This article I wrote appears on The Catholic Thing website on July 23, 2008.

This article I wrote appears in the New York Post on July 20, 2008.

This article I wrote appears in the New York Post on July 9, 2008.

This article I wrote appears on The Catholic Thing website.

After years of Ground Zero blunders, PA Executive Director Chris Ward’s admission that the Agency’s projected rebuilding schedules and cost estimates are delusional should come as no surprise to New Yorkers.

Pointing one finger of blame at former Governor George Pataki is wholly justified. Pataki—who governed by press release—did not possess the vision, skills or energy to be the redevelopment overseer. His disengaged, ceremonial approach to management just couldn’t fly and the results proved it.

Another finger, however, must be pointed at the Port Authority. In the post-9/11 period, to regain control of the 16-acre Ground Zero from Larry Silverstein, PA officials sowed bureaucratic chaos. For 16 months they stonewalled NYPD requests to review security data. And it took more than 6 years for the PA to build the east bathtub slurry wall, the necessary first step in constructing the foundation for Towers 2, 3, and 4 and the PATH Station. Former PA Executive Director Tony Shorris’s duplicity in hiding the true status of the mess deserves his share of the blame.

Pataki, desperate to star at groundbreaking ceremonies, rewarded, in May 2006, PA shortsightedness and obstructionism by agreeing to turn the management of the Freedom Tower over to the Agency.

The Ward Report to Governor Paterson proves the PA once again conned New Yorkers. Their boast two years ago that only they could restore sanity to the redevelopment of lower Manhattan, was a sham. Add Ground Zero to this list of PA screw-ups:

• World Trade Center construction, whose original 1966 estimated cost was $355 million, came in at over $900 million. To make this commercial real estate “white elephant” economically viable, New York State bailed out the PA by becoming the primary tenant.
• The Newark Airport monorail opened two years behind schedule in 1996 with cost overruns hitting 9 figures. The $350 million, 2-mile system that connects airport terminals and parking lots was the most expensive per mile rail project in recent history.
• The light rail system connecting JFK to LIRR’s Jamaica Station, originally estimated at $1 billion, came in late and had huge cost overruns.
• The PA’s JFK 2000 Project, which commenced in the early 1990s, spent $130 million on improvement studies that were never implemented. They wasted tens of millions on the JFK “tunnel to nowhere.”
• The Automated Guideway Transit project, a high-tech proposal linking LaGuardia and Kennedy to Manhattan, was abandoned in 1994 when projected construction costs jumped from $2 billion to $4 billion. Thirty-one million dollars was wasted in planning.

The Agency also squandered tens of millions of commuters’ hard-earned dollars on these unsuccessful projects: Brooklyn fishport, Yonkers, Bathgate and Elizabeth industrial parks and the Newark legal and communication office building.

And then there’s the money losing facilities: PATH Subway, PA Bus Terminals, Marine terminals, Journal Square Transportation Center—all subsidized by excessive tolls at bridges and tunnels and excessive fees at the region’s airports.

The PA’s historic record of bureaucratic arrogance, waste, mishaps and ineptitude demolishes their claim that only they have the professional planning expertise to pull off huge projects.

Thanks to the PA, the pit in lower Manhattan is a national embarrassment. And anyone who suggests they should be given greater oversight responsibility, over say the Moynihan Station, should get their head examined.

This article I wrote appears on The Catholic Thing website.

The New York Post editorial and my op-ed piece, A Hack is Back, appear to be having an impact. The following WatertownDailyTimes.com articles, in which I am quoted, prove that the Kessel nomination is in trouble:  Don’t Do it: Kessel would be wrong choice to head NYPA and Kessel is on list to head NYPA: Applicant surrounded by air of controversy.

This article I wrote appears in the New York Post on June 18, 2008.

This article I wrote appears on The Catholic Thing website.

This year’s Annual New York Conservative Party Dinner (its 46^th) was dedicated to the memory of the father of modern conservatism and Party co-founder William F. Buckley Jr.

Speakers reminded the audience the impact Buckley had on revitalizing the Conservative movement and the importance of his 1965 New York City mayoral candidacy. A fifteen minute film depicted Buckley at his best. And the noted artist, Constance Maltese (wife of former Party chairman, State Senator Serphin Maltese) presented to National Review editor, Richard Lowry, a striking portrait of Buckley. The program was a fitting tribute.

The lamentable event – a speech by George Pataki.

In his remarks, the former governor, painted himself as the greatest conservative since Edmund Burke. Pataki claimed that on fiscal and cultural issues, he brought the Empire State to new heights. He even claimed he saved lives of unborn babies.

It appears Pataki took this page from the Bill Clinton handbook: over time, people forget one’s apostasies and accept glowing revisionism.

Well, this writer’s memory is not that short.

During his tenure as governor, George Pataki’s political expediency overwhelmed any political philosophy and “political conscience” and “political ideals” were mere slogans used to patronize conservatives.

On almost every conceivable issue Pataki attempted to please every left-wing interest group.

Here are some headlines the Pataki years generated:
- It’s Pataki, Sounding Like Cuomo; Drug Wars, Cont.: The Liberals’ Unlikely Ally (New York Times, February 5, 1995)
- Gov Where Mario Left Off; Liberal Makeover Shocks Observers (New York Post, December 26, 1999)
- Governor Pataki’s Lean to the Left (New York Times, June 6, 2001)
- Leftward Lean OK for Pataki (New York Daily News, June 27, 2001)
- How George Pataki Became a Liberal (The New Republic, June 17, 2002)
- A Governor’s Race for the Left Leaning (Buffalo News, October 10, 2002)
- Mario Pataki? (New York Post, December 20, 2002)

Fiscally: Pataki’s irresponsible spending habits were worse than Cuomo’s. Spending ÷ by inflation during the Cuomo years was 1.89 times; for Pataki’s 2.12 times. When Pataki left office in 2006, New York had the highest combined state and local taxes in the country.

The New York Post summed up Pataki’s fiscal stewardship this way: “George Pataki continues to present himself as a conservative Republican. The numbers tell a different tale about his fiscal stewardship of New York State. And it’s not a pretty story.”

Culturally: Pataki approved gay-rights, bias crime bills, restricted the medical insurance “conscience clause” for religious institutions, increased gun regulations and repudiated term limits. As for abortion, William F. Buckley Jr. said it best about the pro-choice governor – who called for the national Republicans to drop their pro-life platform plank – at the New York Conservative Party’s 40th Anniversary Dinner: “The only abortion law Governor Pataki would oppose would be one that threatened the rights of gays and lesbians.”

There was a sigh of relief throughout the state when Pataki announced on July 27, 2005 that he would not seek a fourth gubernatorial term. Here’s a few of the reactions:

The New York Post: “[H]is administration developed an air of cronyism, complete with contracts handed out to politically connected bidders, that has been breathtaking even by Albany’s terminally cynical standards.”

The New York Sun: “Still one looks in vain to discern any principle or idea that Mr. Pataki stands for consistently. It’s not fiscal restraint…. What’s left as a legacy is patronage appointments and a reputation for Mr. Pataki as the leader of a state government where lobbyists like Alfonse D’Amato are the ones with the real power. It’s a sad end of the line for the governor who once showed so much promise.”

The New York Observer: “The Pataki Administration is leaving office by paying off its friends and rewarding its donors. George Pataki has found a way to create a legacy of laziness, mediocrity and pervasive neglect of the public interest, while creating a culture in which ethical corruption has become an acceptable way of life.”

Pataki’s insouciant leadership and his administration’s mismanagement, arrogance, incompetence and corruption debased New York, crippled the Republican Party and damaged the Conservative Party.

Readers who want an accurate take on the Pataki Administration should crack open my book Squandered Opportunities: New York’s Pataki Years.