New governor just like the other ones? Despite some progress, Hochul faulted on big transparency issues. That helps favored developers.

The context for the reflexive support for Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park from Empire State Development, the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, is that it's controlled by the governor. 

And every governor so far--George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer, David Paterson, Andrew Cuomo, Kathy Hochul--has so far been clearly, or at least implicitly, willing to heed the desires of the project developer.

That's part of the culture of Albany. And Hochul, though she has (as far as I can tell) loosed control over Freedom of Information Law requests, has not changed the culture enough.

Hochul’s Vow to Fix Albany’s Culture Finds an Unexpected Foe: Herself, the New York Times reported 7/11/22, citing Hochul's push for a last-minute $10 billion in tax breaks for semiconductor makers, her willingness to subsidize a new stadium for her hometown Buffalo Bills, and her willingness to exempt "a huge swath of money from independent oversight by the state comptroller’s office and from competitive bidding rules."

And that's not even getting to her willingness, for political purposes, to choose Harlem's Brian Benjamin as her Lieutenant Governor, without vetting him sufficiently to assess the likelihood that he might face corruption charges--which, indeed, caused him to resign.

Hochul supporters did note that the much-criticized Joint Commission on Public Ethics will be replaced by the Commission on Ethics & Lobbying in Government, which will finally be more transparent and independent.

Still, her kowtowing to business interests seems clear. From the Times:

“Given the pronouncements that Hochul made when she took over, about these profound changes in transparency and ethics in Albany, it’s very hard to see her being sincere about any of that,” said John Kaehny, executive director of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany. “It’s a different kind of politics, but it’s still the exact same result, which is the governor is working for extremely powerful interest groups that are the same ones that were prevailing under Cuomo.”

From Reinvent Albany

In a 7/8/22 post headlined Subsidy Sheet: Over 20 Groups Urge Hochul to Sign EconDev Transparency Bills, Reinvent Albany noted the need to add safeguards regarding such pending projects as the Penn Station redevelopment plan.

From Reinvent Albany:

The first bill (S8419-B/A9622-C (Ramos/Solages)) will require that Empire State Development’s Community Advisory Committees, which allow community members to weigh in on projects, meet publicly. To date, the review process has been highly secretive, with advisory committee members instructed to treat meetings and documents they receive as confidential, even though the meetings affect the public.

The second bill (S7337/A10157 (Comrie/Paulin)) reverses changes to the Public Authorities Control Board that Governor Cuomo forced through in 2019 in response to Amazon canceling its plans to establish a second headquarters in Queens. Projects cannot go forward without approval from PACB, but Cuomo’s changes made it so that the Governor could remove members that were “acting … beyond the scope of [their] legal authority.”

However, referring to the PACB measure, amNY reported 7/12/22, Hochul punts on bill to give lawmakers more leeway to veto Penn Station project.

Note: there apparently was a Community Advisory Committee that met briefly regarding Atlantic Yards, but it was strictly pro forma.