Rebuild By Design (Updated x 2)

Today Mayor Bill de Blasio, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senator Chuck Schumer and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced four winning designs in the “Rebuild by Design” program administered by HUD and the federal Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task force.  Three of the selections are for projects in New York City, with the fourth a project in Nassau County.  The New York City projects are (1) “The Big U”, a series of berms and bridges around lower Manhattan, (2) “Living Breakwaters”, a series of breakwaters off the south shore of Staten Island, and (3) “Lifelines”, to provide flood protection systems for Hunts Point, the site of a major food market that functions as a hub of the region’s food supply chain.

Their press conference included remarks by each of the four government officials as well as an on topic Q&A.

Off-Topic Q&A:

Afterwards, Mayor de Blasio separately answered off topic questions.  He began with a statement concerning the stabbing of two young children in Brooklyn and then answers questions concerning that incident, the proposed state law to allow municipalities to further raise the minimum wage and whether he would pursue a $13 minimum wage for New York City, how that proposed law fits into the political deal that gave Governor Cuomo the Work Families Party ballot line, a young boy hit and killed today by a car and how Vision Zero addresses that location and the large number of shootings in the City this past weekend.  Here is the Mayor’s full off topic Q&A, which began with some press dissatisfaction:

Update – Opening Yucks:

The three elected officials began with a couple of yucks:

Update #2 – On Topic Q&A:

The Mayor, Governor, Senator and Secretary answered several on topic questions, including why the approved projects do not include any in Brooklyn and Queens and whether actions taken by “other jurisdictions” are sufficient, when will the resiliency efforts be complete and when will the majority of Build It Back homes be completed, what complexities Secretary Donovan saw when his Department approved the Build It Back program and why is New York City slower than Nassau and Suffolk Counties to deliver post-Sandy assistance to homeowners.  Here is their full on topic Q&A:

Little Neck Douglaston Memorial Day Parade (Updated)

Many elected officials participated in todays Little Neck Douglaston Memorial Day Parade, among them Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Public Advocate Tish James, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

Update – Electeds on Parade:

We look at the Mayor’s, and other elected officials, reception:


de Blasio & Cuomo Remarks:

In what could be titled “a tale of two proclamations”, the Mayor and Governor each made brief remarks at the start of the parade and each presented their own proclamation to the parade organizers.  Neither took questions.  de Blasio invoked his father’s World War II service and injury, and subsequent struggles, in urging the audience to “never let their memories go” of service members injured or killed.  Cuomo described himself as a “Queens boy” for whom it is a “pleasure to be back on [his] home turf.”  H e declared it “a day to remember that freedom is not free”, noting that “we still have boys in harm’s way.” Their full remarks are here:

Steve & Teddy:

Congressman Steve Israel, chair of the DCCC, met a historic figure.  Every parade needs a little goofiness after all.

Kathy Hochul, Circa 2011

Here’s a little iphone video from Kathy Hochul’s 2011 special congressional election victory party.  Now named as the 2014 Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Hochul defeated Jane Corwin in a fierce race to fill the vacancy in the 26th Congressional District following Chris Lee’s abrupt selfie-inflicted resignation.  (Corwin was asked by Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino to run as the 2014 Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate.)  The election night party attendees included then-Erie County Democratic Chairman Len Lenihan and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.

de Blasio Press Q&A: The Jobs Task Force Edition

Today at the Brooklyn Army Terminal Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the 30 members of a task force “that will develop real-time strategies to strengthen the city’s workforce and help workers develop” more advanced job skills.  The task force includes city government officials, a major union leader, senior staff from large New York City businesses, investors and principals of smaller businesses.  The task force is produce a report “[t]his fall … with concrete recommendations.”

Press Q&A:

Question topics included financial incentives given by the City to Altronix (which hosted the Mayor for a visit just before the press conference), whether the mayor has concerns about offering such incentives, whether his jobs task force will work with local communities, whether his affordable housing plan conflicts with his plan to enable more manufacturing in the city, what a base livable minimum wage is, whether the mayor is concerned about the possibility that Republicans may control the U.S. Senate next year, whether NY State has done enough to assist NYC in obtaining hazard mitigation money from the federal government, the Mayor’s views on items sold at the September 11th Museum gift shop and what the first “tangible” product of the task force will be.

Here is the full Q&A:

Rangel & El Barrio

Congressman Charles B. Rangel today held a press conference on 116th & Lexington Avenue to tout some of his Mexican-American and Puerto Rican supporters.  Rangel’s electoral hopes require a strong showing in El Barrio, a predominantly Puerto Rican portion of East Harlem.

Press Conference:

Rangel pitch to voters involves portraying himself as the candidate most able to assist President Obama in the last two years of his presidency.  He ignores the distance that the president has kept from Rangel since his tax woes, focusing on his more than four decades in Congress and his resulting knowledge and experience.  Today he pushed that argument, and also portrayed himself as a deeply embedded part of El Barrio, with his supporter Adam Clayton Powell IV attacking competing candidate, Domincan-born and Washington Heights resident, Adriano Espaillat as an “interloper”.

Here are selected excerpts from the press conference:

Debate “Phone Call”:

Rep. Rangel’s “phone call” at last week’s candidate debate has garnered lots of attention. Here’s what Rangel had to say today about it:

Benvenuti a Tutti

Mayor de Blasio today celebrated his Italian heritage and two bicycling events.  He spoke at the NYC Bike Expo, highlighting both the Expo and the Campagnolo Gran Fondo New York.  The Gran Fondo is a bicycle race from the George Washington Bridge to Bear Mountain, scheduled for Sunday May 18th.

The Mayor has two other Italian-involved events today; he’s scheduled to meet with Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini and to host a roundtable with members of the Italian media.

Here are excerpts from his remarks at the Bike Expo:

Slugfest at St. Luke’s (Updated x 2)

The three Democratic candidates in the 13th Congressional slugged it out tonight in a debate sponsored by the Urban Justice Center Safety Net Project and hosted by St. Luke A.M.E. Church.

Opening Statements:

Here is Congressman Rangel’s unusual opening.

Update – Post-Debate Media Avails:

Following the debate, all three candidates spoke separately with the press.

Espaillat

Senator Espaillat began with criticism of Congressman Rangel’s opening statement and concluded with a comment about their personal interactions.  With a small twist at the end.

Rangel

Congressman Rangel addressed whether he’s been “far more aggressive in this debate than [he] was before.”

Walrond

Rev. Walrond began with the observation that the other candidates take him much more seriously than they did early in the race.

(The full debate video follows after the jump.) Continue reading Slugfest at St. Luke’s (Updated x 2)

de Blasio Press Q&A: The No-Man’s Land Edition

Mayor Bill de Blasio today touted the reopening of the Hamilton Avenue asphalt plant and the City’s ongoing work in repairing and resurfacing city roadways.  He spoke at the Hamilton Avenue asphalt plant in Brooklyn, described by several city officials as in a “no-man’s land” between Red Hook, Gowanus and Sunset Park.

Press Q&A:

On topic questions covered changes in the manufactured asphalt and the respective role that pothole filling, road resurfacing and road rebuilding play in the maintenance of city roads.

Off topic questions included an unsuccessful attempt by a Queens resident to submit a paper list of needed road repairs to 311, Mayor de Blasio’s 20th wedding anniversary, LICH, the possibility that the Working Families Party will not select Governor Cuomo as its nominee, Alec Baldwin’s recent arrest by the NYPD, interest in New York seeking to host the 2024 Olympics, a plan by a French-American group to airdrop rose petals on the Statue of Liberty, Comptroller Stringer’s demand that the administration change how it accounts for $725 million of costs under the proposed UFT contract and the apartment towers contemplated for Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Here is the full press Q&A:

de Blasio Press Q&A: The PS 69 Q Edition (Updated)

Mayor Bill de Blasio visited PS 69 Q in Jackson Heights this afternoon, promoting the changes to city schools incorporated in his proposed budget and proposed UFT contract.

Citywide Debriefing Team:

During the Q&A portion of the press conference, Jill Colvin of The New York Observer asked the mayor for his reaction, and whether he approved, to a NY Times report that the NYPD has a “Citywide Debriefing Team [that] has combed the city’s jails for immigrants — predominantly Muslims — who might be persuaded to become police informants.”  Here’s how the mayor responded:

Full Press Q&A:

On topic question topics included the mayor’s proposed $20 million allocation for arts programs and whether this is all new spending, whether it’s typical for elementary schools to have arts teachers, the mayor’s proposed $4.4 billion capital spending to address classroom overcrowding, how many new classroom seats that spending would produce and where they would be located, whether all trailers used by schools would be eliminated, the definition of “problematic behavior” used in dealing with the Absent Teacher Reserve, what the state funding to be used for middle school after school programs would have otherwise been used for and DoE support for schools that will participate in the program providing increased school autonomy.  Mayor de Blasio interrupted the on topic portion of the press conference to introduce “parent activist” Laverne Maison (sp?).  We have omitted that portion of the Q&A, presenting only the portion with actual questions and answers.

Off topic question topics included Vision Zero, the NYPD’s plan to stop seizing condoms from sex workers, the NYPD’s “Citywide Debriefing Team”, the Working Families Party and whether it will nominate Andrew Cuomo as its candidate for governor, the 9/11 Museum and the total spending through 2020 for the proposed UFT contract.

de Blasio Press Q&A: The Fire Academy Edition

Speaking at the Fire Department’s training academy on Randall’s Island, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his appointment of Daniel Nigro as Fire Commissioner.  Nigro is a retired FDNY chief of department, and his long career at the FDNY included assuming operational command at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after his predecessor as chief of Department, Peter Ganci, died in the building collapse.

Press Q&A:

On topic questions included changes in technology since Nigro retired from the FDNY, Nigro’s thoughts and feelings upon accepting the job, his disability pension, whether he has a set of goals or planned steps concerning diversity in the Department, what Nigro see’s as the Department’s biggest challenge, when he will start as commissioner, what it was like to tell his father, a retired FDNY captain, that he will be commissioner, how the Department is different from when he retired, why the mayor did not retain current Commissioner Sal Cassano, the 911 call system, what Nigro sees as an appropriate level of diversity, whether the mayor considered any women or candidates of color for commissioner and whether Nigro has a predominant image or memory from September 11th.

Off topic questions included Falun Gong’s efforts to obtain a parade permit, the 10 race horses that have died at Aqueduct this winter, Michael Mulgrew’s “war with reformers” comment, whether the House Select Committee on Benghazi is unfair to Hillary Clinton, treatment of teachers in ATR under the newly negotiated contract with the UFT and the moving of identified remains of September 11th victims to the World Trade Center site.

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