Thursday Links
City to Battle Mortgage Fraud With Computer Alert [NY Times] Cuomo’s Budget Whittles at All Corners of the State [NY Times] Smoking Ban for Beaches and Parks Is Approved [NY Times] Bloomberg Seeks a Sweeping Overhaul of City’s Pensions [NY Times] Foreclosed Homeowners Go to Court on Their Own [NY Times] Victims’ Families Ask BP…
City to Battle Mortgage Fraud With Computer Alert [NY Times]
Cuomo’s Budget Whittles at All Corners of the State [NY Times]
Smoking Ban for Beaches and Parks Is Approved [NY Times]
Bloomberg Seeks a Sweeping Overhaul of City’s Pensions [NY Times]
Foreclosed Homeowners Go to Court on Their Own [NY Times]
Victims’ Families Ask BP to Get Serious About Street Safety [Streetsblog]
Condos, Co-ops To Be Excluded From New “Flip Tax” Rules [NY1]
Vids From CB Meeting About Construction On Monitor & Nassau [NYS]
City to Cook Up a Food Hotspot in a Low-Income Neighborhood [Daily News]
Dangerous Levels of PCBs found in PS 13 in East New York [Daily News]
So Far, a Tough 2011 for Slope Businesses [PS Patch]
Bed-Stuy’s Guinness World Record Holder [BS Patch]
Boerum Hill Traffic Task Force Moves Forward [CG Patch]
Before The Ice, There Was Snowboarding [Gothamist]
In Greenpoint, City is Acting ‘Stoop’-id [BK Paper]
27 Arrested in Mac-Buying Ring [Metro]
Some Things Never Change [Lost City]
Perv at 7th Ave Station [FIPS]
Flashback, 2003 [AY Report]
Photo by ekonon from the Brownstoner Flickr Pool.
I think a lot of the comments re city benefits are misinformed.
Re the general city employees (not uniform, not teachers), it is no longer true for new employees that city jobs have better vacation/sick leave/holiday benefits than private sector. In every benefit for new employees, the private sector has better benefits. Every contract raise comes with decreased benefits for new employees. And the cost of medical insurance is higher than many private employers that I know of. The city does not match 401K contributions nor does it fund a money purchase plan. The only area I see that public exceeds private is in job security and the fact that there is a defined benefit pension.
Pension reform is nothing new. The city has gradually been decreasing benefits and increasing contribution percentage for years. I agree that reform is needed but that should not mean eliminating the defined benefit pension so that city employees are in as bad shape as private.
Funny, the second I saw the NYC article about pensions, I had a hunch that the very first post would be from DIBS criticizing unions, city workers, etc. Alas, I was not disappointed…
I’d be happy to roll public pensions back to where they were 10-15 years ago.
Still more generous than private sector, but not as rich as they are now.
Ignoring pensions, the majority of public sector jobs have much higher job security than private sector, as well as better vacation/sick leave/holiday schedules.
DIBS – be careful what you wish for. If you argue that public sector pensions be in line with the private sector then doesn’t it naturally follow that public sector salaries be in line with the private sector as well? The argument for the monster public sector pensions has always been that the these people are underpaid from a pure salary perspective and the pensions make up for it. I agree that these pensions are not sustainable and a are a huge burden on the public and there needs to be reform in this area. Just pointing out that it’s not going to be a huge win since a reduction in pensions will need to be tied to an increase in salary.
I see pensions as being a huge weight that will drag down state and local governments for the next decade.
While for the most part the sins of the past cannot be undone, it is clearly time to bring pensions back to a reasonable place.
It’s about time Bloomberg started to crack down on the municipal pensions. They should be in line with the provate sector and adhere to the “rule of 80.” And padding the last year with OT has got to go.
I’m glad this is starting to catch on around the country.