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Firstly, IANAL, but...When you read through the actual bill (here), and take into account things like ISO's, it really does seem that the clause regarding *character of the applicant* could be used as a jupiter-sized loophole to deny applications to private citizens en masse. You'd probably be right, but...When you take into account the government's handling of contracts with Raytheon, one of the primary defense contractors for the US, you might think that lack of standards is how the gov't has always worked for lack of understanding the concept. For those more cynical of us on slashdot, the two combine to look like an effective cop-out of responsibility to free information and standards activists in the "we've always done it this way" motif. Long story short, the reasons illustrated in the bill make a minute amount of sense, then they sucker-punch you by claiming the right to deny you if the commissioner or any other involved partner agency don't like you. Yeah, great way to protect people's rights.

It looks like it's just a local law here in New York City so I guess it's not everywhere. Sorry, my mistake.

New York has laws for transfats, smoking, parking, playing in a park, riding the subway, riding a bus, spitting, loitering, dog barking, dog walking, ice cream truck jingling, construction noise, garbage collection and a thousand other things. My point - with enough rules and enough cameras, authorities can arrest whomever they want whenever they want.

The noise code alone is 25 pages and available here
http://www.nyccouncil.info/pdf_files/bills/law0511 3.pdf(pdf)

AFAIK, cities can put restrictions on products sold within their limits. For example, NYC has laws prohibiting dangerous devices from being sold, from guns (possibly a special case), to "blackjacks", brass knuckles, etc. The proposed NYC law is consistent with existing recycling requirements, which have not been found to violate "Interstate Commerce" privileges retained by the Federal government.

NYC is also part of a nationwide movement of cities and states to implement Greenhouse mitigation policies, which can force out-of-state corporations to avoid acting certain ways within the jurisdiction of those entities. For decades, California has required emissions standards higher than the national requirements. That hasn't violated any "Interstate Commerce" rules, though it has turned the entire world a lot cleaner.

So not for nuthin' does the USSC have to keep its spankhand holstered when NYC does the right thing with our own backyard. Robes are delicate, and we wouldn't want nuthin' ta break or nuthin'.

Electronic Recycling Drop-Off Event
Sunday, November 12th, 8am to 12:30pm
Lincoln Center - Service Road

We will accept working and non-working computers, laptops, monitors, printers, keyboards, mice, cables, TVs and VCRs(no wooden consoles only plastic case models), fax machines, cell phones and pagers.

Saturday, December 9th, 8am to 4pm at PS 321
180 7th Avenue, between 1st & 2nd Streets
Park Slope, Brooklyn

Sunday, January 7th, 2007, 8am to 4pm
4th annual 'After the Holidays' event at Union Square Park - North Plaza 17th St & Broadway

Intro. 104, sponsored by Council Member Bill De Blasio, which would require manufacturers to collect discarded electronic products. Intro. 104, the Electronics Recycling and Reuse Act, would remove many of these products from landfills and incinerators currently used by the City of New York, as these products pose an environmental risk when burned, buried or recycled improperly.

Turn on my V.C.R., same one I've had for years
James Brown on the T.A.M.I show,
Same tape I've had for years
I sit in my old car, same one I've had for years
Old battery's running down, it ran for years and years

Turn on the radio, the static hurts my ears
Tell me, where would I go? I ain't been out in years
Turn on the stereo, it's played for years and years
An Otis Redding song, it's all I own

When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around

I think you are wrong. Care to support your claims with some evidence?

You can contact (and search) DoITT starting at their Website. The Tech Committee that oversees them mentioned the VoIP replacement job to which I referred in their 2003 hearing report (footnote on page 8). It's also mentioned in page 6 of Vermont's 2005 Telecommunications Plan, which quotes an article in the _Homeland Defense Journal_ July 2003 p. 37). Believe it or not, you might be able to get a followup call from a knowledgeable DoITT person by calling 311 inside NYC (DoITT's "nonemergency 911"), or +1(212)NEW-YORK anywhere. If you can't get DoITT to prioritize responding to you, you could try contacting the Technology in Government committee, which oversees DoITT and sometimes has info like this prepackaged - especially if you're an NYC resident/worker or another municipal government.

The actual story about NYC hybrid taxis is in an Austin, TX paper.

NYC could encourage this conversion to hybrids, which get better mileage, by offering rebates on other taxes on the hybrids, making them up by increasing them on the nonhybrids in taxi fleets. Maintaining the total tax collected, but distributed to favor the hybrids. Including the gas savings (50%) on gas, which is about $2.60:gallon in NYC these days (including other taxes), such a move could convert most of the 13K cabs clogging the streets with filth. Once a critical mass was achieved, including garage mechanics with mostly hybrid skills, the city could drop the regime.

I'll be suggesting this approach to the NYC City Council "Technology" committee that I advise. It would help for New Yorkers (and others) to send constructive comments supporting this move to the committee Chair, Councilmember Brewer. Politicians, especially in the City, love to get public support for specific initiatives, especially when the ball is already rolling like it is with the TLC.

The actual story about NYC hybrid taxis is in an Austin, TX paper.

NYC could encourage this conversion to hybrids, which get better mileage, by offering rebates on other taxes on the hybrids, making them up by increasing them on the nonhybrids in taxi fleets. Maintaining the total tax collected, but distributed to favor the hybrids. Including the gas savings (50%) on gas, which is about $2.60:gallon in NYC these days (including other taxes), such a move could convert most of the 13K cabs clogging the streets with filth. Once a critical mass was achieved, including garage mechanics with mostly hybrid skills, the city could drop the regime.

I'll be suggesting this approach to the NYC City Council "Technology" committee that I advise. It would help for New Yorkers (and others) to send constructive comments supporting this move to the committee Chair, Councilmember Brewer. Politicians, especially in the City, love to get public support for specific initiatives, especially when the ball is already rolling like it is with the TLC.

I thought bloomberg got rid of the commuter tax? Everyone keeps asking for it. I think it makes no sense to give the bridge an tunnel crowd who use all the public resources (PATCO/subways/roads) a free ride for those who are essentially using the accident the the jersey burbs are "outside" the city and outside the state pay no tax. Getting rid of the commuter tax encourages everyone to move to the burbs, worse the burbs of jersey. How about this? We wont have commuter tax but we charge anyone who comes into the city and leaves more than 3 times a week a $500 entry fee each time they visit? Let me put it another way, NYC can live out the burbs and jersey and LI, connecticut etc, but would any of those areas have the property values they do w/out NYC? I dont think so..

-bloo

The New York City Council has a Government Operations Committee hearing scheduled for Tuesday, 10/26/04 (two weeks from yesterday) on HAVA oversight. The Help America Vote Act was passed after the 2000 Florida election travesty, funding states to upgrade their voting equipment, registration procedures and pollworker training. This unprecedented handout of Federal money (every American taxpayer's money) to states is creating public hearings in practically every state, and most big cities, about electronic voting machines. If you post eVoting positions to Slashdot, put your mouth where your "Submit" button is, and go say something with your neighbors at a hearing, where it actually matters. Or just go lurk at a hearing anonymously - only cowards duck the chance to see important nuts and bolts of their communities in action.

The New York City Council has a Government Operations Committee hearing scheduled for Tuesday, 10/26/04 (two weeks from yesterday) on HAVA oversight. The Help America Vote Act was passed after the 2000 Florida election travesty, funding states to upgrade their voting equipment, registration procedures and pollworker training. This unprecedented handout of Federal money (every American taxpayer's money) to states is creating public hearings in practically every state, and most big cities, about electronic voting machines. If you post eVoting positions to Slashdot, put your mouth where your "Submit" button is, and go say something with your neighbors at a hearing, where it actually matters. Or just go lurk at a hearing anonymously - only cowards duck the chance to see important nuts and bolts of their communities in action.

What are you talking about? I'm a New Yorker, though no Democrat, and this is the toughest Democrat constituency in America. This Democrat constituency voted for Giuliani, after he ran as a Liberal (destroying that party when he ripped off his mask), and Bloomberg, a Democrat who switched to get money and political support from the national party, which everyone thought would open the Bush coffers for WTC compensation (it hasn't). We're smart enough to see through these convenient affiliations, looking for the tougher candidate. And we're tougher than those other cities - my point entirely. And we're Democrats: the City Council has 48/51 members Democrat (2 SI Republicans and 1 Brooklyn Working Families), both Senators are Democrats, and all the Representatives are Democrats except the Republican from Staten Island. You must spend a lot of time in Staten Island.

But what's the point in telling you the facts you must see every day? You don't guess that I remember Mayor Lindsey bankrupting the City. You don't understand that many of the RNC protesters came here from out of town, which favors young whites with surplus time, money and outrage. You hate America so much that you can't even smell the sewage pumping from the Republican Party, an equal opportunity offender, unless you're getting a check from The Cheney Organization - which has anyone paying attention really pissed off. You even spout nonsense like "we don't have any oppressive laws anymore"! You're nuts, and I have to agree with you that it's unfortunate that you didn't leave. Fortunately your boys in Washington are getting fired next month, so we can all get back to business next year, instead of the demented lies and denial so well summed by your post.

Well, it's a good point about "the law." While I've been searching here for some information on which law he might have broken, the archive doesn't seem to go back all the way to the relevant statutes. I do seem to recall though, that the statutes in question covered mostly things like aerosol paint cans and permanent markers and had specific exceptions for non-permanent stuff like water soluble chalk as used by street artists. I'm a little fuzzy on that, though, as it's been a long time since I looked at it.

Still, if we're saying "law" here, it's important to be clear about which law we're talking about and what, precisely, it says. The preceding poster's reaction could be rephrased as an Archie Bukeresque "there oughta be a law!"

When the World Trade Center, and surrounding buildings including Verizon's "7 World Trade", collapsed after the 2001 planebombings, NYC's phone system collapsed with it. Essential to managing the disaster, the NYC government's 70,000 desktop phones needed to come back ASAP. 2 days later, over 50,000 of those phones had been switched by the City's IT department, DoITT to VoIP. Shortly afterwards, that department produced a study that showed that the City's annual Verizon bill is over $100M: that's almost $1500 per phone, every year. After the 2003 blackout, and then a 1-hour Spring 2004 911 emergency switchboard outage that cost someone their life, DoITT has announced they're putting that fat Verizon contract out to bid. Despite any law requiring that, or even any precedent in the century of Verizon (by whatever name) operation of New York City's phones. NYC is currently receiving proposals for voice/data networking and moblie wireless networking projects, worth billions of dollars. The City Council (legislature) Technology in Government Committee has held public hearings on public wireless spectrum issues to ensure emergency services have access, and emergency 911 calls over VoIP service, to ensure that the move from circuit to packet switched phone calls preserves New Yorkers' service expectations. With 10-15 million people here every day, and everyone talking around the world, NYC is leading the way in planning for the transformation of VoIP. We're glad to have California along for the ride :).

When the World Trade Center, and surrounding buildings including Verizon's "7 World Trade", collapsed after the 2001 planebombings, NYC's phone system collapsed with it. Essential to managing the disaster, the NYC government's 70,000 desktop phones needed to come back ASAP. 2 days later, over 50,000 of those phones had been switched by the City's IT department, DoITT to VoIP. Shortly afterwards, that department produced a study that showed that the City's annual Verizon bill is over $100M: that's almost $1500 per phone, every year. After the 2003 blackout, and then a 1-hour Spring 2004 911 emergency switchboard outage that cost someone their life, DoITT has announced they're putting that fat Verizon contract out to bid. Despite any law requiring that, or even any precedent in the century of Verizon (by whatever name) operation of New York City's phones. NYC is currently receiving proposals for voice/data networking and moblie wireless networking projects, worth billions of dollars. The City Council (legislature) Technology in Government Committee has held public hearings on public wireless spectrum issues to ensure emergency services have access, and emergency 911 calls over VoIP service, to ensure that the move from circuit to packet switched phone calls preserves New Yorkers' service expectations. With 10-15 million people here every day, and everyone talking around the world, NYC is leading the way in planning for the transformation of VoIP. We're glad to have California along for the ride :).

When the World Trade Center, and surrounding buildings including Verizon's "7 World Trade", collapsed after the 2001 planebombings, NYC's phone system collapsed with it. Essential to managing the disaster, the NYC government's 70,000 desktop phones needed to come back ASAP. 2 days later, over 50,000 of those phones had been switched by the City's IT department, DoITT to VoIP. Shortly afterwards, that department produced a study that showed that the City's annual Verizon bill is over $100M: that's almost $1500 per phone, every year. After the 2003 blackout, and then a 1-hour Spring 2004 911 emergency switchboard outage that cost someone their life, DoITT has announced they're putting that fat Verizon contract out to bid. Despite any law requiring that, or even any precedent in the century of Verizon (by whatever name) operation of New York City's phones. NYC is currently receiving proposals for voice/data networking and moblie wireless networking projects, worth billions of dollars. The City Council (legislature) Technology in Government Committee has held public hearings on public wireless spectrum issues to ensure emergency services have access, and emergency 911 calls over VoIP service, to ensure that the move from circuit to packet switched phone calls preserves New Yorkers' service expectations. With 10-15 million people here every day, and everyone talking around the world, NYC is leading the way in planning for the transformation of VoIP. We're glad to have California along for the ride :).