 |
Candidates for Council, Comptroller, DA Pitch at VID
By Roy Edroso in Democracy, Elections, Featured, Politics
Friday, Apr. 3 2009 @ 6:10AM
Democratic candidates for city council seats in districts 1, 2, and 3, district attorney, and comptroller came to the Village Independent Democrats last night to make their cases, under strict time limits and with screened questioning, for the venerable club's endorsement.
In District 1:
Pete Gleason. The former cop, fireman, and coast guard reservist is on leave from his law practice, where he does "a tremendous amount of pro bono work." Called the the council's discretionary/slush funds an example of "Ponzi politics" because the money is not the council's but the taxpayers' and "they're floating it back and forth to give the illusion that they're doing something with it." Regarding pollution from buses in the District, favored using the "elephant hose" units he recalls from his FDNY days, when the companies used them to neutralize exhaust from idling fire engines. Boasted that as a former cop/fireman/servicemember, he is the only candidate "who has put himself between you and harm's way." Said the recent Washington Square renovations were done without "community input." Neither have the bike lanes had enough community input, and some are constructed so that a fire engine "can't turn around properly" on the street. Thought a problem with mayoral control of schools is that the DOE's "report card" scores don't tell the whole story; "we need to hear all the news, including the dropout rate which I think is deplorable."
| |
|
|
 |
|
