Easy Lays: City Council Cant Say No Easy Lays: ...
Easy Lays: City Council Can't Say No
Until they're elected, politicians know better than to say no. From rebuilding Iraq to saving the schools to lowering taxes-it's "Yes, all things are possible." Once they're in office and have to deal with the economic and political realities, however, officials have no choice but to say no from time to time.
Unless they happen to be a New York City Council member.
Of its 51 members, 12 have never voted no on anything since taking office in January 2002.
Many council members blame the lack of naysaying on the mayor-centric structure of city government. In order to be effective, they argue, it is vital to put forward a unified front.
"It's important that we speak with one voice," said Democratic Majority leader Joel Rivera, who has never voted no.
"By the time something gets to the floor we have already discussed and fine-tuned it in committee. If members waited to express their concerns on the council floor, that would be a poor way to run the government."
The council's most regular dissenters are Republicans contesting Speaker Gifford Miller, such as Councilman Dennis Gallagher, who's voted no 52 times. But there are a few Democrats willing to challenge their party leadership.
With nine "no" votes, Queens Councilman Tony Avella consistently goes his own way.
"I take every issue on the merits, and if the leadership sees differently, then so be it," he said. "Some council members are afraid to go against the leadership for fear of retribution, but to me the way the council can be most effective is for each of us to represent the people who elected us."
Sidney Plotkin, a professor of political science at Vassar College, agrees.
"Visible and audible conflict is essential to keeping people informed about the workings and policies and consequences of government for their lives," he said. "Without opposition, dissent, challenges and overt political conflict, people can be lulled to a kind of political sleep. When this happens, those who hold power gain the freedom to operate and maneuver in the dark, and that is never a good thing for democracy."
The City Council came to prominence after the scandals of the 1980s brought about the dissolution of the once-almighty Board of Estimate.
"The fate of a bill has been decided long before it gets to the floor of council," one lobbyist said. "Members will express their misgivings privately to the speaker, but once the matter comes to the floor, most stay in line. This used to be even more the case under Speaker Peter Vallone. Gifford Miller is actually open to more disagreement."
Chillin' With Hot Sex at Starbucks
New York Hot Sex-aka NYHS-sure made an impressive debut. We're not talking about the launch party at B'lo, though. Or, God knows, the articles in the free monthly's first issue. We were more impressed by how NYHS got into the New York Post and Daily News' business sections with claims about being distributed in Starbucks.
We know a little something about getting into Starbucks-mainly because we can't. Ever since Starbucks HQ issued a chain-wide ixnay to its managers, no free publications may be distributed on premises (at least not officially). How had something called New York Hot Sex gained access to the Mythical Land of the Double Latte?
The answer came at the next night's launch party for the free monthly, as amiable executive editor Chip Maloney-formerly not getting paid as part of the Screw empire-pointed out that we'd missed Thursday's retraction in the Daily News. (The Post ran theirs on Friday.)
"We've been doing some crawling on this whole Starbucks thing," Maloney explained. "We were given a list of locations by our distributor. So when writers asked us where they could find New York Hot Sex, we checked the list, and there was Starbucks. Well, it turns out it was just a sample list. Later, the distributors said, 'Oh, that's a sample list.' That was news to us. It didn't say 'Sample.' It said, 'Distribution Report.'"
It didn't take long for Maloney to get an outside opinion, either. The Starbucks overlords in Seattle found out about NYHS, and made a phone call: "Starbucks calls, says, 'Please don't say that anymore.' But we've been doing interviews for weeks! We told them that they'd see it a few more times."
Maloney's old friends in the press weren't pleased, either. "So the News got back to us," recalls Maloney, "and said we got them some misleading information. They were the ones impressed that we were getting into Starbucks. I thought it was kind of weird, myself. They could've checked it out."
Since Maloney was talking, we asked about his former boss, the venerable fat man of porn, Al Goldstein. "He's done," says Maloney. "When [New York Press] came along to do hooker ads, his stupid cunt of a sales manager responded by raising the Screw rates, trying to look chi-chi, talking about how Screw had prestige. Real fucking smart."
Not that Maloney is looking for any kind of a fight. "There's nothing political about us," he says, with the relief typical to a former Goldstein employee. "We just want to have some fun."
50 Years Ago in New York Press
Among the pinkos and perverts of Hollywood, a hero stands.
Like color movies? If many in Hollywood had their way, there would be but one color: Red. The brave testimony of maverick director Elia Kazan to the House Committee on Un-American Activities will keep two more colors on the silver screen: white and blue. Citizen Kazan, keep rooting out them Commies. We're rooting for you! Now if only you could get "bony" Brando off his notorious starvation diets-a talent his size needs a physical presence to match.
One-Way Law
Last week was a busy one for Page Two's favorite law. Just as some state lawmakers began tossing around the idea of taking the next step of expanding the smoking ban to include beaches, parks and automobiles containing children, others speculated about a rollback of the ban (at least part way). Meanwhile, anti-smoking lobbyist groups announced a million-dollar ad campaign in order to prevent any such rollback.
Interesting bit of legal and technical mumbo-jumbo about those anti-smoke groups: Several of them, including Power Against Tobacco, never much bothered to get themselves properly registered with the state Lobbying Commission. As it happens, if you spend $2000 or more on lobbying efforts, you're required by law to register. Nobody remembered this, apparently, until the announcement of that million-dollar ad campaign.
While it's beyond realm of unlikely that this will affect the existing smoking ban, or hinder its expansion-the status of a lobbying group isn't exactly grounds to overturn a law-each of the groups in question may face $25,000 fines. At the very least, maybe it will mean one less self-righteous smoke-free billboard or subway ad.
Last week offered a number of such examples.
Two men, at least one of them armed, entered an East Harlem store at about three p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21. After locking the owner in the bathroom, the men cleaned out the register, getting away with a cool $80. You have to wonder how big a haul they were expecting, really, given that they were robbing a 99-cent store.
The men, according to witnesses, fled the scene on bicycles.
Two young boys jumping up and down on a bed Sunday afternoon must've been awfully surprised when the owner of the bed-one of the boys' uncles-walked in the door. The surprises continued when the uncle, Kareem Rodriguez, 25, then told the boys he wanted to show them "a yardstick" in a storage area. Once getting them inside and closing the door, he produced a knife and stabbed his nephew's friend four times.
Rodriguez, according to his mother, is a schizophrenic who of late had taken to spitting his medication out the window. He also really hated people jumping on his bed.
A man described as being six-feet-tall and weighing 230 pounds was wheeling a leaky barrel full of ammonia on a hand truck through Midtown on the morning of Monday, Sept. 22. Upon reaching the corner of 36th St. and 9th Ave., the man finally had enough of either the fumes or the job itself, so he dumped the barrel in the street and ran for it.
Police and EPA officials cordoned off the area until about 3:30 that afternoon, annoying several.
At about one a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, a 34-year-old East Village man woke his wife from a deep sleep. He then conked her on the head with a blunt metal object and tried to strangle her. She wrestled free and called 911. Meanwhile, the man grabbed a knife and stepped out onto the fire escape of their 5th-floor apartment at 9th and C. After stabbing himself in the chest and the wrists, he plunged to the pavement below.
Much to his consternation (we assume), he survived-but only for a day, taking with him the mystery of why he decided to wake her up first.
On Wednesday, Sept. 26, two roommates had a quiet discussion about who left the car door open. Then at about 9:30, 44-year-old Jorge Rendall bounced a glass beer mug off the skull of his 65-year-old roommate.
Although it probably wasn't part of the master plan, the roommate died, and now Rendall is facing charges. We bet neither one of them was expecting that when they got out of bed that morning.