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Christopher Brennan

By Christopher Brennan 11/30/12 7:32pm

Gay Marriage

Edie Windsor

At 83, Plaintiff in Gay Marriage Case Just ‘Wants to be Alive When She Wins’

Edie Windsor is used to waiting. Ms. Windsor was engaged for 40 years before her 2007 Canadian wedding to Thea Spyer. The pair waited 30 years to apply to be domestic partners, under a New York City law introduced in the 1990s. Now Ms. Windsor, 83, is waiting for the Supreme Court to decide whether to hear her challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, with a decision expected Monday morning.

Ms. Windsor is requesting a refund of the $363,053 in estate taxes that she paid to the IRS after being left all of Ms. Spyer’s property when she died in 2009. Had the pair been classified as married, Ms. Windsor would have been able to inherit the property shielded from taxes. Instead she was classified as if they had no relation to each other.

Ms. Windsor’s case has the potential to help strike down the definition of marriage in the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, where it is defined as between a man and a woman. If she wins, the federal government will recognize the marriages of same sex couples in states where gay marriage is already legal, resolving a currently conflicting definition between the federal and state governments. The district court decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case challenging California’s Proposition 8 that prohibited gay marriage, declared a broader right to gay marriage, but SCOTUS is viewed as more likely to take Windsor.

“I’ve been asked, how would I feel if we win?” said Windsor. “What would that mean? It would mean everything. The beginning of the end of the stigma.” Read More

By Christopher Brennan 11/26/12 6:24pm

The Neverending Story

From left: Dan Tishman, Paul Teutul Jr., Joe Daniels, and Governor Andrew Cuomo

Gold-plated Motorcycle Perfect Symbol for 9/11 Memorial, Sandy Recovery Says Cuomo

The press cameras started clicking when the chug of the motorcycle became louder and louder, nearing the room’s front entrance. Paul Teutul Jr., the mustachioed and baseball-hatted owner of biker merchandise company Paul Jr. Designs, revved and wobbled his motorcycle through the door up to the speech podium on the first floor of 90 West Street, a dowdy Financial District building not far from the Battery.

Mr. Teutul was soon joined by Governor Andrew Cuomo, World Trade Center contractor Dan Tishman and 9/11 Memorial president Joe Daniels. They all praised the return of the bike to its place in the 9/11 Memorial Visitor Center, which had come under four feet of water one month ago during Hurricane Sandy and had been the chopper’s home since October of last year. Read More

By Christopher Brennan 11/26/12 3:27pm

After Sandy

from the NYC Mayor's Office

Sandy Will Cost New York an Estimated $19 B., Mayor Wants Feds to Cover Half

As New York continues to grapple with closed subway stations and an overcrowded shelter system following Hurricane Sandy’s late October destruction, the City is looking for a little help from its friends in Washington. Mayor Michael Bloomberg sent a letter to members of New York’s Congressional delegation today, estimating the damage caused by late October’s superstorm at $19 billion in public and private losses. Read More

By Christopher Brennan 11/16/12 3:16pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Paul Rodriguez of Picture the Homeless. (Christopher Brennan)

As Sandy Creates Thousands of New Homeless, Advocates Draw Attention to Those Suffering Before the Storm

The winds of Hurricane Sandy caused massive damage to the New York area when it made landfall at the end of October. But the gusts of the superstorm blew more than just debris, dislodging New Yorkers from their homes and into a constellation of already full shelters. Yet in spite of the issue of overcrowding both before or after the storm, there may actually be large amounts of space to house people in the city.

Hoping to capitalize on the renewed awareness of homelessness and the dire situation in the city’s shelters, advocacy group Picture the Homelesss and a number of its allies held a rally Friday morning in Harlem to draw new attention to its regular reports on vacant properties in the city. Picture the Homeless has long argued that landlords across the city have left properties vacant while they wait for property values and rents to rise. The practice, known as warehousing, is legal, but it robs the city of precious living space at the same time.

“If you were able to pull out the money for Sandy, you were able to pull out the money before Sandy,” Raul Rodriguez, an organizer with Picture the Homeless, declared, criticizing the city’s failure to capitalize on rundown properties. Read More

By Christopher Brennan 11/12/12 5:12pm

recovery mode

by Spencer T Tucker

Still Recovering from Sandy, City Offices Fight the Good Fight on Veteran’s Day

While some employees may have off for today’s Veteran’s Day holiday, others have become veterans of the post-Sandy recovery effort.

Along with the traditional New York City school closings, several of the City’s offices were closed on Monday, such as the Department of City Planning and the Landmarks Preservation Commission, as might be expected on a federal holiday. But for offices dealing with the ongoing recovery effort from Hurricane Sandy, the holiday was just another day of trying to restore power, heat, and hot water to those still without it, another day to clean up and safeguard New Yorkers ravaged by the storm.

The Office of Emergency Management has been functioning nonstop since before Sandy made landfall two weeks ago, and that goes for today, too. “It’s 24 hour shifts around the clock no matter what day it is,” OEM spokeswoman Nancy Greco said. The New York City Housing Authority said in a statement that recovery efforts “are moving forward without regard to the holiday. NYCHA has maintained sufficient frontline staff and contractors to continue recovery efforts without interruption.” Read More

By Christopher Brennan 10/25/12 4:59pm

Human Rights

Guangcheng and Bale. (Michael Stewart/Getty Images)

Batman Endorses This Message: Well-Heeled New Yorkers Honor Barefoot Lawyer Chen Guangcheng

Standing in a Manhattan event space with cocktails and views of the Hudson, Chen Guangcheng was far removed from the countryside house that confined him for over a year and a half, before he captivated the world in April and May by escaping from house arrest in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, being taken in by the American Embassy in Beijing. Blind since childhood, Mr. Guangcheng climbed and felt his way past the guards posted around his home by the local authorities, who had imprisoned him for 51 months on charges largely considered to have been fabricated, before releasing him to his home. A self-taught, or “barefoot,” lawyer, he had irked the local authorities by legally challenging their unlawful land seizures, treatment of the disabled, pollution and incidents of forced abortions and sterilization to enforce the one-child policy.

The Chinese activist was surrounded by fellow lawyers on Wednesday night, though they were less likely to be from his village than from The Village, where, after some diplomatic tension between the U.S. and China, he now attends NYU Law School as a visiting scholar. Human Rights First, an organization that advocates the government for greater American leadership in fighting for global human rights, honored Mr. Chen at its annual awards dinner, held at Chelsea Piers’ Pier 60.  Read More

By Christopher Brennan 10/24/12 11:55am

Street Fighters Too

Carlin the kid. (WFMU)

Carlin’s Ghost: Priest Who Challenged Renaming Street After Comic Reluctantly Blesses Move

George Carlin, passed on in 2008—he would prefer died—but the celebrated, foul-mouthed comic will live around the corner from where he grew up in the 1940s, the 500 block of 121stStreet in Morningside Heights. After months of disagreement, Community Board 9 voted last week to rename the 400 block of 121st Street after the controversial comedian.

The vote, 25-4 with 3 abstentions, comes after months of disagreement. Perhaps fitting for a man with an album called Class Clown, Carlin is still riling up his Catholic grade school, Corpus Christi, which is attached to Corpus Christi Church on the block between Broadway and Amsterdam that was almost renamed. Rev. Raymond Rafferty, the pastor at the church, had protested naming the street where the school is located after a well-known atheist and opponent of religion. Read More

By Christopher Brennan 10/12/12 12:48pm

Tech Talk

Co-founders Alex Rowland and Norlin.

Tech Alpha-Males Hoot Amongst Selves at Alphabird Speakeasy—and Mom’s Friend Keeps Hatchlings Out of Harm’s Way

The Observer sipped its gin and tonic, watching as groups of middle aged men in tie-less suits mulled over the future of the internet—and their pocketbooks. The event was organized by Alphabird, a San Francisco-based company who is in New York in an effort to reach a mezzanine level of fundraising, and brought in a mish-mash of tech types, investors and start-up hopefuls to the dimly lit back section of The Tippler, a Meatpacking District cocktail bar. And, as expected from a gathering of people intent on profiting from the next viral video explosion, everyone had a lot to say—mainly about themselves.  Read More