Happy Hallowe'en

One of my favorite Hallowe'en displays from the neighborhood.

I plan to be in the Hallowe'en parade in Manhattan tonight as part of Reverend Billy's "Zomberg Rampage".

For more information about the parade, which will be broadcast on NY 1, click here.

Elsie McCabe from Crown Heights

A New York Times profile of Elsie McCabe Thompson, wife of City Comptroller William C. Thompson, reveals that Mrs. Thompson grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Married less than a month to Mr. Thompson when he decided to run for mayor of New York City, Mrs. Thompson, 50, said it would have been easier had her husband chosen not to run, but that what's easy isn't always right, and that lopsided odds don't bother either of them.

Mrs. Thompson, who married Mr. Thompson in September, 2008, has kept a low profile, making rare and usually unacknowledged campaign appearances. For one thing, she is president of the 26-year-old Museum for African Art, building its first permanent quarters in Harlem, which numbers Michael Bloomberg among its donors.

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson share a Harlem brownstone with 12-year-old twins Erin and Eugene, cats Olivia and Emily, a pair of lizards, some turtles and fish.

Mrs. Thompson, daughter of psychiatrist Albert Crum, grew up in Crown Heights near a slice of President Street once called "doctors' row". Her mother, Rosa Maria Hennessy, is Nicaraguan.  At a time when the neighborhood's schools were at their worst, the family borrowed the money to send their 4 girls to Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights.

Mrs. Thompson went on to major in political science at Barnard, got a law degree from Harvard, and worked as a senior litigator with Shearman and Sterling before becoming Mayor David Dinkins' chief of staff.

Her first husband, Eugene L. McCabe, founder of the state’s first minority-run community hospital in Harlem, died two years after their marriage -- when the twins were a year old.

Mrs. Thompson, outgoing and assertive to Mr. Thompson's laid-back and low-key, said her husband's quiet persona was deceptive.

The article from the New York Times.

Cuomo Endorses Thompson

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has endorsed fellow Democrat Bill Thompson for mayor, citing Thompson's "extraordinary" financial expertise -- Thompson has served two terms as the city's comptroller. 

Cuomo’s endorsement of Thompson comes as Cuomo's office investigates the use of placement agents by the state's and the city's pension funds.  Thompson's office administers the city's pension fund.

Asked whether that investigation might conflict with his endorsement of Thompson, Cuomo said that Thompson was one of the first comptrollers in the U.S. to voluntarily end the use of placement agents, and that Thompson has been very helpful to his office during the investigation.

The use of placement agents, said Cuomo, has been the practice, not only in New York State and New York City, but nationwide.

The article from the Observer.  

More from the New York Times.

LPC Calendars East Village Cathedral

The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted this week to calendar -- formally consider for landmark designation -- the 1891 Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection at 59 East 2nd Street in Manhattan's East Village. 

The Greenwich Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), the East Village Community Coalition and Councilmember Rosie Mendez asked the LPC to landmark the cathedral after discovering a plan to build an 8-story condo-tower on top of it.

The LPC, in response, negotiated a “standstill agreement” with the church temporarily halting any plans to develop or alter the church.  In the meantime, the East Village was rezoned, putting in place new height limits that would have prevented the condo-tower from being built. 

Other historic East Village sites that the LPC has not acted on include the threatened Congregation Mezritch Synagogue at 415 East 6th Street, and 101 Avenue A, an architecturally distinguished tenement that once housed a German social hall and is now home to the Pyramid Club.

You can help the cause of historic preservation in the East Village by sending a letter to the LPC thanking them for calendaring the Russian Orthodox Cathedral and urging them to do the same for other proposed East Village landmarks. 

An earlier post on this blog detailed the effort to preserve the historic Cathedral.

Thompson Speaks to Ethnic and Community Media

As reported by the Pakistani Newspaper, Democratic Mayoral Candidate Bill Thompson, in a pre-debate press conference with the city's ethic and community media, criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg as taking the city in the wrong direction and blamed the city's "prohibitive" cost of living for squeezing New Yorkers out of their neighborhoods and preventing new people from moving here.   

Thompson said he passed on the chance to run for comptroller again and ran for mayor because he wants to take the city in a different direction, creating new jobs and a livelier, more diverse economy where both large and small business can survive.

Calling community-based planning "non-existent" during the Bloomberg administration, Thompson advocated local community involvement in the development process and promised that, as mayor, he would ensure community access to city planning.

Faulting the Bloomberg administration for its lack of diversity, Thompson said the city needs a mayor who represents the people of all five boroughs of the city.

Thompson said that, if elected, he would work with immigrant groups and meet with local neighborhood media on an ongoing basis.

Saying he recognized the importance of the city's ethnic and community media as an information source for a large portion of the city's population, Thompson asked them to help get out the vote on November 3. 

The article from the Pakistani Newspaper.

Second Mayoral Debate

I didn't get to watch the first mayoral debate between Michael Bloomberg and Bill Thompson and so got very little feel for the match.  

On Tuesday night, I was there at the Thompson debate watch at RSVP, a cavernous NoHo bar, hanging out on a banquette with a couple of gung-ho West side matrons who had joined the campaign a few weeks ago.

I found the debate as riveting as a heavyweight fight.  The two men seemed very well-matched: Thompson with his adroit populism and Bloomberg with his seemingly endless reserves of vitriol.

From where I sat, it looked like they fought to a draw:  both landed their punches, and both got hurt.

At the end, though, when Thompson looked like he was ready for more rounds, Bloomberg looked old and exhausted.

Some ironic highlights of the debate, for me, were: Bloomberg's efforts to describe what a middle-class New Yorker is; Thompson's reminding Bloomberg that he offered the police commissioner's job to Bernie Kerik before Ray Kelly; Bloomberg's repeated references to New Yorkers as the "people who built this city"; Bloomberg's characterizing himself as a "small business owner" and a straphanger. 

Coverage of the debate from Gothamist.
Coverage of the debate from the Daily News.
Coverage of the debate from Channel 2.

And a few endorsements:

El Diaro endorses Thompson.
The New York Times endorses Bloomberg.
Crains endorses Bloomberg.

Shore Road Syndrome?

In the wake of a decision that all pre-election events must take place in and around Bay Ridge, Hank Rearden, writing for reformist Republican blog Atlas Shrugs in Brooklyn, attacked Brooklyn GOP Chair Craig ("The Duke of Bay Ridge") Eaton and GOP State Senator Marty ("The Golden Prince") Golden as the cause of what he calls "Shore Road Syndrome".

Rearden sees as symptoms of Shore Road Syndrome the following expenditures made by the Kings County GOP during Eaton's chairmanship:

• In July, 2009, when Eaton was running for county chair, the Friends of Marty Golden received a donation of $1650 -- in a year when Golden was not running for re-election.
• Golden has received nearly $20,000 in donations from Eaton in the past 10 years.
• The Party has spent $26,870.50 at the El Caribe Country Club in Mill Basin, which has ties to Marty Golden.
• The Party has spent $10,500 at the Bay Ridge Manor, owned by the Golden Family. 
• The Party has given over $1,000 to the Bay Ridge Community Council. 
• This year, the Party gave $1,150 to St. Marks Roman Catholic Church, located a block away from Eaton's law firm.  St. Marks recently honored Golden for his "service".
• The Party has given $2,000 to Heartshare Human Services of New York, where Eaton sits on the board, as does Golden's brother.  
• The Party has donated generously to Bay Ridge's Xaverian High School.
  

Rearden thinks that money should have been spread around the borough.

The post from Atlas Shrugs in Brooklyn.

Bloomberg Leads Thompson by 18 Points

The results of a Quinnipiac Poll released today show incumbent mayor Michael Bloomberg leading Democratic challenger Bill Thompson by 18 points on the eve of the second mayoral debate, with 10% of voters undecided.

Bloomberg leads among Republicans by 81 - 10% and among independents by 61 - 25%, with the Democratic vote split 46% for Bloomberg and 44% for Thompson.

White voters back Bloomberg 59 - 30%, while black voters support Thompson 57 - 24%, with 18% undecided. Hispanic voters back Bloomberg 49 - 35%.

Bloomberg leads in every borough and with both male and female voters, although 18% of those who backed Bloomberg said they might change their minds.

The pollsters say the numbers could predict a Bloomberg blowout.

Voters have a favorable opinion of Bloomberg by 63 - 29 percent margin. Thompson has a 39 - 23% favorability rating, with 33% saying they still don't know enough about him to form an opinion.

The poll, taken from October 23 - 25, is based on a sample of 1,088 registered New York City voters who have voted in recent elections, with a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.

The press release from Quinnipiac University.

Second Mayoral Debate Tomorrow

The second of two mayoral debates between incumbent mayor Michael Bloomberg and Democratic challenger Bill Thompson will be broadcast on WABC-TV tomorrow, Tuesday, October 27, at 7 PM.

The debate will also be broadcast on 1010 WINS and will be streamed live on 7online.com. WXTV Univision 41 will air the debate on Wednesday, October 27 at 11:00 P.M.

Starting with a reception from 6-7 PM, the Thompson campaign will host a debate viewing from 7-8 and an after-party with the candidate from 8-10 at BLVD, 199 Broadway at Spring Street, in SoHo.

General admission is $25.00.

There will be a pre-debate rally for Thompson from 5-6 PM outside WABC Studio, at the intersection of 67th Street and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan.

More from Room 8.

Debate program from CFB.

Harvest Festival

Two Brooklyn Projects Get Downstate Revitalization Funds

Two of the 5 projects that will share a total of 7.8 million in Downstate Revitalization Funds announced this week by Gov. David A. Paterson are in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard will get $1 million to develop a Green Manufacturing Center, to be made up of three connected structures employing 300 full-time workers and featuring the largest solar-panel installation in New York State.

An $800,000 grant will go to the Brooklyn Brewery for the expansion of its Williamsburg facility, part of a multi-phased $6.5 million project that will convert 13,500 square feet of vacant distribution space into a beer fermentation facility, expanding brewing capacity in Brooklyn from 8,000 to 50,000 barrels per year. The project is expected to retain 27 jobs and create 15 new jobs -- a 50% increase in staffing.

The $35 million fund, administered by Empire State Development (ESD), is available to projects in New York City and surrounding counties. The fund provides grants for local development and small businesses.  Municipalities, businesses, academic institutions and non-profits are eligible.

Elsewhere in New York City, the Apollo Theater received a $2.9 million renovation grant.

The article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.    

More from NY 1.  

More from the New York Times.

Nothing a Friendly Chat with the Mayor Wouldn't Fix?

A mailing I got today from Friends of Bob Capano 2009 makes a blatant grab for the nabe's trigger by promising that Capano, if elected, will stop the traffic ticket blitz in Bay Ridge. A photo on the back of the glossy color flyer shows Capano, index fingers raised, appearing to scold a plus-sized metermaid.

How, exactly, is Capano going to get the city, which he compares to a "rampaging army of vampire bats", to stop "bleeding us dry"?  Well, by "sitting down with Mayor Bloomberg and getting him to understand things from our perspective".

Right.

Why hasn't Vinnie Gentile done that, already?  Well, according to Capano, Gentile refuses to make nice with the Mayor -- and that's why there's a ticketing blitz in Bay Ridge.

Silly me.  I thought the problem was was too many cars, too few parking spaces, and aggressive metermaids.  To think that Bob Capano and Mayor Bloomberg might, in a few minutes of pleasant conversation, make it all go away.

But if it were that easy, why wouldn't Marty Golden, rumored to be the Mayor's good friend, have taken care of it by now?

King Con Comes to Brooklyn

On Saturday, November 7 and Sunday, November 8 from 11 AM to 7 PM, the Brooklyn Lyceum will host KingCon: A Brooklyn Animation and Comic Convention, the first event of its kind in Brooklyn.  

Despite the fact that some of the comic medium's best talent lives in Brooklyn, the borough has never had its own comic convention. That is all about to change with KingCon, featuring Brooklyn's most talented independent artists, writers, animators and publishers -- as exhibitors, vendors, panelists and signers.   

Featured guests will include: 

• Jonathan Ames 
• MAD Magazine's Al Jaffee
• Cliff Chiang
• Devin Clark
• Fred Van Lente
• Dennis Calero 
• Act-I Vate's Dean Haspiel
• Northlanders' Brian Wood
• Tim Hamilton
• Celebrated illustrator Molly Crabapple
• Marvel Comics' Denny O' Neil
• Christy Karacus
• Mike Cavallaro
• Raina Telgemeier
• Matt Loux
• Dave Roman
• Matt Manning
• Bob Greenberger
• Christopher Irving and 
• Seth Kushner.   

KingCon will also feature contests and activities and the chance to meet celebrities from the world of comics, film, television and sports.   

The organizers of the event saw the Con as a natural followup to Zine Fest '09, which brought in so many independent comic artists and writers who needed their own showcase. 

For more about the Con and a full schedule of events, visit http://kingconbrooklyn.com.     

The Brooklyn Lyceum is at 227 4th Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY   11215 (R to Union Street). 

Bloomberg Gains on Thompson

According to the Daily News, a new Marist College Poll shows Michael Bloomberg's lead over Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson having doubled in the past month.

 Among likely voters, 52% say they will vote for Bloomberg to Thompson's 36%, with 5% undecided and 7% selecting "other."

Forty-seven percent of likely Democratic voters say they'll vote for Bloomberg to Thompson's 39%. 

Thompson formerly led among Democrats.

Bloomberg leads among Republicans by 82% to 14%.  

Among independents -- not enrolled in any party -- Thompson is favored by 48% to 41%.

Among whites, Bloomberg leads 67% to 27%.  Bloomberg leads among Latinos by 42% to 35%. Thompson leads among African-Americans by 62% to 22%.  

The fact that Bloomberg has doubled his lead in the past month indicates that Thompson hasn't solidified his Democratic base.

Thompson, relatively unknown among voters before the campaign, has largely been defined by the mayor's campaign -- and doesn't have a fraction of the mayor's advertising budget.

The lower the turnout on November 3, the better for Bloomberg.

Voters still resent the mayor for extending term limits, but, according to the Marist Poll, not enough to make much difference in the preference totals. Half of registered voters, including 46% of Democrats, said term limits was a non-issue.

President Obama's half-hearted endorsements of Thompson appear to have had no positive impact. 

The Daily News article.

Obama Gives Thompson a Shout-Out

According to the Daily News, President Obama, at a Democratic fundraiser at the Hammerstein Ballroom on West 34th Street this week, gave the nod to Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, calling him "our great city controller, our candidate for mayor, my friend Billy Thompson."

The President also acknowledged Democratic candidate for city comptroller John Liu and Bill de Blasio, Democratic candidate for public advocate.

It was closer to an endorsement than the half-hearted mention Thompson got from White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs earlier this month, but it wasn't all that. 

More from the Daily News.

Marathon Sunday

The New York City Marathon, which passes through Bay Ridge, will be run on Sunday, November 1. 

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, at Ovington and Fourth Avenues in Bay Ridge (at Mile 3.5), will host "Marathon Sunday's most unique event", a "Marathon of Prayer and Praise" beginning at 8:30 AM with a breakfast, followed by a cheering session from 9:30-11:30 AM, and a six-church ecumenical service at 11:30 AM.  

For more information, call 718-748-9502 or visit the Website:  www.bethlehembayridge.org

More from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Props to Miss Heather

Miss Heather's Greenpoint blog New York Shitty has been honored by the Village Voice as the city's "Best Neighborhood Blog".  

I have followed Shitty for a couple of years now, and regard the wickedly funny Miss Heather as a positive role model. 

Mazel Tov.

Galway Kinnell at Brooklyn Lyceum

At 7 PM on Sunday, November 1, noted poet Galway Kinnell, in a rare Brooklyn appearance, will read from new and selected works at the Brooklyn Lyceum's monthly literary event, the First Sundays Writers Series.

Admission is $10.

Among his numerous honors, Kinnnell has received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his Selected Poems (1980), as well as a MacArthur Fellowship. He has translated works by Francois Villon, Rainer Maria Rilke and others, and served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.  His classes at Sarah Lawrence, Columbia University, N.Y.U. and other universities have influenced generations of writers.

The First Sundays Writers Series features intimate readings with established and up-and-coming writers: poets, novelists, journalists, graphic novelists, photojournalists and non-fiction writers, among others.

The evening will be hosted and curated by journalist and poet Susan Hartman.

Local Brooklyn bookseller Book Court will be supplying Kinnell's books for sale and signing at the event.

The Brooklyn Lyceum is at 227 4th Avenue in Park Slope, above the R train station at Union Street.   

For more information, visit the Website:  BrooklynLyceum.com or call 718-857-4816.

Eco Dock Comes to 69th Street Pier

According to the Brooklyn Paper, the city has announced a $300,000 floating dock installation at 69th Street pier in Bay Ridge.

City Council Member Vincent Gentile, who secured the funds for the dock, says it will provide day mooring for kayakers and boaters in New York Harbor. 

The 40-foot long, 20-foot wide Eco Dock, scheduled to arrive in Bay Ridge next year, is expected to be the first of its kind in the city.

Gentile hopes the Eco Dock will also one day become a local hub for ferry service to Manhattan.

Heather McCown of the Sunset Ridge Waterfront Alliance sees the dock installation as a sign that ferry service may be restored to Bay Ridge. 

The vintage postcard from Forgotten New York, above right, shows the former Bay Ridge Ferry terminal on Shore Road.  

The article from the Brooklyn Paper. 

More from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Unionized City Workers a Bar to Reinvention?

Fred and Harry Siegel, writing for the Wall Street Journal, note that two-term incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg has already spent at least $70 million on ads, yet can barely break 50% in the polls.

Beneath Bloomberg's weakness in the polls, the Siegels see a growing fear about the city's economy. Unemployment and commercial vacancy rates are over 10% and the city has lost 100,000 jobs, with more losses to come.

While the immediate impact of the economic downturn has been softened by President Obama's stimulus money and federal bailouts, the President's push for more federal control over Wall Street and pay could help insure the permanent downsizing of the financial sector.

Under Bloomberg, city expenditures have outpaced inflation by 40%, while the city has seen record property-tax increases and increased costs.  The Bloomberg administration has negotiated union contracts with city workers including raises at two to three times the rate of inflation, and has subsidized mega-developments, including two major league baseball stadiums and Atlantic Yards, while damping community opposition by plying community groups with grants and promises of jobs and subsidized housing.

The result, say the Siegels, is a New York that is taxing small businesses the way California taxes millionaires.

Manhattan, they say, has become a "monoculture".  Going or gone are the flower district, the fur district, the garment center, the meatpacking district and the Fulton Fish Market. Even the diamond district is being pushed out of 47th Street.

The city has become an unsustainable "luxury product" -- as Wall Street declines.

With Albany crippled and the city's Democratic Party atrophied, the Siegels see the union-backed Working Families Party (WFP) effectively taking over from the Democrats, and the WFP agenda—higher taxes, a stock transfer tax on the sale of corporate offerings, universal paid sick leave, free tuition to CUNY, and higher wages and benefits for public-sector workers, as "strangling" the city's economic recovery.

The WFP is seen as part of Bloomberg's luxury vision, with the wealthy subsidizing the city's "oversized and overpaid" work force. Unionized workers, say the Siegels, have too much political power.

While Mayors Koch and Giuliani temporarily "pared back" New York's public-sector work force, the Siegels see the unions as now driving the middle class out of the city.

The city's fixed pension obligations to retirees are projected at $6.6 billion, up from $1.6 billion in 2003. Without an economic recovery, the city's tax-funded pension contributions may double or triple over the next 5 years -- with a declining private sector picking up that tab.

With a diminished financial sector and public sector unions politically ascendent, the Siegels believe that New York will have a hard time reinventing itself.

The article from the Wall Street Journal.

Breakfast Forum with Rev. Billy

A coalition of historic preservation groups, including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Historic Districts Council, the Municipal Art Society, and Landmark West, will host a breakfast forum on preservation and development with Green Party Mayoral Candidate Rev. Billy Talen on Wednesday, October 21 from 8:00-9:30 A.M. at O’Neal’s Restaurant, 49 West 64th Street (just east of Broadway).

Admission is $5.

RSVP to (212) 496-8110 or landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org. To reserve online, click here.

Mayor Bloomberg has declined to participate in the GVSHP candidate breakfast series, but city comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson and Councilmember Tony Avella have, and you can listen to their remarks HERE.

Bloomberg Sics Guiliani on Thompson

 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has deployed Former Mayor Rudy Guiliani to cast Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, an African-American, as Dinkins II in law-and-order post-9/11 Republican neighborhoods city-wide.

In the run-up to the election, Bloomberg is getting out the Republican vote by sending Guiliani to those outer-borough neighborhoods -- primarily in Brooklyn and Queens -- where the former mayor is still well-liked.

In predominantly Republican neighborhoods in Staten Island, Guiliani figures prominently in campaign literature as a trusted law enforcement leader.

Bloomberg, a former Republican, has no party affiliation, but has snagged both the Republican and Independent Party lines in the upcoming mayoral election.

At a recent breakfast in Brooklyn, Orthodox Jewish leaders gave Giuliani a standing ovation, calling him "dear friend" and praising Bloomberg as a law-and-order mayor.

Guiliani, all but naming Dinkins, warned that the city could very easily be taken back to the way it was.

The Thompson campaign countered that Guiliani and Bloomberg were trying to scare people into voting Republican by invoking the twin bogeymen of crime and terrorism.

Guiliani could help Bloomberg ingratiate himself with Republicans, who haven't forgiven Bloomberg for abandoning the GOP to make a presidential run in 2008 and for ignoring the Republican candidates who share the ticket with him in this year's local election.

Bloomberg has admitted he doesn't even know which Republicans are running, and has mocked the Republicans' chances of winning.

The article from WCBS.

Thompson Reception

Congressman Edolphus Towns

NYS Senator Velmanette Montgomery

NYS Assemblymember Annette Robinson

NYC Councilmember Letitia James

NYC Councilmember Albert Vann

Invite you to a reception with

New York City Comptroller

BILL THOMPSON

In support of his candidacy for Mayor of New York

Sunday, November 1, 2009

6:00 – 8:00 pm

Akwaaba Mansion

347 MacDonough Street

Brooklyn, New York

Please RSVP to Michelle Gross at 212-228-5222 or mgross@darrisonbarrett.com

 Friend: $25 •  Supporter: $50  • Sponsor: $100  •  Patron: $175

 

---

Thompson Slap Site Mounted

Thompson Tax Hike.com, an anonymous Website rumored to have been mounted  by the Bloomberg campaign, accuses city comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson of proposing $4 billion in new spending and supporting across-the-board tax hikes. 

The site accuses Thompson of flip-flopping on whether millionaires or all New Yorkers should pay increased taxes and of having "a long track record of wasting our money".

The site accuses Thompson, in his tenure as president of the city's former Board of Education, of being "asleep on the job" while billions were "overspent" on school construction.

Thompson, as comptroller, is accused of getting $500,000 in campaign contributions from pension fund money managers who received millions in fees, despite poor performance.

At a Crain's breakfast discussion last week, Thompson explained his so-called "flip-flop" on the millionaire's tax by saying that, as the recession deepens -- New York City may lose more than 100,000 jobs -- his focus has shifted, and that those with "broader shoulders" should do more.

Thompson is proposing a .6% tax increase for those making more than $500,000 and a 1% increase for those making more than $1 million, in order to generate $1 billion in new revenue over the next 3 or 4 years, after which the increase would likely sunset.

According to the bio published on his campaign Website, Thompson was appointed the Brooklyn representative to the City's Board of Education in 1994, and was thereafter unanimously elected to 5 consecutive terms as Board President, beginning in 1996.

At the Board of Education, Thompson led a reform agenda and transferred schools operations from local school boards to superintendents, setting the stage for centralized management of the city’s public schools system under mayoral control.

A post published on this blog on August 19, describes Bloomberg spokesperson Howard Wolfson's attacks on Thompson's "record of failure" as comptroller and as school board president.

Wolfson blamed Thompson for the fact that the city's $80 billion municipal pension system has underperformed similar funds nationally while the city has tripled the number of money managers it uses and the fees they earn.  Wolfson attributed the performance lag to Thompson, who he accused of selling access to the city's pension funds by accepting $500,000 in campaign contributions from money managers hired by the funds' trustees. 

Under Thompson predecessor Alan Hevesi, who left office in 2001, the city saw much higher returns, but the money market during Hevesi's term in the late 1990s and the money market since 2002, when Bill Thompson took office, are apples and oranges.

Each city pension fund has its own trustees, appointed by city officials -- Mayor Bloomberg himself appoints trustees to the boards of each of the city's 5 pension funds -- so the rate of return is tied to the trustees and not the comptroller.

Since 2002, Thompson, like other pension managers, has adopted a more aggressive investment strategy, which can yield higher returns but drives up costs. As the number of money managers increases, investment expenses, mainly fees, have risen.

Because some money managers have contributed to Thompson’s campaign, the Bloomberg campaign has accused Thompson of "pay to play".

Until very recently, the city's campaign finance law allowed candidates to accept donations from investment managers.

Bloomberg, who funds his own campaigns, is exempt from local campaign finance rules.

Brooklyn Preservation Council Meets

The Brooklyn Preservation Council will meet on Tuesday, October 20 at 6:30 PM at the Scotto Funeral Home, 106 First Place, near Court Street, In Carroll Gardens.

The meeting agenda includes the proposed Bedford Four Corners Historic District, Carroll Gardens landmarking, the Gowanus Canal cleanup, the Underground Railroad Federal Network to Freedom Multiple Related Properties, and the Comprehensive Proposed Brooklyn Landmark List.

For more information, contact Bob Furman at bobfurman1@juno.com

Incremental Change Driven by Tragic Loss

In 1962, after New York City's magnificent Pennsylvania Station was sacrificed to developers, Mayor Robert Wagner, blamed for the station's loss, created the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect "structures and areas of historic and esthetic importance".

The cash-strapped Pennsylvania Railroad, which owned Charles McKim's neoclassic masterwork, made a deal with the developers of Madison Square Garden to demolish the station.

When demolition started in October, 1963, silent marchers stood by carrying signs reading "SHAME".

Pennsylvania Station has been called the "supreme example of the architecture of the period".

As a direct result of the Penn Station tragedy, the City Council passed legislation giving the Landmarks Preservation Commission departmental status.

By then, Penn Station lay in pieces in a New Jersey landfill. 

The article from the Daily News.

The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission, which owes its existence to the demolition of Penn Station, turned 45 this year.

March and Rally for Jack Price in College Point Today

At 2 PM this afternoon in College Point, Queens, there will be a march and rally against hate crimes on behalf of Jack Price, the gay man who was brutally attacked and beaten by two men from that neighborhood.

Mayor Bloomberg, who, along with Christine Quinn, is courting the gay vote this fall, is expected to attend.

Here's the text of the event flyer, with thanks to DK:

"Join Us in a Community Rally to Condemn Hate Crimes, Saturday Oct. 17th at 2 PM.

In response to the violent beating of openly gay 49-year old Jack Price by two men outside of a convenience store in the College Point neighborhood of Queens, we are hosting a march and rally on Saturday, October 17th, stepping off at 2 PM.

We'll be marching down College Point Boulevard from 20th Ave. until 14th Ave. and holding a rally at Popenhusen playground on 14th Ave. and College Pt. Blvd.

Directions: take the 7 train to Main Street and then the Q65 bus from Roosevelt and Main Street to 20th  Ave. Please bring signs without wooden sticks, banners, friends, and your best self. 

Endorsed by the Price family, Generation Q/the Queens Community House, the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee, the office of Speaker Christine Quinn, the Jewish Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee, the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights, St.Pat’s for All Parade, Astorians United Against Hate Crimes, Gay Center of Jackson Heights, Gay Peruvians, the Long Island City Alliance, the Queens Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club, Las Peruvians, the Long Island City Alliance, the Queens Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club, Las Buenas Amigas, Integrity NYC,Western Queens for Marriage Equality, the Anti Violence Project, the International Socialist Organization, Carmen’s Place, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Project Reach, Queens Pride House, and Make the Road NY."

Daily News photo.

Welcome to the Urban Underclass

New York has 131,000 more jobs under Mayor Bloomberg than before, but the job growth has been in low-paying sectors like retail, food service and home health care -- while the city hemorrhages jobs in finance, insurance and construction. 

According to the Center for an Urban Future, the most available jobs between now and 2014 will be retail salesperson ($20,690 a year) and cashier ($16,800 a year). 

Pretty depressing.

Crain's New York Business estimates that nearly 62,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared during the mayor's two terms, being replaced with generally low-paying retail and hospitality jobs.

The Center for an Urban Future has determined that you now have to earn $123,322 a year in order to qualify as middle-class in New York City, where unemployment stands at 10.3%.

The article from the Village Voice Runnin' Scared blog.

Bloomberg End-Runs the EPA

As reported here in June, the Bloomberg administration, local Councilmember Bill DeBlasio and developers the Toll Brothers have end-run the federal Environmental Protection Agency's plan to Superfund the Gowanus. 

In a press release published on NYC.Gov on October 9, Mayor Bloomberg announced his new $150 million project to "rehabilitate" the existing flushing tunnel and pump station as part of a "comprehensive clean-up" of the Gowanus. 

The canal’s wastewater pumping station will be upgraded to divert more sewer overflows into a nearby sewage treatment plant, and the flushing tunnel will be upgraded to increase the flow of water from New York Harbor into the canal. Sediment will be dredged at the upper end of the canal to reduce the smell at low tide.

The city's Department of Environmental Protection, something called the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation , Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Council Member Bill de Blasio, Council Member David Yassky, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation, and Community Board 6 are all involved in the project.

Bloomberg touted the city's partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers as a way of avoiding "years of delay" through the Superfund process.

In 2002, the city and the Army Corps did a joint feasibility study on the cleanup.  This year, when the EPA proposed Superfunding the Gowanus, the city countered by issuing an alternative plan it says will expedite the cleanup process. 

The city's plan, said Bloomberg, will be more efficient than a "contentious" Superfund process, avoiding the "capital flight" and "disinvestment" that would result from Superfunding.

The $150 million project is funded from the city's capital budget. 

More from Boro Politics. 


More from the Brooklyn Paper.

Homeless in Record Numbers

According to a report released this week by the Coalition for the Homeless, the number of homeless people in the city's shelters has increased by 45% since Mayor Bloomberg took office 8 years ago. 

The numbers have been steadily increasing since 2002.  Homelessness in New York City has now hit an all-time high.  More than 39,000 people, including 10,000 families and 16,500 children, sleep in the city's shelters every night. 

This year could be the worst on record since the Great Depression.  

In 2004, Mayor Bloomberg vowed to cut homessless by two-thirds over 5 years and end "homelessness as we know it."  But despite such tactics as buying one-way airline tickets out of town for chronically homeless people who promise never to come back, the Bloomberg administration has fallen far short of that goal.

 The article from NBC New York.

Toxi City: Brooklyn's Brownfields

The Brooklyn Lyceum will host "Toxi City:  Brooklyn's Brownfields", an exhibit of Robin Michals' photographs, from Sunday, October 25 through November 8, at 227 4th Avenue in Park Slope (R train to Union).  

There will be an artist’s reception on Sunday, October 25th from 3 PM - 6PM.  

Regular exhibit hours will be 10 AM through 6 PM all week. 

The exhibit features 30 photos of sites in Coney Island, DUMBO, East New York, East Williamsburg, Gowanus, Greenpoint, Red Hook, Sunset Park, and Williamsburg, exploring Brooklyn’s industrial past and its legacy of pollution.

 Michals selected sites using the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Brownfield Remediation list and old maps at the Brooklyn Historical Society. The toxic chemicals left behind at these sites can never be eliminated -- only managed.  

Michals, who lives in Park Slope and teaches photography at the New York City College of Technology, has been widely shown and published. 

For more information about the artist, visit www.e-arcades.com

Obama Sortof Endorses Thompson

The endorsement, if you can call it that, didn't come from President Obama, but from Robert Gibbs, his press secretary, who said on Friday that Obama would support the person referred to only as “the Democratic nominee” for mayor of New York City.  

That unnamed person was, of course, city comptroller Bill Thompson, who is challenging incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg's third-term bid. 

Gibbs' comment came at the end of a White House news conference focused primarily on Obama's unexpected receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize. Asked by a Daily News reporter who the president was backing in the New York mayor’s race, Gibbs said: “The president is the leader of the Democratic Party and, as that, would support the Democratic nominee.”

Although he failed to name Thompson, Gibbs mentioned that the President had a tremendous amount of respect for Mayor Bloomberg.

Thompson, in a statement, said he was grateful for the president's support.

The article from the New York Times.  

More from Crains New York Business. 

So did Obama endorse Thompson when he came to town on this week?  Coverage from the Daily Voice.

Love Wanted Adoption Event

There will be a pre-Hallowe'en "Love Wanted" pet adoption event from 11:30 AM to 4:30 PM on Saturday, October 17 at Salem Church, 450 67th Street between 4th and 5th Avenues in Bay Ridge, rain or shine. 

An adoption fee and proof of ID will be required. 

Celebrate Hallowe'en by giving a shelter pet a forever home.

Harvest Festival

The Narrows Botanical Garden will sponsor its 14th Annual Harvest Festival at 71st Street and Shore Road in Bay Ridge on Sunday, October 18 (rain date October 25), featuring a craft fair, an art show and a canine costume contest.

Admission is free.

Activities include pumpkin painting, face painting, balloon sculpture, native plant tours, country music featuring the Al e Mo Square Dancers, raffles, a 50/50 and refreshments.

Register your dog for the costume contest at Paws 'n Claws Grooming, 57 Bay Ridge Avenue @69th Street.  The fee is $10.00.  Registration closes on October 16. No dogs will be registered on the day of the event. 

Vinny's Pet Shop carries a full line of Hallowe'en costumes for dogs. 

Artists and crafters can register here. 

Bay Ridge Rules Recycling

According to statistics recently released by the New York City Department of Sanitation, Bay Ridge has edged out Brownstone Brooklyn -- Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Red Hook and Cobble Hill -- in recycling stats. 

Bay Ridge recycled 59% of its eligible plastic, metal, glass and paper, to Brownstone Brooklyn's 55%.

Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace came in third with a 54% recycling rate.

With an average recycling rate of 41%, Brooklyn ranked 4th out of the 5 boroughs. Staten Island, with a 50% recycling rate, ranked first.

Kensington, Borough Park, Ocean Parkway and Midwood showed the biggest drop in recycling rates, falling from 47% to 44% over the past year.

But these numbers were nowhere near as low as Brownsville and Ocean Hill, with a recycling rate of just 24%.

Lower recycling rates have been pegged to large apartment buildings where residents who fail to recycle face no enforcement.

The article from the Daily News. 

Thompson-Bloomberg Debate Tomorrow Night

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, October 13, Democratic mayoral challenger Bill Thompson will get his first chance to debate Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg. 

The debate, the first of two, will be aired on NY1 and WNYC at 7:00 PM Tuesday night.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spent nearly $100 million on a shock-and-awe third-term campaign, but tomorrow night, he'll have to step out from behind the TV ads and slick mailings to go one-on-one with Brooklyn-born Thompson.

There are only 22 days left until the mayoral election.  Be sure to watch tomorrow night's debate. 

Reverend Billy Not Invited 

Faux evangelist Reverend Billy, a performance artist and anti-consumer activist who is running for mayor on the Green ticket, was not invited, but will stage a protest in front of the mayoral debate at El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street, from 7-8 PM.

Campaign supporters were urged in an e-mail blast to show up anytime after 5 PM -- and bring noisemakers.

The campaign will report live from the debates on its radio station, WVRB.

Directions to Museo Del Barrio:  #6 train to 103rd Street station, walk one block north to 104th Street, then two blocks west to Fifth Avenue;  or #2 or #3 train to 110th Street and Lenox Avenue, walk one block east to Fifth Avenue, then south to 104th Street. By bus: M1, M2, M3, M4 northbound on Madison Avenue or southbound on Fifth Avenue to 104th Street. 

For more information about the protest:

http://www.voterevbilly.org 

Corrections officers endorse Thompson on the eve of debate.  

Coverage of the debate from NY 1.