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September 26, 2023

Voter Suppression, New York Style

New York governor Kathy Hochul is preening about her Democratic Party’s commitment to democracy, in the form of legislation she just signed authorizing mail-in voting. Republicans are suing to stop…

September 18, 2023

“Player Piano” (Revisited) in the Age of AI

If one judges futuristic novels of the past narrowly in terms of whether they got their predictions right, Kurt Vonnegut’s brilliant first novel, Player Piano, was not perfect. Upstate New York…

September 8, 2023

Is Vote Dilution Necessarily Bad?

There really is no obvious way to defend the congressional district map drawn by the Alabama state legislature—and struck down by a federal court for unconstitutionally diluting the African-American vote…

September 6, 2023

Why Staten Island seceding from NYC makes sense — for multiple reasons

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is right that Staten Island is not likely to succeed in seceding from the city of New York. The borough needs the approval of both the City Council and…

August 24, 2023

Want To End Apartment Warehousing? Ease Up On Rent-Control Laws

New York City’s Independent Budget Office this week reported that some 13,000 rent-regulated apartments in the city have been vacant for more than two years — fueling the charge that owners…

August 23, 2023

Solve Two Crises At Once: Put Migrants In NYCHA

As New York City gives over soccer fields and recreation centers to housing for a wave of migrants, and Gov. Hochul feuds with Mayor Adams, one public housing resident on…

August 13, 2023

The Bill to Repair NYCHA Projects Doubles—but Pols Won’t Fix the System

We knew Big Apple public housing is in dangerously bad shape—but it turns out it’s twice as bad as we thought. New York City Housing Authority officials just revealed the $40…

August 11, 2023

Why Does NY Campaign To Stop Smoking But Not Illicit Drug Use?

The New York drug policy philosophy — what might be called making drug use safe, legal and everywhere — has hit some serious snags. On Monday, US Attorney Damien Williams…

August 7, 2023

Union Square Melee Proves Riots Have Little to Do with Real Political Grievances

The most revealing thing about Friday’s Union Square pop-up riot is that as police dispersed the mob, members started chanting, “Black Lives Matter.” Make no mistake: This was not a protest on…

August 7, 2023

The Right Way to Fix Public Broadcasting

The kabuki theater of Washington budgeting has again featured the lightning-rod issue of public broadcasting. Last month, a House Commerce subcommittee voted to zero-out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB),…