Serrano Bails Out Bronx Beaver

Posted by Azriel Relph

Wall Street got $700 billion.   Detroit got $17 billion.  In December a little part of the Bronx got its own bailout, thanks to José E. Serrano.

The recession has hit the animal kingdom hard; last year Governor Paterson cut more than half of state aid to zoos, from $9 million to $4 million.  The Bronx Zoo even launched a campaign with videos featuring animals getting laid off.

Bronx Park and the 265-acre zoo within it, stand out from the dense housing and rundown industrial zones in the 16th Congressional District, like an emerald in a pile of coal.

The Bronx River – which creates the Eastern boundary of Serrano’s district – feeds from the East River near the Rikers Island jail, up past the scrap metal yards of Hunts Point, under the Bruckner and Cross Bronx Expressways, until it reaches the 110 year-old zoo.  A recent effort aimed at cleaning the polluted river – led by the Bronx River Alliance – has been successful thanks to Serrano’s skill at bringing money into his district. Three years ago biologists from the zoo discovered that a beaver had returned to the river after a 200-year absence, (the critters were once so abundant that they are a part of the city’s flag).  The biologists saw fit to name the beaver José, after their representative in Congress.

So it should be no surprise that Serrano used his earmarking skills to get $1 million in federal funds for the Wildlife Conservation Society, who runs the zoo.  The funds came in December in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill – H.R. 3288 – and are to be used for restoration on the Bronx River.

But Serrano probably didn’t just secure the funds out of a feeling of kinship towards his dam-building namesake.  There are other incentives.

First of all, the zoo really is a huge job provider in his district.  Unlike places like the Hunts Point Food Market, where most of the business owners and workers live in other areas, many of the zoo’s employees live in the Bronx.   The Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium have a combined staff of 990 full-time and 600 part-time employees according to the Wildlife Conservation Society .  New York State Senator José M. Serrano, (son of the Congressman), says that 38% of the zoo’s full-time staff, and 80% of its part-time staff live in the Bronx.

So that is $1 million for jobs at one of the few places that attracts visitors to the Bronx, (the other being Yankee Stadium).  The jobs will go towards restoration of a river whose health is tied to the reputation of the human José and the life of the rodent José.  Out of work residents, tourists, environmentalists and beavers all made happy.  Seems like an easy move for Serrano.

Secondly, it probably doesn’t hurt that his son, the State Senator, is also Chair of the Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee – and has been vocal for funding for the zoo.

So maybe big José was lending little José a hand to boost his political clout in the Borough.  Or perhaps he was helping furry José increase his property value in the river.  Or maybe he was just trying to get a little money into the poorest Congressional District in the country.

Meeks: Product Of The Environment

Posted by Katie Honan

Before he got famous for swindling his friends and family and investors out of billions of dollars–creating the biggest Ponzi scheme in history–Bernie Madoff wasn’t even the most famous alum of Far Rockaway High School.

That distinction maybe went to Dr. Jonas Salk, who helped discover the polio vaccine; or basketball star and commentator Nancy Liebermann; or the extremely talented rapper MC Serch, of 3rd Bass.

Like so many of the New York City’s brightest students in the 1950s, Madoff commuted by bus and train from his home in Laurelton, Queens to go to the school by the beach, in residential Far Rockaway.  He climbed the wide marble staircase with his future wife, Ruth, and countless future investors who he would keep as friends as he created Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960.

Madoff represents a different time for an area of Queens that has suffered in the past few decades from high crime and unemployment.  The main shopping district, Mott Avenue, still shows the old signs of prosperity, in the architecture of the abandoned buildings and the art-deco style of the Far Rockaway Shopping Center sign, which hasn’t been painted in years.  And while the big limestone building that was home to Far Rockaway High School since the turn of the 20th century is still around, the inside is different.  The high school will be phased out in June, when it graduates it’s last class.  The Department of Education closed it down citing low performance.

Far Rockaway and other areas of south Queens have been suffering for years.  But when Hurricane Katrina struck, people still managed to open up their wallets for a worthy cause.  Greg Meeks’ and Malcolm Smith’s charity, New Direction Local Development Corporation, had been around since 2001, designed to help residents in their district find jobs.   They wanted to send money down to NOLA, and asked locals to help.  Many did.  They’re still advertising the good work they did for the residents of New Orleans even after reports show the money never even got there.  Victims on both sides–those who gave, and those who thought they were going to get–are starting to feel burned.

Meeks and Madoff might not have ever met each other.  Their ties to Queens are decades apart.  But with more and more allegations surfacing–of slush funds, of trips paid for by another Ponzi schemer, of empty promises and investments going nowhere–the two seem more and more alike.  Far Rockaway’s a different place than it was in the 1950s, but some things never change.

Velazquez Picks Gillibrand – Blocks Ford

Posted by Dana Rapoport

“If Harold Ford, Jr. had his way, he would seal all of America’s borders, and deploy the military and police to conduct raids on households,” wrote Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez in a letter supporting Kirsten Gillibrand on February 3rd, 2010.

Did Velazquez became a passionate Gillibrand supporter only once Ford was in the picture?

Elections for the New York Senate seat are not for another seven months, but the prospect of Ford challenging Gillibrand made Velazquez lose her cool last week.

In her statement supporting Gillibrand, Velazquez chronicled the junior New York senator’s achievements and portrayed Gillibrand as her political sister on these points:

  • Velazquez, who was instrumental in appointing Judge Sotomayor, lists Gillibrand among the first in the Senate to ensure that New York’s own judge was at the top of President Obama’s list for the Supreme Court.
  • Gillibrand, like Velazquez, opposed holding the 9/11 terror trials in downtown Manhattan (Though, most prominent New York politicians such as Schumer and Bloomberg, expressed the same opposition.)
  • Both are in agreement on more broad (and vague) issues as well, from health care reform to “creating jobs for New Yorkers through small businesses,” wrote Velazquez.

Then Velazquez moves on to the most important agreement with Gillibrand, or the greatest disagreement with Ford.
For Congresswoman Velazquez there’s one big reason she cannot afford to have the former Memphis congressman in the New York Senate.

Immigration.

As chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Velazquez’s stance on immigration is as far from Ford’s as Puerto Rico is from Tennessee.

In 2005, Ford voted in favor of the Sensenbrenner bill, which would have allowed local police to arrest illegal immigrants and made it a crime for nurses, priests and others to help them.

A year later, President Bush signed the “Border Fence Bill,” a bill Ford voted for. The bill authorized the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border, to prevent the entry of terrorists, unlawful aliens, etc.

But, recently adopted political sister of Velazquez or not, Gillibrand hasn’t exactly been an obvious pro-immigrant advocate. Two years ago El Diario ran a front-page article on Gillibrand, citing her votes in favor of English-only regulations and a bill deputizing local police officers to act as immigration agents.

When Gillibrand was first appointed by Gov. Paterson, one Latino official said her House voting record on immigration bordered “on xenophobia.”

“…But as soon as she [Gillibrand] moved from her rural Republican-heavy congressional district to the Senate, Gillibrand pivoted to the left,” The Daily Beast wrote in November 2009.

But for Velázquez, Gillibrand’s record tells a different story:

“Kirsten has been a strong and consistent voice for New York’s immigrant communities,” she writes in the letter.

She mentions the senator’s co-sponsorship of the DREAM Act, the bill that, if it passes, will enable – under certain circumstances – high school students to legalize their status.

Perhaps Gillibrand was able to convince her constituency she’s ready to help New York’s immigrants, but in case Ford tries to change his mind, here’s his former testimony on the issue, courtesy of your congresswoman, Nydia Velazquez

So Far, Nadler Stands Alone

Posted by Colby Hamilton

Republican’s across the country are hoping public frustration over Washington and displeasure with President Obama will result in major electoral gains in Congress. So far, in most of New York City (but not all) and specifically in the 8th Congressional District, the national backlash has yet to manifest itself in the form of a candidate to challenge long-time incumbent Jerry Nadler.

With one exception.

The Federal Elections Commission lists one Steven Ari-Z Leiner as Nadler’s sole competition. A quick search finds an article in the Jewish Press from late last year about the young Jewish man who has filed papers to run for congress.

Leiner is a nationally recognized highly successful life insurance businessman. He started while in college at Columbia University where he received a B.A. in political science – to pay for his tuition – and has continued ever since. His awards include admission to the Million Dollar Round Table and the President’s Cabinet.

The FEC lists Leiner as an independent candidate. From the article, written by a former “foreign-policy analyst for Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential Committee,” it’s hard to tell where Leiner’s political affiliations are; he lists Mayor Bloomberg, Warren Buffet and Paul Krugman as role models.

While he says he’s interested in running, Leiner indicated in an email today that he would, in fact, not be looking to represent the 8th Congressional District. Instead, he said, he is “exploring several other possible Congressional districts to run in.”

So much for Nadler’s only challenger.

Republicans in Brooklyn, at least, have provided no indications that they’re planning on contesting in the 8th District. In an email last week, a local Brooklyn Republican leader indicated that there had been no discussions that he knew of regarding running against Nadler.

The nine-term congressman won his last election, in 2008, by an 80-20 ratio. While he remains popular with much of constituents, given the political turmoil in McMahon’s neighboring district and the long-time support of Republicans like New York State Senator Marty Golden, it could be politically beneficial to field a strong candidate.

Election Year Checklist: Flatbush? Check. Park Slope?… Check?

Posted by David Montalvo

As the health care summit gets underway in an effort to overhaul the health care industry, Rep. Yvette Clarke voted Wednesday to pass a House bill that tightens the flexible business practices of health insurance companies, said an official.

“For too long, health insurance companies have not played by the rules.  Now they must be held accountable,” said Rep. Clarke in a statement.

In New York’s 11th Congressional District, where Clarke, a Democrat, is serving her second term, the growth of uninsured residents was above 15 percent in the middle of the Great Recession, according to the official New York City Web site. This value was higher in the more affluent part of the district in Park Slope-Downtown neighborhood at 19 percent – career professionals who are losing their jobs in the weak job market are also losing their private insurance, outpacing those in lower-income neighborhoods like Flatbush where a higher percentage of people are on Medicaid, a government-funded health program for low-income individuals.

“Middle-class families are facing higher premiums, a lower quality of coverage and limited choices – all while the insurance companies are jacking up prices and turning record profits.  Healthcare is a fundamental human right, rather than a commodity,” Clarke added.

Recently, however, some of her middle-class constituents in Park Slope – around the corner from Flatbush where there’s a strong concentration of Haitians, a group Clarke is strongly supporting on immigration measures in Washington – can’t seem to figure out what’s being done for them.

“I can’t think of a single thing this woman has done for the community, the state or the country. She seems like a nice enough person, but perhaps she is in over her head?” responded a Park Slope resident to a survey posted on the neighborhood’s Web site bulletin board Brooklynian.

The bill will enforce anti-trust laws on health insurers like other industries that are legally responsible for price fixing, dividing up territories among themselves and sabotaging their competitors in order to gain a monopoly in the marketplace.

But while Clarke’s vote on the bill is not surprising, given her liberal record, it appears to be a smart decision to appeal, at least, to Park Slope, Cobble Hill and other affluent regions of her district in an election year.

“I wasn’t nuts about the process of her election (and didn’t vote for her in the primary last time), but every time I’ve looked into her stance on a particular bill I’ve agreed with it, so I’ll vote for her,” said another one of her Park Slope constituents.

Crowley Takes Advantage of Monserrate's Scandal

Posted by Matthew Robinson

When Hiram Monserrate was convicted of a misdemeanor in October, Joseph Crowley led the call to oust Monserrate from his state senate seat, according to this Queens Gazette article. Crowley got his wish. The state senate kicked Monserrate out of office earlier this month. On a side note, Monserrate is actually running in the March 16 special election – he even stole Obama’s “Yes We Can” slogan.

Crowley’s move is more than getting the “bad guy” out of office. Crowley and Monserrate have had their differences in the past. In 2007, Crowley, the chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, did not invite Monserrate and Jose Peralta to an event honoring Malcolm Smith, the temporary President of the New York State legislature.

Monserrate voiced his concerns:

“I would like to be part of the host committee, but I was never asked,” Monserrate told the New York Daily News. “But the important thing is not the invitation itself but what it reveals. They don’t want to have anything to do with me or Peralta.”

Such public criticism couldn’t have sat well with Crowley. Peralta wasn’t as vocal as Monserrate, choosing just to note that he and Monserrate have never been chosen to host any Queens Democrat events. His decision seems to have kept him in good favor – Crowley now backs him for Monserrate’s seat.

The Daily News article added:

“Some Queens Democrats said, off the record, that the Monserrate slight is a product of the inordinate amount of power “the old guard” still holds over the Queens Democratic organization.”

Also, Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr. voted against the Democratic Party last summer. The vote brought the New York legislature to a standstill. It seems Monserrate has run up against the established power, while Peralta has gone along with the status quo in Queens, and it may be paying off.

Fighting fire with press releases

Posted by Joseph Tacopino

giuliani_trump_dragIn the nascent 2010 race from the 13th congressional seat in New York a major player has thrown his wig into the ring.

On Feb 19 Rudy Giuliani was scheduled to make a public endorsement of Republican candidate Mike Grimm on the steps of City Hall. 

That appearance was delayed by the unfortunate news that Bernard Kerik was convicted in an epic corruption case.

So instead of a choreographed theater in lower Manhattan, reporter’s got a press release:

“Michael Grimm has outstanding qualifications for public office.” said Giuliani. “As a U.S. Marine he served in combat for our county and then he continued to serve our country for 11 years as a Special Agent in the FBI.”

The City Hall announcement was also notable for its location.

While the 13th district covers the vast and pastoral lands of Staten Island (and Bay Ridge) Grimm chose to make this campaign-defining announcement in lower Manhattan.

From the start, it seems that Grimm has been running his campaign with a national bent.

He launched the campaign at the Hilton Garden Inn (a new luxurious hotel overlooking the former site of the Staten Island Dump) and immediately tied McMahon to the leadership in Congress, calling him a “faithful vote for the Pelosi liberal regime.”

McMahon is actually more of a “blue dog” who voted against the Democrat’s health care bill.

Grimm is also trying to capture the Tea Party magic by name-dropped Scott Brown.

“He ran for the right reasons,” Grimm told the Advance.

I’m sure he’d love to ride the Senator’s mudflaps all the way to Washington DC. But do Staten Islanders really care what happens in Boston?

The response from the McMahon’s campaign has been tepid. 

The office has recently hired consultant, Evan Stavisky, who cited McMahon’s devotion to “the district’s centrist values.”

McMahon will likely cite terrorism funding and the economy as issues that actually impact Islanders but he needs to step up his game before Grimm snags an endorsement from Sarah Palin.

Watch Your Back Anthony

Posted by Michael Drury

An open letter to Anthony Weiner:

Representative Weiner your days are numbered! The voters of the 9th district are going to take back Ye olde America from Ye Elites! And you’re on the list.

To begin…  you are constantly talking about stuff that is irrelevant.

You ramble on, ad nauseam, about health care and the economy. As if anybody cares that American manufacturing is being  left behind by foreign competition because American companies are burdened with the cost of insuring their employee’s health.

You reveal your secret anti-American agenda when you make wild claims that socialist countries like Canada somehow enjoy multi-billion dollar trade surpluses with Uncle Sam despite their inferior levels of freedom and are quietly turning the page on “the great recession.”

You further undermine your own country by making bizarre legalese claims that the World Trade Organization does not recognize national healthcare as a form of subsidy so the United States has no legal recourse to address foreign companies’ unfair free-healthcare based cost advantages over American manufacturers.

You imply that lower labor costs in countries where businesses don’t have to pay for health care might have something to do with the tendency of American companies to ship jobs over seas.

When you make all these complicated anti-American observations, you are totally missing the issue that really matters to your constituents: SEXUAL MORALITY.

Some one was bound to capitalize on your political cluelessness and now Joseph Hayon, your new opponent for the 9th congressional district in 2010 has come to town.He knows what issues really matter and he is courageous enough to face the moral challenges that you run away from.

While you hide behind the health care non-issue, Hayon asks the question: “Where is Our Religious Freedom?”

(In an America that legally obliges) “a Church in New Jersey… to rent their space to a lesbian wedding… a Christian photographer in New Mexico required to take photos of a lesbian wedding, a NYC taxi driver required to watch homosexual activity in his own car, a social worker in Maine prohibited from speaking freely, a mayor in California asked to resign, and the list is endless.”

Bravely confronting this “Homosexual Agenda” Hayon writes:

“This group lies to the public, claiming that they just want to be “married” like everyone else, and that they don’t mean to harm anyone. The real truth is that they want to force the religious citizens of the United States to provide sinful accommodations to the homosexuals.”

Hayon knows that 9th districters stay awake at night worrying that their kids are being indoctrinated:

“Our education is being attacked as well. At every chance possible the Homosexual Agenda is manipulating religious students to believe that homosexual behavior is not sinful. They are manipulating young children, as young as 2nd grade.”

Well aware that Americans are terrified of these threats, he plots his shrewd political course:

“Our religious liberty is being attacked at all ends, and there is only one solution. Make same-gender marriage your number one issue and vote against it.“

Time to smarten up Anthony.

Republican Candidate Lines for Tough Challenge 15th

Posted by Daniel Gold

On February 12th, the Reverend Michael Faulkner announced his intentions to challenge incumbent congressman Charlie Rangel in the upcoming 15th congressional district election. Faulkner, however, has quite the challenge in front of him. Despite formerly being a professional football player for the Jets and a well-respected and active pastor in Harlem, Republicans, even the most moderate, barely warrant a second look in New York State CD 15. The Republicans in Congress would love to be able to mount a serious threat against Rangel, especially after the failed attempt to oust him after the revelations of his ethics violations, but that doesn’t seem likely.

As previously mentioned, Rangel has won all of his elections since 1971 by at least 85%. The 15th, which comprises neighborhoods like Harlem, East Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, Riker’s Island, Morning side Heights, parts of the Upper West Side,and certain no-residential parts of Queens, is a famous democratic stronghold. It is frequently mentioned with being one of the two most Democratic districts in the country. Hispanic and non-Hispanic Blacks make up 84% of the population. It doesn’t exactly fit the profile of a Republican stronghold. One almost has to question Faulkner’s motives.

According to US Census Bureau data, approximately 30% of individuals in NYS CD 15 are below the poverty line, and Rangel has catered towards these constituents.  According to Congressional Quarterly, “Rangel has had his greatest legislative success with efforts to spur economic development in under-served neighborhoods. He wrote the 1993 “empowerment zones’’ law providing tax credits to businesses that move into blighted areas and the 1986 tax credit for developers of low-income housing. He is also one of the House’s leading advocates of expanded trade with Caribbean countries, the home region for many of his upper-Manhattan constituents.”

Rangel has laid low in recent months, mainly working on bills that provide relief to Haiti or make it easier to do so. Being as the NY media, especially the Post and Daily News, were heavily focused on Rangel’s misdeeds, it’s probably wise for him to remain out of the spotlight until the ethics allegations officially blow over, which is seeming more and more likely to happen.

Recently Rangel once again found his actions being scrutinized, as it was revealed that he spent $1.5 on lawyers in the past year, including nearly $600,000 in the last quarter of the year, according to a recent article in the Daily News. If he needs to keep diverting funds away from his campaign to his lawyers, perhaps the race may be a little closer than expected.

Engel Talks Israel, a Lot

Posted by Graham Kates

For someone who’s the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Eliot Engel sure talks about Israel and the Middle East a lot.

Engel is Jewish, but that’s not the only reason he’s one of Congress’ strongest proponents of Israel. His district is among the most heavily Jewish in the United States. Rockland has the highest percentage of Jews of any county in the country. Westchester has the 11th highest percentage, and the Bronx is in the top thirty.

Consider his last few days:

“The US – Israel relationship remains strong. It doesn’t mean that from time to time there won’t be differences of opinion. It doesn’t mean that the relationship is ruptured. Israel and the US share so may common interests. I know that the Obama administration is doing a lot of positive things toward Israel.”

None of this is particularly groundbreaking. Israel and the U.S. do have a strong relationship. The Obama administration certainly would prefer that Iran not have nuclear weapons, and yes, New York does have the best Jewish delis (take that Connecticut). So why is someone who’s most important congressional job has nothing to do with the Middle East, always talking about it? It could be that he just feels really strongly about it, but I think the more likely reason is that he wants his Jewish constituents to know he is with them on Middle East policy.