Winners and Losers 12/05/14

Sadly, the Eric Garner decision made this week another one where we all ended up losers. The Garner family will continue to suffer, Officer Pantaleo avoided prosecution—for now—but his victory is pyrrhic, our politicians failed friends and foes alike, Commissioner Bratton and the NYPD sunk lower in the minds of many, our criminal justice system—regardless of what you think of this grand jury—was further undermined, the many individuals and organizations who have sought to exploit the tragedy for one end or another brought shame upon themselves, and the rest of us have to grapple with a society even more divided, dispirited, and desperate for solutions that no one really seems to have to offer. But this being Friday of a very hard week, we all deserve a little levity, so putting the Garner decision aside for a moment, here are the rest of your Winners and Losers.

WINNERS

Mary Bassett - The New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner had a relatively slow first year in office until an Ebola case hit the city, shining a bright spotlight on the city's health systems. This week, all the nurses connected to the one doctor who contracted the disease were declared Ebola free, which has to be a huge weight off the back of the new commissioner, who supervised a response that was controlled, thoughtful and effective.

Larry Spring and Kenneth Eastwood - The fight over education funding is an annual tradition in Albany, and schools usually have little say in how it plays out. These two superintendents—of Schenectady and Middletown, respectively—have been trying to change that dynamic by calling on the federal government to investigate the state's funding model, alleging it violates federal law by discriminating against districts in which students of color are the majority. Spring told the TU he did a little dance when he got the news this week that the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights had decided to investigate the superintedents' complaint. If this probe leads to a change, the heads of a lot of urban schools will be dancing with him.  

Addie Russell - A month has passed since the general election, but the assemblywoman only just won another two-year term in office this week when her Republican rival finally conceded. The tallying of absentee ballots narrowed Russell’s margin to fewer than 100 votes when the race officially ended, but at the end of the day, a win is a win.  

David Skorton - The New York Racing Association’s chairman of the board is riding off in style—with an estimated $1.5 million surplus coming for the organization, which operates three major horse racing tracks in the state. Skorton took the reins of the dysfunctional NYRA a couple years ago, and a turnaround effort apparently has been successful—at least financially. With Skorton's announcement this week that he is stepping down as chair of NYRA, the well-respected president of Cornell escapes a largely thankless job with his reputation fully intact.

Chris Collins - Collins hasn’t been in Congress very long, but he appears to be on his way up the pecking order, having been assigned to the prolific Energy and Commerce Committee—which reportedly generates more legislation than any other and is, in his own words, “arguably the most influential there is.” Collins says he’ll be focusing on the expansion of broadband in Western New York, adequate funding for the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, and the promotion of fracking. What this actually means for his district isn’t clear, however, because as influential as the committee may be, it’s still an organ of Congress, and everyone knows Congress barely works anymore.

LOSERS

Vito Lopez - You’re never too sick to boogie—but appearing in court is a whole other story. At least it is if you’re Vito Lopez, who cited illness as the reason for postponing his deposition in the case brought against him by two of his former staffers who accuse him of being the other kind of sick. However, as the Post exposed this week, not too long before he was making excuses to the judge the former Democratic boss of Brooklyn had appeared at a gala wedding and last Thursday he addressed the crowd at a luncheon for the nonprofit he founded. Of course, every party has to have its poopers—in this case, it was all of the politicians at the wedding who scampered away every time Don Vito approached to avoid getting caught in a picture with him. That’s understandable. It probably brought back too many emotional memories seeing the ring they spent decades falling over each other to kiss.

Andrew Murstein - The president of Medallian Financial, the only publicly-traded company that owns a large number of New York City’s yellow taxi medallions, has been facing an uphill battle fighting Uber, a mobile rideshare service, since the company expanded to the city. Medallian is certainly feeling the effects now, as it saw its share price hit a three-year low during trading this week. If things keep going this direction for Murstein, he might have to start saving money ... by using Uber.

Tom Prendergast - Commuters, in general, aren’t the happiest group of people to deal with, so one can only imagine the backlash the chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority endured this week when a coding error rendered worthless MetroCards issued to nearly 10,000 commuters who only found out about the mishap when they tried to ride the rails for the first time this month. What a way to kick off the holiday season!

Anne Roest - The announced plan to replace New York City’s payphones with free Wi-Fi kiosks was supposed to be a victory-lap for Roest, Mayor de Blasio’s information technology commissioner. But the initiative has drawn flack from at least two directions, with cyber geeks raising alarm bells about the potential for hackers to steal personal data on the one hand, and the Daily News revealing that wealthier neighborhoods will receive speedier service than poorer ones in places like Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx, where the service will be up to ten times slower. Not only do both criticisms seem justified, they don't seem to have been too hard to anticipate either.

Meenakshi Srinivasan - New York City's landmarks commission chair drew the ire of preservationists this week after it was announced that the commission was going to essentially boot nearly 100 proposed applications for landmarks back to their local communities to be resubmitted. Srinivasan and the de Blasio administration said it was just an effort to clear the backlog, but advocates for the sites now facing a longer process toward securing landmark status were not happy, and were not shy about voicing their disapproval of the approach.