Talk Bronx New York

A New Dominican Face in Bronx Politics

Nelson Castro, campaigning in the Bronx for NY State Assembly

Few people inside or outside of Bronx political circles knew much about Nelson Castro just a few months ago. Yet in a short time, Mr. Castro, a 36-year-old former coordinator with a health insurance company, has positioned himself to become the first Dominican-born member of the Legislature from the Bronx.

Mr. Castro was deeply involved in Democratic politics in Washington Heights, the heart of the Dominican community in New York City. He was once chief of staff to Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, the first Dominican member of the Assembly. But he and Mr. Espaillat had a less-than-amicable parting of the ways. He moved to the Bronx three years ago and started to work with civic groups in the University Heights area.

This year, he decided to run for district leader against the incumbent, Hector Ramirez. But before that campaign got off the ground, the Assemblyman in the district, Luis Diaz, resigned to take a community affairs position in the administration of Gov. David A. Paterson.

Assemblyman Diaz had already obtained signatures for his petitions to get on the ballot for the Sept. 9 Democratic primary, when he decided not to run, so that placed the decision about a replacement on the ballot with a committee on vacancies, a five-member panel consisting of people close to the Bronx Democratic organization and its chairman, Assemblyman Jose Rivera.

After interviewing a number of aspirants, the committee selected Mr. Castro.

“I want to continue the work that Luis Diaz did in his years in the Assembly,” Mr. Castro said. “He did a lot of work with seniors and I want to continue that. I also want to develop more programs to keep kids in school and to expand on child care programs for women with kids.”

Of course, it will not be a completely easy run for Mr. Castro. He faces a Democratic primary opponent, Mike Soto. Mr. Soto is the brother of Richard Soto, a politically active business man in the Bronx who has run for office in the past. But Mr. Soto has campaigned little if at all and his telephone number is not accepting messages (the memory is full, the recording said).

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

M.T.A. Cuts Delay Some Big Projects Until 2010

The subway station at Smith and Ninth Streets is one of 15 in Brooklyn that will not be renovated as scheduled. Four stations in the Bronx also will wait.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority released a cascade of grim financial assessments on Monday that mean delays in subway station renovations and other major improvements, as well as possible cutbacks in service and increases in fares and tolls.

In a series of public meetings of authority board committees, officials said the authority would be forced to cut projects valued at $2.7 billion from its 2005-9 capital spending program, largely because of soaring costs on construction projects already under way.

The projects being cut include 19 subway station renovations and important projects for the modernization of subway signals and repair facilities. The authority’s chief executive, Elliot G. Sander, said those projects were expected to be included in the authority’s next five-year spending plan, which begins in 2010. But he acknowledged that the authority did not yet know how it would find the financing for that plan.

Officials also said the revenues from taxes on real estate transactions, which have buoyed the day-to-day operations of the transit system in recent years, were falling off at an alarming rate, resulting in a shortfall this year of $122 million. Revenues from the real estate taxes are on track to end the year about $280 million below budget projections.

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

Councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito, left, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer and Speaker Christine C. Quinn after the congestion pricing proposal was passed.

City Council Approves Fee to Drive Below 60th

The controversial proposal to charge drivers in the busiest parts of Manhattan took a major step forward on Monday, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Speaker Christine C. Quinn wrenching approval from the City Council by an unusually slim margin.

Under intense pressure from the mayor, Ms. Quinn and their allies that continued almost until the voting began, council members approved the plan to charge most drivers $8 to enter a zone below 60th Street by a vote of 30 to 20, with no abstentions and one absence.

At a news conference after the vote, where Mr. Bloomberg made a rare appearance on the speaker’s side of City Hall, officials sought to play down the narrowness of their hard-won victory, among the closest of this administration in a body that typically votes in near unanimity.

Approving the proposal, Ms. Quinn said, would send a message to the Legislature that the “people who were elected to represent the New Yorkers who live in our five boroughs are sick and tired of our streets being clogged with traffic, we’re sick and tired of the children who live in our city literally having to fight to be able to breathe, and that we see congestion pricing as a solution to this problem.”

But the ultimate fate of the proposal now resides in Albany, where the intentions of lawmakers whose approval is needed remained unclear. Gov. David A. Paterson and the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, have expressed their support. But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who has derailed Mr. Bloomberg’s ambitions in the past, remained noncommittal, telling members of the Democratic conference on Sunday night that he would not take the issue up until the state budget was completed.

If the Assembly waits to act until after the budget, it could threaten the bill’s chances in the Senate, because it would come before the Legislature as a stand-alone item, making approval more elusive. Several council members complained as they voted that the mayor had reneged on a promise that they would not be asked to take up the measure until the State Legislature had agreed to support the proposal.

But other council members took the vote as a sign that Mr. Silver would ultimately back the plan, since Ms. Quinn had said privately that she would not call for a vote until she had an indication that it would gain approval from the state.

But Mr. Silver said that he had made no such assurance.

“I told her it’s not before us until they vote on it,” he said. “And we will deal with the issue after we pass a budget.”

Speaking to reporters with Ms. Quinn, Mr. Bloomberg seemed particularly defensive about Mr. Silver. Asked if they had any indication that leaders in Albany would approve the proposal, Ms. Quinn said that she had received calls from Mr. Paterson and Mr. Bruno urging that the Council “move as quickly as possible and do what we did today, so I thought that was a very good sign.”

In response to a question about Mr. Silver, though, Mr. Bloomberg approached the lectern, sidestepped the question and then cut off the line of inquiry, saying they could not speak for Albany leaders.

Technically, the Council approved a measure known as a home rule message, which is a request for the State Legislature to pass the plan as outlined in a bill introduced into the Senate. The Legislature has until April 7 to approve the program or risk losing roughly $350 million in federal money to help offset the costs of starting the plan. Mr. Bloomberg has said that much of that money would go toward increasing bus service in underserved areas.

Although the administration and the Council’s leadership were able to gain support with promises of programs, projects and political aid in upcoming campaigns — as well as threats of taking those things away — opposition remained strong. Several council members argued that it was unfair to essentially tax residents to move around their own city, that even after they voted to support the proposal, the Legislature could approve a different version, and that revenues would not necessarily go toward the promised transit improvements.

“This plan, while wrapped up in three incredibly important and laudable goals,” including cleaning the air, reducing traffic and paying for mass transit, said Lewis A. Fidler, a Brooklyn councilman who strongly opposed the plan, “is designed to deter people from coming into a part of the city if they can’t afford it.”

He added: “What’s next? We’re going to charge a user fee to come into Central Park because it’s crowded?”

SOURCE: NYTimes.com

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post

NY Sees Promise In New Governor David Paterson 

ALBANY — Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson ascended to New York’s highest office on Monday, pledging civility and unity in government to an ecstatic and palpably relieved gathering of state lawmakers and officials.

Mr. Paterson was sworn in as the state’s 55th governor almost exactly a week after revelations emerged that his predecessor, Gov. Eliot Spitzer, had patronized a prostitute and faced federal investigation.

In a relatively brief speech lasting about half an hour, Mr. Paterson offered soothing rhetoric to an audience that clearly ached to move beyond what has been an unusually sordid ordeal even for Albany, a capital well-acquainted with political scandal.

Speaking to a joint session of the state Assembly and Senate, with senior officials from at least three states in attendance, Mr. Paterson alluded briefly to the Mr. Spitzer’s difficulties over the past year in working with the Democratic-controlled Assembly and Republican-controlled state Senate.

“What we are going to do from now on is what we always should have done: We are going to work together, Mr. Paterson said. “With conviction in our brains and compassion in our hearts and the love for New York on our sleeves, we will dedicate ourselves to principle but always maintain the ability to listen.”

But Mr. Paterson’s inaugural remarks were most striking for what was absent from them.

In a speech with so many nods to other elected officials that even a former lieutenant governor made the cut, Mr. Paterson made no mention of Mr. Spitzer, who plucked him from virtual obscurity to join the ticket for statewide office in 2006, and whose powerful and at times overbearing personality were the central fact of political life here for nearly a year and a half.

Mr. Paterson alluded only vaguely to Mr. Spitzer’s resignation, noting that New York had experienced “a very difficult week.” And though he and his staff have sent signals in recent years that continuity would be a key theme of the transition between administrations, Mr. Paterson made no suggestion that the Mr. Spitzer’s core agenda items deserved to survive even if the former governor’s career did not.

Indeed, Mr. Paterson offered almost no specific policy proposals or promises, though an aide said that the new governor would lay out a more a specific agenda in the days ahead. He hewed closely to the theme of partnership, describing himself as Brooklyn-born, Long-Island-educated, and Harlem-residing, to rousing cheers from elected officials who hailed from each of those areas.

Unlike Mr. Spitzer, who in his inaugural address fifteen months ago fired shot after shot across the bow of Albany’s political establishment, Mr. Paterson warmly embraced the capital’s two other major powers, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno.

“Let us grab the unusual opportunities that circumstance has handed us today and put personal politics, party advantage and power struggles aside, in favor of service, in the interests of the people,” Mr. Paterson said.

Only when his speech turned to the worsening economic downturn and its likely effect on the state budget gap did Mr. Paterson offer a hint of challenge.

“We are looking at an economy that is reeling and I must say to all of you in government and all of you in business that you must meet with me in the next couple of weeks and adjust our budget accordingly,” Mr. Paterson said, suggesting that budget austerity may be needed.

Mr. Paterson, the state’s first blind governor as well as the first black one, also nodded to the historic nature of his swearing-in.

“I have confronted the prejudice of race, and challenged the issues of my own disability,” he said. “I have served in government for over two decades. I stand willing and able to lead this state to a brighter future and a better tomorrow.”

In a news conference following the address, Mr. Bruno seemed open to a détente.

“I think it’s great relief,” said Mr. Bruno, the state’s top Republican. “It’s like a new day. The sun is shining.”

At times, the event felt more like something of a coronation for Mr. Paterson, the scion of a Harlem political fraternity that remains powerful and well-connected in New York politics. His father, Basil A. Paterson, a former state senator and secretary of state, stood behind Mr. Paterson when he first ascended the dais, as did his mother, his wife, and his two children. They remained there as Mr. Paterson, a well-liked veteran of Albany, was greeted by exultant cheers and whistles, and a lengthy standing ovation.

“It’s a great day for New York, and for those of us from Harlem, it’s an even greater day,” said Senator Bill Perkins, a Democratic senator from Manhattan, who replaced Mr. Paterson when he was elected lieutenant governor.

New York’s United States senators, Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, were in attendance, along with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, former New York governors Hugh L. Carey and George E. Pataki, and the current governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

An initial draft of Mr. Paterson’s speech was prepared by aides, his advisers said, and he spent significant time editing, memorizing, and practicing the final speech.

Whereas Mr. Spitzer favored a sermon-on-the-mount style of oratory, Mr. Paterson at times sounded more like the announcer at a Las Vegas boxing match. At least a third of his speech was devoted to name-checking the legislative leaders and other officials in attendance, each of whom was introduced with a flourish and a backslapping joke.

Praising Mr. Bruno, for example, Mr. Paterson recalled how the Senate leader had once invited him to his upstate horse farm for dinner.

“I’ll go,” Mr. Paterson recalled replying. “But I’m going to take my taster with me.”

Other Senate Republicans, following Mr. Bruno’s lead, appeared receptive to Mr. Paterson’s overtures, at least for now. Asked whether Senate Republicans would give Mr. Paterson any breathing room on contentious matters like the state budget, John J. Bonacic, an upstate Republican, smiled broadly.

“For a day,” he promised.

In tone and affect, Mr. Paterson’s speech seemed did not really seemed to be aimed at the broader public. Rather, it felt more narrowly addressed to the lawmakers gathered before him, whom he has known for years as a colleague and peer, but must now lead as governor.

“Let me reintroduce myself,” he said at one moment, hinting at the transformation-in-progress. “I am David Paterson, and I am the governor of New York State.”

Read more..

(No Ratings Yet)
 Loading ...
 Email This Post