NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia Shows Contempt For Teachers, School Board

Sean Crowley at B-Lo-Ed Scene and James Eterno at ICEUFT blog have already covered the story of how new NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia's "I'm listening to you" tour has turned into a "I'm not listening to you" tour" as she met with the Buffalo school board to scapegoat teachers for the problems in "struggling" Buffalo public schools and declare she would fix the problems (i.e., close the schools and fire the teachers) if Buffalo didn't fix them first.

The one thing I want to get at here is the tone of contempt she had as she spoke with the Buffalo school board - here's the Buffalo News:

Some members on both sides of the usually bickering board attempted to explain the district’s past failures and plans for the future. She rejected each attempt.

The scenario that played out between the commissioner and the board members smacked of students sent to the principal’s office to explain their misbehavior. Elia’s tone became increasingly more direct as the meeting progressed.

Wearing a serious face with hands folded in front of her, Elia wasn’t buying excuses – from anyone on either side of the divided board.

At one point, board majority member Larry Quinn suggested the high schools on the receivership list were beyond repair and the district should focus its effort on elementary schools.

“Let’s be honest, you’re only looking at Buffalo,” Elia said, referring to possible solutions. “There are high schools in this nation that have been turned around. It’s going to be a huge sea change for this district and you’re the ones who are going to decide if you’re going to get there. You have a vote on a board to make the decision whether you’re going to do it.”

Quinn later suggested it could take a year to come up with plans for those schools.
“I can tell you, if you’re going to take a year to come up with a plan, you’re not going to have those schools any more,” she responded.

And when board member Sharon Belton-Cottman attempted to defend the district, Elia shared a similar exchange.

“I don’t want the impression to be given to you that this district cannot function,” Belton-Cottman said.

“For whatever reason,” Elia replied, “the Buffalo school system with the School Board has not gotten its act together at those schools.”

... 

“That someone’s going to come in here and wave a magic wand, and all of these kids who have severe problems will start doing well, that’s just not going to happen,” Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore said.

Elia disagrees.

“It’s important for you to understand there will be consequences if you can’t move those schools forward,” she said. “It’s handing you a tool and giving you an option to use it. If you don’t use it, I will.”

I'm not here to defend the Buffalo school board or their track record overseeing Buffalo schools.

I am here to point out the contempt Elia showed for the school board as she, in the Buffalo News reporter's words, treated the school board members like misbehaving children.

The talk from the Board of Regents when Elia, who was fired from her previous gig for being a divisive leader who created a culture of fear in the workplace and refused to take responsibility for the deaths of several children under her leadership, was hired was how good she was at working with disparate parties to build consensus.

Considering how she got kicked out of her last job for doing the opposite, the consensus-building claim seemed absurd.

Today we get more evidence how absurd it is.

Elia plans to take it to teachers and schools, her way or the highway on dealing with problems, and if her tenure in Hillsborough is any indication, when problems arise, she will be quick to evade responsibility and blame others.

Given how toxic and poisoned the politics around public education are these days in New York, her "My way or the highway" strategy isn't going to play well in this state.

The sand is already sifting to the bottom of the time clock on her tenure here in New York.

MaryEllen Elia Knows It All, Doesn't Much Want To Hear From Others

That's the subtext of this Wall Street Journal piece on our new NYSED Commissioner:

In Florida, she was known as a blunt, forceful whirl of energy, at times holding staff meetings at 6 a.m. “She’s one of the smartest, hardest-working people I know, but she doesn’t suffer fools gladly,” said Candy Olson, a former school-board member in Hillsborough County. “She knew everything going on in the district but that doesn’t leave a lot of time to reflect…. Sometimes she gets going and doesn’t always listen to all the other voices.”

And:

Doretha Edgecomb, a school-board member and former principal, called her a bold visionary but said sometimes it would help her to slow down, “making sure those around her also understand the depth of her vision.”

Since her appointment, Elia has used language that makes her sound "collaborative":

In an interview in Albany this week, Ms. Elia talked in careful, measured tones. She said the debut of higher academic standards, harder tests and new evaluations at the same time created extra tension, in New York and nationally. “Whenever there is something new, there is a stress level,” she said. “I hope I can be a facilitator to establish more collaborative relationships between all the parties.”

But there are enough warning signs from her Hillsborough tenure that she's going to be an autocrat as NYSED commissioner, imposing her vision on the state, critics be damned.

You can see more negatives here, here, here , here and here.

Time For An Education Summit That Doesn't Emanate From The Governor's Office

Ken Mitchell, former superintendent of the South Orangetown school district and current associate professor of education at Manhattanville College:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for another overhaul of the state's flawed teacher evaluation system. The current model was rushed into place so New York could qualify for federal Race To The Top dollars, and has failed to gather accurate information about teacher quality. If Albany's efforts to wrest control from local districts to advance a politically motivated education agenda are successful, the results will be damaging to students and fiscally wasteful, while offering no credible information about teacher performance. It is time for an education summit, but not one that emanates from the governor's office.

The governor has appointed commissions on mandate relief, school reform, and Common Core, naming members who often lacked expertise or objectivity. This time we need a summit involving stakeholders: teachers, principals, superintendents, parents and school boards. We need a de-politicized venue to ensure an objective analysis of the evidence behind current and proposed reforms related to assessment, teacher evaluation, Common Core and charter schools. If policymakers continue to mandate without evidence and allow profiteers to influence educational decisions, children will be harmed and public education ruined.

Read the whole piece - Mitchell asks the right questions about Cuomo's agenda, including:

What is the evidence for using student test results to rate teachers?

Only 20% of teachers teach subjects with yearly state tests - will the state need to develop more tests for all disciplines and grade levels? If so, what would be the cost?

While the public is told that charters are the "solution" to failing schools, what is the evidence? Have charters helped children with significant learning challenges succeed? Why should the public subsidize privatization?

What is the evidence to support that state or private takeovers succeed? What did New York learn from taking over the the Roosevelt School District on Long Island? What did Louisiana learn from the New Orleans charter school takeover?

What was the empirical basis for the Common Core and associated tests? Do they consider the cognitive development of children?

Mitchell concludes:

It is time for a summit. New York would serve as a model to the nation by developing an objective, comprehensive, research-rich analysis of its school reform agenda to ensure that we are helping, not harming, the children in our schools.

 That sounds right to me.

Cuomo Links State Financial Aid For NY College Students To DREAM Act, School Vouchers

And yet another policy linkage shoved into the 30 day amendments to the budget by Il Duce Cuomo:

Gov. Cuomo’s budget plan would deny nearly $1 billion in state aid to 372,000 legal New York college students if the Legislature refuses to provide tuition assistance to illegal immigrants and tax credits to supporters of parochial schools.

The poison pill was inserted by Cuomo into the state budget last week, but isn’t widely known.

...

State Conservative Party chairman Mike Long fumed, “This is definitely blackmail. The governor is holding college students hostage. It’s ethically wrong.”

The state spent $935.6 million on Tuition Assistance Program benefits to 372,527 students last year. Grants ranged from $500 to $5,000.

But in amendments to his budget plan, Cuomo linked the release of the TAP grants to expanding eligibility to undocumented residents as well as enactment of the Education Tax Credit.

The way the budget bill is written, the Legislature can’t reject the Dream Act or the tax credit without also wiping out the entire tuition assistance program for nearly 400,0000 college students.

The actual language of the amendment says “funds from this [TAP] appropriation shall not be spent” unless the two other programs are also approved.

Cuomo is calculating that his provocative maneuver will force lawmakers to pass both the Dream Act and the Education Tax Credit to avoid being blamed for scrapping the popular tuition grants.

Asked about the linkage, Cuomo’s office provided a comment the governor recently made on Long Island.

“It’s the best way to get it passed,” he said. “Because they wouldn’t pass it last year, and I think this gives it the greatest likelihood of passing.”

Pretty soon they'll be no other legislation passed in New York State except for the stuff Cuomo sticks into the 30 day budget amendments tied to other things.

I'm not sure when we went from living in a democracy to an autocracy, but that's where we're at these days.

Cuomo - the governor with the 44%-55% job approval rating - is imposing his will on the state like he's The Sun King.

Pass what I want or I kill off all state financial aid to college students.

Nice.

Cuomo To Mandate All CUNY And SUNY Students Do Internships

Because what all students need is to be forced to do free labor in order to get a college degree, Governor Cuomo is going to mandate "experiential learning" for all CUNY and SUNY grads:

Part Q - Make experiential learning a graduation requirement at SUNY and CUNY

Purpose:

This bill would make experiential learning a mandatory requirement for graduation at the State University of New York and the City University of New York to ensure our public institutions of higher education connect students to employers and jobs.

Summary of Provisions and Statement in Support:

This bill would amend Education Law to require the Boards of Trustees of the State University of New York and the City University of New York to each pass a resolution  making experiential learning or applied learning activities a mandatory requirement for graduation.

To gain employment after graduation, it is no longer sufficient for a student simply to attain a degree or certificate in a specific field. Rather, students must also demonstrate work readiness and prior relevant experience to prospective employers. Experiential learning such as cooperative education ("co-op") and internships provide a win-win-win for New York's businesses, colleges, and -- most importantly -- students.

Budget Implications:

Enactment of this bill is necessary to implement the 2015-16 Executive Budget.

Effective Date: This bill would take effect April 1, 2015

Even better, notice this language:

Enactment of this bill is necessary to implement the 2015-16 Executive Budget.

Experiential learning may be a great idea but there's no reason why it needs to be mandated by the governor and shoved into the budget with a "Yay or Nay" vote from the Legislature.

Let each SUNY and CUNY program make it's own decisions on "experiential learning" and enact (or not) their own proposals accordingly.

The Stony Brook Statesman covered this story yesterday SUNY students are NOT happy with this AT ALL:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing for experiential learning through internships and/or part-time jobs as a new graduation requirement for all SUNY students in his proposed SUNY budget for next year.

Frederick Walter, the former president of the Stony Brook University Senate who currently serves on the SUNY Senate, said Stony Brook is ahead of the curve as the current Stony Brook Curriculum calls for experiential learning upon graduation; however, how the Governor describes experiential learning and how Stony Brook University does are completely different.

The SBC asks that students at some point learn through experience, whether it be through internships, jobs, research, scholarly activity or service learning, among other experiences. Cuomo’s plan would mandate experiential learning through internships.

According to Walter, an internship would definitely help a business or journalism major, but certain students would not benefit from working as an office intern, but they rather need experience in study labs doing research and experimentations.

Issues with experiential learning being mandated by the Governor go beyond a lack of an explanation of exactly what experiential learning is. There are over 60 SUNY campuses, not counting CUNY schools, which also fall under the list of SUNY campuses.

As Walter pointed out, this mandate would be “a system-wide thing. There are 400,000 students in the SUNY system. It is huge…there aren’t enough companies in the state of N.Y. offering internships.” Not only that, but with over 60 unique schools, mandating the same requirements for all would be foolish, Walter said.

Stony Brook University professor and Director of the Center for News Literacy Dean Miller noted additional issues. Experiential learning should be a requirement “only if students have access to it” and “so many students can’t afford internships because so many of them are unpaid,” he said.

Some are wondering just where Cuomo got his education expertise:

Requiring all students to gain an internship would force certain disadvantaged students into picking up unpaid spots, which is “lunacy,” Miller said. 

Cuomo has faced opposition for trying to mandate this.

Walter said many SUNY Senate members wonder why the governor is mandating curriculum, as no governor has done so previously. 

Cuomo is a politician not a professor, therefore he does not fully understand what he is mandating.

The response from Cuomo?

The Governor’s Press Office did not comment.

Since when does the governor get to act like dictator in New York State and mandate whatever he wants in the budget?

Since Pataki took the Legislature to court and won that power:

Cuomo is also potentially testing the limits with which policy matters can be included in appropriations bills, a matter that was first considered in the landmark ruling Pataki v. Silver.

That ruling allowed governor’s significant leeway in budget-making powers, which Gov. David Paterson used to his own advantage in ramming major spending cuts through the “extender” process when the budget was passed its April 1 due date.

Cuomo's shoving more and more policy into the budget in order to push legislation that he wants that might be more problematic if the Legislature were to vote on it straight up.

This "experiential learning" mandate is particularly problematic because, as the Stony Brook Statesman notes, there are 400,000 students in the SUNY system.

There are another 480,000 CUNY students - that means there an awful lot of internships students are going to be looking for in order too graduate if Cuomo gets his way.

If you thought Cuomo's education reform plans for K-12 are insane, take heart - so are his education reform plans for CUNY and SUNY.

Isn't it time we take back our democratic form of government from the autocratic Governor Cuomo?

Governor Cuomo Looks To Impose Casinos On Any Community He Wants - Without Their Input

Just as the governor imposes an education policy without regard for what the public in the state wants, he is going to force communities to accept casinos in their midst whether they want his "generosity" or not.

The Times-Union has an interesting editorial on this issue - see how many analogues to the education reform issues we have been dealing with these past years you find in this casino issue:

THE ISSUE:

The governor brushes off legislation to let localities accept or reject a casino.

THE STAKES:

What he calls mere politics is people wanting a say in their hometown's destiny.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo may see gambling as the salvation of upstate, but not all of upstate agrees. And perhaps the most conspicuous place where the governor's view conflicts with local opinion is Saratoga Springs.

Last fall, Saratoga County was among the areas where more people voted against casino legalization than for it. The question now is whether the governor gets to impose a casino on any community he and gambling interests choose, whether citizens like it or not.

Here's Mr. Cuomo's office, suggesting that a bill to allow communities to reject a casino would "politicize the selection process." So the will of city councils, town boards, and ordinary citizens is now just politics? They're the special interests, not the gambling corporations with their lobbyists and generous campaign checks?

Surely Mr. Cuomo appreciates that New York is a "home rule" state, requiring, for some matters, both state and local approval. The city of Albany, for example, couldn't create a neighborhood parking permit system without the consent of both the Common Council and the state Legislature. Nor can New York City raise income taxes on rich residents without both state and local approval.

It's a cumbersome system, perhaps, but it also reflects how sometimes the interests and concerns of local residents and the state are equally important, and demand consensus.

At the moment, however, that's not how the law views siting of casinos. With approval last year by state voters of a constitutional amendment to allow Las Vegas-style casinos in New York, the decision on where to place them will rest with a siting board. That board will be appointed by the New York Gaming Commission — another new body, this one dominated by the governor's appointees. This process was set up in legislation months before voters approved the casino amendment.

The legislation also lays out how applications by casino interests will be weighed — 70 percent on economic development, 20 percent on local impacts, and 10 percent on labor matters. So local objections are, at best, secondary to the dollar signs. And in practice, they could mean nothing; If the siting board decides that all the traffic worries and other logistical local concerns are addressed, how people feel about what a casino would do to the character of their community might well be deemed moot.

Some lawmakers don't think that's right. A bill sponsored by Sens. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, and Cecilia Tkaczyk, D-Duanesburg, would apply home rule to casino siting decisions, requiring consent by the local government.

But a spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo says the governor isn't going to let politics be injected into the selection process with such unnecessary legislation. The governor shrugs off a vital home rule issue as if it's no more serious than choosing a state muffin.

There will be plenty of communities eager for the construction cranes that Mr. Cuomo waxed on about in his State of the State address. What nobody likes is a steamroller. 

A policy imposed by the governor, with little regard for how people in the municipalities or regions are affected by that policy - that's our Governor Cuomo in action.

And anything Cuomo doesn't like becomes "politics" - even though he engages in those same "politics" by imposing policies onto parts of the state without their input or okay.

We have an autocrat in the governor's mansion who has decided he knows best on everything and anybody who stands in his way is going to get steamrolled or told to get the hell out of the state.

Isn't it time somebody clips Governor Cuomo's ego sails and lets him know that he's not the autocrat of the state?

Someone in the comments writes:

Cuomo is acting more like a king than a governor. Does he see this as a winning election strategy? All that war chest money does not guarantee a win.

Let Saratoga decide their own fate.

Indeed.

NYSED Commissioner John King Looks To Take Total Control

It's John King's way or the highway - there's no other way to read this story:

BUFFALO, NY - New York's Education Commissioner wants the state legislature to pass a bill, giving the Board of Regents the authority to take over school boards in districts failing academically and/or financially.

Under the proposal, there would be benchmarks for state intervention, involving a three-step approach, with a takeover the last step if a district continues to fail to implement mandated changes.

"The Board of Regents has put forward a legislative proposal that would allow the board to remove a school board in a district that is chronically under-performing, and require the appointment of an education oversight board that would be similar to a fiscal control board," Commissioner John King told WGRZ-TV.

"That control board would then have responsibility for managing the district," King said.
Giving the Board of Regents that type of authority isn't a new idea. A bill to do so was first proposed in 2011; however, it never made it out of committee that year, or the next ..., and was not even submitted in the last legislative session of 2013.

"It has not yet been acted upon, but that's certainly one of the options we believe should be on the table for the Board of Regents when you have a district that is chronically under-performing and, from a governance perspective unable to move forward," said King. 

And just which district would John King be wanting to get his hands on?

Why Buffalo, of course!

To hear King describe the Buffalo Public Schools, its top administrators, and its Board of Education, Buffalo might be ripe as a takeover target.

King notes Buffalo has, in recent times, missed deadlines to enact acceptable plans to turn around troubled schools, implement school choice plans, and agreements for teacher evaluations

"The district leadership has a set of obligations. Those obligations haven't been fulfilled," King said.

Where does the governor stand on King's proposed changes?

"I don't think it's a good idea for the state to become a foster parent here,"" said Lt. Governor Robert Duffy, during a visit to the Buffalo are in June. "I think the Governor would prefer results to come locally, to come from the ground up...I would hope there would be a number of things that would be done before it ever gets to that."

King is still angry at the Buffalo school district for showing him up over the teacher evaluation law and making a side agreement with the union that nobody would be fired the first year under the new APPR system.

King and Cuomo got that side agreement quashed by threatening to hold back funding from the district.

This came after Cuomo accused the district of legal and ethical fraud by making the side agreement.

Now the teachers union in Buffalo is suing to get that agreement reinstated.

There are districts in NY State that perform similarly to Buffalo on so-called accountability measures like state test scores and graduation rates - Rochester comes to mind.

And yet, King only has his sights on Buffalo, both with his bludgeon (he is trying to force the district to allow students to transfer out to BOCES in the area) and now with his state takeover proposal.

He clearly has a vendetta against the district.

I wondered a while ago if King was aiming to have the state take over the Buffalo school district.

With King strongly urging the legislature to pass this proposal into law, you can bet he is.

The message coming out of the NYSED is, do what we want or we will take you over.

Quite literally John King thinks he is "the king."

Bloomberg Asked Hillary Clinton To Succeed Him In His Dictatorship In NYC

Thought we lived in a democracy, but it turns out we don't - the NY Times is reporting that King Bloomberg asked Hillary Clinton to succeed him at City Hall when he moves out to bigger and better things in Bermuda:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has long struggled to imagine a successor with the combination of star power, experience and grit to fill his shoes.

But not long ago, he was struck by an inspiration: Hillary Rodham Clinton, the retiring secretary of state. 

In a phone call confirmed by three people, Mr. Bloomberg encouraged Mrs. Clinton to consider entering the 2013 mayor’s race, trading international diplomacy for municipal management on the grandest scale. She would, he suggested, be a perfect fit. 

Much about the call, which occurred some months ago, remains shrouded in mystery. But Mr. Bloomberg’s overture to the former first lady highlights the level of his anxiety about the current crop of candidates, his eagerness to recruit a replacement who can rival his stature and his determination to become a kingmaker in the political arena he will soon exit. 

In Mrs. Clinton, it seems, a mayor known for his sometimes unsparing critiques of those in public life sees a globe-trotting problem solver like himself. 

During their conversation, Mrs. Clinton left little room for doubt: she was not interested in seeking the mayoralty, people briefed on the call said.

The Times article goes on to say that both Bloomberg and the business community that adores their Little Dictator are fretting that Christine Quinn will not be able to live up to the business-friendly standard that Bloomberg set in his 12 years as CEO of NYC/Bloomberg LP

That doesn't make me any warmer toward Quinn, who I still see as Bloomberg-Lite, but it does make me feel even colder toward Bloomberg.

Hey, Mike, worry less about your legacy and your successor and more about rebuilding the Rockaways, Coney Island, Staten Island, Gerritsen Beach and the other places still suffering from Sandy.

Bloomberg, NYPD, and Microsoft Go Into The Crime-Fighting Business Together

Sounds like a story from The Onion - but it's not:

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has unveiled a new crime-fighting system developed with Microsoft – and revealed that the city will take a cut of the profits if it is sold to other administrations.

The innovation, which bears a passing resemblance to the futuristic hologram data screens used by Tom Cruise in the science fiction film Minority Report, will allow police to quickly collate and visualise vast amounts of data from cameras, licence plate readers, 911 calls, police databases and other sources.

It will then display the information in real time, both visually and chronologically, allowing investigators to centralise information about crimes as they happen or are reported. "It is a one-stop shop for law enforcement," Bloomberg said at a City Hall press conference unveiling the new technology.

But, though it has many screens, maps, and flashing visuals that make it look like science fiction, the new technology has a distinctly un-Hollywood name: the Domain Awareness System. Developed by Microsoft engineers working with New York police officers, DAS will allow a host of activities to be carried out, such as spotting a suspicious vehicle and being able to track its recent movements or use cameras to track back and see who left a suspicious package.

It features live video feeds, huge databases of recent crime patterns and can take input direct from the field in real time via things like 911 calls or police radios. "All the information is presented visually and geographically and in chronological context," said police commissioner Ray Kelly.

If other cities purchase this system, Microsoft will share 30% of the profit with NYC.

Given how shoddy Microsoft products generally are, I doubt this thing will work as Bloomberg and Microsoft are advertising it, so we'll just have to see if any other municipality signs on to it.

Even so, I am a little disturbed that Microsoft and the NYPD are partnering on a crime tracking system.

Maybe the Gates Foundation can add a test score/teacher evaluation and really bring the school-to-prison complex together into one huge database?

Oops - maybe I shouldn't give Uncle Bill any ideas - he's been known to steal them before and make them into a core component of his Microsoft business model.

Although as I noted above, if this thing is as bad as Microsoft ME, Vista, Zune or Windows 8, I suspect it will spend more time freezing up and causing frustration than actually helping police track "criminals."

Bloomberg Registers Political Campaign

Anybody who thinks the Mayor of Money is going to ride off into the sunset when his third (illegal) mayoral term ends had better take a look at this news:

Chalk up another first for Mayor Bloomberg -- he's a noncandidate who has just registered a new campaign committee at the state Board of Elections.

Each of the other 10,356 active filers at the board is running for office, thinking of running for office, supporting someone running for office, or pushing a ballot initiative.

By his own words, Bloomberg falls into none of those categories.

Mayoral aides said the sole purpose of the committee, formed on April 15 and simply and aptly named "Michael R. Bloomberg," is to report the mayor's recent spending on TV, radio and direct-mail ads.

"While not obligated to file, we chose to do so in order to disclose the expenditures," said Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson.

The filing won't be made public until July 15.

Why Bloomberg is willing to disclose the information in three months, and not now, isn't clear. In a campaign, there might be a strategic advantage to not revealing any information an opponent might put to use.

But the mayor has no campaign to worry about. He has said repeatedly that he is not running again.

The new committee's mailing address is the Peekskill home of Kathleen McInerney, an employee of Bloomberg's longtime accountant, Martin Geller. Bloomberg's previous committees have all been registered out of Geller's Midtown offices.

"Everything about this is weird," said one veteran political consultant.

Government watchdog Gene Russianoff said he doesn't see an issue as long as the mayor is disbursing his own money for his own benefit.

"Clearly, the public doesn't hold it against him to spend his own money," observed Russianoff. "He can spend the money wisely or foolishly. His choice."

Bloomberg, one of the nation's wealthiest individuals, funded each of his three campaigns for City Hall to the tune of nearly $270 million combined.

The recent ads focusing on Bloomberg's "independence" were launched March 21, partly to counter a blitz of negative commercials by the teachers union and the AFL-CIO and partly to boost Bloomberg's dismal 40 percent approval number in the polls.

Is this political campaign registered just so Bloomberg can run campaign-like commercials about what a swell guy he is until his mayoral term ends?

Or does he have some even more insidious design behind the campaign?

Bloomberg Continues Pedestrian Plaza Juggernaut

When the Mayor of Money lost his battle to bring congestion pricing to Manhattan, he did not allow the idea or his enthusiasm for it go gently into that good night.

Rather he started sticking "pedestrian plazas" at some of the busiest intersections in Manhattan and expanded bike lanes, taking away precious driving space for buses, trucks, cabs and cars and making Manhattan driving an even bigger nightmare than it already was.

Bloomberg says he's just pursuing pedestrian, biker and tourist-friendly policies, but I see something else in this effort: it's a rather aggressively passive aggressive way to get his way on congestion pricing by slowly eroding driving spaces, blocking streets and making traffic in the borough worse and worse by the year.

Now I'm no car guy - I don't own a car, I wouldn't drive in Manhattan if you paid me and I am generally in favor of policies that favor pedestrians over cars.

That said, the mayor's policies have struck me as another example of his authoritarian dictatorship ways - beaten by Shelly Silver in Albany a few years ago, he's coming back around with the congestion pricing thing after log-jamming traffic all over Manhattan with his pedestrian plazas.

That's why I thought it was extraordinary that he actually was forced to back down on the latest logjam attempt on 34th Street - until I read further and realized, he wasn't backing down at all. The city was simply SAYING it was acknowledging community concerns and would roll out a new version of the proposal in the near future.

You can bet the new version of the plan won't look all that different from the old one.

Maybe it will have a new name or something. But that's about it.

Time and again, that's what the Little Mayor does - picks and picks and picks at every issue until he gets his way.

Sometimes he SAYS he's changed on something, even as he continues with his original plans.

Don't be surprised Manhattan isn't pedestrian-plazaed over by 2013, congestion pricing (and all the cameras they'll use to enforce it) isn't re-introduced into the city, the Jets don't have a West Side stadium, and the Eva Moskowitz School System hasn't replaced the old DOE.

That's how this guy operates.

Other people's wishes or feelings?

Who cares - only the billionaires matter.