Claire Shulman: Difference between revisions

==Personal life==

During the last years of her life, she and her husband, Melvin Shulman, lived in [[Beechhurst, Queens]], New York. They had one daughter, [[Ellen S. Baker]], an astronaut <ref>[http://www.nyc.gov/html/rwg/html/96/educ.html "A Vision for Education": Speech by New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, The Wharton Club, August 11, 1995]</ref> and a veteran of three [[Space Shuttle]] voyages, including one that docked with the Russian [[space station]] ''[[Mir]]''. Their son, Lawrence Shulman, a medical [[oncologist]], is chief medical officer at the [[Dana–Farber Cancer Institute]] in [[Boston]], Massachusetts. Their adopted son, Kim Shulman, who worked as an assistant director on television series including ''[[Party of Five]]'' and films including ''[[Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves]]'', died from a cerebral hemorrhage on June 2, 2001.<ref>{{cite news|title=Claire Shulman’s son dies in California at age 45|url=https://qns.com/story/2001/06/06/claire-shulmans-son-dies-in-california-at-age-45/|first1=Betsy|last1=Scheinbart|first2=Jennifer|last2=Warren|date=June 6, 2001|accessdate=August 17, 2020|work=QNS.com|publisher=TimesLedger Newspapers}}</ref>

 

==Later life==

Shulman established Flushing Willets Point Corona Local Development Corporation,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Rivera|first=Ray|date=August 20, 2009|title=New York Paid to Lobby Itself, Group Claims|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/nyregion/21lobby.html|access-date=August 17, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and served as its president and CEO when it aggressively lobbied the New York City Council<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 1, 2008|title=Shulman lobbying machine goes full-steam|url=https://irontriangletracker.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/shulman-lobbying-machine-goes-full-steam/|access-date=August 17, 2020|website=Iron Triangle Tracker|language=en}}</ref> in 2007 and 2008 to approve controversial legislation<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 14, 2008|title=Showdown at Willets Point|url=https://observer.com/2008/10/showdown-at-willets-point/|access-date=August 17, 2020|website=Observer|language=en-US}}</ref> that would remove all of the existing private property owners and 250 industrial businesses from the neighborhood of [[Willets Point, Queens]], for redevelopment.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=November 2008|title=Willets Point Redevelopment: Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement; Executive Summary|url=https://edc.nyc/sites/default/files/filemanager/Projects/Willets_Point_Redevelopment/WP_0908_00_Executive_Summary.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=August 16, 2020|website=New York City Economic Development Corporation}}</ref> She was found to have conducted the lobbying for more than one year without filing any of the required public disclosures. An investigation by the City Clerk's Lobbying Bureau led to it imposing a fine of $59,090 against Shulman's LDC, which was a then-record penalty on a New York City lobbyist.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kemp|first=Joe|title=Property owners ask federal prosecutors to probe Flushing Willets Point Corona Land Development Corp|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/property-owners-federal-prosecutors-probe-flushing-willets-point-corona-land-development-corp-article-1.403532|access-date=August 17, 2020|website=nydailynews.com}}</ref> However, Mayor [[Michael Bloomberg]] came to her defense, characterizing this as a "cheap shot" against her and adding that "these groups are designed to lobby. I don’t know if they technically broke the law".<ref>{{cite news|title=Odds And Ends|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/odds-ends-blog-entry-1.1675420|date=December 18, 2010|accessdate=August 18, 2020|newspaper=Daily News|location=New York}}</ref> On a state level, then-Attorney General [[Andrew Cuomo]] and his successor, [[Eric Schneiderman]] investigated Shulman's lobbying campaign over a three-year period.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Saul|first=Michael Howard|date=July 3, 2012|title=City Agency Admits Illegal Lobby Effort|language=en-US|work=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304211804577503270562394712|access-date=August 17, 2020|issn=0099-9660}}</ref> Schneiderman eventually found that Shulman's LDC indeed “flouted the law by lobbying elected officials, both directly and through third parties, to win approval of … favored projects”.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A.G. Schneiderman Ends Illegal Lobbying Of NYC Officials By Three Local Development Corporations {{!}} New York State Attorney General|url=https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2012/ag-schneiderman-ends-illegal-lobbying-nyc-officials-three-local-development|access-date=August 17, 2020|website=ag.ny.gov|language=en}}</ref>

 

==References==