Results tagged “councilmanleroycomrie”

After two fires with fatalities and one with a firefighter injury, the Uniformed Firefighters Association and City Councilman Leroy Comrie expressed outrage over the FDNY's response to Queens fires. They say the new pilot dispatch program is endangering lives.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is seeking the dismissal of a civil suit against her filed by Council Member Charles Barron's former chief of staff Viola Plummer. Quinn gave Plummer the boot when the councilman's aide refused to sign a pledge to compose herself while the City Council was in session.

Retired football great Jim Brown is the president of a new snack food and beverage company and City Councilman Leroy Comrie is not happy about it. Brown's company is called OG Nation, which Comrie says stands for "original gangster." The company currently markets "King Pin" lager and a line of mixed drinks under the brand "Party Dogg." According to Newsday, Arizona-based OG Nation is also developing a line of potato chips, pretzels, pork rinds, and dips that will be marketed as "Thug Chips."

Councilman Charles Barron stood on the steps of Brooklyn's Borough Hall yesterday and announced that he would be running to become the first African-Amercian Borough President in Brooklyn's history. The Daily News reports that Barron wasted no time in denigrating the current Beep Marty Markowitz. "We've had a cheerleader. Now we need a real leader in Brooklyn." Barron was referring to Markowitz's seemingly perpetual sunny disposition and love of public appearances while looking faintly ridiculous.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn fired Councilman Charles Barron's chief of staff Viola Plummer yesterday. Quinn had required Plummer to sign a letter agreeing to behave during meetings, after Plummer heckled Quinn during a meeting about street namings and made reference to an "assassination" of Councilman Leroy Comrie, but Plummer refused (she has maintained that she meant a "assassination" of Comrie's character and/or political prospects). And Plummer filed a $1 million racial discrimination suit against Quinn.

When you're a public employee who threatens a City Councilman with assassination, the logical step would be to A) apologize B) lay low and hope people forget about the incident C) accept a temporary suspension D) sue the city for $1 million. Charles Barron's chief of staff Viola Plummer is going with the latter choice and suing New York City for "severe mental anguish and emotional distress." Mind you, this is for an incident that began when she threatened to have a man killed for voting the wrong way in the City Council. Plummer was then suspended from city employment for six weeks by Quinn, initiating the lawsuit.

Despite having been defeated in a City Council vote, where his chief of staff heckled Council Speaker Christine Quinn and threatened a black councilman with assassination, Councilman Charles Barron renamed a street in Brooklyn "Sonny Abubadika Carson Avenue" anyway, declaring that the renaming "is official whether they [presumably the city] take that sign down or not." Sonny Carson's name was struck from a list of people who would get honorary street signs earlier this spring. Council Speaker Quinn felt he was too divisive a figure in the city's history. This sparked a City Hall battle that frayed nerves and invoked additional police protection.

The best rapper in the Mets organization might be Lastings Milledge, but he shouldn't be expecting a call-up because of his music anytime soon. Milledge a 22 year-old outfield prospect for the Mets who was briefly in the bigs last season. While with the Mets last year, some criticized him for his showiness at times, being late, and not running hard on the basepaths. In 166 at bats, Milledge had a .241 average. Though he's currently in the minor leagues and on the DL, it doesn't mean he can't cause controversy. Besides playing baseball, Milledge dabbles in the music business as the CEO of Soul-ja Boi records, a label he co-founded in Florida. Milledge raps as L Millz (is that for millions or Milledge - the double entendre is brilliant!) in "Bend Ya Knees," a track by Manny D, the label's "premier artist". The lyrics in the song (which you can listen to at their website) have shocked some people with lyrics that the Daily News excerpts as: "rich (N word)," "wealthy (N word)," a "top-notch ho" and having "a different bitch for every night." Gothamist could swear we heard something about getting high in the song too.

The melt-down in the sub-prime mortgage market has gotten a lot of ink this month-- but until you look at this map, it's hard to understand the true impact of these kinds of loans on the city. These subprime companies target low-income families with teaser-rates and special promotions, and often get them sign to up for mortgages without even checking to see if they have enough income to make the payments. The Daily News reports:

Today, Mayor Bloomberg met with the Bronx fire victims' families and later held a press conference about the tragedy, which is the deadliest fire (aside from September 11) since 1990 . The Mayor has been under fire for leaving the city yesterday - after a Thursday press conference about the fire - for a scheduled appearance in Miami, where he made jokes about "Mayors Gone Wild" in South Beach.

After many months of discussion, the City Council passed a bill to regulate the pedicab industry. Pedicab advocates, who agree that the industry should be regulated, are upset about the City Council's battery of regulations, such as a cap of 325 pedicabs and being banned from Midtown during the holidays. Additionally, $2 million insurance plans will be required, which is similar to what taxi cabs have, and pedicabs with electric motors would be banned. Read the list of regulations at On NY Turf.

Yesterday, the City Council passed a "symbolic ban" on the n-word. City Councilman Leroy Comrie introduced the resolution earlier this month, and he said, "I'm hoping this is the beginning of a move forward to a place where the use of the N-word is simply unacceptable. So many people have been quietly seething about this for a long time. It's time to bring it into the open."

City Councilman Leroy Comrie wants the city to ban the n-word. Comrie said he hoped that a dialogue would be sparked by his resolution and that society can move "toward a place where the n-word is simply unacceptable to be used in any context." And hip hop pioneer Kurtis Blow, who joined Comrie at the press conference, said, "We need to stop looking at ourselves like we are niggas or niggers, so that we can elevate our minds to a better future. So I challenge the hip-hop community, I challenge you to abolish that word during the month of February - Black History Month - and beyond."

Well, you can't blame City Councilman Leroy Comrie for lack of optimism. Comrie, who represents the 27th District, had considered introducing a bill that would have banned cellphones in restaurants. Seriously. However, the NY Sun now reports that bill will probably not be presented at all, after Comrie heard complaints from the restaurant industry.

"I was surprised at the feedback from the restaurant owners, that they didn't like it," Mr. Comrie, a Democrat of Queens, said. The idea for the law came out of discussions with his staff, as well as the annoying experiences of having restaurant meals disrupted by rude cell phones users, including one, he recalled, in which a patron appeared to be conducting play-by-play of a baseball game over the phone.

Continue reading "Here's a Good One: Cell Phone Ban in Restaurants"