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2001 Predictions For Fun And Peace

2001 Predictions From Our Readers

Borrowing from our friend Dan Rattiner, editor & publisher of Dan’s Papers in the Hamptons, we asked our readers: What will 2001 bring?

A school seat for virtually every child; LaGuardia Airport operating "normally" with no dramatic delays; the opening of a new hospital (Queens Hospital Center) for the first time in a generation; ground broken for a new Olympic pool and skating rink in Flushing Meadows Corona Park; Superb expansions of the Hall of Science and Queens Theatre in Park; an African American Hall of Fame in St. Albans; Urban Renewal Area on Rockaway Peninsula will be developed; Museum of Modern Art will open in Queens.
— Claire Shulman, Queens Borough President

Bill and Hillary will be selling their Westchester home for an apartment on the east side. The NY party bosses will get together to support one candidate for mayor. The Council Speaker will come from Manhattan, and for the first time since 1973, the bosses will try to put together a "ticket" for all three citywide candidates. Andrew Cuomo will decide not to run for governor. George Pataki will appoint his Lt. Gov. to a judgeship freeing up the spot for Rick Lazio. The UFT will go on strike after the January break. Formula One racing will come to Flushing Meadows Park.
— Mike Nussbaum, Associate Publisher, Queens Tribune

I predict the earth will continue to spin and hurtle out of control into the dark, silent, unknown outer reaches of the Universe where who knows what dangers await.  Sort of like a Roger Clemens fastball about to cross the plate in front of Mark McGwire. Crack!  Anyway, that is what came up when I thought about it here at the paper at one in the morning.
— Dan Rattiner, Dan’s Papers

The same boring stuff as 2000 only we get to write a 2001.
— Amanda Feldman

A very quiet and hardly publicized recount of the ballots in Florida will explode like a neutron bomb after Jan. 3 when the election board staffs return from the holiday and begin the recount ordered by the court and being paid for by a consortium of newspapers. Broward County already started the recount but had to stop because county workers started their holiday. Neither the counties of Palm Beach nor Miami-Dade could start as their ballots were still in Tallahassee but are on their way back as ordered by a judge. I predict that a huge amount of votes will be shown to have given Gore the 25 Florida Electoral votes needed to elect him President and cause such an unbelievable wave of anger that Bush eventually will not be able to govern and will resign leaving Cheney the president which the American public will accept.
— Mort Hillman, Palm Beach Fla, former Bayside Assemblyman

I foresee a chaotic election cycle for Queens in the year 2001. With 14 City Council seats, the Borough Presidency of Queens and three citywide positions (mayor, comptroller and public advocate) all up for grabs, we can expect countless candidates, new alliances and mass confusion. Add to that the fact that two of the expected mayoral candidates, Peter Vallone and Alan Hevesi, are from Queens (and there can only be one "favorite son"), I think we can expect an election that will rival the recent Presidential race for excitement and white-knuckle counts – and perhaps re-counts.
— Carol Gresser, former President NYC Bd. of Ed.

Year 2001: The economy will sag — no recession, but no signs of robust optimism either. Education and the process will be reevaluated. Crime will tend to rise a bit, as complacent behavior will allow this. Technology: only the meaningful technologies will withstand the "old economy" tests and survive. Esoteric and cosmetic "dot.com’s" will be looked at as the pariahs and shunned by the investor community as well as by the press and public at large. Tax Reforms will become a political issue only to have reforms which will add (not reduce) the complex tax laws. America will still remain a highly taxed middle class country. Foreigners will still want to come to USA and want to settle here (even for a few years) to reap the rewards. Even the ones who outwardly blame the USA for their country’s problems will still want a taste of this great country. Family: the core family reaches out for a moral life and struggles to maintain the cohesiveness that it idealizes and craves. What TV did to the 60’s generation, on-line and computers will do to this present generation. Religion: A few setbacks of world religious leaders will attempt a feeble reflection about life and its true meaning. But a greater focus on religion and its contribution will become prevalent.
— Ganga Mukkiavilli

The Yankees will win the series. President Bush’s honeymoon with the opposition will be brief.
— Ron Josephs

2001 will bring an OVER-MERCHANDISING of the SPACE ODYSSEY theme. Kids will find out who Stanley Kubrick is. The bi-partisan honeymoon for Pres. Bush will wear off very soon, when extremists of both parties don’t want to agree and get along. Air traffic at LGA will get so bad that there will be overwhelming support for a reduction of flights from that airport and expansion will occur at Islip, Stewart, etc. Dot-coms will have another bad year, and more of them will go out of business, etc. By the end of the year, there will be a major shake-up in the Bush administration. The Yankees will finally NOT make it to the World Series, but that is because there will be a labor lock-out by owners, who can’t afford these new salaries. Oil prices will be so crazy that Pres. Bush (the ex-oilman) is forced to put in price controls and regulations. Toward the end of the year, Al Gore will be named President of some major university.
— Richard Brody

Chelsea Clinton will write a book, with a $4 million advance, about what it was like to be the daughter of Bill and Hill during the Ken Starr scandal. She’s going to medical school and needs some cash to pay for it all.
— Melanie Carroll, former Tribune reporter

I PREDICT that our now President-elect George W’s term will be a duplicate of the Gerald Ford era...meaning: speeches that don’t make much sense and falling, tripping and fumbling all over the place. "Saturday Night Live" will have a ball at Mr. Bush’s expense.
— Gary Maggio

George Bush will finally be elected president. Nixon, though dead, will emerge as the most qualified candidate from the 2000 elections. Wall Street will finally figure out that dot.com’s like Amazon who sell at a loss cannot  "make it up in volume" — and profitable companies will again be the darling of Wall Street. AOL will gain approval from the FTC to purchase Canada in a combined Stock and cash transaction. US Steel will finally finish the Unisphere!
— William Brent

The New York Mets will win the World Series in 2001.
— Jeff Glasser

The discovery that there is a genetic component to the premature climax. Absolutely! We remember the Gulf War prematurely ‘ending’ (and Bush declaring us the winner) without continuing and counting Baghdad, and now we saw his son declare himself the winner of an election before all the votes could be counted.  This is probably the most famous father and son who have both been known to too quickly come up short and still hold on to their union.
— Kuhn

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Michael Schenkler can be reached at: MSchenkler@QueensTribune.com

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