Promoted by Liza on 23 April.

Dear Friends and Readers of TDG,

Many friends, family, community residents (and sometimes even complete strangers to me) have urged me to run in 2009 for the Council seat of the 14th Councilmanic District (Bronx), which is currently represented by Councilwoman Maria Baez.

I will say, here, for the first time in public, that I am giving it serious consideration and hope to make a decision by August or September of this year.

Many believe that I am related to Jose Rivera (Chair of the Bronx Democratic Party) his son, Joel (NYC Councilmember & Majority Leader) and daughter Naomi (NYS Assemblywoman). While I am not, I do consider myself a friend and I believe that the Bronx, City & State are better thanks to elected officials like Jose, Joel & Naomi. If I decide to run, Without any doubts, I will reach out to them for their support.

In the coming months, I will be reaching out to several unions, elected officials, community leaders and friends and get their take on a possible HAILE RIVERA FOR CITY COUNCIL candidacy.

Thank you for reading this message. If you ahve any questions, please feel free to email them to me at: hailerivera@yahoo.com

If your home in the rain or at work you should check this out as the movement after Don Imus begins in dealing with the issues with the words used by him and others.

Here is the info:

KEVIN POWELL, noted writer, political activist, and hiphop historian, has been invited to lead a live radio discussion on the aftermath of the Don Imus situation AND the state of hiphop today, on New York City's number one radio station, Power 105.1 FM. In an historic move, Power 105.1 is eliminating advertising for one day to open up its airwaves to highlight the changes the station plans on making in its content and presentation.

Monday, April 16, 2007
8AM-10AM EST
Power 105.1 FM radio in the New York City metropolitan area
OR you can listen on the web at www.power1051fm.com, keyword LISTEN OR LISTEN LIVE

Over the last week the Don Imus fiasco as brought out a plethora of emotions, comments, and discussion. The one that was most prevalent is the issue of the "Double Standard".

Why is it OK for someone black to say it but not Imus? Well first as an African American I do not think its OK for anyone of any background to make such comments. Not all of Black America agrees with the music(rappers) and media(entertainers) that promote and portray the language such as what Don Imus said. Black America is as diverse as America itself on issues and ideas including this one. I do believe however with the fall of Don Imus we must turn our attention to hip hop music and other media outlets. This is the fight that will be fought long and hard on all sides.

First dealing with music. Hip Hop Music is a multi-million dollar industry. In particular "gangsta" rap and music with sexual content. This is what sells. So you now must ask not only the people who make the music to change but the people who give them millions to stop promoting it. Are these people willing to lose money to help stop the culture of violence, hate and sexism to save the children who listen to this music of all ages and ethnic backgrounds? Of course not.

Come meet some of our new State Legislators and get to the know the Manhattan Young Dems!

MYD SPRING SOCIAL
“A New Era in Local Politics” Spring Social
Wednesday, April 11th, 7 PM
Senator Bill Perkins
Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh
Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal
INVITED GUESTS

Dewey’s Flatiron
210 5th Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets
[Take the N, R to 23rd Street or 6 to 23rd Street]

COST: $5 (members) $10 (non-members)
Featuring a 50/50 raffle with Great Prizes, Drink Specials

Some time ago, we did a poll to find out what issues our readers are most concerned about. The poll received 150 responses; the poll question was What's your top New York political issue in 2007?

The results show an interesting divergence between what our readers want and what most New York blogs seem to be writing about. Nobody cares about the Presidential race (well, one respondent named it) as much as about the need to reform Albany.

Poll results and some rudimentary analysis on the flip.

In a tiny basement on a scrapy block of 4th Avenue you will find a neatly arranged collection of books that are a lifeline for so many isolated people. Welcome to Books Through Bars, one of those perpetually underfunded groups that somehow are still able to help people in a substantial way. They donate books to people incarcerated across the country. Paperbacks, especially dictionaries, thesauruses, history, politics, art and social science books are always appreciated. Isn’t it time you did something with those college books gathering dust? Are you done reading that history of Africa in the 13th century? Are they gathering dust? If so, consider giving them away to the so many people who would really make good use of them. You can donate to Books Through Bars by making a donation to them at BookMooch.com, which is another great resource for those with DailyGotham inclinations.

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass Points to Shoddy Research

MARCH 25, 2007, BROOKLYN — There is no dispute that Downtown Brooklyn was once a hotbed of Abolitionist activity. During the Civil War era, most of New York was pro-slavery, so these brave souls would bring firearms with them when going to church because they faced the real risk of being lynched.

The issue has become urgent again because developers, with their friends in City government, want to destroy a few homes to build an underground parking lot and an access road for a hotel.

Residents claim that their homes should not be taken by the City through eminent domain because there is historical proof that their homes were part of the Underground Railroad. In 2004, in order to undermine the residents, the New York Economic Development Corporation (EDC), with their private contractor AKRF, claimed that they consulted prominent historians. Unfortunately they were caught lying: Christopher Moore of the Schomburg Center came before the City Council and testified that he had not been consulted, as claimed by AKRF.

So AKRF went back to the drawing board, and on March 13, 2007, they released a 500+ page document trying to prove that there is insufficient evidence to save these houses from destruction.

Everyone once in a while, it's a good idea to talk about what we consider the editorial standards at The Daily Gotham, in especially as far as posting and comments are concerned. It's my understanding that our friends at Room Eight are currently wrestling with these same questions, and maybe this will be helpful to them as well.

As to posting, we encourage our readers to sign up and blog their own content. This site is read by many influentials in New York, and your content here will get noticed. Unless we know you, however, we're not going to immediately give you front-page privileges. That's just the way we do things. But by all means, give it a go. Specifically, I'd love - love! - more coverage of Queens, the Bronx, Westchester and Long Island. I'd also love, but that's a question of my personal taste, more gay, Jewish and black-themed content.

To comment on this site immediately, also, you need an account. If you don't have one, your comment needs to be manually approved. So if your anonymous comment does not appear immediately, it's not that us sellout tools of the system want to silence you, it's that we haven't gotten around to moderating it yet. We're sorry about that.

Y'all a traditional 9-to-5 bunch aren't y'all? The stats show us that most of the traffic on this site happens between the traditional working hours. But I am not a traditional 9-to-5er and, quite frankly, my writing biorhythms don't kick in most of the time until 5pm.

So, to better the New York political zoology after dark, I am going to try out posting here during the afternoons and evenings.

I hope y'all join me sometime.