tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50500762009-02-21T02:33:53.133-08:00Jefferson Street StationThere are eight million obstacles in the Naked City. <br><br> &copy; 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 &nbsp;Richard Starkexposito63exposito63@gmail.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-78328210487892555442008-12-31T14:58:00.000-08:002008-12-31T15:04:20.875-08:00Corruption hides behind raceIt's always so heartening when hack politicians use the explanation of providing opportunities for a historically oppressed group to disguise plain-old patronage. Rod Blagojevich's appointment of Roland Burris to the open U.S. Senate seat in Illinois is just the latest example of this. I don't actually object to machine politics and patronage per se, but we must haveexposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-87213180909031845282008-10-24T13:43:00.000-07:002008-10-24T13:49:42.487-07:00Bloomberg is a despotThe New York City Council's approval of the bill to extend term limits for elected officials is not all that different than the Roman Senate giving someone dictatorial powers during a crisis. It is based on the idea that as a society our laws are not adequate to guide us through a crisis but that we need a certain person to guide us. The United States was supposedly foundedexposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-19450088729820782802008-03-10T20:48:00.000-07:002008-03-10T21:49:15.190-07:00Eliot Spitzer, hypocrisy, and hubrisWe live in an age in which are public figures are regularly sacrificed on the altar of righteous hypocrisy. Many of them deserve their fate. Goodness knows we all seem to love to see the arrogant, the powerful, or the rich fall. If someone happens to be arrogant, powerful, and rich, there is always a real pile-on when they fall. Witness the fate of Barry exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-84698072042442196912008-01-14T13:52:00.000-08:002008-01-14T13:57:46.075-08:00Is Wesley Snipes really so stupid or deluded as to believe that he can avoid paying income taxes (or prosecution for failure to pay income taxes) by claiming that the government has no right to collect them? Bouncing checks to the IRS is, incidentally, not a good way to prove to a jury that he was unaware that he had to pay taxes on his income (which will apparently be his defense).There are exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-82980340881737128412007-12-28T07:56:00.000-08:002007-12-28T08:01:20.093-08:00Time for quotas to limit touristsNew York has become so lousy with tourists during this holiday season that I believe we need to start actively prohibiting them from entering most parts of the city. It's one thing for Times Square or Ground Zero to be inundated with tourists. It is quite another for Chelsea and the Flatiron District to handle these people. Stay in Times Square or go home, I exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-75399131429362485852007-11-15T08:18:00.001-08:002007-11-15T08:28:57.013-08:00Jim Dwyer gets it right on KerikJim Dwyer is, since the retirement of Jimmy Breslin, our best columnist covering local issues. His work in Newsday was exemplary, going back to when he began their regular mass-transit column.Dwyer recently wrote a good column about the fall of Bernie Kerik. The best line in the column summarizes Kerik in one sentence:Mr. Kerik has had one major role in the life exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-26871998163107664492007-09-21T11:44:00.000-07:002007-09-21T11:48:45.043-07:00Is nowhere safe from this pox?Cell phones in subway trains will make what is already an often unpleasant experience into an even more unpleasant experience. That describes many "advances" in technology, I suppose. The argument that this is necessary so people can communicate during emergencies is absurd. The people who need to used telecommunications during emergencies are the police, exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-21845692410703642312007-09-06T09:14:00.000-07:002007-09-06T09:32:00.321-07:00The Graft StateSo the mayors of Passaic and Orange, as well as several other public officials, have been indicted today in the latest corruption scandal to break in New Jersey. All the officials in question are Democrats, and the local Republicans are noting this fact with glee. Despite my membership in the Democratic Party, I know that no party has the moral high ground in New Jersey. If exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-87385632974000846152007-07-12T17:06:00.000-07:002007-07-12T17:10:11.019-07:00"I'm innocent of all these charges"It's about goddamned time! Sharpe James was finally indicted. He will insist that this prosecution is motivated by racism, but he was the one who stole from the people of Newark for twenty years. Contrary to his assertion that he is innocent of all the charges, I believe he is guilty of many, if not all of them.It was gratifying to read that he was in irons exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-41936265894998117022007-06-13T14:23:00.000-07:002007-06-13T14:30:46.093-07:00I have tried to avoid going down the road of nostalgia for the New York of my childhood, but the increasing proliferation of tourists here makes that difficult. New York in the 1970s might have been a dump, but it was our dump. Now it is a city that seems to be designed for tourists and rich transplants from elsewhere. Fuck that noise. Those of us who paid our dues here during the Lindsay andexposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-28465781424091993472007-05-11T13:08:00.000-07:002007-05-11T13:26:30.288-07:00Congestion charge means cleaner airThe usual complaints are being made about Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to institute a fee for cars entering Manhattan during busy hours. These are the same people who complain when there is a proposal to put tolls on the free bridges into Manhattan: Drivers from the Outer Boroughs. Here's a news flash for these people: There is no guaranteed right to drive exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1166814954688666782006-12-22T11:00:00.000-08:002006-12-22T11:15:54.703-08:00Cast iron tunnelsIt is always a comfort to read an article on the dangers of a given transportation system while one is riding on that system. Today's edition of The New York Times features a story on the PATH system's vulnerability to attack. A report commissioned by the Port Authority was leaked to the Times by a whistleblower who believed that the Port Authority wasn't taking enough steps toexposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1166722565489103732006-12-21T09:30:00.000-08:002006-12-21T09:36:05.500-08:00Light pollutionThe New York Times Sunday City section recently featured an article on the efforts of one dedicated resident of New York who works to reduce the light pollution in the city. This is an issue that is often overlooked, especially in New York, where bright electric lights are so much a part of the cityscape that we often don't even notice them.Having well-lit streets is important. exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1160142566874919552006-10-06T06:32:00.000-07:002006-10-06T06:49:26.890-07:00Lautenberg votes to allow tortureIn my posting below I have reproduced a letter I recently sent to Senator Bob Menendez. I sent a similar letter to Senator Frank Lautenberg that I will not bother to reproduce here, as the substance of it is the same as the Menendez letter. It is a sad day when the two ostensibly liberal U.S. Senators from New Jersey vote with the forces of evil.exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1160137412509722522006-10-06T05:16:00.000-07:002006-10-06T05:31:37.243-07:00Menendez votes to allow tortureThe following is the text of a letter I recently wrote to U.S. Senator Bob Menendez:29 September 2006 Senator Robert Menendez502 Senate Hart Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senator Menendez, Yesterday I visited the web site for your election campaign; I was preparing to make a contribution to your campaign when I was interrupted. By the time Iexposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1159044843714425702006-09-23T13:50:00.000-07:002006-09-23T13:54:03.740-07:00This is a picture of the parking lot at the now-abandoned Benson Street Station in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. Service on this line was ended approximately four years ago. Note the spaghetti junction of wires on the utility pole in the center. On the left is one of Glen Ridge's useless gas lights.exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1158331885290796662006-09-15T07:31:00.000-07:002006-09-15T07:51:25.340-07:00Are there any honest Republicans?[Kean] has sat on United Health's board since 1993 —where he seems to have filled the same role of useful idiot that he played for the ABC producers.—Joe Conason, on Salon.comThe former governor of New Jersey (who, incidentally, left behind major budget shortfalls that his successor, Jim Florio, had to address by raising taxes [earning the unending enmity of exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1158284046671551222006-09-14T18:14:00.000-07:002006-09-14T18:34:06.726-07:00The devil and the deep blue seaNow that the primary elections in New York are over I can once again be grateful that I no longer reside in that, my native state. Is there is a more disheartening choice on the ballot anywhere than the choice between Jeanine Pirro and Andrew Cuomo for Attorney General? Which of these two is more loathsome than the other? Andrew Cuomo may be the most detestable exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1153178717831646952006-07-17T16:11:00.000-07:002006-07-17T16:25:17.886-07:00Sharpe James: A pig at the trough?Today's Star Ledger has a story about how former Newark mayor Sharpe James will collect $323,654 in taxpayer dollars next year. He is the beneficiary of an amazingly sweet pension deal that was available only to elected officials in Newark (special state legislation was required to set-up this pension system). He also had the Newark city council approve exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1152497902339291562006-07-09T19:15:00.000-07:002006-07-09T19:18:22.340-07:00Lieberman deserves to be tossed from the Democratic PartyAs I have said before, Senator Joe Lieberman does not belong in the Democratic Party anymore. His announcement that he would run as an independent candidate if he lose the Democratic primary election to Ned Lamont should be evidence enough to the Democratic leadership to cut the cord to this sanctimonious sore loser.exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1152497343148857872006-07-09T19:04:00.000-07:002006-07-09T19:09:58.233-07:00exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1152220942673297562006-07-06T14:19:00.000-07:002006-07-06T14:22:22.686-07:00A budget at lastSo the shutdown of New Jersey State government will end. And everyone will get to pay higher sales taxes. I applaud Governor Corzine for holding firm in his insistence that the state must balance its budget with recurring sources of revenue, but I still think that a gasoline tax increase would have been fairer than a sales tax increase.exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1149777395471405782006-06-08T07:06:00.000-07:002006-06-08T07:36:35.530-07:00Fast buses? Maybe it isn't a pipe dreamThe City of New York is finally planning to implement "bus rapid transit" over ten years after Mayor Dinkins first studied the matter (God forbid Giuliani should have followed up on any innovative transit initiative of his predecessor).There is an article in today's New York Times that explains the outlines of the proposal. Systems such as this, which exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1147389088021594872006-05-11T16:00:00.000-07:002006-05-11T16:11:28.030-07:00File under "any irony is purely unintentional"They should've been picketing Henry Ford. There is progress everywhere. There is a constant change. The issue is how to manage it.—Frank GehryMr. Gehry made this remark in reaction to protesters who objected to the proposed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. There's nothing like labeling your opponents as enemies of progress.exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050076.post-1146693059145635322006-05-03T14:41:00.000-07:002006-05-03T14:50:59.156-07:00St. Savior's ChurchI have appended a message I sent to the President of Maspeth Federal Savings Bank and the response I received from him.From: Richard Stark [mailto:rstark@speakeasy.net] Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 9:26 PMTo: krudzewick@maspethfederal.comSubject: Please don't let Maspeth Development LLC tear down St. Savior's ChurchDear Mr. Rudzewick, I am writing to urge you to ensure that exposito63exposito63@gmail.com0