UNITE FOR JOBS RALLY, SEPT. 10TH

Join the MYD Health Committee, 1199 SEIU, the TMA Workers Union, and several other progressive unions on in Harlem on September 10th for a rally of solidarity for jobs!

This march has one purpose: to use our strength in numbers to demand an economy that works for all Americans, not just the top 1%.

United for Jobs Event Flier

The rally will start at 4:00 p.m. at the former North General Hospital on 122 Street and Madison Avenue, and will march to 134 Street on Lennox Avenue, right in front of Harlem Hospital.

It would be great to see you there! We need as many young people there as possible to help demonstrate that our economy is not just hurting blue collar workers, but also recent college graduates!

Please feel free to contact me at any time for more information: Health@gomyd.com

Democrats And Republicans Find Common Ground On Education Reform

Everyday the words and actions of strategists, legislators and pundits feed the growing polarization between the two main parties. In New York State for example, important legislation continues to be shelved or stagnate as partisan politics contributes to an increasingly ineffective government.

Despite this challenging environment, some researchers have been making gains on describing a specific agenda — one on which Democrat and Republicans can find some common ground.

Researchers at Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance believe that in the realm of education policy, the divisions between the parties are “quite minor.” Despite continued resistance to a unified plan, education reform recommendations like merit-based pay or the growing popularity for online education is embraced by leaders on both sides.

William Howell, Paul E. Peterson and Martin West, authors of the paper, go on to write:

Overall, there appears to be far less polarization between the parties than might be expected. On questions concerning their overall assessment of the nation’s schools, student and school accountability, and even the creation of charter schools, the distance between the parties amounted to less than 0.2 points on the 5-point scale. In the case of accountability measures, the combination of strong overall support and minimal partisan conflict suggests that such policies will continue to be central to the nation’s education reform agenda. In the case of charter schools, for which overall support is more mixed, it appears that the important divisions in public opinion are within rather than between the nation’s major political parties.

Below is a video summing up the results of their 2010 Education-Next PEPG Survey:

Poll Reveals Bipartisan Support for Education Reform

Meet the AG Candidates for Tonight’s Staw Poll!

Tonight is the Manhattan Young Democrats Straw Poll for Attorney General.

We will be gathering at Luca Lounge in the East Village from 7-11 pm for some drinks, debates, and decisions.  Join us!

www.lucaloungenyc.com/lounge/
222 Avenue B between 13th/14th
From 7-9pm reduced prices: $5 mixed drinks, beer & house wines.

Meanwhile, here is some key info on the candidates to get you thinking.

RICHARD BRODSKY

• Current and Previous Positions Held:
  • New York State Assemblyman (Westchester)

• LGBT Rights:
  • Pro-Marriage Equality
  • Supports Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act

• Environmental Protection and Rural Development:
  • Supports ‘cancer mapping’ (state produced maps of environmental facilities and cancer hotbeds)
  • Supports the Department of Environmental Protection regulation over the Indian Point power plant
  • Supports bond acts to support clean air and water programs

SEAN COFFEY

• Current and Previous Positions Held:
  • Naval JAG Officer, Federal Prosecutor

• LGBT Rights:
  • Pro-Marriage Equality
  • Supports Employment Non-Discrimination Act
  • Supports Repeal of Defense of Marriage Act
  • Supports Fair housing rights for LGBT

• Environmental Protection and Rural Development:
  • Opposes drilling in the Marcellus Shale until it can be guaranteed that it would be pollution-free
  • Will work to create more clean energy jobs and sustainable development sector

ERIC DINALLO

• Current and Previous Positions Held:
  • Manhattan ADA
  • Assistant New York  AG
  • New York State Commissioner of Insurance

• LGBT Rights:
  • Pro-Marriage Equality
  • Supports Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act
  • Supports Dignity for All Students Act (DASA)
  • As AG, will w add a LGBT Advocate position in Civil Rights Bureau
  • As AG, will Challenge Federal Ban of gay men’s blood
  • Helped extend insurance benefits to same-sex couples while co-chairing the New York’s Universal Health Insurance Task Force

• Environmental Protection and Rural Development:
  • Will assign an Assistant AG to each county
  • Expand basic legal services to local municipalities

KATHLEEN RICE

• Current and Previous Positions Held:
  • Kings County ADA
  • Nassau County DA

• LGBT Rights:
  • Pro-Marriage Equality
  • Supports Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act
  • Supports Employment Non-Discrimination Act
  • Supports Dignity for All Students Act
  • Supports Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
  • As Nassau DA, Rice recruited LGBT prosecutors and appointed New York State’s first hate crimes-oriented prosecutor

• Environmental Protection and Rural Development:
  • Will ensure that landlords will provide for non-toxic living spaces for tenants
  • Will ensure that the same environmental protection laws will be enforced against corporate polluters regardless of the socioeconomic status of the area
  • Will create a “311” system for legal assistance in rural ares
  • Will create a Rural Affairs Advisory Council and appoint representatives (both elected and not-elected) from all regions of the state

ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN

• Current and Previous Positions Held:
  • New York State Senator (Manhattan)

• LGBT Rights:
  • Pro-Marriage Equality
  • Supports Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act
  • Supports Dignity for All Students Act
  • Supports repeal of Defense of Marriage Act
  • Supports Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
  • Supports Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act

• Environmental Protection and Rural Development:
  • Plans to expand the AG’s Environmental Protection Bureau with “innovative legal challenges and building regional environmental alliances”

Victory and Justice for New York’s Domestic Workers

August 31, 2010 will be a day remembered by many New Yorkers for a long time. Today Governor Paterson signed the Domestic Workers Rights bill. The bill extends a variety of employment protections enjoyed by most workers throughout the country and fixes a federal exemption for domestic service workers. While it may have made sense to exclude a live-in nanny in a prior era, when such nannies were practically (or often literally) members of the family, we now live in an age where large staffing companies provide consistent live-in help in a business oriented model. It’s therefore extremely appropriate to extend basic wage and hour protections to these workers.

Some of the main benefits of the law include:

• One day off per week (or equivalent OT pay)
• Three paid vacation days annually
• Time and a half for overtime hours (over 40 or 40 hours/week)
• Eligibility for disability benefits
• Inclusion in New York’s anti-discrimination law and additional provisions protecting workers from racial and/or sexual harassment

The benefits from this law are clear. Domestic workers will be guaranteed dignity and justice on the job. They will gain one day off a week, overtime benefits, and will no longer be exempt from the protections of the state anti-discrimination law. For workers in very specific and intimate work settings, they will now have the protection of the law to fend off discriminatory or abusive working conditions.

Furthermore, it is very possible that domestic workers will be given the right to organize and collectively bargain in the near future.  The state labor department is authorized to study the feasibility of extending collective bargaining rights to domestic workers under New York’s Labor Law.  Domestic workers are excluded from the protections of the National Labor Relations Act (federal law) but may be included in state law.  This is analogous to the controversial Farmworkers Rights Bill in the domestic setting.

I would guess that this probably leads to organizing rights under state law for domestic workers who work for a staffing agency. It would be inordinately difficult to organize individual domestic workers working in individual homes, but through a staffing agency a union could represent the employeees of the staffing agency. Such a union would look a lot like home health care aide unions.

One more note: this is an important victory for labor on a larger scale.  Any extension of organizing and employment benefits for some workers is a victory for all workers.  It gives us more legitimacy to argue for further extension of labor protections for unprotected workers, like New York’s farmworkers.  It helps increase union density and improves the progressive movement as a result.  And dignity on the job is the single best way to improve the quality of life for the working class.

Today is a great day for domestic workers and all those who stand for justice and fair pay at the workplace.

Deputy Mayor Suggests Plan To Make NYC Government Leaner

Just four months after being appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to head the Office of Operations, Stephen Goldsmith has hit the ground running while gaining the confidence of good government groups and administration critics on the way. The recent praise has come after two recent reports analyzing cost efficiencies in mayoral agencies with a separate report exclusively on the Department of Education. Highlights included a drastically different picture than the top down, highly-organized bureaucracy normally professed by City Hall officials. Surprising many, Deputy Mayor Goldsmith pointed out multiple areas where officials have been wasteful and prescribed belt-tightening adjustments which could save the city $500 millions over the next 4 years.

Recommendations focused on operational efficiency and accountability, with suggestions in the following areas:

Information Technology in the city “currently operates in a large and fragmented … environment, consisting of more than 80 data centers that support approximately 3,000 applications in more than 50 different locations.” The report suggested that consolidating and modernizing this infrastructure would save nearly $60 million over the next four years.

Human Resource Management was described as being “highly decentralized” and lacking any kind of citywide coordination evident by the one human resources employee for every 38 workers ratio, compared, to an average 95:1 ratio in organizations “similar to the city”. In his report, Goldsmith cities that centralizing resources could save more than $100 million over the next four years.

Fleet Operations come at a hefty price tag with a fleet that includes over 26,000 vehicles and other mobile equipment, at a cost of $667 million a year. Downsizing, consolidating and privatizing services could save up to $71 million over four years.

Payment and Revenue Collection reaped the city over $40 billion last year in taxes, fines, rents and other revenue. But according to findings, the same work could be done in addition to saving $25 million to $35 million by consolidating collection operations. Looking to stronger enforcement techniques would  increase collections by $100 million.

Real Estate Management did not escape the cross-hairs of Stephen Goldsmith. Of the 19 million square feet of office space currently leased at a cost of $435 million per year, the report suggests reducing the city’s rental space by 1.2 million square feet. Putting a single agency in-charge of property acquisition and management in addition to these changes would save $36 million a year by 2014.

In addition, The Office of Operations also issued a report with an exhaustive review of Joe Klein’s Department of Education — which is definitely worth taking the time to read. The information is refreshing in it’s detail, and specifically discusses the role of principals who currently navigate a decentralized system that invests increased decision-making power on the local level. The review explains why some school leaders flourish while others languish without a rigid structure.

In the end, all this information is priceless to advocacy groups that have been locked out from knowing the fiscal practices of city government.  If this is any indicator of the work we can expect from the Indianapolis technocrat, then on behalf of vigilant New Yorkers everywhere, let me say: Welcome to the Big Apple!

The Most Powerful Men You’ve Never Heard Of

If you haven’t read Jane Mayer’s obnoxiously long, but insanely informative piece in the New Yorker this week, you should.  Mayer exposes the vast connections between Koch Industries and a plethora of rabid anti-government organizations, including Americans for Prosperity and Citizens for a Sound Economy, among many others.  What is particularly disturbing is the way the Koch family stealthily funnels money into groups that reinforce policies which, coincidentally, benefit the industries from which Koch derives its wealth: oil and chemicals.  Money from the Koch family also helped launch conservative think tanks such as the Cato Institute and the Mercatus Center.  As the article explains:

An environmental lawyer who has clashed with the Mercatus Center called it “a means of laundering economic aims.” The lawyer explained the strategy: “You take corporate money and give it to a neutral-sounding think tank,” which “hires people with pedigrees and academic degrees who put out credible-seeming studies. But they all coincide perfectly with the economic interests of their funders.”

Koch has been the target of several EPA investigations, which could explain why the company has fought so hard to limit the power of the federal government to regulate polluters.  In 1997 the EPA tried to regulate emissions from oil refineries.  According to Mayer’s piece, Susan Dudley, an economist with the Mercatus Center, argued that the EPA had not taken into account that smog-free skies would result in more cases of skin cancer.  Yes, you read that correctly.

The article is far too long and complex to summarize in a few short paragraphs.  Suffice to say it’s worth the read.  Once you’re done reading, you may want to take a look at the list of products Koch Industries manufactures.  If you’re like me, once you’ve read the article you won’t want to give these guys one more dime of your money.

Angel Soft toilet paper
Brawny paper towels
Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
Mardi Gras napkins and towels
Quilted Northern toilet paper
Soft ‘n Gentle toilet paper
Sparkle napkins
Vanity fair napkins
Zee napkins
Georgia Pacific paper products and envelopes

It’s Over – Almost

After 7 1/2 years, Operation Iraqi Freedom is coming to an end.  MSNBC reports that the last full combat brigade has crossed the border into Kuwait.  There are still 50,000 troops in Iraq whose mission will be to train Iraqi soldiers and police officers, and another 6,000 combat troops who will leave Iraq by August 31st.   But for all intents and purposes, the war is over.  Promise kept.

The Awesomeness Of A Little Roof Paint… Who Knew?

Looking for that easy fix to prevent climate change? Here’s a no brainer that can make a big difference: white roof paint! What’s that? It’s a special coating with a high thermal mass and solar-reflective properties. In other words, it’s paint that keeps buildings cooler and lowers energy use, prevents roof damage, and traps less heat.

White roofs can make a big difference in the air temperature. That means a cooler city and climate change prevention. Here’s the story: What’s more? There is already momentum behind white roofs. President Obama supports them, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) provides funding for green jobs including weatherization and initiatives like white roof painting that both create jobs and curb climate change. For example, go HERE to see a few of the energy efficiency initiatives funded by our city with stimulus funds. So why isn’t every roof white? We’d like to know that too. You can help us fix the problem. GO HERE TODAY.  Make a donation of time, money or knowledge.  You can be part of the paint-it-white-go-green movement!

Commission Will Send Term Limits Referendum To The Polls But Not Much Else

After half a year of work, the Charter Review Commission empanelled by Mayor Bloomberg is backing a list of seven proposals for approval at their scheduled meeting on August 23^rd.

The Charter Commission, a tool for institutional change since 1938, was charged with reviewing a laundry list of controversial issues including non-partisan elections, term limits for elected officials, suggesting changes to the land use review process and the duties of borough presidents and the public advocate in city government.

Critics have argued that voters will be presented with a short-changed version of reform while important issues will be left unaddressed. Dr. Matthew Goldstein, chairman of the latest commission, argues that in light of the limited time they were given, the committee has done a good job fulfilled their mandate to ensure that topics on their agenda have been thoroughly researched and commented on during numerous public hearings.

That hasn’t convinced everyone – Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is among those who remain less than enthused with their results in recent statements:

By excluding forward thinking proposals from the ballot — from overhauling the city’s approach to long-term planning to rethinking the Department of Buildings with an Office of Inspection, to bolstering independence for elected and oversight agencies with independent budgets — the members of the Charter Revision Commission are missing a historic opportunity to restore confidence and interest in government among generations of New Yorkers.

While it’s not a perfect system, commissions have made positive, meaningful changes to New York City when called upon under past mayors (1963, 1975, 1988, 1989). It was a committee empanelled by Mayor Koch in 1989 that created the 51-member City Council, a public advocate elected city wide and limited roles for the borough presidents. It took three years, employed 52 full-time staffers and entailed 141 public hearings over two years to enjoy the representative government we have today. Let’s hope just six months of work will yield similar results.

MYD Unveils White Roof Project

On Wednesday, August 11th, the Environmental Committee of the Manhattan Young Democrats held New York City’s environmental event of the year when it unveiled its brand new website www.whiteroofproject.com at 10 Degrees Wine Bar in the East Village. A cast of environmental proponents served as speakers, and more than 50 supporters were on hand to celebrate the event.

The new website encourages building owners in New York to paint their roofs with highly reflective white paint as a way to reduce energy costs and keep the city cooler in the summer. It does this by allowing building owners who would like to have their roofs painted for free identify themselves on the site, and then connects them to painting volunteers and financial donors. The site also uses a “google map-like” computer program to track the progress of MYD in its longterm effort to white coat the roof of every city building.

“I think we can all agree that New York City has been hot this summer,” declared MYD Environmental Committee Chairman Stephen Spear. “In fact its been hotter here than in the communities that surround the city because of the millions of square feet of sun-light attracting black tar surface, much of which is on roof tops.”

The event was cosponsored by the New York City chapter of the Sierra Club, which has its own cool roofs initiative, and supported by NYC Cool Roofs Program Outreach Coordinator Cammi Climaco, who spoke at the event.

White Roof Project founder and website creator Juan Carlos displayed modesty as he unveiled the new site explaining that the ambitious project was ” a little idea I came up with on Earth Day this year.” The project already has its first client. The Bowery Mission Center, a homeless shelter and medical clinic in Lower Manhattan is scheduled to have five of its roofs coated by MYD in September. The organization raked in an impressive $2200 in public contributions toward that project on the night of the event and Bowery Mission Operations Director Matt Krivich was on hand to express his thanks.

Anyone interested in joining the fun as a painting volunteer for the White Roof Project should contact MYD Community Service Director Kim Moscaritolo at service@gomyd.com.

Nice Job Green Team!

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