The New York Sun One SL LLC

We recently got a look at the in-house style guide of The New York Sun. Like many such documents (The New York Times actually publishes its own in book form) it can be taken to offer some insight into the editorial positioning of the publication. We found, among the many entries, the following:

 

"aliya, not aliyah. Jewish immigration to Israel. Literally 'going up.' Opposite is yerida, the 'going down' of Israeli Jews to live in other countries, like America.

"Avery Fisher Hall: At Lincoln Center."

"Charedi. Literally, trembling. Prefer 'fervently Orthodox' or 'black-hat' to this Hebrew word. Avoid the term 'ultra-Orthodox.'"

"Decter, Midge. The Cold War heroine. Note the spelling of her last name."  read more »

The editors of The New York Sun have started posting stories on their Web site during the day instead of waiting to put them in the next morning’s paper.

A memo sent to staff yesterday by city editor David Lombino said reporters should expect to file early when they’re working on certain kinds of stories. Mr. Lombino said in the memo that news editors will work with new online editor Mike McPhate to choose what will be posted early during their morning meeting.

Previously, wire copy was the only fresh content one could expect to see on the Sun Web site after the day’s stories were uploaded in the early morning hours. In an interview earlier today, managing editor Ira Stoll said he hopes that readers will get in the habit of visiting the site more often when they realize that new local stories, filed by the Sun’s own beat reporters, are being posted there on a regular basis.

Not all stories qualify for this treatment.

“We’re trying to do it more often on non-exclusive stories,” Mr. Stoll said, “like where there’s a press conference with the mayor or the governor at 10 or 11 in the morning and all the other reporters are there. Or if there was a crime that happened the night before and the police have put out a release about it.”

In an interview, Mr. Lombino said that if he’s dealing with “the kind of story that somebody [from another newspaper] can follow up on for the next day’s paper, we’ll probably want to sit on it until we’re confident they’re at home or in bed. It depends on what kind of scoop we’re talking about.”

Mr. Stoll said that “people may write shorter and quicker, and then for the print edition find a different angle or have more thorough reporting.”

Mr. Lombino said he had looked to The New York Times’ “City Room” blog as a reference point; the Times blog is updated frequently with up-to-the-minute metro news.

Mr. Stoll said he had never heard of City Room.

Mr. Lombino’s memo to staff is after the jump.  read more »

The Village Voice has just named Deborah Kolben, formerly the city editor of the New York Sun, as the paper's managing editor.

Since David Blum, ex-Sun television critic, took over as the Voice's editor-in-chief, there have been several defections from the conservative daily to the lefty weekly. Ms. Kolben now joins Sun alumni Nathan Lee (film critic) and Maggie Shnayerson (PR Director) over at Cooper Square.  read more »

Full release after the jump.

Following Tony Judt's lecture two weeks back, NYU had a wine-and-cheese where I ran into a leftish Jewish journalist who felt guilty over Judt's criticisms of the Jewish state. I ought to write about what is going on in Palestine, she said, but I don't. It's complicated, and you invite storms of invective by doing so.

Liberal Jewish Alan Wolfe makes similar points in a piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education, in which he says that "we need in the United States a debate about the future of Israel as robust as the one that routinely takes place within Israel itself."

Yet Wolfe isn't jumping in. He says it's hard to raise criticisms of Israel when the American discussion is basically "a shouting match" with alot of Christian antisemites and right-wing pro-Israeli "illiberals" screaming at one another.

[I]t is hard to raise them, at least in any probing way, when prominent Hollywood celebrities like Mel Gibson flirt with anti-Semitism, and when newspapers like The New York Sun, a staunch defender of Israel, routinely accuse those who criticize Zionism of being little different from Gibson. It is difficult to know why honest discussions about Israel have become so difficult to conduct. Is it, perhaps, because the rise of the Christian right, no matter how ostensibly supportive of Israel it claims to be, reminds Jews that they live in a Christian country and thereby makes them more likely to circle the wagons?

This is a tired rationalization for passivity. When Wolfe suggests that to criticize Israel means to be lumped with a laughingstock, Mel Gibson, he is writing off the ability of the intellectual to express independent ideas if he chooses to. When he suggests that to criticize Israel is to help Christians oppress Jews, he is self-involved and deluded, offering a Boratish shtetl paranoia about goyische America. Wolfe is a big deal professor and head of a center on religion and public life at an important school. The power structure has long since made room for Jewish wealth, Jewish brains, and Jewish political muscle. The people he is so fearful of are largely outsiders. He ought to focus on Nancy Pelosi, who is an insider. When Pelosi denounces Jimmy Carter and says that the U.S. will stand with Israel forever and there is no such thing as second-class citizenship in occupied territories, she is bowing to a powerful lobby and misrepresenting reality in a way that ought to concern an intellectual more than whatever Mel Gibson said drunk to a cop. Wolfe's muddle is the same muddle that Jewish liberals have been in since the Iraq war. They are against the war, but their critique is blunted because they know that devotion to Israel played a part in the thinking of some of the war planners, but they don't want to talk at all about that because they fear it would result in a pogrom. And so they ascribe all the bad stuff to people they don't know and can easily demonize: the Christian right. Or Halliburton. And thereby fail to do their jobs as intellectual leaders, at a time when the country is in a tremendous foreign-policy crisis.

Wolfe's weakest moment is granting the right to silence him to the New York Sun. The Sun is a superb newspaper. I disagree with just about everything it says, but I have to marvel at how much influence it has achieved in five years, as well as its cultivation of fine talents like critic Adam Kirsch. Hats off to Kovner, Hertog and Lipsky. But to give these rightwing neo-Jabotinskyites power? Einstein didn't give them power. Nor did Isaiah Berlin, Ahad Ha'am or Chaim Arlosorov. Today progressive Israelis like Gideon Levy, Akiva Eldar, and Yehuda Shaul don't care what the Sun says about them when they criticize religious-nationalist forces they are up against.

This is the tragic aspect of Wolfe's muddle. He says we need the robustness of the Israeli discourse here. The Israeli left agrees. It keeps looking to liberals in the U.S. to form an arc of thought to help end the hateful occupation and challenge the racists like Avigdor Lieberman who now have a place in the government there. By looking away from all that and blaming it on the Sun, Wolfe is doing precisely what liberal American Jews have done for a long time now: handed their power to the rightwing Israel lobby.

With one day to go before the New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century announces which hospitals it thinks should close, there is plenty of speculation about what specifically the commission will recommend.

The New York Sun named six NYC hospitals which may be targeted for closure.

The Observer's Lizzy Ratner tried prying some specifics from Berger himself earlier.

"Would he dare to take on the powerful institutions along, say, Manhattan's Bedpan Alley along First Avenue? Or would he go after small ones with weak boards and poor bank statements?

Mr. Berger was patient with these questions at first, but eventually grew frustrated.

"This is not a closing commission," he said. "The answer is, we understand that it's appropriateness which is important."

Pressed about rumors that he intended to close one major teaching hospital, he answered wryly. "Absolutely! I'm planning to close Presbyterian, Cornell--"

And then he interrupted himself: "Come on! I am not going to talk about any institution."

So, which hospitals might be named tomorrow?

-- Azi Paybarah

David K writes up the political impact piece on yesterday's decision by the NJ Supreme Court on gay marriage.

Hillary Clinton said yesterday she has evolved on the issue of gay marriage, according to Gay City News. A newly redesigned New York Sun looks at how NJ's gay marriage ruling could affect New York.

At last night's debate, Alan Hevesi was " apologetic and emotional, aggressive and indignant all at once," reports Newsday. The editors there also make an endorsement, and it's for Christopher Callaghan.

Bill Clinton was an albatross in 2000, but is the most sought-after Democratic campaigner today, says the AP.

The Times reports that a high-ranking aide to Eliot Spitzer said, "Barring a compelling rationale from Hevesi, it's likely he'll be withdrawing his support," for Alan Hevesi.

The City Council could be the second highest-paid legislature in the nation. They also plan to keep the extra pay they get for serving in leadership positions.

Tom Reynolds told the editors at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that he still has the public's trust.

In response to a lawsuit forcing the legislature to disclose more information about member items, the Senate Majority Leader explained the real problem. Reporters are "lazy."

Andrew Cuomo, who got the NY Post's endorsement yesterday, is endorsed by the Daily News today. Jeanine Pirro gets the backing of the Star-Gazette.

And the Republicans are "google bombed" by liberal blogger Chris Bowers.

-- Azi Paybarah

Today's Quinnipiac poll shows Alan Hevesi's lead over Chris Callaghan is down 6 percentage points from the poll taken two weeks ago.

Hillary Clinton said the public is growing concerned about websites like MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who hosted a fund-raiser for her earlier this year.

The New York Sun publishes John Spencer's 15-page letter to Eliot Spitzer in which Spencer said as Westchester DA, Jeanine Pirro's "tactics were outrageous and the real criminals were being protected by her."

During the debate, Cuomo demanded Pirro respond to the letter and said she was currently under investigation by the state attorney general.

The Truth Squad says Cuomo "was painting the situation with too broad a brush."

In his own debate tomorrow, John Spencer has "little to lose" by aggressively going after Hillary Clinton, The New York Sun reports.

The charges against Brian McLaughlin range from "Dickensian (stealing $95,000 from Little League baseball teams to pay his rent) to the brazen (creating two no-show jobs on his legislative payroll and keeping part of one salary)," according to the Times. Some Democrats defended McLaughlin as a stand-up guy.

George Pataki has donated $130,000 to candidates outside New York, according to a recent financial filing.

John Sweeney took a trip overseas with a lobbyist hired by Jack Abramoff and may not have reported it to Congress as required. [added]

John Faso has finally become the Republican Party standard-bearer, but at an unfortunate time.

Rudy Giuliani said Democrats were soft on national security issues.

And two more people connected to Giuliani's former NYPD Commissioner, Bernie Kerik, were busted.

-- Azi Paybarah

Hillary Clinton explains her position on Iraq and says the White House needs to fire Donald Rumsfeld and get "adult supervision right now" to handle the situation there.

The Times looks at Eliot Spitzer's long path political stardom, and notes he got 1,590 on his SAT's and a perfect score on his LSAT.

At tonight's debate between Eliot Spitzer and John Faso, there will be no reaction shots and no candidate-to-and candidate questions.

Daniel Freedman of the New York Sun gives a live-blogging-like reaction to news of the Cory Lidle plane crash.

An accident doesn't feel as bad as a terrorist attack, even when it produces the same death toll.

Mike Bloomberg said the FDNY and NYPD responded perfectly to the incident. Planes flying less than 1,5000 feet over the City will now have to file flight plans with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Jeff Feldman is cleared of his 22-count indictment in exchange for testifying against Clarence Norman about selling judgeships in Brooklyn.

Bob Menendez leads Tom Kean, Jr. 49 to 45 percent, according to today's Quinnipiac poll.

Joe Lieberman leads Ned Lamont by 8 percentage points and may have been assured he won't be stripped of his seniority if he returns to Washington.

And Arnold Schwarzenegger's rival demands an invitation to the Jay Leno Show.

-- Azi Paybarah

I haven't seen this picked up anywhere yet, but it's kind of amazing.

In preparation for a fund-raiser on Friday, the Republican National Committee sent personal information about donors - including their race - to the Secret Service and, accidentally, to a New York Sun reporter.

Two of the people on the list had their race listed as "Muslim." One other person was listed as "Asian" and the rest -- shockingly -- were Caucasian.

The RNC said that it was a mistake for them to have listed "Muslim" as a race, but said that in trying to provide racial information about the donors, they were only following directions from the Secret Service.

A Secret Service spokesperson had this explanation:

Until a year ago, the Secret Service did require race as part of its standard background check for guests at events involving the president. Following complaints, including one from the White House press corps, the practice ended. But the Secret Service requested racial information for Friday's luncheon, a spokesman for the agency, Eric Zahren, said.

-- Azi Paybarah

A number of friends passed on the article in yesterday's Times where Joe Lieberman said that Ned Lamont was not committed to Israel, during a trip by the Senator to New York to raise money in Jewish circles. The challenger of course denied it.

This is good news: the issue is getting into the Times, and on front pages elsewhere.

The credit all goes to Walt and Mearsheimer. A few weeks back, the New Republic sniggered at the authors of the LRB paper on the Israel lobby, making it out to be a flash in the pan. Oh they got their little moment in the leftwing sun, how quickly they evaporated, was Marty Peretz's tone. Well he's wrong. This was a real bombshell that is reverberating. As I first reported last Sunday, and then as Gabriel Sanders reported in this week's Forward, FSG has given the authors a book contract (at last); and meanwhile the front page of the influential New York Sun has run an attack on Tony Judt, who had lately argued on behalf of Walt and Mearsheimer's views. These ideas are not going away.

I sense that we're approaching a real political moment; and good for Lieberman for putting the issue on the agenda. Let's have it out. Before long, who knows, maybe Chris Matthews will describe the settlements in the West Bank as what they are, religious apartheid, and Senator Hagel, or Senator Lamont, will ask, What effect these violations of the Geneva Conventions that we support are having on Arab hearts and minds... Am I dreamin'?

Today's New York Sun prints a vicious attack on Tony Judt as a professor who has "become hostile to the Jewish state" in an article about the Polish consulate in N.Y. abruptly cancelling a Judt speech last night under pressure from the Anti-Defamation League. Penned by Ira Stoll (who I believe is credited with the prescient statement in 2003 that demonstrators opposed to the upcoming war in Iraq should be investigated for treason).

Interesting that anyone who is critical of Israel's regrettable policies toward its neighbors, and its overreliance on the U.S. in maintaining that posture, is said to be "hostile to the Jewish state."

Also interesting that The Sun advertises itself—I bought a copy this morning— "100,000 Copies a day to New York City's Most Influential Readers." A similar boast to the claim by Sun owner Roger Hertog's Manhattan Institute (which like the Sun is dedicated in some large part to insulating Israel from criticism), that it is turning "Intellect Into Influence." If anyone else talked about influence this much, they'd be accused of rewriting the protocols of the elders of Zion. Once again supporting Walt and Mearsheimer's point: the lobby brags about its power till you call them on it, and then it howls antisemitism.

The construction workers and volunteers who just put up a Williamsburg synagogue in time for the Jewish New Year worked 18-hour days, six days a week, stopping only for the Sabbath. They did not even break for a stop-work order that the Buildings Department imposed after a worker fell from a scaffolding, The New York Sun reports today. Hey, how else are going to put up a giant synagogue, large enough to hold "thousands," in a mere 14 days? -Matthew Schuerman

The Times editorial board wants Mayor Bloomberg to speak out nationally and help raise the federal minimum wage.

The Sun endorses John Faso and says, "We carry no grudge against Attorney General Spitzer. His campaign has been refusing to speak with reporters of The New York Sun..."

John Faso is asking supporters to pay for lawn signs.

Criminal charges will be filed in Albany by the Republican challenging state Comptroller Alan Hevesi because he turned a state employee into a personal chauffeur. The Post's editorial board purposefully wonders what "the state's legal watchdog, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, has to say" about the issue.

Permits from the city's Building Department are needed to dismantle the Deutsche Bank building at Ground Zero.

New York City ports will get $26 million for security from the Department of Homeland Security, a 400% boost from last year, but it's unclear how much other ports around the nation are getting.

David Weprin and Tom White are among the council members who earn six-figure salaries for their work outside the council.

Ned Lamont campaigns on other issues besides Iraq. For example, he supports NAFTA, but not CAFTA.

Bernie Kerik is still part of Rudy Giuliani's inner circle.

1199/SEIU union leader Dennis Rivera defended the $2 million parties his union threw last year, saying, "To be very honest, not only are we good in politics, but nobody throws a party like we do."

Ben says that Chuck Schumer may have been right and Jon Corzine may have been wrong about making Bob Menendez a U.S. Senator.

And James McGreevey is addicted to fame.

-- Azi Paybarah

Still no office towers from the city's 2004 Downtown Brooklyn Development plan, but The New York Sun carries news of a 1 million square foot mixed-use building for CUNY, an unspecified number of "private corporations" and condos to be developed by Forest City Ratner.

-Matthew Schuerman (via No Land Grab)

As the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks are remembered, the New York Times editorial board writes "we have found one way after another to compound the tragedy. Homeland security is half-finished, the development at ground zero barely begun."

Among President Bush's protesters in Manhattan yesterday was a New York Sun reporter with a thank you sign.

Fred Dicker reports that Eliot Spitzer is disappointed with Mark Green and predicting an Andrew Cuomo blowout.

Not getting blown out are the upstate Republican congressional candidates.

Because he is getting blown out, Tom Suozzi is having some fun at his own expense.

Despite his ads, Andrew Cuomo can't slip into Eliot Spitzer's shoes, which are a size 10. Cuomo wears a 12 1/2.

And in case you forgot, the Middle Town Record headline reminds readers that "Spitzer, Clinton Face Challengers."

-- Azi Paybarah

• The Jack Parker Corporation is trying to rezone north Tribeca--from manufacturing into residential--so that it can put up a hefty, dense apartment building. If you live in the area, you're probably complaining about damage to "low-rise character" or to waterfront views. And you're probably rich, too: the neighborhood proudly claims the "city's wealthiest zip code," even though just 18% of the land is zoned for residential housing. Jack Parker is salivating. (New York Sun)
• The Gowanus Holiday Inn is open, so everyone can get his $139-per-night Gowanus fix! The Times halfheartedly points out that "most people still aren't calling [the area] Park Slope." Mightn't that be because Gowanus is (still) not Park Slope? (New York Times)
• The Hamptons won't be officially dead until the H-word is no longer meaninglessly dropped in the lede sentences of big Post articles on international business deals. Or maybe the Hamptons has already died and gone to Purgatory. (New York Post)
• New York says "you might want to spend some time in" in the avant garde-heavy, friendly bar-happy 'hood below Hell's Kitchen. Why? Because it's SoHell. (New York)
• It's old news, but it's good news: New York does not qualify as a "wellness community." This has something to do with "germs" and "full-body age assessments," and possibly people named bubble sitters. (CNN/Money)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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• In exchange for teaching math, science or special education in city schools, teachers will receive housing subsidies for up to $14,600. They can live anywhere they want, but have to commit three years. (The New York Times)
• The Garden State, also known as the Armpit of America, is rehabilitating Great Falls State Park, "a 7-acre, post-industrial eyesore that surrounds a natural wonder." (The Architect's Newspaper)
• New York State is losing more residents than any other state in the country, so why can't we find a seat on the subway? (The New York Sun)
• Karim Rashid's Design Your Self comes out next month with insightful design tips: "Sex is a completely different experience on a couch or on a rocking chair." (The Architect's Newspaper)
• The McMansion crackdown has begun. (MSN)
• And, fewer homes are being built, indicating a "cool down" (?) of the residential market. (Bloomberg)
• The city of Chicago seems to value freedom more than New York. They even built a museum for it. "Our intention is to avert apathy, and educate students and adults as they come through the museum, so that we can reverse what we see as an unfortunate trend." Meanwhile our own Freedom Museum languishes. (Lynn Becker)
• "Boring Al Gore" captivates by telling the world that "Earth is going to hell in a handbasket." Oh, and New York will drown. (The Washington Post)
• Another Coyote hits up the big city, but this time it's in the Bronx. (New York Post)
• A landlord-broker becomes an inmate, and the world sleeps at night. (Metro)
• A gallery exhibit that features photographs of constructions sites. Is the art the photo or the subject? (Candace Dwan Gallery)
• It comes down to this: the city is making money off Brooklyn's new residential popularity. How about some reliable subway service, eh? (New York Daily News)
• Fine, you messed up your taxes. Next year, don't forget to include these real estate tax breaks. (Forbes)

- Riva Froymovich

We're a little late with this this morning. Chalk it up to our work on the Politicker, which you should be reading, too.

• We've written about this before: Bloomberg may make it a bit more difficult to spread the luxury love. He's bringing together a group of officials to evaluate the benefits of the 421-a program, the largest tax abatement programs in the city, which lowers taxes imposed on multiunit housing developments. (The New York Sun)
• Yes, we live in glass towers now--probably because of reality television or something. (Business Week)
• Because it's difficult to come by a recommended contractor. (Apartment Therapy)
• With so much coverage on the bathroom as of late, it's time to focus on the toilet. (Apartment Therapy)
• Toll Brothers are known for building luxury and suburban homes. But with the urban real estate market as it is, the company is kicking its "conservative" identity to the curb. They'll be investing about $500 million to build 1,000 condo units in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. (The New York Times)
• Another "most expensive" list from Forbes to chase you to Crate & Barrel: household items.
• The operating barge port at Red Hook may seem quaint at first, but residents of the impending development may think differently after living there for a week. How will that affect the workers at the Erie Basin Bargeport? (The New York Times)
• An upcoming St. Marks Place building owner is pushing squatters out of the edifice and onto the streets, including Mosaic Man. (Polis)
• Chinese beds with French bistro ambiance. Fusion takes a new turn on Lafeyette Street. (New York Post)
• How strong is New York's housing market? Perhaps not as strong as Miami, and Boston is less affordable. (Business Week)
• The media sucks at reporting on real estate. (Matrix)

- Riva Froymovich

• Let's talk about sprawl again. "Thanks to the megalomania of our traffic engineers, for example, American cities are among the least pedestrian-friendly in the world." It's tough to be a columnist. (Inman News)
• Seventy-one percent of people age 60 and over who have relocated move to other metropolitan counties. Is Boca metropolitan?(The Wall Street Journal)
• Fine, live outside the main city, as long as you keep your priorities straight. "We are close enough that we can go over for shopping ..." Good to see you, guys! (The New York Times)
• The new Jacob K. Javits Center will be twice the size of the current one, and, yes, there will be much glass, which is so four years ago. (Curbed)
• The Amalgamated Bank is selling its 80,000-square-foot headquarters at 15 Union Square. Maybe a supermarket chain will buy it. We coud use one of those in the area. Afterall, there are still lines just down the street. (The New York Sun)
• ESPN and the law firm Dechert may work beside Timers whenever that Ratner project finishes. (New York Post)
• Williamsburg rezoning has produced "The Edge." It is a 1,300-unit apartment complex that will span over one million square feet. The residence will offer 300 units of "affordable housing," set at $1,100 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. By modern standards, the price is dandy. But, the traditional, working class neighborhood mainstays are not satisfied. (Queens Ledger)
• We love the new Zoning Handbook. But over at the The Real Deal , they think it's still too jargony.
• Adrian Grenier lives near a crack house, which suits the Entourage actor just fine. (Brownstoner)
• The Prada store will reopen after January's fire on April 18. Intermix will figure things out one season later. (NewYorkology)
• Opening Day at Prospect Park is this Saturday! (Gothamist)
• New York takes fourth in the 15 Best Sklylines in the world. (Diserio via Tropolism)
• Brooklyn: "universe of two-bit deals and three-time losers, of gangster bars and catering halls and auto-body shops." (The New York Times)
• Zum Schneider has been given the boot from Avenue C. The owner "feels he is becoming the unwitting victim of his own success in turning the street around." (The Villager)
• NYU has backed off on negotiations for another Third Avue dorm. In other news The Villager uses the school's Washington Square News as a source.
• onNYturf dissects the Yankee proposal and how the plan affects the surrounding neighborhood in great detail.

- Riva Froymovich

The New York Times yesterday and The New York Sun today have suggested that tomorrow's meeting of the Port Authority board of directors is the new deadline for the state's Ground Zero negotiations with Larry Silverstein. Sure, if the Port Authority takes over the Freedom Tower, it will want to have voted on the new lease before breaking ground there, and ground is supposed to be broken in April. But Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman told us that board chairman Anthony Coscia could always call an emergency meeting and hold it by conference call in order to approve a deal. -Matthew Schuerman

• Again, the city's high dirt levels were recently documented by the EPA. Now, to compound our current state, New York may face a garbage strike. (The Village Voice)
• "The number of American households with a net worth of $1 million or more, excluding their principal residence, grew to a record 8.9 million last year," The New York Times reports. Furthermore, most are concentrated in just 13 counties--New York just makes it in.
• Super star chefs pressure hungry patrons to order the cook's favorites, rather than the customers'. (The New York Times)
• Wealthy neighborhoods with new luxury housing equals overcrowded public schools. (The New York Sun)
• A 48-acre estate and its 22,000-square-foot main house with elevator may sell at a record price for Long Island--$60 million. (New York Daily News)
• The president of the National Association of Realtors wants to kick Barbara Corcoran's ass after she bad-mouthed real estate brokers on Good Morning America. (Curbed)
• Apparently, if you're pro-choice, you can't be a fan of "...Baby One More Time." C'est La Vie. (The New York Sun)
• The MTA has hired Thacher Associates as an "integrity monitor" to prevent corruption in major construction sites. (New York Post)
• The target for the federal funds rate affects how much consumers pay on loans. After yesterday, Ben Bernanke's first meeting, it is the highest it has been in five years. (CNN)
• Neighborhood Homes helps nonprofit developers renovate neglected properties and sell them to low-income families, who receive assistance for the deal. (The Village Voice)
• More bars and more free food. What else is left to say? (The Village Voice)

- Riva Froymovich

• The top consideration when building new housing? A space for human waste. (Matrix)
• CBS may lose long time staffers, but clearly is expanding. (via The Real Deal)
• There's this totally new trend. People are buying old warehouses and converting them into lofts. (CNN)
• The "hautel." Isn't that how New Yorkers pronounce the world, anyway? (The New York Sun)
• John Sexton knows how to keep NYU competing with Columbia. After yesterday's announcement, New York University has also received a donation worth about $200 million. Guess who it's from? Shelby White. (The New York Times)
• After all that we've done, we have to go after an Indian nation's cigarette business too? (Newsday)
• Why does The Falls have such a bad rep? (The Village Voice)
• It was difficult to get Chinatown residents to share and document their history: "Who wants to say, 'I hustle and I work 18 hours a day?'" (The New York Sun)
• All five boroughs are now too expensive. The next frontier? Yonkers. (Curbed)
• Artsy pornographer and Brooklynite had to fly south to take photos. (NBC)
• When Isaac Mizrahi signs on to design clothes for Target, does he expect his name to retain any cachet? (The Wall Street Journal)

- Riva Froymovich

Ben,

I think I have a good one for you. I don't know if you remember Zachary Greenhill, the former Reagan era CIA agent who ran against Jonathan Bing for Assembly in 2002. I believe you wrote an article for the New York Sun regarding Zach's exploits in South America during Iran-Contra. Well I learned yesterday that Zach requested an application for the Independent Judicial Screening Panel for a vacant Upper East Side/Chelsea Civil Court Seat and that he is planning to run in the September primary. If you have any questions please feel free to email me or give me a call.

• Israelis inspired by images of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center devised escape pods to build along the outside of buildings. The Office of Emergency Management says its unnecessary. (CNN)
• Steven Wynn is selling his Beverly Hills pad for classier digs in Vegas. (Forbes)
• Forbes finds that "members of the 55-and-over club can choose to live in age-restricted settings that most Americans would envy, complete with elegant dining rooms, groomed golf courses, pre-dinner cocktails on the veranda, day spas and stretch limousines for trips to the grocery store." At least, some people can choose it.
• Fannie Mae has an $11 billion accounting scandal, but a 2,652-page report says that management didn't "knowingly" participate. (Inman News)
• Two Mitchell-Lama buildings in the Bronx are going co-op--this time, the tenants are behind it, and the plan is for them to buy back the apartments an affordable prices. (The New York Times)
• Architecture for Humanity (AFH) founder Cameron Sinclair doesn't want to be Frank Gehry. He's looking for low-cost housing solutions to help people suffering around the world. (Christian Science Monitor)
• Doctors Without Borders wants to teach New Yorkers what it's like to live in a refugee camp, so they'll be recreating them in Central and Prospect parks. (New York Sun)
• The Homeless Outreach Population Estimate is on Monday. (Gothamist)
• For shoppers, Rivington Street is a "smorgasbord of strange treasures."(The Village Voice)

- Riva Froymovich

The editorial staff of the alternative weekly New York Press walked out today, en masse, after the paper's publishers backed down from printing the Danish cartoons that have become the center of a global free-speech fight.

Editor-in-Chief Harry Siegel emails, on behalf of the editorial staff:

New York Press, like so many other publications, has suborned its own professed principles. For all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New York Sun locally and two other papers nationally have mustered the minimal courage needed to print simple and not especially offensive editorial cartoons that have been used as a pretext for great and greatly menacing violence directed against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others who represent the basic values and obligations of Western civilization. Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated to them, the editorial group—consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editorJonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose instead to resign our positions.

We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running, cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson, kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at least two continents to go into hiding. Editors have already been forced to leave papers in Jordan and France for having run these cartoons. We have no illusions about the power of the Press (NY Press, we mean), but even on the far margins of the world-historical stage, we are not willing to side with the enemies of the values we hold dear, a free press not least among them.

This was not an easy decision. I've been reading the Press since 1988 and have dreamed of running it for nearly as long. The paper's editorial staff has worked impossibly hard hours and has come quite a ways in only a few months towards restoring the paper's tarnished editorial reputation and credibility. I'm proud of the work we've done, and wish we'd had time to finish the job. I wish the Press all the best, and hope that under new ownership and leadership it can again be an invaluable read for all good Gothamites.

New York Press editors resigned en masse today in a dispute with top management over reproducing the riot-linked Danish Mohmammed cartoons. Editor in chief Harry Siegel's explanation follows:

New York Press, like so many other publications, has suborned its own professed principles. For all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New York Sun locally and two other papers nationally have mustered the minimal courage needed to print simple and not especially offensive editorial cartoons that have been used as a pretext for great and greatly menacing violence directed against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others who represent the basic values and obligations of Western civilization.

Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated to them, the editorial group—consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editor Jonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose instead to resign our positions.

We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running, cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson, kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at least two continents to go into hiding. Editors have already been forced to leave papers in Jordan and France for having run these cartoons. We have no illusions about the power of the press (NY Press, we mean), but even on the far margins of the world-historical stage, we are not willing to side with the enemies of the values we hold dear, a free press not least among them.

This was not an easy decision. I've been reading the Press since 1988 and have dreamed of running it for nearly as long. The paper's editorial staff has worked impossibly hard hours and has come quite a ways in only a few months towards restoring the paper's tarnished editorial reputation and credibility. I'm proud of the work we've done, and wish we'd had time to finish the job. I wish the Press all the best, and hope that under new ownership and leadership it can again be an invaluable read for all good Gothamites.

—Harry Siegel, EIC, on behalf the editorial staff

• Creationists are buying up roadside dinosaur parks, and turning them into something all together different. (Reason)
• The "hipification of the Upper East Side?" If you say so... (The Village Voice)
• It is unlikely any traditional meat-slinging deli can afford $36,000 a month for the 3,000-square-foot space that once housed Second Avenue Deli. (Page Six)
• Female therapy veterans write a real estate and self-help book, inspired by the the frenzied market of L.A. and the Tao Te Ching. (The New York Times)
• A Jann Wenner type--who "collected Aston Martins, until he sold them (a shooting brake, a convertible and two coupes)"--has a thing for Art Deco furniture, especially pieces designed by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann. To each their own. (The New York Times)
• The Russians, well, they already came and brought their tea kettles with them. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Some historic-home commissions are allowing synthetic materials for period homes rennovations because homeowners are just tired of the maintenance burden. (The Wall Street Journal)
• The city's next redevelopment project: Willets Point in Queens. This Chinese New Year: Year of Outer-Borough Development. (New York Sun)
• Pricey bars, interestingly enough, are downtown. (The Village Voice)
• Frank Bruni gets scared at The Spotted Pig. But, most importantly, who are his "friends" and can he really "climb stairs"? (The New York Times)
• The New York Post gets elitist:

  Butt cracks have their place...I see the slobs at L'Impero. I see them at DB Bistro Moderne. Steakhouses that were once suit-and-suspenders heaven now seat anything on two legs, even legs in filthy denim.

• One of the largest properties in Miami Beach is on Palm Island, goes for $19.7 million, and is one nice party house. We assume interested buyers will have to duke it out with Diddy. (Forbes)
• Just in case you didn't know, home sales were down in December. But, for real this time. (National Association of Realtors)
• Robert Gladstone plans to develop a luxury hotel on Eighth Avenue and 55th Street. (New York Post)
• A new Upper East Side development replaces a "squat relic." (Curbed)

- Riva Froymovich  read more »

• A quarter of city households report having seen rats or mice, or ... evidence left behind by them. (The New York Post)
• The kitchen designer has a nice, well, kitchen. (The New York Times)
• How high can you go? Taipei 101 in Taiwan is the tallest building in the world; then comes the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. An architectural idea that began in America has risen to encompass the world. (Forbes)
• The Tunnel nightclub, den of iniquity, goes legit. (NewYorkology)
• The City Council must decide by February 8 whether Related Companies gets to build its mega-mall in the Bronx. (The New York Sun)
• Are you interested in getting in on the ground floor of an investment? Track the foreclosures. (Curbed)
• In fact, foreclosures increased 13.5 percent from November to December across the country. (Inman News)
• The new World Trade Center Memorial will be bordered by running water year round. Fabulous. (The New York Post)
• THOR wants to make more money off you. (Curbed)
• In January, people not only flock to the clothing sales in Soho. They're rushing to the neighborhood's real estate market as well. But unlike the apparel stores, these properties are expected to garner even heftier prices. (The New York Sun)
• Two million seeds of the world's crops will be stored in the side of a vast snowy mountain abode, built by Norway's government--just in case you-know-what happens. (New Scientist)
• Frank Bruni asks the tough question about Colors, the new restaurant from former employees of Windows on the World: "Will it pay off in terms of diners' actual enjoyment?" But he doesn't answer it, yet: "I didn't amass enough evidence ... for a verdict." (The New York Times)

- Riva Froymovich  read more »

• Manhattan appraisers Mitchell, Maxwell and Jackson are worried about inventory: "The big question going into 2006 is whether new development (an estimated 10,000-plus units) coming on the market will exceed demand," stated Jeffrey Jackson, co-founder and chief economist at MM&J. (Inman Blog)
• In other pricing news: restaurants as the car dealership. Frank Bruni exposes supplemental charges at Gilt, where a $92 fixed price meal is inflated by up to an extra $28 per appetizer. Plus, the average cost of a glass of wine is $246. (The New York Times)
• A lavish development grows in Brooklyn among the Russian community. The Venetian on Avenue P, though, is just the beginning for Sitt Asset Management. The company also plans to build on Avenue U and Ocean Parkway with luxury meant for the tsars. (Brownstoner)
• Why revisit the dramas of high school? (Apartment Therapy)
• The City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing today to discuss an $800 million stadium and retail complex on city parkland near Yankee Stadium. The proposal was shot down by local Community Board 4, but approved by Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión. The planning commission will vote in late February. (Daily News)
• The city awards property tax "discounts" to hundreds of companies through a plan negotiated more than 15 years ago that aims to encourage growth within the boroughs and dissuade executives from taking their business elsewhere. By the end of the June fiscal year, 238 firms will benefit. (New York Sun)
• The City Art Commission approved plans for the Washington Square Park remodeling, which includes a perimeter fence and a relocated fountain. Residents are not happy, including "businesspeople" who may operate the area. (The New York Times)
• New York Jews like Hillary, a lot. Maybe it's because she has a degree from Yeshiva University, which just celebrated its 81st annual Hanukkah convocation. (The Village Voice)
• Although it is illegal to knock down buildings with no immediate plan to replace them, if Ratner has his way these buildings will be gone. (Forgotten NY)
• Indie rocking Luna Lounge may follow its audience across the bridge after condos chase them away. (Curbed)
• The American Dream lives on when a Russian emigre and former cabdriver buys the Fifth Avenue Duke Semans mansion for $40 million. (The New York Times)
• Tenants of the Exchange building at 25 Broad Street have been booted by the building's new owner. (Curbed)
• The new Bronx Library Center will open next week, yet seems slightly out of place at East Kingsbridge Road and Briggs Avenue, according to James Gardner, and that's a good thing. (The New York Sun)
• Even "industry boosters" are uneasy about the decreased rate of applications for purchase mortgages, which fell to June 2002 levels by late December. The Mortgage Bankers Assn estimates mortgage originations to drop by 18.6% in 2006. (Business Week)
• The American College of Emergency Physicians graded New York state C-plus on its ability to handle a major health emergency, i.e. crazy bird flu. The country overall received a C-minus. (American College of Emergency Physicians)

- Riva Froymovich  read more »

Mike also stopped over at the Hyatt to speak at the Metropolitan College of New York's 41st Anniversary Gala, where he had some kind words for the evening's honoree, New York Sun editor Seth Lipsky.

"Seth and I don't always agree on everything," said the Mayor about Mr. Lipsky, who was beaming in his black bowtie. "He's a really smart guy and he knows a lot about this city. You picked wisely to have him as an honoree."  read more »

No doubt Mike thought Lipsky had picked wisely by awarding the mayor his paper's endorsement.

For much of the summer, Freddy's relative absence from the trail was said to indicate that he had retreated into a "rose-garden strategy."

Not so! We learn from today's New York Sun endorsement (of Mike) that Ferrer was spending the time breaking bread with my old boss, Sun editor Seth Lipsky.

"We have no personal quarrel with Mr. Ferrer, with whom we've had several meals in the past year or so," the Sun writes. "He's a wonderful person, smart and earnest. But we differ with Mr. Ferrer on the issues...."  read more »

July 15, 2005 11:19 p.m. 8 pounds St. Luke’s–Roosevelt HospitalNo baby Beethoven for this kid!  read more »

So here's a question: Having covered Virginia's trivial but entertaining fake Asians to death, is the city's political press bound to spend some more ink on Gifford's mail expenditure of $1.5 million in public money, and the belated disclosure that we were given the wrong number?

In that vein, NY1 makes an interesting point that breaking up the spending on the mailing into $37,000 increments allowed the Council to avoid putting the mail contract out to bid.  read more »

UPDATE: And don't miss this New York Sun story, which has some nice detail about the print job.

We much enjoyed the first, peculiar round of stories about Freddy Ferrer's big supporters in the cigar business. As the Financial Times, of all outlets, first reported, the publisher of Cigar Aficionado raised more than $25,000 for Ferrer.

And in spite of the money, Freddy still backed the smoking ban. Our old friends at the New York Sun ran that story under the headline, "Ferrer Will Take A Powder on Ban On Smoking."

Now we see this press release, from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Fernando Ferrer Should Return Tobacco Cash Sta