Ever since their unsuccessful bid to impose "congestion pricing" fees for driving cars and trucks in the "inner city" of Manhattan early in his reign...er...mayoralty, Bloomberg and Sadik-Kahn have done anything they can to make sure driving (and walking) in Manhattan is nearly impossible. First, they turned Times Square, Herald Square, and just about all of the other "Squares" in Manhattan into "pedestrian malls" replete with little tables and chairs thereby shutting down blocks and blocks of avenues to all car, truck, and bus traffic.
Here's a before and after shot of the Times Square pedestrian malls:
Okay, the way Citibike works is that you join Citibike (sponsored and financed by Citibank, an evil bankster-type operation) online for a yearly membership fee plus a per-rental fee, get an electronic key card, and then you can rent and return a pretty blue bike from any of the many racks stationed around the city mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn. You just slide your card in, get a green light, and take a bike. Then return it to any designated rack in the city. With some plans, you can access a bike as many time as you need to get from Brooklyn to Midtown in no time flat. The catch is you can only rent in 30 minute intervals (some plans you can rent for 45 minutes).
Now as most things that happen in this city, it has not been without problems and, of course there have been hiccups. First off, all the access kiosks/bike racks are run on energy-saving green solar powered batteries. Yey! But one of the things that is at a premium in NYC is...well...sunlight. Oops, someone didn't take that into consideration when placing racks, so the batteries that run the kiosks where you put in your electronic keycard to access your bike rentals are losing power very quickly. (and I will point out that city sunlight is greatly reduced for about eight months out of the year and we are going into the "sunniest" part right now. But hey, that's just me thinking out loud...) This is causing delays in access and sucking up some of that valuable 30 minutes for which you will be heavily charged if you go over.
Nextly, the Commissioner plunked down massive bike racks like these in the middle of the night, without any warning:
Let's just say that New York City dwellers do not take to change quietly. And to wake up to a giant blue bike rack on your block without any warning has many with their noses out of joint. Now, that would be okay because NYC dweller ALWAYS have their noses out of joint about something, but there doesn't seem to be any thought with where they plunked these racks down. In more than one case, they plunked racks down in front of buildings blocking access to say, emergency access. The first weekend, some poor guy was in the middle of a life-threatening stroke and the EMS team was delayed in rendering care just trying to figure out how to get into the building. Needless to say, that rack was "adjusted" the next day. But complaints are pouring in from everywhere the racks have been plopped down including a pending lawsuit from an arts group where a rack was placed in a space designated for large "art" installations. At this point the city has only placed about half of the proposed 600 rack (10,000 bikes in all). And, oddly, none will be anywhere near Mayor Bloomberg's tony neighborhood. [Personally, I think one should be placed right in front of Mayor Bloomberg's mansion, but then it would block his many idling SUVs and many armed police guards. Again just thinking out loud...)
So far, one bike has been stolen, one bike has been destroyed in a car/bike collision (no one was hurt yet), and all pedestrians are at risk to riders biking the wrong way on one-way streets and blasting through red lights. And the summer has just started! BTW, I am wondering how many of these bikes (like the pedestrian malls) will be used during the winter, but then, that's Citibank's problem.
Moving on...
Mayoral News - Guess what? I bet you can't. Okay, I'll tell you in my own version of a NY Post headline - "Weiner On A Roll!". Yes, folks, Anthony "Look At My Big Weiner" Weiner is leading the pack of Democrat Mayoral hopefuls in our upcoming elections in November. Frankly, I am not the least bit surprised. In the entire field of candidates, Weiner is actually the best candidate.
Related - Anthony Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, former Sec't Hillary Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff at the State Department is in the hot seat these days. It is alleged that at the same time she was drawing a nice government salary at the State Department, she was earning a six-figure salary as a private consultant. It was only in the last month of her government job that her status was changed from "special government employee" to "private contractor", so she could "consult", but it is unclear how long she was privately consulting (not to be confused with consulting with one's privates as per her husband). It has been explained that Abedin was using her consultant hat to clear the path for Clinton's private life. Investigations to follow...
Other Mayoral news - New York may be in a financial pickle. It was revealed this week that many of the groups that have been subject to city budget cuts during the Bloomberg administration have been receiving private donations from....Mayor Bloomberg to cover the cuts. Now, this may sound very generous and benevolent of our Billionaire Mayor, but what happens when he is no longer mayor and these and other groups can no longer benefit from the NYC Mayor's largesse? Or more importantly, when we need to make more cuts and there is no one to come in behind them and cover them privately? Like I have said, the only thing I worry about more about than "Mayor Bloomberg" is the fallout from the "Former-Mayor Bloomberg".
Oh, one last thing - Just in case you think I may have forgotten, I am happy to report that no NY elected officials have been arrested in over a month. This may be a new record, but don't be sad. US Attorney Preet Bahrara says it is just a lull and more are coming. I will keep you posted.
Okay, that's it for this report. As always, please feel free to comment on these or any other issue...
BTW, I will be traveling today, so I will be responding sporadically. I am off to the Great State of Texas to celebrate my Dad's 85th Birthday...
38 comments:
Oh, yeah, I forgot about Bloomberg's newest new idea - "urban composting". The city rats rejoice...
I'll save that for next time...
Bev - nice report. New York has so many things going for it. Bloomberg blows my mind. I happened to cath part of the "Five" today, and see Greg Gutfield is running on an "anybody but Weiner" platform. If Weiner is elected, it tells people all they need to know about the decline of our civilization ("Weiner thrusts ahead" was the Drudge headline." I feel so lucky to have gotten away from the northeast to rural mountainous Tennessee. Be safe in your travels. :)
Once Sanford came back, I figured Weiner wouldn't be far behind. Before you had to be a political prodigy to survive/recover from sex scandals, now you just need to be a sufficiently loyal apparatchik.
Since this is an open thread, I'm going to say that I found that Wendy Davis thing fascinating. I think she's going to be this year's Sandra Fluke. Happily this isn't an election year so unless Mrs. Davis figures out a way to stay in the spotlight, she'll be irrelevant in 2014.
Bev, I had no idea they were turning the "squares" into pedestrian zones! Wow. That must destroy the traffic patterns. I love the fact the solar kiosks don't work. LOL!
Weiner on a roll. Arg.
Anthony, That's the chick in Texas?
10J an Anthony - I am not surprised about Weiner. Everyone forgetsnitnwasnthe lie, not the tweets...
Andrew,
Yes, Wendy Davis is the woman who filibustered the Texas anti-abortion bill.
Bev,
I think lies extend stories and give them legs, but I'm not sure that telling the truth would work better for married politicians (Why yes I am cheating on my wife. What of it?).
I suspect the only way for a married politician to steer clear of sex scandals is to stay faithful to his wife (and not ask her to have public sex in fetish clubs).
Bev, Also... happy birthday to your father! I hope you have a good time! :D
Anthony, There was a really fascinating poll connected to that, a poll which I think shows that the pro-life movement has a long way to go on winning the public.
(Here's the link to the poll: LINK)
The poll was conducted by National Journal and it asked whether or not you would agree to ban abortion after 20 weeks. There were two additions to the question -- they told the people polled that fetuses DO feel pain after 20 weeks. They also said there would be exceptions for rape or incest in the provision.
It would seem to me, that would be an easy one for the public to support. 20 weeks, with exceptions... kind of a no-brainer if you have any pro-life sympathies. Yet, outside of "Republicans," the highest level of support was only 53%. Young people were only at 52%. Overall support was only 48%.
I think that's a really bad sign for the pro-life movement and they better figure out why people wouldn't support this in overwhelming numbers.
Unfortunately, rather than seeing the danger, places like HotAir are actually declaring this a victory by saying this shows that abortion is a negative issue for the Democrats:
If younger voters support restrictions on abortion while the Democratic Party insists on nothing less than unrestricted abortion up to birth — the position staked out by the party during the House debate on the abortion restriction — their ability to argue that Republicans are extremist on social issues will dissipate.
Yeah, that's totally wrong.
As an aside, the National Journal article also pointed out that the Republicans still don't understand "optics." They pointed out that the measure did not initially include exceptions for rape or incest and there were no women in the group pushing the bill. The leadership eventually added that provision and appointed Blackburn to lead the push to pass it. But it once again played into the idea that this is old white men trying to control women. Seriously, how hard is it to make sure there's a woman standing next to you when you say the word "abortion"?
Andrew,
I think the thing with abortion (and guns) is that there are a lot of people (on both sides of the respective issues) who view any additional regulation/restrictions as the 'thin edge of the wedge' so those on the 'pro' side tend to strenuously resist even measures they would support if they thought they were the endgame.
Anthony, True. But I don't think those people matter. The two fringes are too small to ever get their way. The real battle ground is the majority of the public, the people who are not ideological about the issue itself, but who will still either support or oppose various measures.
This poll should be a wake up call to pro-lifers that they have a serious problem. Outside of partial birth abortion, I can't imagine an issue that should be more favorable to them -- 20 weeks, with the easy exceptions. But if they can't get the public to support that overwhelmingly, then they are not winning the public at all on the issue and there is no chance for anything even more restrictive.
I agree the majority of the public isn't ideological about the issue, but I also think that they are slow to back even sensible measures which are perceived as being ideologically motivated.
Anthony, Agreed. But I think that bodes poorly for the pro-life side. That tells me that they have a seriously uphill battle if they can't win a simple one like this hands down. It sounds to me like a change of strategy is warranted.
I always thought of abortion as the other side of the coin of elderly non consensual euthanasia. If you can destroy the life of an unborn for the convenience of it, then let's send grandma to the knackers and grab her house. Since the baby boomers are going to be wealthier and a bigger burden on their children via entitlements it will also be very convenient for them to be checked out early so to speak.
K, On euthanasia, I don't personally have an problem with people wanting to kill themselves. I'm in no position to judge whether they think life is worth continuing or not. I would never do it, but I won't stand in the way of others making that decision.
That said, however, I have serious problem with society sanctioning euthanasia because I doubt it will be a consensual thing. I think it will come down to people being pressured by their kids or family to spare everyone else the pain of dealing with them or it will be the result of pressure to keep the cost of healthcare down for society. That is what troubles me.
"I think it will come down to people being pressured by their kids or family to spare everyone else the pain of dealing with them or it will be the result of pressure to keep the cost of healthcare down for society."
Or kids and family really wanting that inheritance.
Also, there is some indication that a person, suffering from a potentially terminal disease might not be in the best position to make such a judgement and might be easily pressured into taking euthanasia when there are other alternatives that might even take the word "terminal" out of the equation. There is some evidence this occurred in the Kevorkian case.
"Terminal" is a more fluid definition than many think.
I see that there is a new film about the civil war coming out shortly from Director Ron Maxwell (Gettysburg and God & Generals). It is titled Copperhead. Because it is Maxwell doing it, I expect it 1) not to be a liberal message rant, and 2) to have attention given to trying to attain as much authenticity as possible. On the other hand, Maxwell can be self-indulgent, so this one will probably depend on the script. Cast is largely unknown.
I don't think one can produce a meaningful poll on the hot-button issues anymore. People have so many other ideas attached to them. I would bet that a fair chunk of respondents gave their answer because they believe response A implies B, C, and D... rather than giving an answer to the question as asked. How does that bear on Americans' attitudes on the subject. Who knows?
So no one's talking about the senate vote?
Its passed.
Boehner has invoked the Hastert Rule. Which means unless the Bill has the support of a majority of the House Republicans then it won't be brought to a vote.
From what I'm reading, Paul Ryan is going to take a front seat here pushing this thing. It will be interesting to watch and see where this leads.
tryanmax, I've been busy. What was the final vote?
Kit, I suspect that Boehner has a majority of support or he wouldn't do this. If he never brings this to a vote, you can write off the Republican Party.
tryanmax, On the poll, I'm not sure I agree. In this particular instance, you could not create an easier question to answer for people to agree with the pro-life position. Yet, a majority disagree.
Whether that is evidence they favor abortion (which I doubt) or that they dislike the pro-life camp, either result is not good for the pro-life camp and should be cause for concern. Either result means that the pro-life movement needs to change its image and try to win people over if they want to make any progress.
Probably the best case interpretation for pro-lifers is that a majority just don't care to talk about abortion. But even that is not a good sign, since this wasn't a particularly controversial provision they were polling.
Bev, BTW, has anyone been hurt yet because of one of these bikes? I'll be curious if they are lawyer-resistant.
Hey now, I like bikes.
Whether that is evidence they ... dislike the pro-life camp,
I guess that's what I was trying to say. I don't think the poll is as much a reflection on attitudes about abortion as it is on attitudes about pro-lifers. In other words, the respondent doesn't thing Option A means Option A. They think it means Implications B-Z. To that end, it's worthless for trying to figure out what people actually think.
T-Rav, What are you? An enviro-socialist? ;P
tryanmax, Agreed. I doubt very much that this poll tells us anything about people's views on abortion itself.
BUT... that doesn't change the problem for the pro-life camp. Whether this is an indication of their views on abortion or on their willingness to support pro-life legislation, either result is really bad for the goals of the pro-life movement. It means a change is needed if they want to make headway.
I just saw a news item stating that that bastard Bloomberg is expecting a bastard grandchild. To each according to his kind.
darski, I believe the proper term is "His Honorable Bastard".
Sorry I've Ben out of touch.
Andrew - no one is sure what the city's liability is with the bikes. I guess we will have to have a few maiming or deaths to find out. As NY'ers are a bit sue happy especially when it has to do with city sponsored stuff, would say that lawyers are lining up advertisers right now...
Bev, You should use one of these bikes in a drive-by knit bombing and spark things off!
"I couldn't have done it if Mayor B hadn't put those bikes out there. Thank you Mayor B."
So, if I'm following the conversation right, the question is, how long does it take to get from CitiBike to LitiBike?
You should copyright that asap! :D
A) I am stealing liti-bike...or the NY Post will pending the first liability suit filed against the city which I am sure will come before summertime is over.
b) Drive-by knit bombing! It could happen...maybe that's a way to fight Citibike! Just get hundreds of knit bombers to cover them up! Stealing that too...
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