September 6, 2002
Spectator says....
Sidway stinks
Spectator says....
Sidway stinks
The Spectator would love to know what's going on with the Sidway Building.
The City is prepared to dump about two million federal dollars into the $4.1 million conversion of the building from commercial to residential.
This project was a dog when it was conceived. It encountered a stumbling block that prevented the use of federal block grant dollars. It chased several tenants not just out of the building, but out of the city. And it needs the City to be a 50% partner for the deal to work. Is this what passes for "development" in this town? A lot of people are investing their own money to make their projects work; the Sidway guys are investing your money.
What makes this project so special? For one thing, it is being shepherded by David Pawlik as an agent for Clover Management. Pawlik used to be on the other side of the table, negotiating with people like Clover as the City's chief housing guy. He resigned a few years back under a cloud of suspicion about some deals that were concocted on his watch. When he showed up at Clover, a question was raised about the ethical propriety of a city official going to work for someone with whom he had done business. Then Commissioner Joe Ryan, who supervised Pawlik, allowed that indeed there was a prohibition against such activity but "it's never enforced." And we wonder why the City operates like something out of a Jimmy Breslin novel!
But not even Breslin would come up with the next chapter: Clover is managed by Michael Joseph. To say that Joseph has a spotty record as a developer and a property manager would be to give him way too much credit. Most recently, he dumped an apartment complex in Niagara Falls and left the feds holding a $2.5 million bag. This is the guy to whom the City wants to give another $2 million. Go figure.
But the plots thickens even more. To get a more accurate picture of who was doing what at the Sidway Building, some city officials asked Clover to provide a list of partners in the deal. The request was dropped after intervention from the Mayor himself who said the city didn't need a list because "these are all good guys."
On its face, the Sidway deal stinks. But considered in the context of ambitious housing plans for downtown, it's even worse. It creates a precedent that is going to send the wrong signal echoing all over the development community. Masiello has convened a task force (yes, another task force) to focus on downtown housing. It is composed of bankers and developers and is designed to give some structure and credibility to a city government that lacks both.
What kind of message is being sent to future developers when the Sidway gang can attract half of its budget from a public treasury so depleted that cops can't be paid? What will prevent future developers from coming into City Hall seeking the same kind of treatment? And what does it do to the task force as it seeks ways to impose some discipline on a City Hall out of control?
P.S. As long as we're talking about money that isn't there for cops & firemen...
I have a couple of other tidbits: I always felt that Rudy Guiliani was a phony in the dust of Sept. 11. Then I found out that he refused to give the cops and fire fighters he praised so lavishly a contract. They worked for almost four years without a contract. Now an arbitration panel has awarded the NYPD an 11.5% raise to be paid the next two years.
A similar arbitration panel has awarded 4+% to Buffalo cops. The award will throw the city budget so far out of whack that another 20 cops will have to be laid off. If the fire fighters get the same award, which is customary, a dozen fire fighters will also have to be laid off.
The NYC award has been announced. The Buffalo award has not.
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Click here for Spectator's previous Buffalo Report comment on the Sidway scandal.
And click here for Spectator's most recent Buffalo Report on local skullduggery and foolishness.