Voting

[Solitaire]

I just wanted to remind you all (although this is the group that probably doesn't need to be reminded!) that Bloomberg has ignored our votes.

If he gets voted in again, does this mean he can change the rules (or has he done that already) and can run again in 4 years? And 4 years after that, etc., etc.?

Just curious about that. We can re-name him "Dictator Bloomberg".

Best,

Sol

[Princess Turandot]

1. One day in the late summer...

my doorbell rang. It was a very young woman who informed me that she was there on behalf of Mayor Mike who wanted to know what MY very own concerns were..

'Affordable Housing'

'Oh, we're building affordable housing all over...'

I interrupted her.

'MY affordable housing. Right here. Not in the Bronx.'

She starts babbling talking points. I interrupt her again.

'This apartment. My home. In Stuyvesant Town. You know, the place that Metropolitan Life built on land GIVEN TO THEM by the city. The place which they got tax abatements on since it opened 60 years ago. The mainstay of the middle class in Manhattan. The place they sold a few years ago for five fucking billion dollars and made a killing on. The place where they and the new owner were/are doing their damnedest to pull apartments out of the rent stabilization program. The actions that MIKE declined to comment on, saying they were all legal private transaction, none of HIS concern. That's my concern.'

'Well, can someone call you to discuss this further?'

'No, thanks.'

Then just a few weeks ago, my doorbell rings again.

'Who is it?'
'I'm Tom, here on behalf of Mayor Mike.'

I didn't bother to open the door and just told him that I declined to communicate with Mayor Mike again, via proxy.

Now, I don't know how extensive this door to door visiting was. But I assume that they figured that Stuyvesant Town, which usually has very high turn-outs, wasn't feeling the love for Mayor Mike, who is personally very close friends with the principal owner of the company that bought the place.

I only hope that his Napoleonic ego was hurt by how close an opponent with far less money and far less campaigning presence came to unseating him.

The city council deserves some of the blame as well, for not putting up any objections to the term limits reversal. I'm not completely in favor of terms limits in all cases but the retroactive application of this was indeed bullshit.

People think he's really not a Republican since he's pro-gay rights, pro-choice. But he has been the financial mainstay of the NYS Republican party during his mayoral terms. I have no doubt that he was hoping for a run at the Republican nomination last year. Then reality must have set in, re: national electability.

As a post-script, since Met Life sold the place at the peak of the insane NYC real estate market, the new owners' mortgage loans are now in the negative. And oops, then a lawsuit was brought by a few people who had rented market rate apartments here, only to find their rents increasing by enormous amounts upon renewal. They decided to ask the courts whether or not the owners of the 20,000 or so apartments city-wide (of which Stuy Town has a little more than half, a third of which have been destabilized), who were/are given extensive savings benefits under a specific state law, could even remove apartments from the program. The benefits to date are permanent: 80 acres of free land in NYC ain't chump change. Last week, the highest court in NYS affirmed a lower court win for the tenants, saying the nature of the program was such, that these apartments were exempt from the law that allows landlords to de-stabilize the dwindling stock of apartments under certain conditions.