The BroadsheetDAILY ~ 3/16/21 ~ Debt and Taxes Mayoral Contender Has Ideas for How to Spend Battery Park City Money

Debt and Taxes

Mayoral Contender Has Ideas for How to Spend Battery Park City Money

Above: Baruch Houses is a NYCHA public housing development on the Lower East Side.

Below: Mayoral hopeful Scott Stringer: “I would implement as mayor my idea to move $40 million a year in Battery Park City Authority funds directly to NYHCA to repair broken windows and boilers.”

In a debate among mayoral contenders on Thursday, New York City Comptroller and City Hall-hopeful Scott Stringer reiterated his plan to divert more than $400 million in excess revenue from the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) to the cash-strapped New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).

In the debate, aired on the NY1 news channel, Mr. Stringer said, “I would implement as mayor my idea to move $40 million a year in Battery Park City Authority funds directly to NYHCA to repair broken windows and boilers.”

“That’s money that you could bond out,” he added, in a reference to the practice of using government funds as a down payment to leverage a far-larger amount (often a multiple of ten times the money on hand) through the municipal bond market for a specific purpose.

“It would take the Mayor, the Comptroller, and the Governor to do that,” he acknowledged, in a reference to the tripartite jurisdiction that decides on disposition of BPCA excess revenue. “I’ll make sure that the Comptroller will do it. I’ll be the Mayor. And we’ll make sure the Governor does it. Because we’ve never really created a new revenue stream for NYHCA.”

This follows a 27-point policy outline, “Housing Is a Right, Not a Privilege,” released in February, in which Mr. Stringer proposed to, “reroute hundreds of millions from the Battery Park City Authority to NYCHA,” arguing that, “NYCHA’s needs are enormous, and it will take sustained commitment at every level of government to address them. But New York can and must begin to fill that gap now—without waiting for Washington. The Battery Park City Authority, the agency created to oversee the construction and maintenance of that Lower Manhattan neighborhood, currently runs a surplus of roughly $45 million a year. If ten years of that income were packaged together, the resulting $450 million could be bonded to finance NYCHA’s emergency capital and maintenance needs, until the federal government meets its financial obligations.”

That report reprised a similar proposal, most recently floated in 2018, in which Mr. Stringer noted that NYCHA “is in crisis. People who live in NYHCA have weathered sub-zero temperatures without heat or hot water. There have been an astonishing 143,000 heat outages, impacting over 300,000 NYHCA residents. We literally have hundreds of thousands of New York City residents trapped in their own homes in the cold. And government is not solving this crisis.”

For decades, the BPCA’s excess revenue—essentially the cash flow from ground rents, and payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT)—has theoretically been dedicated to affordable housing. Successive agreements between the Authority and various mayoral administrations have memorialized this pledge, but also left mayors with sufficient wiggle room to divert the funds to almost any other purpose, if they chose. The loophole in these agreements said that the City was required to use BPCA monies for affordable housing unless it was needed, “to maintain fiscal stability… or existing city services.”

Mr. Stringer’s policy does not explicitly call for any increased cost to Battery Park City residents. Their financial obligations to the BPCA are specified in the ground lease that governs property ownership in the community, and the terms of this contract cannot be modified without the consent of all parties to the agreement. Instead, Mr. Stringer’s proposal would create a new process for distributing the money that Battery Park City property owners have always paid to the Authority.

That noted, Battery Park City residents are increasingly restive about the ever-bleaker prospects for affordability within their own community. Rental tenants are regularly being priced out of the neighborhood, and condominium owners are facing relentlessly spiraling common charges. Both of these funding streams contribute to the tens of millions of dollars in excess revenue that the BPCA collects each year. Any plan that earmarks such funds for affordability outside of Battery Park City would, in all probability, prejudice the interests of residents whose hopes of remaining within the community are predicated on the hope of persuading the BPCA to collect less revenue in the years to come.

Matthew Fenton

Letters

To the editor,

Thank you Bob Townley for your recent letter regarding the newest monument to victims of  The Storm.

I would like to add that that formerly open space was not an empty void. It was a frame for  the beautiful, magnificent, natural, life-enhancing, (use your imagination and add your comments here), mighty Hudson River.

I hope the monument is beautiful and placed where it does not obscure what is already there—water, sky, air. There are many great artists but none have yet to beat Mother Nature.

Betty Heller

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To the editor,

I lived for many years at 41 River Terrace. My children grew up there.

There is currently a proposal to put a monument aside the benches on River Terrace. This is where the elderly sit and others congregate.

I would not put it there. If it must be in BPC, I would put it below the steps by the water. It would do well in another place where the sentiment would be more apparent. The area where the most people fell victims to this horrible pandemic.

That section where the monument would be is heavily trafficked. Tourists and residents alike use that space.

Just my opinion.

Bob Townley

The Unkindest Cut of All

CB1 Seeks to Make Sense of Inconsistent Sidewalk-Street Connections

Community Board 1 is pushing the de Blasio administration to close a legal loophole so obscure that it confuses even police. The technicality is centered on curb cuts (the dips in sidewalks and curbs that connect to an adjoining street, making it easier for wheelchairs, baby carriages, and disabled pedestrians to cross) at t-intersections, where one road dead-ends into a perpendicular street.

While it is ordinarily illegal to park in front of a curb cut, this prohibition was, in 2009, removed from curb cuts at T-intersections—provided there was not a stop sign, traffic light, or painted crosswalk at the same location. To read more…

A Decade of Development

Lower Manhattan Quietly Becomes Home to Equivalent of a New Neighborhood – Almost None of It Affordable

In the ten-year period that ended in 2020, Lower Manhattan absorbed the equivalent of an additional Battery Park City, through the number of new households created by real estate development, according to an analysis from the Department of City Planning.

Community District 1—a collection of neighborhoods encompassing 1.5 square miles, bounded roughly by Canal, Baxter, and Pearl Streets and the Brooklyn Bridge — saw the creation of 6,477 new housing units in the decade that begin in 2010. To read more…

Downtown Calendar

Tuesday March 16

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Seaport District

Fitness classes via Instagram released every Tuesday and Thursday, featuring Trooper Fitness, Pure Barre and Lyons Den Power Yoga. Free

12NOON

Risky Decisions: How Mathematical Paradoxes and Other Conundrums Have Shaped Economic Science

Museum of American Financial History

Online discussion. At its core, economics is about making decisions. In the history of economic thought, great intellectual prowess has been exerted toward devising exquisite theories of optimal decision making in situations of constraint, risk and scarcity. Yet not all of our choices are purely logical, and so there is a long-standing tension between those emphasizing the rational and irrational sides of human behavior. One strand develops formal models of rational utility maximizing, while the other draws on what behavioral science has shown about our tendency to act irrationally. In this talk, George Szpiro will give examples of mathematical paradoxes and psychological conundrums that have led to advancements in economic science. He will challenge the audience with questions about how to make decisions, and thereby show how people who believe themselves to be rational can be led astray. Advance registration is required. Registered guests will receive the Zoom link prior to the program. Free

12NOON

LMHQ

The manner in which corporations are run globally is over. The leaders who recognize that employees, customers, and shareholders should be treated compassionately and equally are now displacing old leaders, and are succeeding in retaining the best talent and surviving the new realities. Join Keesa Schreane, ESG, Risk Global Partner Director at Refinitiv, and author of Corporations Compassion Culture: Leading Your Business toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for a conversation about how corporations worldwide have failed when it comes to inclusion, gender, and racial equality, and sustainability and the steps they can take to address these issues. Free

5:30PM

Federal Hall National Monument

This is a program of Debate Defends Democracy, a virtual discussion of Constitutional issues and the Bill of Rights presented at Federal Hall. With increasing frequency over the past two decades, the political preferences of a majority of Americans have been subverted in the legislative process by the will of a shrinking minority. This inequity is particularly stark in the institution of the U.S. Senate, which first convened under the new Constitution at Federal Hall on March 4, 1789. To balance power in the central government, the “Grand Compromise” at the Constitutional Convention, had agreed that both the most populous and least populous states would each have two Senators. One of the contemporary impacts is that the Senate is increasingly stymied in passing major legislation even when supported by a majority of Americans. This program will explore the framer’s intent for the Senate, the historical and political circumstances that have contributed to this imbalance, the effects of this distortion of representation on the health of our democracy as well as areas for potential reform, from expanded statehood to an overhaul of institutional rules. Federal Hall’s Sam Roberts will introduce the topic with an historical perspective. Free

6PM

China Institute

Literature experts discuss the work of Yu Hua, one of China’s most revered writers, and the state of Chinese literature today. Spanning four decades of modern history, from the Republican Era to the Reform Era, the novel To Live (活着) has enthralled generations of readers around the world. Professors David Der-wei Wang (Harvard University) and Michael Berry (UCLA) will discuss the challenges of translation and contemporary Chinese literature in a global context. This program is presented by the Museum at Eldridge Street and China Institute as part of the NEA Big Read 2021 project. Part I will be discussed with the Museum at Eldridge Street on March 8. From March 8-March 18, Museum at Eldridge Street will be exploring Yu Hua’s To Live in a series of lectures, book discussions, and film screenings with partners from China Institute, Chatham Square Library of New York Public Library, and Museum of the Moving Image. Free

6PM

Waterfront, Parks & Cultural Committee

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

AGENDA

1) Brooklyn Bridge Banks and Dugout – Discussion with NYC Department of Transportation (invited)

2) Future of Pier A – Discussion with Warrie Price, Founder and President, Battery Conservancy

3) Peck Slip Park & Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza – Update

6PM

Skyscraper Museum

Skyscraper Museum webinar. Bill Baker is now a structural engineering consulting partner at SOM, where he led the firm’s practice for over twenty years. Since joining SOM in 1981, he has dedicated himself to extending the profession of structural engineering through design, research, teaching, and professional activities. Baker is best known for the development of the “buttressed core” structural system for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest manmade structure. Completed in 2010, the 828-meter Burj surpassed the then-tallest Taipei 101 by more than 300 meters. This unprecedented vertical leap was accomplished by iterative responses to wind-tunnel testing and other creative solutions to constructability. In his talk, Bill will discuss both the precedents that allowed their team to invent a new structural approach, as well as the legacy of “Lessons Learned” a decade after the completion of the skyscraper that still remains the tallest in the world. Free

7PM

Brookfield Place

Test your trivia IQ at home with your friends and family! Follow along on Zoom and enter your answers via Kahoot, as you compete for a variety of fun BFPL prizes with hosts The Union of Quizzers. Free

7PM

Heroines Of The Holocaust

Museum of Jewish Heritage

During the Holocaust, more than 3,000 women fought back against the Nazis in ghettos, forced labor camps, concentration camps, and partisan units. Join Dr. Lori Weintrob, Director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center, for a program exploring the heroic lives and legacies of these female resistance fighters. Weintrob will be in conversation with Rokhl Kafrissen, Yiddish culture writer and Tablet Magazine contributor, and Rachel Rachama Roth, a survivor of Auschwitz who will provide her eyewitness testimony to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. $10

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Wednesday March 17

6PM

Executive Committee

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

AGENDA

1) 2021 Municipal Elections and Polling Site Taskforce – Discussion & Possible Resolution

2) Analysis of Studies & RFPs for FiDi/Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan – Discussion

3) Committee reports

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Thursday March 18

6PM

Health & Human Services Subcommittee

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

AGENDA

1) COVID-19 Vaccine Overview – Presentation by Dr Renuka Gupta, Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and Chief of Medicine at NY-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital

2) State of the City’s Response to COVID-19 – Updates

6:30PM

Quality of Life & Service Delivery Committee

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

AGENDA

1) Hate Crimes and Bias Attacks Against the Asian Community – Discussion

2) Gaps in COVID-19 Recovery Relief for Owner-Occupied Housing – Discussion & Resolution

3) Justice Considerations from the Mayor’s 2021 State of the City – Discussion

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

A Guide To Lower Manhattan’s 2021 Light Installations

Winter is a little brighter in Lower Manhattan, where you can bask in a whole bunch of colorful light installations this season.

There are two Downtown Alliance-sponsored public art projects on loan from Amsterdam’s Light Art Collection at the public plaza adjacent to 85 Broad.

The sculpture “C/C,” designed by Singapore-based artist Angela Chong, is a bench for seating that transforms into a colorful LED light show at night.

“Talking Heads,” designed by Hungarian artist Viktor Vicsek, is made up of two massive heads dotted with 4,000 LED lights that change to reveal different facial expressions in conversation.

Another Alliance sponsored installation is Ziggy. At the public plaza at 200 Water Street, this interactive piece by design studio Hou de Sous uses cords tied to a steel structure illuminated by colorful lights to create exciting views of the surrounding landscape. You can enter the installation from all angles, and sit on the several “gateways” that serve as benches. At night, Ziggy’s lights add an inviting extra pop of brightness.

Head up Water Street to the Seaport and find “Electric Dandelions,” created by artist Abram Santa Cruz and LA-based art collective Liquid PXL and presented by The Howard Hughes Corporation. In daylight, the ten 28-foot steel-and-acrylic structures look like dandelion flowers; at night, LED lights turn the structures into colorful, rhythmic animations.

(sponsored content)

Quid Pro No?

Another FiDi Renter Seeks Recompense for Years of Rent Overcharges

The wave of Financial District tenants going to court to demand restitution from years of illegally high rent gathered further momentum on Tuesday, when another tenant at 50 Murray Street filed court papers arguing that she is entitled to rent stabilization protection along with reimbursement for six years worth of overcharges, and triple damages.

Heather Horn moved into 50 Murray Street in May, 2014, at an initial rent of $4,695 per month. Since then, according the documents filed with the new York State Supreme Court, she has renewed her lease six times, and her rent has increased by almost 26 percent, to $5,900.

9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Report

More Survivors than Responders Now are Submitting Claims

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has released its annual report for 2020, which documents some significant developments.

Over the course of its ten years of operation thus far, the VCF has awarded $7.76 billion to more than 34,400 individuals who have suffered death or personal injury as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The vast majority of these injuries take the form of illness caused by exposure to toxic materials that were released by the destruction of the World Trade Center.

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 16

Constantin Brancuși’s Bird in Flight

1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.

1900 – Sir Arthur Evans purchased the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.

1926 – History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

1935 – Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

1936 – Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, leading to a major flood in Pittsburgh.

1958 – The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company’s founding.

1968 – Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre occurs; between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.

The Oldsmobile Toronado

1968 – General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.

1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped. (He is later murdered by his captors.)

1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists. (He later dies in captivity.)

1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.

1988 – Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

1989 – In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found near the Pyramid of Cheops.

Births

1751 – James Madison, American academic and politician, 4th President of the United States (d. 1836)

1906 – Henny Youngman, English-American violinist and comedian (d. 1998)

1926 – Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (d. 2017)

1927 – Vladimir Komarov, Russian pilot, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1967)

1927 – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American sociologist and politician, 12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2003)

1933 – Sanford I. Weill, American banker, financier, and philanthropist

Deaths

AD 37 – Tiberius, Roman emperor (b. 42 BC)

455 – Valentinian III, Roman emperor (b. 419)

1485 – Anne Neville, queen of Richard III of England (b. 1456)

1898 – Aubrey Beardsley, English author and illustrator (b. 1872)

1957 – Constantin Brancuși, Romanian-French sculptor, painter, and photographer (b. 1876)

1971 – Thomas E. Dewey, American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of New York (b. 1902)

1975 – T-Bone Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1910)

2016 – Frank Sinatra, Jr., American singer and actor (b. 1944)

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