Posts

Posted on

Mamdani’s Labor Policy Worsens Inequality

Walking my kids to their first day of school brought the unwelcome news that PS 45, on Staten Island, is down to two crossing guards. We used to have (and still need) four. This is a system-wide problem, as the city reports nearly 200 unfilled posts, even after former Mayor Eric Adams cut 500 vacant crossing guard lines as a budget gimmick in 2024.

Crossing guards’ pay starts $18 an hour. One reason why the pay barely exceeds minimum wage is the Office of Labor Relations’ strict policy of pattern bargaining over wages across city agencies, in which the first union to settle a contract with the city — be it teachers, cops or DC37 — sets the pattern for the upper-most across-the-board pay increase that the city will pay any other union.

Continue reading “Mamdani’s Labor Policy Worsens Inequality”

Posted on

Jeff Bezos, Pamela Paul, David Graeber and Me (Or, If You Hate SEO, “Book Reviews”)

I like books. I like writing them. I like reading them. I like reviewing them.

That puts me in strange company. Each year, a record number of books get published, something on the order of four or five million books. Most of them get a handful of readers. A lucky few get read by thousands. Continue reading “Jeff Bezos, Pamela Paul, David Graeber and Me (Or, If You Hate SEO, “Book Reviews”)”

Posted on

NYPD Must Enforce City Traffic Laws (Or Else Bring Back the Agency That Will)

The “second-most-reckless driver in the city” racked up 547 camera-issued red light and speeding tickets since 2002 before being exposed by Streetsblog NYC in April.

James Giovansanti raced his 2½ ton pickup truck through the same school zones and traffic lights on Staten Island, at the same times, at least every other day, on his way to and from work. Instead of posting a patrol car at one of these intersections to catch this reckless driver, and give him enough tickets to suspend his license, the NYPD is instead dealing with a PR crisis.

Giovansanti, you see, is a cop and his depraved indifference to pedestrian safety lays bare the crime scandal that the press rarely talks about: that the NYPD have virtually stopped enforcing traffic laws.

Continue reading “NYPD Must Enforce City Traffic Laws (Or Else Bring Back the Agency That Will)”