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Family of ferry crash victim awarded $8.75M
A little common courtesy could've saved the city from forking over millions to the family of a Staten Island ferry crash victim.
Kathy Healy, whose husband, James, died in the disaster, said Monday she held out for a maximum $8.75 million settlement in part because of repeated snubs.
"It has been a battle from day one," said Healy, 46, of Middletown, N.J. "The treatment the victims' families received was never one of sympathy or sorrow."
The grieving widow slammed Mayor Bloomberg for failing to own up to the city's responsibility for the Oct. 15, 2003, crash, which killed 11 people.
"Mayor Bloomberg never gave a public apology about their mistakes," said Healy. "No New York politician ever gave their support to help us."
Healy said she is still bitter it took officials nearly seven hours to notify her of her husband's death and that she had to pay for an autopsy report out of her own pocket.
City lawyers agreed to settle the case on the eve of the trial after a judge suggested that the city would likely be forced to pay up to the maximum amount.
"Had they treated us a little differently," she said, "maybe my decision would be a little different."
Flanked by three of her four children, Healy announced the mammoth settlement outside Brooklyn Federal Court.
The city said it agreed to settle the suit to "recognize the pain suffered by Mr. Healy's family." A little common courtesy could've saved the city from forking over millions to the family of a Staten Island ferry crash victim. ... more -
Windmill Power Plan for New York City
In a plan that would drastically remake New York City’s skyline and shores, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is seeking to put wind turbines on the city’s bridges and skyscrapers and in its waters as part of a wide-ranging push to develop renewable energy.
The plan, while still in its early stages, appears to be the boldest environmental proposal to date from the mayor, who has made energy efficiency a cornerstone of his administration.
Mr. Bloomberg said he would ask private companies and investors to study how windmills can be built across the city, with the aim of weaning it off the nation’s overtaxed power grid, which has produced several crippling blackouts in New York over the last decade.
Mr. Bloomberg did not specify which skyscrapers and bridges would be candidates for windmills, and city officials would need to work with property owners to identify the buildings that would best be able to hold the equipment.
But aides said that for offshore locations, the city was eyeing the generally windy coast off Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island for turbines that could generate 10 percent of the city’s electricity needs within 10 years.
“When it comes to producing clean power, we’re determined to make New York the No. 1 city in the nation,” Mr. Bloomberg said as he outlined his plans in a speech Tuesday night in Las Vegas, where a major conference on alternative energy is under way.
He later evoked the image of the Statue of Liberty’s torch, saying he imagined it one day “powered by an ocean wind farm.”
But the mayor’s proposal for wind power faces several serious obstacles: People are likely to oppose technologies that alter the appearance of their neighborhoods; wind-harnessing technology can be exceedingly expensive; and Mr. Bloomberg has less than 18 months left in office to put a plan into place.
Turning New York City into a major source of wind power would likely take years, if not decades, and could require a thicket of permits from state and federal agencies. Parts of New York’s coastline, for example, are controlled by the federal government, from which private companies must lease access.
Mr. Bloomberg is known for introducing ambitious proposals that later collapse, as did his congestion-pricing plan for Manhattan.
But aides said he was committed to developing alternative energy sources in the city, and wanted to jump-start the discussion now.
“In New York,” he said in his speech, “we don’t think of alternative power as something that we just import from other parts of the nation.” In a plan that would drastically remake New York City’s skyline and shores, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is seeking to put wind turbines... more -
Police violence during Critical Mass in NYC
With the Seattle event getting media coverage for the driver of a car running over bicyclists then having his car attacked (tires slashed, window shattered), now we get to see how the police in NYC feel about the event there. YIKES. Don't cops know that they are probably being caught on tape these days?!?! With the Seattle event getting media coverage for the driver of a car running over bicyclists then having his car attacked (tires slas... more
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Bloomberg Blasts Rumor About Obama
BOCA RATON, Fla. — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, injecting himself directly into the presidential campaign, forcefully denounced on Friday what he called a “whisper campaign” linking Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to Islam.
Speaking before a crucial constituency in the coming election, Jewish voters, in the pivotal state of Florida, Mr. Bloomberg said that rumors of Mr. Obama secretly being a Muslim represent “wedge politics at its worst, and we have to reject it — loudly, clearly and unequivocally.”
“Let’s call those rumors what they are: lies,” said Mr. Bloomberg.
Mr. Bloomberg’s blunt denunciation of the rumors is likely to ingratiate the mayor with Mr. Obama’s campaign before the Democratic convention in August.
Mr. Bloomberg has suggested that he does not want the job of vice president and has said that he will not make a third-party run for the White House. .
End of Excerpt
Source: New York Times BOCA RATON, Fla. — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, injecting himself directly into the presidential campaign, forcefully denounced on Frid... more -
A restaurant that cares about your hynie hygiene
we found a restaurant that the mayor loves AND the joint cares about your hynie hygiene.. click thru the link to see the rest of the post.. we found a restaurant that the mayor loves AND the joint cares about your hynie hygiene.. click thru the link to see the rest of the p... more
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NYC Mayor: I'd Ban Bikes on Subways
WTF!
Hizzoner: "I don't run the subway system, I don't run the MTA but if I did -- if I had total power -- I guess I'd say it's too crowded for bikes."
The only wheels he wants too see are baby strollers...
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Give me a break.
My bike is my baby.
Makes the BART look like a primo limo! West is best.
By Alexander Lew //WIRED_blog
Hearing that you're not welcome on the subway because you're carrying a bicycle is disappointing to say the least, especially since biking goes hand-in-hand with public transit. That's why cyclists in the Big Apple were outraged when Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that, if it were up to him, he'd ban bikes from trains.
Bike advocates quickly denounced Bloomberg's comments.
"We have the most liberal bikes-on-transit policy in the entire country," Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives, the city's leading bicycle advocacy group, told the New York Post. "Without that access, it would be a huge blow to biking in the city."
Yet the mayor says the only wheels he wants to see on subways are on baby strollers? The irony of that is not lost on Norvel, who said, "the idea that you can take on a cello, stroller or drum set but not bikes is ridiculous."
The MTA seems to agree. So far, it hasn't changed its policy.
- - - click link for full article - - - WTF! ... more -
The Associated Press: NYC Mayor Loses Big on Traffic Fee Plan
I have mixed feelings about Bloomberg. As a smoker, the ever increasing tobacco tax in New York makes me angry, but as a non-driver I think legislation like this is a good way to generate revenue for a major metropolitan area such as New York. Alas, it seems like smokers are more demonized than drivers, even though cars are far worse for the world we live in than cigarettes. I have mixed feelings about Bloomberg. As a smoker, the ever increasing tobacco tax in New York makes me angry, but as a non-driver I ... more
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Mayor Presses for $8 Fee for Drivers to Enter Parts of Manhattan - New York Times
New Yorkers are battling over a $8 toll just to drive to Manhattan
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