Columbia University eminent domain abuse by Suzannah B. Troy

It was yet another dark day for democracy here in NYC.  The big apple has seen so many dark days under Bloomberg, a mayor who denied the people of New York City a referendum so he could push threw a third term to crown himself king of New York also pushed a reckless tsunami of development and aided and abetted his developer friends.  Ditto for in my opinion the worst city planner in NYC's history, socialite mega-millionaire Amanda the people's Burden.

Amanda the people's Burden knows her reputation is shot so word on the street is she tells people she is doing Mike Bloomberg's bidding.   She and Mike may be one of the largest mass displacement of New Yorkers if you don't include the original real Natives, the American Indians.  King Mike, the nanny mayor,  has managed to piss them off too.  Mike Bloomberg was not smart enough to figure out if you displace people and than call them and ask them to vote for you either their telephone numbers are now disconnected and or they and their friends will hang up on your campaign staff.   Team Bloomberg found that out and also set a record for the most expensive -- $110 million campaign price tag for the most humiliating win.  Lucky for Teflon Mike The NY Post is not doing anymore investigative research on how Mike spent  109 million dollars and Cy Vance seems unwilling to give king Mike even a slap on the wrist for wiring money out of his personal account instead of the campaign account.   Mike Bloomerg also holds the purse strings to Cy Vance, the Manhattan DA's budget allotment.  Ouch.  Back to today's dark day and Columbia University doing everything but holding a gun to the peoples' heads to get them to move.   Who needs thugs when you have judges that side with ruthless developers and not the people?

Norman Siegel won a powerful first round against Columbia University but it was no surprise he lost round two since this was the very same set of judges that ruled in favor of eminent domain abuse in Brooklyn.

Read the Crain's article and decide for yourself.  My opinion is this is very sad  news.  A dark day for the people.   Watch my YouTube playlist and hear directly from people being abused by Columbia University's abuse of eminent domain.  http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=8C438F43D7335594  Watch  interviews of people being evicted by Columbia University abusing eminent domain.  I also have an interview with Norman Siegel at a protest on the Columbia University campus where even students joined the protest and sad "Not in our name!"

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100624/REAL_ESTATE/100629905

This is all part of the mass displacement under Bloomberg.   

Chevron Ecuador - Amazon Watch is afraid to sue Ecuador

In the never-ending Chevron Ecuador legal battle, Laywer Steven Donziger (the head of a decade-long battle to extort billions from Chevron for environmental damage caused by the Ecuador-owned Petroecuador and Ecuador President Rafael Correa's policy of allowing oil production in the Amazon, while having kicked out American oil companies) and the Amazon Watch organization yesterday called for additional damages against Chevron in Ecuador, citing alleged sabotage of the court proceedings by Chevron.

That's a joke on several fronts. First, understand that this effort is nothing more than Steve Donziger's ticket to billions, as this space stated in this video:



It's sad, that Donziger is accusing Chevron of somehow tampering with the Ecuadorian court system when, in fact, it's Donziger and his collegues who have been trying to manipulate the already corrupt court system in Ecuador.

An old view with roots in Berkeley

Ecuador oil mess caused by Petroecuador

What's really bothersome about this goes back to something that has its roots for this blogger at the Department of City and Regional Planning at The University of California at Berkeley. It was there, at what we lovingly call "DCRP" (and to which I owe a donation), that some of my fellow students rubber-stamped the economic development actions of governments in third-world countries.

Not to get too much off the point, but government's stealing petrodollars that could help the poor, and the overuse of narcodollars to line political pockets was seldom a focus. It was the classic "big company bad", "third world country good" ethic. An idea that I totally hated because it's simplistic; in this business the lines of good and bad are not so clear.

The people you think are "good" are some of the first ones in the Ecuador case, to shoot an arrow into your back.  It's a known fact that Ecuador's poor in the Amazon are hostile to outsiders even from their own country.  It's also a known fact that Ecuador's politics and court system are as dirty as the oil it produces.

At the time I was there, some at DCRP presented a "small group think" that escaped a hard look at corruption and never really solved problems for countries like Ecuador. Now, Ecuador's government ia allowed to get away with ignoring its poor without criticism. Ask Amazon Watch why it doesn't sue Ecuador itself?  The answer is simple: because they're in partnership with each other.

Donziger's credibility is lacking

Earlier this year, evidence submitted by Donziger and his team in Ecuador was repudiated by Charles W. Calmbacher, the very expert that Donziger and the plaintiffs hired to make a report.

Calmbacher, under oath in a deposition you can download here, said the evidence submitted by Donziger and the Amazon Defense Coalition was fraudulent and was not written by him.

All of which leads to one conclusion considering Wednesday's news: Steven Donziger, Amazon Watch and the Amazon Defense Coalition, are trying to divert attention from their own court fixing attempts, imply that American Chevron has done something wrong in Ecuador, and collect billions that would go to the Ecuadorian government, and to Donziger, and not the people Donziger claims to represent.

Ecuador's own lawyer Washington Pesantez, who's title is Ecuador's Prosecutor General, has already said it would get 90 percent of the $27 billion or $16 billion or whatever number Donziger's managed to conjure up of late.

That, folks, makes Ecuador a party to Steven Donziger's own lawsuit and calls into question all this jazz about helping the indigenous people of Ecuador.  But even with the information presented, Donziger and Amazon Watch press on with their claims.

Time is not on their side. There's still the issue of evidence of involvement in the Chevron Ecuador case by President Correa's own political party.

The New York Times ran an article on the bribery scandal involving then Chevron Ecuador case Judge Nunez and recordings that point right to President Correa's sister Pierina Correa as being in line to be approached about the bribe. This is what the Times reported:

In the same meeting, Mr. García told Mr. Borja how to approach Ms. Correa, the president’s sister, about the bribe. "Tell Pierina clearly, 'Madam Pierina, what we came to do beyond anything else is to participate, participate in the remediation. That’s why I want to make you part of this.'"

Mr. Correa's party was to receive a million in the bribe effort.

Now, collect the dots here: we have Ecuador's own lawyer Washington Pesantez stating Ecuador will get 90 percent of the damage award, and we have allegations and evidence pointing to President Correa's own political party as getting some of that same damage award. This lawsuit is designed to do nothing more than make Steven Donziger rich and Ecuador's rich, richer, while Petroecuador continues to mess up its own country's environment.

Black Eyed Peas Will.i.am (@iamwill) Bentley robbed in Hollywood Hills

Will.i.am

The Black Eyed Peas star and Internet tech conference flavor of the year, Will.i.am (@iamwill) was the unfortunate victim of a successful robbery attempt.

According to TMZ.com, Will.i.am's Bentley was broken into and the robbers made off with "jewelry and several of the singer's personal items."

As of this writing the LAPD is in the process of recovering the stolen items, and have found some of them already. Where or how they were found has not been explained.

Will.i.am and Perez Hilton one year anniversary

This is the week that one year ago saw Will.i.am and Perez Hilton in a dust-up over a rather stupid set of comments the celebrity blogger made to Will.i.am at The Much Music Festival in Toronto, Canada. The result was a video change and a total meltdown by Perez and it may have been a contributing factor in his blog's decline in value. Here it is:



Will.i.am the Tech Star

In the wake of his celebrated battle with blogger Perez Hilton, Will.i.am has massively upped his PR game by first becoming associated with Twitter execs, even being a guest at Twitter Headquarters this year, and giving a speech at the firm's recent confab called "Chirp." Now, Will.i.am is slated to speak at the upcoming Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this November.

With that Will.i.am can be officially called a tech influencer. Will.i.am just needs to make sure he keeps his Bentley in a more secure location in the future.

Euro Yank calls blacks the N-word, then deletes Facebook account

Just a warning to African Americans about a racist person who goes by the name Euro Yank. If you encounter the person on Facebook, report or at least blog about it. Euro Yank has, or had a Facebook page, where he posed the question "Who owns the media?"

The question came up on my news feed, so I answered that anyone with a cell phone, blog, and YouTube channel owns the media. My point is that people don't understand the power they have. Or at least those not lining up to by an Apple iPhone 4.

Euro Yank's Facebook response was:

Euro Yank YOU ZIONIST LOVER - HOW MUCH ARE THEY PAYING YOU

And...

Euro Yank and stay the fuck off my wall you stupid NIGGER

Both are on my Facebook page as a marker. Someone can take the page link and research where the person came from if they wanted to. This is that link: Euro Yank, which was broken by him.

Euro Yank - or this version of Euro Yank - has issues. But it's a good idea to present this as a reminder that society still has a long way to go.

Tupac Shakur, Bill Cosby, REM work called "Culturally Significant"

Years after his death, the sprint of Rapper Tupac Shakur continues to live with us via his music. A series of works so powerful that one of them, Dear Mama, was called "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress.

Tupac Shakur joins Bill Cosby, REM, Willie Nelson, Little Richard, Mississippi John Hurt, Patti Smith, and others in the honor.

Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas in 1996 and during a feud with rival rappers that really should not have happened at all. Tupac Shakur was a major music figure in the San Francisco Bay Area, having moved here and to Marin City in 1988.

That Tupac Shakur's music has reached this lofty status should be a sign to urban economic development officials (if they're paying attention and most don't) that investing in the people who create music in a city can not only help them but give the city itself incredible visibility.

That's certainly true for cities like Oakland, California, which has a rich rap music culture, but this space knows that the Oakland Redevelopment Agency pays no attention to an industry, the music industry, in Oakland that many of its residents are already involved in, one way or another.

Tupac Shakur. Forever.

Cystic Fibrosis life expectancy longer than most thought

Diet is one big reason 

Cystic Fibrosis is at the top of search trends Thursday because it was found that the disease, in which the person suffering from it develops an ulcer in the pancreas, can be managed due to advances in treatment. Those advances have caused a larger group of people to live past age 40. 30,000 Americans and 70,000 people around the World have Cystic Fibrosis as of this writing.

According to the Associated Press, Cystic Fibrosis treatment include inhaled medications and a chest - vibrating vest to clear airway clogs. The Cystic Fibrosis disease causes a mucus to build up in the lungs, clogging them and leading to life-threatening infections. That same mucus also clogs the pancreas so the body can't properly digest food.

Cystic Fibrosis generally showed up in kids, who didn't make it to become adults. But what's happening now is that Cystic Fibrosis is showing up in people later in life. What's found is that proper care leads to longer life, but there's something the AP article does not address.

The impact of the non-smoking movement

Not discussed is the impact of the non-smoking movement on Cystic Fibrosis patients. It's wildly known that smoking can harm Cystic Fibrosis patients, but not talked about is the impact of the non-smoking movement and the attack on the spread of second-hand smoke.

Also not considered is the impact of the diet and vitamins movement. Also, exercise is an important consideration. Why those factors aren't mentioned in the AP article is a head-scratcher.

USA v Algeria World Cup: Oakland cheers Landon Donovan goal

It could be said that the USA's win over Algeria in this morning's World Cup Soccer match caused the Toronto Earthquake. Indeed, you would be excused if you thought that the Toronto Earthquake happened because of USA Soccer Star Landon Donovan's monsterous goal. While Donovan's goal didn't start an earthquake, it did send America into hysterics, and that was certainly evident in Oakland, California.

Pure Joy in Oakland

The Era Art Bar on Grand Avenue and Broadway was the crowded scene, with people cheering for the USA and for Algeria. In fact, there was a health contingent of Algerian fans lined along one wall of The Era Art Bar. It was a friendly place to be, though, as people stood and sat with eyes glued to the TV sets at the bar.

The game went back and forth, and it looked like the USA and Algeria would both be eliminated as neither scored a goal for most the contest. Plus, again, the USA had a goal taken away from them for an offsides call that wasn't, causing many to remember the USA Slovenia match. (FIFA really needs to install Instant Replay!)

But then at 90 minutes stoppage time, the energy in the room changed as the USA came charging down the field toward the Algeria goal. You could feel the room swell with excitement. Then, after one kick attempt failed, Landon Donovan swooped in to slam the ball home! USA scored and won 1 - 0.

The room erupted with cheers of USA! USA! USA! That goal and the USA win was a great way to start a Wednesday. The USA advances to the field of sixteen. But can't we just win one outright without it being a nail-biter?

Stay tuned!

General Stanley McChrystal ousted by Obama over Rolling Stone blast

Stanley's out 

Embattled General Stanley McChrystal was "ready to resign" his position Tuesday according to The Huffington Post. Today, Wednesday, President Obama gave him a helping hand by pushing him out of the door.

General McChrystal and his staff were the focus of an exposive Rolling Stone Magazine article called "The Runaway General" which has not yet hit the newsstands. Excerpts presented in this space on Tuesday paint a picture of a general who's more like King Kong than Douglas MacArthur, especially in his view toward civilian officials, most notably the President of The United States, who he described as "intimidated" by top military brass in an initial meeting.

The quotes add up to a climate of almost total disrespect for the civilian military officers selected by President Obama, as well as for Obama himself. Here's Obama announcing that he's accepted McChrystal's resignation:



President Obama replaced General Stanley McChrystal with the well-repected and well-liked General David Petraeus, who understands how to cultivate power, unlike General McChrystal, who may be out of the military altogether.

Obama is a tough guy

There's a weird perception that President Obama's not "tough" and is "weak" but that view is a myth. For example, some may be surprised to learn that President Obama has ordered the murder of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, by using the C.I.A.'s Covert Drone Program, according to New York Magazine.

That fact was couched in a joke that Obama tossed out at this year's White House Correspondents Dinner when he said he had two words for The Jonas Brothers regarding the dating availability of Obama's daughters: "predator drones."

It can be said that those two words could have applied to General Stanley McChrystal. Obama did the right thing by getting rid of him. The President had to send a clear message that he's in charge and he will be not just respected but feared. Things were getting a little out of hand in Stanley McChrystal's office. That will not happen with General David Petraeus at the helm.

.

Toronto Earthquake felt in Western New York and southern Ontario

A few months back when this space was reporting on the record number of large earthquakes the World has experienced this year, some complained that the blog posts were just a scare tactic to gain Internet traffic. Tell that to the people in the Toronto Earthquake and those all along the Northeastern United States who felt it.

Toronto was hit by a 5.0 Richter Scale Earthquake today that started near the Ontario-Quebec border and reportedly shook parts of upstate New York and Ohio as well as Chicago, Cleveland and Indiana.

New York Zennie62.com Blogger Suzannah B. Troy shares her view and experience with today's 5.0 Toronto Earthquake (and talks about the USA's World Cup win, too):



Why was the Toronto Earthquake felt over such a large region? The U.S. Geological Survey explains that a quake in the Northeastern United States "can be felt over an area as much as 10 times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the West Coast."

With all of these large (over 4) earthquakes occurring in 2010, there's got to be something going on.

Stay tuned.

The Green Hornet Movie Trailer shows promising remake of classic

The Black Beauty

As a kid in the 1960s, The Green Hornet was one of this bloggers favorite television shows. The reason wasn't the character of Britt Reid / The Green Hornet, or Kato, played by Bruce Lee. It was because of the car: The Black Beauty. A cool, lethal vehicle that plays a starring role in the 2011 big screen remake The Green Hornet.

If the recently released trailer is a decent representation of what to expect from the film, it's going to be a hit, and The Black Beauty will be its star.

The Green Hornet stars Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz, Jay Chao, Tom Wilkinson, and Academy Award-winner Christoph Waltz in what can be described as an "origin" picture which will explain how The Green Hornet came to be. Here's the video trailer:



While the movie is obviously set in modern America, what remains as the connection to its 1960s TV past is the Chrysler Imperial that is converted to become The Black Beauty. It's a car that Chrysler should make for purchase today (without the machine guns, of course); it would turn around that car maker's fortunes overnight.

As was the case when a kid, I'll see The Green Hornet for the car first, then for Cameron Diaz.

Rock the Casbah!

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums says Mayor's job can be done "anywhere"

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums

The San Francisco Chronicle's lead story in the newspaper edition has the not-good-SEO title, "Just before budget deadline, Dellums weighs in," and has Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums looking every bit like the leader he wants you to think he is.

One photo features Mayor Dellums giving a "you lookin' at me" stare at someone. Another photo has Mayor Dellums with his hands clasped together as if he's the all-knowing seer-in-charge.

All of that's great PR for Mayor Dellums, that is until he speaks: I'm the master strategist," Dellums said according to Matthai Kuruvila at SFGate.com. "My job is to establish strategy, to establish the policy framework within which those negotiations would take place. And I have assiduously and diligently and coherently done just that."

Really, that comments' OK. A mayor's supposed to be a cheerleader for his own actions. But then Dellums gets a little weird. "I have been briefed to the max. It would seem to me that to the most casual observer, that I'm totally in command of what it is we're trying to do. My job is to direct."

Visions of a statute of Mayor Dellums come to mind at this point, with Dellums right arm and extended index finger pointing the way.

That would seem to be enough, but then the Mayor goes off on an existential rant, saying "In the world of computers and the world of telephones and the world of faxes, you can do this job anywhere."

What's that? Let's look at the quote one more time:

"In the world of computers and the world of telephones and the world of faxes, you can do this job anywhere."

That means Mayor Ron Dellums can be outside of Oakland, in, say, Paris drinking coffee at an Internet cafe on the L'Avenue des Champs Elysées, and still run Oakland from his laptop. Right?

Let's take that example.

While drinking coffee Mayor Dellums gets a call from one of his aides that a child was killed by a stray bullet in Oakland. The cafe happens to have a World Cup game on in the background. The family of the boy would like Mayor Dellums to come and say a few words of support and bring life back to a neighborhood that needs a lift.

Mayor Dellums says "Uh. Ok. Uh. What should I do?" The aide suggests using USTREAM, a computer, and a projector to make a live stream of the Mayor issuing soothing remarks to the people at the church in Oakland. The Mayor says, "Good idea."

Within two hours, the system is set. The family thinks the Mayor's Office's idea is a little weird, but goes along with it. After all, at least the Mayor's doing something.

The Mayor starts by saying "Today, marks a dark day in Oakland," as he sits in sunny Paris, France. "One of Oakland's young was taken from us today. But we will not let his passing or the way it happened dampen our sprit! We will lift Oakland up in the name of this boy! We will...

Then someone in the background and in the cafe yells "GOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!"

I think you get the idea.

A Mayor has to be in their town to not just run it, but be there for the people of it. Oakland is not a city a Mayor can run effectively from Paris, France, or Mongolia for that matter. To be a good Mayor of Oakland, the person must be in Oakland and with its people as much as possible.

Mayor Dellums, the coffee in Oakland's just as good as the coffee in France.

Earthquake Canada shakes NYC + Soceer + Taylor indicted by Suzannah B. Troy

Time for the NYC round-up live from New York!   The USA soccer team won!   There were loud screams of joy I witnessed and show you for a mili-second here in NYC.   If you felt your home shaking here in NYC and it wasn't from passionate love or a subway line running under your home than it must have been the 5.5 magnitude earthquake from Southern Ontario, Canada.

I think it was about 1986, I remember feeling slight tremors from an earthquake so it wouldn't be a first for New Yorkers.



On to sad bad news.  LT, Lawrence Taylor was indicted for having sexual intercourse and oral sex with a minor.  The New York Post wrote this, "Taylor, 51, a Hall of Famer with a drug-plagued past, was slapped with felony rape, misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child and other charges in the May 6 incident."
and this as well.

 Taylor's agent, Mark Lepselter, told The Post today, "The bottom line is, there was no surprise" from the indictment. "We weren't blind-sided."  


How ironic is that statement about being "blind-sided" when Taylor is the crown jewel of the best selling book and film that won Sandra Bullock an Oscar and proved she was blind sided when it came to her cheating husband.  Ironic for Taylor because he could have ridden the wave of the success of "The Blind Side" which  pays tribute to him in the opening lines of the film but instead he road his way in to self destruction, yet again.


I feel most sorry for the young woman that was exploited and pray she achieves her dreams and or at least is safe among friends..




The New York Post reports New Yorkers think government, Albany and I will add in City Hall, stinks!


On to happy news.  I have more footage of Giuseppi Logan who will be playing a gig at the 5C Cultural Center Sunday at 5:30.  GIuseppi composed and played sax on his two successful albums by ESP records in the 1960's before he self destructed and disappeared.  But I filmed him 2 years ago in Tompkins Square Park and he is no longer lost but on the road to redemption late in life.  He has a new album, his first since the 1960's and the album is well received.

Giuseppi Logan is playing the piano in Tompkins Square Park. The piano is there as part of a program called "Arts Activism in Action."  Volunteer, Gary Newton unlocked the piano so Giuseppi Logan could play.  I am told GL played the bag pipes, flute, sax, clarinet and piano.

He told me he wished he had a piano in his home.

Right now we can't even get his phone up and working.  Hope to have that resolved soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClEa5B4eRb8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSKRb-69Ywo

My YouTube documentary playlist

http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=D1175469A77B9F2C