In addition to $500,000 it sunk into an over-priced lot, Queens Assemblywoman Vivian Cook’s nonprofit has spent $255,625 in Port Authority toll money on “streetcleaning” aka “a guy with a broom.” Since 2003 the The Rockaway Boulevard Local Development Corp. has received $2.5 million from the PA to help build community support for the building of an AirTrain line in the area. The Post reports that of that sum $76,625 was delegated to the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce last year for street sweeping.
The Chamber of Commerce would reveal only that workers were paid over $10/hour but the Post did some quick math, calculating that if two guys with brooms were paid $11/hour each, $30,000 would still be left unaccounted for. Worst of all the sweeper(s) has stopped cleaning half the seven block area the charity oversees. "They used to come every day to clean, but no more," said Tony Patino, of the Rockaway Boulevard Grocery.
