Sophomore Lucas Patton (pictured above) moderated last night’s debate. Margarita Nachevnik spoke for the Party of the Left, Pat McClellan spoke for the Democrats, Mike Collins spoke for the Republicans, and Joel Nybeck spoke for the Party of the Right. All speakers were given 5 minutes for opening statements, then the floor opened for a 30 minute discussion, and the speakers concluded with 4 minute closing statements. 

PURNYU kicked off last spring, led by recent NYU graduates Michael Wood and Ed Cadmus. In a series of three debates in April and May, the Political Union gained its popularity by bringing together voices from all sides of US political life. Past resolutions have included “Abortion is a miscarriage of justice” (failed) and “Republican foreign policy will not keep America safe” (passed).

For those looking to check out the Political Union, you can join their Facebook group. The next debate is scheduled for October 20, and the topic will be American foreign policy towards Russia. The International Relations Club has teamed with PURNYU to co-host.

From PURNYU’s mission:

The Political Union and Review at NYU is a student organization dedicated to broadening the political discourse at NYU. We are made up of liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, and everyone in between. Modeled after the unions at Yale and Oxford, we hold regular debates, host guest speakers, and convene panels to discuss the issues of the day.

Photo by Brad Powell

It’s not too often that you get to hear thoughts from the likes of Susan Sontag coming from contemporary music. With his song “Politburo Technocrats,” Max Vernon does just that, capturing heavy considerations of politics and authority in a way that compels engagement with the music.

“I don’t ever want to make breathy, airy, background music. My style will never be that way – you have to engage with it. This is our challenge culturally,” he says.

There is a consistent political element to many of Max’s songs (“Dear Democracy” is another title), but he avoids the all too common “Fuck Bush” mentality to prompt real questions to his listeners. A student at the Gallatin School here at NYU, Max studies the politics of performance; and the smart insights from academic work play through in his compositions and lyrics.

While living in New York and LA throughout his life, Max has developed his creative passions both through visual and performance art, but for him, music trumps all because of its ability to immediately connect with others.

He takes inspiration from artists such as Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Laura Nyro, Joanna Newsom, and David Bowie (for aesthetic purposes) to create an innovative sound of his own. For Max, the process begins more abstractly – he hears a certain melody intuitively, but the lyrics come slowly with much work.

“When I write for piano, I hear an orchestra in my head. But I’m still searching for the experience to tell the stories I want my lyrics to convey,” Max comments.

Many of his songs reflect on relationships or take influence from childhood struggles as an outsider. “I was the most made fun of kid in middle school,” Max says, “While everybody else dressed preppy I was wearing kimonos and bondage boots. So I suppose the self-deprecating humor in some of the songs comes from an ‘I’m going to criticize me before you can criticize me’ perspective.”

Max doesn’t worry about it, though, because he says it adds humor to his work, which would be too serious otherwise. He articulates that there is an inherent need for the political songs right now, but wants to make sure that he doesn’t box himself in, that he stays open to definition.

The best thing for me – and I hope Max forgives me for this – is that I get the feel of “Rent” minus the Broadway when I listen to his music. The sound has the essence of being in New York, moments of lonely isolation and moments of complete camaraderie, themes of identity, relationships, and politics, but with a playful resonance that doesn’t get under your skin like show tunes can. His current seven-track demo album plays like a feature-release CD, and I can feel the sensation of an artist about to make a name for himself.

Max was lucky enough to get recording time for his album at the famous Westlake Studios, which has witnessed the production of hits like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill.”

Last summer, Max played nine shows and soon thereafter, he gained blogosphere notoriety when New York Magazine and the Toronto Star picked up on his “I Kissed A Girl” Katy Perry cover (video below). Through the publicity, Max met New York DJ JonJon Battles who helped him book a successful show at Ars Nova last week. Now that he’s got his New York headlining debut under his belt, he is planning his first college tour and getting his demo album out to the radio stations. With the upcoming plans, Max has an interesting dilemma because his listeners have favored different songs, so he hasn’t decided which track to feature as his single yet.

The biggest thing for him right now, though, is to make his voice heard. He says he does not want to feel like he has no voice, that he would rather sing and shout at fifty people than a computer screen all day. Max wants music to take on the issues that society should be questioning, and he won’t be held back from expressing his own opinions.

I asked Max if he had any additional comments to close with when we were wrapping up the interview. He offered some shout-outs to other New York artists that he has collaborated with or been inspired by (Caitlin Pasko, Stephanie Nilles), and then he looked up to me and said, “Oh, yea… and I like The Mamas & The Papas.”

Max will be playing his next New York show at Pianos on October 28.

Photo by Angelica Marshall

Rickshaw Dumplings

I got the tip from Kenny Lao, co-founder of Rickshaw Dumplings, who spoke at NYU on Tuesday. His vision is to bring quality food to the masses at a fast-food pace. He was looking to expand business in the city – they currently have a location in the Flatiron District and here at NYU on 8th St. – but due to insane rent prices, the best option was to go mobile.

The trend towards restaurants and cafes moving to the streets is by no means new. We all see the Mud Truck at Astor Place every day, and the Wafels & Dinges truck, moved just outside of Palladium and Trader Joe’s last year. But these projects definitely mark a step away from the more common ice cream and taco trucks we all know.

Photo: Flickr courtesy of jslander

On September 4th, City Councilman Oliver Koppell submitted a bill for drafting that proposes to extend current term limits for elected city officials from two four-year terms to three. (Welcome back to reality, to those taking a break from fretting over the end of the world.)

The focus of the term limit issue naturally turned to Mayor Bloomberg, who will be leaving office December 31, 2009 if the bill doesn’t pass. However, two-thirds of the City Council (including Koppell), along with Comptroller Thompson, and Public Advocate Gotbaum will also be leaving office at the end of 2009, as it stands now.

The controversy surrounding the issue involves two public referendums that were held in 1993 and 1996. Those against any change in term limits cite that the public has expressed its voice twice and has upheld the two four-year term limit both times. Since January 1, 1994, elected officials have not been able to seek re-election after serving their respective eight years. But now, with considerations for having experienced city officials and people who can effectively manage New York with its present financial troubles, the term limit debate has resurfaced.

Mayor Bloomberg has yet to offer a definite opinion on the issue, but attention grew when he changed his stance against any expansion of term limits, announcing that he would now consider the bill. The New York Times reports that Mayor Bloomberg has held “confidential conversations with Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the News Corporation, which owns The New York Post; Mortimer B. Zuckerman, a friend from the business world and the owner of The Daily News; and Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The Times, to gauge whether they would endorse a bid to overturn term limits, according to people familiar with the talks.”

What is interesting here is that if the Council successfully passes the bill – and currently 27 of the 51 council members support the term expansions – there is a good chance that a public referendum may still need to take place. Councilman Weprin proposed a competing bill last week that would require a referendum for any change in term limits.

So it comes as little surprise that Mayor Bloomberg is in talks with the city’s major newspapers. The Times, just today, called out The Daily News for changing its long-held stance against term expansions. The consequent effect that these newspapers have on public opinion may not be realized until a referendum comes into play – but if New Yorkers decide to reverse their own decisions, then we will have an excellent case study in effective media bias.

Photo: Flickr courtesy of moriza

In case you didn’t hear, NYC local primaries were held on Tuesday. Maybe you were indulging in the latest news on Jeremiah Wright, or perhaps sympathizing with our new friends out in Red Hook. But I would put money down that if you were visiting Hayden or U-Hall, then you were more likely ducking in from the rain rather than casting a vote.

The November ballot will feature not only the obvious presidential contest but a whole gamut of elected officials. I remember viewing my first ballot back in November 2006 and realizing how arbitrary many of my choices were once I got passed the top executive and legislative state and federal positions. Hopefully some of the links here will help out this time around.

The candidates for the often lesser-known elected positions faced off this week in what was far from a Super Tuesday. A Brooklyn blogger recalls a local primary with less than 3% turnout, and some predict that the contests this week could be won by margins of a few hundred votes. The local primaries are often criticized for lack of competition, ballot-bumping, and general confusion due to the exhaustive nomination and voting procedures.

New York City’s municipal governance is a labyrinth, to say the least, and there is no immediate, accessible resource to get all the necessary information. Furthermore, strict election and voting policies don’t offer much help to the new voter – if you want to be able to vote in next year’s local primary, then you’ll need to have your party registration in by October 10 this year.

I tried starting with the NYC Board of Elections to see what contests were going on in the NYU area. Through their poll site locator I was able to find our political districts (Election: 045, Assembly: 66, Congress: 08, Council: 01, Civil Court: 01, Senatorial: 29) and nearest voting site. That was about it. To find the list of candidates for those respective areas, the Board of Elections site only offers a 74-page PDF with no table of contents. The Municipal Art Society does provide a helpful map portal through their Community Information Technology Initiative, but the best coverage I found on local elections was the Gotham Gazette. The Times offered a general overview, a good start, but no extended coverage. The Board of Elections will be confirming the results from Tuesday throughout the coming weeks, but for a preview, the Gazette has already published unofficial results.

I’m usually of the opinion that as great as the web is, a simple phone call (with some patience) is usually the best bet for information like this. Unfortunately, after listening to five minutes of automation to discover that 212-VOTE-NYC is still listing 2007 voting dates, and not being able to get through to an actual person, I’d say we’re left to piece things together.

Photo by Brad Powell

Supposedly, the local primaries don’t get too much turn out – and the rain today can’t be helping matters. Be bold, and go fill out the November ballot. I’ll be getting my absentee ballot from Texas.

Electioneers beware!

Photos by Brad Powell

“NYU professors should be teaching those kids something about civic responsibility. Why aren’t there any students fighting this with us? They’re ignorant of the realities that NYU brings upon the rest of us here. They’re too caught up in this theory or that concept and don’t even care about what’s happening to our community – no respect for the history here…”

These were the words I faced from a button-clad activist upon my first venture to  a Community Board 2 (CB2) public hearing this summer.  Each speaker – all community members – one after the other repeated the same cries against NYU’s development. 

The comments had been directed towards NYU’s development plans for the Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal, which NYU intends to make into new Law School facilities. Though the university has promised to preserve and restore the building’s façade, as well as the walls of the structure, the community members who spoke voiced unanimous opposition to the project. Their claims were based on historic preservation and persistent opposition to NYU’s expansion throughout the Village.

So I followed up with the Chair of CB2, Brad Hoylman, to get better insight on local politics in the NYU area. Mr. Hoylman describes community boards as “the town halls of local government, representing grassroots organization in its purest form.” They sit at the bottom of the municipal governance structure, just below elected officials. The chain from the top follows as such: Mayor’s Office, Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, Borough President’s Office, City Council, and then community boards.

The community boards hold no weight in law, so they must fight for their credibility to ensure proper consideration of their resolutions. The community boards are, effectively, “the voice of the community,” serving in an advisory capacity to elected officials – typically on the local level, but their duties entail all matters that constituents raise. Based on the New York City charter, the opinion of community boards must be heard, but there are no requirements for enforcement. Mr. Hoylman sees the community boards as a further resource to gauge public opinion on local issues.

The issue of the Provincetown Playhouse has subsided since summer largely because CB2 voted in support of the compromise with NYU on preservation. “It’s been a tortured relationship [with NYU],” Mr. Hoylman said, “but it has been improving.” He commented that universities and local communities having difficult relations is by no means new or unique. With every large institution in a community (consider St. Vincent’s Hospital and the New School), there are similar challenges and disagreements. “Thankfully NYU isn’t building a vast corridor like Columbia is on 125th Street,” Mr. Hoylman added.

Borough President Scott Stringer commissioned a task force to moderate discussion between NYU and the community in response to the NYU Plans 2031 initiative. As a result of those efforts, NYU has agreed to a set of planning principles for future development. Mr. Hoylman emphasizes that we “can’t downplay the importance of both sides of the relationship – it’s always a balancing act, and we’re making strides.” With the 2031 plan, CB2 and the rest of the community sit in a difficult position because most of the developments remain speculative. NYU continues to present their proposals, and CB2 continues to listen, but providing feedback, let alone resolutions, is difficult without knowing which options NYU will actually pursue. With no representative at NYU’s planning meetings, CB2 has little to act on for the moment. They must pick their poison, and NYU relations are just one of many concerns that residents and community members bring forward.

Past issues that CB2 has faced with NYU include the cogeneration plant development, bus and trolley routes, as well as park closings. Mr. Hoylman says that within CB2, they don’t get the NYU perspective as much as they should. The NYU Office of Government and Community Relations typically sends a representative to public hearings, and according to Mr. Hoylman, they are doing a good job, but “there’s a wall between the local community and student population that doesn’t serve either group.”

CB2 has indeed had students serve on the board in past years. Mr. Hoylman points out that any community member interested in serving on the board as a public member can visit CB2’s website to apply, and those hoping to serve as a full voting member can apply online as well through the Borough President’s Office website.

At NYU, freshmen this fall will be looking forward to Washington Square Park’s renewal, while many of us who have returned from last year remain embittered by the development. Our claims may be justifiable, but they do not resound like the passionate voices of our neighbors in the village.

Listed below are upcoming CB2 public meetings concerning NYU:

Monday, 9/15, 6:30 PM – Discussion of Ideas for improved open space allocations on the Superblocks for Plan 2031 – Lesbian and Gay Community Service Center, 208 W. 13th St. Room 101

Thursday, 9/18, 6:00 PM – Full Board Meeting – SEIU 32BJ, 101 6th Ave., 22nd Floor Pre-conference room

Thursday, 9/25, 6:30 PM – Discussion with NYU on their ongoing construction projects and their community outreach – Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, 3 Clarkson St., 3rd Floor