9-year-old girl asks Mayor de Blasio why he can't do his job right

     

NY Post

A precocious 9-year-old and the aunt of a teen killed by a stray bullet grilled Mayor Bill de Blasio about crime, homelessness and public transit at a Queens town hall Wednesday.

Amaryllis Greene, 9, drew applause and laughter from the audience of over 400 people assembled at Austin Martin High School in Jamaica, Queens, when she asked the mayor a list of questions including, “Why is the MTA never on time?”

The fourth-grader, who attends a Montessori school, also quizzed Hizzoner about delays on the Q43 bus line, homelessness on the trains and NYPD leadership.

“With all due respect, why was Mr. Benjamin Tucker not selected as police commissioner,” Greene asked about the NYPD’s first deputy commissioner who was passed over for the job in favor of his colleague, Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea.

De Blasio complimented the youngster, asking if he could call her “future council member,” then answered her questions.

He reminded her that the state, not the city, controls the MTA but promised improvements with funding from congestion pricing. He pledged to address vagrants on the subways by putting more outreach workers underground and explained that he “made the decision that Chief Shea was the right person to lead” the NYPD.

Outside the event, Greene told reporters she was unimpressed with the mayor’s answers and that she wanted to hear more about how he’d help get homeless people back on their feet.

I really, and I mean REALLY liked how that brilliant little girl used that line "with all due respect", because that line is only used when respect is obligatory than when it's actually deserved.

I also really like how this kid knows more about how to run a city and serve its citizens than that corrupt doofus does.

 

Free tampons are a priority for Ferreras

From PIX11:

City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland wants to remove some of the taboo around tampons for teen girls.

“We’re calling on all junior high schools and high schools, that there are available sanitary napkins in girls bathrooms so that you don’t have ask a teacher and share that very personal situation with a teacher or nurse,” Ferreras-Copeland told PIX11 News.

The idea was inspired by Ferreras-Copeland’s experience coordinating an after-school program in Queens.

She realized tampons and sanitary napkins can cost up to $10 for a box, and some students didn’t have the money and were ashamed to speak up.

I've honestly never heard of people being too poor to buy sanitary products. But anything pols can give away for free, they'll give away for free. Maybe the wrapper will sport the mugs of our council members - collect them all!

Girls kept in the dark

From the Daily News:

Some teen girls are learning how to rough it in a Queens park.

But this is no camping trip. The kids are members of a rowing club that uses the World’s Fair Boathouse in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, which has been without running water and electricity for the last three weeks due to a blown transformer.

The team has been using flashlights and generators to bring light into the historic space — and hauling buckets of water into the bathroom just to get the toilets to flush.

“Water splashes everywhere,” said Ivanna Espinoza, 14, a member of Row NY. “It’s really gross.”

The transformer malfunctioned in November, cutting power to the boathouse and that section of the park, officials said. The damage dates to Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Parks Department officials pointed out there is a comfort station near the Ederle Terrace area on the other side of Meadow Lake. But others said that is a far walk - especially in the dark.

Row NY leaders have been careful to keep an eye on the girls, walking them to cars and even driving them to the subway or home to avoid dark paths and roadways.

Pimps recruiting schoolgirls

From the Daily News:

Last year, there were nearly three times as many sex-trafficking arrests in Brooklyn than in any other borough — 23 compared with nine each in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, and none in Staten Island.

Rachel Lloyd, executive director of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, which helps trafficking survivors, said recruiting is happening everywhere, including schools.

“Pimps go where young people are,” she said.

“Teachers may think, that’s something happening in Thailand. But there could be a girl sitting your class who is two weeks away from being recruited, or who has already been recruited . . . . we’ve got girls in junior high who’ve been through this.”