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NY1 Omits Bronx in CD 13 Report

23 Jun

First it was the New York Times that incorrectly described the 13th Congressional District as including the south Bronx, when it’s the northwest Bronx that’s part of the newly configured CD. But now NY1 has gone a step further in misinforming voters by excluding the Bronx altogether. “Upper Manhattan Democrats will head to the polls on Tuesday to choose the nominee,” anchor Lewis Dodley told viewers. (Thanks to the Bronx Matters reader who alerted us to this.)

It’s NY1’s turn to make a correction, and preferably do a story that takes a look at the Bronx portion of the district.

Super PAC Mailers Supporting Espaillat Riddled with Errors

21 Jun

The mailings many of us Bronxites living in the new 13th Congressional District received yesterday would appear to most voters that they were from Adriano Espaillat (and that’s the way they appeared to me initially). But when you look at the fine print you see that they’re the work of the Latino Empowerment PAC, a Super PAC that by law should have no connection with Espaillat, a state senator seeking to unseat Congressman Charles Rangel in a newly drawn district that includes a large chunk of the northwest Bronx.  There’s no evidence that there is a connection with Espaillat, and the closer you look at them the more disappointed the candidate is likely to be that they were sent out with his name and face on them.

As for the errors, let’s begin with the smallest and work our way up.

I asked my 8-year-old daughter what was wrong with the mailer pictured below, and she explained it by simply reading it out loud, “The Bronx Needs It Is Own Voice in Congress.”  (She chose to bring the fliers to school to share the errors with her class this morning.)

OK, getting past the grammatical error, the content implies that the Bronx does not have a voice in Congress. Congressmen Jose Serrano and Eliot Engel will probably be rather irritated to read this.

Which brings us to the totally mistaken claim (below) that Senator Espaillat is “from the Bronx.” He is from Manhattan as are all five candidates running. And while he has been supported by Bronx leaders such as former borough president Fernando Ferrer, who is pictured on the flier, as well as State Senator Gustavo Rivera and Councilman Oliver Koppell— the most prominent photo here is of Manhattan Democrat Mark Levine.

Oh, speaking of that apostrophe … We now see where they stole it from …

The above mailer with the missing apostrophe and attacking incumbent Rangel is also the work of the Latino Empowerment PAC. They’re listed on web sites tracking campaign financing with Jeffrey Garcia as the Treasurer. A Huffington Post report on recent Super PAC registrations indicates that Garcia and the PAC are from Coral Gables, Florida. We’ll let you know if we learn anything else about this. (And let us know if you do.) And don’t forget that the primary election is next Tuesday, June 26.

Update: According to this Federal Election Commission filing, the chairman of the Latino Empowerment PAC is Fransisco Cerezo (the unusual spelling of the first name — with an “s” rather than a “c” — is how it’s written on the form). Thanks to journalist David Lewis for leading me to this.

—Jordan Moss

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Times and Post Miseducate Readers on 13th Congressional District Primary

18 Jun

[Update 6/19/12 — The New York Times did the right thing this morning, making the correction on the print edition editorial page and on the Times’ website. The Post hasn’t yet. Also, we’ve made a correction below ourselves. Riverdale residents who were in the 17th District, represented by Eliot Engel, will still be represented Engel or whoever challenges him in November. But it is now the 16th District, rather than the 17th.]

A week from tomorrow — on Tuesday, June 26 — the voters that know about it and act on that knowledge will participate in an oddly scheduled Congressional primary. Usually, such primaries take place in September at the same time as primaries for the Assembly and State Senate. But due to the complicated and distressing politics around redistricting, this primary will have its own day.

Here in the Bronx, the primary is highly significant because most residents of the northwest Bronx will no longer be in the Congressional District now represented by Eliot Engel (will change from the 17th to the 16th District). Almost all northwest Bronx residents, except those living in Riverdale (still represented by Engel in the 16th), will be in the 13th District.

Daily newspapers have an opportunity — and more importantly, a responsibility — to help educate their Bronx readers about an epic change in who will represent them in Congress.

But yesterday, in endorsing Clyde Williams, a former official in the Clinton administration, The New York Times inexplicably listed the south Bronx as the section of the borough in the new district (even while they took pains to list several of the individual Manhattan neighborhoods in C.D. 13).

There is not a block in the newly drawn 13th Congressional district that is in the south Bronx, even if you define the south Bronx widely as every neighborhood below the Cross Bronx Expressway. The Times’ editorial writers failed to simply look at the maps on-line, or simply check in with their political reporters.

With only eight days to the primary, the Times has a duty to set the record straight. Not just a correction on page 2 that almost nobody reads, but on the editorial page.

The New York Post added to the miseducation in their endorsement of Espaillat, with a headline indicating the new district as the 15th. They need to do the right thing, too.

Meanwhile, here are some links to coverage on the race. First off, click here for last week’s debate on BronxTalk, which included all the candidates except for Charles Rangel.

Here’s a primary news roundup, prepared by Norwood News editor Alex Kratz, with a bunch of links to recent coverage of the race. And here’s a link to more Norwood News coverage of this primary and the candidates vying for the seat.

The Riverdale Press also has a run a bunch of articles on this critical primary race. Check them out here.

Here are links to the websites of candidates Adriano Espaillat, Joyce Joynson, Charles Rangel, Craig Schley, and Clyde Williams.

And finally, here’s a map of the 13th Congressional District. (To see the maps of other districts in the city and state click here.)

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John Liu on BronxTalk Tonight

4 Jun

Update: Here’s the link for the video of the Liu interview: http://www.bronxnet.org/tv/bronxtalk/viewvideo/1634/bronxtalk/bronxtalk–june-4-2012

Comptroller John Liu will be on Gary Axelbank’s BronxTalk tonight at 9 p.m. According to Axelbank: “He’ll talk about the Fresh Direct deal, the filtration plant, politics, and much more. BronxTalk is Monday nights at 9:00pm on Bronxnet’s channel 67 (Fios 33).”

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NYPD Still Hiding Neighborhood Crime Data

23 May

The previous post on that New York World stop-and-frisk map got me thinking once again about how critical it is for the NYPD to release crime data for neighborhoods rather than just precincts, which is what the weekly CompStat reports cover. Precincts have populations as large as many cities (for example there are about 150,000 people in the 52nd Precinct). The NYPD understands very well that precinct stats alone are not that not helpful in determining where particular categories of crime listed in the CompStat reports are the most prevalent. That’s why they generate more targeted data, called sector stats, for at least a dozen areas within every precinct in the city.

The NYPD rarely makes this data available. At the Norwood News, where I was editor until last September, we once got it from the 52nd Precinct commander, but NYPD brass prevented him and future commanders from sharing it again. So the last time we got it we waited more than a year for the agency to fulfill our Freedom of Information Law request and they complied only after an NBC-TV report (video) highlighted our editorial campaign to get them to release the data.

The data is critical simply because people have the right to know whether they are safe in their own neighborhoods. Precinct-wide data is not helpful in that regard. Crime may be down precinct-wide but it could be up significantly in a sector (which may be one reason the NYPD is locking down the info). New Yorkers should be able to easily find out where crime is going down and where it’s going up.

And they should have easy access to data that indicates what crimes are on the upswing. Lots of car thefts in the area? A spike in rapes? An uptick in assaults? Knowing this info would help residents ensure their own safety and also be on the lookout for crimes in progress. How can more eyes and ears on the streets not be useful to the NYPD?

Last year, motivated by the Norwood News’ reporting, Council Member Fernando Cabrera introduced legislation that would require the NYPD to release the sector stat data on a regular basis. It’s still in committee and we have a call into Cabrera’s office to find out more about its status. We’ll let you know where it’s at soon. In the meantime, take a look at the bill:

It’s not complicated. The NYPD collects this data on the taxpayer dime, yet keeps it hidden from public view. The legislation above would fix that. We hope to see action on it soon.

—Jordan Moss

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Powell No Bronx Hero

23 May

Yesterday, on National Public Radio, Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state in the Bush Administration, talked about how his famous speech to the United Nations about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction came to be (starts around 1:18). In a calm tone devoid of anger, or even regret, Powell recounts how the intelligence community assured him that the “information I had was correct” and then concedes “some of it turned out not to be.” “Some” being the fact that Hussein had WMD when he didn’t.  If you listen to this, you wonder why Powell wasn’t highly suspect of the case for war when someone on Vice President Dick Cheney’s staff — Scooter Libby — was given the responsibility for preparing the original document rather than a member of the intelligence community. Powell was certainly aware of how hell-bent Cheney was on taking the country to war in Iraq.

Maybe this will remind us that fame and professional success aren’t honorable in and of themselves. Powell, who grew up on Kelly Street in Hunts Point and was honored by his induction on the Bronx Walk of Fame several years ago, exhibits no remorse or regret in this interview about his speech, even though it helped pave the way for an unethical war that killed 4,477 American service members. He just calmly lays the blame on others.

Bronxites tend to be proud of the famous Powell who rose from humble roots to become the most powerful military officer in the land.

We shouldn’t be.

Powell shouldn’t be lionized in our classrooms or on our boulevards. He, and the immoral war he helped bring about, should be studied and discussed thoroughly and honestly. Simply being influential and powerful shouldn’t be the characteristics by which we determine who to honor, praise and respect. How influence and power are used should be.

—Jordan Moss

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Why Diaz Will Enshrine Fat Joe on Walk of Fame

17 May

Patrice O’Shaugnessy seems to have figured out why Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. will be honoring rapper Fat Joe — he with the misogynist and violent lyrics — on the borough’s Walk of Fame this weekend. Let us know if you think she’s on the right track.

We’ve been kind of surprised that no one has written about this issue since the Hunts Point Express raised it in a critical editorial.

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More Trials Ahead for the Espadas, Post Reports

15 May

The New York Post reports that, despite being convicted on four federal counts yesterday, former state Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. will be hauled back to court to face charges on alleged crimes the jury couldn’t come to a decision on. Espada’s son, Pedro Gautier Espada, will also be retried, according to an unnamed Post source, after the jury failed to decide on a single count facing him. The elder Espada faces up to 40 years in prison on the four counts.

The do-over trial is reminiscent of the hung jury that couldn’t come to a verdict on the corruption charges brought against Council Member Larry Seabrook. Prosecutors also plan to retry Seabrook

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