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Volume XX • Number 20 • May 16 - 22, 2013 •
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Ruling may push Hoffnung into Council race
By ANDREW WOLF The race for the open City Council seat in the 11th district which includes Riverdale has just gotten significantly more complex. The possibility that Ari Hoffnung will declare his candidacy became increasingly likely after the city’s Conflict of Interest Board ruled that Hoffnung can run while he holds his job as Deputy Comptroller of the City of New York. What the Conflict of Interest Board did prohibit was the raising of funds while he holds his current position. But Hoffnung has $80,000 in funds raised previously, and is entitled to what may be as much as $92,000 in funds matched by the Campaign Finance Board. This would give his campaign
Ari Hoffnung a war chest of over $170,000. The Conflict of Interest Board specifically told him “... while neither you nor you campaign
may solicit funds in support of your candidacy... you will not violate Section 2604(b)(12) by, for example, receiving matching funds from the CFB for the $80,000 you previously raised and spending the CFB matching funds...” The letter also made clear that Hoffnung can run for office. Running becomes more likely as the prospects of his boss, Comptroller John Liu, seem to be waning after the conviction of his campaign treasurer and a key fundraiser in campaign finance related conspiracy criminal charges. Liu is running for mayor. If Hoffnung declared for the post, he would face attorney Andrew Cohen, an ally of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, snack food purveyor and press
censorship advocate Clifford Stanton and track coach and landlord Cheryl Keeling. Cohen is thought to have a distinct advantage at this point because he has amassed the support of many key public officials, including a majority of the candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor. But Hoffnung is a well-known local figure who has served as President of the Riverdale Jewish Community Council. He ran for City Council against incumbent G. Oliver Koppell in 2005, but was soundly defeated. “I am delighted to have been given a ‘green light’ to accept matching funds and it would be an honor and a privilege to represent Riverdale in the New York City Council. I will be making
a final decision about this race in the beginning of June and continue to be encouraged by the number of folks urging me to run for office. In the meantime, I will remain laser-focused on serving New Yorkers as Deputy Comptroller and helping make New York City an even better place to live and do business.” Cohen, the front-runner seems unconcerned. “I am focused on developing positions, meeting voters, and getting my message out. I am not devoting my attention to the other candidates, declared or undeclared. It is my goal to communicate a positive vision for this District and this City. I have put together a tremendous coalition of community members, elected officials and Continued on Page 5
Putnam Trail paving plan ignites concrete objections By HAYDEE CAMACHO Will Sanchez, an organizer for Save the Putnam Trail jokingly calls the upcoming Community Board 8 Parks and Recreation meeting on May 22nd at Manhattan College, “the rumble in the Bronx.” It’s an apt indicator of how contentious the issue of whether or not to pave the popular trail in Van Cortlandt Park has become. In April, a large contingent of members of the group attended the full board meeting and spoke out passionately against Parks Department plans to pave the trail. Sanchez demanded that a resolution either for or against the design be voted on in an upcoming meeting. The $2.4 million plan calls for razing 1.5 acres of trees and increasing the width of the trail from 8 feet to 15 feet. While the design calls for the Parks Department plans to plant more than 400 saplings and trees along the trail, the group is concerned about the potential loss of various bird species from habitat destruction if the proposal is approved. The group has posted a series of videos on Youtube.com with various users discussing the beauty of the trail and the environmental impact of the plans. Sanchez said he and the members of the Save the Putnam trail, as well as many who use the trail are not against improving the trail. “You can take away some of the debris,” said Sanchez. “Clean it up. We are just not in favor of widening it because that will destroy some of the ambience.” The Putnam Trail is the southern-most extension of a trail that traverses up to Brewster, New York. Sanchez feels the impetus to pave the trail with asphalt is coming from Mayor Bloomberg an avid promoter of cycling and his transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan. Since
her appointment in 2007 the city has spent $11 million on bike lanes, most of it provided by the federal government. But it was Rudolph Guiliani’s administration which started the movement to make the city more bike friendly. In 1993, his administration launched a plan to create 350 miles of landscaped bicycle and pedestrian paths that would crisscross the City's five boroughs and enrich the health of New Yorkers through cycling. Currently the Parks Department has built over 100 miles of the proposed greenway system. Neile Weissman, spokesman for New York Bicycling Coalition, leads over 50 bike rides a year from the city through upstate and supports paving the trail. The Putnam Trail is the last leg of those rides and in his opinion, a very dangerous one. Upon reaching the trail, he is faced with two unsafe choices, he says. He can take his riders through it, which is hazardous for cyclists who are inexperienced on dirt trails, or lead them to Webster Avenue to catch the D subway back to Manhattan or to Broadway to take the 1 line. “It’s a high traffic finish to a care free ride,” said Weissman. “Either I have to put people in traffic or take them down a very rough dirt road. With either or those two options, I’m putting people in danger.” “I do sympathize with the residents who want to preserve the character of the trail,” he added. “You have to balance that with the thousands of Bronx and city and state residents who use the trail and who have rights to a complete facility.” Sanchez feels strongly that if the trail is paved, it ought to be done with limestone dust, which makes the trail easily traversable by wheelchair users and parents with strollers. At last month’s full board Continued on Page 5