Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called him the “dean of damage control.” His public relations firm, Rubenstein Associates, once simultaneously represented both Leona Helmsley and Donald Trump.

So it’s no exaggeration to say that nothing of importance happens in New York City without somehow involving Howard J. Rubenstein.

Howard Rubenstein. (Illustration by Joao Maio Pinto)

A REBNY member since “forever,” in his words, Mr. Rubenstein, the city’s ultimate spin doctor, has been honored with this year’s “Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker” award for his contributions to the civic welfare and the real estate community.

“I’ve been involved with the real estate community for over 40 years,” said Mr. Rubenstein. “I’ve enjoyed it immensely. They’ve built the city that allowed me to do so much in my career. Harry Helmsley was one of my very first accounts.”

Mr. Rubenstein, 79, grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, the son of a police reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania and then came back to Brooklyn. In 1954, with not much money in the bank and working at his parent’s kitchen table, Mr. Rubenstein started the public relations firm that’s spilled oceans of printer’s ink, negotiated hundreds of thousands of scandals and tenaciously stood by New York City even in the worst of times.

“It all started very modestly with $100 in the bank and an idea,” he said. Menorah Home and Hospital for the Aged and Infirm was his first client. “I wrote speeches and they wanted to see if they could get them in the papers,” he said. “I called my father and he called everyone he knew.”

His clients started getting into the newspapers and his reputation grew. The idea, said Mr. Rubenstein was not just to promote a single client, but to put that client—be it person or development—in the context of the city. “I had a vision to tie any one building to a vision of New York,” he said. “It wasn’t one building, it was a conglomeration of different factors, economic, social.”

While Rubenstein Associates was still a fledgling enterprise, and before Mr. Rubinstein took on clients like Rupert Murdoch and the New York Yankees, developers Helmsley and Lewis Rudin helped him build the business. “One of the people who helped me the most was Lew Rudin. He was one of my first accounts. I was so interested in politics and real estate, we just hit it off.” It was with Rudin that he helped start the Association for a Better New York, a civic group founded in 1972 to address some of the city’s social ills.

“We had a commercial property owners association and we were just jawboning, telling landlords not to raise their rents too precipitously for fear of bringing in rent control,” he said.

At the same time the city was going in a downward spiral, said Mr. Rubenstein. “We decided someone had to do something about it, so we changed the name to the Association for a Better New York. Our point was that in good times and in bad times this city had strength like no where else in the country.” It was a time when crime, municipal union strikes and budget woes were ruining the quality of life in the city and making it the butt of a few late-night talk-show jokes. “Johnny Carson used to make fun of us and we picketed him,” he said.

When trash and litter around Manhattan’s business districts started to pile up, the great PR man hit on an idea that some of the city’s real estate titans take to the streets to fix the problem personally. “We took brooms to the sidewalk and we started to sweep,” he said. “You can just picture Harry Helmsley, Lew Rudin and Robert Tishman out there sweeping. They’re all very rich and they’re sweeping. We got a lot of press for that.”

Today, Rubenstein Associates has over 200 employees in New York and over 400 clients—you’ve heard of most of them. Two of his sons started their own firm under the Rubenstein Associates umbrella.

“Most real estate people have a view of the future,” said Mr. Rubenstein, who serves on the executive board of REBNY. “They are projecting strength despite the downturn in the economy. They never give up. They’re always talking positively. They look at New York and their investments in a long-range view.”

That’s why he said he was honored to receive such an accolade from REBNY. “My family and I were so pleased with this award. I never sought it and don’t own any real estate, but I’m extremely grateful to receive it,” he said.

In a January 2010 Observer article, he had sounded one of the earliest calls for not holding the 9/11 terror trials in the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday afternoon that the trials will, indeed, be held at the Guantanamo Bay prison (to the dismay of many among President Obama's lefty base). 

The Observer nabbed Big Real Estate's super at the 101 Club on Park Avenue and queried: Was REBNY the first to sound the call? "I do believe we were," said Mr. Spinola with a wide grin.

As early as December 2009, Mr. Spinola (pictured) met with Bill Rudin, the landlord and Association for a Better New York chair, in his office. Initially, Mr. Spinola spoke with then-White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and presidential adviser and policy wonk David Axelrod. The board at first kept a low public profile on the issue to resist offending the administration.

But Mr. Spinola was getting an earful from REBNY members, as The Observer noted a month after the meeting with Mr. Rudin, more than he had gotten on any single issue since he took over the board in the mid-1980s: "They're saying to me, 'You've got to stop this, you can't let it happen.'" To hold the trial downtown, they said, would disrupt traffic and create security concerns that could drive out tourists and office tenants, plummeting the downtown economy to post-9/11 lows.

The real estate board, one of the most powerful lobby groups in the state, has had an impact on other issues like property taxes, but none with quite such national resonance. In other words, the board took on the president of the United States and won. 

During his Monday evening recap with The Observer, Mr. Spinola also gave credit to Community Board 1 for helping. Victory, Mr. Spinola said, was not surprising (rumors of the administration's reversal surfaced this past January). "We assumed it would not be in New York," he said. "We're very happy." 

lkusisto@observer.com 

Gillibrand is schedule to speak at meeting of the business group Association for a Better New York, according to a source.

Economically, Gillibrand's positions aren't totally clear. She voted against the bailout legislation while in the House, but, according to Chuck Schumer, she's on board with the stimulus package.

Here’s David Paterson at the A.B.N.Y. breakfast yesterday morning, offering up a critique of spending in public authorities across the state.

“There are 640 public authorities in this state, only 11 of them regulated by a public authority control boards," he said. "Maybe we should find out what the other 629 do. Because they consume billions of your and my dollars in taxes every year."

The event comes hours after congestion pricing was killed, and in the middle of a long, drawn-out budget negotiation that isn't over yet.

During a speech entitled “one budget for one New York,” the governor displayed two maps of the state: one, solid green, showed the topography of the state; the other, multi-colored, was an "overlay" of every state Assembly and Senate district.

"We cannot progress if we are divided," Spitzer told the crowd. He said it was “uniquely important that we come together” when facing such fiscal difficulties as the state is now.

Which sounds more than a little like a counterargument to the Republican contention that it’s important to keep all three Men in the Room from being Democrats.

Without much fanfare, Wal-Mart has joined a number of local business groups, like the Association for a Better New York, the Partnership for New York City, and the chambers of commerce in four of the city's boroughs.

All this, without having a single store here. So, why have they joined all these New York business groups when, technically, they don’t have a business in New York?

“Wal-Mart is a significant part of the New York City economy, spending nearly $4 billion in the five boroughs,” company spokesman Steve Restivo said in a statement.

It may also help them build the kind of grass-roots support they need to eventually open a store here, something that’s eluded them previously.

As the Partnership’s Kathy Wylde told me, “Obviously, they wouldn’t be joining if they weren’t thinking about it.”

Ban Ki Moon, who officially succeeded Kofi Annan on January 1, tried to reassure New Yorkers that he would do his best to minimize inconvenience during major meetings of the world body. "Maybe I can help reduce traffic jams by asking visiting heads of state to take subways as Mayor Bloomberg does," he joked.

Keeping the focus local, Mr. Ban also cautioned that the renovation of the UN's headquarters might cause "disruption for the neighbors."

Mr. Ban mostly steered clear of contentious topics. However, in response to a question from the floor about anti-Semitism, he talked about the concern he felt when "a certain country would not recognize the existence of a certain other member state of the United Nations. This is not acceptable." The reference, presumably, was to Iran and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mr. Ban's remarks came at a breakfast hosted by The Association for a Better New York (ABNY) and The Business Council for the United Nations (BCUN.) Among the attendees were former mayor David Dinkins and Diana Taylor, the mayor's partner and the Superintendent of Banks for the state.

On the vexed issue of the U.S. relationship with the UN, Mr. Ban played safe, arguing that the world body and the superpower both benefited from engagement with each other. But, perhaps showing the degree to which Turtle Bay feels under siege, Mr. Ban told the audience, "I hope you will speak up in favor of the United Nations in New York and around the world, and about the importance of U.S. leadership and engagement with the organization. All of us have a stake in getting these relationships right."

The Secretary General also treated the audience to a long and somewhat labored joke about the pronunciation of his first name. Apparently, it should not be pronounced 'ban' but more like 'bawn'. He admitted that he should have changed the English spelling -- maybe 'Bahn' or 'Bon', he said -- before now. But "since there will be so many things to ban as Secretary General, it is very relevant to my job."

-- Niall Stanage

At 9 a.m., Eliot Spitzer tours the UFT charter school with UFT president Randi Weingarten.

At 11:15 a.m., Vito Lopez and union officials protest on the City Hall steps over 421-a Exclusionary Zoning.

At 11:30 a.m. in Queens, Eric Gioia discusses a national hotline where kids can report weapons threats at their schools.

At 1 p.m., The City Council's Health Committee raising legal age to buy tobacco products and prohibiting sale of flavored cigarettes; Hearing Room,

At 1:30, the Port Authority holds their monthly meeting on Park Avenue.

At 3 p.m. the Council's Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee holds a hearing on Ground Zero insurance proceeds.

At 6 p.m. FCC Commissioners discuss diversity in media at Hunter College.

In Brooklyn, there's a march against police brutality starting on President Street and Nostrand Avenue.

At 6:30 p.m., Hillary Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Mike Bloomberg and NBC News anchor Brian Williams attend the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria.

And Comptroller candidate Christopher Callaghan speaks with the editorial boards at the Times Union and Troy Record and then attends the Genesee GOP County Dinner.

-- Azi Paybarah