Shafran campaign unintentionally funny

- He tells the Bay Club that he's been preparing to run for City Council his entire life
- The biggest hand he got was for mentioning the need for a traffic light on Corporal Kennedy street
- His "inspiring" story is just lame, and he's reading from prepared notes.
- He's speaking about himself in the 3rd person.
- People on the way to the buffet table cross in front of him while he is speaking.
- At the very end of the video, a woman yells out, “THANK YOU FOR BREAKFAST!” So that's how he got them to listen to him. Captive audience.

Here's his latest mailer:



Austin needs to understand that you can't ban outside employment unless you get the council job description changed from part-time to full-time.
The problem is not that the districts do not get an equal amount of ice cream money to spread around to local not-for-profits, the problem is that certain council members have been funneling this money to their relatives and friends. Evening out the playing field won't end political slush funds, it will just even out the playing field.
Does it really matter if lobbyists can't lobby their own family members in elected office? (This is currently illegal, anyway.) If they are family, it will behoove the family's long term financial picture for the elected official to vote in favor of whatever the firm's pushing for. Example: At some point, Pete Jr. and Paul are going to inherit the money Pete Sr. made lobbying. So of course they're going to vote yes on his projects without having been lobbied themselves.

Does anyone really believe that Austin spent time with his grandmother at the senior center?

Because breakfast in the cafeteria is not good enough...

From NY1:

On Wednesday, the City Council took a stand on free school breakfasts. Lawmakers want to make it mandatory in every classroom. It's now available in the cafeteria.

It's something that the Bloomberg administration has no appetite for. They contend the requirement might lead to childhood obesity, as some kids might have the day's most important meal twice.

What the hell is the need for breakfast in the classroom? Is the cafeteria not good enough? Are we going to foot the bill for extra pest control? Will teachers now add garbage collection to their résumés? Doesn't food in the classroom district from learning?

Billionaires' breakfast

From NY1:

The mayor had a power-packed breakfast this morning, hosting the major players behind the Atlantic Yards development project at Gracie Mansion.

Bagels were on the menu for this morning's breakfast meeting between Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov, arena developer Bruce Ratner and Nets co-owner Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter.

Prokhorov is in the city this week to take park in the NBA draft, after closing on a deal last week to buy 80 percent of the Nets and 40 percent of the arena, which will be called the Barclay Center. The arena is now under construction at the former site of the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn.

The Net's owner is making basketball history with his purchase of the team, as it is the first time there's an NBA team owner from outside of North America.