In The End, All Anyone Really Wants Or Needs Is A Paycheck

It’s like old-timey-time patronage, just that fewer people get to benefit (“more for fewer” has been kind of a theme in America in recent years):

Even as he warns that the city may have to lay off thousands of workers, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has found city jobs for 15 members of his re-election campaign, many of whom are earning six-figure salaries, records and interviews show.

The hirings suggest that while Mr. Bloomberg is calling for a leaner government that reflects the economic downturn, he is finding money in the budget for those who engineered his unexpectedly close re-election.

In addition, seven city employees who left their jobs to work on the campaign have returned, in many cases at higher salaries. Together, the appointments cost taxpayers more than $2 million in government wages.

Then there’s this:

A person close to the mayor said Mr. Wolfson would play “a key role in developing policies and lead in selling them.” He is likely to focus on promoting national issues like gun control and immigration reform, a priority for Mr. Bloomberg.

Mr. Bloomberg has talked to aides about hiring Mr. Wolfson since shortly after the election. He formally offered him the job in the last few weeks, aides said.

“It’s one of the biggest stages in the world,” said a strategist close to the mayor. “He can shape the agenda and get the message across in a way that possibly nobody else in the country can.”

There’s still a big nasty pothole on my street you know . . . will Wolfson advocate for that?

This Trashcan Sponsored By Former Council Member Michael E. McMahon Using A Strange System Of Discretionary Spending That For All Intents And Purposes Looks Like A Huge Slush Fund

In case you were somehow unclear about why these guys put their names on garbage cans:

Former Councilman Michael McMahon (D-SI) spent $24,000 in city funds on 46 bright green bins bearing his name in July 2008, while he was a member of the council and a front-runner to fill an open seat in Congress.

But after he won the congressional election that November, the then-outgoing city lawmaker had the Sanitation Department revise labels on the baskets to read, “Sponsored By Former Council Member Michael E. McMahon.”

See also: Unanswered Questions: City Council’s Phantom Funds (Gotham Gazette, April 14, 2008).

On The Unintended Consequences Of Sumptuary Laws

The state’s real message behind the soda tax? Save money, drink beer:

“A six-pack of soda is going to cost you approximately $4.99” if the penny-an-ounce tax goes through, [New Yorkers Against Unfair Taxes chairman Nelson] Eusebio said, “where you can pick up beer from $2.99 to $3.99.”

That’s What We Were Hoping For From A Third Term!

Bloomberg goes to bat for the fashion industry to the detriment of the homeless:

New York City officials destroyed tons of new, unworn clothing and footwear last year that had been seized in raids on counterfeit label operations, abandoning a practice of giving knockoff garments to groups that help the needy.

. . .

Another government agency that confiscates large volumes of pirated clothing, United States Customs and Border Protection, donated $78 million in such goods last year. The donations are made only with the consent of the trademark holder, and are limited to essentials like clothing and shoes; they do not include fake Rolex watches or Gucci handbags.

In Los Angeles, shoes that would otherwise have been destroyed were given to Samaritan’s Feet, said John Saleh, a spokesman for the customs agency. Other ports that have participated are Detroit, El Paso and San Francisco. In New York, customs officials recently began working with World Vision.

“Usually the holder of the intellectual property rights allows us to do it,” Mr. Saleh said. If the trademarks can be removed, the goods are given to organizations near the ports, Mr. Saleh said. If they can’t be, they are shipped abroad.

Until recently, New York had a similar policy. In 2006, Mr. Bloomberg announced that the city would send shipments of knockoffs to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. In that case, said Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor, the city had the assistance of World Vision in sorting through the materials, a daunting task — but one that World Vision and the clothing bank say they still do.

Many major fashion brands have their headquarters in New York City, and Mr. Bloomberg has made prosecution of trademark infringement a priority for his administration. The companies also take actions in civil court against the pirates, an expensive process, to protect the designers’ names.

“These are people who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of them millions, to get counterfeit goods off the street,” said Robert Tucker, a lawyer with the firm of Tucker and Lafiti, whose fashion clients include Chrome Hearts, Steve Madden, Zac Posen and Ed Hardy. “Everyone wants to feed and clothe the homeless. But how are you going to spend all this money and then put it back on the street?”

Now This Is What We Were Waiting For From A Third Term!

Another campaign against another food additive . . . and the Campbell Soup Company weeps big, salty tears as they shake in their boots, hoping against hope that Supernanny Bloomberg finds another blighted neighborhood or some great new gadget to focus his attention on instead:

On Monday, the Bloomberg administration plans to unveil a broad new health initiative aimed at encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains across the country to curtail the amount of salt in their products.

The plan, for which the city claims support from health agencies in other cities and states, sets a goal of reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant food by 25 percent over the next five years.

The BATC Editorial Board weighs in:

• First thought, Wow, it’s pretty ballsy for a city government agency to attempt to change the food industry. Second thought, This might work, but… Third thought, Hey, wait, why is a city government agency doing this? Don’t they have something better to do with their money and time?
• The Health Dept. is really cheesing me off now. Just glory hogs using the agency as a stepping stone. I buy that transfats are bad, but salt is not universally bad for you, and it’s a lame slippery slope to other goofy shit, like smoked/charred foods (possible cancer link), or whatever else. Fewer glossy ad campaigns, more stuff like vaccines.
• But maybe they don’t have something better to do…? Salt is a big issue in the American diet, that’s not in doubt, the question is just what to do about it and who should lead the change. Even if pressuring the food industry to change its ways — a la the transfat issue — is the way to make us healthier, I think it’s still something I’d feel better about seeing come down from the Surgeon General (beats talking about masturbation, anyway) than Bloomy.
• I’m guessing they do have a lot of better stuff to do, including vaccines, probably HIV/STD campaigns & education, probably putting money into their low-income clinics. I just really, really mistrust glossy media-whoring campaigns like this.
• There’s good point about whether this is more appropriate for a federal agency — right now, most of the places that have taken on trans fats (and who knows who will jump on the salt bandwagon) are cities and counties on the coasts . . . not places with a vested interest in making those salty, trans-fatty foods.
• Yeah, I’m not always against half steps, but I don’t think tweaking the ingredients in processed foods is going to do all that much good for public health. Processed foods represent a host of problems for people who overconsume them. Cutting transfat isn’t cutting the actual fat in the diets of people chugging Oreos, and cutting salt in canned soup isn’t going to do much for hypertension either.
• The food industry muzzles the truth, which is that there just aren’t many processed products that come with a shelf life that are actually healthy for you. It might be worse for the average American to get the idea (we call it a “health halo” around here) that now that x, y, and z REALLY BAD ingredients are out, now that box of fatty o’s is totally fine to eat at will.
Posted: January 11th, 2010 | Filed under: Feed, Follow The Money, Things That Make You Go "Oy"

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