Cindy Rodriguez

New York, NY —

Nearly two dozen low-income residents from Manhattan and the Bronx say an unscrupulous realtor swindled them out of their life savings. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports:

REPORTER: Mario Rodriguez says he gave Josie Almonte nearly $6,000 to find him an apartment he could rent with a federal ...

New York, NY —

Two public housing developments are about to get surveillance cameras installed at 14 buildings. Tenants at the Tilden and Brownsville Houses in Brooklyn say crime in their developments is getting out of control. Karrie Scarborough lives at the Brownsville Houses and says in the last ...

New York, NY —

The advocacy group ACORN is promising serious reform in light of an outrageous video that shows a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute and workers advising them on how to account for their illegal profits. The advice includes, placing the money in a tin ...

New York, NY —

In 2004, Mayor Bloomberg made the bold pledge to dramatically reduce homelessness in five years. It was well received by a crowd of business, non-profit and public sector leaders who gathered to hear him speak:

BLOOMBERG: Specifically, between now and 2009 we must cut the size ...

New York, NY —

More than a hundred low-income families in the Bronx recently got the chance to buy apartments once owned by the New York City Housing Authority.

REPORTER: The authority says it used federal money to renovate 7 buildings in the South Bronx. Then it hired the non-profit ...

New York, NY —

The state's highest court will hear arguments today in a case that could result in hundreds of landlords owing thousands of tenants back rent. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: At issue is whether the owners of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village should have been allowed ...

New York, NY —

The owners of Stuytown and Peter Cooper Village are running out of money, and are at risk of defaulting on $4.4 billion in loans. Tishman Speyer bought the apartment complex in 2006, at the height of the boom, for $5.4 billion, but its plan to ...

District 25 in Queens is one of the most diverse places in the city. It includes parts of Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst, and Rego Park. The three Democrats competing to represent the area are also diverse. Incumbent Helen Sears is a 79 year old former hospital administrator running for a third term. Her challengers are an openly gay school teacher with Irish roots who speaks fluent Spanish and a South Asian businessman who prides himself on being an immigrant success story.

Incumbent Helen Sears campaigns at the 74th Street subway station in Jackson Heights. Council Speaker Chris Quinn and some South Asian business men joined her.

The subway station on 74th Street in Jackson Heights is the spot for campaigning in this district. Six different trains stop here, including the 7 train that roars above. During a recent evening rush hour a group of South Asian businessmen came to show their support for incumbent Helen Sears. Mahipal Singh, an attorney whose office is nearby, says Sears has always supported the local Merchants Association:

Singh: She’s always there for us whenever we call her. We want to meet her, we don’t have any hassles. She listens to us.

Singh credits Sears with re-naming 74th Street after Kalpana Chawla, a woman astronaut who died when the Space Shuttle Columbia crashed in 2003. Jusvendor Singh credits Sears with attempting to ease traffic congestion around his grocery story.

Singh: She try so many ways she changed the bus stop near my store and she put the parking meter for the customers.

While Sears is popular with these local businessmen, she’s not as popular with the street vendors who say she recently tried to put them out of business by backing an effort to create “Vendor Free Zones”. Sears says she’s meeting with the vendors this week

Sears: The fact is, we have the merchants, we have the community residents, and we have the vendors. And I’m going to see how everyone can assimilate and be able to have their space.

Stanley Kalathara is running to unseat incumbent City Councilwoman Helen Sears. He’s raised over $120,000 and says buying this bus ad was expensive but worth it. Kalathara is the least known of the three candidates running for this seat.

Stanley Kalathara, a lawyer and real estate broker is running against Sears and sympathizes with the vendors. He says it’s the economy that’s hurting local restaurants:

Kalathara: When you don’t make money as a restaurant owner, don’t blame the vendor only, c’mon.

Kalathara is unknown to the throngs of potential voters that he attempts to stop as they make their way to work.

Kalathara : Good morning mam nice to meet you. Good morning sir. I’m Stanley.

He often likes to remind people he’s an immigrant and that he worked his way up from busboy to restaurant owner, to real estate broker to attorney. He says he wants to help other immigrants advance like he did.

Improving the lives of immigrants was the focus of a recent debate in the district where a crowd of mostly Spanish speakers got a chance to question the candidates. One man asked what each of them would do to help immigrants who get arrested and then deported straight from Rikers Island before being found guilty of any crime. While none of the candidates answered the question directly, Daniel Dromm did get a good response when he acknowledged, in Spanish, that many teenagers in the neighborhood join gangs because there are no opportunities for them to do things like play sports.

Dromm: Hay muchas gangas. Y los ninos son miembros de gangas por un razon porque no tienen opportunidades para hacer cosas como jugar basketball , beisbol, y esto es muy importante.

New York, NY —

The landlord of a dilapidated building in Washington Heights is coming under fire for seriously neglecting his building. The property is on a new so-called slumlord watchlist created by Public Advocate candidate Bill De Blasio. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports:

REPORTER: Decaying walls, broken windows, and exposed ...

New York, NY —

A Brooklyn Assemblyman says he's identified about 65 condo developments that appear to be failing. Hakeem Jeffries has been floating a plan to try to turn empty or near empty condos into housing for low- and middle-income New Yorkers. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: While Jeffries ...

New York, NY —

A Brooklyn Assemblyman who's trying to turn failed condo developments into affordable housing, says he's found 65 buildings that are either stalled, empty, or partially filled.

Hakeem Jeffries says his office did a block by block count of condo projects in his district which includes Fort ...

New York, NY —

A Republican Senator from Wyoming wants President Obama to withdraw his nominee, Patricia Smith, for Department of Labor Solicitor. Smith currently runs New York State's Labor Department. Senator Mike Enzi opposes a program Smith started that uses immigrant groups and unions as community watchdogs, who ...

New York, NY —

Federal officials say housing discrimination complaints have been steadily increasing in New York City since 2006. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, housing discrimination complaints went up 47 percent. There were 287 complaints in 2006 and 424 in ...

New York, NY —

The housing group ACORN is trying to pressure lenders to more aggressively modify the loans of families facing foreclosure. They’ve been picketing financial institutions. And recently they held a call-in in on behalf of a Brooklyn man whose family is about to lose their home. ...

New York, NY —

Former inmates are urging Governor Paterson to sign a bill to prohibit the use of handcuffs and shackles on female prisoners during and after child-birth. They demonstrated with prisoner advocates outside the governor's office yesterday.

Former Rikers inmate Twanda Wright says she was restrained during a ...

New York, NY —

The November 30th deadline for the federal government's first time home buyers tax credit is approaching fast, especially for New Yorkers, where meeting the co-op board and getting them to approve you can add some serious time to the closing process. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez joined ...

New York, NY —

The city's Department of Consumer Affairs is trumpeting a savings program that offers cash incentives to low income New Yorkers. The program started last year with over 150 people opening savings accounts. The city provided matching funds of up to $250.

Reid Cramer researches savings programs.

CRAMER: ...

New York, NY —

Two Brooklyn men face charges for allegedly running a fake foreclosure rescue company that operated in both New York and New Jersey. Federal investigators say Garth Celestine and Phil Simon would convince struggling homeowners to sign over their property titles, promising to repair their credit ...

New York, NY —

A Queens construction company that was awarded several city contracts was wrongly profiting from a program aimed at advancing minority-owned businesses - that's according to the city’s Department of Investigation. The agency says executives at AFC Enterprises engaged in sham transactions, to make it appear ...

New York, NY —

Governor Paterson signed off today on a deal that keeps Starrett City, in Brooklyn, affordable for middle and low income tenants. And resident Linda Tilton is breathing a sigh of relief.

TILTON: Everybody just loves living here. It's a wonderful place to live. The grounds are ...