Election 2009: No Big Surprises in Brooklyn

DitmasSnark — I was wondering if anyone would notice my “devolution” comments.

First, I’m all for a radical change to our healthcare system. It should be universal, highly regulated and reward innovation (both in terms of improved health/quality of life and reduced costs). Those are mutually exclusive thoughts.

Second, I’m not referring to ALL healthcare systems in other countries. We most definitely should be stealing, borrowing and co-opting what works and what fits. It’s the fit issue that I am referring to… Most nations are MUCH smaller, so a *national* solution is much easier to administer. Take Canada — it’s a 1/10 as populous. Where they have issues, generally, is with their size. Rural Canada gets the shafted. But countries like Britain and France are very successful in various social programs because they have a very efficient scale and population density. Central administration is just structurally easier….

But, my point is not the national healthcare debate. My point was exploring the idea of “Devolution” for New York City. Doesn’t it seem a bit much to ask to reform the NYC Department of Education when it involves over 1 million students, 1450 schools, over 80,000 teachers and has an annual budget of $17 BILLION not including debt service??

What if the “City” was broken up into 5 administrative, autonomous units again (or 3 or 4 or whatever makes sense)?

The “culture” of each of these units could be better preserved. i.e., not simply Manhattan-centric. And decisions about how best to serve the population could be made on a significantly smaller scale. Just think about it… Rather than 8.3 million denizens all at once, you would only have to deal with the following:

Manhattan (1,634,795)
Bronx (1,391,903)
Brooklyn (2,556,598);
Queens (2,293,007);
Staten Island (487,407)

It’s just a thought… and I’m sure it’s been thought about before. And of course, the likes of Marty Markowitz could no longer be elected as the top dog. The chief executive of Brooklyn would actually count.

I agree with ENY 100% about education. Being able to regurgitate test answers is not doing any of our kids any real favors in life. Real learning involves honing the cognitive processes that allow us to figure things out, make deductive leaps so necessary in the sciences, math,engineering, etc. It enables us to express ourselves decently, even argue intelligently on a blog. Real learning encourages kids to go farther and do their own research, own further reading, or experiments. It stimulates the brain and increases one’s intelligence

Knowing that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 14 hundred 92 may allow a kid to pass a test, having them discover the times Columbus lived in, the politics of Spain and Europe at the time, the power of religion, the sailing and navigational technologies of the era, the culture of the peoples of the New World, the natural sciences of oceanography and geology, and on and on, that’s an education. How many of our kids are getting that, I wonder?

“It might make you feel better to believe that abstaining is a form of voting, but by definition, it most definitely is not.”

It’s not an issue about me feeling better. I feel fine.

I won’t bother trying to explain any more to this crowd though.

It’s a replacement building and there is a difference between replacing a building in danger of collapsing the floor under the weight of its own trucks and manning a new company. Some of those floors had over 60 jackes holding them up becuase new firetrucks and engines are so much heavier than the originals. And all those jacks are rented, not owned by the city. Want to save money? Fix the floors. And don’t even get me started on the idiot cost saving measures he instituted- like putting in 4 man crews, or closing firehouses at night.

And no- the stats did not show them as meritorious- oops, I’m wrong- the Bloomberg I am a great manager showed them as meritorious. Response times, morale, etc did not. Let me also point out again- fire companies are insurance- not profit making enterprises. So are cops. You want safety, you pay for it.