Government

Sewage, Cement And Staten Island's Future

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The Port Richmond Water Pollution Control Plant is designed to handle 60 million gallons of sewage per day. Photo by: Marc Fader

Projects to upgrade a sewage plant and construct a cement facility open the next chapter in a complex—and controversial—industrial history. By: Jake Mooney

The Port Richmond Water Pollution Control Plant has stood on Staten Island’s North Shore, purifying the sewage of about half of the island’s residents, for 57 years. Soon it will get a $29 million upgrade, thanks to a citywide infusion of federal stimulus funds. It will also get a new neighbor, a transfer station about a mile down bumpy Richmond Terrace where cement will arrive from South America by boat and head to local construction projects by truck.

Bronx

Landlord Pinnacle Group Challenges Class Action

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Two months after a federal judge granted class action status to a group of tenants suing the Pinnacle Group, the formal process of finding people who think they were wronged by the giant landlord is on hold. Pinnacle has asked the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to challenge that class certification, and a ruling on that motion could come any day.Until that ruling comes, those who might have been eligible to join the class, which would include all current and some former rent-regulated residents of Pinnacle buildings, aren’t receiving official notification of their right to add their name to the suit. But that hasn’t stopped the plaintiffs and their supporters like Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer from informally starting to recruit people to join the case. On Saturday, plaintiff Kim Powell and a representative from Stringer’s office briefed a tenant group about it. Pinnacle lawyer Ken Fisher predicted in an interview with City Limits that the plaintiffs will get few takers.

Bronx

Cuomo Agenda Sees City As Model

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Attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo wants the rest of New York State to have campaign finance laws, business assistance programs and workforce development policies similar to those already in place in New York City.In a 250-page policy blueprint released this weekend, Cuomo says:The state needs a campaign finance system like the one in New York City “to allow limits on campaign spending and to increase participation by qualified candidates who lack the means or connections to raise significant campaign funds.”Easing the burdens on the state’s small businesses requires “on a state-wide basis, a version of New York City’s Business Express project — an online, one-stop shop for required permits and documentation for all state agencies.”MA sound workforce development program means aligning “responsibility for workforce training with agencies that have the best understanding of the needs of both business and labor, as New York City did by moving its workforce training to its Department of Small Business Services.”None of the proposals stray into controversial waters. The city’s campaign finance system, which was implemented in 1988 after a municipal scandal and offers matching funds to candidates who abide by spending limits, is widely believed to have encouraged more participation in the city’s elections (although term limits also spurred more candidates to run). It features limits on donations that are thousands of dollars lower than the equivalent state regulations.The past three city elections—in which Mayor Bloomberg outspent rivals by tens of millions of dollars—exposed the limits of any voluntary campaign finance system, which cannot stop wealthy, self-financed candidates from dwarfing the outlays of candidates taking public financing. However, mandatory campaign finance systems have not survived Supreme Court scrutiny.The city isn’t just a model for policies in Cuomo’s book; it’s also a target for a few initiatives. After discussing congestion at New York’s airports, the candidate calls for “a 21st Century transportation infrastructure policy that addresses this issue including next generation air traffic control systems, improvement of ground traffic management and expanding the use of Stewart International Airport in the Hudson Valley.”