New York state has a new governor today (the old one was defective), and what better time to rethink the dumb ideas of past administrations? Among the items topping David Paterson’s to-do list as he takes office today — get … Continue reading
The bike bomb someone set off outside a Times Square recruiting station last week had most of the city news media thinking about terrorism; me, it had thinking about the odd things being done in the name of fighting terrorism: … Continue reading
It’s been a while since I’ve had an excuse to do a new tally of the public costs of the Yankees and Mets deals, so I was pleased to see New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg put his foot in his … Continue reading
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered every school principal in the city to cut $100,000 from their budgets, but says it will have “no impact whatsoever.” Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction: When Gov. Spitzer and Mayor … Continue reading
Another op-ed in today’s Metro NY that’s somewhat akin to what I wrote for them – it’s not my headline, I know that the economic term “leakage” is a phenomenon and not a quantity of money, and the only time … Continue reading
In the course of responding to the New Yorker’s problematic profile of Rudy Giuliani a couple of weeks ago (by Elizabeth Kolbert, who’s usually one of my favorite of their writers, but who usually sticks to environmental issues), I tackle … Continue reading
The New York city council debate over whether to continue Madison Square Garden’s $11-million-a-year exemption from property taxes – which was supposed to end in 1992, but somebody forgot to write that into the legislation – has not exactly covered … Continue reading
My regular Monday op-ed schedule resumes, with a look ahead to tonight’s public meeting on the future of Coney Island that manages to avoid using the term “shell game”: The announcement reads “community information session,” but “Fireworks at Coney Island … Continue reading
With Metro NY taking the last two Mondays off for the holidays, I get a special Wednesday op-ed slot today. The subject is appropriately holiday-themed: How attention to the poor disappears after Christmas, and what that means for those trying … Continue reading
My latest Metro New York op-ed (at 400 words apiece, they’re really more op-aphorisms) takes a shot at digging beneath the surface of baseball’s steroid scandal, or at least coming up with some new topics of conversation aside from whether … Continue reading