Bronx Pols Denounce Bloomberg’s Budget Cuts

It’s looking like it’s going to be a tough budget year for New York City, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg released his updated financial plan for this and the next four fiscal years last month—one that calls for cuts to jobs and services from nearly every city agency and sector. On Nov. 18, Bloomberg announced his latest round of budget gap closing actions, including the loss of thousands of city jobs, measures he says will reduce the budget deficit from $3.3 billion to $2.4 billion for the fiscal year 2012. The cuts sparked backlash from advocates across the city and concern from local representatives.

Editorial: The Armory Vote One Year Later

It’s the one-year anniversary of the nearly unanimous City Council vote that scuttled the mayor’s juggernaut to stuff a cookie-cutter mall inside the landmark Kingsbridge Armory. In that time, the city’s two tabloids, the New York Post and the Daily News, have taken every opportunity to whack at Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. for his opposition to the project, which gave the necessary juice to a community and labor-backed effort to defeat it in the City Council. Regular readers know where we stand on this, but as long as the editorial boards of the city dailies continue to harp on this, we are compelled to reiterate our position. For more than a decade, community organizations led by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition hammered out plans for a remake of the facility that made room for recreation, community programming, small businesses, a movie theater, etc. Related, the city’s chosen developer, never offered details on what it was going to provide except for retail. Despite this and the clear sense that the Armory would be a mall pure and simple, the community’s only firm request in the end was that people had to be paid a living wage, particularly when the developer was going to receive over $70 million in taxpayer subsidies to remake a public landmark. It was hardly an outlandish request. Several other municipalities have enacted wage guarantees on development projects benefiting from taxpayer subsidies.

School Lunch Bill Passed, at Expense of Food Stamps

Lawmakers in Washington reauthorized funding for the Child Nutrition Act earlier this month, a bill that funds and sets the guidelines for a number of child nutrition programs, including how much federal money goes towards school lunches. The legislation, which comes up for renewal every five years, is a $4.5 billion package that included additional funding this year, something health advocates have long been lobbying for. But the extra money comes at a price, as the Senate dipped into $2.2 billion in stimulus funds intended to expand SNAP, the federal food stamps program. The cuts have put anti-hunger advocates in an awkward position, where support for one nutrition program means a major setback for another.

Espada Misses Vote on Housing Bill

State Senator Pedro Espada’s absence at a special Senate session in Albany on Monday was a conspicuous one. The Majority Leader failed to make the trek to the capitol, while the man who will replace him in a month, Gustavo Rivera, did. Also making the journey to Albany? A group of city housing advocates intent on supporting an important housing bill to extend current rent stabilization laws until 2018 — a lobbying effort that ultimately failed, as the bill fell a few votes short of the 32 needed to pass. Espada missed the vote on the bill despite the fact that he, as chairman of the Senate’s housing committee, happens to be the legislation’s main sponsor.

Black is the New Schools Chancellor, Bronx Pols Divided

After much debate and political maneuvering, Cathleen Black, the veteran publishing executive, is the city’s new schools chancellor. She replaces Joel Klein. Black was put forward for the job by Mayor Bloomberg in early November, but her candidacy had been in jeopardy after the State Education Commissioner David Steiner questioned her lack of related work experience. Schools chancellors need a professional certificate in educational leadership and other qualifications. Black has had a successful career in business and publishing — she’s been called the “First Lady of glamorous glossies” — but she’s never been a teacher, and her resume boasts just a single day as a guest principal in the Bronx.

Faith Leaders Throw Support Behind Living Wage Bill

Clergy members from the Bronx and across the city led a silent march on City Hall on Nov. 17 to voice their support for the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, or “Living Wage Bill.” The legislation, sponsored by Bronx Council members Oliver Koppell and Annabel Palma, would require most development projects that receive public funding to pay workers employed there a living wage — $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 an hour without. The bill was sparked by a contentious debate last December over the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory, when the City Council — backed by a fierce coalition of Bronx advocates and Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. — voted down plans for a shopping mall at the hulking Kingsbridge Road landmark.

State Senate Still Undecided Two Weeks Later

There were few surprises on the local level in the state’s general election on Nov. 2, but three Senate races from other parts of the state are in dispute, several weeks later, as absentee ballots are still being counted. In the Bronx, every incumbent representative running was re-elected for another term, with the exception of Sen. Pedro Espada, who was defeated in a highly publicized primary in September by political newcomer Gustavo Rivera. Rivera handily won the general election this month in the 33rd District. Meanwhile, three races elsewhere — one on Long Island, one in Westchester and another in Buffalo — were too close to call, and are still being disputed. According to the New York Times, it looks like the Republican Party is poised to overtake the Democrats, who have held a slight majority in the State Senate since 2008.

New “Business Incubator” Coming to the Bronx

Michael Bloomberg, New York’s pro-business mayor and an entrepreneur himself, has his sights on the South Bronx as the next hub for start-up businesses. The mayor and the city’s Economic Development Corporation broke ground on a “Business Incubator,” in the BankNote building, on Garrison Avenue in Hunts Point, on Nov. 3.

Bronx Pol Says New Schools Boss is Bad Fit

Add Bronx Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson to the growing list of legislators and school advocates criticizing Mayor Bloomberg’s appointment of media executive Cathleen Black as the city’s new Schools Chancellor. Joel Klein resigned from the post to take a job with News Corp., which publishes the New York Post and Wall Street Journal.