The Leonard Lopate Show

Giuliani’s Quality of Life Campaign

In the 1990s, then-mayor Rudy Giuliani instituted his zero-tolerance campaign in New York City – to very mixed reviews! Alex S. Vitale, the author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics, says that even before Giuliani's crackdown, City Hall was more likely to use tax dollars to subsidize the wealthy than aid the poor.

• Comments [18]
• Email
• Save

Segregated Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama

The city of Mobile, Alabama’s Mardi Gras celebrations is even older than New Orleans – and they’re also segregated into a black Mardi Gras and a white Mardi Gras. A new documentary, "The Order of Myths," investigates the ongoing segregation in Mobile, and whether its black and white residents are interested in integration. Margaret Brown is director; two of the film’s subjects are Joseph, the black Mardi Gras king; and Brittan, who was in the white Mardi Gras court. It opens July 25 at the IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue).

• Comments [5]
• Email
• Save

States of the Union: Connecticut

We find out whether Senator Joe Lieberman’s support will help John McCain in the Constitution State. Also: a look at the close race in the state’s 4th Congressional District, where Republican Chris Shays is fighting to keep his seat. Christopher Keating, Capitol bureau chief for the Hartford Courant, explains which issues matter most to Connecticut’s voters.

States of the Union fact of the week: Before 1875, Hartford and New Haven alternated as capitals of Connecticut.

• Comments [3]
• Email
• Save

Underreported: Women in Post-War Liberia

Many women in post-war Liberia are jobless and lack decent housing and medical care. Compounding the problem are the more than 30,000 women and girls who served with fighting forces in Liberia’s recent wars. They were constant targets for rape and sexual violence. Find out how former female Liberian soldiers are struggling to piece together their lives again.

Jackie Redd served in Charles Taylor’s forces throughout her teens and early 20s; Florence Ballah worked as a cook and porter in Liberia’s rebel group ULIMO. Both were abducted in their early teens and subsequently joined fighting forces. Tania Bernath is Liberia researcher for Amnesty International.

• Comment
• Email
• Save