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HOW FAR WILL NEW TENANT PROTECTIONS GO?

THE TRUE NEW YORKER RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT RUBÉN DÍAZ SR.’S PATH TO CONGRESS CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

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June 3, 2019

BIG TOBACCO TARGETS US WITH MENTHOL

MENTHOL CIGARETTES ARE MORE ADDICTIVE AND HARDER TO QUIT. STOP TARGETING OUR COMMUNITY.

June 3, 2019

EDITOR’S NOTE

JON LENTZ Editor-in-chief

City & State New York

THE REAL ESTATE ISSUE

THE WAR OVER RENT REGULATIONS has long been waged between Democrats and Republicans. The state’s last Republican governor, George Pataki, threatened to eliminate tenant protections entirely. State Senate Republicans, who hail mostly from upstate but enjoyed the backing of New York City’s real estate titans, scaled back rent regulations while they were in control. Now that Democrats have seized all the levers of power in Albany, lawmakers this month are poised to not only renew but strengthen protections for downstate tenants. The divide isn’t strictly partisan, however. There have always been Democratic lawmakers that work well with Big Real Estate, from former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to former state Senate Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein. Before the “blue wave” crushed their Senate Republican allies last year, the influential Real Estate Board of New York spread its money around to Democratic state senators. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is the biggest beneficiary of the industry’s largesse. And while the governor and Democratic lawmakers agree on some major legislative proposals – like ending vacancy decontrol – intraparty disagreements remain about how far to go in favor of tenants. This week, City & State takes a closer look at this year’s rent regulation fight by digging into the policy debate, reviewing the proposals on the table and assessing which ones might actually pass.

CONTENTS

BERNIE SANDERS … 6 The real New Yorker running for president RUBÉN DÍAZ SR. … 10

How the Bronx lawmaker could get elected to the House

RENT REGULATIONS … 14 YASAMIN JAFARI TEHRANI/SHUTTERSTOCK; CELESTE SLOMAN

Albany’s biggest end-of-session battle

WINNERS & LOSERS … 30

Who was up and who was down last week

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The

June 3, 2019

Latest

CUOMO 2022 MARIJUANA BILL AMENDED

After Cuomo won reelection by a comfortable margin last year, the three-term governor is already vying for his fourth term, announcing that he plans to run again in 2022. Cuomo, who has served as governor since 2011, would be the second governor to serve a fourth four-year term in New York if reelected. His father, the late Gov. Mario Cuomo, was upset in a run for a fourth term in 1994.

Recreational marijuana legalization fell out of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget in March, but state lawmakers are making a last-ditch effort to pass it before the end of the session. A revised legislative package from state Sen. Liz Krueger and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal PeoplesStokes would expunge prior low-level marijuana convictions, limit possession to three ounces and let the governor appoint someone to oversee the new regulations. Still, these amendments may not go far enough for skeptics.

The

Back & Forth

A Q&A with New York City Councilwoman-elect

Farah Louis The

Kicker

You’ve been working in the City Council as a staffer since 2013, and now you’ve been elected councilwoman. Is this going to be an easy transition? Today when I went to City Hall, I knew where everything was. I had a lengthy conversation with the speaker’s staff on what I’m planning to do next. The members all knew who I was. They congratulated me; they talked to me about some things that are coming up in their committees and how I can be helpful to them and how they could be helpful to me. Everyone greeted me peacefully, respectfully, and it was just great to be back home. I consider the City Council chambers and City Hall to be home, so it was great to be back. The Parks and Recreation Committee is currently without a chairperson. Would you be interested in taking that? What

committees do you want to join? As chair, no. But I would be interested in the committee, since I do have some parks in my district that need resources. Some of the committees that I’m interested in are housing, economic development, education, land use. Those committees I feel can be helpful in the issues that are happening in my district. Were you surprised to not get Jumaane Williams’ endorsement in the race? I was surprised, seeing that we did have a conversation about him staying out. But I’m fine that I didn’t get his support because the support came from the community. It came from the voters. It came from the folks that needed the support from me to ensure that I was providing the resources back to the community. So it was fine.

“I just think he gets stressed during these times.” – state Senate Majority Leader ANDREA STEWART-COUSINS, on Cuomo’s recent criticisms of the state Legislature, via Politico New York Get the kicker every morning in CITY & STATE’S FIRST READ email. Sign up at cityandstateny.com.

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DE BLASIO’S PAID VACATION New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio got a quasi-endorsement from feminist activist Gloria Steinem, who said the mayor is the only male candidate she would support for president. Steinem joined de Blasio and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams during a press conference in which the mayor endorsed legislation requiring private employers to provide paid vacation time.

June 3, 2019

City & State New York

PASTORAL POLITICIANS BY JEFF COLTIN

COURTESY OF THE OFFICES OF MICHAEL BLAKE AND FERNANDO CABRERA; ASSEMBLY

SOME ELECTED OFFICIALS ALSO SERVE ANOTHER FLOCK.

ALBANY IS CONSIDERING eliminating the religious exemption to vaccinating children. New York City Council members are asking the mayor to devote more funding to providing security for houses of worship. And every Democratic presidential contender is stopping in Harlem to visit with the Rev. Al Sharpton. These are interesting times for religion and politics in New York, particularly so for the politicians in the state who are also religious leaders with their own congregations. “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” the noted rabbi and political leader Jesus Christ once said – but these elected officials are on the receiving end of both.

RUBÉN DÍAZ SR.

The socially conservative Bronx city councilman and former state senator has been the pastor of the Christian Community Neighborhood Church and its roughly 100 congregants since 1976. “I cannot separate myself from myself,” he told City & State. “I am the church, and I am the state.”

MICHAEL BLAKE

The Bronx assemblyman was certified as a lay minister as a teenager in 1995 for the United Methodist Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Blake doesn’t have his own congregation, but he can minister, preach, and officiate weddings and funerals. His office told City & State his religion “drives his values” but that he “wouldn’t impose his religion on others in political work.”

FERNANDO CABRERA

This Bronx city councilman founded New Life Outreach International Church in his borough in 1988 and preaches to its 500 worshippers with his wife and co-pastor Elvia. Cabrera’s office told City & State his jobs are “two separate platforms to bring change and transformation to our community.”

AL TAYLOR

The Manhattan assemblyman has been the pastor at Infinity Mennonite Church in Harlem since 2009. He has about 100 congregants, and in 2016 he completed a 780-mile prayer walk from New York to Chicago. Taylor told City & State that his political and religious lives inform one another: “My faith helps me lead compassionately and fight for what I believe is right, while my role as a public servant helps me carry out my calling.”

CityAndStateNY.com

June 3, 2019

COMMENTARY

Forget Gillibrand and de Blasio. Bernie is the true NY candidate for president. by B E N A D L E R

N A DEVELOPMENT no one could have foreseen even just a few years ago, both national parties and their presidential fields have been New Yorkified. The Republican president is the personification of belligerent New York conservatism, having recast the GOP in that mold. The party that once dismissed the Empire State as foreign territory is now thoroughly dominated by its denizens. While President Donald Trump is anathema to many New Yorkers, on the other side of the aisle, in a sort of mirror image, one of the front-runners is an equally classic – and much more representative – New York archetype: the junior senator from Vermont. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is the personal and ideological epitome of the most New York kind of New Yorker, an identity that previously was absent from the ranks of serious presidential contenders. Sure, New York state has produced other prominent presidential candidates, including WASP patricians John Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller, and law and order Republicans Thomas Dewey and Rudy Giuliani. But none of these politicians typified the average New Yorker: the middle-class, outer-borough, bleeding-heart, big-city liberal. Hillary Clinton was a U.S. senator from New York, but she was really from Illinois and she talked and acted like it as she laid out her carefully calibrated talking points in a flat Midwestern accent. With her quietly pious Methodism, the former “Goldwater girl” and first lady of Arkansas remained culturally Middle American. Chappaqua, the wealthy Westchester County town where she lives, has more in common with the leafy northern suburbs of Chicago where she grew up than it does with the working-class polyglot crazy quilt that produced Sanders. Despite having left New York during college, and having made his political career in a rural New England state, Sanders is proof of the maxim that you can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can’t take Brooklyn out of the boy.

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June 3, 2019

City & State New York

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Priming the Pump. It’s Worked for New York By Jeffrey Citron A recent article in Crain’s New York Business, “Rough Patch for City Agency” (5/27/2019) addresses some of the complexities and costs for businesses hoping to establish and maintain a presence in the Big Apple. Despite New York’s many attractions, there are significant additional costs of doing business here relative to capital expenditures and operating costs incurred elsewhere. Thus, the attitude of some that businesses relocating to or expanding in New York do not require economic incentives is simply untrue. Real estate tax relief and similar programs are critical to helping New York companies remain competitive. In addition, having represented a long line of corporate clients wanting to establish roots here, many find our regulatory process maddening. They are used to moving at the speed of business, not governmental bureaucracy. Agencies like the City’s Economic Development Corporation, Empire State Development or the U.S. Small Business Administration were put in place to attract and retain companies of all sizes. They do some very good work. But they must do more. Earlier this year, the City and State’s plan to add tens-of-thousands of jobs was dealt a setback when Amazon decided that the opposition it faced was simply part of a political process it was not willing to challenge. Crain’s suggestion that this, in turn, will make others “gun shy” is unfortunate but probably true. In order to forestall any such trend, we must never forget that it was proactive economic strategies that brought us the Cornell-Tech Campus, the redevelopment of the West Side Rail Yards, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the emergence of the Meatpacking District and so much more that has helped to keep New York a modern, evolving economic powerhouse. Jeffrey Citron is Managing Partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron and an economic development specialist. He can be reached at CIT@DHCLegal.com

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June 3, 2019

For many New Yorkers, hearing Sanders speak in his broad, blue-collar New York accent brings forth a gush of reassuring familiarity. He’s like your grandpa, the unionized garment worker who used to lecture you about social justice over bagels and lox. If you stood next to Sanders on the subway or in an elevator in a Lower East Side co-op, you’d probably assume he’s just another retired social worker on his way to Russ & Daughters. He even participated in the March on Washington and lived on a kibbutz in Israel. That he went back to the land in Vermont is hardly discrediting: New York lefties have always moved to the Catskills or other rural hippie enclaves. It’s easy to imagine Sanders making a different choice in his 20s and winding up as a public school teacher ranting at a community board meeting about the new luxury housing development that doesn’t contain enough affordable apartments. He may no longer be a New Yorker, but he’s forever a Noo Yawkuh. Sanders’ New York political persona has two main components: biographical and intellectual. Personally, Sanders has the New York pedigree that so many New York elected officials lack: He’s a product of New York City public schools and he grew up on Kings Highway, deep in the heart of unpretentious, middle-class Brooklyn. His communication style bears the hallmarks of that provenance. He talks excitedly, largely with his hands, and without inhibition. The Democrats from New York who are running for president are nothing like this. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is the epitome of a kind of New Yorker, but a decidedly less authentic one: the bland interloper, who just as easily could have moved to Portland, Oregon. A child of suburban Massachusetts and a Boston Red Sox fan, de Blasio came to New York for college. Although his progressive message and multiracial family have endeared him to many black and Latino New Yorkers, the backbone of his coalition, like the constituency he represented on the City Council, was hipster gentrifiers and brownstone-inhabiting yuppies. He’s just the more liberal counterpart to fellow stiff Bay Stater Michael Bloomberg. U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, meanwhile, is undoubtedly an authentic product of upstate New York. But culturally, economically and politically, upstate has more in common with the rest of the Rust Belt than it does with the heart of New York City. The other Democratic candidates for president in the past half century have been placid Midwesterners, including Barack Obama, George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey; amiable Southerners like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore; and

the occasional reserved Bostonian like John Kerry. Their Republican counterparts, such as the Bushes, were even more culturally alien to New Yorkers. In the rest of the country, white people have no discernible ethnicity – but they have an abundance of religion. By contrast, like many New Yorkers, Sanders is apparently nonpracticing. And yet his affect is more Jewish than Joe Lieberman’s. The late father of one my friends used to say, when asked if he was Jewish, “I never go to temple, but I do go to Katz’s.” Many an Irish and Italian New Yorker, who hasn’t been to church in years but eats Sunday gravy with her nonna or marches on St. Patrick’s Day, can relate to that. The Clintons cannot. Sanders makes a native New Yorker look at the presidential debate stage and feel represented. New Yorkers who thought people like us would be seen as too foreign by Iowans were shocked when Sanders essentially tied Clinton in the 2016 Iowa caucuses. Suddenly, it was possible to imagine that one of our own might actually some day inhabit the White House. For many New Yorkers, that representation is about policy and philosophy, as much as personality. Sanders is part of a tradition of left-wing New Yorkers from historically marginalized groups: Jews like Bella Abzug and Emanuel Celler; African Americans like Shirley Chisholm and Charlie Rangel; and Italian Americans like Fiorello La Guardia and Mario Cuomo. Sanders isn’t the first of these loud and proud progressives to run for president – Abzug and Chisholm tried – but he’s the first to gain significant traction and threaten to actually win the Democratic nomination. Sanders comes from a world of unapologetic, immoderate progressivism that found its largest foothold in New York and had previously been thought erased from the national political scene, vanquished by the “Reagan Revolution” and the neoliberal New Democrats’ takeover of the party, led by Bill Clinton in 1992. It’s not a coincidence that the first self-described socialist to mount a serious presidential campaign grew up in the state with one of the highest union densities in the country. This is the universe of publications like The Forward, organizations like the Workmen’s Circle, labor leaders like Sidney Hillman and unions like Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. If Trump is a throwback to the white suburban reactionary New Yorker of the 1970s, then Sanders is his mirror image: the rumpled intellectual protesting with Woody Guthrie outside “Old Man Trump’s” segregated apartment buildings. If Sanders were the Democratic nominee, he might lose to Trump – but not in New York.

■

AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL NEW YORKERS ON THE POTENTIAL DEATH OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NEW YORK STATE: We are members of a coalition of nearly 50 organizations that represent thousands of employers and millions of New York jobs, and we are deeply concerned about New York’s economic climate and performance. Many areas of New York, especially Upstate, desperately need to replace private sector jobs lost in the Great Recession. Even Downstate, with its strong regional economy, needs more jobs, more affordable housing, and expanded community services. Private sector investments are key to addressing these statewide needs. Unfortunately, the state legislature is considering a bill that would make these crucial investments more expensive by imposing significant wage and benefit mandates on private projects receiving any level of state or local economic development assistance. The state’s “prevailing wage” mandate, now restricted to governmental projects, will drive up labor costs by 25 percent or more on these private sector investments. The recent loss of the Amazon HQ2 project has left many businesses questioning New York’s commitment to promoting new investment and job creation. The last thing that New York’s economy needs is legislation that will drive up the costs of new private sector investments – and drive many of those planned investments out of New York State. Visit dontlbocknybuilding.org to help stop this unnecessary, job killing proposal, and to promote new private sector investments and new jobs across New York State. Business Council of New York State Real Estate Board of New York Associated Builders and Contractors – Empire State Chapter American Council of Engineering Companies of New York American Institute of Architects, New York State Associated General Contractors – New York State Association for a Better Long Island Buffalo Niagara Partnership Business Council of Westchester Capital Region Builders & Remodelers Association Capital Region Chamber Center State CEO Commerce Chenango Cortland County Chamber of Commerce Food Industry Alliance of New York State Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce Habitat for Humanity NY Home Builders & Remodelers of Central New York Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation

Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce Long Island Association Long Island Builders Institute Mohawk Valley EDGE NFIB New York State Association for Affordable Housing New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association North Country Chamber of Commerce Northeast Charter Schools Network Northeastern Subcontractors Association NYS Builders Association NYS Economic Development Council Rochester Home Builders’ Association Rockland Business Association Seneca County Chamber of Commerce Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce Unshackle Upstate Westchester County Association Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce

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June 3, 2019

City & State New York

BX BATTLE IN THE

by D AV I D C R U Z

portrait by C E L E S T E S L O M A N

Rubén Díaz Sr. has been making enemies. He could still get elected to Congress.

VEN BEFORE 15-TERM Rep. José E. Serrano announced he would not seek reelection next year, following his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, New York City and state elected officials were jockeying to replace him. City Councilman Ritchie Torres had previously expressed serious interest in the race, and others were rumored to be eyeing the seat. Once Serrano made his retirement official, the floodgates opened. Four candidates have already declared for the Democratic primary, which will be held next summer: City Councilman Rubén Díaz Sr., Assemblyman Michael Blake and South Bronx community organizers Tomas Ramos and Jonathan Ortiz. Torres technically remains a holdout, although he told City & State that it’s not a “question of ‘if,’ but ‘when’” he’ll run. “I have been actively laying the groundwork well before every other candidate,” Torres said. The Democratic primary is effectively the election in this race, given the huge Democratic tilt of the district, which spans the southern half of the Bronx, from the tip of Port Morris to Fordham University. The major candidates have each carved out an identity for the campaign, with Torres

pegging himself as a progressive crusader, Blake a coalition builder and Díaz a champion of the district’s muted conservatives. And, much to the surprise of outsiders, Díaz may be a serious contender. Díaz, a political oddball who has served since 2003 in the state Senate and then the City Council, enjoys the highest name recognition among the candidates. He has a track record of bringing home the bacon and claiming credit for it: Rev. Ruben Díaz Gardens Apartments is an affordable housing residence in the district. For many voters, this may outweigh the Pentecostal minister’s habit of making controversial statements. His most recent notorious comment – that he wouldn’t report sexual harassment if he saw it occur at the City Council because he doesn’t “rat” – came just a couple of months after he made a head-scratching claim that the “homosexual community”

controls the City Council. That February gaffe drew intense scorn from City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who is gay, and even some of Díaz’s staunchest allies, including his son, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. Díaz Sr. is the congressional candidate closest to the Bronx machine. Bronx Democratic Party Chairman Marcos Crespo, an assemblyman, is a former staffer for Díaz Sr. Crespo also has shared some of Díaz’s socially conservative positions in the past, including voting against legalizing same-sex marriage in 2011. The county party remains publicly silent about the race. Despite numerous attempts to contact the party chairman, Crespo was not available for an interview. One might suspect Díaz’s decision to run for Congress stemmed from his punishment in the City Council for his controversial remarks, which was losing a committee chairmanship. Díaz, however, told City & State he would have tossed his signature cowboy hat into the race regardless. “I believe, in Congress, a voice like mine – to represent those voices, conservative Democrat, conservative people, on a national level and here in New York – would be great, would

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June 3, 2019

be needed because we don’t have any,” said Díaz, who opposes abortion rights, voted against same-sex marriage in the state Senate and filed a lawsuit opposing building a public school for gay students. Although the district is the poorest urban congressional district in the country, and it is overwhelmingly Latino and African American, it’s not necessarily uniformly progressive. As the many storefront Pentecostal churches throughout the area suggest, its electorate, while concerned with nagging issues of housing, education and lack of access to health care, includes many religious social conservatives – especially among elderly people. Díaz, who said he hopes to bring down high prescription drug costs for senior citizens if he is elected to Congress, is a good fit for many of those voters. He’s the only candidate in that lane: Blake and Torres, who is gay, are both staunch progressives. There is a generational, as well as ideological, split, with Blake, 36, and Torres, 31, versus Díaz, 76. “That particular district has an aging Latino population that is more socially conservative in some ways than the general New York City population,” said one Bronx political insider, who asked to be anonymous given his ties to the Bronx Democratic Party. “I think it’s clear there is some viability for Díaz in this race, especially if there’s like 15 candidates and they all split up the progressive and moderate votes, and split up all the African American votes. He has a chance of sliding in with the higher percentage, almost like the Eric Ulrich effect in the public advocate’s race,” he said, referring to Republican City Councilman Eric Ulrich’s second-place finish in the recent special election for New York City public advocate. Díaz, who announced a run before a crowd of clergy in Parkchester in April, has received no party support. And he likely won’t get it, according to the source closely tied to the party, because that would alienate many liberal party activists. “Once you weigh in all the factors, and you could even try to do it like in a mathematical way and attach a numerical value to each factor – you know, give Díaz +3 for being close to Marcos, give him a -10 for the kind of backlash and pushback that we’re going to get, if you give him a +7 for name recognition, you add all things up and down, and, I think, at the end of the day … I don’t see him being the (endorsed) candidate at all,” said the source, who thinks the party could endorse Blake, citing the developing relationship Blake has with Crespo. (Blake was not embraced by the party when it was run by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Blake won the 79th Assembly District seat in 2014.)

“(Díaz) has run more often than any of the other candidates, and you don’t need 50%. But I just think it’s too soon to say who’s the clear front-runner.” Skurnik, using data his team collected, estimates 56% of past primary voters are Hispanic, while black voters make up just under 30%. Of those voters, the ages 50 to 69 voting bloc comprises 34% of voters, the largest bloc, which could benefit Díaz. “If Joe Biden can run at my age – he’s older than me – if he could run for president, and if the other guy, what’s his name? The old man?” said Díaz, failing to initially remember U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ name. Díaz is actually older than Biden: Díaz was born in April 1943, while Biden was born in November 1943. “If Bernie Sanders can run for the whole nation, what’s stopping me from running for a little district? If they got the energy, I got the energy.” But Blake has a talent for robust fundraising. He was one of the top fundraisers during his unsuccessful run for New York City public advocate, amassing $384,569, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board. That’s more than the winner of the special election, Jumaane Williams, who raised $293,788. Blake has – New York City Councilman Rubén Díaz Sr. a foot in national politics as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, allowing him to tap into a vast network of donors ready ics: the district is two-thirds Hispanic, ac- to see him ascend to the congressional seat. Although Blake placed fourth in the cording to census figures. Puerto Ricans represent more than 20% of the population 17-candidate race, he argued that his backand Dominicans make up roughly 30%. Díaz ers will contribute to him again. “People beand Torres are both Puerto Rican. Most of lieve in you in the same way Jumaane ran for the rest of the district’s population is African lieutenant governor and then ran for public American, as is Blake. Black voters tend to advocate,” Blake said. “If people believe turn out at higher rates than Latinos, accord- you, they will support you.” One good sign for Blake in the public advocate’s race is that ing to the Pew Research Center. Blake said he can win Latino voters, given he carried the Bronx, thanks to strong turnhis victories in a heavily Hispanic Assembly out from his Assembly district. Torres, meanwhile, is using his post as district. “People vote for who they believe in. And if you look at my Assembly district, chairman of the City Council Oversight my Assembly district is majority-Latino,” and Investigations Committee to address Blake said. “(That) I’ve been elected and re- issues in the South Bronx, most recently a elected twice is a demonstration that people probe into yearslong construction delays are not looking at you because of your skin at the Bronx County Hall of Justice. As for color; they’re looking at you because of your fundraising, Torres hinted that he has built skill. If Barack Obama can win in Iowa, a campaign war chest over the past few why can’t Michael Blake win in his home- months large enough that it will be impressive “by the July filing.” town in the Bronx?” Appealing to progressive activists, particOn the other hand, Blake may face competition for the black vote from Torres, who ularly from outside the district, could seal a victory for Torres, who enjoys frequent faidentifies as Afro-Latino. Predicting an outcome for this race is vorable news coverage from citywide and virtually impossible because of the lack of national outlets. If anyone has a chance of competitive primaries for the congressio- mimicking the success of Rep. Alexandria nal seat in three decades, according to Jerry Ocasio-Cortez in the neighboring 14th ConSkurnik, a political consultant. “Someone gressional District, it’s probably Torres. The Bronx progressive grassroots activwho’s already an elected official starts at least on paper with an edge,” Skurnik said. ists who helped young insurgent candidates Díaz told City & State that, in true renegade form, he didn’t bother telling Crespo he was going to run. “I’m not basing my aspirations on who endorses me or who doesn’t endorse me,” Díaz said. “I’m not crossing my fingers on that.” Blake concurred that endorsements are not likely to determine the primary’s outcome. “The critical piece of all this is that people believe in your vision and what you’re trying to accomplish there,” he said. “Endorsements are always helpful, but at the end of the day, you need people to vote for you.” The main advantage for Díaz and Torres, and a disadvantage for Blake, is demograph-

“IF JOE BIDEN CAN RUN AT MY AGE ... WHAT’S STOPPING ME FROM RUNNING FOR A LITTLE DISTRICT?”

June 3, 2019

City & State New York

like state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi and Ocasio-Cortez win primaries last year could get involved on behalf of a favored candidate. Although they uniformly dislike Díaz, it’s not clear if they will get involved in this race and, if so, who they will back. Ocasio-Cortez could herself be a factor in the race, as her devoted following and large social media presence would make an endorsement potentially powerful. “Political people think that whatever she says, people will just follow,” said another Bronx political insider, who asked to remain anonymous. “I think that’s why she’s waiting, because she doesn’t want to stir up stuff in her own backyard with her own people by supporting someone that they may see as a mainline, mainstream, as part of the problem.” One thing is certain: Díaz won’t be winning that endorsement. Though both are Democrats, Díaz has made it a point in emphasizing he is “the opposite of AOC.” In fact, some progressive Bronx activists and elected officials, including Biaggi, recently called for Díaz’s expulsion from the party. Torres, despite his self-presentation as a reformer, has some of the same ties as Bronx machine politicians, such as having accepted donations from Sanitation Salvage, a private trash hauler with a troubled safety record that has since gone out of business.

He also may want to address a potential liability: He doesn’t live in the 15th Congressional District. Currently, Torres lives in the north central Bronx, in a part of his City Council district that does not overlap with the congressional district. Although it’s not a legal requirement to reside in the district one represents in Congress, one need only look at Ocasio-Cortez’s upset of former Rep. Joseph Crowley, who was criticized for raising his family in Virginia, to see the risks of being seen as an outsider. The political source with ties to the Bronx Democratic Party did say the party could shake things up by backing an unexpected candidate. That candidate could be Marlene Cintron, president of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp., the business development arm for the borough, where she was appointed by Diaz Jr. Cintron is also close with Rep. Nydia Velázquez, a Manhattan Democrat. Cintron hasn’t declared yet, though her name continually pops up among Bronx political observers who feel she’s garnered enough respect to mount a serious challenge. “I think she’ll create a stir within the Bronx political establishment because she’s very well connected and respected in those circles. I think she puts people like the borough president in a loop because his father’s running, and she’s very close to Junior, so,

yet again, his father’s put him in a headlock,” said the Bronx insider. Díaz Sr.’s campaign could create embarrassment for Diaz Jr., who has spent two years laying the groundwork for a 2021 run for New York City mayor and who has had to defend his father over the years. (Diaz Jr. has more conventionally liberal political positions – a necessity if he is to have a chance at the Democratic nomination for mayor.) But if Diaz Jr. campaigns on his father’s behalf, having the borough president on the stump could be an asset to Díaz Sr. Then there’s the dark horse would-be candidate: Samelys Lopez, a community organizer who is close to the Bronx Progressives and spoke at Ocasio-Cortez’s inauguration. For now, the Bronx political source with deep party ties said the work in building a reservoir of goodwill has to begin now. “You got to be building up that internal operation. You got to start getting volunteers, getting folks, collecting data, you know, doing demographic research, maybe some polling. ... It’s all you got to be doing a year in advance to make sure you’re ready as soon as the gate’s open,” the source said. Although Serrano’s son, state Sen. José M. Serrano, will not be seeking the seat, it’s likely that more candidates will jump into the race, and they’ll have to try to distinguish themselves in a very crowded field.

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June 3, 2019

REINING in BIG REAL ESTATE The policy debate raging between landlords and tenant advocates.

by R E B E C C A C . L E W I S

IG REAL ESTATE is on the ropes in New York. When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez refused to accept real estate contributions during her upstart congressional campaign and unexpectedly ousted Joseph Crowley in the June congressional primary, it made the tactic a litmus test to many left-leaning voters. The two Democratic state senators who had received the most campaign funds from developers – Jeff Klein and Martin Malavé Dilan – were upset in the September primary. State Senate Republicans, the industry’s long-standing allies in Albany, lost power in November. Now, as rent regulations come up for renewal, tenant advocates and their progressive allies in Albany are pushing for extensive reforms – and real estate is on the defensive for the first time in years. “We’re a very easy target,” said Frank Ricci, director of government affairs at the landlord group the Rent Stabilization Association. “We are under attack.” In response, landlord groups have taken up a familiar argument – that efforts to strengthen

RENT REGULATION, EXPLAINED The fight over rent laws is ramping up in Albany as the deadline to renew them fast approaches.

rent regulations will disincentive investment in rental units and cause already aging housing stock to fall into disrepair. They have focused on two bills that would eliminate programs known as Major Capital Improvements (MCI) and Individual Apartment Improvements (IAI), which allow landlords to raise rents higher than the yearly increase permitted by the New York City Rent Guidelines Board. According to an analysis of public data by the Real Estate Board of New York, the industry’s lobbying arm, the Rent Guidelines Board has not kept pace with increasing building expenses when approving early rent increases, forcing landlords to rely on alternative revenue streams to maintain their buildings. REBNY also concluded that should the state Legislature approve

the entire slate of proposals tenant advocates are asking for – nine bills in total – landlords for 40% of rent-stabilized units would no longer be able to afford to make investments beyond basic upkeep. The industry has also argued that Major Capital Improvement and vacancy bonuses (which allow landlords to raise rents up to 20% when an apartment becomes vacant) have benefited the city since their implementation over 20 years ago. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, the percentage of units with severe maintenance deficiencies has been cut in half since 1991, which real estate attributes to MCI and IAI improvements. Between 2014 and 2017 alone, the share of occupied units without deficiencies increased from

New York’s rent regulation laws are up for renewal in June, and with Democrats in control of both legislative chambers and the governor’s mansion, housing advocates are hopeful that changes they’ve long sought will finally pass. Rent regulations in New York are complicated, and they have a long, and at times convoluted, past. Here’s a guide to the history of

June 3, 2019

City & State New York

Tenant advocates have descended on Albany in a last-ditch effort to pass rent regulation reforms.

ing owners want to be part of the solution,” Martin said. “We are private building owners providing a system that isn’t subsidized by the government … and now we are being over-regulated to the point that we can’t provide a product that is healthy and helpful for these very tenants.” Those small-building landlords have been front and center in the campaign opposing the proposed rent regulation reforms. A coalition A vacancy rate of below 5% of real estate groups constitutes a housing emergency called Taxpayers and justifies rent stabilization. For for an Affordable apartments renting below $1,000 New York launched a month, the vacancy rate is 1.9%, a series of televiaccording to the 2017 New York sion spots featuring City Housing and Vacancy such landlords, who Survey. For rentals above $2,500, would be most imVACANCY RATE IN NEW YORK CITY the vacancy rate is 7.4%. pacted by the new proposed regulations. “When people warranted. There are bad actors their tenants. Martin said their think about landlords, I hope they who abuse programs meant to in- average tenant has been living in think about me – someone who centivize investment and who il- their building for 13 years, and cares,” Lincoln Eccles, the landlegally harass tenants out of their that CHIP’s members benefit from lord of a building that has been in apartments so they can enter the having long-term renters. “The his family since the 1950s, said in unregulated market, Martin ac- rhetoric has overrun the reality one ad. In another ad, Stephanie knowledged. In one high-profile that we are not all part of the prob- Kirnon, who owns a building in example, a New York Times in- lem – in fact, we as small-build- the Bronx, said, “If Albany chang-

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41% to 52%. The fiscal watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission pointed out that rent-stabilized apartments reported 80% more maintenance deficiencies than market-rate units, but that eliminating the MCI program would only make matters worse. Community Housing Improvement Program Executive Director Jay Martin said that criticisms from tenant advocates are not un-

vestigation found that President Donald Trump’s family falsified data in order to illegally raise rent through an MCI increase – a fairly common practice. Martin said that more can be done to enforce the rules and prevent the abuse, but that the majority of CHIP’s members, which include owners of about 4,000 rent-stabilized buildings, are small-time landlords who want to work with

those laws, what they say now and where they may go from here. What are rent regulations? Rent regulations are laws put in place to keep rental units affordable for tenants. They largely have their roots in housing crises, when governments institute price controls to combat rapidly inflating costs. In New York, modern regulations go back to the World War II era, when the federal government imposed rent control across the nation. The federal law expired in 1950 and New York state continued and codified these laws over the following decades. While a number of municipalities across the state participated, and continue to participate, in the rent control system from the 1940s, current rent-stabilization laws only apply to New York City and Nassau, Westchester and Rockland counties. Today, rent regulations encompass both rent-controlled and rentstabilized units. What’s the difference between rent control and rent stabilization? Rent control imposes far stricter regulations on landlords than rent stabilization by only allowing rental

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increases to a finite rent threshold at the request of the landlord with government approval, and giving tenants the right to stay in their apartment through statute, rather than through a lease. Through a system called maximum collectible rent, each rent-controlled apartment has a maximum rent landlords are allowed to charge, although they are legally allowed to raise the rent by 7.5% every year until the apartment hits the maximum base rent. Only buildings built before 1947 can be rent controlled, so the stock of apartments is both finite and decreasing. Today, a tenant would have needed to have lived in their apartment continuously since 1971 – or be a legal successor, such as the child of a rentcontrolled tenant who lived with them and inherited the lease upon their death – for it to be rent controlled. Rent-controlled apartments have cheaper rents, on average, than rent-stabilized apartments. When it becomes vacant, the apartment gets decontrolled. It enters the rentstabilization system if the building has six or more units and is in a locality that has opted into the Emergency Tenant Protection Act. Today, there are only about

June 3, 2019

TENANT ADVOCATES DISPUTE the arguments put forth by indus-

erything they do is dishonest and devious and disingenuous.” McKee also pointed to the fact that the average rent-stabilized landlord operates at what many would consider a comfortable profit margin. According to the Rent Guidelines Board, rent-stabilized units average a net operating income – the amount of money left from rent after operating and expense costs – of $540 a month in 2017. That total goes toward pretax profit, debt and improvements, and represents about 41 cents of every dollar taken in from rent. “What that tells me is that this is a picture of a robust, and even healthy residential real estate market and I defy you to point to another industry that has such a high net operating income,” McKee said. Vito Signorile, RSA’s director of communications, responded that while the net operating income, or NOI, has continually increased for

estate interests and landlords who own rent-regulated buildings. But for the first time, Democrats have complete control while rent regulations are up for renewal. “Up until this year, the balance of power was in favor of landlords,” said Jonas Shaende, chief economist at the left-leaning think tank the Fiscal Policy Institute. “And I don’t think it’s a particularly bad or dangerous situation now when the balance of power tilted ever so slightly in the favor of tenants.” Several proposals being considered in the Legislature would simply return rent regulations to previous forms. For example, advocates are calling for an end to vacancy decontrol, a practice that did not come about in full until 1997. Similarly, the Major Capital Improvements and Individual Apartment Improvements programs, which allow landlords to pass certain construction costs on to ten-

try representatives like Ricci and Martin. Michael McKee, treasurer of the Tenants Political Action Committee, took issue with the characterization of rent-stabilized building owners that real estate interests are pushing. He called them “the mythical mom-and-pop landlord,” saying that while there a still a few, even the owners who at one time could have been considered small-building landlords have added many more buildings to their portfolios McKee added that despite what real estate lobbyists may say, reports have emerged about landlords illegally harassing tenants, proof to him that the average building owner will put profit over renters. “Everything they do is in bad faith,” McKee said. “Even calling themselves ‘responsible rent reform,’ they’re just trying to create confusion with the Real Rent Reform campaign, which is the tenant coalition. Ev-

years, that increase will slow without greater rent increases to keep up with ever-higher property taxes, which will hurt landlords and ultimately their tenants. In fact, the increase in NOI did slow between 2016 and 2017. Signorile added that while the NOI may seem high, the publicly available data does not include rent-stabilized buildings with fewer than 11 units, who stand to lose the most under new regulations, and that landlords need a reserve supply of money for unexpected costs or disasters. This year’s fight is the latest in a long history of rent law renewals. New York’s rent-stabilization program largely came out of the 1974 Emergency Tenant Protection Act, a response to a housing crisis in New York City and surrounding suburbs brought about by low vacancy rates. Since then, the regulations have slowly been weakened, to the benefit of the real

ants, were not created until 1993. Taxpayers for an Affordable New York, the coalition of real estate groups, calls for “responsible rent reform,” but has offered little detail as to what that reform may look like. Real estate representatives say they want to come to the table to find solutions, but that the vitriol from tenant advocates has made it difficult. A March meeting between three top real estate companies and affordable housing groups to discuss rent regulations was held in secret, apparently to avoid scrutiny from housing advocates, according to Gothamist. It ended without any concrete policy proposals. In a heated exchange at a recent public hearing in May on rent regulations, state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, chairman of the Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee, asked a representative from the Real Es-

es these laws, I may have to sell.” RSA’s Ricci argued that without programs like MCI and IAI to help landlords recoup the cost of repairs, a situation like Kirnon’s could become more commonplace – to the detriment of tenants. He said that building owners may not be able to justify raising costs of building expenses and maintenance, and would be more likely to sell to predatory landlords whose aim is to force long-time tenants out to make the apartments market-rate. “When the small owner there is so frustrated and beaten down by property taxes and water and sewer rates, and so many other rules and regulations, that they throw up their hands, and when someone comes along and says, ‘I want to buy your property,’ they sell out,” Ricci said.

WHEN IT COMES TO NEW YORK STATE’S RENT LAWS, EVERYONE CAN SEE THERE ARE MYTHS AND REALITIES. EVERYONE, THAT IS, EXCEPT SOME STATE LAWMAKERS. MYTH 1: MCI AND IAI RENT INCREASES SHOULD BE ELIMINATED BECAUSE THEY ARE UNNECESSARY. REALITY::

“The push to obliterate major capital improvement and individual apartment improvement allowances… is fatally shortsighted. It would discourage vital upgrades… in buildings built more than a half-century ago.” –New York Daily News, May 28, 2019 Editorial Albany’s proposed rent law reforms would do little to address the… maintenance of aging housing stock. State lawmakers should not scrap these incentives for landlords to make vital repairs and improvements. –Citizens Budget Commission of New York

MYTH 2: MCIs AND IAIs HAVE A NEGLIGIBLE IMPACT ON THE CITY’S OVERALL ECONOMY. REALITY:

“The total economic impact of MCIs, IAIs and maintenance during the 16-year period 20032018 was $282.7 billion, which supported 2.48 million jobs with cumulative earnings of $149.5 billion.” –Urbanomics Consulting Group, Oct. 31, 2018 Report Albany’s proposed rent law reforms would prompt an immediate $2 billion drop in property tax revenue (which the city uses for education, police, fire and other municipal services). –HR&A Advisors Inc., April 2019

MYTH 3: THE STATUTORY VACANCY ALLOWANCE IS AN UNNECESSARY MECHANISM FOR INCREASING RENTS. REALITY:

“… the Rent Guidelines Board under Mayor de Blasio has for six straight years artificially constrained rent hikes, delivering rent freezes or tiny increases even as owners’ costs have risen, with especially sharp hikes in taxes under the city’s control.” (The need for the statutory vacancy allowance has never been greater.) –New York Daily News, May 28, 2019 Editorial

MYTH 4: ALL APARTMENTS SHOULD BE REGULATED REGARDLESS OF THE AMOUNT OF RENT. REALITY:

“More effective means-testing regulations, so that well-off New Yorkers can’t hoard housing stock meant for the poor, working- and middle-class, makes good sense.” –New York Daily News, May 28, 2019 Editorial

MYTH 5: LANDLORDS USE INCREASES ON PREFERENTIAL RENTS TO CREATE APARTMENT TURNOVERS. REALITY:

“The vast majority of preferential rent leases – 92% – remain preferential upon renewal.” (The median increase for renewal leases for preferential rent tenants is just 1.8%.) –NYC Independent Budget Office, May 2019 Report

EVERYONE ELSE CAN’T BE WRONG. WE NEED RESPONSIBLE RENT REFORM, NOT POLICIES DRIVEN BY POLITICS. LANDLORDS AREN’T THE PROBLEM. WE’RE THE SOLUTION. Paid for by

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June 3, 2019

tate Board of New York if it had any proposals of their own beyond simply opposing those on the table. REBNY did not offer any. REBNY declined to make its president, John Banks, available for an interview. City & State instead received a statement attributable to the umbrella group Taxpayers for an Affordable New York. McKee, the housing advocate, said that attempting to work with real estate is a “fool’s errand.” After the legislative hearing, RSA proposed stricter regulations for the Individual Apartment Improvements, rather than eliminating it outright, in order to prevent abuse by bad landlords. But Ricci said the RSA would not go public with other aspects of its plan until “probably a week before” the laws sunset, saying that they did not want to show their hand. Real estate groups argue that programs that freeze the rent for qualifying tenants should be expanded, like the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption and the Disability Rent Increase Exemption. They have also made an unlikely alliance with tenant advocates in pushing for a new program called the Tenants Rent Increase Exemption, which could freeze the rent for low-income, rent-stabilized tenants who pay more than 50% of their income toward rent. Industry groups further argue that the proposed changes to the rent-stabilization laws do little to address the affordability crisis. It’s a conclusion shared by the Citizens Budget Commission, which pointed out stabilization does not necessarily make an apartment affordable, and that some tenant-friendly proposals may hurt renters in the long run. Tenant advocates contend that without measures to regulate real estate, rents would continue to increase unchecked to line the pockets of landlords and developers while pushing low-income renters from their homes and widening the economic divide present in the city and the state at large. Housing and urban planning experts say that tenant advocates and real estate should work as partners in the effort to address the city and state’s affordability crisis. Matthew Murphy, the executive director of the NYU Furman Center, said both real estate and tenant groups have legitimate concerns regarding rent regulation laws, but that a balance must be struck between the two. “(Real estate groups) have to find a path that can show how important their work is, and how, when you have radical changes in something like a rent regulation system, it will have consequences,” Murphy said. “And to be able to explain that in a clearer way would have big benefits.”

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June 3, 2019

KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

22,000 rentcontrolled units left in New York City. The Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 set up rent stabilization as a less stringent and more marketfriendly regulatory system. The law applies only to New York City and Nassau, Westchester and Rockland counties and buildings with six or more units built before 1974. Rent-stabilized tenants have a right to a lease renewal, but their protections from eviction are not as strong as rentcontrolled tenants. Additionally, the local rent guidelines board decides an acceptable yearly percentage rent increase that landlords may impose on their tenants – usually a few percentage points, to adjust for inflation. About 1 million apartments in New York City are rent stabilized and, unlike rent-controlled apartments, they remain regulated when a new tenant moves in – but the landlord can raise rents more significantly between tenants. How do rentstabilized apartments get deregulated? It’s a major point of contention for housing rights advocates. The state established vacancy decontrol in 1971, which at the time meant that any regulated apartment

City & State New York

RENT REGULATION RIFT

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

Progressives race to reform rent regulations in Albany. Fellow Democrats stand in their way.

VEN BEFORE this year’s state legislative session began, an overhaul of rent laws appeared to be a given. Democrats had won big majorities in the state Senate and Assembly, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a legislative agenda for the first 100 days of his third term that included proposals to end the deregulation of vacant apartments and limit how landlords could increase rents based on renovations to buildings and apartments. Rent regulations, however, fell off the legislative agenda as other issues like congestion pricing and cash bail reform took precedence during budget negotiations. Now, with just a few weeks to go in this year’s session, lawmakers are feeling a sense of déjà vu. “The natural inertia of the session suggests things don’t really get done unless there is an impending deadline,” said state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, a leading advocate of expanding tenant rights and one of a number of state lawmakers who campaigned last year on addressing the issue. The big question now facing Democrats is: Which deadline do they have to meet? Democratic lawmakers are racing to renew the state’s rent laws before they expire on June 15. If Democrats meet that deadline, then the political pressure shifts to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign their proposal before lawmakers adjourn for the year on June 19. If lawmakers fail to meet their deadline, rent regulations could get swept into the “Big Ugly” – a collection of unrelated bills typically passed at the end of the session through which

Gov. Andrew Cuomo may negotiate rent regulations at the end of the session as part of the “Big Ugly.”

Cuomo could demand concessions on other issues in exchange for his support on progressive priorities like stronger tenant protections. In late May, Cuomo reiterated his support for strengthening rent regulations, predicting passage of “the best rent reform package we’ve ever had.” However, activists remain leery of Cuomo’s ties to and big-dollar campaign contributions from the real estate industry. “If Andrew Cuomo is allowed to participate in three-way negotiations,” Michael McKee, trea-

surer of Tenants Political Action Committee, told lawmakers at a May 22 hearing in Albany, “that will inevitably lead to a ‘Big Ugly’ with other things Andrew wants, such as lifting the cap on charter schools and a watered-down package of rent reforms.” Interviews with nearly a dozen key lawmakers suggest that however much they want to avoid putting rent regulations into the “Big Ugly,” the likelihood is growing by the day, though lawmakers declined to say so on the record. Lawmakers missed

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would become deregulated if the tenant left. This was especially impactful in New York City, which had already set up a rentstabilization system through local law in 1969. The Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 not only did away with vacancy decontrol, but re-regulated any apartment that had been taken out of the system during those three years. In 1994, the New York City Council had limited control over its rent laws thanks to the 1971 passage of the Urstadt Law, which left those decisions in the hands of the state. But it still allowed the city to make the regulations in place less strict, leading to the modern system of vacancy decontrol. With a contentious vote, the City Council made it so that if a rent-stabilized apartment became vacant after the rent hit $2,000, it would be deregulated. Landlords began taking advantage of loopholes in the law, for example, by performing extensive renovations, since the law allowed for rents to be increased to cover the cost of a renovation, which helped get it above the decontrol threshold. Or, for example, trying to push tenants out so that they could raise the rent more between tenants over and

June 3, 2019

the deadline to renew the rent laws in 2015, but passed a bill a few days later that renewed them until 2019 after voting to retroactively extend that year’s legislative session. While the dynamics of state politics changed this year once Democrats took full control of the state Legislature, lawmakers said they might miss the deadline to extend rent regulations once again. “There is a strong commitment to protect as many tenants as possible,” said Rochester Assemblyman Harry Bronson. “I would hope that we would not go to the wire.” But in the state Legislature, Democrats continued to be divided over how proposed rent reforms would affect the supply of affordable housing and whether tenant protections should be expanded statewide. Assembly Democrats have backed eight out of the nine bills that make up a “universal rent control” platform supported by the

Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance, a statewide tenant rights coalition. The legislative package includes the elimination of vacancy decontrol, which allows a landlord to charge market-rate rents once the rent exceeds $2,774.76 a month and the apartment becomes vacant. Other proposals would limit the ability of landlords to raise rents through renovations to a building or apartment, or when a lease is renewed. One bill that the Assembly is backing would allow municipalities across the state to create rent-stabilization systems. The Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 currently applies to New York City and Westchester, Rockland and Nassau counties. One bill left out of the tenant rights platform announced by the Assembly on April 9 was a “good cause eviction” bill that would effectively limit rent increases statewide. As currently written, the bill

would prevent landlords from evicting tenants who cannot pay an “unconscionable” rent increase, defined as an increase greater than one and a half times the percent change in the area’s consumer price index. Opponents of the bill have argued that it would disincentivize the construction of new housing because it would limit the rents that landlords could charge. “I don’t think you need a Nobel Prize in economics to understand that this would have a very deleterious effect,” Howard Husock, vice president for research and publications at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute, told City & State earlier this year. Another common criticism of the bill is that it would extend downstate tenant protections to upstate, though the proposed legislation differs from the existing Emergency Tenant Protection Act. “Unfortunately, as with most of the things that we do, communication and

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June 3, 2019

narrative are not actually always reality,” said Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter, who is sponsoring the bill. “That narrative is hard to change once it’s out there and everyone is thinking that New York City is imposing all these rent regulations on everyone else.” Senate Democrats have spent hours discussing rent regulations, but have yet to announce which bills they will take up. One reason why is that senators from Long Island and the Hudson Valley have largely resisted signing on to the “good cause eviction” bill as they negotiate the details on how it would affect the housing markets in their districts. “You do have to strike a balance,” said state Sen. James Skoufis, who represents a Hudson Valley district. “It’s all well and good to control rent, but if there are not enough places to rent because economics don’t work, rent control is inconsequential.” Only

City & State New York

Not only have evictions of rent-stabilized tenants dropped substantially compared to 2013, according to the New York City Rent Guidelines Board, 2018 had the lowest number of evictions since at least 1983, when it began compiling the data.

two upstate Democratic senators – state Sen. Rachel May of Syracuse and state Sen. Pete Harckham from the Hudson Valley – have signed on to the legislation. Expanding tenant protections upstate and to all of Long Island is not the only major political divide among Democrats. Another challenge is the extent to which landlords can increase rent after they renovate buildings or apartments, otherwise known as major capital improvements and indi-

vidual apartment improvements. Currently, these rent increases are permanent, but two bills aim to eliminate them entirely. Real estate developers and the construction industry have attacked the proposal. They say such a change would reduce housing quality, limit profits for building owners and curtail the amount of work for building trades workers. The Real Estate Board of New York said at a May 2 Assembly hearing that it was willing to discuss changes, but

over until passing the rent level needed to achieve deregulation. Although the City Council tried to clarify the law was only meant to apply to apartments that already rented for more than $2,000 when a tenant leaves, the state Legislature codified vacancy decontrol into state law and determined that if a landlord can increase rent high enough after a tenant leaves through improvements, he or she can deregulate the apartment. The Rent Act of 2011 raised the decontrol rent level to $2,500, and the Rent Act of 2015 raised it again to $2,700, with early increases based on the local rent guidelines board percentage rent increase. In New York City, the threshold is $2,774.76 for 2019. So does that mean rent-stabilized apartments are disappearing? Yes, studies have estimated about 300,000 apartments have left the regulatory system in New York City and the surrounding counties affected by the Emergency Tenant Protection Act. However, unlike with rent control, new rentstabilized buildings and units are being constructed thanks to tax incentive programs like 421-a (now called the Affordable

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New York Housing Program) in New York City, which gives developers tax breaks for a set number of years in exchange for making a certain percentage of units in the building affordable. Those apartments are subject to rentstabilization laws for the duration of the tax exemption. However, that program in particular has received much criticism from housing advocates, in part because the affordable units are often quite expensive and intended for “moderate-income” households making six figures. Rather than giving tax breaks to developers for apartments that may not even help the lowest-income New Yorkers find housing, advocates say the city should invest in building more deeply affordable public housing. How are landlords increasing rents above the threshold? Landlords are able to do this a number of ways, generally through improvements to the building, called major capital improvements, or to individual units, called individual apartment improvements. After making major capital improvements, a landlord is allowed to impose part of the cost of the project on each

June 3, 2019

Paimaan Lodhi, the organization’s senior vice president of policy and planning, said rent prices would still go up even if landlords cannot hike rents based on repairs. “If the proposed funding streams are eliminated, it will place greater pressure on the (New York City Rent Guidelines Board) to raise rents approximately 7.5% annually to make up the difference,” Lodhi said in his official testimony. “This is not the kind of rent reform that helps tenants and owners.” Taken together, lawmakers face differences on the extent to which upstate and Long Island need more tenant protections and how far to go in changing New York City’s rent-stabilization system. Progressive activists and some Democratic lawmakers want a wholesale overhaul of rental laws statewide. Others are more open to accommodating landlords and other business interests. Many lawmakers find themselves in the middle, trying to meet the needs of cash-strapped tenants while making sure that building owners can maintain the housing stock that already exists. “There has to be a balance,” said Assemblywoman Jamie Romeo, a Rochester Democrat, “where we can still provide the rights of property owners to be able to invest in their properties.” Cuomo remains supportive of eliminating vacancy decontrol and preferential rent as well as reforms to how landlords can raise rent based on the improvements to buildings and apartments, a spokeswoman said in a statement. “I don’t want to comment on what conversations are occurring between the houses and the governor,” said state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, who chairs the Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee. “I will say the Senate Democratic conference has spent a great deal of time working through our positions on these issues to come up with the strongest possible package we can come up with that would pass in the upcoming weeks.”

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COMMENTARY

THE WRONG FIGHT

by E R I C K O B E R

Instead of punishing landlords, state legislators should push to increase housing.

ITH NEW YORK’S rent regulations set to expire in mid-June, much attention is currently focused on the package of nine bills introduced in the state Legislature to achieve “universal rent control.” Launched amid a barrage of hostile rhetoric directed against landlords and real estate developers, state legislators and progressive activists are asserting that all nine must pass to truly protect tenants. While New York City has had rent controls since 1943, the current regulatory system was largely established by the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974. Known as “rent stabilization,” it allows New York City and Nassau, Westchester and Rockland counties to regulate apartment rents in buildings with

six or more units built before 1974 when the rental vacancy rate falls below 5%. In New York City, the Rent Guidelines Board establishes permitted rent increases, which generally track with inflation, upon the renewal of a lease. Rent regulation was first imposed on New York City apartments constructed after 1947 by the administration of then-Mayor John Lindsay in 1969, in response to a sharp falloff in new housing construction. Housing completions had peaked in the early 1960s following the enactment of a new zoning resolution in 1961 that dramatically reduced allowable growth in the housing stock. Developments with permits under the old zoning were allowed to continue construction, and combined with high levels of publicly funded housing, completions ex-

THE ART OF PICS/SHUTTERSTOCK

June 3, 2019

ceeded 60,000 units in 1963. Rent concessions were widespread in new buildings. By 1969, however, new housing units completed had fallen to 17,000 and rents were beginning to rise. Rent stabilization was both a response to an emerging housing shortage and a guarantee that the shortage would never end. Rents tend to rise in real terms (adjusted for inflation) when the population is growing and becoming more affluent. Economic theory would posit that in unregulated housing markets, which prevail in most U.S. cities, rising real rents cause some tenants to move to smaller apartments or cheaper neighborhoods, or out of town entirely. At the same time, real estate developers respond to the price signal by producing more housing, if local

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zoning allows them to do so. The combination of reduced demand and increased supply causes rents to stabilize, even without government intervention. There is a lack of research on how new housing supply affects rents. But a 2016 study by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office found that, since 1980, rents paid by low-income households grew faster in urban areas on the California coast that placed more stringent limits on new housing than in U.S. counties that allowed more new housing development. In regulated markets, in contrast, rising real rents don’t cause existing tenants to move, because their rent increases are capped. When the population increases and households become more affluent, an imbalance emerges be-

tween demand and supply: rents skyrocket on unregulated units and newcomers – in New York City, these are primarily younger adults and immigrants – are forced to bid against each other for a limited stock of available apartments. In New York City, and even more so in the New York suburbs, restrictive zoning doesn’t allow enough new housing to be built in order to stop market rents from rising. Too many households want to rent housing in the New York metropolitan area, and there is never enough housing to meet that demand. New Yorkers have therefore become less mobile. In 2012, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 31% of the city’s renter population lived in units where the householder had moved in since 2010. By 2017, the renter population that lived in units where the householder had moved in since 2015 was down to 27%. Reduced mobility is undesirable not only because newcomers can’t find housing, but because all New Yorkers have difficulty finding housing that meets their current needs. In New York City and in the state Legislature in the 1990s and early 2000s, there was actually an attempt to loosen up the rent-regulation system so that the demand for housing would become more in balance with the available supply. For this to occur, regulated rents had to rise closer to true market rents. The specific ways in which this occurs include a vacancy allowance for new leases, vacancy decontrol for rents above a certain level, and allowances for buildingwide improvements and improvements to individual apartments. These changes made New York City’s rental housing more of a market than it would have been otherwise – that is, some households who would have been able to stay in their apartments under the old rules could no longer afford their rents and had to move. The system was also widely gamed by landlords who raised rents more than they were entitled. However, the changes also allowed an influx of younger

tenant in the building through a steeper rent increase than would typically be allowed each year. Individual apartment improvements generally happen after a tenant leaves an apartment, and it allows the landlord to pass on a percentage of the improvements’ cost to the new resident through a rent increase. Landlords also receive what is referred to as a vacancy allowance or vacancy bonus when a tenant leaves, allowing them to raise the rent by as much as 20% for the new occupant. The bonus incentivizes landlords to not keep tenants. Advocates and tenants, especially in gentrified or gentrifying neighborhoods, complain that landlords employ illegal harassment methods to get occupants to leave. What do affordable housing advocates want? Advocates have long tried to pass reforms that they believe will protect people living in rent-regulated apartments. The Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance, a coalition of housing advocates, tenants and homeless people, has a clear platform for what they want done when rent regulations get renewed this year. They

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workers to help transform the city’s economy, and they made both the city and the state much wealthier. The nine bills now being considered in the Legislature would, most significantly, turn back the clock on these changes, eliminating landlords’ ability to raise legal rents above the Rent Guidelines Board’s inflation-based lease renewal increases. These changes would reduce the supply of housing available to newcomers and further frustrate New Yorkers who want to move to an apartment that better meets their needs. This must occur since the whole purpose of the legislation is to allow existing tenants to stay in their apartments. Since New York’s high-productivity economy relies on a continual influx of well-qualified and well-paid professionals, this implies future labor shortages, slowing or even negative population growth and economic

stagnation, which will impact both state and local tax revenues. Since the proposed legislation would allow the gap between regulated and market rents, in many cases, to grow very large, another consequence would be to create perverse incentives for under-the-table activities designed to realize the actual value of apartments, including tenant buyouts by landlords, excessive brokers’ fees with kickbacks to landlords, “key money” to gain access to an apartment and unauthorized tenant sublets. These black market activities would mitigate the effects on newcomers to some extent. Finally, the bills take a lot of revenue away from landlords. Apartment buildings nonetheless require continual reinvestment and one can easily imagine pressure on the city and state governments to provide increased capital assistance to financially stressed rent-regulated building owners. This approach to housing affordability contrasts, and not favorably, with the debate going on right now

June 3, 2019

in the California Legislature. SB50 would permit up to four units on land now zoned for single-family housing throughout the state. In counties with more than 600,000 people, apartment buildings would be allowed near transit and in wealthy communities near employment centers, regardless of proximity to transit. The effort to pass SB50 is led by a California state senator, Scott Wiener, and supported by a coalition of elected officials, labor groups, environmentalists and business groups, among others. While progressive groups are divided on the bill and its passage is by no means assured, New Yorkers should take note of Californians’ effort to solve a housing crisis by actually allowing more housing to be built. The New York Legislature doesn’t have any effort aimed at overturning local land use control, which has contributed so much to creating this crisis.

New York’s legislators and elected officials need to think about whether the proposed approach in California is important to any program to make housing more affordable. If strengthened rent regulations were truly temporary and accompanied by vigorous efforts to expand the housing stock in the city and the suburbs, tenants would be more likely to be helped, public sector housing aid would be more effective and all the deleterious effects – on newcomers to the labor force and New Yorkers who want to move, on tax revenues and on the upkeep of apartment buildings – would be mitigated. The vast administrative apparatus needed to manage the adversarial relationship between landlords and tenants could be scaled back. New York City could be on the path to a future in which people get great deals on rent, not from the government, but from their landlord.

■

Eric Kober is a retired New York City planner and is currently a visiting scholar at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

have a number of goals directly relating to the current system, although three get the most attention. Perhaps most importantly, advocates want to do away with vacancy decontrol and re-regulate apartments that have already left the system. Advocates have been attempting to undo the 1994 decision to create vacancy decontrol essentially since it began. Even the New York City Council, the body that created the rule, has since approved four separate motions asking to the state Legislature to repeal it. The second proposal is to make so-called preferential rents permanent. Currently, landlords can offer rents below the legal regulated rent. But landlords are allowed to raise the rent to the legal limit when a lease is renewed, plus allowable increases. If the landlord decides to revoke the lower rent, it would impose a steep, unexpected rent increase on the tenants. Under proposed legislation supported by advocates, any rent increases would be based on the agreed upon rent, rather than the legal limit. The third part is to eliminate permanent rent increases as a result of major capital improvements and individual apartment improvements, arguing that such improvements are necessary after years of neglect and that the programs are often abused by landlords through inflated costs and, at times, outright lies about the work being done. Lawmakers have introduced legislation to

address each of these issues, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has expressed his support for many of them. What does the real estate industry have to say about this? Unsurprisingly, the industry is pushing back against much of the Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance’s policy agenda. In particular, real estate industry members want to keep the major capital improvement rent hikes. Real Estate Board of New York President John Banks said the introduced legislation does not take into account the increasing costs associated with maintaining and improving buildings, well above the yearly allowed rent increases. He added that landlords spend $10 billion every year through the major capital improvement program to improve New York City’s housing stock. What’s “universal rent control?” The Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance has two parts of their agenda that are not directly related to the current regulatory framework. One is to expand the Emergency Tenant Protection Act to the entire state, allowing municipalities and cities in every county to opt in to the rent-stabilization system. The second, which most directly correlates with the idea of universal rent control, is to establish “good cause eviction” for nearly every rental unit not already covered by some form of rent regulation. The legislation would effectively cap yearly rent increases for most market-rate apartments, while giving tenants the right to a lease renewal except in cases made explicit in the law. —Rebecca C. Lewis

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legalnotices@cityandstateny.com Notice of Formation of hderm LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/12/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, Attn: Howard Denton Mills III, 9 Darlene Dr., Goshen, NY 10924. Purpose: Any lawful activity. 125 MERRICK LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 04/16/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Xia Xun Jiang/Ai Ying Wong, 32 Monroe St. Suite K1, NY, NY 10002. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. SOLEInfusion, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 02/19/19. Off. Loc.: Westchester Co. SSNY desig. as agt. upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: SOLEInfusion, LLC, 227 Hawthorne Ave., Yonkers, NY, 10705. The Reg. Agt. is Basil B. Cocheekaran at the same address. General Purposes.

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Vivir hair, LLC filed with SSNY on January 11, 2019Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 430 Amsterdam Avenue Apt#4C New York, NY 10024. Purpose: any lawful act or activity. Notice of Formation of BBRE MANAGEMENT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/15/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 280 St. Marks Ave., 3C, Brooklyn, NY 11238. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Matthew Beer at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Real estate investment and management.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM Notice of Formation of ANANDAH CARTER SUCCESS COACHING LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/25/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Attn: Anthony F. Vitiello, Connell Foley LLP, 888 7th Ave., NY, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of ATTUNED MOVEMENT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/24/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 41 W. 83rd St., Ste. 1B, NY, NY 10024. 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 NORTHCROSS DEVELOPER, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/15/19. 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 OAKS ON NORTH PLAZA AFFORDABLE SPECIAL, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/15/19. 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 1260 Broadway Restaurant LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/01/19. 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 Thurcon Properties Ltd., 49 W 32nd St., NY, NY 10001. Purpose: any lawful activities.

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TWOAGOS LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect’y of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/14/19. 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: The LLC, c/o Santiago McCarthy, 181 E. 119th St., Apt. 7E, NY, NY 10035. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of So Satisfying LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/09/19. 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.

1355 Acquisition Manager LLC - Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/4/19. Office location: NY Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer LLP, 360 Lexington Ave, 13th Fl, NY, NY 10017 Purpose: any lawful activities.

NOTICE OF QUAL. of Maplewood Owner LLC. Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 4/12/19. Off. Loc: NY Co. LLC org. in DE 3/22/19. 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.

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Notice of Formation of LYDIA ANNE DESIGNS, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/11/19. Office location: NY County. No PPOB. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. Original addr. of process was Lydia Radandt, 345 W. 14th St., Apt. 2D, NY, NY 10014. Per Cert. of Change filed with SSNY on 03/25/19, SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543, now also designated as regd. agent of the company upon whom and at which process against the company can be served. Purpose: Any lawful activity. WORLD CUTS BARBERSHOP, LLC, filed with SSNY 03/13/2019. Office loc: Westchester County, NY. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Waldermar Morales, President/Owner, 2150 Central Park Ave Yonkers, NY 10710. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

1355 Acquisition Holdco LLC - Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/4/19. Office location: NY Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer LLP, 360 Lexington Ave, 13th Fl, NY, NY 10017 Purpose: any lawful activities. Notice of Formation Keystone Asssets 1 LLC Arts of Org. Filed with Secy. of State of NY 1/25/2019. Ofc Loc.: Richmond Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to The LLC, 1911 Richmond Ave, NY 10314. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of BENJAMIN & ELLIE LLC filed with SSNY on April 19, 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: 276 5th Avenue Siute 704-3060, NY, NY 10001. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation: 8712 DITMAS AVE LLC, Art. Of Org. filed with Sec. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/27/2019. Office Loc: Kings County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 8712 DITMAS AVE, BROOKLYN, NY 11236 Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qualification of OLLIE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/16/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/07/17. Princ. office of LLC: 450 Park Ave. South, 5th Fl., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 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, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qualification of MREC MANAGEMENT, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/30/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/22/15. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: MREC Management, LLC, 23975 Park Sorrento, Ste. 420, Calabasas, CA 91302. Address to be maintained in DE: 9 E. Loockerman St., Ste. 311, Dover, DE 19901. 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.

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Notice of Filing of AMERICAN LIVING, LLC Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State of New York on 3/13/2019. Office Location: Westchester County. Sheila Harding designated as agent of LLC upon whom process may be served with a process mailing address of 89 Heath Place, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Purpose: Any Lawful purpose. Notice of Qual. of SPRING LAFAYETTE, LLC, Authority filed with the SSNY on 02/27/2014, Name change to: 63 SPRING LAFAYETTE, LLC on 03/11/2014 . Office loc: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 10/28/2013. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Jack Terzi 362 5th Ave 12FL NY, NY 10001. Address required to be maintained in DE: Vcorp Svcs, LLC, 1811 Silverside Rd, Wilmington DE 19810. Cert of Formation filed with DE Div. of Corps, 401 Federal St., Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. Notice of Qualification of JANE ROTROSEN AGENCY LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/17/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Florida (FL) on 03/28/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Jane R. Berkey, at the FL addr. of the LLC:13248 50th St. South, Wellington, FL 33414. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of DAGNY HOLDINGS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/23/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 77 W. 24th St., Apt. 22E, NY, NY 10010. 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: Asset management.

TVI C O M M U N I C AT I O N S , LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 4/11/19. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: US Corp Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave, #202, BK, Ny 11228. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. MADSQPARK, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 04/15/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: MADSQPARK, LLC, Attn: Walter Kulakowski, 208 Fifth Avenue 2W, New York, NY 10010. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose Notice of Qualification of O&Y Jay LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/18/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/17/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Adam America Real Estate, 850 Third Ave., Ste. 13D, NY, NY 10022; Attn: Omri Sachs. Address to be maintained in DE: National Registered Agents, Inc., 160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover, DE 19904. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities. Notice of Formation of 140 EAST 65 NYC LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/25/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Forbes Family Trust, 767 5th Ave., 6th Fl., NY, NY 10153. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Seward & Kissel LLP, Attn: Susan J. Lorin, One Battery Park Plaza, NY, NY 10004. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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Notice of Formation of Lucky Gus, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/24/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: eResidentAgent, Inc., 99 Washington Ave., Ste. 805A, Albany, NY 12210, also the registered agent upon whom process may be served. Purpose: any lawful activities. NOTICE OF FORMATION OF JDD PROPERTIES LLC. Art of Org filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/25/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her is: 7014 13TH AVENUE, SUITE 202, BROOKLYN, NY 11228. The principal business address of the LLC is: 15 E 117TH ST, FL2, NEW YORK, NY 10035. Purpose: any lawful act or activity

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DAVID HECHLER PUBLISHING LLC, Arts of Org. filed with SSNY 02/27/19. Office loc. NY County. David H. Gendelman, Esq. has been designated as agent upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: LLC, Attn: David H. Gendelman, Esq., 49 West 37th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Purpose: any lawful purpose. Notice of Formation of WELL WOMAN INTEGRATIVE PSYCHIATRY PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/04/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of PLLC: One Penn Plaza, Ste. 6301, NY, NY 10119. 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: Medicine.

ARIS CLOSET, LLC. of Org. filed with SSNY 4/19/2019. Office l o c : Kings County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 2420 Glenwood road apt 4c,Brooklyn N.Y. Purpose : Any lawful purpose. MindScience LLC Exist Date: 1/10/2019 Owner: Cathy Trentalancia 150 Charles Street #2AN New York, NY 10014 ctrenta@gmail.com 917-710-1232 Office at 150 Charles Street; New York, NY 10014 Registered Agent: United States Corporation Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202 Brooklyn, NY 11228 BRIGHTLUMINA LLC Exist Date: 1/25/2019 Owner: Dr. Salvatore Trentalancia 150 Charles Street New York, NY 10014 strenta@aol.com 917-455-9064 Office at 150 Charles Street; New York, NY 10014 Registered Agent: United States Corporation Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202 Brooklyn, NY 11228 EXALTATION OF LARKS, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 04/04/2019. 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, 227 E.57th St., Suite 9F, New York, NY 10022. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. 2001 Story Tower E LLC. Authority filed SSNY 03/27/19. Office: NY Co. LLC formed DE 03/25/19. Exists in DE: c/o National Registered Agents, Inc., 160 Greentree Dr #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: Secy. of State, Corporation Dept., 401 Federal St. Ste. 4, Dover DE 19901. General Purpose.

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NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF KINGS DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR INDYMAC INDX MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2006-AR6, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2006-AR6, V. PROSPER NARCISSE; 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 DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR INDYMAC INDX MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2006-AR6, MORTGAGE PASSTHROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2006-AR6 is the Plaintiff and PROSPER NARCISSE; ET AL. are the Defendants. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the KINGS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, ROOM 224, 360 ADAMS STREET, BROOKLYN NY 11201, on June 13, 2019 at 2:30 PM, premises known as 498 EAST 53RD STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11203: Block 4737, Lot 20: ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, WITH THE BUILDINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS THEREON ERECTED 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 # 506122/2015. Jageshwar Sharma, Esq. - Referee. RAS Boriskin, LLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

Notice of Qualification of HGW ADVISORS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/07/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/16/19. 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 19808-1674. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. The True Ones LLC filed with SSNY 3/12/2019. Office loc: Kings County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Sophia Sabella, 272 Grand Street, Apt. 14 Brooklyn, NY, 11211. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Qualification of SAVANNA IV 521 FIFTH AVENUE GP, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/10/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/23/19. Princ. office of LLC: 430 Park Ave., 12th Fl., NY, NY 10022. 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. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of the State of DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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Notice of Qualification of HUDSON SQUARE REALTY, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/05/18. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/28/18. Princ. office of LLC: 77 W. 66th St., NY, NY 10023. 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 19808-1674. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Real estate ownership. lNotice is hereby given that a license, number (PENDING) 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 176 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10011 for on premises consumption. MVLH HOSPITALITY GROUP LLC d/b/a Loulou Notice of Formation of MYND MVMT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/09/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: Attn: Samantha R. Benigno, 56 W. 11th St., Apt. 2FE, NY, NY 10011. 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. GOLDEN FUTURE PROPERTY, LLC, Arts of Org. filed with SSNY 05/10/2019. Office loc. Richmond County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 85 Greenport Street, Staten Island, NY, 10304. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Emmes & Company LLC, Arts of Org. filed SSNY 11/05/18. Office: NY Co. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process may be served & mail to 44 West 55th St., Ste. 500, NY, NY 10019. Name and address of registered agent upon whom process may be served: National Registered Agents, Inc., 111 Eighth Ave., NY, NY 10011. General Purpose. Notice of formation of 221 DEVOE 2B HOLDINGS LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/7/19. Office location: Kings County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to: 62 Orchard St., Demarest, NJ 07627. Purpose: any lawful act. Notice of Qualification of GOTHAM GREEN PARTNERS SPV IV, L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/16/19. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/04/19. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State - State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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STORAGE NOTICE Midtown Moving & Storage Inc. will sell at Public Auction at 810 East 170 Street, Bronx NY 10459 at 6:00 P.M. on on June 11th, 2019 for due and unpaid charges by virtue of a lien in accordance with the provisions of the law and with due notice given all parties claiming an interest therein, the time specified in each notice for payment of said charges having expired household furniture & effects, pianos, trunks, cases, TV’s, radios, hifi’s, refrigerators, sewing machines, washers, air conditioners, household furniture of all descriptions and the contents thereof, stored under the following names: -DIOSA JOSE/JOHN DOE -DOE JOHN/DOE JANE -FOWLER TYRONE/CONNOR EROS AKA CONNER EROS/DOE JOHN/DOE JANE -JORDAN, CATINA -KOTAK, HIRAL -MEDINA, LEANA BATISTE -OSORIO, BERTYL -PORTER, TIFFANY -PARRA MATTHEW A /VIZUETE LUIS A. -RODRIGUEZ, JOSE -RUBINO, GUADALUPE -SANTOS, CARLOS -THOMPSON, JENNIFER -WHITE, LEONARD

Notice of Formation of JFRP LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 02/25/19. Office loc: BX County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Pedro J Perez, 3123 Sedgwick Ave, BX, NY 10463. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1318274 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 106 NORFOLK ST. NY, NY 10002 NEW YORK COUNTY, FOR ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION. 106 LA CONTENTA LLC

Notice of Auction Notice of Auction Sale is herein given that Access Self Storage of Long Island City located at 2900 Review Avenue, Long Island City, N.Y. 11101 will take place on WWW. STORAGETREASURES. COM Sale by competitive bidding starting on June 7, 2019 and end on June 20, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. to satisfy unpaid rent and charges on the following accounts: Contents of rooms generally contain misc. #133-Micah Phillips; 4 plastic nags, 2 suitcases, 1 brief case, 1 guitar and table lamp, #1702-Quinsessa Harrison; Bags, boxes, totes, 2 crates with vinyl records, #4708-Rhonard Bryce-Thurton; Tv, 15 + boxes, 2 plastic containers, 4 bags, a CD rack. The contents of each unit will be sold as a lot and all items must be removed from the premises within 72 hours. Owners may redeem their goods by paying all rent and charges due at any time before the sale. All sales are held “with reserve”. Owner reserves the right to cancel sale at any time.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Rannegent LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 05/17/19. Office: Westchester County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 60 Forest Range Road, Katonah, NY 10536. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

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Notice of Qualification of PRIVATE EQUITY IV (E&F) GP LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/06/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/01/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Summit Rock Advisors, LP, 9 W. 57th St., 12th Fl., NY, NY 10019. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 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.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF SU HO REALTY LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/07/2018. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/ her is: 570 GRAND ST APT H901, NEW YORK, NY 10002. The principal business address of the LLC is: 570 GRAND ST APT H901, NEW YORK, NY 10002. Purpose: any lawful act or activity 1055 SOUNDVIEW ROAD LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 05/22/19. 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, 200 East 61st Street, Apartment 29ABC, New York, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

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LEGAL NOTICE 2155 Ocean LLC is seeking benefits for the properties located at, 2155 Ocean Avenue, Unit B1, Brooklyn, NY Block 6783 Lot 1101 under the (ICIP) Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program administered by the New York City Department of Finance. Any persons having information concerning the eligibility of this applicant to participate in the program, or any act of arson or harassment committed by the applicant, may submit such information to ICIP 59 Maiden Lane. 22nd Fl. New York, NY 10038 or Exemptionspolicy@finance.nyc.gov LEGAL NOTICE 621 Brighton Realty LLC is seeking benefits for the properties located at, 621 Brighton Beach Avenue, Brooklyn, NY Block 8676 Lot 6 under the (ICIP) Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program administered by the New York City Department of Finance. Any persons having information concerning the eligibility of this applicant to participate in the program, or any act of arson or harassment committed by the applicant, may submit such information to ICIP 59 Maiden Lane. 22nd Fl. New York, NY 10038 or Exemptionspolicy@finance.nyc.gov

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Notice of Formation of NVA UPTOWN MANAGEMENT, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/21/19. Office location: NY County. 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. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

CityAndStateNY.com / PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1315251 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 1246 MADISON AVE NY, NY 10128 NEW YORK COUNTY, FOR ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION. PAOLA’S CAFÉ LLC Estate of Andrew M. McCauley a/k/a Andrew William McCauley, Deceased. Late of Bensalem Twp., Bucks County & Manhattan, New York County. Letters Testamentary on the above Estate have been granted to the undersigned, who request all persons having claims or demands against the estate of the decedent to make known the same and all persons indebted to the decedent to make payment without delay to Janet F. Sheerin, Executrix, 30 Sarah’s Trace, East Greenwich, RI 02818. Or to her Atty.: Yvette E. Taylor-Hachoose, Taylor-Hachoose, LLC, 301 Oxford Valley Rd., #102A, Yardley, PA 19067. 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, JUNE 19, AT 2019 2 P.M. at 42 Broadway, 5th floor, on a petition for ST TROPEZ SOHO LLC to NEW MAINTAIN, AND OPERATE an unenclosed sidewalk cafe at 196 SPRING ST 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 Tacodumbo Rose Mansion LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/09/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 399 Lafayette St., 2nd Fl., NY, NY 10003. Purpose: any lawful activities. DOLLY PLUM MEDIA, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 04/23/2019. 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: Dolly Li, 1760 81 St, B’klyn, NY 11214. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF KINGS Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Plaintiff AGAINST Joseph Garda; Michelle Garda a/k/a Michelle Matut; et al., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly dated May 3, 2019 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Room 224, Brooklyn, NY 11201 on July 11, 2019 at 2:30PM, premises known as 1725 East 26th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11229. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of NY, Block: 6809 Lot: 77. Approximate amount of judgment $384,078.87 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 524299/2017. Doron Leiby, Esq., Referee Shapiro, DiCaro & Barak, LLC Attorney(s) for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard Rochester, New York 14624 (877) 4304792 Dated: May 16, 2019 ! 63417

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June 3, 2019

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF KINGS Wells Fargo Bank, National Association as Trustee for Option One Mortgage Loan Trust 2007-5, Asset-Backed Certificates, Series 20075, Plaintiff AGAINST June P. Isaac a/k/a June P. Isaac-Goodridge; et al., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly dated November 30, 2018 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Room 224, Brooklyn, NY 11201 on July 11, 2019 at 2:30PM, premises known as 326 92nd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11212. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of NY, Block:4646 Lot:25. Approximate amount of judgment $372,701.31 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 515931/2016. Jeffrey Dinowitz, Esq., Referee Shapiro, DiCaro & Barak, LLC Attorney(s)! for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard Rochester, New York 14624 (877) 430-4792 Dated: April 19, 2019 62835

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NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1318245 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 446 PARK PLACE BROOKLYN, NY 11238. KINGS COUNTY, FOR ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION. CORNER 660 LLC

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, JUNE 19, AT 2019 2 P.M. at 42 Broadway, 5th floor, on a petition for PROSPECTIVE CROWN LLC to NEW MAINTAIN, AND OPERATE an unenclosed sidewalk cafe at 406 PROSPECT PL IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN 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 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, JUNE 19, AT 2019 2 P.M. at 42 Broadway, 5th floor, on a petition for CORNER 660 LLC to NEW MAINTAIN, AND OPERATE an unenclosed sidewalk cafe at 446 PARK PL IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN 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

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Qualification of JUMIA USA LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/22/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/13/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LUMARTES LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/08/2019. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/ her is: 620 Broadway, 1R. The principal business address of the LLC is: 620 Broadway, 1R. Purpose: any lawful act or activity K. HENDEL CONSULTING, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 5/28/2019. 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: Ken Hendel, 420 12th Street, Apt. M4R, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

PUBLIC NOTICE Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes the existing location modification of wireless communications antennas at three locations. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 74 feet on a building with an overall height of 79 feet at the approx. location of 1015 Gerard Avenue, Bronx, Bronx County, NY 10452. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 90 feet on a building with an overall height of 90 feet at the approx. vicinity of 221 East Broadway, New York, New York County, NY 10002. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 70 feet on a building with an overall height of 70 feet at the approx. vicinity of 2059 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Boulevard, 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, Elsie, e.boone@ trileaf.com, 8600 LaSalle Rd, Suite 301, Towson, MD, 21286, 410-8537128. THICK AS THIEVES, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 7/30/2009. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Kapil Sehgal, 143 Ludlow St, NY, NY 10002. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM BLUE PERIOD LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 1/7/2014. 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: Louis W. Kurpis, CPA, 2068 Newbold Ave, Bronx, NY 10462. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com

June 3, 2019

PUBLIC NOTICE Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes the collocation of wireless communications antennas at two locations. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 53 feet on a building with an overall height of 57 feet at the approx. vicinity of 1205 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, Kings County, NY 11224. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 175 feet on the building façade of a building with an overall height of 182 feet at the approx. vicinity of 530 West End Avenue, 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, 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 two locations. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 80 feet on a building with an overall height of 80 feet at the approx. vicinity of 116 & 120 East 124th Street, New York, New York County, NY 10035. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 73 feet on a building with an overall height of 78 feet at the approx. vicinity of 4140 Carpenter Avenue, Bronx, Bronx County, NY 10466. 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, Theresa, t.docal@ trileaf.com, 8600 LaSalle Rd, Suite 301, Towson, MD, 21286, 410-8537128.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK: COUNTY OF BRONX SUMMONS - Docket No.: B-1857/19 ------------------------------------------------X In the Matter of Commitment of Guardianship and Custody of CHRISTIAN YOUR HIGHNESS CONCEPCION also known as CHRISTIAN YOUR CONCEPCION also known as CHRISTIAN CONCEPCION A Child under the Age of Eighteen Years -------------------------------------------------X In the Name of the People of the State of New York TO: Alberto Cruz ADDRESS: UNKNOWN A Petition having been duly filed in this Court, alleging that the above-named child in the care of THE NEW YORK FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, should be committed to the guardianship and custody of THE NEW YORK FOUNDLING HOSPITAL; a copy of said Petition being annexed hereto; 900 Sheridan Avenue, Bronx, New York, Part 2, in front of the Hon. Gomez on June 14, 2019 at 11:30AM to Show Cause why the Court should not enter an Order committing the guardianship and custody of said child to the petitioning agency as required by law. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that if the guardianship and custody of said child are committed to the petitioning agency, THE NEW YORK FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, said child may be adopted with consent of the petitioning agency without your consent or further notice to you. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that you have the right to be represented by a lawyer, and, if the Court finds that you are unable to pay for a lawyer, you have the right to have a lawyer assigned by the Court. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that upon failure of the person summoned to appear, all of his or her parental rights to the child may be terminated, and PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that his or her failure to appear shall constitute a denial of his or her interest in the child which denial may result, without further notice, in the transfer or commitment of the child’s care, custody or guardianship or in the child’s adoption in this or any subsequent proceeding in which such care, custody or guardianship or adoption be at issue. Dated: Bronx, New York May 29, 2019 By Order of the Court /s/ Clerk of the Family Court

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CityAndStateNY.com

June 3, 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

DIGITAL Digital Director Derek Evers devers@cityandstateny.com, Digital Content Coordinator Michael Filippi, Social Media Editor/Content Producer Amanda Luz Henning Santiago

ISAIAH THOMPSON The cops pulled the brakes on an infuriating crime spree last week, arresting 23-year-old Isaiah Thompson and accusing the serial subway surfer of stopping trains in their tracks as many as 23 times this year. Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials kept quiet about the subway saboteur at first, but word eventually got out, temporarily giving Gov. Andrew Cuomo some competition as the one man everyone blames for their slow commutes.

THE BEST OF THE REST

THE REST OF THE WORST

STEVE BANKS

GERALD ESPOSITO

MARSHA P. JOHNSON & SYLVIA RIVERA

JAMES LUCKIE

CARLINA RIVERA & YDANIS RODRIGUEZ

ROBERT MUJICA

NYC homelessness is at a record high, but chronic homelessness is falling.

These Stonewall heroes will finally be recognized with a new monument.

City Hall will have to follow a safe streets checklist, thanks to these NYC lawmakers.

JUMAANE WILLIAMS

De Blasio finally backed his paid vacay bill.

CREATIVE Art Director Andrew Horton, Senior Graphic Designer Alex Law, Graphic Designer Aaron Aniton

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, Legal Advertising Executive Shakirah Gittens legalnotices@cityandstateny.com, 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 21 June 3, 2019

HOW FAR WILL NEW TENANT PROTECTIONS GO?

The Brooklyn CB1 manager bought a $26K car with taxpayer dollars. I call shotgun! ... isn’t so lucky, thanks to his indictment on pay-to-play charges involving World Trade Center electrical contracts.

THE TRUE NEW YORKER RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT RUBÉN DÍAZ SR.’S PATH TO CONGRESS CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

June 3, 2019

Cover illustration Andrew Horton & Alex Law

The state budget boss said spending rose 2%. CBC said it was 5%. Who’s counting?

LAWRENCE PORCARI

Mount Vernon’s corporation counsel was indicted for diverting public funds to defend Mount Vernon’s indicted mayor.

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

ASSEMBLY; STATE SENATE; ROREM/SHUTTERSTOCK

MICHAEL CUSICK & RACHEL MAY Legislation banning the construction of trash incinerators in the Finger Lakes has been signed by the governor. The issue has been heated, as community activists and environmental advocates tried to block a proposed incinerator in the town of Romulus. With the signing of the bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Michael Cusick and state Sen. Rachel May, the plans of the company proposing the garbage facility have gone up in flames.

OUR PICK

WINNERS

Did Robert Mueller’s public remarks last week regarding his special counsel investigation make President Donald Trump a winner or a loser? The answer largely depends on the political party of the beholder. “The case is closed!” Trump tweeted, a line his GOP allies echoed. Democratic lawmakers replied: Impeach Trump! City & State is following Mueller’s lead and declining to weigh in on the president – but we did render judgment on the latest Winners & Losers.

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

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