PlaNYC 2.0

Streetsblog has posted a reaction to the plan.  I haven't had a chance to read it all yet.

This document is really a catchall roundup of the various programs the City is implementing and/or plans to implement.  I would really like to see the elimination of minimum parking requirements in the zoning code and better pricing of the City's on-street parking resources.

The Tea Party, In A Nutshell

This is absolutely brilliant.



Please remember to vote on November 2 - this year I'll be voting for Democratic candidates on Row E (Working Families) to send a message to my (Democratic) Party: your base is the working class people that form the backbone of this society.  Ignore our needs at your peril.

YES! Espada Slush Operation Raided By FBI, IRS

Fare Hike Four member and Senate turncoat cum Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada may finally face justice. In a state with no shortage of seedy political actors, Pedro Espada may be the sleaziest of them all. He is an out and out scumbag, thief, liar, and worse.

Espada conspired with Hiram Monserrate to swing control of the Senate to the Republicans, and ultimately extorted his current leadership position. He conspired with Monserrate, Carl Kruger, Ruben Diaz (each of whom have primary challengers I'm supporting this year) and Senate Republicans to block sustainable transit funding last year. He is directly responsible for the upcoming bus service cuts in Brooklyn.

Espada claims to represent a Bronx district, but in reality lives in a fancy house in Westchester. Perhaps that's why he has shown little sympathy for the needs of working New Yorkers: he lives in the suburbs! And for many years Espada has been operating a crony and family controlled slush fund in the form of Soundview Healthcare Network, which he has bled millions in public funding.

I am excited beyond words that Espada, a public menace, might finally be brought to justice. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's actions yesterday and the raids by federal agents this morning give me a renewed sense of hope.

FBI, IRS raid state Sen. Pedro Espada's Bronx clinic
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/fbi_irs_raid_ny_state_senators.html

The Sarah Palin Network

Very funny.

Jon Stewart Does Glenn Beck - Hilarity Ensues

Mother of god, this deserves an Emmy. H/T Atrios and a billion other internets.

First Campaign Mailer

Sent to targeted Democratic voters last week:


Gary Reilly Has What it Takes to Get Things Done for Our Community -

Ravitch Named Lt. Governor

What in the name of all that's holy . . . finally some good news out of Albany!!

Governor Paterson has named Richard Ravitch, of late renown as the head of the Ravitch Commission (whose suggestions were largely stymied by the Fare Hike Four, resulting in last month's fare hike and continuing the MTA crisis at a lower boil)

If Paterson can break the logjam in the Senate with this appointment (and a terrific choice, by the way) he deserves some praise. Gatemouth likes this appointment as much as I do . . . while paying a - I'm not sure backhanded compliment is the right term, but I'm not coming up with a better descriptor - to Governor Paterson for the effort.

Now if Ravitch can get a second bite at the apple with the MTA funding situation (bridge tolls et al) we might have some hope yet.

Overflow Magazine - Primary Education

Overflow Magazine interviewed the 5 candidates for City Council District 39 including yours truly. It's a fun read and includes pictures of all the candidates in our native habitats.

Flash, so I can't cut and paste . . . but copies are available for free at participating local establishments. Lots of other good stuff in there too.

Bloomberg Campaign Ties To Jailhouse Bar Mitzvah Rabbi?

New York politics can be fascinating stuff.

The rabbi[Leib Glanz] at the center of an investigation into a bar mitzvah that was held at a New York City jail last year had three scheduled meetings in the last four months of 2008 with Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey, the man in charge of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s political operation, records show.

The sordid details of the jail as Orthodox party hall made for some great tabloid fodder.

But to truly appreciate the story you must read this Gatemouth piece on Rabbi Glanz over at Room 8.

Whither the State Senate?

Things just get curiouser and curiouser.

“We have access, we have keys, and we’re going to open the door to do our business,” Mr. Espada said early Wednesday.

But that never happened. Mr. Monserrate’s talks with lawmakers on both sides of the leadership fight held up a planned 3 p.m. session, and he ultimately asked Mr. Espada and Republicans to delay the reopening of the Senate for a day while he continued to talk to Democrats; he said he wanted “to continue the discussions” with other Democrats “that I believe will build our coalition.”
. . . .
Mr. Espada’s former Democratic colleagues spent much of the day mulling over their leadership. Democrats met privately Wednesday morning for about 40 minutes in their conference room on the third floor of the Capitol. When they emerged, few were willing to express any confidence that Mr. Smith would be able to hang onto his job.

Senator Jeffrey D. Klein of the Bronx, the Democrats’ deputy leader and a sometime rival of Mr. Smith’s, said, “I can’t speculate on that,” adding, “We live day to day.”

Pedro Espada is done for politically.

So is Malcolm Smith.

This little coup may yet turn out to be the best thing that ever happened in the NY Senate.

Defector Espada Failed To get $2MM In Earmarks For Related Entities

Via the NYT CityRoom blog.

State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. requested more than $2 million dollars in Senate earmarks this year for two groups with links to the health care organization that he founded and which appeared to have been created in part to receive such grants, according to several Democratic officials and aides with knowledge of the requests.
. . . .
When Senate officials expressed reservations about the grants to Mr. Espada’s staff, aides to the senator asked to resubmit the grants with a new address for both organizations: 742 East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. Several weeks later, as Senate officials continued to balk, Mr. Espada finally asked that all the money be earmarked for the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, an existing and well-established organization.

The GOP can have these two sleazy pols. It is clearly where they belong.

UPDATE: Speaking of where they belong, I almost forgot that Pedro Espada doesn't even live in his district in the Bronx . . . he lives in Westchester! Espada is a fraud and a crook.

Two Members Of "Fare Hike Four" Reveal True Colors

Indicted domestic abuse suspect Hiram Monserrate (Queens) and campaign finance train wreck Pedro Espada (Bronx), two grasping, power-hungry nominal Democrats just went full-dirtbag and joined the Senate Republicans in an attempted coup.

It remains to be see how this mess will sort out, but one thing is certain: progressive Democrats need to unite to ensure these two treacherous, self-serving walking scandals never see another term in elected office.

Rallying Cry For Transit Advocates

What Ben said.

When the MTA had to turn, cap in hand, to Albany this year, politicians trotted out the old tired tropes in an effort to portray the MTA as a less than scrupulous organization. Some claimed the MTA keeps two sets of books, a charge found to be untrue in a court of law. Others called the agency heads “untrustworthy and corrupt,” as Sander puts it an Op-Ed in The Times today. In the end, the MTA, a transit agency entrusted with making the trains on time, were no match for a bunch of politicians whose specialties all seem to be making themselves look good even when approving poorly-constructed funding fixes.

The politicians are the problem - not the MTA. The MTA has been used as a scapegoat for politicians in Albany, aided and abetted by years of journalistic malpractice. We need to elect people to office that understand the importance of transit, and that the root of our current problems lies not at the MTA, but in Albany. That's one reason I am running for office myself.

Fare Hikes & Service Cuts

Lest anyone think the MTA funding crisis is over, it is not. Many of our elected officials are patting each other on the back for averting a full scale meltdown, but the can has just been kicked down the road. And while the fare hike is not as dramatic as feared, fares are going up more than 10% next month, with projected increases every year.

We're keeping our buses - for now. But we still do not have a funded 5 year capital plan. And now we learn that many station agents, who provide a human presence in the system, will be cut. Comptroller Thompson's office has a handy tool you can use to see how your local station will be affected.

As an example, the Carroll Street station is set to lose 1 part time station agent from the cuts. No station agent means no one to release the gate when you need to get a package or stroller through. No one to answer questions about service outages or directions. No one with a line to call for aid or report suspicious/criminal activity. I'm a believer in adding cameras to the subways for security, and in adding computer based train controls to improve efficiency. But station agents provide a valuable human element to the system that is hard to quantify, but improves the safety, accessibility and convenience of the subway system. These cuts are penny wise and pound foolish, but they are being forced by the same Assembly and Senate members who failed to pass a real transit funding bill this year.

It has become fashionable to blame the MTA for all manner of shortcomings - but the fault lies in Albany. Only your elected officials can fix the problems our system faces. Demand it!

Cuts on the F line:

Proposed Changes to Service on the F
Station Changes on the F
STATION CHANGE
2nd Ave / Lower East Side One full-time agent eliminated
W 4th St (B,D,F,V) One full-time agent eliminated
23rd St (F,V) One full-time station booth eliminated
East Broadway (F) One part-time agent eliminated
169th St (F) One part-time agent eliminated
Carroll St (F,G) One part-time agent eliminated
Jay St / Borough Hall (A,C,F) One part-time agent eliminated
Bergen St (F,G) One part-time agent eliminated
Essex St / Delancey St (F,J,M,Z) One part-time agent eliminated
179th St / Jamaica (F) One part-time agent eliminated
Coney Island / Stillwell Ave (D,F,N,Q) One part-time agent eliminated
34th St / Herald Sq (B,D,F,N,Q,R,V,W) Three part-time agents eliminated
47th-50th Sts / Rockefeller Center (B,D,F,V) Two part-time agents eliminated
Jackson Hts-Roosevelt Ave (E,F,G,R,V) Two part-time agents eliminated
42nd St / Bryant Park (B,D,F,V) Two part-time agents eliminated

City Council Candidate Debate Tonight

IND and CBID are co-hosting a panel of candidates for the 39th Council District tonight at Church of Gethsemane in Park Slope.

This blogger, also known as Gary Reilly, will be among the candidates. Come check it out!

May 19, 2009 - 7 pm
Church of Gethsemane
1012 8th Ave (at 10th St)
Park Slope

F Train to 7th Ave. Front of Coney Island bound train exits to 8th Avenue, rear of Manhattan bound train exits to 8th Ave.

Gowanus Grind Saturday 12:00 - 4:00pm

It should be a beautiful day . . . sounds like a nice way to unwind after the CORD/SoBNA "Dazzle Me" Forum at the Brooklyn Library branch at Union and Clinton Streets. All of the Democratic candidates for the 39th Council District (including yours truly) plus the Green candidate will be there. The Forum starts at 10:30.

The Gowanus Grind, a completely separate event, is sponsored by Friends of Douglass Greene Park.

MTA Fare Hike, Service Cut Rollout Schedule

Second Avenue Sagas has the breakdown.

For anxious Carroll Gardens residents: Fare hike happens May 31st; the B75 sleeps with the fishes June 28 . . . . if the Senate Republicans and the Fare Hike Four (or six, or whatever it is today) don't knuckle down, face reality, and enact the Ravitch Commission Plan or similar.

I've said in other places, the Ravitch Plan could be tweaked slightly by applying the payroll tax to employees, rather than employers. Every economist will tell you, the employees will bear the cost either way . . . this does, however, eliminate the "anti-business!!1!" disingenuous rhetoric from opponents of the plan.

I understand many drivers do not want to pay tolls on the bridges. But the reality is we need the revenue from those tolls. And tolling the bridges will reduce traffic through our residential neighborhoods, giving us safer streets, by eliminating the perverse incentives for commuters to avoid tolled crossings like the Batrtery Tunnel in favor of "free" routes like the Brooklyn Bridge.

Breakfast-of-Candidates (39th Edition): Gary Reilly

Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn is running a series of profiles of candidates for local office, including yours truly. We had a good long chat about my background, the issues facing the district, and how I came to be a candidate for City Council. An excerpt:

Thousands of F-train commuters signed Gary's petition. Later he testified before the MTA Board and at City Council and State Assembly hearings on transportation issues.

As an advocate for public transportation, Gary found his issue and his voice. This powerful experience also cemented his belief that public transportation is an equalizer and an important engine of democracy. "It creates mobility which equals opportunity," Gary told me. It also ties in with environmental sustainability, another issue close to Gary's heart.

"Transportation policy dovetails with development policy, land use, how we view our streets, how we share our space and making the city safe for pedestrians and cyclists," he said. The F-Train petition experience also convinced Gary that he would one day run for office. But he didn't think it would happen quite so soon. It was when he realized that Bill deBlasio was at term limit that he decided to jump in. But not before asking his wife how she felt about it. "Let's do it," she said. And that was that.

I highly recommend reading the entire series as they are posted. I've also read her profile of Bob Zuckerman, and it is a refreshing to get a look at the candidates in their own words. I know I am eagerly awaiting the next installment.

CBID's 40th Anniversary Dinner

Mia and I went to the dinner last night, which was well attended by politicians and candidates. The Daily Gotham's mole333 has a rundown of the evening's events . . . why reinvent the wheel? Click through for a lengthy description of the awards.

MTA Telethon: The Ghost of Transit Future?

Transportation Alternatives takes a look at what the future might hold if the Senate continues to fail spectacularly to address the MTA finance crisis. It ain't pretty!