Tony Avella
Queens senator bids to landmark Flushing Meadows Corona Park
State Senator Tony Avellas has asked the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to landmark Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the proposed site of three major new developments. More
'There is no reason to be intimidated by the U.S.T.A.'
Among the more than dozen people who turned out to a Queens nursing home on Tuesday evening to talk to a community board about the U.S.T.A.'s request for another piece of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the consensus was unanimous: please don't let it happen. More
'This isn't going to work': A party for Senate Democrats, with Cuomo as the Grinch
In a small room right off the lobby of a swanky residential building overlooking Central Park last night, a handful of Democratic lawmakers, donors and political operatives gathered for what ought to have been a festive occasion: the holiday party hosted by the New York State Senate Democrats. More
(1)Jim Gennaro is raising money for something
Here's an invitation for a fund-raiser next week term-limited City Councilman Jim Gennaro is hosting.
It's for the campaign Gennaro used when he ran for the State Senate against Republican Frank Padavan in 2008, which ended in an epic three-month-long recount. (Afterwards, there were no nice words about burying the hatchet and working together.)
First Democrat calls on Silver to step down as Speaker
"It's been a cumulative effect of the old-school type of politics that's been allowed to permeate Albany and obviously politics in general in New York State," Avella said.
"Part of the problem," Avella said, "is nobody says anything." After thinking it over "for a couple of weeks," he concluded, simply, "I'm very tired of it."
Major League Soccer won't get a Queens stadium without a fight
"There's a lot of issues here," State Senator Tony Avella told Capital, shortly before the meeting began. "You can't just say, 'Oh, that sounds like a great idea." More
(4)Offered free U.S. Open tickets, Christine Quinn will not accept
If City Council Speaker Christine Quinn goes to the U.S. Open, it'll be on her own dime. More
Lawmaker says fracking could ruin Cuomo 2016: 'All it’ll take is one incident'
At a rally at City Hall this afternoon, State Senator Tony Avella said that hydrofracking could ruin Governor Andrew Cuomo's presidential prospects. More
(1)Cuomo-approved member items: Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame, Cold Spring Harbor Rowing Association, Neighborhood Watch Groups of Syracuse
To be clear, Governor Andrew Cuomo isn't against member items. He's just against some of them.
Cuomo has said the difference between the ones he vetoed and the ones he let through was that he was opposed to allocations to new organizations and OK with ones going to organizations to which there was previously a commitment. But it hasn't escaped notice, as he killed of $640,000 worth of member items, that the bulk of his vetoes hit districts represented by State Senate Democrats. More
Who's running for Gary Ackerman's congressional seat, other than Rory Lancman?
-Mark Weprin, a gregarious city councilman and former assemblyman with close ties to the Democratic County organization, who also happens to be the brother of the last candidate picked by the Queens Democrats to run for an open congressional seat
-Grace Meng, an assemblywoman and the daughter of the first Asian-American elected to the state legislature, who has also been touted as a borough-president candidate More
A Republican plan to make State Senator Tony Avella disappear
Here we go: details from a New York redistricting scenario reportedly being proposed by legislative Republicans.
In their desired scenario, freshman Democratic state senator Tony Avella's district might disappear, and G.O.P. senator Marty Golden's district in Brooklyn might be made safer for him by gobbling up Republican-leaning neighborhoods in Queens. More
Avella, speaker of inconvenient opinions, fears Cuomo will back down and 'independent redistricting is dead'
Despite assurances from Governor Andrew Cuomo, State Senator Tony Avella is afraid that New York's decennial, party-controlled redistricting process will not be reformed in time for next year's elections.
"In my opinion, independent redistricting is dead," said Avella, a freshman Democrat from Queens, during a panel discussion in Manhattan this weekend hosted by the Alliance of South Asian American Labor. "There just isn't time to do it." More
A middle-class soldier in defense of an undistinguished majority
“So where are we?” United States Senator Charles Schumer asked. "Is this Fresh Meadows?"
Schumer was 20 minutes late to meet former city councilman and Democratic mayoral candidate Tony Avella at the Waldbaum's grocery store off of exit 26 on the Long Island Expressway. Avella is challenging longtime Republican state senator Frank Padavan in a one of a handful of competitive races that will determine whether the state Democrats maintain control of the State Senate. More
