Posts Tagged New York
Forest City Interests a Target in New York?
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Politicians on January 6, 2010
January 6, 2010… Not named or indicted. Sound familiar? Keeping up with Forest City could be a full-time job. Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards watchdogs are keeping a sharp eye on the Cleveland firm’s cousin in Brooklyn and New York.
They know how to play politics as anyone from Cleveland can attest.
Here’s a report from today:
Forest City Ratner, unnamed/unindicted, cited as giving indicted man consulting job after he got Yonkers Council Member to change vote on Ridge Hill
A federal investigation of corruption in Yonkers has led to three indictments in connection with two real estate projects, one of them Forest City Ratner’s Ridge Hill.
And while Forest City Ratner is neither named nor indicted, the investigation is ongoing and, at least as presented by federal prosecutors, the developer’s conduct seems suspect. (An indictment, of course, is an allegation based on evidence, not a conviction.)
Contract in exchange for influence to change vote
FCR is cited as agreeing to provide Zehy Jereis, the former head of the Yonkers Republican Party, a $60,000 consulting contract after he got Yonkers City Council Member Sandy Annabi once a fierce opponent of the Ridge Hill project, to change her vote.
She once said that Forest City Ratner was “probably richer than God” and was “robbing the city blind,” and served as the lead plaintiff in a 2005 lawsuit objecting to the city’s approval process–but then did an about-face a year later.
According to prosecutors, the sequence of events that included the changed vote mean Annabi, the former Democratic Majority Leader of the Yonkers City Council, has been charged with conspiracy, bribery, extortion, false statements, and tax crimes. Also, Jereis, the former head of the Yonkers Republican Party, and Anthony Mangone, a Westchester County attorney, were charged with conspiracy, bribery, and extortion. (Mangone was apparently not involved with Ridge Hill.
From the press release
The Ridge Hill Development Project
The “Ridge Hill Development Project” was a project proposed by a large developer (“Developer No. 2″) to develop an 81-acre tract of land to establish retail shopping, restaurants, office space, hundreds of residential housing units, and a hotel and conference center. ANNABI was an outspoken critic of the proposed Ridge Hill Project and voted against both the project and legislation that would allow the project to move forward despite her opposition. ANNABI, with two other City Council members and others, also filed a civil lawsuit to effectively block the Ridge Hill Project. As the City Council was considering the Ridge Hill Project, Developer No. 2 made repeated and unsuccessful efforts to convince ANNABI to vote in favor of the project.
On June 2, 2006, JEREIS was introduced to representatives of Developer No. 2, after which JEREIS told representatives of Developer No. 2 that he could arrange a meeting between them, ANNABI, and JEREIS to discuss the Ridge Hill Project. JEREIS and representatives of Developer No. 2 also had an agreement in which Developer No. 2 would give JEREIS a consulting job sometime after ANNABI formally voted in favor of the Ridge Hill Project. After two meetings held in less than two weeks, ANNABI reversed her opposition to the Ridge Hill Project and issued a press release — drafted by JEREIS and representatives of Developer No. 2 — informing the public of her support for the project.
Specifically, at a City Council meeting on July 11, 2006, ANNABI voted in favor of the zoning change necessary for the Ridge Hill Project. Shortly after ANNABI changed her vote on the Ridge Hill Project, JEREIS received the promised consulting contract from Developer No. 2 worth $60,000 over one year.
Secret Payments To ANNABI And Efforts To Conceal The Crimes
…Since at least 2004, ANNABI has received from JEREIS, MANGONE, and others more than $160,000 worth of secret payments designed to influence and reward her for favorable official action or inaction on matters pending before the City Council as specific opportunities arose.
Doing Damage by Doing What Isn’t Needed
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Media on January 5, 2010
After a conversation about Cleveland’s past and present problems a friend asked me the other night – what about solutions? Do you have any solutions? It is a question I’ve been asked before.
No, I don’t have any solutions. I’m not looking for solutions. I don’t believe it’s my job to come up with such answers. I have one answer: We have to stop doing what we’re doing. Then we can concentrate on our problems. Then there would be time, resources and energy to deal with our real problems.
But so much energy and so many resources are expended on tasks that are not only necessary but are damaging to our communities.
Our leaders want to build too much of what we don’t need, that conflicts with what we already have and damages community that is already viable.
Forest City Enterprises Al Ratner once bragged to me about how many federal subsidies he has been able to get for projects all over the U. S.
This Brooklyn project is soaked in subsidies, not unusual for these unnecessary projects. This one, as others, includes a new arena for a Ratner family professional sports team.
Isn’t it wonderful that all over the nation we are spending billions of dollars to provide work places for multi-millionaire owners and millionaire sports players while so many ordinary people have no access to a paying job?
Washington Post columnist George Will tackles just that problem in a recent column and it has a link to Cleveland. He is talking about the Ratner project in Brooklyn, N. Y. Here’s is how he starts and I’ll provide a link to the column after this excerpt:
By George Will
On Aug. 27, 1776, British forces routed George Washington’s novice army in the Battle of Brooklyn, which was fought in fields and woods where today the battle of Prospect Heights is being fought. Americans’ liberty is again under assault, but this time by overbearing American governments.
The fight involves an especially egregious example of today’s eminent domain racket. The issue is a form of government theft that the Supreme Court encouraged with its worst decision of the past decade — one that probably will be radically revised in this one.
The Atlantic Yards site, where 10 subway lines and one railway line converge, is the center of the bustling Prospect Heights neighborhood of mostly small businesses and middle-class residences. Its energy and gentrification are reasons why 22 acres of this area — the World Trade Center site is only 16 acres — are coveted by Bruce Ratner, a politically connected developer collaborating with the avaricious city and state governments.
To seize the acres for Ratners’ use, government must claim that the area — which is desirable because it is vibrant — is “blighted.” The cognitive dissonance would embarrass Ratner and his collaborating politicians, had their cupidity not extinguished their sense of the absurd.
Here is the link to the entire article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101367.html
It’s a damned shame that all over the nation grasping developers help destroy communities, impoverish citizens and walk away with unearned millions of dollars.
Until we stop today’s marauders we have no chance to make livable communities.
The Ratners have been one of the major exploiters of Cleveland and part of the reason this city has declined so in the last 40 years.