Before I say anything else, I want to say congrats to Senator Montgomery for her victory in the September 13th primary election.
I am confident that she’ll continue to do a great job and if the Democrats should surprisingly take control of the State Senate she’ll get even more accomplished.
I also must congratulate Bobby Carroll on his win in the primary for the 44th Assembly District seat, replacing the retiring Jim Brennan.
No matter where you are reading this from, or indeed your ideological bent, make sure to vote for the only one of the two candidates for president who doesn’t threaten to bring on the apocalypse – Hillary Clinton.
A 3rd party vote in these circumstances recklessly temps that fate will not rise up and bite us all with a Trump victory. If, like me, you are nervous about the possibility of a Trump presidency and want to help out in a state that is less blue and where there is more of a contest contact me at Racioppomike@yahoo.com or on twitter @mike_racc.
I’ll help you get to a phone bank and even how to travel to, and help out, in a swing state such as Pennsylvania.
Switching back to micro, there has been a lot of attention paid to the September meeting of Brooklyn Community Board 6 and the frustrations, sometimes inappropriately expressed, of people upset by the recent installation of Citi Bike stations. People are upset about the loss of parking throughout the district. This is certainly the closest a CB meeting has gotten to “viral” in my time. The police actually were called in order to restore order.
You can see what happened by checking out the video on the Gothamist web page (google Gothamist, CB 6)
Some dismiss the frustrations expressed in this video. It’s easy to dismiss those concerns due the breach of proper decorum by some of the opponents. The strongest Citi Bike proponents are then able to comfortably dismiss the concerns of all opponents as unreasoned and unreasonable.
As someone who was subject to the yelling (I’m the to the left of CB 6 Chairman Sayar Lonial), it’s easy to slip into that mindset but it would be wrong. Even while supporting Citi Bike, I understand that parking and transportation in NYC is serious business.
I should note that the turnout for a recent meeting at the Carroll Gardens library focused on improving, and preventing proposed cuts to the F train was encouraging. Attendees included Councilman Brad Lander, Assemblywoman JoAnne Simon, and State Senator Daniel Squadron.
To be clear, I support increased density, but only if it is done to insure a substantial number truly affordable apartments and, partially for that reason, I support measures to give New Yorkers as many transportation options as possible. For instance I am also very excited for citywide ferry service and will take a serious look at BQX. At the Community Board I voted in favor of Citi bike expansion, and I have donated money to transportation pacs, and I would do so again. That doesn’t mean that some of the locations for Citibikes can’t be tweaked or that going forward there shouldn’t be more engagement from DOT.
It also means, even as someone who currently has as a car, that the existence of more alternatives transportation options encourages less auto ownership and fewer cars to park. Maybe I’m being naïve but perhaps with citibike around one day soon I’ll be able to drive down Smith Street without it taking 5 to 10 minutes to advance a single block.
Michael Racioppo is executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation and the Vice Chairman of Community Board 6.
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One Comment
I take exception to referring to Hillary as the least damaging of the two major Presidential candidate.
Unfortunately, Democrats like those of Park Slope including Michael Racioppo, march locked-step with the Clintons, similarly to Racioppo distant relatives in Italy in the 1930’s did with Mussolini.
I am voting for the native New Yorker, Donald Trump.
Why?
1) My health is the most important thing to me. Obama promised the American people that if you like your plan, you can keep it; if you like your doctor, you can keep him/her.
Obama lied and is proud of his lie and so are all the Democrats in Congress who voted for Obamacare and those who supported it, including Hillary.
I lost my insurance plan, lost my doctor (unless I want to pay cash) and got thrown into a garbage plan called Oscar which is going to be garbage deluxe next year as they are reducing its providers from 40,000 to 10,000 and hospital network from 71 to 30, most city hospitals. And of course, the premiums and deductibles are rising. Whatever Trump will do with the health insurance crisis has to be better than what Hillary has proposed which is to dump everyone in a Canadian style one payer health plan run by the government. The government runs the post office and we all see how that works!
2) Sex scandals and talk: its almost even between Hillary and Trump, except, Bill touched, Hillary defended Bill, trash Bill’s victims and lashed out at everyone and everybody who felt that Bill deserved to be impeached. The only thing Trump is guilty is being baited by the low-life Billy Bush and I would like to see the entire video which was released to hear what preceeded Trump’s locker room talk.
3) Hillary is a liar and a professional liar so voting for her, no one knows what she will do
4) Trump is a successful businessman who has a track record in fixing things – he repaired the ice skating rink in Central in 90 days in contrast to the city which had not fixed it in 6 years.
5) Race: Hillary grew up in an all white suburb – Park Ridge – of Chicago which at the time, had no blacks, Jews or Catholics. In 1964, Hillary worked for the campaign of Barry Goldwater for President; at this time, Goldwater was against granting Blacks civil rights, making Hillary a support of a racist.
6) The FBI said that Hillary made a mistake and decided not to charge her. Has anyone been given a traffic ticket and used this excuse successfully in court? Just tell the traffic judge that ” I made a mistake when I ran the stop sign so please don’t give me a ticket” Tell that to a judge in Traffic Court in Staten Island and you’ll get 2 points on your license plus a $160 fine.
7) There appear to be two sets of laws in the country: one for the Clintons; the other for the rest of us.
Trump for President; Hillary belongs in jail.