FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com DECEMBER 26, 2013 • THE QUEENS COURIER 11 Claim victory as City Council speaker BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA [email protected] A vote still needs to be cast, but one councilmember is claiming victory as the City Council’s next speaker. In a statement issued Wednesday, December 18, Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents Manhattan and the Bronx’s District 8, said she has the backing of 30 councilmembers and councilmembers-elect, including Queens members Daniel Dromm, Julissa Ferreras, Daneek Miller, Donovan Richards, Eric Ulrich and Jimmy Van Bramer. “Today is the culmination of over two decades of my work at the grassroots level, in non-profit organizations, in labor and as a public servant. I know that my fellow members will work with me in the City Council to create a more inclusive legislative body where every member’s voice is heard and validated,” Mark- Viverito said. She will only need the support of 26 members when the vote for speaker takes place on January 8. According to published reports, Mark-Viverito received the support she needed when Mayorelect Bill de Blasio convinced Brooklyn Democratic Chair Frank Seddio to back her. This comes despite Queens and Bronx party leadership’s support, including Queens Democratic Chair Congressmember Joe Crowley, of her main opponent, Manhattan Councilmember Dan Garodnick. Despite Mark-Viverito’s backing, Garodnick isn’t giving up, calling her statement “premature,” according to published reports. Councilmember Karen Koslowitz issued a statement on Thursday, December 19 endorsing Garodnick for speaker. “Dan has the strongest credentials and record to be the most effective speaker and move this body forward in a progressive manner,” she said. Koslowitz, according to a November 13 article in The New York Daily News, once confronted Mark-Viverito for not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of meetings. Last month, according to City & State, Ulrich said he was troubled by her previous refusal to recite the Pledge, and would not be supporting Mark-Viverito as speaker. BLOOMY LOOKS BACK BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA [email protected] Mayor Michael Bloomberg is about to bid goodbye to the offi ce he has held for the last 12 years, and is spending his last days highlighting his accomplishments leading the city. He spoke about some of those achievements in his fi nal major address, which he gave at the Economic Club of New York Luncheon at the Marriott Marquis on Wednesday, December 18. Bloomberg noted several initiatives that took place under his administration, including the Five Borough Taxi plan, Citi Bike program and No. 7 train extension, while citing the role rezoning played in city development. “Until we rezoned Hudson Yards back in 2005, it was a warehouse district, zoned largely for industrial use, with limited access to mass transit,” he said. “The same could be said of the entire East River waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens. Willets Point in Queens, a former garbage dump, had been left to fester for nearly a century.” Though the mayor said one barrier for the city’s future growth could be “the explosion in the cost of pension and health care benefi ts for municipal workers,” which he said “has already bankrupted a number of cities.” Bloomberg also used the speech to address criticism that the balanced budget he is leaving incoming mayor Bill de Blasio has “a hole” in it because “labor unions have refused to sign new contracts.” “We are leaving behind money to pay for the same type of contract Governor Cuomo signed with labor unions in 2011, and which our NYC’s Mayor Offi ce’s Flickr/Photo by Spencer T Tucker Bloomberg delivered his fi nal major address as mayor at the Economic Club of New York Luncheon on December 18. unions have refused to sign,” Bloomberg said. In his fi nal days as mayor, Bloomberg also highlighted the progress made in each borough. Since 2001, Queens’ population has grown by more than 38,000 people, to 2,272,771 people. To keep up with the growth, 81 new schools and 26 new parks have been added, and the city has fi nanced the preservation and construction of more than 17,200 affordable housing units. Since 2002, the number of private sector jobs in the borough has increased by 10.5 percent. Queens has also become safer. Through December 15, overall crime in the borough is down by 37.6 percent since 2001. During the same period, traffi c fatalities have dropped by 19.7 percent. Our great rates are always in season. At Flushing Bank, we’re small enough to know you and large enough to provide you with the great rates you’re looking for. Hurry, an offer like this can’t last forever. For more information and to find out about our other great offers, visit your local Flushing Bank branch, call 800.581.2889 or visit www.FlushingBank.com. 2.15% 60-Month CD APY* $5,000 minimum deposit *New Accounts and new money only. 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