Be a good neighbor - move away

A number of local politicians have made appeals to or spoken about President-elect Donald Trump who, in addition to calling New York his home state, has used his midtown Manhattan office as the headquarters for his transition. 

Bronx Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who chairs the Council transportation committee, has asked Mr. Trump to ease New York’s traffic by relocating his transition headquarters – ideally, somewhere far away. 

“We know the pride our president-elect takes in being a New Yorker,” Mr. Rodriguez said in a statement Monday. “We’re kindly asking President-elect Trump to be a good neighbor to his fellow New Yorkers by easing their daily commutes.”

Mr. Trump could try living some place with a more comfortable climate than New York City for the remaining weeks before his inauguration, Mr. Rodrigeuez suggested.

“Moving the transition headquarters to Mar-a-Lago, where the weather is nicer, can help end the gridlock on our midtown streets and ease travel for all,” he said.

Mr. Trump has announced he will be living part-time in Trump Tower for the duration of his presidency. 

Engel accuses Trump of appointing ‘cronies’

Rep. Eliot Engel, who has served in Congress since 1989, has taken a hard line opposing a number of Mr. Trump’s appointments and nominations since the start of the transition process.

Mr. Engel accused Mr. Trump of participating in cronyism and giving high-ranking positions to supporters as consolation prizes. 

“If you ask me, there are good, solid people in both parties who are available to serve in the Cabinet [who] are being bypassed. Instead cronies are being appointed, or getting consolation prizes, like Ben Carson,” he said. “It doesn’t make me very confident that the best people are being nominated so I don’t feel good about it all.”

Mr. Engel also weighed in on the search for a secretary of state, a position that media reports forecast will likely go to either former presidential candidate and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who was very vocal in his opposition to Trump during the election, or to New York City’s former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a longtime support and surrogate of the president-elect.

“I’m hearing about secretary of state, and mixed in there are people with no diplomatic qualifications, no experience in a very sensitive post,” he said. “They can’t decide whether to reward somebody who supported him, but is really not qualified or has the wrong temperament or perhaps somebody who actually may be qualified and has the right temperament, but people are angry at them because they didn’t support Trump early on.”

He also joined in on calls to rescind Mr. Trump’s appointment of Steve Bannon, a leader of the alt-right movement who has been accused of being a white nationalist and anti-Semite. 

“I don’t know Mr. Bannon, I don’t anything about him other than the fact that he ran Breibart and the alt-right movement is there and their sentiments have gone from anti-Semitism to other kinds of far-out, crazy, political thinking,” Mr. Engel said. “That’s a scary thing, because this is an important job, and the fact that Trump trusts him makes it even more frightening.”

Gillibrand: Protect religious institutions 

Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, along with Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez from New Jersey, has called for an increase in federal funding to protect religious, civil and community institutions. 

Citing a rise in hate crimes, Ms. Gillibrand said an additional $5 million in federal anti-terror funding needs to be allocated to protect synagogues, churches, mosques, community centers and non-profits. 

 “No New Yorker should ever live or worship in fear,” she said in a statement. “With hate crimes on the rise throughout New York and across the country we can’t stand idly by and let these incidents go unanswered. We must make sure our places of worship, our community centers and non-profits have every resource necessary to be protected and safe from threats. I’m fighting for this additional Homeland Security funding because we must stand strong against threats, hatred and attacks against our community institutions.”