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Could New York City be losing its place as the world’s foremost art emporium?  read more »

• So much for the good old days in Greenwich Village. Bob Dylan and his brother have bought a Scottish mansion [above] in the Cairngorms National Park. If they had decided to rent, the place would have cost 3,000 Pounds (roughly $5,900) a night. [BBC News, via Luxist]
• The AIA Honor Awards have been announced, and four prizes have been handed out to local beauties: Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center, the Modern, Bloomberg's HQ, and the New York Stock Exchange and Financial District's Streetscapes + Security. [Architectural Record News]
• Clinton Hill's decrepit Broken Angel has gotten a lot of attention (it even has its own Wikipedia page). And now that it's being renovated into condos, there'll even be a "reno blog." [Brownstoner]
• "Prime real estate and the city's seedy underbelly" go together like a horse and carriage, especially when "shady" landlords and prostitutes in patent leather are involved. [The Real Deal, via Gawker]
- Max Abelson
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The Temporary Commission on the Future of New York State Power Programs for Economic Development meets at the Empire State Development Corporation.

New York City Campaign Finance Board meets at 40 Rector Street.

Latino AIDS activists protest plans to increase rent for disabled people with AIDS on the steps of City Hall.

The Domestic Violence Project at the Urban Justice Center hosts a domestic violence awareness forum with Hiram Monserrate at the Queens Museum of Art.

Union workers and elected officials call on the German-based insurance company Allianze to stop blocking World Trade Center rebuilding in front of the German Consulate.

Indiana Congressman Mike Pence rings the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

League of Women Voters of East Nassau hosts a debate between 3rd Congressional District candidates Congressman Peter King and Legislator Dave Mejias at the Levittown Library.

People For the American Way Foundation will be hosting an event with journalist and author Joe Maguire who will discuss his recent departure from Reuters and his new book on Ann Coulter at 7:30pm in their Northeast Regional Office at 149 5th Avenue at 21st Street.

Assemblyman Jonathan Bing will be hosting his annual Senior Health Fair at Knickerbocker Plaza.

—Nicole Brydson

Happy Friday the 13th!

Vito Lopez holds a Williamsburg Community Truck Stop to protest illegal truck traffic on the corner of Metropolitan and Bushwick Avenues.

Senator Jeffrey Klein and Assemblyman George Latimer call for the passage of legislation that would increase criminal penalties for vandalizing houses of worship at St. Frances De Chantal Church in the Bronx.

Planned Parenthood endorses Andrew Cuomo at their headquarters and then endorses Hillary Clinton at the Glen Oaks Club in Old Westbury.

Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter rings the Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

The Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce hosts a Small Business Awards and Legislative Breakfast at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

—Nicole Brydson

Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center is a spectacular film about New York City, how it wakes up b  read more »

Gerry Levin joins his former New York Stock Exchange colleagues in trashing Eliot Spitzer, in a videotaped deposition linked on the Wall Street Journal's law blog.

Most of what he says is hard to understand out of context, just one reason this won't be going into an attack ad anytime soon, but it sounds like he's calling an element of the case against Langone and Grasso "totally offensive" and referring to "the politicized nature of prosecutorial activity" in the case of "an Attorney General who's actually running for Governor."

A correction in this week's New York Magazine: "In 'The City Politic: The Suozzi-Spitzer Showdown'...the head of the New York Stock Exchange compensation committee that gave final approval to the 139.5 million exit package for Richard Grasso should have been identified as Carl McCall, not Ken Langone."  read more »

It didn't seem quite right to ask the Nassau County Executive to do the interview via instant message, as has been the Friday routine on The Politicker, so I got myself slotted into his extensive call list, as he launches his version of a pre-campaign listening tour, which he expects to extend for somewhere between "several weeks and two months."

Suozzi said his "New York a United State" tour would give him a chance to "travel throughout the state and talk about management, fiscal discipline, and government reform" as well as "my experience at solving complex governmental problems" and the problems of various New Yorkers. And he said that he'd like to start talking about the issues right away, offering a general framework that you find the money to cut taxes, spend more on schools, upstate jobs, and housing, by cutting Medicaid fraud.

Then we talked some politics.

Suozzi said he wasn't worried about his outsider status. (Being an official maverick has got to be the next best thing to having lots of support among insiders!)

"I've always been in a position where I had to run against the establishment," he said. "It gives me some independence to focus on government reform and change and solving problems without the baggage of the establishment holding me back."

He also said he expects state party leaders to try to prevent him from getting on the ballot. "I expect that. It makes it tougher."

As for Eliot, no scorched earth here.

"I have nothing bad to say about Eliot Spitzer. He deserves the reputation he enjoys." As? "As one of the top Attorney Generals in the country."

But what about that little case involving one of your constituents, a Mr., um, Langone?

"That's not my province.... I haven't read any papers or anything like that.... Ken Langone is a Nassau County resident who supported me for my position as County Executive and has offered to support me."

He also put a novel, but sharp, spin on Langone's money.

"He doesn't want anything from me as far as government goes," Suozzi said.

Just to kill Eliot, right? "Yeah," he chuckled, before continuing:

"He just wants me to win and do a good job. In a way, that's actually liberating. I'd rather have that kind of support than support from lobbyists who want me to help their clients."

What about Dick Grasso's $139.5 million payday?

"It seems like a tremendous amount of money, but that's a private sector company.... The interesting thing about it is the courts will have to decide what's appropriate here. It would be great if that case could be resolved as quickly as possible.... If Eliot wins the case, the money will go back to the millionaires who own the New York Stock Exchange anyway."

Would he like to debate Spitzer?

"Debates are great for voters. The more the better."

(Earlier today, I'd asked Eliot about debating Suozzi. "I've always believed debates are part of a healthy Democratic process and I look forward to them," Spitzer said, without committing more specifically.)

I also asked Suozzi about some of the problems in his own administration, including one Deputy County Executive indicted and another who left under a cloud in a timesheet scandal.  read more »

"Every large organization has problems and you've got to judge people based on how they address those problems," he said. "We now have a Deputy County Executive for Compliance. It was a very difficult, but a very important, learning experience."

By sunrise on Sept.  read more »

Back when Maria S.  read more »

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is quietly pushing to create a soaring financial citadel in lower Manhattan t  read more »