Here's an image that must be a welcome boost for Representative Ed Towns, who faces a primary challenge from former Real World guy Kevin Powell. The picture is from an event happening now about the importance of keeping the Brooklyn housing complex Starrett City affordable.

"Starrett City will be safe as long as I'm around," Towns said.

In attendance are Hillary Clinton, Representative Anthony Weiner, Assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic chair Vito Lopez and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

A few people in the crowd chanted "Hillary, Hillary!"

"I think Ed Towns deserves a big round of applause and our gratitude," Clinton said.

(Along with other members of New York's Congressional delegation, Towns endorsed Barack Obama on June 5, shortly before Clinton dropped out of the presidential primary.  read more »

Even in these days of increased transparency when it comes to the City Council's appropriation of member items, the process remains, unavoidably, one that rewards people who know people.

For example, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a non-profit group whose executive director, William Rapfogel, is married to the Assembly Speaker's chief of staff, Judy Rapfogel, got $556,250 in member items this year.

The Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center, a group founded and closely associated with Vito Lopez, an Assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic County Leader, got $658,089 in member items.

In the comments section of my original post on these member items, Mendy points out that Leib Glantz, a politically active Satmar rabbi, is a big winner because his group, UJCare, got a $200,000 member item to fund "a variety of services.  read more »

Here’s something to keep in mind as the fate of Vito Fossella unfolds:
 read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/picking-candidates-fossella-land#comments Politics John Gulimo Vito Fossella Vito Lopez Mon, 12 May 2008 15:05:43 -0400 Azi Paybarah 69079 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/vito-lopez-introduces-bill-take-pfizer-s-land-brooklyn-eminent-domain

Earlier this month, in the brief few-day period when only one governor was embroiled in a sex scandal, Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez introduced a bill to use eminent domain to take pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s approximately 15-acre manufacturing plant site in East Williamsburg and turn it into affordable housing (he's talked about this previously).

With the plant slated to close later this year, Pfizer had put out a search in January for developers to buy the land and build a mixed-use, mixed-income development out of the site.

Though the company has yet to report any progress along that front, and even that concept—of a mixed-income complex—angered Mr. Lopez, the Assembly housing committee chairman, who previously has expressed revulsion at the notion that the company would proceed down a path that would bring it any significant financial gain.

The bill, introduced March 13 with 20 other legislators signing on, instructs the Division of Housing and Community Renewal to take the property with eminent domain. In the bill’s justification listed on the Assembly’s Web site, Mr. Lopez said he was taking action on Pfizer because it failed to donate its land, as it has done in other instances. "Though Pfizer has shown concern for other communities coping with job loss and housing needs, it appears the global company has little interest in returning the land in question to the State of New York," the justification reads.  read more »

Since the Spitzer administration revealed its plans for a Javits Center expansion/renovation last month, the state has been clear that funding for the governor’s new $300 million downstate affordable-housing initiative, along with funding for two parks, will have to come from the sale of two unused land parcels to the north and the south of the convention center.

Joining the two separate projects, the state seemed to be saying that only with the $900 million or so raised from the Javits land sale could it afford the housing plan. “Want a housing plan? Support the Javits proposal,” the Spitzer administration implied.

The land-sale proposal became an instant lightning rod, drawing fire from most anyone and everyone involved with Javits, particularly over the sale of the northern parcel. Selling it would foreclose the possibility of expansion forever, critics charged. (Mr. Spitzer has said the price will forever be far too great to expand there, so selling the parcels makes sense.)

But it now appears there’s been something of a shift, housing advocates say.  read more »

So, the leading candidate for the position of city clerk is Hector Diaz, but the vote that would have confirmed him last month was delayed. The vote is now set for Wednesday and there’s strong opposition from Brooklyn City Council members, because the last city clerk was from their borough, while Diaz is from the Bronx.

One person I spoke to, who is allied with Christine Quinn, told me that the official with the most at stake over this vote is the Speaker.

“I think this is going to be seen as a vote, not on Hector Diaz, but a vote on Chris Quinn,” said the source. “[Her allies are] hard-pressed to allow the Speaker, with two years left, to be undermined."

More after the jump.   read more »

As Pfizer seeks to sell its 15-acre plant site in Williamsburg to a private developer, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the chairman of the Assembly’s housing committee, is pressing the pharma giant on affordable housing.

Mr. Lopez, also the chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, has been circulating a draft bill to acquire the site through eminent domain, and now his office is organizing a group of community leaders to add pressure on Pfizer.  read more »

Brooklyn Democratic County Leader Vito Lopez is declaring that Brooklyn, as a political powerhouse, has returned.

He attributes the rebirth to a series of small recent victories.

First, Lopez managed to block--or at least delay--the confirmation of city clerk appointee Hector Diaz of the Bronx. He and a coalition also blocked the appointment of another Bronx official up for appointment as a commissioner of the Board of Elections. Lastly, three judges from Brooklyn were appointed to the bench by Eliot Spitzer.

When I spoke to him on the phone, Lopez told me, “The whole theme of what I tried to do in my two years is ‘Brooklyn is Back,’ and we’re really proud that. People, after years of not respecting our political credibility, people are respecting it, and we are the first to be called on these key positions.”

More after the jump.  read more »

One more thing on Hillary and the Brooklyn Democrats:

According to party chairman Vito Lopez, Hillary Clinton was endorsed after that Williamsburg meeting yesterday by a vote of 29 to 2.

The two nay votes came from council member Albert Vann and district leader Olanike Alabi.

“She’s paying her respect, which I think is a very good characteristic.”  read more »