The Eagle has landed Do you love tall sailing ships? The US Coast Guard training ship The Eagle [1] has docked at the foot of pier 17, at the South Street Seaport. The ship is great (no signs of its Nazi origin), the coast guardsmen and women charming; tours from 9:00-6:30 Sat & Sun. If you go Sat. morning, check out the asbestos decontamination exercise run by Fire at the Sanitation garage at the foot of Montgomery Street.
After years of torture and harsh confinement, US officials have decided to allow some "high value" Guantanamo detainees to lawyer-up [2]. (Although at least one of them, already represented by counsel, has not been allowed to get letters from her).
The poor get sicker than the rich. Great and serious congratulations are due to Comptroller William Thompson who (I guess with staff support) has produced a really smart interesting and important analysis of the NYC health impacts of class and cash. Surpise! The rich becoming healthier and the poor sicker. This report, which has garnered some notice, for the NY Times article by Sarah Kershaw with great graphics. The report itself, built on NYC Health Dept data, is (in my opinion) a little hard to read but worth it The press release is here [3]. The report itself (pdf, sorry) is here [3] -- and it comes with tables and more tables here [4]. I’ve read the report, not reviewed the tables. If one document could make a Mayoral Candidate, I’d be voting for Mr. Thompson on the strength of this.
Protesting Police Parade Permits You may recall that (with the approval of Council Speaker Christine Quinn) NYPD rules were recently revamped to require Parade Permits where previously none had been required. One result is that the Police can pursue Critical Mass, the anonymous, mass bike ride which has taken place on the last Friday of every month. The Critical Mass rides were the prime target of the new rules.
This Sunday night, September 29, 2007 you are invited to a permit-less protest.
Assemble For Rights NYC [5] invites all of us to Washington Square Park at 7PM. Let’s give our right to assemble a work-out.
Legislation has been proposed by a number of City Council members including mine, Rosie Mendez, which would undo the NYPD rules. It’s on their site as well as a list of Council members who are supportive. Is your member one of them? Why not?
As an organizer of demonstrations I can tell you first hand that the new rules can be a massive headache when the police want them to be. As a result, NYPD now effectively has the power to interfere in almost every planned political gathering. Planning the Move On Rally for Children’s Health next week has been fraught with permit difficulties. Enough already. (Thanks, by the way to Streetsblog for picking this up, I’d forgotten it)
Open House New York Next weekend – Oct.6 & 7th is Open House New York during which NYC’s great built spaces, most of them rarely open to visitors, throw open their doors to you for free. The guide to all the sites is online at the Open House NY web site [6] as well in today’s NY Times. I’ll be at Brooklyn Open House sites Saturday -- see you there.
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