Maloney Endorsed By Powers As Re-Election Bid Heats Up

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Politics & Government Maloney Endorsed By Powers As Re-Election Bid Heats Up East Side Councilmember Keith Powers is the latest lawmaker to back Carolyn Maloney in her competitive re-election race. Reply

Powers (right), who was just elected to a second term representing District 4 in the City Council, is backing U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney for another term in Congress. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of the Governor; Jeff Reed/NYC Council)

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — City Councilmember Keith Powers endorsed U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney for another term in Congress on Tuesday, becoming the latest local lawmaker to announce support for Maloney ahead of a competitive re-election fight.

Powers, who recently won another term representing the Upper East Side and Midtown East in the city Council, called Maloney a “fighter” in a statement shared exclusively with Patch.

“Whether it’s our work together opposing the environmentally detrimental combined heat and power unit at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, her successful decades long fight to finally get universal 3-K in New York City, or her work during the pandemic to transform Garment District factories into PPE production sites — Congresswoman Maloney not only fights for what is right, she also gets it done,” Powers said.

Maloney, 75, has represented the Upper East Side in Congress since 1993, having formerly served in the City Council. But her 12th District seat now includes outer-borough neighborhoods like Astoria, Queens and Greenpoint, Brooklyn — and the state’s upcoming redistricting process is likely to alter the boundaries even further, potentially removing chunks of her Manhattan base. Having defeated attorney Suraj Patel by a relatively narrow, 3,500-vote margin last year, Maloney now faces a slew of challengers in the June 2022 primary. Among them is progressive activist Rana Abdelhamid, who earlier this month won the endorsement of the Lower Manhattan political club Coalition for a District Alternative — the first time in Maloney’s career that she has failed to win the group’s support.

Other Manhattan lawmakers who have long worked with Maloney have voiced support for her in recent months, including new City Councilmember Julie Menin and her predecessor, Ben Kallos. Maloney, in a statement, said she was “deeply grateful” for Powers’s support, noting their shared opposition to the heat and power unit at Stuyvesant Town, as well as advocacy for providing vaccines to Koreatown.

Do you have a house fire evacuation plan?

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Chief Keith Powers with JFRD says especially if you have a kid or an elderly person who lives in the house you want to practice procedures.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — There’s been several house fires on the first coast since the new year. Chief Keith Powers with the Jacksonville fire and rescue department says its important for families to come up with an escape plan.

“You get under that pressure and the strain and stresses of all that smoke in your house or a fire burning in your house,” said Powers.

That’s why Powers says having a plan in place is helpful.

“Actually go through the procedures of where they are going to go and how they are going to get there, if their doorway was block by fire or if the smoke was so thick in the hallway outside of their rooms they couldn’t get out,” said Powers.

Powers says it’s crucial to have a centralized meet up spot.

“A safe place where they all know they are going to meet so we know when we arrive, we can talk to them and understand if there is someone still in the house or the structure or whether we need to concentrate on making a rescue," said Powers.

He says also folks should make sure they have a working smoke detector.

“Smoke detectors is the only warning to get you out before a fire gets bad and they truly save lives," said Powers.

Park Avenue Redesign Moves Forward As City Seeks Proposals

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Politics & Government Park Avenue Redesign Moves Forward As City Seeks Proposals Age-old dreams of putting the “park” back in Park Avenue are inching closer to reality, as the city plans to solicit designs within weeks. Reply

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The age-old dream of putting the “park” back in Park Avenue is inching closer to reality, as a huge rebuild of Grand Central Terminal prompts the city to consider ways to remake the thoroughfare.

Sometime this spring, the city plans to issue a request for proposals (“RFP”) to hire a landscape architect charged with redesigning Park Avenue’s medians between East 46th and 57th Streets. Specifically, the RFP will call for “replacing the existing Park Avenue malls with new, world class, active open space,” City Councilmember Keith Powers announced Tuesday.

As the name suggests, Park Avenue was once home to 40-foot-wide, plant-covered pedestrian malls that allowed residents to stroll down the boulevard for blocks, resting on benches and enjoying the greenery. But the medians were narrowed in 1927 to add extra lanes of car traffic, and Park Avenue has remained largely car-dominated ever since. Park Avenue as it appeared until 1927, when its malls were narrowed to expand car traffic and remove pedestrian access. (Department of Transportation) That may change thanks to the $2 billion rehabilitation of the Grand Central train shed, which is forcing the city to tear up a stretch of the avenue over a 20-year period as workers repair tunnels.

The release of the RFP later this spring will include opportunities for local input, as well as a preliminary landscape design, according to Powers’s office. A chosen design will be shared by next winter, with a final plan in place in summer 2023. Local groups have spent years advocating for Park Avenue’s redesign. Real estate firm Fisher Brothers launched a 2018 design competition, resulting in fantastical submissions like a huge aquarium and an artificial mountain. Soon after, the Grand Central Partnership began pushing the city to consider the project in earnest.

A map shows the area of Park Avenue set to be redesigned, along with a schedule for the RFP. (NYC DOT/Councilmember Keith Powers) An online portal about the Park Avenue redesign launched in late 2020, with an overview of the avenue’s history, a list of possible improvements and a survey in which more than 1,700 New Yorkers weighed in on what changes they wanted to see. “With this news, we’re taking a major step forward in creating more open, accessible public space for people and businesses in the bustling area of East Midtown,” said Powers, who also chairs a neighborhood group focused on public realm improvements that emerged from the 2017 East Midtown rezoning.

Neighbors tried to save elderly woman, children in Northside house fire

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“I just saw the flames coming from behind the house and I ran to get my children and we got the fire hose and called 911.”

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A grandmother is dead, and her two grandchildren are in critical condition after a house fire Tuesday night on the Northside.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

“That was very hard trying to get through that burglary bar door just wasn’t giving,” neighbor Tamara Reed said.

Reed lives next door to where the fire broke out in the 1500 block of 21st Street West.

“I was watching television, but I kept smelling smoke coming from somewhere, which isn’t that uncommon in this area because people burn stuff in this area at night," Reed remembered. “But it kept getting stronger and stronger.”

She says she looked out her window and noticed her neighbor’s lights were off, which she said is unusual.

“I got outside and walked across the street," Reed said. “I just saw the flames coming from behind the house and I ran to get my children and we got the fire hose and called 911.”

She says her family tried their hardest to get the family out of the home, but the smoke, fire and the burglary bar doors were holding them back.

“Leave that to us. That’s what we do," Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Chief Keith Powers said. “What we see is when people go into a burning structure, they take one breath in that super-heated air or smoke, and they collapse. And now were dealing with other victims.”

Powers said they have tools for burglary bars and can open it in seconds.

If an unexpected event happened like a house fire and you have burglary bars on the doors, Powers said you need to be able to get outside quickly.

“At the end of the day if you are in a fire, you are going to struggle to either get your key or find a slot to stick your keys in," Powers explained. “So you should have a tumbler lock on the inside and a key lock on the outside.”

Protecting your family from fire dangers

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Jacksonville Fire Rescue Chief Keith Powers joins us to discuss the best ways to practice fire safety in the midst of a string of fires in our area.