Promises Abandoned

The golden age of co-operation between the branches of New York State government appears to have settled into an era of relative tranquility, during which traditional relationships between longtime incumbents are likely to continue their gravitational impulse on each other, rather than remake state government into anything much more significant than it has been since the years of drift began.

When unexpected events occur, there are likely to be changes which may be required to avert fiscal catastrophe. To the extent that it legally is able to do so, the system will absorb these changes so as to minimize their effect. It is like the effect of well-regulated air conditioning, minimizing the variations that actually take place from time to time.

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"Apathy Is Dangerous"

At a February 23rd speech at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, Deputy Mayor for Operations Caswell Holloway described his role in the administration and highlighted, among his many tasks, the expansion of green infrastructure and how to treat the one billion gallons of wastewater the city produces daily. While the entire talk by Holloway, who previously served in the Bloomberg Administration as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, is well worth your while to watch on YouTube, we refer you specifically to the final question of the evening, which we posed to Deputy Mayor Holloway at 1 hour, 9 minutes, and 47 seconds into the talk.

The transcript of the ensuing exchange is posted below:

Henry Stern: The city has elections every four years and what assurance is there that the next administration will have the attitude that this one did?

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Politics Is A Team Sport

When Rick Santorum uttered these words in a political debate last week, a gasp rippled through the audience. They were stunned, not so much at the content of what he said, but at the fact that he said it at all. The naked truth is as arresting as the naked body, partially because its appearance is almost as rare, and partially because it forces us to deal with reality. Reality is always a little unnerving.

The reality of the naked body can be, and usually is, covered over with clothes. The reality of the naked truth can be, and often is, covered over with myths, suppositions and traditions. It is a major myth of American politics that elected officials of our democratic structures, local, state and Federal, gather in the capital, discuss ideas that are presented for action, and then vote on those ideas, each according to his or her conscience.

There is also the counter myth, which is that elected officials are all bribed by those who contribute to their campaigns, and vote according to the bribers' wishes. "Team sport" is not mentioned in the myths.

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Mugging in Paradise

Justice Stephen Breyer, a member of the liberal wing of the U.S. Supreme Court, has a vacation home on the Caribbean paradise island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies. Last week the Times reported: "Justice Breyer was in his vacation home with his wife, Joanna, and guests when [a] man entered the home around 9 p.m. The man took about $1,000 in cash and fled."

I read elsewhere that the man was armed with a machete and that the Justice and his wife were playing bridge with guests.

The incident recalled for me the time I was running for mayor of New York City. The year was 1977. Crime was rampant at the time in the city as opposed to today. New York City now is probably the safest big city in America with the lowest crime rate in the country for big cities. One of the street jokes back in the bad old days was that a conservative was a liberal who had just been mugged.

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Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

These are the words inscribed on coins of the French Republic since the 19th Century to remind the French people that their nation has a purpose, a raison d'etre - not merely to survive, but to advance the principles which those words convey.

Despite the current aversion in the United States to anything French, an aversion held mostly by my more jingoistic compatriots, the fact remains that the French and American revolutions are linked, in history and in attitude. Together our two nations dispatched the royal family as the sovereign foundation of the state, and replaced it with the sovereignty of the entire people.

The people are sovereign in the French Republic. The people are sovereign in the American Republic.

This fundamental sisterhood has united our two nations many times over the years since 1776 and 1789, and, allowing for petty quarreling as befits sisters and brothers, the sense of family persists.

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