Meet the New Parks Boss

Interesting profile about the new Commissioner for the Department of Parks and Recreation. She's only going to have 15 months on the job and is hoping to make the most of them.

Let's wish her luck. 

The Parks Department may seem like a quiet, not that important city agency but it is, in fact, a small empire. There are over 1700 parks in this city along with 500 community gardens and 14 miles of beaches. There are also a large number of public pools and recreation centers spread out among the five boroughs and all this real estate and personnel add up to a little city in and of itself. Heck, the Parks Department is so big that it even has its own flag!

As important as the mayor is in this town, once you appreciate how big things like the parks and police departments are, as well as the school and library system, you come to realize how powerful the commissioners and heads of these departments are. They are little czars unto themselves and, unlike the mayor, they don't have to be elected to wield power. 

How cool. 

Espada Era Ends

Pedro Espada, one of the most loathsome men to have ever served in New York City and State government, is finally going to jail. This is a great thing and long overdue.

Some of you may not know who he is and, hopefully, he will be forgotten soon. Espada was a NYC City Councilmen and then a NYS Senator who used his various offices to enrich himself and his family. He also ran a healthcare clinic in the South Bronx that he plundered so that he and his family could live high on the hog.

He became a big figure three years ago when this nominal "Democrat" and another loser State Senator voted to caucus with the State Senate Republicans. This threw the legislature into turmoil for over a month and made the state into a laughingstock (tells you a lot about the Republican party in this state that they'd do business with a criminal like Espada -- they are basically no better than him).

Anyway, Espada was defeated for re-election two years ago and then indicted for fraud. He was found guilty, was trying to appeal but I guess he saw reason and finally agreed to plead guilty. Looks like he'll be in the pokey for a very long time. 

Pedro, we knew you too long and you won't be missed. 

Tribute to old-school Manhattan Public Access TV!

Classic Mr NYC

About four years ago I blogged about George Plimpton, the great Renaissance Man and NYC icon who died almost ten years ago.

If you'd like, go back and read about a real NYC original. 

Corporate City Redux

Last year I blogged about how NYC is increasingly becoming a corporate city -- a city ruled by and for the very rich. Of course, NYC has always been a "corporate city" since it has long been the capital for corporate America, with many great national and international businesses headquartered here. But there used to be a division between the corporate world in NYC and how the city government was actually run. 

The corporate/private enterprise world didn't control our government, didn't have power over our land-use, our public schools, even our parks. 

But now it does: charter schools are replacing public schools, parks are being run less by the parks department and more by private foundations -- and the city is turning over huge swaths of our public lands to corporations. 

Look at this week's New York magazine for proof. There are two huge articles -- one a huge new super-expensive luxury apartment building (that is primarily for people who don't even really live in NYC) and another on Hudson Yards which will be the biggest, most expensive private development in our city's history. 

This is radical. And totally out of character with NYC's history. 

It's very depressing and scary to think about how this wonderful, great city -- a place where "our poor huddled masses" used to come in search of a better life is being turned into a place where only the rich are welcomed and can survive. It's still a great city, still great place to live but, if we continue down the road of the corporate city, will we still be so?

Christopher Columbus on the Couch

Today is Columbus Day, one of those convenient pre-holiday holidays where people sleep-in, go to bargain sales, clean the apartment, maybe even visit a friend.

Of course, it's also a day where we celebrate the Italian who, on Spanish ships, discovered America.

It used to be a perfunctory aspect of American life that we accepted that Columbus discovered America on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria in 1492, that he was welcomed by the indigenous people that he found there, and that the story of America began there and then. Of course, it was always a little more complicated than that (like the fact that Americo Vespucci discovered America first) but basically it was an accepted and non-controversial fact of American lore.

Then ... It Got Real.

Twenty-or-so years ago a bunch of people began kvetching that we shouldn't celebrate Columbus because he did unfortunate things like commit genocide against the said indigenous folks, spread diseases, seized their lands -- you know, stuff like that. Suddenly a man who had been dead for centuries -- and was best known as the man responsible for used car sales and parades where lots of smoked sausages were sold -- became very controversial. The PC police yelled that CC was the Devil while the old timers said he was the hero we always knew he was, historical facts be damned. 

Then people realized it was a stupid debate and it died down.

This year, however, things are a 'lil different. Today, as we again "celebrate" Columbus Day, here in NYC,  the statue of the man's likeness in the square that bears his name on 59th street is covered up by ... a living room ... A huge scaffolding containing a living room covers the statue and people are allowed to walk up the stairs and look at the great marble man face to face. 

It's a tad odd but also interesting and re-invents this particular piece of public art -- and maybe the man its celebrates.

Justice Delayed. Justice Denied?

As another presidential election grinds to a close, let's go back to those halcyon days, those days of yore, that lovely memorable time -- the year 2004 -- when another president was running for re-election. That's right, I'm talking about when George W. Bush, without a doubt one of our greatest presidents, was seeking a second term to continue his magnificent work governing this country.

In that year of wonderful peach and prosperity, Bush's Republican party held its convention right here in NYC. It was only three years after some trouble had occurred but obviously the then-POTUS's party didn't want to politicize the event so it was only a mere coincidence that the party held its convention here. 

And when they did, for some totally inexplicable reason that only highly-paid psychiatrists in Austria could figure out, thousands upon thousands of people turned out to protest the convention, the president, his party, and situation in the country in general. They were mad for some reason, and they had the chutzpah to let the world know.

This resulted, naturally, in mass arrests. The NYPD went medieval on the protesters, sending in provocateurs to turn them violet and then caged them in their thousands, beating them up, throwing them into pens unfit for human habitation. No, never the mind the misfits on Wall Street who were quietly plotting to blow up our economy -- these were the people who were arrested. 

And, unsurprisingly, they sued. 

Now, eight years later, justice has been served. No, not on the arrested protesters but on the NYPD.  A US judge has ruled that they were arrested without probable cause, clearly violating their 4th Amendment constitutional rights. 

So it only took a decade for some justice to be smacked down. Too bad it took so long.