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This Week's Stories GG's quick takes on recent NYC news |
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Week of 1 October 2001:
$105 Billion Primary Results 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 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 "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 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. |
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