Queens demands an end to the DOT e-scooter share cesspool PILOT

 

AMNY 

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is urging City Hall to put an “operational pause” on the ongoing electric scooter share pilot program in Queens, citing an epidemic of discourteous parking practices.

In a letter to Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Adams—who leads the city’s legislative body while also representing neighborhoods like Jamaica and Springfield Gardens—said she has “profound concerns” with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) e-scooter pilot, which launched in eastern Queens this summer following a yearslong program in the eastern Bronx.

Specifically, the speaker contends that scooter parking has been haphazard throughout the pilot area, with riders leaving their scooters on sidewalks or roadways and blocking pedestrian traffic flow.

 “The lack of orderly operation and enforcement when e-scooters are left on public streets and sidewalks with reckless abandon must be urgently addressed,” Speaker Adams wrote in her Oct. 7 letter to Rodriguez, which was shared with amNewYork Metro. “I am requesting a reset of the department’s E-Scooter Share program in Southeast Queens to ensure the necessary protocols and protections are enacted to prioritize the safety of all residents while supporting local transportation needs.”

The speaker suggests that the “operational pause” should be used to “properly address these many outstanding issues.” 

The pilot launched on June 27 in an approximately 20-square-mile area of eastern Queens between Flushing in the north and JFK Airport in the south, following what DOT deemed a successful pilot in the eastern Bronx. Both the eastern Bronx and eastern Queens are areas unserved by Citi Bike and relatively lightly served by mass transit, making them prime spots to test out new forms of micro-mobility.

The same three major scooter companies participating in the Bronx pilot — Lime, Bird, and Veo — also joined the Queens pilot. DOT says that since launch day, 37,000 riders have taken nearly half a million trips in Queens, while 5.7 million trips have been logged in total since the pilot began in the Bronx in 2021. Most rides begin and end in the same neighborhood, the agency says.

Unlike Citi Bikes, the scooters can be parked anywhere when a rider is done with them, except on busy corridors where they must be parked in designated “corrals.” Per program rules, scooters are allowed to be parked in the “street furniture” section of the sidewalk, where decorative aspects like street trees or bus stops are sited, but cannot obstruct the right-of-way for pedestrians on the sidewalk.

But since launch day, some Queens residents and pols have complained about riders disregarding those rules and parking scooters haphazardly, sometimes blocking sidewalks or entrances to people’s homes. Adams said that scooters “are too often chaotically left scattered on public and private spaces throughout Southeast Queens.” “For months, my constituents have witnessed and shared many accounts of e-scooters being left on sidewalks and streets, as well as in front of homes, driveways, businesses, places of worship, and beyond,” Adams wrote in her letter. “These conditions present potential hazards, especially to older adults and people with disabilities in neighborhoods.”

Update

 

Speaker Adrienne Adams is going to have a town hall about the DOT's e-scooter share pilot tomorrow at 1 pm with State Senator Leroy Comrie. I'm sure the corporations and the DOT that approved to put their product on the street against the objections of the communities affected will be there to defend their failure and beg for more chances to continue this PILOT. While waiting for that, here's the sequel to my documentary of this disaster scooter cesspool polluting the streets of South and North Queens.

Correction: Looks like I didn't notice the date on that town hall that took place Mid-August, but I'm not going to take it down because those clips from the second video were made around that time and it really emphasizes the City Council's speaker's negligence and obtuseness by making a photo op grand gesture for a pause of the DOT's e-scooter cesspool PILOT.

Stable housing in Aqueduct?

THE CITY 

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams laid out her annual vision for the city Wednesday, focusing on the affordability of living in the city ahead of another budget battle with the mayor.

The speaker delivered her State of the City remarks at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, praising its cultural significance before pivoting to the rising cost of living in the five boroughs. 

“For too many New Yorkers, the housing and affordability crisis has presented an impossible dilemma: you cannot afford to live in the city, so you struggle or you leave,” she said. “The situation is dire.”

Despite her enthusiasm, key initiatives from the speaker’s previous State of the City address last year remained unfulfilled or paused. As she did last year, Adams stressed the importance of hiring at understaffed agencies across the city, but many roles are still empty.

An exodus of working and middle-class residents, she said in Wednesday’s speech, points to a failure of civic leadership — and has disproportionately impacted communities of color. 

“As a government, we are not fulfilling our duty to New Yorkers,” she said. 

Adams, who has represented neighborhoods in Southeast Queens since 2018, announced initiatives to help with the cost of housing, education and child care. She focused on rebuilding a government and city hobbled by the pandemic, and stressed strengthening libraries and the City University system.

“Our economic and job recovery has been uneven, and we must provide opportunities for people at every level to succeed,” she said.

One package of bills touted Wednesday aims to tackle deed theft, which predominantly affects working-class communities of color. The legislation will require the city to inform homeowners and people who inherit property of the fair-market value of their homes, and will also provide legal assistance to help them protect their assets. The move comes in response to an investigative series from THE CITY.

“We must build a city where all New Yorkers, especially working people who make up the backbone of our communities, can build their legacy right here in our city,” Adams said. 

The speaker also discussed the possibility of transforming the Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, saying the 172-acres of state-owned land in Queens “represents a generational opportunity” to build more housing and amenities. The land is also next to a city-owned site near the A train, which would also be a good location for housing, she said. 

“Repurposing the land for housing and other amenities can uplift this community district — which has produced the lowest amount of housing of any in Queens,” she said. 

Adams did not mention the pending proposal from the site’s operator, Resorts World Casino, to obtain a coveted state casino license and fully develop the site.

City Council kills the Mayor's veto of how many stops bill

NY Post

NYPD cops will be forced to report on even their most minor interactions with the public after the City Council on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of the “How Many Stops Act’’ — which he and other critics argued would threaten public safety.

Adams, who fought the bill tooth and nail in recent weeks, failed to sway the two council members he needed to beat the override — which passed in a bruising 42-9 vote.

The Democrat-led council also voted to override Adams’ veto of another bill banning solitary confinement in Big Apple jails.

“These bills will make New Yorkers less safe on the streets, while police officers are forced to fill out additional paperwork rather than focus on helping New Yorkers and strengthening community bonds,” Adams said in a statement after the vote.

“Additionally, it will make staff in our jails and those in our custody less safe by impairing our ability to hold those who commit violent acts accountable.”

Under the NYPD bill, officers will have to record the “apparent” race, gender and age of nearly every person they question — even someone who could just be a potential witness to a crime, or other of the lowest-level encounters.

Adams, a former NYPD captain, and police advocates had been adamant that the bill would bog cops down in a sea of unnecessary paperwork and slow down investigations.

“Today’s override is one more step toward the city council goal: Destroy the world’s best police

department,” NYPD Detectives Endowment Association president Paul DiGiacomo said.

“Thanks to the politicians, the divide between the police and citizens will grow. And so will retirements of our best, most experienced detectives. Heartbreaking.”

 

The Habitat For Humanity Horror

Impunity City 

 

Yesterday afternoon, Mayor Eric Adams enthusiastically announced plans for the city to build 100,000 affordable apartments in the next 5 years in his “City Of Yes” program. The City Of Yes program/doctrine will make it easier for the NYC housing and building departments to expedite building permits faster with little regulation and even community input under the rubric for the need to stem the housing affordability and homeless crises in the five boroughs. While noble and necessary, it still needs to be ratified into law by City Council.

But it was only a year and a half ago when Mayor Adams and his “team” went to Southeast Queens to announce an affordable housing program initiative for to give the opportunity for lower income earning residents to own their own houses. Partnering with Jimmy Carter’s Habitat for Humanity, the city’s Housing and Preservation Department took over 16 houses that were neglected and then abandoned by the notorious NYCHA  and had them demolished so they can build new environmentally sound “green” houses in their place. During the presentation which also announced new infrastructure to mitigate constant flash flooding from extreme storms, early SE Queens native Mayor Eric Adams promised that these homes will revive the neighborhoods that were neglected by past administrations.

One of those homes is this corner on 126th and 116th avenue.

  

Promises made, promises slept.

 

City council wants nothing to do with their law to close Rikers Island

 

 Queens Chronicle

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) and Member Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan), chair of the Criminal Justice Committee, released a joint statement last Thursday in response to concerns voiced by Mayor Adams about closing Rikers Island.

During a fireside chat at New York Law School in Manhattan last Tuesday, he said the plan to do so “was flawed from the beginning.”

In their response, the councilwomen said the 413-acre facility cultivated a culture of brutal violence and dysfunction, then emphasized that the city must adhere to the 2019 law to close Rikers by Aug. 31, 2027.

“Public safety demands that we remain on-track to closing without delay,” said the joint statement. “To achieve this goal, it is imperative that Mayor Adams’ administration take responsibility for implementing the law, including working collaboratively with stakeholders involved in the criminal legal system to advance necessary progress.”

The mayor’s administration has missed several deadlines related to turning over unused parcels of land from the city’s largest jail complex for the development of an energy hub, reported the Queens Daily Eagle.

The Office of the Mayor said via email that Adams will always follow the law.

“It has become painfully clear that the plan passed by the City Council during the previous administration leaves open serious questions about the city’s ability to keep New Yorkers safe, while the costs are exploding,” a City Hall spokesman told the Chronicle on Aug. 31.

When conceived, the closure of the facility was estimated to be approximately $8 billion. In October 2022, the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform said it would be closer to $10.2 billion due to inflation.

“This is due to: necessary environmental remediation and landfill stabilization; the island’s isolation and single bridge on and off; and the presence of active jails, which would limit construction hours and require a staggered schedule to maintain sufficient capacity during construction,” according to the report. “In addition, the city would have to pay over $800 million to demolish the existing jails on Rikers. The city has already spent $500 million on design, demolition, project management, and site preparation for the new borough-based jails.”

The commission also said scrapping the shutdown plan and modernizing Rikers would cost 15 percent more than the $10 billion price tag and take years longer. Smaller borough-based jails will save the city $2 billion in operating costs annually, it said.

The city must make consistent investments in pretrial services, alternatives to incarceration and re-entry services, while addressing unacceptable lengths of stay with the courts, district attorneys and public defenders, said the councilwomen’s joint statement.

The mayor also blamed the city’s courts for failing to process cases. Commissioner Louis Molina of the city’s Department of Correction said that he believes the jail population will hit 7,000 by 2024, reported the Queens Daily Eagle. The new jails will have room for no more than 4,200 inmates, the mayor has said.

Asked about the rising costs of the jail and where the detainees will be placed during the transitional period, a City Council official said it’s up to the mayor to address.

 

The end of Rikers is not certain

Queens Chronicle

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) remains steadfast on the closure of Rikers Island by 2027 but some members of the Queens delegation as well as the Mayor Adams administration are less convinced.

“I don’t think there’s a way for it to be done,” Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Ozone Park) told the Chronicle.

Last Thursday, the Council held a preliminary budget hearing for the Committee on Criminal Justice and the city Departments of Probation and Correction testified.

Ariola asked Correction Commissioner Louis Molina if, given the fact that the city jails population is nearly double what would fit in the borough-based jails, it would be possible to house them there.

“If we are at today’s number whenever borough-based jails would open or if that number is higher, then it would be physically impossible to house all those individuals within our jail system if our capacity was at 3,300,” Molina answered.

“We would need to come up with alternative solutions of where those individuals would be housed. Now, we could get to a place where we can see declines in the population,” Molina continued.

He said two things are needed: for the adjudication of justice, which is under the control of the state, to be faster and for more hospital capacity for those with mental illness.

“Just recently, we had someone who was waiting to be sentenced and that defendant was in our custody for six years for an attempted murder case,” said Molina. “And when you have almost a thousand people charged with murder in a backlogged court system, then the flow of those defendants is not quick. So ... we are thinking about what are going to be the alternatives if our jail population continues to stay high. And the other thing we’ve talked about a lot this afternoon is mental illness. If the state does not increase the capacity to be able to treat mental illness, and if we’re going to continue to designate via the courts mental health patients with the designation of criminal defendant, then they are a justice system responsibility. If we want to treat them as hospital patients, then we need hospital capacity to do that.”

Molina has said in the past that the jail population could, in fact, rise by 1,000 people by next year.

Council speaker from Queens top aides are from Long Island and Jersey

NY Post 

These bigwigs work for the City Council but they’re not based in the Big Apple.

Speaker Adrienne Adams has granted rare waivers exempting three top Council staffers from a rule requiring such workers to live in the city, The Post has learned.

“People know about it. It has caused dissension. People will say, ‘Why can’t I get a waiver to move out of the city?'” one Council veteran said.

The waivers went to new Council Chief of Staff Jeremy John, Chief Financial Officer Tanisha Edwards and top Finance Division deputy Jonathan Rosenberg.

John, who grew up in Brooklyn, now resides in Westbury in Nassau County and is getting paid at least $220,000, city records show. He comes to his council job with deep Democratic Party and labor connections — he’s the former political director of the District Council 37 union representing city workers.

Edwards, who is making $245,000 according to public records, has a listed address in Valley Stream in Nassau County. She’s a native of southeast Queens, the home turf of Speaker Adams, and most recently was employed as general counsel and chief legal officer of the state Insurance Fund.

Adams initiates more affordable "green" housing developments for Southeast Queens

 

QNS

The mayor and New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams — both of whom grew up in the area — celebrated the completion of a $50 million project delivering more than six miles of new sewers and water mains to alleviate flooding of homes and streets in Rochdale under budget. They also kicked off the construction of “Habitat Net Zero,” a project that will turn 13 dilapidated homes previously owned by the NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA) into 16 green homes for affordable homeownership. 

“This community represented the promise of a better life for my family, and I am going to keep that promise for generations of New Yorkers,” Adams said during a press conference outside of a dilapidated house at 126-01 116th Ave. in south Jamaica that will be transformed by Habitat for Humanity. “The government has ignored this community for too long, denying them their fair share of investments and services — that ends in my administration. These projects will make life better for the residents of southeast Queens today and those who will be able to move here in the future, and I’m proud to say that this is just the beginning.”

For far too long, southeast Queens has endured systemic disinvestment and neglect, resulting in widening disparities that persist today, Council Speaker Adams said. 

“With the completion of the $49.3 million water infrastructure project in Rochdale and the start of construction for Habitat Net Zero — a project to deliver new affordable homeownership opportunities — our communities are seeing the investments and improvements that we have always deserved,” the speaker said.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), and New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) completed the $49.3 million project under budget, bringing more than six miles of new sewers and water mains to Rochdale — improving street conditions, alleviating flooding, and upgrading infrastructure, while staying $5.7 million under budget. Work began in March 2018 and took place on 78 individual blocks.

 “Ever since the residential development of southeast Queens more than 50 years ago, neighbors have worried about any threat of rain in the forecast, because there were no catch basins or sewers built to drain the roadways, resulting in chronic flooding and property damage,” said Meera Joshi, deputy mayor for operations. “With a commitment of $2.5 billion for a comprehensive drainage system, we are now correcting that past failure block by block.” 

Affordable huh? We shall see...

Burdensome liens on homeowners and landlords get heavier thanks to empty promises and zero plans from officials

THE CITY 

New York City’s controversial tax lien sales system for collecting unpaid property and water debts expires at the end of next month — without any clear path toward what comes next.

Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams have both come out against the longtime practice of selling off tax liens to investors, which generates tens of millions of dollars each year and steps up pressure on property owners to pay their bills.

The city sold the liens from 2,841 properties in December 2021. It was the first sale since May 2019, after postponing the 2020 sale because of the pandemic.

The mayor campaigned on ending the sales, declaring they threaten “generational wealth in Black and Brown communities.”

But neither Adams nor Adams has unveiled specific plans.

Advocates for small property owners are pushing for significant reforms for how the city collects the unpaid debts, and they’re hopeful new city leaders will come up with a way that doesn’t further burden those already stretched thin financially.

And some grassroots activists want to get rid of the lien sale in favor of a community land trust model, in which nonprofits would take ownership of the property and maintain income-restricted units, in consultation with the indebted previous owners.

“There’s this opportunity to create the replacement system with the Council and with the mayor, and that’s an exciting prospect,” said Hannah Anousheh, a coordinator for the East New York Community Land Trust, which was created at the start of the pandemic.

Through the lien sale, which Mayor Rudy Giuliani created in 1996, the city sells debts of property tax and other municipal charges to a trust of investors at a discount. It was conceived as a way to address property abandonment and to collect unpaid taxes after City Hall had struggled for years with both.

Today, tax lien sales are a revenue-raiser for the city, with private investors responsible for collecting the debt. The liens sold this past December are valued at $145 million, according to the city Department of Finance.

Often, property owners late on their bills must pay more fees and interest on top of what they already owe, sending them further into debt, and sometimes resulting in foreclosures if debts remain outstanding.

The lien sale disproportionately impacts homeowners of color, a report from homeownership advocacy group Coalition for Affordable Homes found, as well as smaller property owners, and can lead to negative effects on tenants, too.

Landlord groups have been pressing for an end to lien sales.

Mayor Swagger hires Vallone, Speaker Adams loads committee chairs with Queens reps

 

City & State

 The Vallone dynasty may not have a place in the City Council anymore, but it does in the Adams administration. Former northeast Queens Council Member Paul Vallone now serves as the deputy commissioner for external affairs in Adams’ Department of Veterans’ Services. 

Queens Post 

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced new council committee appointments Thursday with more than a dozen committees to be chaired by Queens representatives.

All but three Queens council members were named to lead committees, which focus on a vast array of issues such as land use, parks, the environment and transportation. Each committee votes on bills before they head to the full council.

Council Members Vickie Paladino, a Republican, and Francisco Moya were not named to chair a committee. Adams will not be leading a committee as she is the council speaker—as is common practice.

Moya, who unsuccessfully battled Adams in a quest to be speaker, will be chair of a new subcommittee focused on COVID Recovery and Resiliency.

“I am proud to announce our City Council’s Leadership, as well as committee chairs and assignments,” Adams said in a statement. “This is the most diverse City Council in history, and each member’s experiences and expertise will shape the important work of our legislative body,”

The committees that are being led by Queens representatives are as follows:

Civil and Human Rights: Nantasha Williams

Contracts: Julie Won

Environmental Protection: James Gennaro

Fire and Emergency Management: Joann Ariola

Governmental Operations: Sandra Ung

Health: Lynn Schulman

Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction: Linda Lee

Parks and Recreation: Shekar Krishnan

Technology: Jen Guitérrez

Transportation and Infrastructure: Selvena Brooks-Powers

Veterans: Robert Holden

Woman and Gender Equity: Tiffany Cabán

 

REBNY Hearts Adrienne

 

Commercial Observer 

 For most of 2021, the race for the city’s second most powerful position had been a bewildering mess that few in the real estate industry would wade into without risk of angering the eventual winner.

As many as eight council members floated candidacies for speaker. By Monday, Dec. 13, though, most of them had dropped out and thrown their support to Adrienne Adams, a Democratic council member from southeast Queens and a former community board chair in the area who was rarely mentioned as a frontrunner and did not have the initial backing of Eric Adams, then the incoming mayor.

 Adams, 61, quickly emerged as a consensus candidate for most of the 51-member council as well as organized labor — particularly building and municipal workers — and county Democratic Party heads who played a pivotal role determining the outcome of the race. By the end of the week, her lone rival, Queens Councilmember Francisco Moya, conceded and the speakership was hers.

“She’s been more of an on-the-ground type of person and not a type of political politician pol, who tries to do the right thing,” said one Queens political source with familiarity of Adams’ thought process. “She’s a little surprised she made it by the end, thinking, ‘I won, what?’” 

Real estate leaders were relieved with the outcome. The council’s left-wing flank has gained more members in recent years and industry leaders feared a progressive candidate could jam up Mayor Adams’ agenda while risking the city’s recovery. Adrienne Adams was viewed as less ideological and more pragmatic than other candidates. 

“We share her goals of supporting a strong and equitable economic recovery, creating good jobs and increasing the production of much-needed housing, including affordable housing,” Jim Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said in a statement. “We are committed to working closely with her and the council to advance data-driven, results-oriented policies that move the city’s economic recovery forward.”

A native of Hollis, Queens, Adrienne Adams graduated from Spelman College, a private, historically Black, women’s liberal arts college in Atlanta, and began training child care professionals. She also worked as a manager and marketer for several telecommunications companies before becoming a corporate human resources trainer who worked primarily with executives.

Politics would come later. In 2009, Adams started volunteering with Queens Community Board 12, which covers Downtown Jamaica and six other neighborhoods in Southeast Queens. She served as its education chairwoman and represented the board at citywide education events and Department of Education policy meetings. 

Three years later, she was selected as the board’s chairwoman, where she served for five years. During that time she developed a close relationship with Queens Democratic County bosses Joe Crowley and Gregory Meeks, the latter who succeeded Crowley in 2019. The party’s leaders fundraised and backed her in an unsuccessful effort to oust Queens Sen. James Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary. When Queens Democrat Ruben Wills’ Council seat opened up following his 2017 conviction on fraud and larceny charges, Adams secured endorsements from Crowley and Meeks and breezed to victory.

She also developed a reputation as a good listener and fair arbiter on complicated land use disputes. Her support in 2021 for the New York Blood Center’s controversial research tower provided cover for other members to back the plan even though the neighborhood’s councilman opposed it. When her former community board opposed a senior housing project put forward last year, she listened to both sides before arriving at a decision to support the proposal.

“She’s not necessarily looking to win a popularity contest, but serve constituents she was put here to [serve],” Richards said. “At the end of the day, she arrived at a decision to better the lives of her constituents and address community facility space and housing.”

Adams will look to utilize her experience in the corporate world and local government to manage the disparate power centers within City Hall.

 

 

Yo, Adrienne

NY Daily News 

This time, she has receipts.

Queens City Councilwoman Adrienne Adams announced Friday she has secured support from a majority of her colleagues in her bid to become the Council’s next speaker — pushing her over the edge to victory days after she and rival Councilman Francisco Moya claimed they had both won the race.

Marking a major turning point in the race, Adams’ team released statements of support from 32 incoming and current members, making it all but certain that a majority of the 51-seat Council will back her in the internal speaker vote set for Jan. 5.

“I am honored to have earned the support and the trust of my colleagues to be their speaker. Our coalition reflects the best of our city,” said Adams, who’s set to become the first Black woman to ever lead the Council. “We are ready to come together to solve the enormous challenges we face in order to not just recover from COVID but to build a better, fairer city that works for everyone.”

Moya, who also represents a Queens district and has been Mayor-elect Eric Adams’ favored candidate for speaker, bowed out of the race shortly thereafter.

“At this point, it is clear that I do not have a path to victory,” Moya tweeted.

“I am convinced that Adrienne Adams will be the best choice to lead our City Council forward,” he tweeted. “Let me be the first to congratulate my good friend Adrienne Adams.”

Despite the well wishes, Adrienne Adams’ likely win diminishes the mayor-elect’s perceived influence over the Council just as he prepares to take office on Jan. 1.

A Council member, who recently received a call from a top Eric Adams adviser pushing for a Moya speakership, said the effort has also stoked a lot of anger.

“There’s been intense dishonesty coming from the mayor-elect’s people,” said the member. “The mayor-elect keeps saying, ‘I have nothing to do with this,’ but then why are your people telling us how to vote? A lot of people are starting to feel, ‘How can we ever trust this guy?’”

Greg Meeks makes pandering power move to make ally City Council Speaker

 

NY Post 

Queens County Democratic Party boss Rep. Gregory Meeks is joining forces with socialist, anit-Israel-leaning elected officials to block Mayor-elect Eric Adams from installing Francisco Moya as City Council speaker, The Post has learned.

Meeks is in talks with far-left council members including Democratic Socialists of America darling Tiffany Cabán to push the other frontrunner, Adrienne Adams, who like Moya is from Queens, multiple sources said.

The alliance is odd as Meeks, an establishment moderate Queens Democrat, was formerly at war with Cabán and her allies over their radical positions to defund the NYPD and supports the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

“Greg Meeks has made a deal with Tiffany Cabán, Sandy Nurse and the other anti-Israel council members to back Adrienne Adams because that’s the only way they get to 26 votes. They don’t have the votes otherwise,” said one council insider.

Speaker Idiocracy

 

QNS

The official vote for the next City Council speaker won’t happen until January, but that didn’t stop Queens’ Adrienne Adams and Francisco Moya from declaring victory anyway on Tuesday.

Of course, they both can’t be speaker — but the two Queens reps think they’ve drummed up enough pledged support among their colleagues to win the powerful spot when the new City Council assembles next month.

Four of the remaining candidates put their support behind Council Member Adams to lead the City Council beginning in January and produced supportive quotes in an Adams press release early Tuesday afternoon.

“Today is a historic day for New York City. After much discussion and collaboration with my colleagues, I am honored to have received the necessary votes to become the next Speaker of the New York City Council,” Adams said. “The incoming City Council will be beautifully diverse and wonderfully collaborative in so many ways. As Speaker, I look forward to being a partner with every Member to help advance the needs of our communities. As a Member of the Council, I will always prioritize my colleagues, labor, and the people of New York and have an open door to every voice.”

A lifelong resident of Southeast Queens, the 61-year-old Adams was raised in Hollis and was elected to the Council in November 2017, becoming the first woman elected to represent District 28, which covers the neighborhoods of Jamaica, Rochdale Village, Richmond Hill, and South Ozone Park. She was a classmate of Mayor-elect Eric Adams at Bayside High School, but he reportedly has been pushing for Moya as the next Speaker.

That must have come as news to Moya, who also said Tuesday that he believes he’s going to be the next Speaker. 

“I am humbled to announce that our diverse coalition of Council Members and leaders from across New York City has collected a majority of votes to elect the next speaker of the Council,” Moya said in a statement. “I look forward to leading this body into a brighter future for our great city.”

de Blasio's D.O.T. imposing busways in Jamaica that residents do not want

D.O.T Commissioner Gutman: Asshole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queens Chronicle

A “Better Buses” busway pilot will continue on schedule in Downtown Jamaica despite backlash from a previous initiative on Merrick Boulevard that was implemented last year and led to a recent modification of bus enforcement times as a result of a petition and complaints from community leaders and elected officials. 

“I saw [the announcement],” said Candace Prince-Modeste, the Southeast Queens activist who created a Change.org petition for a modified enforcement period of the bus lane on Merrick Boulevard. “It feels like they’ve moved onto the next project without fully bringing the Merrick one to a resolution. And I don’t believe that enough residents are aware of these proposed changes to the Downtown area.”

The city’s Department of Transportation, however, said it launched a community outreach process with a series of open houses and nearly 20 events with community advisory board to gather feedback on its proposal throughout 2020 and 2021, according to the Sept. 15 announcement. 

Prince-Modeste’s “Demand Rush Hour Only Bus Lanes on Merrick” petition, has 875 signatures out of its target goal of 1,000 as of Sept. 16 and brought enough attention to the Springfield Gardens and surrounding Southeast area of the bus lane that elected officials have chosen not to support similar changes in Downtown Jamaica on Jamaica and Archer avenues and the DOT modified its 24/7 bus lane enforcement, which led to excessive ticketing and lack of foot traffic to small businesses in the area. Instead, there will be a 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. enforcement period. 

“Despite vocal opposition from the Southeast Queens community against the Merrick Boulevard bus lane, the DOT implemented it anyway,” said Councilwoman Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) to the Chronicle via email. “The agency has once again ignored the voices of our community, leading to numerous issues and worsening traffic conditions along this busy corridor.”

Adams also feels that the DOT should have addressed problems with poor street lighting, ill-fitted two-way streets in dire need of one-way conversion and washed out or missing street signs throughout City Council District 28 and surrounding districts first. 

“Therefore, I must oppose the new busway pilots on Jamaica Avenue and Archer Avenue,” said Adams. “Until the DOT can truly address our community’s concerns, we stand against this ill-advised pilot program.”

The DOT, however, said that is committed to installing new and improved bus lanes by fall to improve bus speeds for thousands of riders in Southeast Queens. 

“Keeping New Yorkers moving is essential to getting our friends and neighbors back to work as New York City’s recovery continues, and these new busways will speed the commutes of 250,000 daily riders through downtown Jamaica,” said DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman in a prepared statement.

 Queens Chronicle

Drivers who find themselves behind or ahead of the Q4, Q5, Q84, N4 or the N4X buses on Merrick Boulevard between Hillside Avenue and Springfield Boulevard have a 60-day warning period for bus lane violations starting Sept. 21.

The specified bus lanes are a part of Mayor de Blasio’s Better Buses initiative to improve bus speeds by expanding automated camera enforcement, according to the city Department of Transportation.

Initially, the DOT intended on having 24/7 enforcement, but after pushback from the Community Advisory Board and members who live along the Southeast Queens area, the hours were adjusted to 6 a.m. to 7 p.m Monday to Friday, according to the agency. With the activation of bus lane cameras, the mayor’s 30th Better Buses corridor will have signage indicating that the bus lanes are camera-enforced to inform drivers about the program. Since violations will be issued against the vehicle, not the driver, points are not added to motorists’ licenses.

However, a single violation will cost drivers $50 and fines will increase for bus lane violations incurred in a single year to upwards of $250 after a fifth offense, according to the agency. The DOT will work with the NYPD to enforce bus lanes citywide and will add additional camera-enforced routes over time.

”Community residents and I remain up in arms about DOT’s woefully inadequate efforts and blatant disregard for course correction,” said state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans). “DOT’s wrongheaded policy has made it nigh impossible for a full flow of traffic along Merrick Boulevard particularly between Baisley Boulevard and Liberty Avenue where there are illegally long-term parked vehicles stored by auto body and repair shops.”

Comrie said that he understands that the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists are paramount, but he finds the measure to be unnecessarily punitive and that it fails to reimagine public transit granularly.

“Commuters, drivers and anyone trying to travel along the corridor are frustrated at the now lengthy time that it takes to get from one point to the next because of this unwanted restriction,” said Comrie. “Despite the adjustments made after the recently conducted review of the 24/7 Merrick Boulevard bus lane, DOT has still not made a reasonable move to peak hour traffic enforcement as suggested by many local advocates. It is truly unfair to residential drivers to have to suffer through overreaching enforcement when the bad actors are not being regulated consistently.”

Stop, Warn and Leave.

 

QNS

Joined by NYPD officers from the 103rd Precinct, elected officials and members of the Jamaica business community, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced the creation of the “Jamaica Merchants Trespass Notice” — a new initiative that would issue a trespass notice to individuals who engage in disorderly or illegal activities in or outside shops and stores in Jamaica.

The program was created in partnership with the DA’s office, the NYPD and the business community because local businesses regularly grapple with individuals who use their stores and restaurants for illegal drug activities and other troublesome conduct, putting business owners, employees and customers in harm’s way, Katz explained.

Katz said that the program’s primary goal was to deter further disruptive behavior and that it provided an alternative to putting more people through the criminal system.

Instead, when encountering individuals engaging in illegal or rowdy acts on their property, merchants can notify the 103rd Precinct. Its responding officers will serve the offenders with a copy of the trespass notice, informing them that a repeat offense can or will result in their arrest.

“What this really does, it’s a clear communication between the store and the person who is disrupting that store’s business,” Katz said. “And just so everybody is very clear about this, this distinguishes between unwanted and disruptive behavior and criminal acts such as stealing or assault. First, there is a warning. The warning is clear — coming back is not an option.”

The program also includes training police officers on what to do when faced with disruptive behavior in a store or restaurant, teaching officers to issue a trespass warning first, putting the violator on notice.

 

 

Little Guyana gets a destination street sign

 

Nice maskless cluster going on there de Blasio, considering that other communities couldn't have memorial day parades because of continuing pandemic guidelines. Talk about not being seen. 

 

 

 Update: Looks like PIX is also engaging in shadowbanning me. They took down the original upload and put up a new one and wiped out all my comments.

How to Talk Out Both Sides of Your Mouth, by Adrienne Adams

If you made it to the end of the video posted yesterday, you witnessed Adrienne Adams do a song and dance over how great Planning Together is and how much more input community boards will supposedly get in the land use process should the bill be passed into law. The video above is bookmarked to where she adamantly asserts this. Then at the end of the hearing, after community board representatives and constituents trashed the bill, her demeanor did a 180.

"Somebody said you didn't hear from your elected officials. We wanted the narrative to go around. So that was very intentional."
That is simply the biggest bunch of malarkey EVER. Elected officials don't withhold information from their constituents in order to further the conversation, they do it to squelch opposition. You were given marching orders to keep mum.

"We wanted to make sure that this legislation was scrutinized from A to Z."
You wanted to slip this bill past the goalie so you didn't bother to notify the public or community boards that it was taking place and they had to find out from a leaked email to council members.

"If we don't have the voice of the people behind this as you all noticed, if you look at who is sponsoring this legislation and I believe it's only one person from Queens on this bill, there's a reason for that as well."
Well, finally a bit of truth!

Adrienne Adams wants to be the next Speaker of the City Council, so she is trying to be a good foot soldier for county and for REBNY. But her constituents are not stupid, so she has to try to play both sides. And guess what? With Ruben Wills back in the picture, she now has to raise money for re-election, nevermind worry about the speaker's race. Calling Marisa Lago "duplicitous" while talking out both sides of your mouth? Hey pot, the kettle's calling.

CoJo in a tizzy over perceived bill "misinterpretation"

By this point during the Planning Together hearing, Corey Johnson had grown very frustrated at how cool, calm and collected Marisa Lago was under fire. You can tell because he jumps in the middle of her answering Adrienne Adams' question and goes on a diatribe. Not once, but twice!

If this bill was so great, it wouldn't be misinterpreted.

It's a bit paternalistic for carpetbagging white men like Corey (Massachusetts) and Brad Lander (Missouri) to be informing everyone else that they know exactly what's in their best interest and it involves a bill they simply must pass in their waning days in the Council while they are campaigning for higher office.

Check out Adams' attitude toward the end as well. Tomorrow, we'll delve further into her unenviable predicament. It involves a tweeding dilemma.

South Ozone Park sewage claims clinic hearing tommorow