New York’s unions are sending their best and brightest to Wisconsin to assist in the effort to recall the state’s Republican governor, Scott Walker. That’s good news for New York taxpayers and developers. If the unions’ key players are fighting somebody else’s battle in Wisconsin, they will be even more out of touch with reality in New York. Read More
It has been nearly 20 years—17, to be exact—since Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan persuaded President Bill Clinton to sell Governors Island to New York for a buck. The transaction took place as the two men shared a helicopter ride over New York Harbor in 1995, just as the federal government was preparing to close its Coast Guard installation on the island.
In the years since, development of the island has been caught up in silly New York politics—a development which would not have surprised the late Senator, who, late in his life, was less than sanguine about New York’s ability to build memorable projects. Now, however, the island’s potential finally is being realized. Read More
Governor Cuomo and other reformers in Albany had reason to celebrate in the spring when the governor signed a landmark pension bill that experts say will save the state something like $80 billion over the next three decades.
Now, however, we’re beginning to understand that welcome as those reforms were, the state and the city still face a potentially catastrophic fiscal crisis if more radical changes to public pensions are not made soon. Read More
It would seem obvious—except that for many, it is not—that governments have every right to make sure that the benefits they distribute are going to the right people, and that those people are eligible to receive them.
For nearly two decades, New York City has been cracking down on food-stamp fraud by fingerprinting eligible recipients. The measure has saved millions of dollars. But it now appears that the program is doomed—Governor Cuomo has said he will put an end to fingerprinting food-stamp recipients and so remove what critics see as an unnecessarily harsh requirement for needed benefits. Read More
New York’s economy may be on firmer ground than, say, Michigan’s, but that’s not saying much. Statewide, the unemployment rate of 8.5 percent is nearly a half-point higher than the national jobless rate. In New York City, the unemployment rate is about 9.5 percent.
So now is not the time for politicians to pass an election-year increase in the state’s minimum wage, currently set at $7.25 an hour. Hikes in the minimum wage invariably lead to fewer new entry-level jobs, and that’s something the city and state can ill afford. Read More
Politicians, it seems safe to say, are not renowned for their familiarity with the truth. On the rare occasion when a politician blurts out something which is both verifiable and accurate, apologies and explanations often follow.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker should offer neither an apology nor an explanation for the truth he spoke during a television interview over the weekend. Read More
Gac Filipaj fled the war-torn Balkans in the early 1990s, as the former nation of Yugoslavia broke apart amid horrifying carnage. He came to New York, where he found work as a busboy. Before long, the onetime law school student got a job as a janitor at Columbia University—and if you think he wound up Read More
A recent article in The New York Times cast a much-needed light on the handling of child-abuse allegations within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Brooklyn and within the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. The report contained several disturbing revelations, including evidence that the families of some victims have been shunned within their community Read More
How and why President Obama chose to announce his support for marriage equality is far less important than the announcement itself. The top elected official in the land is now on record in support of same-sex marriage. Who says progress is impossible?
History may well take note of a satisfying political narrative implicit in the Read More
With the election of a Socialist, Francois Hollande, as president of France, successful French men and women no doubt are pondering their next step. Perhaps they are casting their gaze to the southeast, to the friendly Alpine confines of Switzerland. There, surely, their creativity will be appreciated, their success celebrated—and their wealth preserved. Or perhaps Read More
