Desperate times call for desperate measures

From the Daily News:

The opening of a controversial homeless shelter slated for Maspeth, Queens, has been postponed, officials said Wednesday.

The shelter was set to open Oct. 1 in a converted Holiday Inn.

“This postponement gives us the opportunity to continue to bring pressure on the City to change its plan for Maspeth,” said Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens).

City Hall sources said the plan will still go forward and the opening will only be pushed back a few weeks.

Compare the coverage above to this coverage from QNS:

The planned opening date of Oct. 1 for the proposed homeless shelter at the Holiday Inn Express on 55th Road has been postponed, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey announced on Wednesday.

After holding phone conversations with both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Steve Banks, Department of Homeless Services (DHS) commissioner, on Sept. 6 and 7, Markey reported that the city has agreed to not move forward with the original opening date of Oct. 1 for the proposed shelter, and will continue to evaluate the plan and the program for location.

“This postponement gives us the opportunity to continue to bring pressure on the city to change its plan for Maspeth,” Markey said. “With [the] Community Board 5 (CB 5) review still underway, we still have not seen answers to our continuing concerns about the location of the facility, the track record of the proposed provider and details about the financial arrangement between the city, Acacia Network and the hotel owner.”

Shortly after the shelter proposal was made in early August, Markey reached out to City Comptroller Scott Stringer to aide her in examining the proposal. Stringer then met with Markey, other elected officials and local civic leaders where he explained that he is responsible for reviewing the contract for any facility once it is submitted. As of today, Markey announced, Stringer has yet to receive a contract for the proposed shelter at the Holiday Inn.

This has set off a bunch of questions which I think we all can answer rhetorically.

• Do we really think that a phone call from Marge ("Why are you booing me?") Markey caused Steven Banks and Bill de Blasio postpone this, or was it the fact that the community held a march shutting down streets and exposing the fact that the owner has a history of bribery?
• As shelter contracts require 30 days written notice to the community, if I was a reporter, I would have called the comptroller's office on September 1, which was the deadline for the receipt of the proposal. Upon finding out that there was no submission, I would have reported that the plan was obviously delayed and investigated why.
• Why were Fox 5 and PIX11 news at the protest last night while the local press was busy crafting a politician's press release into a story?
• Do they all realize that Joe Addabbo told protesters last night that he found Markey's claim surprising being that he and and Liz Crowley didn't receive notification from the city that the plan is delayed?
• Do we think that this "story" is conveniently timed just before the primary coming up this Tuesday to Make Marge Markey look like she is actually doing something?