Inez Dickens

DENVER—City Councilwoman Inez Dickens of Harlem supported Hillary Clinton during the primaries, and even though she said she plans to vote for Barack Obama in the roll call this week, she thinks Clinton’s candidacy was historic, especially in the context of other women who have succeeded in politics.

At the Sheraton Hotel last night, Dickens told me she is glad Clinton achieved what she did "because we’ve [now] had the first woman—not to run for president—but the first viable candidate that got this far. That, in of itself, is an amazing thing," she said.

 

"Because America has not been receptive," Dickens went on.  read more »

The City Council is expected to pass a major rezoning of 125th Street this afternoon, opening up Harlem’s historic main thoroughfare to substantial levels of new development.

The move comes as the plan, pushed forward by the city and altered some by the Council, has met opposition from many in Harlem, who claim the rezoning will accelerate gentrification and displacement in the predominantly low-income African-American and Latino district.

Speaking to reporters, members of the Council sought to show the support they’ve received from the larger Harlem community for the plan, appearing with multiple religious leaders and community board chairs as they touted the plan.  read more »

The City Council is expected to approve a modified plan to rezone 125th Street to allow for denser residential and commercial development today, but the rezoning’s most vocal opponents are not giving up the fight.

The Coalition to Save Harlem is mounting its umpteenth protest against the plan, which they contend “falls woefully short of what is needed for the future development of Harlem," outside the City Council’s legislative building at noon.  read more »

Word that a key City Council subcommittee had approved the rezoning of 125th Street this morning had just started to make its way up to Harlem by the time an “Emergency Demonstration and Rally” organized by a group of neighborhood street merchants began at 3.

Vendors had been passing out fliers for the rally that advised local City Councilwoman Inez Dickens to “Do the Right Thing!! Vote No against the 125th Street rezoning” all morning and continued well after the subcommittee's vote ensured the rezoning's passage by the full Council.

The first protestors started to gather in the plaza at Adam Clayton Powell Jr.  read more »

The city's proposed 125th Street rezoning seems all but certain to pass the City Council, as a key Council member, Inez Dickens, signaled her support for a modified version of the plan this morning during a City Council subcommittee meeting. The majority of the Council is expected to follow Ms. Dickens’ lead on the vote, which would allow for substantial levels of new development along Harlem’s main commercial corridor.

The subcommittee members are voting now, according to two people at the hearing.  read more »

Assemblyman Michael Gianiaris, who is running for reelection to the Assembly in 2008, says in this week's City Hall News that he is "going to seriously consider" running for City Council in 2009 and seeking the speakership.

The same article also quotes an unnamed aide to Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell, the former chairman of the state Democratic Party, saying he won't run for speaker of the City Council if h  read more »

The City Council as early as tomorrow could approve the Bloomberg administration’s proposed rezoning of 125th Street, as a Council subcommittee lists the proposal on its agenda.

The rezoning would allow for substantially more density around 125th Street in Central Harlem, an action that is expected to bring much new development to the historic African-American corridor.  read more »

About 100 people turned up at a rally in Harlem on Saturday aimed at blocking the Bloomberg administration’s plan to rezone 125th Street to allow for denser residential and commercial development. But the rally quickly turned into an omnibus protest about everything from Columbia’s Harlem expansion to Robert Mugabe’s teetering government in Zimbabwe.

The Coalition to Save Harlem planned to create a human chain stretching across 125th Street from Second Avenue to Broadway. In the end, “Hands Across Harlem” only spanned about one block of the area to be rezoned, from Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard to Lenox Avenue, though we heard one organizer remark that it was a “pretty good turnout.”  read more »

Here’s a shot from the breakfast hosted Sunday morning by the Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations on the West Side, which, as Grace Rauh noted, attracted nearly every 2009 candidate for citywide office.  read more »

The path may now be clear for Vornado Realty Trust to build Harlem’s first Class A office tower in decades, as the developer has received the nod from the city to proceed despite a possible rezoning of the area.

Vornado wants to build a tower of about 330 feet, which is 40 feet higher than the height limit in the proposed rezoning.  read more »

Christine Quinn and two City Council members just issued a statement applauding a ruling that they say will prevent undercounting the audience for minority radio stations.

Quinn--whose likely mayoral bid would probably pit her against Bill Thompson--was joined by Larry Seabrook and Inez Dickens last September to express concern over the proposed methods for media monitoring by Arbitron.  read more »

Continuing with our marginally useful compilation of Hillary Clinton-designated Democratic National Convention delegates for next year, here's who the campaign picked in the Harlem-based 15th congressional district, according to a reader in the district and confirmed by a knowledgeable Democrat.

The delegates are: Assemblyman Keith Wright, City Councilwoman and Charlie Rangel ally Inez Dickens, Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat (who championed the original driver's license policy that tripped up Clinton during the last debate), City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito (who has close ties to 1199), City Councilman Miguel Martinez, and disabled activist Pamela Bates.

The alternate is City Councilman Robert Jackson.

The city’s Campaign Finance Board announced fines today for three local City Council camapigns.

Charles Bilal, an unsuccessful City Council candidate in Queens, was fined $14,650, including $10,000 for “fraud and/or misrepresentation.” He was also fined for having “$35,000 in non-campaign related expenditures.”

Felipe Luciano, an unsuccessful City Council candidate in Manhattan, was fined $51,690. Most of it, $48,190, was for “exceeding the expenditure limit by $19,276” [name fixed].

And Inez Dickens, who won her 2005 City Council race in Manhattan, was fined $2,657, mostly for filing a financial statement 13 days late.

More evidence (if any were needed) of continuing uncertainty among Democrats about Eliot Spitzer's plan to allow three tiers of driver's licenses: two, for citizens, which will meet federal standards for identification, and a third, for documented and undocumented residents, that won't. 

Inez Dickens, a Democrat from Manhattan and Majority Whip in the City Council, told me yesterday that she's still undecided about Spitzer’s plan.

“If we don’t allow licenses to be given, are we [going to] impact on the ability of all people to earn a living?” she told me.

"I haven’t formulated and decided for sure whether I support it or I don’t, the governor’s proposal, in the format that it is in. I am concerned, rather, about not giving the licenses. But on the other hand, there’s been some real issues and concerns raised by others about giving the license to everyone, and that means undocumented, because documented can indeed get a license."

Erik Dilan of Brooklyn, who has raised money for a possible legislative race, said he hasn’t taken a position on the issue yet.

“There is no clear consensus in my district,” he said.

That’s what it looked like when the executive director of the city Campaign Finance Board testified to the City Council about the proposed changes that would boost matching funds, increase reporting requirements and restrict who can give to city candidates.

Inez Dickens asked if any of the people from the CFB had run for office, been a campaign treasurer, or had raised funds for one. No, they all said, giving Dickens the “you’ve never walked in our shoes” kind of leverage.

But the mayor, City Council Speaker, and a large number of Council members are already backing the proposed changes, making the browbeating during the hearing more of a way to vent than to derail the proposal.

And in case you’re wondering, Larry Seabrook, whose adventures with matching funds I’m a little obsessed with, did stop in to hear a few minutes of testimony.

With the help of an intrepid Park City Stringer and a late deadline, I report on Al Gore at Sundance last night and look at the prospects for a Gore '08 groundswell. Jason addresses one of those glaringly obvious, yet widely ignored, facts about the Bloomberg administration: As under Rudy, virtually all the key decision-makers are white. "I was hoping this administration would reflect the campaign, and it didn't," says Inez Dickens. Joe Conason wants to see the Abramoff-Bush pictures.

Richard Brookhiser doesn't buy the conventional wisdom on how few House seats are in play this year, and wishes Republicans would recover their sense of alarm.  read more »

And Billy Sternberg thinks campaign television advertising is a waste of money.

So a relatively big name just emerged among the cast of thousands scrapping to replace the term-limited members of the City Council.

Inez Dickens, Charlie Rangel's right-hand, and a Democratic National Committee member, will be seeking the seat now held by Bill Perkins, who's running for Borough President.  read more »

Our source on this tells us that Dickens is likely to clear the field, and that the whole Harlem establishment is swinging behind her. She's expected to have the support of Rangel, State Chair Denny Farrell . And the whole cast of younger Harlem operatives -- including Bloomberg and Miller aides -- will be lending a hand.