City & State New York 040819

CUOMO & DE BLASIO: LEADING ON LABOR?

CAN OTHER UPSTATE CITIES REPLICATE THE SUCCESS OF

BUFFALO’S

BAND-AID? CONGESTION PRICINGʼS UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

April 8, 2019

N AT I O N AL G E O G R AP H I C E N C O UN T E R M AY 2 3, 2 0 1 9 | 9 : 0 0 A M- 4 : 0 0 P M City & State’s 2019 Digital New York will convene New York’s information leaders from government and industry for a day-long, dynamic program of candid discussion and thought-provoking presentations on the innovative ideas being used to improve the delivery of services to both citizens and government agencies.

PANEL TOPICS • • • •

Tech-Friendly NYC: How New York Can Remain a Global Leader in Tech Data Security in New York: Where We Stand Transportation and Digital Information Technologies Providing Better, Safer and Faster Internet to All

FE ATURED SPE AKERS • • • • •

David Carlucci Kevin Parker Archana Jayaram Tariq Habib Richard T. Jacobs

RSVP at CityAndStateNY.com/Events For more information on programming and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Lissa Blake at lblake@cityandstateny.com

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

4

CityAndStateNY.com

The

April 8, 2019

Latest NO TO PREZ DE BLAZ

BUDGET CRUNCH Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature finalized the state budget, and although the last bill did not pass until Monday morning, it was still considered on time – good news for state legislators banking on pay raises.

Cuomo got his own pay raise approved during the budget whirlwind. Budget highlights included congestion pricing for New York City, a pathway to public financing of election campaigns and criminal justice reforms, including the end of cash bail in most cases.

Details on both congestion pricing and public campaign financing will be decided by commissions created as part of bill language.

The

A LATE-NIGHT CONFIRMATION The state Senate approved Cuomo’s nomination of Metropolitan Transportation Authority President Patrick Foye as chairman and CEO in the dead of night during the rush to finalize the budget.

The surprise weekend hearing on his nomination and overnight vote left little time for public input, leading many to question state leaders’ commitment to transparency and reform at the MTA.

Back & Forth There is a calendar on the front door of your Albany office counting down to the June 15 deadline to renew rent regulations.

It is meant to impress upon people that this is a very urgent issue and I want to keep it at the forefront of people’s minds. Everybody that walks into my office is going to see that this is something that we have to address and we have to address it sooner rather than later.

A Q&A with state Sen.

Zellnor Myrie The

What progress has there been on rent regulations legislation since you took office?

When people saw how quickly we were getting legislation passed in January, I would tell people new lawmakers like me are like the Mariano Riveras of the state Senate. A lot of the work on rent regulations has been

done before and we have come in to close the deal. These are issues that have been talked about for years, such as getting rid of vacancy decontrol and reforming major capital improvements.

The property tax cap has become permanent. Is it time to do the same with tenant protections?

I would like to see that. That, to me, would be the goal. I would love to see rent regulations be a permanent thing. I don’t think that we should be fighting for this every few years and we should have it extended as long as possible. But we are up against some pretty powerful forces that are going to fight against that. They have successfully fought against it for as long as rent regulation have been in existence.

Kicker

“I’ll be the first to say this is not a great budget.

There’s not a lot of happiness in this budget.”

– Assembly Speaker CARL HEASTIE, via the New York Times

Get the kicker every morning in CITY & STATE’S FIRST READ email. Sign up at cityandstateny.com.

MIKE GROLL, KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR; MICHAEL APPLETON/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE; ZELLNOR MYRIE FOR STATE SENATE; MIKE GROLL

There are two things New Yorkers don’t like: congestion pricing and the prospect of President Bill de Blasio. A Quinnipiac University poll found 54 percent of city voters oppose congestion pricing, with 52 percent saying it won’t reduce traffic. The poll also found a whopping 76 percent of New York City voters think de Blasio should not run for president – and they aren’t too fond of his skills as mayor, with his approval rating dipping to just 42 percent.

FOR BANG THE BUCK ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MONEY means nothing without the marketing – otherwise how would Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislators in Albany get credit?

So with this issue’s focus on the Buffalo Billion and the Syracuse Surge, we dreamt up some alliterative economic plans the state could launch next.

BINGHAMTON BOOM Legalize hydraulic fracturing and watch the money flow in. Just be careful lighting matches.

BY JEFF COLTIN

ROCHESTER RESURGENCE Give every New Yorker a cool vintage camera. Don’t buy them film. And the city will have a Kodak moment yet again.

MOUNT KISCO MILLION MANDRITOIU, ANTON FOLTIN, DJORDJE NOVAKOV, MICHAEL REGA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Should be enough cash to refurbish a really nice six-car garage for the governor.

PEEKSKILL POWER-UP

Some locals aren’t psyched about losing the Indian Point nuclear power plant. So let’s build hydroelectric on the Hudson!

THE QUEENS QUARTER OF A HUNDRED THOUSAND Jobs, that is. If only the borough could find a company to promise employment for 25,000 people …

PLATTSBURGH PLAN

Boosting the maple syrup industry would taste like sweet victory – and would really stick it to our neighbors in Vermont.

HAMPTONS HUNDRED Those country clubbers are doing just fine, thanks.

SCHENECTADY SCHEME

So the casino plan didn’t really work.

But what if the state doubled down and pressed its luck on another casino?

ITHACA INITIATIVE

A lot of brainpower leaves the city every May. Close the airport, and the city will flourish!

TROY TRILLION

This old textile town is going to need more than a presidential campaign office to thrive.

CityAndStateNY.com

by ZACH WILLIAMS

S

TATE DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS and Gov. Andrew Cuomo struck a deal on a jampacked $175.5 billion budget, but a series of contentious issues will keep them busy until the end of the legislative session.

With lawmakers embarking on the second half of the state legislative session, which is scheduled to end in mid-June, perhaps the two biggest issues up for debate are rent regulations, which are set to expire, and legalizing recreational marijuana, which fell out of the budget negotiations. Proponents of establishing a single-payer health care system in the state are also aiming to get a quick start now that the budget is done. Lawmakers are pushing for additional reforms to the criminal justice system and ethics requirements in state government.

Democrats might agree on many of these issues in principle, but there remain significant differences on the specifics of the legislation. Special interest groups might also disrupt efforts to unify state senators and members of the Assembly on some issues. As in the budget season, some issues will make the cut and others could fall by the wayside when lawmakers adjourn for the year on June 19.

Here are five big issues to watch in the coming weeks.

RENT REGULATIONS

Supporters of renewing and expanding tenant protections have gotten off to a running start. Advertisements in favor renewing rent regulations have popped up on social media and many lawmakers are counting down the days until the June 15 expiration of the current laws. Legislative leaders say they won’t let the laws expire, and stronger tenant protections are widely expected to be discussed, but it remains to be seen how much of a difference one-party control in Albany will make in passing bills that go beyond simply renewing the current rent regulations.

Now that the 2 percent property tax cap has been made permanent through the budget, supporters of rent regulations, particularly New York City lawmakers, have less leverage over their suburban and

Albany’s P April 8, 2019

upstate colleagues to support increased tenant protections. However, they also do not have to win over Republican senators like they had to in past years when the GOP controlled the Senate and were reliable allies of the real estate industry.

In many ways, the extent to which progressive lawmakers succeed in pushing for universal rent control – a vague term that covers a range of tenant-friendly legislation – will show how much clout they really have in Albany and how much influence the real estate lobby has lost.

State Sen. Julia Salazar is pushing for a “good cause” eviction bill, which would affect nearly all of the market-rate apartments in the state. Similar protections already apply to New York City as well as Westchester, Nassau and Rockland counties. Other big issues include abolishing provisions in current law that allow landlords to raise rents on rent-regulated apartments in New York City through major capital improvements, vacancy decontrol and preferential rent.

MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

The failure of New Jersey state lawmakers to legalize recreational marijuana has given New York legislators some breathing room. But Massachusetts already got the job done, and lawmakers and activists say they are still keen on making sure New York does not fall behind other states in reaping the benefits of legalizing recreational marijuana. The potential revenues are tempting, but leading lawmakers, including Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, say that communities of color need to get a share of the benefits to mitigate the past harms of prohibition.

Though some lawmakers are not so sure, Cuomo has said that legalization can still happen this year despite falling short in the budget. For now, activists are expressing optimism. “The clock for passing marijuana justice starts now,” said Kassandra Frederique, New York state director for the Drug Policy Alliance.

SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE

Among the most ambitious items on progressives’ legislative agenda is establishing a single-payer health care system in New York state. That is the longtime dream of Assembly Health Commit-

tee Chairman Richard Gottfried – who has sponsored single-payer legislation for decades. He and state Sen. Gustavo Rivera have said they will start holding hearings on the legislation as soon as April. Some of their Democratic colleagues have expressed doubt about whether or not outstanding issues with the legislation can be resolved this year.

This includes how to overcome federal opposition, Cuomo’s reluctance to support single-payer at the state level and a coalition of business, labor and insurance groups that have been preparing for months to block the effort.

MIKE GROLL/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

6

Post-Budget April 8, 2019

City & State New York

7

ETHICS REFORMS

Checklist FROM RENT REGULATIONS TO

RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA, THERE’S A LOT OF GROUND FOR LAWMAKERS TO COVER.

Supporters of reforming government ethics have made it clear that their work this year is not done shaking up Albany’s notoriously sleazy culture. State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi has injected new life into the Senate Ethics Committee, which only met twice in nine years of Republican control. Biaggi and her roommates – fellow state Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou – recently made headlines about campaign finance reform at a press conference in the Capitol, where they blasted Cuomo’s fundraising during the budget season.

A key question moving forward is whether lawmakers will keep up the energy on an issue that lost some urgency after the passage of a bill restricting contributions by limited liability companies and the passage of campaign finance reforms in the budget. Among the ideas being considered are limitations on Albany fundraisers at certain times of the year. If Republican lawmakers succeed in a court challenge seeking to invalidate restrictions on outside income for state lawmakers, that issue could also come up in the legislative process. Efforts to replace the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics remain ongoing – and contentious.

There are also about a dozen outstanding bills on sexual harassment that would limit the use of confidentiality agreements, change the standards that define harassment, expand protections and extend the time that people have to lodge complaints.

Additional hearings on the issue appear likely in the coming months.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Advocates succeeded in the budget to limit cash bail, loosen discovery laws and speed up trials. But there is no shortage of efforts to revise the state’s criminal justice laws. Prosecutors and unions representing police and corrections officers oppose some proposed reforms, including efforts to make it easier to release police disciplinary records and limiting the use of solitary confinement. Other ideas are on the table as well: Inmates could secure free legal counsel in parole hearings, new treatments for mental illnesses and automatic parole if they complete two years of a temporary release program.

■

8

CityAndStateNY.com

A

S PART OF the state budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature agreed to enact congestion pricing in New York City to raise revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and reduce traffic in the busiest parts of Manhattan. The agreement makes New York City the first city in the nation to implement a congestion pricing plan, which the state has dubbed Central Business District Tolling. However, the legislation leaves a number of unanswered questions.

Here is what we know, and don’t know, about the plan so far.

WHERE WILL THE TOLLS BEGIN?

As was generally agreed upon before the final deal, drivers will be tolled when entering the central business district of Manhattan, which is defined as anywhere south of 60th Street. This does not include those driving on FDR Drive or the West Side Highway.

HOW MUCH WILL DRIVERS HAVE TO PAY?

That question is one of many that remain up in the air as legislators did not specify the cost of the toll. Instead, the legislation establishes a six-person commission called the Traffic Mobility Review Board that will make recommendations for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to follow on tolls and other issues, such as potential credits and exemptions. However, if one needs to drive into the central business district more than once a day, that person will only be charged once if driving a noncommercial vehicle. A commission put together by Gov. Andrew Cuomo recommended last year a flat rate of $11.52 for cars once per day.

WHAT IS THIS TRAFFIC MOBILITY REVIEW BOARD?

There is a lot about congestion pricing that has not yet been decided, and that has been left for this board to decide. The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the part of the MTA that will oversee congestion pricing, will appoint the commissioner and other members. Of the six members, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will recommend one, one will come from the “Long Island Rail Road Region” and one will come from the “Metro-North Region.” Along with deciding on the actual toll for entering the central business district, state lawmakers also tasked the board with figuring out just about every other part of the pricing scheme. Some of the considerations the bill suggests the board examine include a discount for motorcycles; credits, discounts or exemptions

April 8, 2019

GOING SOMEW FAST

April 8, 2019

WHERE

by REBECCA C. LEWIS

9

for drivers who already paid a bridge or tunnel toll; and peak and off-peak rates.

The board will also recommend a plan to implement credits, discounts or exemptions for taxis and ride-hailing vehicles subject to a surcharge when operating south of 96th Street. During this process, the board will hold public hearings across the regions impacted by the MTA.

WHEN WILL THE TOLLING BEGIN?

The board must make its recommendations between Nov. 15, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, or at least 30 days before the tolling system is implemented. While the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority will decide the official start date of the new tolling system, it will not go into effect before Jan. 1, 2021.

IS ANYTHING KNOWN ABOUT POTENTIAL EXEMPTIONS?

By and large, not much. The bill said emergency vehicles will not be subject to the toll, nor will any qualifying vehicle transporting a person with disabilities.

For the latter exemption, one must apply for it through a yet to be determined process. Additionally, credits will be available for those living within the congestion pricing zone who make less than $60,000 a year. Everyone else, including commuters who already pay bridge and tunnel tolls, will have to wait and see what the board recommends.

HOW WILL IT AFFECT TAXIS, CAR SERVICES AND RIDE-HAILING APPS?

The Traffic Mobility Review Board is required to come up with a plan to offer discounts, credits or exemptions for taxis, car services and ride-hailing vehicles, but what those may look like remains unknown. However, the stipulation that noncommercial vehicles only pay the toll once per day ensures that these drivers don’t get charged every time they may need to drive into the central business district to drop off or pick up a passenger.

WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?

The money collected from congestion pricing, as well as the revenue from an expanded mansion tax and an internet sales tax, will go into a lockbox created as part of the budget for the 2020-2024 MTA Capital Program. Congestion pricing is expected to cover $15 billion of the capital plan, which current estimates predict will cost between $40 billion and $60 billion. The vast majority of the money within the lockbox, 80 percent, will go toward New York City Transit for capital projects related to the city’s buses and subways, with 10 percent set aside for the Long Island Rail Road and the final 10 percent for Metro-North.

■

TUPUNGATO/SHUTTERSTOCK

CONGESTION PRICING GOT THE GREEN LIGHT. BUT WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.

City & State New York

I 10

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

(UPSTATE)

by B E N A D L E R

Has Buffalo’s billion-dollar Band-Aid stopped the bleeding?

April 8, 2019

W

ATOMAZUL/SHUTTERSTOCK

HEN THEIR HOMETOWN comes up in conversation, Buffalonians love to proudly rattle off a list of manufacturing firms that are no longer there and things that made the city important a century ago. Did you know that the modern windshield wiper was invented by Trico Products Corp. in Buffalo? That Larkin Soap Co. was once, while located in Buffalo, the world’s largest soap company? That in 1901 Buffalo hosted the Pan-American Exposition – and it’s where instant coffee was served for the first time and where then-President William McKinley was assassinated?

Even those who believe Buffalo is on the upswing tend to lead with its past.

When Trico’s last manufacturing plant in Buffalo closed in 2004, it was a blow to more than just the city’s economy: Imagine how New York City would feel if NBC moved to Tennessee and “Saturday Night Live” started filming there. Buffalo’s identity was its industry.

Today, vast stretches of Buffalo are visibly run-down and business is so slow at the city’s legendary Anchor Bar, inventor of the Buffalo wing, that it sometimes shuts down an hour early because it’s not worth staying open. Just a block north of downtown, one of Trico’s former factories, which closed in 1998, sat for years as a hulking reminder of its abandonment.

Offices now fill the ground floor of is not about today; it’s about five years from that building and one of them is home to now.”

What will that future look like? Gov. 43North, a startup incubator that may birth the next major regional employ- Andrew Cuomo first won office in 2010 er. This being the 21st century, big things campaigning on a pledge to fix the upstate begin with young people, bundled up in economy. Since then, he has invested confleeces and hoodies, sitting around tables siderable money and effort into doing so. silently staring at their laptops. The com- Reporters on his press list receive an endless panies they run have each received an stream of announcements of grant awards award ranging from $500,000 to $1 mil- and ribbon-cuttings across upstate’s diverse lion, handed out annually to a handful of regions. The most high-profile of these winners. Last year, seven were chosen plans was the Buffalo Billion, which was from a pool of around 500 applicants from supposed to bring that city roaring back.

Most of the Buffalo Billion’s largest inacross North America.

The current class includes a maker of dividual projects have produced undermedical devices like prosthetic legs, a com- whelming results, whereas some of the pany marketing a mobile electric vehi- smaller-scale, lower-profile programs are cle charger and a shoe company making a actually generating a lot of growth – or, at sneaker-boot hybrid for millennials. The least, the potential for it. Of all the statestartups tend to arrive with around $1 mil- backed economic development schemes, lion to $3 million in capital, apart from state 43North has delivered some of the highest funding, and between three and 10 employ- return on investment.

Even so, the 422 jobs at 43North grant ees. Five years in, 44 companies have received grants and around half of them are recipients are a drop in the bucket for a metropolitan region with more than still operating in the Buffalo area. a million people. It would be In 2012, the entire Western Buffalo isn’t a wrong to say Buffalo has nothing New York region attracted only lively boomtown $6 million in venture caplike Boston, but ital, according to state figthe Rust Belt city ures. Since 2014, 43North is not an eerie wasteland like winners have collectively Detroit. brought in $200 million.

The broader ambition is to make the Buffalo area a magnet for startups. “We’re setting up an entrepreneurial ecosystem, the next generation of talent,” said Alex Gress, 43North’s president.

“It’s a billboard to attract investment to the region.”

For a city that has been stuck in the past, this provides hope for the future.

As John Maggiore, a senior adviser to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a native Buffalonian, put it: “This

City & State New York

11

to show for the state’s investment. It is not an eerie wasteland like Detroit. But it also isn’t a lively boomtown like Boston – and whether any economic development strategy can get it there remains to be seen.

YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD that Buffalo’s back. Once the butt of jokes by latenight comedians about mountainous snow, an embodiment of Rust Belt decline on par with Cleveland, the city is now portrayed as a Cinderella story. Katie Couric recently celebrated its “revitalized waterfront” and “a bustling tech boom.”

This is exactly what Cuomo hoped for in 2011 when he launched the Buffalo Billion – and a second $500 million phase announced in 2017 – to reverse a half-century of decline in New York’s second-largest city. The larger state-run planning process, guided by the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council, has directed far more private sector and local government investment.

Whether it’s causation or correlation – or just Cuomo’s good luck that his tenure coincided with a national economic recovery from the Great Recession – many locals identify 2011 or so as the city’s turning point. “Albany’s economic shot in the arm has given our area momentum that is a key to attracting and keeping young people,” The Buffalo News editorialized last year.

Since the depths of the Great Recession, metropolitan Buffalo has added almost 40,000 private sector jobs, including 20,000 since 2012, when it returned to its pre-recession employment level. “Something is happening this time,” said Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future. “It’s not boom time necessarily, but it’s modest job growth.”

During the previous economic expansion, from 2002 to 2008, Buffalo experienced no job growth. Until recently, even during strong years for the national

12

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

economy, Buffalo-area manufacturing employment slid steadily. It dropped from 83,000 in 2000 to 49,000 in 2010. Since then, it has ticked up to 52,000. In a region nostalgic for the high-paying jobs that high school graduates could obtain in the heyday of heavy manufacturing, even that modest improvement is cause for celebration.

And while the large majority of the new jobs are in the service sector, in a region where the median home costs only $142,000, it doesn’t take a huge income to live a middle-class life. “I’m not going to be able to point to one Bethlehem Steel ever again,” said Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is from Western New York, referring to one of the large employers that has since left the region. “We’re not banking on 20,000 jobs that pay good middle-class incomes where you can support a family. But when we substituted that economy with our countless smaller stories, that’s where we’re making the difference.”

By the end of last year, unemployment in the Buffalo area finally dropped to nearly as low as the national average: 4.1 percent, versus 3.7 percent nationwide, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Other larger upstate cities, including Syracuse and Rochester, tell the same story.

However, some locals are unimpressed, noting that job growth still lags far behind the nation as a whole, including downstate New York. Unemployment rates don’t include all the residents who left to find work elsewhere. Upstate cities mostly have dwindling workforces, thanks to long-term out-migration and aging populations. In Buffalo, that’s caused the local labor pool to shrink by more than 6 percent in the past 10 years. “The Buffalo area’s job growth is better than it used to be,” said Jim Heaney, editor of the Investigative Post, which is based in Buffalo. “When you compare it with Binghamton, yeah, we’re doing good.

When you compare (it) with the country as a whole, no, we continue to lag.”

The story is bleaker in some of upstate’s smaller cities. According to an Empire Center for Public Policy analysis from October, private employment during the recovery declined in the Binghamton, Elmira and Watertown-Ft. Drum metro areas.

The think tank’s founder, E.J. McMahon,

wrote: “Upstate New York’s economic recovery has been among the weakest of any region in the country. Indeed, parts of upstate have yet to ‘recover’ from the recession at all.”

In 2017, the Investigative Post analyzed employment data and reached some dismal conclusions: “Employment upstate has grown by only 2.7 percent during Cuomo’s tenure – compared with 13.1 percent downstate and 11 percent nationally. … If it were a state, upstate’s job growth would rank fourth-worst in the nation, below, among others, Mississippi. What’s more, 88 percent of the net jobs added upstate during the Cuomo years have been in lowwage sectors, led by restaurants and bars.”

Now the state is turning its attention to Buffalo’s disadvantaged East Side, with the governor’s recently announced $50 million East Side Corridor Economic Development Fund. Just as challenging, it hopes to replicate the Buffalo Billion with scalable mod-

“Five years ago, I’d go to Syracuse and I couldn’t find a place for lunch – now, I can’t find a seat.”

– JOH N M AG GIOR E , A SE N IOR A DV ISER T O G OV. A N DR EW C UOMO

els in smaller cities across upstate. In 2015, the state awarded $500 million to Central New York as part of the Upstate Revitalization Initiative. A good portion of the funds remain unspent, but are likely to go to the Syracuse Surge, a strategy – developed by Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and backed in January by Cuomo – to bolster Syracuse’s tech sector, science education and workforce training.

UPSTATE CITIES, like all older American cities, were battered by a one-two punch of deindustrialization and suburban sprawl. “It became that if you were high school educated, you were jobless, and if you were college educated it became: ‘Let’s get away from the crime,’” said Joe Lettieri, a local innkeeper and lifelong Buffalonian. “Everyone just fled.” Buffalo’s population was halved from a peak of about 580,000 in 1950 to less than 259,000 in 2017. Other upstate cities, such as Syracuse and Rochester, have also experienced significant, although not quite as dramatic, population losses.

Buffalo proper still makes headlines for being ranked one of the nation’s worst cities to live in, based on factors like crime, the economy, health and education, with Syracuse not far behind. Inner-city Buffalo is much poorer than the surrounding suburbs: Its roughly 30 percent poverty rate and $34,000 per year median household income are slightly worse than those of the Bronx, New York City’s poorest borough. By contrast, in the Buffalo metro area, just 14.2 per-

April 8, 2019

City & State New York

it’s a jigsaw puzzle of our state (projects),” Maggiore said. “The hockey arena sells out, the brewery has become a tourist attraction. So the state has DOT projects to make it easier to access and walk around downtown.” The state is also supporting an effort to turn Utica’s post-industrial harbor into a mixed-use waterfront neighborhood.

In Buffalo, state efforts to support the tourism and entertainment industry include spending on refurbishing a National Historic Landmark house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright to make it suitable for visitors and renovating the massive – once decaying, but architecturally magnificent – former state psychiatric hospiThe Anchor Bar, intal into an upscale ventor of the Buffalo boutique hotel. wing, closes early The largest such some days. More project is a redevelhigh-tech workers would boost local opment of the area

BUFFALO MANUFACTURING WORKS; SANDRA FOYT/SHUTTERSTOCK

businesses.

cent of residents are impoverished and the median household income exceeds $55,000.

The increasing fashion for urban living among millennials has brought glimmers of hope to some upstate downtown areas.

“Five years ago, I’d go to Syracuse and I couldn’t find a place for lunch – now, I can’t find a seat,” Maggiore said. “Downtown Troy went from a place with interesting architecture, with nothing in it, to a place with stores and restaurants and art galleries. The common thread is all these places are becoming hipper.”

The state is trying to help cities capitalize on this trend by strategically investing in public infrastructure improvements.

“When I look at a map of downtown Utica,

around the abandoned endpoint of the Erie Canal, which was rerouted almost a century ago. The district, called Canalside, is separated from Buffalo’s downtown by elevated highways. It was largely barren after the hockey arena closed in the late 1990s. Now, it features a re-created canal that serves as an ice skating rink in the winter and a waterway for paddle boats in the summer, mixed-use developments and a plan to reinstate a long-gone street grid.

HarborCenter, a mixed-use tower with a hotel, retail and dining and two hockey rinks, opened in Canalside in 2014, plus it hosts outdoor concerts in the warmer months. This being Buffalo, there’s also a “one-of-a-kind Tim Hortons Cafe & Bake

13

Shop” that “pays tribute to the life and career of Tim Horton,” a former professional hockey player. The number of annual visitors to the area has doubled since 2010, according to the state.

On a recent weekday morning, however, the area felt like a void in the shadow of the expressways. Sports arenas are a notoriously poor public investment, and hopes that they will revitalize an underutilized area are often at best only partially successful, as in the famous case of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor near the Orioles’ Camden Yards stadium. The hope, not yet fully realized, is that Canalside will have the right mix of activities to feel lively year-round, and not only on game nights.

IT’S ONE THING to make Buffalo a destination for tourism and entertainment, but is that a viable strategy for smaller cities?

Jamestown, a dilapidated city of 30,000 in the southwestern corner of New York state, is going to find out. In 2016, Jamestown put together a plan for reinvigorating its downtown, based off an existing master plan, and successfully applied for one of 10 annual $10 million awards from the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative. (Thirty cities have won in total over three years.) Jamestown, which has lost 50 percent of its population from its peak in 1930, flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a site of textile mills and wood furniture manufacturing. The area experienced a decline in private employment during the postGreat Recession national recovery, according to the Empire Center.

Downtown Jamestown contains architectural remnants of a more prosperous era, but most of its retail has left for shopping malls or migrated online. “The plan is to bring some vibrancy, and build that placemaking so that when we go and try to recruit businesses – millennials in the digital economy are looking for something like that,” said Vince DeJoy, Jamestown’s director of development.

Every expert says cities should build on their assets rather than trying to be something they’re not. In Jamestown’s case, that means taking advantage of its claim to fame: Lucille Ball grew up there. Already home to the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum and an annual festival in Ball’s honor, the nonprofit foundation Ball endowed opened the National Comedy Center in the heart of downtown Jamestown last summer, with support from the state and other sources. Built partly out of a magnificent old train station, the Comedy Center has impressive technology. Visitors can create a profile by selecting favorite comedians, movies and TV shows that helps determine the clips played for them throughout the experience. I laughed out loud when my taste was accurately char-

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

acterized as “abrasive humor,” and again when I sat on a bench that makes fart sounds. Glass cases display memorabilia, including Joan Rivers’ notes to herself on how to handle a heckler, George Carlin’s scroll of dirty words used as a prop onstage and Andy Kaufman’s white leather jacket from his Elvis Presley imitation.

The National Comedy Center won’t disclose its visitor numbers yet, although it said they’ve come from all 50 states. The goal is to ultimately The National Comeattract 114,000 visidy Center in fartors per year, which flung Jamestown would be impressive hopes to turn the for an attraction that city of 30,000 into costs $25.50 per adult a thriving tourist destination. and is almost a twohour drive from Buffalo, the nearest major city. Those numbers would be heavily concentrated on weekends and in summer. On a weekday afternoon in March, the number of visitors present could be counted on two hands, as could the number of pedestrians in downtown Jamestown.

The liveliest place in town was an espresso bar, which opened in 2007, that has exposed brick walls and a barista who calls customers “dude.” It’s a sign of life, one that could be bolstered if the National Comedy Center takes off, but the cafe’s existence simply reflects that every city now has at least a handful of hipsters who hang out in coffee bars downtown. The Downtown Revitalization Initiative is trying to build on that by making a full-fledged dining, entertainment and tourism district, with grants having gone to a forthcoming brewpub, a riverfront park and a performing arts center.

The Downtown Revitalization Initiative draws praise from experts for encouraging comprehensive strategic planning. “If you’re Oneonta, $10 million in flexible dollars is huge,” said Alan Mallach, a senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress, who studies older industrial cities. But, he cautioned: “We don’t know yet how effective it will be at changing these cities’ trajectories.”

Hochul is confident in the resurgence of smaller upstate cities. “Where was I yesterday? Oswego, Watertown – two communities that won the Downtown Revitalization Initiative competition,” Hochul told City & State in late March. “I said, ‘You just won the jackpot!’ It’s transformative. We’re using

force is shrinking elsewhere, stoking fears the jobs in Buffalo will never fully materialize. While this could be considered a success story, it’s a very expensive one.

Also in 2013, the state provided a research facility on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus for Albany Molecular Research Inc. It was supposed to generate 250 jobs, but so far only 55 have been created.

Last year, the Investigative Post reported THE OTHER TRACK on which upstate economic spending has proceeded is the that a $55 million grant provided in 2014 to more expensive and controversial prac- bring an IBM “innovation hub” and “advanced research center” to Buffalo has been “mired in dysfunction and disappointment.” The IBM employees’ salaries, starting at $13.75 an hour, are not exactly what one might expect of jobs that were supposedly going to be at the tech sector’s cutting edge.

The Cuomo administration counters that these projects are supposed to reach their advertised em– A L A N M A L L AC H, A SE N IOR F EL L OW AT ployment over years, so T H E C E N T ER F OR C OM M U N I T Y PR O GR ESS they shouldn’t be judged a failure only part of the way through the expansion process.

In a more general sense, however, ecotice of offering inducements to individual corporations. The largest in Buffalo is the nomic policy wonks say company-specifmassive solar panel factory at the water- ic subsidies are less efficient than broader front site known as RiverBend. The former development of public goods that are atsteel mill site was a brownfield. In 2013, the tractive to companies, like high-quality edstate struck a deal to clean up and refurbish ucation, workforce training, infrastructure the site for $750 million for a solar compa- or cultural amenities. (Erie County Execuny, later acquired by Tesla, to open a plant tive Mark Poloncarz’s newly unveiled prothat would deliver 1,460 jobs at the site and posal to spend $20 million on high-speed 5,000 to New York state within 10 years. internet in underserved areas could be Tesla has surpassed its first employment tar- considered an example of that approach, get of 500 jobs, due this month, but it would although it’s more about equity than ecohave to significantly increase its workforce nomic development.) In the manufacturing to hit the next target in April 2020. Tesla’s sector, it’s usually more cost-efficient to solar business is flagging and its solar work- build capacity for the whole sector to grow the Buffalo story and saying if we can do it in the most depressed, hard-hit area, the highest unemployment that was the most hopeless place in New York state, we can bring back Buffalo – and we have – we can do you because you’re a smaller scale. You can do it easier. It’s easier for Jamestown to redo their waterfront than it was for Buffalo.”

“If you’re Oneonta, $10 million is huge. But we don’t know yet how effective it will be at changing these cities’ trajectories.”

DAN CAPPELLAZZO /NATIONAL COMEDY CENTER

14

April 8, 2019

than to assist companies individually. For example, Buffalo Manufacturing Works, a local nonprofit assisted by the Buffalo Billion, provides services, such as consulting on engineering in product development, to small and midsized local manufacturers.

“Unfortunately, the biggest projects aren’t through programs, they’re attempts at reviving a region through a silver bullet,” said David Friedfel, director of state studies at the Citizens Budget Commission. One such failed silver bullet is the film hub in Syracuse, a $14 million facility the state constructed in a suburban office park, which Cuomo claimed would create 350 high-tech jobs but has produced no permanent positions.

Even when such efforts aren’t obvious failures, it’s hard to measure success. “The state does not do a good job of documenting what happens after the award is made,” Friedfel said. “In some cases, it’s awarded and the money doesn’t go out the door because the company changes plans. Data isn’t collected in a systematic way that’s easily accessible.”

To understand why these ventures are not a sustainable model for growth, consider that New York’s metro areas have lost three-quarters of their peak manufacturing employment – more than any other Rust Belt state. Historically, New York cities’ comparative advantage was their access

City & State New York

to waterways. The United States is now two transportation revolutions beyond that era, with the rise of railroads and automobiles.

New York City has been the hardest-hit region for manufacturing, yet it thrives because its diverse economy has grown in other sectors, including finance, technology, marketing and the arts. It competes with Orlando as the nation’s largest magnet for tourists.

In urban upstate areas, the state has tried two tactics: bringing back manufacturing, and diversifying by expanding new economic sectors like technology, services and tourism. The two approaches have both involved inefficiently subsidizing specific companies – like Tesla and IBM – and cheaper, industrywide measures, like Buffalo Manufacturing Works and 43North.

SUBURBAN SPRAWL and the population shift toward the Sun Belt are not the only larger trends challenging upstate cities that are beyond the control of state government.

The U.S. political economy has undergone massive shifts, including globalization, deindustrialization and skyrocketing inequality. That manufacturing employment has declined in every city north of the Mason-Dixon line cannot be explained by concluding that every state and local government has screwed up. Buffalo is replac-

15

ing manufacturing jobs with service jobs because those are the jobs the American economy is creating. To say that, despite state and local efforts, the average Buffalonian or Jamestowner who didn’t attend college has worse prospects than they would have a generation ago is simply to observe that the year is 2019 rather than 1969.

In that context, the Buffalo Billion and the Downtown Revitalization Initiative are Band-Aids on a deeper wound caused by global economic upheaval. But a Band-Aid may be the best treatment the state has at its disposal. New York can no more set federal tax, spending and trade policies than it can shape foreign policy. And one need only search online for Flint, Michigan, or East St. Louis, Illinois, to see that cities can be worse off than the ones in New York.

“New York City is one of the few places in America to really benefit from globalization, and most of the rest of the state has seen hugely negative impacts,” Bowles said.

“The upstate economy is better compared to the rest of the Rust Belt than it is compared to New York City or Long Island.”

Since upstate is the Rust Belt, this is not an unreasonable metric. The question that remains unanswered, however, is: 100 years from now, what long-gone companies will Buffalonians brag were started there in the 2010s and 2020s?

■

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

Upstate Inc.

by ERICA SCALISE

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made it his business to funnel cash to upstate initiatives that promise the return of good jobs in once-booming cities.

Some of these projects have turned out better than others.

RIPOFF

TAKING OFF NATIONAL COMEDY CENTER LOCATION: Jamestown ANNOUNCED: An executive director was hired in 2011 to guide the project to completion. The attraction opened Aug. 1, 2018.

MONEY SPENT BY THE STATE: $4.3 million from Empire State Development and an additional $5 million through the Buffalo Billion II initiative, plus millions more from the feds JOBS PROMISED: Over 200 jobs JOBS CREATED: Expected to generate the equivalent of 32 full-time jobs yearly STATUS: In February, the National Comedy Center was designated the official National Comedy Center of the United States. Comedians John Mulaney and Sebastian Maniscalco will headline this year’s Lucille Ball Comedy Festival in August.

The massive RiverBend complex, now home to Tesla, is a signature part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s efforts to revitalize Buffalo.

CENTRAL NEW YORK FILM HUB LOCATION: Syracuse ANNOUNCED: March 2014 MONEY SPENT BY THE STATE: $20 million JOBS PROMISED: At least 350 new high-tech jobs JOBS CREATED: Though it’s unclear how many temporary jobs have been created, the film hub had only two employees as of last June.

STATUS: The hub was created to support a film industry in Syracuse that never appeared. Onondaga County bought it for $1 last year. Nevertheless, the state invested another $4.8 million in November to help Syracuse’s film industry, promising it was the last time. Last year, several of the project’s main backers were convicted of crimes.

FLOP

THE OATH DATA CENTER LOCATION: Lockport ANNOUNCED: October 2013 MONEY SPENT

BY THE STATE: Up to $478 million in subsidies JOBS PROMISED: 200, as of 2015 JOBS CREATED: 250, as of 2018 STATUS: That works out to up to $1.9 million in subsidies per job created. That’s an astronomical figure compared to the $120,000 in subsidies per job offered to Amazon, which caused such an uproar that the project was scuttled. Oath, created by a merger of Yahoo and AOL, announced plans last year to construct another building on the campus and add an undetermined number of new jobs. The campus’ 100 percent property tax exemption would be applied to the new building as well.

EMBARR ASSMENT TESLA FACTORY LOCATION: Buffalo ANNOUNCED: June 2014 MONEY SPENT BY THE STATE: $750 million JOBS PROMISED: 1,460 jobs by April 2020 JOBS CREATED: Tesla and state officials say the solar panel plant employs 800 workers, but an investigation found Tesla employed 188 workers and Panasonic, which also uses the space, employed 279 as of the end of 2017. State officials said they have no data for 2018.

STATUS: Fifty people have recently been laid off, as part of Tesla’s companywide 7 percent workforce reduction initiative.

IN WORK E SS R G O PR

IBM INNOVATION CENTER LOCATION: Buffalo ANNOUNCED: September 2013, as part of the Buffalo Information Technologies Complex MONEY SPENT

BY THE STATE: $55 million from the Buffalo Billion, plus a $58 million state contract JOBS PROMISED: 500 jobs within five years JOBS CREATED: A 2018 report found 220 people worked there, though half were employed by a staffing agency and subcontractors.

STATUS: The site was supposed to be a cutting-edge technology hub to drive “state-of-theart discoveries in the areas of molecular research, genomics, energy efficiency development and defense.” Today, it’s mostly a notoriously unhelpful call center.

ALBANY MOLECULAR RESEARCH INC. CAMPUS LOCATION: Buffalo ANNOUNCED: 2013 MONEY SPENT BY THE STATE: $50 million JOBS PROMISED: 250 JOBS CREATED: 55, as of 2018 STATUS: Albany Molecular Research Inc. was supposed to attract other companies to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, creating even more jobs.

That never happened.

The project was one of several initiated and overseen by former SUNY Polytechnic Institute founder Alain Kaloyeros, who was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for rigging bids in the Buffalo Billion initiative.

GHOST TOWN

DARREN MCGEE/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

16

CUNY ESTABLISHES A NEW SCHOOL DEDICATED TO PUBLIC SERVICE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

25 West 43rd Street, 19th Floor

Start hiring now on New York’s highest-quality job site!

City & State Jobs helps hundreds of job seekers and employers find the right fit every day.

18

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

The right way to do economic development Instead of giving handouts to Amazon, the state should emulate a Buffalo training center that gives workers high-tech skills.

by B R Y C E C O V E R T

B

EFORE 2017, Stephen Tucker knew barely anything about Buffalo, New York or Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature Buffalo Billion economic development project.

Then he was recruited from Cincinnati to run the Northland Workforce Training Center on Buffalo’s East Side.

The center was developed to address a problem identified by the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council: Growth in advanced manufacturing, including in traditional industries and renewable energy, was limited by a lack of skilled workers in the area, leading to thousands of open positions. That, coupled with a quickly retiring workforce, would create a huge shortage of workers.

Upstate New York used to be a manufacturing hub, offering residents middle-class jobs that didn’t require a postsecondary degree. But upstate lost 105,000 manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2008 – and the Buffalo metro area lost about 25,000 jobs – as the national economy was expanding. Since then, as the country struggled to recover from the Great Recession, the manufacturing sector in Western New York actually gained a couple thousand jobs, many of which are high-tech and require additional education. Those new positions have come from the opening and expansion of companies like pharmaceu-

tical manufacturer Athenex and 3D-printing finisher PostProcess Technologies.

But those companies won’t be able to keep growing without a skilled, ready workforce in the area, nor can locals take part in that growth without the right credentials to get the jobs. So the center was created to train local residents for those open jobs, which can pay around $70,000 on average in leading-edge industries. On Buffalo’s East Side, which used to be home to many large manufacturers that either closed or left town years ago, 45 percent of residents live either in or near the poverty line. The Northland Workforce Training Center inhabits a former industrial building.

The alliance running the center partnered with nearby SUNY schools, Alfred State College and Erie Community College, to teach the training programs. Students can graduate through shorter certificate programs or with an associate degree in two years. The courses offered may lead to various careers, including in advanced manufacturing, electronics or welding.

The center’s biggest source of funding came from a $44 million investment from the Buffalo Billion program. If it succeeds, Tucker argued, the increased tax revenues, the multiplier effect of employed residents spending in their community and a reduced reliance on public assistance would justify the tens of millions spent by New

York state and the New York Power Authority, which invested in the center due to its interest in programs that train workers for renewable energy jobs.

“It’ll be transformative,” Tucker said. When he first arrived in the city and started talking to community members, he quickly found that “they felt like they were left out of the resurgence of Buffalo.” Billions of public dollars have been invested in the city, but blue-collar communities on the East Side didn’t see much benefit. The new center aims to change that sentiment. “It’s reaching people who sometimes felt like they were left out,” he said.

The next phase of the project will bring research and innovation firm Buffalo Manufacturing Works to the center to help local manufacturers grow.

Economists argue that the places that get economic development right do so by investing in their assets: infrastructure attractive to both companies and residents, services to help existing companies start and grow, and training the local workforce. New York City saw an opportunity

NORTHLAND WORKFORCE TRAINING CENTER

April 8, 2019

to help technology companies locate and grow within its boundaries by attracting and establishing engineering universities to create a supply of top-tier talent.

While Tucker’s center is designed to create similar conditions in Buffalo, coverage of the Buffalo Billion has mostly been gobbled up by the huge sums of money handed out to individual companies, such as $750 million to build a solar plant for Tesla or a $55 million grant for an IBM innovation center.

Nationally, economic research shows company-specific development hasn’t had a very good track record of success. There’s little or no correlation between high-dollar incentive deals and a state’s employment rate, or per-capita income, or its economic growth. A 2016 paper in the Cambridge Journal of Public Policy found that about two-thirds of the money goes to companies

City & State New York

that would have come to a state anyway.

What works better, according to economists, looks more like the Northland Workforce Training Center. “I don’t think it’s the case that incentives have no effect,” said Timothy Bartik, senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a nonprofit based in Michigan.

“But as a way of creating jobs, they tend to be pretty costly per job created.”

Instead, the things that actually work are less sexy, politically. “You have to be a location where companies want to be,” said Nathan Jensen, co-author of “Incentives to Pander: How Politicians Use Corporate Welfare for Political Gain.”

“That really requires Students can be infrastructure and trained in skills human capital. And like welding at there is no shortcut.”

Buffalo’s Northland One approach is to Workforce Training offer services to small Center, which is rendered below. and midsized businesses so they can start and expand. That can include, for example, entrepreneurship training programs to help people with good ideas start companies. It can also simply consist of offering expertise in new technologies or market opportunities. Manufacturing extension offices can provide short-term advice and also recommend a list of trustworthy consultants for long-term strategy – often subsidized so it doesn’t cost companies.

Figuring out which companies and industries to support isn’t too difficult: The best strategy is to promote ones that currently exist in a particular location and appear to have an economic future.

It may not always mean that companies continue what they’re doing. Bartik pointed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where local automotive manufacturers that had been molding plastic or shaping metal pivoted to doing the same for medical instruments with the help of manufacturing extension services.

Maintaining an environment that supports growth isn’t just about certain industries, it’s also about having certain assets that make a city more attractive for businesses and residents. Overall infrastructure investments in highways, airports and mass transit, or in the educational system, benefit both potential new employers and existing residents.

Training workers means not just giving

19

them better access to a college education, but helping them with short-term training as well. Smaller companies can’t always afford to have an in-house training program; others might be reluctant to invest in training workers who can then leave for other opportunities. A government-funded program at a local community college, geared toward the needs of companies in the area, can solve the problem.

“Smaller companies face a lot of handicaps in the market,” Bartik said. They don’t always know how to find well-trained employees as they grow; they’re financially constrained; and a lack of information, financing and skills can inhibit their growth.

“The right kind of government support, which is a smart support where the government provides some information, helps broker the supply of quality information and helps broker the supply of training, can help make up for the failures in the private market,” Bartik said. And even better, these programs usually come cheap compared to the tens of billions every year that cities and states hand out in tax subsidies to large corporations. “The whole budget of manufacturing extension and small-business development centers nationwide is miniscule compared to how much we’re spending on business incentives,” Bartik said. “If you expand these programs, it would probably have a pretty high bang for the buck.”

The most effective tactics, though, just don’t generate splashy headlines. “Politically, it’s so much better to go to a ribbon-cutting ceremony with a big company that generated 100 new jobs than 10 companies that were there and created 10 jobs each,” Jensen said.

Subsidies to large corporations also don’t require innovative program development.

“It’s easier to hand out cash. Really easy to do,” Bartik said. But that also sucks up resources that could be better spent elsewhere.

“You attract one new company, maybe they leave tomorrow,” Bartik said. “And you promise them the store and then you don’t have any money to do anything else.”

The model being piloted at the Northland Workforce Training Center could easily be copied throughout the state with the right funding. Representatives from the Finger Lakes region and Long Island have visited the center to learn from it. “There has been talk about replicating this strategy in other places … in industries that fit the local region,” Tucker said. “It may be different industries, but the model is still the same.”

The question is whether politicians will choose to invest in this solution, or keep handing out cash to companies that don’t need it.

■

Bryce Covert is an independent journalist writing about the economy and is a contributor to The New York Times opinion section and The Nation.

20

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

Putting Syracuse on the map Will Mayor Ben Walsh’s Syracuse Surge create New York’s next tech hub?

by ANNIE M c DONOUGH

N

EW YORK CITY isn’t the only city trying to attract and cultivate tech talent – there’s modern-rustic Austin, Texas, offbeat Portland, Oregon, the potential of Pittsburgh and on and on. The mantle of “Next Hot Tech City” continues to leap from place to place. If officials in Syracuse have their way, that title may very well land in Central New York someday, as the region aims to become a vigorous competitor for tech jobs as well.

That, at least, is the hope fueling the Syracuse Surge, a $200 million economic development project outlined early this year by Mayor Ben Walsh. The program is still in its initial planning stages, and the Walsh administration described it as more of a long-term, ongoing strategy than a finite package of initiatives.

But the preliminary proposals – revamping an abandoned high school into one focused on science and technology, and leveraging a citywide smart grid for public and private data development, among them – are ambitious.

“The Syracuse Surge brings forward a set of scalable, replicable investments in technology, infrastructure, education, workforce development, and municipal data collection that will serve as the backbone for region-wide transformation,” Walsh said in an emailed statement. “By building on existing private sector support and creating an environment that is ripe for additional investment, the Surge presents an unparalleled opportunity to ignite growth from the city center that will extend benefits to citizens throughout the region.”

The alliterative title of the Syracuse Surge may call to mind the Buffalo Billion, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s landmark econom-

ic development package that hasn’t had stellar economic returns so far, and led to several corruption convictions. While city officials – Walsh included – are unsurprisingly bullish about the surge, some experts are also optimistic, at least at this early stage. David Friedfel, director of state studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, said the Syracuse Surge strategy looks promising.

“One of the things that we found from looking at other places that had been successful (at economic development) was that you really need to focus on larger regional cities. Syracuse certainly fits the bill there,” Friedfel said. “You also need to make a long-term commitment to specific strategic priorities. And looking at Syracuse’s plan, it certainly seems like that’s what their intent is. They’re not trying to go out and get a silver bullet cure, bring in one large employer.”

While details of the plan – including projections for job creation – are still being worked out, the highlights include four central projects.

The base of the plan, officials said, draws on a project already underway in which the city purchased 17,507 streetlights from National Grid to build a smart network of LED lights that can be controlled remotely.

Beyond dimming and brightening public lighting, however, the deal also opens the possibility for other types of data collection via nodes that can be used by both the public and private sectors. There are “very few” other cities connected in that way, according to Syracuse Chief Data Officer Sam Edelstein.

The other projects focus on Syracuse’s impoverished South Side. Two involve expanding existing centers – the SUNY

Educational Opportunity Center, which provides adult vocational training, and the Tech Garden business incubator, which helps tech startups grow.

The estimated $200 million cost for the Syracuse Surge accounts for multiple streams of investment, including from the city, Onondaga County and private companies. The city has an eager partner in Onondaga County Executive J. Ryan McMahon, and expects to work with Empire State Development, New York state’s economic development arm. Earlier this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would support the surge in his executive budget.

However, state funds could come through the $500 million already awarded to Central New York in 2015 through the state’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative, as more than $200 million from that fund remains unused.

One of the most ambitious Syracuse Surge initiatives would renovate the long-vacant Central High School to create a countywide science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics high school. “We know we need to build a pipeline of workers, and it would be great if they’re homegrown workers,” said Honora Spillane, deputy commissioner of the Syracuse Department of Neighborhood and Business Development. She said the

April 8, 2019

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh wants to boost the city’s tech sector by creating a long-term pipeline of skilled, educated workers.

CITY OF SYRACUSE

city is looking at a 2022 classroom start date for the school.

A number of factors will determine the project’s success, including not only the development of a tech workforce but the retention of the workforce at large. Syracuse’s population decreased by a couple thousand people between 2010 and 2017, according to census estimates. The trend is not unique to Syracuse, as 42 upstate counties experienced population decline in that period. Officials in Syracuse recognize the trend, but hope that initiatives in the surge will attract new residents and encourage former residents to return. “Population growth is abso-

lutely going to be an essential piece of that strategy,” Spillane said.

Central New York also lagged behind other upstate regions in tech job growth between 2010 and 2015, according to the state Labor Department. While the Capital Region boosted employment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by 9 percent between 2010 and 2015 and the Finger Lakes saw a 7 percent bump, Central New York actually experienced a 1 percent decline in STEM employment.

It helps, however, that the Syracuse Surge is not an attempt to build a tech hub from scratch. Some industries have already planted seeds in the region. Thanks in part to a $30 million state investment in 2016, the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance created a 50-mile air corridor between Syracuse and Rome that has served as one of seven test sites in the nation for developing and piloting unmanned drones.

Still, the most important question may be whether Syracuse can not only attract new tech talent, but retain skilled workers. Amit Sanyal, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Syracuse University, said that having companies like Thales – a multinational aerospace company that does unmanned air traffic management work in the region – allows his students to see where they might work after graduating. One of Sanyal’s students is now interning at Thales and is trying to get a full-time position. “Maybe not in two years, but in five years, we’ll see more and more gradu-

“It certainly appears as if they’re pursuing the right strategy. Whether or not it will be ultimately successful is kind of another question, unfortunately.”

– DAV I D F R I EDF EL , DI R E C T OR OF STAT E ST U DI ES AT T H E C I T I Z E NS BU D GET C OM M ISSION

City & State New York

21

ates of this program staying in their local region because they have employment,” Sanyal said.

Scott Curtis, CEO of the Central New York Technology Development Organization – a group that connects companies to existing resources like university research centers and incubators like the Tech Garden – said that he doesn’t see as many skilled workers leaving the area as he did 15 or 20 years ago. And while there is still a tech talent gap and Curtis sees companies struggling to fill that gap, he said some companies are having more success than others.

“The ones that are successful are not necessarily finding the person with the perfect skill set,” Curtis said. “They’re bringing in a person who has the capability perhaps to be up-skilled. They’re doing some of that internally. For lack of the perfect candidate, they’re building their candidates.”

But when it comes to competing with other cities to attract and retain talent, Syracuse could run into trouble. State Labor Department data showed that the median salary for STEM jobs in Central New York was just over $61,000, which, while comparable with the median STEM salary in the Capital Region and nearly 60 percent higher than the median salary in the Syracuse area, falls short of the median STEM salary in New York City, which exceeded $87,000 per year.

Still, competing with New York City may be a moot point. “You don’t need to go one-for-one with New York City,” Friedfel said. “By a people count, you’re not going to be able to compete with that.”

Syracuse is also competing with other upstate cities and regions for tech talent. “There’s opportunities in Rochester, there’s opportunities in Albany in hightech areas, and in Buffalo,” Curtis said.

“There’s the small-town stigma that goes along with Syracuse.”

Small town or not, city officials hope the surge will put Syracuse on the map.

“In my decade of economic development work in Syracuse, this initiative and the buzz it’s generated has gotten us attention from companies that probably wouldn’t have taken a first look at the region,” Spillane said. “That’s a sort of outside validator (when) big-name companies are like, ‘Hey, how are you?’ That’s been very encouraging as we work through the process. It’s nice to be on people’s radars.”

Friedfel said there is no reason Syracuse couldn’t become a tech hub with increased growth. Some locals say that the city is already on its way. Asked whether he’d call it a tech hub now, Curtis seemed to surprise himself with his answer. “Actually I would, compared to a lot of different places around the country,” he said. “I think it’s time for Syracuse to stop feeling like the second cousin to all these other places.”

■

22

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

Organized labor has been on the front lines of some of the biggest political battles in New York. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union helped kill Amazon’s HQ2 plan in Queens. The Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York wrestled with Related Cos. over the use of nonunion labor at Hudson Yards in Manhattan. And 1199SEIU helped block major state health care cuts – one of a number of measures in the state’s $175.5 billion spending plan directly affecting unions. In this special section, we assess whether New York’s top elected officials – Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and more – are delivering for their allies in labor.

24

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

DE BLASIO’S MIXED RECORD with PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS

H E N N E L LY

J

OHN SAMUELSEN, the president of the Transport Workers Union, called him a “fauxgressive.”

Police union leader Patrick Lynch dismissed his negotiating stance as an “absolute disgrace.” And the head of a union representing paramedics and emergency medical technicians argued that the “Tale of Two Cities” campaign slogan was “just talk with no substance.”

Labor has historically been a key constituency for any Democrat with Oval Office ambitions. Yet judging by the headlines generated by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s flirtation with a 2020 run, some of the local unions that know him best are not on board.

Three municipal unions – Lynch’s Police Benevolent Association, Samuelsen’s Transport Workers Union, and District Council 37’s Local 2507 and Local 3621, which represent FDNY Bureau of Emergency Medical Services workers – have already spent close to $1 million blasting the mayor’s labor record with primary voters in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, The Chief-Leader reported last month.

And although they agree that de Blasio is a disappointment, the unions represent a wide range of political ideologies. The TWU was one of the few unions to back U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016, while the PBA’s ranks include thousands of Donald Trump loyalists.

“I think he is a fauxgressive, not a progressive,” Samuelsen said of the mayor.

“He’s the exact kind of Democrat that got Trump elected, and he’s exactly the kind of candidate that if he gets traction in the primary will get Trump re-elected.”

At a press conference in January, de Bla-

sio was asked to explain the gap in pay for FDNY emergency medical technicians compared to other first responders like police officers and firefighters.

“I have deep, deep respect for our EMTs and everyone who works at EMS,” the mayor said. “I think the work is different. We are trying to make sure people are treated fairly and paid fairly but I do think the work is different. But it is a conversation that we continue to have with their representatives.”

The EMS unions seized on the comments, taking out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times in February lambasting de Blasio for rationalizing a $35,000 pay gap for a workforce largely made of women and people of color. “This answer has sparked outrage from emergency service workers in New York City and across the country,” the unions said in the ad.

Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507, which represents paramedics and emergency medical technicians, said the mayor’s remarks on the pay disparity contradict his campaign rhetoric around of confronting the “Tale of Two Cities.” “We always hear him talking about equity and fairness, but it appears that it was just talk with no substance,” Barzilay said. “If he has aspirations to become the leader of the nation, how can he do that without solving the problems he has in his own city?”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio may have to pave his own way to the White House without support from local labor unions.

After five years as mayor, Samuelsen said de Blasio is no friend of working people. “He’s in bed with nonunion developers and the billionaire class,” he said. “He’s an elitist that has this mix of the social liberal with the corporate Democrat, and that approach is a sure loser for us in states we need to win in like Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan.”

Yet other union leaders see it differently. It is in his role as the elected official most responsible for setting the tone of the city’s negotiations with its dozens of public unions that de Blasio wins high praise from one of the longest serving public union leaders in the city.

Arthur Cheliotes, who led the Communications Workers of America Local 1180 administrative managers union for decades, drew a comparison between today and the dismal relationship between then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city’s unions.

“Having gone through a whole number of mayors, what Bill de Blasio brought to the table, which is the most important thing, was a respect for the collective bargaining process,” said Cheliotes, who stepped down in 2017 and now works parttime for the local. “If you recall, Bloomberg just stonewalled it.”

ED REED/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE

As the mayor flirts by B O B with a 2020 presidential bid, labor leaders pan the idea.

April 8, 2019

City & State New York

That contrast with Bloomberg is one that the de Blasio administration is eager to emphasize. “When the de Blasio administration took office, every contract with municipal workers was expired,” Raul Contreras, a mayoral spokesperson, said in an email. “Since then, the administration has settled with or concluded arbitration with 99.9 percent of the workforce for the 20102017 round of bargaining, representing both civilian and uniformed employees.”

Over de Blasio’s entire political career, he has portrayed himself as an ally of the labor movement. During his 2013 run for mayor, he pledged to lead a municipal government that would be the “protector of neighbor-

hoods” and “guard the people from the enormous power of moneyed interests.”

And while primary rival John Liu, then the city’s comptroller, had the lion’s share of public unions in his corner, de Blasio picked up crucial support from the politically influential health care workers union 1199SEIU. As mayor, de Blasio is the chief executive of the third-largest public sector workforce in the nation, behind only the federal government and California. The city allocates hundreds of millions of dollars in contract services with nonprofit agencies that in turn employ tens of thousands of people doing work for the city.

According to Cheliotes, the current administration has had a more much productive relationship with labor. Under Bloomberg, the city had no incentive to negotiate because he wasn’t going to be running for another term. “Clearly there is a political part to that,” Cheliotes said. “What Bill de Blasio had was a respect for the process. It wasn’t easy on us, that’s for sure.”

The prolonged impasse between Bloomberg and the labor unions has had lasting consequences for the city’s 300,000plus municipal workforce. “It meant that inflation kept eroding their wages and they were getting nothing in terms of increases at a time when the city’s cost of living, especially when you look at rental costs were going through the roof,” Cheliotes said.

As of January, 60 percent of the workforce had settled contracts for the next round of collective bargaining, covering 2017 through 2021, according to Contreras. Contreras touted a “groundbreaking” 2014 agreement with the Municipal Labor Committee as well, which achieved $3.4 billion in cost savings for the city’s health care program. The mayor also made an early move to bring the lowest paid municipal workers up to a $15 an hour.

But getting all of the city’s municipal unions back on track in terms of collective bargaining wasn’t the only task left over from the Bloomberg era. In 2014, the de Blasio administration reached a settlement with the Vulcan Society in a case that had

“He’s the exact kind of Democrat that got Trump elected, and he’s exactly the kind of candidate that if he gets traction in the primary will get Trump re-elected.”

– JOH N SA M U ELSE N, T R A NSP ORT WOR K ER S U N ION PR ESI DE N T

25

dragged on for years. The city agreed to pay close to $100 million to African-American and Latino firefighters who alleged they were victims of racial discrimination for decades. The settlement required the city to reform how it recruits firefighters and ensure that FDNY members are not subject to retaliation if they bring an internal discrimination claim. The implementation of that agreement is still under the supervision of a special master and federal judge.

In the years since, similar discrimination cases have gained traction as the city comes to terms with its legacy of structural gender and race-based employment discrimination. In April 2015, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found reasonable cause to believe that for decades the city had engaged in widespread discrimination against female and minority CWA Local 1180 members who held the civil service administrative manager title.

The finding covered every city agency as well as the New York City Housing Authority. The EEOC ruled there had been “structural and historic problems” that resulted in salaries that were “much less than their white male counterparts.”

“Back in 1978, when you look at the administrative manager title, when it was mostly held by white males, the job was paying the equivalent of $92,000 a year, yet when we filed the complaint, our members were getting just $53,000 as a starting salary,” Cheliotes said.

Similarly, the city’s probation officers, civilian FDNY employees, FDNY EMTs and thousands of early education teachers that are represented by District Council 1707 – most of them women of color – are making the case they still earn tens of thousands of dollars less than their white counterparts doing similar work.

The de Blasio administration has made some progress in resolving these issues, even if critics say the process has taken far too long. Earlier this month, hundreds of CWA Local 1180 members and their supporters, including state Attorney General Letitia James and New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, converged on the steps of City Hall to celebrate the settlement of a discrimination lawsuit with the de Blasio administration. Under the terms of the $15 million deal, which still requires court approval, 1,600 union members will be entitled to get back pay and pay increases.

“Local 1180’s path to the finish line started more than two decades ago,” CWA Local 1180 President Gloria Middleton told the cheering crowd, all wearing the union’s signature red.

“It’s been a long path, a complicated path, a frustrating path. But today we can finally say it’s been a successful path.”

■

Bob Hennelly is a reporter for The Chief-Leader.

CityAndStateNY.com

RENEE CAMPION NEW YORK CITY LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSIONER

THE NEW NEGOTIATOR NEW YORK CITY MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO IS ASKING EVERY SINGLE DEPARTMENT TO CUT ITS BUDGET THIS YEAR. IS THAT ON YOUR MIND AS YOU NEGOTIATE LABOR

April 8, 2019

CONTRACTS? DOES THAT ADD PRESSURE, KNOWING THERE’S A SLIGHT BUDGET CRUNCH? It makes it a challenge. I think there’s a reality of fiscal restraints no matter what the economy has out there for us. We budgeted for the labor pattern that exists. That’s already in the budget. So to the extent there are cuts made, or as different agencies are being asked to come up with additional savings, it doesn’t directly, necessarily impact the pattern that we have.

IT’S ALSO IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT YOU’RE THE FIRST WOMAN IN THIS POSITION. I am the first woman.

And it’s really exciting. In addition to being the first woman, I’m the ninth labor commissioner. That really points to the strength of labor relations in New York City for the last 53 years.

There are other agencies

that have had much more than nine commissioners in their existence.

ARE YOU PERSONALLY REPRESENTED BY A UNION? I am not, no, no, no. I am purely management. Along with the mayor, I’m one of the few positions in New York City these days who are not represented (laughs). We have lots of one-star, two-star chiefs in the police department that are represented by unions.

Out of 380,000, we have about 360,000 represented employees, and 20,000 management or supervisory employees, who are people just not represented by a union. That’s why there’s 350 groups I have to negotiate with!

WE’VE SEEN THE PBA PROTEST OUTSIDE THE PROSPECT PARK YMCA AND FOLLOW THE MAYOR TO

Public subsidies must come with public responsibility.

NY State Senate Bill S1947, the public works legislation, is a common-sense solution to ensure taxpayer-funded subsidies finally have an obligation to the construction workers on the projects these dollars support.

Pass S1947

IOWA. WHAT’S THE CRAZIEST THING YOU’VE SEEN AS PART OF CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS? I wouldn’t categorize it, necessarily, as crazy. It is their right to assemble and free speech and make their voices heard. To an extent, I would prefer, as a labor commissioner, that they had those conversations and were doing those things at the bargaining table. That’s always what we’re in favor of, all day long.

NOBODY HAS EVER INFLATED A GIANT RAT OUTSIDE YOUR APARTMENT? I live on the Upper East Side. I’ve been there 25 years or so. I’m not aware that they’ve ever put a rat outside my building. I guess my tenure is short so far, so … (laughs) but I would hope that I have a good enough relationship with the unions. But I guess it’s always possible.

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR’S OFFICE OF LABOR RELATIONS; JESSICA RAMOS FOR STATE SENATE

26

April 8, 2019

JESSICA RAMOS CHAIRWOMAN, STATE SENATE LABOR COMMITTEE

FARMWORKERS’ RIGHTS DID THE STATE BUDGET DO ENOUGH TO SECURE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOLLOWING THE U.S. SUPREME COURT’S RULING IN JANUS V. AFSCME? I’m very happy. Look, there’s very few things that the state can do, but I think that we’re doing everything we can to ensure that we are protecting our unions and protecting public sector workers and I’m not critical of the measures.

We still have to address public works and the prevailing wage.

I think that is really important and we have to make sure that we are talking to all the stakeholders so that we can come to an agreement that works. Construction workers and building maintenance workers who are working on publicly subsidized projects should be paid the prevailing wage. But there is still a lot more work to do in order to make sure that we’re NOW THAT THE BUDGET hearing all stakeholders. This PASSED, WHAT’S COMING has historically been a biparti2019 ELEC Print Ads-CityState-halfpage-v1.pdf 11 1/18/2019 14:53:28 san bill. The senator who carUP FOR YOUR COMMITTEE?

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

City & State New York

ried the prevailing wage bill was former Sen. Terrence Murphy, who is a Republican. He did a lot of work on the bill and now I’m picking up where he left off. I am looking forward to getting public works done this session. That’s one priority.

Then there is the SWEAT bill, which aims to prevent wage theft. One of the major provisions in it is essentially to put a lien on an employer’s assets in order to make sure that they pay their employees what they’re owed.

The third priority has to do with farmworkers. The farmworker bill is a human rights bill. I understand that it may it will affect the farming economy, but we’ve been holding up the farm economy on the backs of farmworkers for a very long time. They don’t get days off. They don’t have rights to unemployment benefits. They don’t have the right to collectively bargain.

They haven’t been collecting overtime pay. These are all

27

things that nearly every other worker in New York enjoys.

I’ve visited upstate farms and there was one I saw in Wayne County two weeks ago where I met a farmer who owned an apple orchard. His farmworkers are very happy that they get a day off. They also get overtime pay, but the problem is that that’s not the norm and I don’t think farmworkers’ rights should depend on whether they are lucky enough to find a good farmer who will treat them the right way. I think their rights need to be codified.

ANY HEARINGS IN THE WORKS ON THIS ISSUE? Sen. Jen Metzger, who is chair of the agriculture committee, will chair upcoming hearings with me. We’ll have three hearings. One in her district, which is in the Hudson Valley. Another one will be in the Syracuse area and a third in Suffolk County. They’ll happen later this month.

28

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

DID CUOMO DELIVER for ORGANIZED LABOR? Unions got new collective bargaining protections, but fell short on prevailing wages.

by Z A C H W I L L I A M S

priorities fell by the wayside during budget negotiations as Democrats pursued other proposals. “They tried to catch up on things they have not been able to get done because of a Republican Senate,” said Gerard Fitzgerald, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York Local 94. “They’re really going nuts.”

Congestion pricing was one issue that concerned the firefighters union, especially if they are not able to secure a exemption for members who enter the congestion zone in Manhattan in their private vehicles for unexpected shifts, he said.

The passage of a proposal to establish a publicly funded campaign system could cost up to $100 million annually, which also did not sit well with some union officials. “How can we even think about that when we have so many needs?” said Fran Turner, legislative director at the Civil Services Employees Association Local 1000, which represents state workers. “When it comes to priorities, public financing is

Now that the state budget has passed, unions are pushing for a slate of legislation to be approved before the session ends in mid-June.

not one of them – and it shouldn’t be.”

The passage of a permanent local property tax cap was also a big loss for New York State United Teachers, which had vehemently opposed the proposal. A spokesman declined to comment on the union’s reaction to the budget.

While some progressive legislation included in the budget did not go over well, union leaders said that the budget contained some big wins for public sector unions. New rules will prevent state government from disclosing the personal information of public employees, which could be used to undermine union membership. This had been a big concern for public sector unions following the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, which found that requiring nonunion workers to pay union dues was unconstitutional. According to Turner, after the court decision, union members faced a deluge of emails,

PHILIP KAMRASS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR; CELESTE SLOMAN

L

IKE A DOZEN or so Democratic lawmakers, organized labor found lots to love and hate in the $175.5 billion state budget.

Public sector employees received significant new collective bargaining protections, but an effort to increase union wages on publicly supported construction projects did not make it into the budget deal.

Additionally, some unions were unhappy with other provisions that made the cut: Firefighters unions are concerned about congestion pricing, teachers unions worry that the permanent 2 percent property tax cap will limit education funding and a range of complaints have been lodged against a plan for publicly financed political campaigns.

And despite widespread support for a slate of union-friendly legislation that will be on the table in the second half of the session, fault lines remain on issues like marijuana legalization and single-payer health care, which have both drawn criticism from organized labor.

While union leaders applauded the new protections for public sector employees, there was a shared sense among some labor leaders – some of whom declined to comment on the budget – that some of their

April 8, 2019

phone calls, Facebook ads and even people showing up at their doors telling them how they could quit their unions.

By codifying the provisions of an executive order issued by Cuomo last year, unions members are now sheltered from such union-busting outreach. Unions also secured in the budget the right to meet with new employees while another provision prevents nonmembers from suing unions for the dues they paid prior to last year. “Moving forward, I think we are in very good shape,” Turner said of collective bargaining rights for public employees in New York. “There is not much else that needs to be done that hasn’t been done.”

But a proposal to pass a public works bill that would expand the use of the prevailing wage did not make it into the budget.

A bipartisan bill aims to expand the scope of public projects that would be required to pay union members and other workers a higher wage than currently required. Some critics have questioned whether this would

City & State New York

be a good policy in practice, especially considering how it could significantly raise the costs of public projects.

There are also issues to be worked out in terms of how the bill would affect affordable housing construction and women and minority contractors, according to Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, who chairs the Labor Committee. “There was significant movement and it appeared to be coming together,” Crespo said. “But like a lot of things, it did not come together.” Cuomo has said the public works bill remains a priority this year and state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who chairs the Labor Committee in the upper house, said she is pushing to get the bill though this year.

But that is not all that unions want done this year. Unions are looking to get several issues addressed through the legislative committees overseeing the civil service system. The firefighters and police unions want better pension benefits. Park rangers have collective bargaining concerns of their own, and employees at state universities and public teaching hospitals say they are not done pushing for tuition assistance programs and other funding programs. At the same time, police unions are continuing to oppose recreational marijuana legalization.

Other unions want to block single-payer health care. Anthony Wells, president of Social Service Employees Union Local 371, said that a renewed push for single-payer health care in New York is concerning.

Some unions – though certainly not all of them – have opposed single-payer because they do not want to sacrifice medical benefits they have secured through collective bargaining at the expense of wages. “It is going to cause some problems,” Wells said of the New York Health Act. “It’s not going to accomplish what they are seeking to do.”

What the budget process did make clear is while organized labor may have challenges nationwide, it remains a formidable force in New York politics. At a March 27 rally inside the state Capitol, the hold that organized labor has on Democrats and Republicans alike was on full display. Republican Assemblymen Edward Ra and Michael LiPetri stood alongside Ramos, a Democrat, as dozens of construction workers chanted “count me in” as part of a final effort to get the public works bill in the budget. While there was already a sense that the effort would fall short, Michael Hellstrom, a union leader from the Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York and Long Island, made sure to note that organized labor was keeping track of which lawmakers supported, and opposed, their legislative priorities. “I’ll remember who stood with me,” he told the crowd.

“And who stood against me.”

■

29

MARCOS CRESPO CHAIRMAN, ASSEMBLY LABOR COMMITTEE

EXPANDING PREVAILING WAGE WHERE ARE WE WITH THE PUBLIC WORKS BILL THAT WOULD EXPAND THE USE OF THE PREVAILING WAGE IN STATE-SUPPORTED PROJECTS? I think we will look to move the bill.

We’ve done this before and our priorities are clear that we believe in the prevailing wage. I’m hoping that we’ll get back to moving the legislation and I think the Senate will do the same. Then we can really have an honest conversation with the Second Floor about finding out where we all are. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made his views clear about it. While it was not in the budget, he mentioned his support of it in his State of the State address. So I think there is room for all of us to figure out what those issues are and come to an agreement.

WHY DID THAT SPECIFIC PROVISION FAIL TO MAKE IT INTO THE FINAL BUDGET AGREEMENT? I don’t know. That’s hard to tell. I think that there were discrepancies on versions from both sides in terms of the impacts on affordable housing, brownfields and the industrial development agencies and authorities. I think there were several groups looking for exemptions. We’re figuring out what, if anything, is workable or not. I think there was significant movement and it seemed to be coming together and then, like a number of other things, there was a lot going on and not a lot of time. But the prevailing wage remains a priority.

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP PRIORITIES FOR THE ASSEMBLY LABOR COMMITTEE IN THE WEEKS AHEAD BEFORE THE STATE LEGISLATIVE SESSION ENDS IN MID-JUNE? Some of the bills that I continue (to think are) important include Carlos’ Law. The car wash workers minimum wage legislation is something that I’m looking to move as soon as we get back. We want to continue to look at some of the ideas that came out of the sexual harassment hearing. We want to see what we can still do on that front. There is still a lot of work that remains to be done on policy, so we will have our hands full.

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

ANDREW GOUNARDES CHAIRMAN, STATE SENATE CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE

PROTECTING CIVIL SERVANTS HOW DID THE STATE BUDGET PROCESS AFFECT PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS? The governor proposed making retirees pay more for their health insurance benefits.

We were able to successfully block implementation of that.

The governor also wanted to make changes to the civil service process. We were able to block his proposal there too.

These are things that people do not always notice, but they are a big deal to working-class folks.

WHAT WERE THE PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE CIVIL SERVICE PROCESS? They would have given the state more flexibility to have more open examinations and circumvent how it is required to make slots available for tests and filling positions. Lawmakers in both houses felt the system currently is working and we do not need to be making changes to it and we were able to successfully communicate that to the governor.

AND THE CHANGES TO RETIREES’ HEALTH BENEFITS? It was a proposal to have retirees pay more for their health insurance benefits.

Right now under the law, retirees who are invested in the state do not often pay for their health costs. The governor was proposing to change that. When people take a job in the civil service, they sometimes take a lower salary on the promise that they will have a secure pension and that their health care needs will be provided for. This was a promise to them and it should not be a promise that is broken.

YOU’VE BEEN HOSTING WEEKLY FRIDAY TWITTER THREADS WITH CONSTITUENTS. WHAT ARE YOU HEARING? There have been a couple of times when people have commented about issues relating to EMS workers

because we know there is a big problem with how the city of New York is treating its EMS workers. There are big recruitment and retention problems with EMS because they are all jumping over to FDNY because of the pay disparity between the two. There have also been issues with some of the park rangers who have concerns about their collective bargaining agreements and their retirement benefits.

Those have been flagged through our weekly threads.

I can’t promise that I’m going to have an answer for every problem but sometimes all people need to know is that someone is listening.

YOUR PREDECESSOR, FORMER STATE SEN. MARTY GOLDEN, ALSO CHAIRED THE COMMITTEE. HAVE YOU TAKEN HIM UP ON HIS OFFER TO HELP YOU? No, I think I got it.

ANDREW GOUNARDES FOR STATE SENATE

30

New York’s current economic development policy: 1. Give corporate developers lots of money and tax breaks.

2. Take NO steps to ensure construction workers receive a middle-class wage, safety training, or health insurance.

It’s time for change.

PASS PUBLIC WORKS Hold developers accountable when they take public resources… make them pay middle-class wages and benefits.

Do the right thing.

New York’s construction workers are counting on you.

NYS BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION TRADES COUNCIL

CityAndStateNY.com

PETER ABBATE JR. CHAIRMAN, ASSEMBLY GOVERNMENTAL EMPLOYEES COMMITTEE

UNION BENEFITS WHAT HAS THE ASSEMBLY GOVERNMENTAL EMPLOYEES COMMITTEE BEEN UP TO IN THE PAST YEAR? The most important successes we’ve had between

April 8, 2019

last year and this year is counteracting the Janus decision. In the budget, we added some more protections for workers to keep their files confidential. I think we’ve done our part with the Janus decision.

The good part is that the decision led to great education to inform union members what they get out of being a union member, where their dues go. I think a lot of people are under the misconception that too much of that money goes for political purposes.

IS THERE ANYTHING LABOR-RELATED IN THE BUDGET THAT HAS NOT GOTTEN MUCH ATTENTION FROM THE PUBLIC OR YOUR FELLOW LAWMAKERS? Collective bargaining was once again extended for five years and collective bargaining for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority

always looking for is how to be fair to the taxpayer while making sure workers are not abused. You hear so many complaints that the civil service is this and that.

Meanwhile, you don’t hear the stories where they are forced to work overtime because municipalities are not hiring people. Some workers are forced to work overtime so their pay and pensions get larger. But then an article appears in the paper saying these eight guys are making so much money in their pensions. Maybe if cities would hire and promote more people, there would be less overtime. Yet, the municipalities would rather pay down the road. If you’re supposed to have 50 workers and you only have 25 and you force them to work overtime, that’s not going to affect you immediately, but it will affect someone else if you kick the issue 15 years down the road.

was also extended for an additional two years. I think that makes it easier. We all remember going through the New York City transit strike, and I think collective bargaining throughout the system has really helped with the labor situation.

We don’t have what you’ve seen in other states with the teachers unions walking out – whether it is in California, Texas and other places. Instead, we have a good system of collective bargaining where people sit down and try to work out their problems.

WHAT ARE THE BIG CIVIL SERVICE ISSUES BEFORE YOUR COMMITTEE? WHAT ARE YOU HEARING FROM YOUR CONSTITUENTS? We passed a bill last year and just did a chapter amendment for first responders that will affect how they are promoted. One of the other things we are

FREE*

The

PROS NS CO of CON CON

SUBSCRIBE TODAY SUBSCRIPTIONS INCLUDE 48 ISSUES CONVENIENTLY MAILED TO YOUR HOME OR OFFICE AND ACCESS TO OUR EXCLUSIVE FIRST READ WEEKEND E-NEWSLETTER! CITY & STATE Magazine is a premier weekly publication that dedicates its coverage to everything politics in New York.

if you work for the city, the state, a nonprofit, or a school

SE R 1A0F T0ERYSUEFA G A FR

T. K OF THIS S** LITICS ARE SIC IT ANYMORE. WOMEN IN PO ISN’T TAKING SA RO e D SA MELIS CIT YANDST

CIT YANDST

ATENY.C OM

@CIT YANDST

23, 2017ATENY @CIT YANDST ATENY.C OM October

ATENY

PM 10/20/17 5:22

er.indd 1

CSNY_10232017_cov

• • • •

Profiles of leading political figures In-depth updates on campaigns and elections Analysis of policy and legislation Special sections on key industries and sectors CIT YAND

STATE NY.CO

M

@CIT YAND

STATE NY

Novem ber

13, 2017

visit cityandstateny.com/subscribenow and subscribe today! *Free subscriptions are offered to New York City and New York State government employees, staff of nonprofit organizations, and staff, faculty and students of academic institutions. $99 per year for all other subscribers.

ASSEMBLY

32

PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

April 8, 2019 For more info.

212-268-0442 Ext.2039

Email

legalnotices@cityandstateny.com 113 Mulberry Restaurant, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 1/14/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Koorosh Bakhtiar, 161 Mulberry Street, New York, NY 10013. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

940 Dumont Ave, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 02/01/2018. Office loc: Kings County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 940 Dumont Ave, LLC C/O Rosa, 153 Cooper Street MB#1, Brooklyn, NY 11207. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

ADLER PARTNERS, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/25/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 77 Park Avenue, #2D, NY, NY 10016. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

One Dragon LLC Arts of Org filed with NY Sec of State (SSNY) on 1/29/19.

Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 1270 Broadway, #709, NY, NY 10001. General Purposes.

Notice of Formation of HIDDEN GROVE DEVELOPER, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/22/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 60 Columbus Circle, NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Open6 LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/25/19. Office location: NY County.

Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: 420 E. 72nd St., Apt. 18A, NY, NY 10021, principal business address. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Notice of Formation of BTTD, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/06/19.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Julien Kabla, Prime Realty Luxury, 48 Wall St., 5th Fl., NY, NY 10043. Purpose: any lawful activities.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

LISA & EVELYN CO., L.L.C. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/14/18.

Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o Solomon Zabrowsky, Esq., 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1301, New York, NY 10107.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of Adaptive Payroll, LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/7/19.

Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 800 Hingham St., Ste. 2025-3, Rockland, MA 02370. LLC formed in DE on 12/12/18.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Cogency Global Inc., 10 E. 40th St., 10th Fl., NY, NY 10016.

DE addr. of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Qualification of MSGN ENTERPRISES, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/07/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/10/18. Princ. office of LLC: Two Pennsylvania Plaza, 19th Fl., NY, NY 10121-0091. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of DE, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of HIDDEN GROVE HOUSING CLASS B, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/22/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 60 Columbus Circle, NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of HUDSON POOL LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/26/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: c/o The Hudson Companies Inc., 826 Broadway, NY, NY 10003. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of VWNG Holdings, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/31/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: the Company, c/o Steven S Pretsfelder, Van Wagner Group, LLC, 800 Third Ave., NY, NY 10022. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of OpenDeal Portal LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/22/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/16/18. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 335 Madison Ave., 16th Fl., NY, NY 10017. Address to be maintained in DE: c/o TRAC - The Registered Agent Company, 800 N. State St., Ste 402, Dover, DE 19901. Arts of Org. filed with the Secy. of State, 401 Federal St. Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

GOTHAM FIX , LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 12/10/2018. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: 2155 center ave apt 2 Fort Lee, NJ 07024.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Formation of DL AND AP PHYSICAL THERAPY AND CHIROPRACTIC, PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/15/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of PLLC: 113 W. 78th St., Ste. 1, NY, NY 10024. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the PLLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Physical therapy and chiropractic.

A.D. Advisory, LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect’y of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/22/19. Office: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o The LLC, 199 Main St., 5th Fl., White Plains, NY 10601.

Purpose: any lawful act.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Patois Republic, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 7/17/2018. Office loc: Westchester County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Shirley Semper, 78 Dora St, APT 2A. Stamford, New York.

00902. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

MiniaturizedLAB, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 4/18/2018. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 157 E 86th ST., STE 517, New York, NY 10028. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

33

PARTY REQUIRED, LLC, filed with SSNY 2/24/2019. Office located in Westchester Co. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to: PARTY REQUIRED, LLC. 941 Mclean Ave, #507, Yonkers, NY 10704. Purpose: any lawful business activity.

Notice of Qualification of TWO SIGMA MERCURY FUND, LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/27/19. Office location: NY County.

LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/20/19. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Two Sigma Principals, LLC, 100 Ave. of the Americas, 16th Fl., NY, NY 10013. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

T.I.P.P INVESTIGATIONS, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 08/23/2018. Office loc: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn KELVIN GOODWIN, M.D., 99 WAL STREET SUITE 215, NEW YORK, NY 10005. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Formation of 131 Apawamis LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/15/19. Office location: NY County.

Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: 1165 Fifth Ave., Apt. 15A, NY, NY 10029, principal business address. Purpose: any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

34

CityAndStateNY.com / PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES

NOTICE OF FORMATION of limited liability company (LLC). Name: Vetinsure Insurance Services, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/16/2019. Office location: Westchester County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to: THE LLC 2410 Hog Mountain Road Watkinsville, GA 30677. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF QUAL. of Sugar Hill Property Offshore Fund V 2019 Holdings, LLC. Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 2/15/19. Off. Loc: NY Co. LLC org. in DE 2/11/19.

SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom proc. against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to 28 Liberty, New York, NY 10005. DE off.

Addr.: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904.

Cert of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activity

Notice of Qualification of 200 East 87th Street Company, LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/28/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 2/20/19.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: 1290 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10104, principal business address. DE address of LLC: 850 New Burton Rd., Ste. 201, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Notice of Formation of Social Aces, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/15/19.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: Dor Mizrahi, 100 West 26th St., Apt. 10F, NY, NY 10001. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of TWO SIGMA MERCURY MASTER FUND, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/27/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/20/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 100 Ave. of the Americas, 16th Fl., NY, NY 10013. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of Principium TMW LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/12/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/17/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o C T Corporation System, 28 Liberty St., NY, NY 10005, also the registered agent upon whom process may be served. Address to be maintained in DE: c/o The Corporation Trust Company, 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Arts of Org. filed with the Secy. of State, 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION of Monique Morin Design, LLC. Authority filed with SSNY on 12/20/18. Office loc: NY County. LLC formed in OH on 4/17/15. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and mailed to: 1675 York Ave, 7J, NY, NY 10128. Cert. of LLC filed with SSOH loc: 180 E. Broad St, Columbus, OH 43215. Purpose: Any Lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of The NikEra Company, LLC. Art. Of Org. filed with SSNY on 03/04/3019. Office Location: Westchester County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: The NikEra Company, LLC Attn: Nickesha Bailey, PO Box 994, Ossining, NY 10562. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

April 8, 2019

Notice of Formation of ANTHELLO, LLC filed with SSNY on 2/4/19.

Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 160 E91st St Apt 5F NY NY 10128.

Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of BWC Consulting, LLC filed with SSNY on 1/10/2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: United States Corporation Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Avenue Suite 202 Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of Just Go, LLC filed with SSNY on January 24, 2019. Office: NY County.

SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 255 W 94th St, #16B, NY, NY 10025. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of KARTOS PREFERRED A FUND, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/01/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/31/18. Princ. office of LLC: 119 W. 72nd St., Ste. #299, NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Hedy Hopping, LLC filed with SSNY on February 26, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 125 East 4th Street, #3, NY, NY 10003.

Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of AOP DOWNTOWN LLC Arts. of Org. filed w i t h Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/08/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 56 Leonard St., Unit P-54, NY, NY 10013. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

EnTech & Liriano Engineers PLLC Arts. of Org. filed w/ SSNY 1/29/19.

Off. in NY Co. SSNY desig. as agt. of PLLC whom process may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to the PLLC, 17 State St, 36th Fl, NY, NY 10004.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

214G LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/15/19. Office: Kings County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o Garvey Schubert Barer, 100 Wall Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10005, ATTN: Alan A. Heller.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

RMSF, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 03/18/19.

Office loc: Westchester County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Sam Foreste., 24216 Floral Park, NY 11001 Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

NOTICE OF QUAL. of 269 West 7C LLC. Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 2/21/19. Off. Loc: NY Co. LLC org. in DE 6/5/18.

SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom proc. against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to NRAI, 28 Liberty St., New York, NY 10005, the Reg. Agt upon whom proc. may be served. DE off. Addr.: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904. Cert of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

CLEVENGER PROPERTIES, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/14/2018. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Keith Bloomfield, Forbes Family Trust, 767 5th Ave., 6 FL, NY, NY 10153. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Formation of RANDYE F. BERNFELD LLC filed with SSNY on March 15, 2019. Office: Bronx County.

SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail a copy of process to LLC: 3671 Hudson Manor Terrace, 14J, Bronx, NY 10463.

Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of ACREFI HOLDINGS DB MEMBER, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/12/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/16/16. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Apollo Global Management, LLC, 9 W. 57th St., 43rd Fl., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Entity is the seller SPV for a master repurchase facility.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM 2001 Story Tower A LLC. Authority filed SSNY 03/08/19. Office: NY Co. LLC formed DE 03/08/19. Exists in DE: c/o National Registered Agents, Inc., 160 Greentree Dr. Ste. 101, Dover, DE 19904. SSNY designated agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served & mail to 1 State St., 32nd Fl., NY, NY 10004. Cert of Formation Filed: SOS, Corporation Dept., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

General Purpose.

Eunique LLC. Filed w/ SSNY on 3/4/19. Office: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent for process & shall mail to: c/o Peter S. Jeon, Esq., 16 W 32nd St, #305, NY, NY 10001. Purpose: any lawful.

Beats By Danny LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/01/2019. Office: Westchester County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of T2 Capital LLC filed with SSNY on March 11, 2019. Office: Westchester County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 24 Heathcote Road, Scarsdale NY 10583. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of CRAIG DRILL CAPITAL VC II, LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/13/19. Office location: NY County.

LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/08/19. Princ. office of LP: Attn: Jason Martin, 724 Fifth Ave., 9th Fl., NY, NY 10019. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to c/o Craig Drill VC II, LLC at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., Federal & Duke of York Sts., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

Notice of Qualification of 241E 73st LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/08/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/26/18. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Joseph M. Taube, Taube Management Realty, LLC, 750 Third Ave., 9th Fl., NY, NY 10017. Address to be maintained in DE: Corporation Service Company, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secy. of State, Division of Corporations, John G. Townsend Bldg, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Carlo Vernia, LLC, filed with SSNY 03/20/2019.

Office loc: 93Donald Dr., New Rochelle NY 10804 Westchester County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Hiedi Vernia, 700 S. Columbus Ave, 2nd Fl., Mt. Vernon NY 10550 Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Qualification of SEPTUAGINT SOLUTIONS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/13/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/14/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to c/o Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, Attn: Shawn Bannister, 180 Maiden Ln., 35th Fl., NY, NY 10038. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

MBL MET LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 3/15/2019. Off. Loc.: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, c/o New Aim Realty, PO Box 933, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632.

Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

185NYC, LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 2/27/2019. Off. Loc.: New York Co. Tarik Laaziz designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, 177 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10013. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Formation of Frost Creative, LLC filed with SSNY on March 7, 2019. Office: NY County.

SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 352 East 89th Street Apt 1D New York, NY 10128.

Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

One Woman Destined for Success, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 12/17/2018. Office loc: Kings County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Natasha Davis, 200 East 51st Street, Brooklyn, NY 11203. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Formation of Nassau48, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/20/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 399 Knollwood Rd., Ste. 216, White Plains, NY 10603.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Formation of MERMAN USA, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/18/18. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Kira Carstensen, 6300 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 1460, Los Angeles, CA 90048.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice is hereby given that a license, serial number is pending, for beer, wine, and liquor has been applied for by Homestyle Caterers & Food Services, LLC dba Homestyle Grill at Sprain to sell beer, wine, and liquor at retail at a Tavern under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 290 Grassy Sprain Road, Yonkers, New York 10710 in Westchester County for on-premise consumption.

Homestyle Caterers & Food Services, LLC dba Homestyle Grill at Sprain NOTICE OF FORMATION of NYCHA Hope Gardens LLC. Art. of Org. filed with NY Secy. of State (SSNY) on 2/27/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to c/o NY City Housing Authority, Gen. Counsel, Law Dept., 250 Broadway, 9th Fl, NY, NY 10007. Purpose: All lawful purposes.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF PWH Advisors LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) 05/18/2018.

Office loc: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC to princ bus addr: 1740 Broadway, FL 15, NY, NY 10019. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

FEARLESS GROWTH, LLC, filed with SSNY 02/08/2019. Office loc: Westchester County.

LegalZoom.com, Inc. has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Nelo Phiri, 100 Touissant ave, Yonkers, NY 10710. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

AKAMAI ATHLETICS LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/28/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Sara Bryant-Gardiner, 205 E 22nd St. Apt 3B, NY, NY 10010. Reg Agent: Sara Bryant-Gardiner, 205 E 22nd St. Apt 3B, NY, NY 10010. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF OH-SO EQUAL, LLC. filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/02/2019. Office location: Westchester. SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against LLC SSNY shall mailed process to OH-SO EQUAL to: 11 High Meadows Rd, Mount Kisco, NY. 10549 Purpose: Any lawful acts.

Notice of Qualification of RGN-WHITE PLAINS II, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/14/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

35

NOTICE OF NAMES OF PERSONS APPEARING AS OWNERS OF CERTAIN UNCLAIMED PROPERTY HELD BY AMERICAN COUNTRY INSURANCE COMPANY The persons whose names and last known addresses are set forth below appear from the records of the above named company to be entitled to abandoned property in amounts of fifty dollars or more: ERIE ROBERT L STAPLES P.O. BOX 146 BUFFALO NY 14209 OSWEGO RIVERSIDE TRANSPORTATION 111 EAST 9TH APT B OSWEGONY 13126 QUEENS MOHAMMED F RAHMAN 35-47 64ST 3A WOODSIDE NY11377 WESTCHESTER KAMIL HADDAD 171 BENNETT AVE 1 YONKERS NY 10701 EDGAR LOPEZ 271 CRESCENT PLANCE 4G YONKERS NY 10704

A REPORT OF UNCLAIMED PROPERTY HAS BEEN MADE TO THOMAS P. DINAPOLI, THE COMPTROLLER OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, PURSUANT TO SECTION 701 AND/ OR SECTION 1316 OF THE ABANDONED PROPERTY LAW. A LIST OF THE NAMES OF THE PERSONS APPEARING FROM THE RECORDS OF THE SAID INSURANCE COMPANY TO BE ENTITLED THERETO IS ON FILE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC INSPECTION AT THE PRINCIPAL OFFICE OF THE CORPORATION LOCATED AT 953 AMERICAN LANE 3RD FL - SCHAUMBURG IL 60173 WHERE SUCH ABANDONED PROPERTY IS PAYABLE. SUCH ABANDONED PROPERTY WILL BE PAID ON OR BEFORE AUGUST 31ST NEXT TO PERSONS ESTABLISHING TO OUR SATISFACTION THEIR RIGHT TO RECEIVE THE SAME.ON OR BEFORE THE SUCCEEDING SEPTEMBER 10TH, SUCH UNCLAIMED FUNDS STILL REMAINING UNCLAIMED WILL BE PAID TO THOMAS P. DINAPOLI, THE COMPTROLLER OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. UPON SUCH PAYMENT THIS COMPANY SHALL NO LONGER BE LIABLE FOR THE PROPERTY. AMERICAN COUNTRY INSURANCE COMPANY

133 WEST 118 ST LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/11/19. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, P.O. Box 4277, College Point, NY 11356.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

210 WEST 137 ST. LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/11/19. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, P.O. Box 4277, College Point, NY 11356.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice is hereby given that a license, serial number 1316777 for On-Premises Liquor License has been applied for by Kumo Sushi Lounge II, Inc. to sell beer, liquor and/or wine at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 777 White Plains Road, Store No. 8, Scarsdale, NY 10583, Westchester County for on premises consumption.

Kumo Sushi Lounge II, Inc.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

36

CityAndStateNY.com / PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES

Notice is hereby given that a license, number 1317058 for on-premises Liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell liquor at retail in a Restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 26 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 for on premises consumption.

TONYKK LLC D/B/A HUMAN RESOURCES NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1317040 FOR LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR

BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 277 GRAHAM AVE BROOKLYN, NY 11211. KINGS COUNTY, FOR ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION. OREPHANS INC. EARTHYSOUL LLC. filed with SSNY 2/19/19.

Office: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served.Mail copy of process to LLC: Attn: Mustafa Kolukisa, 1755 East 13th Street, Apt. F5, Brooklyn, NY 11229 Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

App. for Auth. (LLC) A Team Services LLC d/b/a Team Six Services LLC. App. for Auth. filed w/ the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/25/19.

LLC formed in DE on 3/6/19. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Jordan M. Pantzer, 998 5th Ave., NY, NY 10028, registered agent upon whom process may be served. Purpose: All lawful purposes.

Uniquely Made LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/22/19.

Office: Westchester County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 24 Jackson Street 1st Floor, New Rochelle, NY 10801.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

April 8, 2019

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF KINGS U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR RESIDENTIAL ASSET MORTGAGE PRODUCTS, INC., MORTGAGE ASSET-BACKED PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIS 2006-NC3, V. NICHOLAS CALABRESE A/K/A NICHOLAS A. CALABRESE, ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated March 6, 2019, and entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Kings, wherein U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR RESIDENTIAL ASSET MORTGAGE PRODUCTS, INC., MORTGAGE ASSET-BACKED PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIS 2006-NC3 is the Plaintiff and NICHOLAS CALABRESE A/K/A NICHOLAS A. CALABRESE, ET AL. are the Defendants. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the KINGS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 360 ADAMS STREET ROOM 224, BROOKLYN, NY 11201, on May 9, 2019 at 2:30 PM, premises known as 2176 EAST 36TH STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11234: Block 8535, Lot 2: ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN, COUNTY OF KINGS, CITY AND STATE OF NEW YORK Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 519461/2016. Steven Naiman, Esq. - Referee. RAS Boriskin, LLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

Notice of Formation of GEEK COM LLC filed with SSNY on 01/24/2019.

Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 7014 13th Ave, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

EBBERLY LLC Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 02/04/2019. Office loc: Kings County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: EBBERLY LLC, Attn: E. Strathairn, 345 President St #2, Brooklyn NY. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Qualification of PINE HILL GROUP, L.L.C. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/26/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in New Jersey (NJ) on 03/04/08.

NYS fictitious name: PINE HILL GROUP NY LLC. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543, regd. agent upon whom and at which process may be served. NJ addr. of LLC: Flaster Greenberg PC, 1810 Chapel Ave. West, 3rd Fl., Cherry Hill, NJ 08002. Cert. of Form. filed with State Treasurer, PO Box 300, Trenton, NJ 08625. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

PUBLIC NOTICE Cellco Partnership a n d its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes the existing location modification at two locations.

Antennas will be installed at a top height of 117 feet on a building with an overall height of 126 feet at the approx. vicinity of 225 West 80th Street, New York, New York County, NY 10024. Antennas will be installed at top heights of 89 and 91 feet on a building with an overall height of 95 feet at the approx. vicinity of 41-47 East 21st Street, New York, New York County, NY 10010. Public comments regarding potential effects from these sites on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Elsie, e.boone@ trileaf.com, 8600 LaSalle Rd, Suite 301, Towson, MD, 21286, 410-853-7128.

PUBLIC NOTICE Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes to collocate wireless communications antennas at three locations. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 78 feet on a building with an overall height of 81 feet at the approx. vicinity of 309 East Mosholu Parkway North, Bronx, Bronx County, NY 10467. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 76 feet on a building with an overall height of 81 feet at the approx. vicinity of 596 Edgecombe Avenue, New York, New York County, NY 10032.

Antennas will be installed at a top height of 73 feet on a building with an overall height of 74 feet at the approx. vicinity of 212 St Nicholas Avenue, New York, New York County, NY 10027. Public comments regarding potential effects from these sites on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Madison, m.warfield@trileaf.com, 8600 LaSalle Rd, Suite 301, Towson, MD, 21286, 410-853-7128.

Notice of Qualification of INFINIA ADVISORY SERVICES, LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/29/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/07/18. Princ. office of LLC: 135 Madison Ave., Fl. 8, NY, NY 10016.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Ronald J. Cappello at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

PUBLIC NOTICE New York City Dept. of Consumer Affairs Notice of Public Hearing Notice is hereby given, pursuant to law, that the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs will hold a public hearing on WEDNESDAY, MAY 01, AT 2019 2 P.M. at 42 Broadway, 5th floor, on a petition for DAIMYO GROUP LLC to NEW MAINTAIN, AND OPERATE an unenclosed sidewalk cafe at 207 AVE IN THE BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN FOR A TERM OF TWO YEARS. REQUEST FOR COPIES OF THE REVOCABLE CONSENT AGREEMENT MAY BE ADDRESSED TO: DEPT. OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004 ATTN: FOIL OFFICER NOTICE OF FORMATION of TEMPLE FORTUNES PRODUCTIONS LLC. Arts. of Org.: filed with the Secy. of State of NY on 03/05/19. Office Location: New York County. United States Corporation Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202 Brooklyn, NY 11228, has been designated as the agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Ng Medical Brooklyn, PLLC, Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/19/19. Office Location: Kings County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The PLLC 943 60th St, #C1, Brooklyn, NY 11219. Purpose: to engage in the profession of Medicine.

PUBLIC NOTICE New York City Dept. of Consumer Affairs Notice of Public Hearing Notice is hereby given, pursuant to law, that the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs will hold a public hearing on WEDNESDAY, MAY 01, AT 2019 2 P.M. at 42 Broadway, 5th floor, on a petition for BARREL 1005 CORP to NEW MAINTAIN, AND OPERATE an unenclosed sidewalk cafe at 924 2ND AVE IN THE BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN FOR A TERM OF TWO YEARS. REQUEST FOR COPIES OF THE REVOCABLE CONSENT AGREEMENT MAY BE ADDRESSED TO: DEPT. OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004 ATTN: FOIL OFFICER Notice of Qualification of Ikor Systems LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 2/26/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC organized in SC on 5/18/17. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Attn: James Burns, 1320 Main St., 17th Fl., Columbia, SC 29201. SC address of LLC: 1419 Pendleton St., Columbia, SC 29201. Art. of Org. filed with SC Sec. of State, 1205 Pendleton St., Ste. 525, Columbia, SC 29201. Purpose: all lawful purposes

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

PUBLIC NOTICE New York City Dept. of Consumer Affairs Notice of Public Hearing Notice is hereby given, pursuant to law, that the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs will hold a public hearing on WEDNESDAY, MAY 01, AT 2019 2 P.M. at 42 Broadway, 5th floor, on a petition for GYRO KING FOODS CORP. to NEW MAINTAIN, AND OPERATE an unenclosed sidewalk cafe at 50 E FORDHAM RD IN THE BOROUGH OF BRONX FOR A TERM OF TWO YEARS. REQUEST FOR COPIES OF THE REVOCABLE CONSENT AGREEMENT MAY BE ADDRESSED TO:

37

Notice of Qualification of GREYSTONE CITY ISLAND UNIT OWNER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/28/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/26/19. Princ. office of LLC: 152 W. 57th St., 60th Fl., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

DEPT. OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10004 ATTN: FOIL OFFICER PUBLIC NOTICE Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes to collocate wireless communications antennas at three locations. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 80 feet on a building with an overall height of 81 feet at the approx. vicinity of 355 E 4th Street, New York, New York County, NY 10009. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 64 feet on a building with an overall height of 73 feet at the approx. vicinity of 430 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, New York County, NY 10024.

Antennas will be installed at a top height of 82 feet on a building with an overall height of 95 feet at the approx. vicinity of 302 West 91st Street, New York, New York County, NY 10024. Public comments regarding potential effects from these sites on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Madison, m.warfield@trileaf.com, 8600 LaSalle Rd, Suite 301, Towson, MD, 21286, 410-853-7128.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

UNCLAIMED FUNDS! Insurance companies We can publish unclaimed funds for you quickly, easily and efficiently.

WANT MORE INFO? EMAIL: LEGALNOTICES@CITYANDSTATENY.COM

38

CityAndStateNY.com

April 8, 2019

CITY & STATE NEW YORK MANAGEMENT & PUBLISHING CEO Steve Farbman, President & Publisher Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com, Comptroller David Pirozzi, Business & Operations Manager Patrea Patterson, Administrative Assistant Lauren Mauro

Who was up and who was down last week

LOSERS ANDREW CUOMO Third-term blues? Fuggedaboutit!

The governor just showed he’s no lame duck, capitalizing on the blue wave – and his ever-increasing powers – to get almost everything he wanted in a final budget deal.

Lawmakers respected his red lines by including the property tax cap, congestion pricing, criminal justice reforms and (sort of ) a proposal for publicly financed political campaigns. And another on-time budget lets Cuomo say he’s the kind of leader who gets things done.

OUR PICK

OUR PICK

WINNERS

Members of the state Legislature had many reasons to pass a budget in time – but only one of them directly hit their own bottom line. By passing a $175.5 billion spending plan in a “timely” manner, lawmakers get a $10,000 pay raise added to what had been an $110,000 annual salary. Nobody has yet announced plans to take the kiddies to Disneyland, but we do have word of who were the Winners & Losers in the state budget deal.

EDITORIAL editor@cityandstateny.com Editor-in-Chief Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com, Managing Editor Ryan Somers, Senior Editor Ben Adler badler@cityandstateny.com, Special Projects Editor Alice Popovici, Copy Editor Eric Holmberg, Staff Reporter Jeff Coltin jcoltin@cityandstateny.com, Staff Reporter Zach Williams zwilliams@cityandstateny.com, Staff Reporter Rebecca C. Lewis rlewis@cityandstateny.com, Tech & Policy Reporter Annie McDonough amcdonough@ cityandstateny.com CREATIVE Art Director Andrew Horton, Senior Graphic Designer Alex Law, Graphic Designer Aaron Aniton DIGITAL Digital Director Derek Evers devers@cityandstateny.com, Digital Content Coordinator Michael Filippi, Social Media Editor/Content Producer Amanda Luz Henning Santiago

CARL HEASTIE To be clear, the Assembly speaker did get plenty of what he wanted in the state budget. But the closer everyone got to a deal, the more Heastie appeared to be ceding ground, from recreational marijuana to congestion pricing to the permanent property tax cap to the public financing of election campaigns. Now the pressure will be on to get a favorable deal on marijuana post-budget – and to deliver stronger protections for tenants before the state’s rent regulations expire.

ADVERTISING Vice President of Advertising Jim Katocin jkatocin@ cityandstateny.com, Account/Business Development Executive Scott Augustine saugustine@cityandstateny.com, Event Sponsorship Strategist Danielle Koza dkoza@ cityandstateny.com, Sales Associate Cydney McQuillanGrace cydney@cityandstateny.com, Junior Sales Executive Caitlin Dorman, Junior Sales Executive Shakirah Gittens, Junior Sales Associate Chris Hogan EVENTS events@cityandstateny.com Sales Director Lissa Blake, Events Manager Alexis Arsenault, Director of Events Research & Development Bryan Terry, Marketing Coordinator Meg McCabe, Event Coordinator Amanda Cortez

Vol. 8 Issue 13 April 8, 2019 CUOMO & DE BLASIO: LEADING ON LABOR?

CAN OTHER UPSTATE CITIES REPLICATE THE SUCCESS OF

THE REST OF THE WORST

JAMAAL BAILEY

KEVIN BARWELL

His NBA career was an April Fools’ joke.

His criminal justice reforms were serious.

ANDY BYFORD

The MTA honcho’s subway turnaround is on track after congestion pricing passed.

TODD KAMINSKY

With a tax cap and plastic bag ban, it was a good budget for Strong Island’s dean.

ANDREA STEWART-COUSINS

Unlike the last time Dems had power, the one woman in the room held it together to pass an (almost) on-time state budget.

This budget was hell on wheels for the top limo lobbyist after Albany cracked down due to last year’s crash that killed 20.

BRAD HOYLMAN

The senator got his foot in the door, but couldn’t pass a pied-à-terre tax.

BAND-AID? CONGESTION PRICINGʼS UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

April 8, 2019

Cover illustration Andrew Horton

ROBERT JACKSON

Mr. CFE himself is finally a senator, but failed his first school funding class.

DAVID SOARES

The budget was a trial for the state’s top DA, who couldn’t stop an oversight bill.

WINNERS & LOSERS is published every Friday morning in City & State’s First Read email.

Sign up for the email, cast your vote and see who won at cityandstateny.com.

CITY & STATE NEW YORK (ISSN 2474-4107) is published weekly, 48 times a year except for the four weeks containing New Year’s Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving and Christmas by City & State NY, LLC, 61 Broadway, Suite 1315, New York, NY 10006-2763. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to City & State New York, 61 Broadway, Suite 1315, New York, NY 10006-2763.

General: (212) 268-0442, subscribe@cityandstateny.com Copyright ©2019, City & State NY, LLC

DON POLLARD/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR; MIKE GROLL

THE BEST OF THE REST

BUFFALO’S

An advocacy campaign including City & State First Read provides a targeted way to reach decision makers in New York government and politics.

Campaigns Include:

ADVOCACY MESSAGING OPEN-HOUSE PROMOTIONS NEW HIRE ANNOUNCEMENTS Contact us at advertising@cityandstateny.com for advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

BARUCH COLLEGE • APRIL 24, 2019 City & State’s Healthy New York Summit will inform health care decision makers and policy experts on the most critical issues and priorities in New York health care. The full-day event brings insights and perspectives from all sectors of New York’s health care decision-making together to identify challenges and discuss solutions to improve our system. Join us for an extensive overview of New York’s 2019 health policy agenda and better understanding on the health care issues.

PANEL TOPICS •

Making Health Coverage Available and Affordable to All New Yorkers

•

Innovative Health Programs and Services in New York

•

Moving Toward Health Equity in NY

•

The Next Steps for Mental Health Care and Vulnerable Populations in New York

FE ATURED SPE AKERS •

Mitchell Katz, President and CEO, New York City Health + Hospitals

•

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, Chairman, Health Committee

•

Gale A. Brewer, Manhattan Borough President

•

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, Chairman, Health Committee

•

NYC Councilman Mark Levine, Chairman, Committee on Health

RSVP at CityAndStateNY.com/Events For more information on programming and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Lissa Blake at lblake@cityandstateny.com

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS