"Gotham" Thrives --- VOTE for "Batman" TODAY!

Several readers have questioned my frequent references to "Gotham City" as being that of New York City. They either think that it's a non-existent place (cf. "Maps of Non-Existent Places: Gotham City" and "Welcome to Gotham City" -- with dead links to nowhere) or that it was only a fictional town in the "Batman" comic book series of the 1940s. And still others who should know better wrongly think that our nickname derives from the famous Gothic architecture of Manhattan.

In fact, NYC was first called "Gotham City" in 1807 by author Washington Irving who described the "Big Apple" that way in his satiric "Salmagundi" essays, a critique of early nineteenth century New York City.

According to Michael Wallace, a professor at our City University of New York who has taught Urban History there for 34 years (and co-author with Edwin G. Burrows of "Gotham City: A History of New York City to 1898") "Gotham" is an old Anglo-Saxon word for "Goat Town" which was the "proverbial village of idiots. ....But here the real 411 is that they were actually wise fools only pretending to be idiots - like the shrewd Dutch traders who got the local Indians to cough up Manhattan to us for trinkets.

That word is evocative of the now disbanded (since Jan. 1987) Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights groups established here in NYC in 1955 (Inc. 1961) and named after "Mattacino", a character in Italian theater. Mattacino was a plain talking court jester, who would bluntly speak the truth to the king when nobody else would. The primary goals of the society were to encourage the public to view gays as a persecuted minority rather than mental deviants, to liberate their oppressed community and provide a variety of services to the gay community, including referral services for legal and other professionals, and counseling. They also lobbied for the repeal of sodomy laws and other laws that gay people considered discriminatory. It also published The Mattachine Review. The Daughters of Bilitis was their counterpart lesbian organization.

The name "Gotham" also reminds me of those gays who are proudly call themselves "FOOLS FOR CHRIST"... Many Byzantine saints who were ascetics wore that nomer as a badge of honor. "We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure, when slandered, we speak kindly." (1 Cor. 4:10, 12, 13 KJV) "Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's Sight." (1 Cor. 3:18-19) It's a good thing to be able to laugh at ourselves. Laughing at ourselves is a perfect remedy for stuffiness, pride and pomposity. Jesus had a sense of humor. Humor is good.

....Regarding our traditional Christianity (TORC), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a "Gotham" native from our borough of Queens, remarked last January, “If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.” (Justice Scalia first delivered this strident defense of Christian beliefs and practice against the assaults of secular society on April 9, 1996.)

Not only is "Gotham" a familiar moniker for NYC, but soon it may become the 51st state of our Union. For many years there has been an ongoing move for our five boroughs to secede from New York State since the Big Apple's royal screwing from our State Capital in Albany deprives us of annual revenue. Although 65 of the 150 members of the State Assembly and 26 of the 62 members of the State Senate represent districts in these five NYC boroughs, the State Legislature constantly shortchanges the city. According to a recent report by the Rochester-based Center for Governmental Research, and as the New York Times also reported, this city puts $3.5 billion more into the state coffers than it gets back each year.

The injustices also includes repeal of the NYC's commuter tax in 1999, the 2001 decision to end the $114 million a year stock transfer payment that NY State had been making to NYC for more than two decades, enacting several laws that force the city to significantly increase wages and benefits to certain municipal workers; and shortchanging the city on a long litany of programs, including school aid, basic aid to local governments, the environmental bond act and the national tobacco settlement. The "Joker" Patacki also discluded the five boroughs of "Gotham" from his ambitious new investment program--the Empire Opportunity Fund. And his plan to fund biotech and high-tech districts around the state again favors upstate and Long Island.

For too many decades, the state has sent a disproportionately large share of public school aid, economic development grants and other assistance to upstate and suburban communities at Gotham's expense. Ruthless state officials squeeze NYC to take care of its own problems. These five boroughs are their cash cow which they constantly milk dry. State revenues from Wall Street and NYC's growing technology sector gave our "Joker" Governor surpluses that allowed him to enact expensive but politically popular tax cuts at our expense. NYC's prosperity gave state leaders the cover for commuter tax repeal, which benefits out of staters, suburban dwellers and "bridge & tunnel" workers -- but costs NYC $300 million a year.

....So in 1993, Staten Island voted in favor of secession from New York City in a non-binding referendum. Ten years later, 22 City Council members sponsored Bill 386 (spear-headed by our Queens Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr.) directing the entire city to explore secession from New York state to form Greater New York. Many are in favor of appropriately calling this new state "Gotham" instead. (Although Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" might become our state anthem, it's not true that our state bird would be the "flying rat" (pigeon).

Since this "Gotham City" can't flash a signal for Batman's assistance, our best hope is to elect Tom Ognibene for Mayor this Election Day (VOTE TODAY!!!) to chase the tuxedoed "Penguin" from City Hall.