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The City's Worst Intersections
December 4th, 2007

Need a catalogue of bicycle or pedestrian accidents in your neighborhood? Well, transportation advocacy group Transportation Alternatives just revamped their Crashstat 2.0 – an interactive index of the most accident-riddled intersections in all five boroughs. The site was originally launched in 2004.

Using statistics from the Department of Motor Vehicles, the map details both pedestrian and bicycle accidents intersection by intersection, borough by borough or community district by community district.

Users can search data from 1995 through 2005.

(Here is a list of the top ten for each borough.)

The site argues it can be a resource for bicyclists and advocates lobbying for safer streets. We’ll see if these maps end up at City Council hearings.

By Courtney Gross on December 4, 2007, 5:55 pm
In category: Gotham City, Tech, Transportation | No Comments »

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Reflecting on Spitzer's Rookie Year
December 4th, 2007

He was supposed to be New York’s knight in shining armor, waving his theoretical sword at the state’s infamous inability to get anything done. Now, the somewhat disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer seems defeated by the impenetrable ways of Albany, where Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno has taken on the role of arch nemesis or – to keep this medieval analogy going – fire breathing dragon, complete with boxing gloves.

At events around the city, so many New Yorkers say they had so much hope for Spitzer. He would bring a reform-minded agenda to the capital and finally do away with Albany’s dysfunction.

Hope is the operative word.

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By Courtney Gross on December 4, 2007, 12:38 pm
In category: Albany, Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Governing | 1 Comment »

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The Daily Marty
December 3rd, 2007

The numbers are in and they confirm what every Brooklyn resident already knows: When it comes to self-promotion their borough president, Marty Markowitz, is second to none.

The Daily News reported yesterday that Markowitz has spent has spent $260,000 in taxpayer money this year alone mailing out his thick quarterly newspaper, Brooklyn!!, dwarfing similar expenditures by his fellow borough presidents. (And this apparently just includes mailing, not printing, paper or labor costs.)

Does this serve the residents of Brooklyn, or does this more serve the interest and ambitions of Marty Markowitz?” asked Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, the good government group whose sister organization is the publisher of Gotham Gazette.

You decide. In its 36 pages, the paper mentioned Markowitz 17 times and had 26 pictures of him.

By Gail Robinson on December 3, 2007, 3:45 pm
In category: Gotham City | 1 Comment »

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Giuliani's Record
December 3rd, 2007

Rudolph Giuliani has campaigned for president as though his years as mayor were an unmitigated triumph. Love him or hate him, New Yorkers know the truth is far more complicated. After months of hosanas, the downside of the Rudy years is starting to get national attention, and the questioning coverage shows no sign of abating.

Politco fired a key shot last week, when it reported that the expenses racked up by Giulianis security detail when they accompanied the married mayor on trips to see his then girlfriend, Judith Nathan, had been attributed to obscure city agencies like the Loft Board whose officials have little need for security or trips to the Hamptons. Over the weekend, city papers chimed in.

The Daily News, for example, reported that Nathan had security even when she was not with the mayor. Taxpayers were paying to ferry Nathan on long-distance trips without Giuliani the paper writes. Detective drove Nathan around the city and obligingly walked her dog. If youre wondering how that happens the News has the answer: The detail was approved by Giuliani pal Bernard Kerik.

Meanwhile, New Yorkers also had to pay to protect Giulianis then wife, Donna Hanover, and their two kids. According to the Post, as her marriage dissolved, Hanover sought the solace of her parents, who lived in California. She was accompanied by an NYPD security detail that ran up at least $110,000 in credit-card charges for airfare, lodging, car rentals and gasoline, the Post reported.

But the scrutiny of Giuliani extends beyond his personal life and the effect it had on the city budget.
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By Gail Robinson on December 3, 2007, 1:14 pm
In category: Electoral Politics, Gotham City | 4 Comments »

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Quinn Abandons Term Limit Extension
December 3rd, 2007

The three dozen council members who will be kicked out of the chamber in 2009 will have no reprieve from Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

After members and the press speculated whether the council would consider bumping up its term limit law from two to three terms before a large majority of the body had to vacate their seats, Quinn released a statement this morning solidifying her position: No how, no way will she support a term limit extension.

That is a different outlook from what she argued when lobbying members during her run for the speaker post.
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By Courtney Gross on December 3, 2007, 11:43 am
In category: Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Governing, Law | 1 Comment »

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