Drum Major Institute's blog
Book Discussion with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney: Women's Equality...Why Not Now?
This past election season, Senator Hillary Clinton proved that a woman can run for president. She astonished thousands of people -- men and women -- who never believed that a woman could get so close to becoming Commander in Chief in their lifetimes.
Although Senator Clinton broke through the glass ceiling, women across the country are still struggling for equality. When you look at the numbers, the inequalities that exist between men and women are staggering. Women earn 80% of what their male counterparts earn right out of school, and in 2007, women were paid 77 cents for every dollar that men were paid. This wage gap costs the average female full-time employee between $700,000 and $2 million over the course of her career. And it's not just wages where women are falling behind -- the numbers on healthcare, education, poverty and reproductive freedom tell the same story.
book | event | Income Inequality | women | Andrea Batista Schelsinger | Christine Quinn | Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney | Drum Major Institute | Kim Gandy
Paid Sick Leave: Can NYC Follow in San Francisco's Footsteps?
The facts about sick employees at work are, well, sickening. Three in ten employees say they have contracted the flu virus from a co-worker and average lost productivity to businesses (per employee per year) when employees show up to work despite suffering from a respiratory infection is $133.84. Add that to the fact that the flu virus can stay alive on inanimate surfaces like a door handle or office desk for up to eight hours, and it's not surprising that Americans are getting sick from going to work.
Health Care | paid sick leave | san francisco | Andrea Batista Schelsinger | David R. Jones | Drum Major Institute | Gale Brewer | Sara Flock | Young Workers United
Obama Watches the Wire, Do You?
This post was written by Corinne Ramey and cross-posted from the DMIblog.
No matter who you're voting for, you have to admit that Barack Obama has good taste in TV. He told the Las Vegas Sun that his favorite TV show was The Wire, the HBO police drama set in inner-city Baltimore that just completed its fifth and final season. Obama even told the Sun that his favorite character is Omar Little, a "charismatic, sawed-off shotgun toting, Honey Nut Cheerios-eating, gay stickup artist." Some have compared Omar to a modern day Robin Hood because he kills drug dealers and then gives the drugs to the users that have been exploited by the dealers. “That’s not an endorsement. He’s not my favorite person, but he’s a fascinating character,” Obama said.
cities | television | the wire | urban issues | Andrea Batista Schelsinger | Byron Brown | David Simon | Drum Major Institute | Melissa Mark-Viverito | Steve Phillips
Turning Abandoned Buildings Into Affordable Housing: If You Missed It, Read the Liveblog!
The Drum Major Institute's Marketplace of Ideas event this morning featured Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and his reforms to turn vacant buildings into affordable housing. Menino, who is now serving his fourth mayoral term, has reformed Boston's housing market in some pretty amazing ways. During the past decade, abandoned residential properties declined 77% as abandoned buildings were turned into viable housing.
The panel discussion featured Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Pratt Community Development Center Director Brad Lander, and Executive Director of the Parodneck Foundation Carlton Collier. DMI Executive Director Andrea Batista Schlesinger moderated the panel.
affordable housing | homeless | Housing | Andrea Batista Schelsinger | Brad Lander | Carlton Collier | Scott Stringer | Thomas Menino
Mayor Menino's Magic Wand: Turning Abandoned Housing into Affordable Housing
Cross posted from the DMI blog.
In 1999, Boston had a housing crisis. The waiting list for public housing units had 15,000 people on it, and rent prices had gone up 47% in the past four years. More than 50,000 Bostonians were spending more than half of their income on housing, and the number of homeless people in Boston was at a record high.
But just four years later, the statistics told a different story. Almost 8,000 new housing units had been created, and 1,000 housing units were made accessible to the homeless. The new units represented about $2 billion in public and private housing investment. The number of abandoned buildings in Boston dropped by 66% -- from 1,044 in 1997 to only 350 in 2005, and by the end of 2003, 1,079 vacant public housing units had been renovated. Suddenly, housing in Boston was on its way to becoming available and affordable.
affordable housing | homeless | Housing | Brad Lander | Drum Major Institute | Scott Stringer | Thomas Menino
Liveblog and Video Clips on Reforming Criminal Justice in NY
Cross posted from the DMI blog.
The Drum Major Institute hosted an event yesterday on preventing wrongful convictions and exonerating the innocent. Dallas DA Craig Watkins, Barry Scheck from the Innocence Project, New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman, and Westchester DA Janet DiFiore discussed reforms for reducing the incarcerations of innocent people in Dallas and how these policies could work in New York and what it would take to get them implemented here. Our liveblog and some video clips are posted below.
criminal justice | exoneration | prison reform | Barry Scheck | Craig Watkins | Drum Major Institute | Innocence Project | Janet Difiore | Joe Lentol
Sen. Schumer and Councilman Sanders in The Marketplace of Ideas
If you've read Corinne's liveblog of yesterday's Marketplace of Ideas Event on fighting against predatory mortgage lending then you know there was some really interesting discussion.
Now you can watch video clips from it too.
Senator Schumer announces his new lending bill:
and Councilman James Sander's responds to Mayor Bloomberg's assertion that the government can not address the mortgage loan crisis:
Bankruptcy | City Council | debt | loans | mortgage | policy | Sanders | Schumer | Senate | New York City | Queens
Mario Cuomo, former New York Governor, Blogs on the Challenges Facing Our Next President
Everyone remembers former Governor of New York Mario Cuomo's famed speech at the 1984 Democratic Convention. Even me (and I was 5). In it he said: "President Reagan told us from the very beginning that he believed in a kind of social Darwinism. Survival of the fittest. `Government can't do everything,' we were told, so it should settle for taking care of the strong and hope that economic ambition and charity will do the rest. Make the rich richer, and what falls from the table will be enough for the middle class and those who are trying desperately to work their way into the middle class."
The speech could have just as easily been delivered in 2007 as 1984. So as the country plunges into another Presidential election cycle, Governor Cuomo, a practitioner and one of the left's most eloquent voices, once again asks to candidates to step back and examine their governing philosophy and the challenges the country faces, arguing that pat answers and rhetoric are insufficient to address them.
Elections | Government | Government Reform | policy | Politics | Drum Major Institute | Mario Cuomo
Congestion Pricing: STILL Good for New York's Middle Class
This year on Earth Day, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a sweeping 127-point plan for New York City to confront the challenges of population growth, aging infrastructure, and environmental sustainability over the next 25 years. As many New Yorkers know, one part of the plan is a proposal to implement congestion pricing in Manhattan below 86th Street. The Drum Major Institute analyzed the congestion pricing proposal, invited the Deputy Mayor of London to speak with New York City policymakers about her city's experience with congestion pricing, and concluded that the congestion pricing proposal would have a positive impact on the city's current and aspiring middle class. By the end, we were so impressed overall by PlaNYC's bold vision for a sustainable city that DMI honored Mayor Bloomberg for creating it.
New York | New York City | non-profit | Bloomberg | congestion pricing | Drum Major Institute | environment | middle class | subways | transportation
Is NYC still a middle-class town? Major NYC Conference Announced
With new research on the disappearance of middle-class neighborhoods in urban areas and on increasing economic inequality, and the future of projects designed to keep the middle class in NYC like Starrett City and Stuyvesant Town uncertain, what better time than now to ask the question:
Is NYC still a middle-class town?
That's just the question that DMI and the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College will ask on April 2, when we bring New York City's leaders together to talk about the American Dream in the Big Apple.
It's a half day conference featuring presentations of new research, two exciting panel discussions, and plenty of time for all of us to explore the challenge of making NYC a place where it is possible to become, and remain, middle class.





