September 1, 2010
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5 comments
Riverdale turnout may be races’ key
Local voters could determine the outcome of two Democratic primaries for state Senate. Historically, Riverdale has contributed a high turnout of registered Democrats and today’s candidates are hitting the local tarmac hard. With no gubernatorial primary challenge for motivation, candidates are working harder to get people motivated for races that rarely bring out a crowd. Riverdale is divided between the 31st District, encompassing most of Riverdale and snaking south along the river to the Upper West Side, and the 33rd District, encompassing small parts of Riverdale, all of Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights, Bedford Park, Norwood and parts of the South Bronx. And while Riverdale’s impact in any particular race is lessened by those lines, it remains an important swath for candidates to secure. In the race for the 31st District seat, Mark Levine, a relative newcomer to politics, is running, among others, against Adriano Espaillat. Mr. Espaillat currently represents the 72nd Assembly District. Mr. Espaillat has enjoyed significant endorsements from unions and has overwhelming support from elected officials — from Rep. Eliot Engel down through Councilman Oliver Koppell. Mr. Levine has pitched himself as the anti-status-quo candidate and has received support from the likes of actor Ed Norton and Matt Damon. Though their profiles are very different, both understand the importance of doing well in Riverdale. Mr. Levine said he is running a district-wide race, but admits he’s working especially hard to become known here, as his work as a community organizer is already recognized within the Latino community. The elephant in the room is that he is white and Jewish, and that Riverdale is whiter and more Jewish than much of the district he seeks to represent. Mr. Dinowitz, who along with his Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club has endorsed and campaigned for Mr. Espaillat (and now has also endorsed Mr. Rivera), said that while Riverdale usually brings large numbers to the polls, voters here have preferred white candidates in past elections.
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Why should people in Kingsbridge be forces to vote for any hispanic when it is a know fact they hispanics like Diaz, Espada and Rivera only care about what happens to the hispanics in the Bronx. If you are white, black or another color you don't count. All of the new parks, and things for children are only in the South Bronx where it is all hispanic. Do we get anything in the Kingsbridge, Riverdale area. Hell no we don't .
So why vote for any of the hispanics or hispanic lovers. I say tell all of those who are running to drop dead.
They are not going to get my vote cause why should I vote when I don't count. The reason I don't count is because I am American, white and single. Do I have to tell you any more. I don't think so. Remember only Hispanics count in the Bronx.
Riverdale will be key in the 33rd.---in the sense that Danny Boy will get 10% of The Total vote (25% of Riverdale Vote) just enough to eliminate Gustavo a chance to win against Pedro Espada.
Dan whom I have met now on a few occasions, is a very good man but cant win the district-because of the mapping of the district-courtesy as part of The Guy Velilla deal of the 1990's.
To keep up with the POLITICAL DEBATES OF THE WEEK: Bronxtalk, Bedford Mosholu Community Association and The NAACP debate:
www.westsidebx.blogspot.com
North Bronx Democrats
I have to apologize to the people of the State of NY; I've been biting my tongue, fearful that if I write what I truly think of Attorney Schniederman it will lead to Anna Lewis's defeat.
There are 2 BIG secrets in NYS. The one that is the least kept BIG secret is that Prime Minister Sheldon Silver is a Personal Injury Lawyer and he refuses to bring tort reform before the Assembly floor.
The second AND THE ABSOLUTELY BEST KEPT SECRET IS THAT THERE ARE 20 MEMBERS OF THE NYS BAR, 19 PRACTICING LAW IN THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE! If you had 20 farm owners (Ag still the biggest industry in NYS), 20 doctors or 20 Commercial Fisherman in the Senate you would say there is something fishy going on in NYS government. Instead we have those that live off the law practicing the law. We don't have a government for the people; buy the people, of the people. We have a government for the attorneys; buy the attorneys of the attorneys.
Do you honestly think that if Silver were replaced by a non-attorney that allowed tort reform on the assembly floor that tort reform with 19 attorneys practicing law, some from some pretty hefty size law firms, that tort reform is going to break committee in the Senate.
It's Schneiderman that has shot himself in the foot here, for he has shown his hand. No one seeking the office of Attorney General should be showing favoritism toward one candidate or another. It shows just what kind of Attorney General we will be electing. Do you think if he suspects wrong doing he will go after Espaillat, his 18 former fellow members of the NYS Bar or will he put that folder on the bottom? Why isn't there an indictment against State Senator George Winner (attorney George Winner)? Do you think another attorney in the Senate or Assembly will be prosecuted by State Senator-attorney Eric Schneiderman if he is elected Attorney General? I think not, like State Senator George Winner, they will be allowed to quietly retire, pardoned not by the Governor, not denied their $80,000 pension,never forced to give any money back to NYS, instead pardoned by Eric Schneiderman, AG!
The NYS bar already controls the assembly with Prime Minister Sheldon Silver at the helm, 20 seats in the Senate, now, if elected, one of those elite 20 is going to be AG!
Schneiderman is the last person we want to elect as AG and because of conflict of interest issues as a partner in the Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Law Firm; he should never have been elected to the state senate in the first place.
Eric Schneiderman needs to stop endorsing members of the "Good Ol' Boys Club", go back to practicing law at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and we need Anna Lewis because she is the complete opposite of the coin of her of the 19 practicing attorneys, to be elected to the NYS Senate
Schneiderman and Lewis are not colleagues; they are very much rivals and travel in very different circles, that’s why it may not be the end of the World, but she has to be one of the newly elected (no conflict of interest) members of the 2011 NYS Senate.
It burns me that Schneiderman is giving and receiving all of the endorsements, when he should be slithering back under a rock at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart
The Espaillat years in Inwood were bad ones with respect to noise and other quality of life violations. Under Espaillat’s watch, we saw the growth of racing on the Dyckman Drag Strip, the unprecedented and ethically questionable expansion of noisy nightclubs posing as restaurants, the lending out of public property for noisy rallies on behalf of political candidates in foreign elections, and the charade of officials holding meetings with the public in which they repeatedly claimed that few, if any, noise or traffic violations were documented and that their management was a problem of “inadequate manpower.” Local residents recognize these denials as nothing more than a fast-talking runaround with the public. The surreal nature of this two-step has led many of us to feel that back-room deals under Espaillat’s watch have led to the rapid up-tick in noise during his time in office.
Instead of balancing the needs of business against the legitimate right of local residents to sleep at night (as Denny Farrell has successfully done), Mr. Espaillat has sided unilaterally with the Vida/Mamajuana cartel, the Miami-based group behind the transformation of West Dyckman Street into our very own Alcohol Alley. Other than publish one publicity piece claiming to have taken action – action that locals have found difficult to identify as real – Espaillat appears to have done nothing to quell the flood of noisy establishments over Inwood. In fact, he seems to have promoted it. I will never forget his participation in that transparent piece of political theater that many derisively call the “Postcard Terrorist Press Conference.” He stood shoulder to shoulder with leaders of the Vida/Mamajuana cartel, throwing the weight of his office behind a ridiculous contention: that local businesses are in real danger from some apparently-elderly, deranged person who can barely put pen to paper. The FBI apparently has declined to investigate, and no findings of a real threat have surfaced since then. The true intent of this press conference, as many Inwoodites recognized from the start, was to garner public sympathy for expansion by the allegedly downtrodden Vida/Mamajuana cartel. It was a shameful, politically motivated slur on the motives of local residents, who want only to achieve balance in an area super-saturated with liquor licenses and the noise- and traffic-violations that have come with them.
Espaillat's financial backers are a relatively small coterie of businessmen and developers who seek his intervention in overturning regulations on their behalf. For example, Espaillat intervened with the State Liquor Control Board recently to plead with them to grant yet another (!!!) variance of the SLA's limit on the number of liquor licenses permissible on west Dyckman Street. We are now three (!) licenses beyond SLA's limit, thanks to Espaillat.
We may not know what Mark Levine will do to help residents who want to return the area to some semblance of balance, but he has already done more than Espaillat merely by acknowledging the problem, by attending town halls and other meetings devoted to the quality of life problems that have ballooned under Espaillat, and by personally pledging to local residents that he will take positive action. His election would initiate a radical departure from the political charades of the Espaillat era, and I would welcome it.
I encourage you strongly to get out the vote for Mr. Levine in the NY State Senate primary election this coming Tuesday.
Bradley Brookshire
20-Year Inwood Resident
want to know the real enemies of reform:
Imagine; Ricky Martinez, Robert Press and Haile Rivera NOT supporting Gustavo Rivera in a time of well heeded community need?
www.westsidebx.blogspot.com
The Real Heroes of Bronx Reform for their communities? Sebastan Ulagma, Charlie Ramos and Gustavo Rivera
Get involved in their campaigns now at:
www.westsidebx.blogspot.com