Dr. not buying Bloomberg's anti-soda campaign

Good afternoon,

I hope you’re doing well. I recently read a post on your blog titled, “Do What I Say, Not What I Do” where you address Mayor Bloomberg’s hypocrisy towards the New York City Health Department’s “Don’t Drink Yourself Fat” advertisement. I thought you might be interested in a podcast with a response to the ad campaign, from the scientific perspective. Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, President of the American Council on Science and Health, thinks it is irresponsible to pinpoint a single product for America’s obesity problem and thinks that these efforts may be misleading for consumers.

She addresses her views on the podcast below:

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Liz Seymour for Dr. Elizabeth Whelan and the American Council on Science and Health

Push to beautify Ridgewood MTA eyesore

From City Council blog:

As the MTA finalizes its Capital Improvement Plan for next five years, Council Member Elizabeth S. Crowley, along with Senator Joseph Addabbo, Assembly Members Catherine Nolan and Michael Miller and community leaders called on the MTA to allow for the creation of much needed temporary green space on the corners of Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road. Currently it is the site of an abandoned newsstand and convenience store that has been neglected for over ten years. Plans to develop this area date back to Fiscal Year 2003 and is included in their MTA’s current five-year Capital Plan.

“While we continue to wait for the MTA to finally develop this area, we should be granted the opportunity to beautify this property in the meantime,” said Council Member Elizabeth Crowley. “The thousands of Queens residents who pass daily through this intersection have had to look at the dilapidated condition of this property for over a decade. As the gateway to Ridgewood, this long-time eyesore hurts the surrounding businesses and stifles the area’s economic growth.”

Police car hit by bullet

From NY1:

The search is on for whoever fired the shot that struck a police car in Queens Saturday night.

Police say a single bullet shattered the car's back window around 8 p.m. on Beach Channel Drive in the Rockaways.

Neither of the two officers in the car was injured.

Local residents say violence in the area is on the rise.

"It's a constant thing that happens out here in Rockaway. Every week it's something else, either a shooting or something like this. And the violence needs to be stopped," said one Rockaways resident.

It's still not clear whether the police car was the intended target of the shooting.

Quinn counting on Queens

From the NY Post:

The long knives are out for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Emboldened by the results of this month's Democratic primaries, in which five council incumbents were defeated and a sixth held on by a whisker-thin margin, critics of Quinn (right) are assessing whether there's an opening for a coup.

At least four of the five losers were reliable Quinn allies. Tom White (D-Queens), another ally, squeaked through by five votes.

Sources said Brooklyn Democratic leader Vito Lopez, whose relationship with Quinn is strained, is planning to meet with his Bronx counterpart, Carl Heastie, to determine whether they can round up the 26 votes needed to install their own candidate in the speaker's job.

"If she endorses Bloomberg, she's dead," one council member said.

For the moment, Quinn's ace in the hole is the fact that no obvious natural successor has emerged.

At least two council members who might have filled that role, Bill de Blasio and John Liu, didn't seek re-election this year so they could run for higher office.

"You can't beat somebody with nobody," the source said.

"The key thing is having Queens County. That relationship is not going to be dislodged."

50 Cent finally has his Jamaica concert

From the Daily News:

Rapper 50 Cent went back to his roots Saturday, performing for hundreds of thrilled fans in his old Jamaica 'hood and even gave a shout out at the police.

Screams of "I love you Fitty" echoed around the playground next to Public School 40 in Queens as NYPD officers kept an eye out for trouble on the roof of the school and nearby housing complex.

50 Cent, who was born and raised in South Jamaica, Queens, was the headline act at the community festival which had been scheduled for August but was cancelled because of security concerns surrounding the rapper's appearance.

"Next year I'm gonna get to do it on the actual date that I want, when they see this as a successful event they won't give me such a hard time next time," he said.

Bloomberg's latest ticket scam

From Mr. Angry:

1) Traffic enforcement lurks around corner near bus stop

2) Car making turn at corner notices an unmarked car behind speeding up with lights in the grill on

3) Driver pulls into bus stop to let them pass, only to be boxed in and accosted by traffic agents for ’standing’ in the bus stop.

More of this entrapment is what 4 more years will get us.

More dirty dealings in Council District 19 race

From City Hall:

On July 16, a legal aid worker named Barbara Byrne quietly filed petitions to run as the Working Families Party designee in the district currently represented by Tony Avella. That Byrne was not herself a resident of the district, never opened an account with the Campaign Finance Board or had anything resembling a campaign operation was irrelevant: she was never planning to be on the ballot.

Byrne is in line to be nominated by the WFP for Queens County Supreme Court judgeship at the WFP’s judicial convention this weekend, according to a source with knowledge of the situation...

Byrne, a party loyalist, is unlikely to win the judgeship, given that Queens Democrats are expected to nominate someone else at their judicial convention scheduled for Thursday evening.

But the maneuver allowed the WFP to stay out of a contested Democratic primary—one of the few on which the party was silent, and the only one among that small group in which a competitive general election was expected—and assured that whoever won, the Democratic and WFP support would be unified for the general election. From the outset, the plan was to have Byrne as a placeholder who would be removed through the judicial nomination so that the WFP could have a candidate for November without having one in September.

Byrne did not return calls requesting comment.

Byrne had originally collected 11 signatures in total, via two petition gatherers. One of those, Alex Melman, describes himself as a summer intern for the WFP on his Facebook page. The other, Sarah Abernathy, was described in a New York Times article last fall about the WFP’s efforts fighting the term limits extension as a canvasser, and the WFP campaign finance disclosures with the state Board of Elections show a payment of $120 to her for get-out-the-vote and canvassing on Election Day 2008.

WFP spokesman Dan Levitan declined comment on Byrne or the ballot line in the Council district.

Kim said that he was unaware of the maneuvering by the WFP and was unsure whether he would indeed get the party line.

...Halloran challenged Kim not to take the WFP line, both because of questions about the party’s for profit company, Data and Field Services, and because of the machinations involved in giving Kim the line.

“For someone who talks about the need for reform, it would raise a red flag to accept the nomination of a party that has been shown not to be following campaign finance rules, and whose problems extend nationally, to the scandals surrounding ACORN,” Halloran said. “And the way that he is going to get the line—it was a straw card from the beginning.”

In a nutshell, Queens is screwed

From the Queens Chronicle:

...a fundamental question remains: will Queens residents have to live with fewer but larger local hospitals in the face of declining capital sources from both the public and private sectors?

Contributing to the hospital industry’s financial decline in Queens is an ongoing exodus of elective procedures — which industry executives said account for nearly 40 percent of revenue at healthy hospitals — into Manhattan and Long Island and a growing number of uninsured residents substituting nearby emergency rooms for primary care offices.

“If you have insurance and your insurance is accepted at a number of facilities — you can go almost anywhere that accepts your insurance,” Nemzoff said. “The emergency room is much more prone to picking up patients in their immediate service area, but as far as being admitted by doctors — these doctors practice at multiple hospitals. If the patient wants to go somewhere else they admit them into another hospital.”

Now many are left wondering whether the current system is sustainable.

“Have we and the state done a good enough job of local health planning in the borough of Queens?” asked one top hospital official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There may be pockets — for example western Queens, or southern Queens and southeastern Queens — where you are very underbedded for the population. But maybe parts of central Queens are overbedded.”

Parkway Hospital owner Dr. Robert Aquino... acknowledged that getting Queens healthcare back on track would be a difficult and costly task, he believes inaction is no longer an option.

“I think Queens is in big trouble,” he said.

Photo from the Times Ledger

Voters should demand R-E-S-P-E-C-T

From Bloomberg Watch:

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: this election isn’t about Thompson v. Bloomberg — it’s about us — The People v. Bloomberg. Thompson’s slogan 'eight years is enough', doesn’t capture it.

Here's ours: Don’t give your vote to a person who doesn’t respect it.

Ridgewood el station is worst in the city

From the Daily News:

It's official: a dilapidated subway station on the M line in Queens is the worst of the worst.

The Seneca Ave. stop in Ridgewood is in the direst state of disrepair, according to an MTA survey that assessed conditions of stations across the city.

Signs of decay are everywhere: rusting metal, peeling paint and concrete cracks sprouting weeds. There isn't a sign on the platform that hasn't been scratched or painted by graffiti vandals.

Some riders thought conditions are worse at other stops in the 468-station system, but the survey went beyond aesthetics and looked at things like structural stability. It was compiled for the MTA's NYC Transit division by independent engineers who inspected each station, rating stairways, walls, platforms and other components on 5-point scale: 1 being the best, 5 the worst.

At Seneca, 86% of the components were rated 3.5 or higher.

Queens history treated like trash

From the Daily News:

Originally the spinning centerpieces of a gristmill built in Dutch Kills around 1657, the stones are today among the oldest European artifacts in Queens.

In their heyday, they helped drive the economic fortunes of western Queens, but in recent decades the relics have been entombed in a shabby traffic island, with only their tops visible.

When the city Economic Development Corp. began the $52 million Queens Plaza revamp last fall, the traffic island was converted into a construction staging area.

[Richard] Melnick and other local preservationists are furious the stones were kept in close quarters with construction machinery and materials, hidden behind a temporary fence.

"Considering their historical importance, they should have been removed and put in a secure location," Melnick said.

"What if a heavy truck or a Bobcat rolled over one of them? It would snap it in half," he said.

Last week, one of the stones - still cemented in the sidewalk - was directly underneath part of the fence. The stone, which already had a crack in it before work commenced, was haphazardly covered with construction material.

Even worse, the other stone was nowhere to be seen recently, Melnick and other local preservationists said.

Its original sidewalk placement fell in the center of the staging area - a spot that appeared to have been covered with an asphalt patch when Melnick photographed the area a few weeks ago.

The blacktop patch was gone last week but the stone's whereabouts were still unknown.

This is Queens history, so expect it to be manhandled and disregarded.

Bloomberg's DOB picking on disabled elderly man

From the Times Ledger:

Bayside community activist Mandingo Tshaka has been slapped with a $27,400 city fine following a June inspection of his home by the city Department of Buildings. But he said one violation at his house had been corrected, while another was invalid under former city zoning laws.

Tshaka said a DOB inspector showed up at his home on a residential street south of Northern Boulevard June 4 and told him that a complaint had been made that he was running an illegal rooming house. The inspector searched the home, which had been owned by Tshaka’s grandmother, Lillian Ely Selby, since the early 1900s, and took pictures.

But Tshaka told the inspector that he, his aide and two renters lived in the house, which is registered as a one-family home.

“The 1961 [city] zoning resolution makes it clear that you can have two people living in your home, and the third person I have there is my aide,” said Tshaka, who uses a wheelchair. “It’s as-of-right. My house was a hotel, but I called it a way station. I kept the tradition of my grandmother and continued to rent rooms.”

Paul Kerson, Tshaka’s attorney, said Tshaka’s grandmother had converted the home into a rooming house in 1935 under the tenets of 1916 zoning laws, which legalized rooming houses or hotels in residential neighborhoods. In 1961, the city ruled that rooming houses could not be constructed in these neighborhoods, but under grandfathering laws allowed existing structures to remain as long as they were not further altered.

“What I think must have happened is that [the ECB] didn’t believe him,” Kerson said. “The building hasn’t changed since 1935. It’s clear he should not have to pay any fine. This whole thing is outrageous.”

Kerson has appealed to the ECB’s appeals unit on Tshaka’s behalf.

Police seek Woodside gas station robbers

From Fox 5:

A cashier at the Gulf Gas Station on Queens Boulevard in Woodside was forced by two robbers to hand over money.

Police say one of the robbers was carrying a gun.

The robbery happened on Thursday at around 3:30 a.m.

Surveillance video of the incident has been released.

Cops describe the robbers as black males. The suspect who carried the gun is 25-30 years old and was wearing a white hooded jacket, red baseball cap, black jeans and black sneakers. The second suspect was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans, tan boots and a baseball cap.

The Queens vista

From Restless:

...from near the Hunters Point train stations, one of the most photogenic spots around.

Will have to disagree on this. It was one of the most photogenic spots back when Forgotten-NY took a similar photo in 2004 before it was raped and plundered by developers.

...yet more proof that Queens has more wires, poles, and stuff in general, than just about anywhere else on earth.

And lots more crap!

Carolyn Maloney's husband dies

From NY1:

The husband of Manhattan-Queens Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney died during a mountain climbing expedition in Tibet, according to the representative's office.

Clifton Maloney, 71, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs who later ran a private investment firm, died yesterday afternoon.

It is not known whether he died while climbing or at a campsite.

He is also survived by two daughters.

Well, John?

"On August 27, 2005 John Liu said the following of my brother Craig (who was an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan)

"Jing is a victim three times over. She is the victim of an abusive ... husband who beat and raped her," Liu said.

Of course no such thing ever occurred and John knew that the whole time because he personally attended my family court hearings and he personally heard the testimony that proved that these were baseless allegations.

There was much testimony as well as evidence even photos were entered into evidence and they were actually stolen from the courtroom. Copies of these photos were found years later and proved beyond any doubt the truth of the matter.

John Liu used my deceased brother's good name to his own personal ends. For ten years my family has remained silent in order to protect the child, but I also have an oblation to give that child his father's good name back and I have asked John Liu for an apology.

He has ignored me.

I supposed I should not be surprised because this is a man who lied about his own father, (who was prosecuted and convicted for Bank Fraud in Manhattan). He has lied about his own mother, and so it should come as no surprise that he would lie about a law enforcement officer in Manhattan.

I continue to call on John Liu to tell the truth."

Doug Kelly


Here is the blog post excerpted in this e-mail.

And here is the NY Post's article about the mother losing custody.

John, you owe this family an apology for your knee-jerk defense of this liar and for helping put this family through sheer hell.

Just because someone's Asian doesn't mean they're telling the truth or are innocent, John. Just ask your father.

What happened to Toby's nose?

Screenshot from a NY1 story about some state peanuts being thrown at Queens hospitals to help them with the overflow of patients.

But the question on everyone's mind is what happened to Toby's nose??

Painting the top of the town

From NY Post:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants New Yorkers to paint their rooftops white to make buildings cooler and more energy efficient, but the city hasn't painted hundreds of its own buildings.

The Bloomberg administration has long been aware of the advantages of white rooftops. The mayor's much-hyped 2007 environmental plan noted the benefits of the practice, and the city's overhauled building code in 2008 included cool roof requirements for most new buildings and renovations.

But the city still hasn't started painting 1 million square feet of roof space on municipal buildings like homeless shelters, police precincts, fire stations and sanitation garages.

Even so, Bloomberg invited environmental guru Al Gore to appear with him Thursday in Queens to raise awareness about what he said is a relatively simple building makeover. The mayor and former vice president even grabbed rollers and painted part of a roof together.

Quaker Meeting House still needs more $$$

From the Queens Chronicle:

After 315 years, it’s not surprising the landmarked Quaker Meeting House in Flushing needed some repairs. With the exterior work recently finished, the Religious Society of Friends still needs $75,000 for serious interior updates.

Although the Friends group has only around 29 members, they have managed to raise $25,000 to match a grant from the Landmarks Conservancy. But a total of $125,000 is needed to install a modern sprinkler system at the meeting house at 137-16 Northern Blvd. “We are determined to get the money,” said Linda Shirley, who heads the Fundraising Committee.

Members are thrilled at the completed exterior work, which includes a new roof, wooden shingles, Yankee gutters, a few new windows and a restored porch. “It looks like it always did, which is the way it’s supposed to look,” said Wendy Burns, the incoming co-clerk of the Flushing group.

Another welfare program for developers

From the NY Post:

Stalled condo projects and big blue “death fences” may be the order of the day throughout Brooklyn, but that doesn’t mean a community’s quality of life has to suffer.

The City Council is hammering out new legislation that would make it worth a developer’s while to better secure their half-completed projects.

If passed, developers feeling the financial pinch can enroll in a special program run by the city’s Department of Buildings, where all of their permits would be continued if they agree to maintain the safety of their construction sites.

According to current law, construction permits immediately expire if work on the site is suspended for more than 12 months. When they want to begin work again, they have to jump through a series of city hoops to acquire the permits they already had, officials said.

To be approved for the new program, one would have to “notify [the Department of Buildings] when permitted work would be suspended and when it will resume” as well as “submit a detailed plan for the Commissioner’s approval specifying how the safety of the construction site will be maintained while work is suspended or delayed.”

If a developer deviates in any way from their plan, their permits would be immediately rescinded.

And who is going to enforce this if they do deviate from the plan? Will the public get to see the plan? Sounds like yet another welfare program for developers. They may be feeling the pinch, but so is the city. Why are developers getting breaks but Joe Citizen is being forced to open up his wallet more often?

Photo from Pardon Me for Asking