Ross Sandler

Ed Koch celebrated his 88th birthday at a party/reunion held at Gracie Mansion on December 12, 2012. He is, as he says, still relevant. Ed Koch broadcasts his current opinions in regular blogs, movie reviews, political broadsides and letters. But if you really want to know Ed Koch, read his first two books, Mayor and Politics. Koch wrote Mayor shortly after losing his 1982 run for Governor against Mario Cuomo. Politics followed one year later. The two books present New York City politics with unforgettable characters, raw and revealing stories of politicians entertainingly told, and an insider’s view of a city experiencing a decline in population, a rise in crime, a city budget in crisis and a political establishment still expecting to whack up the municipal pie. Koch reveled in detailing these demands and, of course, his dominance over them.

(more…)

Ross Sandler

Every four hours around the clock, beginning Tuesday, October 30, 2012, workers from every part of Consolidated Edison’s territory reported to senior management on the status, needs and plans to restore service to Con Edison customers. The reports came in to Con Edison’s Emergency Response Center set up in the nineteenth floor auditorium at Con Edison’s headquarters at 4 Irving Place.

The first reports were sketchy assessments: what was happening and where. As the storm receded, the terrible numbers started to come in. Midland Beach in Staten Island and Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn were devastated. A storm surge knocked out the East River steam plant, caused an explosion at Manhattan’s 13th Street transmission station, and flooded office towers on Water Street. Trees downed wires all over Westchester County, blocking roads and preventing crews from getting through. Brighton Beach was flooded. Con Edison’s Manhattan workout locations were under water, but Con Edison’s vehicles were safe; Con Edison had removed them to the high ground of Union Square 24 hours before the storm hit.

There was steady, intense professionalism in the Emergency Response Center as the reports kept arriving. A Con Edison worker returning home from a twelve hour shift was robbed at gun point. A mutual aid crew working on a 13,000 volt overhead line failed to follow safety rules; they were sent home to North Carolina. Site safety became a concern, so Con Edison sent trained office workers to downed wire sites in the field. A gasoline shortage threatened to prevent workers from getting to work sites; tankers of gasoline were ordered. A work camp sleeping mutual aid crews was set up at Citi Field in Queens. A hush came over the Response Center when a dog was reported to have been electrocuted by a downed wire.

Eleven days after the storm, the video display in the Response Center charted a constant increase in restorations of power. Con Edison crews had restored electricity to 1,012,316 of the 1,054,972 customers blacked out by Sandy and the following Northeaster.

The extraordinary professionalism, preparation and dedication shown by Con Edison’s executives and by the 14,000 workers in the field were reflected in the successful restoration work. Later there will be investigations and reviews of performance as there should be. In the meantime, as this is written, the hard, house-by-house restoration work continues in the field.

Ross Sandler

Ross Sandler

The Consolidated Edison lockout began on July 1, 2012. Despite summer heat and record electric demand, Con Edison’s supervisors and auxiliaries kept the City functioning. Computers operated, elevators carried people up and down, lights stayed on, and offices remained cool. Compared to the impact of the three-day transit strike of 2005, the City functioned without a hitch. Both management and the union deserve credit. Striking is one thing; stopping the flow of electricity, gas and steam to New York City is quite another.

Pension costs were behind the lockout. Pension expenses for Con Edison have risen tenfold. In 2006 pension costs were $76 million; in 2012 pension costs rose to $741 million. Con Edison needed the Utility Workers Union, Local 1-2, to accept a new pension plan for future new hires. Con Edison had already switched its managers to the new pension plan. Given the fierce emotions over pensions, Con Edison had to plan for a strike. The risk for Con Edison was fumbling a sudden handoff from 8,000 regular workers to 5,000 managers and auxiliary workers who would be deployed on short notice.

(more…)

If one were to draw a circle a mile in radius with the hub being Washington Square, and time-traveled back 50 years to 1962, included within the circle would be a low-rent failing commercial district along Lower Broadway; a darkened, empty loft factory area south of Houston Street; a bleak Hudson River waterfront in the shadow of a deteriorating West Side Highway; an industrial meatpacking district dead in the daytime and a slaughterhouse at night; an empty High Line sprouting weeds above and blighting the streets below; and a Union Square so dangerous and empty that it was one of the City’s most notorious needle parks.

New York University chose at that moment to move its Bronx campus to Washington Square, an oasis benefitting from the adjacent Italian community and the glorious housing of the West Village. NYU now calls the area closest to Washington Square its core, and wants to expand by building on land within the superblocks immediately south of the Park. The City should approve that plan.

(more…)

My friend, federal Judge Harold Baer Jr., in a new book recounts seven vignettes illustrating what happens to the rule of law when political forces undermine the independence of the judiciary; Judges Under Fire: Human Rights, Independent Judges, and the Rule of Law (ABA Publishing 2011). His point is that without independent judges citizens lack protection from arbitrary governmental decisions. Independent judges alone can counter the forces of official arrogance and tyranny.

Judge Baer need not belabor his point; he has lived it: ten years as a State Supreme Court Justice and eighteen as a federal district court judge in the Southern District of New York. Literally thousands of litigants and lawyers have appeared before Judge Baer, and can attest to his independence of mind, a formidable judicial presence, and hard work. No judge currently sitting on the state or federal trial bench publishes more written opinions than does Judge Baer.

Not everyone agrees with Judge Baer all the time of course, but that is his point. Of Judge Baer’s seven vignettes, the one with the most impact is Judge Baer’s own experience when, in 1995, he suppressed 34 kilos of cocaine, 2 kilos of heroin, and the videotaped confession of a woman delivering the drugs. This was not a popular opinion, and, to avoid losing the case, the police had to produce substantially more evidence on rehearing than it had produced during the original hearing.

Judge Baer, for more than sixteen years, has supervised the Benjamin decree overseeing prisoner rights at Rikers Island. In this capacity Judge Baer has compelled the City to focus on such matters as fire safety, cleanliness and access to lawyers and law books. I have written elsewhere that some judges handling similar prison cases have been too independent and crossed the line to become partisans, but that too is Judge Baer’s point. Judges are supposed to be an independent force protecting prisoners and others under state control, an argument which he made directly in a law review article criticizing my position. See 52 n.y.l. sch. l. rev. 3 (2007-8).

Judge Baer is now a senior judge, but continues to act with independence. In 2010 Judge Baer helped start a reentry program to help ex-offenders get started and avoid being rearrested after their release from custody.

Ross Sandler