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The hard-earned lessons of Superstorm Sandy shaped a mayoral forum yesterday where candidates fielded questions on waterfront development, expanding ferry service and creating a new agency to oversee the city's vast coastline. "Make no mistake," said Democratic candidate and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, "you get to say once, 'It was an unprecedented storm.' You don't get to do that again." Six candidates were asked to respond to policy proposals put forward by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance that touches on everything from docks to land use. The public also got to submit questions. Continue reading the story on the Gotham Gazette to see what the other candidates had to say ... 

Other Stories We're Following

Cuomo Proposes Bribes Legislation (Wall Street Journal)

NAACP: Stop-And-Frisk A National Priority (Associated Press)

Albany Riveted By Double Life Of Assembly Informer (NY Times)

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City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called Councilman Dan Halloran's press release celebrating his district's participatory budget "stupid" and "outrageous."

Quinn spoke about the embattled Republican councilman during a press conference in City Hall today, referencing one of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's oft-used turns of phrase.

"I don't usually quote Mike Bloomberg, but it's one of the stupidest things I have ever seen," Quinn said, adding that Halloran would have no say in how discretionary funds would be allocated for the projects his residents voted on last week.

"I don't care how many stupid press releases he issues," she said.

Halloran, who is accused in a bribery scheme to get Democratic Sen. Malcolm Smith on the Republican mayoral ballot line, sent out the press release yesterday in which he congratulated the winners.

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Democratic mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn is calling on her fellow candidates to "pledge to condemn and reject all independent expenditures" in the race to lead City Hall.

Quinn, the City Council speaker, said in a letter to nine other candidates that a television ad attacking her was "an all-out effort to undermine New York City’s public campaign finance system, the most progressive system in the county."

Quinn repeated her position against independent expendiatures during a press conference at City Hall today. She also defended her support of a bill the Council passed in March that excluded union communications from being considered independent expeneditures. The law drew criticism from the city's Campaign Finance Board when the bill was first floated in late 2012.

"What we did was just relation to member to member communications," she said, and defended the bill by arguing it received support from the city's leading good government groups. She said the TV spot against her was different because it was created for a general public and its backers refuse to disclose who is paying for it.

The ad in question was released yesterday and accuses her of back-room deals and putting politics before people. It was the first television advertisement to be released in this year's mayoral race.

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Without going into specifics, Gov. Cuomo called for a series of reforms yesterday in the wake of the bribery scandals that have rocked the state - and added to the growing criticism he's faced over the past two months. In a radio interview, the governor said the crisis should not be wasted and instead used to pass reforms in areas like political party balloting, member items, campaign donation limits, and the state Board of Elections. He would also enact lobbying reform and make it easier for local prosecutors to bring corruption cases. But he went on to argue that Albany is actually functioning better under his watch than before, particularly on New York City issues. When speaking with the NY Post, Cuomo blamed the capitol's incumbent-driven political culture for the rash of corruption. So far, he won't order a corruption commission to investigate state politics as his father did in 1987.

Other Stories We're Following

State's Recovery Uneven (Albany Times Union)

Cuomo Calls On Federal Mortgage Backers To Protect Sandy Victims (Daily News)

Private Development Feared In City-Owned Complex (NY Times)

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The restoration of a historic building in College Point, Queens and the state-of-the-art smart boards for two central Brooklyn schools were approved by residents through participatory budgeting in their City Council districts. 

Eight City Council districts took part in the city's second annual attempt at participatory budgeting, with each council member agreeing to allocate $1 million in capital projects in four boroughs.

While votes started to trickle in today, a final count won't be finished for days.

Having started out with four districts for city's first foray in 2012, eight districts took part in this year's vote.

Democratic Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander, an early adopter of participatory budgeting, celebrated the results from his own district.

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