Thank you to readers who have come to this site over the years, even though it’s been largely inactive for a while. It’s currently inactive for good reason: I’m running for Manhattan District Attorney! I encourage folks to check out our campaign to transform justice in New York City. The election is in June 2021,…
(Photo by New York Times.) Henry Stern and I met over Big Pun. My first summer after college I was embedded in the Parks Department Historical Signs Unit with a dozen other students, cranking out short playground histories for 2001 plaques adorning outgoing Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Parks Commissioner Henry Stern’s names across the City.…
Rivers Island is a depraved and dangerous place, a moral stain on New York City. The time has come to close it down. Starting March 11th, that will be the sole focus of my work, when I join JustLeadershipUSA as its new Director of Policy and Campaigns. JustLeadership’s founder and executive director, Glenn Martin, has…
Medical school starts with the dissection of a human body, a grisly task that tests whether you’re for real. If you think politics matter, Trump is that cadaver. There’s a desire to dismiss him as a racist carnival barker and ignore what his campaign can teach us, but that’s like turning away at the first…
My life would be a lot more productive and a lot less interesting if I weren’t addicted to New York politics and fantasy basketball. Those two worlds collided last week when New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a cease & desist order against two Daily Fantasy Sports gambling sites, FanDuel and DraftKings. To make sense of…
The internet is replete with powerful tributes to Muhammad Ali, but I’ll humbly add the story of his legal travails. This is excerpted from a Federal Bar Council piece I co-authored with Steve Edwards on boxing law. Re-reading this five years later, I am struck by the final quote, in which Ali forgives an institution…
This was scrawled on the Temple wall at Burning Man, and it really resonated: It’s all so terrifyingly simple We’ve overcomplicated it There is a deliberate continuum being maintained throughout all the detailed narrative No matter what your crazy theory is no matter what mouth noises or squiggly lines you make to point towards something…
Could Mayor de Blasio’s municipal ID program be the sleeper program to rejuvenate New York City? We all know this city is full of cultural gems, but now we no longer have an excuse to ignore them, just because we already experienced them once on a high school field trip or a first date. The Muni…
These are grim times for New York political bosses. Former Speaker Sheldon Silver’s corruption trial ends on Monday. Former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos’ corruption trial has just begun. Former Kings County Democratic Chairman Vito Lopez is dead. Today is an for anniversary celebrating a rare win for New York reformers: on November 19, 1871, William…
The pews of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompei were packed, with more standing in the back. The choir’s lead sang a gorgeous “Ave Maria.” Misty eyes listened to the recollections of friends and family. I was at the funeral for Vito Lopez, for many years one of New York’s most powerful politicians. Lopez…
My first internship was spent at the New York City Parks Department in the Historical Signs Division. It was the summer of 2001, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Parks Commissioner Henry Stern came up with the brilliant idea of erecting 2001 signs to commemorate New York’s (approximately) 2001 parks, each sign affixing their names to the bottom. This task required…
In July of 1993, after decades of activism, New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board opened its doors. For the first time, New Yorkers alleging misconduct by the police could seek redress at an independent civilian agency. Twenty-two years later, I am thrilled to announce that I am joining the CCRB as its Legal & Policy…
As some of you know, I have been working on a full history of Williamsburg. It will be a substantial project that will take a lot of time, but a few months of research has already dug up some pretty fun facts. I got to drop one at a biker bar on Saturday night. A…
I could have posted this yesterday, but I assumed, hopefully correctly, that people would have better things to do on a sunny holiday Saturday than read blogs. For my part, I designed and triumphed in a Game of Thrones-themed pong. (As Littlefinger, I allied with the Lannisters and we retained control of the Iron Throne.)…
“The Message” is one of those rare songs that wake the world up. On July 1, 1982, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released what would become one of the iconic songs of early hip-hop, a hit that sounds fresh and true 33 years later. Born in Barbados as Joseph Saddler, Grandmaster Flash had made a name…
janos.nyc 