SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is planning to propose placing 12 foot high removable steel barriers along the city’s waterfront should a massive storm like Sandy head our way again, NY1 reports.

If enacted, Bloomberg’s plan would see the installation of the removable barriers along flood-prone city coastlines. Bloomberg is betting that this method of flood prevention will not only protect the coastline and the environment but be more cost effective then the massive Dutch-style barriers that have also been proposed.

Governor Andrew Cuomo prefers this latter option, pushing for a more permanent and ambitious solution to fight massive flooding, a plan that oceanographer Malcolm Bowman thinks is the right course.

“I think we have to do what Governor Cuomo has asked for, and that is an engineering analysis of storm surge barriers across the major entrances to New York Harbor, Rockaway to Sandy Hook, and then the East River,” Bowman told NY 1. “Because nothing less will protect the major airports, the shipping facilities, all the infrastructure that we saw devastated during Sandy.”

Blue387 via Wikimedia Commons

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is joining the effort to junk the new digitized voting machines in favor of bringing back the older and supposedly more reliable lever machines. NY1 reports that Bloomberg said during a press conference that bringing back the old machines might prevent a voting disaster in the upcoming 2014 elections.

We’ve previously reported State Senator Marty Golden and Councilman David Greenfield’s efforts to bring back the old machines, with Golden successfully leading the passage of a bill to bring them back in the senate. The bill then went to the Assembly, which has been lukewarm on it.

“We are not prepared in the Assembly at this point to bring back the lever machines. We think it would be a step backwards,” State Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh told NY1. “We are prepared to work with the city and the city Board Of Elections to change some of the rules that may allow them to run the runoff more quickly and more smoothly.”

Mayor Bloomberg’s voice adds to the growing groundswell of support to the return to the old machines. The decision would be costly as the new digitized voting equipment, mandated by federal law, cost taxpayers $60 million.

The Board of Elections has warned that it is unprepared for the upcoming mayoral elections, citing that votes cast with the new electronic machines cannot be certified fast enough to account for a potential runoff after the primary.

While the new voting equipment wouldn’t be ditched forever, an exception could be made just once for a local election.

Bloomberg urged that returning to the old machines could prevent a voting catastrophe.

“If we don’t do that, we are running a real risk of not knowing who the mayor is for months,” Bloomberg said at the press conference.

Source: nytimes.com

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office announced that it is doubling the number of evacuation zones along New York City’s coastline. The New York Times is reporting that the expanded map will add 640,000 residents to the three million New Yorkers already living in such zones, putting 37.5 percent of the total population in evacuation zones.

The city is hoping that by expanding the evacuation zones, people will take calls to evacuate more seriously. The new map represents only a preliminary look of what is expected to change. A more detailed map is expected to be released in June.

While the evacuation zones have been expanded, it’s worth noting that to date, residents located in Zone A, which includes Sheepshead Bay, have been the only ones ever asked to evacuate.

The release of the new map was the major highlight of a city report on the response to Superstorm Sandy. The New York Times summarized a list of other conclusions and initiatives drawn from the report.

Many lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy will be set down in new “playbooks” for city agencies that had to learn on the fly how to deal with a major storm’s aftermath: how to request waivers and extensions from federal school-lunch and food-stamp programs to serve a deluge of needy families; how to muster economic development programs to help battered businesses get back up to speed faster.

Others issues will be left to future task forces to interpret.

A number of smaller recommendations are already being acted on, like the purchase of more emergency lights, generators and small boats for firefighters.

The report also calls for new regulations for hospitals, nursing homes and adult homes during evacuations. It recommends the creation of a patient tracking system, better communication equipment and guidelines for the return of patients.

Photo By Erica Sherman

After a stream of complaints sent to the Bloomberg administration and pressure from Senator Charles Schumer, the city has reversed its refusal to reimburse Superstorm Sandy victims who already spent their own money on repairing their properties, according to a report by the New York Times.

Earlier this month, we reported on how the disbursement of federal dollars from the $60 billion Sandy bill excluded paybacks for New York City residents who already paid for storm repairs out of pocket. Residents living in the rest of New York state, Long Island and New Jersey would be paid back, regardless of whether they had paid for repairs yet or not. The whole situation seemed unfair.

At the time before the reversal, the city argued that they wanted to focus the first $1.77 billion Community Development Block Grants on property owners who couldn’t afford repairs. The city received a torrent of complaints on the plan to exclude people who were desperate to rebuild as quickly as possible during a two-week comment period. The Bloomberg administration subsequently reversed their decision.

Senator Schumer who was adamantly opposed to the original plan from the start called the city’s reversal, ” a step in the right direction.”

Now that everyone has a chance to be reimbursed for Sandy repairs, the revised city plan goes to the Housing and Urban Development Department for review. Once the plan is officially considered, the city promised it would provide more details for how people can qualify for the grants.

Photo By Ned Berke

Former Congressman Anthony D. Weiner is considering a comeback in the form of a bold run for mayor, according to a report by the New York Times.

The Times report includes a link to a 10-page profile of Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin, where the former congressman discusses the infamous Twitter scandal that led him to resign in 2011.

In the profile, Weiner offered a series of apologies, discussed his private life and potential political future going forward. Before Weiner’s Twitter incident derailed his career, he was considered a front-runner to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the 2013 election.

In January, we reported on a “mysterious pollster” who was asking voters on whether they could support Weiner in a potential return to New York politics either as mayor or city comptroller. The Times now confirmed that Weiner has already spent $100,000 on such polling but he still hasn’t decided whether or not to jump in the race.

“It’s now or maybe never for me,” Weiner told the Times.

Weiner’s cautiousness about returning to politics not only stems from a potential reluctance of voters willing to forgive his misgivings but also because he has embraced a new commitment to fixing his marriage and raising his son.

“I live with a lot of guilt about what I put her through. She’s this amazing woman who did nothing wrong, who, to some degree, has people staring at her now on the subway because of what an idiot her husband was. And I feel bad about that. A lot.

“But in the confines of our home and our relationship and our parenting this child and our love for each other — she said she wanted to get through it, she wanted not to conflate the giant international news story with the two people who were involved in it. And a lot of women couldn’t do that. And Jordan has given us a lot of perspective. We have to deal with this a lot. It’s not behind us. It kind of bubbles around and comes up in different ways. But she’s, um. . . .” Here, he paused and took a deep breath and started to cry. “She’s given. . . .” He stopped again, could barely get the words out. “She’s given me another chance. And I am very grateful for that. And I’m trying to make sure I get it right.”

Weiner already has $4.3 million saved from his brief campaign for mayor in 2009 and if he decides to run, he must declare his candidacy by June 10 in order to qualify for public funding which would amount to an additional $1.5 million.

We were wondering what our readers think about Weiner’s potential run for mayor. Do you think he deserves a comeback? Could he win in spite of his scandal? Let us know.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg applauded the efforts of Councilman Lew Fidler for his work on a bill that seeks to better understand child homelessness in the city, a subset of the population that is often times exploited or ignored.

In the video above, Councilman Fidler laid out the staggering statistics that should make anyone’s stomach churn when confronting the problem of homeless children in New York City.

“On any given night in our city, 3,800 children are homeless without their families on our streets. That’s a fact that I’m ashamed of as a member of government and as a father and as a human being.”

Fidler went on to describe how these children are often exploited sexually just so they can survive from day to day. The bill is designed to investigate how the city is currently servicing these children so the city can better coordinate resources to help to save them.

State Senator Marty Golden. Photo By Erica Sherman

State Senator Marty Golden continues to take heat over his opposition to speed enforcement cameras as a group of protesters descended upon his Bay Ridge office at 7408 Fifth Avenue demanding he change his stance on the issue, according to a report by Capital New York.

The protest was organized by Bay Ridge Advocates for Keeping Everyone Safe (BRAKES) this past Friday and was full of people outraged over Golden’s opposition to the cameras.

“The point is you need to be in support of traffic-calming measures,” Maureen Landers, an organizer of today’s demonstration. “And his vote against [speed cameras] shows that clearly he’s not and he has not provided an alternative or a solution or taken any measures to calm traffic.”

It is believed that Golden opposes the cameras due to his ties with the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA). Golden and the PBA believe that the installation of the cameras might cost policemen jobs. However, last week, we reported that Golden was willing to support the cameras if Mayor Michael Bloomberg or Governor Andrew Cuomo agreed to fund a $5.6 million busing plan for private Yeshiva school students. Golden, along with State Senator Simcha Felder, was turned down by both Bloomberg and Cuomo. Golden, along with Felder, included the funding for the private busing plan in the state budget anyway.

Golden responded to the protest with a statement that called for the placement of more 20 MPH speed zones around schools, a proposal that did little to quell the anger of his critics.

“Marty Golden is completely tone-deaf and oblivious to the impact this technology could have on keeping our streets safer,” Andrew Gounardes told Capital New York. Gounardes is a Bay Ridge attorney who ran and lost against Golden last year and is considering a future rematch.

Source: nesnad via wikimedia commons

The fight over speed enforcement cameras is getting nastier. Last week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg personally called out State Senators Marty Golden, Simcha Felder and Dean Skelos for having blood on their hands in refusing to include funding for speed enforcement cameras in the state budget. In response, Senate Democrats are trying to reinvigorate the effort to get the cameras approved. However, in their recap of the week’s events, the New York Times included this interesting tidbit of closed door negotiations between Governor Andrew Cuomo, Bloomberg, Felder and Golden.

Senator Felder, too, has no use for cameras. He represents a district dominated by Orthodox Jewish voters, and his priority this session was to persuade the city and state to foot the bill to bus any child past 4 p.m., which in effect means mostly children who attend yeshivas. Mr. Felder and Mr. Golden succeeded in pushing through this legislation, which will cost the city $5.6 million this year.

As the state senators are not unreasonable men, they even offered to bargain: they might allow speed cameras if Mr. Bloomberg agreed to foot the bill for this busing program.

The mayor said no. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said no. But when his state budget emerged from behind closed doors in Albany it included this new and costly busing program.

The Orthodox, who are adroit at pulling the levers of power, and their political allies claim all children could benefit. But that argument is evidence-starved. The state paid for a pilot program this year, and city school buses have picked up 1,000 children — from 29 yeshivas and one charter school.

Senator Golden, who has charted the growth of the Orthodox population in his district, shrugs off criticism. It is, he said, “the new normal.”

So Golden and Felder would have been happy to approve the funding for speed enforcement cameras as long as yeshiva students who attend private Orthodox schools got free busing? Huh…so, using Golden and Felder’s logic, I guess this means that the safety of responsible motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians is less important than free transportation for private schools provided on the taxpayers’ dime.

It’s the “new normal” after all.

Marty Golden, Photo By Erica Sherman

As the upcoming mayoral race heats up, sharp battle lines between Democrats and Republicans are being drawn. The latest hot-button issue centers around City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s plan to create a special new oversight committee that would monitor and review NYPD policies and procedures, according to a report by the New York Post.

The new agency, dubbed the Inspector General’s Office (IGO), would challenge many controversial policing methods, most famously the stop-and-frisk program, which critics believe overwhelmingly target blacks and Hispanics. The IGO would be placed in the city’s Department of Investigation, the department in charge of investigating all city agencies. The IGO would not take the place of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs, which would still handle individual cases of police misconduct.

According to the Post, Quinn has enough Council votes to pass the measure, even in the face of a mayoral veto by Bloomberg.

Ex-cop and current State Senator Marty Golden blasted Quinn’s plan as “pathetic, sad” and “a setback for the city and the safety of the children.” GOP mayoral candidate, Joe Lhota, also derided the plan.

“Building another bureaucracy is not the answer,” the Post reported Lhota saying at a mayoral debate.

The issue of stop-and-frisk also divided Democrats when former comptroller Bill Thompson rebuked current comptroller John Liu’s call to end the practice.

“I’m worried also about my son being shot by someone who’s a member of a gang in the street.”

For his part, Liu, echoing comments made by Quinn and Thompson, promised to hire thousands of new officers if elected.

Traffic Cameras Source: Theron Trowbridge via Flickr

The war over the installation of speed enforcement cameras kicked into a higher gear as influential State Senate lawmakers reintroduced the legislation in direct opposition to Republicans who stripped it from the state budget, according to a report by the New York Daily News.

The contentious battle to place speed enforcement cameras across the city began in response to the growing number of hit-and-run tragedies that have plagued the city in recent months. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NYPD Chief Ray Kelly and other key local New York politicians were all in favor of the program but senators including Marty Golden, Dean Skelos and Simcha Felder removed the cameras from the state budget, fearing that the cameras would cost policemen jobs.

In response to the actions of Golden, Skelos and Felder, Bloomberg held a press conference where he lashed out at the senators personally and demanded that constituents personally hold them responsible the next time someone dies in a speeding accident.

Bloomberg’s anger was not considered a stunt, according to a report in the New York Post.

“I’ve never seen the mayor this angry,” one insider told the Post. “He’s furious.”

Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson expanded on Bloomberg’s anger, describing all arguments against the cameras as laughable.

“This is a Republican conference that voted to raise taxes, to legalize marriage equality and to ban assault weapons, but they draw the line on speed cameras?” Wolfson asked. “It’s a joke.”