Week of 11 October 1999:
Franklin Avenue Shuttle...
The Franklin Avenue Shuttle was re-opened by the MTA this week, well
ahead of schedule. The line in the heart of Brooklyn connects the A/C at
Franklin Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant with the D/Q at Prospect Park. The
renovation of the shuttle is pertinent to current discussions about the
2000 - 2004 MTA Capital Plan because it is a direct result of a
political intervention into the last MTA Capital Plan. Five years ago
the NYS Assembly imposed on an unexcited MTA an $80 million commitment
to fix the deteriorated line. Many of the only-locals-know-about-this
ridership were skeptical that the service would ever re-open, but the
MTA came through handsomely
Brooklyn Navy Yard...
The facility that produced more ship tonnage in 1942 - 1945 than the
entire Third Reich is definitely going Hollywood. Yesterday the Mayor
announced that the City had come to terms with the New Jersey-based
Steiner Corporation on a 70-year lease of the Brooklyn Navy Yard to
convert the site to film and television production. The Steiner group
includes Louis Madigan and Cary Hart, local media entrepreneurs who had
made the first bid on the facility and who were threatening to sue the
City if they were passed over. New plans call for 11 sound stages
costing $90 million to $120 million. The Mayor said that the financing
for the Steiner bid was considerably stronger than the package put
together by the high-profile team of Robert De Niro and Harvey and Bob
Weinstein of Miramax Films. The losers complained ("The mayor told us we
had a deal"), amidst talk of mayoral bias against the Hillary-tainted
Weinsteins, but on paper, at least, the Steiners seemed to have been
willing to put down more and ask for less.
Charter Revision Non-Story...
For the second day in a row, the Times gives prominent coverage to a
story big among good-government groups, near-invisible for everyone
else. Yesterday it was Jonathan Hicks writing on the great game of
political musical chairs occasioned by the term limits imposed on Mayor,
Comptroller, Public Advocate, borough presidents, and City Council
members. Political consultants report booming trade in prospective
candidacies for the 35 non-incumbent-held Council seats to be decided in
2001 and for the many offices on which soon-to-be-unemployed current
Council members cast a covetous eye. Today's civics story is filed by
Elisabeth Bumiller, who reports that nothing much is happening on the
once-heated issue of charter revision since the Mastro Commission
decided to remove Mark Green from its line of fire. The question on the
ballot on 2 November will include a proposal to hold a special election
60 days after a late-in-the-term mayoral resignation, but not to take
effect until 2002. As a result, it appears that some unsuspectedly
important proposed constitutional changes regarding fiscal policy powers
will go to the voters virtually undebated. In hardball terms, it may
come down to a contest between union leaders' determination to turn out
the troops in an off-year election versus City Hall's promised
eleventh-hour "public education campaign." [What-Are-We-Chopped-Liver?
Department: Venerable government watchdog Citizens Union has turned out
extensive studies and summaries and internet features on both term
limits and charter revision. Neither Times story mentions any of them.
Hicks spurns hometown wisdom and finds his only cited expert on term
limits from the faculty at Rice University in Houston. We're not
bitter!]
Schuyler Chapin Awaits Word...
According to this morning's Daily News, Mayor Giuliani says that the continued tenure of Cultural
Commissioner Schuyler Chapin is "under review." Last week Chapin, reportedly in consultation with City Hall,broke his previous silence on the Brooklyn Museum controversy with a letter to the Mayor gently disagreeing with the withholding of the museum's $495,000 monthly check. Chapin took pains to salute the Mayor's generosity in arts funding, but noted that the City check was intended to provide operating support for the building and care for the permanent collection. The Mayor said that Chapin was "entitled to his opinion, but I think he's wrong." The exhibit in question, he said, was "perverted and disgusting... People who believe they're intellectuals can't make sensible distinctions of taste and morals any longer." Chapin said yesterday that he had
not been contacted by any official since submitting his letter.
School Funding Litigation...
Opening statements will be made tomorrow in Manhattan Supreme Court in
the case of Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York. The stakes
are significant. According to the Educational Priorities Panel, an
umbrella organization of public school advocacy groups, CFE will charge
that the current NYS distribution of aid-to-education dollars violates
the rights of NYC children to receive the constitutionally-required
"sound basic education." CFE attorneys will cite evidence that the
average NYS district spends $9,321 per pupil while NYC spends only
$8,171. Metro suburban districts average about $12,600. The discrepency
is exacerbated by special needs of NYC students, CFE will claim.
Attorney General Spitzer will defend vigorously, and has enlisted an
Atlanta law firm experienced in school funding cases as co-counsel.
Should CFE prevail in the end (an appeal by whomever loses is
near-certain), NYS might be compelled to adopt a Vermont-style policy
mandating more-or-less-equal spending per child.
Last week's stories...
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