According to court filings, Rahman was walking in front of the AK Houses at East 128th Street and Lexington Avenue at 1:30 a.m. when he fired a shot that hit a parked car near Shaw. When he tried to flee, Shaw was struck in the back by a second bullet and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Rahman is also charged with firing another shot into a crowd as he was being chased by a group of people.
Hoylman’s Plan for Peter Cooper & Stuy
Brad Hoylman, the presumptive frontrunner in the campaign for Tom Duane’s soon-to-be-vacated seat in the state Senate, released a detailed plan for how he would address the long-term concerns of residents of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. The two complexes have long been home to middle-class residents of the city, but the future of that purpose has been in jeopardy since a failed financial takeover in 2006 by Tishman Speyer left the residents in limbo. Issues with maintenance, tenant and rent regulations, and quality of life have been chief concerns of residents in the past several years as they look for financial partnerships. The ST/PCV Tenants’ Association has been working on finding solutions to these problems and searching for reputable partners that would allow residents to either purchase their homes at reasonable prices or remain as rent-stabilized renters if they choose. Hoylman, with the backing of Dan Garodnick, a resident as well as the area’s City Council member, said that he would follow through on several points at the state level to protect residents if he is elected.

Hoylman has vowed that he would work to repeal the Urstadt Law, which prohibits the city from imposing more restrictive rent laws than the state, in order to let the City Council carve out appropriate rules for the unique ST/PCV community. He also pledged to work on many of the tenant protection law that are hallmark issues of downstate Democratic legislators, like repealing vacancy decontrol laws that give landlords incentives to evict tenants and boost rents out of regulation limits. While the goals are certainly lofty—legislators have been duking it out over rent guidelines every year for decades—Hoylman has also promised some concrete steps his office would take immediately without having to battle upstate Republicans.

He said he would appoint a dedicated staffer to ST/PCV issues as well as work with the management to persuade them against contracting with universities to rent out whole blocks of apartments to students and to maintain the historic layout and grounds of the properties.
“Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village tenants deserve a secure future in the homes they have lived in for so long,” said Hoylman.

East Side Boat Ride
On Wednesday, Aug. 22, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Open House New York is hosting an East River boat cruise with journalists Sharon Seitz and Stuart Miller, co-authors of The Other Islands of New York City: A History and Guide.

The guided river jaunt will start at Pier 16 at the South Street Seaport, where seafarers will board the Circle Line’s Zephyr cruise boat. It will then sail north, passing Roosevelt and Rikers islands as well as other little-known spots such as U Thant Island, the smallest one on the river; Mill Rock, the result of underwater detonations in 1885 that were intended to clear shipping lanes; and North Brother, a protected sanctuary where birds have made their homes among the long-abandoned hospital buildings.

Tickets are $36 per person in advance at ohnyotherislandstour.eventbrite.com or $40 cash at the door. The funds raised from the event go toward the OHNY weekend in October, when dozens of unique and historic buildings are open to the public.

Plan for safer 5th and 6th aves
The advocacy group Transportation Alternatives is launching a new campaign to improve bike and pedestrian safety on Fifth and Sixth avenues, which the Department of Transportation has identified as two of the busiest streets south of 59th Street.

“With community demand for safer, more livable Fifth and Sixth avenues reaching a fever pitch, the community will surely win improvements similar to those ushered in by New Yorkers in other neighborhoods,” said executive director Paul Steely White.

“I wanted to do something else and realized it’s time to start the next chapter,” Duane said in a recent interview. “I would say ‘retire’ is not a completely accurate term; I’m just not ready for re-election. I plan to continue working in my own small way to make the world a better place.”

Duane, who was elected in 1998 and was New York’s first openly gay senator, was the first senator to introduce the Marriage Equality Act in 2001 and continued to push for its support until it was passed last year. He also made waves in 1991 when he won election to the City Council after disclosing his HIV-positive status, and in the Senate he passed legislation expanding routine HIV testing.

Duane said he is proud to have passed laws that directly impact his constituents as well as serve as models for other cities.
“I supported the Midwifery Modernization Act to allow nurse midwives to practice in New York State. I’ve supported routine HIV testing and helped lessen the stigma, particularly within correctional facilities. I also supported the prohibition of insurance companies to create tier four drugs with incredibly expensive co-payments,” Duane said of his accomplishments.

He also introduced the anti-bullying Dignity for All Students Act in the Senate and fought for its successful passage, helped secure passage of a law that eliminates the criminal statute of limitations on many serious sex crimes and worked on measures that toughened laws against hate crimes and discrimination.

Duane’s announcement to leave public office after the current Senate term, which ends Dec. 31, has many already lamenting his departure and others scrambling to replace him.

“I am sad to hear of Tom Duane’s departure from public life,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, whose district overlaps Duane’s, in a statement. “Locally, he has been a powerful and unyielding advocate for affordable housing and tenants’ rights, serving his constituents as only a truly committed and compassionate public servant can. In Albany, Tom has been a legendary champion for civil rights, sponsoring and supporting legislation over the years to benefit all New Yorkers.”
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio also praised the senator, singling out his contributions to gay rights in the state.

“Today’s generation of LGBTQ youth will grow up in a world made more free and more fair because of Tom’s service,” de Blasio said in a statement. “He will always be remembered for his pivotal role in securing marriage equality for all New Yorkers.”

Hoping to follow in Duane’s footsteps, current chair of Community Board 2 and longtime Democratic activist Brad Hoylman has already officially declared his candidacy for the seat. Hoylman is promising to bring reform to Albany and continue Duane’s legacy of fighting for equality at the state level, and political players expect him to receive the coveted endorsement from Duane himself.

City & State also reports that a woman named Tanika Inlaw has been going to local Democratic clubs to seek support for a 29th District candidacy that she announced on Facebook last week.

Duane said that for the time being, he’s focused on finishing out his final term strongly. But he said that he’ll definitely miss parts of the job.

“I’ll miss the challenges of garnering the widest possible support for issues I believe in, especially from people who have not shared my points of view,” Duane said. “I’ll miss finding that common ground and working with people in a collegial manner to pass bills that help people in a way they should be helped.”

With the state’s rent stabilization laws set to expire next year, Gov. David Paterson announced a package of proposals that would change when landlords can charge market rate for regulated apartments. The package also addresses the uncertainty of how the Stuyvesant Town ruling on tax benefits and rent regulation affects tenants and landlords.

But West Side legislators who have written and pushed for pro-tenant bills have reservations about the governor’s plan, and hope that this is merely the start of a debate about new housing laws.

Under Paterson’s proposals, the threshold for vacancy decontrol—the point at which a newly vacant unit is taken out of the rent regulation system and converted to market rate housing—would be raised to $3,000 a month in rent, up from $2,000.

But Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, author of a vacancy decontrol bill that has been bottled in the State Senate, wants the practice completely lifted. Paterson’s proposal on raising the limit to $3,000 barely changes the existing law.

“The problem is, landlords can get it to $3,000 as easy as they can get it to $2,000,” Rosenthal said. “Clearly, this is a gift to the landlords.”

Landlord organizations, however, are griping about the package just as loudly as tenant supporters.

“That’s perhaps the most ridiculous proposal amongst them,” said Jack Freund, executive vice president of the Rent Stabilization Association, about raising the decontrol level. “People who can afford $3,000 rents don’t need rent protections.”

Paterson also tried to clear up confusion around the State Court of Appeals decision regarding J-51 tax benefits. The state’s highest court found that Tishman Speyer, owner of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, wrongly used a tax benefit—known as J-51—to make renovations and raise rents, ultimately deregulating apartments. Freund said the decision has frozen transactions because building values are uncertain now that longstanding practices have been ruled unlawful.

Under the governor’s plan, tenants in wrongly deregulated units can recoup money from owners who wrongly overcharged rent. Rents can be claimed from up to four years prior to the court’s 2009 decision. Owners in the rent stabilization system would also be allowed to apply for rent deregulation when a unit becomes vacant and the rent hits the proposed $3,000 level, even if the landlord receives the J-51 tax benefit.

That doesn’t sit well with State Sen. Tom Duane, whose district covers the Upper West Side as well as Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

“It undercuts the Court of Appeals decision,” Duane said. “To say landlords and developers can take advantage of J-51 and not be in the rent stabilization system is philosophically wrong.”