(L. to r.): Borough President Helen Marshall, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney and former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr. Photo Vinny DuPre Community leaders, elected officials and a candidate for state office crowded into Mezzo Mezzo at Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Street Monday night to hear Congressmember Carolyn Maloney discuss her plans for her continuing service in representing the 14th Congressional District and recount her accomplishments in office. The event, organized by Joseph Pistilli, chairman, president and chief executive officer of First Central Savings Bank and chief executive officer of Pistilli Realty, and Jack Brucculeri, chief executive officer of AAH Construction, also secured generous contributions toward Maloney’s upcoming campaign to keep the 14th District seat.

Introduced by former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., Maloney thanked the host committee for a superlative job of organizing and promoting the event and acknowledged Astoria Kiwanis President Linda Perno for inspiring attendance and United Community Civic Association President Rose Marie Poveromo and Michael Woloz for their efforts. She acknowledged (L. to r.): Borough President Helen Marshall, City Councilmember Daniel Dromm and Congressmember Carolyn Maloney.City Councilmembers Peter Vallone Jr. and Mark Weprin, Queens County Clerk and County Clerk of Courts Gloria D’Amico, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, Borough President Helen Marshall and former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr.Councilmembers Peter Vallone Jr., Daniel Dromm and James Van Bramer as “members who are hard-working, energetic and committed to this community”. She also recognized District Leaders Gloria DeMarco Aloise, Anne Marie Anzalone, Costa Constantinides, Deirdre Feerick and John Smyth, State Committee Members Eileen Boland, Laura Jean Hawkins and Gus Prentzas, Community Board 2 Chair Joseph Conley, Board 2 District Manager Debbie Markell, Board 7 Vice Chair Chuck Apelian, Donna Furey Esq., Paul Halvatzis, Theodore Kasapis, Esq., Richard Khuzami, SHAREing and CAREing co-founder Anna Kril, Michael Serao and Paul Vallone Esq. She also hailed Aravella Simotas, “our next Assemblywoman”. Simotas is running for the 36th Assembly District seat left open as incumbent Michael Gianaris runs for the 12th state senate district on George Onorato’s retirement.

Maloney pointed out that the Long Island Rail Road East Side Connector, a project for which she has secured funding, will not only cut commuting time and expand capacity on the rail line, but will also and most important, create a new LIRR stop in Sunnyside “that will help support the growing Long Island City business district, bringing people to work and students to school at LaGuardia Community College”. The $56 million she has brought in federal funding for the Queens Plaza Streetscape Project, which is currently under construction, will improve traffic patterns and expand green space in Queens Plaza, “transforming a pedestrian’s nightmare into a welcoming gateway to New York City”. She added that she had successfully stymied efforts by the state to take money away from the Queens Plaza neighborhood and transfer it to other projects. “I called the commissioner of the Department of Transportation and made sure those funds stayed in our community,” she told her hearers.

(L. to r.): SHAREing and CAREing co-founder Anna Kril, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, First Central Savings Bank Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer and Pistilli Realty Chief Executive Officer Joseph Pistilli, First Central Savings Bank Vice President, Branch Coordinator, Human Resources Christine Lolas; (behind Lolas) First Central Savings Bank Senior Vice President Al Rescigno and Edith Lopez, Pistilli Realty. Astoria and Long Island City together are a medically underserved community and Maloney noted that she has worked to secure funds for the Floating Hospital (now docked on land in Long Island City). “They were awarded $1.3 million in federal stimulus money which will enable them to double their size and expand their ability to serve the neighborhood,” she reported. “But I know that what this community needs now is a full service hospital, and I’ll be working with Mount Sinai Queens and my colleagues in local government to make sure that Mount Sinai becomes a full service hospital that has the capacity to serve all of the community’s needs.”

Maloney also noted that Congress had signed into law her Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights, “the strongest pro-consumer legislation in a generation” and has passed legislation providing mammograms to women on Medicare, implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, cracking down on human trafficking, and increasing the number of rape kits processed so that prosecutors have access to DNA evidence to convict or acquit rapists (the Debbie Smith Bill). She also cited as among her proudest accomplishments reform of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), ensuring proper oversight of foreign companies investing in U.S. companies or property that would have a national security implication. “We don’t want Venezuela owning our voting machines,” she said, not entirely in jest.

The Obama Administration and Congress have passed a stimulus bill that is putting billions of dollars back into the economy and putting people to work, Maloney added. New York has received nearly $12 billion that has saved or created more than 43,000 jobs statewide and her 14th CD is third in the state on terms of dollars invested and jobs created. “Jobs will remain our highest priority,” she said. “The Joint Economic Committee will ask large and small businesses for their ideas. We need to identify targeted actions Congress can take to spark an immediate increase in jobs.”

Maloney concluded by referring to public office as “a debt that needs to be repaid every day”, adding that she has “always worked to represent the concerns and interests of [her] district”. –Tony Barsamian

and Linda J.

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