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Times square was a red light district sorta, and the city and residents were glad to see it go. I am on board with all your other recommendations though.
Yea, I know. I want that, but somewhat less seedy by having it regulated.
I'd also like to add that prison reform is a good issue to go on. The cost to benefit ratio of putting additional resources to reform criminals is a very good investment given the high rate of recidivism after incarcerations (overall meta-analysis of studies show a 3-7% increase in repeat offenses after simple incarceration in contrast to a 26-32% reduction of offenses when special attention and rehabilitation is the main goa), the high costs of patrolling, processing, and housing criminals, and the litany of lawsuits that are sure to come from mistreatment of prisoners by prison officials (this also ties to greater accountability in the public sector). The US's per capita prison population is the highest in the world (and compared to ours peers in the developed world, we look truly terrible).
Added to this, I would like NYC to take the initiative of consolidating its records among various departments (whether municipal, state, or federal) in the city. My ex worked at the Varick detention center and it was just amazing the number of people who have lived here for decades who have been picked up for criminal offenses but were let go because the labyrinth of agencies and records to go through were too much.
scale back incentives for luxury development (over 3 billion one year i believe, public housing 1.7), more emphasis on critical learning in schools, not standardized tests; reduce residential taxes and commercial taxes for small businesses. Other than that, keep your promises for a green city and bringing back jobs. And I'd also agree with gradually making public housing mixed income while at the same time providing affordable housing elsewhere, I'm for decentralizing poverty.
Continued development of the South Bronx and development in Eastern Brooklyn especially around Broadway Junction which, along with Coney Island, should take advantage of its transit opportunities as secondary business districts for the borough. [quote=OyCrumbler;11498817]
Broadway Junction? In East New York? A business district?
Coney Island is an amusement district and should/will likely stay that way.
And what transit opportunities are you talking about there?
"This includes incentives for businesses to locate there and a strengthening of Operation Impact in the area, the shifting of projects and Section 8 clusters into more mixed-income communities and the creation of more greenspaces and community gardens."
Uh, and where exactly would the displaced project/section 8 tenets go?
"Incentives (or disincentives) for the impoverished to work, become educated, and have fewer children. This would include shifting a greater emphasis on workfare over welfare for able-bodied people without dependents, goal-oriented stipulations for receiving welfare and assisted housing,"
This has already been in place for years. Able-bodied public assistance applicants have to attend a back-to-work program for 45 days before their benefits kick in, followed by a work experience program while their case is active (usually cleaning city parks or doing clerical duties at the board of ed).
"expansion of the NYC condoms program and targeted family planning initiatives."
What do you mean by "family planning initiatives"?
"Realize the potential that filming locations owned by the city has for generating revenue and publicity and making it an easier and more streamlined process to attain permission to shoot in these areas."
Pretty sure this is being done too, i.e. tax breaks to film at places like Silvercup Studios in Long Island City.
[quote=Pookie Jenkins;11502367]Continued development of the South Bronx and development in Eastern Brooklyn especially around Broadway Junction which, along with Coney Island, should take advantage of its transit opportunities as secondary business districts for the borough.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
Broadway Junction? In East New York? A business district?
Coney Island is an amusement district and should/will likely stay that way.
And what transit opportunities are you talking about there?
"This includes incentives for businesses to locate there and a strengthening of Operation Impact in the area, the shifting of projects and Section 8 clusters into more mixed-income communities and the creation of more greenspaces and community gardens."
Uh, and where exactly would the displaced project/section 8 tenets go?
"Incentives (or disincentives) for the impoverished to work, become educated, and have fewer children. This would include shifting a greater emphasis on workfare over welfare for able-bodied people without dependents, goal-oriented stipulations for receiving welfare and assisted housing,"
This has already been in place for years. Able-bodied public assistance applicants have to attend a back-to-work program for 45 days before their benefits kick in, followed by a work experience program while their case is active (usually cleaning city parks or doing clerical duties at the board of ed).
"expansion of the NYC condoms program and targeted family planning initiatives."
What do you mean by "family planning initiatives"?
"Realize the potential that filming locations owned by the city has for generating revenue and publicity and making it an easier and more streamlined process to attain permission to shoot in these areas."
Pretty sure this is being done too, i.e. tax breaks to film at places like Silvercup Studios in Long Island City.
don't even bother with it Pookie, some people make wild assumptions about things they don't even know or understand. Alot of times they don't even bother to back up the claims with actual facts. If people are that ill informed its not even worth the debate
Fred we just don't know what a larger turnout would have ultimately decided. The polls were way off because people chose not to vote..who knows how they wold have voted had people come out? Maybe antoher candidate from an entirely different party would have taken alot of those votes, or maybe people didn't like Thompson at all and would not vote for him, and were turned off that Bloomberg overturned term limits so they just decided not to vote at all. Not voting does not equate to votes for Thompson. People did not come out and vote for Thompson ultimately because he did not give them a reason to vote for him, so let's lay blame appropriately.
It's true that we'll never know what might've happened. But look at the odds: this is a city where something like 90% of the registered voters are Democrats. And no matter what anyone thinks of his abilities as an administrator, Mike Bloomberg doesn't actually represent the interests of the majority of New Yorkers.
In general, Republicans around here must (not "can," but "must") count on a low voter turnout to win an election...unless the Democratic opponent is a complete joke. Thompson may not have been the strongest possible candidate, but he wasn't a joke.
Broadway Junction? In East New York? A business district?
Coney Island is an amusement district and should/will likely stay that way.
And what transit opportunities are you talking about there?
Uh, and where exactly would the displaced project/section 8 tenets go?
This has already been in place for years. Able-bodied public assistance applicants have to attend a back-to-work program for 45 days before their benefits kick in, followed by a work experience program while their case is active (usually cleaning city parks or doing clerical duties at the board of ed).
What do you mean by "family planning initiatives"?
Pretty sure this is being done too, i.e. tax breaks to film at places like Silvercup Studios in Long Island City.
East New York has an industrial park that was established by the public development corporation almost two decades ago, but it hasn't been made particularly attractive to investors yet. By business district, I don't mean one modeled after the likes of Manhattan but more akin to the local development models that's been used in and is being pushed in Flushing where local and regional businesses are predominant with a few back offices for local branches of larger businesses. Coney Island's business is amusement and should be expanded. There's been a lot of contention about what kind of development should go on there and it'd be nice if Bloomberg's third term finally settles the issue. As far as the transit opportunities I mentioned, Broadway Junction is one of the largest hubs for the metro with the A/C/L/J/Z lines meeting there as well as numerous bus lines and a LIRR stop of the Atlantic Branch (currently of limited use but under the Lower Manhattan-Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project could become much more critical). Nowhere else in the city outside of Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn, and Long Island City as almost everywhere else the subway runs in either a main trunk (much of Queens) or as spokes of the aforementioned hubs (the Bronx, much of the rest of Brooklyn). Coney Island has four different lines running through different neighborhoods meeting there.
The idea of mixed-income housing has usually gone with new and denser development and that's where project/Section 8 tenets should go.
Workfare has been on the books for years, but it can certainly be improved.
By family planning initiatives I pretty much mean indoctrination by spreading literature and using community outreach programs to convince the poor that having more children than they have resources for is destructive. It's more or less aligning the city behind Planned Parenthood's ideology.
Tax breaks are what's keeping the New York film industry happy and healthy while Hollywood's crumbling (and it's not just Silvercup and other studios that gets tax breaks--location shoots get tax breaks as well). It's good to keep the tax breaks. Permits are still a pain in the ass though, and for lower budget shoots to get access to the subways (which is a significant attraction of New York City) is a lot more difficult than it needs to be.
Something has to be done about parking in the boroughs.
What is all this No Parking anytime in from of these buildings where no one is there but for a few hours on certain days. So then the rest of the time it is a dead spot.
But look at the odds: this is a city where something like 90% of the registered voters are Democrats. And no matter what anyone thinks of his abilities as an administrator, Mike Bloomberg doesn't actually represent the interests of the majority of New Yorkers.
And yet the city has not had a "democratic" mayor in 12 years soon to be 16 years. A lot of the dems don't actually represent the interests of the majority of New Yorkers either...they represent the special interests and labor unions which contribute in large amounts to them. Bloomberg has the appearance of independence since he doesn't need any campaign contributions and does not need to pander to those special interests...or not as much at least.
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