Richard Daley
Our Kind of Town Chicago Is
Mayor Bloomberg has gotten some of his best ideas from Richard Daley. Do we, the Capital of the World, owe a certain Second City a big chunk of Italian beef? read more »
A Final Wal-Mart Solution: Nix Public Input
Futterman says Wal-Mart "makes sense" in New York.
"If they keep going in front of [the City Planning Commission] and community boards, they're gonna have a problem," Futterman said in an interview with The Real Deal, available via podcast. "The ideal situation would be a location, whether it be New York or any of the other boroughs, where they can go in and operate without having to go get, you know, any approvals outside of the zoning." read more »
Bloomberg 101
Here is a sample straight out of the syllabus.
The superintendent would be recast as a CEO, with clear authority over the business operations of the district, and would be empowered to cut the bureaucracy and shift those savings to the classroom, where they are needed most. And because the mayor would have a central role in the selection of the superintendent, parents would be able to hold him responsible for the success of the public school system.
Bloomberg, who coasted to re-election based partly on the claim of gaining control of the school system, seems to have been in a particularly magnanimous frame of mind when writing the piece, crediting his predecessors for their role in effectuating the takeover.
"In New York, the passage of mayoral control in 2002 was the culmination of the efforts of four consecutive mayors, from both political parties, spanning two decades. In that time, New York's mayors won a number of important interim steps toward accountability that prepared the Legislature -- along with labor unions and interest groups -- to take the final step."--Jason Horowitz
