Sunday, October 18, 2015

A matter of priorities

From George the Atheist:

$1 Million for a Dog Run in Astoria. $1.5 Million for a Dog Run in East Elmhurst.

In Your Dreams: that $2.5 Million Fantasy Funding Moving Along Nicely Provided by the On-The-Ball Queens Political Establishment for the Construction of the Dog Run at the Steinway Mansion. A State-of-the-Art Facility with Spacious Room for Queens Dogs to Enjoy.

What that $ 2.5 million could have bought: a dog run, a public park, and preservation of historical legacy. Now this:



Message to those of us here to actually remember the first round of Dinkins from deBlasio: Let go of the past! Notice how Aubry mentions that the park space upgrade is meant for the homeless moving into the area's new shelters.

23 comments:

JQ said...


That scenery is just ugly. In retrospect, after all the utopian rhetoric of their campaign promises, what the priorities of the Blaz and the Katz were. This picture is the definitive symbol of all the reshaping of the city from unscrupulous rapacious development that has metastized in just a few years time (sorry for another cancer reference)

What is going to be in those "structures" anyway?

Anonymous said...

A dozen gin joints, Malinda, Costa and Micheal Gee

Hoisting a few with 'We Heart Astoria' Three,

All declare how great Astoria's future will be.

And the Mansion gone by 2023!

Anonymous said...

Are the shelters going to have dog houses or does Fido get his own apartment?

Middle Villager said...

Proof that NYC is "going to the dogs".

Anonymous said...

You forgot to add that the President of Rufus King Manor, Gerry Caliando, who deserves a long standing spot on Community Board 1 (as opposed to no-accounts like the local Historical Society) is the architect for this.

And lets not forget Melinda's other accomplishment, painting the Worlds Fair Pavilion thereby 'saving it' and the Clock Tower Building getting landmarked in an amazing few months by a couple of whiz kids imported from Manhattan (so that the 77 story monster behind it gets nice views)>

Meanwhile Douglaston has to deal with the antics of yet anther knucklehead Vallone ... and Richmond Hill and Broadway Flushing? Well they can just sit there.

This is what people see as the real Queens, and why the tennis and baseball fans come out there, do their thing, and flee as soon as their events are over.

Joe Moretti said...

This borough sucks, plain and simple. It is just becoming a low-class third world cast-off and the elected officials here suck totally, which is pretty obvious with all that has happened here. Amazing with the exception of Queens Crap, this story has been pretty much completely ignored by the media.

World's borough my ass. Third World Borough is more like it.

Bob in the Bizarro Borough said...

Jeffrion Aubry. (Related to Gene Autry?) What the hell is a Jeffrion Aubry? I'll tell you what: he's the biggest do-nothing wet fart that ever came down the political pike.

BTW: Check out the masterful Academy-award winning cinematography and editing on George's video linked to at the outset of Crapper's post.

Can you believe this? Two and a half million dollars for dogs while the Steinway Mansion rots up on that hill. Constantinides, Katz, Gianaris, Vallone et alia. How do you look yourselves in the mirror without turning red with shame?

Anonymous said...

How come the East Elmhurst dog run gets a half million dollars more than the Astoria one?

Anonymous said...

These commie bastards you idiots elected before I moved here will be the death of us. To hell with all democrats -and most republicans. Fie, fie.

Anonymous said...

In your face attitude from some of these "elected officials".
No disrespect to dogs and dog owners, but the politicos think more of them and less of the regular, average voters. Pathetic.

Anonymous said...

And what's this bit about the BP touting Queens as the "Boro of Families"??? What does that mean? I just don't get it. Like Brooklyn or a The Bronx or the whole US isn't made up of families???

(sarc) said...

Priorities...

Anonymous said...

These commie bastards you idiots elected before I moved here will be the death of us. To hell with all democrats -and most republicans. Fie, fie.
^

With comments like this from the electorate we can understand (although this sounds a tad too planted to be real)

So what they hell do we do? All this Capital Budget issues in Queens has a common thread - enormous sums of money that has disappeared with no real accounting into projects that last for years - look at the Kew Gardens interchange, or the Borough Hall garage, to say nothing of the Library.

Even the cases that Katz touted, the 2 DECADE farce around Bowne House, has become legendary money pits. Cover that one Crappy!

Anonymous said...

Constantinides, Katz, Gianaris, Vallone et alia. How do you look yourselves in the mirror without turning red with shame?

I AM SURE THEY HAVE NO PROBLEM BECAUSE THEY KNOW YOU WILL DO NOTHING AS THEY TAKE MONEY FROM YOUR FAMILY AND PISS AWAY YOUR TAXES AWARDING PARTY LOYALTY TO INSIDERS.

THE MACHINE = HONEST GRAFT

Missing Foundation said...

A major reason for this reckless governing is the Machine has pretty much squeezed the life out of the borough making it little more than place where it can harvest money to pay its goons while Queens sinks into a 3rd world ghetto.

What was once a model of planning is now a ramshackle mess. The few islands of nice places that remain are slowly being engulfed by spreading ghettoization.

The biggest problem are the people - ground down with 'you can't fight borough hall (read 'the Machine)' and 'if you don't like it leave.'

They have nowhere to turn. Until now.

Blogs like Crappy display the hollowness of those who rule over us. Crappy's strongest strength is to destroy the legitimacy of the Machine - undercutting the support of those who are bought off.

Support like that is a mile wide but only an inch deep. It will bolt for the exit at the first hint of weakness in the governing class.

The Machine is an anachronism. Its collapse will be sudden and complete when that happens. Think of the Soviet Union.

Not next year, not in the next decade - perhaps.

But when the public suddenly wakes up to party slogans that are meaningless noise, a leadership whose value system the public cannot connect to (get real - how many really buy into Katz and her 'lifestyle.') and real needs unmet while dog owners get millions (or transgender Pacific Islanders get attention, funding and programs while the Neanderthal asshole across the street can destroy property values up and down the block with impunity because he makes a donation to 'tha boys') the inevitable handwriting is on the wall.

Give it a little more time.

(sarc) said...

priorities...

Anonymous said...

http://georgetheatheist.blogspot.com/2015/10/1-million-for-dog-run-in-astoria-15.html

The pictures of Vallone's Steinway disaster is priceless with Patti Page singing "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" is priceless. Should be played at the next Astoria Civic Meeting.

Anonymous said...

"The Machine is an anachronism. Its collapse will be sudden and complete when that happens. Think of the Soviet Union."... Here is an unpleasant thought, it took 50 years for the Soviet Union to collapse and under Putin it is making a return to the old days. I will settle for voting these assholes out before they start rigging elections (more than they already do).

Anonymous said...

Currently is the European Union. Same crap.
Putin does not want Soviet Union.
That's nonsense spewed by the bought and paid for media.

Anonymous said...

More evidence building of Vallone and his Astoria Civic honchos involved in Steinway Mansion fiasco. We should start to shine the light on that Civic - mysterious as to who is involved or what they do - besides trying to use taxpayer funds for the 'Vallone Scholarship' and that bike race aimed at Astoria's shrinking family base.

Odd group indeed - once went to a dinner and left at 11:30 PM having not eaten as they give out one plaque after another to each other - they must have 15 Vice Presidents each on older than the last.

Also like how Vallon's boy Risi is running for CB1 chair. Now what would all the hipster dog owners that the Vallones are trying to buy with our wasted taxes think if they knew that Risi tried to convince Bohemian Hall to sell their park for development - as they convinced the Halberians to do the same with the Mansion.

In any case, information is building on the Vallone involvement - as well as who really owns the mansion. Stay tuned. This will be fun!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Here is an unpleasant thought, it took 50 years for the Soviet Union to collapse and under Putin it is making a return to the old days.
--
Here is a pleasant thought: (BTW Putin is not Caesar but Justinian) The people running Queens are not nearly as smart as the people running Russia.

Here is an unpleasant thought: The Queens Machine with their intolerance of diversity of thought is increasingly becoming fascist.

Anonymous said...

Jeffrion Aubry is a leftover from the Manes Shulman days.
Case closed.

Anonymous said...

In any case, information is building on the Vallone involvement - as well as who really owns the mansion.
--
hmmm, will they unravel the mystery of McNamara before the real McNamara tracks him down?