Community board says take the city out of the county

 
Queens Post

A Community Board 2 taskforce created to evaluate the proposed changes to the boundaries of Council District 26 has rejected the NYC Districting Commission’s preliminary draft plan.

The commission released preliminary maps in July for all 51 council districts—although the revised Council District 26 map stood out since the district’s boundaries would be subject to major change. The map would see the Woodside portion of the existing district split among four council districts; Ravenswood and Queensbridge would be gone; and Roosevelt Island and a portion of the Upper East Side would be added.

The proposed district would be comprised of approximately 173,000 people, with 36,000 people from Manhattan and 12,000 from Roosevelt Island.

 CB2 is deeply concerned about the impacts to our community that the draft redistricting scheme may produce,” according to a statement released by CB2’s taskforce. “It is critical that our voices are heard loud and clear to ensure proper representation, prevent disenfranchisement, and to ensure marginalized communities are not divide and diluted.”

The taskforce, which was created by CB2 chair Morry Galonoy, argues that the revised district would have an adverse impact on residents who live within Community Board 2 and all residents who reside in Council District 26 today.

It also says the proposed map does not comport with the city charter since the commission is required to keep neighborhoods intact, limit crossover districts (as in across boroughs) and avoid oddly shaped districts.

The taskforce says that the change would see less representation, attention, resources and discretionary funding awarded to residents of community board 2.

The taskforce also said that the proposed Council District 26 would paint an entirely different picture of the residents who currently live in the district—as well as the services offered. The taskforce highlighted the following:

–The average income within the district would go from $80,000 to $110,000—overstating what current residents earn.

—The racial and cultural demographics would see the white non-Hispanic population grow to 44 percent of the population, up from 29 percent—reducing the influence and representation of communities of color who live in the district.

—The proposed district would include major hospitals on the east side of Manhattan, but community board 2 residents would still have no hospital or place to give birth within its boundaries.

—The revised district has more schools within it, which would make it tougher for schools to get funding or to build additional schools in community board 2.

The taskforce also concludes that it would be much tougher for the councilmember to provide services in the revised district.

New York State and New York City pandemic recovery teams consists of two Big Clubs of Cuomo's and de Blasio's donors

NY Daily News

Gov. Cuomo appointed dozens of generous donors to a board helping advise the state on re-opening and lifting New York coronavirus restrictions, The Daily News found.

Thirty-seven Cuomo donors who’ve collectively given him nearly $1 million were put on the “New York Forward Re-Opening Advisory Board” created last month, according to a News analysis of campaign filings.

Nineteen advisory board members have donated at least $10,000 to Cuomo campaigns and all but two have given $1,000 or more.

The Cuomo donors account for 28% of all advisory board’s 134 members – and 21 have shelled out $427,550 for the governor since January 2017 alone.

Cuomo said in April the board will “help guide” the state’s phased re-opening “and ensure businesses are following the necessary guidelines to preserve public health as we work towards a new normal."

The advisory board includes leaders of unions, trade associations, businesses, education institutions, nonprofits and sports teams, as well as big names in real estate, health care, finance and commerce.

Advisory board members are unpaid but their advice will help Cuomo and the state develop coronavirus policies that could ultimately benefit their industries or the businesses and organizations where they work.

“It is deeply disturbing that Governor Cuomo is exploiting the pandemic to promote his billionaire campaign donors to lead the recovery while ignoring the needs of parents, children and educators," said Jasmine Gripper, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education. "We need a Governor who will demand New York’s billionaires pay their share so our state can recover from COVID-19 — instead of cutting schools and furthering pay-to-play politics.”

NY Daily News

Some things never change — even during a pandemic.

Mayor de Blasio appointed at least 80 donors to advisory groups that were formed to help shape New York City’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Daily News found.

The coronavirus advisers have collectively given Hizzoner at least $176,282 — including $44,320 last year, according to a News analysis of campaign filings. That’s not counting thousands that their relatives gave to de Blasio or any taxpayer funding that the mayor got when certain donations were matched with public financing in city races.

The donors account for nearly a quarter of some 330 people de Blasio appointed to 10 COVID-19 advisory councils and a “fair recovery task force" this month.

While the advisers are unpaid, their guidance will help the city develop coronavirus policies that could benefit the businesses and organizations where they work.

De Blasio has faced multiple investigations into his fund-raising practices, including whether his administration was favorable to donors and others with business before the city. Prosecutors eventually decided against charging de Blasio or his aides — but they still said he intervened on behalf of donors seeking favors from City Hall.

The mayor’s office said advisers have “no decision-making power,” but de Blasio himself has stressed the importance of seeking outside input to bolster the city’s response to coronavirus and other issues.

The councils include industry leaders, head honchos and prominent figures in all aspects of city life: transportation; large business; small business; construction and real estate; education; faith; labor; nonprofit and social services; health, and arts, culture and tourism. While the 10 sector advisory councils will help shepherd the city’s efforts to reopen the economy and lift coronavirus restrictions, the “fair recovery task force” is focused on a broader postpandemic recovery.

“We know that we as a city government, we can take all the best information and come up with the right game plan, but we need to always run it by the people who actually do the work,” de Blasio said last week.

Mayor de Blasio concocts a COVID-19 task force for his wife to run

NY Post

Mayor de Blasio isn’t letting the controversy surrounding his wife’s embattled billion-dollar mental-health initiative stop him from appointing her to head a new coronavirus recovery task force.

Citing her work with the ThriveNYC initiative, de Blasio revealed on Sunday that First Lady Chirlane McCray, a rumored contender for Brooklyn borough president, would co-chair a Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity as the city plans its eventual reopening.

“The economic and racial disparities that have been made so clear by this crisis, we knew about them before,” said de Blasio, who was elected six years ago on a pledge to make the city more equitable and eliminate its “tale of two cities.” “A powerful, painful exclamation point has been put on them by this crisis.”

New York’s poorest ZIP codes have been hardest hit by pandemic, city data show, and minorities — many among the city’s essential workers — have died at disproportionately high rates.

De Blasio said he formed the task force to ensure New York’s underdogs aren’t left behind in the recovery.

But city lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were scratching their heads over the appointment of 
 McCray in light of her signature Thrive program, criticized as a billion-dollar money pit with a dubious record of results.

I don't know if there is precedence, but this is the most brazen, craven and sleaziest integration of nepotism and campaigning that I've ever seen. And in plain sight during a pandemic and a crisis caused by the decisions of de Blasio that afflicted the communities the most that he now assigned his wife to help. This is graft at it's most honest.


I apologize to my loyal and occasional readers to this blog for posting such a big picture of the co-mayor of New York City, but it was important to definitively illustrate what a facial expression of hubris and entitlement looks like.

Katz & Moya to hold secret meeting on Willets Point

From Willets Point United:

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Councilmember Francisco Moya are the co-chairs of the “Willets Point Task Force,” a cherry-picked group that is supposed to recommend potential uses for Willets Point land. The Task Force will hold its third closed-door meeting this Wednesday, August 22.

Katz and Moya are denying Willets Point United and all current Willets Point property or business owners the opportunity to attend any meeting of the Task Force – despite Queens Community Board 7’s recommendation that Katz and Moya consider allowing a Willets Point representative to attend. Even worse, Councilmember Moya’s office directly lied to us by telephone last Thursday, stating that no August meeting of the Task Force has been scheduled – when Queens Community Board 7 knew that the meeting is set for August 22.

Katz and Moya are shutting out not only Willets Point United, but also the press. We are aware that Borough Hall has rejected several reporters’ requests to observe Task Force meetings, and has been unwilling to provide even basic information regarding what land use options the Task Force is considering, or how it operates.

Per information furnished to Queens Community Board 7, the scheduled topic of the August 22 Task Force meeting is to “develop preliminary recommendations,” prior to the final September meeting which will “review final recommendations” to be sent to Mayor de Blasio.

In our view, Katz, Moya and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) are leading the Task Force to an outcome predetermined by them – and they are using public-sector Task Force members solely to create an illusion of community buy-in, not to solicit or seriously consider any creative Willets Point development ideas they may have. Given that Willets Point United has a wealth of knowledge about all that has happened with the proposed Willets Point development during the past ten years (and beyond), had we been allowed to participate on the Task Force we would have encouraged thorough consideration of all relevant issues and potential recommendations – not just the ones prioritized by Katz, Moya and NYCEDC. We believe it is for that reason, that Katz and Moya are deliberately excluding us (and in the case of Moya’s office, even lying to us).

While Katz and Moya are shutting us out of their meetings, they cannot stop us from informing Task Force members, via this writing, of issues we consider important, and recommendations we believe the Task Force should make to Mayor de Blasio regarding Willets Point. We hope that the more open-minded members of the Task Force (if any) will raise these issues during the Wednesday meeting as “preliminary recommendations” are formulated.

(Article continues at link above.)

NY's financial health in jeopardy

From the NY Times:

New York State faces long-term budget problems that are compounded by the teetering finances of its local governments, an aging infrastructure and the possibility of severe cuts in federal funding, a panel of fiscal experts said Tuesday.

The State Budget Crisis Task Force, a nonpartisan group, said that New York’s problems had been “papered over with gimmicks” for decades, and that while Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had taken some steps to rein in spending, the state was still saddled with burdens that would leave it unable to make ends meet in the long run. Over the past decade, the report said, New York had postponed a reckoning by using one-time measures to produce $25 billion in revenue.

Former Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch, a co-chairman of the group, said the math spoke for itself. “There are expenditures that are growing at a rate faster than revenues,” Mr. Ravitch said. “As long as that happens, then we are on an unsustainable course.”

A report released on Tuesday by the panel, which was also led by Paul A. Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, offered a sobering assessment of the state’s finances, raising concerns about its outsize spending on health care and education, its vulnerability to the ups and downs of Wall Street, and the struggles of its local governments to pay retirement obligations.

As one major area of concern, the report highlighted the state’s enormous Medicaid budget, which is larger than those of Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas combined. The report said that while the Cuomo administration had put in place a cap on annual increases in health care spending, it was not certain the measure would drive down costs over the long run.

Looking at electric bikes

From NY1:

It's not clear if they're even legal, but a Brooklyn city councilman said Tuesday that electric bicycles are becoming a hazard in the city.

Councilman Brad Lander wants the city to take a close look at the bikes, which look and sound like regular cycles but have an electric motor.

Lander says it's not clear whether they should be classified as bicycles, scooters, mopeds, or motorcycles, or whether city, state, or federal laws apply to them.