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Fighting For Moynihan Station
October 21st, 2006

Yesterday, the Daily News blamed Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for helping to kill the current plan for Moynihan Station. (The title of the editorial was Sheldon Silvers Wrecking Ball) But today, an editorial in the New York Times sees a different villain Governor George Pataki. The Times backs Silvers decision to reject the current plan, which, it says, does only part of the work renovating a third of the Farley Post Office building into an alternative entrance to Penn Station. Its obvious that a better approach would be to consider the bigger but still mostly unformed proposal that would move Madison Square Garden to the back of the Farley building, renovate the front part of the building, raze the hideous current Garden and redevelop that site to restore the entire Penn Station complex to some of its former glory.

Yet Pataki is threatening to kill the project altogether, and his appointee, Charles Gargano of the Empire State Development Corporation, has been calling the project dead.(This kind of comment “only risks losing $230 million in federal financing for Moynihan Station.”) While the Times understands why Pataki is angry, frustrated, and disappointed, he has no right to take his feelings out on the city Mr. Pataki has no choice but to let a new governor pick up this project and have the chosen developers submit a better plan.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 21, 2006, 11:56 am
In category: Albany, Gotham City, Land Use, Public Finance, Transportation | 1 Comment »

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Bloombergs Guided Tour Of The Schools For Out-of-Town Mayors: Hype?
October 20th, 2006

Cities on A Hill, a blog by the Manhattan Institute, mocks Mayor Michael Bloombergs regular ritual of escorting out-of-town pols on tours of New York City public schools most recently Adrian Fenty, who is running for mayor of Washington D.C. to show them how far the citys schools have come under mayoral control. The blog urges a little more honesty about the academic improvementor lack of itregistered by New York Citys 1.1 million students during the years of mayoral control. Despite the hype coming from these mayoral tours, the fact is that student test scores have remained stubbornly flat in New York City. So far, the public has not seen the bigger bang for the buck that mayoral control promised.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 20, 2006, 3:41 pm
In category: Education, Gotham City | 1 Comment »

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Mourning Moynihan Station
October 20th, 2006

The Daily News goes after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for apparently killing plans for Moynihan Station, the project that would have transformed the Farley post office on Eighth Avenue into a new and improved Pennsylvania Station. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silvers representative on the Public Authorities Control Board cast a fatal no vote on the idea.

“That kills the project as proposed by the Empire State Development Corp. once and for all – despite ‘yes’ votes from the designees of Governor George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno,” explained Capitol Confidential.

Silvers “fatal vote on the Public Authorities Control Board ran counter to the public interest,” the News writes.

By Gail Robinson on October 20, 2006, 7:48 am
In category: Albany, Gotham City, Land Use, Transportation | 1 Comment »

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Tobacco Tangle
October 20th, 2006

In hearings before City Council yesterday the staunchly anti-tobacco Bloomberg administration came out with a decidedly mixed message on anti smoking measures: yes on a hike in the cigarette tax, no on raising the smoking age, maybe on banning candy flavored cigarettes. The New York Sun tries to unravel the decisions.

The paper applauds the mayors opposition to raising the age at which a person can legally buy cigarettes but says, “not to look a gift horse in the mouth, the question is, why? It’s hard to square his opposition to these latest legislative efforts with his earlier banning smoking in bars and jacking up the cigarette excise collected by the city.” The editorial continues, “Could it possibly be [that] revenue is the mayor’s motive in opposing a raising of the age at which one can buy a cigarette i.e., that he’s addicted to tobacco revenues? No other explanation makes sense.”

By Gail Robinson on October 20, 2006, 7:46 am
In category: Gotham City, Health, Public Finance | No Comments »

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Can We Say It Aint So? And Other Questions About Brian McLaughlin's Alleged Corruption
October 19th, 2006

Accompanying the shock and amazement over the alleged corruption of Assemblymember Brian McLaughlin (The Queens King of Corruption? ) are a lot of questions:

Whenever we read a story like this indictment, we ask ourselves several questions, Henry Stern writes in NYCivic. How many more people like this are there with important jobs in labor, business, law or politics that just have not yet been uncovered for the thieves they are?…[T]he variety of illegal acts committed here was so wide that many people must have known of them, and why didn’t anybody speak up about them? If someone did drop a dime, how long had the crimes gone on before whosoever they may be came to the authorities?

The Chalkboard, a blog of the New York Charter Schools Association, has a post that asks Was McLaughlin Framed? written by Joe W: I have trouble believing that someone who sends out little league fundraising letters with the tag A child in sports stays out of the courts, could then turn around and (allegedly) use that money to pay for the rent on his Albany apartment. Or that Assemblyman and labor big shot Brian McLaughlin, the face of the working men and women of New York, would use union dues money and kickbacks from contractors (again, allegedly) to pay for his Long Island mansion, country club initiation fees, his wife’s $80,000 Mercedes, his kids’ wedding rehearsal dinner, and lavish gifts for three women. Forcing union members to skim the profits (allegedly) off scrap metal sales and sending them to McLaughlin? Preposterous.

Blogger Forlorn Apple asked whether Brian McLaughlins indictment would mean that the Assembly seat he is giving up could become a hot contest. But this is not going to happen. Why? The Republican candidate, Morshed Alam, is a Democrat, founder for example of the New Americans Democratic Club. This is a shame since the Republican party in NY has a great story to tell on taxes, education, housing, security, and especially government reform in Albany.

Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers McLaughlin used to be an electrician — has an interesting and lively message board:
We the members of local 3 demand an explanation of some of the Brian McClaughlin affair, one electrician writes. How did he allegedly receive a bribe and allow a Staten Island street lighting contract to be done with non union labor? I am sure if this is true there must be others involved in this

It doesn’t even matter if he wins in court; the perception is what counts, another writes. “Everyone in the local has egg and a lot more all over their faces.

Why would we….the membership have egg on our faces? a third replies. We are the victims here not the co-conspirators.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 19, 2006, 4:44 pm
In category: Albany, Crime & Safety, Gotham City, Tech | 2 Comments »

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School Funding Feud
October 19th, 2006

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer seem be gearing up for a major confrontation over school funding and mayoral control. Earlier this week, Spitzer told the Daily News that the city should pick up part of the tab for any increased funding ordered by the courts in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case. The courts could order that city schools eventually get an extra $4 billion to $6 billion a year; experts have long said the city would probably have to pick up at least a billion of that.

But not Bloomberg. During the 2005 mayoral campaign he indicated he would give up billions in extra state money rather than have the city pay any part of the settlement. And he stuck to his guns yesterday, saying the city has already sharply increased spending on schools. The state should be helping New York City weve already put in our share and thats only reasonable, and I think we would press very hard to make the case that New York City taxpayers have stood up, theyve seen their taxes go up, theyve had to reach deeper into their pockets, the Times quotes Bloomberg as saying.

If elected governor, Spitzer could have some powerful tools of persuasion. For one, Bloombergs reputation as an education mayor could be tarnished if he gave up billions of money for schools. And then theres his prize of mayoral control: The state has to agree to renew the new governance arrangement before it expires in 2009. And so, Spitzer told the News, in the background of funding negotiations, you have the issue of mayoral control and other factors that will weigh in the balance.

Bloomberg think mayoral control should be judged on its owns merits: Mayoral control is something that I feel very strongly has been a good thing for this city. I think most people would agree with that.

Not NY Educator, who says that if Bloomberg thinks mayoral control is a success, it means that he is content with oversized classes, crumbling buildings, and the spectacle of a thousand teachers wandering the school system at full pay. On the dispute between Spitzer and Bloomberg, the blogger says, Eliot Spitzerhas the odd notion that New York City ought to pay a portion of what it costs to educate its children. Strangely enough, the NY State Supreme Court seems to concur.”

However this plays out, the Sun observes, The issue is pitting Messrs. Bloomberg and Spitzer against each other on a major policy item even before Mr. Spitzer gets voted into office. The debate could get even stickier as Mr. Spitzer sets out to define himself as governor and Mr. Bloomberg tries to make good on his pledge to transform the city’s public school system before he is forced out of office by term limits.

By Gail Robinson on October 19, 2006, 11:17 am
In category: Albany, Education, Gotham City, Law, Public Finance | 2 Comments »

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Indicting Hevesi?
October 19th, 2006

The scandal involving New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesis use of a chauffeur for his wife at taxpayer expense has earned him an entry in Corruption Chronicles, a blog from Judicial Watch, which defines itself as a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation. It has inspired a new blog devoted exclusively to the scandal, called Hevesi Watch. What it hasnt yet achieved is an indictment.

This could happen. David Soares, the district attorney for Albany, has said he is investigating. An editorial in the New York Post, no fan of Hevesi, puts its view succinctly: Hevesi should be indicted – or cleared – before Election Day.

A spokeswoman for Soares, Rachel McEneny, told Azi Paybarah at
The Politicker
: “We will not be brought into political theater, and we are not going to follow the electoral time line that Mr. Callaghan [Hevesis opponent in the race for comptroller] or any other parties would like us to follow.”

By Jonathan Mandell on October 19, 2006, 10:22 am
In category: Albany, Crime & Safety, Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Law, Public Finance | No Comments »

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Daily News to Mayor: Compensate Injured Ground Zero Workers
October 19th, 2006

After a ruling by a federal judge earlier this week that allows thousands of sickened Ground Zero workers to sue the city for damages, an editorial in the Daily News says it is now time for Mayor Bloomberg to do the right thing: Waging hand-to-hand legal combat would guarantee that nothing gets accomplished in good time or according to sound public policy. The far better course would be to remove the matter from the courts entirely by adopting no-fault compensation: Individuals who proved they were injured because they served at Ground Zero would be issued checks expeditiously, with the amounts set by specified guidelines.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 19, 2006, 7:33 am
In category: Gotham City, Health, Law, Public Finance | No Comments »

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The Big Deal
October 18th, 2006

So far, political reaction to the sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village appears muted. Even though Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made affordable housing a priority of his administration he “stayed on the sidelines” after the 110-building middle income housing development went up for sale, the Times notes. Expressing regret that the tenants’ bid to buy the property was unsuccessful, Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer issued a statement saying “The fate of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village and its ability to remain affordable will be viewed as a case study in New York’s ongoing crisis of affordability. If Manhattan loses these affordable units, we will take an enormous step backwards.”

In an editorial, the Sun dismissed such fears and the politicians who spread them. Concerns about the end of middle class housing in Manhattan were never “credible,” the paper said. “The large number of apartment units in the developments that are still rent stabilized will be stabilized. Instead of a danger sign, the sale indicates that the New York real estate dynamo is booming [and] that the future has a place in the city.”

What might that future be? According to BusinessWeek, “it is unlikely that Stuyvesant Town’s existing buildings will be razed and replaced by expensive condos in the immediate future.But over the long term, in order to realize their investment, it is likely that the new owners will need to dramatically raise rents on the more than 11,000 apartments in the complex.” And writer Charles DuBow continues, “the neighborhood is likely to change with new retail business geared to the areas increasingly affluent residents.”

“What does this mean for you?” wonders Gawker. “Well, unless you’re an elderly veteran or someone dumb enough to pay ridiculous amounts of money to live on First Avenue, probably nothing. Still, we’re sure all that extra tax revenue [from the $5.4 billion sale] will go to good use on anti-smoking ads and transfats inspectors.”

And Jossip tries to put things in perspective: Tishman-Speyer “paid $5.4 billion for 110 buildings home to some 40,000 people which works out to 3.27 times what Google paid for a silly video web site.”

By Gail Robinson on October 18, 2006, 9:18 am
In category: Community Development, Gotham City, Housing, Land Use, Public Finance | 1 Comment »

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Queens King of Corruption?
October 18th, 2006

Even in these cynical times, the alleged crimes of Queens Assemblymember Brian McLaughlin, head of the New York Central Labor Council, have caused amazement, gaining him coverage far away from his Queens, Albany and Long Island homes.

A blogger identified as Frederick, Maryland, writes in Demagogue, that the alleged theft of some $2.2 million by the head of the Central Labor Council proves, “you don’t have to serve in Congress to have a knack for sleaze and corruption; nor must you be a Republican. My favorite? That McLaughlin allegedly stole $95,000 from Little League baseball teams to pay for housing costs.”

McLaughlins arrest finally gives state Republicans a scandal “to smile about,” says Capitol Confidential, reporting that the state GOP gleefully declared this as a continuation of the Assembly Democrats “long tradition of corruption.”

Capitol Confidential goes on to say, “Even in the current scandal-ridden atmosphere of New York and national politics, the extent of this is mid-boggling,” while the Daily Politics thinks McLaughlin makes State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who used a state employee as a personal chauffeur for his wife, “look like a choir boy.”

The News expresses amazement at the extent to which McLaughlin may have married political and labor corruption. “Some things are so monumental as to be breathtaking,” the editorial says, The Grand Canyon. The Great Pyramid at Giza. The alleged thievery of Central Labor Council President Brian McLaughlin.”

Given the enormity of the charges, writes the Post, why havent labor leaders expressed some real outrage? “After all,” the editorial says, “weren’t they the chief victims of his greed? They paid for the $80,000 Mercedes Benz that McLaughlin bought his wife – and provided cash to two girlfriends.
It was their money that paid McLaughlin’s country-club membership, marina fees for his boat, his credit-card bills, renovations to his posh Long Island home and the rent on his Albany and Queens apartments.”

By Gail Robinson on October 18, 2006, 8:43 am
In category: Albany, Crime & Safety, Gotham City | 4 Comments »

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Maybe Minorities Arent Interested In Being Firefighters
October 17th, 2006

The New York City Fire Department announced earlier this week that it was extending the deadline to apply to be a firefighter, by three weeks — through Nov. 3 — in hopes of increasing the number of applicants, especially people of color. But an editorial in the New York Post implies that is unlikely to have much effect — just as spending millions on advertising, and relaxing its hiring requirements also did nothing change the make-up of a department that is overwhelming white and male. There are fewer overall applicants than for the last exam, in 2002, and fewer minority-group members too, the Post writes. Its conclusion? Is it too much to hope that the bean counters at the Justice Department – and ambulance-chasing lawyers looking to make quick bucks filing discrimination suits – will at some point take the manifest minority lack of interest in applying for the FDNY into account? Certainly there should be no further dilution of recruiting standards.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 17, 2006, 9:12 pm
In category: Civil Rights, Crime & Safety, Demographics, Gotham City | 16 Comments »

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Paying Parents To Do The Right Thing: New York Is Smart To Look To Mexico
October 17th, 2006

An editorial in the New York Times praises Mayor Michael Bloombergs idea to pay parents to make sure their kids stay in school and get regular check-ups, etc. This kind of cash incentive is based on a highly successful Mexican antipoverty program, known as Oportunidades, that is now being tried by at least 25 other countries and resulted in bigger, healthier and better-schooled children. Even a rich city like New York can envy such success. Mayor Bloomberg is smart to explore a brilliantly simple idea that is fighting poverty now and poverty later around the world. We hope that donors will rally to the effort.

(Writing last month in Gotham Gazette, Heather MacDonald took the opposite view, arguing that it could set a dangerous and absurd precedent: “Not just attending classes, but refraining from hitting your teacher, not bringing a gun to school, showing up for an exam, bathing your kids and feeding them — all will be candidates for a bribe.”)

By Jonathan Mandell on October 17, 2006, 7:01 am
In category: Education, Gotham City, Health, Public Finance, Social Services | 2 Comments »

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300 Million!
October 17th, 2006

The population of the United States is said to number 300 million as of today, and in the Daily News,
Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, argues this is no cause for alarm prosperity will continue to rise as long as such issues as transportation and the environment are handled intelligently. The question isn’t whether we can absorb millions of new people – but how to convert the inevitable growing pains into new opportunities and build more livable communities for everyone. The best bet, and what people increasingly prefer, are “compact cities built around public transportation and sidewalks.”

By Jonathan Mandell on October 17, 2006, 6:52 am
In category: Demographics, Environment, Land Use, Transportation | No Comments »

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More Debates (And Transcripts Of Them)
October 16th, 2006

No Democratic candidates this year in New York Hillary Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Andrew Cuomo — have agreed to more than two debates (and New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi has not agreed to debate at all.) Wed like to see more, says an editorial in the New York Times. Its not as if the other demands on their time fund-raising, handshaking and giving the same speech over and over to friendly audiences were too important to be infringed upon.

One more request, made by bloggers at The Daily Politics and the Empire Zone and many others transcripts or podcasts or videos of the debates between Faso and Spitzer, Cuomo and Pirro, etc. WNED, the public television station in Buffalo, claims to have an audio of the Faso vs. Spitzer debate online here, but it says to click the streaming icon and there is no such thing.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 16, 2006, 6:48 am
In category: Albany, Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Governing | No Comments »

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Ending Tax Giveways To Real Estate Developers
October 15th, 2006

An editorial in the New York Times entitled Ending a Housing Giveaway agrees with Mayor Michael Bloombergs recent proposal to change the program, known as 421-a, that for more than three decades has given tax breaks to real estate developers. The Times sees the mayors proposal, though, only as a good starting point for rethinking the program.

The program long has been criticized by housing advocates — see for example, the report Reforming New York Citys 421-a Property Tax Exemption Program: Subsidize Affordable Homes, Not Luxury Apartments by the Pratt Center for Community Development and Habitat for Humanity New York City.

As the Times editorial explains, under the program, developers are taxed at an artificially low rate the assessed value of the property before it is developed for 10 to 25 years, during which time the city agrees to freeze taxes at their original level no matter how much the property has appreciated in value. In the hottest areas of town known as exclusionary zones the breaks are only available if builders include a percentage of affordable units, usually 20 percent of the total number in the project.

Thats a big price for the city to pay for a modest number of apartments.

The mayors proposed changes both limit the tax breaks for luxury housing and spread the incentive for affordable housing to other parts of the city. But, the Times editorializes, a much stronger push for reasonably priced apartments will be needed if New York is going to hold on to its middle class. ..The challenge will be to calculate how much the city can reduce the breaks without discouraging new development.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 15, 2006, 10:54 pm
In category: Gotham City, Housing, Land Use, Public Finance | 5 Comments »

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The End Of CBGB's
October 15th, 2006

Richard Hell waxes nostalgic about the closing this weekend of the rock n roll club, CBGBs, a staple on the Bowery for almost a quarter of a century. As founder Hilly Kristal has written in a multi-volume history of the club, CBGBs stands for country bluegrass blues, the kind of music I intended to have, but not the
kind that we became famous for.”

The music they became famous for, as Richard Hell enumerates in (of all places) the New York Times, was: Television, the Ramones, Suicide, the Patti Smith Group, Blondie, the Dictators, the Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and the Dead Boys. Not to mention some often equally terrific (or equally pathetic) groups that arent as well remembered, like the Miamis and the Marbles and the Erasers and the Student Teachers. Nearly all the members of these bands treated the club as a headquarters as home.

The last show, tonight at 8 p.m., featuring Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Jay Dee Daugherty and Tony Shanahan, is (not too surprisingly) sold out. Hell does not sound too distraught: CBGBs is going to be dismantled and reconstructed as an exhibit in Las Vegas, like Elvis. I like that. A lot. I really hope it happens as intended.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 15, 2006, 11:49 am
In category: Arts, Gotham City | No Comments »

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Avoiding Another Plane Crash?
October 15th, 2006

In response to the plane crash into the Upper East Side high-rise on 10/11 that killed Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Chase Stanger, both an editorial in the Daily News and a commentary in that newspaper by Senator Charles Schumer approve of the ban announced Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration on fixed-wing planes above the East River unless the pilot is in contact with air traffic control, and both call for similar restrictions over the Hudson River.

The positive of achieving even a marginal increase in safety or reduction in the risk of terror outweighs the negative of placing added burdens on the air-traffic control system and fliers, the newspaper writes.

Senator Schumer writes: The FAA has much tighter rules for Washington, and if these restrictions can protect the President and Congress, then they can protect the millions of people who live and work in Manhattan.

But, also writing in the Daily News,
Phil Boyer, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
, disagrees. The FAA’s decision to ban small-planes from the East River corridor is an ill-informed reaction one driven by the urge to do something because the hard facts and analysis are still weeks or months away, Boyer says. But the fact remains that the crash was an accident. Restricting access to the Hudson River and East River corridors will not lead to safer skies or reduce the chances of a terrorist attack Security experts and federal agencies have repeatedly concluded small planes are too slow and too small to be weapons of terrorism.
As for new restrictions reducing the chance of another plane crash, Boyer writes, a pedestrian is killed on average every day in New York by a car or truck. Do these same politicians rush before the cameras and call for a ban of all vehicles? Of course not.

Last week, Aaron Donovan of Streetsblog used the same analogy to make a different point. He contrasted the coverage of the two tragic deaths from a plane crash to the weekly carnage on the regions roads, listing and linking to some three dozen car accidents during the week, in which some two dozen New Yorkers were killed, including Fandango founder Sam Blyakher, 33, and his 32-year-old wife, Rebecca, a neuroscientist.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 15, 2006, 6:51 am
In category: Gotham City, Transportation | 1 Comment »

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Federal Aviation Administration Right To Ban Unregulated Flights Over East River
October 14th, 2006

The Federal Aviation Administration did the right thing when late on Friday it banned fixed-wing aircraft over the East River unless they obtain authorization from, and are being controlled by, air-traffic control, says an editorial by the New York Post. But, the editorial goes on, it wasnt enough. The agency needs to curtail now-uncontrolled traffic along the Hudson, too. Indeed, officials need to get serious about the number of small- to medium-sized private planes that have free access to the air-space over Manhattan – regardless of whether they’re under the control of regional towers.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 14, 2006, 8:08 am
In category: Gotham City, Transportation | 1 Comment »

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Is Your Block One Of The Best
October 13th, 2006


The best block in New York City is South Portland Avenue between DeKalb and Lafayette Avenues in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, according to an article on the 50 Best Blocks in New York City in the magazine, Time Out New York. There were five criteria for selecting aesthetics, green factor (not only trees and parks, but waterfront access), noise and traffic, public transit, affordability, and New York-ocity (the feeling of an only-in-New York spot”)
The king of all New York blocks seems straight out of Sesame Street, not only for the unbroken rows of brownstones and brick townhouses, but also because its still home to the diverse crowd for which Fort Greene has become known: The old guard of the black middle class shares the street with transplants from far and near; kids and senior citizens roost on stoops.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 13, 2006, 1:00 pm
In category: Gotham City | 2 Comments »

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Tenants' "Transformative" Bid For Stuyvesant Town
October 13th, 2006

Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez explains why the tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village have a better shot at snaring the winning bid for the housing complexes than was initially thought; argues why Mayor Michael Bloomberg should get off the sidelines and help them; and lays out how their selection would be a good choice for everybody concerned, including MetLife and the city as a whole. But win or lose , the tenant campaign has already shaken this citys real estate. The biggest land deal in modern American history has been suddenly transformed into a public battle over the future of affordable housing.

By Jonathan Mandell on October 13, 2006, 11:30 am
In category: Gotham City, Housing, Land Use, Public Finance | 1 Comment »

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