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


Week of 1 October 2001:

$105 Billion
City Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi estimated that the World Trade Center disaster will cost New Yorkers as much as $105 billion over the next two years, and result in the loss of as many as 115,300 jobs this fiscal year. "We were going into rough times, and they're just going to get a lot rougher," said Hevesi, who outlined the estimated losses -- from loss of property and loss of productive lives, lost tax revenue, clean-up costs, etc. -- in a 34-page report (available online as a pdf file). These losses will be partially offset, the report says, by insurance and by the federal promise of $20 billion in bail-out money.

Primary Results
The Board of Elections yesterday released the "certified unofficial tallies" for the remaining races in the September 25 primary. One race was decided by some 100 votes. A few others are going to be challenged in court. For results, and some details, go to Searchlight on Campaign 2001. One on One
On the day that Mayor Giuliani abandoned his bid for a third term, the two remaining Democrats who want to succeed him confronted each other in a 90-minute debate. Much of the exchange between Mark Green and Fernando Ferrer focused on how they would rebuild New York and confront the various other challenges facing the city after the World Trade Center attack.

The sharpest words, however, came when Green charged that Ferrer was being divisive by promising to be the mayor for the "other New York." "Do you still think it is two cities, Freddy?" Green demanded. He noted that former Mayor Edward Koch and defeated mayoral candidate Peter Vallone, both of whom have endorsed Ferrer, have accused the Bronx borough president of running a divisive campaign. Ferrer responded that he was speaking on behalf of New Yorkers who had been left behind over the past eight years. "You don't elevate yourself by denigrating the issues I've raised, or me," he said.

Both Green and Ferrer are vying for the support of white New Yorkers who voted for Vallone and Comptroller Alan Hevesi in the September 25 primary. The runoff election is a week from today, on October 11.

City Budget Staggers
Some of the promises made during the mayoral campaign, like plans for new housing and smaller class sizes, may have to be amended, according to some financial analysts. The attack on the World Trade Center has doubled the projected budget gap to roughly $4 billion, forcing Mayor Giuliani to order city agencies to curtail spending. Some of the expenses in the cleanup, like the $3 billion in police and firefighter overtime and $5 billion for the removal of debris, will likely be covered by federal aid, but the decline in revenue from a drop in tourism and loss of business will cut into the next city budget. Today, Mayor Giuliani will meet with President George W. Bush to talk about the financial needs of the city, and the Democratic candidates for mayor will present their plans for the future in a debate at 8 p.m.

The Board of Elections released certified results in several primary races that had been too close to call. Norman Siegel will face Betsy Gotbaum in the runoff election for Public Advocate. In the City Council contests, Alan Gerson (Lower Manhattan), Phil Reed (East Harlem), and Miguel Martinez (Washington Heights) won the Democratic nominations. More primary results will be released today. The Gotham Gazette election results will be updated as the information is made available.

United Nations
Rudolph Giuliani became the first mayor of New York City to address the General Assembly of the United Nations since 1952, and was the first of some 145 scheduled speakers in a U.N. debate on terrorism, planned long before the events of September 11th.

"This is not a time for further study or vague directives. The evidence of terrorism's brutality and inhumanity, of its contempt for life and the concept of peace, is lying beneath the rubble of the World Trade Center less than two miles from where we meet today." the mayor said in his speech (see transcript) "You're either with civilization or with terrorists.

"Let those who say that we must understand the reasons for terrorism come with me to the thousands of funerals we're having in New York City - thousands - and explain those insane, maniacal reasons to the children who will grow up without fathers and mothers .

"On this issue - terrorism - the United Nations must draw a line. The era of moral relativism between those who practice or condone terrorism, and those nations who stand up against it, must end.

"I say to people across the country and around the world, if you were planning to come to New York sometime in the future, come here now. Come to enjoy our thousands of restaurants and museums and sporting events and shopping and Broadway. But also come to take a stand against terrorism.

"New Yorkers are strong and they are resilient. We are unified and we will not yield to terror. We do not let fear make our decisions for us. We choose to live in freedom."

20 Days Later
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will address the United Nations General Assembly today just before delegates from 189 member countries begin a debate on international terrorism.

To help the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and their families, private charities have raised more than $675 million and Congress has created a fund that could cost taxpayers as much as $15 billion. But the fund, which could pay out a million dollars to each family, has come under criticism, according to the Times http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/01/nyregion/01FUND.html . Victims of past attacks (such as the Oklahoma City bombing) object to being excluded, and others question the way the fund will be administered, and its lack of coordination with private relief work.

To help fund the city's rebuilding, the mayor yesterday urged everybody to buy new city savings bonds, called "New York City recovery notes." The city 's Transitional Finance Authority will issue an initial billion dollars worth of the bonds starting tomorrow.

The New York Fire Department is reevaluating its policy of fighting every fire, in the wake of its heavy losses after the attack on the World Trade Center as well as the threat of future terrorist actions. "I doubt we will run into a building if we know it is going to go," one 20-year veteran said. So many city firefighters are dead or missing - 343, or one out of every 33 members of the force - that the department has had to accept retirees back into its ranks and speed up its hiring procedures, including the scrapping of some entry requirements.

Meanwhile, as N.R. Kleinfield writes in the Times, the smell from the burning wreckage is still strong downtown, and occasionally in other parts of the city.

Last week's stories...


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