Once again the City has taken it upon themselves to anything they want without notifying residents.  An example is seen by the hundreds of bike stations set up around the City.  I ride a bike and I’m all in favor of the Share A Bike program but I didn’t expect to see these horrific looking stations put in about dumbest locations one can imagine. The Trader Joe’s loading dock on 21^st Street….or on 20^th and 7^th a block that has vertical parking!!!

How about in front of apartment buildings leaving residents the inability to unload anything in front of their building.  How about the handicapped or seniors who need curb access for wheel chairs to get into and out of taxis!  Also these stations aren’t mobile so how will the City clean streets or plow snow? I doubt that anything said by residents will change where the stations have been placed….and in time perhaps we’ll grow accustom to seeing these bike stations.

The past few days the City has placed three DOT guys on 9th Ave holding signs saying “STOP” and “WRONG DIRECTION”!  They hold the STOP sign up to warn cyclists to stop on red.  These guys have no authority can’t give tickets and many the cyclists are just ignoring their presence and as usual are ignoring the lights.  Another example of our tax dollars at work!

Did you know that electric bikes are illegal in New York?  The number of delivery guys with them has grown out of control.  They go in any direction they want and most of them go at speeds faster then cyclists.

This is just the beginning of my bike rant…

Sanford the former governor of South Carolina whose career and marriage fell apart in 2009 after he disappeared for six days when he went to visit his lover in Argentina. He was the governor who left office in 2010 because of his admission of an extramarital affair. Sanford thinks he has been forgiven… I think it was just a few ignorant voters who put him back in office.  South Carolina just elected a man who deserted his marriage and the people in his state by lby disappearing for 6 days!. And he stole from the state by using public funds to visit his mistress. How the hell did he pull this off?

If Sanford has been forgiven by South Carolinians can New Yorkers forgive Anthony Weiner?  There’s certainly a difference between texting embarrassing photos on your Twitter account verses running off for 6 days while using government money and cheating on your wife.

If Weiner decides to run he would make the mayor’s race into a real street fight.  Weiner has the perfect personality for the campaign …….he’s loud, obnoxious and arrogant….and most of the country views new Yorkers the same way.  Weiner didn’t break any laws, he didn’t steal…he did however, hurt himself and his family, and he let down his constituents.

If South Carolina can send Sanford back to Congress can New York send Weiner to Gracie mansion?

African-American to play professional baseball we come to another first…. Jason Collins became the first openly gay male athlete who is still active in a major American team sport. Collins’s announcement was greeted with an outpouring of support from teammates, league executives and major National Basketball Association stars, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade among them. This was such an event that President Obama called him to congratulate Jason.

Hopefully Jason’s coming out will impact positive change because it’s another step towards reaching the place where kids afraid to be honest with the world on who they are. Every time a national figure comes out, especially in fields where gay men and women are not especially known to be present, that kid realizes that there are others out there like them who have succeeded and are comfortable with themselves.

But hey folks there wasn’t this kind of hoopla in 1981 when Martina and Billie Jean came out….or in 2002 for my friend Sue Wicks ….and last week when the WNBA’s first pick Brittney Griner came out seconds after she was drafted it was barely noticed. Jason is years behind the women that had courage to come out and be who the are.  Just another example of the disparity between men and women.

The Boston bombing has taken the attention away from the Senate’s failure last week’s to pass the bill to expand background checks.  This failure is devastating, embarrassing and shameful. It’s statement on how broken the system really is. I’m angry, disappointed and embarrassed.  I’d like to see everyone of the senators that voted “NO” be defeated in their bid for re-election because of that “NO”.  How does a bill that had a 90% support of the country…fail?

Why are thousands of flights being delayed??  The sequester is another example of the dysfunction coming out of Washington.  I’m frustrated by the BS of this government.  I see seniors who can’t afford medication…seniors going though garbage bags looking for food that has been thrown out because of expiration dates…and yet we have a government pissing away money on a lot of BS.

When everything comes out about the Boston Marathon bombing I won’t be surprised if it turns out that once again our law enforcement agencies drop the ball.

Two days ago, we watched again as an act of unspeakable brutality was committed against innocent victims. I witnessed the Towers coming down… Boston conjured up many memories of 9/11. On 9/11 I thought about an incident that had happened to me many years prior.  I was in Tel Aviv and had bent down to buy a newspaper from a man sitting on the ground in front of a supermarket. Just I bent over a bomb went off in the supermarket …if I had been standing up my head would have been blown off. It changes who we are when we watch acts of unspeakable brutality committed against innocent victims.

When I had knees I was avid runner.  My goal was to run the New York Marathon unfortunately between shin splits and my knees the goal was never fulfilled.  I was an active member in Front Runners …I enjoyed the camaraderie among the Front Runners as much as I enjoyed running.  There’s a special unifying bond between runners especially those training for a marathon…running a marathon isn’t about wining but more about personal challenge.

My thoughts and prayers go out Bill Richard and his family in Boston on the loss of his son eight year old son Martin. Wishing a speedy recovery to his wife Denis who is in critical condition with brain injuries and his young daughter six year old Jane that has lost a leg and is also in critical condition.

Runners, Bostonians…Americans are resilient.  We’ll defy the terrorists, by not allowing them control how we live our lives.

My gripe of the week….TEXTING!!!  I guess my age really shows because I don’t understand why people HAVE to walk down the street and text. When I’m out walking my dogs I have to be ever vigilante never taking my eyes off of who may be walking straight at the dogs and me.   Yes, we live in a world of spontaneity….everything is in real time.  The other day two guys were standing in the middle of the sidewalk ….both texting.  I had to ask them to move because there wasn’t enough room for me to pass.  I asked what was so important….turns out they were texting each other!  Has human communication gone so low that two people standing next to each other can’t talk to each other? 

Even during Macbeth there were people on their cell phones texting…now come on ….it was an hour and forty five minutes….I think there’s something wrong unless you’re a doctor or handling an emergency that putting your phone in your pocket for that short a time shouldn’t be that difficult.

The other day I ran into a friend of mine who performs with the Metropolitan Opera.  He told me that when he first noticed all these glowing lights from the audience he didn’t realize they were coming from cell phones.  He said that it’s amazing that during a performance there are tons of people on their phones…and that it’s not only rude to the people around them but it’s also distracting to the performers.

My friends know that if we’re going out I appreciate that their phone be in their pocket.  I give them my undivided attention and I ask the same in return.

So what do you think??  Am I asking too much?

I LOVE COLLEGE BASKETBALL!!!  Last night I watched two fantastic women’s NCAA Elite Eight games.  I’m surprised my neighbors didn’t complain about my screaming at my TV.

Back when I owned a car I often went down to Rutgers to see both the men and women’s team play.  I’m a huge fan of C. Vivian Stringer, the women’s coach.  She leads by being a power of example.  Yesterday when the news broke about the Rutgers Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Rice I was extremely upset.  As the story unfolded what became more disturbing was that Rutgers officials knew about his behavior, including the anti-gay language, for months before acting on it. There are also reports another employee first reported Rice’s behavior as early as last June, and yet Rice was not disciplined until December. In December Rutgers suspended Rice for three games and fined him $50,000.  Big deal!!!

Here’s another example of a college sweeping under the rug egregious behavior in order to not upset the men’s sports program. Why did it take Penn State years to stop Sandusty? It took Rice’s disturbing video going viral for Rutgers finally terminate him.

Like most of our community I’m focused on the Supreme Court hearings. Hear the oral argument. 

There’s no denying that Same Sex Marriage is on the brink of becoming a reality….it’s not if ….it’s truly when?  Tuesday left me with a ”Who knows” ….it’s a toss of the coin based on yesterday’s arguments …Even if all that happens is the court over turns Prop 8 it’s a victory in our favor..

My favorite line of the day came from Justice Elena Kagan…… “Well, suppose a State said, Mr. Cooper, suppose a State said that, Because we think that the focus of marriage really should be on procreation, we are not going to give marriage licenses anymore to any couple where both people are over the age of 55. Would that be constitutional?”

Today the focus is on DOMA… Edie Winsdor has FINALLY had her day in court!  She has fought long courageous battle for all of us. DOMA deprived Edie of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law.

The federal government actually agrees with Edie that the law is unconstitutional.  DOMA violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause and Obama has stated that DOMA should be overturned.

Today’s favorite quote came from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg …. She said it created two classes: real marriage and “skim-milk marriage.”

After today’s hearings I feel more optimistic.

So we listen and we wait…we are getting closer.

Appearing on a video posted on the Human Rights Campaign website Hillary finally formally announced that she endorses same sex marriage saying that “gay rights are human rights”….WELL HELLO! As a presidential candidate in 2008, she explicitly opposed same-sex marriage, saying that she favored civil unions but that decisions about the legality of marriage should be left to the states.”   All I can say to this is better late than never and welcome aboard Hillary!

Joining Hillary was Rob Portman; a conservative Republican who also announced his support for same sex marriage. The question is would Portman and our old friend Dick Cheney ever support same sex marriage had they not had a kid that was gay??

I remember Evan Wolfson speaking at CBST(gay synagogue) sometime in the early 90’s about Marriage Equality.  He was the first person I had ever heard speak about Marriage Equality …he compared our struggle to gain equality similar to the end of segregation…he said it wouldn’t take as long.  I left that night with the thought “not in my life time!”  Here we are and times they are a changing!

Last Sunday Christine Quinn announced her candidacy for Mayor of New York City.  This will certainly be a campaign of controversy as well as a historic moment for the LGBT community. She would be the first female and first openly gay mayor to lead the nation’s largest city. Her victory would be a statement that homophobia and politics do not mix.

Unlike her opponents, City Councilman Sal Albanese; Public Advocate Bill de Blasio; Comptroller John Liu; and former Comptroller Bill Thompson, Quinn has the financial support of the LGBT community.  I am not referring to just New Yorkers but she has a massed a huge war chest due to the contributions from LGBT national organizations like the Victory Fund. 

Where else is her financial support coming from??  How about REBNY….Real Estate Board of NY…Quinn made sure that the NYU 2031 Plan was approved in spite of the opposition from the Community Board and the Village residents….she also was in favor of the Chelsea Market extension…again in spite of the strong opposition in her own district against the extension.

I’m taking a wait see before I make a commitment as to who I’ll support next fall…just because someone is gay is not the sole reason for me to vote for them.

I can tell you that I certainly will be out campaigning for YETTA!!!