Tom Duane

At a community meeting in Chelsea last night about local transportation issues, State Senator Tom Duane went off-topic and reiterated his support for the millionaires tax.
 read more »

We may be seeing the limits to public-private partnerships in park development.

The plan to use funds from the development of the West Side waterfront to finance new park construction and maintenance seems to be collapsing. While this doesn’t mean an end to these partnerships, it is a signal that public amenities still require public investment. There really is no such thing as a free lunch.

The latest episode in the Pier 40 saga took place on March 28, when Hudson River Park officials rejected a plan by Related Companies to build a $625 million performing arts complex on Pier 40, located at West Houston Street.  read more »

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama weren’t in New York today, but their supporters were.

A rally for Obama at Columbus Circle this afternoon was billed as a show of strength among women, but the theme, judging from at least one speaker, was a changing of the guard in New York politics.

“County leaders don’t run me—other elected officials don’t run me," City Council member Helen Diane Foster of the Bronx told the crowd of about 500 people. "The people run me.”

Foster went on to say, “I say we get rid of Bushes. I say we get rid of the name we won't mention [because] this isn't her state."  read more »

"CAN AH GETTA SHAIKH-ALLUJAH?!?!"

No, Astor Place isn't getting another Starbucks. Yet.

Actually, the Reverend Billy and his "Church of Stop Shopping" choir were rallying yesterday in support of a retailer: the longstanding Thompson Newsstand near the corner of Thompson and West 3rd streets.  read more »

After hearing that Republican Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s conference subpoenaed Eliot Spitzer’s top aides, Rich Baum and Darren Dopp, State Senator Tom Duane offered the following piece of advice: go see a shrink.

In a telephone conversation just now, Duane told me, "I think Senator Bruno’s feelings were hurt. I can understand that. But to drag the legislature through his hurt is, I think, unfortunate. At this point, I would suggest seeing a mental health professional, since we passed Timothy’s Law. He’s eligible."

Duane added, "I feel bad for him. I do. But enough of the public sympathy. Time to move on. People have done means things to me and I just decided to let go after a while."

The subpoena for Baum was for records, while the one for Dopp was for him to testify in front of the investigations committee. But that’s not such a big deal, said Duane.

“I don’t think there is a penalty for not showing up. Somebody told me there is a $50 fine for not showing up.”

Malcolm Smith, whose evolution on gay issues seems to have occurred around the time he become the Democratic leader in the state Senate, is hosting a “Salute to Pride” event in City Hall on October 11.

The RSVP contact person: Allen Roskoff.

Roskoff is a gay rights activist who has been on the scene since the 1980s (ask him what he thinks of Ed Koch!) and he takes his politics pretty seriously.

During the 2005 mayor’s race, Roskoff attended a candidates’ forum at NYU featuring Freddy Ferrer. He proceeded to pepper the candidate with questions about a vote Ferrer cast when he was in the City Council, in 1986. Talk about a memory.

But Roskoff isn’t holding anything against Smith, who at one point had some difficulty explaining whether he personally supported gay marriage. At a press conference on the City Hall steps announcing he’d be the new minority leader, Smith simply balked at a question on the subject. Later that same day, he turned up at a Pride Agenda event with state Senator Tom Duane at his side and said he was for it.

State Inspector General Kristine Hamann said today for the first time in public that her report on the governor’s aides using state police to track the governor’s Republican opponent would not have brought “finality” to the issue.

Therefore, Hamann told a hearing committee in Albany, she didn’t issue a report on her investigation, nor subpoena any of the top aides to the governor involved.  Hamann has been criticized for not issuing her own report or subpoenaing the governor’s aides to discuss the issue, something another investigator, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, was not empowered to do when he released his report on the matter.

Hamann, surrounded by a throng of reporters in the Capitol, was asked why she didn't seek to speak to the aides in question.

“For the very reason I’ve explained at this hearing, [which] is that I felt I could not bring finality to the matter.”

And what does “finality” mean in this instance?

“No matter what I would have said, there still would have been questions raised and the issue still would have gone to the ethics commission and the Albany county DA and I believe we would be in the same issue were are in today.”

And so the saga continues...

The Brunogate hearing scheduled for September 5th, which may feature the state Inspector General, will be missing the leading Democratic state Senator, Tom Duane.

At the last hearing, Duane tried arguing that that house's Republican-led investigation into the actions of the Spitzer administration in digging up travel-related dirt on Joe Bruno should be put on hold until two other investigations (by the Ethics Commission and Albany DA) are concluded. He also, unsuccessfully, tried to interrupt the Republican chairing the hearing, George Winner.

Duane won't be there this time because he'll be returning from a 12-day trip to Israel, he told me.

"I wish he’d been more collegial and checked my schedule before setting the date," said Duane, referring to Winner. Duane said he agreed to go on the trip, organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council, because he thought it would be "uneventful" this time of year.

Practically every major Democrat in the city was at the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue yesterday afternoon to announce the formation of a what they say is the largest housing coalition in the city’s history.

The group, New York Is Our Home, includes labor and tenant groups, the Working Families Party and others.

The most heated rhetoric (video here) came from the Central Labor Council's Ed Ott, who said, “The price of housing in this city is effectively theft” and that affordable housing units, like the ones in Stuyvesant Town behind him, “are being stolen by the greed of developers and the market.”

Which drew applause and energetic head nods from the crowd of elected officials behind him.

In attendance at the rally were Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Betsy Gotbaum, Tom Duane, John Sabini, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Keith Wright, Jonathan Bing, Linda Rosenthal, Dan Garodnick, Eric Gioia and Charles Barron, among others. Most of them spoke but none matched Ott’s directness.

After the speeches, the group formed a human chain around Stuy Town, which is several blocks long, and marched down to Union Square.

Practically every major Democrat in the city was at the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue yesterday afternoon to announce the formation of a what they say is the largest housing coalition in the city’s history.

The group, New York Is Our Home, includes labor and tenant groups, the Working Families Party and others.

The most heated rhetoric (video here) came from the Central Labor Council's Ed Ott, who said, “The price of housing in this city is effectively theft” and that affordable housing units, like the ones in Stuyvesant Town behind him, “are being stolen by the greed of developers and the market.”

Which drew applause and energetic head nods from the crowd of elected officials behind him.

In attendance at the rally were Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Betsy Gotbaum, Tom Duane, John Sabini, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Keith Wright, Jonathan Bing, Linda Rosenthal, Dan Garodnick, Eric Gioia and Charles Barron, among others. Most of them spoke but none matched Ott’s directness.

After the speeches, the group formed a human chain around Stuy Town, which is several blocks long, and marched down to Union Square.

UPDATE: Adolfo Carrion, Brian Kavanagh and Adam Clayton Powell IV also attended.

Malcolm Smith was at last night's annual fundraiser for the Empire State Pride Agenda, where I photographed him with former New York Blade editor Steve Weinstein (l) and Sen. Tom Duane (r). Smith said told me last night that supports gay marriage, and added, "I always have."

That's a little different from what he said earlier in the day.

When I asked him about an old Queens Chronicle cover story in which said that he wouldn't state his position on gay marriage, Smith said that the story was written when he was on vacation.

Going by the piecemeal evidence that we have, then, Smith's evolution on the issue coincides with the speech Eliot Spitzer gave last night in which he told the state's largest gay lobby that he fully supports gay marriage.

Looks like Smith will be the kind of minority leader Spitzer can do business with.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

There is so much to change of a new administration, it's hard to know where to start. For some people.

Not so for Tom Duane.

A reader passes on a letter from State Sen. Duane, who says he is eager ("!!!") to keep same-sex marriage on Albany's agenda. Even if a bill legalizing it only passes one house.

"Pundits ... say that the State Assembly will never pass same-sex marriage legislation if it looks like it's going to die in the Senate. That's an outrageous excuse for inaction."

But what about those Senate Republicans?

"Some people say we can't win the same-sex marriage battle as long as Republicans control the Senate-this is a dangerous urban myth!!!"

The two-page letter, complete with Duane's (enthusiasm?) road map to same-sex marriage is here and here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Tomorrow morning, Tom Duane will hold a public forum on clergy sexual abuse and the Statute of Limitations in Albany.

In the evening, Eliot Spitzer will address Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn at its rescheduled endorsement meeting for Governor.

Stonewall Dems hold their monthly meeting at the LGBT Center with Mark Green. And Laughing Liberally will be at The Tank, preceeding DL21C who will host Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.

—Nicole Brydson