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Christine Quinn

1 By Stephen Duffy 11:09am

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Fixing homes from the bully pulput. (William Alatriste/City Council)

Quinn Tackles Affordable Housing and Maintenance Problems In State of the City Address

In between heavy dollops of sentiment, Christine Quinn cemented some specific plans to combat the affordable housing problem and the facilitation of upgrading the City’s landlord maintenance code in her State of the City address last week.

Ms. Quinn outlined how the Housing Preservation and Development Department is extending affordability to 60 years for some of the biggest developments. Affordability agreements currently stand at just the 30-year mark. Read More

By Stephen Duffy 2/02 4:38pm

Green Apple

Green giant. (AP/NYM)

Green Bureaucracy: In Two Years, City Has Passed 25 Percent of Its Sustainable Building Bills

The current mild winter, without the habitual annoyance of your feet tracking  snow all over the apartment, could excuse some hard-nosed New Yorkers for not giving two hoots about global warming.

However today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced that 29 recommendations aimed at making the city's buildings more sustainable have been drafted into law. Eight more recommendations are currently being codified. Read More

By The Editors 12/07/11 7:54am

opinion

Quinn’s Test of Leadership

The millionaire’s tax—which places a surcharge on people who are not millionaires—isn’t the only poorly named piece of legislation under debate in New York. The City Council recently held hearings on a terrible government mandate called the “living wage” bill. The bill would force private companies working on government-subsidized construction projects to pay employees $10 per hour plus health benefits, or $11.50 without benefits. The minimum wage currently is $7.25.

The “living wage” bill would be, in fact, a job-destruction bill. Read More

5 By Emily Witt and Hunter Walker 11/22/11 12:23pm

Occupy Wall Street

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Knives Out: Politicians Blast Bloomberg’s Zuccotti Eviction; Occupy Enters New Phase

In the aftermath of Mayor Bloomberg’s clearing of Zuccotti Park last week, as helmeted police were still pushing stragglers up Broadway and the first morning commuters appeared, a protester named Jake shouted a warning at the cadre of cops shoving protesters away from their erstwhile home.

“There were people smoking crack, people with puppies begging for money, we looked like shit,” Jake yelled to the police. “Now what do we look like? Peaceful protesters getting our asses kicked. This is the best thing that could have happened. There are thousands of people watching us.” Read More

By Stephen Duffy 11/16/11 6:24pm

Humbugs

P1020597

Who Let The Dogs In! Bed Bug Bloodhounds Join HPD Inspection Team

To combat the city's growing bed bug problem, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has gone to the dogs. Say hello to Nemo and Mickey, the latest members of the department's Maintenance Code inspection team. And rather than the vet, the two Beagles were fortunate enough to get their tags—we mean badges—from Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Housing Commissioner Mathew Wambua.

"Awww, look at their little jackets," cooed Ms. Quinn when she first set eyes on the dogs. Read More

3 By The Editors 10/05/11 9:57am

opinion

City Council Speaker Quinn and Her Leadership Test

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants to be mayor in two years. The man who holds that job now, Michael Bloomberg, has made it clear that he thinks Ms. Quinn would be a suitable successor.

That’s all very nice, but ambition and endorsements alone do not make a credible candidate. Leadership matters, as two successive mayors have demonstrated. Ms. Quinn is about to get a chance to show whether or not she is a leader. Read More

By Azi Paybarah 8/16/11 6:51pm

The Transom

DSCF6170

Clinton Douses “Good-looking Rascal” Rick Perry at Firemen Party, Liu Dresses the Part

Before Bill Clinton walked onto the stage in the Hilton Hotel’s third-floor ballroom, he stood in the wings as the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters praised him for nearly six minutes.

“Simply put,” said  I.A.F.F. general president Harold Schaitberger, Mr. Clinton is “the kind of leader American workers need more of holding office today at every level of government.” Read More

1 By Elise Knutsen 6/21/11 7:01pm

Shindigger

Watts and Schreiber.

The Bard, the Park and the Public: The Public Theater’s 2011 Gala

On what could only be described as a glorious midsummer night, the Public Theater celebrated its annual summer gala in Central Park. A sit-down dinner preceded a star-infused performance of All’s Well That Ends Well, one of Shakespeare’s lesser known works, directed by Daniel Sullivan. Players from the worlds of Broadway, Hollywood and New York’s Read More

By The Editors 6/08/11 12:30am

Editorial

Speaker Quinn Cuts In On Budget Debate

After Mayor Bloomberg released his bad-news budget several weeks ago, we argued in this space that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn—another mayoral aspirant—had to do more than complain about cuts to popular programs. If she wanted to be taken seriously, we argued, she had to provide an alternative vision. She did just that the other Read More

By The Editors 5/10/11 11:28pm

Editorial

A Bleak City Budget, But What Did You Expect?

It's not as though he didn't warn us.

When Mayor Bloomberg stepped to the podium to deliver his bad-news budget the other day, the only people who seemed surprised to learn about massive teacher layoffs and other painful cutbacks were members of the City Council, who reflexively denounced the Mayor's difficult decisions. That is their Read More