BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

Source: Blue387 via wikimedia commons

A deal has finally been struck between the New York State Senate and Assembly in the effort to bring back lever voting machines. The New York Daily News is reporting that the old machines will be brought back just for the upcoming mayoral primaries.

We’ve previously reported that a series of disagreements between the Senate and Assembly over the best way to bring back the machines had stalled a decision. The Senate wanted to bring back the lever machines for all non-federal elections while the Assembly just wanted the machines only for this year’s upcoming primary and possible runoff election. The new deal brings back the lever machines just for use in the primary and and potential runoff elections, and not for the general in November.

The machines would replace the optical scanning voting machines, after Board of Elections bungling in past elections caused concern that they would be unable to reprogram the machines in time for a runoff.

The legislation also pushed back the date of any special mayoral runoff to three weeks after the primary instead of two. Governor Andrew Cuomo has not yet decided to throw his support behind the measure, despite heavy support from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and bipartisan support in the Senate and Assembly.

Source: Boston Public Library via Flickr

Nearly a century ago, in Coney Island’s halcyon years, when it was trying to compete with Atlantic City for summer tourist dollars, the towers of the Half Moon Hotel stood beautifully over the boardwalk. The history of the hotel, torn down 15 years ago, is remembered in a fantastic article by Brownstoner, which tracks the hotel through the Great Depression, its days as a mobster hot spot and its conversion into various medical facilities over the years.

The Half Moon Hotel was a 14-story structure located on the boardwalk at West 29th Street. It was built in 1927, at the height of prohibition, to challenge the beachfront hotels drawing thousands to the South Jersey shores in Atlantic City. The hotel was named after explorer Henry Hudson’s ship, remembering when it was anchored at Gravesend Bay. At the time, Hudson was haplessly looking for a shortcut to Asia.

While the hotel was very popular in its early years, the disastrous calamity that was the Great Depression nearly sunk the place for good. The building was nearly torn down in 1939 but managed to hang on. It became the scene of one of the most famous mob deaths in city history when FBI informant Abe Reles allegedly died at the hands of mobster syndicate Murder Inc., after falling from a hotel window.

The hotel’s transformation into a medical facility began during World War II when the US Navy took it over to serve as a hospital. The building was renamed as the “US Naval Hospital Sea Gate, NY.” After the war, the building briefly became a hotel again until it became the Harbor Hospital. Brownstoner then described the complicated history of Half Moon’s days as a medical center:

In 1951, the Hebrew Home and Hospital for the Aged bought the hotel and planned to house indigent senior citizens there in a hotel like setting, with private one and a half room suites. The Home would have dining facilities, recreation rooms, and even a synagogue for its residents. They opened for business in 1953. (On a personal note, I sang with an opera company there once, in 1983. I had never been to Coney Island, at the time, and had no idea where the heck I was. It wasn’t until researching this article that I realized I had been in the Half Moon Hotel.)

By the 1990s, the Home was called the Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Center, and the hotel building itself was known as the Parshelsky Pavilion. MJGC wanted to build a new Shorefront Jewish Geriatric Center, but the old hotel was in the way. It was torn down in 1996. When it was built, the Half Moon had been the tallest building around for miles. By the time it was torn down, its distinctive tower was lost in the towers of all of the high rise housing around it. Today, the name “Half Moon Hotel” is only remembered by mobster buffs and lovers of old Coney Island.

As corporations are currently pouring millions of dollars into Coney Island, betting that it will flourish in a new post-Sandy era, it was fascinating to read about the many transformations the boardwalk and community has already undergone since the early 20th century.

State Senator Marty Golden (Photo By Erica Sherman)

State Senator Marty Golden sponsored a bill that provides huge tax breaks for Manhattan luxury apartment building developers. The New York Daily News is reporting that legislation backed by Golden designates tax breaks for five developments, costing the city tens of millions of dollars as the city wrangles with an already starved budget.

One of the buildings eligible for a tax break includes One57, a massive 75-story luxury apartment development being built near Central Park. Believing that the legislation will help create jobs, Golden otherwise pleaded ignorance when questioned on the breaks.

“These projects were ready to go,” Golden told the Daily News. “I’m not sure where they came from,” Golden said in response to who earmarked the developments for special favor.

The bill’s sponsor in the Assembly, Keith Wright, a Manhattan Democrat, was also unsure for who and why the tax breaks were included.

“These five properties — it was important that they benefit from the piece of legislation probably, and I don’t know why, because some of the folks in the Senate wanted them to be included,” Wright told the Daily News.

The answer as to why the developments got special favors was not surprising. The Daily News discovered that significant campaign contributions were made to various state campaign committees:

The developers of four of the projects, their relatives and affiliated companies gave $1.5 million to various state campaign committees during 2008-12 — including $440,962 last year, records show.

The contributions included $53,000 to the state Senate Republican campaign treasury, $34,000 to the war chest of Assembly Democrats and $150,000 to the campaign of Gov. Cuomo, who signed the bill Jan. 30.

Advocates of campaign finance reform saw this measure as another example of how the system is broken.

“That real estate developers were able to win such a huge giveaway is a reflection of . . . just how broken the current campaign finance system is,” Jaron Benjamin, president of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, told the Daily News. ”The reason Albany lawmakers agreed to spend millions subsidizing luxury housing for the wealthy is clear: Developers who contributed to their campaigns . . . expected to be rewarded.”

City Comptroller and mayoral candidate John Liu sent out a press release today blasting the actions of the Senate and Assembly.

“Extending tax breaks to super-luxury apartment buildings in Manhattan is wrongheaded and shows grossly misplaced priorities. It’s sad and outrageous that billionaires get huge subsidies while the Rent Guidelines Board considers significant rent increases for millions of New Yorkers. It’s especially galling that the tax abatement in question, called 421-a, was meant to promote construction of affordable housing,” Liu said in the release.

I’m not the biggest roller coaster fan. I’ve been on a lot of them, but because I am prone to motion sickness I tend to avoid them [Ed. -- Wuss.]. That’s why I appreciate this video of the Thunderbolt, a virtual look at the new coaster headed to Coney Island, because I get all the taste of what the ride offers, without actually having to climb aboard.

The video, which begins with a glimpse of the old Thunderbolt, quickly shoots you to the futuristic new one which will drop paying customers at speeds upwards of 65 mph. The metal coaster is rather unconventional, using an elevator of sorts to bring coaster cars full of patrons up to the top of the ride, dumping them on the tracks, and letting gravity take over – as opposed to the traditional  clacking chain hoisting a car up the tracks as part of a closed loop.

Last week, we reported that the folks at Luna Park were rebuilding the Thunderbolt at a cost of $10 million. The new thrill ride will be adjacent to the Brooklyn Cyclones ballpark and will be operational in the summer of 2014. Until then, press play on the video above and dream about all the cotton candy you are likely to throw up after rocketing around that loop. Wooo!

Photo Courtesy Of Justin Brannan

Nearly 150 people gathered outside P.S. 204, the Vince Lombardi School, to honor the life of Karen Barone, a indefatigable community advocate who spent countless hours fighting to improve schools in the district and raising money to help the less fortunate. In honor of her efforts, Councilman Vincent Gentile renamed 82nd Street and 15th Avenue “Karen Barone Way.”

A proud mother, Barone was a PTA co-president and a member of the PTA President’s Council. She also volunteered as a Continuing Catholic Development teacher at St. Bernadette. She raised over $30,000 for the Lustgarten Foundation to help find a cure for pancreatic cancer and she also found time to raise money to feed the homeless.

“The reason we rename streets in this city is because of people like Karen Barone,” Gentile said. “Because the impact Karen’s life had on the lives of others will live on forever. And what better place in this community to commemorate Karen than right here outside the school Karen dedicated so much of her life to: P.S. 204, the Vince Lombardi School.”

To learn more and help fight pancreatic cancer, you can visit the Lustgarten Foundation by clicking here.

Baruch Lebovits (Source: failedmessiah.typepad.com)

Sam Kellner, an Orthodox man and Borough Park resident, was seeking justice on behalf of his sexually abused 16-year-old son. The New York Times reported that in the midst of his ordeal, he was shunned by the local community, damaging his business and social life, but also indicted on charges of attempting to extort the accused abuser for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The complicated and tragic story began five years ago when Kellner accused Baruch Lebovits, a prominent Hasidic cantor, of sexually abusing his 16-year-old son. Kellner began working with investigators in helping them uncover other victims of Lebovits, in turn seriously upsetting the Orthodox establishment. A rabbi at Kellner’s synagogue declared him a traitor and forbade community members from talking to him. As a result, Kellner’s son was barred from all local yeshivas and Kellner’s business was driven to closure. Kellner also became worried that he would be unable to find his son a wife.

According to Kellner, his life was ruined.

“I felt murdered and abandoned. I’m ruined,” Kellner told the Times.

For Kellner, things went from bad to worse in 2011. Prosecutors had successfully tried Lebovits for sexual abuse crimes but then quickly indicted Kellner on charges of extortion. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, led by Charles Hynes, had obtained a secret tape and grand jury testimony from a supporter of Lebovits, both of which provided evidence that Kellner had attempted to extort $400,000 from Lebovits.

The evidence against Kellner subsequently led to the release of Lebovits.

Battle lines between a growing group of embittered Orthodox whistle-blowers who faced similar community harassment, and the powerful Orthodox establishment who fight hard to keep such cases under wraps, are increasing in intensity. The Times described how for whistle-blowers, Kellner’s case is of the utmost importance:

This indictment stunned the small, embattled community of Hasidic whistle-blowers. Mr. Kellner, to their view, took enormous risks in a righteous fight. That he could sit in the dock next month is a message not lost on anyone.

“If he’s convicted, no one will ever come forward again,” said Rabbi Cheskel Gold, a member of a rabbinical court in Monsey, N.Y., that gave Mr. Kellner religious permission to investigate Mr. Lebovits. “No one.”

Alan Dershowitz, an attorney for Levbovits have painted Kellner, and other people who have come forward in sexual abuse cases in Orthodox communities, as nothing more than extortionists.

“We see Kellner as a leader of a major extortion ring. He is not a do-gooder,” Dershowitz told the Times.

The case against Kellner isn’t as cut and dry as Dershowitz would want people to think. The Times describes the audiotape, which allegedly captures Kellner trying to extort Lebovits, as being vague:

[Dershowitz] pointed to the key evidence, a secretly taped, rambling and excited conversation between Mr. Kellner and Meyer Lebovits, the cantor’s son. Mr. Kellner is also accused of paying witnesses to testify against Mr. Lebovits. “When you have an audiotape where Kellner is warning him that he’s going to bring other victims, it speaks for itself,” Mr. Batsidis said.

That explanation sounds better than the tape itself. The transcript reveals a conversation soaked in ambiguity, and rendered in overwrought language. It depicts Mr. Kellner as a tortured father trying to find justice. The younger Mr. Lebovits at times seems to accept that his father committed some acts of abuse.

Kellner has also gained support from Beit Din, a three-member rabbinical court in Monsey, NY, who believe that they have a moral obligation to fight sexual abuse in their community:

They view Mr. Kellner as a brave pioneer. He did not seek out witnesses at random; rather their court, with the help of local leaders in Williamsburg, gave him the name of a victim.

“Lebovits is known to have a long history” of sexual abuse, Rabbi Chaim Flohr said. But Mr. Lebovits has powerful supporters, and people are fearful, he added.

Currently, Kellner is free on a $25,000 bond and is awaiting his day in court.

Photo Courtesy Of John Quaglione

City Council hopeful John Quaglione is disgusted at the sight of graffiti lining the exit ramp of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and is demanding the MTA do something about it.

Quaglione, who is challenging veteran Councilman Vincent Gentile for his seat, railed against the MTA for its unpopular $15 tolls, which he believes is contributing nothing to clean graffiti off the bridge.

The candidate said he was driving around on Monday when he went to enter the Belt Parkway at 4th Avenue and 100th Street and found himself staring at a wall of graffiti on the exit ramp – a “very bad welcome sign to” Brooklyn, Quaglione said.

So he scoffed at the MTA’s inability to wipe its bridge’s bottomside.

“With the Verrazano Narrows Bridge toll now $15 a better maintenance system must be put into place. What are we paying all this money for, if they can’t even keep the Bridge clean?” he said in a press release.

Source: LugoLounge/Flickr

Some late-night headaches for N, Q and R riders in Manhattan, but otherwise, things are pretty much status quo ’round here. Here are this week’s subway service advisories:

D LINE

From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Tuesday to Friday, 205 St-bound D trains stop at 135 St.

N LINE

From 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., Monday to Friday, there are no trains at N, Q and R stations in Manhattan. N trains run in Queens and Brooklyn only.

N service operates in two sections:

• Between Ditmars Blvd and Queensboro Plaza.
• Between Stillwell Av and Jay St-MetroTech.
  • Take the 4, 6, 7, D, F and Q instead.

UPDATE (6/19/2013): There’s been another adjustment added to the N train schedule. From 9:45 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday, Coney Island-bound N trains run express via the D from 36 St, Brooklyn to Stillwell Avenue.

R LINE

From 10 p.m. to 12 midnight, Monday to Thursday, R service ends early in Manhattan and Queens. N trains make local R stops between Jay St-MetroTech and 36 St.

F LINE

From 12:30 a.m. to 5 a.m., Tuesday to Friday, 179 St-bound F trains run local from Roosevelt Av to 71 Av.

Congressman Michael Grimm and mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota are looking to forge an alliance despite Grimm being left out of a recent Lhota marketing blitz. The New York Daily News is reporting that Grimm was left off of mailers sent out by Lhota’s team, but the snub is to be corrected by a public endorsement today.

Lhota, the former MTA chief, received high profile endorsements from NY GOP perennials Rudy Giuliani, Marty Golden, Peter King and Michael Grimm at an April fundraiser. When Lhota released a mailer listing the endorsements from the event, Grimm’s name was left off.

Lhota’s spokesperson Jessica Proud gave a cheeky response to the potential controversy concerning Grimm’s snub.

“We appreciate our opponents highlighting all of our endorsements,” Proud told the Daily News.

Grimm, who has not taken kindly to being snubbed in the past, is not looking to hold a grudge in this instance, apparently. SI Live is reporting that Grimm is set to publicly endorse Lhota today at an event being held at the Mount Loretto Senior Center in Staten Island.

The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs has secretly ordered agents to dole out a minimum number of fines to small businesses, while also pressuring judges to rule in favor of the city during the appeals process, the Daily News claims in an exclusive report.

The paper reports that documents they have obtained and whisteblowers in the agency reveal disturbing practices, in which inspectors are ordered to fine one in four businesses they visit, administrative law judges are pressured to side with the city, and whopping fines are disproportionately smothering minority-owned and outerborough businesses.

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