MTA honors President Biden at incomplete Woodhaven Blvd Station renovation

  JQ LLC

I don't recall ever seeing infrastructure upgrades honoring a president before. This looks like a campaign ad for The Big Guy.

AOC goes from the Squad to the Biden Syndicate

AOC - "RICO is not a crime." pic.twitter.com/YcTusJAaP4

— MAZE (@mazemoore) March 20, 2024

President Biden blows off NYC 9/11 ceremony

 

 NY Daily News

We like round numbers: 20th anniversary, 30th anniversary, the Golden Jubilee.

But the 22nd anniversary of an evil terrorist attack on New York City and the rest of the nation is no less of a reason for the president of the United States to visit the World Trade Center and lay a wreath or something.

President Biden, it turns out, is in the midst of a nasty — and petty — feud with city and state officials over the city’s growing migrant crisis.

Instead, Biden will attend a 9/11 commemoration ceremony with military families on a patch of soil that seems about as far away from New York City as one can get — Anchorage, Alaska.

The president will be returning from a previously planned state visit to Vietnam on Sunday, which means he won’t attend the solemn event in Lower Manhattan for the second straight year.

That also means the tough-talking leader of the free world will avoid the awkward photo op with Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul, who have been feuding with the president and each other over a migrant crisis that, to use Adams’ words, “will destroy New York City.”

And, Biden could have done more to make sure he wasn’t in Alaska, of all places, on one of the most solemn days in New York City.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff are expected at the Ground Zero event on Monday marking the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on American soil, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

Planes hijacked that day also struck the Pentagon and a remote field in Shanksville, Pa.

Although it’s not a round number commemoration, the anniversary does mark a milestone moment.

The number of firefighters who have died from 9/11-related illnesses is now eerily close to the number of firefighter heroes, 343, who perished during the initial attack. To date, 342 FDNY members have died of World Trade Center-related illnesses.

“As we approach the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, the FDNY continues to feel the impact of that day. Each year, this memorial wall grows as we honor those who gave their lives in service of others,” said Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.

“These brave men and women showed up that day, and in the days and months following the attacks to participate in the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site. We will never forget them.”

 

12 billion dollars more

Photo by JQ LLC

NY Daily News  

New York City is on track to spend as much as $12 billion on managing the local migrant crisis by mid-2025 — a staggering price tag that Mayor Adams warned Wednesday will necessitate more “across the board” cuts to city services.

The new City Hall cost estimate — which was first reported by the Daily News ahead of its Wednesday morning release — eclipses the $4.3 billion Adams’ administration previously projected it would spend by July 2024 on housing, feeding and providing services for the tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived since last year.

Under the administration’s revised projection, which was prompted by a recent uptick in migrant arrivals, the city is expected to spend as much as $6.1 billion by July 2024. Costs are then set to surge further, reaching the $12 billion mark by July 2025, according to the projection.

“We are past our breaking point,” Adams said in a speech at City Hall, adding that it “breaks this city’s heart” that dozens of migrants resorted a few weeks ago to sleeping on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk after being told there was no more room in the city’s overcrowded shelter system.

On average, Adams said, the city is already spending $9.8 million per day on accommodating migrants. There are currently more than 57,000 migrants in the city’s shelters and emergency housing systems, most of them Latin Americans who arrived in New York after crossing the U.S. southern border in hopes of obtaining asylum status, according to Adams’ office.

Due to the ballooning price tag, Adams said his administration is in the process of scaling back services being offered to migrants in the city’s care. Perks like free meals, laundry and hygiene products are likely to be on the chopping block, Adams said.

“Every service must be cut,” he told reporters in the City Hall Rotunda after his speech. “Some of the things we were doing we are not going to be able to do.”

Beyond migrants, Adams said services being offered to New Yorkers are also likely to be trimmed back. “Every service in this city is going to be impacted,” he said.

Adams has already slashed spending at nearly all city agencies over the past year due to fiscal concerns largely driven by the migrant crisis. That has resulted in drastic service reductions, like the recent closure of a city Health Department library that emerged as a key scientific research resource during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The only way the city can avoid further budgetary pain is if President Biden’s administration provides Adams’ administration with more financial and logistical aid, the mayor said.

“The White House can help us now,” Adams said.

Let's go Brandon, show us the money.

 

City aborts migrant tent shelter in Aqueduct (again)

 

 

Adamsville in Aqueduct is kiboshed. https://t.co/GCyyobMnxX

— JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) July 18, 2023

 

 

So it turns out that Mayor Adams and his "team" considered using Aqueduct's parking lot for tent shelters before and decided to try again for some reason. It sure looks like this was a stunt pulled to make the civics look like a bunch of intolerant xenophobic racist NIMBY's. But that's hard to do when the officials and civic leaders against this plan and the president's and the city's failing policies on the migrant crisis have this much racial diversity.

7,900,000

NY Post 

The Big Apple’s shelter population has now surged to nearly 100,000 – doubling in size since last year — as a never-ending flow of migrants continues to flood into the city amid what has fast become a humanitarian and fiscal crisis.

As of this week, 98,400 people were being housed in city-run shelters — a population roughly equal to the size of Albany, according to City Hall’s latest headcount.

Nearly half of them – 48,700 – are asylum seekers.

In the last month alone, 13,000 migrants have been processed solely at the historic Roosevelt Hotel ever since it was repurposed into an asylum seeker welcome center.

But it’s not just the sheer number of migrants that’s staggering.

It costs roughly $385 a night to put up a migrant family in one of the city’s shelters, officials said – meaning the asylum-seeker crisis is setting taxpayers back about $7.9 million every day.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, warned the growing crisis will only set taxpayers back even more.

“The problem New York City is facing aren’t really Mayor Adams’s fault,” Krikorian told The Post on Friday.

“It’s Joe Biden’s fault. The root cause of these problems is sitting in the Oval Office.”

Caption President Beavis

"Do you have tee pee for my bunghole?"

 

 

 

Ida flood homeowner victims are still getting shafted by Biden

Queens Post 

Nearly four months after the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed 13 New Yorkers, residents in the hardest-hit areas like Woodside are still struggling with government agencies for financial assistance to repair flood damage.

Many of the victims allege that the damage to their homes is the result of the city’s failure to fix the drainage and sewerage system. They cited decades-long calls for updates to the sewer system.

Linda Carlson, who has lived in her Woodside home since 1994, took on four feet of water when Ida struck on Sept. 1, with three inches of rain falling in just an hour. A contractor quoted her $34,000 in damages. “I was one of the lucky ones,” she said.

Carlson was approved for $11,773.68 in assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, more than what many of her neighbors were approved for, she said.

She was granted an additional $1,419.86 when she appealed the offer—and said others affected by Ida should also contest what’s offered. “Everybody should. This was caused by the city,” she said. “We’ve been fighting for decades to have the infrastructure upgraded.”

Danette Rivera nearly drowned in her Woodside home where she’s lived for 14 years. Her son, who is legally blind, had to pull her out of the basement through a small window as it filled with seven and a half feet of water, she said.

“I’m grateful that I’m a survivor. Not everyone has that story to tell,” she said. “But I’m angry, I’m upset and I’m pissed off. This shouldn’t have happened to me, and it shouldn’t have happened to anybody else. People shouldn’t have died.”

Rivera, who estimates that the cost to repair the damage to her home is about $64,000, also applied for assistance from FEMA, but would not say how much she was offered.

The amount she was approved for fell well short of the cost of the damage, she said.

Like Carlson, she appealed her offer, but received a letter asking for documentation she said had already been sent to the agency. “The appeal process seems like it’s a gimmick,” Rivera said. “Basically, it’s like a runaround.”

FEMA spokesman Scott Sanders told the Queens Post late last year that there could be a variety of reasons why someone might receive less funding than they had hoped. “If you gave me a thousand different applicants, there’s a thousand different stories in there,” he said.

Federal disaster funds, he said, are “not a substitute for insurance. It can supplement insurance, but it can’t duplicate assistance people may get from other sources.”

Majority Leader Senator Schumer has a lot of 'splaining to do also.

 

Here's the majority leader emphasizing that homeowners will be grants and all damages will be paid for.

If only these residents can sue the city for infrastructure negligence pic.twitter.com/WdaNLMFo89

— JQ LLC: Impunity Swagger (@ImpunityCity) September 7, 2021

President Poopy Pants hooks up the city with new funding for transit, bridges and other things

 

 Gothamist

Congress passed a landmark bipartisan infrastructure bill late Friday that will bring billions of dollars to the New York City region, funding projects like elevator upgrades to the subway system and upgrades to Amtrak for the long-stalled Gateway Project to build tunnels under the Hudson River.

The infrastructure bill adds $550 billion to existing transportation spending for a total of $1.2 trillion, and now heads to President Joe Biden who is expected to quickly sign the legislation.

“Tonight, we took a monumental step forward as a nation,” Biden said in a statement early Saturday morning. “The United States House of Representatives passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a once-in-generation bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create millions of jobs, turn the climate crisis into an opportunity, and put us on a path to win the economic competition for the 21st Century.”

"Congress has made good on its promise to deliver infrastructure funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, meaning New York will be able to make critical investments in our roads, bridges, and transit,” Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement Saturday. “This funding also helps make our infrastructure more resilient to climate change and will expand access to clean water, supporting New York's economic growth and improving public health.”

For the New York City region, the bill could be transformative, said Carlo Scissura, president and chief executive officer of the New York Building Congress. Among other projects, funding will go to building the extension of the Second Avenue subway line, the revitalization of the Port Authority bus terminal, upgrading the subway’s signals and improving trip times, and bridge and road upgrades for Long Island and Westchester.

“It really does transform the physical part of our region in a way that we haven't had a federal investment like this in decades honestly,” Scissura said, and added, “I think we really did well on this plan.”

 

President Biden abdicates his immigration crisis fiasco onto New York City and Long Island schools

 

NY Post 

America’s crisis at the border is now a crisis in New York public schools.

The Biden Administration is flooding New York City and Long Island communities with thousands of unaccompanied immigrant minors captured crossing the Mexico-US border, often arriving here, as The Post recently reported, via clandestine flights in the middle of the night.

Data from the US Department of Health of and Human Services confirms that the New York area is a hotspot for shipping children rounded up illegally crossing the border without guardians.

Four counties alone, Suffolk, Queens, Nassau and Brooklyn, took in nearly 5,000 unaccompanied children in just 11 months, from Oct. 1, 2020 to Aug. 31, 2021, according to HHS.

With public education in the area costing about $28,000 per child, per year, that’s a $139 million hit on New York taxpayers to educate children arriving unexpectedly just in those four counties.

The arrival of these children, mostly teenage boys, in local schools is creating a classroom crisis that is strapping educational resources, costing taxpayers millions in un-budgeted dollars, and aiding gang-recruiting efforts, argue parents, teachers and immigration experts.

“We’re at maxed capacity for kids with special needs, but they’ll keep sending them,” lamented one high school teacher in Queens, among the communities hardest hit by the illegal-immigrant student dump.

Fifteen counties nationwide have received more than 1,000 unaccompanied children caught at the border over the past year, reported HHS. The top five counties on the list are all in Texas, California and south Florida.

But four of those 15 counties are right here in New York: Suffolk (1,528), Queens (1,314), Nassau (1,064) and Brooklyn (1,046). The Bronx nearly made the list, with 461 unaccompanied students. New York is the only state in America with four counties receiving more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors, despite its 1,700-mile distance from the southern border.

 

Ida flood homeowner victims and basement tenants got shafted by Biden

 

 Gothamist

 President Joe Biden and a contingent of federal, state, and local officials toured flood-ravaged sections of Queens earlier this month in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ida, promising speedy relief to homeowners and renters. Impacted residents were told about the $32,000 maximum payout they could expect to receive to help them recover.

But two weeks later, many are realizing it's far less simple than they were promised.

Officials are now telling residents that funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency aren’t intended to cover all of the damage caused by Ida. Instead many residents are being directed to apply for low-interest loans they’ll eventually have to repay through the U.S. Small Business Administration to defray any costs FEMA won’t cover.

“What the f--k?” said Erika Kasouto, 41, when she was told to apply for a federal loan in one of several calls to FEMA agents. The Woodside home she lives in with her parents took in five feet of water on the ground level. “It’s ridiculous. It’s disheartening.”

Despite assurances from elected officials in the immediate aftermath of the flooding, FEMA representatives have since tried to clarify on their hotline, through email, and at the city’s disaster service centers set up after Ida that grant funding is only intended to cover the essential costs of someone staying in their damaged home.

Several residents from hard-hit areas like Woodside, East Elmhurst, and Hollis told WNYC/Gothamist about similar correspondence with FEMA. And federal officials confirmed as much, adding that homeowners would likely qualify for the maximum $32,000 payout if their home was destroyed. People can qualify for a loan and still receive a FEMA grant, officials said.

THE CITY

 Two weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Ida tore through the city, killing 13 people, basements across the city are still drying out as many New Yorkers struggle to recover from the punishing storm.

With millions of dollars in federal assistance now unlocked for the city, some households that saw rivers of rain and sewage pour in will have a lifeline to begin repairing and rebuilding.

But that help isn’t for everyone.

Left out of Federal Emergency Management Agency aid are undocumented immigrants — many of whom live in the Queens neighborhoods that were pummeled hardest.

“I’ve lived in this country for four years and this is the first time I’ve lived in a basement. I was looking for affordable housing,” Marlén Romero, a 32-year-old Corona resident, told THE CITY in Spanish.

Her home and belongings were drenched as Ida dumped more than seven inches of rain in an hour on parts of the city, flooding her apartment with about two feet of water.

“I had no idea that living in a basement would be so dangerous,” she said.

A native of Mexico, Romero and her husband are both undocumented, which would shut them out of federal disaster assistance. But her family may still qualify for assistance because the couple’s 4-year-old daughter is a U.S. citizen.

“It’s not fair for all of us who are undocumented who don’t have someone ‘legal’ in their households. We live in basements so we can save some money because rent in this city is so expensive. Our income doesn’t stretch that far to get a better home,” she said.

She only learned that there was financial aid available for flooding victims through a local community group, Familias Unidas, when a school social worker mentioned it as her daughter began preschool earlier this week.

 

Caption our dear leader

 

 

 

"It's not about freedom or personal choice. COME ON MAN!!!"

President Biden doesn't know who the representative of East Elmhurst is

President Joe Biden came to Queens and he did not know who East Elmhurst's congressperson was.

When he realized it was @AOC he thanked her for representing the alley.

The other officials there didn't know it was her alley, er district either

Farcical pic.twitter.com/gk2M8SadM7

— This is JQ LLC (@ImpunityCity) September 7, 2021

Sleepy Joe sends disaster relief funding to NYC

 

NY Post

President Biden on Monday approved New York’s major-disaster declaration, a move that will funnel federal relief dollars to local governments and homeowners ravaged by Hurricane Ida’s devastating flooding last week.

Gov. Kathy Hochul asked the White House for the declaration Sunday while noting that Ida’s financial hit to the state could involve “multi-multimillions” of dollars — up to $50 million. 

“I saw the devastation of New Yorkers who lost so much from this storm, and I pledged that we would do everything in our power to help them rebuild,” Hochul said in a statement Monday.

“I thank President Biden and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell for their swift approval of a Major Disaster Declaration, which provides a promise that we will build back better and stronger.

“I look forward to touring disaster areas with President Biden tomorrow and will continue to work with FEMA and our members of Congress to ensure New Yorkers get the relief they need from the devastating impacts of this horrible storm,” she said.

Biden will visit Queens on Tuesday to tour neighborhoods hit hard by the storm. At least 13 people died in New York City during Ida — nearly all after becoming trapped in basements in Queens and Brooklyn.

Afghan refugees will be heading for the world's borough following Joe Biden's foreign policy debacle.

 

PIX News 

  Thousands of refugees and immigrants from Afghanistan could arrive in Queens in the coming weeks after the collapse of the government as U.S. troops withdraw from the country.

U.S. military forces secured the airport in Kabul this week and began a massive evacuation effort, even as the Taliban began to formally assert its authority over the entire country.

Many in the Queens communities of Flushing and Fresh Meadows, including Sunita Viswanath, know people scrambling to get out of Afghanistan.

“This is the time the world needs to stand with Afghanistan and not abandon Afghanistan,” said Viswanath, the co-founder of Women for Afghan Women.

The organization is the largest Afghan women’s rights group in the world — founded in Queens nearly 20 years ago when the war began.

WAW has been on the ground in Afghanistan running child care centers and helping out women who have suffered human rights violations.

“We have been running a women’s rights organization, so we are at particular danger because we’ve been doing this work, so our hope and prayers we can get people,” Viswanath said.

The group’s immediate goal is to get about 500 staff, women and children out of the country by working with the U.S. government, American allies and private operators.

However, they say just getting to the airport in Kabul is risky not just because of the Taliban, but also because of roving gangs.

 

U.S. military commanders insist the security situation is improving, to an extent, after the initial mad scramble to leave. Thousands of U.S. troops have secured Hamid Karzai Airport and are ramping up airlift efforts, which will move out 5,000 to 8,000 passengers per day.

Cuomo's inconvenient LGA choo choo has been approved

  

Gothamist

 After years of discussions, a new—and controversial—$2.1 billion AirTrain will be built, connecting LaGuardia Airport with the LIRR and 7 train stations at Mets-Willets Point in eastern Queens.

The Federal Aviation Association approved the plan on Tuesday, giving the Port Authority permission to "proceed with its proposal to construct a rail system to provide a reliable transit option for air travelers and employees at LGA." The FAA also noted it held two virtual public workshops and three virtual public hearings last September, and that 18 "different federal, state and local agencies have provided input throughout the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process based on their expertise and authorities." (You can see the Final EIS here.)

Governor Andrew Cuomo called the plan a "reliable, efficient, and affordable transit connector worthy of its destination." He noted that years of work has led to this moment and that now, "as we come out of the COVID crisis, our state and our country have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in a resilient, transformative, and interconnected future, and today's announcement is a testament to our 'all aboard' commitment to seizing it, in partnership with the Biden administration and Secretary Buttigieg."

While a mass transit option to LaGuardia has long been a goal, critics questioned Cuomo's particular plan because it actually takes travelers past the airport. In 2015, The Transport Politic created a map showing the routes of various connector plans and suggested that travel times actually increased with this plan.

Celebrate U.S.A.'s birthday by captioning POTUS

 

That secret service agent is about to tackle that ice cream cone.

 

Show us the money Joe

  

NY Post

 New York’s roads, bridges, mass transit, housing stock and care for children, veterans and seniors would all see federal investment under President Biden’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure package, the White House claimed Monday.

The so-called “American Jobs Plan” would also provide money for climate-resilient infrastructure, clean drinking water and expanded internet access, according to a state-specific “fact sheet” posted online on Monday.

“For decades, infrastructure in New York has suffered from a systemic lack of investment,” according to the fact sheet.

“The need for action is clear.”

Among New York’s infrastructure shortcomings the Biden administration said would be addressed are the state’s $22.8 billion tab over the next 20 years to maintain clean drinking water, “lack of available and affordable housing” and $2.91 billion in school maintenance needs.

“Manufacturing” and “clean energy jobs” also make the list of potential funding items.

The White House fact sheet does not, however, promise to meet all of the state’s infrastructure spending needs. It also neglects to include how much funding each item would receive under Biden’s plan — citing total proposed nationwide spending instead.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has suggested the multitrillion-dollar spending spree would boost subway expansion into southeast Brooklyn and Harlem, as well as the construction of a new tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey.

Both efforts would cost many billions of dollars — without addressing maintenance of the state’s existing, ailing infrastructure.

President Biden gives Cuomo a pass

NWFC

Update. Biden Psaki-washes Cuomo's role in the administration's pandemic response 

NY Post 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that President Biden won’t strip Gov. Andrew Cuomo of his role leading the nation’s weekly COVID-19 coordinating calls with governors — despite prominent New York Democrats calling on him to resign over allegations of sexual harassment and COVID-19 mismanagement in New York.

A reporter pressed Psaki at her daily press briefing on why the beleaguered Democrat is still leading the weekly White House pandemic calls in his role as chair of the National Governors Association, particularly after reports that New York’s state COVID-19 vaccine czar, Larry Schwartz, is asking county officials to affirm their loyalty to the beleaguered governor, appearing to tie pandemic help to Cuomo’s unrelated woes.

Former Vice President Mike Pence previously led the national COVID-19 coordinating calls in his role as chairman of the White House coronavirus task force.

“It would be up to the NGA to determine if they were to make a change on that front. It’s also up to the legislature and others in New York to determine if he still has the confidence of the people in the state,” Psaki said.

Homeowner hangs banner condeming Joe Biden socialism

 

 

LIC Post

A local candidate for city council has taken issue with a large banner hanging in front of a house in Kew Gardens that claims Joe Biden’s inauguration marked the beginning of socialism.

Aleda Gagarin, who is running as a progressive to represent District 29, came across the banner at 82-28 Abingdon Rd. Sunday and posted an image of the house and the sign to Twitter.

The banner reads: “January 20, 2021, Death of Democracy, The Beginning of Socialism.” The date marks the day Joe Biden was sworn into office as the 46th President of the United States.

The banner also features a hammer and sickle as well as an image of Lady Liberty crouched over with her hands in her face. The banner drapes between two flag poles in the middle of the front garden that each fly the USA flag.

“It’s just so silly, the person is clearly misunderstood,” Gagarin told the Queens Post. “Joe Biden is certainly not a socialist.”

Gagarin noted that Biden doesn’t even support universal healthcare.

“The sign also uses communist imagery that shows a clear lack of understanding,” she added.

Michael Ricatto, who owns the house and put up the banner, disputed Gagarin’s claims and said he knows exactly what he is talking about. Biden’s policies are socialist, he said, and all hardworking taxpayers will have to pay more due to his left-wing policies.