John Liu

A couple of weeks after becoming one of the earliest and loudest critics of Council Speaker Christine Quinn over her proposed member-item reform, John Liu is publicly tweaking another one of his colleagues, this time over a more routine legislative matter.

Here’s a brief clip of Liu during a City Council hearing about biological, chemical and radiological detectors this morning, where he openly questioned the need for the legislation the committee was considering. The bill was introduced by fellow Queens Democrat Peter Vallone, Jr., whose committee meeting Liu was attending.

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Al Sharpton just finished a press conference with friends and family of Sean Bell, saying they hoped justice would be dispensed by the trial judge, who will announce a verdict Friday.

Sharpton also refuted the notion that their supporter need to be reminded not to act violently if they are unhappy with the decision.

He went on to say that it was the police who acted recklessly when they approached and fired on Bell and his friends without just cause.  read more »

 

Christine Quinn angered some City Council members when she announced a package of reforms last Friday, but the reaction was reinforced by resentment that's been brewing for some time over her management of the council.  read more »

The only thing that has gotten City Council members more angry than when they found out Christine Quinn’s staff hid millions of dollars in the city budget by assigning it to phony organizations are the reforms she proposed last week to prevent the same thing from happening again.

Quinn proposed Friday to give the executive branch power over $20 million in the speaker's discretionary fund, which many Council members think gives up some of the relatively little power they have.

Today, Quinn faced an unhappy crowd of City Council members who “universally panned,” her plan, according to Peter Vallone, Jr., who spoke to reporters after leaving the nearly hour-long, closed-door meeting. “If we move forward on this, which probably is a good idea, I think we can improve things, we won’t be giving up power to the executive branch,” he said.

“Did anything that the speaker said change my mind? No,” said City Councilman Jimmy Vacca of the Bronx, who issued a critical statement as the meeting began. “I think that is a very significant consensus,” he told reporters.  read more »

Just as Christine Quinn began addressing City Council members in a closed-door meeting at City Hall about the appropriation-process reforms she proposed, another member released a statement criticizing those changes as ceding too much power to the mayor.

This is from Jimmy Vacca of the Bronx, and follows last week's sharp rebuke from John Liu and criticism from Lew Fidler:  read more »

Michael Bloomberg’s spokesman John Gallagher is releasing, upon request, a statement blasting the legislative process that killed his boss’ plans for congestion pricing.

“What we are witnessing today is one of the biggest cop-outs in New York’s history. After insisting on the formation of a commission to make recommendations for a bill, and then for the City Council to vote to endorse that bill, the Assembly needs to stand up and be counted.  They owe it to the majority of New Yorkers who support this plan, the scores of environmental groups, public health organizations, business leaders, unions, and the public at large, to put this proposal to a public vote.”

Mary Peters, the U.S. Transportation Secretary also released a statement thanking by name everyone but Sheldon Silver for their “leadership” on the issue.

“Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Paterson, Majority Leader Bruno, the City Council and many other state and local officials and civic, environmental, business and labor organizations, New York has engaged in one of the most vigorous and significant debates about transportation policy in modern U.S. history. While today's announcement, if accurate, is deeply disappointing, New York’s mounting traffic and environmental woes point to congestion pricing as an inevitable solution, even if not in the next few months or with the assistance of federal Urban Partnership dollars. Starting tomorrow, we will engage with many of the largest cities in the United States that have put forward ambitious traffic fighting plans to discuss how they could use this money to cut traffic, improve transit and reduce pollution.”

More reactions after the jump.  read more »

Assemblyman Jim Brennan of Brooklyn, who is also running for city comptroller, introduced his own congestion pricing bill today. A spokesman, when asked, did not say whether he will support the plan as it is currently presented to lawmakers.

Brennan's new bill would ensure the program comes up for renewal in three years, and wouldn't allow the state to issue bonds against the program's future earning. Critics say allowing the bonds means the current congestion pricing plan wouldn't be temporary enough because it would last for the life of the bonds.
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A reader sent along this invitation for a May 1 awards dinner hosted by the Independent Neighborhood Democrats, a political club in Brooklyn. Among the honorees is the organization's councilman, David Yassky, who is also a candidate for city comptroller.  read more »

Last night two city comptroller candidates -- Melinda Katz and David Weprin -- voted against congestion pricing, while three of their likely opponents in the race -- David Yassky, Simcha Felder and John Liu -- voted for it.
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Here’s a shot from the breakfast hosted Sunday morning by the Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations on the West Side, which, as Grace Rauh noted, attracted nearly every 2009 candidate for citywide office.  read more »

Here’s John Liu at a protest on the City Hall steps this afternoon, speaking out against Michael Bloomberg’s proposed cuts to English Language Learner’s programs.
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The only elected official to show up to yesterday’s rally to protest Eliot Spitzer’s driver’s license proposal was City Councilman John Liu of Queens.

“It really seems to come out of left field,” Liu said of the governor’s position. “It’s hard to understand the logic and the thinking behind it.”

It's official: David Yassky is running for comptroller.

He filed paperwork with the Campaign Finance Board late last week and it just popped up on the CFB’s web site a few minutes ago.

Earlier, I noted the strategy will likely be to pick up support in his vote-rich section of Brooklyn and, since the race is full of outer borough candidates, scoop up the largely unclaimed votes in Manhattan. The other candidates in the race are David Weprin, Melinda Katz and possibly John Liu, all from Queens, plus Simcha Felder and James Brennan from Brooklyn. There's low-level grumbling about Adolfo Carrion getting into that race (although Carrion indicates he'd prefer to run for mayor).

When I spoke with Yassky on Friday, he didn’t confirm or deny he was entering the race. Instead, he said, “I still feel like it’s a long time away. And when given that we still have a city that is almost entirely reliant on diesel fuel to heat itself, when there is biofuels that would make so much of a difference, in terms of carbon emission, and we’re still spending all this money on tax breaks that would happen anyway, which we shouldn’t be doing. I feel like those are the things to be focusing on. Over and above atoning for my sins.”

He added, “It seems too far away to be talking about 2009.”

UPDATE: Just to clarify, Yassky's statement about atoning for sins was a eference was to Yom Kippur, which started on Friday, the day we spoke.

Councilman and all-but-announced city comptroller candidate Simcha Felder of Brooklyn hired another staffer: Eric Kuo, who will be the new new press person.

Kuo previously did press for Councilman Vincent Gentile, a Democrat in the conservative-leaning Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn (the same area that produced Democratic operatives George Fontas, Scott Gastel and Sam Cooper). He also worked for Councilman Oliver Koppell in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. (There are probably some notable operatives from there too, but I'll need some help on that one.)

More on Kuo after the jump.  read more »

About that talk going around that City Councilman David Yassky of Brooklyn will enter the already-crowded City Comptroller’s race in 2009...

"I’m not trying to be coy about it," Yassky just told me. "I want to stay in government. I love this work. I think I’ll want to keep doing it after my term is over. And I think I’ll be in another election," but 2009 is "too far away and I have not decided. We’re not there."

Though there are at least five candidates, it's not that outlandish for Yassky to calculate that there may be room for one more. The list of announced and likely candidates for comptroller include Simcha Felder and James Brennan of Brooklyn, and John Liu, Melinda Katz and David Weprin of Queens, if I'm not missing anyone. The pool of voters in Manhattan, in the absence of another entrant (Scott Stringer, maybe?), are anything but locked down.

Yassky is popular with the New York Times and with Michael Bloomberg, who has already held two fund-raisers for Felder, but has shared national TV time with Yassky. So, if he can line up backing uptown and in his part of Brooklyn... who knows?

For the record, here’s the exact breakdown of who voted for, against, abstained or was absent for a proposal yesterday to reinsert the name of black activist Sonny Carson into an omnibus street renaming bill.

Affirmative: 15
Negative: 25
Abstentions: 7
Absent 4:

Notably, John Liu, the only Asian-American in the Council, voted to honor Carson, as did Tony Avella. Bill De Blasio, who worked on the David Dinkins mayoral campaign around the time Carson was registering voters to help elect Dinkins, voted no.

A complete list is after the jump.  read more »

Likely Democratic citywide candidates Anthony Weiner, Adolfo Carrion and John Liu were all on the same panel yesterday at a Drum Major Institute-Baruch School of Public Affairs event, where they were asked which mayor would they look to as a model for how to make the middle class in New York thrive.

Liu picked Koch. Weiner picked LaGuardia. And Carrion went with... Mike Bloomberg.

-- Azi Paybarah

Patience seems to be wearing thin at the Council today.

While Con Ed was getting the welcome treatment in the Council chambers, the chairman of the TLC was next door in the Committee Hearing Room jousting with Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu over the issue of "illegal street hails" of livery cars.

TLC Chairman Matthew Daus was asked how big the problem was.

Daus said he didn't know and that it's difficult to calculate.

Liu, who's kind of a numbers guy, suggested pointedly that the solution was "not rocket science."

Daus: "To have a crystal ball and a magic wand, and to have a satellite photo and to try and guess how many, you know, cars are picking up illegally is just simply, that's ridiculous--"

Liu: "Commissioner, let me give you a simple way to do it. Just send an inspector to observe various street corners or subway stations, unannounced, and just count."

You can listen to the exchange here, a portion of which is below.

-- Azi Paybarah

Here’s something ordinary New Yorkers don’t often get to see: a candidly worded strategy  read more »

With much less chatter and attention than some other citywide elected officials, Queens Councilman John Liu has raised $1,002,771 for an undetermined race, according to recent figures filed with the city's Campaign Finance Board.

Liu seems to have capitalized to spectacular effect on his status as the first Asian-American elected to the council, drawing heavily from Asian-American New Yorkers for his total.

Other notable filings include Councilman David Weprin's $817,136 for the city comptroller's race, Councilman Eric Gioia's $726,618 for an undisclosed race, and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum's $163,965.

UPDATE: The CFB updated some paperwork which puts Weprin's contributions now at $978,011.

-- Azi Paybarah

Here's to the folks who work overtime to dispel the notion of a slow news day. (Like, say, today.)

Over the past month, the Queens Chronicle has collected every e mail and fax sent by Queens representatives at all levels of government: city, state and federal. The paper tabulated the total number of communications and [John] Liu came out ahead by a large margin.

The highly scientific results:

The Press Release Champs

City Council: John Liu (D Flushing), 37 e mails, 3 faxes

State Assembly: Mike Gianaris (D Astoria), 7 e mails, 4 faxes

State Senate: Malcolm Smith (D St. Albans), 10 e mails, 14 faxes

Federal Government: Sen. Hillary Clinton, 32 e mails

--releases collected between Nov. 21 and Dec. 21, 2006 by the Queens Chronicle

-- Azi Paybarah

• The sleazy bustle of Chinatown may soon be transformed into the distinctly refined serenity of Little Italy. How? By banning cars--turning the double-parked delivery trucks on Mott and Bayard Street into "alfresco dining and sidewalk tea shops." The chairman of the Chinatown Partnership says "it could happen soon"--and even taxi-happy Councilman John Liu is in on the action. Close your eyes and think of Nassau Street! (Newsday)
• "Mood" is the official 2006 keyword of the real estate biz. And the official mood of American homebuilders, according to CNN, hasn't been as bad since 1991. That means, of course, that the industry is "rolling over." So what does the chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders have to say? That the real estate industry will only "worsen before it improves." Sounds good. (Money/CNN)
• Red Hook and Barbara "Good Morning America" Corcoran aren't as perfectly matched as one might think. Her purchase on Van Brunt Street was once hyped in the Times, though today her building's storefront is empty, even though its rent has been slashed from $2500 to 18. Get out of Brooklyn, Barbara, while you still can. (Curbed)
• A 113,000-square-foot mass of concrete and steel in Williamsburg has been sold for $26 million. You might never have guessed, but the Hope Street building was once a warehouse, and it will one day be a six-story condo. Those hip Brooklynites love their warecondos. (Globe St.)
• Donald Trump gets a very sensual ego massage via Steve Cuozo's Post column, which gives the Trump Tower credit for valiantly setting up shop on Fifth Avenue. Flattery aside: the building has a very forlorn 37,000-square-foot hole where Asprey's big shop had been. Who might head there? Madison Ave. jeweler Graff, the luxuriously Italian Loro Piana, or Mr. Ralph Lauren. (NY Post)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 0 comments

The heavyweight champion of New York City real estate spamming, Council Member John Liu, has brightened our afternoon inbox with some atypically wonderful news.

With two council allies, he is intrepidly demanding that the city use some of the $141 million profits from its yellow cab medallion sale "to expand yellow taxicab service in communities outside of Manhattan's central business district."

But how will cab drivers be lured to Brooklyn and beyond? "The new legislation will require the Taxi and Limousine Commission to establish new taxi stands at major transportation hubs currently under-served by yellow taxicabs. The TLC can then examine the success of these stands over a three-year period and use that information to make citywide taxi service permanent."

Finally, outer borough thirst for uncomfortable automotive service will be quenched. Fight on, Mr. Liu.

The press release, in all its glory, after the jump.  read more »

- Max Abelson

John Liu has sent out a press release that we sort of wanted to read!

For Immediate Release May 2, 2006 Sent via Internet

*** Statement ***

************************************************** CM LIU ON ASSEMBLYMEMBER MENG **************************************************

City Hall, NY - Council Member John C. Liu stated the following in response to questions about reports that Assemblyman Jimmy Meng will not run for re-election to the New York State Assembly:

"The community thanks Jimmy Meng for his service and I wish him well in his future endeavors. The people of Flushing look forward to a positive and undoubtedly spirited campaign season in the months ahead. We encourage everyone to run. In the end, democracy will produce the best result for the community."

CM Liu does not intend to run for the seat (State Assembly, District 22 - Flushing), but will take an active role in the campaign for the seat. Assemblyman Meng and his daughter Grace have met repeatedly with CM Liu to discuss their campaign plans and to ask for CM Liu to support Ms. Meng. Several other individuals have also met with CM Liu to solicit his support for their campaign for the same position.

Tomorrow morning bright and early, Bill Weld will be the featured guest at Crain’s Business Breakfast.

Council Member John Liu will address the New York City Transit Riders Council.

In the evening, the Brookhaven Town Democratic Committee will host Eliot Spitzer, Alan Hevesi, Richard Brodsky, Andrew Cuomo, Mark Green, Charlie King and Denise O’Donnell at their monthly meeting. [UPDATE: Sean Patrick Maloney will also be in attendance.]

And Jonathan Bing hosts a wine tasting fundraiser.

—Nicole Brydson

It's time for John Liu's fourth media advisory of the week!

Transportation Committee to Investigate "Private Van Services: Vital Transportation Options or Accidents Waiting to Happen?"

Presumably it's a fact-finding mission. Oops, one fact is already in evidence! Here's the rest of the press release:

Council Members will announce a Transportation Committee hearing on the City's regulation and enforcement of private van services. Demand in areas of the City underserved by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has led to a proliferation of so-called "dollar vans" - many of which are unlicensed by the City. Jennifer Gibbons, a 56-year-old subway cleaner, was struck and critically injured - reportedly by a privately-operated van service - on March 4, 2006 while she walking home in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.

Hmm. I think I know where this Investigation is headed. If they gather enough evidence, maybe they can get the dollar-van driver's to turn state's evidence against Kalikow's irresponsible M.T.A.!

Meanwhile--I need some dollar vans in my neighborhood--the B61 sucks, and so does the L.

- Tom McGeveran

Anthony appeared to be leaning, in a cautious way, toward Rudy's "one city, one standard" legacy last night at a forum in Chinatown, where Sandra Endo asked the candidates, "Just by a show of hands, who can commit right now, right here in Chinatown tonight, that you'll have a high level Asian-American in your administration should you become mayor?"

The question drew quickly raised hands from Freddy, Virginia and Giff, and an eye-rolling, reluctant hand-raising yes from Weiner.

Endo followed up:

"If you can just be, you know, one word, one department answer, what area of government would you say that Asian-Americans would have the strongest voice and highest voice in your administration should you become mayor."

Freddy said, "Everyone in this city has a right and an expectation to see this city's government be a reflection of them."

Virginia noted her campaign manager is an Asian-American woman.

Giff reminded everyone that he "appointed for example, John Liu to the very important transportation committee."

Anthony had this to say:  read more »

"I'm not going to hire people by nationality or by quota.... If you're a fresh thinker, if you're someone who thinks outside the box and is as committed as I am, we'll be taking applications in the back of the room."

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, we introduced the Brecht Award for ridiculous press releases. City Councilman John Liu has been hammering a Hot 97 morning show host, Miss Jones, since she played a stupid, offensive song making fun of Tsunami victims a couple of weeks ago.

Now, we don't mean to say that Miss Jones didn't deserve hammering. But the tone of the press releases just gets more and more hysterical. A recent one insisted, "They must pay dearly for the hurt they have inflicted in New York and across the world."

Across the world?

Here's the latest:

For Immediate Release HOT 97 DEFERS RETURN OF MISS JONES CM Liu: "Scheduling Miss Jones' Return on Asian Lunar New Year Day is Another Example of Emmis Corp's Irresponsibility"

Hot 97 Radio has decided to defer the return of Miss Jones to their Morning Show. Emmis Communications, owner of Hot 97, had announced last week that Miss Jones would go back on air February 9. February 9, 2005 is the first day of Asian Lunar New Year.  read more »

Council Member John Liu stated, "Emmis Communications demonstrated how utterly irresponsible they are in originally scheduling Miss Jones' return on Asian Lunar New Year Day. By deferring Miss Jones' return they have saved themselves from another level of community outrage."

CM Liu added: "Emmis' corrective action in this case doesn't absolve them of overall responsibility for their outrageous hate programming broadcast over the public airwaves. Emmis must accept full responsibility, and do so by donating one week's revenue - about $10 million - to tsunami relief charity."