Saturday, April 19, 2008
bar night life and the conflict of interest + NYC's high threshold for "red lights" and ignoring them
News flash == they want to close the bars at 2am but what continues to be blacked out is the conflict of interest in the Community Board 3 area = East Village, Lower East Side and Bowery and that is David McWater, the community board chair owns, I have read between 10 or 11 bars. I know he owns Doc Holliday which I think Fox 5 News showed last night but what no one from the press will ask him, Scott Stringer or anyone from the mayor on down = IS THIS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST and they answer in my opinion is "YES" and how can CB3 demand any bar close at 2 unless McWater volunteers to close all of his at 2 but most of all he needs to step down. Community board 3 in my opinion is a very tight group of people and they have had no problem with what is in my opinion a conflict of interest. This is in theory a democracy and it would be frightening if I was not allowed to have an opinion and my opinion was different than the community board's where I have lived for 20 years and I am an American citizen. I was born an American citizen so that is almost 46 years of which in theory I am entitled to freedom of speech. How frightening if people who dared to express an opinion other than agreed upon by the mainstream were forced out of their neighborhoods. If people were scared to speak up -- how frightening would that be? Could you imagine politicians or leaders of any groups wanting to govern over people to scared to speak up because of repercussions. What kind of leaders would they be?
I have asked and people just laugh.
Apparently the city has a very high threshold for red lights and we have had how many construction workers and civilians die or injured post 9-11 in construction or infrastructure related problems.
The city council gave themselves a raise and now there just happens to be all this money that was allocated to groups --should I say mis-allocated?
It is really frightening and I went to the DOB City Council Task Force meeting way back and talked about the deaths and injuries and this tsunami of development and when I read city council asking Patricia Lancaster questions I just have to shake my head because this was something talked about at least one year or more and I know I was one of the people talking.
I am frightened at the high threshold for issues I give you and the high threshold for letting it go on and on. I also believe "community boards" need a complete overhaul and it most become a democracy. We did note vote for these people and we need to know who the are and what are their roles in the community and than we get to vote for them. We need accountability. We need to know who represents us and there has to be limited terms other wise it is like all of the above and people and communities and the city is harmed in my opinion. Isn't that why there is a term "conflict of interest".
People just laugh, just they laugh with bitterness and they say in so many words politics are corrupt.
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2 comments:
Scott Stringer is the walking example of "conflict of interest." While he has gotten some of the dumber newspapers (like the Villager) to think he's a reformer, the opposite is true. He appointed his own campaign manager to Community Board 4. He lets the developer trade association (NY Partnership) review all Community Board applications before appointments are made. And yes, CB3 has its share of problems. Most Community Boards are incestuous in nature, but the real problem is the corrupt manner in which Scott Stringer has been even a worse Borough President than C. Virginia Fields.
Thank you for coming forth and posting your comment. The New York Times gave Scott Stringer his own op ed piece which was lame and forgettable so add the grey lady to the list.
What you point out to me and what I know is frightening to me and we need a mayor with courage who will bring reform; a mayor who is going to clean house. Yes, the community boards are incestuous and from what I hear about Community Board 3, along with Stringer, it is an "orgy of admiration". Here the communities that are represented by Community Board 3 are being crushed and destroyed and CB3 pat themselves on the back and they praise each other while most people don't know they exist or have written them off completely. I agree with you and ditto re: The Villager. The mentioned a community board member leaving because of conflict of interest but never report what is the conflict of interest and in the same piece they praise David McWater as if he own a share in the newspaper along with "John air space Sutter" but never mention McWater's huge conflict of interest. What you read on my blog you will never read in The Villager.
The next mayor inherits the new hideous new york and I believe there a more infrastructure problems to come and they also might resemble terror attacks.
The next mayor is inheriting mega budget problems including a rising population with area hospitals shut down, fire houses closed, budget cuts in every significant dept and none can afford them. I have heard they are cutting work fare in the Parks dept and that is far more crucial to helping lives than moving the fountain in Washington Square Park for NYU's real estate value.
No newspapers will touch any of this. Even deaths won't get them to tell the truth because we have had many related to nightlife with it is rapes followed by murders or drunk people getting in cars and plowing someone down and all the construction and infrastructure related deaths and injuries. The New York eminent domain Times did not even cover the Stuy Town rally for affordable housing which should have been front page news. All the papers are owned by mega bucks and most are big real estate owners here in NYC.
Thank you for coming forth and speaking out.
It is also frightening how successfully they have shut people down from speaking out. Either people feel intimidated or hopeless and the media just doesn't go there.
Thank you.
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