With the possibility that the Democratic presidential nominee could be decided by 800 party insiders (the "super-delegates") Democracy for America (DFA) launched the Voters Decide campaign to encourage the super-delegates to cast their votes to correspond with the popular vote from the state primaries and cacuses. Over 60,000 petition signatures were collected:

We the undersigned call on Democratic super-delegates to let the voters decide our Democratic nominee.

After every Democrat in every state has had a chance to voe, super-delegates must confirm the winner of the popularly allocated delegates.

At the request of DFA, DFNYC's Tracey Denton and Merle McEldowney delivered a copy of the petition to Senator Clinton, who, as a senator, is a super-delegate in addition to being one of the presidential candidates. You can read an account of their visit to Clinton's office as well stories of deliveries to other super-delegates on DailyKos HERE...

There is a pothole on my street in Woodside. It appeared last spring. Measuring two feet square and located in the middle of one side of a busy two-way street, the pothole was extremely difficult for car and truck drivers to avoid, especially at night. Late at night, trucks hitting the pothole would make such a loud noise that it woke people up. Vibrations from the contact also shook windows, and may have been responsible for loosening bricks at the top of one of the apartment buildings on the block.

After calling 311 dozens of times and getting no result, one of my neighbors went to Home Depot and purchased a bag of cement for about five bucks. Her boyfriend then filled in the pothole.  That was last August.

In early January, I called 311 and complained that the Department of Transportation (DOT) still hadn't done anything. I was told that they would fix it within 20 days.

34 days later, with no result, I called again. This time they said they'd get to it in 30 to 90 days. They also claimed that they fixed 65% of potholes within 30 days (meaning, of course, that one-third of all potholes are still around a month after being reported to the DOT).

A fellow DFNYC'er, Costa Constantinides, mentioned that he had authored a bill (Intro 614) for Council Member Darlene Mealy that would require the DOT to fix all potholes within three days of being reported. I called CM Mealy's office and suggested we have a press conference. Since the pothole in CM Eric Gioia's district, he was also invited.

Well!

NY1, WCBS, WABC and (it turns out) Fox5 all showed up. It seems a pothole is big news, especially with the "local people doing the DOT's job" angle. (Personal note: Special thanks to DFNYC Organizers Michael Minn and Merle McEldowney who came out for the press event.)

Of course, the DOT claimed that they had never received all those complaints last summer. They also claim that the 65% number is five years out of date and that the real 30-day number is 99%. Finally, they claim that the average time for fixing potholes is less than three days.

Two comments:

First, since the DOT supposedly responds to every pothole report first by sending someone out to look at it, then that person writes a report, then the report is looked at by someone else who decides which potholes get fixed when, and only then does a crew get dispatched to fix it (and in my case that person didn't even look at this pothole until three days after I called), the odds that they fix any potholes within three days, much less average that, are slim and none, and I suspect that Slim retired years ago.

Second, even if they are telling the truth, and their average time for fixing potholes is less than three days, then CM Mealy's bill should be no problem. But they seem to have a significant problem with the bill.

Conclusion: The DOT is not telling the truth. Go figure. 

Almost one year after delivery workers were illegally fired from two locations of Saigon Grill Restaurant, National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge Ray Green issued a ruling last week that all the delivery workers must be rehired within 14 days and back pay restored. This is a great victory for our friends at the Justice Will Be Served Campaign and the issue of fairness to workers for which we have been working. They have urged a continuation of the boycott until Saigon Grill complies with the order.

Josephine Lee of the Chinese Staff & Workers' Association sent her thanks to all DFNYCers who helped picket, flyer, post, email, and boycott. Below is the notice Josephine sent out. I've asked about the continuing boycott of Ollies, and will send updates. Sally Swisher and I, along with other members of DFNYC and CFD, have been picketing and flyering on the UWS to urge our neighbors not to patronize these establishments.

We have launched DFNYC's new Facebook group: "Democracy for NYC". If you are on facebook already, click on the facebook logo on the dfnyc.org home page, and you will be redirected to our Facebook page. Or check out Facebook.com, sign up, and search for "Democracy for NYC" in "Groups". Our Facebook page is the place to:

• Get, be and stay involved with DFNYC through Facebook
• Link to DFNYC and related groups
• Connect to members
• Study the latest Democratic candidate's campaign ads and platforms
• Start issue discussions
• Check out the RSS feed for latest news & newest events

Feedback welcome...looking forward to seeing you there!