As the Second Ave. Subway construction threatens to drag on for another eight years, business along the torn-up avenue are facing hard times. Construction zones limit access to the sidewalks, and foot traffic has all but dried up. In an effort to ease the financial burdens on these business owners, Assembly Member Micah Kellner sponsored a bill to create a property tax abatement for those inside the MTA-defined construction zone. It was a generally harmless piece of legislation that should have been allowed to pass.
But Mayor Bloomberg had other plans. Taking advantage of the turmoil in the State Senate brought on by the four Senate hold outs, Bloomberg asked the State Republicans to quash this bill, and the GOP, beholden to Bloomberg’s support and money, obliged. As Republicans threatened to vote it down, the bill was yanked from the legislative agenda last week, put on the backburner for a day when the Democrats’ 32-member majority is in place.
Dan Rivoli of Our Town, an Upper East Side community paper, reports on the fallout from the bill’s failure. Kellner and the Upper East Side business owners are angry at the Mayor. Meanwhile, the State GOP and Bloomberg claim they still support businesses impacted by the construction but claim the city cannot afford tax abatements for everyone and want to be able to control the zone of impact. What a mess.
4 comments
Bloomberg has always favored his pet project, the 7 line extension, to the detriment of the SAS.
I don’t understand how anyone voted for Bloomberg the dictator after his first term. The fact that is favored to win a third term after buying a change in the laws to allow him to run is really sad. It shows what idiots the average voter in NYC is.
It shows how broken our electoral system is. No credible candidates have bothered running against Bloomberg, because they know he can spend an endless amount of money on attack ads and define them better than they can they can define themselves. No one can raise enough money to be able to go message-for-message with a multibillionaire.
“No one can raise enough money to be able to go message-for-message with a multibillionaire.”
which seemed to me the motive behind his no-party elections idea awhile back. in fact, every major project of his has been a bad idea.
ps – thompson is a credible candidate.