Many people know of Shakespeare’s “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech, but not as many know its third through fifth lines: “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.” A lot of bones have been interred this year in New York City, cremated and buried in private graveyards and our potter’s field. (How odd we seem to have an island for everything.) It seems to me that the shame of working for Mayor Bill de Blasio — surely not …
Opinion: ‘Words of Rizzdom’ from the road
I said last week this week’s column would be about the Brooklyn Democratic Party, but I’ve decided to once again make it about weird transportation, among other topics. I write from my vacation — I am taking a week to bicycle from Hudson, New York back to Brooklyn. There’s so much I’ve enjoyed about biking up here. For instance, I can get a lot closer to wildlife than I would if I were driving a car whose motor noise would scare them away. Most of all, I enjoy the feeling …
Opinion: The fight for absentee ballots on the quest for democracy
Over three months ago, I wrote that New York’s ballot access laws were the hardest in the nation and a threat to our democracy. Since then, I became the first incumbent in anyone’s memory in Brooklyn to be knocked off the ballot without even facing an opponent. It’s still not clear whether I will be re-appointed to fill my own vacancy. The guys who knocked me off the ballot (one was a district leader) were very badly repudiated on primary election day two weeks ago. When my personal…
Opinion: Local, regional and national governance has failed us
The very worst part of the pandemic in New York state appears to be past, and parts of upstate are beginning to slowly reopen. New York has recorded more than 20,000 deaths from coronavirus, the most of any sub-national region on the planet. We appear to have had nearly as many deaths as Italy or Spain, the previous epicenters which each have substantially more than double our population. Over 80,000 Americans have died and that number will keep…