The 21st St. Pat’s For All parade marched up Skillman Avenue, drawing thousands of participants and spectators on a sunny March Sunday. The St. Pat’s For All parade was founded by Brendan Fay in response to the long exclusion of LGBTQ groups from the large Manhattan parade. That exclusion ended in 2016 but the St. Pat’s For All parade continues as a vibrant Irish celebration drawing enthusiastic involvement from the LGBTQ community and the Jackson Heights and Woodside neighborhoods that host the parade.
Our focus is on New York politics, both city and state, but the gallery includes other shots of New York. Among the campaigns we’ve covered are the 2013 and 2017 mayoral races, the 2014 and 2018 gubernatorial races, congressional primaries in 2014, 2016 and 2018, the 2016 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary and the 2019 public advocate special election. NYTrue.com began in late 2012, with mostly video and little photography in 2012 and 2013, so this is a somewhat truncated decade retrospective that covers 2014-2019.
Special Bonus – Unabridged Gallery:
For those of you who really love New York politics we have an expanded decade retrospective gallery with lots of great shots that didn’t make it into the decade highlight gallery. Take a look, and a walk down memory lane, here.
We’ve included a few 2013 iPhone shots in a brief addendum at the end of the expanded gallery.
Tiffany Caban appeared to prevail in the Democratic primary for Queens District Attorney Tuesday night, with an election night preliminary lead of just over 1,000 votes out a total of approximately 85,000 reported. Those election night results will be finalized and paper ballots (absentee and affidavit ballots) counted with a final result expected next week, but it appears likely that Caban’s lead over Queens Borough President Melinda Katz will hold.
Caban’s insurgent candidacy and apparent victory over a candidate supported by much of New York’s and Queens’ Democratic establishment drew support from a small but active group of elected officials. Those electeds include NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, NYS Senators Jessica Ramos, Mike Gianaris, James Sanders, Luis Sepulveda and Julia Salazar, NYS Assembly Members Yuh-line Niou and Ron Kim and NYC Council Members Jimmy Van Bramer and Brad Lander, all of whom joined Caban on primary night. Other New York supporters included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cynthia Nixon. Caban was also endorsed by U.S. Senators and current presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Queens district attorney candidate Tiffany Caban held a GOTV rally Sunday, two days ahead of the hotly contested Democratic primary. Caban is one of seven candidates on the ballot (although one of the seven has stopped campaigning and endorsed rival Melinda Katz). The rally, held in Travers Park in Jackson Heights, was organized by NYS Senator Jessica Ramos. Caban was also joined by a large group of endorsers and supporters, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, NYS Senators Mike Gianaris and Luis Sepulveda, Council Members Jimmy Van Bramer and Brad Lander, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer and activist/former candidate Cynthia Nixon.
Five local civic groups, Hearts Across Queens, Hunters Point Civic Association, Long Island City Coalition, PrimedOutNYC and Sunnyside Woodside Action Group, hosted a public advocate candidate forum at the Irish Center in Long Island City. Candidates participating included Ben Yee, Danny O’Donnell, David Eisenbach, Dawn Smalls, Jumaane Williams, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Michael Blake, Nomiki Konst, Rafael Espinal and Ron Kim. Ify Ike, previously a candidate but unsuccessful in getting on the February 26th ballot, also participated. Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who previously endorsed Jumaane Williams, was the only non-candidate elected official to attend.
Gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon pledged to increase state aid to schools, promising that as governor she will increase such aid in accordance with the long ignored provisions of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit settlement. Advocates assert that the City is owed more than $2 billion under the terms of the CFE lawsuit settlement. Speaking at a press conference in Corona Tuesday Nixon reiterated her support for such additional aid, casting it as driven by racial animus with “white, wealthy children … prepared for college, and low-income, children of color … put into the school to prison pipeline.”
Approximately 1,000 people rallied in Jackson Heights Saturday in support of immigrants and asylum seekers detained by the Trump administration and in opposition to the Trump administration’s policy separating children from their parents. Organized by state senate candidate Jessica Ramos, the rally and march was one of hundreds of similar events held throughout the country, including a larger rally in Lower Manhattan with a march across the Brooklyn Bridge. The Jackson Heights rally was held in front the Post Office on 37th Avenue, with a march along 37th Avenue to the Park of the Americas in Corona.
Mayor Bill de Blasio visited the Sunnyside Greenmarket Saturday afternoon, greeting shoppers at the outdoor market on a mild afternoon. He was guided by Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents the area.
Arriving 30 minutes late, the mayor spent close to 30 minutes working his way through a block-long open air market. It was reasonably busy, but not overcrowded. It appeared that the people the mayor greeted were shoppers who happened to be there and not part of an organized group or rally. He received a very cordial welcome, with many people eager to shake his hand and get a photo. Some people asked him to take action (on the subway, for example), but I didn’t hear any hostile comments or rejection of his entreaties to vote for him on November 7th.
In this Report from Rockaway, we visit Belle Harbor, Rockaway Park and Arverne and talk with Congressman Gregory Meeks, New York State Assembly member Phillip Goldfeder and New York City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer.
In our conversations, we discuss a still-unfolding potential hospital crisis, recovery efforts by the Queens Library for it’s heavily damaged Rockaway branches and one elected official’s personal experience as the water rose on the night Sandy hit.
This is our 4th Report from Rockaway. You can view our earlier reports here, here and here.
Insight, analysis and reporting on New York and national politics