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I'm down with Liu but I don't think he's electable. The danger is Qrazy Quinn gets in there and then the whole place blows up. I think Weiner is a safer play
Soda ban is back in court as of mid June. Remember, the "soda ban" is only a limit on the maximum size of sugary drinks sold at eateries. It was created to discourage consumption.
But you could still go to the grocery store and buy a soda. So basically, Bloomberg was harming the business of eateries, as those who want soda could just go to a grocery store, KMart, drug store, or similar places where the city had no power to limit the size of the soda.
That's why the courts through this ruling out. Fast food places, pizza places, movie theaters, etc argued that this unfairly penalized them while doing nothing to the many other sellers of large sodas (because the city has no authority to limit this).
Bloomberg is out of office now, and the fast food lobby is pretty powerful. This rule will never be enforced.
Wanted to rep you and so true. Both parties a bs imho, its just that so many people in this city, state and country follow along party lines, like if its a political party that's supposed to make your life better. At times both Democrats and Republicans are friends at the end of the day, there are going to get a pension, some of the best health insurance but not their constituents.
I really cant wait for this year upcoming election. Past elections in NYC people voted along either racial and or party line, most notably 2005 mayoral election between Fernando Ferrer and Bloomberg which Bloomberg won out. I read somewhere that Ferrer did not garner enough African American voters. A decade later the one biggest voting block is probably the professional class and creative class people who moved to NYC in recent years and not much of the traditional NYC voter who votes along party and or racial lines! I think the professional class might have a huge impact on who gets picked as Mayor of NYC!
I don't know that the professional and creative classes who moved to NYC in recent years make up the biggest voting bloc. For the most part you really only find them in certain parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. They are absent in Staten Island, the Bronx, and most of Queens, generally.
I don't know that the professional and creative classes who moved to NYC in recent years make up the biggest voting bloc. For the most part you really only find them in certain parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. They are absent in Staten Island, the Bronx, and most of Queens, generally.
No, not that they make the biggest which is false, but might have some influence on who gets picked as mayor especially amongst the professional class if they intend to vote, I'm sure creative class might abstain from voting all together. Its really shocking how lines are so full when its time to vote for President, but when it comes to voting in local elections the lines are so small and miniscule. But it is something to watch though, but not with huge fan fair. So many New Yorkers moved out of the city and many others from other parts of the country moved in recent years that the pendulum of politics can shift, a politician can loose its constituent base. A good example of this in parts of the South with many Northern Transplants most notably from NYC metro area who swayed voting district party lines upon becoming residents of there new states. Call me arrogant, but from what I heard primarily Blacks and Jews turn out to vote the most here in this city. If I was mayor and I wanted to win an election, I would attend Baptist and Sabbath ceremonies every weekend!
Availableuselessname: I am glad to see you are still following me on city-data and now twitter.
I wonder whether there are any commenters on here who believe Bloomy should get a 4th term?
Sure, if a majority of city voters chose him, he should. If they chose someone else then thats fine too. I'm fine with the idea of a democractic vote deciding who the mayor should be. Democracy-limiting laws saying you can vote for person A and B, but you are not allowed to vote for C. Well, the voters of today's NYC showed what they felt about that - they voted in C for a third term.
Actually they didn't vote for C, it was that Thompson was a non-choice. He was a buffoon, and had no platform other than "Vote for me at least I am not Bloomberg!". If anyone marginally reasonable would have run, they would have won.
I don't know enough about Liu, so I will reserve my opinion. He is not getting nearly the press and hype as the other candidates, and that needs to change ASAP otherwise he will be out of sight, out of mind.
Even the mighty Bloomberg can't fight that union battle. Remember how the transit union crippled nyc mass transit? Then the school bus strike debacle?
Bloomberg said that his legacy should be based on the quality of education. Well it remains bad. Aside from about 10 high schools, how many upper middle class NYers will willingly send their kids to NY Public Schools, especially at the high school level?
Most NYer kids are not prepared for college levels, and many lack even basic skills that they will need to land a sustainable job. This was true in 2001 and remains true in 2013. So we can then say that Bloomie's legacy is a failure, given that he himself stated that it should be based on developing a decent educational system.
Bloomie started new schools replacing the infamous failures. He is now closing those schools down. Clearly Bloomberg has no idea how to improve the quality of education as the closure of schools which started under his watch indicates.
I have never heard of a constructive idea from Bloomberg about how NYC kids can be better prepared to compete. Have you? Setting easy tests and then boasting about how test scores have improved clearly inst the answer.
While the UFT are no saints if Bloomberg treats them as he treats iothers, which is to behave with Imperial Disdain, then why be surprised that they do not cooperate. Its quite clear that teachers arent the only ones to blame, but yet the only "remedies" focus on closing schools to get rid of teachers.
To be fair Bloomberg alone cannot improve the schools..the UFT has fought any change to their gravy train, so it will only guarantee failure. Why do you think Bloomberg was forced to close schools? Because the union would not do anything, so it was the only avenue he had..close schools or do nothing at all..and doing nothing is not an option..so he closed schools.
The reform of education will always fail, which is why no other Mayor bothers, because the union won't allow any change. Bloomberg at least tried...and that is way more than anyone else has done. Until the union is disbanded (which is never), education in NYC will remain pathetic...regardless of who is in office.
My kid's private school has students who came from public schools. The #1 gripe of their parents is class size and overcrowding, not the unions. I'm not saying unions don't have faults, only that student population issues are a root cause of key problems among city schools. Once a certain school becomes popular, all kinds of people from the woodwork will try every trick in the book to get their kids in the school. Also the city encouraged rampant construction and conversion of new apartments with little regard to the ability of the nearby schools to absorb new students. Reduce class sizes and you will solve more than 50% of the problem before even dealing with unions.
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