"Tonight Show" and "Got Talent" Coming to NYC

"The Tonight Show" and "America's Got Talent" are coming to NYC.These moves will create jobs in NYC and enhance opportunities for NYC-based stars of the future.

Tonight Show

From AM New York:

Jimmy Fallon will be the next host of "The Tonight Show," which is coming back to New York.

NBC confirmed Wednesday that Jay Leno will end his 22-year tenure as host and pass the torch to Fallon after the network wraps up its coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The network said the show will return to New York, news that excited city and state leaders.
"It's the perfect symbol of incredible comeback we've worked to create in our city's film and television industry," Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The new "Tonight Show" will have a new set at 30 Rock. Leno, 62, and Fallon, 38, joked on their shows about speculation of their respective futures, and continued the wisecracks Wednesday in their statements about the announcement.

"I'm really excited to host a show that starts today instead of tomorrow," Fallon said.
"Congratulations Jimmy. I hope you're as lucky as me and hold on to the job until you're the old guy. If you need me, I'll be at the garage," Leno said.

The "Tonight Show" originally filmed in New York until 1972, when Johnny Carson relocated to Burbank, Calif. Bloomberg said it was natural for the show to come back to Gotham because its TV and film industry has been booming over the last decade.

There are 130,000 New Yorkers who work on TV productions, a 30% jump from 10 years ago, according to the mayor.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is planning to extend the state's 30% tax credit for productions that includes a stipulation for major talk shows.

"The original 'Tonight Show' ushered in the modern era of television, broadcast here from New York. It is only fitting that as 'The Tonight Show' returns to our state, it will be headlined by New York's own native son and resident, Jimmy Fallon," Cuomo said.

America's Got Talent

From CNS News:

NBC's "America's Got Talent" is moving from New Jersey to New York City's Radio City Music Hall.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the announcement Wednesday.

The eighth season of the popular talent competition will air live from the landmark theater twice a week, starting July 23.

The show is relocating from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

Cuomo says the move will create more than 500 jobs and generate $100 million each season. New York State recently extended its Film Production Tax Credit to attract television shows to the state.
Supermodel Heidi Klum was recently added to "America's Got Talent" as a judge.

Stop and Frisk Back in the Headlines

Last week, NYC's disgusting Apartheid stop-and-frisk program returned to the headlines as the new police chief endorsed the practice while admitting that he's been a victim of it.  

New Police Chief

Phillip Banks III is the ultimate Uncle. Tom.  He took time last week to endorse the use of stop and frisk tactics in NYC to harass and humiliate people of color in our city. But, he supports the racist approach to policing that Mayor Bloomberg has made the centerpiece of his mayoralty while admitting that the practice victimizes people of color. Phillip Banks III, as a person of color, has actually been victimized by the practice. Yet, he supports the practice fully and wishes to see his fellow New Yorkers suffer from it. 

All of us should have just as much contempt for Phillip Banks III as we do for Ray Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg. In fact, one could argue that Phillip Banks III should be held in the highest contempt because he supports the racist stop-and-frisk program while possessing familiarity with the burden it imposes on law-abiding New Yorkers. Phillip Banks III knows that 90% of stop-and-frisk victims are people of color and that 90% of the stop-and-frisk victims are not even issued a summons. Moreover, Phillip Banks III knows that despite the stop-and-frisk programs avoidance of stops of white New Yorkers, those white New Yorkers who are stopped are twice as likely to have illegal guns or illegal drugs as the people of color who get the attention of the NYPD. 

While Bloomberg and Kelly seem to enjoy the Apartheid system for the control and power it affords them, Phillip Banks III enjoys the practice of actually subjugating his sisters and brothers throughout our great city.

So, Phillip Banks III must resign now. We cannot afford to tolerate the Bloomberg Apartheid a day longer. If Bloomberg, Kelly, and Phillip Banks III won't leave quietly, we must all raise our voices loudly and force them out immediately.

NYPD Inspector General

Predictably, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly opposes independent oversight of the NYPD. As the City Council looks to mandate an Inspector General for the NYPD to investigate police abuses, Ray Kelly states that such an approach would endanger the public. In essence, the public is only safe if the NYPD has unlimited freedom to break laws and violate constitutional freedoms. Of course, he's wrong. We won't be safe until his power is taken away. We'll only be safe when the NYPD is forced to respect the rule of law and reduce their abuse of people of color in our city. 

Women and Minority Owned Businesses Left Out of NYC Contracting

New York City awards only 5% of its spending to women- and minority-owned firms, and the city's population has achieved an all-time high.

Rising Certifications

Bloomberg's reign as Mayor has resulted in a growing number of minority-owned and women-owned firms that are certified to earn business from New York City. In fact, the Bloomberg Administration says that more than 3,500 such firms have been granted certification during the Bloomberg Era.

Unfortunately, certification provides only the possibility of earning business from NYC and provides no guarantee of revenue.

Lack of Contracts

Manhattan Borough President (and candidate for NYC Comptroller) Scott Stringer issued statements focusing on the need to turn certifications into city contracts for women-owned and minority-owned firms.

In the last budget year, only 5% of the $10.5 billion the city spent on contracts — for everything from construction projects to paper clips — went to firms owned by minority-group members or women.
“The good news is the city has done a terrific job boosting these certifications,” said Stringer.

“The bad news is we’re still falling short where it counts — which is getting contracts into the hands of the minority- and women-owned businesses.”

Stringer said those businesses complain about often-confusing applications, the lack of notice about contracting opportunities and fees charged by some agencies to view bidding documents.
Large, well-established companies have years of experience navigating the process. But for fledgling businesses — which are more likely to be owned by minority-group members or women — the process can be overwhelming, Stringer said.

“The city is not doing enough to help the businesses navigate the bid process, which remains too complicated and too time consuming,” Stringer said.

In our country's largest city, the lack of revenue for women-owned and minority-owned firms is heartbreaking. Let us hope that the next Mayor makes a priority of bringing these firms into the flow of the spending of our tax dollars.

NYC Population Growth

Our city's population grew significantly since the 2010 Census and now stands at more than 8.3 million.

The city's population has grown by more than 161,500 people since 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated. The increase is more than the entire population of Kansas City, Kan.; Savannah, Ga., or Hartford, Conn.

Mostly, New York City's growth is due to a widening gap between the numbers of births and deaths as life expectancy increases, according to city planners' analysis of the census estimates. But an influx of foreign immigrants in the last two years also played a role by outdistancing the number of New Yorkers who left town.

Brooklyn saw the biggest growth among the city's five boroughs, gaining more than 60,000 residents, as people flocked to a borough increasingly seen as having all the cachet of Manhattan – if not more – with less of the cost.

Manhattan's population growth was second only to Brooklyn, and the luster of Manhattan continues to drive NYC to greater heights.

Bloomberg Soda Ban Fizzles Out In Court

Earlier today, a New York State judge invalidated Mayor Bloomberg's ban on large sugary soft drinks.

Judge Tingling Invalidates Bloomberg Soda Ban

From the NY Daily News:

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling Jr. declared the ban “arbitrary and capricious,” agreeing with several soda and business groups that had challenged the prohibition in court.
The ruling was a stinging setback for the mayor, whose administration enacted the regulation in the face of criticism that he was turning the city into a “nanny state.”

The Bloomberg-backed city Board of Health approved the regulation last year, calling it a crucial tool to attack obesity. The rule forbid restaurants and certain other businesses from serving sugary sodas larger than 16 ounces.
In striking down the regulation, Tingling noted that the rule would have applied to all food-serving businesses regulated by the city, such as restaurants and movie theaters — but not to state-regulated establishments, like 7-11 convenience stories.
“The loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose of the rule. It is arbitrary and capricious because it applies to some but not all food establishments in the city” and because it applies to some sugary drinks but exempts others, the judge said.


 The judge also said that only the City Council, not the Board of Health, had the power to approve the ban.

“One thing not seen in any of the Board of Health’s powers is the authority to limit or ban a legal item under the guide of ‘controlling chronic disease,” the judge wrote.

Because the Board of Health approved it, and not the City Council, the “rule would not only violate the separation of powers doctrine, it would eviscerate it,” the judge said.


Businesses groups that filed the legal challenge hailed the decision. “The court ruling provides a sigh of relief to New Yorkers and thousands of small businesses in New York City that would have been harmed by this arbitrary and unpopular ban,” said Chris Gindlesperger, spokesman for the American Beverage Association, one of the plaintiffs.

Matt Greller of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State said the group was “elated” by the ruling.

“This issue was never about obesity, nor about soda. This was all about power. The court rejected the Mayor’s attempt to unilaterally tell New Yorkers what to drink, and where to drink it. We are pleased that the Court’s decision shows that serious problems like obesity cannot be addressed by the imposition of an arbitrary and porous Mayoral fiat,” he said.

The Bloomberg administration vowed to appeal “as soon as possible.”

“This measure is part of the City’s multi-pronged effort to combat the growing obesity epidemic, which takes the lives of more than 5,000 New Yorkers every year, and we believe the Board of Health has the legal authority – and responsibility – to tackle its leading causes,” said Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo.

Hours before the judge’s ruling, Bloomberg had touted the ban as a national model. “Everybody across this country should do it,” said Bloomberg. And, he suggested, the crusade should not stop there. “In fact, obesity is a problem around the world,” he said. “It’s getting to be as serious if not more so than smoking.” He said tough moves are necessary because the obesity epidemic will “bankrupt” the healthcare system - and, he suggested, because fat people can’t do their jobs as well as those in better shape. He cited an economic hit because of “people who come to work and because they’re overweight just can’t perform as well as people who might be in better shape. Physical activity requires you to be in good shape.”

Bloomberg released new data Monday showing that the neighborhoods where people consume the most sugary drinks also have the highest obesity rates. Most of the neighborhoods are poor.
“If you go back to the 20s, you see these pictures of the old robber barons with their big stomachs out there - that was a sign of success,” Bloomberg said.

“Today those people are doing pilates and running in marathons and triathlons and if you look at where obesity is in the country, it tends to be in the people at the lower end of the economic ladder who don’t have the ability to take care of themselves as well, and if anybody will get helped by this, it’s them.”

Sequester Comes to NYC

Last week, the Sequester began. Now, We look at the impact on New York.

What Is the Sequester?

The federal government has implemented across-the-board spending cuts totaling $85 billion in 2013 and $109.3 billion a year from 2014-2021.

The 2013 sequester includes these items.

• $42.7 billion in defense cuts (a 7.9 percent cut).
• $28.7 billion in domestic discretionary cuts (a 5.3 percent cut).
• $9.9 billion in Medicare cuts (a 2 percent cut).
• $4 billion in other mandatory cuts (a 5.8 percent cut to nondefense programs, and a 7.8 percent cut to mandatory defense programs).

Here are examples of specific program cuts in 2013.

Aircraft purchases by the Air Force and Navy are cut by $3.5 billion.

Military operations across the services are cut by about $13.5 billion.

Military research is cut by $6.3 billion.

The National Institutes of Health get cut by $1.6 billion.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are cut by about $323 million.

Border security is cut by about $581 million.

Immigration enforcement is cut by about $323 million.

Airport security is cut by about $323 million.

Head Start gets cut by $406 million, kicking 70,000 kids out of the program.

FEMA’s disaster relief budget is cut by $375 million.

Public housing support is cut by about $1.94 billion.

The FDA is cut by $206 million.

NASA gets cut by $970 million.

Special education is cut by $840 million.

The Energy Department’s program for securing our nukes is cut by $650 million.

The National Science Foundation gets cut by about $388 million.

The FBI gets cut by $480 million.

The federal prison system gets cut by $355 million.

State Department diplomatic functions are cut by $650 million.

Global health programs are cut by $433 million; the Millenium Challenge Corp. sees a $46 million cut, and USAID a cut of about $291 million.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is cut by $55 million.

The SEC is cut by $75.6 million.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is cut by $2.6 million.

The Library of Congress is cut by $31 million.

The Patent and Trademark office is cut by $156 million.

 New York Impact

The impact on New York State is not insignificant, and some parts of the budget will face meaningful challenges. As Governor Cuomo has stated, however:

"Financially it will not be as impactful on the state government as it would be on individuals because it’s more assistance that goes to individuals"

Education cuts
The sequester would cut $42.7 million from primary and secondary education in New York. About 590 teachers and aides would lose their jobs and 120 schools would lose funding. Special education would also lose $36.3 million, according to White House numbers. Special education would also lose $36.3 million.

Meals for senior citizens
Government-provided meals for senior citizens would see $1,447,000 in cuts in New York.

Job cuts
Up to 100,000 workers in the state could lose their jobs due to the sequester, a study from George Mason University estimated.

Public housing cuts
The New York City Housing Authority reported that sequestration could lead to a 9 percent loss of funding and a $110 deficit, reducing services by 20 percent.

Bloomberg to Blame in Teacher Evaluation Mess

Mayor Bloomberg is the cause of the $250 million loss and the ongoing teacher evaluation mess that Governor Cuomo is attempting to clean up.

Cuomo's Proposal

Last week, Governor Cuomo proposed a solution to the hundreds of millions of dollars of lost educational funding created by the lack of a teacher evaluation program in NYC. Cuomo has proposed that New York State be empowered to impose a teacher evaluation system on NYC if NYC cannot adopt such a program by June 1.

In New York State, every community must have a teacher evaluation system or forfeit its New York State education funding. Our city has already lost $250 million in state education funding, and there is another nearly $500 million that our city will lose if there is no teacher evaluation system by September of this year.

What Went Wrong

Why is our education budget being undermined by lost funds? The answer is that we elected the wrong mayor.

Mayor Bloomberg did not want to reach agreement with the teachers' union on the evaluation system.

In a statement that the union president said was “painful to make,” Mulgrew said UFT and Department of Education negotiators had reached a deal overnight on how to structure and execute new teacher evaluations. But when they presented their agreement to Mayor Bloomberg this morning, Mulgrew said, the mayor rejected it.

 Bloomberg, of course, has a different story, but he has admitted that he rejected the deal that the DOE and the teachers' union initially found acceptable.

Now, we are speeding toward a billion dollars of losses from the Mayor's unwillingness to compromise for the benefit of our city's children. Let us hope that the Governor is successful in fixing the problem by gaining control of it and balanced in the teacher evaluation system he imposes.

NAACP Takes on Bloomberg on Stop and Frisk

The NAACP has called on Mayor Bloomberg to end his stop-and-frisk tyranny.

NAACP and Stop and Frisk

Yesterday, the NAACP made news by stating the need for stop-and-frisk to end immediately.

The head of the NAACP took the pulpit of a Brooklyn church on Sunday to demand that Mayor Bloomberg end the controversial stop-and-frisk program before his term ends.
“Mayor Bloomberg, I ask you, before you leave, repair the damage you have done,” pleaded NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. Addressing about 100 worshipers at Nazarene Congregational Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Jealous called for New Yorkers to “stand up” and tell the mayor, “There is no place for racial profiling.”

The Next Mayor

We will have a new Mayor in January 2014, and the NAACP is determined not to allow the next Mayor to abuse people of color the way that the current Mayor has for so many years.

As Bloomberg's third, and last, term nears its end in January, Jealous said he expects the city's new mayor to oppose stop-and-frisk tactics, along with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Democrat announced recently that he's working to help stop the practice.
If the new mayor doesn't do that, too, Jealous vowed that "we'll do a lot more than march."

Stop and Frisk

As we discussed last week, stop-and-frisk has been the topic we've addressed with the greatest frequency and with deepest concern. It is the topic that should be at the top of the agenda for any Mayoral candidate.

Stop and Frisk Revisted

Last week, a new set of data regarding stop-and-frisk activity in NYC in 2012 emerged. While much has changed, much has not. 

Stop and Frisk History

We have repeatedly urged an end to the unconstitutional, racist, and disgusting Bloomberg stop-and-frisk Apartheid system in NYC.

Here is what we said in June 2011:

More than any other issue we have highlighted, we have focused on Mayor Bloomberg's and the NYPD's obsession with stopping innocent people of color in our city.

In March of this year, we focused on the payments that our city has made using our tax dollars to the victims of stop-and-frisk activity.

In September of last year, we expressed frustration with the quotas imposed on NYPD officers by their superiors and how those quotas drive the stop-and-frisk abuses.

In July of last year, we praised Governor Paterson for ending the NYPD practice of indefinite retention of data collected from the innocent victims of the stop-and-frisk reign of terror that the NYPD brings on a consistent basis to communities of color in our city.

In May of last year, we summarized all of our previous blogs regarding the stop-and-frisk outrage and noted, with alarm, that the often cited "fit the description" excuse for the stop-and-frisk abuses were not even the excuses that the NYPD actually lists for the horrible racism that drives their policing philosophy. The NYPD's own excuse for stopping hundreds of thousands of innocent people of color each year is that the stopped individuals were behaving suspiciously. There is no crime reported in the area and no description to fit. The act of being a person of color makes one suspicious to the NYPD, and the NYPD's race-based suspicions turn into stops.

The Mayor and the NYPD continue to increase their racist tactics and intensify their abuse of communities of color, and non-racist people must stand up and oppose these abuses. If the Mayor will not end these practices, we must demand that the Mayor resign. No police force in our country should be permitted to abuse its citizens of color with such ferocious and racist dedication. We, as residents of the greatest city on our planet, must put an end to it.

Stop and Frisk Constitutionality

In the Bronx, the Bloomberg stop-and-frisk Apartheid was determined to violate the United States Constitution, but Bloomberg was unashamed and undeterred. 

 

2012 Stop-and-Frisk Data

Now, we have learned that NYC's stop and frisk numbers declined in 2012:

* Cops made 685,724 stops in 2011, compared with 533,042 last year.
* They used stop-and-frisk to take 780 guns off city streets last year, a 5 percent drop from 2011.
* A total of 7,137 weapons were confiscated. The number of knives recovered was 4,970, a 15 percent decline from 2011.
* There were also 1,387 “other” types of weapons recovered last year — a 12 percent drop from 2011.
* Five percent of the stops last year ended with a summons being issued and 6 percent ended with an arrest, according to the new NYPD numbers. Those numbers are about the same as the 2011 figures.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, a persistent critic of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy, slammed the numbers.

“These numbers show that the NYPD continues to stop, interrogate and humiliate innocent people far too frequently and that New Yorkers of color continue to bear the brunt of this indignity,” said NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman.
Lieberman also said guns were found in only .01 percent of stops, calling the figure “an unbelievably poor yield rate for such an intrusive, wasteful and humiliating police action.”

Remembering Ed Koch

Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch passed away last week; we remember him today.

New York Times Obituary

The New York Times obituary tells the full story of Ed Koch, and it is a must-read summary of an extraordinary life of an extraordinary New Yorker. We will miss Ed Koch.

Mayor Koch and the Black Community

While Ed Koch remains larger than life, even in death, he had an uncomfortable relationship with the Black Community in NYC and in the world beyond NYC.

The New York Times obituary provides insight into the tension:

The scandals and the scourges of crack cocaine, homelessness and AIDS were compounded by a widening rift between Mr. Koch and black New Yorkers. The mayor traced his contentious relationship with black leaders to his first-term decision to close Sydenham Hospital in Harlem, where, he said, the city was paying too much for inadequate care. He would regret the decision.

“It was the wrong thing to do,” Mr. Koch, who rarely second-guessed himself, said in 2009. Closing the hospital saved $9 million, he said, but “there was such a psychological attachment to Sydenham, because black doctors couldn’t get into other hospitals — it was the psychological attachment that I violated.”

      

Black leaders were also unhappy with Mr. Koch’s decision to purge antipoverty programs and comments he made that they considered insensitive. He said, for example, that busing and racial quotas had done more to divide the races than to achieve integration, and that Jews would be “crazy” to vote for the Rev. Jesse Jackson in his 1988 presidential campaign after Mr. Jackson’s 1984 reference to New York as “Hymietown” and his call for a Palestinian homeland in Israel.

      

In a city where minorities had long held grievances against a largely white police force, Mr. Koch’s 1983 appointment of Benjamin Ward as New York’s first black police commissioner hardly appeased critics, and a series of ugly episodes came to symbolize mounting racial troubles.

      

In 1984, a white officer with a shotgun killed a black woman, Eleanor Bumpurs, 66, as she was being evicted from her Bronx apartment; he was acquitted. In 1986, a gang of white teenagers assaulted three black men in Howard Beach, Queens, chasing one, Michael Griffith, to his death on a highway. And in 1989, a black youth, Yusuf K. Hawkins, 16, who went to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, to see a used car, was attacked by white youths and shot dead.

      

Mr. Hawkins’s death came just a month before Mr. Koch faced Mr. Dinkins, the Manhattan borough president and the only black candidate, in the 1989 Democratic primary. By then, City Hall was lurching from crisis to crisis. The racial divisions, the corruption scandals, the failures to cope with crack and homelessness all contributed to a sense it was time for a change. Mr. Dinkins, pledging to bring the city together again in a “gorgeous mosaic,” narrowly defeated Mr. Koch in the primary and went on to beat Mr. Giuliani, who ran on the Republican and Liberal lines, by a slender margin in the general election.

      

“I was defeated because of longevity, not because Yusuf Hawkins was murdered six weeks before the election, although that was a factor,” Mr. Koch wrote in New York magazine. “People get tired of you. So they decided to throw me out. And so help me God, as the numbers were coming in, I said to myself, ‘I’m free at last.’ ”

Manhattan in the Spotlight for the 2014 Super Bowl

Though the Super Bowl in 2014 will be played in New Jersey, the focus of the events and activities associated with the Super Bowl will be Manhattan.

Super Bowl Boulevard

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled Super Bowl Boulevard, a section of Broadway from 34th Street to 44th Street that will be only be for pedestrians for the four days prior to the 2014 Super Bowl.

As stated in Crain's: 

"The ten blocks will be the site of a massive fan event called the NFL Experience, which will offer free activities such as football clinics and competitions, outdoor concerts, player appearances and possibly, according to sources, a toboggan event."

Key 2014 Super Bowl Events in Manhattan

The most important events will be held in Manhattan:

"The media center at the Sheraton New York Times Square, which will accommodate more than 5,000 credentialed members of the media and the media party, which will be held at Chelsea Piers on January 28; The Friday Night Party, known as NFL House, a hospitality center for business partners of the event, will also take place in Manhattan."

 As Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer stated in 2010, "This is gonna set New York City on fire in the best way."

New Jersey Benefits As Well

New Jersey will share in the excitement:

"New Jersey will host both teams as well as Media Day on Jan. 28 and the NFL's Tailgate party at the Meadowlands Racetrack on Feb. 2" in 2014. "The Super Bowl is not a game anymore. It's really a week of events," said Roger Goodell, National Football League commissioner. "We expect hundreds of thousands of people to come to this region for the game. Other folks are here to be entertained."

Four More Years

Today, President Obama celebrated his second inauguration.

Inauguration

As we learned that NYC's own Shaun Donovan would remain in his post as the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for another four years and listened to Republican Congressman Pete King call his Republican colleagues "disgraceful," we saw NYC's own Chuck Schumer lead the inauguration ceremony while giving it a decidedly New York flavor.

"I am using it as an opportunity to highlight the best of New York," said Schumer.

Benediction

The choice for the benediction at the inauguration changed in order to address anti-gay remarks made by the original choice for the benediction.

UPDATE:
President Obama's 2013 Inauguration Speech

The entire inauguration address is available to be read online, and it includes some striking thoughts:

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. 

Also:

We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.

Gov. Cuomo Leads on Gun Control

Governor Cuomo's State of the State speech included an inspiring statement of support for reducing gun deaths. 

Cuomo Leads from the Front on Gun Control

Governor Andrew Cuomo's State of the State speech included passionate calls for new legislation to reduce gun violence. He spoke about gun deaths in Newtown, Connecticut and demanded that the state legislature “reject the extremists” and “save lives” by sending him "sensible” gun control measures to sign into law. 

Governor Cuomo's eagerness to bring the “strongest assault-weapons ban in the nation” to New York State is backed up by a desire to impose a ban on high-capacity magazines. “It’s simple -- no one hunts with an assault rifle. No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer and too many people have died already."

“End the madness now. Pass safe, reasonable gun control in the State of New York. Make this state safer. Save lives. Set an example for the rest of the nation. Let them look at New York and say this is what you can do. This is what you should do."
 

Cuomo 2016?

Some political experts are seeing Cuomo's push for gun control legislation as a move to build support from his left-of-center base in advance of his own re-election fight and perhaps a run at the Presidency in 2016. Cuomo took on unions and disappointed some Democrats by supporting (at least implicitly) the Republicans as they sought to remain in control of the state senate. 

NRA vs. Cuomo

The National Rifle Association, of course, opposes Cuomo's call for increased gun control legislation. But, the NRA is wrong about gun control and is particularly wrong on New York State's influence over the rest of the country. While the NRA says that increased gun control in New York will not influence other states, the reality is that New York is indeed a state that can drive national debate. 

We praise Governor Cuomo for demonstrating the courage to take on the NRA and for having such a clear vision for a safer New York and a safer United States. 

Bloomberg Takes Anti-NYC Stance on Sandy Relief

In a disgusting move, Mayor Bloomberg has sought to support the Republican majority in the US House for its decision to block emergency relief for victims of Sandy.

Sandy Relief Blocked

Last Tuesday night, as the fiscal cliff vote neared, the US House took the $60 billion Sandy relief bill off the list of bills to get a vote before the end of the 112th Congress. The package had already received the support of the Senate and was assured of a Presidential signature. But, because the 112th Congress didn't pass the bill, it must start over in the 113th, which will, at a minimum, cause major delays. Beyond the delays, the Republicans seem to be planning to significantly reduce size of the package. They belatedly approved less than one-sixth of the amount requested and approved by the Senate and by the relevant House committees.

While aid after Katrina was just two weeks after the tragedy began, Sandy victims are still waiting for aid more than two months after this latest natural disaster.

Bloomberg Criticizes Sandy Aid Package

From Politicker:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who previously declined to slam House Speaker John Boehner over Congress’ stalled Hurricane Sandy aid, took his argument to the next level this morning and suggested federal lawmakers are partially to blame for the delay in the vote on the package because they insert “things that are totally extraneous” into bills such as this. Although Mr. Bloomberg didn’t specify the extraneous problem items, the legislation has been criticized by Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan for being “packed with funding for unrelated items, such as commercial fisheries in American Samoa and roof repair of museums in Washington, D.C.”

“There’s this ‘Christmas Tree effect’ where legislators put in their favorite bills and tack them onto something. The [Obama] administration does that, that’s why you have an omnibus bill–to force everybody to vote for things that would never stand up in the light of day if they were individual,” Mr. Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show with John Gambling. “I’m sympathetic. Yelling and screaming at [Mr. Boehner] is just not my style. It may be effective, it may not be. Everybody’s got to make their own decisions. I think the legislative leaders who criticize and those in the Legislature should stop and think, they do exactly the same thing in terms of ladling on things that are totally extraneous but it’s the only way they get them through.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s relatively subdued stance places him at odds with the overwhelming majority of the politicians in the New York region in recent days, with one exception in the form of Councilman Dan Halloran. But while name-checking several politicians, including Governors Andrew Cuomo and Christie Christie, as well as Congressman Pete King, who “worked hard” on the bill but have subsequently vented loudly at Mr. Boehner, Mr. Bloomberg reiterated that it’s simply not his “style.”

Bloomberg Opposed Obama Visit After Sandy

Perhaps we should not be surprised that Mayor Bloomberg is not eager to see the Sandy relief make its way to NYC. He was the only leader in the areas affected by Sandy to state that he did not want the President to visit and survey the damage.

Highlights of 2012 Blogs

Today is the last day of 2012, and we use this week's blog to look back at the highlights of the 2012 Manhattan Viewpoint blogs.

NYPD Abuses Increase While Stop and Frisk Evolves

We began 2012 frustrated by the additional abuses of the NYPD that were added to the racist stop-and-frisk policies that we have been facing from years from the NYPD. The NYPD beat NYC residents and killed an unarmed young man. The outrage we felt was increased by learning that the NYPD had been tracking muslims in Newark, NJ. The last straw was the revelation that the NYPD was spying on left-of-center groups despite the lack of evidence that any threat was presented by the groups.

Stop-and-frisk abuses by the NYPD began to decline in April of 2012 because of community pressure for change.

We end 2012 praying that Mayor Bloomberg's and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly's unrepentant support for stop-and-frisk abuses of people of color in our city will end early in 2013 rather than wait for a new Mayor to take over.

Other Highlights

Congressman Charlie Rangel was re-elected after a long and difficult campaign.

President Obama won all of the most educated states in the US as he earned a second term as President.

Colonel Young Park remains in disrepair but now has community support for an upgrade.

The Barclays Center opened in Brooklyn.

Hurricane Sandy devastated our community.

Looking Forward to 2013

The NY Times described the upcoming year's political focus well.

"Mayoral politics will dominate the local headlines. Mr. Bloomberg’s many would-be successors will not have the personal fortune he spent to win office ($174 per vote in 2009). Which of them will end up on the November ballot: Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker? Joseph J. Lhota, who is leaving the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to look into running as a Republican? Raymond W. Kelly, the police commissioner?"

Republican Lhota Joins NYC Mayoral Race

Last week, Joe Lhota resigned as chair of the MTA to prepare for a run for Mayor of NYC as a Republican.

Joe Lhota

Joe Lhota was a Deputy Mayor during the Giuliani Administration and played a leading role in the Administration's response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. He is a trustee at the City University of New York and a former Chief Administrative officer of MSG, the owner of the Knicks, Rangers, the MSG cable channel, and Madison Square Garden itself.

Lhota was chair of the MTA, the state authority that operates NYC's buses and subways and provides regional rail service in and around NYC while controlling the bridges and tunnels in NYC. He began in that role in the beginning of 2012 and remained there until last week when he resigned to start his campaign for Mayor of NYC.

MTA Fair Hikes

During the approximately one year that Joe Lhota was the leader of the MTA, he angered NYC residents by raising subway fares and bridge tolls.

Republican Mayoral Primary 2013

His Republican opponents in the 2013 Mayoral primary have established significant support.

"The Queens and Manhattan county organizations are in the corner of billionaire John Catsimatidis, while the Bronx and Brooklyn chairs have said they support former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión."

Whichever of these three Republican candidates for Mayor wins the primary will face a daunting Democratic advantage in the general election. In fact, one poll suggested Lhota would lose a general election by a 60% to 9% margin. Therefore, many will view the Republican race as barely relevant. That view is dangerous. Republicans have now won five straight general elections for Mayor in NYC, and both Mayor Bloomberg and former Mayor Giuliani are likely to be pushing hard for the Republican nominee in November 2013.

Democrats must both find the right Mayoral nominee and come together in unity behind that nominee in order to return the Democrats to power in NYC for the first time since David Dinkins left office after the 1993 general election. It has been 20 years.

NYS Senators' Marriage Equality Support Punished

With last week's concession of defeat by State Senator Saland, three of the four Republican State Senators who supported marriage equality will no longer be in the State Senate.

Marriage Equality Victory in NY

In June of this year, the New York State Senate approved the marriage equality law that now governs our state. The Assembly had already passed it, and the Governor signed it immediately.

The State Senate passage was made possible by the support of four Republicans State Senators who joined with all but one of the Democrats in the State Senate "after an intense and emotional campaign aimed at the handful of lawmakers wrestling with a decision that divided their friends, their constituents and sometimes their own homes."

Three of Four Republicans Not Returning to the State Senate

Since the thrill of the June victory, we have had a primary election and a general election. Those elections have not been kind to the Republicans who courageously pushed marriage equality over the finish line in New York State. In the end, the loss of these Republicans strengthened the Democrats and strengthened the support in the New York State Senate for marriage equality.

The New York Times described what has happened to the four Republican State Senators who supported marriage equality:

" . . . when the Legislature returns to Albany next month, only one of those four senators will be among those sworn into office. One, facing the prospect of a tough challenge, decided not to run again; a second was defeated by a more conservative Republican in a primary, and on Thursday, a third conceded defeat after a monthlong paper-ballot counting process in a three-way race in which a more conservative candidate drew so many votes from him that the race was won by a Democrat.       

      

"Activists on both sides of the same-sex marriage issue nationwide had kept a close eye on the fate of the four New York Republicans, whose re-election battles were depicted as a de facto referendum on whether it was electorally safe for Republicans to support same-sex marriage. Gay-rights advocates talked hopefully of being able to persuade Republican legislators in other statehouses that voting for same-sex marriage did not amount to political suicide.        

 

"But, same-sex marriage opponents paid for billboards to denounce the incumbents and predicted that voters would punish the senators for switching their positions. The outcry against the Republicans had an awkward side effect — although conservatives contributed significantly to their fates, two of the three are being replaced by Democrats who support same-sex marriage.

Mayor Bloomberg Promotes Common Sense on Immigration

Last week, New York City Mayor Bloomberg provided an alarming yet accurate view of the need for US immigration policies to promote the arrival of new talent in the US from abroad.

Immigration Challenges

While the United States political culture includes elements of string opposition to immigration, the US is actually a large importer of talent, and our country needs to increase that importation.

During the Republican Primary season in 2011 and 2012, Republican Presidential  candidates competed to see who could be most opposed to immigrants to the United States. While many Republicans now regret their anti-immigrant focus, the competition amongst candidates to prove their hatred for immigrants reflected the strength of ant-immigrant sentiment in the Republican primary electorate. Mitt Romney won the Republican Primary in part by inventing the notion that immigrants should "self-deport" based on policies he would implement as President.

The Republican regret of their anti-immigrant stance is appropriate. Immigration is key to economic growth, and many parts of the US economy will be underserved without significant immigration activity. Allowing prejudice against immigrants to interfere with our opportunities to build and strengthen our economy will leave us with lower quality lives for decades to come.

Mayor Bloomberg Defends Immigration

Mayor Bloomberg is correct when he states that “we are on the wrong side of global competition. Our economy depends on immigrants, and currently our immigration policy is what I call national suicide,”

"National suicide" would appear to be hyperbole, but the notion that the United States is currently volunteering to harm itself by pushing talented people to make their contributions elsewhere is absolutely accurate.

Bloomberg stated that many of the talented immigrants now helping the US to strengthen are here on student visas, and their talents will leave the US to help strengthen other countries (perhaps even our enemies) if we do not allow those immigrants to remain in the US.

“They are our future, and we are driving them out,” Bloomberg said. Changing immigration policy to promote the importation of talent to the US is mission-critical. “I don’t think there is anything more important Washington could do for us.”

President Obama Is Expected to Seek Improved Immigration Laws

In the early part of 2013, after the fight over the fiscal cliff has been decided, we expect President Obama to make immigration reform a top priority.

We hope to make New York City a tech-focused hub for the US, and doing so will require significant talent from outside of the US. As New Yorkers, we need President Obama to make immigration reform a priority and open up opportunities for our city and the rest of the country to enjoy stronger economic growth.

Cumo Heads to DC for Sandy Pitch

Today, Governor Cuomo will be in Washington, DC to seek support from Congressional leaders for $42 billion in federal government assistance related to the Sandy superstorm.

Cuomo's Pitch to Congress

Governor Cuomo's trip to Washington, DC today is aimed at persuading Congress to support his plan for a $42 billion cash infusion from the federal government to help New York State recover from Sandy and to create new infrastructure that will prevent future damage in major storms.

After stating in mid-November that the federal government should pay 100% of the costs endured by the state and local government in New York State resulting from Sandy rather than the traditional 25%, and after refusing to join Mayor Bloomberg on the Mayor's trip to Washington, DC, one cannot be surprised to see Governor Cuomo making a solo trip to our nation's capital with a request for such a large cash contribution from Congress.

Cuomo's approach seems to have started off on the right foot. He asked a Republican representative from Long Island to set up a meeting with the Republican Speaker of the House.

Bloomberg Undermine's Cuomo's Pitch

In a classic example of Mayor Bloomberg's extraordinary incompetence, the Mayor spoke out against Governor Cuomo's $42 billion pitch to Congress before the Governor had a chance to deliver the pitch in Washington.

Bloomberg stated that we should focus on adding to NYC's subway system rather than preventing future floods.

As the NY Daily News wrote:

Bloomberg cited climate change when he endorsed President Barack Obama, but has recently said he doesn't expect a storm similar to Sandy to ravage our subways anytime soon.

"It hasn't happened in 100 years, and if you take that precaution that's good -- but at what expense," he said.
"We need more subways to take people to parts of the city where they live now and they didn't live when the subways were built 100 years ago," Bloomberg said.

Sadly, Bloomberg is too ignorant of Washington politics to understand that Cuomo's first assigment is to ask for the moon and then fight for as much as he can. He also clearly fails to realize that contradicting the Governor's proposal from the Mayor's office is a recipe for less money coming to NYC from Congress, and outcome for which Bloomberg should be held accountable if and when it comes to pass.

NYC Elite Middle Schools Lack Diversity

Last week, we learned that our city's elite public schools lack Black and Latino students.

Revisiting The Racially Exclusive Elite Public School Problem

We focused in October of this year on the tragedy of NYC elite public high schools. Because admission to our city's most elite public high schools is based entirely on one long test, the process is easily attacked. It does not account for intellect, grades, character, or any other assets that students might bring to a school.

As we stated in October:
the single-test approach leads to a virtual exclusion of Black and Latino students from these schools. At the best-known school, Stuyvesant, only 19 of the nearly 1,000 students admitted recently were Black, and only 32 were Latino. These 2% and 3% population levels are unacceptable in a school system in which a majority of the students are Black or Latino.

In fact, nearly 31% of white students who take the test are accepted while only 7% of Latinos and 5% of Blacks are accepted.

Unfortunately, this battle in crossing several generations. As the Huffington Post has taught us:
The controversy over admission to New York City's elite high schools is not new. In May 1971, New York Times education columnist Fred Hechinger reported that efforts were being made to eliminate a "discovery" program that allowed for greater black and Hispanic enrollment and school Chancellor Scribner had ordered a study to investigate charges that the entire admission process was discriminatory. To prevent changes, the state legislature passed a law in 1972 to effectively prevent efforts to racially diversify the city's select high schools with the single high-stakes test as the only way to gain admission.

Elite Middle Schools Lacking Black and Latino Students

The top high schools have low single-digit percentages of Black and Latino students, and the elite middle schools have higher numbers, approximately 25% Black and Latino. But, Black and Latino students represent approximately 70% of all students in NYC public schools. The higher percentages appear to come from admissions criteria that go beyond a single test, but the higher percentages are still far too low.

As stated in the NY Daily News, the Anderson School in Manhattan, a top middle school in our city, only 17% of the 569 students are black or Latino, and at Mark Twain in Brooklyn, which has its own admissions exam, again 17% of 1,281 students are black or Latino.

The middle schools show us that we need to move away from the single high-stakes test approach and they show us that simply avoiding the single test is not enough. We need a focused and determined effort to provide Black and Latino students access to the best middle schools and high schools in our city.

Obama Leads on Sandy Where Bloomberg Failed

Last week, President Obama surveyed the damage caused by Sandy in New York. He made a big impression, and the experience made a big impression on him.

Leading Where Bloomberg Failed

President Obama came to New York City last week and filled a leadership game created by Mayor Bloomberg's failures.As the Daily News stated:

The people of the storm needed a leader.

These rudderless victims say their borough president has completely failed them. Mayor Marathon Mike insulted them when he suggested running a race as requiem Mass bells pealed for their Sandy dead.

 

And so as the holidays approached like grim milestones, these good and weary people needed someone to cheer as a way of celebrating themselves.

 

The survivors drifted from their damp, moldy, powerless and damaged and destroyed homes on muddy, narrow side streets with names like Neptune, Seafoam, Wavecrest to wait for President Obama, the most powerful man in all the world, to descend in Marine One into the battered New Dorp section of the forgotten borough.

 

Bloomberg Sandy Blunder

 

Mayor Bloomberg failed the leadership test presented by Sandy when he pushed for the NYC Marathon to be run in the midst of the beginning of the cleanup and mourning of the loss of life that Sandy brought to our city. The borough most affected by the storm was Staten Island, the traditional starting place for the NYC Marathon. In fact, Staten Island suffered  more than half of the deaths endured by our city as a result of Sandy.

 

Admittedly, cancelling the marathon threatened losses for the city in terms of reduced tourism dollars, reduced spending from the 1 million would-be spectators, and withdrawn sponsorship funds. But, the Mayor's statements in support of having the marathon move forward as if there was nothing unusual about the circumstances were both insensitive and unrealistic. Our city was somewhat in shock and is still rationing gas and assessing damage weeks later. Fatalities were still being discovered, and resources were desperately needed in the hardest hit areas in order to start the cleanup and begin the healing.

 

Huffington Post painted the picture:

 

Bloomberg, who as late as Friday morning insisted that the world's largest marathon should go on as scheduled Sunday, changed course hours later after intensifying opposition from the city comptroller, the Manhattan borough president and sanitation workers unhappy that they had volunteered to help storm victims but were assigned to the race instead. The mayor said he would not want "a cloud to hang over the race or its participants."

 

The  Mayor asked the President to visit New Jersey instead of NYC in the immediate aftermath of the storm as he declared that the marathon would be unaffected. The President was finally welcomed to our city by our Mayor, and the President helped remind us what real leadership is.