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Recent Stories / February 13, 2006

Week of February 13, 2006

February 17, 2006

City Proposes Lobbying Reform
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn proposed the tightest lobbying rules in city history Thursday. They want to prohibit city officials from accepting any gift or meal from lobbyists, double fines for those who violate lobbying laws, and even physically ban lobbyists from parts of City Hall at certain times. In addition, campaign contributions from lobbyists would be ineligible for matching funds through the cityís campaign finance program. Good government groups (including Citizens Union, whose sister organization publishes Gotham Gazette) applauded the move, but said that success depends on enforcement, which is lagging with current regulations.

Pataki Has Emegency Surgery
Governor George Pataki had emergency surgery to remove his appendix Thursday morning. He is recovering well, but will likely stay home for the next 10 days. For the duration of the surgery, Lt. Governor Mary O. Donohue was acting governor. She was not informed that she had been in charge of the state, however, until after the fact.

February 16, 2006

Victory for Bikes
A State Supreme Court judge ruled in favor of bicyclists in a long running battle with the city over monthly "Critical Mass" bike rides. The city had filed a lawsuit against four volunteers who publicized the rides which draws hundreds of cyclists. Judge Michael Stallman said the city had not proven that the bike rides meet the city's definition of a parade requiring a permit.

For more, see Transportation Links in the News. Also read an article about cycling in the city.


Ideas for Governors Island
The governor and mayor are seeking submissions of ideas for redeveloping Governors Island, the 172-acre island in New York Harbor. The city has considered remaking the former Coast Guard base into a school campus, an amusement park, a casino, or a biotech center, but yesterday officials said they are now seeking new "visionary" ideas. At a press conference, architect Santiago Calatrava unveiled an idea for a gondola that could create new connections between Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and the island.

For more on the history and plans for the future of the island, see Gotham Gazette's article.

February 15, 2006

Domestic Partners Law Struck Down
The State Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that Mayor Michael Bloomberg does not have to enforce laws that City Council passed through his mayoral vetoes. In a 4-to-3 ruling, the state’s highest court affirmed the lower court decision that the mayor can refuse to enforce a 2004 law on domestic partner benefits that, he believed, violated state and federal laws. Several legal experts called the ruling significant victory for the Bloomberg administration. But City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn said that although the ruling is the setback for the Council, it is more of a technicality than a true expansion of the mayor's powers. "What this says is if the mayor disregards our law, I have to sue first as opposed to the reverse," Quinn said.

For more, see Civil Rigths Link in the News.

February 14, 2006

After Snow
The aftermath of what is being billed as the heaviest snowstorm in New York City history is unlikely to get the mayor or any other public official into trouble. Neither the state nor the city nor any county declared a state of emergency. Nobody reportedly died from the storm. No public schools were closed, although school attendance was low (62 percent compared to the 87 percent normal for a Monday). While there were continuing delays in commuter trains and at the airports, every single street was plowed and salted by the morning commute, according to the Sanitation Department. Warm weather is expected to melt the snow quickly ¯ which, officials warn, may result in some flooding.
This contrasts with the past: “Snow can make parks look like heaven -- and roads feel like hell. But it was a previous snowstorm [the blizzard of 1969 when John Lindsay was mayor] that made it clear how much New York City’s parkways -- which are both parks and roads -- are in a weird kind of limbo.” This is the beginning of our parks topic page article, about the deterioration of the Henry Hudson Parkway.


Drop-Outs
The number of New Yorkers dropping out of high school is “unacceptable,” State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said yesterday. In New York City, only 37.3 percent of male students scheduled to graduate last June did so, according to newly released state figures, which Mills called “particularly disturbing.” (The rate for female students was 49.8 percent.) The state’s figure for the overall graduation rate in the city, 43.5 percent, is ten percentage points worse than the figure cited last week by the Bloomberg administration in the preliminary mayor’s management report.
And 80 percent of the 127 schools in the state with the worst drop-out rates are in the city. At William Howard Taft in the Bronx, only 15 percent of the class of 2005 graduated on time.
For a look at why students drop out, and what is being done about it, see our Issue of the Week, Keeping Kids In School.


February 13, 2006

Snow!
A record snow storm hit New York City over the weekend, dumping 26.9 inches of snow in Central Park. But despite the ferocity of the storm, which was accompanied by wind gusts of 20 to 30 miles per hour, most subways and buses continued to run yesterday, Broadway theaters raised their curtains, and city schools will be open today. Airports and many commuter lines did not fare as well. To clear the 6,300 miles of city streets, the city deployed more than 2,600 truck, plows and salt spreaders and dropped more than 50,000 tons of salt. Some 2,500 sanitation workers, along with temporary laborers, shoveled, salted, plowed and carted away snow.

For more, see City Hall News.

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