Biologists working with the federal Agriculture Department killed Prospect Park’s geese with lethal doses of carbon dioxide. The idea is to kill off geese within seven miles of the major airports in the region. Prospect Park is 6.5 miles from both La Guardia Airport and Kennedy Airport. A goose found last year with a damaged beak, which park goers had tried to help (not kill), was also believed to have been killed. Elsewhere in the country, nuisance wildlife birds are usually chased away by border collies or firecrackers…not killed! Also no relocation program for the geese was considered. The carcasses of the Prospect Park geese will be double-bagged and dumped in a landfill.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he is leaning toward a smoking ban on beaches and in parks in New York City. “When you ask people in parks or on beaches they say they just don’t want smokers there,” “People take their cigarette butts and packages and just throw them away.” Bloomberg said. DO IT MIKE!!! He is right on this issue…people just throw their butts and other shit all over the once pristine beaches. People should be fined for smoking especially with children around…as well as leaving fast food wrappers and cups on beach to blow around and end up in the ocean water. People that leave and break glass bottles on the beach should spend the night in the tombs. OK…too harsh? How about mandatory 8 hr community service for the litterbugs to clean up after the unsanitary litterbugs…what do you think??

State Senator Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge) will be holding a town hall on Tuesday, June 29 at the St. Finbar’s Center (Bath Avenue & Bay 20th Street). The town hall gets started at 7pm.

Will you be going? Are you not able to? What would you like to ask the Senator?

David Greenfield, the City’s new Councilmember hailing from Borough Park, got into it with Administration for Children’s Services commish John Mattingly yesterday during a Council hearing. Greenfield, who led a Brooklyn delegation last week in condemning the elimination of Priority 7 childcare vouchers and the closure of 16 ACS daycare centers, prefaced his remarks by saying “if this was the cartoon, you would see steam literally coming out of my ears.”

By the end of the hearing, we didn’t have to use our imaginations. After complaining that the cuts are “disproportionately impacting racial and religious minorities,” Greenfield went out firing at the commish with raised voice:

Do you have any idea how many kids in my district are going to be displaced? 1,330 children. That’s more than all these children [affected by the other ACS closures] combined. And so for me, it’s an outrage. And I can’t come to the City Council and have a nice, polite conversation when you’re coming into my district and you’re telling 1,330 children, “Tough Luck, The Economy Is Bad.” That’s simply unacceptable. And so I will reiterate, the obligation is on the agency, the obligation is on the Mayor, the obligation is on the City to do what they can to fund these kids because you cannot tell 1,330 kids in my district, which is a larger number than all other childcare centers in New York combined, go to heck.

The money rant starts at the 9:30 mark. More at Yeshiva World and the NY Daily News.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed two bills relating to health care reform Sunday night – the Senate’s sweeping reform package that President Obama signed into law Tuesday morning, and a budget reconcilliation bill that increases health care affordability that is expected to pass in the Senate this coming weekend.

Feel free to express your feelings in the comments. I’m largely going to stay out of it – let’s just say that this fence-sitting Kucinich Democrat is a little puzzled why (1) Republicans are so vehemently opposed to, and (2) Democrats are so proud of, what is essentially a RomneyCare health care plan. (I’m especially puzzled by Mitt Romney’s opposition to it.)

What I find more interesting at the moment is how Brooklyn put this thing over the top. Needing 216 votes to pass, the Senate bill was approved by only four votes. Which means the six Representatives with Brooklyn constituents could make it or break it. Five of the six voted in favor, led by Jerry Nadler (Sunset Park, Borough Park, Bensonhurst, Brighton Beach, Coney Island, and Manhattan) and Anthony Weiner (Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, and Queens).

Weiner’s stock rose considerably over the course of the debate (which has been going on for about three ages of Middle Earth). He was once considered a candidate for the 2009 Mayor’s race, but he opted to stay in Congress in the wake of term limit extensions that allowed Bloomberg to run again. That political calculation will pay off quite nicely for him – his early cheerleading for Medicare-style universal coverage, his insistence on public option insurance as a bare-minimum alternative, and his visibility on TV and on the House floor won over liberal progressives nationwide. (And I don’t think the fact that he, along with the rest of the Democratic left, got rolled by the Corporate Welfare wing of the party will hurt him with voters down the road.)

Michael McMahon, whose district covers Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Gravesend, and Staten Island, was the lone Democrat in the New York City delegation to vote against the bill. And the White House is reported to be pressuring donors to cut him off. Labor and progressive groups are promising a primary or third-party challenge from the left. I guess I feel like they’re wasting their time. McMahon’s district – dominated by Staten Island – has a registration edge for Democrats, but it leans Republican in actual elections. It’s why Bush men like Vito Fossella held the seat in the past. In Michael McMahon, district voters have found a politician who is their perfect representative – a Democrat who leans Republican. So I don’t think McMahon will be facing any serious fallout, either with Democratic primary voters or his district at large.

(Photo: U.S. House of Representatives)

David Greenfield will become the newest member of the City Council after winning the 44th district by a 2,200 vote margin, out of over 12,000 votes cast. From the victory speech:

This sound that [the people of Brooklyn are] hearing is a fight for the good of the community as a whole, instead of fighting for the personal gain of a select few individuals. It’s the sound of people rejecting politics as usual, rejecting the threats, rejecting the intimidation, it’s the sound of taking political leadership from the status quo, and we’re bringing it back to the people, where it belongs.

The NY Times reported this as a surprisingly easy win for such an intense race, with Joe Lazar having the backing of established Hasidic organizations (as has been widely reported elsewhere) and Greenfield having the support of younger Jewish voters (with the lack of reliable polling data, this appears to be reported mainly by Greenfield himself). (Vos Iz Neias, NY Times)

Hmm. 12,225 votes cast, out of a district that should have roughly 150,000 residents. I think speculative reports of a high turnout “for a special election” may have been premature!

Today is the day of the special election to replace Simcha Felder on the City Council, and I still haven’t decided who to vote for. Speaking generally, I find myself highly disappointed with our City- and State-level politicians, and the Council race for District 44 has been no exception.

It’s basically a race between two machine candidates. The names might say “Joe Lazar” and “David Greenfield,” but it really comes down to “Dov Hikind” versus “Vito Lopez.” Ah, Vito Lopez, the man who makes me embarrased to be a Brooklyn Democrat. (Well – him, and Carl Kruger… who is ALSO supporting Greenfield.)

The fact that I’m considering voting for the Lopez-machine candidate speaks volumes for how little regard I have for Lazar.

I finally figured out what it is I don’t like about him. He’s too damn smug. After hearing all these press accounts about how arrogant David Greenfield is supposed to be, I’ve realized that Greenfield ain’t got nothin’ on Joe Lazar in terms of conceit.

This pretty much sums up Lazar. After telling a debate audience that he thinks that constituents should always be able to get in touch with their Councilman… after telling them that they should vette all statements made by all candidates, including himself, he demonstrates his commitment to openess and availability to the New York Times, the largest (by circulation) daily in the City he wants to represent:

Mr. Lazar declined several interview requests.

Oh, and I don’t mind taking extra steps to reach out to ethnic and religious leaders in the community, but Lazar’s overt ethnic pandering really turned me off as well. If the Grand Rebbe collector cards weren’t enough, there was systematically going out to the Chinese business on 18th Avenue that had posters supporting Jonathan Judge (who was removed from the ballot) with posters printed in Chinese, with a photo of Lazar shaking hands with Comptroller John Liu. Gee, I wonder what his campaign platform is?

And then there’s Greenfield. It never bothered me that his former boss, Dov Hikind, hated his guts. It bothered me a lot more that Michael Bloomberg, Joe Lieberman, Carl Kruger, and Vito Lopez love the guy. That’s the company he wants to keep?

Oh, and Ken Rice (R) is on the ballot as well. When I checked at the time of the debate (which Rice did not attend), it appeared that the entirety of his campaign was a Facebook page. Now, I know he had people handing out brochures last weekend, but it’s a little late to try to get my attention. I’m sorry – but if you’re running for a Council seat, you have to try harder than that.

I’m more inclined to write in Judge – the other Republican in the race – than vote for Rice.

Hell. At this point, I’m inclined to write in myself.

The day is almost here – the special election to fill the City Council seat vacated by Simcha Felder is tomorrow, March 23. Polls are open from 6am to 9pm. The candidates on the official ballot – which keep changing every single time I look – will be David Greenfield (D), Joe Lazar (D), and Ken Rice (R).

Not sure if you live in the 44th District? Check out this hyper-detailed district map. Better yet, you can enter your information using a search form provided by the state Board of Elections (Council Districts are the same thing as “wards” on the voter information page). You can also use the state web site to find your polling place.

I will chime in with my final thoughts on this race tomorrow at 6am – when polls open 2pm. See you then!

Contrary to popular misconception, Orthodox Jews are not the only voting bloc in Council District 44. This one seems to be breaking toward for the Republican.

I guess they weren’t won over by the Joe Lazar Jingle (mp3).

This did not stop State Supreme Court from tossing Judge’s name of the ballot for the March 23 special election. As reported by YourNabe.com, the Board of Elections had ruled 786 of Judge’s 1,221 petitioning signatures to be valid – just above the 765 threshold for a spot on the ballot. But the David Greenfield campaign took the matter to court, which threw out another 36 signatures. Judge is the second candidate thrown from the ballot, following the removal of Avraham Shlomo Tischler.

BK Southie awaits word from the Judge team regarding the next steps for the campaign.

Photo: Brian Hedden

(From left: David Greenfield, Jonathan Judge, Joe Lazar, Avraham Shlomo Tischler. Photo credit: Brian Hedden)

The Jewish Press organized a debate last week with the participation of four of the candidates running for the empty 44th City Council seat (click here for their coverage). The Orthodox news site Vos Iz Neias had video produced of the entire two-hour function (their analysis is here). All 12 video clips are reposted below.

And of course, I was there as both a resident of the 44th, and as the South Brooklyn blogger!

One of the participating candidates – Avraham Shlomo Tischler – has already been dropped from the ballot, following successful challenges to the meager number of signatures on Tischler’s petitions.

The Daily News portrayed the 18-year-old Touro College student as the truth-to-power candidate, as some sort of modern-day David striking fear into the Goliath campaigns of David Greenfield and Joe Lazar. It’s stories like this that make it hard for me to take the Daily News seriously.

Tischler’s performance at the debate was beyond dismal – he definitively demonstrated that he was not, in any way, even remotely qualified for the job of City Councilman. He even said at one point, “I will have a well-trained staff that I know will guide me through each and every step of the way… I will learn becoming a Councilman the right and proper way” (video clip 4 below the fold, 6:05). Actually, he said that a lot. As if voters were somehow looking for an intern to fill the vacancy in the 44th.

As for the grown-ups in the room…

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