Homeless Shelters by the dozens being dumped into Queens and especially Jamaica, BUT you don’t hear one damn word from Queens Borough President Katz or Jamaica Congressman Gregory Meeks on this subject since it started. Awful roads in Queens and especially Jamaica and you don’t hear a peep from Katz or Meeks. Tons of illegal garbage dumping in Jamaica, not a peep from Katz or Meeks, even though people like community activist and Jamaica resident Pamela Hazel contacts her office regularly. Trucks driving illegally on residential streets, especially in Jamaica, not a damn peep from her. A poisonous waste transfer station, Royal Waste, right smack in downtown Jamaica near hundreds of homes and a senior citizen apartment building, NOTHING. BUT mention immigrants and both Katz and Meeks jump on this like flies on shit as she states “We have your back” in regards to a Trump presidency. PLUS of course Katz is gearing up for election and her 2nd run as Borough President and she wants those votes.
BUT lets get some REALITY into this story that the writer Anthony O’Reilly of Queens Chronicle did not bring up. FIRST and this is VERY IMPORTANT, whatever Trumps policies entail or whatever he does, this does not affect immigrants who are here legally and are US citizens, which make up the majority of immigrants, so stating “we have your back” is bullshit, since these majority immigrants have no concern. The issue is with illegal immigrants or the PC term, undocumented immigrants (like they lost or misplaced their important papers) and that makes up a small percentage of immigrants. She states 49% of her constituents in Queens were born outside the USA (and I am not even sure of that figure), but the majority of them are here legally and most are US citizens, so what does that have to do with the price of tea in China. NOTHING, it is all political bullshit to collect votes during election time.
BUT how about the rest of us, folks born here, here legally and hard working tax payers (including many immigrants) who deal constantly with poor quality of life issues in this borough (well, except in areas like Katz’s hood of Forest Hills or uber rich LIC) that she, Meeks and the many other do-nothing elected officials never speak up about or do anything about. We deal with the same poor quality of life issues every single day, over and over again with the same problems and issues, especially in places like Jamaica, which have been documented for years on the Clean Up Jamaica blog.
So Katz, Meeks, WE ARE ALL YOUR CONSTITUENTS, so stop playing your race baiting game, your pandering and constantly putting people into separate “ethnic” categories, which is what make people angry and which is what got the dangerous clown Trump into office and made a major loser of the Democrats.
WE ARE ALL AMERICANS & WE ARE ALL YOUR CONSTITUENTS. But someone many of us don’t count for whatever reason (we see through your bullshit and know we are not going to cast votes for you anyway).
Now Katz, come to Jamaica on this coming Friday for your blowhard bullshit “State of the Borough”, which I am sure not one word will be mentioned of the problems in Queens and especially places like Jamaica that you and your cronies have yet to address properly.
And by the way, come very clean about “One of the highlights was that in 2015, Queens brought in $8.3 billion in tourism dollars.” We would like to see the breakdown, because I for one do not for one minute believe that tourists spent 8.3 billion in dollars in Queens unless you are counting all their airfare. Just because you throw up that figure (without one piece of back-up) does not make it true. At least the Chronicle called her on “she took office in 2014, there have been 18 hotels built in Queens and there are 30 more in the pipeline” and mentioned how many of them, especially in Jamaica have turned into homeless shelters, yet she really did not have any kind of comeback that was proper, just that she will speak about “homelessness” in her bullshit “State of the Borough”. BUT what won’t you speak about Katz, that is the REAL ISSUE when you fill York College with all your cronies and the blowhard elected officials of Queens and their serfs.
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From Queens Chronicle:
Katz to immigrants: ‘We have your back’
BP promises safety for all; touts boro’s growth in media roundtable
PHOTO BY ANTHONY O’REILLY
Ahead of her State of the Borough address on Friday, Borough President Melinda Katz spoke to reporters during a roundtable discussion. She highlighted the growth Queens has had since she took office three years ago.
Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2017 10:30 am | Updated: 1:18 pm, Thu Jan 26, 2017.
by Anthony O’Reilly, Associate Editor
With 49 percent of her constituents having been born outside the United States, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz had an important message to the immigrants of the World’s Borough.
“We have your back,” Katz said Tuesday during a media roundtable.
As part of her promise, Katz revealed during the roundtable — held ahead of her State of the Borough address on Friday at York College — that she and U.S. Rep Gregory Meeks (D-Queens, Nassau) have been working to bring U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services back to the borough after a two-year absence.
Katz and Meeks hope to place it in the Joseph P. Addabbo Federal Building in Jamaica, which has many empty spaces.
“We’re working with them to try to make that imminent,” Katz said. “They’re looking for tenants, we’re looking for immigration services here … it’s a very good match.”
The borough president said those discussions have been ongoing and were proposed long before President Trump — who has promised swift actions on immigration and some immigration services — was elected.
“It wasn’t a political thing,” Katz said. “I’m excited we’re just talking about it and we have a location for it.”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services used to have a Queens field office in Long Island City, but moved to Manhattan in 2015.
Now, borough families need to either travel there or Holtsville, LI, for services.
“My office has helped thousands of constituents with their immigration matters,” Meeks said in a statement issued by Katz’s office hours after the roundtable. “Yet, never before have my constituents shown as much concern about their immigration status due to the incoming administration. Hearing their well-founded concerns, Borough President Katz and I are pressing USCIS to reopen its field office to fulfill this clear need. We believe that families should be well-informed and they deserve comprehensive assistance so they have the best opportunity to keep their families together and whole.”
Katz also touted her relationship with different ethnic communities and Queens District Attorney Richard Brown’s prosecution of crimes against immigrants.
She also said her office “can be a resource” for immigrants in need.
Answering questions from international media reporters, Katz said there’s a lot in the air right now.
“I think the problem is right now people are fearful, rightfully so, about the unknown,” she said.
As the borough president looked toward Friday, she said the message of her address will be “Queens: The Borough of Growth, The Borough for Families.”
“It’s about where we are and where we expect to go,” she said.
One of the highlights was that in 2015, Queens brought in $8.3 billion in tourism dollars, the second-highest in the city.
That’s important not only for the borough’s status, but when it comes to calling on the city and state to invest money here.
“The fight used to be, ‘You don’t bring in as much as the other boroughs,’” Katz said. “Well, now we do.”
She praised the reconstruction projects at LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports, both called for by Gov. Cuomo in recent years.
Katz added that flight numbers have increased in recent years, with 28 million coming in and out of the former last year.
One of the next challenges facing the borough, Katz said, is getting people to stay here instead of heading to Manhattan.
Since she took office in 2014, there have been 18 hotels built in Queens and there are 30 more in the pipeline.
But many of the hotels in Queens have not been used for their original purposes and have instead either been entirely or partially rented by the city to house the record number of homeless people in the city.
Katz said she will address homelessness more in-depth at her address on Friday but told reporters, “You need to keep folks in their homes … shelter folks when they don’t have a home to go to” and make sure people have economic stability once moved out of the shelter system.
She also said the city will soon be issuing regulations for notifying community members of its plans to rent hotel rooms to house the undomiciled.
Teasing her Friday speech, Katz said she will address empty apartments in properties managed by the New York City Housing Authority.
Regarding developments in Flushing, Katz said she meets regularly with a task force to discuss the growth in the area.
“I think we’re trying, as it grows organically, to make sure it grows with the families in mind,” she said.
She also revealed that she’s allocated funding for new elevators at the Flushing branch of the Queens Library.
Speaking on education, Katz said borough schools are “No. 1” but face a significant challenge in overcrowding — Queens is at 120 percent capacity.
A spot of good news is that since Katz took office, there’s been a net loss of 44 school trailers in the borough — though some have been added at various schools — with plans for another 44 to be removed in the near future.
Also pertaining to schools, Katz said by the end of her first term she will have bought laptops and Smartboards for every public elementary and middle school in Queens, including special education institutions.
“You can’t learn 21st century technology on 20th century materials,” she said.
The full State of the Borough address starts at 10 a.m. on Friday.