Month: October 2009

Stella D’oro – a landmark on the Major Deegan – is shutting down today, after more than 75 years in business in NYC. Production is moving to a non-union shop in Ohio after the private equity firm that bought Stella D’oro couldn’t get the union workers in NYC to agree to a 27% pay cut and the elimination of their pension plan.

In case you missed it, the Times had an excellent article yesterday about private equity firms and the subprime mess they are making of American industry (and, of course, making money at it).

PMFA has the run down on the sketchy demolition of a warehouse on a former manufactured gas site. There’s a lot of ugly stuff buried under these former MGP sites – relying on a sheetrock contractor to do the job doesn’t seem like such a good.

What an incredible waste of $15 million.

[For the record, I was off by one and a half points (my intricate scientific formula didn’t correct for being in a Yassky home district – clearly that was good for an extra point or more).]

[Laura] Ingraham fantasized about being on the plane home from Copenhagen… and watching Oprah Winfrey cry and Michelle Obama throw things with her “big arms.” The crowd cheered, and cheered…

[Vito] Lopez said he would again support Davila over Reyna, a former Lopez staffer whose relationship with the assemblyman has soured in recent years. This puts Lopez, as the Democratic county leader, in the usual position of working against the Democratic nominee.

TGE’s dream
(click to enlarge)

John Dax, the attorney for TransGas promises an appeal of the most recent court decision against the project. Meanwhile, there is a new (to me) rendering for the TransGas’ vision of the future of Bushwick Inlet, complete with condos in Greenpoint, a Monitor museum, TGE’s 350′-tall smoke stack, and a public park stretching from the inlet to North 8th Street.

Right now the odds of any of the pretty things in this rendering getting built are pretty slim.