Results tagged “franklind”

Some wrap-up about Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing legislation making its way to the state senate. The controversial and innovative (for the U.S.) plan which would charge vehicles to enter Manhattan below 86th Street (between 6AM and 6PM) received support from Governor Spitzer and U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters yesterday, but it looks like Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver may once again be the Mayor's bete noir. How so? Silver has a number of concerns (privacy issues because of the 1,000 cameras that would take photos of drivers' cars), worries that the pricing will go up ("What guarantees are there on the price? In London, it was 5 pounds when it started. It's 10 pounds now. And it's only been a couple of years.") and a desire for details,

The New York Times is reporting that the city is on its toes for Nor'easter 2007, with Mayor Bloomberg saying we should hope for the best as far as storm havoc goes, but prepare for the worst.

The mayor said evacuations were unlikely, but in a cautionary move, city emergency planners have identified possible shelters in the highest-risk areas and have alerted hospitals and nursing homes there to be prepared to relocate patients and elderly residents in the event of severe flooding.

Continue reading "Nor'easter of the 21st Century"

A couple weeks ago, the state Public Service Commission released a report that slammed Con Ed over the Queens blackout that left 174,000 people without power for over a week. The PSC wrote that Con Ed "failed to fulfill its responsibilities under Public Service Law." Now, the State Assembly has issued its own report, which one member slipped to the NY Times, and that report takes the Public Service Commission to task as well as Con Ed!

The report quoted a 1932 speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt, then the governor of New York, who said that the Public Service Commission “was created for the purpose of seeing that the public utilities do two things: first, give people adequate service; second, charge reasonable rates.”

Continue reading "Play the Con Ed Blame Game!"

There's yet another interesting bit in this weeks City section FYI column, this time on one of our fair city's old school private clubs, the Century Association. Housed in a land-marked 1891 McKim Mead & White Beaux Arts building on W. 43rd street the association (also called the Century Club) was "originally an arts and letters society founded in 1847." The invitation-only club admitted its first female members in 1988 and currently has around 2,4000 members "many from New York's cultural, professional and political worlds. The 2005 membership directory included Mayor Bloomberg, Brooke Astor, Ric Burns, Robert A. Caro, Chuck Close, Betsy Gotbaum, Henry Kissinger, Robert Morgenthau, David Rockefeller, Andy Rooney and Arthur Schlesinger Jr." Former members include Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Presidents of the United States Interesting fact: there have been only thirteen presidents who have served eight or more years in office. I think the reason that no one can remember any 19th century presidents besides Lincoln is that they all served four year terms.