Highbridge News: Blaz hails record # of affordable housing units

Highbridge News: Blaz hails record # of affordable housing units: Blaz hails  record # of affordable housing units By Robert Press BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 13- Mayor deBlasi...

Blaz hails record # of affordable housing units

Blaz hails record # of affordable housing units

By Robert Press

BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 13- Mayor deBlasio took a victory lap in the Bronx to hail the record number of affordable housing units created on his watch.

In an announcement in front of a 66-unit affordable housing building, located at 950 Summit Avenue (just north of Yankee Stadium), Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Bronx Borough President, and many local Bronx elected officials cheered that more affordable housing were created last year than since 1978. 

Mayor de Blasio said, “This is real progress, in real time, for real families. Together with the city council, community based organizations, and the private sector this will remain a city for everyone.” 

Speaker Mark-Viverito said, "It is imperative that we proactively protect affordability in our communities.” 

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said that his office will continue to work with the de Blasio administration to plan and build new affordable housing units that work for the people of the Bronx. 

Other Bronx elected officials on hand included Congressman Jose Serrano, State Senator Jose Marcos Serrano, Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, Assembly members Latoya Joiner (who thanked the Rent Guidelines Board for its rent freeze for one year leases), Michael Blake, Luis Sepulveda. HPD Commissioner Vicki Been said that surpassing the goal of 20,000 units this year is a testament to the work that is being done at HPD. HDC President Gary Rodney added that the record breaking 20,000 plus units demonstrates the the de Blasio Administration is achieving concrete results towards its ambitious vision of Housing New York.

The 66-unit building on Summit Avenue is currently under construction, and is slated for completion in a little over one year from now. A lottery system will be put into place to select the winners of the various income level tiered apartments which will be advertised a few months before construction on the building is finished. 

The goal of Mayor Bill de Blasio's affordable housing plan is to have 200,000 new or rehabilitated current affordable units by 2021 completed or in construction.  

#BilldeBlasio #AffordableHousing #Bronxnews

Highbridge News: #Soccer NYCFC draw

Highbridge News: #Soccer NYCFC draw: NYC FC Toronto FC Draw By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 13 - The Sunday contest between NYC FC an...

#Soccer NYCFC draw

NYC FC Toronto FC Draw

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 13- The Sunday contest between NYC FC and Toronto FC at Yankee Stadium was an opportunity for NYC, with a victory, to tie Toronto and the Red bulls for 5th, 6th and 7th place in the Eastern Conference standings with 23 points. The first six clubs in each of the two conferences qualify for the MLS playoffs.

Experienced NYC goalkeeper Joshua Saunders described the result in a balanced manner, “We didn’t widen the gap, but we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity.” The clubs drew at 4, which gave each one point.

Having won four of its last five matches, NYC was hoping to continue its move upward. The recent success of the club encouraged fans to flock to Yankee Stadium for its latest game.  27,533 fans filled all the available seats. Many of the fans may have come because it was expected that the English superstar Frank Lampard would play in his first MLS match for NYC, but a recent injury caused his absence.

After missing an earlier shot, NYC Captain David Villa booted in the first goal of the match in the 17th minute to excite the fans. Twelve minutes later, NYC was awarded a second goal as Damian Perquis of Toronto kicked in an own goal.

The optimistic feeling of the NYC supporters quickly dissipated as Italian international Sebastian Giovinco began an offensive assault with three goals in less than 10 minutes. The “Atomic Ant”, whose diminutive size of 5 foot 4 and 130 pounds has not prevented him from becoming one of the top scorers in the league in his debut season.

His first goal was on a penalty kick in the 33rd minute. His next two goals were scored in the 40th and 43rd minutes. NYC coach Jason Kreis spoke with mixed feelings regarding his performance, “I think Giovinco is a fantastic player, but for him to get that much space and time is incomprehensible.” The 28-year-old veteran of nine years in the Italian league, most recently with championship club Juventus has as adapted easily to play in the MLS and the United States. He was chosen MLS Player of the Week in the 13th and 14th weeks of the current season.

The other superstar on the pitch, Villa, knotted the score at 3 with a penalty kick. Both he and Giovinco have reached double figures in goals this season.

The game ended in a draw as each club scored one again before the second half reached its conclusion.

Kreis called the contest, “It’s the type of game that fans love and coaches hate, a lot of loose play.”

#Soccer #NYCFC #YankeeStadium #Bronxnews

Highbridge News: Authorities Snuff Out $2M bootleg Smokes Ring

Highbridge News: Authorities Snuff Out $2M bootleg Smokes Ring: Authorities Snuff Out $2M bootleg Smokes Ring BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 9- District Attorney Robert Johnson announced mu...

Authorities Snuff Out $2M bootleg Smokes Ring

Authorities Snuff Out $2M bootleg Smokes Ring

BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 9- District Attorney Robert Johnson announced multiple indictments of 20 people and six corporations containing 1,345 counts regarding a major smuggling operation that brought more than 44,000 untaxed cartons of cigarettes from Virginia to the Bronx during a single five-month period in 2014 alone. The participants are accused of evading more than $2.978 million in New York State and City taxes. The total maximum tax penalty, for New York City and State combined, is more than $35,768,000.

The various defendants face State felony charges ranging from Enterprise Corruption, Criminal Tax Fraud, and Money Laundering, to New York City Administrative Code violations of the Cigarette Tax laws.

After a two-and-a-half-year multi-agency investigation, 19 men and one woman were charged following simultaneous arrests in New York, Virginia, Connecticut and New Jersey. The Bronx County grand jury indictments were unsealed with the Supreme Court arraignment of several of the defendants in Part 60, before Justice Steven Barrett.  The following defendants are named in one or more indictment:

Cigarette smuggling is big business.  It is estimated that, in New York State, 58 percent of all cigarettes sold are untaxed, and smuggled in primarily from Virginia. With per pack prices topping $11 and more, bringing in untaxed cigarettes is very profitable – New York state and city taxes add $5.85 to each pack.

It is alleged in the indictment that the boss, Mohamed Mustafa, headed the operation by acquiring cigarettes for distribution from Virginia, storing those cigarettes at 2118 Matthews Avenue in Morris Park and other locations in the Bronx, and by controlling the distribution of cigarettes to the New York City area without paying New York State or City tobacco taxes, thereby generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit proceeds for himself and other members of the enterprise. His lieutenant, Hiyad Chaib, is alleged to have assisted the criminal enterprise in all aspects of the operation, and would serve as the central contact for the employees and associates when Mustafa was away.

Mustafa and Chaib determined the New York-based distributors to whom they would sell cigarettes, the prices the

distributors had to pay for cigarettes, and the times and locations at which the distributors would exchange money for cigarettes, it is further alleged. They also controlled the storage facilities and both of them actively answered a “business line” to collect orders and arrange deliveries. Each week, almost 2,000 cartons of cigarettes (400,000 cigarettes) would pass through the enterprise costing the state over $100,000 in tax revenue. The total tax fraud is estimated to be close to $3 million; total maximum tax penalties, if the defendants are convicted, will reach nearly $36 million.

Indictment papers also describe how Mustafa and Chaib originally acquired the majority of the cigarettes they distributed in the Bronx from suppliers Rabih Saba and Moeen Khan, residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia, who owned and managed a chain of mattress stores (“The Mattress Place”) and dollar stores around Richmond, Virginia. Indeed, Saba and Khan used their Virginia businesses, in part, as collection and distribution centers for cigarettes purchased in Virginia with only the low Virginia cigarette tax, and thereafter controlled the distribution of

the cigarettes to the New York City area without anyone associated with the Enterprise paying New York State or City tobacco taxes for those cigarettes. They also used their business and personal accounts to transfer money from the Bronx and Manhattan to them in Virginia.

To generate said money, Saba and Khan are accused of forming a network of cigarette buyers in Virginia who would visit Costco, Sam’s Club, Wawa, and other retail sellers of cigarettes, to purchase cartons of cigarettes in a large enough quantity to make trafficking them to New York profitable. Saba and Khan arranged with Mustafa and Chaib for near-daily deliveries to New York. Some of the proceeds were also sent to a number of the defendants’ home countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Money seized from the operation totals more than $100,000.

Operation Smoke Brake is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys W. Dyer Halpern, Jessica-Deanna Lupo, and Caitlin Carroll of the Arson/Auto/Economic Crimes Bureau, which is under the supervision of Counsel to the Investigations Division Mary Jo Blanchard, Bureau Chief William Zelenka and Executive A.D.A. Thomas Leahy.

#Cigarettes #BronxDA #Bronxnews

Highbridge News: Inmate charged with attacking social worker in Rik...

Highbridge News: Inmate charged with attacking social worker in Rik...: Inmate charged with attacking social worker in Rikers District Attorney Robert Johnson announced the indictment of 35-yea...