I on politics
By John Toscano
A Buoyant Bloomberg Visits Queens For A Day

The Mayor with BP Marshall, Councilmember Sears and Councilmember Liu during his one day visit to Queens last week.

Perhaps trying to boost his sagging poll numbers, a suddenly upbeat Mayor Michael Bloomberg was acting like a candidate last Wednesday when he visited Borough Hall in Kew Gardens, addressed a Rotary Club in Forest Hills and toured Jackson Heights and downtown Flushing.

During a visit to Shaheen’s, a restaurant popular with the various Indian groups in Jackson Heights, the mayor gave a big boost to City Councilmember Helen Sears (D), telling local business leaders, that although Sears "works on the other side of City Hall, she’s always on my side, pressing, pressing and pressing for the things that will help her constituents."

After a light lunch at Borough Hall, Borough President Helen Marshall invited Bloomberg back to visit some of the county’s trouble spots, such as overcrowded schools. The mayor’s excursion, spending the day hobnobbing with the public, might have been a way to bring up his poll ratings.

The mayor started the tour with a short talk to the Rotary Club of Jamaica at Sarabella’s Restaurant in Forest Hills and ended it with a tour of Flushing with Councilmember John Liu (D), where he also attended the roll call at Flushing’s 109th Police Precinct with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

On Sunday, just back from a one-day trip to the Dominican Republic, the mayor came to Queens again to attend the Ecuadorian Heritage Pride parade in Jackson Heights. He later attended the Puerto Rican Day Parade in The Bronx.

Perhaps buoyed by all his campaign-like activities, the mayor hinted on Friday in a talk to the Financial Control Board that with a brightening fiscal picture, the city might start thinking of rolling back the 18.5 percent real estate hike, along with rollbacks of sales and income taxes.

The mayor’s aides said later that he was perhaps being a bit too optimistic, although many of the city councilmembers who voted for the property tax hike no doubt wish the rollback can go into effect before they go before the voters this November.

Overall, though, the mayor, in sharp contrast to the gloom-and-doom talk over the past year, was able to say to the FCB, "New York has weathered the most difficult part of our fiscal crisis. While we still face fiscal challenges, I believe our worst days are over."

The city may well face a looming $2 billion budget shortfall next year, although the problem could be handled easily, considering that the mayor was able to wipe out a $6 billion shortfall when the current budget was crafted.

KATZ HOSTS MILLER’S F.H. VISIT: The mayor wasn’t the only big city pol to visit Queens last Wednesday. Council Speaker Gifford Miller was Councilmember Melinda Katz’s guest as he visited the Selfhelp Austin Street Senior Center on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills.

Miller assured the center members that the council is ever mindful of looking after seniors’ needs. He also urged them to take advantage of the many programs available to them.

Katz (D–Forest Hills) had an announcement of her own to make—she had secured a $5,000 grant to upgrade the air conditioning unit at the Austin Street center.

MONSERRATE MEETS WITH COCA COLA REPS: Investigating allegations of violence and harassment of workers in Coca Cola plants in Colombia and other Latin American countries, Councilmember Hiram Monserrate (D–Corona) met with representatives of the giant soft drink company at 250 Broadway opposite City Hall last Thursday.

Monserrate, co-chairman of the council Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, set up the meeting, he said, in response to growing concerns in the city’s large Latino communities. The lawmaker also represents one of the largest Colombian communities in the United States, and one which has become increasingly upset by reports of alleged direct cooperation between rogue paramilitary groups and management at Coca Cola’s chief bottler in Colombia, according to a Monserrate release.

No details of the meeting were released.

KATZ STARTS FOOD DRIVE: Katz (D–Forest Hills), declaring, "Hunger in Queens is a bigger problem than many realize," has launched a food collection drive that will last throughout August and hopefully will help to address the problem.

"In these difficult times," she said, "more and more people are turning to food assistance programs to avoid going hungry." Promoting the drive, Katz said, "For those of us who are fortunate enough to never really know hunger, it is not too much to give a little."

Katz said non-perishable donations can be brought to her office at 104-01 Metropolitan Ave., Forest Hills, 718-544-8800.

Katz said that according to the Food Bank for New York City, one in five New Yorkers—1.5 million people—currently rely on food assistance programs to help them survive. More than half of them are children and the elderly, she noted. All food items collected will go to the Food Bank, which in turn will supply community programs, such as soup kitchens, shelters, food pantries, low income day care centers and senior centers.

NEW FENCE AT R.H. LIRR STATION: Assemblymember Nettie Mayersohn reports that in response to a request which she made, an abandoned Long Island Rail Road station in Richmond Hill has been cleaned up and a fence has been put around it.

Mayersohn (D–Flushing) said that a portion of Richmond Hill is in her district under the new district lines adopted last year. She said the station has been shut since 1998 because of decreased ridership and had become a haven for illegal dumping, the homeless and rodents. Mayersohn said she secured funding through the MTA’s Capital Improvements Program to enable the LIRR to clean up and fence the property.