Congressmember Carolyn Maloney., running for her 11th term in the U.S. House of Representatives, was the speaker at the October luncheon meeting of the Long Island City/Astoria Chamber of Commerce, held at the Waterfront Crabhouse. She started off by praising Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as a man of vision and imagination and gave evidence to back up her judgment while at the same time she discussed her own influence and achievements in the parts of Manhattan and Queens that she represents. After her address she swore in the chamber’s first board of directors and then accepted an honorary lifetime place on the board from Chamber President Arthur Rosenfield. The next speaker was city Chief Business Operations Officer Tokumbo Showbowale, who explained that his grand-sounding title, a newly-created one, meant that his job is to make the city more business-friendly, in response to recent complaints about bureaucratic strong-arming of small businesses and use of fines and penalties as revenue-raisers.
Maloney’s enthusiasm for Bloomberg’s record, or what she called the most progressive part of it, appeared to be inspired by the way he led the city to victory in the competition for the Cornell University/Technion Institute science campus, construction of which will soon begin on Roosevelt Island. She said she was once told by a high-tech entrepreneur that he had a problem finding qualified employees; now, with the coming of the new science campus, she added, there are several West Coast and Silicon Valley companies ready to open New York offices. She even said that the science campus has led the Postal Service to keep the Roosevelt Island post office, which was due to be eliminated in the latest USPS cost-cutting move. The campus and such innovations as technical incubators—what she called “genius retention”—could make Queens, because of its proximity to Roosevelt Island, a center of learning.
She is not shy about the funds she has brought into her district, so she gladly reviewed the NYC Chief Business Operations Officer Tokumbo Showbowale.Queens Plaza makeover, done mainly because she marshaled $54 million for the roadway rearrangement, the bikeway and walkway and the park. She said the jetBlue decision to relocate at Queens Plaza was largely due to that aesthetic improvement visible from its windows. She welcomed hearing about other plans for the district, saying she would get behind anything having merit. Maloney called Queens “the new hottest area” and envisioned it as second only to Manhattan as a focal point for business. She cited the East Side Access and Second Avenue subway projects, the largest transit projects in the country, but deplored the decision not to have more railroad stations in Queens as part of the big scheme. It must be revived in Sunnyside, where it could connect to business districts in all directions, she said.
The swearing-in ceremony took place in the middle of the restaurant, where Maloney’s discourse was concluded with acceptance by those who officially became board members. In addition to making her a lifetime member of the board, Rosenfield declared that against his normal pledge of neutrality, he was endorsing Maloney for re-election. Observing this nearby was Assemblymember Cathy Nolan, who has made room in her Sunnyside office for the congressmember to have her own office in Queens.
Maloney also had secured $900,000 for The Floating Hospital (TFH), 41-40 27th Street, near Queens Plaza. Nolan said also that she had secured somewhat more than $200,000 for TFH.
Showbowale said his job includes guidance for new business applicants, who have a notoriously rough time getting started in the city. He said that they spend all too much of their time running from one city office to another when they should really be running their enterprises. A current goal is to get as many as 80 percent of applications online. Trying to effect these improvements for harried businesspersons is “not exciting, not ribbon-cutting,” he said, but it’s necessary and is his duty. He was asked about city agents and inspectors who reputedly give business owners a hard time because they want to be seen as doing their jobs and not shirking. He said that his office was created to establish “clear guidelines” for those in business to know their operational obligations and not to penalize too quickly. He dismissed as an unfortunate notion the belief that fines are seen, and frequently exacted, as revenue-raisers. He said that he doesn’t want business owners to believe they are being “pistol-whipped” by the city. When another inquirer complained about intrusive film and television productions going on in the streets of Long Island City, often taking many precious parking spaces for their own vans and trailers, Showbowale said there’s a conflict going on, because film and TV production in New York has been a source of municipal pride for decades. He said he would speak to Commissioner Katherine Oliver about it. Later, Glenn Laga, board member and president of Guardian Data Destruction, announced there would be a mid-morning meeting the following week at Riccardo’s in Astoria, to call for “warnings, not fines.” He said he disagreed with Showbowale about fines, saying they are definitely used as a means to raise revenue.
