Holy roller. (Brooklyn Paper)

Speaking of bike lanes, the backlash has gotten personal.

For the past 10 years, Bob Cassara has happily served on Brooklyn Community Board 10, surrounding Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton. Among his hobby horses on the gadfly board has been the expansion of the city's bike lane network. But this is the outer-outer boroughs, where cars are still king—even if most of them aren't driven that much, this being New York—and Mr. Cassara's advocacy has led to a clash with the local City Council rep, Vincent Gentile, a vehicular savior.

Nevermind his decade of service and dedication to the cause, Mr. Cassara has not been reappointed to the board, according to The Brooklyn Paper. Sure, these things happen all the time, but in this round, the helmet-hugging board member was the only one of his cohort who was not reappointed. He knows how the game is played, though:

“Community boards are all about politics, so what can I say?” Cassara mused. “I don’t want to add fuel to the fire. It’s their loss.”

[...]

A Gentile staffer denied that Cassara was sacked over bike lanes — or any other specific cause — but simply because the councilman believed it was time for a change.

“It has nothing to do with removing anyone in particular,” said the spokeswoman, Dena Libner. “It’s about welcoming new members onto the board.”

This may be the first time anyone has been booted from a board for biking, but such expulsions are somewhat routine. Recall just a few years ago, when Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz declined to reappoint nine members of Community Board 6 because they were vocal opponents of Atlantic Yards.

Ah, local politics.

mchaban [at] observer.com
| @MC_NYC

“This is basically, as Chris said, preserving services,” Bloomberg said, referring to Council Speaker Christine Quinn, during an event with the Council in the City Hall rotunda this evening. “I don’t think there is any major cut that is going to really hurt anybody.”

But advocates gathered around City Hall quietly muttered to themselves and reporters the fear that whatever was placed into the budget could be stripped after the November elections, when Bloomberg and a majority of the Council are expected to be reelected.

“This may not be the last word on this year’s budget,” said Bloomberg, referring to projections that the national and local economies were projected to grow slightly in the months ahead.

One reporter asked if the budget deal was hammered out with the expectation that state lawmakers would grant the city’s request to create a new, cheaper Tier 5 pension benefit plan for future civil servants. Bloomberg said, “We are expecting and hoping that Albany helps us.”

The city is also banking on Albany to grant the city authority to levy new taxes—about $887 million’s worth. That’s coming in the form of an increased sales tax, plus “applying the city sales tax to currently untaxed energy purchases,” according to a press release from the mayor’s office.

Passage of those new tax hikes is not usually an easy task in Albany, but it is even trickier this year, given the chaos that has gripped the State Senate. Plus, state lawmakers already passed a tax hike on everyone making over $250,000 a year.

As Councilman Vincent Gentile was walking out of City Hall, he spotted Councilman Jimmy Vacca of the Bronx, who had been wearing red shirts and ties to raise awareness about the proposed fire house closings. Vacca, so far, has prevented those cuts, and told me he was glad to finally get out of wearing red for a while.

Gentile greeted him with a smile and told me, “He’s going to sleep well tonight.” Vacca smiled, nodded and said he hoped so.

In Gentile's opinion, Bloomberg is making an "assault" on middle class New Yorkers with his recent spate of budget cuts, which include possibly raising property taxes, rescinding the $400 homeowners rebate, and charging money to use plastic bags. Speaking of disgruntled voters in his Bay Ridge district, Gentile said, “They’re waiting for an alternative and for someone to emerge.”

And he thinks those alternatives better start their campaigns soon.

Representative Anthony Weiner and City Comptroller Bill Thompson have announced his plans to run in next year's race. So has long-shot candidate City Councilman Tony Avella.

According to Gentile, the campaigns have to begin in earnest right now, in order to capitalize on the unpopularity of the mayor's policies. (Thompson has already done a little of that.)

“Who is going to come out front and talk about making ends meet and hanging on by their fingernails to get by?” Gentile asked rhetorically.

“It’s not impossible to emerge as the campaign goes forward, but I think it’s important not to miss this opportunity right now,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you can't emerge later, but you could risk losing those people who are pulling away right now from Bloomberg and are looking for that alternative.”

The seat is mostly in Staten Island, but for years, Democratic elected officials there have taken a pass at challenging Fossella since that would have meant giving up their own safe re-elections in order to run (and probably lose). The result was a string of unmemorable candidates who got slaughtered by Fossella and his Republican predecessor, Susan Molinari.

The Brooklyn side, at least, has produced some feisty challengers, namely Frank Barbaro and Steve Harrison. This year, in addition to Harrison, the Democratic field will include Councilman Domenic Recchia, who has even more campaign money at his disposal than Fossella. The Brooklyn Dems, in other words, would seem to have a pretty good chance of producing the nominee this year.

But now it's gotten more complicated. There’s blood in the water, thanks to Fossella’s love child scandal (not to mention a pretty good Democratic trend nationwide), and Staten Island Democrats are looking for someone to get in on the action. This is particularly significant because if Fossella resigns, designating a Democratic challenger for the resulting special election will fall to the folks on Staten Island.

Will Brooklyn get edged out?

Here's how Council member Vinny Gentile made their case: “It seems to me that to suggest that it’s a Staten Island seat, if you look at the last three Brooklynites who were the nominees, they did as well if not better than the State Islanders who were nominees."

As evidence, he cited former City Councilman Sal Albanese’s race against Molinari, plus Barbaro and Harrison’s races against Fossella.

When asked about the Staten Island candidates, Gentile was stumped.

“Tyrone Butler, Arnie, um,” he said, forgetting the last name of the candidate. “They were not household names, to be honest. I think even Bob Gigante, surrogate on Staten Island and former Democratic County leader on Staten Island, didn’t do as well.”

“The media tends to presume--because 70 percent of the district is on Staten Island, they agree with the assumption that it’s a Staten Island seat. A Brooklynite can win that seat,” he said.

Gentile added, “You don’t get Brooklynites who recognize Staten Island officials. But you do get Staten Island residents who recognize Brooklyn officials.”

Gore Schiff was in charge of the birthday introduction, while Gioia spent most of the evening surrounded by supporters bouncing with American Idol enthusiasm. “This reminds me of my disco days,” Council member Vincent Gentile told me, pointing to the floor of glowing colored squares we were standing on.

The event’s invitation advertised Gioia’s campaign as “the first carbon-neutral campaign in NYC history,” which sounds good. What does it mean?

“It’s an interesting approach,” Gentile said. “He’s pioneering a change. Like, they don’t have invitations…everything is emailed. It’s good, it gets everyone thinking.”

I asked Gioia to explain. He was only too happy. “The first step is recognizing the carbon you use,” he said. “Once it dawns on you, like Gandhi said brilliantly, ‘You can be the change you want to see' -- once that sets in philosophically, it’s a mindset: how much carbon do I use?"

“It’s a campaign," he also said. "We’re going to buy paper, we’re going to have volunteers…So, we’re going to measure that carbon and then we’re going to dial back. I guarantee 90 percent of the people here tonight came by subway. That right there reduces the carbon footprint immediately.”

The event was planned for Times Square to accommodate travelers from all boroughs, particularly people traveling on the 7 train from Long Island City, which is in Gioia’s district.

“I think anybody that’s doing it is doing a great thing,” Spurlock told me.

Or anyone who's still doing it, at least.

“I just wouldn’t make a movie out of it,” he said, explaining why his next project won't be environment-related. “We did one 'green' episode in the first season of [his TV series] 30 Days--their homes were made out of hay bails and stuff. But Inconvenient Truth has been made. Leonardo DiCaprio did 11th Hour. It’s pretty much been done.”

Giving introductory remarks, Gore Schiff told Gioia's attendees, “He is running the first-ever carbon-neutral campaign in New York City,” and recalled wondering what to get him for his birthday. “So I was thinking, 'Well, maybe I could get him bike shoes, or one of those little curly light bulbs,' but then I thought that what Eric would really like is a campaign contribution.”

“And I also got you a book, which is an anthology of environmental writing,” she added, noting that it was wrapped in the metro section of a recyclable newspaper.

After Schiff finished speaking, Gioia screened that campaign video.

“I believe that there are literally hundreds of thousands of people that we will bring to the polls who have gotten the message through this,” he said, talking about the video afterwards. “I think people are tired of the status quo, and if we can get a lot of people like this to spread the word, we’re going to win big. It’s not even going to be close.”

The same article also quotes an unnamed aide to Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell, the former chairman of the state Democratic Party, saying he won't run for speaker of the City Council if he gets elected to the Council next year.

I called Farrell just now, and he told me, “I never put myself in for the speakership so I couldn’t pull myself out for the speakership. I’ve always said I was supporting Inez Dickens.” He added, “If I were to become a City Council person, I would support Inez Dickens.“

Already in contention for the speaker's job are a number of current City Council members: Dan Garodnick, Jessica Lappin and Dickens of Manhattan, as well as Letitia James and Vinny Gentile of Brooklyn.

But there are other candidates worth acknowledging, like Dan Garodnick and likely incoming member Denny Farrell, both of Manhattan.

Gonzalez’s spokesman Michael Schweinsburg makes the most colorful argument for considering a non-Manhattan candidate for the speaker’s job.

From the article:

“They [other boroughs] have licked on their lollipop too many times, so enough is enough already.”

The bill was introduced last year and is still being negotiated, but a spokesman for de Blasio wasn’t quite ready to say City Hall or the Speaker’s office has been stalling on the issue.

“We’re happy with negotiations moving forward. But it never hurts having more people know about the bill and why electronic waste is a growing problem,” de Blasio spokeswoman Jean Weinberg told me.

When asked for a comment, Bloomberg spokesman Jason Post emailed say he was “surprised by the press conference.”

Earlier this month, 26-year-old lobbyist George Fontas founded New Gotham Strategies, LLC. Fontas said his campaign consulting gig will be completely separate from his current job at the lobbying firm, Capalino + Company.

Fontas managed Vinny Gentile’s general election in 2003, ran Gifford Miller’s field operation in South Brooklyn in 2005, and did some work on behalf of a 527 group trying to unseat a state Senator congressman upstate in 2006. So, what’s in store for 2009?

“The biggest concern is switching seats because a lot of that hasn’t shaken out yet,” Fontas told me. Which means plenty of behind-the-scenes work for consultants like him right now.

UPDATE: Fontas prefers to say he was "educating voters" during that 2006 race, rather than trying to"unseat" an elected official. There's more on that race over here.

[Nicole will largely be the one covering Brooklyn's 11th district congressional race this year. For those of you watching closely, you can email tidbits, releases, literature or anything else to the address at right. Also, full disclosure: she worked for a time for Carl Andrews.]

Roll Call reports that Council Member Yvette Clarke has hired Chris Lanier to head up her campaign for Brooklyn's 11th congressional seat.

Lanier most recently worked on Vincent Gentile's heated campaign for re-election, the only competitive race in Brooklyn, which Vinnie won.

—Nicole Brydson