Category: News and Opinion

Nearly 20 years ago I proposed that the U.S. Census Bureau conduct a Census of Non-Residential Real Estate by adding a couple of questions to the economic censuses, which are taken every five years. The way it conducts a Census of Housing by adding a few questions to its Census of Population and related surveys. The proposal got as far as a test survey, but was ultimately turned down for budgetary and “respondent burden” reasons. Bothering businesses in the deregulatory era was considered a crime, and subsequent requests five and ten years later also failed. While I was spending twenty years getting paid to accomplish nothing in the public sector, meanwhile, some folks founded a business to survey commercial and apartment real estate themselves, the company where I now work, and sell the results to investors and underwriters. It can’t afford to be as comprehensive as I had proposed, and surveys landlords rather than all the tenants for “institutional grade” real estate only, which for retail means shopping centers and not storefronts owned by and leased to moms and pops.

So props (whatever that means) to Congressman Anthony Weiner for his survey of 5,991 storefronts in the outer boroughs. It is useful information, but requires a little background to be understood. According to Weiner “the recession is forcing small businesses to close shop at an alarming rate.” No doubt it has had an effect. But this being New York there has been an immediate call for all kinds of special subsidies, deals and breaks, for retail stores, retail landlords, or both. Before we start dooming our future by borrowing more money, raising taxes on the less favored, or gutting public services even sooner and more completely than is likely in any event, let’s ask why most businesses close and why stores are vacant. For example, perhaps the stores are vacant because the landlords are demanding rents that are too high.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL: Yesterday, Gov. Paterson forced the topic onto the agenda by introducing a gay marriage bill and calling for speedy consideration by the Legislature. "This is a civil rights issue, and civil rights don't wait," said Paterson, flanked by Mayor Bloomberg and other political leaders.

Agree with Paterson or not, this is clearly an issue that deserves proper attention by the Legislature. This must be the time that the Legislature breaks with its secretive, boss-ruled way of doing business.

Some historians say that the Organization of American States is presently the oldest functioning regional organization in the world. That may be true. As a history buff, I generally hate to accept things as gospel; however there is evidence that this claim could be legit. If so, it is something to be proud of. 

Somewhere around 1826, Latin-American nationalist Simon Bolivar called for the creation of a regional body, with a multi-national parliamentary assembly, a mutual defense pact and a co-operative military arm. His vision was to unify Latin America against external aggressors and world powers (including the USA). 

Dear Tony: 

Let me get straight to the point and not beat around the george bush; my reputation -quite rightly earned- is that of a person who gives it straight with no chaser: so here goes.

Although I am personally going to wait for your announcement next month -as to whether or not you will run for mayor this year- many others are not going to afford you that luxury. Let me emphatically and unambiguously state that if you run, I will endorse you immediately. And yet, I still think you may have messed up with all this calalloo stuff, about waiting till the end of May to decide what to do (run for mayor or not). 

The Current Employment survey data has been rebenchmarked for this year, and the annual average data for 2008 has been released. Meanwhile with a recession underway and public money increasingly tight, politicians and lobbyists are once again spewing nonsense about where our tax dollars go, talking about anything and everything other than the categories of expenditure in which New York City and State are far above average, and on which spending has increased the most. And the news media is reporting some of the nonsense that is spewed, converting the press releases from PR people into stories. So I have decided to once again say the unsaid, since no one is paying me to say otherwise, in the hope that someone, somewhere will get it. And just in case there are some people who read my posts who can’t make sense of (or are bored by) tables of numbers, this time I am trying a simple chart.

In the attached spreadsheet the table and chart show 1990 to 2008 annual average employment, for New York City and the rest of the state; and for public schools, other local government, the substantially government-funded (via Medicare, Medicaid, and public employee and retiree health benefits) private health care and social assistance sector, and the rest of the private sector — the part generating the tax dollars that pay for all preceding. In the chart all of these are put in an index, with their level of employment in 1990 set to 100, so one can see how they have changed in the years since, in and of themselves and relative to each other. New York City is in black with solid lines, the Rest of New York State in gray with dashed lines, with different markers showing the different sectors. Hey media, want to present some facts? Please download the spreadsheet, print the chart, and read on.

Since I have gotten so many calls for a platform; and since many of you want to get my rationale for running; and since many of you have been using my lack of a public platform, as a basis for withholding your support (and money/lol) for my campaign for the New York City Council (District#40); I have decided to submit a first draft on some of the issues I feel strongly about. Do note that is not the finished product. Note also that I have deliberately withheld some aspects of my platform for some personal and minor tactical reasons. 

I haven’t talked about my view on term limits in the platform because I have written extensively about it. I am a supporter of term limits for ALL electeds (federal, state, city/local). I believe that the voters have spoken twice on the issue. If the immoral extension passed by some cowardly council members last year isn’t overturned by the courts soon, then we have to take it to referendum for the ratification of a 12 year (3 terms) limit in the next council (2010). We must also put into law that the methodology for overturning term limits in future has to be referendum (plebiscite). 

There are many people in New York who believe that the public defender’s office is antiquated and in need of repair: I concur. One of those working to change the status quo is a young community/political activist named Keith Kinch. Keith is well known in Brooklyn’s political circles (and all over the city for that matter), as one of those up and coming black under-30 activists that you should keep your eyes on. He is a hard worker for his cause. He also deals with politics from a hands-on place: he is unafraid to get directly involved in political races. He is intelligent, competent and personable. He is also a likeable chap (as they say in London/lol). 

If anyone is wondering why the previously-tolerant United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is suddenly desperate to sink charter schools, you need to remember what has been the most important decision about the New York City schools in the past decade, the one that has sealed the fate of the city’s schools for the next decade or two. Not the increase in charter schools. Not mayoral control. Not the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court decision. The most important decision is the shift from a teacher retirement age of 62 to a teacher retirement age of 55, with teachers then 55 or over at the time of its enactment not required to put in an extra dime, and those near retirement required to put in extra for just a few years. The result of that decision is a sweet deal for those cashing in and moving out, but will be devastating for New York City’s children – and for younger and future teachers (if the city can even afford to hire teachers to replace those who retire), particularly when the federal stimulus dollars expire. The city’s schools have been, in effect, re-Lindsayed, and will face a repeat of the 1970s as a result.

The UFT wants desperately to disassociate the pension deal with the coming consequences. So does the Bloomberg Administration, which agreed to the deal (why I don’t know). So do the Democrats and Republicans in the New York State legislature, who approved it unanimously. Charter schools, however, operating in the same city with less money but less of that money going to the retired, will be in a position to offer a better education and better pay and working conditions to those teachers actually on the job.  As the walls close in on the 25/55 pension deal, that is a comparison the UFT desperately wants to stop.

(UPDATE: The date of the barbecue has been changed to one week later: Saturday 16th May, 2009.)

Political seasons come and go; some call them “silly season(s)”, some call them other names. Some of the terms I won’t repeat here on this ‘family’ blog site/lol. I don’t call them anything other than what they are (and I will keep that a secret). I just try to have a lil fun during the stressful times, that’s all. You’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself folks: otherwise you will lose it. So; now that I am trying to juggle between running for the city council and blogging about things political in New York (and some other places sometimes), I keep getting my sanity tested near everyday. 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20833.html