I’m not big on conspiracy theories, though you’ve got to wonder if the mere slap on the wrist architect Robert Scarano received had anything to do with politics. Was the City using Scarano to accomplish their notsohidden agenda to remake Brooklyn into high density, highrise neighborhoods? The best the City accomplished was to take away Scarano’s ability to professionally certify his filings with the Department of Buildings. The City did not go after his architect’s license, which is what was demanded by the public. So in essence, the bad get rewarded; his license (017739) to practice architecture is still active.

Scarano attempted to have the punishment lifted. The case was heard by the New York State Court of Appeals on October 25th and was not successful for him. But the punishment never did fit the crime.

Over the years, Scarano has consistently flouted building laws and zoning regulations, as well as caused the destruction of numerous adjacent properties and allegedly the death of at least one worker. Now that the Buildings Department is suddenly aware of this the department’s commissioner, Robert LiMandri, said in a statement, following the ruling: “Today’s decision sends a clear message that there are serious consequences for those who flout the law to make a profit. In his attempts to circumvent the City’s Building Code and Zoning Resolution, Mr. Scarano showed a disregard for the laws that ensure safety and quality of life for all New Yorkers.” They should have revoked his license and put him in jail if they were serious.

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Kid Flight: The “Education Mayor” causes children to flee with parents in tow (part I)

I asked activist and community organizer Phil DePaolo what drives his activism. He took a few moments, and then said: unfairness, lack of transparency. Phil is salt of the earth, the sort of guy who, if you lost your shirt, would give you the proverbial one off his back. Or at least find you cover. Now, after thirty years in the community, he’s leaving Williamsburg because, he says, the city schools are hopeless. Private school is out of his financial reach and he wants his two sons to have a good education.

He has fought City Hall and the power movers and shakers for the good of the little guy, endured scary subways, late nights on rough city streets, and shrugged it off, but now he has to think of the kids. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs, and a pretty big loss for the community. He’s not going far, 17 miles away to Port Washington, Long Island, where he says he’ll continue to sling his arrows, only from a safer distance. Asked what he’ll miss the most, he said, “When you live in a place for thirty years you make a lot of friends.”

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Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg released a budget that calls for closing 20 firehouses, senior centers and layoffs for over 6,000 NYC public school teachers. The New York Times called this a “good news” budget! Another headline stated that New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez was buying a new condominium at The Rushmore on the Upper West Side. The condo is selling for a reported six million dollars. ARod made 33 million dollars last year, 9 million dollars more than the second highest paid player in major league baseball. So you may be wondering where am I going with this. When I checked out The Rushmore I discovered that they are a recipient of a 421a tax abatement. A look at the Corcoran website that is offering units at The Rushmore, shows ARod’s six million dollar condo pays about $103 a month in property tax or $1,236 a year.

I am a homeowner who pays more in property tax on my one-family, 112-year-old home. The 421a program is a topic of great debate since it expired in December 2010. The REBNY (Real Estate Board of New York) has been lobbying for a return to the old program that requires no affordable housing to be built in return for this abatement that can last up to 25 years. The Independent Budget Office said in a recent New York Times article that the 421a program will cost a projected 930 million dollars in forgone tax revenues this year.

Just think what we could do with an additional 930 million dollars. We could save teachers, senior centers and firehouses, and have cash left over to build affordable housing. I’m certain that not-for-profits would do a better job than private developers at building affordable housing and they would do it for considerably less money.

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The day Mayor Bloomberg began his third term, he said, “Conventional wisdom holds that by a third term, mayors run out of energy and ideas. But we have proved the conventional wisdom wrong time and again, and I promise you, we will do it once more.”

But now that Bloomberg is one year into his third term he might want to rethink that statement. The year began with reports that he directed $51 million in public and personal subsidies into a museum project led by Democratic mayoral rival Bill Thompson’s wife, dumping $2 million of additional city funding into it in the middle of the mayoral campaign.

Then it was disclosed that for the second year in a row, the mayor had quietly pumped more than $1 million into the state’s Independent Party without disclosing it as part of his own campaign spending. The party promptly turned around and gave $750,000 of the money to a shell company associated with key Bloomberg operatives.

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I was one of a group of citizens who sued Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and the New York City Council, in 2008, for overturning term limits, preceding citywide elections in 2009. At issue was an amendment to the Charter of the City of New York, entitled Local Law 51, which was passed by the City Council and signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg on November 3, 2008. It provides that members of the City Council, the mayor, the public advocate, the comptroller, and borough presidents are eligible to serve a maximum of three consecutive terms in office. It amended sections 1337 and 1338 of the City Charter, which previously provided for a maximum of two consecutive terms for these officials, and which had been enacted by a city-wide referendum in 1993.

Well, this past month, the Charter Revision Commission decided to revive the issue of term limits on the upcoming November ballot.

So we should be happy, right? No!

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