Lizzie The Builder

 

 QNS

After falling short in her last three political campaigns, former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has shifted gears, allowing her to win her first election in over a decade. The Glendale resident will succeed Lou Coletti as president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers Association (BTEA), the largest construction trade association in New York.

Crowley became the first woman to lead the BTEA in its nearly 120-year history.

“I look forward to working with BTEA membership companies to advance the construction industry as it addresses the pressing needs of people in our communities, drives innovation and adds to a more sustainable and resilient skyline that is built by a diverse and inclusive union workforce,” Crowley said.

Under her leadership of the contractor organization that represents 1,200 member companies across New York, Crowley said BTEA will continue to promote safety, bring more women and diversity to the construction industry, increase resilience in the built environment and lead in the fight against climate change. During her two terms on the City Council, Crowley fought for a record amount of funding for school construction in her district and passed resolutions that strengthened construction safety standards, expanded opportunities for Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises and funded programs that provided industry training including Nontraditional Employment for Women.

“This is the first time I won an election unanimously,” Crowley told QNS. “I went into politics in the first place to do good and make a difference and affect positive change and as an advocate for the building construction industry in New York, we do just the same.”

Developer cash flows into Crowley campaign from shady PAC

 

THE CITY 

Elizabeth Crowley, a Democrat running for state Senate in a district that runs from Astoria to Williamsburg, has pledged not to take any money from big real estate developers.

But on Monday, NYC Forward, an independent expenditure committee running ads to support Crowley, a centrist Democrat, received $150,000 from real estate interests, campaign finance records show. 

That committee was founded this month by District Council 9, the painters’ union that’s counted Crowley as a member — and took the spotlight in initial news coverage of the group. 

But state campaign finance records show the majority of contributions to the committee so far have come from developer interests.

Those include the Real Estate Board of New York, whose campaign spending arm, “Putting New Yorkers to Work,” gave $50,000 to the pro-Crowley committee. So too did A&E Real Estate Holdings LLC, a firm with buildings across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

State Board of Elections records show NYC Forward paid for $198,000 in expenses listed as “promotional” that coincided with the real estate donations. The committee has also spent $48,000 on a “social media campaign.” 

Lizzie gets the money

THE CITY

 Four years ago, a socialist bartender named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political world by unseating Congressman Joe Crowley, Queens’ longtime Democratic party boss. 

Now, the Crowley clan has a chance to get revenge. 

Former City Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley, Joe’s cousin, is running for State Senate, and one of her primary opponents is Kristin Gonzalez, a Democratic Socialist backed by Ocasio-Cortez.

Campaign finance records show an ideologically heterodox coalition lining up to support Crowley, who has a big fundraising lead in the race, including at least $80,000 from registered Republicans, lobbyists, and people in the real estate industry.

Bradley Tusk, a former campaign manager for Republican Mayor Mike Bloomberg turned venture capitalist and political “fixer,” gave Crowley $7,500 (Tusk is a donor to THE CITY). Alfonse D’Amato, a pro-Trump Republican and the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a lobbying firm gave $2,500 to Crowley. 

“I’ve known her personally and professionally for a long time,” D’Amato said in a statement. “We worked together on a television program. She is a good person.”

Crowley, a self-described “tenant advocate” who has pledged not to take money from “big real estate developers,” has, in fact, received a handful of contributions from big developers in addition to tens of thousands in donations from landlords and other real estate industry professionals.

James Pi, founder of Pi Capital Partners, one of New York City’s largest private real estate companies with over two billion dollars in assets it manages, controls or owns, contributed $5,000 to Crowley. H. Dale Hemmerdinger, chairman of Atco Properties & Management, which owns and manages more than 20 buildings and has previously been accused of “slumlord” tactics, gave $1,000 to Crowley.

Crowley did not respond to questions about whether she would return the money she received from the big real estate developers.

One Brooklyn landlord, who gave $2,000 to Crowley, said he hopes she “takes into account everybody, and not just [the] populist movement.”

“I think [there’s] an unfair picture being painted of bleeding, blood-sucking capitalists when 99 percent are just trying to do the right thing and give back to their communities,” he said, referring to real estate owners.

In a statement, Crowley, who has raised more than $500,000, said she is proud to have built a “strong coalition” of donors, volunteers, and labor unions, many of which have both contributed to and endorsed her campaign.

“As a single mom who has battled the hardships so many of our families are currently facing, I have the experience and will fight for a more affordable New York with better access to housing, transit and childcare,” said Crowley, a former union painter and the daughter of a big Irish family. 

Asked for her response to other campaigns accusing her of breaking her pledge not to take big real estate money, Crowley continued: “It is clear that my opponent wants to only focus on the inside political track. Despite that—I’m not playing that game. The stakes are too high and voters at every door I visit are deeply concerned how we will improve their quality of life. That’s why I am running.”

One less friend at the QNS

 

 Queens Ledger

Former New York City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has stepped down from her position as chairperson of the board of Friends of the QNS, a nonprofit organization that she founded to advocate for expanded commuter rail-based transit across the borough.

Crowley said her decision to step down was made in order to focus fully on her candidacy for New York State Senate District 17.

“It has been an honor to serve as the chair of Friends of the QNS,” Crowley said.

The “QNS” proposal was introduced by Crowley to improve transit within her former Council district. Specifically, the plan sought to revive the former Lower Montauk rail line, which stretches nine miles from Hunters Point in Long Island City, through central Queens neighborhoods including Middle Village, Glendale, and Ridgewood, to the Jamaica hub.

This portion of central Queens is commonly referred to as one of the City’s “transit deserts,” since no passenger rail currently serves many of these neighborhoods.

In a 2018 report from the Department of Transportation, it was confirmed that the defunct rail line could be converted to include passenger service at a fraction of the cost of other major expansion projects like Manhattan’s 2nd Avenue Subway.

The New York State Senate district seat that Crowley is currently running for would include a vast majority of the former Lower Montauk Line within its boundaries. It was recently created by state lawmakers following the 2020 Census and will include Glendale, Maspeth, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood, Woodhaven, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Ozone Park, and Greenpoint in Brooklyn within its boundaries.

But while Crowley is stepping down from her position as the board’s chair, she said she vows to continue to advocate not only for the QNS rail but for a greenway along the QNS line, if elected.

“Queens has been growing at a tremendous pace, especially Long Island City,” Crowley said. “For this borough to keep up with its growth, we need to provide better transit to our residents. It’s not ambitious, it’s common sense.”

This proposal to restore the former commuter rail is similar to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 14-mile IBX plan, which seeks to add a train line from Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to Woodside, Queens.

Both use existing, underused train rights-of-way, converting them to passenger service from strictly freight service.

Crowley also indicated that she would work to include a dedicated bike lane running parallel to QNS, because “an intolerable” number of bicycle accidents and fatalities have been occurring in recent years.

“If we want people to use alternative transportation, we want them to feel safe as they do so. A slightly revised QNS ‘rail and trail’ plan would help that goal,” Crowley said.

Lizzie Three Times

 

Queens Post

After losing a nail-biter of a race against incumbent Borough President Donovan Richards last summer, former Queens Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley appears to be reentering the Queens political world once again — this time for state Senate.

Crowley has officially filed to run for the newly created state Senate District 17, which peels off areas from several existing Queens and Brooklyn senate districts. The new district covers portions of Greenpoint, Long Island City and Sunnyside to the west—and sections of Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale, Woodhaven and Richmond Hill to the east.

Crowley would be a familiar face in much of the Senate district after serving as the city Councilmember for the overlapping 30th council district—representing Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood—from 2009 to 2017.

In her county-wide race for borough president last year, she came within a percentage point of unseating Richards, an incumbent to whom she had lost a special election for the borough presidency a year before.

 Election results from the 2021 primary show that she won most election districts that make up the new Senate District by making public safety a top concern, reportedly running ads that knocked Richards for his efforts to reduce the NYPD budget as a member of the city Council in 2020

Donovan regrets nothing

 

 QNS

Hours after he declared victory over Elizabeth Crowley in the Democratic primary for Queens borough president Tuesday, July 6, incumbent Borough President Donovan Richards posted a cryptic tweet that mystified many.

“We won!!!” he tweeted after the city Board of Elections released figures that counted ranked-choice voting with absentee ballots that showed Richards ahead of Crowley by 1,044 votes.

“We beat your racist ass” Richards then tweeted while referencing Crowley allegedly telling him that “she would win, because BLM would die?” and “you couldn’t force me to make you a deb bp. I stand on principle.”

The tweets were met with messages of support, as well as comments that were critical of Richards’ messaging.

On Wednesday, Richards provided QNS with a statement, in which he was unapologetic.

“As a Black man, I faced my own fair share of prejudice and I will not be silent when racist tactics are clearly at play,” Richards said in a statement released through his campaign. “Since our victory in the June 2020 Democratic primary, Ms. Crowley has repeatedly insinuated that she would have won if not for the death of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter movement across our country. She later attempted to bully me into giving her a job within our administration with veiled threats of a divisive and dirty campaign if I did not. She clearly followed through on that threat, using the politics of fear throughout this race with mailers disguised as eviction notices and racist dog whistles within her messages on public safety.”

“I’m proud of the positive campaign we ran throughout this election,” Richards concluded. “The people of Queens voted for me to get the job done. Now let’s get back to work.”

Crowley was outraged by Donovan’s accusations.

“I’m extremely disappointed by the slanderous and untruthful remarks made by one of my opponents,” Crowley said in a statement Wednesday. “Politics and campaigning can be tough, and I understand that some may take legitimate policy disagreements personally on the trail. However, I’ve always believed that leadership is about taking the high road and representing the people, not Trump-like bullying on Twitter and making unfounded accusations based on no evidence whatsoever.”

Which way will JVB's voters break?

Well now, this is shaping up to be quite a nailbiter!

Elizabeth Crowley may be the comeback kid after the dust settles. But it all depends on which way Van Bramer's #2s are distributed.

Stay tuned.

You have 24 hours to get out of your apartment...Kidding! Vote for Crowley!

  

Sunnyside Post

 

A campaign mailer sent out by Elizabeth Crowley that reads “eviction notice” in large font has sparked outrage among her critics.

The mailer, released by her campaign last week, was intended to attack Queens Borough President Donovan Richards for accepting real estate money—but was viewed by many as being in poor taste.

The “eviction notice” was accompanied by a message accusing Richards of taking campaign money from developers and landlords—many of whom Crowley says are trying to kick struggling tenants out.

“Queens is ready for its comeback, but first we have to end our housing crisis and make sure our neighbors can stay in their homes,” the mailer also reads.

Some felt the mailer was insensitive, since many people are struggling to pay the rent.

Lizzie Two Times

 

LIC Post

Former Council Member Elizabeth Crowley said Tuesday that she is thinking about making another bid for Queens Borough President.

“I feel like I have a lot to offer the borough in terms of what we have to do to get back on our feet,” she said. “I haven’t made the final decision yet, but it is something that I am strongly considering.”

Crowley, who represented Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood, parts of Woodside and Woodhaven in the City Council from 2009 to 2017, lost to Queens Borough President Donovan Richards in a June 2020 Democratic primary for the seat.

She came in second in the five-person primary.

It's BP Groundhog Day in Queens.

Liz Crowley and generational nepotism infects faculty staffing at a public school

 
NY Post


The sister and nephew of Liz Crowley, an ex-city councilwoman running for Queens borough president, are getting special treatment as teachers in a city middle school, a whistleblower charges.

The politician’s sister, Patricia Crowley, returned to IS 5 the Walter Crowley School — named for their late councilman uncle — after a higher-paying Department of Education assignment to land an easy gig supervising kids in a detention room, insiders told The Post.
In what one staffer called “cronyism,” Patricia’s son, Eugene Cullivan, a day-to-day substitute, was filling in for an art teacher on leave. But when that teacher returned in November, Principal Kelly Nepogoda let Cullivan keep the class full-time instead of returning it to the licensed specialist.
“This is not just about favoritism. It’s about hurting students,” a veteran DOE teacher said. “The art students are subjected to a substitute when an experienced, licensed teacher is available.”
The veteran called it “preferential treatment” for the politically-connected duo. The Crowley sisters’ cousin is Joe Crowley, the longtime congressman and former Queens Democratic Party boss defeated in 2018 by primary challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Patricia Crowley declined to discuss the arrangement. Nepogoda did not return a call or answer an email. Liz Crowley did not return calls. A special election for borough president is set for March 24.
Patricia Crowley, 50, is licensed to teach children in pre-K to 6th grade, and special education. She taught 6th grade science at IS 5 before taking a special, two-year DOE assignment as a “peer evaluator” in other schools, making $141,300 last school year.
Since returning to IS 5 in September, her salary reverted to $121,862,  the DOE said. She doesn’t teach a class, but supervises the SAVE, or in-house suspension, room. Typically five to 10 students at a time come from various classes with work assigned by their regular teachers.
A SAVE teacher may help kids with questions, but no lesson planning or grading is required. It’s considered an easy, less stressful job.
Crowley could be teaching a regular class, or helping reduce class size, the DOE veteran said: “Her services should be utilized helping students with the greatest need, instead of being put in a practically phantom job.”
Her son Cullivan, 27, was subbing for an art teacher on medical leave when the school year started, Nepogoda granted his request to keep the class after the art teacher returned on Nov. 22.  Nepogoda assigned the art teacher a class of students scheduled for music, replacing a music teacher she had removed for alleged misconduct. The school is now without a music teacher.

Liz Crowley's brief and poor quality video plea to save Rockaway city bus lines

Use long weekend to watch the BP forum

It's a riot!

The Queen of Queens?

 

  

  NY Daily News

 Former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley is stepping up efforts in her Queens borough president run with a poll finding one in five voters would pick her over her leading rivals.

While Crowley has been quiet since losing a tough re-election fight in 2017, she touted the poll as proof she’s still a contender.

 "During my years in City Council, I fought for Queens values and against the status quo — I fought to protect public safety, to expand transportation, and to bring reform to the city's budgeting process,” she said in a Sunday statement. “Based on our polling, voters are aware of what I’ve accomplished and that my record is resonating with voters.”

A survey of 1,282 likely voters put Crowley against leading candidates Jimmy Van Bramer, Costa 
 

 Constantinides and Donovan Richards, all Queens Council members. A plurality of respondents — 44% — said they didn’t know who’d they vote for if the election were held now, but 21% supported Crowley; 16%, Van Bramer; 10%, Richards; and 8%, Constantinides.

Honan Strategy Group conducted the survey in October, but its CEO Bradley Honan said the results are still valid because not much has changed in the race since then; debates and TV ad campaigns won’t start until the coming weeks.

Crowley lost her Council seat to Bob Holden, who ran campaign on opposition to homeless shelters in the district, which includes Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Woodhaven and Woodside.

  

Borough President candidate Crowley proposes resuscitation of LIRR passenger train line

 

 NY Daily News

A little-used stretch of train tracks in Queens could be the key to filling transit deserts in the borough, community leaders say.

The Long Island Railroad’s Lower Montauk branch, which runs 8.5 miles between Long Island City and Jamaica, could be used to bring new passenger rail service to communities like Maspeth and Glendale, which do not have subway stops.

The LIRR ran commuter trains along the line until 1998, when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority closed its stops due in part to low ridership. Now, the tracks service freight trains and are used as an extra storage space for Sunnyside Yard.

The chief advocate of the project, dubbed the QNS, is former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Queens). She commissioned an independent feasibility study in 2017, which was completed shortly after she left office in early 2018.

Crowley has recently renewed her push for the line — she hosted an event Friday to begin assembling a non-profit to stump for the project.

 Her proposal would bring nine stops to the stretch, and would cost an estimated $2.2 billion to pull off. The 2018 study projects that it would serve roughly 21,000 weekday riders.

Community leaders and advocates of the project disagree with that assessment, noting that the areas it will serve expect to boom in the coming years.

“Look at the growth in Long Island City and the growth in the Jamaica downtown area and at JFK Airport,” said longtime transportation consultant Philippa Karteron, an advocate of the project. “If we could put something like this together, the corridor could be an economic development corridor, bringing in businesses, bringing in jobs.”

Unlike the BQX, another Queens-oriented transit project, Crowley’s idea isn’t supported by real estate developers — she says she’s working to form a grassroots campaign that has community boards involved from the get-go.

This actually isn't a bad idea considering the severe and desperate need for transit in this overcrowded and overburdened city but that rendering of Hillside Ave. in Richmond Hill is a hysterically inaccurate depiction of the citizenry in that area. And very racist in it's prescience of what the designers think it will look like if the station is built there.

Elizabeth Crowley is running for Queens Borough President.

According to the video, this campaign is being marked also as a listening tour. (How about Liztening Tour?)

 Listening to this, Liz is banking heavy on the sexual identity politics and immigration angle, while looking perplexed by some of the questions from the audience.

Hopefully, she doesn't get pushy with citizens who demand more from her than just platitudes.

Liz Crowley considers losing boroughwide

From the Queens Chronicle:

Former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has been out of elective office for just seven months, but she’s already gearing up for what could be her next political endeavour.

In a Monday phone interview, Crowley exclusively told the Chronicle that she has formed an exploratory committee for a run for borough president in 2021 — something she is strongly considering.

“I’m from Queens. This is the borough I was born and raised in. I would bring a unique vision that extends beyond the previous boundaries of my Council district,” she said. “I’ve been out there the last few months talking to leaders throughout Queens and I’m getting a very good response. People are encouraging me.

“I haven’t decided yet, but I am humbled by the enthusiastic support.”

The former lawmaker said she formed her exploratory committee just two weeks ago, but she appears to already be in campaign mode — she attended six house parties in as many days across the borough, from Jackson Heights to Fresh Meadows and Breezy Point.

Just in recent weeks, Crowley said, she has raised approximately $100,000.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Queens Crap!

Tickets going fast! Oh wait, there are no tickets. Just a big Irish tweederfest. Who wouldn't want the Tom Manton Irish Person of the Year award?

Silly train study says what we already knew

Summary of Findings from the Lower Montauk Branch Light Rail Study:

 Initial analysis shows that it would be feasible to develop joint passenger-freight operations on the Branch, allowing for robust transit service while maintaining and upgrading freight operations if desired.

 Approximately 21,000 riders per weekday and 5.8 million riders annually would use the service, assuming a $2.75 fare, a free transfer to MTA Bus or Subway, and relatively frequent service throughout the day. Fare revenues are estimated at $15 million annually, while annual operations and maintenance costs are estimated at $55 million.

 Capital costs while maintaining freight service on the Branch are estimated at $2.2 billion, including substantial upgrades to rail infrastructure (track, signals, communications), new running track in key areas, new freight yard space to clear track for transit operations, transit vehicles, a storage and maintenance yard for transit vehicles, and property acquisition. Eliminating freight service altogether on the Branch – an option not analyzed in this study – would reduce total capital costs to about $1.1 billion. Value Capture financing, using a portion of the increase in property values induced by this new transit service, could potentially fund $300 million in bonds, or roughly 27% of total projected capital costs for passenger-only rail operations on the Branch and 14% of such costs under the analyzed option of both passenger and freight rail operations.

Preliminary Estimate: Projected Bond Support from 5 Key Station Areas ($2017)
Grand Ave./Flushing Ave. $50,000,000
Fresh Pond/Metro Ave. $39,000,000
Metro Mall $59,000,000
80th Street $61,000,000
Woodhaven Blvd. $100,000,000
Total: $309,000,000

Bottom line: Way too expensive + not enough riders = a no go. The mayor actually said this in front of Liz Crowley back at his December 2017 town hall meeting in Glendale. The DOT quietly threw this up on their website, probably because they didn't want to call attention to the fact that their agency and the council member blew $1/2M on this nonsense. The taxpayers' loss is AECOM's gain.

Holden's ballot lead stands

From NY1:

City Councilman Elizabeth Crowley acknowledged Wednesday night that her opponent's margin of victory held during a tally of absentee ballots Wednesday in a very close Queens city council race.

The Board of Elections said it will not certify the result until it certifies all the races, as it does every election.

Sources from Crowley's opponent, Republican Robert Holden, have told NY1 that he has won the race for the 30th city council district.

Holden declared victory on Election Day, even though he was ahead by only 133 votes.

It appears his lead has grown by four votes, although the total has not been confirmed.

Well this is getting very interesting. And check these quotes from Holden in the Times Ledger:

“This mayor wants a one party socialist Marxist regime and anyone who thinks differently than him is the enemy,” Holden said. “He judges people based on labels and that is something he should be against. Instead he bad mouths the Republican Party as no good and that’s the type of approach that put this country in such a divisive mess. Did I run on the Republican line? Yeah. Am I a registered Democrat? Yeah, but the bottom line is I’m apolitical. I’m a civic leader and I’m going to work with anyone that can help my community and my constituen­ts.”

Holden added the mayor was wrong to launch the 14.7 mile Select Bus Service route on Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards Monday.

“It’s such a disaster. People are sitting in traffic jams for hours. It’s just another bad policy from this administration, and one of the reasons I got so many votes,” Holden said. “He wants to take away our cars, he doesn’t understand Queens at all. The traffic is crippling all over the borough and all we get is more bike lanes and more SBS lanes. The administration is taking away one of our basic rights — the freedom of movement — you can’t just get in your car and go anymore.”

And the winner is...

So with 100% of precincts reporting per NY1, Robert Holden appears to have defeated 9-year incumbent Elizabeth Crowley in the 30th Council District by 133 votes, provided that it holds up after a recount and adding in absentee ballots.

The rest of the races turned out just as you would expect...