Civic Talk: Traffic and Parks - Can they coexist?
Date & Time: Thursday September 21st, 2006 at 6:30 p.m.
Place: Museum of the City of New York 1220 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10029

As new parks develop and congestion increases, will traffic need to be further curbed to accommodate park users? Should Central park be closed entirely to traffic? Or can traffic and parks co-exist peacefully in our burgeoning city? Join Henry Stern, President of NY Civic, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Transportation Alternatives' Executive Director Paul Steely White, and NYC DOT's Ryan Russo for an program of discussion and debate, ending at 8 p.m.
Presented as part of the Museum of the City of New York’s ongoing Civic Talks Series, developed in collaboration with NY Civic.

To R.S.V.P. e-mail us at Starquest@nycivic.org, or phone the Museum of the City of New York: (212) 534-1672

By Henry J. Stern
September 19, 2006

Last week's primary elections in both major parties showed signs of a thaw in the legislative lockdown that has paralyzed progress in the State Legislature for at least a decade.
 
In previous years, the defeat of an incumbent was a rarity, and vacancies in the legislature occurred primary through the happy event of elevation to higher office, or the sad event of the death or imprisonment of the legislator.  Legislators may decide not to run for re-election so they can devote their full energies to refuting the false charges that have been made against them. This may mean that they do not want to expend their swollen campaign treasuries on a difficult contest for election to an office they might not be allowed to fill.
 
This year, two Republican assemblymembers from the Hudson Valley were defeated in primaries.   Willis Stephens Jr., a stalwart who had served six terms, lost to a young (28 years old) air force officer, Greg Ball.    On the east side of the great river, a promising incumbent, Patrick Manning, who had presumed to seek the Republican nomination for Governor this year, lost by 248 votes to Marcus Molinari, the mayor of Tivoli, population 1175, just north of Red Hook, population 10,408.  In addition to having some family problems, Manning pretended in a phone call to be a Molinari consultant so he could get polling information.  Although this is not illegal, it is not cricket, and the deception did not amuse some of the voters in Dutchess and Columbia counties.
 
The Democratic upsets were in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Buffalo.  The celebrated Senator Ada Smith of Kings County had previously been stripped of her leadership post in the Senate by Minority Leader David Paterson for various confrontations she had with police officers and staff members, which culminated in criminal proceedings. She lost to Shirley Huntley, a local civic leader, by about 200 votes.   In this contest, Senator Smith retained the support of the Queens Democratic organization, which had deserted former Councilman Allan Jennings, who was defeated for renomination last year after sundry acts of sexual harassment which indicated that, as they say today, he had issues.
 
Assemblywoman Diane Gordon of Brooklyn faces trial in a bribery case for demanding that a builder give her a very nice house in exchange for her supporting his efforts to get construction jobs. This did not, however, impair her standing with her constituents. She defeated two male challengers, winning 58 per cent of the vote.   If she is convicted of a felony, her seat will automatically be vacated, as was the case with her colleague, Clarence Norman, who lost both his assembly seat and his party position as leader of the Brooklyn Democrats upon his felony conviction.
 
One incumbent was defeated in Manhattan.  In the district including Stuyvesant Town, newcomer (39) Brian Kavanagh defeated veteran (67) Sylvia Friedman, who had filled the vacancy created when Steve Sanders, who had been an assemblymember since well before he was Brian's age, retired to become a full-time lobbyist.  Ms. Friedman, regarded as an activist, had won a county committee vote and a special election for the balance of Sanders' term.  Kavanagh was endorsed by the New York Times, which was probably decisive in the close neighborhood race. Ms. Friedman remains the candidate of the Working Families Party.
 
In Buffalo, State Senator Marc Coppola, was defeated by city council member Antoine Thompson.  Coppola had won an interim term, and was  handicapped by the candidacy of his cousin, Albert Coppola, who had briefly held the seat before the election of Byron Brown, who is now Mayor of Buffalo.  That is more than you probably want to know about Buffalo Democratic politics, but it completes the tale of the five turnovers in Tuesday's primaries.
 
The general election, to be held seven weeks from today, looks like even more of a runaway than the primaries. The Siena poll reports Eliot Spitzer with a 50-point lead over John Faso.  The remaining issue is how this projected landslide will affect other contested offices.  Senator Clinton need not rely on Spitzer's coattails, and indeed will be competing with him as to who will roll up the larger percentage of the vote.  The record so far is 71 per cent, set by Senator Chuck Schumer when he was re-elected in 2004.  Does anyone remember the name of his opponent? It was Howard Mills, who is now Superintendent of Insurance for the State of New York, by appointment of Governor Pataki.

As for the State Comptroller race, Alan Hevesi is considered assured of re-election over J. Christopher Callaghan (now you know).  The only potential contest is for Attorney General, where Andrew Cuomo's 17-point lead over Jeanine Pirro is considered modest by this year's standards.

The issue in greatest doubt is whether the Democrats can capture enough State Senate seats to win a majority.
The Republicans have controlled the Senate for about thirty years, and gerrymandered it in their favor, just as the Democrats have gerrymandered the State Assembly.   Safe seats make obedient lawmakers when the leaders draw the lines.
 
Elections are not very interesting when there is no element of competition, but they are not held for our amusement. If a large majority of voters prefers one candidate over another, that settles the issue.   To try to create a race suggests blowing air on dying embers, hoping to ignite them.  It usually doesn't happen, but it doesn't hurt to try.
 
The presumed certainty of the election result may make the leading candidate act more like an incumbent, avoid making promises he cannot keep, and start in to deal with the issues of a state wallowing in debt, losing jobs and industry, entwined with unenforceable, unaffordable and unattainable judicial mandates, encumbered by "the most dysfunctional legislature in the country," as proclaimed by the Brennan Center for Justice. 

Our legislators are captives of their leaders, but if they were to be emancipated, we have no reason to believe that they would develop the wisdom, judgment, common sense and fiscal responsibility that has so far eluded them.  (Again, we make exceptions for the ones we know; but when they all get together things just don't seem to work out.)

Do not conclude that the situation is hopeless; it is not.  What we need is for elected officials of both parties to start thinking of the good of the general public, rather than enhancing the fortunes or protecting the sinecures of their contributors.  The Romans said, “Cum spiro, spero” meaning literally, while I respire, I aspire, or, more in the vernacular, “Where there is life, there is hope.”   That is how we look at the state’s political and economic future; hoping that new leadership will provide better outcomes.