Eric Adams' gaffe exposes media hypocrisy

Surely by now you all have heard about the controversial remarks that Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams made on MLK Day about wealthy white transplants. If not, here's a summary:

Now, of course, Adams was going to feel blowback from this, and it has gone on for a week now. But for the wrong reason! As my friend Miss Heather succinctly pointed out:

Now THIS is what the media should have been focusing on in their criticism. Instead, they tried to make the issue about foreign immigration and people coming here for work, which is not who Adams was talking about. We have all been affected by the latest trend of prom queens and bros that have infiltrated NYC and turned it into chain store heaven. These folks leave lily-white suburbs and come here to remake NYC into an urban version of what is familiar to them, and do it with general disdain for the people who were born and raised here. They don't contribute anything to the city's culture except upzonings, gentrification, virtue signaling politics and shitty, overpriced pizza.

So why has the media gone so apeshit over Adams' comments? Well, if you recall, back in 2009, the newspapers were tripping over themselves to endorse - for money - billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg for a third mayoral term, aka the grand wizard of forced gentrification and pimp daddy of corporate welfare for real estate companies. So the reaction from the press now is pure defense. They helped gentrify this city with not only this, but by framing any and all opposition as kooks standing in the way of progress and basically printing developer press releases word for word. Can't piss off your advertisers!

Check out this "rebuttal" opinion piece in today's Daily News:

I loved my childhood here but also see again reflected in my kids’ eyes what a profoundly unnatural place it is to grow up in. It’s a way station for people and money coming in or out of America, and everyone building a life in the midst of the tumult and transit and trade knows it.

Hmm. It may be a way station for some people. But everyone reading this knows scores of native New Yorkers who don't feel this way. If this reflects the media's opinion of NYC, then it's no wonder they cover it the way they do, like everything politicians propose is inevitable. Sad. Just sad.

Yes, Adams deserves criticism for his remarks because of his hypocrisy, but the media deserves the same. And that's a big reason why this blog and others, like Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, exist. - QC


And mine too,
JQ LLC ,Impunity City

BDB used Mets games to look like an everyman

From CBS 2:

In an August 27 email, de Blasio said, “Chirlane, Chiara will go to the Mets/Red Sox game Friday night – in very cheap seats… I will go the Sat game with queens bp (Borough President) Melinda Katz. I will go to the Sunday game with Queens councilmembers.”

Outside consultant Jonathan Rosen, of BerlinRosen, sometimes referred to as “Jro” in the emails, weighed in on August 28 with a political “tweak.”

“Can we also frame this as how BdB (Bill de Blasio) does his politics. Some pols do dinners and drinks… but he’s working the Queens delegation and the BP over Mets games. It’s work – him doing politics well,” he wrote.

De Blasio claims he will raise private money for his defense

From NBC:

Mayor DeBlasio answers questions from reports for the first time since the I-Team reported he will be questioned by federal prosecutors. Melissa Russo reports.

Related: De Blasio Won't Use Taxpayer Money for His Legal Defense, He Says

DeBlasio owns the message

From Crains:

From the first moments of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration, when he initially declared his midnight swearing-in off limits to the media, he has established a record of frequently conducting public business in private, with dozens of events closed to the press.

In nearly five months in office, Mr. de Blasio barred the media from 53 events and limited access to 30 more, an Associated Press analysis of Mr. de Blasio's schedule shows. On a handful of days, his entire schedule was off limits. All told, more than 20% of his listed events were closed to the media.

Events in which reporters were notified of their existence but prevented from attending ranged from meetings with government figures such as the mayor of Seattle and Israel's minister of foreign affairs to sit-downs with the NBA commissioner, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Russian band Pussy Riot.

Often, the mayor's photographer later published images from those so-called private meetings, meaning that an official image of the event is the only one that exists. It's a tactic President Barack Obama has also used while restricting access to events in the White House and around the world. Several news organizations, including the AP, refuse to distribute such handout images from Mr. Obama or Mr. de Blasio.

Mr. de Blasio, a populist Democrat who campaigned with promises of an open administration, said in a news conference in Brooklyn on Tuesday that he "believes deeply in transparency" and that his administration could do better.

"We believe there is a whole swath of information that needs to be available to the public and we need to continue to do a better job on that," he said. "There is a lot of day-to-day government business that is appropriately disclosable that we need to be better at."

Mr. de Blasio's spokesman noted that any limits imposed on reporters are largely due to logistics, not secrecy.

But some media watchdogs worry that the restrictions in New York reflect a larger trend of government officials limiting access to the media while getting their message out to constituents directly via Twitter, Facebook and their own websites.

"It's easier to manage the message if you leave the media out of it," said Hunter College professor Jamie Chandler.

In other words:

Restaurants not happy with LIC portrayal

From LIC Post:

More than a dozen restaurants—fed up by the way the media portrays Long Island City as well as the adversarial nature of the Health Department—have come together and formed an association to promote the neighborhood and tackle a range of issues from the health department grading system to sanitation problems.

The group, called the Long Island City Restaurant Association, held its first meeting at the Creek and the Cave, located at 10-93 Jackson Ave., last Tuesday. The owners/managers of several well-known establishments participated, including: Alobar, Masso, Alewife, Manducatis Rustica, Riverview Restaurant & Lounge and LIC Market.

Rebecca Trent, the owner of the ‘Creek and the Cave’ and the association’s chief organizer, said the members all have similar concerns.

Trent said they are frustrated by the how some members of the media try to compare Long Island City to Williamsburg. “We are not a hipster haven,” she said. “This is a neighborhood of young professionals and children– not men with handlebar moustaches.”

“Some of the older journalists—who are not tapped in– think that anyone who is in their 20s/early 30s is a hipster,” Trent said. Furthermore, “many of these same reporters haven’t even spent any time here.”

Another issue is that some media outlets pitch Long Island City like it’s a hotel.

“Some people promote the area as a cool place to live given how close it is to the city—but fail to say what a great place it is to hang out in,” said Jeff Blath, the owner of Alobar.

Therefore, the restaurant owners say, the underlying message can easily be interpreted to mean: hang out in the Manhattan, sleep in Long Island City.

The organization aims to speak with one voice, where its members refute the hipster and hotel generalizations–and promote the Long Island City restaurant and bar scene as a destination for visitors.

Why the media covers for Bloomberg

From Salon:

Have you ever wondered why Bloomberg is perpetually portrayed as an uber-popular mayor, despite consistent polls to the contrary, and despite barely winning reelection after grossly outspending his little-known opponent? Have you ever wondered how Bloomberg could be glowingly billed as a moderate liberty-loving hero even as he has trampled civil liberties and freedom in ways that would make a banana republic’s dictator blush? Have you ever wondered why the mayor of New York is a ubiquitous guest on most major news programs, even though he is but the mayor of one city?

All of that has to do with fear and desire. Simply put, there’s a fear among many in the media that Bloomberg may one day buy out their employer, and that if they don’t treat him well, they’ll be out of a job. Likewise, there’s a desire among many to get a high-paying job from Bloomberg when that buyout moment happens, or to get a fat paycheck at one of the outlets he uses to convert has-been pundits and politicos into his loyal ideological spokespeople.

Fueling rumors of Bloomberg’s impending purchases, then, simply stokes that fear and desire — which consequently expands Bloomberg’s overall influence over the media. Hence, a wildly unpopular authoritarian is typically depicted as America’s beloved “Freedom Mayor,” replete with top bookings on major shows to promote his supposed benevolence. Hence, Bloomberg-ism — read: genuflection to Wall Street, deification of the super-rich and rejection of basic civil liberties — becomes the unquestioned ideological position of many major news outlets.

Mr. Clean is not giving up so easily

Dear Councilman Leroy Comrie, Councilman James F. Gennaro, Councilman Ruben Wills, Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall, Senator Malcolm A. Smith, Assemblymember Rory Lancman, Assemblymember Vivian Cook, Iggy Terranova, Valerie Stevens, Community Board #12 Members and Other Concerned Individuals:

I hope by now that most of you have my attention in regards to the major garbage/litter/dumping problem that has been plaguing Jamaica, Queens for some time and seen or read some of the coverage. Putting together a music video showcasing this problem in just a five block radius of my home (89-00 170th Street) caught the attention of WPIX, Channel 4 News, Queens Chronicle and the Times Ledger (Jamaica Times Edition).

Below in case you did not see or read it, are the WPIX segment with Monica Morales interviewing me and the Queens Chronicle article on this issue. Next Thursday the Times Ledger (Jamaica Times Edition) will print the interview that one of their reporters, Rich Bockmann, did with me in front of another notorious dumping/garbage problem areas, the empty corner lot at Merrick and Foch Blvd across from Roy Wilkins Park. Monica Morales has expressed interest in doing another segment depicting another garbage/litter/dumping area in Jamaica, which there are plenty, unfortunately and Channel 4 wants to do a future story on this ongoing problem.


After a phone call from Monica Morales and before the WPIX segment even aired on May 29th, the Department of Sanitation made a very quick appearance to the 170th St LIRR tunnel and cleaned it up. Also the DOS came out and cleaned the sidewalk outside of the empty lot (SW corner of 170th St & 90th Ave), but, without the owner coming out on a regular basis to clean up, by next week trash will once again pile up on the sidewalk and a bigger BUT, the inside of this lot still has garbage bags, a huge Casio keyboard and other assorted litter in it, which has been there since June of 2011, not to mention the height of the grass/weeds on the surrounding sidewalk. I had been complaining countless times since 2011 regarding some these problems and it took a reporter to expose this to get some action from the city. It should NOT have to work this way. The city should have been on this problem from the get go, listening to their constituents and doing their jobs.

So now that just a very few of these spots were cleaned (but for how long), how are you going to:

1. Address this major garbage/litter/dumping problem in Jamaica (how about putting some people to work to help clean up Jamaica such as what the Doe Fund does in Manhattan, placing litter/dumping fine signs in places where this is a problem, more trash cans on the sidewalks where litter is a big problem).
2. Find solutions to prevent this from happening on a continuing basis.
3. Deal with the many property owners of these vacant lots and make them responsible for cleaning their property on a regular basis (how about hitting them with much higher fines than are already in place, the city certainly could use the extra revenue).
4. Respond in a quick and efficient manner when a constituent makes a complaint regarding this issue.
5. Deal with these vacant lots that have multiple complaints against them.
6. Deal with individuals who toss litter on the ground (I saw 10 various people on a ten minute walk throw some kind of litter/garbage on the ground, so how about placing DOS people on the street to fine individuals who litter, again extra revenue to the city).
7. Deal with some of the more notorious dumping grounds in the community (170th LIRR Tunnel, empty lot at SW corner of 170th St, empty lot at corner of Merrick and Foch Blvd - how about monitoring these well know problem areas and there are others).
8. Stop the over development of Jamaica (tearing down 1-2 family homes to put up the countless cheap, mini-projects that house 15- 20 families where the owner/landlord tends to be pretty much absent and the tenants pretty much do whatever they want. These are not only an eyesore to the neighborhood and not particularly clean and well kept but also attract some questionable people to them. They are just mini versions of the notorious projects of the 60's and 70's and we all know how well that worked out.

It is time to finally put this issue to the forefront, address it and begin to resolve it instead of keeping your heads in the sand and ignoring it or putting it on the back burner. As a tax-payer who actually cares about his community (and there are many of us here in Jamaica who want to see changes), I will continue my quest on this major problem and will continue to document it via photos, video, etc until this issue gets addressed. Some people have told me to just give up and move to another community, that Jamaica is hopeless. Well, I do not believe it is hopeless, YET. With it's rich history, 15 landmarked buildings (more than any other area in Queens), arts community, easy access to various public transportation/highways and various parks, I feel that with enough effort Jamaica can be a place to be proud of and a place that quality people and businesses want to come to, READ - QUALITY. Remember, Williamsburg, Long Island City (where I lived before it was developed), Hells Kitchen, Harlem, Alphabet City, Lower East Side, even SoHo, were once considered undesirable places, but that changed. I believe Jamaica has such potential, but it will not happen by doing very little or nothing and not addressing the issues. Maybe our leaders need to take a look at Newark for a template, such as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which has been widely cited as a catalyst in the revitalization of Newark.

Jamaica will not attract quality people and businesses with the garbage/litter problem but also will not attract quality people and businesses with another umpteenth dirty 99 Cent Store, umpteenth wig place, umpteenth fast food place, umpteenth cheap furniture store, hardly stocked unclean umpteenth deli, I could go on and on, you get the picture. By the way considering that the hugest population in Jamaica is African Americans, how many businesses are actually black owned that serve the black community (the wig stores, the beauty supply stores, etc.) and are some of these non-black businesses actually helping the community of Jamaica and adding to the quality of life in Jamaica. Pakistani & Other Middle Eastern people make up such a small percentage of the population but tend to own many businesses within the community. Not too criticize one group over another but there certainly seems to be a disparity in Jamaica when it comes to businesses.

We need more places of quality, like Sangria Tapas Bar & Restaurant, O' Lavrador Restaurant & Bar, Bellitte Bicycles, VP Records, Annam Brahma Vegetarian Restaurant and we need black owned businesses as well. Although Apple Bees and GNC are a step up on Jamaica Avenue, we need to make sure that we keep climbing those steps and not take 3 steps backwards. Don't even get me started on Hillside Avenue (from Queens Boulevard to 173rd), which is ugly, filthy, dirty storefronts and garbage/litter all over the place, I step out of the subway and I have to make sure I did not land in some third world country. Just disgraceful. But I digress from the garbage/litter problem, but this all plays into what is going on in Jamaica and the garbage issue is just the tip of the iceberg, which badly needs addressed.

Be on the look out for a future sequel to the music video that I did last week regarding the garbage/litter problem, but this time covering a much larger portion of Jamaica.

To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, "Ask not what your community can do for you, but what you can do for your community." I am doing something to put the spotlight on this major problem, but what are you doing to address and resolve it.

Sincerely,

Joe Moretti


Queens Chronicle article

Times Ledger article

No shame whatsoever

Originally, I was going to make fun of the costumes Bloomberg wore during his sketches for the annual Inner Circle show. I mean just take a look:



But then I saw the photos of a sketch that made fun of the administration's lack of responsiveness during and after the December 26th snowstorm.

So it appears that the mayor and his butt kissers tried to turn their negligence - which resulted in people's deaths - into cheap laughs. They think it's appropriate to crack jokes about that? And the members of the media laughed? How utterly tasteless.

I have news for you all: IT'S NOT FUNNY, ASSHOLES.

Photos courtesy of Gothamist.

Where were you all for the past 10 years?

From the NY Observer:

That the city's political press corps is now answering a mayor who has thrown verbal brickbats their way (he called an Observer reporter a "disgrace"; embarrassed a disabled reporter who was unable to reach a tape recorder which had gone off during a press conference) for close to 10 years with some brickbats of their own is something of a new development. For two terms the Bloomberg administration enjoyed, even seasoned reporters acknowledge, a relatively easy go of it in the press, and an even easier time among the editorial boards.

No longer.

"There has been a demarcation," said one reporter. "There is a certain sense that Mike Bloomberg's string has run out."

The clearest evidence of this, political observers say, is the suddenly negative coverage the mayor has received from two columnists perceived as newsroom weather vanes: Clyde Haberman of The New York Times and Bob McManus of the New York Post. Over the past several years, Mr. Haberman has written various upbeat stories, including "Bloomberg Travels to the Old World In Search of New Ideas" and "Scenes from the Blue Room: A More Flexible Tone is Heard," but last month, the columnist openly wondered whether or not the whiz kids at City Hall were capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. Mr. McManus meanwhile wrote recently that the mayor was guilty "of a spectacular failure of field leadership."And the editorial pages of both papers, which cheered the mayor when he overturned term limits two years ago, have likewise begun to sing a new tune.

"Nobody likes Mike these days," wrote the Post, and The Times called the mayor's recent initiative to ban smoking in parks "a civic disaster."

The sharpened tone has been seen in the news pages as well. A few years ago, if the mayor was out of town during a snowstorm, the press would have pestered him about it, and then, after some stonewalling, moved on.

"Editors sent the signal that they would not back you in a fight with City Hall," said one local political hack. "It became less about getting them and more about getting handouts, and Bloomberg was really effective at getting the press corps to play who likes me best. I think now reporters feel betrayed by their papers."

"Every reporter was freaked out by the term-limit thing, and they got much more critical after that," said one political reporter.

Well that's funny because we were freaked out by it, too. If you had covered it the way you should have instead of acting like he was entitled to it, we all would have avoided the extended suffering. You failed at your jobs and every single one of you who participated are a disgrace to journalism.

Why is the media silent on challengers?

Here is the accompanying press release.

And guess what? YouTube sent Biviano a notice saying his video was hit with a privacy complaint from an NBC employee who appears briefly in the video.

And here is a story of another unholy alliance - Michael Nussbaum and a Queens incumbent senator, Shirley Huntley.

NYC hemorrhaging communications jobs

From Fox 5:

The New York City comptroller's office says the city has lost nearly 60,000 communications jobs since 2000, including in publishing and broadcasting.

New York City accounts for about 19 percent of national employment in the communications sector.

The city lost 44,500 communications jobs from 2000 to 2007, and has since lost another 15,100 jobs.