Angry New Yorker |
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Semi-Daily Rants from New York City's Angry Man
"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly."
- Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, Life of Johnson, Sept. 1783
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Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Angry New Yorker is taking some time off to mellow, reflect and catch up on the year's happenings. We'll be back at 12:01 a.m. on January 1st. Maybe. ;-) Friday, December 19, 2003
Glad that's over... Well, my last law final was wrapped up last night, which means I can get, for the time being, back to being New York City's Angry Man. I've been a bit out of the loop as of late. Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Simply amazing... Is it just me, or is Leslie Stahl of CBS News without any sense of objectivity? Her interview with Donald Rumsfeld [available here]about the capture of Saddam Hussein was simply flabbergasting. Rumsfeld, to his continued credit, did not rise to Stahl's many cheap-shot questions, disguised as "tough reporting." Rumsfeld was a class act, particularly in his response to the torture question. Give it a rest, Ms. Stahl. Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Nation's Safest Big City? Once Again, It's New York By SHAILA K. DEWAN For the second year running, New York is "the undisputed safest large city in the nation," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said happily yesterday at a news conference where he and his police commissioner released federal figures showing that the city has continued to push crime down more aggressively than most major cities. New York has the lowest overall crime rate among cities with more than one million people, according to their presentation of the preliminary Uniform Crime Report compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the first half of the year. Crime dropped 7.4 percent in New York City, the statistics show, compared with 3.1 percent in the nation as a whole, and 4.4 percent in cities with a population greater than a million. The murder rate was up slightly in New York, as it was nationwide, but the city's rate was still far below its peak in 1990. The city's crime index, a figure adjusted for population, is on par with much smaller cities, like Ann Arbor, Mich., and ranks 194th out of 200 cities with more than 100,000 residents, making it one of the safest. Complete article here. Sunday, December 14, 2003
Excellent news!! "We got him." Article here. Saddam Hussein is finally captured. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Osama. Of course, the New York Times can't hide it's own conflicted nature, and can't resist noting that "U.S. Sees More Attacks Despite Hussein's Capture." Friday, December 12, 2003
Goldman's Unmitigated Gall Ed. note - If Goldman gets one red cent from New York, there'd better be hell to pay. Goldman Asks for Grants for Downtown New York Times. Article here. By CHARLES V. BAGLI Three years ago, Goldman Sachs decided to build the tallest and most expensive skyscraper in Jersey City — a development that left New York officials fuming over the snub. That 42-story, $1.3 billion tower is now nearing completion, but the investment bank is having trouble finding anyone to move into it. Faced with an unpopular new building across the Hudson, Goldman Sachs emerged suddenly last week with a new plan: to build a 1.5-million-square-foot tower in Lower Manhattan, directly across from ground zero. And as it did in New Jersey, Goldman Sachs is seeking subsidies to build in New York, where its headquarters have long been located. The investment bank has spurned suggestions that it move into 7 World Trade Center, the tower Larry Silverstein is building, or the so-called Freedom Tower, the 70-story building that is to be the centerpiece at ground zero. Neither of the buildings, which will have a total of 4.3 million square feet of office space, has a tenant. Instead Henry M. Paulson, the firm's chairman, has told the governor and the mayor that Goldman wants its own tower, on what is known as Site 26 at Battery Park City, and wants some of the same cash grants, tax breaks and tax-free financing that are available downtown right now, according to state and city officials who are working with the bank. "It's heartening that Goldman has decided to build in Lower Manhattan," said Harvey Robins, a mayoral aide to Edward I. Koch and David N. Dinkins. "But in terms of their planning, Jersey has turned into one big folly. Goldman squeezed Jersey for tax breaks and now they're not missing a beat in looking for subsidies on this side of the river." Goldman itself declined to discuss its plans in New York. "We're exploring a number of options," said Bruce Corwin, a spokesman for the bank, "but we're committed to remaining in downtown Manhattan." State and city officials and downtown executives have embraced Goldman's proposal, although negotiations are expected to go on for some time. "I'm thrilled Goldman is committed to building a new headquarters downtown," said Carl Weisbrod, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York. "It's not only directly important in terms of Goldman's prestige and number of employees, but it's also a signal to others to consider building on the World Trade Center site and elsewhere in Lower Manhattan." But even those who welcomed Goldman's initiative also marveled at the bank's "hubris." Goldman bought the land in 1999 for the tower in Jersey City — one of three development parcels it acquired at the site of the old Colgate toothpaste factory — at a time when Wall Street was booming and the bank had doubled the size of its work force and its real estate holdings in Lower Manhattan. There was talk of building a trading floor and creating a training center. Good building sites were unavailable downtown, Goldman executives said at the time in explaining their decision to jump across the Hudson River. What was also available in New Jersey was more than $160 million in tax breaks over 10 years. Early in 2002, the company told employees that it would move equity sales and trading operations, as well as researchers and data departments, to its 875-foot tower under construction in Jersey City. That set off an insurrection by traders who did not want to be cast off to New Jersey, according to banking and real estate executives. At the same time, a downturn in the economy prompted Goldman to scrap plans for a second building in Jersey City and to cut 13 percent of its work force. The bank currently leases a total of about four million square feet in nine buildings in Lower Manhattan, although not all of it is occupied. It recently negotiated a deal to pay the landlord at 10 Hanover Square near Wall Street $40 million to cancel its lease next September, according to real estate executives who were briefed on the talks. And last summer, with the cost of its new tower mounting, Goldman tried to lease it to Mellon Financial Services. Instead, real estate brokers say, Mellon appears close to leasing a different office tower in Jersey City that UBS is no longer moving into. Mr. Corwin of Goldman Sachs said the bank now planned to move "a few thousand" employees into the Jersey tower, a building that could accommodate more than 6,000 workers, beginning in April. Brokers say that at least for now, the bank will occupy only about a quarter of the tower, although one Goldman banker said that half the building would be in use by next fall. "Goldman's intention is to occupy about 350,000 square feet and mothball the rest," said a top real estate executive in New York who deals with the investment bank. But that has not stopped Goldman from thinking about consolidating its operations in Lower Manhattan, where it is spread across nine buildings. Given the tax incentives available for rebuilding downtown and the tax-free Liberty Bonds available for new construction, the bank focused on a new headquarters at Site 26, at the north end of the World Financial Center. The parcel offers an unobstructed view of its Jersey City tower one mile to the west, which the company hopes will convince employees consigned to New Jersey that they are still in the mix as Goldman consolidates its operations into a tower on each side of the river over the next five years. "They're having difficulty getting people to go to Jersey City," said one developer who has talked to Goldman. "If they get Site 26, they could run their own private ferry between the buildings." -30- Why Bush is being endorsed by AngryNYker.com in 2004 Bush lays it for the French, Germans, Russians and others directly, simply and with no beating around the, ahem, bush ... can you imagine Dean ever saying the following? "Let me make sure everybody understands that men and women from our country, who proudly wear our uniform, risked their life to free Iraq. Men and women from other countries, in a broad coalition, risked their lives to free Iraq. And the expenditure of U.S. dollars will reflect the fact that U.S. troops and other troops risked their life. * * * Q Sir, Chancellor Schroeder says international law must apply in this case. What's you're understanding of the law? THE PRESIDENT: International law? I better call my lawyer; he didn't bring that up to me. I asked President Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder and President Putin to see Jim Baker, to talk about debt restructuring. If these countries want to participate in helping the world become more secure by enabling Iraq to emerge as a free and peaceful country, one way to contribute is through debt restructuring. And so Jim Baker, with the consent of the Secretary of State, is going to go over and talk to these leaders about that. But I don't know what you're talking about, about international law. I've got to consult my lawyer. * * * What I'm saying is, in the expenditure of taxpayer's money -- and that's what we're talking about now -- the U.S. people, the taxpayers understand why it makes sense for countries that risk lives to participate in the contracts in Iraq. It's very simple. Our people risk their lives. Coalition -- friendly coalition folks risk their lives, and, therefore, the contracting is going to reflect that. And that's what the U.S. taxpayers expect." -- From Remarks by the President After Meeting with the Cabinet, President Discusses Year-End Accomplishments in Cabinet Meeting. Full comments here. Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Even more money... Today's N.Y. Times reports that "[d]espite a successful campaign by the Bloomberg administration to cut the number of overtime hours worked by city employees, overtime spending continues to rise, an analysis of budget figures shows." Even though overtime hours worked "the 4 percent drop in hours translated into a 3 percent increase in overtime spending — or $10.6 million more — by the Police Department in the fiscal year that ended in June." Full story here. Fer crying' out loud! As a taxpayer it galls me that we'll be paying Mr. Sharpton $200,000. At least, however, all the people Sharpton's stiffed in the past can run to the court to file liens before the funds disappear into Sharpton's financial sinkhole. From NY1.com: Sharpton Settles Negligence Suit Against NYPD For 1991 Brooklyn Stabbing DECEMBER 08TH, 2003 The Reverend Al Sharpton announced Monday he has settled a lawsuit he filed against the NYPD for not preventing his stabbing in Brooklyn almost 13 years ago. Under the terms of the settlement, the city has agreed to pay Sharpton $200,000 in damages, plus another $7,000 for hospital bills stemming from his stabbing in Bensonhurst in 1991. Sharpton was stabbed by Michael Riccardi as he and a group of protestors prepared to march through the neighborhood. The protest was staged to mark the second anniversary of the death of Yusuf Hawkins, who was murdered in the neighborhood by a group of white teenagers in 1989. Sharpton’s lawsuit charged the NYPD with negligence for allowing his attacker to break through a so-called police "safety zone," after demonstrators had been promised protection. Sharpton’s attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, released a statement from the reverend that reads: "I agreed to settle this case because the city finally agreed to pay the hospital bills of Coney Island Hospital and to reimburse my loss of income as a result of my inability to work after the stabbing and pay a fair amount of damages for the injuries I suffered.” The city released a statement saying it believed the police acted appropriately, but "could not predict how a jury might rule, and therefore believed that settlement was the best resolution for all parties involved. It did not admit any fault by the NYPD or any liability." Sunday, December 07, 2003
Our senator, Hillary Clinton, on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. I can’t imagine that anything pleases Hillary Clinton. Right up front, full disclosure: I didn’t vote for Hillary. I would never vote for her and I hope the citizens of New York boot her out of office at the first opportunity. This said, her performance this morning on This Week with George Stephanopoulos highlights just why she infuriates those on the right, and, frankly, should infuriate all clear thinking New Yorkers. If you are heading up, she argues the international community prefers down; if you achieve A, she questions why wasn’t B selected; if asked directly what she believes regarding C she responds with a definition of D. She’s appears truly to be congenitally incapable of answering a question directly. For example, in direct response to George Will’s question “just who’s less free because of the Patriot Act?” she pulls a classic Hillary in responding by raising the issue of detainees at Guantanamo -- which, surprise, surprise, have nothing to do with the Patriot Act. Then, she, repeatedly, on both This Week and subsequently on Meet the Press, declaims that the U.S. doesn't have a deep enough reserve of the proper troop mix to increase our boots on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Excuse me, Mrs. Clinton, wasn’t your husband the commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces, and therefore responsible for total troop levels, for eight years before 2000? But her implication is it's the Bush administration’s fault. And when Tim Russert repeatedly asks Mrs. Clinton if she would accept the democratic nomination for 2004 if offered to her she tap dances before finally proffering a non-answer “it’s not going to happen” at which points she begins cackling like a mad-woman. Bottomline: While I don’t agree with everything President Bush and the Republicans do, for crying out loud there’s virtually *nothing* Hillary says I trust or agree with. Tuesday, November 25, 2003
A break from NYC's craziness... for another brand of craziness. From my sister working in Iraq right now. “Baghdad Tales” – An Iraqi Version of Canterbury Tales… October 27, 2003 Arrived at work today just like any other day; dead tired. Trying to get myself motivated-must be the Ramadan spirit as my coworkers did not seemingly want to work either. The explosion hit about 8:30 in the morning. It was the loudest noise and rumbling I have ever heard. It shook the office and scared the shit out of me – now I know why one of our security officers had said to always wear brown pants just in case. . Of course, when this happened I was on the phone with my mom as I said “oh my God they bombed our office as I ran into the back of the building.” To say that that is not the thing you should ever say to your mother on the phone is an understatement. After I calmed her down and ensured the paramedics were arriving to resuscitated her, I realized it wasn’t our office. Although it was almost ½ km away I would have sworn it was in front of our office. Probably, the second time in my career that I was scared shitless- the other time was during a visit in the West Bank in Nablus, not realizing it was under closure and finding myself face to face with an Israeli tank and soldier holding a rifle aimed at my face. Some say it is outsiders; those from other countries who are well funded who do not want this litmus test of democracy to be successful as it challenges the regimes next door; leaving their government vulnerable to the sentiment on the street. Of course, discussion around the ICRC bombing abounded. I decided the song by the Clash “ Should I stay or should I go now” was our theme song…. We all cracked up realizing the seriousness of it. Sorry conflict humor… I figured when I lose that it is time to go. Our head security officer from HQ is arriving in the next few days to assess the situation but analysis so far has indicated that NGOs are not being targeted, ICRC was a political statement and there had been many warnings that they would be hit. Large parts of this analysis makes sense but of course the “unknown” is always the greatest risk. However, we also realize that now more than ever humanitarian work is needed and so we continue, taking one day at a time. November 5th I finally have caught up with all the work that I have missed while I was gone. I am still hoping that I will be able to get around and visit out in the field more but due to the current events, that seems unlikely. I attempted to get out to the conference center in the “green zone” where the military is located for some meetings. It is surrounded by the former Bath Party HQ a great marble square shape building, the tomb of the unknown soldier, the monument of the Iran/Iraq war – 2 large hands holding two large swords (over 50 feet hight) and the 17th July bridge (important b/c date of revolution when the Baath party came into power). After waiting about 30 minutes in the long que at the checkpoint I do what I know best and walk up to the soldiers to ask if we can cut the line as we our late for a meeting. After much debate and explanation of what CARE and an NGO are, we are permitted to bypass the line to have our vehicle searched and our person. As I spoke with the soldiers again, one said to me “next time ma’am just come up to the line, you speak pretty good English so it shouldn’t be a problem”. Thanks, Private – I’ve been practicing my English while I am here in Baghdad – pretty good English, well, I would hope so, since it's the only language I know. ;-) Our days revolve around work and our nights revolve around the events of the hotel. I have decided that this should be labeled “Baghdad Tales” as I feel at time I have stumbled upon an Iraqi version of Canterbury Tales. We are all on this weird pilgrimage of some sorts and the characters and events revolve around our hotel – the Cedar. We have Mohammad – a tall blond-haired, blue- eyed Egyptian lawyer from Cairo who sounds more American than I do; the BFGs – the Big Friendly Giants, who are these 4 South African HUGE guys who are with a company that are building the military mess halls and catering the food (the ultimate of outsourcing – the military outsourcing their catering??); me the token American; a whole bunch of Aussies; the AFP journalists from Lebanon and a whole bunch of dodgy Turkish; and a few Kurdish businessmen. We sit on the roof at sunset, watch choppers fly overhead, and hear explosions in the distant -- seeing the puffs of smoke dissipate into the orangish, reddish skyline. As the sun sets the lights, when they are on, twinkle and light up in the distance; at times I almost imagine I am in Florida watching the sunset over the horizon and hotel lights in the distance. My colleagues and friends, Bob and Katherine, have adopted these 2 street dogs and have been feeding them every night. So after dinner we take our scraps and bring them to Elissa, a pregnant tan mutt, and Zengo a black collie mutt. Katherine and I then do our daily walk about to get the blood flowing in the legs. We walk from checkpoint to the gate that surrounds our hotel; basically in a circle like prisoners in the prison court yard. The guards all watch and smile. We have become their nightly entertainment, but am glad as I also know that we are well-guarded. The guards all have interesting stories; one is a Kurdish squatter living next door to the hotel in an abandoned building, while other are former military guys who are not happy about having been displaced but at least I know they can shoot straight, and the former “king of Baghdad in the 60’s” - not sure what that meant as their English is about as good as my Arabic. The BFGs have been great to us and have hooked us up with T-bone steak one night and Maine 2-lb lobster tails another night – who would imagine eating surf and turf in Baghdad? I am trying to get them to snag me a turkey so I can cook a good ole fashion American thanksgiving with Stove Top stuffing and mashed potatoes. We spent several nights in the hotel restaurant as they now have a nightly entertainer – an Iraqi man playing a keyboard and singing a mix of Arabic and some English melody songs. So we have spent many a night dancing around, hooting and hollering like fools -- “yaa habibi…” -- to the same songs that are played over and over like a broken record. I have been able to visit the local Catholic church – I went to church last week and it was so interesting; I felt as if I had stepped back into time to 1000 yrs ago and how church must have been in the early days. There was lots of chanting and singing and it sounded enchanting even though I couldn't understand the language. I had to cover my hair to receive communion, luckily I was with my coworker who told me this otherwise I would have been embarrased. Afterwards she took me to their Mary grotto and we lit some candles before the crowd came from the church. It was interesting. The night before I was to leave to Cairo for some R&R I woke at around 3 a.m. to what sounded like thunder overhead. As I realized that it is not rainy season and it therefore could not be thunder, my mind tried to reason what it was. I realized it sounded like mortar fire really close but more like it is outgoing than incoming so I thought "do I run to the bathroom?" ( my designated safety room) or wait… well in true lazy fashion I rolled over, put the pillow over my head to protect me just in case from flying glass, said a quick prayer and went back to sleep - best sleep I had all night. I left for the week of Nov 6th – 15th for some meetings in Amman and then 5 days in Cairo. What a great city Cairo. It was so nice to finally be in a normal Arab city- it reminded me of NYC, but Cairo truly is a city that never sleeps. Cars and horns beeping 24hrs a day and people out until all hours. I met up with some friends from Jerusalem and another friend who I met when taking Italian lessons in Italy 3 years ago. It was great to go out like a normal person to late in the evening hanging out in restaurants on the Nile, smoking hubbly bubbly in the market coffee shop, taking a sailing trip down the Nile, pampering myself with a facial and massage, shopping tilll you drop, and of course visiting the pyramids; riding a camel and seeing the remains of the pharaohs and King Tut in the museum. It was great and the weather was perfect. Since it was Ramadan, the city was decked out in Ramadan lights and dining tables decorate the city streets and market places waiting for “il fitr” or the time for when “break fast” is served. As it is time to break the fast that has been occurring throughout the day, you are invited to eat at these tables free of charge. As we walked thru the market place watching these people in the square eat their food, we were invited to share and given big plates of kibbeh (like falafel, but with meat inside) and cousa (a pasta like dish with cheese and sauce)- uumm umm good! The food was delicious and I laughed as I thought could you imagine ever accepting a plate of food from a complete stranger on a NYC street? What a nice tradition. My friend who I met in Italy invited me over for Il Fitr one night at his and his wife’s house and then went to a local Cairo coffee shop and hung out with his friends until late in the evening like a local Cairene would do (how they ever get to work the next day is beyond me). Of course, all those stories you hear about the traffic is true and worse. I have never been more scared and convinced we would die than driving in the taxi in Cairo – I shut my eyes 9/10's of the time I was in a car. Although Baghdad is just as bad. Well back in Baghdad just in time for operation “Iron Hammer” or a name something like that. Most of the evening we have been hearing what sounds like heavy artillery firing in the distance, which we have now found out is 105mm artillery firing from a AAC130 gunship plane somewhere in the Northern end of Baghdad – remember Baghdad is quite large so what occurs in one area, another area may not even be aware of this. At this point you are probably wondering what the hell am I still doing here. Well I ask myself that as well and realize maybe I’ve gone mad but more likely it’s the fact their watermelon season is from May thru at least Nov and I LOVE watermelon. Actually, I have a sense of responsibility to help those who need help, to get this place to the point it needs to be in order to really be free, to help finish what my country has started. How can you not when you look in the eyes of children such as these. Hope all is well in your part of the world. Monday, November 17, 2003
Non- New York related post Our enemies in the north? While Canada is often the butt of jokes in the U.S., often unwarranted, our friend to the north is filled to the rim with people with such a warped view of the U.S. that I think we should start planning a border wall up there. As evidence, take this letter posted on the Canadian Broadcast Co. website, and slugged as "The Letter of the Day" for Nov. 12, 2003. The writer, one Ian McTavish, equated President Bush's honor of the dead in Iraq as a deceit upon the American people, and went on to state: "The simple truth of the matter is that one cannot force peace by armed conflict. All that is being done is planting the seeds for further armed conflict. If not now, then later Would it be too much for the good American people to reflect for a moment on how much warfare, yes terror, assasination, and support for criminal 'leaders' in other countries, they have involved the American people in since the Second World War? Would it be too much to reflect upon why unprecedented demonstrations were held around the world in advance of the illegal Iraq invasion by the U.S. and the U.K.? No nation has been as involved in the means of warfare and violence than has the U.S. over the past 55 years. " This left me speechless. The U.S. has been involved in more warfare and violance than any other nation in the past 55 years? Dear God, has Mr. McTavish not studied Stalinist Russia, or the Cultural Revolution in China? Has he not heard of Pol Pot? His pathetic "one cannot force peace by armed conflict" is contradicted by the reality of world war II. By his logic we should be preparing for renewed attacks by Germany and Japan. How would Mr. McTavish have resisted Hilter? Candygrams? Simply amazing. Friday, November 14, 2003
Parking Ticket Fines Hiked Up Again NY1.com, NOVEMBER 14TH, 2003 As of Friday morning, tickets for parking violations in New York City have increased by $10, pushing some fines as high as $115. It's the second ticket hike in a little more than a year. But don't blame the city for the extra cost. The increase reflects a $10 jump in the state ticket surcharge, from $5 to $15. Last October, the city boosted many parking fines from $55 to $105. Among the violations affected by the new increases are parking in a no standing zone or crosswalk, double parking, and parking in a bus stop or near a fire hydrant. Tuesday, November 11, 2003
New Yorkers Pay More Taxes From Gotham Gazette - "A new study released yesterday [available here] by the Citizens Budget Commission confirms what many have long believed: New Yorkers pay the largest local tax in the country -- 72 percent above the national average. City residents pay $73 in local taxes for every $1,000 in personal income compared with a $43 national average, the study found. When state taxes are factored in, New Yorkers have to pay $141 for every $1,000 they earned -- the highest payout in the country. These figures, based on federal economic data from the 2000 fiscal year, did not include this year's increases in state and city personal income and sales taxes. The study pointed to Medicaid, education and pension costs as the driving forces behind higher state and local taxes. "Local government across the state are struggling under the weight of these requirement," said commission president Diana Fortuna. Asked about the findings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that he will try to convince State Legislature to reduce city's obligation to pay $4 billion for Medicaid. The mayor also reiterated his pledge to try to lower taxes when the economy rebounds. [ed. note - fat chance of that happening with the city council we have now.] The study focuses on five problem areas:
And suggests nine reforms
(See also Kenneth Lovett and David Seifman, NYers Slugged With Nation's Highest Taxes, N.Y. Post, p. 1, Nov. 11, 2003; Al Baker, Study Says Local Tax Bite Is Deepest in New York, N.Y Times, Nov. 11, 2003, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/nyregion/11TAXE.html?pagewanted=print&position=). (Information about the Citizens Budget Commission - here.) Monday, November 10, 2003
Should NYC be more like Houston? Why not? I've said it before and I'll say it again, the knee-jerk jingoism that New York is "the capital of world" serves us poorly. It closes our minds to ideas from outside and instills a "we don't need to improve, we're the greatest city in the world" mentality. Think I'm crazy? Consider: Model Cities By Joel Kotkin available at http://www.nycfuture.org/content/reports/report_view.cfm?repkey=122&search=1 "New York’s economic policymakers probably don’t spend a lot of time sitting around lamenting, “Why can’t we be more like Houston?” But maybe they should. New Yorkers are not known for their willingness to look outside the City Limits for edification, but sometimes the experiences of other cities have important lessons for us. Like New York today, Houston in the late 1980s and Los Angeles in the early 1990s were suffering from massive corporate downsizing and a devastating loss of civic direction. Yet under the leadership of strong, business-oriented mayors--Bob Lanier in Houston and Richard Riordan in L.A.--these two cities were able to stave off collapse by drastically remaking their economies. Today, even amid a stubborn national recession, both cities have been able to use their now highly diversified, small-business-oriented economies to stay on an even keel." [read the entire article here, or as a PDF here] Sunday, November 09, 2003
A Strong Approach Needed An aside from New York City comments - As a political wonk I find myself in many regular discussions about the situation in Iraq, U.S. policy and the ongoing war on terrorism. While I switched my political affiliation from being a default democrat (basically in order to vote in NYC's heavily democrat-favored primaries) to the republican party in the post 9-11 world, I consider myself more a devotee of ideas that work, rather than specific ideologies. However, it just so happens that I think the republicans have better ideas these days, while the democrats are seriously spinning their wheels, to the point where today they are the "bumper-sticker party" according to democrat senator Zell Miller. His recent scathing indictment of the present democratic party encapsulates fairly well why I switched parties. (See Zell Miller, A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat, (Stroud & Hall Pub., November 2003)). Since my younger sister is currently on the ground in Iraq right now, working for CARE International, (see CARE's Work in Iraq), my interest in Iraq is more than academic. And with this personal chit in the game, I as a preliminary matter fully supported the war and continue to support U.S. actions in Iraq until we've gotten the job done. Executing a "fly paper" strategy in the war againt Islamist-based terrorism was never going to be easy, but as with democracy itself, it beats all the alternatives. Fundamentally, appeasement is not an option in this fight against terrorism. Osama and his cabal don't hold hands around the camp fire in their caves and sing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?". Not by a long shot. While no one likes war, the calls by those in Europe and the left, essentially asking "can't we all just get along?", while admirably idealist, is hopelessly and dangerously naive. The answer is no, we can't just get along with these terrorists any more than we ultimately could with Tojo's Japan or Hilter's Germany. At some point moral relativism is not an option -- and this is one of those points in history. [Unfortunately, today's high school and college students are frequently seriously confused in understanding the difference between "tolerance" and "moral relativism." Granted we're all idiots in high school -- I know I was -- so there may yet be hope for eventual development. Still, many college students' heads have been so clogged by squishy concepts of tolerance and an instilled disdain for western thought, which previous generations studied in the classic western canon, that I do fear for the long-term of this country.] To win this war, and it is a war, we need to dig in our heels, tighten our belts, and slug for all we're worth for as long as it takes. In the end we'll either root these groups out, and kill them and their supporters, or else one day they'll pry a nuke loose from North Korea, Pakistan, or a corrupt Russian military division. I never want to see a brighter-than-the-sun flash of a fission explosion in New York city a second before the blast and shockwave kills me and everyone I hold dear. To prevent this realty from occurring I'm willing to allow our country to do whatever it takes. Right now what it takes is to win the peace in Iraq. So a minority of Iraqi's "resent" our being there right now, or view us as "occupiers", or think our presence is "defiling Muslim soil". Much has been made of the Muslim sense of "humiliation". Thomas Friedman's column in this Sunday's New York Times, entitled The Humiliation Factor (available here) explains Muslim humiliation very well and is worth a read. Friedman makes interesting points, and getting the Iraqi people to dust themselves off and hold their chins up is a worthy endeavor, but he leaves out the bottomline -- that unless the middle east gets over this "humiliation" it'll never join the modern world. They have a choice -- focus on past slights, or focus on the future. They can't do both. Friedman notes "many Iraqis feel humiliated that they didn't liberate themselves, and America's presence, even its aid, reminds them of that." To which my response is "oh, grow up." Our job isn't to fashion Iraq into one big self-esteem seminar. When the United States won independence from Britain, with the crucial aid of France, we didn't feel "humiliated" because we needed French help. Granted we nearly declared war on France a few decades later, but that had nothing to do with any sense of "humiliation". For a more comprehensive exploration of the battle against terrorism, and our current operation in Iraq, I highly recommend reading Victor Davis Hanson's various Iraq- and war against terrorism-related essays, particularly The Truth Will Set Us Free, and The Event of the Age. Hanson definitely understands the importance of our ongoing battles, but more importantly he, unlike many in the press, displays perspective in the analysis. While others in the media, particularly in Europe, have focused their hand-wringing over the past few weeks on the increased violence against U.S. troops in Iraq and the casualties we've received, he looks beyond that to the end goal. The deaths are legitimate news, but without context such reports ill-serve our country's goals. The press of 2003 reports the numbers of killed (and every death is a sorrowful tragedy for the families and friends), but provide little to measure those numbers against, other than adding either "the attacks are increasing in sophistication", or "number of deaths has surpassed those in the initial war" or some other statement along those lines. Total U.S. casualties, while certainly mounting, are amazingly and historically low for a military operation of this scale. In fact, if the U.S. and Britain were saddled with the press of 2003 back in 1944 I can't imagine how we'd have continued to forge on and finally win WW II. Consider that as of December 21, 1944, the U.S. in WWII had suffered "135,323 killed, 362,824 wounded, 75,844 missing and 64,148 captured" with months of fighting still to go. As the U.S. in 1945 had roughly 1/2 the total population we now have, an accurate per capita comparison requires doubling those figures for a true sense of the scale. Consider further, then, as of Nov. 8, 2003, approximately 390 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the U.S. set foot there more than six months ago -- an average of 2.1 U.S. deaths per day, or 15.2 a week. Yet, back here in the United States around 800 people die every week for nothing in car accidents. The press isn't crying out for a ban of the automobile. Why? Because on that score they realize our way of life demands the car, and rather than ban them we continuously try to make the ones we buy safer. While every accident death on the highways is truly a tragedy, because it's meaningless, every one of those soldiers in Iraq have given their lives in the pursuit of a noble cause and in defense of the U.S. Call me hopelessly anachronistic, but I still believe in noble causes, and I am grateful for their ultimate sacrifice. If I were twenty years younger I'd be giving serious thought to enlisting myself. America wasn't built by easily frightened people. It takes an amazing amount of character to, say, gather your family together and hit the wagon trail to head 3,000 miles by foot for just the hope of a better life. Some of us have forgotten this truism. Freedom and democracy are ideals worth fighting for, and though the U.S. certainly has its share of serious flaws, the U.S. remains the last best hope on the face of this planet. Think not? Then, ask yourself what would the world be like if Germany, or France, or North Korea, or a Taliban-led Afghanistan had the economic and military might of the U.S. I'd wager we'd be facing a very, very different, and not better, world. Friday, October 31, 2003
After careful review and study, here's how I'm voting on the 6 proposals appearing on the ballot on November 4th, and I hoping to convincing you to do likewise. The six ballots cover: 1. Paying for Sewage Systems - "Exclusion of Indebtedness Contracted for Sewage Facilities" 2. Paying for Schools in Small Cities - "Elimination of Small City School Districts from Constitutional Debt Limitations" 3. Non-Partisan Elections - "A Question - City Elections" 4. City Purchasing - "A Question - City Purchasing" 5. Government Administration - "A Question - Government Administration" 6. Class Size - "Class Size" Details on the actual text and all six proposals are available at: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/feature-commentary/20031020/202/572 And my take: #1 - 1. Paying for Sewage Systems - Ballot text: "Exclusion of Indebtedness Contracted for Sewage Facilities" YES. Although I'm always loathe to allow municipal governments to take on any additional debt, doing so for capital projects like sewers and such is different than borrowing to pay ongoing expenditures -- a dangerous practice the state and city are currently engaged in. # 2. Paying for Schools in Small Cities - Ballot text: "Elimination of Small City School Districts from Constitutional Debt Limitations" NO. The NYS teachers' union supports this measure and inevitably what ever the teachers' union is for, I'm against. Knee-jerking aside, this amendment would lead us down the road to California's mess by constitutionalizing spending with no linkage to providing for the funds. Additionally, given that the NYS legislature is in the midst of providing a funding scheme to address the recent Court of Appeals decision, this proposal simply complicates the situation. # 3. Non-Partisan Elections - Ballot text: "A Question - City Elections" NO. Mayor Bloomberg and others support this measure arguing that the two political parties control candidates, which in NYC means that democrats often run unopposed and so the party's selection pre-picks the winning candidate. They argue this leads to low voter turnout and disenfranchisement. In the abstract these arguments wear a patina of reasonableness, but upon examination do not stand. Other parties, particularly the Republicans, have made strides against the democratic voting bloc in NYC, and what truly controls city politics and candidates these days are various unions and political groups -- not parties. The proposal's supporters argue many other cities have non-partisan elections for local government, but again, a study of how NYC's politics work (or more often don't work) reveals those cities are much less controlled by vested government interests and union voting. I'm voting NO. #4. City Purchasing - Ballot text: "A Question - City Purchasing" YES. The city's purchasing practices have been problematic for ages. And while this issue should ideally have been addressed by the city council (which often seems more interested in passing resolutions regarding U.S. foreign policy than actually governing NYC reasonably) and the mayor, slicing the Gordian knot at this stage seems efficacious. # 5. Government Administration - Ballot text: "A Question - Government Administration" NO. Again, the text of this proposal sounds benign, but would overly politicize the voters assistance commission in my opinion and the preliminary mayor's management report -- which a yes on this proposal would end -- is a useful tool that isn't overly costly to produce. #6. Class Size - Ballot text: "Class Size" NO. While arguing "won't someone think of the children?" appears to make this a no-brainer in favor of voting YES (after all who is in favor of large class sizes?) this proposal is misguided and, again, the NYS legislature is currently working on a state-wide plan to address school system funding inequities with a July 2004 deadline set by the NYS Court of Appeals. This measure's passing would, again, complicate that. But more fundamentally, class size ALONE is not the measure of educational success. It is one factor, but a charter modification via a ballot proposal like this is not the method to use, and this method makes no provision for how to then pay for smaller class sizes, nor where the additional teachers would come from in a city already chronically short of high-quality teachers. I urge a strong NO vote. And that's it. Remember to vote on November 4th because you only get the government you vote for. How Feckless is the U.N.? The U.N. has announced it will pull all of its people out of Iraq. And this is the organization Europe wants the U.S. to turn over control of Iraq? What a bunch of spineless poseurs. If you want control you need the muscle to back it up, and the U.N. has no true muscle. Look how well they've been doing in Africa. U.N. peace-keeping is an oxymoron. Sunday, October 26, 2003
Sad democratic debates I was just listening to the Democratic debate this Sunday evening, and I'm not sure what's sadder -- the pathetic one-liners, that Sharpton is still part of this group, that the Democrats think anyone trusts them with security, or the sorry state of democratic party. Now I use to be a democratic, but over the past six years or so as the party swung further and further to left, and I moved to the right we parted ways probably for good. There's nothing the democrats have to offer, there's no understanding there that the government is not the source of all cures, there's no limit to their racial pandering, and there's no end in sight. Good luck and good night Democrats. Friday, October 24, 2003
Mayor: Reconsider Tax Surcharge By Dan Janison Staff Writer, Newsday http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/politics/nyc-tax1024,0,1021354,print.story October 23, 2003, 4:15 PM EDT Mayor Michael Bloomberg today said that the absentee-landlord tax imposed by the city may be unfair -- and suggested it be reconsidered in his next budget talks with the City Council. The mayor was reacting to a report in Newsday [that the law meant to hit those who profit from rooming houses and the like could sock tens of thousands of mere homeowners with an unjustified 25 percent surcharge. "It is a very difficult tax to administer," the mayor told reporters in a midtown Manhattan press conference. "It's not clear that it's fair and it's not clear that you aren't burdening those who already have too great a tax burden as it is." But the mayor signed it July 14 at the insistence of Council leaders who pushed for the levy, which its staff estimates is worth $44 million a year in city revenues, to help fill a huge deficit. Council Speaker Gifford Miller, who championed the proposal, was expected to respond later in the day. For the moment, Bloomberg suggested a measure that will protect those who are not absentee landlords: signing up for the state STAR program which gives exemptions only to those who live in their primary residences. Officials say the Finance Department has little other way than these optional exemptions to distinguish absentees from other property owners . The law as writtten puts the burden on homeowners to prove they are NOT absentee landlords. "Next time we pass a budget in the City Council, maybe it is time, if we're going to reduce taxes, to start there. And I hope we can reduce taxes." Thursday, October 23, 2003
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
City Could Pull In $700M By Tolling East River, Harlem Bridges OCTOBER 07TH, 2003, from NY1.com [ed. note - 7 dollars!!! If the city slaps tolls on the East river crossing, an idea which has come up since at least the early 70s, it will be a huge drain and yet another slap in the face to the "outer" boros.] Another study has found the city could rake in hundreds of millions of dollars by putting tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges. By charging $7 tolls on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queensborough and Williamsburg bridges and $3 on the city's nine Harlem River bridges, the city could take in $693 million a year, the Independent Budget Office predicts. However, the study finds that most of the burden would fall on city residents, because 55 percent of the trips over those bridges are taken by people who live in the five boroughs. If city residents are exempted from the tolls, as some have suggested, annual revenue would be about $300 million. Sunday, October 05, 2003
Whose freedom? The problem with discourse regarding immigration today is that if you say something viewed as being against immigration in any form, more often than not, you'll inevitably be tarred by the left as a "rascist" or a "bigot". The situation has gotten so pathetic that even legal immigrants who've becomes citizens themselves (i.e. Arnold) are labeled as racist if they suggest immigration should be curtailed, examined, or, that even current laws on the books should be enforced. against illegal immigrants. The fact is that immigration today (legal and illegal) has skyrocketed. That's not my opinion. That's the U.S. government's. Just take a look at the annual Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (formerly entitled Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service), available at http://www.bcis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/Yearbook2002.pdf. At 253 pages there is a huge amount of information and statistics in this volume, but a quick look at the highlights listed on page 3 of the Yearbook provide a good summary of the situation: "Highlights for 2002 include:
Next, a quick look at the Executive Summary - Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: 1990 to 2000 (January 31, 2003), available at http://www.bcis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/2000ExecSumm.pdf, rounds out the picture by revealing, in its first sentence, that "[t]he INS estimates that 7.0 million unauthorized immigrants resided in the United States in January 2000." Seven million. That's nearly an entire New York city's worth of people in this country illegally. Yet, even with all these hard facts and figures it's apparently impossible to have a reasoned discourse about immigration these days. Over in Flushing Meadow park this afternoon, October 4th, 2003, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union sponsored a gathering called the "Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride" which culminated after a national bus ride in Washington and New York City. I'm claiming Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union is behind the mobilization because the IWFR website at www.iwfr.org is clearly copyrighted by the union, which leads me to the consideration that the union is as a secondary purpose looking for ways to boost its membership, and a large influx of aliens granted citizenship via some amnesty program would do just that. But the fact of the matter is this "Freedom Ride" is a mockery of the 60's civil rights freedom rights. Apparently the fact that these people were "free" to slip over the border or to come to this country, and "free" virtually to work here, and "free" to organize, and just as "free" to leave the U.S. doesn't qualify as an aspect of "freedom." The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, which I quote from its website, has as its goals and demands five items: "Policies that: 1) Reward work by granting legal status to hardworking, taxpaying, law-abiding immigrant workers already established in the United States; 2) Renew our democracy by clearing the path to citizenship and full political participation for our newest Americans; 3) Restore labor protections so that all workers, including immigrant workers, have the right to fair treatment on the job 4) Reunite families in a timely fashion by streamlining our outdated immigration policies; and 5) Respect the civil rights and civil liberties of all so that immigrants are treated equally under the law, the federal government remains subject to checks and balances, and civil rights laws are meaningfully enforced." Let's examine each point in turn. Item one is essentially saying "reward us for coming into this country illegally because we're already here". Item two, reading between the lines, appears to say that a large influx of people who, in many cases, have no experience with democracy will in short renew our fitful democracy. Item three I'm not sure what it's saying. Item four is saying "we're here, whether illegally or legally, now let our family members come over too, now." Item five is mumbo jumbo. All this highlights the point that we need to have a discussion about immigration. We need to openly debate what kind of country we are, what kind we want to be, and where immigration and how much of it fits into the best interests of this country. Painting any discussion about curtailing or examining immigration as rascist is counterproductive and short-cited. Sooner or later the discussion will be had, and the sooner the better for everyone, the U.S. and the world. Monday, September 29, 2003
To Keep People, Cut Costsby E.J. McMahon September 09, 2003 Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article//20030929/200/544 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leaving New York While some New Yorkers are leaving the city, citing bad schools, high housing costs or the daily stresses of urban life, analysts debate whether the exodus is anything alarming or unusual, and what to do about it. The cost of living in New York City is 240 percent of the national average, according to one recent estimate. That’s not just the highest in the country. It's nearly twice as high as the next most expensive metro areas (Boston and Washington, D.C, in that order). If you want to keep people in New York, the first thing you have to do is to reduce the staggeringly high cost of staying here. The single biggest factor driving that cost is a crushing state and local tax burden. We have become so used to hearing about New York City’s high taxes that we have become sort of numb to it. But consider these statistical tidbits: • New York’s overall tax burden is by far the highest found in any of America’s largest cities. • Despite relatively low residential property taxes, the overall tax burden on New York City homeowners is the highest in the state. • For households with incomes of $100,000 a year (middle class by New York standards) the combined state and local tax burden is 32 percent higher than the average for major cities. • The commercial property tax is absolutely out of sight, reaching nearly $10 per square foot for prime space in midtown Manhattan. The only city that comes close is Chicago. In most other major cities, it is less than $5. In New Jersey, it is $3. • The combined state and city personal income tax rate this year will reach a maximum of over 12 percent – highest in the nation, almost double the rate in New Jersey, and more than double the rate in Connecticut or Pennsylvania. With the exception of the last item in the list, these comparative measures do not reflect the impact of the roughly $2.8 billion in city tax increases that have been enacted since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office last year, or the $3 billion in state tax increases enacted by Albany this year. Just because many New Yorkers do not directly pay these taxes, either because they are renters or because their incomes are below the median, does not mean they are unaffected by them. The impact of taxes is pervasive, rippling through every sector of the economy. High taxes ultimately drive down the number of new jobs created in the city and drive up the price of goods and services produced there. Tackling this problem will require a constant, unrelenting effort to steadily bring down the cost of government at both the state and city levels. This is why it is so important for Mayor Bloomberg to continue pressing municipal labor unions for productivity concessions. Beyond taxes, the most important factor driving cost is the price of housing in the city. This is a classic supply and demand problem, growing directly out of rent regulation and restrictive zoning and building codes. The answer is to stop treating housing as a socialized good, a government-funded entitlement. Clear away the dense thicket of regulatory barriers to building in New York, and let the market do the rest. Beyond taxes and housing, improving city schools and doing even more to drive down the crime rate obviously are both crucially important to retaining residents. But if its economy is drowning in high costs, the city will lack the tax base to do those good things in any event. E. J. McMahon is a senior fellow for Tax and Budgetary Studies, at the Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute. Sunday, September 28, 2003
It's difficult to know when things have tipped towards the long slide or conversely to sunny times of improvement. After all, there never was a golden age. There's only myth and nostalgia, and frankly, despite the pressures, cloudy futures, and knowledge that one can never own in the NYC the house one's parents did only a generation or two ago (without a massive amount of luck and some major financial aid), it's easy to lose sight of how far New York has come in two hundred years. Granted, NYC of 2003 is NOT NYC of 1954, when my parents came here from Europe, but neither is it the NYC of 1975. Still, when everything is weighed and the numbers crunched, I keep coming up with the distinct bottomline that a careful, planned and strategic retreat from New York to a handful of the other 50 states is perhaps the wisest course of action. But hope springs eternal. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIG-CITY LIFE A PARENT TRAP By PHILIP RECCHIA and LEONARD GREENE, New York Post September 28, 2003 -- THE picture-perfect family - where both parents pursue careers and earn good money - is a trap that's sending thousands of big-city couples toward financial ruin, a new book says. They're making more money than their parents did, but are having a much harder time paying for what experts call the single biggest "luxury item" of the 21st century: children. Today's two-income families earn 75 percent more that their single-income counterparts of a generation ago - but have less disposable income, according to "The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke." [See MSNBC book review here.] Co-authors Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor specializing in bankruptcy law, and daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi, a former staffer with consulting powerhouse McKinsey & Company, derived that alarming statistic from three decades of stats from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their research also shows that families with kids are now twice as likely to file for bankruptcy as families with no kids. If this trend continues, the authors say, one out of every seven couples with children will go bankrupt by the end of the decade. Even many dual-income professional couples are just treading water. Here in the Big Apple, where the cost of living is skyscraper-high, it's enough to make an otherwise well-off family go to extreme lengths to make ends meet. Shirley Zaragoza is a business professor at City University of New York. Her husband, Gregory, is a lawyer and part-time actor who recently appeared in the Broadway revival of "Annie Get Your Gun." Together, they earn more than $100,000 a year, an income that by average American standards should comfortably support a family of five. But they have sacrificed dearly in order to raise their three kids in Manhattan - where the little ones attend public, not private schools. The Zaragozas live in a one-room, 450-square-foot apartment in Greenwich Village. They own the place, though they still carry a mortgage of about $1,000 a month. Tack onto that $1,000 more for maintenance, parking and other household expenses. Then there's $3,000 a month to feed and clothe the kids, while covering a host of extracurricular actives like piano lessons, soccer and gymnastics. IN ALL, Zaragoza estimates that she and her husband spend about 60 percent of their net income raising their children, who range from 7 to 13 years old. "If you're not wealthy, your needs have to be pretty simple to make it work in this city," she told The Post. Zaragoza said that, in addition to living together "in one tiny room," her family has gotten by not taking big vacations or taking out big loans. Colleen Marsh has had no such luck. Despite her annual household income of nearly $80,000 - about 90 percent above the average for New York City families - she feels impoverished. After the credit-card debt, student loans, rent and private-school tuition, there's barely enough left to buy groceries. "Right now I think we're poor," said Marsh, who is married with two children and lives in The Bronx. "We go to work every day. It's like, 'What are we working for?' " The Marshes' dilemma is typical of the financial meltdown that's plaguing couples across the U.S. Economists call it overconsumption. Elizabeth Warren calls it a trap. "Everyone thought that a second paycheck would make their families more financially secure," Warren told The Post. "But that's not how things worked out." Instead of padding their savings accounts, she writes, two-income families are finding their salaries absorbed by mortgages or rents for homes in good school districts. Toss in the cost of daycare, preschool, a second car and health insurance - to say nothing of a high tax bracket - and the dollar quickly loses its elasticity. Writer Ellen Freilich says she and husband Mark Packman, a music teacher at Montclair State University, have sacrificed home ownership in order to send their sons to school in Manhattan. Once again, that's public school. The couple lives in a two-bedroom, rent-stabilized apartment in Washington Heights and together earns about $100,000 a year. Half of that goes to raising 8-year-old Ben and 11-year-old Lev. "We'd love the boys to have their own rooms, but buying a three-bedroom place would cost half a million dollars," Freilich said. "Even then, the monthly maintenance would run close to our current rent." SHE also noted that there are a number of hidden costs associated with her sons' schools - like financial contributions and book purchases - that can exceed $1,000 per child per year. Then there are swimming lessons, baseball camp, tutors and Hebrew school, which gobble up more than $10,000 a year. "Working costs money because you have less time around the house," Freilich said. "My mother darned socks. I throw them out and replace them." Warren notes that this generation has had a 600 percent rise in consumer debt and a 400 percent increase in bankruptcies over the last generation. The troubles usually start after someone loses a job, gets sick or divorces. Evelyn Parkin, who owns an optometry shop with her husband in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, nearly met such a fate after her son, the oldest of three kids, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Miraculously, her boy made a full recovery. The experience, however, was frightening enough to make the couple - who own their house and earn about $85,000 a year - scratch their plans for a fourth child. Phil Burnett, who lives in Union Square, is more optimistic. "If my wife got pregnant tomorrow, we'd find a way to make it work," he told The Post. This at a time when he has no Internet access in his rent-stabilized apartment because both family PCs recently died. Burnett, a sound engineer, and his wife, Melanie, a sales associate at Wachovia Securities, have two sons. LIKE the Zaragozas, the Burnetts - whose kids chew up about 45 percent of the household income - scrimp by taking shorter, cheaper vacations. "We used to fly to places like California or Spain. Now we drive to Sesame Place [in Langhorne, Pa.], just for the weekend. We can't afford to take any days off from work," Burnett said. Marsh says she'd rather file for bankruptcy than take her son, Hakeem, 12, out of private school. She is unhappy with the public schools in her neighborhood, and prefers to spend the $450 each month on tuition than pay off her credit card debt. "I'll do what it takes to get the best education for him," she told The Post. "The public schools are not meeting the needs for my son. If I have to pay until we move into the right neighborhood, that's what I have to do." Friday, September 12, 2003
How do you do business in a city like this? While getting a bit of breakfast at the corner deli on Lexington and 40th St., I saw an NYPD Traffic tow truck towing someone away at 10:07 this morning. The sight's hardly unusual in NYC, but this was no ordinary tow truck. Rather it was one of those huge tow-trucks on steroids; the kind that can tow buses and other trucks. And it was towing away a Nectar Fizz delivery truck. Though the truck was certainly parked illegally, and I noticed a ticket on the windshield as they towed it, it wasn't double-parked or blocking traffic. So, here's a company making a legitimate delivery during business hours in a city that never sleeps, but that makes it increasingly difficult each year to actually DO real business here. The cost to the delivery company of lost wages, lost time retrieving the truck, and wasted effort dealing with the city could easily top $600. If this happens frequently how can the business, or any business actually stay viable? Frankly, I don't understand how UPS and Fedex can stay in Manhattan. Every single Fedex and UPS truck I see inevitably sports a parking ticket. Is ticketing companies doing reasonable business a smart idea? I don't think so. Those costs must be passed to someone, and that someone is ultimately the businesses' customers. This can only make them less competitive compared with companies not facing these extra transaction costs. And yet Mayor Bloomberg is ever fond of spouting his chest-thumping, NYC-centered jingoism that any company that wants in to the big leagues has to be in NYC. Tell that to Nectar Fizz, Mr. Mayor. Thursday, September 11, 2003
Monday, September 08, 2003
City Is Told to Abandon Its 'Doomed' Tactics of Encouraging Growth September 8, 2003, By JANNY SCOTT, New York Times Arguing that the industries upon which New York City has depended for its economic well-being have been losing ground and are unlikely to generate many new jobs in future, a new study [available here; and here {PDF version}]suggests that New York's longtime approach to economic development is obsolete and must be reconceived. The study, financed by the Rockefeller Foundation and written by a nonprofit group called the Center for an Urban Future, says the city should abandon the "doomed strategy" of favoring a few industries like finance — an approach the study says has left the city increasingly vulnerable to economic shifts. City resources should go instead to improving the climate for small businesses and entrepreneurs, tapping the immigrant population as well as academic and research institutions, and improving basic services so the middle class will not leave the city, according to the study, to be released today. "Start small," the report urges. Large firms are decentralizing operations and adding new jobs elsewhere, and New York's future growth will depend on "whether it can restore its entrepreneurial vitality and create a better environment for smaller firms to grow and prosper." The recommendations run counter to the city's practice of using tax abatements and real estate development subsidies to keep big companies in New York. That tactic became common in the 1990's as competition among the city, its suburbs and other places intensified. Several economists and others who have seen the report said the recommendations were sound. Some said they also seemed consistent with some recent moves by the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg toward delineating a clear strategy and diversifying the economy. "The city has never had a clear economic development strategy," said Kathryn S. Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business group. "The city's strategy has been real-estate-driven and has been reactive to the threat of corporate move-outs and job losses rather than job creation." David Hochman, a consultant with the Technology Partnership Practice at the Battelle Memorial Institute, who worked on a similar report for the city in 2000, said: "It's really only in times of downturn that people get creative, get thoughtful about what needs to be done next. This would be a great road map to start with." The deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, Daniel L. Doctoroff, said the administration was already doing many things recommended in the new study. For example, it has taken steps to improve the business climate and cultivate business districts far beyond Midtown Manhattan through projects in such places as downtown Flushing, Long Island City, Harlem and the Hub area of the Bronx. In addition, he said, the administration has overhauled what is now called the Department of Small Business Services and has taken steps to give immigrant- and minority-owned businesses better access to contracts. The city is opening small-business satellite centers in each borough, offering advice on such things as financing, negotiating the bureaucracy and other aspects of starting and running businesses. "We've essentially stopped" the longtime practice of favoring a relatively small number of large companies with tax abatements and subsidies, Mr. Doctoroff said. "We have basically ended the era of corporate welfare, basically paying people to stay." The study, based on an analysis of census and economic data and interviews with business leaders, developers, ethnographers, government officials and others, was conducted over the past year by the center, a nonprofit policy institute that examines economic and work force development issues in New York. Jonathan Bowles, the group's research director and a writer of the report, said the center was told to take "a real hard look at the city's economy in the post-9/11 world." The aim was to explore in a comprehensive way the long-term economic, demographic and political challenges facing New York. Of the city's attitude in the past, Mr. Bowles said: "There was sort of an arrogant policy that we don't need to look at the future because we've already got Wall Street and we're the media capital. What more do we need? As long as we hang on to what we've got, the rest will fall into place." The group found that the finance, insurance and real estate industries, which accounted for one in six of all city jobs in 2000, were rapidly losing jobs and market share to other places. New York City accounted for 36 percent of all securities industry jobs in the country in 1987; its share has since dropped to 23 percent, the report says. Other important industries, including professional and business services and technology, have trailed the country and the region in job creation. The city accounted for 60 percent of the region's jobs in professional and business services in 1970; by 2000, that was down to 45 percent. As large firms everywhere have decentralized, cities like Los Angeles have benefited by the rise of small, home-grown businesses, the study says. But New York "has become one of the worst environments for entrepreneurs and growing firms," the report says, citing rankings by groups like the National Commission on Entrepreneurship and declines in venture capital investments. One big problem for growing businesses is high real estate costs, which the study traces in part to the city's practice of subsidizing the real estate costs of large employers. The report says the practice has distorted the "real estate market in ways that actually inhibit the development of new businesses and the retention of lower-margin industries." In addition, the study says: "Businesses in New York also face a daunting regulatory environment in which firms are required to get licenses and permits from as many as a half-dozen agencies, most of which are understaffed and few of which coordinate with each other. It's no wonder that a cottage industry of fixers and go-betweens has developed in the city." The study recommends that the city work harder to help growing businesses thrive, in part by addressing "the fundamental issues hampering business growth in the city, such as permitting, business taxes and policies that spur exorbitant real estate speculation." The city should also do more to encourage the growth of immigrant and minority-owned businesses, the study says, perhaps by following the example of cities like Los Angeles and Houston. According to the report, those two cities rebuilt their economies in recent decades in part by diversifying, reducing regulatory hurdles and helping immigrant-run businesses to develop. In addition, the city should extend its economic development efforts beyond large-scale commercial projects in Manhattan to include neighborhoods in all five boroughs, the study recommends. It notes that the Bloomberg administration is already working to develop viable and more affordable business districts in Downtown Brooklyn, as well as Long Island City and Flushing, Queens. Finally, the report suggests that the city support policies that will help retain middle-class residents. It should follow through with plans to increase the housing stock. And it should use scarce city resources to maintain and improve basic services like law enforcement, sanitation, public transit, education, parks and the infrastructure. The report states, "This vision should begin with the premise that blindly following the post-1950's strategy of ever-intensifying real estate speculation, over-concentration on selected sectors and `Capital of the World' rhetoric will erode the city's overall competitiveness even further, strain the city's financial resources and widen the gap between rich and poor." Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Good-bye Columbus Avenue The debate about NYC as a viable city for the middle-class where the next generation can still live as well as the previous generation is over. NYC is closed to the middle-class, if you define middle-class as at least living as well as what NYC once defined as middle-class. As evidence to support this statement, consider the following: A house, three houses up the block from my parents' house in north Flushing, near Bayside, just went on the market at the asking price of $699,000. (http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1028626078). That price is NOT a typo, and I'm sure the place needs a new kitchen and general updating from stem to stern. I knew the owner, a charming old lady -- Helen was her name if I recall -- who I, as a teenager, shoveled snow for and generally helped out on occassion with little errands. The house itself is an average-sized house in the area -- and even smaller than many of the houses nearby. My parents' house is of exactly the same tudor style, and was built at the same time in the '40's. The Realtor.com description at the link above strikes me as stretching things a bit. Four bedrooms? Only three by my counting, unless you in fact count the basement, or an extra room was added onto the back, which as far as I know wasn't. 2.5 baths? Again, only if an extra room was added onto the back. Solar? I have no idea what that means. Den/family room? Try your basic living room off the dining room. Estimated annual taxes: $2636? Not a chance in the world after you've bought it for $699K. Add one to two thousand to that figure. But these items are mere quibbles. My parents bought their house up the block around 1981, I think, for roughly a bit over $80,000. So, in 22 years the house has appreciated by approximately 773%, or roughly 35% a year. Now there was one very good year, back in 1993 where I did actually get a raise in salary of 35% -- but that was a unique situation -- and my salary since has never topped that glory year, and in fact, diminished. See where I'm going with this? Realtor.com estimates the monthly mortgage payments (with its default assumptions of a 30-year mortgage at 6.3% with a 20% down payment ) as $3,461 a month. If you spend 40% of your net salary on the mortgage (and this figure is not uncommon in NYC) you'd have to pull in about $103,000 - after taxes, or about $145,000 gross. That is NOT the average middle-class person's salary in NYC. Nor is half that. And this house is not some special case in the north Flushing area. Here's another one, three blocks away from the one above, which in my opinion is a hideous house on a very high-traffic corner of Utopia Parkway and 33rd Avenue - MLS ID#: 1523020 - listed for $695,000. Directly opposite from this house they just tore down an amazing large house that dated back to at least the '30's, with a barn-like garage and beautiful spanish-featured architecture, and are no doubt going to slap a few square, brick-like two-family houses on the lot and sell them off to new arrivals who don't know any better and who have no sense of what is steadily being lost in the neighborhood. And yet another one on Utopia Parkway -- MLS #1506034 -- just down the block from the house above, for $675,000. That $699K price for the house on my parents' block - a much quieter and out-of-the-way block - is not a fluke. But it raises the questions: Who has this kind of money to spend? How did they manage to amass a 20% down payment figure of $139,800 in this post 2000 stock-market bubble popping economy? More troubling, though. In 25 years, will my children have to pay $5,137,650 for this self-same little house if prices keep going up in the area an average of 35% per year? I don't see how it's sustainable, and frankly I'd tell them they were crazy. Or worse, the monied development interests in NYC will manage to get zoning changed in the area, and then every one-family house will eventually be torn-down and a multi-family put on the lot(s). The economics are simply ineffable and ineluctable. Which returns me to my initial statement. NYC is no longer a middle-class friendly city, unless you define middle-class down from a state of being able to afford a reasonably comfortable, detached single-family house. Monday, August 18, 2003
Notes After the Blackout New York, N.Y. - Out here in Queens the power returned at 3:05 p.m., Friday, roughly 23 hours after the grid went down. I was very lucky yesterday, in that I'd just gotten out of the subway on Lexington and 77th and was walking west toward Central Park to serve a subpoena on Rupert Murdoch, of all people, at 3 East 77th. I get to the building and the doorman's in front with a flashlight. I say to myself that's weird... not strange, just weird. He yells across the street to the doorman in the building across "Hey, Jose, you got power over there?" No, says Jose. I'm bemused, but not detered and attempt to serve the subpoena anyway. But then I look up the block and the traffic lights at both ends are dark. Hmmm.. this doesn't seem right. People are starting to mill around and come out of buildings like clowns from those old tiny trick cars. I walk back to Lex to see if any trains are heading downtown, and one glance down the subway staircase tells me the power is completely out. No one around me is quite sure how extensive the loss is, yet. I get my wife on the cellphone, the last call I'm able to make all day, and she says the power is off at 47th and Sixth. I know then immediately that this is more than a little outage and tell her to sit tight. I pass a guy who asks "where is power off?" I answer "well, at least down to 47th street" and a woman on the corner interjects "I just got off my cellphone and its off at least down to 39th street." I turn back to the guy "how's that for an instant update?" We laugh and I start walking again. Walking downtown from 77th to 47th I notice the streets steadily growing more crowded and gridlocked. Amazingly, however, I did not see ONE car accident in the entire exodus attributable to a lack of traffic lights. Around sixth and Rockefeller Center the streets were nearly pedestrian malls and gridlock was total. Grabbing a few bottles of water I reached my wife's building, asked the guard if everyone was out (no), and waited. Somehow my wife was able to cal l my cellphone, then, but the outbond cell circuits were completely jammed. Her building had a massive generator running and they not only still had lights, but AC, which was extremely welcome after the long walk. People were huddled on the street around parked cars listening to the news reports -- "Detroit's out" "Cleveland is out" More than a few people were asking "Is this another terrorist strike?" My first inclination was along the same lines... if I were a terrorist why bother with having to deal with security at the border if I could simply knock out some towers in Canada and have the effect ripple down into the U.S.? No fuss, no muss. My wife came down with a few co-workers and we joined the streaming exodus heading uptown toward the 59th street bridge. The mood was jovial, the tone light, and everyone was simply taking in the pure strangeness of the situation. Bars were dark but crowded with people drinking beers. Sidewalk vendors were doing a quick business, but not gouging anyone -- $1 for a bottle of water; the regular price. At the 59th street bridge we took the upper level, and the crowd essentially took over the right lane while cars inched along in the left lane. The lanes coming west into Manhattan were stopped dead, and I actually felt sorry for the drivers foolish enough to have decided to try and drive into Manhattan - they were going nowhere fast, and would be going nowhere any time soon. On the bridge there was absolutely no breeze, but a flock of news, police and other helicopters buzzed Manhattan likes seagulls behind a fishing trawler. We waived to the folks passing in the Circleline below on the East River... they saw us and waved back. More than a few women were walking in their socks, heels in hand, and on the other side of the bridge we saw a family trying to walk up against the human tide into Manhattan, each one wheeling a large red suitcase behind them. Good luck was my thought. Once off the bridge the crowd seemed singleminded in heading up Queens Blvd., but we'd had enough of the slow pace and decided if we were ever going to make it home we needed to pick up the pace. Cutting a block over we found the sidewalk nearly empty and started the long trudge east. Passing Greenpoint avenue most of the small stores and delis were open, but controlling access. We bought some cherry Italian ices, which definitely hit the spot and keep on walking. Meeting up with Queens Blvd again the crowd was quiet, tired and very sweaty. A number of families living nearby set up little water booths on cardboard cartoons and handed out free glasses of water to passers by. The police started to make appearances, but I still hadn't see any car accidents, and Queens Blvd. is known as the Blvd of Death here in NY for the numerous pedestrian fatalities that occur each year. (Maybe fewer traffic lights are the answer?). At LeFrak City, near where Queens Blvd hits the LIE we split off onto Woodhaven Blvd and headed south. The crowd had thinned, but was still walking, though at time point my feet were killing me and I could definitely feel a blister or two. At this point we'd been walking about 2.5 hours. After another 1/2 hour it was starting to get dark and we had roughly another two miles to go and were bushed. I popped into the street, stuck my thumb out, and in a few minutes we were sitting in the back of this guy's Jaguar. He dropped us off a few blocks from home and kept on going to see if he could find his wife. Everything was completely, obviously, dark at this point, and the nearly full moon hung in the south east sky, with a brilliant Mars off to its right. Out came the candles, the propane lantern, the battery radio, and the blackout of 2003 began. Friday, August 08, 2003
GOTHAM'S DEEPENING HOLE NY Post, August 8, 2003 -- "Quite simply, it's wrong to structure something aimed at getting the city $170 million that's going to cost the taxpayers of this city and this state over $5.1 billion to refinance debt that was incurred in 1975. In 2033, taxpayers in New York City will be paying off debt incurred in 1975. There's a better way." - Gov. Pataki, explaining his opposition yesterday to a plan to relieve New York City of $2.2 billion in debt, currently scheduled to be repaid in five years, by shifting it to the state, stretching payments to 30 years and incurring some $2.6 billion in additional interest costs Thursday, August 07, 2003
At least the rats are doing well here in NYC. From the New York Times A Detested Emblem of Decay Is Scurrying Back. Ah, Rats!By COREY KILGANNON Even for New York City, it was a bizarre specter: a firehouse closed because it had been taken over by rats. They had invaded the firefighters' kitchen and lounge and the chief's office, and seemed only to grow in number and boldness, despite copious use of rat poison. On Tuesday, the city temporarily relocated the firefighters and ordered that the house be gutted and rebuilt. But many residents, exterminators and politicians believe that the infested firehouse in Jamaica, Queens, is only part of a much larger citywide rat problem. The number of rat complaints received by the city has sharply increased lately. And city officials and exterminators say a combination of circumstances — from an underfinanced government abatement program to reduced recycling pickups to heavy rainfall — seem to have created a boom time for rats in the city. [more] Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Til Death do us Blog? I'm still not sure of what to make about this whole blogging frenzy. Here I'm writing this on one of the several blogs I run, with varying frequency, but do I care that this is a blog? Not really. Before this I just updated items on my various websites, so blogging, to me, is more like picking up a notebook PC and walking out to the backyard with it than it's some massive democracy-enhancing culture redefining experiment, as some maintain. Writing it writing. Ideas are ideas. But where I part companies with the drum-beaters is that I've never agreed that "knowledge is power", as the Sir Fracis Bacon maxim states. Rather, the right knowledge in the right place at the right time is power. Everything else is mere trivia. So if blogging, the web, or even smoke signals, helps get that information to the right place at the right time they're all rightly power conduits. Focusing on the semantics and method of blogging is like focusing on what guage wire your house is using. Unless is causes a fire, who cares? You care about the electrons moving through that wire. And that's all I have to say. Monday, July 21, 2003
Yet another stupid idea... The New York Daily News reports [here] that a report by economist Charles Komanoff and traffic engineer Brian Ketcham claim east river tolls are a good idea. I disagree strongly. NYC's five boroughs are balkanized enough already; adding tolls to the currently free crossings would add insult to the injuries already suffered by residents of Queens and Brooklyn with an additional cost to simply move from one part of the same city to another part. Granted there is currently NO free way to drive from Queens to the Bronx, or from Brooklyn to Staten Island, and indeed since Brooklyn and Queens are located on an island, there is NO free way to drive to any other part of the country. I think an argument, albeit one that would not survive rational basis review, could be made that ANY tolls on the route from Long Island to the rest of the country violate the dormant commerce clause. In short, the entire system in NYC is one massive shakedown from stem to stern. We need regime change here in New York City. Perhaps we can petition the British to come liberate New York state from itself. Just a thought. Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Tax Hike From Gotham Gazette... "Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed into law yesterday an income tax increase that raises the tax from 3.648 percent to 4.35 percent for single New Yorkers who make more than $100,000 and married couples whose combined income is more than $150,000. The "temporary" tax hike is retroactive to January 1 but will be phased out over the next two years and is scheduled to disappear entirely after 2005. It will raise $644 million for the city. "The burden of the increase falls on those taxpayers most able to afford the increase," said Bloomberg during the signing ceremony where only one member of the City Council showed up." [more] Tuesday, June 17, 2003
APPLE SPARES NO EXPENSE MAKING THIS LIST By LEELA de KRETSER, New York Post, June 17, 2003. June 17, 2003 -- New York is the world's 10th most expensive place to live - and the most pricey in the United States, a new survey says. But New Yorkers may not be getting their money's worth. The survey, by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, says that the quality of life of New Yorkers ranks only 44th worldwide. City residents don't have to travel far to find the second most expensive American city. It's White Plains. That's followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and San Francisco. New York did get a bit cheaper - relatively speaking. Last year it was seventh on the list. Tokyo won the dubious distinction of being the world's most expensive city. It's followed by Moscow; Osaka, Japan; Hong Kong; Beijing; Geneva; London; Seoul and Zurich. Want to live cheap? Move to Paraguay. Its capital, Asuncion, is the world's least expensive city. The annual survey compares the cost of more than 200 items in 144 countries. Housing and transportation costs were big factors in placing New York high on the list, said Mercer's international consultant, Rebecca Powers. Internationally, the two cities that offer the best quality of life are both Swiss and expensive - Geneva and Zurich, Mercer said. The exact rankings of quality of life in U.S. cities were not immediately available. But Mercer said at least five cities outscore New York - San Francisco, Honolulu, Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Boston. |
