Congressional District 12, Carolyn Maloney vs. Chris Wight

U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney

In this race for Congress, our endorsement goes to Democratic incumbent and prolific legislator U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney. Maloney has consistently delivered federal funding and services to her district, championing the Second Avenue Subway and other capital projects, working hard on the 9/11 Zadroga bill to grant healthcare to those affected by the terrorist attacks, and pushing against the Republican onslaught on women’s rights at the national level. While her Republican opponent Christ Wight has said that he is pro-choice, he doesn’t have a platform for promoting continued access to abortion and reproductive healthcare. Wight also toes the Republican line on cutting taxes and said that he would focus more on reducing corporate taxes than bringing federal dollars into the state and the district, which we believe would hurt, not help, the Upper East Side.

Senate District 28, Liz Krueger vs. David Garland

Sen. Liz Krueger

David Garland, a Republican and Independence Party candidate, presented a strong campaign with well-developed ideas for the Upper East Side. Garland, who speaks six languages and works at a management consultant for Fortune 500 companies, is a fiscal conservative, advocating for better use of tax incentives at the state level as well as reducing taxes for small businesses and corporations to keep them in New York. He also is a social libertarian, supporting gay marriage and reproductive and abortion rights. He is running, however, against a very strong opponent in State Senator Liz Krueger, and our endorsement goes to her in this race. Krueger has been a consistent champion of women’s rights as well as a powerful force in the Senate, as she serves as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and could become the chair if her party takes the majority. She consistently provides excellent constituent services while diving into the weeds of budgets and complicated legislative issues, like the Reproductive Health Act that would move the state’s reproductive health laws from the penal to the civil code. While we support Sen. Krueger in this race, we hope to see David Garland continue in politics and would have considered endorsing him against a weaker Democratic candidate.

Senate District 31, Adriano Espaillat vs. Martin Chicon

We are declining to endorse either candidate in this race. While Republican Martin Chicon argued that he would be able to better serve the district as part of the (currently) majority party in the Senate and said that he would bring development and transit improvements to the district, we were not completely convinced that he would be the best representative for the Upper West Side’s heavily Democratic and liberal constituency. We are unable to endorse his opponent, incumbent Sen. Adriano Espaillat, however, since he did not make himself available for an endorsement interview.

Assembly District 76, Micah Kellner vs. Mike Zumbluskas

Assembly Member Micah Kellner

Democratic incumbent Micah Kellner presented a compelling case for promoting his reelection, specifically with an eye toward his advocacy on behalf of creating a new middle school in the district and his work against the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station. He also is supportive of raising the minimum wage as well as creating an angel investor tax credit, similar to what other states have implemented successfully, to keep tech innovators in New York. He is a strong opponent of hydrofracking in the state and said that he will continue to push to prevent or restrict it. His opponent, Mike Zumbluskas, is an Independent candidate running on the Republican line, and while he presented some ideas similar to Kellner, his emphasis on reducing taxes and challenging the Democratic majority in the Assembly were not strong enough reasons for voters to choose him. Despite the widely circulated rumor that he will be running for city council in 2013 (which he would neither confirm nor deny), we endorse Kellner in this race.

Assembly District 73, Dan Quart vs. David Casavis 

Assembly Member Dan Quart

In this race, we endorse the freshman incumbent Assemblyman Dan Quart. After winning the seat just over a year ago in a special election, Quart is running for a full term with a focus on improving the state and city’s energy policies and improving access to quality education on the Upper East Side. While we wish that Quart had presented a slightly stronger case for voters to return him to Albany, we also recognize that he’s only had a year in the job and we look forward to seeing what he can do if he wins reelection and had a full term to develop some of his positions and advance his ideas, especially in promoting green energy. His Republican opponent, David Casavis, who ran for Manhattan Borough President against Scott Stringer in 2009, presented little in the way of specific plans to help his district and almost no indication of the type of legislation he would pass, aside from opposing Democrats.

Assembly District 65, Sheldon Silver vs. Wave Chan 

Assembly Speaker Sheldon SIlver

While we wish that there were a stronger challenger running against all-powerful Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, our endorsement in this race still goes to him. Especially in light of his botched handling of the Vito Lopez sexual harassment scandal, many argue that Silver’s iron-clad hold over the Assembly could use a shake-up, but the Tea Party Republican candidate Wave Chan isn’t the person to do that. Silver remains popular in his district and does advocate for his constituents’ needs, while Chan could only present vague ideas about severely cutting corporate taxes and encouraging new housing development without clear plans as to how he would specifically help the Lower East Side. He also would be a poor fit for a district with an active LGBT population, as he does not support gay marriage, only civil unions.

REPUBLICAN RIVAL FOR ESPAILLAT
State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, who represents parts of the Upper West Side and northern Manhattan, easily won the Democratic primary in his bid for re-election but will now be facing a Republican challenger on the ballot in November. Martin Chicon has faced off against Espaillat in the past, when he challenged him for his Assembly seat in 2004 and lost. Now Chicon, who also has Dominican roots (his parents emigrated from Santiago), is presenting himself as a stark alternative to Espaillat. In a statement announcing his campaign, Chicon stressed that he would set himself apart from the sitting senator by promoting development in the district and aligning himself with real estate interests.
“As an alumni of Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, I am a byproduct of the real estate development that took place in the Upper West Side during the 1960s, thanks to [Robert] Moses’ vision for the area,” Chicon said. “In this time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty, I strongly support more real estate developments like Trump’s already completed Riverside South—projects that will bring into the area much-needed jobs, as well as a further rise in the overall value of the area.”

Chicon also criticizes Espaillat for not adequately representing the southern part of the district, saying that he only spends time in Washington Heights, and is a strong opponent of the recently adopted “soda ban” in the city, Mayor Bloomberg’s initiative to limit the size of sugary drinks sold at concession stands and restaurants.

INFO FAIR FOR UWS PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Community School District 3, which includes the Upper West Side, is holding a public elementary school fair on Saturday, Oct. 13, from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. for local parents to learn about the educational and public school options available to them. Any parents living in the district from 59th to 122nd streets are welcome and encouraged to attend. There will be information about all of the district’s public schools, which include eight magnet schools and dual-language programs in both French and Spanish. The event will be held at P.S. 165, 234 W. 109th St. For more information, contact DJ Sheppard at 917-678-5857 or djshepp@schools.nyc.gov.
Free Flu Shots
New York Doctors at 205 Lexington (corner of 32nd Street) is currently giving FREE FLU SHOTS to the community.  (While supplies last!) For more information, call 212-684-4700.

ESPAILLAT AND HOYLMAN WIN SENATE PRIMARIES
Incumbent state Sen. Adriano Espaillat easily won his Democratic primary race against challenger Assemblyman Guillermo Linares last week, taking an estimated 65 percent of the votes. Linares, who declared his intent to run for the position when Espaillat was still neck-and-neck in the race for Charlie Rangel’s congressional seat, had to give up his Washington Heights assembly seat to run. Espaillat’s district, the 31st, shifted after redistricting and now encompasses only Manhattan (he used to represent parts of the South Bronx), with a greater portion of the Upper West Side included.

In the 27th district Senate race, attorney and former chair of Community Board 2 Brad Hoylman beat out opponents Tom Greco, a Chelsea bar owner, and Tanika Inlaw, a public school teacher, to win the Democratic nomination. Hoylman will likely succeed outgoing Sen. Tom Duane, who surprised many when he announced his retirement at the end of his current term.

FALL FESTIVAL ON BROADWAY
The 20th annual Upper Broadway Fall Festival hits the boulevard on Saturday, Oct. 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival, which runs on Broadway between West 110th and 116th streets, will include games, food and tournaments. There will be a multitude of participants, including over 200 craft persons, antique dealers and artists. There will be exhibits of collectibles and Latin American crafts, including macramé, ceramics, jewelry, weaving and woodcarving. Sponsors include Broadway Presbyterian Church Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, the Broadway Mall Association and the Upper West Side Recycling Center.

The Broadway Mall Association works to improve the quality of life along Broadway and adjacent streets through cultivation and general care of the planted malls from 59th to 168th Streets. Broadway Presbyterian Church will use the proceeds from the Festival to further its community work. The festival is free and is open to all.

JAZZ GREAT  CELEBRATED UPTOWN
The Smoke Jazz & Supper Club, at 2751 Broadway, will be hosting the Pepper Adams Festival on Tuesday, Sept. 25, and Wednesday, Sept. 26. The event features Gary Smulyan and the Mike LeDonne Quartet paying tribute to Adams, an important if not well known figure in jazz history who broke ground as a baritone saxophonist. Sets will be at 7 and 9 p.m. both nights, with a two-course prix fixe dinner available for $29.95, and another set at 10:30 p.m. with a $20 minimum. Call 212-864-6662 for reservations and information.

FINAL TOUCH UP
A museum worker cleans the marble columns in front of the newly restored murals in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda at the American Museum of Natural History.

SODA BAN PASSES LAST HURDLE
On Thursday, the New York City Board of Health approved Mayor Bloomberg’s “soda ban,” which prohibits the sale of soda and other sweetened drinks in any container over 16 ounces. The average soda bottle actually exceeds this size, according to the New York Times. Bloomberg’s desire to curb the city’s obesity epidemic fueled the measure, which also applies to energy drinks like Gatorade and sweet iced teas. Over half of the city’s adults—and almost half of the city’s public school students—are overweight or obese, according to the Wall Street Journal. Not surprisingly, vendors of sugary drinks have united to challenge the ban, arguing that it infringes on consumer freedom. Many nutritionists support the measure, like the eminent Yale University epidemiologist Dr. Kelly Brownell, who told the New York Times, “It completely makes more sense to make the environment healthier rather than to just do pure education.” While a Times poll found that most New Yorkers were against the law, the Board of Health vote was almost unanimous, with one abstention. Then again, Bloomberg appointed each board member himself. The ban will take effect March 12, but vendors who break the law will not be fined until mid-June.

‘JAY WALK’ OPENS AT JOHN JAY COLLEGE
Last week John Jay College, at 524 W. 59th St., celebrated the opening of their new 60,000-square-foot rooftop terrace, called the Jay Walk, a name students selected in a contest. The outdoor space houses a vegetable garden, benches, custom-engraved bricks and magnolia trees. Students also have a connection between two of the campus buildings. The Jay Walk is the centerpiece of the college’s expansion, which includes a 13-story, 625,000-square-foot building designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

IRISH PLAY ON UWS
Irish playwright and performer Suzanna Geraghty will be performing her one-woman show Zoe’s Auditions, Part 2 this week at the Drilling Company Theater, 236 W. 78th St. The play is a comical send-up of an actor’s life in which aspiring actress Zoe gets sent on wildly inappropriate auditions by her senile agent. The play won acclaim during its run in Dublin last summer and is being presented in New York as part of the first Irish Festival. Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m., $18, through Sept. 22. Visit www.smarttix.com or call 212-868-4444 to reserve tickets.

CENTRAL PARK RAPE VICTIM STANDS STRONG
The 74-year-old victim of a vicious assault and rape in Central Park last week told the New York Post that she isn’t going to let the horrible incident ruin her park experience.
“I’m not scared. I don’t want to lose that pleasure. I won’t let anything keep me from enjoying the park,” she told the Post reporter.
The woman, identified only as an Upper West Side resident, was attacked in broad daylight as she was bird-watching in the park. The alleged rapist, now in police custody after he was spotted strolling around the neighborhood, snuck up to the woman and assaulted her, after she had taken his photo days earlier when she caught him masturbating in the Rambles area of the park.

Police caught a suspect, 42-year-old homeless man David Albert Mitchell, as he was walking on the Upper West Side on Thursday. Mitchell reportedly has a long history of violent offenses.

The New York Times and other news outlets reported that around 4:30 p.m. last Thursday, a horse pulling a driver and two passengers got spooked in Columbus Circle and bolted, eventually shedding his carriage, which toppled over. The 6-year-old horse, named Oreo, wasn’t seriously hurt, but did have to be sedated by police with a tranquilizer, and his rampage damaged two cars and injured three people before he was caught on Ninth Avenue.

Upper West Side Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal pointed to the incident as the latest reason to support her bill to ban the carriages in New York.

“I have been calling for an end to a practice that places profit above safety—the safety of the horses and the unsuspecting public for years,” Rosenthal said in a statement. “If an industry is incapable of preventing recurring accidents, the State has a responsibility to step in. We have been lucky up to this point, but our luck is bound to run out.”

Bike Share Pushed Back to Spring
Hopeful cyclists looking forward to taking advantage of the city’s bike share will have to nix their dreams of riding through the crisp fall weather this year. The Department of Transportation announced that the city’s Bike Share program will be delayed—again—and will not be implemented until March 2013. The program, sponsored by Citi with a $41 million investment, will launch with its initial phase of 7,000 bikes at 420 stations spread throughout Midtown and Lower Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

“New York City demands a world-class bike share system, and we need to ensure that Citi Bike launches as flawlessly as New Yorkers expect on Day One,” DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said in a statement.

The delay has been blamed on software issues related to the payment and tracking system that Citi Bike will use.

Tavern on the Green Operator Named
The Department of Parks and Recreation announced that they will be awarding a 20-year licensing agreement to the Emerald Green Group, a Philadelphia-based company, to operate and maintain a restaurant at the former Tavern on the Green location.

The selected operator, the Emerald Green Group, swayed the city with its proposal focusing on locally sourced food and a 200-300 person outdoor seating area.

“We are pleased to select the Emerald Green Group as the new operator of Tavern on the Green,” Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. “They have done an outstanding job with Beau Monde in Philadelphia, and their vision for the iconic Tavern on the Green will create a casual restaurant and outdoor café that everyday parkgoers, neighbors and visitors can enjoy.”
The new restaurant is scheduled to open in fall of next year.

Espaillat Gets Major Endorsement
City & State reports that the McManus Political Club, the oldest and only citywide political club in New York, has decided to endorse Sen. Adriano Espaillat’s re-election bid, Espaillat’s campaign said. “As the oldest political club in New York, we know a great elected official when we see one,” the club said in a statement provided by Espaillat’s campaign. “Senator Espaillat has been a strong fighter for New York’s working families. He understands the challenges and opportunities our state faces, and he has demonstrated the leadership needed to move New York forward.” Influential in areas like Hell’s Kitchen, a new part of Espaillat’s Senate district, the club could help Espaillat shore up support there against his opponent, Assemblyman Guillermo Linares. In the latest filing period, Espaillat raised $45,390 and has $38,000 on hand, while Linares raised $28,850, and has $82,000 on hand. Of course, Espaillat’s depleted cash reserves are due in part to a closely contested congressional primary against Rep. Charlie Rangel.

Senate Debate Turns the Heat on Hoylman
City & State reports that Brad Hoylman, a candidate for the seat to be vacated by state Sen. Tom Duane, faced questions earlier this week from Democratic primary opponents about his former job at the Partnership for New York City, a pro-business group where he was a vice president and general counsel. At debate, one candidate, Tom Greco, asked Hoylman what he did to save St. Vincent’s Hospital, since Bill Rudin, the developer behind a controversial plan to redevelop the shuttered hospital, was on the Partnership’s board. Another candidate, Tanika Inlaw, criticized Hoylman’s ties to big business, saying she has no “special interests” backing her. Hoylman, a community board chairman who has the backing of Duane and other members of the party establishment, sought to distance himself from the Partnership, saying the city gives away too many incentives to companies and calling for an end to a carried interest deduction benefiting the city’s many billionaires. He also noted his years of work on affordable housing, public education and open space. “I think my record in the community speaks for itself,” he said.

State Sen. Adriano Espaillat

As the September primary date draws near, Sen. Adriano Espaillat is pushing full steam ahead in his second consecutive campaign, hoping to convince a whole new set of voters that he is the right man to represent the 31st District in the New York State Senate for another term.

Espaillat narrowly lost the congressional primary against incumbent Rep. Charles Rangel in June. The race went so far as a recount and showed that Espaillat, a relative newcomer up against an entrenched and embattled opponent, had come within hundreds of votes of winning and had rallied a lot of support in the district. When he lost, however, he turned his focus back to the state Legislature, and now he’s running to retain the seat that he’s only filled for a single term.

“I think I come out of this strengthened, and having touched base with voters on a regular basis from January until now is never a bad thing,” Espaillat said of his experience pivoting from a congressional race back to the state level. “It keeps your feet on the ground, it keeps your feet to the fire.”

He’s spent a lot of time in the past year talking to voters, though now his focus is shifted from a larger and majority Hispanic district to a newly drawn and smaller area. The 31st Senate District used to stretch up into a chunk of the South Bronx, cover Washington Heights and run down the westernmost side of Manhattan, but its boundaries have moved south and very slightly east, making a bigger part of the Upper West Side Espaillat’s territory.

“A greater portion of the West Side was brought in, in a funny sort of gerrymandered way. It’s called the spaghetti district,” Espaillat said, referring to a thin strip that snakes across 38th Street to Seventh Avenue, then down to 30th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, then back west across to 10th Avenue and down to West 24th Street. It gives the district a very tiny slice of several different neighborhoods, but Espaillat said that despite the head-scratching methodology involved in creating it (he pushed for independent redistricting), he is looking positively at this new district.

“Rather than having a whole area, you have different pieces of blocks. I’ve made my way over there, and I’ve gotten to meet people in the new part of the district,” he said. “It’s kind of exciting because it goes all the way down to the 20s. [There’s] all of Madison Square Garden, parts of Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea.”

While the racial demographics haven’t changed too much—the old district was 57 percent Hispanic, 30 percent white and 7 percent black, while the new district is 56 percent Hispanic, 29 percent white and 8 percent black—the race is different from the last time Espaillat ran for the seat in 2010. He’s vying for votes from wealthy Riverside Drive enclaves as well as working-class families in Washington Heights, but he said that many issues are similarly pressing to all of his potential constituents.

Some of the diversity of concerns within the district can be a good thing, he said.

“Hydrofracking, which I’m very much opposed to, has a very strong interest on the West Side. I’m trying to get the northern part of the district more aware of that.”

Espaillat will be on the Democratic primary ballot against State Assembly Member Guillermo Linares, who currently represents the 72nd District in Washington Heights. Mark Levine, who has planned to run for the seat with Espaillat’s endorsement, stepped down and is now running for City Council instead.

“At the end of the day, I think I have a very strong record and I’ve worked very hard on the minimum wage bill, rent regulations, hydrofracking, the DREAM Act—important progressive issues,” Espaillat said.

The Democratic primary is on Tuesday, Sept. 13.

Espaillat Eyes Senate & Concedes to Rangel

City & State reports that State Sen.Adriano Espaillat, who conceded defeat on Monday in his contested primary race against Rep. Charles Rangel, declined to say whether he would run for re-election to the state Senate.
But Espaillat signaled that he would run for his seat, revealing at a press conference Monday that he had given district leaders permission to circulate petitions on his behalf after the June 26 congressional primary.
“I authorized some of the district leaders to begin circulating petitions after the 26th, after Election Day, and I will be considering my personal decision as to whether or not I will accept those signatures and move forward with re-election,” he told reporters outside his district office. “I promise you that in 48 hours, I will have that answer for you.”
Petitions to run for the state Senate and Assembly are due by Thursday. A source close to Mark Levine, an Espaillat ally who had been planning to run for Espaillat’s seat, also confirmed the senator will run for re-election. The source said that Espaillat will use his own petition signatures and not get on the ballot through a Levine vacancy committee, as had been speculated.
During the campaign, Espaillat said he only had his sights on the congressional seat, not his own. Rangel, the longtime congressman who faced his toughest primary challenge in over four decades in office, seized on Espaillat’s comments, saying that he didn’t know where the senator would find a new job when he lost.
Whether he runs for re-election or not, Espaillat could be a serious candidate for Rangel’s congressional seat again in two years. Espaillat, who is Dominican, came within 1,000 votes of ousting the incumbent, capitalizing on changing demographics and redrawn lines that made Latinos a majority in the district.
“There’s no question I come out of this process strengthened,” Espaillat said. “I think two years down the line is a long time. I will not make a decision right here, but I feel very strongly that I have been strengthened in this process.”
Espaillat could also find himself taking on the state’s other leading Dominican elected official, Assemblyman Guillermo Linares. Linares said he would run for Espaillat’s state Senate seat after Espaillat announced his run for Congress, and reiterated his intention to run when Rangel initially declared victory.

Synagogues Get Anti-Terror Dough

Last week, U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced that New York would be receiving $3.4 million from the Department of Homeland Security to protect Jewish schools and temples vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The money, which is over 30 percent of the total allocated for the country, will be distributed to 42 organizations throughout the state. Rep. Jerry Nadler secured $825,000 of that grant money for 11 Jewish nonprofit
organizations in his district, one of which is the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue at 30 W. 68th St.
Nadler was the author of the High-Risk Non-Profit Security Enhancement Act,
legislation that creates grants for “soft targets” of terrorism, like schools and religious institutions, to enhance their safety measures and ensure they are able to protect themselves from attack. He worked with the United Jewish Communities, the American Red Cross, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, United Way, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the American Hospital Association and the UJA Federation of New York to secure the funding and identify recipients.
“This funding will make it possible for more charitable institutions and the people they serve to get the proper tools to secure themselves against potential terrorist attacks,” Nadler said in a statement. “The threat against these organizations is, unfortunately, very real, and it is the obligation of government to protect potential targets from attacks by those who espouse hatred and violence.”
The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue will receive $75,000 in funding for security purposes for Fiscal Year 2012.

Disabling the Training Wheels

A special training camp for children with disabilities will be held in New York City for the first time this summer. Lose the Training Wheels, a nonprofit organization that teaches people with disabilities to ride two-wheeled bicycles, is holding a free camp for children Aug. 6–10 in Brooklyn sponsored by the National Down Syndrome Society and the Lyle Foundation. The event will be held at the Aviator Sports & Event Center in Floyd Bennett Field, at 3159 Flatbush Ave.
The program uses special adaptive bicycles that are designed to gradually transition kids to riding regular two-wheeled bikes without any assistance.
Children who ride a bike on their own gain the benefit of independent transportation, a new form of exercise and a boost in self-esteem.
Participants must be at least 8 years old and have a disability. They must be able to walk without an assistive device and sidestep to both sides, as well as be under 220 pounds and have a minimum inseam measurement (taken from the floor with sneakers on) of 20 inches. All participants must be able to attend a 75-minute session for each of the five days of camp. Those with their own two-wheeled bikes are strongly encouraged to bring them to the first day of camp in order for instructors to plan on transitioning the child by the end of the week.
Registration is limited; email bikecampnyc@gmail.com for more information
or to sign up.

Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Slacking off: Adam Minegar carefully balances himself while walking across a slack rope line in Riverside Park.

Photo via City & State.

Is it too early to speculate about the 2014 race for Manhattan Rep. Charlie Rangel’s seat?

Not for ex-Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV, who has been telling associates that he’s very likely to run for the seat if Rangel does not. In a phone interview, Powell confirmed his interest, saying he “probably would” run for the seat if Rangel retires.

“I don’t think he’s running,” Powell added of Rangel, when asked if the congressman’s close re-election race against State Sen. Adriano Espaillat and three others showed that it’s time for the congressman to hang it up. “There is certainly some Rangel fatigue. He’s no longer chairing the Ways & Means committee in Congress, so it’s not the same.”

Asked about a potential matchup against State Sen. Adriano Espaillat – who seems well-positioned to run for the seat in 2014 after losing to Rangel by a mere two points – Powell argued that much of the vote for Espaillat this election was simply made in protest of Rangel. He compared the situation to a 2006 race in Brooklyn, when Councilman Charles Barron got 36 percent of the vote against Congressman Ed Towns in a three-way contest. This year, Barron only got a quarter of the vote in the race for an open seat against Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries.

Powell has run for Congress against Rangel twice before: in 1994 and again in 2010. Despite a fraught history, which includes Rangel unseating Powell’s father from Congress four decades ago, Powell endorsed Rangel’s re-election bid this year.

To read more from City & State click here.

via City & State.

Manhattan State Sen. Adriano Espaillat is expected to announce that he will run for re-election to the state Senate this evening, at Fort Green Presbyterian Church in Manhattan at 6 p.m. Espaillat sent out an announcement to supporters last evening terming the announcement “Adriano’s next steps.” Espaillat is slated to face a primary challenge against Assemblyman Guillermo Linares, a longtime rival, who has been running for the Senate seat for months, and who is expected to have the backing of Rep. Charlie Rangel, Espaillat’s erstwhile primary opponent. A spokesman for Espaillat did not immediately return a request for comment.

To read more from City & State click here.

Synchronized Septuagenarians: The Harlem Honeys & Bears synchronized swimming team performs inside the Thomas Jefferson Park Pool to celebrate the expansion of the Senior Swim program to 14 outdoor public pools. The program runs through Aug. 24.

Espaillat Eyes Senate & Concedes to Rangel
City & State reports that State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, who conceded defeat on Monday in his contested primary race against Rep. Charles Rangel, declined to say whether he would run for re-election to the state Senate.

But Espaillat signaled that he would run for his seat, revealing at a press conference Monday that he had given district leaders permission to circulate petitions on his behalf after the June 26 congressional primary.

“I authorized some of the district leaders to begin circulating petitions after the 26th, after Election Day, and I will be considering my personal decision as to whether or not I will accept those signatures and move forward with re-election,” he told reporters outside his district office. “I promise you that in 48 hours, I will have that answer for you.”

Petitions to run for the state Senate and Assembly are due by Thursday.

A source close to Mark Levine, an Espaillat ally who had been planning to run for Espaillat’s seat, also confirmed the senator will run for re-election. The source said that Espaillat will use his own petition signatures and not get on the ballot through a Levine vacancy committee, as had been speculated.

During the campaign, Espaillat said he only had his sights on the congressional seat, not his own. Rangel, the longtime congressman who faced his toughest primary challenge in over four decades in office, seized on Espaillat’s comments, saying that he didn’t know where the senator would find a new job when he lost.

Whether he runs for re-election or not, Espaillat could be a serious candidate for Rangel’s congressional seat again in two years. Espaillat, who is Dominican, came within 1,000 votes of ousting the incumbent, capitalizing on changing demographics and redrawn lines that made Latinos a majority in the district.

“There’s no question I come out of this process strengthened,” Espaillat said. “I think two years down the line is a long time. I will not make a decision right here, but I feel very strongly that I have been strengthened in this process.”

Espaillat could also find himself taking on the state’s other leading Dominican elected official, Assemblyman Guillermo Linares. Linares said he would run for Espaillat’s state Senate seat after Espaillat announced his run for Congress, and reiterated his intention to run when Rangel initially declared victory.

The Nabe’s Bad Landlords
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio released his updated list of the city’s worst landlords last week, and four of the culprits are located on the Upper East Side.

The worst offender of the four is Golden State Holding, which according to de Blasio, operates a building at 408 E. 64th St. that has 16 units. The property has a total of 96 violations, placing it 38th on the list of the worst Manhattan buildings. The other locations on the list are M/S Capitol NY LLC, with an 81-unit building at 1531 York Ave.; 33-39 East 65th Street LLC, with a 48-unit building at 35 E. 65th St.; and 501 ½ East 83 Street LLC, with a building at the same address with 39 units.

“It takes years of neglect for a building to deteriorate to the point where it ends up on our Watch List. But with enough public pressure and strong tenant organizing, we can turn these buildings around and make life better for thousands of New Yorkers,” said de Blasio.
He began the list in 2010 in order to highlight repeat offenders and pressure landlords with dangerous conditions to make necessary repairs. According to de Blasio’s office, each entry on the list has a minimum of two hazardous housing code violations per unit, such as lack of heat or hot water, lead paint, toxic mold or broken plumbing.

For the Win For Now
While his lawsuit against Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council is still pending, Assembly Member Micah Kellner is touting a temporary win in the fight against building a new marine waste transfer station (MTS) at East 91st Street. Attorney Michael Cardozo, serving as corporation counsel for the city, signed a stipulation last week that prevents the city from doing any construction at the MTS site, where a defunct station and a community recreation facility, Asphalt Green, currently sit, until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approves the permits needed to start the project.

“We don’t know the true environmental impact of this transfer station,” Kellner said of the reason for his lawsuit, which demands that the city submit and receive approval on a new environmental impact statement that takes a larger capacity for waste processing into account. “We’re going to let a jury decide who was right on the law.”
The Army Corps must issue permits in order for the city to start construction because the proposed facility sits on a body of water.

Disabling the Training Wheels
A special training camp for children with disabilities will be held in New York City for the first time this summer. Lose the Training Wheels, a nonprofit organization that teaches people with disabilities to ride two-wheeled bicycles, is holding a free camp for children Aug. 6–10 in Brooklyn sponsored by the National Down Syndrome Society and the Lyle Foundation. The event will be held at the Aviator Sports & Event Center in Floyd Bennett Field, at 3159 Flatbush Ave.

The program uses special adaptive bicycles to gradually transition kids to riding regular two-wheeled bikes without assistance.
Participants must be at least 8 years old and have a disability. They must be able to walk without an assistive device and sidestep to both sides, as well as be under 220 pounds and have a minimum inseam measurement of 20 inches. All participants must be able to attend a 75-minute session for each of the five days of camp. Those with their own two-wheeled bikes are strongly encouraged to bring them the first day.
Registration is limited; email bikecampnyc@gmail.com for more information or to sign up.

Is it too late to complain about Rep. Charlie Rangel? Or the Board of Elections? Or the way people voted last month?

I thought it was, given that the congressional primary election was held June 26. That night, we learned that Rangel had beaten back a serious challenge from State Sen. Adriano Espaillat.

Or we thought we’d learned that. As I write this, though, the Rangel lead over Espaillat has narrowed considerably. The June primary is making July news.

Now it turns out that the Board of Elections, consistent with its ongoing efforts to screw up, did not report correctly the early returns. Everybody is ripping into the board—and rightly so. But our state, local and legal leaders need to actually do something. Wanted: a system for tallying ballots that is both accurate and reasonably fast. Then we can go back to worrying about the quality of the candidates, like Rangel, who has become, sad to say, a considerable embarrassment.

His ethical lapses include improperly using his office to raise funds from businesses and, my personal favorite, not paying taxes for 17 years on a rental property in the Dominican Republic. His ability to function effectively has been seriously hampered, but our political elites gutlessly lined up for him during his recent re-election bid.

But who really deserves the disdain in all of this? Voters. They finally got a congressional primary that mattered and most still could not be bothered to participate.

I couldn’t participate. After the lines got redrawn, I moved out of Rangel’s 15th Congressional District without even leaving my apartment. Nobody ever sent me anything about how my congressional district has changed—I googled it. Repeatedly. Then a smart neighbor told me Google was right.

Now I’m living in the district of Rep. Jerrold Nadler. He’s fairly verbose. I once saw him almost talk his way through a fire drill. I was interviewing him and people were leaving the building. It was awkward; he just kept speaking. At least he says smart things, like when he saved Bill Clinton’s butt during the impeachment hearings.

Even living in a new district, I kept getting calls from the campaign of Clyde Williams, another Rangel challenger. “I’m getting your mailings and your messages,” I told the staffer, “but I’m not in the district any more. You really need not to waste money and time on me.”

The Rangel race amounted to one frustration after another, and it contains lessons for people all over town. First off, we could have used a little less clubhouse politicking on the part of Rangel’s supporters, who should have known better, and more from his opponents, because there were too many of them. They split the anti-Rangel vote. They needed to get in a room and decide who was going to run.

I get that Rangel delivers for his district. He votes well, which is not nothing. Certainly, when I moved into his district, I was thrilled to support someone with a keen understanding of congressional maneuvering, a progressive unafraid to do the horse-trading of an effective legislator. Eagerly, I backed an esteemed veteran as he took the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. I thought Rangel rocked. But hey…my excuse is I was coming from Jersey. Even today, Rangel is the least embarrassing congressman I’ve ever had.
Unfortunately, that’s not saying much.

Christopher Moore is a writer living in Manhattan. He’s available through email at ccmnj@aol.com and on Twitter @cmoorenyc.