The Second Avenue subway, finally under construction on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is of course a vast underground project. The $4.45 billion first phase, now scheduled to be completed in 2018, will extend from 96th Street to 63rd Street and Lexington Avenue.

But the project will also include construction above ground -- not just station entrances but also a half-dozen boxy buildings on corners along Second Avenue that the transit agency acquired through condemnation. These so-called ancillary buildings, ranging in height from five to eight stories, will house ventilation equipment. They are also intended to disperse smoke and allow for evacuation from subway tunnels in the event of an emergency.

New election machines making their debut in citywide elections next month may sharply limit how many questions the New York City Charter Revision Commission can fit on the ballot this November. The issue is prompting serious concerns that voters won't be able to pass individual judgments on the myriad issues slated for review this fall.

The Charter Revision Commission is expected to approve ballot questions during a meeting at Baruch College beginning Monday night at 6 p.m. 

Facing intense anger two years ago as he lobbied to run for a third term, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made a promise. Rewrite the term-limits law now, he told critics, and voters would get a chance to weigh in on the issue later.

The public, however, may not have the definitive voice that the mayor once pledged.

A fiery debate has erupted in the aftermath of the decision last week by the Charter Revision Commission, a 15-member group appointed by Mr. Bloomberg, to protect incumbents from a change to the term-limits law.

Despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg's eloquent efforts, the controversies aren't going away about the building of a mosque and community center near Ground Zero in New York City -- or in the many other cities where mosques are proposed.

And maybe they shouldn't.

After all, when the terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, they meant to maim the world's financial capital. But what they really undermined was the liberal foundation of the world's most open-minded and welcoming city in what is probably still the world's most tolerant country. New Yorkers were shaken to their core by the realization that so much of what they stood for and cherished -- freedom, openness, acceptance of differences -- helped provoke the attack.

Now New Yorkers are being asked for more lenience, and quite a few are questioning the rationale of being generous toward any group or individuals associated with Islam, in whose name the terrorists acted.

When New Yorkers go to the polls in November they can expect to find a question about term limits on the ballot.

The city's Charter Revision Commission is expected to ask voters to return to a two-term limit for elected officials, doing away with the extension approved by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council in 2008.

But the commission hasn't yet decided whether any change to the law should take effect immediately, preventing lawmakers in their second term from seeking a third.

"That does promise to be the most open question and perhaps the subject of the most heated debate tomorrow night," said Charter Revision Commission Member Hope Cohen.

The commission proposing changes to the city's charter is not expected to support placing nonpartisan elections on the November ballot when it meets Wednesday, a setback for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who spent $7 million in a failed attempt to get voters to pass a similar measure in 2003.

Even if New York City voters decide in November to restore a law barring elected officials from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms, a majority of the City Council may not have to abide by the voters' wishes.

Institute Fellows gathered at the Center for Architecture this morning, along with several distinguished guests, for a stimulating discussion of land use policy in New York City, and the work of the current Charter Revision Commission. Guests included Councilman Brad Lander, Commission Member Hope Cohen, the Related Companies' Jay Kriegel, and Hunter College professor Tom Angotti. It was great to see so many of our Fellows at the Club; stay tuned for information about our next event, which should be coming up in September. In the meantime, check out the Facebook photo album from today's discussion and, if you miss the Club but are still interested in learning more about land use, don't miss the AIANY's Land Use Education Forum tonight at 6:00 PM at the Center for Architecture.

IFUD Breakfast Club

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a big booster of doing away with party primaries and establishing a new nonpartisan election system in New York City.

"Our current system, in a practical sense, disenfranchises the vast majority of people in this city. It is not democracy in the way the founding fathers envisioned it," said the mayor.

The panel charged with recommending fundamental changes to the shape of city government seems all but certain to put term limits back on the ballot.