Maybe she's just dressed as a crazy person for Halloween?
On Tuesday, Jackson Chabot of our sister organization Open Plans headed to City Hall to testify in favor of Mayor Adams's City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. No matter what you think of Chabot or of the zoning initiative, you'd think members of the City Council would respect members the public who show up to say their piece.
But that's not how Trumpist Council Member Vickie Paladino behaves. She'd prefer to berate people who testify, demean their expertise, invalidate their opinions and play Nativist games.
In Chabot's case, Paladino homed in on the fact that our ally in the fight for livable streets and affordable housing was born in — horrors! — Cincinnati!
To Paladino, that meant Chabot could not possibly offer anything of merit, despite the fact that he has studied the zoning proposal for years and works for a group that helped write it.
“What’s the population of Cincinnati, Ohio my friend?” Paladino sarcastically asked Chabot, who provided an answer over which Paladino chortled: “Six-hundred thousand! And now you moved to the big city with eight million people. Wow!”
Calling Chabot "a newbie," Paladino then lectured him. "Let me explain something to you. ... You don’t know a thing about New York or how we work, OK? How dare you come to this panel with your so-called expertise, and kill car people. ... This is not Amsterdam, this is New York City. Take a back seat, because you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
It's easy to laugh off Paladino's antics — because, frankly, she's such an unhinged lunatic who has a prosopagnosic relationship to facts — but there's nothing funny about members of the public being attacked after being invited to offer testimony in good faith on the issues of the day.
Nor do we welcome the notion — a favorite of old-timers on community boards — that there's a requisite number of years that a person must live in a city before he or she can express an opinion about how that city might be improved.
No, New York is not Amsterdam, but unlike Vickie Paladino, I would love to hear former residents of the Netherland capital — or those from Barcelona or Paris — tell us about changes those cities have made to reduce road deaths, pollution and congestion. (Just as I'd love to hear experts from Egypt discuss preserving ancient monuments or their counterparts in Japan update me on high-speed rail. But unlike Vickie Paladino, I respect people who offer sound advice and data.)
I'd even like to hear from people whose parents decided to have them in Cincinnati — a city with a much bigger population than Paladino's suburban district, by the way. Also, for all Council Member Paladino went on and on about how badly her suburban constituents "need" their cars, data show that only 45 percent of them get to work in one — the rest take transit or walk. (Not that I think facts matter to a climate-denying nutcase.)
But to paraphrase Vickie Paladino, let me explain something to you, Council member: How about you do your job and listen, rather than padlocking the door on your mind and berating your fellow New Yorkers?
Watch the exchange here:
In other news from an otherwise slow day:
- Speaking of City of Yes, Hell Gate had the definitive headline: "City of Yes: Package of Zoning Tweaks or Fireball of Gentrification Aimed at Your Grandma's House?" (The City and Crain's also covered, albeit in a more muted fashion.)
- How about you respect our heroic transit workers? (NYDN)
- There is always a Streetsblog angle: Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to hand over many personal possessions to Georgia election workers he defamed … including a 1980 Mercedes once owned by Lauren Bacall. (CNN, NYDN, NY Times)
- Subway ridership is up. (Gothamist)
- From the assignment desk: Gov. Hochul is going to sign New York City's expansion of red light cameras today at 10 a.m. at her Midtown office, which is conveniently located near so many diners.
