Happy trails: Gov wants a $200M path
“SENATOR POTHOLE” had a bumpy plane ride in Florida — and he never left the ground.
Former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato was kicked off a JetBlue flight Monday night to New York City after complaining about the airline’s service.
The onetime New York lawmaker was pulled from the flight in Fort Lauderdale after he issued a call to action, which other customers caught on camera.
Fed up with hours-long delays and the crew’s requests for seat changes, D’Amato demanded a response.
“We can still speak in this country!” the 79-year-old yells in a video posted by Facebook user Jacqueline Galante.
“And I want to tell you this, I’m making an appeal to all you people — stand up for what’s right and walk out with me!”
Two passengers appeared to follow D’Amato out as authorities pull him from the flight.
Galante said the senator simply spoke for customers who were “agitated” after hours of delays. The crew had also asked some passengers to switch seats to fix a “weight distribution” problem on the plane, she said.
“They shame-walked him to the front of the plane,” Galante, a native New Yorker now living in Florida, told The News.
“He was not ranting and raving . ... If it happened to him, it could happen to anyone.”
Another video from a Twitter user shows D’Amato announcing he’s being thrown off the flight because he “complained about what they’re doing” — drawing boos from his fellow passengers.
In a statement to the Daily News, D’Amato’s reps said he lost his patience after a five-hour flight delay and “a long and demanding trip to Florida to visit an ailing friend.”
“Anyone who knows Sen. D’Amato knows he speaks his mind,” the statement said.
“JetBlue has apologized to the Senator for overreacting and the Senator apologized for speaking his mind at a time when he clearly had left his patience at the gate."
JetBlue would not comment on D’Amato specifically, but said the choice to kick off a passenger “is not taken lightly.”
“If a customer is causing a conflict on the aircraft, it is standard procedure to ask the customer to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs a risk of escalation in-flight,” the airline said.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office did not comment.
The Brooklyn-born lawmaker served in the Senate from 1981 until 1999, when he was defeated by Democratic challenger Chuck Schumer, who still holds the post.
D’Amato is the last Republican from New York to get elected to the Senate.
Known as “Senator Pothole” for his focus on smallscale concerns from constituents, he went on to found the lobbying firm Park Strategies. ALBANY — President-elect Donald Trump wants a wall and now Gov. Cuomo wants a trail.
Cuomo on Tuesday morning proposed a $200 million, 756-mile paved trail to run across the state for bikers, hikers, joggers, and cross country skiers.
The Empire State Trail would run from New York City all the way up to the Canadian border in the North Country. Another section would run from Albany to Buffalo.
It would be built in three phases, with Cuomo saying he’ll propose $53 million be set aside in the coming state budget to construct the first phase.
.Cuomo made the announcement at SUNY Purchase in his home Westchester County as he delivered his third of six regional State of the State addresses this week.
A few hours after his Westchester County speech, Cuomo gave his fourth address at Farmingdale State College on Long Island, where he pitched expansions of the Long Island Rail Road, a plan for the country’s largest off-shore wind farm off Montauk, and a sixpoint plan to attack the ongoing opioid addiction crisis.
“Opioids and the over-prescriptions of opioids has caused an epidemic in this state and in this nation that has cost us many many lives,” he said.
He said he wants to spend $80 million to modernize 16 major LIRR stations that would include new facilities, Wi-Fi charging stations and even public art in every station.