Bloomberg Goes for Mexican
• The mayor is visiting Tepoztlán, Mexico — the site of the slightly kooky, yet reportedly very effective, cash-for-good-behavior program that he’s hoping to implement here. Hey, if it’s good for Tepoztlán …NYT]
• NYU Student Council president Meredith Dolgin, 21, is in hot water for (a) tampering with elections, (b) using school funds for a personal trip, and (c) getting her own grandmother a paid speaking engagement at the university. [NYP]
• We may get to read more by former journalist Peter Braunstein. His journal has been deemed admissible at his trial, and it reportedly contains detailed plans for the costumed kidnapping and assault that made him infamous. [NYDN]
• It’s not all luxury condos for Brooklyn: A blockwide affordable-housing complex will be built in Fort Greene, the city says. More than 300 apartments of the 434 total units will be subsidized. [amNY]
• And, here’s an idea how to save Little Italy: high-end Italian boutiques! A neighborhood activist, working with the Medici Foundation, wants Armani, Fendi, et al, to give Mulberry a “Little Milan” tinge. Too bad they’re all five blocks away, on West Broadway. [MetroNY]
in other news
‘Post’ Praises Mayor’s Mexican Poor Plan
Several days ago, we raised our eyebrows at an experimental social program championed by Mayor Bloomberg, that would literally pay the poor for good behavior. Under the program’s rules, things like taking one’s child to regular medical checkups and attending PTA meetings could net the parents up to $5,000 a year. We found the initiative noble in concept but more than a little patronizing in execution. Today, however, it finds an energetic defense in the pages of the Post, which presents an ironclad argument: It worked in Mexico.