The Elizabethan error -
Serving Middle Village and Maspeth since 1938.

The Elizabethan error

by -

Council Member Elizabeth Crowley has been a disaster for District 30 since 2008.

Against the backdrop of the shenanigans going on in Zuccotti Park where the occupiers urinate, defecate, rape, fondle and fornicate under the banner "Occupy Wall Street," and where Mayor Bloomberg had adopted a twisted concept of "Freedom of Speech," and his vacuous "as long as they don't break the law," gibberish, and where the cost to NYC taxpayers is into the millions of dollars in police overtime pay, our city council representative, Elizabeth Crowley, found the time to co-sponsor and vote for a bill that would prohibit the Department of Corrections from cooperating with federal law enforcement officials from ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) with regard to illegal alien criminals that are held at Rikers Island. My question is "what is she thinking?" Why is she protecting the worst of our society? Why is she protecting illegal aliens, charged with a crime, from deportation?

This bill demonstrates how out-of-sync she is with the views held by her constituents about the safety of their neighborhoods. To quote a retired NYPD Detective, "They don't send angels to Rikers." Perhaps the slow operation of the mechanism that winds her clock has not yet arrived at the sprocket that suggests that perhaps illegals held at Rikers may have committed serious crimes in their country of origin. And, yes, that is why they are here illegally because they have not been issued a passport to emigrate to the United States of America – think drug pushers, gang-bangers and MURDERERS!

How did we wind up with an elected official so disconnected from her constituents? In 2008 the duplicitous Councilman Dennis Gallagher received a no jail time plea from District Attorney Brown with regard to his brutal sexual attack on one of his constituents. One of the requirements of the plea was the immediate resignation of his city council seat. How convenient. When a politician commits a crime all is forgiven if he resigns from office. Gallagher was facing serious jail time however it was more beneficial to the Democrats to grab the long-held Republican seat in our area. So apparently, D.A. Brown, a Democrat, listened to his party and offered Gallagher the deal. No jail time, just relinquish your council seat and go away. That set the stage for Queens Democratic Party boss, Congressman Joe Crowley, to nominate and give 100% support to, of all people, his cousin, Elizabeth. What was her experience in politics? After filing for bankruptcy in 1999 she hung out with Assemblyman and union boss, Brian McLaughlin. The two were an item since 2001 when McLaughlin helped run an unsuccessful 2001 campaign against Dennis Gallagher.

In March 2008 McLaughlin pled guilty to racketeering charges that included using embezzlement, fraud and bribes to take money from taxpayers, labor unions and contractors, even from a Little League team in Queens. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May 2009. This was Elizabeth Crowley's mentor? God help us all!

Elizabeth Crowley ran in three elections. The first two were unsuccessful and true to form, was fined a whopping $56,000 for serious campaign finance violations.

Crowley was finally elected in November 2008 riding the Obama wave that promised change. Yes, Obama did bring change since he took office in January 2009. Gasoline prices skyrocketed 116%; the number of unemployed rose to 14,485,000 up 24.7%; the number of food stamp recipients rose 35.1%; the U.S. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings dropped from 5th to 9th worldwide; and the U.S. debt rose to over $14 trillion, for a 32% increase. I could go on and on.

Meanwhile Elizabeth Crowley brought her own change to our neighborhood. A large public high school in Maspeth is under construction, which she supported, then didn't support, and then supported again. Starting in September 2012, there could be 5,000 students going to three public schools within a three-block area in Maspeth ‒71st to 74th Streets. Most of the students will come from outside the neighborhood of Maspeth. Traveling around our town will be a nightmare.

In 2010 the inexperience of Elizabeth Crowley showed up once again. She received the lowest amount of funding for her district out of all 51 council members. It seems she angered Council Speaker Christine Quinn by leaking confidential information to the press. Crowley was trying to take credit for saving certain firehouses from closing. The issue was being negotiated during city budget meetings between Bloomberg and Quinn. An outraged Quinn punished Crowley and in-turn, the neighborhoods of the 30th District for Elizabeth's faux pas. Many community organizations and projects suffered little or no funding for their programs thanks to Elizabeth Crowley.

Now, unfortunately, it appears that Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has given up the fight to save one of the most historic sites in the City of New York and Maspeth's most important landmark. Crowley also failed to convince city officials and has given up the fight to reassemble St. Saviour's church, one of the last remaining Carpenter Gothic style buildings designed by world famous architect, Richard Upjohn in 1847. Saving the church and land were two of Crowley's major campaign promises. While the church still sits in trailers in West Maspeth, the St. Saviour's historic land now contains warehouses as symbolic and grotesque monuments to the failure of the City of New York and our elected officials to recognize the importance of saving the last remaining landmarks of Maspeth's history for future generations to enjoy. Crowley has also angered area historians. "It is incumbent upon elected officials to replace lost funding and to seek out and lobby for Mayoral, Speaker and Queens Delegation funding.During her time in the City Council, Elizabeth Crowley has not secured a dime of funding from any of these sources," said Christina Wilkinson, president of the Newtown Historical Society.

When longtime Democrat politician David Weprin ran against businessman Robert Turner in the 2011 special election to fill the seat of disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner, Crowley and her staff were photographed everywhere campaigning for Weprin. Many area residents and civic leaders were upset that Crowley was spending too much time campaigning for a candidate who did not even live in the district. She should have been paying more attention to the many issues within her 30th Council District instead of trying to elect a party hack handpicked by her cousin, party boss Joe Crowley.

By the way it didn't go unnoticed that Weprin chose the Elizabeth Crowley-method of debating. Just don't show up. Weprin, after agreeing to attend, dropped out of scheduled debate just hours before the August 27th event sponsored by the Juniper Park Civic Association and the Times Newsweekly newspaper. Ironically Weprin, who was ahead by 7% in the polls at the time, was ridiculed in the national media for ducking the debate; his poll numbers plummeted. He eventually lost to the Republican candidate Bob Turner despite the fact that Democrats out-numbered Republicans by a 3-1 margin in the district. Elizabeth Crowley did the exact same thing in 2008 when she failed to show for a JPCA debate. She later admitted that she made up a phony excuse for ducking a debate that would have asked her tough questions.

Since this is the first in a series of articles on "The Elizabethan Error," I will leave further analysis of education, transportation and other Elizabeth Crowley failures to the next issue of the Juniper Berry. In the meantime please read and process the implications of Juniper Berry writer, Craig Caruana, and his article on council member Elizabeth Crowley co-sponsorship of the bill known by the name of "Introduction 656" which clearly magnifies council member Elizabeth Crowley's detachment from her constituents and her unrealistic game plan for her 30th Council District.