Take The City And Run

According to Streetsblog, there was a transportation planner (also a Park Slope resident) in attendance at last week’s community board meeting who had a statement ready to read, but never had a chance to share it. If given the chance, he would have argued against converting 6th and 7th Avenues to one way streets and […]

I attended last night’s Brooklyn Community Board 6 Transportation Committee meeting. The turnout was impressive — the auditorium we were in wasn’t the biggest, but it was filled to capacity, which was probably somewhere around 150 people. But there were even more people outside in the anteroom to the auditorium — and, if I understood […]

As someone who lives in Park Slope, between 7th and 8th Avenues, I’m really against the Department Of Transportation’s proposal to make 6th and 7th Avenues one way streets. I like my neighborhood the way it is now and don’t really understand the claim that making those avenues one way will make them safer for […]

I’ve been following the problems in Brooklyn’s 40th District since the special election there a few weeks back with awe at how ridiculous the situation has become. A quick summary of the problems as I understand them:
Does Matthieu Eugene even reside in the district he was elected to represent? Or did he when he was […]

So, the gist of this seems to be that Joe Bruno is upset that David Grandeau, “the executive director of the soon-to-expire state lobbying commission and a onetime F.O.B. (Friend of Bruno),” has made attempts to actually do his job. Well, no, that’s not entirely fair. Bruno is likely more upset by the fact that […]

According to The Empire Zone, Anthony Weiner “has filed papers with the State Board of Elections in preparation for a mayoral run in 2009.”
Lots of people have been hinting that they’ll run lately. As of now, I’ll probably support Weiner based on how much he impressed me in the 2005 primary — I still really […]

This article in the NY Times points out that Theodore Roosevelt was in a similar situation to that of Spitzer:
“Roosevelt came in saying he was going to be a reform governor,” Mr. Cunningham said. “He immediately got into a fight with Senator Platt, the head of the Republicans, a powerful political boss in the […]

NY Times: A Member Of The Club:
With yesterday’s choice of a new comptroller, the New York State Legislature failed to select the best candidate for the job.
[…]
The choice is a setback for a legislature that is already considered one of the worst in the nation — and a further sign that its members are […]

According to Room Eight, Eliot Spitzer is talking the talk:
“You win some, you lose some,” my source reports Spitzer said. “But those you lost to should know that a knockout punch is coming.”

Daily Gotham makes a good point:
One thing I’d like to note, lest it get lost in the ruckus surrounding Shelly Silver and Joe Bruno’s Comptroller stupidity: new Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith stood up on the right side here. As described in the Albany Times-Union editorial:
But then there was the Democratic minority leader of the […]

Well, they went and did it. The key sentence of the article, speaking about the Assembly:
Instead of a popular vote, or the open process that the Legislature agreed to conduct last month, Mr. DiNapoli was chosen in a closed-door meeting of Assembly Democrats this afternoon.
So our new comptroller was chosen by a group who […]

The Empire Zone has some interesting info about the bad luck of NYC mayors who have aspired to higher office. Doesn’t bode well for Giuliani’s or Bloomberg’s chances.