Roots of Betrayal Update #5

On Saturday, 4 Aug 2012, Louis Flores gave this update on his forthcoming book, "Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn." Funding ends on Aug. 16, so please make a pledge on Kickstarter today.

Lawsuit Response to Quinn NYU Plan

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Plan to sue New York City over the controversial NYU expansion plans.

Andrew Berman, the executive director of the GVSHP, told The Village Voice that community's next move is to file an Article 78 petition in court, which will challenge the legality of the Bloomberg-Quinn administration's decision on the John Sexton plan, as the 20-year construction project is called.

"We were not listened to as a part of the process," Berman said after the vote. He said that even though his preservation society's taken losses before, the council decision was an "egregious" abuse of power.

Jim Walden, a high profile litigation partner at the Park Avenue law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, spoke at a press conference immediately after community members were thrown out by Speaker Quinn of the City Council's large hearing room.

From an e-mail alert from Jim Fouratt :

Boss Christine Quinn send a press release out 5 hours prior to the City Council vote on the NYU 20-Year development plan stating the results of the vote. When Greenwich Village residents arrive to witness the historic vote, Speaker Quinn who represents many of the people present, never once in two hours looked up to the balcony, where the public had been placed. When the NYU plan came up, a few people in the balcony murmured at how she introduced it. She said, with out looking at the public, that if the public were not silent, she would remove them. It was a Margret Thatcher arrogant abuse of power moment. One elderly grey-haired resident of Washington Square Village, where the 20-year plan will take place, yelled out, "Liar," and Boss Quinn shouted, "Sargent of Arms, remove them." They did, and here is what happened outside. Listen closely. The audio is sometimes weak ... be sure to listen to the lawyer.

Quinn Approves NYU Expansion

That which Robert Moses was not allowed to do, Christine Quinn will do : ruin the special social fabric of Greenwich Village. * BREAKING NEWS : New York City Council Votes To Sell Off Public Park Space, Violate Urban Renewal Agreements, Upzone And Subject Residential Area To TWENTY YEARS Of Construction For NYU Expansion Plan (Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation) * "While this action is indeed a bleak statement on city government and our public land use review and approval process, this is not the end. GVSHP and our allies at NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan are jointly represented by the law firm of Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher. We will be pursuing all legal options available to us, including challenging the decision in court. Stay tuned for more news soon," wrote Andrew Berman, the Executive Director of the GVSHP. * More and more, it's looking worse and worse for the effort to save Chelsea Market.

Make a pledge today to support Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn on Kickstarter.

Amanda Burden Approves NYU Expansion Plan

City Planning Commission Approves NYU Expansion Plan ; Community's Effort To Defeat This Reckless Plan Moves To City Council ; Good Luck.

From Andrew Berman :

This morning the City Planning Commission voted 12 to 1 in favor of NYU's massive proposed Village expansion plan with minor modifications. All of the Mayor's and all of the Borough Presidents' representatives voted in favor, while Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio's representative voted AGAINST the plan. The approval by the Commission was completely expected, as the Mayor had made clear his strong support for the plan. However, we are greatly encouraged by the Public Advocate's rejection of the plan, and now we will see if the City Council, which must hold public hearings and vote upon the plan, will exercise similar independence and reject the plan.

Read more : You can find out more about NYU's massive expansion plan and efforts to stop it.

Based on how New York City Speaker Christine Quinn used illegal tactics to shut out the community from the City Council hearing on the vote to approve the irresponsible Rudin condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's Hospital, it's not looking too good for residents of Greenwich Village. Who knew that Amanada Burden would turn out to be the second coming of Robert Moses ?

Prostest Against NYU Expansion

Not since Robert Moses planned to construct a highway through the Greenwich Village has this special part of Manhattan been under so much threat.

Approximately 500 activists and residents of Greenwich Village turned out for a protest against the destructive expansion plans by New York University and other corrupt real estate developers -- and against their political enabler, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Activists were getting ready to attend a Community Board 2 meeting, which was holding its final public hearing about NYU’s over-development plans. Speaker Quinn, in part, decides who serves on Community Board 2.

The constant over-development of Greenwich Village is uniting community members against the political enablers of corrupt real estate developers. This year alone saw a controversial application by the Rudin family to convert St. Vincent’s Hospital into a mega billion-dollar luxury condo and townhouse complex with no allocation for affordable housing. Now comes NYU, with its own irresponsible expansion plans that promise to shred the fabric of the fragile community feeling in Greenwich Village.

The hundreds of people who stood in line to get into the Community Board 2 meeting expressed support for the campaign to vote Speaker Quinn out of office. Activists distributed hundreds of flyers, until the entire supply of flyers was exhausted. Many people asked for additional flyers to distribute to their friends.

The type of people who attend community board meetings are politically aware, and it is the politically aware voter, who understands why Speaker Quinn must be voted out of public office. When asked after the protest whether the anti-Quinn activists had converted many people, one of the organisers remarked, "We didn't have to try too hard to deliver our message tonight, because the people we spoke with were already on our side. I think we energized them to spread the word about Christine Quinn and provided them with information to help them expose her corrupt support of real estate developers, like the Rudin family and NYU."

It is not just residents, who oppose the reckless NYU expansion plans, but also students, who fear that the billion-dollar expansion budget would result in a vicious cycle of tuition hikes, which, in turn, would lead to higher student loan burdens.

But not only is it the actual cost or the impact on the fragile neighborhood fabric of Greenwich Village that is uniting activists against the NYU expansion plans, but also the dangerous precedent that would be set. The community of Greenwich village, lead by urban activist Jane Jacobs, had decades ago fought and defeated Robert Moses's plan for the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have destroyed Greenwich Village and parts of SoHo. Look at how all these many decades later everybody is trying to "correct" the wrongful demolition of the old Penn Station ? What is the difference between Robert Moses back then and each of Bill Rudin and John Sexton today ? Mr. Rudin is the patriarch of the billionaire Rudin family, while Mr. Sexton is president of NYU. Not much, say the community.

And now, the community is beginning to see Speaker Quinn's true colours : She can easily be counted on to be the political enabler of every corrupt real estate developer. For example, she accepted $30,000 in political campaign donations from the Rudin family, all the while Speaker Quinn refuses to recuse herself from ramming the Rudin condo conversion deal through the governmental approval process.

The only thing that can undoubtedly stop corrupt real estate developers like NYU and the Rudin family, among others, and their political enablers, such as Speaker Quinn, would be when the courageous activists, who turned out tonight, join forces with the broader people-powered social movement spurned by a spontaneous popular uprising of regular, average folks, who are demanding a restoration of the democratic process. Stay tuned.