Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_02 0:00

This is the Co-op and Condo Insider, the podcast dedicated to New York's cooperative and condominium community. This is your trusted source for the latest insights, strategies, and stories for shaping the world of fair house. You will hear from the people who are leaders in this community. Information and insights you will not hear anywhere else. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you're in the right place. Views and opinions expressed on this program do not necessarily reflect those of the host or any affiliated individuals or organizations.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

I'm your host, Jeffrey Mazel. I'm a co-op attorney and legal advisor to the President's Call Pen Condo Council. I'm thrilled to be joined by my co-host, Richard Solomon, a seasoned voice in public radio for over 20 years. Richard has taken his listeners around the world to meet experts, newsmakers, and the people making a real difference in our lives. Richard, great to have you on the mic with us today.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Greetings, everyone.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

And we have a very interesting and exciting guest, and an old friend of ours, at least an old friend of mine, and a new friend of Richard's and his neighbor, we just found out, Mark Weprin. Mark, we're going to talk about your incredible family family legacy, your incredible public service in both housing. And of course, we're going to talk about co-op issues because you do have a long history of dealing with co-op issues. And I think a lot of the things you worked on many years ago are still relevant today. So welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Thank you very much, Jeffrey. It's great to be here. Richard, always a pleasure now to talk to you. My new friend.

Saul Weprin’s Legacy And Co-Op Roots

SPEAKER_03 1:50

So my one of one of my proudest moments is when I went to the senior center that my father attended, and there was a TV named in his honor. But Mark, your your father has a whole street named after him. So why don't you just tell us about the legacy of your father, Saul Weprin?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Well, thank you, Jeff. I appreciate that. Yeah, my um my dad, Saul Wepprin, uh um, you know, uh grew grew up in Brooklyn, but he moved, he was a World War II veteran, and he moved to Queens um to live in one of the newly built veterans co-ops uh that was being set up in Queens. And there were a lot of them, obviously, in Queens. They were in Hilltop Village, which is on um Francis Lewis Boulevard and Hillside Avenue. I know you're familiar with it, uh, not far from Gabby's Pizza. Uh and um he he they moved there when uh had my my eldest brother was born there, and my my my my second brother, uh David Weprin, who many of you know, who uh also is in politics, were both born there. Uh uh once the uh my mother got pregnant with me, uh they ended up moving into a house. But um, but that's where he got his start. And he they lived there for about eight years, and my father ended up being co-op president at Hilltop, one of the uh, I know they break them up to like four sections, but he was one of those sections, the one that included the Dover, whatever, whichever number that was. And um they um he was co-op president and it got him involved in politics because the local district leader, the local county leader, was looking for a new district leader for the Democratic Party. And because he was the president of a co-op and knew a lot of people, they recruited my father to get involved in uh politics. In 1960, he became a district leader and sort of got him started on politics.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Very interesting. And then he uh what was the first office he ran for?

From District Leader To Assembly Speaker

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Well, well, you had a run for democratic district leader. It isn't a big office, but it's a local political office. You actually have to run for that. And he was that for about 10 years when the uh current assemblyman at the time. Now you're testing my uh my memory on who it was. Lou Wallach, I think his name was, was leaving, becoming a judge or leaving. And um they were looking for someone to run. My dad was one of the district leaders. They get to pick who the person was, and there was a big debate between two different camps. Um, again, this is before my time to remember exactly, and they couldn't, they the county couldn't decide on a candidate, and they came up with a compromise, and that was having my father run. And uh in 1971, in a special election, uh he ran for the assembly and was elected. And uh that started his elected office. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Well, what what was his job and what what did he do for a living?

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Well, he was an attorney. He was an attorney. Um, he did mostly tax cert work, actually. I don't know if he worked on a lot of co-ops, although I think later on he did, uh, but he did mostly tax cert work. He worked for the state, uh, for the state liquor authority at one time. He was general counsel there, but then ended up having his own private practice. And then he worked in uh uh some small firms along the way in Jim off Jamaica Avenue under the L at the time. Uh he had an office, and uh we lived on uh 188th Street when we bought a house, not far from where Richard lives. Although we don't want people to know where you live, Richard, so I won't tell you.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Yeah. All right. So as we were just speaking uh before, you you mentioned he was uh Speaker of the Assembly for a couple of years at the end of his career. And then um you and I I was not aware of this, you ran for his seat when he when he retired. So how was watching his career?

SPEAKER_01 5:22

How did it influence your decision to run for a it's a it's a weird dynamic because people um a lot of times give us a hard time about you know going into politics, you know, they call you Nepo babies these days, and you get criticized sometimes for coming from a family that that's in this business. But it I honestly it's not that different than you know, uh people who go be firefighters who I know, whose father was a firefighter, whose grandfather was a firefighter, or a doctor I know, um, you know, who went into became a doctor because his father was, you know, we grew up in a weird family, no question. It was politics was a big part of our lives. Our dad would include us in a lot of activities. So on the weekends, he often had to go to churches to speak or to democratic clubs or to local, you know, events that were going on. And very often, in sort of to spend time with his family, he'd bring us with him. And my dad, those who knew him, he was a very humble guy. He he he really was in government for the right reasons. He wasn't out there to try to uh to make money. And unfortunately, he didn't uh make that much money, but he, you know, he uh he did it because he thought it was the right thing to do and he cared about people and he was a good man. So when you have that as your example, uh it does make it appealing. And when people, when we you if you came to our house for dinner, you know, any for any weekend or any time, the talk talk was often about politics. Most most families in the summer, for instance, uh, you know, would go on vacation somewhere, would get in the car and travel or fly somewhere or go away. We would work on a political campaign. And 1977 was a very famous one when I was a young man, a little boy of mine, our whole family worked on the Mario Cuomo for a mayor campaign. Now he ended up coming in second and not winning, but that's what we did for the summer. And um, and it uh it's kind of a strange way to live, but we all spent time together. We worked in campaign and grew up with it. So that's what I um what you know, I believe, um, you know, was the inspiration in him wanting it. My dad ended up becoming speaker, and at one point he was not, he he ended up passing away in office and he was he was sick. We didn't know how sick he, I think, knew, and I we did not. He said, Oh, Mark, you know, would you be interested in running for my seat if something went didn't happen? I was like, Dad, you're gonna be fine. Don't worry about it. I don't want to talk about it. Turned out like two weeks later, he had a stroke, and it was the last time I got to communicate with him. So my last conversation with him was that I would consider running for the seat. Wasn't something I wanted to do initially. I wasn't planning on it, but I figured I'll do it for a couple of years and then we'll see. Sure enough, I spent 15 years in Albany uh and uh as a state uh state assembly member. And uh that that was a while ago, and then ended up running for the city council and doing other things after that.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

So, what what years were you in the assembly and what years were you in the council?

Following A Parent Into Public Service

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Right. So I was elected in in 1994 to the assembly in a special election in the spring. Um and uh I was there for 15 years. In 2009, I ran for the city council, uh, uh, the New York City Council, because the current city councilman, who at that point became my brother, uh, was leaving. Uh and uh I had just had my third child. My daughter had uh was just born, and I was like, you know, I don't want to be away again and miss my, you know, I missed my son's first steps. I used to have a hard time making school plays or Little League games. Um, you know, when I was up in Albany. So I said, let me, uh this is and and and and a lot of the issues I was working on were issues that were more closer to home. They were a lot about schools. I had three kids in the New York City public schools. Um, so I was very active in those issues. And those New York City schools, even though are run by the mayor, you know, they became, we we ended up passing mayoral control while I was in the assembly, um, something I worked very hard on. Um, and working on those issues that really mattered at home. So it would for me, it seemed like a logical step to go to the city council, uh, where I not only won't have to travel all of me, but got to work on issues that were near and dear to our local community.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

So you I I don't know how many people have served in both houses, but it can't be that many. Um what what what are how how would you compare the two experiences? Which one did you like better? Yeah, the city.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Or they were just different. No, they are different. It's funny, the state assembly and and the city council. The city, so there are the districts are similar, the city council is slightly bigger, but the New York City gets a lot more attention than the state does. You know, if you're a rank and file state assembly member, nobody pays any attention to you outside of your district, um, unless you commit a crime or something. You know, otherwise no one knows who you are. And thank God that never happened. And uh and uh I, you know, so you don't get a lot of attention. For some reason, the city council bec and the reason is there's a press corps in Albany, uh, they call it the LCA Room, LCA, Legislative Correspondence Association, and then there's a press room in New York City in City Hall called Room 9, because it's room nine in the city hall. And those reporters in room nine have to do a story every day. And when they do a story on something the city council does, it could make the front page. Even something you might say at a hearing could make the front page. In Albany, even if you work for the New York Times, you write a story about Albany, it's on page, you know, B16. You know, it's never a big story somehow, unless the governor does something or the speaker potentially does something. But rank and file legislators don't get a lot of attention. Um, the difference as far as being a legislator, it's kind of the difference between going away to college. I know you went to Binghamton, so it's like going away to Binghamton as opposed to going to Queen's College. When you're in the city council, um, you know, it's like you're working at going to a commuter school because and and the reason that the only effect that has on the public and on the legislator is you don't have the same bonds. Like in Albany, you really become friends with people because you you're you're spending nights there, you eat meals together, you sit around and wait a lot, you know, waiting for bills to be printed, for issues to be negotiated. Uh, you're in meetings all the time. So it's almost like going away somewhere and and you know, and and living with them, as opposed to city council where you went in, you went to your office, you saw people, but then you went home and you went home at night, he had meetings to go to uh and expected you to. You didn't go out to dinner with a lot of colleagues. Occasionally we would do it. In the city council, we tried to like have a a dinner where we um had everyone get together on a Saturday night once and we go in different people's districts. I had one at the Queen's County Farm, actually, where they have a great little tavern night there every year. A couple of they do a couple of nights where they they make it almost like the uh 1700s and they use the uh the the hearth and the the wood-burning stove, I mean a fireplace to cook everything, and they use the vegetables from the farm and and don't use any electricity except for candlelight. It's a beautiful experience. Well, we brought a bunch of council members there, and um, and it was a lot of fun.

Assembly Years And Shift To City Council

SPEAKER_03 12:14

So let's let's uh pivot a little bit. We'll we'll talk about uh I I think we met each other, I believe I think you were still in the assembly, and then of course we worked closely when you were in the New York City Council. Uh and you you you were a big advocate for uh co-op and condo homeowners. Just describe to you describe to our listeners what you feel is the importance of co-op home ownership and why it's a vital component to the New York City's housing ecosystem.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

As I mentioned about my parents coming here after World War II, there were a lot of co-ops that were veteran co-ops, uh not only those, but a lot of them. So my old assembly district had um I had a had a lot of co-ops in the district, uh each with thousands of units. Um so you're talking about a very large portion of my district involved uh co-ops and condos, uh, you know, mostly co-ops. Uh uh North Shore Towers ended up in my council district. That was there, Windsor Park and Windsor Oaks and Glen Oaks and Beepdale and Clear, a lot of these, I mean, uh and so many more. Uh of course, Hilltop Village and other places. So a big part of my district were these co-ops. And the thing is, the average person in New York City or New York State, they're all co-ops. So those are those fancy ones that won't let Madonna, you know, live there, or they have these co-op boards that and they cost millions of dollars to buy co-op. But as you know, that's not the co-ops I'm talking about. My our local co-ops are middle class homeowners who, you know, they're beautiful. Some of them are beautiful and the neighborhoods are gorgeous and the schools are great, but they don't cost a million, you know, maybe they do now. I don't even know what the price is. No, they don't, but they're not quite there. But but you're talking about a middle-class salary, uh doctor, I mean a police officer or a teacher buying a co-op. And and it's a great thing. We've often advocated that it's so much better when someone owns a piece of property, owns something, and even if it's shares of a co-op, um, because they it's more their neighborhood, you know, it's not they're not coming, living for two years and leaving. They tend to buy it early on. A lot of people use it as startup homes, but you be you own a little piece of of the world almost. I understand you're you're uh you're only the only shares of the co-op, but it's part of you're now part of that co-op, and it's uh everybody working together. Um and so it was an important issue for me. And it's it's one of the reasons one of the first bills I got involved with in that was important to co-ops was the uh the tax credit, the real property tax credit that co-ops got. Because it really was unfair, if you think about it, that a lot of homeowners, and I mean, I'm glad I actually am a homeowner myself now. Um, you know, we we get assessed at a 20% rate, uh, much less property taxes than you would do if you you assessed at 100% of the value. And co-ops were getting killed on real property taxes because they have this arcane system uh of figuring out how much a co-op's property taxes are based on if it was a rental unit, what would it be? As opposed to possibly, you know, uh uh figuring out a solution that is fairer because uh co-ops were getting taxed higher than so many other uh apartments, and getting, and while Manhattan co-ops weren't getting taxed nearly as much uh uh percentage-wise as these Queen's middle-class homeowners that we want to keep and want to keep uh living in the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

By the way, that that is still an issue, but it's one there's so many issues now that are more urgent, unfortunately, or more present that uh the tax uh the tax equity issues kind of have been taking a backseat the last couple of years.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

So basically even even the dogs are upset at not rules her, so you know my dog backing in the bark barking in the background.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Oh, I didn't hear that. No. Uh what kind of dog? Well well, I got you.

Statehouse Versus City Hall Dynamics

SPEAKER_01 16:09

He is a blue healer or cattle dog and a beagle mix. We got him at North Shore Animal League about seven years ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Tell him we say hello. So what why why is there and and and again I think we've had this conversation. I understand in Albany, you know, a lot of a lot of electeds don't really deal with colors, but even in New York City, there seems to be a disconnect between some elected officials and and and the understanding this value of, you know, we always called it the last bastion of affordable housing. When they talk about affordable housing, they never talk about like the co-ops in your district where you can buy a home for 300,000 and be first-time home buyers. Well, where is that disconnect based on what you saw when you were there and what you observe now?

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Well, a big deal. I mean, if everyone had the same district I had, everybody would be talking about it and understand that. But let's these these co-ops that we have are not common throughout the city. They're common in big parts of the city, uh, but not everyone has them. Uh the Manhattan co-ops are not the same, let's face it, they are not. And and there's a wide swath of Brooklyn and and uh and even parts of Queens that don't have them either, but there are a lot of them. It's one of the reasons when I went to the city council that we established something called Co-op and Condo Task Force, which was a group of uh a group of legislators who represented a large amount of co-ops. Now, we included the Manhattan people, and because you know they they were important voices, but a lot of the issues that really concerned me were ones that don't concern the Manhattan co-ops as much as they do ours, you know, because these are where a lot of our co-ops are are operating on a shoestring, like they have a budget and they they don't, they're not there to make, they're not making money. Obviously, you want to have enough money in reserves to be able to fix things, but you're trying to run almost like an op-for-profit co-op where you're not looking to make money, you're trying to just put it back into the co-op and make it a great place to live. And I know that's true about a lot of ours. And they get killed. They get killed on a lot of these things where people don't think of us. So you're right, that is the problem where not everyone has the same empathy for these type of co-ops in particular than we do. Um, but that's one of the things we're doing by we're talking about the issue often. Uh, when I was in the council, we had a big fight over the uh tax assessments and how they do assessments. And um uh and a good part of that was the fact that we had this group of co-op, you know, legislators, certainly all the ones around here, the ones in what now is Vicki Paladino's district and Linda Lee, who is one of my successors, um, and then down south. And this dude, those parts of that area have a lot of them in Forest Hills and other places. And we had a lot of people. We had about 20 members of that co-op and condo caucus, and it made for a much more effective advocacy for co-ops.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

So uh and just in full disclosure, having run into you a few weeks ago, I you you inspired me about the caucus, and we are now working with several electeds to get something like a co-op and condo caucus and its missions and goals and like I said, it's an informal group, but uh an effective group in that we would get we'd have regular meetings, we discuss issues.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Um if you could remember, we had a big fight over uh the taxation at the time, and and that was a big issue. We had a public hearing that uh we ran uh on that. Uh and it's a great way to call attention to issues that are unique. And they there are a lot of issues that are unique to co-ops and condos. I know currently there are a lot of issues with laws that have wide support in theory, but in practice they uh aren't always great for everybody, like local Northern 97, which uh, you know, I come out, I do work in renewable energy too. So I I'm all for trying to decarbonize the world and to de save the planet, but you have to do it rationally where you're not punishing, you know, low middle class homeowners. Uh and there needs to be some some leeway here.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

So let that's good transition. Um if you saw the numbers in terms of penalties or retrofit costs to comply with local 197 or pay the penalties, it's astonishing. I mean, it's it's generational projects that are being forced upon co-ops uh that don't have the money, and quite frankly, the technology I don't think is settled in terms of the best way to do it. And the renew and the renewable uh uh infrastructure is not quite there yet in terms of the electric grid and all that. So no question.

Why Co-Ops Matter To Middle Class

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Uh uh about 20 years ago, to add to this, uh approximately 20 years ago, there was a big push to try to change the people who had oil heat who were doing fuel, saying you can't use number six, you have to use number four, then you had to use number two. They were trying to do ones that gave less admissions, which was a good thing. And a lot of co-ops did what they thought was the good thing to do, which is, you know what, I'm just gonna get rid of oil and I'm gonna switch to gas heat, uh, which they're not regulating at the moment. And then sure enough, they would some co-ops spent millions of dollars to transfer to gas heat. And now they're being told you can't have gas feed, uh, otherwise we're gonna fine you and you're gonna you're gonna have penalties, you know, going forward. Um, so that really is an unfair burden. And again, these are people who are living on a shoestring. I mean, not not that the personally, the families, but the co-ops are not you know money-making ventures. They're trying to operate. And when when you have a huge cost that's brought into to to uh to um to a to the buildings, building or buildings, it's shared. It's cooperative. That's the whole point of the name, you know. Everyone has to pay for it. So you're going to get hit on your maintenance, or you're going to get hit with a separate charge saying we had to upgrade the thing. And so, and these fines are the same if you go forward. So, a lot of people I know the co-op, you I want to thank you and the co-op presidents who have been advocating very strongly say, hey, we need, you got to give us a break here. I mean, we are not, you know, we're not wealthy communities. We live in New York City. We love to live in New York City. We could move to Long Island if we wanted to. We could move somewhere else where we're not getting penalized like this. There needs to be something fair. And it's hard because I do think there's overwhelming support in the New York City Council for trying to transition away from fossil fuels. It's true. But as you mentioned, it sounds great in theory, but you know, um, you know, I'm gonna the you need to get the clean energy. There's a lot of them in upstate New York, a lot of wind in the solar farms, but there's no transmission that's gonna bring that wind and solar down to New York City. There's been talk about it, and there have been some projects that have been held up.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Um so yeah, so the so again, these unfunded mandates again are very similar to when you were in office, except you know, local on 97 has brought it to uh a level where an individual unit owner could be on on the hook for$30,000 to$50,000 for a technology that might not be the best technology to heat their their apartment. And the city council i I I call it it's it's it's a tale of two cities. As you said, the co-op uh council members with co-ops and condos understand this and the other council members are are you know pedal to the metal enforcement of local in 97 and and they're and their constituents are not stakeholders.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Yeah, that's that is the key factor, Jeff, because um the problem is that so many that we're talking about while we have what I think is a very good case and a good argument, the type of people who live in our co-ops, uh who you want to have here in New York City, the amount of money they're being charged, affects uh m my old district more than most districts. And the problem is the districts that it doesn't affect, like, you know, I'm really sorry to hear that, Mark, but you know, what's in it for me? What's in it for my constituents? I'd love to help you guys out. But any, you know, the any uh any breaks you give to us sometimes doesn't translate to anybody else. And and unfortunately, council members were very parochial. I I'm not gonna lie, I was probably no different. You know, I cared about my district and I wanted I cared about things that are like look, there were times when I understood this is a bigger issue than my district, and we have to do that, but but my focus was on my district and the people who I represent who elected me, and I have to be responsive to. And because of that, it's hard to get other people to focus on it. But when you have a mayor, a mayor, we are a big piece of a lot of voters and a lot of people who the mayor represents. So I think that's where a lot of the focus needs to be on the mayor. I understand he's very pro-local law 97. And we're not saying get rid of local law 97. We're just saying to amend the parts of it. I I assume I haven't been as involved in the issue lately, but to to sort of help these people who are getting unfair unfairly burdened. He's all about you know, people paying their fair share. We're not against that, but we we don't like paying way more than our fair share.

SPEAKER_03 25:32

Well, we we we like to say affordability for all.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Right. You know, uh I can draw a parallel. That's certainly his mantra.

Tax Equity And Assessment Battles

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Yeah. Sorry about that, Richard. Uh I can draw a parallel. You know, the the city council passed all these engine idling laws against trucks, and I represent a a number of different fleets. And the law is so draconian and it's so applied unfairly. And the way the cases are adjudicated is that they're always against the truck owners. And I have clients with three, four hundred tickets. And the people who bring the tickets are not uh DEP officers, they're civilians riding around in bicycles. By the way, generally breaking the law by riding electric bikes on sidewalks to advance a ticket in which they get a contingency fee based on they don't have to identify themselves and they don't have to appear in court. So, again, there's a disconnect between the impact on the trucking community who are providing services and goods and infrastructure work to the city and its residents and the city council. How so to to parallel that back, the local 997, how do we in the co-op community try to bring a level of true awareness and fairness when there's a disconnect on the actual impact?

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Well, look, I you mentioned a different law. This is true about a lot of laws, uh, a lot of things that are enforced in in different ways and not on everybody and all that. Um, you know, like Linda Lee, who who as the district is my councilwoman, is I think really out there advocating for a lot of our middle class co-ops. Um but you know, she can't do it alone, although she just got appointed to be finance chair, which is a very big role. It's probably the number two role in the city council. So that will help her. She's very well liked, which also helps. You know, relationships are important in the legislative bodies. If people uh like you, they're more likely to be able to get your message across. So, I mean, it's a fight that I think can be won because I do think we're on the right side. Uh, but you have to, we have to figure out how to do it in a proper way where we don't gut the law that the mayor supports and a lot of the council supports, but at the same time create fairness. And and and to the mayor's credit, um, he's talked a lot, he talks only about affordability, that's his mantra. And he talks about including real property tax fairness. Uh so I have a feeling the issue of co-op and condo's assessments will come up again, because if you're gonna touch that third rail of real property assessments, and and it is a dangerous thing to get involved in, I have to say. Uh, because the problem is that if you pull from one, you got to make it up from another. And and depending on how they redo it, and and you know, one of the things I know has been mentioned, I don't want to endorse this because I I don't, you know, know all the ramifications, but it would seem to me for assessing a co-op, you know, you assess a house on what the market rate for that house is, what what the what houses, similar houses go for or if it's property. So if you're talking about co-ops, it should be based on like what they sell for or some system where you you get based on how much a co-op costs as opposed to what it would cost if it was a rental building, and we have a comparable rental building, which we never have around here, and they end up using ones that are way higher than they should be.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

So let's we'll transition here. Tell us about life after public office. What are you doing now?

SPEAKER_01 29:04

And uh what's good? So when I left elected office, I I went to work for uh former governor Cuomo. Uh uh and uh spent two years working for Governor Cuomo, which was an exciting time. The governor, for all his uh all his flaws, is uh was accomplished a great deal in office. Uh and uh and um it was fun to work there and exciting. I have then since uh gone off on my own in the private sector. I worked for a law firm for a while, uh, then went to one of the clients of the law firm, which was a renewable energy company. I mentioned renewable energy before, uh based in Chicago, uh wind and solar projects here in New York State. I was working for them. And just in September, just a couple of months ago, I started my own public affairs practice where I'm currently set of an employee, and uh I'm slowly but surely uh trying to help out. You know, you spend 30 years in government, you know, one thing you do is you become a bit of an expert on how things get done and what legislators want to hear. I mean, and so um, you know, people businesses come to me with, you know, for consulting on strategy. How do we get this done through through government? How do we get this have this done without government screwing us, like we're talking about now? Or how do we uh get legislators to support us? And uh uh I have unusual insight where I've served both in the city and state as both a legislator and working for an executive. So one thing I do is I can relate to whoever I'm talking to. And that's uh I have a friend who used to say that politicians are from Mars, but we speak Martian. You know, that was like a good line he would use. And and so I I sort of know what a legislator needs in order to deliver for their district. You know, sometimes a client will think you can just call someone and say, hey, do this. Doesn't work that way. No, no.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

So this is the part of our show where we uh we we try to bring it, make it a little more fun, a little more interesting. Richard, I'm gonna turn it over to you.

Local Law 97 Costs And Consequences

SPEAKER_00 31:03

All right, with great play. So so I see that you worked for the Ed Koch administration at one point. I had the honor of actually interviewing him on my radio show. The nicest guy, nicest guy. Could you tell, did you interact with him?

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Because he was uh I was I was a I was a very young man at the time. That was one of my first jobs out of college, but uh I I loved the I grew to love the guy because he uh he he could be tough. He was really smart and really tough. And when you had a meeting with him, he would get right to the heart of the issue. Like he knew exactly where the weaknesses were to your argument and everything. So he he was a character. And uh um that was the his the people remember it cock just because he was a part of being mayor is being a showman and being uh a cheerleader for the city. It's one of the things that I think Zora Mandani does very well. Um and we're gonna see. I know a lot of people are concerned about his politics because they are very far to the left. You know, comes he's he calls himself a democratic socialist. Um, but he is he is a charming guy, and he's very social media driven and media like imaging. And even we have a snowstorm coming up as we're taping this. I saw him on a news conference today, and he was he was on top of things. Um, so I'm hoping, I'm hopeful he'll become a little bit like Ed Koch. But you know, Ed Koch famously used to walk around anywhere and went, How am I doing? How am I doing? And and people would say, so he he he was very New York, you know, he was a real New Yorker, he became a national celebrity. We really haven't had someone like him since then. We've had good mayors, we've had bad mayors, depending on your point of view. None of the mayors since Ed Koch have been national figures as much as he was. I do think Zoran could become that uh because he is he is unusually comfortable in his own skin. So I've gotten to know Zoran a little bit. Uh, I know him, I know a lot of the people he's brought into government. Ali Najmi, who some of you in Queens know, uh, used to work for me, and he's his lawyer and ran his campaign. Um so I'm hopeful. Look, I'm a New York City resident. I'm not one of these people who is out there and oh, I want to attack him. He's wrong on this. And I don't agree with him on a lot of issues, but he's my mayor now, and I gotta try to make sure, you know, he does, I hope he does as good a job as possible. I'm not gonna root for him to fail. I know a lot of people who are. I just thought that's not my nature.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Well, you know what I miss? I miss when Ed Koch was the voice of the sanitation sweeping machines that said, Hey, this is Ed Koch, move your car.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

I remember and Ed Koch, even after he was mayor, was such a still a big figure doing TV shows and and national reviews, and he even had the judge duty type thing where he uh he was the people's court judge. I remember going to a ranger game and and he even had videos where he he goes, two minutes for tripping, you know, and then on the board, on the scoreboard. Yeah. So he was a character. And and they people like that. I think New York City, New Yorkers like having someone they can relate to as as mayor.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Um I guess so so from from on 188th Street, when you kind of drive up and down, you smile. You know, is there like a real sense of pride that your family has such a history in that area?

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Well well, you know, thank you. So 188th Street was co-named for my father after he passed away. Um, it's funny. It is weird to see. I think my kids wonder like, why is our grandfather's name up there? But uh uh what's ironic is I think if my father was alive and they did that, uh, he probably would never drive on that street. He'd be afraid he wouldn't want to even see it. That's the type of guy he was. He was sort of a humble, he was a humble guy. Um, but look, I I loved my father. I uh a day doesn't go by where someone doesn't mention my father to me and how they worked with him. And it's a long time ago already, but there are still people around and he he touched a lot of lives. It's one of the reasons you know we went into this business is because we could see how you could really the gratification of helping someone who had a problem with government and figuring out how to solve that problem. Um that's currently what I'm doing now, although now I'm doing it for a fee, you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Do you think his sense of public service came from his military background in World War II?

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Well, I think I you know, I think you know, they call him the greatest generation, right? Um, I think everyone had kind of that united feel about the country. We didn't have social media where there was all this dissent uh every two minutes. Um, so I mean, I I'm sure that's a part of it, no question. You know, he uh he um I'm sure that was a little part of it. Everyone wanted to serve back in World War II. Like people were lined up. They weren't, it wasn't like what happened at Vietnam, and it wasn't what happened in in other wars and other conflicts. It was one where the country was all united. We we saw the the reason for this war, and and people were ready to serve and help our country and help our communities.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

So uh we have to wrap up. Um, this was a great conversation, Mark. You're welcome back anytime. Um, I want to congratulate you because you are now officially a co-op and condo insider. So congratulations.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

I don't know if people can't see that you have a co-op and condo inside or a coffee mug.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

We we have co open condo, we have swag now, so you'll be getting one of those.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Do you have a gear uh a gear store where people can go online and buy a coffee mug? At the end of the tour, there's a gift shop. I I don't I don't know how you're gonna keep them in supply, they're gonna be so popular.

SPEAKER_03 36:32

Thank you, thank you very much, and thank you everybody for listening. And we'll uh see you on the next podcast.