Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Credit HellGate and TypeInvestigations for publishing the Eric Adams Table of Success , connecting the embattled mayor to some of his most prominent, and controversial, associates. Of particular note are the "After Hours" connections, several linked to Woodland, the controversial bar/nightclub, since shuttered , that I've suggested might be be the Rosetta Stone of the Adams administration. They include the bar operators, Robert & Zhan Petrosyants ; Adams's son Jordan Coleman , who--scooplet!--worked at Woodland; "Bling Bishop" Lamor Whitehead ; and even Jay-Z . A few notes Note: the Table of Success page for Whitehead reports, without caveat, that Whitehead’s father was Arthur Miller, a high-profile victim of police violence, killed in Crown Heights in 1978. A New Yorker article raised major doubts about that. Note: the Table of Success page for Jay-Z reports that  he " had agreed to donate over $1 million" to the Brooklyn Public Library, wh...

There's a connect-the-dots passage in the New York Times's profile of Ingrid Lewis-Martin, perhaps the second most powerful person in city government,  The ‘Fiercely Loyal’ Adams Adviser Agitating From Inside City Hall . (It was published online two days ago, and on the front page--of the New York edition--today.) Lewis-Martin, the wife of Glenn Martin, who met Eric Adams in the police academy, has pushed ethical boundaries and has been well compensated. And then there's her son: Ms. Lewis-Martin’s family has benefited in other ways. Her son, Glenn Martin II, a professional D.J., has gotten exposure by performing at Borough Hall and Gracie Mansion , and at other events sponsored by Mr. Adams’s offices, including the Rise Up Concert Series last summer. “Big Stage!!” he wrote on Instagram about the Rise Up concert. He tagged Mr. Adams. Mr. Martin for years played a weekly brunch set at Woodland, a restaurant that was run by Johnny and Robert Petrosyants , brothers who are ...

Friends of Eric Adams Have Paid Fraction of Sum Ordered in Federal Case , the New York Times's Michael Rothfeld reported 3/10/23: More than eight years after being ordered in federal court to forfeit nearly $700,000 for financial crimes, two close friends of Mayor Eric Adams have repaid only a fraction of that sum despite operating numerous lucrative businesses, court records show. The mayor’s friends, Robert and Johnny Petrosyants, pleaded guilty in January 2014 to making false reports at a check-cashing business after a federal investigation into the laundering of proceeds of false and inflated insurance claims. That "fraction" is $41,500 out of a combined $667,446.08, or 6.2%. What's remarkable is that no one ever asked for an accounting until the Times pushed. But it explains why they don't have their names on their businesses--to prevent seizure of assets--and casts even more doubt on the "mentoring" allegedly performed by Adams toward the twins. An...

The drip-drip of troubling news about Eric Adams continues, notably the New Yorker report  about his questionable mentoring of con man and "Bling Bishop" Lamor (aka Lamar) Whitehead.  While I  cited  the New Yorker's report on Whitehead's connection to the Barclays Center, I didn't mention the reference to Woodland, where Whitehead and Adams liked to hang out, "the first restaurant run by the Petrosyants brothers [Robert and Zhan, aka Johnny], who now run La Baia," the mayor's current place of choice.  Eric Lach's article notes that "character testimonies to the judge" sentencing the brothers, who pleaded guilty to federal charges, included a letter from Whitehead about a purported an anti-childhood-obesity program--one that Robert Petrosyants didn't recall. In a 1/19/23 article,  Adams fundraising haul buoyed by swell of real estate cash , Politico noted that the mayor held campaign fundraisers at La Baia: And Akiva Ofshtein — the ...

There's some important news in two recent articles on Mayor Eric Adams and his dubious pals. Let's start with Politico's 8/6/22 report,  How Adams' pals — and a favorite dining spot — link him to one of the state's top tax delinquents , then go to the front-page New York Times coverage yesterday,  Eric Adams After Dark: A Private Table and Tarnished Friends . Notable is how Politico unearthed evidence of how the companion-or is it wife?--of a felon is (maybe) being used to evade state liquor laws. And that felon, Robert Petrosyants, is a friend of Mayor Eric Adams and the twin of Zhan (Johnny) Petrosyants, an even closer friend of the mayor's. Also notable: how the Times found Adams spent so much time at the twins' Osteria La Baia--at least 14 evenings in June--with no evidence of who, or how, he paid for his meals, which runs afoul of guidance--if not an explicit ban--from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. (And, oh, the "vegan" mayor orders ...

It's worth cataloging the mounting evidence of shadiness, if not illegality, around the relationship between Mayor Eric Adams and his chief of staff, Frank Carone, long a key ally while Adams was Brooklyn Borough President.  Remember, Carone represented the scofflaw nightclub Woodland, which Adams defended to the hilt. He and his firm also represented Forest City, developer of big-box stores at Site 5, in its battle, now resolved, with P.C. Richard, which claimed it was promised space in the future tower across from the arena. A Times scoop In a thorough and damning investigation,  As Adams Praised a New Police Tool, a Close Ally Had a Stake in the Maker , the New York Times reported 5/18/22 that BolaWrap, a Kevlar tether that immobilizes suspect, was boosted by the Borough President multiple times: What was not widely known as Mr. Adams lauded the device was that his friend, political benefactor and current chief of staff, Frank Carone, had a significant financial...

Drip, drip. drip. The evidence mounts regarding unseemly, if not unsavory, professional connections between Mayor Eric Adams' Chief of Staff, Frank Carone, and the felonious Petrosyants brothers, one of whom (Zhan, or Johnny), is close friends with Adams. Adams' spokesman said  on Twitter, in response to the New York Daily News, "Carone and the Petrosyants are not in business and haven't been in business together. They are friends." That's a reference to referrals to a health care business that the newspaper unearthed. From Prime Six lawsuit But they have been in business together, a fact that's gotten far too little attention--as has Adams's connection to that previous business. The Woodland case As I reported in 2019, Carone and his law firm Abrams Fensterman represented the scofflaw Park Slope bar/nightclub Woodland, eventually stripped of its liquor license by the State Liquor Authority (SLA), As stated in a lawsuit  authored by Carone on behalf...

I pitched this as a column/essay to a couple of publications, but they weren't interested. I'm surprised no NYC publication has addressed this issue. The  revelation  by Politico that Mayor Eric Adams, despite claims to veganism, actually eats fish, spurred some  punny  news  stories , fueled by Adams’s initial  evasions —“I eat a plant-based centered life”—until he  acknowledged , “I am perfectly imperfect, and have occasionally eaten fish.” One reporter, responding to understandable skepticism of the pile-on,  called it  a “fun and accessible minor ‘scandal,’ but it also raises serious Q's about what to believe from Adams + team.” Indeed, it compounds a record of evasions. But that’s not the major issue. Rather, the main revelation in Politico’s initial story deserved more scrutiny: Adams’s dubious support of a friend with a “checkered past” who operated—or was that  owned ?—a scofflaw nightclub in Park Slope. That friend, Zhan ‘Johnny...

Big picture, Mayor Eric Adams is earning kudos, with an admiring New York Times essay yesterday by Fordham political scientist Christina Greer, headlined  A Leader Who Defies Easy Political Labeling. Finally. , and another praising his rhetoric on public safety in the Sunday New York Daily News from columnist Harry Siegel,  Eric Adams’ words — and the Democrats’ actions . Look in some other directions, and it gets more complicated. A mainstream news outlet delved--not as deeply as it could've--into one of Adams's more curious associations, the former operator (or was it owner?) of the controversial Park Slope restaurant/club Woodland, closed in early 2020 by the State Liquor Authority after an enormous array of evidence and complaints.  Politico 2/5/22 published  New York mayor holds court in swanky restaurant alongside friend with checkered past : That friend is Zhan “Johnny” Petrosyants, a restaurateur who was charged in a money laundering case in federal court e...

Yesterday I wrote in the Daily News about Eric Adams and, among other things, his dubious defense of the  now-closed bar/restaurant/nightclub Woodland . I recently checked the city's lobbying database and, as the letter reproduced below indicates, the relationship between Woodland and its lobbyist , Mercury Public Affairs, went sour. The letter is from Mercury: The initial authorization filed for Prime Six Inc. [Woodland's parent company] was effective 7/1/2019 through the end of the registration period 12/31/20 with an expected compensation of $7500 per month. However, after client non-payment, Mercury and Prime Six have mutually agreed to terminate lobbying services effective 10/16/2019. Mercury will accept a onetime payment in the sum of $20,000 for the period of 7/1-10/16/2019. Given the span of three-and-a-half months, that suggests a not-insignificant discount off the contracted rate, which would be $26,250. (Note that the agreement I saw was for three months, but...

I have an op-ed in the Daily News online today, headlined  Eric Adams’ gentrification double standard . It begins: Though Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams called his passionate “go back to Iowa!” admonition on Martin Luther King Day a “gaffe,” others suggest he’s strategically aiming for a black and Latino voter base in the 2021 mayoral election. Having closely watched Adams navigate one gentrification-related issue, I found his “kumbaya” open letter in the Daily News equally strategic. Yes, “rapid changes [are] causing a lot of pain among long-time residents and businesses.” But it was disingenuous for Adams to cite “The restaurant owner of a neighborhood institution who received so many noise complaints she’s forced to close down her business.” Why? Because he’s prominently defended relatively new destination nightclubs that featured bottle service . In Brooklyn, it was Woodland, a nightspot on Flatbush Ave. at the edge of Park Slope that generated numerous complaints ...

Updated with photos from 1/5/20. Woodland 1/3/20 The controversial bar/nightclub/restaurant Woodland, at Sixth and Flatbush Avenues on the edge of Park Slope, had its liquor license canceled as of yesterday, Jan. 3, by the State Liquor Authority . (See notice below and at bottom.) That document was issued two weeks after the SLA voted to uphold an administrative law judge who’d sustained numerous charges, after a multi-month hearing process. The charges included a disorderly premises, offering a DJ and dancing without a permit, serving illegally decanted alcoholic beverages, and becoming a focal point for police attention. The judge, after hearing testimony from neighbors, police, and SLA investigators, cited “a sustained and continuing pattern of relentless and unreasonable noise, unruly drunken patrons, loud crowds, filth such as vomit, urine, and feces.” (One factoid: noise from Woodland was audible inside the 78th Precinct, more than a block away.) The SLA even revers...