If you have not done so yet, go check out the Gotham Gazette's Campaign 2005 - Mayoral Candidates: Grid.

Chockfull of information it really is a fast way to check where the candidates stand and compare in issues such as immigrant voting rights, the smoking ban, city finances, anti-terror plans and civil rights.

I hope they do the same next time with all major electoral positions in the city. This would be an amazing resource to have in the future.

This is a really great profile about Virginia Fields, well worth the read.

[via A Long Road From Birmingham]:

Fields showed the most aggressiveness in discussing Bloomberg's veto of the Equal Benefits Law, a measure championed by lesbian City Councilwoman Christine Quinn that would have required contractors doing business with the city to offer their gay and lesbian employees domestic partner benefits on par with those given to spouses. Asked about the mayor's assertion that city procurement policies should not be used to advance social agendas, the borough president scoffed.

"The city is always doing social policy," she said without skipping a beat. "I mean we do so much policy on a whole host of issues. So I think that is a real phony argument when you look at a number of legislative initiatives and policy initiatives where we often tie in decisions that are clearly related to social policy."

Told that the mayor, responding to Gay City News' Andy Humm immediately prior to the LGBT Pride March in June, said he would have taken the same view back in the 1970s and 1980s when sanctions against businesses active in apartheid South Africa were adopted by the city, Fields seemed taken aback.

"To now know that the mayor has taken a position that he would have done differently is very disturbing and I can only say that I am so glad that he was not mayor at the time when that decision was being discussed," she said.  read more »

[via Quinnipiac University | Ferrer still short of 40% in NYC dem primary, Quinnipiac University poll finds; three others in horse race for second place]:

New York City likely Democratic primary voters give mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer 33 percent, short of the 40 percent he needs to avoid a Democratic primary runoff, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

The other Democratic contenders are in a horse race for second place, and a chance to be in the runoff, with 17 percent each for Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields and 16 percent for U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

Even among these likely Democratic voters, 16 percent remain undecided and 51 percent say they still might change their mind before the September 13 primary.

And 44 percent of these likely Democratic voters say they will vote for Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg if the candidate they support does not win the primary.

Unfriggingbelievable.

I am just flabbergasted by this. I really am. If there is anything that reflects the problems of the Democratic Party, from a local to national level, is this race. There is no unity, no desire for a Democratic Party win. What we have are four factions vying to undercut each other, and not interested at all to bring back New York City to the Democratic Party.  read more »

The New York Post printed FERRER: AX 'PARK DISS' COMMISH, this morning; giving the impression that Ferrer was somehow calling for a firing squad; but I have here the audiocasts that will paint a better picture of the incident.

Fernando Ferrer's Call for Accountability

Mayoral Candidates Follow-up on Ferrer's Call for Accountability

The podcast, raw and unedited, is a whopping 9+ GIGABYTES.
Daily Gotham's audiocast of Parks1 26 July 2005 Mayoral Forum

Oh, and just in case you wondered, I signed the pledge too

Now, the question you've all been waiting for me to answer : Who came out in front?

And the answer is ...  read more »

Ferrer:

(1) Ensure every dollar of the consession money goes back into the parks.

(2) Minimum staffing and maintenance standards
(3) Compeltely clear & transparent way for people to judge the city in its maintenance of its parks

"Lovely to have wifi but we first need the benches."

Fields
(1) Funding would be a priority .. that's why I signed the 1% pledge

(2) Planning, so that when decisions made about development, parks are on the table

Miller
(1) Reclaim bottom 50 parks

(2) $10 million for maitenance & $25MIL capital

(3) Enforce maintenance & make sure there's security

(4) Create relationships with private funding

Ognibene
(1) The first thing I would do is to rethink my position about community gardens

(2) I went to all the community organizations and the most important thing to do is to find out what they need and what they want and make sure they interact with the new parks commissioner ... there's no reason why every park has people's input