From left: Bill de Blasio, Christine Quinn and John Liu
As New York City gears up for the mayoral election, three democratic candidates have spoken out in favor of a rent freeze at the city’s rent-stabilized apartments, the New York Times reported. [more]
From left: Bill de Blasio, Christine Quinn and Steven Spinola
With affordable housing becoming a hot-button issue in the upcoming mayoral race, the Real Estate Board of New York is warning the candidates not to alienate its thousands of members, according to Crain’s. REBNY’s president, Steven Spinola, told the politicians Monday: “If the debate ends up with a bunch of rhetoric, then we’re not going to find any solutions. If there’s going to be short, bumper-sticker answers about it being money being given away, then we’re not going to make much progress on what may be one of the most important issues facing the city of New York.” [more]
Bill de Blasio and Christine Quinn
How much does the city real estate industry like City Council Speaker Christine Quinn? Industry executives have donated more than $800,000 into what remains her unofficial campaign for mayor, Crain’s reported, citing numbers from the New York Public Interest Research Group. All in all, this sum accounts for 14 percent of her total funds raised, which in January ticked in at over $6 million. [more]
From left: Bill de Blasio and Christine Quinn
New York City Public Advocate and mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio slammed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s affordable housing platform, saying it pandered to the interests of the real estate industry, the New York Observer reported.
In Quinn’s State of the City address earlier this week, she proposed a cap for property taxes for whole buildings that pledged to set aside a certain percentage of their units as affordable. The plan mirrored a 2011 proposal by the Real Estate Board of New York, which an aide from the Bloomberg Administration had described as “a large tax break dressed up as a housing policy.” [more]
A bathroom in a Mount Eden building owned by College Management Tenants of the city’s worst landlord constantly face rats, cockroaches, water-damaged ceilings and holes in the walls and floors of their $1,300 per month apartments. NBC found these conditions when it paid a visit to three Mount Eden buildings owned by College Management, which Public Advocate Bill De Blasio recently named the worst landlord in the city (see video after the jump).
The buildings contain 724 violations, including 82 of the Class C variety that represent immediate danger.”These are health and safety violations of a very serious nature,” De Blasio said…. [more]
From left: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio
City Council overrode Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto and passed the “living wage” bill yesterday, the New York Post reported. The bill guarantees a minimum pay of $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 per hour without for workers on projects that receive city subsidies. [more]
From left: 620 West 182nd Street and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio
A man who New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio dubbed “NYC’s worst,” has racked up 1,187 building and housing violations and is under investigation by city, state and federal officials for everything from tax fraud to selling narcotics, DNAinfo reported.
Josh Neustein, who owns eight buildings, four of which are in Upper Manhattan, is under investigation by the New York City Police Department, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies, after a probe by the city’s Department of Investigation was concluded last month. [more]
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio released his third annual list of the city’s worst buildings and landlords meant to shame the landlords into improving conditions, according to the New York Daily News.
The worst building is 245 Sullivan Place in Crown Heights. The 40-unit rental building has 654 open violations thanks to crumbling ceilings, exposed wiring and a lack of electricity, hot water and heat in certain apartments. It’s been owned by James Crossman since 1971, public records show, and the News reported he is now 92 and in ill health. … [more]
The Brooklyn Housing Court’s disrepair gives “special privileges” to landlord attorneys and fosters “a culture of disrespect towards tenants,” according to a report from the New York Daily News. The News cited a recent report by nonprofit group Make the Road to New York, which is one of several agencies pushing to change the facility.
The groups met with Judge Fern Fisher, who is in charge of housing courts citywide. Fisher said she is working to engineer some of the changes recommended by the group, including easier-to-read signs and better accommodations for tenants, but admitted budget restraints make change difficult. … [more]
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has encouraged the New York City Housing Authority to discontinue Section 8 rent subsidies termination notices until problems with the agency’s new computer system are fixed. De Blasio will release a report today showing the agency’s failings during the last year, he told the Post.
“Tenants are getting eviction notices slipped under their doors because NYCHA has withheld months’ worth of rent that it should have paid,” the public advocate told the Post. “Months of unpaid rent is not a simple glitch — it’s a full-blown crisis. NYCHA needs to ensure that actual human beings are checking these cases to ensure the agency isn’t wrongfully throwing landlords into default, and tenants out on the street.” … [more]
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