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Times To Hevesi: Resign
December 8th, 2006

An editorial in the New York Times entitled The Comptrollers Glass House makes the case why State Comptroller Alan Hevesi should resign before the beginning of his new term next month. When the comptrollers audits charge officials or agencies of not acting in a timely manner, or not keeping good records, the easy political response would be Who are you to point a finger?

By Jonathan Mandell on December 8, 2006, 6:57 am
In category: Albany, Governing, Public Finance | No Comments »

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Time Running Out on Charter Schools
December 7th, 2006

This month’s lame duck session in Albany is the last chance for state officials to allow more charter schools this year, writes the New York Sun. The newspaper urges officials to make sure this happens:

“Time is of the essence, because if new schools are to open to students in September, teachers must be hired, students must be recruited, and sites must be procured now. ”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is also feeling the pressure. Aides say that lifting the cap on charter schools is his top legislative priority when the legislature starts its session on December 13.

By Joshua Brustein on December 7, 2006, 7:51 am
In category: Albany, Education | No Comments »

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Chewing the (Trans) Fat
December 6th, 2006

The Board of Healths
decision
yesterday to ban most artificial trans fats in all city restaurants reminds Power Plays of earlier efforts to force Americans to be healthy. Noting that the health boards move came as liquor ads hailed the 73rd anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, the blog concedes restrictions on artery clogging gop might improve health. But it continues, “That’s exactly what the Temperance people said about booze. But ultimately, the temperance movement’s very rational arguments lost” out to “the right to do something profoundly unhealthyand funlike belly up to your favorite bar and order so many Harvey Wallbangers you forget your boss’s name.”

Improved Clinch agrees. “This city, which lays claim to the Statue of Liberty, which supposedly beckons to those desiring freedom, has decided that obesity is not to be addressed individually, but collectively, so that each individ al may suffer for the good of us all. Bollocks.” Interestingly, the blogs author identifies himself as “fly-fishing fanatic who wants to live to be 103.” Wonder if hes given up trans fat in that quest.

Others like the ban. “NYC has done what all people hope their governments will do, it has sought to make the world a safer place,” writes the Kahrman Blog.

The Daily News applauds the restriction in theory but wonders about the practice. “No one is absolutely sure that even a well-motivated restaurant industry can feasibly switch to less-damaging cooking oils and shortenings,” the paper writes. But, if it can, the editorial continues, “New York will have successfully enacted a pioneering public health program that keeps a critical segment of the city’s economy healthy too.”

Another move by the health board has been largely lost in the debate over whether soy-oil French fries will taste like the trans fat kind. The Times thinks that that rule, which would require most fast food restaurants and some other eateries to prominently display calorie contents of their food, could prove more important. “Savoring” the reaction of diners who find they are about to squander a huge chunk of their daily caloric allowance on a venti Caff or a triple Whopper with cheese, the paper says, “The likely shock when patrons realize just how many calories they are imbibing may provide just the right impetus to propel overweight customers toward a healthier diet.”

By Gail Robinson on December 6, 2006, 9:41 am
In category: Gotham City, Health | 1 Comment »

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Equity and the Property Tax
December 6th, 2006

Fairness, it seems, is in the eyes of the beholder. An Independent Budget Office report (in pdf format) has found that the citys property tax the source of 40 percent of its revenue gives a break to homeowners at the expense of owners of commercial property and rental buildings. Some experts have proposed rewriting the tax formula to spread the load more eventy.

Not so fast, says the New York Post. Begging the question of whether the city could actually use more revenues to improve services, the paper argues that hard-pressed middle class New Yorkers “have used their property-tax savings to pay parochial- and private-school tuition – and thus avoid the city’s decrepit, dysfunctional public schools. Do away with the break and homeowners will promptly join another exodus to the suburbs.” Instead, the paper advises reducing city spending. Then, it concludes, “Taxes will take care of themselves.”

By Gail Robinson on December 6, 2006, 9:13 am
In category: Gotham City, Housing, Public Finance | 2 Comments »

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City Council Members: End Current Tax Break For Luxury Building
December 5th, 2006

In the Daily News, three members of the New York City Council called for an end to the so-called 421-a program, which (they explain) allows developers of newly constructed apartment buildings to pay no property taxes for up to 15 years, and then reduced taxes for up to 10 more years. When the program was adopted in the 1970s, residents were fleeing the city, and it was a useful spur to new construction. But in today’s New York City, it’s sheer corporate welfare. With developers gobbling up every square foot of buildable space, the argument that we need tax breaks to encourage development is simply not credible. Councilmembers David Yassky, Annabel Palma and Letitia James say they are introducing a bill in the City Council tomorrow to require developers who want the tax break to build truly affordable housing for low-income and middle-income New Yorkers.

By Jonathan Mandell on December 5, 2006, 8:12 am
In category: Gotham City, Housing, Public Finance | 1 Comment »

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Transit Ideas for Governor Spitzer
December 4th, 2006

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers gives incoming Governor Eliot Spitzer a plan for mass transit in the New York Times:

* Don’t appoint “political cronies” to the Metropolitan Transportation Board, and solve the contract dispute that caused last winter’s strike.
* Keep fares at their current level, while looking for ways for “corporations, consumers, automobile drivers and other stakeholders” to contribute revenue to a system that, after all, benefits them as well.
* Build the Second Avenue Subway and a connection between the Long Island Railroad and Grand Central.
* Improve the bus system.
* Keep a closer eye on the scandal-prone MTA.
* Ride the subway a lot.

By Joshua Brustein on December 4, 2006, 11:40 am
In category: Gotham City, Transportation | 2 Comments »

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Must City Employees Live In The City?
December 3rd, 2006

A bill before the New York City Council would allow all employees of the city government to live outside the five boroughs of New York. The Daily News has two guest essayists offering opposing views.

Former Mayor Ed Koch, who signed residency requirements into law 20 years ago, argues they are still a good idea, for two reasons city government jobs should be reserved for city residents in a city that’s now more than 50% minority, and people who live in New York know the city better, have a greater investment in the city, and thus do their jobs better.

Lillian Roberts, executive director of District Council 37, the city’s largest municipal employee union, argues that its a matter of fairness — police, fire, correction officers, sanitation workers and teachers are already permitted to do so (because a court said a state law allowing them to overrode the city law) and that there is simply not enough affordable housing to go around with New York City’s borders.

By Jonathan Mandell on December 3, 2006, 8:07 pm
In category: Gotham City, Housing | 1 Comment »

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What To Do With The Surplus?
December 3rd, 2006

An editorial in
the New York Times points to the news that the budget of New York Citys government is on track for another big surplus at least $1.9 billion and almost certainly much more to come, thanks to a robust real estate market and big earnings on Wall Street.
So what should be done with it?
Both the mayor and the City Council will need to resist cries for immediate gratification, especially if the spending could turn into permanent obligations that would burden the city for years to come. Paying down debt and other future commitments should be the citys foremost consideration.

By Jonathan Mandell on December 3, 2006, 7:01 pm
In category: Gotham City, Public Finance | 1 Comment »

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World AIDS Day In NYC
December 1st, 2006

Blogger Eli B. writes the following: “I’m not sure what to write here for World AIDS Day. It’s one of those things for which there is both everything and nothing to say.

“Since 1981, more than 25 million people have died of AIDS. Approximately 40 million people worldwide are infected. 1.1 million Americans are HIV-positive, and 25% of them dont know it. Another 40,000 become infected each year. Here in New York State, 7,600 people were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 2004 (the worst nationwide). The bulk comes from New York City, where approximately 1 in 70 has HIV. Obviously, some populations have sufferred from this epidemic more than others. Here are the HIV infection rates, by demographic, from the NYC health department:

* 1 in 40 African Americans.
* 1 in 25 men living in Manhattan.
* 1 in 12 black men age 40-49 years.
* 1 in 10 men who have sex with men.
* 1 in 8 injection drug users.
* 1 in 5 black men age 40-49 in Manhattan.
* 1 in 4 men who have sex with men in Chelsea.

By Jonathan Mandell on December 1, 2006, 6:01 pm
In category: Civil Rights, Demographics, Gotham City, Health | No Comments »

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"Healthier" Foods? Bah!
December 1st, 2006

Writing in the New York Sun, Andrew Wolf disapproves of the plan by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Christine Quinn to appoint a food policy tsar; of a proposal by Alan Gerson to ban foie gras because it’s inhumane; and of the health departments efforts to put healthier food (the quotation marks are Wolfs) in the citys 200 bodegas.”The administration and the council simply can’t resist the paternalistic agenda of making choices for the poor …”

By Jonathan Mandell on December 1, 2006, 9:24 am
In category: Gotham City, Health | 1 Comment »

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Cops Who Lost Life, Not Cops Who Took Life
December 1st, 2006

Clyde Haberman in the New York Times (for subscribers only) writes of a court case in Brooklyn of defendants accused of shooting to death two undercover police officers, Detectives James V. Nemorin, 36, and Rodney J. Andrews, 34, who had five children between them. This case in Brooklyn may seem unrelated to the far more publicized police shooting in Queens of Sean Bell on what was to be his wedding day over the Thanksgiving holiday. But they are two faces of the same New York story, Haberman writes. Both involve police undercover work that went disastrously wrong, although in different ways.The very nature of this work can lead to nightmarish situations because, by definition, undercover officers are supposed to melt into their surroundings. Snap decisions when to back off, when to make arrests, certainly when to shoot are rarely uncomplicated or without peril.

An editorial in the New York Post, entitled Selective Sympathy, derives other lessons from the contrasting cases, harshly criticizing Al Sharpton and Charles Barron and Jesse Jackson for “comforting the grieving family of Sean Bell – a black man shot dead in Queens by police – for at least as long as the TV cameras lingered” but being absent in Brooklyn Federal Court where the murder trial of the two black detectives is taking place. “Sharpton and Barron and Jackson care only about certain dead black people.”

The New York Police Departments official Web site lists the names of the hundreds of members of the department who have been killed in the line of duty since 1849

By Jonathan Mandell on December 1, 2006, 6:39 am
In category: Crime & Safety, Gotham City | No Comments »

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