Don’t roll it! Fewer permits in ‘L-poca’ zone
BY GABE HERMAN
As part of the preparations for the
feared potential “L-pocalypse,”
or L train shutdown, city agencies
are coordinating to minimize other
potential disruptions in affected areas.
The mayor and agency commissioners
gave an update at a recent town hall
event.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Councilmember
Keith Powers held a town
hall on Dec. 19 in Council District 4,
which includes the Upper East Side and
Stuyvesant Town. A questioner brought
up whether the city would be trying to
limit unrelated projects in the areas
affected by the L shutdown, which is
slated to begin April 27.
De Blasio asked Department of
Transportation Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg, who was in attendance, to
fi eld the question.
Trottenberg said D.O.T. has been
“working closely” with the Mayor’s
Offi ce, the Mayor’s Offi ce of Media
and Entertainment, or MOME, and
the city’s Department of Buildings “to
look at all the upcoming projects. And
one thing we’ve discovered, it’s a huge
task,” she said. “We’re looking at hundreds
of fi lming projects, construction
projects, and all the agencies have been
coming together to go carefully through
that list, fi gure out which ones we can
pull in, move, etc.”
Trottenberg said this focus includes
the areas immediately around the L
train, including 12th through 16th Sts.
in Manhattan.
“Certainly, I’ve been talking to my
fellow commissioners,” she said. “Believe
me, we are very focused. All of
us we want the buses to move, bikes to
move, we want traffi c to be safe.”
The mayor added, “I think this is a
good example where extra transparency
would be comforting and clarifying
If, as expected, the L train is shut down in Manhattan for at least 15 months starting in late April, the city
plans to issue fewer film permits in the zone in and around 14th St.
for people. Where we are diverting
away from the area purposely, giving
people a sense of how and why that’s
happening.”
Commissioner Julie Menin, of
MOME, provided some specifi cs related
to L train planning. “On the fi lm
permit issue, we’re intentionally down
18 percent in the Council district,”
she said of Powers’s District 4. “We’ve
been working very closely with the
councilmember. We have 54 blocks on
a hiatus list where we’re not issuing any
permits for six months.” She added she
was happy to add more blocks to that
list if people felt that more deserved to
be on it.
Powers added that he appreciated
Commissioner Menin’s work to resolve
concerns in the district about fi lming.
Citywide, the fi lm industry is an $8.7
billion industry. More than 8,200 fi lm
permits were issued last year alone,
with 46 percent of those in Manhattan.
Obviously, construction projects
have far greater potential impact on
traffi c than brief fi lm shoots.
VILLAGER FILE PHOTO
Asked later about what D.O.B. is doing
to restrict construction projects in
the affected zone during the expected L
train shutdown, spokesperson Joe Soldevere
said the agency is working on it,
but didn’t give specifi cs.
“D.O.B. is working in close cooperation
with our partner agencies to ease
any disruptions during the shutdown,”
he said. “The city will have further
information on its preparations in the
coming weeks.”
Bedford tenants get ‘classy’ in rent-reg fi ght
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA
An ongoing lawsuit between
residential tenants in a Village
building and their landlord
was boosted to class-action status last
month after a judge formally gave the
suit class certifi cation.
Back in 2017, the Housing Rights
Initiative and the Village Independent
Democrats discovered the landlord of
28 Bedford St. had taken advantage of
a tax break meant to help owners make
upgrades to their below-market-rate
properties. The tax benefi t, known as
J-51, requires that landlords keep all
of the particular building’s units in the
rent-regulation program.
But just three out of 32 units were
rent-stabilized at 28 Bedford St., according
to the lawsuit fi led by the law
fi rm Newman Ferrara against Rudd
Realty and the Creative Industries Corporation.
“The class certifi cation shows this
is clearly the justice system recognizing
that this is something that went
wrong,” said Erik Coler, a board member
of H.R.I. and former president of
V.I.D. “This class certifi cation validates
that this is a serious case.”
Rudd Realty was unable to comment
due to the holidays.
Aaron Carr is executive director of
the Housing Rights Initiative, a nonprofi
t watchdog group. H.R.I. has
brought more than 50 class-action lawsuits
focused on the J-51 tax benefi ts
program to date, according to his nonprofi
t.
Rudd Realty agreed to give tenants
rent refunds and return the units to
rent regulation back in 2017, but the
offi cial class certifi cation could help
more tenants. H.R.I. estimates the tenants
could be owed a total of between
$1 million and $2 million.
In 2009, the court case Roberts v.
Tishman Speyer required that all buildings
benefi ting from the J-51 tax break
be 100 percent below-market-rate.
“Here we are nine years later and the
problem has yet to be resolved,” said
Carr.
Carr said H.R.I. has found 1,000
buildings illegally benefi ting from the
J-51 tax break.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s enforcement
strategy was a letter from the state
Division of Housing and Community
Renewal to landlords, urging “voluntary
compliance.” However, thousands
of units were not re-regulated by landlords
by the deadline the governor set
to do so, ProPublica reported in 2016.
“That’s a weak enforcement policy,”
Carr said. “That is a hands-off enforcement
approach which got us into this
problem in the fi rst place.
“You can’t let the governor off the
hook,” Carr said, adding that D.H.C.R.
is a state agency. “It’s on the governor
to ensure that this is being done,” he
stressed. “All we’ve heard from the
state government is crickets.”
6 January 3, 2019 TVG Schneps Media