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Volume XX • Number 22 • May 30 - June 5, 2013 •
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Weiner debut fuels excitement at forum here
By PAULETTE SCHNEIDER The Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club held its 2013 mayoral candidates forum last Thursday at Riverdale Temple. There was no inter-candidate debate—nearly all rhetorical barbs were aimed at Mayor Bloomberg as six potential Democratic candidates each took a turn at the mic. The event drew major media outlets – due to the fact that newly-minted mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner was making his first such appearance, and the hall was filled to capacity notwithstanding a drenching rainstorm. The pols got six minutes apiece to speak and then up to seven minutes for questions and answers. First up was the city public advocate Bill de Blasio, who began
by commending the BFRDC for its commitment to making “a better city and cleaner politics.” After 12 years of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he said, we have “a tale of two cities,” with “huge disparities” that are “getting worse” in terms of income, schools, and “how our neighborhoods are policed.” De Blasio criticized “an overuse of the stop and frisk policy that treats some New Yorkers like suspects even though they’re just as law-abiding as the rest of us.” He called for an inspector general at the NYPD to provide oversight that would protect against racial profiling. He said he’d create 200,000 units of “affordable housing” over the next ten years and make the inclusion of affordable housing a prerequisite for developers.
Split vote over Putnam Trail at Parks Committee meeting By HAYDEE CAMACHO In a boisterous meeting with input from the New York City Parks Department, cycling organizations and community advocates, a divided Community Board 8 Parks and Recreation Committee was unable to approve a resolution in support of the Parks Department plan to pave the Putnam Trail in Van Cortlandt Park with asphalt. The vote was split with 3 members voting to approve, 2 against and 2 abstaining. The resolution will go before the full board in June. The community board, however, does not have a regulatory role, only an advisory one and the Parks Department can still proceed on the project. The Parks Department is currently waiting for a final permit from the New York State Department of Design Construction. The nearly three-hour meeting took place on Wednesday, May 22nd at the College of Engineering at Manhattan College. The speakers discussed three main issues regarding the paving of the trail – concerns over destruction of the natural habitat of the trail, advocating for increased accessibility for wheelchair users, and worries that a paved asphalt path would become primarily a cyclists’ trail. Andrew Penzi, team leader of
the Bronx Capital Projects Design Team of the Parks Department presented slides of the proposed trail design. “We are here to answer your concern,” he said. “We want to clarify the design intent. and explain the environmental benefits. It’s really a beautiful spot and we hope to enhance it. “ The project will make connections to the Mosholu Greenway and extend up through 47 miles into Westchester county. The design calls for a 10 ft wide asphalt path down the center with a three foot jogging path of compacted earthen material to the left and a two ft. nature trail with a wildflower seed mix to the right. Penzi stated that using asphalt as the paving material will not only prevent leaching of track materials onto the path when the old railroad ties are removed, but will also provide durability. “Dirt bikes can destroy a soft surface trail in one use. Asphalt will last for years and is a maintainable product.” At that point there was a loud outburst from opponents of asphalt paving. Bob Bender, chairman of the Parks and Recreation Committee and moderator of the meeting, called for order. Will Sanchez for Save the Putnam Trail, which opposes asphalt paving in favor of stone dust, showed the group’s video of users Continued on Page 2
Sal Albanese, “the only person in this race who’s not a career politician,” has been in the financial industry for the past 15 years but served on the City Council from 1982 through 1997, representing his Brooklyn home district of Park Slope and authoring the city’s first living wage law in 1996. “I’m not accepting money from developers or lobbyists, and I’m committed to putting the people in charge of City Hall,” he said. “We have a choice in this election,” he said, when voters can choose professional politicians who “spend more time bickering than listening to New Yorkers” or we can choose “a clean break— we can elect a mayor who has a record of independence, has raised the wages of workers, and has taught in our city’s public schools.” Albanese taught in the public schools for 11 years. He advocates the creation of pediatric wellness centers in communities around the city so that “we can give kids a good start when they come into our schools.” Staten Islander Reverend Erick Salgado said he was born in The Bronx, but that he spent his childhood in Puerto Rico because the borough’s pollution was bad for his respiratory condition. He returned to New York at the age of 17 and settled in Brooklyn, where he and his wife established several churches and bookstores. “I believe we need a leader that is going to be sensitive to all the different community groups that we have in the city. New York City is not a melting pot anymore— New York City is a collection of different communities,” he said. “We need a leader that is ready to be out there, not taking vacations in the Bahamas while the city is in crisis. I am going to be that leader, and by the time I finish fixing the city, you’re going to love the way I talk,” he quipped in a lightly accented English. Bill Thompson, city comptroller from 2002 through 2009, started by thanking the BFRDC for their support in his 2009 mayoral run “while others didn’t stand by the Democratic nominee.” Thompson is currently an executive at Siebert, Brandford, Shank & Co. and chair of the governor’s minority- and women-owned business enterprise
Anthony Weiner speaks at the Ben Franklin Club mayoral forum. team. He moved from Brooklyn to Harlem in 2008. “It’s from my parents and my grandparents that I learned the value of hard work,” he said. “I learned that public service is something that you should aspire to, something you should be involved in.” He listed his various public service positions, including president of the city’s Board of Education. “I want to make sure that New York City stays safe,” he said. “We’ve seen New York City become the safest city in America. But we’ve also seen some cracks. We’ve seen some neighborhoods across the City of New York where the clock in going backwards.
We can’t allow that to happen. Every neighborhood is entitled to safety in the city—every neighborhood—and we can do it while making sure that things like ‘stop and frisk’ are used correctly, with the constitutional safeguards that people are entitled to.” Thompson wants “an educator again at the top of our public school system,” a “focus on comprehension and critical thinking, not test prep” and an effort to turn schools around rather than closing them, as the Bloomberg administration does. He would also adopt policies that favor small businesses, eliminating the “excessive amount of Continued on Page 15