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June 6, 2008

Tony Avella, the Anti-Overdevelopment Candidate

City Councilman Tony Avella has been making himself known around Brooklyn lately, showing up at a community meeting about Gowanus and supporting other politicians who've called for a moratorium on Atlantic Yards demolitions. The common thread is also Avella's main talking point in his (longshot) bid to become our next mayor: Namely, that the Bloomberg administration has sold out to real estate interests, disrupting the fabric of neighborhoods and turning a deaf ear to community concerns. Voice blog Runnin' Scared has an interview with the man who wants to replace Mike. Here are some choice quotes:

"You have so many communities throughout the entire City that need to be protected from overdevelopment. You have the Department of Buildings, which is in a shambles. And it has been such a huge effort to get even the smallest rezoning, even the smallest change done within the City Council. It’s bizarre."

"Listen, a lot of my fellow councilmen seem to be more interested, along with the Speaker, in getting money from the real estate industry than stepping up and doing the right thing. I don’t need to tell you, there’s very little independence in the City Council. It’s amazing to me how nobody speaks up."

"In my opinion the one campaign that you can draw from is the Obama campaign. In terms of somebody coming from nowhere. Really, he had no name recognition beyond his own state, to in effect get the Democratic nomination at this point. People want change, and I think that’s what my campaign is all about."

Underdog Mayoral Hopeful on Quinn, Bloomberg and Obama [Runnin' Scared]
Legislation To Boost Community-Based Planning [Brownstoner]
Photo by No Land Grab.

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Comments

Blah, blah, blah

Posted by: Bold type guest at June 6, 2008 10:08 AM

Someone should tell Tony that the fellow councilman he's pointing to at the next microphone passed out due to boredom 10 minutes ago.

Posted by: Biff Champion at June 6, 2008 10:31 AM

Change???? This sounds like the democratic candidates from the 1980's and 90's whats the change?

Besides if anyone is protecting the real estate interests it is this guy - maybe not the developers but certainly the small and large property owners. What better way to protect the high cost of ownership then to limit supply.

Tony Avella is a moron.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 10:33 AM

The campaign theme of change only works if you are a black candidate with the name Obama. If Obama was white do you actually think he would have been the democrats elected nominee for their party.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 10:49 AM

Hell yeah, anything to keep a broad out of the white house! Young? Good looking? We can overlook the blackness if the only other option is a woman.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 11:06 AM

The problem with Avella's "Change" agenda - is that it is actually a "Change Back" agenda....

but enough people in NYC recall that the last generation in NYC was not the 'good old days' but rather the bad times. We do not want to change back.

The reality is that Bloomberg was the agent of real change - from a city where nothing gets done, to a progressive city where we try things here 1st.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 11:08 AM

and what does that make Sheldon Silver????

Posted by: Bold type guest at June 6, 2008 11:21 AM

11:06 - it isnt that people are against a women - they are just against THAT women.

Although the same arguments are forming around Obama - I notice that his supporters-as-pundits on the news channels are all begining to try to connect all opposition to Obama to racism.

I also love that these same commentators are lamenting that "many Americans will not vote for a black man" - which the current stats put around 1 in 10 - which of course means the NINETY percent of people wouldnt base their vote on race - which is a pretty amazing statistic.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 11:30 AM

tony avella is the biggest weasel in the history of humanity. He is not even qualified to run a deli let alone a city. His long standing nickname around queens is Tony "deep fryer" Avella since that is all he is qualified to run.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 11:54 AM

tony avella is easily the most reviled scum in city council. you can look for weeks and you won't find a single person who will call him a friend. this little f*cker is dreaming if he thinks he can be mayor. not even his mother will vote for him.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 11:57 AM

Tony Avella should stay in Queens where he belongs. This guy is a real flake. He doesnt even know what he's protecting. Maybe we should just bulldoze everything and farm the land, thats what morons like him call progress.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 12:11 PM

Forget this asshat...do you all know who Rey Clarke from Brooklyn is???

He's one of the guys that scaled the Times building yesterday.

Posted by: Bold type guest at June 6, 2008 12:20 PM

tony avella sucks. he should go shovel pig crap on a farm somewhere and stop bitching about development. He is a complete failure in life and politics.the best word to summarize his mayoral aspirations is: eeewwww

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 12:31 PM

i'd vote for marion barry before this guy.

Posted by: BrooklynLove at June 6, 2008 12:44 PM

As soon as I saw the headline of this thread, I knew that it was posted by Gabby. She bends over backwards to take a swipe at large developments, especially AY. So much bias on this site.

Mr. Avella doesn't stand a chance. 99.9% of candidate favored by AY opponents (check out the mural on Carlton for PHAC's endorsement of Avella) have flopped. Bill Batson and Chris Owens tried to make overdevelopment/AY their main campaign point and look at all of the good it did them.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 1:00 PM

i'd smoke crack with marion barry before voting for this guy.

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 1:26 PM

i'd smoke crack with this guy before voting for this guy

Posted by: BrooklynLove at June 6, 2008 1:42 PM

Wake up people, Gowanus and the AYards areas are $HITHOLES!!! They need to be redeveloped. The Gowanus especially. IF you consider the 'community fabric' green water that smells like a week old Pacifico burrito than call me Sally!

Posted by: guest at June 6, 2008 2:46 PM

"People want change, and I think that’s what my campaign is all about."

Okay. Well when you figure it out for sure, you let us know... An even more vague version of the standard Obama pitch!

...and isn't he not for "change" if he's antidevelopment? Just sayin...

Posted by: Snowman at June 6, 2008 7:38 PM

He is only representing the pathetic little group of NIMBY anti Atlantic yard jerks. Where were they for the last 30+ years of this being a dump? ANYTHING is better than what is there now, I would vote for fat Al before I even looked at Tony. Tony = anti-development scum. He didn't get what he wanted at St. Saviours in Queens now he's off to Brooklyn.
Maybe taking a little bit longer due to all the B.S. lawsuits the nimbys keep losing but still D-O-N-E-D-E-A-L!

Posted by: guest at June 7, 2008 1:25 AM

Posted by: guest at June 7, 2008 1:28 AM

Avella is the only candidate for mayor I'm considering at the moment. The only one speaking out against overdevelopment and the Fedderization of Brooklyn and Queens...he has fought Tommy Huang, the rapist of the Flushing RKO Keith's and the blighter of neighborhoods from Maspeth to Fresh Meadows.

Follow this link and see what Avella opposes:

http://www.junipercivic.com/PressReleaseArticle.asp?nid=25

www.forgotten-ny.com

Posted by: guest at June 7, 2008 10:25 PM

I don't know this site very well but I did read the New York magazine piece about it, and from that and the comments posted re Avella I get the impression Brownstoner appeals to a pretty reactionary bunch.

Ibklyn

Posted by: guest at June 7, 2008 11:06 PM

« Red Nabes Lose: Condo Price Cuts all the Rage First Bloom at Atlantic Gardens: Aveda »

June 6, 2008

Tony Avella, the Anti-Overdevelopment Candidate

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