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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

New York City Mayor finally admits massive increase in homeless on the street--our native refugees, before the Syrians, you might say--and found a solution. Taxpayers. He simply moves the bodies to pricey motels. Homeless in NYC now use 4,000 rooms in 46 motels per night, up from 'only' 1,000 rooms in Jan. 2015, for a tab of $50 million in 2016 alone. Many homeless have addictions or mental health issues that aren't solved by a room-NY Post, Goodwin

8/30/16, De Blasio has somehow made the homeless problem worse," NY Post, Michael Goodwin

"If you build it or lease it or own it, they will come — and keep coming and keep coming, until you have no place to put them all. That’s the decades-old lesson of New York’s homeless problem, but Mayor de Blasio came into office with a determination to reinvent the wheel.

And so he has, with his backward policies creating even more homeless people and forcing the city to spend ever more on failing programs. As he is proving by gutting school discipline and standards and much else, he is the mayor who refuses to learn from the past.

Early in de Blasio’s stint, the rise in public vagrancy was a flashpoint, with many residents and visitors complaining about being harassed and attacked. Asked why they slept in the streets or parks instead of going to shelters, street people usually answered that the shelters were crowded and dangerous.

They were right, and so the mayor, after initially denying there was an increase in the street population or that the shelters were a mess, did an about-face and pledged a major fix.
Naturally, he made everything worse.

It turns out that de Blasio’s “fix” involved renting out thousands of pricey rooms in motels and hotels and turning them into shelters. How pricey?

Try an average of $161 dollars a room per night, for a total tab of $50 million this year alone.
And, as The Post recently reported, an Upper West Side hotel, The Excelsior on West 81st, is charging the city up to $300 a night each for a batch of rooms.

The homeless are now using 4,000 rooms in 46 motels each night, up from 1,000 rooms in eight motels in January 2015, according to The Wall Street Journal.

And it’s not as if the 600 or so shelters have been improved or eliminated. About 59,300 people used them one night last week, up more than 6,000 since de Blasio took office.

The total picture, then, is of a homeless population still expanding far faster than the city can keep up. Yet to hear officials talk, they’re doing everything they can as best they can and besides, it’s not their fault. Nothing ever is.

“It’s a citywide problem that has built up over many years,” Steven Banks, the top homeless official, insisted to a Journal reporter. “We have a legal obligation and a moral obligation to not have people on the streets.”

Notice he doesn’t say the city has an obligation to do it better and less expensively.

In truth, Banks is a big part of the problem. He spent 30 years suing the city to force it to provide shelter on demand. And when de Blasio foolishly gave him the keys to the kingdom, Banks immediately set about removing the few barriers previous mayors had established to discourage people from coming into the shelters in the first place.

His “no questions asked” approach recalls the come-and-get-it welfare mentality of the John Lindsay era. That, too, ended in disaster, both for taxpayers and for welfare recipients who lost any reason to support themselves. The government check would always arrive on time, even if it afforded only a subsistence existence.

The problem was compounded until welfare reform was passed at the federal level, an epic advance that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. All the talk of doom and gloom was wrong, with millions of Americans moving from welfare to work because they had to. That was an example of tough love that helped downtrodden, dependent people build better lives for themselves.

A similar change is needed in policies governing homelessness. There is no true compassion in a system that offers seedy temporary housing for adults and children — no matter how long they need it. Surely, America and New York can do better.

Especially because many of those in the shelters aren’t there because of a real housing-affordability problem. They have addictions or serious mental issues that are aggravated on the streets or in shelters.

That the numbers keep growing even in the face of low unemployment should be a wake-up call at City Hall. Don’t count on it. When hard work, tough love and political courage are needed, bet on de Blasio to roll over and hit the snooze button."




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Sunday, August 28, 2016

US Mid-Atlantic team becomes 2016 Little League World Series champs, defeats Asia Pacific 2-1




8/28/16, Final out of Little League World Series, ESPN Baseball Tonight

US Mid-Atlantic Team becomes Little League World Series champs, defeats Asia Pacific 2-1

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Gary Sanchez autographed rookie card sells for $5200 on eBay, a record for a Sanchez card-Darren Rovell


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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Catching up with the Core-The Players' Tribune












"Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera Retired/New York Yankees"

8/23/16, "Catching Up With The Core," The Players' Tribune

Was it Applebee’s or TGI Fridays?

Mariano Rivera
No, it was Bennigan’s.

Derek
You’re right, it was Bennigan’s. Mo and I both got sent down to the minors on the same day in 1995. After it happened, we went across the street from our hotel to a Bennigan’s. We were both sitting in a booth just crying. I was 20 and Mo, I think you were… what, 33 or 34?

Mo
I was 25.
It was terrible, man. We were crushed. It hurt. It hurt so bad. Now I know how Jorge must have felt the entire year in ’96 because he got sent up and down like a yo-yo.
Up and down, up and down.

Jorge Posada

If anyone got injured, I was the first one they called up. Then when they got healthy, I would get sent back down. It was tough.

Mo
During spring training in ’96? Shoot, I was just trying to make the team. That was all I cared about. And I was really excited to get to Tampa to start camp because I thought we had hired a new manager with the last name Torres. So I’m thinking, This is great! This man speaks Spanish!

Jorge
Hahaha, yeah, Joe Torres.

Mo
So I go up to Joe — first time we ever met — and I immediately start speaking Spanish. He just kind of looks at me all funny. He’s like, “No habla.”"...Image above from The Players' Tribune


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Tuesday, August 23, 2016

NY City cab drivers no longer required to speak English

8/20/16, "NYC Cab Drivers no longer required to speak English," yellowcabnyctaxi.com

"New York City taxi drivers will no longer have to pass an English test under new rules designed to make it easier for immigrants to get behind the wheel of a yellow cab.

Under regulations that went into effect Friday, the test for a taxi license will be available in several languages.

The change was approved by the City Council in April and signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The New York Times reports that city officials sought parity with app-based ride services such as Uber, which don’t require an English test.

The city’s taxi drivers have been overwhelmingly foreign-born for decades.

According to the Taxi and Limousine Commission, just 4 percent of current drivers were born in the United States."













image from yellowcabnyctaxi.com

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Sunday, August 14, 2016

Core Four at Yankee Stadium for Mariano Rivera Monument Park plaque presentation, Aug. 14, 2016


















Aug. 14, 2016, Among those present at Yankee Stadium ceremony for presentation of Mariano Rivera's Monument Park plaque along with Mo were the rest of the Core Four, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte. Bernie Williams, below, was also present making it the Fab Five.















Aug. 14, 2016, Bernie, Posada, Andy, Jeter, and Mo, "Rivera monument unveiling," "The Yankees pay tribute to former pitcher Mariano Rivera by unveiling his plaque that will be placed in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium." YES Network. Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams


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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Arod signs for fans at Fenway Park before his last game in Boston as a Yankee, 8/11/16










8/11/16, Arod signs for fans at Fenway Park before his last game in Boston as a Yankee, Enrique Rojas twitter. Final 4-2 Yankees over Red Sox, Arod with an RBI

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Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Arod takes bp at Fenway Park, 8/9/16













Above, 8/9/16, Arod takes BP in Fenway Park, video by Marly Rivera, ESPN. Arod not in lineup tonight

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