A To-Do List for Democrats in Albany

During the entirety of his holding office, there are tow major things which Cuomo has been unable and unwilling to give New Yorkers: 1. an adequate transit system, despite his last-minute and failed efforts to push congestion pricing 2. bring corruption in Albany to an end once and for all, even when he's been shrouded in such corruption Ideally, New Yorkers would have had both of these priorities addressed already. Dear newly elected NY State Senate; Please make our dreams come true, regardless of what Cuomo does at this point... Your frustrated, pedestrian/commuter, and morally concerned New Yorker, Brennan

I vote at my neighborhood elementary school. Upon arriving, I noticed that the entire school property was now totally fenced in and locked at the new gates. Trees and bushes along the perimeter were all gone, just bare ground now. Very sad. It used to be nice to take a walk over, but not possible anymore. Second - the voting booths have pens on a cord like in a bank. But the cord is on the right side of the booth. It is very awkward for us lefties. Please have some loose pens or else some booths for lefties.

Am I the first one to say Thanks to all the volunteers who gave hours and hours of door to door conversations, information handouts which were educational, as many schools systems no longer offer 'Civics' as a required subject. These volunteers contacted citizens who had not ever discussed the need to vote. THANK YOU ALL, LADIES, STUDENTS, SENIORS - EVERYONE!

The state Assembly and Senate should work in concert with the new A.G. James to enact much better laws and/or regulations of LLC real estate transactions. About half of the high end apartment sales in the city are done through LLCs and studies have estimated that a large percentage of those are likely done for purposes of laundering proceeds from illegal activities, both domestic and foreign. This in large part is what has led to the explosion in construction of 'luxury' properties in the last 10 years. This in turn results in a ripple effect down through the rest of the real estate market creating a lack of construction of more moderately priced condos and rentals that most NY residents would actually be able to afford.

Please address rent stabilization laws. A few ideas: Remove Vacancy Decontrol Remove the right the demolish stabilized buildings if the building has had stabilized tenants for at least 2 years. Fully fund the new tenant protections agency. Criminalize harassment of tenants, including allowing construction without rigorous environmental controls. Hold the DOB accountable to tenant advocates and not just the landlord lobby/kickback system.

New York must pave the way for the rest of the Nation to change the voting laws, including the annulment of the Electoral College. The best control for voter registration is: the requirement of CITIZEN RESIDENCY REGISTRATION ID which then is THE only ID necessary for all government entitlements, as well as the Constitutional Right to Vote. Residency registration means one must register each time their primary address is changed; from town to town, city to city, State to State which then provides the most recent and accurate voting ID. How do you control it? This ID must be presented when applying for employment. It is against the necessary laws behind it to employ one without proper ID. So, easy, no ID = no work, no entitlements, no welfare - NADA. It must show date and place of birth - nothing more. Not religion/not race/not gender. Also eliminates the need for the archaic, inaccurate door to door head count that is done periodically. Of course, update the voting equipment nation wide. Last but not least - SUNDAY must be the new Voting Day - not another paid holiday that will be opposed by Corporate America. Paper ballots only for referendums and NOT ATTACHED to Presidential or Midterms. Referendums must be in separate 'elections'. IT WORKS IN GERMANY IT CAN WORK IN USA. If not, then elections will be the same old, same old - and the 3rd world will look better than USA. GOOD LUCK

NY would probably have higher voter turnout if the state had 2 competitive parties. Considering the tax burden in this state, the NY GOP's former control of the Senate was clearly worthless.

The editorial board touches on many important initiatives and stalled programs that surely need attention once the new Democratic majority takes its seats. But you failed even to mention the Child Victims Act, which has been stymied by the Republican Senate for more than a dozen years. The New York Times seemed reluctant to show any support for, or even minimal coverage of this issue until after the horrific Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report was released, which makes it appear that the Times was trying to play catch-up on the topic. But to not even mention the Child Victims Act in an opinion piece the day after the Senate was flipped, shows the NYT is not really on the side of survivors and is still trying to protect the institutions that protect sexual predators. What other conclusions should be drawn from this glaring omission? Survivor/Advocate

The Democratic controlled State Senate must focus on rent laws so that no more New Yorkers are displaced from their homes.

Loft Law amendment passed Assembly only to wither in last year’s Senate. Get rid of all Bloomberg amendments and reopen the Loft Law!!

NYC Asians will be closely watching to see if the Democrats harm social mobility for Asians by changing the rules for Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech because there's too many Asians at these elite schools.

Luckily I had my 7 year old son with me. One of the poll workers offered me a special line reserved for seniors and people with kids. Otherwise, I would have been waiting in an extremely long line for the scanner that snaked up and down through the entire school cafeteria. Yes Albany, please fix this. New Yorkers shouldn't have to experience hardships for doing their basic civic duty.

Yes, the congestion pricing may very well be the way to get the revenue to fix the subways, it's by no means a panacea. The Dems need to take on the labor unions, which have run amok in NY and especially, in NYC. They've been "fixing" Fulton St., the main thoroughfare linking up FiDi, TriBeCa, and Battery Park City, for what appears to be going on for TWO DECADES and the street still looks like the face of a teenage kid with an especially severe bout with acne. These are people that don't work on weekends and seem to work only when people are going to work. If the subways are to be fixed, we can't be paying conductors (a job ripe for a machine anyway) $300K a year to do a job that a machine could do much better. Get the revenue, but reduce the costs to fixing the subways.

Elections in Washington state are almost exclusively conducted by mail. If you are registered to vote, a ballot shows up in your mailbox. You fill it out, sign it and mail it back. New Yorkers are busy people. Why can’t we do this instead of waiting in line for hours?

Let’s go NYS - it’s 2018! Making voting easier must be #1 on the agenda while it’s fresh in everyone’s mind, otherwise it’ll be forgotten about until the next election. Early voting and absentee ballots/voting by mail for all who choose to, plus automatic and same day registration are no brainers, many more voters will participate. Update equipment and strengthen protections for voter information and votes, we still have foreign powers meddling. We have lots of Tech companies in the state now - get them to help! There is no reason NYS shouldn’t be a leader in voting technology! Start TODAY!

Tolls should be put on the East River bridges to cut down congestion in Manhattan and rise money for the subways,

More absentee ballots and early voting are fine, but your editorial called out the typical, embarrassingly low voter turnout in New York and called for automatic voter registration as one solution. Which is it? Define the problem. Too few registered voters?...then fine, make it easier to register. But if it’s registered voters too lazy to vote, BLAME THEM, not the system.

Where is the list?

They should consider the Oregon system. Each registered voter is mailed a ballot. They may mail it back or put it in a deposit box available for several days before election day at designated drop sites. Simple and cheap and with a paper trail. In use for all elections since 2000. Details at Wikipedia "Elections in Oregon." They also have on-line voter registration.

Improved voting laws ought to be legislated at the federal level. All citizens should be entitled to vote in federal elections, no matter how hard Republicans try to suppress us. Same day registration, early voting, mail-in and internet voting, and voting by ex-felons ought to be institutionalized at the federal level. Republican gerrymandering ought to be abolished for federal elections, and every state should appoint nonpartisan commissions to draw state and municipal district lines using computer technology. All states should enthusiastically embrace the 21st Century.

And get with the Assembly's decision last year to decouple teacher evaluations from state test scores, which are unevenly applied across subject matter. My evaluations are dependent upon my students passing the Chemistry Regents Exam, an exam they know they do not need to pass in order to graduate. Yet so many other teachers are evaluated based on the results on the English Regents Exam, including art teachers, music teachers and gym teachers. Race To The Top and APPR were a sham to bully public school professionals and divert money from public schools to private charters. It's time for both to come to an end. The Assembly voted to do just that. The Senate did not. Time to rectify that mistake.