Results tagged “mayormichaelr”

Last year we "oohed" and "ahhed" at Prospect Park in Lights, and as of last night -- the seasonal luminescence is back. And this year, even the pink lights are "green":Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg tonight flipped the switch on a holiday lighting installation at Grand Army Plaza in Prospect Park. LEDs, energy-efficient and long-lasting lights that are environmentally friendly, are being used to illuminate the Bailey Fountain and a tree underneath the Sailors and...

City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein characterized last year's assessment test scores as "good," but critics say that they represent a lack of progress and a failure of Mayor Bloomberg's efforts to reform city schools. City kids' scores stayed flat on national assessment exams in math and reading, with a slight improvement in 4th graders' math scores and a drop in 8th graders' reading scores. "New York City’s eighth graders have made no significant progress in...

This Sunday Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Opera will hold A Tribute to Beverly Sills. The event is open to the public, free, and will be dedicated to the sopranos life -- which ended in July.

Just in time for the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Mayor Bloomberg announced the launch of a new World Trade Center health website, to provide "one-stop shopping for 9/11 health-related issues," making it the single source everyone can go to. What might you be shopping for? Well, there's information about research and services as well as "easily accessible research findings." And there's also information about treatment options for different groups of people, such as rescue and recovery workers, residents, children, city employees and others. You can see the site here.

Federal Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. banned the police's ability to routinely videotape demonstrations yesterday. Haight found the NYPD violated Handschu v. Special Services Division, a 1971 decision that established "consent decree"; Haight wrote in his decision, "Solely politically based investigations are flatly prohibited by the guidelines. In other words, there must always be a legitimate law enforcement purpose - having a purpose of investigating political activity exclusively for its own sake is never allowed." In other words, just because it's a demonstration doesn't mean it has to be videotaped.

Oh, to be a child again! The NY Times has a story about the city's efforts to develop a new playground concept for lower Manhattan. The city has been working with designer David Rockwell on a playground that would include things like foam blocks, water, cardboard tubes, burlap bags, ramps, climbing nets and even "play workers" to help kids, uh, play.

Developers of the Lower Manhattan project envision groups of children collaborating, for instance, loading containers with sand, hoisting them up with pulleys and then lowering them down to wagons waiting to be wheeled off to another part of the park.

Continue reading "Innovative Playground Ideas for NYC "

This is just the way you want to end your work week before Christmas holiday: Hearing from the NY Times that the PATH tunnels are "seen as fragile" in a bomb attack. Even a small ("a significant but not necessarily very large") bomb would cause a PATH tunnel to flood in 6 minutes.

With weather advisories in effect, warning of storms and winds, city officials are contemplating what to do with Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. From the NY Times:

The poor weather and heightened oversight could ground some or all of the 13 big balloons — 1 fewer than last year — that are set to fly today, starting at 9 a.m. In the best case, they could be flown so low as to practically be floats. In the worst case, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg warned, the hapless helium-filled creatures could be pulled onto side streets and summarily deflated.

Continue reading "Will the Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons Fly?"

Whoa, it's a good news, bad news day for the Campaign of Fiscal Equity's attempt to get more money for New York City Schools. The NY State Court of Appeals just ruled that NY State should pay an additional $1.93 billion a year in public school funding to New York City. That sounds great, except that other courts had previously ruled that NYC deserved $4-6 billion. But since the Court of Appeals is the state's highest court, this ruling will probably stick. From the NY Times:

“The lower courts were wrong,” [State Senator Joseph] Bruno said today. “They were out of their jurisdiction. They were doing things that were inappropriate. They were literally fooling the public by pretending that a lot of money was going to flow, billions and billions.”

Continue reading "Court Rules NYC Schools Should Get $1.93 Billion"

We always knew Mayor Bloomberg was a busy guy, but a NY Times article today makes him seem especially crunched for time. The article's first sentence says it all:

New York City’s bid to land the 2008 Democratic National Convention is in jeopardy because Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is spread so thin with fund-raising commitments that he may not be able to raise the money from private donors needed to pay for it, an official said on Thursday.

They say that history repeats itself, but this is re-dunk-u-lous. Moynihan Station, the long-planned Penn Station expansion into the Farley Post Office that is intended to make up for the destruction of the late, great, original Penn Station (above) hasn't even been built yet but developers are already vying to build a new Madison Square Garden on top of and around it. And yes, this would be MSG number 5 for those of you keeping count at home.

This morning's NY Times article about some very high-ranking city officials who get a salary AND pension at the same time from the city's payroll is fascinating. For a mayor who wants to limit pensions and benefits for other unions, Mayor Bloomberg has made a point of requesting special waivers for certain retired city workers to draw pensions as they return to the city workforce, and the Times's opening is hilarious:

One of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's first acts on starting his second term was to write a letter to personnel officials asking that his correction commissioner, Martin F. Horn, be allowed to collect a pension along with his $178,200 salary.

Continue reading "Double Dipping In the City's Chip Bowl"

The NY Times has an obituary for 95 year old Edith Spivack, a lawyer for the city's Law Department, and she lived a long, amazing life. Spivack started working for the city in 1934 and only retired last year, and in those 70 years of working for the city (and through 10 mayors, from LaGuardia to Bloomberg), she helped keep the city out of bankruptcy in the 1960s and would make foreign consulates pay their water bills by calling them up herself. Plus, Spivack was funny:

At a Christmas party last year at which Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg awarded her a public service plaque, the mayor tried to make small talk and asked when she graduated from college. Ms. Spivack replied that she graduated from Barnard College in 1929.

Continue reading "Lawyer Edith Spivack, NYC's Longest Serving Civil Servant"

A month after they were proposed, the MTA is adopting a new set of rules of conduct that will see fines being handed out for things like drinking (non-alcoholic beverages) in a subway car, putting your feet on a seat, and riding between subway cars. And you can't ride your bicycle, wear you Rollerblades or be atop a skateboard, either. The MTA says that police officers, who we have been seeing in droves at subway stations lately, will be "reasonable" when asking people why they are changing subway cars; the NY Times has this quote that proves why moving between cars is important:

Mark Page, the city's budget director, who represents Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on the board, observed: "It is, from time to time, convenient to absent oneself from a car or from a particular group of people."

Continue reading "New Subway Rules of Conduct Adopted"