Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Major Rent Hike Needed to Deal with ‘Runaway Spend...
Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Major Rent Hike Needed to Deal with ‘Runaway Spend...: --> By Michael Horowitz BRONX, NEW YORK, February 6- Riverbay assistant treasurer Daryl Johnson sees a major carrying-charge hike in Co...
Major Rent Hike Needed to Deal with ‘Runaway Spending’
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By Michael Horowitz
BRONX, NEW YORK, February 6- Riverbay assistant treasurer Daryl Johnson sees a major carrying-charge hike in Co-op City unless management officials and other members of the board start taking his warning about “runaway spending” seriously.
Based on preliminary budget figures, a carrying charge increase of at least three percent could be in the offing by October of this year, Johnson said, in a Co-op City Times Viewpoint last Saturday.
Johnson noted that Co-op City preliminary budget for the 2013-2014 fiscal year shows expenses for Co-op City's various departments increasing from $95.8 million this year to $106.2 million in the next fiscal year, an increase of $10.4 million, or 11 percent.
The power plant's budget for the 2013-2014, alone, calls for a $3-million increase in expenses.
“The people in management and the people on the board need to take my lead in cutting expenses, something that they have, to date, been unwilling to do,” Johnson noted. “The preliminary budget, of course is not written in stone, but I get a bunch of blank stares or worse whenever I bring up the idea of cutting the budget.”
Johnson added, “Based on the fact that there doesn't seem to be any inclination to cut anything from the budget, I am not at all optimistic about our ability to avoid a significant increase in carrying charges later this year. I have been warning, for months, about runaway spending, but, so far, no one seems to be taking my warnings seriously.”
Johnson, for months, has been saying that Co-op City's expense budget could by cut by at least 10 percent without affecting the delivery of services to the community.
He has offered a number of suggestions on how costs could be cut. These suggestions have included a significant streamlining of procedures in Co-op City's Restorations Department, the curtailment of lucrative contracts for high-paid consultants, strict limitations on changes in the parameters of consultants' contracts, and the duplication of work done by contractors' workers and Riverbay Corporation employees.
Despite the specific suggestions that Johnson has put forward, Herbert Freedman has insisted that the board member has no specific ideas about how to cut Co-op City's expenses.
“It's really outrageous that we're now considering a preliminary budget that calls for more than a $10-million increase in the composite budget for Co-op City's various departments,” Johnson stressed, in a telephone interview on Monday. “The people in management don't seem to care that major increases in our expenses translate into significant increases in carrying charges that we, the shareholders, will have to pay.”
Johnson added, “We continue to have double-digit unemployment in the Bronx, and many of our community's shareholders are unemployed, too. In addition, many people in this community are living on fixed incomes. In short, a large percentage of the people living in Co-op City can't afford to pay an increase in carrying charges. As it is, many people in this community are having trouble paying the current carrying charges.”
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Bronx News (Bxnews.net): De Blasio Almost Endorses Cohen
Bronx News (Bxnews.net): De Blasio Almost Endorses Cohen: --> Riverdale Report By Robert Press BRONX, NEW YORK, February 6- In what was to be the second of the four major Democratic candidates run...
De Blasio Almost Endorses Cohen
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Riverdale Report
By Robert Press
BRONX, NEW YORK, February 6- In what was to be the second of the four major Democratic candidates running for mayor this year to endorse Andrew Cohen for the 11th council district was put off due to a death in the political family, that being former Mayor Ed Koch. Many people in and out of politics told me Koch would have wanted the endorsement of Cohen by current Public Advocate Bill De Blasio to go on so people could have another way of remembering February 1st 2013.
The endorsement of Cohen by De Blasio has been pushed back a week and should have happened by the time you read this paper. Andrew Cohen was endorsed by current City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (currently the leading Democratic candidate in the race for mayor) a week before the scheduled De Blasio endorsement which leaves only Bill Thompson and John Liu left as the two other major Democratic candidates not to endorse 11th council candidate Andrew Cohen. Look however for the official endorsement by current Public Advocate Bill De Blasio (and candidate this year for mayor) of Andrew Cohen for the 11th council district in next weeks paper. It has been rumored that current Mayor “ King Moneybags Bloomberg” (who ran on the Republican line for mayor three times) might be endorsing one of Cohens opponents in the Democratic Primary for the 11th council district.
While Mr. Nicks Pizza & Pasta has opened up at 3552 Johnson Avenue (in the old Corner Cafe spot) finally after several long months of work, Riverdelight Restaurant a few stores down the block has closed its doors after many years of being a fixture on Johnson Avenue. One reason the high cost of rent, and it appears that one or two other stores on Johnson Avenue are on the brink of closing for to the same reason. We wish Mr. Nicks Pizza & Pasta well as it is the third store that the owners have, with the other two well established stores in Tarrytown and Briarcliff Manor. Stop in and try a slice of pizza of your choice or enjoy one of the other many items on Mr. Nicks menu. It looks like there will be a new store opening up right across the street from Mr. Nicks. The name on the sign says Munchies which means it could be an Ice Cream and/or Yogurt shop. More on Munchies in future columns.
Even though there may be snow on the ground Wave Hill is still open for business, and you can visit that little gem of a place in the northwest section of the Bronx for one of Wave Hills winter activities. Just go to my blog at www.100percentbronx.blogspot.com and check the archive section on the left to click on the weekly listings of events that are going on at Wane Hill. There is fun for the entire family at Wave Hill.
While the school bus strike continues to drag on there seems to be less children not attending school every day as the strike continues. Parents are finding other ways to get their children to school, and if that was the hope of Mayor Bloomberg it may be coming true. The mayor may just say now that the bus routes are not needed, and the city can save millions of dollars by eliminating them. What has happened to that good old neighborhood school, and where are the promised improvements in education that you made eleven years ago Mayor Bloomberg? Schools are still being closed due to poor performance (even schools opened under your watch), and to many children still can't read or write on grade level let alone graduate high school on time or at all. Mayoral control gets an “F” and should replaced by a different system.
Finally, next week I will have a report on the February 5th Community Board 8 Economic Development Committee meeting, and how those Street Fair applications and other matters that the committee will take up go. By the way I would love to tell you where the meeting is to be held, but as of our deadline (Sunday February 3rd) the location is still “To be determined”. I wonder why?
If you have any comments about this column or would like to have an event listed or covered in this column or on my blog you can e-mail us at 100percentbronxnews@gmail.com or call 718-644-4199 Mr. Robert Press.
Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Koch told me that he, not Ferrer, rebuilt Bx.
Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Koch told me that he, not Ferrer, rebuilt Bx.: --> (Photo by Seitu Oronde) By Michael Horowitz BRONX, NEW YORK, February 1- Ed Koch, a man I view as the city's best mayor in my lifeti...
Koch told me that he, not Ferrer, rebuilt Bx.
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(Photo by Seitu Oronde)
By Michael Horowitz
BRONX, NEW YORK, February 1- Ed Koch, a man I view as the city's best mayor in my lifetime, was a man who wanted credit for his accomplishments. He died, last Friday, after five decades of varied accomplishments.
From the former Mayor's perspective, the rebuilding of the Bronx stood out as one of his shining accomplishments. And yes, he did read community newspapers, like this one.
I recall, in the 1980s, how ticked off he was at me when I wrote an article in which former Borough President Fernando Ferrer, then a candidate for mayor, claimed credit for the rebuilding of a borough that was largely burned to the ground in the 1970s.
“What do you mean giving Ferrer credit for the rebuilding of the Bronx?” Koch asked rhetorically. “I did that, and I'm going to put you in touch with a man from the Crotona Park area who will show you what we did in that area in terms of the development of new and affordable housing.”
Within two days, a black man from the Crotona Park area, around the Bronx Zoo, contacted me, and he showed off what he and Mayor Koch had accomplished in terms of rebuilding the neighborhood that the man, an elderly gentleman, still called his home.
Mayor Koch loved to talk, and he loved to say outrageous things, but he also accomplished much more, during his 12-year tenure as mayor, than most politicians accomplish in a lifetime.
The contrast between Koch and former Gov. Mario Cuomo, who were rival candidates for mayor in 1977 and for governor 10 years later, still stands out in my min.
I interviewed both men in the 1970s, Cuomo, when he was running for mayor, and Koch, after he had been elected as mayor.
When I peppered Cuomo with pointed questions relating to the agreement he brokered to pave the way for resident management here, the man who was to become the state's governor dismissed me as someone who was beneath him.
In contrast, Koch, when he came to Co-op City in response to a News story on illegal dumping along the service road leading to the Bartow Avenue entrance to the New England Thruway, confronted me directly, in a style that fit many of the stereotypes about him.
He said that I was a “Cassandra,” or a prophet of doom, for suggesting that the city would do nothing about an eyesore and safety hazard that had been allowed to fester for years.
I remember how, much to my surprise, the city acted speedily, after Koch's visit to Co-op City, to clean up the eyesore that had been neglected for years.
Koch loved to talk, and he aroused the public with a whole host of outrageous one-liners over the course of a career in public life that spanned more than five decades. However, he didn't only talk, as many politicians do; he actually go things done.
A native of the Bronx, the former Mayor, who was buried on Monday, was a quintessential New Yorker in many ways. He was brash, but he was also sophisticated, cultured, well-educated, and worldly.
He started out in politics as a liberal Democrat from the Greenwich Village area, but he evolved into a practical politician who wanted to get things done.
Unlike most politicians today, he had friends from both the Republican and Democratic parties. He even endorsed a number of Republicans in elections because he thought that they would do a better job in the positions for which they were running than their Democratic Party rivals.
Koch was a unique kind of politician --- a non-ideologue whose major concerns were arousing the public consciousness about issues of major concern, and above all, else, getting constructive things done.
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