David Yassky

New York City's New Boro Taxis Are Green -- Apple Green, That Is

It's not lime green, not key lime pie green, not sea-foam green, nor is it chartreuse. Nope. The city's new taxi for upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs, unveiled this morning, is apple green. The mayor's office emphasized this specific shade of green at a press conference at City Hall this morn ... More >>

TLC Seeks Proposals For Taxi Payment App

The days of having to carry around cash in order to take cabs are so long gone. Now, in addition to taxi's ubiquitous credit card machines, the Taxi & Limousine Commission is soliciting proposals for an app that will allow people to pay for their ride on their smartphone. It's just the next step in ... More >>

The Taxi and Limousine Commission Has Turned Into Your Mother

Upset or perhaps personally just really offended that a majority -- 65 percent! -- of yellow cab passengers are not doing the barest minimum to keep themselves safe, and did we really raise you this way, I don't think so, put your goddamn seatbelt on when you're riding in a cab, you don't know how t ... More >>

TLC Sting Operation Proves Cabbies Still Don't Want to Go to Brooklyn

In the latest sting operation against the dreaded "cabbies who won't go to Brooklyn," the TLC hired college students for $10 an hour to pose as regular old taxi riders and hail cabs with a request to go to the outer boroughs. Since September, 1,330 cabs have been hailed, and 361 refused to take the ... More >>

How to React When Someone Steals Your Cab

​Today the wise bloggers over at Daily Intel have attempted to answer a New York City etiquette question for the ages: What is a fair amount of space between the honorable person who is already there hailing a cab, and the jerkish-or-oblivious person (who, if going into labor or needing immedi ... More >>

Taxi TV to Change Because People Hate Taxi TV

​Televisions in the backseats of New York City cabs are about to change, the Times reports. (For those of you bemoaning the lack of progress humanity has made, read that sentence aloud to someone in 1980 and watch them flip their shit.) A survey of taxi passengers came out Thursday, and 31 per ... More >>

Squeaky Clean and Suave Cab Drivers Coming to New York

Acceptable outfit?​Yesterday the Taxi and Limousine Commission changed some of its policies for taxi drivers to make your ride a little more sexy. Taxi Drivers must now comply with a dress code that says they must wear clothes with a "professional appearance." According to the New York Times, ... More >>

Dear Rest-of-America: New York's Cabbies Are Not The Rudest, You Are Just All Ignorant Pussies

​DNA News posted today on a recent Hotels.com survey calling New York City's taxis the second-best in the world next to London's Black Cabs. They also called the drivers of New York's taxis "America's Rudest," with Paris coming in second place. To which New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commi ... More >>

Taxi and Limousine Commission Cracks Down on Nickel and Diming Cabbies Just in Time for Friday Night Rush

​Today the Taxi and Limousine Commission announced that they'll attempt to revoke the licenses of 633 drivers who did the dastardly, unforgivable deed of routinely overcharging their customers, costing those poor, innocent taxi riders $1.1 million en toto. (Which, just for comparison's sake, i ... More >>

Yassky Gets Top Taxi Job

As has been speculated, former city council member and recent unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic comptroller nomination David Yassky will serve as the new Commissioner of the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Yassky served on the council's transportation committee, which was chaired by John Li ... More >>

David Yassky Reportedly Up for Taxi Commissioner Job (Updated)

Mayor Bloomberg announced today that Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew Daus is stepping down from his job. Guess who's being considered for the job? David Yassky, the former city councilmember who lost last year's primary for the Democratic nomination for comptroller (which was won by John Li ... More >>

Broadway Triangle Rezoning Blocked

On Monday the city council approved a rezoning plan for the Broadway Triangle in North Brooklyn that would move out several small manufacturing businesses to make way for affordable housing units. Yesterday a judge blocked the plan over the objections of the district's councilman, David Yassky, an ... More >>

Council Approves Broadway Triangle Rezoning

Much has been made of the city council's recent triple override of Mayor Bloomberg: They've answered his vetoes with second votes overruling him on the Kingsbridge Armory mall, the five-minute parking grace, and an expansion of clergy parking privileges. But yesterday they gave him the Broadway Tri ... More >>

City Closer to Lifting Beekeeping Ban

Bees: good for rooftops.​Someone at the Board of Health must have gotten a taste of honey: one year after council man David Yassky introduced a bill legalizing beekeeping in the city, the Board has proposed lifting the ban.

City Council Representative Yassky's Zigzag Path to the Runoff

A credibility gap for Comptroller wannabes

Cheek, in Review: 7 Days of Runnin' Scared

​ Ha, ha, ha. The sweet release of death is a week closer. In the afterlife we can forget all about Kanye and all these ridiculous (but highly amusing) tributes. New York had a big Primary Day -- or, judging by turnout, a dinky one. Our hero Tony Avella went down to defeat. The heavily fund ... More >>

Barrett: Yassky Meets His Endorser

​David Yassky, the Brooklyn councilman running for comptroller in the September 29 runoff, was greeting voters at the 72nd Street subway stop last night, standing on that island in the middle of Broadway. It was getting close to 7 p.m. and the rush hour crowd had shrunk to a handful. I told hi ... More >>

How'd Yassky Do It? Maybe His Family's Campaigning. (Or the Times Endorsement.)

By Aaron Howell. The day after the primary, it's hard to pinpoint the deciding factor in David Yassky's strong finish in the comptroller's race, which forced a runoff with John Liu. (In its last-minute poll, SurveyUSA showed Yassky at 22 percent -- virtually tied with Melinda Katz, and well behind ... More >>

Primary Culler: Comptroller's Race Fluid, But Liu Grabs a Lead

​The city comptroller race is tight: the lead's been changing a lot, and a poll earlier this month showed Melinda Katz, David Yassky and John Liu covering a five-point spread. The most recent survey shows Liu grabbing a huge lead. David Weprin trails, but even after substantial coverage and $1 ... More >>

Candidates Make Last Push As Primary Looms

​ It's Primary Day. The candidates have been scrambling to make last minute subway pitches, spend their final dollars on radio and television ads, and send volunteers to push campaign literature in people's faces. So what does New York -- a city where so many people appear detached from local ... More >>

Primary Results: Vance In; Comptroller and P.A. Go to Runoffs; Council Incumbents Suffer; Rose Romps in Staten Island

Primary Day led to expected results, for the most part. For the Democratic mayoral nomination, Thompson romped, 70 to 21 percent, over Tony Avella. (Also someone named Roland Rogers got eight percent. Clearly a name to watch!) With no comptroller candidate making the 40 percent mark, John Liu and Da ... More >>

Endorsement Fever! Thompson Gets a Paper, Aborn Gets Gay City, Skaller Gets Animal Activists

​September? How'd that happen? The local political endorsements are flying thick and fast, as are emails from operatives desiring they be publicized. Today Bill Thompson got his first newspaper endorsement -- from the Amsterdam News. Ha! Bloomberg's got two dozen of those, and the Voice is c ... More >>

Campaign Finance Board Doles Out Matching Funds, Updates on Scandal (Updated)

The city's non-profit Campaign Finance Board has said it will dole out just over half a million dollars in matching funds to 42 candidates tomorrow morning -- the second-to-last financial package the candidates will receive before the September 15 primary election. Set to take in some of the large ... More >>

Power Plays by Party Boss Vito Lopez

The Lord of Brooklyn, a Democratic powerbroker who is flexing his political muscles these days like a gym rat pumping the free weights

Katz Takes Lead in Comptroller's Race

We told you it was a bad idea to underestimate Melinda Katz. The latest WABC poll shows that she has taken the lead in the city comptroller's race over nearest competitor John Liu, 27 percent to 21 percent. And this time she's ahead of "Undecided," too. David Yassky, despite the Times' endorsement, ... More >>

On the Stump: Citywide Candidates' Latest Doings

​Damn, August already -- and we haven't paid our rent or looked at the local candidates much besides the mayoral prospects. Here's a fast look at what contenders for three big spots have been up to lately: Manhattan D.A.: Richard Aborn appeared with former NYPD Commissioner and current LAPD C ... More >>

Bikes in Buildings Bill Blocked; Cycle Supporters Turn Up Heat

The Bicycle Access to Buildings Bill has been cooking in the city council for a while; last September councilmember David Yassky and his comrades at Transportation Alternatives were confident of quick (well, quick for government) passage of the bill, which would require commercial property owners to ... More >>

Cheek, in Review: 7 Days of Runnin' Scared

We know how you feel, kid. Via Craftser via urlesque. We suspect Obama got that Iranian-American reporter released, and he's certainly trying to help refugees and rescue us from financial criminals. But does he get credit? No -- because he he laughed at Wanda Sykes, just like all the newly-reclas ... More >>

City Money Made EZ: Yassky Web Site Offers Answers

Here's an early and useful dividend from the four-way race for the Democratic nomination for city comptroller: Candidate David Yassky, the Brooklyn city councilman who's been eager for an electoral promotion for several years now, today released his own Web site of city budget info. Yassky calls his ... More >>

Candidates for Council, Comptroller, DA Pitch at VID

Democratic candidates for city council seats in districts 1, 2, and 3, district attorney, and comptroller came to the Village Independent Democrats last night to make their cases, under strict time limits and with screened questioning, for the venerable club's endorsement. In District 1: Pete Gle ... More >>

Hats In The Ring: Vance for D.A., Liu for Comptroller

A couple of candidates for local office are stepping up this week: Cyrus Vance Jr. -- aka Cy Vance -- is announcing for Manhattan D.A. at City Hall as we write. He is expected to face Dan Castleman and Lesley Crocker Snyder, who starts the battle early by telling the Post, "While I was in New York ... More >>

City Payroll Search Tool Offers Hours of Depressing Fun

Ever ahead of the curve, Runnin' Scared told you about the public information site SeeThroughNY.net in August. Now the site's public-employee-salary search apparatus has been updated to include New York City government drones, which is getting major play in the press, and if there's anything we like ... More >>

Yassky, Other Brooklyn Pols Cave on Billburg Bike Lanes (Updated)

Yassky Defends Bike Lane Letter; TransAlt Says He "Should Know Better"

Pols Suggest MTA Deal Land for $; Still Seeks Missing Report

Neighbors Fight Expansion of Brooklyn Jail

Yassky Defends Term Limits Vote; Bloggers Cry "Chickenshit"

Bill Opening Workplaces to Bikes is a Lock, Says Sponsor

April Showers Bring Rally Calling for Atlantic Yards 'Time Out'

Carrión to Run for Comptroller in 2009

On the Outs in Brooklyn

The city's complicity behind the borough's soaring eviction rate

Brooklyn's Nasty Race Race

Color and power collide in a historically black district

Roaring Over Ratner

Pricing the Pols: How Much for a Beep?

Foul Play

Raw sewage continues to pour into the city's waterways

Close-Up on Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

The Other Black Sea

Seeping into the harbor, the city's oldest oil spill nears court action

Close-Up on DUMBO, Brooklyn

Still Counting

The Big Term-Limits Primary Offers Some Surprises

The Court Street Regular

Brooklyn Machine Wants One of Its Own Atop the New Council