The DestiNY Mess
Wow, I went away for the weekend and I missed all the fun. Just a few comments on the DestiNY mess.
1) SIDA (and its little brother SEDCO) are the local equivalents of the NYS authorities that are bankrupting the state. These quasi-governmental agencies not only enable assholes like Driscoll in their end-runs around elected government, these agencies control millions of dollars and legally obligate taxpayers to economic development deals that have little to no public scrutiny.
In March 2004 SUN fought for and Stephanie Miner successfully proposed legislation giving the Council oversight over all economic development loans made under the federal government's HUD 108 loan program. In the past, the mayor and SIDA would use this program for crazy schemes. The failed businesses that were funded succeeded only in creating debt for city taxpayers--not the promised jobs and tax revenue.
2) Vito Sciscioli as Colin Powell Sean Kirst came up with the perfect description of this situation. Vito is intelligent, thoughtful and exceedingly personable. Unfortunately, Vito's high octane mix of talents are used in service to the plans of workaday politicians like Driscoll and Bernardi--people who are only there to do the bidding of the power structure. Like a good soldier, Vito does his duty, regardless of right and wrong.
3) I like Vito's pithy Hamilton beats up Jefferson Day quote. However, I would suggest that the genius of the American system of government is the balancing of often contradictory impulses. No one form should be given exclusive control. In Syracuse, when Lee Alexander was finally outed as a serial thief, the city eliminated the undemocratic Board of Estimate and supposedly vested all final votes on city financial matters in the hands of the Common Council. This SIDA loophole must be closed. The Council controls the purse, the Mayor administers the bureaucracy.
4) The city is facing an amazing array of problems: a city that grows older and poorer every day, deteriorating housing stock, a school system that doesn't educate a large number of its students, energy costs that are increasingly unaffordable. The list goes on and on. DestiNy will not do a single thing to deal with these problems and city officials will be spending most of their time and energy on the ramifications of this past week. All over a freakin' mall?
1) SIDA (and its little brother SEDCO) are the local equivalents of the NYS authorities that are bankrupting the state. These quasi-governmental agencies not only enable assholes like Driscoll in their end-runs around elected government, these agencies control millions of dollars and legally obligate taxpayers to economic development deals that have little to no public scrutiny.
In March 2004 SUN fought for and Stephanie Miner successfully proposed legislation giving the Council oversight over all economic development loans made under the federal government's HUD 108 loan program. In the past, the mayor and SIDA would use this program for crazy schemes. The failed businesses that were funded succeeded only in creating debt for city taxpayers--not the promised jobs and tax revenue.
2) Vito Sciscioli as Colin Powell Sean Kirst came up with the perfect description of this situation. Vito is intelligent, thoughtful and exceedingly personable. Unfortunately, Vito's high octane mix of talents are used in service to the plans of workaday politicians like Driscoll and Bernardi--people who are only there to do the bidding of the power structure. Like a good soldier, Vito does his duty, regardless of right and wrong.
3) I like Vito's pithy Hamilton beats up Jefferson Day quote. However, I would suggest that the genius of the American system of government is the balancing of often contradictory impulses. No one form should be given exclusive control. In Syracuse, when Lee Alexander was finally outed as a serial thief, the city eliminated the undemocratic Board of Estimate and supposedly vested all final votes on city financial matters in the hands of the Common Council. This SIDA loophole must be closed. The Council controls the purse, the Mayor administers the bureaucracy.
4) The city is facing an amazing array of problems: a city that grows older and poorer every day, deteriorating housing stock, a school system that doesn't educate a large number of its students, energy costs that are increasingly unaffordable. The list goes on and on. DestiNy will not do a single thing to deal with these problems and city officials will be spending most of their time and energy on the ramifications of this past week. All over a freakin' mall?
