From key educational policies and prominent local election races to the ripple effects of Superstorm Sandy and the Connecticut school shooting, Gotham Gazette continued to report on the issues that matter to civic-minded New Yorkers this year. Here are some of the highlights. -- Editor Politics Thwart Brooklyn Housing Homelessness is at a record-breaking high in New York City, and affordable housing remains scarce. In the case of one housing development project in Brooklyn, political and religious rivalries only add to the problem. MORE > When Making a Great Teacher is a Team Effort Just a few years ago, while teaching at a middle school in the Bronx, David Baiz was given an unsatisfactory rating and targeted for elimination. So when New York City published its Teacher Dat... More detail
NEW YORK — With Vito Lopez having unceremoniously resigned from the state Assembly where he once lorded over the powerful housing committee, the career politician has turned his attention to getting elected to the City Council. And he just might succeed. That’s because the two other candidates in the race for the 34th district — one of whom is being backed by Council Speaker Christine Quinn — could end up appealing to the same pool of voters, potentially splitting them and handing Lop... More detail
NEW YORK — Seven Democrats want their party’s nomination for mayor and the frontrunner is a woman who would be the first of her sex to lead City Hall. Two Democratic candidates of color may eat into each other’s bases. Credible candidates on the Republican side have a good shot at a win. Minor party designations could play a major role come November. The New York Post is angling to have a big say in who gets elected. {sidebar id=18 align=right} The 2013 mayoral race? No, the 1977 free-... More detail
NEW YORK — City Council Speaker and Democratic mayoral frontrunner Christine Quinn confessed to her struggles with bulimia and alcoholism. Ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner appeared to hire a campaign manager for his own bid to be the next mayor. And the latest embarrassment to public integrity in Albany leached into one City Council race. That and much more — from campaign finance filings to a cameo appearance of former Sen. Al D'Amato — made this week a busy one in the rac... More detail
NEW YORK — What would likely be the nation's largest expansion of voting rights to immigrants under a proposed city law may not hold up under an expected deluge of legal scrutiny. Hundreds of thousands of immigrant New Yorkers could be added to the voter rolls if city lawmakers approve the bill that would extend to them the same right to cast ballots in local elections as citizens. The bill, which has been re-introduced into the City Council amid a national debate on immigration polic... More detail
This is part 2 of a 2 part interview. Read the first part here. NEW YORK — Even after decades of commercial and residential development in upstate New York, the city’s mostly unfiltered drinking water is renowned for its purity. The water system will face increasing challenges — from growing demand to aging infrastructure to the possibility of gas drilling in neighboring counties — in the years ahead. In the second part of Gotham Gazette’s exclusive interview with historian D... More detail