Prime Beef: Scenes From the Burger BashA look at the burgers from Friday night’s competition in Brooklyn, featuring Michael Psilakis, Rachael Ray, and Katie Lee.
Medjool Owner Out at City HallGus Murad resigns from the Small Business Commission as his restaurant continues to get heat from the city over an illegal roof deck.
Bloomberg’s Advisers Against a Third TermDeputy Mayors Kevin Sheekey, Patricia Harris, and Ed Skyler have indicated they think a change on term limits is a bad idea.
Christine Quinn Joins the Scandal BandwagonThe City Council Speaker has been allocating monies to phony nonprofits at the beginning of every year so she can use the funds later for favors, reports the Post.
developing
A Guide to Dan Doctoroff’s Unfinished BusinessDan Doctoroff is leaving City Hall with a lot of big real-estate projects unfinished, but he’s done his best to make sure they have the momentum and guidance to be completed in his absence (which meant coordinating a lot of egos and favors). The mayor remains urgent about his green agenda, and the staff Doctoroff leaves behind seems to click. Plus, he’s not exactly dropping off the grid: “One of the great things about going to [Bloomberg LP] is I’m not going to be that far away,” he told us, murkily. But without strong-willed Doctoroff forcing players to negotiate, will everything go according to plan? After the jump, a handy guide to Doctoroff’s key reform campaigns, with assurances from Doctoroff himself included. Think of it as a cheat sheet for who now controls their (and our) future. —Alec Appelbaum
intel
Dan Doctoroff’s Replacement: Innie or Outie?With the official news of Dan Doctoroff’s departure as the city’s economic-development czar, the hunt is on to find a lame-duck replacement for him — one that can carry out the mayor’s ambitious NYC2030 plan. So, one source tells us that City Hall recruiters have been feeling around for any takers and have so far reached out to at least two possibilities. One of them is Alan Fishman, the former president of Sovereign Bank who now chairs the mayor’s Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation. (A call to Fishman was not immediately returned.) The other person that’s said to have been asked about Doctoroff’s job is Sean Donovan, who now runs the mayor’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. “This could be a very good choice,” one politico told New York. “Shaun and Dan have very different philosophical approaches to development. Shaun has a great reputation for working with community groups and community boards and can build allegiances there, and that was always Doctoroff’s weakness. He wanted to bulldoze things through.” Donovan is the choice most frequently mentioned in press reports, but Fishman could be the private-sector outsider we hear that City Hall has been secretly hoping for. Time, and more rushed press conferences, will probably tell. —Geoffrey Gray
Earlier: Dan Doctoroff May Still Save Us
developing
Dan Doctoroff May Still Save UsDan Doctoroff insisted at today’s quickie press conference that “everything will keep going” on the city’s construction front despite his departure. But is the position he’s leaving one that requires his specific personality? As the mayor noted, Doctoroff broke the patronage-or-paralysis mold that used to define big city projects. “By integrating economic development with city planning, affordable housing, and parks for the first time, Dan created a new model,” said Bloomberg. “His best was as good as it gets.” (The famously droll mayor seemed genuinely cranky at chatter when the meeting started and misty when he summed up his adieu.) And Doctoroff may still retain the power to help patch up the city’s cracked infrastructure.
it just happened
Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff Out at City Hall, In at Bloomberg LPDan Doctoroff, who has been toiling away since 2001 as the mayor’s get-it-done man, will announce today that he will be out of City Hall by the end of the year. He’ll be named president of Bloomberg LP, reports the Times.
“Our administration and the city of New York have been incredibly lucky to have Dan in City Hall for the past six years, and I’ve personally been very lucky to have him sitting just six feet away from me,” the mayor said in a hastily scheduled news conference in the Blue Room of City Hall. “He has been a true partner, a trusted friend, and the architect of the most sweeping transformation of New York City’s environment since the days of Robert Moses.”
Doctoroff, a former investment banker who, like the mayor, earns only $1 a year for his civil service, is the deputy mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding. He’s overseen successful projects like the High Line redevelopment and the rescue of the city’s waterfronts, including Governors Island. He was also a force behind the mayor’s ill-fated West Side Stadium and Olympic bids. Doctoroff was popular in City Hall and is credited with helping Bloomberg with much of his economic and redevelopment success. New York’s Geoffrey Gray reported that Doctoroff was planning a departure last month.
Doctoroff Is Leaving Bloomberg Administration [NYT]
Related Doctor! Give Me a Job [NYM]
in other news
Ellen Pompeo Weds at City Hall, Cheers Up Knicks FansGrey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo got married, shotgunNew York style! The smoky actress secretly tied the knot with her longtime beau Chris Ivery in City Hall on Friday. Despite the fact that both of their hometowns are in the Boston area, the pair opted for a simple ceremony witnessed by Mayor Bloomberg himself. “They are over the moon,” Pompeo’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Allen, told the Boston Globe. Last month Pompeo told People that she hadn’t started planning, despite the fact that she’d been engaged to Ivery for over a year, so this may have been a spur-of-the-moment thing. While they were here, the newlyweds snagged courtside seats at Sunday’s Knicks game. How cute! At least there was one functional relationship down there that fans could root for.
‘Grey’s’ Pompeo quietly ties knot in Big Apple [Boston Globe]
Openings
Market Table Already Bumpin’ Market Table has opened for both lunch and dinner with little fanfare, and what we hear today predicts future success. Chef-owner Joey Campanero tells us that he did two and a half turns at lunch today (roughly 100 customers). Plus, the retail counter is cha-chinging away. The biggest seller, Campanero says, is the burger. No surprise, given that it’s made from the same magic meat found in burgers at the Spotted Pig, Stand, Borough Food and Drink, City Hall, and even (though not exactly) the Shake Shack. Expect a tough table: the place is even smaller than the Little Owl, Campanero ’s perpetually packed West Village favorite.
Related: Shop Like a Chef (Preferably in His Own Store)
developing
Dan Doctoroff’s Plan to Move City Hall Workers to WTC
City Hall has finally found a way to personally benefit from the fitful rebirth of ground zero. A year ago, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff pledged that the city would rent up to a third of the office space in 4 World Trade Center if no other tenants emerge by early 2009 — a key financing commitment for the three towers that developer Larry Silverstein will soon start building. Yesterday, Doctoroff told us that the city was planning on making good on that pledge — and that relocating city workers into the new Fumihiko Maki–designed skyscraper could benefit everyone, including us taxpayers. “Too many of our workers are in substandard space,” Doctoroff said, “and this gives us an opportunity to upgrade some and perhaps sell some buildings that are better used for residential.” Because condo demand is outpacing the need for office space down there, this could be a deft, profitable maneuver for the city. At the same time, having a guaranteed tenant would take the heat off Silverstein (and his lenders). Since many city workers are toiling in basements and too small spaces, this could be a hat trick not even Silverstein’s architects could’ve designed. —Alec Appelbaum
photo op
We Love Obliviously Ironic Junk Mail
Have we mentioned before how much we love junk mail from the Bureau of Waste Prevention? Oh, yeah, we have. Well, it’s still true, and the latest installment made us smile for a moment last night, all the way until we threw it out.
Earlier:
Best Junk Mail Ever
Giving Our Junk Mail a Second Chance
in other news
City Film Bureaucrat Is an Impressively Bad Person, Olbermann Says
And while we’re feeling video-y, here’s Keith Olbermann’s “World’s Worst Person” segment from last night’s Countdown. He gave top honors to Julianne Cho, the official in the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, who he labels the person behind the city’s proposed new rule requiring that virtually anyone trying to take more than a quick snapshot on the city’s street obtain a permit and $1 million in liability insurance. Creative types are pissed off, civil-liberties types are pissed off, and, apparently, Olbermann is pissed off. We almost feel bad for Cho, who we presume is doing her job and carrying out someone else’s decision and getting beat up for it. But on the other hand, we’re also kind of stoked for her. Olbermann ranked her last night as the worst person above both Rudy Giuliani and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That’s quite an accomplishment.
Countdown: Worst Person July 31, 2007 [YouTube]
Related: Picturing Protest, Artists Organize to Fight Camera Permit Proposal [NYT]
it just happened
Congestion Pricing: It’s a Deal!
As Geoffrey Gray warned us earlier, there’s now a deal for congestion pricing. From City Room, the Times’s metro blog:
“We have a deal,” Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, just told reporters in Albany. “Like any deal, like any arrangement, its [sic] subject to the definitive word ending up on paper. As we speak, we are drafting paper, press release, with the governor’s office, with the Assembly.”
Asked if the deal would still qualify for a grant of $500 million in federal financing, Mr. Bruno said: “We are told if we get this there today, we will be one of the nine considered.”
Just think: Some time in the not-too-distant future, you’ll have the privilege of paying to drive on exploding streets. Fun!
Deal Is at Hand in Congestion Pricing [City Room/NYT]
Earlier: Congestion-Pricing Lives! Is City Hall Close to Announcing a Deal?
intel
Congestion-Pricing Lives! Is City Hall Close to Announcing a Deal?
Thought you didn’t have to hear any more about congestion pricing? You may not be so lucky. This morning’s Daily News reported that a marathon private negotiation went till the wee hours last night, putting Bloomberg and Albany leaders tantalizingly close to a deal to salvage the mayor’s traffic plan. “We are extraordinarily close, but it’s just not going to get there tonight,” Spitzer’s spokesman told the News just before midnight. “All the pieces have not come together.” Well, the word we’re now hearing is that those pieces have finally come together. A source in City Hall tells New York’s Geoffrey Gray that they’ll be holding a press conference in a few hours to announce a deal. We wouldn’t hold our breath — considering the mercurial people involved — but it’s what we’re hearing.
Related: Congest Fight U-Turn [NYDN]
early and often
Chris Smith: Bloomberg Is Full of It
Yesterday, in a press release, Mike Bloomberg said his switch of party allegiance from Republican to none-of-the-above was about “bring[ing] my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city.” This afternoon, in a press conference — after torturing reporters with a prolonged exaltation of the 311 system — the mayor claimed the switch was because he’d suddenly become aware of nasty partisanship in Washington, and that becoming a free agent allows him to speak his mind.
Please.
early and often
Strategist Split to Roil City PoliticsOne of New York’s top political-consulting partnerships — they’ve repped Mike Bloomberg, Christine Quinn, and Joe Lieberman, plus unions, other Dems, and developers including Forest City Ratner — is splitting up. Knickerbocker SKD — the highly influential pairing of wunderkind strategists Josh Isay, who made his name managing Chuck Schumer’s 1998 defeat of Al D’Amato, and Micah Lasher, who’s been a strategist for dozens of campaigns, including Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s 2005 victory over eight other Democratic contenders for the beep job — now faces an uncertain future as Lasher plans to leave the firm, according to sources. Lasher feels it’s the right time to depart, the sources say, and he also has his eye on Gale Brewer’s Upper West Side City Council seat. (Brewer will have to leave her post in 2009 because of term limits.) Isay will continue running the firm with other strategists; it’s unclear how the split will affect top clients like Council Speaker Quinn, who is likely running for mayor, and Stringer, said to be eying the comptroller position. —Geoffrey Gray
the morning line
How Now Dow Jones?
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 13,089 yesterday, leaping past the 13K mark on a 136-point rally — and, no doubt, giving yet another batch of small investors the tragic impression that they, too, can be Jim Cramer. [NYP]
• With all the money floating around City Hall (the surplus is now even larger than estimated — $4.4 billion), Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants a tax credit for renters to match Bloomberg’s proposed property-tax rebate. The mayor’s not sold. [amNY]
• Al Gore (“the world’s hottest leading man,” per Bloomberg’s press-conference remarks) is in town to open the Tribeca Film Festival. If he were running for office, last night’s gala would sure feel a lot like a Dem fund-raiser. But he’s not, so it didn’t. [WNBC]
• Corzine walks! New Jersey’s governor took a few steps for the first time since the car crash that broke half the bones in his body. He also felt up to taking a phone call from … President Bush. [NYT]
• And Condi Rice apparently wields major power over New Yorkers’ consumer habits. After she endorsed a beef stew at Brooklyn’s Sea Tide Gourmet Fish Store (huh?), it’s supposedly been flying off the shelves. The story feels planted, but by whom? The store or Condi? [NYDN]
in other news
Has Bloomberg Picked a New (Somewhat Crunchy) Transportation Chief?Here’s a sign Bloomberg may not be kidding about his commitment to this PlaNYC deal. Meet his likely new Department of Transportation head, Janette Sadik-Khan. Eagle-eyed Streetsblog notes that Sadik-Khan, who has been mentioned as contender for the job but not yet announced — has just quit her job at an engineering firm in what’s believed to be preparation for a mayoral announcement. The word is she’ll be moving into departing commish Iris Weinshall’s office as soon as May 14. Sadik-Khan seems to have beaten out the other serious contender, Michael Horodniceanu, who did a traffic-czar stint under Dinkins, in a face-off policy wonks were watching closely because the two candidates seemed to embody two opposite approaches. Horodniceanu is a cars-first traditionalist; Sadik-Khan is a mass-transit innovator. It’s encouraging, then, that the person in charge of developing Bloomie’s big ideas — new commuter rail into Manhattan, rapid buses, etc. — is actually into this sort of thing. And it’s equally encouraging that Sadik-Khan (or at least in the only photo we could find online) looks remarkably like someone you’d see in a Decemberists ticket line.
Sadik-Khan Is Next at DOT [Streetsblog]
in other news
It’s Not Easy Being Green
Mayor Bloomberg’s released PlaNYC 2030, his environmental agenda for the next quarter-century, yesterday (on Earth Day! get it?) at the Museum of Natural History (nature! get it?). It’s almost too sprawling to recap, not to mention hell to pronounce (“plan-why-see twenty-thirty”?), but we know we’d be thrown out of the Bloggers’ Association if we didn’t do our best to take the most multifaceted matter and reduce it to five talking points. Herewith, our attempt to suss out the essence of the 127 proposed projects.
NewsFeed
Waiters Serve Papers to City Hall and B.B. King Blues Club
Two more waiters have crumbled up their aprons and decided they’re not going to take it anymore. Maimon Kirschenbaum, the lawyer last seen suing Heartland Brewery for shaving time off punch-card records and failing to cough up overtime (he says ten servers are now onboard with the complaint including a former manager) is now going after both Radiante, which owns City Hall (according to the suit, six-year server Mohammed Uddin was paid straight time instead of overtime), and B.B. King Blues Club & Grill. Kirschenbaum filed the latter suit yesterday; as he has it, server Brandon Salus was singing the blues at B.B. King’s after walkouts were deducted from his paycheck, a violation of Section 193 of the New York Labor Law. In one instance a $240 dine-and-ditch allegedly reduced the server’s weekly pay to $20.
The New York Diet
Novelist Marisha Pessl Motivates Herself With Coffee, Rewards Herself With
As Marisha Pessl has it, she got so carried away describing food in her best-selling novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics that certain passages had to be edited down. It’s no surprise then that beyond the eight or nine cappuccinos she used to drink while writing (she’s now down to two or three) and the ’wichcraft cupcakes she rewards herself with afterward, the author and Tribeca resident is a self-confessed “absolute foodie.” Now that she’s between book tours and working on a second novel (the paperback of Special Topics comes out next week), she says she has “a license to feed all the time.” So how does she put it to use?
in other news
Tom Cruise Dissed by Bloomberg, ValloneYou may have heard that Tom Cruise was sponsoring a Scientology-flavored detox program for 9/11 first responders (the fund-raiser is tonight, in fact), and that the City Council was about to honor him for it. Yesterday, reports the Post, Mayor Bloomberg finally decided this wasn’t such a great idea. The initiative to give Cruise official kudos belongs to Councilman Hiram Monserrate, who claims that the program was secular in itself and the religion of its underwriter was thus irrelevant. Yet even the most casual fans of Xenu & Co. could spot that some features of the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project — specifically the sweat-and-vitamins regimen — were indistinguishable from the intro stage of Scientological indoctrination. Not to mention some of the families’ claims that the patients are being told to stop taking anti-depressants. Bloomberg didn’t provide any pithy sound bites on the matter, but he’d be hard-pressed to beat a remark by Councilman Peter Vallone; commending Cruise, Valone said, would cross the line between “cult and state.”
Mike Thumps Tom [NYP]
the morning line
Save the Whale, and the Musicians
• After Jon Corzine recovers — speedily, we hope — we see a lot of PSAs in his future. Not only was the New Jersey governor not wearing a belt at the time of his crash last Thursday, but the car was doing 91 mph. [NYDN]
• Cynthia Greenberg, an activist who claims to have been kicked in the head by an NYPD officer at an antiwar rally, will get $150,000. The city is making the case go away after Greenberg threatened to produce videotape. [NYT]
• The German Army has fired the instructor who told his soldiers to imagine scary black dudes in the Bronx before squeezing the trigger. Chalk the victory up to the unlikely alliance of YouTube and Bronx beep Adolfo Carrion. [amNY]
• As live-music venue closings reach a critical mass, musicians descended on City Hall yesterday to protest. Turns out guitarist Marc Ribot speaks fluent municipal-ese (“that industry brings hundreds of thousands of tourists,” etc.). [Metro NY]
• And a baby minke whale has made its way into the Gowanus Canal. As of this moment, it’s still navigating the filthy waters, and rescue plans are being drawn up; on a related note, is “Fin City” really the best the Post could do? [NYP]
intel
Best Junk Mail Ever
We were throwing out junk mail the other day when we noticed the return address on one of the postcards. It promptly became our favorite piece of junk mail ever.
Related: NYCWasteLe$$ [NYC.gov]
in other news
The War of DOT Commissioner Succession
City-commissioner succession issues don’t normally make for a captivating read. This time, however, with Iris Weinshall (a.k.a. Mrs. Chuck Schumer) vacating her job atop the Transportation Department, the mayor will choose between two replacements who subscribe to two very different schools of thought. And so things are getting a bit heated (and the last names, incidentally, exotic).
neighborhood watch
The Partial Return of City Hall ParkBorough Park: Due largely to its prolific Orthodox Jewish community, this hood holds the city’s record for most babies, pumping out an average of thirteen daily! [Fort Greene Courier via Brooklyn Record]
Brooklyn Heights: Some beautiful old sgraffito façade work at 177-179 Columbia Heights will likely go unrestored due to prohibitive costs. Quel dommage. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
City Hall: After years of public pleading, City Hall Park will partially reopen in July. [Tribeca Trib via Curbed]
East Village: Guess what’s arrived at that longtime mystery lot bounded by Second, Third, 13th, and 14th? Drumroll, please: It’s …a bank ad! Wow. [Curbed]
Harlem: Would Langston Hughes have hung out at Starbucks? A new book finds that the uptown scene may be most compromised by the city’s increasing “suburbanization.” [City Limits via Uptown Flavor]
Prospect Heights: A petition is circulating to spare the lovely 1911 Ward’s Bakery building from Atlantic Yards–related demolition. [Gowanus Lounge]
gossipmonger
Boobs at ‘Jane’Jane magazine asked girls to bare their breasts for a picture spread but canceled after a staffer mistakenly unveiled the identities of the participants. Jake Gyllenhaal and David Fincher had some “artistic differences” on the set of Zodiac. Phillip Bloch was not impressed by how Vogue’s André Leon Talley styled Jennifer Hudson’s thighs at the Oscars. Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselback got into (another) fight at The View, which ended with Hasselback (again) in tears. Graydon Carter and Jim Kelly hosted a book party for Kurt Andersen at the Waverly Inn, and a lot of media bigwigs showed. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are not looking to buy an apartment in the Dakota, according to a rep. Spike Lee hung out with Mayor Bloomberg at City Hall.
neighborhood watch
Even the Raccoons Move to BrooklynAstoria: More and more folks are discovering the quiet charms of Hallets Cove, the East River tributary just a short walk from Vernon Boulevard. [Waterwire via Joey in Astoria]
City Hall: Ever wanted to know what the old City Hall subway station looked like? Prettier than most others. And that’s why it’s closed. [Gothamist]
Clinton Hill: Looks like the raccoons that have been plaguing outer Queens are now encroaching on Kings County, too. At least they’re not buying up all the brownstones. [Brooklynian]
Dumbo: Avant-tots, rejoice! A bunch of “old German hippies” will design a super-cool playground for the southern end of the waterfront Brooklyn Bridge Park. [The Brooklyn Paper]
Inwood: The kids are climbing the walls at Intermediate School 52! Or is it just a really cool artist-student collaboration? [Wooster Collective via Razor Apple]
Sunset Park: Locals force a stop-work order at 420 42nd Street, a site whose plans were “self-certified” by the twelve-story tower’s architect. But will it last? [Brownstoner]
the morning line
In Case You Haven’t Been Screwed Enough By the MTA…
• Wait, now there’s a $3.9 billion surplus?! Just weeks ago, the city was projected to be mere $2 billion in the black. Bloomberg warns that the city’s become “very dependent” on transfer taxes from huge real-estate deals. Whatever. We want free cabs for a week. [NYT]
• A “wacky” judge “ranted” “bizarrely” against a death-penalty case on his hands, preferring that the prosecutors shoot for life-in-prison instead. And that’s just the news story; you should see the epithets in the editorial. [NYDN]
• Today the massed forces of NYPD will once again do furious battle with the evil swarm otherwise known as hippies on bicycles: Critical Mass is coming to town. Interestingly, Brooklyn cops appeared far more supportive two weeks ago: Officers even rode alongside the cyclists. [amNY]
• The Post’s Andrea Peyser, having finally cracked, roams the floors of a Bed, Bath & Beyond waving photos of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Paris Hilton. It’s a “social experiment,” apparently. [NYP]
• And City Hall is about to, um, roll out official New York City condoms. “Memorable packaging” may include the iconic subway map. Is the mayor getting frisky with the budget surplus already? [AP]
in other news
Everybody Loves Tax Cuts!
As a result of New York’s booming economy — and of things like Tishman Speyer buying Stuy Town and the Dubai royals buying everything else — the city is enjoying a $2 billion surplus, and the word on Chambers Street is that we’re in for some kind of windfall. Mr. Bloomberg, spell it out for us:
• No more 4 percent city sales tax on apparel and shoes. If you just said “Wait, I thought we already got rid of that one,” you’re one thrifty customer: It was previously waived only for items under $110. In a nicely rhyming estimate, the new cut will save customers $110 million over the next fiscal year.
• There’s $140 million in permanent tax cuts for small businesses, including a credit for S-type corporations (which are currently subject to a kind of double taxation here).
• And most exciting for homeowners, property taxes will shrink by 5 percent across all classes, with an average savings of $201 (that’s on top of a $400-per-property rebate). This cut, however, is not permanent: Since 2009 projections are not quite as rosy, it is likely to remain a one-time-only treat. Unless, that is, the Dubai royals buy Tishman Speyer or something.
Bloomberg Outlines Series of Tax Breaks [Crain’s]
the morning line
We’ve Got a Lot of What It Takes to Get Along
• We’ve been good little New Yorkers, and we’re getting a $1 billion tax cut. Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled his talking points for tonight’s State of the City address, and an upbeat bunch they are: a booming economy, a $2 billion surplus, and his own 75 percent approval rating. [amNY]
• Barack Obama is officially in the running for ‘08, and the Post picks the unusually restrained “Barack Is On Track” while the News goes nearly incomprehensible with “Hil Better Not Look Barack.” [NYP, NYDN]
• A lawyer is suing Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the city’s most prominent law firms, for discriminating against him because he was gay and retaliating when he lodged an internal sexual-harassment complaint. What is this, 1993? [NYP]
• Naomi Campbell pleaded guilty to throwing a cell phone at her maid. The move resulted in a sentence of five days of community service, which Campbell will eventually get around to (after fashion shows in “California, Brazil, London, Paris and Milan.”) [NYT]
• And in another celebrity-justice vignette, Jerry Seinfeld was ordered to pay $100,000 to his real-estate broker, whom he stiffed after she refused to give him a house tour on Shabbat. Strange, this sounds like more of a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. [Newsday]
developing
Today’s New York: Poor People Should Be Neither Seen Nor HeardThe Heywood is a new condo conversation at 26th Street and Ninth Avenue in Chelsea. It’s just a bit north of the public Elliott-Chelsea Houses, where the city is planning to build a new, 128-unit mixed-income tower. And lest you have any remaining question about who — private developers or city government — really has the upper hand in today’s New York, take a look-see at the Housing Department’s request for proposal for the public-housing tower. It contains lines like: “Preference will be given to proposals that maximize light and air to the Heywood.” (One nonprofit developer laughed out loud when she read the line. “We’re used to preference going to maximum affordability,” she said.) The developer also “must meet with the board of the Heywood upon designation and keep the board apprised.” Why? “The board is particularly concerned about the windows on its southern façade and would like to engage the developer in a discussion about design solutions and possible legal instruments to protect these windows.” In other words, developers have to make sure that if Heywood residents must live near poor people, at least they won’t have to see them. Phew.—Alec Appelbaum
West Side HPD/HYCHA RFP [NYC.gov]
in other news
One Solution to the City’s Water-Bill ProblemsToday’s Times brings the news that the city’s water bills are so profoundly screwed up that it’s impossible to collect on millions and millions of dollars worth of overdue fees. We’ve uncovered a memo recently sent by the Public Works Department in an attempt to rectify things:
To: Alan G. Lafley, Chairman, President, and CEO, Proctor & Gamble
From: Public Works Department, The City of New York
Date: December 12, 2006
Re: Water bills
Dear Mr. Lafley:
No less than the great American humorist Mark Twain once quipped, “Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.” In light of our recent troubles, the City of New York could not agree more. And, as recent initiatives have made Charmin one of the premier users of our most precious resource, we hope you feel the same way.
in other news
An Emergency Command Center Grows in Brooklyn*After five years without a permanent home, the city’s emergency command center has finally made like seemingly every other New Yorker and, well, moved to Brooklyn. The brand-new, four-story building in downtown Brooklyn cost $50 million (which actually sounds kinda cheap, considering the ultra-high-tech stuff that, we hope, it’s got inside). It’s also, notably, “green” — that is, environmentally sound — and poised to get certified as such by the U.S. Green Building Council. Which raises the question: Should we let these people tour the building? They sound like America-haters. More important than that, though, we’re not sure if we should take the reasoning behind the center’s new location as a compliment to the Borough of Kings or as an insult. Is it a vote of confidence, a sign of Brooklyn’s growing centrality to city affairs? Or is it snub, suggesting that officials think nobody wants to bomb the place, anyway. Either way, we’re pleased to note that there’s also now a backup center — in an undisclosed location, naturally. We’re thinking Staten Island. No one would want to bomb that.
* We know. Sorry. Nothing better immediately came to mind.
City Takes Big Step Forward in Emergency Preparedness [NYS]
in other news
City Hall: Feeling A Bit Congested?
The idea of congestion pricing — putting a bit of a squeeze on all drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street on weekdays —- has been around for a while. In recent weeks, however, it’s suddenly begun to get traction, and, as the Sun reports today, it now seems that City Hall will apply for federal funds next year to study the idea. Who’s so excited about the issue? Well, first, the Partnership for New York City, a group of 200 big-business CEOs, is about to release a report that will claim a better-than-expected response to the idea. Second, a major consulting firm is phone-polling the hell out of the citizens about the issue. (For an added dash of mystery, the firm’s client is not being disclosed.) And third, the Manhattan Institute will host a panel on the issue this Thursday. Congestion pricing, as Aaron Naparstek reports in this week’s magazine, was invented up at Columbia at 1951. And the best argument for reducing Manhattan traffic is that it’s somehow taken 55 years for the concept to travel about 140 blocks down Broadway to City Hall.
Fees to Ease Midtown Traffic Jams May Get a New Look From City Hall [NYS]
Unlocking the Gridlock [NYM]