Christine Quinn Mini-Me

Christine Quinn Uses City Council Funds (aka Taxpayer Money) to Reward Political Bosses

After City Council Speaker Christine Quinn got fluffed by NYTimes reporter David W. Chen, now comes Michael Powell, a columnist for the Gray Lady, who pulls back the curtain on Speaker Quinn's slush fund-tinged campaign for mayor.

Mr. Powell reports that Ms. Quinn was appointed Speaker of the City Council after she "charmed" political bosses from Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. At her coronation ceremony, she put Vito Lopez, the notorious Brooklyn political boss (who is the target of several ethical and corruption investigations) in the front row. Speaker Quinn has also scratched Mr. Vito's back in exchange for his political support. "The fates have smiled on Mr. Lopez’s social-service empire, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council ; this year the Council sent more than $4 million its way," reported the NYTimes.

In a statement posted Facebook, a government integrity watchdog activist questioned why the latest NYTimes article stops short of probing the status of the federal investigation into Speaker Quinn's slush fund scandal.

"Instead of reporting on Quinn's criminal activity, the NY Times merely raises questions about her ethics and leadership: "But there are questions to be asked about her leadership, and not all cheery." Is it a fear of Bloomberg that prevents the Times from reporting on the well-documented budget and campaign corruption ?" Donny Moss posted on the social network.

This is how the NYTimes article ends :

Last year, a Council majority favored mandatory sick days for New Yorkers with less than a week of vacation. The mayor opposed it. Ms. Quinn killed it.

Some suggest that she has gotten lost in the game, that she can no longer recall the questions she once asked as an advocate. That sounds too definitive. Her arc is not done.

She affects nonchalance when described as a mayoral puppet: “You can call me Mini-Me. I don’t really care.”

The rub is that voters might care a lot.

Quinn NYT Infomercial Fluff

To find out how real journalists assess City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's record, one needs to look no further than the sensibility expressed in this blog post on True News From Change : NYT Sets the Definition on How To Judge and Pick the Next Mayor and It Fits Quinn

In his blog post, the journalist Gary Tilzer makes many astute observations about David W. Chen's infomercial fluff piece about Speaker Quinn, and perhaps this is the most sharpest of Mr. Tilzer's criticisms : ''It was the publisher of the NYT, along with the NYP and Daily News, that used their papers to support changing the term limits law to allow Bloomberg and Quinn to run for a third term. Mr. Chen does not challenge Quinn when she brushes off her term limits and other critics as 'naïve' ideologues.''

It's already been documented how Christine Quinn bluffs her way through important social issues.

What Speaker Quinn is doing by making her ''unapologetic'' ''move to the middle'' is selling out the working class families of New York City. Her policies favour real estate developers -- and come to the detriment, suffering, and mass displacement of working class New Yorkers. Speaker Quinn's vision of New York City is a continuation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vision : more glass and steel luxury condos and less hospitals, firehouses, public schools, and senior centers. Speaker Quinn wants to make life so unbearable to the average wage-earning New Yorker that we all pick up and leave town.

How do we know that Christine Quinn has sold out her values and beliefs and still find herself to be in a place of denial about it, so much so that she accuses her critics of being “naïve” ideologues ?

Speaker Quinn's ideas about leadership in New York, by supporting the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital, which used to be the only full-service hospital with a Level 1 Trauma Center below 14th Street, is like GLAAD publicly supporting the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Not only would AT&T be in an even stronger position to undo net neutrality, but what is GLAAD doing by meddling in a telecom merger approval process with the FCC ? Likewise, why is a ''supposedly!! celebrated LGBT third-term politician like Christine Quinn rushing toward the ''middle'' of the political spectrum, if it means that she has to abandon her idealistic beginnings and instead now oppose paid sick leave and a living wage bill ?

"AT&T was one of the companies whose local representatives sits on the board of directors of the Tennessee chamber of commerce," wrote John Aravosis at Americablog. "You remember them, the group that endorsed and actively lobbied for the measure repealing gay and trans rights ordinances in the state, mandating it so that no trans person can ever change their birth certificate gender in the future, and banning any future civil rights ordinances for anyone in the future. That AT&T."

What does the intersection of St. Vincent's Hospital/Rudin Family Luxury Condo Conversion and the GLAAD/AT&T T-Mobile mega deals have to do with Christine Quinn and New York City politics ?

In each case, you see the erosion of core values of fighting for an activist's central reason for being : serving their constituency. But once you get to be so big, you can blow off you constituency as “naïve” ideologues (or drop the F-bomb on them, the way that one of her administrative assistants did).

If, throughout our nation's history, our goal has been to distribute power and authority equally among voters, then the voters, who have less choices on election day, get their voices muffled. Who is going to challenge GLAAD to focus once again on its original intention ? Who is going to put pressure on Christine Quinn to deliver on the community’s demands to stop all the hospital closings that are happening across New York City ?

It is not too much to expect that the people, who you elect to City Council, start to deliver something tangible for New York City voters.

• If you disliked how City Council members extended term limits without a voter referendum, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you agree, that Speaker Quinn needs to hear the voices of communities, who are demanding that hospitals stop closing all across the five boroughs, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you can no longer accept a weekly threat by Mayor Bloomberg to layoff teachers and firefighters, and to close schools and firehouses, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you want Speaker Quinn to shut down her $50 million slush fund, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you refuse to settle for City Council members, who take tens of thousands of campaign donations from real estate developers in exchange for what seems like pay-to-play real estate development deal approvals, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you believe that Speaker Quinn betrays the LGBT community, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you have your own issue, that you'd like to bring to Speaker Quinn's attention, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us

Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

Quinn Plaza Hotel Protest

Christine Quinn - Plaza Hotel - Gays Against Quinn (Protest Video)

Over 20 activists gathered outside the Plaza Hotel in a demonstration against City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Watch as protesters speak against Christine Quinn to former Mayor David Dinkins' entourage and hand anti-Quinn literature to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Some of us were there because of Speaker Quinn's use of a $50 million slush fund during a time when we live under constant threat by Mayor Bloomberg, that he is going to lay off teachers and close down fire houses. Others were there, because Speaker Quinn pushed through a controversial extension of term limits, allowing Mayor Bloomberg, herself, and others, to run for a third term in office. Still yet others were there because of Speaker Quinn's complete abdication of full civil rights for LGBT New Yorkers, do-nothing record over hospital closings, horrible animal rights record, and use of city staff for campaign work.

Please join us for a Third Anniversary Protest of the Term Limits Extension at 2 pm on Sunday, October 23, at City Hall.

Please also join our Facebook group : Gays Against Christine Quinn.

Hugh Carey, dead, 92

NYTimes Obituary : Hugh Carey, Who Led Fiscal Rescue of New York City, Is Dead at 92

From The New York Times :

Hugh L. Carey, the governor who helped rescue New York from the brink of financial collapse in the 1970s and tamed a culture of ever-growing spending, died Sunday at his summer home on Shelter Island. He was 92.

His death was announced by the office of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

“Governor Carey led our state during a time of great financial turmoil and pulled us back from the brink of bankruptcy and economic ruin,” Mr. Cuomo said in the statement.

As the 51st governor of New York from 1975 through 1982, Mr. Carey led a small group of public servants who vanquished the fiscal crisis that threatened New York City and the state — the direst emergency a governor had faced since the Depression — by taking on powers over the city’s finances that no governor had wielded before and none has wielded since. A liberal Democrat, Mr. Carey reversed the upward spiral of borrowing, spending and entitlement under his predecessor, Nelson A. Rockefeller, a Republican who had presided in an era of limitless government promise. ....

A-Rod A Fraud in Trouble Again? A-Rod, Jorge, Matt Damon Explain to NYers How to Live w/out Hospitals by Suzannah B. Troy Artist

http://m.nypost.com/f/mobile/sports/yankees/games_report_ordered_rod_poker_meet_VFr7PdJm16OTKqUYHMdcsL A-Rod called a fraud after steroid scandal, part of the wealthy elite that makes a fortune in NYC but finds every way to cheat so he does not have to part with the obscene amounts of money he should never have been paid the way he cheated on his wife caught in another scandal? A very emotional protest of People fighting to save yet another hospital this one in Queens should be contrasted with Juan Gonzalez's exposes on the Mets and Yankees Stadiums which continue to screw the tax payers out of mega millions. How does A-Fraud look himself in the mirror? Quite easily. With all that $$$$ he will always have good friends.


http://youtu.be/mGXR6cDbywg

http://nycculturepoppolitics.blogspot.com/2011/08/peninsula-hospital-closing-protest.html

A-Rod what do you have to say about our hospitals being closed?

Matt Damon and Jorge Posada, you told New Yorkers to Vote for mayor Bloomberg and I do not think either of you declare NYC as your resident.

What do you have to say to all the People of NYC that need hospitals and have none because Bloomberg and his puppet Christine Quinn sold the People of New York out to real estate developers?

Look at Christine Quinn’s list of donors for her mayoral run.
http://www.councilpedia.org/index.php?title=Christine_Quinn

What do New Yorkers do if they have a heart attacks through out New York City in the different boroughs with the exception of the Upper East Side where Bloomberg and some of the richest New Yorkers live?

Why did we bail out banks and did not ask them to repay the bail-outs and why no jail for the bankers? Why did they get billion dollar bonuses but no bail out for hospitals?

http://mayorbloombergkingofnewyork.blogspot.com/search?q=juan+gonzalez

Remember the 2 new Stadiums that tax payers were forced to help build yet most can’t afford a seat, popcorn, a hot dog? Well click the link above to learn more how the Stadiums are robbing us of mega-millions and now hundreds of parks dept. workers will lost their jobs just like all the hospital workers from so many of these hospitals.

Peninsula Hospital Closing Protest

Peninsula Hospital Center - Protesters Take Over Lobby - Hospital Closings in NYC

Approximately 200 union employees, residents of Far Rockaway, in Queens, and local officials, gathered in the rain outside Peninsula Hospital Center, across the bay from JFK Airport. Peninsula Hospital Center has filed a plan to shut its doors. The hospital’s owner is embroiled in a political and financial scandal, but employees and residents are worried about the threat to public health, should the hospital’s closure plan be approved.

Attendees of the rally braved the rain, then, once the rally had ended, stormed into one of the lobbies of the hospital, until hospital officials called the police, to clear the lobby of its own employees.

In the time that Christine Quinn had been speaker of the City Council, eight hospitals (not counting Peninsula) have closed. If Peninsula closes, it would mark the ninth hospital to close under Speaker Quinn's watch.

This week, President Obama agreed to severe budget cuts to social safety net programs, that underpin the social contract we make with our government and amongst ourselves. More budget cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will lead to a further collapse of our healthcare system. Is Christine Quinn in Bermuda with Mayor Michael Bloomberg each time a hospital closes in New York City ? Is President Obama surfing in Hawaii each time a hospital closes in America ?

If we obediently listen to people, who are in power (the same people who work for us, the very same people who are closing our hospitals), telling us to leave the lobby of a closing hospital, then it just makes it that much easier for the New York State Department of Health/Christine Quinn to keep closing hospitals.

Richard Sandler 80’s When Greed Was Good

http://lightbox.time.com/2011/08/03/richard-sandlers-80s-when-greed-was-good/#1

I would always see Richard filming around the neighborhood and we love Angelica’s for great Vegetarian food....great to see his work featured in Time Light Box....

Here is my review of his film from Amazon

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gods of Times Square on the money, foreshadows the death of 'old' New York for shopping mall nyc, December 29, 2007

By

Suzannah B. Troy "artist/writer/youtube Mayor... (New York City, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gods of Times Square (DVD)

I saw this film when it first came out and I thought it was powerful but now looking back, Richard Sandler's film has grown in importance because post-Sept. 11, under a billionaire mayor and a multi-millionaire socialite city planner came a tsunami of community crushing development mostly all for the mega rich and a kind of shopping mall chain story retail explosion city wide punctuated with banks on every street corner that has robbed NYC of it's soul and originality.

There are grey tones. Do I appreciate feeling safe walking down the streets of Time Square and elsewhere in the city? Yes!!! What Richard Sandler shows us is the make-over and take-over by corporations and I understand some of the positives in terms of a cleaner, safer more pleasant city but ultimately what I didn't realize at the time was that film maker had his pulse on was the end of a kind of dynamism and edginess that made NYC what it is. It seems now that we can't have the best of both worlds and my neighborhood (East Village/Bowery/Lower East Side now looks like a bad xerox of midtown even resembling Time Square)thanks to mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Now we have generic chains stores through out the city and every neighborhood looks the same. Only bars, banks and Starbuck like chain stores can afford this "new city" that under the Bloomberg administration brought sky piercing luxury condos and hotels mostly all for the mega rich reflecting a history destroyed and communities no longer welcome.

Richard Sandler "got it" before any of us and he does leave a lot of grey tones for you to come to your on conclusions. Well done. Time to do another masterful documentary..."Welcome to the "new" hideous New York.

Save Claudio's Barbershop Press Conference Harlem posted by Suzannah B. Troy Artist

http://youtu.be/1Y7KMOZyDPE

Mayor Bloomberg and his mini-me Christine Quinn along with socialite city planner Amanda the People’s Burden mega-millionaire are responsible for a reckless tsunami of development crushign our communities city wide and mass displacement.

Watch the YouTube I was sent.

Rudin Family Peninsula Hospital

Is the Rudin Family eyeing their next real estate harvesting operation on the dead carcass of the Peninsula Hospital Center in Queens ?

After he's done with St. Vincent's Hospital, it has been heard on the street that William Rudin is considering another real estate harvesting operation, this time at the Peninsula Hospital Center in Queens.

Suzannah B. Troy Artist YouTube: NYPD Rape Cop Protest Aug. 8 NYC Rape Central Rape Violence Global Epidemic

Quinn to New York City : Drop Dead

Queens' Peninsula Hospital Center set to close ; New York Downtown Hospital putting patients on stretchers in the hallway to accommodate unmanageable influx of emergency patients.

"Sources say the Far Rockaway, Queens, hospital will shutter after owing millions to vendors and falling behind on its union benefits funds payments; the closure would cost the area about 1,000 jobs," reported Crain's.

The Queens Crap blog published a post today, indicating that Peninsula Hospital Center had filed a 90-day closure plan, a requirement under the law that was violated when St. Vincent's Hospital closed on April 30, 2010.

Is our social safety net not too big to fail ?

Does nobody in City Council have any concern about the financial collapse of so many hospitals across all five New York City boroughs ?

Does Mayor Michael Bloomberg not care, either ?

Meanwhile, following the illegal closing of St. Vincent's Hospital last year, there reamins only one hospital south of 16th Street in Manhattan, New York Downtown Hospital, which The New York Post has reported as being ''overwhelmed,'' and is leading to an ''emergency-care crisis,'' the newspaper reports.

In New York City, Video of Marriage Equality's First Day

First Day of Marriage Equality in New York - Connecting Rainbows Video

The Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-LGBT hate group, organised a hate rally outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Manhattan office on Sunday, to protest the first day that same-sex couples can legally marry each other in New York state. Connecting Rainbows organised a counter-protest. Here is video of what it was like outside of the Manhattan marriage bureau -- and then later of the counter-protest.

David & Ken Get Married Thank Gay Culture History Activists all These Ye...

Louis Flores Suzannah Marriage Bureau Cuomo's office Gracie Mansion

DOMA Next Tif NY Marriage Bureau