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Clarity Emerges at Ground Zero, and Larry Silverstein Clearly Is Not a Key Ingredient
Larry Silverstein's office towers are in jeopardy and nobody in government is too worried about salvaging them.
Posted 10/02/08 in Daily Intel : Developing
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Meredith Vieira Officially More Powerful Than Katie Couric
According to ‘Forbes,’ at least. Plus, today’s real estate, law, media, and financial news.
Posted 08/28/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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World Trade Center Memorial and Museum to Cost $1 Billion
That's nearly $400 million more than the original estimate — and there will be a two-to-three-year delay, as well.
Posted 08/15/08 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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There May Be a Day When Port Authority Is Nice to Look At
We know, we know — dare to dream, right? But there are proposals to build above it, and the renderings look lovely. Plus, news from the finance, law, real estate and media industries, in our daily roundup.
Posted 07/25/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Port Authority Honcho Gunning for World Trade Center Bully Job?
In the PA director's report on delays and cost explosions at Ground Zero, he suggested that David Paterson appoint a "traffic cop" to manage all the different projects. We suspect he has someone particular in mind.
Posted 07/03/08 in Daily Intel : Intel
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Port Authority About to Tell Us Whom to Blame for WTC Delays
A report is due out today citing seventeen to twenty causes for construction and planning setbacks.
Posted 06/30/08 in Daily Intel : Developing
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The Freedom Tower Has an Empty Dance Card
The Port Authority is offering it up for sale, according to the 'Post.' That, and more city news in our daily industry roundup.
Posted 06/17/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Pro-Pussy Activists Attack Port Authority
Animal activists defend the feral kitties of JFK against collective euthanasia, a stolen bike is rescued by East Village heroes, and a man in Coney Island suffers a craptastic fall — all in your daily dish from the five boroughs.
Posted 05/28/08 in Daily Intel : Neighborhood Watch
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Kristen: A Hooker in Three Parts
So we know Ashley returned to Manhattan yesterday — but let's get a really good look at her, shall we?
Posted 05/15/08 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Port Authority Delays Could Put Money Back in Goldman's Pocket
The advance money that the investment bank set aside to pay for its lease on land in the financial district for a new tower might go right back into its pockets.
Posted 05/12/08 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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New Port Authority Chief Not So Sure About This Atlantic Yards
Chris Ward, due to take over the Port Authority this month, suggests to us that he thinks Bruce Ratner should consider recruiting architects other than Frank Gehry.
Posted 05/08/08 in Daily Intel : Developing
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Bad News for Both of Santiago Calatrava's Lower-Manhattan Projects
Bureaucratic holdups and funding failures are slowing the Word Trade Center transit hub and have killed the starchitect's "Sky Cubes" residential tower.
Posted 04/16/08 in Daily Intel : Developing
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You Aren't the Only Person Who Comes Home to Find Random People Smoking in Your Stairwell
Clinton Hill: Beware of undesirables who sneak into your apartment building to smoke butts, do drugs, copulate, urinate, and drink coffee. Because it's happening. [Clinton Hill Blog] East Village: The latest bank branch hopes that if it puts up a big photo of the hood in Ye Olden Days, no one will notice that it's filled mostly with bank branches now. [Vanishing New York] Flushing: Local Quaker farmers demand freedom of worship! Well, they did in 1657. But the tatty document in which they listed their demands, called "The religious Magna Carta of the New World," is on display up in here. [NYT]
Posted 12/05/07 in Daily Intel : Neighborhood Watch
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J.Lo's Pregnancy Spoiler
Jennifer Lopez will supposedly announce that she's pregnant during her show at MSG on Saturday night. Jessica Simpson's people say she didn't drink and dash at the Box — her friend just accidentally took the receipt slip with him. Rosie O'Donnell did an impromptu ten-minute stand-up set during a show by Roseanne Barr at Comix. (Rita Crosby was there, despite having been served a subpoena earlier in the day.) Mariah Carey doesn't know how many bathrooms are in her Tribeca penthouse. Howard Stein, the nightlife honcho behind eighties hangouts Xenon and Rock Lounge, died at 62. The Port Authority says the quality of its toilet paper is much improved, contrary to what Larry David said on last week's episode of Curb. GLAAD forced "Page Six" to apologize for calling the pre-op transsexual who has a reality show on Fox a "she-male."
Posted 10/05/07 in Daily Intel : Gossipmonger
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What's That Shiny Building, and What Have They Done With Our Bus Station?
When Governor Spitzer held a press conference Friday to announce the state was opening bidding for the 12-million-square-foot Hudson Yards site, he mentioned another bit of redevelopment in the works for the West Side: an imminent overhaul of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Which promptly sent us scurrying to the Port Authority's Website, looking for details. We turned up these renderings and these optimistic stats: Apparently they're planning 55,000 square feet of spiffed-up stores, 26 new bus gates, and a bright office tower on top. Even if the building doesn't look too architecturally interesting, it's still nice to imagine a presentable depot. Just don't count on it anytime soon; feasibility studies will be ongoing till 2009. —Alec Appelbaum Earlier: You Wanna Buy a Rail Yard?
Posted 07/17/07 in Daily Intel : Developing
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WTC Insurers Agree to Pay, Only Five-Plus Years Later
A mere five years and eight months after September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center's insurers have finally agreed to pay out Larry Silverstein's claims. (And you thought the check from when your apartment was robbed took a long time to arrive!) Governor Spitzer announced a settlement yesterday between Silverstein and the seven insurance companies that tried to stiff him. So after all this wrangling, how huge is the gap between the amount Silverstein originally sought and the compromise sum? A measly $130 million — less than 3 percent of the total $4.6 billion the developer will receive. To think that this was one of the main issues slowing down the reconstruction at ground zero is, in instant retrospect, revolting. But both Silverstein and Spitzer put on gentlemanly performances yesterday; Silverstein offered a "very, very deep thank-you." Another thank-you is probably being muttered by the Port Authority, which will help itself to a chunk of the settlement as a part of its earlier deal with Silverstein. And perhaps by the rest of New York, which might one day actually see something built on the site. WTC Insure War Is Over [NYP]
Posted 05/24/07 in Daily Intel : Ground-Zero Watch
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New Jersey and Stewart Airport, Perfect Together
• The Port Authority has permission from New Jersey's acting governor to buy or build two new airports outside its normal area of operations. The first one will be Stewart International, 65 miles from New York; next up, Atlantic City? [NYDN] • The plan to open a secular Arabic-studies school in Park Slope is nearly dead in the face of a massive and misguided outcry from parents and media who thought it would be a madrassa; the Sun, for instance, suggested we "break out the torches and surround City Hall to stop this monstrosity." [NYT] • An eBay official is testifying in the Peter Braunstein case to list the items the crazed ex-journalist bid on in preparation for his crimes: firefighter gear, handcuffs, a gas mask, potassium nitrate, a Detroit cop badge, a FDNY sticker, and a camcorder. [WNBC] • A unique surgery healed a Long Island 3-year-old from a case of the permanent giggles doctors dubbed the Joker Face. (It's actually a very rare form of epilepsy, caused by a tumor on the hypothalamus.) [Newsday] • And we're shocked — shocked! — to report an intern scandal in the halls of power. Republican Mike Cole has become the first-ever assemblyman to get officially censured for spending a night in a female intern's apartment. Granted, he was merely watching the NHL playoffs there, with a bunch of other people present, but still. [NYP]
Posted 05/04/07 in Daily Intel : The Morning Line
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We Want to Work for the Port Authority
Today's Daily News takes a look at the Port Authority's payroll, and the only possible reaction to the findings is this: "Where do we sign up for a job there?" The paper made Ralph Berlangieri, a gardener who took home $102,700 in 2006, the exposé's marquee star, but there is a wealth of talented supporting players. One electrician, for instance, earned $124,000 last year; 50 Port Authority cops take home more than $200K. Of course, police officers and electricians put their lives on the line, albeit in two different ways, so perhaps deserve big paydays. But then there's the toll collector making $86,000, a garage attendant with a $67,000 salary, and not one but two full-time salad makers at $40,000-plus each. But, hey, don't worry about it: The Port Authority's got plenty of money to spend. After all, it's not like they have to keep cutting back the big downtown PATH station for lack of sufficient funds. Oh, wait. 103G(reen) Thumb [NYDN] Related: Career Opportunities [Port Authority]
Posted 04/24/07 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Wanna Buy the Freedom Tower?
• Guess what Port Authority is going to do with the Freedom Tower once the construction is over? What every owner of a half-built property dreams of doing: Flip it. By its completion in 2011, the skyscraper may be up for sale, say Spitzer and Corzine. [Metro] • Meet Mathieu Eugene, the City Council's newest member and the first Haitian to fill the seat. Eugene won a low-profile, low-turnout special election in Brooklyn after his predecessor, Yvette Clarke, moved on to Congress. [NYP] • Busta Rhymes, on trial for kicking a fan and beating up a former chauffeur, rejected a deal that would land him in jail for a cred-building six months. The alternative: probation, anger management, and two weeks of lecturing kids about violence. [NYDN] • In New York, we wage our war on Christmas all year round — and we're winning it, too. The U.S. Supreme Court washed its hands of the Brooklyn-filed case that challenged the citywide ban on school nativity displays. (Menorahs and Islamic crescents, however, are totally okay). [FoxNews.com] • And in New Jersey, a similar battle with a techie twist: A public-school history teacher is in hot water after a student taped him proselytizing ("If you reject [Jesus], you belong in hell," etc.) and saying that dinosaurs were on Noah's ark. [NYT]
Posted 02/21/07 in Daily Intel : The Morning Line
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Now Calatrava's Transit Hub, Too, Isn't Quite Working Out as Planned
We've always been partial to Santiago Calatrava's World Trade Center transit hub; the building, a kind of spiny origami piece with movable wings, is the most genuinely exciting structure on the site. It's also the only one that, for a long time, seemed to be getting anywhere. So it's with a heavy heart that we report the following: The damn thing is suddenly a billion dollars over budget. The projected cost for the hub is now a jaw-dropping $3.4 billion. (And that's the kind of money, as we learned today, that will buy you about 120 apartment towers in Brooklyn.) The contractors are embarking on a "major value engineering effort" to steer the project back to its original $2.2 billion price-tag. We think we know what that means — dumbed-down form and Plan-B materials — although the builders swear the "overall integrity of the design" will be intact. Screw integrity. Give us the movable wings. $3.4B For WTC Hub a Rail Shock [NYP]
Posted 02/09/07 in Daily Intel : Ground-Zero Watch
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