Salacious GOPer Divorce: Spawn of Satan, Richard Mellon Scaife Gets Some Karma

Wow. This was buried in the Style section of the Washington post. 5 pages of delicious schadenfreude that couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. This guy is the poster child for why we need a robust estate tax in this country. He has over a billion dollars that he never did a thing to earn, and which he uses to oil the GOP propaganda machine. Here's a taste:

Remember him? The cantankerous, reclusive 75-year-old billionaire who's spent a
sizable chunk of his inherited fortune bankrolling conservative causes and
trying to kneecap Democrats? He's best known for funding efforts to smear
then-President Bill Clinton, but more quietly he's given in excess of $300
million to right-leaning activists, watchdogs and think tanks. Atop his list of
favorite donees: the family-values-focused Heritage Foundation, which has published papers with titles such
as "Restoring a Culture of Marriage."
The culture of his own marriage is
apparently past restoring. With the legal fight still in the weigh-in phase, the
story of Scaife v. Scaife already includes a dog-snatching, an assault, a night
in jail and that divorce court perennial, allegations of adultery.

snip

Now we know that Scaife is beneficiary of nine different trusts, including
one called the "1935 Trust," with an approximate value of $210 million, and
another called "The Revocable Trust," valued at $655 million. Altogether, these
gushers are worth about $1.4 billion.

snip

We learned, too, that the Tribune-Review has been a gurgling sinkhole from
Day One; Scaife's lawyers say their client has pumped as much as $312 million
into it over the years. And he's going to have to keep on pumping. The
Tribune-Review's CEO has predicted an annual shortfall of $20 million for years
to come.

New York Times Editorial: Yes to Residential Parking Permits, Taxi Stands; No to Parking Permits for City Employees

Worth reprinting in its entirety, from the New York Times (emphasis added). First on my list wold be eliminating placards for City employees.

October 22, 2007
Editorial
Mr. Mayor, for Your Consideration
There’s a little dance that visitors and even many longtime New Yorkers do on emerging from the subway. A step forward, two back, one to the side, a glance up the street, then down — until, with any luck, bearings are found. So imagine the simple genius of the city’s latest innovation, directional decals on the sidewalks outside subway exits.
We applaud Mayor Michael Bloomberg for acting on the idea, which was offered by a Times reader last year. Mr. Bloomberg has shown that he’s not afraid to try what works, something he demonstrated again recently with his bold congestion pricing proposal, which would charge a weekday toll to most drivers on Manhattan’s busiest streets. While that complex issue is being hammered out by an appointed commission, we’d like the mayor to consider a few other easy, common-sense changes to bring order to the streets of the Apple:
Taxi stands. Anyone who has tried to get a taxi in New York in the rain, particularly at rush hour, knows that the system is broken. Hailers maneuver along the street, and to alternate corners, to get an edge over other taxi-seekers who have been waiting longer. Taxis waste gasoline, and needlessly spew out fumes, as they cruise for fares. Taxi stands, which work just fine in Paris, could be strategically placed around New York. People and cabs would line up. It would be civilized.
Residential parking permits, for a fee. Relatively few New Yorkers take on the expense and hassles of owning a car in the city — which is good, since it encourages the use of public transit. But there are still plenty of drivers, including many from out of town, who take advantage of the city’s generosity and park on the streets free. The city could get more cars off the street and raise badly needed money for mass-transit improvements if it set aside spots for residents for an annual fee. The mayor has not ruled out residential permits as part of a congestion pricing plan. But as cities from Berkeley, Calif., to Chicago and Baltimore have demonstrated, the idea works on its own.
Take away parking permits from city employees. Those vehicles that cavalierly park in front of hydrants or bus stops all too often do so with the impunity that comes with a privileged card placed on the dashboard. Virtually every city agency issues these permits, and there is no reliable count of how many are floating around. But they number in the thousands, including a lot of counterfeits. It’s time to end the free parking. This is New York, not Monopoly.

The Bush Economy

Thanks to The Big Picture.

Victory!

Screamed myself hoarse at the Rutgers game last night. The record-setting crowd stormed the field in celebration after a nailbiter 30-27 victory over #2 South Florida. Rutgers had -3 turnovers, which hurt; but any team with the stones to pull off a faked punt AND a faked field goal in the same game deserves to win. It was electric.

After the game, the crowd was well behaved, but traffic was a nightmare. The bus system struggled with the sheer volume of red-clad people in the streets. Rutgers will have to rethink some of the logistics that come from having a ranked football program (which we only dreamed of when I was an undergrad). One thought would be to offer shuttle buses to and from the Edison NJ Transit rail station on game days.

More good news though: The College Avenue campus is set to undergo a major rebuilding, including the elimination of two large surface parking lots (replaced with a Quad) and elimination of traffic on College Avenue (replaced with Bus Rapid Transit). After a design competition, Enrique Norton's Ten Arquitectos won the bid to reshape College Avenue as a more pedestrian friendly environment. Here's a rendering of their vision for College Ave. Here's another.

Work could start as early as next Spring.

Photos from last night are available here, here, and here (thanks Juan):

Redevelopment in Harrison, NJ: A Step In The Right Direction

Via Curbed, a terrific redevelopment project has finally broken ground in Harrison, NJ. One of the earliest industrial suburbs, Harrison suffered from years of blight and large swaths of desolate, weeded brownfields.

But Harrison has tremendous assets: an underutilized PATH station, a two minute ride to Newark's Penn Station, and convenient access to both NYC and the educational/cultural institutions of Newark (don't laugh . . . Newark has a lot to offer).

While the project also contains a large parking component, it is a boon to transit friendly development. New Jersey (my birthplace) needs more of this.

Visit Curbed for the details.

What Might Have Been: Brooklyn - Staten Island Subway

My neighbor worked for the MTA for many years and told me that long ago, the predecessor to the MTA began a subway under the Narrows to Staten Island. Fascinating stuff.

I forgot about it for a while but then came across the part in The Power Broker detailing the many failures of city works under Tammany in the 1920's and there it was. The Narrows Tube,

The Google turned up some interesting history:

The trans-narrows tube would have shot people and cargo across the Narrows
from St. George to Bay Ridge. The proposed two-mile tunnel section, which alone
would cost about $27 million, would have been the longest underwater tunnel in
the world when completed in 1929. But years passed and the tunnel project sat on
the city planners' shelves neglected. Work would halt a year later and petitioning would begin again. The incomplete construction of 1923 would turn out to be the closest Islanders have ever come to getting a rail connection to the rest of the city. (From the Staten Island Advance)

The NYC Roads page for the Verrazano Bridge has a history of the bridge that includes a history of the still-born tunnel from Brooklyn to Staten Island.

Saving the best for last, the NYC Subways page for the 4th Avenue line
details how the R train would have been extended out to Staten Island:

The original Dual Contracts plan provided for a tunnel under the Narrows from southern Brooklyn/Bay Ridge to Staten Island. The tunnel was intended to
leave the 4th Avenue subway at 65th St, Brooklyn, and would have entered
Staten Island midway between St. George and Stapleton, and would have had
branches to each. The 4th Avenue subway has four tracks between 59th and
65th Streets, two of which were intended for the Staten Island connection.
The Staten Island link might have been built in several different ways.
It is likely that a full 4-track subway to Fort Hamilton would only have
made sense if it led to a Narrows tunnel. A different plan, which got as far
as engineering drawings and even some excavation, would have left the subway
just south of 59th St, and you can see tunnel stub headings running straight
from the local tracks immediately south of the station. Several different
plans were drawn up for the Narrows tunnel, including a two track and a four
track option.
Recent discussions of a railroad freight tunnel across New York Harbor from New Jersey via Staten Island may once again bring about discussion of connecting the subway to Staten Island. It is likely that any tunnel built would be designed to tie into the LIRR's Bay Ridge Branch across southern Brooklyn to East New York, Fresh Pond, and via the New York Connecting Railroad to the Hell Gate Bridge.

Put this down on my wish list for transit projects. If anyone knows about traces of these tunnels that can still be seen/explored, please let me know.

Jay Rockefeller Sells Out to AT&T, Verizon

Glenn Greenwald has the gory details, but Jay Rockefeller, who has taken money hand over fist from telecom interests, has rewarded his bribers by writing immunity from prosecution into the Senate spying bill.

Just think about what is really happening here. AT&T's customers sued
them for violating their privacy in violation of long-standing federal laws and
for violating their Fourth Amendment rights. Even with the most expensive armies
of lawyers possible, AT&T and other telecoms are losing in a court of law.
The federal judge presiding over the case ruled against them -- ruled that the
law is so clear they could not possibly have believed that what they did was
legal -- and most observers, having heard the Oral Argument on appeal, predicted that they will lose in the Court of Appeals, too.
So AT&T and other telecoms went to Washington and -- led by Bush 41
Attorney General (and now Verizon General Counsel) William Barr, and in
cooperation with their former colleague, Mike McConnell -- began
paying former government officials such as Dan Coats and Jamie Gorelick to
convince political officials to whom they
give money, such as Jay Rockefeller, to pass a law declaring them the
victors in these lawsuits and be relieved of all liability -- all based on
assertions that a court of law has already rejected. They are literally buying a
judicial victory in Congress -- just like Carothers warned that third-world
countries must avoid if they want to become functioning democracies under the
"rule of law" ("Above all, government officials must refrain from interfering
with judicial decision-making").

Chris Dodd, who has admirably been railing against immunity, has pledged to do what he can to stop the bill. Dodd has the ability to place a hold on the bill, blocking amnesty. Let him know he has your support.