Mayor de Blasio went off on a tirade Monday over a Daily News report that the city awarded NYCHA development rights to two of his campaign contributors.
“You should really think twice before writing a story that’s that misleading and that unfactual,” Hizzoner lectured a News reporter over revelations that the donors — including one who gave $10,000 to his shuttered Campaign for One New York — are poised to rake it in thanks to their $25 million purchase of the development rights.
Hizzoner insisted the campaign contributions weren’t a factor in the awarding of the rights, snapping, “It has nothing to do with it!”
“The first time I heard who got the contract was in the paper,” he claimed during a press gaggle on 46th St. near Fifth Ave. while the Veterans Day Parade marched by.
“I’m just not going to stand for you guys misrepresenting things and actually telling people falsehoods,” de Blasio chided.
On Sunday, The News reported the city is selling NYCHA development rights to builders who gave de Blasio’s campaigns nearly $20,000, in what appears to be a textbook “pay-to-play” move.
Air rights at the Ingersoll Houses near Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn are being sold for $25 million to Maddd Equities, whose chief Jorge Madruga gave $10,000 to Hizzoner’s scandal-plagued Campaign for One New York, plus another $5,850 for his mayoral runs, according to filings. Joy Construction, whose employees gave de Blasio’s mayoral campaigns $3,700, is co-developer on the deal.
The duo plans to build two apartment buildings of about 31 and 33 stories each right next to the Ingersoll Houses. The air rights let them go about 10 stories higher than they’d originally planned.
Both the city and developers say the deal is a win-win, noting 25% of the roughly 400 new units will be priced at “affordable” rates — one of the top priorities of the de Blasio administration.
“Did I have anything to do with it or any knowledge of it? No,” Hizzoner said during his Midtown monologue. “Was the policy a policy to fund NYCHA, which desperately needs the money? Yes.”
Respected government gadfly Susan Lerner of Common Cause had told The News that the deal “definitely violates the spirit if not the letter of our campaign finance law and it removes public assets from public control without public input.”
Hizzoner had some choice words for Lerner.
“I don’t care what Susan Lerner said!” he snapped.
He then backtracked a bit, saying, “I respect Susan Lerner. It is just not true.”
De Blasio frequently claims to know nothing or doesn’t recall details when confronted with negative information. Examples of him trying to use that defense include:
* saying in April he couldn’t remember asking developers with business before the city for campaign contributions;
* claiming the same thing in 2016 about a call from donor Jonah Rechnitz, who’s pleaded guilty to corruption charges, in which Rechnitz asked de Blasio to make a retired police official head of the city’s Office of Emergency Management;
* pleading ignorance in 2016 about why one of his big fundraisers, James Capalino, was earning record sums as a City Hall lobbyist;
* claiming in 2016 he had no idea a campaign donor was getting city permission to convert the Rivington Houses on the Lower East Side from a nursing home into luxury condos;
* saying in June he didn’t know “Hasta la victoria siempre” was Che Guevara’s motto after de Blasio blurted out the phrase in Miami, bastion of anti-communist sentiment, while on the presidential campaign trail; and
* asserting in March he didn’t know “I Believe I Can Fly” was by perv singer R. Kelly after Hizzoner flapped his arms like wings to the tune at a South Carolina church.
The tirade Monday was the latest in a long series of anti-press remarks from de Blasio, who’s had a testy relationship with the city’s press corps from the start of his administration. At an infamous press gaggle in May 2018, he opined, “My view is the tabloid culture has been bad for New York City for a long, long time.”
