Celebrating Community
If you pay close attention to my Twitter feed(@mike_racc), it is clear that I watch a lot of “Law and Order” and, it’s over the top, “ripped from the headlines” style. While I’m writing a column and not producing a prime time tv show, I’d like to take my shot at “riffing” the headlines I’d like to see this fall. […]
Page two of today’s NY Daily News has two stories about Mayor de Blasio’s increasingly annoying persona. “Blaz hits denial of building deal” is a story about his anger at the City Council for going along with community wishes. They denied a zoning change that would have allowed a real estate developer to build approximately ten extra stories in a […]
In a few Sundays, millions of us will shout out at the television insistantly “Move the Chains” as our football teams – in my case the Giants – advance for a first down on their march down field to hopefully put points on the board. At the risk of flooding the zone with sports metaphors and alienating those who don’t […]
I’ve always thought of the subway as something of an equal-opportunity headache. This past week, the MTA made it a migraine when it released a plan for express F train service. The line that runs from the southernmost point of Brooklyn (Coney Island) through Manhattan and into Queens has been divided between some marginal winners and some big losers. This […]
Months ago I stated that I would vote for Hillary Clinton for President. Our New York Primary approaches in April and the contest on the Democratic Party side has tightened since I made my endorsement. This seems a good time to reaffirm my commitment and explain my evolving thoughts. I am voting for Hillary Clinton because she among all […]
On January 21st I attended a meeting of my old political club the Independent Neighborhood Democrats. The draw for that meeting was an opportunity to hear from our sitting Congresswomen Nydia Velazquez and Yvette Clarke. We thought we would hear from Nydia’s primary challenger the banker and former deputy superintendent of the NYS Banking Department Mr. Yungman Lee, but he […]
NYC – by nearly all objective measures – is doing great, so why is the Mayor’s approval rating down? Here is my year-end piece dealing with the recent past, Punditry and Prognostication. It is the time of year that we have set aside for such purposes; I am obliging. The City budget is in greater monetary surplus than anticipated. Unemployment […]
I am anxious to see whether we move forward with the creation of affordable housing in each of the proposed large-scale developments abutting our low-rise brownstone neighborhoods. The residents of Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill have registered their disapproval as expected. The test of the depth of progressive commitment to create vibrant diverse neighborhoods, instead of havens for the privileged, […]
I welcome it when people ask me to explain myself on issues or the votes I take at the community board. You don’t even have to beg my pardon. I am acutely aware that my neighbors in “Brownstone Brooklyn” are basically content with things remaining as they are. If you look at the projects approved for City Council participatory budgeting, […]
None of the community or political things that I have been following have reached the next milestone. I will update you anyway. The alternative is to revert to a reverie of spring and hold forth on the rebirth it represents (my wife says that’s what writers do when they have nothing to say). Anyway that’s not me. Since the recent […]