From TenantNet
“No I haven’t and no, I won’t,” was Christine Quinn’s response to a question posed in 1998 at a neighborhood debate when she was first running for the council seat she still holds. The question from a local tenant to the candidates was, “has anyone taken any campaign contributions from developers (corrected to include landlords and real estate organizations), and would you do so in the future?”
As most voters know now, Quinn broke that promise early on, and she has amassed one of the largest landlord-developer funded campaign war chests in the city’s history. To say she is owned by landlords and developers is an understatement. She is their biggest cheerleader, and because of that Christine Quinn is the singular force in NYC, along with Mike Bloomberg, in large-scale evictions and displacement.
The money came in droves because she made it clear to landlords and developers she would do Bloomberg’s bidding when it came to rezonings, large-scale developments and favors for developers.
Her friends include Extell, Two Trees, Vornado and Related Companies, and many others. Look at Hudson Yards, Atlantic Yards, the NYU and Columbia expansions, 125th Street, Willets Point and many, many other projects pushed by Bloomberg and Quinn. In each case, her landlord friends benefit enormously. Tenants and neighborhoods are hurt, and in some cases, irreparably.
Continue reading “Quinn gets things done – for landlords, not for you”