Editor's Message
The End of City Politics?
For the better part of a year now, the primary focus of city politics has been on whether the mayor would run for president. That spellbinding odyssey recently ended, only to see the hero return home. The masses now must ponder what Bloomberg will do starting in 2010, and vice versa. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of would-be heirs to his throne. The lineup includes the city council speaker, the comptroller, a congressman, and another member of the city council. A recent poll found a candidate not yet enthusiastic about running, Brooklyn’s borough president, to be at the front of the pack.
Whether any of these characters are mayoral timber is an open question, but beside my point. What troubles me is how dead city politics have become. In the not-so distant past, the local landscape saw many epic battles, fought by plenty of larger-than-life characters. As many of the essays in Marshall Berman and Brian Berger’s recent collection New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg vividly demonstrate, the city in general used to be a much more lively and contentious place. The piece by the Voice’s Tom Robbins shows that city politics from the Koch through Giuliani years used to be good theater. Nowadays, most people don’t even pay attention to what’s happening at City Hall.
Quiet efficiency, of course, is Bloomberg’s stock and trade. But there’s still plenty of need to debate real issues—such as the city’s growing inhospitality to the poor and working class, its sorry schools, or the overdevelopment wrecking many neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the city council’s only notable action over the last few years was voting to hike its own members’ salaries. Rest assured, things will pick up this time next year, when the 2009 campaign gets going. Those seeking another office will dole out an endless slew of awards and hold regular Sunday press conferences. Their mantra will be some sort of combination of “hope,” “change,” and “experience.” Those slogans, though, will be so 2008. Unless our local pols awake soon from their protracted slumber, voters won’t be turning out in record numbers here in New York City next year.
***
This issue marks the debut of the Rail’s new poetry editor, Anselm Berrigan, which we’re all very excited about. Many folks already know Anselm as both an accomplished poet and the artistic director of the Poetry Project. Of his vision for the section, Anselm says, “We will be running poems that work on more than one level. And the poetry editor will print what he likes.” Watch out.
—T. Hamm
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

CATHERINE CHRISTER HENNIX with Marcus Boon, Part 2
By Marcus BoonOCT 2020 | Music
This is the second in a two-part conversation with Swedish mathematician/poet/composer/musician Catherine Christer Hennix. In the September issue we talked about the ontology of music and the significance of drone-based sounds, and Hennix introduced the idea of the sonic shrine.

Lewis Warsh: Part of His History
By Steve ClayDEC 20-JAN 21 | Poetry
Steve Clay is the publisher of Granary Books, as well as an editor, curator, archivist, and writer specializing in literature and art of the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. He is the author or editor of several volumes including, most recently, Intermedia, Fluxus, and the Something Else Press: Selected Writings by Dick Higgins.
inSerial: part eight
The Mysteries of Paris
by Eugène Sue, translated from the French by Robert Bononno
MAY 2019 | Fiction
It was midday and the rain fell in torrents. The Seine, swollen by the continuous downpour, had risen to a dangerous height and flooded part of the wharf. From time to time, Rodolphe glanced impatiently at the toll gate. Finally, in the distance, he saw a man and woman advance behind the shelter of an umbrella. He recognized the Schoolmaster and the Owl.
We Will Dance Again: The Dance Community Responds Part 1
By Katy DammersJUNE 2020 | Dance
Nearly three months after theaters began to close, we dont seem any closer to returning to normal and instead face the reality that this crisis will forever change the way we dance and our world. The slow creep of coronavirus has made it difficult to see where we are and chart where we might go next.