Leadfoot comptroller breaks promise to slow down

 NY Post

He coulda, woulda, shoulda — but didn’t.

City Comptroller Brad Lander, who championed a law to crack down on reckless driving and once admitted “I should slow down,” was caught speeding in a school zone again.

Lander was hit with a $50 summons from a speed camera on Shore Parkway last May after he promised to improve his dismal driving record — which included eight prior tickets for speeding in school zones, city records reviewed by The Post reveal.

The former Brooklyn councilman also racked up five parking tickets since taking office as comptroller in 2022, according to records.

During his campaign for the seat in 2021, The Post revealed that Lander was hit with eight school-zone speeding tickets since 2016, even though he had publicly promoted speed cameras outside city schools and pushed legislation to crack down on unsafe driving.

Critics accused Lander of being a hypocrite and he admitted then, “I should slow down.”

He also added to his collection four tickets for parking in “No Parking Zones” during street cleaning since taking office — along 13th Street in Park Slope near his home on Oct. 29 and Oc. 31 in 2022, and July 17 and Oct. 2 of last year, records show.

The fine for the second parking violation in 2022 was for $75 and the three others were $65.

The comptroller also got socked with a $35 fine for failing to display a metered receipt while parking on Sept. 25 of last year, also on 13th Street.

Politicos who know the self-described progressive Lander said they weren’t surprised.

“It’s ‘Do as I Say,’ not ‘Do as I Do,'” said state Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, who lives in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. “And he’s one of the top three elected citywide officials.

 

Cuomo the fisherman allows dumping in Jamaica Bay

Yes, folks instedda workin, Gov Cuomo decided to veto legislation that would have protected Jamaica Bay from dumping because...drumroll...he wants DEC to be able to dump in it.

Last year, State Senator Joe Addabbo and Assembly Member Stacy Pheffer-Amato passed legislation to extend sunsetting environmental protections in place for the Bay:

In his veto statement, Cuomo said the legislation would change the criteria for fill Jamaica Bay borrow pits to comply with the federal criteria for the unrestricted ocean dumping of dredged material, which is not applicable to Jamaica Bay.

Under this bill, the Department of Conservation would be required to utilize more restrictive, and costly federal ocean dumping criteria to test the materials instead of DEC’s existing standard, and further, the legislation would make this enhanced standard permanent, Cuomo continued.

“The increased costs and time associated with the bill’s required fill standards will impact the availability of applicants with high-quality material for use as fill, which is critical for the restoration of these pits. This bill would make the procurement of this material, and in turn, the achievement of revitalization goals for Jamaica Bay extremely challenging, if not halt restoration altogether.”

Translation: We have to further contaminate the Bay in order to save it.

The bill was reintroduced and passed again, but the outcome was the same.

GOVERNOR CUOMO VETOES JAMAICA BAY PROTECTION BILL ! Looks like Governor Cuomo has vetoed the Jamaica Bay Protection...

Posted by Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers on Friday, November 27, 2020

This session, if the bill is passed again, it will likely survive Andrew "follow the science" Cuomo as there is now a veto-proof majority in the Senate.

Murray Hill building doesn't curb it's own junks.

Hello,
 
This is a property I pass by everyday that is adjacent to the LIRR Murray Hill station. This pictures depicts a thousand words, as they have this poor written sign yet their entire yard is dumped by the tenant.
 
Hopefully this can be published on your blog.

Mayor de Blasio, the man who gave us Vision Zero, was a passenger in a car crash that was caused by his NYPD security team and covered up by their commanding officer

 NY Daily News

On a Saturday morning in August 2015, Mayor de Blasio was in the back seat of a black NYPD Chevy Tahoe bound for an event in Harlem when a driver changing lanes slammed into his ride.

No one was hurt, but the commanding officer of the mayor’s executive protection unit, Howard Redmond, was furious. Text messages obtained by the Daily News show he immediately ordered the incident be covered up to protect de Blasio’s image.

“As per CO [the commanding officer] no one is to know about this,” Sgt. Jerry Ioveno texted members of the unit, referring to Redmond. “Not even the other teams.”

“No one is to know,” he repeated.

Text messages obtained by The News reveal that Redmond frantically covered up the Aug. 22, 2015, car crash due to concerns about “optics.” The previously unreported crash offers insight into the powerful commanding officer’s critical role covering up embarrassing episodes involving the mayor. It also hints at why Redmond remains in his post despite turmoil in the unit. The News has previously reported on allegations that Redmond covered up the case of an executive protection unit lieutenant accused of roughing up a sergeant at Gracie Mansion.

No report on the crash is publicly available in state Department of Motor Vehicles records. Redmond allegedly ordered that the cop behind the wheel, Detective Edgar Robles, be officially listed as the driver of a backup SUV, text messages show. That way, the unit could more plausibly claim the mayor wasn’t in the vehicle involved in the collision, a source close to the executive protection unit said.

The crash was covered up in part because of de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative, which seeks to reduce pedestrian and traffic deaths through stricter enforcement, according to multiple sources close to the executive protection unit. The Vision Zero site proclaims: “The City of New York must no longer regard traffic crashes as mere ‘accidents,’ but rather as preventable incidents that can be systematically addressed.”

State law requires all occupants of vehicles involved in accidents to stay at the scene. But a retired member of the executive protection unit said it wasn’t unusual for a VIP under the unit’s protection to be taken away as long as there was no serious injury.

The mayor's atypical buck-passing response?

“Everything about how an accident is handled is the responsibility of the NYPD. I don’t know enough about their protocols. That’s something to ask them,” de Blasio said.

The aloof mayor was also uninterested in the apparent cover-up of the collision. Texts showed EPU members telling each other “no one is to know.”

“I don’t accept the notion that anything was done one way or another because I’m not familiar with what was done," de Blasio said, apparently ignorant of The News’s front page story and coverage it received from other news outlets.

 

Defiant hypocrite de Blasio jacks up the rents on his Park Slope homes

Politico



Despite calling for rent freezes for the city's roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, Mayor Bill de Blasio continued to raise rents on several properties he owns in Park Slope, new figures obtained by POLITICO show.
 
The mayor and his wife have increased the monthly rent on one of the units in a two-family house they own to $2,850 last year, from $2,400 in 2009. The increases came in $50 and $75 increments annually, according to a City Hall source who would speak only on background. They raised the other unit's rent by $25 to $1,825 in June of 2015.

They charge $4,500 for their primary residence, which they left in 2014 to move into Gracie Mansion. The two row houses, worth a combined $3.7 million according to city assessments, are on 11th Street in Park Slope.
 
The City Hall source would not explain why the mayor raised his own rents while pushing for a rent freeze from the city's Rent Guidelines Board, which has ruled for two years against increases on one-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments. Several years ago, a previous City Hall spokeswoman said the mayor charged his tenants more when he made home improvements.
 
The mayor's properties are not part of the state's rent-stabilization program, so he is not subject to the board's decisions and is free to charge whatever he wants.
 
That de Blasio as a private landlord has increased his rents by modest percentages is unremarkable, were it not for his influence over the board. He appoints the board's nine members and has publicly urged a rent freeze since taking office. He also has taken credit for the 2015 and 2016 rent freezes — running city-funded ads, holding rallies and reminding voters about them as he runs for re-election this year.

Congestion pricing to fund the MTA is a go.

NY Daily News

Public frenemies Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, after working out a quiet weekend deal, unveiled a congestion pricing plan Tuesday for a massive swath of Manhattan — leaving motorists poised to pay for much-needed mass transit upgrades.

Their proposal, part of a sweeping 10-part overhaul of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, would install electronic tolling devices on streets south of 61st St. in Manhattan to collect the billions of dollars necessary for enhancing the city subway and bus systems.

Money generated by the new tolls would go into a “lockbox” dedicated to cover the MTA’s capital costs, with the “priority given to the subway system,” the politicians proposed. The plan would also hold the line on fares, with a target of increases of just 2% annually to cover the costs of inflation.

While specifics were somewhat scarce, the governor said he hoped the plan would be in place by the end of 2020. An estimated 731,000 cars travel daily into the designated Central Business District, and could pay upward of $10 per day to bring their vehicles into the toll zone based on previously suggested plans.

Cuomo and de Blasio were initially at odds over the proposal, with the mayor touting a millionaire’s tax on the state’s richest earners rather than the congestion pricing already used in cities like London and Singapore. But the pair worked through their differences to find common ground on the southern part of Manhattan island.

“This is a different plan,” said Cuomo during a radio appearance on WNYC. “I think the mayor had a number of issues that he felt strongly about. This plan addresses them … This is a proposal the mayor and I agree on. I am sure there will be a lot of debate.”

Four previously suggested congestion pricing plans suggested a variety of fees, with a cost of $11.52 a day proposed for cars in two of them. The cost for a truck was set at $25.34 a day under one of the proposals.

Even Manhattan residents would likely get hit with the fee if they crossed 61st St. either leaving or entering the designated district.

This is an austerity measure on car owners to fund the MTA by two jerks who daily commute by motorcade and on many occasions by Mario's son, by helicopter.

The photo above is at Soho on West Broadway of traffic heading for the Holland tunnel. That's supposed to be a two way street.

More city workers = more city vehicles

From the NY Times:

If it seems like traffic in New York City might be a bit worse than before, there may be an unexpected factor: city workers.

New York City’s sprawling municipal work force is driving more than it used to, city statistics reveal. City vehicles logged 102 million miles on the road in the last fiscal year, which ended in June, 25 percent more miles than in 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first year in office.

Accidents are also up: Workers driving city-owned cars for the Department of Buildings were involved in 98 crashes last fiscal year, an increase from 22 crashes four years ago. Department of Correction vehicles were involved in 116 crashes, nearly double the number four years ago. The Department of Transportation and Parks Department fared no better.

The city’s fleet — everything from take-home cars to garbage trucks — now exceeds 30,000 vehicles, 10 percent larger than when Mr. de Blasio took office.

BDB defends unnecessary routine

From DNA Info:

Mayor Bill de Blasio said his regular 12-mile trek from Gracie Mansion to his Park Slope gym is a reminder of his roots as he brushed off criticism Friday over his gas-guzzling routine.

De Blasio, who hails from Cambridge, Mass., and bought his home on 11th Street in 2003, said his trips to the Y on Ninth Street help him stay connected to where "I came from," he said.

"I don't want to be someone who's seeing the world through the prism of Gracie Mansion," the mayor said Friday morning. "I want to be someone who's seeing the world through the prism of the neighborhood I come from in Brooklyn, and remembers where I came from and all the people who have been part of life here."

His comments, made during his weekly call in to "The Brian Lehrer Show," came amid a barrage of bad press about his near-daily SUV trips from the Upper East Side to the Park Slope YMCA to exercise.

De Blasio: "Do as I say, not as I do"

From CBS 2:

As he vows to lower emissions in the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio is defending being driven from Gracie Mansion to a Brooklyn gym in an SUV every day.

During the mayor’s weekly radio appearance Friday on WNYC, de Blasio said cities have to take the lead on following the goals of the Paris climate accord after President Donald Trump announced the United States is exiting the deal.

A caller later criticized the mayor for his motorcade rides from the Upper East Side to a YMCA in Park Slope for his daily workouts, saying he needs to “step up his game” and “lead by example.”

The caller said, “You’re not going to be able to lead when you’re sitting in your SUV being chauffeured every day, 12 miles from Gracie Mansion to Park Slope just so that you can ride an exercise bike.”

“I’m just not going to take the bait, my friend,” the mayor responded. “I have instructed folks in my government to turn our fleet into electric cars. We are moving to renewables we are retrofitting our building. We’re doing all the things, that’s the real leadership, it’s not whether or not I go to the gym.”

DeBlasio jacks rent for his own properties

From Politico:

Despite calling for rent freezes for the city's roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, Mayor Bill de Blasio continued to raise rents on several properties he owns in Park Slope, new figures obtained by POLITICO show.

The mayor and his wife have increased the monthly rent on one of the units in a two-family house they own to $2,850 last year, from $2,400 in 2009. The increases came in $50 and $75 increments annually, according to a City Hall source who would speak only on background. They raised the other unit's rent by $25 to $1,825 in June of 2015.

They charge $4,500 for their primary residence, which they left in 2014 to move into Gracie Mansion. The two row houses, worth a combined $3.7 million according to city assessments, are on 11th Street in Park Slope.

The City Hall source would not explain why the mayor raised his own rents while pushing for a rent freeze from the city's Rent Guidelines Board, which has ruled for two years against increases on one-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments. Several years ago, a previous City Hall spokeswoman said the mayor charged his tenants more when he made home improvements.

The mayor's properties are not part of the state's rent-stabilization program, so he is not subject to the board's decisions and is free to charge whatever he wants.

The LPC: As arbitrary and capricious as they wanna be

Hey Crapunzel,

You have probably heard that the Pepsi Cola sign in LIC has achieved Landmark status, but consider this from The NY Times story:

"The Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation reconstructed the sign in 1993, after heavy damage was inflicted by a winter storm."

I am certainly not an expert on NYC Landmarks but this appears to be a contradiction of a previous decision by the landmarks commission concerning Old St. James Church of Elmhurst.

If the Pepsi sign was totally reconstructed and granted Landmark status why hasn't St. James, whose appearance has hardly been altered since the 18th century, been treated in the same manner?

I guess the Manhattanites have decided that an ancient Elmhurst church isn't as cool as a 20th century LIC commercial sign. Go figure.

Adios,

philipe the confused

Yes, Philipe, I think you have nailed it.

City Council members admit they can't work without cars (but you should)

Brad Lander - Daily News

From Crains:

City Council members have come a long way from the days when a “windshield mentality” dominated that body, according to advocates who promote alternatives to automobiles. They have embraced Vision Zero—the de Blasio administration’s push to eliminate traffic fatalities, including a reduction in the citywide speed limit to 25 mph—and at a Crain’s Breakfast Forum last week, four members agreed that there’s a cost to having four free bridges spanning the East River.

But the quartet of council members—Brad Lander, Mark Levine, Jumaane Williams and Julissa Ferreras—were not ready to forsake their free parking spots next to City Hall.

Asked by the moderator, “Is it right that council members get free parking next to City Hall and if so, why do you deserve free parking more than the rest of us who try to get to work?” Mr. Williams replied, “The framing of the question deserves some kind of response.”

He then delivered one: “It would be very difficult for me perform my job as efficiently as I try to without [being able] to park, so I wish everybody had the ability to park as freely as some of us do, but essentially to do the job, you have to be able to park.”

Mr. Lander gave a nod to a former Brooklyn borough president in the audience who has spent much of his career driving around his home county. “Marty Markowitz is going to be so excited to hear me defend parking,” he began.

“I have supported many actions to make it more difficult, so I think it does need to be harder for New Yorkers to find free parking if we are going to move to a more sustainable city,” said Mr. Lander, whose district includes a section of Park Slope where surveys have shown half of all drivers are circling for parking.

“On the other hand,” he continued, “I don't know how I would get to the events that I try to get to without the car.”

Is this the final nail in Flushing's historical coffin?

From the Queens Courier:

Great Wall Supermarket, on Northern Boulevard and Leavitt Street, will be replaced next year by a glass-clad, 11-story building after the supermarket’s owners decided to not renew the lease, according to city records. The proposed building’s modern, sleek look will tower next to the Civil War-era Flushing Town Hall, causing many in the community to criticize the new building for not conforming to the appearance of its historic neighbor.

“This thing looks like it’s something out of Miami Vice,” Flushing resident Vincent Amato said. “You can kiss goodbye any sense of history this neighborhood still had.”

Despite community resistance, Community Board 7 passed a request to change the area’s zoning, allowing the building’s developer, George Chu, to move another step closer toward his goal of developing a mixed-use building with a hotel, store fronts, community space and apartment units.

Flushing Town Hall wrote a letter expressing their support of the new development, and the planned community space will be used often by Town Hall events. During the community board meeting, the board members defended their decision to allow the building to be constructed.

“We’re not granting something that’s significantly different then what could be there,” Chuck Apelian said. “None of us are negligent of the history.”

As the meeting ended, Apelian said, “This is a tragedy not just for Flushing, but the whole nation. Hundreds of years of American history will be overshadowed by this new building.”

So, Chuck is opposed to the building, but voted for its zoning change anyway? WTF?

Losers, all

From the Daily News:

Unleashing passions that still burn today, the City Council voted in 2008 to allow New York officials to run for three terms in office, rather than just the two terms that voters have repeatedly commanded.

This history has placed 10 incumbents in position to run for third terms this November. They are doing so in clear violation of the public will. Worse, five of the defiant 10 are members who actually voted against allowing officials to seek three terms.

The five members who voted for the extension and are defying the subsequent will of the voters are: Maria del Carmen Arroyo and Jimmy Vacca of the Bronx; Brooklynites Sara Gonzalez and Darlene Mealy, and Inez Dickens of Manhattan.

The five hypocrites who voted against allowing members to run three times but are doing so now are: Dan Garodnick, Melissa Mark-Viverito and Rosie Mendez of Manhattan; Vincent Gentile of Brooklyn, and Annabel Palma from the Bronx.

Once, they told their constituents that the city was best served by injecting fresh blood after eight years. Now, breaking their bond, they serve only political ambition.

Phony park advocate contradicts her own position on FMCP

Photo from A Short Story

From an Op-Ed in the Daily News written by New Yorkers for Parks Executive Director Holly Leicht:

Supporters of the stadium point to the drab condition of the once-iconic Fountain of the Planets and claim building atop this long-neglected space will improve the park. But the current state of this historically significant park - under-resourced and ill-maintained for decades - is no rationale for further privatization. Five years ago, the Parks Department unveiled an ambitious plan for the park that included a proposal to fill in the Fountain of the Planets to create a great lawn - a vast, central gathering space which the park sorely lacks - and to daylight the Flushing River to help ameliorate the park's endemic flooding and drainage problems. New Yorkers for Parks calls upon the city to make this part of the park the grand public space it has the potential to be rather than giving up on it and turning it over to private hands.

Hey Holly, why is it ok to privatize other parts of the park? Why is it ok to hand over sections of the park to the USTA and the Wilpons in return for contributions to a park maintenance fund, but not cede another section to MLS for the same thing? In fact, you support the Wilpons not providing any replacement parkland under a bogus 1961 agreement and the USTA's proposal to swap land that the City already owns and the public already uses.

To be clear: regardless of the terms of the deal, the design of the stadium, or any offers of replacement parkland, New Yorkers for Parks cannot support a private stadium in the heart of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The location is simply wrong, and no modification or mitigation can make up for the loss of this vital open space.

But you can support an additional tennis stadium and a mall?

How about some consistency?  Where were New Yorkers 4 Parks and the Fairness Coalition last week during the CB7 meeting?

A much better opinion piece appeared in the Queens Tribune:

Stop The Nonsense

Mayor Mike Bloomberg certainly has a way about him. From the very beginning of the discussions to bring a soccer stadium to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the Mayor has alienated a large segment of Queens residents with his plans to alienate a large segment of Queens parkland.

And with each new announcement, the Mayor’s gung ho approach to get this stadium built continues to appall.

The introduction of Shiekh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan as a potential team owner was bad enough for some people. Then, on Monday, Mr. Mayor seemingly arbitrarily decided that any parkland taken from Flushing Meadows Corona Park could and should be replaced at the vacant Flushing Airport.

No discussions have been held, no negotiations have been made public and it seems as if no one in Queens has been contacted to discuss these plans.

Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg should just announce that process be damned, we’re doing things his way. At least then Queens residents would have an honest idea of what is actually going on.

Isn't that what he always does?

Loving those lulus

From the Daily News:

About half of the City Council’s 51 members say they disagree with Speaker Christine Quinn’s blatantly wrong practice of giving cash bonuses, called lulus, to favored members.

The lulus, in theory assigned for committee chairmanships and the like, range from the yearly $28,500 Quinn pockets down to $4,000. That’s over and above the very healthy $112,500 the pols earn in salary for their part-time positions.

It’s not only wasteful, it’s corrupting — because it gives one elected official undue influence over her colleagues. No wonder that outside New York, every other legislature in America, local, state and federal, pays its members equally.

The cash comes twice a year (Jan. 18 was payday), so we present the semiannual list of who is naughty and nice and who lives by his or her word.

Stellar, as always, are Daniel Garodnick and Ydanis Rodriguez of Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Brad Lander. On principle, they refuse the money.

On the other side of the ledger are a quintet of hypocrites, members who have gone on record as opposing the practice yet keep the cash: Sara Gonzalez and Diana Reyna of Brooklyn, Helen Foster of the Bronx, Margaret Chin of Manhattan and Danny Dromm of Queens.

Then there are 15 members who take the lulus and claim to donate the money to charity. New to this list is Peter Koo of Queens. He just got a lulu for the first time and he says he is giving it away.

The other donors from Queens are Julissa Ferreras, Karen Koslowitz, Eric Ulrich, Jimmy Van Bramer and Ruben Wills. In Manhattan, it’s Gale Brewer and Rosie Mendez. Plus, Staten Island’s Debby Rose, Fernando Cabrera of the Bronx and Mathieu Eugene, David Greenfield, Letitia James, Steve Levin and Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn.

Unmentioned by name here are the 22 others who join with Quinn and who happily and shamelessly pocket thousands of dollars they think they are entitled to.

Oh come on, let's name names. The unmentioned from Queens include Dan Halloran, Jim Gennaro, Mark Weprin, Leroy Comrie, Elizabeth Crowley and Peter Vallone, Jr. The last one has a JD degree and is partners in a law firm (the all-important business experience we keep hearing about), but has been going around College Point begging for votes this September with the reasoning that he "has kids and needs a job". So while the lulus may be infuriating, think just how much members of government must collect in unreported perks since Vallone's behavior points to that being more lucrative than winning million dollar settlements and charging clients hundreds of dollars per hour...

Bloomberg has gas to get to subway

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bloomberg kept his word about taking mass transit to work today as thousands across the area returned and work and school for the first time since Sandy devastated the New York area.

He was spotted riding the 5 train to City Hall [yesterday] morning.

Bloomberg left his East 79th Street town house just before 7 a.m. and was driven in a black Chevy Suburban to the express 5 train stop at 59th St.

He walked briskly through the station and arrived at the train just as it was entering the station and boarded with a half dozen security guards and City Hall photographer Spencer Tucker.

He read the front page of the Financial Times and was silent during the commute with his head down.

In a black jacket and black suit he blended in with commuters on the loosely-packed train.

When a Post reporter tried to ask the mayor how his commute was going a security guard asked her to step back.

He arrived at City Hall at 7:20 a.m.

The Village Voice saw the ridiculousness in the display.

Bloomberg a little testy after being caught breaking rule

From Eyewitness News:

No amount of City Hall spin could change what the video reveals: A Mayor repeatedly violating a city-imposed noise curfew at an East side heliport.

So after two Eyewitness News reports documenting Mayor Bloomberg's noisy weekend intrusions, 8 in just one weekend, he announced he would use another heliport.

Dr. Ron Sticco, a fed up resident who recorded the scofflaw Mayor's helicopter movements, says he's pleased with Bloomberg's decision:

"This is about respecting the community and abiding by the rules. I'm happy but I really wish it had never come to anything like this," Sticco said.
The Mayor could now end up using the city-owned Wall Street heliport, which is open during weekends. An obviously miffed Mayor brushed off the entire curfew controversy:

"Don't know why it's such a big deal. If that's the news that's fit to print in this day in age, it's a sad day," he said.

But the Sticcos and others say when the Mayor, a man of great wealth and power, behaves as though rules don't apply to him and then gets caught - that they say is newsworthy.

Residents say for an urgent matter or an emergency, no one would blame the mayor for using the heliport, but 8 times in one weekend, they say shows blind arrogance.

Bloomberg to follow rules for once

From the NY Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is rich, and New Yorkers often forgive him for it. His rarefied life of weekend homes in Bermuda and private jet flights to Paris has not stopped him from earning the votes of constituents who give him credit for competence and leadership.

But being a billionaire is one thing, and breaking the rules another. So it was on Wednesday that Mr. Bloomberg, an experienced pilot, found himself under fire after he was discovered flying his private helicopter where he was not supposed to.

An amateur video, filmed by an annoyed Manhattanite and broadcast Tuesday on WABC-TV, showed the mayor landing and taking off several times over the weekend from the East 34th Street helipad, where trips on Saturday and Sunday have been expressly banned for more than a decade.

On Wednesday, a City Hall spokesman said Mr. Bloomberg would not be flying from the helipad on weekends any longer.

Joe Crowley votes to de-fund NYPD while pushing 1st responder bill

From the Times Ledger:

U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Jackson Heights) hopes a proposed bill allocating $70 billion to teachers and first responders around the country will pass with presidential support, although a nearly identical piece of legislation did not gain enough support to even come to a vote in the Democratically led U.S. Senate last year.

“We believe this is an emergency and needed to help state and local governments,” Crowley said at a news conference across the street from the College Point Police Academy currently under construction.

He was joined by leaders from FDNY and NYPD unions as well as the United Federation of Teachers.

The bill would allocate $30 billion in funds for teacher salaries and $5 billion for police and fire funding per year. New York state would receive some $1.7 billion over two years, with the Big Apple raking in $1.2 billion of that money.

Crowley said the extra cash would be a shot in the arm to help reduce crime and class sizes all over America.

From the NY Post:

Consider the load of bull dumped on the floor of Congress by New Jersey Rep. Russ Holt. Already demanding a federal probe of the NYPD, Holt introduced an amendment to a funding bill to deprive it of federal dollars.

Citing The Associated Press campaign against the department, Holt accused the police of “sloppiness” and of waging a “surreptitious, uncoordinated and unprofessional approach to counterterrorism prevention within the American Muslim community.”

It was a scurrilous attack, and might have passed without debate because the amendment itself doesn’t single out the NYPD. Only during his floor speech did Holt name his target.

Thankfully, the measure was defeated by 232-193. But get this: Of the 11 Democrats from the five boroughs, 10 voted for it, and one didn’t vote. Democratic party leaders all voted for the measure.

This is no ordinary partisan hatchet job. This is an attempt to defund the police in ways that would leave the city more vulnerable. And it comes from the very people New Yorkers send to Washington to represent them.

Remember the Democrats: Nadler, Maloney, Velazquez, Serrano, Rangel, Ackerman, Towns, Clark, Engel and Crowley — they are wrong about public safety. Meeks didn’t vote.

Am I the only one who read both of these articles and noticed there is something very hypocritical about this?