NYC

Governor Andrew Cuomo — who just played a historic role in securing marriage rights for gay and lesbian New Yorkers — is already being referred to as a presidential candidate for 2016, and is being touted as an "aggressive pragmatist" or "dynamic centrist." Why won’t the press pin him down on what specific outcome he sought in the battle pitting the need of millions of New Yorkers for affordable and secure housing against the desire of landlords and free market ideologues to continue to dismantle the rent regulation system?

Cuomo left the trigger points at which apartments are deregulated worse for tenants than they were 14 years ago, when then-Governor George Pataki first orchestrated legislative changes designed to destroy rent regulation.

Today’s robbing of the NYC employees’ health insurance fund as a “realistic” means to pay to avoid layoffs will become tomorrow’s hysterically anti-union “health benefits costs are out of control” rallying cry. City officials — neither the “education” mayor, nor the backbone-free City Council — are just not prepared to pay for vital services.

Today’s robbing of the NYC employees’ health insurance fund as a “realistic” means to pay to avoid layoffs will become tomorrow’s hysterically anti-union “health benefits costs are out of control” rallying cry.

No, not about private indiscretions. Just about what sort of leadership the widely-hailed governor is or is not exerting when it comes to the fate of the homes of more than a million families.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has painted his decision to fire more than 4,000 teachers as the only budgetary course open to him, but it turns out that an increase of less than one-half of one percent on the income tax rate paid by wealthier New Yorkers would raise more revenue than the Mayor's budget saves by firing the teachers.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has painted his decision to fire more than 4,000 teachers as the only budgetary course open to him, but it turns out that an increase of less than one-half of one percent on the income tax rate paid by wealthier New Yorkers would raise more revenue than the Mayor's budget saves by firing the teachers.

One big roadblock: politicians who can't imagine constituents changing the way they commute.

In offering a set of “common sense proposals,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has sent a clear message to national policy makers: when it comes to business, tread lightly.