Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland, who just beat a corruption rap, was arrested today on other charges that he sought and accepted bribes from two undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agents posing as real estate developers, the Associated Press reported. The lawmaker allegedly solicited more than $250,000 in bribes in exchange for his political favors.

Boyland was caught on tape in April offering make a deal with two undercover agents, agreeing to buy a hospital in his district, which spans Ocean Hill and Brownsville, at a discount and secure state funds for a renovation if they paid him, the criminal complaint charges. [more]

L+M Development Partners’ new affordable
housing complex in Brownsville will celebrate its opening with a ribbon cutting today. Also, Coldwell
Banker Real Estate launched an interactive billboard in Times Square
that displays home listings. And at the Rialto condo in Williamsburg, buyers now only have to
put 10 percent down. Click here for the full version. TRD [more]

Yesterday’s Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC looked at how foreclosures have hit Brooklyn, particularly minority and low-income neighborhoods. Reporter Cindy Rodriguez talked about the way the foreclosure process affected one homeowner in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood. Josh Zinner, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, discussed the impact of foreclosures on the neighborhood more widely.

[more]

From the May issue: JPMorgan Chase’s federally backed buyout of
Bear Stearns in March may have averted a meltdown on Wall Street. But
at the other end of the subprime mortgage crisis are neighborhoods like
Brooklyn’s Brownsville and Ocean Hill, where an increasing number of
homeowners are also desperately hoping for rescue. For many who own
homes in these two neighborhoods, which together comprise one of the
poorest of the city’s 59 community districts, the only recourse against
foreclosure appears to be the very subprime mortgage industry that is
being blamed for the country’s credit crunch.  [more]