....May 20, 9:52 AM
 
 
   
Helen Marshall’s Queens Borough Hall

Borough President Helen Marshall & Trib Publisher Michael Schenkler.
By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

This past Friday I lunched with Queens Beep Helen Marshall at Borough Hall.

It was my first lunch out in the three weeks I’ve been on the South Beach Diet. My assistant had communicated my new modified dietary requirements to Helen’s secretary but I was still perplexed to see the salad with grilled chicken strips and balsamic vinegar placed in front of me while Helen opened a shellfish and pasta mélange that looked like it belonged on my plate. In my former life – at least dietarily, less than a month ago – shellfish with pasta fra diavlo was an absolute staple — my favorite. Helen and I were joined by her Exec and my old friend Alex Rosa and longtime Borough Hall press pro Dan Andrews.

South Beach, the diet that is, is sure not bad . . . no, it’s good and not difficult. As I write this, really during the first serious diet attempt in my life, I feel good, am nine pounds lighter, really feel the change and am hopeful that the motivation provided by the obvious health benefits and the belief that pretty soon the ladies will be whistling at me will enable me to integrate this new attitude towards food into my lifestyle.

Helen was interested, too. Apparently she has been hearing South Beach success stories and quizzed me about it as she woofed down the pasta and mussels — gee, it looked good. So did the rolls on the table but I just pushed them away envisioning the new Schenkler body. There was plenty of food and my hands had lots to do so note-taking was sparse. My apologies to the Beep if I slightly missed a quote, concept or dripped water on the notepad.

I feel at home with Helen. She is down to earth and I’ve known her most of my life – really. For those of you new to this column, my father was principal of P.S. 143 in Corona when Helen was PTA Pres. — it had to be at least 45 years ago. And although I didn’t support her during her Borough Presidential campaign, there was always this personal pride that my entire family knew her way before she started her impressive climb up the elective latter that has placed her very securely at the top of Queens.

Yes, she is running again — in 2005 — and expects to serve through the end of 2008 when she will be term limited out of office. It has been the issue of term limits that has probably caused the greatest disagreement between my old friend Helen and me. This time, we avoided the discussion and she did point out that she was the beneficiary of the movement I fought to preserve and she fought to overturn that forced her out of the City Council but caused the vacancy in the office she now holds.

Almost two and a half years after ascending to the Borough Presidency, it appears that the former Assemblywoman and Council member is clearly coming into her own. Explaining she is slightly handicapped by an across the board City cutback leaving her with a staff of 62 as compared to the 90 staffers in the previous administration, she appears to have gained in momentum and has the smaller Borough Hall staff humming. There is a lot going on that is always apparent to the public eye — even to those eyes which focus on observing government.

She started with tourism, proud of her initiatives to promote our borough. Her clever turn of the multicultural advocacy phrase, “Visit Queens — see the world!” is complemented by a “Discover Queens” campaign including an impressive and new website: www.discoverqueens.info (check it out). There are current airport promotions to capture a piece of the huge Manhattan tourist trade. There are plans to target the arriving Republican delegates during the party’s national convention later this summer. Her team, including the Queens Overall Economic Development Corporation, is aggressively promoting Queens as the site of smaller conventions. The NAACP national convention earlier this year was the first of what Marshall hopes to be many. The Domestic Violence Conference at York College is another of her catches.

She has a vision of a convention center at Willets Point and referred to it frequently during our several hour snack.

We couldn’t (yet) get her to commit to a fight to bring the Olympic Stadium to Queens. Although she acknowledged telling the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Olympic force Dan Doctoroff, that Queens is ready as a back up should they run into (more) trouble with their chosen West Side Stadium, adding that the transportation infrastructure is already at Willets Point — train, railroad and automobile — serving Shea and more. She has talked with Mets owner Fred Wilpon and staff about a new Mets stadium (that could also serve as the Olympic venue) and heard from us that the Jets President Jay Cross has publicly acknowledged ruling out Queens because the Mayor asked him to.

 
 

The Beep’s new tourism initiative includes a giveaway and will soon feature a newly designed “Discover Queens” license plate both cleverly promoting Queens, the most multicultural place on earth: “Visit Queens - see the world!”


While assuring us, “I would love to have the stadium here,” she pointed out the current delicate budget negotiations with the Mayor, the fact that Queens does real well in the Olympic dream and the lack of people calling for the Queens venue, make her for the moment content to take the back-up position. Her concern, not to jeopardize the potential funding coming to the Astoria Pool, Flushing Meadows Park and the (Olympic Village) housing at Queens West, seem to be indicative of the hardball tactics Deputy Mayor Doctoroff is using to ram his West Side Stadium down the throats of all who have other thoughts. Although Helen today sits in the back-up stadium bleachers, it would in our judgment not take too much for her to passionately advocate what is apparent to all who carefully look at the options: that both to enhance our City and capture the Olympic bid, Queens must be considered as (perhaps the best) site for the Olympic Stadium. The Olympic Stadium funding will ultimately require a vote of the City Council. We look for Helen to reevaluate her position in time to lobby for her borough.

She and I heartily agreed that the idea of MoMA abandoning its Queens exhibit space as planned and using the facility just for storage was unacceptable. Helen has communicated this to the museum and sounded hopeful. We suggested she rally the Queens elected officials to directly link the museum’s public funds to a continued Queens exhibit facility.

Clearly, Helen, a veteran of many public battles, has learned to try to work within the system before playing hardball. But we challenged her and she reminded us that she is not afraid of a fight, but relishes one. We intend to prod our old friend to utilize her bully pulpit and her position’s unique focal point to aggressively rally both elected officials and the people of the borough and city to keep MoMA Qns and bring home the Queens Stadium gold.
She assured us, “We are going to get a stadium and an exhibition center next door.”

Reminded that she was running late for a scheduled ribbon cutting, she quickly rattled through several items that were listed on a sheet in front of her:

While College Point desperately needs new roads, she has been active in bringing two new printers to the College Point Industrial Park. She was instrumental in keeping a third printer in the borough. Conscious of the jobs offered by manufacturing, she appears willing to buck the trend and seek the necessary relief to keep the jobs here.

She was at the center of the deal to bring the needle exchange program for to Long Island City and will help secure locals that will provide dignity and offer additional services to the intravenous drug users in the other communities where the health department has determined there is a need.

Preserving a #7 train “Redbird” as championed by the Queens Tribune is about to become a reality, as the platform is prepared next to Borough Hall and a June 22 ribbon cutting is scheduled for the soon to be Queens information “Redbird.”

The ribbon cutting next week for “Arverne by the Sea,” a 2,300 unit housing complex, goes a long way to both revitalize the Rockaways and provide the much needed housing to keep our young people in Queens.

Her only major issue with the Mayor centered on her strong belief that the school system would be better off with an educator at the head. She is not satisfied with the current state of the city schools, although she told the Mayor, “Leave the Queens schools alone.”

Although she had a great deal of praise for the Mayor, who she described as, “Not a politician but a citizen who wanted to make the city better,” she reminded me of her Democratic roots and unlike her predecessor could not envision supporting a Republican (at least not today).

The extended lunch, ended by the quickly moving clock, concluded with warm embraces and Helen’s reaction to her job as Queens Borough President: “I love it!”

Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato
Michael Schenkler can be reached via this contact form.