Editorial

Mayor’s School Gamble

As the Norwood News reported last issue, the construction of 21 new schools in the city’s capital plan have been scrapped by the Bloomberg administration because state money is not in the pipeline.

The city included that money in its school construction plan because a judge has ordered the state to provide city schools with a fair share of state education dollars.

Because the governor and Republican lawmakers in Albany are stalling in fulfilling the judge’s order, the mayor ratcheted up the political pressure by scrapping the school projects and embarking on an all-out political campaign to force the state legislature’s hand. (He’s even talking about backing a Democrat in a Queens state Senate race against the incumbent from his own party.)

While the mayor deserves credit for taking off the gloves in this critical fight for city schools, we wonder if he hurt his own cause by keeping parents in the dark about his plans.

Among the projects that were scrapped is the renovation of the old Fordham library building on Bainbridge Avenue for the Bronx Leadership Institute. Parents and students involved in the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition were central to the planning and organizing of that school, which this year is temporarily housed in the Police Athletic League building on Webster Avenue. Supporters of that school say there was never a question that that the library would get renovated and that they were totally blindsided by the mayor’s decision to scrap the plans.

Likewise, parents and elected officials in lower Manhattan are livid over the icing of two schools that were central to a pact to allow for commercial development in the area. Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff even signed an agreement outlining the deal with Council Member Scott Gerson. Now parents there are calling the mayor a liar.

So, instead of parents being the wind at Bloomberg’s back as he takes his case up to the state capital, the mayor instead has angry parents chomping at his pant leg.

We understand why the mayor only came up with a single construction budget that did not include a contingency plan if the state failed to act. It provides the state with a stark decision: Give the city the money it’s owed or doom these new schools.

But wouldn’t it have made more strategic sense to tell the parents that their schools depended on funding from Albany, and if that wasn’t forthcoming he’d need their troop support for his battle in Albany?

If the mayor pulls off this high-stakes, high-wire act, surely all will be forgiven. If he doesn’t, he may wish he and his school chancellor had been straight with supporters of these schools and recruited them for a fight they could have helped win.

Dinowitz Acts on Pinnacle

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz deserves credit for being the first elected official in the Bronx to utter a public word about the contemptible practices of the Pinnacle Group. Despite the fact that close to 40 Bronx buildings have been snapped up by this company, which has harassed tenants by illegally increasing rents and hauling dozens of them into court for trivial and trumped-up matters, no elected official did or said anything about this issue until now. As Heather Haddon reports in this issue as part of a continuing series that began last October, Dinowitz’ office is helping two constituents deal with unfair rent increases assessed by Pinnacle. The assemblyman is also considering alerting all his constituents who live in Pinnacle buildings to be on the lookout for irregular charges. We hope that he will also pressure the state’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal to take a closer look at the company’s practices.

In the meantime, we’re glad a local elected official has begun to take action.

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