Peter Vallone, Jr.

Preserving the Environment
As Counsel of CHOKE, Vallone fought to close the Charles Poletti power plant, the worst polluter in the state. A pioneer of clean air legislation, Vallone passed the first bill ever to limit CO2 emissions in a major city, setting the basis for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

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A Commitment to Safety
As Chairman of the Public Safety Committee since his first election in 2001, Vallone has slammed proposed cuts to our city's police forces and is working closely with Commissioner Ray Kelly to reduce crime and make our city a less dangerous place to live.

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Protecting Our Children
Vallone has written laws to make our children safer by requiring DOE to institute a video camera surveillance program in all schools under their jurisdiction.

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Tough on Graffitti
Dubbed, "The Man Who Hates Graffiti," by the New York Times and "Graffiti Public Enemy No. 1" by the Staten Island Advance, Vallone continues his fight against graffiti with legislation that seeks to outlaw the new installation of solid security gates.

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Vallone's Rockin' Birthday
Three generations of Vallones took the stage to celebrate Vallone Jr.'s birthday and to support his reelection, raising nearly $100,000. Over 400 people attended, including Mayor Bloomberg, District Attorney Brown, Borough President Helen Marshall and numerous other officials.

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Cracking Down on the Illegal Use of Etching Acid
On May 26, Mayor Bloomberg signed Council Member Peter F. Vallone Jr's legislation, which tracks the sales of etching acid by requiring sellers to keep records of purchasers for one year. The law will take effect in 3 months.
Vallone's Bill Phases Out Solid Security Roll-Down Gates
Vallone sponsors first-of-its-kind legislation in the nation to phase out Roll-down security gates. "This bill not only helps first responders when they are called to protect our businesses, but it carries the additional benefit of beautifying our city's landscape," said Vallone, "Currently, many of our vibrant blocks quickly transform into dark, graffiti-strewn metal alleyways when solid security gates are rolled down at night. We are now giving business owners a new tool to improve their communities at their own pace."

July 29, 2010
114th Precinct captain retires in abrupt move

July 29, 2010
Hells Angel murdered in Astoria: Police search for killer

July 29, 2010
Two Athens Square Park Playgrounds Open

July 26, 2010
P.S 2 Afterschool Program Restoration Celebrated

	July 26, 2010 Hunt for Nun on Run
	July 26, 2010 Flushing Meadows-Corona Park no longer has its own police patrol due to staffing problems

	July 15, 2010 Amtrak Under Fire for Removing Trees in Woodside
	July 8, 2010 Vallone pushes city DEP to fix fan at wastewater plant to staunch stench

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PHOTOS

	July 26, 2010 PHOTO GALLERY: BROOKLYN CYCLONES GAME
	July 26, 2010 PHOTO GALLERY: SPRING 2010 GRADUATIONS

June 30, 2010
PHOTO GALLERY: 2010 ASTORIA PARK FIREWORKS

June 28, 2010
PHOTO GALLERY: SPRING 2010 CAREER DAY!

YOUTUBE

Check out Vallone playing with "Spitfire" and "Under the L" at his Summer Beer Garden Bash.

Response to Crime in Astoria

First of all, thank you to all my Facebook friends, website visitors, and callers to my office for passing along information on the recent increase in crime in Astoria and concerns on the direction our neighborhood is heading. It is a huge help to me to constantly get updates from the community, so please continue to keep us informed.

I share these concerns, and am as outraged as you are.   I have never been politically correct and will not now tell you everything will be fine.   I have been warning about this exact thing for many years now, and have often felt like a voice in the wilderness.

I have been New York's #1 advocate for more police, and was successful in getting 800 officers added in 2007, and helping stop the elimination of another 900 in this year’s budget - but this is nowhere near enough. Our police force has been allowed to attrit from 41,000 on Sept. 11, 2001, to about 35,000 today, because of budget cuts forced on the City due to Albany's incompetence.

At the same time, Albany has eliminated crucial crime fighting tools, like the Rockefeller drug laws. Already dealers are laughing about their new "get out of jail free card (60% of the drug dealers arrested since the elimination of these tough laws have opted for treatment for "marijuana addiction" in order to avoid jail). Recently Albany also eliminated an extremely useful NYPD database used to quickly apprehend criminals. For example, if a robbery occurred near an ATM, police could quickly access information on people who had been stopped near that ATM recently to gain a lead. While this information should not have been kept indefinitely, a compromise should have been reached allowing it to be kept for one year and then purged. As usual, Albany was incapable of doing this despite Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s personal visit to the Governor.

As a result of less cops and weaker laws, certain crimes in the 114 precinct, and everywhere else, have been increasing. Burglaries, robberies, and car thefts are up this year, and we already have almost twice as many murders as we had ALL of last year. While the murder on 28th Street and Ditmars Boulevard and the attempted murder near Mike’s Diner on 31st Street involved targeted individuals with drug histories who did not live in this neighborhood, that is little consolation.

Quality of life crimes have risen as well. Once we overlook graffiti, loud radios, litter in the parks, a growing homeless population on 31st Street - just to name a few - worse crimes follow like night after day. But without beat cops, bike cops, and neighborhood patrols, this was to be expected.

It is NOT the fault of the NYPD. The blue line has been stretched too thin, and without Commissioner Kelly and the work of the men and women of our force, this would have happened much sooner.

While we live in one of the safest neighborhoods in one of the safest big cities in America, if we don’t stop this slide, it will be even harder to reverse.   Concrete steps need to be taken, and taken soon.

We need to lose the attitude - in our Courts, our Legislatures, and our streets - that the war on crime is over and won, and therefore we can continue to eviscerate everything that allowed us to bring this city back from the brink in the early 90's.

We need more cops, longer jail sentences, and tougher laws. We need Albany to reform its wild spending ways, and stop taking $14 billion more from NYC than it gives back so we don't have to continue to choose between our cops, firefighters, District Attorney's Offices, and everything else as the City makes cuts Albany forces it to make.

As a former prosecutor, I can tell you beyond any doubt that the people responsible for these new crimes have committed many prior crimes. I saw the same criminals over and over. Catching them and keeping them away from our kids for a long time is the only proven method to once again to regain our streets. It worked with "Safe Streets Safe City" (a program started by my father as Speaker in 1991 to increase our police force and bolster our court system and jails), and it will work again - if we the people rise up and demand it!

PETER F. VALLONE JR.