Queens Man is President Again

 

Impunity City

Remember, remember the fifth of November

 They tried assassination. And tried and tried again.

They tried lawfare for over a year.

They tried virtue signaling, platitudes, and propping up a diversity, equity and inclusion candidate.

And Donald J. Trump still won.

This is the end of a decade and a half of fauxgressive rule and values and hopefully an end to horrendous domestic and immigration policies (U.S. foreign policy is still going to be an issue beyond Trump) fomented by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the worst administration in American History. It’s still amazing that Comma-la Harris had the audacity to think she would be running the country after nearly four years of cackling and vomiting word salads.

After all the fear mongering about Trump the first time around, and it was understandable given his inexperience in elected office, he never turned out to be a dictator and he only grew more popular with Black, Latinos and now Asians and Muslims and even White liberals that helped put him over the top and it’s a certainty that the next four years America will still be a free country in his next four years.

NY Post  

Donald Trump was projected to become the 47th president early Wednesday, completing the most incredible political comeback in American history.

Trump, 78, was on course for an Electoral College landslide over Vice President Kamala Harris after he reversed his 2020 losses in the crucial states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — running up big margins among his white rural and working class base while making significant inroads among ethnic minorities.

“There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond,” the Republican nominee told a rapturous victory celebration at the Palm Beach County Convention Center not far from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

“We’re going to help our country heal,” Trump added, “and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders … fix everything about our country.”

NYC Department Of TransAlt greenway follies

 

Queens Chronicle

The city’s Department of Transportation is temporarily postponing a virtual Zoom workshop scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 29, on the proposed 16-mile Queens Waterfront Greenway after a meeting in Douglaston last Thursday, Oct. 24, turned into a huge shouting match between supporters of the trail and homeowners concerned about its potential impact.

The DOT posted the announcement on X Monday evening at around 6 p.m.

“Tomorrow’s Queens Waterfront Greenway virtual workshop has been postponed,” the post said. “A code of conduct will be developed to ensure decorum and respect for all participants.”

Last Thursday’s meeting took place at the Alley Pond Environmental Center. After a slide presentation by the DOT, the crowd of well over 100 people was split up into breakout groups. Just about an hour after the meeting started, what had been strained conversations erupted into a large verbal free-for-all that raged for several minutes.

In a small handful of instances, city employees and other meeting attendees had to physically separate some people.

The city’s plan is to run a trail of bike lanes and other amenities between Fort Totten and Gantry Plaza State Park on the East River waterfront in Long Island City.

Last Thursday’s meeting was the third of three workshops designed to solicit public opinion on a segment of the trail, with the session devoted to the easternmost stretch between Fort Totten and Willets Point.

Many homeowners are concerned about the impact such a trail might have on residential streets in areas where the shoreline is not readily accessible or even visible because of privately owned residential or industrial properties.

The DOT’s roughly 20-minute slide presentation delved into the history of the area in question, its present conditions and what the city sees as potential opportunities presented by the project.

The crowd then was asked to break up into groups at many tables where DOT staff took suggestions based on massive maps of Northeast Queens.

The format is common for community workshops on major projects in the city, particularly ones that could mean massive change to many streets. But it was not long before several of the group conversations devolved into heated exchanges between homeowners and plan supporters. One hour into the meeting, at just about 7 p.m., no conversations could be heard above the angry exchanges for a period of several minutes.

 

 

Here's what the Queens Chronicle forgot to write about, CM Paladino found out that the ones really calling the shots and that will authorize this "decorum" is some think tank that is tied to Transportation Alternatives. The DOT may be the most corrupted agency in New York City now that all of Mayor Adams crony hires have stepped down.

Turns out Public Works Partners LLC is a for-profit progressive/urbanist think tank specialising in crafting these fake 'public events' in order to manufacture consent. They list the DOT as one of their clients, but they also speak in depth about all the work they do aiding… pic.twitter.com/0UH7jKC1rt

— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) October 29, 2024

MTA to Far Rockaway: Drop Dead

 

 Gothamist

The MTA will shut down A train service in the Rockaways for five months starting in January, disrupting the commutes of more than 9,000 daily riders.

Beginning on Jan. 17, the A train won’t run between Howard Beach-JFK Airport and the last stops of the line, either Rockaway Park-Beach 116 St. or Far Rockaway-Mott Ave. The Rockaway Park Shuttle trains will also stop running to and from Broad Channel.

The MTA says the lengthy suspension of service is necessary to fortify infrastructure against extreme weather. The viaducts and bridge that carry trains across Broad Channel need “major upgrades to help protect the line from future storms,” the MTA wrote in an announcement.

The agency noted that much of the work is in response to extensive damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. It took seven months to restore service to Rockaway after the storm in Oct. 2012.

Free bus shuttle service will be available along the affected stops. The announcement gave no indication that NYC Ferry service from Rockaway would be expanded while the upgrades are underway.

Far Rockaway resident Quazel Trower said the shutdown will upend his life.

“There’s only one train that goes to Far Rockaway. It’s not like two trains, three trains. It’s literally one,” Trower, 27, said. “Taking the shuttle bus always makes your commute longer than it needs to be.”

Trower said his typical commute into Manhattan already takes more than an hour.

In a statement, MTA Deputy Chief Development Officer, Mark Roche, said that the plan was consistent with what has been done in the past for the L train Canarsie Tunnel project and G line modernization work.

"This next phase of the A train resiliency work has undergone internal and external expert review to weigh alternate delivery and construction methods,"he said. "It was determined that the plan presented is the best option for getting this work done as quickly as possible, with the least impact to commuters.”

So if congestion pricing started, this would have happened anyway. Nice of the MTA to drop this right when the weather got chilly, it's really no different how they obfuscate reasons during train delay announcements. 

 

Crappy Halloween...

 

Graveyard Bay

 

 NY Post

Jamaica Bay is quietly earning a reputation as the Big Apple’s version of the Bermuda Triangle — with at least eight dead bodies discovered in and around the area over the past year, some under mysterious circumstances. 

Investigations into five of the eight “floaters” who washed ashore or turned up in either Jamaica Bay or the nearby Atlantic Ocean side of The Rockaways have been closed, authorities said.

However, many questions still remain.

The “manner of death” on four of the bodies was deemed “undetermined” by the city Medical Examiner’s office, including Emmy-award winning cinematographer and photographer Ross McDonnell, who authorities have said loved to “wild swim” in the ocean and other waterways.

The 44-year-old Irishman’s headless, armless torso washed up on a Breezy Point beach Nov. 17, two weeks after leaving his Brooklyn home. 

 Police initially said they believed McDonnell likely drowned taking a late-night dip, but the ME said it declared the cause of death “undetermined” based on the lack of evidence off the predominantly sparse skeletal remains found.

 Three other deaths remain under investigation by authorities, including Marco Ramirez, 48, of Brooklyn, who was found dead Oct. 15 along the Cross Bay Boulevard shoreline of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel, and an unidentified female who washed ashore in Breezy Point on Oct. 5.

City coroners have so far only been able to determine both the cause and manner of death for one of the eight deceased — a headless man whose unidentified remains were found in April by a fisherman near 165th Avenue and Cross Bay Boulevard in Queens.

About a 1,000 feet away, authorities found a rope hanging from the Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge.

That case was declared a hanging suicide, according to the Medical Examiner’s office.

Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who represents much of The Rockaways, said she expressed concerns to authorities over the summer after the body count reached five — only to be told by law enforcement they didn’t believe the deaths were connected.

Driving malfeasance

 

 White Collar Fraud

Welcome to New York City’s most impressive disappearing act yet. Following our previous exposés of fiscal acrobatics and car service extravaganzas, we present something remarkable: $4.2 billion of taxpayer money that’s simply vanished from public view.

In what could be called innovative municipal recordkeeping, New York City has classified an astounding $4,201,873,479.51 under the vendor code “N/A (Privacy/Security)” in 2023. Of this impressive sum, $4,131,414,624.59 lists its purpose as “blank” – presumably because even “N/A” felt too specific. The remaining $70,458,854.92 gets the slightly more descriptive purpose of “N/A,” for those times when someone felt compelled to write something.

A sum of $4.2 billion is almost too massive to comprehend, let alone cover in a single post. So, let’s start small – with our borough presidents, whose modest contributions to this trend are particularly telling. After all, if routine expenses like office supplies and travel can be deemed too sensitive for public disclosure, what hope do we have of understanding the billions classified elsewhere? These smaller examples reveal a culture of opacity that has trickled down from the highest levels of city government to the most mundane of expenses.

 Borough President Antonio Reynoso leads with $135,827.35 in classified spending. His office’s signature move? Converting $124,515 into “Professional Services Other” – a category that explains nothing while saying something. They’ve also managed to make $5,388 worth of books disappear from public scrutiny.

 Vanessa Gibson’s office presents $30,680.41 in mysterious expenditures, including $13,618 in travel expenses to undisclosed locations. The destinations remain as mysterious as the purposes.

Under Donovan Richards Jr.’s watch, Queens contributes $13,345.20 in classified spending, featuring $9,100 in “Temporary Services.” The nature of these temporary services remains, appropriately, temporary.

 Mark Levine keeps it modest with $6,358.10 in classified expenses, including an intriguing -$3.50 credit. Even refunds, it seems, can be confidential.

These are the hypocrites who want to abolish parking mandates.

 

But these borough-level activities are merely a prelude to the city’s larger production. Consider $4.2 billion – enough to fund significant public works – simply marked as confidential. More impressively, they’ve managed to make the purposes disappear as well.

When the purpose of $4.1 billion of spending is classified as “blank,” it raises questions about the very nature of public disclosure. The remaining $70 million marked “N/A” almost seems quaint in comparison.

 

Driving mandate

 

 AMNY

The number of people traveling in and out of New York City by car is higher than ever before, even as mass transit ridership continues to lag behind levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report on MTA finances from State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli revealed.

Crossings on the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels across New York City climbed to 335 million in 2023, already a record, and are expected to hit 339 million in 2024, according to DiNapoli’s report. That comes even as paid weekday ridership on the subway still hovers at around 70% of pre-COVID averages, with higher numbers registered on weekends, suggesting a permanent shift to working from home even as New Yorkers take transit for personal activities.

Even worse, MTA ridership over the next several years is expected to recover still more slowly than officials once projected: in November 2020, consulting giant McKinsey & Company predicted ridership would rise to 86% of pre-COVID levels by 2026, but MTA brass now concede it will likely average only 80% by that time.

Suck it, Open Plans.