The NYC Seats of Power

One of the most interesting parts of traveling to any city, especially capital cities, is to see the various government buildings it contains -- specifically the seats of power like city or town halls, legislative buildings, palaces or executive mansions, etc. to get a literal look at the places where these cities, states, and countries are ruled or governed from. 

Think of the White House and US Capitol in Washington DC, think of Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament in London, think of Versailles (near) Paris or the Forbidden City in Beijing, think of the Vatican in Rome, think of the Kremlin in Moscow!

These great, grand structures are built to say "Here the power resides, ready to strike. Don't question it."

New York City doesn't rule a country or even a state but, as the largest municipality in the country, it certainly has its own important seats of power. City Hall where the council meets and the mayor works is the best known along with Gracie Mansion where the mayor lives and entertains VIPs. 

But there are other seats of power scattered around the city as well, other points from where the city is governed: the offices of the borough presidents.

Five boroughs means five borough presidents and five borough president offices. What's interesting is that borough president offices exist in different kinds of buildings, each tethered to the history of their particular boroughs. 

In Manhattan, the BP works out of the huge Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan on Centre Street along with the NYC Public Advocate, Comptroller and various city agencies like Finance, Landmarks, Veterans Services, Technology, Environmental Protection, and others. An enormous building, it's the very heart of the original, post-1898 consolidation of NYC power of which the BP was, and is, just another part. 

In Staten Island, the BP is located in Staten Island Borough Hall right across from the St. George ferry terminal; it also contains city agencies like Buildings and Transportation and is right next to the county courthouse. Similarly, in Queens, the BP works out of Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens which also houses the county courthouse as does the Bronx County Courthouse where that BP works from too. What separates these three borough presidents' borough halls from Manhattan is that, prior to consolidation, these boroughs were something else entirely -- Queens and Staten Island where simply counties without a central authority or any links to the city, and the Bronx was part of New York County i.e. Manhattan before becoming a separate county -- and finally a borough of NYC. 

Which is what makes Brooklyn Borough Hall so unique. Located in Downtown Brooklyn, it's the only borough hall that used to be a city hall -- for the City of Brooklyn until 1898. It's really the only borough hall that's only that -- it doesn't share space with any other government agencies nor is it part of a courthouse. It's the only legacy left of the former City of Brooklyn, a concession to the past.

So those are the NYC seats of power, the places where a city of nearly 9 million have their futures decided.  

Mr NYC Ahead of His Time

Late last year in a blog post I speculated about how, on more than one occasion, I blogged about something or someone that, later on (in some cases much later on), was finally written about or broadcast in the "mainstream" or "establishment" media.

I blogged about the given subject first -- on this here my little alternative media source -- long before the big-time media picked up on it.

Ergo I have made good on my previously aforementioned threat and created a "Mr NYC Ahead of His Time" feature label. You can find it in the right hand "Features" section of this blog, and take a look at all the times where Mr NYC was prescient. 

Santos Drama Redux

The world's fastest, strongest, smartest, and most beautiful man, New York Congressman George Santos, has been indicted on THIRTEEN federal counts of wire fraud, money laundering, embezzlement and other stuff.

He's a one man Republican crime machine. And those are just the federal charges -- he's still being investigated on the state and county level. He's going to be "going through some things" -- and maybe several years in prison. 

Of course he claims that this is all a "witch hunt", that there's a grand conspiracy to take a good, decent, honest, hardworking man of the people down. And he won't resign until, presumably, he's either convicted of a crime or takes a plea deal.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out -- and hopefully we'll never have to see or hear anything about this sleaze ever again. 

"The world is a business, Mr Beale" from "Network" (1976)

Reform the NYPD? Read Machiavelli!

In any middle school social studies class you learn the basics of how American government works -- the three branches with their checks and balances, how a bill becomes law, the Constitution, all that good stuff.

The reality of American government, of course, is much different than what you read about in textbooks or learn about in childhood classrooms.  

And while we care immensely about what the US President does, and even somewhat Congress does, and even more these days about what the Supreme Court does, the reality is that, in our Federalized system, so much of the direct power over our lives comes from the state and local governments -- they can pass laws that decide how we live, and if we literally live or die at all. 

These days, across the country, a lot of this comes down to the radically different laws that different states have regarding abortion, guns, healthcare, and the death penalty. Closer to home, in every major municipality in the country, it comes down to the cops.

And in NYC, the New York Police Department is, essentially, an unelected, unaccountable government of its own. 

The NYPD is a huge, powerful, and deeply feared organization. Ostensibly it operates under the thumb of elected officials -- the mayor appoints the police commissioner and the city council provides oversight of its operations. But the reality is that the department largely runs itself, and any attempts to oversee and reform it are nearly impossible.

This lengthy article documents the numerous failures of police reform -- trying to make the oversight process more vigorous, curbing the cops tendency towards violence and unjust arrests of the vulnerable and mentally ill, creating more transparency about disciplinary records, etc.

The main reason is, as you might imagine, politics -- any attempt to reform or hold to the NYPD accountable for any abuses or failures gets the politicians who try to do it attacked in the media and by fellow politicians and police unions as "anti-cop, pro-criminal, pro-violence," etc. etc. etc. It's a miserable, lonely, and quixotic battle. Also, a lot of politicians, even those who say they are "pro-cops", don't really understand the complexities of policing and how the vast NYPD operates. So nothing really changes -- except for the department's budget constantly getting increased, no matter if crime goes up or down, no matter if its officers are abusing or killing people, no matter its performance, no matter what. The NYPD, along with its powerful unions and political allies, has made itself virtually unreformable, unaccountable, and unrepentant. 

And it will probably never change until, as the article points out, politicians become afraid not to reform it. Don't hold your breath. Which leads us to that Renaissance Florentine genius Machiavelli who said about the misery of political reform:

“It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.”

Preach. 

Review: "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"

The musicals of Stephen Sondheim are, of course, phenomenal, and probably none of his musicals are as popular as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Set in down-and-out 19th century London, the story is about the aforementioned Mr. Todd, an ex-convict who returns from a penal colony in search of his lost wife and child. Bereft of money and family, he takes up residence above a pie shop run by a Mrs. Lovett who makes the "worst meat pies in London." Thirsting for revenge against a cruel and cold world -- and in serious need of money -- Todd and Lovett come up with a gruesome plan to open up a barber shop above the pie shop, and for Todd to supply Lovett with the bodies of his customers who wind up as the meat in the pies, making them very tasty and making business boom. All the while, Todd and Lovett befriend a hustler named Anthony, who returned to London with Todd, and who is trying to woo an unhappy rich lady away from the domineering and horny man who is her caretaker. Another friend if Tobias, the sidekick of a conman named Pirelli. 

Events ensue where Todd and Lovett's plan works -- until one too many things give them away and inevitable tragedy comes.

Amazingly, given the musical's enduring popularity, there hasn't been a revival of Sweeney Todd since it's original Broadway run back in 1979. So this is a triumphant revival with the amazing voice of Josh Groban as Sweeney and the AMAZING acting and singing talents of Annaleigh Ashford as Lovett. Groban is a fantastic singer and a good, if not great actor, but Ashford is both -- a true talent in the range of Angela Lansbury and Barbara Streisand. Watching them together is a joy.

Also good is Gaten Matarazzo as Tobias -- basically, he's best known as one of the kids from Stranger Things but this guy can sing and is a fantastic stage presence. He nearly steals the show from Groban and Ashford, no mean feat.

The supporting cast is also excellent, especially Jordan Fisher as Anthony and, I must point out, someone named John Rapson plays the gentlemanly Beadle Bamford. Even though Groban and Ashford are the clear stars, their supporting cast is their equal, and makes it a great show.

I'll be honest -- this is not my favorite of Sondheim's musicals (I'm more of a Company, Into the Wood, Sunday in the Park with George kinda guy) but it's an enthralling and disturbing dark opera of the soul, and a classic. 

Two Unique New Yorkers: Harry Belafonte & Jerry Springer RIP

 

Blair Tindall RIP

I really enjoyed the four-season Amazon show Mozart in the Jungle about the wild lives of NYC philharmonic musicians. It was a funny, sweet, heartwarming show about an exclusive world that rarely gets shown to the rest of the world -- and it had a great cast including Bernadette Peters, Malcolm McDowell and Mark Blum.

The show was based on a memoir of the same name by a classical oboist named Blair Tindall who published it in 2005 -- and got some flack for revealing that elegant classical musicians are just as randy as the rest of the us.

Blair Tindall has died at the age of 63, and she had an interesting life. Believe it or not, she used to be married to Bill Nye the Science Guy! Anyway, RIP.

Lower Manhattan Parking Garage Collapse

"The Phantom of the Opera" is No Longer Here

It's hard to believe but it finally happened: The Phantom of the Opera is no longer playing on Broadway. 

After 35 years and 13,981 performances, the longest-running show in Broadway history has closed. It felt like it would play forever and, in Broadway show terms, it did. But all good things ... 

Doubtless it will be revived at some point in the future but this was the first, original production. Besides the length of the show's run or number of performances, it would be interesting to know how many other Broadway musicals came and went during its historic run.

Goodbye Phantom.