City and State - July 16, 2012

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2 JULY 16, 2012 | www.cityandstateny.com CITY&STATE

UPFRONT

Editorial (212) 894-5417 Advertising (212) 284-9712 [email protected] General (212) 268-8600

City & State is published twice monthly. Copyright © 2012, Manhattan Media, LLC

EDITORIAL Editor Morgan Pehme [email protected] Managing Editor Jon Lentz [email protected] Reporters Chris Bragg [email protected] Laura Nahmias [email protected] Aaron Short [email protected] Copy Editor Helen Eisenbach Photography Editor Andrew Schwartz Editorial Interns Mike Bocamazo, Wilder Fleming, Shoshana Lauter, Sam Levine ADVERTISING Associate Publishers Jim Katocin, Seth Miller Advertising Manager Marty Strongin Senior Account Executives Ceil Ainsworth, Monica Conde Director of Events & Special Projects Andrew A. Holt Executive Assistant of Sales Jennie Valenti PRODUCTION Art Director Christie Wright Production Manager Heather Mulcahey Ad Designer Quarn Corley MANHATTAN MEDIA President/CEO Tom Allon CFO/COO Joanne Harras Director of Interactive Marketing and Digital Strategy Vinny DiDonato

Dear Commissioners, New York City Board of Elections:

The reason I address each of you as individuals in this column is that reading all of the editorials and articles of late skewering the Board of Elections for—take your pick—utter incompetence or a patronage-controlled culture of cronyism that verges on outright corrup-tion, it is easy to imagine the Board as some faceless bureaucratic monstrosity rather than a collection of, I’m sure, funda-mentally decent people like you.

I also list all of your names because I am hoping—in this era of Google Alerts, meta tags and keywords—that, even if my message gets somehow snagged by your spam box, perhaps your browser will still one day fi nd its way to this piece so that I may make the following friendly suggestion to you: Press “Reply” to this email and BLOW THE WHISTLE!

Won’t it feel good to get all that guilt off your chest? To let the city know that you—you know who you are—just fell into this gig, which seemed like an honor at the time, and that you never intended to be the political pawn of the party bosses who appointed you. That while your public silence heretofore on all of the Board’s outrages and embarrassments may imply your complicity, in truth you have been the one behind the scenes urging

your colleagues to come clean. That while those around you openly mock the cardinal tenets of the Board’s mission “to conduct fair and honest elections” and “to enfranchise all eligible” voters, you lie awake in bed each night ashamed of your association with a body that has shaken your fellow New Yorkers’ fundamental faith in the fairness and credibility of our democratic process.

Trust me, we can speak off the record. Or if you don’t want

to give City & Statethe exclusive, I understand—we will be more than willing to forward your statement to the Feds. I hear they go easier on witnesses who cooperate early in an investigation.

We both know the media has unfairly maligned you by painting you with a broad brush. It’s not your fault that the 2010 election nearly resulted in a meltdown, that one of your deputy directors was exposed to have voted ille-gally in the past, that 483 election districts citywide recorded zero votes cast in this most recent primary, or that one of your chief clerks met surreptitiously with the Rangel campaign just days prior to the problematic vote in NY-13.

You had nothing to do with it. And yet everyone will continue to think you did, unless you come forth and tell us otherwise.

Now is your chance. I look forward to receiving your response.

Morgan PehmeEDITOR

1

3

21. BROOKLYN

Have we stum-bled into an episode of Mad Men? Repub-lican State Sen. Marty Golden’s offi ce planned a career-development event this month for women in his district to teach them “Posture, Deportment and the Feminine Presence.” The taxpayer-funded event—presented by a “certifi ed protocol consul-tant”—was to be part of a series educating women in Brooklyn about “what’s new in the 21st century as it relates to business etiquette and social protocol.” More details were available on Golden’s Senate website, including the promise that women in attendance would be instructed how to “sit, stand and walk like a model,” “walk up and down a stair elegantly” and get acquainted with the “differences in American and Continental rules governing handshakes and introductions.” The class was scheduled to be held in Bay Ridge Manor, the catering hall formerly owned by Golden, which is now owned by Golden’s brother and run by the senator’s wife. A spokesman for Golden said the goal of the event was simply to help young women land jobs, but Jill Filipovic, who writes for the blog Femi-niste, said lawmakers like Golden should instead focus on passing equal-pay legislation and combating

rising child-care costs. Golden subsequently canceled the event.

2. BUFFALO

With the Republican congressional primary behind him, Chris Collinsis expected to gear up his fundraising to knock off Rep. Kathy Hochul, who had $882,596 in campaign cash to Collins’ $176,179 as of June 6. The former Erie County executive largely self-funded his primary campaign, though he has a lot of ground to make up to compete with Hochul and is expected to start reaching out to donors for help. Michael Kracker, Collins’ campaign manager, declined to provide specifi cs about how he would raise the funds or how much he hopes to bring in, but asserted Collins would have enough money to win the race. “Given the stark contrast between Chris’ vision of smaller government and less spending in Washington and Representative Hochul’s support of Barack Obama’s big-government policies like Obamacare, the campaign will be properly funded,” Kracker said.

3. ALBANY

Wynn Resorts is the latest casino giant to contract with a New York lobbyist, inking a six-month, $60,000 deal with Albany lobbying fi rm LJM Rad as the state moves toward legalizing gambling. Billionaire Steve Wynn, the company’s CEO, already had indicated an interest in expanding to the state, and the chance to locate a casino in New York City may have opened up when negotiations fell apart on a proposal by a rival casino company, Genting. In his State of the State address in January Gov. Andrew Cuomo had touted Genting’s plan to build a conven-tion center at the site of its existing Queens racino, and Genting had hoped for an exclusivity agreement for full-fl edged gaming in New York City in exchange for building a convention center, but neither mate-rialized. Wynn’s lobbying agreement with LJM Rad was made on June 1, the same day the governor acknowledged that talks with Genting had broken down. Wynn also bought a swanky penthouse over-looking Central Park recently, evidence perhaps of his desire to build a casino in the city.

City & State’s political blog, The Notebook, is your key source for political and campaign developments in New York. Stay on top of the news with items like these at www.cityandstateny.com/thenotebook.

The best items from The Notebook, City & State’s political blog

AROUND NEW YORKAN OPEN EMAIL TO THE BOETo: Jose Miguel Araujo, Naomi Barrera, Julie Dent, Maria R. Guastella, Nancy Mottola-Schacher, Juan Carlos Polanco, John Peter Sipp, Gregory C. Soumas; Judith D. Stupp, Frederic M. UmaneFrom: [email protected]

www.cityandstateny.com | July 16, 2012 3CITY&STATE

City & State Editor Morgan Pehme Sits down with

New York State ComptrollerTHOMAS DINAPOLI

Presented By

BREAKFAST SERIESTHURSDAY JULY 19, 2012Club 101 – 101 Park Avenue, NYCBreakfast & Program 8:00am – 9:30am

Follow the conversation using the hashtag #NewsMakersBreakfast


UPFRONT

THE KICKER: A CHOICE QUOTE FROM CITY & STATE ’S FIRST READ EMAIL “We never said the world is coming to an end.” —Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on how the city resolved some of its budget problems so quickly, via The Wall Street Journal.

BY THE NUMBERS

THE FOOTNOTE: A real press release, annotatedSent 6:39 p.m. on Monday, June 25 from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s press offi ce

The city is

banking on bringing

in $635 million in

fi scal 2013 as it begins

selling 2,000 taxi

medallions as part

of a plan to expand

street-hail service

outside Manhattan,

but the revenue is in

question since the

plan has been delayed

in the courts.

The New York City

Independent Budget

Offi ce offers a “posi-

tive” economic

forecast for the city,

but it has also warned

that fi nancial woes

in Europe and other

international and

domestic factors

could disrupt the

city’s recovery—and

alter its budget.

When the City

Council voted to

adopt the 2013

budget later in the

week, it also over-

rode several mayoral

vetoes, including

one on living-wage

legislation and

another on a bill

requiring an assess-

ment of how well

banks are serving

their neighborhoods.

For weeks advocates

and elected offi cials

decried proposed

cuts to child-care

and after-school

programs. The

spending cuts were

ultimately eliminated

from the budget.

The fi nal budget

also restored 20

fi re companies

that were on the

chopping block,

continuing an

annual budget

dance between the

mayor and the City

Council over plans

to shut fi re compa-

nies, followed

by the eventual

restoration of their

funding.

Safeguards put in

place during New

York City’s fi scal

crisis in the 1970s,

including the

creation of a fi nan-

cial control board,

have established a

pattern of on-time

budgets in the city.

Quinn, a leading

candidate to

replace Bloom-

berg next year, has

long been seen as

a close ally of the

mayor, and many

observers expect

her to have his

endorsement in

2013.

The Citizens

Budget Commis-

sion argued that

despite all the

attention paid to

child-care cuts, the

focus should have

been on the city’s

“overly generous

contributions to

the health insur-

ance of former city

employees and

their spouses,”

which got no

mention in the

mayor’s release.

Total number of bills introduced, 2011–12Assemblyman Steven Englebright introduced more bills than any other lawmaker in Albany over the past two years, though Sen. Carl Kruger was on pace to beat him—had he not left offi ce in disgrace. Among those who served a full two-year term, Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. introduced the fewest bills, though he at least picked up the pace over the two years. Here’s a snapshot of the rest of the most active—and the least active—state legislators in New York. (SOURCE: NYPIRG)

MAYOR BLOOMBERG, SPEAKER QUINN AND MEMBERS

OF THE CITY COUNCIL ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT FOR

AN ON-TIME, BALANCED BUDGET

No Tax Increases and Preservation of Essential Services as Result of

Prudent Planning, Spending Restraint and an Increasingly Diversifi ed

City Economy

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn

and members of the City Council today announced an agreement for

an on-time, balanced budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 that includes

no tax increases and preserves essential services. The budget

remains balanced through the use of prudently saved prior-year

resources, billions in agency savings actions and increased revenues

from strong growth in the tech, fi lm and television, tourism and

higher education sectors. The City Council is expected to vote on

the FY 2013 budget agreement this week, marking the 11th consecu-

tive year Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council have enacted an

on-time, balanced budget.

“Working with our partners in the Council, we’ve again produced

an on-time, balanced budget for our city that doesn’t raise taxes

on New Yorkers, and that preserves the essential services that keep

our city strong,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “When times were better,

the City set aside surplus revenue – and when the fi rst storm clouds

gathered in 2007, we began cutting budgets. These actions – and

our work over the past decade to diversify the economy and make it

less reliant on Wall Street – have allowed us avoid the severe service

cuts that many other cities are facing. We face a signifi cant chal-

lenge again next year, but given the effective and fi scally responsible

partnership we’ve had with the Council – and the leadership we

know we can rely on from Speaker Christine Quinn – I’m confi dent

we’ll meet any challenges that arise.”

“Working parents need to have their children protected and cared

for while they are at work. Children need to receive a high quality

educational experience at an early age. We are creating a program

that responds to both of these needs,” said Speaker Quinn. “We are

saying that child care can and must be part of a lifelong education

that continues with pre-K, through Kindergarten and that ultimately

leads to every child graduating high school ready for college. That

is our ultimate goal, and it begins with academic day care, and it

begins with what we have built here today.”

“This budget saved jobs, maintained vital public services, and

secured a strong fi nancial footing for our city going forward,” said

Councilman and Finance Chair Domenic M. Recchia Jr. “Most impor-

tantly, we made the right investment in our future and put children

and families at the forefront of this process. Now, tens of thousands

of families throughout New York City can rest assured that the

daycare, early childhood education, and afterschool programs they

depend on, will be there for them. I want to thank Speaker Chris-

tine Quinn for her leadership, as well as Mayor Michael Bloomberg,

for working with us to deliver a sound budget. I also want to thank

our Finance Division, my colleagues in the City Council, and most

importantly, New Yorkers. Members of the public from across all fi ve

boroughs told us what was important to them and what needed to

be done. This was a team effort and, considering the challenges we

faced from a struggling economy and reduced government aid, it

of families throughout New York City can rest assured that the

daycare, early childhood education, and afterschool programs they

depend on, will be there for them. I want to thank Speaker Chris-

tine Quinn for her leadership, as well as Mayor Michael Bloomberg,

for working with us to deliver a sound budget. I also want to thank

our Finance Division, my colleagues in the City Council, and most

importantly, New Yorkers. Members of the public from across all fi ve

boroughs told us what was important to them and what needed to

be done. This was a team effort and, considering the challenges we

faced from a struggling economy and reduced government aid, it

MOST BILLS* INTRODUCED:

FEWEST BILLS* INTRODUCED:

1. Assemblyman Steve Englebright

375 2011343201232

1. Assemblyman William Boyland Jr.

3 20110

20123

3. Sen. Martin Golden

301 2011223201278

3. Assemblyman José Rivera

6 20115

20121

2. Sen. Carl Kruger

372 20113722012

0

2. Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo

4 20113

20121

4. Sen. Kenneth LaValle

301 2011254201247

4. Assemblywoman Janet Duprey

7 20115

20122

5. Sen. George Maziarz

284 2011241201243

5. Assemblyman Dov Hikind

7 20113

20124

*ONLY INCLUDES LAWMAKERS WHO SERVED THE FULL TWO YEARS


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robert Ivanhoe, Chair, GT NY and Global Real Estate Practice. Named New York Post Top 4 commercial real estate lawyer, NY Super Lawyers Top 10 and The New York Observer “Top 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate.”

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POLICY

The PosT-session scorecard

Pols promised much; what did they deliver?

By Laura nahmias

At the close of his second legislative session as the state’s executive, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ran down a litany of accomplishments, citing a spirit of bipartisan cooperation between his office and both houses of the Legislature as a lubricant for getting things done.

But how many of the legislative leaders’ promises actually came to fruition?Sen. Majority Leader Dean Skelos offered little in the way of concrete plans at the session’s start, and has

cited the partial repeal of the MTA payroll tax in late 2011 as the year’s most significant accomplishment. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced three separate ideas at the governor’s State of the State address in January, proposing an increase in the minimum wage, an income-tax cut for families with incomes less than $30,000 and a promise the state would meet its obligation to fund 40 percent of community-college budgets. Only the last has come true so far.

Cuomo’s to-do list was by far the longest. How much did he accomplish?

2013—equate to a 300 percent growth in annual installed customer-sited capacity in the state within two years.

OFFICE FOR NEW AMERICANSThe budget establishes an Office for New Ameri-cans within the Depart-ment of State to help legal permanent residents participate in the state’s economy and civic life. The office will focus on expanding access to English-language educa-tion services, promoting U.S. citizenship and civic involvement, and expanding opportunities for new American busi-ness owners.

MORE SUNY CHALLENGE GRANTSThe budget also includes $30 million of capital funding for a new round of the governor’s NYSUNY 2020 challenge grants. When combined with an equal share from SUNY, the university’s 60 campuses (excluding university centers) will com-pete for three $20 million challenge grants.

INCREASE IN FOOD-STAMP PARTICIPATIONNew York is one of six states where the U.S. Department of Agriculture spent $2.5 to $3 million on paid radio advertise-

ments to encourage better participation in the supple-mental nutritional- assistance program.

ENERGY SAVING IN STATE FACILITIESThe New York Power Authority approved $30 million in funding for energy improvements.

FARM NY LINKED DEPOSIT PROGRAM EXPANSION and FRESH CONNECT FARMERS’ MARKETThe Legislature passed a bill that allows agricultural businesses to qualify for a 3 percent interest-rate subsidy when under-taking projects to expand or improve agricultural operations and create or retain full-time permanent jobs within New York. The administration also began its farmers’ market program with the opening of the 125th Street Fresh Connect Farmers’ Market.

MANDATE RELIEF COUNCILThis 11-member body met around the state to get input from local lawmakers on unfunded mandates. In the state budget, the Legisla-ture approved a freeze on local payments for Medicaid and required the state to take over cost increases over a five-year period.

SECOND ROUND OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AWARDS More than $780 million in grants were parceled out among the nine regional councils last year, but funds were left over from the $1 billion the administra-tion initially set aside for grants funding. The rolled-over $255 million in grants funding has been reappropriated for another year of funding.

“ALL CRIMES” DNA DATABASECuomo handily won passage of this bill, which would require all persons convicted of a felony or misdemeanor (with the excep-tion of first-time marijuana possession) to submit a DNA sample to a state database.

Detractors argued for the inclu-sion of a provision to videotape interrogations, which was ulti-mately not included in the bill.

FORECLOSURE RELIEF UNITThe Foreclosure Relief Unit was created within the Real Estate Finance Unit of the state’s Department of Financial Services, and has held mobile seminars to meet with residents about foreclosure.

NY-SUN INITIATIVEThe Cuomo administration announced that the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the New York Power Authority are investing $40 million dollars to promote research into reducing

overall equipment and installa-tion costs so that in the future solar energy is competitive with other forms of electricity and will require no govern-ment subsidies. In addition, the Long Island Power Authority is implementing a program, the first of its kind in the state, to purchase up to 50 megawatts of solar power generated on its customers’ premises. Under this plan the owner of the photo-voltaic system is paid a fixed rate by LIPA for every solar kilowatt hour generated over a 20-year term. The targets announced by the governor—to install twice the customer-sited solar capacity in 2012 than was added during 2011, and to quadruple that amount in

TIER 6 PENSION-REFORM PLAN

The governor’s pension-reform plan was passed in a memorable all-night legisla-tive session last March, but

the version that made it through both houses of the Legislature was scaled back significantly from the one the administration initially

proposed. The initial version would have impacted New York City police and fire-

fighters’ pensions, but the final plan shielded

those workforces from any changes. And while the

original version would have given public employees the opportunity to skip over the pension system and choose

a 401(k)-style defined-contribution plan, in the final

bill defined-contribution plans are available only to

workers who earn more than $75,000 and are not union

employees. Cuomo had also sought to increase the minimum retirement age to 65 from 62, but succeeded

only in raising it to 63.

NEW YORK WORKS FUNDThis proposal, intended to help create private-sector

jobs through rebuilding crit-ical parts of the state’s infra-structure, initially included

plans to leverage 20 private-sector dollars for every public

dollar to fund the improve-ment and repair of more than 100 bridges, 2,000 miles of roads, 90 municipal water

systems, 48 state parks and historical sites, and 114 flood-control systems and dams. The administration

has released a steady stream of announcements on plans

for these improvements, and some, such as parks repair, have already been

completed. Larger projects, like repairs to the Tappan Zee Bridge, do not yet have all the

necessary funding.

ENERGY HIGHWAYThis proposal was originally

supposed to use $2 billion in private money to build an energy-highway system that could bring upstate power to the downstate region. In April Cuomo set up his

Energy Highway Task Force to solicit proposals from energy

companies on how to improve the state’s energy infrastruc-ture. The deadline for those comments was the end of May, and the task force is

supposed to release an action plan some time in the fall.

BUFFALO’S BILLION-DOLLAR ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT PACKAGEDetails are still scarce on

how the state plans to spend the $1 billion investment, with

$100 million of the planned support included in the state budget. In late June Empire

State Development Corpora-tion announced it would pay

$2.8 million to consulting firm McKinsey and Co. to

seek the company’s advice on how best to allocate the

$1 billion allotted for the Buffalo region.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ALLOW

CASINO GAMINGA constitutional amendment

to allow casino gambling passed the Legislature in

March this year, but will have to be passed again next year and then approved in a ballot referendum to become law.

The BiggesT ProjecTs

www.cityandstateny.com | JULY 16, 2012 7CITY&STATE

POLICY

CONVENTION CENTERCuomo’s proposal to build a

convention center at the Aque-duct Racetrack in Queens is not

technically dead, but Genting, the developer originally slated to have built the center, pulled out of a deal earlier this year, leaving the center’s

fate uncertain. The convention center was criticized by some who said it was a shaky peg on which to hang the state’s hopes for gener-ating more revenue, and cited the

outer-borough location as too distant for business tourists.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ACT PASSAGE

Passage of the Reproductive Health Act, one of the few pieces of red meat Cuomo

threw to the Senate Democratic conference, did not take place during the legislative session.

Possibly the bill fell victim to a larger national political conver-sation about reproductive rights taking place during the Repub-

lican presidential primaries.

JACOB JAVITS CENTER MASTER PLAN

The Javits Center redevelop-ment plan is linked to the future

of the proposed Aqueduct convention center, and with

that project’s fate in limbo, any proposed makeover of the West Side Javits Center is many years

in the future.

TENANT PROTECTION UNITA $4.8 million planned investment

in a tenant protection unit was stripped from the state’s budget.

Cuomo had already appointed Richard R. White, counsel to

Cyruli Shanks Hart & Zizmor, as the unit’s leader. It was to be run

through the state Homes and Community Renewal division.

Cuomo characterized the unit as being able to “enforce landlord

obligations to tenants and impose strict penalties for failure to

comply” with rent laws.

TAX REFORM AND FAIRNESS COMMISSION

With last year’s passage of a tax-cut package that reinstated parts of the millionaires’ tax, the Cuomo administration promised

to create a 13-member tax reform and fairness commission to, in

part, examine “corporate, sales and personal income taxation and make revenue-neutral policy recommen-dations to improve the current tax system.” The commission has not

yet been created.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORMDespite the formation of two

coalitions to reform the state’s campaign-finance laws, the Cuomo administration was

unwilling to push for passage of any changes this year, citing the proximity of 2012 elections

as a potential roadblock for lawmakers’ willingness to sign on

to reforms.

WHAT DIDN’T GET DONE

BIPARTISAN EDUCATION COMMISSIONThe governor launched the commis-sion, headed by Time Warner CEO/ chairman Richard Parsons, to put together recommendations on improving students’ performance. The panel, which began meeting in late June, is expected to hold 11 sessions before submitting its policy recommen-dations to the governor by Dec. 1.

NEW MWBE PROGRAMAfter putting together an MWBE task force in late January, the administration announced a surety-bond assistance program for MWBEs, a new monitoring system and other initiatives to increase the pool of MWBE firms.

NEW YORK EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS OVERHAULAfter Hurricane Irene, Cuomo announced plans for a major emer-gency systems management overhaul. In February he announced plans for the creation of five regional disaster-logistics centers to serve as staging areas and warehouses for emergency equipment, an interagency emer-gency network to coordinate disaster responses, regional disaster teams to coordinate emergency manage-ment between local governments, a statewide network of emergency first responders, a statewide emergency-preparedness conference and the sale of extraneous or outdated emergency equipment.

By Stuart Appelbaum, President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union,RWDSU, UFCW

When the New York City CouncilOverrode Mayor Bloomberg’s veto ofliving wage legislation, they took one

step on a long road toward creating better jobs.The legislation established the principle thatwhen public money is used for privatedevelopment, the public has the right to expectsomething in return — good jobs that buildcommunities, not low-wage jobs that keeppeople in poverty.

The living wage movement was born out of a historic coalition puttogether by the RWDSU. It brought together faith leaders, laborleaders, community leaders and elected officials, all united in thecause to help working New Yorkers, who are hurting as theystruggle to earn enough to support themselves and their families.

In New York, and throughout America, the gap between rich andpoor continues to grow. Corporate greed continues to push a raceto the bottom for workers. Just this month, we’ve seen acorporation with huge profits — Con Edison — attack its workers’pay and benefits, without even pretending that it was necessary forthe company’s well being.

That’s why we are fighting back and pushing for the creation of goodjobs. We saw it with the Living Wage Coalition, and throughout thecountry, we are seeing it in the RWDSU. The same month the citycouncil overrode the mayor’s living wage veto, in Russellville,Alabama, 1,200 workers at the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plantoverwhelmingly voted to join the RWDSU. It was the largestsuccessful union campaign in Alabama in decades, and it happenedbecause poultry workers — who toil in dangerous conditions for lowpay and poor benefits — want to make their jobs better.

In New York City, car wash workers are uniting together to say thattheir jobs — with often illegally low pay and a hazardousenvironment — can be decent jobs that can help build families andbetter lives. And, in New York State, the Living Wage Coalition isexpanding to fight for a statewide minimum wage increase, so thatworking people will not be condemned to lives of poverty.

Nothing is more important for the future of New York than thecreation of good jobs with fair wages.

Visit us on the web at www.rwdsu.org

Our PerspectiveLiving WageLegislation is OneStep on Road toCreating Good Jobs


PERSONALITIES

DEPUTY MAYOR FOR

Wolfson takes to the Twittersphere to defend the Bloomberg administration

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg is under attack, one trusty weapon

in Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson’s arsenal is the tweet.

Wolfson, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for government affairs and communications, has been garnering attention in recent months for taking to the Twittersphere to go after the administration’s critics, from elected offi cials like Public Advocate Bill de

Blasio to journalists and news outlets like The New York Times.

“I think it has the benefi t of being unfi ltered and immediate, and those are two things that are diffi cult to fi nd elsewhere,” Wolfson said of his use of Twitter. “Although it limits one to 140 characters, it does give you the freedom to say what you want to say, when you want to say it and speak directly to the audience that is following you.”

Wolfson, who has been tweeting for

several years as @howiewolf, said he used the social media website during the 2009 Bloomberg campaign to engage Bill Thompson, the mayor’s Democratic challenger. And like many Twitter users, he regularly mixes in his outside interests (Major League Baseball, Bruce Springsteen) with work-related matters (proposed soda size restrictions, bike lanes).

Here’s a selection of his Twitter exchanges. —Jon Lentz

In May Wolfson and de Blasio clashed over the city budget and a new website the public advocate launched that pushes back against teacher layoffs.

In mid-June Wolfson tweeted back and forth with journalist Nick Rizzo over the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policies.

Also in May, Councilman David Greenfi eld called attention to the administration’s opposition to requiring bike helmets while pushing soda size restrictions.

@BILLDEBLASIO

Bill de Blasio RT

@nydailynews Public

Advocate launches new

website that lets parents

protest planned teacher la...

nydn.us/kogrRI

#savenycteachers

@HOWIEWOLF

Must have missed

the site protesting

state Ed cuts @BilldeBlasio

@nydailynews PA’s new

website to protest ed

layoffs.

nydn.us/kogrRI

@BILLDEBLASIO

@howiewolf Can’t

blame state for

all layoffs when DOE

spending $52mil

on tech consltnts

$21mil on recruitng

& $2.6mil on PR

#savenycteachers.

@HOWIEWOLF

@BilldeBlasio wish

you had been this

vocal when state cut us 1b

in Ed funds

@NICKRIZZO

@howiewolf How

do we know Stop

Question Frisk is effective if

there’s never been a control

sample?

@HOWIEWOLF

@nickrizzo is there

a section of the city

we should providing police

protection to as an experi-

ment?

@NICKRIZZO

@howiewolf So

there is a level

where a large number of

stops of one individual is

excessive?

@HOWIEWOLF

@nickrizzo

depends on indi-

vidual and his/her activities,

no?

@NYCGREENFIELD

@howiewolf best

way to save lives

is to use NYPD resources

to pull over reck-

less drivers instead

of giving offi cers

parking ticket

quotas

@HOWIEWOLF

@NYCGreen-

fi eld your efforts

to convince cyclists that

you care about their

safety are falling fl at

online Cyclists know

bikelanes save

lives

@NYCGREENFIELD

@howiewolf It’s

amusing that

same day the Mayor bans

a 20 oz bottle of cola

he opposes protecting

cyclists by requiring life-

saving helmets

@HOWIEWOLF

@NYCGreen-

fi eld bike lanes

save lives. Do you support

them?

@HOWIEWOLF

. @NYCGreen-

fi eld best way to

save cyclists lives is to

expand bike lanes - More

cyclists and separation from

cars way to go. Join us!

@HOWIEWOLF

@NYTMetro curious are the Times

subscribers in your ads actual Times

subscribers? Because if, gosh, they werent I

would be so disillusioned

@HOWIEWOLF

Still waiting for @NYTMetro to answer

if folks in Times ads are actors and if

they are whether that says anything about the

product/message.

@CAROLYNRYAN

.@howiewolf I knew this story had legs.

NYC public health ads derive power

from perception that victims – & health effects

shown- are real.

@HOWIEWOLF

.@carolynryan story was more focused

on ads integrity than effi cacy – yet

correlation btwn sugar drinks and obesity/

diabetes is a fact

@CAROLYNRYAN

@howiewolf Of course. The photo

suggests- vividly – if you drink

soda, you lose your leg. Turned out city-not

diabetes-sawed off guy’s leg.

@HOWIEWOLF

My grandmother lost a leg

to diabetes. She would

not have appeared in an

ad. Doesn’t make her loss

less real to have

it depicted by

another

TWITTER (PHOTO: AP)

In January Wolfson got into a spat with The

New York Times and its metro editor, Carolyn

Ryan, after the newspaper revealed that a

poster from the city’s health department

depicting a man with diabetes was altered to

make it appear that he had lost a leg.


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POLICY

By Chris Bragg

More than six months after Occupy Albany was uprooted from its encampment near the state Capitol, the group persists, working out of a small storefront on Madison

Avenue in downtown Albany. And since being forcibly removed by the city of Albany on Dec. 22, its members admit some aspects of life are now better.

“I think it’s a mixed bag,” said one Occupy Albany organizer, Colin Donnaruma. “On one hand the movement has been somewhat diminished. But we also used to spend an enormous amount of time trying to feed ourselves and keep warm.”

But most would go back to the old way of living in a minute: The change of location poses a risk for a movement built on the will-ingness of its participants to risk physical discomfort—and it has diminished the fortunes of liberal allies seeking to capitalize on its political muscle.

When Occupy Albany was uprooted, the movement was at its zenith; two weeks earlier Gov. Andrew Cuomo had agreed to an over-haul of the state’s tax code that looked a lot like the “millionaires’ tax” that liberal, often union-backed interest groups had sought to extend for the prior two years. Many involved, or at least those willing to speak about the sudden reversal, credited the political momentum created by the spontaneous uprising.

Those involved with Occupy Albany say that the compelling narra-tive created by a group of people risking physical harm in the dead of winter—and the sheer excitement of the movement’s underlying illegality—has been impossible to recreate. And as the Occupy move-ment has ceased to fill the public consciousness, progressive activ-ists say it has become more difficult to create momentum for the 99 percent’s agenda.

“Occupy Albany was fierce in its advocacy for the minimum wage, but there’s absolutely not the ability to attract the same great numbers of people or to have an encampment that generates 24/7 media coverage,” said Michael Kink, the executive director of the union-backed Strong Economy for All Coalition. “And I’m not sure there’s any sort of switch that you could turn on or off.”

With Occupy Albany out of the public eye, liberal legislative goals suffer

The effort to hike the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $8.50 was perhaps the best example of Occupy’s impact on the legislative agenda, with a coalition behind it that was very similar to the one that pushed for an extension of the million-aires’ tax.

During this year’s movement to raise the minimum wage, Occupy activists in early June stormed the office of Repub-lican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, whose confer-ence refused to take up the minimum-wage bill. A resulting six arrests brought a flurry of media coverage, but nothing close to the sustained drumbeat at the original Occupy Albany or of Zuccotti Park.

Where once lawmakers could be educated at “teach-ins,” Occupy organizers have grown frustrated that their stunts—like presenting Cuomo with a giant check to parody the $2 million that the Committee to Save New York took from the gambling industry—have had to get more and more creative simply to gain a little attention. The media moved on to other stories, with coverage shifting to the Repub-lican presidential nomination

contest nationally, and to other legislative battles in New York.

As a result, the pressure that prodded both Cuomo and Senate Republicans into backing last year’s overhaul creating a higher tax bracket for high-income earners seems to have dimin-ished. Ultimately the minimum-wage bill never got the Senate

floor, with forces on both the second or third floors appar-ently less concerned about the movement’s long-term staying power or its ability to translate its message to the ballot box.

For Occupiers, the plan is to keep pushing the same issues of class and corporate corruption. Unlike the Tea Party, which has always had an element of Astro-turf to it, no real electoral move-ment from Occupy has sprung forth. And for their liberal allies, the challenge is to harness the resonance of the movement toward an electoral political

system, which the Occupiers have no real interest in engaging.

Doug Forand, a Democratic political consultant who has been heavily involved in both union issue advocacy and Senate Democratic campaign efforts, said the hopeful sign for progressives is that the agenda pushed by Occupy activists resonated broadly—even if the issues at hand are no longer being constantly put forth by the media.

Forand predicted that raising the minimum wage could well be part of a broad postelection deal tied to legislators’ pay raises—a deal more in classic Albany fashion than Occupiers would ever hope to strike. Still, if such a deal were made, it would be because the minimum-wage issue had become a toxic one for Senate Republicans at the ballot box in November, Forand said.

“It will be because they need to release a pressure value on that particular issue,” Forand said. “There needs to be some-thing to rally attention around issues. And you’re going to see elections doing that.”

But for Occupiers, the idea of trading a legislative pay raise for a minimum wage is a crass one.

“We don’t engage in that type of traditional lobbying or trading,” Donnaruma said. “We have clear issues, and we present them.”

(Above) An Occupy Albany protester cleans out a tent before relocating it to another part of Academy Park in Albany, N.Y., on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. (PhOTO: AP/Mike GrOll)

After OccUpY

“there needs to be something to rally attention around issues.”



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PERSONALITIES

A piece of cable from the Brooklyn Bridge“That was from the orig-inal Brooklyn Bridge. I have no idea when I got that. [He examines the item, which is dated.] 1998, that’s when I got it. That is an original.”

Ebbets Field home plate“It’s not mine. It’s onlygood until I get out of offi ce. Then it goes back to Fred Palm. He stole it with his friends in 1956.

Security was different back then.”

Ebbets Field wooden chairback seats“I exchanged two Yankees’ seats for these

two seats. You will note, by the way, how much thinner we were back then.”

Nathan’s deli, framed picture“These photos represent Brooklyn and me. Nathan’s, Abraham & Straus, Ebinger’s Bakery, the Mill Basin Deli, which is still there, Brennan & Carr—they have the best

roast beef.”

Coney Island boardwalk slab“In 2000 they started repairing the board-walk, and they cut a few slabs out. Everyone else

MARTY MARKOWITZFROM THE DESK OF...

Marty Markowitz fi rst became a state senator in 1978 and was elected Brooklyn borough president in 2001. Over that time he’s accumulated a lot of stuff: shovels from ground-breakings, embroidered jerseys, alcohol and collectables from his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers. Markowitz’s favorite objects lean toward the nostalgic and the sports-related, but he waxes most emotional about his pet bird, “Beep,” an African gray parakeet. He keeps several photos of Beep on his desk, next to his wife and family.

seems to have a piece of the Coney Island boardwalk—California, Detroit, everywhere!”

Guitar from “Hippiefest”“I organize concerts in Coney Island every year and this one is from ‘Hippiefest.’ They gave me a guitar.”

Rug with the Borough of Brooklyn Seal“When I became borough president in 2002, I called an artist from Park Slope who made rugs and asked her to make me a rug with the Brooklyn logo—and this is what she did. She took about six months.”

Brooklyn Nets jersey prototype“This is not their offi cial jersey. It’s from a press conference in Borough Hall in 2004 when the team was purchased. This was before the opposition, before the lawsuits.”

Barclays Center ground-breaking shovel“They keep giving me shovels. I tell you, when I get out of here in the next year, that’s the fi rst thing that goes.”

Alcohol made in Brooklyn“There’s Absolut Brooklyn, one of the few cities the company named a vodka after. The rest I got has been consumed by now.”

Barack Obama bobble-head doll“The Brooklyn Cyclones were giving out

bobbleheads of the president.”

Leather briefcase“The bag I started using on January 1, 1979 when I was fi rst elected. It has been repaired at least three

times. It’s not as if I can’t afford a leather bag, but it’s been a part of me through 11 terms in the State Senate, and three terms here. It’s part of my DNA. I’ve kept it and repaired it as best I can, but you can only do so much.”

Photo of Beep, Marty’s parakeet“He’s 11 years old. He’s got a vocabulary of 100 words. They are the most brilliant pets that you can own. A parrot can understand the words we make. He’s an African gray parrot. My bird does not have feathers. I

have a plucker. This bird belonged to my wife’s mother and father, and when they died, three months apart, that’s when the plucking began. I think he missed his original parents.”

City & State: Can he say “fuggedaboudit”?

Marty: Yes, he does. All the time. I have it on tape.

(PHOTOS: JONATHAN SPRINGER)



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COVER STORY

WhY

coULd have it aLLBy Morgan PehMe


COVER STORY

The New York Affordable Reliable ElectricityAlliance (New York AREA) is a diverse group

of business, labor, environmental, and communityleaders working together for clean,

low-cost and reliable electricity solutions thatfoster prosperity and jobs for the Empire State.

S P E C I A L S P O N S O R E D S E C T I O N

OurEconomicResurgenceCan’tDependonForeignElectricityBy Jack Friedman

Queens is in the middle of an economic resurgence and across theborough diverse projects are creating jobs, housing and recreationalopportunities for New Yorkers. From Long Island City to FarRockaway, the borough is buzzing with new economicopportunities. To capitalize on these opportunities, it's important thatsteps are taken to keep our region's electricity affordable andreliable so that Queens can continue the upward trajectory.

The New York City Regional Economic Council is examining twoproposals now that could profoundly change perceptions about theborough — the Queens Greenway Park and a 12 acre waterfrontdevelopment called the Anable Basin Tech incubator. The incubatorcan create 600 jobs and 65,000 square feet of work and classroomspace. The Greenway project will create new walking and bikingtrails, cultural, retail and community space.

Major League Soccer is exploring the borough as the new home foran expansion team. A professional stadium and athletic complex inFlushing Meadows would benefits thousands of residents who enjoythe sport and are seeking seasonal work opportunities.

A 400,000 square foot convention center is proposed for WilletsPoint, while Aqueduct raceway now hosts Resorts World, anincredible gaming and entertainment facility. With GovernorAndrew Cuomo intending to release an RFP for proposal forcasinos in New York, both sites present opportunities.

The area from Downtown Flushing to the waterfront and CollegePoint Boulevard are set to undergo major transformations includingaffordable housing, parks, entertainment and cultural spaces.

It sounds like a great master plan, lacking only a blueprint for theavailability of affordable energy.

While we in Queens are working hard to create jobs and buildingour economy, our state and city policy makers clearly need tocommit to creating more in-state power generation and expansion ofour energy distribution infrastructure.

Any energy highway planned must prioritize power generated inNew York as opposed to allowing our state to become dependent onneighboring states and Canada. The Queens Chamber filedopposition to the Champlain Hudson Power Express line earlier thisyear to the Public Service Commission because the project couldlead to higher electricity costs and fewer jobs for New York State.

Ceding all of New York's power production to out of state operatorswill only harm our growth. Queens, and indeed New York State, areon an economic upswing. We need affordable and reliableelectricity to keep up the economic momentum.

Jack Friedman is the Executive Director of the Queens Chamber ofCommerce representing over 1,000 members representing almost500,000 employees.

W W W . A R E A - A L L I A N C E . O R G

Just a few years ago, such rumblings would have been unthinkable. When Gov. David Paterson plucked Gillibrand out of relative obscurity to fill the enor-mous shoes of Hillary Clinton, she had served a mere two years in Congress—and had never even run for office prior to getting elected to the House.

Two and a half years later, Gillibrand, 45, has a 60 percent approval rating statewide and is well on her way to carving out her own national profile, with a headline-grabbing record of legislative achievement over her brief time in office, including the 9/11 health bill and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” She has stood out as one of the nation’s most ardent advo-cates for women in politics and built a network of admirers as one of the Demo-cratic Party’s most formidable fundraisers. Tina Brown has hailed her as “a total winner,” Jon Stewart has gushed over her on The Daily Show, Vogue has extolled her glamour in a tasteful spread, and no less a feminist icon than Gloria Steinem has said of Gillibrand, “Like Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm before her, she doesn’t just hold her finger to the wind, she is the wind.”

The response to Gillibrand was not always so effusive. When Paterson initially selected her, the choice was generally panned, in part because of his bungling of Caroline Kennedy’s bid for the seat, and further fueled by the public grumblings of those who felt passed over for the post and the political power-houses perturbed it was not their pick who had been anointed.

In the blink of a media cycle, Gillibrand went from being dismissed as a no-name to being disparaged from both the right and the left as a “flip-flopper” for apparent shifts on issues like gun control, immi-

gration and gay marriage when she moved from the House to the Senate. While Gillibrand has long since outlasted this initial dustup of bad press to become a darling of progressives, it is worth noting that her ability to adapt, once derided as a lack of principle, has become one of her greatest assets in winning over the diverse constituencies she represents across the state.

Polished and petite, wholesome yet worldly, eager yet effortless in her manner, Gillibrand looks as if she would fit in as easily at a North Country dairy as a Nassau County mall or a highfalutin salon on the Upper East Side. Indeed, as we sat down for lunch at a trendy lower Manhattan Chinese restaurant with a

faux-farmhouse decor, it occurred to me that Gilli-brand, who is both conversant in Mandarin and a self-styled champion of farmers as New York’s first member of the Senate Agriculture Committee in 40 years, was probably one of the few people who could pull off looking in her element in the oddly discordant atmosphere.

In light of the senator’s remarkable success, it seemed only appropriate to ask her what she thought of Anne-Marie Slaughter’s provocative cover story in the most recent Atlantic Monthly: “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” In the piece Slaughter, the former director of public planning at the U.S. State Department and the first female dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, offers her two-years’ experience working in the unyielding, high-intensity world of Washington politics—while struggling to balance her home life as a mother of two adolescent boys—as a paradigm of why women can’t have the proverbial “all” in the

(Above) Supporters unfurl a Gillibrand reelection banner. (Photo:Andrew SchwArtz) (opposite page) Gillibrand in her Senate office in washington, d.c. (Photo: AAron clAmAGe)

Kirsten Gillibrand is currently enjoying a career trajectory

comparable to only a select few American politicians in recent

memory—the most notable of whom occupies a certain Oval

Office she’s already being discussed as a viable contender for in 2016.

Gloria Steinem has said of Gillibrand, “Like Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm before

her, she doesn’t just hold her finger to the wind, she is the wind.”


COVER STORY

Unites States today.Though Gillibrand is publicly a politician, she plays

countless other roles behind the scenes. She is the mother of two young boys, and gave birth to her second son, Henry, following a 13-hour marathon House Armed Services Committee hearing. A fiercely competitive former collegiate athlete, she pitches for the bipartisan congressional women’s softball team and recently chroni-cled in Self magazine how her return to sports helped her lose 40 pounds since entering the Senate. She’s an enthu-siastic homemaker who still finds time to bake. And she’s the devoted wife of a dashing British financier who seems content to play second fiddle to his superstar spouse and pull his weight with the kids.

Given this bounty, was it not unreasonable to conclude that if any woman’s life poked holes in the article’s deflating premise, it was hers?

“I agreed with a lot that she said,” responds Gillibrand, who had read Slaughter’s analysis and taken it seriously. “But she made a couple caveats, and one of them applies to me. If you can set your own schedule, that makes such a difference. You know, the ladies who work in this restaurant can’t set their schedules. The lady that cleans my office every night can’t set her schedule. The lady in the emergency room, the nurse who’s trying to save lives, can’t necessarily set her schedule. But I can. I have a flex-ibility that’s unique, because I run my own office. I can not take meetings before 9 in the morning so I can bring my kids to school. I can limit meetings between 5 and 7, so I can pick them up from school, make them dinner, and put them to bed…. So I’m lucky.”

Pivoting from personal experience to the larger struggle facing women in America, as she often does, Gillibrand says, “I think her thesis was more ‘This issue needs to be debated and discussed in every boardroom, in every economic forum, in every hall of power, because what’s being lost are important voices,’ and that’s why I launched my ‘Off the Sidelines’ campaign”—the initia-tive Gillibrand started in June of last year to enlist more women to participate in politics.

“I want to create a call to action nationwide to ask women to make sure their voices are heard,” she continues. “I want them voting if they’re not voting. I want them to be leaning in on the issues they care about. I want them to be holding their elected leaders accountable.”

RiVETing WOmEn

If this sounds like a muscle-flexing “We Can Do It!” call to female empowerment, the echo is not completely unintentional. Gillibrand is such a fan of the iconic 1940s image that it adorns the cover of her iPhone, and she uses it as rhetorical shorthand to evoke the spirit of her aims. “It’s a lot like what Rosie the Riveter was during World War II,” she notes. “They were asking America’s women to enter the workforce for the first time in America’s history…. And women responded…. Six million women entered the workforce. So my goal is, I want six million more women voting who are aren’t voting today.”

Gillibrand’s connection to Rosie is more than aspira-tional—it’s generational. During the war, both Gillibrand’s great-grandmother and her great-aunt donned blue jeans at a time when women hadn’t ever previously done so and went to work in an armory—as did her grandmother, Dorothea “Polly” Noonan.

For anyone with a long enough memory for state poli-tics, Polly Noonan’s name is legendary. As the secretary

and closest confidant to Albany’s “mayor for life,” Erastus Corning 2nd, who ruled over the city from 1941 to 1983, Noonan made herself one of the most powerful women in the history of the Capitol. By the time Gov. Mario Cuomo was in office, Noonan was the vice chairwoman of the Democratic State Committee, as well as the longtime president of the Albany Democratic Women’s Club. Those titles may not adequately articulate the extent of her influence; Jerry Kremer, who represented Long Island for 23 years in the Assembly, recalls that when he was a young

legislator, it was still tantamount to “political suicide” to miss the annual dinner of Noonan’s Women’s Club.

Gillibrand is fully aware of what Noonan achieved in a male-dominated society, a trailblazing path she attributes to her grandmother’s passionate belief in the collective power of women and the effectiveness of what we today call grassroots activism: “[The Women’s Democratic Club] were the ones who did the door-to-door work. They were the ones who did the envelope stuffing. They were the ones who ran campaigns for 50 years…. Nobody really got elected if they didn’t have the blessing of my grandmother and all her lady friends, because they did all the work!”

The senator has internalized her grandmother’s example. I recount that when I interviewed Sean Gavin, her current campaign manager, he recited for me the motto she had instilled in her team throughout her 2008 race against Alexander “Sandy” Treadwell, the former chair of the state GOP, who had vowed to use his fortune as an heir to General Electric to unseat her. Before I can finish, Gillibrand springs to complete the motto: “You can be outspent, but you can never be outworked!”

Winning bY ExamplE

In retrospect it is less astonishing that a candidate of Gillibrand’s discipline and innate grasp of campaigning could trounce Treadwell by 24 points—despite being targeted early in the cycle as one of the state’s most vulnerable freshmen and outspent $5.5 million to $3.5 million in one of the most expensive House races in the country. Gillibrand’s electoral success—at 3 for 3, she has never been defeated—has made her the most compelling poster model for her own “Off the Sidelines” campaign.

“I have such tremendous respect for her, coming from a district not unlike mine, where she overcame a strong Republican enrollment advantage, and through sheer grit, determination and hard work, she overcame the odds in her race,” says Rep. Kathy Hochul, whom Gilli-brand supported in Hochul’s upset 2011 special-election victory for Congress. “And so when I took on this oppor-tunity that came up last year…she coached me, talked to me, gave me a lot of advice. She’s just been a great friend.”

Hochul is one of an all-star roster of nearly two dozen female House and Senate candidates Gillibrand has lent not only her name and expertise but to whom she has given a minimum of $1,000 either personally or through her Empire PAC—thus cultivating a legion of grateful elected officials spanning the country, from Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama, who in 2010 became the first African-

American woman elected to the House from her state, to Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who is currently running to become both Wisconsin’s first female and the nation’s first openly gay senator.

While the cynical might conclude that Gillibrand is shrewdly building a nationwide network of prominent allies to lay the groundwork for future aspirations, the preponderance of evidence makes a convincing case that her commitment to advancing the political power of women is just as fervent as was her grandmother’s.

Gillibrand has even extended this spirit of sisterly soli-darity to her Republican colleagues—with striking results. “Every time I’ve ever accomplished anything in Congress, I’ve always had the help of other women [from] both sides

(Above) Gillibrand marching in this year’s Gay Pride parade in Manhattan. (Photo: Andrew SchwArtz)

“Nobody really got elected if they didn’t have the blessing of my grandmother and all her lady friends, because they

did all the work!”


COVER STORY

New York AREA’s membership includes someof the state’s most vital business, labor and

community organizations including the NewYork State AFL-CIO, Business Council of New

York State, Partnership for New York City, NewYork Building Congress, National Federation of

Independent Business and many more.

W W W . A R E A - A L L I A N C E . O R G

A LotRidingon MassTransitBy Donald Cecil

Mass transportation systems around the world aim to keepfares as economical as possible. The New York City-area isno different.

Riders want and deserve the best service at the lowest price– and in order to keep those prices down, we have to have areliable stream of affordable electricity.

From platform lights to air conditioned subway cars,affordable and reliable electricity plays a critical role inkeeping the region’s public transportation systems going.

As we make a national transition to electricity as atransportation fuel, an unprecedented integration of ourtransportation and electricity industries will also take place.Supply chains developed for an expanding electrictransportation sector will lead to the creation of high valuedjobs and boost New York’s economic competitiveness.

This future will ultimately lead to an increase in demandfor electricity. As more residential and commercialconsumers plug-in electric vehicles (or iPads for thatmatter), more power will be pulled during off-peak hours.Large, baseload power sources like Indian Point will play avital role in ensuring that New York has the electricity itneeds to meet growing demand.

Indian Point’s continued operation is essential to theexpansion of New York’s electric transportationsystem: The plant supplies nearly 30 percent of New YorkCity’s electricity already. Because that power is emissions-free, it is the most appropriate energy source for ourelectric-vehicle fleet. Additionally, its stable, baseloadpower helps the grid integrate future wind and solarelectricity by balancing the intermittent nature of thosesources.

With millions of people commuting across our region forwork every day, our transportation system must be forward-looking – our state and local economy depends on it.

Donald Cecil is the Vice-Chair of the Purchase CollegeFoundation, the Finance Chair of the Center for EducationalInnovation, President of the Jandon Foundation, Chairman of theWestchester County Transportation Board, and a former MTABoard member.

S P E C I A L S P O N S O R E D S E C T I O N

of the aisle,” Gillibrand says. “So when we were trying to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ it’s not surprising that it was [Maine’s] Susan Collins leading the charge among Republicans to get those few Republican votes. When I’m trying to pass the 9/11 health bill, it wasn’t surprising that [Alaska’s] Lisa Murkowski went into her caucus meetings every week saying, ‘Why are we not standing with first responders?’ ”

Currently Gillibrand is focused on trying to pass three pieces of economic-relief legislation she is championing—a small-business bill, an infrastruc-ture bank, and a Made-in-the-USA manufacturing bill. To build bipartisan support, she started by going to the female senators.

The approach has gotten traction. The small- business bill might come up for a vote, thanks to 14 of the 17 women senators signing onto a letter asking the leadership on both sides of the aisle to bring it to the floor.

OffiCE POliTiCS

When I speak with several members of Gillibrand’s staff a few weeks after our interview, I discover—not surprisingly—that “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” is a hot topic of discussion in the senator’s office. Sixty-five percent of Gillibrand’s staff is female, and seven of the 10 senior positions in her office are held by women—four of whom have young children.

Michele Jawando, Gillibrand’s general counsel, who is currently pregnant with her second child, explains that from the outset of the senator’s term, Gillibrand took deliberate steps to create a workplace culture that would be reflective of her values. She started by overhauling the office manual, making changes like allowing her staff three months paid leave and giving them more flexibility to perform their work remotely by computer or BlackBerry—provided, of course, that it did not compromise the quality of their work.

“I was proud of the fact that it didn’t take the article for our office to have been working on those issues all along,” says Elana Broitman, 45, the mother of a 5-year-old and Gillibrand’s senior advisor for armed-services work and foreign affairs.

Because of these changes, observes Jawando, she and her colleagues may not necessarily “have it all,” but it “start[s] to make a difference, and you really give yourself an opportunity for success. And success looks very different for our office than what it may look like in another office.”

Karina Cabrera, 33, one of Gillibrand’s legislative assistants, concurs. “When I was 24 I would have said, ‘I can’t have it all. I’m not going to get married or I’m not going to have children. I’m just going to concen-trate on my career.’ Now that I’m married…it’s about your partner and having a great relationship and a balance. And it’s also your employer. And obviously

we have such a great, amazing role model that has it all and really helps us to achieve that as well, so I think we’re in a really unique, special situation.”

That Gillibrand concentrates on not only how she can “have it all” but how her employees can too has inspired fierce devotion from her staff. “We feel a sense of pride and loyalty for the type of work that we do,” enthuses Jawando. “And so the fact that…[Gilli-brand] both respected our work but also respected these roles that we had, whether it was as a new wife, or as a new mom, or as someone dealing with the issue of aging parents, that means a lot, and…it also makes you even more loyal to the work that you’re doing, because you’re like, ‘You know what? I have someone who is going to support me, so I need to make sure when I’m here that I’m on 110 percent.’ ”

Gillibrand understands that her views on how women should properly be treated in the workplace—

(Above) Gillibrand greets the public. (Photo: Andrew

SchwArtz)

“Every time I’ve ever accomplished anything in Congress, I’ve always had the

help of other women [from] both sides of the aisle.”

18 July 16, 2012 | www.cityandstateny.com CITY&STATE

Programming:

Registration – 7:30 am – 8:00 amNetworking Breakfast – 8:00 am – 9:00 amDiscussion – 9:00 am – 10:30 am (followed by brief audience Q&A)

Follow the conversation at the forum using hashtag #ArtofAdvocacy

AUGUST 9TH Hunter College, 68th Street Campus - Room 714W Lecture Hall

City & State will be hosting a workshop forum titled The Art of Advocacy. Joining us will be top consultants, advertising minds and politicos — such as Evan Stavisky, Marissa Shorenstein, Justin Krebs, Morgan Pehme and others — to offer insight into the world of issue advocacy advertising and communications.

For more information regarding these and all other City & State events contact us at 646-442-1662 or

[email protected].


COVER STORY

and men too, for that matter—are uncon-ventional, but she is not one to be deterred by orthodoxy. Describing her senatorial style, Gillibrand says, “I try to approach my job in a very nonpartisan way. It doesn’t have to be a Democratic idea. It doesn’t have to be a Republican idea. It just has to be a good idea.”

Jawando puts it another way: “When we got here, [Gillibrand] was like, ‘Don’t worry about it. Don’t pay attention to anybody. We’re going to do our thing.’ ”

GillibRand 2016?

The absolutely baseless speculation about Gillibrand running for President of the United States in 2016 appears to date back to March of this year when The Wash-ington Post threw up a “Sweet 2016” March Madness-style tournament bracket on its blog for readers to project the major-party nominees in the next presidential cycle. (The media, already bored with 2012, has impatiently moved on to 2015, as YNN’s Liz Benjamin observed.)

In a highly unscientific poll, the Post arbitrarily named Gillibrand the sixth seed out of the eight national Democrats they

selected as candidates for the left wing of the bracket. Around that time a Facebook page reinforcing the notion of Gillibrand 2016 surfaced, which may or may not have played a role in Gillibrand surpassing expectations in the Post’s fantasy election, defeating No. 3 seed Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts to get into the quarterfi-nals before losing in the semis to Hillary Clinton. Thus the hype was born.

In real life, Gillibrand would be more

than happy if it were in her power to cede the nomination to Hillary Clinton, whom she credits as inspiring her to run for Congress, and whom Gillibrand has publicly urged on numerous occasions to again seek the presidency. “I have not lost hope that Hillary will run in 2016,” Gillibrand says. “I’d like to be her national chair and help her win.”

Still, it was Gov. Andrew Cuomo, not Hillary Clinton, whom Post readers chose as their Democratic nominee and ulti-mately the president in 2016 (over Florida Senator Marco Rubio). Based upon her

ebullient praise of the governor, it appears highly unlikely that Gillibrand would chal-lenge Cuomo in a theoretical primary were he to run for president in 2016, as is widely thought he will. “I think the governor’s done a great job,” says Gillibrand, in just the type of sound bite that largely diffuses any possi-bility she would take him on in an all-out internecine battle. “I’m extremely impressed with his ability.”

Over four years out from that elec-tion—which will occur countless earth-changing events from now—it is sense-less to pretend predictions about 2016 are anything more than hot air. And long before any such scenarios can begin to be seriously considered, Gillibrand must first defeat her current Republican challenger, Wendy Long, to earn her first full six-year term in the Senate.

maKinG HiSTORY

Conservative bloggers have snickered at the cosmic justice of Gillibrand, the outspoken advocate for women to run for office, drawing a female opponent. But what has received less attention is that their matchup means that Gillibrand and Long will share in a small step forward for women in politics: the first all-female state-wide election in New York State history.

The accomplishment—only the seventh all-female U.S. Senate race in the nation’s history—deserves recognition. Though New York is generally thought of as one of the country’s most liberal states, its Legislature currently ranks a mere 31st in the nation, with its 22.2 percent female member-ship, according to the Center for American Women and Politics of Rutgers University. The ratio of women to men in the state congressional delegation is higher—9 out of 29—but with reapportionment the overall number of seats will soon be 27, and the most fiercely contested congressional races in the state this November disproportion-ately involve female incumbents.

Though New York has had four female statewide executives—Secretary of State

Florence E.S. Knapp, in the 1920s, and three lieutenant governors, Mary Anne Krupsak, Betsy McCaughey Ross and Mary O. Donohue—the state, unlike New Jersey and Connecticut, has never had a female governor, comptroller or attorney general; a woman has never been the head of either house of the Legislature; and though it is harder to imagine now given the atten-tion Hillary Clinton received over her eight years in office, it wasn’t until her victory in 2000 that New York elected its first female senator.

Considering the deep ideological

chasm between them, Gillibrand and Long have a surprising amount in common besides the historic milestone they share. Both candidates are mothers of two. Both are Roman Catholics; Long teaches the catechism, while Gillibrand taught a Bible class for kids. Each was an undergraduate at Dartmouth, Long in the class of ’82, Gillibrand the class of ’88. Each clerked for Reagan-appointed judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit: Long for Ralph K. Winter; Gillibrand for Roger Miner. And both ultimately went on to successful legal careers at high-powered white-shoe law firms in Manhattan—Gilli-brand for Davis Polk & Wardwell; Long for Kirkland & Ellis.

But there the parallels end. Long, a staunch Conservative, will spend the coming months emphasizing the differ-ences between herself and Gillibrand, to whom she refers as “the most liberal Senator in America”—a title that has been affixed to Gillibrand by her GOP critics since the conservative National Journal branded her with the distinction in February (she tied for first with Oregon’s Jeff Merkley). It also appears that Long will relentlessly tie Gillibrand to the presi-dent, the economy and “Obamacare”—a strategy uncertain to prove effective in enough regions of the state to overcome Gillibrand’s personal popularity.

For now the starkest distinction between the two candidates is the respective size of their war chests. In the Republican primary, Long struggled to raise money and started the general-election stretch with little cash in reserve. Gillibrand, by contrast, has an eye-popping $10.5 million in the bank and a juggernaut fundraising organization to keep raking in money. (If you’re on her email list, as I am, you’re used to receiving urgent solicitations for must-reach dollar plateaus more frequently than can credibly be deemed “urgent.”)

Long could conceivably end up the beneficiary of mind-boggling amounts of Super PAC money, of course. Yet until the national Republican leadership decides she can make this Election Day a closer contest than the party’s 2010 nominee, Joseph DioGuardi—whom Gillibrand crushed 65 to 35 percent, carrying 54 of New York’s 62 counties—it is unlikely that many dollars will come in for Long.

Even so, Gillibrand is cautious not to take her reelection for granted, going out of her way to stress that her goal is to remain in the Senate for “as long as possible.”

What if she does win in November, and the right set of circumstances came along in 2016? Would she? Could she? Gillibrand is amused by the suggestion, so long as her stated intentions to the contrary are clear. About the speculation Gillibrand allows, “It’s very kind. And of course it’s very flat-tering. I appreciate people’s confidence.”

Does that mean one day Kirsten Gilli-brand could have it all?

If you ask her, she already does.(Above) Gillibrand has a lot to smile about these days. (Photo: Andrew SchwArtz)

“Success looks very different for our office than what it may look like in another office.”


EVENTS

Lessons from the

prosCity & State’s “Candidate College”

draws who’s who of Western New York politicians and media for its faculty

On June 16 a host of heavy hitters in local politics, some of the state’s top campaign strategists, and a roomful of current and aspiring candidates converged on the

YWCA of Western New York for City & State’s first-ever event in Buffalo.

The all-day nonpartisan “Candidate College” was intended to teach citizens of all backgrounds, ages and political beliefs how to mount a serious bid for elected office by providing an honest, educated and unvarnished view of the current state of electoral politics and illuminating the pitfalls that often ensnare first-time candidates.

The event, which began with a video greeting from U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and introductory remarks from former State Sen. Mary Lou Rath, consisted of five sepa-rate panel discussions with real-world experts in the field, each concentrating on a different aspect of campaign craft, from fundraising to getting out the vote and everything in between.

A panel of local elected officials, including State Sen. Mark Grisanti, Syracuse Common Councilor at Large Helen Hudson and Erie County Legislator Kevin Hardwick, explained how they successfully won their seats. Congresswoman Kathy Hochul also stopped by to share her experience on the campaign trail.

The media panel, which was moderated by City & State Editor Morgan Pehme, featured Margaret Sullivan, the editor in chief of the Buffalo News, Artvoice editor Geoff Kelly, and longtime local television reporter–turned–current candidate for Erie County comptroller, Stefan Mychajliw, talking about how journalists cover races and what candidates need to do to get the attention of the press.

Among the event’s other prominent presenters and moder-ators were Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner, national political consultant Roger Stone, Red Horse Strategies founding partner Doug Forand, Prime New York’s Jerry Skurnik, Erie County Republican Party chair Nick Lang-worthy and former Deputy County Executive Carl Calabrese.

A number of notable students also attended the training session, anxious to learn new campaigning skills or brush up on old ones, including Perrysburg Town Court Justice Lori Dankert, Administrative Law Judge Paul V. Crapsi Jr. and Bernie Tolbert, the former special agent in charge of the Buffalo FBI, who is widely rumored to be mulling a challenge to Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.

City & State’s “Candidate College” was cosponsored by the New York Policy Forum, the Partnership for the Public Good, New York Civic, and the YWCA of Western New York. The Buffalo event was the second in a series of Candidate Colleges that City & State will be staging across New York. If you are interested in cosponsoring a “Candidate College” with City & State in your region, please write to [email protected].

An aspiring candidate asks one of the Candidate College’s experts for campaign advice.

Top campaign consultants (from left): Doug Forand; Roger Stone and Jerry Skurnik.

Erie County Legislator Kevin Hardwick at mic, with State Sen. Mark Grisanti and Syracuse Common Councilor at Large Helen Hudson. Inset: Congresswoman Kathy Hochul.

Udae. Feriosam enim

Udae. Feriosam enim


SPOTLIGHT: MASS TRANSPORTATION

By Jon Lentz

Since Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would rebuild the Tappan Zee Bridge, the project has

elicited a flood of criticism from local officials feeling left out of the loop, transportation advocates demanding more mass transit and commuters bracing for toll hikes.

But after a decade of study and the bridge’s continued deterioration—not to mention millions of dollars for its upkeep—the governor is pushing back and making the case for a new $5 billion bridge.

“We need to build a new bridge and we need to build it now, and this is no time for gridlock when it comes to building a new bridge,” said Lawrence Schwartz, the secretary to the governor, who recently took a lead role on the project. “The bridge that currently exists is obsolete,

a safety hazard and a chokehold on our economy. A new bridge will be safe. It can not only handle the current capacity but it can also handle future growth. It will be a transit-ready bridge.”

So far Schwartz has focused on winning over Rockland County Execu-tive Scott Vanderhoef and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, both of whom have been outspoken in calling for changes and for more details.

Schwartz has made progress already. After it was announced that the bridge would have dedicated bus lanes during rush hour, Vanderhoef agreed with the governor, saying last week it would be too costly to add more mass transit immediately.

That has put the heat on Astorino, whom Schwartz suggests is driven

by politics. Astorino, a Republican, is frequently mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate.

“The problem with Rob is he has been totally inconsistent with his position on the bridge,” Schwartz said, adding that he had called Astorino three times and hadn’t heard back.

“Scott [Vander-hoef] had asked for a meeting, and within 40 hours I was sitting in his office,” Schwartz added. “We had a very good meeting, and we’re working together, as I plan on working together with everyone else.”

Yet Ned McCormack, a spokesman for Astorino, laid the blame with the Cuomo administration, saying the impasse goes

back to April, when Astorino’s office started reaching out.

“Some of those conversations were between Larry Schwartz and the deputy county executive to set something up, and we haven’t gotten any response to that,” McCormack

said. “It’s true that Larry called this week, but the genesis of the calls was to set something up with the governor and the county executive, and we haven’t heard

Cuomo administration pushes back on criticism of its plans for a new bridge

tappan zeeHaggLing over tHe

City & State Editor Morgan Pehme Sits down with

New York State ComptrollerTHOMAS DINAPOLI

Presented By

BREAKFAST SERIESTHURSDAY JULY 19, 2012Club 101 – 101 Park Avenue, NYCBreakfast & Program 8:00am – 9:30am

Follow the conversation using the hashtag #NewsMakersBreakfast

E-ZFactThe Tappan Zee

Bridge was opened to traffic in 1955.



about setting up that meeting.”McCormack insisted that Astorino

called for a bus rapid-transit component, even a modest one, to be included from the start. Astorino, who has proposed a bus corridor between the Palisades and either Tarrytown or White Plains, consid-ered the rush-hour lanes a good first step.

“The beginning part is important, because they’ve talked about a capability, but we believe that if there isn’t some commitment, something real from the very beginning, the likelihood of being able to follow through on it is close to zero,” McCormack said. “And again, this can be just dedicated bus lanes. We’re not looking for anything way blown-out.”

Of course, much of the debate has centered on the scope of any new transit system. The Cuomo administration has said mass transit would double the cost, but others say the figures are inflated and that something less than a full 30-mile corridor would be more affordable—and even doable.

Jeff Zupan, a transit expert at the Regional Plan Association, said the exact cost of building the bridge strong enough to support rail travel in the future—an

element of the project that could poten-tially be omitted—is unclear, as is the cost of a bus ramp to a local train station, which is not in the current plans.

“Once the governor started saying, ‘We’re going to move fast,’ all of a sudden the bus option became $5 billion—‘I can’t do that; I can’t pay for that,’ ” Zupan said. “There’s

never been a satisfactory explanation, as far as I can tell, as to how the cost rose so much.”

Asked if the state could do anything beyond adding the dedicated bridge bus lanes during rush hour, Schwartz shot down any other changes.

“From an affordability standpoint,

some of the things that are being suggested are just nonstarters, because the question you have is who’s going to pay for it,” he said. “Are people going to pay higher property taxes and tolls for that? My understanding is nobody is willing to pay for it, including County Executive Astorino.”

(Above) The debate over a new Tappan Zee Bridge has centered on mass transit and costs. (PhoTo: DAniel S. BurnSTein)

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By AAron Short

Summer temperatures aren’t the only thing rising that could stifle New Yorkers this year.

The cost of several modes of transit is set to jump this year, as policymakers seek to increase revenues and reign in ballooning costs without reducing services.

But those higher tolls and transit passes will likely trickle down to the region’s subway, rail and vehicle commuters, who will bear the brunt of the costs.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is discussing a plan to increase its revenues by 7.5 percent, which authority officials say they will propose at the end of the month. That may not result in a direct fare hike for straphangers, who currently pay $2.25 for a single ride. But transit sources believe the authority will charge an additional 25 or 50 cents per fare and could consider capping the number of rides on unlim-ited passes.

“Running trains, buses and subways is, unfortunately, expen-sive, and over time, as costs increase, we have to come up with ways to pay those costs,” said MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg. “Even though we have slashed costs at the MTA, increased revenues through regular and predictable fare increases and targeted hundreds of millions of dollars in cost reductions in the

coming year, our financial picture remains fragile.”The authority’s proposal will come as prices are set to rise on

two other major transit options in the metropolitan region. Last week the Taxi and Limousine Commission was set to approve an average 17 percent fare bump that will raise the charge from 40 cents to 50 cents for each fifth of a mile traveled or when a vehicle idles in traffic for one minute. The increase does not include the base fare and is designed to put more of a burden on longer rides.

ticket to ride Will the summer’s transit price increases change how commuters travel?

And the Port Authority, which manages the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and the George Washington, Goethals and Bayonne bridges, is moving to raise tolls for cars in December from $9.50 to $10.25 for E-ZPass users and from $12 to $13 for those who pay in cash. Peak tolls for cars already rose last year from $8 to $9.50.

Each transit organization hopes it can raise revenues to decrease its debt loads and continue to pay its workers.

The MTA expects to collect $7.1 billion next year from fares and tolls alone, about 57 percent of its $12.5 billion budget, and projects raising $449 million from next year’s increases.

The proposal could play out in three ways: The authority could enact fare and toll increases in 2013 and 2015; transit workers could accept a net-zero wage increase; or funding for operations and services could face further cuts.

The MTA slashed $700 million since last year and could cut another $190 million by 2015, although the agency is reportedly considering restoring some of the bus-service cuts it made three years ago.

But transit advocates say those fares aren’t fair.

Gene Russianoff, a spokesman for the transit watchdog group Straphangers Campaign, argues that the authority should not rely significantly on riders to cover expenses in its transit budget.

“New York is the highest in the country for any system that provides subway and bus service by far,” said Russianoff. “Fares went from $63 in 1998 to $89 last decade to $104 in 2010. That’s a 17 percent increase—that’s the rate of inflation in Venezuela!”

Other transit leaders argue that fare increases are necessary for operations.

Taxi officials say fares must rise to offset the 45 percent jump in gasoline prices since 2006—costs that taxi drivers pay out of their own pockets. A driver only collects an average of $130 during a 12-hour shift.

“A taxi driver is taking home less today than he or she was in 2006,” said Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky. “You take a taxi today and pay a $15 fare, the driver keeps less of that. You want taxi driving to be a profession where you can support a family if you work hard.”

Policymakers must also focus on enhancing existing transit networks, even if costs do rise later this year.

“It isn’t that people are objecting to paying more for transit; it’s that after service cuts people have had to deal with headaches on a day-to-day basis,” said Transportation Alternatives director of transit advocacy Ya-Ting Liu. “It’s just that another fare hike is getting under people’s skin. The question everyone wants to know is, ‘What are we going to get in return?’ ”

“Running trains, buses and subways is, unfortunately, expensive, and over time, as costs increase, we have to come up with ways to pay those costs.”


DIVERSITY / AGENDA

www.diversityagenda.com www.diversityagenda.com 35



Mass

THe PLayerS

THe STaTe

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge a top priority, and the Thruway Authority recently said it would add bus lanes in the face of criticism that it had left out immediately adding mass transit to the project. Patrick Foye is estab-lishing himself in his first year heading the Port Authority, as is Joseph Lhota at the MTA. Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, has pushed for

public-private partnerships, including last year’s design-build law, and has passed an innovative “Complete Streets” law.

THe CITy

Janette Sadik-Khan, Bloom-berg’s influential transporta-tion commissioner, took over in 2007 and is reshaping the city’s landscape with new bike lanes and pedestrian plazas. New York City Councilman James Vacca, who chairs the Transportation Committee, is focusing on traffic safety, including drivers who seriously

injure bikers and pedestrians, as well as the dangers posed by commercial delivery cyclists.

THe INDUSTry

Construction companies, unions and trade groups see public-sector spending as a way to boost their industry at a time when the economy is still recovering from reces-sion. Among the big players in the construction industry are Skanska, Bechtel, Dragados, AECOM and Parsons, each of which belongs to groups that are finalists to rebuild the Tappan Zee Bridge.

THe ISSUeS

TraNSIT FUNDING

Across New York, governments are strug-gling to maintain mass transit while minimizing service cuts. The Metro-politan Transportation Authority has hinted that if current ridership and financial trends continue, it could restore services cut during the recession. But in the short term, the scaled-back MTA payroll tax and reliance on debt has some transit advocates worried about the subway system’s future. In many cities, bus service is being scaled back or seeing fare hikes. Meanwhile, federal transportation funding hasn’t picked up the slack.

SeLeCT BUSeS

New York City plans to bring Select Bus Service routes to the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten

Island, offering relief to residents seeking improved transporta-tion options outside of Manhattan. Some trans-portation advocates say that extending the service does not go far enough to address poor transportation options in the outer boroughs. Instead of merely modifying existing bus routes, they say that new routes should connect major transpor-tation corridors.

TraFFIC SaFeTy

For children ages 1 to 12 in New York City, the most likely cause of death is getting hit by a car. Between 2001 and 2010, more New York City residents were killed by cars than by guns. Those statistics have led trans-portation activists and elected officials to call on the NYPD and the city to be more vigilant about investigating car crashes.

T r a n s p o r T a T i o n

sc

or

ec

ar

d

Some popular biking areas missing out with new bike-share program

This month New York City is set to launch Citi Bike, a bike-share program touted as the largest such program in North America. The initial plans are to place 10,000 bikes in 600 stations through the city, mostly in midtown and lower Manhattan and a portion of Brooklyn.

A look at recent bicycle-crash data in the city, which provides a rough indica-tion of where bicycles are used the most, shows the stations will largely be placed in the areas of highest demand. But some popular biking areas, especially in Queens and Manhattan, are missing out on the bike-share program. SOuRCES: CITIBIKENYC.COM, NYCDOT

Key: Areas that will have bike-share stations

1–20 incidents 21–40 incidents 41+ incidents

SHarING BIKeS

CyCLIST COUNTS ON THe rISeSince Janette Sadik-Khan took over as transportation commissioner in 2007, bicycle ridership has increased dramatically. The following are total average-ridership levels at six commuter locations across the city during peak hours on a single weekday. (SOUrCe: NyCDOT)

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0

'02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11

Bicycle crashes by precinct, October–December 2011

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www.cityandstateny.com | JULY 16, 2012 27CITY&STATE www.cityandstateny.comCITY&STATE JANUARY 23, 2012 21

Stay plugged into New York politics all day long with The Notebook, the new political blog

from City & State. Led by political writer Chris Bragg with contributions from the entire City & State staff, The Notebook is City & State’s new online home for breaking news and sharp analysis of the shifting sands of campaigns and elections in New York.

IT’S ALL IN

www.cityandstateny.com/thenotebook



CHARLES FUSCHILLO JR.Chairman, Senate Transportation Committee

JAMES VACCAChairman, New York City Council Transportation Committee

JOSEPH LHOTAChairman and CEO, Metropolitan Transportation Authority

JANETTE SADIK-KHANNew York City Transportation Commissioner

Q: What was the biggest success in terms of transportation legislation this session?CF: The state budget. We approved a $4.5 billion capital plan to help fund desperately needed infrastructure-im-provement projects, with an agreement to do a two-year DOT capital plan next year, augmented by a $100 million in-crease in both years over current fund-ing levels. We also created the New York Works program, which will supplement the capital plan by $1.6 billion and expedite critical projects throughout the state.

Q: Did any key pieces of transporta-tion legislation fail to pass?CF: The legislation to strengthen Leandra’s Law and prevent drunk drivers from getting around the law’s mandatory ignition-interlock require-ment. Ignition interlocks have been proven to save lives, which is why we included them under the law. However, only 30 percent of the convicted drunk drivers who were ordered to install them actually did so. The Senate passed the legislation, but the Assembly held the bill in committee.

Q: What is the status of your public- private partnership legislation?CF: We approved design-build legisla-tion last December, and we are already seeing positive results in terms of how quickly many of the New York Works projects are moving forward. The leg-islation I’m sponsoring would build on that success and give the state greater flexibility to enter into P3 agreements. We’re continuing to have conversa-tions with the Assembly and the gov-ernor, and I’m hopeful this legislation will get passed and signed into law as soon as possible.

Q: How much does adequately financing transportation depend on a strong economic recovery?CF: Every $1 billion spent on infra-structure projects creates approxi-mately 25,000 jobs. Even in challeng-ing financial times, we still need to find ways to fund critical projects to keep our infrastructure safe, func-tional and reliable... We need to keep exploring new and innovative ways to generate economic development, reduce risk and financial burden to the state, and stretch current funding farther to get more projects off the ground.

Q: How will the MTA close its budget gap in coming years?JL: We’re in the process of updating our financial plan for the coming years. We are confident that a com-bination of aggressive cost-cutting, a labor agreement with three years of net-zero wage increases and small but regular fare and toll increases will allow us to keep our budget balanced. However, that balance is fragile, and even as our discretionary costs have increased by only six-tenths of 1 per-cent, our nondiscretionary costs are projected to grow much higher than the rate of inflation.

Q: Will the subway countdown clocks be expanded?JL: Our customers love the count-down clocks, which were possible after a decade of work to improve the signaling system on all the numbered lines. Changing the signals on the lettered lines will take even longer, so we’re looking at a variety of technolo-gies to speed up that process and deliver countdown clocks faster. We want all stations to have them as soon as possible.

Q: What else does the MTA have up its sleeve?JL: The subway countdown data will get pushed out to apps and comput-ers within the next couple of months, so you can check their progress from your phone or computer. And just like the countdown clocks on subways, Bus Time has been tre-mendously popular on bus lines, so instead of waiting for the bus you can meet it. It’s available for all buses on Staten Island now, on the M34 in Manhattan and the B63 in Brooklyn, on every bus in the Bronx by the end of the year, and on every bus in the city by the end of next year.

Q: When you came on, a top priority was improving the MTA’s reputation.JL: We’re starting to change some impressions about the MTA, but we have a long way to go. We need to keep finding more efficiencies in how we operate to minimize the need for future fare increases. We need to keep our major capital projects like East Side Access and the Second Avenue Subway on time and on budget. And we need to identify new sources of funding to pay for the next capital plan starting in 2015.

Q: What is New York City’s biggest mass-transit issue?JV: Long-term there has to be stabil-ity for funding streams that the MTA can count on, both on the expense and the capital side. Of an immedi-ate nature is if the MTA will be able to make some restorations of service that were cut in 2010. Many people, especially those who take buses, are hoping for these restorations. Many of them have been left stranded by the cuts, and for the immediate future we have to look to restorations. And the MTA will have to make that determination based on their fiscal situation. Bus ridership is down since those cuts, and if bus ridership is down, in all likelihood car use is up. That’s something that we don’t want to encourage.

Q: What other issues are you work-ing on?JV: We have an increasing amount of people who are going to work not in Manhattan but in their own boroughs or within suburban counties. People in the outer boroughs now commute to suburban jobs centers, and mass transit has not kept up with that real-ity. More people now than ever work in the Bronx, for example, or they work in job centers such as White Plains or Stamford, Conn.—and how do we get them there without them using their cars? I think that there has to be a planning effort in that regard.

Q: Is a strong national economic recovery essential to fully fund the city’s mass-transit needs?JV: I would think a good national economy is always better than a bad one. It could go two ways. If there’s a bad national economy, could the fed-eral government then try to stimulate the economy by funding mass-transit infrastructure? I think Republicans in Congress have made it clear that they do not want to do that, but Demo-crats have tried to use a bad national economy as an opportunity to catch up on mass-transit infrastructure projects. A good national economy is good because then you have more money coming in from the gas tax, and that means there’s more money for mass transit, because people are driving, people are going on vaca-tions and people have money in their pockets to spend. I think this is a pro and con to both situations.

Q: What is your top priority now?JS: A world-class city needs world-class transportation options. Starting this summer, New York City is moving ahead with Citi Bike, a new low-cost transportation option that will bring 10,000 bikes to 600 stations by spring in Manhattan south of 59th Street and from Long Island City in Queens to Park Slope, Brooklyn. Bike share will give New Yorkers tap-and-go access to the nation’s largest fleet of publicly available bikes—a kind of transportation-to-go. It’s also the first large-scale network to launch without any taxpayer outlay—potentially providing a new model for systems elsewhere in the nation.

Q: What else are you working on?JS: While we seek to expand choices for travel with bike share, Select Bus service and other programs, we have not let up on a $5 billion state-of-good-repair investment program over the last five years for roads, sidewalks, and bridges and streets. We are dou-bling down with these efforts and with innovative programs like the major expansion of Midtown in Motion, which uses state-of-the-art technol-ogy that lets traffic engineers identify and respond to Midtown traffic choke points in real time.

Q: You’ve been described as part Jane Jacobs, part Robert Moses. How do you see yourself?JS: It’s because Robert Moses built out the network that today we are able to repurpose just some of this to work for pedestrians and bike riders as well as it does for those behind the wheel. Jane Jacobs showed that a livable city is a place where the streets are attrac-tive and inviting for people of every age, and where it’s safe and easy to get around on foot. And these invest-ments in the pedestrian space are investments in the retail economy—and as we saw in Times Square, it’s the difference between night and day. Times Square retail rents have dou-bled, and it’s listed as one of the top retail corridors on the planet. We are reengineering streets to make them safer for seniors and for schoolkids, installing audible pedestrian signals for the sight-impaired, and we are moving ahead with our CityBench in-stallations and with a pedestrian sign and information network to help New Yorkers and visitors crack the code on how to get around New York’s streets.


PERSPECTIVES

In a lot of ways, politics is like baseball. Even when it looks like nothing is happening, a great deal is going on.

Politics is also a spectator sport where fans (i.e., voters) can be participants. Fans often feel they know the players person-ally, and their allegiance to their favorites can be rabid.

The recent congressional primaries were like the League Championship Series. A few races were laughers (Engel defeated his challenger, 93–7), some favorites won easily (Collins, Meeks, Maloney, Jeffries) and one game went into extra innings (Rangel–Espaillat).

As for the Democratic primary in NY-23, that race evoked the immortal words of the late great Yankees announcer Mel Allen: “How about that!” Because of the exciting outcome of that contest, New Yorkers now have the opportunity to send two Asian-Americans to the 113th Congress, after never before electing any in our history.

Of course, one of these sluggers is Assemblywoman Grace Meng, whose victory has been widely reported in the papers, and cited as an historic achievement by Demo-crats and voting-rights activists. But the other up-and-coming hitter’s exploits have gone largely unsung, though they are no less worthy of note.

Tompkins County Legislator Nate Shinagawa’s primary win is remarkable because he won in an overwhelmingly non–Asian-American district. His victory is what the Voting Rights Act was intended to make possible: enable voters to choose candidates without governmental inter-ference or racial prejudice.

For those of you who are hearing about Shinagawa for the fi rst time, he’s an Asian-American of Japanese and

Korean ancestry who moved from California to Ithaca over 10 years ago. In his high school commencement address, a young Shinagawa presciently spoke of breaking glass ceilings. And yes, he was voted “most likely to succeed” (as a jaded New Yorker, I roll my eyes at this type of thing).

A county legislator and hospital administrator, he was an aide to Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton. His support for the Affordable Care Act is tied to his commitment to improving access to quality rural healthcare. And like many of his constituents, he believes that the environmental risks of natural- gas exploration outweigh the economic gains.

At this point the Jeremy Lin comparisons are inevitable. Like Lin, Shinagawa seemingly came out of nowhere (especially to those of us in New York City). Yet this is less a refl ection of who he is than a symptom of our collective political myopia.

Shinagawa’s clinching of the Democratic nomination is the spiritual and physical embodiment of the Voting Rights Act. The VRA was not enacted for the perpetuation or preservation of racial and ethnic silos. Shinagawa won in one of the most rural parts of the state with votes from whites, blacks and Hispanics, which arguably makes his victory far more signifi cant and impressive than Meng’s, who won as the machine-favored candidate in a predomi-nantly Asian, court-drawn district in Queens.

Like Lin’s memorable fi rst games with the Knicks, Shinagawa has erupted onto the scene with unques-tionably impressive feats, but a fairy-tale ending to his Cinderella story is far from assured. He now faces a tough general-election campaign against the GOP incumbent, Tom Reed, who bested his 2010 opponent, Matthew Zeller, by 12 points and nearly 30,000 votes.

Meanwhile Meng faces the GOP standard-bearer and famously pagan City Councilman Dan Halloran, in a race she is heavily favored to win, owing to the Demo-crats’ signifi cant registration advantage in the district. Wins by both Shinagawa and Meng, while not signifying a post-racial New York, would mark another advance in achieving the American dream.

Their electoral successes suggest New York should apply to the U.S. District Court for bailout from Section 5 preclearance coverage under the VRA. I believe the city has effectively overcome its past treatment of minority voters and candidates. Although Asian-American candi-dates have had greater success across than other racial minorities in being elected from predominantly white communities, I still believe that the stain of voter discrim-ination has been removed for decades in New York.

As voters in NY-23 go to the polls in November, they should judge Nate Shinagawa on the issues and on his merits as a candidate to represent them in Congress. I look forward to following all the balls and strikes.

Retired Assemblyman Michael Benjamin represented the Bronx for eight years.

Pundits do a good job of assessing winners and losers after electoral events like the recent congressional primaries. Few are better, for example, than City & State’s First Read on Fridays.

Yet while this last primary’s victors have already been determined, I would like to parse the signifi cant factors underlying who won, who lost and why.

First, let’s look at the GOP Senate race. In state-wide primaries generally the most potent combina-tion a candidate can achieve is being dubbed the most conservative in the fi eld and winning the designation of upstate’s horse. That is what Wendy Long rode to victory.

The GOP registration breakdown is 53 percent from upstate, 30 percent from the suburbs (Long Island, West-chester and Rockland) and 17 percent from New York City. But in terms of who actually votes in GOP prima-ries, upstate is in the driver’s seat. In the 2010 gubernato-rial primary, the regional split in the vote among Repub-licans was 66 percent upstate, 25 percent in the suburbs and 9 percent in New York City.

The preliminary returns in this year’s Senate primary show upstate voters casting 60 percent of the GOP vote, the suburbs accounting for 27 percent and the fi ve boroughs making up the remaining 13 percent. Long carried upstate by a wide margin, enabling her to win a majority in a three-way race. Long fi rst demon-strated her strength upstate at the GOP convention. In a Republican primary, Turner’s base in New York City and Maragos’ in Nassau simply were too slender to carry a statewide primary.

Regionalism was also bolstered by ideology. Long was perceived to be the most conservative candidate in the race (e.g., carrying Suffolk County). Her endorsement by the Conservative Party became the seal of approval for right-wing Republicans.

Empirically, the most conservative candidate wins Republican primaries (D’Amato over Javits in 1980, Pataki over Rosenbaum in 1994, Paladino over Lazio in 2010). Bill Weld realized this when he dropped out of the gubernatorial primary after John Faso bested him at the convention in 2006.

On the Democratic side, I have three principal observations about the recent primary, the fi rst being that King Lear endorse-ments didn’t work. By this I mean voters did not fi nd persuasive the frustration-laden endorsements of longtime political leaders. Vito Lopez working against Nydia Velázquez and Ed Towns endorsing Charles Barron in an attempt to deny Hakeem Jeffries, his seat both failed. In fact, Lopez’s and Towns’ interventions probably helped lead Velázquez and Jeffries to landslide victories.

A second noteworthy development is that emerging ethnic and racial constituencies surging from the census also advanced at the polls. The old conventional wisdom that Asians and Dominicans don’t vote was smashed by Grace Meng’s victory and Adriano Espail-

lat’s strong showing against Charlie Rangel. John Liu expanded the Asian share of the vote in New York City from 3 percent to 10 percent in the 2009 primary. Grace Meng proved this result was not an aberration. The rise of the Asian voter and the political coming of age of the city’s Dominicans will remain forces to be reckoned with for decades.

Given this increasing diversity, not only do we have a clear minority majority in the New York City elec-torate but also a growing diversity within the minority communities forming that majority (among blacks, Asians and Hispanics). This fact puts a premium on coalition building, personifi ed by Hakeem Jeffries’ 3–1 trouncing of Barron. In this district, the winning candi-date had to establish his appeal to working class and poor African-Americans, Caribbean-American immi-grants and upwardly mobile black professionals, as well as Jewish, Hispanic, “yuppie” and Italian-American voters. Jeffries did that, while Barron never could.

As we try to understand future primaries, we should focus on regionalism and ideology for the GOP, and the political implications of census trends and coalition building for the Democrats. And if you are a candidate and an angry veteran political leader tempts you with his endorsement, run away, as if escaping a midsummer night’s dream, which will actually become a nightmare.

Bruce N. Gyory is a political consultant at Corning Place Communications in Albany and an adjunct professor of political science at SUNY Albany.

THE JEREMY LIN OF POLITICS?

WHY THEY WON

Michael Benjamin

Bruce Gyory


#WINNERSANDLOSERS Get your comment in the paper. tweet us @cityandstateny

WINNERS

WEEk Of JuNE 29, 2012

The congressional primaries brought us plenty of sizzling races in late June, and the

summer heat didn’t slow things down in early July, as campaigns picked up speed

and politicians and government officials notched key victories or made newsworthy

gaffes. Here’s a recap of who’s up and who’s down—and who our readers voted the

biggest winners and losers. Go to cityandstateny.com each week to vote.

winners& Losers

YOuR CHOICECharlie Rangel: no

amount of drama or

trauma has ever been

able to take down

charlie rangel—and it

appears that nothing

ever will. whether it’s

redistricting, sickness or

ethical clouds, rangel

has trucked on, defi-

antly telling everyone

in earshot he’s the only

man for his job. although

outstanding ballots

tightened his race with

adriano espaillat, rangel

made it through that trial

unscathed, too.

YOuR CHOICE David Niederman: the influential rabbi in williamsburg’s hasidic

community tried everything to put erik dilan in congress, from urging residents to vote

in yiddish newspaper columns to sending orthodox Jews to staff polls on primary day.

But he didn’t pull enough votes for dilan among the satmar Zalmanites to beat rep.

Velázquez. the rabbi remains the Zalmanite’s top political maven, but politicians visiting

south williamsburg now must also meet with his bitter rivals, the aaronites.

COLLINS 5%

CROWLEY 24%

LONG 13%

RANGEL 34%

WARD 21%

BARRON 18%

COx 3%

LANCmAN 11%

LOpEz 21%

LOSERS

Chris Collins: Back from the dead

mike Long: Goes long and connects—with wendy Long

peter Ward: endorsement was meng’s turning point

WEEk Of JuLY 6, 2012

fOOT-IN-mOuTH Chris

Collins: Just when

things were back

on track, collins

committed

yet another

unforced

error. collins

has previ-

ously suffered

from foot-in-

mouth disease,

comparing shelly

silver to hitler and

telling a woman

she could get a

seat at the state of

the state for a lap

dance. this time

he said, “people

now don’t die from

cancer, breast

cancer and some of

the other things.”

taken out of

context or not, he

looked out of touch

and insensitive.

WINNERS

LOSERS

Seth pinsky: illegal

lobbying on willets point

Nan Hayworth: Loses indepen-

dence line

NYC Board of Elections: Fumbles

rangel–espaillat recount

YOuR CHOICE marty Golden: what do

women want? maybe not a workshop about “posture,

deportment, and the feminine presence.” Golden’s

well-meaning jobs seminar for “ladies” took us all the

way back to a pre–Betty Friedan era whose social

mores we can’t even appreciate ironically. Golden

got an earful from every progressive blogger there

is, before canceling the event. perhaps the senator

needs his own seminar—on how to help people find

jobs without offending them.

NIEDERmAN 45%

NYC BOE 26%

HAYWORTH 20%

COLLINS 4%

pINSkY 9%

mAGNARELLI/YOuNG 16%

GOLDEN 38%

AmERICA’S CHOICE Bald Eagle:

narrowsburg’s bald

eagles faced danger

when town officials

proposed a fireworks

display near the

formerly endan-

gered species’

habitat. thank

the lucky stars

(and stripes)

the u.s. Fish

and wild-

life service

threatened

the town with

heavy fines if

they had their poten-

tially bird-immolating

light show. the town

moved the fireworks,

the eagles were safe,

the residents were

cheered and patriotism

was well-displayed.

compromise. God

Bless america.

BLOOmBERG 6%

BALD EAGLE 24%

WEINER 22%

YOu SAID

“The facts surrounding

the rout of C.M. Barron

begs the question ‘Why

were Democratic leaders

so worried?’ They surely

knew from his previous

non–City Council races

his difficulty getting

votes beyond his City

Council role. Jimmy

McMillan outpolled him

in the gubernatorial

primary. Are they going

to freak out when he

announces for borough

president?”

—MiChAel A.

BenJAMin

Bill magnarelli & Catharine Young: passed

the most bills

michael Bloomberg: disses the puns

Anthony Weiner: returns to public stage

YOuR CHOICE Adriano Espaillat: the race was

over, but after a series of Boe mishaps and a savvy

court case later, espaillat was still in the game. there

will be no redo primary and the outcome is no longer

in doubt, but even if he heads back to the state senate,

he’s the man who brought rangel to within an inch of

the end of his career. with his name going national,

espaillat may have an easier time winning the seat if he

tries again, especially if the venerable rangel retires.

ESpAILLAT 29%

mOST ImpROVED Joseph Crowley: in last

year’s special election between Bob turner and

david weprin, Queens democratic chairman Joe

crowley was pegged as a loser after weprin’s stun-

ning defeat. so it’s only fair that we acknowledge

crowley won huge by selecting assemblywoman

Grace meng as the party’s pick in the ny-6 race.

now, if meng wins the general election, we have

a feeling Joe will be throwing some sort of epic

karaoke party in the near future.

Ed Cox: Bob turner loses senate primary

Rory Lancman: out of a job and out of touch

Vito Lopez: miscalculated Velázquez challenge

NOBODY’S CHOICE Charles Barron: if the worst

part had been losing by 40+ points, he might still have

escaped this week’s hall of shame. But Barron had no

base of support, well, anywhere. not only did he lose

every single assembly district, including his wife’s,

Barron even lost his own block. wow, that hurts.


BACK & FORTH

Richard Stratton, the former editor of High Times magazine, knows a thing or two about marijuana. Not only has he written in depth about the subject, he also spent years as a drug smuggler,

moving millions of dollars of the product—a path that ultimately landed him a 25-year sentence, of which he served eight years. Since his release two decades ago, Stratton has become one of the most successful and prolific ex-cons, writing novels, producing award-winning films and running a TV series not so loosely based on his life. City & State Editor Morgan Pehme asks Stratton the straight dope about decriminalization, prison reform and his refusal to rat out Norman Mailer.

City & State: Were you surprised when Governor Cuomo announced that he was going to push for the decriminal-ization of marijuana possession up to 25 grams?Richard Stratton: Not really, because I think that any smart politician really sees that the writing on the wall is that decriminalization and legalization is inevitable. They say there were three reasons why Prohibition ended: the Depression, the Depression and the Depres-sion. I think the three reasons why ultimately marijuana will be legalized are the Recession, the Recession and the Recession, particularly in states like California and New York, where you have a major underground market that is huge…. For the government not to be getting a piece of that is stupid.

CS: Were you surprised at all when the Senate Repub-licans rejected Cuomo’s decriminalization effort?RS: You know, I was surprised, because I’ve always believed that it’s a Republican issue. You’re talking about those values that Republicans supposedly hold dear, like personal liberty and less involvement of the state in our lives. That’s really what it’s about.

CS: Do you think that if marijuana were legalized that it would profoundly drive down the levels of incarcera-tion and drug-related violence in this country?

RS: Well, certainly the levels of incarceration…. It is the drug war that has led to the huge expansion of our prison system. Like everything else in America, they’ve figured our how to make a business out of it. They build prisons and it gives people jobs and they put these prisons in areas of states where they need work, where the factories have closed down, and these guys that had jobs in factories go to work as guards and correctional officers in prisons, so it became an industry: the prison-industrial complex.

CS: In one of your trials, you were convicted and sentenced by former Manhattan Borough President Constance Baker Motley, who was chief judge of the Southern District at the time, and yet Motley inadvertently helped you get your sentence vacated. Please explain.RS: I kept telling myself that there was no way I was going to do 25 years. I was going to beat that sentence down one way or another, so I became tremendously involved in researching the law around my case and criminal drug laws in general…. In the case here in…New York, I actually represented myself…. I had this defense which was basically, Look, I’ve already been sentenced to 15 years up in Maine for smuggling pot, and this case…is just an attempt by the government to make me cooperate, give them information on people that they’re looking to arrest…. Ultimately I was convicted, but when [Judge Motley] sentenced me I gave her this spiel about drugs…. And she said, “You know what? I agree with you, and I think that marijuana is not as dangerous a drug, but you refused to cooperate

with the government.” So she based her sentence on my refusal to cooperate…which turns out to be illegal. You can give a person less time for cooperating, but you can’t give a person more time for refusing to cooperate. The sentence becomes coercive, rather than putative. It took me awhile to find the case law in the Second Circuit that says that, but once I found that I knew I was on my way back to court…. It was a eureka moment.

CS: The government tried to offer you a plea bargain to drop a dime on Norman Mailer?

RS: It was Mailer and a bunch of other people. Hunter Thompson, who was a dear friend of mine. I was involved with Rolling Stone in those days and I knew Hunter really well. My lawyer at the time was a guy named Dick Goodwin, who was a Kennedy speechwriter, and they wanted Goodwin. They wanted anybody that I could give them.

CS: But none of those people were involved with your drug operation?RS: No. Look, Hunter Thompson, did we smoke pot together? Yes. Did we do LSD together? Yes. Hunter was a drug user, but he was never a drug dealer…. But it would have been a feather in some prosecutor’s cap to have arrested Hunter Thompson, and they would have made a big deal about it because this is the guy who wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and then Mailer had written as “General Marijuana” [one of Mailer’s aliases at The Village Voice] years before.

CS: Do you think you’re a better man for having gone to prison?RS: Yeah. I was a lunatic before I went to prison, in many ways. The thing about doing what I did was that it’s a tremendous enhancer of hubris…. Look, I used to be able to open up the closet and take out a suitcase full of money and do whatever I wanted. That’s a crazy way to live, and it goes to your head. It definitely goes to your head.

CS: And when you got out you married a cop?RS: I married a former undercover narcotics cop, yeah. [The

couple divorced after 15 years; Stratton has since remarried.]

CS: So what is the psychology behind that?RS: You know, some of my best friends are cops. Tonight I’m going to spend the night with Sonny Grosso…the French Connection cop… Nobody understands a cop as well as a criminal, and nobody understands a criminal as well as a cop…. The DEA agent who arrested me in the very beginning became a good friend of mine. I don’t have a problem with them, unless they’re corrupt—unless they’re setting you up, or venal. Then that’s different.

CS: What are your thoughts on political corruption?RS: Mailer used to say, “Is it good for the Jews, or is it bad for the Jews?” meaning, “Is it good for the culture, or is it bad for the culture?” If it’s bad for the culture—and corruption is always bad for the culture—lock ’em up…. I remember when I was locked up, Muhammad Ali came and spoke to the prison population one day. It was one of the highlights of my being in prison, and he got up and he was talking about, “There are guys out there with briefcases stealing more money that you guys are stealing with your guns. Don’t let yourself be defined by your crimes. Go out there and change your lives.” There

are politically corrupt people who have done things in the public arena who are heinous, and they affect many more people than someone who is dealing a little pot.

DecriminalizeD

Photo by Jonathan

SPringer

To read

the full

text of this

interview, including

Stratton’s take on

President Obama,

Governor Cuomo

and Mayor Bloom-

berg, check out

cityandstateny.com.

“A record 16 outstanding CUNY students in 2012won National Science Foundation awards of $126,000 each

for graduate study in the sciences.No other University system in the Northeast won more.

CUNY students continue to win the nation’s most prestigious awards,coached by our world-class faculty.”

— Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor

1-800-CUNY-YES cuny.edu/allstars

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