Archive • Siegeltown • Buttondown

A Rudy Awakening

While other Democrats keep comparing Eric Adams to Rudy Giuliani, he keeps comparing himself to Jesus Christ. My Daily News column in print on Sunday: As New...

Only a few are guilty, but all are responsible

My Sunday Daily News column on whose lives matter here in NYC: “For the next four years, let’s do something different: Let’s protect the innocent people,”...

A man with a job do to: Eric Adams is not a gift from God

My Sunday Daily News spread on NYC's intoxicating new mayor: Purim begins Wednesday night, and the story in the Book of Esther of an orphan who becomes queen...

Keeping score with Jewish casualties

January 23, 2022

My Sunday Daily News column: The attacks on American Jews can seem to blur together. There’s the Beth Israel synagogue in Charlottesville, Va. that the...

A cop-turned-mayor who distrusts the NYPD's leaders

January 16, 2022

Understanding that Eric Adams has faith in policing but doesn't trust NYPD bosses helps makes sense of a lot of his decisions so far as mayor. My Sunday...

One hell of a second chance

January 9, 2022

Phil Banks, who abruptly left the NYPD as the feds closed in on him and his friends in 2014, is overseeing the Department and atop the cops now as Eric...

The hack who helped save NYC's kids

January 2, 2022

Some reading before New York City's schools reopen on Monday The hack and quack who saved NYC: Science, politics and the pandemic of 1918The trouble with the...

Lowlights Magazine for (Grown) Children

December 18, 2021

Read on to find out how Andrew Cuomo ended up as Goofus and Bill de Blasio as Gallant. (And contrary to the headline the Daily News put on this one, there’s...

Bribes, cops and second shots

December 11, 2021

I wrote a longer than usual column for the Daily News this week about Eric Adams and an old friend of his on the verge of getting off the bench he placed...

The wrong choice to oversee the NYPD

December 6, 2021

This guy? Really?! And I didn't even get to his role in the killing of Eric Garner in my Daily News column https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-...

The Crime and the Cover-Up

November 6, 2021

I talked on election night with Ben Max and Chrissy Greer about New York City's election results on FAQ NYC, and wrote a column for the Daily News about what...

Election Day special

November 2, 2021

There's not much suspense about how things are going to turn out in New York City, so I wrote something for the Daily News on Sunday about how lousy our...

Eight Years and Two Accomplishments

October 25, 2021

This week, I talked transit on CBS Eye on the World With John Batchelor, broke down the mayoral debate on FAQ NYC, and wrote about Bill de Blasio's...

Past is prologue for New York mayors

October 9, 2021

This week, I talked about Rikers on CBS Eye on the World With John Batchelor, and about about the immortal idea that "New York Is Dead" on FAQ NYC. And I...

A new plan for Rikers

October 3, 2021

This week, I talked about Rikers Island and gun crime in New York on CBS Eye on the World With John Batchelor, discussed vaccine mandates and more with...

Of Rats and Rikers

September 26, 2021

This week, I talked about how New York went from Occupy Wall Street to (a push to) evacuate Rikers Island in 10 years flat on CBS Eye on the World With John...

"What Do They Want?"

September 19, 2021

This week, I discussed what's changed in New York City in the 20 years since 9/11 on CBS Eye on the World With John Batchelor. And I wrote for the Daily News...

20 Years Is a Very Long Time

September 11, 2021

I did not expect to see this painting or anything like it when I looked up and saw this affixed to the ceiling inside of a (since shuttered) side street...

So Long to the ‘Space Age’ Jail That Time Forgot

August 28, 2021

How did the lock-up in Manhattan where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself decline from the "most liberal prison in the world" that "people will be trying to...

The way the world ends

August 21, 2021

This last week's been a journey, as I joined CBS Eye on the World With John Batchelor to talk about refugees, migration and American fears, spoke with...

Old-time xenophobia, COVID edition

August 15, 2021

We talked on FAQ NYC with guest host Katie Honan abour Cuomo's long goodbye. And, shifting governors, I wrote a column for the Daily News about America's...

A New Status Cuo for New York

August 11, 2021

How many shitty men does it take to get a woman as governor in New York, and why do state troopers always seem to be involved? I've got some answers to those...

The Governor Has No Clothes

Sorry for that image, as it looks like Andrew Cuomo is going down swinging—and that he really is going down. We talked about that on FAQ NYC with long-ago...

Death to False Metal

I went down a rabbit hole this week reading about how New York's old Proportional Voting system, backed by Fiorello La Guardia and intended to break down...

How NYC Went From Fun City to The Big Apple

I spent a lot of time in the 1970s this week, amid lots of talk in New York City now about whether the "Bad Old Days" are returning, while also diving into...

For the Daily Beast, I reviewed I Alone Can Fix It, an account of Trump's disastrous last year, but had to leave out a few New York City bits including him...

Bragging Rights

I got an early copy of Michael Wolff's new book about the last days of the Trimp presidency, and wrote about some of its juicier bits of gossip for the Daily...

NYC results extra

I wrote a first draft of history for the Daily Beast about Eric Adams' victory, and then talked abut the hurting city he'll surely be leading on CBS Eye on...

There's no going back to ‘normal’

Happy Fourth, as NYC is still waiting for the absentee ballots to get counted to find out what happened in last month's election. In the meantime, I spoke...

2020 Hindsight on 2021

Since my last email, I broke down what we know — and mostly don’t — about New York City’s elections on CBS Eye on the World With John Batchelor, and with...

NYC Election Extra

It's been a wild week in NYC, and with the voting done now it'll be weeks before we know most of the winners and losers in this new ranked choice voting...

The Weirdness of Eric Adams, who Wears a Gun, Brandishes Dead Rats, Maybe Lives in Jersey and Just Might Be NYC's Next Mayor

In the final days of NYC's all-important primary, I talked about the race with on CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor (here and here), on We the Fifth...

Recipes for disaster, in politics and with pandemics

For the Daily Beast, I had a long conversation with epidemiologist and legit Most Interesting Man in the World candidate Larry Brilliant, about why COVID is...

Eight is more than enough - A deep dive into NYC's mess of a mayor's race

It’s all coming up mayor’s race this week, as we’re in the homestretch here. On FAQ NYC, we ran down the (terrible) second debate talked with the (excellent)...

Power outages in Soviet New York

How did the left make such a “beautiful mess” of the mayoral race? I have some thoughts in my Daily News column. And at FAQ NYC, we talked about homelessness...

Lessons from the Quid Pro Cuo Bros

My column for the Daily News about guys born in Queens on third base who don't think the rules apply to them. And a long talk on FAQ NYC about the not-so...

NYC Behind the Eight Ball

In place of the gmails I've been sending with my Daily News columns, I'm now using Buttondown to send this email usually once a week and occasionally more...