Recent reports highlight the low value placed on consumers of public services in New York City relative to other interests, some outside the city. The New York Post reports that statewide 94.5 percent of core classes, such as English, math and science, were taught by teachers deemed by federal requirements to be highly qualified in their subject area, compared with 87 percent in New York City. The Daily News reports class sizes as high as 46 kids per class in schools attended by poor NYC kids, with most 30 or higher according to the data they cite. Also reported by the News, fewer, less qualified police officers as a result of the 40% reduction in starting pay. The Post says that in order to offset this, the city is allowing police officers to work massive overtime, further padding their pensions. This looks like failed state and local policy, but it is actually successful state and local policy. You wouldn't know this, because the News and Post fail to identify the winners.

There used to be a time in NYC when the life-formula for a working man was simply this: out of the four weeks a month that you worked, one week was to pay your rent. If you don’t believe me, ask some old-timer on your block. The other three weeks of the month, you worked to pay for utilities; other bills of living-like credit cards and higher purchases; food, clothing and entertainment costs; and then you saved a few dollars for a lil vacation somewhere (like to Atlantic City before the casinos came, or to some lil spot on the Jersey Shore during the hot summer); and finally, you put aside a few more dollars for a rainy day. Since it was always pouring for black people in general, you didn’t see too many of us on the Jersey Shore in summer, but you could have glimpsed some of us on the AC boardwalk from time to time.

To the person(s) who attempted to do a satire of this column, here on Room 8 over the Christmas holidays, let me say that imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery. Oh, sure I am pissed, but then I saw it as nothing but another thinly veiled attempt to ridicule me (as per usual) by my detractors on the blogs; needless to say, I blog on none the less. It never ceases to amaze me, when countless folks walk up to me at events and say how much they enjoy reading my blog. I am yet to encounter anyone who was hostile. So: happy New Year to all my detractors; and a happy, healthy, fantastic, wonderful and stupendously successful New Year to all my fans/lol.

So with all due respects to Letterman and his folks, here’s the top ten list of grapevine/ pumpkin-vine items:

Since I wrote part one of this column, I have had many phone calls and e-mails about it. It seems that Lou Fidler does have many friends in the black-community (not that I didn’t know this); and all those who contacted me assured me that Lew Fidler is not behind the candidacy of Harry Schiffman (40th council district/ special election/February 20th, 2007). So Lew, I will personally grant you the benefit of the doubt, even though some of my more militant political acquaintances (who just happen to be black/lol), seem to want to dig further into this Schiffman candidacy. To me however, let’s let sleeping dogs lie. Lew Fidler said that he is not behind it and I believe him.

Katherine N. Lapp has left her job as head of the MTA, Peter Kalikow will soon depart as head of the MTA Board, and Larry Reuter is moving on as head of New York City Transit. Lots of New Yorkers are bound to say good riddance, but mass transit is something I happen to know a good deal about, and I know better. The three are blamed for rising fares, service cuts, a three-day strike, and an upcoming fiscal crisis, because they happened to be around when the bills for past shortsighted decisions came due. Meanwhile, the people who made those decisions, and those who benefited from them, fail to take responsibility for their actions. As long as the public lacks the mental ability to connect problems in the present with decisions made in the past, the political class will always be tempted to sell out the future for the present. It isn’t these “villains” I blame for the ongoing financial problems at the MTA in the face of record ridership. It is past “heroes” who are actually to blame, some of whom are running for President.

In my current employment as a surveyor and describer of all things real estate across the country, I happened upon a news item which has induced me to renew my complaints against “affordable housing.” As long time readers here may recall, I believe that the government should provide services and benefits for everyone, or at least for the less well off, while “affordable housing” is necessarily made available to the fortunate few, often those with connections. There are urban legends, for example, that those in certain unions and political clubs were tipped off in advance when the lists of subsidized Mitchell-Lama apartments came open, showed up at the right time, and snatched up all the units. Those rental apartments are now the subject of political controversy, as buildings constructed in the late 1970s gain the right to exit the program – and rent stabilization – as their subsidies expire. But there was another aspect of Mitchell Lama, limited equity coops, under which apartment buyers agree to resell at lower prices in exchange for tax breaks. These coops are also gaining the right to exit the program, and sell for more, but the windfall in this case would accrue to individual apartment owners, not landlords. Let the morality tale begin!

On Wednesday, House Democratic leaders had their Capitol news conference disrupted by a group of anti-war activists led by Cindy Sheehan.

According to press accounts, Sheehan said "We put them back in power," she said of the Democrats. Passing out fliers calling for defunding the Iraq war, Sheehan shouted: "These are our demands. And they're not requests — they're demands."

The Governor's State of the State address didn't get down to the nitty gritty, and thus far I'm disappointed. We'll see what the budget brings. It is worth noting, however, that little more than half of NYC public school students graduate from high school in four years, nearly 20 percent of city residents live in poverty, and an unusually large share of NYC adults are not in the labor force. None of this was identified as a problem for the state. The diminished circumstances of Upstate New York, meanwhile, was identified as a problem in need of assistance. In the hard choices department, what was identified was the need to cut Medicaid spending, much of which takes place in NYC. Even if in the next decade the city becomes richer and the rest of the state poorer (it could very well happen that way), city residents should not forget the attitude of the rest of the state when we were poor. We weren’t “one state” then. We should be “one state” now, but the rest of the state should not be allowed to forget 40 years of hostility. Where would the NYC schools be today if the education bond act had passed in the mid-1990s, when the rest of the state voted it down because it would have benefited the city? That bond issue was in exchange for STAR, which diverts school funding away from the city to this day.

One thing about blogging that makes it attractive to many is the fact that you can sound off anonymously in the threads and not be called into account. There is no one to hold you responsible when the things you predict turn out to be “duds”; no one will castigate you when some of the outrageous things you claim are glaringly refuted. That’s unfortunate, but it’s the reality of the “blogosphere”. That’s why I use my name when I write: I want to be held responsible for what I say or predict. It’s the only honest and serious way to do this; it’s also the brave way to do this. To me, it’s also the right way to do it.

The last paychecks of the year are in, and looking at the withholding, it appears a non-existent tax absorbed more than 3 percent of our income. The NYC local income tax. How is that tax non-existent? It is non-existent politically, when people talk about who is and who is not overtaxed, and complain about their property taxes. Last time the Independent Budget Office looked, however, the total tax burden was higher for NYC residents than for residents of the rest of the state.