The May 27 Edition of City & State Magazine

May 26, 2014

SPOTLIGHT:

ALBANY SESSION

countdown Q&A WITH

RALPH NADER

FIELD MARSHAL

New York Congressman STEVE ISRAEL is commanding the Democrats' troops in their uphill battle to retake Congress. Will he prove a Patton or a Pickett?

2014

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION PREVIEW CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

CONTENTS May 26, 2014 6 10 11

PARTY PICTURES

A series of photos from the state Democratic and Republican conventions

SESSION COUNTDOWN Education: Progress is the name of the game

14

Health: Lawmakers tackle heroin abuse, medical marijuana, e-cigarettes

18

Labor: Unions focusing on IDAs, farmworkers, Scaffold Law

22 26

Infrastructure: Rebranding downtowns and reforming Port Authority Energy: Legislature follows Cuomo’s lead on decentralized electricity generation

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Environment: Lawmakers target unsafe products, climate change, black market for ivory

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FIELD MARSHAL

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Steve Israel’s uphill battle to retake Congress

By Morgan Pehme

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CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION PREVIEW

A look at the races you should be watching in 2014

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STATE OF NEW YORK INFRASTRUCTURE

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PERSPECTIVES

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BACK & FORTH

May 26, 2014

SPOTLIGHT:

ALBANY SESSION

countdown Q&A WITH

RALPH NADER

New York Congressman STEVE ISRAEL is commanding the Democrats' troops in their uphill battle to retake Congress. Will he prove a Patton or a Pickett?

2014

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION PREVIEW CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

Cover: Photography by Aaron Clamage

61 Broadway, Suite 2825 New York, NY 10006 Editorial (212) 894-5417 General (646) 517-2740 Advertising (212) 284-9712 advertising@cityandstateny.com CITY AND STATE, LLC Chairman Steve Farbman President/CEO Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com cityandstateny.com

Michael Benjamin on the Big Apple’s diversity problem…..

Alexis Grenell on Airbnb…. plus New York City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson makes the case for adding 1,000 more police officers

A Q & A with consumer advocate Ralph Nader

Art Director Guillaume Federighi gfederighi@cityandstateny.com

PUBLISHING

EDITORIAL

Publisher Andrew A. Holt aholt@cityandstateny.com

Editor-in-Chief Morgan Pehme mpehme@cityandstateny.com

Vice President of Advertising Jim Katocin jkatocin@cityandstateny.com

Managing Editor Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstateny.com

Marketing Graphic Designer Charles Flores, cflores@cityandstateny.com

Government Relations Sales Director Allison Sadoian asadoian@cityandstateny.com

Albany Bureau Chief Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com

Illustrator Danilo Agutoli

Business Manager Jasmin Freeman jfreeman@cityandstateny.com Office Administrator Kyle Renwick krenwick@cityandstateny.com Distribution Czar Dylan Forsberg

City Hall Bureau Chief Nick Powell npowell@cityandstateny.com Reporter Matthew Hamilton mhamilton@cityandstateny.com Associate Editor Helen Eisenbach

Graphic Designer Michelle Yang myang@cityandstateny.com

Columnists Alexis Grenell, Bruce Gyory, Nicole Gelinas, Michael Benjamin, Seth Barron, Steven M. Cohen, Susan Arbetter

City & State is published twice monthly.

Copyright ©2014, City and State NY, LLC

city & state — May 26, 2014

FIELD MARSHAL

A recap of City & State’s half-day forum focusing on transportation, housing and utilities infrastructure

THE UPHILL BATTLE TO REFORM ALBANY

Letters to the

Editor

May 12, 2014

SPOTLIGHT:

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city & state — May 26, 2014

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o be a goodgovernment advocate in Albany is to understand the ordeal of Sisyphus. Even when reform legislation overcomes the titanic odds to pass, it is undermined by cavernous loopholes, insidious omissions and laughable enforcement.

And in the end, after all the

By Morgan Pehme effort to push the boulder up Editor-In-Chief the hill to the Second Floor of the Capitol, it goes rolling back down to the foot of State Street.

Then again, perhaps Sisyphus had it better. His curse was to never make any progress. In New York, goo-goos have to grapple with not just winding back up at square one but the ground giving way beneath their feet.

When I interviewed historian Terry Golway recently about his new book on Tammany Hall, Machine Made, he observed that Albany is even worse today than it was in the notorious days of Tammany. The difference is that the generations of lawmakers since have had the cunning to make all of their ignominious practices legal and, in so doing, to institutionalize corruption.

As City & State brought to light in our previous issue’s cover story about the Moreland Commission, the rules governing how campaign funds can be spent in New York State are one of those vast gray areas deliberately designed to invite elastic interpretation, if not outright abuse.

Legislators dropping thousands of dollars contributed to their re-election efforts on cigars, booze and at casinos sounds like just the type of behavior we would expect from Boss Tweed or Jimmy Walker. And yet in 2014 this variety of sleaze is perfectly legal: All you have to do is be able to concoct any explanation why the expenditure was tangentially related to your campaign—no matter how far-fetched that rationale might be.

Bought a bunch of fancy clothes? A legislator has to look respectable, right? Made thousands in purchases at baby boutiques and toy stores? Gifts for constituents and staffers, obviously. Used campaign cash for car repairs and maintenance? Well, you can’t have an august lawmaker driving around in a wreck, now, can you? Staying at fourstar hotels, eating at the finest restaurants, and sitting in luxury boxes at sporting events and concerts—as so many of our members of Congress do with money from their Leadership PACs—that’s just what you have to do to rub shoulders with the billionaires and glitterati who bankroll campaigns in the 21st century. It’s not like our legislators derive any pleasure from these perks—they have to endure these conditions to best serve the public.

Technology and Telecommunications

A Q & A with

After City & State’s piece about personal use came out, there was a flurry of follow-up reports from press outlets across the state, and another round of indignation from New Yorkers, who have grown far too accustomed to their leaders’ actions not passing the smell test—even if they are justifiable according to the letter of the law. This heightened awareness about an issue that usually flies under the radar is just the type of ammunition good-government groups hope will move the needle in their endless battle for reform. And yet, will anything actually wind up changing because of this blip of outrage?

With the dizzying pace of the news cycle today, even stories that are treated as blockbusters one day are often relegated to the dustbin the next—with the public’s attention span following suit. Our politicians are preying upon this impatience to preserve the status quo. They know that the best way to beat negative revelations about their conduct is simply to ignore them until the next shiny object comes along to send the media scurrying off in another direction.

Even when goo-goos can sustain the attention of the press and the public—as was the case with Mayor Ed Koch’s New York Uprising to bring independent redistricting to the state—there is still a fundamental, perhaps insurmountable obstacle impeding its progress.

Certainly it was the reason why ultimately even Koch’s robust effort ended in failure: At its heart, the task of goodgovernment groups is to convince elected officials to act against their self-interest for the benefit of the people.

And we all know how often that happens.

Rangers Great Turned Environmentalist Mike Richter

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

City & State’s cover story by Jon Lentz, Matthew Hamilton and Morgan Pehme on the personal use of campaign funds by state legislators got extensive pickup from television, radio and print outlets from New York City to Buffalo. It also generated a great deal of buzz on social media. The following are some of the top tweets about the piece: The amount of campaign cash that Albany lawmakers spend on tanning continues to amaze me.

—Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) Since when are tanning salon appointments and Dodo the Clown of Clowns not legitimate campaign expenses?

—Fake Sheldon Silver (@ShellySilver) Now I get it, the NY Senate is ok with retail shopping sprees using taxpayer $, but not for public financing of elex.

—Neal Kwatra (@nealkwatra) “Sometimes a cigar is just a questionable campaign expenditure.” - Sigmund Freud Moreland —Ra Cha Cha (@HeyRaChaCha) In “Striving for Mediocrity,” Matthew Hamilton wrote about a forthcoming study that finds New York State underperforms in the upkeep of its infrastructure given the amount of money it spends.

Let’s face it. New York’s 19 million residents give their highways, byways and roadways a pounding beyond the imaginations of those people who planned and built our transportation network 40 to 70 years ago. Except [for] the Thruway and Northway, the immortal Robert Moses designed most of what we have in the way of connecting roads and bridges back in the 1930s and ’40s. He did a wonderful job, but sooner or later every one of his projects’ useful life was bound to expire.

No one since has come along with the guile and know-how to pull together the resources and political moxie needed to replicate Moses’ incredible feats of construction and design.

There are too many vested interests, too few resources and no one with enough political muscle to make it all happen. On top of that, the federal government (the bank for most road and bridge construction) is broke, having wasted billions intended for infrastructure improvements on jingoistic wars and catering to the filthy rich with tax giveaways during the past three decades.

—hawkny1 (via cityandstateny.com) To have your letter to the editor considered for publication, leave a comment at www.cityandstateny.com, tweet us @CityAndStateNY, email editor@cityandstateny.com or write to 61 Broadway, Suite 2825, New York, NY 10006.

Letters may be edited for clarity or length. cityandstateny.com

WE NEED SCAFFOLD LAW REFORM NOW! FORCING OUR CHILDREN INTO OVERCROWDED CLASSROOMS

PUTTING MWBE FIRMS AT RISK

In 2013, Trial Lawyer Special Interest Groups: • Spent a record $1,147,139 lobbying New York State elected officials which was a 9.7% increase over the previous year and a 37% increase since 2010 • Gave a whopping $1,280,639 in direct political contributions to New York State elected officials It is clear who is benefiting from the status quo and the lengths they will go to protect the gravy train.

Rich trial attorneys are blocking reform of a 130 year old law to preserve injured workers’ rights to sue, make construction sites safer, and create thousands of new jobs. New York is the only state that has this type of scaffold law.

Rev. Jacques Andre DeGraff The New Agenda

Louis J. Coletti

President and CEO of the Building Trades Employers Association

Quenia Abreu New York Women's Chamber of Commerce

Monica Foster NYS Association of Minority Contractors

Paul O'Brien Building Contractors Association

William Shuzman Allied Building Metal Industries

Lloyd Douglas Minority Business Leadership Council

James Heyliger Association of Minority Enterprises

Samuel P. Padilla, P.E. National Hispanic Business Group

Elizabeth Velez Latino Builders Council

Walter Edwards Harlem Business Alliance

Edwin Lopez NYC Electrical Contractors

Nayan Parikh Indo-American Architects & Engineers

Edwin Lopez New York City Chapter, Inc. NECA

Michael Elmendorf Associated General Contractors of NYS

Timothy H. Marshall Jamaica Business Resource Center

Patricia Ricketts Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce

David Etkind Interior Demolition Contractors Association

Cheryl McKissack Women Business Council

Tony Saporito Mechanical Contractors Association

Kieran Ahern Structural Steel Painting Contractor Association Ray McGuire Contractors Association of Greater New York

JOBS, SAFETY AND JUSTICE

William Rothberg Boilermakers Association of Greater New York, Building Restoration Contractors Association, Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Contractors of NY John DeLollis Association of Wall-Ceiling & Carpentry Industries Jerry Haber Window & Plate Glass Dealers Association Denise Richardson General Contractors Association

POLITICS

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New York DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION 6

The only drama as Democrats met for their state convention at the Hilton Long Island Huntington in Melville on May 21 and 22 was who Gov. Andrew Cuomo would pick to be his lieutenant governor nominee. He tapped former Western New York Congresswoman Kathy Hochul. She was unanimously nominated by the delegates, along with the three incumbents, Gov. Cuomo, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

city & state — May 26, 2014

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1 - STATE COMPTROLLER TOM DINAPOLI 2 - NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER MELISSA MARK-VIVERITO 3 - ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN 4 - LIEUTENANT GOV. NOMINEE KATHY HOCHUL 5 - GOV. ANDREW CUOMO

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cityandstateny.com

New York REPUBLICAN CONVENTION The state Republican Party Convention held in Rye Brook on May 14 and 15 was largely bereft of drama as the entire slate of candidates for statewide office were unanimously nominated: Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino as the candidate for governor; Christopher Moss, the Chemung County sheriff, as the candidate for lieutenant governor; former Pataki aide John Cahill as the candidate for attorney general; and Onondaga County Comptroller Robert Antonacci as the candidate for state comptroller.

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1 - GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE ROB ASTORINO 2- ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE JOHN CAHILL 3- FORMER GOV. GEORGE PATAKI 4 - STATE COMPTROLLER NOMINEE ROBERT ANTONACCI 5 - 2012 GOP GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE CARL PALADINO 6 - STATE REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ED COX

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city city & & state state — — May May 26, 26, 2014 2014

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COUNCIL WATCH

SETH BARRON

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city & state — May 26, 2014

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he Council’s rapid passage of rules reform is a welcome and surprising development. Many observers of the Council expressed skepticism that the new regime would make good on its promises to change the operation of the body, but the MarkViverito/Lander machine appears to have implemented some substantive alterations that will likely result in a differently functioning City Council.

For instance, rules reform will make it much easier for bills to reach the floor for a vote, regardless of their support by the body’s leadership. Previously, the entire process of drafting and moving bills was a charade where the Speaker unilaterally pushed legislation through writing, committee and to the floor for votes that were almost always stagecrafted to yield lopsided if not unanimous victories. Packages of anodyne legislation concerning areas like environmental or construction regulation, totally beyond the expertise or initiative of any Council member, were drawn up at the order of mayoral agencies, and then the Speaker, as a political favor, would assign prime sponsorship to individual members, who could tout their dogged advocacy of the new laws at election time.

The existing rule of “discharge,” whereby a bill’s prime sponsor can summon six other members to call a vote to bring a proposed piece of legislation to the floor for general discussion and a vote, was actively squelched by previous Council leadership. On the rare occasions that a member threatened to petition to discharge, senior central staff members would call around and warn Council members not to sign on. Legislative discipline was firm and rarely challenged.

It will be very interesting to see

what happens when (and if) proposals reach the floor without the imprimatur of leadership. Speaker Melissa MarkViverito has praised herself for the brevity of her stated meetings, remarking to applause from her colleagues that the newspaper of Colorado Springs, Colo., was impressed that New York’s Council meetings are so “professional, orderly and down to business” that they last less than an hour, including the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation. Apparently Council meetings in Colorado Springs can last for 12 hours as the members hash out municipal questions in mindnumbing detail.

Running a quick stated meeting will clearly make the Speaker popular among the other Council members, but why should New Yorkers be pleased?

Doesn’t a rapid, essentially perfunctory stated meeting just reinforce former Councilman-at-Large Henry Stern’s famous adage that “The difference between the Council and a rubber stamp is that a rubber stamp makes an impression”? If stated meetings are less than an hour, then either the Council has nothing to do, or the real business is being done elsewhere, probably behind closed doors.

Supposing that rules reform allows individual members outside the charmed circle of leadership to get bills to the floor for debate, stated meetings could turn into lengthy, combative public displays of partisanship and rancor—which is what healthy legislative bodies should look like in the first place.

still cites his leadership of the notorious “New York 4 Life” community-based organization, which by all accounts appears simply to have been a conduit that felonious former state Sen. Shirley Huntley set up in order for Wills to collect and spend $30,000. Maybe removing the reference would register as an admission of wrongdoing, but one might think that someone in Council leadership would gently remind Wills that touting a shell organization that is under federal investigation among his biographical highlights strikes the wrong note.

T

he Council held a hearing recently on faculty diversity at CUNY, and various Council members let slip some revealing comments.

Councilwoman Darlene Mealy, chair of the Committee on Civil Rights, was perturbed by the news that ItalianAmericans are considered a “protected

class” for the purposes of affirmative action at CUNY. This admittedly odd and unique designation dates to the 1970s, when a faction of Italian-American legislators in Albany managed to get the city’s university system to agree to treat Americans of Italian descent as a group that has suffered a history of bias and discrimination, and to take affirmative steps to advance and protect their presence in the workplace.

Since then, the percentage of Italian Americans among CUNY instructional staff has increased, while the percentage of non–Italian-American whites in that same category has fallen, indicating that inclusion as a protected class of person is a benefit when it comes to hiring. As CUNY works to hire more black and Latino professors, it is prevented from chipping away at its number of Italian educators lest it face civil rights litigation.

If you think that CUNY’s designation of Italian-Americans as a historically

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he recent arrest of Ruben Wills came as no great surprise to anyone paying attention to his political career. From his bizarre outstanding arrest warrants for criminal mischief to his misplaced vigilantism in pursuing a group of gun-toting gang members into a park, Councilman Wills was an indictment waiting to happen, and ran the lowest odds in the City Hall next-to-go-to-jail pool.

The weirdest thing about the Wills story is that his official Council Web page

Indicted Councilman Ruben Wills’ mug shot cityandstateny.com

WILLIAM ALATRISTE

IMPRESSIONS OF A RUBBER STAMP

New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Councilman Brad Lander at a hearing on rules reform among the recognized victims of history), Mealy seemed to assume that there was a conspiracy afoot. “So it could be used for your advantage when it is necessary, to put them in a different category. … That’s very interesting. One way you do it for the feds, but for us, you break it up. Wow.” Mealy appeared to believe that the effect of the different reporting schemes was to somehow mask discrimination against the other protected classes at CUNY, mainly blacks and Latinos, whose employment was the primary focus of the nearly five-hour hearing, although how exactly that concealment would work was not spelled out.

Councilman Jumaane Williams also questioned the CUNY representatives about the underrepresentation of black faculty relative to the student body at CUNY, which is overwhelmingly black and Latino. Over the 20 years from 1990–2010, the percentage of black fulltime faculty members increased from 11.6 percent to 12.7 percent, which is disproportionate to the makeup of the student body, which was 25.4 percent black in 2010.

Williams expressed anger about the failure of CUNY to recruit and retain cityandstateny.com

offers some of the highest salaries of any city department, is 65 percent black. The departments of health, housing, youth, parks; the Administration for Children’s Services and the Human Resources Administration all have substantial numbers of black employees relative to the black population of the city, which is roughly 25 percent. The NYPD is about on par, with roughly commensurate representation to the population distribution overall. The prime exception is the Fire Department, which is only 10 percent black—one of the reasons the FDNY is currently under a federal hiring dictum that is being strictly monitored to bring black and Latino parity to the firefighting population.

So while it is true that CUNY has trouble hiring and retaining black faculty, it is not the case that the same holds in city hiring as a whole. Rhetoric in the Council should match reality.

Seth Barron (@NYCCouncilWatch on Twitter) runs City Council Watch, an investiga-tive website focusing on local New York City politics.

Wal-Mart No Wal-Mart No Citizen Model Citizen Model

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city & state — May 26, 2014

enough black faculty members, calling it “completely unacceptable.” He then referenced a statistical falsehood that is widely prevalent among politicians when talking about minority employment by the city: “I am tired of, across the board, whether it is agencies of the City of New York, or leadership of the city, or CUNY, even when it is places where black and brown are the majority of the population, they are never represented in the institutions.”

The reality is that black people in particular are rather well represented— arguably even overrepresented—in many city agencies. For instance, the staff of the Department of Correction, which

WILLIAM ALATRISTE

disenfranchised minority represents the zenith of the absurdity of affirmative action bean counting, then you might have an unlikely ally in Mealy. “ItalianAmerican is designated as a category distinct from white people. … Why [is this] broken out as a distinct category?” asked a befuddled Mealy. “Italian-Americans are now separate?”

When the CUNY representatives explained that the Italian-American category can be rolled up with the general white category for the purposes of federal civil rights reporting (the federal government, whether less or more enlightened than CUNY, having not yet included the sons and daughters of Italy

Our Perspective Our Perspective

S E S S I O N CO U N T D OW N

SESSION COUNTDOWN EDUCATION PAGE 11

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HEALTHCARE PAGE 15

LABOR PAGE 18

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

INFRASTRUCTURE PAGE 22

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT PAGE 26

cityandstateny.com

By MATTHEW HAMILTON

A

s the school year winds down and concerns about the Common Core persist, there are other issues bubbling in the state Legislature that lawmakers are hoping to address.

With the 2014 legislative session coming to a close this month, lawmakers are zeroing in on school funding, teacher certification and teacher evaluations.

State Sen. John Flanagan, chair of the Senate Education Committee, said that lawmakers are still trying to fix the state’s controversial teacher evaluations. While Gov. Andrew Cuomo had fastidiously stood behind the evaluations, which are linked to students’ Common Core performance, in early April he said the state needed to improve the evaluations and that he would discuss them with lawmakers this session. Flanagan said Cuomo’s comments opened the door for serious negotiations, although there may not be any new legislation in the short-term.

“This is a critical issue to so many different people,” Flanagan said. “The reason to me that it’s so important—and I’m not different than a lot of people— is, ultimately, what are we doing for students? I don’t care about the collegeand career-ready language, but how are we making outcomes better for students?

In order to do that, we need great teachers.

We should be looking at this [as] how do we create, how do we mold, how do we

cityandstateny.com

retain experts?”

The tests aspiring teachers have to pass in order to become certified are also a focus.

In the final days of the season, edTPAs—the standardized assessment exams used to certify new teachers— have fallen under the microscope. At an Assembly Higher Education Committee hearing earlier this year, concerns were raised about the cost, validity and reliability of the assessments, and their potential high failure rate.

A pair of bills to address these issues has been introduced in the Assembly, though Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, chair of the Higher Education Committee, said she is not sure if a bill will be advanced based upon the outcome of the hearing.

The state Board of Regents responded by agreeing to allow students who fail that piece of the new certification requirements to take the existing certification exam.

“I think there is some sense that the air has been taken out of the balloon because the Regents acted,” Glick said.

“And I thought they took a good step, but it wasn’t a full step.”

What might additional improvement entail, according to Glick? For one, not forcing students to pay to take an exam they have a higher chance of failing.

“It is our humble opinion that the rollout of the edTPA was flawed,” Glick said, “and students this year should not be required to pay $300 for a test that they could not be adequately prepared for.”

She added that many students have passed the newer assessments, but there are concerns about the way the company who developed the exams briefed professors and allowed them to assist students with addressing the new certification. Those misgivings are not dissimilar from some of the criticism leveled against the education giant Pearson for the way the company rolled out the Common Core.

On the K–12 level, the implementation of the Common Core has continued to dominate the discussion, though there has been some forward movement. In the state budget, lawmakers approved provisions that will ban standardized tests in early grades, starting with prekindergarten.

While the tests will continue to be administered in other grades, students will not be held back if they fail the Common Core exams, owing to a two-year moratorium by the Legislature on the high-stakes consequences of the tests, a measure advocates have been pushing for since the rollout of the standards.

The budget deal did keep in place the use of the test scores as a metric for evaluating teachers, however.

The compromises over the Common Core have allowed elected officials and advocates to focus some of their attention elsewhere. Among Flanagan’s priorities are so-called 853 and Special Act schools, which he said are sorely in need of additional funding.

Private 853 schools provide day and/or residential programs for students

with disabilities; Special Act schools are for students who reside in child-care institutions, and in some cases for students with disabilities if local public school districts recommend those students be placed in such institutions, according to the state Education Department.

“These are schools that definitely need help, as do our 4410 schools, which are our preschools,” Flanagan said.

“That’s going to be a critical issue. And that’s something that the average person doesn’t particularly know that well or understand, but these are kids who have unique challenges. These are kids who are sometimes one step between incarceration and being out in a school setting. It’s very important that we do what we can to help them.”

With larger education debates like those over the Common Core, teacher evaluations and edTPAs, there has yet to be a quick, easy resolution. Even with roughly a month left, it is unlikely lawmakers will pass landmark legislation that will appease all parties. That does not mean legislators do not have benchmarks for where they would like to stand on the tangled issues by the end of June, however.

“No matter what we do, something is going to shift, and we’ll have to adapt,” Flanagan said. “I want people—students, parents, educators, administrators and our taxpayers—to feel like we may not be there, but we’re getting there a lot better than we were before, and in a lot more efficient capacity.”

WHAT GOT DONE: • School aid increased by $1.1 billion in the state budget • $1.5 billion over five years for statewide universal full-day prekindergarten • The state cut ties with the controversial data-storage company inBloom, which was used by the state Education Department to house personal student data.

WHAT’S ON THE DOCKET: • Reform of edTPAs—teacher performance assessment exams—for college students seeking teacher certification • Common Core: Multiple bills, including allowing parents, legal guardians or school districts to opt children with individualized education programs out of the Common Core standards and testing

E D U C AT I O N

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city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

PROGRESS IS NAME OF GAME FOR EDUCATION ISSUES

E D U C AT I O N

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EXPERT OPINION

KAREN MAGEE PRESIDENT, NYSUT

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

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e’re pushing for a moratorium so that teachers would have the same ability to have the scores of students not count on their APPRs also. There’s been an acknowledgment that student test scores are not a valid indicator of student progress, yet they continue to be included as a means to measure what’s going on in the classroom regarding teachers. Parents have made it clear, teachers have made it clear, our legislators are fully aware that we see this thinking as incongruent at best. So we’d love to see the moratorium happen, because it would afford teachers the same opportunities to go back and kind of reset everything as it relates to what the APPR looks like.

And that kind of leads me into the second thing that we would be looking for, which are changes in the APPR as it’s currently written. We are [having] ongoing conversations with our legislators and with the governor regarding the APPR. They’ve heard from our teachers [and] our teaching assistants on a regular basis about APPR. It’s not, at this point, setting out what it was intended to do. It’s not accurately measuring student assessments. It’s not an accurate tool for such. It particularly disadvantages our ESL students, our ELL students; it disadvantages students and teachers in areas that are economically disadvantaged because of the nature of what is utilized as a measuring tool.

So we’re looking to make some changes in APPR. There’s an overreliance on testing in the APPR. Testing that’s yet to be validated. I’ve said it before: It looks to create a science out of teaching, which is an art. It’s not working as it’s currently structured. So we’re going to continue to dialogue over some changes on APPR. Come the end of session, if we could get the moratorium and changes to APPR, we would consider that a good place to be going forward to September.

JOHN FLANAGAN CHAIR, SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

DEBORAH GLICK CHAIR, ASSEMBLY HIGHER EDUCATION COMMITTEE

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he Higher Education Committee deals not just with higher education but with licensed professions. After the budget, many of those bills come to the floor. We have been working with geologists. They’ve worked for years to gain licensure in the state of New York. Certainly, with more natural disasters, there are really clear problems involved in understanding the geology of New York state—mudslides, etc.—and where it is proper to drill and not drill and so forth.

We’re likely to put that bill out there. There’s always conflicts with other licensed professions when there is a new license.

And it’s always hard to balance those things. But we think we’ve come to a good place, and we are likely to put that bill out of our committee [in May] at some point. Hopefully, prior objections will have been resolved sufficiently. The architects are looking for some protection from frivolous lawsuits when they respond to a state of emergency, as there was in Sandy or Irene, to help localities determine whether structures are safe or not. It would be a 90-day Good Samaritan protection for architects. And we’re seriously looking at that.

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here were a number of good things that were done in the budget on Common Core. There’s privacy issues that were clearly addressed, parental bill of rights, chief privacy officer, things like that. We need to do more in professional development. I think that the actions we took in the budget are a reflection of listening to parents and students.

Educators, to a degree. But making sure that things are not held against children, and setting benchmarks that had not previously existed; there are continued concerns of parents and educators—educators perhaps even more so—so that they’re not adversely affected by a system that is not fully and properly implemented yet. I have ongoing concerns about the continued rollout of Common Core. Here you have math exams, just occurred, and—justifiably so—people are saying, ‘What the heck is going on?’ because there were problems. You would think if there were one time where you would never want to have a problem, it’s after everything that’s gone on. There are legitimate issues, and I think there are continued challenges in that area. For me personally, I’m still not at a level of comfort that I think I need to be—not only as a legislator but as a chair of the committee—in terms of the effective implementation of Common Core. There’s been a lot of discussion, and the noise has died down a little bit. But it has the potential to ratchet up again very quickly. cityandstateny.com

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

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cityandstateny.com

H E A LT H C A R E

DRUG USE AND ABUSE

By MATTHEW HAMILTON

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

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eroin and marijuana are two of the top healthcare issues state lawmakers are confronting with just a few weeks left in the session, although how to deal with one of the drugs is more controversial than the other.

For several weeks Senate Republicans have been holding hearings around the state on how best to combat heroin use, which has skyrocketed in recent years. The Senate Democrats have already submitted their own legislative package addressing heroin abuse, and lawmakers say they are optimistic that they will be able to come to an agreement this year.

“Overall, this is a nonpartisan issue,” said state Sen. Phil Boyle, who chairs the Senate Heroin and Opioid Addiction Task Force. “Both the Assembly and the Senate, we want to protect our children and literally save lives with this legislation, and I think that we’re going to have no problem passing the vast majority of this legislation. There might be some sticking points, but the vast majority shouldn’t have any problem.”

Among the measures the Senate is likely to introduce are providing additional insurance coverage to help heroin addicts get treatment, creating more drug detoxification programs, expanding effective prevention programs and increasing criminal penalties on drug dealers.

“Each forum we’ve had, we’ve got

some of the same information and then some new bits of information from each location,” Boyle said. “I’m expecting a very strong legislative package to combat the heroin epidemic, and we’re going to issue a report along with legislation by the end of the month—and then quickly, I would imagine, pass a lot of legislation.”

A more controversial bill that could yet secure enough support to pass this year would legalize medical marijuana.

The measure, spearheaded by state Sen. Diane Savino and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, has already won support from some Republicans and narrowly made it out of the Senate Health Committee recently.

“I think the single most important issue is medical marijuana, which is looking very promising,” Gottfried said. “I am very hopeful that we will have the opportunity to reach an agreement with the Senate Republican leadership and get it passed in both houses. It’s been an awfully long time getting to this point.”

Gottfried, the longtime chair of the Assembly Health Committee, listed a number of other health-oriented bills he would like to move on this year. He has introduced several amendments to the Family Health Care Decisions Act, including one that would clarify who can make healthcare decisions for incapacitated patients who have not filled out healthcare proxy forms. Several other bills would deal with assisted living facilities, from providing more training to staff members to requiring a registered nurse to be on staff,

depending on the needs of the residents.

The use of electronic cigarettes is a hot-button issue that has generated scrutiny in both houses, although it is a fairly recent topic to be discussed in the Legislature and may not result in changes in the law this session, Gottfried said. Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has a bill to outlaw using electronic cigarettes in any place smoking tobacco is not allowed. A second bill would outlaw the sale of e-cigarette fluid refills to be sold to minors.

“There are apparently versions of cigarettes that can be refilled with the liquid nicotine, which turns out to be a very dangerous fluid, so there are concerns about this being available to minors,” Gottfried said. “It’s already illegal to sell e-cigarettes to minors, and so the proposal would extend that concept to the refills that are sold.”

State Sen. David Carlucci, who chairs the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Committee, said that one of his top bills remaining this session is a “frontdoor reform” bill. The bill would require the state to develop a plan to provide

services more quickly to people diagnosed with mental health disorders.

“This is the process in which a person who is in need of services, that they begin the process,” Carlucci said. “And there’s been a large outcry from people really voicing major issues and backlogs. So the problem is now someone is reaching out to their local social services in any respective county, and they’re really experiencing a bureaucratic nightmare where they might perfectly well have a diagnosis but they’re not able to get the services for sometimes a period of months, if not longer.”

Another bill Carlucci is pushing would require more mental health training for correctional officers. The senator cited examples at Rikers Island and elsewhere in which prisoners had died, in part due to the behavior of guards overseeing them.

“Right now correctional officers are trained with mental health training, but only if they are in a specific unit that is dealing with inmates with a mental health diagnosis,” Carlucci said. “You talk to any correctional officer, and they’ll tell you they need training; they need more training.”

WHAT GOT DONE: • A $2 billion healthcare capital grant program • Making more accessible a drug to treat heroine overdoses • Safe Patient Handling Act requiring hospitals to have policies to promote safe patient handling to protect patients and direct care staff

WHAT’S ON THE DOCKET: • Medical marijuana • Combating heroin abuse • Regulating e-cigarettes • “Front-door reform” for mental health treatment • Mental health training for corrections officers

cityandstateny.com

city & state — May 26, 2014

Lawmakers tackle heroin abuse, medical marijuana, e-cigarettes

New Yorkers deserve a safe RN staffing law to guarantee a nurse is there when you need one.

Tell your lawmakers to support the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act (A6571/S3691-A) Find your lawmaker at nysna.org/lawmakers

PA I D F O R B Y T H E N E W Y O R K S T A T E N U R S E S A S S O C I A T I O N

nynurses

@nynurses

H E A LT H C A R E

EXPERT OPINION

DENNIS WHALEN

PRESIDENT, HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK STATE

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Successful effort—working hard, working smarter, working better—requires smart, dedicated staff, and strong and insightful leadership. But it also takes the resources required to make the necessary investments, such as in health information technology, and an environment supportive of the changes that our hospitals need to make.

Hospitals across the state are implementing innovative new models of care and quality improvement initiatives—the New York State Partnership for Patients has resulted in a 48 percent decrease in the rate of central lineassociated infections and a 78 percent decrease in early elective deliveries, and our program to reduce pressure ulcers in hospitals and nursing homes has improved the health of patients.

While providers in New York State are undertaking extraordinary transformation, it is critical that government support new ways of delivering healthcare. That’s why we strongly advocate for flexibility in the implementation of the state’s new Medicaid waiver and the programs recently passed in the state budget.

We must reform and update rules, regulations, policies and processes so that transformation can be without cumbersome and overly

he transformation of our healthcare system is at a critical juncture. Our hospitals and their systems of care have embraced the challenges of providing quality care, improving the health of their communities, providing care to all who require it and achieving greaterfor efficiencies.

City & State Ad Revised May 2014 Issue_Layout 1 5/19/2014 5:13 PM Page 1

16 NEW YORK STATE’S HOSPITALS:

Embracing Change

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

Since long before the Affordable Care Act, New York’s hospitals have been transforming to meet their communities’ needs.

Today, we continue changing to deliver true patient-centered care and keep our communities healthy by: • reorganizing care delivery into new models, such as accountable care organizations and health homes; • enrolling New Yorkers in new insurance programs; and • using technology to expand access and deliver safer, high-quality care to all patients.

All while reducing costs.

LEARN MORE AT WWW.HANYS.ORG/TRIPLEAIM.

bureaucratic requirements designed for a different time.

Our hospitals and health systems are willing, enthusiastic partners in transformation efforts as we transition to a healthcare system focused on excellence of care, health improvement and value. We look forward to continuing our work with our like-minded partners—the governor, Legislature, state agencies, and our patients and communities.

JILL FURILLO

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEW YORK STATE NURSES ASSOCIATION

F DAVID CARLUCCI

CHAIR, NEW YORK STATE SENATE MENTAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT DISABILITIES COMMITTEE

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ne important bill is Project Lifesaver, which is referred to as Avonte’s Law. It’s basically a missing person locator system. I have direct experience with this [from] when I was town clerk in Clarkstown. We implemented Project Lifesaver, and the town clerk’s office was responsible for managing the records, and I was actually trained as a certified person who could locate someone.

But in that time the technology has evolved.

We can equip our local municipalities and law enforcement with the technology that, if we know somebody has autism—or it could even be someone with Alzheimer’s—if someone has a situation where they wander, we can get them a bracelet, a type of GPS monitoring system.

Then, if they do go missing, law enforcement can act right away. With municipalities that do have this system, there’s so many success stories. We want to make sure New York State can benefit from that.

On the federal level, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer has introduced this legislation, and the Justice Department has agreed to make $10 million available to local law enforcement agencies. So we believe that if we can pass this legislation, we will be in a better place to allow for law enforcement agencies to qualify for that funding.

or the 37,000 members of the New York State Nurses Association, caring for patients in 160 hospitals and facilities across the state, our highest priority is providing each and every patient with safe, quality care. To achieve this paramount goal, we are calling for minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios as a matter of law.

The Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act (A.06571), sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, embodies the principles and practices of safe staffing, and has our support as well as the backing of public health experts, other caregivers including doctors, patient and healthcare organizations, consumer groups and others.

This important proposal calls for a documented staffing plan to be submitted by every acute care and nursing home facility. By its terms, patient acuities—level of illness and need—are the core factor in setting each unit’s staffing ratio.

The Assembly Health Committee passed the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act this month, and it now proceeds in the Assembly.

Safe staffing through ratios saves lives and makes financial sense.

This law is rooted in science and experience.

In recent weeks, yet another study was released in support of staffing ratios as a matter of law.

Nursing Professor Judith Shindul-Rothschild of Boston College compared Massachusetts, where, like New York State, no staffing law exists, to California, where a law has been in force since 2004. Shindul-Rothschild found that Massachusetts patients receive three hours less care per day from RNs. The California staffing law has been very successful, reported Schindul-Rothschild. Not one California hospital closed due to the ratio law and, in fact, hospital income rose after the law’s implementation. RN turnover went down, as excessive patient loads, some in double digits, were reduced and nurse job satisfaction consequently went up. Staffing laws keep experienced RNs on the job.

More care through staffing ratios makes financial sense. “Heart failure readmissions were lower when nurse staffing was greater,” reported Schindul-Rothschild. In one year alone, heart failure readmissions cost an estimated $34 billion in the U.S. New York’s safe staffing law is a win-win. cityandstateny.com

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LABOR FORCE

Unions focusing on IDAs, farmworkers, Scaffold Law

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By NICK POWELL

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

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iscal conservatives and budget watchdogs often bemoan the “goodies” doled out to organized labor in the form of legislation that skates through at the end of the legislative session in Albany. But what happens when some of the biggest labor priorities have already been taken care of or do not have a prayer of passing?

This being an election year meant there was a high likelihood that state legislators—even Gov. Andrew Cuomo, despite his lukewarm relationship with labor—would be more amenable to labor priorities in order to shore up support as they prepare for their re-election campaigns this summer.

The election year corollary was partially fulfilled this year, mostly in the state budget. The state AFL-CIO and public sector unions such as the Public Employees Federation made a strong push for the inclusion of safe patient handling, which would require healthcare facilities

throughout the state to form committees that would design specific programs to improve how patients are lifted or repositioned.

Still, the flip side to election year politics is that controversial reforms are often tabled until the dust settles. Economic development reform initiatives targeted by organized labor, such as revamping Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) to hold them more accountable for the jobs they claim to create, were left out of the budget, and the IDA bill does not appear likely to pass by the end of the legislative session. AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento compared IDA reform to the fight to revamp the state’s unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation systems in last year’s budget, and indicated that it will probably take more lobbying.

“Last year it was unemployment insurance; that takes time to get done,” Cilento said. “I would put IDA reform on that level. My feeling is that at some point it will get done, but all the stars have to align.”

Insiders familiar with labor-related legislation on the state level say that with the major priorities off the table for now, the rest of the session will be spent blocking bills that labor unions and some legislators oppose.

Among these bills is a reauthorization of design-build legislation, which allows specified agencies to award a single contract to a private sector team covering the design and construction phases of a given project.

Design-build legislation was authorized for three years in 2011, but reauthorization is opposed by many public sector unions unless there are guaranteed project labor agreements ensuring union construction.

Unions also argue that private contractors should not design buildings they are also responsible for inspecting.

Assembly Democrats also oppose any attempt to amend the Scaffold Law, a divisive measure that holds contractors liable for injuries that occur on the job as a result of falling objects. Despite the best efforts of Republicans in the Legislature— who say that the law raises construction

insurance rates—to amend the law, consistent opposition from labor unions has proven too strong to overcome.

Another aspect to the end-of-session scramble is the haste with which “uniform” unions—police, fire, sanitation—rush to get favorable legislation passed.

Assemblyman Peter Abbate, who chairs the Committee on Governmental Employees, said that the last three days of the session are the busiest for those unions—and this year will likely be no different, as the police and fire unions in New York City are working together on a bill to protect the disability pensions of individuals injured on the job.

“Sometimes, unfortunately, people take advantage of disability pensions … but you have to make sure that it’s done properly so people who are really injured on the job don’t suffer,” Abbate said.

Abbate added that his committee is largely in a holding pattern as it awaits home rule messages from various localities and municipalities around the state. In New York, local governments are granted the authority to enact local laws relating to various subjects, and any that fall under Abbate’s purview of public sector workers have to pass his committee before being voted on by the Legislature.

One piece of legislation that has struggled to make it across the finish line is the Farm Workers’ Bill of Rights, which would grant farmworkers collective bargaining rights, mandate a day off per week and grant time-and-a-half pay for overtime, among other provisions. The bill passed the Assembly last year before dying in the Senate, but Senate sources say that the legislation might have new life as the New York Farm Bureau, which opposed the bill because of its belief that labor laws for manufacturing workers should not apply to agriculture, has indicated that it may be open to renewing talks.

WHAT GOT DONE: · Safe patient handling · Increased access to child care WHAT’S ON THE DOCKET: · IDA reform · Farm Workers’ Bill of Rights · Scaffold Law reform cityandstateny.com

Protect New Yorkers, Protect the Scaffold Safety Law.

Don’t pull the ladder out from under workers.

So called “Reformers”are trying to increase profits at the expense of safety for hardworking New Yorkers. Don’t let them get their way.

The Scaffold Safety Law requires contractors and project owners, who are in the best position to ensure safety at the worksite, to maintain necessary safety equipment on the job. All they have to do to avoid liability for accidents is comply with the law.

Construction is dangerous for all workers, but this safeguard is particularly important for workers of color. According to a study by the Center for Popular Democracy, 60% of OSHA-investigated “fall from an elevation” fatalities in New York State involved Latino and/or immigrant workers.

New York State

It’s time to do more to ensure worker safety, not eliminate one of the few protections we have.

AFL-CIO

Helping Working Families Achieve A Better Life

100 S. Swan Street, Albany, NY 12210 518.436.8516 - www.nysaflcio.org

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EXPERT OPINION

DANNY DONOHUE

President, CSEA 20

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city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

Specializing in: Crisis Management | PR Consulting Writing Projects/Annual Reports Serving the Areas of: Education | Labor | Small Business Coalitions | Civic Organizations

“We don’t know everybody...... but we know somebody everywhere.”

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A

mong CSEA’s top priorities in the remainder of the current legislative session is securing a better future for people struggling with mental illness and people with developmental disabilities.

These are very different groups of people with different needs, circumstances and treatment options. What they have in common is that the recent history of New York State’s approach to policy and services in each area has been shockingly inadequate and unacceptable.

We cannot ignore the reality of seriously ill people ending up on the street or in county jails at local taxpayer expense because the state has shirked its responsibility and no other appropriate care is available.

It is not right that our developmental disabilities system has a double standard of eroding regulated state services in favor of a state subsidized “private sector” that rewards executives generously while keeping frontline workers in poverty wages with minimal oversight.

CSEA unequivocally supports the Freeze Unsafe Closures Now Act (S.5986-B Libous/ A.8294-B Lupardo). This bill will postpone all closures and consolidations at state facilities operated by the Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) until April 1, 2017. This is a starting place, and the blueprint for responsible improvements is pretty simple.

More than 35 years ago, New York State made a bold commitment to quality of care for individuals with developmental disabilities and individuals struggling with mental illness. In the wake of the historic Willowbrook consent decrees, Gov. Hugh Carey’s chief of staff, Robert J. Morgado, issued a simple but dramatic directive indicating the governor’s clear priority for improving mental hygiene services.

Known as the Morgado Memorandum, the document laid out key principles, including orderly and appropriate transition from institutions to community-based care while ensuring necessary oversight and state resources, commitment to a balanced system between public and private services, along with parity between public and private sector workers.

The commitment extended to significant training, retraining and job transition opportunities as the model of care changed.

It also explicitly stated that “no person shall be released from a state institution unless adequate community services are available and will be provided…”

New York has repeatedly broken that promise. Now is the time to get it back on track before there is more human tragedy and unnecessary cost to taxpayers.

STUART APPELBAUM

President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union

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ew York’s Partial Unemployment Insurance program is not working.

It is based upon days worked, not hours, which means that part-time employees who work short shifts are often denied the unemployment benefits they need while looking for more work.

Workers in low-wage service sectors, like retail and fast food, where schedules are often short and unpredictable, can have an extremely difficult time meeting unemployment eligibility with New York’s unusual rules. We’ve got to change the system to support workers who are trying to make ends meet while in between jobs and encourage the unemployed to return to the workforce.

When the Wage Theft Protection Act went into effect in 2011, worker advocates hoped that it would provide protection for private sector low-wage workers, who are often victims of wage theft due to illegally low wages, unpaid hours and other employer abuses.

Unfortunately, the act has not made the dent in wage theft that supporters had hoped to see. There are not enough investigators and not enough funding for enforcement, and employers continue to flout employment laws and put workers at risk of retaliation and continued pay below the minimum wage.

The RWDSU and coalition partners are putting pressure on the State of New York to reaffirm its commitment to the WTPA. Strengthening the legislation can reduce the cost wage theft has on working people in New York, many of whom are struggling to survive in the face of employer abuses.

In New York, Medical Marijuana as pain management for severely ill patients is gaining traction, and for RWDSU Local 338, ensuring fair treatment for workers in this burgeoning industry is a top priority. We support legislation that will help patients obtain safe and reliable pain management, and believe union representation can help provide good jobs for New Yorkers. cityandstateny.com

In addition, New York should create family leave insurance through the existing Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) Program. The Family and Medical Leave Act at the federal level, which allows unpaid leave to take care of a new child or sick loved one, was a great first step, but ultimately is not an option for many families who cannot afford to miss a paycheck.

By increasing TDI and creating an employeefunded family leave benefit, New York can ensure that no worker has to choose between

family and work.

Finally, we must protect the few worker safeguards that are currently available, such as the scaffold safety law. We’ve all heard the breathless claims by opponents of this sensible law, which requires general contractors and project owners to provide necessary safety equipment in construction at heights.

The reality is, New Yorkers are performing dangerous work and are deserving of this modest provision for their safety.

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awarded $34 million of publicly funded steel work to a Chinese state-owned manufacturer.

Companies subsidized by foreign governments are competing with an unfair advantage that allows them to undercut American manufacturers and jobs right here in New York. The Buy American Act would create a strong preference in state, authority and local government procurement for the use of domestic steel, iron and manufactured goods; how could any New Yorker oppose that?

MARIO CILENTO President, New York State AFL-CIO

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cityandstateny.com

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city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

014 is the year that New York finally enacted a comprehensive statewide Safe Patient Handling program. By requiring facilities to implement policies that reduce the manual lifting and repositioning of patients, injuries to workers and patients alike will diminish, and facilities will experience reduced costs.

The labor movement also succeeded in achieving greater child-care funding in this year’s budget. There is no more effective workforce development tool than access to quality child care. Increasing the number of slots will increase productivity and allow more New Yorkers to enter the workforce.

Both safe patient handling and child care were key components of labor’s grassroots campaign—“making New York work for hardworking New Yorkers,” which launched just six months ago. These victories will make a real difference in the lives of everyday New Yorkers and demonstrate what our state can accomplish when we attack policy from the perspective of workers.

With this momentum, we must now look toward other issues that put hardworking New Yorkers first, including job creation, paid family leave insurance and worker safety.

The labor movement continues to advocate for common-sense reforms to various economic development programs that cost taxpayers $7 billion each year. There must be accountability and transparency in corporate tax breaks to ensure that companies produce the jobs they promise, and that appropriate actions are taken when they do not. These reforms, which are now embodied in the JOBS Act, are a long-standing goal of the labor movement.

Next, government procurement must create jobs here in America, not in foreign countries. Last year, for example, the MTA

INFRASTRUCTURE

A REBUILDING YEAR

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By MATTHEW HAMILTON

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

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ike many rural downtowns, the center of tiny Mount Morris in bucolic Livingston County was not exempt from the economic plight of the state’s tiny villages, towns and cities in recent decades.

Through the years, the once bustling village that state Sen. Cathy Young remembered spending time in growing up saw its historic downtown buildings become rundown as small businesses departed one by one.

With the state Legislature’s approval of the New York Main Street Program in the mid-aughts, and a round of funding to spruce up the village in 2008, hard luck has turned into the kind of community revival that Young, the chair of the Senate’s Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee, is looking to bring to more municipalities. As the legislative session chugs toward its end, Young said the Main Street Program is one about which she is enthused.

That’s not the only infrastructurerelated focus lawmakers have. Both

housing and transportation infrastructure are key areas that legislators are eying to tackle. Within those areas, reforming the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, spurring innovative infrastructure development and making young drivers safer are all top priorities.

For Young, though, the most important issue is revitalizing downtowns.

“We all know that downtowns traditionally have been the hearts and souls of our communities,” she said. “But as they’ve had to compete with some of the larger department stores, malls [and] bigger box stores that get located away from downtown, some of our downtowns have seen hard times.”

Young calls Mount Morris one of the program’s success stories, with historic buildings restored, nearly all the storefronts filled and significant growth in sales tax revenue.

Although one town is on the rebound, there is still work yet to be done on the housing front. Young is looking to establish the Homes for Heroes program, which would set aside part of the state’s $613 million settlement with JPMorgan Chase to

establish a funding source for home modifications for disabled veterans. Such an initiative would operate similarly to the Access to Home program, which allows eligible disabled homeowners to receive funding for modifications. “(Veterans) need our help. And they deserve our thanks for what they’ve done on behalf of us and our freedom and our country,” she said. “I think it’s the least we can do.”

Downstate, at a time when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is focused on affordable housing infrastructure, Assemblyman James Brennan is looking at transportation infrastructure. Brennan, chair of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, is pushing for reform at the scandal-scarred Port Authority.

Brennan is sponsoring a bill that would apply the Public Authorities Reform Act—a 2009 law that enhanced state authority operations and oversight—to the Port Authority, which would force it to be more transparent, provide greater oversight of high-level officials and force officials to take more responsibility for its operations. While Brennan, a Democrat, has a co-sponsor across the aisle in Republican state Sen. Martin Golden, an identical bill needs to be passed in the New Jersey Legislature because the authority is a bi-state agency. It would also need the approval of both Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

Brennan said in early May that lawmakers were close to an agreement on an identical piece of legislation for all four houses. The New York State Assembly passed the bill in 2012 and 2013, but Gov. Chris Christie vetoed similar legislation in 2013.

Still, Brennan remains optimistic that the Port Authority can be reformed.

“I think the time is right to do an overhaul of the decision-making processes of the Port Authority to get them transparent and open,” he said. “We’re not telling the Port Authority what to do. But [this is] to make sure that there is more integrity in their decision-making process and more public information in relation to the timing [when] they’re going to make a decision.”

In terms of actual physical infrastructure and vehicles, state Sen. Joe Robach, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, is pushing for several key pieces of legislation, including a bill relating to providing innovative infrastructure development.

Robach said that bill, introduced by state Sen. Greg Ball, was still being reviewed by the committee as of early May. The Legislature is also focusing on young and new drivers with a bill that would prohibit the use of hands-free mobile phones by drivers with learner’s permits or class DJ or MJ licenses. That bill, introduced by state Sen. Carl Marcellino, has passed the Senate before, but it died in the Assembly last year. Nonetheless, it is among the bills Robach expects to see pass.

The state budget included a provision for stiffer penalties for young and new drivers who get caught texting while driving.

“It is important that we do all we can to keep young drivers safe on our roads,” Robach said.

WHAT GOT DONE: • Increased Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) funding, including an extra $40 million for pothole and infrastructure repairs caused by harsh winter weather • Restored Neighborhood and Rural Preservation Programs (NPP) to help develop affordable housing and revitalize downtowns • Funding for resiliency, including a weather detection system, equipping gas stations with backup power and creating a college of emergency preparedness, homeland security and cybersecurity—a project outlined in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State Address WHAT’S ON THE DOCKET: • A.3630/S.4075: Applying the Public Authorities Reform Act of 2009 to the Port Authority • S.1511A/A.2723A: Banning hands-free mobile phones by drivers with learner’s permits or class DJ or MJ licenses • Crude oil transportation: A specific bill to regulate or improve safety along rail lines has not been introduced to the Legislature, but rail safety with the influx of oil trains rolling through New York is a hot topic. cityandstateny.com

TREVOR LOGAN/WIKIPEDIA

Rebranding downtowns and reforming Port Authority among top infrastructure priorities

How do you harness the latest technology,

execute the most sophisticated designs,

TREVOR LOGAN/WIKIPEDIA

and still meet a tight schedule?

Local 46 Metallic Lathers & Reinforcing Ironworkers Business Manager: Terrence Moore Business Agents: Kevin Kelly, Ronnie Richardson, John Coffey and Michael Anderson President: John Skinner

city & state — March 26, 24, 2014

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1322 Third Avenue @ East 76th Street New York, NY 10021 • 212-737-0500 • www.ml46.org cityandstateny.com

INFRASTRUCTURE

EXPERT OPINION

Louis J. Coletti President & CEO

BuildiNg TradeS emploYerS’ aSSociaTioN Representing 2,000 New York City Union Contractors

LegisLature FiddLes whiLe New York BurNs The Scaffold Reform debate continues with NO action from our State Legislature. While inaction reigns, New Yorkers lose jobs, MWBE firms are at risk, tax payers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance costs and claims, classrooms aren’t being built and our infrastructure is crumbling.

How long will this go on? The longer we wait the worse it gets.

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In the meantime, four non-profit organizations seeking to provide rebuilding assistance to Hurricane Sandy victims wrote the legislature and said, “We are unable to provide relief to New York families because of the lack of insurance caused by this law. Make no mistake—the Scaffold Law has directly and significantly hindered our ability to help hundreds of New Yorkers return home after super-storm Sandy.”

The City’s School Construction Authority will build 5,000 less classroom seats annually and its successful MWBE program, which has awarded billions in contracts to minority and women-owned contractors, is in jeopardy.

Our reform proposals are fair and reasonable: 1. Change the strict liability standard to comparative negligence, 2. Preserve the right of any injured worker to sue their employer. This would bring New York in line with every single other state, 3. Require every worker to receive a basic 10-hour OSHA Safety course on all public and private construction sites,

LOU COLETTI

President and CEO, Building Trades Employers Association

I

’d like to see a permanent financing plan for the MTA. To me that’s the single most important issue they can deal with. I know it’s difficult in an election year. But if we don’t have a fully functioning transportation system, it has an adverse effect on economic development throughout the entire state. “[But] the reality is, if they’re going to have to look at sources of revenue, I don’t think there is a realistic expectation that it could even be discussed until after the election.

“Despite what the governor said, we would [also] like Scaffold [Law] reform to be done, although the governor, I believe, is realistic when he said that the trial attorneys have effectively blocked Scaffold reform, at least for this session. But we continue to fight and believe it can be addressed because trial attorneys have a stranglehold on the Legislature. So I think the governor was being accurate.”

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

4. Increase the financial award to injured workers by establishing a Scaffold Law Fee Schedule as the Legislature did with Medical Malpractice. The amount of the award paid to Trial Attorneys must be limited so that more of the money goes to the injured worker and their families.

Albany needs to act NOW. The solution is clear. Legislators who vote for reform will be helping the needs of their constituents, small businesses and the jobs they create in their local communities. Those who remain silent are voting to support the needs of the Trial Attorneys and their insatiable appetite to fatten their wallets at the expense of others.

JOE ROBACH

1430 Broadway, Suite 1106 | New York, NY 10018 www.bteany.com

A

t this point, the Senate and Assembly are working together to ensure that legislation is moved in both houses that is important for the hardworking people of New York State. There are a couple of examples of bills that we have passed in the Senate and that I expect to pass in the Assembly, but have not done so yet. One example is Senator Marcellino’s bill, S.1511, which would prohibit the use of mobile telephones by operators of motor vehicles who hold learner’s permits or a class DJ or MJ license. It is important that we do all we can to keep young drivers safe on our roads.”

Chair, Senate Transportation Committee

CATHARINE YOUNG

Chair, Senate Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development

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here’s a program I’m looking to establish that’s near and dear to my heart, and it’s called Homes for Heroes. Right now the state has a program that’s very popular that’s called Access to Home, and it helps people with disabilities or seniors who may have some kind of disability; maybe they need a wheelchair ramp, for example, and they may not be able to afford to make those necessary modifications to their houses or their apartments. So Access to Home has been a really effective program in helping people. But we want to do something— Homes for Heroes—that would help, especially, our returning veterans who are coming home from war. And I personally know so many people who are coming back and they may be missing legs, arms, they may have a traumatic brain injury … They need our help. They deserve our thanks for what they’ve done on behalf of us and our freedom and our country. I think it’s the least that we can do. So we’re looking to establish this program out of the $314 million from the settlement from JPMorgan, and I think it would be a great investment. It would also help a lot of our aging veterans. People who served in World War II—and as you know, they’re getting quite elderly—Vietnam and the Korean War, and they’re developing now maybe age-related disabilities, and they need our help too. cityandstateny.com

Congratulations to our 2014 Albany Rising Stars On June 17th, 2014 from 6:00 - 8:00pm, City & State will recognize this year’s Albany Rising Stars: 40 Under 40 in a celebratory cocktail reception at Taste Restaurant.

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RSVP at albany4040.splashthat.com Winners will be profiled in a Rising Stars special issue of City & State publishing June 9th.

For more information on purchasing congratulatory ads in the section and sponsorship opportunities, please contact your account executive or call Jasmin Freeman at 646-442-1662, jfreeman@cityandstateny.com.

The ad deadline is Thursday, June 5th. cityandstateny.com

city & state — March 26, 24, 2014

Taste Restaurant Penthouse • 40 Beaver Street • Albany, NY 12207

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

BEYOND FRACKING Lawmakers target unsafe products, climate change, black market for ivory

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By JON LENTZ

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

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hat most riles environmentalists in New York is hydrofracking—but with the controversial method of drilling for natural gas still on hold, lawmakers are looking beyond whether the technique should be legal and turning their attention to other issues.

Even state Sen. Tony Avella, an outspoken opponent of hydrofracking, has shifted his focus from an outright ban to the more limited step of preventing the shipment of fracking waste into New York from other states that have allowed drilling.

“Obviously I’m still supportive of a ban, but getting the ban legislation passed is very difficult,” Avella told City & State.

“But one of the things we should not be doing is taking the fracking waste from Pennsylvania into our state and using it as a de-icer, using it on the asphalt and the roads, and taking it to the landfills. Why should we be taking this toxic stuff and burying it in landfills throughout New York?”

Avella’s legislation to ban hydrofracking waste from being shipped into New York

is one of a handful of key bills that are at the top of Albany’s environmental policy agenda in the last few weeks of this year’s session. Another major focus this year is harmful or toxic materials, such as mercury, cadmium and various chemicals, especially in children’s products. Other high-priority proposed legislation deals with protecting endangered species or addressing climate change.

On the product safety front—a top priority in the Senate—one bill would prohibit the sale of jewelry, toys or other items containing cadmium. Another would ban cosmetic products containing small plastic microbeads, which have been found to be harmful to the environment. The Child Safe Products Act, which is sponsored by state Sen. Phil Boyle and Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, would enact a broader ban on dangerous chemicals in children’s toys, replacing the current approach of banning specific chemicals.

“It’s not my bill, but I’ve made that a priority,” Avella, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, said of the Child Safe Products Act. “I think it’s extremely important that we pass that this session. The most

important ones are the Child Product Safety Act and the ban on importing the hydrofracking wastewater into New York State. The cadmium ban is also important, but there’s a competing bill from Grisanti that we have to work out.”

State Sen. Mark Grisanti, who chairs the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, said he was optimistic that several of the bills would pass this year, including the microbeads legislation.

In the Democrat-controlled Assembly, a major focus continues to be climate change. Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, the longtime chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee, said that one of his top priorities is a climate resiliency bill co-sponsored by state Sen. Diane Savino. The bill would require projected sea level rise and changing weather patterns to be taken into account at the state and local level.

“That’s a very significant bill in terms of planning for the future and not repeating the mistakes we have seen with Sandy and the upstate flooding and the other natural disasters where our infrastructure was allowed to be built in places or in ways that it really should not have been,” Sweeney

said. “And when we build or rebuild in the future, we have to be smarter about the way that we do things and plan ahead.”

The legislation could also end up saving millions of dollars, Sweeney said. He cited the example of a sewage plant built below grade in Nassau County that is “now a billion-dollar problem to fix as a result of Sandy.”

“That can’t happen in the future,” he said. “We have to be smarter about our limited financial resources and the way that we issue permits and fund projects.”

Sweeney’s other top priorities include improving Long Island’s water quality and cracking down on the illegal ivory trade, a key issue in both houses. The United States is second only to China in the amount of illegal ivory shipped here, Sweeney said, and New York is the main port of entry. In addition to concerns about the dwindling elephant population, the ivory trade has also been linked to terrorist organizations, which profit from ivory sales.

Lawmakers in both parties said that the $9 million increase in the Environmental Protection Fund in this year’s state budget was a positive step, although several said they had hoped to add even more funding.

Sweeney also applauded this year’s $1 million appropriation for children’s environmental health centers statewide.

“Once upon a time, years ago, we used to fund them. That stopped,” Sweeney explained. “I think it’s very significant that we do it again, because we recognize more and more as time goes by the environmental issues in children’s products.”

WHAT GOT DONE: • $9 million increase for the Environmental Protection Fund • $1 million for children’s environmental health centers WHAT’S ON THE DOCKET: • S.4614/A.6328: Child Safe Products Act • S.7018: The Microbead-Free Waters Act • S.448: Hydrofracking waste ban • S.6617/A.6558: Climate resiliency mitigation • S.7040/A.8824: Crackdown on illegal ivory trade cityandstateny.com

By JON LENTZ

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ov. Andrew Cuomo has already made his mark on the state’s energy policy, from the passage of the Article X siting law to an Energy Highway initiative to improve the transmission grid to a Green Bank to spur more clean energy investment.

Now the governor is setting in motion an effort to completely overhaul how the energy is structured and regulated—and with about a month left in the 2014 legislative session, state lawmakers are taking notice.

The so-called “Reforming Energy Vision” initiative announced last month would increase system reliability and promote clean energy through greater investment in energy efficiency, energy storage, demand management and, perhaps most important, distributed energy generation.

“Right now the utilities are a one-way system. Big power plants transmit electricity through transmission lines and then through distribution lines like Con Edison here in New York City,” Gil Quiniones, the head of the New York Power Authority, said at City & State’s “State of New York Infrastructure” conference earlier this month. “The future is where customers—homes, small businesses, large commercial industrial customers—are able to generate their own electricity through solar, through combined heat and power.”

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, who chairs the Assembly Energy Committee, said that two of her top energy policy goals this session would dovetail with the governor’s proposal.

One would allow municipalities to band together to purchase electricity from energy service companies, or ESCOs, which could spur more local power generation, increase system reliability and pave the way for more investment in renewable energy.

“The first [bill], which we’ve

cityandstateny.com

been working on since last year, is to establish a pilot community aggregation program, which actually falls exactly in line with what the governor is proposing with microgrids,” Paulin said. “It would allow communities to do intermunicipal agreements to establish essentially their own buying power to buy power from an ESCO.” Another measure Paulin is pushing is based on a shared renewables concept. In New York City there is little space for solar panel or wind turbines to generate much renewable energy, making it harder to realize the decentralized structure envisioned by the Cuomo administration. Another challenge is that many buildings do not have a single owner, but instead are co-ops or condos with multiple owners. To make it easier for urban residents and building owners to invest in renewable energy, Paulin would allow them to set up solar farms or other clean energy facilities and earn a credit.

“New York City was very interested in moving this for themselves, but we thought that it should be a statewide concept, so that’s another goal,” Paulin said.

Her goals could become part of the governor’s REV initiative, which would largely transform the state’s regulatory and market structure, she said. Quiniones noted that Con Edison and other utilities had already sold off their power plants in the last round of deregulation, and that this is a natural next step, especially in an industry already in transition.

“I don’t know that we’ve pulled it together to say, ‘This is the plan,’ ” Paulin said. “I think when there is a plan, these will be elements in it, because the trend is to assure reliability. You want to have the power sources near those that are receiving the power so there’s less disruption to the system when there’s a severe storm or whatever.”

State Sen. Kevin Parker, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, said he had some reservations about the direction the Cuomo

administration is moving, however.

Parker argued that a shift away from the current system of subsidies and incentives for renewable energy would pose other challenges not addressed by Paulin’s legislation.

“I don’t have a problem with centralized utilities,” Parker said.

“It is unreasonable to think that in any kind of a timely manner we’re going to get—community by community or house by house—the use of alternatives. In other words, we’re not going to get to a place in our lifetimes where we’re going to see solar panels on every house, or everybody who lives near a creek using tidal hydropower. That’s not going to happen.”

Instead, Parker said, the state should push to expand renewable energy through the current model, but with an expansion of large solar power plants or wind energy farms, which he called “wholesale alternative energy.” He said that investing in solar panels on a home costs around $40,000, which could be reduced to as low as $10,000 with federal and state subsidies. But that would still be too costly for many New Yorkers, Parker argued.

“Even at 10 grand, poor communities, particularly black and Latino communities, won’t be able to afford even that,” he said. “So I don’t want to be in a place where poorer communities and black and Latino communities are left out of the alternative energy mix, because of the economic barrier to entry. So if it’s a matter of now, when you get your bill, your energy just happens to be provided by wind, happens to be provided by tidal power, just happens to be provided by concentrated solar, then everybody has the same access to entry in the alternative energy market.”

WHAT GOT DONE: • Faster phaseout of the 18-A utility surcharge WHAT’S ON THE DOCKET: • New York-Sun solar power legislation • Climate change mitigation • Reforming the net metering law

By Richard Roberts

The Brookhaven, NY, Town Board recently voted, 6 to 1 in favor of the environmental impact statement for the proposed 752-megawatt (MW), Caithness II power plant in Yaphank.

The project will result in an investment of $1.09 billion by Caithness Energy and supply needed electricity to the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) by 2018. LIPA says the plant, to be built next to an existing 350-MW Caithness plant, is necessary to meet capacity shortfalls of up to 1,200 MW. Caithness says the plant will save ratepayers $1.4 billion in fuel costs over 20 years. Once operational, and coupled with the existing facility, it would generate 1,100 MW.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Lawmakers follow Cuomo’s lead on decentralized electricity generation

While some see Caithness II as just part of the State Public Service Commission (PSC) plan to introduce new energy technology and supply to meet growing electricity demand, it will be much more. It will produce good-paying construction and permanent jobs at the plant, and generate significant economic development and tax revenue for years to come. Caithness II results in vital and new in-state power generation.

New York is already too reliant on out-of-state and non-U.S. electricity sources, including Canada. Being one of the U.S.A.’s largest electricity importers might be why New York’s residential electricity costs are 68% higher than the national average and over 50% more than in Pennsylvania.

The Polar Vortex that led to brutally cold temperatures this past winter caused natural gas and electricity prices to soar as much as 394% in January. It also resulted in Hydro-Quebec – which is now petitioning our state to build a 1,000 MW one-way power cord to export electricity from Quebec to Astoria – not having enough electricity for its Canadian customers.

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New Yorkers are right to be concerned about whether our power needs will be met if Hydro-Quebec and other out-of-state suppliers cannot meet their own customers’ peak electricity demand.

Instead of exporting our power-generation jobs and energy dollars, let’s build capacity and produce power here to help Long Island’s economy. Caithness II is the type of project that helps us retake control of the power supply we depend upon and keep businesses from fleeing our region, as we saw when both the NY Islanders and NY Jets decided to pick up and leave.

The Polar Vortex may have been responsible for record-cold temperatures and rising energy costs last winter, but keeping New York dependent on other states and countries for our energy is the polar opposite of what we need to create and maintain jobs, keep our state competitive, and prosperous.

Richard Roberts is Business Agent at Large of Steamfitters Local 638.

S P E C I A L

S P O N S O R E D

S E C T I O N

New York AREA’s membership includes some of the state’s most vital business, labor and community organizations including the New York State AFL-CIO, Business Council of New York State, Partnership for New York City, New York Building Congress, National Federation of Independent Business and many more.

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city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Make it Proudly in New York!

CHAIRMAN, NEW YORK AFFORDABLE RELIABLE ELECTRICITY ALLIANCE

cityandstateny.com

CHAIR, NEW YORK STATE SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION COMMITTEE

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e have two different bills on child products. The main bill with Senator Boyle and Senator Avella will probably move. I know there are some changes being made that also the Assembly would have to get on board with, but I’m estimating that will come out of my committee the next committee meeting.

We’re close on microbeads legislation, so that’s something that’s going to be coming out. There’s a couple of pieces of mercury legislation.

And there is still the safe sofas bill.

California changed its regulations, and that has made it a little bit less of a challenge to try to get this taken care of. It protects the public, it protects the firefighters, so that’s another important one. There’s the

It was a pretty cold winter wasn’t it? How cold? Here are some interesting statistics.

An analysis commissioned by the NYC Mayor’s Office of LongTerm Planning and Sustainability noted that the demand for natural gas in NYC and Long Island is expected to grow by 1.5% annually. The report added that, “The peak day requirements of both [Con Edison and National Grid] are already estimated to be greater than their existing pipeline capacity.”

RANKING MEMBER, NEW YORK STATE SENATE ENERGY AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

MARK GRISANTI

By Joseph Vaszily

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated the nation consumed 24 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2012.

By comparison, New York State used 1.2 trillion cubic feet and New York City consumed 545 billion cubic feet.

KEVIN PARKER

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s the legislative session winds down, it is worth reflecting on the key energy policy steps that should be taken in the future to strengthen New York.

First, elected officials should do all they can to reduce electricity costs, by cutting electricity-related taxes and taking related actions. High electricity costs are a de facto regressive tax that overly burdens working class New Yorkers and the poor.

In February, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, New York had the highest residential electric rates of the 48 states. At an average cost of 21.75 cents per kilowatt hour, New Yorkers pay 82 percent more than the national average of 11.88 cents/kwh. The household and business funds freed up by reducing electricity taxes will stimulate New York’s economy, as consumers’ budgets will have more money to spend on goods and services. The vast number of energy taxes need to be cut. The Public Policy Institute of New York has found that 26 percent of the typical New Yorker’s monthly electric bill is for taxes, fees and surcharges. In 2009, during a time of drastic fiscal measures in Albany, the state created a “temporary” 2 percent tax on every electric bill. Earlier this session, the state agreed to phase out this “temporary” tax, called 18-a, over three years. Much more can and should be done in the years ahead.

Lower energy taxes would also offset any temporary increase in the Hudson Valley from implementation of a new

TDCPP, which is another TRIS element.

That bill is already out of the committee, so we’re looking to move that one forward.

There’s a lot of smaller pieces, but right now those are the bigger pieces.

I

think the governor is absolutely right when it comes to encouraging alternative energy use, and his policies are moving in that direction. I think that I have a divergence of opinion from the rest of the entire state when it comes to decentralization versus centralization.

I don’t have a problem with centralized utilities. It is unreasonable to think that in any kind of a timely manner we’re going to get, community by community or house by house, the use of alternatives. In other words, we’re not going to get to a place in our lifetimes where we’re going to see solar panels on every house, or everybody who lives near a creek using tidal hydropower. That’s not going to happen.

We could get to a place, though, where as we’re repowering existing generation, that we are in fact using concentrated solar or people shifting to other types of alternative energy means as the method by which we’re now providing electricity.

So instead of it being part of your mix, it could be the entirety of your mix.

I would love to see policies in the state that encourage what I would call wholesale alternative energy. And I think that is a little bit different than what most people are currently envisioning.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

ARTHUR “JERRY” KREMER

capacity zone. This new market structure will attract much needed new power plants to the Hudson Valley. Additional supply generated in the region will place downward pressure on pricing while ensuring electric reliability for years to come.

New York should also end its opposition to the license renewal of the Indian Point nuclear power plants which provide 11 percent of the state’s electricity. The plant’s closure would significantly drive up prices statewide, by as much as $12 billion over 30 years. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has consistently found the plant operates to its highest standards, and its staff has recommended license renewal.

Winter’s Polar Vortex proved this prediction as New York City natural gas prices for heating in January 2014 rose to $27.43 / MMBtu, up 394% from $5.55 /MMBtu in December 2013.

The cold snap and snow combo caused an unusual price spike in ratepayer bills that prompted the NYS Public Service Commission to freeze National Grid’s rates in upstate New York. Con Edison estimated that the average residential customer downstate would see a $55 increase (16.5%) in their gas heating bill and a $27 increase (21.8%) in their electric bill for January and February.

As the summer sauna approaches and winter’s skyrocketing utility costs are still being felt, it is important to prioritize access to reliable flows of natural gas. The deepwater port project called “Port Ambrose” can assist by adding capacity and reducing price volatility of natural gas in the New York City region.

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According to ICF International, Port Ambrose will reduce the average annual price of natural gas across the New York metropolitan area, creating up to $325 million per year in direct savings to natural gas customers. The project will bring hundreds of union jobs and $90 million in direct investments in local goods and services. More importantly, no taxpayer, utility rate increases, or public money of any kind will be used to pay for the project.

The proposed site is located 18.5 miles off the coast of New York and designed to withstand hurricane conditions, meet all safety requirements, and not be visible from the shore as it will tie into existing infrastructure on the sea floor.

Moving forward with the Port Ambrose project is a sensible way to light and heat our homes reliably and affordably while creating jobs and economic growth for New Yorkers.

Joseph Vaszily is an advisory board member of New York AREA. He is the managing director of commercial development for Liberty Natural Gas, the developer of the Port Ambrose deepwater liquefied natural gas import terminal. Mr. Vaszily has over 35 years of leadership and technical experience in the natural gas infrastructure/LNG energy sector.

S P E C I A L

S P O N S O R E D

S E C T I O N

The New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance (New York AREA) is a diverse group of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working together for clean, low-cost and reliable electricity solutions that foster prosperity and jobs for the Empire State.

W W W. A R E A - A L L I A N C E . O R G

city & state — May March 26,24, 2014 2014

EXPERT OPINION

Lower Natural Gas Prices on the Horizon

WHY GO TO GRAD SCHOOL?

By LAURA MORRISON

The Executive Master of Public Administration at Baruch's School of Public Affairs Designed for full-time professionals with managerial experience, our Saturday-only Executive MPA program provides students the opportunity to:

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Strengthen skills in analysis, management, and communication Prepare for dynamic leadership roles in public service organizations Teach public policy and management best practices Explore the relationship between theory and challenges in complex environments

Discover if the Executive MPA is right for you.

Attend one of our upcoming Open Houses to meet with current students, faculty and staff, as well as observe a current Executive MPA class.

Executive MPA Open House

city & state — May 26, 2014

Saturday, June 7 11:30am-1:30pm 55 Lexington Avenue, Room 14-267 New York, NY RSVP today at baruch.cuny.edu/spa

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o you have made it through four years of college and have earned your degree.

Now what? Good question. Ready for the answer? Graduate school.

GRAD SCHOOL BENEFITS

W

hile it may be difficult to consider more schooling, consider making graduate school your next step, particularly if you want to land a job that requires more than a four-year degree or you want a higher starting salary. Just be prepared that your graduate education will differ greatly from your undergraduate experience. Unlike your undergrad degree, there are no general studies requirements in graduate school. There are no electives. Your field of study is narrower and delves deeper, cityandstateny.com

interest. They know that their students are serious and focused, and they expect a higher level of work because of it. In graduate school, professors give fewer tests than in undergraduate studies; instead, they require more writing and research, and expect you to have the ability to work independently. Graduate professors do not hold your hand but rather present you with concepts and ideas to encourage individual direction. Courses will typically involve more discussion than lectures, and you will discover that the friendships and connections you make in graduate school are deeper than your previous education experiences.

IMMERSION AND THE PURSUIT OF PASSION

I

t is likely that, when you were an undergraduate, you did not know specifically what you wanted to do for a career. As a graduate student, you will develop clearer goals and possess greater motivation, as well as a commitment to doing more intensive work in a field that you love. Hopefully, during your undergraduate studies you found a subject that truly piqued your interest; graduate work gives you the opportunity to further develop your skills in that area. Graduate work also affords the opportunity to obtain hands-on experience to help you apply your knowledge to the real world.

You will be surrounded by professors and other students who are as passionate about your field of study as you are. This makes studying a more enriching and collaborative effort, and promotes a sense of belonging for all involved.

INTANGIBLE CAREER ADVANTAGES

RELATIONSHIPS WITH FACULTY

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ou will find that your relationship with your professors will be different in graduate school; graduate professors often show a peerlike respect for their students. They know their students have made a big life decision and commitment by attending grad school, and they rarely view them as pupils, instead seeing them as equals who share a similar cityandstateny.com

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t’s no secret that a graduate degree is more prestigious than an undergraduate degree, and this fact is not lost on companies and institutions when they seek new employees. Graduate studies can ensure enhanced qualifications for a career, which typically result in better, higher-level jobs. A graduate degree is a great achievement that increases job satisfaction and self-confidence.

Graduate students have more networking opportunities, and receive knowledge and training that would take years or cannot be learned on the job; they also have a superior

work/life balance, as many grad students must work and study at the same time.

Further, people with graduate degrees are likely to start their careers at a higher level and continue to advance your career at a faster rate than those who earned only a bachelor’s degree. Basically, whether you want to manage others or start your own business, a graduate degree can earn you the extra credibility you need for success.

TANGIBLE CAREER ADVANTAGES

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hose with master’s or doctoral degrees are poised to earn significantly higher salaries than those with a bachelor’s degree. Holders of a graduate degree end up being better compensated for their education than if they had stopped at the undergrad level.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), recently found that recruiters are looking for employees with “soft skills,” such as leadership and communication. Recruiters are finding these skills in the prospective employees who have earned graduate degrees.

The GMAC Global MBA Survey

2006 Comprehensive Report underscores the fact that people with advanced degrees earn a higher salary than people with just an undergrad degree; for example, it showed that starting salaries for MBAs in business-related fields can be upwards of $92,000 per year, nearly double the earnings of people with undergraduate degrees. The report also states that two-thirds of MBA students receive job offers that include a significant signing bonus, and that 52 percent of students working toward their MBAs receive and/ or accept job offers before they even graduate.

Last, if your dream is to become a master of social work, college professor, lawyer, doctor, psychologist, therapist, etc., you will find that state licensing requirements make a graduate education mandatory.

So whether you enjoy academia and are not ready for the often difficult job market, want to contribute more to society or simply need more schooling for your chosen profession, graduate school is the next logical step towards a career.

What are you waiting for?

Laura Morrison is the Web Content Manager for GradSchools.com. She earned an MBA from the Rutgers School of Business in 2010.

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city & state — May 26, 2014

forcing a mastery of your chosen field, and you will spend the length of your schooling on your specific subject. This is because your goal in grad school will be to gain the specialized training necessary for the career toward which you are working.

The benefits of an advanced degree are numerous, and so are the reasons for earning one. Many people return to school after working for a few years in order to advance in their current career, and many others are returning to change their career, as their interests and skills have evolved. The following illustrate some advantages graduate studies have over undergraduate studies.

city & state — May 26, 2014

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FIELD MARSHAL New York Congressman STEVE ISRAEL is commanding the Democrats' troops in their uphill battle to retake Congress.

Will he prove a Patton or a Pickett?

Story by MORGAN PEHME Photos by AARON CLAMAGE

cityandstateny.com

I’

VE LEARNED NOT to prophesize,” says Steve Israel during his remarks at the National Press Club to the capacity crowd of journalists and politicos, who had turned out on the early April morning to hear him do just that.

“When the Republicans shut down the federal government … the pundits said, ‘You’re going to win 50 seats.’ Three weeks later when the Obamacare website rolled out, the same pundits—the same ones— were saying, ‘You’re going to lose 50 seats!’ ” Israel flashes a serious smile. “So if three weeks can make a difference, who knows what eight months will bring?

These days, Israel often offers some permutation of this observation. He may not have oracular powers—at least not of the divine variety—but Israel does have a job that requires him to focus obsessively on the future—upon Nov. 4, 2014, to be exact: the next day in history Democrats will have a chance to retake the House of Representatives. And it seems everyone in Washington, D.C., wants to know what Israel sees in his crystal ball—magic or otherwise.

It has already been debated ad nauseum

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this year within the Beltway whether Israel’s reluctance this cycle to make bolder predictions—or any prediction at all—is a not so tacit admission of just how difficult a battle he is facing this cycle as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee—in a midterm election with a president at the head of the party whose approval rating is nearly the lowest it has been over his five-plus years in office.

Two years ago, in his first term as head of the DCCC, Israel seemed to speak less guardedly of the Democrats’ odds, baits one reporter dissatisfied with the chairman’s unwillingness to make bigger headlines on this occasion by issuing an impolitic prediction. Brushing aside the crude trap, Israel instead recalls that in 2006, when then DCCC chair Rahm Emanuel was first grooming him to one day serve in the position, the Democrats didn’t anticipate winning the House, and yet they did. In 2010, when the party thought it was on firm footing in the majority, it ended up being thrashed. And last cycle, with Israel at the helm of the DCCC, Democrats exceeded the dreary forecast of some observers and ended up with a net gain of eight seats.

“So I’ve giving up prophesizing,” Israel concludes. “It’s a waste of time.”

J

ust because Israel won’t hazard a prognostication as to how many seats the Democrats will wind up with in the House when the final ballots are tabulated on Election Day does not mean that he doesn’t spend all day, every day, doing everything he can to arrive at as close to an educated guess as possible.

A week before the Press Club event, Israel is barnstorming through his Long Island district, whisking from one appearance to another with the feverish intensity of a candidate fighting for his political life—not an incumbent facing only token opposition to his re-election, as Israel is this cycle.

His aides are clearly accustomed to the breakneck pace; it is the clip at which Israel always seems to be marching. As fluent as he is in the nuances of every contested Congressional race in the country, he is just as well versed in the minute concerns of his own constituents and the subtle political dynamics at play in every town, village and city he represents.

Though Israel’s work at the DCCC often requires him to travel, he tries to arrange his schedule so that as much as possible he wakes up every morning and goes to sleep every night in his district, which covers most of the North Shore of Long Island and presses into Queens to the west and Suffolk County to the east.

In part, his preference for remaining indistrict is because Israel is a “homebody,” as he puts it, intent upon pushing back at the considerable strain his second job inflicts upon his family life. It also reflects his avowed distaste for Washington, though his reasoning is not entirely personal. There is a sober, strategic rationale underlying the practice, too.

“If you are a member of Congress and you take your district for granted, that’s a good way of losing your district,” Israel says. “So I take nothing for granted.

Nothing.”

In between stops—a sit-down with Newsday’s editorial board, coffee with a local mayor, a talk to a class of primary students—Israel is in virtually constant contact by phone with the brigade of top flight operatives, pollsters and flacks down

city & state — May 26, 2014

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city & state — May 26, 2014

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“I’VE SAID OVERTLY AND ON THE RECORD, ‘I’M LITERALLY THE LAST PERSON ON THE PLANET EARTH WHO SHOULD TELL A CANDIDATE TO GET OUT OF A PRIMARY FOR THE GOOD OF THE PARTY, BECAUSE I GOT THAT SPIEL AND REJECTED IT.’ ”

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concern is not the votes of Democrats. But Israel is unrepentant in his frank appraisal of what must be done.

“The job of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is to win campaigns,” he states with clinical certainty. “You cannot win campaigns in America in swing seats unless you can appeal to swing voters, so that’s where we concentrate.”

Over his two terms as chair, Israel has angled to land the support of these voters in the center by recruiting moderate candidates whose focus is not ideology but solutions—one of Israel’s favorite buzzwords—and then to direct their message squarely at the core concerns of the middle class, while hammering away at the Republicans for being extremists, bereft of compassion for working families.

Of course, articulating this strategy in theory is far easier than executing it in practice—even given Israel’s success with it in 2012. Unlike previous DCCC chairs (except his immediate predecessor, Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland), Israel does not just have to grapple with the army across the field from him; he also must contend with the hordes of mercenaries, both on his side and his opponents’, unleashed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision.

“The goals and requirements of the job are constantly evolving, and only grow over time,” observes Rep. Nita Lowey, who served as DCCC chair from 2001 to 2003 and is the only other New Yorker to have held the post since Roswell Flower in 1890. “We now have Super PACs to combat, and conservative interest groups mounting challenges that demand much more money and high-quality candidates,” says Lowey, adding, “Steve has been able to adapt.”

To brace his candidates for this new theater of war, Israel likes to show them the scene from the movie 300 where the Persians threaten to obliterate the Greeks by firing so many arrows at them that they will “blot out the sun.”

“I tell all my recruits that there are going to be times with Republican Super PACs and special interest money that they’re going to think that they can blot out the sun, and your job is to just fight them in the shade,” says Israel, riffing off the retort one of the film’s Spartans sneers.

When Israel, who often frames his work at the DCCC in military terms, is asked if he views himself as the general of the House Democrats’ army, he is quick to describe himself instead as their “field marshal.” Though he does not say it explicitly, there is no question who is the party’s general: Nancy Pelosi.

After the Democrats lost the House in 2010, Pelosi asked Israel what he thought had gone wrong. In response he prepared a three-page memo—one he describes as

“clear-eyed and cold-blooded”—which essentially laid out the pragmatic course he has since devoted himself to putting into action. After Israel’s approach proved effective in 2012, Pelosi asked him to stay on in the job.

As deep in the weeds as Israel is with every disputed district in the country, Pelosi is just as much if not more so. So frequently does she call Israel for updates on the campaigns that at the end of a day this reporter spent with the congressman in his district, his aides expressed genuine surprise that so many hours could have elapsed without the Leader ringing once.

When I later share this observation with the congressman, first he half quips that, “She may have; I just didn’t answer,” and then launches into a story he calls one of his favorites. (It is one he rarely tells these days, because Pelosi is not terribly fond of it.)

“I came back from one trip in my first term as DCCC chair, and my plane landed at LaGuardia a little late. We were delayed. I finally got back to my house in Dix Hills—it was about 10:30 at night, I was exhausted and I couldn’t wait to dive into bed—and just as my head settled on the pillow, my phone rang. I was going to ignore it, but I saw it was Leader Pelosi, so I picked it up, and we went district by district, race by race, all four corners of the country and everything in between for about an hour and a half.”

“Now it’s just after midnight,” Israel continues, “so I committed a mortal sin: I yawned. And she said, ‘Steve, you sound a little tired.’ Admittedly, I got a little annoyed, because I was tired, and I had just spent my time on this trip, and I said, ‘Leader, you know, I am tired. You’re calling from San Francisco and I’m here in New York, so you’re three hours behind me.’ To which she said: ‘Oh, no, Steve.

I’m actually at the Regency Hotel in New York, and I believe I’m meeting you here at 9 o’clock tomorrow, and I hope you won’t be late.’ ” Israel laughs. “That’s the grip and the grasp that she has on the operations of campaigns.”

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T

here is a certain irony to Israel being chair of the DCCC. That’s because when he first ran for Congress in 2000, the Committee aggressively supported his opponent.

“They did everything they could to get me out,” Israel recalls with amusement.

Back then, Israel was a lowly councilman in the town of Huntington brimming with the audacity to take on the establishment’s choice: a somewhat conservative member of the Suffolk County Legislature named David Bishop. Israel’s lifelong fascination with world history and international affairs made the platform of Congress too tantalizing a prize not to pursue, and the

city & state — May 26, 2014

at the Washington headquarters of DCCC he commands.

Beyond refining the DCCC’s global strategy in real time to the ever-changing contours of the 24/7 news cycle, Israel personally checks in each week with every candidate the national committee has designated as running in a “red-to-blue” district, as well as every hopeful whose races the committee has labeled “emerging,” which comes out to between 30 and 40 in all. Weekends he emails every single one of these candidates “religiously.” And that’s just Israel’s outreach to his battalion of challengers. As chair of the DCCC, Israel’s paramount charge is to protect the seats of imperiled Democratic incumbents. This

cycle there are 15 to 25 of those members, and he’s incessantly in touch with them.

“I’ve always had a rule in politics, and that is not to agonize on anything that is out of my control, but to mobilize everything that is in my control,” Israel explains. “The climate in October, the president’s numbers: Those are out of my control. What’s in my control are the four M’s: the message of House candidates, the mobilization of our districts, the money that we have to raise and the management of our campaigns. I just focus on those things.”

Much of Israel’s steely, methodical approach as a strategist and tactician seems derived from his abiding love of military history. Israel is such an avid Civil War buff that he founded the Battlefield Caucus in the House of Representatives to encourage his fellow members on both sides of the aisle to tour the sites of great battles in order to glean the lessons of their outcomes and apply them to evaluating present and future conflicts.

“I visit Gettysburg frequently,” Israel beams, unable to suppress his enthusiasm when talking about one of his favorite subjects. “Everything that happened at Gettysburg plays out in campaigns and in battles throughout history.”

Israel ticks off some of the takeaways he has internalized. “Number one: You have to have good communications and intelligence. One of the things that was overriding in Gettysburg was that General Lee lost communication with one of his most important sources of intel. Number two: Always find the high ground. Number three: Be innovative. I have a portrait in my office of [Union officer] Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain at Little Round Top when he ran out of ammunition and then gave the order to fix bayonets and charge. That’s innovation and motivation. … You’ve got to be willing to use all the tools in your tool box and sometimes break out of the orthodoxy in order to win the battle.”

Though Israel knows that it will take a supreme effort to conquer the rocky terrain that extends before his troops this cycle, he sees a path to victory that at least on the surface does not appear to be delusional or just pure spin.

The overall environment may be inhospitable to Democrats, but Israel points out that his mission is not to engage the GOP in every corner of the country.

With most of the seats in the House either firmly red or blue either by geography or gerrymandering, all Israel has to do to succeed is win over the sliver of swing voters in the nation’s 50 or so battleground districts—the few million independents who are the living embodiment of the margin between triumph and defeat for both parties.

To the untrained ear, it may sound dissonant to hear the chairman of the DCCC acknowledge that his paramount

unlikely circumstances through which the opportunity had arisen represented just the type of lucky break that Chairman Israel drills into his candidates and recruits not to let pass unexploited. Rudy Giuliani, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for U.S. Senate against former First Lady Hillary Clinton, had shaken up the race by announcing his withdrawal—and all of a sudden Israel’s congressman, Rick Lazio, an incumbent Republican whom Israel never could have beaten, had vacated the seat, leaving no clear successor in his wake.

Thus, despite DCCC’s efforts to scuttle his campaign, Israel pressed on and forced a highly contentious primary—a race a contemporary report from The New York Times characterized as “expensive, gloves-off” and “hostile.” In a preview of the savvy and drive Israel would later bring to the DCCC chairmanship, he ran hard to his opponent’s left, and branded Bishop as too extreme. Still, on Election Night as the numbers came in it appeared that Israel had come up short.

“I was sitting in my campaign headquarters—I was with my daughter— and we were going down in flames,” Israel recounts. “[Former Rep.] Gary Ackerman was with me and he said, ‘Kid, you’re not

“I’VE ALWAYS HAD A RULE IN POLITICS, AND THAT IS NOT TO AGONIZE ON ANYTHING THAT IS OUT OF MY CONTROL, BUT TO MOBILIZE EVERYTHING THAT IS IN MY CONTROL.”

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going to make it. News 12’s out there. You should go out, do your concession and move on.’ So I started tying my tie. Then my daughter welled up. She said, ‘Daddy, you can’t do this. It’s not over.’… And—13 years old!—she said, ‘I don’t think all the results are in yet.’ I hugged her and said, ‘Oh, Carly!’ And at that very moment one of my political operatives burst in and said, ‘Dix Hills isn’t in yet! We thought we had it, but the Board just called! It didn’t come in yet!’ And that was my base. Five minutes later my opponent called and conceded. I was five minutes away from conceding when I didn’t have to!”

Israel’s less than idyllic formative experience with the DCCC has left its mark on his approach to the chairmanship. As an example, Israel cites the two Democrats in New York’s 4th Congressional District vying for the seat Carolyn McCarthy is giving up to retire. “[It’s] why when I’m put under pressure to tell Kevan Abrahams to get out of the Kathleen Rice primary, I’ve said overtly and on the record, ‘I’m literally the last person on the planet Earth who should tell a candidate to get out of a primary for the good of the party, because I got that spiel and rejected it.”

A

nother unlikely aspect of his chairmanship, is that with the explosion of money in politics in recent years, Israel—the sixth-poorest

member of Congress, with more money in debts than assets, according to a 2014 study by the Center for Responsive Politics— may very well never have had the means to get elected in the first place, particularly running against the DCCC. Israel, 55, grew up in the modest, cookie-cutter community of Levittown, Long Island—the archetype for postwar suburbia—with a mother who was an at-home typist and a traveling semiconductor salesman for a father, neither of whom were politically minded.

By the close of the ’70s, with Israel off at college, the middle class life his parents wanted to preserve had become increasingly difficult to maintain, so they moved away to Phoenix, Ariz. Around that time, Israel’s own eyes were opened to the challenges that come from having limited means. He had been accepted to George Washington University after graduating high school, but had to defer admission for two years and attend Nassau Community College while he raised enough money to help pay for his education.

“I am middle class through and through—through and through,” Israel declares. “These issues propel me, because I lived the struggle.”

“What you see with Steve is what you get,” emphasizes Israel’s friend, state Assemblyman Charles Lavine, a Democrat whose district overlaps with Israel’s. “At an intuitive level he understands the feelings of middle class Long Islanders.”

As a result of his experience, the defense of the middle class has been the foremost domestic policy concern of Israel’s seven terms in Congress. Most recently, he commissioned a study from the Third Way, a bipartisan D.C. think tank, entitled “A Tale of Three Cities,” which demonstrated how families of near identical economic means from Hicksville, Long Island, Akron, Ohio and McAllen, Texas, shoulder a “drastically different” tax burden depending upon where they live—with New Yorkers paying by far the most.

The aim of the report was to lend credence to Israel’s initiative to reform the federal tax code so it will take into consideration families’ cost of living, not just their income level. The study also provides evidence to support Israel’s larger effort to expand the definition of the middle class to encompass the current economic realities of America—a fight reflected in a showdown between himself and President Obama in 2011. Arguing that “rich is relative” to where a family lives, Israel aggravated the White House by needling the president to extend the Bush tax cuts for families making less than $450,000 per year, rather than the $250,000 threshold the president had widely stated he wanted. Ultimately, after a protracted spat, the president caved—a cityandstateny.com

result Israel cites with pride.

It is no coincidence that “Battleground: Middle Class” is the frame the DCCC is using this cycle to encapsulate its messaging.

By actively recruiting moderates with a strong affinity for the middle class and a pragmatic philosophy toward governance, Chairman Israel is fashioning a prototype of Democrat he steadfastly believes is imperative for the party to embrace if it is to succeed in the future. But at the same time, Israel is also shrewdly remaking the party in his own image.

“I did actually recruit people who reflect my own middle class sensibilities, people who are good fits for their district,” Israel admits. “We overperformed in 2012 because we recruited well. We recruited well because we went after more moderate, more centrist Democrats in swing districts. So it may be the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, but part of that is Campaign Committee,” he laughs. “Which means you’ve got to win,

cause for optimism—at least at this moment in time—that they will be able to defy these historic trends in November.

As such, even if Israel fails to repeat the success he had in 2012—even if he goes down to significant defeat—the outcome of the race may not necessarily be viewed as a referendum on the rightness of his strategy.

“No one person is responsible for our success in any given election, and any number of variables outside of anyone’s control can impact elections,” emphasizes former DCCC chair Lowey.

While this is certainly true, for most of us it is hard to fully separate emotion from reason, particularly in instances where we have worked so hard toward trying to achieve an end. Asked how it will affect him if the Democrats lose this cycle, Israel declines to speculate.

“It can’t affect you. You can’t factor that in,” he avers, before pivoting the subject to another of his passions.

“Most of my attitude at DCCC has

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hether Israel’s grand strategy for the DCCC will actually lead to victory will remain a mystery until the polls close on Election Day—and perhaps beyond then.

Historically, the party with a sitting president, particularly in his second term, has fared poorly in the midterm elections.

Over the last 21 midterms, the party of the incumbent president has lost an average of 30 seats in the House.

President Obama’s dismal popularity and the current political climate of the country offer House Democrats little

cityandstateny.com

been forged by being a Mets fan. I know that you can’t predict the outcome of the ninth inning in the first inning—and watching the Mets on many occasions, you can’t even predict the outcome of the ninth inning in the ninth inning!”

As fans of the New York Mets understand viscerally, to be an unwavering devotee of the team is essentially to embrace masochism. Is this how he views the Democrats’ chances?

Israel is unfazed by the question.

“But every once in a while you get a Mookie Wilson who is able to hit a ground ball through Bill Buckner’s legs,” he responds without missing a beat, referencing the team’s miraculous 1986 World Series victory. “So you’ve just got to be prepared.”

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city & state — May 26, 2014

which means you’ve got to recruit well, which means you’ve got to reach out to centrists.”

BATTLEGROUND: NEW YORK EXPERT ANALYSIS BY

REP. STEVE ISRAEL

While New York is one of the bluer states in the nation, the Republican Party is eyeing seats from the South Shore of Long Island to the North Country for possible pickups to increase their majority in the House of Representatives.

Across the aisle, Democrats see an opportunity to take out several of the six GOP members of Congress from the Empire State as part of their bid to win back the House.

City & State asked Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel, who also happens to represent New York’s 3rd District, and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden, of Oregon, to game out the contested general election battles across the state.

REP. GREG WALDEN

city & state — May 26, 2014

1st DISTRICT

38

GEORGE DEMOS Lawyer

LEE ZELDIN State Senator

GW: “I think this race is one that we will win. If you look at it, it’s a seat that Romney and Obama basically tied in at 49 percent. Bishop got 50.2 percent in 2010 and 52 percent in 2012, so it’s one that’s really on the cusp. And [Tim Bishop] still has all these ethics issues out there … that create kind a smell around a campaign, which doesn’t bode well for an incumbent in an anti-incumbent year. … Beyond that, this recent really cheap shot attack on Lee Zeldin by the DCCC I think is something that (A) they should apologize for, but (B) has changed the dynamic of that race overnight. Lee has a primary he’s going to have to work through with George [Demos]. They’re going to have to figure that out—[the NRCC doesn’t] do primaries—but just looking at what’s happened here, I think it was a stupid strategic decision on the DCCC’s part to attack a very courageous man of high integrity who served his country in the first Iraq War in the 82nd Airborne—and they label him a coward? I think it was a mistake. Mistakes make a difference in elections, and they’ve made a whopper of a mistake here, and I think it hurts Tim Bishop, and he was already pretty hurt politically.”

SI: “That’s a very competitive district, and Tim [Bishop] keeps winning it. He keeps winning it based upon his constituent services and a voting record that’s a good fit. This year we’re looking at an explosive and virulent Republican primary between [Lee] Zeldin and [George] Demos, and so they have a divided Republican field and they’re going to be attacking one another and spending a ton of money doing it, and Tim will continue doing what he does, which is working.”

TIMOTHY BISHOP Congressman

cityandstateny.com

GW: “I think the 4th District is one that can be competitive. It’s a little tougher seat, and we’ll see where it ends up, but it’s one we’re keeping an eye on. When a seat comes open, you evaluate it, and it’s certainly one we’re watching going forward. The Democrats are obviously putting a lot of throw-weight into that race to try to hold it.”

BLUCE BLAKEMAN Former Nassau County Legislature Majority Leader

SI: “It’s a 54 percent Democratic-performing district; the president got nearly 57 percent. … Kathleen Rice filed with over a million dollars and has extremely high name recognition. … That was also a big NRCC recruitment failure. Their chosen candidate, Kate Murray, turned them down, leaving them with Bruce Blakeman, so we’re feeling very good about that race.”

KATHLEEN RICE Nassau County District Attorney

KEVAN ABRAHAMS Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader

,,

NAN HAYWORTH DOMENIC RECCHIA

MICHAEL GRIMM Congressman

GW: “[Michael Grimm] needs to make his case to the people and in the legal system, and nobody can do that better than Michael Grimm can. He’s going to have to answer these charges, but he is a fighter. He is a smart, capable legislator who works very hard for the people of his district. … [The indictment] is not helpful, there’s no doubt about that. When you have an indictment come down against anybody, it’s a pretty nasty thing, [but] in the American system of justice he has the right to defend himself, and the government has to prove its charges.”

Former New York City Councilman

SI: “The Grimm race was competitive before the 20-count indictment and is competitive after the 20-count indictment. Brooklyn and Staten Island residents have suffered through Michael Grimm’s reckless antics and irresponsible agenda long enough and deserve a new, responsible representative who will stay focused on solving constituents’ problems instead of his own legal troubles. While Michael Grimm has been busy getting arrested for refusing to pay his taxes, Domenic Recchia has worked tirelessly to help families and small businesses rebuild from [Superstorm] Sandy, knows how to work together to find solutions for middle class families, and is running an aggressive campaign that is on track for success in November.”

11th DISTRICT

cityandstateny.com

Former Congresswoman

SEAN PATRICK MALONEY

GW: “Nobody works harder than Nan Hayworth … and she has proven her ability to continue to fundraise and to work every event, festival, street fair and meeting there is in the district.

She’s shown she can win it before, and I think in this referendum election this is a seat that suddenly comes into play, more so than in ’12 when she lost it.

Meanwhile, Maloney’s cast a few votes to give himself some political cover, but he still supported Obamacare and a budget that would increase spending and never balance it, and those are issues that Nan knows how to articulate well on. … Now Obamacare is more than just a theory, it’s a reality, and in many people’s lives it’s not a great reality … You’ve got chaos, confusion, premiums still going up—a lot of issues that will swirl around him, and Nan’s very, very capable and hardworking at getting out the facts and running a pretty aggressive campaign.”

SI: “Sean [Patrick Maloney] is also one of our top defenders, and this is kind of a repeat of [the] Tea Party Nan Hayworth campaign in 2012. She swept in on a Tea Party tide; [then] she got swept out in 2012 because her record was way too extreme for that district. Sean is not only a good fit for the district but is actually enjoying the support of many local Republicans. Nan is out of touch with that district, and it’s going to do a replay of a Tea Party brand that has been largely rejected in that district.”

39

Congressman

18th DISTRICT

city & state — May 26, 2014

Lawyer

4th DISTRICT

FRANK SCATURRO

19th DISTRICT

CHRIS GIBSON Congressman

GW: “I don’t think the voters in the 19th District are for sale, and Sean Eldridge seems to think they are. It’s really remarkable to watch how he has bought one mansion after another until he can kind of crawl his way into the district. … I think that attitude of wealth and just work your way in doesn’t play well, especially when it juxtaposes against Chris Gibson, who was born and raised in upstate New York. He’s faithfully served his country since before Sean Eldridge was even on the planet or was in diapers. Chris is a hardworking guy. … He just is so passionate for the people because he’s one of them. … Everything about that district just vibrates Chris Gibson, and so I think that’s an enormous hurdle that even money can’t overcome.

SI: “Also has great potential. Chris [Gibson] is another Republican that got swept in with the Tea Party wave, and now that his district was redistricted and became more competitive, he’s trying to act as a moderate. People know who you are and what you’re about. Sean Eldridge has been a major advocate for marriage equality in New York. He’s been fundraising aggressively. It’s a 49.5 percent Democratic district. The president won it 53.2 percent. That district, I think, is prototypical of New York districts, where it’s getting bluer as time goes by.”

SEAN ELDRIDGE Activist

40 ELISE STEFANIK

city & state — May 26, 2014

Former George W. Bush administration aide

MATT DOHENY Businessman

GW: “[The 21st has] got to be Steve Israel’s, well, one of his, now very many recruitment failures and headaches, because this is an open seat that he did not need or want nor think he was going to have. … They had to go basically outside of the district to find a filmmaker—not exactly your top-profile candidate, who got kind of hit by the media for the first three weeks of his campaign, flip-flopped on the SAFE Act, and I just don’t think he’s going to augur in that well in that district, where you’ve got both Elise Stefanik and Matt Doheny, who know the district and are working it hard and there’s a lot of energy behind their campaigns. They’ll get through their primary and sort things out. We’re in communication separately with each of them, I know them both well, and our goal is to have a Republican in this seat when everything is said and done, and I think we will.”

AARON WOOLF

Businessman and filmmaker

SI: “When you have an open seat, it obviously becomes a challenge by definition. … Aaron Woolf, a documentary filmmaker—his family has owned a home in Elizabethtown since the 1960s; he very quickly got the endorsement of all 12 county Democratic chairs. Meanwhile, on the Republican side, you’ve got another vicious and very expensive primary. …

[Matt] Doheny and [Elise] Stefanik, they’re going to pull each other further and further to the right, and that’s a district that does not tilt to the right.

It’s an absolutely centrist and moderate district.”

21st DISTRICT

TOM REED Congressman

GW: “Martha has had her set of mistakes along the way. The whole deal with she can’t figure out if she supports or opposes the SAFE Act; she wants to go beyond Obamacare to a European-style healthcare system; doesn’t like fossil fuels … and then ended up having Peter Yarrow come in and not canceling the event but going on with it … and that’s even before you start talking about the fact that she’s voted to raise taxes on a fairly regular basis on the Tompkins Council. Tom’s working it hard, he’s out there all the time, he’s a very effective legislator, he’s on a key committee, he’s settling in, he knows how to get things done and I think he holds that seat, especially in this cycle.

MARTHA ROBERTSON

Tompkins County Legislature Chair

SI: “That’s another key pickup opportunity. Congressman [Tom] Reed also faces lots of ethical problems, failed to pay his taxes—in one instance where he paid his taxes, he used campaign funds to pay it. Martha Robertson is well known as a county legislator. She’s doing a terrific job. Reed only won by 10,000 votes last time against an underfunded challenger, and so there’s something about him where he obviously hasn’t developed traction with the voters of NY-23.”

23rd DISTRICT cityandstateny.com

24th DISTRICT

JOHN KATKO

Former federal prosecutor

GW: “I’m encouraged … We had to find the right candidate, and it took a while, but John is a terrific candidate. I’m more and more impressed the more I get to know him and watch him in action, and as we begin to look where we can add and shift resources, we’re moving into this seat. This is one that makes a lot of sense for us. We’ve won it before and we’ll win it again. [Dan] Maffei has yet to win an election in a midterm, and they’re going to have to spend an enormous amount of resources to try and hold onto this seat. It’s going to be a real battleground.”

SI: “I wouldn’t take any district like that for granted, because it is a very competitive district … but the president got 58 percent [there]. The issue with Dan [Maffei] in that race is going to be making sure that there is voter turnout [from Syracuse] University.

One of the reasons the president got 58 percent in that district was because he did have very strong turnout at the university, not just students but faculty and others. And so Dan’s focus will be continuing to serve his district. In terms of his campaign operation, he’s going to need to focus on ensuring voter turnout in November.”

DAN MAFFEI Congressman

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CONTENTIOUS DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES 13th DISTRICT

CHARLES RANGEL

ADRIANO ESPAILLAT State Senator and MICHAEL WALROND Pastor

Congressman

CONTENTIOUS REPUBLICAN PRIMARIES

RICHARD HANNA Congressman

cityandstateny.com

CLAUDIA TENNEY Assemblywoman

city & state — May 26, 2014

22nd DISTRICT

INFRASTRUC TURE

STATE OF NEW YORK INFRASTRUCTURE

city & state — May 26, 2014

AP/MIKE GROLL

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On May 15 City & State hosted a half-day forum featuring three panel discussions focused on different areas of infrastructure and development. The first panel focused on transportation in New York City. The second looked at housing and buildings on the state level. And the final panel explored the current state of utilities with a focus on energy as well as broadband and telecommunications. Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future, co-moderated all three panels along with City & State’s Albany Bureau Chief Jon Lentz and City Hall Borough Chief Nick Powell.

cityandstateny.com

INFRASTRUC TURE

MTA CHIEF WEIGHS IN ON NEXT CAPITAL PLAN

By JON LENTZ

A

s the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s fiveyear capital plan comes to an end this year, the agency is facing tough questions about what to prioritize in its next capital plan—not to mention how it will be funded.

Two key elements that the next capital program will have to address are climate change and the transit system’s 20-year needs assessment, said Thomas Prendergast, the MTA’s chairman and CEO. “In the current capital program, we never knew Sandy was going to hit us in the middle of the capital program, and yet we’re seeing the most extensive amount

of rebuilding due to damage done to the system, on top of the capital program,” Prendergast said.

Earlier this month Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for the creation of a “Transportation Reinvention Commission” made up of “international transportation experts” who would hold hearings and submit recommendations before the MTA’s capital plan is submitted in September. In a May 7 letter to Prendergast, Cuomo cited the impact of climate change as well as a changing and growing customer base.

“While past capital plans have focused on maintaining and expanding the existing MTA network, New York needs the MTA to develop a reinvention plan to make our

Tom Prendergast, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman and CEO, said the next capital plan must prepare for the challenges of the next century.

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city & state — May 26, 2014

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subways and our entire transit system ready for the challenges of the next century,” Cuomo said in a statement.

At the conference Thursday Prendergast noted that the MTA had made progress since its first capital plan in the 1980s, when the system was plagued by track fires, old subway cars and frequent breakdowns.

The agency spent some $90 billion in the first four capital programs, focusing first on returning to a state of good repair and ensuring safety and reliability and then expanding with projects like the Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access and the No. 7 extension.

But there is still plenty of work to be done, Prendergast acknowledged. Many of the subway system’s signals rely on outdated technology, stations are run down and overcrowded, and capacity is strained on many lines. Moreover, younger riders who don’t remember the low point in the 1980s have much higher expectations than previous generations.

“The millennials’ expectations are really things that we thought were luxuries when we first rode the system but [that] they think are entitlements—and they are our customers,” Prendergast said.

“They [are] a growing customer base.

Countdown clocks in stations, more timely information, improved technology is not

a want, it’s a need. And the reinvention commission that the governor has asked us to do is to make sure we go beyond a state of good repair, deal with climate change, deal with those new needs.”

Asked about how the MTA could increase its revenues to pay for some of the needed maintenance and expansion work, Prendergast pointed out that federal dollars are increasingly hard to come by. But he walked through the steps other cities have taken to successfully secure more funding for mass transit, whether it is through congestion pricing or other new tolling systems.

“If you talk to people that have gone down that path, they will tell you a couple things: Do an exhaustive look at what the revenue sources are; make sure you fully communicate to people what the impact to them will be in terms of going into their pocket—but what promises you’re going to make in terms of what the output is they’re going to see, because people don’t mind taking money as long as they see a return on the investment,” Prendergast said. “And the other thing they say is: Be resilient in your charge. You will most likely not get the dialogue right the first time. You will not vote up what you want to have done the first time. You have to be persistent.” cityandstateny.com

INFRASTRUC TURE

CITY, FEDERAL OFFICIALS TALK RESILIENCY AT INFRASTRUCTURE PANEL

By NICK POWELL

C

an New York City upgrade its aging infrastructure while ensuring it is resilient enough to withstand the next major weather event? That was one of the questions considered by a panel of experts on buildings and housing.

The members of the panel, which included a diverse mix of former and current city officials, as well as a representative from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), each shared a different perspective on how to cope with the looming threat of climate change, which can lead to major weather events like Superstorm Sandy occurring more frequently.

Shola Olatoye, the newly appointed chairwoman of the New York City Housing Authority, painted a picture of the challenges that the agency faces even now, 20 months out from Sandy. Olatoye said that Sandy damaged 30,000 of the Authority’s 179,000 total housing units, and admitted that NYCHA’s response was “less than optimal.” She added that valuable lessons were learned from the

cityandstateny.com

naming drought and major heat waves as other potential threats.

“We need to be comprehensive when we think about the concept of climate change, and we need to be comprehensive when we think about the concept of resiliency, and we have to make sure that we’re

making the investments today, because these changes are coming,” Pinsky said.

“They’re coming quickly and they’re going to be very, very serious. And if we don’t start spending today, we’re going to fall farther and farther behind, and it’s going to be impossible for us to ever catch up.”

45

HUD Regional Administrator Holly Leicht (top left) and NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye (top right) stressed resiliency as New York City rebuilds in the aftermath of Surperstorm Sandy.

city & state — May 26, 2014

Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future, served as co-moderator on all three panels.

lackluster recovery, and that with the help of HUD the agency is already beginning to make changes to improve resiliency in its facilities.

“There was about $1.8 billion in damage to the Housing Authority. We’re in the process of recovering that, and we’re also designing the scopes of services to do that work beginning this summer,” Olatoye said. “For those developments that have the temporary mobile boilers, we’ll actually— beginning later this fall—be replacing them with, still, mobile boilers, but more efficient natural gas boilers so those can be more reliable sources of heat and energy for those developments.”

Holly Leicht, HUD’s New York State regional administrator, said that from a federal perspective the challenge has been changing the mindset when it comes to thinking about how federal aid is distributed. Leicht said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is normally very narrow about how its aid money is used, but that HUD has come up with ways to utilize the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Response money that it has at its disposal to further the city’s resiliency goals.

“There is a mindset that’s shifting, and one of the ways that HUD got out in front of that was requiring that some of the CDBG-DR money be used for resiliency,” Leicht said. “FEMA’s M.O. has been, ‘We give you just enough money to rebuild what was there before.’ That is their mandate. ...

If that’s the only amount of money you can give, then we’ve got to figure out how we can layer other sources of funding on top of that in order to make it more resilient and build smarter next time.”

Looking big picture, Seth Pinsky, an executive vice president at RXR Realty and the former president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, said that while Sandy was an unspeakable tragedy, many areas of the city got extremely lucky, highlighting the fact that New York needs to take a holistic, comprehensive approach when thinking about preparing for climate change. Pinsky added that storms are not the only by-products of climate change that could greatly affect New Yorkers,

INFRASTRUC TURE

UTILITIES TO TAKE ON “TRAFFIC COP” ROLE UNDER CUOMO’S ENERGY RESTRUCTURING PLAN

By JON LENTZ

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city & state — May 26, 2014

The utilities infrastructure panel was moderated by City & State’s Jon Lentz (far right).

A

s New York embarks on a transformative overhaul of its electric utility system aimed at increasing reliability and spurring investment in renewable energy, Germany can serve as a cautionary model. The country significantly boosted its solar and wind power in recent years, and two of its leading utility companies have taken a serious hit.

“If you look at the stock of RWE and E.ON, those are the Con Edisons of

Germany, their value is pretty much cut in half. So it’s a concern,” Gil Quiniones, a top state energy official, said on Thursday.

“But I think the way we’re envisioning the transformation here in New York will be different than how Germany went about it.”

Quiniones, who heads the New York Power Authority, said that in carrying out the state’s new proposal—the “Reforming Energy Vision” initiative Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last month—officials

would be starting from scratch and would take steps to mitigate such financial risks to utility companies. Moreover, utilities would be expected to take on the role of “traffic cops,” Quiniones said, and would be compensated for their work.

The REV plan is aimed at increasing system reliability and promoting clean energy. The plan envisions greater investment in energy efficiency, energy storage, demand management—and, perhaps most important, distributed

Charles Zielinski cityandstateny.com

INFRASTRUC TURE

47

energy generation—to accomplish its goals.

“Right now the utilities are a one-way system. Big power plants transmit electricity through transmission lines and then through distribution lines like Con Edison here in New York City,” Quiniones said. “The future is where customers— homes, small businesses, large commercial industrial customers—are able to generate their own electricity through solar, through combined heat and power.”

The REV initiative could largely transform the state’s regulatory and market structure.

It builds on the governor’s Green Bank, which also seeks market-driven investment in renewable energy instead of the current offering of subsidies and incentives. With Con Edison and other utilities having already sold off their power plants in the last round of deregulation, Quiniones noted, this is a natural next step, especially in an industry already in transition.

“We have started with the fact that they are really just delivery utilities and they get paid for delivering the utility,” Quiniones said. “If we add this role of being the traffic cop, they should be appropriately compensated by the various cityandstateny.com

distributed resource providers that deliver electricity. We just need to set up the right compensation scheme so utilities like Con Ed are really compensated, are able to invest and maintain the reliability that we need here in New York City.”

State officials have plenty to figure out about how to structure the new electricity market. They will have to develop interconnection rules, communications standards and technical rules for connecting to the grid. Parts of the existing system will have to be modernized with smart grid technology, including an effort now under way at NYPA. And officials would also have to determine how to charge customers and how utilities would recover costs.

If the REV initiative is a success, it would not be the first time New York was at the forefront of energy innovation.

“If you recall, the first power plant was built by Thomas Edison a few blocks from here at Pearl Street,” Quiniones said.

“And the first long-distance transmission of electricity occurred from Niagara Falls to Buffalo by Nikola Tesla. And so it is the right place for us to reclaim our place as the center and the leader of innovation in the power industry.”

city & state — May 26, 2014

Gil C. Quiniones, New York Power Authority president & CEO, said utilities would be expected to take on the role of “traffic cops” under the Reforming Energy Vision.

PERSPEC TIVES

THE CASE FOR MORE COPS

VANESSA L. GIBSON

N

umbers and statistics can be very important barometers of activity—but too often they fail to tell the whole story. A prime example can be seen in the impressive citywide crime statistics that were generated during the 12 years of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration.

During Bloomberg’s tenure as its chief executive, New York was fortunate to benefit from the New York Police Department’s successful record of reducing citywide murder and violent crime rates to levels so low that the Big Apple was widely

seen as the safest large city in the country.

However, an overreliance on policing tactics and strategies such as stop-and-frisk became increasingly controversial during former Police Chief Ray Kelly’s tenure, and raised concerns about the NYPD’s profiling of people of color—particularly young African-American and Latino men—while damaging the relationships between community residents and police on the streets.

As too many of my constituents—and residents throughout other parts of New York’s five boroughs—know firsthand, stop-and-frisk also proved ineffective in reducing an alarmingly high volume of gun violence in those communities that have been experiencing a persistently high level of street crime. Fortunately, a May 19 New York Times piece entitled “Killings Surge in North Bronx, Testing New Police Tactics” indicates that the NYPD is beginning to pursue a more collaborative—and less confrontational— approach to street crime and gun violence.

This is an important and dramatic shift in the NYPD’s crime-fighting efforts that I applaud and welcome—and as the department enhances its commitment to work more closely with residents, I would expect many of my constituents to join in supporting this new initiative.

But it is hard to envision that this

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city & state — May 26, 2014

Print. Mail. Win.

expanded effort to involve community residents will be successful without the commitment of additional resources, particularly additional uniformed personnel, in those communities most impacted by gun violence and the related street crime. In boroughs like the Bronx— which experienced 27 murders in the first four months of 2014 as compared with 21 murders in the same period last year—this precinct level commitment of additional police officers is essential to providing consistent visibility, and comes as our local precincts are starving for more resources.

The City Council’s proposal to add 1,000 uniformed officers to the ranks of the NYPD is specifically designed to provide Commissioner Bill Bratton and his command staff with the trained personnel needed to assure all New Yorkers that they will be safe in their homes and communities.

Allowing for an average increase of 13 uniformed officers per precinct throughout New York City, it would have a significant impact upon police staffing patterns on the ground in the communities of greatest need, and allow a more effective response to gun violence, gang activity, domestic violence, crime in public housing and other key public safety issues.

Strongly supported by the 26 members of the New York City Council who comprise the Black, Latino and Asian

Caucus, the Council’s proposal to add 1,000 precinct level officers is meant to supplement and enhance the crime prevention and policing initiatives that have already been undertaken by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Commissioner Bratton.

As chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, I intend my support for the proposal to be neither adversarial nor to detract from the positive anticrime initiatives and efforts that the NYPD and many of my constituents engage in each and every day.

Protecting the public safety of New Yorkers from all walks of life— regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference or the community where they live—is a tall order that requires a commitment of substantial resources. While expanding the NYPD’s staffing rolls by 1,000 uniformed officers would entail the additional expenditure of nearly $100 million, it is well worth the investment and would build upon the success our city has already achieved in protecting all New Yorkers.

Vanessa L. Gibson represents the 16th District of the New York City Council and is the chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee.

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ALEXIS GRENELL

I

t may not be obvious that renting out your apartment on a short-term basis is a slippery slope to hell, but according to recent news reports, Airbnb is basically a mass brothel. The New York Post has thrice recounted the tale of upstanding citizens who come home to find bodies intermingling in the boudoir. According to the Post, landlords, a notoriously law-

PASSING THE POLITICAL HOT POTATO

MICHAEL BENJAMIN

N

ew Yorkers act like we’re bipolar when it comes to how we approach diversity.

We regularly tout Chinatown, Little Italy, Little Africa, El Barrio, Harlem, and the Hasidic enclaves in Williamsburg and Borough Park as examples of the wonderful patchwork quilt that is our city’s identity, while ignoring our shameful inability to achieve housing and school integration.

I thought our city’s progressive mayor would surely challenge this contradiction when he unveiled his housing plan.

cityandstateny.com

the exemption will mitigate any negative impact on neighborhoods. Policymakers might also consider a cap on the number of days tenants can sublet their apartments on Airbnb per year, to reduce the revolving door effect on residential buildings. A regulatory framework would also hurt Airbnb’s growth curve, and slow the anticipated negative-demand shock effects on the industry.

Fundamentally, though, opponents don’t favor regulation; they want to preserve an industry that fears it might go the way of the video store. Structural unemployment is a serious concern, but the research is inconclusive on whether Airbnb will even negate formal hospitality. Either way, it’s useless to resist the forces of technology.

New York State didn’t ban digital film just to keep the Kodak processing plant open. In an increasingly expensive city, the sharing economy actually reduces costs, and makes it easier to travel while helping others pay their rent. A regulatory solution is far more realistic and effective than a punitive one that fails to address the public interest.

Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, the mayor’s housing plan does little to address the segregation in city neighborhoods and schools, despite acknowledging “nearly half of the city’s neighborhoods remain dominated by a single racial or ethnic group.”

The 116-page plan endorses mixed-use and mixed-income development and addresses changing demographics, but stops short of outlining steps to racially desegregate city neighborhoods.

Instead, the twin goals of maintaining neighborhood stability and preserving the ethnic character of city neighborhoods are the cornerstones of his plan.

Former mayoral candidate and New York City Councilman Sal Albanese says housing segregation is ignored largely because it is a political “hot potato.”

Last March the UCLA Civil Rights Project released a study showing that the New York City Department of Education runs the most segregated school system in America. The study stated, “Segregation in city schools is largely due to housing patterns, because housing and school segregation are correlated.”

Meanwhile, the mayor’s prized universal pre-K program will ensure that racially segregated schooling continues at the earliest grades in the very neighborhoods where “access to the education, jobs and other opportunities others enjoy,” in the words of the mayor’s plan, are absent.

“Education outcomes shouldn’t

be determined by zip code or housing patterns,” says Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union. “It’s so clear housing patterns affect school segregation, thus education quality, yet de Blasio doesn’t get that.”

Why should he? The status quo keeps the political class in place.

Last month The New York Times ran an extraordinary story alleging that for over 40 years Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (aided by his crooked pal William Rapfogel) thwarted residential development on a large vacant tract of land in his Lower East Side district. The Times piece pulls back the curtain on how Silver and his allies feared that development of hundreds of units of affordable housing would tip the political balance toward minorities.

Much of the city’s housing pattern is the result of de facto segregation, not any deliberate government policy or decree.

But over time (and, oddly, thanks in part to the Voting Rights Act), these patterns have calcified. Record numbers of black, Hispanic and Asian lawmakers have been elected to public offices from high segregation/low integration communities.

Only gays and lesbians have succeeded in being elected outside of their Greenwich Village and Chelsea enclaves.

Should de Blasio pursue maintaining the neighborhood character of our ethnic strongholds while not reducing racial isolation in other communities?

Racially isolated neighborhoods have

the worst schools, worst health outcomes and highest crime.

Political consultant Celeste Morris suggests, ”Community groups and concerned individuals will need to maintain a proactive stance to ensure the racial diversity we seek across the city.”

Morris advocates for “making good schools for all and decreasing [my emphasis] the advantages that public schoolchildren in wealthier neighborhoods enjoy over children in poorer neighborhoods where parents cannot afford to subsidize school equipment and activities.”

Perhaps desegregation as a progressive tenet has fallen out of fashion.

Mayor de Blasio, for all of his rhetoric about income inequality, affordable housing and our elite high schools not looking like the rest of the city, is hesitant to take on this real hot potato issue.

Maybe it’s politically safer to mandate paid sick days and higher minimum wages than to dismantle the city’s Bantustans.

A plan that preserves neighborhood “character” and promises to build denser and taller buildings does not address social and educational inequalities.

The best thing to do with a hot potato is to chop it up into a mulligan stew and feed it to everyone.

PERSPEC TIVES

their monopoly, and keep profits high.

Second, the union of hotel workers—the Hotel Trades Council—negotiates wages based in part on hotel revenues, and is concerned that supply will exceed demand.

Third, housing advocates worry about neighborhood destabilization and the loss of available housing stock as landlords flip residential buildings into hotels.

The attorney general has gotten involved, investigating Airbnb for violating the illegal hotels law, which prohibits a New York City tenant from subletting short-term. Someone can cat-sit while a tenant is away on vacation, but charge them a daily room rate and it’s grounds for eviction. That’s one thing sex and shortterm rentals have in common: They’re both legal to give away but illegal to sell.

Lost amid the subpoenas seems to be any real discussion about regulation. The Boston University study posits that Airbnb represents a supply-pushed expansion to the economy. In the long run, that means a decrease in consumer prices and an increase in potential tax revenue.

Airbnb has proposed an exemption to the statute, which would allow tenants to sublet their primary and secondary homes. The company argues that the tens of millions in tax revenue they’re willing to pay will benefit the city, and that excluding large-scale building owners from

Alexis Grenell (@agrenell on Twitter) is a Democratic communications strategist based in New York. She handles nonprofit and political clients.

Former Assemblyman Michael Benjamin (@SquarePegDem on Twitter) represented the Bronx for eight years.

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city & state — May 26, 2014

SEX, LIES AND AIRBNB

abiding bunch, have hired private eyes to help evict tenants who unknowingly sublet their apartments to sex workers.

The debate about Airbnb is quickly devolving into a whore-a-phobia worthy of Hawthorne. It’s ironic, considering that hotels usually play host to sex workers without incurring any hysteria from the press. But using an unpopular—and in this case, peripheral—constituency to stoke public outrage is nothing new. If this were the 1980s, the stories would be about gay men renting apartments and spreading AIDS. It’s a distraction from a far more complicated discussion about the effect of the sharing economy on the public good, and the hospitality industry as a whole.

A recent study from the Boston University School of Management looked at Texas and found that Airbnb had the biggest impact on down-market hotels, suggesting that budget travelers benefit the most from the service the website provides.

Hotels that cater to business travel were unaffected.

In New York City hotels are at their highest occupancy in a decade, with room rates averaging $281 a night, according to NYC & Co. Planned construction will add at least 11,000 rooms by 2016, and last year 52 million tourists flooded the Big Apple.

So what’s the problem?

First, the hoteliers want to preserve

CORPORATE AMERICA’S WORST NIGHTMARE ince the 1960s Ralph Nader has been the foremost consumer advocate in the United States and one of the most uncompromising critics of American government and industry. Famous (or infamous, depending upon one’s perspective) for his third-party campaigns for president, particularly in the wake of the controversial 2000 race, Nader has since left electoral politics behind but continued to use his renown to advocate for reform.

The author of more than two dozen books, he recently published Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State. City & State Editor Morgan Pehme spoke with Nader about the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street and impeaching President Obama.

The following is an edited transcript.

City & State: Given the partisan paralysis we always hear is gripping the United States government, your argument in Unstoppable that there could be a left-right coalition seems as if it would be counterintuitive for most Americans. What evidence do you see that such a coalition could actually come together and have real success?

Ralph Nader: It’s been coming together from time to time in recent decades. As a democratic society, we’re looking for the opinions and positions of people wherever they come from and whatever labels they give themselves, so it really starts with public opinion polls and other indicia that show that back in the communities of our country, there are concurrences on many major areas that I describe in my book—24 of them between left and right—and that constitutes an unstoppable majority if it emerges from verbal agreements into activity, into media, into legislatures and so forth. So there are stages. Some of the 24 are verbal agreements—they haven’t gone operational—but others are.

You can see it. Minimum wage comes in [at] 70 to 80 percent … the breakup of the banks comes in at 90 percent, the big New York banks. The prosecution of Wall Street crooks is at the same level.

Revision of the Patriot Act to preserve civil liberties and to drop government dragnet snooping, that comes in very high.

Revision of the corporate-managed trade agreements to stem the loss of employment cityandstateny.com

A Q&A WITH RALPH and sovereignty comes in very high— NAFTA and WTO. Eminent domain—the Supreme Court case on eminent domain in New London [Conn.]—remember the 5–4 decision allowing the city to condemn a whole housing neighborhood and give it to Pfizer corporation? (Four of the five were liberals, by the way.) And in the months following that 22 legislatures—left-right coalition legislatures—passed laws saying, “Not in this state. … You can’t take private property and give it to corporate property.

You can take private property for bridges and highways and so forth, but not … corporate property.” ...

Then there’s a growing leftright coalition—you can see it in the collaboration of Ron Paul and Barney Frank in the House of Representatives between 2010 and 2012—on the bloated military budget. That’s a really emerging one now, against empire, wars overseas and the military budget.

So when someone says, “Where’s the historic evidence?”—well, there’s a lot.

The auto safety bill passed unanimously in 1966, the False Claims Act that saved tens of billions of dollars passed with Senator [Chuck] Grassley on one side and Congressman Howard Berman on the other collaborating intensely. Most recently it was the Whistleblower [Protection] Act, which was really opposed by the corporate lobbyists, but they lost. Because of a left-right coalition in Congress, it was overwhelmingly passed.

C&S: In recent years we have seen the growth of two major populist

NADER

movements—the Tea Party on the right and Occupy Wall Street on the left—and it seemed at times there were concurrences—or at least the opportunity for concurrence—between the two. But then swiftly we saw on the right and on the left those movements being co-opted by the mainstream of the Republican and the Democratic Parties. How do you prevent that phenomenon from occurring?

RN: The Tea Party got so much publicity that it was hijacked by the corporate Republicans in Congress, who put the Tea Party label on them, and by some groups here [in D.C.] like Dick Armey’s group, and so on. It sort of pulled the rug out from under [the Tea Party]. Most of the Tea Party are libertarian types, Ron Paul types and so forth. Occupy wasn’t so much hijacked as it was—once they were evicted from their encampment, they had no organization process, so they lost the mass media—and they didn’t want to have leaders or programs! We tried to get them to adopt the minimum wage. They could have surrounded Congressional offices back home and had protests, and represented 30 million people who are making less today than 1968, adjusted for inflation. And they said, “It’s a great issue, but we’re not organized to pull it off.” Once they were evicted from their encampments around the county, they didn’t have any money. A lot of them went back to California and Texas from Manhattan because they couldn’t afford the housing. That was an important factor that was very little reported.

C&S: You have called on President Obama to be impeached over how he handled Libya. Obviously, that is a view that alienates a lot of Democrats. You also alienate a lot of Republicans. Are you the wrong person to try to bring about this left-right unity movement?

RN: [Laughs] Not if I start back home.

At the community level, that doesn’t operate. … The right-wing think tanks, they have problems. They have their own priorities. They may like what I’m saying, but they have other priorities that are opposed by the left, and those are the priorities that the Koch Brothers and Richard Scaife and others fund. … [And], sure, there are some Democrats, who never forgive anybody who challenges the party from the left, and they never will, whether it’s Henry Wallace or Eugene Debs or me. … But that’s kind of a cliquish liberal intelligentsia syndrome. I’ve been all over the country; I don’t see that back home.

Back home they’re much more empirical about what they want, where they work, where they play, raising families, and so forth. And they’re much more tolerant of third-party challenges as well.

C&S: I see a lot of people who identify the problems that you’re talking about in their daily lives, but they feel so removed from the government that there’s no way they can influence policy—so they just keep their heads down and concentrate on their own families. Doesn’t this seem like the largest obstacle to what you’re trying to accomplish?

RN: Yeah, it is. But once they see left-right, they become very encouraged.

They don’t feel so isolated, especially in gerrymandered districts. It gives them a new source of energy, a higher morale. You can see it when it happens. The problem is there needs to be more institutional support for it, back home and in Washington. The media needs to report it more often. They sort of like to report it when it becomes quite visible. They love that opening sentence: “Unlikely allies today… Odd bedfellows…” It’s an easy first sentence.

It’s counterintuitive.

To read the full version of this interview, including Nader’s opinion of Hillary Clinton and what he says made Richard Nixon “freak out,” go to www.cityandstateny.com.

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city & state — May 26, 2014

NICK BYGON

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