Amanda The People's Clueless Burden AKA Gentrification Enabler

'What We Haven't Figured Out Is the Question of Gentrification'

From The Atlantic :

Maintaining enough affordable housing and keeping income diversity in a city as it prospers are two of the most contentious and perplexing questions in U.S. urban policy today. In a CityLab panel on urban expansion, economist and New York University professor Paul Romer decried rent control and argued that affordability is a problem for the free market to solve — and met with objections from Amanda Burden, director of New York City’s department of city planning.

"I had believed that if we kept building in that manner and increasing our housing supply … that prices would go down," Burden said. "We had every year almost 30,000 permits for housing, and we built a tremendous amount of housing, including affordable housing, either through incentives or through government funds. And the price of housing didn’t go down at all. That’s a practitioner’s point of view."

"What we haven’t figured out is the question of gentrification," Burden added. "I have never, since I had this job, come up with a satisfactory answer of how to make sure everyone benefits. It’s a question I would welcome more answers as to how to make this a more equitable city. Because that’s how we continue to attract people from all over the world, is people perceive the city as an equitable city, and a city with opportunity for all. It’s not just those poetic words. But I really wonder how we can do it."

Is this how Bill Rudin does business ?

In exchange for $30,000 in campaign donations, did New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn sell out her community ?

To Preet Bharara : Do @chriscquinn's official acts come as a result of campaign donations ? christine-quinn-sold-out.blogspot.com/2011/02/rudin-… #StVincentsHospital

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) April 4, 2013

In 2009, Bill Rudin and New York City Planner Amanda Burden were photographed at the same plush "Observer 100" party to celebrate money, power, and influence. In spite of their cozy relationship, Ms. Burden did not recuse herself during the zone-busting approval process for Mr. Rudin's billion-dollar luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital. There is no such thing as a conflict of interest in New York City government, and the Department of Investigation is a joke.

The conflict of interest in respect of Ms. Burden paints a pattern of how Bill Rudin does business. Mr. Rudin also participated in an arrangement with the appearance of being a quid pro quo with former mayor Ed Koch.

Rudin family offered #EdKoch posh apartment.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/nyr… ; Koch promoted Rudin condo plan for #StVincent's. dnainfo.com/new-york/20110…

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) February 3, 2013

But Ms. Burden and Mr. Koch were not alone in compromising the integrity of the government approval process that stacked the deck in favour of Mr. Rudin's devastating zone-busting plan, which seized a charitable community hospital as the site for his billion-dollar luxury condo conversion plan.

Did Christine Quinn Give Up On Saving St. Vincent's In Exchange for Campaign Donations From The Rudin Family ?

In an apparent conflict of interest, Beth R. DeWoody, Madeleine R. Johnson, Eric C. Rudin, Jack Rudin, Katherine Rudin, and William C. Rudin each donated $4,950 to Christine Quinn's presumed 2013 mayoral campaign. Not only did Speaker Quinn say that we only needed an urgent care center to replace St. Vincent's, but she approved the Rudin family's plan, allowing St. Vincent's Hospital to be rezoned into luxury condos. Since 2010, the Rudin family has been trying to get approval for a billion-dollar real estate development plan for the buildings that belong to the bankruptcy estate of St. Vincent's Hospital. Since the Rudin family wants to build luxury high-rise condos on the site of St. Vincent's, and since they needed City Council approval from Speaker Quinn, do these large campaign donations explain why Speaker Quinn did nothing to restore a Level I trauma center and full-service hospital to the former St. Vincent's site ? Does Speaker Quinn's official acts come as a result of sizable campaign donations from the likes of the Rudin family ?

Does Bill Rudin use the Association For A Better New York to further his economic interests ?

Not only has Bill Rudin and his family funneled money to the mayoral campaign of Christine Quinn, but he also helps to fluff Speaker Quinn's image in the media. Mr. Rudin put Speaker Quinn on the podium to give her a venue to talk about the post-Sandy real estate projects, from which developers are eager to make money. The emergency response to Hurricane Sandy was still on-going at the time of Speaker Quinn's speech, but the political and economic opportunism was shown to be in full swing.

Does Bill Rudin use the Partnership For New York City to further his economic interests ?

Another vehicle, which Mr. Rudin uses to great effect, is his position as a director of the Partnership For New York City, an elite chamber of commerce-like entity, which helps billionaires and large corporations buy insider influence with government leaders.

For example, while Brad Hoylman was chairman of Manhattan Community Board 2, which was overseeing the initial elements of the zone-busting real estate approval process for the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital, Mr. Hoylman was then employed by Mr. Rudin's Partnership.

Of course, if you were Bill Rudin, you would look successful if you had the resources, the conflicts of interest, the malfeasance, and the gall to corrupt so much of the government for your own personal gain.

Petition to Save Chelsea Market

Updated 18 June 2012 : Save Chelsea From Christine Quinn

Oppose the Plan to Rezone Chelsea Market

From Change.org :

The new owners of Chelsea Market are seeking a zoning change to allow them to build a very large office building atop the 10th Avenue end of the complex, and a very large hotel on the 9th Avenue end. Currently they cannot build more upon this already very densely-developed site, and this will only happen if they convince the Borough President, the City Planning Commission, and the City Council to change the zoning regulations for their block to allow them to build (for images of the proposed additions to Chelsea Market, see here.

The Chelsea Market complex, built in stages from the late 19th through the early 20th centuries as a factory for Nabisco, is a stunningly successful example of adaptive re-use, which respected the history of these buildings while giving them new life. This new plan would undo that respectful relationship, as these huge new additions would literally loom over the historic buildings as well as the nearby High Line park.

Additionally, the surrounding West Chelsea and Meatpacking District neighborhoods have developed tremendously in recent years; in the case of West Chelsea, this is because the City upzoned the neighborhood in 2005 to encourage the tremendous amount of development seen around there now. This part of Chelsea and the Meatpacking District do NOT need a further upzoning that would add traffic and shadows, ruin a historic complex, and further tip the balance of this neighborhood towards commercialization and overly-dense, large-scale development.

As usual, activists are worried that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, City Planning Socialite Amanda Burden, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stinger will betray the community by approving the FAR Rezoning of Chelsea Market.

Rudin Asbestos Kills

Do Protesters Have To Leave A Coffin Outside St. Vincent's, To Demonstrate How Deadly The Rudin Luxury Condo Plan Really Is ?

The people, who live around the Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Project at St. Vincent's Hospital, will live a life of a nightmare for years : they will be living next to a major construction project that will stir up asbestos, rodents, noise, and other construction-related pollution. And this is not even taking into consideration the fact that the luxury condominiums and townhouses are replacing a full-service hospital, meaning, that there is no no where to go if residents (including the luxury condo buyers) have asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, or trauma. All this courtesy of Seventh Avenue Socialite Amanda Burden and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Amanda Burden Approves Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Plan For St. Vincent's Hospital

The controversial and scandalous Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Plan for St. Vincent's Hospital was unanimously approved the New York City Planning Commission. The Planning Commission Director Amanda Burden said that she was pleased to see more and more luxury condominiums replacing social safety net underpinnings, such as community hospitals. Word on the street is that, after the luxury condo conversion hearing, Bill Rudin asked if Ms. Burden would like any campaign contributions the way that the Rudin family have made campaign donations to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Vigil at St. Vincent's Hospital

Rudin Gets Zoned Up ; Hospitals Get Closed Down

2011-11-30 Bill Rudin St Vincents Hospital City Planning Commission Hearing

Transcript of shady City Planning Meeting officiated by Amanda the People's Burden in possible/developing pay-to-play scandal, after Bill Rudin and his family donated almost $30,000 to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to look the other way, so that Rudin Management Company could harvest the real estate assets of St. Vincent's Hospital for pennies on the dollar.