In Conclusion
As I Wrap Up My Campaign for City Council in District 3
By Dominick Romeo
Picture created by Dominick Romeo
Somebody told me that I’m going to learn a lot about myself as I run for office; the good, the bad and especially the ugly – and indeed that’s been true. I learned to listen more and talk less, which is not an easy task for me to do being chatty. I came into this race after our Mayor, Council Member Erik Bottcher and his colleagues, refused to meet with my group of building superintendents, NYC Building Supers, after passing an ordinance sending us back to work past 8 PM to bring our building’s trash to the curb. I got some press for my efforts and was finally able to force them to the table, only to be ghosted again after their elections came to an end. That ordinance is still in effect today. We are still missing quality time with our family and friends because of them – 910 days later…
Somebody told me that the one thing they wished they had done differently while running, was to have fun. But how can a candidate running for office have fun when there is so much going on? Like e-bikes and e-scooters mowing us down on our sidewalks, as I wrote about in The Village View this September, titled Four Ways To Improve Our Community’s Safety; or the housing crisis and socialist policies that have made things worse – as I wrote in an article called, The Rents Are Too Damn High, calling for the reversal or reform of both HSTPA and the FARE Act, that raised our rents and prevented over 60,000 apartments from being rented. And the divide that leaders in our gay community have caused by trying to convince us that biological women are just as strong as biological men in women’s sports – also written about in The Village View, titled, The Transgender Games, where I present a logical solution for our transgender friends to achieve their dreams in sports.
I truly feel that most of our city’s problems can be put into three different categories: lobbyist – advocacy groups – and developers; as I wrote in Banning Common Sense at City Hall, where I emphasize the need for a strong, New York City Citizen Advisory Board [NYCCAB] placing two citizens on every City Council committee to push back on corruption, and our council members who fall prey to this.
Currently, there is no mechanism in place to reach our Council Members and warn them of consequences brought on by naive policies as they cater to advocacy groups (which are really lobbying groups in disguise) and not their constituents. This is a major problem for New Yorkers. Our city officials are catering to lobbying groups and developers and ignoring their constituent’s needs. A Citizen Advisory Board will put a stop to most of this behavior.
THEY ARE NOT FROM HERE
The last Council Member who was from our District, was Tom Duane. Christine Quinn is from Nassau County, Cory Johnson is from Massachusetts, and our current Council Member, Erik Bottcher, is from Wilmington, a small town in the Adirondack Mountains. This isn’t to say that those who are not born here cannot do a decent job, they just share different memories from us, like people, places and things. They tend to want us to assimilate to their version of New York instead of them assimilating to our culture here.
Similarly, these lobbying and developer groups are not from here either. They do not share the same memories as us. They look at us as collateral damage when they displaced generations of New Yorkers from their homes due to corporate greed – as is the case with the Fulton and Chelsea Houses – and as is the case with the beloved Tony Dapolito Recreation Center.
Demolishing the Fulton and Chelsea Elliot Houses wouldn’t just displace families and friends, and the last remnant of the black and Hispanic community from our neighborhood, it would take a wrecking ball to the heart of our city’s multi-cultural and multi-faceted melting pot, in favor of multi-millionaires.
AND FINALLY
IF THEY COME AFTER IAN MCKEEVER THEY’LL COME AFTER YOU
On July 21st, 2025, the animal lover Ian McKeever, a 56-year-old immigrant horse carriage driver from Ireland, was found not guilty of animal abuse after alt-right animal extremist groups pressured D.A. Alvin Bragg and Council Member Eric Bottcher to indict him after his horse died on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen. Though his horse Lady was later determined to have cancer and died of natural causes, this didn’t stop the animal extremist groups from trying to destroy his life for their mutual cause. Nor did this stop Council Member Eric Bottcher from using Lady’s and Ryder’s death (another horse that died of natural causes) as an opportunity to gain headlines for himself, as both Bottcher and this animal extremist group continue to slander Mr. McKeever, and other horse carriage drivers today; with members of this group dubbing their stables, Houses of Horror.
Lobbyists, advocacy groups and developers, are the biggest issues we are facing as New Yorkers today. Not the big-bad orange man in the White House, who Eric Bottcher keeps mentioning in an attempt to scare us all into voting for him again.
Council Member Eric Bottcher has proven to be a rubber stamp for lobbying and developer groups. He is a yes man for them, constantly overlooking our needs for theirs, whereas I will always put our neighborhood first and foremost. I will continue to say HELL NO to any plans that destroy and displace our community. I hope you consider voting for me as your next City Council Member for District 3 on November 4th, 2025.
Please visit my campaign’s website Dom2025.com to learn more.
I’m dumbfounded that people can defend Ian McKeever and the horse carriage industry in NYC. We all saw the footage of Ian McKeever screaming at and hitting poor Ryder, an old sick horse who never should have been pulling a heavy carriage, to get up when he had collapsed on the streets of NYC. If someone can perceive that as loving, what is abuse? We all know that the horses suffer on the streets of NYC in extreme weather with no water and bolting into traffic when they perceive danger.
Domink Romeo has some interesting things to say in this article but that comment is inexcusable and illustrates his complete lack of empathy and understanding for what the people of NYC want and how carriage horses have been exploited.
It’s easy to defend Ian Mckeever because his horse died of natural causes, not animal abuse as you know, and these animal alt-right extremist groups knew this prior to ruining his life by prosecuting him for the past three years: costing him thousands of dollars in legal fees – causing him depression and isolation from his family and friends. These alt-right animal extremist groups are evil people. It took a jury of Ian’s peers just 45 minutes to realize that he was a pawn in their crazy, “creepy animal alt-right games,” who don’t have any human friends of their own, and who get obsessed with animals instead. That’s why it was easy for me to defend Ian Mckeever, and not people who tend to need professional help, who lie, then try and ruin innocent people’s lives, while manipulating the public (like yourself) into thinking that these animal lovers, who own their own horses and drive them around Central Park, are somehow animal abusers now – for their cause, and for cheap political points. P.S. I am an animal lover too. I’m just not an animal obsessor like you – because I have human friends and compassion for all – and I choose not to lie in my daily life and business affairs like they do. And that’s what’s called –> being a decent human being, unlike them…
Question, Ellen… Was Ian McKeever acquitted of animal abuse or not? The answer is yes: Ian McKeever was acquitted of animal abuse on July 21st, 2025 – and this would make your feelings on this topic, wrong… And that’s why I can, and always will, stick up for people like Ian, and the working class, and not liars and manipulators or the crazy animal alt-right extremist groups while never losing a wink of sleep. And this is called, integrity… Best regards: Dominick Romeo