The Daily News political blog headlines: "A Window Into Politics On The Lower East Side." Elizabeth Benjamin adds to her earlier story detailing the United Jewish Council's close relationship with the LES's political power brokers. She says City Council member Alan Gerson's court fight to get back on the ballot offers an "…unusual glimpse of the political clout wielded by Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver, whose district (the 64th AD) overlaps with Gerson's
(the 1st CD):"
I noted in my column today that officials from the United Jewish Council of the East Side
were involved in the signature-gathering effort for Gerson and a host
of other candidates – including Silver himself, who is running to be a
delegate to the Democratic judicial nominating convention – an effort
that threatens the group's tax-exempt status. The UJC raised and spent $2.3 million in 2007 (the most recent year
for which its 990 is available), and 99.66 percent of that funding came
from government grants. Since 2006, Silver has directed $2.3 million worth of member items
to the group. Gerson directed $16,000 over the past two years. The UJC
also landed $1.6 million worth of state contracts between 2006 and
2008. In other words: The group relies almost entirely on elected officials for its funding… Also involved: Jessica Loeser, a former Silver aide and wife of
Mayor Bloomberg's press secretary, Stu Loser, who is president of the
Harry S. Truman Democratic Club (an organization closely allied with
Silver), which handled the omnibus petitions;
David Weinberger, a district leader who, as of 2007, was a
$50,969-a-year director for UJC; and Ray Dowd, Gleason's attorney, who
ran against Silver on the Green Party line in 200, receiving 15 percent
of the vote.
The MTA's new five year plan calls for high speed bus lanes and replacing Metro Cards with an "Easy Pass" style computer chip embedded in cell phones or debit cards.
Broadway East has a new chef. He's Phil Conlon, the former chef de cuisine at Cafe Cluny, the West Village brasserie serving up Odeon style bistro fare.
Outrage: Brooklyn boy David Sax, in his new book "Save the Deli," declares: “Brace yourself New York, because what I am about to write is definitey
going to piss a lot of you off, but it needs to be said: Los Angeles
has become America’s premier deli city.“
The Tenement Museum continues to unravel the mystery of Schneider's Saloon.
