I have always had a bit of an apocalyptic streak in me. I think it probably began when I was seven years old, about to turn eight in 1957. Tha…
A little more than a year has gone by since the first reported death in New York City caused by COVID-19. More than 30,000 deaths followed as …
The current fad of convicting people just because they are accused is wrong. It is not new to America, but it is wrong. Our Puritan forefather…
In my previous column last December, I wrote that I was hopeful about the direction of the soon-to-be Biden Administration. Much has happened …
One of the biggest achievements of the union movement was to obtain pensions for its members. These days, most private-sector workers have 401…
The world of corrections post-HALT Solitary Confinement Act...
The issue of seeking an improvement of relations between the Police Department and the public is a valid one. The damage done by orders given …
The municipal workforce has shown just how essential it is during this pandemic. From sanitation workers to teachers, and nurses to subway con…
One morning three years ago this April, I found myself in front of Alma Mater, nervously handing out picket signs to a small group of my fello…
As president of Teamsters Local 237, which represents School Safety Agents (SSAs), I recently spoke at a hearing of the City Council Education…
Maybe it's this terrible plague. Maybe it's my age. Maybe it's the emotional fatigue of nearly 50 years of political activity, trying to recti…
Last month, New York City closed its K-12 public-school system to protect teachers and staff as the pandemic reached new heights. The city, ho…
Early this year, I wrote an Op-Ed entitled "A new world of public safety is upon us."
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in our city this spring, a heartwarming civic ritual spontaneously arose, lifting spirits during a deep…
In 1973, I joined the New York City Fire Department after serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. I spent 28 years with the department, rising to…
New York City's Principals are demanding that Governor Cuomo take control of the city's schools because of the incompetence of Chancellor Rich…
Leaves are falling to the ground, but though the season has changed, the horrors and hardships of the pandemic have not. Its brutality continu…
You can't say I didn't warn you. I may have predicted a different cause (job elimination due to automation instead of a worldwide pandemic), b…
On Labor Day we recognize and honor the incredible achievements and many contributions of working people.
It appears that we have passed through the worst of the COVID-19 disease, but it still lurks in our communities ready to spring back at any mo…
My friend Tony Feliciano, transit worker 1984-2020, and a union man all his life, died a few weeks ago; he had just turned 61. While transit w…
Former President Barack Obama said: "When times are tough, we don't give up. We get up."
While the city government has threatened layoffs, the boom has already dropped at the City University of New York.
June 15 was a milestone in the history of policing in New York City. With the disbanding of NYPD anti-crime units, Police Commissioner Dermot …
As we continue to witness more primary election victories of young progressive Democrats, one could not ask for a better song title than The W…
In this time of economic turmoil, firefighters deserve stable pensions, not political gamesmanship
I am a mother and grandmother of a black son and grandson, and I have never been more afraid for their future than I am right now.
The week of June 7 marked the city's third annual "CPS Week of Appreciation," an opportunity for New Yorkers to recognize and thank the 2,000-…
The coronavirus pandemic has compelled us to take stock of the racial and socioeconomic inequities that have burdened our city's more than fiv…
As policy-makers debate when and how quickly we can reopen society with COVID-19 still plaguing us, it should be abundantly clear to those of …
When Arthur Goldberg, a long-time Transport Workers Union Local 100 officer, called to tell me that Arnold Cherry had died, the first thing I …
Who would ever have thought that a 2-hour movie you enjoyed with buttered popcorn and M&Ms—a movie that scared you silly the whole time it…
I am well, as are my wife and two adult sons. To say I am fortunate would be a stupendous understatement.
Our lives have been upended. We are all operating in uncertain times, knowing that our routines and circumstance could keep changing, day by d…
Part 1 of this essay concluded without my delving into its second question: Are the Democrats still a political party?
Three years ago I wrote in one of my initial Chief columns that “…there are only two political institutions that have even the remotest chance…
A new world of public safety is upon us, one that has been brewing for many years and directly affects each and every one of us and our famili…
Who would have thought that the tag line from a cheesy 1980s horror movie would provide the perfect description of the current state of the 20…
Nationwide, strikes are back in the repertoire of unions. Last month, public-school teachers in Dedham, Massachusetts, went out on strike desp…
The great author and philosopher George Santayana once observed: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Our Titans o…
Detectives Endowment Association President Michael J. Palladino last month submitted testimony on police and the use of force on behalf of the…
It may be the Dog Days of August, but it’s the chickens that have taken center stage by coming home to roost at the carnival we call the Democ…
Here’s a sad-but-true fact: labor unions in America are weaker than in other industrialized nations. Today, in America, just 10.5 percent of a…
Accountability must be demanded when, “Justice delayed is Justice denied.”
I recently listened to a year-old Gotham Gazette/Citizens Budget Commission podcast interview with NYC Labor Commissioner Robert Linn about th…
This year’s NYS legislative session was truly a wonder to behold. With a tip of my hat to our great troubadour, Bob Dylan, the truly significa…
You probably saw the pictures—60 veterans, well into their 90s, recently participated in the Normandy American Ceremony on the sun-drenched bl…
In the days and months that followed New York’s darkest day, the best among us responded to the rescue and recovery efforts without hesitation…
The late great Yogi Berra coined the phrase; the blues rocker John Fogerty used it as a song title on his 2006 concert album “The Long Road Ho…
It’s time to give New Yorkers a break.