Avella Rezonings Blocked
Tony Avella, the outspoken City Councilman who has never hesitated to criticize Christine Quinn or other colleagues, suffered a nearly unheard of loss today when the Council voted to block a rezoning plan for his Bayside district.
Usually, on local matters like this, the entire Council votes the same way the local member does, making local approval tantamount to citywide approval. But that wasn't the case here--some members apparently felt the rezoning did not provide enough affordable housing.
Here are the vote results from today‘s Council meeting, which were forwarded to me by a number of readers.
L.U. 753 & Res 1480
Application no. C 070175 ZSQ submitted by College Point Holdings I, LLC pursuant to Sections 197-c and 201 of the New York City Charter for the grant of a special permit pursuant to Sections 78-351, 78-352 and 78-353 of the Zoning Resolution to facilitate the development of a 100-unit large-scale residential development located at the northwest corner of the intersection of 14th Avenue and 115th Street (Block 4035, Lot 1), in an R4 District.VOTE: 20-25-2
Negative: Dickens, Fidler, Jackson, Mark-Viverito, Martinez, Mealy, Monserrate, Reyna, Sanders, Stewart, Vann, White, James, Barron, Seabrook, Gentile, Foster, Comrie, Arroyo, Rivera, Ignizio, Eugene, Gioia, Felder and Oddo
Abstentions: Vallone and Brewer
I left a message on Avella’s cell phone and am waiting to hear back.
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 47.2
- 44.3
- Obama +2.9
- Candidate
- Favorable
- Unfavorable
- Spread
- Obama
- 54.0
- 34.9
- +19.1
- McCain
- 52.0
- 36.1
- +15.9
The speaker's revenge. Dickens and Mark-Viverito especially should hang their heads in shame.
Christine Quinn is the biggest loser on the planet. Every council member who drinks her poison should hang their heads in shame. Thank God for term limits. Let's hope she Herself is forced to walk the plank for running her slush fund. Avella is the only one with any guts or integrity.
Guts an integrity...hmm, that doesn't sound like our Tony. More of an opportunist if you ask me. And, a wacko I might add. He visions himself a messiah that would fix all the problems in our city. Yet, he's a racist self-serving pig.
Have you seen his City Hall announcement for Mayor? All white people. Word has it, he especially hates minorities. Many minority who call upon his districe office for assistance either gets the cold shoulders or are never served.
He's a loser if you ask me, thinking that he even remotely has a chance of becoming Mayor of New York, the world's biggest melting pot. White people don't even like him.
His real problem is, he can't work with anyone! Not one single councilmember can stand him. Not only is he not willing to work with anyone, he backstabs them, figuring, what the heck, no one likes me anyways. If you ask me, his candidacy is a joke, and its no surprise at all that the councilmembers revolted against him.
Avella provides good theatre but is a very poor council member. As the Chair of the New York City Council Land Use Committee, Avella has done a very poor job in addressing many over development issues in his district. He talks and talks about how he is going to strengthen these zoning laws. But has yet to do anything! If only he paid more attention to his district then maybe we could have reasonable zoning, affordable housing, new schools and more police officers. Avella is only interested in yelling and getting press. I am still waiting for him to be a councilmember. A good start is if his office responded to phone calls. I am still waiting for them to call me back! The 19th Council District deserves to have a council member who listens and addresses problems in the community. I am glad that City Council voted to disapprove the project. More Affordable Housing is needed!
Speaker of the City Council Christine Quinn and her aides have turned the City Council into a criminal enterprise. Quinn stole over ONE BILLION DOLLARS over a period of over two years as Speaker. Also when Quinn's aides placed a stamp on a package containing the fraudulent City Budget, then mailed it, Quinn's staff committed basic mail fraud. Please watch the following video, it depicts a Doctor committing a serious crime and who, like Speaker Quinn, does not want to face the consequences:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRT1osIIoxY
tony avella has no friends in the council or anywhere else. his own mother wouldn't vote for this weasel. he should be working at mcdonald's hence his longstanding nickname in the neighborhood:
tony "deep fryer" avella
my dog has a better chance of becoming mayor
I wish Council Member Avella would stop yelling and start being the type of Council Member his district really needs. Thank god for term limits so someone else can come in who knows how to work with people and actually get something done. If only Council Member Avella would stop campaigning for Mayor by getting involved in everyone else’s issues, he might actually be able to get something done for his constituents. I relish the opportunity to vote for a competent person who has the skills necessary to work for his neighborhood.
I think the man Avella should campaign for Mayor.
What else do you have to do when Christine Quinn is trying to
prevent you from reforming the Building Department at every turn. Council staff is on record in a private meeting that "They dont like Tony Avella's legislation". Translation
I dont like Avella's bills because Christine Quinn is running for mayor. Ironically most of the council members who supported the so called Avella rebellion have big projects in their districts, with no affordable housing.
I say it's better to open your mouth attempting to do something, Than lying down and voting "aye on all " when the Speaker wants you to.
I respect the notion of standing up and speaking out for the benefit of changing the system. The issue with Council Member Avella is not that he does this, it's that he is unable to do anything else. The true sign of a leader is being able to understand when rhetoric is enough and the real work is needed to be done. So while Council Member Avella may say he is fighting the sytem and trying to reform the Department of Buildings he really isn't. Saying you're doing something doens't mean you actually have what it takes to get it done. When Coucil Member Avella comes through thats when he will get some respect; not to mention the fact that he is down right nasty to people.
I live in the neighborhood where the proposed "100-unit large-scale residential development" would have been built. The area in question is NOT Bayside - it's College Point, and our neighborhood is ALREADY seriously over-developed. Avella would never even try this in BAYSIDE.
We don't NEED another large scale development. We have several, and none of them even come CLOSE to being affordable for regular working people. We have loads of empty newly-built 2, 3 and 6 family homes sitting here waiting to be purchased.
Council politics aside, I'm GLAD they rejected it.