The Declining New York City Power Center

Good ol' Robert. Finally put to rest. from bckspcr

I’m totally fascinated by this too-quick New York Times article on the decline of the New York City power-centers.

The article shows one problem with eliminating term limits – it creates an inability to pick hard political battles like really saving the MTA when constantly in the running for a third or fourth term.  Regardless of the high re-election rate for incumbents, the media attention on a candidate for re-election means they shy away from real battles.

The main point of the article is more interesting.  It shows the dearth of symbolic resources for politicians in the city- Robert Caro’s point at the end that the issue is also one of ‘vision’ points out that no one really has a clear sense of what the city should or does look like.  Obama harnessed the decline of machine politics on a national level by latching on to a fundamental set of American Myths that propelled him to prominence.  In New York, the myths may be just as powerful, but they certainly don’t unite in the same way – glam NYC clashes withcorrupt or mafia New York, intersects with multicultural diverse New York.

The decline of hard-and-fast power centers, and the lack of real and easy symbolic center puts a particular emphasis on grassroots organizing.  Groups like the Working Families Party and sites like ChangeNYC will be the key to shaping the future of the city.  With no quick paths to power or easy levers to pull, the emphasis returns on creating coalitions and organizing disorganized groups with potentially converging interests against the developing rapid changes overtaking the city.

Lining Up for Democracy

lining up for the exit. from Tony the misfit's flickr

Get yer democracy, right here folks:

City Hall paints out a flow chart for the possible chain reactions in state and local government that could occur if Hillary Clinton goes to Sec. of State.  It inadvertantly gives you a perspective on the insider-baseball of NY state politics – all of these people are connected in one or two degrees of seperation, and the assumtpions about who could fill whose spot shows the chain of political favors that connect them.  I think this provides yet another argument for term limits – everything should be done to shuffle these folks out of office just to break up the insular club that only changes up when someone resigns or is offered a higher office in government.

All Bloomberg All the Time

staying around. from carbonnyc's flickr

Highly recommend Wayne Barrett’s Village Voice feature on Bloomberg and his third term – you get a sense of the collusive egomania required for someone like Bloomberg to run again.  Barrett sees the move as a pure act of self-obsession, an argument I try to avoid for its narrowness, but it’s pretty persuasive in this case.  Bloomberg co-ordinates his business interests, city office and charity donations into an independent economic force all of his own, turning them into a vast machine that serves himself and enough other rich and powerful folk to keep himself in power indefinately.

Stunts like unilaterally withholding property tax rebate checks (which, he, um, can’t do legally) are the real legacy of the Bloomberg Mayoral reign.  He has vastly centralized power into the executive of city government, and sidelined the power of the City Council by leveraging his personal wealth and business connections.

Against this background of intimidation by Bloomberg’s money and clout with fellow billionaires, no viable candidate has fully stepped into the ring to challenge him.  Any serious challenge would work wonders to undermine the rising hegemony Bloomberg exercises over the city, injecting dissent into the developing consensus that Bloomberg offers the last hope to our city.

Term Limits Extension Brings More Bad Government

Marty! from vivaantarctica's flickr.

The string of folks sticking in their current city government positions demonstrates the absurdity of the term limits extension – it’s a wave of incumbents staying in place (including Mr. Playmate Markowitz) rather than seeking the offices that they originally said they would pursue, the opposite of the good-government argument about voters choosing whoever they thought was the best candidate for the job.  Instead of seeking open races for the right job, incumbents self-selecting for races they know they can win by force of political inertia.

But that was the purpose all along, and the best reason for folks to push incumbents out of office whenever they get the chance.  While not the same as forcing them out via term-limits, supporting an extension or taking advantage of one provides a compelling display of self interest at the cost of voters, and a good argument for getting them out of office ASAP.

Bloomberg’s Slasher

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2150/2344865328_6429cf59ef.jpg?v=0

or by order of mayor. from stellets' flickr

Bloomberg announced his budget cuts on one of the most overwhelming media days of the year, right after a historic Presidential election.  Standard fare. (Not much unlike the Friday Night Massacres of the Bush administration, announcing environmental cuts on Fridays before the nearly-dead Saturday news cycle).

I’m no wonk on the city budget, but I’m not particularly happy with the idea of cutting city worker’s jobs, particularly as New York City continues to lose them vis-a-vis the surrounding metropolis.  That seems to be cutting the city’s working-class feet out from under it when targeting higher taxes on the very wealthy might actually present a better option for balancing the budget while maintaining spending.

Also, I can think of some pretty frivolous uses of city money that should see the chopping block before anyone’s job gets lost – Washington Square Park leaps to mind.

There are some good things here: trimming police jobs in the bloated absurdity that is the NYPD, repealing the homeowner credit (not that many people own, and focusing on owner-relief shouldn’t be a priority), but Bloomberg’s credibility on the budget is running pretty low, and I’m interested to see the meat of what this means.

Bloomberg’s Underhanded Move

a flurry of trouble. from CarbonNYC's flickr.

Anthony Wiener pointed out the real reason Bloomberg wanted to rush the term limits bill, and it had nothing to do with the need to prepare for the election ahead of time.  The real reason for the rush probably has more to do with the Presidential Campaign than anything else – Bloomberg used the news media’s total obsession with Barack Obama and John McCain to push through a bill while eyes were turned towards the election.

I wonder what the term limits fight would have looked like if it had taken place in December?  It’s certainly harder to get folks out to a protest in the cold, but it would have allowed the opposition a better platform to project their concerns about the bill, and might have marshaled enough public disdain to keep Councilmembers from bending to Bloomberg.

Fortunately, folks in and around city government paid a little more attention, and it looks like Bloomberg lost a good deal of political capital with the local folks he relies on for support.  At the very least he’ll have more trouble pushing the bills and initiatives he uses to keep in the news, and members of city government will be less willing to run cover for him leading up to the election in 09.

NYU and Term Limits

I’ve kept from writing about the term limits vote because:

1. the fix was in from the start

2. I think that this is a pretty clearly bad move, and that’s been made evident elsewhere on this blog.

But here’s an interesting tidbit by way of Cathryn of the Washington Square Park blog – NYU President John Sexton took time from flying to Abu Dhabi to wander down to city hall and testify for the repeal of term limits.

NYU requires a load of favors from New York City, from tax breaks to zoning changes to park renovations, and John Sexton knows who is scratching his back.  Sexton became NYU President not long after Bloomberg became mayor, and their fates and goals are linked – a transformation of the city to a upper-middle class ‘global’ playground, with an economy that relies on service industry and cultural labor.  Sexton’s testimony shows just how public ‘private’ universities can be, and the fate of the city under a 3rd Bloomberg term.

Why Bloomberg Shouldn’t Run pt. 3.1 Million

he's on yr teevee. from .HS. flickr photostream

This post from Gothamist shows exactly why Bloomberg shouldn’t be allowed to run again – because it shows how an endless incumbency allows for a manipulation of city resources to control elections. Bloomberg (or whoever wants to be Mayor-for-life) can game around money to deputize the entire political class of New York to work for him. Bloomberg’s manipulation of Mayoral money – and his re-distribution of money towards friendly charities – shows how incumbency creates an uneven playing field, and not some sort of competition that the best candidate necessarily wins.

In fact, Bloomberg’s vast wealth makes him particularly dangerous as a three term or more mayor. Rather than a temporary guard against financial crisis, a vastly wealthy mayor creates a long-term threat to democracy, because he can devote $30 million+ of his huge huge wealth to every election he runs, indefinitely. Even outside of the question of overriding *2* voter referendums, Bloomberg’s bid poses a threat to the (meager) democratic system in New York City

Round 3 for Mayor Mike?

"He'll hold you down like paper weights" from CarbonNYC's flickr photostream

As speculation raged about Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s plans for a Presidential run, he kept saying he had the best job in the world. Turns out he really meant it – voters and term limits be damned. Seeking a third term as Mayor in 2009, billionaire Bloomberg recently launched a pre-campaign campaign to overturn New York City’s term limits law, twice passed by voter referendum in 1993 and 1996.

To justify his overturn of two referendums, he had to sweeten the deal for the City Council and Voters alike. To help shepherd a controversial term limits bill through the City Council, he proposed exempting Councilmembers from term limits restrictions along with the Mayor. To sell the deal to voters, he proposed limiting the term limits extension to current office holders only.

His argument to justify the move? With Wall Street crumbling, the city needs continuity and financial leadership to weather the storm, and no voters have no better option than the Billionaire Mayor himself.

Not everyone is happy with the move. Organizations with names like It’s Our Decision and The People Have Spoken coalition sprung up immediately to demand that any term limits change occur through referendum. Mayoral candidates like Comptroller William Thompson and Representative Anthony Weiner spoke out against the extension as well (although fellow candidate Speaker Christine Quinn supports the extension, perhaps because she already sits pretty nicely as the second most powerful person in city government).

(one of three posts written for a college-blogging job prospect)