Until recently, there seemed to be relatively little interest in the part of city officials in running for the position of public advocate, with just a couple of people stating their interest in running next year. But those days seem to be over, with an increasing number of elected officials and others saying they are [...]
In a sign residential construction in New York City is grinding to a virtual halt, the number of housing units authorized by building permits fell 70% in October compared with the same month a year ago. The number of permitted units citywide fell to 778, from 2,532 a year earlier, according to data released Wednesday [...]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expects the ethics investigation into Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel’s finances will wrap up soon. Pelosi said Wednesday that the House Ethics Committee assured her the report will be finished before the congressional session ends January 3rd. Rangel has been under the microscope for months for not paying taxes on income from [...]
A former Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman is finalizing an MTA rescue plan that’s expected to include tolling East River bridges and enacting a payroll tax on businesses, sources said. Richard Ravitch will soon present the plan to Gov. Paterson, who recruited the former chairman to lead a state commission to tackle the MTA’s fiscal crisis. [...]
Governor David Paterson spoke out yesterday for the first time at length about finding a replacement for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, should she become a member of the next administration. President-Elect Barack Obama is expected to announce his national security team next week, including his pick for secretary of state. Senator Hillary Clinton’s name has [...]
When is a hiring freeze not quite so frozen? Since May, for instance, the New York State Energy and Development Authority has added some three dozen people to its staff of approximately 270, with jobs ranging from lawyers and program managers with six-figure salaries to office administrators earning half that amount, according to documents and [...]
Bronx Democratic boss Jose Rivera is out. State Supreme Court Justice Robert Seewald ruled yesterday that Assemblyman Carl Heastie won a raucus factional fight that played out at a chaotic rowdy party meeting in September. Two votes were taken at the local Dem confab in the old Loew’s Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse that [...]
Marty Markowitz wants the power to tell the mayor where to stick it – and the City Council speaker, too. It’s not that he has a problem with either Mayor Bloomberg or Christine Quinn – he’s an ally of both – it’s just that the self-promoting Brooklyn borough president wants the freedom to criticize their [...]
An ambitious e-mail and text-messaging system that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority launched yesterday will allow riders to stay informed about transit delays with “near-real-time” alerts on cell phones and handheld devices, MTA officials said. The new system has the capacity to send out 1 million text messages every five minutes, giving updates about delays on [...]
The Legislature’s defiant refusal to trim this year’s budget will mean deeper school funding cuts next year, Gov. Paterson warned Tuesday. Paterson delivered the dire news in a letter to school officials across the state and urged them to “plan accordingly.” Paterson’s budget office would not say how much might be cut. The governor will [...]
