2015 was not an easy year to get through in many ways. A lot of troubling signs have appeared on the landscape: Continuing injustice toward people of color in the form of extra-judicial police killings of unarmed civilians, increasing wealth inequality, the Puerto Rico Debt Crisis, the continued threat of gentrification, out of control gun […]
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Just before Thanksgiving this year my four-part investigative series about whether or not Rikers Island prison complex could be saved by reforms or should be closed and replaced by small community justice centers was cross-published by City and State and City Limits. The series covers the cases made for both reform and closure, the history of […]
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Charles Rangel and El Nuevo New York Politics
“Hablemos dos puertorriqueños aquí apoyando a Charlie Rangel,” said Luis Gutiérrez, standing with fellow US Representative José Serrano as they entered a press conference to announce their support for the ageless Rangel, who is facing a serious challenge to his Congressional seat in an upcoming June 24 Democratic Primary. The symbolism was palpable: two Puerto […]
Read more“It’s Politics, That’s Life”
From the New York Daily News this morning, a quote from City Councilwoman Rosie Méndez, who made the mistake of being too late to support the candidacy of the new City Council Speaker and was not rewarded with a plum committee assignment and lulu. “It’s politics,” said Méndez. “That’s life.” I imagine this is true but it […]
Read moreOur Long National Nightmare Is Over
My fellow Boricuas, our long national nightmare is over. No longer do we have to be inundated by daily tidal waves of tales of Chickengate, Low to Moderate Income Townhouse-gate, Casabe Houses-gate, even Jewish Nursing Home on the Upper West Side Rezoning-gate. No longer do we have to live without ever having seen a Latin@ […]
Read more¡Brujería!
The worst thing about today’s stories in the Daily News and the Unmentionable Murdoch Propaganda Tabloid (I refuse to link to it, so find it for yourself) about “El Barrio Chickengate,” besides the fact that they are at times sloppily written and racist, is that they are in danger of giving thoughtful criticism of the probable […]
Read moreCity Council Speaker: The Rules of the Game
The recent rumblings over Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s choice for City Council Speaker, District 8 Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, have unearthed some of the gnarly underbelly of East Harlem political strife, and raised difficult questions about progressive politics. De Blasio’s involvement in “pushing” Mark-Viverito’s candidacy is being questioned because it apparently doesn’t have a recent precedent. […]
Read moreBill de Blasio: Hope on Hold
Bill de Blasio’s victory in the mayoral election tonight may seem like a triumph of progressivism and a rejection of outgoing Mayor Bloomberg’s Wall Street agenda, but it is clearly an accident, and it remains to be seen what lies in New York’s future. It’s got to be more than a big red sign that […]
Read moreNY Times De Blasio Piece: Fair and Balanced
This morning the Times has a prominent feature on mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio that amounts to a classic piece of red-baiting. The issues raised in the article have next to nothing to do with the mayoral race, and features much of the same kind of jaundiced bias toward leftist activists that have appeared in the mainstream […]
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City Council Forum: Rumble Uptown
For some reason the New York Daily News mobile app went with this story about last night’s City Council forum on affordable housing, sponsored by East Harlem Preservation and JustPublics@365, as its lead this morning. The headline, “Ugly Council Debate Paints Melissa Mark-Viverito as a Gentrifier” seems designed to stir up some shock-value interest on another sleepy summer […]
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ED MORALES 