Pam Harris/Marty Golden’s Bill Signed – Illegal Conversions

Pam Harris and Marty Golden’s bill was signed by Governor Cuomo. See here

The bill towards illegal conversions: Requires an owner of real property to provide notice to tenants of a residential lease as to whether a certificate of occupancy, if such certificate is required by law, is currently valid for the dwelling subject to the lease.

It’s not a very detailed. The bill wasn’t word specifically enough so it’s easy for a landlord to get around: “This bill would protect tenants by requiring landlords to disclose whether a certificate of occupancy is on file, if the building is required to have one, for the property being rented and that it is valid. Alternatively, landlords could provide a copy of the certificate of occupancy to the tenants.” 

WHY DIDN’T THE BILL GO FURTHER to cover tenants and penalize owners?  Harris a new Assemblywoman, and may not know how to write a bill well yet, but Senator Golden is a seasoned veteran and should be able to write a bill  well by now.

Here’s the problems with Harris’/Golden’s Bill:

• When you buy a new home, you have to sign a paper at closing that there are smoke alarms in the house. Will new renters sign a paper that they have received the Certificate of Occupancy and is that paper recorded or scanned anywhere?  No.

• Immigrants, those who don’t speak English as a first language and first time or young renters aren’t going to know what to look for on a Certificate of Occupancy.  Here’s someone who has the certificate and is questioning an illegal basement. And that’s someone who has a computer/knows how to access the certificate and ask for help.

• There are no penalties listed for not providing the Certificate of Occupancy. What happens to the owner when he doesn’t present a COO or presents a fraudulent one?  Tenants should be able to recover relocation costs when a landlord fails to provide a valid certificate of occupancy without going to court.  Being made whole should be immediate, especially if the tenants are taken out of the home by a sheriff.

To me, this is just a bill from some politicians who want to associate their name with home conversions. It sounds good if they made a law against home conversions, even if the law doesn’t do much. Further, we will see the press releases from Golden’s and Harris’ offices filling our papers with nonsense about their less than adequate bill. 

If you are unfamiliar with a bill that Marty Golden has submitted for his buddies looks like – see here  This one is to give a 95% tax break to someone who is donating to a private school. Since that bill didn’t fly, Golden and friends submitted a similar bill in January 2017.   He’s been trying to push this type of bill for years!

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Blood Drive in Bay Ridge

There is an emergency blood drive in Bay Ridge on December 6th from 10:00 am – 7:45 pm at Greenhouse Cafe at 7717 – 3rd Avenue

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Malliotakis Complaining on Social Media

This week Nicole Malliotakis claimed she was transparent about Assembly bills while pointing the finger at US Senate. When Malliotakis voted in favor of Marty Golden’s bill to give huge tax breaks to billionaire developers in Manhattan, she was silent on Twitter and Facebook. There was no posts explaining the bill or her vote – just #Silence. And there was definitely no video.

Since Malliotakis KNOWS that last minute bills are a problem in the Assembly, she could have made a bill to limit bills from being voted on without a two day limit, but instead she complains on social media and does nothing.

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MusicBox School in Bay Ridge

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Politics at the Lowest Level in Bay Ridge

Assemblywoman Malliotakis wrote to the MTA. We’ve seen this happen before. She wrote a letter about the S79 Service in Brooklyn/Staten Island. Some other pols, like Senator Golden, signed the letter and now everyone sends out stupid press releases and everyone is fooled into thinking Malliotakis did something.

The reality is that the letter will go in the garbage. Another pol will do the actual work and never receive credit for the work because Malliotakis loaded the paper with the press releases.

Politics at the lowest level in Bay Ridge as usual.

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Omar Vaid – Stay in Williamsburg!

Omar Vaid is running to be a Congressman to represent Bay Ridge and Staten Island, but he lives in Williamsburg.  I saw the info in Kadia Goba’s article over here.

Why isn’t he running to represent Williamsburg? So I asked him on Twitter.

And he ignored my question. Or maybe Omar just feels he doesn’t have to answer women.  I don’t know why he didn’t reply, but a non-response now shows he won’t be a good leader.

Yup typical politician. 

Omar was on Twitter this evening just tweeting about Trump:

Please stay in Billysburg Omar – we have enough people running for office. If you don’t live here then your interests aren’t here. I guess Omar didn’t see what happened with carpetbagger, Bob Capano -> Bay Ridge wasn’t interested. 

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Longbow Neighborhood Pub is Closing

Longbow announced that they were closing their business at the end of this month (see instagram). Longbow had been in business for eight years! We are sorry to see them go.

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Christmas Gift Idea – Bay Ridge

Casey Ruben, a local mother and artist, will be painting live at The Coop on Saturday, 12/2 and Sunday, 12/3 from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm.

She will be making custom 5×7’’ watercolor portraits of the kiddos in your life. Paintings takes no more than 10 minutes to complete and she will paint from your digital image, so there is no need for the child to sit still (let them play in our indoor play area)! Parenting win!

$15 per custom painting (1 child per painting), regular breakfast / brunch / lunch food and beverage available for purchase. It’ll be lots of fun and makes a great keepsake (and a fabulous gift for the grandparents)!

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Blue Bloods Filming in Bay Ridge

I was at work, but Blue Bloods filmed a crash scene here in Bay Ridge. See the car crash through the store.

See the crash from the other side: here  and here too   

They saw Donnie Wahlberg here and  here in Bay Ridge   

There are a lot of clear photos here.

Preparing the area

After the Crash:

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ESCO in Bay Ridge – Low Cost Utility Bills?

Employees from a company named ESCO are walking around ringing bells in Bay Ridge.  Do not show them your utility bill as they will transfer you to their company without your permisison.

Residents in apartment buildings are being told that if they see the code EL 1 on their bill they are paying a higher utility bill because they are being charged like a house, rather than an apartment. 

My friend was told that they will combine her monthly National Grid and Con Edison bills for a total of $64.99 a month.

People who have signed up say it is true for the first month, but later bills are a lot higher because they bill according to market fluctuations.

Some residents believe these are Con Edison workers, but they are not.

Read more about it here   Don’t show your utility bill.

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Man Hanging from Verrazzano Bridge

The Man was Rescued – Alleluia!

Hopefully, he realizes he is here for a reason.

God saves people that he needs to help other people. So I don’t know who the guy is, but I do know he has something important to do here.

The Verrazzano Bridge lower level was shut down around 5:20 pm because a man hanging off the side of the lower level of the bridge committing suicide. Police boats surrounded the bridge. 

At a little after 5:00 pm, people driving on the bridge saw a man walking on the Verrazano and called the police. 

When it was reported that he was “hanging off the bridge,” people in Brooklyn thought he hung himself from the bridge with rope.   They didn’t understand that he was holding onto the outside of bridge.

Hopefully, the emergency crew can rescue him and he gets a second chance to realize he has a lot to live for.   * Prayers *

Video: here      Pictures: here

The last jumper on the bridge was almost two weeks ago on Monday, November 13th.  I keep track of the jumpers because eventually someone will convince a politician to put a fence or a net up around the bridge and stop wasting/resources and keeping cars on the bridge for hours while they recover the person. 

Update: The upper level to the bridge is open, while for almost three hours people sat in traffic and couldn’t get home because the lower bridge is jammed up.  Story here

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86 Street Station Wall Fell Onto the Tracks

A portion of the subway wall fell onto the track at the 86th Street station in Bay Ridge around  5:30 am this morning. Story here. Last month NYC opened the Bay Ridge Station where they spent $24 million on cosmetic renovation. Maybe they could have spent the money on actually fixing the train. 

Trains aren’t running between 95th Street and 36th Street due to debris on tracks. Bus service is being provided until they clear the problem

The news first announced this as a derailment, so I guess a wall falling and not hurting anyone can be considered good news. More pic here

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