Category: Linked

WNYC says that Lander is leading Skaller, 41% to 25%, with over 75% of precincts reporting. Congratulations, Brad.

The purpose of having elected officials, as opposed to a self-perpetuating oligarchy like China, ought to be to enhance accountability.

Yglesias starts off well, but his suggestion that we dispatch with borough-level elected positions and rely instead on a unicameral state legislature would be a disaster for NYC.

Can’t embed the audio, so you’ll have to wander over to TMZ. It’s worth a trip, though – a very funny interview.

Is there a newspaper or blog in the country that has not written an article on Greenpoint’s rooftop farm? Here, the Detroit News weighs in (and by extension, so do I).

Actually, a lot of these aren’t so last minute, but it is a nice quick recap of the state of the field.

Sadly, based on the new store design for Duane Reade, so we won’t get that instant grime and disorder that has characterized DR for decades. On the plus side, King’s might lower their prices to something near MSRP.

AYR supports (“gingerly”) Jo Anne Simon. Part of the calculus is Evan Thies’ role – or lack thereof – in Broadway Triangle. As Norman puts it:

Could Thies have stopped the Broadway Triangle project from going forward, as Simon’s latest mailer suggests? No, but his departure from Community Board 1 before the vote was not his best moment…

UPDATE: Realreformbrooklyn took Simon to task for her campaign literature making essentially this same accusation.

Since I was there, I can shed some more light on all of this.

As Norman says, Evan’s vote on Broadway Triangle wouldn’t have made a whit of a difference – the vote was 23 in favor, 12 opposed and 1 abstention. Evan was clearly on the record opposing Broadway Triangle (as he said to me, the process was the biggest problem – “shockingly exclusionary” – and he wanted to see more bulk in the zoning*).

As for his resignation, Evan told me in April or May that he would be resigning from CB1 in order to focus on the campaign (and in particular the petitioning) long before Broadway Triangle hit the Community Board’s schedule. I don’t know when Evan actually resigned, but I do know that the certification of Broadway Triangle happened very quickly. (Recall that at its May meeting, CB1 voted not to meet in July or August because there was nothing on the land use agenda – it wasn’t until the end of May that Broadway Triangle was certified, upending our summer vacation plans.)

For the record.

[* Which is where Evan and I part company – I voted for the Broadway Triangle rezoning because it was the right density. But Evan and I agree on the process.]

On every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush’s two terms. While Bush was in office, the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health insurance spiked. By contrast, the country’s condition improved on each of those measures during Bill Clinton’s two terms, often substantially.

We’re poorer, our kids are poorer and we are all less likely to have health coverage. Bush inherited a $236 billion dollar surplus and left us with a $1.3 trillion dollar deficit. Along the way, he saddled us with a $1.35 trillion dollar tax cut (among others) and a $694 billion dollar war (more expensive that Vietnam, it turns out). Oh, and the stock market lost 22% under Bush’s economic policies.

Heckuva fiscal responsibility, Georgie.

[As] someone who happened to be in New York City eight years ago today, the implicit premise of the 9-12 Project — that those who aren’t on Beck’s side must have somehow “forgotten” 9/11 and its aftermath — ticks me off royally and personally.

I was at home in Brooklyn, holding my six-week-old baby on the couch, when I saw the second plane crash into the World Trade Center on TV. I watched the smoking pit of the ruins from the roof of my apartment building as bits of memo paper and ash drifted on the winds to my neighborhood. I was there on 9/11, and 9/12, and 9/13. You’ll excuse me if I don’t feel warm nostalgia for the lingering smell of burnt airplane fuel, and metal, and bodies.

Right on.

Nine-year-old Jacob Ganzfried died today after being hit by a car at Bedford and Wallabout. The driver who hit him had a suspended license for failing to have insurance.