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February 6, 2011
Brutally weird: Post has Lewis, James jump on Gilmartin's "cleaning lady" comment; all ignore the bigger EB-5 story
Atlantic Yards Report
Brutally weird.
The most extensive recent coverage of Forest City Ratner's astounding attempt to gain $249 million in financing by essentially selling green cards to Chinese millionaires (under the EB-5 visa program) comes via a manufactured flap over political correctness.
The New York Post, in Atlantic Yards' foot-in-mouth veep, reports:
A top official overseeing Brooklyn’s $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project is being accused by one of its biggest supporters of making insensitive comments about a green-card program being used to raise funds for the cash-strapped plan.
Former ACORN boss Bertha Lewis — who was largely responsible for garnering key grass-roots support for the planned Prospect Heights development that includes an NBA arena – told the Post yesterday that she wants developer Forest City Ratner’s vice-president MaryAnne Gilmarten to apologize for comments reportedly made at a recent Manhattan public event.
"As citizen Gilmarten, I’m not sure how I feel about it. This is not your cleaning lady’s green card program," Gilmarten is quoted in the New York Observer saying while speaking at the New York Commercial Real Estate Woman Inc. event.
She was referring to the federal "EB-5" program, which gives green cards to investors of at least $500,000 in US job-creating projects. FCR expects to raise $249 million through 498 Chinese and South Korean nationals buying their way into America.
Why is she dragging cleaning ladies into this?" Lewis said. "It makes me sad because my aunts and grandmother were cleaning women, and there's a lot of educated people in this country who are cleaning women.
"What is she saying? That rich people can buy their way into the country but the heck with the poor?"
...
And if Lewis has a problem with rich people buying into the country she should not be criticizing Gilmartin's comments so much as criticizing:
- the existence of the program in the first place;
- the willingness of Forest City Ratner's partner, the New York City Regional Center, to misrepresent the project, and
- the willingness of both parties to claim job creation--the quid pro quo for green cards--when no new jobs would be created and they're stretching the spirit if not the letter of the law, since they're crediting Chinese millionaires with jobs created by money allocated long before the investment immigration program started.
Or, how about the "foot in mouth Beep," given that Borough President Marty Markowitz claimed, on video, that Brooklyn was "1000 percent behind Atlantic Yards."
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, A press release from Council Member James regarding Gilmartin's "disparaging" of cleaning ladies in comments on EB-5 visa program
Below, a press release regarding what I consider to be a sideshow in the ongoing story of Forest City Ratner's effort to raise cheap capital from foreign millionaires under the EB-5 program.
Council Member Letitia James Responds To Disparaging Comments About Working-Class Women from Forest City Ratner Vice President
New York, NY— At a recent New York Commercial Real Estate Women event MaryAnne Gilmartin, Vice President of Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner (FCR), addressed the effect foreign investment has had on the project’s development. Specifically, she commented on the EB-5 visa, which is a federal visa that is awarded to foreign individuals who invest anywhere from $500,000 to $1M to business based in the United States (a minimum of $500,000 in areas designated “high risk”).
Ms. Gilmartin expressed uneasiness with the program, but conceded that this kind of financing may be the only way to move forward with Atlantic Yards development. She was quoted by the New York Observer as stating, “This is not your cleaning lady's green card program.”
“The fact that Ms. Gilmartin understands the troubling implication that foreign individuals (with enough money to fund high-cost development) could simply purchase green cards is reassuring. However, it is highly disappointing that Ms. Gilmartin felt comfortable disparaging ‘cleaning ladies’ as a working-class group— especially in a room full of commercial real estate experts who are very familiar with the economic and social issues raised by big development in urban areas,” said Council Member Letitia James. “Women who clean homes are doing so to provide a better life for themselves and their families, so that their children can afford the luxury real estate others take for granted. These comments disrespect the dignity of working-class people, who Forest City Ratner and the Atlantic Yards project have displaced to create their version of an ‘urban oasis’. One that apparently doesn’t include cleaning ladies.”
Because of the high-costs associated with the EB-5 visa, some consider the program one that encourages foreign investors to “buy” green cards. Applicants to the program have ballooned from 1,031 in 2009, to 1,995 in 2010. This is almost four times the number of applicants than in 2006. In addition to FCR, the Brooklyn Navy Yard has followed suit in adopting the program, hoping to finance $125M in development funding.
Posted by steve at February 6, 2011 8:18 PM