Cable News Network LP LLLP

• The new 64,000-square-foot Park Slope Whole Foods is supposed to open next summer, though the construction site [above] isn't looking so good. Why does the place appear toxic? Because it is toxic. [Gowanus Lounge]
• Rochester is so hot right now: It's the only city in New York State to make it into the top-five list of hottest cities. [CNN/Money]
• Poor Atlantic City won't make it into that rarefied group anytime soon, but at least it's getting some help. An entire block of the famous Boardwalk will get facelifted, with new features recalling "seaboard pier architecture" and "art modern of the 1930's." [Interior Design]
• Trump's favorite designer, Costas Kondylis, is building a petite Upper East Side condo, whose glassy facade cost a cool $1 million to build. Better yet, something called "computer brains" will control each condo apartment's audio-visual components. [Real Deal] - Max Abelson
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Before reading this book, I was familiar with the name Leslie Bennetts primarily because, as a Vanit  read more »

"Before Obama stepped into the picture, I was for Hillary. And I still love her.”  read more »

• Appeals court reaffirms city's cabaret rules.
[NY Times]
• Jersey Senate approves plan to buy Stewart Airport.
[NY Times]
• Home-builder Toll Brothers' profits fall 67 percent.
[NY Times]
• Mortgage rates fall on slow housing market.
[CNN/Money]
• Freedom Tower seen as financially stable.
[CNN/Money]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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• Brooklyn Rally of the Weekend: Christine Quinn and "over 1,000 tenants" will protest the impending billion-plus-dollar sale of Starrett City. What do they want? Preservation of affordable housing! When do they want it? This weekend (and, hopefully, beyond). [The Real Deal]
• The MTA is over a decade behind when it comes to the "State of Good Repair" guideline. Why does that matter? It means two out of five subway lines have signals older than Joan Rivers. Really. [Gothamist]
• 225 million square miles of "prime" real estate is essentially untouched--and it's called the ocean. But it might solve all our problems, as long as we "simply surround at-risk cities (like New York) ... with off-shore waterworlds anchored to the sea floor." [CNN/Business 2.0]
• Or, instead, we can all have our own private islands. The cheap ones cost less than one-bedroom L.E.S. apartments: "A starter island, likely a remote desert-isle fixer-upper, filled with mosquitoes and in need of utilities and a residence, might run about $200,000." [Forbes]
• What happens when a parking lot is turned into a fancy Perry Street condo with a fancy facade? "Another definition of elegance possibly transcending that of the high modernist traditions and minimalist aspirations expressed in the adjacent towers and the quaintness and scale of domesticity that the building is situated in." [Curbed]
- Max Abelson
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• Lehman Brothers nears lease in Time & Life Building.
[Crain's]
• Mortgage rates highest since October.
[CNN/Money]
• Spitzer favors keeping Starrett City as it is.
[NY Times]
• Vornado edges ahead in Equity Office bidding.
[NY Times]
• Sushi Samba reaches deal with city over rooftop deck.
[NY Post]
• Bush supports JFK rail-link to downtown Manhattan.
[NY Post]
• Bad landlords get city money to house homeless.
[Daily News]
• City Council OKs mild new oversight for builders.
[NY Sun]
• Big hurdles for new PATH Station at ground zero. [NY Sun]

  Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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I believe that New Yorkers can now be divided fairly and squarely into two distinct groups: those wh  read more »

• Viva single women! Contemporary bachelorettes "purchase 22 percent of all homes," whereas their lonely male counterparts "accounted for only 9 percent of purchases." That's because ladies are increasingly "confident and financially savvy," according to the (lady) prez of the National Association of Realtors. [CNN/Money]
• "Via Verde" won the New Housing New York Legacy Project's contest for affordable and sustainable housing. Wonderfully, the condo's central plaza "spirals upwards as a series of roof gardens before culminating in a sky terrace." [I.D.]
• Question of the Day: "Why is it still called the East Village if it has done been accosted by a wave of unapologetic affluence?". [A Blog Soup]
• Thanks to money from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Parks Department is building a "hybrid wind, solar and tidal-energy power plant" on Randall's Island. Underwater turbines for everyone! [East River photo above, via Wired N.Y.] [City Limits]
- Max Abelson
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CNN's "Situation Room" tonight sought to dispel the rumor that has started that Barack Obama attended a "madrasah" in Indonesia as a boy. The show reported that Obama has written in his autobiography that he attended a Muslim school for two years. But that's not a madrasah!

I beg to differ. Two weeks ago I attended a lecture on development in the Arab world at the 92d Street Y. The lecturer was Saifedean Ammous, a Palestinian graduate student in international studies at Columbia. A woman in the audience asked Ammous about all those terrible madrasah's that Arabs send their children to. Ammous answered that "madrasah" simply means school in Arabic, and he attended a Quaker madrasah in Ramallah.

I asked him about the point today; and Ammous emailed me:

The term Madrasah simply means school, and is used exactly as in English, so you could use it to refer to a Jewish, Christian or Islamic Madrasah, as well as a public, private, elementary or secondary Madrasah. In the English language, and due to the amount of coverage that some of these schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been getting over the last few years, the term Madrasah has been associated with religious schools that supposedly indoctrinate and train terrorists.

Obama clearly went to a Madrasah in Indonesia, in that he clearly went to a school... Even if he did go to a religious school, that almost certainly doesn't mean that it was a place where they learned Koran and not Chemistry. In all likelihood it was an Islamic school inasmuch as Catholic schools in America are Catholic: a regular school teaching all the regular subjects, but putting a little extra emphasis on religion and the morality of its students.

I highly doubt that he had gone to what are known as "radical madrasas", I don't even know if they are common in Indonesia, and can imagine that his family, who seem largely secular, would've wanted to make sure their kid studies math and science.

Starting at 7 a.m., Hillary Clinton will make appearances on NBC's Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, CBS's Early Show, and CNN's American Morning to talk about the President's State of the Union Address

At 8 a.m., Gale Brewer is honored at the Reading Reform Foundation breakfast at the Woolworth Tower Kitchen

At 9:30 a.m., the legislature begins to screen comptroller candidates in Albany.

Also at 9:30 a.m., Mike Bloomberg and others attend the Mayors Against Illegal Guns National Summit in D.C.

At 10 a.m., Helen Marshall gives her state of the borough report at York College in Queens.

At 11 a.m., a tenants' group names the city's "most abusive landlord," and holds a convention on affordable housing, at 55 Washington Square South.

At 12:30, Hillary, Chuck Schumer and New York's congressional delegation discuss 9/11-related illnesses of first responders at a press conference in D.C.

At 1 p.m. , Christine Quinn visits the Beth Jacob of Boro Park School in Brooklyn, then the Hatzolah Dispatch Center at 1:45 p.m.; Ohel's Children's Home at 2:15 p.m.; and the W.E.B. Dubois High School Web Center at 3:30 p.m.

At 4 p.m., the NYC Board of Elections will hold a hearing about the new voting machines, at 42 Broadway.

At 6 p.m., Christine Quinn will hold a Neighborhood Forum on community and police relations, at Harlem Hospital.

The President gives his State of the Union speech.

Speech-watching parties are being held on West 44th Street by Laughing Liberally and on East 83rd Street by the Metropolitan Republican Club.

And Ben and the team at Politico make their debut over here.

-- Azi Paybarah

“There have been a number of occasions where we said, ‘This story’s bullshit,&rsqu  read more »

• Made-up Manhattan Neighborhood of the Week: First came LoHo, now here's South Village Historic District. But what will the abbreviation be? The New York Observer proudly proposes the SoVil--or maybe SoVilHisDis. Or SoHis? [The Villager, via Real Deal]
• Ominous Declaration of the Month: "You either work for or against the Real Estate Industrial Complex." - Jonathan Miller. [The Matrix]
• Floorplan Rendering of the Decade: The $16 million triplex penthouse at the American Thread Building. The boring two dimensions of an average floorplan have been abandoned here for an all-color, tech-savvy, pop-art, name-dropping Internet experience. Ogling at triplex penthouses will never be the same. [Curbed]
• Bold 2007 Prediction of the Week: CNN names Mexico and Turkey and France among "up-and-coming destinations." [CNN/Money]
- Max Abelson
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• Travel + Leisure picks the best 500 hotels in the world, and New York snags nine honors: the Four Seasons, Hotel Plaza Athenee, Lowell, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula, Ritz-Carlton (Battery and Central Park), St. Regis, and Trump International. We vote for the Chelsea, too. [T+L]
• What do architects think about when asked to imagine NYC's future? They get bowled over with "anxiety over global warming." So the Architecture Research Office has created "radical coping mechanisms" to make up for soon-to-be flooded streets. See the cheery 22nd-century Manhattan above. [Architectural Record]
• In other news, CNN has a big article called Your Home: Is 'going green' worth the cost?. The sub-head reads: "The eco-friendly house (and renovation) has gone mainstream. But is it really worth the cost?" Yes. [CNN/Money]
• If you tell The Times that your $3.65 million carriage house was a "bargain," you'll probably get publically humiliated on the Internet. Especially if your renovation cost $500 per foot. And especially if you sorta stole the idea for your mega-hit book. [Gawker]
- Max Abelson
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• Union Square's two-decade-long resurgence continues with a new "kids' paradise" at the north end. There will be a fountain, spray shower, swings and a sandbox--plus "innovative play equipment," which sounds lascivious. Meanwhile, the area's seasonal restaurant will be moved inside Union Square's ancient pavilion, soon to be restored. [NY1]
• Best Opening Line (of a Self-Loathing Holiday Season First-Person Essay) of the Week: "I never realized how alcohol was so important at Christmas/Hannukah parties until I got my [real estate] license." [Property Grunt]
• The indie-activist film Contested Streets is screening at local bars, inspiring Anglophile Manhattanites to use "'spatially efficient' modes of travel like walking, bicycling and transit." That kind of vocab really wins over balding Hummer drivers. [City Limits]
• Want access to 3,267 New York menus? It's your lucky day. (Incidentally, our randomly picked menu item is $3.40 egg salad at Brooklyn's 7th Avenue Donut Shop.) [New York]
• The bubble is bursting! The bubble is bursting! So says CNN, as always. [CNN/Money]
- Max Abelson
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The day Mike Bloomberg is featured on the cover of New York magazine as a possible presidential candidate, he was in Florida meeting with the president's brother.

And what did CNN political analyst Bill Schneider make of all this?

"Bloomberg¹s too liberal and as for Jeb, this doesn't seem like a good time to talk about a third Bush in the White House."

A reader who emailed this item to me wondered, "why would someone give the order to have this official transcribed?"

-- Azi Paybarah

On Sept.  read more »

On Sept.  read more »

• Meeting of the memorial, trade center transit hub.
[NY Times]
• One-third of City Council oppose mayor's 421-a plan.
[NY Times]
• SL Green won't raise its offer for Reckson.
[NY Times]
• Commercial real estate contributes to city surplus.
[NY Post]
• City Council caps property-tax increases.
[NY Post]
• Pataki, Spitzer back plans to close hospitals.
[NY Post]
• Soho-like sheen coating 14th Street.
[NY Post]
• Condo sale sets Harlem price record. [last item]
[NY Post]
• Related's Ross: Alternative Moynihan plan may get '08 start.
[NY Sun]
• Some developers turn focus toward rentals.
[NY Sun]
• Single-family homeowners to save on '06 property taxes.
[NY Sun]
• Facade upkeep costs co-op, condo owners.
[NY Sun]
• Manhattan under-retailed, developers say.
[GlobeSt]
• Feds: Home prices rise slowly in third quarter.
[CNN/Money]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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• Delay creates new timeline for Atlantic Yards.
[Crain's]
• Mortgage rates drop - again - nationwide.
[CNN/Money]
• Wall Street not creating many new jobs.
[NY Times]
• The city's monument district disappears.
[NY Times]
• Tower Records enters final holiday season.
[NY Post]
• Bloomberg pushes scaffold safety in Spanish.
[NY Post]
• New Yorkers rent out apartments to the movies.
[NY Post]
• Presenting the biggest real estate turkeys in the area.
[NY Post]
• Court upholds ex-Cendant executive's conviction.
[BusinessWeek]
• City's hotel industry keeps booming.
[NY Sun]
• Top brand, meet Manhattan luxury condo.
[NY Sun]
• Take a look inside the new Jumeirah Essex House.
[NY Sun]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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• CNN continues its glum year, reporting that American home prices have fallen around the country. On the downside, they're down the most in the Northeast (falling 4.8 percent from a year earlier). On the plus side, the glorious "New York-Wayne-White Plains" triangle enjoyed a pretty little 4.7 percent boost. Hurrah for Wayne, NJ! [CNN/Money]
• National price-cut of the week: Out in Beverly Hills, a Saudi businessman listed his incomplete 30,000-square-foot compound for $65 million -- then slashed it to $33m. The WSJ doesn't know much about this wily seller, except that he was "executive producer of the 1988 children's film The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking." [WSJ]
• In continuing The Observer's endless fascination with the Manhattan commute, we present two maps that will answer every question anyone ever had about electrified New York rail transport. [Streetsblog]
• If you like hanging out with "1200 executives, decision makers, opinion leaders, entrepreneurs, top brokers, mega-agents, trendsetters, press, analysts and investors," mark your January calendars for some serious Manhattan networking. Jonathan Miller says Connect NYC 2007 is a "must attend," although his objectivity is self-admittedly questionable. [Matrix]
• The Harlem revival continues, and the northern half of Riverside Park may be turned into an "enchanted forest." Gardens and skate parks would be a serious improvemenet over metal sheds and scrap metal piles. [City Limits]
- Max Abelson
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• Presenting Citi Field: Officials break ground on Mets stadium.
[GlobeSt]
• Home sellers help their buyers pay mortgages.
[CNN/Money]
• Venti order: Starbucks plans 2,400 new stores in 2007.
[CNN/Money]
• Realtors forecast: Slightly less rougher sailing in 2007.
[CNN/Money]
• Mets, Citigroup back Jackie Robinson museum in Manhattan.
[Crain's]
• It's amenities vs. location at some newer Manhattan condos.
[NY1]
• A Montauk Lighthouse sea wall could hurt surfing.
[NY Times]
• City faces subsidies dilemma with MetLife's move.
[NY Times]
• Will New Yorkers embrace Citi Field?
[NY Times]
• Governors Island won't be a tourist attraction.
[NY Post]
• Queens demands more hospitals, beep says.
[NY Post]
• Scaffolding-fall death drawing guilty pleas.
[NY Post]
• Dermot buys 11 Morningside Heights walk-ups.
[NY Post]
• A roller coaster would wind through Coney Island.
[Daily News]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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• There are nine super secret ways to sell a haute, high-end property. But the best example comes from Corcoran's Wendy Maitland, who sprinkled in some philanthropy with her old-fashioned marketing. (She threw a benefit party for a Rwandan village at an on-the-market $7 million penthouse.) [Forbes]
• According to CNN, "slight slump" is better than a "bust." But it's not as nice as our long-lost bubble, is it? [CNN/Money]
• 520 West Chelsea has a nice ring to it. In fact, it's exactly what the High Line needs: a brand new condo. [Interior Design]
• Brownstoner does some helpful work for brokerage Massey Knakal, hyping one of its listings on Brooklyn's Lexington Avenue as a "development opportunity." A highlight: "We're loving the rounded windows of the warehouse space and the two garages next door." Related Companies, where are you? [Brownstoner]
- Max Abelson
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The misuse of exclusive—"A news item initially released to only one publication or broadcaster," according to American Heritage dictionary—isn't just for the daily tabloids anymore.

Today, Radar promotes what it calls "an exclusive interview" with Mike Jones, the working stiff who took down his closeted one-time john, mega-church leader Ted Haggard.

The Advocate posted their own "gay press exclusive" Q&A with Jones a full week ago. Jones was also a guest on Colorado's KKTV, and was interviewed by the Rocky Mountain News and CNN affiliate KUSA, among others. Radar still scores points for asking the hard questions. "Is it safe to assume that Haggard's a bottom?" Radar's Jack E. Jett asked the former hustler. (The answer was yes.)

• Closing the door on Wal-Mart in the Bronx.
[NY Times]
• Former city official a Spitzer favorite to head MTA.
[NY Times]
• Kalikow won't chair Real Estate Board of New York.
[NY Times]
• World Trade Center redevelopment site expands.
[NY Times]
• Mayor announces new development in the Rockaways.
[NY Post]
• Rent rise closes Upper West Side video store.
[NY Sun]
• Landmark battle brewing on the far East Side.
[NY Sun]
• Mortgage rates rise slightly.
[CNN/Money]
• Condo buyers take developers to court.
[WSJ]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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• Apthorp sold for over $425 million, and will stay rental.
[NY Times]
• Home buyers feeling empowered nowadays.
[CNN/Money]
• Santiago Calatrava: His work has "emotional resonance."
[Fortune]
• Housing will not turn around in 2007, builders say.
[BusinessWeek]
• Former Colonial Club gets a makeover.
[NY Times]
• 666 Fifth Avenue on the sales market.
[NY Sun]
• Cipriani Club Residences are really neat.
[NY Sun]
• New Chelsea nightclub looks like a hotel.
[NY Sun]
• Riverhouse, 101 Warren rise near each other.
[NY Post]
• Fifth Avenue co-op sells for $24 million.
[NY Post]
• Tenant association president goes to jail.
[NY Post]
• Mayor scales back school-building plan.
[Daily News]
• Floyd Bennett Field sports complex opens in a few weeks.
[Daily News]
• Beware: Some brokers have hidden agendas in slower market.
[WSJ]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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The New New Jersey [Luxist]

• If you don't like the hefty plans for Atlantic Yards, you probably don't like eminent domain. And if you live in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon or South Carolina, you voted yesterday to limit it. (Too bad Brooklyn isn't in Georgia.) [CNN/Money]
• Will the Dems' victory boost real estate prices? Jonathan Miller muses: "In terms of the housing market, a Congress without the same party controlling both chambers is probably a good thing..." [Matrix]
• Suburban New Jersey vulgarity is very hot right now. For $13.5 million, you can buy yourself a new palace with new marble and new gold leaf and new "heavy chandeliers." [Luxist]
• How do you lure brokers to the bottom of Soho? Promise them BMWs. [Curbed]
- Max Abelson  read more »
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• Newer brokers have no non-boom memories.
[CNN/Money]
• 527 Greenwich Street sells for $20.5 million.
[GlobeSt]
• Park Avenue Cafe closing.
[Crain's]
• Toll Brothers reports housing order decline.
[WSJ]
• Empty 545 Madison Avenue to be gutted, renovated.
[CPN]
• Andre Balazs condo gets $247 million in financing.
[GlobeSt]
• Battery Park City's Riverhouse condo is very green.
[NY Times]
• Brick, NJ: the nation's safest city.
[NY Times]
• Silverstein will build two apartment towers in Midtown.
[NY Post]
• Martha Graham Center and landlord dance in court.
[Daily News]
• Working to open World Trade Center Memorial Museum.
[Daily News]
• Fixing up Flushing.
[Daily News]
• Trouble on a Boerum Hill block.
[Daily News]
• Feds give millions for Bronx senior housing.
[Daily News]
• Play ball? Groundbreaking imminent for new Mets stadium.
[NY Sun]
• Sound off on Diamond District tower idea.
[NY Sun]
• Need a mortgage? Talk to your builder.
[WSJ]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand upset incumbent Rep. John Sweeney, who was dogged by allegations that he beat his wife. CNN has the results at 53-47 percent.

Another embattled upstate congressman, Tom Reynolds, is holding off his challenger, Jack Davis, 54-46 with about 7 percent of the votes counted.

-- Azi Paybarah

Fox News has declared Mike Arcuri the winner in New York's 24th Congressional District, defeating Republican Ray Meier in the race to succeed the retiring Sherwood Boehlert. CNN has not yet called the race, which Arcuri leads by about 10 points with two-thirds of the votes counted. -- Steve Kornacki

Hillary was hawkish on North Korea, less aggressive on universal health care, and non-committal about 2008. There were no questions about gay marriage, abortion, and Hillary didn't wear her cross. Best slip was when John Spencer said he did not support building a 2,000-mile fence along the US-Mexico border which, according to his website, he supports.

Choire Sicha, our man in Rochester, emailed to say:

A CNN reporter got John Spencer in the media room. But not Hillary--she's signed a few baseballs and she's out!

And any anybody who went to Hillary's debate watch party on Third Avenue, feel free to boast about how much fun you had.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

The NYPD has confirmed that a small aircraft crashed into the upper stories of the Belaire, an apartment buiding at 524 East 72nd Street.

Further details are sketchy and seem to be differing from one source to another.

According to a police department spokesperson contacted by The Observer:

"We're not confirming anything. We have people out there, it's being investigated, we don't know how many injuries, we don't know anything right now. We don't know whether it was a helicopter or an airplane."

One neighbor is describing evacuations of nearby buildings to The Observer, and Gothamist is reporting at least one casualty and people trapped in the upper stories of the building.

The AP is describing "a raging fire that sent a pillar of black smoke over the city."

There was no immediate word on any deaths or injuries.

It was not immediately known whether it was terrorism.  read more »

Flames could be seen shooting from windows on two upper floors of The Belaire, a 50-story tower on East 72nd Street, close to the East River. Burning debris fell on the streets below as firefighters shot water streams of water at the flames from lower floors.

Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi said the aircraft struck struck the 20th floor.

Here's the "food police" ad that the Daily News wrote about today. Although it's a direct response to the city's efforts to ban unhealthy fats from restaurants, the piece doesn't actually mention the offending "trans-fat" term.

It's from the Consumer Freedom Group, which is funded by a select portion of the food industry.

"Many of the companies and individuals who support the Center financially have indicated that they want anonymity as contributors. They are reasonably apprehensive about privacy and safety in light of the violence some activist groups have adopted as a "game plan" to impose their views."

The ad above is going to air on CNN and Fox News this week. Notice the guy who gets the beer knocked out of his hand. Exaggeration?

-- Azi Paybarah

• Some good West Side news to start your day! The City has agreed to rezone the 13-acre Hudson Yards for highrise development, which is a departure from their earlier, sillier offer. And instead of paying general taxes, wealthy developers will be contributing money for the $2.15 billion subway extension of the No. 7 Line. That has to please MTA, the railyards' owner. (New York Times)
• CNN, a reasonable voice of sheer alarmist panic, says: "Economists, investors and even Federal Reserve policymakers express concern that the slumping real estate market will hurt the economy." But look on the bright side: the funds that are taken out of homes are getting pumped into the needy hands of stock brokers. (CNN/Money)
• The century-old Portland Square Hotel at West 47th has been hijacked by developer Hank Freid, the head of the Impulsive Group. Is it a bad thing? Mr. Freid will spend $7.5 million on turning the rustic Square into "Sanctuary," a 115-room luxury hotel. How much for a night at Sanctuary? $265 to $1,800. (The Real Deal)
• The new LES development that has been wisely called "that big blue thing [with] obvious aesthetic misfortune" has been selling some apartments. What's BLUE's secret? The obvious marketing misfortune of pricechopping. (Curbed)
• The helpful folks at Forbes inform that there's more to buying real estate abroad "than a charming escape and bragging rights to your villa in the south of France." What's their advice for global home hunting? "Don't buy on impulse, when you're buoyed by tropical cocktails." True. (Forbes)
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

For some reason, flights heading toward a place always seem to be filled with people from that place  read more »

Jonathan LaPook is a popular Upper West Side gastroenterologist who specializes in CBS.    read more »

Bill Clinton doubts Hillary's chances in 2008. "I don't know if she can win if she runs."

A CNN poll finds more Americans blame 9/11 on George Bush than on Clinton.

Rudy Giuliani's title as America's Mayor comes under fire. The Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy says, "America's Mayor is a media concept and I don't think it's appropriate." The head of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Pat Lynch agrees.

Newsday wonders:

"What Cuomo campaign would be complete without a last-minute, thinly sourced, accuracy-challenged attack from the family's favorite Fred, Mr. Dicker of the New York Post?"

Some Republicans in Albany spent their 9/11 playing golf and raising money.

State Senator Martin Connor sends out an anonymous attack piece against Ken Diamondstone.

The Atlantic Yards Voter Guide isn't impressed with the three politicians Brooklyn Assembly candidate Hakeem Jeffries touts in his latest mailing. "Never mind that these pols are not exactly local or have much sway in Brooklyn..."

A New Jersey congressman spoke a little too loudly about a scandal involving Senator Bob Menendez.

A.L. Gordon checks out a school fundraiser in honor of alumni lost on 9/11.

Finally, an important opinion poll of of Fashion Week models.

And pictured above is a poster I saw this Sunday in Harlem. Not quite sure how I feel about it.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

• If the World Trade Center is ever rebuilt, the list of its regal designers will sound like a horrifying law firm: Libeskind, Foster, Maki, Rogers, Calatrava, Childs, and Gehry. What's there to say about their newly unveiled plans? The buildings are "gargantuan," "deferential," and "a jazz quartet," according to the Times. We say: they're not that different from the old stuff. (The New York Times)
• On the one hand, CNN has been screaming about the bloody, bubbly death of American residential real estate. On the other hand, it's worse when experts call Manhattan's commercial market a "bell-ringer" (or "high times"). Even more annoying are meaningless, preemptive reports on this "wild and crazy year." (NY Sun)
• Last we checked in on Warhol's old East End estate (Gatsby, anyone?), it was sitting unsold for $50 million. Now the windy Montauk wonderland is sitting unsold for $40--which BHS broker Tony Cerio calls a "big value". Poor, poor Long Island. (The New York Times)
• The NY Press reveals that the rental market is "a dog eat dog" world. Who knew? More significantly: the phrase "you push it, and push it, and push it" is herein the official mantra of the Manhattan real estate industry. (NY Press)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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A CNN poll says voters are itching to see Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani square off in 2008.

That is, if Hillary can get past her primary opponent, Jonathan Tasini, who was endorsed by Gay City News.

The Observer's Theodore Bressman caught up with Rep. Jerry Nadler today, who announced legislation to help people whose health was impacted by 9/11. "I cannot stand idly by while the EPA and the federal government treat New York like a petri dish left unattended," said Nadler. Ben has a read on the 11th congressional race's untold story: the split white vote.

Courier-Life decides to not endorse anyone in that race.

Upstate congressional races are not so close anymore.

Greg Sargent has Bill Clinton's letter objecting to ABC's docudrama which blames him for 9/11.

Blabbeando has an item about the role of the outspoken Rev. Ruben Diaz in the state senate race in Jackson Heights.

The new editor of The Village Voice told his staff today no more layoffs are expected.

Jewish Press, which normally has the voice and ear of Speaker Sheldon Silver, says they want George Pataki to reappoint Jeff Weisenfeld as a trustee of CUNY. School is back is session after all.

My old publisher takes a swipe at Ada Smith, the beleaguered state senator, saying she "is no lady."

Room 8's Adam Green delivers the news in his own special way.  read more »

And pictured above is the letter from Manhattan DA Bob Morgenthau praising Andrew Cuomo for "three years of public service." Although the issue of his tenure still seems strangely debatable.

-- Azi Paybarah

• The sleazy bustle of Chinatown may soon be transformed into the distinctly refined serenity of Little Italy. How? By banning cars--turning the double-parked delivery trucks on Mott and Bayard Street into "alfresco dining and sidewalk tea shops." The chairman of the Chinatown Partnership says "it could happen soon"--and even taxi-happy Councilman John Liu is in on the action. Close your eyes and think of Nassau Street! (Newsday)
• "Mood" is the official 2006 keyword of the real estate biz. And the official mood of American homebuilders, according to CNN, hasn't been as bad since 1991. That means, of course, that the industry is "rolling over." So what does the chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders have to say? That the real estate industry will only "worsen before it improves." Sounds good. (Money/CNN)
• Red Hook and Barbara "Good Morning America" Corcoran aren't as perfectly matched as one might think. Her purchase on Van Brunt Street was once hyped in the Times, though today her building's storefront is empty, even though its rent has been slashed from $2500 to 18. Get out of Brooklyn, Barbara, while you still can. (Curbed)
• A 113,000-square-foot mass of concrete and steel in Williamsburg has been sold for $26 million. You might never have guessed, but the Hope Street building was once a warehouse, and it will one day be a six-story condo. Those hip Brooklynites love their warecondos. (Globe St.)
• Donald Trump gets a very sensual ego massage via Steve Cuozo's Post column, which gives the Trump Tower credit for valiantly setting up shop on Fifth Avenue. Flattery aside: the building has a very forlorn 37,000-square-foot hole where Asprey's big shop had been. Who might head there? Madison Ave. jeweler Graff, the luxuriously Italian Loro Piana, or Mr. Ralph Lauren. (NY Post)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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