Flatbush Gardens — an East Flatbush housing complex where developer David Bistricer is on Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s watchlist of slumlords — has been the victim of deadly violence and residents are concerned about their safety. Two men have been murdered in the last two weeks at the 30-acre, 57-building complex, the Daily News reported. In total, three people have been killed, and six have been shot there in 2010, according to statistics from the New York police department. “There’s so much drug selling, it’s crazy, and a lot of shootings all the time,” said disabled veteran Leroy Marks, 57, a longtime resident. The mostly rent-stabilized complex, formerly known as Vanderveer Estates, was sold in 2005 for $140 million to a group led by Bistricer, who promised to make improvements. But, residents say doors are broken, surveillance cameras and streetlights don’t work and private security patrols are understaffed. [NYDN]

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Brooklyn real estate developer David Bistricer of Clipper Equity has been added to Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s watch list of slumlords. Bistricer’s Flatbush Gardens, a 30-acre, 59-building complex in East Flatbush has 6,475 open code violations, with 827 of them for serious threats to health or safety. “The landlord is clearly trying to change the nature of the development and make it more appealing to upper-income tenants,” de Blasio told the Daily News. “This may be a landlord who purposely wants to reduce the level of service to encourage… tenants to leave.” During a tour, the Daily News spotted raw sewage collecting in a graffiti-covered basement, broken locks, shattered windows and exposed wiring. Several tenants complained of mice and roach infestations as well ceilings collapsing from water damage.

Richard Rubenstein, a spokesperson for Bistricer, who led the group of investors that bought the complex in 2005 for $138.5 million, said the owners have addressed and removed over 5,000 violations and that they intend to meet with de Blasio to do what it takes to get off the slumlord list. The conditions at Flatbush Gardens — formerly known as Vanderveer Estates — were one factor federal officials cited when they rejected Clipper Equity’s $1.3 million bid for the 46-building Starrett City complex in 2007. They also cited a 1998 court order banning Bistricer from selling condos in New York because of financial irregularities. [NYDN]

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Housing code violators concentrated in city’s poorest areas

Landlord Sam Suzuki, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio

[Update: 2:29 p.m.] A new website is calling out 153 landlords whose buildings are so dirty or unsafe that they have earned a spot on the city’s list of shame. Among them is Alan Fein — whose Bronx tenants live with allegedly urine-soaked hallways, crackhead squatters and rat-infested toilets — and Chris Grijalva, whose reported roach-infested B [more]

In addition to getting a request from Deloitte for a $20 million subsidy package today, the city’s Industrial Development Agency is slated to present a reworked subsidy package for Reuters, which was given up to $26 million in incentives from the Giuliani administration, the Observer reported. Reuters received the $26 million incentive package — intended to promote job growth — in 1998, but according to the city about $20 million remains unused. In 2008, Reuters merged with Thomson and now, with a larger workforce and more office buildings, Thomson Reuters wants to extend the subsidy to all its buildings, at least in part to help get a break on renovation costs, according to the Observer.

The city and Reuters reworked the proposed deal, with the city adding new restrictions tied to job growth to access some of the subsidy. The city also proposed to extend the length of the deal by another four years. Opponents, such as Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, criticized the city for an alleged lack of transparency and mistreatment of workers, and called for the Bloomberg administration to delay the approvals. Bill O’Meara, president of the Newspaper Guild of New York, also voiced opposition to the deal, saying that the city should not be giving taxpayers’ money to a foreign-owned company. Julie Wood, a spokesperson for the city’s Economic Development Corporation, countered their claims by highlighting the growth incentives in the reworked deal. [NYO]

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Needy families who receive rent vouchers will be required to give a larger share of their paycheck to cover rent aid, the Daily News reported. The city’s Department of Homeless Services asked the state for the changes earlier this year, arguing that families who receive rent vouchers, worth about $1,000 a month, need to contribute more of their paycheck toward rent. They will be required to pay 30 percent of their salary during the first year, beginning Aug. 1, and 40 percent the second year. “It’s to build good behavior because ultimately they are going to have to assume the full burden of the rent,” said Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond. Others, such as Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, fear the plan will backfire, leaving more families stuck in homeless shelters. Meanwhile, the city is weighing an option to drop the rent requirement for the working homeless to stay in shelters.[NYDN]

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From left: public advocate candidates Mark Green, Bill de Blasio, Eric Gioia and Norman Siegel

The four Democratic candidates for public advocate, Mark Green, Bill de
Blasio, Eric Gioia and Norman Siegel, touched on development issues in
a debate on NY1 last night. Siegel spoke out against the Atlantic Yards
project, and all of the candidates debated eminent domain. “You can’t
ignore the constitutional violation of the government taking private
property and giving it to a private developer,” Siegel said. Comments

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Brooklyn City Council member and public advocate candidate Bill de Blasio believes the current city government has been too quick to greenlight plans by private developers, he said on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show. De Blasio said there also has not been enough of an effort to create affordable housing at Atlantic Yards and other projects. He said he would use the public advocate’s seat on the City Planning Commission to change the city’s development policies.

Some of the landlords in New York City with the highest numbers of
housing code violations are receiving a share of $81 million of federal
stimulus money, with no requirement that they make repairs to their
buildings, the New York Daily News reported. Seven properties that have
received or are slated to get $1.5 million in stimulus money would make
the Slumlord Watch List proposed by City Council member Bill de Blasio,
who is running for public advocate. To qualify for the list, a property
with 35 or more units must have at least two “hazardous” or
“immediately hazardous” violations per unit. The 138-unit building at
234 Herkimer Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant qualifies with 374
violations, and the owner, Restore Housing Development, is set to get
$270,602 in stimulus funds. [more]

Bill de Blasio (left) and David Yassky

The blog Noticing New York looks at the professed views on development,
and specifically on the Atlantic Yards project, of all 15 candidates
running for City Council in the 33rd and 39th districts, including
current office holders. All of the candidates oppose the project, to
some degree or another, the blog says. In the 33rd district, current
City Council member David Yassky has said he never supported the
Atlantic Yards project, and that he doesn’t think the proposed plan
will be built because there isn’t funding for it. The 39th
district’s Council member, Bill de Blasio, said he became a supporter
of the project because it promised affordable housing, jobs and
community benefits, but said no further public subsidies should be
granted until there is evidence that the Community Benefits Agreement
will be adhered to. De Blasio said he can’t support an arena-only plan
for the site, and called for a moratorium on demolition until there is
a written plan on what will be built. [more]