“Can I interrupt first? Sorry,” said Council Speaker Christine Quinn as she pushed her way in front of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on the steps of City Hall this afternoon.
A few minutes earlier, Ms. Quinn had endorsed Senator Gillibrand as “the champion of the LGBT community in our United States Senate.” Read More
The Assembly just passed Sheldon Silver’s bill to extend mayoral control of public schools in New York City.
Eighteen members voted no. They were:
Alan Maisel, Hakeem Jeffries, William Colton, Jim Brennan, Peter Abbate, Nick Perry, Annette Robinson, all of Brooklyn; Jeff Aubry and Mark Weprin--who is running for City Council--both from Queens; Carl Read More
ALBANY—After four hours of debate and a technical problem that crashed the chamber's electronic voting mechanisms, the bill legalizing same-sex marriage passed the Assembly by a vote of 89 to 52.
The result--not a surprise, but a wider margin than in previous years--was greeted with applause from advocates in the overlooking balconies as Read More
ALBANY—If not to many others, to accountants, the Republican Senate's last session was special.
The last bill the conference passed Monday was a measure updating the standards for certified public accountants in New York. Lou Grumet, the executive director of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, said it has been Read More
“This is the worst situation I’ve ever encountered in terms of [dealings with] the community,” said Carol Greitzer, a former councilwoman from the West Village who helped start a group called 250+ Friends of New York Parks. It opposes many of the Bloomberg administration’s park 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. Read More
So, the latest Siena poll not only shows Eliot Spitzer’s approval plummeting further, but shows voters overwhelmingly opposed to raising taxes.
Here's what that combination of data says to Democratic state Senator Diane Savino: “The public is finally starting to realize, they’re paying and paying and paying and they’re not getting Read More
I just got off the phone with Manhattan-based Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a members of the Ways and Means Committee, about the possible need to raise taxes in the next budget. (Eliot Spitzer already backed off one such revenue-generating idea.)
Glick said she’s unsure if the state budget is in that much trouble, Read More
Now that Eliot Spitzer has made his initial push for same-sex marriage, the next logical step would seem to be for him to begin lobbying Democrats in the legislature to get on board. Interestingly, there is little expectation among even the most fervent supporters of a gay marriage bill that he's going to do Read More
Not that anyone really expected Eliot Spitzer's same-sex marriage proposal to succeed anytime soon, but just days after its introduction, both sides of the legislature are talking about passage in purely academic terms.
As I noted earlier, the plan to legalize same-sex marriage is premised on the notion that it can pass the Read More
Curbed, the smartest and funniest real estate blog in New York (besides the one called The Real Estate, natch), will be honored next month at the Historic Districts Council's Preservation Party. The Web site's honored peers include State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick ("Friend in High Places Award") and the illustrious Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Assocation. From the Read More
Assemblywoman Deborah Glick spoke to Community Board 2 last night, and offered some advice on variances that might be coming down the pike in the future: "We have to draw the line .... Why does the city want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg," referring to onslaught of variances recently going before Read More
On Saturday, the 27th annual Mississippi in the Park picnic will be held in Central Park's East Meadow, featuring Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, for native Mississippians now living in the New York area. Deborah Glick hosts a breakfast before petitioning at the Village Independent Democrats' clubhouse. On Monday, Manhattan Libertarians meet to Read More
The new design. Last night, Community Board 5 overwhelmingly approved the Parks Department's redesign for the northern end of Union Square Park. The redesign will triple the size of the current playground--adding a "Tot Lot" for the wee buggers, a "Toy Box" for ambulatory children and "the Mountain" for older kids (and Observer staffers hiding Read More
Various electeds and other assorted downtown activist types are getting together Sunday to protest the continued storage of diesel fuel at 60 Hudson Street. The 24-story building, between Worth and Thomas streets, straddles the Tribeca-WTC border and houses equipment for telecommunications companies. But also--more than 80,000 gallons of diesel fuel. They're worried that an accident Read More
