The Blog Party

there was an article on the news about municipal wi-fi in Alexandria, Virginia. Looking it up on the internet (duh!) I came across this article in Forbes that has a pretty good overview of some municipal wi-fi initiatives from Orlando (didn’t work) to Philadelphia (successful).

The big telecom lobbies are trying to kill it, but I think municipal wi-fi is coming sooner rather than later in lots of places. And as municipal wi-fi becomes an accepted notion so will municipal residential broadband. Eventually I think we will see either subsidized low-cost computers (something I’ve advocated for throughout this campaign) or even city government terminals in each house, like an e-mailbox. The residential terminal will serve as your gateway to city services and politics. You will be able to check it in the morning to see what important issues are going on in the neighborhood, when community board meetings are scheduled, whatever you need to know. That would be really cool and helpful. Then we’d be making some serious progress towards actual citizen involvement.

Sounds like an 80’s band name or a sitcom. But really it is an article in the Daily News about how gifford miller has accepted donations from some of the city’s worst landlords.

I’m hoping to do some campaigning this weekend, though to be honest, at this point, I’m feeling pretty dispirited about the campaign. Its really very difficult to campaign and hold down a steady job at the same time. Soon I’m going to go through the blog and write up a synopsis of some of the major issues and ideas that have come up through the course of the campaign.

I think, ultimately, the biggest and most important challenge is to create more meaningful and effective ways for people to have a voice in government. I’m not sure how that would be done. I think government has to make more of an effort to be transparent. And I think simplifying the structure of city government would be a significant step in the right direction. I also think - like Andrew Rasiej says - we should look at building networks of citizen advocates.

Most people complain and do nothing until it is their own ass on the line. Other people complain and try to take action but get discouraged. That’s understandable - without money or connections it is very, very difficult to make a change or feel like you’re being heard by the government. And I think that the next mayor, the next public advocate and all the other politicians that are going to be elected should work against their own perceived best interests for once. Listen to the people. Look at the structure of government. Create more access.

We live in the 21st Century, in a decentralized Information Age. We need to restructure our government to adapt to that.

There’s an article in the Voice by Jarrett Murphy about third party and outsider candidates running for mayor. I’m in it, briefly. (my name is misspelled, btw). But it’s a pretty interesting article.

“Burdensome obstacles to candidates seeking to get on the ballot present a significant challenge to a healthy democracy,” stated Doug Israel, Policy and Advocacy Director of Citizens Union, a century-old good government organization. “Party machines have repeatedly used the petition signature challenge to erect such an obstacle to challengers to their candidates. It is time we took a closer look at how to reform this process.”

This is an excerpt from a press release by Gur Tsabar’s campaign about by an organization called CoDA (Coalition for a District Alternative) that has challenged the signatures of six City Council hopefuls.

Norm Seigel takes it to television. $8000 for five spots on NY1. That’s not that expensive. It’s not $9.9 million, but… speaking of $9.9 million…even with the ability to outspend pretty much anybody on the planet, Bloomberg is contesting Ognibene’s 8,116 signatures which will put a stop to a Republican primary.

“The race for City Hall is quickly becoming a race for second place - both in the general mayoral election and in the Democratic primary, a new poll shows.”

The NY Daily News has an article on current poll numbers. It’s not surprising. Most disappointing is that Ferrer is in the lead amongst the Democrats! He just doesn’t seem very compelling, I find it hard to understand where his support is coming from. Well, I mean, I thinkI understand, but still.

Will try and get out and campaign more this week, but a summer cold seems to have set in and I’ve been coughing as if I were tubercular. Ugh.

Looking back at the campaign so far it has been very educational. The issue of individual accessibility is still important. It’s not that the big ticket issues - affordable housing, education, security, development - are not being addressed by the other, mainstream candidates. It is that the game of “politics-as-usual” is so fundamentally flawed that it is difficult for them to speak about anything substantively.

Over the course of the campaign I have talked to many regular New Yorkers, I have been to Community Board meetings and debates by prospective City Council member, I have been to the offices of city government, I have met politicians and activists and people all over the spectrum.

Yeah, I’ve had some fun and goofs along the way, but I’ve been looking at NYC government pretty seriously, for a novice.

Realistically, to run for any kind of office in NYC you have to be able to afford to quit your day job and pursue it full time. And you either need to have grown up in NYC and have a lot of friends in your neighborhood or you have to have enough money to hire a staff. You have to have a campaign manager, lawyers, accountants and more.

Like any other business venture it requires capital and a sound business plan.

Which is understandable. And on some level, I suppose, it is good to have professional politicians. Just like you wouldn’t want an amateur dentist to work on your teeth you might not want an amateur politician running a city of millions.

That being said, we are supposed to live in a country where government is by, for and of the people. We’re supposed to live in a country where individuals are a part of government, where anybody can have a voice. This is supposed to be a democracy. And I’m not saying anything new when I say that our government is run by the wealthy and corporations. Despite the efforts of countless good-hearted citizens who work in and for the the government, the real positions of power all too often can be attained only by those of wealth and privilege and with corporate backing.

I think that’s a problem.

The Daily News chimes in with a signature count:

“It only takes 7,500 signatures to land on the mayoral ballot, but Democratic hopefuls were out to make splashes with overkill yesterday, led by Gifford Miller’s 158,000-name petition….Next up was Democratic front-runner Fernando Ferrer, whose campaign said it gathered 100,000 signatures. Virginia Fields’ aides said they collected 60,000, and Rep. Anthony Weiner’s campaign said it snared 40,000.”

Well, the fact that Weiner, who is a congressman and presumably has pretty significant resources and clout only gather 40K makes me feel a little better, I guess. But what really made me feel better was that Tom Ognibene only garnered 7,800 signatures.

I think after this is all over I’m going to write the “Independent Candidate’s Guide to Running for Mayor.” I’m admittedly not doing this very well, but I’m learning a lot.

And the fact of the matter is that signifcant reform is still needed in the political process. I was at a Community Board meeting the other day and I saw how things go down on the local level and let me tell you, it ain’t pretty.

Everywhere I go people say that they feel shut out of the process, but they are very rarely motivated to do anything about it. I think, if we want to really increase civic particpation, then we have to build the mechanisms to do it. (ahem. did somebody say INTERNET?) Though it wouldn’t hurt to reform the schools and re-prioritize civics classes as part of the core curriculum.

I’m headed down to the Campaign Finance Board to deal with some paperwork. Which is a little bit daunting.

I’m also confused. One statement in the “Candidate Verification” form says, “I hereby verifiy that…I have not used, and I will not use, my personal funds or property…for these elections”… hmmm…