Tony Avella

Animal Rights Group Pressures Amazon.com Over New York Foie Gras Producer

"I happen to think that foie gras is one of the most delicious things on earth," Anthony Bourdain told the camera before a truth-finding trip to New York's Hudson Valley Foie Gras for his Christmas special in 2007. "And yet strangely enough, a few twisted, angry people would like to take your foie g ... More >>

The Horse-Drawn Carriage Debate Continues; Local Groups and Celebrities Call for a Ban

Michelle D. Anderson​The effort to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City rages on. Another report of a carriage horse collapse in a two-week span has left animal-rights advocates -- including celebrities such as Glee's Lea Michele and Pamela Anderson -- with a renewed passion to end the u ... More >>

Tony Avella, State Senator, Wants the City to Pick Up All Raccoons, Not Just the Scary Ones

​In Queens, raccoons are invading homes, and local lawmakers have had enough. State Senator Tony Avella of Queens proposed a bill on Monday that would change the way New York City handles raccoons. At present, the city will only pick up a raccoon if it is sick, dangerous, or hurt, and Avella's ... More >>

Council Gives Veto-Proof Vote to Parking Meter "Grace Period"

Despite threats of a mayoral veto, the city council approved a five-minute parking ticket grace period in some circumstances. As their vote was 47 to 2, it is expected they will override the mayor's veto. Daniel Garodnick of Manhattan and Tony Avella of Queens voted no. Maria Baez, as is her custo ... More >>

Election 2009: Down-Ticket, What Has Become of Our Beautiful Losers?

In city races the favorites are getting treated as such, with very few deviations. Some of the city council races are downright ridiculous. Bronx incumbent Joel Rivera has defeated his Conservative Party challenger Steven Stern 97 to 3 percent. What an election night party Stern must be having. ... More >>

Bloomberg-Thompson Debate Blah Blah Who Cares It's Over We're Fucked

The Times recaps the Bloomberg-Thompson debate, which from their reading sounds like something that would change no one's mind. Bloomberg shrugs off the term limits debate ("In the end, on Nov. 3, we'll have a vote on what really matters"), is made to "fidget with his fingers" when people mock his S ... More >>

Cheek, in Review: 7 Days of Runnin' Scared

​ Ha, ha, ha. The sweet release of death is a week closer. In the afterlife we can forget all about Kanye and all these ridiculous (but highly amusing) tributes. New York had a big Primary Day -- or, judging by turnout, a dinky one. Our hero Tony Avella went down to defeat. The heavily fund ... More >>

Barrett: Election Shakeup -- For the First time, a Likely Minority-Majority on the City Council

Margaret Chin​When the city council elects a new speaker in January, minorities are likely to hold an unprecedented five-vote majority in the 51-member body. The last time the council picked a speaker -- when Christine Quinn was elected in 2006 -- whites still held a one-vote majority. In Tu ... More >>

After the Fall: Talking to Tony Avella at Il Cortile on Election Night

At Il Cortile on Mulberry Street, the bullet-head old man in the light grey suit leaned out of the doorway of the back room, scowling at the waiter he was trying to hear. They didn't have the artichoke, the waiter explained; he could have the eggplant instead. The old man silently weighed the decisi ... More >>

Primary Results: Vance In; Comptroller and P.A. Go to Runoffs; Council Incumbents Suffer; Rose Romps in Staten Island

Primary Day led to expected results, for the most part. For the Democratic mayoral nomination, Thompson romped, 70 to 21 percent, over Tony Avella. (Also someone named Roland Rogers got eight percent. Clearly a name to watch!) With no comptroller candidate making the 40 percent mark, John Liu and Da ... More >>

Thompson's Pension Pals: A Wound Waiting to be Re-Opened

In last week's Democratic mayoral debate, feisty Queens city councilman Tony Avella managed to open one small cut over the eye of his opponent, city comptroller Bill Thompson. It was hardly a bleeder. Thompson closed it quickly. But if incumbent Mike Bloomberg takes aim at the wound, it could ... More >>

Thompson, Avella Debate Absent Bloomberg, Talk Weed, Frisking

​Bill Thompson's poll lead over Tony Avella in the race for the Democratic Mayoral nomination is even more forbidding than Bloomberg's lead over Thompson. But Thompson and Avella sill held a debate last night for NY1, during which Thompson admitted he had, at some unspecified time in his life, ... More >>

Tony Avella Throws High and Hard at Debate

Listening to Queens councilman Tony Avella at last night's Democratic mayoral candidates' debate was like watching "Wild Thing" Vaughn, the rookie pitcher played by Charlie Sheen in the old movie, "Major League." Like "Wild Thing," Avella throws a torrid fast ball. Like "Wild Thing," he's also ... More >>

Tony Avella Denounces Standard Hotel High Line Peep Show

​The New York Post continues to celebrate the nude performances regularly taking place in Standard Hotel windows overlooking the High Line. Today's article quotes a "friendly bellhop" at the hotel, who says, "We don't discourage it" -- that is, the peep shows -- "In actual fact, we encourage i ... More >>

Lone Poll Surprise Shows Melinda Katz Neck-in-Neck with Liu for Comptroller

​WABC commissioned a poll on some local races, and found things as expected, with a few surprises. Bill Thompson mops the floor with Tony Avella for the Democratic Mayoral nomination, 52-11 percent, and Mark Green, the only public advocate candidate most people have heard of, takes 47 percent ... More >>

Mayoral Candidates' Drinks: Jack & Coke "in a Dirty Glass," Tap Beer, Coke Straight

​ We tip our hat to the Examiner's alcohol reporter Dan Manzel for asking the leading New York mayoral candidates what they like to drink. Bill Thompson campaign spokesperson Janet Dickerson, obviously in a good mood, tells Manzel, "Bill would order a Jack and Coke in a dirty glass... We'll ... More >>

Press Finally Notices Tony Avella, Portrays Him as Madman

Councilmember and mayoral candidate Tony Avella is finally getting some press attention, albeit of the dismissive look-at-this-nut variety. "Mr. Avella knows where he wants to take the city," says the Times, "and that place is back in time." Ha! Look at the funny man, not marching bravely into our s ... More >>

Voice Deutsche Bank Fire Story Draws Reactions from Firefighters' Kin, Colleagues, Others

​by Johanna Barr and Tom Feeney Jr. In this week's Voice cover story, Wayne Barrett reports on the Bloomberg administration's "failure of leadership, accountability, and transparency" in its handling of the Deutsche Bank fire in 2007. Those involved reached out to the Voice in reaction to th ... More >>

Homeless Activists Take Over JPMorgan's Vacant Lot in E. Harlem

Picture the Homeless has commandeered a vacant lot at 115th between Madison and Fifth Avenue. They say the "warehoused" lot is owned by JPMorgan Chase, which they point out is a "recent beneficiary of billions in taxpayer bailout money." They seem pleased with their encampment so far: "Tent city lo ... More >>

Council Caves on Coney; Sitt-to-City Deal Still in Works?

Photo (cc) Spuz. The way things are going, the never-ending Coney Island rezoning process is going to have more "final hearings" than Astroland had last days. Originally scheduled to meet last week to weigh in on the shape of Coney's future, the city council's land use committee instead repeatedl ... More >>

Naked Cowboy to Announce for Mayor's Race Today

We have done more than most to let you know about the New York mayoral candidates from minor parties such as the Green Party (Reverend Billy), the Rent Is Too Damn High Party (Jimmy McMillan), and the Democrats (Bill Thompson, Tony Avella). We hope to provide coverage in the near future of Libertari ... More >>

Cheek, in Review: 7 Days of Runnin' Scared

The Sotomayor hearings commenced with protesters. Chuck Schumer did his bit. Lindsey Graham copped out, or so the rightwingers said -- so he hassled Sonia on her temperament. Jeff Sessions tried to get cute. A rightwing Representative and a "flaming liberal" discussed the case amicably. Finally ... More >>

Filing Shows Lots of Small Donors Fuel Avella's Dinky Campaign

Last week Mike Bloomberg came across with some money stats from his self-financed campaign. Bill Thompson and Tony Avella, whose mayoral candidacies are not, to say the least, self-financed, and supposed to file their data for the past quarter this week. Avella's is posted now, and it shows that he' ... More >>

Marist Poll: Voters Want Bloomberg Out, Will Vote for Bloomberg

The latest Marist poll on the mayor's race closely follows the last one: most New Yorkers think it's time for a new mayor -- 51 percent, up from 48 percent last time -- but the overwhelming majority (73 percent) see no hope of it. Perhaps out of learned helplessness, the respondents give Bloomberg c ... More >>

The Week in the Voice

Those Newburgh 4, arrested last month and charged with trying to blow up synagogues in a terror plot, were drawn into their alleged conspiracy by an informant known as Malik, working with the FBI to get out from under his own criminal record. Witnesses say that in addition to subjecting the men to c ... More >>

Bloomberg, Avella and Thompson at WFP Mayoral Forum: Some Highlights

Last night three candidates for Mayor of New York -- Michael Bloomberg, councilmember Tony Avella, and comptroller Bill Thompson -- attended the Working Families Party Mayoral Forum at the Hotel Trades Council on West 44th Street. (We should mention that Green Party candidate Reverend Billy wanted ... More >>

Cheek, in Review: 7 Days of Runnin' Scared

Dance troupe, Governor's Island. Boy, what a week. Gay Pride was effulgent as ever with three D.A. candidates voguing for the cameras, but marred by a gay-bashing on the Upper East Side. The authorities got involved and the cops went to work, and now it looks like there have been more such incide ... More >>

Pols Stand With Sikhs Against MTA's Forced Branding of Turbans

On Tuesday several city councilmembers signed a letter of protest against an MTA policy that requires Sikh workers to have the MTA logo sewn into their turbans. In 2005 the council filed but never enacted a bill that would prevent city agencies from making employees "comply with a uniform code tha ... More >>

Today's Urban Wildlife Issues

The Times tells us today about feral parrots. Wait -- feral? You mean like the old ladies who owned them said Polly want a cracker? and the parrots said NO Polly don't want a goddamn cracker, bit their faces and flew out the window? No, on closer inspection they mean the Quaker parrots we mentione ... More >>

Pols, Peeps Protest Prince St. Post Office Closing Threat

Well, it's not a tea party, but pretty good for a local event: This morning about 150 citizens protested at the crappy Prince Street Post Office to protest its possible closing. The P.O. used to be where the Apple Store is now, but when the Macs moved in the branch got squeezed into a little nook a ... More >>

Council Close to Passing a City Elephant Ban

They just marched the elephants into Madison Square Garden, under the customary animal rights protests. But next year they may not get to: the Times tells us the city council bill first floated by Rose Mendez to ban circus elephants and other wild animals from the city has nearly enough votes to pas ... More >>

Quick Hits

If you can't get enough Ashton Kutcher from movies, TV, Twitter, etc., you can also stalk him via QUIK, a video-streaming service. "I happened to catch him broadcasting live from southern France while people were making live comments," says the OMG Blog. You can go far pretending to be someone fa ... More >>

Avella, Quinn Square Off on 80th Birthday Proclamation

Rafael Martinez Alequin, the citizen journalist last seen here getting roughed up by Pedro Espada's buddies, has obtained some hilarious correspondence regarding councilmember and mayoral candidate Tony Avella and council speaker Christine Quinn. (If Alequin's scans are broken, you can see them he ... More >>

Bill Thompson Files to Run for Mayor

There was already a "New Yorkers for Bill Thompson" website urging us to support his mayoral bid, and he's been dropping hints and -- most significantly -- standing up to Bloomberg, but today comptroller William C. Thompson put in his papers with the Campaign Finance Board and made it official. The ... More >>

Tony Avella Wants to Save the Brooklyn Parrots

Kristen Johnston Joins Nude PETA Roster Vs. Horse-Drawn Carriages

Willets Point Plan Looks Like a Winner

Chinatown Group Complains About English-Only Rezoning Hearing

Hot New Trend: Local Pols Telling Off the Man

Queens Sextuplets Doing Okay, Have Names

Council Term Limits Breakdown: The "I Don't Knows" Have It

Would-Be Mayor Tony Avella: Threatening Midtown Pub Won't Stop My Horse Carriage Ban

9/11, 5 Boroughs

Oh Snap: Ariane Daugin Talks Back to Avella

Foie News: Councilman Avella Weighs In

Gioia Responds to Avella on Congestion Pricing

Tony Avella is Mad as Hell (And Running for Mayor)

Bill to Ban Horse & Carriages Met with Unbridled Anger

Theeeeeeeeeeee Yankees Win!

Close-Up on Bayside