Mayor Endorses Bedford-Union Armory Plan + Brooklyn District Attorney Forum this Thursday
No 22
Monday, July 17, 2017
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Local News
- NYC-DSA and coalition partners shut down the Brooklyn borough president’s hearing for the Bedford-Union Armory project on Monday. Mayor de Blasio endorsed the project on Wednesday and implored Crown Heights residents to keep an “open mind” about the luxury housing project.
- Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had his 2015 corruption conviction overturned and will walk free. Silver had been found to accept millions from a variety of sources, including real estate interests, to stifle or advance critical legislation in the Assembly for years. However, Silver’s successful appeal was based on a new, narrower definition of corruption thanks to a Supreme Court ruling last year that exonerated him from the initial corruption charges.
- The City Planning Commission (CPC) unanimously approved the proposed rezoning of downtown Far Rockaway, bringing this Queens neighborhood closer to becoming the second neighborhood to be rezoned under de Blasio’s housing plan, after East New York. Meanwhile, East Harlem is also undergoing a potential rezoning and has galvanized strong oppositionfrom local residents and housing groups.
- Because capitalism ties real estate speculation to community health and quality of life, new bike lanes appear to have had a direct and immediate effect on property values according to a recent Bushwick study.
- A new report from the City Comptroller’s office highlights the geographic disparities in who is being affected most by the recent decline in MTA service.
- Hundred of cops turned their backs on Mayor de Blasio to protest his trip to Germany in the midst of a policeman’s death. The head of the NYPD Union complained of a very “anti-police atmosphere.”
- A recent report by the Drug Policy Alliance showed that despite claims from de Blasio that marijuana possession would be decriminalized, there have been 60,000 arrests for it far so in his term; 86% of which were people of color.
- Bob Gangi, a police reform activist challenging de Blasio in the mayoral primary, wrote in an Op-Ed that Rikers can be closed in less than 12 months.
- Sutton Place rezoning in the Upper East Side may force de Blasio to address an 80s-era affordable housing program called R10.
Elections
- Faith in New York, VOCAL-NY and several other groups are co-hosting a Brooklyn District Attorney candidates forum this Thursday.
- DSA endorsee Rev. Khader El-Yateem submitted nearly 3,000 petitions to get on the ballot for this September’s Democratic Primary in District 43 (southwest Brooklyn).
- Delvis Valdes, who is running for Council in the 38th District (Sunset Park), owns several properties listed on the city’s official slumlord registry of worst-maintained buildings.
- In establishment endorsement news, this week Public Advocate Letitia James endorsed Justin Brannan for District 43 (southwest Brooklyn), and TWU Local-100 endorsed Ede Fox for District 35 (Crown Heights).