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22 Jul
0

Got Ideas for UN Land Swap and East River Esplanade? Electeds Want to Know

By Amy Zimmer

MANHATTAN — East Side residents have long been complaining about how much less appealing their waterfront is compared to the pristine piers and bike paths on the West Side.

Besides the sinkhole-laden stretch of waterfront along the East River from East 60th to 125th streets, the chunk between East 38th to 59th streets isn’t even open to the public.

That mile-long gap might finally be completed if a complicated deal involving the United Nations building an office tower on parkland works out along with other serious financial, engineering and security issues.

The area’s elected officials — state Sen. Liz Krueger, state Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh and City Councilman Dan Garodnick — are calling on residents to provide input in a series of public forums in August and September on the negotiations, which they announced Thursday.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo passed a law that would allow the UN to build an office tower on Robert Moses Playground on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets in exchange for a major park and improving open space along the East River.

Full Article

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22 Jul
0

Liz & Bipartisan Pro Choice Legislative Caucus Support Insitute of Medicine Report

For Immediate Release | July 22, 2011
Katie Kincaid | kincaid.nysenate@gmail.com | 646-784-0485

Statement From New York State Bipartisan Pro Choice Legislative Caucus on Institute of Medicine’s Recommendation to Include Birth Control as Preventative Care

This week a committee of scientists and medical experts appointed by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommending that contraceptive and counseling methods to prevent unintended pregnancies be considered preventative health care and thus be provided without costs of any kind to the insured. The NYS Bipartisan Pro Choice Legislative Caucus (BPCLC) firmly supports this stance and applauds the IOM’s recognition of these vital services to women.

Throughout the country, too many women who wish to obtain contraceptive care cannot do so because they cannot afford such services. As a result, one of the undeniable outcomes stemming from the lack of counseling and preventative medications, is that half of the pregnancies in the United States are unintended. While some women chose to carry these pregnancies to term and others decide to abort, the universal reality is that these women are forced to make difficult, and often costly, decisions that could have been averted with proper, yet simple, medical attention.

Full Statement

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18 Jul
0

Liz Speaks With Roberto Perez on PEREZ NOTES

Topics & excerpts from the Interview

Indian Point:

“I have long argued that Indian Point should be closed.”

Hydro-Fracking:

“Science has yet to prove you can do this safely without causing enormous damage to water.”

“I have yet to be convinced that there is science showing this can be done safely.It shouldn’t be allowed in NY State until such time.”

“Other parts of the country when they have allowed Hydro-Fracking there has been enormous environmental damage.”

Democratic State Senate:

“I believe we will take back the majority in 2012.”

“I knew Pedro Espada 20 years ago I knew he was bad news.”

“I think history will show that if Pedro Espada hadn’t been the Housing Chair hadn’t pulled off a coup hadn’t ended up with black mailing himself into the majority leader title we would have had a very different story. I started a PAC called NO BAD APPLES.”

Listen to Full Interview HERE

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18 Jul
0

Liz Krueger likes ‘dese apples

By Jimmy Vielkind

Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat from the Upper East Side known for advocating reform a tad more vocally than some of her colleagues, is starting a political action committee to assist like-minded candidates.

She has launched the “No Bad Apples” PAC, which she explained by phone will be a “relatively small but very targeted project” to find candidates and “maybe convince them they want to join me in the state Senate.” Noting she was a reluctant candidate when she first ran for office, Krueger said: “Sometimes the best people don’t even know that they should be candidates for office.”

Full Article

Watch Liz on Inside City Hall discussing No Bad Apples

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05 Jul
0

Liz’s Testimony to Rent Guidelines Board

THE FOLLOWING IS TESTIMONY SUBMITTED BY SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER ON JUNE 20,2011 BEFORE THE NEW YORK CITY RENT GUIDELINES BOARD REGARDING PROPOSED RENT INCREASES

My name is Liz Krueger and I represent the 26th Senate District, which includes the Upper East Side, East Midtown, and Midtown areas of Manhattan.  I want to thank you for providing me with this opportunity to testify on the range of proposed rent increases for rent stabilized tenants: anywhere from 3% to 5.75% for one year leases and 6% to 9% for two year leases.  Even if the rent increases ultimately approved are at the low end of the proposed ranges, I have serious concerns about what this decision would mean for the more than 2.5 million low-, moderate- and middle-income rent stabilized residents of New York City who are already facing a crisis of affordability and the aftermath of the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Full Testimony

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30 Jun
0

Goodman vs. Krueger: When Giants Did Battle

By Christopher Moore

The phone rang. State Senator Roy Goodman wanted to talk on this day in the fall of 2000 about what he had recently done, in specific terms, for his district. I was surprised, given that an hour or so ago he had come to our conference table to tackle the same topic.

Evidently he felt he had not been specific enough about bread-and-butter district issues. He was impressive in his doggedness, his eagerness to share what had been crossed off his legislative to-do list.

The call made sense. Goodman was in the midst of a tough, final re-election race. The opponent: Liz Krueger, a community activist with unanticipated pizzazz as a candidate. She had a richly varied background, including work with the Community Food Resource Center. Some thought her resumé was less impressive than that of Goodman, a former mayoral candidate and GOP stalwart for generations on the East Side. Others found impressive a woman who had been doing something about feeding the hungry.

That was the thing about this contest: how hard it was to pick a favorite. They were both compelling characters that had given much to the city. That’s why so many of us, sitting on the sidelines of this grand debate, had mixed emotions in those days. We hated to see either candidate lose. This was the opposite of most elections, when voters carefully calibrate the lesser of two evils.

Full Article

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28 Jun
0

Liz Explains Her Vote on Issues Ranging From Rent Regulation to Property Tax Cap to Mandate Relief

Last Friday, the New York State Senate voted on a package of bills that included issues ranging from rent regulation renewal to a property tax cap (for areas outside of NYC) to mandate relief. While Senator Krueger ultimately voted in favor of the bill, she had – and continues to have – many concerns about the legislation. She detailed some of my concerns while explaining my vote on the floor.

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27 Jun
0

Statement from Liz on Passage of Marriage Equality & Rent Regulation Laws

This past Friday, the 24th, four days after the legislative calendar was scheduled to end, the New York Legislature wrapped up the 2011 legislative session in the late hours of the evening. After days of keeping constituents, and other legislators alike, waiting and guessing on several key issues, the Republican Majority in the Senate finally brought the final bills to the floor, allowing us to pass critical legislation that, among other things, renews and strengthens the rent regulation laws and grants same sex couples the right to marry.

MARRIAGE:  Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted saying “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”  Since joining the legislature in 2002 I have co-sponsored legislation that would provide marriage equality for same sex couples. For me, this has always been a matter of basic human rights and I have always felt that until we passed a law allowing for same sex marriage, we were legally permitting prejudice in New York.  So it was with great pride and a heart full of happiness, that I joined 32 other Senate colleagues to vote for the legal recognition of same sex marriage in New York.  With this historic vote, New York has become the sixth, and largest, State to legally recognize same sex marriage.

I applaud the tireless effort of the countless advocates who fought with their heart and soul to see this measure passed, without their effort this monumental achievement would not have been reached. I will never forget the moment the final vote was tallied and I will always be proud to have been a part of this movement that was rooted in love, respect for family and a longing for equality.

RENT:   When voting to renew and strengthen rent regulation laws for another four years, we took an important first step in reversing a damaging 18 year trend that has increasingly led to the destabilization of more than 300,000 homes. Now, I will not pretend this legislation accomplished all that we wanted.  In fact, it merely scratches the surface of the improvements we wished to enact.  The unfortunate reality is that we were up against a Republican majority in the Senate, who had deep ties to the real estate industry, and we had to fight tooth and nail for these basic improvements.

Full Statement from Sen Krueger

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24 Jun
0

Liz & Senate Democrats Rip GOP on Gay Marriage, Other Unresolved Issues

Several Senate Democrats just spoke with reporters to complain about the lack of progress in the Senate. The Republican conference in the chamber, which has 32 members, was scheduled to meet privately at 9:30 and open session at 10 a.m. The Democrats—Sens. Liz Krueger of Manhattan, Michael Gianaris of Queens and Adriano Espaillat of the Bronx—held their news conference at 10:30 a.m. Session still has not started. There are 30 Democrats in the Senate.

Full Article

Watch Sen Krueger Speaking to Reporters Here

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23 Jun
0

Liz Looks to Lady Gaga on Same Sex Marriage

By David King

Senate Democrats have a hot new Twitter hash tag:  “#letusVote” to prod Senate Republicans to bring same-sex marriage legislation to the floor for a vote. Sen. Liz Krueger is credited with creating the tag and she has been trying to get prominent same-sex marriage proponents to use it. “@ladygaga #NYSenate needs your help!” Krueger tweeted. “Can you & ur Little Monsters pls help us trend #letusVOTE We want to vote for #samesexmarriage in NY” Lady Gaga has yet to pick up the tag says,” Krueger spokeswoman Katie Kincaid,” but we’re working on it and in one day this # has picked up some serious steam, so we’ll keep on working at it.”A number of other Democratic senators and activists have picked up the call. Gaga has been calling legislators and lobbying them to bring marriage to a vote.

Senate Republicans spent a good amount of time during their two years in the minority kvetching about the majority’s ability to block any bill they didn’t want to come to a vote and now they are doing the thing they claimed so steadfastly to stand against. Advocates wonder how it is that a deal came together that does not include gay marriage and why when asked Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos continues to claim same-sex marriage was not discussed in meetings.

“The debate over same sex marriage is clearly one which deserves a vote. It would be a huge disservice to all New Yorkers, on both sides of the argument, if we left Albany without voting on the issue. Where’s the democracy in that?” asked Kincaid.

Full Article

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