GreenpointBlog – Page 2 – Greenpoint Star Newspaper

January 5, 2023

End of Year Legislation Signed by Hochul

By Alicia Venter

aventer@queensledger.com

As the year came to a close, Governor Kathy Hochul had a busy two weeks. She became the first woman to be sworn into a full term as governor of New York on Jan. 1, and in the month prior, she signed numerous pending state legislation into law.

Notably, she signed a bill that prohibits discrimination based on citizenship or immigration status and immigration status is illegal in New York.

This law will expand the protections from the NYS Division of Human Rights, which currently investigates cases in which individuals have been potentially discriminated against due to their immigration status.

State Senator John Liu and State Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz came together with activists on Dec. 29 in front of Flushing Library to applaud the signing of this bill (S6586A/A6328A).

“We appreciate Governor Hochul for signing this legislation in recognition that our state is made greater by the vast contributions of talented and aspiring people from everywhere in the world who adopt New York as their new home,” Liu said in a statement. “Unfortunately, even as they pursue the American Dream, they are stymied by obsolete federal laws and byzantine bureaucracies that prolong their path to citizenship and subject them to bias and discrimination. This bill will help provide equal opportunity in employment, housing, and other needs that all New Yorkers should have access to.”

The first state program in the nation allowing individuals to be reimbursed for the costs of kidney and liver donations came from the governor’s office this week.

The legislation (S.1594/A.146A) amends the public health, tax and social services laws to enact the “New York State Living Donor Support Act,” which will establish a program to cover the extra costs that come with organ donation for New York residents who donate to a fellow New Yorker. The law comes in an effort to eliminate financial barriers to organ donation and, as a result, reduce wait times for organ transplants and address the organ shortage in New York.

As of publication, there are over 8,000 people on transplant wait lists, most of whom are awaiting a kidney, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

A legislative package (S.3897/A.8936-A) supporting pedestrians, bikers and transit riders included increased funding for “Complete Street” projects.

A Complete Street is a roadway designed for all roadway users — not just drivers.

This includes pedestrians, bicyclists, public transit riders as well as motorists. It also makes an effort to focus on children, the elderly and persons with disabilities.

With this legislation, the state’s contribution to the non-federally funded portion of the project increases to 87.5 percent.

New legislation (S.3959-B/A.7822-C) will require the non-voting transit dependent representative be moved into a voting position on transportation authorities’ boards. In short, this new legislation will provide a vote — and a voice — to riders who permanently rely on transit services including bikeshares, buses and paratransit.

To protect existing labor laws on behalf of workers, Hochul signed legislation (S.5994C/A.1338C) that establishes a registration system for contractors and subcontractors engaged in public work and covered private projects. This law will require contractors and subcontractors to provide a series of disclosures about their businesses every two years with the Department of Labor.

The department will determine whether a contractor or subcontractor is fit to registers based on previous labor law and workers compensation law violations, including prevailing wage requirements. This law will create a publicly available database.

Furthermore, notable previously signed laws that are set to go into effect in 2023 include the establishment of a task force and annual report to examine social media and violent extremism.

The Electric Vehicle Rights Act, which prevents a homeowners association from adopting or enforcing any rules or regulations that would effectively prohibit, or impose unreasonable limitations on the installation or use of an electric vehicle charging station, is set to go into effect on Jan. 21.

In this year, student-athletes will be able to receive endorsement compensation, and New York schools will be prohibited from taking away the scholarships or eligibility of any athlete making money from such endorsements.

December 28, 2022

Opinion: A year of getting stuff done

By Eric Adams, NYC Mayor

Every day when I’m out talking to my fellow New Yorkers across the five boroughs, I hear the same things.

All of us want a strong economy, safe streets and subways; more affordable housing; support for working families and a great education for our children.

When I took office as your Mayor a year ago, I pledged that we would Get Stuff Done in these areas, and I am proud to report that we have done just that.

The economy is roaring back, with over 150,000 private-sector jobs added between January and October.

Subway ridership is higher than it has been in two years.

Tourism has recovered to 85 percent of pre-pandemic levels, supporting jobs across every sector, from hotels to restaurants, bars and shops.

After two years of the COVID pandemic, New York City is back.

I can feel the energy everywhere I go, and I can see the difference from when I was on the campaign trail.

Much of this is due to our determination to focus on public safety from Day One.

While New York remains the safest big city in America, we know that people need to be safe and to feel safe.

That’s why we worked so hard to address crime, disorder and quality of life issues on every front.

The good news is that crime is down.

Major crimes have dropped this November from where they were a year ago, and transit crime is down nearly 13 percent — due in large part to our surge of NYPD officers in the transit system.

We’ve removed nearly 7,000 illegal guns from our streets, and gun arrests are at a 27-year high.

At the same time, we are offering alternative pathways to New Yorkers living in areas that are at high risk for gun violence — for example, job opportunities and training with organizations like BlocPower.

Housing our neighbors has never been more important, and I have called for an all-hands-on-deck effort to build half a million new units of housing over the next 10 years.

We are already scaling up our efforts on this front, building more affordable housing across the five boroughs, and investing in improving the public housing that already exists.

We are also connecting New Yorkers in need to stable housing, and are taking bold measures to help our brothers and sisters with severe mental illness leave the streets and receive the medical support and services they urgently require.

Our young people have struggled over the past two years.

We must make sure that they have the tools to recover from the isolation of the pandemic and to succeed in their careers and lives.

So, we expanded the Summer Youth Employment Program to serve 90,000 young New Yorkers over the past summer.

We’ve instituted dyslexia screenings in our schools so that all our students can learn to read fluently, and we extended our services to youth in foster care so we can now support young people ages 21-26, who are facing the challenges of transitioning to independent adult lives.

And we are supporting our working families by increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for the first time in over 20 years, putting $350 million dollars in the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers who need a break.

A safe city is also a clean and environmentally resilient city.

We started the largest-in-the-nation composting program in Queens, which we hope to expand citywide.

We are making sure that trash doesn’t collect in neglected areas, like underpasses, and we are limiting the amount of time residential trash can be left out on the sidewalk in an effort to reduce our rat population.

Our city continues to face challenges, but as 2022 draws to a close, there is much to be optimistic about.

It is an honor to be mayor of the greatest city in world, and I’m proud of what our city has accomplished together.

I’m looking forward to working for you and with you to Get Stuff Done for our city in 2023 and beyond.

December 28, 2022December 28, 2022

Pol Position: Legislature votes to increase pay

New York legislators could now be the highest paid in the nation, after the electeds voted last week for a $32,000 increase.

Starting on January 1 2023, if signed by Governor Hochul, Albany lawmakers will make $142,000. According to the National Conference of State Legislators this would make them the highest paid lawmakers in the country, with California ringing in at second with a pay of $119,702.

The legislation would also limit outside income lawmakers can receive to $35,000, starting on January 1, 2025. ANy violations of the pay increase rule would also be a Class A misdeameanor.

While Governor Hochul has not yet signed the legislation, she did signal support for the legislation earlier this month.

“I believe they deserve a pay raise,” Hochul said at a Bronx press conference earlier this month, as reported by Gothamist. “They work extraordinarily hard. It’s a year-round job. I’ve been with them many times in their districts and they work very hard and they deserve it. It is up to them on whether or not they want to come back and make that effective.”

But on last Friday, Hochul did not commit to a position in an unrelated press conference, as the New York Post reported.

“I have many bills on my desk … so I will address that in proper time,” she said.

Lawmakers last received a pay increase in 2019, where the salary was increased to $110,000 from $79,500.

December 28, 2022

In Our Opinion: LaSalle is wrong pick for Chief Justice

Last week, Governor Hochul nominated Hector LaSalle as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Empire State. Her choice to nominate him and not seeing the coming backlash demonstrates a serious lack of political adeptness.

Back in November, the Governor published a Daily News op-ed outlining her criteria for a chief justice. Among requirements like being able to manage the large court system, Hochul wrote:

“The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken — with decisions such as Dobbs vs. Jackson, taking away a woman’s right to choose, and New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. Bruen, tossing a century-old law protecting New Yorkers from the proliferation of guns. We are now relying on our state courts more than ever to protect our rights. We need our courts to defend against this Supreme Court’s rapid retreat from precedent and continue our march toward progress.”

Now, with LaSalle’s nomination, Hochul has nominated someone who curtailed investigations into crisis pregnancy centers. LaSalle also allowed Cablevision to sue union members as individuals for defamation over their criticism of the telecom company’s response to Hurricane Sandy, circumnavigating protections normally afforded to union members.

The news created a backlash with a handful of state senators saying they would vote no or expressing skepticism. Multiple unions, including the powerful 32BJ SEIU, came out hard against the nomination, labeling him as anti-worker.

LaSalle’s nomination is historic. If confirmed, he would the first Latino Chief Justice to preside over the Court of Appeals. But his record would also help move the court more rightward.

In response to the backlash, Hochul said that “I never wanted to have a political litmus test.” This statement alone shows Hochul’s weak politics, entertaining the fantasy idea that justices are completely neutral just because they wear a robe.

It’s a political appointment. Full stop.

Even if his record on these issues didn’t personally bother us, the nomination shows a critical misunderstanding of current political winds. All the eyes are on the courts now, and having someone with these views is not tenable in the modern Democratic Party – where issues such as labor and abortion rights are key issues.

December 28, 2022December 28, 2022

John Catsimatidis-Owned Oil Company Refuses to Sign Union Contract at Greenpoint Refinery

Claudia Irizarry Aponte, The City

This article was originally published on Dec 23 5:00am EST by THE CITY

Left to right: Union rep Vic Castellano with Asaaf John and Andre Soleyn at Greenpoint’s United Metro Energy worker strike, April 29, 2021. — Union rep Vic Castellano, left, with Asaaf John, center, and Andre Soleyn at Greenpoint’s United Metro Energy worker strike, April 29, 2021. | Gabriel Sandoval/THE CITY

United Metro Energy, the Brooklyn-based oil company owned by radio host and former GOP mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, declined to sign a longstanding, industry-wide collective bargaining agreement that expired last Friday, Dec. 16.

The contract had represented only three truck drivers, who haul fuel from the Greenpoint refinery, as members of Teamsters Local 553 for decades. But additional United Metro workers, including about two dozen technicians and mechanics, have been on strike for union recognition since April 2021.

In an interview with THE CITY on Thursday, Catsimatidis said — as United Metro executives have in recent months — that the company was never bound by the agreement, a matter Local 553 is disputing with the federal National Labor Relations Board.

Overall, that contract spans some 800 workers in New York City and is negotiated by the New York State Energy Coalition (NYSEC), which deals with labor contracts with unions across the state on behalf of several energy corporations.

United Metro’s refusal to sign the master agreement was largely seen by workers as an attempt to further thwart the efforts of striking workers at the expense of the facility’s three union members.

“That’s all part of the fight to undercut the union effort that we started, and he seems to be getting away with it,” said Andre Soleyn, a terminal operator and union leader on strike at the terminal since April 2021. “So he is definitely using that as a perch to come against us as a group to prevent us from getting what we deserve.”

The new contract that went into effect on Dec. 16 includes a $5.50-hour increase over the three-year life of the agreement — the “largest increase ever,” according to a memo sent to Local 553 members — and the addition of Juneteenth as a paid holiday.

Mayor Eric Adams meets with Greek American leaders at Gracie Mansion on Tuesday, February 15, 2022. — John Catsimatidis, right, attended a meeting Mayor Eric Adams held with Greek American leaders at Gracie Mansion, Feb. 15, 2022. | Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

“We are abiding by whatever terms everyone else is abiding by. And if they make an agreement with the rest of the industry, we will most likely abide by that, too,” Catsimatidis said.

“Somebody shows it to me, whatever agreement they abided by, with the other people, we will abide by it,” he added.

In response to Catsimatidis, Local 553 secretary-treasurer Demos Demopoulos said in a statement to THE CITY on Thursday: “I expect Mr. Catsimatidis to be a man of his word and that he will honor his commitment to abide by and sign the Industry Agreement when I present it to him.”

600 Days on Strike

Even as it honored the terms of past industry-wide agreements settled in 2017, United Metro Energy claimed — in a Sept. 20 letter from president John McConville to NYSEC CEO Rocco Lacertosa — that the company was not bound to the contract that expired on Dec. 16 in the first place, because it did not sign the contract.

United Metro, McConville wrote, “is not bound by the current Master Contract with Local 553. To the extent that any such agreement is in effect — which it is not — it will not renew after December 15, 2022.”

Local 553 charged the company had “unilaterally canceled a valid collective bargaining agreement” in an unfair labor practice charge it filed against United Metro with the NLRB in October.

“For the employees that are covered under that contract, they have been paying all the wages, benefits and medical, vacation schedule — everything that’s covered under the master contract,” Demopoulos said last Wednesday. “So it’s ridiculous for them to claim now that they’ve never been covered under that contract, when for years, they’ve been more or less honoring that contract.”

Catsimatidis is the CEO of Red Apple Group, a conglomerate of energy, real estate, media and grocery companies, including Gristedes food markets, which have a longstanding collective bargaining agreement with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500.

The dispute adds another chapter in a multi-year labor dispute at United Metro Energy, which distributes heating oil to New York City schools and hospitals and the MTA, as well as diesel fuel to gas stations. About two dozen of its Greenpoint refinery oil technicians, terminal operators and fleet mechanics are on a strike that has stretched for more than 600 days.

Those workers voted to join Teamsters Local 553 in 2019 and went on an indefinite strike in April 2021, more than two years after fruitless contract negotiations began.

United Metro workers earn hourly wages averaging $12 below the industry average, according to Local 553.

‘Always Welcome’

“Basically, they’ve just been dragging out negotiations,” union rep Vic Castellano told THE CITY last year. “And we wouldn’t take this action if they were negotiating the way they claim to be. Nothing should take over two years.”

In April, a year after the strike began, Local 553 called on Mayor Eric Adams to halt a $52 million contract with United Metro brokered by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, because of the dispute. The mayor’s office said it could not sever the deal because the company is in compliance with local regulations, the New York Post reported.

Catsimatidis told THE CITY that the workers “are always welcome to come back to work.”

“Check my record — in 50 years in labor, in New York City, I’ve been a CEO for 50 years, we’ve never had a strike. And the union just on a Monday morning, decided to put these people on strike,” he said.

United Metro responded by firing nine terminal operators at the onset of the strike in 2021 — union leader Andre Soleyn among them. The company was ordered by the NLRB to reinstate the nine employees in July of this year; those workers are separate from the truck drivers whose contract the company is disputing.

The company complied, and all but two of those workers remain on strike, taking other jobs to make ends meet while holding the line.

“There’s a certain resolve that the guys have, and that’s because we all have families that we need to take care of, and we want them to do better than we did,” Soleyn said.

THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.

February 25, 2021February 23, 2021

Emmy Burger will be available at Emmy Squared in March

For a limited time only, customers at Emmy Squared will get a taste of the famed double-stack “Emmy Burger” typically served at its sister restaurant, Emily, in the West Village.

Both Emily and Emmy Squared are part of the family of pizza restaurants called Pizza Loves Emily.

The Emmy Burger is consistently listed as one of the city’s best burgers, according to the company. It features double-stack dry-aged beef patties cooked medium rare with Emmy sauce, which is made of gochujang and Kewpie-mayo. It’s then topped off with caramelized onions, American cheese, pickles and served on a pretzel bun.

The burger is served with curly fries.

Guests can take to social media to weigh in on the rivalry between the Emmy Burger and another famed burger, Le Big Matt. At the end of the month, every guest who voted for the winning burger will receive a $10 gift card to Emmy Squared.

Emmy Squared has three locations in New York City, including one at 346 Grand Street in Williamsburg.

February 23, 2021

Calls for vaccinating more seniors in north Brooklyn

St. Nicks Alliance, Los Sures and The People’s Firehouse released their own plan to get thousands of seniors in north Brooklyn vaccinated.

The groups are calling for setting up both fixed and mobile vaccination sites in:

Senior centers like Swinging Sixties Senior Center (211 Ainslie Street) or Los Sures David Santiago Senior Citizens Center (201 South 4th Street)
Senior housing sites like Metro Houses (609 Metropolitan Avenue), Jennings Hall (260 Powers Street), Monsignor Vetro Houses (320 Devoe Street) or Monsignor Alexius Jarka Hall (70 Bedford Avenue)
Large housing complexes like Lindsay Park Cooperative or local NYCHA developments

They also want to partner with providers to streamline the appointment registration process. Their plan calls for providing transportation through St. Nicks Alliance, collaborating with local drug stores to bring vaccines to the homebound and home care workers, and working with local elected officials.

The three organizations provide the bulk of senior services in north Brooklyn, according to St. Nicks Alliance executive director Michael Rochford. They also have deep roots in the community.

Read more about their plan to vaccinate more seniors in this week’s Greenpoint Star newspaper.

February 11, 2021February 9, 2021

Volunteer to help clean up north Brooklyn

Join NYC H2O and Councilwoman Darma Diaz’s office for a volunteer cleanup event on Saturday, February 20 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The event will focus on cleaning up Euclid Avenue and Atlantic Avenue. There will be three two-hour shifts available. Volunteers can sign up for just one shift.

Gloves, garbage bags and pickers will be provided for volunteers. Everyone will be asked to maintain six feet of physical distancing and wear masks.

February 8, 2021February 9, 2021

Electric vehicle charging hub coming to old Pfizer site

Revel is building the continent’s largest electric vehicle charging depot at 630 Flushing Avenue, the former home of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

When it’s built out, the hub will have 30 chargers open to the public 24/7, accessible to all electric vehicle brands.

Revel plans to build out charging hubs like these throughout New York City to promote the use of electric vehicles.

The hub, which will go live this spring, will use Tritium’s RTM75 model for the first 10 chargers. These chargers provide the vehicles with 100 additional miles in about 20 minutes.

Read more about the new charging hub in this week’s Greenpoint Star newspaper.

January 26, 2021

Two Bushwick groups receive SBS grants

The NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) has awarded over $750,000 in grants to neighborhood business organizations across the city, including two groups supporting Bushwick businesses.

Brooklyn Alliance, which services Bushwick and Canarsie, and Evergreen, serving Bushwick, are recipients of the Strategic Impact COVID-19 Commercial District Support Grant.

The funding is meant to be used for merchant organizing, technical assistance, and increasing awareness of city and state rules and regulations.

SBS so far has only allocated the first phase of grants, with another round coming. Applications for the second phase opened on January 25 and close on February 8.

Read more about the SBS grants in this week’s Greenpoint Star newspaper.