Results tagged “citycouncilwomangalebrewer”

Mayor Bloomberg just hates congestion: He announced a plan to more aggressively go after drivers who "block the box" at intersections. The city describe box blocking as "driving into an intersection as the light is changing without room to continue through it, thus blocking traffic," and it seriously sucks. Mayor Bloomberg wants to allow all 2,800 traffic agents to issue tickets (for some reason, only a few traffic enforcement agents can issue them now) in a faster and more efficient way with handheld devices and increase the fine from $90 to $115.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired early this evening on Blake Ave. in Brooklyn, a homicide/suicide on 225th St. in Queens this afternoon, and a sexual assault early this morning on West 120th St. in Manhattan.
• City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants black activist Sonny Carson stricken from the list of nominees for proposed street names because she thinks he was divisive and anti-white. Former Black Panther and current Brooklyn Council Member Charles Barron disagrees with the exclusion, noting that Brooklyn is full of streets named after racists and slaveholders, and calls Carson a hero.
• City Council members will vote on a proposal to restrict the growth of pedicabs in the city the day after Earth Day (Sunday the 22nd). Opponents hope the proximity of the two events will sway Council Members in favor of the pedicabs.
• The founder of the Zone Chefs diet service plead guilty along with several mobsters of running a boiler-room stock scheme designed to thin investors' wallets.
• Mayor Bloomberg reactivated a portion of the Staten Island Railroad in order to shift waste transfer from New York to New Jersey away from trucks and towards rail transport.
• Rep. Jerrold Nadler and City Councilwoman Gale Brewer are two more politicians who wrote letters in support of a class trip to Cuba, that wasn't actually a school event and that no one knew anything about at the time.
• Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff says the plan for a Santiago Calatrava-designed gondola is still in the works. The elaborate cable car system would transport passengers to and from Manhattan and Brooklyn via Governors Island.
• Despite pouring boiling water all over his victim to destroy DNA evidence, the Washington Hamilton Heights rapist did leave some at the scene and the police are in possession of it.
• The Tom Cruise-hosted fund-raiser to support a 9/11 rescue worker detoxification program isn't until tomorrow, but the City Council has already issued a proclamation honoring the late Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard for contributing his vitamin and sauna therapy program to the world.

City Councilwoman Gale Brewer is introducing an intriguing bill: Business owners would be fined if they keep their windows or doors open while the air-conditioning is on. The NY Sun reports that the bill would "make it illegal for windows to be open while an air conditioner is operating and would require all doors to be closed except to allow people to enter or exit a building." The fine would be $200 per open window or door!

There's a NY Times article about NYC TV, our city's TV station, and basically crediting the turnaround from just showing City Council meetings and mayor press conferences to showcasing more cultural and social offerings, like short films, shows about hip-hop in the city, and what do for $9.99 in one day. But some critics, like City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, think the shows are too much about tourism and stuff that doesn't matter to real New Yorkers, "What are we learning from it? They're focusing on tourists and visitors rather than on New Yorkers who need basic services and want to know what their elected officials are doing." To which Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler says he enjoys "What's Cooking at Gracie" because his "idea of cooking is cereal."

Last September, the city announced that wireless internet would be coming to ten parks around the city, perhaps by summer. Fast forward nine months, only Battery Park's wifi has been completed, but the city set a deadline for all other parks to be wireless ready by July. Nevermind that WiFi Salon is unsure whether they can make it - owner Marshall W. Brown said, "That's the timetable set forth by Parks. Let's see if that's attainable... It's obviously going to be tight, but I'm confident we'll be able to pull it off." City Councilwoman Gale Brewer thinks the process is taking too long, saying, "Free wireless Internet in our city parks is a no-brainer. We should be wiring as much of New York City as possible." Yeah, there's only so much one can do on a Treo! But it's true - NYC has lagged behind other cities and even its own parks (think Bryant Park) in offering free WiFi, but maybe it's because there are so many Starbucks around, not to mention WiFi you can steal.