For Roe v. Wade Supporters, Silence is No Longer a Choice
By Rep. Carolyn Maloney
Last Sunday, we marked the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that guarantees a woman’s right to choose. Reproductive freedom is at greater risk now than at any time since Roe was handed down in 1973, and family planning is under attack. Women can no longer afford to be silent. Read more
Killing Trees to Save Them
What about the effect of printing environmental impact statements?
By Josh Rogers
Any green activist worth his weight in flowers has spent hours reading environmental impact statements (EIS). Even though the reports are typically prepared by agencies anxious to start work, they still have info that may derail or kill a project. Read more
With PCBs, Kids Can’t Wait 10 Years
The city adminstration is aware that nearly 800 public schools in all five boroughs contain lighting ballasts that leak polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which pose serious threats to the health and safety of our children, teachers and staff. Despite the magnitude of the threat and the simple solution available, however, the best response the city can muster is a 10-year plan focusing on meeting legally mandated energy efficiency upgrades, with the peripheral effect of gradually replacing these toxic lighting ballasts. Read more
Albany Tax Deal: A Start, But Far From Done
By Liz Krueger
In another whirlwind session in Albany, Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed through a new tax plan that will generate $1.5 billion in much needed additional revenue for the state. I supported the plan because that revenue will make it easier to balance the budget without devastating cuts to education, health care and social services, and because it creates a more progressive tax structure than we would have if we did nothing. But there is also plenty to be critical of, both in terms of the minimal progressive reform to our tax structure and the record-breaking 26 minutes the Legislature and public had to review the contents of the package. Read more
Garbage Transfer Stations and Delicate Ecosystems
By Philip Orton
Mayor Bloomberg has been pushing to rebuild and reopen a shuttered marine garbage transfer station (MTS) in the Manhattan neighborhood of Yorkville since 2002. Many nearby residents vociferously oppose the plan because the old MTS worsened air quality and noise pollution and led to foul garbage smells in the area and they anticipate similar or worse problems with the new, larger MTS.
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DOE Needs Long-Term Overcrowding Solution
For the third time in two years, New York City parents and educators in District 2 are facing a frustrating and futile ritual: The Department of Education is planning to rezone school boundary lines in an area stretching from Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side. The chaos resulting from uncertainty over these plans should be no surprise—simply put, the city has done a dreadful job of anticipating and dealing with booming population growth in District 2, where schools are notoriously overcrowded.
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Looking Forward to Tricks, Treats and Deindividuation
By Kristine Keller and Marisa Polansky
Downtown doesn’t really need a designated day devoted to dressing like Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga or Danny Zuko, but just because we don’t need it doesn’t mean we won’t embrace it. It’s human nature to dream of being someone else entirely. The popularity of Halloween isn’t the candy, the creepy or even the costumes. It’s the freedom we acquire from shedding the old and becoming the new.
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A Kipling-Sized Hole in My Heart
By Jeff Nichols
I am a Hungerford; yes, I wince when I volunteer that this is my middle name, but I feel I must to make a point. Only a Hungerford who lives on Park Avenue (qualifier: I took over the rent-controlled apartment from my mother and share it with a 52-year-old Sleepeezee mattress salesman) would have a complete (26 volumes) signed collection of Rudyard Kipling’s works (Bombay edition, leather bound) accumulating dust on a shelf.
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Design Engineering School to Include More Women & Minorities
By John C. Liu
The mayor’s recently announced plan to build a government-sponsored engineering and science campus in New York challenges us to deliver training and jobs to the many talented young men and women of color that our economy has left behind. It is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.
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The Big Lies About the Budget
“A kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh…” and a bald-faced, spit-in-your-face lie is still what it is. It is not raining and Republicans have been expectorating in our kissers for years about more than a few things, the latest of which are the “true” causes of our recession and what needs to be done about them.
