Wednesday, April 18, 2007

City sewer scandal

Trouble with the Queens Borough President's office has dated back to the creation of the position.

Since our readers have been discussing the Connolly sewer scandal back in the 1920s lately, here's a couple of links to the story from Time magazine:

City sewers

Sewer sequel

Of the three Queens presidents preceding this, one (Cassidy) went to Sing Sing; one (Bermel) fled to Europe; one (Gresser) was removed for incompetence on the matter that Connolly was elected to reform, Sewers.

Photos of Connolly's house in Corona from Forgotten-NY

7 comments:

georgetheatheist said...

Best Line: "Big frogs in small side puddles"

Sound familiar?...But now they stand NAKED (via QC) for all to see!!!

Anonymous said...

Here's the "skinny" on Boro Prez Gresser you just mentioned.

"Honest" Larry Gresser. (as he was known) was the forebearer of Deputy Borough President Lawrence T. Gresser Jr. who served under Donald Manes (also husband of Carroll Gresser).

Lawrence T. Gresser Jr. quit his office as Manes' deputy about a year before he put forth a proposal to raze the RKO Keith's Flushing Theater in early 1980-81!

Venezualan money was to be put into the "Flushing Mall" that was to replace the theater. The Committee to Save the Keith's Inc. had worked to get the theater on the National Register of Historic Places and saw it through the process of obtaining Municipal Landmark status of the entire interior .

The designation was abridged at the behest of Manes to shelter only the ticket lobby and grand foyer. The auditorium was then rejected by the Board of Estimate which Manes had influence over.

It was Shulman, then Manes' Deputy, who lobbied to modify the designation at this confirmation hearing.

The rest is sordid history.

Anonymous said...

What, a Queens politicain crooked!!! I am shocked, but not at all surprised.

Anonymous said...

Do we really need the office of Borough President?

They serve merely as middlemen (and women) between developers and club-house politicos!

I'd rather be screwed directly (if it comes to that) by a nasty, privileged, smart son-of-a-bitch like Mayor Bloomberg himself ....not by a local dumb-as-a-post Borough President stand in like Marshal!

Anonymous said...

Well, then why are some pushing for a boroughwide landmarks commissions?

You would be getting the same hacks doing the clubhouse bidding, but instead of going after the real bums, we would be fighting our bums.

That's progress.

Anonymous said...

Because the people pushing for each borough to have its own LPC are looking for jobs as high paid bench warmers!

Hello you local "hysterical societies" and "beautification groups"! Any nominations to submit?

Anonymous said...

The President Gresser referred to as "Honest" Larry Gresser is 2 generations removed from Carrol Gresser's husband, not one.

President Gresser was forced out of office on charges of incompetence after he refused to change his vote to support another Alderman at the Knickerbocker Conference, and his conviction was the truly shady part of that whole situation.

Sad how history is abused in the name of creating new political commentary.