Two of the largest planned developments of the Bloomberg administration were approved by the City Council this afternoon, rezoning two sites in Queens that will allow for more than 10,000 new apartments, more than half of which would be at below market rates.

In two separate votes, the Council approved the redevelopment of the 61-acre Willets Point industrial site by Shea Stadium and the 30-acre Hunter’s Point South site south of Long Island City along the East River. Based on numbers released by the city, in a full build-out of what’s allowed under the zoning, Willets Point would have more than 1,900 units of below-market-rate housing while Hunter’s Point South would have about 3,000.  read more »

At the PDF conference about technology and politics, NYU journalism professor and Off the Bus co-founder Jay Rosen once again defended Mayhill Fowler, the citizen journalist whose access to Barack Obama and Bill Clinton led to two major stories that the national media couldn’t get enough of.

Rosen said that the media was inconsistent for criticizing citizen journalists like Fowler but then picking up on her scoops.

Rosen said quotes from Mayhill‘s story about Obama got “stripped” and then “turned it into hot news.”

“So, check out the ethics of ‘closed fund-raiser' -- eew, so unethical, hot news, great story, here you go Drudge.”

On Thursday, Oct. 11, after six weeks of class, Maddox Pitt-Jolie had his last day at the Lycée Français on 75th Street. The mohawked 6-year-old was photographed leaving the school in his gym-class uniform alongside his movie-star mother, Angelina Jolie, who held under her arm a large booklet that his fellow kindergarteners had given him as a parting gift.  read more »

The school is still adjusting to the chaos that ensues when his parents drop him off and pick him up.  read more »