April 25, 2018
“You are cordially invited to dinner and conversation with New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo” for $15,000 per person or $25,000 per couple. But not everyone at the St. Regis New York soirée yesterday came to dine and converse. About a dozen activists from NY Food and Water Watch were outside the hotel’s East 55th Street entrance to “bird dog” him.
The group’s Northeast Regional Director, Alex Beauchamp, told the Gazette they are bird dogging Cuomo, that is, showing up at his events so he’ll do more to transition New York to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030. Beauchamp said 1,500 people had bird dogged the Governor in Albany on Monday. “If New York is going to lead on climate change, he’s got to do much more,” he added. The group’s webpage says that “talking the talk won’t cut it.”
When asked about being just talk and not enough action, the Governor said that’s incorrect. “We have the best environmental record of any state,” he told the Gazette before entering the hotel through a side entrance on 5th Avenue and eluding the bird dogs.
