A visit to a welfare-to-work program whose participants say it actually, like, works: Say one thing for the women packing an airless classroom in East Harlem: They’ve mastered call-and-response. “You have skills and education, what else do you need?” asks … Continue reading
Under the guise of tax reform, New York’s mayor and city council speaker are trying to push through a loophole for large interstate corporations: You might think that the middle of a recession spawned by massive corporate malfeasance wouldn’t be … Continue reading
What we’re losing in Detroit: After a crazy Friday afternoon that featured a preservationist running onto the field at Tiger Stadium to serve a restraining order against the stadium’s demolition — too late to stop a backhoe from taking several … Continue reading
I didn’t have much room in yesterday’s Metro column to discuss all the ways in which same-sex couples (and unmarried mixed-sex couples) are discriminated against in tax law, Social Security benefits, etc; fortunately, Michele Forsten has a longer piece in … Continue reading
In the wake of the Prop 8 ruling, could the Beyond Marriage movement provide a solution? Only in America could we take a battle around love and sex and family and turn it into a debate on parliamentary procedure. But … Continue reading
I sit through the first state legislative hearing on the Atlantic Yards project, so you don’t have to: Today was the long-awaited — like, six years long — first state legislative hearing on Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, with State … Continue reading
Back to Coney Island again this weekend, to see if the “Festival By The Sea” finally got off the ground: After last weekend’s false start, Joe Sitt’s Festival By The Sea finally kicked off this weekend, giving Coney Island visitors … Continue reading
The new law that President Obama is signing today doesn’t actually leave all small business owners out, but it does exclude some of them from its credit-card protections: When the Senate passed its credit-card reform bill on Tuesday, Senator Christopher … Continue reading
The opening of Joe Sitt’s “Festival By The Sea” in Coney Island was postponed this weekend, but there’s plenty of signs what will be in store (or not) on the developer’s land this summer: Joe Sitt’s much-hyped Festival By The … Continue reading
I tackle the plague of stores closing their doors and what can be done about it. (Once again, not my headline; “shuttered stores” are already beyond help…) Now that tent cities are out of fashion — or at least consigned … Continue reading