Items tagged with 'newyorkstate'
The Giants Super Bowl license plate
You'll no doubt be heartbroken to find out that "ELI4EVER" won't fit on the Giants plate.
The state Department of Motor Vehicles unveiled a Giants 2012 Super Bowl Champions custom plate today. They're $60, plus a $31.25 renewal fee, non-customized. If you want to express your love for Eli with a custom plate number, that's another $60.
Speaking of this stuff: Will the city of Albany update those "Albany / Mayor Jennings welcomes you / Summer Home of the Super Bowl XLII Champion New York Giants" signs now? Maybe it's a good time to swap the signs for something along the lines of simply, "Welcome to Albany / Capital of the Empire State."
image via NY Governor's Office
New York State food regions map
We kind of feel sorry for the "bark" regions of the state.
Check out this food map of New York State created by Shannon Glazer. She's divided the state into regions based on the foods for which they're known. For example: Utica and chicken riggies. She also marks the ever-important pop/soda demarcation.
Here's a large-format version of the map.
Shannon's started a Twitter feed related to the map: @NYS_food_map.
(Thanks, Shannon!)
Earlier on AOA: Martin on candidates for the quintessential Capital Region food.
A quick scan of the State of the State 2012
Today's SOTS at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center
There will be all kinds of coverage of Andrew Cuomo's State of the State address everywhere over the next few days. But for right now, here's a quick, scannable overview of this afternoon's speech -- enough to get you through a conversation today -- you'll find it after the jump.
Spoilers: It mentions casino gambling and convention centers, and "reimagined" government.
Mind your ovals, please
A diagram from the report critiquing the voting machine error message.
There was many as 60,000 votes tossed in the 2010 election New York because of "overvotes" -- that is, people filled in too many ovals on their ballot -- according to a report from the Brennan Center. The report's authors figure that 20,000 voters in the state didn't have their vote for governor count because of an overvote problem.*
From the report's executive summary:
In modern history, New York has never seen so many lost votes due to overvoting. Unlike the new optical scan voting system, New York's old lever machines did not allow overvoting. But even so, the numbers of lost votes due to overvoting in 2010 were far greater than they should have been. Overvotes are almost always unintentional. A well-functioning voting system, even one that includes optical scan equipment, should have overvote rates very close to zero. ...
Black and Hispanic voters were at least twice as likely to lose votes due to overvoting as non-Hispanic whites. Shockingly, in two Bronx election districts, nearly 40 percent of the votes cast for governor were voided as overvotes.
The Brennan Center, and other good government groups, have argued that the error messages returned by machines for overvotes are hard to understand -- because of jargon such as "overvote" or a confusing user interface -- and as result, people don't realize they've made an error, or can't understand how to fix it. Proposed solution: change the error messages to plain language such as: "you have filled in too many ovals."
The full report is embedded after the jump.
* Not that this would have affected the outcome. Even if they were all Paladino voters, Andrew Cuomo would have still had about a 1.3 million vote lead.
The gerrymanders of New York State
A few figures from Citizen's Union's recent report on gerrymandering in New York State and what the org says is the resulting "pernicious decades-long erosion of our state's democracy and governance":
+ 96 percent of incumbents in the state legislature have been re-elected since 2002
+ the average margin of victory in contested races last year: 51 percent
+ 19 percent of general election state races were uncontested in 2010
Perhaps the most colorful of New York's gerrymanders: the Senate 51st -- AKA, "Lincoln Riding on a Vacuum Cleaner." Of course, the gerrymander's original habitat was Massachusetts.
[via @dannyhakim and NYDN]
Earlier on AOA:
+ Soapbox: Why I didn't vote last Tuesday
+ New York State ranked last in voter turnout
map: NYS LATFOR
New Yorkers: charitable, like friends and artificial trees, don't believe in Santa Claus
A bunch of holiday bits from the Siena survey out today:
+ 67 percent of people said they are excited about the holiday season; 32 percent said they're not.
+ 34 percent of people said they're cutting back their holiday spending this year compared to last (37 percent said they were last year). Seven percent said they're increasing (compared to 4 percent last year).
+ 23 percent of people said their financial situation is better compared to last year; 30 percent said it's worse.
+ 26 percent said they plan to spend $1,000+ on gifts.
+ 19 percent of people said they shop on the day after Thanksgiving.
+ 57 percent said they planned to do at least some online shopping -- and of those people, 30 percent said it was because of crowds.
+ 59 percent said they try to buy gifts from locally-owned and operated businesses.
+ 77 percent said they would be making a charitable contribution this season; 30 percent said they'd be volunteering.
+ What people enjoy most about the holidays: 77 percent said spending time with family and friends. What people enjoy the least: 39 percent said the commercialization of the holidays. (Takeaway: your family and friends would probably rather you make time for them than buy them a gift.)
+ 63 percent said they think the holiday decorations and ads start too soon.
+ Most often used greeting: Merry Christmas (53 percent), Happy Holidays (37 percent).
+ "I hate to admit it but at this point I'm more Scrooge than Santa." Agree/disagree: 23/67.
+ Among people who put up a Christmas tree, 59 percent say they go artificial.
+ "Would you say you believe in Santa Claus or not?"" Believe: 30 percent. Do not believe: 69 percent.
Margin of error +/- 3.9.
Pot prices around New York State
This is all really hazy, so, you know, grain of salt and all that. Dude.
About a year ago we pulled data on marijuana prices in New York State from a site called Price of Weed. Yep, it's pretty much what it sounds like -- it's a crowdsourced database of pot prices.
We came across some research recently on these prices, so we figured it was a good time to light this topic back up.
Let's roll the numbers. Here are pot prices from around New York State, broken out by region...
That Walmart wine is the wine equivalent of cheese food
After stumbling across what looked like a wine display in the World's Largest Walmart, Emily emailed with what we can only imagine was some distress:
Walmart wine? Did some law get passed that I missed?
The short answer: no.
The longer answer is... uh... tacky.
Capital Region income distribution
With all the talk about 99 percents and 1 percents, we were curious about the income distribution in the Capital Region.
So, we looked up the data. Let's go to the charts, graphs, and discussion...
(You know you want to see where you rank.)
There's Derek Jeter... and everyone else
In the Siena poll out today 57 percent of New Yorkers said they would support a constitutional amendment to allow casinos not owned by Native Americans to be built in the state -- 36 percent said they oppose it. Respondents seemed to think that the casinos would bring more jobs (78 percent agree) and government revenue (71 percent) -- but also increase problems such as crime and compulsive gambling (54 percent).
A few other bits, about the state's apparently undying love for Derek Jeter, MMA, and sports betting...
Bill Clinton's speech at the Empire State Plaza
After the announcement of the $4.4 billion big thing about small things, Bill Clinton spoke at the New York Open for Business conference Tuesday at the ESP. The video is embedded above. Clinton's speech starts at the 50:00 mark (you can just jump to that point).
At the beginning of the speech, Clinton gives a shoutout to Jerry Jennings and remembers... jogging in Albany.
$4.4 billion for chip fab research in the state, and more jobs at Albany NanoTech
The construction at the Albany NanoTech expansion today.
Andrew Cuomo announced today that a consortium of tech companies will be investing $4.4 billion in chip fab research facilities around the state. The Cuomo admin says the research effort will create and/or retain 6,900 jobs -- 800 of them at UAlbany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) complex.
You'll recognize many of the names of the corporations involved: Intel, IBM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, TSMC and Samsung. Said Cuomo this morning at the NY Open for Business conference at the ESP: "These companies could have gone anywhere on the globe ... they're investing right here in New York."
In addition to Albany NanoTech, there will also be investment at IBM in Fishkill, SUNYIT in Utica, and CNSE's facility in Canandaigua.
The state is putting $400 million toward this effort, which the Cuomo admin says will go directly to CNSE at UAlbany -- and all the tools and equipment will belong to the college.
The research will focus on making computer chips from 450 mm wafers. Current technology uses 300 mm wafers, and the larger size offers the potential of cheaper, faster chips. As an Intel exec told the audience today: "[450 mm] allows us to continue Moore's Law in an economic way."
That CSNE building going up at Washington and Fuller in Albany will house the facilities for this effort, and be called NanoFab West or NanoFab X. UAlbany has been coy about the purpose of that building, maybe because it was sitting on this announcement. It's also expected the expansion will house green energy research, including that $400something million solar panel research consortium. [TU CapCon] [TU Places and Spaces] [TU] [CSNE]
It's probably fair to say Cuomo was stoked this morning. As he crowed at one point during his remarks: "We won a very important competition globally. ... Why? Because we are New York. That's why we won it."
Capital Region unemployment down a bit
The last five Augusts. (see note below)
The Capital Region's unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in August, according to data out Tuesday from the state Department of Labor. That's down from 7.2 percent in August 2010, and 7 percent his past July. (August 2010 is the best comparison because the data is not seasonally adjusted.)
Even with the decline in unemployment rate, the Capital Region still had fewer people employed this past August compared to a year ago -- about 4,000 fewer people. There were just under 30,000 people unemployed in the Capital Region last month.
The chart above tracks the Capital Region's unemployment rate by month over the last five years, with each August marked.*
The state's unemployment rate was 7.7 percent, down from 8.3 percent in August 2010. The national unemployment rate was 9.1 percent.
Breakouts for local counties after the jump. Saratoga County had one of the lowest rates in the state.
Bill Clinton speaking in Albany September 27
Update: Here's video of the speech.
____
Shh, don't tell anyone: Bill Clinton will be speaking in Albany next week (Tuesday, September 27).
The former president will be the keynote speaker at a conference at the Empire State Plaza for the regional economic councils set up by the Cuomo administration. The event is open to the public, but there's a ticket lottery. You must enter by the end of this Tuesday (September 20) and confirm your intent to attend within 24 hours of being notified.
Oddly, the Cuomo admin seems to be underplaying the event a bit. On the website for the economic councils, it's just billed as "Governor Andrew M. Cuomo/ REGIONAL COUNCIL STATEWIDE CONFERENCE/ September 27, 2011- Albany, NY." Stars are always so touchy about whose name goes above the title...
Bill Clinton was last here in March when he spoke at UAlbany.
[via Biz Review]
photo: Flickr user World Economic Forum
New Yorkers: yeah, we've been better
From a Siena poll out this week about New Yorkers and the economy:
+ 42 percent of respondents said they were worse off financially now than they were last year. 16 percent said they were better off.
+ 50 percent said this statement matched their thinking about the economy: "Unfortunately, I think our country's best economic days are behind us. I'm afraid the next generation will have to accept a lower standard of living."
+ But 59 percent of people said they think the economy will be better in 10 years. (19 percent said it would be worse.)
More on jobs, expenses, and the "problem" with government...
Cough. Wheeze. Call.
We were flipping through the channels the other night when we hit one of the new anti-smoking ads from the state Department of Health. The spot shows a guy gasping for breath as he suffers from smoking-induced emphysema. And... yow.
The commercial is embedded above. There's something so visceral and squirm-inducing about hearing the guy wheeze and gasp -- which is the point.
Doctors and researchers say these kinds of ads do spur people to call smoking quitlines. As Dr. Michael Cummings, who heads up a cancer prevention research division at Roswell Park in Buffalo, said last year while introducing a different set of anti-smoking spots: "People call the quitline when they get motivated, and you gotta get in their heads and get them moving, shake them up a little bit." [YouTube]
The state DOH has three spots currently running -- the one above, plus two others featuring a man talking through an electrolarynx about how throat cancer has kept him from swimming and his dream of being a major league umpire. (It appears that no children were made to cry this time.) The spots are scheduled to run until almost the end of September. [MSNBC] [Buffalo News]
A little more than 15 percent of adults in New York State were currently smokers in 2010, according to the data from the CDC. That's down from more than 21 percent in 2000. In that time, the state reports there has been a large decline in smoking among high school students -- 12.6 percent reported being current smokers in 2010 versus 27.1 percent in 2000. [CDC] [NYSDOH]
New York's smoking quitline is 866-NY-QUITS (866-697-8487).
Earlier on AOA: New York State has the highest cigarette taxes in the nation
Capital Region elementary school test scores 2011
The state Education Department released results from the English and math proficiency tests for grades 3-8 this week. NYSED reports that, on average, scores are down slightly for English and about the same for math.
The state also makes the test score data available by school district, so we pulled out the results for Capital Region districts. A compact, easy-skim version is after the jump -- along with expanded presentations of the data -- after the jump...
Leaving New York
New York State lost a net of 1.6 million residents to other states over the last decade, according to an analysis of Census data by the Empire Center. Among the report's findings:
+ Since 1960, New York has lost 7.3 million residents to the rest of the country. This was partially offset by an influx of 4.8 million foreign immigrants, resulting in a net decline of 2.5 million residents.
+ New York's average annual domestic migration loss - the difference between people moving in from other states and out to other states -- jumped from about 60,000 people in the 1960s to an all-time high of nearly 237,000 in the 1970s. The state's domestic migration outflows have averaged between 130,000 and 160,000 a year since 1980.
+ For a second consecutive decade, New York's net population loss due to domestic migration was the highest of any state as a percentage of population.
+ New York's net migration loss - the sum of domestic and foreign migration - increased over the last decade to its highest level since the 1970s. Thirteen states had negative net migration between 2000 and 2010, and only three (Illinois, Louisiana and Michigan) lost a bigger share of their populations to migration than New York.
The chart above is from the report. The black line tracks net migration -- the loss of people to other states has been ongoing trend for the last 50 years.
The report also breaks out migration numbers for counties. Totals for the Capital Region are after the jump.
So where's everyone going? A Pew study asked that question a few years back. The top three states for New Yorkers migrating elsewhere: Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
chart: Empire Center
The confidence is crumbling
A chart of consumer confidence since 1999. The red line is New York State, the blue line is the nation.
Were you as spooked by the debt ceiling debacle as everyone else seems to have been? A new Consumer Confidence poll released today by the Siena Research Institute shows that people are feeling pretty down about the current state of the economy and even more bleak about the future. Siena polled the state as a whole and also separated out the numbers for upstate as compared to New York City. Across the state, consumer confidence has fallen by 1.9 percent. In the upstate area, it's fallen by 3.1 percent. And that's just the overall number. When confidence in the economic future is measured, the numbers get even worse, with upstate confidence falling by a whopping 8 percent.
This chart on Siena Institute's main page shows how precipitously consumer confidence has fallen in the country and state since 1999.
What are your thoughts on the current economy? Are you, your family and friends better off financially than you were a year ago? What do you expect your financial situation will be a year from now?
graph: Siena Research Institute
Lewis Black on Albany
One of our favorite Lewis Black lines, about mad cow disease: "What were these ranchers thinking when they started feeding cows to other cows? Hey, when I eat human, I get a little crazy myself!"
Comedian and playwright Lewis Black is heading for Albany in a few months to do his stand-up act at The Palace. Black is well known for his rants and observations about politics, which is pretty much our local sport.
So we gave him a call to ask what he thinks about some of the things that have been going on lately at the state Capitol.
The darkness just to the north
The circle marks the Adirondacks.
After Katie's question about places to stargaze, Jim commented today (emphasis added):
If you look at the night satellite photo of the North American continent, you see huge amounts of lights all along the East & West coasts. But - there is a big dark area, where there are few electric lights, which is great for stargazing - & that is the Adirondack Park. Head into the park, the more in the middle the better. We see great stars from Lake George on up. I remember a night we were on Little Tupper Lake (used to be in the Whitney estate) floating in canoes, seeing the Milky Way bright enough to be reflected in the water, listening to loons - & being stunned by the Perseids. Super dark sky, great show.
So we pulled the satellite imagery from NASA and annotated it. A small version is above. Much bigger versions -- of New York State and the United States -- are after the jump.
There's also another 2005 NASA map that highlights how low the human population density is in the Adirondacks.
Bonus bit: economists have been using this satellite imagery to study economic development.
Speed reading the coverage of the first weekend of same sex marriage
This weekend was an historic one for New Yorkers and civil rights as the first same-sex couples took their vows across the state, many of them just after the Marriage Equality Act took effect after midnight Sunday. Families, friends -- media members -- crowded into chambers to witness the historic ceremonies.
Here's a quick scan of the coverage...
New York Senate passes Marriage Equality Act, Andrew Cuomo signs it shortly after
A few scenes from the state Capitol Friday night.
The state Senate passed the Marriage Equality Act 33-29 Friday night.
Earlier in the evening, the Assembly passed amendments to the bill that included increased protections for religious organizations that choose not to participate in same-sex marriages.
Andrew Cuomo signed the bill shortly before midnight on Friday. It takes effect 30 days after his signature.
Recaps, quotes and pics from the vote after the jump...
Is same-sex marriage legal in New York, yet?
That's the question everyone keeps asking. And the legislature seems to be taking forever. Seriously, if the state Senate can vote on whether corn should be the official state vegetable, you'd think they could move this issue along a little faster.
To make it easy to keep track of what's happening, we've created a single-serve site: IsSame-SexMarriageLegalinNY.com.
It gets right to the point.
You can follow it on Twitter: @SSMNewYork.
New York: the least free state?
Feeling crushed by the boot heel of the state?
New York is ranked as "by far the least free state" in the country, in a recent report from a "market-oriented" (libertarian) think tank at George Mason University.
From the Mercatus Center's Freedom in the 50 States:
New York is by far the least free state in the Union. It has also experienced the most interstate emigration of any state over the last decade. New York has by far the highest taxes in the country. Property, selective sales, individual income, and corporate-income taxes are particularly high. Spending on public welfare, hospitals, electric power, transit, employee retirement, and "other and unallocable" expenses are well above national norms. Only Alaska has more government debt as a percentage of the economy. On personal freedoms, gun laws are extremely restrictive, but marijuana laws are better than average, while tobacco laws are extremely strict, and cigarette taxes are the highest in the country. Motorists are highly regulated, and homeschool regulations are excessive, but nondrug victimless-crimes arrests are low. New York has the strictest health-insurance community-rating regulations in the country, which have wiped out the individual market. Mandated coverages are worse than average but were actually cut back substantially in 2007-2008. Eminent domain abuse is rampant and unchecked. Perversely (in our view), the state has stricter contribution limits for grassroots PACs than for corporate and union PACs. On the positive side, occupational licensing is somewhat better than average.
The report includes some recommendations on how the Empire State can loosen the bonds of imperial tyranny. Among them: legalize same-sex marriage.
Of course, freedom is a subjective thing to some degree. For example: you can't smoke in restaurants here, which you could say is restricting freedom -- but if you're a non-smoker, that also means you don't have to suffer the consequences of someone else's decision (which smells a bit like freedom). The report's authors describe how they define freedom (Locke is mentioned prominently -- no, not the Lost character).
A different approach might have been to look at another thing economists love to talk about: tradeoffs. What do we get for trading some of these freedoms? Is it enough?
The report's authors talk about how people could use the rankings to make choices about where to move. So, what are the most free states? The top 5: New Hampshire (no surprise), South Dakota, Indiana, Idaho, Missouri. Uh, we're not packing the moving truck just yet.
But, yeah, the taxes in New York -- yow, TOO DAMN high.
... said Jenna about The quintessential Capital Region food?