City of Yes Text Amendments - Huge Zoning Changes in the Works - Part II.

The Proposed 'City of Yes Text Amendments' will Roll Back Local Community Board [and Hence Communities] Input into What is Built & What Activities are Allowed in Their Communities

April 2, 2024 / Brooklyn Neighborhoods / NYC Real Estate / NYC Government & Politics / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

Just over a week ago I attended a Zoom call, organized by Community Board 6 in Manhattan, regarding the proposed City of Yes Text Amendments Part II being promulgated by Mayor Adams and his Administration. We collectively sat through about an hour long presentation, which I found to be most enlightening as well as a bit disconcerting should the proposed changes pass without significant alteration.

I have obtained permission to publish the slides, which due to technical issues, I have had to publish in the three [vs one] slide shows you see below [they are in chronological order].  I'll post my full report early next week, but in the meantime the slides should give you an idea of how big the changes really are and has been done in such a manner that you can begin to figure out how these changes may affect you.

Whether you are a tenant, landowner or real estate developer - and no matter in which borough you live - these changes, if passed unalterred, are going to significantly change how things are done in NYC. And the more I dig into this, the more it seems to be a roll back of community input, which is - in my mind - an essential / core element of any democratic process.

Isn't it?

While I'm still not done with the research, these changes look to be quite harmful to the people of NYC, in so many different ways, while failing to provide any sure path to growing our inventory of truly affordable housing.

Much more coming next week and over the next couple of weeks.

•  CLICK here to view the slide show presentation made regarding the City of Yes at the Manhattan Community Board 6 Meeting on March 25, 2024.

What Happened at the LIC Partnership Real Estate Breakfast?

LIC Real Estate Owners, Managers & Tenants Discussed the Current State of the Long Island City Real Estate Market

April 25, 2023 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / Queens Buzz NYC / 1067.

NYC Weather. The temperature highs will be / Weather coming tomrorrow.

I never thought I would become one of the 'old timers' covering the LIC Partnership Real Estate Breakfast. But I think that perhaps I am. I hadn't covered one of these breakfasts since before the pandemic, so I found myself looking to regain my balance, vis a vis my Queens real estate sea legs.

But some things are like riding a bike, meaning they come back to you quickly, and covering the LIC Real Estate Breakfast seemed to fit that bill. As I sat there listening to the panel assembled to discuss the current state of affairs, I noticed a number of folks from prior gatherings, and while the issues were largely the same, the current state of them is constantly changing.

And I'll provide the update this weekend.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report on the LIC Real Estate Breakfast of 2023 / real estate in Queens NYC.

Governor Hochul Scraps the Ill Conceived LGA - Willets Point Air Train

Former Governor Cuomo's Air Train Seemed More About Catering to the Whims of the Billionaire Class, than in Streamlining Public Transit

March 15, 2023 / NYC Neighborhoods / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

In 2017 I attended a Community Board meeting in Astoria where our urban planners talked about new improvements coming to LaGuardia Airport. Since then a number of those plans have come to fruition. But one of them, what at the time was called the third phase, the Air Train to LGA, has not. Use the link to see the thinking nearly six years ago when the plans had been drafted and the construction was about to begin. I'm happy to say that we flagged and reported to you a number of the issues with the LGA Air Train early on, which we've included in the list below.

The photo at right shows the CTA [Chicago Transit Authority] subway that runs along the Kennedy Expressway from downtown Chicago to O'Hare Airport which vies with Atlanta for the title of the busiest airport in the U.S..

The Former Emperor [Governor Cuomo] had No Clothes [Sound Public Interest Rationale]

On Monday, Governor Hochul announced what was already well known and expected, which was that the Air Train shuttling between LaGuardia Airport and Flushing Meadows Corona Park, would not be built.

There were any number of good reasons why the LGA Air Train should not have been built, such as: 1) the costs of building the train would cost more than five times the original estimated cost of under $500 million to over $2.5 billion, 2) then, implicit in a number of alternatives, there was the idiocy of connecting the LGA Air Train, to the second most trafficked subway line [the #7] in NYC, which was already nearing peak capacity pre-pandemic, 3) the politically and billionaire preferred alternative destination, Willets Point on Flushing Bay, had just been cleaned up after decades of environmental pollution, and would again be threatened again, and to top it all off, 4) the politically and billionaire preferred Willets Point alternative required all of the people traveling to and from LaGuardia on public transit, to travel out to Flushing first, before circling back around to LaGuardia Airport. The billionaires who would have benefitted from this include billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross and [now minority interest] Mets Club billionaire owners Saul B. Katz and Fred Wilpon. The new Mets baseball team owner, Steve Cohen, is also a billionaire.

CLICK here to read our report on Governor Hochul scraps the LGA to Flushing Meadows Corona Park Air Train.

Economic Outlook 2023

Employment Steady, Inflation Subsiding, Consumer Confidence Up, Government Stimulus Fading, Fed Tightening 'Should' Stop After .25% Increase at Next FOMC Meeting, Most Global Supply Side Issues have been Corrected, Oil Prices Below a Year Ago, and the Dollar is Strong

January 17, 2023 / NYC Business News / New Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC / 469.

NYC Weather. The temperature highs will be in the mid to high 40's and the temperature lows will be around 40, dropping to 35 degrees on Friday. No rain is expected EXCEPT on Thursday, where up to an inch of rain will fall during the day. Winds will be 5 - 10 mph on Tuesday and Thursday and will be 10 - 15 mph on Wednesday and Friday. Humidity will rise from 45% to 80% on Tuesday, fall back into the 60% range on Wednesday, rise into the 80% range on Thursday with the rain, and fall back into the 60% range on Friday.

I. Economic Background - CoVid Disruptions of Global Supply Chains and U.S. Government Fiscal & Monetary Policy Responses

In recent months I have spent a fair amount of time catching up on what's happening in the economy overall, in an attempt to guage what lies ahead. It's important to realize where we are in the business cycle, in order to figure out what to expect going forward.

* Since March of 2020, we've been in a bit of a pandemic spin. The 2020 pandemic essentially halted most hospitality businesses and softened demand for some services, but drove high demand for both durable and non-durable goods. This is on the demand side. Meanwhile on the supply side, businesses were closing down, or working at far less than capacity, because of the health impact of the pandemic. For example in China, they didn't just appear to shutter businesses, but almost entire cities, to curb the spread of CoVid. China is where much of our electronics are made so this impacted the availability / supply of electronics at a time when Americans were spending more on them, because they weren't traveling, vacationing or even eating out much, so they had extra cash to spend on items, most notably electronics.

The U.S. federal government [as did many governments throughout the world] kept many businesses afloat through expansive monetary policy and generous fiscal spending via CoVid Relief packages which put money in the hands of local businesses, governments and individuals. The fiscal stimulus / excess government spending began in 2020 during the Trump Administration, and ended in early 2021 under the Biden Administration.

The first chart above right shows the federal government excess fiscal spending during the pandemic. Both Trump and Biden temporarily increased government spending in order to keep the economy rolling through the pandemic.

• CLICK here for our report on our perspective on the economic outlook for NYC in 2023.

The Great Supply Chain Crisis 2021: Hype vs Reality

TV & Murdoch News Sensationalized the Great Supply Chain Crisis of 2021 - Telling us for Months on End No Pumpkins for Halloween, No Turkeys for Thanksgiving, No Trees for Christmas & No Cream Cheese in NYC

But How Much of that Hyping was a Murdoch Inspired Perspective in Pursuit of Political Profit & Fear Mongering Ratings at the Expense of Reporting What's Really Happening?

January 3, 2022 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

The closer I pay attention to what's happening in our mass media, the more concerned I get. Nearly half of our daily nationally branded news media is controlled by one man, Australian born billionaire Rupert Murdoch - who strikes me as either a sociopath or psychopath. Based on the seven years I've been covering Murdoch, it appears as if he doesn't care about anything other than enriching and empowering himself, even at 90 years of age [his mother lived to 103 so he's likely going to be with us for a while].

What Those Who Know Murdoch Say About Him

In Australia - where Murdoch has been operating all his life - former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described,

"Murdoch's media empire as a cancer on democracy".

And in Britain, a Parliamentary Report stated that,

[Murdoch] "was not a fit person" to exercise stewardship of a major international company].

Keith Rupert Murdoch, controls the Wall St. Journal, Fox News, the NY Post, Harper Collins Publishing, MarketWatch, Barrons - and along with two of Fox News largest shareholders - Murdoch appears to have a controlling interest in Disney / ABC by virtue of what seems his proximity to their relatively new CEO. Murdoch's influence appears to be manifesting itself in personnel moves being made since he became one of their largest shareholders in March of 2019. The personnel moves are in their news and related programming areas, and ultimately impact what ABC News presents to the public. I just witnessed one of many subtle changes on Sunday, while watching This Week with George Stephanopolous. I'll say more about this at the end of this report.

Fox News Lyin' Laura Ingraham, earned that moniker, as you can see in the image above. Fox News has repeatedly used misleading photos and images to lend deceptive and misleading support to their news accounts, which appear designed to influence the unaware and low information voters, in order to get them to vote for billionaire Murdoch's favored pols and against the very government officials who are trying to help the manipulated victims.

• CLICK here for the rest of the story about mass media's ratings-driven hype, and media manufactured distortions about the global supply chain disruptions.

NYC Landlord Harassments Continue

NYCCM Helen Rosenthal Hosts Housing Clinic to Inform Renters of Their Rights

May 29, 2018 / Upper West Side Neighborhood / Manhattan Real Estate / Manhattan Neighborhoods / Brooklyn Blvd NYC.

On Wednesday, May 25th I went to the Goddard Riverside Community Center on Columbus Avenue at 88th Street to attend a housing clinic designed to inform renters of their rights.

***The following introduction is based on prior research done by me, and was not information provided at the housing clinic. I'll let you know when I segue out of my preamble and into the housing clinic.***

Over the past decade landlords appear to have become increasingly aggressive in trying to wriggle out of NYC and NYS rent stabilization regulations, that govern the rental payments under which about two million New Yorkers live.

It is my understanding that the government contributed land and / or financing to build or repair the buildings governed by NYC / NYS rent stabilization laws in exchange for the pricing rights on rent stabilized units. Many of the new landlords who have acquired rent stablized buildings, may possibly be in violation of approaching their business contract(s) in good faith, as the definition of good faith according to Wikipedia is:

"In contract law, the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing is a general presumption that the parties to a contract will deal with each other honestly, fairly, and in good faith, so as to not destroy the right of the other party or parties to receive the benefits of the contract. It is implied in every contract in order to reinforce the express covenants or promises of the contract. A lawsuit (or a cause of action) based upon the breach of the covenant may arise when one party to the contract attempts to claim the benefit of a technical excuse for breaching the contract, or when he or she uses specific contractual terms in isolation in order to refuse to perform his or her contractual obligations, despite the general circumstances and understandings between the parties. When a court or triar or fact interprets a contract, there is always an "implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing" in every written agreement."

What is at stake, throughout the city, is literally hundreds of millions and more likely billions of dollars in - rental benefits or rental income streams - depending on which side of the struggle you're on. The landlords appear to be trying - using the torturtous side effects of construction including noise, health risk dust [inhalation], privacy loss and apartment functional loss - to wrest away the billions of dollars of rental pricing rights benefits from tenants to be pocketed by the landlords themselves. Given the high dollar value of what's at stake - including people's homes - this seems like attempted grand larceny, especially in cases where landlords are breaking the law to achieve their goals.

This will be continued at a later date. Including the segue into the information provided by the Housing Clinic to inform tenants of their rights.

Tenants' Rights March & Rally - June 14th Midtown at 4.30 pm

P.S. There's a March & Rally scheduled for June 14th, beginning at 4.30 pm, at the NY Public Library at 5th Avenue and 40th Street. They plan to march to Governor Cuomo's office at 3rd Avenue and East 41st Street. For details contact info@realrentreform.org or call 212.979.6958. All but one of the No IDC NY senatorial candidates have been invited to participate, and there's a possibility that NYS gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon will be there too - as this seems to coincide with her reasons for challenging Governor Cuomo.

De Blasio's State Of The City Address

NYC Mayor Maps Out A Framework To Tackle NYC's Affordable Housing Crisis

Real Estate Lobbyist: "Zoning Is The Equivalent Of Minting Money"

February 9, 2015 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Government & Politics / Gotham Buzz NYC.

Mayor Bill de Blasio sent the NYC political, media and real estate worlds abuzz on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015 when he laid out his administration's plan to solve one of the severest shortages of affordable housing in the history of New York City. It seems everyone had something to say in response to it - from the folks on the street to the NYS Governor. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is shown standing in the bottom left corner of the photo, after giving his first State of the City Address.

The housing crisis in New York City reached crisis proportions during the Bloomberg Administration. Former Mayor Bloomberg's approach to the issue was to let rent regulated apartments expire or become transformed to encourage investment, provide generous tax incentives and city land deals to real estate developers to build luxury high rise apartments, and build more homeless shelters.

A severe shortage of affordable housing was lurking in the background, as candidate Bill de Blasio began running for the office of mayor with the theme of "the tale of two cities". His campaign keyed into the pinch being felt by the 70% of New Yorkers who rent.

Thus one year later, while giving his first State of the City Address, the 109th Mayor of New York City put the affordable housing problem front and center for his Administration in a manner similar to what he had done on the campaign trail.

And in doing so, the Mayor set afire talk about affordable housing by city and state pols, the media and city real estate developers.

Click here later in the week to read the rest of our report about Mayor Bill de Blasio's State of the City Address, including reactions by banking and real estate executives, members of labor unions and other government officials. By Michael Wood.

This is a bare bones Brooklyn Business Directory. It will be updated at a later date.