Observer » Wayne Barrett

Let the Great Work Begin: Will New York Heed Sandy’s Wake Up Call?

Kevin Baker — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:28:39 -0400

Photo illustration: Ed Johnson

The great thing about living in New York used to be that you didn’t have to give a damn about the natural world.

Sadly, those days seem to be gone. Even in my neighborhood, which was lucky enough to be high and relatively dry, things began to resemble a zombie movie by last Wednesday. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, hordes of Upper West Siders staggered about the sidewalks, searching for brunch instead of brains: “Rrrrrr ... smoked fish ... rrr ... hollandaise!”

Now, it seems, we’re all ready to give ourselves a big pat on the back for how we weathered the storm.

Not so fast. Yes, the firemen, cops and emergency workers deserve all the gratitude their weary bones can carry. Yes, plenty of average New Yorkers helped their friends and neighbors.

But as for the institutional response, public or private ... Sorry, but 85 dead and counting, over $60 billion in damages, a subway system still not fully operational a week after it shut down, massive blackouts throughout the region, days of gas-line fistfights and raging fires in Queens just doesn’t add up to a good response. (Note to ConEd: when a piece of equipment that’s absolutely vital to keeping the lights on blows up in the first hours of a storm everyone was predicting for days ... you’re not doing your job.).

New York has been under assault, human or otherwise, pretty continually for almost 20 years now. And yet the response of our leaders remains basically reactive.

Yes, it’s nice that FEMA is now run by people with detectable brain patterns, and that Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg have become staunch believers in climate change. But more needs to be done—much more. And it is probably up to us to do it.

IT’S NOT THAT NO ONE could see this coming. Scientists have been talking about global warming for a generation now. The dean of the city’s investigative reporters, Wayne Barrett, warned five years ago that Bloomberg deputy Dan Doctoroff was deliberately and grossly minimizing the possible effects of hurricanes and rising sea levels in putting together the administration’s much-vaunted blueprint for the future, PlaNYC.

Nonetheless, the Bloomberg administration did all it could to promote massive new developments in nearly every part of the city that ended up underwater last week: the West Side of Manhattan, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, the Queens riverfront, Red Hook, the Rockaways. And plenty more is coming. Remember watching the flood waters sweep over Coney Island? Thanks to an elaborate masquerade the city played with developers, Coney was rezoned two years ago to allow the development of 30 30-story buildings. That’s enough luxury condos to spark a financial crisis as well as an environmental one.

And while global warming is new, New York has been bedeviled by similar weather patterns throughout its history. In the past, we generally managed to learn something from them. The question is if we’ll do so again.

Back near the end of the last Little Ice Age, fierce winds off the Atlantic frequently combined with cold fronts from Canada to batter the city. The “hard winter” of 1779-1780 brought snowdrifts 18 feet deep and a record low temperature of 16 degrees below zero, and froze the harbor solid for five consecutive weeks. New Yorkers adjusted by harvesting the waterways for ice to get them through the summer, and turning them into roadways to get out of town. In the winter of 1821, they even set up makeshift taverns on the Hudson to attract the foot traffic crossing to Jersey.

In March of 1888, a cold front combined with—surprise, surprise—heavy winds off the ocean to suddenly turn a warm spring rain into a howling snowstorm. “The Blizzard of ’88”—or as it was known at the time, “The Great White Hurricane”—became shorthand for natural disaster. In the city, some 40 inches of snow fell, and severe flooding and conflagrations swept New York. The fires alone caused $25 million worth of damage, or more than $600 million in today’s money.

When temperatures dropped to 6 degrees—the coldest ever recorded here in March—the region came to a standstill. New York’s vast webs of telegraph and telephone wires were encased in ice and its many elevated railroads ground to a halt. More than 200 New Yorkers died, some of them freezing to death in the street.

In response, the city began to bury its wires, cables and trains, and professionalized its street-cleaning department. But today, the city’s underground is more vulnerable than ever.

So what to do?

The good news is that many very smart people have already spent a good deal of time thinking about this. Some of their ideas were all over last Sunday’s New York Times, ranging from gigantic, high-tech solutions—vast barriers or gates to seal off much of the city at key chokepoints—to incredibly inventive, low-tech solutions, such as “absorptive streets,” or natural barriers of marshes and oyster beds.

The bad news is that they require leadership and money to be implemented. Neither is likely to come from Washington anytime soon. So we’ll have to do it ourselves. A special tax on, say, stock transactions, or luxury items, or the very highest incomes might raise enough cash—though the usual suspects are likely to balk at a tax for even such an urgent and worthy purpose.

So here’s another idea. Once upon a time, when no government would shell out the money for a pediment on which to place the Statue of Liberty, a newspaper started a campaign to raise the money through thousands of individual donations. In exchange for donations of as little as a penny, Joseph Pulitzer would print their names in the pages of the New York World.

Maybe some newspaper today could start the “Keep Lady Liberty’s Head Above Water Fund,” dedicated to not only preserving our city and region, but also to making it the hub of global climate research and solutions. (Then again, maybe someone else should take this on, given how busy newspapers are trying to keep their own heads above water.)

Our local universities could be persuaded to open new climate change centers, in exchange for the vast amounts of land and legal support we’ve given them lately. Abandoned or underused facilities, such as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or Governor’s Island or the Kingsbridge Armory could be devoted to this purpose. The unemployed could find work building these wondrous new projects. The Bloomberg administration could finally find a reason for its third term.

Of course, simply getting their names in the paperwould hardly suffice for people today. The enterprise I have in mind would operate as an investment fund. As the new technologies, devices and clean energy solutions we produce are put into place around the world—as they surely would be—each investor would get a return on his dollar, once the city’s safety is secured.

New York has been reacting to storms for almost four centuries now. It’s time we got ahead of the next one.

Wayne Barrett is Still Adjusting to Life Inside Tina Brown’s Head

Kat Stoeffel — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:06:52 -0400

Is there any greater indignity than seeing Wayne Barrett's byline at the Daily Beast?

Yes. It is hearing about his assignments from Tina Brown--the magazine editor of our lifetime, as he calls her--in this incredible NY1 profile that we have no idea how to embed.

"The first assignment I got was to do a piece about Kabbalah. I get an email from one of her editors saying we want you to do a piece on Kabbalah corruption," Mr. Barrett remembered. "I come downstairs and I say to Fran, 'I think they're sending me to Kabul!''

"She wants me to do deal with what's in the front of her mind, not my own mind, so it's been a bit of an adjustment," he said of the transition from the Voice to Tina's Beast.

Or how about this one: "If I'm writing about Eric Schneiderman, am I ever going to get more hits than somebody writing about Lindsay Lohan? I don't think so."

"I don't know why I left the Voice, I'll probably never know why, but I've always wondered whether or not hits had something to do with it."

Here are some other things we learned:

He hunts and pecks.
He is intrigued by what he calls "fact patterns."
He does not use cell phones.
Or ATMs.
Or movies.
Or novels.
Mario Cuomo offered to be his wife's divorce lawyer. (They are still together.)
He got assaulted in Puerto Rico.

Meet Harry Siegel, New York’s Newest Columnist

Azi Paybarah — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:35:31 -0400

If there is one hire that signifies the changing of the guard moment we're witnessing in the New York media scene, I'd argue it's the Village Voice's hiring of Harry Siegel, which they announced yesterday afternoon.

Siegel will be their new city columnist and is taking over the space filled, admirably, by Tom Robbins, who is now teaching the next generation of reporters over that the CUNY graduate center. (Robbin worked alongside investigative reporter Wayne Barrett who left in January, after more than three decades at the paper, for a job at the Daily Beast and The Nation Institute.)

But don't let Siegel's age -- 33 -- fool you.

Siegel, a Brooklyn native, combines the historical perspective of a much older veteran (ask him what he was doing in the early and mid 1990s!) with the intelligent irreverence of an annoying hipster (he once demanded the New York Times write a correction after they reported that the New York Press endorsed Fernando Ferrer in the 2005 mayor's race. Even a casual reading of the endorsement -- written by Siegel -- would see he was kidding).

I probably would still be saying this even if Siegel wasn't an old friend and colleague of mine from the New York Press days.

And, in a Gchat interview yesterday (what should we call that kind of thing?), Siegel said he's eager to write a weekly column and, somewhat less reliant on using the blogging format as a way to make his mark on the scene.

Harry Siegel: Hey man

Azi Paybarah: yo. congratulations

Harry: Thanks

Azi Paybarah: all right, first things first.

what's the name of the column going to be and the name of the blog?

Harry Siegel: Funny, but b/c of Voice style, the name of the column will be

Harry Siegel and for blogging.

I'll be contributing to Runnin' Scared.

Azi Paybarah: you had more creative names back in the NY Press Days

Harry Siegel: Azimandias!

Azi Paybarah: ssshhhh about that.

So, will this be a reprisal of the NY Press you were building not too long ago,

or are you picturing something different for this

- what do we call it? - column / blogging operation you're doing?

Harry Siegel: This is going to be a straight column, so

I think comparing it to what I was doing as an editor at the Press is apples and oranges.

And while I'll be blogging some, I'm really excited about the weekly column part --

-- it's a form that still packs a real punch when done right, and I is under-represented these days as the blog/instant news cycle model has ascended.

Excited to have a chance to hold and develop thoughts and stories, and to give them context

Azi Paybarah: despite your youthful age (33 is still young, right?),

you've been around for a while.

what's your take on the NY media and how it's been covering Bloomberg? Because, you know, sadly, we don't have columns from Joyce Purnick, or Clyde Haberman, or even the ideologically consistent New York Sun, or, needless to say, Village Voice veterans Wayne Barrett and Tom Robbins.

Harry: there is big hole to fill in institutional knowledge. DC has gained at NY's expense --

so just looking at the New Yorkers at Politico: Ben Smith, and Gregg Birnbaum, and Glenn Thrush, and Maggie Haberman, and Edward-Isaac Dovere, and Allison Silver (formerly Nia, who is now at the Post) and Reid Epstein of Newsday. And, until recently, me.

I'm sure I'm missing a few people, but you get the idea.

So yes I think there's space here, especially for columnists.

I'm not sure who writes long form about New York who really captures the city and its voice these days.

And yes, I am 33.

Azi Paybarah: think you'll score a Bloomberg interview?

Harry Siegel: Lol

I hope so, we'll see

But I also think there's a lot to be said for looking at fundamentals, rather than personalities.

And being sure what access you do have pays off in terms of information, which ain't always the case

Azi Paybarah: any advice for blogging junkies like me, who, in some ways, are now sharing turf with you?

Harry Siegel: Hmm -- gimmie 1 sec to think about that

Azi Paybarah: in the meantime, let me try another way into the question!

what are the strengths of writing a weekly column, rather than, say, a constantly updated blog?

Harry Siegel: Dangerous to say before actually doing the column - but hopefully, I'm going to find out.

Thinking about it beforehand, I hope it's a chance to have things whole cloth, rather than in ever smaller news bits that can create proportional tricks, and defy contextualization.

Like DH Lawrence said about Joyce and Wolfe, as best I remember: It's like they're taking consciousness and ripping it up into finer and finer bits until they can only be distinguished by smell.

Mostly I hope that having access to Runnin Scared means I can blog a good deal when there's news,

but avoid the churnolism regular blogging tends to encourage

Azi Paybarah: aaaand end scene.

Sharpton Defends Obama From Jackson, Smiley, West

Azi Paybarah — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 19:31:50 -0400

Wayne Barrett provides some important context for the Obama-Sharpton alliance:

President Obama’s extraordinary embrace of Reverend Al Sharpton last week has as much to do with the president’s antipathy for three other black leaders—Jesse Jackson, Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley—as it does with any genuine White House enthusiasm for the controversial New York preacher. Unlike Sharpton, who actually sat in the front row at Obama’s December announcement of the deal to extend the Bush tax cuts, Jackson, West and Smiley have criticized the president’s centrist tilt, alienating themselves from the administration.

[skip]

By taking on these critics, Sharpton has become Obama’s go-to black leader, dispatched as a surrogate to several 2010 swing states by the Democratic National Committee, and ostensibly getting ready for a similar role in the 2012 race. Obama appears unconcerned about the ways Republican operatives used Sharpton in television commercials to taint Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

[skip]

Ironically, Sharpton for years has had an arrangement with New York mayor Mike Bloomberg similar to the one he now has with Obama—never criticizing what is widely seen as the whitest management team in modern city history and enjoying access at City Hall.

Did Schumer Leak the Obama-to-Paterson News?

Reid Pillifant — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:39:27 -0400

Wayne Barrett isn't happy with the way he was quoted this weekend in a Post profile of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. He thought his comment about how Mr. Cuomo is "great at dropping stinkbombs" was off the record, and he says the idea that Mr. Cuomo goes through these "rehab periods" was an amalgam quote of the reporter's question and Mr. Barrett's reply.

But the most interesting part of Mr. Barrett's long explanation on the Village Voice blog (six research assistants are credited) might be his parenthetical speculation about who might have leaked the Obama-Paterson story to the press. One Times' source was described as "a prominent Democrat who discussed the matter with a senior White House official," which Mr. Barrett says could be Andrew Cuomo--but could also be Senator Chuck Schumer.

In parentheses, Mr. Barrett notes that Schumer is known to have regular conversations with the White House, and his absence from any of the Obama-Paterson stories is "as good an indication as any that the ordinarily effusive senator is at the quiet center of it."

With Mr. Schumer's Senate protege, Kirsten Gillibrand, facing an uphill battle against several prospective Republicans next year, it makes a certain amount of sense.

Reporters on the Evolution of the Bloomberg Identity

Azi Paybarah — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:41:53 -0400

There's been a lot written and said about Michael Bloomberg's relationship with the media and how he's perceived publicly. Here's an extended, longer-view look at what reporters were thinking and saying about the mayor before the most recent assessments.

It's video just posted online from an April 22, 2009 panel discussion at the New School, entitled "Michael Bloomberg's Transformation." It's hosted by Dominic Carter of NY1, and the panel includes Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice (whose article on Bloomberg inspired the panel), Errol Louis of the Daily News and WWRL, Joyce Purnick of the New York Times and Robert George of the New York Post.

At the 21:36 mark, Purnick says the city is getting used to the mysterious billionaire they elected mayor.

“Mike Bloomberg came in out of nowhere, we thought,” she said. She added, “To the average New Yorker, if he was a name, that was it. We knew he was wealthy. We have focus groups and polls to show this. The average New Yorker knew his name, sort of.”

She goes on to say, “The man that took the office on January 1, 2002 was relatively unknown and then he kind of had to learn to be a public figure. So, has he changed? I suspect not. Have our perceptions of and our understanding of him changed? Absolutely. And that is a function of the unusual way in which he became mayor. It was a fluke, in my view.”

Purnick adds, “So, we elected this guy in 2001 not really knowing who he was. And we’re learning.”

Thompson Subpoenas Bloomberg Administration

Azi Paybarah — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:13:46 -0400

Bill Thompson’s office has subpoenaed Michael Bloomberg’s administration and a private consultant over their refusal to turn over a report on the city’s efforts to boost contracts with women- and minority-owned businesses.

Thompson says he’s requested a copy of the report numerous times, but has not received it.

The subpoenas were sent to the Department of Small Business Services, and to the contractor, Milller3, based in Atlanta.

A spokeswoman for the S.B.S. did not immediately comment.

“My office has repeatedly asked for these reports for weeks, but has only met resistance,” Thompson said in a statement. “It begs the question: What is City Hall hiding?”

It’s an unusually aggressive move by Thompson, who has not issued many of these subpoenas during his time in office. It’s also unusual that the Bloomberg administration is refusing to turn over information. Bloomberg has made transparency and data-driven accountability a hallmark of his tenure in office, and he considers bringing both to City Hall among his major accomplishments.

Bloomberg’s record on boosting women- and minority-owned business was called into question in a lengthy June 2008 story by Wayne Barrett, who wrote that “it's not clear that anyone” at the Department of Small Business Services is working on this issue. The article goes on to quote officials like City Councilman James Sanders, who said, "I'm growing to believe that there wasn't an honest spirit" from Bloomberg on this issue.

UPDATE: S.B.S. spokeswoman Laura Postiglione emailed to say, “We received the subpoena yesterday and we intend to provide the requested documents today.”

“SBS has been working with the Comptroller’s office for more than nine months regarding this programmatic audit on the M/WBE program. We have fully cooperated during this entire process and we have provided the comptroller’s office with documents as well as access to files and interviews with our staff.”

What Reporters Think of Bloomberg This Time

Azi Paybarah — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:28:38 -0400

Michael Bloomberg’s transformation from the un-politician to icon of urban government is the subject of an April 22 panel discussion featuring the Times' Joyce Purnick (who is writing a book about him) and Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice, among other journalists.

An email from the organizers previewing the event asks, “Are the news media revising their views on Mayor Bloomberg in this election year?”

(Yes?)

Here are the details:

The Media and the Mayor:

Michael Bloomberg’s Transformation

Wednesday April 22, 2009, 8:30 to 10am

Theresa Lang Community & Student Center 55 West 13th Street (between 5th and 6th avenues), 2nd floor

Once he was described as an antidote to the old urban politics. Today he’s become an institution whose work could define a generation in government much like two other three-term mayors, Ed Koch and Robert Wagner. Are the news media revising their views on Mayor Bloomberg in this election year? Can he hold on to the winning image of an independent, effective reformer three times in a row?

WITH:

Wayne Barrett, Senior Editor, The Village Voice

Robert George, Associate Editorial Page Editor, New York Post

Errol Louis, Columnist and Editorial Board Member, New York Daily News

Joyce Purnick, veteran political columnist and reporter, The New York Times

Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, Executive Editor, El Diario/La Prensa

MODERATOR:

Dominic Carter, Anchor, "Road to City Hall," NY1 News

Admission is free but you must RSVP. Call 212.229.5418 or email centernyc@newschool.edu.

UPDATE: Relatedly, Purnick's publisher has an excerpt of the book online now. In it, she describes a scene at a private event in Idaho in 2008 where Bloomberg goes to Rupert Murdoch to ask for help.

The timing would seem to suggest he was looking for editorial support to extend the city’s term-limits law so he could seek a third term. The New York Times broke the news that Bloomberg had been meeting – not with newspaper editorial boards, but rather, newspaper owners – to win support for his plan.

Here’s the excerpt:

The weather that July week in 2008 was delightful, the company exclusive, the setting—an extravagant hideaway surrounded by Idaho's evergreen-rich mountains—as splendid as it gets.

Yet Mike Bloomberg, a regular at the elite, secretive retreat held in Sun Valley every summer for media and business tycoons, looked distracted as he walked the manicured grounds of the Sun Valley Resort with his companion, the tall, elegant Diana Taylor. He exchanged pleasantries with guests ranging from Warren Buffet to Tom Brokaw, surveilled the three heated swimming pools, teed off at the fine 18-hole golf course on the premises. But he was not happy.

The Mayor of New York had something on his mind, someone he wanted to see. And there he was, Rupert Murdoch, the media tycoon. Everyone eventually ran into everyone at the annual off-the-record "mogul fest'' in Idaho. Bloomberg rushed up to the bold but amiable Murdoch, who controls the powerful world-wide company that owns the New York Post. "We have to talk,'' he told Murdoch. Of course, he would be happy to chat, said Murdoch, a friend and long-time admirer of Bloomberg's. They'd have dinner when they got back to town.

What could account for Bloomberg's evident sense of urgency? The sixty-six-year-old mayor was frustrated. He had a problem he did not know how to solve and that was something new for him. Mike Bloomberg's life until then had been a study in making success out of failure and then more success out of already stunning success. But he had hit a solid wall. He did not like the sensation, did not accept it. He had a plan, and Murdoch would be part of it.

Wayne Barrett Meets a Fan at City Hall

Azi Paybarah — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:05:34 -0400

The Village Voice's Wayne Barrett, who's on a streak of writing critically about Michael Bloomberg and campaign manager Bradley Tusk, arrived at City Hall this afternoon and was greeted warmly by fan and City Councilman Bill de Blasio, who praised Barrett's work with some very colorful language.

De Blasio is running for public advocate, in part, he says, to act as a check on the mayor’s power.

For Inauguration, Bloomberg Floods the TV

Azi Paybarah — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:54:01 -0400

Michael Bloomberg--who did not make an endorsement in the presidential race--is going to be doing a lot of talking about Barack Obama in the next couple of days.

Bloomberg's office just sent out an updated schedule showing a round of television interviews with local TV stations, which an aide to the mayor said are on the topic of Obama's inauguration.

It provides a little more evidence for Wayne Barrett's theory that Bloomberg is trying to cozy up to Democrats before his re-election.

MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2009

5:00 PM Pre-Taped Interview Airs on CBS 2 News at 5 WCBS 2

5:20 PM Live Interview airs on Eyewitness News at 5 WABC 7

6:00 PM Pre-Taped Interview airs on 4 New York News at 6 WNBC 4

6:00 PM Pre-Taped Interview airs on Fox 5 News at 6 Fox 5

6:00 PM Pre-Taped Interview Airs on Noticiero 47 a las 6 Telemundo 47

7:00 PM Pre-Taped Interview Airs on NY1’s Inside City Hall NY 1