Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Shulman LDC: Still Shilling Along

It appears that the Shulman-led front group for a select number of Queens based real estate firms is continuing to act as a surrogate for private interests. As the Queens Courier reports:

"The Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation (LDC) held a cocktail reception on Tuesday, May 8 in the Delta Sky360 Club at Citi Field.Distinguished guest Michael Stoler, President of NY Real Estate TV and Managing Director of Madison Realty Capital, talked about the increasing importance of Queens to the state’s real estate market.Guests watched a presentation on the work currently underway at the Flushing waterfront, 60 acres undergoing a serious transformation.According to LDC spokesperson Nicholas Roberts, the project will revitalize and combine two distinct neighborhoods – Flushing and Downtown Flushing. He alleged that the group hopes to move activity westward, creating a greater amount of open space and loosening up some area congestion."

Let's be clear the LDC's "work" on the Flushing waterfront-and front is a good word here-has been subsidized-fraudulently in our view-by the state: "The LDC is funded by the New York State Department of State Brownfield Opportunity Grant. It received this funding about a year-and-a-half ago and it is expected to run through May of 2013."

The grant was issued in spite of the fact that the LDC is still under investigation for illegal lobbying-and also in spite of the fact that the "not for profit" has no legitimate community-based constituency-unless you count Sterling Equities and TDC as neighborhood watch groups. It is high time that this charade was terminated by law enforcement.