CORRECTION: Council Closes Down Pedicabs by 4 Votes!

UPDATE: I have learned that the vote scores were reported wrong by our source. 2 additional councilors also voted with Quinn against the Pedicabs. Ignizio did not abstain and voted YES. And like James Sanders Jr, Letitia James flipped against the Pedicabs and voted YES. (Tisch et tu?) This is some unfortunate news, and is verified with City Council press office. The below article is corrected to reflect this new information.

Christine Quinn won her cap on Pedicabs by 4 Votes. 37 Councilors voted to override a Mayoral veto, 34 votes were need. 6 voted No, 2 Abstained, and 6 were strategically absent, thus registering effective no votes.

These are original councilors opposing the cap who stuck to their no votes and abstentions today:

Alan J. Gerson - NO
Tony Avella - NO
Hiram Monserrate - NO
Rosie Mendez - Absent
Gale A. Brewer - Abstained
Annabel Palma - Absent
Albert Vann - NO
Darlene Mealy - Abstained
Charles Barron - NO

There were some very interesting swing councilors. The following had originally voted for the cap but changed their vote today, either not showing up or voting no:

Maria Baez - Absent
Helen Foster - NO
Melinda R. Katz - Absent
Jessica Lappin - Maternity Leave

Ms. Lappin's excuse was particularly poetic. I bet had the vote been for spending in her district she could have gotten down town to have cast a vote. Good for her for playing her Maternity Leave well! Imagery for these councilors on the tracker will be updated to reward them for showing courage.

There were two more flips, but in the other direction:

Letitia James and James Sanders Jr. who originally voted against the cap some how ended up voting for it today!

Letitia James - YES
James Sanders Jr. - YES

It is also sad that the following councilors could not be swung to vote against this cap the day after Earth Day:

Maria Del Carmen Arroyo - YES
Bill diBlasio - YES
Melissa Mark-Viverito - YES
Daniel Garodnick - YES
Diana Reyna - YES

Pedicabs are now capped city wide at 325. City Council just put 175 low income workers in a green industry out of business on the day after Earth Day. Shame.

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"The head of the City Council is called the Speaker, and is currently Christine Quinn, a Democrat and an anti-environment pig. The day after Earth Day, April 23, 2007, Speaker Quinn engineered the firing of 175 pedicab drivers. Workers that are the backbone of an alternative transportation industry and reduce the need and impact of traditional fossil-fuel based cabs. It is believed that Speaker Quinn abused her power and threatened her fellow Councilmembers with heavy cuts to their district discretionary budgets if they refused to go along with her evil plan. It is embarassing that Speaker Quinn wields this power and primarily the result of the majority Black/Latino/Asion City Caucus of the body to act in a collective manner for the benefit of this majority people of color City. "

I guess that's the City Council's way of wishing us all a Happy Earth Day. It seems incredible that all these politicians can grand stand about their environmental awareness and concerns and then turn around and do something like this. I guess we are supposed to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions without changing anything with respect to the way we do things. It seems that the only thing most politicians can agree on is that we can change our light bulbs. The only reason the City Council voted this way is because of the money the taxi industry pays in "campaign contributions"

I looked for any Earth Day events councilors were promoting being at, but could not find any. They seemed to have lay low for the weekend. If any gave any statements about Earth Day i would definitely like to know.

Will, can you post a vote breakdown? Who were the six who voted "no"?

the post is updated

note I got Maria Baez wrong before, shes was "absent" no a "NO" - but again all councilors who were absent or abstained should be rewarded because those are as a good as NO.

onNYTurf

CORRECTION: Council Closes Down Pedicabs by 4 Votes!

Comments

check out "New York City Council" on wikipedia

pedicabs in NYC

Tried to find ED events with city councilors

Vote breakdown?

Re: Vote breakdown?

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