People can complain that she is too 'bossy' or 'too inside' but the fact of the matter is that Christine Quinn has gotten thing accomplished while others simply offered words. After Hurricane Sandy, Quinn was in Breezy Point which was swamped both with water and fire. Day in and day out she fought for the survivors of Hurricane Sandy, was present in person and showed love and compassion.
"If some of those anti-immigrant folks look closely they just might see a relative in these pictures..."
Senator Marco Rubio has been for and against the immigration legislation that he help write at least ten times. Back and forth as he bends toward the anti-immigrant sentiment in the Republican Party. Having forced the Democrats to drop the LGBT community from the Immigration bill, the Republicans no longer have a scapegoat to blame their failure to pass it.
What they all should do is look at these photographs taken in New York City by a Jacob A Riis which capture the immigrants that came to America in the late 1800's. See the filth and squalor they called home so that their decedents could have a better life in America. Don't think for one moment all the brave and determined individuals in these photographs were all legal!
If some of those anti-immigrant folks look closely they just might see a relative in these pictures from Mail Online:
New York City is in the middle of building the Second Ave Subway Line. The $17 billion project is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the history of the Big Apple. There are signs of construction on Second Ave but you have no idea what is happening just beneath your feet.
Mail Online recently posted these new pictures from the construction.
Riding through the streets of New York City on the way to a wedding in Brooklyn, my memory started recalling different times and places. The realization of how much this magnificent city has changed brought a smile to my face. Suddenly I was recalling different moments since my first visit to New York City in over fifty years ago in 1960!
I remember when......
-The Empire State Building was the tallest in the world.
-There were lost of Chinese in China Town.
-Pay phones could be found on every corner.
-Bette Midler and Barry Manilow were playing at the Continental Baths to gay men in towels.
-People in Manhattan didn't go to Brooklyn.
-You could go directly to from the Airport Ticket counter to the gate without stopping and not remove your shoes!
-People dressed up to fly on airplanes with suit and ties and dresses (no pant suits allowed!).
-There were no McDonalds, Staples, KFC or chain franchises.
-People actually walked down the street looking at the surroundings and each other and not texting.
-The Plaza Hotel's Palm Court was the place to go after the theater.
-People would never go to the theater without dressing up.
-Times Square was dirty and dingy.
-Eight Ave in Hell's Kitchen was filled with movie theaters showing porn before the advent of VHS and DVD's.
-Greenwich Village still had beatniks and hippies who frequented 'head shops'.
-You could afford to live in Manhattan.
-In the Garment District, the streets were filled with men pushing racks of clothing up and down the streets.
-The days of the gay bars the Mineshaft and Anvil.
-The Piers were just broken down places and not park land.
-Graffiti covered every subway and train car.
-Ticker Tape Parades were held for other people besides just sports stars.
-It was the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees and the New York Giant baseball teams.
-When the Mets played their first game in New York.
-The Beatles played at Shea Stadium.
-There were horrible riots in Harlem
-The New York World's Fair in 1964 was a huge hit and had long lines.
-That Idlewild Airport was named for President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
-When a TWA and United passenger planes crashed over Park Slope in Brooklyn killing 128 people aboard and 6 people on the ground.
-The dance craze "The Twist' took New York by storm and the hot spot in town was "The Peppermint Lounge'
-The Verranzano-Narrow Bridge and Pam Am Building were built.
-The Old Pennsylvania Rail Station and Madison Square Garden was built.
-The Stonewall Insurrection took place.
-There were Mayors named Robert Wagner, John Lindsey, Abe Beame, Ed Koch, David Dinkins and Rudolph Giuliani!
-The Bowery was a bad place and not a place for hipsters.
-The World Trade Center was built!
-AIDS simply didn't exist.
-President Ford told New York City to "Drop Dead'.
A new study to be released today by the city of New York moves up the impact of climate change by thirty years and doubles the number of people impacted by storms by the year 2050! So if you are in your thirties or forties today, fasten your seat belts.
The report says that the record high storm surge of 14' from Hurricane Sandy could look like an average one in just over two decades. Forecasters believe that surges of 20 feet are possible. In addition, the climate in just two decades will be more like Birmingham, Alabama then the current weather in New York City.
NBC News is reporting:
By the 2050s, more than 800,000 New York City residents could be living in a flood zone that would cover a quarter of the city's land and New Yorkers could sweat out as many 90-degree days as is now normal for Birmingham, Ala., as effects of global warming take hold, a scientists' group convened by the city says.
With local waters a foot to 2½ feet higher than they are today, 8 percent of the city's coastline could see flooding just from high tides, the group estimates. And while the average day could be 4 degrees to nearly 7 degrees hotter, a once-in-a-century storm would likely spur a surge 5 or more feet higher than Superstorm Sandy, which sent a record 14-foot storm tide gushing into lower Manhattan.
The updated predictions were released Monday, ahead of recommendations Mayor Michael Bloomberg is to present Tuesday on what to do about threats that Sandy brought into stark relief.
"We have to look ahead and anticipate any and all future threats, not only from hurricanes and other coastal storms but also from droughts, heavy downpours and heat waves — many of which are likely to be longer and more intense in the years to come," an excerpt from the mayor's planned speech says.
Two top Bloomberg aides who oversaw the study, Seth Pinsky and Deputy Mayor Caswell Holloway, wouldn't hint at what the suggestions would be, what they might cost or how they might be financed. Many key decisions likely will come after Bloomberg's third and final term ends this year.
Bloomberg said last winter the study would examine the pros and cons of building berms, dunes, levees and other coast-protection structures. But he has historically been cool to the idea of massive sea walls — and emphatic about not suggesting that people move out of coastal areas.
City Hall, the state government and others have released warnings over the years about climate risks in the nation's most populous city. The city has required some new developments in flood zones to be elevated and has restored wetlands as natural barriers, among other steps.
"Sandy, obviously, increased the urgency of dealing with this and the need to plan and start to take concrete steps," Holloway said.
The new projections echo 2009 estimates from the scientists' group, called the New York City Panel on Climate Change, but move up the time frame for some upper-end possibilities from the 2080s to mid-century.
"The overall numbers are similar, but we have more compelling evidence now that (a more severe scenario from 2009) is looking like a more realistic possibility now," due to improved computer models and more evidence that some ice sheets are melting, said Radley Horton, a climate scientist with Columbia University's Earth Institute and a researcher with the city climate panel.
View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.
Freedom to Marry has released a new video called "Devotion" about Bill Campbell and John Hilton who have been together for over five decades of love.
It is extremely moving and powerful and everyone should watch it.
Freedom to Marry reports about the couple:
The narrative follows the couple’s relationship through the years, from meeting in the 1950s as young men, to writing letters during Hilton’s military deployment, to growing older together, with Hilton helping Campbell through the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. At the time of filming, in April 2011, the men were registered as domestic partners in New York, waiting for the day they could marry there and have their marriage treated equally by the federal government. Bill died the next month, however, just seven weeks before New York passed freedom to marry legislation.
If voters of New Jersey listen to the saturation ads being run on television for the re-election of Governor Christie, voters would think believe he is the most fiscally responsible person ever to hold that office. Cutting programs for the disabled, rejecting increases in benefits for the poor and denying New Jersey voter reforms were all done in the name of fiscal responsibility.
Oh wait, but those policies don't include his own re-election effort. The Governor just made a decision that is nothing more than a huge $24 million (according to New York Times) contribution to the New Jersey Republican Party and his re-election. He proclaimed that it was essential to hold the election to replace the deceased Senator Lautenberg two weeks before the general election to ensure good government.
The reality is that the Governor is spending that money so popular Newark Mayor Cory Booker will not be on the same ballot in November as the Governor. The Governor wants to elect a bunch of right wing Republicans to the legislature and wants his coat tails to be long and unquestioned. After all, turning the legislature will help his Presidential race.
Also, by the way, if the Republicans take back the all or one of the two houses in the New Jersey legislature it is the end of marriage equality in the state in the near future.
That $24 million of having two elections is the entire cost of what it would take to establish early voting for the state of New Jersey. Which is the greater reform - a long lasting policy of making voting easier for the people of New Jersey or a one time hit to make life easier for the Governor? Also, when funds are so urgently needed along the Jersey shore, how can he justify such an expenditure.
The New York Times wrote on its Editorial Page:
Governor Christie’s assurances on Tuesday that his decision to hold a special election a mere three weeks before the general election is all about giving voters a “choice and a voice” sounded utterly hollow. The only reason to have a separate Senate election is to make certain that no well-known Democrat — very likely Mayor Cory Booker of Newark — will be on the November ballot, possibly luring to the polls more Democrats and minorities, who might also vote for Mr. Christie’s lesser known Democratic opponent, Barbara Buono, a state senator from Middlesex County.
The special primary and election will cost New Jersey’s battered state budget about $24 million. The governor, who has highlighted his budget-cutting image in this campaign, scoffed at putting a price tag on such worries. He explained that “we’re not going to be penny-wise and pound-foolish” when it comes to this Senate seat. New Jersey voters would do well to suggest that he remember that phrase the next time he rejects a minimum-wage increase or tax break for low-income residents.
By insisting that the taxpayers publicly finance just his campaign with this shady and unnecessary maneuver, Governor Christie has dealt a serious blow to his own credibility. Isn't he the one opposed to public financing of campaigns? He hardly can stand up anymore and proclaim his fiscal responsibility.
Shame on him
Similar to the marvelous clip of London in the 1920's another short two minute film has surfaced of New York City in 1939. It was taken by a French tourist, Jean Vivier, just before the outbreak of World War II. Wonderfully restored and in color it takes us back in time. You can even see the trains on the Highline! Enjoy
Madison Square Garden (MSG) never was a favorite of many people who will always resent it being the building that destroyed the extraordinary old Pennsylvania Station. The arena sits like a big block of concrete that has little or no attraction. The owners have had a 'sweetheart deal' with the city that they are attempting to renew for decades.
While they reap in the profits from sports, entertainment and other speciality shows, Pennsylvania Station underneath it has become a dark, dirty and dingy and sad place for travelers and commuters. The plan to create new station across the street in the old Post Office Building has had little movement in recent years.
The time has come for Mayor Bloomberg to institute a major redevelopment plan for the area that includes moving Madison Square Garden out and away from that location!
The area has the potential to be an exciting and wonderful transportation hub that attracts people and bring that area alive again. There is no reason people arriving in the greatest city in the world by train and our daily commuters should not be greeted by signature buildings.
The Municipal Arts Society (MAS)recently sponsored a design challenge which invited architects to present proposals for their vision of a revamp transportation hub including sending MSG packing to another area.
The MAS selected the four firms of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, SHoP Architects and SOM "because of their wide ranging experience on extraordinarily complicated urban sites".
In a new poll released today, Marist Polling shows that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is still maintaining a five point lead but former disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner has moved up to a strong second. The Weiner candidacy seems to have stalled any momentum, for at least now, for de Blasio and Thompson.
Weiner defeats Quinn in Brooklyn and among Jewish voters.
Near a quarter of the voters are undecided.
24% Christine Quinn
19% Anthony Weiner
12% Bill de Blasio
11% Bill Thompson
8% John Liu
1% Sal Albanese
<1% Erick Salgado
1% Other
23% Undecided
In the run-off, Quinn does remarkably well against all possible combinations:
Quinn garners 48% to 33% for Anthony Weiner. 18% are undecided.
Quinn with 48% tops de Blasio with 30%. 22% remain undecided.
Quinn has majority support, 53%, against Liu who receives 25%. 22% are undecided.
Against Thompson, Quinn receives 44% of Democrats’ support to 34% for Thompson. 22% are undecided
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