Author: linked

But really, who can keep track of these things?

Rudy lies through his teeth: “[Obama is] one of the least experienced candidates for president in the last 100 years, if not the least experienced.” This is a talking point that needs to be shut down: its simply not true – not even close.

With 11 years of experience (combined at the state and national level), Obama is more experienced than 11 of the 19 presidents elected since 1900 (that’s presidents, not just candidates, Rudy). And he’s tied with one more (Eisenhower).

And if you are looking for a correlation between prior experience and performance as president, there isn’t one. If anything, the correlation for “great” presidents tends to be slightly inverse. The list of “great” presidents with less experience includes Lincoln, Truman, John Adams, both Roosevelts and Wilson. “Great” presidents with more experience? Jackson, Jefferson and Washington. (And again, Eisenhower is a push.)

Will Obama be a great president (or even a decent one) based on his level experience? Who knows. Will McCain be a great (or even decent) president because of his 26 years* of experience as a Senator and Representative? Not if Gerald Ford and James Buchanan are any indication (but again, who knows).

* If elected, McCain would rank third out of the 42 men who have served as president.↩

I’m old enough to remember when the drinking age in NY was 18 – and the de facto drinking age in NYC was about 15. Fairness dictates that should be that way again (the 18 part, not the 15 part). If the government is going to require you to register for the draft, it should allow you to have a beer at the same time.

The Sun “discovers” that there are antique stores in Williamsburg: “Where there’s money, there’s a market for antiques”.

Huh?

Moon River Chattel (which the article cites) has been around since 1995. Portmanteau (also cited) is a newcomer, but all of the other stores at the west end of Grand Street have been around a while. That includes Cosmo Modern (close to ten years?), Two Jakes (OK, used office furniture is not antiques) and Carl Chaffee and Modest Designs (the shared modern spaces at the corner of South 1st and Wythe – maybe the Sun doesn’t consider mid-century modern to be antique, but the stuff sells for a lot more than most other “antiques”). Add to that Golden Calf (North 6th and Wythe), which started out at South 1st and Wythe close to 10 years ago.

I suppose the Sun is trying to draw a distinction between “the innumerable thrift, vintage, and secondhand stores” in the neighborhood and bona fide antique stores, but its a stupid distinction. There has been a market for higher-end vintage furniture for well over a decade now (M and White on White were here in the 1990s). That includes the mid-century modern pieces at Modest and the ancient Chinese pieces at Golden Calf. It sure doesn’t seem to me that we have suddenly crossed the line into curated “antiques”.

Nice that they no longer poll workers to take the machines home with them, but why would anyone have thought this was a good idea in the first place?

Oh, and this doesn’t inspire much confidence in the system either.

JellyNYC builds support for post-pool live music in Williamsburg.

These concerts are the last bastion of what this neighborhood has come to represent over the past 10 or 15 years. If they leave, Williamsburg will become just another SoHo. [JellyNYC’s founder Alexander Kane]

The plan for 5,000 new residential unit at the former Queens West site nears final approval. Located directly across the mouth of Newtown Creek from Greenpoint, this project will result in 3,000 units of affordable housing for middle income residents (60% of the total).

One of many pledges from the 2005 rezoning that have yet to fully bear fruit. This one is particularly annoying, in that a) the City clearly promised land it didn’t control; and b) that land is also tied in to the construction of affordable housing. So a big chunk of open space and a big chunk of affordable housing are stuck in limbo, for at least another two years.

Transportation Alternatives has issued a report (download the pdf here) that decries the costs of city-mandated off-street parking in new developments. By TA’s estimation, this zoning requirement will result in 170,000 new cars in NYC over the next 20 years. That, in turn, means significantly more congestion, pollution and other associated ills.

The parking requirements written into the zoning code are almost 50 years old. They date to a time when it was assumed that the car was the future for New York and every other city. I think we know better now, but we are still living with zoning requirements based on a decidedly mid-20th Century mindset.

WTF? NYPD sure seems to have it in for frolicking hipsters.