Comments on: Long Island City: meet your District 26 City Council candidates

By: Vladimir Shannikov

Vladimir Shannikov — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:53:11 +0000

David Rosasco I am sorry to say is just a sore loser, don’t get me wrong I believe people should be fair and honest as far as race’s are concerned. But it’s politics man and David should have known that and prevented himself to have been tossed from the ballot.
It’s noble to go down fighting but the board of elections themselves have a rule for a writing ballot and the last day to get their approval was on July 30, and he is parading on the streets harder than ever telling people to mark yes next to his name knowing the fact that his name will not be in any election booth since he missed the “official” deadline as per the NYC Board of Elections.
I agree with a lot of folks here, the race is between Jimmy and Brent, and after seeing Brent on nbcnewyork.com’s site I have picked him after hearing him.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:57:19 +0000

Where was overyone during the debate? Angelo Maragos is the Republican and Conservative Party candidate. Angelo brought creative ideas to solve the affordable housing issue affecting our communitywith his proposal to use TARP money for the city to buy foreclosed and confiscated properties and privatize them to to tenants. This will provide large quantities of affordable housing combined with private ownership and will generate property taxes for the city. It is a win-win proposal which changes the demand – suply formula. All the Democratic candidates did was to recugetate old promises to punish landlords. These propomises have not created a single afforadable house in the last 20 years even with millions of tax abatetments given developers.

As for the idea of smaller more efficient government, Angelo is the only cnadidate that advocates a smaller more efficent government. I guess all the Democrats what to continue growing government which increases taxes and is driving business and jobs away. Angelo is for keeping taxes down, creating good jobs and having an efficient government that is not forced to cut services and funding to senior centers, libraries and transportation.

By: carrie ann stamos

carrie ann stamos — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:05:41 +0000

I know, in a way, it’s refreshing to hear such honesty from a candidate-
even if it may not have been the intended impression he was hoping to impart.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:54:07 +0000

What? No way. David was a brilliant theater of the absurd artist. He’d make a lousy politician however as his basic tenet is: everything sucks, they are all against you, and don’t look to me to help you.

By: carrie ann stamos

carrie ann stamos — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:44:16 +0000

I thought Jimmy, Brent and Deirdre were all good…I have mixed feelings about her being taken to task at the end for asking for a legal count of signatures gathered.

David needs help with his delivery, presentation, style, body language etc.

By: 58

58 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:52:40 +0000

It would be great if someone can recap the highlights. I’m sorry I missed it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:30:15 +0000

Congrats to Nancy for moderating. It was an interesting evening. High point I think was an attendee’s question regarding Eric Gioia’s accomplishments and disappointments. Two candidates in my opinion – Jimmy & Brent – had the clearest grasp on our local issues as well as the vision to act with an accessible and inclusive approach.

Regarding Republicans, they do not walk the neighborhood. They do not reach out to business or organizations. They have no proposals other than the usual claim they are for cutting waste and government while at the same time presiding over increased waste and decreased oversight. The economic mess we are in is the legacy of years of Republican fraud and abuse. I don’t know how they keep convincing the poor shlubs out there that this party has the average person’s well being in mind.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:43:39 +0000

55, we’ve had Republican mayors in NYC for nearly 15 years, and neither of them seem to been able to “cut waste, fraud, and redundant services.” In fact, both Giuliani and Bloomberg have presided over significant increased spending, so each is partly to blame for lumbering the city with long-term fiscal problems, like exploding pension costs.

So what is a freshman Councilman going to do that our two last mayors haven’t been able to do? Be specific.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:49:37 +0000

He does mention promoting efficiency by cutting waste, fraud, and redundant services. I believe our city has over 100 agencies – with many performing similar or related functions. Let’s reform already! We definitely need our government run more responsibly and there’s plenty of room to cut costs and save money. Not to mention all the fraud our council members committ with tax payer (our) money!

48 out of 51? Wow . . . it would probably take more Republicans to keep all the Democrats in check.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:34:49 +0000

Maragos makes an awful lot of promises for expensive goodies on his website, but doesn’t explain how he’d pay for any of it. Are you sure he isn’t a Democrat?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:23:07 +0000

52, I wouldn’t be so sure the democratic winner is assured victory. People want a change and 48 of 51 council members are democrats. They don’t serve us at all. What would electing another one do for us?.

There is a republican this year – Angelo Maragos and he lives in long island city.

He is an engineer from the cooper union and is a business analyst at credit suisse. On small business he has proposed creating incentives for businesses to locate and hire in our district (as there are for lower manhattan) and help existing small business by offering rent-rebates and interest-free loans.

I’ve heard him speak – sounds like he’s committed to shake things up.

http://www.electangelo.com

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:52:12 +0000

This is a primary debate. Presumably there are republican candidates in their own primary. The focus is on the democratic primary, because the winner is nearly assured of winning the general election in November.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:16:38 +0000

I agree entirely with 32 and 50. The sooner LIC starts shaking up the silver-haired patriarchal farts in Sunny/Woodside, the better. It’s a long overdue payback for their many years neglecting us around here.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:14:12 +0000

Who knows if his/her numbers are right, but I do like where #32 is going. Every new building has a co-op board or a condo association or some other similar organizations. Most also have sub-committees that focus on community issues. What would happen if each of those buildings nominated a representative and they joined forces to try to tackle some of these issues in the LIC ? They could be a force. When a group speaking for thousands of residents come together on quality of life issues in a concentrated area they would be very hard to ignore.

How about it? Any board members reading?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:31:58 +0000

48, right. Because we know big business can run the financial system brilliantly and without any assistance from government, and Medicare is much poorly run than private HMOs. And let’s not forget the fantastic and cost-effective job Haliburton and private military contractors have done in Iraq. Please. It’s not 1986 anymore.

Again, local Republican officials in NYC have absolutely nothing to offer regular workers and small businesses like we have on Vernon Blvd. If they do, let’s hear specific proposals.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:10:54 +0000

Also cutting the red tape. Republicans generally understand that government does a poor job a managinging anything. There is way too much buracracy.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:07:15 +0000

46, you mean lowering capital gains taxes. That’s all they ever propose. Totally irresponsible. Unless I hear specific proposals they would adopt to help struggling restaurants and retails shops, I’ll vote for a grown-up.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:59:11 +0000

Easy #45 – lowering taxes.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:50:18 +0000

I can’t believe people don’t see the obvious – Republicans are anti-small-business. In case someone wants to refute this, name one Republican initiative that is pro small business.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:46:29 +0000

Right on # 42. Right on… FYI to all of you LICers, 65% of the local voting population is in Woodside/ Sunnyside. LIC makes up about 10%. The population is growing, but that population is NOT voting. If you want to be represented by your new city council member in Dist 26 (unlike what Eric Goia has done), then encourage your neighbors to vote. If you don’t vote, you won’t be represented.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:52:02 +0000

I can’t understand why people would be so nonchalant about accepting waste transfer stations and homeless shelters. Yes, these things need to go somewhere, but when everyone is fighting for them not to be in their backyard, why should we be running to accept them with open arms? This attitude in part is responsible for the legacy of LIC that we are dealing with today. You can’t dig into the soil without getting the DEP and hazmat teams involved. The bar needs to be set higher than that.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:42:23 +0000

“LIC is the most dynamic, energized neighborhood undergoing dramatic changes in western Queens, certainly more, I would argue, than Sunnyside and Woodside. ”

“dramatic changes” don’t vote.

Also, someone really suggested industrial/social service uses be put in poor, minority mainly residential neighborhoods as opposed to in an industrial one? Really? In 2009? In public?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:37:13 +0000

Wow, I had no idea about 11109! I don’t know why I find this fascinating, but I found a few zip code maps that seem to only include Citylights in 11109. Here are two::
http://www.cyberhomes.com/neighborhoods-longislandcity-ny-11109/673405.aspx
http://www.zipmap.net/New_York/Queens_County.htm (enter zip for this one)
This may explain the low population number? Weirdness.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:06:18 +0000

Actually Queens West has its own zip code – 11109 which has had close to a 20% increase in poulation according to that site. Also I seriously doubt the accuracy/currency of the information on that site. According to them 11109 has a population of 1100. The Citylights building alone has 522 apartments. Conservatively assuming 1.5 persons per unit that would account for close to 800 people in that one bulding. I don’t see how that is could possibly be correct data.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:31:20 +0000

Granted, there are thousands of units planned or under construction, but I wouldn’t consider 4.5% growth since 2000 a population explosion.
http://www.bestplaces.net/zip-code/Long_Island_City-New_York-11101.aspx
Unless someone has some better data?