The Albany coup's big winner is, perhaps, New York's real estate industry. The New York Times notes the "most significant expansion of rent regulation and tenant rights in a quarter-century" is now DOA.
Some analysts are warning the city's election-year budget is unrealistically rosy. And as the Times warns on the editorial page:
start facing a $5 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning in 2010
— a problem it will have to confront without much surplus or stimulus
funds as extra padding.
The dailies like to take shots at Shelly Silver, so it's worth acnowledging when they're complimentary of the speaker. The Daily News points out that the Assembly is working as a well oiled machine in contrast to the romper room that is the New York State Senate.
As the Daily News reported yesterday, police are having to confront an outbreak of gang violence that started over the weekend when a suspected drug dealer was killed. Police sources told the paper the stabbings (one fatal) of two men on 26th Street Monday were meant to avenge the killing. Last night, during a community meeting, police acknowledged the men have ties to housing projects in the East Village and Lower East Side. They tried to assure concerned residents they are stepping up patrols and remaining vigilant.
By the summer of 2010, the MTA will debut high speed buses that will travel in express lanes along First and Second Avenues.
