PHIL ON FIRE: What’s Up With Domino? / Problems at Northside Piers
I have received countless emails and phone calls regarding the problems development partners CPCR and Isaac Katan are having at the former Domino refinery, which was rezoned for up to 2,200 units of…
OP-ED The New Money Train—from Aqueduct to Albany
The glistening white mega-yacht navigates the placid waters of the East River at dusk, against the backdrop of a jaw-dropping Manhattan skyline. It gently pulls into the Domino marina where it disgorges its impeccably GQ outfitted owner nursing a vodka martini—shaken, not stirred—in hand, and sporting a designer-label white dinner jacket….
OP/ED A 21st Century Manhattan Project—Williamsburg Version
The explosive growth of high-tech firms in NYC is signaling the birth of new 21st-century technology that is replacing the moribund and defunct blue collar manufacturing of the 20th century. Brooklyn’s DUMBO can attest to the successful conversion of manufacturing and warehouse buildings into high-tech firms. Even downtown Brooklyn will spawn additional high-tech facilities, as New York University is interested in establishing its applied science and urban facility at the former New York City Transit building on Jay Street. I propose that the ideal location for new high-tech expansion be in Williamsburg-Greenpoint, which has a number of advantages over DUMBO, downtown Brooklyn, and Roosevelt Island….
Boardwalk Empire Leaves Its Mark On TV History
By Jon Reiss It’s not uncommon for an established, beloved and critically-acclaimed TV show to take a sudden plunge into generic, hackneyed, unwatchable dirge, never to recover. In fact, this is such a…
Bloomberg whines while ARod slides into a tax-abated home
Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg released a budget that calls for closing 20 firehouses, senior centers and layoffs for over 6,000 NYC public school teachers. The New York Times called this a “good news” budget!…
Op-Ed / “No Bike is Safe on Bedford Av” says Williamsburg Courier
A front page story in this week’s Williamsburg Courier got our attention, “No Bike is Safe on Bedford Av”—about a local vigilante who’s been injecting glue into bike locks to protest the overwhelming…
OP/ED Property Rich and Under-Served
By Albert Goldson Our favorite 21st-century bad guys—banks and hedge funds—are aggressively entering the real-estate market nationwide, buying pools of foreclosed properties from Fannie Mae and selling them to developers at a profit,…