Saturday, December 14, 2002

Updates On Tuesday I wrote about the threat of a transit strike hurling New York City into paralysis, perhaps as soon as Monday. Today the AP has a story about the potential damage to the U.S. economy should the strike occur. (The story is a bit thin, actually.) Meanwhile, a New York State Supreme Court judge yesterday issued a restraining order that stiffens the penalties to be exacted against the union should it walk out in defiance of the state's Taylor Law, which bars strikes by public employees. 36 hours and counting . . . . Henry Kissinger has resigned as head of the commission to investigate the 9/11 attacks -- before the commission has even met. Although Kissinger cited the potential harm to his lucrative consulting practice as the proximate cause of his decision, I don't doubt that some of the other problems I wrote about also weighed a bit on his mind. Let's just say that news of his appointment was not greeted with universal ecstasy, and the Nobel Prize-winning Kissinger, perhaps feeling that he's performed enough public service for one lifetime, decided he didn't need the grief. Many people think former Senator Warren Rudman would be a fine choice as Kissinger's replacement, and I agree. In September I wrote about the Malibu Hotel, the single-room occupancy facility across the street from my apartment building here on W. 103rd Street. This scathing story in the Village Voice documents the scum who run these exploitative operations. Due to neighborhood agitation, the Malibu Hotel was shut down about six weeks ago. I've mixed feelings. Although my block is suddenly free again of vagrancy and squalor, where are the former residents -- all of them HIV+ and otherwise homeless -- living now? Someplace worse? Under Guiliani's neglectful administration, the city's HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) became a scandal, and the city's current budget crisis will only make things worse. This volunteer organization, however, is working on the problem. 6:20:56 PM

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