Mayor Bloomberg's Girlfriend Sits on the Board of Brookfield Properties

[deminks]

Which is Acting at the Behest of the Mayor

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13076

According to the New York Times, Mayor Bloomberg's girlfriend, Diana L. Taylor, sits on the board of Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zucotti Park (AKA Liberty Park). But that's hardly the ownly tie that has resulted in Brookfield becoming an active partner in Bloomberg's efforts to close down Occupy Wall Street.

The current gambit of, in essence, closing the public headquarters of the movement under the guise of "cleaning up" the park, and then imposing rules that would prohibit anything other than pedestrian traffic and sitting on benches, is now delayed. (It had originally been scheduled for 7 AM EST Friday.)

(snip)

Bloomberg had first tried to use the NYPD -- and perhaps others -- to infiltrate and perhaps bait the Occupy Wall Street protesters into some sort of violent act, which would turn public opinion against them, and allow him to use the sort of excessive police force employed in "The Battle of Seattle" several years ago to cut off the head of the populist surge that has put corporations and Wall Street on the defensive. That didn't work, even though hundreds of people were arrested after claiming that the police led them onto the street level of the Brooklyn Bridge and then arrested them.

But plan "B" was for Brookfield Properties, which technically owns the public park as a result of it being built in return for zoning variations in the area, to "ask" for police help if plan "A" didn't pan out.

(end snip)

Whazzup with mayors of NYC and their girlfriends?

[dkf]

1. Well private property owners are liable for incidences on their land I imagine.

Anyone with a mind to protecting themselves from lawsuits would need to consider the downsides and show they tried to address it.

[TheMadMonk]

3. If you didn't spell like a republican with pretentions of literacy...

The word is "INCIDENTS" and liability is limited to that which a property owner can be presumed to have control over.

I'm often amongst the first to play devil's advocate and that effort is just plain lame.

[dkf]

5. Are you a lawyer because I swear I learned in Bus Law that property owners had more exposure

Than you claim.

http://wiki.injuryboard.com/help-center/articles/property-owners-liability-safety-and-prevention.aspx

Property Owner Duties and Responsibilities

Property owners owe varying responsibilities, or duties, to those people who come to their property, depending on legal category of the person involved. The law acknowledges three main categories of people who may be on someone else’s property, they are: licensees, invitees and trespassers. The greatest duty is to those who are considered “invitees.” In the states that acknowledge these legal categories, the legal duties owed to each category can differ greatly. It is imperative to ask an attorney if these standards and categories apply within your state of residency.

Three Legal Categories Explained

Invitees -- An invitee is an individual who is invited onto the property by the possessor of the property, such as a member of the public, or one who's invited to the property for the purpose of business dealings. Under such standards, a property owner not only bares a duty to repair or correct any known dangers, he also bares the responsibility to inspect, discover and correct any hidden or unknown hazards on the areas of the premises which an invitee would typically have access.

Such obligations mean the property owner or possessor (a business that occupies the property) has a duty to take reasonable precautions to ensure the environment is safe for all visitors. While there is no exact way to measure what is deemed as reasonable, the law defines reasonable as what a person of ordinary judgment and intelligence would do in the same circumstance.

To better explain, we offer the following example: it may appear reasonable to expect a business owner to conduct inspections on a regular basis, or to maintain and clean stairwells on the property to make sure they are safe and free of hazards. In the reverse, it would be unreasonable to expect a business owner to keep watch all day long to make sure nothing is spilled on the stairs.

[TheMadMonk]

7. "What a property owner can be presumed to have control over."

"Reasonably presumed" if you must qualify. This does not justify a total lockdown based upon speculation that a criminal act MIGHT occur.

Oh and in this case, I can be damned near certain that before opening up the park as a public space, Bloomberg will have put all possible legal distance between them and liability for anything which occured there, particularly the criminal acts of others, else they would be responsible for everthing from slips in dog shit to muggings and rape.

It's a public space, public space rules pertain.

[rugger1869]

10. Pretentions?

Those in glass houses....

[cyglet]

2. Whazzup with cities and

what should be public land being privately owned? I don't care what it was in exchange for....

[former9thward]

4. Why should it be public land?

The area never belonged to the city.

[FarCenter]

8. Real estate developers and local politicians are generally in cahoots

In the case of NY, there are many of these deals, where a developer wants to do something like put up a building that doesn't conform to set back requirements, is too tall, etc. So the developer will dedicate some land for public use in return for bending the rules in some other area.

In this case, the adjacent skyscraper was built with some variances in return for the developer creating Zuccoti Park (which was originally Liberty Plaza, and the building is still One Liberty Plaza, IIRC).

The city doesn't necessarily want to maintain these little pieces of "public" park, so the title stays with the owner of the building, who also maintains it, typically by paving it over with masonry to the extent possible.

There is no doubt extensive paperwork documenting the deal.

http://www.brookfieldofficeproperties.com/content/portfolio-2904.html#/USMarkets/NewYork/LowerManhattan

One Liberty Plaza is the orange building just north of the park in the map.

[underpants]

6. Bloomberg has a girlfriend?

really? :shrug:

[bengalherder]

9. There was once on that property a statue of King George III

It was torn down and melted by the revolution.

I hope the same fate awaits that asinine golden calf of commerce a scant few blocks away.

And may our mad leaders pass from power.