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WEEK OF OCTOBER
18-24
P.11
2018
BLOOMBERG CHANGES PARTIES — AGAIN POLITICS With an eye toward 2020, ex-mayor, ex-Republican and ex-independent returns to the Democratic Party he abandoned almost two decades ago BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Saturday’s Rally for our Neighborhoods at City Hall featured several speakers who railed at how quickly new developments are approved without sufficient input from residents. Photo: Spencer Lee
RALLY PROTESTS DEVELOPERS’ INFLUENCE ACTIVISM Hundreds assemble at City Hall, blaming developers and Mayor Bill de Blasio BY SPENCER LEE
Defiance and frustration spoke loudly on the steps of City Hall Saturday afternoon, with some 300 people voicing displeasure at the speed by which New York neighborhoods are being sacrificed to developers. The protesters directed much of their ire at Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Real Estate Board of New York, holding both responsible in equal measure for growing economic disparity in the city.
Nearly 70 community organizations signed on as sponsors of the event, Rally for our Neighborhoods, at which speakers and attendees alike railed at the pace of development, much of it approved, they said, at the expense of residents and small businesses. “The evictions of New Yorkers, the destruction of affordable housing, the whitewashing of diverse communities of color — these are not natural changes. They are planned,” Jeremiah Moss, publisher of the blog “Vanishing New York,” said at the assembly. “They are the products of public policy,” Moss continued. “We must demand a change in policy
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Ronald Reagan is the classic case of the Democrat who becomes a Republican. A champion of the New Deal and supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he officially changed his party registration in 1962. John Lindsay is the opposite: The classic case of the Republican who becomes a Democrat. The then-mayor swapped parties in 1971 before launching an abortive Democratic presidential nomination bid in 1972. The late U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Arlen Specter one-upped them both. Initially a Democrat, he joined the GOP in 1965 — and 45 years later, switched back to run as a Democrat in 2010, only to lose the race. But when it comes to repeatedly refashioning one’s partisan identity — and ponying up untold millions to rebrand multiple times — no one in recent memory can come close to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A Democrat who became a Republican who became an independent, the billionaire just became a Democrat again, completing, for now, a cycle in which he changed his voter registration three times and had four separate political affiliations, one a duplicate, over 18 years. The latest of the dizzying switcheroos — each one in sync with the
Just three days after returning to the Democratic Party, ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg schmoozes with a potential voter on Oct. 13 in New Hampshire. Photo: Via Bloomberg’s flickr page
Wrong time, wrong place.” Mayor Bill de Blasio on a possible White House run by his predecessor
electoral calendar, each seemingly driven by political considerations, not principles — came on Oct. 10 when Bloomberg signed paperwork to register as a Democrat and posted the photo on Instagram at 5:40 a.m. A not-so-subtle dig at President Donald Trump that accompanied the posting instantly stoked speculation that Downtowner
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WEEK OF APRIL
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FOR HIM, SETTLING SMALL CLAIMS IS A BIG DEAL presided over Arbitration Man has three decades. for informal hearings about it He’s now blogging BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
is the common Arbitration Man their jurist. least folks’ hero. Or at Man has For 30 years, Arbitration court office of the civil few sat in a satellite Centre St. every building at 111 New Yorkers’ weeks and absorbed dry cleaning, burned lost accountings of fender benders, lousy paint jobs, and the like. And security deposits then he’s decided. Arbitration Man, About a year ago, so to not afwho requested anonymity started docuhe fect future proceedings, two dozen of what menting about compelling cases considers his most blog. in an eponymous about it because “I decided to write the stories but in a I was interested about it not from wanted to write from view but rather lawyer’s point of said Arbitration view,” of a lay point lawyer since 1961. Man, a practicing what’s at issue He first writes about post, renders and then, in a separatehow he arrived his decision, detailing blog the to Visitors at his conclusion. their opinions. often weigh in with get a rap going. I to “I really want whether they unreally want to know and why I did it,” I did derstood what don’t know how to he said. “Most people ... I’d like my cases the judge thinks. and also my trereflect my personalitythe law.” for mendous respect 80, went into indiMan, Arbitration suc in 1985, settling vidual practice
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MANHATTAN'S APARTMENT BOOM, > PROPERTY, P.20
2015
In Brief MORE HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
The effort to help small seems to businesses in the city be gathering steam. Two city councilmembers, Robert Margaret Chin and Cornegy, have introduced create legislation that wouldSmall a new “Office of the within Business Advocate” of Small the city’s Department Business Services. Chin The new post, which have up told us she’d like to would and running this year, for serve as an ombudsman city small businesses within them clear government, helping to get through the bureaucracy things done. Perhaps even more also importantly, the ombudsman and number will tally the type small business of complaints by taken in owners, the actions policy response, and somefor ways to recommendations If done well, begin to fix things. report would the ombudsman’s give us the first quantitative with taste of what’s wrong the city, an small businesses in towards important first step fixing the problem. of for deTo really make a difference, is a mere formality will have to the work process looking to complete their advocate are the chances course, velopers precinct, but rising rents, -- thanks to a find a way to tackle business’ is being done legally of after-hours projects quickly. their own hours,” which remain many While Chin “They pick out boom in the number throughout who lives on most vexing problem. said Mildred Angelo,of the Ruppert construction permits gauge what Buildings one said it’s too early tocould have the 19th floor in The Department of the city. number three years, the Houses on 92nd Street between role the advocate She Over the past on the is handing out a record work perThird avenues. permits, there, more information of Second and an ongoing all-hours number of after-hours bad thing. of after-hours work the city’s Dept. problem can’t be a said there’s with the mits granted by nearby where according to new data jumped 30 percent, This step, combinedBorough construction project noise Buildings has data provided in workers constantly make efforts by Manhattan to mediate BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS according to DOB of Informacement from trucks. President Gale Brewer offer response to a Freedom classifies transferring they want. They knows the the rent renewal process, request. The city They 6 “They do whatever signs Every New Yorker clang, tion Act go as they please. work between some early, tangible small any construction on the weekend, can come and sound: the metal-on-metal or the piercing of progress. For many have no respect.” p.m. and 7 a.m., can’t come of these that the hollow boom, issuance reverse. owners, in business moving The increased beeps of a truck has generto a correspond and you as after-hours. soon enough. variances has led at the alarm clock The surge in permits
SLEEPS, THANKS TO THE CITY THAT NEVER UCTION A BOOM IN LATE-NIGHT CONSTR NEWS
A glance it: it’s the middle can hardly believe yet construction of the night, and carries on full-tilt. your local police or You can call 311
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he was launching a White House bid in 2020. Which is exactly what happened the last time he changed party registration, from Republican to independent, and organized a third-party 2008 presidential campaign that never got off the ground.
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