Tag Archives: Mayor Bloomberg

Charter Schools Chief Tells It (sort of) Like It Is

Posted on March 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

Michael Duffy photo: the Lo-Down

In a revealing interview with NYC Department of Education charter schools head Michael Duffy, Ed Litvak of the Lower East Side news blog The Lo-Down questions Duffy about how the NYCDOE used a recent public hearing on the proposed expansion of a Lower East Side charter school. Duffy’s response won’t surprise anyone who has sat through a charter school hearing:

“It definitely provides a forum for people to speak out, and I think that’s a good thing. It helps to get good information out there… I think, for my part, in a couple of hours of comments, I didn’t hear anything new from the public that wasn’t already known prior to the start of the hearing. I know it’s important that people have a chance to speak their mind, but I don’t think there’s anything that wasn’t known to the Department prior to the proposal…” Continue reading →

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Government 101, Lesson 1: Why Can’t the Streets Be Smoother?

Posted on March 1, 2010 | 1 comment

Sometimes, the best ideas come while driving in heavy traffic. Although we don’t talk or text while behind the wheel, we do tend to obsess about city government. We also do that in other inappropriate situations.

Our latest episode happened while driving up Brooklyn’s Coney Island Avenue. Our tires kept on banging into one manhole depression after another. The 5-minute ride felt as if we were on an IED-pocked road in Afghanistan, not a major thoroughfare in America’s largest and most vibrant city. “Why can’t the city even pave the streets right?” we asked.

But, of course, we already knew the answer: Coney Island Avenue had been paved by a low-bid contractor, working under the oversight of private engineering consultants. They, in turn, had been supervised by civil servants who may have lacked the tools to impose useful sanctions if either the consultant or the contractor screwed up. Could efficiency improvements — which Mayor Bloomberg’s 2010 charter revision commission may try to implement — solve this? Continue reading →

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Posted in 2010 NYC Charter Revision, Government 101

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Charter Commission to be Named

Posted on February 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s long-awaited New York City Charter Revision Commission is expected to be named on Tuesday, February 23, 2010. According to a highly-placed source, the commission will be chaired by CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein.

Goldstein, a graduate of City College and former president of Baruch College, Adelphi University, and the Research Foundation of CUNY, was first mentioned as the leading 2010 charter chair candidate by Adam Lisberg, Daily News City Hall Bureau Chief, on February 9. Lisberg’s story cited some insiders’ concerns about Goldstein’s ability to remain free of Mayor Bloomberg’s control, while other sources dismissed this, predicting Goldstein’s independence.

As we’ve said before, a lot depends on who heads the commission’s staff as executive director. More to come after the mayor’s announcement.

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In Staten Island, Hope Stays Alive

Posted on February 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

Tom Wrobleski reports on Staten Island’s push for full representation on Mayor Bloomberg’s anticipated 2010 charter revision commission.  Wrobleski’s piece in the Advance features leaders who focus on whether Staten Island will get enough seats on the commission to ensure that it will “look at shifting some decision-making away from City Hall and giving the borough more local control, especially over land-use and traffic issues.” Continue reading →

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NY Post: Keep the Council Kosher!

Posted on February 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

We try not to miss  Queens Crap, which continues to be entertaining, timely, and informative, even though it lacks some of the anti-Bloomberg focus it had before its favored candidate for mayor, Tony Avella, lost his bid last fall.

But even this popular and populist website, which describes itself as “focused on the overdevelopment and ‘tweeding’ of the borough of Queens in the City of New York,” occasionally fails to read between the lines.  We were surprised when those lines had appeared in the pro-Bloomberg NY Post.

When a Post editorial tried to link instances of corruption by individual legislators with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s use of “pork” to keep members in line, Queens Crap asked about Quinn, “Will she really reform the council?” The Crapper seemed to forget who would benefit most if the Post got its wish and the Council suddenly went Kosher.

Eliminate “pork” and “lulus,” the extra compensation that the Speaker hands out to loyal Council members for chairing committees, and you’ll end up with a Speaker who is less able to unite her members when it comes time for the Council to say “no” to something the mayor wants to do. What would happen to overdevelopment and “tweeding” then?

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Posted in NY City Council

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Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize

Posted on February 12, 2010 | 1 comment

Several days ago, CityPragmatist observed that former Bloomberg charter revision commission chair Ester Fuchs seemed ideally positioned to play a role at this year’s charter revision commission. A day later, the Daily News floated the name of CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein as Bloomberg’s pick for 2010 chair. The next day, silive.com, the news blog of the Staten Island Advance, floated the name of Billionaire Ron Lauder as Bloomberg’s pick. Then, someone called to our attention yet another chair designation: Anthony Crowell, a Bloomberg senior counselor, reported by Edward-Isaac Dovere of City Hall News. What’s going on here? Continue reading →

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Posted in 2010 NYC Charter Revision

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Lauder May be Charter Chairman

Posted on February 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

Ronald Lauder

Judy Randall of silive.com reports that a “well-placed source” says that billionaire businessman Ronald Lauder will be named as the chair of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s 2010 charter revision commission.

Lauder was the principal sponsor of the NYC term limits law rescinded by the City Council before Mayor Bloomberg’s successful run for a third term last fall.

A Bloomberg spokesman told silive.com that a public announcement will be made “soon.”

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Bloomberg’s Wealth and Charter Revision

Posted on February 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

Adam Lisberg, Daily News City Hall Bureau Chief, reports that Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor of CUNY, could be Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s choice as chair of a 2010 charter revision commission. To us, the real meat of the DN story isn’t who might head the commission, it’s how the charter process could be affected by Michael Bloomberg’s personal wealth. Lisberg goes there in his last paragraph, where he comments on Bloomberg’s failed 2003 charter attempt to institute non-partisan elections:

In 2003…, Bloomberg spent $7 million of his own money – and $462,000 in city funds – on the nonpartisan election push. Voters rejected the plan 70% to 30%, which Bloomberg still fumes about.

Those of us who tried to influence the 1989 charter revision process remember how hard it was to counter the public relations juggernaut driven by the commission’s professional staff, which was headed by Hofstra University law professor Eric Lane. Continue reading →

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Fuchs: Charter Proposals Not Likely This Year

Posted on February 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

Ester Fuchs

At Tuesday evening’s charter revision forum at Baruch College, panelist Ester Fuchs, chair of Mayor Bloomberg’s 2005 charter revision commission, responded to a question from moderator Doug Muzzio about the timing of proposals to be advanced by a 2010 commission. When would such a commission’s work product go before the voters? “I think it’s going to be over a year…” Fuchs answered. “I don’t think it’s going to be on the ballot this September.”

Fuchs’ projection was not contested by the other panelists at the forum co-sponsored by Citizens Union, possibly because she had suggested inside knowledge earlier in the session. Although the mayor has not yet named the members of this year’s commission, Fuchs, who recently accepted a fellowship at the Partnership for New York City, is expected to play a role.

A long timetable for this year’s charter revision commission would be consistent with the “top to bottom” restructuring considered probable by the Baruch panelists, who included Stephen Fiala, a member of the 2005 commission, Eric Lane, executive director of the landmark 1989 charter revision commission, and William C. Thompson, the former NYC Comptroller who ran unsuccessfully against Michael Bloomberg for mayor in 2009.

We recently speculated about some of the tactics a 2010 commission could use to manipulate voters’ response to its charter proposals. Nothing we heard from Tuesday’s panelists leads us to believe our speculation was baseless.

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Does Big Business Understand that NYC Has Five Boroughs?

Posted on February 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

Ester R. Fuchs

Many New Yorkers, including the folks at the Center for an Urban Future, believe that the city’s economy must diversify geographically and industrially for its middle class —and the city — to survive. Whether this happens will depend on whether local political power reflects a five-borough perspective. The current relationship between the mayor and the City Council does not suggest that this will occur soon; nor does a recent move by Professor Ester R. Fuchs to the Partnership for New York City. Continue reading →

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Posted in 2010 NYC Charter Revision, The Mayor, The Middle Class

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