Thursday, July 14, 2016

[Updated] Raphael Toledano is now funding the Creative Little Garden on 6th Street

Via the EVG inbox...

Raphael Toledano, President of Brookhill Properties, LLC, a premier New York based real estate investment company, is pleased to announce its funding and participation in the maintenance and upkeep of the Creative Little Garden, located at 530 E. 6th Street between Avenues A and B.

Since 1982, the Garden has been a sanctuary of peace for the neighborhood and is considered by East Villagers and New Yorker’s alike to be their “community backyard” garden. Members collaborate on the landscaping of the garden, but there are no plots tended by individual gardeners. By doing this, the space has been able to become the tranquil oasis that many recognize it is today.

“We are happy to be giving back to the community in a way that helps maintain a peaceful and safe space for so many East Village’s residents and visitors,” said Courtney Knopf, Executive Vice President at Brookhill Properties. “By contributing to the Creative Little Garden, Raphael Toledano and Brookhill Properties hope to promote a greater appreciation for the environment as well as a close and supportive community.”

The Creative Little Garden is funded solely by contributions and dues paid by their members. There are expenses necessary for the maintenance of the space, but there is no paid staff. The space operates under the jurisdiction of the NYC Parks Department with help specifically from the Greenthumb program and the NYC Council on the Environment.

In his short time as a landlord in the East Village, the 26-year-old Toledano has made headlines in media outlets citywide for alleged harassment and intimidation of tenants, for which he is reportedly under state investigation at 444 E. 13th St. Local elected officials have also blasted Toledano for unsafe living conditions after the the City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found elevated lead levels in the common areas of three of his buildings.

Toledano is the latest controversial East Village landlord to announce programs intended to give back to the neighborhood. Back in the spring, Icon Realty donated empty retail spaces for Celebrity Catwalk to hold adoption and fundraising events and unveiled plans for public art at several of its properties.

Updated 7/17

Via the comments...

The Creative Little Garden said...
There definitely have been no donations in the past two months to the garden. The press release reported in this article was dated Tuesday last week, and I learned about it late last night. I've been hunting around the internet today, and have found seemingly old, but vague, claims that Toledano has donated to the garden in the past. If true, it was a terrible mistake. Toledano does not represent the values of the Creative Little Garden. Franciose's ashes are there, and she would shoot rose thorns at him.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building'

Report: State investigating East Village landlord Raphael Toledano

Report: Uncle suing nephew broker Raphael Toledano over $100 million East Village deal

Report: Raphael Toledano completes purchase of 16-building East Village portfolio

More about alleged harassment and landlord visits via Brookhill Properties

In op-ed, Raphael Toledano says that he wants 'to make the East Village a better place'

Report: East Village landlord Raphael Toledano allegedly misrepresented himself as a lawyer

The Villager looks at landlord Raphael Toledano's criminal past

An open letter to landlord Raphael Toledano from the Toledano Tenants Coalition

Report: Management company sues Raphael Toledano for backing out of $130 million loan

Ongoing concerns about demolition work and elevated lead levels in Toledano-owned buildings

28 comments:

Brian said...

Ack!!! This is time honored way rich a-holes who acquired ill-gotten gains try to wash the stink off their money.

Brian said...

You know how Prince use to fund good causes all the time? No, because he hust funded them and felt that was enough. Prince did not have a guilty conscience or a deserved crappy reputation.

Brian said...

Sandy Weil of Citibank did the same thing. So did Rockefeller of Standard Oil. And Trump with his overstated claims of charity giving and then his Wohlman Rink which he over mentions millions of times. So Toledano is playing the game the same way, both following in the right footsteps, the classic playbook, and pulling the wool over the eyes of the public in the same pathetic game at the same time.

Anonymous said...

I would ask those running the garden not to accept Toledano's money. Are they people who run this garden unaware of how he treats the tenants in his building?

Gojira said...

I betcha he rips out all fhe plants and installs hothouse flowers. More upscale.

I second Anon. 7.32's statement. Blood money is what it is.

Anonymous said...

Crusties have been hanging out in this garden almost every day the last three or four weeks smoking cigarettes and pot, and drinking alcohol even though they have been told not to do so. People are now starting to call 311 with a request to have a cop come by, which has happened several times.
Toledano has a right to do with his money whatever he wants that is legal, including funding this garden.

Toledano yes, crusties no.

Bill

blue glass said...

buy a building or fifty
empty them at any cost
no heat, no water, no gas, no repairs, etc.
stores too

turn them into cheaply renovated, expensivce, multilpe bedroomed "dorm" apartments
when you've completed your destruction throw a few pennies at something local to make you appear like a human being

won't work - want to do something positive? get out of town!

dwg said...

"Toledano yes, crusties no."

If Toledano wasn't harassing and illegally evicting low income tenants from his buildings you might have a point. But he does. This is dirty money no matter how you count it.

Anonymous said...

Its a con. It his"look how much i love this area" ploy. I heard one of his frat boy goons agents say "i wont be happy till all the stabilized tenants are homeless" with a grin on his face.

DrGecko said...

Well, some of this is Your Tax Dollars, since his donations are deductible.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Gecko,

It's a common fallacy to think of tax deductions as funded by someone else paying taxes. If Mr. Smith makes $100 and pays $20 in tax after a $4 tax deduction ($24 adjusted gross - $4 deduction = $20 tax payment), his net tax payment is $20, which is theft by the criminal entity known as the State.
That is true as long as Mr. Smith works in the private, productive sector, i.e., a business.
No one else's taxes are affected one dollar by this.
Now Mr. Smith goes to Washington and starts "earning" his income by
"working" for the criminal entity at Pyongyang on the Potomac, let's say for the IRS (Infernal Ripoff Squad), or the Pentagon, which is a mass murder planner.
His income zooms to $140, reflecting the well-known fact that gubment "workers" "earn" more than productive people in the private sector, who respond to actual consumer demand.
He has $50 deducted and sent each pay day to the Ripoff Squad.
His net theft is $90.

See Murray N. Rothbard, "The Fallacy of the Public Sector," which can be read online. His essay "The Anatomy of the State" should turn you into an anarchist.

Bill, libertarian, anarchist, enemy of tax theft

Anonymous said...

You can't buy ethics, morals, or dignity my friend.

DrGecko said...

@Bill - it's not a common fallacy; it's a common shorthand. If some entity doesn't pay taxes, my taxes have to cover for that.

And your "Pyongyang on the Potomac" motive is not accurate. I invite you to listen to the Wangjaesang Light Music Band, in their delightful rendition of "Our Country Without Taxes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uByxiMCESM

No music on the Potomac will ever match this.

Anonymous said...

This garden was founded by an anarchist, so it's pretty pathetic a self-proclaimed anarchist would support such an obviously crooked capitalist. I guess that's where the libertarianism comes in.

Anonymous said...

I suggest going by the garden and posting a sign concerning what you think of the garden taking dirty money.

Anonymous said...

Shame on this garden for taking money from this greedy tenant-evicting slumlord.

Sellouts!

Anonymous said...

He probably thinks he now owns a "share" in the garden and will continue to donate until he owns it all, then rip out and build some more dorm-apartments. I hope they refuse his money.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Gecko,

Someone else's tax deduction does not raise the tax paid by you or anyone else. (You too have a standard tax deduction, I assume, and how does that raise your neighbor's tax?)

The State's tax take is the sum of all the taxes paid by net tax payers, i.e. workers in the private sector. This take funds the politicians, crookeaucrats, welfare recipients, and other net tax consumers.
Mr. Smith gets $140,000 - his fake tax payment of $50,000, for a net tax consuming haul of $90,000. The technical libertarian name for this is New Class Parasite, or pure public parasite.
If he's "working" for the Pentagon, maybe he's designing the next generation of agent orange.
Ray, who sells candy and milkshakes, sends a check every two weeks to
the crooks at Havana on the Hudson and Pyongyang on the Potomac.
He is a productive net tax payer, unlike Mr. Smith.

Bill

Anonymous said...

Isn't it Raffi Toledano, Esq.? Next thing you know he'll be running for public office.

Anonymous said...

Take the money and run

Anonymous said...

Only someone not involved in the gardens would suggest that money from a local should be turned down. Do you know how little money these gardens receive? In our area, we approach the owner of any new building going up and request money and/or access, such as access to electricity for special events, or permission to use their trash cans, something. They almost always comply, they're so happy that someone invited them.

Anonymous said...

DO NOT TAKE HIS MONEY!!

Anonymous said...

6:54pm fair enough but you don't HAVE to take money from a known tenant-evicting slumlord scumbag. There are plenty of building owners who aren't that.

There's also this thing called PUTTING UP YOUR OWN MONEY and RAISING MONEY yourself plus barter, donations, and volunteers.

I don't think an annual garden access fee even if it was just a dollar a year would hurt anyone as things cost money. If you're concerned about low income people not having access to it, raise $100 a year for 100 free garden access passes.

One benefit could easily buy all the garden tools you need and then some.

Get the money no matter where it comes from, right? SAD.

Anonymous said...

The garden didn't get any money from Toledano. We don't actually even have a bank account at this point. Perhaps Toledano has donated through a website named www.creativelittlegarden.org, which is run by a gentleman who now lives in North Carolina.

Anonymous said...

The simplest explanation is that Mr. Esquire is lying about his "funding and participation in the maintenance and upkeep of the Creative Little Garden." He is probably congratulating himself at successfully provoking members of the community into attacking each other.

Because it is a fact that the garden hasn't received a dime.

Anonymous said...

So is this a lie? Did the garden not get any money from him? I am curious and would love to hear something on the record from one of the people who oversees the garden. I do hope that this isn't true. It would be so depressing to think anyone in the neighborhood would allow this guy to use them to look good.

The Creative Little Garden said...

There definitely have been no donations in the past two months to the garden. The press release reported in this article was dated Tuesday last week, and I learned about it late last night. I've been hunting around the internet today, and have found seemingly old, but vague, claims that Toledano has donated to the garden in the past. If true, it was a terrible mistake. Toledano does not represent the values of the Creative Little Garden. Franciose's ashes are there, and she would shoot rose thorns at him.

Anonymous said...

11:13am that's still receiving donations from him, it's just done through a curious intermediary as why is someone from North Carolina collecting donations for a NYC community garden? IF he's donating.