Association for a Better New York

 

Here’s David Paterson at the A.B.N.Y. breakfast yesterday morning, offering up a critique of spending in public authorities across the state.  read more »

“There are 640 public authorities in this state, only 11 of them regulated by a public authority control boards," he said. "Maybe we should find out what the other 629 do. Because they consume billions of your and my dollars in taxes every year."

Here is David Paterson talking to Bill Rudin, the head of the Association for a Better New York, the business group hosting a breakfast in midtown where the governor will speak shortly.

The event comes hours after congestion pricing was killed, and in the middle of a long, drawn-out budget negotiation that isn't over yet.

Eliot Spitzer, whose ally Malcolm Smith is now one Republican defection away from taking power in the State Senate, unveiled a new theme this morning at a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York: unity.

During a speech entitled “one budget for one New York,” the governor displayed two maps of the state: one, solid green, showed the topography of the state; the other, multi-colored, was an "overlay" of every state Assembly and Senate district.  read more »

Hillary Clinton may have returned a contribution from Wal-Mart, and Barack Obama’s wife may also be distancing herself from the company, but the country’s largest retailer is trying to win other friends in high places with its own quiet campaign in New York.

Without much fanfare, Wal-Mart has joined a number of local business groups, like the Association for a Better New York, the Partnership for New York City, and the chambers of commerce in four of the city's boroughs.

All this, without having a single store here. So, why have they joined all these New York business groups when, technically, they don’t have a business in New York?  read more »

The new Secretary-General of the United Nations made his first public speech outside the confines of his Turtle Bay HQ this morning - and took the opportunity to talk about traffic jams.

Ban Ki Moon, who officially succeeded Kofi Annan on January 1, tried to reassure New Yorkers that he would do his best to minimize inconvenience during major meetings of the world body. "Maybe I can help reduce traffic jams by asking visiting heads of state to take subways as Mayor Bloomberg does," he joked.

Keeping the focus local, Mr. Ban also cautioned that the renovation of the UN's headquarters might cause "disruption for the neighbors."

Mr. Ban mostly steered clear of contentious topics. However, in response to a question from the floor about anti-Semitism, he talked about the concern he felt when "a certain country would not recognize the existence of a certain other member state of the United Nations. This is not acceptable." The reference, presumably, was to Iran and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mr. Ban's remarks came at a breakfast hosted by The Association for a Better New York (ABNY) and The Business Council for the United Nations (BCUN.) Among the attendees were former mayor David Dinkins and Diana Taylor, the mayor's partner and the Superintendent of Banks for the state.

On the vexed issue of the U.S. relationship with the UN, Mr. Ban played safe, arguing that the world body and the superpower both benefited from engagement with each other. But, perhaps showing the degree to which Turtle Bay feels under siege, Mr. Ban told the audience, "I hope you will speak up in favor of the United Nations in New York and around the world, and about the importance of U.S. leadership and engagement with the organization. All of us have a stake in getting these relationships right."

The Secretary General also treated the audience to a long and somewhat labored joke about the pronunciation of his first name. Apparently, it should not be pronounced 'ban' but more like 'bawn'. He admitted that he should have changed the English spelling -- maybe 'Bahn' or 'Bon', he said -- before now. But "since there will be so many things to ban as Secretary General, it is very relevant to my job."

-- Niall Stanage

At 8:30 a.m., John Faso speaks to at a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York and the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association on 85 West St.

At 9 a.m., Eliot Spitzer tours the UFT charter school with UFT president Randi Weingarten.

At 11:15 a.m., Vito Lopez and union officials protest on the City Hall steps over 421-a Exclusionary Zoning.

At 11:30 a.m. in Queens, Eric Gioia discusses a national hotline where kids can report weapons threats at their schools.

At 1 p.m., The City Council's Health Committee raising legal age to buy tobacco products and prohibiting sale of flavored cigarettes; Hearing Room,

At 1:30, the Port Authority holds their monthly meeting on Park Avenue.

At 3 p.m. the Council's Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee holds a hearing on Ground Zero insurance proceeds.

At 6 p.m. FCC Commissioners discuss diversity in media at Hunter College.

In Brooklyn, there's a march against police brutality starting on President Street and Nostrand Avenue.

At 6:30 p.m., Hillary Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Mike Bloomberg and NBC News anchor Brian Williams attend the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria.

And Comptroller candidate Christopher Callaghan speaks with the editorial boards at the Times Union and Troy Record and then attends the Genesee GOP County Dinner.

-- Azi Paybarah

The other bit of news from this morning's Association for a Better New York breakfast was that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver took a stance on the No. 7 subway extension, making it clear the city, and not the M.T.A., better pay for the whole thing.

The extension, which would bring the line west to 11th Avenue and down to 34th Street, is necessary before the Hudson Yards area gets turned into an office district, but the M.T.A. adopted the project assuming that the city was going to pay for more or less the whole thing with tax revenues from the new office towers. Last week, though, the city capped its commitment to $2 billion, which about covers the present estimate for construction costs, with another $100 million for overruns.

Silver, though, doubted that the deal was final. "That remains to be seen," he told reporters after his speech this morning.

Silver's leverage is considerable--he has the power to veto any authorization through the M.T.A. Capital Review Board--and his interest in protecting money allocated to the Second Avenue Subway, which will one day run through his Lower Manhattan district, is keen.

"If the city believes that the extension of the No. 7 subway to 34th Street is a priority," he said, "it should make it clear that no diversions of M.T.A. resources to that extension will be required and that no additional M.T.A. burden is a surprise to be revealed later."

-Matthew Schuerman

Today's Page Six reports on an embarrassing gaffe on Senate candidate Jeanine Pirro's campaign website:

[T]he site's "photo gallery" shows a picture of would-be Senator Pirro with pioneering African-American actor Ossie Davis and correctly notes that he's deceased, it also displays a photo of Pirro with "Lou Rudin" and describes him as the "chairman of the Association for a Better New York." Trouble is, Lew Rudin, the famed civic benefactor and one of the founders of ABNY back in 1991, hasn't headed the group in some time — because he died in 2001

D'oh!

That's pretty bad! Then again, the photo didn't show Rubin dining with Brandon Tartikoff at Mr. Chow or partying with Jam Master Jay at Crobar, so it wasn't a complete fiasco.  read more »

--Matt Haber

Growing up in Buffalo, Tim Russert knew nothing about one of the city's landmarks, the Prudential bu  read more »