Just Another Pleasant Day on the LES

Helpful NYC hint: if a guy smacks you once with a U-Lock, back off.

Big Changes in Store for Local Bus Line

Apparently the B61 is going to be split into two lines to make it more efficient.

Which is cool, though I must confess it makes me sad to think I can't just grab a B61 on Atlantic and head on up to Hipstertown. But the greater good and all.

Tip of the hat to Word on Columbia Street for breaking this news.

Marriage Equality Delayed

Unsurprising, but the Senate coup has held up a vote on the marriage equality bill until at least September. At which point more reasons will be found to push it back to appease a new Gang of Four who will threaten to shut down the Senate again. Ugh.

Senate Coup Ends

And like that, Paterson unconstitutionally appoints a Lieutenant Governor and within hours, Pedro Espada sits with Dems in exchange for a leadership position. And the Dems sit down to conduct business...then realize they are one short of a quorum since the Republicans were boycotting the session and one Dem was out for a medical emergency. Oy.

So we ended up with one month of time wasted, millions of dollars and a hiring freeze in NYC, but Pedro Espada gets to be leader...until he gets booted out of office by agry voters or guys leading him off to prison eventually.

Politics.

For Sale: The Community's Identity!

Somehow I missed it, but NYC's Parks Department has put a lot of naming rights up for sale recently. This comes on the heels of the MTA's plan to sell the name of Atlantic-Pacific to a bank.

It troubles me to see this because the historic names of places have a much deeper meaning than people admit. It's important to think of, for example, Central Park as a place with a rich history and not simply sponsored by whatever corporation is able to pay the bills this year. Naming places as monuments is a link between our past, present and future - I for one don't feel comfortable telling people "Well this USED to be McCarren Pool, but then we needed cash so it was AIG Pool, but then they went bankrupt and we sold the name to Coca-Cola, but they decided that the free advertising wasn't worth the money so they sold the contract to Proctor & Gamble..." and so on.

When I lived in Washington DC in the 1990s, we had a severe budgetary crisis that cost us a community radio station. The city owned the frequency (90.1 FM) and sold it - to C-Span - and we lost a vital and important voice in the community in exchange for a short-term fix to a long-term problem. This is similar; selling our identity for a quick cash infusion in these times is not the kind of stewardship this city needs. What we call the spaces that create our worlds creates a community and identity that is far more valuable than $3,000,000 that will be spent all too quickly, leaving all of us culturally poorer in the long run.

I <3 NY

Brooklyn Day Care center did double duty as a drug haven. Eventually, the joint was robbed and there was a shoot out. Stay classy!

Watching NYC Prep

This show makes me embarrassed to be, in ascending order:

A New Yorker

An American

A Westerner

A Human Being

Seriously.