By AHMED JALLOW
One of Mayor de Blasio’s biggest donors testifying at the federal corruption trial of former union leader Norman Seabrook on Thursday gave a detailed account of how his donations to the mayor led to favors for him, his friends and business interests.
Jona Rechnitz, a 34-year-old real estate developer and star witness for the prosecution of the disgraced former president of the Correction Officer’s Benevolent Association., said he “was giving money to the mayor of New York in exchange for favors”; it was the first time the mayor’s name came up in the closely-watched trial. Local prosecutors earlier this year dropped the investigations into de Blasio’s fund-raising practices but scolded him for skirting ethical lines.
The wealthy donor, for the first time, described how in 2013 then-mayoral candidate de Blasio visited him in his office and wrote down his personal phone number in the back of a business card and “told me to call if there’s anything I need, always be in touch.”
Rechnitz, said he developed a relationship with the mayor and spoke with him at least once a week. “We expect a lot of access,” he said. “When we called we want answers, we want access,” he added.
Rechnitz also detailed his transaction between him and one of the mayor’s top aides and fundraiser, Ross Offinger. Through Offinger, who served as a middleman between him and the mayor and other city officials, Rechnitz said that his many demands were met. “Whenever we would call for access or for a favor we were getting the response that we expected and the results we were expecting,” he said.
Rechnitz, detailing some of the alleged favors, cited one that happened when a Manhattan building he owns was being cited for illegal AirBnB activities. Rechnitz said he pointed out the issue to Offinger in hopes of getting it solved.
“I was getting violations in thousands of dollars and I didn’t think that was fair. So I called Ross, and I told him I wanted to get in front of the people who make these decisions so that I don’t have to keep paying these expensive fines.”
Another building he owns was cited for violating fire regulations. The city had an option of shutting down the building as unsafe but instead issued him a fine which Rechnitz paid.
The mayor’s press secretary, Eric Philips, in a statement rebuffed the claims made by Rechnitz.
These are nothing but re-heated, re-packaged accusations that have been extensively reviewed and passed on by authorities at multiple levels,” he said. “The administration never and will never make government decisions based on campaign contributions.”
Rechnitz has been cooperating with the Manhattan U.S Attorney in a corruption probe that resulted in bribery charges against several high ranking cops and Seabrook.
The mayor was also under investigation but the probe was ended in March when U.S Attorney Joon Kim said he would not bring charges, but not before pointing out that the mayor had intervened on behalf of big donors.
By JOSEPH MODICA
Tree-huggers were out in force along Jamaica Bay on Thursday, the final day of a three-year program to plant trees in an effort to strengthen coastal infrastructure and protect against future storm surges on the same week that Hurricane Sandy decimated New York five years ago
The event, which was organized by The Nature Conservancy, the National Parks Service, and the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, has planted 28,000 trees around the 14-acre refuge overlooking the bay to battle the effects of climate change.
On the first brisk day in an otherwise mild autumn, groups of volunteers took gloves and trowels neatly assorted on a table in front of the welcome center and made their way down a dirt path onto a site designated by 1-foot-tall, bright-orange flags planted into the ground. Volunteers were then shown how to carefully remove the saplings from their pots and place them in holes and how to identify poison ivy, which was prevalent in the area. The saplings was chosen because it’s a salt-tolerant species, it’s generally hardy and that it is already native to New York
The volunteers comprised Bank of America employees as part of their environmental volunteer initiative and students from Academy for Conservation and the Environment and the Science and Medicine middle school who came together to give their time to the battered coastal community which is still recovering five years after the hurricane.
Bank of America volunteer Chris Krolak surfs by Far Rockaway and wanted to give back. “I’ve always seen this area, never really known much about it,” he said. ” So it’s cool for me to get out here to improve the environment I enjoy and take advantage on a regular basis.”
Others echoed the theme.
“Basically to help preserve the environment which is something I’ve always to do” said teacher Naquan Ross, a teacher who who brought out his students to assist. “We’re out here to basically help plant trees and flowers, at the same time teaching [students] what it is like to do habitation for the earth and for the planet.”
Conservationists are hoping for a 50 percent survival rate among the trees they planted, taking in account weather and nutritional factors.
Photo of volunteers planting trees by Joseph Modica
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By TATYANA BELLAMY-WALKER
The New York City Fire Department of New York recognized 12-year-old, Jamoneisha Merritt as a honorary firefighter on Thursday after she was doused last August with boiling water at a ex-friend’s sleepover.
“I’m doing better than what happened before,” said Jamoneisha of the Bronx, who hopes to become a firefighter when she grows up. “I thank God.”
The swearing in ceremony was led by Fire Commissioner, Daniel A. Negro at FDNY headquarters at 9 Metrotech Center in Brooklyn, New York.
“[The boiling water challenge] has been referred to by many as a prank,” said Commissioner Nigro. “Using boiling water in this matter, playing with matches and fire, or engaging in activity that can seriously burn someone or even take their life is no prank. It is senseless, callous, dangerous, behavior.”
Over the summer, Jamoneisha was at an ex-friend’s home when a girl poured boiling-water on her face, chest and neck while was sleeping. An investigation is pending on the alleged second-degree assault, which is a replica of the viral internet video the “Hot Water Challenge.”
The girl’s mother, Ebony Merritt created a GoFundMe page in August, which has garnered nearly $35,000 of the $100,000 goal to help cover the medical costs of skin grafts, hospital visits, “possible” plastic surgery and mental health counselors to help with the trauma associated with the burn injury.
Merritt said the FDNY offered support throughout her daughter’s recovery.
“She is joyful [and] she is full of spirit,” Merritt said. “This has played a big part in her recovery. People all over the world are reaching out to her.”
Regina Wilson, a FDNY firefighter said she is proud of the pre-teen’s aspirations.
“Another black girl, I’ll take it,” said Wilson, who was the 12th African-American woman to join the city’s fire department. “As a young women of color for her to be apart of this organization…is important because it’s important for the community to see that this department respects diversity.”
Photo by Tatyana Bellamy-Walker
By JAMIE DELIZ
“Hey, hey, ho, ho! Cy Vance has got to go!” echoed near several courthouses Thursday when scores of protesters called for the resignation of Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr., who in recent years, accepted donations from both Harvey Weinstein and President Donald Trump’s attorneys in return to drop major charges, accusers charge.
Vance, who did not prosecute French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2011 and Weinstein in 2015 for charges based on charges of sexual misconduct, as well as Trump’s two children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., for alleged financial fraud in 2012, is now accused of “unfairly” prosecuting low-income blacks and Latinos for low-level offenses.
“Cy Vance has made his career off of being a reformer and trying to present this image of a friendly prosecutor,” said Josmar Trujillo of the Coalition to End Broken Windows. “And we’re here to rip that mask off his face.”
According to Trujillo, those living in these low-income neighborhoods– East Harlem, the Lower East Side– have been under scrutiny by the DA for years, whether it involves being prosecuted for parking tickets, or even jumping the subway turnstiles, he said. “Not only because of the fact that he gives leniency to rich, white Hollywood moguls, but also because he continuously inflicts punishment on people who cannot afford to donate to his campaign.”
Trujillo, along with other advocates from the 5 Boro Defenders, Why Accountability, and Democratic Socialists of America NYC, decorated the sidewalk of 80 Centre street, holding signs that read “#ByeCy” and “#CouldntBuyCy.”
Among them was Brooklyn public defender Lauren Katsman. “I am appalled that Cy Vance had the balls to stand up and say there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute Harvey Weinstein,” said Katsman, further explaining that she’s had “multiple, forcible touching cases,” all of which involved “people of color.” The Brooklyn DA, according to Katsman, prosecutes these forcible touching cases “like they’re the crime of the century,” and requests a high bail, which these clients cannot afford. And as a result, many are “routinely” held on Rikers Island.
Vance’s most recent decision, according to Katsman, was “bumping-up” the possession of a gravity knife, or a switchblade, to a felony charge.
The New York Times reported in an article “What Is Rikers Island?” that about 85 percent of the inmates are detainees who have not been convicted of crimes yet; and 40 percent are living with mental illnesses. According to New York City’s Correction Department’s Population Demographics Report, 53.6 percent of these inmates are African-American and 33.3 percent are Hispanic.
“The bottom line is Cy Vance does not care about black people,” said Shannon Jones of Why Accountability. “He does not care, or actually, he is complicit and a participatory of a system that body snatches and removes African people from their homes and their neighborhoods into the criminal justice system, while at the same time, does not hold the rich elite of the United States accountable for their transgressions.”
Joan Vollero, who works for the Manhattan DA’s campaign, responded to these allegations, saying that Vance is the “first DA in the five boroughs to end the prosecution of most fare-beating cases by diverting turnstile-jumpers from Criminal Court,” and that he also unveiled plans for the Early Diversion Program, which offers “eligible participants over the age of 18 pre-arraignment intervention opportunities throughout Manhattan.” Furthermore, “Not to mention personally dismissing hundreds of thousands of open summons warrants en masse.”
Photo by Jamie Deliz
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By PAULETTE GINDI & TATYANA BELLAMY-WALKER
Graffiti artist Thomas Lavero, testified on Thursday that it was a “smack in the face” to have his work obliterated from a building complex in Queens that had been for many years a showcase for his work and the work of others.
His lament came as a lawsuit continued in Brooklyn Federal Court about the whitewashing of his and his colleagues’ 200,000 square foot outdoor mural museum, better known as 5pointz.
5pointz was a mural space at 45-46 Davis Street in Long Island City which became “graffiti Mecca”, for its reputation of having aerosol painters from around the globe paint the factory building. The space was launched in 1993, when a real estate developer collaborated with street artists in creating a space for artists to legally express their creativity through aerosol painting.
Lavero is one of the 21 graffiti artists mounting the lawsuit over the destruction of their art and demanding rights to their work, which was painted over in 2013.
The 21 artists are now suing G&M Realty’s landlord, Jerry Wolkoff under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) for painting over their work without notice. The VARA federal law protects artwork of a “recognized stature”, although the defendant’s attorney argue that the murals were never intended to be permanent.
Also expressing their anger on testimony was graffiti artist Bienbenido Gurra, who did carpentry when he wasn’t painting. Gurra found out about the whitewashing of the complex while listening to the radio.
“It was like getting kicked off a ladder and landing on your back,” Gurra said. Gurra described his reaction as “boiling blood” and wanting to “raise hell in 5pointz”.
By JOSEPH MODICA
Public transportation advocacy groups around the city on Thursday pushed for dual-door bus entry and other moves to streamline service, less than a week before the transit board was set to look into Metrocard replacement programs.
At a press conference in front of MTA headquarters transit unions, riders associations and other groups proposed changes like moving the fare box out of the bus and next to bus stops where riders can pay their fares beforehand, allowing the city to totally remove the paying process inside of buses and freeing up both front and back doors, and sensors that let rider “tap” their bank cards to pay fares. This move would reduce congestion and speed up wait times; buses spend 22 percent of their time at stops, says Rider’s Alliance, a New York based advocacy group.
Riders now enter through the front of the bus and pay while riders exit through the rear. Deputy Executive Director Tabitha Decker called this method “outdated” and said that the transit authority was slow to exploit modern technology. According to Decker, all-door boarding will not only result in more customers, but be safer for drivers, who often have to confront fare-beaters. The group also claims that streamlining the bus system would benefit communities where the subway doesn’t serve them.
“The subways are delayed, the buses are delayed it makes it very hard to get around the city” said New York State Senator Michael Gianaris. “[All-door boarding] will help riders, it will help workers,” he added and went to call this solution “common sense.”
Other cities have tried this system with some success.
In May 2016, Seattle transit authority fully released a 24/7 dual-door system and street-side fare boxes on specific bus lines, called RapidRide. Using sensor technology, a rider taps a bus card and simply walks in- or pay the fare street-side. This program extends the 2012 program, when dual-door boarding took place only between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Buses that used a dual-door system reduced idle time between 5 to 19 percent says a study done by McGill University in Montreal.
Organizers said that the new streamlined system would attract more riders and alleviate the cost of retrofitting the over 5700 buses in the the transit authority’s fleet with sensors and improvements.
The next board meeting was scheduled for Oct. 26
Photo by Joseph Modica
By AHMED JALLOW
The final witness on the Chelsea bomber trial gave a tearful account on Thursday as prosecutors in their closing argument said the bomber intended “to cause as much death and devastation as possible.”
Tsitsi Meritt describes her ordeal in the Manhattan Federal Court about that Saturday night on West 23rd Street as she was waiting at a red light when a bomb, allegedly set up by Ahmad Rahimi, 29, detonated and shattered the window of the car she was riding in.
Meritt, burst into tears as prosecutors showed jurors a video of the white Toyota Prius that Meritt, her son and a friend were in last year when the bomb went off causing the car to “jump” and shake.
“We were waiting at the traffic light then we heard a loud sound. We heard people running and screaming,” she said. “The back seat windows shattered onto [my son], some rear view mirror damaged. We didn’t really know what it was,” she recalled.
Meritt said she sought help for her son but no one came to their rescue until emergency responders arrived at the scene and rushed them to the hospital.
“I was going back and forth just trying to get somebody to help my son,” she said. “I picked him and at some point and emergency responder took him from me.”
In his closing argument that afternoon, assistant prosecutor Emil Bove said: “He [ the defendant] wanted to maximize the death, the devastation and the destruction, caused by the bombing.”
Bove, in the beginning of his three-hour argument, asked the jury “Who did these things?” and walked behind Rahimi’s chair pointing at him “this man did these things,” he yelled. “The defendant, Ahmad Rahimi conducted these bombings… with evil in his heart.”
The tense moment was broken off when Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman asked Bove to move away from Rahimi and return to the dais.
Rahimi is charged with eight counts in Manhattan Federal Court for his alleged Sept. 17, 2016, bombing on West 23rd Street that injured 30 people and for also placing a bomb which failed to explode few blocks away on West 27 Street that same evening.
The defense was set to give its closing argument on Friday.
By JOSEPH MODICA
Furious parents came out en masse on the steps of City Hall Thursday morning under rain and wind to give Mayor Bill de Blasio one message: we don’t want rubber room teachers!
An advocacy group made up of parents and community leaders called StudentsFirstNY voiced their complaints about de Blasio’s bringing back 400 teachers who were taken out of their daily teaching positions and placed into rooms to await hearings or for new positions, referred to as “rubber rooms.” Many of these teachers were placed there because of disciplinary problems, poor teaching records, or simply because they found themselves jobless after their schools closed.
Teachers who were rubber-roomed previously cost the city between $15 to $20 million and the recent move to redeploy them was designed to buttress the Department of Education budget. Teachers affected by this have little say where they will be placed, and principals will not be able to choose whom to hire as they did previously.
“We’re looking for qualified teachers, were looking for teachers doing the right thing.” said Gloria Alfinez, a Bronx parent said. “Get them either a severance pay or a nice ticket that says ba-bye.”
However, firing teachers is not as easy as that.
In 2005, former mayor Michael Bloomberg gave principals more flexibility to remove teachers from classrooms with a deal struck between him and the United Federation of Teachers during the mayor’s first term in office. Removed teachers were not fired however, but rather moved into a pool called the Absent Teacher Reserve. These teachers wait sometimes years for an available position, acting as a substitute teacher, but often made to sit in a room doing nothing. This has left de Blasio in a tight-spot, as teachers could not be fired, but not be allowed to continue to receive a full salary pay.
A DOE representative said in an email that the new policy is meant to better use the pool of teachers for a school’s needs and ensures parents that, “we simply won’t match any [Absent Teacher Reserve] teacher to a year-long vacancy if we have any concerns about their work history or performance.”
Cynthia Tibbs, a Manhattan parent, was not convinced and said that such teachers should not be placed in a “rubber room,” but not put back to teaching positions either. “Putting them back in a children’s environment is not conducive to children or anyone else.”
Photo by Joseph Modica
