Dubai Debt Issues Push Stocks Down
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Family Gets Early Christmas Gift From Ellen DeGeneres
Mayor: Sex Trafficking Victims, Please Speak Up
Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
Yesterday morning saw the second debate of the Democratic mayoral hopefuls and as it was hoped, this debate featured more zesty repartee. The debate was on a CBS 2 News set, with all the candidates sitting next to each other, which was a more intimate setting and perhaps made some of the candidates feel more comfortable to jostle with each other more. Congressman Anthony "Stickball" Weiner was in pitbull mode, with City Council Speaker Gifford "Don't bring up my kids' schooling even though I bring them to events" Miller a close second. Former Bronx Borough President Fernando "Journeyman" Ferrer tried to take the higher road by just faulting what Bloomberg has done, and C. Virginia "What will my campaign workers do next to screw up" Fields actually patted Weiner's hand while he attacked her. Weiner played on the general feeling that the Democratic party in NYC is faltering by saying:
"One thing I'll say to my Democratic brothers and sisters, the campaign for 2006, 2008 starts today: We have to start articulating what the vision of our party is. It's not just enough to say, 'I'm a Democrat, vote for me,' or 'I'm not Mike Bloomberg' or 'I'm not George Bush.' We have to articulate a view."And that's why Gothamist would have to give the win to Weiner, because he went out swinging, pressed the other candidates, and made them look slow and way to indentured to the current administration, as odd as that is, even if he misstated an Eliot Spitzer quote that he claimed said a Ferrer tax plan was "crazy" (the quote was apparently from a Post report - heh! - and Spitzer just happens to endorse Ferrer very heartily).
And the Post happens to get its paws on a "Ferrer Research Book" that has 114 pages of dirt on Freddy; the Post says it was probably created by someone associated with Mark Green's 2001 campaign. You gotta wonder if his rivals already have a copy of it.
Watch clips of debate here at CBS 2 and here's a transcript of the debate. And Gothamist on the first debate.
Photograph by James Estrin (pool photo)
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Who wants a moustache ride?
I do! I do!
Seriously, this is a good example of the intellectual austerity of the Democratic party lately. Weiner has a good point in saying (give or take) "I'm not Bloomberg, I'm not Bush" is not enough. Can you get more blue state than NY or NYC? Hardly. Yet, NYC's had a Republican mayor for the past decade+ and will probably go for another 4 years soon. And New York State's hasn't had a Democratic governor since when, the 80s?
Until the Democrats can muster up a candidate that's electable in true blue NY, they're dreaming if they think they can come up with someone that will be appealing to a country-wide electorate. Partisans like to proclaim that New York and NYC aren't really part of the prevailing political environment in the USA, but if the Dems can't elect officials in their friendliest environment, why do they think they can do better in more hostile territories? NYC should be the canary in Democrats' coal mine: why do we suck so bad? What will it take for us to win?
Bloomberg really hasn't done as much for the city as he claims.
Go to his site, to the "accomplishments" section. Read his section on housing, for example. His wording is "tricky," and is designed to be misleading.
Read between the lines--he says "proposed" (which actually means it did not happen), "will create [in upcoming years]", "sent legislation" (doesn't mean it went through), and "introduced" (means it didn't happen yet).
Also, take a look at your last invoice for your apartment. Still high-priced, right? Apartment prices have not gone down at all since Bloomberg came to office. Period. In fact, they have risen to the highest levels in the entire history of the city of New York.
Nearly every Democratic candidate has proposed in some form or another a real means of making housing more affordable (not just projects for poor people, but regular apartments for average earners like you and me).
What more do you want? This whole "electable" thing is a load of hot air. People frankly don't follow up on the issues when they choose who to vote for. They don't pay attention an analyse to the misleading claims Bloomberg states in his ads. They don't bother going to the other candidates' websites to do some side-by-side comparison.
Advertising works. And since Bloomberg is spending a whole lot of money on advertisments, that's all he needs to win.
Actually, the rising cost of rent in the city of NYC is Bloomberg's greatest advertisement. High rent is a direct indicator of the desirability of living in the city, despite onerous taxes and restrictive business regulations. No doubt, it sucks for residents who've weathered less attractive times, but the market is indicating that NYC is someplace where people want to be and are willing to pay for it. High rents may serve as a qualitative indicator that things in NY may be changing for the worse, but quantitatively, all data points to Bloomberg doing a good job. PS I hate Bloomberg.
Dave H makes sense. Isn't declining housing prices a sign that you're in a recession and/or people are fleeing the city?
The high housing prices are caused by a lack of supply that isn't ample enough to match the demand, not whether people are "fleeing the city" en masse.