There is a new and expanding scandal in town. And I am realizing it reaches through many aspects of NYC government...and is a further illustration of what is wrong with NYC.

I recently had a dust up here on DG about developer money in City Council elections centering on a candidate named Brad Lander. In resulting discussions both on and off line, I realized how in people's blind focus on developers, either pro- or anti-, what is ignored is the massive conflict of interest that permeates NYC politics where corporate interests (developers and others) donate so much money to politicians that it often determines who wins, and those very same corporate interests get major favors from politicians.  read more »

Our Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg is part of the problem and so far, even the advice of progressive thinker Andrea Batista Schlesinger (who started work for the Bloomberg campaign this past week) has not helped him think about becoming part of the solution. Will falling poll numbers wake him?

Earlier this week Mr. Bloomberg -- in a move that marks him as a principled, not just an opportunistic, disciple of Mr. Bush -- refused to allow 13-14,000 (in my book a large number) of very low income New Yorkers access to food stamps unless they were enrolled in a NYC-run work experience project In my opinion, keeping food from these people is not just cruel (and it is cruel), it's dumb. See, this NY Times editorial in Wednesday's (2-25-09)

As reported in Julie Bosman's excellent NY Times article:

While cities and states are allowed under the stimulus provision to require participation in such workfare programs, advocates for the poor decried the policy as unwise and counterproductive, particularly as the recession swells the ranks of the jobless who need help buying groceries.  read more »

SIBRO Civic (Staten Island and Brooklyn Civic) and South Beach Civic are sponsoring an Anti-Bloomberg Congestion Pricing Plan Forum, Sunday, April 6th at 7 PM in Xaverian High School, 7100 Shore Road,Brooklyn, NY 11209.

Speakers include Democratic Congressional Candidate Steve Harrison (NY13th CD, Staten Island/Southwest Brooklyn) and Queens City Councilman Tony Avella. One very prominent elected official is also trying to make it, but doesn't want his name released in case he can't it.

Councilman Bill de Blasio and Vinnie Gentile will send representatives.

There may also be speakers on behalf of the People with Disabilities community, who would suffer under the proposed congestion pricing.

Steve Harrison opposes Bloomberg's Congestion Plan, but not congestion pricing in theory.

For more information on Steve views on congestion pricing visit steveharrisonforcongress.com

[UPDATE: Typos corrected! Put this out too quickly for spelling's sake! Thanks to a kind proofreader!]

I have to call BS on Bill de Blasio and Marty Markowitz. I really do. On Marty it's easy. He has gone from populist to Ratner yes-man and doesn't seem to understand that helping Ratner destroy Brooklyn is NOT what he was elected for. But Bill...Bill is smarter and I am surprised he would put himself in a position of such utter blatant hypocrisy.  read more »