Veggie tales
Elected officials do love their props. For instance, who can forget former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s giant foam Covid-19 mountain from summer 2020?
A recent news conference held by his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, brought the latest, curious example.
Yes, that was our governor sitting behind a long table at a Feb. 7 news conference holding a bunch of carrots.
Was it an agricultural-themed news conference? No it was not.
The carrots, it turned out, represented the financial sweetener she’s offering to get communities on board with her plan to build more housing in New York.
“I’m told this is what you’re willing to eat to help build more housing,” she said to “polite chuckles,” as Gothamist put it.
In fact, her $233 billion state budget plan includes $650 million in grant funding for pro-housing local governments.
“This is what they said they wanted,” Hochul said, holding up the vegetables. “They wanted carrots, and we have 650 million dollars of carrots to put on the table, literally, and to tell them that this is available to communities that are willing to do what is necessary.”
No word on what happened to the fresh produce after the news conference.
But we hope, somewhere in Albany, there’s a very happy and very full bunny rabbit.
A higher calling?
Commercial real estate broker William Heussler may be looking at a second career – or perhaps, calling.
Heussler, longtime branch manager for Howard Hanna Commercial’s Buffalo office, was serving Thursday night as the master of ceremonies for the Western New York State Commercial Association of Realtors’ annual dinner and awards ceremony at the Forbes Theater – his third time being asked to do so before a packed crowd of the who’s who in real estate.
“So I thought I’d see what else I could do,” he joked. “I recently got asked to perform a wedding. So I went online to see what I had to do.”
He continued, “For $39.99 – plus shipping and handling – I can now officiate…
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