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Pit Bull Bans: A Short History
July 3rd, 2008

Chances are this week’s string of pit bull attacks will bring back calls to ban ownership of the dogs in New York. There have been routine attempts at banning the animals since 1989, when the city’s health department put a temporary freeze on the pit bull population. And in 2004 — and again in 2006 — Staten Island City Councilmember Michael McMahon proposed a bill that condemned the State Assembly’s standing ban on “breed specific” dangerous dog-related legislation. If the the latest pit bull rampage does open up debate, expect some opposition from the animal rights crowd — one pro-pit bull Web site lists McMahon, now running for Congress, under “[people] who want to kill your dog.”
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By armin on July 3, 2008, 3:51 pm
In category: Crime, Gotham City, Health
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'Doing Business' Database Rolling Along
July 3rd, 2008

The second phase of the “doing business” database was certified this week by the Campaign Finance Board, which said it will be “reasonably complete and accurate.” The database will provide information on those who are doing or seeking business with the city. This way, the Board may enforce legislation passed last year limiting contributions from these parties. It is an attempt to ensure business isn’t awarded to campaign contributors.

This stage in the database, developed by the board and two mayoral agencies, includes organizations that receive city grants; economic development assistance; have entered into a contract related to the city pension funds; or are seeking contracts, franchises, or concessions with the city. It also includes the principle officers, senior managers, and owners of at least 10 percent of those organizations, as well as senior managers of organizations that already have contracts, franchises, or concessions with the city.

Beginning at the end of the month, most of these parties will be limited to contributions of $400 for citywide offices, $320 for Borough President, and $250 for City Council. Those donations are not eligible for public matching funds.
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By Mike Muller on July 3, 2008, 1:37 pm
In category: Gotham City, Voting
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Blog Wrap
July 3rd, 2008

A good week for the blogs:

What is in store for the New York Times’ digital future?
(Silicon Alley Insider)

An update on a proposal to bring a Fed Ex plant to a part of Queens already suffering from high asthma rates.
(Tri-State Transportation Campaign)

There is some value in leveraging the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to make subsidized housing residents eligible for increased aid in other areas, even if it doesn’t help them with energy costs.
(Public Utility Law Project)

An updated community mapping project recently debuted to catalog environmental problems, and it is currently focusing on the Newtown Creek area. (Habitat 2.0)

Businesses that blast their air conditioning out of open doors are being signaled out. (Racked)

Cuts to community board budgets were avoided in this year’s budget. (Gowanus Lounge)

A landowner and business group in Willets Point said the local community board’s conditional approval of the Bloomberg administration’s plans “imposed such severe conditions that the vote was tantamount to a rejection.” (The Real Estate)

An appeal to oppose a merger between the two largest insurers for city employees. (Democracy for NYC)

By Mike Muller on July 3, 2008, 11:53 am
In category: Gotham City
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Last Call!
July 3rd, 2008

This is the final day of Gotham Gazette’s summer fund drive and we need your help — to keep The Wonkster going and to continue providing Gotham Gazette’s vital coverage of New York City policy and politics.

Unlike other blogs, we don’t have an Arianna Huffington bankrolling us. We’re small, nonprofit, nonpartisan and deeply committed to our city. So celebrate Independence Day by supporting independent media — and Gotham Gazette.

People who give $100 or more will receive a special thanks you — our exclusive stuffable Gotham Gazette tote. But even the smallest tax-deductible donation makes a big difference. Click here to donate.

Thanks — and have a great holiday.

By Gail Robinson on July 3, 2008, 11:46 am
In category: Gotham City
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Recycled Asphalt
July 3rd, 2008

Last year, the city paved a record 950 miles of road and filled in 270,000 potholes - and all these street improvements have actually led to a reduction in oil consumption. This is because the city is using recycled asphalt.

The new pavement is made by a city plant that uses 40 percent recycled asphalt. By cutting back on making new asphalt, a petroleum based product, and making less trips to the land fill to dump of torn up pavement, the city estimates it saved 840,000 barrels of oil last year. That’s less than 1 percent of what the nation consumes in a day, but knocks off a bit more than what the Rocky Mountain area uses in a day. Yay!

The recycled asphalt has also saved the city $5 million dollars and kept 174,000 tons of debris out of landfills. That’s 0.5 percent of what the city throws out a year.

Recycled asphalt was widely used in the early 1900s, according to the National Asphalt Association, a trade group, but died off later on as production trends changed. The city says it is the largest user of recycled asphalt in the country.

By Mike Muller on July 3, 2008, 10:41 am
In category: Environment, Transportation
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The Lone Absence
July 2nd, 2008

While Councilmember Charles Barron received attention for his lone protest vote against the city budget on Sunday, one aspiring boroughwide pol garnered nary a mention of his absence.

That is until now.

While some members voiced frustration over holding the vote on a Sunday — complaining of religious reasons as well as how close the actual approval neared the witching hour — another member opted out of the budget vote because of a longstanding family engagement. Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. of Queens could not make the Sunday meeting because he was on a trip with his father, former Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., to celebrate his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.

His office said they had hoped the vote was scheduled for Thursday or Friday, and they also tried to keep the vote open post-meeting. A Vallone spokesperson said he would have voted for the budget.

Vallone is prospective candidate for Queens borough president in 2009.

You can find more of Gotham Gazette’s budget coverage here.

By Courtney Gross on July 2, 2008, 1:48 pm
In category: Economy, Finance, Gotham City, Voting
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Can Lebron James Save Bruce Ratner?
July 1st, 2008

Today, from a website that probably isn’t the first place you would look for New York land use-related news: a nugget that will fill the New York Post editorial board with glee, and this scrappy, widely-read Web site with fear:

“My favorite borough? Brooklyn,” James said, choosing the proposed future home of the New Jersey Nets over the borough of Manhattan, where the Knicks play their home games. “Brooklyn is definitely a great place here in New York City, and some of my best friends are from Brooklyn, so I stick up for them.

A little background for the non-SLAM Magazine-reading set: The James here is Lebron, who is buddies with rap mogul and Nets minority owner Jay-Z. The Nets’ principal owner is Forest City Ratner, which wants to move them to an as-yet unbuilt, 18,000-seat, Forest City-developed, Frank Ghery-designed arena in Atlantic Yards by 2010. James, arguably the world’s most marketable athlete, becomes a free agent in 2010. He currently plays in Cleveland, which we’re told is a much less interesting and exciting place than New York.

Could James’ apparent interest in Brooklyn have any impact on Atlantic Yards?
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By armin on July 1, 2008, 3:56 pm
In category: Land Use
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Support the Wonkster and Gotham Gazette
July 1st, 2008

Unlike some of your other favorite NYC blogs (the Daily Politics, perhaps, or the Politicker), The Wonkster is published by a nonprofit. Unlike some others (The Albany Project) we’re nonpartisan. And unlike Gawker, we don’t have the latest on Madonna and A-Rod.

Our parent publication, Gotham Gazette, and The Wonkster count on contributions from readers to support us so you can count on us for reporting, analysis and commentary on New York City issues.

We’re nearing the end of our summer fundraising drive and we need more than $8,000 to reach our goal of $15,000. Please give whatever you can today to support this vital independent source in New York City issues.

People who give $100 or more will receive our new, limited edition Gotham Gazette stuffable tote. But a donation of any size helps support postings on the Wonkster, coverage of your favorite city subjects, our daily news digest — and so much more.

By Gail Robinson on July 1, 2008, 1:01 pm
In category: Gotham City
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The Politics of Change in Lower Manhattan
July 1st, 2008

The New York Times reports that “The Lower East Side of Manhattan is being SoHo-fied. (Or is it Chelsea-fied?)” The travel section article lists hidden L.E.S. art galleries that have popped up in the past year or so - though the galleries mentioned by name are likely to lose their “hidden” status fast. The reporter takes the new art scene as a sign of the changing face of the area.

And while demographic shifts could have implications in the art world, they may also affect September’s elections, potentially even threatening the re-election of 32-year incumbent and Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver. (For more on this race, see Gotham Gazette’s Running Against Albany on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

As New York Magazine noted last month in an article about the speaker, “It’s not the old neighborhood anymore.” Silver hails from Lower Manhattan’s Orthodox Jewish community, which has shrunk in recent years.
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By Sara Jerome on July 1, 2008, 12:13 pm
In category: Demographics
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Restarting the Rebuilding
July 1st, 2008

Port Authority director Christopher Ward has issued a stark report on the state of World Trade Center construction, stating that “the schedule and cost estimates of the rebuilding effort that have been communicated to the public are not realistic.”  Nearly every aspect of the project is behind schedule. The memorial to honor people who died on September 11, 2001 will not be ready for 10th anniversary of the attack, as previously stated. There is no workable design for the transit hub. And the Deutsche Bank building, which is slated to be demolished, is still standing.

The report even goes as far as to say that the last month marked ”the first time in the history of the rebuilding effort [that] the key stakeholders at the World Trade Center (WTC) site worked collaboratively with the goal of producing an accurate and current picture of where we are and where we need to go.”

A Daily News editorial puts the bulk of the blame on the Port Authority, writing that it has “mismanaged the job on a monumental level and vastly compounded its offense to the public and the families of the 9/11 dead by trying mightily to cover up its malfeasance.” And the New York Post writes that there is not chance that “anything remotely resembling the original plan can be built with the money available.”

A new set of deadlines and budgets is supposed to be released at the end of September.

By Mark Berkey-Gerard on July 1, 2008, 11:38 am
In category: Land Use
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Dog Bites Man at Tweed
June 30th, 2008

The thin wall — more like a tissue curtain really — that separated the New York City school’s Leadership Academy from being a public agency now has disappeared entirely.

Last week, the Department of Education announced that the privately funded, city inspired program to train people to be principals in city public schools had been awarded the city contract — yes — to train people to be principals in city public schools. Three other places bid on the contract but, according to the Sun, the department would not disclose who they were. So now the academy wil get about $10 million of public money a year to inculcante prospective principals with the ideas of former GE chief executive Jack Welsh.

The results of this process were not exactly surprising.
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By Gail Robinson on June 30, 2008, 4:52 pm
In category: Education
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Hip Hop and Condoms
June 27th, 2008

Hip hop has been blamed for contributing to urban ills for years. It is said to promote violence, misogyny, and homophobia. And with songs like the late Old Dirty Bastard’s ode to unprotected sex, one might also question its influence on safe sex.

As a push began this week to get every adult in the Bronx (hip hop’s birthplace) tested for HIV, and with a recent survey by the city on New Yorker’s sexual practices, the question might seem especially timely.

So, do b-boys, as hip hop’s participants are wont to be called, engage in risky behavior when it comes to sex? Not necessarily, a study published this month in the American Journal of Public Health has found.
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By Mike Muller on June 27, 2008, 11:40 am
In category: Arts, Health
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Sticking to Their Guns
June 26th, 2008

Today’s decision by the Supreme Court that the District of Columbia’s virtual ban on handguns violates the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution is being hailed as a victory for gun owners.

But Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was quick to see a silver lining. Although he had not yet read the decision, he told a press conference that he believes the court endorsed the group’s advocacy of “reasonable regulation,”

“My first understanding from the briefing that I got is no, it will not” have a serious impact on the city’s extensive gun regulations, Bloomberg said. New York City did file a brief supporting the D.C. law.

Some believe New York City’s gun law could be challenged, however. Many guns laws will probably stand up “under the ruling, which appears to permit licensing laws, bans on possession by felons or the mentally ill and prohibitions against carrying concealed weapons or guns in schools or government buildings,” according to Adam Liptak of the Times. But he quotes one of the winning lawyers in the case, Robert Levy, as saying “There is likely to be quite a flood of litigation to try to flesh out precisely what regulations are to be permitted and which ones are not. The challenges are likely to be in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Detroit.”

Patrick Brophy, lawyer for the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, said his organization would be examining the ruling and how it might affect New York. “As long as a licensing system is not administered in an arbitrary and capricious way, that may be entirely permissible,” he told the Daily News. But, he continued, New York’s licensing system could faces challenges on the basis of the relatively high fees and the six-month wait for a license.

Almost as soon as the ruling came down, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association sued Chicago and its mayor in an effort to overturn that city’s handgun ban, the Chicago Tribune reports. Certainly Bloomberg’s counterpart in Chicago, Richard Daley, was nowhere near as sanguine as Bloomberg about the Supreme Court’s decision.

Calling the ruling, “very frightening,” Daley said, “Does this lead to everyone having a gun in our society. … If they [the Supreme Court] think that’s the answer, then they’re greatly mistaken. Then why don’t we do away with the court system and go back to the Old West, you have a gun and I have a gun, and we’ll settle it in the streets if that’s they’re thinking. … The rest of the world is laughing at us.”

By Gail Robinson on June 26, 2008, 5:10 pm
In category: Crime, Law
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Budget Watch Continues (UPDATE)
June 26th, 2008

So Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s schedule this morning is centered on the city’s new aqua-exhibit, sending him zipping around the a.m. broadcasts.

But maybe he might be able to squeeze in a budget announcement later this afternoon following a courtesy visit with Nobel Laureate Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The News reports that there was a tentative compromise on cuts to the Department of Education, and the Politicker predicts a handshake could happen today or tomorrow.

Others are less optimistic.
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By Courtney Gross on June 26, 2008, 2:10 pm
In category: Economy, Education, Finance, Gotham City, Social Services
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Waterfalls Flip the Switch
June 26th, 2008

Photo from nydiscovery via Creative Commons

Photo by nydiscovery and used via Creative Commons. It was taken on June 20.

On a soggy morning who would have thought the city needed even more water?

Well, we got just that.

This morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg flipped the switch on the “New York City Waterfalls” – a public art exhibit, which was privately funded, designed by Olafur Eliasson. Cascading water can be found at four East River locations, from Governors Island to Pier 35 in Manhattan. They will be on display until Oct. 13.

Similar to “The Gates” project in Central Park, the waterfalls are likely to be a tourist trap for the next several months. The city has released a brochure on the best viewing spots, and is also suggesting a ride on the Staten Island Ferry or hopping on the Circle Line for a waterfalls tour.

By Courtney Gross on June 26, 2008, 12:21 pm
In category: Arts, Gotham City, Waterfront
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Garbage, Garbage Everywhere
June 25th, 2008

Several tidbits of news on the garbage front.

The first is an agreement on the reactivation of a recycling center on the Gansevoort peninsula in Hudson River Park near 14th Street. Several Manhattan-based Assembly members had been blocking its approval for more than a year — claiming the area was starved of parkland and that there were other sites more suitable for the recycling station.

According to a release by the Bloomberg administration, the Assembly, Senate, governor and mayor will enter into an agreement to identify other projects in the park that will also be funded.

We covered the issue last year here.

The station is a pillar of the mayor’s Solid Waste Management Plan, which aims to equally distribute the city’s garbage throughout the five boroughs. The center’s reactivation would move the implementation of that plan along.
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By Courtney Gross on June 25, 2008, 4:47 pm
In category: Gotham City
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No Hotel Tax, Hotels Say
June 25th, 2008

Shocking — note: sarcasm — but the city’s hotel lobby is not too keen on raising taxes to restore cuts to the Department of Education.

A proposal to hike the hotel tax to 8 percent from 5 percent is wafting around City Hall — how much support it really has and whether or not it’s even on the negotiating table with the administration is unclear (some council members have never heard of it).

It’s discussed here in today’s Sun — it’s this tax issue and more that’s contributing to a budget impasse between the mayor and the City Council. (They need to agree by Monday — or else…)

A quick call to the city’s Hotel Association shows, however, the idea is far from universally accepted.
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By Courtney Gross on June 25, 2008, 4:12 pm
In category: Gotham City
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After Bruno
June 24th, 2008

As the Republicans in the State Senate selected Dean Skelos of Long Island as their new leader, speculation continued about the effects of the resignation yesterday of his predecessor, longtime Majority Leader Joe Bruno. And much of that speculation involved whether New York voters, who have demonstrated some antipathy to the Republican Party of late, would flip the Senate to the Democrats in November — and thereby abruptly demote Skelos to minority leader.
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By Gail Robinson on June 24, 2008, 6:29 pm
In category: Albany, Electoral Politics, Voting
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Tuesday's Editorial Roundup
June 24th, 2008

The New York Times says that the police department should put strict conditions how Taser guns are used in the city.

The Daily News believes the dramatic increases in student test scores are legitimate. “[P]lenty of data document that children in the five boroughs have made healthy and sustained - even historic - progress compared with peers statewide,” the Daily News writes.

The New York Post praises the U.S. Supreme Court for declining to hear the latest in a series of legal challenges to the Atlantic Yards Project. “The sooner Ratner and Co. gets this project done, the better for Brooklyn - and all New York,” the Post writes.

And the New York Sun bemoans Albany’s refusal to cap property taxes - and says the state capital could be a better place without Republican Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

By Mark Berkey-Gerard on June 24, 2008, 7:53 am
In category: Albany, Crime, Education, Land Use
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Joe Bruno Out
June 23rd, 2008

The New York Times is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno will not seek re-election come this fall.

This may not come as a surprise to some — speculation has mounted for months over whether or not he would seek another two-year term given the death of his wife and a federal investigation into his business interests.

This could certianly affect whether Democrats could take over both houses this year — which we report on here.

His statement is here via the Daily Politics.

By Courtney Gross on June 23, 2008, 7:19 pm
In category: Gotham City
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