By The Editors 6/12 4:19pm

Race to Gracie Mansion 2013

Screen shot 2013-06-12 at 3.32.17 PM

55% of New Yorkers Can’t Name a Single Mayoral Candidate

So there’s this thing. It’s called a mayoral’s race. Heard of it? Any idea who’s running? If you can name a single candidate, you’re an outlier—55 percent of the New Yorkers we asked couldn’t. That’s one of the take-home messages from our Race to Gracie Mansion 2013 street polling project: very low awareness of the upcoming election. Only one candidate approaches broad name recognition, and it’s not for his policy smarts. Browse the full results here, and tell us who you plan to support.  Read More

By The Editors 6/11 8:55pm

books

Christine Quinn_memoir

On the Page: Christine Quinn and John Horne Burns

With Patience and Fortitude: A Memoir

Christine Quinn

(William Morrow, 256 pp., $24.99)

City Council speaker and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn insists that her new memoir—conveniently timed for release just as voters are starting to tune into the election—is intended to be personal, not political.

The volume provides an intimate account of Ms. Quinn’s childhood Read More

By Drew Grant 5/21 3:31pm

Hate crime

10 Photos

US-CRIME-PROTEST-GAYS

Photos: Thousands March in Memorial of Hate Crime Victim

(Photos via Getty Images)

Last night, New Yorkers came together to mourn the death of 32-year-old Mark Carson, a gay man who was shot in the head this weekend in Greenwich Village; the victim of an alleged hate crime. Crowds gathered at the LGBT Center on West 13th and marched to 8th Street and Sixth Avenue, the location of the shooting, where a rally/vigil was held to memorialize Mr. Carson and express the outrage of the city’s denizens. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 5/14 11:26am

Women's Health

Angelina Jolie. (Photo credit: Patrick McMullan).

Angelina Jolie Steals Christine Quinn’s Thunder in The New York Times

Mayoral candidate Christine Quinn, in an attempt to “try to soften her often rough-edged political image,” according to The New York Times, called up and gave The Grey Lady a big scoop: as a young woman, she struggled with bulimia and alcoholism.

But despite Ms. Quinn’s best efforts to win the news cycle, she couldn’t have known that she was up against Angelina Jolie, who unveiled big news of her own in an Op-Ed, that also ran in today’s Times, discussing her decision to undergo a preventative double mastectomy. Ms. Jolie wrote that she possesses a gene, BRCA1, that puts her at a high risk for ovarian and breast cancer. Read More

By Helaina Hovitz 4/30 6:06pm

The Transom

Christine Quinn at the Loebs' home.

NYC Cribs: The Homes of the Rich and Philanthropic

Last Monday, five NYC power couples—and one real estate tycoon—opened their homes for dinner parties as part of the Parties of Your Choice Gala for the Women’s Campaign Fund, a night that began as a politically charged reception but slowly morphed into a cross between Million Dollar Listing and MTV Cribs.

“Our research shows that Read More

By The Editors 4/30 5:55pm

Editorials

Rebellion in the Council!

The Observer reported last week that at least six City Council members are considering a legislative mutiny against Speaker Christine Quinn, the front-runner for the Democratic Party’s mayoral nomination.

According to The Observer’s account, the rebellious politicians may defy the speaker’s wishes by bringing measures she opposes to a floor vote. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 4/25 12:52pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio unveiled his housing platform today in Williamsburg, where housing prices have nearly tripled since 2004.

Bill de Blasio Unveils Affordable Housing Plan: 190,000 Units, Legalized Granny Flats and More

Until now, Bill de Blasio’s housing platform has mainly consisted of sniping at frontrunner Christine Quinn. But no longer: this afternoon Mr. de Blasio announced measures he would take mayor to curb what he calls the “full-blown crisis” of affordable housing. (Old habits, though, do die hard: Mr. de Blasio did take another shot at Ms. Quinn, saying, “Letting the real estate industry keep calling all the shots with our affordable housing policy isn’t going to deliver what working people need”—an allusion to her tax credits-for-affordable housing plan, which seems cribbed right from REBNY and Steve Ross’s proposals back in 2011.)

Mr. de Blasio started out, as all candidates do, with a promise for the number of affordable housing units he’d create: 100,000 “new affordable units,” plus preservation for “nearly 90,000″ others. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 4/11 12:31pm

Planes Trains & Automobiles

Ms. Quinn did not present a plan to expand New York City's subway system.

Quinn Wants Control of the MTA, But Why?

New York City mayoral front-runner and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn unveiled her mass transit agenda this morning. While she emphasized increased control for the city’s next mayor, Ms. Quinn had no new ideas.

Her headline proposal is to take control of the MTA back from the state. But taking over the MTA is a tall order, and to do it, she’ll need to prove that she has better ideas about how to run it than the state.

So does she? Read More