Free Republic

ALBANY, June 24 - State lawmakers on Friday passed a plan to intensify oversight of New York's scandal-plagued public authorities, whose multibillion-dollar operations have long operated with little scrutiny. Their move to shine more light on the authorities, which have emerged as a shadow government in the state and have faced allegations of favoritism and corruption, capped the last day of a session dominated by efforts to overhaul the workings of Albany in response to growing outcries about a dysfunctional state government. The plan calls for creating an inspector general's post as well as an outside budget office. The first...

If you love cities, this is a week to rejoice. Now that the stadium planned for New York's West Side is dead, no one can fantasize anymore about the Olympics coming to New York. If the city had gotten the 2012 Games, its leaders would have basked for seven years in Olympic photo opportunities, and mayors across America would have watched enviously. They would have succumbed further to what I think of as the Circus Maximus syndrome. The victims of this urban-planning syndrome believe, like some Roman emperors, that a leader's prime civic responsibility is to build entertainment palaces for...

Representatives from the Jets were conspicuously absent when two state assemblymen appeared outside City Hall on Tuesday to announce legislation that seemed tailor-made for the football team: the repeal of a tax break for Cablevision, the most aggressive opponent of a new stadium for the team. The Jets, as well as Cablevision, have tried to avoid much notice in the dispute over building the stadium, but there is little doubt about who the dominant players are. In fact, a closer look at Tuesday's event shows that the Jets were deeply involved in trying to get the anti-Cablevision bill introduced in...