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Liu slams Flushing Commons for cutting parking

Liu slams Flushing Commons for cutting parking
By Connor Adams Sheets

City Comptroller and former Flushing Councilman John Liu took an hour out of his schedule at his Manhattan office last Thursday afternoon to answer Queens reporters’ questions and tout his accomplishments since becoming the first Asian American elected to citywide office 105 days earlier.

He said that while his term has been fruitful so far, he has many plans for the next 3 1/2 years, which will be tempered by the extreme impact of the economic downturn on the city’s finances.

“Our 100-day report is very optimistic,” he said. “I’m very proud of some of the changes we’ve made to the structure of this office. We’ve got an ambitious agenda for this year and years to come.”

He started off the discussion by speaking about the dire state of the city’s budget, which currently faces a $4.1 billion deficit.

“The focus of this office right now is saving money while not sacrificing the essential needs of this city and the people of this city,” he said. “We’ve got some very difficult pain to endure the next couple of months as we resolve this budget crisis.”

He has worked to do so by eliminating “handshake deals” between city agencies and companies. The no-contract deals have little accountability, he said, and sometimes carry a hefty price tag, such as a $152 million deal he found between a contractor and the city Department of Homeless Services.

He has also been working to ensure that the city’s pension funds are run efficiently and soundly.

Liu made some of his strongest remarks so far about recent developments in the saga of the $800 million Flushing Commons mixed-use project that Community Board 7 recently approved for the site on Municipal Lot 1 in downtown Flushing.

He was the councilman for the neighborhood and supported the project when initial plans were drawn up between the city and the project’s developer in 2005. The plans called for the project to include at least 2,000 parking spaces, a youth center and capped parking rates.

Less than a year later, the plans had been amended to eliminate such provisions and Liu withdrew his support.

“An agreement with the community is an agreement with the community, and if you’re not going to accommodate that, you have to go back to the drawing board,” he said.

When Liu left Flushing for citywide office, Peter Koo (R-Flushing) took over as councilman and gave his endorsement to the project, which is now before Borough President Helen Marshall. Liu noted Koo has the right to make his own choices now that he is councilman.

Liu also spoke about the ways schools and students are assessed.

He said he is concerned students are being “coached” in order to achieve high test scores on state exams, which help determine which schools receive state funding and which ones are closed. New York students’ federal test scores have been falling while state scores are rising, indicating students are being taught to the test, he said.

“That divergence is proof that coaching is going on and that does not necessarily mean students are learning more,” he said.

He went on to say that government needs to look at how it decides which schools are closed, and as such his office is currently auditing school report cards, which are used to make such determinations.

He also remained non-committal on whether the city should tax large Wall Street bonuses in the wake of comments by Mayor Michael Bloomberg vilifying such a plan. Liu said all options should remain on the table.

Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.