HOUSING ADVOCATES ASSAIL CUOMO ON HOMELESS ISSUE -- POLITICO New York's Laura Nahmias: A group of housing activists and advocates say Governor Andrew Cuomo is more concerned about his feud with Mayor Bill de Blasio than he is with finding solutions to the city's homeless problem. More than a dozen advocacy groups, including VOCAL-NY and Make the Road New York, signed a letter sent to Cuomo's Albany office, calling on the governor to match a commitment made by de Blasio last month to create and pay for 15,000 new units of supportive housing over the next 15 years.
In the letter, the groups accuse Cuomo of dedicating "more energy toward attacking the Mayor, while offering none of the needed resources" to address homelessness, as the city's shelter populations hover around 58,000 residents. Cuomo, whose spokeswoman late last month said de Blasio "can't manage" the city's homeless problem, has signaled that he intends to announce his own plan for addressing homelessness next month in his state of the state address. READ THE LETTER: http://politi.co/1OeZqUV
Cuomo concerned more with scoring political points than solving a serious issue?
Say it isn't so.
Cuomo ally Scott Stringer plays the same game:
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration and members of the City Council railed against Comptroller Scott Stringer on Thursday, following the release of a report by his office which they say misrepresents de Blasio’s affordable housing and rezoning plan for East New York.
Stringer's new 8-page report argues, in part, that the administration's plans to rezone a portion of East New York in Brooklyn are flawed. The report states that the administration proposal, which needs City Council approval, would place nearly 50,000 current residents living in the area "at an increased risk of displacement."
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Councilman Rafael Espinal, who represents parts of East New York slated for the rezoning, said the comptroller is making a “caricature” out of the numbers.
“I'm not interested in getting in the middle of political squabbles,” Espinal told POLITICO New York. “This is not a simple problem, and the numbers are caricature and not the full picture of what I am pushing the final plan to look like. I've been working hard with my community for many, many months to address the same concerns of affordability and have been working with the administration to get them addressed.”
Other council members, who spoke with POLITICO New York on the condition of anonymity in order to preserve their relationships with Stringer, said the report threatens to undermine the efforts they are making to work out better deals with the administration. Some went as far as suggesting Stringer is simply taking a cheap shot at the mayor and inserting himself into a procedure he plays no role in.
Council members pointed out the report does not necessarily fall within Stringer’s purview, and questioned whether his office is focusing on the areas the comptroller is actually supposed to manage, like the public pension fund.
One member said, “I’m not engaging with him, because Scott has absolutely no authority by City charter and no involvement in any way, shape or form in the ULURP process, it’s a little bit ridiculous.”
It's noteworthy when the council members who have been working on this issue for "many, many months" say Stringer's got no business inserting himself into it, has no authority by City charter to be involved in "any way, shape or form" and simply is looking to take a "cheap shot" at the mayor.
Stringer's positioned himself as a Cuomo ally, sucking up to the governor every chance he gets (including this most pathetic of suck-ups when Little Scottie thanked the governor for "keeping us all safe" in his big, strong arms.)
This 8 page report that is outside of his purview as comptroller is another attempt to aggrandize Cuomo and, perhaps, get his backing for a primary attempt against de Blasio in 2017.
Alas, Stringer's record as comptroller isn't so hot, so perhaps he should keep his nose out of issues with which he has no authority and just focus on the ones he does - like the plummeting pension fund returns and skyrocketing fees the Wall Street vultures are charging for management of those funds.
It will lay down a good foundation later on, as there are such sufficient points and values been discussed which almost used to govern more aspects, so indeed another good platform to settle on.
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