The L Magazine on The Domino Effect (which yes, screened earlier tonight – but will be screening at a number of festivals in the coming month).
Thoughts on the Williamsburg Domino-Development Documentary that Screens Tonight
2 Women Received $32,000 From Assemblyman, Beyond Money From State
The terms of the agreement, however, suggest that the Assembly could have proceeded with an ethics committee investigation, though it is clear nobody wanted that to happen. “The parties desire to resolve this matter without resort to litigation or any administrative proceeding of any sort,” the agreement says.
The Vito Lopez saga gets more sordid with every new revelation, proving that sometimes, it is the crime and the cover up.
If Lopez harassed women as he is accused of doing, he should resign his seat in the Assembly. But by all rights, Sheldon Silver should lose his leadership position over his cover-up of Lopez’s actions. Of course the odds of that happening aren’t looking that good:
The [State Joint Commission on Public Ethics] has begun a preliminary review of the matter, according to a person who was told of the review, but a vote of the panel’s 14 commissioners will be required before a full investigation can proceed and before subpoenas can be issued. The support of at least one of the three commissioners appointed by Mr. Silver will be needed to proceed with the investigation.
NYC Housing Construction on Slow Road
According to REBNY, the decade is starting out slow in terms of new housing construction.
Williamsburg seems to be holding its own, however. Walking through the Southside today, it seemed as though every soft site between Broadway and Metropolitan was under active development.
Beer Here – September Liquor License Applications
Community Board #1 – new liquor license applications
The above is a map of the 34 new applications for liquor licenses that are on the agenda for Community Board 1 at its September 12th public hearing (click on the dots to find out the information on each application). This month’s agenda has 98 liquor license applications in total, including renewals, license changes, etc. – a particularly large number because the board hasn’t met since June (actually, the number of new licenses is not that large, considering it covers three months of applications – perhaps we have reached the alcohol saturation point?).1
1 I put this together mainly as a way to play with CartoDB (the pop-ups work a bit better if you go directly to the CartoDB map, rather than trying to click around in the portal above); all of the information is from the CB1 agenda for the September meeting – errors or inaccuracies may be my fault, may be their fault or may be the fault of the various filters and encoders the data had to go through to get this map. In other words, trust, but verify (as soon as CB1 posts the September agenda).
Also, if you are looking at a world map (rather than one of Williamsburg and Greenpoint), you’ll have to zoom in manually. Some browsers (Safari, e.g.) seem to do it automatically, others (pretty much anything else I’ve tested), not so much. Sorry.Problem seems to be solved – must have been something with CartoDB.↩
City Seeks Developer to Finance Parks on Greenpoint Waterfront
The Daily News is a bit confused about the air-rights sale at 65 Commercial Street.
The sale of the air rights themselves is not a “new plan” – it was one of the points of agreement between the Bloomberg administration and the City Council back in 2005. What is new is that those same points of agreement earmarked the funds from the sale of the air rights was supposed to go towards a $2 million tenant legal fund and a $10 “waterfront affordable housing and infrastructure fund”. As I understand it, the tenant legal fund was funded by the City a few years back, when it became clear that the air rights transfer was not imminent. But I don’t believe the infrastructure fund was ever funded.
The headline of the News, and some of the quotes from “a developer who asked to remain anonymous” in the article also imply that this is a wide open RFP. It is actually quite a narrow one – there are only two developers who can reasonably use the air rights from 65 Commercial, and they are the owners of the adjacent properties to either side: 77 Commercial Street to the east and the massive Park Tower site to the west. A small market, indeed.
Relic of the City Beautiful Movement: The Greenpoint Bathhouse
One of my favorite Greenpoint buildings.
Small Election Race Makes Big Mark
Mr. Restler’s opponent, longtime Greenpoint resident Christopher Olechowski, the Community Board chairman, didn’t respond to repeated phone calls.
A Law to Expose City Parks’ Inequalities Is Neglected
A spokesman for Councilwoman Helen D. Foster, a Bronx Democrat who was a co-sponsor of the bill in 2008 and shepherded it through the parks committee, which she led at the time, said Ms. Foster “did not feel she remembered the legislation.”
Lopez Stripped of Housing CommitteeChairmanship Over Sex Harass
Stunning (and highly disturbing) development in local politics.
More from Politicker, which rightly files its report under the heading “Bombshell”, here.
Dog Day Afternoon
Onlookers in Gravesend take in the standoff.
Photo: NYT
40 years ago today, John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Natuarale tried to rob a Chase Manhattan bank branch in Gravesend. The Times has and excellent post and archival slideshow on the resulting standoff.