. The mainstream environmental response to this argument is that enhanced environmental conditions are actually supportive of economic development. The two work hand in hand.

The new photovoltaic "gigafactory" to be built by Solar City in Buffalo could create as many as 5,000 jobs across the state. The Cuomo administration has committed $750 million to the project.

It does appear, in certain instances at least, that New Yorkers are prepared to place protecting air and water quality ahead of economic development.

A Siena Research Institute poll on fracking, released July 30, found that a majority of voters from the Catskill/Hudson Valley and Southern Tier/Fingerlakes regions agree that fracking would be an economic benefit to local communities, and that it would generate "much needed jobs for New Yorkers."

Nonetheless, over half of those polled still opposed allowing the practice in New York State. Sixty percent of the voters surveyed said that fracking posed an "unacceptable risk" in terms of contaminating ground water. And small majorities agreed "that fracking is too dangerous" because of the potential migration of both methane gas and fracking related chemicals to the surface.

The only general election candidate for Governor who openly supports a ban on fracking, and the restaffing of the state DEC, is Howie Hawkins from the Green Party. Cuomo has acknowledged that voters opposed to fracking played a role in Zephyr Teachout's surprisingly strong performance in the democratic primary and notes that he sees anti-fracking protesters at virtually all of his public events.

Cuomo said during the lone gubernatorial debate that he was leaving the decision about fracking in New York to scientists who are studying it - and that he expects the results of the study by the end of the year.

"While our statewide polling has consistently shown New Yorkers to be closely divided on fracking, here in the areas close to the proposed drilling a majority now says 'no,'" said Don Levy, the Siena Research Institute's director.

"Despite the allure of needed jobs and economic development, more voters in these areas are tipping their internal scale due to environmental concerns," Levy added.

***
This article is part of The Cuomo Record, Gotham Gazette's series looking at the governor's first term. Find the other articles in the series here.

***
by Sarah Crean for Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette

Council Member Kallos at Thursday's hearing (photo: William Alatriste)

NEW YORK—In 2000 the City Council passed Local Law 29 which aimed to increase voter registration by requiring 19 city agencies to offer voter registration forms to its customers. It's fourteen years after the law's passage and compliance has been abysmal.

A report compiled by Center for Popular Democracy released this week shows during their walk-ins to 14 of those city agencies, 95 percent of people were never asked if they wanted to register to vote. Of those who self-identified as citizens, the report indicated 84 percent were not given a voter registration form.

On Thursday the City Council held an oversight hearing to discuss the poor compliance and introduce two bills aimed to increase voter registration at the city agency level. Intro 493, sponsored by Committee on Government Operations chair Ben Kallos, would require 15 additional agencies to be covered under the agency-based voter registration law. Intro 356, sponsored by Council Member Jumaane Williams, would assign a code to each agency that would be printed on the voter registration forms and allow the City to track how many forms are being utilized from each agency.

Both bills are being rejected by the de Blasio administration.

"We are committed to getting agency-based voter registration right," Mindy Tarlow, director of the Mayor's Office of Operations, said during her testimony. "But to get it done, we are going to need time and space to manage the agencies and correct long-standing behavior."

Tarlow pointed to Directive 1, issued by Mayor Bill de Blasio on July 11, 2014. In the directive—his first as mayor—he ordered each agency covered under Local Law 29 to prepare a plan showing how they would implement the requirements of the Charter and submit it within 60 days.

The directive also requires each agency submit a semi-annual report on how the plan is being implemented which will include the number of voter registration forms distributed, the number of registration forms completed, and the number of forms transmitted to the Board of Elections.

Tarlow said she agrees with the assessment that there is a problem, but she argued that with the administration already addressing the problem, it was too early for further legislation.

"It is hard. We are trying to bring a number of agencies along," Tarlow said, adding that before moving on new legislation, "we want a chance to feel like we have made some inroads."

Tarlow did not provide an exact timeline as to when the Council would see the results from Directive 1, but did promise to share preliminary reports with the Council some time at the end of November. Kallos jokingly said he looked forward to to reading it in between bites of his Thanksgiving dinner.

"We need the flexibility to watch this over time," Henry Berger, special counsel to the mayor, said during the hearing.

Intro 356
The administration's rejection of the second bill, Intro 356, is based less on Directive 1 and more on privacy concerns. Tarlow argued that by putting a code which would identify what agency a voter was getting services from may deter voters from registering at agencies.

"This is to protect the privacy of the individuals who receive services from government that they don't wish to be disclosed," Tarlow said in her testimony.

The council members now face the prospect of attempting to negotiate the bills with the administration.

On Thursday, Council Member Williams went through a lengthy back-and-forth with members of the administration as well as representatives of the Board of Elections (who testified in a later panel) to dispute objections. Williams argued there was already a code (the number 9) on all voter registration forms coming from City agencies and a separate code for those coming from CUNY.

Both Williams and Kallos asked if it was a matter of that information being released to the public or simply being documented. Tarlow said it wasn't a matter of determining who the person was, but what services they were seeking or receiving. She said the administration believes the fear of that information getting out would deter people from signing up to register to vote.

Williams pointed out information such as social security numbers, fax numbers, and driver's license numbers are all exempt from public reporting, but records are still kept. He argued this code could be exempt as well.

Michael Ryan, executive director of the New York City Board of Elections (BOE), said during his testimony the BOE did not believe this code could be exempt based on current law, but he admitted they did not have a chance to dive in deeply on the issue because they were preparing for the upcoming election.

"I don't know that I have been persuaded," Williams said.

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by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Speaker Mark-Viverito (photo: William Alatriste)

NEW YORK—As New York City's population continues to grow, so does the number of its Baby Boomers. Of the city's 8.4 million residents, 2.6 million (31 percent) are age 50 or over, according to AARP. Brooklyn and Queens are home to the largest segments of the senior population, with 29 percent each.

The number of seniors over 60 is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2030, meaning elected officials must make adjustments to accommodate senior services. On Wednesday, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito laid out several new policy initiatives specifically aimed to aid this growing constituency.

"As a city, we should measure ourselves on how we help those who are most vulnerable – and our senior population is one of the most vulnerable among us," Mark-Viverito said an at an AARP/Governing Magazine roundtable on Wednesday. "We must protect the rights of our older New Yorkers to age in place with dignity."

The Speaker announced an expansion of the Council's age-friendly initiative and aims to establish age-friendly neighborhoods in 10 new districts. This initiative, in partnership with The New York Academy of Medicine and in conjunction with the Mayor's Office, was established in 2010. Mark-Viverito's own East Harlem district was part of the pilot program, along with the Upper West Side, and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The Age-friendly Neighborhood Initiative brings together the senior population with policy makers and business leaders, helping communities craft policies tailored to meet the unique needs of older adults in each neighborhood.

Mark-Viverito said she saw the results in her own district with the expansion of special hours for seniors at the Thomas Jefferson Park Pool. Seniors at Union Settlement Jefferson Senior Center hadn't been using the pool (which was located just across the street) because the families and kids using the pool made them feel unsafe. The seniors boarded buses to go to a pool elsewhere.

At the age-friendly neighborhood initiative meetings, the issue was brought up and the pool changed their policy to designate senior-only hours. This policy change was so popular, it was later adopted as a citywide initiative.

Which districts will be in the program, how they will be selected, and by whom, has not yet been determined, according to a spokesperson for the Speaker. But Mark-Viverito said she is committed to bringing age-friendly initiatives to all 51 Council districts by 2018.

Helping Seniors in Poverty
One in five New York City households over the age of 65 lives in poverty, with Brooklyn and the Bronx reporting the highest rate at 26 and 25 percent respectively. As a senior, navigating what benefits one is eligible for and how one accesses those programs can be difficult, especially if much of that information is online.

According to Mark-Viverito, only 44 percent of eligible seniors in New York City are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). She also added that thousands of seniors could apply to have their rent locked in at affordable prices with the newly increased SCRIE regulations, but have yet to do so.

To help ease the process, the Council will partner with Hunter College's Silberman School of Social Work and the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging to explore better ways to help connect seniors with services and benefits.

'"We agree there is a lack of information out there around what services are available to older adults and what older adults are eligible for," Nancy Giunta, assistance professor at Hunter College's Silberman School of Social Work.

While many of the services are listed online, some seniors are not as computer savvy as their younger counterparts. Giunta said they have found that in their center older adults (and in some cases their caregivers) have difficulty using the websites and understanding the information they contain. As part of their college work, social work students at Hunter help seniors navigate sites and apply for any benefits they may be entitled to.

There are also programs like SMART-MH, a state-funded program which helps seniors battling mental health issues related to Superstorm Sandy. During program visits, workers are trained to not just deal with mental health problems, but also see if seniors qualify for other services and help them apply If they do.

Programs and partnerships such as these will be looked at carefully by the Council to try and further improve services for seniors.

Affordable Housing
Like virtually every New Yorker, seniors also struggle to find affordable housing. But often their choices are more limiting than the average New Yorker.

While a sixth-floor walk-up with laundry around the corner may work for the average 20- or 30-something, a senior in their 60s or 70s could have difficulties navigating stairs and distance. A trip to the laundry "just around the corner" for a senior can prove an arduous task.

In an ideal world the City would work to find ways to help seniors "age in place" which gives them the ability to live in their own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age. To do this, the City will need to work with the real estate industry and possibly lay out rules to make it easier for that to happen.

Mark-Viverito said in her speech on Wednesday that the Council will introduce legislation soon that will develop a guide for landlords and building owners aimed to help seniors. These best practices could include requiring handrails, larger door frames to fit wheelchairs, and other modifications to make it easier for seniors to continue to live comfortably in New York City.

"There are accommodations that need to be made in our housing to make it easier for seniors to age in place," Mark-Viverito said. "As we create housing, we should be taking into account accommodations that are needed because our population is aging."

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by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK