This comes from the Municipal Art Society: (I can't make it...will be doing the final practice run of my talk for the International C. elegans Meeting at UCLA, but sounds good!)

New York’s waterfront is being transformed. From Brooklyn Bridge Park to Throg’s Neck on the East River alone, over 1000 acres of redevelopment is slated to occur over the upcoming years. This scale of development is an enormous opportunity - and a risk. Too much waterfront development in recent years has created sterile, privatized places that don’t do justice to New York.

Now is the time to set an agenda to ensure we create an East River waterfront that reflects the diversity, vibrancy and future sustainability of New York. Responding to the Mayor’s bold plan to reclaim 90% of New York’s waterways for recreational use, the Municipal Art Society and the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance are part of a coalition of over 40 groups that is launching the East River Agenda on next Thursday, June 21st on East River Day.

Oak Point is a very heavily industrialized, isolated neighborhood in the South Bronx. It juts out into the Harlem River, adjoins a rail-line and is close to the Interstate.

After the jump is a somewhat long-winded press release from opponents of a Bloomberg Administration plan to build a jail in the South Bronx at one of the last undeveloped industrial sites in New York City.

The Punch line: the people want Jobs not a Jail on the site. They will march at 5PM on Friday April 13, 2007 from 976 Longwood Avenue (Take the #6 local to Longwood Ave.) to the Oak Point site.

If you have never been to the South Bronx, this is your chance.

There are complex policy issues at the root of this dispute. Those of you who attended the Drum Major Institute conference on the future of middle class in New York City, may recall there was a stark conflict which was never addressed. In a key speech Adam Friedman, director of the NY Industrial Retention Network showed listeners the importance of industry to NYC residents. Unfortunately, in my view, Mayor Bloomberg has vigorously opposed any industrial development in NYC in favor, usually, for luxury housing -- but in this case -- as a special favor to the people of the South Bronx, a jail. For more on the proposals see Maggie Williams DMI post here. Call Kelly Terry-Septulveda 347-539-1191 for more info.

The Albany Project has a brilliant run of the numbers from November's election for the state Senate. Bottom line: Democratic candidates got 51.1% of the votes, republicans 47.7%. However, the resultant distribution of seats in the legislature is 45.2% Democrats, 54.8% republicans, at 28 to 34 seats respectively. The average population size for a Democratic district is 310,339; for a republican district, the number is 302,558. The over-representation of republicans in the legislature amounts to 7.1%, based on the discrepancy between their total of the popular vote and their number of seats, or, read differently, gives them a representation that is 26% higher than they would have been entitled to if the popular vote were the controlling factor.

Theodore Roosevelt once quipped that the state Senate is constitutionally republican, and so it has been since almost beyond living memory. The question should be whether that is a sufficient legal shield for Joe Bruno's well-crafted majority-protection scheme. There appear to be two legal bases for challenging the districts of the state Senate: one man, one vote and the 14th amendment's guarantees as spelled out in the Voting Rights Act.

It was on NBC News this morning, and The New York Times confirms it: another young black man got shot to death by the police.

A police officer fatally shot an armed 19-year-old during a struggle in the vestibule of a South Bronx apartment building last night, the police said. The police said that the officer fired five shots at the man, identified by his mother as Timur Person, and that at least one of them hit him in the chest.

A friend of Mr. Person’s who witnessed the shooting, Hector Suarez, said that Mr. Person had a gun tucked into his waistband. “They were punching and kicking him,” Mr. Suarez said. “All I kept hearing was: ‘Let go of the gun! Let go of the gun!’ ”[...]

Mr. Person’s mother, Allene Person, said that Mr. Person, her youngest child, was two days shy of his 20th birthday.

“I can’t cry,” she said, banging her palms against the chain-link fence outside the hospital. “I can’t get the tears. I’m too angry.”

Via The Politicker:

Bronx Assemblyman Peter Rivera's take on the Gonzalez indictment?

"I don't understand the logic why [U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia] would pick the day we're in session to re-indict an individual again, when we're in session. Allegedly, and this is something I learned from the media, allegedly we're up here doing pay raises. Is the point to discuss, when the coverage is going to be 'pay raise' or 'no pay raise,' a member of the legislature gets indicted?"

So, er...

1. Does that mean that the legislature will not be considering a pay raise?

and:

2. Is the indictment of a sitting state Senator on charges of stealing almost half a million dollars of taxpayer money somehow supposed to be less embarassing if it comes on some other day?

Oh, and:

3. Will the last state legislator with a sense of shame please turn out the lights?

So I posted a bit under my old superhero identity, back before the Daily Gotham had become quite the colossus it is nowadays. Bouldin has convinced me to come out of retirement (despite all the good TV I'll be missing), and I'm thrilled to join the great community of bloggers here at the DG who have been muckraking so brilliantly over the past year and a half.

My first offering comes via the Albany Project and Capitol Confidential, who report that Democratic Bronx state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. has been indicted for "mail fraud and theft of funds in a conspiracy to steal $432,000 though a complicated scheme involving non profit groups."

As the Empire Zone explains, "The charges allege that the State Senator directed member item funds through various not-for-profit organizations and ultimately stole more than $400,000."

There's a certain poetry in the idea of a state legislator being indicted for allegedly stealing member item money, since member item money is in itself basically a form of theft: it amounts to money stolen from taxpayers, which is then used by Albany leadership to filch the loyalty of legislators. It's a racket.

Republicans for the Reelection for 34th State Senate District, Democratic State Senator Jeff Klein.

Republicans from The Bronx and Westchester part of the 34th senate district will be endorsing, campaigning and fundraising for Senator Jeff Klein of the 34th district.

Somtimes we have to cross party lines for the right person to represent us in Albany. Jeff Klein has rose through the ranks as a seasoned politician and is more than qualified than Bronx GOP leader Jay Savino, who has never held any type of elected office and just wants to shoot to the top, before you walk, you have to crawl, Jay Savino. We need someone in this everchanging society with the experience, knowledge and know how and that is why we want Senator Jeff Klein, plus there are just to many skeletons in Jay Savino's closet??? More info to come.

Democrats and Rupublicans in the 34th senate district: let us unite and support and vote for Senator Jeff Klein in 2006, the right choice.

Please join Good Jobs New York, the New York Foundation and The New York Community Trust for a breakfast forum:
Community Needs and Public Financing Issues are at the Heart of a Proposed New Yankee Stadium. How Will the Bronx Benefit?

Wednesday, March 22, 2006
9:00 ­ 10:30 AM (starting promptly)
New York Foundation
350 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
Room 2901

In recent months, more information about the proposed new Yankee Stadium has surfaced, such as the $480 million in contributions from taxpayers, the plan to replace twenty-two acres of parkland that would be displaced by the stadium, and estimates of the benefits and jobs that would be generated from the $1.2 billion project.

As the project moves through the public approval process, the goal of this forum is to better understand the impact of the project on the surrounding community and the city economy as a whole.

Panel moderated by Errol Louis of the Daily News
Majora Carter - Sustainable South Bronx
Bettina Damiani - Good Jobs New York
Joyce Hogi - Save our Parks
Kate Slevin - Tri-State Transportation Campaign

Seats are limited please RSVP to gjny@goodjobsfirst.org or phone 212.721.7996

The New York Foundation is located in the Empire State Building and is accessible by the following train lines: 1, 2, or 3 to Penn Station B, D, F, N, Q, R, V, W to West 34th Street and Sixth Avenue 6 on the Lexington Avenue line to East 33rd Street and Park Avenue

I have been impressed by two things about the campaign of Freddy Ferrer for mayor of NYC. One is his grassroots approach. Yeah, maybe this is forced on him because he can't match the millions of dollars that Bloomberg is personally putting into the mayor's race. But his answer is to get out among the people of NYC, talk, shake hands and listen. The second thing is the way Ferrer has been bringing together disparate ends of the Democratic Party. Howard Dean and John Kerry endorsed him nearly simultaneously. John Edwards followed later. Moderate Chuck Schumer stood side by side with iconoclast progressive Letitia James to support Ferrer in Brooklyn. Local and national politicians. Machine and progressive Democrats. Moderates and leftists.

I was lucky enough to meet Freddy Ferrer twice last week. I didn't think of it as lucky at first, but I was amazed at how much I liked him and at how well he interacted with people on the street. I met him first as he walked with Howard Dean through Union Square in Manhattan. Later I met him as he, Chuck Schumer, Letitia James and several other local politicians walked the streets of my neighborhood in Brooklyn. His reception was warm! People honked and yelled and wanted to shake hands.

Sadly, I will not be able to make the next big event in Ferrer's grassroots campaign: Big Dog is coming to town! But he and Ferrer will be hitting the Bronx, a Borough I seldom make it to.