I knew Lincoln was a better candidate but I knew what a thorn in the side to the county leader he’s been. But this is the time now to move forward. We’ve been living in a district where there’s always political strife. We should be moving forward to get more parks, housing, in the district. I’d like to try to unify the district and work together in peace and harmony.
Good on Joe.
(Don’t forget – the primary is next Thursday, September 13th.)
Long before television, much less Comedy Central, Karl Marx opined that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, the second time as farce.
That about sums up Representative Yvette D. Clarke’s appearance on “The Colbert Report” on Tuesday night.
An embarrassment (or a particular inept comedienne, if her handlers are to be believed).
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).
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.
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.
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.
One of my favorite Greenpoint buildings.
Mr. Restler’s opponent, longtime Greenpoint resident Christopher Olechowski, the Community Board chairman, didn’t respond to repeated phone calls.
On a muggy summer afternoon in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a dozen people are hard at work on the patio behind a local church. They’re stripping old bicycles of their brakes, cables and chains, and sanding and spray-painting them white.
Yet another amazing thing that takes place regularly at Greenpoint Reformed Church.
Readers at Curbed and Brownstoner were up in arms a couple of weeks ago over a $2.5-million listing on Guernsey Street. I have no idea if the asking price is reasonable, but the renovation was nice enough, and the response among the commentariat was over the top.
The history here is pretty typical (the market will decide if the ask is the new normal or not):
But when Mr. Wald, 33, bought the house, at 87A Guernsey Street, three years ago, its Smurf-blue vinyl siding and mustard-yellow aluminum awning were hardly runway material… He ripped off the vinyl and found layers of metal and asphalt siding underneath, on top of what appeared to be the original cedar shingles. He pulled up the linoleum flooring and found a red cedar base. He scoured antiques stores from Rhode Island to Texas, buying up old doors and knobs, funky chandeliers and the like.
The facade is nice, but the shingle job like as not in no way resembles the “original” – it is more beachfront style than any turn of the century Greenpoint row house would have sported.
