More Community Board 5 members resign after Open New York takeover
At least two more members of Manhattan’s influential Community Board 5 have quit after an employee of the Silicon Valley-backed advocacy group Open New York was elected chairman last week in a boardroom coup.Open New York has an interest in housing development and seeks “to reduce the harms caused by excessively restrictive local land use regulations,” according to its website.Saturday on X, E.J. Kalafarski resigned as chairman of CB5’s transportation and environment committee. He’d been involved in such matters as the rebuilding of Penn Station.“The tactic of politicizing our community boards with backroom plotting by a special interest group is incredibly discouraging,” Kalafarski wrote, a reference to Open New York, an advocacy group funded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.Last week Open New York’s campaign coordinator, Samir Lavingia, was elected Community Board 5 chairman in a close vote. CB5 is especially influential among the city’s many community boards because its district covers the heart of Midtown. The group has a seat at the table when city or state officials are making big policy decisions, such as rezonings to stoke real estate development.Its members have in the last few years taken seats on several community boards, including 1, 4, 7 and 8 in Manhattan, according to people familiar with the matter. The boards cover the Financial District, Chelsea and the Upper East and Upper West sides, among other neighborhoods. Community boards don’t write laws or regulations, but their stamp of approval is often sought by developers to demonstrate neighborhood support for their projects. Community board members are nominated by City Council members and appointed to two-year terms by the borough president. Open New York had four members at CB5 and persuaded 18 others last week to join in electing Lavingia chairman, with 19 abstaining. The prior chairman and the chair of the land-use committee both resigned after about 20 years each on the board. David Achelis, a member of the land use and parks committees, resigned, according to a person familiar with the matter. Neither Kalafarski nor Achelis returned a call seeking comment.Crain’s reported Open New York’s ascension at CB5 on Friday and quoted Slack messages from members describing their aspirations to take over other community boards. That day, a member urged allies on Slack to avoid writing things in private that they wouldn’t want seen in public.“I love our chattiness and spirit in the Slack, but it should be assumed that it’s possible for our convos to make their way out of Slack,” advised the member, Sal Franchino, in one of several internal Slack messages shared with Crain’s. “Because we are member-driven, it is easy to join, which is good! So let’s be mindful when posting here that our conversations should be considered public.”In a brief interview, Franchino said he lives in a rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn and his goal is more affordable housing for everyone.“I’m in a pretty fortunate situation with housing,” he said. “A lot of people are not.”Open New York declined to comment.Slack chats provide a glimpse into Open New York members’ grasp of housing policy, their goals for their communities and their exasperation with those who disagree with them on land-use matters.One member recounted how at a board meeting an “über NIMBY” wanted an environmental impact statement, or EIS, a move that would bog down the approval process for an apartment building.“Sadly, he is already on CB4,” the Open New York member lamented.“EIS for a 90-unit apt building,” another member said. “What a joke.”A speech by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams calling for housing on the state-owned land in Queens occupied by the Aqueduct Racetrack drew a response from an Open New York member likening it to “GOD.” That was an abbreviation, he explained on Slack, for “Gambling Oriented Development.”.....»»
MTA vendor Kawasaki says revealing pay data could "agitate" staff
The New York state government and its vendor Kawasaki Rail Car are fighting to prevent the release of records about the company’s pay and benefits.The rail equipment manufacturer suggested releasing the information could cause employees to unionize, or make it easier for competitors to recruit its workers, according to an affidavit submitted in February in New York Supreme Court by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.“KRC has been fortunate to have been able to maintain a cooperative, respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with its workforce, which has not felt a need to unionize in more than 40 years,” KRC manager Ken Takeda said in the document. Disclosing that information “may unnecessarily agitate KRC’s workforce,” he said.The MTA is defending itself against a lawsuit filed in December by the nonprofit Jobs to Move America, a pro-labor watchdog group that pressures governments to require that companies they contract with create high-quality jobs. JMA has been trying for years to obtain records, including the “U.S. Employment Plan” Kawasaki agreed to in 2018 when MTA awarded it a contract to build new subway cars for New York. The deal is currently worth more than $3 billion and covers over 1,000 cars.In a request filed under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, JMA has also been seeking the subsequent reports Kawasaki was required to provide the MTA documenting its progress, and other correspondence between the company and the agency.MTA has made it “impossible to monitor Kawasaki’s compliance” with its obligations by withholding or extensively redacting documents, JMA alleged in its lawsuit.The MTA declined to discuss the Kawasaki case. “While we are unable to comment on pending litigation, the MTA responds to FOIL requests in accordance with the law, which in some cases limits what may be released,” spokesperson Joana Flores said by email. The agency has said in court filings that the information sought by JMA includes “trade secrets.”KRC, a subsidiary of the multinational Kawasaki Heavy Industries, didn’t respond to inquiries. In his sworn affidavit, Takeda said the records sought by JMA could allow competitors to glean “aspects of the inner workings” of Kawasaki, causing “substantial injury to the competitive position” of the company.In addition, Takeda said, releasing the payroll information would “make KRC vulnerable to poaching of labor,” because it would help rivals come up with “competitive terms” to entice employees to go work for them instead.Growing fearThe dispute underscores companies’ growing fear of becoming targets of a newly energetic U.S. labor movement. It also highlights how worker advocates are giving more attention to government procurement as an avenue to pressure companies over employee treatment.JMA won a legal battle in 2018 to obtain records about job quality commitments from Los Angeles County’s bus vendor New Flyer of America, then brought a fraud complaint against the company that ended with a $7 million settlement and a commitment to implement new workplace and hiring policies. New Flyer denied wrongdoing.The nonprofit seized on Kawasaki’s affidavit, saying in a March 11 filing it reveals the dispute “is not about trade secrets but suppressing worker organizing.”“Kawasaki’s desire to hide its USEP commitments from its own workers underscores the need for access, particularly given New York’s policy of pay transparency,” JMA wrote.The government shouldn’t be in the business of helping a company dodge union organizing or deter workers from finding better jobs elsewhere, said Transport Workers Union president John Samuelsen, who sits on JMA’s board and is also a nonvoting member of the MTA’s board.“New Yorkers do not want their tax dollars being utilized in a way that shortchanges workers,” said Samuelsen, whose union has begun trying to organize Kawasaki employees. “If they were competitive in this labor market, they wouldn’t have to worry about their workforce being.....»»
22-unit residential building to rise in East Village
A new residential building is on its way to the East Village.The project at 88 E. Second St. is from developer Manny Ashourzadeh's Romah Management Corp. It will span about 29,000 square feet and stand 7 stories and 73 feet tall with 22 residential units, along with retail space on the ground floor, according to plans recently filed with the Department of Buildings.The property, located right at the corner of East Second Street and First Avenue, is also addressed as 37 First Ave. and is currently home to a 5-story mixed-use building with eight residential units, according to city records. The building dates back to 1910 and spans about 5,500 square feet, commercial real estate database CoStar says.Romah Management has filed demolition permits for 33, 35 and 37 First Ave., city records show, indicating the new project will likely span all three addresses. None of the residential units at 37 First Ave. are still occupied, the filing says. The last business in the properties was Chinese restaurant New Double Dragon, which closed in July, according to the local news site EV Grieve, which reported on the new project earlier today.Romah Management is located at 84 E. Second St., right next to its planned building, records show. The company has also filed plans for a project at 746 E. Fifth St. spanning about 64,000 square feet and standing 9 stories tall with 64 residential units.The firm did not respond to a request for comment by press time.The East Village has seen a flurry of transactions lately. Kushner Cos. recently sold at least eight buildings for about $72.2 million. Developer Kinsmen Property Group also filed demolition permits in the neighborhood for almost the entire block of Third Avenue between East 10th and East 11th streets last year......»»
Editorial: With affordable housing, comptroller should do less talking, take more action
As city Comptroller Brad Lander calls on New York to bump up its investment in affordable housing for poor and working-class residents, he shouldn't escape criticism for how little the city's five pension funds, which he oversees, have contributed to the cause.Lander is the investment adviser and custodian of the nearly $264 billion in retirement assets for teachers, firefighters and other such public employees. As recently reported, pensions have distributed 1% of their assets to the creation of affordable and worker housing in the two years ago since Lander began shepherding them, according to city records. That's down from the 1.4% distributed in 2018 and is under the 2% that pensions can put into economically targeted investments.While running for his seat, Lander promised to "reinvigorate" the investment program in order to put more money toward the creation of affordable housing. And his office says the investments haven't grown because many are longer-term, fixed-income assets that shed value when mortgage rates jumped starting in 2022.Lander recently stood with members of the City Council's progressive caucus to call on the city to put an additional $2 billion through four years toward "permanently affordable housing," including preserving thousands of rent-stabilized units. These funds, however, would come from municipal borrowing and not the city's pension funds.The city's pension funds have invested only about $4.5 billion in the economically targeted investments program in its over 40 years of existence. And even though "We need more affordable housing!" is a popular rallying cry these days, the comptroller should make sure his own backyard is clean before he criticizes someone else's.Days before Lander and the progressive caucus issued their call, Mayor Eric Adams' administration announced that it is partnering with the Building and Construction Trades Council and Midtown-based Cirrus Real Estate Partners to launch a more than $400 million fund supporting affordable housing in the city. As senior reporter Eddie Small noted, the funding is meant to help build housing that would be affordable to trades council members, who typically work as plumbers, fireproofers or in other areas of construction. This is the mayor's latest effort to boost housing production in the city and meet his goal, announced in December 2021, of building 500,000 new homes over the next decade.Calling for more affordable housing is always a good thing. This is a topic that should stay top of mind for city and state officials until the abysmal 1.4% vacancy rate for rentals, the lowest it has been since 1968, is rectified. But there is a big difference between talking and taking action.If the city's pension funds are authorized to invest in affordable housing, then they should. And the city comptroller must see to it that they do. Anything else is just words......»»
Garment District office tower hit with foreclosure lawsuit
A lender has moved to foreclose on a struggling Garment District tower, the latest sign of distress in an office sector that can’t seem to catch a break.Wells Fargo has sued San Francisco-based landlord Shorenstein to force a sale of 1407 Broadway, a 43-story tower at West 39th Street, according to a complaint filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court. Heather Mike, a Shorenstein spokeswoman, had no comment.Shorenstein missed a debt payment in August at the 1.1 million-square-foot site, which forced the building’s $350 million securitized loan to be sent to a special servicer. But the bigger blow seems to have been the firm’s failure to pay off the full loan, issued in 2019, by its November maturity date.According to the lawsuit, Shorenstein did not request a one-year extension of the November deadline, even though it was entitled to a delay, a move that would have given the firm a little breathing room. Indeed, Shorenstein had availed itself of two previous loan extensions.But by opting not to push the maturity date to November 2024, Shorenstein appears to have conceded that there was little chance of refinancing on favorable terms at a time of elevated interest rates and handing over the keys might be a more strategic way to go. Waiting might have merely been a case of postponing the inevitable.Still, the tower, a block-long high-rise from 1950 into which Shorenstein plowed $30 million for a renovation that began in 2015, does not appear to be in as bad a shape as some other office buildings. In fact, its vacancy rate is 11%, according to the data company CoStar, which does not seem severe.Then again, one of the main goals of the renovation was to upgrade No. 1407’s 37,000 square feet of storefronts, and although those retail berths were packed with businesses including a coffee shop, a sandwich joint and a bank branch before the pandemic, many of them are now empty.Upstairs, the largest tenant is the office provider Knotel, which controls 56,000 square feet, CoStar said. Also, footwear firm Camuto Group and apparel company High Life have a presence in the building, where the average office rent is $68 per square foot annually, slightly higher than the Garment District standard, according to the CoStar data.Shorenstein purchased the tower, which it owns through a long-term ground-lease arrangement, in a $330 million deal in 2015. The ground below the building is owned by Solil Management, a real estate arm of the Goldman family.Shorenstein once held stakes in office properties across Midtown, including 350 Third Ave., 477 Madison Ave. and 450 Lexington Ave. But the company appears to have dramatically trimmed its portfolio in recent years; No. 1407 is the landlord’s only remaining city office property, according to Shorenstein’s website.Last year $541 billion in debt backed by commercial real estate interests came due nationwide, which was a record, according to the data firm Trepp. And the loans are maturing as offices are historically empty, years after Covid first arrived in 2020. Vacancy rates are approaching 20% in New York, and even those sites that are leased are often whittled down many days, with average headcounts of between 50% and 70% of their prepandemic selves, based on different measurements......»»
City lands $77M in federal grants for electric school buses and charging depot
New York City has landed more than $77 million in federal grants to bolster the city’s fleet of electric school buses and to build infrastructure to get more electric commercial trucks and private vehicles on the road, city officials announced Monday. Federal officials have awarded the city a trio of grants that will add 180 new electric school buses to New York’s fleet and help build a freight-focused electric truck and vehicle charging depot at the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center in the Bronx — the busiest heavy trucking destination in the state — that is expected to charge 7,000 vehicles annually beginning in 2025.“This is going to allow us to grow the green economy and build a cleaner future for New Yorkers,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a Monday news conference at a Bronx bus depot.As part of the allocation, a $61.1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Grant Program to electrify the city’s school bus fleet will benefit two city contractors: NYC School Bus Umbrella Services and JP Bus and Truck Repair.NYC School Bus Umbrella Services, one of the nonprofits that operates the city’s school bus fleet, won $29.5 million in grant dollars for 100 electric school buses and 100 chargers to be used citywide. Meanwhile, JP Bus and Truck Repair secured $31.5 million for 80 electric school buses to serve school districts throughout Brooklyn.The funds will help the city move the needle on multiple green vehicle mandates. Chiefly, it will help New York achieve the city and state’s target of a zero-emission school bus fleet by 2035.New York City was also awarded $1.5 million from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation’s Ride and Drive Electric Program toward a broader plan to electrify the city’s school buses. Lastly, a $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program will help build the electric charging depot in Hunts Point.On Wednesday the Adams administration announced $123.6 million in federal grant dollars from the Reconnecting Communities Program, mostly for the QueensWay, a High Line-style park atop a disused Long Island Rail Road track in Central Queens......»»
Meet the 2024 Notable Leaders in Finance
Our 2024 list of Notable Leaders in Finance Counsels showcases the city's financial heavyweights. The honorees are originating deals, leading impact investing, managing generational wealth, broadening access to capital and more.Subscribers can view the full list and profiles here. Not a subscriber? Become one today and get full access to news, data and analysis you need to do business in New York......»»
Adams calls for more power to involuntarily hospitalize people with mental illness following subway attacks
Mayor Eric Adams is calling on Albany to give the city more power to involuntarily hospitalize people with mental illness in the wake of Thursday’s shooting on a Brooklyn subway.Around 5 p.m., shots were fired on a crowded A train, leaving a 36-year-old man fighting for his life. As of Friday, the police were searching for a woman who was with the gunman at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station and sliced the back of the victim’s neck with a knife.It is not known whether the assailants in Thursday’s attacks are living with mental illness. But Adams said the incident “personifies” why he is seeking increased power to involuntarily hospitalize New Yorkers with serious mental illness.“When you look at many of these random acts of violence that you're seeing, you're seeing that it's dealing with people who are dealing with some real severe mental health illness,” he said in an interview with NY1 Friday morning. “Something simple, as just being able to engage them and give them the help they need…We have to give our law enforcement, our outreach workers the proper authorization to give them the help that they need.”He noted that some people who commit acts of violence are known in the subway system and have been involuntarily removed more than once. In light of this, he is urging Albany to give him more power to conduct removals, he said in a Friday interview with 77 WABC radio.The mayor’s call for action comes shortly after Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a five-point plan to increase security in the subway system, including dedicating $20 million to expand a subway mental health outreach program.While Adams’ insistence on involuntary removals as a method for addressing the city’s mental health crisis has faced harsh criticism, the latest city data shows that his plan is moving in the right direction. Since he launched a directive reminding law enforcement and outreach workers that involuntary transport to hospitals is in their purview, they have conducted an average of 137 removals per week. As a result, 54 of the 100 individuals on the city’s Coordinated Behavioral Health Task Force’s lists of people who have mental illness, but resist overtures for help, now have a roof over their heads and more people are connecting with treatment, according to the administration.Adams has pledged to intensify street outreach efforts to move more New Yorkers inside for treatment, triple capacity at the city’s Clubhouses, community-based facilities where people can get support and connection to housing and job services. He also aims to double the city’s Intensive Mobile Treat and Assertive Community Treatment teams, which provide individuals with medication and treatment. .....»»
Columbia gets $15M grant to develop drugs for rare forms of ALS
Researchers at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center have received a $15 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to develop gene therapies for rare forms of ALS, the school announced Thursday.The funding, which allocates $5 million per year over three years, will support Columbia’s Silence ALS program, an initiative that aims to make antisense oligonucleotide drugs for individuals with ultra-rare forms of the disease. Antisense oligonucleotides are small pieces of DNA or RNA that can bind to specific molecules of RNA in a patient’s cell and prevent toxic proteins from being produced. Only about 10-15% of the more than 30,000 ALS cases in the country are caused by genetic mutations that create proteins that damage motor neurons, according to Columbia.Dr. Neil Schneider, the principal investigator on the grant and director of Columbia’s Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center, told Crain’s drug development companies often don’t want to invest in therapies to treat such a small segment of people living with ALS. Therefore, the grant represents an opportunity to help an underserved portion of patients, he said.“Less than 1% of the 10 to 15% [of patients with genetic mutations] have these ultra-rare mutations,” he said. “We're trying to help these people but in the process, learn something about…The common biology that makes one form of ALS similar to another. If we can understand this biology better we’ll be able to develop smarter, more rational, more focused therapies.”Researchers at the Washington Heights medical center will work to develop customized drugs based on patients’ specific genetic mutations, he added. They aim to create three per year that can be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval.Columbia and the n-Lorem Foundation, a California-based nonprofit, first established the Silence ALS program in 2022 with a $400,000 grant from Target ALS. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is part of the National Institutes of Health and is based in Bethesda, Maryland......»»
Stark racial inequities persist despite continued efforts to reduce maternal deaths
Despite years of state efforts to lower maternal deaths, Black mothers in New York are still dying at a much higher rate than white mothers, a newly released report shows.Black New Yorkers were five times more likely to die from pregnancy than white New Yorkers through 2020, the most recent statewide data available, according to a report released by the Department of Health on Thursday. The state recorded 121 pregnancy-related deaths between 2018 and 2020 — more than 70% of which were preventable, the review found.The new data comes from the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Board, a panel of experts established in 2019 to investigate pregnancy-related deaths outside of New York City and make recommendations to address the crisis. The city has its own committee to review such fatalities. Data released by these panels lags because of the review process — but the overall death rate is aligned with more recent 2021 numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Since the state first established oversight committees, there has been little success in closing racial gaps. State leaders and politicians have proposed policies and programs to offer additional resources to hospitals and increase access to doula care, but patients have yet to see the impacts of those initiatives.While racial disparities persist statewide, city numbers are even more stark. Black women in the city were nine times more likely to die in pregnancy as of 2020 — significantly higher than both the state and national gaps.Challenges in reducing disparities in pregnancy-related deaths are in part due to the multitude of factors that contribute to them. Dr. Wendy Wilcox, chief women’s health service officer at New York City Health + Hospitals said that deaths are largely due to overall declining health, as mothers today are older and have higher rates of comorbid conditions such as obesity and hypertension.But the maternal death rate goes beyond medical factors, she added. Research shows that the lives and health outcomes of Black women are impacted by racism, Wilcox said. “Why would this be any different?”Discrimination, including slower emergency medical services response for some communities, was a factor in nearly half of all deaths reported between 2018 and 2020, the data shows.“I’ve seen firsthand our maternal care system, so it’s not surprising to see that we have not made major gains,” Sen. Samra Brouk, who represents parts of Rochester and has advocated for reductions in maternal deaths, told Crain’s. She added that the state has started to implement new policies and funding streams over the past year that could start to make a difference.New data come as state and city leaders unveil new, ambitious plans to address the maternal health crisis. Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed a series of initiatives in January to improve the health of mothers and babies, including making New York the first state to offer a medical leave policy for expectant mothers and eliminating out-of-pocket costs for pregnancy care. A spokesperson from the governor’s office did not answer a question about how much such proposals would cost the state.Hochul’s proposal also took aim at unnecessary C-sections, which were linked to higher rates of death. Women who had a C-section made up two-thirds of pregnancy-related deaths in New York, although they represented a little over one-third of total births.State efforts have been compounded by city investments. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a $43 million initiative to address women’s health in December — including a plan to reduce maternal deaths among women of color by 10% before 2030.It remains to be seen not only whether the state's newly proposed programs will go into effect, but whether they’ll have a sizable impact. New York state is in the early stages of implementing a new Medicaid benefit to cover doulas, which are nonclinical providers that offer emotional and physical support during pregnancy and birth. The program started on March 1 but is awaiting approval from the federal government, said Danielle DeSouza, a spokeswoman for the Health Department. So far, 40 doulas are enrolled......»»
New York nurses report heightened rates of assault at work
Nurses in New York say they experience verbal or physical violence at work more often than nurses throughout the rest of the country — a reality that could push nurses out of their jobs and jeopardize existing staffing shortages, a staffing report shows.Nearly 60% of New York nurses experienced workplace violence in the last year, according to a report released Thursday by Incredible Health, a San Francisco-based digital nurse hiring platform.Workplace violence – including verbal or physical assaults by patients or hospital visitors – was higher in New York than nationwide. Roughly half of nurses reported violence at their workplace across the U.S., and more than a quarter said they were likely to leave their job because of it.The pandemic put a spotlight on violence against nurses and other health care workers, sparking concerns from organizations such as the Chicago-based industry group American Hospital Association and Oakland labor giant National Nurses United about protecting providers on hospital grounds.“This is an area we would love for more hospital executives to pay attention to,” said Dr. Iman Abuzeid, co-founder and CEO of Incredible Health. She said there are specific strategies that hospital executives can implement to reduce violence in the workplace, such as hiring additional security personnel or training health care workers on how to de-escalate patient conflicts.Abuzeid said that staffing challenges during the pandemic could have played a role in heightened instances of assault.“When you have staffing shortages, there’s a higher probability of medication errors, there's a higher probability of readmission,” Abuzeid said. “It doesn’t help that if a nurse has to cover more patients, that can result in frustration from patients or their families.”Nationally, more than 63% of nurses reported being assigned too many patients at once, the report shows. Approximately 88% said that they believed that staffing shortages resulted in worse patient care – a significant increase from the 73% who agreed with the statement last year.The data come from Incredible Health’s fifth annual state of nursing report, which analyzed data from the one million nurses that use its platform, the company said. The researchers also surveyed 3,300 nurses as a part of their methodology.Incredible Health, founded in 2017, partners with 1,500 hospitals across the country, including NYU Langone, New York-Presbyterian and Catholic Health, Abuzeid said. .....»»
Editorial: State must ensure patient care is not prematurely disrupted amid Beth Israel closure
Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s pending closure will disrupt care for patients in the area. The state must ensure the disruption does not happen before the hospital actually closes.Hospitals provide a public good and rely on taxpayer money to function, whether it’s in the form of Medicaid funding or tax breaks for private nonprofit hospitals like Beth Israel. That means that they are subject to regulation and oversight to make sure they are delivering on their promises to society: to keep people healthy and care for the sick.Executives say that insurmountable financial losses in excess of $1 billion have forced the hospital to shutter. The decision to do so technically requires state approval, but Beth Israel has set a closure date of July 12.It is currently unclear if the state has approved Mount Sinai to end certain services at Beth Israel; the state has not made any public statements or answered reporter questions about the subject.Crain’s reporter Jacqueline Neber was the first to report the results of an investigation by the state Department of Health and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that found that doctors at Beth Israel failed to properly document the benefits and risks of transferring patients with emergency medical conditions to other facilities for care.The evaluation found that Beth Israel was not in violation of a law that prohibits hospitals from refusing to examine or treat patients with an emergency medical condition.However, the contingencies put forth by the agencies are notably toothless. The federal government ordered the hospital to create a corrective plan that outlines how it will monitor quality assurance to minimize future violations. If the hospital doesn’t meet requirements by the end of May, Medicare could “begin” to remove the hospital from the program at the beginning of June. Twenty-six percent of the hospital’s revenue came from Medicare in 2022, the latest year for which this data is available.Cutting off Medicare revenue would be a serious blow, even to the most financially stable institutions. But the lax timeline, coupled with the fact that Beth Israel is already closing, waters down the threat.The hospital has already ended some services; the health system decided not to renew Beth Israel’s designations for stroke and cardiac services, which expired on March 10. That came after the state ordered the hospital to “immediately stop” closing beds and services in a cease and desist letter in December 2023.The state must make its stance on Beth Israel’s closure clear to the public. Then, it must dedicate its full attention and regulatory powers to make sure patients are not suffering prematurely and that the hospital is not flouting its responsibility to the public......»»
City has lost 546,000 residents even as exodus is slowing
New York City lost almost 78,000 residents last year, bringing the total decline to more than half a million since April 2020, even as the pace of the exodus since the pandemic slows, U.S. Census data shows.By comparison, New York lost a cumulative total of 126,000 residents in 2022.In the 12 months ended July 1, about 160,000 people left the city, while about 52,000 arrived through international migration, bringing the population to around 8.3 million when births and deaths are included, the data shows. In the previous 12-month period, roughly 216,000 people left the city, while 54,037 arrived through international migration.The city has lost a net total of 546,164 residents since April 2020, despite a surge of new international arrivals. The Census figures run only through July 2023, so they don’t capture the past nine months of international arrivals.The population loss highlights the challenges New York still faces roughly four years after the Covid-19 pandemic first paralyzed America’s largest city, killing thousands of residents and spurring many to flee to the suburbs or other states.Manhattan, which gained 2,908 people, was the only borough whose population grew. Brooklyn, the city’s most populous borough, lost 28,306 residents, Queens shrank by 26,362, the Bronx fell by 25,332 and Staten Island declined by 671, the data shows.Earlier this week, Mayor Eric Adams tallied the total number of migrants who’ve come to the city since the spring of 2022 at 182,000 people. Some of those arrivals have since left the city or exited the city’s shelter system, but Adams administration officials said some 64,800 migrants were still in the city’s care as of last week.The city, which is currently spending an average of $387 per day to care for each migrant household, anticipates the cost to provide for migrants in city shelters will reach roughly $10 billion through the end of the next fiscal year.City officials said they believe the Census Bureau undercounted the number of new arrivals and said the city will challenge the estimates.“This July 2023 estimate does not fully account for changes in this population,” Department of City Planning spokesperson Casey Berkovitz said in a statement. “The city’s population was essentially unchanged between July 2022 and 2023, and we will be working with the Census Bureau to adjust the estimate.”This article has been updated with city’s plans to challenge Census Bureau......»»
National Association of Realtors agrees to abandon its commission standards
The National Association of Realtors will drop the long-held policy on broker commissions that has been the target of several lawsuits, the Chicago-based professional association announced Friday morning.It's the end of a Chicago-born standard of real estate sales, where the agents for buyer and seller agree to share a commission, most often dividing in half a commission of around 5% to 6%, although NAR’s rules say the split can give one party as little as zero. Lawsuits seeking to kill the standard have argued the sharing rule amounts to collusion to keep prices high by preventing buyers’ agents from competing against one another on price.“It has always been our goal to preserve consumer choice,” Nykia Wright, NAR’s interim CEO, said in a prepared statement emailed to the press. “NAR has worked hard for years to resolve this litigation in a manner that benefits our members and American consumers.”NAR’s agreement to drop its commission standards comes a few weeks after the U.S. Justice Department filed a brief in one of the commission cases where it essentially said that it won’t be satisfied until buyers compensate their own brokers, and sellers theirs.Today’s announcement from NAR moves the industry closer to what Justice signalled it wants.The potential for change in the way Americans buy and sell houses is enormous. In The New York Times, which was first to report the settlement, Norm Miller, a University of San Diego professor emeritus of real estate said the changes “will blow up the market and would force a new business model.NAR will also pay $418 million over the next four years to settle the lawsuits, which revolve around the claim that its commission standards violate anti-trust laws. Key among them is the Sitzer-Burnett case, where a Kansas City jury hit NAR and two big brokerages with a $1.78 billion verdict in October. With NAR’s no longer pursuing an appeal, only HomeServices of America, which in Chicago operates Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, is still defending, NAR’s release said.According to NAR, the settlement effectively ends all commission-related lawsuits across the country in which it or its member organizations are the defendants. NAR, the group’s statement says, continues to deny any wrongdoing in connection with its broker compensation standards.“Ultimately, continuing to litigate would have hurt members and their small businesses,” Wright said in the emailed statement. The nation’s largest trade association, NAR represents almost 1.5 million members.Kevin Sears, NAR’s president, acknowledged in the prepared statement that the $418 million settlement “comes at a significant cost (but) we believe the benefits it will provide to our industry are worth that cost.”As part of the settlement, which is subject to court approval, NAR will prohibit agents who are representing a property from posting a commission plan on the multiple-listing service. “Offers of broker compensation (will) continue to be an option consumers can pursue off-MLS through negotiation and consultation with real estate professionals,” NAR’s statement said.A third change is that NAR will put in place by July a new rule that requires brokers working with buyers to have them sign an agreement with the buyers spelling out how the broker will be compensated. In November, Laura Ellis, president of residential sales at Chicago-based Baird & Warner, said buyer broker agreements which her firm already recommended and many agents were using, would become the standard in the post-Sitzer real estate industry."We are very pleased to see that buyer-broker agreements will be mandated," Ellis told Crain's today. "Buyers deserve that level of transparency."Mario Greco, a Chicago Compass agent, said the new rule requiring buyer-broker agreements will simply codify “what individual agents have always done, which is tell clients our commission is negotiable.”Jena Radnay, an @propeties Christie’s International Real Estate agent in Winnetka who works with many of the top-dollar buyers and sellers, said the changes may result in buyers in the upper bracket getting superior service to what they’ve been getting.In the past the buyer’s agent has done less than the seller’s agent, who preps the property for market and creates a marketing package, but has generally received half the commission.“They can get by doing minimal work,” Radnay said, but “if they have to compete on price, they’re going to have to step up, give 5-star service, concierge service,” Radnay said.This article originally appeared in Crain's Chicago Business......»»
Cohen Bros. files demolition permits for Midtown office site
Cohen Bros. Realty may be dealing with some of its Midtown office woes by tearing down one of its buildings.The prominent, family-run real estate firm recently filed demolition permits with the Department of Buildings for 15 E. 54th St., which shares the same block and lot number as the company's 19-story office building addressed at 3 E. 54th St., city records show. The demolition permit, dated Wednesday, says the building spans about 280,000 square feet, the same size as 3 E. 54th St., but also lists it at only 9 stories and 78 feet tall, possibly indicating that Cohen Bros. could be planning only a partial demolition of the property.A representative for the company did not respond to a request for comment by press time.Cohen Bros. purchased 3 E. 54th St. in 1983, and the building was renovated in 1985, according to property records and the commercial real estate database CoStar. It is located between Madison and Fifth avenues and includes ground-floor retail and an on-site parking garage, the Cohen Bros. website says.Cohen Bros., which dates back to the 1950s, has been struggling with major office vacancies in the aftermath of the pandemic. The company owns eight office towers in Midtown, many of which are the type of older buildings facing a rough road amid competition from newer ones and a tough office market in general.The company faces particularly significant vacancies at properties including 3 Park Ave., where the occupancy rate fell to 54% late last year, and 805 Third Ave., also known as the Crystal Pavilion, where vacancies grew to 40%, according to data from Fitch Ratings.Cohen Bros. itself is headquartered in its building at 750 Lexington Ave. in Midtown, where WeWork is the largest tenant. The coworking firm listed Cohen Bros. as an unsecured creditor owed roughly $3 million in unpaid rent and lease-termination fees in its bankruptcy filing last year......»»
Op-ed: New York needs to prioritize rare disease
We live in an age of scientific miracles. We have an unprecedented ability to identify the causes of disease, and we have access to treatments, and even cures, we could not imagine only a few decades ago. Through exome or whole genome testing, we have the ability to personalize treatments for patients to deliver more effective care to people suffering from a wide range of diseases. Nowhere is this progress more critical than in the case of those battling rare or ultra-rare genetic diseases, defined by federal law as diseases that affect less than 200,000 people in the United States.But herein lies the problem: The research and development of medications to treat these rare conditions come with a significant price tag. This poses a unique challenge for both commercial insurance companies and public healthcare systems like Medicare and Medicaid, as it’s harder to make the case for cost-effectiveness when you're dealing with a smaller patient population. However, one thing is undeniably clear: These life-saving medications should be accessible to patients, especially when access to them can be the difference between life and death.Consider Bardet-Biedl Syndrome, a harrowing condition that leaves patients perpetually hungry, leading to morbid obesity and a host of other health issues. I recently spoke to a parent whose child battles BBS, who recounted the long-term physical and psychological impact the condition has had on her child. Imagine being repeatedly told by doctors that your child's weight issues stem from poor choices, when in fact this relentless hunger is beyond your control. This mother recounted her family's arduous journey to find an endocrinologist who ordered genetic testing revealing the presence of BBS and identified a drug to treat it. Yet Medicaid does not cover the medication, equating it to any other obesity drug. Thankfully, the child is now in treatment, but only because of the manufacturer’s commitment to patients.Policymakers across the country are becoming increasingly aware of the unique challenges of rare diseases and the treatments they demand. Many states have set up rare disease advisory councils composed of experts who advise policymakers on rare disease-related matters. On the federal level, there’s a Rare Disease Caucus in Congress. Similar efforts are sprouting at the state level, where lawmakers with a deep passion for life sciences and rare diseases space are forming similar Rare Disease Caucuses.Unfortunately, the effort in New York has been more muted. Currently, there is a Rare Disease Workgroup in New York, but it was established only after significant compromise that watered down the legislation originally passed by the Legislature. That workgroup is charged with producing a single report, originally due in December 2021 but still pending as of this writing. Fortunately, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a renewed focus on rare disease in her 2024 State of the State address, including a desire to make the Rare Disease Advisory Council permanent.Make no mistake, it is commendable that the state is taking steps to better understand how it can help those suffering from rare diseases. New York contains a plethora of world-class research institutions and has the capacity to be a world leader in life science technology on par with California and Massachusetts. New York also has a well-deserved reputation as a state that cares about the health and well-being of its residents, with generous public programs like Medicaid focused on ensuring that all New Yorkers get the care they need. We also have some passionate legislators and administrators who work hard to make sure those programs continue to work the way they should. However, we frequently fall short when it comes to rare diseases.The state Legislature has declared Feb. 29, 2024, as Rare Disease Day in New York, making this a perfect time to take the steps necessary to realize these goals. The governor is right to seek the establishment of a permanent Rare Disease Advisory Council. The Legislature can also establish a Rare Disease Caucus to leverage the interest and experience of knowledgeable legislators, many of whom are already fervent advocates for rare disease sufferers. More broadly, the state can invest more in life science research, and provide coverage for genetic testing and rare disease treatments that can vastly improve the lives of countless New Yorkers. Researchers, clinicians, and, most crucially, patients and their families deserve nothing less.Mark Ustin is a health care lawyer and lobbyist in the Albany office of Farrell Fritz......»»
Leaders work to calm subway fears with congestion pricing as a backdrop
Days after hundreds of National Guard soldiers flooded the subway as a supposed crime deterrent, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair and Chief Executive Janno Lieber found himself reassuring riders on news stations Friday morning that it’s safe to ride the rails in the wake of a Thursday evening shooting.Video of panicked riders after shots were fired on a packed A train in Brooklyn at 4:45 p.m., leaving a 36-year-old man fighting for his life, rattled commuters. A woman who was with the gunman at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station sliced the victim’s back with a knife and is currently being sought by police.The incident comes as the MTA is preparing for a surge of riders as it implements first-in-the-nation congestion pricing tolls, scheduled for June. When asked by interviewer Susan Richard on 1010 WINS Friday morning about the program, Lieber didn’t want to discuss it. “This is not the moment to talk about congestion pricing,” he said.The high-profile shooting couldn’t have come at a worse time. It occurred nine days after Gov. Kathy Hochul ramped up bag checks with support from National Guard soldiers to prevent people from bringing guns, knives and other weapons onto the subway. The shooting was the ninth to take place in the city’s subway so far this year, up from one shooting by this same time last year, NYPD data shows.MTA leadership and state and city officials, despite adding soldiers and police in the subway, appear to be at a loss about how to reassure riders. And sending in the National Guard arguably damaged New York’s image nationwide.“Today is about the passengers and understanding what they're feeling,” Lieber told Pat Kiernan on NY1 in a Friday morning interview. “When you're in that situation in a subway car and something that bad is going on and you're fearing for your own safety, that's the nightmare for all of us at the MTA. It's a nightmare for New Yorkers.”.....»»
Developer Eichner unloads West Village penthouse after seven years and a big price chop
Ian Bruce Eichner, a developer known for hitting lofty heights before plunging into financial troughs, is now seeing the conclusion of a rocky ride at his West Village apartment.After seven years—a stretch of time that saw the condo market soften, then enjoy a Covid bump and then finally come back down to earth again—Eichner has sold his West Village penthouse for $9.2 million, a discount of more than 30% from the $25 million he was seeking in 2017.The asking price back then for his top-floor unit, No. PHAE at 100 Morton St., could be considered aggressive. Eichner had paid about $8 million for the 5,700-square-foot spread in 2010, when he bought it from actors and twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. And the tripling of its price came as the once-hot mid-2010s condo market was deep into its cooling period.The Olsens had bought the unit from the building’s sponsor, JD Carlise, for about $7 million in 2004, when the 14-story, 140-unit development, a full-block project called 1 Morton Square, opened.Featuring a living room with a fireplace, an open kitchen with a 1,000-bottle wine storage enclosure and partial views of the Hudson River, the apartment is currently configured as a two-bedroom. One of the bedrooms, part of a primary suite, includes both a dressing room and a walk-in closet.But in a move suggesting that buyers expect more places to sleep in an apartment of its size, the Corcoran Group, the agency that handled the listing, provided an alternate floor plan in the listing showing how the penthouse could in fact be converted into a six-bedroom.The deal went into contract Sept. 29 and closed March 1, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Thursday. The buyer was a shell company, Lion and Bull LLC, represented by Manhattan law firm Schwartz, Levine, Pinkas, Stark.Corcoran’s Laurie Lewis declined to comment. And a message left for Eichner at his firm, Continuum Co., was not returned.Eichner rose to prominence in the 1980s with the development of Midtown’s CitySpire tower, a 73-story high-rise on West 56th Street that offered a mix of offices and condos but succumbed to foreclosure soon after opening in 1989. Eichner filed for bankruptcy protection two years later.Another famous misfire occurred in Harlem, where Continuum purchased a site near the 125th Street Metro-North station from Vornado Realty Trust in 2013 and intended to put up a hefty two-towered rental complex. But Eichner ran into debt problems, and after the Durst Organization snapped up a distressed note on the property, at 1800 Park Ave., Eichner agreed to sell it to Durst in 2016 for $91 million.Eichner’s staying power, however, has been notable. A 65-story, 83-unit condo at 45 E. 22nd St. in the Flatiron District begun about a decade ago weathered years of court battles among its partners, was forced to bring in new investors along the way when funds ran short and also struggled through a declining sales market.But the tower’s last sponsor unit, No. 52AB, went on sale in January 2023. Initially listed for $20 million, it sold for $17.5 million in July, records show.In 2022 Continuum entered into a contract to buy a Unitarian church and some related brownstones on East 35th Street for a reported $70 million with the idea of putting up a 15-unit condo tower at the Murray Hill address. Continuum does not appear to have ever closed on the site; there is no deed indicating an outright sale in the city register. But the developer may have instead partnered with the church in the deal.In any event, the church, the nonprofit Community Church of NY, filed an application to demolish the site this month......»»
City, Legal Aid reach settlement over effort to roll back right to shelter
The city and Legal Aid have reached a settlement over the Adams administration's controversial effort to roll back New York's longstanding right to shelter amid the migrant crisis.Under the agreement, the city must provide 30 days of shelter to adult migrants, after which the migrants will not have the ability to reapply for shelter unless they have demonstrated an extenuating circumstance requiring more time in the system. Migrants younger than 23 years old will receive 60 days of shelter, and adults with disabilities can also receive shelter for longer than 30 or 60 days.The settlement takes effect immediately and only applies to adults, not families with children. It also eliminates the use of "waiting rooms" as shelters, as many people have been forced to spend days or weeks waiting on floors and chairs when reapplying for shelter, according to Legal Aid.Adams said in a statement that the city has "been clear, from day one, that the 'Right to Shelter' was never intended to apply to a population larger than most U.S. cities descending on the five boroughs in less than two years.""Today's stipulation acknowledges that reality and grants us additional flexibility during times of crisis, like the national humanitarian crisis we are currently experiencing," he said.Legal Aid stressed that the settlement terms are temporary and will apply only during the current humanitarian crisis, and the government will not be automatically allowed to deny anyone shelter if they need it, preserving the underlying right to shelter that has long been a hallmark of New York."We will very closely monitor the city's compliance with this settlement," Legal Aid Chief Attorney Adriene Holder said, "and we won't hesitate to seek judicial intervention should there be noncompliance."Adams first attempted to roll back the city's right to shelter mandate in May amid the surge of migrants coming into the city, arguing that this had made it impossible for New York to provide a bed for anyone seeking one. Officials began mediation with Legal Aid in October in an effort to resolve the matter. The city has been required to provide a bed to anyone who wants one following a landmark 1979 court ruling in Callahan v. Carey, and the Adams administration has argued this is one of the reasons why migrants are choosing to come to New York.There are currently 120,000 people in the city's shelter system, roughly 65,000 of whom are migrants, according to the Adams administration......»»
Manhattan"s Community Board 5 leadership steps aside after boardroom brawl
Community Board 5 has undergone a major shake-up in what appears to be a coordinated effort to loosen land-use rules within several community boards citywide. Community Board 5 represents the interests of Midtown neighborhoods and has a seat at the table when city or state policymakers tackle big matters, such as the future of Penn Station or the rezoning of East Midtown. Chair Vikki Barbaro resigned last month after 15 years in the role and 30 years on the board. On Thursday night her successor, Nick Athanail, quit effective immediately. Also gone is Layla Law-Gisiko, chair of the powerful land use committee, who had served on the board since 2005.“I no longer recognize this board,” Athanail, a residential real estate broker at Corcoran, said Thursday night. “Consensus and constructive disagreement have given in to polarization and destructiveness.” The new chairman is Samir Lavingia, a former Google and Twitter software engineer and CB5 member for two years. He was elected Thursday night with 22 votes in favor and 19 abstentions. Lavingia is campaign coordinator at Open New York, a nonprofit funded by Open Philanthropy, which is backed by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. Open New York has an interest in housing development and a desire “to reduce the harms caused by excessively restrictive local land use regulations,” according to its website. “What concerns me is not Open New York’s policies, there may be benefits to them,” said Joseph Maffia, a CB5 member who remains on the board. “What I don’t like is their lack of transparency. They don’t tell you who they represent, that they are here to read from talking points verbatim, and vote as blocs to advance the interests of their employer.” “They have discovered the power of community boards and I worry they will take over others around the city,” Maffia added. In a statement to Crain’s, Lavingia said: “I would like to extend my thanks to every member of our board, past and present, who graciously spends their time and expertise on the business of our district. While I did not expect to be thrust into this role, it is an honor to represent the heart of the best city in the world that I take incredibly seriously. I am confident that we will create a stronger, more transparent, and representative voice for the community.” Community boards don’t write laws or draft regulations, but developers planning a new apartment building or office tower seek their approval because their recommendations sway elected officials. The boards also serve as farm systems for residents aiming to run for public office one day. Members are volunteers nominated by the City Council and approved by the borough president for two-year terms. Manhattan’s Community Board 5 is especially influential because its district stretches between Madison Square Garden and Grand Central Terminal, from 14th to 59th streets. In this, Open New York saw opportunity. Last year the organization was awarded $2 million by Open Philanthropy, and $500,000 in 2022. Open New York endorsed six City Council candidates in the most recent election, and all of them won. “We’ve recently begun working with a political consulting firm to explore ways we could accomplish more, both at the city and state level,” a Jan. 16 staff memo obtained by Crain’s read. As policy aficionados do, Open New York members gossip about politics and who’s on the way up or down. An exchange about former City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s proposals for affordable housing said they sounded good but “in no world would this pencil out, unless…the FAR cap was eliminated.” according to a Slack conversation shared with Crain’s. FAR, or floor-area ratio, caps how tall a building can rise. “I think Stringer can get where we need him to be,” Ben Carlos Thypin responded on Slack. He is a real estate broker and Open New York co-founder. “Think of him like Lincoln Restler – very smart politician who sees where the wind is blowing.” In January, Lavingia urged Open New Yorkers on Slack to join Community Board 5. “I just want to make a HUGE PLUG for Manhattan CB5,” he wrote. “You’ll have many allies….We are taking it on by the horns.” “Are there any boards where we’re close to a majority and we should make a push to get to 51%” an Open New York member replied. Lavingia said: “CB5 is close for sure.” Community Board 8, which covers the Upper East Side, is close “if you count the people who are sort of wishy-washy,” the member said. Another person said Community Board 4 in Midtown was close, too, “depending on the issue.” There are understood to be four Open New York members on Community Board 5, but their influence outweighs their numbers. In the last month, Athanail said, board members reported “intense politicking, coercion and disparagement” and feared being exposed as “disloyal to one side or face retribution by another.” “These are not the qualities of a board I would choose to lead,” said Athanail, who served on the board for more than 20 years. “And I don’t think a board with these qualities would be receptive to my leadership anyway.”.....»»