Thursday, September 5, 2013

Melinda Katz to Play Kermit in New Movie

When it comes to politics satire has a rich vein of material to mine. Take Melinda Katz, a candidate for Queens Borough President who is burnishing her green credentials-and getting the support of the always honest and above board League of Conservation Voters:
“Queens borough president candidate Melinda Katz will announce her “Plan for a Green Queens” today, hoping to leverage the limited powers of the BP’s office to help improve environmental quality in Queens.

Katz’s plan, which helped win her the support of the New York City League of Conservation Voters, which will endorse her today, includes weatherizing government buildings with energy-efficient upgrades and using the borough president’s role in the uniform land use review process to increase park space. Katz also wants to expand Queens’ green footprint by encouraging recycling across the borough, as well as helping attract the green tech industry to create jobs.”

But, it ain’t easy being green-as old friend Kermit the Frog found out. Someone who was really interested in showing Queens residents that they were truly concerned with the environment would have by now-as her opponent Peter Vallone has-come out against the Willets Point development. After all, a huge traffic generating mall-and a parking lot-is a far cry from the “next green neighborhood” that the mayor ballyhooed five years ago. Yeah, the project that gained the support of the LCV-after the check cleared, we think.

Also, Katz has described herself as a libertarian. How could a self-described libertarian support the wholesale condemnation of property and its transfer to well-connected developers? And how could someone who wants to preserve and expand parkland not condemn the failure of the city to pursue alienation of the land (zoned for parks) where the Wilpons want to build their mall?

The reality is that Katz has the support of Joe Crowley and that’s green enough for her.