- Palisades Park Korean Association is having hardship to re-open activity
- The current problem is PP K Association has 2 year’s lapse of activity
- The election committee specifies qualification of president which is not realistic and nobody can apply
- “PP K Ass should be represented for all Palisades Park residents, not for specific group of people” “ First, PP K Ass should explain what happened for lost two years of activity”
- Former president, David Lee responded to mention that he cannot accept some partial opinion and many others understand and encourage
- Current by-law of the Ass specifies president a candidate qualification must 1) keep 2 year membership, 2) serve a position for Palisaeds Park Korean Association for more than 2 years
- Andy Nam, election committee chair announced by-law amendment on election, considering special circumstances and unrealistic current by-law
- Election committee will act as a board of directors until president and board of directors established
- “Kudo Society” in Palisades Park will open on 2/25/2019
- It used to be “Eagle Diner” and then “Crown” before (soft opening on 2/7/2019)
- New concept will show: combination of coffee, restaurant, lounge (café restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and bar for evening)
- Couple partners: Sherry Ryu and Jeff Ryu, and chef is Peter Englasrino (CIA graduate)
- 1 out of 10 foreclosure houses in Bergen Co owned by Korean
- Bergen Co sheriff department reported 1035 foreclosure houses as of 2/6/2019
- 107 houses are owned by Korean which is 10.33% while Korean population takes 7% in Bergen county
- Among 107 houses,16 in Fort Lee(Total: 35), 10 in Palisades Park(Total: 18), 9 in Edgewater, 9 in Norwood, 7 in Leonia, 5 in Cliffside Park, 3 in Tenafly, 3 in Demarest, 3 in Old Tappan, 3 In Ridgefield
- The Plan for Amazon in LIC might be reviewed again?
- WP reported that Amazon is reviewing the plan for LIC, NY
- More politician opposes the plan, including Ocasio-Cortez (29:D)
- The reason to oppose is 1) rent hiking and 2) burden on housing cost
- Amazon did not purchase vicinity properties yet which makes easy to cancel the plan
- WP says it is not clear that Amazon has the plan B and may use the review as negotiation tool to press NYC and alleviate public opinion
- State Assemblyman Ron Kim (39:D) is also opposing the plan from the beginning, saying that Amazon is a business model of community exploitation and anti-labor union
- More than a half of NY residents favor the plan, acc to a college opinion survey
- 56% favor ( Latin: 81%, African American:70%, White:51%)
- Newark, Chicago shows strong interests to send love call to Amazon
- NJ has many Amazon warehouses, keeping 14,000 employees while NJ offers $7B tax benefit to Amazon
- Super luxury condo sales are active in the beginning of the year 2019
- After Kenneth Griffin’s purchasing $238M worth penthouse, luxury condo sales follow
- 9100 sf, 520 Park Ave Duplex penthouse unit sold at $64.3M while other unit in the same complex sold at $64.3M
- Penthouse at 70 Vestry St in Tribeca sold at $40.7M and 33th floor unit at 220 Central Park South sold at $30.2M
- Co-living style is expanded while rent is soaring
- NY channel 1 reported “Commons” (co-living company) receives more than 1000 inquiries a week
- Commons has been in operation for 3 years and currently running 11 buildings in NYC. They will open up 10 more buildings in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn this year
- They run membership registration and do credit/employment/background verification
- People are looking for co-living through professional company rather than a just portal site such as Craig’s list
- Current rent in Williamsburg is $2800 for Studio and $3000 for 1Br while commons client pays $1300-$2200 which includes membership fee and cleaning fee per week
- Renters need to be cautious (ex: a renter found a tiny apartment at $1000 for 3 people living, but realized there is no heating later on, or some renters found no furniture though web site mentioned furnished apartment)
- NYC plans to impose additional tax on purchasing luxury condo
- Luxury Pied-a-terre(foot on the ground) over $5M will be taxed
- 5% additional tax a year over $5M /additional registration fee and tax over $6M
- NYC will collect $660M tax a year
- Republican opposed the law for 5 years, but it becomes feasible after democrats become major party of State Senate from the last election
- According to NYC DOB, there are 75,000 Pied-a-Terre in NYC as of 2017
- IKEA will begin leasing furniture
- According to CBS, IKEA will test the idea in Sweden from this month
- First target will be office furniture. Offices will be able to lease furniture and change furniture after the lease is over
- IKEA would re-furbish furniture to cost down for lease contract and also prepare parts sale business
- US Government avoid 2nd shut down
- Congress agreed the modified budget plan
- Border wall construction budget gets limited amount of $1.37B to build 55 limes wall instead of original $5.7B to build 200 miles
- The proposal of limiting detention center capacity did not pass, but to reduce to 40,250 from the current 49,057
- It will be finalized when the President sign off
