By the time you read this, we are fifteen days and some hours too late. By the time you read this, Lillian Milán is already dead and buried, victim of the daily little violences carried out by our tax-funded bureaucratic neglect.

We arrive more than half-way into the story because, even though there's a mother and wife missing, the bureaucratic violence that killed Ms. Milan is still going strong.

You don't need to go to New Orleans to witness the havoc and devastation of our government's willful neglect.

All you need to do is take the train to 140 Moore Street in Brooklyn.  read more »

Errol Louis (columnist from NY Daily News) asked me to come to Bushwick Houses in Brooklyn and help him interview Mr. Gonzalez. His wife had died in his arms 10 days before our meeting. She was a chronic sufferer of asthma who depended on her oxygen tank. She died of an asthma attack triggered by having to walk 10 stories up to their apartment after waiting in the lobby of her building for over 5 hours for anybody from the New York City Housing Authority to come in and repair the elevator.

Location

Some of the more regressive possibilities of Mr. Spitzer’s governorship were made clear last week, when – at the behest of Mayor Bloomberg and some others – Mr. Spitzer vetoed a bill that would have directed Social Services agencies to train public assistance recipients for better than minimum wage jobs. Imagine, both houses of the NY State legislature agreed on how to focus job-training! But, shades of Pataki-past, the Governor vetoed the bill. (See, for example, this item from the Drum Major Institute’s Blog .) Well, this is all bitter water under the bridge, so why am I still hocking you about all this? Because it could happen again. UPDATE AFTER JUMP

Another bill would fund public housing authorities for assistance recipients at the same rate which goes to private landlords. In effect, it would increase the amount of cash going to NYCHA and other public housing entities.  read more »