WPIX’s Mannarino, All the NY Media Ignore the Big Story: AOC/Lander Left-Wing Political War to Take Over NY
By Gary Tilzer
What WPIX Dan Mannarino missed when he interviewed Brooklyn Assemblywoman Marcela Mitaynes from Sunset Park about the subway shooting of ten riders, was not the broken cameras that delayed the capture of the shooter, Wisconsin resident Frank James. What the newsman does not understand was that Assemblywoman Mitaynes was part of a growing number of elected left-wing ideologues that use dangerous crisis occurrences like the subway shooting, not to fix the problem, but to push their ideological issues.
When Mannarino asked Mitaynes where she would like to see the increased police presence on the subway promised by Mayor Adams after the shooting in her district; the Assemblywoman answered, “ . . . not sure a robust police presence is the answer.” She followed with an attack on the NYPD for a 2014 pushing down of a pregnant woman by an officer, who was coming to the defense of her arrested son. Mitaynes never answered Mannarino, questions about the broken cameras at the station where the shooting occurred, but she gave him her left-wing talking points.
Mitaynes told Mannarino that the core cause why James left his Wisconsin home to shoot people at the 36th Street subway stop in Sunset Park was the lack of affordable housing, health care, summer camps, child care for immigrant children and mental health grows bigger and bigger. People are committing petty crimes, the Assemblywoman said, because they can’t get formula and diapers for their baby. Was the reason you and your co-host Hazel Sanchez cut short your interview with Assemblywoman Mitaynes her disconnected answers to the questions you were asking her? Reporter Mannarino who hosts the “PIX on Politics” program on Sunday morning, should have known that Mitaynes is part of the growing Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Working Families Party (WFP) group of elected officials that support defunding the police and only support issues that fit their far-left ideological narrative.
Mannarino who has interviewed Adams a few times should have come to the same conclusion as the Mayor when he was blocked by Mitaynes and her fellow Albany Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) progressives from obtaining changes to the bail reform law to protect New Yorkers. Adams believes that “some Albany lawmakers are just not dealing in reality. Idealism can’t displace realism,” the Mayor said.
Mannarino, like the rest of the media, does not know that the left-wing progressives have started a war for control of New York. Adams gets it, “I’m no longer running against candidates. I’m running against a movement,” the Mayor said during the campaign. The NY Post has begun this week to stenographer (copy) the Jewish Voice which began warning its readers in June of 2021 about the AOC machine surprising victories in City Council races, especially in Brooklyn. Jewish Voice June 2021 AOC & the Progressives’ Interlocking Directorates are the New Bosses of Brooklyn & the 2022 City Council. Unfortunately, the stenographer NY Post started too late in the election process to prevent further gains by far-left tag-team and political machines and PACs of AOC, Controller Lander, DSA, and WFP, working together to take over NYC. The NY Post still thinks it is the market place causing gentrification. They have no understanding that government funding of housing programs, like Mandatory Including Housing (MIH), 421a and nonprofit funding have fast track gentrification in minority and poor neighborhoods. The NY Post also does not understand that clever left-wing progressives like AOC and Lander are using government programs and funding to increase gentrification, which will result in more DSA & WFP backed elected officials blocking bail reform in Albany, a law that the NY Post editorial board has been demanding to change to protect New Yorkers. Memo to NY Post: When you run your paper out of the offices of George Artz Communications, Inc, you miss or mix-up stuff, ask Carl. Look for the NY Daily News to soon write another disconnected Sunday story about the AOC machine with no follow up. The winds of this coming left-wing war for control of NYC is at present against the NY Times news narrative for the paper of record to cover. One still hopes to be surprised by the new Executive Director of the Times, Joe Kahn. Maybe Ryan will copy again, it has worked for her. The Times They are Changing, except with what is left with NYC’s local media. Jewish Voice In the Scripted News Era, Journalists & Elected Officials Become Actors, NY Special Interests Pull the Strings.
How Comptroller Lander’s Government Funded Nonprofit Political Machine Elected Assemblywoman Mitaynes Helped by the Bankers and Developers
“I refuse all money from real estate developers and corporations, so when elected, I will only be accountable to working people,” Mitaynes said during her 2020 campaign. In reality the Assemblywoman is a captain in Lander’s nonprofit new Tammany Hall machine which empowers through Mandatary Including Housing (MIH) developers to build luxury housing.
Before Mitaynes became an Assemblywoman she worked as a community organizer for Neighbors Helping Neighbors, an interconnecting nonprofits owned by another nonprofit Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC). FAC develops and manages affordable housing, runs social service programs, organizes local residents and workers for political action. The FAC was organized in the 1970’s by now Comptroller Brad Lander and his friends to stop gentrification in lower Park Slope. After every inch of Park Slope was owned by the gentrification rich pushing out low-income Hispanics that occupied the South Slope, FAC moved on to Gowanus and the Sunset Park neighborhoods. Lander was the executive director of FAC before he became the first open socialists elected official in NY in decades. Marcela said she was asked by her employer on a local podcast, the largest developer in Sunset Park, the 5th Ave Committee, to run for office. The Assemblywoman, fellow DSA member Julio Pena is her male District leader, and is on the Board of Directors of the FAC.
Lander’s Voters are Incoming Gentrifiers, His Nonprofit & Consultant Work Together to Empty Minority and Poor Neighborhoods
FAC’s latest affordable housing project was to rebuild the Sunset Park library with the affordable housing developer Galaxy Group. FAC works with affordable housing developers and lobbyists like Berlin Rosen (BR) that has run every campaign that Lander has run in, including comptroller. Berlin Rosen put out press releases and took credit on their website for moving the FAC Sunset Park library project forward. Berlin Rosen, which makes millions off of representing gentrifying developers like Two Trees, Atlantic Terminal Ratner, and dozens of other developers, show their left-wing clients hypocrisy, like de Blasio, Lander, and the WFP, all of whom claim that they are working to empowering the city’s minority and poor communities. What BR has done is wipe out the city’s minority communities like Prospect Heights with tens of thousands of whites, who pay higher rents to BR clients. When the leaders of the WFP were working for ACORN, the two founders of Berlin Rosen were working with the developer of Atlantic Yards and stadium, and arranged for a loan from the developer Bruce Ratner who they were working for, to keep ACORN alive during its legal problems. As a result of de Blasio, WFP and their agent Berlin Rosen supporting Atlantic Yards, Prospect Heights has completely gentrified. Some say Lander’s personal nonprofit FAC accelerated the gentrification of Lower Park Slope and quickened the gentrification of Sunset Park. Lander has said in the mission statement of FAC that the nonprofit works to use neighborhood diversity and turn it into a strength. Well Controller Lander has gained political strength, while the FAC neighborhoods have become or are becoming un-diverse (segregated) with a lot of white out-of-towners.
The Lander Nonprofit Machine and Brooklyn Progressives Hurt Developers Who Don’t Cooperate With Them and Reward Those That Do
Mitaynes led the fight to oppose the Jamestown attempt to rezone the Industrial City for future development. Former Sunset Park Councilman Carlos Menchaca joined her, Lander, and other elected officials in killing the rezoning. From 2003 to 2009, Lander was a director of the university-based Pratt Center for Community Development. Pratt is now developing a sewing center, a new garment center, and a place for other business entrepreneurs, in a waterfront area adjacent to Industrial City, along the terminal Waterfront. The city is putting in $308 million for the Pratt project, called Made in NY Campus. Menchaca term limited out of the council after he stopped the Industrial City rezoning, now works for Pratt. Sunset Park Councilwoman Alexa Avilés, used to work for the Sherman Fund whose Executive Director is Mike Pratt, and Co-Vice Chairman, Pratt Institute.
New York’s Real Estate, the Banks, and the Partnership’s Establishment “Hoist By Their Own Petard”
This is a long messy war not only for control of New York, but for America that Adams must lead. First the city’s Banks must be made to understand that in their quest for real estate deals they are funding nonprofits the socialists use as political machines to win elections for their fellow travelers. The banks must be made to understand that they are the cause of tens of thousands of New Yorkers moving out of state because they are being used by the socialists to not only block bail reform, but they are jeopardizing their own permanent government that has kept them safe for generations, with a left-wing take-over of NYC.
Real Estate developers must stop partnering with nonprofits like FAC that have become the left’s machine to elect progressive. With the passage of the city’s Mandatary Including the Housing law passed, luxury developers and mortgage lending banks need nonprofits like FAC to build a few affordable units, to get City Hall approval for rezoning to build mega-tall luxury projects. Banks funding the luxury housing are also funding the nonprofit which is electing left-wing public officials that are destroying NYC economy, by refusing to do anything to slow down the increase in crime. Contributors to the FAC nonprofit helping build Lander’s left-wing machine to elect him mayor include the following: Bank of New York Mellon, Citi Foundation, Con Edison, Deutsche Bank, First Republic Bank, Goldman Sachs, Hispanic Federation, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, M & T Bank, New York Mortgage Coalition, Ridgewood Savings Bank, Santander Bank, Sterling National Bank, Deutsche Bank, M&T Bank.
The Media Must Begin Questioning the Left-Wing Candidates to Educate Voters of the Consequences of AOC/Landers Taking Control of NY
Mannarino could have challenged Mitaynes when she said, “the police department has been getting additional funding in recent years and we are not seeing it trickle down.” Last year the NYC Council cut the NYPD budget by a billion dollars. When Mitaynes stated in her interview that mental health was a growing problem in NYC, Mannarino could have asked the Assemblywoman why she was opposed to giving judges the power to send those suffering from mental illness to a hospital. Better yet, Mannarino, you could have taken a camera crew out to Sunset Park and ask the voters in her community if they wanted more police to patrol their streets and subways. If you do find they want more police to patrol, you might begin to understand many of NY elected officials do not represent the community that they were elected in. Mannarino, do you or your views know that the man who made Mitaynes an Assemblywoman, Comptroller Brad Lander, is opposed to metal detectors at public schools? Has WPIX ever interviewed Lander after a school shooting? Mannarino have you ever discussed on your Sunday political show how broken the NY election system is? Mannarino and the rest of the media must return to its John Peter Zenger mission which began in 1734, of informing New Yorkers what is really going on in their city. Mannarino you won’t be put in jail like English Colonial Governor William Cosby did to Zenger for telling the truth or criticizing an elected official, but your TV rating might go up. Everyone knows Gabe Pressman, Jack Newfield or Jimmy Breslin who regularly told their views or readers which elected official by name, was not doing his or her job properly or was corrupt. Mannarino and the rest of NYC media should watch old tapes of Tim Russert to learn how to confront elected officials, something not done nowadays. Journalists need to ask hard questions to protect New Yorkers.
The City’s Newspapers Have Understood for A Long Time That Politicians Use Govt Funded Nonprofits As Political Machines, But Have Remained Silent
If Mannarino the reporter did not understand that Mitaynes was an ideology-dominated elected official during the subway shooting interview, he certainly does not understand how New Yorkers’ tax dollars built a government-funded nonprofit that functions like a political machine to elect Mitaynes to the Assembly, Lander to the City Council, Comptroller and his former chief of staff, Shahana Hanif as the Park Slope Councilwoman. Following the lead of former Brooklyn Democratic Machine Boss, the late Vito Lopez, Socialist Lander is also using a government funded nonprofit to build a political machine that he hopes will make him mayor in 2025.
NY Times 1993 “Growth of a New Age Political Machine” Mr. Lopez has built the prototype of the modern inner-city political machine, one capable of generating thousands of votes and armies of volunteers, largely by exploiting its links to a social-service organization that Mr. Lopez founded and that is now the largest employer and economic enterprise in his neighborhood. Lopez’s (nonprofit) machine is potent enough to induce pilgrimages from mayors, senators and, last year, a Presidential candidate named Bill Clinton, who arrived in a 15-car motorcade during last year’s New York primary campaign.
FAC is in Partnership with the Hispanic Federation nonprofit. In 2012 The NY Post called the Hispanic Federation (HF) the center of a Twisted web of political nonprofits in the Bronx. The Post said the HF is a political machine that benefits a close-knit network of political insiders. The federation has ties to almost every Hispanic lawmaker in The Bronx, including Rivera, but primarily benefits two men: political strategist Luis Miranda, who co-founded it and once served as its president, and Roberto Ramirez, a former Bronx Democratic Party boss. Insiders say that if you want influence in The Bronx, you have to deal with the federation and, by extension, MirRam. But the blurring of a nonprofit and a consultant group means there’s little accountability.
To the Luxury Real Estate Industry Whose Support is Needed to Run for Mayor, Lander is the New Robert Moses
When Park Slope City Councilman Lander voted in favor of Mandatory Including Housing (MIH) in 2016, which makes it easier for luxury real estate to build tall building by hooking up with a nonprofit to include some affordable housing in project, he won the lottery. 1) It put him in good shape with the city’s real estate leaders who he will need support from to win the NYC mayoralty. 2) MIH requires luxury developers to partner with nonprofits like Lander controlled FAC to build their luxury buildings. Lander received a lot of money from big real estate after MIH became law in his 2017 reelection campaign to the council. Voice of Gowanus “What’s the rush, Brad? Lander’s Damning Developer Donations.” 3) Lander and his fellow council gangsters received a 33% increase in salary from the mayor for passing the pro-real-estate MIH bill according to City Hall insiders and press reports at the time.
Lander is so tied at the hip with the city’s real estate industry, that residents of Gowanus and environmentalists who are opposed to the rezoning the controller supported, now claim he is ignoring the EPA’s toxic warning about developers already building near the polluted canal. If the city did not complete the building of polluted rainwater storage tanks before the new luxury building is finished, they claim area residents could be poisoned by the toxic overflowing rainwater. When Lander founded the FAC he stated in the mission statement that his nonprofit would work to bring out the community’s environmental concerns. FAC has received funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Lander Nonprofit Machine FAC is Fueled with Government Funding From: New York City Council Discretionary, NYC Council Discretionary Funding Stabilizing NYC, NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, NYC Department of Homeless Services, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, NYC Health and Hospitals, NYC Human Resources Administration, NYC Office of Emergency Management, CUNY Research Center, NYS Education Department, NYS Energy Research and Development Authority, NYS Department of State, NYS Department of State Brownfield Redevelopment, NYS Discretionary, NYS Housing and Community Renewal, NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, US Environmental Protection Agency
Much of the Information in this Story About Assemblywoman Mitaynes Came From her Opponent Erik Frankel . . . Now Hear From Him
Erik Frankel Notes: “The great speaker Tip O’Neal used to say all politics is local but not according to local NYC media. If you follow the NYC newspapers or TV news, there is no local politics. There has been no coverage of my local election. There has been no candidate forum, no debate. Early voting has already started, and the voter’s guide has not been delivered. Supporters of my opponent threaten me on the internet and even in front of my home. I had not raised any money for this election, It has been nearly impossible to get my story out. I am from Brooklyn, I have thick skin, I want people to know who their politicians really work for or what is going on. The voters have little understanding of what I stand for and how I tried to expose my opponent as too far left and anti-police, to keep the people of Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, and Red Hook safe. I had written an op
-ed explaining how the developers are buying our community activists and influencing our local elections. I had shown the evidence to a local paper of my opponents’ nonprofit corruption, super wealthy PAC funds creating puppet-like activists to steal the peoples of the district’s narrative and misinform the voters of the 51st Assembly District with progressive talking points spin. They never released my story, instead one media outlet lied and printed that I was a Democrat turned Republican. My opponent Mitaynes encourages renters not to pay rent, causing more small minority landlords to give up their building making them available to the nonprofit developers, like FAC, who the Assemblywoman used to work for. When asked Mitaynes how much real estate does FAC own, her reply was I don’t know, they just buy up depressed assets. My opponent Mitaynes encourages renters not to pay rent, causing more buildings, many owned by minorities, to become available to the nonprofit developers like the one that elected her, FAC. NYC will not approve until the media starts covering races like mine, a neighborhood guy against a socialist whose campaign machine receives government, real estate funding and donations from Banks. I am fighting her, the left-wing machines and the city’s clueless establishment alone.”
The Fight for City Hall 2025?
Lander has written of his hopes that the real estate market in NYC crashes. Then, Lander prays, the city can seize all the abandoned buildings for unpaid taxes and give them to the non-profit organizations that he relies on for his political support. . . The comptroller’s wife, incidentally, runs Nonprofit New York, an umbrella group for rent seeking groups. It’s no accident that since becoming comptroller Brad Lander has made “prompt payment” to these often corrupt or useless nonprofits a top priority.
An Adams proxy war with endorsement of worn-out incumbent Assembly Member, like Harlem’s Inez Dickens and 75-year-old Michael Benedetto from an increasingly Hispanic Bronx district, both under attack from AOC back candidates, is just a holding off action if the incumbents win. Adams’ endorsements can tip this year’s battle against the left-wing although control of the Brooklyn Democratic Party will come down to the wire. New leadership made-up of common-sense neighborhood leaders must be developed quickly to avoid losing the AOC/Lander war for control over time. The media must educate itself about this fight and inform its readers so neighborhood heroes like Erik Frankel do not have to fight them alone, with a clueless public. Adams must explain what AOC & Lander are up to, with a speech at Cooper Union, the same place Abe Lincoln made his presidential race real in 1860. Lincoln said at Cooper Union on the eve of the Civil War, “Behind the Cloud the Sun is Still Shining.” Adams needs to give New Yorkers hope beyond the sound bites that he will battle with common sense New Yorkers (the silent city’s majority) to push out the forces who do not know how to run our great city.
