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


Week of 5 November 2001:

Labor Day
Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg met yesterday with the leaders of two of the city's most powerful municipal unions, Randi Weingarten of the United Federation of Teachers and Lee Saunders of District Council 37. He intended the meetings as a signal that the city's 250,000 employees "can expect to have a mayor who fundamentally is their champion," Bloomberg said, but he made no promises to increase salaries. One of his first acts in office will probably be to negotiate with the unions representing the 80,000 public schoolteachers, 28,000 police officers and 9,000 firefighters, all of whose contracts expired last year. Most unions endorsed his rival. Bloomberg LP, the media company Bloomberg founded, is not unionized.

Bloomberg, who has promised to collect a mayoral salary of only a dollar a year and not to move into Gracie Mansion, said it would be unethical to use his personal fortune, estimated at more than $4 billion, to finance employee perks or fill any budget gap. But he has not said whether he would attempt to keep his 72 percent stake in his company, which might violate the city's rules on ethics and conflict of interest.

And Now, the Bloomberg Years
Michael Bloomberg spent the day after his upset victory in the mayoral race touring the city. He breakfasted with Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, whose rift with Democratic mayoral candidate Mark Green helped Bloomberg win, and gave some hints of how his administration might take shape. Although support from Mayor Giuliani played a key role in the Bloomberg victory, Bloomberg yesterday indicated he would form his own team. While the mayor-elect said he would like Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to stay on, he would not necessarily ask the mayor himself to serve on the new commission to develop downtown.

With no new administration to plan, Democrats, who lost the mayoralty for the third straight time, spent the day pondering how Green managed to lose in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. Green aides faulted Ferrer supporters for not rallying around the Green campaign. Ferrer backers, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, said Green had no one but himself to blame for what they charged were his divisive tactics during the runoff campaign and failure to reach out to Latino voters in the city. Party officials publicly worried whether the racial rift could be healed in time for the 2002 gubernatorial campaign.

It's Bloomberg And A New Government
Michael Bloomberg was elected the 108th mayor of New York City marking the first time in history that two Republicans have been elected consecutively. Bloomberg declared victory at 12:56 a.m. "New York is alive and well and open for business!" said Bloomberg. "We are clearly going to have enormous problems, but I know we are up to the task. We can do it." Public Advocate and Democratic candidate Mark Green conceded at 12:25 a.m., noting that his opponent spent more than $50 million of his own money in the campaign. "When a campaign adviser last month told me that no candidate in America had ever won an election being outspent by $45 million, I thought we'd beat the odds," said Green. "We did good. Michael Bloomberg did a lot better, and I congratulate him and we all should."

Running with little opposition, Betsy Gotbaum easily took the position of Public Advocate and William Thompson won for Comptroller. The election also brought four new borough presidents: the narrowest margin occurred in Staten Island as Republican James Molinaro defeated Democrat James O'Donovan. According to preliminary results, 38 new City Council members were also elected, the biggest change since the City Charter revision added 16 seats in 1991. Republicans appear to have lost two of their six seats. Voters also approved all five of the City Charter revision proposals on the ballot and passed a proposal to make the language of the State Constitution gender-neutral. For full results as they become available as well as Michael Bloomberg's plan for the city, go to Searchlight On Campaign 2001.

Election Today
The polls opened at 6 a.m. and will close promptly at 9 p.m. If you do not know your polling site, you can find out by calling the Board of Elections at (212) VOTE-NYC (212-868-3692). Voters should be aware that you are likely to have trouble getting through to the Board of Elections during peak hours. You can also call the immigration voter help line hotline at 800-566-7636.

If a voter has a complaint with an Election Day worker, you should write down the worker's name and the poll site. Each worker is required to wear a nametag. This year, there are other places to complain. You can contact the voting hotline sponsored by the New York Public Interest Research Group and Common Cause at (212) 772-4463, who will take up your complaint with the top management of the Board of Elections in hopes of finding a solution. You can also call the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund at 212-966-5932.

For more tips, see "What To Do This Election Day" on Gotham Gazette's Searchlight on Campaign 2001. Go to the Campaign Trail of Searchlight to see which newspapers have endorsed which candidates.

Rebuilding
The Empire State Development Corporation, which Governor George Pataki controls, yesterday officially created the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation, according to the Daily News. The new corporation is a public authority to rebuild Manhattan below Houston Street and distribute much of the federal aid. In the Land Use Topic Page on Gotham Gazette, Tom Angotti argues this solution may cause more problems than it solves, and offers three alternatives.

Rebuilding
Governor George Pataki announced that he would create an agency to rebuild Manhattan south of Houston Street, entitled the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation. The governor revealed few details about how it would function or what its powers would be, but he did say it would have a nine-member board, six named by the governor and three by the mayor. The unpaid board members are expected to be named this week. Aides to Pataki said that Rudy Giuliani would probably be appointed to head the corporation, and Giuliani reportedly "hinted" he would agree to serve. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver criticized the governor for not allowing the newly elected mayor, whoever he is, to name the three mayoral appointments. The Finest vs. The Bravest
When firefighters fought police on Friday at the site of the World Trade Center, it was just the latest in a history of antagonisms between the two departments, as Julia Vitullo-Martin reports in her Crime and Justice column on Gotham Gazette. The Games
It was among the most exciting series in memory, but the Yankees lost. Tesfaye Jifar of Ethiopia and Margaret Okayo of Kenya were the winners of the New York City Marathon. Both set course records.

Last week's stories...


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