Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times editorial this morning praises NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo’s free tuition proposal as an “exciting possibility” but also asks how much will it cost especially if it spurs increased enrollments at CUNY and SUNY colleges.  Given Cuomo’s recent fights over funding of public higher education especially at CUNY, there appears to be a contradiction between past fiscal policy and the free tuition proposal.  This is a critical question that needs to be answered as the proposal moves forward.  Below is the full text of the Times editorial.

Tony

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A Promising Proposal for Free Tuition

By The Editorial Board (January 5, 2007)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised an exciting possibility on Tuesday when he unveiled a proposal that would cover tuition at public universities and colleges in New York State for families earning up to $125,000 by 2019. The plan, which requires legislative approval, recognizes that middle-income families that might not be eligible for student aid based on current measures of need are grappling with student debt, too.

But public higher education officials who favor the idea in principle are worried that the Cuomo administration might be lowballing cost projections as a way of selling the proposal and that public institutions that are already struggling to meet the needs of their students might be further squeezed. The Legislature needs to conduct a thorough analysis of the costs before it moves ahead with the tuition program.

New York’s public universities are a relative bargain compared to those in many other states. Full-time tuition at four-year State University of New York campuses stands at $6,470 per year; the City University of New York charges about the same. The state spends nearly $1 billion annually through its tuition assistance program — which provides aid for families with an adjusted gross income of just under $100,000 and whose top awards stand at $5,165. Under the Cuomo plan, the state would supplement existing state and federal aid. The administration says that 940,000 families would qualify for the new program based on income, but many of those young people would not attend college, would chose a private college or would attend school out of state. That would leave about 200,000 eligible students benefiting from the free tuition program by 2019, when the program would be fully enacted. The program would begin this fall, with a $100,000 income limit.

The administration estimates the program would cost $163 million in 2019, a figure state legislators and higher education officials who have looked into this issue in the past believe to be far too low. An analysis in 2015 by New York City’s Independent Budget Office found that a slightly different free-tuition program for the city’s community colleges alone could cost as much as $232 billion.

The state anticipates that the full-time student enrollment might grow by 10 percent — but that might underestimate the appeal of a free tuition offer. The lure of free tuition could bring a rush of applicants across the system, particularly to major state university campuses at Buffalo and Stony Brook. And higher enrollment would mean a greater need for classrooms, teachers and faculty advisers.

Some public university officials are concerned the campuses might be forced to shoulder additional costs on their own. This wariness stems partly from the governor’s recent behavior. In 2015, for example, he vetoed a bill that would have required the state to pay for increases in some operating expenses at public universities. And last year, he tried unsuccessfully to strip nearly $500 million in state aid from the City University’s budget. The Legislature has a responsibility to make sure that the state funds all of the costs associated with this proposal without hurting the university system.

Dear Commons Community,

The cable news crowd has been waiting for almost a year as to whether Megyn Kelly, Fox News’ evening TV personality, would be switching to another network.  Yesterday, it was announced that she indeed will be leaving for a multi-faceted position at NBC including her own afternoon talk-show program.

Kelly has been one of the few political moderates on Fox News sandwiched nightly between Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.   Kelly’s national profile skyrocketed during the 2016 election after Donald Trump leveled personal attacks against her and feuded with the network over her coverage. At the first Republican debate, in August 2015, she drew Trump’s wrath for asking about his history of misogynistic and sexist remarks. The following day, Trump suggested Kelly was menstruating at the time.   In July, Kelly was again in the spotlight after telling investigators that she, too, was sexually harassed by former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes. He resigned in disgrace soon after.  

We wish her well!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

While the details are still sketchy, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is preparing a proposal for free tuition for all CUNY and SUNY students whose family incomes are below $125,000. per year.  What is also significant is that Bernie Sanders was at his side during the announcement which was made at CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College.  I would speculate that this is Cuomo’s throwing his hat into national politics and a potential presidential run in 2020.

Below is a message from Professional Staff Congress President Barbara Bowen. 

Tony

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Statement on Governor Cuomo’s Proposal for Free Tuition at CUNY and SUNY

Barbara Bowen, President, Professional Staff Congress

Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced a proposal to provide free tuition at CUNY and SUNY schools for students with annual family incomes below $125,000. He made the announcement this morning alongside Senator Bernie Sanders at LaGuardia Community College. Here is the PoliticoNY coverage and here is the news release and video from the Governor’s Office. President Bowen was at the event with members of the LaGuardia Community College PSC chapter. The union has released this statement to press:

Governor Cuomo’s proposal to offer free tuition to CUNY and SUNY students is a conceptual and political breakthrough: it names free tuition at public colleges as the new standard to which states should aspire. The proposal for Excelsior Scholarships has the potential to improve the lives of millions of New Yorkers. At a moment when college costs are rising, student debt is out of control and Americans are wary of what the future holds, New York State can re-set the national agenda for college education by enacting a fully funded investment in free public college education for low- and middle-income students. Everyone in the state will benefit if college education is in reach for all.

Now is the moment to make a similarly bold commitment to providing the resources CUNY and SUNY need to fulfill the Governor’s promise to students. To enable students to graduate within two or four years, CUNY will need to be able to offer essential courses, support services and academic resources. We urge the governor to take this opportunity to articulate an equally visionary agenda for public higher education investment.

The PSC looks forward to learning the details of the proposed Excelsior Scholarship and will work with the Governor’s Office and the Legislature to support it. We also look forward to an Executive Budget that includes funding not only for free tuition but for increased investment in public higher education. New York could ensure national leadership on higher education by coupling the proposal for Excelsior Scholarships with a commitment to fully funded public universities.

As a union committed to economic and racial justice, the PSC echoes Senator Bernie Sanders’ support for the proposal and his praise for the promise of publicly funded free, high-quality college education. We will look forward to working with the governor and the legislature to make that promise a reality.

Dear Commons Community,

Last Sunday was a major milestone in New York City’s transportation history. With much fanfare, Governor Andrew Cuomo and a host of other government officials took the first ride on the new 2^nd Avenue subway.  Even though most New Yorkers love to complain about it, the fact is that they appreciate their subway system.  Since 1904, it has been getting them from one place to another.   

I have been taking the subway my entire life.  My father never learned to drive a car. As a family, we traveled everywhere on the rails.  I took a subway fifteen stops to grammar school from 6th through 8th grades (1959-1961) and I like to say it was there I really learned how to read. Every morning and every afternoon I had fifty minutes to read at least one chapter of a paperback novel that only cost about fifteen cents back then.

The new 2^nd Avenue subway will be a welcome addition for Eastside riders. Compliments of the New York Times, below is a chronology of the building of the subway. 

It has been a long time coming!

Tony 

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Milestones in the Building of the Second Avenue Subway

A Second Avenue subway has long been needed in Manhattan. It just took awhile to make it happen. Over nearly a century, the project has advanced in fits and starts. On Sunday, the first segment finally opened to the public, with three new stations on the Upper East Side.

1920

Building a subway along Second Avenue is recommended by an official in New York City named Daniel L. Turner as part of an ambitious plan to expand the city’s transit system.

1929

The city’s transportation board proposes a Second Avenue subway line from Houston Street to the Harlem River at a cost of $800 million, with a possible connection to the Bronx. A short time later, the stock market crashes, and the plans are shelved.

1940s

The Second Avenue elevated train line on the Upper East Side is dismantled. A new plan for a Second Avenue subway line moves forward.

1950s

A bond issued is approved to spend $500 million on the subway, but the funds are instead used to improve the existing system. The Third Avenue elevated line is removed.

1972

A Second Avenue groundbreaking is held at 103rd Street, and construction begins on a line that would run along most of Manhattan’s East Side. Then New York City nearly goes bankrupt, and work is halted. Three pieces of the tunnel had already been built near Canal Street, 105th Street and 120th Street.

1990s

Another push begins to build a Second Avenue line, though a smaller segment is proposed from 63rd Street to 96th Street.

2007

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority reaches a funding agreement with the federal government to pay for the line. Construction begins.

2010

A 200-ton tunnel boring machine begins to dig underground at 92nd Street and Second Avenue to make way for the line. It finishes about a year later at 63rd Street and Third Avenue, having mined nearly 15,000 feet.

Jan. 1, 2017

The first section of the Second Avenue subway opens to the public.

Dear Commons Community,

I have just finished reading Eyes on the Street:  The Life of Jane Jacobs (Alfred E. Knopf, 2016) by Robert Kanigel.  I found it to be a good – not great – book.  It provides insights into Jacobs’ early life in Scranton, working as a struggling writer in New York City, the publication of her best-known book, The Death and Life of American Cities, her battles with City planners over public housing projects, and her move to Toronto in 1968.  Kanigel could have done more with Jacobs’ opposition to Robert Moses over the Lower Manhattan Expressway.

Jacobs had a keen eye for urban “communities”.  She understood well that the old, mostly ethnic neighborhoods with their small stores and social clubs provided important lifelines for their people to enjoy, share, and be with each other.   Two and three generations of families formed the fabric of these neighborhoods.  She strongly objected to urban renewal projects which only focused on building housing and apartments without considering small commercial enterprises. She thought  neighborhoods should be improved incrementally and not gutted and completely rebuilt. Jacobs was met with a great deal of opposition but was able to prevail in a number of battles with architects and urban planners.

Her battle with Robert Moses over the Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX) is legendary but there are few new insights in this biography.  For readers who do not know its story, LOMEX would connect the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges to the Holland Tunnel. It would have cut through SoHo, parts of Chinatown and Little Italy, and the plan was ultimately nixed in 1962 due to widespread disapproval from the public, led in part by Jane Jacobs. A comparable project was the Cross Bronx Expressway built in the 1950s that connects the Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges to the George Washington Bridge.  The Cross Bronx Expressway destroyed a dozen or more old neighborhoods right in the heart of the borough and the area has never recovered.  The Bronx did not have a Jane Jacobs.

Jacobs’ story ends in Toronto where she lived the latter part of her adult life.  She left New York when her eldest son was turning eighteen.  She and her husband, Bob, were concerned that their sons were coming of draft age and did not want to take the chance that they would end up fighting in Vietnam.

Eyes on the Street received mixed reviews when it was released earlier this year. A complimentary  NPR review of the book can be found at:  http://www.npr.org/2016/09/28/495615064/eyes-on-the-street-details-jane-jacobs-efforts-to-put-cities-first

Tony