Last month, at a commencement address at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg advocated for marriage equality. He told the graduating students, ''If government can deny freedom to one, it can deny freedom to all,'' Mayor Bloomberg said. This is coming from the mayor, who enforces the NYPD-sponsored programs of discrimination (such as stop and frisk against men of color, the sexual orientating profiling of gay men, and the religious profiling of Muslims), the mayor, who let the NYPD arrest thousands of bicyclists, activists, and regular folks during the massive anti-war and anti-Republican National Convention protests. Is he talking about himself ? Or was he, as per usual, lying through both sides of his hypocritical face ?
Bloombo Dicto : ''I'm All Coked-Out on Sugary Drinks''
"If New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets his way, soon you'll have to buy your Coca-Cola from a guy in an alley," reported Benjamin Domenech over on American Thinker.
Meanwhile, now the ''Sugary Drinks Nanny'' has decided to become the ''Ganja Nanny'' to a new generation.
Rumour has it that Speaker Quinn's book deal was pitched as being on par with A Million Little Pieces, but from a New York City lesbian politician's point-of-view. The book promises to tell compelling vignettes about how closely Speaker Quinn has allowed the City Council to be co-opted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg ; long, meaty chapters will focus on how Speaker Quinn changed term limits law to allow Mayor Bloomberg, herself, and many others to run for a previously illegal third term.
"To utilitze that heliport when it's supposed to be closed is just disrespectful," said Sticco.
Nearby residents, like the Sticcos, fought for years to get the noisy, fume-choking heliport closed on weekends and weeknights. The court-imposed curfew has been in place for more than a decade.
"He's being a little bit hypocritical. If you're concerned about the quality of life of the citizen in this city, like don't smoke a cigarette in Central Park, then don't land a two thousand pound helicopter in front of my apartment with the choking exhaust and intolerable noise when it's closed," added Sticco.
In the last six months, Sticco and his wife have recorded the Mayor's helicopter landing or taking off from heliport during curfew 16 times.
This past weekend alone, the Mayor's helicopter was in and out of the heliport 8 times, starting on Friday, 15 minutes after the heliport closed. The Mayor piloted the chopper in for a landing.
It landed again Saturday morning, then took off 45 minutes later. It was unclear who was inside.
Then again, late Saturday afternoon, with Bloomberg at the controls, there is a return to the closed heliport. Bloomberg's girlfriend Diana Taylor and her two dogs are with him as they return to the city.
That Sunday, Bloomberg made yet another landing during the weekend noise curfew.
"It's the weekend, it's closed. I just think it's unfair to us. Just because he's the mayor, I don't think it's fair to do that," Amy Sticco added.
The Mayor insists the heliport is in fact open on the weekends, contrary to FAA information that is available on websites. Even the heliport's own chart given to pilots shows it is clearly closed, something Mayor Bloomberg, as a pilot should know.
New York’s blizzard of 2010 revealed serious weaknesses in the city’s 911 emergency dispatch system. With separate telephone facilities for police, fire and ambulances, many callers had to speak to two or three different operators. There were delays and mistakes and at one point 1,000 callers were urgently waiting for help.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg moved to speed up what is now a $2 billion plan to consolidate the 911 systems. But a new consultant’s report, released by the Bloomberg administration only after a judge’s order, raises worrisome questions about the new system’s effectiveness.
The report says that operators are still asking too many questions: about the location of the emergency, borough, address, cross streets, whether it is a residence or building, apartment and building floor, the caller’s name and phone number — before finally asking what the emergency is. Only then is the right operator typically brought into the conference call and a vehicle dispatched.
The report does not say that response times have slowed because of the duplicative questions — the city insists times have improved with the new system. But the report argues that things would move faster if operators answered: “911. What is your emergency?” and then conferenced in the relevant department while the rest of the information was sought. Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway will only promise that the city will study this recommendation. The report also raises questions about the way New York calculates response times. Instead of starting the clock from the second the 911 call is placed, as other cities do, it counts from the time an emergency vehicle is dispatched. That makes response times look shorter. But New Yorkers need to know how long it takes from the time they dial for help to when that help arrives.
The new system is supposed to be able to handle 50,000 emergency calls an hour, 40 times more than the average daily volume now. But the report concluded that the Police and Fire Departments have still failed to plan coordinated responses for operators and dispatchers to major emergencies like a blackout or terrorist attack. The departments need to develop formal procedures and training to work together when there is such an event and calls surge. Mayor Bloomberg has a lot more work to do.
Last week, a federal judge has granted class certification in a lawsuit that claims the Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial policing policy called, ''stop-and-frisk'' is unconstitutional.
Critics of Bloombo Dicto's plan to build a trash transfer station next to LaGuardia Airport say the trash station will attract birds by the thousand — just like the Canadian geese that flew into the engines of Chesley ''Sully'' Sullenberger's plane in 2009 and forced him to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River.
The waste transfer station “will attract birds into the path of oncoming flights, putting thousands of lives at risk, including passengers in the sky and citizens on the ground," said Sully in new radio ads that oppose the stupid mayor's stupid plan.
Save Wyckoff Hospital ! [Day of Action Against Budget Cuts]
Pharaoh Bloomberg is making budget cuts to healthcare on top of the fact that Governor Cuomo appointed Wall Street banker Stephen Berger to fix healthcare in Brooklyn. Berger recommended merging and downsizing Wyckoff and other Brooklyn hospitals that provide necessary healthcare in low-income and medically underserved communities. Join us to speak out against hospital closings, service reductions, and budget cuts ! @StopNYMRT
"In school, we were taught that we are free to speak and free to assemble. Now we’re told we have 'First Amendment Rights Areas' located inside steel barricades. Over the last eight months, nearly 7,000 have been arrested and occupations in dozens of cities have been systematically evicted."
Comprehensive Coverage of the May Day Protest outside St. Vincent's Hospital.
On May Day, dozens of advocates for a single-payer, universal healthcare system demonstrated outside the shuttered St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City.
Next, We're Certain That Christine Quinn Will Defend The Right Of Mayor Michael Bloomberg To Use His Private Army Against Anybody, Who Calls Him Names.
In this cartoon, an imaginary interview takes place about the "Pharaoh Bloomberg" incident : when City Council Speaker Christine Quinn walked away from a press conference.
Patient information, including names, insurance coverage, and Social Security numbers, have been stolen at North Shore-LIJ University Hospital on Long Island in what has been described as two separate infiltrations of patient records.
"It's hard to imagine that your privacy inside a hospital could be as vulnerable as your health, but Eyewitness News obtained a letter that North Shore University Hospital on Long Island has sent to patients, notifying them that confidential information on the computer network was stolen in an attempt to open up credit cards in the person's name."
Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark carried a woman out of a burning house and was treated for smoke inhalation on Thursday night. Meanwhile, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York announced his latest budget cuts to FDNY and a new list of proposed firehouse closings. "Look, see ? We don't need all these firehouses in Queens and Brooklyn, we have superhero people like Cory Booker, who save lives on their time off. We just have to find a way to make Mayor Booker to move to Long Island City," Mayor Bloomberg said.
What Is The Status Of The Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP) Fraud Investigation ?
From the Office of the New York City Comptroller :
"ECTP is now a billion dollars over budget, from an estimated $1.3 billion, to now an estimated $2.3 billion (City Capital Commitment plan, dated February 2012.) The project was scheduled to be completed in 2008. The latest figures released by Mayor Bloomberg now peg completion in 2015 - seven years behind schedule."
"Mr. Bloomberg knows that his reputation has taken hard blows in the fight over term limits. But he is apparently betting that the passage of time will restore whatever he may have lost in respectability." -- Clyde Haberman, The New York Times, October 27, 2008.
"Mr. Bloomberg's popularity is high, but his handling of protesters to the 2004 Republican National Convention, when thousands of demonstrators were swept off the streets and detained, is a black mark on his record for many New Yorkers and civil libertarians." -- The New York Times
"For more than a year before the convention, the Police Department monitored Web sites and sent undercover detectives around the nation to collect information on Bush opponents planning to demonstrate in New York. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has said the operation helped keep order. " The New York Times, April 3, 2007
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