Joan Millman Apparently Doesn't Understand the MTA

Streetsblog recently culled some ridiculously ignorant and regressive quotes from our own Joan Millman regarding what she feels is the real problem with the MTA: the MTA.

"Millman represents one of the most transit-dependent districts in the city, and her constituents cope with torrents of traffic bound for free East River bridges every day. When she had the chance to get behind the single most transformative policy for the city’s streets and transit system — congestion pricing — she failed to say a word until it was much too late. If the MTA had $420 million in annual revenue from congestion pricing, its fiscal problems wouldn’t be so severe today.

By now, the MTA has been audited to death, and it’s clear that no amount of efficiency wrung out of the agency can offset the effects of long-term, systemic neglect and disinvestment on the part of the city and state — especially the state. It’s not clear which DiNapoli report Millman was referring to at the hearing, but recent findings from DiNapoli’s office have identified $56 million in potential overtime savings each year, and $13 million in potential annual savings on fuel contracts. Meanwhile, the agency had to plug an $800 million deficit this year, and its yearly debt payments are expected to increase $1.5 billion by 2020."

Come on Joan. We've defended you recently, but way to pander to the lowest common denominator! The majority of the MTA's issues have nothing to do with management or waste but budget shortfalls and raiding of transportation funds for automobile-centric development.

Gowanus State of Mind

Double Dipping? Not So Much

There has been a little chatter lately about Joan Millman and the fact that she draws a pension from her time as a teacher. The Brooklyn Paper has run a few stories on the topic, most along a similar vein:

"There is something untoward about a state legislator who collects a pension while still doing the people’s business in Albany. But in the case of two Assemblywomen who are facing stiff primary challenges, the transgression ranges from mildly offensive to genuinely repugnant.

Assemblywoman Joan Millman (D–Carroll Gardens) worked as a city school teacher for 27 years before being elected to the legislature in 1997. Before that election, she put in for her pension. After taking office, she declined to defer her retirement payments, despite the fact that she would now be earning two paychecks from the public."

First of all, I see no issue with collecting your pension when you retire. If you've worked for decades at a job, and you have qualified for your pension, whether or not you choose to enter a second career should be irrelevant. In fact, Joan Millman should be applauded for doing something productive with her time. Are there some that feel that Ms. Millman would better serve the public by NOT having a second career, as would be her economic incentive if she couldn't draw her first pension?


There is a legitimate issue though, as to why public officials can draw their first pensions regardless of their second career's salaries, but others may not. That is an inequity.

Cement Shoes Probably in the Offing

If I had to choose one business to steal from, the South Brooklyn Casket Company would rank somewhere between the Federal Government and Umberto's Clam House. Apparently not everyone shares my apprehension. From Courier-Life:

"Gary Comorau has been selling South Brooklyn Casket Company T-shirts and other garb on his own website — but now the multinational funeral company that bought the Gowanus gravemaker in 2005 wants to put his business venture six feet under on the grounds that he is violating their copyright.

But Comorau is whistling past the graveyard.

“I’ve ignored their ‘cease-and-desist’ letter,” he boasted this week. “My company has no assets, and I don’t sell many shirts. Who cares?”"

I wonder if cement shoes come in sizes.

Super Fun Superfund Site Profiled

From The Dirt (a blog published by the American Society of Landscape Architects), some "love" for Gowanus:

"The Gowanus ”micro-neigborhood,” surrounded by Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill and Park Slope is filled with ”half-empty warehouses and semi-derelict factories,” post-industrial scenes that give the area a “special cultural edge, like a miniature Baltimore or Detroit.” Except, in this case, The New York Times writes, terrifying pollution is substituted for crime. Still, the site attracts many locals: Jennifer Prediger, a producer of environmental videos, said: “There’s no place in Brooklyn, or in New York City, that feels kind of more pleasant than being right here, which is odd given that that is a toxic waterway. But it’s actually quite lovely. It’s the loveliest toxic waterway I’ve ever spent time on.”"

More about Oysters!

More fun about oysters, as reported by Gothamist:

"With the NJDEP's ruling that water-purifying oysters are at too much of a risk from poachers, environmental group NY/NJ Baykeeper was forced to pull up the oysters it had cultivated along Raritan Bay. Scientists say the oysters could restore the waters to health, but the FDA is worried the oysters, which absorb toxins in the water, could find their way into the edible seafood supply. Christine M. Lynn of NY/NJ Baykeeper told us, "Everyone we work with in New York is as surprised and confused by the NJDEP decision as we are.""

It is a legitimate concern, but so is the concern that someone could eat a fish out of the Gowanus. Let the oysters grow!

Profile of Buddy Scotto

From something called Capital New York, there is a long, fairly detailed profile of Buddy Scotto, and his status throughout the years here in Carroll Gardens.

"He’s switched, in the anticlerical, Italian-American tradition of his neighborhood, between soft loyalties to both Democrats and Republicans just for the chance to realize his ambitions for his home. He built an unlikely political empire out of the casual acquaintances made in the surprisingly stately, somewhat macabre parlor of the Scotto Funeral Home and carried by the weight of Italian-American neighborhood loyalty.

And so as Carroll Gardens becomes home to one of Brooklyn’s yuppiest Restaurant Rows, a sort-of Division II Manhattan for recent college graduates and a single-family brownstone dream for magazine editors and downtown types, it’s perhaps unsurprising that this power-base is thinning out.

“Buddy’s influence is definitely waning,” said the young neighborhood activist and blogger Katia Kelly. “One simply has to look at the results of the November Council election, where his candidate, John Heyer, lost terribly in Carroll Gardens, though Buddy introduced him to everyone in the neighborhood.”"

The debate about Buddy's influence in the neighborhood is silly; he is who he is, and much like the rest of the neighborhood, he has changed and so has his influence. It's like trying to point out the dying influence of the Catholic Church. Yes, that sector can not rally the troops like they used to be able to, but then again, neither can anyone else. 

I do disagree, however, with Katia, that John's candidacy was harmed by his association with Buddy. Buddy helped him immeasurably, but the reason John lost was all on John, as well as the strength of the other candidate, who had a bigger population base in his "home" district. 

What is happening is the population on which he influences is older, moving away, and slowly becoming crowded out by the monied, the young, the transplants, and, yes, the educated. No longer are funeral directors seen as persons of power, influence and education as they used to be.

For the Birds

A little info from the Brooklyn Paper on some color showing up on the shores of the Gowanus recently:

"Twenty-five new brightly hued birdhouses now line the 1.8-mile canal, thanks to the efforts of a foursome of North Carolinians who hatched the initiative, called the Canal Nest Colony. The project started two years ago with just five shelters.

The bad news? Birds are just as picky about their homes as the humans who shun living alongside a famously polluted canal, recently named a Superfund site. Indeed, this project is suffering from a case of the empty nest syndrome.

“The birdhouses aren’t being used yet because it takes a while for the birds to get used to them,” explained Hans Hesselein, a South Slope landscape architect who helped found the initiative along with college friends Thomas Ryan, David Moses, and Andrew Nicholas."

Got Him...Now What?

According to the New York Times, the NYPD has located the man who held up the frantic rush to the ER over the weekend, and it IS a member of the police force.

"A New York City police officer was suspended without pay on Tuesday after an encounter with the mother of an 11-year-old girl who was suffering an asthma attack and later died, the authorities said.

The officer, Alfonso Mendez, 30, who joined the force in 2005 and was assigned to the 84th Precinct, was expected to face administrative charges of failing to take proper police action, which could include failing to report to the department what had happened, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

Officer Mendez was stripped of his gun and shield, Mr. Browne said."

Let's not jump to judge, but police officers should be the ones to turn to in instances like this, not ones that hinder. Perhaps excessive training or fear of litigation has caused today's cops to think too much and not react to situations in front of them?