The city will conduct an “intensive, in-depth assessment” of high-risk construction in the city, the Department of Buildings announced Wednesday, one day after commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned.

"This year, we have seen an increase in accidents and injuries related to high-risk construction activities," acting commissioner Robert LiMandri said in a statement, "and we must make sure that as construction activity in the City continues to increase, the Department’s ability to hold the construction industry to higher safety standards keeps pace."

The department will spend $4 million to bring in outside engineers and others to oversee the review.

Full release after the jump.  read more »

Azi Paybarah, on our brother blog The Politicker, reports that former Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Daniel Doctoroff said last night he "would do anything" for Michael Bloomberg, including run "his shitty little company."

Mr. Doctoroff made the remark at a private going-away party at the New York Public Library. (He was joking, of course.) Mayor Bloomberg tapped Mr. Doctofoff last month to run his Bloomberg LP.

Dan Doctoroff "would do anything" for Mike Bloomberg, including running his "shitty little company.”

That’s what Doctoroff, the former deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, said to the approximately 500 people at his going-away party last night at the New York Public Library, according to two attendees I spoke to, and another who left early but claims to have heard about the joke from other guests.

The event was closed to the press, but was something of a hot ticket for political insiders.

Doctoroff is taking over as president of Bloomberg LP. The tone of the comment, in case it's not clear, was intended to be humorous.

I saw City Councilman Larry Seabrook running into City Hall just now, and asked him his predictions on tonight’s primary vote in New Hampshire.

“Predictions? That’s over man. That’s Obama!" said Seabrook, who hasn't endorsed a presidential candidate yet.

A few minutes later Dan Doctoroff strolled in (without a tie!). His predictions?

“I don’t know any more than I read in the newspapers,” he said.

More from Robert Lieber, New York City's next Deputy Mayor for Economic Development. The Observer met with him in November.

What about Coney Island? Why are you looking for another developer aside from Thor Equities to operate the amusement area there?

What we would like to try to do is look for ways to broaden seasonality of the business there so that it’s not just from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but in a way that emphasizes outdoor amusements so you don’t just have it overrun with projects that look like the Mall of America.  read more »

More from The Observer's November interview with Robert Lieber, the new Deputy Mayor for Economic Development:

Why did you take this job?

Because I had a great career at Lehman Brothers. I had been there for 20-some-odd years and had always been intrigued by New York City. I was not born here and didn’t go to school here. I moved here in ’76, ’77. If you look back, it was kind of New York at its worst. I told my girlfriend that I would go to New York because she was going to graduate school. I said I was going there for a year and a half; there was no chance I was going to stay there in that hellhole.  read more »

Robert Lieber will be the city's Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and not its Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding, the old title used by Daniel Doctoroff, who announced earlier this month that he was leaving the position. Mr. Lieber was appointed today as Mr. Doctoroff's successor.  read more »

In announcing that he’s found a replacement for Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, Michael Bloomberg announced Rob Lieber as the “Deputy Mayor for Economic Development.”

Which is slightly shorter than Doctoroff’s title, which had included the words “and Rebuilding,” a reflection of the work the administration needed to do in response to the Sept. 11th terrorists attacks.

When I asked Bloomberg about this title change during his press conference this morning, he said:

“Yes, we decided to drop the reconstruction since, I think, we’re beyond that. It’s economic development and Ed [Skyler] is Deputy Mayor for Operations. I think that says something about where the city is, and what we’re focusing on. Reconstruction time has come and gone. Development time continues.”

The Observer's intrepid political reporter Azi Paybarah made this amusing discovery this morning: City Hall News and New York Press, owned by the same company, carried the same Daniel Doctoroff covery story but under a different headline, differnet packaging, a few different edits, and a slightly different byline.  read more »

Ever wonder what happens when a fairly-new monthly paper, City Hall, operates in the same vicinity as a more rambunctious alt-weekly, the New York Press, and they are both owned by the same company?

City Hall's cover story is about Dan Doctoroff’s departure from the Bloomberg administration, with the nostalgic headline “One Last Look.” The cover story in the New York Press is virtually the same article, by the same reporter--"Andrew Hawkins" in C.H.N. and "Andrew J. Hawkins" in the Press--headlined “Development Hell.”

One line in the N.Y.P. story that does not appear in the City Hall News version is this line: "As he looks back over his tenure, Doctoroff articulates for the first time what has been obvious to others for awhile: the adjustment period wasn’t easy."