We were a small group today, but we did well to keep showing up to say that our fight goes on : we still need a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's.
At today's real estate forum, it shocked our conscious to learn that Julie Menin, candidate for Manhattan Borough President, was a participant -- even through the highlight of the forum was Melanie Meyer's and Samantha Rudin's distorted presentation about St. Vincent's Hospital. We will contact Ms. Menin, to ask her to explain why she took part in the real estate forum, if it was glorifying the Rudin takeover of St. Vincent's....
We were not allowed inside the forum, and one of our friends reported to us that the conference was deliberately not being recorded or live streamed, because the forum's participants did not want their conversations recorded for public examination. While Melanie Meyers and Samantha Rudin talked about the profits that they are making, they don't want us to know the exact amount of their riches...
Here is our video of our protest, pointing out how Melanie Meyers and the Rudin family are corrupting Sarge Shriver's legacy at the law firm of Fried Frank : http://youtu.be/O-lN9sw2UsA
Tonight, John Schiumo, the host of NY1 The Call, gave a shout out to the @stopchrisquinn Twitter feed for live Tweeting his program about paid sick leave. We were happy to oblige, since The Call is one of the few media outlets, which allows for a truly open conversation about New York City politics from the voters' point of view.
The Fried Frank lawyer Melanie Meyers and Samantha Rudin and her father, Bill Rudin, tarnish the legacy of Sarge Shriver.
Sarge Shriver's old law firm, Fried Frank Harris Shriver and Jacobson, have spent years representing the Rudin family's hostile takeover of St. Vincent's Hospital.
While the entire Lower Manhattan has no more Level I Trauma Center, the Rudin family (with Fried Frank's help) stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital.
What would Sarge Shriver's family think about Fried Frank engaging in business that goes contrary to Sarge Shriver's legacy of public service and Progressive and humanitarian causes ?
St. Vincent's Hospital activists announce a protest against Melanie Meyers and Samantha Rudin.
Rudin Management Company are laughing all the way to the bank with all the money that they are making from the reckless luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital, and now they are gloating about it ! Join us for a protest this week :
Date : Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Time : 2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Place : McGraw-Hill Companies, 1221 Avenue of the Americas (btwn 48th and 49th Streets), Manhattan
Executives from Real Estate Weekly Women's Form are gathering at McGraw-Hill on Wednesday to discuss how real estate executives can further their careers and discover new business opportunities. Among the many speakers are Melanie Meyers, the Fried Frank law firm partner who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby CB2 and the City Council, and Samantha Rudin, from Rudin Management Company.
Join us as we protest from 2:30 - 3:00 outside McGraw-Hill's offices at 1221 Avenue of the Americas.
Here is the specific entry on the day's agenda, which reveals how Ms. Meyers and Ms. Rudin plan to describe how Rudin Management Company succeeded in exploiting community resources for private profit :
2:35 PM : The Journey of St. Vincent’s
A look into Rudin Management’s vision for the development of St. Vincent’s, the milestones that have been met to pave the way for the project, the twists and turns that had to be addressed in achieving them and what we can expect as the redevelopment takes shape. The recent land use approvals will allow the abandoned hospital to be converted into a new, primarily residential and environmentally friendly complex encompassing the adaptive reuse of six historic buildings and the creation of a new public park that commemorates the history of St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Melanie Meyers, Partner, Fried Frank
Samantha Rudin Earls, Vice President, Rudin Management Company
Notice how Melanie Meyers and Samantha Rudin are portraying St. Vincent's Hospital as having been "abandoned."
CORRECTION : It was Rudin Management Company, Fried Frank, Christine Quinn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and the city and state Departments of Health which abandoned St. Vincent's.
Please bring signs to protest the Melanie Meyers, Samantha Rudin, Bill Rudin, and Rudin Management Company. Our community still needs a full-service, Level I Trauma Center to replace St. Vincent's.
"Council Speaker Chris Quinn has stalled a paid-sick day bill, but she’s now being pushed by liberals and women, who will rally at City Hall Monday."
More than 15 women elected officials, including U.S. Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Carolyn Maloney, will gather at City Hall today to demand that New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn allow a vote on a bill requiring employers to give their workers paid sick leave, The New York Daily News reported.
Last week, Gloria Steinem said that she would withdraw her endorsement of Speaker Quinn’s campaign unless Speaker Quinn allows a vote on the paid sick leave bill, The Daily News added.
Everybody reported about Christine Quinn being booed about the Upper East Side waste transfer station, except for The New York Times. No surprise !!
As usual, almost the whole wide world has by now reported about the latest occasion when New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has been jeered at a large meeting, excepting, of course, for the Metropolitan Section of The New York Times, which is edited by Speaker Quinn's brunch date, Carolyn Ryan.
"Upper East Siders opposed to the construction of a waste transfer station in their neighborhood booed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at a mayoral forum," (NYPost).
After City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she supported the location of the trash depot, she was promptly booed. "Don't expect us to vote for you, baby!" one angry voter screamed. (Gothamist)
"Speaking at a candidate forum on East 93rd Street, hosted by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, more than a hundred residents, some wearing green "Dump the Dump" t-shirts, heckled and booed the one candidate who said explicitly that the East 91st Street location for the garbage facility should not be changed: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn," (Capital New York).
Ms. Ryan has to bend the journalism in The New York Times to fit the mayoral agenda of Speaker Quinn's politics. Ms. Ryan makes it her duty to keep portraying Speaker Quinn in the best light, because that's what Speaker Quinn wants.
It's not like you would expect something even approaching journalistic balance from Ms. Ryan or The Times ?
1,000 days in jail for Bradley Manning ; 1,000 days of silence from Christine Quinn
Today, LGBT Army PFC Bradley Manning marked his 1,000th day imprisoned without a trial, reported Raw Story. PFC Manning is "suspected" of being the source of making government transparency disclosures to WikiLeaks.
PFC Manning is an LGBT service member, and many groups and leaders have been advocating for justice for PFC Manning. But New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has been eerily silent.
"It has taken him from the desert of Iraq, where he was arrested at a military operating base outside Baghdad, to a prison tent in Kuwait. From there he endured his infamous harsh treatment at Quantico Marine base in Virginia, and for the last 14 months he has attended a series of pre-trial hearings at Fort Meade in Maryland, the latest of which begins next week," reported Raw Story.
Upper East Siders opposed to the construction of a waste transfer station in their neighborhood booed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at a mayoral forum today for her continued support of a controversial project that would send garbage trucks rumbling throughout posh area streets.
“I am not changing my position on the [marine transfer station],” Quinn declared to the crowd inside the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens on E. 93rd Street.
In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, new concerns have emerged about the E. 91st site, which is now classified as a flood zone, but Quinn said structural changes would be made to prevent any storm damage.
Immediately, the crowd jeered and heckled.
“Why have you never visited the site?” one person demanded.
Quinn did manage to raise a stink — about the jeers.
“Hang on — if you want an answer you have to listen,” she barked. “You can scream and yell. You could throw soft things after, but you have got to let me answer if I listen to your question with attention.”
Speaker Quinn's rude comeback is reminiscent of when former Schools Chancellor Cathie Black mocked a large parent meeting in the middle of a devastating scorched earth campaign of school closings.
Many City Council members are wary of endorsing candidates in the 2013 mayoral race until after budget season because they're afraid a vengeful Speaker Christine Quinn will cut their share of $50 million in discretionary funds, DNAinfo.com New York has learned.
The funds, which are controlled by the speaker, are dished out to members each summer to fund constituent-pleasing services, such as community centers and seniors programs. While Quinn’s office has long insisted that the money is allocated based on districts' needs, it’s no secret that members on Quinn’s good side tend to profit — while those who cross her get their budgets slashed.
And many Council members now worry that endorsing a rival in the mayor's race, where Quinn is widely perceived as the front-runner, will result in the same fate.
“I definitely think that discretionary funds will be wielded as a weapon in the fight for endorsements,” said one Democratic Council member, who, like nearly a dozen others who spoke to DNAinfo.com New York, asked for anonymity to avoid angering Quinn.
“Certainly, that is the elephant in the room,” another member said.
“It’s a legal form of blackmail," still another member said.
To avoid retribution, some Council members are weighing postponing their endorsements until July, after the budget is adopted and Quinn no longer has sway over the money.
Update : 32BJ endorsed Christine Quinn for mayor. No surprise, given the possibility of influences from real estate corruption.
Has the union 32BJ SEIU become co-opted by the Real Estate Board of New York ?
A notable union representing doormen and service workers, 32BJ SEIU, appears to have become co-opted by the Real Estate Board of New York, a trade association of slumlords.
32BJ and REBNY will be screening mayoral candidates together in joint meetings. From the appearance of such an arrangement, the union and the trade association appear to be collaborating on a joint endorsement, which would mark the death of the independence of unions.
Already, Rob Speyer, chairman of REBNY, said in a statement, "Early on we realized that the interests of REBNY and 32BJ actually align in more ways than not."
The neoconservatism of the REBNY has translated into neoliberalism at the unions. We are doomed.
Witness how New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn booby-trapped the ATU Local 1181 bus strike by issuing a statement on February 12, in which she called on the union to end its strike and engaging in a "cooling off period."
There's more than one way to bust a union, either by dooming a strike, or by infiltrating it to sabotage its own best interests. Or so it apparently seems...
Mike Bloomberg is blind to the homeless problem. No surprise.
Homeless advocates are criticizing Mayor Michael Bloomberg's assertion that "no one is sleeping on the streets," after he was asked today about a report that the city shelter system is turning away families during cold winter days. (NY1)
How can anybody take Mike Bloomberg seriously, if he is so blind to his own elitist worldview ? Will anybody take him seriously when he makes an endorsement in the mayoral campaign ?
At tremendous political peril to Christine Quinn, the leader of the NAACP plans to make ''stop-and-frisk'' a major mayoral campaign issue.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has been so close and chummy with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's and NYPD Commish Ray Kelly's unconstitutional and racist policy of ''stop-and-frisk.'' She has been waging a neoliberal campaign that is hard on crime by being harder on people of color.
But now comes NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, who is sick and tired of the racial profiling that underpins the entire ''stop-and-frisk'' program, The New York Post reported.
Mr. Jealous "trashed" the stop-and-frisk program during remarks he made at Nazarene Congregational Church in Brooklyn yesterday, and Mr. Jealous's comments were seen as criticism of Mayor Bloomberg's and Police Commissioner Kelly's ill-conceived support for the use of stop-and-frisk. Indeed, Mr. Jealous portrayed Mayor Bloomberg and Commish Kelly as "villains."
“We intend to ensure through every legal means that stop-and-frisk becomes a thing of the past with the next mayor of this town,” Mr. Jealous said.
Three of the four major Democratic candidates — Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former city Comptroller Bill Thompson — have all said the practice should be reformed but not scrapped. Quinn has yet to take a position on a package of bills before the Council to scale back the program.
City Comptroller John Liu wants to abolish stop-and-frisk altogether.
Jealous also said he wants the next mayor to get rid of Kelly, who consistently polls higher among Democrats than any elected official.
Quinn has signaled she would keep Kelly on board if she won the race and Kelly was willing to stay.
Her competitors in the primary have not made the same commitment.
NY1 Exclusive : Anti-Quinn Activists Still Have Work To Do : New Poll Shows Quinn In Front Of Other Potential Democratic 2013 Mayor Candidates
Last night on the Road To City Hall program on NY1, it was mentioned amongst the panel of experts that, given voters' relative low negative perception of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Stop Christine Quinn protest effort still has work to do, because voters are not yet educated on Speaker Quinn's horrible record while in office.
One of the activists, Louis Flores, has posted a solicitation for resources, in order to escalate his efforts.
What are New York City Democrats’ impressions of these mayoral aspirants ?
65% have a favorable opinion of Quinn, while 17% have an unfavorable one. 18% have either never heard of her or are unsure how to rate her.
49% have a favorable impression of Thompson, while 20% do not. 31% have either never heard of him or are unsure how to rate him.
48% of New York City Democrats have a positive view of de Blasio, while 20% have an unfavorable one. 32% have either never heard of him or are unsure how to rate him.
When it comes to Liu, 43% have a favorable impression of him while 27% have an unfavorable one. 30% have either never heard of him or are unsure how to rate him.
26% of Democrats have a positive opinion of Albanese while 20% have an unfavorable view of him. 54% have either never heard of him or are unsure how to rate him.
Poll results have a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percent.
It seems that Speaker Quinn's favourability ratings are being artificially inflated due to the biased and deliberately fluff news pieces being published about her.
Two very insightful letters published by The New York Daily News, which continues to reveal voter anger toward the corruption by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has lost touch with reality of the challenges facing average New Yorkers :
Chris cross I
Brooklyn: Re “Begin the Quinn spin” (Feb. 12): Middle-class housing for a family of four with an income of $103,000 to $142,000. If that is middle class, where are my food stamps, Medicaid card and free housing? Those amounts are not the middle class that I know. Christine Quinn must have been making a joke in her State of the City speech, right? Clifford F. Zeman
Chris cross II
Richmond Hill: Has City Council Speaker Christine Quinn convinced herself that she is a fair, honest and ethical leader who is worthy to hold the office of mayor? In 2006, she approved a generous pay raise for herself and the entire Council. Then, she extended her own patronage-appointed, cradle-to-grave city career by changing the laws of term limits for dictator Bloomberg. The final betrayal was her denying a vote on paid sick time for the working poor. Clean up your act, Empress Quinn, and withdraw your deeply flawed candidacy. Adele DeLeva
