The Wall Street Journal - 19.08.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Monday, August 19, 2019 |A12A

North and South America, on

“Team Americas,” against the

rest of the world. Subsequent

nights will feature gymnastics,

beach volleyball, ice hockey,

figure skating, basketball and

table tennis at the Times Union

Center, a downtown arena, and

an attached convention center.

Times Union Center Manager

Bob Belber said ticket sales

started a bit soft, and as of

Wednesday, 4,000 tickets had

been issued for opening night.

The lower level of the arena can

hold 6,000 people, and its maxi-

mum capacity is 17,000. Last

weekend 12,000 fans were in at-

tendance as the Albany Empire

arena football team won a

championship game.

Mr. Belber said he was sur-

prised, in light of the #MeToo

movement and the recent

sponse to criticism that shelters

have been typically concen-

trated in the poorer areas of

the city. As of Aug. 15, the

homeless shelter population

was 59,082. Since 2014, spend-

ing on shelters has nearly dou-

bled to $1.9 billion, according to

the New York City Comptrol-

ler’s office. Overall, the city

spends about $3 billion on

homelessness annually.

The mayor’s plan has been

met with resistance from some

communities, but the opposition

hasn’t been limited to typical

concerns, like fear of increased

crime. Along Fourth Avenue,

residents are worried about the

cost to taxpayers. In the Kings-

bridge area of the Bronx, where

a shelter opened in 2017, resi-

dents pushed back because of

concerns about the transpar-

ency of the siting process. And

on a street near a section of

Midtown dubbed Billionaires’

Row, some residents have said

they are worried about the

safety of the building the city

wants to use for a shelter, call-

ing it a fire hazard.

The two Park Slope shelters

will open in early 2020 and will

be operated by the nonprofit

WIN, or Women in Need, which

will also provide social services

for residents. Together, the

shelters will have 252 apart-

ment units to house homeless

families. The buildings, owned

by Slate Property Group and

Adam America, were originally

built to be market-rate condo-

miniums.

“We are excited for the op-

portunity to work with both

WIN and the de Blasio adminis-

tration on this project,” said a

spokesman for Slate.

The Mayor’s Office of Con-

tract Services held a public

hearing on June 27 for the pro-

posed contracts with WIN. The

contracts, while still tentative,

show that the city could pay

nearly $10,000 a month per unit

from 2019 to 2028, far more

than what it typically spends on

shelters. The amount would

cover the costs of an apartment

unit there and social services.

By comparison, the city cur-

rently pays about $5,442 a

month per unit for WIN to run

a pair of larger shelters in

Brooklyn’s East New York,

based on available contract

data. Another family shelter in

the Bronx, run by nonprofit

Praxis Housing, costs $5,

per unit through 2022.

“These contracts are far and

away the most expensive, per

unit, per month,” Mr. Price said

of the Park Slope shelters.

Fourth Avenue Neighbors

plans to publish a website to

share more information, includ-

ing details from other contracts

it has received through Free-

dom of Information Act re-

quests, in an effort to create

more accountability for the

GREATER NEW YORK

project, said Dan Guido, an-

other member.

A spokesman for the Depart-

ment of Homeless Services said

any concerns about the cost of

the Park Slope project are pre-

mature because the contract

hasn’t yet been completed. He

added that the mandate to

spread shelters across the city

does bring the need to pay a

premium at times.

“The city insists that the

number it puts to public hearing

is an overestimate,” he said.

Catherine Tripiani, executive

director of homeless advocacy

group nonprofit Homeless Ser-

vices United, added that the fi-

nal cost of the shelters will

probably be much lower. She

said the Department of Home-

less Services has recently

started padding draft contracts

with contingency funds to help

service providers better plan

over the long term.

In recent weeks, local resi-

dents have also expressed con-

cern over the safety of the

Fourth Avenue buildings. Dur-

ing the course of construction,

contractors for the developers

have racked up dozens of build-

ing-code violations. According

to the Department of Buildings’

records, 535 Fourth Ave. has

accumulated 21 violations de-

fined as “immediately hazard-

ous,” while 555 Fourth Ave. has

been hit with 15 violations. At

the community meeting in July,

some residents complained of

construction from the project

damaging their homes.

Slate Property Group de-

clined to specifically address

these violations. A representa-

tive for WIN said it ensures

that all properties it uses com-

ply with building code regula-

tions before moving in any

families. The Department of

Homeless Services said it ex-

pects all its sites to meet build-

ing code regulations.

When New York City an-
nounced plans to open two
homeless shelters in an affluent
section of Brooklyn, a group of
residents began organizing in
April to fight the project.
The residents say they
weren’t opposed to shelters in
their neighborhood, especially
as the city is in the midst of a
homeless crisis. Rather, they
were alarmed at the project’s
potential $260 million price
tag, the safety records of the
two buildings that would serve
as the shelters and the lack of
transparency in the way the lo-
cations were picked. Members
of the group, along with hun-
dreds of other residents, re-
cently packed a public hearing
about the shelters, which are
planned for 535 and 555 Fourth
Ave., on a corridor straddling
the neighborhoods of Park
Slope and Gowanus.
“This is not a question of,
‘Do we want to welcome people
who are homeless into our
neighborhood?’ We absolutely
do,” said Dan Price, a Park
Slope resident and member of
the group, Fourth Avenue
Neighbors. “But there was
something about the way this
project came together that
raised every possible red flag.”
New York City Mayor Bill de
Blasio, a former Park Slope res-
ident, has made combating
homelessness a priority. His
Turning the Tide on Homeless-
ness plan aims to reduce the
homeless population by 2,
by 2022 and has a mandate to
spread shelters across neigh-
borhoods in all boroughs, a re-

BYTYLERBLINT-WELSH

Brooklyn Residents Fight New Shelters

Locals take issue with

cost, safety records of

buildings slated to

house the homeless

Department of Buildings’ records show 535 Fourth Ave., seen here, has accumulated 21 violations defined as ‘immediately hazardous.’

JOSE A. ALVARADO JR. FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

STATE STREET|By Jimmy Vielkind

Legislators Say Income Limits Could Prompt Exits

New York
state lawmak-
ers won’t re-
convene at
the Capitol
for another
three months, but there is a
raging legal debate that af-
fects who will show up.
Three lawsuits are chal-
lenging new limits on legis-
lators’ outside income set to
take effect in 2020. The lim-
its were determined by a
temporary commission,
which also recommended the
first salary increase in 20
years for the 213 members of
the state Assembly and Sen-
ate, offices that were tradi-
tionally viewed as part-time.
Eleven Republican law-
makers, most of whom hold
side jobs, sued in April. They
argue that the temporary
commission exceeded the
scope of its authority when
it tied pay raises next year
to a provision limiting legis-
lators’ outside income to 15%
of their base salary—akin to
limits for the U.S. Senate and
House of Representatives.
State legislators are cur-

rently paid $110,000 a year,

which the commission said

should rise to $130,000.

Lawyers representing

those men argued their case

Friday in Albany before Act-

ing Supreme Court Justice

Richard Platkin. Afterward,

former Attorney General Den-

nis Vacco, who is represent-

ing the lawmakers, wondered

what petitioners like Assem-

blyman Will Barclay or state

Sen. Tom O’Mara, who each

made more than $75,

practicing law last year,

would do in the new year.

“Does he walk away from

his constituents who elected

him at a time when there

was no prohibition on his

outside income, or does he

give up his law practice?” Mr.

Vacco said. “They shouldn’t

have a level of uncertainty.”

Both Messrs. O’Mara and

Barclay said earlier this year

that they were unsure if they

would leave. Other legisla-

tors say the limits could

prompt a wave of resigna-

tions, particularly by legisla-

tors who gain significant in-

come from businesses.

A separate lawsuit, filed

by a nonprofit group with

ties to conservatives, chal-

lenged the overall validity of

the pay commission to make

any changes to legislative

and executive compensation.

The group argued that only

the Legislature could make

such a determination, and

couldn’t delegate its author-

ity to any outside panel.

On that suit, Albany

County Supreme Court Jus-

tice Christina Ryba issued a

June ruling that struck down

the outside-income limits as

well as future pay increases

scheduled for legislators. She

let stand raises for Gov. An-

drew Cuomo, his cabinet and

other statewide elected offi-

cials that were determined

by the commission.

State lawyers argued to

stay Mr. Vacco’s suit in light

of that ruling. But Justice

Ryba’s ruling has been ap-

pealed by both sides, and Mr.

Vacco said he would like his

clients to have a seat at the

table in future arguments. A

third action, filed in federal

court by Democratic Assem-

blymen Phil Steck and John

McDonald, is also pending.

In an interview, Mr. Steck,

a civil-rights litigator, said

he was happy with Justice

Ryba’s ruling. If it is re-

versed, he said, he would be

forced to choose between re-

signing or dipping into a re-

tirement savings account.

He also argued in favor of

the part-time system, which

he said brought real-world

perspective to the lawmak-

ing process. Good-govern-

ment advocacy groups have

long pushed for limits, say-

ing there is a risk of corrup-

tion when legislators balance

private business interests

with the needs of their con-

stituents.

MOVING ON: Metropoli-

tan Transportation Authority

spokesman Max Young is

leaving the agency after less

than a year to take a new

position at a gun-control ad-

vocacy group.

Mr. Young was brought on

in January as the agency’s

chief external affairs officer,

and was involved in this

year’s efforts to win legisla-

tive approval for a system of

congestion pricing for driv-

ing in parts of Manhattan. He

was previously a spokesman

for U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer.

Mr. Young will be taking a

position as chief of public af-

fairs for Everytown for Gun

Safety, an advocacy group

founded and largely funded

by former New York City

Mayor Michael Bloomberg,

two people familiar with his

plans said.

Mr. Young said he was

grateful to his colleagues at

the MTA and excited for his

new position. MTA CEO Pat-

rick Foye said the authority

would announce Mr. Young’s

successor in the coming days.

[email protected]

Three lawsuits

challenge new caps

on lawmakers’

outside income.

New York City police ar-

rested a homeless man from

West Virginia on Saturday for

allegedly planting fake bombs

in Manhattan that caused alarm

and delayed morning rush-hour

commuters last week.

New York Police Department

officials said Larry Griffin, 26

years old, placed two pressure

cookers wired to look like

bombs in the Fulton Street

subway station and a third fake

explosive on a busy street near

Union Square on Friday.

The devices prompted au-

thorities to shut down the sub-

way station and surrounding

streets while the matter was in-

vestigated, delaying the morn-

ing commute for thousands. Mr.

Griffin’s motives remain un-

known, NYPD officials said.

Mr. Griffin is being held in

the Manhattan Detention Com-

plex as he awaits trial on three

felony charges of placing a

false bomb, NYPD officials said.

He faces up to seven years in

prison for each charge.

The Wall Street Journal

couldn’t immediately deter-

mine if or how he pleaded to

those charges. A lawyer for

Mr. Griffin didn’t respond to

requests for comment.

NYPD officials said police ar-

rested Mr. Griffin in the Bronx

early Saturday morning after

investigators were notified of

his whereabouts by a member

of the public. The officials said

Mr. Griffin had been living on

the streets of New York City for

an unknown period.

Widely circulated images,

caught on the subway closed-

circuit system and distributed

by the NYPD, show him push-

ing pressure cookers in the Ful-

ton Street station using a shop-

ping cart, NYPD officials said.

Mr. Griffin underwent a psy-

chiatric evaluation before he

was transported to Manhattan

Criminal Court, NYPD officials

said. Once in court, he failed to

post bond of $200,000 and a

judge ordered him held in jail,

court records show.

Mr. Griffin formerly resided

in the town of Bruno in Logan

County, W.Va., and has an ex-

tensive criminal record there,

officials from the Logan

County Sheriff’s Office said in

a statement.

BYBENCHAPMAN

Man Held

For Fake

Explosives

In Subway

World Cup win by the U.S.

Women’s soccer team, that de-

mand wasn’t higher for tickets

to the Aurora Games. He was

hopeful there could be signifi-

cant walk-up sales, which he

said are common for events in

Albany.

The games are the brainchild

of Jerry Solomon, a longtime

sports promoter and the hus-

band of figure skater Nancy

Kerrigan. (She’ll be in Albany to

give a talk on Friday.) Mr. Solo-

mon said he had the idea dur-

ing the 2016 Olympic Games,

where more women competed

for the U.S. than men.

“It occurred to me that it

was time to create this plat-

form that was just for the

women—to get them out of the

shadow of the men, of being

compared to the men, and out

of that relationship to the

men,” Mr. Solomon said in an

interview.

George Hearst, publisher of

the Albany Times Union news-

paper, wrote an open letter last

weekend saying that robust at-

tendance could cement Albany

as the Aurora Games’s perma-

nent home.

ALBANY, N. Y.—Olympic
medalists and YouTube sensa-
tions will be gathering here this
week for the Aurora Games, an
inaugural all-female athletic
competition in seven sports.
International broadcast con-
tracts have been signed for the
various matches. Track legend
Jackie Joyner-Kersee and gym-
nast Nadia Comaneci will serve
as honorary captains, and will
speak at forums about what led
them to success. But a big
question ahead of the six-day
event, which is designed to
showcase women athletes at
the top of their game, is how
many fans will come out.
“We certainly want people in
the seats,” Mayor Kathy Shee-
han said. “This is about a lot
more than just the city of Al-
bany—it’s something that will
require the entire region to
step up and be aware, and
hopefully come out.”
The Aurora Games begin
Tuesday with a tennis match
featuring Garbiñe Muguruza
and Monica Puig. Each event is
set up to pit women from

BYJIMMYVIELKIND

Women’s Sporting Event in Albany Struggles for Fans

Track legend Jackie Joyner-Kersee, left, will serve as an honorary captain at the Aurora Games.

TED SCHURTER/THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

NY