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Baloney. OMB has been hiding money. A gap is IMPOSSIBLE.
Empowering city policy makers to take risks is the way for Mayor Mamdani’s to achieve the goals set out in his inspiring inaugural address. That will take having their backs when stuff happens. Not so easy.
Jeff Gural is an unusually generous and outstanding citizen of the City of New York, in a city and industry full of self interested scoundrels.
The solution, of course, is government subsidy of the delta between revenue and expense. We also need a captive State property insurance program, and tort reform, to bring costs under control.
When I was working in SE Queens, the one and two star chiefs I interacted with at NYPD were always impressive. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social They were professional and sophisticated. One of them is now a Deputy Commissioner. That's where any new mayor should look for public safety leadership.
Homelessness is solvable. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social #CommunitySolutions and its #BuiltforZero program is ending homelessness all over the country -- but not in New York City. Any new mayor would do well to consult with Rosanne Haggerty and her team.
A trope about city government used to be that it provided employees with generous benefits. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social That is no longer true. Pensions are old fashioned, non-portable defined benefits - that take ten years to vest. Useless in attracting mobile young employees.
One of the ways that city personnel policies need to be updated is in how highly competitive, technical jobs are compensated. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social City government can't hire coders and tech specialists because, frankly, it doesn't pay enough. There is an odd kind of compensation compression.
What does racial integration in the NYC public schools look like when over 80% of public school students are non-white? @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social What do "progressives" mean when they advocate for integrating the city's public schools? The first rule of NYC education policy should be "do no harm."
There are some governmental functions where the maximum optimal expenditure can de determined. Parks and libraries are among those. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Any new mayor should pledge to fully fund those agencies which benefit every citizen. Public safety and social services are different.
I'm not sure how the two things relate. But I do know that food markets are a very low margin business. I tried to create a not-for-profit one focused on SNAP recipients in Jamaica, Queens without success -- even with our providing the space rent free.
New York City has some of the best public schools in the country. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Any new mayor's approach to ed policy should be to preserve what's excellent (including charters) and to move the dial on mediocre ones to good. A focus on improving the worst performing is a mistake..
There are some things that the city continues to do well. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social These tend to be "continuous processes" like drinking water, trash removal, snow removal, street paving, lighting and traffic signaling. Any new mayor needs to make sure these receive adequate resources.
A good example of how NYC govt doesn't work: DOT's public space programs. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social A great idea in the abstract; but without resources for maintenance and programming it can't work. Rather than capacitating local partners, DOT places onerous obligations on small NFPs.
The City's land use process (ULURP) has turned into a multi-armed monster. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social. It is a million dollar exercise in box checking that does not actually result in serious review of projects. The beneficiaries are the consultants who perform the otherwise useless studies.
The city's civil service scheme serves little useful propose. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social In the late teens I took three CS exams. I scored in the middle 1/3 on them. Huh? 8 yrs of elite higher education and 30 years of experience? I got officers of interviews for inappropriate jobs yrs later.
City procurement processes need to be overhauled. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social It sometimes takes years to get the required approvals. There is too much redundancy --OMB, MOCS, Law, Comptroller. The structures are too expensive. Agencies have competent purchasing and legal staffs. Trust them.
I hope to identify some of my suggested advisors/appointees in future posts. But as its stands now, all of the incentives are for risk aversion.
There are three municipal systems that @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social will have to blow up in order to be an effective progressive mayor: procurement, personnel/civil service and land use. Reforms put in place in the 20th Century have become dysfunctional an obstacles to real change.
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social The first thing any new Mayor needs to do is to get control of OBM. It has arrogated to itself the power to approve the filling of every vacancy and the issuing of RFPs, the awarding of contracts, and the execution of contracts. These many reviews add no value.
It was interesting to see who is on the Mayor's Charter Commissioner. www.nyc.gov/site/charter...
These are all experienced local government hands, but are mostly risk averse, and not the folks @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social should call on to build a team. He needs to find people who are risk takers.
Here is a free idea for expanding affordable housing: Allocate more money to subsidy. According to the New York State Association for Affordable Housing there are 700 projects that have sites and zoning and are shovel ready. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
It just demonstrates how arbitrary, political and performative these incarcerations of politically active graduate students are.
One interesting thing is how loose the review of our documentation was when we returned from Berlin via Amsterdam at JFK (T4). We were just kind of waived through at immigration control, after a cursory glance at our passports by the ICE officer. Anyone could have breezed right in.
It seems to me a good time to know about the views on the establishment of Jewish state by people like Martin Buber, Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, Gershom Sholem and Judah Magnes -- about which I know little to nothing, despite having read plenty of Arendt and Sholem.
