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March 9, 2007
Feds scrutinizing Ratner's Ridge Hill
The Journal News ran a follow-up article and editorial on the news that the FBI is taking a hard look at the Yonkers City Council's role in Forest City Ratner's controversial Ridge Hill project.
Yonkers council still in the dark over FBI probe
By Michael Gannon and Timothy O'Connor
Basically, everyone in the Yonkers City Council is saying that they don't know what the FBI investigation and subpoenas are about.
A source familiar with the probe, however, told The Journal News on Tuesday it was related to the council's handling of the controversial $600 million Ridge Hill development on the city's east side.
Forest City Ratner's response:
On Tuesday, a Forest City spokesman said the first the developer heard of the subpoena was when a reporter called to ask about it.
Though details have not been revealed, the paper explains why the FBI might want to have a closer look into these mega-development deals.
While the nature of the probe remained a mystery to most yesterday, it comes as no surprise that federal investigators are taking a hard look at the northern suburbs.
U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia has made public corruption probes a centerpiece of his office since he became the top prosecutor in the Southern District of New York in 2005. Last year, he tapped a veteran public corruption prosecutor, Perry Carbone, to head up an anti-public corruption campaign in the northern suburbs.
"Here, billions of dollars are spent on private development through projects that require government involvement at all levels," Garcia said in an address in May to the Scarsdale League of Women Voters in Hartsdale. "In this environment, there is risk and there is opportunity for corruption. We must take a hard look."
Just another corruption probe comes into view in the City of Yonkers
Though The Journal News editorial board feigns ennui in the headline, they seem to be as concerned as the citizens of Yonkers that the City has yet to emerge from the dark ages, when corruption was merely the cost of doing business:
The project is part of the new Yonkers that we have heard so much about lately - a city of burgeoning opportunities and new economic vitality; whether it is also part of the old and familiar Yonkers - one of ingrained public corruption, going back decades - remains to be seen. The subpoena states that the evidence is being sought by the investigators in connection with a possible violation of the federal conspiracy statute; how exactly that might relate to the development project is anyone's guess - or nightmare.
Thanks to Community First Development Coalition for the links.
SAME OLD, SAME OLD
Folks, keep in mind that an allegation of corruption has already been attached to this project:
In 2004, the 20-something-year-old brother-in-law of former Mayor Spencer landed on Forest City Ratner's payroll, as the property manager for Ridge Hill, after a "storm of protest" over the revelation that in 2003 he was making six figures working at the Ridge Hill Development Corporation, a quasi-governmental private corporation overseeing the project (link).
Posted by lumi at March 9, 2007 8:39 AM