Sometimes, Transparency Hurts
Today's coverage of a critical report from the Coalition for the Homeless neatly highlighted the potential risks of the Bloomberg administration's unusual decision to offer regular data-based progress reports on its various policy goals and campaign promises.
As spokesman Stu Loeser hastened to point out yesterday, it was only the city's data that enabled advocates to create the report, which shows in black-and-white terms that the city has fallen short of the benchmarks the mayor set in reducing chronic homelessness.
"We told them," he said. "It's our numbers. We gave it to them."
You have to say one thing, assuming the administration's numbers are correct: they're certainly willing to take their lumps in the interests of data-based transparency.
Will the prospective candidates for 2009 pledge to do the same?
UPDATE: Jonathan Rosen, a spokesman for the homeless advocacy group, doesn't think Bloomberg deserves that much credit for transparency. He emailed to say, "The Coalition for the Homeless has received daily census reports on homeless adults since 1981 and monthly reports on homeless families since the mid 1980's." -- Azi Paybarah
Transparency aside - this shows that Mayor Bloomberg's confidence in Linda Gibbs was poorly placed. She won him over with gimmicks about ending homelessness, midnight counts and some decent statistics. But now it is all falling apart and the Coalition of Mental Health Agencies is taking her to task about some major cuts that she has instigated which will reduce services so she can transfer monies from programs that work to try to bring new people off the streets, but she will put people on their way out of homelessness at risk.
Transparency hurts?! The mayor is an elected public official, he is obligated to provide this information to interested parties before the threat of subpoena and especially at a time when bloomberg is giving the city away to connected wealthy real estate developers like Speyer.
Azi, stop kissing up, it's sickening to watch!
why doesn't the report explain the huge reduction in homeless individuals? according to their stats, the decrease was almost 1,800 more than even the mayor's goal. it's irresponsible not to help us understand what's working.