News from Councilman G. Oliver Koppell

KOPPELL OBTAINS ADDITIONAL LITTER BASKETS FOR DISTRICT

Council Member Oliver Koppell was successful in persuading the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to increase the number of garbage baskets in the district because of complaints from constituents about litter on the street, particularly in the area of West 238^th Street.

Koppell indicated that the commercial nature of West 238^th Street requires that there be baskets to deposit the litter that businesses generate.  Consequently, he asked for the replacement of the basket removed from Greystone Avenue and West 238^th Street and requested that additional containers be placed in the area.

The Department of Sanitation replaced this garbage basket and added one at Fieldston Road and West 238^th Street.    There are now garbage baskets on Waldo Avenue at West 236^th and 238^th and Streets. 

“I anticipate that the streets around West 238^th Street will be cleaner because of these added litter baskets.  I would caution people, however, not to use the baskets for the disposal of household garbage as this will cause them to overflow and Sanitation to remove them,” Koppell said.

STEP STREET MADE SAFER THROUGH KOPPELL’S EFFORTS

 

Concerned that the poor lighting and accumulation of debris, on the step street that connects Gale Place with Bailey Avenue and Van Cortlandt Park West, made the steps unsafe for pedestrians, Koppell successfully petitioned the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to remove the trash, rocks and tree limbs that had been scattered everywhere on the steps and for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to fix the lights, a project that had been postponed for a long time.

“Now the steps are much safer at night and less of a tripping hazard. I am grateful for the agencies’ response to my requests to improve conditions for residents in my district”   Koppell stated.

Senator Klein is joined by others to Blast City Dept. of Finance

    State Senator Jeff Klein was joined by City Council Traffic and Transportation Chair Jimmy Vaxxa, Assembly members Mike Benedetto, Marcos Crespo and local civic leaders and merchants to blast the New York City Department of Finance for not enforcing city truck overnight parking rules on local residential streets. The fine for illegal overnight truck parking on residential streets use to be $65.00 which meant that it wound up cheaper for truck drivers to park overnight on residential streets than reserve a hotel room or park off street in paid lots.

    In 2010 responding to hundreds of constituent complains about illegally parked tractor-trailers in their neighborhoods, Sen. Klein, along with Assemblyman Benedetto and Councilman Vacca, introduced and passed legislation to drastically increase the fines for trucks that illegally parked overnight in residential areas. The law increased fines from $65 to $250 for first-time offenders and from $65 to $500 for second or repeat-offenders. 

    Senator Klein's office estimated that an average of 238 tractor trailer trucks park overnight in the 34th State Senate District alone, which of properly ticketed could generate over $3,500,000.00 in additional revenue to the city from the 34th district alone.   

   In order to fully implement the new parking fines, the New York City Department of Finance must print new parking tickets that reflect the increased fee schedule. However, over the past 12 months, the Department has refused to print these new tickets, resulting in near-total lack of enforcement. The Department of Finance has committed only to “exploring whether [they] can make an alteration to handwritten tickets,” and has, in the meantime, relied solely on enforcement officers to voluntarily write-in the additional fine. The Department of Finance has not sent out any instruction or advisement to NYPD regarding the new fines.

    Given that the problem of illegal overnight truck parking is widespread across the outer-boroughs, the total number of lost revenue could be much greater. According to numbers obtained by the Office of Senator Klein, the Department of Finance issued over 93,000 tickets for illegal overnight commercial parking in the most recent fiscal year. Under a conservative estimate, if even one third of these tickets were written to tractor-trailers with the additional fine, NYC could reap an additional $8.83 million if the Department of Finance simply printed new tickets that enabled fuller enforcement. 

    Councilman Vacca said that the problem is not only here in the Bronx, but citywide in the outer boroughs.

Assembly members Benedetto and Crespo said that the new overnight truck parking rules shows a total disregard for the residents of the entire city, and they gave law enforcement the tools needed to stop this illegal overnight truck parking which is not being enforced and depriving city residents of revenue that is much needed now.

   This legislation was passed two years ago and the city Department of Finance still has not changed the summons form, which I was told by Councilman Vacca is reordered every few months.

   Mayor Bloomberg take note of this..

Left - Senator Klein, Councilman Vacca, Assemblymen Benedetto, and Crespo along with Community and business members
Right - Example of just how many and where trucks are parking on overnight residential streets.

Luis Sepulveda Fund Raiser

   Yes that's Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. who along with Bronx Democratic County Leader Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie headlined the list of people in attendance. As you can see by the photo the lighting was low, but the donations were high to the Sepulveda campaign. Also in the photo is Luis Sepulveda's lovely wife Elizabeth who is holding 11 month Luis Enrique Sepulveda. 

   I asked Luis Sepulveda about his race for the 87th Assembly District and he said that he is confident that he will win, but is still campaigning as if he was the underdog. Two years ago Sepulveda narrowly lost to former Assemblyman Peter Rivera who has since joined the Cuomo administration as The State Labor Commissioner. BP Diaz and County Leader Heastie were both very confident that Luis Sepulveda will become the Assemblyman from the 87th A.D. There were different opinions of just how big the margin of victory would be with many saying 90% to 10%. Check my column in the Parkchester News and Bronx News papers for my prediction on this and all the other primary races.

 
   

BOROUGH PRESIDENT DIAZ & MTA TO HOST METRO NORTH INFO SESSIONS

 

   Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced that they will offer four information sessions to the public to learn more about the proposal to bring Metro-North service to the East Bronx.

   Information sessions will be held in Hunts Point, Parkchester, Morris Park and Co-op City—the four neighborhoods that would see Metro-North service expansions if the East Bronx service plan were enacted.

   “We want to give the people of the Bronx a real opportunity to review these plans and to offer their own thoughts on the future of transportation in our borough,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “These meetings will give my staff and the MTA a chance to hear from Bronxites about these plans, and to use that feedback in a constructive manner.

   The first meeting will take place in Morris Park on Monday, September 10 at the Price Center/Block Pavilion auditorium at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, 1300 Morris Park Avenue (at intersection of Eastchester Road). An open house will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by a presentation on the project at 7 p.m.

   Meetings will also take place in Co-op City on September 24 at the Dreiser Loop Community Center, 177 Dreiser Loop, 2^nd Floor Auditorium B; in Hunts Point at Casita Maria, 928 Simpson Street, on October 2; and in Parkchester at St. Raymond’s High School for Boys, 2151 St. Raymond Avenue (corner of East Tremont Avenue and Purdy Street) on October 22. These meetings will begin with open houses at 6:30 p.m., followed by presentations at 7 p.m. 

   Editors Note:      We were the first to bring you that Metro North service would be coming to the East Bronx back in May which appeared in our column in the Bronx News, Parkchester News, and Coop-City News.

    

 

Modonna Look-Alike Contest By 161st Street BID

Speaker Silver Being Investageted For His Role In the Veto Lopez Deal

   It just gets worse every day for the New York State Assembly, now the New York Post in a front page story Silver hit by Hu$h Probe say that Silver makes a shocking confession on the Vito Lopez deal. 

   The New York Assembly paid out $103,000.00 to the two women who accused Assemblyman and now former Brooklyn Democratic County Leader Vito Lopez of sexual harassment that was authorized by the Speaker. Silver now says that he may have made a mistake in doing that, and the whole matter is now being investigated by JCOPE the governors new Joint Commission on Public Ethics. 

   Just like the Post had a field day Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera which may continue, we are sure that the Post will be covering each and every iota of news on Speaker Silver.

 

  

Gloria Gaynor Concert

    Last night an estimated over 600 people jammed Seton Park (in Riverdale) to watch Gloria Gaynor in one of State Senator Jeff Klein's "Summer Concert Series". Senator Klein for the month of August put together a series of summer concerts throughout his state senate district that ends tonight in Loreto Park (in Morris Park) featuring Jay Black

    Gloria Gaynor was born in 1949 and started her singing career as a singer with the Soul Satisfiers, a jazz/pop band, in the 1960s. Her first solo single was "She'll Be Sorry/Let Me Go Baby" came out in 1965. Gaynor's big success came in 1975 with the hit album "Never Can Say Goodbye" that included other popular "Disco Era" songs.

    Gaynor sang several of her hit songs that included "Never Can Say Goodbye", "I Will Survive", Going Out of My Head", and also sang a musical tribute to her late friend Donna Summer. With her 63rd birthday coming up on September 7th after the show there was a little early celebration with many people singing to her "Happy Birthday".

Left and Right - Gloria Gaynor singing as the sun was setting.

Left - one of the band does a sax tribute.

Right - You can see the crowd of over 600 people who were in attendance.

Left - Senator Jeff Klein saying a few words to the crowd.

Right - Local Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is between Civil Court Judge candidate Eddie McShan he supports with possible City Council candidate Andy Cohen in blue shirt.

COUNCIL APPROVES KOPPELL-SPONSORED BILL SUSTAINING AND EXPANDING WORK OF CLIMATE CHANGE PANEL AND TASK FORCE

    At its meeting on Wednesday, August 22, 2012, the Council passed a bill co-sponsored by Council Member Oliver Koppell, a member of the Environmental Protection Committee, that institutionalizes and expands the work of the NYC Panel on Climate Change and the NYC Climate Change Adaption Task Force.

    The Panel and the Task Force were created by the Mayor in 2008 to evaluate the impact of climate change on New York City and to develop strategies to protect the city’s critical infrastructure from this impact.  

    The new legislation expands the scope of these bodies to include, not only consideration of the risks of climate change on the infrastructure, but also on the city’s communities, vulnerable populations, public health, natural systems, buildings and economy.  

    “The Council found global climate models predict that temperatures, precipitation, sea levels and extreme weather events will increase dramatically, even in the next ten years, creating the necessity of preparing for, or ideally preventing, the impact of these adverse climate changes on New York City,”  Koppell said. 

    The legislation requires that the Panel, consisting of climate change scientists, recommend climate change projections for the city not less than once every three years. Within one year of the Panel’s recommended climate change projections, the Task Force, comprised of representatives of the appropriate city, state and federal agencies, as well as private entities, will inventory the potential risks of climate change to the city, develop adaption strategies, identify issues for further study and issue a report to the Mayor and Council based on its findings. 

    “According to the Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, we are already seeing more extreme weather - more days of  heavy rainfall and days over 90 degrees, more frequent heat waves and more strong storms. Consequently, the work of the  Panel and Task Force in coming up with plans to deal with the negative impact of this extreme weather is very important and I am pleased that this legislation requires future administrations to maintain their efforts,”  Koppell said/