Category: News and Opinion

Sometimes the one way to make everyone angry is to take the most sensible position. Take Atlantic Yards. The arena would provide Brooklyn a real public benefit, and whatever one thinks about the adequacy of the percentage of “affordable” housing in the project, I defy anyone to find any developer who’s ever done any better. Yards opponents say they aren’t against an arena, they just think the Yards (easily accessible to half the City’s subway lines, as well as many bus transfer points), is an inferior location compared to putting an arena in the Brooklyn Navy Yard (a mass transit desert located in a flood zone). And they are all for development of the Yards (a deep hole in the ground, whose conversion costs have scared away nearly everyone), but just oppose any plan likely to be viable there. But the Yards plan’s opponents are fundamentally right that the Ratner plan proposed for development is just too damned big, and that the only response Yards plan supporters have given to questions concerning how we will evolve solutions to the seemingly insoluble problems the project presents is “if you build it, they will come”. Pardon my skepticism.

Rock Hermon Hackshaw

The 20th Senatorial District mainly covers pieces of Crown Heights, Flatbush, Kensington, Clinton Hill and Park Slope. It is roughly 63% black, 18% white, 13% hispanic and 6% other. For about two decades, current Borough President Marty Markowitz was the incumbent. When Marty was elected  Boro Prez in 2001, a special election to fill the created vacancy, saw Carl Andrews (Dem.) defeat Frances Purcell (Rep.); he successfully defended the seat later that year, in a primary election against Wellington Sharpe and  Mickey  Haller. Last year Andrews had no primary challenge, and we really don’t have to discuss what happens in Novembers in this district. It’s a foregone conclusion that once you have the Dem. party line, you win the general election.

Most New Yorkers only notice local judges when there is a very high profile case. Which partially explains why so few voters take part in the only elections where they have a direct say in choosing judges. Over the years, I’ve found that even many people working in politics are poorly informed about the election of Civil Court Judges and the many ways it differs from other elections.

So, here’s a  primer on the confusing system.

There are five types of local judges in New York City. Only the Civil Court and Surrogate Court judges are selected directly by voters in Party primaries and then in General Elections. Surrogate judges are so few (just 7 in NYC) and their elections are even more different than others that I’m only going to write about Civil Court here.

I’ve long believed that one of the best ways to predict a politician’s future behavior is to get a handle on what their fundamental values are. In some cases, this is difficult, as the candidates have no values other than “what’s in it for me?” or “any weapon to hand”. Thanks to the fertile memory of Errol Lewis, voters in Brooklyn’s 20^th Senatorial District will have a chance to ponder deeply into the meaning of what State Senate candidate Eric Adams meant by comments which appeared in the March 26, 1995 edition of the New York Daily News, and once digested they may want to ask what those statements indicate about the values Mr. Adams embraces.

In the spring, it is said that a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. In New York City politics, however, the change of seasons is more likely to bring upon thoughts of endorsements by political clubs. In reality, the young man’s fancy is less likely to be focused upon hearts and flowers, and more likely to be concentrated upon the ways and means of getting laid. In reality, the political club’s focus is less likely to be implemented by means of elevated debates about the great issues of public policy and political philosophy, and more likely to be focused upon the necessity of packing club memberships to ensure the desired results. In both scenarios, the likelihood is that someone is going to get screwed.  

Rock Hermon Hackshaw

Ten years ago, Bill Clinton signed into law an anti-terrorism measure, that has turned out to be one of the worst pieces of legislation impacting on the Caribbean and Latin-America. One of its provisions included repatriating immigrants-both legal and undocumented- for  infractions here. It also expanded deportation programs which targeted those undocumented, even though undocumented aliens are amongst the most law-abiding (with the obvious exceptions, of course) of people living here. Within a year, some were deported for as simple a thing as jumping the subway turnstile in New York City. Initially, there were many who seemed to see no problem in all this, after all, if you are residing in a host country, it behooves you to obey the law – probably, even moreso than if you were still residing in the country of your birth. Well, not really. Only one country saw the deeper problem that this new policy would manifest. That country was Argentina.

From Saturday’s Daily News

The increases announced Thursday by the New York City Housing Authority average 10% to 44% over two years and would affect families with annual gross incomes of more than $20,000.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer agreed the hikes would be a hardship. "These are the poorest people in the city," he said.

Councilman Hiram Monserrate and some other Queens’ pols are seizing on the Independent Budget Office report that the city low-balled its estimates of the real cost to taxpayers of a new stadium for the Mets.

But don’t be fooled into thinking Monserrate and the others are friends of us taxpayers. Since the stadium is going to cost more than advertised, the pro-taxpayer position would be to fight to cut the City’s subsidy to the Mets. Instead these opponents to the Mets want to increase the amount of taxpayers’ dollars spent by forcing the City and the Mets to spend more on “community benefits”. Remember a fact not mentioned by the pols that are trying to shake down the Mets is that every dollar the Mets spend on Little League diamond that Monserrate wants is tax deductible!