I kinda like Caroline Kennedy. Not that she would care if I do or don’t. In any case, I haven’t seen her for a dozen years—and before that only fleetingly. We first met when she was an undergraduate at Harvard in the late ’70s. She was the belle (or maybe not …) of my brilliant Read More
If you are of a certain age, you’ll remember the nights when an impossibly young Johnny Carson opened the Tonight Show with jokes about muggings in Central Park, transit strikes and Mayor John Lindsay.
Sure, it wasn’t the most pleasant of times in the city’s history, but Carson’s Tonight Show provided some needed Read More
During his 12 years as governor, Mario Cuomo was fond of describing dire circumstances not as a challenge, but as an opportunity.
His son, Governor Andrew Cuomo, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: the latest outbreak of scandal in Albany offers him a chance to force radical change in New Read More
James Dolan, the chief executive officer of Madison Square Garden, doesn’t always make things easy for those who wish to support his commitment to the city. Despite their respective playoff runs this year, the Garden’s two main attractions, the Knicks and the Rangers, haven’t exactly struck fear into the hearts of competitors during much of Read More
In the predawn hours one morning in late March, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed up at Michael Steinberg’s apartment on the Upper East Side and placed him under arrest. He was handcuffed and brought downtown to federal court, where he formally entered a not-guilty plea on insider-trading charges.
The knock on Read More
If you see something, say something. That paranoid punch line of a public service campaign has worked: nobody looks the same way at a stray backpack on the subway, and we just might call the cops.
Sadly, the same adage doesn’t apply to young American men and women watching guys strip and violate a drunken Read More
Leave it to the anti-Semitic maniacs in Tehran to bring President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu together.
The relationship between the two men can most charitably be described as complex. But during Mr. Obama’s recent visit to Israel, the president and the prime minister were able to focus on an issue that binds Read More
The City Council thinks it knows what’s ailing the Police Department. It needs greater oversight. It needs another layer of bureaucracy in its command structure—an inspector general.
Somebody really needs to remind council members that the NYPD has built-in accountability and oversight. The mayor appoints a police commissioner, who serves at the pleasure of the Read More
New York has been advertising itself as a business-friendlier state over the last few years. The cheery television commercials have been hard to miss—they tout job creation in the state and other positive changes that have coincided with Andrew Cuomo’s election as governor in 2010.
The claims are beginning to sound as empty as an Read More
Last year, when the cops who were part of a street narcotics unit shot and killed unarmed teenager Ramarley Graham in the Bronx after kicking in the door to his grandmother’s apartment, it was a clear-cut case of police failure. But it never became a citywide story, let alone a national cause.
By contrast, the recent shooting of 16-year-old Kimani Gray in East Flatbush led to days of scattered street violence, an Occupy influx, extended posturing on MSNBC and widespread press coverage.
The difference this time? An election, and post-Bloomberg anxiety. Read More
