Thursday, November 13, 2008

A sad day for democracy in NYC

The final vote was 42-2 with one absention and is yet another reason why we need term limits. We have a bunch at City Hall who is rotten to the core, can't think for themselves and easily succumb to mayoral pressure and bribery.

It turns out the deals for the 3 businesses to stay are only "temporary", the City has no idea how they will remediate the supposedly widespread contamination around them, the workers there have no guarantees for their future and there are sure to be eminent domain battles in court. The Council didn't seem to have a problem with any of it. These are supposed to be the people who push for laws protecting citizens from eminent domain abuse. Instead, they wholeheartedly embrace it. I guess ensuring basic American rights takes a back seat to greed.

This is yet another sad day in the City of New York. Democracy is dead.

Oh, and as this is NYC, the project is never going to happen.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

The NYC Council: lightweight, spineless political hacks.

Anonymous said...

See, the thing about democracy is that you vote, and the majority rules. It's "sad" when the side you want to win doesn't. Just like everyone up in arms about Prop 8 out in California, this is democracy in action, like it or not, agree with it or not.

Anonymous said...

No, the thing about democracy is that the people you vote for are supposed to represent the will of the people. With 85% of Americans against eminent domain abuse, and the council members themselves supposedly against it until backroom deals were made shows how pervasive the corruption in this city is.

Anonymous said...

Democracy would have been if they put this project up for referendum, like they do for major development projects in other cities.

This was councilpig action, not democracy.

Anonymous said...

the benefits of development far outweight the risks of eminent domain use.

The benefits to the people of NYC far outweigh a few greedy landowners.

This is why we elect people. To make these decisions and be forward thinking. NYC is a representative democracy not a plurality like California.

If you don't like it the GWB is that a way.

Anonymous said...

What Democracy? The one they show in the Term Limits vote.

These local dictators are on a role who knows what they will do next the want our tax transfered directly to their bank accounts

Anonymous said...

I would suggest that you refrain from accusing elected officials of accepting bribes when you can offer no real proof. Suggesting people are committing crimes is defamatory and opens you up to potential legal actions.

Queens Crapper said...

It's been widely reported that the Bloomberg administration offered council members sweet deals to vote for congestion pricing, term limits extensions and WP.

Categorizing them as bribes is within my first amendment rights as criticism of governmental actions.

Anonymous said...

Look at Biggie Smalls trying to change the subject again. What a tweed!

Anonymous said...

Biggie smalls is an edc shill. In his mind they have not done one thing wrong in this entire process and all of their lies and contradictions are acceptable. He would have a bright future on the city council, if only they hadn't overturned term limits, which he also probably thought was great. At least McShane expressed reservation over that and actually expressed that he didn't want to see eminent domain used.

Anonymous said...

Fear not, this is NYC-- nothing ever gets done:
Olympics-- Not
Better Schools--- Not
Congestion Pricing -- Not
Hudson Yards-- Not
Brooklyn yards-- Not
2nd ave subway-- Not
West Side subway connector -- Not
WTC site-- Not
Fulton St subway -- Not
Penn Station--- Not
Coney Island -- Not
Willets Point -- Not, or at least not until 2025...
Bloomberg's 3rd term--- Not
Our City Government lies and lies to its constituents.
Please remember the millions of dollars being wasted trying to push all of the above doomed plans.

Anonymous said...

Quess our fears about Councilman M were not unfounded.

Anonymous said...

Councilman Hiram Monser...RAT
surely got some gourmet cheese from Bloomie to cave in so quickly!

The clubhouse needs to be swept clean and thoroughly fumigated!

In the end it's the voters' fault
for letting these crooked pols turn their city into a shit house!

Wake up...stay alert and pay them back at the polls!

Anonymous said...

Friends,
we don't live in a Democracy
(let alone a republic).

We reside in a financial oligarchy
dominated by the NYC real estate industry!

Anonymous said...

You don't need a spine to be an NYC council member....
not with Bloomberg's "rod" stuck up your ass for a replacement!

Speaking of such...
I think I'll pour myself a stiff one.

Anonymous said...

this is the best thing that could have happened to all the businesses , in the city's haste to get the deal done so the council pigs could vote yes they opened the door wide open for the landowners to beat them. why can those 3 businesses stay and not the others? how will we raise the ground 6ft by these people? remember the flood plain? doesn't everyone need to be moved to clean the land? what happened to that? doesn't the contamination spread? so what this all means is that this will be held up in court for years ,and like mr bono said on the news he's not going anywhere. great move edc checkmate on you!!

Anonymous said...

Councilman M is a Parkside puppet.

Anonymous said...

monster-rat

Anonymous said...

Someone categorized the landowners as "greedy". Are you friggin kidding me? These people are being kicked off their land and having their industry closed by decree. A curse upon you!!!

Anonymous said...

Here's another perspective on the preposterous plan. Just think of all those people in downtown Flushing buying condos with a view of the Manhattan skyline as advertised. I wonder how many of those purchasers will lose their view as a result of the tall structures being planned for the site? I'll bet that there will be a lot of pissed off people.

Let us not even consider waking up to the smell of the beautiful Flushing River or the exhaust fumes of all the traffic build up. Anyone up for a jet fuel dump? Yum Yum. Noise? No problem. Crowds before and after events at Citifield, the Tennis Stadium, and planned convention center do not add to the peace and tranquility of a neighborhood, if this is what it is to be called.

What does Bumberg care? He and his cronies are far removed as are most of the tweeded politicians who gave a rubber stamp approval for this mess! The #7 riders will look back at this time and refer to it as the good old days. How sad.

Anonymous said...

i just heard the institute for justice is commin to save willets point

Anonymous said...

biggie is that you johnatan? mr edc?

Anonymous said...

why are the land owners greedy because they want whats fair and are not scared to stand up for it? hey these 3 guys got to stay and got a bump up on the zoning so they cash out pretty good, why shouldn;t everyone get that? hey biggie answer that . whats fair for them should be fair for all. i know if i owned land there thats what i would want

Anonymous said...

hey anonymus you mean 3 bizz got to stay and could cash out later and all the others have to go wow i see a lot of law suits commin and willets point never happen. now what are thoses met fans going to do when the mets dont make the play offs again where are they going to go and cry .wow these met fans are the only ones that will have a new stadum and junk yards next to it .

Anonymous said...

what happened to the rest of the businesses in area? how come they weren't incuded with the 3 weasels? sounds like they sold the area out at the last minute

Anonymous said...

what happened to the rest of the businesses in area? how come they weren't incuded with the 3 weasels? sounds like they sold the area out at the last minute

SOUNDS LIKE IT THEY MUST OF BROUGHT A LOT OF CASH TO EDC AND MONSTER--RAT TO MAKE THAT DEAL AND TULL HAS THE CASH TO DO IT

Anonymous said...

the benefits of development far outweight the risks of eminent domain use.
-----------

THE BENEFITS OF THE WORKER'S STATE FAR OUTWEIGH THE RIGHTS OF THE WORKERS.

Right?
Where did you grow up - the Soviet Union?

Anonymous said...

Crappy, who abstained? I've been on the road and not been able to easily find the answer.

I'd LOVE to hear why Letitia James, for example, did NOT vote NO.

Or do all her little anti-Atlantic Yards sycophants (that relationship works both ways, natch) forget she also abstained from voting NO on the evil Yankees Stadium deal?

(I despise At. Yards in every way but how about ethical consistency?)

NYC is the biggest goddamn fake liberal hick town of them all-- "The Great McGinty" was upstanding by comparison.

If it wasn't James who abstained, I would still like to know

1) Who did and why
2) Where was she?!

Props to Charles Barron and Tony Avell, the rest can get fucked, and that especially includes

Sara Gonzales of Sunset Park and Red Hook and ALL those scumbags in the Bronx-- most of whom sold out their own people long ago, so this isn't any suprise, alas.

Queens Crapper said...

All I know so far is that Thomas White was the only member of the Queens delegation who was not present.

Anthony Como and Joe Addabbo are two big disappointments on this issue.