Uber Offering Ride Sharing Soon in California

As recently reported by Tusk Strategies with Bradley Tusk, a New York Times article explained that Californians will soon have more ways to hire a car when they need one. Uber, a start-up company that has a smartphone app to offer you a way to summon a car, is now expanding its service.

Together, Uber and the California Public Utilities Commission recently said that they’ve reached an agreement to both allow Uber to operate their hire-a-car service and to expand into ride sharing.

At the moment, Uber operates in California in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento and other surrounding areas. They first began their business model in 2011 when they had an app that summoned luxury town cars to people at a price that was higher than that for a cab. They then began a cheaper versions of their product with UberX, which offered professional car service rides using hybrids.

Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive of Uber, said recently that his company might incorporate the ride sharing service into UberX. He expects the ride sharing choice to become available in California in the next few weeks.

Using Consumer Data for Unusual Purposes

In a fascinating article in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, September 29, 2011 by Jo Piazza, Bradley Tusk actually shows how he can use his consumer data for a very unusual purpose. With Tusk Strategies, Bradley Tusk turned his tactics towards a “more spiritual aim.”

As the article explained, “Mr. Tusk, along with Gary Ginsberg, a veteran of the Clinton White House and a founding editor of the magazine George, wants to turn his conservative synagogue, Town & Village on 14th Street, into the destination temple for young, unaffiliated Jewish Manhattanites. “We figured out who was in our demographic, used commercial data and effectively built an algorithm built on who the ideal voter, or member, would be,” Mr. Tusk said.”

For the mission at Town & Village, Bradley Tusk used magazine subscription lists and vehicle registrations to target downtown professionals who weren’t overly serious about religion.

As the article stated, “With the help of Jonah Seiger of Connections Media—the same firm that ran targeting calculations for the Bloomberg campaign—Messrs. Tusk and Ginsberg identified their quarry: the roughly 30,000 non-Orthodox Jewish men and women between the ages of 28 and 44 living south of 34th Street. To reach them, they went online and developed humorous banner ads for the websites of New York magazine and the New York Post.”

Marcus Reese Featured as Part of Rising 40 Under 40

Recently, Marcus Reese of Tusk Strategies was featured in City Hall’s Rising Stars 40 Under 40. At Tusk Strategies with founder Bradley Tusk, Reese is responsible for managing government relations for corporate clients and issue advocacy campaigns.

When asked for the City Hall piece how his past jobs got him to where he is today, he replied, “I went on to work for Bush/Cheney when I was 25, and then I worked for the Republican National Convention in Washington. Then I was the deputy campaign manager for Michael Steel’s U.S. Senate race in Maryland. And now, I’ve joined up with Dan Donovan.”

During the interview, he said, “I’m into promoting moderate independent Republicanism for young people.” And he also explained about himself that, “We would say, if you shopped at Gucci or drove a Volvo, you’re a liberal. If you drive a truck and read Field and Stream, you’re a conservative. I’m one of these weird people from Alabama who loves his beer and bourbon, but I also like to shop at Gucci.”

Getting a Better Education

Success Academy Charter Schools has a plan. If it works, there will be better quality education accessible for high school entrants. The idea is that certain schools will be able to expand to ninth grade in 2014 which is when its first group has to apply for high schools.

This proposal is not for all the network’s schools. The hope is that at least some of them will be able to add high school grades. Bradley Tusk of Tusk Strategies has been instrumental in helping this campaign proceed.

The proposal is a reflection of the charter sector’s increasing comprehension that changing schools at eighth grade would result in thousands of students having to undergo a complex high school admissions process. Because the procedure is so trying, what often results is that many students end up in low-performing schools. Tusk Strategies is working with Success Academy Charter Schools to change this pattern, with the goal of ensuring access to a better quality education for as many students as possible.

StudentsFirst Launches First Blog

In exciting new news for StudentsFirst, led by Michelle Rhee, they have just announced the creation of their own blog along with the Fiscal Strategy teams. StudentsFirst has worked intensely with Tusk Strategies and Bradley Tusk to implement education reform across the country.

Now, their new blog will provide research-based solutions for making major changes to public education. It will also be a forum for diverse perspectives on educational reform. They hope, as well, that the new blog will allow for constructive discussions for those who are interested while also analyzing education studies and providing commentary on educational news.

Learn more about this new initiative here: http://www.studentsfirst.org/blog/entry/think-ed.

Camelot Moving Forward with Lottery Bid

Camelot, the UK lottery operator, has been working alongside Bradley Tusk’s consulting firm Tusk Strategies to privatize lotteries in the U.S. Their newest effort involves taking over the Pennsylvania Lottery.

Camelot explains that they hope to increase profits by encouraging locals to see lottery tickets as standard consumer goods. They hope to ‘attract more players to play a little, rather than a few to play a lot.’

Alex Kovach, Camelot’s managing director, explained: “We think lottery is like a can of Coke or a bar of gum. Our philosophy is to broaden the player base, to get to as many people and get them playing a little bit as opposed to many lotteries which are focused on core players playing a lot.”
Camelot’s bid was presented to Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration several weeks ago. The lottery has funded programs benefitting senior citizens for years, and so talks are still underway. Camelot has pledged to honor these commitments with $150 million in cash collateral and a $50 million letter of credit.
Kovach stated that Camelot is “keen to work with the commonwealth to reach a good outcome to this.”

Mandell School Staying Safe in Their Move

The Mandell School has made the decision to move to higher ground as a result of the destruction in Hurricane Sandy. Helped with many issues by Tusk Strategies with Bradley Tusk, the school will open at the Archive Building.

The new school for kids ages 2, 3 and 4 will have the same “warmth” and “architectural feel” as their original Upper West Side location. Gabriella Rowe, the school head, explained that the school will serve 40 to 50 students in the beginning and will develop to a capacity of 150. The school was first founded on the Upper West Side in 1939, and they plan to continue their exceptional educational optional in their new location, in addition to the other current locations they have already.

Bradley Tusk Helps Jamestown Properties Win New York City Council Approval

The New York City Council approved by a wide margin in early November plans which will allow a developer to build two office buildings above Chelsea Market, an existing mall located West 15th and 16th Streets on Manhattan’s Lower West Side. The final vote of 41 to 1 was a victory for the developer Jamestown Properties and Bradley Tusk of Tusk Strategies, who helped the developer in its campaign to win the City Council’s approval.

The project calls for an eight-story, 210,000-square-foot office building on 10th Avenue and a smaller, 7-floor, 80,000-square-foot building on 9th Avenue, sandwiching the popular market. The added square footage will significantly increase the size of Chelsea Market which houses a popular food emporium as well as being a neighborhood landmark. The deal also calls for Jamestown to earmark about $13 million for a new fund, which the city will administer, to be used for the further development of High Line Park including adding bathrooms and a freight elevator. The deal also requires Jamestown Properties to contribute $5 million to a fund which will be used to build low- and medium-income housing in the neighborhood.

The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn was instrumental in forging the compromise deal with Jamestown whose campaign for passage of the plan was led by Bradley Tusk of Tusk Strategies.

Councilwoman Quinn explained the logic behind the compromise:

“Building nothing would have meant that tomorrow, the owners of Chelsea Market could tear it down, and build something else — something very different, a different use, taller, out of context,” she said at a news conference. “We have now given protection to Chelsea Market.”

The proposal also requires Jamestown to not change the iconic façade of Chelsea Market and that at least 75 percent of the ground-floor retail space will be maintained as food outlets.

The Struggle to Get Wal-Mart into New York City

Only five years ago the giant chain store Wal-Mart had basically given up the struggle to ever have a store in the Big Apple. The chief executive at the time, H. Lee Scott Jr had said at the time, “I don’t care if we are ever here.”

But a lot has changed since then. For one, Wal-Mart’s sales at home have been dwindling over several years, and Wall Street is worried. Since the suburbs and rural regions are saturated with Wal-Mart mega stores across the country, the only place for the retailer to expand is to the cities, and New York is a big feather in any retailers cap.

This is where Bradley Tusk and Tusk Strategies stepped in to lend a hand. Tusk is helping to direct Wal-Mart’s campaign to get a store approved for opening somewhere in the New York metropolitan area.

Bradley Tusk: Founder of Tusk Strategies

Bradley Tusk is the founder of Tusk Strategies, a political and strategic consulting firm based in New York City. Tusk Strategies helps clients facing complex goals involving government and politics both develop and execute full scale campaigns.

In 2009, Bradley Tusk served as the campaign manager for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s successful re-election bid. The Bloomberg campaign was described by the New York Times as a “juggernaut.” The New York City Mayor’s race was considered to be among the nation’s highest profile elections in 2009. Bradley was recently named one of the “Top 20 most influential people in New York City” by City Hall Magazine.

Prior to serving as campaign manager for Bloomberg 2009, Tusk served as Deputy Governor of the State of Illinois from 2003-2006, where he oversaw the state budget, policy, legislation, communications, and operations.

After serving as Deputy Governor, Tusk served as Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers, where he created the lottery monetization group and headed all of its efforts regarding U.S. based lotteries. Combining his backgrounds in finance and politics, Tusk developed a successful framework to help state’s monetize their lotteries.

Before his appointment as Deputy Governor, Tusk served as Special Assistant to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and prior to that served as Communications Director for New York Senator Charles Schumer. Tusk also served as Senior Advisor to New York City Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, and was an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University. Tusk is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago Law School.