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Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx Borough President and Democratic frontrunner for the mayoral race, has raised $3.1 million so far, which prompted his aides to tell the media that Ferrer is a "force." While City Council Speaker Gifford Miller has already raised the $5.7 million allowed by campaign finance law (candidates get $4 for every $1 they raise) for the primary, it seems like Ferrer will definitely be able to raise that much. Of course, this is nothing compared to Mayor Bloomberg, who is not complying by campaign finance laws since he's self-financing his campaign, who has already spent $5 million, and defended his free-spending ways, saying "I'm getting the best people is the message I think that sends."
Newsday has an interesting look at the parking-meters-during-church issue, aka "pay to pray," and how it's affecting Mayor Bloomberg. To remind everyone, Ferrer said that churchgoers should not be expected to pay parking meters on Sundays, because it's a day of worship, while the Mayor pointed out that Sunday revenue has been critical...needless to say, this has galvanized churchgoers. Mayor Bloomberg has conceded that they'll look into 2-hour meters in some areas, but, of course, opponents are pulling for more. Democratic political consultant Howard Wolfson says, "Look, it does not rise to the level of citywide importance as education or the stadium. That being said, it is clearly important to many churchgoing New Yorkers...It becomes just another proof point that he's an out-of-touch billionaire." Mayor Koch says the Mayor needs to drive home the issue more (it's true, the Mayor does seem to have danced around it, while Ferrer and church leaders are sounding off to the press), and even some other politicians agree that the parking meter revenue has helped.
And another political consultant told the NY Post that Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields "is the roadside bomb waiting to go off." Why? Because as an African-American and a woman, she could siphon voters from Ferrer. Fields isn't considered a strong candidate to face off with the Mayor in November for a number of reasons (her record isn't particularly strong, she appears at many photo ops with the Mayor, and hasn't raised as much money).
If you're not registered to vote in NYC and want to vote in this fall's election, visit the Board of Elections website. And if you're a registered Democrat, you'll be able to vote in the primary.
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So how long before Cablevision starts running the "Mike Bloomberg wants to spend millions on a West Side stadium, but he doesn't want YOU to go to church without paying for it first" ads?
eliminating sunday meters is idiotic because it results in less available parking (people park in a metered space saturday and don't move their car until monday) and churchgoers would be much worse off. and it discriminates against religions who don't worship on sundays. the best proposal is the one to extend meters to 2-hour near churches, but according to this story, very few have even asked. clearly a made up election year "issue."
This may sound crazy, but I would gladly pay NYC $1K in advance, for the right to park on any meter in the city for an entire year's length, without having to feed meter's, muni or otherwise.
This would eliminate "ticket-anxiety" on my part, which I value tremendously, and the city would have a steady, recurring income stream.
This is the second major-yet-easy-to-avoid political fumble from Bloomberg. (The first one was the gay marriage appeal.)
He may be good with money and management, but holy $h!t is he an idiot? All he had to say was "we'll see what we can do about it" and the issue would have dissolved. But noooo; he had to say "well what's the difference between going to church and going to a movie," which is obviously offensive to people who choose to worship. Now he looks bad no matter what he ultimately does.
dirtgirl, I agree about your point that eliminating parking meters on Sundays would be discriminatory to the extent that I wondered the same thing when I first wrote about it. It made me wonder if churches, mosques, and temples could validate parking or something to get around it.
Anyway, clearly the Mayor needs to clamp down on this quickly to react. Who can blame Ferrer to taking it all the way - I imagine his constituents represent many church goers who would be happy to vote on the strength of this issue.
The unlimited "Parking Pass" doesn't address one of the purposes of meters. In addition to generating revenue for the city, I think one of the purposes of metering heavily trafficked areas is to prevent cars from monopolizing a limited and valuable resource. If there were such a thing as an unlimited parking pass, people could leave their cars parked in front of stores for possibly a week at a time (depending on the street cleaning schedule). And people might stop driving (and shopping) around a particular area if those parking spots are always taken.
hippo's right. sunday meters have made a HUGE difference in being able to shop or dine in certain neighborhoods that would be otherwise completely inaccessible. jackson heights, astoria, carroll gardens, park slope, the east village. i can actually visit those places on weekends now, but couldn't when meters weren't checked on sundays.
(i'm sure there are people thinking "why drive at all?" which is reasonable, but believe it or not, there are really neighborhoods in NYC beyond where the subways run. and some of us unfortunate enough to work outside the city so our only hope of stopping somewhere cool on the way home is thanks to meters)