From the Neighborhood Retail Alliance:The mayor is touting the record level response times of the FDNY-but the quickest response came from the UFA, which yesterday wasted little time in jumping in to endorse Bill Thompson for mayor. As City Room reports, a great deal of the union animosity can be traced back to clueless Nicholas Scoppetta: "Stephen Cassidy, the president of the Uniformed Firefighters’ Association, which represents 8,900 firefighters, praised Mr. Thompson as “smart, tough and fair’’ and directed harsh criticism at Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, who was appointed by Mr. Bloomberg. “The Fire Commissioner of the city of New York has always set accountability for firefighters but not for himself,” Mr. Cassidy said. “Eight years under Mike Bloomberg we’ve heard Nick Scoppetta say, ‘It’s not my fault.’”
The biggest point of contention, as Wayne Barrett (as well as ourselves) has pointed out, revolves around the Deutsche Bank fire: "Mr. Cassidy said he held Mr. Scoppetta accountable for the deaths of two firefighters two years ago at a fire at the Deutsche Bank Building in Lower Manhattan. A report by the Manhattan district attorney’s office said several city agencies had failed to properly monitor the building, where a basement standpipe meant to deliver water to firefighters had been disabled, apparently without the Fire Department’s knowledge.
In addition, the UFA takes issue with the planned spate of firehouse closings-and hits at the term limit over turn as well: "As rows of firefighters stood behind him, Mr. Cassidy criticized the mayor for his plan, a budget deal with the City Council, to close 16 firehouses. He also criticized Mr. Bloomberg for his push to persuade the City Council to change the term limits law so he could run for a third term."
6 comments:
Come down to 18th Street in Astoria where you can visit the open air museum of present, future and pending building collapses with at least 6 examples in a convenient 1-block area.
Sites include the building with substandard mortar, the open pit in swampy ground that is starting to collapse in on itself, the building where the supports to all the floors have been removed and two ceiling collapes have already imperiled tenants, one of who is using wood braces like what is used in mines to hold his ceiling up.
Then there is the building at the end of 18th Street nearest Astoria Boulevard where a builder's crane drove a retaining wall onto a house and totally destroyed it. It is a vacant lot now.
Thanks you guys for throwing some water on this this tyrant's fire.
NO THIRD TERM for this usurper of democracy!
Now let's all give Mayor Mike a good hosing at the polls come November.
reason Bloomy doesn't care about this; at least 3 guys on that stage I know live on LI, he knows most of them don't vote here and when was the last time you heard someone say if the FD is voting that way so will I. The man is an ass but he knows who to pander to.
"when was the last time you heard someone say if the FD is voting that way so will I."
Actually, in past elections, the NYPD, FDNY and UFT endorsements were influential to how people voted. They say in their minds, "if the backbone of the city has no faith in him, then neither do I."
Just ask David Dinkins...
what about the fdny academy and the 100+ people who are uncertain when they will be hired by the department?
Thank you Firefighters for not only not endorsing him but more importantly puting the reasons and facts clearly out there.
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