Cuomo And DiNapoli Honored For Transparency Work

New York can be a corrupt and backroom-dealing state when it comes to politics. Of course, there are plenty of politicians that make that reality happen, but there are a few, or should I say a couple good ones that stand out among the rest. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and AG Andrew Cuomo have shown to the public that they care about transparent government and the Empire Center is rewarding them for their good deeds.

From The Empire Center:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: Lise Bang-Jensen

(518) 434-3100

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli are being honored with the 2008 SeeThroughNY Award for Promoting Transparency in Government, the Empire Center for New York State Policy announced today.

The award recognizes their innovative web sites that make public information more accessible to New Yorkers. Each is receiving a plaque topped by a transparent piggy bank, the logo of SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency web site.

In January, Cuomo unveiled Project Sunlight, New York State government’s first transparency web site. Project Sunlight offers easily accessible information about elected officials, campaign finance, lobbyists, legislative member items and registered corporations and charities.

In June, DiNapoli released Open Book New York, which contains spending information for 3,100 local governments and more than 100 state agencies. The site also offers an inventory of more than 60,000 active state contacts. All the available data can be loaded into a PDF file or an Excel spreadsheet.

“With Project Sunlight and Open Book New York, Attorney General Cuomo and Comptroller DiNapoli have taken noteworthy steps toward making public information more accessible. Their sites wet the public’s appetite for further government transparency, which they promise in future phases of the sites,” said Lise Bang-Jensen, senior policy analyst for the Empire Center.

New York has been notorious for hiding information from the public in years past. Just ask Joe Bruno how he feels about it. In our increasingly web-based world, it should be easy to put out information that holds our leaders accountable. Yet many would rather conduct the people's business in private. Sites like Open Book NY and Project Sunlight combat that secretiveness and they are rightly commended for that work.

Millions Of Gallons Wasted Everyday In NYC, Infrastructure To Blame

Public service announcements are bought and paid for to remind us to conserve water, but what is the point when the city itself wastes up to 35 million gallons a day. It would be like having almost every single New Yorker filling up a typical 5 gallon drum and pouring it out onto the street, every goddamn day. Due to our crumbling infrastructure, a pipe that delivers part of our water supply is quite a prolific leaker.

From AM New York:

The city Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the water supply, has been aware of the leaks since 1988, but hasn't yet made repairs and has not developed an emergency response plan to deal with a potential collapse of the tunnel, according to the audit released Wednesday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The leaking tunnel supplies more than half of the 1.3 billion gallons of drinking water consumed each day in the city.

The report found that the city has spent more than $28 million on engineering consulting services since 1998, but failed to consistently follow the consultant's recommendations. In that time, water loss due to the leaks has increased from about 20 million gallons per day in 1992 to 35 million per day, the report said.

Seriously, WTF is going on here. They have known about this for nearly twenty years and haven't done anything but 'study' it. Our steam pipes are antiquated, our electrical grid is shot to hell and now we find that the pipes that carry fresh water to New York has a mile and a half long 'leak'. A dripping faucet with a bad washer constitutes a leak. An old roof over your head that requires a few pots and pans during a storm....that would be called a leak. Thirty-five million gallons a day? That would be the daily flow of a small river. The city and the state needs to get their act together.