Recchia endorsed Bloomberg for re-election, sat right next to him when he signed the law extending term limits, and is generally an ally of the mayor's administration.

Recchia, as I and others have noted, is particularly close to Bloomberg, especially when compared to one of the other leading candidates for the job, Lew Fidler. Liz says there's room for the Bronx to make a play for the job, if Carl Heastie rolls up his sleeves and gets lucky.

Recchia's spokeswoman said he's in back-to-back meetings and unable to talk. Bloomberg's spokesman reiterated that they have policy of not commenting on private conversations.

Oliver Koppell, a City Councilman from the Bronx, didn't offer much insight. I spotted him walking out of Council Speaker Christine Quinn's office this afternoon and asked him if he knew anything about the committee assignments.

"I'm not at liberty to say and I don't have an opinion," he said. When I asked if he'd be happy with anybody as finance chair, Koppell said yes.

Above is a screen capture from one of the videos, shot by City Council candidate (and blogger) Rock Hackshaw.

A reader with firsthand knowledge of one of the videos called to alert me to their appearance on the Web site. This person said the videos were filmed yesterday at the NBC studios at 30 Rockefeller Center and supposed to be published weeks from now.

Up on webcastr.com , for now at least, are videos from Oliver Koppell, Larry Seabrook, Peter Vallone Jr. and others.

Enjoy.

UPDATE: Links to the videos remain on the web site, although the videos themselves seem to have been removed. Oh, well.

It was Oliver Koppell, who represents the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The twelve other committee members in attendance voted in favor. The vote was taken earlier this morning.

The two holidays are Eid Ul-Fitr and Eid Ul-Adha.

(Via Gotham Schools.)

UPDATE: Here’s video of Simcha Felder voting yes on the legislation. He also said that in principle, he objects to public schools closing for any religious holiday, but that since the practice is in place, now, it should be applied uniformly.

The past several weeks we once again saw the Mayor at his best and at his worst.  At his worst, he berated a NY Observer reporter who raised the issue of term limits. At his best, he demonstrated the political courage to experiment with banning cars from parts of Times Square and Herald Square, and pushed hard, if unsuccessfully, to get  the City Council to tax plastic bags.

Taxing Plastic Bags:

The Mayor would like to tax plastic bags to generate revenues and to lower expenses by reducing the volume of solid waste. Every bag that’s tossed in the garbage adds to the city’s waste disposal bill. On May 29, Celeste Katz and Frank Lombardi reported in the Daily News that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was opposed to the tax. In their piece they quoted a number of City Council members, several of whom did not even have the guts to go on the record:

"We just don't want it," said one Brooklyn Council member, who asked not to be identified because the budget negotiations are supposed to be confidential. "It's just another tax on working people."   "There's extreme resistance on our side of the building [the Council side of City Hall]," said another member. "For me, it's a nickel tax on food."  Councilman Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx) said: "I personally support it [the fee] because I want to discourage the use of plastic bags.  "Consumers can avoid the fee by bringing their own bags or using paper bags. But the speaker is not a supporter. She's taking a position that is popular with many of the members."  

Koppell is, of course correct. This is a tax that can easily be avoided by asking for paper bags, or bringing your own bag when you shop. Plenty of grocery stores have already begun to sell canvas shopping bags and even without the tax, you see these cloth bags more often than before. The plastic bag tax is really a convenience tax. In a sense it is similar to the deposit on beverage bottles. Many people simply toss the bottle in the garbage and can’t be bothered to return it for deposit. Poor people scavenge garbage bags for bottles, but still, many deposits are never recovered.  There are some differences between bottle deposits and the tax on plastic bags.  While bottle deposits can't be avoided, the nickle tax on plastic bags can be saved by bringing a bag with you. The idea that this is a tax on food or the working poor is completely absurd. This is the City Council at its inexplicable worst. This is Mayor Bloomberg cleverly combining revenue generation with a sustainability agenda. While in the end he had to give in on the plastic bag tax, you get the feeling that we might see the proposal come up again some time in the future.

Banning Cars from Times and Herald Squares:

According to the Department of Transportation web site: “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan are beginning a pilot program, "Green Light for Midtown," to reduce traffic congestion throughout Midtown Manhattan via targeted improvements on Broadway, focused at Times and Herald Squares.”   The plan, which was put into effect the day after Memorial Day, closes two sections of Broadway to vehicles, from 47th to 42nd Streets and 35th to 33rd Streets.

According to the Department of Transportation, over 356,000 people walk through Times Square each day, and even though “there are 4.5 as many people as vehicles, only 11% of the space is currently allocated for pedestrians.” While the change is not popular with some cabbies, most of the initial reaction has been positive.  The Bloomberg Administration considers it an experiment and will evaluate its impact on people, traffic and business—before deciding whether to make the street closings permanent.

Sustainability as Smart City Management:

What is characteristic about the Bloomberg Administration’s approach to sustainability management is that it typically involves reducing environmental impacts while creating economic wealth. In addition to reducing pollution and the use of natural resources, they focus on cost effectiveness and the impact on New York’s businesses, residents and visitors. This is not environmental protection for its own sake, but sustainable development with the goal of improving the city’s economic well being and quality of life. Two of the goals of New York City’s sustainability plan illustrate this point: 1.) Planting a million trees reduces our carbon footprint, but also makes the city cooler in the summer and a more pleasant place to be. 2.) Making sure that a park is within a ten minute walk of everyone who lives here does the same thing, while raising the value of real estate. Times Square and Herald Square are ridiculously crowded for most of the day and night. During some times of the day it’s nearly impossible to window shop, or even hold a conversation,  as you’re carried along on a moving river of pedestrians determined to get to the next corner. It’s not clear how to fix the problem, but prohibiting cars and trucks is worth a try.

The ban on vehicles also makes the point that the city does not need to defer to the almighty auto in every instance. Sometimes pedestrians come first. In this incredibly dense place, one way to reclaim some space for parkland is to take it away from vehicles. Obviously, this must be done carefully and gradually, like the experiment in mid-town Manhattan. The path to a sustainable city is not a straight line. Public amenities, reductions in the waste stream, and energy efficiency are all important elements- and are all part of Mayor Bloomberg’s impressive sustainability effort. Now, if only he can figure out how to deal with reporters he finds annoying….

Speaking at a dinner in Riverdale last night, Dinowitz said electing Carl Heastie as the new Bronx Democratic leader was just the beginning of changes to come.

“With his leadership, I know there are going to be many more wonderful things happening in the Bronx. We got elections taking place this year. I won’t get into specifics , but, um, maybe there’ll be some changes in other district or districts for Council, for example,” Dinowitz said. “Not to name names.”

That got some oohs and aaahs from the crowd.

Later, Heastie assured City Councilman Oliver Koppell, “Oliver, I think Jeff was not talking about you.”

Dinowitz later told me he was indeed referring to Baez, who backed the former county leader, Jose Rivera, during the coup. Baez, at the time, also accused Dinowitz of “fighting, actually physically fighting with our delegates” during the county leader vote.

“Compared with all of the other options, we see this as the least bad,” said Commissioner Frieden, referring to the clinics.

Frieden told City Council members that funding “dramatic” anti-smoking campaigns correlates with a decline in the number of New Yorkers who smoke. Frieden said making cuts to that advertising campaign would result in “more deaths.”

Later, when asked by City Councilman Oliver Koppell, the commissioner admitted that the money the city receives from the state and federal government from an omnibus anti-smoking settlement is “not earmarked for any specific purpose.”

Koppell then said, “That money is used for budget balancing,” and wondered aloud, if, during a budget crisis, not smoking should return to being the “responsibility of the individual.”

Frieden maintained throughout the exchange that if the advertising campaign was reduced, “more people would die.”

Koppell is introducing legislation that would allow city lawmakers to serve three consecutive terms, instead of just two. Moltner is a spokesman for the group New Yorkers for Term Limits, which opposes an extension.

It's taking place on the morning of October 16th at Baruch College.

“To have a mayor that is knowledgeable about financial matters is good," Koppell said, referring to the very real possibility that Michael Bloomberg would seek a third term if the law were changed. "And we want the financial community to have confidence in the city as they’re making decisions in this very turbulent time.”

Speaking to me just now via cellphone, Koppell went on, “The members of this Council have faced the difficult fiscal times after 9/11 and we’ll be facing a similar situation in the next two years. We know we’ll have to bite the bullet and make difficult decisions.”

The city is in a fiscal crisis, Koppel said, and "it’s important to have experienced people in place to deal with that.”

Term limits was a major topic of conversation in the last couple of weeks, but so far no there's been no action.

I was on the floor of the Xcel Center when I heard about Koppell's bill, and asked Bronx Republican County Leader Jay Savino for his thoughts.

He called it a “slap in the face” for voters, because they twice approved the current law, which allows city lawmakers two terms, in referendums in the 1990s. He also said any lawmaker that supports extending the limit is "self-interested.”

When another delegate asked if Savino wanted to soften his remarks, since it's totally possible that Michael Bloomberg will support Koppell's bill, Savino waved off the suggestion and turned away.