Adolfo Carrion hints at something electoral in his future
John Liu, Bill Thompson, Carrion and Melinda Katz. Azi Paybarah.
8:13 pm Feb. 22, 20121
Former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, who left New York City to serve in the Obama administration, is back in town, and, during an interview on NY1's "Inside City Hall," he hinted at something electoral in his future.
"I'm not ready to say that I will run for office in the 2013 cycle, but I'm not ready to say that I won't," said Carrion, in response to a question from host Errol Louis about his future.
Carrion has more than $1 million in campaign funds. Carrion considered running for mayor, and then comptroller, in 2009.
"I do have the kind of purse that allows me to put up a shingle and start a campaign rather quickly, but I think what's more important right now is to engage in the conversation about, not the who but the what of the campaign for 2013," said Carrion. "It's not as important who becomes the mayor. These are quite capable people. The question that I have for them, and including for myself, is, what's the agenda? How are we gonna fix the schools? How are we going to ensure that the small businesses are able to operate here in New York City, raise capital, innovate, get the government and regulation off their back."
"We should really mine for the regulations that are obstructing the progress of growth and opportunity in the city," continued Carrion, sounding very much like a candidate running for something. "We need to clean up the environment. We need to invest in infrastructure. These are all things that I want to know how these folks are going to engage in that conversation. And so I'll be there."
What role he'll occupy, or try to occupy, while being there is unclear.
Louis touched on one possibility that's been floated, namely running to represent a new majority Hispanic congressional district in New York City.
"If this is done right...where you create a contiguous district that makes sense geographically, a Latino district emerges," said Carrion.
"And then at that point, there are plenty of very good people who can offer themselves," said Carrion, with a smile.
Even he nows the fresh direct deal was terrible and he did a few bad ones himself!
And Diaz tried to address the horrific environmental ramifications of a huge bunker on the waterfront.
This would be a joke if the criminal misuse of our public money was not so serious. They are proposing for the public to give fresh direct $1million dollars to buy ten small trucks, giving more public money to Smith Electric. Imagine the benefit that money could have for existing small businesses. Essentially the public is paying for the fresh direct trucks to compete unfairly against existing supermarkets and bodegas while they pay their workers $8 an hour. It makes no sense and demands investigation.
Finally, electric trucks are not clean. Where does the electricity come from? Fossil fuels like coal and oil and methane gas, with four power plants on the waterfront of the South Bronx. So again, these trucks would run clean through the Upper East Side while the South Bronx gets the pollution from the refueling. It is terrible on every level. The waterfront has better potential for mixed use development that would create more jobs and environmental benefits of open space.