The State of the Upper West Side

West Side pols react to Cuomo's State of the State address By [Megan Finnegan Bungroth] Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave his annual State of the State address in Albany, laying out the agenda for his sophomore year in office. While some have said that it will be difficult for the governor to follow his ambitious and productive first year, local legislators were impressed with the contents of the address and echoed many of Cuomo's priorities as their own for the current legislative session. "I thought the speech was brilliant," said Assembly Member Daniel O'Donnell, whose district extends to the northern part of the neighborhood. "If the governor can effect that vision, he will forever cement himself as a leader-a nationwide leader." O'Donnell praised Cuomo's focus on creating jobs and improving the infrastructure of the state. One of the more surprising announcements in the address was the plan to build a privately funded mega-convention center in Queens-to be the largest in the country-at the Aqueduct Racetrack site, hopefully bringing a plethora of jobs and economic stimulation. Conversely, the governor called for a complete redevelopment of the Jacob Javits Center, on the far west side of 34th Street, into a mixed use facility to complement a corresponding redevelopment of the surrounding 18 acres into a Battery Park City-like community. "He laid out a very grand vision, sort of like FDR, about how we transform ourselves going forward and also about being clear about our base democratic values," O'Donnell said, citing the call to remove fingerprinting requirements for food stamp recipients, which has prevented children from getting food if their parents aren't compliant with the regulations. "It's a lot of money for public work projects, which is a way to stimulate the economy." "I was happy to hear the governor's call for campaign finance reform," said State Sen. Tom Duane, who represents the southern portion of the Upper West Side. "I was also happy that doing that will help to deter upstate Republicans from trying to dismantle rent regulations, because tightening the campaign finance laws will lessen the impact that landlords have on public policy that hurts tenant protections." State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, whose district covers the far west side from West 60th Street through the top of Manhattan, also saluted the governor's call to protect tenants' rights. "I was very happy to hear him say that he will put a Tenant Protection Unit in New York State Homes and Community Renewal," Espaillat said, highlighting Cuomo's plan to create a unit within the agency with investigative and prosecutorial power to keep landlords in line with the law. "There are landlords preying on tenants, seniors and single moms often." Duane also reiterated his own support for health care reform and said he will urge the governor to work on it this year. "I believe that the sooner we create a New York health insurance exchange program, the more quickly we will get needed funds from the federal government and provide access for more people to gain and maintain health coverage," Duane said. While many legislators-Republicans and Democrats alike-have roundly praised the governor's plan, even his biggest fans pointed out a few key issues that were left out of his address. "I was very disappointed that he continues to be unmoved to support [a ban on] hydrofracking," said Espaillat, referring to the controversial and potentially dangerous process of extracting natural gas from the earth using a highly pressurized chemical mixture known as hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking. O'Donnell also warned against compromising popular upstate tourist destinations with hydrofracking wells. "The Adirondacks, the Berkshires, Niagara Falls-we have stunning places in the state; we should not be putting them in peril." All local politicians said that they'll be watching the governor closely to see how he implements his grand strategies, but there are high hopes for the state of the state in 2012.