Photo by William Sweet

While New York has been considering wehteh to allow gas drilling, many sites have been developed in adjoining states, such as this one near Dimock, Penn.

(For an opposing viewpoint, see The Cuomo Administration Must Slow Down by Eric Goldstein of the Natural Resources Defense Council.)

The possible expansion of natural gas development in New York's Southern Tier has polarized New Yorkers like few issues have in recent years. On Jan. 1, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration inherited the matter. Whatever they decided, they would have to deal with the issue directly, calmly and with political courage. After all, drilling opponents had already spent been two years cultivating opposition against hydraulic fracture stimulation technology.

Shortly after taking office, Cuomo appointed long-time Open Space Institute head Joe Martens as commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation -- a decision immediately hailed by environmental groups as a key to their defeat of expanded natural gas exploration in New York.

 

Oil and gas developers also wondered what the Martens appointment would mean to the industry, which employs about 4,500 people across the state. The industry watched as business and opportunity fled New York to work in the same Marcellus Shale gas field beneath Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

The DEC Deliberates

Martens was previously an open critic of natural gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing. But he also has a great deal of energy policy experience and understands the relationship between energy, the environment and the economy. In fact, in his announcement of the appointment, the governor said, "Joe knows how to strike the critical balance between defending our natural resources from pollution and destruction while at the same time fostering a climate of economic renewal and growth."

It seems the commissioner is doing just that. Fast-forward nine months from his appointment and we have seen the birth of a new draft of drilling permit rules – known as the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, or SGEIS. The administration has allowed Department of Environmental Conservation experts, including geologists and engineers, to modify the statement, resulting in the most stringent set of rules in the nation, and perhaps the world. Whether they are too stringent, and therefore restrictive of business development, remains to be determined. Industry is still evaluating the 1,500-page document. The public comment period ends Dec. 12.

A Proven Technology

In total it has been three years since a previous administration enacted a de facto moratorium on natural gas extraction using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. My own employer, Norse Energy Corp., has dealt with the consequences of this delay. Four years ago Norse decided to focus our exploration efforts on shale drilling in New York and hired an expert staff of surveyors, geologists, engineers, geophysicists, technicians, accountants, land agents and even hydrologists (to assure protection of water resources) to work in western and central New York. We even had plans to double our staffing and employ more than 100 people directly with hundreds more indirect jobs. Now instead of additions we have been forced to subtract -- reducing our workforce by more than half since the beginning of the year -- because expected opportunities went unrealized.

Protesters have focused on hydraulic fracturing. The term fracking has become a rally point as if it were a new, unknown technology. In fact, hydraulic fracturing has been in commercial use for about 60 years, and it has been used to free oil and natural gas resources more than one million times in 32 states nationwide, and here in New York, too. Ironically, water well drillers often hydraulically fracture their wells to improve production.

Natural gas is part of the historical fabric of New York. In 1821, the nation's first gas well was "dug" in Fredonia, in western New York near the banks of Lake Erie. Natural gas became a commercially viable energy source shortly thereafter. Since then, 75,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled in New York.

Today, there are more than 14,000 wells that are still active and operating safely. The vast majority of these wells have been hydraulically fractured. You can drive across the Southern Tier and see the wellheads on farms, schoolyards, college campuses and church grounds. While a reclaimed Marcellus Shale well requires a larger footprint, it will not be an eyesore, especially when you consider what it will produce: jobs, tax revenue, royalty payments, energy independence and an economic boost that the Southern Tier has never seen before.

Natural gas also will be part of the nation’s energy future. A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study highlighted the significant role natural gas will have on the future of transportation, energy production and greenhouse gas reduction. The point here is that natural gas has been, and will remain, a positive component in our efforts to improve air quality and environmental quality in New York.

The governor and commissioner have vowed to let science rule the discussion, and so far they have done that. They both have cautioned that energy development must be deemed safe before it is allowed to expand in New York, but that the state also has energy and economic needs. New York is at a critical point as it pursues the safe development of natural gas deep underground -- ever mindful of protecting our precious natural resources closer to the surface.

The governor's administration has said balance is key. Our industry agrees.

S. Dennis Holbrook is executive vice president of Norse Energy in Buffalo and a director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York.

Photo by Andy Dayton

It's daunting enough to look for a job when there are over four unemployed workers for every opening. It's even harder when you desperately want work but have a criminal record -- as 65 million U.S. adults do.

Thankfully, New York City recently took steps to help reduce one of the obstacles people with criminal records face when applying for a job.

Last month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued an executive order ensuring that people with criminal convictions unrelated to the job in question do not face an unnecessary barrier to employment with the New York City government. In his speech on the $127-million Young Men's Initiative, Bloomberg said, "I believe that as long as you have served your time and stayed clean, and the crime you committed isn't related to the job you're seeking or a threat to public safety, you deserve a second chance just like everyone else."

 

Set to go into effect early next month, New York City's measure will remove the box on job applications that requires candidates to disclose a criminal record upfront. Known as "banning the box," the city policy will be the first of its kind in the state, setting an example for the state and the country. (While a statewide ban the box bill stalled in committee last year, State Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson is expected to reintroduce the bill in the next legislative session.)

A Closed Door

Almost 25 years ago, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that because minorities are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, blanket no-hire policies against people with criminal records are discriminatory and illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Unfortunately, two decades later, many companies still refuse to hire qualified people with a criminal record, no matter how old or minor, and the doors are closing faster on applicants in the sputtering economy.

For communities of color, the trend is devastating. The unemployment rates for people of color already vastly exceed those of whites -- averaging 16.0 percent for African Americans and 12.5 percent for Latinos nationally last year, compared with 8.7 percent for whites. In addition, workers of color are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system; arrest rates for African Americans are more than twice those of whites, for example. With over 90 percent of employers now conducting criminal background checks when hiring, up from 51 percent in 1996, even getting an interview is a long shot for millions of black and Latino workers.

New York City among a small but growing handful of jurisdictions that have recognized the societal consequences of these trends, including the impact on public safety, and so are offering people who make amends a second chance at a new way of life.

Banning the Box

Over two dozen cities and six states have adopted "ban the box" policies and other model hiring reforms to reduce employment barriers for people with records. In the broadest law in the nation, Massachusetts has moved the criminal background check to the end of the hiring process for all public and private employers, eliminating the need for applicants to check a box on an application if they have a criminal history. Such innovative policies make criminal background checks fairer without compromising safety and security on the job.

New York's new policy prohibits agencies from asking about an applicant's conviction record on preliminary application documents or in the initial interview. After the first interview, agencies may ask applicants to disclose any prior criminal convictions.

Moving the question until later in the process allows workers to be considered on their merits, reduces the risk that agencies would use overbroad or blanket policies that run afoul of federal and state civil rights laws, and still ensures that background checks are performed when necessary to ensure safety and security.

In Need of an Update

The decades old federal guidelines that make blanket no-hire policies illegal are outdated, and as more Americans with criminal histories seek jobs than ever before, employers are hardly greeting them with open arms. A recent survey by the National Employment Law Project found hundreds of illegal and exclusionary job ads posted on Craigslist by staffing agencies and employers around the country. The ads say things like, "You must not have any felony or misdemeanor convictions on your record. Period."

Such policies discriminate against jobseekers and block out candidates who may be exceptionally qualified for a job. They also ignore a growing body of research that has shown that people with old records pose no more risk than someone without a record.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a pivotal public meeting in July that explored ways to balance the rights of workers with the obligations of employers to maintain safe and secure workplaces. As it updates its guidelines to reflect the proliferation of criminal background checks for employment, the agency should reinforce the idea that blanket screenings are unacceptable and illegal, and that for applicants with records, employers must take into account the specific job responsibilities and the nature of an individual's record, as well as an applicant's rehabilitation.

New York state law requires employers to consider these factors -- as well as the public policy of encouraging employment of people with criminal records -- when making a hiring decision. New York, to build on Bloomberg's guidance, should strive to ban the box for state agencies and, gradually, private contractors too.

These reforms to hiring practices will help employers follow the law, reduce discrimination and keep the workplace safe. They will also help put Americans back to work -- something the economy sure could use right about now.

Madeline Neighly is an attorney, based in New York, with the National Employment Law Project, which has advocated for "ban the box" measures across the country.

Photo by the Office of the Attorney General

After he pressed for allowing prosecution of banks, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was booted from a committee of his fellow state attorneys generals considering enforcement actions against unscrupulous lenders.

(Note: Gotham Gazette reached out to a number of people hoping they would present an opposing points of view on the aspects of foreclosure discussed below. We could not find anyone who would do that but would still welcome comments from other sides on this issue.)

It was not all that long ago when the conventional wisdom among America’s working families was that owning a home provided the key to economic security and a life of prosperity. But now, too many families across New York and America live in fear of foreclosure. Since 2007, nearly 8 million homes have entered a foreclosure process.

We can't forget that this situation was not a sudden, unexpected disaster. It was not inevitable. Instead America's mortgage crisis was the direct result of the greedy, immoral and possibly illegal actions by the largest mortgage banks. These companies intentionally pillaged the assets of working families to enhance their own profits, with no regard for the broader good of our communities or our economy.

 

In order for the American economy to recover and for working families to get back on their feet, two things must happen. First, real relief must be provided to those who predatory mortgage banks preyed upon. Second, those responsible for the mortgage crisis must be held accountable.

As has been widely reported in the press, New York's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, has been removed from a committee of state attorneys general that the Obama administration convened to take enforcement action against mortgage servicers. The settlement that this committee is close to reaching with the banks -- a settlement supported by many powerful Washington politicians, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner -- would require the banks to pay up to $20 billion. In return, though, the banks would be immune from further prosecution.

Schneiderman's Stand

By standing against this settlement and ensuring that he can complete his own comprehensive investigation into the fraud and abuse that these banks perpetrated against the public, Schneiderman is doing exactly what we elected him to do: fighting for justice.

This settlement is a bad deal for New Yorkers. Amnesty for those banks that acted with the most egregious depravity will do absolutely nothing to prevent them from acting the same way again. America can no longer trust massive corporations to police their own practices, especially when they have made skyrocketing profits just two years after enjoying billions in taxpayer bailouts. There is no doubt -- no question -- that these very same banks are responsible for the recession that still grips many of New York's working families. The CEOs of these banks have not even gotten a taste of the economic calamity that they have caused.

Having a Say

New York deserves a seat at the table when it comes to ensuring that a fair settlement is reached. In fact, according to the FBI, New York was among the top 10 states for known or suspected mortgage fraud. Since this story broke, over 1,600 New Yorkers have signed Citizen Action's petition in support of Schneiderman’s pursuit of justice.

Some (ahem -- the New York Post) have argued that if the banks had not proceeded with so many foreclosures, thereby reducing their risk of financial losses, then those banks would have been hesitant to issue more mortgages. While it may be true that banks are not usually willing to take risks unless they have a scheme to ensure their financial success, I think that we can all reach for a higher standard for our corporations.

Schneiderman is seeking a full investigation, a reasonable (i.e., more than $20 billion) settlement and the ability to continue to prosecute illegal activity as it is discovered. Without that kind of approach we will no doubt be in the same situation once again. With it, we can have a society where lenders act responsibly and working families can get the loans they need to build their futures.

For far too long, those who have been elected to represent us in government have coddled the super-wealthy while leaving working families to foot the tab. It’s time for our government to protect those who elect them -- not just those who finance their elections. We believe that if justice is achieved, then everyone will be better off. America needs more elected officials like Schneiderman - willing to stand up to the most powerful special interests in the pursuit of justice.

Karen Scharff is executive director of Citizen Action of New York.

We're excited to announce that, with the support of a new grant from the Knight Foundation, we're gearing up to develop a new round of games for GothamGazette.com. And, we hope our readers can help us make these new games thoughtful, informative and engaging.

These games will let you — the reader — make policy. What problems would you like to take on as a virtual policy-maker? The fate of the city's garbage? The right way to balance civilliberties and security in an Emergency? Developing a balanced land use plan for a neighborhood?

This time around we're planning to add a new element to the games: We will take note of the decisions you make and encourage players to offer explanations of the solutions you've proposed.

Switch It On!
September 28, 2009 — With gadgets guzzling electricity, New York faces a looming energy gap. How would you fix it? Ban air conditioning? Harness the tides? Go nuclear? Play Gotham Gazette latest game and plan our energy future.

Bump the Birds
July 07, 2009 — Candidates have until Thursday to file petitions to get on the primary ballot. Do you have what it takes to get on the ballot and stay there? Play 'Bump,' our latest game, and find out.

Fix the Budget
February 09, 2009 — Play Balance, Gotham Gazette's new game and see if you can fill New York's $4 billion budget gap. Cut, tax or spend -- as long as you make it balance.

The Budget Maze
May 19, 2008 — As politicians debate city spending for 2009, what can advocates do to fight school cuts or fund a neighborhood sports program? Our new game takes through to the budget labyrinth.

The Garbage Glut
November 13, 2007 — How would you keep New York City from drowning in its own refuse? Play Gotham Gazette's new Garbage Game -- and decide what to do with more than 3 million tons of trash a year.

NYC Preservation Game
October 03, 2005 — Church or skyscraper? Summer cottage or million dollar home? "Masterwork" or "world's greatest urinal?" In this interactive game about the city's historic landmarks, you decide.

Budget Quiz
July 11, 2005 —

Campaign 2005 Quiz
June 13, 2005 — Two new transcripts of mayoral forums (one about housing; the other, the budget), an article on the candidates for Gifford Miller's City Council seat, and a quiz that tests whether you're dedicated to civic culture ...or celebrity culture

City Laws Quiz
April 04, 2005 — The following quiz is designed not only to test your knowledge of New York City laws, but to offer a step-by-step guide to the different ways this tool lets you find information — by year, topic, keyword, and individual council member.

Voting Arcade
September 09, 2004 — New York's voting machines are so old that they were already out of date when the first video game, Pong, hit the market over three decades ago. Embark on a tour of New York's broken down voting system with a nostalgic journey thorough Gotham Gazette's versions of ancient video games.

Republicans in New York City Quiz
August 23, 2004 —

Find Your Inner Republican
June 14, 2004 — In our latest interactive feature, see where NYC Republicans past and present have stood on ten issues ranging from abortion to education, and where you fit in.

Plan Your Future Park
March 18, 2004 — Our newest interactive game lets you plan your own park, making choices that communities all over the city have been facing.

Breakdown
December 08, 2003 — New Yorkers rarely think about the systems that keep the city running, until something breaks down. Now, you can take a system-by-system look at what keeps us wired, watered, and flushed: play Breakdown!, our newest interactive game, and use your knowledge to save the city from kaput.

Ground Zero Planner
July 01, 2002 — The Ground Zero Planner allows you to design the World Trade Center site the way you think it should look. You can drag icons representing different ideas for the site, like housing, parks, and a memorial, onto a map of Ground Zero.

The New York City Budget Game
May 12, 2003 — In an effort to close the city's $3.8 billion deficit, public officials have been playing the usual budget games - laying off workers, raising taxes, and threatening to close firehouses and zoos. Now with our interactive NYC Budget Game, you can play too. You spend the money. You make the cuts. You raise and lower the taxes.

Moving Around the City -- A Quiz About Transportation in New York
June 09, 2003 — Which subway system has more riders -- New York's or Mexico City's? What mayor rode mass transit to his inauguration? And how loud are those car alarms? Test your knowledge of New York City transportation.

The Tour Guides Quiz
July 14, 2003 — This is a quiz especially for Gotham Gazette readers who want to challenge their own New York savvy. They are not the exact same questions as those offered in the professional licensing examination for tour guides, but they tap into the same vast treasure trove of New York City legends and lore.

The Judges Game
August 04, 2003 — With a steady stream of new revelations about scandal and political patronage in the Brooklyn judicial system, Gotham Gazette this week tries to sort it all out. Our newest interactive game lets you see if you got what it takes for the Brooklyn bench.

NYC Housing Trivia Quiz
February 17, 2003 — What is the most expensive city in the world – New York, Paris, or Hong Kong? And does Mayor Michael Bloomberg really want to house homeless people on a cruise ship? And how much is a one-bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village?

Gotham Gazette's Summer Quiz
July 16, 2001 — Who is NOT running for public office this year: a 19 year old, a Seinfeld character, a salsa singer, or a State Senator? How many golf courses are there in New York City; how many pigeons? Who are the Vieques Four? Which is greater, New York City's annual budget or Harvard University's endowment? Is NYPD Blue filmed in New York City? How about Friends? Take Gotham Gazette's Summer Quiz and test your New York knowledge.

Gotham Gazette's New York City Quiz
March 21, 2001 — So, you think you know New York City? Which is the longest subway ride? Which is bigger, the Fresh Kill's garbage dump or the Great Wall of China? Test your knowledge in Gotham Gazette's interactive quiz.

City Hall Quiz
January 13, 2003 — What do New Yorkers hate the most - noise, traffic, or rats? Is it illegal to talk on your cell phone on the subway? What new parking holidays were added in the last year? In 2002, the City Council and the mayor passed 47 new laws that they claim will make the city a better place. Test your knowledge of what they did at City Hall with our interactive quiz.

Photo (cc) dominic bartolini

Everywhere we turn, there is evidence of how Wall Street and financial institutions have failed to step up and take responsibility for the foreclosure crisis they caused.

A few weeks ago, Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film, exposing how the explosion of predatory lending, combined with all the wrong incentives in the financial sector, stripped countless families of their life savings and cost millions of jobs around the world.

Then last week, Neil Barofsky, the federal inspector who oversaw the TARP program that bailed out the banks, resigned in protest over how much it had become a giveaway to the big banks. In explaining his decision, Barofsky writes of how banks have refused to modify mortgages or extend credit, how the home mortgage modification program has been a “colossal failure,” and how little real regulatory reform has taken place. The largest banks are actually 20% bigger than they were before the crisis, and the cost of their being “too big to fail” is now built right into the banking system.

 

Meanwhile, though banks can’t even find the paperwork to prove that they’ve got a right to foreclose on many mortgages, they have scoffed at the idea of reaching an agreement with the 50 states’ attorneys general to help homeowners in trouble.

Really, who could blame them? Time and again, we’ve shown that we’ll let them get away with it.

Much stronger federal and state action is needed. I remain hopeful that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, led by the indomitable Elizabeth Warren, will make a real difference here. And I have been encouraged by the work of new NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

But we can’t wait. We need stronger action at the local level as well. While NYC hasn’t been hit as hard as some places, communities throughout the city still have many vacant, blighted, and abandoned homes and construction projects.

A City Approach

In 2007, the Bloomberg Administration and the City Council helped launch the Center for New York City Neighborhoods to provide foreclosure counseling and address the crisis. Unfortunately, Mayor Bloomberg’s FY2012 preliminary budget eliminated all city funding for the Center (if only the foreclosure crisis had been eliminated).

And I am very pleased that the Housing Asset Renewal Program (HARP) created by the Administration and the Council has at last announced its first deals to convert failed development projects into housing for middle-income families.

But we haven’t seen anything from Mayor Bloomberg that holds banks responsible, or even asks them nicely. Instead, the mayor has often been Wall Street’s chief defender, traveling to Washington, speaking against additional regulation, and arguing against the renewal of New York State’s existing millionaire’s tax.

Despite these failures, the City Council is in a good position to do more.

Too often, lenders fail to take responsibility for repairs and upkeep of foreclosed or abandoned properties – and the city is left on the hook to keep those properties safe. Inspired by the advocacy of New York Communities for Change, I introduced a bill (Intro 494) that would require lenders to post a bond for each property they are foreclosing on – to ensure the city gets paid promptly for fees, fines, and emergency repairs during the foreclosure and post-foreclosure period. It builds on two other bills (Intro 500 and 501) sponsored by Councilmember Eric Dilan) that would require lenders to register when they bring a foreclosure proceeding and would transfer responsibility for those fines and repairs to the foreclosing bank. These bills will be heard in the Council on April 14th in the Housing & Buildings Committee.

A requirement to post a bond would force banks to step up and make sure the property they are seeking to take ownership of remains compliant with building and housing codes. This bill would apply to abandoned construction sites as well, giving us a new tool to address these blights in our neighborhoods.

And I hope we’ll go beyond holding banks responsible for individual properties. We also need them to take responsibility for meeting the credit needs of our communities. Even with the bailout money they received, and despite the fact that 2009 and 2010 were banner years, many banks are failing to lend, invest, modify mortgages, or locate branches in our communities. And yet some of these banks hold billions in government funds from the City of New York’s deposits.

The NYC Responsible Lending Act (Intro 485-2011) is sponsored by Councilmember Al Vann and was developed with the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development and the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (I’m pleased to be one of the four primary co-sponsors). This bill would require banks who want to make money on the business of holding the city’s cash to put forward a strategic plan for how they plan to meet community credit needs … and then provide a detailed annual report on their record of community investment and service. There would be a public hearing on their plan and track record.

Poor results would be grounds for the city to stop doing business with those banks. Philadelphia and Cleveland already have laws like this, and legislators are considering it in Los Angeles and other cities around the country.

The City Council can't reform derivatives trading, executive compensation, or predatory lending. But these local laws could build pressure on banks to get a few new bank branches open in low-income neighborhoods, help homeowners keep their homes, promote responsible lending to affordable housing, and help start small businesses.

And perhaps these steps will help promote the idea that taking responsibility is something that is expected of all of us … even financial institutions.

Brad Lander is a New York City Councilmember from Brooklyn.

Photo (cc) NYC Department of Education

The P.S. 22 chorus has been at the Oscars, but the kids spend most of their time at an elementary school on Staten Island that puts a high priority on the arts.

New York magazine called it "the best-known elementary-school chorus on the planet." The fifth grade chorus' videos have been watched more than 28,000,000 times -- and for good reason. It's exhilarating to see kids having that much fun while learning at school. If you haven't seen them on YouTube yet, maybe you caught them perform at the Academy Awards this past Sunday.

What’s so amazing about these students is that they are not from LaGuardia High School for Music and Arts, or Julliard, or even Glee's fictional William McKinley. They hail from Staten Island's Graniteville Public Elementary School, or P.S. 22.

And though the chorus members are clearly talented, when you strip away the Oscar performance and the visits with Beyoncé and Lady Gaga, what you see is a group of students having a great time, expressing themselves and making the most of the educational opportunity they have.

Part of the appeal is that these kids are not from privileged backgrounds with years of private voice lessons or musical training -- in fact 75 percent of the students at P.S. 22 qualify for free lunch, and English is a second language for many of them. What they do have though is a fantastic music teacher in Gregg Breinberg and a principal, Melissa Donath, who understands the value of arts instruction for her students.

 

Beyond the chorus, P.S. 22 offers a rich arts curriculum. Students from pre-k all the way through to fifth grade participate in music, dance, theater and visual arts as required by state law. And they have the space to excel -- classrooms are equipped for both vocal and instrumental music, as well as visual arts and photography. "The arts are woven into all content areas," said Donath, and play a part in increasing student achievement and engagement.

My organization, the Center for Arts Education, can attest to that. We are partnering with P.S. 22 this year on an arts-based family engagement program called Parents As Arts Partners. Not in music, but in the visual arts -- the students and their parents will create a three-dimensional peace sculpture that ties in with anti-bullying efforts. And not because we hand-picked the school, but because P.S. 22 also has a dedicated visual arts teacher, Lois Byrnes, who applied.

Not all students in New York City, though, have the same opportunities as the kids from P.S. 22. According to the most recent data from the 2008-09 school year, only 39 percent of the city's public elementary schools were providing the arts instruction that the state education department has determined is the minimum that elementary school children should receive. In other words, 6 out of every 10 city elementary schools fall short of state standards.

Why are so many kids not getting the well-rounded education to which they are entitled? In a nutshell, principals at schools across the city are under extreme pressure to improve student test scores in just two subject areas -- English language arts and math. Education policymakers from the federal level all the way to the New York City Department of Education, believe that the true measure of a school's success can be gleaned only through testing and more testing in these subject areas. That's why they want to expand standardizing testing to the kindergarten level. And we at the Center for Arts Education believe that is a significant reason why city graduation rates fall far below the state and national average.

Are the ingredients that exist at P.S. 22 that hard to replicate? Absolutely not. Dedicated arts spaces, energetic teachers, arts classes, and a school environment that encourages students to excel, shouldn’t be the exception -- they should be the norm. And while budgets are tight, schools that understand the importance of the arts fight to protect them. Kudos to P.S. 22 for seeing the big picture. Let’s hope that schools leaders and education officials tuned into the Academy Awards show and got a glimpse of what our students can do when given the opportunity.

Doug Israel is the author of Staying in School: Arts Education and New York City Graduation Rates, and the director of research and policy at The Center for Arts Education.

Photo by Jason Kuffer

The Department of Buildings had issued 13 violations for this Manhattan site where a 2008 crane collapse killed seven people.

The tragic deaths this month of two veteran ironworkers at a West 83rd Street construction site were a shocking reminder of how perilous construction work can be in our city. What was not so shocking, unfortunately, was the trail of workplace violations that were issued by the city Department of Buildings at the site after the fatalities -- 11 in all, including eight, Class 1 violations, which are defined by the city as posing a "threat that severely affects life, health, [and] safety." In this case, that included failures to install vertical netting, guard rails and toe boards, all safety features intended to prevent serious falls.

No system of inspections is ever going to prevent every accident. But for too long the city's Department of Buildings has been plagued by bureaucratic inefficiency, allegations of corruption and missed warning signs at fatal construction sites. A big part of this problem, I believe, can be traced to the department's conflicting mission to both promote and police development. On the one hand, its agents are charged with issuing permits to allow new developments; on the other, its inspectors are called upon to issue violations at those same developments when problems arise.

 

There is a better way. The city should create an independent office of inspections, one that streamlines the inspection process but also removes any tension within the buildings department over its dual role.

This is an idea with broad and deep support. Both the city's business and labor communities have endorsed the concept of an independent inspection office, as did a task force set up by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as far back as 2000. And yet the issue remains unresolved, despite a well-documented history of lax -- and sometimes dangerous -- oversight problems.

City Hall's announcement this week that building permits would now include bar codes -- allowing residents to use smart phones to access information already available online-- is a welcome advance. But it falls well short of the major reform that is needed at the buildings department.

A History of Deadly Problems

The untimely deaths of veteran steelworkers Brett McEnroe, 49, and Roy Powell, 51, at the West 83rd Street site last week are only the latest examples. On March 15, 2008, a crane collapsed at a construction site in East Midtown, killing seven people; the Department of Buildings had issued 13 violations for this site. Two months later, a crane toppled over on the Upper East Side, killing two people at a site with 14 violations.

The common denominator in all these accidents was a lengthy backlog of open buildings department and Environmental Control Board violations, as well as a flurry of new ones issued in the wake of disaster.

A later report by my office found tens of thousands of Manhattan buildings to have serious safety or structural violations, including many schools and hospitals. The report also examined long-standing complaints about the erratic training of building department inspectors, as well as the antiquated system of hand-written violation records the agency still uses.

Taking Advantage of the Slump

It is time to reform the buildings department, and the time to do it is now, while the issuance of new building permits is down some 80 percent since 2006 as a result of the still-stalled economy. We must act now so that when good times do return -- as they always do in New York -- we will be ready with a modernized, streamlined Department of Buildings.

We need to establish an independent inspection office. We need to properly train our inspectors. And we need to arm them with handheld computers -- already used by other agencies -- so that information about violations can be swiftly relayed to other inspectors and property owners.

We know the next building boom is coming -- the New York Building Congress counted 692 "stalled" building sites in the five boroughs last October, many of them just waiting for the economy to turn the corner. Together, these projects represent hundreds of millions of dollars of unrealized investment -- and thousands of good paying construction jobs.

New York's building stock is the backbone of our urban infrastructure and is no less important than the roads and railways that keep us all connected. Failing to properly regulate its growth and safety is a risk we can no longer afford.

Scott Stringer is Manhattan borough president.

Art by Siân for London

After recently scuttling a bill that would require paid sick days, the Bloomberg administration and the business community now are training their sights on two more City Council proposals intended to help workers. The bills ask developers who receive major taxpayer subsidies to guarantee that the jobs their big projects create will pay decent wages.

In its efforts to combat this initiative, the administration and its allies have raised a number of arguments. But examination of the facts shows that the objections have no basis in reality. Instead, New York's own experiences and those of other cities demonstrate that living-wage policies are important tools for ensuring that development delivers the middle-class jobs that communities -- and our economy -- need in order to recover and thrive.

The City Council Proposals

The City Council proposals would build on the city's current living-wage law, which was enacted in 1995 and broadened in 2002. It guarantees a $10 minimum wage plus benefits or the prevailing industry wage (whichever is higher) for certain types of service workers at companies that operate under contracts with city agencies. The new proposals (Intro 0018 and Intro 0251) would expand these successful local wage standards to workers employed on taxpayer-subsidized economic development projects.

Every year, the city awards many millions of dollars in tax breaks to promote growth across the five boroughs -- everything from the Hudson Yards project on the West Side, to the new Coney Island in Brooklyn. While these projects are touted for the jobs they will create, security guards and cashiers at subsidized projects often are paid just $8 or $9 per hour with no benefits.

 

Under the City Council proposals, when developers seek such taxpayer subsidies, they would need to recruit tenants and building service contractors that will provide decently paying jobs. Specifically, on projects where developers receive subsidies, all workers would be required to be paid at least $10 per hour -- a very modest wage floor. And for building service workers -- for whom the standard wage in most large buildings in New York is more than $20 per hour -- developers would be required to match that prevailing industry wage.

Big Real Estate, Not Small Businesses

For starters, the administration says the bills would hurt small business. But the developers that receive these subsidies are about as far from small businesses as one can get. And the businesses they bring in as partners are typically major retail and hotel chains, not mom-and-pop shops.

In fact, small businesses generally oppose the city's policy of subsidizing big development projects, because it gives the chain stores an unfair advantage over local mom-and-pops that don't get tax breaks. That is why small-business groups like the Neighborhood Retail Alliance support the City Council's living-wage and prevailing-wage bills. They argue that if these big projects are going to be supported with taxpayer funds, they should at least pay their workers decently.

Developers Will Still Develop

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's other main argument is that it is unrealistic to ask developers to guarantee decent wages and that doing so will kill projects and jobs. That's a serious charge. But the experiences of New York and other major cities present compelling evidence to the contrary.

Although you would never know it from the mayor's rhetoric, Bloomberg has required wage standards on most major development projects across the city in order to win City Council support. This started in 2005 with the redevelopment of the Brooklyn waterfront in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Bloomberg, then–City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and developers signed an agreement to pay decent wages to the janitors and security guards who would eventually be employed in the buildings there. Far from killing any projects or jobs, the developers eagerly moved forward with new luxury high-rises up and down the waterfront. Today, buildings like the Toll Brothers' Northside Piers complex in Williamsburg operate profitably, while paying their janitors solid, middle-class wages.

Since 2005, the city has gone on to use similar standards on other major projects, such as the Willets Point, Coney Island and Domino Sugar factory redevelopments. There is no evidence that the wage guarantees have hurt the city's ability to recruit developers, or developers' ability to get financing or attract tenants for their projects.

But while New York has begun to make progress, it still must play catch-up to other cities in what it expects from businesses that benefit from taxpayers' largesse. Los Angeles, under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has been the national leader in making the creation of living-wage jobs a top priority. No major subsidized development project there goes forward without a living-wage standard -- not just for building service workers, but employees in all low-wage jobs that may be generated. Projects ranging from the Staples Center/L.A. Live sports-and-entertainment district and the Kodak Theater (host to the Academy Awards), to hotel and retail development projects have been built using living-wage standards.

Los Angeles' economic development agency has found that these standards have not prevented developers from balancing project budgets, getting financing, and finding anchor tenants. The employers that the city has partnered with on these projects include major hotel chains like Marriott, Ritz and the W; food-service contractors like HMS Host and Aramark; and retailers like Trader Joe's and Costco.

San Francisco, under Mayor Gavin Newsom, has used the same strategy with equal success. For example, the massive redevelopment of the city's Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point section announced this summer (which will include 635,000 square feet of retail, 2.6 million square feet of office and research space, 10,000 residential units, and a football stadium) will require living wages for all jobs in the project area. The Lennar Corp., the nation's second-largest homebuilder, eagerly sought city approval for the project. The city's living wage was so uncontroversial that there was virtually no mention of it during the public debate over the project.

Stalling With a Study

In an effort to delay action on the proposed bills, the Bloomberg administration has commissioned a million-dollar study of the impact that living-wage laws have had across the nation. The administration hired the nation's leading anti-minimum wage economist, David Neumark from the University of California at Irvine, to conduct the analysis. Neumark, who is affiliated with the Employment Policies Institute -- a lobbying group for low-wage employers seeking to keep wages low -- has staked out an extreme and controversial position on wage standards. He opposed even the modest increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25.

Worse still, his research on living-wage policies has been exposed as fatally flawed. Rather than gather actual data on workers and businesses covered by living-wage policies, Neumark attempts to tease out the impact of such measures from general citywide employment data. However, as more careful economists have pointed out, in most of the cities that have adopted living-wage laws, the policy affects only a very small number of workers. And it simply is not possible to discern the impact -- whether positive or negative -- on such a tiny sliver of the labor market from general data.

Benefits of Living Wages

Last month, the Center for American Progress released an important new national study of living-wage laws that definitively debunked Neumark's findings. It puts to rest the real estate lobby's claims that living-wage policies have impeded job growth by creating an "anti-development" business climate. And it lends support to the large body of careful research over the past decade that has examined actual living-wage policies on the ground -- and documented substantial benefits, not just for workers but also for employers.

For example, in a case study of San Francisco International Airport, University of California economists found the living-wage policy there raised pay by an average of 22 percent for workers such as security screeners, cashiers and restaurant servers. At the same time, airport employers saw annual turnover for security screeners plummet from 94.7 percent to 18.7 percent, resulting in annual savings of $4,275 per employee in recruitment costs. Employers also reported improvements in employee performance, employee morale, and customer service.

Rebuilding the City’s Middle Class and Economy

Bloomberg has begun promoting New York's record of job growth as a model for the nation. But that job growth has produced an hourglass economy, with high-paying finance jobs at the top, low-wage service jobs at the bottom, and less and less for the city's eroding middle class.

Los Angeles has provided a road map for a pro-growth development strategy that expands the tax base and brings in new employers, while improving wages for hotel, retail, and service workers. New York needs to learn from this approach.

Producing more middle-class jobs is vital, not only for New York’s working families, but also for its economy. Because consumer demand powers our economy, a thriving middle class that can afford to spend money at local businesses is essential for sustaining growth. New York's recovery strategy must therefore include initiatives for rebuilding a base of good jobs at good wages for the workers who make the city run. The City Council’s living-wage and prevailing-wage proposals are a good place to start.

Paul K. Sonn is legal co-director of theNational Employment Law Project

New York Public Library

The city has gone through many charters -- and revisions of charters -- since Peter Stuyvesant and his counsel prepared one in 1652. And, writes Scott Stringer, a lot more work needs to be done.

New York City voters will be deciding several proposals for City Charter reform on the November ballot -- and I urge all readers of the Gotham Gazette to participate in this year's election. It's crucial that the people's voice be heard on such issues, and we're fortunate that Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed a city Charter Revision Commission with intelligent, hard-working members who take their job seriously.

 

But I'm disappointed that voters will not be able to review a more comprehensive list of reforms this year -- changes that could have had a dramatic impact on everything from overcrowded schools and inefficient land use planning to innovative food use policies and the empowerment of our community boards. Indeed, I see this year's charter election as a missed opportunity. We have a mere handful of proposals before us this November, and no indication that a more thorough consideration of local government is in the offing.

With a 21-year-break since the last comprehensive charter revision, there was no need to rush the deliberate process of charter reform. And yet that's essentially what the commission did. It had a rare opportunity to engage New Yorkers in a careful re-thinking of our municipal constitution, but instead focused on getting a package before voters in this election.

Earlier this year my office released a 76-page report to the New York City Charter Revision Commission, outlining a series of comprehensive proposals for reform. The city could deal with these and other proposed changes and put them on the ballot next year -- but only if the mayor appoints and convenes a new commission. I strongly recommend that he do just that. With proper public hearings and input, we could finally have a long overdue discussion about the future of our city.

There are a number of instances where the current Charter Commission could have proposed action to remedy a problem facing New York but failed to do so. Here are just a few examples:

• The issue of overcrowded schools, for example, shows no signs of abating. Every year we hear new horror stories of children unable to enroll in neighborhood schools because of a lack of space. The problem, as my office has shown in several reports, stems from a lack of planning. We revealed that, in one year, New York issued permits for residential construction that would bring 2,300 new students into Manhattan schools, but added only 143 new school seats.

The Department of Education may simply not be well equipped to do this critical planning, but other city agencies already have the expertise and data to plan. Therefore, my office proposed a charter revision requiring that an agency other than the Department of Education focus on this problem: The Department of City Planning would provide student enrollment projections; the Office of the Comptroller would conduct regular needs analyses on school capacity.

• Our local Community Boardsare thriving in Manhattan, and they play an increasingly visible role in land use decisions. But they need better tools to represent our citizens. I proposed a charter amendment restoring the role of Community Boards as Community Planning Boards. Among a variety of recommendations, I suggested that each board should have the ability to hire a full-time urban planner. This would enable more robust community-based planning and give all of our neighborhoods a greater voice in decisions about New York’s future.
• As borough president, I have spearheaded Go Green projects in East Harlem and the Lower East Side that promote more environmentally responsible policies and healthier and more sustainable food policy. Indeed, food is at the intersection of health, hunger and the local economy. Rates of diabetes and obesity rosean alarming 17 percent between 2002 and 2004. Today 1.6 million New Yorkers are on food stamps and 3.3 million have trouble affording food. That’s why I sponsored a proposal calling for a Department of Food and Markets to promote food access and economy, and make New Yorkers healthier.
• For decades, the city's Department of Buildings has been plagued by corruption and dysfunction. Many buildings are notoriously unsafe, with only rare or sporadic inspections. In fall 2009, my office conducted a thorough review of open Department of Buildings and Environmental Control Board violations and foundthat there were nearly a quarter of a million open violations in Manhattan alone. A full third of those were considered "Class 1" or "hazardous." Violations in New York buildings remain open -- or unresolved -- for nearly five years on average. We can't keep waiting for tragedies to happen. I proposed a charter amendment transferring building inspection and remediation duties from the buildings department to a new and independent Office of Investigation.
• The responsibilities of a borough president have evolved since the position was created in 1897. Today the charter mandates a key role in land use and capital budget decisions, contract oversight, strategic planning, oversight of community boards and appointments to key boards and commissions. The job is largely what you make it: In Manhattan I’ve launched Bank On, a program aimed at persuading thousands of unbanked New Yorkers to open accounts; we created a new 600-seat school as part of negotiations over NYU expansion; we opened a community asthma center in East Harlem that is one of the first of its kind.

  Although borough presidents are meant to be an independent check and balance to the mayor and City Council, their budgets are set and approved by those branches of government. I've proposed a charter amendment granting borough presidents independent budgetary authority, so these elected officials would have a freer hand. Another proposal would allow borough presidents to hire land use counsel to help them beef up planning reviews as they help shape the growth of our city.

  These are the kind of proposals that could and should be on the ballot next year, but only if Mayor Bloomberg appoints a new Charter Revision Commission. As borough president, I will continue to fight for meaningful charter reform, so we finally have a chance to tackle long overdue changes in the nation’s largest city. No one knows what needs to be improved in New York City’s government better than the 8 million people we’re supposed to serve. It's time to begin the conversation.

  Scott M. Stringer is Manhattan borough president.

Photo by Thomas Good / NLN

Eric Gioia, John Liu, David Weprin and Charles Barron -- then all members of the City Council --held a press conference to oppose extension of term limits in October 2008.

(This is the second article in a series of commentaries Gotham Gazette will run between now and Election Day on the charter proposals appearing on the November ballot.)

The issue of term limits has been a political hot potato in this city for the past 20 years. It has pitted the public against their elected officials and done significant damage to our democracy in the process. The latest chapter in this story will take place on Nov. 2 when voters will yet again get an opportunity to decide whether they want their city elected officials to have two or three terms.

That question and a number of others were put on the ballot by a Charter Revision Commission appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg this past March. The Charter Commission was created in the aftermath of the controversial decision by city elected officials to extend term limits to three terms in 2008. This action overturned the will of the people as expressed in two public referendums on the subject. In the first referendum, in 1993, the voters overwhelming expressed their support for a two term limit for all city elected officials. Not satisfied with that answer, the City Council in 1996 put another referendum on the ballot that would extend term limits to three terms. The voters soundly rejected that suggestion.

 

This tumultuous history formed the backdrop for the work of the 2010 Charter Commission. Although the Charter Commission was charged with performing a top-to-bottom review of the New York charter, its first obligation was to address the term-limits question. I was one of the 15 members of the Charter Commission, and ironically, one of the few members who supports the general idea of term limits. However, regardless of their own personal beliefs, most members of the Charter Commission believed that, given the prior referendums and the public outrage over the way things were reversed in 2008, it was vitally important to our democracy for the voters to have an opportunity to settle this issue once and for all.

Although the term-limits issue will appear on the ballot as a single measure -- Question 1 -- actually is comprised of three separate questions, not one. The Charter Commission lumped them together as one question due to space limitations imposed on us by the Board of Elections. (The board has subsequently denied any such limitations, but that's the subject of another story.) The three parts of Question 1 attempt to address the public's request for a final, binding say on the issue of term limits for city officials. My belief is that we went a long way toward accomplishing that goal, but we failed to finish the job.

Charter Choices

This is the third in a series on the questions on the City Charter that will appear on the Nov. 2 ballot> The other stories so far:

Making 'Fair Share' Fairer: A proposal on the ballot in November would help spread polluting facilities more evenly around the city, Eddie Bautista writes.

Keeping the Clout: Despite pleas to limit the mayor's power, the city charter commission opted to increase it in at least one area, Glenn Pasanen contends.

I believe that we did get it right on the first two parts of Question 1. Part one of the question gives voters the chance to decide whether we should return to a limit of two terms for all city elected officials. If the electorate rejects going back to two terms, then the current three-term limit will be retained. Part two of Question 1 would prohibit the City Council from altering the terms of elected officials currently holding office. This means that council members can only modify the term-limits law for future city officials, and not for themselves. In many respects, this closes the "loophole" that caused so much public outrage in 2008.

But it is part three of Question 1 that sparked the most debate and disagreement within the Charter Commission. That part provides that the proposed change back to two terms would apply only to city elected officials who were first elected at or after the 2010 general election. In other words, all incumbents who are not already in their third terms would be "grandfathered in" and will have the opportunity of serving three terms. Since the next City Council election will not take place until 2013, the two-term limit would not fully take effect until 2021.

It's my contention that this essentially creates a new "loophole" that will only perpetuate the public's lack of faith in government. It is also logically inconsistent with the other parts of Question 1. If we are providing the public with an option of two terms because of the outrage and loss of trust that was engendered by the 2008 change, then why would we extend this questionable windfall?

As stated in a Minority Report that I authored along with two fellow Charter Commissioners, "The 2008 change from two terms to three was made effective immediately. The change back from three to two -- if the voters approve it -- should be no different. Elected officials are not entitled to a certain number of terms. We see no justification for exempting any elected official from the two-term limit, should the voters reinstitute one."

I am not an advocate for government by referendum. We have all seen the chaos it has caused in California. We live in a representative democracy, and it works well for the most part. However, there are some areas of government that are so vulnerable to self-interest and self-dealing that the only way to bring about change is through a public referendum. For example, the City Council can currently raise its own pay. How many people believe it should have that right or that it will ever give up that power on its own accord? Similarly, incumbents will never willingly reduce their own terms, even if it means defying the will of the people who elected them.

That is why despite my own reservations about the effective date of the term limits provision, I strongly support it and urge voters to vote yes on ballot Question 1. It's an important first step toward reversing what happened in 2008 and restoring some of the trust that was lost along with it. Hopefully in the next year either a new charter commission or a public referendum will eliminate the exemption for incumbents and finish the job we started.

Anthony P. Cassino, a lawyer who lives in the Bronx, was a member of the 2010 Charter Revision Commission.