February 2009
2 posts
Our longer Scarano nightmare may finally be over.
So now we just call him Sir? Norman Foster, de-Lorded over tax evasion scandal (via).
January 2009
15 posts
The Times reports on the depressingly routine pillaging of the BPCA fund without bothering to note the ‘innovative’ plan of Bloomberg to use the surplus to fund low-income housing was actually just the two decade late implementation of the original agreement.
Antonio Pagan, probably best known for the antipathy he generated in his district among housing advoates, died at 50.
An architecture tabloid? Really Eva? Sigh. Who made you do that?
The important thing to remember about the potential default of Stuy Town is that three years ago it was a completely paid for, tidily, but not extraordinarily profitable enterprise for previous owner MetLife. Debt-free, positive cash-flow, in the best rental market in the US. Now it’s US$5BN in the hole, and not generating enough cash flow to make the interest servicing. There’s your...
Good to see the destruction of culture continues apace even when the specter of overdevelopment no longer looms: the Ohio Theater will no longer be in the heart of it all.
Relative bailouts and civic quality of life update: Paterson recommends complete defunding of all zoos, aquariums and gardens (maybe the Bronx Zoo should rename itself ‘Yankee Zoo’) — watch the vid the Times won’t link to here — while Henry Blodget opines that 75% of the $20 billion just given to BAC is for bonuses.
Nine Days in January: Prime resys available 2/3rds of the time at A-list haunts.
The East Village of my youth, like tears in rain: Around the Clock rumored to close entirely.
Run down a nine-year old without a license? Misdemeanor and mealy mouthed excuses from the Queens DA. The takeaway? If you want to kill someone, get a car.
City floats writing another $300 million in tax exempts bonds for sport stadia. State defunds $5 million program that helps 7,000 residents stave off eviction (the Guvner has a rent-controlled apartment, so maybe he doesn’t see the utility), and recommends that once the money is gone, the helped-less call Legal Aid. Legal Aid comms director laughs at the practicality of this suggestion. On...
Past: Over, Umpteenth edition: Old Devil Moon wanes.
A billion dollars doesn’t buy the sort of private sector vanity project subsidies it used to: weeks after spending $240 million three new players, the Yankees are looking for another $370 million in tax-exempt financing.
The UCB expands its entirely worthwhile empire to the former Pioneer Theater space off Avenue A. CB3 proves that its supposedly knee-jerk rejection of fun is perhaps more nuanced than is normally presumed.
165,000 affordable housing units remain as vaporous as Bernie Madoff’s gains.
The Architectural League launches UrbanOmnibus, sort of a Streetsblog meets Treehugger.