Living Wage Supporters Seek Compromise

Faced with criticism from opponents who say the bill would squash jobs, backers of a proposed "living wage" mandate in the City Council are now reportedly willing to make some concessions.

"We're trying to take into account some legitimate concerns," Bronx Councilman Oliver Koppell, who sponsored the legislation with Councilwoman Annabel Palma, told the Daily News. "What we want is something that'll work and also something that will engender as little resistance as possible."

City Passes Parks and Beaches Cig Ban

Soon, you'll have to think twice before you light up on your local park bench. The City Council voted in favor of a resolution yesterday that will ban smoking in public parks, city beaches and boardwalks.

The bill is an extension of the city’s Smoke Free Air Act, which banned cigarettes in bars and restaurants back in 2002. Smokers who take up their habit in public parks, beaches or outdoor plazas could be slapped with a $50 fine from the Parks Department, according to the new law, which goes into affect in 90 days.

Supporters of the law are optimistic about how effective the ban will be.

"The expectation of the bill’s sponsor and others who voted for the bill is that it will be self-enforcing, as the Smoke-free Workplace Law of 2002 has been," said David Lehman, manager at Bronx Smoke-free Partnership, in an e-mail.

"When it passed 8 years ago, there were predictions of fist fights, high non-compliance and more. The exact opposite has proven to be true. Compliance is at 98%, as smokers are largely law-abiding and non-smokers love breathing clean air."

Some background on the bill, which was heavily backed by Bronx Council Members, can be found here. What do you think, readers? Is it fair to tell smokers they can't light up at the park?

The Education of a Councilman: Bronx's Cabrera Makes Strides in First Year

Councilman Fernando Cabrera (second from left) at a finance committee meeting. He says he’s learned a lot from veteran Council members, such as Joel Rivera (middle). (Photo by A. Kratz)

[Ed. note: this article appears in the latest issue of the Norwood News, which it out on streets now.]

Councilman Fernando Cabrera’s office on the 17th floor of 250 Broadway, a large municipal building across the street from City Hall in downtown Manhattan, is spartan — the walls a blank canvas, the desk tops free of clutter. There are photos on and behind his desk: of a baby smiling, a close-up of a flower, a beautiful landscape. They are not his photos. They came with the frames.

The scene is fitting. As Cabrera enters the final weeks of his first year representing the 14th District, which includes Kingsbridge, University Heights, Morris Heights and Mt. Hope, two things have become clear: he has been busy and he is still moving in.

“Greg [Faulkner] is the best chief of staff in the world,” Cabrera says, smiling, “but he’s not much of a decorator.” Besides, Faulkner, the former chairman of Community Board 7, has enough on his plate helping Cabrera navigate the complex machinery of the New York City Council.

“There’s always something new,” Cabrera says. “Always something to learn. This is the biggest city government, the biggest city budget.”

So Far, So Good

“I think he’s been an exceptional council member,” said Patrick Jenkins, a political consultant who worked on Cabrera’s campaign and continues to work for the Bronx County Democratic Committee. “He’s earned the respect of his colleagues. People find him approachable and dependable. He has a tremendous work ethic.”

Make no mistake, Cabrera remains low on the Council totem pole. City Hall, a newspaper that covers city politics, ranked him 47th out of 51 Council members in terms of influence and the money he is allocated for his district is relatively low compared to, say, Joel Rivera, who represents the district next door.

More on Land Use Committee Vote

OK, back up and running here after some Internet difficulties.
Here's what I was going to post earlier:

Actually the vote was "yes," to reject the proposal, just to be clear. But the vote was 17 to 1 with one abstention. Council Member Helen Sears was the only member of the full Land Use Committee to vote no. Chair Melinda Katz abstained because of a possible conflict of interest, perhaps referring to her next job after she leaves the Council in January.

The full Council still has to vote a little later but it's a foregone conclusion that they will defeat the plan, too.

I just spoke to Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail Workers' union (RWDSU), which played a central role in the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance. Here's what he told me:

"Today the Council sent a strong message that economic development has to be good for the community and not just a private deveoper."

Tony Avella, chair of the Zoning and Franchises Committee, was a happy man after the two votes who clearly sees this as his crowning achievement on the Council. (He lost a Democratic primary bid for mayor in September and therefore will also be leaving the Council after this month.)

He says there has been no other vote like this during his tenure and that it will help rebalance the power equation between the mayor and the Council.

"This can only be a good thing," he said. "It's a great day for democracy. We're an equal body with the mayor."

He added regarding the Armory: "If we're going to do it, why not do it right?"

So why'd they vote no when there were murmurs over the weekend that some in the Bronx delegation were considering voting yes?

Well, a major obstacle seems to be the fund that the city was proposing to subsidize wages that were not at the living wage level. According to Council Member Joel Rivera, the city's Corporation Counsel said such a vote would violate the state's Constition. We'll have to look into this a little more.

At the center of a scrum of reporters earlier, Rivera insisted that the reason for the vote was not centered on the living wage issue despite his firm backing of the community's push for this requirment. He cited insufficient parking and a traffic study done by KARA that indicates that there would be more idling in the area (1500 more cars during peak hours) and possibly an exacerbation of the asthma rate.

But the Land Use Committee is charged with voting on Land Use issues, not wage issues, so it's not surprising that Council members are framing the issue a little differently after the vote. (Some are doing the reframing with a little twinkle in their eye.)

I'm going to interview some more of the Bronx Council members before the full Council meeting starts.

More soon.

Land Use Overwhelming Votes to Reject Armory Plan

Jordan Moss, reporting from City Hall, says the City Council's Land Use Committee voted 17-1 to reject the Related Companies' proposal to turn the Kingsbridge Armory into a shopping mall.

The full Council still needs to vote on the project, but it's almost a sure bet that the proposal is going down. If the Council does vote to reject the plan, the mayor can override that vote with a veto, but that seems unlikely given the overwhelming opposition to the plan in the two committees that voted against the project today. The Council can override the mayor's veto with a two-thirds majority.

We'll have more details soon.

On Decision Day, Editor Looks Back -- and Ahead -- at Armory Battle

By Jordan Moss
Bronx News Network Executive Editor

The fate of the Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment will likely be decided on Monday (the 14th). The City Council could kill the plan because of the lack of a living wage requirement, or members of the Bronx delegation could agree to a watered-down wage deal with the developer, The Related Companies, and the Bloomberg administration.

As it decides, the Bronx delegation should keep in mind that redeveloping the armory would never have even gotten this far without a massive investment of time and energy by local residents over the last dozen years.

I wrote my first armory article for the Norwood News as a free-lancer in 1993 (and the paper has published dozens since – here’s a link for 67 of them) when the National Guard was poised to vacate the facility and transfer ownership to the city.

At that time, District 10 Superintendent John Reehill had a vision of turning the whole darned landmark, which was at the epicenter of the overcrowding crisis, into a complex of public schools. That plan went nowhere. It was the time of Giuliani and solving the crowding crisis in the Bronx wasn't exactly tops on the new mayor's to-do list. Nothing Bronx was. One of the new mayor's first acts of office after all was to kill the new police academy long planned for the borough by the Dinkins administration. 

Oliver Koppell, then an assemblyman, secured $150,000 from the state for a study but the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation returned the money when little was accomplished.

In 1998, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, a main force behind the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), began organizing residents and translating community ideas into architectural blueprints, with the assistance of Joan Byron and the Pratt Center. The plans included 2,400 school seats, a movie theatre, a green market, restaurants and a sports complex.

Diaz Opposed to Administration's Living Wage Compromise Proposal for Armory

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. is joining the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA) and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union (RWDSU) in opposition to a compromise on living wage jobs at the Kingsbridge Armory, a proposal currently being mulled by the Bronx City Council delegation.

The still murky and complicated proposal would create a fund that Armory mall employees could opt into and would augment their checks. The proposal would not guarantee a living wage ($10 an hour plus benefits) for Amory employees, something Diaz has fought for since August.

For more details on the compromise deal, click here.

“From the first day I got involved in the issue of the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory, I made it crystal clear that I would not support this project unless it included a guarantee that the employees at the future retail center would be paid a living wage. Though the wage supplement provisions that the Bloomberg administration has put forward represent a major step forward compared to our negotiations six months ago, there is no guarantee. With that said, I will continue to oppose this project, and I urge the members of the City Council to do the same,” said Borough President Diaz in a press release.

Diaz said that while he opposes the project as is, he's encouraged by the work and progress made by his office, community leaders and other Bronx elected officials.

He also says he's hopeful that this fight will lead to a change in how the city and state does development in the future. He wants to see legislation mandating living wage for employees at projects where developers receive city and/or state subsidies and tax breaks.

Bronx News Roundup, Dec. 8

The Mount Hope Community Center's opening is delayed due to a problem the size of three-eighths of an inch. The city claims that the building extends less than an inch on their property and thus refuses to issue the center its permanent certificate of occupancy. Read about some previous delays in opening that we published in the Mount Hope Monitor.

The Daily news highlights some of northern Riverdale's best finds.

A Daily News columnist, provides a glimpse into the crusade of a Bronx woman's tireless anti-gun crusade.

Another Daily News columnist hints that many Bronx politicians have hopes of assuming leadership positions on City Council.

The Department of City Planning has proposed the rezoning of an L-shaped area in the Tremont and Bathgate neighborhoods running along Third Ave. to spur growth in the area.

A developer has big plans for an area in East Tremont, including the construction of an 18-story building and a possible bowling alley.

A Bronx homeowner continues to be slapped with littering tickets for unsightly messes in her front yard that she blames on trash being blown from a nearby bus stop.

The Daily New's latest coverage of the Armory's living wage stand-off reports that the mayor's office offered a compromise. Stay tuned for our posting on the developing story later today.

Two Bronx schools have been added to the Department of Education's closure list.

Police have survellience video of the gunman in an attempted robbery shooting on Grant Avenue in Concourse Village.

Police continue to investiage the shooting a of a Bronx mother who was killed yesterday outside her home in front of her two daughters.

Armory Plan's Fate: Now It's Up to the City Council

In November, the City Council will decide on the fate of the Kingsbridge Armory. The City Council has the final say on whether the landmarked facility will be turned over to the Related Companies for The Shops at the Armory – essentially a mall. The question right now is whether the Council is willing to OK the plan when there’s no sign of a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz is hoping the Bronx’s Council delegation will reject the plan if there’s no CBA and no provision requiring retailers to pay a living wage, as are Bronx residents who turned out en masse at a community forum on Sunday at St. Nicholas of Tolentine School.

Related’s proposal will first come before the Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee of the Land Use Committee on Nov 12. It will then go to the full Land Use Committee for a hearing and vote on Nov. 16. If it passes there, it will go to the full City Council the next day. (The schedule is subject to change.)

We’ll have more on where individual members stand and what each side’s chances are early next week, but for now, here’s a list of who serves on which committee. Tony Avella, who chairs the Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee, is siding with the borough president and the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance. And Melinda Katz, chair of the Land Use Committee, who appeared at the Sunday forum, was not yet willing to show her cards.

OK, here are the lists of committee members with Bronx members bolded.

Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee
Chairperson: Tony Avella
Simcha Felder
Eric N. Gioia
Robert Jackson
Melinda R. Katz
Joel Rivera
Larry B. Seabrook
Helen Sears
Albert Vann

Land Use Committee
Chairperson: Melinda R. Katz
Maria del Carmen Arroyo
Tony Avella
Maria Baez
Charles Barron
Leroy G. Comrie, Jr.
Elizabeth Crowley
Inez E. Dickens
Simcha Felder
Daniel R. Garodnick
Eric N. Gioia
Sara M. Gonzalez
Vincent Ignizio
Robert Jackson
Jessica S. Lappin
John C. Liu
Rosie Mendez
Annabel Palma
Joel Rivera
Larry B. Seabrook
Helen Sears
Albert Vann

An Interactive Guide to the Bronx's City Council Races

Megan Taylor, an intern with the Bronx News Network, has developed this terrific interactive map of Bronx Council races. Click on a district to see the candidates.

Primary Day is next Tuesday.

Baez Gears Up For Fight of Her Life

Councilwoman Maria Baez and Assemblyman Jose Rivera first met in 1982, when Rivera had just been elected to the Assembly for the first time, and Baez was a struggling single mom living on Creston Avenue. Rivera gave her a job - the first job she'd ever had - and the "rest is history," he says.

Last month, we sat down with Baez to talk about her career (including the important role Rivera has played), her achievements, and some of the criticism she's faced these past two years - being AWOL from Council meetings, her office's mammoth cell phone bills, etc. We also spoke with several of her supporters, including a long-time friend who calls Baez the "best thing that's ever happened to this community." And we heard from those who see her in a very different light. One community leader says Baez has been "invisible" and a "non-entity."

You can read the story here.

Baez, in case you missed it, faces a tough Democratic primary on Sept. 15 against two determined opponents: Fernando Cabrera and Yudelka Tapia. There will be profiles of Cabrera and Tapia (as well as a version of the Baez article) in next week’s Norwood News and September's Mount Hope Monitor. We'll link to them on the blog.

PHOTO: Rivera and Baez at a rally outside Baez's campaign office on July 16 (ALMA WATKINS)

New from the Tremont Tribune

The second edition of the brand new Tremont Tribune hit the streets this week, with full coverage of the neighborhoods inside Community Board 6: Belmont, Bathgate, Tremont, Crotona, and West Farms. It's bilingual and monthly, and you can find it at local businesses or online. Here's a look at what we've got for you this month:

Resident doctors at St. Barnabas Hospital are fighting to form a union.

A former gangmember turned police liaison tells the story behind his change of heart.

Community Board 6 thinks the funding cuts in Bloomberg's budget spell the beginning of the end for community boards.

Photos from the annual Feast of St. Anthony, which took over Belmont last week (you can find more photos from the feast below).

Plus an update on city council races and our listing of free local concerts, festivals, and events, in What's Going On?

And if you didn't catch us last month, never fear! The first ever edition of the Tremont Tribune is also online, with stories on Crotona's ambitions for a new, green, community center, and a controversial new housing development in Bathgate.

Take a look, and let us know what you think!

How They're Doing

Gotham Gazette has a terrific piece with graphics that chart how our local Council members are doing. How often do they show up at work? How often do they vote no? How often do they hold committee hearings. It's all there. Have fun and let us know what bits of data interest, surprise, and disgust you.

Bronx News Roundup Feb. 10

Mayor Bloomberg wants to use federal stimulus funds to finish building a $55 million parking garage at the Botanical Garden. BoogieDowner has more on the 6-story project which has run into difficulties in recent months.

Jay Savino, the Bronx Republican party chairman, is unlikely to support Mayor Bloomberg for reelection, says Bob Kappstatter in his weekly column. According to Kappstatter, Bloomberg has to win over three of the city's five GOP county leaders if he wants to run on the Republican ticket.

The Daily News' Bill Egbert has more on the continued resurrection of the Grand Concourse, which is 100 years old this year. He touches on whether or not the northern section of the Concourse will also see improvements. Xavier Rodriguez, district manager of Community Board 5, hopes so. He thinks it would benefit the Fordham Road shopping area. (For the sake of clarification, the Mount Eden-Highbridge neighborhood is in CB 4, not 5, as written in the article.)

The trial of two tenants and a landlord charged with the deaths of two firefighters on Jan. 23, 2005, is coming to a close. The day became know as Black Sunday after a third firefighter died in Brooklyn that day. See here and here.

We missed this at the time, but the Gotham Gazette recently took a detailed look at some of the bills introduced by the City Council in past few months. Among them is a bill by Council member Maria Baez calling for public schools teachers to be issued with parking permits. A Streetblog blogger thinks it would be a disaster.

The owners of Mainland Media have started a social networking Web site for Bronx residents.

Term Limits and City Council District 14

The City Council will decide at 2 p.m. tomorrow whether or not to extend term limits, after a last ditch effort to derail the vote failed. The latest count by NY1 has 18 council members favoring an extension, 23 against, and 10 undecided. But supporters and opponents of the bill say Speaker Christine Quinn (who supports an extension) wouldn’t have scheduled the vote unless she was confident of securing a majority.

Here in the west Bronx, a “yes” vote would allow Council member Maria Baez (District 14) to run again, and potentially serve another four years. Baez says she’s in favor of an extension because it would “give an opportunity for members like myself to finish projects."

Predictably, the up-and-comers eyeing her seat (which under current laws would become vacant at the end of 2009) see things differently.

“I don’t think you can change them because one person wants to stay in power,” said Hector Ramirez, in reference to Mayor Bloomberg. “If you want a change you have to go again to the people [for a referendum]. If people say yes, then ok, but not because of one person.”

Ramirez, currently a district leader, is one of three individuals in the 14th District to have filed financial disclosure forms with the city’s Campaign Finance Board - the others being Yudelka Tapia and Haile Rivera. All are of Dominican origin. Never before has there been a Bronx council member from the DR.

Reached by phone earlier this week, Rivera, a community activist who suspended his campaign in June to work as field organizer for the Obama's campaign, argued against a term limit extension, saying the wishes of New Yorkers should be respected. “Twice they voted against extending them,” he said. “These votes should count, otherwise what’s the point in voting?”

Tapia didn’t respond to phone messages seeking her term limit position. But she's probably playing close attention: in many ways, her City Council campaign is further along than the others. She’s the only candidate, for example, with a campaign Web site.

According to her online biography, Tapia's a senior auditor for the city, the president of The Great Alliance Democratic Club, a Bronx State Committee member, and a tenants’ rights advocate, among other things. Politically, she's more experienced than both Rivera and Ramirez, having run for the same City Council seat in 2001, and then the 86th Assembly seat in 2002 (both unsuccessfully).

Unlike her rivals, who are supporting Carl Heastie and the "Rainbow Rebels" in their efforts to de-throne Party Chairman Jose Rivera, Tapia hasn’t taken sides – at least not publicly. One elected official told me she’s fence-sitting. But she's clearly close to the party boss, or has been in the past. In a July press release, sent out in support of Assembly candidate and fellow Dominican Nelson Castro (who defeated the Rebel-backed Mike Soto in September's primary), Tapia praised Rivera, citing his willingness to reach across racial boundaries – the very thing the Rebels say he’s failed to do. Her release said: “Mr. Rivera and other Puerto Rican Democratic Leaders in The Bronx have always acknowledged the contributions and rights of the Dominican community."

Tapia, then, could be in a tough spot. If term limits are extended (as looks likely) and Jose Rivera is ousted (also likely), she could end up facing an incumbent (Baez), as well as a candidate (either Ramirez or Haile Rivera) with backing from the party's new leadership.

Haile Rivera, it should be said, says he’s unsure if he’ll revive his campaign when he returns to the Bronx. “At the moment I’m focusing 110 percent on Obama,” he said. (So things are looking pretty good for Ramirez, as it stands.)

Of course, there’s still a long was to go: the election isn't until November 2009. But tomorrow’s term limit vote, and the outcome of the Bronx leadership battle, will play an important role in deciding District 14’s next council member.

Other term limit news: As we reported earlier, Adolfo Carrion, the borough president and former District 14 council member, has dropped his support for a term-limit extension, after billionaire Ronald Lauder told The Times the extension should only apply to council members currently serving their second term.

Haile Rivera Suspends Council Bid

Is it all over before it began?

Community activist and University Heights resident Haile Rivera has decided to press the pause button on his run for City Council. "I'm suspending my campaign," he said in an interview this afternoon.

More here.

Bloomberg Out of Touch on Water Rates

Opinion by Gregory Lobo Jost
Our billionaire mayor once again shows how out of touch he is with reality by crassly dismissing calls to provide immediate relief to water rate payers. When asked about the calls by City Council Members Gennaro and Weprin for the City to return a portion of the rental payment to rate payers, Mayor Mike brushed off the entire issue. So reports the Daily News,

"They spend the money on real projects which we need," Bloomberg said of the city's water system Monday. "From what I can tell, they do it reasonably efficiently, and this [rental relief] seems to me to be a brouhaha about nothing from a couple of people who want to run for higher office."

While some of the elected officials making this point are running for higher office, that doesn't make their point invalid. In fact, those who will be sticking around in public office during the coming years realize that the problem of incresing water rates will only get worse. The easiest route for Bloomberg is to ignore the problem and let the next Administration deal with it -- so much for our visionary Mayor planning ahead to 2030! What about 2010?!?

Significant side point: The Mayor probably wasn't thinking about the filtration plant where costs have skyrocketed when he made his "reasonably efficiently" comment. (By the way, the parks improvements that were part of the deal Bronx politicians made to allow the construction in Van Cortlandt Park aren't being paid for out of the Parks Department budget -- they are coming from rising water rates!)

While the Water Board is also holding hearings this week (last night in the Bronx and tomorrow at 5:30 in Manhattan), they will argue that all that they actually have little control and our points should be made directly to the Mayor's office. Since the Mayor's office isn't holding public hearings on the topic, though, advocates will continue to press major points of reform with the Mayorally-appointed Water Board. Hopefully they will have the wherewithal to take our case to the Mayor, or resign in protest of what's going on -- but I wouldn't hold my breath on either count.

Meanwhile, the Independent Budget Office released a report on the water rate increases this week, although they focus entirely on short-term relief. A better comprehensive look at the system can be found in the Urban Prospect (entitled Liquid Assets), released today by the Citizens Housing and Planning Council.

Baez Tied to Council Slush Fund Scandal

In today's Post, Bronx Council member Maria Baez is named as one of six council members whose funding recommendations are being investigated by the Department of Investigations.

Presumably, Baez's reported attempt to give $7,500 to a tenant group that doesn't even exist will be one of the recommendations the agency will be looking at.

More on the Council scandal here.

It's been a tough few months for the west Bronx legislator. Last November, she and Council member (and BP hopeful) Joel Rivera sponsored a housing bill which, tenants rights groups argued, would have favored landlords over tenants. (Baez and Rivera were roundly vilified in the press, and quickly threw their support behind a more tenant friendly bill which was eventually passed into law.)

Then, a few weeks ago, it was revealed that Baez has the worst attendance record of any council member when it comes to showing up for meetings and hearings.

Baez, of course, isn't the only west Bronx politician with political problems. State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, whose district office is just a few short blocks from Baez's, will go on trial later this year for allegedly helping himself to more than $400,000 in taxpayer money.

Without drawing too many similarities between Baez and Gonzalez (Baez, after all, hasn't been charged with anything), both have brought race into the equation when defending themselves against allegations that they misused public funds. "I will not allow anyone to assassinate my character as a Latina woman," Baez told the Post. Last year, Gonzalez said of his constituents: "They stand with me, they know it’s [the charges] total baloney. Who’s doing the demonizing? It’s not the people of color; it’s not the people from the district."

In the News: Bronx Filter Fiasco Reviewed By NY Times...Bronx Pol's $ Frozen

A couple of interesting reads this morning.

The NY Times' Metro reporter Anthony Depalma delves into the sludge of the cost overruns at the Croton Water Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park.

Nothing new or revelatory here: Costs have ballooned from under $1 billion to almost $3 billion; Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz and local advocates say the DEP may have deliberately underestimated the price tag to put the project in the Bronx rather than Westchester; There's a huge hole in ground that wouldn't have been dug in Westchester; DEP says the overruns are due to inflation, skyrocketing construction costs that they couldn't have possibly foreseen; An executive at one of subcontractors (Schiavone, which is doing the tunneling) was indicted for extortion; The project is being looked at by the Comptroller and the Independent Budget Office.

The story does get a quote from indicted Schiavone executive, Anthony Delevescovo's lawyer, who says his client is innocent. And it also points out that, unlike the water from the Croton watershed in Westchester, the city won't have to filter water coming from Delaware or the Catskills for at least the next 10 years.

Also, the Post reports that city has frozen nearly $1 million in city funds that Larry Seabrook, a Bronx councilman who represents Co-op City and the northeast part of the borough, tried to give to a non-profit located across the hall from his office.

That sounds eerily similar to what Bronx State Senator Efrain Gonzalez is being tried for in October. Gonzalez allegedly funneled $423,000 in state money back into his own pockets through three separate nonprofit organizations, one of which, the West Bronx Neighborhood Association, was located just down the hall from his Tremont-area offices and which he referred to as his "other office."

The Seabrook story also comes on the heels of revelations that the City Council has been directing $4 million a year in discretionary funds through phantom nonprofits.

State discretionary funds are now mostly disclosed after the budget comes out and the Council is now looking to overhaul it's own budget process.

Reader Report on Tenant Harrassment Bill Hearing

Thought I'd post this more prominently. It's a report from reader Michelle about the Council hearing this morning about Council bill Inro. 627, which would offer tenant's more protection.

"Some Council Members today were concerned with assessing how fair 627 would be for both landlords and tenants. They were preoccupied with the notion that 627 be balanced. Some other Council Members pointed out HPD's inconsistencies and emphasized what a historic bill it would be. Representatives of the City-wide Tenant Housing Corp. did an amazing job defending the bill!"

Feel free to join the conversation if you have a different take on the proceedings, or if you'd like to add anything to Michelle's comments.