Last Wednesday, Fractured Atlas hosted a conversation with NYC 26th District Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, who is also Chair of the NYC Cultural Affairs Committee, at Topaz Arts in Queens NYC.
>see photos
The event had a surprisingly fantastic turnout, and Van Bramer stayed an hour late just to answer every question from the overflowing audience of artists. [...]
An important action alert from our friends at Public Knowledge:
On February 16th, Congress will hold a hearing on Net Neutrality where Members will make known their intentions to repeal the FCC’s recently introduced Net Neutrality rules. If passed, this repeal wouldn’t just scrap the rules–it would also prevent the agency from taking action on this important [...]
Our good friends at the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) are hosting their annual Policy Summit next week in Washington, D.C. Several of us from Fractured Atlas will be attending and/or appearing on panels. This will be the third summit I’ve attended and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes to geek-out on topics [...]
A few weeks ago I pointed out Arlene Goldbard’s excellent summary of the issues surrounding a “new WPA” and specifically how the arts might be involved in or affected by such an undertaking. Arlene has now posted a follow-up piece which is equally worth a read.
Like the last piece it is thorough and informative, and [...]
There’s been endless talk lately about the Obama administration’s economic stimulus agenda and how it might incorporate or impact the arts. Some of that chatter has even taken place on this blog.
Thankfully, Arlene Goldbard has put together an extremely thorough treatment of the subject. She covers the historical precedents, the current arguments, and the [...]
The Economist has a short piece about the opportunities and pitfalls in Obama’s plan to make massive investments in infrastructure projects. The writer observes that the US has historically underinvested in infrastructure, while the projects that are carried out are funded in a haphazard manner through Congressional member items with little or no federal oversight [...]
Today’s Metro New York reports on a scary crime wave in Williamsburg, Brooklyn:
Of Brooklyn’s police precincts, Williamsburg’s 90th, which encompasses the gentrifying South Side plus its central and east sections, has seen the greatest rise in crime over the past year — 13.49 percent — according to Compstat data. The neighboring 94th precinct, which includes [...]
Watching the Democratic National Convention last night, I was struck by one of the most significant but rarely discussed aspects of a potential Obama presidency. Barack Obama would be the first president in memory - to my knowledge the first since Teddy Roosevelt - to come from an urban background. He grew up in Honolulu [...]
If you’re feeling wonky or if you’re just looking for respected sources to cite in your next grant application, you should check out PolicyArchive.org, a new website from the Center for Governmental Studies.
PolicyArchive is an innovative, new digital archive of global, non-partisan public policy research. It makes use of the power, efficiency, and economy of [...]
Ray D. Madoff, writing in this morning’s NY Times, laments the news that Leona Helmsley bequeathed most of her $8 billion fortune to a foundation dedicated to the care and welfare of dogs:
The charitable deduction constitutes a subsidy from the federal government. The government, in effect, makes itself a partner in every charitable bequest. In [...]
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