Results tagged “publicservice”

       

Last night, Time magazine held its annual Time 100 Gala at the Time Warner Center. Emceed by Jimmy Fallon, the night celebrated those featured in the issue, a range of people from the First Lady to the Twitter guys, from Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. to financial advice guru Suze Orman. The attendee list was long and glittering, including a wide variety of people, like Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman (a Time 100 honoree), SNL producer Lorne Michaels, former JFK speechwriter Ted Sorenson, and the joined-at-the-hip celeb-trio of Liv Tyler, Stella McCartney and Kate Hudson.

Only in Albany can you be nominated to head the Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities, and start doing work for the government - while still working for a private sector energy company! The state inspector general released a report explaining how this actually happened with former PSC nominee Angela Sparks-Beddoe last year.

Yesterday, over a hundred people - made up of "fans, reporters and photographers" - waited outside the Frank E. Campbell funeral home, where the body of actor Heath Ledger had been kept since ME's autopsy. Ledger had been found dead in a SoHo apartment by his masseuse and housekeeper on Tuesday afternoon. The cause of death is inconclusive, but he had a number of prescription drugs in the apartment, many of them to aid sleeping (he had been described as looking tired recently and even told interviewers he had trouble sleeping after filming The Dark Knight).

Notwithstanding a massive steam explosion that horribly burned some New Yorkers and shut down a large section of midtown Manhattan for weeks, neighborhood blackouts that have left thousands in the dark and without air conditioning in the heat of summer, and occasional stray voltage leaks that have electrocuted people and pets, Mayor Bloomberg feels that Con Ed is doing a decent job and customers should be willing to pay extra each month to the utility. Aides insist that Bloomberg wasn't formally endorsing a $1.2 billion rate hike, which would boost customers' bills by an average of 17%. He was just pointing out that the company doesn't make that much money and that it needs additional funds to upgrade the city's energy infrastructure.

An exhibit at the main branch of the New York Public Library is drawing outrage from Republicans because some of the work on display depicts former and current members of the Bush administration posing for fake mug shots. Each official in the visionary series, called “Line Up”, is seen holding a slate with a date of arrest corresponding to a date when the official said something about Iraq that was not “reality-based.” Matthew Walter,...

The State Public Service Commission is fining Con Ed $18 million for failing to meet reliability standards during the nine-day Queens blackout last year. PSC Chairwoman Patricia Acampora said, "Hopefully, this order today will send a message to Con Ed that they must be diligent in their efforts to maintain a reliable network, or they will face financial consequences." As far as we're concerned, it seems like Con Ed got off easy. Especially when they...

On Monday, the Citizens Union released a report revealing that City Council members have used $1 million of their council budgets to pay for advertising, even in election years (which is prohibited), over the past five years. You can read the report here (PDF), as well as peruse the variety of ads, from public service ads (PDF), community event ads (PDF), and local news ads (PDF).

(con-ed, by huckfunn at flickr)

After questions about whether Con Ed would be able to maintain objectivity when testing equipment from the area of July 18's Midtown steam pipe explosion, a State Supreme Court judge ruled that the utility could test a steam trap. Earlier, a state regulator suggested there could have been build-up in the trap, caused it to malfunction and causing the explosion.

Mayor Bloomberg will walk across the street from City Hall tomorrow morning to report for jury duty at Manhattan Supreme Court. It won't be his first stint in the jurors' box. Bloomberg reportedly has served state jury duty five times since 1981. The Daily News reports that he served in 2001 on his 59th birthday "when he was openly flirting with running for mayor but was not an official candidate."

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an aircraft emergency at Laguardia Airport in Queens, a carjacking on 7th Ave. and 115th St. in Manhattan, and a pedestrian fatally struck on Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn.
• The director of the Public Theater's production of A Midsummers Night's Dream suffered four broken ribs and a collapsed lung after falling through a trap door at Central Park's Delacorte Theater during a rehearsal this week.
• Do not adjust the controls on your radio, 1010 WINS will be off the air between 12:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Saturday morning to transition to HD broadcasting.
• Artists living in Carnegie Hall studio spaces are suing the Carnegie Hall Corporation to prevent their eviction. Carnegie Hall wants to renovate the space for educational programs.
• Spitzer aide Steven Mitnick resigned after admitting he threatened a Republican on the Public Service Commission. Mitnick repeatedly threatened the career of Cheryl Buley as she investigated ConEd after last summer's blackout.
• Streetsblog has a piece on citizen journalists filming the pernicious effects of traffic in Jackson Heights, Queens.
• Accused LES and East Village sex attacker Asuncion Dejesus-Garcia was released from custody after another crime fitting the same pattern as those he was accused of was committed while he was in jail.
• The New York Times looks at the decline of tar beach tanning in the city.

Last week, the Mayor and other city officials announced a new public service campaign to highlight the new penalties for illegal gun possession in New York, such as longer mandatory minimum sentences of 3.5 years. Citizens Crime Commission of NYC president Richard Aborn said during the press conference, "Almost 70 percent of murders in New York City are committed with firearms and the vast majority of those weapons are illegal." As it happened, there were many shootings this past weekend:

Covering Coverage

We're getting reports of a blackout on the Upper East Side, from the East 60s up to Harlem, on Third Avenue (mostly about transit blackouts) and York Avenue in the 80s. Subway service is affected - the 4/5/6 line is down. A reader whose friend was at Randalls Island says a Con Ed station exploded.

"I'm New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and I should be dead." That's how Corzine starts off a public service announcement to remind people to buckle up. Corzine is the current poster boy for bad seatbelt behavior: He wasn't buckled up when his SUV - which was traveling at 91 MPH - crashed on April 12, and he was critically injured, breaking many bones and lost half his blood. He remained on a ventilator for many days and required a number of surgeries.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg traveled back to his Massachusetts roots and gave the commencement speech at Tufts University. Bloomberg, who grew up in Medford, name checked various haunts in the hood, tried to seem with it by mentioning Busta Rhymes, Ali G, and Salma Hayek, and reminded kids to call their mother. He also discussed free speech, in what the Sun called a nod to the Minutemen incident at Columbia:

The fourth lesson is, in the words of Ali G, 'Respect.' Don't worry, I'm not going to start quoting Borat. Respect is so important - especially in times of conflict. You all know what I'm talking about. In December, The Primary Source printed some things that much of this community ardently disagreed with - that many considered quite offensive. But instead of suppressing the publication - and despite the emotion of the moment - you respected their right to express themselves.

Continue reading "Bloomberg on Mom, Sports, and Respeck"

We love scurrilous political gossip! The NY Post's Fred Dicker says that Mayor Bloomberg wants to run for Governor in 2010! For some reason, Mayor Mike thinks that Albany might be his kind of town. A "senior" Republican source spills the beans:

"On two occasions in recent weeks, the mayor brought up the possibility of running for governor, of running against Spitzer in 2010.

Continue reading "2010 Matchup: Bloomberg Vs. Spitzer?"

The Wall Street Journal won two Pulitzer Prizes today, the most of any newspaper this year. The Journal's honored articles were for Public Service (the backdating of stock options by executives) and International Reporting ("its sharply edged reports on the adverse impact of China's booming capitalism on conditions ranging from inequality to pollution").

Last week, the city released 247-page report that offered a "mild rebuke" to Con Ed over last summer's blackout. Two outside lawyers from Couch and White wrote the report that finds Con Ed did some things wrong, but felt criticism over not shutting down the LIC Network (which many critics think would have shortened the blackout) was unjustified, because no one knows if that would have helped things.

The other day, we were listening to the radio and heard an ad with Wesley Autrey, the city's beloved subway hero! Autrey has done a series of public service announcements with the city's health department to encourage New Yorkers over 50 to get screened for colon cancer. From the DOH statement:

"I’m an average New Yorker over the age of 50 who could be at risk of colon cancer," said Autrey. "That’s why I’m joining this campaign. I’m very happy to be able help get this message out about colon cancer to maybe help save more lives – and I don’t have to jump onto the subway tracks to do it!"

We can't figure this out! Apparently former NJ Governor James McGreevey wants custody of daughter Jacqueline AND child support from ex-wife Dina Matos. The last time we checked, McGreevey was living in a 17-room mansion with his boyfriend Mark O'Donnell, a financier. And he wrote a book that could pay some of the bills, we think.

Rikers inmate David Brown who engaged a hit man to behead Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and blow up police headquarters was arraigned on charges of criminal solicitation yesterday. Brown, with a long rap sheet - 14 felonies out of 30 convictions - mentioned that he wanted to kill Kelly to another inmate, who called in a tip to the Crimestoppers tipline. When an NYPD detective posed as a hit man and spoke to Brown, the inmate indicated he'd pay $15,000 to behead Kelly and between $50,000 and $150,000 to put bomb outside 1 Police Plaza. Brown said he wanted to kill Kelly because he was frustrated with the Commissioner's inaction during the Sean Bell shooting aftermath.

Queens Assemblyman Michael Gianaris accused Con Ed of placing its own PR needs above basic needs of customers. Gianaris says that the utility spent over a half million dollars to shore up its image after last summer's Queens blackout. He argues that money should have gone towards increasing reimbursements to businesses, whose reimbursements were capped at $7,000.

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!"

If you want to read an incredibly damning indictment of Con Edison ever put to 185-page PDF, we highly recommend reading the Public Service Commission study (here's the PDF) of what happened during last summer's Queens blackout. Our favorite summary of the major screw up that was Con Ed's response is Con Edison’s performance in preparing for, and responding to, the outage event was deficient, a gross disservice to its customers. Or is it The Company failed to fulfill its responsibilities under Public Service Law. And then there's

While many line employees of Con Edison worked hard to contain the crisis, the Company’s senior management failed, or refused to comprehend, the magnitude of the damage to its secondary system and the subsequent impact on consumers. The processing of the event illustrates deficiencies in the Company's ability to accurately develop and process information in an emergency and properly communicate that information internally and externally.

“My power was lost on Monday evening, July 17. I am 92 years old and live alone. I was very afraid because I live alone and I had no electricity or hot water. My family came to get me and took me to the state of Pennsylvania. If I did not have family, I would have been dead." Another consumer said, “...does Con Edison… have any idea what it is like to sleep in an oven for seven nights, to worry about your mother who is a senior citizen who decided to leave the apartment after three days of sweating like a pig, only to find her on the fourth floor crying and stating she had chest pains from trying to walk up six flights of stairs?"

At the podium with his highest approval ratings ever, Mayor Mike gave his annual State of the City address and outlined an agenda that will dictate his last three years in office and most likely, his legacy. Some of these items include passing $1 billion in tax cuts (including $750 million in property tax and eliminating sales tax on clothing and shoes), improving the school system, pursuing anti-gun laws, and continuing development projects across the city. In fact, his recommendations to continue school reform were the first things he mentioned, from further empowering principals to do a better job retaining good teachers (and getting rid of tenure), and shifting funding to students, instead of schools, and grading the schools themselves..

The NY Times has a nice profile of Amanda Burden, the influential Department of City Planning commissioner whose policies will shape the city for years to come.

Days away from becoming Governor, Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer appointed twelve people to head various state agencies, including the Port Authority and the MTA. Well, MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow, a Pataki appointee, says he's not leaving just yet, but it seems like Elliot Sander (pictured), who was made the executive director and CEO of the MTA, will eventually take over the chairmanship. Sander is currently a corporate senior VP at transportation engineering firm DMJM Harris but may be better known to some New Yorkers as the director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service.