Reform Party has surprise primary

For the first time ever, independent voters (blanks) may vote in a party primary. The Reform Party has a line on the ballot this November, and both voters registered with the Reform Party and independent voters (registered to vote but not with any party) have the opportunity to vote in it. The ballot will look like this:

You may either choose Sal Albanese or write in a candidate of your choice.

Steinway Mansion undergoing extensive restoration

Henry E Steinway Mansion Restoration 2017 from Gabriel Espinosa on Vimeo.

"Wow! What a stroke of good luck I had today! After taking Pilar to the airport I took Logan on a mini-tour of the old neighborhood. One of the sites I wanted to show him was the old Steinway Mansion (of Steinway piano fame) in Astoria. We drove up to it and apparently the old house has a new owner who decided to restore the mansion to it's former glory and then some! The place was buzzing with workers and I asked if I could come in to take some pictures. I was allowed. I went through the entire house from the tiny watch tower at the top where it is said Mr. Henry E. Steinway, the original builder/owner of the mansion and also the founder of the Steinway Piano Company had a scope with which he used to check out what used to be North Beach and is now Astoria Park, all the way down to the basement! What an exhilarating adventure this was! They have kept all the original fixtures, wood, crown moldings, fireplaces, chandeliers, stairwells, etc and are skilfully restoring everything by hand. In these pictures you will see almost every room and close up details of the interior and exterior architecture and decor. The old cars and van in these images were there, exactly as they are now, when I was a kid back in the 70's. Unfortunately the place is shrouded in plastic sheeting because of the work but it is see-thru so you can see just about everything." - Gabriel Espinosa

BDB claims he was not aware of hidden cash

From the Daily News:

Maybe Mayor de Blasio was too busy campaigning to read how a loophole in the city's Campaign Finance Board has allowed a powerful lobbying firm to stay under the radar as one of his fund-raisers.

Constantinople & Vallone steered $60,900 in campaign cash to de Blasio, but was not required to be listed as a fundraiser with the city's finance board, the Daily News reported Sunday.

The mayor said he hadn’t read it.

"I haven't seen that story specifically," he told Rita Cosby on 77 WABC when asked about the News’ story.

Under the city's campaign-finance law, city candidates must detail the names of their fund-raisers and how much they raised to the city's Campaign Finance Board.

But Constantinople & Vallone is not listed online as a de Blasio fund-raiser because the firm was on host committees for campaign-sponsored events. Hosts are not deemed intermediaries or fund-raisers if the campaign covers the event.

The money raised was listed on obscure filings with the City Clerk's Lobbying Bureau.

Video Voter Guide: Democratic Candidates for Public Advocate

Video Voter Guide: Democratic Mayoral Candidates

Vallone "community letter" turns out to be political ad

"Hi Crappy -

I read "Paul vs. Paul getting really amusing" a few days ago and couldn't believe how hypocritical these so-called "community leaders" who support Vallone were in condemning the mailers from Paul Graziano...I remember what happened four years ago with Vallone's mail pieces - they were nasty and people got really turned off, and none of those people said a peep when it happened, but whatever, they want to say their piece now, so be it.

So imagine my surprise when I got a mailer on Saturday with the letter on one side and all of these elected officials on the other. What a crock! That letter was phony - Paid for by We Support Paul Vallone! Classic Queens Democratic Machine BS."

- anonymous in Bayside

So he tricked newspapers into printing a free campaign ad?
That's pretty lame.

Brown's use of witness warrants comes under fire

From the NY Times:

It is one of law enforcement’s most expansive powers: If the authorities believe that someone has knowledge of a crime, they can — under threat of arrest — force the person to testify in court by obtaining what is known as a material witness warrant.

Unlike normal subpoenas, many, if not most, of which are issued to those directly involved in criminal proceedings, material witness warrants are typically handed out to people who are not under suspicion and are merely in possession of information that the police or prosecutors want.

While the warrants are ostensibly meant to seek the truth and quicken the search for justice, court papers recently filed in a federal lawsuit claim that the Queens district attorney’s office misused a warrant while pursuing a prosecution — a practice that, according to the papers, prosecutors in both Brooklyn and Manhattan have also engaged in occasionally in the last several years.

A sort of legal fail-safe, material witness warrants, which must be signed by judges, are designed to be used in extraordinary circumstances — say, when prosecutors are concerned that a witness might flee or resists taking the stand. Strict rules govern their use: material witnesses can be arrested on a warrant only if they first ignore an order to appear in court, and those detained are required to be presented to a judge and provided with a lawyer. Hearings are supposed to be held to determine what these witnesses know and why they are reluctant to reveal it.

But the court papers say that does not always happen and that the mishandling of the warrants has led to dire consequences for the witnesses themselves, some of whom have been unlawfully held in custody for having done no more than attracted the attention of investigators. The court papers also claim that the misuse of the warrants has harmed defendants, as witnesses compelled by them to testify have at times been coerced into offering false accounts in court.

We're now doing photo ops over traffic lights...

From Sunnyside Post:

A new traffic light has gone up at the intersection of 43rd Avenue and 47th Street, in response to complaints about reckless drivers speeding down 43rd Avenue putting pedestrians at risk.

The intersection is just a block away from Little Friends Pre-K, a 56-seat school that small children and their parents walk to. It is also an intersection used by many pedestrians who walk to the 46th Street train station.

To mark the installation, Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, representatives of the Department of Transportation and pre-school children turned out to celebrate.

It's a stop light, Jimmy. Relax.

The 4th land grab: LIC

From the Newtown Pentacle:

The fourth land grab in Queens is underway, as you read this.

All of this development has avoided upgrading the municipal infrastructure which the new population would require – cops, fire department, sewerage, hospitals, schools. If you’re walking through one of the glorious new waterfront parks in Hunters Point, and you suddenly grab at your chest, where the FDNY ambulance will take you is either Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, the Mount Sinai hospital on Crescent street in Astoria, or out to Elmhurst hospital. FDNY’s fire fighting apparatus in western Queens was designed for industrial fires, and the 108th precinct is housed in a tiny 19th century building which still has horse stables. The sewer plant servicing this gargantuan residential population was opened by Fiorella LaGuardia in 1936. Our transit needs far outweigh current capability. There are not enough school desks. Don’t get me started on the environmental legacy of all that industry which used to be here. The buildings being erected in the photos in today’s posts are on the site of a former chemical factory in Queens Plaza, for instance.

Simply put, “gentrification” is nothing new in Western Queens and it’s been going on since at least the Civil War. The “G bomb” has already been dropped, and it has gone off. A looming infrastructure crisis is just beginning.

De Blasio's monuments commission appointed

From CBS 2:

The members of the commission are:

Co-Chairs

Darren Walker President of the Ford Foundation; longtime leader in nonprofit and philanthropic sectors

Tom Finkelpearl Commissioner, Department of Cultural Affairs

Commission Members

Richard Alba Distinguished Professor at CUNY Graduate Center; former vice president of the American Sociological Association

Michael Arad Architect; designer of the World Trade Center Memorial

Harry Belafonte Singer; songwriter; actor; and civil rights activist

John Calvelli Executive Vice President for Public Affairs of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Vice Chair of International Affairs at the National Italian American Foundation

Mary Schmidt Campbell President of Spelman College; former vice-chair of President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities

Gonzalo Casals Director of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art; adjunct faculty at CUNY Hunter College in arts administration

Teresita Fernandez Visual artist with experience in public art; MacArthur Fellow

Amy Freitag Executive Director of the JM Kaplan Fund; former Executive Director at New York Restoration Project

Catie Marron Editor of books on urban parks and public spaces; chair of the board of Friends of the High Line; trustee of the New York Public Library

Jon Meacham Vanderbilt professor; Pulitzer prize-winning biographer of Jefferson and Jackson

Pepón Osorio Visual artist with experience in public art; MacArthur Fellow

Harriet Senie Public art scholar; author; professor of art history and director of the Art History program and Art Museum Studies at City College of New York

Shahzia Sikander Visual artist with experience in public art; MacArthur Fellow

Audra Simpson Mohawk anthropologist; Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University

John Kuo Wei Tchen Historian of Chinese Americans in New York City; Associate Professor at New York University

Mabel Wilson Architect; scholar of race, memory, and urbanism; Associate Professor at Columbia University

Ex-Officio City Agencies Public Design Commission, Law, Education, and Parks

Hiram's base has lost its polling site

From the Daily News:

Allies of Hiram Monserrate have lost a last-minute bid to have a polling site reestablished for the Democratic primary in LeFrak City in Queens, where the convicted felon enjoys broad support.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Andrea Masley ruled earlier this week that it was too late for her to move a polling site back to LeFrak, where New Yorkers had cast their votes for 50 years.

But she criticized the Board of Elections for moving the voting site from LeFrak to two other locations outside of the housing complex, writing that "moving poll sites is no joke" and that the timing of the change had not yet been properly explained.

"This court is confounded by the BOE's decision to move 6,071 voters to two new voting sites," Masley wrote.

In May, the Board of Elections announced new sites three-quarters of a mile and one-third of a mile away from the LeFrak complex, saying the original site did not meet Americans With Disabilities Act standards.

South Ozone Park landlord engages in rental scam

From PIX11:

Samintra Boodram from Queens went to see the apartment at 117-20 Lincoln St. in South Ozone Park, Queens.

It’s in a multi-family house. She says a man who identified himself as Tony Bacchus, the landlord, showed her the three-bedroom unit.

It was obvious people were living in the apartment. The landlord told her the tenants lease was nearly up and urged her to put down a $2,000 security deposit. She did. A week later he asked for another $2,000 in cash for the first month’s rent. She paid that, too.

Sumintra says the landlord told her she could move in August 17, after he had fixed up the apartment. But she says he then stopped answering her calls and emails. She went to the house and says she heard voices inside the apartment, but no one would open the door.

“I called the police and the neighbors came out. Everybody was saying how he had been doing this to a lot of people,” says Sumintra.

De Blasio goes full socialist in NY Mag interview

From NY Magazine:

In 2013, you ran on reducing income inequality. Where has it been hardest to make progress? Wages, housing, schools?

What’s been hardest is the way our legal system is structured to favor private property. I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be. I think there’s a socialistic impulse, which I hear every day, in every kind of community, that they would like things to be planned in accordance to their needs. And I would, too. Unfortunately, what stands in the way of that is hundreds of years of history that have elevated property rights and wealth to the point that that’s the reality that calls the tune on a lot of development.

I’ll give you an example. I was down one day on Varick Street, somewhere close to Canal, and there was a big sign out front of a new condo saying, “Units start at $2 million.” And that just drives people stark raving mad in this city, because that kind of development is clearly not for everyday people. It’s almost like it’s being flaunted. Look, if I had my druthers, the city government would determine every single plot of land, how development would proceed. And there would be very stringent requirements around income levels and rents. That’s a world I’d love to see, and I think what we have, in this city at least, are people who would love to have the New Deal back, on one level. They’d love to have a very, very powerful government, including a federal government, involved in directly addressing their day-to-day reality.

Video Voter Guide: City Council District 34

Liz Crowley doesn't think she is part of the Queens Machine

From the Times Ledger:

Holden fired off an angry letters to supporters after the Crowley campaign sent out literature questioning his allegiance to the Democratic Party and questioning his values. He called her a do-nothing career politician attempting to discredit him to distract voters from her own ineffective representation and he blamed the Queens Machine for smearing him.

“The mailers came from my campaign, not the Democratic Machine,” Crowley said. “He’s much more aligned with the party of Donald Trump than with the party I identify with. His values are not aligned with our party and he shouldn’t even be running in this primary. He should be running as a conservati­ve.”

Holden has ripped Crowley for years in the pages of the Juniper Berry, along with her cousin, U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), the head of the Queens Democratic organization.

“I don’t even know what he’s talking about when he talks about the Machine,” the councilwoman said. “I’m proud to be a Democrat. I’m proud of Democratic values. He’s not. He’s not fooling me and I want to make sure that people who don’t know about him get to know how dangerous he is. How he doesn’t have any of the values that the Democratic Party stands for and I’m proud of the party. I identify with its values. It means something.”

Holden has been a registered Democrat for 44 years and a union member for 42 years.

From the Times Ledger:

“What is a good Democrat, one that hates Republicans?” Holden said in an interview with the TimesLedger staffers. “Don’t we have enough of that in this country? I think you work with both parties. I can work with anyone who is pro-community. She’s gone to the extreme left and I’m a moderate Democrat, conservative on some things and progressive on others. I was never a part of a political club being labeled a Democrat or a Republican. I’m a civic guy, a community guy. You have to work with both parties for the good of the community. I know I can do a better job than her, I know it. I work everyday with people who couldn’t get help from Crowley’s office.”

As president of the powerful Juniper Park Civic Association for 25 years, Holden has worked with both parties to accomplish vital projects and deliver services to the community. He has criticized Crowley and the so-called Democratic Machine, for years in the organization’s Juniper Berry quarterly magazine.

“I’ll always say it the way I see it,” Holden said. “I was never afraid of an elected official. They work for us. They’re public servants and I don’t have to kiss their ring. When you do something bad, I’ll turn on you.”

“She opted out of the matching fund program, which means she’s taking big money from special interests, and that’s when they control you,” Holden said. “My allegiance will be to the constituents and not the special interests that funded me.”

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

Video Voter Guide: City Council District 32

Day care site not ideal

From the Queens Chronicle:

To some, the two-story Great Sunshine Day Care building under construction on 67th Avenue and 172nd Street is not a bright idea.

The suburban Flushing intersection is one block from PS 173’s playground and two from the school itself by the western edge of Fresh Meadows. Some in that neighborhood think that the combination of traffic from the school and the day care center, at their worst times, will together be problematic.

Fresh Meadows resident Bill Anello told the Chronicle that traffic from the school causes cars to be “double-parked in the morning and triple-parked all along 67th Avenue.”

Moreover, Anello says that the area already has plenty of day care centers. And he added that there is another one planned at the former Carol School Supply building.

According to Anello, the day care center will serve 290 kids. It is not clear where he heard that — when the Chronicle followed up, he did not immediately respond.

Michael Tang, a lawyer who has discussed the day care plan with community members, did not immediately respond when the Chronicle asked how many people — employees or children — would be at the business.

Construction noise complaints on the rise

From NY1:

Developers are apparently giving New Yorkers headaches, according to a rise in noise complaints filed with the city.

A report from the state comptroller says the number of complaints logged with 311 more than doubled since 2010.

For example, at the Chapin School on the Upper East Side, residents have called and complained more than 100 times about the ongoing construction.

Many of the complaints come before or after normal construction work hours, which are between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Special permits from the buildings department allows work after hours, but the comptroller says those permits are not being given out responsibly.

Sordid petition fraud story comes to its conclusion

I like how Grace Meng is involved in this! Amazingly sloppy.