Where will Civic Virtue finally rest?
From
Pix11:
...what will become of the empty space at Queens Borough Hall? The city and the office of the Queens Borough President is considering landscaping the area and adding plants to honor the women leaders of the borough.
Richard Iritano and the members of Civic Virtue Task Force question the deal that gave the statue to the cemetery in Brooklyn for an undefined amount of time.
10 comments:
Why don't we build a statue there honoring the illegal immigrant there. We seem to be so excited to have them in this boro. A statue honoring them at Queens boro hall only seems fitting.
They'd better not honor Claire Shulman.
She was Domald Manes' "right hand man"....
a wolf in sheep skin.
How about a new statue composed of various coiled reptiles. That is the true nature of borough hall.
Notice that everyone working in borough hall look like clones of Barry Gradonchek and the women like Alexandra Roosa?
Every time I see Queens Borough Hall i think that somewhere there is a Turnpike Commission or a Water Authority that needs a fine administration building.
Bring "Civic Virtue" Back, only because it seems to piss all the politicians off
Who are these famous women leaders in Queens that have been bandied about? It's been 2 years since the not so subtle symbolic removal of civic virtue of Queens to the graveyard in Brooklyn and I haven't read or heard a thing about who they have in mind of honoring.
The only women I can think of any accomplishment are not those elected or involved in any influential activism are those in entertainment (Cyndi Lauper,Nicki Minaj, and Lucy Lui). I hope Mama Katz is not thinking of saving the space for herself and the prior douchehags Marshall and Schulman who held her post
Good Luck R.I., and keep on commenting the way you do. Reading them improves attention span
And death to Neo-Fascism in New York.
If ever there was a quintessential time for a statue that embodies and personifies Civic Virtue to prevail, and rise above corruption and vice in Queens County---then it would be right here, right now. No civic organization (like Civic Virtue Task Force), should have to beg and plead to be heard at the new (but oh, so old) Queens Borough Hall---yet, ironically that's exactly what my organization has been up against, since last April 8, 2014, when my passionate members and I met with Czar Barry Grodenchik, and Cultural Affairs Director Nayelli Valencia Turrent. Whereas, Ms. Turrent recently accepted my telephone calls on March 25th and 30th, respectively, we have still not heard back anything from Mr.Grodenchik, despite more than a year of letters, e-mails and telephone calls. If Melinda Katz is a leader of actions over words, then she will start to order better (and responsive) training for her staff. To simply ignore and dismiss the issues of great community concern is to devalue honesty itself!
Therefore, I will continue to talk "TRUTH" to purported "POWER" (respectfully, as always), while NEVER airbrushing reality (as I say what I mean, and mean what I say), and always keep the message of civic virtue in focus when engendering honest, ethical leadership (that leads by example), for all humankind.
In closing, I urge Madam President Katz to hold one of those transparent meetings that I've heard her speak about before Community Board 9 last year, and to work with the same speed, urgency and efficiency that former BP Helen Marshall acted unilaterally with to banish Civic Virtue from Queens County altogether (which also added great insult to injury when the statuary's great beauty was audaciously displaced to the obscurity of a Brooklyn Cemetery,albeit one of the greatest--among the dead---which was Marshall's final act of contempt and defiance for a borough that she recklessly served with arrogance, ignorance, dishonesty, dishonor, disloyalty, dysfunction and a total dereliction of public duty (except for ribbon cutting ceremonies, grand openings and galas that no one ever asked for---much less cared about, like that hideous pavilion in the back of borough hall that cost millions that is now collecting very expensive cobwebs).
We, the members of Civic Virtue Task Force, hereby request openness and transparency for the statue's grand return---and just in time to once again serve as the sentinel of Queens atop a properly working, restored, conserved and preserved fountain, and one of equally breathtaking purpose, meaning and beauty. To take any less action with a project of such marginally low (but profoundly serious) budgeting requirements, would be yet another reckless contempt and disregard for the politically invisible taxpayers' of Queens---who already paid for Civic Virtue's restoration and unauthorized eviction, but, ironically must now travel across the border to Brooklyn to enjoy it's allegorical message and aesthetics, when it could have (and should have) remained at the exact location for more than 70 years that Civic Virtue itself is urgently needed---adjacent to Borough Hall, where the tone deaf are still not receiving the message---or the messenger!
What unfortunately did not come through in Mocker's report, is that the decision to remove the Civic Virtue statue from Queens was made with little to no official public participation process. Now the same thing is happening with the planning of what to do with the vacant plaza where the statue used to be. The public never asked for any memorial to women leaders of Queens at the plaza site; this is being foisted upon us by Shulman, Marshall and Katz.
The public has paid for the cleaning and restoration of the Civic Virtue statue, and wants it returned to Queens. The statute's "loan" to Green-Wood cemetery is over.
Unfortunately, Anonymous is right. During my five minute interview with Greg Mocker of WPIX-11 on Thursday afternoon, April 9th, I was very specific in my language that demanded accountability from this purportedly new and transparent administration of Melinda Katz---and just as I was speaking the truth to Mr. Mocker---my interview was profoundly edited (beyond reason and logic).
Consequently, what Mocker chose to edit and broadcast omitted the most important points of an open interview about a lack of accountability and transparency in Queens Borough Hall in the first place! It's been exactly a year that my organization, Civic Virtue Task Force, met with Community Boards Director Barry Grodenchik, and Director of Cultural Affairs Nayelli Valencia Turrent, on April 8, 2014. Since that time, I have spoken publicly at Community Board 9's meetings last year, regarding why there has been zero follow up with Melinda Katz and her directors, despite multiple telephone calls, letters and e-mails that continue to be ignored, to date. Why doesn't Community Board 9 matter (they voted on keeping Civic Virtue in Kew Gardens many times over the years, when Mary Ann Carey was district manager, and their position has not changed under CB 9's newest District Manager, Lisa Gomes).
So, until Madame President Katz starts meaning what she says (and saying what she means), we, the overburdened taxpayer will continue to struggle against a pitifully evasive administration that continues to show its arrogance, contempt and defiance for public referendum, democracy and the affirmed voice of a majority rule, with impunity---exactly like former Queens Borough President, Helen Marshall herself---whose final act of arrogance, contempt and defiance manifested itself with the ordered removal of a 16-ton statue that promotes civic virtue, that was banished to an obscure Brooklyn graveyard---among the dead! And that is what ALL Queens politicians ascribe to their unlawfully ignored constituents and subjects. It's a royal "SCREW YOU MONARCHY" that defies and betrays public integrity, justice, accountability and lawful conduct. In the end, it also devalues honest, ethical leadership (that leads by example).
In conclusion, I urge you, Melinda Katz and your purportedly transparent, open policy administration (your words) to finally take form in a follow up meeting with ALL members of my organization, to openly discuss a citizen/resident-approved plan to return Civic Virtue to its rightful (and only) public viewing site in Kew Gardens Plaza, and to start working on the conservation of the fountain base itself, so that our borough's gifted statue will finally be displayed atop a working water fountain that will instantly beautify Borough Hall itself---unless your credo (as a custodian of trust) within Queens Borough Hall is to continue to maintain a "Delay, Deny And Hope That You Die" position of public betrayal, lawlessness and anarchy.
The eyes and ears are upon you, Madam President. Do the right thing right now, and maybe public trust and restorative justice will once again prevail upon the many fed up and disgusted residents of this politically tonsured borough of endless corruption and graft might lend itself a few rays of sunshine---the only cleansing agent that is desperately needed to restore order and trust! Tick tock. . .
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