In the latest Village Voice Education Supplement, I investigate why college is getting so crazy expensive, and what if anything can be done about it: College tuition is, as any Occupy Wall Street demonstrator will tell you, too damn high. … Continue reading
Three years into the Great Recession, and the dramatic rise in unemployment that began in 2008 shows little sign of abating. While the unemployment rate has eased slightly in recent weeks, much of that is the result of jobless who’ve … Continue reading
If you’ve been sitting there wondering “What does the new baseball collective bargaining agreement mean for the Mets’ possible trade of David Wright?” then wait no longer, your prayers have been answered: The new five-year collective bargaining agreement signed by … Continue reading
City Limits launches its new affiliate site The Brooklyn Bureau today, featuring two articles by yours truly at the top. The main feature is a look at downtown Brooklyn redevelopment seven years after a controversial rezoning, which can charitably be … Continue reading
Remember last Friday’s New York Times front-page story on how poverty rates aren’t as bad as we’d feared? Today the Census released the figures behind that piece, and it turns out even where the Times was right, it still missed … Continue reading
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has long insisted on reserving the right to require childless food stamp applicants to work for their benefits — even turning down the offer of a federal hardship waiver that 46 states have been … Continue reading
Now that the Yankees have been bounced from the playoffs, does this mean New York City is missing out on a postseason economic windfall? Naaaaaah: Now that the baseball season for Yankee fans comes down to what-ifs (Why couldn’t Joaquin … Continue reading
With the NBA lockout almost ready to swallow the regular season, I look at the evidence for what the impact will be on local economies in NBA cities. The answer: not a whole heckuva lot. After another fruitless round of … Continue reading
If you’ve been following the Occupy Wall Street protests, either in person or online — and I imagine pretty much everyone has, especially after a top NYPD officer pepper-sprayed demonstrators and his own colleagues and got rewarded with his own … Continue reading
A who’s who of welfare reform heavyweights met at NYU this morning to debate whether the 1996 law is working, 15 years on. Predictably, they couldn’t even agree on what “working” meant: Wednesday’s panel on the 15th anniversary of welfare … Continue reading