Issue 2 FREE

Because No
Third Term
MEANS No
Third Term!

INSIDE:
Courageous Teacher Blows the Whistle p7
Corruption and Dead Firemen p3
Gutting Neighborhoods: Good Management?! p4

THE BEST OF NYC BLOGS ABOUT THE WORST OF NYC POLITICS

Fed Up New Yorkers
Fed Up New Yorkers Meeting
Editor's Note: http://www.bloombergwatch.com
Photo credit: Mike Dang
On Thursday, July 23, Fed Up New Yorkers held its sec-
ond meeting at the LGBT Community Center in the West
Village. More than 75 people gathered to hear members of the
FUNY coalition give testimony about the real impact the
Bloomberg administration has made on the lives of New
Yorkers.
“For the eight straight years that you have been in office,
the Rent Guidelines Board has systematically raised regulated
rents in our city,” said Louis Flores, a political blogger, “And
any time that the MTA has wanted to jack up our fares, it gets
away with it. You haven't even noticed that NYU is the sec-
ond-coming of Robert Moses, because while NYU is tearing
down historical houses or evicting cultural landmarks, you
have been busy closing down firehouses and advocating for
the construction of more football stadiums.”
Judy Francis, a public parks advocate, said that “Mayor
Bloomberg is undoing our public parks,” and noted that “for
the first time, ever, in New York City, there will be seven high
rise luxury condo buildings inside a public park. We should
be worried about this.”
Dominick DeRubbio, a public safety advocate asked,
“How many of you know that over 130 construction workers
have died under Bloomberg's watch?”
Pointing out that Mayor Bloomberg appealed a 2005 de-
cision that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry in
New York, Cathy Marino-Thomas, board president for Mar-
riage Equality New York, was outraged at Bloomberg’s hy-
pocrisy.
“All of a sudden, after inviting Mike Bloomberg to speak
at our rallies and events to back marriage equality in New
York—where he refused—this year, because he wants to run
for a third term, he shows up at everything!” she exclaimed.
“And not only does he want to speak, he wants to speak
first.”
Eric Dixon, an attorney, said that small business owners
have a mayor who creates policies that work against small
businesses.
“When Mike Bloomberg and his friends talk about how
he's good for business, he's talking about...the Philip Morrises,
the AIGs—all the companies that get tremendous tax breaks,”
p2
he said. “They get all sorts of preferential treatment. Mike
Bloomberg is not pro-business. He's only pro-HIS business.”
New Yorkers are fed up with Mayor Bloomberg, and
we’re not keeping quiet.
In this week's issue, Daniel Goldstein, co-founder of
Develop Don't Destroy, explains about the anti-democratic
actions and deals Bloomberg has made to make the city into a
playground for the wealthy. Seung Ok, a teacher in East New
York, tells us what's really happening in our schools. Richard
Lipksy, spokesman for The Neighborhood Retail Alliance,
gives us an account of the Bloomberg administration's crony-
ism and incompetence (with a nod to the Voice's Wayne Bar-
rett). We learn that running New York City for the benefit of
all its citizens isn't the same as running a private business for
the benefit of a few owners and top managers—but that's the
Bloomberg model. It's what he knows. And you think he's a
good manager for ordinary New Yorkers?
—Mike Dang

PUBLISHER
Neil Fabricant
EDITOR
Mike Dang
ART DIRECTOR
Jay Van Buren
Fed up New Yorkers will be
published periodically until the
election.
For all inquiries, including
advertising and letters to the
editor, contact Mike Dang:
mike@bloombergwatch.com
all material © Bloomberg Watch
Inc. unless otherwise noted.
Cover illustration and editorial
cartoon by Keith Seidel.
Fire in the Hole
by Richard Lipsky http://momandpopnyc.blogspot.com/
When the folks voted to
install Mike Bloomberg as
their mayor—and did it a
second time—the prevailing
wisdom was that, owing to
the mayor's vast fortune, the
public could count on a cor-
ruption-free mayoralty. What
was not taken into consider-
ation was the Bloomberg old
boys network that opened up
New York City to his long-
time deputy (now chief of his
business operations) Dan
Doctoroff and the Related
Companies to NYC. As a re-
sult of this, we were able to
bear witness to a whole series
of sweetheart no-bid deals
that left the city less well off
than it should have been.
We have, of course, out-
lined most notably the gifting
of the Bronx Terminal Mar-
ket by Doctoroff to his old
friend and business associate
Steve Ross (New York Times,
"Transforming Bronx Termi-
nal Market, but at a Steep
Price," 10/24/05). This story
has been well-documented,
but others less so. But now
comes something even more
egregious. It involves the
mayor's culpability in the
Deutsche Bank fire and the
role played by sweetheart
contractor Bovis.
Wayne Barrett has out-
lined the shamefulness of all
that has transpired—a shame
that is magnified by the fail-
ure of the local press to prop-
erly tar baby the mayor on
this issue: The Village Voice's
J u l y 2 2 n d c ove r s t o r y,
"Bloomberg's Biggest Scan-
dal—the Deutsche Ban k
Fire—Should Be His Down-
fall—Why isn’t it?" exam-
ined the determination of top
cit y of f icials, i ncludi ng
Bloomberg's one time top
deputy Dan Doctoroff, to ig-
nore the risk of installing Bo-
vis Lend Lease and its prime
subcontractor Galt at the de-
molition site of the bank
building. Doctoroff brushed
aside war nings f rom the
city's investigations depart-
ment about Galt in deference
to Bovis' reckless desire to
hire the “mob-tainted firm.”
Let's not forget that two
firefighters were killed as a
result of the city's actions
here: “Manhattan DA Robert
Morgenthau has indicted Galt
and two of its officials in the
negligent homicide case in-
volving the death of two fire-
fighters, Robert Beddia and
Joseph Graffagnino, at the
bank site. He also charged
one Bovis employee, but said
he did not indict Bovis be-
cause it could have caused
the collapse of a company
that employs thousands.”
And, as Barrett has told
us, not a single paper has
even bothered to call for the
removal of the fire commis-
sioner—an incompetent ad-
ministrator with no fire fight-
ing expertise, whose claim to
p3
fame involved a see no evil
approach to child abuse when
he was in charge of Adminis-
tration for Children’s Ser-
vices (ACS).
The question with all of
this is why did the city pro-
mote Bovis, and who was re-
sponsible for the shilling of a
failed company? As Barrett
points out, Deputy Dan was
in the middle of this mess as
well: “At the very moment
that Doctoroff and the Lower
Man hattan Development
Corporation went ahead with
the Bovis contract at the bank
site in 2005, the company
was engaged in what city at-
torneys call now "repeated
failures to perform in accor-
dance” with “generally ac-
cepted professional stan-
dards” in the construction of
the $275 million Bronx Hall
of Justice, the 10-story court-
house that Bovis completed
almost three years late. The
lawsuit is still pending.
A ll of wh ich u nder-
scores that the Bloomberg
administration has been rife
with incompetence and cro-
nyism, and his billionaire
brothers in the press have
been covering for him. We
have been particularly curi-
ous about why the Post's Ru-
pert Murdoch has been such
a mayoral toady. After all,
the paper has an ideological
view of the world that's dia-
metrically opposed to the one
espoused by the Nanny may-
or.
In response to our query
on this, Barrett referred us to
his magnum opus of last year
on Bloomberg: “In 2007,
Bloomberg L.P. decided, ap-
parently after some consider-
ation, not to compete with
Murdoch for The Wall Street
Journal. Murdoch similarly
decided this July not to com-
pete with Bloomberg when
he paid $4.5 billion to buy
Merrill Lynch's 20 percent
interest in Bloomberg L.P. In
this walled-off billionaire
continued on p7
Bloomberg’s Reign of Neighborhood Destruction
Atlantic Yards as Poster Child
by Daniel Goldstein Co-founder, Develop Don’t Destroy, www.developdontdestroy.org
Bruce Ratner and Michael Bloomberg Photo Credit: The New York Observer: http://www.observer.com/node/39392
A little known fact about Mayor Bloomberg: while his
minions like to call New York City residents concerned about
undemocratic overdevelopment in their neighborhoods NIM-
BYs (Not In My Back Yard), the quote above illustrates that
Bloomberg is the real NIMBY, basically saying: “Overdevel-
opment for New York City, but not where I live.”
Anyway, when campaigning for his first term in office
Mayor Bloomberg promised that not one cent of public money
would be spent on sports stadiums or arenas.
Here we are eight years later and he has used hundreds of
millions in taxpayer subsidies to fund the construction of not
one, but two baseball stadiums (Yankee Stadium and the
Mets’ Citi Field) and he attempted to construct a stadium for
the Jets on the West Side also funded by the taxpayer.
And for six years he has been attempting yet another
publicly subsidized professional sports facility—Forest City
Ratner’s Barclays Center Arena (part of the gigantic and em-
battled Atlantic Yards development proposal in Prospect
Heights, Brooklyn).
In June, the Independent Budget Office (IBO) testified at
a State Senate hearing that the Barclays Center Arena, if built,
would be a money loser for New York City. Yet the Mayor,
who has told us that only his firm financial hand can guide
this City, still supports and pushes for the money-losing white
elephant Ratner wants to build.
On June 24th he pressured the MTA Board into approv-
ing a new sweetheart land rights deal for Forest City Ratner.
Just after the MTA had been bailed out, purportedly fiscally
prudent Bloomberg pressured the Board to accept $20 million
up front and $80 million over 22 years from Ratner for the
rights to the valuable 9-acre rail yard portion of the Atlantic
Yards site in the heart of Brooklyn. Never mind that the yards
When a woman approached
Mike Bloomberg over plans
for a new Nets arena in
Downtown Brooklyn, Mr.
Bloomberg sympathized by
saying, “if I lived here maybe
I wouldn't like it either.”
-The New York Times, October 12, 2005
nytimes.com/2005/10/18/
nyregion/18campaign.html
had been appraised at $214.5 million and Ratner had origi-
nally agreed to pay $100 million in cash at closing, after a
non-competitive, sham of a bidding process.
Sole-source, no-bid contracts and cronyism for a money-
losing, publicly funded arena do not demonstrate sound eco-
nomic stewardship.
Te r m L i m i t s O v e r r i d e N o t F i r s t A n t i -
p4
Democratic Action
When Bloomberg overturned the twice-voted-for term
limits law it was not a surprise to anyone paying attention to
the Atlantic Yards saga. Because back in 2003 Mayor
Bloomberg unilaterally overrode New York City’s Uniform
Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) taking the decision-
making power over Atlantic Yards away from Community
Boards, City Planning and the City Council, and allowing a
complete zoning override, thus fostering billionaire crony
Bruce Ratner's land grab. Overturning term limits was just
another action in a long line of anti-democratic, strong-arm
tactics.
Eminent Domain as the First Resort
Bloomberg has taken many steps to remake the city and
its many neighborhoods in his vision of a cleansed playground
for the well off. And how best to drive out the unwanted?
Eminent domain is a handy tool to do that. He has wielded it
with Columbia University’s expansion, the Willets Point re-
zoning, Downtown Brooklyn rezoning, in East Harlem, Bronx
Terminal Market and, of course, for the Atlantic Yards proj-
ect. Eminent domain, of course, is the government’s right to
take private property for a public use. But over and over, un-
der Bloomberg, it has been used to take private property from
owners and tenants to transfer it to private interests for pri-
vate purposes.
At least Robert Moses used eminent domain for “consen-
sus” traditional purposes like roads (not defending Moses’
neighborhood destroying activities here) rather than for well-
connected, billionaire developers.
And for the people of New York who have tried to chal-
lenge the various abuses of eminent domain under the
Bloomberg reign, what does he have to say? He says that we
can’t let one little guy stand in the way of progress.
He’s right, we can’t let this one little guy stand in the way
of progress, and that is why he’s got to go. When crony capi-
talism in the name of overdevelopment, sports playpens for
billionaires and excessive, cancerous growth is considered
“progress” we know we’re being lied to.
B l o o m b e r g ’ s O v e r d e v e l o p m e n t Fa i l -
ures
When Bloomberg overturned term limits, dissenting
Brooklyn Councilmember Letitia James said:
“I believe that this is really all about a legacy—about
Moynihan Station, about Willets Point, about the West Side,
about Ground Zero, and yes, about Atlantic Yards; and about
the displacement of low-, moderate-[income] and working
families in New York City. Let me end by decrying, let the
people decide.”
It’s a legacy he can’t be proud of. His first term laser
-beam focus on the Jets Stadium was lost time and money, and
wrongheaded from the start. The big rezonings he pushed in
Harlem, Williamsburg/Greenpoint, and Downtown Brooklyn
are failures, providing luxury condo ghost towns, and very
little affordable housing or job creation.
And the fight against Atlantic Yards, with victory in
reach for the community, may very well be Bloomberg’s Wa-
terloo.
FED UP NEW YORKERS COALITION (In Formation)
Neil Fabricant (founding member)
Publisher, BloombergWatch.com
Pam Garrison, Grassroots Education Movement NYC*
Nat Hentoff (founding member) Tenant.net
Nat is a highly regarded author, journalist, and jazz critic, well known by New ParentAdvocates.org
Yorkers for having written for the Village Voice for fifty years, and now a senior NYCTeachers.com
fellow with the Cato Institute, as well as being a member of FUNY. Jameswagner.com
Bloggy.com
Ira Glasser (founding member) ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Ira is the former national director of the American Civil Liberties Union and a New York Community Council
member of FUNY. UnderAssault.blogspot.com

John Scott *Organizational affiliation is listed for identification purposes only

Downtown Club Chair, Working Famillies Party

Allen Roskoff
president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club*

New York League of Humane Voters

WashingtonSquarePark.wordpress.com
Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages
NYBusinessCounsel.com
UnreadyNY.blogspot.com
Mayorbloombergkingofnewyork.blogspot.com
BloombergWatch.com
NoticingNewYork.blogspot.com
Robert Doocey, member of the executive board, Juniper Park Civic Association*
Edward Kampermann, member of the executive board, Juniper Park Civic
Association*
Five ways to help us beat
Bloomberg:

1. Join the FUNY coalition by e-

mailing mike@bloombergwatch.
com for news and updates.

2. Make a donation to keep this

paper running. To make things
easier, we've even included an
envelope for you.

3. Contact the candidates run-

ning in your district and let
them know you're fed up. Give
them this paper. Encourage
them to advertise.

4. If you're not registered to

vote, pick up a registration form
at your local post office, or visit
www.vote.nyc.ny.us to download
a form.

5. Tell all your friends about

FUNY and urge them to get in-
volved.
Bloomberg Education Policies: A Failure Papered Over With
Fraudulent Statistics and Deceptive Practices
By Seung Ok Educator
I’ve been a teacher in East New York for
12 years now, and saw more than a few teach-
ers leave to work on Long Island. But I for
one would never move, even if they paid triple
my salary—because teaching here is a chal-
lenge. This is where a real teacher wants to
be. I would even decline Eva Moskowitz’s
350K salary for running Success Academy
Charter Schools in Harlem, where they cream
from the pool of motivated students and par-
ents through an Orwellian lottery system.
When I was a student at Manhattan’s
prestigious Stuyvesant High School, teachers
had a captive audience of motivated students,
but my colleagues in East New York have the
extra challenge of captivating theirs: two
thirds of whom are in the lowest performing
third of the city’s 1.1 million students.
Add to this, our students must walk past
neighborhoods rife with prostitution and gang
activity just to set foot into our building. Our
statistics in graduation and state tests are
poor, and yet, I can’t think of any of my for-
mer teachers in Stuyvesant who could do bet-
ter, let alone survive more than a year at a
challenging, but rewarding school such as
mine.
Even with underfunded and overcrowded
classrooms, through the years we have sent
many of our students to college—the high-
lights being Cornell and NYU. And please
don’t believe the DOE statistic of a 1 to 16
teacher to student ratio. I have averaged 32
students on my roster for the past decade; just
another way of the DOE fudging the numbers.
They divide the total number of students in
the building by the number of teachers—but
not all of us teach 5 classes—for example:
deans, counselors, and lead teachers only
have one or two classes.
But what I have witnessed in my school
under Mayor Bloomberg’s reign has been
disturbing. There are no other words for it,
but educational fraud. Students who would
have otherwise needed extra support, are be-
ing pushed along with methods described in a
New York Times article (“Lacking Credit,
Some Students Learn a Shortcut,” 04/11/2008)
on credit recovery: last minute handout pack-
ets (sometimes given after the semester is
over), holiday morning sessions, video view-
ing in lieu of a whole semester’s worth of sci-
ence labs—all of which are never graded nor
reviewed. It has become so bad, I have taught
my first senior who could neither read nor
write a line of text.
The New York State Department of Edu-
cation, in their worries about meeting No
Child Left Behind requirements, is complicit
as well. The recent June Algebra regents only
required 30 correctly answered questions out
of a total of 87 (34%). The June Living Envi-
ronment regents required 39 out of 85 (46%).
It seems clear that this policy-backed social
promotion is happening at every level from
grades 1 to 12.
The mayor has touted that the substantial
jump in CUNY students, and their entering
SAT scores, attests to his successful reign. As
a businessman, he should realize what most
New Yorkers do—that the recession and high
tuition costs have forced many of our higher
performing students to opt for the cost-effec-
tive CUNY choice.
But let us leave data aside for the mo-
ment, because as Mark Twain said, “There
are lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Let’s do
something crazy and use common sense.
When we have a few people, even if they’re
well-meaning, ruling as if they have all the
answers—the results will always be ineffec-
tive. It’s the reason why the old Soviet Union
always had shortages on basic necessities like
toilet paper and nails. Only through a demo-
cratic society, can we find solutions to such a
complex endeavor such as education.
Any department of education that vilifies
its teachers and parents, will be a system
doomed for failure. When threats (against
schools and teachers) are the main source of
p7
innovation brought forth by a mayor, survival
instincts will take over, and numbers will be
inflated. Finally, maybe current events in the
financial district can forewarn us about the
future. The business model of data worship
and “accountability” sounds all well and
good, but without checks and balances, with-
out democratic input, and without regular old
common sense—we will remain deeply mired
in an educational depression. Only we who
deal with it on a daily basis—teachers, stu-
dents, and parents—will realize it, but won’t
have the billions to compete with the mayor’s
fudged report
Want to advertise in our
paper? Send us an e-mail:
mike@bloombergwatch.com
FIRE IN THE HOLE
continued from page 3
playground, it's impossible to tell if any of
these third-term mogul endorsements spring
in part from a business motive.”
Bloomberg's purchase of The Wall Street
Journal would have given him a virtual mo-
nopoly over the financial news in this coun-
try, and would have been a great business
move. His demurral in going after the WSJ
was a god send to Murdoch, and saved him
millions from having to match a competitive
bid in the process. Gratitude can take many
forms.
So we are left to flogging Bloomberg in
the absence of any real credible journalistic
accountability. After all, if the Post can ob-
sessively call for mayoral control on a daily
basis, how about banging away at the incom-
petence of Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scop-
petta, and the man who refuses to fire him?
And while they're at it, let's see if the investi-
gation of the Bloomberg/Bovis nexus is
picked up by the intrepid New York Times
investigating unit.
Don't hold your breath. We have a one
party town in NYC—and it ain't the Demo-
cratic Party that's in charge, it's the Plutocrats.
In the process, vital information necessary
for an informed citizenry is being actively
suppressed.