Amazon sends glossy junk mail to Queens residents.

Queens Chronicle

“Happy New Year from your future neighbors at Amazon.”

That’s the message in one of two fliers being sent to residents in Queens as the company tries to win over residents in its controversial move to the borough.

“The announcement of our new headquarters in Long Island City was the beginning of what we hope will be a long and mutually beneficial partnership between New Yorkers and Amazon,” the mailer says.

The positive aspects of the move are touted in both fliers, including the creation of 25,000 new jobs over 10 years and career training for residents.

The first flier says Amazon will be a “partner” with the community.


The flier also encourages people to call state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) or other state lawmakers to tell them to support the project.

Gianaris has been a critic of Amazon’s move to Queens.

"It's ironic that Amazon wants billions of our taxpayer dollars and is spending so much to convince the people of western Queens that it is entitled to those dollars," Gianaris said in a statement. "People will not be fooled by slick advertising — they will continue to be against the Amazon deal and so will I."

Critics of the company’s move to Long Island City have pointed to the $3 billion in tax breaks as well as concerns about the impact on housing prices and if there is enough transportation to handle all the new commuters.

Last licks in CD19 race

Konstantinos has been delivering doorhangers to area residents:

Graziano put out a comparison mailer:

And Vallone has a PBA endorsement flyer that features Shutterstock photos of non-NYPD officers:

It's all over tomorrow!

Paul vs. Paul getting really amusing

Here are the mailers in question with the 2013 Graziano-on-fire ads.

Paul 2017 by Paul Graziano on Scribd

Graziano Mailers Vallone by Paul Graziano on Scribd

Crowley takes credit for things she didn't do

Ooooh, I can't wait to hear this!

"When a house is sold in my neighborhood, I no longer worry about a developer tearing it down to build an oversized eyesore. Thanks to Elizabeth's rezoning, we will never have to worry about overdevelopment again."

Is this guy serious? First of all, the rezoning process for Maspeth-Middle Village-Glendale was started in 2004 by community volunteers, 3 years after Elizabeth Crowley initially ran for City Council, lost, and promptly disappeared. While civic groups were going door-to-door collecting building information, Elizabeth Crowley had a no-show job courtesy of Brian McLaughlin. She resurfaced only in 2008 to run for Council again. The ULURP for the rezone started a few months after Elizabeth assumed power in 2009, mainly because Amanda Burden insisted on personally touring the area before giving her seal of approval. Although the rezoning provides more protection from overdevelopment, there still is plenty of it around these neighborhoods. You'll still see 3 or 4-family houses being built in the future where there currently are one-family houses. And a lot of the area was not rezoned because City Planning couldn't decide which zone it fell into or felt the zoning already matched the housing stock.

Crowley doesn't send her kids to the Maspeth High School. And I guess she thinks we forgot that she voted against the construction of the school and that a lot of Maspeth moms can't send their kids to the school because Crowley failed to obtain the necessary concessions from the DOE. We didn't.

She's fighting for good schools, but the one she is at apparently has a teacher that can't spell the word "repercussion". Hmm. They must have known she was coming, however, because the words "fallacy" "manic" "recession" and "indict" appear next to her head on the blackboard.

This is the creepiest mailer of the bunch. A woman appears on the cover of the folded mailer. When you open it up...

Crowley appears next to her. (She apparently was photoshopped out of the cover.)

Crowley's office referred a constituent to a social worker who enrolled her in Medicaid. That's a basic function of a council member, not fodder for a mailer.

The Forum endorsed Crowley's opponent, Craig Caruana:

The 30th Council District is facing a laundry list of intimidating issues: A woeful lack of senior housing, overcrowded classrooms, an arts center that aims to serve liquor to thousands of patrons in a residential area inhabited by many older residents and families, and not enough green space.

There is much that needs to happen for the district’s residents, and in order for that to happen there must be an elected official who is not only responsive to constituents’ needs but able to get along with the City Council’s top brass, including the Speaker.

That person is Craig Caruana.

We know that Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has done some good. She has put money into schools and parks. But she has not done nearly enough. Fairly or not, she couldn’t get along with Council Speaker Christine Quinn – and that has hurt the district financially. She is routinely missing in action when it comes to responding to constituent complaints, and, when asked if she would run for a third term – something she repeatedly slammed Mayor Bloomberg for pushing – she didn’t say no. Additionally, she is supporting the Knockdown Center, despite almost every other elected official and numerous civic groups in the area raising a litany of concerns about the facility’s request to serve alcohol to up to 5,000 people at the site.

We need someone who will listen to, and fight for, the people.

Craig Caruana grew up in Middle Village – he knows this district. An involved civic activist, he is committed to this neighborhood and will fight for his constituents – whether they are Democrats or Republicans.

It’s time to vote in someone who aims to reduce property taxes and bring more resources to area schools. Who will return phone calls and get along with other legislators. Who won’t say, with a wink, sure, I’d love for that to happen – and then never follow through.

Vote Craig Caruana Nov. 5.

For comparison, here are some of his mailers:

Dennis Saffran does campaign mailers the respectable way

If you want to strike a stark comparison between you and your opponent, there's no need to have a developer PAC set someone on fire, or to try to attach candidates to scandals with which they were not involved. Here's the right way to do it, based on the candidate's actual words taken in the appropriate context and his record:









In other words, be man enough to do it under your own name!

Lots of outside money in council and mayoral races

From the NY Times:

With little more than a week to go before the Democratic primary for New York mayor, outside groups have poured $3 million into supporting and opposing their preferred candidates, according to the most current figures through Sunday.

The effect of those expenditures is being closely watched, because this is the first citywide election in which outside groups, like corporations and unions, have had an opportunity to spend unlimited amounts on campaigns in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case.

And with the majority of candidates abiding by tight spending caps in exchange for participating in the city’s matching-fund program, any significant outside financing, especially for political ads and mailings, could make a difference.

In the race for mayor, for instance, all the major Democratic contenders are participating in the program, which allows the campaigns to spend $6.7 million in the primary.

So far, William C. Thompson Jr., a former city comptroller, has benefited from $1.55 million in outside money, making him the biggest beneficiary, by far, of such support, according to detailed records cataloged by the city’s Campaign Finance Board. Much of the money has been spent on palm cards, radio commercials and mailers, thanks to a group affiliated with the United Federation of Teachers, which has endorsed Mr. Thompson.

New York City is Not for Sale, a group of animal-rights activists and others who are vehemently opposed to the candidacy of Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, have spent $774,000. They were the first outside groups to spend money on a television commercial criticizing a candidate, and many political analysts say their relentless campaign has hurt Ms. Quinn.

Ms. Quinn, in fact, is the only mayoral candidate who has been the target of outside spending.

Some of that opposition, however, may have been blunted by $657,000 from outside groups that support Ms. Quinn. Of that amount, about $610,000 has been spent on English and Spanish-language materials by a group connected with the Hotel Trades Council, which has endorsed Ms. Quinn.

Locally, we have this:

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $7,755 since 8/5 opposing Chrissy Vosckerichian @electchrissy #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $21,003 since 8/5 opposing Austin Shafran @Austin4Council #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $16,238 since 8/5 opposing Paul Graziano @PaulGraziano19 #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $105,885 since 8/5 supporting Paul Vallone@PaulVallone #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $5,251 on 8/31 opposing John Ciafone #DailyFiling - http://t.co/icfNwiAo21

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 2, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $24,999 since 8/5 supporting Costa Constantinides @VoteCosta #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Planned Parenthood of NYC Political Cmte: ind expenditures of $3,895 since 8/5 supporting Melinda Katz @MelindaKatz #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013