Call me a kill-joy, but who is the City Hall genius who decided to hold a ticker tape parade for the (New Jersey) Giants on primary day?
Traffic and the subways will be loused up all day, starting just a few hours after the polls open.
The tabloids will, no doubt, print a 16-page wraparound on the festivities, relegating Obama, Clinton, McCain and Romney to page 10.
The municipal bean counters at Tweed will be told to make themselves scarce and to ignore the costs of this shindig, money which should be sent to every school district in the city to help offset the draconian budget cuts imposed last week. Or we could send each kid a New Jersey Giants shirt as a consolation prize for having arts and music programs slashed.
Who will do the estimates of lost productivity at City Hall, where the jockeying for photo-ops will begin before dawn?
And once again, we will be reminded, as we were today with the absurd saturation “news” coverage of a mere sporting event, just who is important in this town. It sure ain’t the eight million people who actually live here.
5 Comments:
1 Peter Goodman
· Feb 5, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Jim … prez candidate Bloomberg lifted onto the shoulders of Manning and company versus, nothing! then again Mets and Jets championships didn’t lift Lindsay to the White House … and Lindsay might actually have known what a foorball looks like!
2 xkaydet65
· Feb 5, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Compared to the less than mediocre choice of candidates, a parade for Big Blue to celebrate their achievement is quite appropriate. To complain about this as if it would have any effect on the voting is an example of the fashionably grim outlook of many on the left. And BTW are we going to blame the parade for the 370 point drop on the Dow since it went right through the financial district?
3 phyllis c. murray
· Feb 5, 2008 at 7:42 pm
The unilateral cuts to the budgets of NYC Schools have created havoc as school teams adjust their budgets to compensate for a loss of 1.75 per cent in school funding. This translates into cuts to kids which adds insult to injury. So once again teachers, principals, and parents must make a way out of no way.
Teachers have had to become very creative in their approach to securing the resources they need to become effective in the classroom. In fact the UFT ‘s New York Teacher has provided the information one needs to secure grants to aid teachers in this pursuit. Donor’s Choose is an excellent example of how resourceful teachers can become as they try to secure goods and/or services. Teachers work very hard to enrich the lives of their students because they realize that the schools are often as poor as the neighborhood they serve. Quite often,teachers take out of pocket non reimbursable funds to purchase the materials they need.
One of our teachers spent $1000.00 just to make her special education classroom “ready” for her students. Another teacher remarked that she had spent $60.00 to Xerox materials over the weekend and then wondered how she was going to manage to get to work.
Our teachers have to underwrite the cost of excursions around the city and beyond the city. And even if they receive free tickets for their students, pubic transportation i.e. subway, taxi, buses and even snacks have to be underwritten in the evenings and weekends by teachers. Our students have virtually no cash. Therefore,it is the concerned teacher who covers the cost.
Day by day we can see how the inner city public schools have been pauperized as one hears the cries of overcrowded classrooms, crumbling school buildings, out-of-date libraries, lack of textbooks, low academic standards, student violence, inadequate school safety, and a failure to have highly qualified teachers i.e. one who has fulfilled the state’s certification and licensure requirements in every classroom.
When I think of the parade for the NY Giants in NYC, I must say that James Callaghan is right: “The municipal bean counters at Tweed will be told to make themselves scarce and to ignore the costs of this shindig, money which should be sent to every school district in the city to help offset the draconian budget cuts imposed last week.”
Certainly, it is ok for Tweed to cheer for the Giants. However, is Tweed cheering for children?
Phyllis C. Murray
UFT Chapter Leader
4 NYCRetired
· Feb 5, 2008 at 8:02 pm
You wrote:
> The municipal bean counters at
> Tweed will be told to make
> themselves
> scarce and to ignore the costs of
> this shindig, money which should be
> sent
> to every school district in the
> city to help offset the draconian
> budget
> cuts imposed last week.
> Or we could send each kid a
> New Jersey Giants
Are you sure that the costs were not mostly covered by corporate donations?
5 eumenides
· Feb 5, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Great column, Jim. You’re right. There was only one reason Bloomie held the parade on primary day–to put his mug on TV while the nation was fixated on the primaries. Couldn’t possibly have the parade on Wednesday, could he? As to what it cost the city: In sanitation and police overtime alone, it cost a bundle. Wait until Bill Thompson does the audit. No money for schools! Every agency budget cut! And Bloomie organizes this grotesque jock fest. Most memorable sight: The roll of toilet paper that almost hit Michael Strahan. For this Bloomberg deserves to go to the White House? How about White Castle, instead.