“Vote early and vote often”

— Al Capone

For candidates that will work for SoHo and have a proven record of accomplishments, here are the issues and here are the right candidates:

1. Developers looking to get fat off of the pillaging of our community, reject the recent push to provide so-called Affordable Housing — The SoHo-NoHo Development Plan. It has become a fake issue. Few, if any of us knows the game. As had been done with the 111 Varick development, the developer hires an expensive attorney, gets the Community Board to approve their building, agrees to put aside affordable units — and there is no follow up. Maybe HPD puts the affordable units on their site, maybe they don’t. There is never any assistance from the approved building’s rental office, no list to apply to, no follow-up from HPD when you inquire, and zero help from the Community Board. When I tried to initially get information, Community Board 2 wasn’t even aware that this particular project was in their catchment area. So, with a big push to develop SoHo, how are those “Affordable Housing” units going to be doled out? I’ve heard that a big-wig from Chinatown and Edison Parking, an aggressive real estate company from New Jersey are main factions behind this. Who’s from SoHo?
2. Abuse and harassment continue to be used by landlords in order to evict tenants in SoHo. And this directly affects Affordable Housing — and something can be done about it. Laws need to be passed which prevent landlords in Holdover Actions from charging rent AND causing tenants to pay legal fees to defend themselves. THAT is how landlords force tenants out. It is abusive and tenants should not be bankrupted in order to keep their apartments. In my case, in order to keep my apartment for my family (while in prison for writing about the now-convicted corrupt Hamptons D.A. Thomas Spota) the landlord, created a fictitious problem and got us into Supreme Court for having done approved interior construction 30 years before. The bullshit case put us $500,000 in debt while we also were required to pay rent. Should this be permitted? Because the plan, which works, is to use high-priced lawyers to force tenants to pay rent AND pay a lawyer. Landlords must face fines of up to $50,000 and one year in jail for using this criminal ploy.
3. No one has done anything about the traffic dangers downtown — especially around and near the Holland Tunnel as well as along Broome and Watts Street. Pedestrians have been hit by vehicles and Traffic Agents protect motorists and ignore pedestrians, even with baby carriages. I was hit by a car with no registration and no insurance — yet the police Detectives would not even investigate. No more talking. I’ve been complaining about this for 35 years. Time to act. Time to hand out moving violations for vehicles blocking crosswalks. Assign 10 agents permanently to write summonses. And, after a few summonses make it a criminal matter. Those without insurance or registration should be arrested around these specific routes. If people want to make money from SoHo — protect our residents!
4. Here are a few comments about the so-called VCF, the Victims Compensation Fund. The arm of the World Trade Center entity that pays out claims to those of us who were impacted by the terrorist attack in 2001. Many of us have never received any award for our health impact. The Fund is incompetent and once they received the $10 Billion injection due to Jon Stewart’s media event, the money came in and they paid each other’s salaries. How’s 20 years from the event and 3 years from putting up with countless phone calls to find out what — if anything — they are doing? I was actually asked to provide a form that I’d submitted almost a year before. In the meantime they were doing nothing. But, even more important the program does not pay for any psychological or psychiatric damage caused by watching people jump out of the World Trade Center buildings, or the health damage from the burning fires, or watching the buildings collapse. No compensation for years of dealing with PTSD, an emotional rollercoaster existence, endless nightmares, distorted emotions and experiencing the deterioration of your health. That must change. The countless thousands of residents downtown need to be treated properly and compensated. When I complained to my lawyer about the fact that I could be dead from cancer by the time I see a check he said, “Oh, I have many dead clients waiting for a check.”

Here are he candidates that will most likely help us in SoHo, despite all of the rhetoric and campaigning. I’ve left out those candidates and offices which I can’t support.

D.A. — Alvin Bragg

Borough President — Brad Hoylman

Mayor — Maya Wiley (except for the police defunding)

City Council — Christopher Marte

Stay tuned for more in SoHo and the latest from the corruption in the Hamptons.