Mayor Bill de Blasio met with Councilmember Karen Koslowitz and Central Queens community leaders to discuss the plan to build a 30-story jail in Kew Gardens on Wednesday afternoon, but the event was closed to members of the press. The discussion about the jail plan took place a few weeks after officials from the mayor’s office banned reporters from two previous meetings.
A spokesperson for Koslowitz told the Eagle that the event was “the mayor’s meeting” and that he believed about 30 people were invited, including members of the Queens Advisory Committee on Rikers. Koslowitz supports the plan for the new jail at 26-02 82nd Ave., near the Queens Criminal Courthouse.
The mayor’s office did not provide a list of attendees, an agenda or the meeting minutes when contacted by the Eagle.
“Not every meeting is subject to open meetings law because some are purely advisory and don’t have a formal government role, nor do the people involved vote on any aspect of the plan,” a spokesperson for the mayor told the Eagle. “Their purpose is to gain valuable initial feedback before having broader community meetings that will be open press. Not every conversation government has with the public is open to members of the media.”
Meeting attendees included de Blasio’s Senior Advisor for Criminal Justice Freya Rigterink and Deputy Director of Close Rikers and Justice Initiatives Dana Kaplan, Patch reported.
Department of Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann and the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit Commissioner Marco Carrion also attended, according to Patch, which has led local coverage of the Kew Gardens jail plan.
De Blasio acknowledged community opposition to the proposed jail, which would rise 30 stories at a site next to the Queens Criminal Courthouse and dormant Queens House of Detention. The facility would house all the women detained in New York City, the mayor’s office said Friday.
When we ask a community to do something for the whole city, which is what we're doing here, then the community has a right to say, here are things that would help our community, including things we've been trying to get for a long time and haven't gotten," de Blasio told attendees, according to a recording obtained by Patch. "How can we say to the community, we're asking you to shoulder a burden but we want to do something back that's really going to make a difference?"
5 comments:
"How can we say to the community, we're asking you to shoulder a burden but we want to do something back that's really going to make a difference?"
How about leave us the fuck alone?
Nothing like an open government! But if he ran again tomorrow New Yorkers would happily re elect him. Go figure!
This is nonsense. Remember with all the shelter crap how they said they'd be placing residents in or near the neighborhoods they used to live in? Well how is it fair that ALL women in the city jail system get dumped in Kew Gardens?? And what the hell was wrong with Rikers anyways!? That's where this crap should be.
> The facility would house all the women detained in New York City, the mayor’s office said Friday.
I thought one of the points of having these decentralized, boro specific jail facilities was to have the accused closer to their families for easier visitation. What's the point if all the women are in one boro?
The kickbacks for developing Rikers will be huge.
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