City employee parking abuse down a little

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Chronicle’s Michael Gannon has been investigating illegal parking by city employees — or people passing themselves off as such — for about a year, mostly on the congested streets around Borough Hall in Kew Gardens and neighboring Briarwood.

On Gannon’s last surveys of the area, conducted over the last week, he still found unticketed cars with placards parked illegally: alleged cops in No Standing zones and blocking fire hydrants, for example. Not much improvement there. But what he did not see were the vests, patches and caps that had been used as substitutes. So there’s been a change, but more needs to be done. City employees have enough privileges as it is.

What a strange question to ask!

I gotta say, I've never seen a reporter ask this question about other reporters' investigations. I haven't noticed anyone ask "Who's out to get Mayor de Blasio?" or "Who's out to get Andrew Cuomo?" or "Who's out to get Donald Trump?" when their shenanigans are exposed. So why ask this question about Joe Crowley who seriously deserves the scrutiny?

Here's the actual piece.

Former QNS reporter is Liz Crowley's communications director

Former QNS reporter Maggie Hayes wrote quite a bit for the paper before 2015, when she became Liz Crowley's communications director. When I said someone called in a favor, I wasn't kidding.

Want more proof?

Perhaps QNS should have revealed this in their editorial about the shelter.

Predictable article from NY Times doesn't say much about South Ozone Park

From the NY Times:

On a recent Saturday afternoon I set out to explore South Ozone Park in Queens, in particular a stretch whose racial composition — according to recent census data, about a quarter white, a quarter Asian, 10 percent black and 11 percent biracial, with 30 percent of residents belonging to the statistical category of “other” — makes it one of the three most diverse patches of the city. Ethnically, too, it contains multitudes: Dominicans and Puerto Ricans live alongside Ecuadoreans, Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese and people who look as though they might be cast in the production of anything succumbing to Italian-American caricature.

What had prompted my visit was, in a sense, a tourist’s curiosity about how integration of this kind might actually be lived and how, in the midst of a mayoral race, political conceptions in such a place might be evolving.

There were instances of inspiration to be found, encounters with a New York of one’s gorgeous mosaic fantasies. A barbershop called E Place, owned by an Uzbek immigrant named Eric Dzhuray, caters to Trinidadians and Guyanese — who make up a considerable share of the community in South Ozone Park — and at least one young white suburbanite who had grown so devoted to the shop when he lived in neighboring Howard Beach that he continued his patronage even though he had married and moved to Long Island.

The fact that a catering hall called La Bella Vita, owned by a man named Tony Modica and steeped in Pompeii aesthetics, was full of black patrons on the day I wandered in suggested that a certain kind of social progress had been made since the divisive days of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” two decades ago.

Both the barbershop and catering hall were to be found on Rockaway Boulevard, the primary commercial thoroughfare in South Ozone Park. Though it seemed as if it should be a busy place, full of pedestrian traffic and businesses servicing varied cultural interests, it has the bloodless feel of a Sun Belt village lost to misbegotten visions. The area itself is not poor; in the particular census tract I was visiting, median family income stands at $63,000 a year, above the figure for the city on the whole. But whatever vitality the demographics might suggest is so obviously lacking that one longtime resident mentioned that he hoped simply for a McDonald’s to energize the slackened mood.

So NY Times reporters are now recording in print that they consider themselves tourists who check out census stats before heading out to the far reaches of Queens where they are prepared to have orgasms over the vibrant! diverse! mix of cultures found here. When are they going to get some new shtick already? If you can make it through the rest of this dreck, you'll see that the conclusion made by the author is that casinos bring bad things to neighborhoods. Which may be true, but this particular neighborhood had plenty of pawn shops before Resorts World moved in. And now onto some real news...

From CBS New York:

The New York State casino expansion bill being negotiated behind closed doors included a new provision Saturday, which would expand gambling even if voters reject the proposal to build more casinos.

A copy of the revised bill obtained Saturday by The Associated Press includes a provision that would authorize video slot machine centers in the outer boroughs of New York City, and as many as three or four places upstate. The bill provides for the video slot casinos with up to 5,000 machines at each center.

Previously, New York State Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said discussions for the casino plan included a proposal for video slot machines run by off-track betting agencies in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Hours after refusing to discuss the bill, Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed his proposal through a spokeswoman.

“If the casino referendum fails, we will propose offering more high-end (video slot machines) to combat the loss of revenue to neighboring states and secure new funding for our schools,” said Cuomo spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa.

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is literally a dump

From WPIX:

The lake is a busy area at Flushing Meadows Corona Park. A family was sick of seeing the trash piling up in the water. They contacted PIX11 Reporter Greg Mocker who put on waders to remove some trash.

Hey, if we adequately staffed the park with workers, we wouldn't need reporters to clean it up. But that would mean the City Council would have to allocate adequate funding for it, and it's much more fun to make deals with developers to sell off pieces of the park in return for a "park fund" that will no doubt get looted (again).

Cab drivers caught ripping people off

Help Me Howard gets DOB permit revoked

Remember this?



Looks like after the DOB showed up not once, but twice and failed to gain access, the permit for 34-57 107th Street, Corona was revoked by the borough commissioner. Which once again proves that if you want something done by a city agency, embarrass them on TV.

Thank you, Howard!

Weiner in meltdown mode

From the NY Post:

He won't call the cops on his supposed hacker -- but Anthony Weiner's office called police on a reporter yesterday.

CBS/Channel 2 said its reporter Marcia Kramer went to his Washington office hoping for an interview. It said she was ignored until press secretary David Arnold finally showed up.

Then, the station said, Kramer told Arnold, "All I want is for him [Weiner] to say something to his constituents, the people who have to vote for him."

Arnold replied, "I don't think you can say he hasn't said anything to his constituents. He spoke for nine hours yesterday."

Kramer answered, "But not to anyone in New York."

After she left the office, the station said, his staffers called Capitol Police.

The officers found Kramer and asked her for identification.

One cop told her she could be arrested if she went into Weiner's office and didn't leave if told to.

"If you go to an office and are asked to leave, you can be placed under arrest," Officer Michael Miller said, according to the station.

Kramer noted that she hadn't refused to leave.

Anthony won't discuss his wiener

From CBS:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) refused to answer reporters' questions Tuesday as to whether or not a photo of a man's underwear tweeted from his Twitter account was his. Weiner called the incident a "distraction" and said he wouldn't talk about it any more.

Don't dare call her ma'am!

From the NY Times:

The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, on Wednesday lashed out at a reporter for The Daily News who did not invoke Ms. Quinn’s proper title when asking her a question.

The reporter, Erin Einhorn, referred to Ms. Quinn as “Ma’am” in asking the speaker about her efforts to improve the city’s response to snowstorms.

But Ms. Quinn was none too pleased with Ms. Einhorn, who earned the speaker’s scorn recently with a series of articles that were critical of the Council.

“You can call me Speaker,” Ms. Quinn said in a testy tone. “It’s my press conference. I actually decide what words are necessary.”

Ms. Quinn quickly apologized to Ms. Einhorn on Wednesday, saying that she should not have used a public forum to express her anger over a personal issue.

“I was nasty to you,” Ms. Quinn said. “I apologize.”

Someone understands the role of the press!

Dear Mr. Larry Mendte,

Would you please do a seminar for publishers of Queens weekly papers? They need to understand what their purpose is. You seem to get it. They don't. As evidenced by this....

Setting the record straight

It was brought to my attention that Ruschell Boone from NY1 filed a story on Friday, December 3rd about a tree stump and a broken sidewalk alongside the Van Wyck Expressway service road in Jamaica.

Greg Mocker from WPIX reported on the same stump/sidewalk issue on Monday, December 6th, the same day I posted Ruschell's story here on the blog. Mocker said in his followup report after the stump was removed that the City was watching. Well, they are, but it's not him they're watching. Got this official statement from Parks:

"We saw the story on NY1. We haven't watched WPIX since Kaity and Jim got the boot."

And there you have it. On the trail of a reporter trying to take credit for someone else's work, I'm the Queens Crapper.

WTF happened to Tim Minton?

From NBC 4:

News 4 New York correspondent Tim Minton, who joined WNBC in 1998, has been honored with 18 Emmy Awards and other local and national recognition for investigative reporting.

Minton investigated a series of construction accidents in New York City that led to the resignation in April 2008 of the buildings commissioner. In 2006, he reported on a facility applying electric shocks to discipline students with developmental disabilities who misbehaved. That investigation led the New York State Board of Regents to ban the practice in 2007.

Minton came to WNBC from WABC-TV in New York where he was a lead reporter and investigative correspondent. Minton reported for WABC on the investigation into the crash of TWA Flight 800. He covered the terrorism trials of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and terrorists convicted of plotting to blow up a dozen U.S. jetliners.

Wow, that's some pretty heavy stuff...

So what the hell is this?

The perennially political Vallone family had a big announcement Tuesday.

"I spoke to my father over the weekend and we just decided that it was time for the 'junior' to go," joked the New York City Council member now formerly known as Peter Vallone, Jr.

"We were playing volleyball at the time, and my father had just returned one of my best spikes," he told NBCNewYork. "That's when I said,'Okay, that's it, from now on, you have to use senior and I'm not using junior anymore.' "

Chuck Scarborough sticks it to Hiram

From the Daily News:

I'm not sure that [Hiram Monserrate] did himself any favors with this sit-down earlier in the week with WNBC's Chuck Scarborough, who opened by asking the Queens Democrat: "I take it you're here today to announce your resignation?"

Monserrate replied:

"No, that's not what I’m here for. I'm actually here because you invited me to come on the show, Chuck."

It went downhill from there, with Scarborough accusing Monserrate of "doing a pretty thorough job at disgracing" the Senate and "betraying the Democrats", starting with the June 8 coup on continuing through the "embarrassment" of his trial.

Coverage of Bloomberg makes reporter sick

From Your Free Press:

My observation for over two decades of covering the politics emanating from City Hall is that the reporters assigned to Room 9, have become too cozy with the executives to inform their readers and listeners objectively.

There are reporters in Room 9 that have spent their entire professional career there. There are rare moments during mayoral news conferences, that they ask hard questions. Most of the time, the Mayor’s Press Office plants questions to some of the Mayor’s favorite reporters and they obediently follow with the tainted questions. Anyone who follows the Mayor’s press conferences can identify them by observing how many times Mayor Bloomberg acknowledges them from the podium. Some of them, told me that they would like to ask questions to mine (objective and independent), but if they do, they will be blackballed by the Mayor.

The Mayor has gained the support of 24 community newspapers. The denizens of Room 9 have failed to question the Mayor and his campaign operators, on how the Mayor has secured the support of community and ethnic newspapers The following is a partial list of those papers:

Haitian Times, Queens Tribune, Queens Ledger/Brooklyn Star, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Queens Chronicle, The National Herald, Ming Pao Daily News, Pakistan News, Illyria, The Weekly Bangladesh, Novoye Russkoye Slovo, EcuaTimes, Yevreiski Mir, Ecuador News, The New York Page, Irish Voice, Jewish Press, NY Al Día, La Semana Metro, Impacto Latin News, Queens Courier, New York Community Times, China Press, El Especial & El Especialito.

As the publisher of the NYC Free Press I am well aware of the financial difficulties small community newspapers deal with. Several times, politicians have offered to advertise in The NYC Free Press if the paper would support them and print laudatory articles about them. I have always been proud to reject them. Did the mayor $20 billion fortune and giant campaign advertising budget have gotten to these newspapers?

Of course the small community newspapers are not alone in this scheme by Mayor Bloomberg's campaign team. We only have to peruse the mainstream media and read their laudatory stories about Bloombito - Little Bloomberg. It is not only the print media, but the electronic media as well.

Like politicians, reporters assigned to City Hall’s Room 9 should be term limited too. Their claim to be objective is as realistic as a $3 dollar bill.

Bloomberg throws another hissy fit

From You're a Disgrace, Mayor Bloomberg:

Daily News reporter Adam Lisberg got bloomberged on Monday when the Mayor, displaying his unique blend of incredulity and petulance, responded to a question about the legitimacy of the Independence Party's endorsement in light of major contributions Bloomberg made to the party.

Don't know how I managed to miss this one for so long. My apologies.