When the City Council recently proposed raising the age for buying cigarettes to 21 and restricting retail displays of cigarettes, less attention was paid to a third proposal -- the Sensible Tobacco Enforcement bill. It would crack down on trafficking in untaxed cigarettes and unlicensed tobacco sellers, as well as tobacco-company discounts aimed at luring new smokers.

Even though it hasn't... » more

Last month, the Partnership for New York City published the NYC Jobs Blueprint, which lays out what city leaders must do to create a full-employment economy. One key: The government must protect and leverage the city's assets, including the anchor institutions that define our global brand and power our key industries.

Madison Square Garden is one of those assets, contributing more than $500... » more

Council Speaker Christine Quinn last week announced a plan to double -- from $5 to $10 -- the price cap on items that can be sold at sidewalk newsstands.

Her proclamation amazed more than a few New Yorkers: Who knew that streetcorner newsstand owners have to petition the City Council to sell a useful $10 umbrella -- instead of the water-soluble $4 version -- here in the heart of global capitalism?

The... » more

Wanted: Some gifted and talented test administrators who can competently select students for the city's most elite academic programs.

At the moment the kings of slapstick seem to be running the show -- and, unfortunately, the joke is on some of the city's brightest children.

Last month the city announced that a processing error mistakenly eliminated 2,700 kids -- some as young as 4 years... » more

The name-calling continues in the West Village. Bike racks appeared recently for the city's new bicycle sharing program and hundreds showed up for a community board meeting with complaints about safety and sanitation.

Biking advocates labeled my neighbors "rich white people" with NIMBY attitudes (I may be white but I'm certainly not rich), while locals called the activists "plants" and asked... » more

Special prosecutor Daniel Donovan Wednesday found no basis for criminal charges against Vito Lopez, the veteran Brooklyn assemblyman caught up in a sexual harassment case that's lurid even by Albany's laughable standards. But Donovan's report and one by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, also released Wednesday, should alarm all New Yorkers who want to restore ethics, openness and honesty to... » more

It's college commencement season, and a new crop of graduates is hitting the workforce. But student-loan debt isn't the only thing weighing some of them down. Adding extra pounds continues to be part of the college experience.

As a health nut and late-in-life college student, I found that declining the abundance of free pizza and alcohol during these last four years of academia has made me... » more

Lately there's been talk about the QueensWay project, which would convert the inactive right of way of the Long Island Rail Road Rockaway Beach Branch to a pedestrian and bicycle trail. Advocates compare the idea to the High Line in Manhattan, complete with food stands along the way.

Both QueensWay and the High Line involve former rail rights of way but, functionally, they are very different.... » more

On the stairway leading out of the Fulton Street station, in the financial heart of the richest nation in the world, a tiny woman lay under a heap of blankets.

My husband and I walked past her with our 7-year-old son, Ivan.

"Maybe she's dead," Ivan said calmly.

Something about her motionless form, and the incomprehensible stillness of a body lying in such an uncomfortable position... » more

President Barack Obama gave a characteristically bloodless response to questions Monday about the IRS targeting conservative groups. It would be the signature mistake of his second term if he lacks the passion for getting to the bottom of this unfolding scandal. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it's one that goes directly to our faith in government.

The IRS has to be absolutely... » more