Today is Earth Day! It’s also the one-year anniversary of Michael Bloomberg's formal announcement of a plan for congestion pricing.

To honor the occasion, a congestion pricing critic, Assemblyman Mark Weprin, is distributing a letter that commends Bloomberg for putting the issue on the table:

"So while I opposed the congestion pricing plan, I applaud the Mayor for appropriately placing traffic congestion and its environmental impacts at the forefront of public discourse. Indeed, every mayoral candidate running next year will now have to present a serious plan for traffic mitigation in New York City.

Here's the full letter:  read more »

Congestion pricing is dead in the Assembly.

“Shelly just came out of our conference and said our conference does not have the support to bring this to the floor,” said Democratic Assemblyman Mark Weprin.

“I want to be clear that the conference was overwhelmingly against it,” he said, dispelling the notion that Silver, personally, blocked the plan. Weprin, who opposed the plan, said the program’s biggest supporter, Michael Bloomberg, should not be blamed for the failure, but rather, commended for making it an issue.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg may have shared a cup of coffee with Barack Obama, but the two have, apparently, a glaring difference of opinion when it comes to education.

Bloomberg has defended the use of standardized testing in public schools, and even berated Mark Weprin for criticizing such tests.  read more »

A few weeks ago, Assemblyman Mark Weprin made some enemies in City Hall when he criticized high-stakes testing in public schools. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein disagreed. Michael Bloomberg went a bit further, blasting Weprin during his weekly radio show. (The two sort of buried the hatchet later).

Then the New York Post wrote this unflattering editorial about him.

Now, the United Federation of Teachers is getting into the mix.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg hit back at Assemblyman Mark Weprin this morning after Weprin criticized Bloomberg's use of high-stakes tests in public schools:

“You know, I don’t know what he’s running for," Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show, "but it’s hard to argue that you can do as much damage any other way as when you try to stop what has been a phenomenally successful, model program for the country, and arguably, lots of other countries.”

He added, “Maybe somebody in the legislature doesn’t understand it because they don’t work in the private sector or the executive branches of government, but the rest of us are all held every day to results, and we’re tested every day. And our children are tested every day.”

Weprin, who actually does have private sector experience, emailed me this response, “our students are spending too much time learning test taking skills. A parent or teacher of a 3rd-8th grader knows exactly what I’m talking about.”

As the comment suggests, Bloomberg doesn’t have a kid in the school system, while Weprin does.  read more »

Here's Assemblyman Mark Weprin singing about Eliot Spitzer at a charity show put on by Queens lawmakers.

The lycrics: “Eliot Spitzer is a caring, loving person. He just doesn’t fully appreciate the subtleties and pleasures of our job.” At the end of the tune he laments to the governor, “a legislator is more than just a social disease.”

Liz, who got a fancy front-row seat at the show, has a clip of Christine Quinn (in a blonde wig) here.

]]> http://www.observer.com/2007/song-spitzer#comments Politics Eliot Spitzer Mark Weprin Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:49:48 -0500 Azi Paybarah 60580 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2007/giuliani-parade-technique

Yesterday, one of the quirkiest traditions returned to a major Memorial Day Parade that starts a few blocks inside Nassau County before winding its way through the Little Neck-Douglaston section of Queens.

“I refused to march on the Nassau side,” Weiner told me. He stood on the border, next to the 'Welcome to Nassau' sign and waited for the parade to get into New York City territory before joining in. A person who has been marching in that parade for a couple of years told me that the most notable politician to do that in the past was Rudy Giuliani.

Also attending the parade were regular marchers Mike Bloomberg Frank Padavan, Chuck Schumer, Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Adolfo Carrion, Eric Gioia, Melinda Katz, David and Mark Weprin, and Peter Vallone, Sr.