Gary Tilzer's blog, True News From Change NYC, about New York government corruption, political reporting, and other commentary about government transparency, has been restored. Earlier today, it had been discovered that the True News blog had been suspended by Google for inexplicable reasons overnight. The suspension of the blog had become a focal point of support today by many New York bloggers and activists. No reason for the suspension is yet known, but New York bloggers suspect political censorship might have been one motive behind the removal of the blog.
Google Blogspot Blog Has Been Removed For No Reason ; Blogger Community Suspects Political Censorship ; Call To Action
Please send an e-mail to press@google.com and copy Gary Tilzer, the owner of the censored blog, at Gtprinter@aol.com -- demanding that the True News blog be restored.
True News is a blog dedicated to reporting about government scandals, politics, and transparency. (Here is the cached version of the True News blog.)
We need your help to keep courageous bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, doing what they do. If you are reading this, it is because you are turning to the Internet for reliable information. For it to be here, bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, have to be able to do their work without fear of retribution or censorship.
What Does Christine Quinn Do to Stop Mayor Bloomberg's scorched earth plan to Keep Laying Off More and More Police and Firefighters ? Nothing, as usual.
''The city's Independent Budget Office projected yesterday that by June 30, 2012, the Police Department will have shrunk to 34,413 uniformed personnel, a record low since the 34,825 that were on the force on that same date 20 years ago when crime rates in the city were near epic highs,'' reported The New York Post.
"Crime statistics show there is a breaking point, and we're at it," City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee, told The Post. "We can't absorb any more public safety cuts."
''The IBO further reported the Fire Department will have 10,282 uniformed personnel on June 30, 2012, down from 10,911 this year, and the lowest level since at least 1980, when the IBO first started tracking the numbers.''
Nothing, naturally. Does everybody have their hands in the cookie jar ?
''Bloomberg Government'' is a money-making enterprise for Mayor Bloomberg's company, where he makes money from government and personal information, like contracts, employee lists, and other forms of databases.
Apparently, there is a lot of money to be made from government contracts, especially from cost over-runs, like what happened with CityTime.
Now that we have elected a straight man to office, maybe we will see marriage equality become legal in New York, because we knew we could not count on Christine Quinn to do anything about marriage equality.
It is a poor reflection on New York City Council Speaker Speaker Quinn, a high profile gay leader in New York City, that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the politician, who will take credit for making marriage equality a reality for New Yorkers. Although a municipal-based approach to make marriage equality a reality already exists, based on the Gavin Newsom model, seeing as how Speaker Quinn has not been the source of any marriage equality effort in New York City, hopefully, Gov. Cuomo will be the one we can all pin our hopes on, because we knew we could not count on Speaker Quinn for anything.
Back on this day in 2008, the New York City Council voted to change the term limits law, thereby allowing Mayor Michael Bloomberg to seek re-election. The action by the City Council, lead by Speaker Christine Quinn, undid the term limits approved by New York City voters, who had previously passed two referendums that had restricted the service of elected politicians to a limit of two four-year terms.
Last month, four community activists were arrested after orchestrating a sit-in to save St. Vincent's Hospital from being sold to the greedy Rudin family, which stands to make millions and even hundreds of millions of dollars from converting the hospital into luxury condos. It was reported earlier today that St. Vincent's Hospital is going to become luxury condos. Do no politicians hear the plea of voters, who ask for a downtown hospital ?
It was reported earlier today that St. Vincent's Hospital is going to become luxury condos. Naturally, it should come as no surprise that the announcement coïncides with a Joint Meeting of Manhattan Community Boards 2 and 4. The upcoming needs assessment (aka Monkey Survey) was nothing but a farce, SMOKE-and-MIRRORS to provide the Rudin family cover to buy St. Vincent's and turn it into luxury condos.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn continues her campaign to sell New York City landmarks to real estate developers, activists say. Witness the latest announcement involving the historic real estate of the former St. Vincent's Hospital.
If this graphic looks familiar, it's because we've seen it before, back when the Landmarks Presrevation Commission approved the highly controversial St. Vincent's redevelopment plan. In the intervening months, the hospital's closure took that redevelopment plan off the table, and the great St. Vincent's sell-off began. And then this bombshell: the Observer reports that, actually, the sawtooth O'Toole Building will be retrofitted and reopened as an emergency medical facility, with assistance from Rudin Management, the developer behind the previous plan, and North Shore-LIJ hospital. A victory for preservationists? Yes and no.
One thing the preservationists didn't want was the construction of an FX Fowle-designed residential building on Seventh Avenue South. Win some, lose some: that aspect of the old plan is back in a big way (as is the Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates makeover of St. Vincent's Triangle). The building will contain 450 units of luxury condos. Last time the subject came up, the LPC ordered the 233-foot building cut down a few stories, so we don't know what the final version will look like. We're guessing the architectural surgeons will still end up with something similar to the last design.
Youtube.com — What has City Council Speaker Christine Quinn done to end the St. Patrick's Day Fifth Avenue Parade's discrimination against LGBT participants ? Nothing. Make a request to Speaker Quinn to back-up her words with action : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
If politicians in New York wanted to pass marriage equality -- to guarantee that the right to marry was equally offered to all loving couples, regardless of any factors -- then the marriage bureaus would be told to issue marriage licenses to all loving couples, regardless of any factors. (That's how we saw the entire national conversation change in respect of marriage equality, thanks to the courage and leadership of Gavin Newsom, who was then the mayor of San Francisco.)
Too bad for us, as we wring our hands in New York, that we are stuck with Mayor Bloomberg, who doesn't believe in taking action to make marriage an equal right.
Rudin Interview on New York Real Estate Harvesting From Bankrupt Hospitals.
William Rudin, chief executive officer at Rudin Management Co., talks about New York City's real estate and the outlook for commercial property, including the millions the family stands to make from the carcass picking of the real estate property of St. Vincent's Hospital. Watch at 5:40.
To add insult to injury, naturally this interview was broadcast on Bloomberg Opinion, in keeping with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's worldview of starving the beast until it dies in the back of an ambulance, stuck in crosstown traffic.
Hunter College has been engaged to conduct a ''needs assessment,'' to determine if we need a hospital to replace St. Vincent's. Many members of the Lower West Side of Manhattan believe that Hunter College was hired to play bad cop. Activists say that Hunter College is going to issue a report based on a Monkey Survey that there is no need for a hospital, which will give City Council Speaker Christine Quinn a free pass to say, "Hey, guys, it's not my fault that we don't need a hospital. If you are angry, blame Hunter College. Now, how fast can we build more glass and steel luxury condominiums ?"
Members of the LGBT equality advocacy group called Queer Rising blocked traffic near Bryant Park on March 1, 2011, in an act of civil disobedience, demanding marriage equality in New York.
Eight activists from the were arrested after the group had unfurled a 75-foot banner and blocked traffic on 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas in New York City. The activists were later released by police, according to a statement issued by GetEQUAL.
The marriage equality demonstration was reported about by a network-affiliate news program on WPIX 11.
Following is the full statement from GetEQUAL, followed by additional links to other Internet coverage of the protest and the arrests.
Earlier this morning, eight activists were released from a NYC jail after they took action to stand up to our politicians' unceasing cowardice to do what's right for the LGBTQIA community. After years of waiting for marriage equality in New York and countless broken promises, members of the direct action group Queer Rising, allies of GetEQUAL in New York, demonstrated their growing frustration by sending a clear message to our elected officials.
At 8:30 this morning Kevin Beauchamp, Nora Camp, Natasha Dillon, Frostie Flakes (Adam Siciliano), Jake Goodman, Honey LaBronx (Ben Strothmann), Eugene Lovendusky, and Kitten Withuwip (Caldwell) blocked traffic at the intersection of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan, where they unfurled a 75-foot banner that read "NY DEMANDS MARRIAGE EQUALITY NOW!" and chanted "I Am...Somebody! I Deserve...Full Equality! Right Here, Right Now! I Deserve...Full Equality!"
We know the courage these eight activists showed today is the same courage that lives inside many who are reading this email right now -- that the hunger for full equality that drives these activists is the same hunger that drove the suffragists to keep fighting for their right to vote; it's the same hunger that drove our civil rights fighters to keep fighting for their constitutional guarantee of equal protection, equal opportunity, equal access and equal justice; it's the same hunger that drives our fellow LGBTQIA brothers and sisters to keep fighting for the day when our dignity will be recognized, our love will be revered and our humanity will be respected.
Today's action is just the beginning of a sustained campaign that Queer Rising will be organizing in the months to come, in partnership with GetEQUAL and other civil rights activists in New York. If you're hunger for equality is pushing you toward taking up the fight, whether occasional grumblings or unrelenting pangs, today we invite you to take action for what is rightfully ours -- full equality!
If you want to get more involved with equality organizing in New York, email GetEQUAL.NY@gmail.com and we'll get you connected with opportunities in your area!
Every moment is one more opportunity to change your world...
