Good morning. It’s Tuesday. We’ll find out why the state inspector general has written a comic book. We’ll also get details on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to repair a troubled city-owned section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
The New York State inspector general has written a comic book. That’s not a joke. But there’s not a “bam” or a “pow” anywhere in “American Watchdogs,” 12 pages of graphic nonfiction aimed at teenagers. Words like “corruption,” “tell the truth” and “whistle-blower” get the boldface-letter treatment. The purpose is to explain the watchdog role of inspectors general, who provide independent government oversight, often by investigating waste and fraud, which are not exactly the stuff of heart-pounding chase scenes or brutal slugfests. “American Watchdogs” puts a not-unconscious emphasis on the second syllable in watchdog: On page after colorful page, dogs tell much of the story. Lucy Lang, a former Manhattan prosecutor who has been the state inspector general for not quite five years, said that she wants to make unflinching government oversight more meaningful. That means making the work of an inspector general more relatable, which, in turn, means “bringing the public into public integrity,” she said — and bringing them in when they are young. The challenge is to make a relatively staid, legalistic part of state government trendy if not cool. Lang, who says that the watchdog function of inspectors general is an integral element of American democracy that goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War, saw the nation’s 250th year as a time to “take advantage of the energy about democracies and illuminate the role that inspectors general have played.” It is a role that has not been without controversy. Federal inspectors general found themselves under attack early in President Trump’s second term. He ousted more than 20 of them, replacing some of them with loyalists. In June, the new inspector general in the Department of Health and Human Services blasted the New York State attorney general, Letitia James — one of the president’s nemeses — and accused New York of being weak on Medicaid fraud. Lang, who ran for Manhattan district attorney in 2021 but did not win the crowded Democratic primary, also said that she wanted to “provide a meaningful counterfactual to the widely held belief across the aisle that all government is corruption.” Lang said that she could write a legal brief in less time than it took to break the narrative into panels for the illustrator Emily Ree to work with. For Ree, the comic book was a side project: She is a museum programs assistant with the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Lang devoted space in “American Watchdogs” to federal agencies and what their inspectors general are charged with doing. Inspectors general proliferated after the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and the comic says that an inspector general’s report sometimes “reminds everyone — even the most powerful leaders — that no one is above the rules.” “That is the heart of democracy — a government built on fairness and accountability,” the caption below a drawing of the White House says. Lang’s own job as a state-level watchdog was created in 1986. As for investigations her office has conducted, she pointed to one involving inmates in state prisons who were unfairly disciplined because the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision relied on preliminary drug test results without sending the inmates’ urine samples to a lab for confirmation. “Even correction officers were saying, ‘I administered the test, but I don’t think this guy used drugs,’” Lang said. Her office has also pursued allegations of workers’ compensation fraud, which led to 22 arrests and $1.7 million in fines, restitution and court-ordered payments last year. Blair Horner, a senior policy adviser at the New York Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit civic organization, applauded the idea of spreading the word about inspectors general and government, particularly state government. As for Lang, he noted that New York’s inspector general is appointed by the governor. “It seems like she’s gotten a long leash from the governor” that allows her a degree of independence, he said. (Lang, before she took the job, insisted as a further safeguard that she not be a member of the governor’s cabinet, as some of her predecessors were.) Some past state inspectors general “have had a choker collar,” depending on the governor, Horner said. “It appears under this governor it’s a longer leash,” he added, “but the leash is still there.” WEATHER Expect sunny skies with a high near 81. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 66. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Sept. 7 (Labor Day). QUOTE OF THE DAY “The locals call it ‘cook-sake.’ There are tote bags with the correct pronunciation sold around town.” — Patrick Pacheco, who spotted Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife shopping for groceries during their weeklong vacation around Coxsackie, N.Y. The latest New York news
We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. A $4 billion plan to repair ‘B.Q.E. Central’
The price of a long-awaited repair of a 1.5-mile city-owned stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway? Roughly $4 billion. But don’t expect a fast fix. The multiphase plan that city officials announced on Monday is not set to get underway until 2030. Parts of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade will be closed during construction. The overhaul will cover what officials call “B.Q.E. Central,” an infamous segment whose three-level layout was an engineering marvel when it was on the drawing board in the 1940s and 1950s. It has bedeviled generations of city officials and transportation planners ever since, having deteriorated under traffic loads no one imagined when it opened. It remains safe to drive on, at least for now, officials say. In announcing the renovation, Mayor Zohran Mamdani followed through on a promise he made last year, before taking office: that he would find “a permanent solution” for B.Q.E. Central “that both meets community needs and preserves this essential transportation corridor.” On Monday, Mamdani said in a statement that the repairs would involve building temporary thruways “that keep the highway operable during construction to avoid sending tens of thousands of cars and trucks onto local streets.” A group of local elected officials, including State Senator Andrew Gounardes, Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon and City Councilman Lincoln Restler, said in a statement that they were “encouraged” by the proposal. But they described it as “the beginning of a multiyear approval process” and said they wanted the mayor’s office to work with the community to “collaboratively revise this proposal.” METROPOLITAN DIARY Rush tickets
Dear Diary: I went to the Nederlander Theater hoping to get a rush ticket for “Schmigadoon,” although it was 10:20 a.m. and the rush line had opened at 10. As I approached the box office, I saw a young woman heading the same way. I just knew that she was going to buy the last rush tickets. I picked up my pace, but she still beat me to the ticket window by maybe 10 seconds. Sure enough, I heard her ask about rush tickets. “I have two left,” the ticket agent said. My heart stopped. “I only need one,” the woman replied. A miracle! Seeing my glee, she smiled at me. “I’ll take that other one,” I said when it was my turn, and then added: “Now she and I will sit together, we’ll end up getting married and what a New York story that will be.” The agent laughed. We did sit next to each other, but there were no nuptials. — Stan Sinberg Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
