City Hall - August 15, 2011 by City Hall News

CARL KRUGER, below, has rivals eyeing his seat (Page 4), the city ponders who should get a .NYC WEB ADDRESS (Page 8)

Vol. 5, No. 14

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and CHRISTINE QUINN, above, calibrates her relationship with the mayor (Page 20).

August 15, 2011

pg. 10

Andrew Schwartz/Illustration by Joey Carolino

UPFRONT

Summertime Blues We asked the city’s top pols what song they can’t get out of their heads this summer, and why: MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG The mayor has no new favorite; he usually listens to oldies on satellite radio, and uses the iPad app Shazam to identify songs he doesn’t know.

COMPTROLLER JOHN LIU

PUBLIC ADVOCATE BILL DE BLASIO

“ ‘Soak Up the Sun’ by Sheryl Crow—just a great all-around song for any reason.”

“ ‘Dog Days Are Over’ by Florence + the Machine— I love the lyrics ‘Leave all your love and your longing behind/ You can’t carry it with you if you want to survive.’ ”

CITY COUNCIL MINORITY LEADER JAMES ODDO “ ‘Closing Time’ by Semisonic —I remembered the opening lyric when I closed on my house, and now can’t get it out of my head.”

By The Numbers

$12M

RAISING LESS

$10,035,181

New York City political fund-raising is slower than it was in the ﬁrst 18 months of the last election cycle — perhaps because several candidates are sitting on war chests accumulated before term limits were extended:

CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER CHRISTINE QUINN “ ‘The Edge of Glory’ by Lady Gaga—featuring the last saxophone solo ever released by Clarence Clemons.”

$10M

$7,878,848

$8M

$6,185,340 $6M

$4,185,238

$5,058,158

$4M

$2M

Jan. 1994–July 1995

Jan. 1998–July 1999

Jan. 2002–July 2003

Jan. 2006–July 2007

Jan. 2010–July 2011

Sources: Campaign Finance Board

The Month Ahead (August 15–September 12) Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer’s birthday

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver discusses progress in Lower Manhattan

Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne’s birthday

ABNY breakfast with Mayor Michael Bloomberg

“After ‘I Do’ ” forum at Borough of Manhattan Community College

Ex-Sen. Pedro Espada’s trial begins

Ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s birthday CWA 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes’ birthday

Former Rep. Major Owens signs his book The Peacock Elite at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn

Political operative John Haggerty’s trial begins

Councilwoman Gale Brewer’s birthday

10th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks

Public meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy

New York League of Conservation Voters host forum on green advocacy

Bronx Democratic Party Chairman Carl Heastie hosts a reception for Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson

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Crain’s unveils its “50 Most Powerful Women in New York City” list

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Seaman Avenue & W 218th Street 10th Avenue & W 218th Street Dyckman Street & Seaman Avenue Riverside Dr & W 157th Street

If you can film it here, you can film it anywhere (with a few notable exceptions)

ince 2006, the number of television series shooting on New York City streets has jumped from nine in a single year to 23, not counting student films and major motion pictures. But using the real city streets often brings logistical headaches for the people who live here. And that’s where the hot spot list comes in. The list, created by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB), is a constantly shifting guide. It is updated on an almost weekly basis to show film industry employees places in New York where filming is strongly discouraged, for reasons ranging from construction to security issues to scenic neighborhood filming burnout. There were 20 locations on the July 1 list, including city blocks in Little Italy, part of the Greenpoint waterfront in Brooklyn, and a scenic stretch of homes in Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park. In recent months, the number of resident complaints about film crews has become, if not greater, more audible. This fall, for instance, Brooklyn Community Board 1 is holding a hearing with MOFTB about residents’ concerns that Greenpoint is being overrun by film crews that block street access and hurt local businesses. But the mayor’s office says the annual citywide revenue brought in by the film crews, estimated at $5 billion, justifies their presence. For any New Yorker who’s ever wondered if there’s any place still sacred in the city grid, we present to you last month’s hot spots—a visual index to where you should wander if you want to stumble onto a movie set, or a warning sign for those who’d rather steer clear. —Laura Nahmias lnahmias@cityhallnews.com

This map shows places in Manhattan where, as of July 1, filmmakers were strongly discouraged from using as filming locations because of over-filming, construction or other reason. Riverside Drive & W 157th Street

92nd Street To 100th Street btw 5th Avenue – Park Avenue 92nd Street- 96th Street btw Central Park West Amsterdam Avenue

Downtown Wants Its Own 9/11 Memorial

n one month, all eyes will turn toward Ground Zero for the opening of the 9/11 memorial. But although the memorial service will be televised live, the site itself will be closed to everyone except top officials and the families of those who died during the attacks. Enter Community Board 1 president Julie Menin, who is planning a daylong commemoration on Saturday, Sept. 10, open to anyone scarred by the terror attacks who has no place to stand in the official remembrance. In collaboration with the mayor’s office, the Police Department and the Port Authority, she has planned a human chain of community residents holding hands up the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan, along a still to-be-determined route, starting at precisely 8:46 a.m.—the time the first tower was struck. “Over the course of the last year, people all across the city have told me they were looking for a way to commemorate the anniversary, but they really weren’t sure how,” said Menin, who 10 years ago owned a catering business in Tribeca, near the former site of the World Trade Center. To help, the Port Authority is creating a temporary corkboard wall in Battery Park City for visitors to tack up homemade letters, cards and memorials. The “wall of remembrance” is a visual reminder of the early days after the attacks, when downtown New York was covered in flyers posted by families looking for loved ones still missing. As time passed the flyers became a memorial themselves, as more and more of the missing were declared dead. Menin began planning the event, which she’s calling Hand in Hand 9/11, just three months ago. Eventage, an events group that helps run the New York City Marathon, is one of several companies donating its services to coordinate the expected mass of people. Eventage partner Matt Glass said he hopes the event will run smoothly fueled by goodwill, the way New York seemed to function on hope after the attacks 10 years ago. “All of the people who come to this event will be there for the same reason,” said Glass. “Just like on September 12, you didn’t care who the person was standing next to you.” —Laura Nahmias lnahmias@cityhallnews.com

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East 90th Street 97th Street btw 1st Avenue - 3rd Avenue

78th Street btw 5th Avenue – Madison Avenue

5th Avenue btw 65th – 66th Streets East 52nd Street Btw Park Avenue – Madison Avenue

55th Street btw 1st Avenue – 2nd Avenue

20th Street To 23rd Street btw 8th Avenue – 11th Avenue

East 5th Street btw 1st Avenue – 3rd Avenue

Prince Street Canal Street btw Broadway W. Broadway

10th Street To 12th Street btw 6th Avenue – University Place West 11th Street To West 12th Street btw Greenwich Street – West Side Highway Canal Street to Chambers Street btw Varick/W. Bwy - W.S. Hwy

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(Locations, courtesy the Mayor’s Ofﬁce of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting)

Talkie of the Town

Elizabeth Street - Mulberry Street Btw Houston – Spring Street

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AUGUST 15, 2011

Daniel Burnstein

The Kruger Question Whether he resigns or is forced out, the campaign to replace the embattled senator is already under way By Colin Campbell

arl Kruger, who once helped hold the Legislature hostage in 2008, may not even hold onto his own seat through 2012. The Brooklyn senator has a January trial date on federal corruption charges. If he is convicted or accepts a felony plea bargain, he would be forced to resign from the Legislature. And while his lawyer vows to fight, Brooklyn pols are already looking to fill a Kruger-size vacuum. Taking early advantage of the potential vacancy is term-limited City Councilman Lew Fidler, who has emerged as the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination. The veteran councilman, who has an electoral history in Kruger’s district stretching all the way back to 1994, is a popular leading member in two of the most prominent Democratic clubs in the district. “I don’t think I’m a stranger to just about any neighborhood—in the southern half of Brooklyn, at least,” Fidler said, noting that he has funded “many, many things outside my district” through the City Council’s annual member items. Fidler raised an impressive $327,000 this year for an unspecified state office that most people believe will be Kruger’s

AUGUST 15, 2011

seat, but Fidler has not publicly discussed his intentions to avoid antagonizing the embattled incumbent. Similarly, every Democratic source contacted would only speak privately about Fidler’s Senate

and communicate their own brand than during the presidential election year. One Republican, attorney David Storobin, has recently opened a campaign account and seems actively interested in a potential campaign. Several other Republican names have been floated as potential challengers as well, but they live just outside the district’s borders.

“We’re going to have as much respect for the senator and the Constitution as is appropriate. I’m going to be prepared for whatever happens, and I think that’s appropriate as well.” campaign. “The only comment I can make is that we’re going to have as much respect for the senator and the Constitution as is appropriate, and that’s what I’m doing,” Fidler said. “I’m going to be prepared for whatever happens, and I think that’s appropriate as well.” If Kruger resigns, Gov. Andrew Cuomo would have the opportunity to call a special election in a district that voted 55 percent for John McCain in 2008— more heavily than every upstate Republican district. That would give more oxygen for local Democrats to introduce

Storobin says Fidler is too far left to be a good fit for the district’s somewhat atypical demographics. “There’s little support for gay marriage in this district, looking at the Russian Jewish community, the Orthodox Jewish community, and the Catholic community,” Storobin said. “People who don’t know much about Southern Brooklyn will say, ‘Oh, it’s in Brooklyn; the Republicans can’t win.’ The reality is that there are some districts that are…potentially competitive.” Democrats are confident in Fidler, however. He has spent years taking care of the district’s powerful Jewish organi-

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zations. Outspoken Assemblyman Dov Hikind, an Orthodox Democrat who sometimes endorses Republicans, is in Fidler’s corner. And the area’s legislators at every level of government are all Democratic. Yet Storobin insists a Republican has a fighting chance in the district—and expects a contest before the end of the year. “There’s a decent probability of [Kruger] taking a plea sometime between September and December,” said Storobin, who works as a criminal defense lawyer. “The way that they count how much time you serve is by a point system. One of the several factors is accepting responsibility, and he only gets the benefit of those points if he does it a week before the trial.” Kruger’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, insisted he would fight to the end: “There’s no truth to any rumor that there’s a plea bargain being discussed with anyone.” Other Brooklyn pols agree it’s too soon to count Kruger out. “You don’t spend three quarters of a million dollars to Brafman and Associates if you’re going to plea out,” argued one Democratic official familiar with criminal law. In fact, the only thing certain in a shadow race for an occupied seat is that no one believes Kruger can win reelection—so the district will have a fresh face in the Senate by 2013. “There will be an inevitable vacancy in the State Senate. It’s only a question of when,” one Brooklyn Democratic consultant said. “The only people who know the timing are Carl Kruger, his lawyer and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

CITY HALL

On Cloud 9th The race to replace Anthony Weiner in Congress faces an existential crisis BY STEPHEN WITT

AUGUST 15, 2011

Joey Carolino

ew York’s Ninth Congressional District faces an existential crisis: The seat is empty now, and is likely to vanish after next year. So perhaps it’s fitting that Ninth District voters face an existential crisis of their own: How can they pick their next congressman when the election has nothing to do with their neighborhoods? The Democrats picked an organization man, Assemblyman David Weprin, as their candidate in what had always been a solid district for them. Then Republican Tea Party upstart Bob Turner, a 70-year-old media executive who ran for the seat once before, upended the race by turning it into a referendum on issues far afield from Brooklyn and Queens. He won backing from former mayor Ed Koch, who was angry enough about President Barack Obama’s stance on Israel that he crossed religious and party lines to endorse the non-Jewish Turner—even though Weprin is an Orthodox Jew. Koch argued that electing a Republican to Congress from the heavily Jewish district would send a powerful message to Obama. This prompted Orthodox Jewish Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver to put a call in to fellow landsman, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the country’s most prominent Orthodox Jewish politician. “I reminded Senator Lieberman that when he ran for president David supported him at my request, and he said he would be delighted to support David,” said Silver. Turner’s campaign responded by dredging up a wedge issue from last year’s elections, noting that in the past Weprin supported the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” while Lieberman opposed it. “We are curious to know what each of their positions are today,” said Turner campaign spokesman William O’Reilly. “Is it appropriate for a mosque to be built in the shadow of the World Trade Center? It is a legitimate question and the public has a right to know.” But it’s a long way from the Ninth District, an oddlyshaped swath of Queens with a smaller chunk of Brooklyn tacked on the side, that has already seen more than its share of strange politics this year. The seat belonged to Anthony Weiner until his Twitter-fueled Internet self-immolation in June. Gov. Andrew Cuomo called a Sept. 13 special election to fill the vacancy, allowing party leaders to handpick their candidates. Queens County Democratic boss Rep. Joe Crowley promptly picked Weprin, whose family has been part of the Queens machine since his dad, Saul, ruled the state Assembly. Weprin, 55, chaired the Finance Committee on the City Council until he ran for city comptroller. After coming in third in that race, he ran for his brother Mark’s Assembly seat, who in turn won David’s Council office.

Some of the faces that have cropped up in the race for the Ninth District: (clockwise from the top) Rep. Joe Crowley, Assemblyman David Weprin, Sen. Joe Lieberman, ex-Mayor Ed Koch, Bob Turner, Anthony Weiner’s chest and President Barack Obama. Weprin does not actually live in the district, but that’s not a problem in New York politics. Brooklyn Democratic boss Assemblyman Vito Lopez gave the choice his begrudging blessing. “All I’ll say is, Weprin will carry Brooklyn,” Lopez said through a spokesperson. While Weprin maintains he’s his own man, his campaign headquarters shares a building—and until recently, a phone number—with the Queens County Democratic Party. “We’re renting space from them in Forest Hills because it’s a short race and it’s in the middle of the Ninth Congressional District,” said Weprin. He is trying to refocus the race on national economic issues that hit home in the district, calling for a balance between budget cuts and higher taxes on high earners— though he didn’t specify a level for higher tax rates to kick in. “Real millionaires should pay a little more,” Weprin said. “Clearly there is room for higher taxes on oil companies and companies that export jobs overseas.” A recent Siena poll showed Weprin with a narrow six-point lead, but also found voters in the district overwhelmingly support (65-33 percent) raising taxes on those who earn at least $250,000, and overwhelmingly oppose (72-24 percent) cuts to entitlements, such as Medicare and Social Security.

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“The deciding issues in this election will be the fiscal and personal security of people who live in the district. It’s all about the pocket,” said longtime Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who said Weprin needs to bring out the Irish and Italian vote in neighborhoods such as Howard Beach and Breezy Point to win. Turner, who received 40 percent of the vote against Weiner last year, says now is not the time to raise taxes on anybody. “In fact, we should give more tax credits,” Turner said, “and not just to oil companies but to any business ventures.” If the race has touched little on the concerns of Ninth District voters so far, however, that may be because there won’t be a Ninth District much longer. New York will need to eliminate two congressional districts next year to accommodate national population shifts, and most observers expect to lose a Republican seat upstate and a Democratic seat in the New York City area. Several Democratic sources said Crowley picked Weprin because when the time comes he’ll fall on his own sword, rather than imperil any incumbents. “David Weprin has always been a loyal soldier to the regular Democratic organization in Queens,” Sheinkopf said. “He’ll do the loyal thing.” editor@cityhallnews.com

CITY HALL

Special Needs A host of Assembly special elections across the five boroughs—but will voters come out? BY AARON SHORT

73rd Assembly race Paul Niehaus (R) vs. Daniel Quart (D) Less than a year after suffering a stinging 29-point defeat to outgoing Assemblyman Jonathan Bing, Upper East Side Republican Paul Niehaus is at it again. This time the 38-year-old attorney hopes to capture the seat from attorney and Community Board 8 member Daniel Quart. Niehaus has Manhattan Republicans and conservative-leaning luminaries such as former Mayor Ed Koch behind him, and has spent much of his time on the trail criticizing Albany gridlock, corporate tax rates, and “out of control” spending at the ever-popular MTA. But Quart, who launched a failed bid for City Council in 2005, quickly secured support from Manhattan’s leading Democratic women, including Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, State Sen. Liz Krueger, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilwoman Jessica Lappin. So far Quart has raised $58,442 this year, and he has $63,911 on hand to spend in the race. That’s $64,270 more than Niehaus, who is $359 in debt, according to state campaign-finance filings.

23rd Assembly race Phil Goldfeder (D) vs. Jane Deacy (R) Neither candidate in this competitive Queens district is spending much time catching the waves on Rockaway Beach this summer—unless they are handing out campaign lit. Goldfeder, a Rockaway resident, is the latest staffer from Sen. Chuck Schumer’s farm team to seek office. He cut his teeth working for Queens Council members James Sanders and James Gennaro before running Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Queens Community Assistance Unit. But Deacy, a Breezy Point resident and former cop, has seen her star rise while serving as a co–district leader to charismatic Rockaway Councilman Eric Ulrich. The swing district features pockets of conservative voters in Breezy Point and Broad Channel, as well as liberal enclaves in Howard Beach and Far Rockaway. Goldfeder raised an impressive $120,172 this year, and still has $112,441 to spend on the race—four times the amount Deacy has in her campaign account.

27th Assembly race Michael Simanowitz (D) vs. Marco DeSena (R) Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn, who retired from her seat after 28 years, hopes her chief of staff for half her tenure, Michael Simanowitz, will succeed her in office. Simanowitz has the backing of Schumer and an array of Queens Democrats who hope he can help him retain the seat. But Queens Republicans have other ideas. College Point resident Marco DeSena, a professor at Baruch College and former Giuliani speechwriter, has been touted by Queens leaders as a “technocrat” and an “outsider” committed to keeping taxes low. But DeSena has only raised $9,500 this year, while Simanowitz has $105,788 to spend on the race after transferring $61,000 from his failed 2008 Fresh Meadows City Council race into his Assembly campaign account.

54th Assembly race Rafael Espinal (D) vs. Jesus Gonzalez (WFP) vs. Deidra Towns (Community First) Never mind the party designations—these three are all dyed-in-the-wool capital-D Democrats. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo called a special election instead of an open primary to replace former Assemblyman Darryl Towns, giving Brooklyn’s powerful Democratic Party leader, Vito Lopez, an opening to fill the seat with a friendly candidate of his choosing. His choice is 26-year-old Rafael Espinal, Councilman Erik Martin Dilan’s energetic chief of staff. Espinal has roots in Cypress Hills and the full backing of the Dilan family, which hopes to foment a growing empire in an extremely Latino-leaning district. But this district isn’t big enough for two dynasties. Congressman Ed Towns wants his daughter, Deidra, to keep the seat in the family. And Bushwick upstart Jesus Gonzalez hopes to wrestle the office from both the Towns and Dilan families—with the financial support and organizational backing of Make the Road, the Working Families Party and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. Each campaign is well-financed for the home stretch. Espinal has $64,091 in his campaign coffers, while Towns has $67,500 and Gonzalez has $53,710. But Towns and Gonzalez have spent $25,000 each, while Espinal has only spent $6,000 since Darryl Towns announced he would leave his job. editor@cityhallnews.com

CITY HALL

Our Perspective Revenues Falling, Wal-Mart Seeks Bite of Big Apple By Stuart Appelbaum, President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW

al-Mart has renewed its efforts to enter New York City, four years after initially giving up when it failed to open stores in Queens and Staten Island. At the time, Wal-Mart’s CEO said that penetrating New York City wasn’t “worth the effort.” But much has changed since 2007. Wal-Mart is back, and this time it’s trying harder than ever. Wal-Mart has a fancy new website and expensive new ads, and the company is spreading money around New York City in an effort to gloss over its alarming history of killing good jobs, destroying small businesses, mistreating employees, preventing unionization, limiting consumer choice, and constraining competition in the marketplace. Why the sudden change of heart? Recent reports have shown a steady trend: the company’s revenues are declining. In fact, investment company Jefferies downgraded Wal-Mart’s stock in early August due to the fact that revenue in stores open at least a year has dropped for eight straight quarters. Efforts to grow the company’s sales in suburban and rural areas over the last several years have been unsuccessful, and Wal-Mart is feeling the sting from a recently reported failed $3 billion attempt to acquire BJ’s Wholesale Club. In the face of stagnant growth and falling revenues, the Big Apple is looking mighty tempting to the world’s biggest retailer. A broad coalition of New Yorkers — union workers, community leaders, small business owners, clergy and elected officials — has been successful so far in keeping Wal-Mart out of New York. This diverse group knows that the cost of Wal-Mart’s low prices is too high for our city. Wal-Mart sets the standard for the communities in which it sets up shop. And Wal-Mart’s standards — low-wage jobs with poor benefits — will only make it harder for working people to survive. Wal-Mart is larger and more powerful than all its big-box competitors combined, and it would drive down wages and benefits throughout the retail sector here. By hiding behind self-financed studies and polls, the Wal-Mart PR machine is trying to paint the retailer as a good corporate citizen. But Wal-Mart refuses to answer tough questions about its record. It is running away from New Yorkers, rather than engaging them in serious dialogue. Visit www.walmartfreenyc.com for more information on what Wal-Mart means to our city, and how you can get involved in the grassroots movement opposing the changes that it would bring.

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AUGUST 15, 2011

Master Of The “.NYC” Domain New York City will face complexities with new Internet domain name BY JON LENTZ

n array of New York City-oriented websites could be popping up all over the Internet starting in 2013, with names like “pizza.nyc,” “parkslope .nyc” and “politics.nyc.” A localized “.nyc” domain name, which the city plans to apply for early next year, will likely be one of countless new alternatives to the well-worn “.com”—and could raise some extra cash for the city. But first city officials will have to work their way through a thicket of thorny issues: Who should be allowed to use the “.nyc” ending? If the city gets the rights to the suffix, as expected, how much should the government charge people to use it? And what happens when someone submits an application for “strippers .nyc”? “If it’s legal, it’s all to be discussed,” said Councilwoman Gale Brewer, a longtime proponent of “.nyc.” “Should ‘mcdonalds.nyc’ be included? Should ‘strippers.nyc’ be included? These are all good questions. It would make me crazy to include ‘walmart.nyc.’ ” The “.nyc” domain came one step closer to reality in June when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international body that oversees “.com” and the 21 other generic top-level domain names like “.info” and “.edu,” voted to open up Web address endings to any new name people can come up with. If New York’s application for “.nyc” is successful, the city will be allowed to set the criteria on who can use it and how much each Web address will cost. “Folks that get the ‘.nyc’ domains would have some nexus to New York City—someone who either lives here, or an entity or corporation or business either based here or [who] does business here, or something along those lines,” said Nick Sbordone, a spokesman for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, which is overseeing the city’s effort. “We want there to be a somewhat tangible connection to the city itself.” The city’s application is still in the planning stages, and officials have not selected a vendor to oversee the project, but Sbordone said many addresses would be inexpensive, likely under $50, like a typical “.com” site. More popular site names like “pizza .nyc” would go to the highest bidder. The owner of a “pizza.nyc” site could then allow other vendors to use its name, with

AUGUST 15, 2011

potential sites like “pizzahut.pizza.nyc” or “grimaldis.pizza.nyc.” The city also plans to reserve a few hundred government-oriented names— like “cops.nyc” and “education.nyc”—for

Tom Lowenhaupt, who has been advocating for the use of “.nyc” for a decade, worries that the city will squander the valuable new resource by selling off as many addresses as possible to the highest

“Should ‘mcdonalds.nyc’ be included? Should ‘strippers.nyc’ be included? These are all good questions. It would make me crazy to include ‘walmart.nyc.’ ” itself, but there are no immediate plans to replace the city’s “nyc.gov” domain with “gov.nyc” any time soon. One potential challenge would come if the city receives applications for legal yet controversial sites like “smoking.nyc,” which would prove awkward for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has worked to restrict smoking in the city.

bidders. What he envisions instead is a carefully planned system largely built around locally run neighborhood sites like “harlem.nyc” and “coneyisland.nyc.” “If we had a tool that would allow us to communicate locally, that would be wonderful,” said Lowenhaupt. “We have proposed that there be not-for-profits that give the name to entities that express

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an interest in serving the needs of the specific community. And if they’re not doing it, the names can be taken back. For example, if ‘corona.nyc’ is selling beer rather serving the needs of that community, they lose it.” Sbordone said the city plans to hold hearings to gather public input. But before anything else happens, the city has to secure the rights to “.nyc.” Milton Mueller, a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, said he’d like to see people outside of city government take over city-oriented domain names. “A site that gets into the nitty-gritty about the city is unlikely to get the approval of local politicians and power brokers,” Mueller said in an email. “But the ICANN regime is so conservative that if a city objects, such a person would be very unlikely to get it.” jlentz@cityhallnews.com

CITY HALL

THE INFLUENTIALS Important non-electeds most New Yorkers have never heard of

eal power doesn’t always show its face in New York City. Behind the scenes in government, business, labor and the nonprofit world, the forces that propel the city are often marshaled by people who rarely

rise to public prominence. While politicians, top executives and other leaders may be the faces outsiders see of major initiatives, insiders know better. City Hall’s second annual list of 20 influential non-elected officials profiles those people with deep contacts, long institutional memories and sterling reputations for getting things done. In these pages, you’ll meet the people who can build skyscrapers and rezone neighborhoods, who can steer elections and guide City Hall, who can mobi-

lize tens of thousands of people and millions of dollars, who can quietly build a consensus before most New Yorkers even know what’s at issue. We recognize them to honor their ability to drive the agenda in a city as complicated as New York—and to provide a guide to New Yorkers who want to know how the city really works.

Photos by Andrew Schwartz and Dan Burnstein

Elizabeth Berger

President, Alliance for Downtown New York

ike a beat cop, Elizabeth Berger stalks the streets of lower Manhattan, talking to residents and elected officials, taking the temperature of the neighborhood. “I just want to understand what’s going on,” said Berger, who has presided over the Alliance for Downtown New York since 2007 and lives two blocks from the office. “The community that I care about the most is the one in which I live.” ADNY is a business-improvement district that provides lower Manhattan with sanitation and public transportation services, tourism programs, homeless outreach, economic development strategies—and most important, relentless belief in the vibrancy of an area devastated after the fall of the World Trade Center 10 years ago. “There is no average day on this job,” Berger said. On a typical day this month she worked on both an art project to mitigate the impact of some local construction and the operational plans for opening the World Trade Center Memorial—not only for guests but for the downtown residents whose daily lives intersect with the site. In the almost four years Berger has been president, she pushed for a faster opening of the Fulton Street Transit Center, routed funds from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to beautify streets and helped sell the prospect of business downtown to companies looking to relocate. Though she is the public face of the alliance, most of Berger’s work is behind the scenes, generating narratives of the area to reporters and businesses that shape its public perception and its future. “I’m very interested in the life of cities, and the notion of what makes the urban experience work,” said Berger, who developed her own urban-studies major at Yale and was an aide to former Mayor Ed Koch. “This has been an extraordinary opportunity to put ideas and relationships and everything I’ve learned along the way into practice.” —Laura Nahmias

AUGUST 15, 2011

Michael Miller

CEO, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York

ichael Miller’s job as head of the Jewish Community Relations Council puts him at the head of an umbrella group of 60 diverse Jewish organizations across the city. But what Miller actually does on a day-to-day basis is a little more difficult to explain than if he had become, say, a doctor or a lawyer. “This is not a very easy profession to describe,” Miller said, after almost three decades on the job. “Community relations is an undefined field.” Much of Miller’s work involves formulating an effective, unified response to crises for the Jewish community here and in Israel. (The time difference between New York and Israel is one reason why Miller’s days often begin at 5 a.m.) Whether he’s responding to a controversy, dispelling inaccurate rumors floating among member organizations about a possible terrorist threat, working with the police, or helping ease tensions between the Jewish community and other religious or ethnic groups, Miller is constantly on the phone or working behind the scenes. But the organization, which is not taxpayer-funded and runs entirely on private philanthropy, is about more than just crisis management. Miller is a point person for elected officials taking trips to Israel. He is also quietly working to try and ensure that the Jewish community will still have a strong voice after the next round of legislative redistricting, which could significantly alter several heavily Jewish congressional and State Senate districts. In mid-May, after a foiled plot to bomb a synagogue in Manhattan, Miller was at the press conference with Mayor Michael Bloomberg responding to the threat. Miller says that his job has grown more complex as the amount of information available has increased. “It used to be that you could just read the ‘A’ section of The New York Times and that would be it for the day,” Miller said. “Now, you don’t know what’s going to be coming at you.” —Chris Bragg

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CITY HALL

James Whelan

Senior Vice President for Public Affairs, Real Estate Board of New York

ew York City bears the imprint of James Whelan’s career: a resurgent Union Square Park, renovations throughout downtown Brooklyn and the master plan for an enormous development in Willets Point, Queens. Yet the man behind them—and other major city projects in recent years—is largely unknown outside of the offices in the city and Albany where he directs his efforts.

“I don’t often surface publicly,” explained Whelan, who still lives in Queens, where he was born and raised. He specializes in bringing complex projects to fruition by coordinating public- and private-sector efforts, drawing on his experiences in government, nonprofits and the business world. In his first major development, he ran the 14th Street–Union Square Local Development Corp. as it turned its namesake park into a destination again—paving the way for the area’s resurgence. “It was [my] first real demonstration of the ability for advocacy to really improve an area,” he recalled. “Fourteenth Street was down and out. There was nothing going on, on the perimeter of the park. You didn’t go into Union Square Park. You didn’t want to go into the area.” His résumé later grew to include experience at influential nonprofits like the Downtown Brooklyn Council, in the City Hall bull pen as the chief of staff to former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and as a senior vice president at Muss Development. “The fact that he lived in both worlds—meaning government and the private sector—permits him to be more influential,” said his boss, REBNY President Steven Spinola. “It lets him understand how someone sitting in City Hall or the governor’s office will react to something. He sees things from a much broader point of view.” Today Whelan represents the interests of the city’s real estate industry, which is dominated by families who know that the value of their holdings is tied up in the long-term health of New York City. “What’s important is ensuring the health and growth of the city,” Whelan said. “We have a particular point of view, but it’s one that’s good for the city.” —Adam Lisberg

THE INFLUENTIALS

Jesse Masyr

Partner, Masyr & Wachtel, LLP

hen developers want to get big projects done in New York City, they dial up Jesse Masyr. Masyr is known as the city’s preeminent land-use lawyer, shepherding large and complex developments through a thicket of red tape for the Related Companies and other big developers. The Brooklyn IKEA in Red Hook, the Target at the Bronx Terminal Market and a slew of other projects

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across the city owe their existence in large part to Masyr’s expertise. Masyr cut his chops as Manhattan Deputy Borough President from 1978 to 1982, serving as the borough’s representative on the Board of Estimate. All land-use decisions went through the board until it was eliminated in 1989, and Masyr says that gave developers an easier time pushing projects to completion. “Going through the City Council, there are many more people you have to deal with now,” Masyr said. “With the Board of Estimate, if you wanted to do a project in Staten Island, all you needed was the Staten Island borough president in your favor.” Each development is unique, he said. At some, local elected officials are concerned about traffic. At others, like Thor Equities’ planned BJ’s Wholesale Club at Coney Island, the big issue is local job creation. Of course, local elected officials cannot always be satisfied, as shown by Masyr and Related’s high-profile defeat at the Kingsbridge Armory development in the Bronx over officials’ insistence on the creation of so-called “living wage” jobs. As both the liaison to elected officials for developers and the person who represents them at contentious landuse hearings, Masyr says he catches more than his fair share of heat from local community groups that oppose big projects. And the heat won’t be off any time soon, as he helps lead discussions between Walmart and Related over a potential first store in New York City at the Gateway II development in Brooklyn. “I don’t see myself as a behind-the-scenes person at all,” Masyr said. “On most of these projects, I’m the one who stands up and is the face of it.” —Chris Bragg

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John Banks III

Vice President for Government Relations, Con Edison

hen electric and gas bills go up, New Yorkers blame Con Edison. But John Banks, Con Ed’s vice president for government relations, spends much of his time persuading lawmakers to block measures that would raise costs for the company’s customers even higher. This year, for example, Banks helped defeat a bill requiring utilities to supply more energy from solar power, arguing it would be too costly for its customers. He beat back a prevailing wage measure on the same grounds. “We tried very hard to protect customers from hidden and unwanted costs that have nothing to do with the delivery of the energy that they use,” Banks said. “The bottom line is, there are things that are done legislatively that have a tremendous impact on a customer’s bill, but people don’t see the connection between the public policy decisions and their bills.” Banks, who joined Con Ed in 2002, manages the company’s interaction with government not just in Albany but also in New York City and Washington, D.C. He got his start in the Koch administration, joined the City Council’s finance division in 1990 and rose to become deputy director of finance there, burnishing his fiscal credentials. His reach extends beyond Con Ed to the MTA, where he sits on the board. He also served as vice chair of last year’s Charter Revision Commission. While much of his job is meeting with lawmakers, Banks said he’s happy to stay behind the scenes and avoid the sometimes harsh spotlight elected officials must endure. “I’m very much not interested in being the public persona of whatever public policy issue I’m working on,” Banks said. “As a staff person, all you have to do is work hard and give your honest policy perception of what is being discussed. Then that’s it. It’s up to the elected official to go out and do the really hard work.” —Jon Lentz AUGUST 15, 2011

Steve McInnis

Political Director, New York City District Council of Carpenters

n 1998 the New York City District Council of Carpenters was rocked by scandal when its former president was convicted of stealing $50,000 from a fund earmarked for unemployed carpenters. In the shake-up that followed, a onetime union carpenter named Steve McInnis was given a cubicle and a phone, and was told to bring the union back from political oblivion. “I learned as I went, and we sharpened our skills over the years,” McInnis said. “I was pretty much thrown in the deep end, and learned how to swim.” The carpenters have since emerged as a small but potent political force. Over the past decade, McInnis has instituted classes to train organizing “captains.” Members also have an incentive to get involved in politics because the council waives its $500 annual fee for anyone who gets involved in political or volunteer activities. This has helped give the organization more clout. And elected officials cannot take their support for granted, because the carpenters are known to be pragmatic and less ideological than some of their union brethren. “We certainly let elected officials know that we have members in their community,” McInnis said. He handles not only political but also legislative duties both in the city and Albany, and if there’s a political event going on in the five boroughs, McInnis is more likely than not to be there backslapping and looking for potential building opportunities. The carpenters’ rising political influence has translated into more work for members. In 2004 they were part of a project labor agreement with the School Construction Authority that saved the city $250 million, and they later

Michelle Adams

Managing Director of Public Affairs, Tishman Speyer

ike a dedicated gardener, Michelle Adams knows how to tend to the branches growing around her. “My mantra in life is, always nurture and care for your network,” she said. “Stay close to your friends and keep track of everybody, because we’re all going to circle around each other.” That has indeed been the case for Adams, who has leveraged her relationships in government, real estate, business and advocacy to make quite an impression on the city. She attended New York University’s Wagner school, where she counts Mitchell Moss, the school’s director (and a fellow influential nonelected), as an early mentor. Her career has taken her from the Union Square BID to the Grand Central Partnership, followed by stints at the Real Estate Board of New York and the Association for a Better New York, where she served as that group’s director from 2002 to 2010. She now manages Tishman Speyer’s communications and philanthropy portfolios, a multifaceted task that includes helping manage the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City and the Cuomo-endorsed Committee to Save New York. With contentious issues like tax increases, rent regulations and decreased government spending swirling around, Adams says it’s important to keep a cool head and put the city’s interests first. “At the core, everybody wants what’s best for New York City, which is for us to be the capital of the world,” she said. “A lot of times we all have to collectively set our own agendas aside, and we’ve got to do the collective good.” —Andrew J. Hawkins

AUGUST 15, 2011

signed similar pacts with 13 other city agencies. Earlier this year they joined a labor agreement with Walmart; if and when the retail giant opens its first New York City location, the stores will be built by union labor. With private-construction investment dropping off sharply during the recession, and many developers mulling a move to nonunion labor, McInnis said he always has to be fighting for public sector opportunities for his members. “The focus on the public sector has kept the roof from falling in,” McInnis said. “You always have to be on the lookout for emerging markets.” — Chris Bragg

THE INFLUENTIALS David Weiner

Deputy Chancellor for Talent, Labor and Innovation, Department of Education

n 2002 David Weiner sat in his office at the San Francisco elementary school he ran, reading about the radical changes to New York City’s education system being made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. “I said, ‘I have to be a part of that,’ ” Weiner recalled. Today Weiner is in charge of recruiting new talent to come work at the Department of Education. “Me going out and recruiting people around the country—it’s an easy sell,” he said. But more than recruitment, Weiner’s role as chief labor negotiator at the DOE makes him a crucial figure in the city’s education system. The deal struck between the city and the United Federation of Teachers this year not only saved thousands of teachers from being fired but also locked in several important reforms, saved the city money and allowed the mayor to avoid the public relations nightmare of mass teacher layoffs. “No one was more excited than myself that there were not layoffs,” he said. Weiner also oversees the controversial iZone program that seeks to increase the amount of technology in public school classrooms. Critics worry the multimillion-dollar program will diminish the role of teachers in the classroom, but Weiner sees it as an opportunity to “personalize learning through technology.” The project is an important touchstone in the mayor’s education legacy. But like all things Bloomberg does in the schools, it is the subject of much debate and disagreement,

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a fact that Weiner has come to live with, and accept. “People arguing back and forth, to me it’s a positive,” Weiner said. “It just shows how passionate people are for their children, for improving education.” —Andrew J. Hawkins

CITY HALL

Marcia Bystryn

President, New York League of Conservation Voters

arcia Bystryn is not your typical environmentalist. Instead of standing on the sidelines pursuing an idealist’s beliefs, the president of the New York League of Conservation Voters is pushing an environmental agenda through the pragmatic and messy world of politics. She doesn’t shy away from spending campaign cash

to have a voice in the political arena, and she’s willing to work with all sides—businesses and environmentalists, Republicans and Democrats—to achieve her objectives. “We set policy agendas; we endorse candidates; we have a PAC which we use to support campaigns of individuals we like and to challenge individuals we don’t like,” Bystryn said. Her pragmatism has made her a favorite of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who appointed her to the Water Board and works closely with her on his PlaNYC sustainability agenda. That fits with her tactics of tackling environmental goals through practical applications like energy policy and solid-waste disposal. “I think the league has played a role in moving energy policy into the forefront of the broader environmental community’s agenda,” Bystryn said. “Shifting from a strictly traditional conservation perspective, an environmental agenda—particularly in an urban area—has got to be much broader. Transportation and other infrastructure issues are part and parcel to that.” Part of her approach is a result of her diverse background: She started out with a Ph.D. in the sociology of art; worked at what is now the Century Foundation, a policy-oriented think tank; developed a recycling program for the city; and worked on corporate environmental policy and business development at the Port Authority. “Here in New York City, our number one agenda over the next two years is to ensure that everyone running for office in 2013 feels compelled by their constituents to run a sustainability agenda,” Bystryn said. —Jon Lentz

THE INFLUENTIALS

Bradley Tusk

Founder and President, Tusk Strategies

fter running the biggest and most expensive political operation in New York City history, what’s a campaign manager to do? For Bradley Tusk, who ran Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 reelection effort, the answer was to keep campaigning. He hung out a shingle the next year and

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began taking on clients who needed that same mix of effort behind the scenes and in front of the cameras to accomplish a major lift. “I run a business that runs campaigns,” Tusk said. “So if someone has a big, complex goal that requires multifaceted efforts, our job is to put together the plan and see it through to completion.” Barely a year after starting his firm Tusk Strategies, his client list spans the country—advising companies like Walmart and Genting New York on how to break into the New York market, as well as pushing to lift the cap on city charter schools and supporting former Mayor Ed Koch’s New York Uprising reform effort. Tusk, who cut his political teeth in Sen. Charles Schumer’s press shop and was a first-term advisor to Bloomberg, later became a deputy governor in Illinois under disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich—but came out with his reputation intact. After a stint at Lehman Brothers, he crafted a Bloomberg strategy in 2009 that successfully created an image of inevitability even while insiders feared an upset. The firm just expanded to new offices in the Flatiron district and now has six people on staff, but Tusk said his secret is to remain deeply involved in the mechanics of the business—typically sending and receiving 100 emails by 7 a.m. “Every day I start out with a very, very long to-do list,” Tusk said. “And the day isn’t complete until I have finished every task on the to-do list and returned every phone call on my call list. And then I make the next day’s to-do list.” —Adam Lisberg

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Public Schooling A few training grounds produce many of the city’s most inﬂuential ﬁgures BY JON LENTZ

here are many paths to power in New York City government and politics—but some paths are more successful than others. This year’s City Hall list of influential nonelected officials includes veterans of a few key training grounds for aspiring young operatives, from classrooms to a senator’s office. Take, for example, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a veritable political institution in New York, whose office has produced the likes of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, State Sen. Daniel Squadron, state Department of Financial Regulation Commissioner Ben Lawsky, Staten Island Assemblyman Michael Cusick and Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson. Camp Schumer is particularly noteworthy for producing top-level press staff: The press secretaries for both Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Josh Vlasto and Stu Loeser, respectively, are veterans of Schumer’s shop. “When you work for Chuck, you’re learning on multiple levels at all times—he’s good about explaining what he’s thinking and why, so that’s incredibly helpful,” said Bradley Tusk, an ex-Schumerite on this year’s list. “You’re working around-the-clock, and that allows you to develop a lot of experience very quickly—and there’s a fairly unique combination of dealing with issues at both an extremely high level but also in a very granular and local way, and that provides a perspective that’s hard to get almost anywhere else.” A more formal training ground is the Coro New York Leadership Center, whose most prominent alums include Rob Walsh, commissioner of the city’s Small Business Services, Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. On this year’s list, both Tokumbo Shobowale and Elizabeth Berger graduated from Coro. Coro offers leadership-training programs for a variety of groups, from high schoolers to immigrant leaders to people running business-improvement districts. Its midcareer program is a nine-month course with 50 spots divided equally among people in government, nonprofit and business. “I got an understanding of the complexity of getting things done in New York City and the importance of starting anything by asking what’s really going on,” said Tim Tompkins, the president of the Times Square Alliance, who graduated from Coro’s full-time fellowship program. Executive Director Scott Millstein said Coro’s success is a result of targeting ambitious candidates who want to change the city, immersing them in the city’s day-to-day functions and building long-lasting networks among the students. “The people they meet are this diverse group of people from public, private and nonprofit sectors,” Millstein said. “You’re going to meet people you would not have otherwise met. What alumni tell me is they may have forgotten the leadership skills they learned over the years, but the people that they met they call on all the time.” Mitchell Moss, a professor at NYU and an informal mayoral consultant who was named to this year’s list, also does his part to prepare the next generation of young talent in a course called “Public Policy and Planning in New York City.” His course exposes students the complexities and idiosyncrasies of the city, such as the unusually powerful position of the mayor and the impact of having so many people who work in the city also living within its borders. “It’s not history; it’s about the actual workings of government and how this city differs from every other city in North America,” Moss said. “If you love New York, you take this course.” jlentz@cityhallnews.com AUGUST 15, 2011

Maria Torres-Springer

Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff, Economic Development Corp.

Tim Tompkins

President, Times Square Alliance

or Tim Tompkins, the way to get things done is to get the right message across. “The truth is that we actually have very little formal control over Times Square,” said Tompkins, whose job it is to improve the iconic neighborhood. “It’s more that we are able to get things done through advocacy, use of data and focused communication.” Communicating those needs requires Tompkins to delve into everything from tourism and transportation to public safety and sanitation. Times Square is known for its flashy signs and the glitzy retail shops that attract tourists from across the globe, but Tompkins’ job also covers 20 percent of Manhattan’s hotel rooms, 30 million square feet of office space, and 40 Broadway theaters. “It’s the micro of making sure that the streets are clean to the macro of what is the image and the brand of Times Square, and what contributes to that,” Tompkins said. Next up are plans to permanently rebuild the plazas created when five blocks of Broadway were closed to traffic in 2009, a sustained public art program and more emphasis on tourism to promote economic development. Tompkins learned the ins and outs of New York City on the staff of major charter-revision commissions in the late 1980s, which helped him understand and sympathize with city government’s challenges. His résumé also includes stints at the Economic Development Corporation and as director of Partnership for Parks, which taught him invaluable lessons about public-space management and the process of dealing with many constituents in a community. Still, Tompkins modestly deflects the idea that he’s an influential player in New York City, attributing any power he has to the global appeal of the neighborhood he works to promote. “It’s really the power of Times Square’s image around the world, and its power over people’s imaginations, that gives me any influence,” he said. “I think anybody in this position would have a platform to be able to do things.” —Jon Lentz

AUGUST 15, 2011

or Maria Torres-Springer, economic development is like motherhood. “You just have to realize, day in and day out, this work is a full-contact sport,” she said. “You just have to never be complacent, never be afraid for a fight—and you have to have the right people on your team.” That outlook should serve Torres-Springer well as she spearheads the city’s effort to build a new science and engineering campus within the five boroughs, a key initiative in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s third term. As some of the world’s top-flight engineering schools fight over the right to headline the project, Torres-Springer will have to tap into those maternal skills to play each side off the other successfully, ensuring the city gets the biggest bang for its buck. Torres-Springer came to her position the hard way. The child of impoverished immigrants in California, she was the first in her family to go to college, attending both Yale and Harvard. She worked in the affordable-housing field and consulted on real estate issues for Ernst & Young before registering online for a job in the Bloomberg administration. Her talent caught the eye of then Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, who promoted her to senior policy advisor. From there, she jumped to the city Economic Development Corp., where president and CEO Seth Pinsky said her business acumen, combined with an instinct for politics, has made her a driving force. “She’s not a bulldog,” Pinsky said. “She is able to be effective with a personality that people really like.” In addition to the applied-sciences school, Torres-Springer

also oversees six departments at EDC, including the Center for Economic Transformation, the agency’s industry transformation team and the economic research group. “What I try to do is ensure that we have the right talent working on all our projects, that they’re resourced appropriately, that I ‘block and tackle’ all the internal and external issues that the projects confront, and that I get out of the way and let the really talented people do their job,” she said. —Andrew J. Hawkins

THE INFLUENTIALS Mitchell Moss

Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University

ew York City rewards the rambler who revels in the riotous diversity of all five boroughs—but Mitchell Moss is the rare rambler who brings those experiences to the halls of power. The director of New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management has become an expert in urban affairs and an informal advisor to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as to other civic leaders whose decisions guide the future of the city. “I never leave the five boroughs,” said Moss, who reads six newspapers a day by 6:30 a.m. “My idea of a vacation is to go to sit by the East River in Red Hook.” A proud graduate of Forest Hills High School in Queens, Moss has remained deeply involved in the street-level details of how New York City works—or doesn’t work— even as he has become acquainted with every governor since Nelson Rockefeller and every mayor since Robert Wagner. “I’m going to be very direct and honest, and I’m not looking for a job,” he explained. “So many of those people stroke them. I don’t take their time. I’m quick.” Moss first met Bloomberg in the 1990s when he was studying high-tech companies in New York City, never imagining the entrepreneur would someday become mayor. He admires Bloomberg and is prone to sudden exclamations about New York’s booming neighborhoods, but maintains a clear-eyed perspective. “I have hundreds of micro-social encounters a day,”

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Moss said. “I rely on everything from my Nicaraguan shoe repairman to my Albanian doorman. I’m trying to help him get his kids into a school in the Bronx—and learning what a mess it is.” —Adam Lisberg

CITY HALL

Chief of Staff, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel

hen he became deputy mayor for economic development last year, Robert Steel chose Tokumbo Shobowale as the insider to help him navigate the complexities of New York City government.

THE INFLUENTIALS

Abby Jo Sigal

New York City Director, Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.

bby Jo Sigal’s job is to put low-income New Yorkers in housing they can afford—and she’s getting it done by bringing all the right people together. “It takes the public agencies talking to the private sector

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talking to the nonprofits talking to folks working on the ground with residents and the people that are facing the challenges,” Sigal said. “A good part is just bringing the right people together at the table.” Since 2007 Sigal has managed Enterprise’s New York office and guided its 50-person staff as it helps build and preserve about 3,000 affordable homes a year. Enterprise’s groundbreaking work sometimes goes unnoticed, but Sigal’s position has been a springboard for two predecessors who have gone on to more prominent roles: Jim Himes is now a U.S. Congressman representing Connecticut, and Rafael Cestero served as the city’s Housing Preservation and Development commissioner until early this year. “Not that I aspire necessarily to do either, but it’s definitely a good place,” Sigal said. “Enterprise is a very good platform, because we bring a lot to the table and we are very entrepreneurial in how we solve problems.” Sigal, who has extensive experience in real estate finance and community development, works very closely with HPD, the country’s largest municipal developer of affordable housing, as well as the Housing Development Corporation and the Housing Authority. She appreciates working in New York City, which has a long bipartisan record of investing in public housing for the poor. “I think New Yorkers realize that New York is a better place because we not only care about revitalizing Times Square, we also care about what happens in the South Bronx and central Brooklyn,” Sigal said. “I think I have one of the best jobs there is to have. I really get an opportunity to make New York a great place.” —Jon Lentz

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Maria Jesus Verdugo

Tokumbo Shobowale

Shobowale, who had been the chief operating officer of the New York City Economic Development Corporation under Steel’s predecessor, was eager to partner with an outsider known as more of a big-picture guy. “It has been really welcome to work with Bob, in the sense that that’s my own internal bias, to take the large-picture view,” said Shobowale, whose work as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company had given him plenty of experience in the role of an outsider. “I do have the institutional memory, but it’s good to have the new deputy mayor as someone who takes the big picture.” Shobowale’s duties are a bit like “air traffic control,”: helping Steel coordinate with businesses and agencies to promote private investment across the city. That means keeping tabs on everything from small-business assistance to tourism to public housing. “He’s had a long, successful career at EDC, and I know that he’s just been so helpful to Bob, who came from the private sector,” Scott Millstein, executive director of the Coro New York Leadership Center, said of Shobowale. “He’s just such a smart and well-respected guy.” The job is a perfect fit for Shobowale, who loves New York City, especially having firsthand knowledge of the ways the city is changing. What fascinates him is the life of the city’s residents and businesses, and the ways they interact and thrive with the city only providing the infrastructure. “It’s like building the stage, not performing the show,” Shobowale said of his work. —Jon Lentz

Andrew Rasiej

Founder, Personal Democracy Forum

ndrew Rasiej envisions New York City as a Wi-Fi utopia, where people from across the socioeconomic spectrum can log on, surf and interact, anywhere, anytime. Getting to that point will take a lot of work, but Rasiej feels he’s up to the task. Just take his NY Tech Meetup, a monthly get-together for technologists, government officials, venture capitalists and others of the nerdy persuasion, to discuss the latest in apps, opportunities and platforms. A recent meet-up featured two of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s top economic development deputies pitching the city’s plan to build a new science and engineering campus within the five boroughs. As the city gets more tech-friendly, Rasiej’s job as a liaison between government and the technology sector becomes more crucial, and more high-profile. “My role is getting easier,” he said. “In the past, I really had to stretch to explain this. It’s become clear now, with the evidence that surrounds us, that this is something that needs to be taken advantage of by the city.” Six years ago Rasiej ran for public advocate on a pro-technology platform. Since then he has been busy running the Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference on the intersection of politics and technology that regularly features big names from both worlds. The city’s embrace of technology has him optimistic about the future. And while his run for office was likely a one-time effort, Rasiej expects to continue to play a prominent role in promoting tech and politics in the city. “New York has only blue sky in front of it,” he said. —Andrew J. Hawkins AUGUST 15, 2011

Alan Fishman

Chairman, Brooklyn Community Foundation

Ralph Tragale

Assistant Director of Aviation Public Affairs, Port Authority

s the Port Authority’s top public affairs official for aviation, Ralph Tragale knows as much as anyone about the infrastructure supporting the country’s busiest airspace. And as a member the Port Authority’s senior staff, he gets to help shape the policies that guide everyone from local residents to federal officials and lawmakers—making him a vital connector between disparate groups across two states. “I’m involved from the onset on construction projects, on policy issues, on financial issues, on business issues,” Tragale said. “So it allows me to not only have a good understanding of the issues, but it allows me an opportunity to have the input into how we shape issues and how we pursue them both internally and externally.” Tragale’s main job is to ensure that the authority moves its 100 million annual airline passengers – and 2 million tons of cargo – efficiently through its five airports. Since aviation brings in the most cash to the Port Authority, Tragale also must ensure the revenue stream continues to grow to keep the authority solvent and make life easier for Chris Ward, his boss and close friend. Tragale said growing up in New York City and moving to New Jersey as an adult gives him a unique perspective on the political winds that determine the Port Authority’s policies, which are largely decided in Albany and Trenton. The Port Authority’s reach doesn’t end there. Almost a decade ago, Tragale and a few other officials recognized the need to salvage steel debris from the World Trade Center site, and he secured a hangar at JFK International Airport to store it. Now it is being distributed for 9/11 memorials all across the country in honor of the 10th anniversary. “A lot of people are very appreciative of the steel and they see the Port Authority as the ones that gave it to them,” Tragale said. “I’m very happy that I had a hand in that from the beginning.” —Jon Lentz

AUGUST 15, 2011

lan Fishman started out as a banker. He ended up becoming a guiding force for a resurgent Brooklyn. “It all sort of came together,” Fishman said. “The definition of a community banker who’s any good is [one who knows how to] to build the community. That’s the only way you get progress.” Fishman serves as chairman of some of the borough’s most prominent institutions—the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Community Foundation, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation—and is on the boards of many other nonprofit groups in the city. His wide range of interests has let him build connections across the borough and help guide a strategy for developing its economy, its culture and its charitable world. While still working full-time in the financial world, he is helping BAM plan its 150th anniversary and is actively helping the Navy Yard become an economic engine for the city. “None of these things get better unless the community gets better,” Fishman said. “It’s not an easy thing to focus on a borough in a city.” Born and raised in Brooklyn, Fishman spent a long career in Manhattan’s banking world before he became president of Brooklyn’s Independence Community Bank in 2001. The bank specialized in serving the borough’s diverse ethnic and demographic groups, and Fishman found himself getting deeply involved with Independence’s charitable foundation, which worked in those communities as well. When Independence was sold to Sovereign Bank, the

charitable arm became the Brooklyn Community Foundation—and Fishman stayed involved in its efforts. He does this all while still staying active in the financial and real estate world, where he is board chairman of several mortgage banking and finance companies. Amid such a wide web, Fishman hopes he can make connections that help the borough grow and thrive. “You provide a broader perspective,” Fishman said. “The community matters. The neighborhood matters. People’s feelings about that matter.” —Adam Lisberg

THE INFLUENTIALS Eric Eve

First Deputy Comptroller, New York City Comptroller’s Ofﬁce

ric Eve has spent more than a decade outside of government since he worked as a personal assistant to President Bill Clinton, but it was the Clintonian aspect of city Comptroller John Liu that convinced him to return to the public sector. “[Liu] exhibited an excitement and energy about public service that I had not seen in a long time,” said Eve, who sees similarities between Liu’s charisma and that of the former president. Eve, son of former Assemblyman Arthur Eve and little brother to Leecia Eve, the senior vice president at the Empire State Development Corporation, spent his postClinton years at Citigroup and Verizon, before coming to the comptroller’s office, where he oversees pension management, audits and accounting. His days begin early and end late. He manages the comptroller’s leadership team, reacts to media and manages each element of Liu’s vision for the city’s fiscal health. “I don’t spend much time outside of the office,” said Eve, who heads back to his home in Park Slope each night. Eve was enticed out of the private sector not only by Liu, but also by the prospect of the work itself, which differed from Albany and Washington in the immediacy of its impact. “This is the first time that I’ve actually worked for municipal government,” Eve said. “It is clearly where the rubber meets the road.” And while his father may have run for public office, Eve said he has no plans to do so.

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“God bless those who can run for office and successfully serve in very high profile roles,” Eve said. “I am most comfortable behind the scenes, helping people like John Liu and Bill Clinton and others excel.” —Laura Nahmias

CITY HALL

Where Are They Now? Catching up with City Hall’s 2010 most influential nonelecteds

FRANK BARRY

MICHAEL DARDIA

Then: Director of Speechwriting, Mayor Michael Bloomberg Now: New York City Director of Public Affairs

Then and Now: Deputy Director, New York City Office of Management and Budget

ANDREA SHAPIRO DAVIS

JOHN FEINBLATT

LIZ FINE

SHEA FINK

Then and Now: Chief Advisor to the Mayor for Policy and Strategic Planning

Then and Now: General Counsel, New York City Council

Then and Now: Senior Advisor to the Mayor

LORNA GOODMAN

JAY HERSHENSON

JEFF KAY

KYLE KIMBALL

MADELYN WILS

Then: Executive Director, Charter Revision Commission Now: “I’m taking my gap year!”

Then and Now: Senior Vice Chancellor for University Relations and Secretary of the Board of Trustees, City University of New York

Then: Director, Mayor’s Office of Operations Now: Chief Operating Officer, Muss Development

Then: Executive Vice President of Transaction Services Group, Economic Development Corporation Now: Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Economic Development Corporation

Then: Executive Vice President of the Planning, Development and Maritime division, Economic Development Corporation Now: Executive Director of Hudson River Park Trust

JAY KRIEGEL

CHUCK MEARA

VICKI METZGER

CARLO SCISSURA

DAVID WOLOCH

Then and Now: Senior Advisor, Related Companies

Then and Now: Chief of Then and Now: Special Staff, City Council Speaker Assistant, First Deputy Christine Quinn Mayor Patricia Harris

Then and Now: Director, Mayor’s Committee on Appointments

PAUL EGAN

DAN STEIN

Then and Now: Director of Legislation and Political Action, United Federation of Teachers

Then: Chief of the Public Corruption Unit, U.S. Attorney’s Office Now: Partner, Richards Kibbe & Orbe LLP

JEFFREY FRIEDLANDER

WANDA WILLIAMS

Ademola Oyefeso

Political and Legislative Director, Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union

demola Oyefeso fell into labor politics by accident when he worked at the Transit Workers Union, but he also fell in love. “The thing about working in labor is, everything you do, you can see the direct effect,” Oyefeso said, from his office in midtown Manhattan. “It makes the good things feel even more so, because you can see the result. It gave me the opportunity to feel like I was working for the people.” He entered politics more than a decade ago, working for both the New York Public Interest Research Group and Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign. But he traces his real entrance into New York politics to a conversation he had with Peter Kauffman, then a Hillary Clinton campaign aide, and later a spokesman for Gov. David Paterson. The two fought over who went to the better high school: Kauffman attended Stuyvesant in downtown Manhattan, and Oyefeso went to Brooklyn Tech. But moreover, Kauffman got Oyefeso interested in local politics. Oyefeso spends most of his days working on the RWDSU’s living wage campaign, talking with legislators and ensuring their bills hew as closely as possible to the union’s priorities. He said a discussion of the living wage issue happens every day he’s on the job. RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum was recently nominated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to one of the 10 regional economic development councils. Oyefeso’s job is, in part, to ensure that the process doesn’t just benefit business owners, but also workers and organized labor. “For me, being behind the scenes is comfortable,” he said. “It’s freeing. I can speak freely.” —Laura Nahmias

CITY HALL

Then and Now: First Assistant Corporation Counsel, New York City Law Department

Then and Now: Political Action and Legislation Director, DC 37

Then and Now: Chief of Then and Now: Deputy Staff, Brooklyn Borough Commissioner for President Marty Markowitz External Affairs, New York City Department of Transportation Photos by Andrew Schwartz

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AUGUST 15, 2011

City’s scaled-back efforts fail to make a big dent in poverty rate By Jon Lentz

hen Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled his new antipoverty plan this month, he said he could no longer accept—“not today and not ever”—that more black and Latino young men in the city end up poor or imprisoned than in the career of their choice. But the mayor will likely have to live with the disparities a while longer, given the limited scope of his new $127.5 million initiative, the wavering U.S. economy and deep budget cuts that may only get deeper. “It’s not going to bring down the poverty rate, at least not in the near term,” Andrew White, director of the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, said of the mayor’s plan. “But over time it

Andrew Schwartz

Poorly Funded to the poor and finding new strategies to get them out of poverty. It adopted a new, more detailed poverty measure and launched its Center for Economic Opportunity, which works with agencies across the city to implement and test innovative antipoverty pilot programs. But in the wake of the Great Recession, the city’s efforts to bring down its stubbornly high poverty rate and end chronic homelessness have stalled. A campaign to reduce street homelessness and the shelter population by two-thirds, announced in 2004, fell by the wayside. In 2010 a record 113,553 homeless men, women and children slept in New York City’s shelters, a 37 percent jump from 2002. “I think what’s striking throughout all of it is just the fairly steady rise in homelessness, particularly homelessness among families,” said Mary Brosnahan, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless. “On any given night 16,000 kids are in the shelters.” Rent subsidies geared toward preventing homelessness have been

consolation when the ranks of the impoverished continue to grow. The population of the people living below the poverty line grew by 45,000 in the city in 2009, the most recent year measured. Now, with a little more than two years left in his third term, Bloomberg has announced his new Young Men’s Initiative with much of the same lofty rhetoric but none of the specific goals of previous years. The plan, which expands on some Center for Economic Opportunity programs and adds several others, will work to keep young black and Latino men in school and out of the criminal justice system. Bloomberg also donated A woman picks up groceries at a food bank $30 million from his own philin New York City, which has seen a jump in anthropic foundation to the the number of people living in poverty. effort, and recruited hedge More people are getting Earned Income fund manager George Soros to match that Tax Credit now,” he said. “That really contribution. Still, the initiative’s nearly $130 million matters.” Human Resources Administration in funding over three years is not much Commissioner Robert Doar acknowl- more than the annual budget of the edged that the city has cut back on Center for Economic Opportunity, which some individual programs, but said total has yet to make any dent in the city’s poverty rate and is intended instead to

Staffing at city departments Children’s Services

6,950

6,682

6,070 5,595

5,401

8,000

7,463

7,925

6,564

6,000

6,073

Health and Mental Hygiene

5,578

Housing Preservation & Development 2,676

2,692

2,230

2,078

2,084

2,565

2,424

2,027

1,927

Homeless Services

2007

5,000 4,000

2,665

2006

7,000

2008

2009

3,000 2,000

2010

1,000 0

Source: NYC Mayor’s Management Reports, 2010-2011

could help to do that. When the economy turns back in a positive direction, there could be a significant payoff.” The new initiative comes at a difficult time for the city, which is stuck between fewer state and federal dollars on one side and criticism from advocates over reduced social-service spending on the other. The tough fiscal climate has forced the Bloomberg administration to scale back its ambitious goals from earlier years and rely more and more on federally funded food stamps and tax credits so its poorest residents can get by. In his 2006 State of the City speech, the mayor pledged he would bring about “a major reduction in the number of children, women and men who live in poverty in this city over the next four years.” The city poured money into new programs aimed at delivering assistance

AUGUST 15, 2011

gutted. The city’s Administration for Children’s Services has had steep staff cuts in recent years, and the Children’s Aid Society blasted the elimination in the city budget of $13 million from an after-school program and millions of dollars on other youth programs. “One of the things the advocates are struggling with and the nonprofit sector is struggling with are the very near-term cuts to youth programs and after-school programs, child care, family support services, housing for the homeless,” White said. “These are things that people fight for year after year, and then a year like this they get hammered by federal and state cuts, and they look to the city government to fight to preserve funding.” White said the city deserves credit for expanding access to federally funded programs like food stamps. “More people are getting food stamps than they used to.

spending on programs to help low-income New Yorkers or to address poverty has gone up. Doar also touted the city’s poverty rate, which has stayed flat even as the national rate has climbed. That is largely due to the city’s quicker economic recovery, but Doar said city policies, such as its promotion of public health insurance, also played a role. “We put a very high emphasis on rapid attachment to employment, and then very generous supports for working people who may be working at wages that are not high enough,” Doar said. “I believe that the stronger economy, and this combination of work and work supports, which both are related to city leadership, are reasons why we’re in better shape than the country as a whole and these large urban cities.” Advocates for the poor say that’s little

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“I think it would be better, instead of having lunch with George Soros, that he have lunch with Chris Quinn and come up with an agreed-upon city plan.” influence federal policy. Glen Pasanen, a columnist for the Gotham Gazette who has chronicled city budget cuts, said the mayor should lower the sales tax to ease the burden on the city’s poorest, or raise taxes on the wealthy, much like he did when he first came into office. “I think it would be better, instead of having lunch with George Soros, that he have lunch with Chris Quinn and come up with an agreed-upon city plan, funded by the city, which would be ongoing and public,” Pasanen said. Doar acknowledged it may take time to see the benefits, but said the new program would eventually help young men who have fallen through one of the most glaring gaps in the city’s safety net. “It was often the case that important policy initiatives that take place late in an executive’s term have a lasting benefit in the years after this term ends,” Doar said. “I’m sure that’s part of what the mayor wants to see happen.” jlentz@cityhallnews.com

CITY HALL

PERSPECTIVES

Survey Says: Don’t Trust Mayoral Polls and Tom DiNapoli remained comptroller with a 4-point margin. Remarkably, the underlying polling data has largely been sound, but the pollSince 2002, New York pollsters have sters get two things chronically wrong: their likely voter methodology had a bad streak. That year, and their press releases. Quinnipiac and Marist’s likely In fact, when the Marist and voter surveys forecast Alan Siena polls stick to surveys of Hevesi defeating John Faso registered voters, rather than in a landslide for state complikely voter samples, their troller, but Hevesi’s actual numbers are spot-on. margin was 4 points. All pollsters have trouble In 2005, Quinnipiac and measuring the size of the Marist projected Mayor Bruce Gyory minority vote and the trend Michael Bloomberg beating lines behind it, particularly in Fernando Ferrer by over 30 points, but Bloomberg’s margin was 19 their screening process to sort out likely points. In 2009, Quinnipiac and Marist voters. Since the aggregate minority vote projected another Bloomberg landslide, has grown to be a majority of the New obscuring real discontent with a mayor York City electorate—and is approaching whose actual margin on Election Day was a third of the statewide general election vote—this is a fundamental flaw. less than 5 points. The 2010 race is illustrative. The final In 2010, an early Quinnipiac survey of likely voters breathlessly projected polls were all samples of likely voters. Carl Paladino trailing Andrew Cuomo for Marist projected the suburbs casting governor by only 6 points. By the closing more votes than New York City, while days, Quinnipiac and Marist showed Siena showed men outvoting women, and Cuomo heading toward 55 percent, and minorities casting a mere 15 percent of Siena called the attorney general and the total vote. When the returns came in, the city comptroller races a dead heat. Cuomo won with 61 percent, Eric Schneiderman exceeded the suburban share 30 percent had a 12-point win for attorney general to 24 percent; women cast 53 percent of

Faulty sampling methods and a changing electorate explain a history of blown calls in New York BY BRUCE N. GYORY

orgive me for being perplexed by the first wave of polls for the 2013 mayoral race. Quinnipiac University put Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Council Speaker Christine Quinn as the clear front-runners. Then the NY1-Marist poll showed Quinn and former Comptroller Bill Thompson leading in a dead heat for first place. Quinnipiac found African-Americans rated Rudy Giuliani as good a mayor as David Dinkins. Their poll showed Quinn, who has never run outside her Chelsea district, leading among minority voters ahead of Thompson and Comptroller John Liu, who got landslide minority-vote margins in 2009. Meanwhile, Marist showed blacks strongly supporting Thompson. What are we to make of these polls? A flip (but true) answer would be: not much. The mayoral race remains wide open, especially with Undecided at 22 percent in Quinnipiac and 32 percent in Marist. But there is a deeper question: Will the media continue suffering from collective amnesia in reporting on these polls?

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the vote; and the aggregate minority share was 29 percent. The Democratic statewide candidates, led by Cuomo, carried the city by well over 3–to–1, women by 2–to–1 and the minority vote by over 4–to–1. We need greater reliability. Until the pollsters fix their flawed process for determining likely voters, the press ought to insist that pollsters simultaneously provide results of the more accurate registered voter surveys (as done by Marist and Siena but not Quinnipiac) and give them greater weight. The press should also demand transparency in pollsters’ press releases about the composition of their samples, so the public will know why outlier results are in fact outlandish. Marist and Siena, to their credit, already provide background data on their samples. The media should protect itself from the looming embarrassment of another “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline. Until New York’s pollsters prove they can accurately chart the new minority majority in a state with cascading diversity, the pollsters ought be humble, the media careful and the public skeptical of these mayoral polls. Bruce N. Gyory is a political consultant at Corning Place Consulting in Albany, and an adjunct professor of political science at SUNY Albany. editor@cityhallnews.com

AUGUST 15, 2011

Which Way To Run? Christine Quinn likely has Bloomberg’s support for mayor. Does it help or hurt? By Adam Lisberg

ity Council Speaker Christine Quinn brings two personas to her undeclared campaign for mayor in 2013. She is a detail-oriented manager proud to cut deals and get things done, and she is an ebullient progressive who brings passion to politics. So when it came time to lay the groundwork for New York’s first samesex marriages last month, both personas battled for screen time. Quinn, who is gay, stood next to a reserved Mayor Michael Bloomberg at City Hall as she soberly announced the details of a lottery system to marry hundreds of couples in an unprecedented feat of logistics. Then her voice grew deep with feeling as she segued into a heartfelt statement about why those details matter, summoning the kind of emotion that New Yorkers have rarely seen from a mayor in the last decade. “Something amazing has happened. Thousands and thousands of people have stepped out and said, ‘My family matters so much; I want my city to recognize it.’ And people who don’t even know these couples have worked long into the evening to accommodate them,” Quinn said. “That’s what happens when you pass laws that expand human rights,” she said, her voice catching. “You unite people. You make our city stronger. You deepen our community. And you have people

AUGUST 15, 2011

step forward to help other New Yorkers they have never met in their lives.” The dueling faces of Quinn—pragmatic manager and idealistic liberal—

hard to position herself for years as the mayor’s right hand and his partner in government,” said the lead strategist for one of her rivals, sounding pleased. “To win an election, it takes votes. And the voters are not with the mayor right now.” Quinn says it’s not an issue.

“She has to have her own agenda looking into the future. No one wants to be accused of being the carrier of the fourth term.” pose an interesting challenge as she positions herself for the 2013 Democratic mayoral primary. She has built a healthy working relationship with Bloomberg, so much so that some City Council members mock her behind her back for not challenging him more. Several of his advisors expect him to endorse her when the time comes, and her team is banking on it. Quinn has also worked for years to win the trust of New York’s establishment— the business leaders, real estate families, old money, foundation executives and editorial boards who are looking for a successor to Bloomberg’s no-nonsense, business-friendly leadership. Yet Bloomberg’s job approval rating is stagnant at around 40 percent. Polls show New Yorkers are tiring of him, and some of Quinn’s rivals are laying the groundwork to use his administration as a punching bag. Quinn can’t run away from Bloomberg. But by 2013, can she run with him? “It’s Quinn’s dilemma. She’s worked

“My job isn’t to think what best position or posture I should be in,” she said last month. “My job is to try to work with all of my colleagues at all levels of government to make people’s lives better and easier. That’s my job, and whatever it does or doesn’t hold for the future isn’t my worry.” Quinn took a step back from Bloomberg’s influence in her February State of the City address, when she criticized his plan to cut construction spending and mocked the disastrous CityTime payroll scandal that occurred under his watch. In this year’s budget battle, she led a stronger Council push than before to restore the mayor’s cuts to firehouses and social services, and she negotiated a compromise that prevented thousands of teacher layoffs Bloomberg had threatened to carry out. Same-sex marriage also drew Quinn worldwide attention, a helpful factor for a politician who has never run citywide, only in her district on the West Side of Manhattan. Her advisors believe the

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Andrew Schwartz

experience made her look like a natural leader, not like someone in Bloomberg’s shadow. And in the very un-Bloomberg moments when she shows empathy with New Yorkers, Quinn highlights that she is a very different kind of politician. “Chris continues to focus on being the best Speaker she can be, and working hard to get results for New Yorkers,” said Mark Guma, a strategist working for Quinn. “She works with the mayor when she agrees with him, and stands up to him when she thinks he’s wrong.” Still, Bloomberg advisors don’t expect her to stray too far from his orbit. Even if he becomes a political liability to average voters, one said, she recognizes how vital he can be with big donors and behind-thescenes opinion leaders. “She’ll campaign with him as much or as little as the poll numbers indicate,” the advisor said. “He can still pull strings.” Marist College pollster Lee Miringoff said that as New York enters the final months of Bloomberg’s last term in fall 2013, voters may start to forget particular details of his administration and judge him on their overall perspective, making his approval rebound. He said the mayor also remains popular in key demographic groups, such as Manhattan voters, who will take his endorsement seriously. Still, he suspects candidates like Quinn will try harder to distance themselves from Bloomberg rather than embrace him. “She has to have her own agenda looking into the future,” Miringoff said. “No one wants to be accused of being the carrier of the fourth term.” alisberg@cityhallnews.com

CITY HALL

Lone Wolf

New Treatments NewLaser Laser Treatments ForVaricose Varicose Veins for Veinsand and Blocked Arteries Blocked Arteries

After almost 50 years working for the city, Rubin Wolf looks back

Rubin Wolf went into his job with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development because he wanted to help people live better. That was in 1963. His first assignment tested his faith as to whether city government could accomplish that, but he kept going—and became a legend within the agency because he found ways to keep faith with his youthful goal. Wolf, now 74, retired in June. The secret to his 48-year career in city government, he said in a recent interview, was optimism. “I’m always looking forward,” he said. His first job with the city—in what was then known as the Department of Relocation, at the time a new agency—involved moving tenants out of buildings slated for destruction as part of urban renewal. He had a hard time with it. “It reminded me of a time when I was

Andrew Schwartz

By Lela Moore

began his speech. “And I’m sitting there like a fool, so they introduced me, and they didn’t know I spoke Spanish too,” he said with a chuckle. “I said to the audience, ‘Do you want help, or do you want someone who’s Spanish?’ They said, ‘We want help,’ and I said, ‘Fine.’ ” In 1978 Wolf became the director of planning and community development for the boroughs of Queens and Staten

“They all thought I was nuts. But it started to show people they could work together.” a kid, and the city came in with a little piece of paper and told my father that we were going to have to move within 30 days, because a school was going to be built on the Lower East Side,” he said. “I remember the looks on my parents’ faces—they came from Austria and Poland, and when they were little kids, they had pogroms, and were told everybody had to move out. So when this guy came in, they looked nervous, and I didn’t understand why.” Later Wolf became an urban renewal project director in Williamsburg, a community with several disparate groups of residents, each wary of the others. “It was a difficult project, but I gained the confidence of the Hasidic and Latin communities. I got them to talk,” said Wolf. “I made sure that Hasidic workers worked with the Latin and black communities, and that I gave the Hasidic area to the black and Latin workers. They all thought I was nuts. But it started to show people they could work together.” At a neighborhood meeting in Williamsburg during the budget-challenged 1970s, Wolf remembers finding himself on stage with an angry community activist who asked in Spanish why the city sent “this little Jewish guy,” and exhorted the audience to walk out en masse once Wolf

CITY HALL

Island. He was named the director of neighborhood resources in 1986 after a governmental reorganization by then Mayor Ed Koch. Koch allowed HPD to take federal funds once earmarked for infrastructure and use them to rehabilitate city-owned housing. One legacy Wolf leaves the city is the lottery system created to select residents for city-owned housing. Wolf instituted the system after he realized developers hired by HPD to refurbish buildings were not choosing their residents fairly. He made them advertise vacancies in small, local and ethnic newspapers to increase the diversity of applicants. Entries were drawn from opaque garbage bags, so developers could not read the names on the envelopes. The first such lottery was held in 1988. Wolf’s system remains the standard today. Wolf says he is pleased to leave HPD with his head held high. “People said to me, ‘Rubin, you got so much done, and not one scandal,’ ” he said. “I said, ‘That’s only because you guys told me what needs to be done—but I didn’t ask you how, because I know how to do it honestly.’ People hated me, but that was good, because it meant I was doing my job.” editor@cityhallnews.com

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AUGUST 15, 2011

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ISSUESPOTLIGHT

Organized Labor

ew York City has always been a union town, but the slumping economy and new pressure to cut wages and benefits have put organized labor squarely in the center of battles over what workers should expect from their employers. While labor has lost some of the power it once held, New York’s public- and private-sector unions are trying to increase their influence. In the pages that follow, we examine how unions are walking picket lines and reorganizing their leadership to build a greater stake in how the city runs—and we talk to leading figures in the long-term debate over wages, benefits and pensions.

Adrian Susmano

Striking Back As economy dips, picket lines on the rise By Chris Bragg

erizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg pulled in an $18.1 million bonus last year—about 300 times what the company’s average worker earns. But when striking Verizon employees saw Seidenberg sneaking away from a raucous picket line outside the company’s West Side offices last week, all the money in the world couldn’t save the CEO from merciless booing and catcalling. As they tried to keep cool under umbrellas and quaffed bottled water, the red-shirted Communications Workers of America members promised they would heckle Verizon management as long as needed. “I’ll be here six months, eight months,” said Cynthia Martin, a customer-support technician. “As long as they’re trying to take our rights away, I’ll be here.”

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The 45,000-person strike is one of the country’s largest in recent years. Still, as the three-year recession has lingered, conflict between workers and management seems increasingly on the uptick in New York and across the country. Union leaders say their members are growing increasingly wary of demands by employers who claim they are struggling and need worker givebacks, but at the same time often pay enormous bonuses to top executives and make record profits. A year ago, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union staged a fourmonth strike over wage cuts at an upstate Mott’s apple-juice plant. Concrete workers are striking over a contract dispute at the World Trade Center site. Hotel Trades Council workers are striking at the Boathouse restaurant in Central Park. A larger union stoppage at construction sites across the city was averted earlier this summer, but a slew of other conflicts are looming. Bob Master, political director for District One of the Communications Workers of America, said worker resent-

ment comes not just from Verizon’s efforts to freeze pensions, more closely tie pay to performance and require workers to contribute at least $100 per month to their health-care plans but also the poor economic conditions that corporate America helped spawn in the first place. “I feel that our members are profoundly angry about Verizon and the unfairness of their demands,” Master said, “but also are experiencing it in a broader context of unfairness and

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unhappiness with what has happened to this country the past three years.” Verizon has responded with charges that striking employees have engaged in sabotage by cutting fiber-optic lines in the Bronx and tampering with the heating system at the central office in Manhattan. The company has taken out ads in several newspapers offering a $50,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the alleged culprits. As for charges that executive compensation and profits at the company were grossly out of line with the demands for concessions, Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the landline portion of the company’s business—whose workers are on strike—has simply failed to keep pace with the company’s rapidly growing wireless component. He also said employee health-care plans were out of line with those of others in corporate America. “The union-represented employees pay zero percent of their health-care plans, which is virtually unheard of in this day and age,” Young said. “It’s costing $4 billion a year and growing by 8 to 10 percent a year. The union needs to look at the facts and sit down with an open mind.” Another clash is in the works between the United Food and Commercial AUGUST 15, 2011

Central Casting Teachers land No. 2 position at CLC, setting up possible battle for No. 3 By Chris Bragg

Adrian Susmano

W Public Advocate Bill de Blasio lends support to striking Verizon workers. Workers union and the supermarket company A&P. Unlike Verizon, which is a hugely profitable company, A&P is bankrupt and trying to restructure. Still, dissatisfaction emerges from seeming inequities between what management and workers must accept. In their new contract, A&P is trying to negotiate cuts in pay, vacation time, sick leave and pension payments. At the same time, the

“The union needs to look at the facts and sit down with an open mind.” company recently decided to give up to $3.7 million in bonuses to six executives. The union asked a bankruptcy judge to block the bonuses, saying they would hurt employee morale, but their effort was unsuccessful. In a statement, an A&P spokesman said the company “needs to achieve substantial cost savings in order to successfully emerge from Chapter 11,” and that “reducing our labor costs is critical to completing our turnaround.” The company declined further comment. John Durso, president of Local 338 of the UFCW, said the only reason the company went bankrupt in the first place was because of the mistakes of the management that now is giving itself bonuses. Though a strike would be months off, Durso said it’s a possibility if management stops negotiating in good faith. “We want the company to succeed,” Durso said. “At the same time, these were self-inflicted wounds due to management’s lack of foresight.” cbragg@cityhallnews.com

hen Vincent Alvarez was elected as the new president of the Central Labor Council in early July, the former electrical worker faced little opposition in winning the coveted post. But there was some internal jockeying for the No. 2 spot ultimately won by a United Federation of Teachers staffer named Janella Hinds, spurring speculation that the UFT and other public-sector unions were pushing for a greater voice within the city’s umbrella labor organization. “People in the labor world are talking about a sea change over there,” said one prominent labor consultant. “It has kind of been dominated by the building trades.” The Central Labor Council is supposed to be the voice for 1.3 million New York union workers, uniting 400 local unions from both the public and private sectors. Its last two leaders resigned amid scandal, however, and in rebuilding its leadership, the CLC is also trying to rebuild the standing of organized labor in New York’s power structure. Hinds, a former teacher, won a unanimous delegate vote for the organization’s newly created secretarytreasurer position, but only after Arthur Cheliotes, the prominent president of Local 1180 Communications Workers of America, dropped out shortly before the election. UFT President Mike Mulgrew suggested Hinds for the job, and pushed for her selection. That has led to speculation in the labor world that Mulgrew and other public-sector labor leaders are pushing for a greater role in the CLC, especially since the teachers and other big public-sector unions pay a major share of the organization’s dues.

VOICES Norman Seabrook,

President, Corrections Officers’ Benevolent Association

Q: Do municipal unions speak with one voice? NS: No, they do not. We must. If we put aside the egos and put aside the personal agendas and put aside the distrust for each other, we will then be able to begin to speak with one voice. We will probably be able to accomplish a lot more by being able to be respectful toward what each other needs and wants, as opposed to us trying to go in

AUGUST 15, 2011

“I clearly think Mulgrew wanted his person inside there,” said another labor consultant who works with executive-committee members. For two decades, Ted Jacobsen, a UFT member, served as the CLC secretary. But since Jacobsen retired in 2007, the leadership of the CLC has come largely from the private-sector building trades unions. Over the past three years, many private-sector workers—especially those in the construction industry— have been battered by the recession, at times causing tension with more insulated public-sector unions. But increasingly, public-sector unions from New York to New Jersey to Wisconsin have also come under attack. With new leadership, the broad swaths of unions that make up the Central Labor Council are hoping to present a more unified front. Hinds, who is African-American, adds diversity and youth to a new leadership team that also includes Alvarez, its first-ever Latino president. And with Alvarez’s roots in the building trades, Hinds’ public-sector background is important, as well. Of course, Cheliotes also comes from a public-sector union, but did not have Mulgrew’s backing. Cheliotes’ reasons for dropping out of the election remain unclear. He could not be reached for comment. Mulgrew said Hinds’ selection was not about promoting the UFT but about promoting greater diversity generally in the labor movement, especially since much of the membership is growing younger and more diverse. “It was clear in discussions among the Central Labor Council that this is the way things have been going over the past ten years,” Mulgrew said. Hinds has previously worked as policy director for the AFL-CIO and as an organizer on the UFT’s campaign

and be considered a “good old boy”—“I’m going to look through my contract first and set pattern bargaining for everyone else.” Then they turn around, whomever that union person may be, and say, “Well, I got what I wanted.” It’s not about getting what you wanted; it’s about what’s best for the entire workforce that you represent and the public-sector workers in the city.

Q: What demands on unions “cross the line”? NS: Any demand that is not the shared sacrifice by both the city and the union crosses the line. If the city of New York wants to, for example, increase the cost of health benefits, they can ask to do that and expect www.cityhallnews.com

to prevent school closures. A Princeton graduate, Hinds is expected to act as a fiduciary for the Central Labor Council—an important role given the resignation of the organization’s past two presidents amid questions about their financial stewardship of the CLC. Mario Cilento, a spokesman for the Central Labor Council, said he believed Hinds’ résumé makes her well-positioned to serve well in that role. Former CLC President Brian McLaughlin resigned in 2006, and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing $3.1 million, including $185,000 from the Central Labor Council. In mid-March, his replacement, Jack Ahern, resigned after attempting to double his salary to $80,000 for his part-time work at the CLC, and after questions about union scholarships Ahern secured for his children. Multiple labor sources said Cheliotes abandoned his bid for the No. 2 spot amid discussions among the CLC’s executive committee about possibly creating a new No. 3 executive vice president position, though no specific guarantees were made that Cheliotes would get the job. Creating the position would require a two-thirds vote among delegates, and the decision would not be imminent. The lengthy process for creating the new position means that no election could occur until at least December. Cheliotes would seem a strong candidate after dropping out of the race for the No. 2 spot. Still, the executive committee could decide to go with someone from a retail union, since public-sector unions and the building trades are already represented in the top two leadership posts, said labor insiders. The possibility also remains that the new position will also not be created at all. “People were generally supportive of creating a third position,” said one labor official, “but there was no guarantee it would be given it to Arthur.” cbragg@cityhallnews.com

us to participate in it; however, what are we getting for it? Are you giving us now, just for example, free medication for the first six months without a co-pay? What are you doing that makes us say it is something that we need to take a look at? And that’s why I talk about shared sacrifice.… I’ll take credit for the fact that I threw a monkey wrench into Chris Quinn and Mike Bloomberg’s ultimate cynical goal to destroy and continue to destroy municipal unions in the city. If there’s going to be shared sacrifice, I’m all for it. But any deal, any deal whatsoever, that comes across the table from the city of New York must be shared sacrifice by all parties.

CITY HALL

Working With: • NY City Department of Transportation • NY City Metropolitan Transit Authority • Triboro Bridge and Tunnel Authority

• NY State Department of Transportation • The Port Authority of NY/NJ • NY State Bridge Authority

Kieran Ahern • President • Dan O’Connell • General Counsel

EXPERT ROUNDTABLE Christine Quinn, Speaker, New York City Council

Q: Is there a gulf between public and private sector unions in New York City? CQ: There is a strong sense of connection and support between the private and public sector unions. I think they work together on a lot of different issues. Certainly you see a lot of unity between them and their concerns on the Central Labor Council. Now, they’re not going to always agree, but I think there’s a lot of solidarity.

Q: Do municipal unions speak with one voice? CQ: Unions represent thousands and thousands of people, and each one has their own particular concerns, so I think there are times when the public sector union, through the great leadership of Harry Nespoli on the [Municipal Labor Council] speak in one voice and there’s times when they have their own unique and different and distinct perspectives and issues. So I think it depends on the issue. I’m not going to tell municipal labor unions how to do their job.

Q: Have city unions lost some of their power? CQ: If you look around the country, unions have lost membership. That’s a fact. New York City is probably one of the places where unions are hanging tougher and stronger than anywhere else in the country. I think New York is a union town, was a union town, and will always be a union town.

Q: What demands on unions “cross the line”?

CQ: You can’t answer the question on what demands cross the line in a vacuum. Every negotiation is distinct and something that crosses the line in one negotiation might hit the nail on the head in another negotiation. So that is a case-by-case answer. You never want to negotiate in the press anyway. Each negotiation is its own unique and distinctive thing. And sometimes what may be an

out-of-bounds point or goal in one negotiation may be exactly on point in another negotiation. So it depends.

unions and I was quite proud of the fact that they were able to figure out positions where they were both comfortable with.

Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers

Q: Do municipal unions speak with

Q: Is there a gulf between public and private sector unions in New York City? MM: No. We work with the public and private sector unions. I marched across the bridge with 1199 to support DC 37. We had a thousand, they had a couple thousand. I’ve been at numerous rallies with the construction unions. I don’t see that. What happened in New Jersey has clearly not happened here. People try to act like it has at times, but I have to think the leadership, Denis Hughes, has done a wonderful job to make sure that has not happened here.

Organized Labor

Q: But private sector unions teamed up with business groups to advocate against some things that went against public sector unions during the budget talks. MM: That’s always been there. During a budget process, it’s your responsibility to advocate on behalf the sector you represent. But you haven’t seen the nasty fights that we’ve seen in other places. We haven’t seen that.

Q: What about on issues like Walmart?

MM: That’s a perfect example. The two unions that are in the middle of that, they have not had any all-out public wars over this issue. They have had discussions. I’ve been at meetings, very frank discussions on the table. I can tell you as a union leader, I looked at the people representing those

VOICES Henry Garrido,

one voice? MM: There can always be more cohesion. The main focus right now of all the unions is they understand that where the city is heading is in the wrong direction. I have sat and had conversations with numerous union leaders, together or by themselves, and it’s come down to this: when more than half the households in the city are below the poverty line, that has a negative effect on the entire city. You see more unions saying, it’s not just about us and our unions. These economic policies are really bad. That’s where you’re going to see more of the focus of these larger groups. You cannot have true equality in any area unless you have economic equality. I’m not saying everyone needs to make the same amount of money. But if half the households in New York City are below $32,000, that’s not equality. We’ve got a problem.

Associate Director, DC 37

Q: Is there a gulf between public- and private-sector unions in New York City? HG: I really don’t think so. I think that there are different priorities, without a doubt. But I don’t think so. I think, generally speaking, the unions work toward a clear goal. I think there have been some issues with this whole Committee to Save New York. The fact that some private-sector unions decided to join in that committee—I do think that it created some friction, but overall I think unions are pretty focused. Q: Do municipal unions speak with one voice? HG: Generally speaking, yes. But I think everybody’s parochial interests always come into the argument, because we argue for different people. But I think generally through the MLC, the answer is yes.

Bob Master, Political Director, Communication Workers of America District 1

Q: Is there a gulf between public and private sector unions in New York City? BM: There has been a little bit of a rift between some parts of the private sector labor movement and the public sector. I think that some of the private sector unions— particularly in the construction trades—have been very, very hard hit by unemployment, have been forced to make a lot of sacrifices and they have been convinced to some extent that perhaps their members’ tax burden is affected by the wages and benefits of public sector workers.

AUGUST 15, 2011

Howard Wolfson, Deputy Mayor for Government Affairs and Communications

Q: Is there a gulf between public and private sector unions in NYC? HW: I do think that there is a lot of common ground between the two, but there are also issues of divergence. Q: Do municipal unions speak with one voice? HW: No. Certainly before my time in the city government [they did]. While so many municipal labor unions have an awful lot in common with one another, they represent New Yorkers who do different things, who have a different set of priorities in the workplace. I think you now have very strong new leadership at the New York Central Labor Council. Vinny Alvarez just started there. I think there’s an opportunity for him to play a greater role than his predecessor did in some of these issues. And I think there is an opportunity for someone like Harry Nespoli—who chairs the MLC—to show increasing leadership around a lot of the issues that labor has in common. Q: Have unions lost some of their power?

Q: Have city unions lost some of their

HW: My mother and stepmother were

power? BM: There’s no union in the country that hasn’t seen its power diminished by basically 40 years of attacks from corporate America. I think that unions always lose some power and leverage when the economy is extremely weak, because people are more anxious to hold on to what they’ve got or unemployed people who are ready, willing and able to work for lower wages or less benefits. That undercuts the bargaining power of any union, and I don’t think New York unions have been immune to that.

members of the UFT and I think they were well represented then, and I think that by and large municipal employees are well represented now. I say that with a caveat. We don’t always agree with the union leaderships on every issue, for sure. But I think they are pretty powerful advocates on behalf of their members.

Q: What demands on unions “cross the line”?

BM: Our job is to defend the living standard

of our members. We are committed at this point to ensuring that all of our members continue to have the health and retirement security that is the key a middle class life. The difference between a union worker and a nonunion worker is that the nonunion workers now—unless you’re very wealthy or a fancy banker or at a law firm—those people don’t have anything to look forward to in retirement. They are worried about whether or not they are going to able to go to the doctor. I think that for us, wages are critical, but the most important things for our members are health care and retirement security.

www.cityhallnews.com

Q: What demands on unions “cross the line”?

HW: The mayor has made very clear that he believes municipal workers have an absolute right to bargain collectively, which is a right that is under assault in some places in this country. —Jeff Jacobson

CITY HALL

The Struggle Continues... In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died while defending sanitation workers in Memphis who were fighting for the right to a voice on the job. In 2011, the struggle continues. As a new memorial in Washington, DC, honors Dr. King, politicians across the country — including here in New York — are still attacking the jobs and retirement security of sanitation workers, public safety officers, non-profit workers, school aides and other public employees. It’s time for public officials to follow Dr. King’s example and stop the attacks. Let’s make choices we can be proud of and build a better New York for All.

AFSCME’s 1.6 million members provide the vital public services that make America happen and advocate for prosperity and opportunity for all working families. 648-11

Hope Cohen, Associate Director, Regional Plan Association’s Center For Urban Innovation Q: With enrollment declining nationally, are private-sector unions still relevant? HC: It’s hard to say, philosophically; there’s a role for them as long as they continue to produce good work that people want to employ. So their role has been shrinking because there are other options. We found pretty universally in the research for our report: for highly complex construction projects, virtually everybody would want to go with a union workforce. Q: Have city unions lost some of their power? HC: Unions in New York are an extremely powerful political force. They make and break candidates all the time. It’s hard to say they’re losing their power. As recently as the last election cycle they were the powerful force that came out behind several key city races. Their ability to mobilize their membership, I think, has not decreased at all.

Gene Carroll,

Director, Union Leadership Workshop Series, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations

Q: Is there a gulf between public- and private-sector unions in New York City? GC: I would say that historically, yes, there has been a gulf. But the condition of the economy and the overall attack against organized labor in the

Union backing With more than two years to go before the 2013 elections, New York City unions have put more than a half-million dollars into candidates’ campaigns. Here are the biggest recipients to date:

$121,490

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio Council Speaker Christine Quinn Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley Councilman Joel Rivera

$111,400 $58,875 $45,720 $36,950 $36,360 $25,900

Comptroller John Liu

$20,765

Councilman James Vacca Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

$13,150

Source: Campaign Finance Board

VOICES

* Includes contributions from 2009 election rolled over after term limits extension last several years, particularly in the last year, particularly the attack on public-sector unions, and that has happened in a number of places, has really begun to heal that gulf. Because the common-interest or publicand private-sector unions, I think I’m detecting a little consciousness about that.

Q: Do municipal unions speak with one voice?

GC: I think that whatever differences they have are outweighed by their common interests, which are to provide decent contracts for their members, provide quality services to the public so that the public gets the best use of their tax dollars. I would say that across the board the threat that they all face with the shrinking of the public-sector economy strengthens their common voice. I think they all face the same threat.

CSA Stands with Organized Labor in Support of the Middle Class

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, AFL-CIO, LOCAL 1

COUNCIL OF SCHOOL SUPERVISORS AND ADMINISTRATORS Representing Principals, Assistant Principals, Supervisors, Administrators, Day Care Directors, and Assistant Directors

www.csa-nyc.org 28

AUGUST 15, 2011

www.cityhallnews.com

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BACK & F O R T H

Hallowed Groundskeeper

CH: Following the 10th anniversary, do you expect the fund-raising process to diminish?

JD: It shifts. We still have some money left in our

Amy Dreher, courtesy of National September 11 Memorial & Museum

s president of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Joe Daniels wears many hats: fund-raiser, spokesman, therapist, historian. These days, he is racing to prepare the memorial for its grand opening on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The museum is set to open a year later. The project has been through its share of setbacks, but Daniels is convinced that it appropriately captures the shock and horror of that day, as well as the heroism and tenacity that was on display in the days that followed. What follows is an edited transcript. City Hall: What does the 10th anniversary mean to you and the organization?

Joe Daniels: Fundamentally for us is the fact that we’re opening the memorial and having it ready for the public. It’s a huge marker in the life and history of the organization. I remember back years and years ago, with all the challenges at Ground Zero—fund-raising had stopped back in 2006, where there were lots of questions about our ability to get this done. To be here now, with the amount of support we’ve had, is almost overwhelming. It’s great to see it take shape.

CH: What should people expect to see at the museum? JD: Fundamentally the museum is going to do two things. One is to commemorate the individuals and learn more about the individuals who died—so there is a separate exhibition called “The Memorial Exhibition” that will really help with this exploration, through things that have been donated by family members and friends, about each of the 2,989 people. And then the other part of the museum is about the history. Not only the history of what happened on that day but also an exploration of what led up the attacks, and about the recovery period and what it means to live in a post–9/11 world.

learn about what it means to be an American. So I fully expect this place will have resonance a hundred years from now, just like Arlington or Gettysburg or Vietnam or Pearl Harbor. There’s not that many of these places, and this is certainly one of them.

will be diminished after this big anniversary?

JD: I think it’ll certainly change, just like history changes

about the amount that you and other members of the group were taking home in compensation. Sixfigure salaries. What’s your take on that?

JD: I think it’s something that you have to expect when you’re at an organization that’s in the spotlight so much. I think that certainly the people who work for me are working incredibly hard and are so emotionally and intellectually committed to this project. We try not to let things like that distract us. You can criticize everybody for anything; the most important thing here is whether the memorial gets done on time and whether the museum provides its function of preserving the history of this important chapter in American history.

CH: So the memorial will be open to the public following when?

surrounding Ground Zero: the mosque, health concerns of first responders, the so-called Ground Zero cross. Why do you think that is?

JD: So the September 11, 2011 [opening] is for families

and the cross coming back, whether it’s free speech or the right of being from one religion to build something else—it’s interesting how we look at these issues through the lens of 9/11. Our view here at the memorial and museum is to finish this project and help educate and commemorate. What the mayor said on the mosque, a lot of folks agree. The cross itself was an artifact that was a part of the history of the site. It was not an external thing brought in to focus on one religion. It was part of the story of the fight. Using that lens of the authentic, physical reminders to tell the story is something that we focused on.

and the future is something that is not predictable. One thing that makes the 9/11 memorial unique is the fact that it is opening while the history is still not yet written. It’s an additional challenge. We are literally having exhibitions in this museum that are being affected by events that are happening now. We didn’t have an exhibit three months ago about Osama bin Laden being killed. One of the first calls that I made after I got the news was to my museum director, saying, “We’ve got to make sure that we have an exhibit that speaks to that.”

CH: The mayor’s role in all of this has been crucial,

CH: Do you anticipate this becoming something

it seems. Can you speak a little bit about his role in the process?

like the way the Vietnam memorial is in Washington, D.C.?

JD: Before he took over, the project was in serious

JD: Absolutely. I think that the World Trade Center Site and the area where the footprints were and where this memorial is, is really sacred ground. And it’s not just the fact that there is so much loss of life here—of innocent people—it’s not just the fact that 40 percent of the victims were never identified; it’s also become a place where we saw an incredible, heroic, nine-month sacrifice to put this place up, to start the cleanup, begin the process of healing during that recovery period. There’s so much meaning that’s infused here, I think that for successive generations it becomes a place to come to

trouble; and from the financial side of it, which is a donor community, there was a lot of nervousness about what was getting built and when—if ever—it would be built. His reason for stepping in is he likely saw that he could make a contribution to getting this thing done. And that is no small feat—we’re talking about the World Trade Center, and our fund-raising—he raised a tremendous amount of money. We’re over $400 million dollars now. We have over $600,000 individual donations, and it was in large part because when the mayor attaches himself to a project, it gives people a lot of confidence it’s going to be completed.

CITY HALL

CH: There were some stories that were critical

CH: There have been a number of controversies

JD: It’s to be expected. The issue about the mosque CH: Do you expect that the annual 9/11 ceremonies

major capital campaign for the museum, but we raised basically 95 percent of the funds we need for the memorial and the museum that we have to raise for the museum’s exhibitions. But in the long-term, we have even a bigger challenge, which is when the site is fully up and running—the memorial and the museum. We’re talking about annual expenses in the $50-60 million range, and that’s why we’re trying to solve that problem now. That can’t be done through annual fund-raising alone; it has to be a mix of government appropriations, probably a suggested donation or ticket at the museum itself, and annual fundraising. So we’re lobbying the Feds to get involved in this as a national project.

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only, and then we open the next day for the public, which is Monday, September 12. In the beginning, while we’re surrounded by construction because of the ongoing work of other projects, we are asking people to make a reservation, which is free. Any talk of ticket charges or suggested donations, that’s just for the museum.

CH: What’s been the toll on you? It can’t be easy waking up every day and having to deal with an issue as emotionally loaded as 9/11.

JD: It’s a privilege and, to be honest, the pressure of delivering is heavy, and I feel it, for sure. I was here on 9/11 myself and saw things that people talked about—people jumping from the buildings. I’d just happened to come up off the train at the World Trade Center stop just between the two towers. I was here when United 175 hit the south tower and, for me, the emotions afterwards—some of them were positive. Standing on the West Side Highway with strangers cheering rescue-recovery vehicles—that was amazing. I remember this elevated feeling of unity, and I also remember feeling very angry for a very long time. So I am anxious, I think is the right word—it’s not nervous, because I know we’re going to get there—but the level of anxiety, knowing that there are so many people, families’ members in particular, and people around the world, that are going to be focused on the spot. All I want to do is do a good job for that group, and I’m hoping that’s how it’s received. —Andrew J. Hawkins ahawkins@cityhallnews.com AUGUST 15, 2011

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