SEND HATE MAIL HERE We must be slipping. In eight months of writing this column, we've received only two pieces of anonymous hate mail. One guy wrote something like, "When you call, I'm going to tell my staff to pretend I'm not here." Using that clue, we've been compiling a list of suspects. We're up to about 30.

Sounds like it's time for a suggestion even Scrooge would envy. How about we stop giving second names to streets in honor of people who died? Mind you, we don't blame politicians for this. They're in a tough spot, because it's easier to sponsor a street naming than to reject the pleas of a grieving family. But second namings of streets are getting out of hand. One street in our neighborhood was given a second name after a local resident we'd never heard of in five years of local reporting and 32 years of living there.

Every time we turn around, another street is being named after fine but hardly extraordinary people. And every time, a whole process is involved: legislation is written, it's discussed and voted on by the local community board, the bill is advertised, the City Council votes on it, the mayor signs it, the city map is revised, it's published in the City Record, street signs are prepared, and city workers go out and install them. This is a waste of time.

A street should have one name. Sticking a second sign on a pole declaring "Joe Smith Place" isn't a particularly great way to remember someone anyway. The City Council should pass a law stopping this practice, thus shielding individual members from requests from family members. Truly heroic or outstanding people could continue to have little parks and triangles named for them. In other cases, families who desire a public memorial would still have other options, such as buying and dedicating a new tree.

PARK SLOPE REZONING BATTLE Not surprisingly, little opposition was elicited by a rezoning plan that would prevent any tall buildings from going up in the middle of a Park Slope block. Restrictive height limits in residential areas are always a hit with residents. It shouldn't be forgotten, though, that Park Slope might not be the thriving neighborhood it is had universal height limits been in place years ago. The big apartment houses along Prospect Park West and 8th Avenue manage to hold a big chuck of the Slope's population without destroying the neighborhood's predominantly brownstone character.

But another aspect of the rezoning plan, wisely allowing tall buildings along 4th Avenue, has drawn criticism from the Fifth Avenue Corporation. The FAC is not opposed to the height limits but wants a percentage of units in any new building to be set aside for low-income folks. "If we are going to double the value of the land that property owners have on 4th Avenue, it seems to me that we ought to ask for some affordable housing as well," FAC executive director Brad Lander e-mailed us. "Otherwise all of the units will be $1,700-plus (per month), totally changing who lives between 3rd and 5th avenues, and property owners will get a big windfall from the city and give nothing in return, while we're in the midst of a housing crisis." This is an issue worth watching.

Few would dispute that the free market doesn't lend itself to adequate low-income housing. The question is where to draw the line so that enough such housing is built without discouraging developers from doing projects at all. In other words, what percentage of a project's units must be modest dwellings that working-class residents can afford? That said, it's far from certain that a zoning change alone would bring high-rent tenants to 4th Avenue, which could hardly be mistaken for Park Avenue.

TRUCE FOR ROGER GREEN, JAMES DAVIS There was apparently some truth to the rumor we reported last week that Assemblyman Roger Green plans to endorse City Councilman James Davis for re-election in September, rather than again cast his lot with Tish James, who lost to Davis in 2001 despite endorsements from most of the local elected officials and The New York Times. "That's what I heard, too," Davis said, though he added, "I didn't hear that from him." But lack of communication from Green did not dissuade Davis from reporting, "It appears to be true."

Why would Green back Davis? One reason might be that were Davis to lose his council seat, he would probably run for Assembly against Green in 2004. That's a headache Green doesn't need. The other part of the rumor, that Tish James had left Green's staff to return to the office of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, was inaccurate as of early January. Spitzer's office told us she hadn't worked there in two years. Our messages for James and Green were not returned.

O'KEEFE IS GOP CHOICE It could have been Marianne Teta and not Rosemarie O'Keefe announcing her candidacy and endorsements for the Bay Ridge City Council seat on Monday, one Republican big wig told us last week. But for some reason, Teta decided against running, opening the door for O'Keefe to be named the consensus Republican candidate by state Senator Marty Golden, who vacated the seat on December 31, and other GOP leaders.

O'Keefe made it official at Golden's business, the Bay Ridge Manor, on January 6. She was joined by Golden, Rep. Vito Fossella, Council Minority Leader Jim Oddo, Assemblyman Matthew Mirones, GOP county leader Hy Singer, and the Conservative Party's Jerry Kassar. Charles Capetanakis has withdrawn, but what will become of the other Republican hopefuls, such as Bob Capano and Anthony Ceretti? "From what I see, they're falling off because they see everyone behind her. One by one they're dropping out," said O'Keefe's campaign manager, Michael Allegretti. "It's going to be a few weeks before they say they're officially not running. Or they might just quietly disappear."

Ceretti had essentially told us he'd run only if Golden endorsed him, since it would lead to the collective backing of Republican leaders. Ceretti was a district leader for three terms before relinquishing the position to his father, also Anthony Ceretti. O'Keefe appears to be the Republican frontrunner, but her chances of defeating former state Senator Vinny Gentile, Democratic district leader Joanne Seminara, and others might hinge on Rudy Giuliani, in whose administration she served.

"The big question is whether Rudy will come out and campaign for her," one Republican source said. "If he does, that's huge." The non-partisan special election will be February 25.

BILL VOUCHES FOR VOUCHERS At a breakfast in Borough Park organized by Councilman Simcha Felder and others, Mayor Mike Bloomberg told noshers that 2,500 day-care slots, which had been on the chopping block, were restored to the current budget. The Orthodox community had lobbied hard to save these day-care vouchers and succeeded with the help of Councilman Bill deBlasio of Park Slope, who was instrumental in winning $24 million in new funding for the vouchers last June. But these vouchers have been a political mine field in the past.

In 2000, a scandal erupted over day-care vouchers being secretly funneled to influential Orthodox rabbis who supported Rudy Giuliani. The rabbis, in turn, doled them out to Orthodox families, in some cases charging them a processing fee. Non-Orthodox families were effectively shut out of the process. One of the voucher brokers, politically connected yeshiva director Rabbi Milton Balkany of Brooklyn's Bais Yaakov, was reportedly investigated, but criminal charges were never filed. In light of this, we asked deBlasio if the vouchers he helped save would be fairly distributed, rather than handed out as political thank-yous. The councilman's office assured us the vouchers are distributed by an "objective formula" to "high-need neighborhoods all over the city." Only low-income families qualify, according to deBlasio, whose district includes some Borough Park.

We certainly hope the voucher distribution has been ridded of politics. But given the scandal of two years ago, it bears watching, especially since the Orthodox are a relatively small group, but lobbied for the vouchers even though, if given out strictly according to income and population, more would go to blacks and Latinos. On the other hand, there is deep poverty among the Orthodox which is generally unreported and unknown to the general public. About 50 percent more residents of Community District 12 (Borough Park) are under 125 percent of the poverty line than in District 17 (East Flatbush), for example. The Orthodox's financial situation is not helped by the fact that the women earn little or nothing, the families tend to be large, and the children don't attend public schools. Glatt kosher food ain't cheap, either.

One Jerusalem newspaper reported that two out of three ultra-Orthodox men choose not to work, though we suspect that number's lower in the United States. The Jewish Week saw fit to mention Bloomberg's announcement and said the vouchers were "needed by the Orthodox community."

DOUBLE-FAULT ON TENNIS FEES It seems likely that the city will double the modest $50 annual tennis permit fee in order to help close the budget gap. But at the same time it might stop hiring seasonal parks employees. These are the very people who make sure tennis players have permits before they venture on city courts like the ones at Fort Greene Park. Who's going to pay $100 for a permit that nobody checks? About the same number of people who would feed parking meters if brownies and cops stopped giving summonses.

The feeling here is that doubling tennis-permit fees would only raise revenue if the city improves, rather than undermines, its already haphazard enforcement of permit rules on city courts. Most tennis players wouldn't mind the additional cost if they didn't have to fight non-permit holders for court time. Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Julius Spiegel said tennis courts will be staffed in fiscal year 2003. The fiscal year ends June 30, 2003-halfway through the tennis season-but it's unlikely the summer workers would be let go mid-stream.

The bigger question is what will happen in 2004. Spiegel couldn't say, noting that the city budget hasn't been passed yet.

FIDLER GOES FRUITY City Councilman Lew Fidler, Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, and state Senator Carl Kruger must have taken to heart their doctors' advice to eat more fruits and vegetables. The trio recently had 8,300 pounds of apples, bananas, pears and the like confiscated from an Avenue U vendor. Their concern (at least not their immediate concern) was not their own waistlines, but rather the quality of life of East 26th Street residents being spoiled by the fruit vendor. Fidler spearheaded the effort and, not fearing being the second banana, invited Kruger and Weinstein to join him. Unfortunately, they couldn't keep any of the fruit and greens. It all went to City Harvest to feed the needy.

Postscript: the vendor, who hitherto had been intractable, suddenly agreed to meet with the elected officials, Community Board 15, and East 26th Street residents. "Now that he's found out that… the law's going to be enforced," Fidler said, "he's willing to discuss what he can do to make himself a better neighbor."

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO… Susan Molinari? In 1996 she was a rising star of the Republican Party, delivering the keynote address at the Republican National Convention. But a year later she was quitting Congress to launch a never-had-a-chance television career. She promptly bombed at CBS. Molinari's departure from the House of Representatives, where she represented Bay Ridge and Staten Island and was twice elected to the eight-person Republican Majority Leadership, never really made sense. And when politicians do something that makes no sense, rumors inevitably fly. Some folks assumed that Molinari had some dark secret that might have come out had she remained in the spotlight. One prevalent (though off-the-wall) rumor was that her 1994 marriage to then-Rep. Bill Paxon was a sham.

But Molinari and Paxon are still married and now have two children. Obviously it's an authentic union. And no dark secrets were ever revealed. So why did she quit? The primary suspect remains her husband's fall from power, the result of a failed attempt to replace Newt Gingrich as speaker in 1997. Paxon was stripped of his GOP rank by Gingrich and left the House altogether a year later. Molinari might have figured that because of guilt by association, she was back to the bottom of her party's food chain as well.

It turned out that Gingrich's ship sank soon after. If she hadn't quit, Molinari would today be a 12-year incumbent and the most powerful woman in the House. Instead, she's a lobbyist in Washington, greasing the chains of government for clients in the fields of energy, telecommunications, transportation, and finance. She also chairs a not-for-profit fighting underage drinking and drunk driving, funded by the booze industry. Molinari could not be reached for comment.

Borough Politics Archive

2002
January 6 column.

2002
December 30 column.
December 23 column.
December 16 column.
December 9 column.
December 2 column.
Novemer 25 column.
Novemer 18 column.
November 11 column.
November 4 column.
October 28 column.
October 21 column.
October 14 column.
October 7 column.
September 30 column.
September 23 column.
September 16 column.
September 9 column.
September 2 column.
August 26 column.
August 19 column.
August 12 column.
August 5 column.
July 29 column.
July 22 column.
July 8 column.
July 1 column.
June 17 column.
June 10 column.
June 3 column.
May 27 column.
May 20 column.
May 13 column.
May 6 column.
April 29 column.
April 22 column.
April 15 column.
April 8 column.
April 1 column.
March 25 column.
March 18 column.
March 11 column.
March 4 column.
February 25 column.
February 18 column.
February 11 column.
February 4 column.
January 28 column.
January 21 column.
January 7 column.

2001
December 10 column.
December 3 column.
November 19 column.
November 12 column.
November 5 column.
October 22 column.
October 1 column.
September 6 column.
September 4 column.
August 30 column.
July 23 column.
July 2 column.
June 25 column.
June 11 column.
May 28 column.
May 21 column.
May 14 column.
May 7 column.
April 30 column.
April 23 column.
April 9 column.
April 2 column.
March 26 column.
March 19 column.
March 12 column.
March 5 column.
February 26 column.
February 19 column.
February 12 column.
February 5 column.
January 29 column.
January 22 column.
January 15 column.
January 8 column.
January 1 column.

2000
December 25 column.
December 18 column.
December 11 column.
December 4 column.
November 27 column.
November 20 column.
November 13 column.
November 6 column.
October 30 column.
October 23 column.
October 16 column.
October 9 column.
October 2 column.
September 25 column.
September 18 column.
September 11 column.
September 4 column.
August 28 column.
August 21 column.
August 7 column.
July 31 column.
July 24 column.
July 17 column.
July 10 column.
June 26 column.
June 19 column.
June 12 column.
May 15 column.
May 8 column.
April 24 column.
April 10 column.
March 13 column.
March 7 column.
February 21 column.
February 14 column.
February 7 column.
January 31 column.
January 24 column.
January 17 column.

1999
December 16 column.
December 9 column.
December 2 column.
November 25 column.
November 18 column.
November 11 column.
November 4 column.