12 Borough President Melinda Katz enters DA race
QUEENS WEEKLY, DEC. 9, 2018
BY BILL PARRY
Queens Borough President
Melinda Katz announced
Tuesday she would
join the race for District Attorney
in 2019.
Katz would be the borough’s
first-ever woman
DA and said she would
reshape the office to be a
“Partner for Justice” with
local communities and
leaders.
“I stand before you, a
daughter of Queens, ready to
begin this journey to bring
a new era of justice to our
great borough.” Katz said.
“In recent years, there has
been a growing awareness
that the office of the District
Attorney must first and foremost
be a house of justice; a
place where all are treated
equally and none are denied
their fair opportunity. This
wonderfully diverse borough
should be the center of equity
and our system should reflect
the great opportunities
owed to our families.”
Katz told nearly a hundred
supporters gathered at
McDonald’s Park in Forest
Hills Dec. 4 that she plans to
focus her campaign on making
the DA a partner for justice;
Borough President Melinda Katz officially launches her campaign for Queens district
attorney joining, City Councilman Rory Lancman and retired Judge Gregory Lasak.
working for meaningful
arrest, bail and sentencing
reforms; ‘hard on hate’ vigorous
enforcement of hate
crime laws; vigorous prosecution
of rape, sexual assault
and domestic and genderbased
violence; ending the
prosecution of low-level marijuana
arrests; treating gun
violence as a public health
issue; fighting for worksite
accountability and worker
protections; and protecting
elders from abuse.
“Our nation as a whole is
re-normalizing the dangerous
marginalization of people
of color, of immigrants,
of the poor,” Katz said. “Yet
there are powerful movements
underway to combat
the regression, and my agenda
is part of a recommitment
to inclusion, equity, fair
treatment and justice.”
Katz was re-elected as borough
president in 2017 but she
could leave Borough Hall two
years early if she wins. Mayor
Bill de Blasio would declare
a special election within 45
days to replace her.
District Attorney Richard
Brown, 86, has not announced
whether he would
run for re-election to the office
he has held since 1991.
City Councilman Rory Lancman
and retired Judge Gregory
Lasak announced they
would seek the office earlier
this year.
“I welcome Borough
President Katz to the growing
field of career politicians
running for District Attorney,”
Lasak said. “As the
only non-politician in this
race, I look forward to putting
my decades-long record
of fighting crime and freeing
the innocent up against anyone
else’s.”
Meanwhile, Lancman’s
campaign to be the next
Queens district attorney
picked up the endorsement
of Merle Hoffman, a prochoice
pioneer and founder
of Choices Women’s Medical
Clinic in Jamaica.
Citing Lancman’s long
record of fighting for a
woman’s right to control
her own health decisions,
Hoffman threw her support
behind Lancman after
the two worked hard
to defend her clinic and its
patients from a relentless
campaign of intimidation.
“With Donald Trump reshaping
the judiciary and using
his executive authority to
restrict choice, putting Roe v.
Wade at risk and emboldening
anti-choice zealots like
never before, I’m strongly
supporting Rory Lancman to
be out next district attorney,”
Hoffman said. “Rory is not
only politically pro-choice,
but has demonstrated time
and again his willingness
to support and defend the
thousands of women a year
who access reproductive
health services, including
abortions, at my clinic in Jamaica,
Queens.”
Hoffman established the
Flushing Women’s Medical
Center, one of the first ambulatory
abortion centers in
the nation in 1971, shortly after
New York State legalized
abortion and two years before
the historic Roe v. Wade
Supreme Court decision.
She later moved her
clinic to Jamaica and renamed
it Choices Women’s
Medical Center which is
one of the largest and most
comprehensive women’s
health center in the country,
serving over 40,000
women each year.
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Mayor Bill de Blasio
announced last week that
New Yorkers will soon
see a dramatic expansion
in Citi Bike across the
city. The number of new
bikes and biking docs to
come to Queens has yet to
be determined.
“New York City is one
of the world’s great biking
cities — and it’s about
to get even better,” de Blasio
said in a Nov. 29 press
release. “This expansion
means tens of thousands
more New Yorkers are
going to have a fast and
inexpensive way to get
around their city. It also
means much more reliable
service for all the
riders who already use
Citi Bike.”
The mayor reached an
agreement with Lyft that allows
the ride sharing company
to acquire Motivate,
Citi Bike’s parent company
and the nation’s largest bike
sharing program.
The company will
then invest $100 million
to strengthen the bike
sharing system which
includes doubling Citi
Bike’s service area by 35
square miles and tripling
the number of available
bikes from its current
40,000 in the next five
years.
Both pedal-assist bicycles
and regular bikes will
be a part of the expansion.
By the end of February,
Lyft plans on restoring
the existing Citi Bike
system to its required
f leet level of 12,000 bikes.
As part of the agreement,
the city also retains
its right to continue
work on the on-going
three-borough dockless
bike pilot program and to
implement more dockless
bike share services outside
of the expanded Citi
Bike service area.
This growth will turn
Citi Bike into one of the
largest bike share systems
on the planet, de
Blasio said.
Lyft will continue Citi
Bike’s efforts towards
transportation equality
and pledges to invest more
in the $5 monthly bike
share memberships available
to NYCHA residents
and SNAP recipients.
Where exactly the new
bikes and bike docs will
be decided in the coming
months, according to the
release. Expansion will be
accompanied by community
and elected official
outreach.
Citi Bike already operates
in Astoria and Long
Island City.
“I look forward to CitiBike’s
continued growth
into more western Queens
neighborhoods and beyond,”
state Senator Michael
Gianaris said.
The improvement and
expansion of Citi Bike
will continue to be privately
funded without
any government subsidies,
according to de
Blasio.
Photo by Mark Hallum
Queens to receive additional Citi Bike services
City Councilmen Michael Gianaris (l.) and Jimmy Van Bramer
riding Citi Bikes. Photo by Bill Parry