The Re-election of Michael Bloomberg

Despite the hotly contested third-term controversy, I thought Mr. Bloomberg deserved to be re-elected. Using private sector strategies, the city has seen gains in the areas of the environment, education, crime, security, and public finances. While his job creation claims are a bit dubious, it is clear that NYC is still a great place to live and work. Despite the massive financial collapse NYC’s unemployment rate is holding steady with the national average, no small feat considering NYC was disproportionally damaged by the financial crisis.

Perhaps Bloomberg’s greatest achievement is in education. By increasing the number of charter schools from 17 with 3,200 students when he took office to 78 with 24,000 students today, Bloomberg is further experimenting with ideas that will come to revolutionize education in America. Results vary for charter schools in NYC but are overwhelmingly positive. Education is the single most important issue in local politics and should remain so due to its unique ability to influence other issues (i.e., crime, housing, public financing, and the economy). Only by closing the achievement gap will our society regain a leadership position in primary and secondary education. Michael Bloomberg has arguably made the most significant contributions to making New York City’s schools a model for other urban school systems.

Redefining Ethnic Food

Growing up, I remember thinking a gyro or shrimp fried rice was ethnic. That was in the suburbs.

Having lived in six distinct metropolitan areas in the past eight years and visited countless more, I can safely say that my opinions on what constitutes excellent food and what may seem weird or strange to some might be perfectly normal to another.

It is in that spirit which my friend Kat and I are exploring new culinary ventures in NYC and beyond, sharing our experiences, and telling you how you can participate. Join us as we redefine ethnic food over at Weird Food Club NYC

Suppon stew (Tokyo)

This Idea Has Been Removed Due to Copyright Violations

Today, I followed a link from Reddit to YouTube only to find out that the video has been taken down for rights violation. Fair enough. In a knowledge economy, I buy into the stealing content is equivalent to stealing a car argument. However, why doesn’t the rights owner allow YouTube to be a platform of distribution? For example, if there is a clip of a documentary, tell me to pay $4.95 to see the clip, I might do it, the rights’ owners get their money and they pay a small fee to YouTube for finding the interested party. Instead, I cannot find this link anywhere else on the web and even if I did find the original documentary, film, show, etc. I might not be willing to pay $19.95 for the whole thing; I just want to see the relevant clip.

The web is driving interested users to YouTube and other content sharing sites only to see those users turned away. Stop turning them away. Offer them pay-per-play. See if they take it. Most won’t, but some will. It’s free money if you think about it.

Getting My Superfreak On

I'm halfway through the new, Superfreakonomics and so far it lives up to the challenge of being just as good as its predecessor. Who know oral sex from sex workers in Chicago costs an average of $37.26? Also highly intriguing, and controversial, is how they represented or apparently represented some ideas about carbon's effect on the global climate. Having actually heard Levitt and Dubner speak publically about that chapter, I fully believe that their advocacy of geoengineering options or, at the very least, their desire to see geoengineering options discussed seriously is well founded and not part of any denial camp movement.

p.s., I would be willing to sell my coveted autographed copy for no less than $250K which I will probably use for bail money if the original research on baby naming turns out to be false: Kevins (plural) tend to end up in jail.