Gawker: new york politics

Johnny Cakes, Pioneer

Jesse — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 11:00:12 EDT

Only in New York, kids. Only in New York.

Marty Markowitz Has Heart Trouble, Is OK, But — Here's the Terrible Part — Misses PR Event!

Jesse — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:00:55 EDT

Bad news: Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz — the jovial Kings County booster whose accomplishments include installing a "Leaving Brooklyn, Oy Vey!" sign at the Williamsburg Bridge — suffered what we're told was a heart attack over the weekend or this morning. (His office is saying only that a stent was installed.

Good news: He's up and about and will be just fine.

Bad news: As a result, he was forced to miss the grand opening of the new Times Square Junior's.

That last bit breaks our heart, too.

Markowitz Hospitalized [Daily Politics/NYDN]
Marty Recovering [Daily Politics/NYDN]
Earlier: Gottenyu! DOT Declares Markowitz's Meshugge Signage Kosher

As Goes Bill Weld, So Goes the Rest of the Republicans?

Jesse — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 10:04:38 EDT

Sigh. Wouldn't it be nice if the national Republicans were as incompetent as the New York party? Or, rather, wouldn't it be nice if the national Republicans had been this incompetent before they were elected?

GOP Chairman Asks K.T. McFarland to Bow Out of Senate Race [NY1]

New York's Top Court Hears Gay-Marriage Case Today; City Is in Favor But Opposed But in Favor But Opposed

Jesse — Wed, 31 May 2006 14:00:13 EDT

Today is as good a time as any to update you on the current state of gay marriage in our theoretically homo-lovin' city. Indeed, it's a particularly good time, because this afternoon the New York State Court of Appeals — the highest court in the state — is hearing oral arguments on whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry. Here's where it gets fun: Among the lawyers arguing against gay marriage are those employed by New York City, where last year a trial-court judge ruled the state's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, a decision the city's lawyers, at the direction of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, have been fighting in appeals since.

Mayor Mike is quoted in today's News saying that he expects his lawyers to aggressively argue their position, which wouldn't be surprising except that he has repeatedly declared himself in favor of gay marriage and over the weekend said the city is just itching to perform gay weddings and will do so as soon as they're allowed. Meantime, it'll take the Court of Appeals months to render a verdict, leaving all of this up in the air for some time yet. Which, presumably, gives Bloomberg plenty of time to come out even more strongly in favor of what his lawyers are opposing.

New York Top Court Considers Gay Marriage [365Gay.com]
Mike: This Time City's Vs. Gay Nups [NYDN]
Mike Vows He'll Honor Gay Marriage [NYDN]

Media Bubble: 'Times' Keeps On Blogggin'

Jesse — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:16:08 EDT

• Leave no stone unblogged, Times launches one on New York politics, called Empire Zone. Catchy, eh? And it's even got video. [NYT]
• Philly group imminently set to buy Inquirer and Daily News from McClatchy. Unless they don't. [NYT]
• Who will public-edit the public editor? Tom Scocca, of course. [Media Mob/NYO]
• Newspapers acknowledge need to adapt to changing media landscape, express wonderment at newgfangled "horseless carriages." [AJR]
• CBS Public Eye stakes out controversial stance opposing what's-on-your-iPod-stories. See, Memogate never would have happened if only this important site had existed sooner. [CBSNews.com]

City Principals Prefer Half-Hour Sitcoms

Jesse — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 10:39:30 EDT

The Sun reports this morning that schools chief Joel Klein is trying to hold a meeting with the city's principals on Saturday morning, and that the principals are balking. (You know, because God forbid public employees be asked to work a few minutes more than called for under their union contracts.) To lure them out, Klein has offered a pair of Broadway tickets — and for good shows, too, like Sweeney Todd or Doubt or Dirty Rotten, not for standard giveaway dreck like Les Miz or, worse, Ring of Fire — if they attend. Naturally, the principals' union is incensed by this, and individual principals report being unswayed. For example Sandra Bridges, principal at "the highly regarded P.S. 234 in TriBeCa," who will instead by "be heading out to the country for the weekend":

Asked if she felt upset that she would be missing out on free tickets, Ms. Bridges said, "I hate musicals, and usually plays are a little too long for me."

What, you thought the principal might have an attention span longer than her elementary-school kids do? Ha.

Klein Is Using Broadway Tickets to Entice Kids to a Meeting [NYSun]

And the Stylesization of the 'Times' Continues Apace

Jesse — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 19:00:25 EDT

From "Mayors Discuss Efforts on Gun Crimes," a Times article by Sewell Chan reporting on the meeting Mayor Bloomberg organized at Gracie Mansion today, in which 15 big-city mayors pledged to work together to reduce gun trafficking and gun crimes:

But the mayors have little formal influence over national firearms policy, and the political climate in Washington is largely hostile to new gun restrictions. Mr. Bloomberg acknowledged those hurdles in his opening remarks to the mayors gathered in the mansion's ballroom, whose walls are covered in Wedgwood-blue Venetian plaster.

Sadly, no detail was provided on the carpet or window treatments.

Mayors Discuss Efforts on Gun Crimes [NYT]

Let's Start Rebuilding WTC, Years Later! (And Without Jane Jacobs.)

Jesse — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:32:46 EDT

Huzzah, huzzah! There is a deal to develop the World Trade Center site! Larry Silverstein, George Pataki, Jon Corzine, the Port Authority, and Mike Bloomberg have finally ironed out a plan to enable the rebuilding of the 16-acre plot. This is really showing the terrorists, diving right into rebuilding what they destroyed — only four and a half years after they destroyed it.

There is some sort of symbolism, we're sure, that this deal to replace the hulking superblock of the old World Trade Center didn't come till several hours after the death of urbanism guru Jane Jacobs, who passed away in her sleep at a Toronto hospital this morning. But we'll leave it up to you to decide exactly what the symbolism is.

Developer Accepts 'Economic Terms' of Trade Center Deal [NYT]
Jane Jacobs, Urban Activist, Is Dead at 89 [NYT]

Media Bubble: Hearst to Head Home

Jesse — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 16:29:50 EDT

• Hearst mags get move-in dates for new tower, where the cafeteria will serve sushi five days a week. [NYP]
• Four Time Inc. mags will move their TOCs to the first page, sponsored by Philips Electronics. Finally, the cure magazines have been searching for. [WSJ]
• Housekeeping no longer so good for EIC Ellen Levine? [WWD]
• High-end book pubisher Rizzoli looks to enter U.S. magazine market with a title that's "Time Out meets Star magazine with N mero kind of fashion," whatever the hell that might mean. [FWD]
• Critics should stop worrying so much about the Times and focus more on the sins of local TV news, says Brian Montopoli. Coming soon from Public Eye: Is your weatherman really jolly?! [Public Eye/CBS]
• More Times blogs: Now covering state politics. (Oh, shit. Were we not supposed to be talking about the-paper-that-cannot-be-named anymore? Sorry.) [The Politicker/NYO]
• Elizabeth Spiers popularized the word "snarky" when she worked for Gawker. It's a testament to our precocity, then, to have been miraculously using it even before blogs existed. [Downtown Express]

Polite New Yorkers? Fuck That.

Jesse — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 10:42:02 EDT

We've long held a theory that New Yorkers, while superficially gruff, are actually some of the nicest people in the world. (Californians are forever asking how you're doing — no, really, how are you? — without ever actually caring; New Yorkers don't bother with that bullshit but do pay attention to what you say and will, at the drop of a confused look, eagerly give you directions anywhere.) So we were actually somewhat pleased to see a story on the frontpage of yesterday's Times with the hed, "New York Leads Politeness Trend? Get Outta Here!" We thought it was going to provide empirical proof of our we're-actually-nice theory, but it turned out we were mistaken. The point of the article wasn't so much that New Yorkers actually are nice; the point is that the city is attempting to regulate New Yorkers into niceness, with everything from a ban at spitter on ballplayers (why bother going out to the stadium, then?) to a $50 fine for putting your feet on a subway seat. And to these measures we can only say: Fuck that shit, you fucking assholes.

New York Leads Politeness Trend [NYT]

Get Yer Tax-Free Socks!

Jesse — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 10:25:30 EDT

The state portion of sales tax on clothes and shoes disappeared Saturday, at least on clothes or shoes that cost less than $110. Coming a year after the city removed its portion of the tax, clothes are shoes are now entirely sales tax-free in New York City. Yippee! To celebrate, we thought we'd go out and buy ourselves what we've really been needing: a fancy new cell phone. Until we realized there'd still be tax on that, because it's not clothes or shoes. Then we thought maybe we'd get something else we could really use: a good pair of jeans. Until we realized good jeans wouldn't be cheap enough to go untaxed, either. How to celebrate, then? Finally it hit us. We needed new socks. Celebratory, sales tax-free socks. Woo-hoo.

Clothing and Footwear Now Less Expensive for State Shoppers [NYSun]

Hillary Clinton, God's Candidate

Jesse — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:40:53 EST

From today's Times:

Last time around, Hillary Clinton was supposed to run against Giuliani. He wasn't America's Mayor yet — just a well-known local tyrant with a record of cleaning up the city and a pronounced distaste for elephant dung as an artistic medium — but he would have posed a real challenge to Hillary's candidacy. Then he got cancer. And instead the GOP ran a seemingly 12-year-old unknown kid from Long Island, whom she trounced. This time the Republicans figured the match her with another aggressive, moderate woman from Westchester, so they picked longtime local D.A. Jeannine Pirro. Who, it turned out, couldn't run a campaign, couldn't find page 10, and had to be convinced by the party to drop out. Then they went and found KT McFarland, a Reagan-era official who left public life to raise her kids — for the last 20 years — but who worked in the Defense Department back then and so theoretically has good security credentials. Except that now it seems two of her biggest credentials — that she "drafted" Reagan's Star Wars speech and was the highest-ranking woman in the Reagan Pentagon — aren't so much true.

And it kind of makes you wonder, even if you don't particularly like ol' HRC: Could it be that God just wants her to win?

Questions Arise About Resume of Challenger to Clinton [NYT]

Insert Your Own "Tom Suozzi Sure Does Have a Pretty Mouth" Joke Here

abalk2 — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:01:46 EST

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer caused a minor controversy with a recent (and unfavorable) comparison between upstate New York's economy and that of Appalachia. Governor George Pataki (yes, he's still there) took offense, claiming that "Appalachia doesn't have Empire Zones," which are New York State economic development programs. As it turns out, Appalachia does have Empire Zones since fourteen New York counties actually are part of Appalachia. Admit it, New Yorkers: You pretty much assumed upstate was like a scene from Deliverance all along, didn't you? Thank God we have The Times to confirm all our regional stereotypes.

Is Upstate 'Like Appalachia'? Well, Part of It Is Appalachia [NYT]

Mike Bloomberg, King of the World?

Jesse — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 15:37:27 EST

Can't quite figure out why Bloomberg's top political aide is going around making plans for a presidential bid but Bloomberg himself keeps saying he's not interested? Could it be a strategic denial from Mike? Perhaps. But Bloomberg's ad team has a different theory, as The Politicker notes. They think what the guy really wants is to run for king. The clip is from Saturday night's Inner Circle dinner, and it's pretty funny — perhaps because it's true?

Mike for Monarch: The TV Campaign [Politicker/NYO]

You Will Never Smoke Cheaply in This Town Again

Jesse — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 10:17:32 EST

So after Bloomberg pushed through the huge cigarette tax a few years ago — this was before he pushed through the smoking-in-bars ban, that brief window when enjoying the delicious nicotine rush of lung destruction was merely expensive but not yet inconvenient — you thought you'd be clever and start ordering your smokes online. Hell with eight bucks at Duane Reade, you figured, you could save a fortune by getting your Camel Lights shipped in from out of state. Or so you thought. According to the News:

A deal with an Internet cigarette peddler could make 12,500 city smokers cough up $33 million in unpaid sales tax, city officials said yesterday.

A Virginia-based company, eSmokes Inc., agreed to settle a city suit by giving up detailed information on untaxed cigarette sales it made to city residents between 2002 and 2003.

If our math is right, that's $2,640 per person. Lovely.

Holy Smoke! Puffers Face $33M E-Cig Tax Bill [NYDN]

Allah Does Not Want You to Drink in Tribeca

Jesse — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 09:04:14 EST

It seems that some downtown bars, including the Tribeca Tavern, the Bubble Lounge, and several places we've never been to, are in danger of having their liquor licenses pulled. Why? From today's Sun:

Some established TriBeCa bar owners are scrambling to find a legal loophole that will allow them to hold onto their liquor licenses after the State Liquor Authority moved to revoke the licenses upon learning that the bars are within 200 feet of a mosque.

In fairness, it turns out the mosque isn't labeled as such on the building and it's not taking any sides in this dispute, and it has been invoked but what seems like some bitchy, townhouse-owning couple using any NIMBYish excuse to shut down the bars in their neighborhood. All that said, we can't help feeling that if we can't have several options on where to drink within feet of West Broadway and North Moore, we're letting the terrorists win.

N.Y. State Tries to Close TriBeCa bars for Being Too Close to a Mosque [NYS]

Is Pataki Still Full of Shit?

Jesse — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 08:50:40 EST

So there are all these feel-good stories today letting us know that George Pataki is feeling hale and hearty and all of that. His brother-in-law says he looks "tremendous." His wife says he's coming along well. His spokesman says he's up and about and reading his email on a laptop. But no one is telling us the detail all his Empire State constituents must be dying to know: Can the governor shit yet?

We're tempted to say no, because they're still not releasing him from the hospital. Which would also make sense: No one in Albany ever passes anything quickly.

Pataki Is Up and Around After Week of Hospitalization [NYT]
Pataki Awake, on the Mend [Newsday]
New York Gov. Pataki Recovering After Surgery [Reuters]

The New York City Council, Working for You

Jesse — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:35:05 EST

With a new City Council session started, the council members have of course buckled down to take care of the people's business. And what exactly is our business? The Observer's plucky Politicker reports on some of the very important legislation that has been introduced:

Tony Avella wants to end "goat tying" and "horse-tripping."

He would also prohibit the resale of undergarments, which is "certainly repugnant to general standards of hygiene and responsibility."

James Genarro plans to add the birthdays of Lord Krishna and Lord Buddha to the no-alternate-side-parking list.

And while we agree with The Politicker's suggestion that most of these proposals seem a touch ridiculous — whether you choose to buy used undergarments strikes as your own choice — we must defend one of them. It's a fucking bitch to find a parking spot on Lord Krishna's birthday.

Yes to Buddha, No to Goat-Tying [The Politicker/NYO]

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About George Pataki

Jesse — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:45:31 EST

You know what's even more unpleasant than reading about whether or not the governor can take a shit?

Reading about it 115 times.

Pataki Bowel Movement [Google News]

We Have Won the Victory Over Ourselves. We Love Big Bloomberg.

Jesse — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:06:16 EST

Second terms are traditionally the time for hubristic chaos. Domestic spying! Intern blowjobs! Chris Ofili and New York's bus-ad campaign and criminalizing jaywalking! But Mike Bloomberg — rational, pragmatist, focused, technocratic Mike Blooming — he'd never turn into a fascist (or more of a fascist, as smokers might point out), would he?

Um, actually, he would. Said the News this weekend:

On his weekly WABC-AM radio show yesterday, Bloomberg voiced support for placing devices atop taxis and private vehicles that would light up when motorists exceed the speed limit, making speeders easy prey for cops. He mentioned seeing such alarms in Singapore.

"We all want the laws enforced. And when we have technology [that] can let us enforce the law and save us money in doing so, what's the argument against that?" Bloomberg mused.

Oh, no. No argument at all, Mike. And let us tell you how excited we'll be for the special light on our pocket that goes off when we're carrying, um, something into the bar bathroom. Or the light on our coat that'll go off when we're crossing against the light.

Also, the big siren that will go off whenever people with sub-six-figure incomes come into Manhattan? That'll be doubleplus fantastic.

Pedal to the Metal? Mike's Eying You! [NYDN]