* “I found it comical and almost a little tragic that Mike Bloomberg did an op-ed talking about parking and about tickets today, when he’s the one who has really helped to create the major increase in parking fines and penalties across the city of New York. It’s almost like the mugger who beat you up and takes your money, and then is kind enough to take you to the emergency room afterward. That’s exactly what he’s done.” — Mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson responding to Bloomberg’s post editorial about possible plans for parking reform in the City Room.

* Bloomberg isn’t ignoring all fellow GOP candidates running in November. The mayor has endorsed Republican Bob Capano who is running against popular Democratic Councilmember Vincent Gentile in the 43rd District. The Post reports the endorsement is likely the result of Gentile’s criticism of “Bloomberg for raising property taxes and being out of touch with the needs of outer borough homeowners” and using a previously published photo of Bloomberg’s ritzy mansion in a mailer to get his point across.

* Haven’t had enough of Joyce Purnick talking about Mayor Bloomberg? You can see her tonight with former Mayor Ed Koch at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan.

* Gotham Schools reports that Mayor Bloomberg would like to lift the cap on charter schools. Bloomberg unsuccessfully lobbied to lift the cap in 2005.

* Some advice for Thompson from Teachable Moment.

We have been reviewing various accounts of Bloomberg’s record on education and came across a report prepared by The New York Civil Liberties Union. Readers may not be familiar with the truly horrific practices that Bloomberg has introduced along with his absolute control of the public schools. He has asked to be judged on his public school record. There are so many reasons to show this arrogant oligarch the door, but at his own invitation, we invite you to judge for yourselves what he has done to the schools. We would only add that what follows is a very limited number of episodes taken randomly from only one website after a quick Google search.

Criminalizing the Classroom

At the start of the 2005-2006 school year, the city employed a total of 4,625 School Safety Agents (SSAs) and at least 200 armed police officers assigned exclusively to schools. These numbers would make the NYPD’s School Safety Division alone the tenth largest police force in the country – larger than the police forces of Washington, D.C., Detroit, Boston, or Las Vegas.

Because these school-assigned police personnel are not directly subject to the supervisory authority of school administrators, and because they often have not been adequately trained to work in educational settings, SSAs and police officers often arrogate to themselves authority that extends well beyond the narrow mission of securing the safety of the students and teachers. They enforce school rules relating to dress and appearance. They make up their own rules regarding food or other objects that have nothing whatsoever to do with school safety.
Read rest of story…

Via The Village Voice:

As it heads into the home stretch, the Bloomberg campaign has adopted a new slogan to sum things up and help focus voters on the big picture. The new motto was rolled out at the big Bloomberg rally held primary night on a West Side pier, a gala celebration aimed at snatching attention away from Democrats and on to Mayor Mike. The slogan was emblazoned on Bloomberg’s podium, and tattooed over and over on a TV backdrop. Which made it hard to miss. It read: “Progress. Not Politics.” The first word is a debate worth having. The next two are simply lies.

Not politics? Whatever you think of Bill Thompson’s erratic campaign, at least he was being nominated that very night by his own party in an open primary. Mike Bloomberg? His GOP endorsement came courtesy of a classic, old-school political deal in which five Republican county leaders sat down in a room and agreed to give the mayor their ballot line.
Read rest of story…

* The Daily News gave Bloomberg space in its op-ed section today to explore new parking technology in the city, though the costs and funding for such a plan was no where to be found. In response, Thompson said Bloomberg was pandering for votes.

* NY1 reports that Mayor Bloomberg, on his way for a campaign breakfast, was met with protesters in Chinatown. “Bloomberg is not welcome in Chinatown. Today he thinks he can come here and buy a few votes by giving a free lunch. But a free lunch is not going to make up for eight years of destroying the community,” said one protestor.

* Today’s City Room tip sheet reported that New York City voters are still unhappy with the term limits change and The Working Families Party, which endorsed Liu and de Blasio, is a political force to be reckoned with that is turning its full attention to Democratic mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson, an outspoken critic of the term limits override by Bloomberg and the City Council.

* The Harvard Crimson writes that Bloomberg’s eating habits signifies a threat to Democracy. (Though the overriding of term limits is probably a more suitable argument).

From Phil DePaolo:

Remember this?

Block Magazine - 10/27/06

A week after City Councilman Yassky lost a heated race for congressional representative of Brooklyn’s 11th district, piles of Yes for Yassky t-shirts and boxes of informational pamphlets sat in the corner of the small storefront headquarters, whiteboards still read the cross streets of neighborhoods within the district for volunteer canvassing, and the only people left in the office were Yassky’s campaign manager and his mother.

The race quickly devolved into a racial maelstrom in the media, with accusations flying that Yassky was an opportunist and a colonizer who was trying to capitalize on a race with three black candidates who would ostensibly split the black vote and catapult him into the national political arena.

Yassky was considered the frontrunner at many points in the race, but in September 12th’s Democratic primary, Yvette Clark brought in 31 percent of the vote compared to Yassky’s 26 percent, Yassky’s endorsement by The New York Times or his sizable campaign coffers, which topped all of his opponents by a margin of more than $150,000, according to Federal Election Committee records was not enough.

“When [Yassky] sat on the fence about the Atlantic Yards, I thought that was going to hurt him,” said Philip DePaolo, community liaison with the People’s Firehouse, a public safety watchdog group based in Williamsburg. “Because Chris Owens came out against it, I think he took a lot of the white votes. So for me that was his undermining. That really hurt his white base.”

Considering he is often characterized as having an opportunistic political strategy, where Yassky will head from here is now the question du jour. Yassky moved from Washington D.C. when positions on the city council opened up, then ran an aborted campaign for district attorney which some say he abandoned when he saw he may have had a chance at the 11th district.

“He’s a potential player out there, but he just lost the race — a big one,” Muzzio said. “So I don’t know how big a player on the stage of New York City and New York state politics Yassky is going to be.”

***

Two days before the term Limits vote I warned David that if he voted with the Mayor and the Speaker and overturned the will of the people he would commit political suicide. He told me that he preferred three terms over two but agreed that a voter referendum was the only way to overturn term limits.

A few days after the term limits vote I saw David again. I asked him if he was running for Comptroller or his Council seat. He told me he would not run against Bill Thompson so he had to wait to see what Thompson would do. I reminded him that his decision to overturn term limits was going to bite him in the ass! David has no one to blame but himself for his loss. The people have spoken.

Though yesterday’s runoff election was to determine the winner of the Democratic nomination for Comptroller and Public Advocate, for some of the voters who went to the polls, their vote was cast against Mayor Bloomberg.

Via The New York Times:

At 6:05 a.m., with the sun still not up, Michael Rivadeneyra, 32, hurried into the school, eager to vote before heading off to work. The move by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City Council to rewrite the city’s term limits deeply offended him, and he wanted to register his displeasure at the polls. “It’s a smack in the face to voters,” he said.

(See the story at The New York Times)

Returns via NY1:

* The Village Voice reports that a former senior Bloomberg Administration member, Joshua Sirefman, broke the city’s conflict of interest laws when he lobbied for a city contract to develop the West Side Rail Yards on behalf of his private sector employer, the Brookfield Properties Corporation. [Thanks to Queens Crap]

* The New York Post calls Bloomberg and Department of Health officials hypocrites for stocking loads of sugary drinks in the health agency’s main lobby. Bloomberg has launched a campaign against sugary drinks because of their health implications, though this is the second week the press has reported a “do as I say, not as I do” scenario.

* “You’ve got my vote. Now that I’m getting beaten up, I need something different.” — Frank Fundaro, a Conservative Staten Island resident to Democratic mayoral challenger Bill Thompson. For Fundaro, it would be his first time voting for a Democrat since he cast a ballot for Jimmy Carter.

* Thomas Carroll, president of the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability, wonders in the Post if Bloomberg will make some bold moves when renewing the City’s contract with the United Federation of Teachers right before the mayoral election.

Apparently, Bloomberg thinks he’s the only Republican candidate that matters in this election.

Via NBC New York:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t know who the GOP candidates for citywide election are, but he says they’ve got no chance at winning – an interesting comment from the guy who, ahem, is running for mayor on the Republican line.

“They have no chance whatsoever…whoever they are,” the mayor said at a press conference today.
Read rest of story…

Herbert London, president of the Hudson Institute and professor emeritus of New York University, asks how there can be progress in education when students are doing poorly on the SATs.

Via Pajamas Media:

Mayor Bloomberg has consistently announced the success of his educational initiatives in the last four years. In fact, his claim for an unprecedented third term is based in part on the strides made by city students on reading and math tests. Chancellor Joel Klein has been praised and virtually beatified for his role in “turning around” the educational system. At one meeting after another the mayor has noted that the control he exercises over the city school system has paid dividends.

However, a recent report challenges the credibility of the mayor’s well-advertised claims. Despite an explosion in educational spending and a capitulation to the demands of the teachers’ union, city scores on the SAT spiraled downward for the fourth straight year.
Read rest of story…