September 2, 2005
Please Help Hurricane Relief Efforts
The nation has been shocked by the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina, and the events that have unfolded in its aftermath.
We are all overwhelmed seeing this level of destruction and suffering anywhere in the world. It is that much more staggering seeing it here at home.
National Guardsmen are finally arriving with supplies and to restore a sense of order that dissolved with frightening speed. But we are months away from stabilizing the situation, let alone from reaching the point where the hundreds of thousands of people who have been affected can rebuild their lives.
In just over a week, we will mark the fourth year since another moment of national devastation and sorrow. New Yorkers will always remember the remarkable outpouring of support from fellow Americans that followed the attacks of September 11th. It is now our turn to help.
Our entire staff’s thoughts are with the victims of the disaster. I ask you to please join us in donating to the relief effort right now.
We have created this page to help guide any efforts you can make – from donating money, housing or volunteer time.
Thank you.
Brian
Posted by Brian at September 2, 2005 1:56 PM
August 29, 2005
Tell Us What You Think
As you know, on Monday morning the campaign launched our new television ad, which makes history in New York City as the first time a gay or lesbian candidate has appeared with his or her partner in a TV advertisement.
The ad has been featured in the New York Times, and in other newspapers and blogs across the country including Gawker, Wonkette and Andy Towle's TowleRoad. The reviews have been very supportive.
If you haven't seen the ad yet, you can view it here.
After watching it, forward it to your friends, and then tell us what you think in the thread below.
Posted by John at August 29, 2005 1:18 PM
August 28, 2005
Only Two Weeks Till September 13th!
The Democratic Primary on September 13th is in just over two weeks!
We’ve officially entered the last stretch of the campaign, and need your help now, more than ever.
If you’re not going to be in town on September 13th make sure to apply for an absentee ballot today, and mail it in ASAP (by Sept. 12th at the latest.)
We hope you are going to be in town though! Be sure to check out our new Election Day page, which has a number of things you can do to help Brian win. We’ll be updating the page frequently from here on in, adding new features and more ways to get involved.
But one thing will always remain the same – we need your help volunteering! Please sign up to volunteer on Election Day and before if you haven’t already!
John
Posted by John at August 28, 2005 11:28 PM
August 23, 2005
Congestion Pricing in the News
Today a coalition of esteemed civic groups released a guide of the nine biggest problems, and potential solutions which the City will face in the coming years.
It’s a great guide, but what’s really striking to me is that congestion pricing was prominently featured as one of the four transportation priorities.
A growing coalition of groups are coming out in favor of congestion pricing – a solution to Manhattan’s air quality problems and gridlock which Brian has promoted throughout the campaign.
It’s particularly important to note that the Partnership for New York, a leading business group, has joined the coalition. Business leaders in London, where congestion pricing has been implemented, have been largely supportive of the program, and leaders here know that with congestion pricing we will faster delivery of goods, cleaner air, a better quality of life, and an expanded public transit system. These are all keys to our City’s economic future.
As you may know, Brian recently released a proposal for the serious examination of congestion pricing in Manhattan’s central business district. If you haven’t seen it, you can click here to learn more.
And be sure to check out the sites of the groups that put out today’s report: the Regional Plan Association, Center for an Urban Future and the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School.
John
Posted by John at August 23, 2005 10:57 PM
August 22, 2005
East Side Growth
The Sunday Times this week has a front page story about the spike in development on Manhattan’s East Side, from the expansion of the U.N., the sale of the Con Edison properties and breaking ground on the East River Science Park, projects on which Brian has spoken out on throughout the campaign.
With all this planned development - at least 8,000 new residents are expected at least, on top of thousands of new workers commuting to the new developments – it is vital to have a Borough President that will plan and fight for East Side neighborhoods.
Brian was active in the fight on the West Side, standing up for the community at Hudson Yards. He knows that building new small schools, ensuring affordable housing is included in development, and making sure our transportation network can handle the number of people who depend on it must be our priorities.
With the Lexington Line already stretched beyond capacity, this focus on new East Side development further lays out the case Brian has made for the desperate need for the Second Avenue Subway.
John
Posted by John at August 22, 2005 11:18 PM
August 14, 2005
Tackling Traffic Troubles
Today I called for New York to adopt a congestion pricing plan for Manhattan’s Central Business District to reduce traffic and improve our air quality.
Our Borough is choked with traffic and congestion pricing is a win-win solution. Taking vehicles off the road will drastically improve the quality of our air, which is among the worst in the nation and a direct contributor to record rates of asthma in our children. And, it will create a revenue stream to pay for maintenance and upgrades to public transportation. The benefits will be felt not just in Manhattan, but across the City.
I’ve been talking about this issue for a long time on the campaign trail. Last week the Federal government’s Congestion and Mitigation and Air Quality program awarded New York $5 million to study traffic problems in 9 locations across the City, and two in Manhattan - one on the Upper West Side and one in Washington Heights-Inwood. Traffic, particularly cross-town traffic, in these areas is bad and in need of relief.
But traffic is a borough-wide (if not City-wide) problem, and much of it stems from the congestion of the Central Business District. The CBD is the number one destination of most vehicles, and so reducing the number of vehicles making that trip will create relief in neighborhoods throughout the Borough.
There are already fixed rate payments at some entry points to the City. But only 22% of the over 800,000 vehicles that enter Manhattan’s Central Business District every day pay to enter. Putting a system of variable pricing in place at some or all of these entrances would yield up to a 17% decrease in the number of vehicle trips (that’s over 100,000 cars) and a significant increase in revenue – potentially over $1.4 billion annually - money which we could direct towards critical improvements to our mass transit system like the Second Avenue Subway.
Over the last three years, respected organizations like the Regional Plan Association and the Independent Budget Office have conducted studies outlining a realistic implementation of congestion pricing, and similar traffic systems have existed in small, mid-sized and large cities around the world for decades.
London is probably the most similar City to New York that has implemented congested pricing. It began the program in 2003 in the central business district of downtown London and has since seen significant decreases in traffic volume of around 16%. Travel times into the city’s core are much faster, and most businesses report no negative economic impact – an excuse many opponents of such programs often roll out.
In June of this year San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to announce that it would consider a congestion pricing program. New York now has the opportunity to emerge as a national leader in traffic management, while at the same time making our air cleaner, and improving our mass transit system. It’s a win-win situation, and one we must not let pass us by.
Brian
Posted by Brian at August 14, 2005 4:19 PM
August 11, 2005
East River Science Park Finally Becoming a Reality
I was thrilled at Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement this week that a developer has finally been named for the East River Science Park.
I have stressed the urgency of this is a project throughout this campaign, because for years, researchers at our City’s hospitals and universities have been creating new biotech start-ups, only to end up moving them to New Jersey, California and Massachusetts because of a lack of infrastructure and affordability.
These companies are certainly not leaving due to a lack of talent – New York, and Manhattan in particular are home to some of the world’s most prominent hospitals and universities.
They have left because Manhattan is becoming an increasingly unaffordable place to do business, and more importantly because the City hasn’t helped the private sector provide the necessary infrastructure to support this industry. We have known how to fix this problem, but it has still taken over two decades to get to this week’s announcement of a public/private partnership that will finally bring Manhattan into competition in the biotech arena.
I’m tired of politicians setting the wrong priorities, and watching our City suffer. We need to encourage entrepreneurship and new industries, creating new jobs and diversifying our tax-base and over-reliance on Wall Street.
This is a fantastic first-step towards making Manhattan a center of biotech research and development throughout the 21st century. But we will continue to lag behind places like California and New Jersey as long as long as our legislators in Albany are unable to pass a substantive bill providing financing for stem cell research.
Brian
Posted by Brian at August 11, 2005 9:06 PM
