Night of the Living Dead V - The American Dream


By DIA, Section News
Posted on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 05:57:57 AM EST

I won't run down the list of things I've been right about, I don't have the time (hi, john sweeney!! Go to jail much?). But I'm going to revisit some comments I've made as we face the complete meltdown of the US financial system, housing markets, etc.

1) The Times Union wanted to let you know everything would be OK. I told you it wouldn't. Of course I deal in facts, they deal in fantasy. About a year ago they ran this headline, which I correctly mocked.
Brighter days for economy in analyst's outlook
Yeah, future is so bright I gotta wear shades. Nice work TU and favored analyst.

2) As Wall Street goes, so goes NY. No bailouts for Mayor Jennings when the state is in such trouble. I wish someone could've warned us this was going to happen. Ring Ring
As I've been saying for some time, we are on a crash course with a harsh economic reality. With the current management there is only one real avenue for Albany. Being bailed out by the state. Barring some magical solution, we have a date with reality in the near future. And reality can be a harsh mistress.

Ring, ring...hello...just a minute....Mayor Jennings, it's for you.
3) Here I was just being my normal asshole self. But once again, I was right.
It is a new day in the US economy. Oil passed $130 gallon last night. Tax receipts are down in NY. Consumer confidence is at a historic low in NY. Wall Street is facing historic layoffs and thus the state is facing a big budget deficit. Is this good news? No. But it is the new reality. We all would love for every state city and county worker to never have to worry about their jobs, never have to work that hard other than on election day and occasionally pave our streets or something. Remember when Corning had 70 janitors on staff for city hall alone? Those were different times. They are OVER. Now, you can fight reality and we know you will. But reality has a fiscally conservative bias. And all of you state city and county workers who want the good times to continue have one other big problem on your hands. The rest of us can get fired or layed off anytime. Many of us have. Our jobs don't have pensions. Our health insurance costs us a lot of money. And then we open the paper and read things like this.
4) And since this is an Albany blog, how about we wrap up with my prediction for the 2008 city budget, which proved to be 100% accurate. This is the budget that Jerry Jennings called "responsible". Now we know we are facing a historic budget crisis just a year later.
Today is the final chance for the public to make any comments on the 2008 budget. If you'd like to do so, attend the common council meeting tonight and waste your time bringing up any valid concerns and or outright support for the mayor's plan to borrow and spend and mortgage your future.

So far there has been public comment on the issue of parking fines going up up up. Valid points.

There doesn't appear to be much concern for the overall financial health of the city. So here is what I predict. The common council has until the end of November to make any changes to the proposed budget. At the end of the month they will make some big fuss about not raising parking fines, and they might not raise them. Nothing will be done about the fact that despite raising taxes this year's budget includes a ton of borrowing to "balance" it.

The city of Albany is like the Average American Consumer.
For the past two years, and for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans are spending more than they earn. In 2006, Americans saved at a rate of negative 1 percent, according to statistics released February 1 by the Commerce Department, meaning they not only spent all of their after-tax income, they also dipped into their savings or increased the amount they borrowed. The savings rate in 2005 was negative 0.4 percent.
So, I guess we shouldn't blame Jerry the Average. He is just doing what the rest of America is doing. And your taxes are going up. If you don't mind that, keep voting with your pocketbook patronage in mind.
When you read things like "for the first time since the great depression", you should pay attention. Jerry didn't. I hope the rest of you did. Welcome to your new America. Look for your bills for your mortgage on the future to start arriving soon.

If you are wondering what happened, you've been robbed. At least John Sweeney will be going to prison. And hopefully Bruno. Since there is no legal system in Albany, Jerry Jennings should be fine. But it doesn't change the reality of what has happened. If you work for a living, you have been fucked. Get used to working harder for that same living.

Cheers and good luck.

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Night of the Living Dead V - The American Dream | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 hidden)
Here is my prediction (none / 0) (#1)
by alfrednewman on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 07:02:40 AM EST
Everyone bitches about the state of the city but no one will be willing to make the hard choices necessary. This because of the belief that the bigger the mess they get us all into the more likely it will be that the state has to step in and bail us out.

Here are some quick and dirty suggestions on how to fix Albany.

1) Bye Bye Alive at Five. Do away with beer? No- do away with the whole damn thing.  If the city did a survey of partisipants how many would be Albany residents.

Start with the events with low city resident partisipation and work your way up the list.

2) Hire an efficiency expert to streamline operations.  Anyone who has ever delt with the city on any level knows that there is a lot of room for improved mamagement and a hell of a lot of dead wood clogging up the operations.  
"What? Me worry? " "whatmeworry.alfred@gmail.com"

hard choices (none / 0) (#2)
by DIA on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 07:36:15 AM EST
are all that are left.   Jerry took all the easy choices.

so let us elect someone with some ability.   I know some efficiency experts.   Care to elect one?  

Because, as I'm sure you'll agree, vice principals of the Albany school system aren't exactly leaders in that field (unfortunately).


[ Parent ]

You're a genius (none / 0) (#3)
by Tom Paine on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 09:40:00 AM EST
"Hire an efficiency expert to streamline operations."

Wow, that'd be a stroke of genius. Hey, let's buy a time machine while we're at it.

"Anyone who has ever delt with the city on any level knows that there is a lot of room for improved mamagement and a hell of a lot of dead wood clogging up the operations."

Exactly so. Sounds like a job for a...a...what's the word I am looking for? Oh yeah - a MAYOR.    


[ Parent ]

Tom (none / 0) (#4)
by alfrednewman on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 10:18:14 AM EST
I realize that this is one of those concepts that you are going to have a hard time grasping...

The mayor of a city as large as Albany shouldnt be an efficency expert. He should be a "big picture" guy.  A leader.

 
"What? Me worry? " "whatmeworry.alfred@gmail.com"

DIA (none / 0) (#5)
by alfrednewman on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 10:33:16 AM EST
I think it would be very hard to find someone with the ability who would want the job.
"What? Me worry? " "whatmeworry.alfred@gmail.com"
not really (none / 0) (#6)
by DIA on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 11:01:03 AM EST
some people enjoy challenges and helping other people.   And while it ain't Wall Street money, $135 large a year plus a car, free drinks, etc is not bad for charity work.

Alfred, you disappoint me.   You say we need a leader but you don't think that person should have common sense.   Being an efficiency expert is nothing more than having a bit of common sense.   Nothing more.   Let me repeat.  Nothing more.   Your job is to run the city on the amount of money it brings in.   Take a look at your expenditures.  Cut the ones you can't afford.  Not so hard.  does the phrase "newly hired deputy clerk" mean anything to you?

This isn't rocket science.   It also isn't much fun.  Ever fired anyone?   Not fun, but necessary, at times.   But i'm pretty sure you could cut $10 million from the albany city budget without firing anyone.  

We could balance the budget of this city with some common sense belt tightening.   Easily.  

My definition of leader is someone who leads by example.   Show me how it is done and I will follow.  You know, "leading".

Thanks for setting the bar so low.   If we don't want intelligent qualified people running our country, we certainly know who to vote for:

"In what respect, Charlie"

[ Parent ]

DIA (none / 0) (#7)
by alfrednewman on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 11:24:43 AM EST
I think that sometimes it is necessary for someone from the outside to come in and give an honest assessment of an organization. Especially in a city like Albany where EVERYONE knows each other and has built personal relationships.

Too hard to tell someone you went to school with that they are out of a job because they are redundant.  

Lower the bar? Not at all. I think that the mayor should be a good administrator.  
"What? Me worry? " "whatmeworry.alfred@gmail.com"

honest assessment (none / 0) (#8)
by DIA on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 01:04:56 PM EST
i've been giving an honest assessment of the city of albany for several years.  And my track record is pretty good.  

I'm available for consulting.  thanks for thinking of me.  

DIA for Mayor.

The job (none / 0) (#9)
by Tom Paine on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:29:45 PM EST
Let's see, $135 K a year, with a self-determined raise any time you want, plus a free SUV you can crash any time you like, zero accountability and unlimited tanning....not a bad deal really.

Transperancy Idea: Leadership Scores (none / 0) (#10)
by Corruptany on Sat Sep 20, 2008 at 03:21:21 PM EST
I work in quality improvement informatics and the one thing I have noticed in my work is the power of transparency. In my field, we rank Doctors performance much in the same way we do for schools, etc. Why not create a national independent entity that ranks the performance of political and business leaders every year. Its possible to create a methodology where we score these people leadership and management abilities and create a score comparing them to other people.

Doing so will provide people with an idea of how good or how bad their political and companies leaders are. For politics I would take it a step further and send out a report card to people so they can see how their leaders due on certain areas and how the rank to leaders in similar cities. Here is an example, take for instance we compare Jerry Jennings to Brian Stratton and give them each of leadership score, morality score and management score. Now imagine Brian Stratton ranks the highest for medium sized cities and Jennings ranks dead last. I would think that if this information was public it would encourage these leaders to get their act together else face losing their jobs.

Some may say my ideas is nonsense, but is it. Most people, even noneducated ones make choices based on the information they see. Take for instance people choosing colleges, if a college ranks low, they choose a better one. Same goes for dining, if a eating establishment has bad service, most people will go some where else. Why not use the same idea for leaders giving people the information the need in the hopes of getting leaders to due their jobs and also getting people who can do it.

I really think this is a good idea and all it requires is someone to start doing it. Albany is the best place due to the fact that its home to the top Public Affairs and Informatics schools in the country. If your interested let me know, I have been posting the same thing on BlueMassGroup and the Albany Project looking to get people interested in changing things and holding leaders accountable as well as giving citizens the information they need.

[ Parent ]

Good luck (none / 0) (#14)
by AlfredMoisiu on Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 05:04:59 PM EST
The problem with using objective, scientific measurements for things which depend on human behavior is that sooner or later someone will make the model say whatever they want. Lehman bought lots of derivatives rated "AAA" quality by objective rating agencies... how did that work out?

If you were to publish some sort of comprehensive model to score leadership, you'd meet a shitstorm of resistance from all sorts of unexpected places.

Expect to be called a racist, classist, communist, anti-semitic, anti-woman, conservative mouthpiece, liberal lackey, labor lackey, union-breaker, etc.

At the end of the day, you'll be unemployable, and most people will still vote like trained apes. ("Sarah Palin speaks for me")

[ Parent ]

Corrupt (none / 0) (#11)
by alfrednewman on Sat Sep 20, 2008 at 05:16:02 PM EST
I think that you have a good idea although I have to wonder just what information should be included in such a report. And information is very subjective, isnt it?  

Would you consider the mayor of a city where the police department made an arrest in only 7% of its burglaries,  35% of aggravated assaults and 20% of reported rapes as a good administrator?

Those are Stratton's numbers by the way.  
"What? Me worry? " "whatmeworry.alfred@gmail.com"

Idea (none / 0) (#12)
by Corruptany on Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 08:27:06 AM EST
I havn't thought it out quite yet, I emailed an old professor of mine from SUNY to see if he would be interested in developing a model.

[ Parent ]
Corupt (none / 0) (#13)
by alfrednewman on Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 02:24:22 PM EST
I think it could be a good idea.
"What? Me worry? " "whatmeworry.alfred@gmail.com"
[ Parent ]
Night of the Living Dead V - The American Dream | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 hidden)
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