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Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Bronx Democratic County Committee - Upcoming Events
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In solidarity,
The Bronx Democratic County Committee
1640 Eastchester Rd.
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Invest in Your Business Through The Bronx Chamber of Commerce
Dear Members & Friends:
As part of the thriving renaissance underway at the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, I am delighted to announce that we have entered into a partnership with Today Media (publishers of the Brooklyn, Yonkers Chamber of Commerce and Westchester Business Council Directory) to produce the 2017 Business Directory & Resource Guide for the Bronx Chamber of Commerce.
The 2017 Business Directory & Resource Guide will list all members alphabetically and by category for referrals and new business contacts. The Directory will also feature important resource information. The Directory will be distributed to more than 2,000 member businesses, new businesses, and select governmental offices. It will also be distributed at Bronx Chamber of Commerce events throughout the year.
Membership in the Bronx Chamber of Commerce is now more important than ever with the expanded list of committees, member networking opportunities, seminars, workshops and the 2017 Business Directory.
I encourage businesses to serve on committees as an excellent way to network and meet potential new customers, contribute directly to the work of the Bronx Chamber, interact with fellow Members to share ideas and common interests, further the Chamber's objectives for Bronx businesses, economic development and the borough through its promotion, support and advocacy initiatives.
There are also advertising opportunities in the 2017 Business Directory & Resource Guide. For more information, contact Senior Account Executive Allan Kolstein at
I look forward to your active participation and support of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce!
Sincerely,
Nunzio
Nunzio Del Greco
President and CEO
Bronx Chamber of Commerce
President and CEO
Bronx Chamber of Commerce
"The Network For Business Success"
1200 Waters Place, Suite 106
1200 Waters Place, Suite 106
"You never know where your next big deal is going to come from"!
Monday, August 8, 2016
So What Was a NYC Parks Department Car Doing on West 238th Street?
As I mentioned in the last posting the photo above is of a Parks Department car parked right in front of a patched roadway that was done by the Empire City Subway company. So why was the Parks Department car there?
Above - You can see the roots from a giant tree has uprooted the sidewalk so it must be replaced.
Below - This sign is posted by the Parks Department since this became an emergency situation. As you will see in the photos below the tree is not going to be removed, but just pruned.
Above - You can see that the branches of the tree are becoming ever so close to the electric and cable wires that are running above this tree.
Below - You can see that this neighboring tree has its roots firmly entrenched so that the roots have moved the curb over a few inches.
Here you can see the roots of another tree growing in front of the bushes alongside of them.
Empire City Subway Digs up Riverdale Street
Above and Below - We can see workers from the Empire City Subway company digging up West 238th Street at various spots like these two at the corner of Greystone Avenue.
So just who is the Empire City Subway company, and why were they digging in a street that has no subway?
The Empire City Subway company is the construction arm of Verizon the phone and now cable television company. So why can't Verizon do this construction? Much like other major utilities such as Con Edison it is much cheaper to have an outside contractor do the work than having your high paid union workers do it. A company does not have to buy all the equipment also so it can keep costs lower than doing it themselves.
Above - another five foot by five foot area that is being dug up on West 238th Street, this one by the Post office site.
Below - So how did the Empire City Subway company do? By the looks of this patch it looks like it is going to be opened up again.
Above and Below - These two patches look like the others that are ready to be reopened.
You can see that this patchwork is about the size of a New York City Parks Department car, but that is another story why the Parks Department car was parked here. See the next posting.
A.G. Schneiderman Announces Settlement With Synergy Fitness Clubs For Deceptive And Illegal Practices; Highlights Tips For Consumers
Settlement Reached With Health Club With Six Locations In NYC & Nassau County
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced a settlement with nine Synergy Fitness health clubs located in New York City and Nassau County to resolve his investigation of their compliance with the state’s Health Club Services Law. The office received numerous consumer complaints against Synergy alleging the health clubs improperly billed consumers for memberships, misrepresented and unfairly applied their cancellation policies, charged fees that were not part of the contract and were unresponsive to consumer complaints. The health clubs agreed to modify their contracts to comply with New York State law and to pay $60,000 in penalties and fines.
“Consumers join health clubs to get fit, not to spend energy avoiding improper fees or dealing with harassing collection calls concerning lawfully cancelled contracts,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “We won’t tolerate companies that employ opaque and illegal practices to line their pockets at the expense of New Yorkers.”
The complaints the office received from consumers about Synergy included allegations that:
- Synergy billed them without their consent or after the expiration or cancellation of their membership term.
- Synergy’s collection agent harassed them seeking collection on contracts that were cancelled years earlier.
- Synergy misrepresented their cancellation policies and failed to honor consumers’ valid cancellation requests.
- Synergy added fees not provided for in their Membership Agreement.
In addition, Synergy’s Membership Agreement contained provisions and terms that permitted automatic renewals without the consent of the consumer and failed to use the language mandated by statute for notice of cancellation without penalty in violation of the Health Club law. Synergy also failed to post notices informing customers whether the facility filed a bond with the Secretary of State and how the consumer may obtain proof of the club’s compliance with the law.
Three of the settling health clubs are no longer in operation. The six in operation are:
- Synergy Fitness Astoria, Inc., 23-35 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11106
- 1781 Fitness Corp., 1781 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10128
- Pekic Fitness, Inc., 184 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016
- Garden City Fitness Corp., 190 Broadway, Garden City, NY 11040
- Farm Fitness, Inc., 410 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY 11735
- ABDO Fitness Corp., 244 East 14thStreet, New York, NY 10003
Under the terms of the settlement, in addition to complying with the terms of the Health Club law, the Synergy Clubs agreed to, among other things:
- Permit consumers to cancel their Membership by providing reasonable notice to Synergy according to the terms of the contract.
- Verify all outstanding balances before they are sent for collection to a third party and transmitting proof of any outstanding balances to the third party collection agency.
- Cease and desist from engaging in harassing debt collection practices or in any collection activity, including referring to a debt collector, for any services provided after a contract has been cancelled.
- Establish a review procedure to investigate complaints received from consumers.
The clubs will also have to provide restitution to consumers who can demonstrate that since January 1 2014, they paid for health clubs services after cancelling their membership. Consumers who seek restitution should contact the club with which they contracted or file a complaint online with the Attorney General’s office or call 1-800-771-7755 by December 1, 2016.
The Attorney General previously reached settlements with nearly 100 health clubs requiring them to modify their contracts to comply with New York law.
Attorney General Schneiderman offered the following tips to consumers when considering a health or fitness club:
- Before enrolling, ask about fees and when they must be paid, hours of operation, variety and frequency of classes and ability to use multiple locations.
- Do not give in to high pressure sales tactics or feel obligated to sign a contract immediately. Tell the health club representative you need time to think about joining the club and ask for free passes to determine if the club is right for you. Talk to other members.
- If a health club requires you to pay a down payment or pre-pay your dues, ask if it is bonded or has filed the proper financial security to protect you against losses of pre-paid membership dues. A notice indicating whether it is bonded must be posted conspicuously at the club’s entrance. (A health club is exempted from this requirement under certain limited circumstances.) To verify a club's compliance with this requirement, consumers can call (518) 474-4429, fax (518) 473-6648 or write to the New York State Department of State, Division of Licensing Services at 84 Holland Avenue, Albany, New York 12208.
- Look for health clubs that allow members to make monthly dues payments and permits cancellation for any valid reason
- Make sure you can afford the monthly payments. Monthly gym fees add up and after any introductory periods are over, the price could jump higher than your budget can handle.
- Read the contract carefully and make sure that all verbal promises made by the salesperson are included.
A.G. Schneiderman Announces $100 Million Multi-State Settlement With Barclays Over Role Artificially Manipulating Interest Rates
Manipulated Interest Rates Hurt Government And Not-For-Profit Entities In New York And Across The Country
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced a $100 million, 44-state settlement with Barclays Bank PLC and Barclays Capital Inc. for fraudulent and anticompetitive conduct involving the manipulation of U.S. Dollar (USD) LIBOR (the London Interbank Offered Rate) and other benchmark interest rates. Benchmark interest rates affect financial instruments worth trillions of dollars and have a widespread impact on global markets and consumers because LIBOR may determine how much they will be paid on their investments. New York and Connecticut led the working group of State Attorneys General investigating Barclays.
“There has to be one set of rules for everyone, no matter how rich or how powerful, and that includes big banks and other financial institutions that engage in fraud or impair the fair functioning of financial markets,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “As a result of Barclays’ misconduct, government entities and not-for-profits were defrauded of funds that otherwise could have been used to benefit the people of New York.”
During the relevant time period, a panel of 16 banks made USD LIBOR submissions that were supposed to reflect borrowing rates in the interbank market. A daily LIBOR rate was calculated by averaging the middle eight submissions. The investigation found that, at times during the financial crisis period, roughly from 2007-2009, Barclays managers told LIBOR submitters to lower their LIBOR settings to avoid the appearance that Barclays was in financial difficulty and needed to pay more than some of its competitors to borrow money. The LIBOR submitters complied with the instructions and suppressed their LIBOR submissions. Also, from 2005 to 2007 and continuing at least into 2009, Barclays’ traders at times asked Barclays’ LIBOR submitters to change their LIBOR settings in order to benefit the traders’ positions, and the submitters often followed through on the requests, instead of setting LIBOR based on Barclays’ borrowing costs. Barclays also believed that other banks’ LIBOR submissions likewise did not reflect their true borrowing rates, and that therefore, published LIBOR did not reflect the cost of borrowing funds in the market, as it was supposed to do.
Government entities and not-for-profit organizations in New York and throughout the U.S., among others, were defrauded of millions of dollars when they entered into swaps and other financial contracts with Barclays without knowing that Barclays and other banks on the USD-LIBOR-setting panel were manipulating LIBOR—a price component -- and, at times, colluding with other banks.
These entities with LIBOR-linked swaps and other investment contracts with Barclays will be notified if they are eligible to receive restitution from a settlement fund of $93.35 million. The balance of the settlement fund will be used to pay expenses of the investigation and for other uses consistent with state law.
Barclays is the first of several USD-LIBOR-setting panel banks under investigation by the State Attorneys General to resolve the claims against it, and Barclays has cooperated with the investigation from the outset. The Attorney General’s Office benefits from the information and evidence provided by corporations that choose to cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigations. Such cooperation can facilitate civil enforcement efforts, including restitution for victims of the offense.
Other states joining New York in the Barclays settlement include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin & Wyoming. The investigation into the conduct of several other USD LIBOR-setting panel banks is ongoing.
The New York Attorney General’s investigation into LIBOR manipulation is led by Antitrust Deputy Bureau Chief Elinor R. Hoffmann, Assistant Attorney General Emily Granrud, Volunteer Assistant Attorney General Alex Cohen and Legal Assistant Arlene Leventhal of the Antitrust Bureau, and Senior Enforcement Counsel Roger Waldman and Assistant Attorney General Desiree Cummings of the Investor Protection Bureau. Director of Economics, Guy Ben-Ishai, also provided valuable assistance. The Antitrust and Investor Protection Bureaus are part of the Economic Justice Division, which is led by Executive Deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice Manisha M. Sheth.