Neil deMause: The Website

New York City is facing the prospect of bus and subway fare hikes again, but could there be another way to do this?

As if New Yorkers hadn’t been beset by enough bad news of late — foreclosures going through the roof, “The Real World” filming its next season in Brooklyn — last week the MTA chimed in with word that its latest round of budget woes would force it to “defer” planned service upgrades, possibly forever. With $500 million in red ink projected for next year, MTA chief Lee Sander declared, the authority needed to put off everything from renovating crumbling subway stations to buying new double-length buses - and still may consider another fare hike next year.

To blame is the MTA’s financing system, which draws roughly equally from fares and from a series of dedicated taxes… [read more]

More on the New York Yankees’ latest demands for city-backed bonds…

When the rich want to get richer off the public till, one trick is to make the theft so boring that only a trained accountant could understand it without dozing off. If Ken Lay had tried to pump up Enron’s stock by, say, floating rubber checks, he would have been tabloid fodder from Day 1; instead, nobody noticed until it was too late, largely because manipulating “stranded costs” and other nuances of the electricity markets made even regulators’ eyes glaze over… [read more]

It’s hard to find much to add to a story that begins with a young couple trying to evict 15 families so they can turn their apartment building into a mansion, but I give it the old college try anyway:

The Battle of 47 E. 3rd St. - the five-story East Village tenement whose landlords want to turn it into a private mansion - has everything: a five-year legal battle; architectural plans for remaking entire apartments into a home gym and nanny’s quarters; tenants and landlords duking it out by plastering dueling Web addresses (economakis.com and 47e3.org, for those interested) in their windows… [read more]

Soaring food prices, like soaring oil prices, are hitting hardest those who can least afford it, as well as the emergency food providers set up to help them:

With the price of a loaf of bread approaching that of a gallon of gas - isn’t it about time a refrigerator manufacturer follows Chrysler’s lead and offers a guaranteed price on groceries? - some in the media have begun to look at the effect on the nation’s 35 million people already suffering from recurrent hunger.

The unsurprising answer: “It pretty much sucks,” says Joel Berg… [read more]

NOTE: After I submitted my op-ed yesterday morning, Crain’s NY ran an excellent article with an in-depth look at how soup kitchens and food pantries are straining under the load. (Money stat: “The Food Bank For New York City, which provides the majority of food supplies for the city’s 600 pantries, is witnessing the sharpest decline in donations in a quarter of a century.”) Highly recommended reading.

The Metro website is still apparently running on autopilot, so you’ll need to consult the PDF version to see my column from this Monday. The topic, once again, is all the ways New York City spends money without telling anyone:

Last Monday, I noted in this space that while the city council is raked over the coals for handing out millions of dollars in “member items” to favored groups, the mayor doles out billions from the city budget with even less oversight. Over the next three days, the following news items appeared:

When Mayor Bloomberg and then-Gov. Pataki cut a deal in 2005 to give Goldman Sachs about $400 million for a new downtown Manhattan headquarters, they also agreed to give the firm another $321 million if there were delays rebuilding Ground Zero. No one involved thought to mention this to the public… [read more]

I neglected to post here about this Monday’s Metro NY column, but then, Metro has neglected to post it to their site yet, either. (Or update their site at all this week, for that matter.) You can read the PDF version here; a taste of what it’s about:

If you’re a New Yorker frustrated with the workings of our local government it’s hard not to be gleeful at news that lawyer Norman Siegel has sued for a judicial inquiry into the city council “Slushgate” scandal. The suit, based on a 19th-century city charter provision enacted after legendary account-padder Boss Tweed funneled half the city treasury to his cronies, is a longshot; still, it’s fun to picture council speaker Christine Quinn being hauled before a judge to explain why she thought allocating council funds to nonexistent groups was a bright idea.

Cheap thrills aside, though, many budget watchers say the council scandal is penny-ante stuff compared to the tried and true way for elected officials to spend money with little to no public oversight: the New York City budget… [read more]

In which I consider the latest rumors that the New Jersey Nets could be headed to Newark instead of Brooklyn, and whether that might not be best for Brooklyn in the long run:

The recent news that a group of New Jersey investors may be working to buy the Nets and move them to Newark didn’t exactly set off shock waves in Brooklyn, which would be jilted as the team’s new home.

Despite all the hoopla surrounding the announcement nearly five years ago that the Nets would be coming to Brooklyn — developer-turned-owner Bruce Ratner cavorting in World B Free’s too-big hat, borough president Marty Markowitz sobbing, “Those tears of joy are swelling up in me — I just can’t wait!” — it’s been hard to find many locals who are waiting with bated breath for the team’s arrival… [read more]

Another not-entirely-accurate headline by the crack editorial team at Metro NY - the issue with Coney Island is that the city is letting developers’ will take precedence over its own, which is symptomatic of a deeper problem:

Over the past week, details have begun to trickle out about the city’s revised vision for Coney Island — and if you prefer roller coasters to Chuck E. Cheese, you’re likely to be disappointed. Under the latest rezoning plan, the proposed “amusement district” would be trimmed to a 9-acre strip along the boardwalk (down from 15 acres in the city’s previous plan), while much of the stretch from Nathan’s to the Cyclone would be filled with stores and hotel towers.

The reason, explained city officials: Local landowners (read: developer Thor Equities, which has bought up much of Coney Island in hopes of building condos) wouldn’t go along with the original plan… [read more]

Or you can just read today’s Dilbert, which makes the same point in fewer words.

When my editor at Metro suggested I write my column this week about Earth Day, my first response was “What about it?” Then I remembered the bagel crisis:

Tomorrow is Earth Day, which means you’re likely to hear a lot of talk about low-energy light bulbs and taking shorter showers, roof gardens and alternative-fuel cars. You’re less likely to hear much about $1 bagels… [read more]

After a week off, I’m back in Metro today with a look at New York City’s best-kept secret for tax day:

With tax day coming up tomorrow, Judith Rubinstein is a bundle of energy, spreading the word about the tax rebate no one knows about. Called the city school tax credit, it’s an offshoot of the state’s STAR property-tax rebate. (It also has nothing to do with schools — welcome to Albany logic.) “When you do your taxes, there’s a box that asks, ‘Did you live in New York City for the last 12 months?’” explains Rubinstein, director of Connecting To Advantages. That’s the only requirement. “It’s the one stupid refund that you can get even if you don’t do the full tax form.”… [read more]

Also, as a special bonus for the text-messaging generation, I now offer the same article in haiku form:

Tax credit for all
Nobody knows about it
Bloomberg hates poor folk