Showing posts with label James Capalino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Capalino. Show all posts

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Do real estate developers control New York City's land use in the de Blasio administration ?

A lack of democracy in New York City's land use process

Activist Alicia Boyd on NYC's Community Board System :  ''It's a lie anyway.''

"It's a lie anyway."

To some progressive activists, seeing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s land-lease proposal to construct buildings on the property of the New York City Housing Authority following so closely on the sale of several NYCHA Section 8 buildings, with plans for further expansion of land-lease opportunities on NYCHA lands, amounts to a full-throttle assault to privatize large parts of NYCHA, essentially opening the floodgates for private real estate developers to stampede toward a land rush of city real property in exchange for the administration receiving credit for the construction a miniscule number of new affordable housing units. It seems like a huge price to pay for perhaps constructing an initial 500 new affordable housing units within a larger goal of creating 80,000 units over a ten-year span.

These and other major city land use decisions are not being made with prior public input, much less without a specific mandate from voters.

Although more and more tenants and activists are recognizing Mayor de Blasio’s pro-real estate agenda, what is missing is tenant and activist consensus about what to do about this. Some activists have been fighting the sale of public library branches to real estate developers, thinking that each sale is a singular transaction, independent onto itself, and not part of a larger, pro-real estate agenda by the de Blasio administration. Activists think that if they can just defeat the sale of one library, then the larger cause can be won. Efforts by developers and city planning officials to subject small fights to the arduous ULURP process, while sidestepping larger projects, has the impact of narrowing activists’ focus at the same time that they can be worn down.

About the role of Community Boards in allowing the public to participate in New York City's land use process, the Brooklyn tenant activist Alicia Boyd said, “It’s a lie, anyway, but we know politically that the political machine needs that lie .... They need the lie. They need the lie, so that the people will not stand up and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute ! That means that we have no power ? There’s no democracy here ?’ They need the lie.”

As activists look to hold the administration accountable to activists’ expectations for a course for a post-Occupy Wall Street city that was not aligned with big business, there are many issues to consider. Firstly, how do activists plan to educate each other on a complete and accurate picture of how much of the political landscape in the de Blasio administration has been influenced by the real estate industry ? Secondly, will activists reject Mayor de Blasio’s incremental and inadequate remedy to the affordable housing crisis, and, if so, what can the community demand in its place ? And thirdly, what should be done about the veal pen nonprofit groups, which willingly deëscalate calls for political, social, and economic reform, based on the messaging emanating from City Hall ? Other issues undoubtedly also exist, but organizing cannot take shape about where we want to go as a city until everybody first agrees on what is actually happening now.

RELATED


A Special Investigation : A lack of democracy in New York City's land use process (Progress Queens)


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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Jo Hamilton, ex-official involved in St. Vincent's Hospital condo conversion, fined for ethics violations

Jo Hamilton was on the take

Jo Hamilton, former member of Manhattan Community Board 2, which rubber-stamped and fast-tracked the demolition and luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital, was on the take.

From the Demand a Hospital listserv :

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: Demand A Hospital
To: Demand A Hospital
Subject: Jo Hamilton was on the take
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 04:41:25 -0500

Dear All :

For a decade, Jo Hamilton was receiving free gifts from an entity that had business before Community Board 2. Please read the following reports :

    (i)    http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/community-board-member-fined-free-soho-house-membership-blog-entry-1.2022053

    (ii)    http://nypost.com/2014/11/25/board-member-fined-10k-over-free-soho-house-membership/

    (iii)    http://gothamist.com/2014/11/24/soho_house_2.php

    (iv)    http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20141124/meatpacking-district/community-board-2-member-fined-for-accepting-free-soho-house-membership

    (v)    http://www.scribd.com/doc/248068157/COIB-Disposition-CB

How many other members of Community Board 2 were on the take ?

What did the former chairs of CB2 and the former subcommittee chairs know about Jo Hamilton being on the take -- and when did they know it ?

How many lobbyists paid for entertainment, meals, and other gifts for members of CB2 that were never reported or may have crossed the line to be inappropriate or illegal ?

Never give up.

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Tell Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals. Call 311 for the mayor and 1 (518) 474-8390 for the governor.

You can also tweet your concerns to : @BilldeBlasio -and- @NYGovCuomo

Monday, June 23, 2014

Seeing as how mayor feeds off lobbyists, will they rename City Hall as Fangtasia ?

Surprised no tongue ?

In New York politics, a "one-politician-for-every-lobbyist" partnership is how the broken political system protects itself, if you were to sort of carry a True Blood analogy to reality.

 photo Fangtasia-de-Blasio-Capalino_zps3e281681.jpg

Does New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio seek out fang-bangers in the form of corrupt real estate lobbyists, in this case, James Capalino ? Is that a sign for Fangtasia in the background ?

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Bill de Blasio and Bill Rudin Community Betrayal ?

Has Mayor de Blasio turned his back on the community demand for a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's ?

Bill Bratton, Bill de Blasio, and Bill Rudin photo Bill-Bratton-Bill-de-Blasio-and-Bill-Rudin_zps8187f9c9.jpg

Bill Rudin is one of the most corrupt real estate developers in New York City. He is the one, who basically foreclosed on St. Vincent's Hospital. He and his family paid off former Council Speaker Christine Quinn with $30,000 in campaign donations to look the other way. Has Bill Rudin found a way to pay off Mayor Bill de Blasio, too ?

Bill de Blasio, center, with Bill Rudin, right, at the Association for a Bitter New York photo BilldeBlasio-BillRudin-ABNY_zps12c27827.jpg

From the Demand A Hospital listserv :

Dear All :

Last year, Bill de Blasio demonstrated outside the construction site for the $1 billion Rudin luxury condo complex in order to burnish his appeal amongst the communities impacted by hospital closings. The theme of that protest was "Hospitals, Not Condos."

  • LINK : Bill de Blasio to lead ‘Hospitals Not Condos’ rally at former St. Vincent’s site, with Belafonte, Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, others (East Villager)

Furthermore, one of the NYC Is Not For Sale commercials that helped to elect Mayor de Blasio focused on the corrupt role of Bill Rudin's campaign donations to former Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

  • LINK : New Super PAC ad blasts Christine Quinn for role in closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital (The New York Daily New)

But now that he's been elected, Mayor de Blasio is socializing with the very same corrupt real estate developer whose luxury condo conversion deal he once criticized.

  • LINK : Bill Bratton, Bill de Blasio and Bill Rudin at an April 3 gala. (Crains).

Does this mean that Mayor de Blasio has turned his back on the community's demand for a full service hospital to replace St. Vincent's ?

Thanks for all that you do.

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Mayor de Blasio with Bill Rudin (twice) ; Remembering St. Vincent's Hospital and Dr. Brickner

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

From the Demand A Hospital listserv :

Dear All :

A news round-up, plus photographs of Mayor de Blasio kissing up to Bill Rudin and embracing Rudin lobbyist, James Capalino.

1. Remembering Dr. Brickner. Dr. Philip Brickner, who was chairman of St. Vincent's community medicine department, made house calls and set up a “free clinic” for people in need. He passed away on March 24 at his home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He was 85. (Remembering Dr. Philip Brickner, who made house calls to the vulnerable, dies at 85 * The New York Times)

2. Remembering St. Vincent's Hospital. Some say that Rudin Management, the builder of the new billion-dollar luxury condominium complex at St. Vincent’s footprint, was coincidentally former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s largest campaign contributor, and she didn’t do all she could do to save the hospital. Sadly, this article unfairly blames St. Vincent's for the economic consequences of making good on its own charity mission. Healthcare has taken a beating in Greenwich Village and Chelsea, and, citywide, the assault continues. (Remembering St. Vincent's Hospital * The Indypendent)

3. Bill Rudin breakfast. Mayor Bill de Blasio makes a "surprise" appearance last Wednesday morning at Bill Rudin's Association for a Better New York power breakfast. (Mayor de Blasio makes surprise stop at ABNY insider breakfast * The New York Observer)

4. Bill Rudin gala. Mayor de Blasio expresses support Thursday night for police crackdown as a way to jack up real estate values at Bill Rudin's Waldorf-Astoria charity benefit in this desperate Bloomberg public relations puff piece meant to help rehabilitate the Rudin family's tarnished image. See photo. (Mayor de Blasio kisses up to Bill Rudin at Waldorf-Astoria gala * Bloomberg)

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Bill Rudin photo BillBratton-BilldeBlasio-BillRudin_zps2e98efb1.jpg

5. James Capalino connection. Reminder that last year, then mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio literally and figuratively embraced campaigning with Rudin's corrupt ULURP condo conversion lobbyist, James Capalino. See photo. (James Capalino, a former Rudin lobbyist volunteers for de Blasio * Capital New York)

Bill de Blasio with James Capalino photo james-capalino-bill-de-blasio_zps92ca225a.jpg

Thank you for all that you do.

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Monday, February 3, 2014

Watching the Political Chess Pieces Move on the $10 billion New York State Medicaid Waiver

The political machinations at play over Cuomo's reëlection pork slush fund

Last month, New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo insulted Republicans by saying that "extreme conservatives" of the GOP had no place in New York state. How can Gov. Cuomo insult the political party that controls the House, which controls federal funding ? Ideological differences aside, the political reality is that Gov. Cuomo should keep the state on good terms with Republicans in order to "work the system," seeing as he is such a political insider, especially given how Gov. Cuomo is waiting on $10 billion in federal Medicaid funds to divert into pork projects in this year's budget to fluff his reëlection campaign. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is absolutely correct is not wanting to cross the GOP on this Medicaid waiver, because setting the frank realities aside (Like, who exacerbated the hospital closing crisis but Cuomo himself !!), why would the GOP want to see the Obama administration give a $10 billion re-electioneering slush fund to Gov. Cuomo after Gov. Cuomo just trashed the GOP ? If Obama/Sebelius have total discretion over approving this waiver, then President Obama may pay the price with amped-up vitriol from the GOP. It seems like Gov. Cuomo was flat out stupid to insult the GOP. Unless he was trying to score cheap political points by just using extremist talk, like one of my friends told me the other day . Even then, it was stupid.

There could be more than just normal beastly Washington politics causing the delay in the Medicaid waiver. If you want to really look behind the curtain, you might find former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's people causing the delay, too. President Obama supports Mrs. Clinton in her presumed campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, so the last thing President Obama would want to do is to help prop up Gov. Cuomo's reëlectioneering pork plans with the $10 billion Medicaid waiver that Gov. Cuomo plans to turn into a slush fund. These monies are purported to be "savings," but they are in fact money that was gutted from Medicaid from the poorest people, preventing them from being able to access full-service hospital, comprehensive medical, or Level 1 Trauma care in times of emergency. Cuomo's plans for these monies have nothing to do with helping to fund Obamacare expansion plans, but, instead, to dole out for his reëlection campaign purposes. He is sleazy like that, and there's no way to expect that Gov. Cuomo will do the right and honorable thing with this kind of windfall. And Mrs. Clinton's people know that, too, and if you were Mrs. Clinton, why would you want to see your primary challenger make use of a $10 billion slush fund like that ? Mrs. Clinton's machine is slowly taking back control of the DNC, so there's that added motivation to block/cut the waiver, too.

Added to the political pressures on the $10 billion waiver is New York City mayor Bill de Blasio's tax hike for the rich. If the $10 billion is delayed or cut, then Gov. Cuomo will not have the money to fund the mayor's expansion of pre-kinder classes as he had promised, making it easier for Mayor de Blasio to argue that he needs his tax increase. Mayor de Blasio is also doing his best to see to it that Mrs. Clinton comes out on top of Gov. Cuomo, so the mayor has a partial motivation to see to it that the Medicaid waiver is delayed or cut, even to the detriment of NYC hospitals.

At the joint appearance by the mayor and governor, the governor and the mayor only committed to preserving emergency care in Brooklyn -- (the same bait-and-switch talk that former Council Speaker Christine Quinn shifted to regarding St. Vincent's) -- and the governor and mayor specifically refused to say that they'd save "full-service" hospital care. So, that $10 billion isn't going to be used to save Interfaith Medical Center or Long Island College Hospital as we would all like to see. The only way that Mayor de Blasio would go along with pressuring Secretary Sebelius to make good on the whole $10 billion waiver is if Gov. Cuomo promised to share some of that slush fund with NYC -- which we already know will not be used to save Brooklyn hospitals. The mayor is under tremendous budgetary pressure to deliver on approximately $7 billion in union contracts, and he needs all the money he can get.

The dark side question is : are "Leftists" really trusting the governor and the mayor to let some of that $10 billion trickle down to voters ? It's been my argument that, since I saw James Capalino campaign for BDB, the de Blasio administration would be controlled by lobbyists. Lobbyists are going to instruct the governor and the mayor on how to spend that money. My darkest fear is the people will not benefit from the money at all. Maybe the unions will get better contracts, but people who don't have lobbyists working for them will get nothing. As it is, the karma of this money is already questionable, since it represents Medicaid healthcare cuts to the poorest New Yorkers.

Lastly, I want to point out that President Obama himself may want to delay or cut the $10 billion. The president's administation has been a complete disaster. His last saving grace is to try to take credit for the rise of the (fake (read : no-reform)) progressivism that's emerging out of the new crop of (poser) politicians in New York City. President Obama himself may want to delay or cut the Medicaid waiver so that he can take credit for an income tax hike on the 1% for which the mayor is lobbying. The tax hike is a good thing, but all these backroom machinations and other mixed-motivations are what are at play. There's no way to predict what will happen, because these pieces keep moving....

SIDEBAR : If Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm leaves office, the GOP will have less reason to care about New York. I hate myself for thinking like this, but we actually need a powerplayer GOP politician in New York to help focus the GOP on the dire economics of New York state. If we go completely blue, why would the GOP-controlled House care about us anymore ? President Obama's too weak to lead the Democrats to take back control of the House this November, so we are stuck with the GOP for the next few years. Insulting them doesn't work, not when Gov. Cuomo has his hands out, begging for a slush fund.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Corrupt Campaign Finance and Lobbyist Influence in de Blasio and Cuomo administrations

"Bags of Cash"

Real estate developers, gambling interests, and lobbyists corrupt New York City and New York State politics. In this YouTube video, questions are raised about why the super-majority of liberal and progressive politicians in New York are unable to propose and enact real campaign finance and lobbyist reforms. Are Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Prosecutor Kathleen Rice more interested in milking big business interests and lobbyists of campaign donations to dare to reform the broken political system ?

Stay tuned ....

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

James Capalino, Other Lobbyists Lined Up To Help Host Million-Dollar Bill de Blasio/Hillary Clinton Fundraiser

James Capalino, Other Lobbyists Lined Up To Help Host Million-Dollar Bill de Blasio/Hillary Clinton Fundraiser

From Daily News Daily Politics :

The host committee of Bill de Blasio's million-dollar Monday-night fundraiser with Hillary Clinton read like a who's who of big-league city lobbyists -- and it's drawing fire from his GOP foe in the mayor's race.

"The level of Bill de Blasio's hypocrisy is alarming. He takes cash from developers and special interests while telling New Yorkers he supports something different," Jessica Proud, a spokeswoman for Republican nominee Joe Lhota, told the Daily News. "I don't think anyone can trust who the real Bill de Blasio is when he always tries to play both sides."

De Blasio spokesman Dan Levitan declined comment on both Proud's comments or the number of lobbyists involved in the cash bash.

Among those on the host committee for the Roosevelt Hotel soiree : James Capalino, who in the past lobbied for Rudin Management, which is developing high-end condos near the site of the shuttered St. Vincent's Hospital, and A-list lobbyist Suri Kasirer, who has met with de Blasio on Atlantic Yards project.

Kasirer characterized her role in the fundraiser as more about old friendships than pending business.

"It was kind of like Old Home Week," said Kasirer, who said her 25-year friendship with the mayoral frontrunner goes back to the administration of former Mayor David Dinkins and continued through and past Clinton's 2000 run for the Senate.

While Kasirer says she's closely watching issues that may extend into the next administration, such as Midtown East rezoning, she painted the evening as "a way for a lot of New Yorkers to give a boost to Hillary and let her know that we were eagerly waiting for her decision and want her to run [for president]...

"I think for me it was less about lobbying than it was about sort of longtime relationships."

Capalino didn't immediately return a call about the fundraiser.

Fordham University's Costas Panagopoulos said the list wasn't surprising given that given that "money follows power and special interests can read the polls just as well as anyone else can," and that de Blasio and many of his backers are "established politicians with access to lobbyists and other donors" happy to help raise cash for a man who may make decisions critical to their clients.

The political science prof also said there is of course the issue of "whether someone who's been elected partly as a result of having attracted considerable financial support is subsequently beholden to those interests" if he or she wins.

"We'd like to think that kind of quid pro quo -- or some would go so far as to call it corruption -- doesn't exist, but it's a legitimate question," he said. "Answering this question will require vigilance and surveillance if [de Blasio is] elected."

Others on the lengthy host committee list included Stan Natapoff and Alexandra Stanton of Empire Global Ventures; Rachel Amar of Waste Management Of New York; and Michael Woloz of Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

How committed is Bill de Blasio to adopting progressive reforms ?

Bill de Blasio and Land Use : Liberal Mayoral Candidate Would Continue Many of Bloomberg's -- and Quinn's -- Policies

In the weeks leading up to Christine Quinn's defeat in the Democratic primary election, it came to be known that one of the slimy Rudin lobbyists responsible for influencing the City Council to approve the controversial St. Vincent's luxury condo conversion plan had already found a way to get access to Bill de Blasio, the presumptive leading mayoral candidate. Hosted on Scribd is an e-mail about the controversial lobbyist, James Capalino, that was exchanged between Donny Moss and I.

After a couple of weeks of careful consideration, I have produced a new YouTube video about this e-mail exchange.

One major reason that activists organised to vote Quinn out of office was because of how she sold out the community in favor of her campaign contributors and powerful big business interests. Real estate developers have enjoyed great influence over city government, so much so that voters have had almost no way of participating in important community decisions. For example, voters desired saving the zoning on the St. Vincent's campus for a replacement hospital, but big business interests were able to ride roughshod over voters because of their use of lobbyists and the outsized influence of campaign donations.

After the primary election, Bill de Blasio announced that he would not appear at fundraisers unless contributors could package together donations of at least $75,000. In addition to embracing lobbyists that helped Rudin privatise the former real estate of St. Vincent's, de Blasio was now embracing the out-sized influence of money in politics.

How could it be that activists, who carried the reform banner to organize and defeat Quinn in the mayoral primary, now turn the other way after de Blasio has now begun to adopt some the same tools of the broken political system as did Quinn ?

The concerns over who gets access to political candidates are serious. As some of you may know, when Andrew Cuomo was running for governor, some St. Vincent's activists approached his campaign people over the need for a hospital to replace St. Vincent's. Cuomo's campaign people told the St. Vincent's activists, "We'll see you after the election." After the election, what did Gov. Cuomo do ? Within days, he formed the Medicaid Redesign Team to continue the work of closing hospitals, and he appointed Stephen Berger to head the Brooklyn Working Group in an attempt to specifically close hospitals in Brooklyn. Similarly, some AIDS activists tried to reach out to the de Blasio campaign this year to determine if his campaign platform would include more ambitious goals to confront HIV/AIDS, but the AIDS activists were told by de Blasio's campaign people, "We'll see you after the election."

After all the community organizing, town halls, and protests in which activists have engaged to fight for a hospital to save St. Vincent's, just hearing the phrase, "We'll see you after the election," should activate a powerful recognition : that de Blasio means to make no public commitment to champion for the reforms that that many communities say they want to see brought about in the next mayoral administration.

Some activists, who participated in the movement to vote Quinn out of office, have been doing this work for over 22 years -- from the time when Quinn first arrived in the political scene in New York. It becomes too late to try to hold a politician accountable once the politician gets elected into office. Using Quinn as an example, she will have spent about 15 years in City Council spread out over 5 terms in office. During this time, in what direction has this city headed ? There was no way to hold her accountable during these 15 years, except to finally vote her out of office. That's the only way.

As challenging as it was to vote Quinn out of office, what lesson should we be drawing from this experience ? What wisdom is there to be had ? The reality is that Quinn was just a symptom of a broken political system. The root causes of the political system being broken still exist. In the last two years, our activism was influenced by important principles from the Occupy movement, and that is that inequality, corruption, and the undue influence of big business interests is what keeps our government broken and non-responsive to voters' needs. Knowing all that we know, do we wait for politicians to max out on term limits before they should be held accountable to voters, or should politicians be held accountable even before they win an election and are sworn into office ?

It all comes down to what you think, because it was you, who was made voiceless under the Bloomberg-Quinn administration. Our immediate contribution to push back against the broken political system was to vote Quinn out of office, but based on the messages that de Blasio is telegraphing to the community, voting Quinn out is not enough to bring about reforms. Now that she will soon be gone, what else do you need to do to reclaim your government ?

Please think about this, because the movement to bring about reforms is not over, yet. The movement needs you to step forward, because not everybody is fighting for reforms, and compromises are being made that may not serve your best interests. The only way for you to make sure that your best interests are being served is for you to step up and speak out. Your voice and opinion counts. Make it be heard.

2013-09-23 Rudin Management Company - James Capalino NYC Lobbyist & Client Search Result