Crowley removes opponent's supporters from community board

Word has come in that Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, who was given a tough time by Republican candidate Craig Caruana in last year's general election, has removed 2 of his supporters from Queens Community Board 5. Manuel Caruana, a long-time board member, Maspeth activist and uncle to Craig Caruana, and Vernon McDermott, a Caruana campaign supporter who owns a Ridgewood business and donates heavily to Ridgewood charities, were unceremoniously dumped by the sore winner. And of course, Queens Machine darling Melinda Katz went along with the bloodletting.

This is why you should never admire anyone seen receiving accolades from the borough president for having served on a community board for 20 or 30 years. If you've survived that long, you've more than likely been dead weight or a faithful defender of the Democratic Machine.

UPDATE: Also found out that Crowley dumped her own relative, Rose Johnson, off the board for no specific reason. Johnson has been the community board member most outspoken against the Knockdown Center.

Crowley takes credit for things she didn't do

Ooooh, I can't wait to hear this!

"When a house is sold in my neighborhood, I no longer worry about a developer tearing it down to build an oversized eyesore. Thanks to Elizabeth's rezoning, we will never have to worry about overdevelopment again."

Is this guy serious? First of all, the rezoning process for Maspeth-Middle Village-Glendale was started in 2004 by community volunteers, 3 years after Elizabeth Crowley initially ran for City Council, lost, and promptly disappeared. While civic groups were going door-to-door collecting building information, Elizabeth Crowley had a no-show job courtesy of Brian McLaughlin. She resurfaced only in 2008 to run for Council again. The ULURP for the rezone started a few months after Elizabeth assumed power in 2009, mainly because Amanda Burden insisted on personally touring the area before giving her seal of approval. Although the rezoning provides more protection from overdevelopment, there still is plenty of it around these neighborhoods. You'll still see 3 or 4-family houses being built in the future where there currently are one-family houses. And a lot of the area was not rezoned because City Planning couldn't decide which zone it fell into or felt the zoning already matched the housing stock.

Crowley doesn't send her kids to the Maspeth High School. And I guess she thinks we forgot that she voted against the construction of the school and that a lot of Maspeth moms can't send their kids to the school because Crowley failed to obtain the necessary concessions from the DOE. We didn't.

She's fighting for good schools, but the one she is at apparently has a teacher that can't spell the word "repercussion". Hmm. They must have known she was coming, however, because the words "fallacy" "manic" "recession" and "indict" appear next to her head on the blackboard.

This is the creepiest mailer of the bunch. A woman appears on the cover of the folded mailer. When you open it up...

Crowley appears next to her. (She apparently was photoshopped out of the cover.)

Crowley's office referred a constituent to a social worker who enrolled her in Medicaid. That's a basic function of a council member, not fodder for a mailer.

The Forum endorsed Crowley's opponent, Craig Caruana:

The 30th Council District is facing a laundry list of intimidating issues: A woeful lack of senior housing, overcrowded classrooms, an arts center that aims to serve liquor to thousands of patrons in a residential area inhabited by many older residents and families, and not enough green space.

There is much that needs to happen for the district’s residents, and in order for that to happen there must be an elected official who is not only responsive to constituents’ needs but able to get along with the City Council’s top brass, including the Speaker.

That person is Craig Caruana.

We know that Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has done some good. She has put money into schools and parks. But she has not done nearly enough. Fairly or not, she couldn’t get along with Council Speaker Christine Quinn – and that has hurt the district financially. She is routinely missing in action when it comes to responding to constituent complaints, and, when asked if she would run for a third term – something she repeatedly slammed Mayor Bloomberg for pushing – she didn’t say no. Additionally, she is supporting the Knockdown Center, despite almost every other elected official and numerous civic groups in the area raising a litany of concerns about the facility’s request to serve alcohol to up to 5,000 people at the site.

We need someone who will listen to, and fight for, the people.

Craig Caruana grew up in Middle Village – he knows this district. An involved civic activist, he is committed to this neighborhood and will fight for his constituents – whether they are Democrats or Republicans.

It’s time to vote in someone who aims to reduce property taxes and bring more resources to area schools. Who will return phone calls and get along with other legislators. Who won’t say, with a wink, sure, I’d love for that to happen – and then never follow through.

Vote Craig Caruana Nov. 5.

For comparison, here are some of his mailers:

Glendale rallies against proposed homeless shelter

A whole lot of people turned out yesterday morning to protest against the proposed Cooper Avenue homeless shelter. Public safety and property values are at stake, as well as the vast amount of taxpayer money that would be required to clean up the highly contaminated site. Photos were taken by the Craig Caruana campaign.




Out of curiosity, I went to Elizabeth Crowley's page to look for pics, but there was no mention of her appearance at the rally. The day's photos included the following:

Anyway, she did make the rally, but left as soon as Caruana started speaking. The event continued for about 2 hours after that.

Crowley wants a 2nd AND 3rd term

Well, here's part 4 of the CD30 candidates' debate. In this segment, Liz Crowley basically states that she will run for a third term if elected to a second, even though she criticized Mayor Bloomberg for pushing for the extension before she assumed power. Then she and her sisters scream like a banshees at Paul Graziano, who asked a question from the audience about her support of a bill that prevents Rikers Island from reporting to ICE the presence of illegal alien criminals. (How dare he ask about her past voting record!) Finally, when a question from the audience asks why the renovation of the Juniper Valley Park bocce courts was so expensive, her answer was, "that's what it costs these days". The rude interrupting behavior continues.

Then in the last segment, when the candidates were allowed to ask each other questions, Crowley is asked why the good government group Citizens Union didn't support her, and dodges the question by pointing out that Caruana didn't get the endorsement because he was a racist, which Citizens Union never cited as their reason:



I'm sure a lot of people went home scratching their heads after witnessing this event.

Crowley thinks rules don't apply to her

Here's clip #3 of the Caruana-Crowley debate. This segment includes questions about creating jobs, reconstruction of South Middle Village streets (3:40), improving constituent services (7:45), audience questions: wages (11:30), business interference (13:00), 'no truck' signs on Furmanville Ave (14:50).

(Crowley is most out-of-control in this segment.)

More of the exciting CD30 debate

Since yesterday's CD30 debate video clip was so popular, I thought I would post the second part of the debate:


The questions are about Ridgewood Reservoir, the 311 system (4:50), St. Saviour's (8:50), funding for the district (12:10), overcrowding in schools (15:05).

You'll notice that when asked about the St. Saviour's money, Crowley says it is protected, however, Alex Rosa from the Queens Borough President's office has confirmed that it was taken back by OMB during the last budget cycle. In addition, Crowley does not say where she would create much needed park space in Maspeth when asked directly. She also boasts about creating new school seats, but forgets the fact that she actually voted against the Maspeth High School.

Crowley-Caruana debate a real doozy

"There was a debate last night in Middle Village for the 30th Council District. The incumbent, Elizabeth Crowley, and challenger, Craig Caruana, had a lengthy discussion of the issues. The panelists were Liam Laguerre, reporter for the Queens Courier, Rob Pozarycki, Assistant Editor of the Times Newsweekly, and Paul Graziano, urban planner and civic activist from northeast Queens.

The first segment is here, and includes candidate introductions, questions about the Knockdown Center in Maspeth (5:30), proposed Glendale homeless shelter (11:15) and problems with garbage freight railroads (15:45). According to Crowley, the Knockdown Center will provide jobs, and despite all the stuff that has been revealed to have gone on at the site, it's no match for the campaign contributions that she has received from the investors. She claims the site has the potential to create 1,500 jobs, even though the owner himself has only estimated about 30. The proposed Glendale homeless shelter is not a threat at all, because Crowley says so. (Tell that to the hundreds of people expected to rally this Saturday against it.) And finally, a former Republican council member moved freight rail operations into people's backyards before Crowley took office. Which isn't at all true." - Christina Wilkinson

Democratic Machine barks an order; good government group complies

From Crain's:

The good-government group Citizens Union canceled its planned endorsement of a Republican challenger in a little-watched City Council race after two Democratic lawmakers complained about his campaign literature, its executive director confirmed.

Citizens Union announced Friday morning that it would not support anyone in the Queens race between incumbent Democratic Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and a young Republican former television producer, Craig Caruana. The organization had told Mr. Caruana it would endorse him this week. Ms. Crowley, a cousin of powerful Queens Democratic leader Joe Crowley, is heavily favored to win re-election.

In an email to reporters, the good-government group explained that it had backed away from supporting Mr. Caruana upon learning this week of literature mailed to voters by his campaign.

"After the Citizens Union board met yesterday and reviewed the message of the flyer and its consequences, it felt the flyer crossed a line and engaged in inappropriate fear-mongering that unfairly targets immigrants," the group explained.

Not mentioned was that two members of the City Council had called Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey this week to complain about the impending endorsement. Manhattan Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, the co-chair of the council's Progressive Caucus and a candidate for council speaker, brought the matter to Mr. Dadey's attention, he said. Councilman Danny Dromm, a Queens Democrat, also called to register his concern.

First of all, the mailer doesn't target immigrants, it targets people trespassing on American soil. Big difference.

Interesting that 2 council members from outside the district (one from Manhattan) would call Citizens Union about an endorsement and that Citizens Union would listen to them. Citizens Union is not an immigrant rights group, they are supposed to be a good government group. It's never a good thing when the government tells a good government group what to do, and they do it. They have a long history of doing so, however. It's pretty sad.

An actual quote from their director: “Citizens Union has been pleased to work over the past couple of years with reform-minded individuals like Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Christine Quinn.”

Oy vey!

And it's quite interesting that a mailer about a piece of legislation that Citizens Union decided not to take a position on was a dealbreaker for Caruana, yet the many mailers from the real estate PAC, Jobs for New York, on behalf of CD19 candidate Paul Vallone, didn't cause them to bat en eyelash when deciding to endorse Vallone in that race. Outside spending in elections is usually a top 5 concern for good government groups, but for CU, it's of no concern.

At the end of the day, I'm not sure Caruana would have wanted to be on the same endorsement list as Paul Vallone and Melinda Katz, anyway.

Craig Caruana to challenge Crowley for Council

From the Queens Chronicle:

Middle Village native Craig Caruana wants the Republican Party to take back the 30th District City Council seat and said he’s the man for the job when he announced his candidacy in front of the Little League clubhouse in Glendale on Monday.

“We are lacking leadership in this district,” Caruana said in front of family, friends and supporters. “What we need is someone who will take responsibility for what happens in Queens.”

Caruana also addressed what he called missteps current Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) made throughout her term.

“Property taxes have gone up 11 times over the past 10 years,” Caruana said. “And when you ask Councilwoman Crowley about it, she says it’s complicated. Water rates have also increased, and yet it was met by a stunning silence of indifference from the councilwoman.”

Caruana went on to criticize the councilwoman for bringing in the least amount of discretionary funding in the entire borough.

“What does the councilwoman say about the lack of money coming into this district?” Caruana asked. “She complains that the 30th District doesn’t receive funds because the speaker is mean and doesn’t like her. These are all excuses. We need someone who doesn’t complain about colleagues but who works with them.”