Sliwa aims to ‘Save the Senate’

His bid for mayor fell short, but that doesn’t mean Curtis Sliwa is going to sit on the sidelines in 2022.
Sliwa announced this week that he is forming the “Save the Senate” Super PAC aimed explicitly at defeating Senator Chuck Schumer. First elected to the Senate in 1998, Schumer is seeking a fifth term.
“I am more committed than ever to advancing our Republican values and priorities and holding liberal elitists accountable for failing New York and America,” Sliwa says on the website’s mission statement. “Next up: Senator Chuck Schumer.”
Sliwa says he plans to raise millions of dollars through the political action committee, which will in turn be used to promote and help elect a Republican challenger to the Senator Majority Leader. Schumer has not faced a serious challenger in the last three elections.
“As senator, Schumer has delivered nothing more than Sunday press conferences with empty promises,” the website continued. “Between the rising cost of living, a broken healthcare system, struggling public schools, and lack of affordable housing, it is clear that Senator Schumer’s primary concern is keeping himself and his cronies in power.”
Bronx attorney and Albanian immigrant, Aleksander Mici, announced recently that he would seek to challenge Schumer on the Republican line. And Sliwa hasn’t totally ruled out throwing his red beret into the ring, but said he would only run as a last resort.
When Schumer was elected in 1998, he defeated Republican Al D’Amato. D’Amato is now a lobbyist, and recently told the Post that Schumer is virtually unbeatable. The senator visits every county in the state every year, and is a fundraising powerhouse.
Heck, D’Amato even endorsed the man who replaced him during the 2016 election.
As for the aforementioned Siena College poll, voters were also asked how they feel about Schumer. Among Democrats, 70 percent said they had a favorable view of the job Schumer was doing, while only 20 percent of Republicans polled could say the same.

Campaign flyers and fisticuffs

It was just another day on the campaign trail for Curtis Sliwa.
The Republican candidate for mayor and some members of the Guardian Angel were meeting with voters at the San Gennaro festival on Friday night when things got a little out of hand.
As the group passed a bar in Little Italy, they came across a fight that had broken out and immediately rushed in to stop the fracas. We’ll just let Sliwa describe the scene for you:

“I and Guardian Angels were walking through the San Gennaro festival when all hell broke loose in this gin mill, this bar behind us. Women were swinging, winging, someone grabbed a bar stool and ‘boom’ over the head.
“The Guardian Angels came in, they had to push, they had to restrain. It was an all-out battle pouring into the streets. Ironically, even though there were hundreds of people watching, nobody intervened. So the Guardian Angels had to get control of the situation, even though windows were busted out, even though we were really threatened to the point where people were going to get stabbed or seriously injured.
“Then about 20 minutes later, the cops came. Reactive, not proactive. We don’t just campaign in the streets, we patrol the streets. When I’m mayor, we’re gonna make sure thing like this don’t happen at all anywhere in the city.”
Say what you want about Sliwa, there’s never a dull moment when he’s around. At the very least, Sliwa in charge at City Hall would be gold for penny-a-liners like ourselves. The copy would write itself!

Sliwa on homeless crisis: “Defunding police to blame”

Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa met with this paper’s editorial board last week to discuss a handful of city issues and how he would navigate them if elected.
One of the most pressing issues he touched on is the treatment of homeless people and emotionally disturbed persons in the city.
Sliwa can be seen on social media interacting with homeless people who are living on the streets and in the subways, and often calls out officials like Mayor Bill de Blasio and his democratic opponent, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, for not doing the same.
Sliwa believes that homeless outreach efforts have taken a turn for the worse as a result of the police being defunded by $1 billion, which he says severely impacted the Homeless Outreach Unit.
“Cops would go into the shelters, they would go into the hotels,” he said. “They would deal with EDPs and homeless people, more so than at the precinct level.”
Sliwa would close the 28 MICA shelters, which deal with mentally-ill and substance-abusing people, in the city.
“Those have to be closed,” he said. “You can’t have emotionally disturbed persons in shelters, they need care. They need to be in a mental healthcare hospital getting their meds.”
He supports reopening Camp LaGuardia upstate, a facility for the mentally ill and substance abusers that was closed during the Bloomberg administration.
Sliwa argues the camp would allow these individuals to overcome their substance abuse problems, as well as offer job training that may assist them with employment opportunities in the future.
Last month, Sliwa led a rally to celebrate local efforts that prevented the city from housing homeless people at the Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth, but said the issue of using hotels to house the homeless is an issue for many neighborhoods.
Sliwa said Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks “shoved these shelters down people’s throats” with no transparency or discussion. The argument is that the hotels allow homeless people who need shelter to remain in their community where they have a support system
But Sliwa says he has had conversations with homeless individuals living in hotel shelters far from where they are originally from.
The mayoral hopeful says he requested a meeting with Governor Kathy Hochul to discuss his opposition to legislation that would allow the state to buy hotels currently housing the homeless to make them permanent shelters. Sliwa says he has not heard back.
“A man or a woman, single, able-bodied should be able to have their own apartment, not have to live in a shelter in a dormitory-style way in which it’s not healthy for them,” he said. “They’re constantly being preyed on, it’s Darwinian.
“I’ve been in enough of them in which the shelter guards, whether they’re private security or Department of Homeless Services, have a no-touch policy,” Sliwa added “How are you going to control some people who are going to use force to try to shake down and extort other homeless people?”

Sliwa on homeless crisis: “Defunding police to blame”

By Jessica Meditz

jmeditz@queensledger.com

Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa met with this paper’s editorial board last week to discuss a handful of city issues and how he would navigate them if elected.

One of the most pressing issues he touched on is the treatment of homeless people and emotionally disturbed persons in the city.

Curtis Sliwa spoke with this newspaper’s editorial board about numerous citywide issues.

Sliwa can be seen on social media interacting with homeless people who are living on the streets and in the subways, and often calls out officials like Mayor Bill de Blasio and his democratic opponent, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, for not doing the same.

Sliwa believes that homeless outreach efforts have taken a turn for the worse as a result of the police being defunded by $1 billion, which he says severely impacted the Homeless Outreach Unit.

“Cops would go into the shelters, they would go into the hotels,” he said. “They would deal with EDPs and homeless people, more so than at the precinct level.”

Sliwa would close the 28 MICA shelters, which deal with mentally-ill and substance-abusing people, in the city.
“Those have to be closed,” he said. “You can’t have emotionally disturbed persons in shelters, they need care. They need to be in a mental healthcare hospital getting their meds.”

He supports reopening Camp LaGuardia upstate, a facility for the mentally ill and substance abusers that was closed during the Bloomberg administration.

Sliwa argues the camp would allow these individuals to overcome their substance abuse problems, as well as offer job training that may assist them with employment opportunities in the future.

Last month, Sliwa led a rally to celebrate local efforts that prevented the city from housing homeless people at the Holiday Inn Express in Maspeth, but said the issue of using hotels to house the homeless is an issue for many neighborhoods.

Sliwa said Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks “shoved these shelters down people’s throats” with no transparency or discussion. The argument is that the hotels allow homeless people who need shelter to remain in their community where they have a support system.

But Sliwa says he has had conversations with homeless individuals living in hotel shelters far from where they are originally from.

The mayoral hopeful says he requested a meeting with Governor Kathy Hochul to discuss his opposition to legislation that would allow the state to buy hotels currently housing the homeless to make them permanent shelters. Sliwa says he has not heard back.

“A man or a woman, single, able-bodied should be able to have their own apartment, not have to live in a shelter in a dormitory-style way in which it’s not healthy for them,” he said. “They’re constantly being preyed on, it’s Darwinian.

“I’ve been in enough of them in which the shelter guards, whether they’re private security or Department of Homeless Services, have a no-touch policy,” Sliwa added “How are you going to control some people who are going to use force to try to shake down and extort other homeless people?”

Sliwa brings campaign for mayor to Forest Hills

Mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa recently paid a visit to Ohr Natan Synagogue and Knish Nosh in Forest Hills, where he took the time to greet voters and hear their concerns.
Sliwa has been a radio talk show host for 30 years, and is best known for founding the Guardian Angels, a volunteer organization focused on crime prevention.
“After 42 years, we are in 13 countries and 130 cities,” said Sliwa.
If elected mayor, Sliwa wants to reduce crime by increasing funding to the police, work on property tax reform, and make no-kill animal shelters the norm.
He said there is a lack of transparency in politics. He calls it the “DID Syndrome.”
“They ‘deny’ that you have a problem, ‘ignore’ doing anything about it, and ‘delay,’” Sliwa explained. “That’s why we need a strong and diverse free press, who should not be friends, but adversarial. They’re the truth gatherers.”
Sliwa has three children currently attending public schools, and shared his plans for the education system
“I want to see two teachers in every classroom,” he said. “I’ve been to classes before the lockdown, and the behavioral issues are stifling for the teachers and the other students.”
He is also a supporter of charter schools, as well as vouchers and tuition tax credits for religious and parochial schools.
“All schools will have to provide vocational education at the junior high and high school level,” Sliwa added, “since there are demands for trained personnel such as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and computer programmers.”
He wants largest vocational education programs to be for professional home healthcare aides.
“They need to figure out the psychology of the elderly, since many more of us are graying at a rapid rate, and we are not providing,” Sliwa said. “Aides have to learn how to be a friend, especially for those who may not have any family or friends, as well as how to give out medication and be aware of their effects.”
On a related note, he called for greater transparency and regulation of long-term senior homes.
“I have seen people with Alzheimer’s live in a vegetated state in hallways with no communication,” he said. “Most people never see what happens behind closed doors, but with transparency we could be a greater society overall.”
And as his past with the Guardian Angels would indicate, Sliwa would be strong on crime as mayor.
“The handcuffs need to be taken off the cops and put on the criminals, so they can be proactive and not reactive,” he said. “We need 38,000 cops patrolling, and that means we need to hire 4,000 more police to fill the void.”
To pay for the extra police officers, he wants a new property tax on large institutions that currently don’t pay any.
“Because of early and normal retirements, we are going to get down to a dangerous level of 32,500 cops, and we cannot patrol the five boroughs adequately,” Sliwa warned. “We need to preemptively stop crimes before they take place.”
He also shared his plans on tackling the rise in graffiti that has occurred since the start of the pandemic.
“It is no longer an arrestable offense,” Sliwa said. “When I’m mayor, you’ll get arrested. And landlords that allow graffiti to stay on and don’t have their super remove it within 48 hours will be severely fined, since they are neglecting their responsibilities.
“Other properties that are public, abandoned or in distress, the city will have to put together a task force and paint over it,” he added. “We need zero tolerance, just like we have in the subways.”
As for the homeless problem, Sliwa said the city’s current position is destroying neighborhoods and doing a disservice to the people they are trying to help.
“The city is shoving 90 shelters, with two-thirds already completed, into neighborhoods with no transparency or communication with elected officials and community boards,” he said. “It does not help the homeless since they warehouse them rather than providing services.”
Sliwa said he would reopen Camp LaGuardia, an upstate homeless shelter in Chester where addicted and homeless men were sent beginning in the Great Depression to recover. They also grew crops to make the shelter more self-sufficient.
By the 90’s, its population consisted mainly of drug-addicted and mentally ill young men who were allowed to leave the grounds. It was closed in November 2006.
Sliwa also spoke about preservation and overdevelopment. Locally, he opposes RJ Capital Holdings/Trylon LLC’s plan for a large high-rise on the site of the Trylon Theater.
“I was just in the former Trylon Theater/Ohr Natan synagogue, and they were telling me that they have to leave and need new space. Why should they?” he asked. “They helped keep that beautiful Art Deco building active and thriving. Tower Diner with its clock tower, which I would take my youngest sons to, is also an iconic place. Both the diner and the theater should be landmarked.”
Sliwa said there is a lack of transparency and effectiveness when it comes to landmarking.
“The outer boroughs need to have landmarking, which maintains the unique nature of a neighborhood and our city,” he said. “You have to go to the people who have the passion and not the bureaucrats. There’s a humanity in it, so who knows better than the people and preservationists who live in their communities and understand a building’s historical significance?
“That is why the Landmarks Preservation Commission needs to be decentralized by borough,” he said.
Sliwa said he has a reputation for being a tough individual, but say many people don’t realize he will bring a different side of personality to City Hall if elected.
“People know I’ll be hard on crime, but what people don’t realize is that I’ll bring more compassion to City Hall than any previous mayor,” he said. “I’m compassionate about the homeless, the emotionally disturbed who I dealt with for 42 years as a Guardian Angel, and for animals.”

Who’s mayor of NYC? Depends on who you ask

At this rate, why even waste the money holding a general election this November to decide who will be the next mayor of New York City?
Eric Adams was finally declared the winner of the Democratic Primary in the first citywide test of ranked-choice voting, edging out fellow candidates Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley. There was also a Republican Primary this year, which Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa won.
He’ll face off against Adams this November, although you wouldn’t know it by the way Adams is acting.
Adams has been taking a victory lap since he was declared the winner and, if we’re being honest, Sliwa has almost no shot at defeating Adams in the general election. That said, Adams is acting more like the next mayor of New York City than a candidate who still has an election to win later this year.
Heck, Adams isn’t even acting like the next mayor of New York City, he’s acting like THE mayor of New York City.
At the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s annual dinner at Giando on the Water in Williamsburg, Adams boldly declared “I am the mayor” as the actual mayor, Bill de Blasio, stood behind him with an uncomfortable smile frozen on his face.
Adams was greeted by a call-and-response chant of “The champ is here!” led by the party chair, Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.
In case you missed it, we figured we would borrow (steal?) from the Post and quote verbatim a mayoral spokesperson on the incident, because it was a pretty funny response.
“Damn. Now it’s official, I guess,” the spokesperson said. “Everyone knows that you officially assume office if you declare you’re the mayor within 10 feet of the current mayor. How do you think [late Mayor] Abe Beame got the job?”
That’s some sarcasm we can appreciate!
All of this is probably bringing Governor Andrew Cuomo a little bit of joy even after he was interviewed this past weekend by the Attorney General’s office on allegation he made unwanted sexual advances to several staffers over the years.
Cuomo and de Blasio have been locked in a long-standing feud for years, especially on the governor’s side, who never seems to miss an opportunity to attack or undermine the mayor. Some might say his preoccupation with sticking it to de Blasio sometimes comes at the expense of the general welfare of the residents of New York City.
Earlier in the same day as Adams’ declaration, Cuomo appeared at an event with Adams and declared him the next mayor of New York City and said he was very excited to work the Democratic Primary winner, something he has never said about de Blasio since he was named the Democratic nominee in 2013, when he did say he was excited to work with him.
That relationship deteriorated quickly, so we’ll see how long the love fest between Adams and Cuomo lasts after the January 1st inauguration.
And it’s not just local politicians who are ready to accept Adams as the 110th mayor of the Big Apple. Shortly after his victory was official, President Joe Biden, no less, invited Adams to the White House to discuss the rise in gun violence. We’re guessing Sliwa didn’t get the same consideration.

Heck, the current mayor of New York City, who still has six months left in office, wasn’t even invited to the Capitol pow-wow.
Speaking of the radio show host, all of this praise and attention for Adams is not sitting well with Sliwa. Sliwa said Adams is acting like a “dictator” and brought up the fact that he narrowly defeated Garcia in the primary, which he presumably believes improves his chances come November.
We don’t suppose Adams is going to pay much attention to Sliwa, and presumably will not agree to many debates, if any. If he does, it should be much-watch TV, as Sliwa will have to take every chance he gets to attack Adams.
Sliwa probably won’t be the next mayor, but maybe this campaign will help him boost his ratings!

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