Christine Quinn Doesn't Like Pork

When she was anointed Speaker, I fretted about whether or not Christine Quinn would remain Christine Quinn.

With her latest proposal to curb tens of millions of dollars of Council pork projects, she's almost making me believe in the strategy of "do whatever it takes to get inside, so that you can really be yourself once you have power" (a strategy that my friends in finance, law, and politics always seem to espouse in the beginning then conveniently forget).

Requests [for pork] are to be submitted on a form, and the individual Council member must obtain endorsements for the spending request from nine other members representing at least three boroughs. The idea is to show that each project has citywide appeal and isn’t some grubby parochial project. In addition, members would be limited to making four such spending requests. There is no limit now.

Nice.

>Tags: new york, christine quinn, pork, reform