Ahead of his State of the City Address, Mayor Bloomberg has announced that a new Request for Proposal will be issued for the Kingsbridge Armory. The Norwood News reports that the RFP will not include a requirement of a living wage -- which helped to sink the prior bid. Despite that, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. is supporting this latest RFP.
TRUE STORY: While visiting the new Whole Foods in Yonkers, I was approached by a Corporate Rep who asked me if I was enjoying my shopping experience. Indeed, I certainly was because there were only 10 other customers in the store besides me. I expressed my concern regarding the lack of customers and wondered if the Corporate Rep felt the same. "Why don't you guys open a Whole Foods in the Bronx?" The rep laughed. He said opening a new Whole Foods in the Bronx would cost a ridiculous amount of money. I gave him the side eye, and he gave me the side eye right back. Apparently, the pols in the Bronx are so busy trying to dig into the pockets of would be developers and corporations, that those developers and corporations who express a sincere interest in developing the Bronx are completely turned off and absolutely appalled by the greed of elected officials and their "friends" in local government.
ReplyDeleteThe new Yankee Stadium made a lot of people very, very rich. Tickets that should have gone to impoverished kids through non-profits organizations instead filled the pockets of relatives and friends who sold the Yankee tickets on stub hub instead of giving them to needy kids who would never be able to AFFORD to go to a Yankee game in the new stadium.
Approximately 11 Bronxites were employed by the new Yankee Stadium. 11 P-E-O-P-L-E. I get the distinct feeling those 11 employees were related to or associated with developers.
I hope Bloomberg calls the shots without further delay and that the snakes pulling the Living Wage card in the poorest Congressional District in the nation will be exposed for their sick and twisted game. The Living Wage stance is a cover for the fact that these people are trying in earnest to enrich themselves on the backs of people whom they believe do not know better. Tell the poor we care by killing jobs and development! Yeah, thats the ticket.
Damned jerks. Go Bloomberg!
This is amazing news, and the Mayor (thank goodness) is not giving up anything . . . He's asking for the same bids as before . . . NO "LIVING WAGE" REQUIREMENT!
ReplyDeleteAs for that putz Ruben Diaz Jr., he will try to spin this to pretend that he worked out a deal, but EXACTLY WHAT DEAL WAS THAT? The reality is that it's going to be a commercial development project (just like the Related project) and not the "community development" crap Diaz was pushing for. Only now, unfortunately, we have an even worse economy. But it's better late than never to have business development in the northwest Bronx. And all the crazy lefties that Diaz pandered to are really in the same boat as they were before. Diaz has delivered nothing to them!
Look at Quinn's compromise version of the bill that drops the job-killing living-wage requirement. The Quinn bill does NOTHING AT ALL, because it does not require higher wages for employees of companies that rent in subsidied commercial developments (which had been Ruben Diaz Jr.'s main focus, but now he's done a total u-turn and surrendered).
DeleteIt's nice to see that there are other people out there who find Mr. Diaz equally as irrelevant as I do.
DeleteShuck + Jive = Ruben Diaz Jr
ReplyDeleteo snap
DeleteAsk Azi Paybarah what he thinks!
ReplyDeleteWho?
DeleteIt's the revenge of Kevin Skeekey !!!!
ReplyDeleteRuben gets all the ink here, but it's actually the local Council Member that has the final say on the project. wondering why no one is asking Cabrera about his stance on this.
ReplyDeleteRuben Diaz was proud to destroy the Related deal. So he should also take all the heat for it!
DeleteIt is Rubencito who betrayed the Bronx.
DeleteLook how John Liu voted on it!
DeleteWOW, that's some ballsy mayor. You gotta admire Mike Bloomberg's tenacity and vision.
ReplyDeleteHurrah for Mike!
Deletegood move by the mayor
DeleteThis is an advertisement not editorial. Did Michael R. Bloomberg pay for it?
DeleteJohn Liu (now city comptroller) was a council member back when the armory fiasco began and he deserves much of the blame along with Diaz.
ReplyDeleteJohn Liu and Ruben Diaz, Jr. BOTH kissed union ass to the detriment of the Bronx.
Did anyone notice how those idiots at The Riverdale Press called White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew by the wrong name? At one point they called him "Mr. Liu".
DeleteThe Riverdale Press is full of sloppy mistakes these days. Even worse, they keep covering news that has little or nothing to do with Riverdale or even Kingsbidge.
DeletePlus their current editor is infatuated by the former Occupy Movement at Zucotti Park.
Somebody needs to put Riverdale back into the "Riverdale Press"! Boy do I miss the Steins.
The political coverage at The Press is really lame. All they do now is cut-and-paste press releases from politicians. What a difference from just 5 years ago.
DeleteThe new publisher, Richner Communications (Stuart & Clifford Richner), gutted the Riverdale Press. A once proud newspaper is now dominated by poorly written, uninformative articles that just serve as filler between the advertising. It's a real shame.
DeleteAnd this week the Press called the CHAIRMAN of the local community board "president" . . . ha ha!
DeleteAnd Celeste Katz?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny to hear Ruben Diaz, Jr. speak of his "administration" as if he's the head of an executive branch of government. It's just like when Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz says he's entitled to be recived by foreign nations as an international "head of state."
ReplyDeleteLike all borough presidents, Diaz and Markowitz are ceremonial clowns. But Diaz is also a fool if he believes that he administers the various agencies of government. There's only one head of an executive branch in NYC government: THE MAYOR.
I couldn't agree more. Anyone who took Polical Science 101 knows that in a political system an administration is the group of top-ranking officials in charge of creating and enforcing rules and regs. An example of administration is the US President and the high-level officials who support him.
DeleteConclusion: There is no "Diaz Administration" in the Bronx.
And yes, it's funny to hear Ruben Diaz, Jr. speak.
DeleteIf Mr. Diaz thinks he's running an administration, I would like to know which agency commissioners he actually appoints. For example, who are his police and transportation commissioners? Can Mr. Diaz order the NYPD to crack down on car break-ins on my block in Bedford Park? Or is he only the Chief Executive of Nothing?
DeleteMaybe Borough President Diaz was speaking in a poetic sense?
DeletePoetic? ... As in IMAGINARY?
DeleteSorry Baby Diaz .... you can't have a real administration if ain't a real president.
DeleteMaybe the heavy burden of the office of President is weighing on him?
Delete"President Diaz" must be wondering why he doesn't get to sign bills into law.
DeleteDiaz must expect a national security briefing each morning
DeleteSo the Office of the Bx Boro Prez must be just like the West Wing?
DeleteIf Diaz is soooooo awful, why is he always unopposed? Why he always win by a landslide?
ReplyDeleteThe answer to both is because he is supported by 1.4 million Bronxites and that is almost 3x amount of votes what Bloomberg got in 09!
Total Nonsense!
DeleteAs someone noted in a previous blog comment, RUBEN DIAZ, JR. was first elected Bronx Borough President in a SPECIAL ELECTION in 2009 where he received just 28,301 votes . . . That’s LESS THAN FIVE PERCENT (or 4.29 percent to be more precise) of the approximately 660,000 registered voters in the Bronx, and just TWO PERCENT of the nearly 1.4 million people who live in the Bronx.
The statement of "almost 3x [the] amount of votes" is just ridiculous.
Deletemust be a crazy diaz supporter . . . one of the few
DeleteThat reasoning is sooooooo stupid!
DeleteI agree 3x the amount of votes is not correct. The Borough president and his 311 office (311 does the same job) is a bunch of non-sense. He still earns and pays his top staff earnings you would not believe (public record) . I had a working operation in the Bronx and did meet with the office over concerns and was shocked with the lack of experience,professionalism. I played the game to get my needs but was not impressed. I have a staff of 35 employees who have an extensive educational background who earn half the salary of his staff. Maybe we all should have a political godfather!
ReplyDeleteYawn, flop again..
ReplyDeleteDiaz is a useless borough president.
ReplyDelete