Quinn on running for mayor, gambling and the living wage

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was on, what we're going to start calling, the 'pre-campaign' trail today. She brought her father along to the Hebrew Home for the Aged, and according to this 2008 Times article, when Papa Quinn is around, it's for the campaign.

Her and City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell spoke to around 150 residents of the Home, mostly about the power of seniors to fight budget cuts and the vitality that the senior community has (though we counted at least 10 seniors fast asleep during the event).

Quinn and Koppell speak to the crowd at the Home.
That's Papa Lawrence Quinn in the background, in brown.

This is the second visit Quinn's made to Riverdale in the last two months, and we couldn't remember the last time she was up here before that. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer was also up here twice in the last month on his own pre-campaign trail.

One member of the Home, while they were waiting for her to arrive, was overheard saying, "She's going to lose a lot of votes; it's not very nice making us wait." 

While they were waiting, Quinn and Koppell were touring the Hebrew Home's newest technology, the nations first low-vision living area, developed by Rensselaer Institute of Technology (RIT).

But Quinn seemed to win over most of the audience once she did arrive, taking questions from the audience until no one had anymore. They ranged from the hyperlocal, requesting W. 261st Street be paved, to the citywide, on whether or not she will run for mayor, to the statewide, on gambling.

As for running for mayor, "I won’t let my father have the microphone because he’ll tell you the answer to that question," she said. "You know, it’s something that I’m thinking about. I haven’t declared yet but it’s certainly something I’m thinking about.”

A member of the audience also questioned her about legalizing gambling (because whose grandparents don't like to gamble!? Stereotypes!). She ducked the question, but we caught up with her afterwards and got a decent answer, though still no commitment from her for either side of the issue.

Quinn speaking to Home residents.
The Home's CEO Daniel Reingold is to her left.

"I'm not a huge fan of gambling, its generally a regressive way to raise money," she said. "That said, if it's going to exist in New York, then I want it to exist in the whole state and then we can decide what we want to do on the city. I wouldn't want the city excluded from it. I'm sympatheic to Governor Cuomo's situation of having to generate revenues."

We also asked her about the living wage and whether or not she thinks it could become broader with a mayor who is more favorable to it (Bloomberg may veto the bill). “I think the key thing for creating more jobs at a living wage in the retail sector is for the Economic Development Corporation to do what L.A. and San Francisco's have done," she said. Both city's have adopted an aggressive policy "where they’re always negotiating towards [a living wage] and with that, you need a mayor who believes in it," she said.

Mayoral hopeful Scott Stringer stresses his local ties

Here's a story from this week's Riverdale Review and Bronx Press.

Stringer has been on the campaign trail, coming to Riverdale twice in a month.

By Brendan McHugh 

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer toured the Riverdale Y last week, making his second trip to the neighborhood in less than a month. 

Following in the footsteps of other 2013 prospective mayoral candidates, Stringer schmoozed with the seniors at the Riverdale Y during their Friday lunch on Jan. 13 with Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. 

Previously, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn toured the facilities with City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell and City Comptroller John Liu followed Dinowitz through the Y. 

But Stringer, a suspected candidate for mayor, has an extra connection to the area that his opponents do not: his mother is a Kappock Street resident. Stringer showed off pictures of his five-week-old baby, Maxwell, and talked to the seniors about saving critical services in the upcoming budget. 

“There is a real vitality in the area, especially among the seniors in this community,” Stringer said. “We need to mobilize seniors to prevent budget cuts to vital services.” 

Manhattan BP helps light Riverdale menorah

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer came up to Riverdale last night to help light the menorah in Bell Tower Park.

The menorah, at over 30-feet-high and over 600 lbs, is the largest menorah in the Bronx.

Stringer, lighting the menorah, for the second day of Chanukah.

Stringer, lighting the menorah.

PS 24 student Dylan also got to light one of the candles.

Stringer, a potential mayoral candidate, joined students from PS 24 and local Jewish leaders.

He seemed to enjoy himself during the ceremony. As he was in the crane, he joked to the crowd, "12 days ago my wife gave birth...she asked what I'd be doing in the Bronx...I told her I was only lighting a menorah...if only she could see me now!"

He quickly got back on track, playing to the Jewish crowd: "It's great to be in Riverdale--a wonderful, vibrant Jewish community."

Officials, agencies react to Cuomo's tax plan

City Comptroller John Liu, State Senator Gustavo Rivera, the MTA and the Alliance for Quality Education have all released statements complimenting Governor Andrew Cuomo on his leadership in tax reform. More statements will flow in, so I'll post them all below the jump.

Here's part of Cuomo's press release from today. Read the whole thing here.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today announced that they have reached a proposed three-way agreement on legislative and executive proposals to create jobs and cut taxes for middle class New Yorkers. The agreement includes support for a comprehensive New York Works Agenda that will create thousands of jobs with new investments in New York's infrastructure, passing a fair tax reform plan that achieves the first major restructuring of the tax code in decades resulting in a tax cut for 4.4 million middle class New Yorkers taxpayers, approving $50 million in additional relief for areas devastated by recent floods, and reducing the MTA payroll tax to provide relief for small businesses. The leaders will now present the agreement to their members for approval.

"Our state government has come together in a bipartisan manner to create jobs, grow our economy and, at the same time enact a fair tax plan that cuts taxes for the middle class," Governor Cuomo said. "We are investing in projects that will restore our state's infrastructure and put thousands of people to work. We are cutting taxes on middle class New Yorkers and small businesses, which will inject nearly $1 billion into our economy. We are targeting new tax credits to hire inner city youth and reduce unemployment in some of the poorest areas of our state, as well as providing direct aid to communities struggling to recover in the wake of this year's severe storms. This would be lowest tax rate for middle class families in 58 years. This job-creating economic plan defies the political gridlock that has paralyzed Washington and shows that we can make government work for the people of this State once again."

Jump below for the statements.

Poll: NYPD's Ray Kelly the next mayor

Mayor Ray Kelly?

A Quinnipiac poll released yesterday shows NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly is the frontrunner for the next mayor of our fine city. While he hasn't given any hints of running for office in 2013, he would be the candidate to beat, with 23 percent of New Yorkers (17 percent with Democrats) saying they'd like to see him in running the city. That puts him five points ahead of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who polled with 18 percent (20 percent with Democrats).

With Bronxites, Kelly and Quinn came in one-two, but the gap was much smaller. Kelly received 18 percent of the vote to Quinn's 17. However, more Bronxites (22 percent) said they did not know who they would vote for at all.

Other questions asked cover the current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, as well as the other candidates running for office. Not much of a surprise--Bronxites mostly disapprove of how Bloomberg has handled his last term.

In related mayoral news, WNYC put together an interactive graphic of contributions given to candidates, broken down by zip code. The Bronx, by what looks like a landslide, has given the least amount of money to any candidate. That may be because the Bronx doesn't have a hometown candidate (Brooklyn has DeBlasio and Thompson, Manhattan has Stringer and Quinn, Queens has Liu), though it's probably related to a variety of other reasons as well. Although, if you want to make a stretch, Ray Kelly is a Manhattan College alum (MC is in Riverdale, remember! And yes, I'm a former Jasper myself), so if he gets involved in the race he could try to take advantage of the other candidates' lack of Bronx roots.