(Photo by Kavitha Surana)
The ink has barely dried on the special election for Sheldon Silver’s 65th district state assembly seat and we’re already sprinting towards the general primary in September. Less than a week after Alice Cancel won a controversial election for the seat, Jenifer Rajkumar, a Democratic district leader in the financial district, officially threw her hat in the ring and announced her campaign for the position.
Alice Cancel with supporters (Photo by Kavitha Surana
Democratic District Leader Alice Cancel picked up two more endorsements today in the run up to a special election on April 19 to replace Sheldon Silver’s seat in the New York State Assembly. Both Margaret Chin and Rosie Mendez, downtown councilmembers, said Cancel was the right choice for the job.
“Alice knows the community, she knows our schools, she knows our small businesses, she knows about public housing and she’s worked with the tenants,” said Chin in her endorsement. “She’s a district leader that works with the elected officials. When there’s a problem in the community, she calls them.”
At the Chinatown coalition’s meeting (Photo: Anneke Rautenbach)
At an emotional Lower East Side town hall meeting on Saturday afternoon, hundreds of concerned residents, a number of small business owners, and representatives of community organizations were visibly upset. Instead of being met by Mayor Bill de Blasio himself, they were greeted by a representative from the administration. “We have been reaching out to him for months,” Jei Fong, a coalition representative, told B+B. “We personally invited him to this meeting. This is a real slap in the face.”
Unluckiest guy on the Lower East Side. (Photo: Brian Finke)
Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was convicted Monday for financial corruption, including charges of honest services fraud, extortion, and money laundering. Silver, who represented most of the Lower East Side and Lower Manhattan, was elected to the Assembly forty years ago and held the speakership for over twenty years.
As of today, the city has installed over 1,000 miles of bike lanes. The announcement was made this afternoon on the Lower East Side, where locals pols were joined by reps from the Department of Transportation, Citi Bike and Transportation Alternatives in painting the last portion of the protected lane at Clinton Street.
The two-way, eight-foot-wide lane on Clinton Street connects the Williamsburg Bridge to South Street and, from there, the East River greenway. It’s aimed at calming traffic on Clinton Street, per a press release.
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(Photo: Mary Reinholz)
After filing their complaint on Jan 22, government prosecutors had 30 days to obtain an indictment against the Lower East Side pol, according to his attorney. It hasn’t come down yet, but it may well happen during a court hearing scheduled for Feb. 23 (assuming Silver doesn’t request an extension) or even sooner, according to a spokesperson for Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
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(Photo: Jaime Cone)
Community Board 3 has long been known as a hotbed of liquor licensing debates, among other things — but its new member isn’t even old enough to drink. (Or vote in local elections, for that matter.)
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