But tenants were upset because Vantage failed to respond when tenants called in with repairs and other concerns. The following is the latest development.

By Vladic Ravich

http://www.queenstribune.com/news/1254415470.html

In a letter dated Sept. 3, the Department of Housing Preservation & Development revoked Vantage Properties’ exemption to provide 24 hour janitorial services through its phone hotline. Critics have charged the method was unresponsive and unable to deliver the same results as a live-in superintendent.

 The letter gives Vantage 30 days to provide the names and addresses of the superintendents for 14 different properties. The letter goes on to mention that Vantage is also not in compliance with this requirement in 28 other buildings.

Vantage has long argued that its call-center model was a step forward for convenience and cost-cutting, touting the centralized model as a far more efficient and accountable than individual superintendents.

 In a previous letter written to Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside) on May 6, HPD said it would approve Vantage’s proposed system as an acceptable alternative to the superintendent requirement. The letter outlined the extensive testing done by HPD and concludes that the system function as it should.

For more: http://www.queenstribune.com/news/1254415470.html

“Is Tom DeLay really on Dancing with the Stars?! I am happy to see there is life after politics.”

ELEX PUT 4 POLS OUT OF WORK

So what’s next for Tony Avella, Eric Gioia, Melinda Katz and David Weprin, whose names have become synonymous with the neighborhoods they represent?

“Most of the time you don’t have that person to kick around again, but other times you do,” mused Baruch College Public Affairs Prof. Doug Muzzio, figuring some scorned pols may someday win an even better seat.

“It’s Lazarus-plus. Not only do you come back to life, but you come back in a better place,” he said.

Insiders wondered if Weprin (D-Hollis), who lost a battle for city controller, would swap gigs with his Assemblyman brother Mark, who’s running for David’s Council seat.

But David Weprin declined to discuss the Assembly seat. “It’s premature,” he said. “Mark still has to win the general election.”

A spokesman for another failed controller candidate, Katz (D-Forest Hills), said she will mull “her battery of options.”

(For the rest of the story, please click on the following link)  http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/09/22/2009-09-22_elex_put_4_pols_out_of_work.html#ixzz0Rr7NtNxC

Bill deBlasio and Mark Green pulled in 33% and 31% of the vote respectively, and face a runoff for the nomination. Meanwhile, local (Sunnyside/Woodside) politician Eric Gioia came in third with a solid 18%.

While Gioia had a well-organized and funded campaign, it was a very difficult challenge to take on the big Manhattan names such as Mark Green. At just 36-years of age, however, Gioia will be back in the mix.

Most riders, who had just finished work, thought “Oh, no, a loud, aggressive panhandler….”  Instead, it was this tall, thin, 20-something man with black-framed glasses and thick sideburns.

“Get out and vote today everyone,” he said. “And when you do, vote for Eric Gioia…he’s from Woodside, believes in helping the middle class, represented Woodside for 7 years….I’ve met him.”  The man had a bundle of vote-for-Gioia campaign literature in his hand.

This man’s name is Matt Bishop, a self-described progressive Democrat. The Cornell graduate said to this reporter: “Hey, other volunteers try and get votes on the street, so I said ‘why not the train.’ At least I have a captive audience!”

Matt Bishop

NEW YORK TIMES

7:24 a.m. | Just after 6:15 a.m., City Councilman Eric N. Gioia arrived at his old elementary school in Queens (Public School 11) wearing his lucky tie (red striped) to vote in the third election with his name on the ballot (this time, for public advocate).

“Morning, everybody!” Mr. Gioia said to the dozen poll workers who greeted him, along with a gaggle of aides and video cameras.

“Oh my God, you look so familiar!” said Bessie Cassaro, a ballot inspector in dangling Obama earrings, playing to the cameras as she went in for a hug. “You must be Eric Gioia!”

Mr. Gioia showed up just as the early-morning confusion had died down, and the experienced poll workers patiently showed new volunteers how to operate the machines. Just a little while before, at 6:01 a.m., a coordinator, Elizabeth M. Berry, glanced at the clock and shouted, “Everybody ready, the voters are coming in!”

Ms. Berry said she expected that turnout at the polling station, on Skillman Avenue in Woodside, would be higher than average because it was in Mr. Gioia’s City Council district.

Mr. Gioia was beaten to the polls by Rich Lazzaro, who cast his ballot at 6:05 a.m. On his way out, Mr. Lazarro said that he did not always vote in primary elections.

“I know Eric,” he said, explaining why he decided to vote this time. “I know his father, I know the whole family. He’s always around here.”

Gioia for public advocate: Daily News endorses Queens councilman

The public advocate office needs to be reinvented with fresh dedication to the mission of improving the lives of New Yorkers. The right person for the job on this year’s ballot is Eric Gioia.

An energetic two-term Queens city councilman, Gioia, 36, has focused on causes that offer quality-of-life benefits, just the kinds of causes that should top the advocate’s agenda – but for too long have not.

The post was established 16 years ago with the idea that its occupant would be a citizens’ problem solver. But its usefulness declined as advocates shifted from fighting for positive reforms to acting almost solely as the city’s chief mayoral critic.

Of the four Democrats in Tuesday’s primary, Gioia has the clearest vision for using the office to get results, an outcome that would give taxpayers a reason not to insist, as we have, on abolishing the post. He promises to avoid the “fake outrages and phony controversies” that have become the public advocate’s hallmark.

Gioia’s activism has been constructive. He fought the MTA on subway cuts to his district, which includes Woodside and Long Island City. He led the charge against Con Ed in the 2006 blackout, standing up to both the utility and Mayor Bloomberg. He mounted successful campaigns to bring the first bank branch to the Queensbridge housing project, convince City Hall to streamline the process of applying for food stamps and persuade Costco to accept them.

Gioia has also shown the courage of his convictions by backing congestion pricing, opposing the Council’s so-called member items and donating to charity the stipend he gets for chairing the investigations committee.

The competition is led by Mark Green, who was advocate before losing to Bloomberg in the 2001 election. A longtime consumer activist, Green is smart, imaginative and never shy about making his views known.

He would invigorate the office with an intention to apply “checks and balances” to Bloomberg. Unfortunately, his plans include tilting toward policy initiatives that extend far beyond the public advocate’s scope.

Making it easier for New Yorkers to plant street trees is a great idea, but forcing the NYPD to pay damages to anyone held beyond 24 hours is wrong. So, too, fighting to roll back a cut in the advocate’s budget.

Brooklyn Councilman Bill de Blasio is a Democratic insider who ran Hillary Clinton‘s 2000 Senate campaign. He, too, seeks a platform for urging broad policy changes. But financial entanglements with the Working Families Party undermine his credibility.

Civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel would continue his brand of advocacy on the public payroll.

The Daily News endorses Eric Gioia – Queens-born, raised in a family that runs a flower shop, educated at NYU and Georgetown Law, an official who kept in touch with working- and middle-class concerns – as the candidate most likely to make a meaningful contribution as public advocate.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/09/10/2009-09-10_gioia_for_public_advocate.html#ixzz0Ql41n2Uk

From Queens Crap:  http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2009/08/doorman-lets-bring-ratner-to-sunnyside.html