Streetsblog New York City

Adolfo Carrion Jr., director of the White House's new Office of Urban Affairs, today vowed to begin reconnecting Washington with the needs of the nation's cities -- even as he offered few tangible plans for breaking through the morass of the federal bureaucracy and effecting change in the near term.

Carrion, addressing a small crowd at the two-day Open Cities conference now underway in DC (follow it live right here), linked the Obama administration's effort with the urban policy review initiated by former President Carter, which began with grand hopes but ultimately narrowed its focus to smaller renewal projects.

"We're taking what he did in '79 and revisiting it," Carrion said, crediting Carter with "thinking forward" and predicting he "will be treated, after he's gone from the stage, in a much more generous way."

The urban affairs office, created in March, is promoting a nationwide tour  highlighting cities that have hit upon groundbreaking uses of economic stimulus money, such as Kansas City's Green Impact Zone. In coming months, the tour will take a look at high-tech development in Atlanta.

And Carrion's promise, as he put it today, of "shifting from a top-down culture to the federal government serving as a supporting actor to local protagonists" has caught on with advocacy groups and analysts who had become accustomed to urban priorities remaining out of the political spotlight.

But when it comes to the most pressing challenges facing cities, particularly those connected to economic recovery, Carrion's office has yet to advocate for urban priorities. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently all but ruled out two reform proposals long sought by the nation's cities -- channeling federal aid directly to municipalities and putting the federal contribution to highway and transit projects on equal footing.

Indeed, despite telling Politico in July that he soon would "explain [his office's] strategy publicly," the urban affairs chief appeared content with starting an open-ended discussion about investing in cities rather than setting a timetable for accomplishing specific goals.

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When Barack Obama was elected, urbanists were, in some cases literally, dancing in the streets. For once, America had elected a president who understood the importance of cities -- and who promised to create an "Office for Urban Policy" that would help those cities to take their rightful place in the federal policy debate.

But, as Dayo Olopade of The Root reports today in a piece called "What Happened to Obama's Office of Urban Policy," that office has been slow to take shape, or show any indication of wielding serious influence:

[C]elebrations about the potential triumph of urban policy may be premature. In recent weeks, the Obama administration has begun referring to the office as "urban affairs," rather than "urban policy," a small but notable downgrade. And while other offices and Cabinet agencies have been staffing up -- the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has representation in 12 government agencies -- 100 days in, urban affairs has announced only two senior staffers: Derek Douglas, who was special adviser to New York Gov. David Paterson, and former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr., who faces allegations of mismanaging campaign donations and development projects in New York City.…

[T]he urgency of dealing with the recession in these first 100 days has made the slow rollout of the office worrisome for some local officials. Caroline Coleman, federal relations director of the National League of Cities, says cities have been pummeled by the economic downturn. For the first time in the 24-year history of the organization’s City Fiscal Conditions report, the three primary sources of revenue for urban centers -- property, sales and income taxes -- all experienced a quarterly decrease. "What we’re seeing reflected in the national news is hitting hometown urban America every day," says Coleman.

Olopade points out that the selection of Carrión, a local pol with no experience at the national policy level, was perplexing to some who have been watching the process. She quotes Diana Lind, editor of Next American City: "[He] doesn’t have a lot of experience in dealing with federal policy. How could you give somebody like Adolfo Carrión control over, say the transportation laws in Milwaukee? It’s a hard leap to make."

Here's newly appointed White House director of Urban Affairs Adolfo Carrión back in his Bronx Borough President days, striking a pose with Transportation Alternatives' Noah Budnick in 2006. The picture was snapped on Bike to Work Day, which Carrión observed every year by sponsoring a ride.

Overall, his record as an urbanist left much to be desired, with a notable soft spot for parking-heavy development projects. It remains to be seen exactly what the Urban Affairs post will coordinate, but Carrion is dropping hints that land use and transportation will be part of the mix. Reports the Washington Post:

Carrión said he would help coordinate urban policy in traditional areas such as education, health care and public safety. But he also said he would look to develop urban neighborhoods in environmentally thoughtful ways, such as by offering incentives for companies to locate in densely populated areas and improving mass transit.

L-R: Assembly Members José Rivera and Adriano Espaillat, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, MTA CEO Lee Sander and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión at Fordham Plaza today

Mayor Michael Bloomberg this morning unveiled details of the city's first Bus Rapid Transit project, called "Select Bus Service," to debut on the Bx12 line, which follows 207th Street in Northern Manhattan and Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway in the Bronx.

Bloomberg and other officials also tied expansion of the program to the implementation of congestion pricing.

Connecting Inwood to Co-Op City, the Bx12 SBS corridor will allow riders to prepay the fare at vending machine stations along the line. Transit customers will get a receipt, to be displayed upon request to "enforcement personnel aboard buses," according to a media release. At first, vending stations will only accept MetroCards and cash as payment, though credit card functionality will eventually be added.

Speaking at Fordham Plaza and flanked by Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, MTA Executive Lee Sander, and electeds from the Bronx and Northern Manhattan, Bloomberg outlined key components of SBS service. In addition to prepayment of fares, the corridors will feature:

• More buses (the Bx12 line will have 10 additional buses running during peak hours, Bloomberg said)
• Additional service hours
• Boarding at front and back doors
• Fewer stops
  
• Transit Signal Priority, a system that keeps signal lights green, and quickens the cycle of changing red signals back to green, to allow buses to move through intersections more smoothly
• Terracotta colored bus lanes, with stepped up enforcement to keep cars out
• Specially designed "branded" SBS buses, and branded stations with new shelters
  

The Bx12 SBS will replace the line's current limited-stop service on June 29. Bloomberg said the development of other corridors -- including First and Second Avenues in Manhattan, Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, and Hyland Boulevard on Staten Island -- depend on getting congestion pricing through the City Council and state Legislature. This point was echoed by Sadik-Khan, who described SBS as "almost like a surface subway system."

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The Village Voice is reporting that Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion received $30,000 in campaign contributions from a firm that scored a $5 million air rights agreement for a pedestrian bridge to the new Yankee Stadium. 

Last summer the city agreed to pay $5 million to construct part of a pedestrian walkway to the new stadium over a piece of property on East 153rd Street, according to the Voice. That land is owned by the Glaser family, which operates G.A.L. Manufacturing, a successful elevator equipment company. Though the Glasers had previously never contributed money to local candidates, they gave the Carrion campaign a total of $30,000 around the time the air rights contract was signed.

The Glasers didn't return the Voice's phone calls. A spokesman for Carrion referred questions to his campaign office, which said, "The borough president has many first-time contributors, as people throughout the city have taken notice of his proven track record in governing."

The pedestrian bridge is a small but key piece of the massive stadium project because it connects the new Metro North station to the stadium property. An existing pedestrian bridge is considered too narrow and out of compliance with federal disability laws.

Under the deal signed last spring, the city agreed to pay $5 million to the Glasers for the air rights over their property to allow for widening and improving the concrete pedestrian bridge leading to the foot of Yankee Stadium. The air-rights deal will cost taxpayers almost as much as the $6.5 million that the city plans to spend actually renovating the bridge.

City officials say that the $5 million bought three things: access to the property for two years, the right to put the bridge over the property, and a piece of land on which to set a column that will support the bridge.

As Streetsblog readers know, mayoral hopeful Carrion has been an outspoken supporter of the new Yankee Stadium and its publicly-subsidized parking decks, despite community opposition to the extra year-round traffic the project promises to bring to the polluted South Bronx. After the contentious parking deal cleared its last hurdle, Carrion bragged that the stadium would set off a chain reaction of development in the area.

How much his constituents will benefit, or suffer, from that development remains to be seen. But Carrion's mayoral campaign is making out quite nicely. In addition to the $30K from the Glasers, the Voice reports that his campaign has accepted over $34,000 from Related Companies, which is building the controversial Gateway Mall complex near the stadium -- a project criticized for, among other things, its auto-oriented design.

As it happens, according to the Voice, "At the same time that G.A.L. negotiated the $5 million air-rights deal, Related got $1.2 million from Metro North for an easement over a small sliver of its property to allow for the widening of rail tracks."

 
StreetFilms' Clarence Eckerson put down the heavy video equipment and brought along a still camera for this weekend's Tour de Bronx.

Blessed by incredible weather, this year's ride was kicked off by Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion (ahem) and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who Clarence says got "perhaps the biggest ovation I have ever heard for a public official."

Last week AMNY ran a profile of Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr., playing on the angle that he may make a run for mayor in two years. The piece is mostly flattering, but does make mention of Carrion's controversial support for the new Yankee Stadium, which, as Streetsblog readers are probably sick of hearing by now, will bring ~4,000 parking spaces to what was public park land, further polluting the asthma-stricken South Bronx with additional year-round traffic.

Carrion is unapologetic in his advocacy of the stadium, as well as the $225 million in taxpayer-subsidized parking that will come with it.

Carrion gives himself credit for helping to "turn the tide" in the Bronx from "an acceptance of failure" to an environment in which investors are optimistic enough to put millions of dollars into housing, parkland and a new stadium for the Yankees.

In today's Daily News, Carrion refers to last week's approval of parking deck financing as "yet another important step toward realizing the goal of investment and community participation in the redevelopment of this area."

But not everyone would paint such a rosy picture. Last year Carrion was accused of purging community board members who opposed the stadium project. More recently, some South Bronx residents have vowed to fight construction of the garages. Simply put, they don't want the traffic or the pollution necessitated by an auto-dependent vision of economic prosperity.

Ironically, in the AMNY profile, Carrion also makes a case for congestion pricing.

"The fact that we can reduce millions of tons of particulate matter from the environment, and reduce the heat effect that we create and get more people to live healthy is a good thing. It's the objective that's more important than the inconvenience."

Carrion may not see the disconnect between his negative view of traffic congestion his zeal to bring more of it to the South Bronx, but others do. Again, the Daily News:

"All along I've been opposed to the stadium and the traffic and congestion it would bring to the neighborhood," [Council Member Helen] Foster said. "And this [garage] project will just encourage even more people to drive to the west Bronx."

Many of Foster's constituents worry the 9,000 parking spaces around the stadium will turn their already traffic- and asthma-choked neighborhood into a de facto park-and-ride hub -- especially if the mayor's Manhattan congestion pricing plan becomes reality.

Yes, the Yankees' season is over. But on the bright side, this morning the city handed the team a nice consolation prize: $225 million in tax exempt bonds for parking deck construction at the new Yankee Stadium.

Under the agreement, the city will give up some $2.5 million in taxes, with an estimated $5 million forfeited by the state. And the asthma-plagued South Bronx will get almost 4,000 new parking spaces, in garages the city aims to draw traffic to year-round.

Today's approval of the Yanks' parking subsidy by the board of the NYC Industrial Development Agency can only be described as a fait accompli. Despite last month's surprising postponement, caused in part by the IDA's failure to provide requested information to Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion (himself a parking subsidy supporter) -- not to mention the revelation of one sad, shocking detail after another in the local media -- the unanimous vote came with relatively little discussion, one item on an agenda of about a dozen. The entire meeting took less than an hour.

Still, there were a few noteworthy aspects surrounding the decision:

• it was announced that an economic feasibility study is now underway (as opposed to, well, conducting same before the package was approved);
• the IDA signed off on the project though a finalized ground lease apparently does not yet exist;
• the deal includes possibly as many as 600 free parking spaces for the Yankees (Streetsblog has a call in to the IDA to confirm the number);
  
• Carrion's representative on the IDA board, Rafael Salaberrios, was not present for the vote, but walked in shortly after it occurred.

Bettina Damiani, Project Director of Good Jobs New York, an NGO that has tracked the stadium project closely, says the IDA's promise of 12 full-time and 70 part-time parking garage jobs, with an average wage of $11 an hour, hardly justifies the impact on surrounding South Bronx neighborhoods.

"There would be a stronger economic benefit if they threw cash off the elevated subway," Damiani says.

Fittingly, Damiani is headed to Washington, DC, tomorrow to testify at a Congressional hearing on how professional sports stadiums shift funds away from public infrastructure.

This morning a representative of Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr., read a statement of protest ahead of an expected Tuesday vote on the city's deal with the Yankees to subsidize the construction of three parking garages.

Testifying before the NYC Industrial Development Agency (IDA), which is poised to issue over $200 million in triple tax exempt bonds to the "Bronx Parking Development Company" for parking deck construction, Deputy Director for Planning & Development Paula Luria Caplan said Carrion has not received "vital information" regarding project financing.

Here is the testimony submitted by Caplan on behalf of Carrion, in its entirety:

The new Yankee Stadium project represents a remarkable achievement for the Borough of the Bronx and the City of New York. As this board is aware, the Borough President has been involved in this redevelopment project from its inception and has always insisted that both the community and its representatives are thoroughly engaged in this process.

The Borough President is deeply concerned that after repeated requests we still have not received vital information regarding the details of the Bronx Parking Development Company financing. Specifically, the Borough President's office has requested the following:

A copy of the draft lease agreement;
A copy of the feasibility study;
An explanation of the increase in the deal size from $190 million to $218 million;
and details regarding the elimination of Lot D from the parking facility after 2010.

Finally, the Borough President is concerned as to whether this project can move forward on September 11th without the statutorily required approval of the Bronx Borough Board. In order to make an informed decision at the September 11th IDA Meeting, the Borough President must receive this information immediately.

Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs New York, who also offered testimony, said that it is unheard of for a borough president to resort to making such a statement at an IDA hearing, considering that each borough president has an appointee on the IDA board.

Complete coverage still to come.

At a press conference today, a group of Bronx and northern Manhattan elected officials have signed on in support of Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing effort. They are:

• Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion
• Assembly member Michael Benedetto
• Assembly member Adam Clayton Powell IV
• Bronx Democratic Chair and Assembly member Jose Rivera.
• Council member James Vacca.
• Council member Annabel Palma.

An updated list from The Daily Politics:

• Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat
• Assemblyman Peter Rivera
• Assemblyman Carl Heastie
• Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera

Here's a piece of the press release from the Campaign for New York's Future:

"Environmental Defense applauds Bronx Borough President Carrion, Assembly Members Benedetto, Powell and Rivera, and Council Members Palma and Vacca for supporting congestion pricing, clean energy and the goals of PlaNYC at this critical time," said Andy Darrell, director of the Living Cities program at Environmental Defense. "Vehicle emissions contribute more than 86% of the total cancer risk from toxic air pollution in the Bronx, and the air cancer risk from diesel is 1000 times higher than the EPA standards. Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion's support helps move the Bronx -- and the city as a whole -- toward a future with less traffic pollution, better transit and lower energy bills. It's time for legislative leaders in Albany to take the step that Adolfo Carrion and his colleagues have taken today."