April 30, 2004
City Says "Doth Protesteth Too Much!"
On the heels of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly's announcement about stepped up security measures during the Republican National Convention this August (think security sweeps on trains coming into Penn Station and the NYPD monitoring protest websites for protestors posing as volunteers), Mayor Bloomberg made clear he was not supportive of the NYPD and FDNY rallying outside the convention and the city rejected a plan for an antiwar protest at the Great Lawn the day before the convention. Mayor Bloomberg told reporters, "Going and protesting to the Republicans and saying that the city isn't paying as much as everybody would like is just theater. It doesn't go in the direction of getting a good contract," referring to the added business and tax the convention is bringing in. And them's fighting words, for Mayor Bloomberg, but this isn't doing anything to further the relationship he has with the NYPD and FDNY.
The reason for rejecting the antiwar protest at the Great Lawn is because the Great Lawn has been renovated and only holds 80,000, while the protest might draw 250,000 (which is a staggering number). Gothamist wonders what 250,000 protestors would do the Great Lawn, which has been the scene of many performance and concerts - that would take a lot of Central Park Conservancy and Parks Department folks to clean up. This protest would have followed a march from Midtown (a permit for the march is still pending from the NYPD). For more information about the protest, check out the site from United for Peace and Justice.
Related: NY State hasn't been on the case in transitioning voting equipment, jeopardizing the $200 million the government is willing to give the state to switch over to equipment that would avoid any chad type situation for the 2004 . Thanks, Albany!
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from the AP - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-permit29apr29,1,3441533.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
"Now we just have to do another piece of organizing to put pressure on the city to change their mind," said group leader Leslie Cagan.
"United for Peace and Justice said it planned to appeal. The city parks department denied the group's request to rally on the park's Great Lawn after a march through city streets.
...
In its appeal, the group said it would state that many events with more than 80,000 people had taken place on the lawn, including a 1981 Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel concert that drew at least 400,000 fans and a 1982 antinuclear demonstration attended by more than 750,000 people, considered the largest protest in city history.
The Department of Parks and Recreation maintains that no gatherings of that magnitude have been held on the Great Lawn since the area was restored in 1996."
Are you lamenting the fact that New York isn't buying into the digital voting frenzy? The new computerized voting system is flawed, at best, and potentially corrupt, at the most probable very worst. Developers of the system refuse to allow for a paper trail of votes to confirm that the votes counted are accurate, even in the first few runs. Plus, hackers have already confirmed that they can infiltrate the system and change votes, in something like 4 minutes. Not to mention the fact that the company that will supply the majority of the voting machines is a huge Republican donor, and has explicitly promised to deliver his state (Ohio, i think?) to Bush in the election. Seems a little fishy to me.
more than a little fishy. I am absolutely happy to be voting on the lever machines in November. This digital voting process is going to be scary. You think chads were bad? Imagine trying to do a recount with no paper ballots and no way to go back into the machines to check votes. I highly recommend Verified Voting's site.
And the thing is, think of it the other way around. If Bush had narrowly "lost" the election by less than 500 votes in Florida and a stopped recount, wouldn't Republicans be demanding that any new voting technology come equipped with verifiable paper records? It it were a Democratic donor who owned the company, right-wing pundits would be hopping mad.
I, for one, am happy to use punch-card ballots.
In the early nineties, I had track practice at the Great Lawn almost every day for four years before they fixed it up. We used to call it the "Dust Bowl" because it was in such crappy shape after all those mega events. On a windy day, you couldn't walk 30 feet across it before choking on the clouds of dry dirt and pebbles. After spending all that money to turn the lawn back into the green fields they are today, I can definitely understand it if they'd prefer to keep it that way.
Right - the point about the Simon & Garfunkel concert is a pre-renovation one.
As for lever machines vs. new ones - I suppose people will bitch either way. I'm just for taking money from the federal government.
yes! more federal handouts for new york! well, i guess they are not handouts considing we give more than we get. damn washington bastards!