Infrastructure
Opinion
The state budget keeps wasting economic development cash
New York Economic development cash and how it's being spent.
Andrew Cuomo
Opinion
New skyscrapers near Penn Station are a good idea
New skyscrapers near Penn Station are the ideal way to finance the station's reconstruction.
New York City
Opinion
Politico erases New Yorkers of color
The intended purpose of Politico Magazine's article “My 72-Hour Safari in Clinton Country” was unclear, but as an experiment to see if one can be as cursory, condescending and unilluminating in covering big urban coastal cities as Midwestern and Appalachian towns, it was a resounding success.
MTA
Opinion
Why it costs so much to build anything in New York City
Union fees drive up New York City building costs.
Health Care (Archived)
Opinion
State Senate must protect reproductive health care
Access to abortion and contraception is threatened. Will NY act?
New York City
Opinion
Jared Kushner lied to NYC because he could get away with it
The Kushner Cos. filing of false paperwork on rent-regulated units and efforts to expel tenants is a failure of not just the companys integrity, but of state and local law. With the incentive structure of state rent regulations and a two-tiered legal system in which corporations get a slap on the wrist for ripping off the public while the poor go to jail for drug possession, actions like Kushner’s are inevitable.
Opinion
MTA’s value capture proposal needs to pass
The state Legislature must create the additional funding stream for transit infrastructure improvement.
New York City
Opinion
Tagging someone’s property doesn’t actually make it yours
In January, Jason Williams, a Los Angeles-based artist whose tag is Revok, sent a cease-and-desist letter to clothing retailer H&M, complaining that the company had shot a commercial in front of a mural Williams had painted at a Brooklyn playground. In February, a group of spray can artists who had painted pieces on the famous 5Pointz building in Long Island City won a $6.7 million award owner Jerry Wolkoff ripped down his own building.Graffiti writers who sue anyone for using or destroying their work are ultimately damaging the future of their own art form.
MTA
Opinion
Latest value capture proposal could harm NYC
City taxes should not be diverted to the MTA without local input.
MTA
Opinion
The MTA is leaving disabled New Yorkers behind
Subway station renovations in New York City should include accessibility for the disabled.
Andrew Cuomo
Opinion
Cuomo, don’t cut child welfare funding
Gov. Andrew Cuomo would undo two decades of progress on child welfare funding by slashing New York City's resources.
Andrew Cuomo
Opinion
New York keeps shortchanging poor students
New York's Foundation Aid formula has major shortcomings, which include using a decade of inconsistent local share calculations, arbitrary floors and ceilings, old demographic data and guaranteed increases regardless of changing demographics or enrollment. As a result of these distortions, excess aid is sent to wealthy districts and poorer districts get shortchanged. The state cannot afford to fully fund the warped formula, yet advocates are calling for a $2 billion increase in Foundation Aid in the coming year.
Housing
Opinion
NYCHA tenants deserve rent abatements for missing heat
The law requires a refund for uninhabitable conditions.
New York City
Opinion
How to fix New York City's dangerous private sanitation industry
43 New Yorkers have died in crashes with private sanitation in the last eight years.
Campaigns & Elections
Opinion
Want more minorities to vote? Make it easier to register.
If Cuomo does force the issue in the state budget this year, it is important that he and other voting rights supporters recognize that the single most effective mechanism for increasing turnout and making the electorate more diverse and representative is easing registration.
Opinion
How Jesse Hamilton keeps Trump Republicans in power
Zakiyah Ansari of the Alliance for Quality Education argues that state Sen. Jesse Hamilton joining the Independent Democratic Conference has kept Trump Republicans in power.
Housing
Opinion
3 myths Trump’s budget proposal wants you to believe about public housing
NYCHA would suffer under Trump's policies that are based on false premises.
New York City
Opinion