Transit guru “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz has been pushing a plan embraced by Mayor de Blasio to build a trolley on the Brooklyn waterfront without revealing that his firm registered as a paid lobbyist on the project, The Post has learned.
Papers submitted to the city clerk by Sam Schwartz Engineering show the firm earned $10,000 for meeting with city officials regarding the $2.5 billion proposal on behalf of Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector.
The nonprofit was launched in February 2015 by waterfront developers and others to promote the trolley — including more than a half-dozen real-estate honchos who donated more than $500,000 to de Blasio’s causes.
Their property would see a boost in value with the additional transit option.
De Blasio backed the plan a year later in his February 2016 State of the City speech, but not everyone in the impacted neighborhoods is on board.
“It’s by developers and for developers,” said North Brooklyn activist Phil De Paolo. “The communities it runs through think it won’t benefit the people currently living there.”
Associates at Schwartz’s firm disputed the lobbying label, saying the filings with the City Clerk’s Office were submitted only out of an abundance of caution.
They said changes to city lobbying law in late 2015 made it unclear whether engineering firms needed to register as lobbyists, but that in hindsight it hadn’t been necessary.
“Sam Schwartz Engineering DPC has very publicly worked with The Friends of the BQX to study the transportation aspects of a waterfront streetcar,” said Harris Schechtman, national director of transportation at Schwartz’s firm. “We were not engaged as lobbyists and have not lobbied on behalf of the Friends.”
In the July 2016 filing with the city clerk, the firm said it was paid $10,000 for meetings with top officials in the mayor’s office, the Department of Transportation and the city Economic Development Corp.
Schwartz has previously said he was hired to do a feasibility study by the nonprofit, whose founders include Two Trees Development principal Jed Walentas.
A subsidiary of Two Trees donated $100,000 to de Blasio’s political nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York.
Additional reporting by Rich Calder