This Week's Stories
GG's quick takes on recent NYC news


Week of 21 May 2001:

The Vieques 4
When the four New York politicians traveled to the Puerto Rican island of Vieques on May 1 to participate in the latest series of protests against the Navy bombing there, they expected to be arrested, and they were, for trespassing. What they did not expect was that the federal judge, instead of fining them, would send them to jail.

Judge Jose Antonio Fuste in San Juan on Wednesday sentenced the Rev. Al Sharpton to 90 days in jail, and gave 40 days to Bronx Democratic Organization boss Roberto Ramirez, Assemblyman José Rivera and City Councilman Adolfo Carrión Jr., a candidate for Bronx borough president.

Yesterday, the governors both of New York and Puerto Rico said that the sentences were excessive. The United States Justice Department, after appeals from local U.S. congressmen Charles Rangel and Jose Serrano, agreed that all four could serve their sentences in New York. If the sentences are not reversed or reduced on appeal, Serrano said he would ask President Bush to pardon the four.

The Naval 6,000
Whether or not this is an ironic coincidence, some 6,000 sailors, soldiers and marines are coming to New York for Fleet Week, an event dating back at least to 1893 and intended to celebrate the naval services.

Democrats
With Senator James Jeffords from Vermont having announced yesterday that he will leave the Republican Party, the Democrats are now the majority party in the United States Senate. This may have a positive impact on New York, according to a report in The Crain's Insider, because Democratic Senator Charles Schumer from New York is now in line to chair two subcommittees, of the Banking Committee and the Judiciary Committee respectively. The other U.S. Senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton, though just a freshman, has a shot at chairing a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

The Aging Apple
A bubbling water bomb under Manhattan could enable the city to test new technologies that may lead to fewer trenches disrupting city life. The trouble spot is the decrepit water main beneath the west side of Fifth Avenue, which is too old to live with and too vital to live without.

The New York Observer reports that officials want to resuscitate a defunct section of the Madison Avenue water main to provide the added flow while the Fifth Avenue main goes on the disabled list. But the Madison Avenue pipe is in worse shape than its neighbor, and no one wants to tear up Madison. Doug Greeley of the Department of Environmental Protection envisions inserting a new lining in the pipe using the trenchless technologies popular abroad. These require the digging of access pits rather than huge yawning trenches. A contract to clean and test the Madison main could be put out this summer.

In other infrastructure news, the new $1.4 billion Terminal 4 opens today at Kennedy Airport, replacing the old International Arrivals Building, which is being demolished. The Times reports that arriving passengers will be greeted by three large and intriguing art installations, including "New York Streets" by Deborah Masters, a 100-yard long series of panels depicting life in the city's neighborhoods.

In Poor Health
Twenty-seven community health clinics located primarily in low-income neighborhoods may close unless more money can be found in the city budget. Yesterday, the Health and Hospitals Corporation told the City Council that it expects a $313 million deficit in its budget in part because of the cost of treating an increasing number of uninsured patients. City Councilmembers questioned the priorities in the budget proposed by the Mayor. "We wake up everyday to a story of a clinic closing, and at the same time we hear of a new extension being built in the Guggenheim," said East Harlem Councilmember Phil Reed. In the end, the state must approve the closure of the health clinics.

Nod Of the Bosses
This week, the Queens political machine gave its formal endorsements for mayor, borough president, public advocate, comptroller and members of the City Council - all in two minutes, thirty seconds. What lasting impact will these endorsements have on the races? Bob Liff explains in a Gotham Gazette feature.

Changes
Newly released statistics from the 2000 census show many changes in who lives in the city and how, with the biggest increase in the size of the average household in half a century. The percentage of New Yorkers living alone declined slightly, to just under 32 percent. The average household size in the city rose to 2.59 people per household, a figure close to the national average.

Much of this increase had to do with crowded immigrant households. The number of Asians and Latinos has sharply risen in the city, but the number of Puerto Ricans specifically has fallen. With a population of 789,172, New York's Puerto Rican community is at its smallest since the 1960s, comprising only about 37 percent of the city's Latinos. The number of Mexicans has tripled to about 180,000, making them the third largest group of Latinos (after Puerto Ricans and Dominicans). Nearly 800,000 New Yorkers, one in 10, are now Asian, a growth of 54 percent in the last ten years. The Indian population in Queens, for example, nearly doubled, to 109,114.

New Times Head
Howell Raines, currently editor of the editorial page, will succeed Joseph Lelyveld as executive editor of the New York Times, who will step down in September, seven months ahead of The Times's mandatory retirement age for top executives.

Gracie Mansion, Monday's Episode
In continuing events in the divorce case officially known as Anonymous v. Anonymous, a judge has barred the mayor's good friend Judith Nathan from Gracie Mansion, saying it serves no "public or governmental interest" to allow her to be there. The judge also ruled that Nathan's presence is not in the best interest of the two children of the mayor and his estranged wife. Later that day, the mayor's 91-year-old mother was rushed to the hospital for an undisclosed ailment. Both the mayor and his wife went to the hospital to visit. The mayor angrily asked his wife to leave. His wife refused.

JFK Makeover
A $1.4 billion replacement for the International Arrivals Building at the John F. Kennedy Airport is scheduled to have its grand opening this week, with artwork (including 28 large bas-reliefs depicting scenes of New York), 144 check-in lines, and a shopping mall four blocks long.

Endorsement Season
Labor unions, political clubs, county party organizations and politically engaged individuals have been making their endorsements for mayor and for members of the City Council, in a process that is heating up this week. (See Searchlight on Campaign 2001 for some details).

Failing Tests
In the second of two articles, the Times looks at the fall-out from the error in a standardized test that hit New York City the hardest. It sent about 9,000 students to summer school who did not belong there, and worse, because the test results showed (incorrectly) that reading scores had not risen in the city, it was a factor in the departure of then Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew. "Before the mistake was discovered, Dr. Crew had been a leading advocate for using standardized tests to hold students and educators accountable," Jacques Steinberg and Diana B. Henriques report. "But now, as Congress is poised to vote on a presidential proposal that would sharply increase the nation's reliance on standardized testing, Dr. Crew says he has been chastened by his personal experience with the testing industry. 'The answer is not to use test scores as the sole source of information about a student's performance,' he said. 'These are human errors. They're going to happen again.'"

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